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Background We described changes in 2016─2020 carbapenem-resistant Enterobacterales (CRE) incidence rates in 7 US sites that conduct population-based CRE surveillance. Methods An incident CRE case was defined as the first isolation of Escherichia coli , Klebsiella spp. or Enterobacter spp. resistant to ≥1 carbapenem from a sterile site or urine in a surveillance area resident in a 30-day period. We reviewed medical records and classified cases as hospital-onset (HO), healthcare-associated community-onset (HACO), or community-associated (CA) CRE based on healthcare exposures and location of disease onset. We calculated incidence rates using census data. We used Poisson mixed effects regression models to perform 2016─2020 trend analyses, adjusting for sex, race/ethnicity, and age. We compared adjusted incidence rates between 2016 and subsequent years using incidence rate ratios (RRs) and 95% confidence intervals (CIs). Results Of 4996 CRE cases, 62% were HACO, 21% CA, and 14% HO. The crude CRE incidence rate per 100 000 was 7.51 in 2016 and 6.08 in 2020 and was highest for HACO, followed by CA and HO. From 2016 to 2020, the adjusted overall CRE incidence rate decreased by 24% (RR, 0.76 [95% CI,.70–.83]). Significant decreases in incidence rates in 2020 were seen for HACO (RR, 0.75 [95% CI,.67–.84]) and CA (0.75 [.61–.92]) but not for HO CRE. Conclusions Adjusted CRE incidence rates declined from 2016 to 2020, but changes over time varied by epidemiologic class. Continued surveillance and effective control strategies are needed to prevent CRE in all settings. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Prunus necrotic ringspot virus (PNRSV) and prune dwarf virus (PDV) are pollen-borne viruses of important stone fruit crops, including peaches, which can cause substantial yield loss. Although both horizontal and vertical (i.e., seed) transmission of both viruses occurs through pollen, the role of flower-visiting insects in their transmission is not well understood. Bees and thrips reportedly spread PNRSV and PDV in orchards and greenhouse studies; however, the field spread of PNRSV and PDV in peach orchards in the southeastern United States is not explored. We hypothesized that bees and thrips may facilitate virus spread by carrying virus-positive pollen. Our 2-yr survey results show that 75% of captured bees are carrying virus-positive pollen and moving across the orchard while a subsample of thrips were also found virus positive. Based on morphology, Bombus, Apis, Andrena, Eucera, and Habropoda are the predominant bee genera that were captured in peach orchards. Understanding the role of bees and thrips in the spread of PNRSV and PDV will enhance our understanding of pollen-borne virus ecology. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Motivation A gradient boosting decision tree (GBDT) is a powerful ensemble machine-learning method that has the potential to accelerate biomarker discovery from high-dimensional molecular data. Recent algorithmic advances, such as extreme gradient boosting (XGB) and light gradient boosting (LGB), have rendered the GBDT training more efficient, scalable and accurate. However, these modern techniques have not yet been widely adopted in discovering biomarkers for censored survival outcomes, which are key clinical outcomes or endpoints in cancer studies. Results In this paper, we present a new R package 'Xsurv' as an integrated solution that applies two modern GBDT training frameworks namely, XGB and LGB, for the modeling of right-censored survival outcomes. Based on our simulations, we benchmark the new approaches against traditional methods including the stepwise Cox regression model and the original gradient boosting function implemented in the package 'gbm'. We also demonstrate the application of Xsurv in analyzing a melanoma methylation dataset. Together, these results suggest that Xsurv is a useful and computationally viable tool for screening a large number of prognostic candidate biomarkers, which may facilitate future translational and clinical research. Availability and implementation 'Xsurv' is freely available as an R package at: https://github.com/topycyao/Xsurv. Supplementary information Supplementary data are available at Bioinformatics online. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The purpose of this study was to assess insulin-stimulated gene expression in canine skeletal muscle with a particular focus on NPPC , the gene that encodes C-type natriuretic peptide, a key hormonal regulator of cardiometabolic function. Four conscious canines underwent hyperinsulinemic, euglycemic clamp studies. Skeletal muscle biopsy and arterial plasma samples were collected under basal and insulin-stimulated conditions. Bulk RNA sequencing of muscle tissue was performed to identify differentially expressed genes between these 2 steady-state conditions. Our results showed that NPPC was the most highly expressed gene in skeletal muscle in response to insulin infusion, rising 4-fold between basal and insulin-stimulated conditions. In support of our RNA sequencing data, we found that raising the plasma insulin concentration 15-fold above basal elicited a 2-fold (P = 0.0001) increase in arterial plasma concentrations of N-terminal prohormone C-type natriuretic peptide. Our data suggest that insulin may play a role in stimulating secretion of C-type natriuretic peptide by skeletal muscle. In this context, C-type natriuretic peptide may act in a paracrine manner to facilitate muscle–vascular bed crosstalk and potentiate insulin-mediated vasodilation. This could serve to enhance insulin and glucose delivery, particularly in the postprandial absorptive state. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Summary Spatially resolved transcriptomics promises to increase our understanding of the tumor microenvironment and improve cancer prognosis and therapies. Nonetheless, analytical methods to explore associations between the spatial heterogeneity of the tumor and clinical data are not available. Hence, we have developed spatialGE, a software that provides visualizations and quantification of the tumor microenvironment heterogeneity through gene expression surfaces, spatial heterogeneity statistics that can be compared against clinical information, spot-level cell deconvolution and spatially informed clustering, all using a new data object to store data and resulting analyses simultaneously. Availability and implementation The R package and tutorial/vignette are available at https://github.com/FridleyLab/spatialGE. A script to reproduce the analyses in this manuscript is available in Supplementary information. The Thrane study data included in spatialGE was made available from the public available from the website https://www.spatialresearch.org/resources-published-datasets/doi-10-1158-0008-5472-can-18-0747/. Supplementary information Supplementary data are available at Bioinformatics online. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Summary Multiplex immunofluorescence (mIF) staining combined with quantitative digital image analysis is a novel and increasingly used technique that allows for the characterization of the tumor immune microenvironment (TIME). Generally, mIF data is used to examine the abundance of immune cells in the TIME; however, this does not capture spatial patterns of immune cells throughout the TIME, a metric increasingly recognized as important for prognosis. To address this gap, we developed an R package spatialTIME that enables spatial analysis of mIF data, as well as the iTIME web application that provides a robust but simplified user interface for describing both abundance and spatial architecture of the TIME. The spatialTIME package calculates univariate and bivariate spatial statistics (e.g. Ripley's K, Besag's L, Macron's M and G or nearest neighbor distance) and creates publication quality plots for spatial organization of the cells in each tissue sample. The iTIME web application allows users to statistically compare the abundance measures with patient clinical features along with visualization of the TIME for one tissue sample at a time. Availability and implementation spatialTIME is implemented in R and can be downloaded from GitHub (https://github.com/FridleyLab/spatialTIME) or CRAN. An extensive vignette for using spatialTIME can also be found at https://cran.r-project.org/web/packages/spatialTIME/index.html. iTIME is implemented within a R Shiny application and can be accessed online (http://itime.moffitt.org/), with code available on GitHub (https://github.com/FridleyLab/iTIME). Supplementary information Supplementary data are available at Bioinformatics online. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The article presents profile of novelist Suki Kim who has written the book "Without You, There Is No Us: My Time With the Sons of North Korea's Elite." It mentions that the book rose to The New York Times' hardcover best-seller list, and then went to paperback. It also mentions that the book is about a women who is unprepared for how such marketing seemed to open the door to insinuations directed at her motives, her journalistic integrity, and the risks she had taken as a reporter.

Pediatric obesity remains disproportionately more prevalent in rural communities; however, multidisciplinary, pediatric weight loss programs, which are often located in tertiary-care centers, may not be accessible to rural families. Limited models to specifically address pediatric obesity in rural communities exist. Therefore, innovative solutions are required for expanded treatment of pediatric obesity in rural communities. This article discusses potential solutions for multidisciplinary, tertiary-care pediatric weight loss programs to improve access and treatment of pediatric obesity in rural communities. A selected review of the literature suggests that strategies to overcome barriers to treatment in rural communities include telephone calls and telemedicine conferencing by obesity specialists from academic centers (obesity medicine specialists, endocrinologists, dietitians, and psychotherapists) as well as training local primary care providers in rural communities to screen, diagnose, and treat patients with obesity. Multidisciplinary, tertiary-care pediatric weight loss programs have a profound opportunity to impact the treatment of pediatric obesity in rural communities by training practicing rural primary care providers as well as strengthening their commitment to educate future generations of clinicians on the treatment of pediatric obesity through medical training including physician assistant, nurse practitioner, and pediatric and family medicine resident education and skill building. This article identifies potential mechanisms for expansive treatment of pediatric obesity in rural communities by multidisciplinary, tertiary-care weight loss programs and highlights areas of specific focus needed for future investigation. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Broadband acoustic scattering techniques are not widely used in fisheries acoustics, but this may change due to the recent commercial availability of a broadband echosounder system operating at frequencies commonly used in fisheries surveys. A four-channel (15-150 kHz) broadband echosounder was used to investigate the potential of broadband methods to improve species discrimination during a walleye pollock (Gadus chalcogrammus) survey in the Gulf of Alaska. Narrowband echosounders combined with mid-water and bottom trawls were used to identify aggregations of interest for broadband measurements. Broadband frequency responses were measured for multiple pelagic and semidemersal fishes as well as euphausiids. No clear patterns in the broadband frequency responses were identified that would aid in discrimination among the commonly encountered swimbladder-bearing species. The results are consistent with narrowband observations and suggest that both techniques face the same challenges when attempting to discriminate among acoustically similar species as frequency responses overlap within the measured bandwidth. However, examples are presented in which broadband frequency responses provide additional information about near-resonant scatterers. The benefits of broadband operations have not been fully realized and widespread adoption of broadband techniques and improved processing algorithms may yield improved acoustic-based species discrimination for use during fisheries surveys. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

A comprehensive evaluation of the uncertainty of acoustic-trawl survey estimates is needed to appropriately include them in stock assessments. However, this evaluation is not straightforward because various data types (acoustic backscatter, length, weight, and age composition) are combined to produce estimates of abundance- and biomass-at-age. Uncertainties associated with each data type and those from functional relationships among variables need to be evaluated and combined. Uncertainty due to spatial sampling is evaluated using geostatistical conditional (co-) simulations. Multiple realizations of acoustic backscatter were produced using transformed Gaussian simulations with a Gibbs sampler to handle zeros. Multiple realizations of length frequency distributions were produced using transformed multivariate Gaussian co-simulations derived from quantiles of the empirical length distributions. Uncertainty due to errors in functional relationships was evaluated using bootstrap for the target strength-at-length and the weight-at-length relationships and for age-length keys. The contribution of each of these major sources of uncertainty was assessed for acoustic-trawl surveys of walleye pollock in the eastern Bering Sea in 2006-2010. This simulation framework allows a general computation for estimating abundance- and biomass-at-age variance-covariance matrices. Such estimates suggest that the covariance structure assumed in fitting stock assessment models differs substantially from what careful analysis of survey data actually indicate. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The authors convey their views on the role of physical therapy in opioid use and management during palliative and hospice care. Topics mentioned include the ChoosePT campaign of the American Physical Therapy Association, the role of physical therapists in establishing pressure relief for the person who is bedfast, and the disjointed nature of physical therapy within hospice and palliative care teams.

ABSTRACT Osteoblasts, which orchestrate the deposition of small apatite crystals through the expression of nucleating proteins, have been shown to also express clock genes associated with the circadian signaling pathway. We hypothesized that protein-mediated bone mineralization may be linked to circadian oscillator mechanisms functioning in peripheral bone tissue. In this study, Per1 expression in ex vivo neonatal murine calvaria organ cultures was monitored for 6 days using a Per1- luciferase transgene as a bioluminescent indicator of clock function. Fluctuations in Per1 expression had a period of 25 ± 4 hours ( n = 14) with early expression at CT09:59 ± 03:37 (CT = circadian time). We also established the kinetics of mineral deposition in developing bone by using noninvasive Raman microscopy to track mineral accumulation in calvarial tissue. The content and quality of newly deposited mineral was continually examined at the interparietal bone/fontanel boundary for a period of 6 days with 1-hour temporal resolution. Using this approach, mineralization over time exhibited bursts of mineral deposition followed by little or no deposition, which was recurrent with a periodicity of 26.8 ± 9.6 hours. As many as six near-daily mineralization events were observed in the calvaria before deposition ceased. Earliest mineralization events occurred at CT16:51 ± 03:45, which is 6 hours behind Per1 expression. These findings are consistent with the hypothesis that mineralization in developing bone tissue is regulated by a local circadian oscillator mechanism. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

De Robertis, A., Wilson, C. D., Furnish, S. R., and Dahl, P. H. 2013. Underwater radiated noise measurements of a noise-reduced fisheries research vessel. – ICES Journal of Marine Science, 70: 480–484.Vessel-radiated noise is traditionally measured at naval acoustic ranges, but lower-cost options are desirable for routine monitoring of research vessels. Measurements of a noise-reduced research vessel made at a naval noise range are compared to those made using an experimental mooring equipped with commercially available instrumentation. The measurements from the mooring were precise and within 2.5 dB of those from the noise range at third-octave bands <500 Hz. At higher frequencies, direct comparisons were precluded by an intermittent shaft-related noise present only during the mooring measurements, but previously observed at the navy range. The agreement between the two methods suggests that simplified, field-deployable hydrophone systems can be used to accurately characterize the noise signatures of research vessels. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

Based on a survey of participants in Egypt's Tahrir Square protests, we demonstrate that social media in general, and Facebook in particular, provided new sources of information the regime could not easily control and were crucial in shaping how citizens made individual decisions about participating in protests, the logistics of protest, and the likelihood of success. We demonstrate that people learned about the protests primarily through interpersonal communication using Facebook, phone contact, or face-to-face conversation. Controlling for other factors, social media use greatly increased the odds that a respondent attended protests on the first day. Half of those surveyed produced and disseminated visuals from the demonstrations, mainly through Facebook. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

De Robertis, A., and Wilson, C. D. 2011. Silent ships do not always encounter more fish (revisited): comparison of acoustic backscatter from walleye pollock recorded by a noise-reduced and a conventional research vessel in the eastern Bering Sea. – ICES Journal of Marine Science, 68: 2229–2239.Vessel-induced avoidance behaviour is potentially a major source of error in surveys of fish populations. Noise-reduced research vessels have been constructed in an effort to minimize fish reactions to auditory stimuli produced by survey vessels. Here, measurements of acoustic backscatter from walleye pollock (Theragra chalcogramma) made on the eastern Bering Sea Shelf from the conventional NOAA ship “Miller Freeman” (MF) are compared with similar measurements made on the noise-reduced NOAA ship “Oscar Dyson” (OD). As in a previous study, acoustic abundance measurements from these vessels were equivalent during daylight, when large-scale acoustic surveying is conducted. However, significant differences were observed at night: on average, 44% more pollock backscatter was observed from OD than MF. Observations with a free-drifting echosounder buoy suggest that the night-time discrepancy is attributable to a stronger behavioural response to the passage of the louder MF, and a resulting decrease in pollock target strength. Pollock did not exhibit a strong reaction to the passage of OD. These observations are consistent with previous comparisons of these vessels, which show that with vessel differences, the noise-reduced OD detects more pollock. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

Asexuality has major theoretical advantages over sexual reproduction. Nevertheless, obligately asexual metazoan lineages seldom endure over evolutionary time. The Red Queen hypothesis posits that their limited capacity to generate genetic novelty leads to extermination by rapidly evolving parasites and pathogens. At first glance, rotifers of the class Bdelloidea appear to contradict this view: they have reproduced asexually for over 30 Myr without being overwhelmed by parasites. However, there are special ecological conditions under which Red Queen models can accommodate this unusual outcome. If hosts disperse rapidly within a structured metapopulation during a parasite-free life stage, then in principle they can become spatiotemporally decoupled from coevolving antagonists, and persist without sex. Intriguingly, bdelloid rotifers form dormant propagules when desiccated, which disperse easily by wind. In previous experiments, 7 days of desiccation and wind dispersal removed a fungal parasite from populations of one bdelloid species, allowing them to disperse independently. Here, I extend this finding to two additional bdelloid species and five more fungal parasites, and demonstrate its robustness under various desiccation regimes, and in the presence of multiple parasites. Results support the hypothesis that the unusual physiology of anciently asexual bdelloid rotifers helps them escape fungal parasites in space and time. © 2011 The Linnean Society of London, Biological Journal of the Linnean Society, 2011, 104, 564-574. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Little is known about how age influences the ways in which cardiac fibroblasts interact with the extracellular matrix. We investigated the deformation of collagen substrates by neonatal and adult rat cardiac fibroblasts in monolayer and three-dimensional (3D) cultures, and quantified the expression of three collagen receptors [discoidin domain receptor (DDR)1, DDR2, and β1 integrin] and the contractile protein alpha smooth muscle actin (α-SMA) in these cells. We report that adult fibroblasts contracted 3D collagen substrates significantly less than their neonate counterparts, whereas no differences were observed in monolayer cultures. Adult cells had lower expression of β1 integrin and α-SMA than neonate cultures, and we detected significant correlations between the expression of α-SMA and each of the collagen receptors in neonate cells but not in adult cells. Consistent with recent work demonstrating age-dependent interactions with myocytes, our results indicate that interactions between cardiac fibroblasts and the extracellular matrix change with age. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Williams, K., Punt, A. E., Wilson, C. D., and Horne, J. K. 2011. Length-selective retention of walleye pollock, Theragra chalcogramma, by midwater trawls. – ICES Journal of Marine Science, 68: 119–129. Midwater trawls are commonly used during acoustic surveys of fish abundance to determine species and length compositions of acoustically sampled fish aggregations. As trawls are selective samplers, catches can be unrepresentative of sampled populations and lead to biased abundance estimates. Length-dependent retention of walleye pollock was estimated using small recapture nets, so-called pocket nets, attached to the outside of the trawl. Experimental haul sets comprising eight hauls each were conducted in the Gulf of Alaska in 2007 and 2008 and in the eastern Bering Sea (EBS) in 2007. Pocket-net catches were then modelled by fitting parameters for selectivity and escapement location along the trawl. Within- and between-haul variability was jointly estimated using hierarchical Bayesian methods. There was significant undersampling of juvenile (<25 cm) pollock, with the length-at-50%-retention (L50) estimated between 13.5 and 26.1 cm among haul sets. In the EBS set, L50 values were correlated with light level, escapement being greater at night. Trawl selectivity may be a significant source of error in acoustic-survey estimates of the abundance of pollock. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

De Robertis, A., and Wilson, C. D. 2010. Silent ships sometimes do encounter more fish. 2. Concurrent echosounder observations from a free-drifting buoy and vessels. – ICES Journal of Marine Science, 67: 996–1003.The reactions of walleye pollock (Theragra chalcogramma) to the NOAA ships “Miller Freeman” (MF), a conventionally designed research vessel, and the “Oscar Dyson” (OD), a noise-reduced research vessel, were compared near the Shumagin Islands, Alaska. Observations with a buoy-mounted echosounder indicated a stronger decrease in pollock backscatter strength and a greater increase in pollock backscatter depth associated with the passage of the MF than the OD. The pollock began to respond at a distance of ∼270 m from the vessel and were disturbed for several minutes after vessel passage. The reaction to the OD was weak, suggesting that measurements of pollock made by the OD in this environment are not strongly biased by vessel avoidance. Comparison of echosounder observations collected on board each vessel indicated that the MF measured less pollock backscatter, a deeper pollock depth distribution, and weaker single-target echoes than the OD. Together, the results indicate that acoustic measurements from the two vessels are not equivalent because of a reduced avoidance response to the noise-reduced vessel. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

De Robertis, A., Wilson, C. D., Williamson, N. J., Guttormsen, M. A., and Stienessen, S. 2010. Silent ships sometimes do encounter more fish. 1. Vessel comparisons during winter pollock surveys. – ICES Journal of Marine Science, 67: 985–995. Avoidance of approaching vessels by fish is a major source of uncertainty in surveys of fish stocks. In an effort to minimize vessel avoidance, international standards for underwater-noise emission by research vessels have been established. Despite widespread investment in noise-reduced vessels, the effectiveness of noise reduction on vessel avoidance remains poorly understood. Here, we report on vessel comparisons of pollock abundance recorded by the NOAA ships “Oscar Dyson” (OD), a noise-reduced vessel, and “Miller Freeman” (MF), a conventionally designed vessel. The comparisons were made during three acoustic surveys of prespawning aggregations of walleye pollock (Theragra chalcogramma) in Alaska. The experiments demonstrate that a noise-reduced vessel will detect significantly more fish backscatter than a conventional vessel in some situations. OD detected 31% more pollock backscatter than MF in the Shumagin Islands, where pollock were distributed between 100 and 200 m deep, and 13% more pollock backscatter in Shelikof Strait, where pollock were primarily distributed 200–300 m deep. However, there was no difference in the Bogoslof Island area where pollock were found at 400–700 m. In the Shumagin and Shelikof areas, the discrepancy between vessels tended to decrease with fish depth, consistent with a decreasing response to a stimulus propagating from the surface. Analysis of the depth distributions of pollock supports the conclusion that the discrepancies in backscatter stem from differential behavioural responses to the two vessels. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

Guttormsen, M. A. and Wilson, C. D. 2009. In situ measurements of capelin (Mallotus villosus) target strength in the North Pacific Ocean. – ICES Journal of Marine Science, 66: 258–263.In situ measurements of capelin (Mallotus villosus) target strength (TS) were collected during summer 2001–2003 near Kodiak Island in the Gulf of Alaska, using a calibrated EK500 echosounder with 38 and 120 kHz split-beam transducers. Targets were detected over dispersed, night-time aggregations using standard acoustic methods, then filtered using a quality-control algorithm to reject invalid targets. The 38 kHz-based, fitted model estimate was TS = 20 log10L− 70.3 (r2 = 0.30), where L is total length of fish. Compared with other studies, the TS-fitted model at 38 kHz was similar to that calculated from swimbladder morphology measurements from St Lawrence estuary capelin (TS = 20 log10L− 69.3), but resulted in greater estimates than models based on in situ measurements of capelin TS in the Barents Sea (TS = 19.1 log10L−74.0) and northern Atlantic Ocean (TS = 20 log10L − 73.1). The large intraspecific variability exhibited in the fitted TS – L models for this species suggests the use of TS measurements from the geographic region where the data were collected. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

De Robertis, A., Hjellvik, V., Williamson, N. J., and Wilson, C. D. 2008. Silent ships do not always encounter more fish: comparison of acoustic backscatter recorded by a noise-reduced and a conventional research vessel. – ICES Journal of Marine Science, 65: 623–635.The extent to which fish avoid approaching research vessels is an important source of uncertainty in fisheries surveys. Vessels radiate noise at the frequencies where fish hearing is most sensitive, and noise is thus thought to be the primary stimulus for vessel avoidance. In an effort to minimize vessel avoidance, international standards for noise emission by research vessels have been established. Although vessels meeting these criteria are now in service, the effectiveness of noise quietening on vessel avoidance remains poorly understood. The new, noise-reduced, RV “Oscar Dyson” (OD) will augment the conventionally constructed research vessel, “Miller Freeman” (MF) and serve as the primary platform in conducting acoustic surveys of walleye pollock (Theragra chalcogramma) in Alaska. To investigate whether noise-reduction measures result in differential avoidance, which would bias the pollock abundance time-series, we conducted an inter-vessel comparison of acoustic backscatter recorded by OD and MF during a survey of walleye pollock in 2006 in the eastern Bering Sea. Overall, we found no evidence for differences in vessel avoidance that would impact the echo integration results of adult pollock. Analysis of pollock depth distributions from both vessels suggests that there is a comparatively greater diving response to OD, with the reaction taking place primarily after the vessel has passed and for fish shallower than 90 m. Given that the change in vertical distribution is after the fish have been detected by the echosounder, this reaction should not influence echo-integration measurements. The results indicate that use of the OD rather than the MF is unlikely to bias the Bering Sea survey time-series through changes in vessel avoidance by adult walleye pollock. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

The overall objective of the present study was to investigate the mechanotransduction of bovine bone marrow stromal cells (BMSCs) through the interactions between transforming growth factor β1 (TGF-β1), dexamethasone, and dynamic compressive loading. Overall, the addition of TGF-β1 increased cell viability, extracellular matrix (ECM) gene expression, matrix synthesis, and sulfated glycosaminoglycan content over basal construct medium. The addition of dexamethasone further enhanced extracellular matrix gene expression and protein synthesis. There was little stimulation of ECM gene expression or matrix synthesis in any medium group by mechanical loading introduced on day 8. In contrast, there was significant stimulation of ECM gene expression and matrix synthesis in chondrogenic media by dynamic loading introduced on day 16. The level of stimulation was also dependent on the medium supplements, with the samples treated with basal medium being the least responsive and the samples treated with TGF-β1 and dexamethasone being the most responsive at day 16. Both collagen I and collagen II gene expressions were more responsive to dynamic loading than aggrecan gene expression. Dynamic compression upregulated Smad2/3 phosphorylation in samples treated with basal and TGF-β1 media. These findings suggest that interactions between mechanical stimuli and TGF-β signaling may be an important mechanotransduction pathway for BMSCs, and they indicate that mechanosensitivity may vary during the process of chondrogenesis. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The potential for fish to avoid survey vessels is a major source of uncertainty in stock-assessment surveys. Although walleye pollock (Theragra chalcogramma) are the subject of a substantial commercial fishery in the North Pacific, their behavioural responses to approaching survey vessels remain poorly understood. As a first step in an effort to determine if walleye pollock avoid survey vessels engaged in trawling operations, we made pairwise comparisons of acoustic backscatter recorded by survey vessels while free-running and while trawling. Results are presented of acoustic backscatter recorded from NOAA''s RV “Miller Freeman”, which used a midwater trawl during the 1996–2002 eastern Bering Sea surveys, and a chartered commercial fishing vessel, which used a bottom trawl during a survey in 2003 in the Gulf of Alaska. In both cases, average backscatter from a vessel-mounted echosounder was significantly higher when free-running than when trawling. These decreases in backscatter are consistent with increased vessel avoidance while trawling. There were no differences in the vertical distribution of backscatter when free-running and trawling, indicating that pollock do not exhibit elevated diving responses when approached by a trawling vessel rather than by a free-running vessel. Although the study indicates that pollock respond to trawling vessels, the nature of the behavioural response cannot be determined with the methods used in this study. Future work should evaluate potential stimuli produced by trawlers to which pollock may react, and should document changes in behaviour that may occur in their presence. [Copyright &y& Elsevier]

The difference between mean volume-backscattering strength at 120 and 38kHz (ΔMVBS) has been used to discriminate acoustically between macrozooplankton species, and between macrozooplankton and fish or small zooplankton. We examined whether ΔMVBS could be used to discriminate between juvenile pollock (Theragra chalcogramma) and capelin (Mallotus villosus). Acoustic data at 38 and 120kHz were collected in the Gulf of Alaska during August 2000 and 2001. We selected scattering layers of juvenile pollock and capelin that were sampled directly by midwater trawls. Although we found statistically significant differences at minimum integration thresholds ranging from -85dB to -69dB, the greatest difference between ΔMVBS of juvenile pollock and capelin was observed at the highest integration threshold (-69dB). We also found that, although there was substantial overlap between the frequency distributions of juvenile pollock and capelin ΔMVBS at the smallest scale of analysis (0.1 nautical mile×5m cells), there was virtually no overlap between the ΔMVBS distributions at the largest scale (∼1 nautical mile×20m aggregations). We conclude that acoustic differencing at the scale of fish aggregations and at high integration thresholds can be used to distinguish between juvenile pollock and capelin. [Copyright &y& Elsevier]

Presents a study that contrasted the rates of sequence divergence in several mitochondrial and nuclear genes for crustacean lineages from saline and freshwater habitats. Evidence for an increase in levels of sequence divergence in halophilic anostracans and daphniids compared to their freshwater allies; Comparison of rates of sequence change; Assessment of the significance of branch length differences.

During their development, T lymphocytes make sequential cell fate choices: T rather than B lymphocytes, then TCRoαβ or TCRγδ, CD4 or CDS, and Th1 or Th2 lineage. These fate choices require the initiation of new programs of gene expression, and once initiated, these programs must be faithfully propagated in a heritable manner from parental cells to their progeny. With the exception of the T cell receptor, these changes in gene expression occur without a change in information encoded directly in the DNA sequence. Rather, these heritable programs of gene expression are imposed, at least in part, epigenetically through changes in chromatin structure and DNA methylation, allowing T cells to tune the threshold for expression of specific genes. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Determines the species distributions and the extent of gene frequency divergence in the Daphnia fauna of southeastern Australia. Distribution of zooplankton species; Capability for long distance dispersal; Prevalence of interspecific hybrids and variation in breeding system.

Delayed response or recurrence of clinical infections may, in part, be due to the inability of certain antibiotics to penetrate human polymorphonuclear leukocytes (PMN) and exert intracellular antibacterial activity. We determined the penetration of PMN by certain hydrophilic and certain lipophilic antibiotics, and assessed their activity against intracellular Haemophilus influenzae, type b or Staphylococcus aureus. We found that penicillin G was excluded from human PMN while chloramphenicol was concentrated within these cells; chloramphenicol killed significantly more intracellular H. influenzae than did penicillin or ampicillin. Clindamycin and trimethoprim penetrated into normal and chronic granulomatous disease (CGD) PMN equally and were at least transiently concentrated in the cells. Clindamycin and the combinations trimethoprim/sulphamethoxazole and tri-methoprim/rifampicin were most effective in killing intracellular Staph. aureus in vitro; these antibiotics reduced the bacterial density in CGD PMN to values comparable to those in normal PMN. The mechanism by which clindamycin and rifampicin killed intracellular Staph. aureus appeared to be due to direct antimicrobial activity. Antibiotics that penetrate into phagocytes may be more effective in infections due to pathogens capable of intracellular survival. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

Focuses on the popularity of true crime literature during the 1990s. Overview of books which focused on domestic violence and serial killers, such as the book "The Cop Shop: True Crime on the Streets of Chicago," by Robert Blau; Discussion of true crime as a news-dependent literary genre; Effect of reporter narratives on the cultural current between tabloidism and bookmaking.

Age-dependent maturation of the intrapulmonary inflammatory responses to bacterial lipopolysaccharide (LPS) was studied because nosocomial gram-negative infections cause morbidity in newborn infants. Escherichia coli LPS or live E. coli were injected into the airways of neonatal or adult rats; intrapulmonary recruitment of leukocytes was measured 6 h later. Neonates showed age- and dose-dependent impairment of intrapulmonary neutrophil recruitment after intratracheal administration of LPS or live E. coli that persisted for the first 28 days of life. Neonatal and adult alveolar macrophages released similar amounts of neutrophil chemotactic activity and tumor necrosis factor in response to incubation with LPS in vitro. Treatment of neonates with intratracheal or systemic interferon-gamma did not augment the response to LPS. Thus, intrapulmonary inflammatory responses to LPS and gram-negative bacteria are impaired early in life and do not approach adult levels until approximately 4 weeks of age. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This discussion of the pathogenesis of infant human immunodeficiency virus (HIV) type 1 infection emphasizes features unique to pediatric disease and provides general insights into HIV Illness 10 all populations. Therapies designed to interrupt transmission of HIV can be most efficiently addressed through studies of maternal-infant transmission. The rapid progression of disease in children constantly emphasizes the urgent need for continued progress in treatment of HIV infectionandpresentsaunique opportunityoptimallytoassesseffectsofearlyintervention. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

Interferon (IFN)-γ and tumor necrosis factor (TNF)-α production and lymphocyte proliferation in response to herpes simplex virus (HSV) antigen were assessed in 13 neonates and 3 parturient women with primary HSV infection. In comparison with 9 nonparturient adults, the neonates and parturient women showed significantly (P < .01) diminished HSV antigen-stimulated lymphocyte proliferation and IFN-γ production in the first 3–6 weeks after onset of infection. TNFα production did not differ significantly among HSV-infected groups. The impairment in neonatal cellular immunity was due, at least in part, to a specific deficit in response to HSV antigen. Lymphocyte proliferation and TNFα production in response to the mitogen concanavalin A (ConA) were comparable in adults and infants, but ConA-stimulated IFN-γ production in infants was diminished throughout the study period. In contrast, HSV antigen-stimulated IFN-γ production was comparable in infants and adults after 6 weeks. Not all patients with diminished cellular immune responses to HSV antigen manifested severe clinical disease. Nevertheless, patients with significant clinical morbidity had diminished cellular immune responses to HSV antigen. These results suggest that delayed acquisition of antigen-specific cellular immunity in primary HSV infection predisposes to more severe clinical disease. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

To study the importance of the type-specific polysaccharide capsule of group B streptococci (GBS) in the pathogenesis oflung infections, bacterial clearance rates and lung cellular responses to encapsulated and unencapsulated variants of types III and Ia GBS strains were investigated in rats. Bacteria were instilled by direct intratracheal inoculation to simulate aspiration during parturition. Neonates failed to eliminate encapsulated or unencapsulated GBS strains within 6 h of inoculation, whereas adults cleared >90% of each strain within 6 h. Neutrophils accumulated rapidly in the lungs of neonates and adults in response to all GBS strains. Immediately after inoculation, neonatal alveolar macrophages contained fewer encapsulated GBS than did adult alveolar macrophages and fewer encapsulated than unencapsulated GBS, suggesting that the capsule impairs the initial phagocytosis ofGBS in the lungs of neonates. Animal age was a more important determinant of bacterial elimination from the lung than the type-specific GBS capsule. However, both age and the bacterial capsule were important determinants of systemic dissemination. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

We investigated factors that may contribute to lung infections in infants by studying the intrapulmonary responses to aerosols of three different types of organisms — group B streptococcus with and without type-specific capsule, Pseudomonas aeruginosa, and Staphylococcus aureus — in infant (12-h-old or 24-36-h-old) and adult (150 g, 6-w-old) rats. After aerosol exposure, the lung clearance rate of each organism varied inversely with the age of the animals, and the magnitude of the clearance defect was related more strongly to animal age than to the bacterial species. Fewer alveolar macrophages from infant animals phagocytosed each type of organism in vivo, and the rate of neutrophil accumulation in the lungs of infant animals was delayed. The neonatal lung functioned effectively, however, as an antibacterial barrier, as newborn animals survived an aerosolized inoculum that exceeded the LD50 by the subcutaneous route. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

Group B streptococci (GBS) lack catalase, and they produce and release H2O2; thus, they should be readily killed by phagocytes with a diminished respiratory burst. Surprisingly, although strains of Staphylococcus aureus were killed at H2O2 concentrations > 0.5 mM, GBS strains were killed only at concentrations >5mM. In contrast, GBS were killed by hydroxyl radicals generated by the xanthine oxidase-acetaldehyde system at O2 fluxes ⩾3.5 nmol/ml per min, whereas O2 fluxes ⩾10 nmol/ml per min were required to kill the S. aureus strains. Results with virulent and laboratory strains of GBS were similar. The differences in susceptibility of GBS and S. aureus seemed to correlate with differences in content of endogenous oxygen-metabolite scavengers. GBS contained ∼100-fold more glutathione and ∼20-fold more glutathione reductase than did S. aureus, whereas S. aureus was rich in catalase that GBS lacked. GBS that were grown in buthionine sulfoximine, however, contained 87% less glutathione than did controls but were not more susceptible to killing by H2O2 or the xanthine oxidase-acetaldehyde system. Similarly, the relative susceptibility of GBS to tert-butyl hydroperoxide and H2O2 paralleled that of S. aureus. Thus, inherent differences in susceptibility of vital cellular functions to oxidative damage rather than content of oxygen-metabolite scavengers may account for the differences in susceptibility of GBS and S. aureus. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

The ability of penicillins and chloramphenicol to enter human polymorphonuclear leukocytes (PMNLs) and their antibacterial activity against intracellular Haemophilus influenzae type b were studied. Penicillin was excluded whereas chloramphenicol was concentrated in PMNLs; chloramphenicol uptake was not dependent on PMNL energy and was not competitively inhibited by unlabeled drug. PMNLs that had phagocytized opsonized H. influenzae type b were examined after incubation for 24 hr. In the absence of antibiotics, intact intracellular H. influenzae type b organisms were observed in PMNLs by electron microscopy. These PMNLs contained 104.5 colony-forming units (cfu) of H. influenzae type b. Addition of penicillin or ampicillin at four, 10, or 40 times the minimal bactericidal concentration (MBC) decreased this density from 104.5 to 103.5 cfu. In contrast, addition of chloramphenicol at four times the MBC reduced the density to ~lO0 cfu; at 10 times the MBC it reduced the density to ~10 cfu. Thus, lipidsoluble antibiotics such as chloramphenicol are concentrated and are bioactive within PMNLs. Such antibiotics may have a significant advantage at the cellular level. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

Previous reports on the ability of Toxoplasma gondii to multiply within human mononuclear phagocytes have supported the concept that the phagocytes may protect Toxoplasma from antibody and act as a transport mechanism for dissemination of the organism throughout the body. However, after phagocytosis of viable Toxoplasma, >80% of freshly isolated human peripheral blood monocytes and 50% of polymorphonuclear leukocytes rapidly destroyed these intracellular organisms. Virtually no replication of Toxoplasma occurred within these cells, as determined by microscopic examination and by uptake of [3H]uracil. These results suggested that circulating phagocytes from humans restrict rather than facilitate the initial dissemination of Toxoplasma. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

Reviews the exhibition "Winslow Homer's Images of Blacks: The Civil War and Reconstruction Years" from Menil Collection in Houston, Texas, October 21, 1988 to January 8, 1989.

The article reviews the film "The Conspirator," directed by Robert Redford, starring James McAvoy, Robin Wright, and Tom Wilkinson.