Addressing Health Disparities with School-Based Outreach: the Health Career Academy Program.

Pipeline programs address health disparities by promoting academic achievement and entry of low-income ethnic and racial minority youth into healthcare fields. The Health Career Academy (HCA) is a 3-year pipeline program for high school students from low-income, ethnic, and racial minority communities. Health professional students serve as program mentors. The HCA has been implemented in nine US sites, with partnerships between 17 health professional schools and 17 high schools. A total of 386 10th grade students and 95 11th grade students enrolled as participants in the 2015-2016 HCA program. In post-participation surveys, 10th grade students reported that the HCA helped them learn about different healthcare career options, plan for how to reach career goals, and understand how healthcare workers care for patients. Eleventh grade participants noted the program made them aware of the importance of public health and taught them about medical conditions, self-care, and safety. Eighty-six percent of 10th graders and 71% of 11th graders reported that they are considering healthcare careers. Students' favorite aspects of the HCA included the following: time with mentors, learning about science and health, team collaboration and hands-on experiences, field trips, and team presentations. Teachers noted the following as most important in the program: interaction with mentors and healthcare professionals, learning broadly applicable skills, stimulation of interest in health-related careers, presentation skills, and creating optimism about furthering education. The HCA is well received by participants and can be replicated successfully at multiple sites nationally. By providing mentorship, increasing exposure to health professionals and health careers, offering high-level science and health curriculum, and fostering collaboration and presentation skills, the HCA has potential to increase interest in health professions among racial and ethnic minority youth from low-income communities.

Improving catalytic function by ProSAR-driven enzyme evolution.

We describe a directed evolution approach that should find broad application in generating enzymes that meet predefined process-design criteria. It augments recombination-based directed evolution by incorporating a strategy for statistical analysis of protein sequence activity relationships (ProSAR). This combination facilitates mutation-oriented enzyme optimization by permitting the capture of additional information contained in the sequence-activity data. The method thus enables identification of beneficial mutations even in variants with reduced function. We use this hybrid approach to evolve a bacterial halohydrin dehalogenase that improves the volumetric productivity of a cyanation process approximately 4,000-fold. This improvement was required to meet the practical design criteria for a commercially relevant biocatalytic process involved in the synthesis of a cholesterol-lowering drug, atorvastatin (Lipitor), and was obtained by variants that had at least 35 mutations.

Modeling gain-medium diffraction in super-Gaussian coupled unstable laser cavities.

The diffractive effects of a single laser rod in an unstable super-Gaussian coupled cavity are modeled for a range of cavity configurations, with an intracavity, zero-thickness aperture. After fundamental mode propagation through a maximally flat output coupler, beam quality (M2) and far-field power loss values are related. Beam quality is most sensitive to cavity magnification and aperture Fresnel number, both correlated to the aperture-equivalent Fresnel number. In contrast, variation of M2 with aperture position is sufficiently conservative to predict the intensity profile of a solid-state laser with a typical gain length, in good agreement with experimental data.

High-performance liquid chromatography and thin-layer chromatography assays for Devil's Club (Oplopanax horridus).

Devil's root, Oplopanax horridus, is a widely used folk medicine in Alaska and British Columbia. The inner bark of the root and stem has been used to treat colds, cough, fever, and diabetes. The present study involves the development of high-pressure liquid chromatography (HPLC) and thin-layer chromatography (TLC) methods to detect the presence of trans-nerolidol and sterols in the root bark. The HPLC and TLC analytical methods presented are suitable for the characterization and identification of Oplopanax horridus.