Financing Constraints and Firms’ Growth in the European Union: Has the Financial Crisis Made Them Worse? ESRI Research Bulletin 2015/2/5

Since the onset of the financial crisis, corporate investment has declined sharply. The largest falls in firms’ investment from peak to trough have been in Greece, Latvia, Ireland, Estonia, Slovenia and Lithuania, the countries hardest hit by the financial crisis. While much of the declines in investment can be linked to poor macroeconomic conditions and a lack of profitable investment opportunities, financing constraints due to financial market imperfections may also have played a role

Detection of Staphylococcal Cassette Chromosome mec Associated DNA Segments in Multiresistant MSSA and Identification of Staphylococcus epidermidis ccrAB4

Methicillin-susceptible Staphylococcus aureus (MSSA) can arise from methicillin-resistant S. aureus (MRSA) following partial or complete excision of staphylococcal cassette chromosome mec (SCCmec). This study investigated whether multiresistant MSSA isolates from Irish hospitals, where MRSA has been endemic for decades, harbor SCCmec DNA. Twenty-five multiresistant MSSA isolates recovered between 2002 and 2006 were tested for SCCmec DNA by PCR and were genotyped by multilocus sequence typing and spa typing. All isolates lacked mecA. Three isolates (12%) harbored SCCmec DNA; two of these (genotype ST8 t190) harbored a 26-kb SCCmec IID (II.3.1.2) remnant that lacked part of mecI and all of mecR1, mecA, and IS431; the third isolate (ST8 t3209) harbored the SCCmec region from dcs to orfX. All three isolates were detected as MRSA using the BD GeneOhm and Cepheid’s Xpert MRSA real-time PCR assays. Six isolates, including both isolates with the SCCmec IID remnant, harbored ccrAB4 with 100% identity to ccrAB4 from the Staphylococcus epidermidis composite island SCC CI. This ccrAB4 gene was also identified in 23 MRSA isolates representative of ST8 t190 MRSA with variant SCCmec II subtypes IIA to IIE, which predominated previously in Irish hospitals. ccrAB4 was located 5,549 bp upstream of the left SCCmec junction in both the MRSA and MSSA isolates with SCCmec elements and remnants and 5,549 bp upstream of orfX in the four MSSA isolates with ccrAB4 only on an SCC CI homologous region. This is the first description of a large SCCmec remnant with ccr and partial mec genes in MSSA and of the S. epidermidis SCC CI and ccrAB4 genes in S. aureus

Development of wireless bruxism monitoring device based on pressure-sensitive polymer composite

A wireless pressure sensing bite guard has been developed for monitoring the progress of bruxism (teeth grinding during sleep); as well as protecting the teeth from damages. For sensing the pressure effectively in the restricted space and hostile environment, a pressure sensitive polymer composite has been fabricated and encapsulated into a conventional bite guard which is safe for in-situ applications. The device is anticipated to give real-time data through wireless data transmission and to have a long working life (weeks). A microcontroller-based electronic circuit has been built in-house for data collection and transmission. A low power approach is configured to increase the working life of the device. This device is a useful tool for understanding and treating bruxism

Human Fire Legacies on Ecological Landscapes

The primacy of past human activity in triggering change in earth’s ecosystems remains a contested idea. Treating human-environmental dynamics as a dichotomous phenomenon – turning “on” or “off” at some tipping point in the past – misses the broader, longer-term, and varied role humans play in creating lasting ecological legacies. To investigate these more subtle human-environmental dynamics, we propose an interdisciplinary framework, for evaluating past and predicting future landscape change focused on human-fire legacies. Linking theory and methods from behavioral and landscape ecology, we present a coupled framework capable of explaining how and why humans make subsistence decisions and interact with environmental variation through time. We review evidence using this framework that demonstrates how human behavior can influence vegetation cover and continuity, change local disturbance regimes, and create socio-ecological systems that can dampen or even override, the environmental effects of local and regional climate. Our examples emphasize how a long-term interdisciplinary perspective provides new insights for assessing the role of humans in generating persistent landscape legacies that go unrecognized using a simple natural-versus-human driver model of environmental change

Pahs, Ionized Gas, and Molecular Hydrogen in Brightest Cluster Galaxies of Cool Core Clusters of Galaxies

We present measurements of 5-25 {\mu}m emission features of brightest cluster galaxies (BCGs) with strong optical emission lines in a sample of 9 cool-core clusters of galaxies observed with the Infrared Spectrograph on board the Spitzer Space Telescope. These systems provide a view of dusty molecular gas and star formation, surrounded by dense, X-ray emitting intracluster gas. Past work has shown that BCGs in cool-core clusters may host powerful radio sources, luminous optical emission line systems, and excess UV, while BCGs in other clusters never show this activity. In this sample, we detect polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons (PAHs), extremely luminous, rotationally-excited molecular hydrogen line emission, forbidden line emission from ionized gas ([Ne II] and [Ne III]), and infrared continuum emission from warm dust and cool stars. We show here that these BCGs exhibit more luminous forbidden neon and H2 rotational line emission than star-forming galaxies with similar total infrared luminosities, as well as somewhat higher ratios of 70 {\mu}m / 24 {\mu}m luminosities. Our analysis suggests that while star formation processes dominate the heating of the dust and PAHs, a heating process consistent with suprathermal electron heating from the hot gas, distinct from star formation, is heating the molecular gas and contributing to the heating of the ionized gas in the galaxies. The survival of PAHs and dust suggests that dusty gas is somehow shielded from significant interaction with the X-ray gas.Comment: 27 preprint pages, 18 figures, accepted by Astrophysical Journa

Clinical benefit of glasdegib plus low-dose cytarabine in patients with de novo and secondary acute myeloid leukemia: long-term analysis of a phase II randomized trial

This analysis from the phase II BRIGHT AML 1003 trial reports the long-term efficacy and safety of glasdegib + low-dose cytarabine (LDAC) in patients with acute myeloid leukemia ineligible for intensive chemotherapy. The multicenter, open-label study randomized (2:1) patients to receive glasdegib + LDAC (de novo, n = 38; secondary acute myeloid leukemia, n = 40) or LDAC alone (de novo, n = 18; secondary acute myeloid leukemia, n = 20). At the time of analysis, 90% of patients had died, with the longest follow-up since randomization 36 months. The combination of glasdegib and LDAC conferred superior overall survival (OS) versus LDAC alone; hazard ratio (HR) 0.495; (95% confidence interval [CI] 0.325–0.752); p = 0.0004; median OS was 8.3 versus 4.3 months. Improvement in OS was consistent across cytogenetic risk groups. In a post-hoc subgroup analysis, a survival trend with glasdegib + LDAC was observed in patients with de novo acute myeloid leukemia (HR 0.720; 95% CI 0.395–1.312; p = 0.14; median OS 6.6 vs 4.3 months) and secondary acute myeloid leukemia (HR 0.287; 95% CI 0.151–0.548; p < 0.0001; median OS 9.1 vs 4.1 months). The incidence of adverse events in the glasdegib + LDAC arm decreased after 90 days’ therapy: 83.7% versus 98.7% during the first 90 days. Glasdegib + LDAC versus LDAC alone continued to demonstrate superior OS in patients with acute myeloid leukemia; the clinical benefit with glasdegib + LDAC was particularly prominent in patients with secondary acute myeloid leukemia. ClinicalTrials.gov identifier: NCT01546038.Open Access funding enabled and organized by Projekt DEAL. This study was funded by Pfizer.Peer reviewe

Homelessness in Howard County

Final project for GVPT388L: Maryland Politics, Policy and Leadership (Fall 2015). University of Maryland, College Park.The ten undergraduate students in this government and policy class were asked to examine homelessness in Howard County as part of the PALS program. Each of them researched the extent of the problem, the services in place to address it, how homelessness is addressed in comparable U.S. counties, and proposals that Howard County could adapt. Each of the ten papers thus overlaps some with others, especially in their description of current County conditions and programs. Their comparative assessment of comparable county programs, however, yields over a dozen examples of interest to Howard County. It is in their recommendations and proposals that the papers will be of greatest interest and use to the County. Numerous ideas are presented and the reader focused on the “bottom line” can peruse these sections of each paper to glean ideas.Howard Count

Functional alpha-1B adrenergic receptors on human epicardial coronary artery endothelial cells

Alpha-1-adrenergic receptors (α1-ARs) regulate coronary arterial blood flow by binding catecholamines, norepinephrine (NE), and epinephrine (EPI), causing vasoconstriction when the endothelium is disrupted. Among the three α1-AR subtypes (α1A, α1B, and α1D), the α1D subtype predominates in human epicardial coronary arteries and is functional in human coronary smooth muscle cells (SMCs). However, the presence or function of α1-ARs on human coronary endothelial cells (ECs) is unknown. Here we tested the hypothesis that human epicardial coronary ECs express functional α1-ARs. Cultured human epicardial coronary artery ECs were studied using quantitative real-time reverse transcription polymerase chain reaction, radioligand binding, immunoblot, and 3H-thymidine incorporation. The α1B-subtype messenger ribonucleic acid (mRNA) was predominant in cultured human epicardial coronary ECs (90–95% of total α1-AR mRNA), and total α1-AR binding density in ECs was twice that in coronary SMCs. Functionally, NE and EPI through the α1B subtype activated extracellular signal-regulated kinase (ERK) in ECs, stimulated phosphorylation of EC endothelial nitric oxide synthase (eNOS), and increased deoxyribonucleic acid (DNA) synthesis. These results are the first to demonstrate α1-ARs on human coronary ECs and indicate that the α1B subtype is predominant. Our findings provide another potential mechanism for adverse cardiac effects of drug antagonists that nonselectively inhibit all three α1-AR subtypes