Antimicrobial Properties of Isomers of Benzofuranylethanol

A biotransformaDon reacDon is a chemical conversion of a substance into a desired product with the aid of whole, living cells containing the necessary enzymes. In addiDons to living cells, other substances, such as vegetable strips, will also catalyze biotransformaDon reacDons. Advantages of biotransformaDon reacDons include the following: the ability to recycle material, the use of less hazardous chemicals, the ability to compost vegetable strips, the use of inexpensive materials that are locally available, and the ability to produce a single isomer. The biotransformaDon reacDon for the conversion of benzofuranyl methyl ketone (BMK) to (-)-benzofuranylethanol (BMA) using carrot strips as the catalyst has been characterized. The reacDon is known to produce a single isomer of the BMA. Some isomers, called enanDomers, are molecules that are mirror images of each other. The two mirror image molecules of this type are known to react in biological systems in different ways. Carrots strips have been used to produce only one of the mirror image molecules, and this molecule of BMA has been shown to have anDmicrobial properDes. Currently, we are exploring the use of other vegetable strips to determine if the other mirror image molecule of BMA can be synthesized. The goal is to determine if the other isomer has similar or different anDmicrobial properDes than the isomer produced by carrots. The anDmicrobial properDes of the two mirror image molecules will be compare

The Meadow and the Archive

“The Meadow and the Archive” is a short fictional story about a government archives branch operating in a totalitarian empire in which components of the natural world have been eradicated. Archivists observe and assist a woman whom manages to liberate an important element from a particular collection. It is hoped that this element will contain the beginnings of a wilderness that the empire has systematically worked to destroy. The transaction also offers hope for other subversive modes of archival use

Did Monsanto Pay a Plaintiff to Force Preemption Appeal? Plus: Judges Debate Vices and Virtues of Virtual MDL Hearings

Welcome to Critical Mass, Law.com’s weekly briefing for class action and mass tort attorneys. Monsanto insists a “high-low settlement” with a Roundup plaintiff wasn’t designed to manufacture an appellate ruling. The chairwoman of the U.S. Judicial Panel on Multidistrict Litigation, which has continued to hold hearings amid the pandemic, says there is “something missing” in virtual oral arguments. What does President Joe Biden’s recognition of the Armenian genocide mean for lawyers representing descendants of the victims

Impact of Wastewater Effluent on Antibiotic Resistance in Sediment-Associated Aeromonas

Because certain antibiotics can be excreted largely as the parent compound in human waste, questions have been raised concerning the possibilities of antibiotic resistance generation in microbes within and as a consequence of discharges by wastewater treatment plants (WWTPs). The release of low doses of antibiotics into receiving surface waters by WWTPs has therefore been identified as a possible contributor to the problems of resistance. The overarching concern surrounding the constant release of these pharmaceuticals from WWTPs is that this may give rise to the creation of a background level of resistance within environmental bacterial populations, which in turn may be transferred to more virulent human pathogens. The goal of this investigation therefore is to contribute to the body of knowledge surrounding the development of drug resistant bacteria as a consequence of the pervasive subtherapeutic concentrations of antibiotics in the environment. More specifically, the question examined in this study was whether wastewater effluent being discharged into environmental waters contributed to an increase in the numbers of resistant bacteria found downstream. The ubiquitous environmental genus Aeromonas was employed as a marker of the impacts of residual antibiotics on riparian bacterial populations. Opportunistic pathogens themselves, Aeromonas spp. have been shown to be able to transfer resistance to other pathogens such as Vibrio cholera, and they are included on the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency's Unregulated Contaminant Monitoring Rule List 2. Since both antibiotics and bacteria migrate between aqueous and sediment phases, sediment grab samples were taken around the point of effluent discharge from a local WWTP which uses activated sludge treatment and chlorination/dechlorination. Three sample collection points were located approximately 600 meters upstream of the effluent outfall, close to the point of effluent discharge, and 965 meters downstream of the outfall. Water column samples taken contemporaneously with sediment at the up- and downstream sampling points revealed antibiotic residuals in the latter but not the former site. Sediment samples were processed for bacterial isolation. An algorithm of several standrad biochemical tests was employed to identify 50 Aeromonas isolates from each sampling site; these isolates were subjected to resistance testing to four commonly used antibiotics detected in the WWTP effluent, namely ciprofloxacin, tetracycline, trimethoprim, and sulfamethoxazole. Changes in the susceptibility to the synergistic combination trimethoprim/sulfamethoxazole were also assessed. The results of antibiotic resistance tests indicate that the Aeromonas bacteria found at points close to the effluent and downstream of the outfall exhibit an increase in both absolute and intermediate resistance relative to the same genus found upstream at the unimpacted sampling point. Statistical analyses revealed these differences to be significant, and since no other identifiable environmental impact exists at this site, the wastewater treatment plant effluent was identified as the source of this resistance increase. This finding highlights the need for both the implementation of conservative antibiotic prescription practices and disposal that reduce the levels of antibiotics reaching WWTPs and the consideration of alternate treatment processes that remove the last vestiges of these compounds before the effluent enters receiving streams.Master of Science in Environmental Engineerin

Driving with Para-Central Visual Field Loss: Pilot Study

We studied how para-central visual field loss affects pedestrian detection in a driving simulator. Participants with para-central field loss had relatively good visual acuity (20/15 – 20/60) and 3 of 5 met local vision requirements for an unrestricted drivers license; however, they had lower detection rates and longer reaction times to pedestrians likely to appear within the blind area than in their seeing areas. They were at collision risk for 7% to 30% of pedestrians, whereas controls were at a collision risk for 0 to 4% of pedestrians

Visual Attention Measures Predict Pedestrian Detection in Central Field Loss: A Pilot Study

Purpose The ability of visually impaired people to deploy attention effectively to maximize use of their residual vision in dynamic situations is fundamental to safe mobility. We conducted a pilot study to evaluate whether tests of dynamic attention (multiple object tracking; MOT) and static attention (Useful Field of View; UFOV) were predictive of the ability of people with central field loss (CFL) to detect pedestrian hazards in simulated driving. Methods: 11 people with bilateral CFL (visual acuity 20/30-20/200) and 11 age-similar normally-sighted drivers participated. Dynamic and static attention were evaluated with brief, computer-based MOT and UFOV tasks, respectively. Dependent variables were the log speed threshold for 60% correct identification of targets (MOT) and the increase in the presentation duration for 75% correct identification of a central target when a concurrent peripheral task was added (UFOV divided and selective attention subtests). Participants drove in a simulator and pressed the horn whenever they detected pedestrians that walked or ran toward the road. The dependent variable was the proportion of timely reactions (could have stopped in time to avoid a collision). Results: UFOV and MOT performance of CFL participants was poorer than that of controls, and the proportion of timely reactions was also lower (worse) (84% and 97%, respectively; p = 0.001). For CFL participants, higher proportions of timely reactions correlated significantly with higher (better) MOT speed thresholds (r = 0.73, p = 0.01), with better performance on the UFOV divided and selective attention subtests (r = −0.66 and −0.62, respectively, p<0.04), with better contrast sensitivity scores (r = 0.54, p = 0.08) and smaller scotomas (r = −0.60, p = 0.05). Conclusions: Our results suggest that brief laboratory-based tests of visual attention may provide useful measures of functional visual ability of individuals with CFL relevant to more complex mobility tasks

The Impact of Macular Disease on Pedestrian Detection: A Driving Simulator Evaluation

We describe the design of a driving simulator study to determine the effect of central visual field loss (due to macular disease) on pedestrian detection when driving. Pilot data suggest that a scotoma (blind area) in the central visual field can impair driving by increasing response time to hazardous circumstances

Dynamic Attention as a Predictor of Driving Performance in Clinical Populations: Preliminary Results

Existing tests (e.g., useful field of view; UFOV) that are commonly used to evaluate visual attention when predicting at-risk drivers do not have a dynamic component. In this project, we developed a brief computerized test of dynamic visual attention (multiple object tracking; MOT). Estimates of threshold tracking speed from the brief MOT test showed good agreement with those determined by a full psychometric function (n = 41, r = 0.876, p \u3c 0.001). The brief MOT test was then implemented in a clinical driving assessment program; participants with poorer MOT scores had higher error scores on the road test (n = 15, r = -0.670, p = 0.006)

Statistical analysis of subjective preferences for video enhancement

ABSTRACT Traditional Thurstone scaling (1927) constructs a perceptual scale from pairwise comparisons without providing statistical inferences. We show that subjective preferences for moving video using pairwise comparisons can be analyzed to construct a perceptual scale and provide the statistical significance of preference differences. Two statistical methods (binary logistic regression and linear regression) are described. Data sets from two studies are used to demonstrate the perceptual scale construction from the traditional Thurstone method and from the described statistical methods. Both the studies showed videos on two side-by-side TVs. Four enhancement levels (Off, Low, Medium and High) were applied to the videos using a commercial device. Subjects made pairwise comparisons to indicate their preference of one video over another. The perceptual scales constructed from the three methods were comparable, except when there were cells missing from the preference matrix. Binary logistic regression easily permitted modeling of additional factors, such as side bias. Video quality can be systematically assessed using pairwise comparisons and statistical methods that permits construction of a perceptual scale and provide statistical significance for the compared levels

Upgrading Safety Performance in Retrofitting Traffic Railing Systems

DOT-FH-11-8100From bridge rail information of 51 State highway agencies and personal interviews with five selected highway agencies, current state-of-the-art of bridge railing safety performance was assessed. Based on the analysis of 14 specific railing designs, an estimated assessment of the performance of bridge rails on a national scale is presented. The data indicates that a significant percentage of existing railings may be below currently attainable safety performance standards. Bridge railing designs are grouped into four categories according to profile geometry and features that are amenable to a common retrofit design. Two categories, II and III, represent about 82 percent of existing installations. Five retrofit designs for Categories II and III were developed and evaluated by a 22-crash test program. Although not crash-test evaluated, an improved approach guardrail design features a thrie beam rail element and a breakaway cable terminal