Demographic, clinical, and treatment characteristics of the juvenile primary fibromyalgia syndrome cohort enrolled in the Childhood Arthritis and Rheumatology Research Alliance Legacy Registry.

BackgroundTo describe the demographic, clinical, and treatment characteristics of youth diagnosed with juvenile primary fibromyalgia syndrome (JPFS) who are seen in pediatric rheumatology clinics.MethodsInformation on demographics, symptoms, functioning, and treatments recommended and tried were obtained on patients with JPFS as part of a multi-site patient registry (the Childhood Arthritis and Rheumatology Research Alliance Legacy Registry). Data were summarized using descriptive statistics. In a subset of patients completing registry follow-up visits, changes in symptoms, pain, and functioning were evaluated using growth modeling.ResultsOf the 201 patients with JPFS enrolled in the registry, most were Caucasian/White (85%), non-Hispanic (83%), and female (84%). Ages ranged from 9 to 20 years (M = 15.4 + 2.2). The most common symptoms reported were widespread musculoskeletal pain (91%), fatigue (84%), disordered sleep (82%), and headaches (68%). Pain intensity was rated as moderate to severe (M = 6.3 + 2.4/10). Scores on measures of functioning indicated mild to moderate impairment, with males observed to report significantly greater impairments. For the 37% of the initial cohort having follow-up data available, indicators of function and well-being were found to either worsen over time or remain relatively unchanged.ConclusionsThe symptoms of JPFS remained persistent and disabling for many patients treated by pediatric rheumatologists. Further study appears warranted to elucidate gender differences in the impact of JPFS symptoms. Work also is needed to identify accessible and effective outpatient treatment options for JPFS that can be routinely recommended or implemented by pediatric rheumatology providers

Estimates of nonconsumptive wildlife use on Forest Service and BLM lands.

30 page

Program management model study

Two models, a system performance model and a program assessment model, have been developed to assist NASA management in the evaluation of development alternatives for the Earth Observations Program. Two computer models were developed and demonstrated on the Goddard Space Flight Center Computer Facility. Procedures have been outlined to guide the user of the models through specific evaluation processes, and the preparation of inputs describing earth observation needs and earth observation technology. These models are intended to assist NASA in increasing the effectiveness of the overall Earth Observation Program by providing a broader view of system and program development alternatives

Water Quality and Benthic Invertebrates Within a Prairie Pothole Lake Basin

Oak Lake (Brookings County, SD) is a small, semi-permanent prairie pothole lake basin on the eastern ridge of the Prairie Des Coteau. This lake is managed to support immersion contact recreation, marginal warmwater fish life propagation and livestock and wildlife watering. In addition, the western shoreline of this basin is bordered by the Oak Lake Field Station, a teaching and research facility managed by South Dakota State University. Water quality and biotic integrity of Oak Lake have been monitored biweekly during the ice-free season over the period 1994-2000. Samples were collected from three mid-basin points using standard methods of water analysis. Water transparency (Secchi depth) averaged 33.6 cm (range of 0.4 to 180 cm) and water temperatures averaged 17.1ºC (range of 2.5º to 30.0ºC) during the growing season. Total dissolved solids averaged 299 mg/L (range of 135 to 505 mg/L) and conductance averaged 461 uS/cm (range 207 to 778 uS/cm). Water column pH values averaged 8.6 (range of 7.4 to 9.3) while dissolved oxygen averaged 6.9 mg/L (range of 5.6 to 15.0 mg/L). Water column corrected chlorophyll a averaged 68.6 ug/L (range of 0.0 to 167.3 ug/L). Carlson Trophic State Index values generated from chlorophyll and Secchi data averaged 76 (range of 52 to 142). The fecal coliform values averaged 26.8 per 100 ml (range 5 to 470). The mid-basin benthic invertebrate community was found to be dominated by larvae of the midge genus Chironomus sp. (Chironomidae: Diptera). On average, this midge comprised 63% of total invertebrate abundance in Eckman dredge bottom samples. Other frequently occurring, but less abundant invertebrate taxa included Procladius sp. (Chironomidae: Diptera) at 30%, Brundiniella sp. (Chironomidae: Diptera) at 2.5%, Chaoborus americanus (Chaoboridae: Diptera) at 1.5%, Tanypus sp. (Chironomidae: Diptera), Bezzia/Palpomyia sp. (Ceratopogonidae: Diptera) at 1.5%, Hexagenia limbata (Ephemeridae: Ephemeroptera), Rhinoncus sp. (Curculionidae: Coleoptera) and Palmacorixa buenoi (Corixidae: Hemiptera) at 0.05%. Oak Lake monitoring efforts provide data to evaluate compliance with water quality standards and support university instruction and research efforts. Existing data confirm that Oak Lake is a hypereutrophic basin. However, measured parameters did not fall outside established water quality standards. These data are available on-line (http://www.abs.sdstate.edu/bio/Oaklake/index. htm) for use by educational groups and research teams

Characterizing the universal rigidity of generic frameworks

A framework is a graph and a map from its vertices to E^d (for some d). A framework is universally rigid if any framework in any dimension with the same graph and edge lengths is a Euclidean image of it. We show that a generic universally rigid framework has a positive semi-definite stress matrix of maximal rank. Connelly showed that the existence of such a positive semi-definite stress matrix is sufficient for universal rigidity, so this provides a characterization of universal rigidity for generic frameworks. We also extend our argument to give a new result on the genericity of strict complementarity in semidefinite programming.Comment: 18 pages, v2: updates throughout; v3: published versio

Antibiotics Alter Pocillopora Coral-Symbiodiniaceae-Bacteria Interactions and Cause Microbial Dysbiosis During Heat Stress

Symbioses between eukaryotes and their associated microbial communities are fundamental processes that affect organisms’ ecology and evolution. A unique example of this is reef-building corals that maintain symbiotic associations with dinoflagellate algae (Symbiodiniaceae) and bacteria that affect coral health through various mechanisms. However, little is understood about how coral-associated bacteria communities affect holobiont heat tolerance. In this study, we investigated these interactions in four Pocillopora coral colonies belonging to three cryptic species by subjecting fragments to treatments with antibiotics intended to suppress the normal bacteria community, followed by acute heat stress. Separate treatments with only antibiotics or heat stress were conducted to compare the effects of individual stressors on holobiont transcriptome responses and microbiome shifts. Across all Pocillopora species examined, combined antibiotics and heat stress treatment significantly altered coral-associated bacteria communities and caused major changes in both coral and Cladocopium algal symbiont gene expression. Individually, heat stress impaired Pocillopora protein translation and activated DNA repair processes, while antibiotics treatments caused downregulation of Pocillopora amino acid and inorganic ion transport and metabolism genes and Cladocopium photosynthesis genes. Combined antibiotics-heat stress treatments caused synergistic effects on Pocillopora and Cladocopium gene expression including enhanced expression of oxidative stress response genes, programed cell death pathways and proteolytic enzymes that indicate an exacerbated response to heat stress following bacteria community suppression. Collectively, these results provide further evidence that corals and their Symbiodiniaceae and bacteria communities engage in highly coordinated metabolic interactions that are crucial for coral holobiont health, homeostasis, and heat tolerance

The orbit rigidity matrix of a symmetric framework

A number of recent papers have studied when symmetry causes frameworks on a graph to become infinitesimally flexible, or stressed, and when it has no impact. A number of other recent papers have studied special classes of frameworks on generically rigid graphs which are finite mechanisms. Here we introduce a new tool, the orbit matrix, which connects these two areas and provides a matrix representation for fully symmetric infinitesimal flexes, and fully symmetric stresses of symmetric frameworks. The orbit matrix is a true analog of the standard rigidity matrix for general frameworks, and its analysis gives important insights into questions about the flexibility and rigidity of classes of symmetric frameworks, in all dimensions. With this narrower focus on fully symmetric infinitesimal motions, comes the power to predict symmetry-preserving finite mechanisms - giving a simplified analysis which covers a wide range of the known mechanisms, and generalizes the classes of known mechanisms. This initial exploration of the properties of the orbit matrix also opens up a number of new questions and possible extensions of the previous results, including transfer of symmetry based results from Euclidean space to spherical, hyperbolic, and some other metrics with shared symmetry groups and underlying projective geometry.Comment: 41 pages, 12 figure