AN ANALYSIS of the 20-year use of a deep Broward County lime-rock pit as a natural advanced wastewater treatment and groundwater recycling facility, with a recommendation that: with the large number of similar lime-rock pits in Southeast Florida, the opportunity for expanding the benefits of such inland wastewater retention should be given serious consideration instead of wastefully discharging the water into the ocean.

The benefits of the inland retention of freshwaters in South Florida are indisputable. During periods of prolonged drought, the maintenance of a higher groundwater table, which benefits terrestrial vegetation and retards saltwater intrusion, is clearly preferable to the alternative of discharging up to 400,000 gallons of freshwater per day into the ocean. Therefore, the only objections to the retention of treated sewage effluent in an inland lime-rock pit, with the physical, chemical and biologic characteristics of our pits, would have to do with possible detrimental effects to public health or the environment. The major public health concern involves the possible discharge of human pathogens. This can be prevented by high-level chlorination of well-treated effluent such as that of the Ferncrest Utilities. With the cooperation and help of the Nova University Oceanographic Center, the Florida Agricultural Research and Education Station, the Broward County Environmental Quality Control Board and the landowners, the Tindall Hammock Irrigation and Soil Conservation District and the Ferncrest Utilities respectfully submit that retention of the excellent tertiary-treated Ferncrest Utilities effluent in such a lime-rock pit accomplishes the following: • Provides an inexpensive, safe, practical, alternative, non-structural, natural, and environmentally sound drainage and wastewater pollutant treatment and inactivation facility that uses no energy except sunlight. • Conserves, stores and recycles stormwater and wastewater instead of wasteful discharge into canals or the ocean. • Helps to maintain a higher groundwater elevation, thereby reducing the volume of irrigation water needed for area lawns and shrubbery, and the energy and expense thereof. • Retards the rate of saltwater intrusion into the aquifer. • Enhances the U.S. EPA\u27s goal of fishable, swimmable public waters by complexing and precipitating runoff and wastewater pollutants, thereby keeping them out of the North New River Canal, the New River and the ocean. With the large number of similar lime-rock pits in Southeast Florida, the opportunity for expanding the benefits of such inland wastewater retention should be given serious consideration

Infants and children in the adult world of automobile safety design: Pediatric and anatomical considerations for design of child restraints

The infant and child differ structurally from the adult in a number of ways which are critical to the design for protection against impact forces and for adequate occupant restraint systems. The purpose of this paper is to bring together a profile of the anatomy, anthropometry, growth, and development of the infant and child. Age differences related to the proper design of child restraint systems are emphasized. Problems discussed include child-adult structural differences, center of gravity of the body, the head mass in relation to the neck and general body proportions, positions of key organs, and biomechanical properties of tissues.Peer Reviewedhttp://deepblue.lib.umich.edu/bitstream/2027.42/32937/1/0000320.pd

Structure of \u3ci\u3eClostridium difficile\u3c/i\u3e PilJ Exhibits Unprecedented Divergence from Known Type IV Pilins

Type IV pili are produced by many pathogenic Gram-negative bacteria and are important for processes as diverse as twitching motility, cellular adhesion, and colonization. Recently, there has been an increased appreciation of the ability of Gram-positive species, including Clostridium difficile, to produce Type IV pili. Here we report the first three-dimensional structure of a Grampositive Type IV pilin, PilJ, demonstrate its incorporation into Type IV pili, and offer insights into how the Type IV pili of C. difficile may assemble and function. PilJ has several unique structural features, including a dual-pilin fold and the incorporation of a structural zinc ion. We show that PilJ is incorporated into Type IV pili in C. difficile and present a model in which the incorporation of PilJ into pili exposes the C-terminal domain of PilJ to create a novel interaction surface

Event-related alpha suppression in response to facial motion

This article has been made available through the Brunel Open Access Publishing Fund.While biological motion refers to both face and body movements, little is known about the visual perception of facial motion. We therefore examined alpha wave suppression as a reduction in power is thought to reflect visual activity, in addition to attentional reorienting and memory processes. Nineteen neurologically healthy adults were tested on their ability to discriminate between successive facial motion captures. These animations exhibited both rigid and non-rigid facial motion, as well as speech expressions. The structural and surface appearance of these facial animations did not differ, thus participants decisions were based solely on differences in facial movements. Upright, orientation-inverted and luminance-inverted facial stimuli were compared. At occipital and parieto-occipital regions, upright facial motion evoked a transient increase in alpha which was then followed by a significant reduction. This finding is discussed in terms of neural efficiency, gating mechanisms and neural synchronization. Moreover, there was no difference in the amount of alpha suppression evoked by each facial stimulus at occipital regions, suggesting early visual processing remains unaffected by manipulation paradigms. However, upright facial motion evoked greater suppression at parieto-occipital sites, and did so in the shortest latency. Increased activity within this region may reflect higher attentional reorienting to natural facial motion but also involvement of areas associated with the visual control of body effectors. © 2014 Girges et al

Overcoming challenges in designing and implementing a phase II randomized controlled trial using a presurgical model to test a dietary intervention in prostate cancer

BackgroundThe time between the diagnosis of cancer and a planned definitive surgical procedure offers a strong and direct approach for assessing the impact of interventions (including lifestyle interventions) on the biology of the target tissue and the tumor. Despite the many strengths of presurgical models, there are practical issues and challenges that arise when using this approach.Purpose/MethodsWe recently completed an NIH-funded phase II trial that utilized a presurgical model in testing the comparative effects of flaxseed supplementation and/or dietary fat restriction on the biology and biomarkers associated with prostatic carcinoma. Herein, we report the rationale for our original design, discuss modifications in strategy, and relay experiences in implementing this trial related to the following topics: (1) subject accrual; (2) subject retention; (3) intervention delivery; and (4) retrieval and completion rates regarding the collection of paraffin-embedded and fresh frozen prostate tissue, blood, urine, ejaculate, anthropometric measures and survey data.ResultsThis trial achieved its accrual target, i.e., a racially-representative (70% white, 30% minority) sample of 161 participants, low rates of attrition (7%); and collection rates that exceeded 90% for almost all biospecimens and survey data. While the experience gained from pilot studies was invaluable in designing this trial, the complexity introduced by the collection of several biospecimens, inclusion of a team of pathologists (to provide validated readings), and shifts in practice patterns related to prostatectomy, made it necessary to revise our protocol; lessons from our experiences are offered within this article.ConclusionsWhile our experience specifically relates to the implementation of a presurgical model-based trial in prostate cancer aimed at testing flaxseed-supplemented and fat-restricted diets, many of the lessons learned have broad application to trials that utilize a presurgical model or dietary modification within various cancer populations