POISONS IN THE BASEMENT: AN ANALYSIS OF X-RAY FLUORESCENCE TESTS FOR HEAVY METAL PESTICIDES IN THE UNIVERSITY OF MONTANA’S ETHNOGRAPHIC COLLECTION

This thesis focuses on the X-Ray Fluorescence (XRF) testing that was performed on the University of Montana’s (UM) ethnographic collection. This collection is housed in a repository in the UM Anthropological Curation Facility (UMACF). The main concern over the artifacts and the reason behind the decision to perform such testing was to determine if any hazardous pesticides were used as part of past conservation treatments on the collection over the course of its history at the University of Montana. The XRF tests were performed during the winter of 2011-2012 on over 350 artifacts. The results had been previously unanalyzed. The result of the scanning yielded 844 graphs showing the levels of nine different heavy metals and elements. These elements included arsenic, lead, mercury, bromine, barium, selenium, cadmium, chromium, and antimony, all of which can be hazardous to humans who may interact with the artifacts. Further, the presence of some of these elements, such as bromine, may indicate that items were treated with pesticides. A sample of 131 of the artifacts and 258 of the test results showed high concentrations of arsenic, lead, and antimony on a majority of the artifacts. The cause of the readings could be from a variety of means ranging from the manufacturing process of the items, environmental influences, or pesticide dust from a previous application. The pesticide lead arsenate, however, uses all three of the metals, lead, arsenic, and antimony. The presence of these three metals and the high correlation between the concentration of lead and the concentration of arsenic could be indicators that this pesticide was used in the collection. The conclusion of the testing showed that although these elements may be detected on the artifact, the results of XRF testing are inconclusive. XRF can provide researchers with the information that the element is present but lacks any method to explain the reason behind it. Further tests at the UMACF could prove vital in explaining these results. Until these additional tests are complete, caution, such as using nitrile gloves and respirators should be used in the collection when handling the artifacts

The Role of Bacterial Symbionts and Bioluminescence in the Pyrosome, Pyrosoma atlanticum

The pelagic tunicate, Pyrosoma atlanticum, is known for its brilliant bioluminescence, but the mechanism causing this bioluminescence has not been fully characterized. This study identifies the bacterial bioluminescent symbionts of P. atlanticum collected in the northern Gulf of Mexico using various methods such as electron microscopy, light microscopy, and molecular genetics. The bacteria are localized within a specific pyrosome light organ. Bioluminescent symbiotic bacteria of Vibrionaceae composed \u3e50% of taxa in tunicate samples (n=13), which was shown by utilizing current molecular genetics methodologies. While searching for bacterial lux genes in 2 tunicate samples, we also serendipitously generated a draft tunicate mitochondrial genome which was used for P. atlanticum pyrosome identification. Furthermore, a total of 396K MiSeq16S rRNA reads provided pyrosome microbiome profiles to determine bacterial symbiont taxonomy. After comparing with the Silva rRNA database, a 99% sequence identity matched a Photobacterium sp. R33-like bacterium (referred to as Photobacterium-Pa1) as the most abundant bacteria within P. atlanticum samples. Specifically-designed 16S rRNA V4 probes for fluorescence in situ hybridization (FISH) verified the Photobacterium-Pa1 location around the periphery of each pyrosome luminous organ. Scanning and transmission electron microscopy (SEM, TEM respectively) confirmed a rod-like bacterial presence which also appears intracellular in the light organs. This intracellular bacterial localization may represent a bacteriocyte formation reminiscent of other invertebrates

HD139614: the interferometric case for a group-Ib pre-transitional young disk

The Herbig Ae star HD 139614 is a group-Ib object, which featureless SED indicates disk flaring and a possible pre-transitional evolutionary stage. We present mid- and near-IR interferometric results collected with MIDI, AMBER and PIONIER with the aim of constraining the spatial structure of the 0.1-10 AU disk region and assess its possible multi-component structure. A two-component disk model composed of an optically thin 2-AU wide inner disk and an outer temperature-gradient disk starting at 5.6 AU reproduces well the observations. This is an additional argument to the idea that group-I HAeBe inner disks could be already in the disk-clearing transient stage. HD 139614 will become a prime target for mid-IR interferometric imaging with the second-generation instrument MATISSE of the VLTI.Comment: SPIE Astronomical Telescopes and Instrumentation conference, June 2014, 11 pages, 7 Figure

Staphylococcus aureus DsbA is a membrane-bound lipoprotein with thiol-disulfide oxidoreductase activity

DsbA proteins, the primary catalysts of protein disulfide bond formation, are known to affect virulence and penicillin resistance in Gram-negative bacteria. We identified a putative DsbA homologue in the Gram-positive pathogen Staphylococcus aureus that was able to restore the motility phenotype of an Escherichia coli dsbA mutant and thus demonstrated a functional thiol oxidoreductase activity. The staphylococcal DsbA (SaDsbA) had a strong oxidative redox potential of −131mV. The persistence of the protein throughout the growth cycle despite its predominant transcription during exponential growth phase suggested a rather long half-life for the SaDsbA. SaDsbA was found to be a membrane localised lipoprotein, supporting a role in disulfide bond formation. But so far, neither in vitro nor in vivo phenotype could be identified in a staphylococcal dsbA mutant, leaving its physiological role unknown. The inability of SaDsbA to interact with the E. coli DsbB and the lack of an apparent staphylococcal DsbB homologue suggest an alternative re-oxidation pathway for the SaDsb

Experimental Study of the Human Ability to Deliberately Excite a Flexible Floor

peer reviewedHuman-structure interactions are not completely understood yet. This paper presents an experimental study focusing on the interaction between a human and a flexible support, with a major aim to better understand how the behavior of a human subject, bouncing on a flexible structure, adapts to the support motion. Exploratory experiments are undertaken with a 7m-span timber footbridge tested in the Human Motion Analysis Laboratory of the University of Liege. The movements of the coupled system composed of the subject and the footbridge are recorded by Motion Capture technology; the subject\textquoteright{}s 3-D body motion is defined by three important angles: ankle, knee and hip. The interaction between the subject and the footbridge is also quantified by means of force platform measurements. The experiments indicate an influence of the support amplitude and natural frequency on the phase shift between the oscillatory floor motion and the three angles characterizing the motion

Evolution of COVID-19 mortality over time: results from the Swiss hospital surveillance system (CH-SUR)

BACKGROUND When the periods of time during and after the first wave of the ongoing SARS-CoV-2/COVID-19 pandemic in Europe are compared, the associated COVID-19 mortality seems to have decreased substantially. Various factors could explain this trend, including changes in demographic characteristics of infected persons and the improvement of case management. To date, no study has been performed to investigate the evolution of COVID-19 in-hospital mortality in Switzerland, while also accounting for risk factors. METHODS We investigated the trends in COVID-19-related mortality (in-hospital and in-intermediate/intensive-care) over time in Switzerland, from February 2020 to June 2021, comparing in particular the first and the second wave. We used data from the COVID-19 Hospital-based Surveillance (CH-SUR) database. We performed survival analyses adjusting for well-known risk factors of COVID-19 mortality (age, sex and comorbidities) and accounting for competing risk. RESULTS Our analysis included 16,984 patients recorded in CH-SUR, with 2201 reported deaths due to COVID-19 (13.0%). We found that overall in-hospital mortality was lower during the second wave of COVID-19 than in the first wave (hazard ratio [HR] 0.70, 95% confidence interval [CI] 0.63- 0.78; p <0.001), a decrease apparently not explained by changes in demographic characteristics of patients. In contrast, mortality in intermediate and intensive care significantly increased in the second wave compared with the first wave (HR 1.25, 95% CI 1.05-1.49; p = 0.029), with significant changes in the course of hospitalisation between the first and the second wave. CONCLUSION We found that, in Switzerland, COVID-19 mortality decreased among hospitalised persons, whereas it increased among patients admitted to intermediate or intensive care, when comparing the second wave to the first wave. We put our findings in perspective with changes over time in case management, treatment strategy, hospital burden and non-pharmaceutical interventions. Further analyses of the potential effect of virus variants and of vaccination on mortality would be crucial to have a complete overview of COVID-19 mortality trends throughout the different phases of the pandemic

Microscopic and Genetic Characterization of Bacterial Symbionts With Bioluminescent Potential in Pyrosoma atlanticum

The pelagic tunicate pyrosome, Pyrosoma atlanticum, is known for its brilliant bioluminescence, but the mechanism causing this bioluminescence has not been fully characterized. This study identifies the bacterial bioluminescent symbionts of P. atlanticum collected in the northern Gulf of Mexico using several methods such as light and electron microscopy, as well as molecular genetics. The bacteria are localized within the pyrosome light organs. Greater than 50% of the bacterial taxa present in the tunicate samples were the bioluminescent symbiotic bacteria Vibrionaceae as determined by utilizing current molecular genetics methodologies. A total of 396K MiSeq16S rRNA reads provided total pyrosome microbiome profiles to determine bacterial symbiont taxonomy. After comparing with the Silva rRNA database, a Photobacterium sp. r33-like bacterium (which we refer to as “Photobacterium Pa-1”) matched at 99% sequence identity as the most abundant bacteria within Pyrosoma atlanticum samples. Specifically designed 16S rRNA V4 probes for fluorescence in situ hybridization (FISH) verified the Photobacterium Pa-1 location as internally concentrated along the periphery of each dual pyrosome luminous organ. While searching for bacterial lux genes in two tunicate samples, we also serendipitously generated a draft tunicate mitochondrial genome that can be used for Pyrosoma atlanticum identification. Scanning (SEM) and transmission (TEM) electron microscopy confirmed the presence of intracellular rod-like bacteria in the light organs. This intracellular localization of bacteria may represent bacteriocyte formation reminiscent of other invertebrates

Estimation of free-roaming domestic dog population size: Investigation of three methods including an Unmanned Aerial Vehicle (UAV) based approach

Population size estimation is performed for several reasons including disease surveillance and control, for example to design adequate control strategies such as vaccination programs or to estimate a vaccination campaign coverage. In this study, we aimed at investigating the possibility of using Unmanned Aerial Vehicles (UAV) to estimate the size of free-roaming domestic dog (FRDD) populations and compare the results with two regularly used methods for population estimations: foot-patrol transect survey and the human: dog ratio estimation. Three studies sites of one square kilometer were selected in Petén department, Guatemala. A door-to-door survey was conducted in which all available dogs were marked with a collar and owner were interviewed. The day after, UAV flight were performed twice during two consecutive days per study site. The UAV's camera was set to regularly take pictures and cover the entire surface of the selected areas. Simultaneously to the UAV's flight, a foot-patrol transect survey was performed and the number of collared and non-collared dogs were recorded. Data collected during the interviews and the number of dogs counted during the foot-patrol transects informed a capture-recapture (CR) model fit into a Bayesian inferential framework to estimate the dog population size, which was found to be 78, 259, and 413 in the three study sites. The difference of the CR model estimates compared to previously available dog census count (110 and 289) can be explained by the fact that the study population addressed by the different methods differs. The human: dog ratio covered the same study population as the dog census and tended to underestimate the FRDD population size (97 and 161). Under the conditions within this study, the total number of dogs identified on the UAV pictures was 11, 96, and 71 for the three regions (compared to the total number of dogs counted during the foot-patrol transects of 112, 354 and 211). In addition, the quality of the UAV pictures was not sufficient to assess the presence of a mark on the spotted dogs. Therefore, no CR model could be implemented to estimate the size of the FRDD using UAV. We discussed ways for improving the use of UAV for this purpose, such as flying at a lower altitude in study area wisely chosen. We also suggest to investigate the possibility of using infrared camera and automatic detection of the dogs to increase visibility of the dogs in the pictures and limit workload of finding them. Finally, we discuss the need of using models, such as spatial capture-recapture models to obtain reliable estimates of the FRDD population. This publication may provide helpful directions to design dog population size estimation methods using UAV

Comparative Study of Free-Roaming Domestic Dog Management and Roaming Behavior Across Four Countries: Chad, Guatemala, Indonesia, and Uganda

Dogs play a major role in public health because of potential transmission of zoonotic diseases, such as rabies. Dog roaming behavior has been studied worldwide, including countries in Asia, Latin America, and Oceania, while studies on dog roaming behavior are lacking in Africa. Many of those studies investigated potential drivers for roaming, which could be used to refine disease control measures. However, it appears that results are often contradictory between countries, which could be caused by differences in study design or the influence of context-specific factors. Comparative studies on dog roaming behavior are needed to better understand domestic dog roaming behavior and address these discrepancies. The aim of this study was to investigate dog demography, management, and roaming behavior across four countries: Chad, Guatemala, Indonesia, and Uganda. We equipped 773 dogs with georeferenced contact sensors (106 in Chad, 303 in Guatemala, 217 in Indonesia, and 149 in Uganda) and interviewed the owners to collect information about the dog [e.g., sex, age, body condition score (BCS)] and its management (e.g., role of the dog, origin of the dog, owner-mediated transportation, confinement, vaccination, and feeding practices). Dog home range was computed using the biased random bridge method, and the core and extended home range sizes were considered. Using an AIC-based approach to select variables, country-specific linear models were developed to identify potential predictors for roaming. We highlighted similarities and differences in term of demography, dog management, and roaming behavior between countries. The median of the core home range size was 0.30 ha (95% range: 0.17–0.92 ha) in Chad, 0.33 ha (0.17–1.1 ha) in Guatemala, 0.30 ha (0.20–0.61 ha) in Indonesia, and 0.25 ha (0.15–0.72 ha) in Uganda. The median of the extended home range size was 7.7 ha (95% range: 1.1–103 ha) in Chad, 5.7 ha (1.5–27.5 ha) in Guatemala, 5.6 ha (1.6–26.5 ha) in Indonesia, and 5.7 ha (1.3–19.1 ha) in Uganda. Factors having a significant impact on the home range size in some of the countries included being male dog (positively), being younger than one year (negatively), being older than 6 years (negatively), having a low or a high BCS (negatively), being a hunting dog (positively), being a shepherd dog (positively), and time when the dog was not supervised or restricted (positively). However, the same outcome could have an impact in a country and no impact in another. We suggest that dog roaming behavior is complex and is closely related to the owner's socioeconomic context and transportation habits and the local environment. Free-roaming domestic dogs are not completely under human control but, contrary to wildlife, they strongly depend upon humans. This particular dog–human bound has to be better understood to explain their behavior and deal with free-roaming domestic dogs related issues