Better winter road weather information saves money, time, lives and the environment

Weather service systems that collect, refine and distribute information to road users and to network and maintenance operators can generate significant benefits to stakeholders and society. For maintenance operators improved efficiency through timely reactions, smaller amounts of de-icing materials and better personnel utilization offer clear potential for reduced costs. In the future, better weather models will result in more accurate longer-term forecasts thus increasing the potential for benefits. New technology enables new kinds of services (e.g. decision support systems). This paper provides a structured view of the impacts of weather information services to different stakeholders

The Utility of the Prototype/Willingness Model in Predicting Alcohol Use Among North American Indigenous Adolescents

In the present study, we considered the utility of the prototype/willingness model in predicting alcohol use among North-American Indigenous adolescents. Specifically, using longitudinal data, we examined the associations among subjective drinking norms, positive drinker prototypes, drinking expectations (as a proxy of drinking willingness), and drinking behavior among a sample of Indigenous adolescents from ages 12 to 14 years. Using an autoregressive cross-lagged analysis, our results showed that subjective drinking norms and positive drinker prototypes at 12 years of age were associated with increased drinking expectations at 13 years of age, and that greater drinking expectations at 13 years of age were associated with increased drinking behavior at 14 years of age. Our results provide initial evidence that the prototype/willingness model may generalize to Indigenous adolescents, a population that has received little attention within the psychological sciences. Our results also highlight some potential ways in which existing prevention efforts aimed at reducing substance use among Indigenous adolescents may be enhanced

Inhibition of rubella virus replication by the broad-spectrum drug nitazoxanide in cell culture and in a patient with a primary immune deficiency

Persistent rubella virus (RV) infection has been associated with various pathologies such as congenital rubella syndrome, Fuchs's uveitis, and cutaneous granulomas in patients with primary immune deficiencies (PID). Currently there are no drugs to treat RV infections. Nitazoxanide (NTZ) is an FDA-approved drug for parasitic infections, and has been recently shown to have broad-spectrum antiviral activities. Here we found that empiric 2-month therapy with oral NTZ was associated in the decline/elimination of RV antigen from lesions in a PID patient with RV positive granulomas, while peginterferon treatment had no effect. In addition, we characterized the effects of NTZ on cell culture models of persistent RV infection. NTZ significantly inhibited RV replication in a primary culture of human umbilical vein endothelial cells (HUVEC) and Vero and A549 epithelial cell lines in a dose dependent manner with an average 50% inhibitory concentration of 0.35 mu g/ml (1.1 mu M). RV strains representing currently circulating genotypes were inhibited to a similar extent. NTZ affected early and late stages of infection by inhibiting synthesis of cellular and RV RNA and interfering with intracellular trafficking of the RV surface glycoproteins, E1 and E2. These results suggest a potential application of NTZ for the treatment of persistent rubella infections, but more studies are required.Peer reviewe

Empathy, engagement, entrainment: the interaction dynamics of aesthetic experience

A recent version of the view that aesthetic experience is based in empathy as inner imitation explains aesthetic experience as the automatic simulation of actions, emotions, and bodily sensations depicted in an artwork by motor neurons in the brain. Criticizing the simulation theory for committing to an erroneous concept of empathy and failing to distinguish regular from aesthetic experiences of art, I advance an alternative, dynamic approach and claim that aesthetic experience is enacted and skillful, based in the recognition of others’ experiences as distinct from one’s own. In combining insights from mainly psychology, phenomenology, and cognitive science, the dynamic approach aims to explain the emergence of aesthetic experience in terms of the reciprocal interaction between viewer and artwork. I argue that aesthetic experience emerges by participatory sense-making and revolves around movement as a means for creating meaning. While entrainment merely plays a preparatory part in this, aesthetic engagement constitutes the phenomenological side of coupling to an artwork and provides the context for exploration, and eventually for moving, seeing, and feeling with art. I submit that aesthetic experience emerges from bodily and emotional engagement with works of art via the complementary processes of the perception–action and motion–emotion loops. The former involves the embodied visual exploration of an artwork in physical space, and progressively structures and organizes visual experience by way of perceptual feedback from body movements made in response to the artwork. The latter concerns the movement qualities and shapes of implicit and explicit bodily responses to an artwork that cue emotion and thereby modulate over-all affect and attitude. The two processes cause the viewer to bodily and emotionally move with and be moved by individual works of art, and consequently to recognize another psychological orientation than her own, which explains how art can cause feelings of insight or awe and disclose aspects of life that are unfamiliar or novel to the viewer

Cluster-Impact Fusion and Effective Deuteron Temperature

Temperature and kinematic line broadening are the primary contributions to the width of the proton energy spectrum measured in cluster-impact fusion experiments. By ascertaining these two contributions, we have determined an effective temperature for the high-velocity deuteron component that is responsible for the measured fusion yield. The extracted effective temperature is substantially higher than conventional estimates., and implies that cluster-impact fusion is hot fusion on an atomic scale. The proton spectrum rules out contaminants in explaining the high yield.Comment: 11 pages, 2 figures. PACS numbers: 79.20.RF, 25.45.--z, 47.40.Nm, 52.50. L

The implementation of a nationwide anomaly screening programme improves prenatal detection of major cardiac defects : an 11-year national population-based cohort study

Objective To evaluate whether a nationwide prenatal anomaly screening programme improves detection rates of univentricular heart (UVH) and transposition of great arteries (TGA), and whether maternal risk factors for severe fetal heart disease affect prenatal detection. Design Population-based cohort study. Setting Nationwide data from Finnish registries 2004-14. Population A total of 642 456 parturients and 3449 terminated pregnancies due to severe fetal anomaly. Methods Prenatal detection rates were calculated in three time periods (prescreening, transition and screening phase). The effect of maternal risk factors (obesity, in vitro fertilisation, pregestational diabetes and smoking) was evaluated. Main outcome measures Change in detection rates and impact of maternal risk factors on screening programme efficacy. Results In total, 483 cases of UVH and 184 of TGA were detected. The prenatal detection rate of UVH increased from 50.4% to 82.8% and of TGA from 12.3% to 41.0% (P <0.0001). Maternal risk factors did not affect prenatal detection rate, but detection rate differed substantially by region. Conclusions A nationwide screening programme improved overall UVH and TGA detection rates, but regional differences were observed. Obesity or other maternal risk factors did not affect the screening programme efficacy. The establishment of structured guidelines and recommendations is essential when implementing the screening programme. In addition, a prospective screening register is highly recommended to ensure high quality of screening.Peer reviewe

Mean transport and seasonal cycle of the Kuroshio east of Taiwan with comparison to the Florida Current

Moored observations of Kuroshio current structure and transport variability were made across the channel between northeast Taiwan and the Ryukyu Islands at 24 degreesN from September 19, 1994, to May 27, 1996. This was a cooperative, effort between the United States and Taiwan. The moored array was designated PCM-1, for the World Ocean Circulation Experiment (WOCE) transport resolving array. The dominant current and transport variability occurred on 100-day timescales and is shown by Zhang et al. [2001] to be caused by warm mesoscale eddys merging with the Kuroshio south of the array causing offshore meandering and flow splitting around the Ryukyu Islands. An annual transport cycle could not be resolved from our 20-month moored record because of abasing from the 100-day period events. Sea level difference data were used to extend the transport time series to 7 years giving a variation in the range of the annual transport cycle of 4-10 Sv, with a mean range closer to 4 Sv. The seasonal maximum of 24 Sv occurred in the summer and the seasonal minimum of 20 Sv occurred in the fall. A weaker secondary maximum also occurred in the winter. The cycle of Kuroshio transport appears to result from a combination of local along-channel wind forcing and Sverdrup forcing over the Philippine Sea. Our estimate of the mean transport of the Kuroshio at the entrance to the East China Sea from the moored array is 21.5 +/- 2.5 Sv. The mean transpacific balance of meridional flows forced by winds and thermohaline processes at this latitude requires an additional mean northward flow of 12 Sv with an annual cycle of +/-8 Sv along the eastern boundary of the Ryukyu Islands. The mean transport and annual cycle of the Kuroshio were found to be in reasonable agreement with basin-scale wind-forced models. Remarkable similarities are shown to exist between the mean western boundary currents and their seasonal cycles in the Atlantic (Florida Current and Antilles Current) and Pacific (Kuroshio and boundary current east of Ryukyu Island chain) at the same latitude. However, detailed comparison shows that the mean Kuroshio is weaker and more surface intensified than the mean Florida Current, while the Kuroshio-transport variability is significantly larger

The organization of the QA gene cluster in neurospora crassa and its expression in escherichia coli : eucaryotic gene regulation, quinic acid catabolic enzymes, recombinant DNA, pBR322 plasmid

PLEASE SEE SUMMARY pg 49NORMAN H. GILES, N. K. ALTON, M. E. CASE, J. A. HAUTALA, J. W. JACOBSON, S. R., KUSHNER, V. B. PATEL, W. R. REINERT, P. STROMAN, D. VAPNEK, Program in Genetics, Departments of Zoology, Biochemistry and Microbiology, University of Georgia, Athens, Georgia

A cluster of Candida krusei infections in a haematological unit

<p>Abstract</p> <p>Background</p> <p><it>Candida krusei </it>infections are associated with high mortality. In order to explore ways to prevent these infections, we investigated potential routes for nosocomial spread and possible clonality of <it>C. krusei </it>in a haematological unit which had experienced an unusually high incidence of cases.</p> <p>Methods</p> <p>We searched for <it>C. krusei </it>contamination of the hospital environment and determined the level of colonization in patients and health care workers. We also analyzed the possible association between exposure to prophylactic antifungals or chemotherapeutic agents and occurrence of <it>C. krusei</it>. The <it>C. krusei </it>isolates found were genotyped by pulsed-field electrophoresis method in order to determine possible relatedness of the cases.</p> <p>Results</p> <p>Twelve patients with invasive <it>C. krusei </it>infection and ten patients with potentially significant infection or mucosal colonization were documented within nine months. We were unable to identify any exogenic source of infection or colonization. Genetic analysis of the isolates showed little evidence of clonal transmission of <it>C. krusei </it>strains between the patients. Instead, each patient was colonized or infected by several different closely related genotypes. No association between medications and occurrence of <it>C. krusei </it>was found.</p> <p>Conclusion</p> <p>Little evidence of nosocomial spread of a single <it>C. krusei </it>clone was found. The outbreak may have been controlled by cessation of prophylactic antifungals and by intensifying infection control measures, e.g. hand hygiene and cohorting of the patients, although no clear association with these factors was demonstrated.</p