Texas State University System

Immune checkpoint blockade produces clinical benefit in many patients. However, better biomarkers of response are still needed, and mechanisms of resistance remain incompletely understood. To address this, we recently studied a cohort of melanoma patients treated with sequential checkpoint blockade against cytotoxic T lymphocyte antigen-4 (CTLA-4) followed by programmed death receptor-1 (PD-1) and identified immune markers of response and resistance. Building on these studies, we performed deep molecular profiling including T cell receptor sequencing and whole-exome sequencing within the same cohort and demonstrated that a more clonal T cell repertoire was predictive of response to PD-1 but not CTLA-4 blockade. Analysis of CNAs identified a higher burden of copy number loss in nonresponders to CTLA-4 and PD-1 blockade and found that it was associated with decreased expression of genes in immune-related pathways. The effect of mutational load and burden of copy number loss on response was nonredundant, suggesting the potential utility of a combinatorial biomarker to optimize patient care with checkpoint blockade therapy.

Summary Within the context of a counterbalanced design, 63 female students were tested with a computerized MMPI and a group booklet mode of administration. State anxiety was measured before and after each testing session. The computerbased MMPI scale scores were shown to correlate as high or higher with the booklet administration scores than correlations reported for comparisons between booklet and card form administrations or booklet-booklet administrations for a college population. When compared to the booklet version, the computer mode initially produced relatively high state anxiety levels. By the end of the test, however, no difference in state anxiety levels between the two modes of administration was found.

Abstract Matching advertising to the appropriate segment is especially critical for television advertising which reaches many diverse segments. This problem has received much attention from researchers over the years. Attempts have been made to develop a television program typology based on the program's most salient feature rather than the dimensions perceived by the audience. However, little research has related preference for these program types to market related variables. The purpose of this study was to determine the perceived dimensions underlying the television programs and the similarity of the programs along the dimensions, and if various program preference groups differ with respect to life styles, shopping orientations, and demographics. The results of this research suggest that consumers prefer distinct sets of programs rather than one specific type. The preference groups were found to differ with respect to life styles and demographics but not shopping orientations.

The results of studies of the opiate antagonist naltrexone (NLTX) in the treatment of self-injurious behavior (SIB) in mentally retarded people have been equivocal. They have relied on small patient samples in short-term trials with varying degrees of scientific rigor. Nor has the clinical efficacy of NLTX for SIB been tested against its wider application in nonresearch settings. The present study is a retrospective, long-term study of the clinical use of NLTX for SIB, drawn from clinical experience in the entire population of the state schools of Texas (population = 8,000). More than 50% of the 56 SIB individuals treated with NLTX were maintained on the drug by virtue of clinical benefit perceived by treating professionals; 25% of the 56 individuals could be classified as unequivocal responders based upon strict objective response criteria. Variables associated with positive response were level of disability and lack of concurrent aggression. Unexpectedly, all of the objective responders displayed a gradual and continuous decrease in SIB over-time, even after 3 years of treatment.

Adolescent abuse of younger children has long been recognized, but empirical research on the circumstances of this phenomenon is rare. This article examines how adolescent offenders find and gain access to victims, work out time alone with them, and set up or exploit settings for sexual contact. Prior researchers learned that adult sex offenders use certain routine activities to perform these tasks. The current research inquires whether adolescent offenders are similar. We administered Kaufman's Modus Operandi Questionnaire to a sample of 116 Canadian adolescent males undergoing treatment for a sexual offense against a child. Adolescent offenders follow routines similar to adults but are better able to use games and activities as a prelude to sexual abuse. We discuss how routine legal activities set the stage for activities and should be considered when devising situational prevention strategies.

Guidelines from the CDC recommend the use of an N95 filtering facepiece respirator. Drs. Kenneth Shine, Bonnie Rogers, and Lewis Goldfrank discuss the efficacy of personal respiratory protection measures, medical masks, and respirators.

This issue of Mentoring and Tutoring: Partnership in Learning Journal includes research from scholars representing the USA (nine states) and England. The authors provide further development of the ...

Following the money trail is an essential element of the fight against terrorism. How can terrorist financing be pursued without disrupting the international financial system and without intruding excessively on the civil rights of U.S. citizens and residents?

This study aimed to examine workplace depression among public teachers. Up to 3,003 teachers completed an occupational health survey and Patient Health Questionnaire, which provided provisional diagnoses of major depressive disorder ( MDD ). Analyses explored key factors linked to MDD among teachers. Teachers more likely to meet MDD criteria were Hispanic, divorced, had less experience, taught at elementary level, reported low job satisfaction and control, and had higher absenteeism and increased likelihood of leaving the profession. Teachers with MDD had higher levels of perceived stress, anxiety, panic and somatization disorder, and lower quality of life. Workplace depression is associated with several variables, including job control, satisfaction, and mental and physical health. Future studies should address workplace interventions for educators.

<h3>ABSTRACT</h3> The goal of customer segmentation, the cornerstone of strategy development, is to identify homogeneous groups of customers that will respond in a consistent way to changes in the marketing mix. Interpretation of traditional quantitative segmentation approaches requires an inferential leap as to the underlying decision processes of each segment. Means-end research methodologies address this problem by providing a framework to understand customer decision making that can be directly translated into the specification of positioning strategy that is more personally relevant to a given target consumer group. The quantitative marketing research orientation to means-end research is contrasted to a more qualitative, consumer-decision research perspective. A new methodological procedure that addresses the shortcomings in previous analysis methods to produce decision segments is presented.

Observations have been made of two quadrupole purely rotational transitions of molecular hydrogen, the 0-0 S(7) and S(5) lines, and of several previously unobserved vibration-rotation hydrogen lines in the Orion molecular cloud. The line ratios indicate a 2.1-micron extinction of about 2 mag. A comparison of the populations of three vibrational levels shows a distribution of excitation temperatures between 1000 and 3000 K. These values are consistent with the theory that hydrogen is thermally excited in shock-heated gas which cools after passage of the shock front. The total luminosity of the hot molecular hydrogen is 200 plus or minus 80 solar luminosity, and the mass of the emitting gas is of the order 0.05 solar mass. The mass and cooling times of the hot hydrogen indicate that at least 10 solar mass of the material has been heated over the lifetime of the outflow.

Background: The prevalence of long-term symptoms of coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) in nonhospitalized pediatric populations in the United States is not well described. The objective of this analysis was to examine the presence of persistent COVID symptoms in children by severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2) antibody status. Methods: Data were collected between October 2020 and May 2022 from the Texas Coronavirus Antibody REsponse Survey, a statewide prospective population-based survey among 5-90 years old. Serostatus was assessed by the Roche Elecsys Anti-SARS-CoV-2 Immunoassay for detection of antibodies to the SARS-CoV-2 nucleocapsid protein. Self-reported antigen/polymerase chain reaction COVID-19 test results and persistent COVID symptom status/type/duration were collected simultaneously. Risk ratios for persistent COVID symptoms were calculated versus adults and by age group, antibody status, symptom presence/severity, variant, body mass index and vaccine status. Results: A total of 82 (4.5% of the total sample [n = 1813], 8.0% pre-Delta, 3.4% Delta and beyond) participants reported persistent COVID symptoms (n = 27 [1.5%] 4–12 weeks, n = 58 [3.3%] &gt;12 weeks). Compared with adults, all pediatric age groups had a lower risk for persistent COVID symptoms regardless of length of symptoms reported. Additional increased risk for persistent COVID symptoms &gt;12 weeks included severe symptoms with initial infection, not being vaccinated and having unhealthy weight (body mass index ≥85th percentile for age and sex). Conclusions: These findings highlight the existence of nonhospitalized youth who may also experience persistent COVID symptoms. Children and adolescents are less likely to experience persistent COVID symptoms than adults and more likely to be symptomatic, experience severe symptoms and have unhealthy weight compared with children/adolescents without persistent COVID symptoms.

We estimated survival of 3 groups of northern bobwhites (Colinus virginianus) on a 563-ha intensively managed study area in eastern Texas. During the 3-year study, 155 bobwhites from South Texas and 136 bobwhites from East Texas were captured, radio-marked, and relocated to the study area; 139 bobwhites that were resident on the study area were also captured, radio-marked, and released at the point of capture. There were no differences (P > 0.05) in survival among the 3 groups of bobwhites. However, survival of bobwhites from South Texas were consistently lower than those of the other 2 groups during each year; both bobwhites from East Texas and resident bobwhites survived better than bobwhites relocated from South Texas. Avian predation claimed 57.6% of 243 known-fate birds, mammalian predation and apparent capture stress each caused 9.1 % mortality, while 1.2% of the birds died of snake predation and 14.0% were lost to unidentifiable causes.

CONTEXT: It is unclear how adolescent glycemic status relates to brain health in adulthood. OBJECTIVE: To assess the association between adolescent fasting plasma glucose (FPG) and MRI-based brain measures in midlife. DESIGN: Between 1973 and 1992, the Bogalusa Heart Study (BHS) collected FPG from children, 3 to 18 years old, and followed up between 1992 and 2018. Cognitive tests and brain MRI were collected in 2013 to 2016 and 2018. SETTING: Observational longitudinal cohort study. PARTICIPANTS: Of 1298 contacted BHS participants, 74 completed screening, and 50 completed MRI. MAIN OUTCOME MEASURES: Mean FPG per participant at ages <20, 20 to 40, and over 40 years old; brain white matter hyperintensity (WMH) volume, gray matter volume, and functional MRI (fMRI) activation to a Stroop task; tests of logical and working memory, executive function, and semantic fluency. RESULTS: At MRI, participants were middle aged (51.3 ± 4.4 years) and predominantly female (74%) and white (74%). Mean FPG was impaired for zero, two, and nine participants in pre-20, 20 to 40, and over-40 periods. The pre-20 mean FPG above the pre-20 median value (i.e., above 83.5 mg/dL) was associated with greater WMH volume [mean difference: 0.029% of total cranial volume, CI: (0.0059, 0.052), P = 0.015] and less fMRI activation [-1.41 units (-2.78, -0.05), P = 0.043] on midlife MRI compared with below-median mean FPG. In controlling for over-40 mean FPG status did not substantially modify the associations. Cognitive scores did not differ by pre-20 mean FPG. CONCLUSIONS: High-normal adolescent FPG may be associated with preclinical brain changes in midlife.

The lambeosaurine Tsintaosaurus spinorhinus has traditionally been reconstructed with an elevated, hollow, spike-like crest composed entirely of the nasal bones, although this has been disputed. Here, we provide a new reconstruction of the skull of this species based on reexamination and reinterpretation of the morphology and articular relationships of the type and Paratype skulls and a fragmentary crest. We confirm the presence of a supracranial crest composed of the elevated nasal bones, but also including the premaxillae. We hypothesize that the crest is a tall, lobate, hollow structure that projects dorsally and slightly caudally a distance greater than the height of the skull along the quadrate. In our reconstruction, the nasal passage passes through the crest, but enters the skull rostral to the tubular process of the nasals, not through it. Tsintaosaurus spinorhinus is rediagnosed on the basis of a suite of cranial autapomorphies including a circumnarial fossa subdivided into three accessory fossae, prefrontal with ascending rostral process and lateral flange, nasals fused sagittally to form elongate tubular process that rises dorsally from skull roof, each nasal being expanded rostrocaudally into a rhomboid distal process, and medial processes of premaxillae at the summit of the cranial crest inserted between rhomboid processes of nasals. Tsintaosaurus spinorhinus lacks characters that are present in more derived lambeosaurines (parasaurolophins and lambeosaurins), such as rotation of the caudal margin of the crest to an acute angle with the skull roof, lateral processes of the nasals that enclose part of the intracranial cavity and participate in the formation of the walls of the common median chamber, and a smooth narial fossa lacking ridges and accessory fossae. We hypothesize that ancestrally the rostrum of lambeosaurines may have been more similar to that in Saurolophinae, and became subsequently reduced in complexity during evolution of the group.

White matter pathways, typically studied with diffusion tensor imaging (DTI), have been implicated in the neurobiology of obsessive-compulsive disorder (OCD). However, due to limited sample sizes and the predominance of single-site studies, the generalizability of OCD classification based on diffusion white matter estimates remains unclear. Here, we tested classification accuracy using the largest OCD DTI dataset to date, involving 1336 adult participants (690 OCD patients and 646 healthy controls) and 317 pediatric participants (175 OCD patients and 142 healthy controls) from 18 international sites within the ENIGMA OCD Working Group. We used an automatic machine learning pipeline (with feature engineering and selection, and model optimization) and examined the cross-site generalizability of the OCD classification models using leave-one-site-out cross-validation. Our models showed low-to-moderate accuracy in classifying (1) "OCD vs. healthy controls" (Adults, receiver operator characteristic-area under the curve = 57.19 ± 3.47 in the replication set; Children, 59.8 ± 7.39), (2) "unmedicated OCD vs. healthy controls" (Adults, 62.67 ± 3.84; Children, 48.51 ± 10.14), and (3) "medicated OCD vs. unmedicated OCD" (Adults, 76.72 ± 3.97; Children, 72.45 ± 8.87). There was significant site variability in model performance (cross-validated ROC AUC ranges 51.6-79.1 in adults; 35.9-63.2 in children). Machine learning interpretation showed that diffusivity measures of the corpus callosum, internal capsule, and posterior thalamic radiation contributed to the classification of OCD from HC. The classification performance appeared greater than the model trained on grey matter morphometry in the prior ENIGMA OCD study (our study includes subsamples from the morphometry study). Taken together, this study points to the meaningful multivariate patterns of white matter features relevant to the neurobiology of OCD, but with low-to-moderate classification accuracy. The OCD classification performance may be constrained by site variability and medication effects on the white matter integrity, indicating room for improvement for future research.

Innovation is a form of purposeful discovery behavior that exploits the unexpected, utilizes imagination, and provides one avenue of new solutions to complex human health needs. It is through this lens that two examples are described in which innovative approaches have been used to dissect the complexities of stroke pathophysiology. The first example focuses on one of the most fundamental genetic factors relevant to the brain and ischemic injury: biological sex. Much might be gained by understanding the details of sex-specific pathobiology, if the field is to develop therapies that work well in patients of both sexes. The second example surrounds brain-spleen cell cycling after stroke which is fundamental to our evolving understanding that stroke is a systemic disease, rather than solely a lesion of the brain. While much work remains, it is now apparent that brain-spleen cell cycling is temporally specific, varies in intensity, and involves cell players that are of much wider lineages than originally believed. In the future, it is likely that innovation will need to turn to “big data”, particularly if our field is to tackle the daunting questions that most greatly matter to unraveling brain injury. The huge availability and growth rate of biomedical data, handled in a shared but coherent environment, offers an opportunity to further vitalize stroke research.

We compared home range sizes and movement patterns of resident and relocated northern bobwhites (Colinus virginianus) on an area managed specifically for the species in the Pineywoods of east Texas. During the winters of 1990–1992, 155 south Texas, 136 east Texas, and 139 resident bobwhites were radiomarked, released, and thereafter regularly located. Bird locations were plotted on a digitized map, and home range sizes and movement patterns of each group of birds were estimated. Resident bobwhites moved longer daily distances in March and had larger home ranges during the nesting season (May-Jul) than relocated birds (P <= 0.05). Conversely, no differences were detected among groups in mean of daily distances moved in April or dispersal during the breeding season (Mar-Jun) (P 0.05). Annual dispersal distances (x¯ = 1.43 km) of birds that survived into November were similar among groups (P > 0.05). Managers that elect to relocate northern bobwhites should consider doing so in the fall and only into habitats of ample size.

We examined reproduction by relocated and resident northern bobwhites (Colinus virginianus) on an intensively managed 563-ha study area in Trinity County, eastern Texas. During the late winters of 1990-1992, 155 South Texas (84 hens, 71 cocks) and 136 East Texas (64 hens, 72 cocks) bobwhites were captured, radio-tagged, and relocated to the study area; 139 resident birds (73 hens, 66 cocks) were also captured, radio-tagged, and released at the point of capture. For the 3 years combined, the 33 South Texas, 33 East Texas, and 39 resident hens alive at the beginning of the breeding season produced 6, 13, and 22 documented nests (P = 0.004) and 0, 3, and 4 fledged broods. Pooled, the number of nests by East Texas and resident hens was higher than that of South Texas hens (P = 0.003); numbers of nests of East Texas and resident hens were similar (P = 0.150). Our results do not support relocation of South Texas bobwhites into the East Texas Pineywoods.

This chapter discusses connecting learning outcomes already pursued in many leadership development programs with the skills that are most in-demand by employers. Additionally, the need to holistically map and integrate the career skills gained in both curricular and cocurricular contexts is explored, with models provided for implementing this approach.