Panel Discussion - Management of Eurasian watermilfoil in the United States using native insects: State regulatory and management issues

While researchers have evaluated the potential of native insect herbivores to manage nonindigenous aquatic plant species such as Eurasian watermilfoil ( Myriophyllum spicatum L.), the practical matters of regulatory compliance and implementation have been neglected. A panel of aquatic nuisance species program managers from three state natural resource management agencies (Minnesota, Vermont and Washington) discussed their regulatory and policy concerns. In addition, one ecological consultant attempting to market one of the native insects to manage Eurasian watermilfoil added his perspective on the special challenges of distributing a native biological control agent for management of Eurasian watermilfoil

Genetic and Computational Identification of a Conserved Bacterial Metabolic Module

We have experimentally and computationally defined a set of genes that form a conserved metabolic module in the α-proteobacterium Caulobacter crescentus and used this module to illustrate a schema for the propagation of pathway-level annotation across bacterial genera. Applying comprehensive forward and reverse genetic methods and genome-wide transcriptional analysis, we (1) confirmed the presence of genes involved in catabolism of the abundant environmental sugar myo-inositol, (2) defined an operon encoding an ABC-family myo-inositol transmembrane transporter, and (3) identified a novel myo-inositol regulator protein and cis-acting regulatory motif that control expression of genes in this metabolic module. Despite being encoded from non-contiguous loci on the C. crescentus chromosome, these myo-inositol catabolic enzymes and transporter proteins form a tightly linked functional group in a computationally inferred network of protein associations. Primary sequence comparison was not sufficient to confidently extend annotation of all components of this novel metabolic module to related bacterial genera. Consequently, we implemented the Graemlin multiple-network alignment algorithm to generate cross-species predictions of genes involved in myo-inositol transport and catabolism in other α-proteobacteria. Although the chromosomal organization of genes in this functional module varied between species, the upstream regions of genes in this aligned network were enriched for the same palindromic cis-regulatory motif identified experimentally in C. crescentus. Transposon disruption of the operon encoding the computationally predicted ABC myo-inositol transporter of Sinorhizobium meliloti abolished growth on myo-inositol as the sole carbon source, confirming our cross-genera functional prediction. Thus, we have defined regulatory, transport, and catabolic genes and a cis-acting regulatory sequence that form a conserved module required for myo-inositol metabolism in select α-proteobacteria. Moreover, this study describes a forward validation of gene-network alignment, and illustrates a strategy for reliably transferring pathway-level annotation across bacterial species.</p

Barriers to Insulin Initiation: The Translating Research Into Action for Diabetes Insulin Starts Project

OBJECTIVE Reasons for failing to initiate prescribed insulin (primary nonadherence) are poorly understood. We investigated barriers to insulin initiation following a new prescription. RESEARCH DESIGN AND METHODS We surveyed insulin-naïve patients with poorly controlled type 2 diabetes, already treated with two or more oral agents who were recently prescribed insulin. We compared responses for respondents prescribed, but never initiating, insulin (n = 69) with those dispensed insulin (n = 100). RESULTS Subjects failing to initiate prescribed insulin commonly reported misconceptions regarding insulin risk (35% believed that insulin causes blindness, renal failure, amputations, heart attacks, strokes, or early death), plans to instead work harder on behavioral goals, sense of personal failure, low self-efficacy, injection phobia, hypoglycemia concerns, negative impact on social life and job, inadequate health literacy, health care provider inadequately explaining risks/benefits, and limited insulin self-management training. CONCLUSIONS Primary adherence for insulin may be improved through better provider communication regarding risks, shared decision making, and insulin self-management training

Diversity among Equals: Educational Opportunity and the State of Affirmative Admissions in New England

This report reviews the practice of Affirmative Admissions as a strategy for achieving diversity within New England colleges and universities. It shows how educational leaders perceive Affirmative Admissions, the nature of regional Affirmative Admissions policies, and the numbers of student affected by current enrollment strategies. This report is part of a larger series on educational access and opportunity in New England. Research was organized into five components: (1) analysis of pertinent legal issues related to postsecondary access and equity; (2) interviews with postsecondary campus and state leaders (n=104); (3) interviews with K-12 leaders and educators at state, district, and school levels (n=45); (4) a survey of 221 postsecondary education institutions in New England; and (5) econometric analyses of student data. The focus was on groups of institutions, 18 groups clustered by admissions policies and restrictions. The most compelling conclusion is that there is no significant evidence that colleges have reduced standards to admit greater numbers of minority students. By increasing educational access to a broader segment of the population, the regions higher education institutions have taken crucial steps toward assuring the vitality and vibrancy of New Englands future economy and civic life. The study also indicates that the pool of qualified minority students is much too small, highlighting the need to improve the preparation of minority students. Three appendixes contain details about survey methodology, participating institutions, and regression coefficients. Prepared by the Center for Education Policy (CEP) and Massachusetts Institute for Social and Economic Research (MISER), University of Massachusetts at Amherst. Sponsored by the Nellie Mae Education Foundation

Evaluating socio-economic and environmental sustainability of the sheep farming activity in Greece: a whole-farm mathematical programming approach

Ruminant livestock farming is an important agricultural activity, mainly located in less favoured areas. Furthermore, ruminants have been identi fi ed as a signi fi cant source of GHG emissions. In this study, a whole-farm optimization model is used to assess the socio-economic and environmental performance of the dairy sheep farming activity in Greece. The analysis is undertaken in two sheep farms that represent the extensive and the semi-intensive farming systems. Gross margin and labour are regarded as socio-economic indicators and GHG emissions as environmental indicators. The issue of the marginal abatement cost is also addressed. The results indicate that the semi-intensive system yields a higher gross margin/ewe (179 €) than the extensive system (117 €) and requires less labour. The extensive system causes higher emissions/kg of milk than the semi-intensive system (5.45 and 2.99 kg of CO2 equivalents, respectively). In both production systems, abatement is achieved primarily via reduction of the fl ock size and switch to cash crops. However, the marginal abatement cost is much higher in the case of the semi-intensive farms, due to their high productivity

Biological sources and sinks of nitrous oxide and strategies to mitigate emissions

Nitrous oxide (N 2 O) is a powerful atmospheric greenhouse gas and cause of ozone layer depletion. Global emissions continue to rise. More than two-thirds of these emissions arise from bacterial and fungal denitrification and nitrification processes in soils, largely as a result of the application of nitrogenous fertilizers. This article summarizes the outcomes of an interdisciplinary meeting, ‘Nitrous oxide (N 2 O) the forgotten greenhouse gas’, held at the Kavli Royal Society International Centre, from 23 to 24 May 2011. It provides an introduction and background to the nature of the problem, and summarizes the conclusions reached regarding the biological sources and sinks of N 2 O in oceans, soils and wastewaters, and discusses the genetic regulation and molecular details of the enzymes responsible. Techniques for providing global and local N 2 O budgets are discussed. The findings of the meeting are drawn together in a review of strategies for mitigating N 2 O emissions, under three headings, namely: (i) managing soil chemistry and microbiology, (ii) engineering crop plants to fix nitrogen, and (iii) sustainable agricultural intensification. </jats:p

Methods for Characterizing Fine Particulate Matter Using Satellite Remote-Sensing Data and Ground Observations: Potential Use for Environmental Public Health Surveillance

This study describes and demonstrates different techniques for surfacing daily environmental / hazards data of particulate matter with aerodynamic diameter less than or equal to 2.5 micrometers (PM2.5) for the purpose of integrating respiratory health and environmental data for the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC s) pilot study of Health and Environment Linked for Information Exchange (HELIX)-Atlanta. It described a methodology for estimating ground-level continuous PM2.5 concentrations using B-Spline and inverse distance weighting (IDW) surfacing techniques and leveraging National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) Moderate Resolution Imaging Spectrometer (MODIS) data to complement The Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) ground observation data. The study used measurements of ambient PM2.5 from the EPA database for the year 2003 as well as PM2.5 estimates derived from NASA s satellite data. Hazard data have been processed to derive the surrogate exposure PM2.5 estimates. The paper has shown that merging MODIS remote sensing data with surface observations of PM2.5 not only provides a more complete daily representation of PM2.5 than either data set alone would allow, but it also reduces the errors in the PM2.5 estimated surfaces. The results of this paper have shown that the daily IDW PM2.5 surfaces had smaller errors, with respect to observations, than those of the B-Spline surfaces in the year studied. However the IDW mean annual composite surface had more numerical artifacts, which could be due to the interpolating nature of the IDW that assumes that the maxima and minima can occur only at the observation points. Finally, the methods discussed in this paper improve temporal and spatial resolutions and establish a foundation for environmental public health linkage and association studies for which determining the concentrations of an environmental hazard such as PM2.5 with good accuracy levels is critical

Electronic Health Record Functionality Needed to Better Support Primary Care

Electronic health records (EHRs) must support primary care clinicians and patients, yet many clinicians remain dissatisfied with their system. This manuscript presents a consensus statement about gaps in current EHR functionality and needed enhancements to support primary care. The Institute of Medicine primary care attributes were used to define needs and Meaningful Use (MU) objectives to define EHR functionality. Current objectives remain disease- rather than whole-person focused, ignoring factors like personal risks, behaviors, family structure, and occupational and environmental influences. Primary care needs EHRs to move beyond documentation to interpreting and tracking information over time as well as patient partnering activities, support for team based care, population management tools that deliver care, and reduced documentation burden. While Stage 3 MU’s focus on outcomes is laudable, enhanced functionality is still needed including EHR modifications, expanded use of patient portals, seamless integration with external applications, and advancement of national infrastructure and policies

ASL MRI informs blood flow to chronic stroke lesions in patients with aphasia

Introduction: Response to post-stroke aphasia language rehabilitation is difficult to anticipate, mainly because few predictors can help identify optimal, individualized treatment options. Imaging techniques, such as Voxel-based Lesion Symptom Mapping have been useful in linking specific brain areas to language behavior; however, further development is required to optimize the use of structural and physiological information in guiding individualized treatment for persons with aphasia (PWA). In this study, we will determine if cerebral blood flow (CBF) mapped in patients with chronic strokes can be further used to understand stroke-related factors and behavior.Methods: We collected perfusion MRI data using pseudo-Continuous Arterial Spin Labeling (pCASL) using a single post-labeling delay of 2,200 ms in 14 chronic PWA, along with high-resolution structural MRI to compute maps of tissue damage using Tissue Integrity Gradation via T2w T1w Ratio (TIGR). To quantify the CBF in chronic stroke lesions, we tested at what point spatial smoothing should be applied in the ASL analysis pipeline. We then related CBF to tissue damage, time since stroke, age, sex, and their respective cross-terms to further understand the variability in lesion CBF. Finally, we assessed the feasibility of computing multivariate brain-behavior maps using CBF and compared them to brain-behavior maps extracted with TIGR MRI.Results: We found that the CBF in chronic stroke lesions is significantly reduced compared to its homologue grey and white matter regions. However, a reliable CBF signal (although smaller than expected) was detected to reveal a negative relationship between CBF and increasing tissue damage. Further, the relationship between the lesion CBF and age, sex, time since stroke, and tissue damage and cross-terms suggested an aging-by-disease interaction. This relationship was strongest when smoothing was applied in the template space. Finally, we show that whole-brain CBF relates to domain-general visuospatial functioning in PWA. The CBF-based brain-behavior maps provide unique and complementary information to structural (lesion-based) brain-behavior maps.Discussion: Therefore, CBF can be detected in chronic stroke lesions using a standard pCASL MRI acquisition and is informative at the whole-brain level in identifying stroke rehabilitation targets in PWAs due to its relationship with demographic factors, stroke-related factors, and behavior