Preliminary Archaeological Investigations of part of the San Pedro Acequia, San Antonio, Texas

In April 1979, Mr. R. W. Miller, Director of Construction Management, General Services Administration (GSA), contacted the Center for Archaeological Research, The University of Texas at San Antonio, to request archaeological investigations of GSA property located south of the Old U.S. Arsenal, between South Flores Street and South Main Avenue in downtown San Antonio. The investigations would be conducted to determine if the Spanish Colonial San Pedro Acequia (not to be confused with San Pedro Creek nearby) ran through the property as indicated on old maps; and if so, to locate it and describe its construction and condition. This information was needed so that the Acequia (ditch), if found in the area, could be avoided and protected during planned future developments. Early in June the Center was authorized to proceed with the investigations, and two archaeologists, with the aid of a backhoe, spent five days systematically testing the property. The Acequia was eventually found, but not precisely where it was indicated to be on available maps. Because time and funding allotted to do the investigations were nearly expended before a stone-lined portion of the Acequia was discovered, the tests were considered incomplete for detailed planning purposes. Therefore, this report will describe what was actually found and recommendations for continued investigations to more fully trace and record the Acequia

Integrating Land Cover Modeling and Adaptive Management to Conserve Endangered Species and Reduce Catastrophic Fire Risk

Land cover modeling is used to inform land management, but most often via a two-step process, where science informs how management alternatives can influence resources, and then, decision makers can use this information to make decisions. A more efficient process is to directly integrate science and decision-making, where science allows us to learn in order to better accomplish management objectives and is developed to address specific decisions. Co-development of management and science is especially productive when decisions are complicated by multiple objectives and impeded by uncertainty. Multiple objectives can be met by the specification of trade offs, and relevant uncertainty can be addressed through targeted science (i.e., models and monitoring). We describe how to integrate habitat and fuel monitoring with decision-making focused on the dual objectives of managing for endangered species and minimizing catastrophic fire risk. Under certain conditions, both objectives might be achieved by a similar management policy; other conditions require trade offs between objectives. Knowledge about system responses to actions can be informed by developing hypotheses based on ideas about fire behavior and then applying competing management actions to different land units in the same system state. Monitoring and management integration is important to optimize state-specific management decisions and to increase knowledge about system responses. We believe this approach has broad utility and identifies a clear role for land cover modeling programs intended to inform decision-making

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

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

Global change and conservation triage on National Wildlife Refuges

National Wildlife Refuges (NWRs) in the United States play an important role in the adaptation of social-ecological systems to climate change, land-use change, and other global-change processes. Coastal refuges are already experiencing threats from sea-level rise and other change processes that are largely beyond their ability to influence, while at the same time facing tighter budgets and reduced staff. We engaged in workshops with NWR managers along the U.S. Atlantic coast to understand the problems they face from global-change processes and began a multidisciplinary collaboration to use decision science to help address them. We are applying a values-focused approach to base management decisions on the resource objectives of land managers, as well as those of stakeholders who may benefit from the goods and services produced by a refuge. Two insights that emerged from our workshops were a conspicuous mismatch between the scale at which management can influence outcomes and the scale of environmental processes, and the need to consider objectives related to ecosystem goods and services that traditionally have not been explicitly considered by refuges (e.g., protection from storm surge). The broadening of objectives complicates the decision-making process, but also provides opportunities for collaboration with stakeholders who may have agendas different from those of the refuge, as well as an opportunity for addressing problems across scales. From a practical perspective, we recognized the need to (1) efficiently allocate limited staff time and budgets for short-term management of existing programs and resources under the current refuge design and (2) develop long-term priorities for acquiring or protecting new land/habitat to supplement or replace the existing refuge footprint and thus sustain refuge values as the system evolves over time. Structuring the decision-making problem in this manner facilitated a better understanding of the issues of scale and suggested that a long-term solution will require a significant reassessment of objectives to better reflect the comprehensive values of refuges to society. We discuss some future considerations to integrate these two problems into a single framework by developing novel optimization approaches for dynamic problems that account for uncertainty in future conditions

Patterns of sexually transmitted infections in adolescents and youth in Dar es Salaam, Tanzania

BACKGROUND: Syndromic management of STIs has been advocated as simplified and cheap approach. Youth have been reported to be at increased risk of acquiring STIs which can facilitate HIV transmission. We have investigated the relationship between the syndromic management and specific aetiology diagnosis and its relationship with HIV infection and health seeking behaviour among youth attending a reproductive health clinic in Dar es Salaam, Tanzania. METHODS: Between September 1998 and February 1999 among 1895 adolescents and youth below 25 years seen in the clinic 199 (10.5%) were randomly selected and consented to participate in the study. A standard questionnaire was administered. Blood and vaginal or urethral specimens were taken and investigated for STI causative agents. RESULTS: Among a total of 199 studied adolescents and youth 22.6 % were teenagers, with fewer females 17.8% than males; 27.5% (p < 0.018). 20.8% of the females compared to 11.5% in males were HIV infected. Genital discharge was the most common complaint which was reported in 54.1% of male and 63.4 % of female patients. All males with gonorrhoea and four out of five with Chlamydia were given appropriate treatment with syndromic management, while 28% women with gonorrhoea or Chlamydia received appropriate treatment by syndromic management. All patients found with active syphilis by serology had not complained of genital ulcers and would not have been assigned to syndromic treatment for syphilis at the initial visit. CONCLUSION: The burden of STIs in this youth population is large indicating that youth are at increased risk of STIs and will certainly require youth friendly clinics. There is a need to refine the current syndromic management guidelines

Investigation of gene-by-sex interactions for lipid traits in diverse populations from the population architecture using genomics and epidemiology study

Abstract Background High-density lipoprotein cholesterol (HDL-C), low-density lipoprotein cholesterol (LDL-C), and triglyceride (TG) levels are influenced by both genes and the environment. Genome-wide association studies (GWAS) have identified ~100 common genetic variants associated with HDL-C, LDL-C, and/or TG levels, mostly in populations of European descent, but little is known about the modifiers of these associations. Here, we investigated whether GWAS-identified SNPs for lipid traits exhibited heterogeneity by sex in the Population Architecture using Genomics and Epidemiology (PAGE) study. Results A sex-stratified meta-analysis was performed for 49 GWAS-identified SNPs for fasting HDL-C, LDL-C, and ln(TG) levels among adults self-identified as European American (25,013). Heterogeneity by sex was established when phet < 0.001. There was evidence for heterogeneity by sex for two SNPs for ln(TG) in the APOA1/C3/A4/A5/BUD13 gene cluster: rs28927680 (phet = 7.4x10-7) and rs3135506 (phet = 4.3x10-4), one SNP in PLTP for HDL levels (rs7679; phet = 9.9x10-4), and one in HMGCR for LDL levels (rs12654264; phet = 3.1x10-5). We replicated heterogeneity by sex in five of seventeen loci previously reported by genome-wide studies (binomial p = 0.0009). We also present results for other racial/ethnic groups in the supplementary materials, to provide a resource for future meta-analyses. Conclusions We provide further evidence for sex-specific effects of SNPs in the APOA1/C3/A4/A5/BUD13 gene cluster, PLTP, and HMGCR on fasting triglyceride levels in European Americans from the PAGE study. Our findings emphasize the need for considering context-specific effects when interpreting genetic associations emerging from GWAS, and also highlight the difficulties in replicating interaction effects across studies and across racial/ethnic groups

Abstracts from the NIHR INVOLVE Conference 2017

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Trans-Ethnic Fine-Mapping of Lipid Loci Identifies Population-Specific Signals and Allelic Heterogeneity That Increases the Trait Variance Explained

Genome-wide association studies (GWAS) have identified ∼100 loci associated with blood lipid levels, but much of the trait heritability remains unexplained, and at most loci the identities of the trait-influencing variants remain unknown. We conducted a trans-ethnic fine-mapping study at 18, 22, and 18 GWAS loci on the Metabochip for their association with triglycerides (TG), high-density lipoprotein cholesterol (HDL-C), and low-density lipoprotein cholesterol (LDL-C), respectively, in individuals of African American (n = 6,832), East Asian (n = 9,449), and European (n = 10,829) ancestry. We aimed to identify the variants with strongest association at each locus, identify additional and population-specific signals, refine association signals, and assess the relative significance of previously described functional variants. Among the 58 loci, 33 exhibited evidence of association at P<1×10−4 in at least one ancestry group. Sequential conditional analyses revealed that ten, nine, and four loci in African Americans, Europeans, and East Asians, respectively, exhibited two or more signals. At these loci, accounting for all signals led to a 1.3- to 1.8-fold increase in the explained phenotypic variance compared to the strongest signals. Distinct signals across ancestry groups were identified at PCSK9 and APOA5. Trans-ethnic analyses narrowed the signals to smaller sets of variants at GCKR, PPP1R3B, ABO, LCAT, and ABCA1. Of 27 variants reported previously to have functional effects, 74% exhibited the strongest association at the respective signal. In conclusion, trans-ethnic high-density genotyping and analysis confirm the presence of allelic heterogeneity, allow the identification of population-specific variants, and limit the number of candidate SNPs for functional studies

The Changing Landscape for Stroke\ua0Prevention in AF: Findings From the GLORIA-AF Registry Phase 2

Background GLORIA-AF (Global Registry on Long-Term Oral Antithrombotic Treatment in Patients with Atrial Fibrillation) is a prospective, global registry program describing antithrombotic treatment patterns in patients with newly diagnosed nonvalvular atrial fibrillation at risk of stroke. Phase 2 began when dabigatran, the first non\u2013vitamin K antagonist oral anticoagulant (NOAC), became available. Objectives This study sought to describe phase 2 baseline data and compare these with the pre-NOAC era collected during phase&nbsp;1. Methods During phase 2, 15,641 consenting patients were enrolled (November 2011 to December 2014); 15,092 were eligible. This pre-specified cross-sectional analysis describes eligible patients\u2019 baseline characteristics. Atrial fibrillation&nbsp;disease characteristics, medical outcomes, and concomitant diseases and medications were collected. Data were analyzed using descriptive statistics. Results Of the total patients, 45.5% were female; median age was 71 (interquartile range: 64, 78) years. Patients were from Europe (47.1%), North America (22.5%), Asia (20.3%), Latin America (6.0%), and the Middle East/Africa (4.0%). Most had high stroke risk (CHA2DS2-VASc [Congestive heart failure, Hypertension, Age&nbsp; 6575 years, Diabetes mellitus, previous Stroke, Vascular disease, Age 65 to 74 years, Sex category] score&nbsp; 652; 86.1%); 13.9% had moderate risk (CHA2DS2-VASc&nbsp;= 1). Overall, 79.9% received oral anticoagulants, of whom 47.6% received NOAC and 32.3% vitamin K antagonists (VKA); 12.1% received antiplatelet agents; 7.8% received no antithrombotic treatment. For comparison, the proportion of phase 1 patients (of N&nbsp;= 1,063 all eligible) prescribed VKA was 32.8%, acetylsalicylic acid 41.7%, and no therapy 20.2%. In Europe in phase 2, treatment with NOAC was more common than VKA (52.3% and 37.8%, respectively); 6.0% of patients received antiplatelet treatment; and 3.8% received no antithrombotic treatment. In North America, 52.1%, 26.2%, and 14.0% of patients received NOAC, VKA, and antiplatelet drugs, respectively; 7.5% received no antithrombotic treatment. NOAC use was less common in Asia (27.7%), where 27.5% of patients received VKA, 25.0% antiplatelet drugs, and 19.8% no antithrombotic treatment. Conclusions The baseline data from GLORIA-AF phase 2 demonstrate that in newly diagnosed nonvalvular atrial fibrillation patients, NOAC have been highly adopted into practice, becoming more frequently prescribed than VKA in&nbsp;Europe and North America. Worldwide, however, a large proportion of patients remain undertreated, particularly in&nbsp;Asia&nbsp;and North America. (Global Registry on Long-Term Oral Antithrombotic Treatment in Patients With Atrial Fibrillation [GLORIA-AF]; NCT01468701