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God's Rascal: J. Frank Norris and the Beginnings of Southern Fundamentalism, 2 (nd) Edition. Barry Hankins. Knoxville: University of Tennessee Press, 2022. 246 pp Merriam-Webster's Dictionary defines a rascal as [...]

The most famous revival in Kentucky occurred in 1801. That tornado of religious fervor touched down at places throughout the commonwealth including here along the Elkhorn Creek and over there [...]

Some Baptist scholars have argued that the conservative leaders of today's Southern Baptist Convention (SBC) represent a resurgence of Landmarkism within the convention. (1) These scholars point to the Landmark [...]

Abstract MGTA-145 or GROβT, a CXCR2 agonist, has shown promising activity for hematopoietic stem cell (HSC) mobilization with plerixafor in pre-clinical studies and healthy volunteers. Twenty-five patients with multiple myeloma enrolled in a phase 2 trial evaluating MGTA-145 and plerixafor for HSC mobilization (NCT04552743). Plerixafor was given subcutaneously followed 2 h later by MGTA-145 (0.03 mg/kg) intravenously with same day apheresis. Mobilization/apheresis could be repeated for a second day in patients who collected

Abstract Background To develop and validate a novel administration device for holmium-166 transarterial radioembolisation (TARE) with the purpose of facilitating controlled fractional microsphere administration for a more flexible and image-guided TARE procedure. Methods A Controlled Administration Device (CAD) was developed using MR-conditional materials. The CAD contains a rotating syringe to keep the microspheres in suspension during administration. Different rotational speeds were tested ex vivo to optimise the homogeneity of microsphere fractions administered from the device. The technical performance, accuracy, and safety was validated in three patients in a clinical TARE setting by administering a standard clinical dose in 5 fractions (identifier: NCT05183776). MRI-based dosimetry was used to validate the homogeneity of the given fractions in vivo, and serious adverse device event ((S)A(D)E) reporting was performed to assess safety of the CAD. Results A rotational speed of 30 rpm resulted in the most homogeneous microsphere fractions with a relative mean deviation of 1.1% (range: -9.1-8.0%). The first and last fraction showed the largest deviation with a mean of -26% (std. 16%) and 7% (std. 13%). respectively. In the three patient cases the homogeneity of the microsphere fractions was confirmed given that MRI-based dosimetry showed near linear increase of mean absorbed target liver dose over the given fractions with R2 values of 0.98, 0.97 and 0.99. No (S)A(D)E’s could be contributed to the use of the CAD. Conclusions The newly developed CAD facilitates safe and accurate fractional microsphere administration during TARE, and can be used for multiple applications in the current and future workflows of TARE.

The COVID-19 pandemic brought about changes to the lives of families with young children. It has been associated with physical and psychological risk, yet the impact on younger children is poorly examined. The aim of this qualitative study was to examine how the COVID-19 pandemic impacted the day-to-day life of parents of young children living in a small northern city in British Columbia, Canada. Ten mothers with children aged 0-5 years participated in a six-week longitudinal study between November 2020 and March 2021. This article presents data from entry and exit interviews that were analysed using Todorov's narrative theory. Three key themes were identified: (1) gaps in health services; (2) gaps in early childhood education and programs; and (3) changes to/lost social interactions. Limited opportunities to engage with providers caused frustration and left parents feeling disempowered or dissatisfied. Family support and well-being were negatively impacted by a loss in social connectivity. Despite unpredictability and worries about child development, most of the mothers found ways to cherish the time to 'stop and refocus'. Overall, the families evidenced resilience, despite a loss in relational habits.

Aim: This study leveraged standard-of-care CT scans of patients receiving unilateral radiotherapy (RT) for early tonsillar cancer to detect volumetric changes in the carotid arteries, and determine whether there is a dose–response relationship. Methods: Disease-free cancer survivors (>3 months since therapy and age > 18 years) treated with intensity modulated RT for early (T1-2, N0-2b) tonsillar cancer with pre- and post-therapy contrast-enhanced CT scans available were included. Patients treated with definitive surgery, bilateral RT, or additional RT before the post-RT CT scan were excluded. Isodose lines from treatment plans were projected onto both scans, facilitating the delineation of carotid artery subvolumes in 5 Gy increments (i.e. received 50–55 Gy, 55–60 Gy, etc.). The percent-change in sub-volumes across each dose range was examined. Results: Among 46 patients, 72 % received RT alone, 24 % induction chemotherapy followed by RT, and 4 % concurrent chemoradiation. The median interval from RT completion to the latest, post-RT CT scan was 43 months (IQR 32–57). A decrease in the volume of the irradiated carotid artery was observed in 78 % of patients, while there was a statistically significant difference in mean %-change (±SD) between the total irradiated and spared carotid volumes (−7.0 ± 9.0 vs. + 3.5 ± 7.2, respectively, p

How and why is working memory (WM) capacity limited? Traditional cognitive accounts focus either on limitations on the number or items that can be stored (slots models), or loss of precision with increasing load (resource models). Here, we show that a neural network model of prefrontal cortex and basal ganglia can learn to reuse the same prefrontal populations to store multiple items, leading to resource-like constraints within a slot-like system, and inducing a trade-off between quantity and precision of information. Such ‘chunking’ strategies are adapted as a function of reinforcement learning and WM task demands, mimicking human performance and normative models. Moreover, adaptive performance requires a dynamic range of dopaminergic signals to adjust striatal gating policies, providing a new interpretation of WM difficulties in patient populations such as Parkinson’s disease, ADHD, and schizophrenia. These simulations also suggest a computational rather than anatomical limit to WM capacity.

The basal ganglia (BG) play a key role in decision-making, preventing impulsive actions in some contexts while facilitating fast adaptations in others. The specific contributions of different BG structures to this nuanced behavior remain unclear, particularly under varying situations of noisy and conflicting information that necessitate ongoing adjustments in the balance between speed and accuracy. Theoretical accounts suggest that dynamic regulation of the amount of evidence required to commit to a decision (a dynamic "decision boundary") may be necessary to meet these competing demands. Through the application of novel computational modeling tools in tandem with direct neural recordings from human BG areas, we find that neural dynamics in the theta band manifest as variations in a collapsing decision boundary as a function of conflict and uncertainty. We collected intracranial recordings from patients diagnosed with either Parkinson's disease (PD) (n = 14) or dystonia (n = 3) in the subthalamic nucleus (STN), globus pallidus internus (GPi), and globus pallidus externus (GPe) during their performance of a novel perceptual discrimination task in which we independently manipulated uncertainty and conflict. To formally characterize whether these task and neural components influenced decision dynamics, we leveraged modified diffusion decision models (DDMs). Behavioral choices and response time distributions were best characterized by a modified DDM in which the decision boundary collapsed over time, but where the onset and shape of this collapse varied with conflict. Moreover, theta dynamics in BG structures modulated the onset and shape of this collapse but differentially across task conditions. In STN, theta activity was related to a prolonged decision boundary (indexed by slower collapse and therefore more deliberate choices) during high conflict situations. Conversely, rapid declines in GPe theta during low conflict conditions were related to rapidly collapsing boundaries and expedited choices, with additional complementary decision bound adjustments during high uncertainty situations. Finally, GPi theta effects were uniform across conditions, with increases in theta associated with a prolongation of decision bound collapses. Together, these findings provide a nuanced understanding of how our brain thwarts impulsive actions while nonetheless enabling behavioral adaptation amidst noisy and conflicting information.