Regional variation in epinephrine autoinjector prescriptions in Australia: more evidence for the vitamin D-anaphylaxis hypothesis

Background: There is little information on the regional distribution of anaphylaxis in Australia. Objective: To examine the influence of latitude (a marker of sunlight/vitamin D status) as a contributor to anaphylaxis in Australia, with a focus on children from birth to the age of 4 years. Methods: Epinephrine autoinjector (EpiPen) prescriptions (2006 -2007) in 59 statistical divisions and anaphylaxis hospital admission rates (2002-2007) in 10 regions were used as surrogate markers of anaphylaxis. Results: EpiPen prescription rates (per 100,000 population per year) were higher in children from birth to the age of 4 years (mean, 951) than in the overall population (mean, 324). In an unadjusted model of children from birth to the age of 4 years, decreasing absolute latitude was associated with a decrease in EpiPen prescription rates, such that rates were higher in southern compared with northern regions of Australia (β, -44.4; 95% confidence interval, -57.0 to -31.8; P < .001). Adjusting for age, sex, ethnicity, indexes of affluence, education, or access to medical care (general, specialist allergy, or pediatric) did not attenuate the finding (β, -51.9; 95% confidence interval, -71.0 to -32.9; P < .001). Although statistical power was limited, anaphylaxis admission rates (most prominent in children aged 0-4 years) showed a similar south-north gradient, such that admission rates were higher in southern compared with northern regions of Australia. Conclusions: EpiPen prescription rates and anaphylaxis admissions are more common in southern regions of Australia. These data provide additional support for a possible role of vitamin D in the pathogenesis of anaphylaxis

Superoxide dismutase downregulation in osteoarthritis progression and end-stage disease

Oxidative stress is proposed as an important factor in osteoarthritis (OA). To investigate the expression of the three superoxide dismutase (SOD) antioxidant enzymes in OA. SOD expression was determined by real-time PCR and immunohistochemistry using human femoral head cartilage. SOD2 expression in Dunkin–Hartley guinea pig knee articular cartilage was determined by immunohistochemistry. The DNA methylation status of the SOD2 promoter was determined using bisulphite sequencing. RNA interference was used to determine the consequence of SOD2 depletion on the levels of reactive oxygen species (ROS) using MitoSOX and collagenases, matrix metalloproteinase 1 (MMP-1) and MMP-13, gene expression. All three SOD were abundantly expressed in human cartilage but were markedly downregulated in end-stage OA cartilage, especially SOD2. In the Dunkin–Hartley guinea pig spontaneous OA model, SOD2 expression was decreased in the medial tibial condyle cartilage before, and after, the development of OA-like lesions. The SOD2 promoter had significant DNA methylation alterations in OA cartilage. Depletion of SOD2 in chondrocytes increased ROS but decreased collagenase expression. This is the first comprehensive expression profile of all SOD genes in cartilage and, importantly, using an animal model, it has been shown that a reduction in SOD2 is associated with the earliest stages of OA. A decrease in SOD2 was found to be associated with an increase in ROS but a reduction of collagenase gene expression, demonstrating the complexities of ROS function

Astrophysical science metrics for next-generation gravitational-wave detectors

The second generation of gravitational-wave detectors are being built and tuned all over the world. The detection of signals from binary black holes is beginning to fulfill the promise of gravitational-wave astronomy. In this work, we examine several possible configurations for third-generation laser interferometers in existing km-scale facilities. We propose a set of astrophysically motivated metrics to evaluate detector performance. We measure the impact of detector design choices against these metrics, providing a quantitative cost-benefit analyses of the resulting scientific payoffs

Live to cheat another day: bacterial dormancy facilitates the social exploitation of beta-lactamases

The breakdown of antibiotics by β-lactamases may be cooperative, since resistant cells can detoxify their environment and facilitate the growth of susceptible neighbours. However, previous studies of this phenomenon have used artificial bacterial vectors or engineered bacteria to increase the secretion of β-lactamases from cells. Here, we investigated whether a broad-spectrum β-lactamase gene carried by a naturally occurring plasmid (pCT) is cooperative under a range of conditions. In ordinary batch culture on solid media, there was little or no evidence that resistant bacteria could protect susceptible cells from ampicillin, although resistant colonies could locally detoxify this growth medium. However, when susceptible cells were inoculated at high densities, late-appearing phenotypically susceptible bacteria grew in the vicinity of resistant colonies. We infer that persisters, cells that have survived antibiotics by undergoing a period of dormancy, founded these satellite colonies. The number of persister colonies was positively correlated with the density of resistant colonies and increased as antibiotic concentrations decreased. We argue that detoxification can be cooperative under a limited range of conditions: if the toxins are bacteriostatic rather than bacteridical; or if susceptible cells invade communities after resistant bacteria; or if dormancy allows susceptible cells to avoid bactericides. Resistance and tolerance were previously thought to be independent solutions for surviving antibiotics. Here, we show that these are interacting strategies: the presence of bacteria adopting one solution can have substantial effects on the fitness of their neighbours

EC94-872-S Nebraska Crop Budgets

Resource Persons • Crops Budgeting Procedure • Prices Used for 1994 Panhandle • Gravity Irrigated Crops • Sugar Beets • Dry Edible Beans • Corn for Grain • Corn for Silage • Establish Alfatfa with Oats • Alfalfa Hay Gravity Irrigated • Center Pivot Irrigated Crops • Sugar Beets • Dry Edible Beans • Corn for Grain • Winter Wheat • Alfalfa Hay • Non-Irrigated Crops • Winter Wheat Stubble Much Fallow • Winter Wheat, Eco-Fallow (Chemical and Tillage Combination) • Sunflower, Wheat-Sunflower-Fallow Rotation • Millet, Wheat, Fallow, Millet, Fallow Southwest • Corn for Grain, Gravity Irrigated • Corn for Silage, Gravity Irrigated • Corn for Grain, Ditch Irrigated, Platte Valley • Corn for Grain, Ridge Planted, Gravity Irrigated • Corn for Grain, Center Pivot Irrigated, Fine Texture Soil • Corn for Grain, Center Pivot Irrigated, Sandy Soil • Pinto Beans, Center Pivot Irrigated • Soybeans, Center Pivot Irrigated • Fall Seed Alfalfa, Center Pivot Irrigated • Alfalfa Hay, Center Pivot Irrigated • Alfalfa Hay, Sub-Irrigated, Platte Valley • Fall Seed Grass, Center Pivot Irrigated • Pasture, Center Pivot Irrigated • Wheat, Center Pivot Irrigated • Wheat, Stubble Mulch Fallow • Wheat, Clean Till Fallow • Wheat, Continuous, Chemical Weed Control • Wheat, Followed by Corn, 3 Year Rotation, Eco-Fallow • Corn, Following Eco-Fallow Wheat • Grain Sorghum, Non-Irrigated • Grain Sorghum, Non-Irrigated, No-TUI Continuous • Cane Hay, Non-Irrigated North • Corn for Grain, Center Pivot Irrigated • Corn for Silage, Center Pivot Irrigated • Establish Alfalfa, Center Pivot Irrigated • Alfalfa Hay, Center Pivot Irrigated • Establish Grass, Center Pivot Irrigated • Pasture, Center Pivot Irrigated • Native Hay, Wet Meadow • Native Hay, Upland Central • Corn for Grain Center Pivot Irrigated • Corn for Silage Center Pivot Irrigated • Grain Sorghum for Grain, Limited Irrigation, Center Pivot • Corn for Grain, Gravity Irrigated • Corn for Silage Gravity Irrigated • Soybeans, Gravity Irrigated , • Establish Alfalfa, Gravity Irrigated • Alfalfa for Hay, Gravity Irrigated • Corn for Grain, Non-Irrigated • Corn for Grain, Eco-Fallow, Follows Wheat in 3 Year Rotation • Corn for Silage, Non-Irrigated • Grain Sorghum for Grain, Non-Irrigated • Grain Sorghum for Grain, Eco-Fallow, Follows Wheat in 3 Year Rotation • Grain Sorghum for Grain, Continuous, No Till, Non-Irrigated • Soybeans, Non-Irrigated • Wheat for Grain, Continuous Cropped, Non-Irrigated • Wheat for Grain, Continuous, No Till, Non-Irrigated • Wheat for Grain, Fallow Every Third Year • Establish Alfalfa, Non-Irrigated • Alfalfa for Hay, Non-Irrigated • Establish and Maintain Cover Crop on Set Aside Acres Northeast • Corn for Grain, Center Pivot Irrigated, Sandy Soils • Corn for Grain, Center Pivot Irrigated, Rolling Hills • Corn for Grain, Till-Plant, Rolling Hills • Soybeans, Non-Irrigated • Soybeans, Center Pivot Irrigated • Oats, Non-Irrigated 8 • Oats With Spring Alfalfa Seeding • Alfalfa Seeding • Establish Alfalfa, Sandy Soil, Fall Seeding • Alfalfa Hay, Large Round Baler • Alfalfa Hay Small Square Baler • East Central • Corn for Grain, Center Pivot Irrigated • Soybeans, Center Pivot Irrigated • Corn tor Grain, Non-Irrigated • No-Till Com in Soybean Residue • Grain Sorghum, Non-Irrigated • Soybeans, Non-Irrigated • Soybeans, After Corn Reduced Till • Wheat • Establish Alfalfa, Fall Seeded • Establish Alfalfa, Spring With Herbicide • Alfalfa Hay, Large Round Baler • Alfalfa Hay, Field Stacker • Oats, Non-Irrigated Southeast • Corn for Grain, Center Pivot Irrigated • Corn for Silage, Center Pivot Irrigated • Corn for Grain, Non-Irrigated • Grain Sorghum, Non-Irrigated • Forage Sorghum Silage, Non-Irrigated • Soybeans, Non-Irrigated • Wheat • Alfalfa Hay, Large Round Bale

1943: Abilene Christian College Bible Lectures - Full Text

Delivered in the Auditorium of Abilene Christian College February, 1943 Price: $1.00 FIRM FOUNDATION PUBLISHING HOUSE Austin, Texas Copyright, 1943 By Firm Foundation Publishing House Austin, Texa

Lessons learned from 104 years of mobile observatories [poster]

Poster session IN13B-1211 presented 10 December 2007 at the AGU Fall Meeting, 10–14 December 2007, San Francisco, CA, USAAs the oceanographic community ventures into a new era of integrated observatories, it may be helpful to look back on the era of "mobile observatories" to see what Cyberinfrastructure lessons might be learned. For example, SIO has been operating research vessels for 104 years, supporting a wide range of disciplines: marine geology and geophysics, physical oceanography, geochemistry, biology, seismology, ecology, fisheries, and acoustics. In the last 6 years progress has been made with diverse data types, formats and media, resulting in a fully-searchable online SIOExplorer Digital Library of more than 800 cruises (http://SIOExplorer.ucsd.edu). Public access to SIOExplorer is considerable, with 795,351 files (206 GB) downloaded last year. During the last 3 years the efforts have been extended to WHOI, with a "Multi-Institution Testbed for Scalable Digital Archiving" funded by the Library of Congress and NSF (IIS 0455998). The project has created a prototype digital library of data from both institutions, including cruises, Alvin submersible dives, and ROVs. In the process, the team encountered technical and cultural issues that will be facing the observatory community in the near future. Technological Lessons Learned: Shipboard data from multiple institutions are extraordinarily diverse, and provide a good training ground for observatories. Data are gathered from a wide range of authorities, laboratories, servers and media, with little documentation. Conflicting versions exist, generated by alternative processes. Domain- and institution-specific issues were addressed during initial staging. Data files were categorized and metadata harvested with automated procedures. With our second-generation approach to staging, we achieve higher levels of automation with greater use of controlled vocabularies. Database and XML- based procedures deal with the diversity of raw metadata values and map them to agreed-upon standard values, in collaboration with the Marine Metadata Interoperability (MMI) community. All objects are tagged with an expert level, thus serving an educational audience, as well as research users. After staging, publication into the digital library is completely automated. The technical challenges have been largely overcome, thanks to a scalable, federated digital library architecture from the San Diego Supercomputer Center, implemented at SIO, WHOI and other sites. The metadata design is flexible, supporting modular blocks of metadata tailored to the needs of instruments, samples, documents, derived products, cruises or dives, as appropriate. Controlled metadata vocabularies, with content and definitions negotiated by all parties, are critical. Metadata may be mapped to required external standards and formats, as needed. Cultural Lessons Learned: The cultural challenges have been more formidable than expected. They became most apparent during attempts to categorize and stage digital data objects across two institutions, each with their own naming conventions and practices, generally undocumented, and evolving across decades. Whether the questions concerned data ownership, collection techniques, data diversity or institutional practices, the solution involved a joint discussion with scientists, data managers, technicians and archivists, working together. Because metadata discussions go on endlessly, significant benefit comes from dictionaries with definitions of all community-authorized metadata values.Funding provided by the Library of Congress and NSF (IIS 0455998

Ursinus College Alumni Journal, November 1966

\u2770 is here • And \u2770 says: Centennial Fund, roll on! • From the President • For Alumni Association leaders, Homecoming Day was some work and plenty of play • An Ursinus specialty: Shaping the future physician • New placement service for alumni • Huck Finn\u27s dilemma is ours • The paradox of urbia • The theatre of the absurd emerges in Latin America • An age of reforming in liberal education: Trends at Ursinus compare with reforms proposed at Columbia University • Sporting scene: Women undefeated in hockey; Soccer; Cross country; Football • Campus clippings: Founders\u27 Day; Sigma Xi Club; Research at Ursinus; Student teachers; The Agency; Mr. Rue remembers; On army duty; Evening school grows; Neighbors come to dinner; Lindback scholar; Parents Day; Job opportunity; \u2767 Ruby underway • Class notebook • Weddings • Births • In memoriamhttps://digitalcommons.ursinus.edu/alumnijournal/1085/thumbnail.jp