Evaluation of copper-contaminated marginal land for the cultivation of vetiver grass (Chrysopogon zizanioides) as a lignocellulosic feedstock and its impact on downstream bioethanol production

Metal-contaminated soil could be sustainably used for biofuel feedstock production if the harvested biomass is amenable to bioethanol production. A 60-day greenhouse experiment was performed to evaluate (1) the potential of vetiver grass to phytostabilize soil contaminated with copper (Cu), and (2) the impact of Cu exposure on its lignocellulosic composition and downstream bioethanol production. Dilute acid pretreatment, enzymatic hydrolysis, and fermentation parameters were optimized sequentially for vetiver grass using response surface methodology (RSM). Results indicate that the lignocellulosic composition of vetiver grown on Cu-rich soil was favorably altered with a significant decrease in lignin and increase in hemicellulose and cellulose content. Hydrolysates produced from Cu exposed biomass achieved a significantly greater ethanol yield and volumetric productivity compared to those of the control biomass. Upon pretreatment, the hemicellulosic hydrolysate showed an increase in total sugars per liter by 204.7% of the predicted yield. After fermentation, 110% of the predicted ethanol yield was obtained for the vetiver grown on Cu-contaminated soil. By contrast, for vetiver grown on uncontaminated soil a 62.3% of theoretical ethanol yield was achieved, indicating that vetiver has the potential to serve the dual purpose of phytoremediation and biofuel feedstock generation on contaminated sites

A New Imaginary Term in the 2nd Order Nonlinear Susceptibility from Charged Interfaces

Non-resonant second harmonic generation phase and amplitude measurements obtained from the silica:water interface at varying pH and 0.5 M ionic strength point to the existence of a nonlinear susceptibility term, which we call chi(3)X, that is associated with a 90 deg phase shift. Including this contribution in a model for the total effective second-order nonlinear susceptibility produces reasonable point estimates for interfacial potentials and second-order nonlinear susceptibilities when chi(3)Xis about 1.5 times chi(3)water. A model without this term and containing only traditional chi(2) and chi(3) terms cannot recapitulate the experimental data. The new model also provides a demonstrated utility for distinguishing apparent differences in the second-order nonlinear susceptibility when the electrolyte is NaCl vs MgSO₄, pointing to the possibility of using HD-SHG to investigate ion-specificity in interfacial processes

Specificity of Clinical Breast Examination in Community Practice

BACKGROUND: Millions of women receive clinical breast examination (CBE) each year, as either a breast cancer screening test or a diagnostic test for breast symptoms. While screening CBE had moderately high specificity (∼94%) in clinical trials, community clinicians may be comparatively inexperienced and may conduct relatively brief examinations, resulting in even higher specificity but lower sensitivity. OBJECTIVE: To estimate the specificity of screening and diagnostic CBE in clinical practice and identify patient factors associated with specificity. DESIGN: Retrospective cohort study. SUBJECTS: Breast-cancer-free female health plan enrollees in 5 states (WA, OR, CA, MA, and MN) who received CBE (N = 1,484). MEASUREMENTS: Medical charts were abstracted to ascertain breast cancer risk factors, examination purpose (screening vs diagnostic), and results (true-negative vs false-positive). Women were considered “average-risk” if they had neither a family history of breast cancer nor a prior breast biopsy and “increased-risk” otherwise. RESULTS: Among average- and increased-risk women, respectively, the specificity (true-negative proportion) of screening CBE was 99.4% [95% confidence interval (CI): 98.8–99.7%] and 97.1% (95% CI: 95.7–98.0%), and the specificity of diagnostic CBE was 68.7% (95% CI: 59.7–76.5%) and 57.1% (95% CI: 51.1–63.0%). The odds of a true-negative screening CBE (specificity) were significantly lower among women at increased risk of breast cancer (adjusted odds ratio 0.21; 95% CI: 0.10–0.46). CONCLUSIONS: Screening CBE likely has higher specificity among community clinicians compared to examiners in clinical trials of breast cancer screening, even among women at increased breast cancer risk. Highly specific examinations, however, may have relatively low sensitivity for breast cancer. Diagnostic CBE, meanwhile, is relatively nonspecific

Fourth Workshop on Sustainable Software for Science: Practice and Experiences (WSSSPE4)

This report records and discusses the Fourth Workshop on Sustainable Software for Science: Practice and Experiences (WSSSPE4). The report includes a description of the keynote presentation of the workshop, the mission and vision statements that were drafted at the workshop and finalized shortly after it, a set of idea papers, position papers, experience papers, demos, and lightning talks, and a panel discussion. The main part of the report covers the set of working groups that formed during the meeting, and for each, discusses the participants, the objective and goal, and how the objective can be reached, along with contact information for readers who may want to join the group. Finally, we present results from a survey of the workshop attendees

The Lantern, 2014-2015

• The Retreat • Part of Eve\u27s Discussion • Buchanan • Hypotheticals • The Baby Hippo • Sertraline and Cheerios • Margins • Anatomy of Me • Orange • Ode to Mathematics • Garden Path • Periphery • 10n Power=Our Maybe Domains • Hillside • Baltimore//Analogues • Work is a Religion • At the Bridal Shower • November • Revisionist History • Cold Front • Lung (for D. Avitabile) • Tether • Hold Still • Reverb • An Almost English Major and His Daughter • Clocks • In the Kitchen on a Sunday Afternoon • Amy • Nine • Customary Thoughts • Showers • Te Encuentro • I Find You • Literary Analysis • The Diamond on My Face • Catherine • Hunsberger Woods, 11:42 on a School Night • Cabbage • After Class • For Chell • To Whom It May Concern • Contra • Shards • Smoke and Roses • Polaroid • Spring\u27s Debut • The Deadline • A Previous Life • Wet Canvas • Obsessions and Compulsions • For Xandra • The Seagulls of 17th Street • No Man\u27s Land • Summer Flowers • Float • Dana Reads • A Barcelona Moment • Business Meeting • Posted • Champagnehttps://digitalcommons.ursinus.edu/lantern/1181/thumbnail.jp

A statistical approach to estimating the strength of cell-cell interactions under the differential adhesion hypothesis

International audienceBACKGROUND: The Differential Adhesion Hypothesis (DAH) is a theory of the organization of cells within a tissue which has been validated by several biological experiments and tested against several alternative computational models. RESULTS: In this study, a statistical approach was developed for the estimation of the strength of adhesion, incorporating earlier discrete lattice models into a continuous marked point process framework. This framework allows to describe an ergodic Markov Chain Monte Carlo algorithm that can simulate the model and reproduce empirical biological patterns. The estimation procedure, based on a pseudo-likelihood approximation, is validated with simulations, and a brief application to medulloblastoma stained by beta-catenin markers is given. CONCLUSION: Our model includes the strength of cell-cell adhesion as a statistical parameter. The estimation procedure for this parameter is consistent with experimental data and would be useful for high-throughput cancer studies

Health and Human Rights Education in U.S. Schools of Medicine and Public Health: Current Status and Future Challenges

BACKGROUND: Despite increasing recognition of the importance of human rights in the protection and promotion of health, formal human rights education has been lacking in schools of medicine and public health. Our objectives were: 1) to determine the nature and extent of health and human rights (HHR) education among schools of medicine (SOMs) and public health (SPHs); 2) to identify perceived barriers to implementing HHR curricula; 3) to learn about deans' interests and attitudes toward HHR education, and; 4) to identify factors associated with offering HHR education. METHODS AND PRINCIPAL FINDINGS: We conducted a cross-sectional survey among deans of all accredited allopathic SOMs and SPHs in the United States and Puerto Rico. Seventy-one percent of U.S. SOMs and SPHs responded. Thirty-seven percent of respondents indicated that their schools offered some form of HHR education. Main barriers to offering HHR education included competition for time, lack of qualified instructors and lack of funding. Among schools not offering HHR education, 35% of deans were interested in offering HHR education. Seventy-six percent of all deans believed that it was very important or important to offer HHR education. Multiple regression analysis revealed that deans' attitudes were the most important factor associated with offering any HHR education. CONCLUSION: Findings indicate that though a majority of deans of SOMs and SPHs believe that knowledge about human rights is important in health practice and support the inclusion of HHR studies in their schools, HHR education is lacking at most of their institutions. These results and the growing recognition of the critical interdependence between health and human rights indicate a need for SOMs and SPHs to work towards formal inclusion of HHR studies in their curricula, and that HHR competency requirements be considered to overcome barriers to its inclusion

The Lantern, 2015-2016

• Ghosts • Going to China • 98% Guaranteed • Constellation/Boulevard • Prayer • The Little One • Burning • The Amber Macaroon • Becoming • Requiem • Construction Site • Thirteen Ways of Looking at a Dragon • Charlie • No Sleep • A Lesson in Physical Education • Statues • Who Can Love a Black Woman? • Apples • Fun Craft • The Door at Midnight • Eve as a Book in the Bible • Boys • Diamond Heart • To Apollo • Joanne and Her July Garden • Option A, 1936 • Young White Girls, Hollow Bodies, and Home • Mama\u27s Stance on Sugar • The Mariana Trench • Hurricane • Part of the Job • Avenue H Blues • Hour of Nones • Send Toilet Paper • Grave Robbing • Wild Turkey • The Creek • Let\u27s Go for a Walk • Deaconess • Border of Love • Your Father, Rumpelstiltskin • Purchasing Poplars • Red Tatters • Sunken • Whispers • Existence • God Took a Cigarette Break with Police Officers • Martian Standoff • In the Headlights • It\u27s a Subtle Thing • Dear Kent • Hanako-san • A Brief Interlude • On Fencing, Gummy Worms, and my Inescapable Fear of Living in the Moment • Stolen Soul • Block • Mortem Mei Fratris • Kalki • Lake Placid • Atom and Eve • The Baerie Queene • Gladston • Soldiers at Gettysburg • Pattern • Foliage • Mass Media • Arrow • Move Out • Wanderers • Riverside Gardenhttps://digitalcommons.ursinus.edu/lantern/1182/thumbnail.jp