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We discuss the most recent observations made with the Southern Connecticut Stellar Interferometer, which is a three-station stellar intensity interferometer located on the campus of Southern Connecticut State University, in New Haven, Connecticut. Two different kinds of observations are presented. We first analyze observations of Vega taken in a three-telescope mode. (Previously, the instrument had only two operational stations.) We show that, while the efficiency remains nearly identical to that reported in our last paper, the addition of the third station allows more photon data to be recorded simultaneously, and therefore we can build up the photon-bunching peak in the data stream in fewer hours on sky for an unresolved source. In the second part of the paper, we report our observations to date of the nearby red giant star Arcturus, most of which occurred in the first half of 2025. These show that, as a partially resolved source at the baselines we used, we detect fewer correlations in the photon-bunching peak than for an unresolved source of comparable brightness. Combining the data with speckle imaging observations taken at Apache Point Observatory, we derive a new measurement of Arcturus’ diameter that extends the temporal baseline of interferometric observations of the star and is consistent with previous analyses made by other investigators.

Background Over the last two decades, several countries have initiated universal varicella vaccination (UVV) programs in infants. In 2019, the Swiss National Immunization Technical Advisory Group (NITAG) decided to start evaluating the introduction of universal varicella vaccination. There is a theoretical concern that suboptimal vaccination coverage could lead to a shift in the varicella incidence to older age groups, thereby potentially increasing complication rates. To achieve a high vaccination coverage rate, it is important that practicing physicians comply with a potential recommendation for UVV. We studied the perception of varicella and the current vaccination behavior among Swiss pediatricians and general practitioners (GPs) who treat children. We also assessed their intention to advise parents to vaccinate their children against varicella in the event the Swiss NITAG will recommend UVV. Methods Primary data was collected through a structured, 20-min online survey with Swiss pediatricians and GPs who treat children. Results 150 physicians participated in the study: 40 GPs in the German-speaking part, 20 GPs in the French-speaking part, 67 pediatricians in the German-speaking part, and 23 pediatricians in the French-speaking part. The majority (64%) of all participants reported that they currently recommend varicella vaccination for risk groups according to the national immunization plan. About one third of physicians (35%) – predominantly pediatricians – currently already recommend it for all infants. In these situations, a measles, mumps, rubella, varicella combination vaccine is currently used by 58% for the first dose and by 59% for the second dose. 86% of participants stated that they would advise parents to have their children vaccinated against varicella in case of a recommendation for UVV by the Swiss NITAG. 68% responded that they expect many questions from parents and 65% agreed that they have good arguments to convey the importance of varicella vaccination. Conclusions The survey study results show that most participating pediatricians and GPs indicated a favorable attitude towards childhood vaccination against varicella in the setting of a Swiss NITAG recommendation for UVV. This data shows the importance of NITAG recommendations in influencing vaccine education and supporting achievement of high coverage of varicella vaccination.

Man-Made: Social and Medical Perspectives on the Ideal Masculine Form in the Gilded Age and Progressive Era: Within the current understandings of gender from both social and medical standpoints, the “crisis of masculinity” in late nineteenth and early twentieth century America necessitates further study. Using informational pamphlets, newspaper articles, and medical guidelines, this paper looks at how the idealized male form became more visible in society through the explosion in bodily awareness at the turn of the twentieth century. Looking at how masculinity and the cultural conceptions surrounding it emerged from a social moment of crisis and self-doubt, this analysis draws connections to modern manhood and asserts that political and social upheaval exerts massive influence on personal and public understandings of masculinity. Birth Control Ills: Women’s Magazines and Perspectives on the Side Effects of Oral Contraceptives: The sexual revolution, and the coexisting advent of reliable contraception in the 1960s, brought up many questions of historical interest. This paper looks at how women’s magazines like Cosmopolitan and the Ladies’ Home Journal wrote about the Pill, its side effects, and how it could change women’s lives. By comparing articles from women’s magazines to perspectives in medical journals, this analysis asserts that magazines marketed directly to women were more sympathetic to their concerns and how medication affected every aspect of their lives. Using women’s magazines as sources shows the importance of analyzing sources that have historically been seen as less valid and of prioritizing historically unheard voices.

INTRODUCTION:Pigmented villonodular synovitis (PVNS) is a very rare, benign proliferative tumor affecting the inner lining of synovial joints and tendon sheets. Information on treatment needs of PVNS patients to inform drug development is currently scarce, hence we conducted qualitative research with patients using an online bulletin board (OBB) methodology to generate insights on objective and emotional aspects related to the medical journey and living with this disease.METHODS:OBB is an asynchronous, online qualitative market research tool that allows participants to comprehensively answer pre-defined questions in a comprehensive manner. Patients were recruited via physician referral and underwent screening questions to ensure eligibility for the study and willingness to participate. The discussion was moderated, structured, and allowed open answers and in response to other participants posts. Analysis was conducted using a combination of different qualitative analytical tools.RESULTS:The patient OBB ran for 4 days with eleven participants (n = 3 Canada, n = 4 United Kingdom, n = 4 United States of America) aged 28-57 years, suffering from PVNS for 2-27 years. The key patient insights were: (i) pain is the primary factor, constituting a significant emotional and psychological burden; (ii) surgery (arthroscopy) does not get rid of PVNS, relapse rate was high in these patients; and (iii) PVNS has a big financial impact on patients, their families, and the healthcare system, due in particular to time off work/lost wages (patient & caretaker), for healthcare system it is repeat costs for surgeries/hospital stays plus other medical expenses. We also identified orthopedic specialists/surgeons are the physicians who predominantly manage PVNS at this point, as surgery is the only option.CONCLUSIONS:This study shows the suitability of the OBB for uncovering qualitative patient insights to inform decision making and strategy in early pharmaceutical drug development. OBB lends itself very well to uncovering patient insights which might not be revealed in focus group or telephone interviews, particularly in a rare disease like this. PVNS patients are in need of a medical drug treatment which can reduce pain, relapses and provide an alternative to surgery, the current standard of care.

We discuss the most recent observations made with the Southern Connecticut Stellar Interferometer (SCSI), which is a three-station stellar intensity interferometer located on the campus of Southern Connecticut State University, in New Haven, Connecticut. Two different kinds of observations are presented. We first analyze observations of Vega taken in a three-telescope mode. (Previously, the instrument had only two operational stations.) We show that, while the efficiency remains nearly identical to that reported in our last paper, the addition of the third station allows more photon data to be recorded simultaneously, and therefore we can build up the photon-bunching peak in the data stream in fewer hours on sky for an unresolved source. In the second part of the paper, we report our observations to date of the nearby red giant star, Arcturus, most of which occurred in the first half of 2025. These show that, as a partially resolved source at the baselines we used, we detect fewercorrelations in the photon-bunching peak than for an unresolved source of comparable brightness. Combining the data with speckle imaging observations taken at Apache Point Observatory, we derive a new measurement of Arcturus' diameter that extends the time baseline of interferometric observations of the star and is consistent with previous analyses made by other investigators.

This summer I had a lot of fun! The first thing I did was go to Busch Gardens. My best friend, my dad and I went on the Python, Scorpion and the Kumba. Then we went on the wet rides and they were a lot of fun, too. After that we went to eat. A week later, I left for two weeks to visit my grandparents in Canada. My brother, my stepsister and I went for the first week, then my parents came. We had a family reunion and all my aunts, uncles and cousins came.

The Plasmodium falciparum reticulocyte-binding protein homolog 5 (PfRH5) is the current leading blood-stage malaria vaccine candidate. PfRH5 functions as part of the pentameric PCRCR complex containing PTRAMP, CSS, PfCyRPA and PfRIPR, all of which are essential for infection of human red blood cells (RBCs). To trigger RBC invasion, PfRH5 engages with RBC protein basigin in a step termed the RH5-basigin binding stage. Although we know increasingly more about how antibodies specific for PfRH5 can block invasion, much less is known about how antibodies recognizing other members of the PCRCR complex can inhibit invasion. To address this, we performed live cell imaging using monoclonal antibodies (mAbs) which bind PfRH5 and PfCyRPA. We measured the degree and timing of the invasion inhibition, the stage at which it occurred, as well as subsequent events. We show that parasite invasion is blocked by individual mAbs, and the degree of inhibition is enhanced when combining a mAb specific for PfRH5 with one binding PfCyRPA. In addition to directly establishing the invasion-blocking capacity of the mAbs, we identified a secondary action of certain mAbs on extracellular parasites that had not yet invaded where the mAbs appeared to inactivate the parasites by triggering a developmental pathway normally only seen after successful invasion. These findings suggest that epitopes within the PfCyRPA-PfRH5 sub-complex that elicit these dual responses may be more effective immunogens than neighboring epitopes by both blocking parasites from invading and rapidly inactivating extracellular parasites. These two protective mechanisms, prevention of invasion and inactivation of uninvaded parasites, resulting from antibody to a single epitope indicate a possible route to the development of more effective vaccines.

Neuroblastoma is characterized by a relative paucity of recurrent somatic mutations at diagnosis. However, recent studies have shown that the mutational burden increases at relapse, likely as a result of clonal evolution of mutation-carrying cells during primary treatment. To inform the development of personalized therapies, we sought to further define the frequency of potentially actionable mutations in neuroblastoma, both at diagnosis and after chemotherapy. We performed a retrospective study to determine mutation frequency, the only inclusion criterion being availability of cancer gene panel sequencing data from Foundation Medicine. We analyzed 151 neuroblastoma tumor samples: 44 obtained at diagnosis, 42 at second look surgery or biopsy for stable disease after chemotherapy, and 59 at relapse (6 were obtained at unknown time points). Nine patients had multiple tumor biopsies. ALK was the most commonly mutated gene in this cohort, and we observed a higher frequency of suspected oncogenic ALK mutations in relapsed disease than at diagnosis. Patients with relapsed disease had, on average, a greater number of mutations reported to be recurrent in cancer, and a greater number of mutations in genes that are potentially targetable with available therapeutics. We also observed an enrichment of reported recurrent RAS/MAPK pathway mutations in tumors obtained after chemotherapy. Our data support recent evidence suggesting that neuroblastomas undergo substantial mutational evolution during therapy, and that relapsed disease is more likely to be driven by a targetable oncogenic pathway, highlighting that it is critical to base treatment decisions on the molecular profile of the tumor at the time of treatment. However, it will be necessary to conduct prospective clinical trials that match sequencing results to targeted therapeutic intervention to determine if cancer genomic profiling improves patient outcomes.

Understanding the movement of species’ ranges is a classic ecological problem that takes on urgency in this era of global change. Historically treated as a purely ecological process, range expansion is now understood to involve eco-evolutionary feedbacks due to spatial genetic structure that emerges as populations spread.We synthesize empirical and theoretical work on the eco-evolutionary dynamics of range expansion, with emphasis on bridging directional, deterministic processes that favor evolved increases in dispersal and demographic traits with stochastic processes that lead to the random fixation of alleles and traits. We develop a framework for understanding the joint influence of these processes in changing the mean and variance of expansion speed and its underlying traits. Our synthesis of recent laboratory experiments supports the consistent role of evolution in accelerating expansion speed on average, and highlights unexpected diversity in how evolution can influence variability in speed: results not well predicted by current theory. We discuss and evaluate support for three classes of modifiers of eco-evolutionary range dynamics (landscape context, trait genetics, and biotic interactions), identify emerging themes, and suggest new directions for future work in a field that stands to increase in relevance as populations move in response to global change.

The COVID-19 Family Disruption Model (FDM) describes the cascading effects of pandemic-related social disruptions on child and family psychosocial functioning. The current systematic review assesses the empirical support for the model. Study eligibility: 1) children between 2-18 years (and/or their caregivers); 2) a quantitative longitudinal design; 3) published findings during the first 2.5 years of COVID-19; 4) an assessment of caregiver and/or family functioning; 5) an assessment of child internalizing, externalizing, or positive adjustment; and 6) an examination of a COVID-19 FDM pathway. Following a search of PsycINFO and MEDLINE in August 2022, screening, full-text assessments, and data extraction were completed by two reviewers. Study quality was examined using an adapted NIH risk-of- bias tool. Findings from 47 studies were summarized using descriptive statistics, tables, and a narrative synthesis. There is emerging support for bidirectional pathways linking caregiver-child functioning and family-child functioning, particularly for child internalizing problems. Quality assessments indicated issues with attrition and power justification. We provide a critical summary of the empirical support for the model, highlighting themes related to family systems theory and risk/resilience. We outline future directions for research on child and family well-being during COVID-19. Systematic review registration. PROSPERO [CRD42022327191].