Fourth electrical show of the University of Illinois

Thesis (BS)--University of Illinois, 1913Typescrip

Beet necrotic yellow vein virus accumulates inside resting spores and zoosporangia of its vector Polymyxa betae BNYVV infects P. betae

BACKGROUND: Plasmodiophorids and chytrids are zoosporic parasites of algae and land plant and are distributed worldwide. There are 35 species belonging to the order Plasmodiophorales and three species, Polymyxa betae, P. graminis, and Spongospora subterranea, are plant viral vectors. Plasmodiophorid transmitted viruses are positive strand RNA viruses belonging to five genera. Beet necrotic yellow vein virus (BNYVV) and its vector, P. betae, are the causal agents for rhizomania. RESULTS: Evidence of BNYVV replication and movement proteins associating with P. betae resting spores was initially obtained using immunofluorescence labeling and well characterized antisera to each of the BNYVV proteins. Root cross sections were further examined using immunogold labeling and electron microscopy. BNYVV proteins translated from each of the four genomic and subgenomic RNAs accumulate inside P. betae resting spores and zoospores. Statistical analysis was used to determine if immunolabelling detected viral proteins in specific subcellular domains and at a level greater than in control samples. CONCLUSION: Virus-like particles were detected in zoosporangia. Association of BNYVV replication and movement proteins with sporangial and sporogenic stages of P. betae suggest that BNYVV resides inside its vector during more than one life cycle stage. These data suggest that P. betae might be a host as well as a vector for BNYV

Gradient Descent with Linearly Correlated Noise: Theory and Applications to Differential Privacy

We study gradient descent under linearly correlated noise. Our work is motivated by recent practical methods for optimization with differential privacy (DP), such as DP-FTRL, which achieve strong performance in settings where privacy amplification techniques are infeasible (such as in federated learning). These methods inject privacy noise through a matrix factorization mechanism, making the noise linearly correlated over iterations. We propose a simplified setting that distills key facets of these methods and isolates the impact of linearly correlated noise. We analyze the behavior of gradient descent in this setting, for both convex and non-convex functions. Our analysis is demonstrably tighter than prior work and recovers multiple important special cases exactly (including anticorrelated perturbed gradient descent). We use our results to develop new, effective matrix factorizations for differentially private optimization, and highlight the benefits of these factorizations theoretically and empirically

Growing old and being old: Emotional well-being across adulthood.

The present study examines change in reports of daily, weekly, and monthly psychological distress over 20 years, and of negative and positive affect over 10 years, using data from the Midlife in the United States study. The study includes three waves of data collection on adults ranging from 22 to 95 years old. Cross-sectional findings reveal that older age is related to lower levels of psychological distress and negative affect and to higher levels of positive affect across each successive age group. Yet, longitudinal findings vary across younger, middle-aged, and older adults. Psychological distress decreases over time among younger adults (although only until age 33 for weekly reports), remains stable in midlife, and is stable (monthly) or slightly increases (daily and weekly) among older adults. For negative affect, levels decrease over time for younger and middle-aged adults, and only increase for the oldest adults for daily and monthly affect. Positive affect is stable over time among younger adults, but decreases in midlife starting in the mid-fifties. In conclusion, overall patterns of findings suggest that being old (assessed cross-sectionally) is related to higher levels of emotional well-being. Growing old (assessed longitudinally) is related to improvements in emotional well-being across younger and early middle adulthood, which mirrors cross-sectional findings. There is relative stability in later midlife, however, and continued stability or slight declines across older age. (PsycInfo Database Record (c) 2023 APA, all rights reserved)

A Pilot Study of Loss Aversion for Drug and Non-Drug Commodities in Cocaine Users

Background—Numerous studies in behavioral economics have demonstrated that individuals are more sensitive to the prospect of a loss than a gain (i.e., loss aversion). Although loss aversion has been well described in “healthy” populations, little research exists in individuals with substance use disorders. This gap is notable considering the prominent role that choice and decision-making play in drug use. The purpose of this pilot study was to evaluate loss aversion in active cocaine users. Methods—Current cocaine users (N = 38; 42% female) participated in this within-subjects laboratory pilot study. Subjects completed a battery of tasks designed to assess loss aversion for drug and non-drug commodities under varying risk conditions. Standardized loss aversion coefficients (λ) were compared to theoretically and empirically relevant normative values (i.e., λ = 2). Results—Compared to normative loss aversion coefficient values, a precise and consistent decrease in loss aversion was observed in cocaine users (sample λ ≈ 1). These values were observed across drug and non-drug commodities as well as under certain and risky conditions. Conclusions—These data represent the first systematic study of loss aversion in cocaine-using populations and provide evidence for equal sensitivity to losses and gains or loss equivalence. Futures studies should evaluate the specificity of these effects to a history of cocaine use as well as the impact of manipulations of loss aversion on drug use to determine how this phenomenon may contribute to intervention development efforts

Customer satisfaction survey of quality management system in the medical industry

Abstract: The management function of any organization is to ensure that the set goals, visions and objectives of the organization meet customer satisfaction through the implementation of a Quality Management system (QMS). The aim of the study is to reduce the gap between management expectations of set standards and the given performance of the organization by employees, thus finding measures to reduce those gaps and decrease customer dissatisfaction. Primary and secondary questions are aimed to answer the following questions respectively: Will the implementation of QMS through an ISO13485 improve customer satisfaction in a medical diagnostics equipment manufacturing organization? And does staff engagement in the objectives set by management have a relationship to customer satisfaction? The researchers employ the mixed-method approach using a local diagnostics devices manufacturer as a case study. Evaluation of the operations system is done through data collection from employees and customers with the means of questionnaires. The study concluded that through statistical analysis obtained, there was unanimous support of the fact that implementation of a QMS has a positive effect on customer satisfaction, although the acceptance of the system’s implementation is not welcomed by minority of employees

Buspirone Maintenance Does Not Alter the Reinforcing, Subjective, and Cardiovascular Effects of Intranasal Methamphetamine

Background—Medications development efforts for methamphetamine-use disorder have targeted central monoamines because these systems are directly involved in the effects of methamphetamine. Buspirone is a dopamine autoreceptor and D3 receptor antagonist and partial agonist at serotonin 1A receptors, making it a logical candidate medication for methamphetamine-use disorder. Buspirone effects on abuse-related behaviors of methamphetamine have been mixed in clinical and preclinical studies. Experimental research using maintenance dosing, which models therapeutic use, is limited. This study evaluated the influence of buspirone maintenance on the reinforcing effects of methamphetamine using a self-administration procedure, which has predictive validity for clinical efficacy. The impact of buspirone maintenance on the subjective and cardiovascular response to methamphetamine was also determined. Methods—Eight research participants (1 female) reporting recent illicit stimulant use completed a placebo-controlled, crossover, double-blind protocol in which the pharmacodynamic effects of intranasal methamphetamine (0, 15, and 30 mg) were assessed after at least 6 days of buspirone (0 and 45 mg/day) maintenance. Results—Intranasal methamphetamine functioned as a reinforcer and produced prototypical stimulant-like subjective (e.g., increased ratings of Good Effects and Like Drug) and cardiovascular (e.g., elevated blood pressure) effects. These effects of methamphetamine were similar under buspirone and placebo maintenance conditions. Maintenance on buspirone was well tolerated and devoid of effects when administered alone. Conclusions—These data suggest that buspirone is unlikely to be an effective pharmacotherapy for methamphetamine-use disorder. Given the central role of monoamines in methamphetamine-use disorder, it is reasonable for future studies to continue to target these systems