Contamination source review for Building E5032, Edgewood Area, Aberdeen Proving Ground, Maryland

This report by Argonne National Laboratory (ANL) documents results of a contamination source review of Building E5032 at the Aberdeen Proving Ground (APG) in Maryland. The review included a historical records search, physical inspection, photographic documentation, geophysical investigation, and review of available records regarding underground storage tanks associated with Building E5032. The field investigations were performed by ANL during 1994 and 1995. Building E5032 (APG designation), originally known as Building 99, is located at the northwest comer of the intersection of Hoadley Road and Magnolia Road in the Edgewood Area of APG. It was constructed during World War I as an incendiary bomb filling plant and in 1920s and 1930s maintained as a filling facility. During World War II the building was a pilot plant for the development of a dry white phosphorus filling process. Since then the building has been used for white phosphorus filling pilot studies. Most of the dry filling methods were developed in Building E5032 between 1965 and 1970. Other filling operations in Building E5032 have included mustard during the period shortly after World War II and triethyl aluminum (TEA) during the late 1960s and early 1970s. During the World War II period, the building was connected to the sanitary sewer system with one large and at least one small interior sump. There are also seven sumps adjacent to the exterior of the building: two on the west elevation, four near the four bays on the south elevation, and one at the northeast corner of the building. All of these sumps are connected with the chemical sewer system and received most, if not all, of the production operation wastewater. The discharge from this system was released into the east branch of Canal Creek; the discharge pipe was located southeast of Building E5032. There are no records indicating the use of Building E5032 after 1974, and it is assumed that the building has been out of service since that time

Contamination source review for Building E2370, Edgewood Area, Aberdeen Proving Ground, Maryland

The US Army Aberdeen Proving Ground (APG) commissioned Argonne National Laboratory (ANL) to conduct a contamination source review to identify and define areas of toxic or hazardous contaminants and to assess the physical condition and accessibility of APG buildings. The information obtained from this review may be used to assist the US Army in planning for the future use or disposition of the buildings. The contamination source review consisted of the following tasks: historical records search, physical inspection, photographic documentation, and geophysical investigation. This report provides the results of the contamination source review for Building E2370. Many of the APG facilities constructed between 1917 and the 1960s are no longer used because of obsolescence and their poor state of repair. Because many of these buildings were used for research, development, testing, and/or pilot-scale production of chemical warfare agents and other military substances, the potential exists for portions of the buildings to be contaminated with these substances, their degradation products, and other laboratory or industrial chemicals. These buildings and associated structures or appurtenances may contribute to environmental concerns at APG

How to design a complex behaviour change intervention: experiences from a nutrition-sensitive agriculture trial in rural India

Many public health interventions aim to promote healthful behaviours, with varying degrees of success. With a lack of existing empirical evidence on the optimal number or combination of behaviours to promote to achieve a given health outcome, a key challenge in intervention design lies in deciding what behaviours to prioritise, and how best to promote them. We describe how key behaviours were selected and promoted within a multisectoral nutrition-sensitive agriculture intervention that aimed to address maternal and child undernutrition in rural India. First, we formulated a Theory of Change, which outlined our hypothesised impact pathways. To do this, we used the following inputs: existing conceptual frameworks, published empirical evidence, a feasibility study, formative research and the intervention team’s local knowledge. Then, we selected specific behaviours to address within each impact pathway, based on our formative research, behaviour change models, local knowledge and community feedback. As the intervention progressed, we mapped each of the behaviours against our impact pathways and the transtheoretical model of behaviour change, to monitor the balance of behaviours across pathways and along stages of behaviour change. By collectively agreeing on definitions of complex concepts and hypothesised impact pathways, implementing partners were able to communicate clearly between each other and with intervention participants. Our intervention was iteratively informed by continuous review, by monitoring implementation against targets and by integrating community feedback. Impact and process evaluations will reveal whether these approaches are effective for improving maternal and child nutrition, and what the effects are on each hypothesised impact pathway

From START to FINISH : the influence of osmotic stress on the cell cycle

Peer reviewedPublisher PD

Translating global recommendations on HIV and infant feeding to the local context: the development of culturally sensitive counselling tools in the Kilimanjaro Region, Tanzania

BACKGROUND: This paper describes the process used to develop an integrated set of culturally sensitive, evidence-based counselling tools (job aids) by using qualitative participatory research. The aim of the intervention was to contribute to improving infant feeding counselling services for HIV positive women in the Kilimanjaro Region of Tanzania. METHODS: Formative research using a combination of qualitative methods preceded the development of the intervention and mapped existing practices, perceptions and attitudes towards HIV and infant feeding (HIV/IF) among mothers, counsellors and community members. Intervention Mapping (IM) protocol guided the development of the overall intervention strategy. Theories of behaviour change, a review of the international HIV/IF guidelines and formative research findings contributed to the definition of performance and learning objectives. Key communication messages and colourful graphic illustrations related to infant feeding in the context of HIV were then developed and/or adapted from existing generic materials. Draft materials were field tested with intended audiences and subjected to stakeholder technical review. RESULTS: An integrated set of infant feeding counselling tools, referred to as 'job aids', was developed and included brochures on feeding methods that were found to be socially and culturally acceptable, a Question and Answer Guide for counsellors, a counselling card on the risk of transmission of HIV, and an infant feeding toolbox for demonstration. Each brochure describes the steps to ensure safer infant feeding using simple language and images based on local ideas and resources. The brochures are meant to serve as both a reference material during infant feeding counselling in the ongoing prevention of mother to child transmission (pMTCT) of HIV programme and as take home material for the mother. CONCLUSION: The study underscores the importance of formative research and a systematic theory based approach to developing an intervention aimed at improving counselling and changing customary feeding practices. The identification of perceived barriers and facilitators for change contributed to developing the key counselling messages and graphics, reflecting the socio-economic reality, cultural beliefs and norms of mothers and their significant others

A Cyclin-Dependent Kinase that Promotes Cytokinesis through Modulating Phosphorylation of the Carboxy Terminal Domain of the RNA Pol II Rpb1p Sub-Unit

In Schizosaccharomyces pombe, the nuclear-localized kinase, Lsk1p, promotes cytokinesis by positively regulating the Septation Initiation Network (SIN). Although a member of the cyclin-dependent kinase (CDK) family, neither a cyclin partner nor a physiological target has been identified. In this report we identify a cyclin, Lsc1p, that physically interacts and co-localizes with Lsk1p. Furthermore, lsk1Δ, lsc1Δ, as well as kinase-dead lsk1-K306R mutants, display highly similar cytokinesis defects. Lsk1p is related to CDKs that phosphorylate the carboxy-terminal domain (CTD) of the largest sub-unit of RNA polymerase II (Rpb1p). Interestingly, we find that Lsk1p and Lsc1p are required for phosphorylation of Ser-2 residues found in the heptad repeats of the CTD. To determine if Rpb1p could be a physiological target, we replaced the native rpb1 gene with a synthetic gene encoding a Rpb1p protein in which Ser-2 was substituted with the non-phosphorylatable amino-acid alanine in all heptads. Cells carrying this allele were similar to lsk1Δ mutants: They were viable, displayed genetic interactions with the SIN, and were unable to complete cytokinesis upon perturbation of the cell division machinery. We conclude that Ser-2 phosphorylation of the CTD heptads plays a novel physiological role in the regulation of cytokinesis

A Novel Genetic Screen Implicates Elm1 in the Inactivation of the Yeast Transcription Factor SBF

BACKGROUND: Despite extensive large scale analyses of expression and protein-protein interactions (PPI) in the model organism Saccharomyces cerevisiae, over a thousand yeast genes remain uncharacterized. We have developed a novel strategy in yeast that directly combines genetics with proteomics in the same screen to assign function to proteins based on the observation of genetic perturbations of sentinel protein interactions (GePPI). As proof of principle of the GePPI screen, we applied it to identify proteins involved in the regulation of an important yeast cell cycle transcription factor, SBF that activates gene expression during G1 and S phase. METHODOLOGY/PRINCIPLE FINDINGS: The principle of GePPI is that if a protein is involved in a pathway of interest, deletion of the corresponding gene will result in perturbation of sentinel PPIs that report on the activity of the pathway. We created a fluorescent protein-fragment complementation assay (PCA) to detect the interaction between Cdc28 and Swi4, which leads to the inactivation of SBF. The PCA signal was quantified by microscopy and image analysis in deletion strains corresponding to 25 candidate genes that are periodically expressed during the cell cycle and are substrates of Cdc28. We showed that the serine-threonine kinase Elm1 plays a role in the inactivation of SBF and that phosphorylation of Elm1 by Cdc28 may be a mechanism to inactivate Elm1 upon completion of mitosis. CONCLUSIONS/SIGNIFICANCE: Our findings demonstrate that GePPI is an effective strategy to directly link proteins of known or unknown function to a specific biological pathway of interest. The ease in generating PCA assays for any protein interaction and the availability of the yeast deletion strain collection allows GePPI to be applied to any cellular network. In addition, the high degree of conservation between yeast and mammalian proteins and pathways suggest GePPI could be used to generate insight into human disease

Zds2p Regulates Swe1p-dependent Polarized Cell Growth in Saccharomyces cerevisiae via a Novel Cdc55p Interaction Domain

A C-terminal region in Zds2p (ZH4) is required for regulation of Swe1p-dependent polarized cell growth and this region is necessary and sufficient for interaction with protein phosphatase 2A regulatory subunit, Cdc55p. Our results indicate that the Zds proteins regulate the Swe1p-dependent G2/M checkpoint in a CDC55-dependent manner