Cetacean Host-Pathogen Interaction(s): Critical Knowledge Gaps

Within the broad range of viral and non-viral pathogens infecting cetaceans, Cetacean Morbillivirus (CeMV), Herpesvirus (HV), Brucella ceti, and Toxoplasma gondii are of special concern, due to their impact(s) on the health and conservation of free-ranging cetacean populations worldwide (1). The most \u201cparadigmatic\u201d example in this direction is represented by CeMV, which throughout the last 3 decades has caused more than 10 mass mortality outbreaks among different cetacean species and populations across the globe (2, 3)

Infinite games with finite knowledge gaps

Infinite games where several players seek to coordinate under imperfect information are deemed to be undecidable, unless the information is hierarchically ordered among the players. We identify a class of games for which joint winning strategies can be constructed effectively without restricting the direction of information flow. Instead, our condition requires that the players attain common knowledge about the actual state of the game over and over again along every play. We show that it is decidable whether a given game satisfies the condition, and prove tight complexity bounds for the strategy synthesis problem under $\omega$-regular winning conditions given by parity automata.Comment: 39 pages; 2nd revision; submitted to Information and Computatio

Results of a novel screening tool measuring dietary sodium knowledge in patients with chronic kidney disease.

BackgroundReducing dietary sodium has potential to benefit patients with chronic kidney disease (CKD). Little research is available defining dietary sodium knowledge gaps in patients with pre-dialysis CKD. We designed a brief screening tool to rapidly identify patient knowledge gaps related to dietary sodium for patients with CKD not yet on dialysis.MethodsA Short Sodium Knowledge Survey (SSKS) was developed and administered to patients with pre-dialysis CKD. We also asked patients if they received counseling on dietary sodium reduction and about recommended intake limits. We performed logistic regression to examine the association between sodium knowledge and patient characteristics. Characteristics of patients who answered all SSKS questions correctly were compared to those who did not.ResultsOne-hundred fifty-five patients were surveyed. The mean (SD) age was 56.6 (15.1) years, 84 (54%) were men, and 119 (77%) were white. Sixty-seven patients (43.2%) correctly identified their daily intake sodium limit. Fifty-eight (37.4%) were unable to answer all survey questions correctly. In analysis adjusted for age, sex, race, education, health literacy, CKD stage, self-reported hypertension and attendance in a kidney education class, women and patients of non-white race had lower odds of correctly answering survey questions (0.36 [0.16,0.81]; p = 0.01 women versus men and 0.33 [0.14,0.76]; p = 0.01 non-white versus white, respectively).ConclusionsOur survey provides a mechanism to quickly identify dietary sodium knowledge gaps in patients with CKD. Women and patients of non-white race may have knowledge barriers impeding adherence to sodium reduction advice

A Mathematical Solution for Medicine’s Unanswered Questions

An RWU math professor leads an undergraduate research team using computational math to solve knowledge gaps in the biomedical field

Knowledge Gaps and Misinformation About Birth Control Methods Persist in 2016

Beyond Birth Control: Family Planning and Women's Lives is a multiyear project examining the current state of access to contraception and how this access influences women's lives in the short and long term. Supported by the William and Flora Hewlett Foundation, the Urban Institute is using mixed research methods to answer two main questions under the project: how does expanded access to affordable contraception affect short- and long-term socioeconomic and health outcomes for women and their families, and what are the persistent barriers to contraceptive access and use, who faces these barriers, and how can these barriers be reduced? This brief is one of a series of Beyond Birth Control products that will provide new and timely information to influence policy debates and highlight areas where progress has been most challenging and where additional resources could most productively be directed

RiPLE: Recommendation in Peer-Learning Environments Based on Knowledge Gaps and Interests

Various forms of Peer-Learning Environments are increasingly being used in post-secondary education, often to help build repositories of student generated learning objects. However, large classes can result in an extensive repository, which can make it more challenging for students to search for suitable objects that both reflect their interests and address their knowledge gaps. Recommender Systems for Technology Enhanced Learning (RecSysTEL) offer a potential solution to this problem by providing sophisticated filtering techniques to help students to find the resources that they need in a timely manner. Here, a new RecSysTEL for Recommendation in Peer-Learning Environments (RiPLE) is presented. The approach uses a collaborative filtering algorithm based upon matrix factorization to create personalized recommendations for individual students that address their interests and their current knowledge gaps. The approach is validated using both synthetic and real data sets. The results are promising, indicating RiPLE is able to provide sensible personalized recommendations for both regular and cold-start users under reasonable assumptions about parameters and user behavior.Comment: 25 pages, 7 figures. The paper is accepted for publication in the Journal of Educational Data Minin

Toll-like receptor signaling in vertebrates: Testing the integration of protein, complex, and pathway data in the Protein Ontology framework

The Protein Ontology (PRO) provides terms for and supports annotation of species-specific protein complexes in an ontology framework that relates them both to their components and to species-independent families of complexes. Comprehensive curation of experimentally known forms and annotations thereof is expected to expose discrepancies, differences, and gaps in our knowledge. We have annotated the early events of innate immune signaling mediated by Toll-Like Receptor 3 and 4 complexes in human, mouse, and chicken. The resulting ontology and annotation data set has allowed us to identify species-specific gaps in experimental data and possible functional differences between species, and to employ inferred structural and functional relationships to suggest plausible resolutions of these discrepancies and gaps

Studies of Pedestrian Amenity.

This report, produced for the Transport and Road Research Laboratory, summarises the results of an extensive literature search in two areas of pedestrian research: (I) Estimating the Number of Pedestrian Journeys (2) Pedestrian Amenity The report identifies gaps in current knowledge from the revealed literature and makes recommendations for best practice. Research proposals are made, to help alleviate such revealed gaps, in a companion report

BMP treatment technologies, monitoring needs, and knowledge gaps: status of the knowledge and relevance within the Tahoe Basin

This Technical memorandum fulfills Task 2 for Agreement 03-495 between El Dorado County and the Office of Water Programs at California State University Sacramento and their co-authors, Bachand & Associates and the University of California Tahoe Research Group: 1) a review of current stormwater treatment Best Management Practices (BMP) in the Tahoe Basin and their potential effectiveness in removing fine particles and reducing nutrient concentrations; 2) an assessment of the potential for improving the performance of different types of existing BMPs through retrofitting or better maintenance practices; 3) a review of additional promising treatment technologies not currently in use in the Tahoe Basin; and 4) a list of recommendations to help address the knowledge gaps in BMP design and performance. ... (PDF contains 67 pages