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Introduction During the COVID-19 pandemic, there was an unprecedented and forced closure of dental offices worldwide. As American state recommendations differed considerably during this period, this research strives to better define the effects of this pause on dental care.Materials and methods A 16-question Qualtrics survey was sent to the membership of the New York State Dental Association (NYSDA) and Georgia Dental Association (GDA). Licenced, actively practising dental members of the NYSDA and GDA (n = 680) answered questions about their practice demographics, appointment cancellations, reopening times and the volume of individual dental procedures performed from 1 March through to 1 August 2020, compared to the same five-month period in 2019.Results Demographic characteristics of respondent NYSDA and GDA members were statistically similar. Nonetheless, NYSDA members reported significantly larger decreases in provision of all types of dental procedures, except for antibiotic prescription, including prophylaxis, elective care, emergency dental care and speciality procedures.Discussion and conclusions All dental procedures declined significantly during the COVID-19 pandemic, with greater decrease in New York than in Georgia. This study raises concerns about the negative impact of the pandemic on oral public health and mandates both further research and clinical strategies to mitigate against this future risk.

In this article, we detail a comprehensive laboratory evaluation of an immunoassay for the rapid detection of abrin using the Meso Scale Diagnostics Sector PR2 Model 1800. For the assay evaluation, we used inclusivity and exclusivity panels comprised of extracts of 11

Background: Although there is limited literature on medication adherence (including HIV care engagement) and COVID-19 vaccine hesitancy in general populations (i.e., non-sexual or gender minority populations), even less is known about whether HIV care engagement correlates with COVID-19 vaccine hesitancy among sexual and gender minorities, especially those from intersectional backgrounds. The objective of the current study was to examine if an association exists between HIV status neutral care (i.e., current pre-exposure prophylaxis [PrEP] or antiretroviral therapy [ART] use) and COVID-19 vaccination hesitancy among Black cisgender sexual minority men and transgender women at the initial peak of the pandemic. Methods: We conducted the N2 COVID Study in Chicago from 20 April 2020 to 31 July 2020 (analytic n = 222), including Black cisgender sexual minority men and transgender women who were vulnerable to HIV as well as those who were living with HIV. The survey included questions regarding HIV care engagement, COVID-19 vaccination hesitancy and COVID-19 related socio-economic hardships. Multivariable associations estimated adjusted risk ratios (ARRs) using modified Poisson regressions for COVID vaccine hesitancy adjusting for baseline socio-demographic characteristics and survey assessment time period. Results: Approximately 45% of participants reported COVID-19 vaccine hesitancy. PrEP and ART use were not associated with COVID-19 vaccine hesitancy when examined separately or combined (p > 0.05). There were no significant multiplicative effects of COVID-19 related socio-economic hardships and HIV care engagement on COVID-19 vaccine hesitancy. Conclusions: Findings suggest no association between HIV care engagement and COVID-19 vaccine hesitancy among Black cisgender sexual minority men and transgender women at the initial peak of the pandemic. It is therefore essential that COVID-19 vaccine promotion interventions focus on all Black sexual and gender minorities regardless of HIV care engagement and COVID-19 vaccine uptake is likely related to factors other than engagement in HIV status neutral care.

This essay considers the foundational rationale for why the law treats at least some mentally disordered people specially in a wide array of civil and criminal contexts. It suggests that non-responsible incapacity for rational behavior in specific contexts is the primary principle that warrants special legal treatment. It also considers the major distractions and confusions about why such special treatment is sometimes justifiable. It concludes with the reductionist challenge to conceptions of mental disorder and more broadly to the law that some advocate, usually based on the new neuroscience of brain imaging.

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We conducted a comprehensive, multi-phase laboratory evaluation of the Tularemia BioThreat Alert® (BTA) test, a lateral flow assay (LFA) for the rapid detection of Francisella tularensis. The study, conducted at 2 sites, evaluated the limit of detection (LOD) of this assay using the virulent SchuS4 strain and the avirulent LVS strain of F. tularensis. In 6-phase evaluation (linear dynamic range and reproducibility, inclusivity, near-neighbor, environmental background, white powder, and environmental filter extract), 13 diverse strains of F. tularensis, 8 Francisella near neighbors, 61 environmental background organisms, 26 white powders, and a pooled aerosol extract were tested. In the 937 tests performed, the Tularemia BTA demonstrated an LOD of 107 to 108 cfu/mL, with a sensitivity of 100.00%, specificity of 98.08%, and accuracy of 98.84%. These performance data are important for accurate interpretation of qualitative results arising from screening suspicious white powders in the field.

Professor Gideon Yaffe’s recent, intricately argued book, The Age of Culpability: Children and the Nature of Criminal Responsibility, argues against the nearly uniform position in both law and scholarship that the criminal justice system should give juveniles a break because on average they have different capacities relevant to responsibility than adults. Professor Yaffe instead argues that kid should be given a break because juveniles have little say about the criminal law, primarily because they do not have a vote. For Professor Yaffe, age has political rather than behavioral significance. The book has many excellent general analyses about responsibility, but all are in aid of the central thesis about juveniles, which is the central focus of this essay review. After addressing a few preliminary issues, the essay discusses Professor Yaffe’s negative argument against the validity of the behavioral difference rationale for giving juveniles a break. If the negative case fails, which the essay argues it does, then the only issue is whether the book’s alternative is desirable. Again, the essay argues that it is not, and concludes by offering three positive arguments for the traditional rationale: (1) coherence and simplicity; (2) a benignly definitional argument that survives the negative argument and supports giving juveniles a break in the exceedingly unlikely event that the empirical assumptions of the traditional rationale are proven incorrect; and (3) a proposal for individualization of the culpability assessments of juveniles so that the criminal justice system blames and punishes them proportionately to their culpability.

We conducted a comprehensive, multiphase laboratory evaluation of the Plague BioThreat Alert® (BTA) test, a lateral flow immunoassay (LFA), for the rapid detection of Yersinia pestis. The study was conducted in 7 phases at 2 sites to assess the performance of the LFA. The limit of detection (LOD) was determined using both a virulent and avirulent strain of Y. pestis, CO99-3015 (105 CFU/ml) and A1122 (104 CFU/ml), respectively. In the other phases, 18 Y. pestis strains, 20 phylogenetic near-neighbor strains, 61 environmental background microorganisms, 26 white powders, and a pooled aerosol sample were also tested. A total of 1,110 LFA test results were obtained, and their analysis indicates that this LFA had a sensitivity of 97.65% and specificity of 96.57%. These performance data are important for accurate interpretation of qualitative results arising from testing suspicious white powders and aerosol samples in the field. Any positive specimen in this assay is considered presumptive positive and should be referred to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention Laboratory Response Network for additional testing, confirmation, and characterization for an appropriate public health response.

Gas sorption can lead to the volumetric swelling of the shale matrix and reduction of the effective pore volume, which further impacts the gas transportation in micro- and nanopores in shale. At pr...

Designers of architectural glass in the United States rely on model building codes and standards for definitions of load resistance (LR) and other factors pertinent to design. Unfortunatel...

Model building codes and standards in the United States find their bases in a probabilistic model of glass load resistance (LR). In general, architectural flat glass design predicated on t...

This study investigated the effects of inorganic silicone coatings on the load resistance of heat treated glass beams. The authors performed destructive load tests on 192 heat treated glas...

Infections in immunocompromised patients that are caused by extensively drug-resistant (XDR) Acinetobacter baumannii strains have been increasingly reported worldwide. In particular, carbapenem-resistant A. baumannii strains are a prominent cause of health care-associated infections. Here, we report draft genome assemblies for two clinical XDR A. baumannii isolates obtained from hospitalized patients in Pakistan.

This essay responds to Hirstein, Sifferd and Fagan’s book, Responsible Brains (MIT Press, 2018), which claims that executive function is the guiding mechanism that supports both responsible agency and the necessity for some excuses. In contrast, I suggest that executive function is not the universal acid and the neuroscience at present contributes almost nothing to the necessary psychological level of explanation and analysis. To the extent neuroscience can be useful, it is virtually entirely dependent on well-validated psychology to correlate with the neuroscientific variables under investigation. The essay considers what executive function is and what the neuroscience adds to our understanding of it. Then it addresses moral and legal responsibility generally, and specific doctrines. Executive function is seldom found to be the most perspicuous approach to any of the general or specific moral and legal questions.

This chapter will address the potential contributions of neuroscience to law, with special emphasis on criminal justice and criminal responsibility because these are the areas that have received the lion’s share of neurolaw attention. The discussion will clearly generalize to other applications, however.

Advances in research and development have led to new technologies, tools and analytical capabilities bolstering the field of microbial forensics. However, a parallel commitment to education and training in this field is needed to prepare the next generation of scientists. Education and training are needed to: Improve first responder preparation and awareness, essential to public safety and preservation of the evidence integrity; Provide a larger pool of trained microbial forensics practitioners and; Educate the public and policy makers on the capabilities and limitations of microbial forensics. This chapter provides suggestions for topics, core courses, laboratories, skills, training, education programs, curricular guidelines and resources for microbial forensics that have been codified from a variety of sources including the American Society of Microbiology and American Academy of Forensic Sciences.

DNA-based monitoring of pathogens in aerosol samples requires extraction methods that provide high recovery of DNA. To identify a suitable method, we evaluated six DNA extraction methods for recovery of target-specific DNA from samples with four bacterial agents at low abundance (

This paper describes the comparison of load ratings associated with application of three live load models recognized by AASHTO—AASHTO legal loads, the notional rating load including single-unit specialized hauling vehicles (SHVs), and the HL-93 design tandem live load—versus load ratings associated with application of the typical HS-20 standard truck. The test bed for this study was a statistically representative sample of Texas’ older bridge-class reinforced concrete box culvert structures. Rating factors were determined using the load factor rating method with demands calculated from a production-simplified, calibrated, two-dimensional soil–structure interaction model using linear elastic constitutive models for both concrete and soil. The study was motivated in part by research which showed that SHVs create force effects significantly greater than those from the HS-20 truck (for bridges proper), and recent federal policy mandating that states load rate their bridges for SHVs. Findings from this study indicate the standard HS-20 truck, and not SHVs or other legal or design loads, is the critical model for most culvert load rating applications. In particular, operating rating factors calculated from both the AASHTO legal loads and SHV models tend to be higher than corresponding rating factors calculated using the HS-20 standard truck, most of the time. The response is explained primarily by considering the relatively short span length of culvert structures and the load-attenuating benefit of cover soil above the culvert top slab. More detailed exploration of rating variables suggests interactions between culvert geometry, cover soil thickness, and the various types of applied vehicle loads.

Although there is debate in the scientific and clinical literature about how much choice addicts have concerning the use of drugs and related activities, this article demonstrates that Anglo-American criminal law is most consistent with the position that addicts have substantial choice about engaging in crimes involving their addiction. It suggests that the criminal law's approach is consistent with plausible and reasonable current scientific and clinical understanding of addiction and is therefore defensible, but it also suggests that the law is unduly harsh and far from optimum.

Many previous studies have been conducted to investigate wind-induced galloping of slender structures or structural members. While some recent studies have examined the particular problem of galloping involving coupling between vibration components about the principal axes, few occurrences of such vibrations of full-scale structures have been reported. This paper presents a comprehensive investigation that incorporates full-scale and wind tunnel experiments and an analytical formulation to study the galloping oscillation of a type of slender tower. The full-scale and wind tunnel experiments were conducted to assess the characteristics of the oscillations, their correlation with the wind characteristics, as well as the core parameters that influence the interaction between the tower and the wind. Based on the results from the experiments, a state-space model for coupled galloping of slender towers is formulated. This model enables the prediction of the susceptibility of a slender tower to galloping instability through an evaluation of the net damping resulting from the wind-structure interaction. The tower subjected to monitoring in the full-scale study is used as an example structure in an illustrative application of the analytical model.