Strengthening Interprofessional Relations

I believe all of us will agree that there is a need for strengthened interprofessional relations to increase the exchange of professional information for a number of reasons. Some of these are to broaden our scope of scientific information and to help us better serve our communities

Ground-based photometric surveillance of the passive geodetic satellite

Ground-based photometry of Passive Geodetic Earth Orbiting Satellite /PAGEOS

Frequent expansion of Plasmodium vivax Duffy Binding Protein in Ethiopia and its epidemiological significance.

Plasmodium vivax invasion of human erythrocytes depends on the Duffy Binding Protein (PvDBP) which interacts with the Duffy antigen. PvDBP copy number has been recently shown to vary between P. vivax isolates in Sub-Saharan Africa. However, the extent of PvDBP copy number variation, the type of PvDBP multiplications, as well as its significance across broad samples are still unclear. We determined the prevalence and type of PvDBP duplications, as well as PvDBP copy number variation among 178 Ethiopian P. vivax isolates using a PCR-based diagnostic method, a novel quantitative real-time PCR assay and whole genome sequencing. For the 145 symptomatic samples, PvDBP duplications were detected in 95 isolates, of which 81 had the Cambodian and 14 Malagasy-type PvDBP duplications. PvDBP varied from 1 to >4 copies. Isolates with multiple PvDBP copies were found to be higher in symptomatic than asymptomatic infections. For the 33 asymptomatic samples, PvDBP was detected with two copies in two of the isolates, and both were the Cambodian-type PvDBP duplication. PvDBP copy number in Duffy-negative heterozygotes was not significantly different from that in Duffy-positives, providing no support for the hypothesis that increased copy number is a specific association with Duffy-negativity, although the number of Duffy-negatives was small and further sampling is required to test this association thoroughly

Fiber-Fed Laser-Heated Process for Printing Transparent Glass

This paper presents the Additive Manufacturing (AM) of glass using a fiber-fed process. Glass fiber with a diameter of 100 μm is fed into a laser generated melt pool. A CO2 laser beam is focused on the intersection between the fiber and the work piece which is positioned on a four-axis computer controlled stage. The laser energy at λ=10.6 μm is directly absorbed by the silica and locally heats the glass above the working point. By carefully controlling the laser power, scan speed, and feed rate, bubble free shapes can be deposited including trusses and basic lenses. Issues unique to the process are discussed, including the thermal breakdown of the glass, buckling of the fiber against an inadequately heated stiff molten region, and dimensional control when depositing viscous material

Population dynamics and harvest management of eastern mallards

Managing sustainable harvest of wildlife populations requires regular collection of demographic data and robust estimates of demographic parameters. Estimates can then be used to develop a harvest strategy to guide decision‐making. Mallards (Anas platyrhynchos) are an important species in the Atlantic Flyway for many users and they exhibited exponential growth in the eastern United States between the 1970s and 1990s. Since then, estimates of mallard abundance have declined 16%, prompting the Atlantic Flyway Council and United States Fish and Wildlife Service to implement more restrictive hunting regulations and develop a new harvest strategy predicated on an updated population model. Our primary objective was to develop an integrated population model (IPM) for use in an eastern mallard harvest management strategy. We developed an IPM using annual estimates of breeding abundance, 2‐season banding and recovery data, and hunterharvest data from 1998 to 2018.When developing the model, we used novel model selection methods to test various forms of a submodel for survival including estimating the degree of harvest additivity and any age‐specific trends. The top survival sub‐model included a negative annual trend on juvenile survival. The IPM posterior estimates for population abundance tracked closely with the observed estimates and estimates of mean annual population growth rate ranged from 0.88 to 1.08. Our population model provided increased precision in abundance estimates compared to survey methods for use in an updated harvest strategy. The IPM posterior estimates of survival rates were relatively stable for adult cohorts, and annual growth rate was positively correlated with the female age ratio, a measure of reproduction. Either or both of those demographic parameters, juvenile survival or reproduction, could be a target for management efforts to address the population decline. The resulting demographic parameters provided information on the equilibrium population size and can be used in an adaptive harvest strategy for mallards in eastern North America

Population dynamics and harvest management of eastern mallards

Managing sustainable harvest of wildlife populations requires regular collection of demographic data and robust estimates of demographic parameters. Estimates can then be used to develop a harvest strategy to guide decision‐making. Mallards (Anas platyrhynchos) are an important species in the Atlantic Flyway for many users and they exhibited exponential growth in the eastern United States between the 1970s and 1990s. Since then, estimates of mallard abundance have declined 16%, prompting the Atlantic Flyway Council and United States Fish and Wildlife Service to implement more restrictive hunting regulations and develop a new harvest strategy predicated on an updated population model. Our primary objective was to develop an integrated population model (IPM) for use in an eastern mallard harvest management strategy. We developed an IPM using annual estimates of breeding abundance, 2‐season banding and recovery data, and hunterharvest data from 1998 to 2018.When developing the model, we used novel model selection methods to test various forms of a submodel for survival including estimating the degree of harvest additivity and any age‐specific trends. The top survival sub‐model included a negative annual trend on juvenile survival. The IPM posterior estimates for population abundance tracked closely with the observed estimates and estimates of mean annual population growth rate ranged from 0.88 to 1.08. Our population model provided increased precision in abundance estimates compared to survey methods for use in an updated harvest strategy. The IPM posterior estimates of survival rates were relatively stable for adult cohorts, and annual growth rate was positively correlated with the female age ratio, a measure of reproduction. Either or both of those demographic parameters, juvenile survival or reproduction, could be a target for management efforts to address the population decline. The resulting demographic parameters provided information on the equilibrium population size and can be used in an adaptive harvest strategy for mallards in eastern North America

Airborne multiwavelength High Spectral Resolution Lidar (HSRL-2) observations during TCAP 2012 : Vertical profiles of optical and microphysical properties of a smoke/urban haze plume over the northeastern coast of the US

© Author(s) 2014. This work is distributed under the Creative Commons Attribution 3.0 License.We present measurements acquired by the world's first airborne 3 backscatter (β) + 2 extinction (α) High Spectral Resolution Lidar (HSRL-2). HSRL-2 measures particle backscatter coefficients at 355, 532, and 1064 nm, and particle extinction coefficients at 355 and 532 nm. The instrument has been developed by the NASA Langley Research Center. The instrument was operated during Phase 1 of the Department of Energy (DOE) Two-Column Aerosol Project (TCAP) in July 2012. We observed pollution outflow from the northeastern coast of the US out over the western Atlantic Ocean. Lidar ratios were 50-60 sr at 355 nm and 60-70 sr at 532 nm. Extinction-related Ångström exponents were on average 1.2-1.7, indicating comparably small particles. Our novel automated, unsupervised data inversion algorithm retrieved particle effective radii of approximately 0.2 μm, which is in agreement with the large Ångström exponents. We find good agreement with particle size parameters obtained from coincident in situ measurements carried out with the DOE Gulfstream-1 aircraft.Peer reviewedFinal Published versio

Aerosol plume transport and transformation in high spectral resolution lidar measurements and WRF-Flexpart simulations during the MILAGRO Field Campaign

The Mexico City Metropolitan Area (MCMA) experiences high loadings of atmospheric aerosols from anthropogenic sources, biomass burning and wind-blown dust. This paper uses a combination of measurements and numerical simulations to identify different plumes affecting the basin and to characterize transformation inside the plumes. The High Spectral Resolution Lidar on board the NASA LaRC B-200 King Air aircraft measured extinction coefficients and extinction to backscatter ratio at 532 nm, and backscatter coefficients and depolarization ratios at 532 and 1064 nm. These can be used to identify aerosol types. The measurement curtains are compared with particle trajectory simulations using WRF-Flexpart for different source groups. The good correspondence between measurements and simulations suggests that the aerosol transport is sufficiently well characterized by the models to estimate aerosol types and ages. Plumes in the basin undergo complex transport, and are frequently mixed together. Urban aerosols are readily identifiable by their low depolarization ratios and high lidar ratios, and dust by the opposite properties. Fresh biomass burning plumes have very low depolarization ratios which increase rapidly with age. This rapid transformation is consistent with the presence of atmospheric tar balls in the fresh plumes

Calibration Technique for Polarization-Sensitive Lidars

Polarization-sensitive lidars have proven to be highly effective in discriminating between spherical and non-spherical particles in the atmosphere. These lidars use a linearly polarized laser and are equipped with a receiver that can separately measure the components of the return signal polarized parallel and perpendicular to the outgoing beam. In this work we describe a technique for calibrating polarization-sensitive lidars that was originally developed at NASA s Langley Research Center (LaRC) and has been used continually over the past fifteen years. The procedure uses a rotatable half-wave plate inserted into the optical path of the lidar receiver to introduce controlled amounts of polarization cross-talk into a sequence of atmospheric backscatter measurements. Solving the resulting system of nonlinear equations generates the system calibration constants (gain ratio, G, and offset angle, theta) required for deriving calibrated measurements of depolarization ratio from the lidar signals. In addition, this procedure also determines the mean depolarization ratio within the region of the atmosphere that is analyzed. Simulations and error propagation studies show the method to be both reliable and well behaved. Operational details of the technique are illustrated using measurements obtained as part of Langley Research Center s participation in the First ISCCP Regional Experiment (FIRE)

Genome Sequencing and Analysis of Yersina pestis KIM D27, an Avirulent Strain Exempt from Select Agent Regulation

Yersinia pestis is the causative agent of the plague. Y. pestis KIM 10+ strain was passaged and selected for loss of the 102 kb pgm locus, resulting in an attenuated strain, KIM D27. In this study, whole genome sequencing was performed on KIM D27 in order to identify any additional differences. Initial assemblies of 454 data were highly fragmented, and various bioinformatic tools detected between 15 and 465 SNPs and INDELs when comparing both strains, the vast majority associated with A or T homopolymer sequences. Consequently, Illumina sequencing was performed to improve the quality of the assembly. Hybrid sequence assemblies were performed and a total of 56 validated SNP/INDELs and 5 repeat differences were identified in the D27 strain relative to published KIM 10+ sequence. However, further analysis showed that 55 of these SNP/INDELs and 3 repeats were errors in the KIM 10+ reference sequence. We conclude that both 454 and Illumina sequencing were required to obtain the most accurate and rapid sequence results for Y. pestis KIMD27. SNP and INDELS calls were most accurate when both Newbler and CLC Genomics Workbench were employed. For purposes of obtaining high quality genome sequence differences between strains, any identified differences should be verified in both the new and reference genomes