Distinguishing low frequency mutations from RT-PCR and sequence errors in viral deep sequencing data

There is a high prevalence of coronary artery disease (CAD) in patients with left bundle branch block (LBBB); however there are many other causes for this electrocardiographic abnormality. Non-invasive assessment of these patients remains difficult, and all commonly used modalities exhibit several drawbacks. This often leads to these patients undergoing invasive coronary angiography which may not have been necessary. In this review, we examine the uses and limitations of commonly performed non-invasive tests for diagnosis of CAD in patients with LBBB

Multidimensional Gas Chromatography—Olfactometry for the Identification and Prioritization of Malodors from Confined Animal Feeding Operations

Odor profiling efforts were directed at applying to high-density livestock operations some of the lessons learned in resolving past, highly diverse, odor-focused investigations in the consumer product industry. Solid-phase microextraction (SPME) was used for field air sampling of odorous air near and downwind of a beef cattle feedyard and a swine finisher barn in Texas. Multidimensional gas chromatography−olfactometry (MDGC-O) was utilized in an attempt to define and prioritize the basic building blocks of odor character associated with these livestock operations. Although scores of potential odorant volatiles have been previously identified in high-density livestock operations, the odor profile results developed herein suggest that only a very few of these may constitute the preponderance of the odor complaints associated with these environments. This appeared to be especially true for the case of increasing distance from both cattle feedyard and swine barn facilities, with p-cresol consistently taking on the dominant odor impact role with ever increasing distance. In contrast, at- or near-site odor profiles were shown to be much more complex, with many of the well-known lower tier odorant compounds rising in relative significance. For the cattle feedyard at- or near-site odor profiles, trimethylamine was shown to represent a significantly greater individual odor impact relative to the more often cited livestock odorants such as hydrogen sulfide, the organic sulfides, and volatile fatty acids. This study demonstrates that SPME combined with a MDGC-O−mass spectrometry system can be used for the sampling, identification, and prioritization of odors associated with livestock

Evaluation of Sample Recovery of Odorous VOCs and Semi‐VOCs From Odor Bags, Sampling Canisters, Tenax TA Sorbent Tubes, and SPME

Odor samples collected in field research are complex mixtures of hundreds if not thousands of compounds. Research is needed to know how best to sample and analyze these compounds. The main objective of this research was to compare recoveries of a standard gas mixture of 11 odorous compounds from the Carboxen∕PDMS 75 μm SPME fibers, PVF (Tedlar), FEP (Teflon), foil, and PET (Melinex) air sampling bags, sorbent Tenax TA tubes and standard 6 L Stabilizer™ sampling canisters after sample storage for 0.5, 24, and 120 (for sorbent tubes only) hrs at room temperature. The standard gas mixture consisted of 7 volatile fatty acids (VFAs) from acetic to hexanoic, and 4 semi‐VOCs including p‐cresol, indole, 4‐ethylphenol, and 2’‐aminoacetophenone with concentrations ranging from 5.1 ppb for indole to 1, 270 ppb for acetic acid. On average, SPME had the highest mean recovery for all 11 gases of 106.2%, and 98.3% for 0.5 and 24 hrs sample storage time, respectively. This was followed by the Tenax TA sorbent tubes (94.8% and 88.3%) for 24 and 120 hrs, respectively; PET bags (71.7% and 47.2%), FEP bags (75.4% and 39.4%), commercial Tedlar bags (67.6% and 22.7%), in‐house‐made Tedlar bags (47.3% and 37.4%), foil bags (16.4% and 4.3%), and canisters (4.2% and 0.5%), for 0.5 and 24 hrs, respectively. VFAs had higher recoveries than semi‐VOCs for all bags and canisters. New FEP bags and new foil bags had the lowest and the highest amounts of chemical impurities, respectively. New commercial Tedlar bags had measurable concentrations of N, N‐dimethyl acetamide and phenol. Foil bags had measurable concentrations of acetic, propionic, butyric, valeric and hexanoic acids

Evaluating Efficacy in Public Relations/Corporate Communication Programming: Towards Establishing Standards of Campaign Performance

This article suggests a generic model that includes a degree of standardization against which to compare planning and programming is the best way to establish excellence in public relations and corporate communication. The authors suggest this model can be (a) historically, to establish past campaigns; (b) used in the strategic planning process to identify problems or holes in a campaign; or (c) used as a final evaluation tool that provides evidence based in quantifiable data weighted to the particular needs of the company or client at a particular point in time. The key here is the generic value the hierarchical model gives to the profession and function—a way to evaluate excellence and provide hard evidence, data, on that evaluation

A Novel Approach to CAFO Odor Assessment: Odorant Field Collection by Sorbent Tube / Thermal Reconstitution in the Laboratory

Historically, odor emission monitoring of high density livestock operations has been limited to direct, whole-air assessment utilizing remote site sampling by plastic bags, human sensory panelists and dynamic dilution olfactometry. On-going efforts by these authors are directed at enabling the translation of these sensory ‘only’ monitoring protocols to instrument ‘primarily, with sensory oversight’ alternatives. This current work attempts to address the latter requirement for sensory oversight and the associated need for improved methods of remote site whole-air sample collection. Published works by these authors as well as others places in serious question the appropriateness of the use of plastic bags for the challenge of CAFO odor assessment; especially relative to sample points at increasing downwind distance from the source. Concerns increase due to the associated natural dilution effects relative to priority semi-volatile odorants. This current submission reports on the progress to date in the development and evaluation of alternative whole-air sampling strategies which attempt to address the primary limitation of plastic sampling bags; the adsorption loss-to-wall of high impact semi-volatile odorants such as p-cresol. In this approach the actual field air sampling is carried out utilizing sorbent tubes for on-site collection of the volatiles/odorants from a measured volume of air. These sorbent tube collections are then transported to the laboratory for reconstitution within a heat traced, passivated and piston-displaced vessel prior to composite odor assessment. The sample reconstitution process is accomplished simply by thermally desorbing the collected odorants into a flowing diluent gas stream and making up to final volume to yield a match of the originally sampled environment

A Scalable Correlator Architecture Based on Modular FPGA Hardware, Reuseable Gateware, and Data Packetization

A new generation of radio telescopes is achieving unprecedented levels of sensitivity and resolution, as well as increased agility and field-of-view, by employing high-performance digital signal processing hardware to phase and correlate large numbers of antennas. The computational demands of these imaging systems scale in proportion to BMN^2, where B is the signal bandwidth, M is the number of independent beams, and N is the number of antennas. The specifications of many new arrays lead to demands in excess of tens of PetaOps per second. To meet this challenge, we have developed a general purpose correlator architecture using standard 10-Gbit Ethernet switches to pass data between flexible hardware modules containing Field Programmable Gate Array (FPGA) chips. These chips are programmed using open-source signal processing libraries we have developed to be flexible, scalable, and chip-independent. This work reduces the time and cost of implementing a wide range of signal processing systems, with correlators foremost among them,and facilitates upgrading to new generations of processing technology. We present several correlator deployments, including a 16-antenna, 200-MHz bandwidth, 4-bit, full Stokes parameter application deployed on the Precision Array for Probing the Epoch of Reionization.Comment: Accepted to Publications of the Astronomy Society of the Pacific. 31 pages. v2: corrected typo, v3: corrected Fig. 1

The Ursinus Weekly, March 3, 1977

Ursinus news in brief: Weekly begins new feature; Constitutions approved; Honor society holds seminar; Pre-legal meets • SFARC year in review • USGA president offers comments • Ass\u27t dean interviewed • Comment: Investigation demanded; Our time to speak • Weekly special • Letters to the editor: More on food; Review reply; A non-sports fan speaks • Rumours • Beachcombers • Swimmers are 2nd, 6th; Wrestlers 8th • Handwerk resigns after Bears win first game • Macs bury Bears • Brighter football future aheadhttps://digitalcommons.ursinus.edu/weekly/1067/thumbnail.jp

Motor Programming in Apraxia of Speech and Aphasia

Apraxia of Speech (AOS) is best considered a deficit of motor programming. However, the exact nature of this deficit remains unclear. One aspect of motor programming involves assignment of temporal structure. In this case, people with AOS would demonstrate parallel deficits in limbs as found in speech. This study examined motor programming in AOS in the context of a 2-process model of motor programming, using a reaction time paradigm to investigate sequential finger movements in patients with AOS. Results revealed a motor programming deficit for finger movements, and will be discussed in relation to current models of (speech) motor control