Technical vs. Liberal Education

Tom: (throwing book he has been studying across the room) God, I\u27m sick of this T. and A.M.

Our Teaching At Iowa State

THE controversial article on teaching at Iowa State in the winter quarter Sketch caused a great amount of comment over the campus. The present editors have chosen to accept this comment as a challenge for another article, based on the comment itself and on further inquiry..

The Iowa Homemaker vol.32, no.1

See Europe on Your Own Two Wheels, Mary Odegard, page 5 Let’s Face It, Ruth Frantz, page 6 Textile Originals from a Barn, Virginia Wilcox, page 7 Rats Diet Too, Robin Coon, page 8 In Africa, Kathryn Bain, page 9 Betsy Harris of the Hot Shoppes, Marcia Holt, page 10 Your Hair’s in the Headlines, Salli Hearst, page 11 What’s New, Evelyn Toulouse and Dorothy Will, page 12 Information Please, Susan Brown and Mary Doherty, page 15 Double Dip Bargain, Patricia Stiff, page 16 Trends, Ruth Anderson, page 1

Risk Factors for Malaria Infection and Seropositivity in the Elimination Area of Grand'Anse, Haiti: A Case-Control Study among Febrile Individuals Seeking Treatment at Public Health Facilities.

The island of Hispaniola aims to eliminate malaria by 2025; however, there are limited data to describe epidemiologic risk factors for malaria in this setting. A prospective case-control study was conducted at four health facilities in southwest Haiti, aiming to describe factors influencing the risk of current and past malaria infection. Cases were defined as individuals attending facilities with current or recent fever and positive malaria rapid diagnostic test (RDT), while controls were those with current or recent fever and RDT negative. Serological markers of recent and cumulative exposure to Plasmodium were assessed using the multiplex bead assay from dried blood spots and used for alternate case definitions. Kuldorff's spatial scan statistic was used to identify local clusters of infection or exposure. Logistic regression models were used to assess potential risk factors for RDT positivity and recent exposure markers, including age-group, gender, and recruiting health facility as group-matching variables. A total of 192 cases (RDT positive) and 915 controls (RDT negative) were recruited. Consistent spatial clusters were identified for all three infection and exposure metrics, indicating temporal stability of malaria transmission at these sites. Risk factors included remoteness from health facilities and household construction, furthermore, insecticide-treated net ownership or use was associated with reduced odds of RDT positivity. These findings indicate the malaria risk in Grand'Anse is driven primarily by location. Travel, occupation, and other behavioral factors were not associated with malaria. These data can support the National Malaria Program to refine and target their intervention approaches, and to move toward elimination

The Immediate Effects of a Combined Mass Drug Administration and Indoor Residual Spraying Campaign to Accelerate Progress Toward Malaria Elimination in Grande-Anse, Haiti.

BACKGROUND: Haiti is planning targeted interventions to accelerate progress toward malaria elimination. In the most affected department (Grande-Anse), a combined mass drug administration (MDA) and indoor residual spraying (IRS) campaign was launched in October 2018. This study assessed the intervention's effectiveness in reducing Plasmodium falciparum prevalence. METHODS: An ecological quasi-experimental study was designed, using a pretest and posttest with a nonrandomized control group. Surveys were conducted in November 2017 in a panel of easy access groups (25 schools and 16 clinics) and were repeated 2-6 weeks after the campaign, in November 2018. Single-dose sulfadoxine-pyrimethamine and primaquine was used for MDA, and pirimiphos-methyl as insecticide for IRS. RESULTS: A total of 10 006 participants were recruited. Fifty-two percent of the population in the intervention area reported having received MDA. Prevalence diminished between 2017 and 2018 in both areas, but the reduction was significantly larger in the intervention area (ratio of adjusted risk ratios, 0.32 [95% confidence interval, .104-.998]). CONCLUSIONS: Despite a moderate coverage, the campaign was effective in reducing P. falciparum prevalence immediately after 1 round. Targeted MDA plus IRS is useful in preelimination settings to rapidly decrease the parasite reservoir, an encouraging step to accelerate progress toward malaria elimination

Conventional and High-Sensitivity Malaria Rapid Diagnostic Test Performance in 2 Transmission Settings: Haiti 2017.

Accurate malaria diagnosis is foundational for control and elimination, and Haiti relies on histidine-rich protein 2 (HRP2)-based rapid diagnostic tests (RDTs) identifying Plasmodium falciparum in clinical and community settings. In 2017, 1 household and 2 easy-access group surveys tested all participants (N = 32 506) by conventional and high-sensitivity RDTs. A subset of blood samples (n = 1154) was laboratory tested for HRP2 by bead-based immunoassay and for P. falciparum 18S rDNA by photo-induced electron transfer polymerase chain reaction. Both RDT types detected low concentrations of HRP2 with sensitivity estimates between 2.6 ng/mL and 14.6 ng/mL. Compared to the predicate HRP2 laboratory assay, RDT sensitivity ranged from 86.3% to 96.0% between tests and settings, and specificity from 90.0% to 99.6%. In the household survey, the high-sensitivity RDT provided a significantly higher number of positive tests, but this represented a very small proportion (<0.2%) of all participants. These data show that a high-sensitivity RDT may have limited utility in a malaria elimination setting like Haiti

Grey wolf genomic history reveals a dual ancestry of dogs

The grey wolf (Canis lupus) was the first species to give rise to a domestic population, and they remained widespread throughout the last Ice Age when many other large mammal species went extinct. Little is known, however, about the history and possible extinction of past wolf populations or when and where the wolf progenitors of the present-day dog lineage (Canisfamiliaris) lived(1-8). Here we analysed 72 ancient wolf genomes spanning the last 100,000 years from Europe, Siberia and North America. We found that wolf populations were highly connected throughout the Late Pleistocene, with levels of differentiation an order of magnitude lower than they are today. This population connectivity allowed us to detect natural selection across the time series, including rapid fixation of mutations in the gene IFT8840,000-30,000 years ago. We show that dogs are overall more closely related to ancient wolves from eastern Eurasia than to those from western Eurasia, suggesting a domestication process in the east. However, we also found that dogs in the Near East and Africa derive up to half of their ancestry from a distinct population related to modern southwest Eurasian wolves, reflecting either an independent domestication process or admixture from local wolves. None of the analysed ancient wolf genomes is a direct match for either of these dog ancestries, meaning that the exact progenitor populations remain to be located.Peer reviewe

Acceptability, Feasibility, Drug Safety, and Effectiveness of a Pilot Mass Drug Administration with a Single Round of Sulfadoxine-Pyrimethamine Plus Primaquine and Indoor Residual Spraying in Communities with Malaria Transmission in Haiti, 2018.

For a malaria elimination strategy, Haiti's National Malaria Control Program piloted a mass drug administration (MDA) with indoor residual spraying (IRS) in 12 high-transmission areas across five communes after implementing community case management and strengthened surveillance. The MDA distributed sulfadoxine-pyrimethamine and single low-dose primaquine to eligible residents during house visits. The IRS campaign applied pirimiphos-methyl insecticide on walls of eligible houses. Pre- and post-campaign cross-sectional surveys were conducted to assess acceptability, feasibility, drug safety, and effectiveness of the combined interventions. Stated acceptability for MDA before the campaign was 99.2%; MDA coverage estimated at 10 weeks post-campaign was 89.6%. Similarly, stated acceptability of IRS at baseline was 99.9%; however, household IRS coverage was 48.9% because of the high number of ineligible houses. Effectiveness measured by Plasmodium falciparum prevalence at baseline and 10 weeks post-campaign were similar: 1.31% versus 1.43%, respectively. Prevalence of serological markers were similar at 10 weeks post-campaign compared with baseline, and increased at 6 months. No severe adverse events associated with the MDA were identified in the pilot; there were severe adverse events in a separate, subsequent campaign. Both MDA and IRS are acceptable and feasible interventions in Haiti. Although a significant impact of a single round of MDA/IRS on malaria transmission was not found using a standard pre- and post-intervention comparison, it is possible there was blunting of the peak transmission. Seasonal malaria transmission patterns, suboptimal IRS coverage, and low baseline parasitemia may have limited the effectiveness or the ability to measure effectiveness