The Mill River Greenway Initiative: Community-Based, Long-Term Greenway Planning and Design In Williamsburg and Northampton, Massachusetts

Puritans first settled Northampton, Massachusetts in the mid-17th century with a vision in mind – that of a well-ordered community in which the Mill River would play an integral part in their lives. So long as the community hewed to the right path, the river would accommodate the community’s needs. Primary among those needs was waterpower, so the anchor sites for development along the river were the falls. Over the next 200 years, as the Puritan mind metamorphosed into an American industrial mentality, the Mill River’s residents created an industrial necklace with mills and factories decorating a ribbon of water. By the mid-19th century, more than 70 mills and factories were established along 15 miles of river from Northampton’s Lower Mills up to Devil’s Den near the headwaters of the river in Goshen. By the mid-20th century, with the Mill River Valley’s industrial base in rapid decline, the necklace deteriorated into a sad scattering of empty factory buildings with little connection to one another. The vision perished and the river escaped the minds of most residents, especially in Northampton where the Corps of Engineers relocated its flow away from the town center. Industry along the river is all but gone. Relic industrial sites now dot the Mill River’s banks, separated by flat stretches of the river that were never appealing for water-powered manufacturing. Though more prone to flooding, many of those stretches have been developed as recreational destinations. The Daughters of the American Revolution (D.A.R.) State Forest in Goshen and Look Park in Florence are just such places, but substantial inaccessible gaps remain between the old factory sites. The factories turned their backs to the river, severing any remaining connection to residents and visitors. There cannot be a true, continuous greenway if these key spots are not renewed and connected. The industrial sites themselves, called “anchor sites,” can serve as gateways and destination points along one continuous greenway, providing access to the stretches of river between them. A few anchor sites have been resuscitated or renovated, such as Meekins Library in Williamsburg Center and old mill buildings in Florence. People are returning, but the ways in which people and these sites relate to the river need to be addressed so that people can come back and reconnect to the river at historically and geographically significant locations. The Mill River Greenway Initiative is the story of a renewed vision, which, like the original, is being pieced together by individuals and small groups -- the creation of a new kind of necklace composed of those same sites at falls and bridges, which, when linked, will provide fulfillment for walkers, naturalists, and anglers, history buffs, artists, and tourists. The river will, once again, play an integral role in the lives of residents

Association of dens in dente with shovel-shaped tooth and conical tooth in anterior teeth

Objetivo: Determinar la asociación del dens in dente con el diente en pala y el diente cónico en piezas anteriores. Material y Métodos: La muestra incluyó radiografías panorámicas y periapicales digitales de 564 pacientes de 7 a 14 años y 11 meses en la Clínica Docente UPC. Se consideró dens in dente a la pieza dentaria que presentó una estructura en forma de cinta radiopaca de igual densidad que el esmalte que se extendía desde el cíngulo hacia el canal radicular. El diente en pala fue registrado al observarse una opacidad del esmalte en los bordes de la cresta marginal. Las piezas dentarias en las que se halló una reducción en el ancho mesiodistal de la corona en dirección gingivoincisal fueron registradas como diente cónico. Los incisivos del maxilar superior fueron evaluados mediante radiografías periapicales para determinar el tipo de dens in dente según la clasificación de Oehlers. Resultados: La prevalencia de dens in dente fue de 19.5%, la del diente en pala fue de 78.19% y la del diente cónico fue de 7.2%. La prevalencia bilateral del dens in dente fue de 47.28%. El género femenino presentó mayor prevalencia de esta alteración (11.2%) que el género masculino (8.3%). El tipo I de la clasificación de Oehlers fue el más común con un 69.34%. Los incisivos laterales fueron los más afectados por el dens in dente (6.9%), seguido por los incisivos centrales (0.4%). Conclusión: Existe asociación entre dens in dente y diente cónic

The Intriguing Effects of Substituents in the N-Phenethyl Moiety of Norhydromorphone: A Bifunctional Opioid from a Set of “Tail Wags Dog” Experiments

This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License.(−)-N-Phenethyl analogs of optically pure N-norhydromorphone were synthesized and pharmacologically evaluated in several in vitro assays (opioid receptor binding, stimulation of [35S]GTPγS binding, forskolin-induced cAMP accumulation assay, and MOR-mediated β-arrestin recruitment assays). “Body” and “tail” interactions with opioid receptors (a subset of Portoghese’s message-address theory) were used for molecular modeling and simulations, where the “address” can be considered the “body” of the hydromorphone molecule and the “message” delivered by the substituent (tail) on the aromatic ring of the N-phenethyl moiety. One compound, N-p-chloro-phenethynorhydromorphone ((7aR,12bS)-3-(4-chlorophenethyl)-9-hydroxy-2,3,4,4a,5,6-hexahydro-1H-4,12-methanobenzofuro[3,2-e]isoquinolin-7(7aH)-one, 2i), was found to have nanomolar binding affinity at MOR and DOR. It was a potent partial agonist at MOR and a full potent agonist at DOR with a δ/μ potency ratio of 1.2 in the ([35S]GTPγS) assay. Bifunctional opioids that interact with MOR and DOR, the latter as agonists or antagonists, have been reported to have fewer side-effects than MOR agonists. The p-chlorophenethyl compound 2i was evaluated for its effect on respiration in both mice and squirrel monkeys. Compound 2i did not depress respiration (using normal air) in mice or squirrel monkeys. However, under conditions of hypercapnia (using air mixed with 5% CO2), respiration was depressed in squirrel monkeys.NIDA grant P30 DA13429NIDA grant DA039997NIDA grant DA018151NIDA grant DA035857NIDA grant DA047574NIH Intramural Research Programs of the National Institute on Drug AbuseNational Institute of Alcohol Abuse and AlcoholismNIH Intramural Research Programs of the National Institute on Drug AbuseNIH Intramural Research Program through the Center for Information TechnologyNIH Intramural Research Programs of the National Institute on Drug Abus

New genetic loci link adipose and insulin biology to body fat distribution.

Body fat distribution is a heritable trait and a well-established predictor of adverse metabolic outcomes, independent of overall adiposity. To increase our understanding of the genetic basis of body fat distribution and its molecular links to cardiometabolic traits, here we conduct genome-wide association meta-analyses of traits related to waist and hip circumferences in up to 224,459 individuals. We identify 49 loci (33 new) associated with waist-to-hip ratio adjusted for body mass index (BMI), and an additional 19 loci newly associated with related waist and hip circumference measures (P < 5 × 10(-8)). In total, 20 of the 49 waist-to-hip ratio adjusted for BMI loci show significant sexual dimorphism, 19 of which display a stronger effect in women. The identified loci were enriched for genes expressed in adipose tissue and for putative regulatory elements in adipocytes. Pathway analyses implicated adipogenesis, angiogenesis, transcriptional regulation and insulin resistance as processes affecting fat distribution, providing insight into potential pathophysiological mechanisms

The developing premature infant gut microbiome is a major factor shaping the microbiome of neonatal intensive care unit rooms

Abstract Background The neonatal intensive care unit (NICU) contains a unique cohort of patients with underdeveloped immune systems and nascent microbiome communities. Patients often spend several months in the same room, and it has been previously shown that the gut microbiomes of these infants often resemble the microbes found in the NICU. Little is known, however, about the identity, persistence, and absolute abundance of NICU room-associated bacteria over long stretches of time. Here, we couple droplet digital PCR (ddPCR), 16S rRNA gene surveys, and recently published metagenomics data from infant gut samples to infer the extent to which the NICU microbiome is shaped by its room occupants. Results Over 2832 swabs, wipes, and air samples were collected from 16 private-style NICU rooms housing very low birth weight (< 1500 g), premature (< 31 weeks’ gestation) infants. For each infant, room samples were collected daily, Monday through Friday, for 1 month. The first samples from the first infant and the last samples from the last infant were collected 383 days apart. Twenty-two NICU locations spanning room surfaces, hands, electronics, sink basins, and air were collected. Results point to an incredibly simple room community where 5–10 taxa, mostly skin-associated, account for over 50% of the amplicon reads. Biomass estimates reveal four to five orders of magnitude difference between the least to the most dense microbial communities, air, and sink basins, respectively. Biomass trends from bioaerosol samples and petri dish dust collectors suggest occupancy to be a main driver of suspended biological particles within the NICU. Using a machine learning algorithm to classify the origin of room samples, we show that each room has a unique microbial fingerprint. Several important taxa driving this model were dominant gut colonizers of infants housed within each room. Conclusions Despite regular cleaning of hospital surfaces, bacterial biomass was detectable at varying densities. A room-specific microbiome signature was detected, suggesting microbes seeding NICU surfaces are sourced from reservoirs within the room and that these reservoirs contain actively dividing cells. Collectively, the data suggests that hospitalized infants, in combination with their caregivers, shape the microbiome of NICU rooms

Additional file 1: of The developing premature infant gut microbiome is a major factor shaping the microbiome of neonatal intensive care unit rooms

Biological and technical variation across ddPCR replicates. 16S rRNA gene template copy number was quantified via ddPCR for three petri dish dust collectors suspended from the drop ceiling in each infant’s room. Each dot reflects the average across triplicate runs. Each infant set is labeled at the top of the plot facets. (PNG 152 kb

Additional file 3: of The developing premature infant gut microbiome is a major factor shaping the microbiome of neonatal intensive care unit rooms

SourceTracker reveals human skin is dominant source of NICU microbes. American gut skin, oral, and fecal samples were used as “sources,” and NICU room samples were used as “sinks” and input into the SourceTracker software. Plotted on the y-axis is the mean relative contribution of each human-associated source to each environmental sample. (PDF 7 kb

Additional file 4: of The developing premature infant gut microbiome is a major factor shaping the microbiome of neonatal intensive care unit rooms

Alpha diversity in a NICU. 16S rRNA gene amplicon data was used to calculate number of OTUs per environment (a–c) and the Shannon diversity (d–f). (PDF 10 kb

Additional file 5: of The developing premature infant gut microbiome is a major factor shaping the microbiome of neonatal intensive care unit rooms

Top 10 most important taxa driving the machine learning model. The top 10 most important variables driving the SVM model are plotted for each infant. On the y-axis, “Abundance,” notes the relative importance. (PDF 202 kb