Extending the PyCBC search for gravitational waves from compact binary mergers to a global network

The worldwide advanced gravitational-wave (GW) detector network has so far primarily consisted of the two Advanced LIGO observatories at Hanford and Livingston, with Advanced Virgo joining the 2016-7 O2 observation run at a relatively late stage. However Virgo has been observing alongside the LIGO detectors since the start of the O3 run; in the near future, the KAGRA detector will join the global network and a further LIGO detector in India is under construction. Gravitational-wave search methods would therefore benefit from the ability to analyse data from an arbitrary network of detectors. In this paper we extend the PyCBC offline compact binary coalescence (CBC) search analysis to three or more detectors, and describe resulting updates to the coincident search and event ranking statistic. For a three-detector network, our improved multi-detector search finds 20% more simulated signals at fixed false alarm rate in idealized colored Gaussian noise, and up to 40% more in real data, compared to the two-detector analysis previously used during O2

An Estradiol-Inducible Promoter Enables Fast, Graduated Control of Gene Expression in Fission Yeast [preprint]

The fission yeast Schizosaccharomyces pombe lacks a diverse toolkit of inducible promoters for experimental manipulation. Available inducible promoters suffer from slow induction kinetics, limited control of expression levels and/or a requirement for defined growth medium. In particular, no S. pombe inducible promoter systems exhibit a linear dose response, which would allow expression to be tuned to specific levels. We have adapted a fast, orthogonal promoter system with a large dynamic range and a linear dose response, based on β-estradiol-regulated function of the human estrogen receptor, for use in S. pombe. We show that this promoter system, termed Z3EV, turns on quickly, can reach a maximal induction of 20 fold, and exhibits a linear dose response over its entire induction range, with few off target effects. We demonstrate the utility of this system by regulating the mitotic inhibitor Wee1 to create a strain in which cell size is regulated by β-estradiol concentration. This promoter system will be of great utility for experimentally regulating gene expression in fission yeast

Comment On Legacy Nitrogen May Prevent Achievement Of Water Quality Goals In The Gulf Of Mexico

Van Meter et al. (Reports, 27 April 2018, p. 427) warn that achieving nitrogen reduction goals in the Gulf of Mexico will take decades as a result of legacy nitrogen effects. We discuss limitations of the modeling approach and demonstrate that legacy effects ranging from a few years to decades are equally consistent with observations. The presented time scales for system recovery are therefore highly uncertain

Gas Emmision Testing of Fuel Based Vehicles at Banda Aceh, Indonesia

A gas emmision decent testing of vehicles based on fuel has been done by EIA (Environmental Impact and Analysis). It is important to do the testing to determine the vehicles meet the technical requirements and road-worthy. The results showed that for 1.572 vehicles which is performing emissions testing have obtained 11% that could be potentially pollute the air on vehicles that using gasoline, and 42% on vehicles that using diesel. Based on the total number of four-wheeled vehicles that performed emissions testing in the city of Banda Aceh showed that 82% environmentally friendly vehicles and 18% potentially pollute the air

A community-based intervention to reduce antibiotic use for upper respiratory tract infections in regional South Australia

The document attached has been archived with permission from the editor of the Medical Journal of Australia. An external link to the publisher’s copy is included.Objective: To evaluate the effectiveness of a community-based and GP-based intervention in reducing unnecessary antibiotic prescribing for upper respiratory tract infections (URTIs) including sore throats, sinusitis and otitis media. Design: Analysis of pharmacy dispensing data in June to October before (2000) and after (2001) the intervention, which commenced on 25 June 2001. Setting and participants: Local consumers, health professionals, the Adelaide Southern Division of General Practice, the South Australian Government, and the local media in a rural region of South Australia, covering about 2000 square kilometres, with a population of over 20 000. Intervention: Community dissemination of consumer information on antibiotic use for URTIs (including a local media campaign) and education of health professionals (including sessions with general practitioners at the four practices in the study area) on current Australian therapeutic guidelines for antibiotics, and a validated clinical scoring system for decision making in managing sore throat. Main outcome measures: Total dispensing data from local pharmacies for the months of June to October in 2000 and 2001, covering the six antibiotics considered most likely to be used for URTIs (amoxycillin, amoxycillin/clavulanic acid, cefaclor, doxycycline, erythromycin and roxithromycin). Results: The dispensing of the six antibiotics reduced by 32% overall, from 77.1 to 52.9 defined daily doses per 1000 population per day, with statistically significant reductions in the range of 31%–70% for individual antibiotics; there was no reduction for amoxycillin with or without clavulanic acid. Conclusion: The intervention was associated with reduced dispensing of unnecessary antibiotics for URTIs.William B Dollman, Vanessa T LeBlanc, Lynette Stevens, Peter J O’Connor and John D Turnidg

Machine Learning Groups Patients by Early Functional Improvement Likelihood Based on Wearable Sensor Instrumented Preoperative Timed-Up-and-Go Tests

© 2019 The Author(s) Background: Wearable sensors permit efficient data collection and unobtrusive systems can be used for instrumenting knee patients for objective assessment. Machine learning can be leveraged to parse the abundant information these systems provide and segment patients into relevant groups without specifying group membership criteria. The objective of this study is to examine functional parameters influencing favorable recovery outcomes by separating patients into functional groups and tracking them through clinical follow-ups. Methods: Patients undergoing primary unilateral total knee arthroplasty (n = 68) completed instrumented timed-up-and-go tests preoperatively and at their 2-, 6-, and 12-week follow-up appointments. A custom wearable system extracted 55 metrics for analysis and a K-means algorithm separated patients into functionally distinguished groups based on the derived features. These groups were analyzed to determine which metrics differentiated most and how each cluster improved during early recovery. Results: Patients separated into 2 clusters (n = 46 and n = 22) with significantly different test completion times (12.6 s vs 21.6 s, P \u3c .001). Tracking the recovery of both groups to their 12-week follow-ups revealed 64% of one group improved their function while 63% of the other maintained preoperative function. The higher improvement group shortened their test times by 4.94 s, (P = .005) showing faster recovery while the other group did not improve above a minimally important clinical difference (0.87 s, P = .07). Features with the largest effect size between groups were distinguished as important functional parameters. Conclusion: This work supports using wearable sensors to instrument functional tests during clinical visits and using machine learning to parse complex patterns to reveal clinically relevant parameters

Adverse events among Ontario home care clients associated with emergency room visit or hospitalization: a retrospective cohort study

Background: Home care (HC) is a critical component of the ongoing restructuring of healthcare in Canada. It impacts three dimensions of healthcare delivery: primary healthcare, chronic disease management, and aging at home strategies. The purpose of our study is to investigate a significant safety dimension of HC, the occurrence of adverse events and their related outcomes. The study reports on the incidence of HC adverse events, the magnitude of the events, the types of events that occur, and the consequences experienced by HC clients in the province of Ontario. Methods: A retrospective cohort design was used, utilizing comprehensive secondary databases available for Ontario HC clients from the years 2008 and 2009. The data were derived from the Canadian Home Care Reporting System, the Hospital Discharge Abstract Database, the National Ambulatory Care Reporting System, the Ontario Mental Health Reporting System, and the Continuing Care Reporting System. Descriptive analysis was used to identify the type and frequency of the adverse events recorded and the consequences of the events. Logistic regression analysis was used to examine the association between the events and their consequences. Results: The study found that the incident rate for adverse events for the HC clients included in the cohort was 13%. The most frequent adverse events identified in the databases were injurious falls, injuries from other than a fall, and medication-related incidents. With respect to outcomes, we determined that an injurious fall was associated with a significant increase in the odds of a client requiring long-term-care facility admission and of client death. We further determined that three types of events, delirium, sepsis, and medication-related incidents were associated directly with an increase in the odds of client death. Conclusions: Our study concludes that 13% of clients in homecare experience an adverse event annually. We also determined that an injurious fall was the most frequent of the adverse events and was associated with increased admission to long-term care or death. We recommend the use of tools that are presently available in Canada, such as the Resident Assessment Instrument and its Clinical Assessment Protocols, for assessing and mitigating the risk of an adverse event occurring.This work was supported by the Canadian Patient Safety Institute; Canadian Institutes of Health Research (CIHR) (Institutes of Health Services and Policy Research, Aging, Circulatory and Respiratory Health and Musculoskeletal Health and Arthritis); the Change Foundation; and the Canadian Health Services Research Foundation (grant number HC-10-05 Doran-Blais

Optimal management of adults with pharyngitis – a multi-criteria decision analysis

BACKGROUND: Current practice guidelines offer different management recommendations for adults presenting with a sore throat. The key issue is the extent to which the clinical likelihood of a Group A streptococcal infection should affect patient management decisions. To help resolve this issue, we conducted a multi-criteria decision analysis using the Analytic Hierarchy Process. METHODS: We defined optimal patient management using four criteria: 1) reduce symptom duration; 2) prevent infectious complications, local and systemic; 3) minimize antibiotic side effects, minor and anaphylaxis; and 4) achieve prudent use of antibiotics, avoiding both over-use and under-use. In our baseline analysis we assumed that all criteria and sub-criteria were equally important except minimizing anaphylactic side effects, which was judged very strongly more important than minimizing minor side effects. Management strategies included: a) No test, No treatment; b) Perform a rapid strep test and treat if positive; c) Perform a throat culture and treat if positive; d) Perform a rapid strep test and treat if positive; if negative obtain a throat culture and treat if positive; and e) treat without further tests. We defined four scenarios based on the likelihood of group A streptococcal infection using the Centor score, a well-validated clinical index. Published data were used to estimate the likelihoods of clinical outcomes and the test operating characteristics of the rapid strep test and throat culture for identifying group A streptococcal infections. RESULTS: Using the baseline assumptions, no testing and no treatment is preferred for patients with Centor scores of 1; two strategies – culture and treat if positive and rapid strep with culture of negative results – are equally preferable for patients with Centor scores of 2; and rapid strep with culture of negative results is the best management strategy for patients with Centor scores 3 or 4. These results are sensitive to the priorities assigned to the decision criteria, especially avoiding over-use versus under-use of antibiotics, and the population prevalence of Group A streptococcal pharyngitis. CONCLUSION: The optimal clinical management of adults with sore throat depends on both the clinical probability of a group A streptococcal infection and clinical judgments that incorporate individual patient and practice circumstances