Session A, 2016 First Place: Forest Bird Behavior in Response to the Calls of Native and Non-Native Owl Species at Cranberry Lake Biological Station in Clifton, NY

When forest birds feel threatened by the presence of a potential predator, they may respond with an anti-predator strategy called mobbing. Mobbing is a set of behaviors intended to harass and drive a predator away. In order to observe the response of forest birds to native and non-native owl calls, 3 separate species’ calls were played 4 times a day for 4 days at 8 different locations (n=31, 1 point was discarded due to severe weather). Four calls were broadcasted: the Black-Capped Chickadee (Poecile atricapillus) as the control, the Barred Owl (Strix varia) as the native predator, and the Spotted Owl (Strix occidentalis) and Eurasian Tawny Owl (Strix aluco) as non-native predators. During and after the broadcasted calls, the number of forest birds that flew in and the strength of the alarm calls (based on a scale), both characteristics of mobbing behavior, were recorded. Using an ANOVA and Tukey Test, it was concluded that the number of birds that flew into the area in response to the native Barred Owl was statistically different than the Black-Capped Chickadee, Spotted Owl and Eurasian Tawny Owl. However, the response to the Black-Capped Chickadee, Spotted Owl, and Eurasian Tawny Owl was statistically similar. Based on the Chi-Squared test, the difference between the strength of alarm calls in response to the different species of owls was found to be statistically significant. It was found that the forest birds at Cranberry Lake Biological Station tended to exhibit mobbing behavior more often in response to the native Barred Owl than to the non-native Spotted Owl and Eurasian Tawny Owl

WISE/NEOWISE Observations of Comet 103P/Hartley 2

We report results based on mid-infrared photometry of comet 103P/Hartley 2 taken during 2010 May 4-13 (when the comet was at a heliocentric distance of 2.3 AU, and an observer distance of 2.0 AU) by the Wide-field Infrared Survey Explorer. Photometry of the coma at 22 μm and data from the University of Hawaii 2.2 m telescope obtained on 2010 May 22 provide constraints on the dust particle size distribution, d log n/d log m, yielding power-law slope values of alpha = –0.97 ± 0.10, steeper than that found for the inbound particle fluence during the Stardust encounter of comet 81P/Wild 2. The extracted nucleus signal at 12 μm is consistent with a body of average spherical radius of 0.6 ± 0.2 km (one standard deviation), assuming a beaming parameter of 1.2. The 4.6 μm band signal in excess of dust and nucleus reflected and thermal contributions may be attributed to carbon monoxide or carbon dioxide emission lines and provides limits and estimates of species production. Derived carbon dioxide coma production rates are 3.5(± 0.9) × 10^(24) molecules per second. Analyses of the trail signal present in the stacked image with an effective exposure time of 158.4 s yields optical-depth values near 9 × 10^(–10) at a delta mean anomaly of 0.2 deg trailing the comet nucleus, in both 12 and 22 μm bands. A minimum chi-squared analysis of the dust trail position yields a beta-parameter value of 1.0 × 10^(–4), consistent with a derived mean trail-grain diameter of 1.1/ρ cm for grains of ρ g cm^(–3) density. This leads to a total detected trail mass of at least 4 × 10^(10) ρ kg

Adaptation of the WHO Essential Medicines List for national antibiotic stewardship policy in England: being AWaRe.

OBJECTIVES:Appropriate use of and access to antimicrobials are key priorities of global strategies to combat antimicrobial resistance (AMR). The WHO recently classified key antibiotics into three categories (AWaRe) to improve access (Access), monitor important antibiotics (Watch) and preserve effectiveness of 'last resort' antibiotics (Reserve). This classification was assessed for antibiotic stewardship and quality improvement in English hospitals. METHODS:Using an expert elicitation exercise, antibiotics used in England but not included in the WHO AWaRe index were added to an appropriate category following a workshop consensus exercise with national experts. The methodology was tested using national antibiotic prescribing data and presented by primary and secondary care. RESULTS:In 2016, 46/108 antibiotics included within the WHO AWaRe index were routinely used in England and an additional 25 antibiotics also commonly used in England were not included in the WHO AWaRe index. WHO AWaRe-excluded and -included antibiotics were reviewed and reclassified according to the England-adapted AWaRE index with the justification by experts for each addition or alteration. Applying the England-adapted AWaRe index, Access antibiotics accounted for the majority (60.9%) of prescribing, followed by Watch (37.9%) and Reserve (0.8%); 0.4% of antibiotics remained unclassified. There was unexplained 2-fold variation in prescribing between hospitals within each AWaRe category, highlighting the potential for quality improvement. CONCLUSIONS:We have adapted the WHO AWaRe index to create a specific index for England. The AWaRe index provides high-level understanding of antibiotic prescribing. Subsequent to this process the England AWaRe index is now embedded into national antibiotic stewardship policy and incentivized quality improvement schemes

Development of a rapid and quantitative lateral flow assay for the simultaneous measurement of serum κ and λ immunoglobulin free light chains (FLC):inception of a new near-patient FLC screening tool

Item does not contain fulltextBACKGROUND: Serum free light chains (FLC) are sensitive biomarkers used for the diagnosis and management of plasma cell dyscrasias, such as multiple myeloma (MM), and are central to clinical screening algorithms and therapy response criteria. We have developed a portable, near-patient, lateral-flow test (Seralite(R)) that quantitates serum FLC in 10 min, and is designed to eliminate sample processing delays and accelerate decision-making in the clinic. METHODS: Assay interference, imprecision, lot-to-lot variability, linearity, and the utility of a competitive-inhibition design for the elimination of antigen-excess ('hook effect') were assessed. Reference ranges were calculated from 91 healthy donor sera. Preliminary clinical validation was conducted by retrospective analysis of sera from 329 patients. Quantitative and diagnostic results were compared to Freelite(R). RESULTS: Seralite(R) gave a broad competitive-inhibition calibration curve from below 2.5 mg/L to above 200 mg/L, provided good assay linearity (between 1.6 and 208.7 mg/L for kappa FLC and between 3.5 and 249.7 mg/L for lambda FLC) and sensitivity (1.4 mg/L for kappa FLC and 1.7 mg/L for lambda FLC), and eliminated anomalous results from antigen-excess. Seralite(R) gave good diagnostic concordance with Freelite(R) (Roche Hitachi Cobas C501) identifying an abnormal FLC ratio and FLC difference in 209 patients with newly diagnosed MM and differentiating these patients from normal healthy donors with polyclonal FLC. CONCLUSIONS: Seralite(R) sensitively quantitates FLC and rapidly identifies clinical conditions where FLC are abnormal, including MM

Motor dexterity and strength depend upon integrity of the attention-control system

Attention control (or executive control) is a higher cognitive function involved in response selection and inhibition, through close interactions with the motor system. Here, we tested whether influences of attention control are also seen on lower level motor functions of dexterity and strength—by examining relationships between attention control and motor performance in healthy-aged and hemiparetic-stroke subjects (n = 93 and 167, respectively). Subjects undertook simple-tracking, precision-hold, and maximum force-generation tasks, with each hand. Performance across all tasks correlated strongly with attention control (measured as distractor resistance), independently of factors such as baseline performance, hand use, lesion size, mood, fatigue, or whether distraction was tested during motor or nonmotor cognitive tasks. Critically, asymmetric dissociations occurred in all tasks, in that severe motor impairment coexisted with normal (or impaired) attention control whereas normal motor performance was never associated with impaired attention control (below a task-dependent threshold). This implies that dexterity and force generation require intact attention control. Subsequently, we examined how motor and attention-control performance mapped to lesion location and cerebral functional connectivity. One component of motor performance (common to both arms), as well as attention control, correlated with the anatomical and functional integrity of a cingulo-opercular “salience” network. Independently of this, motor performance difference between arms correlated negatively with the integrity of the primary sensorimotor network and corticospinal tract. These results suggest that the salience network, and its attention-control function, are necessary for virtually all volitional motor acts while its damage contributes significantly to the cardinal motor deficits of stroke

Measuring appropriate antibiotic prescribing in acute hospitals: Development of a national audit tool through a Delphi consensus

This study developed a patient-level audit tool to assess the appropriateness of antibiotic prescribing in acute National Health Service (NHS) hospitals in the UK. A modified Delphi process was used to evaluate variables identified from published literature that could be used to support an assessment of appropriateness of antibiotic use. At a national workshop, 22 infection experts reached a consensus to define appropriate prescribing and agree upon an initial draft audit tool. Following this, a national multidisciplinary panel of 19 infection experts, of whom only one was part of the workshop, was convened to evaluate and validate variables using questionnaires to confirm the relevance of each variable in assessing appropriate prescribing. The initial evidence synthesis of published literature identified 25 variables that could be used to support an assessment of appropriateness of antibiotic use. All the panel members reviewed the variables for the first round of the Delphi; the panel accepted 23 out of 25 variables. Following review by the project team, one of the two rejected variables was rephrased, and the second neutral variable was re-scored. The panel accepted both these variables in round two with a 68% response rate. Accepted variables were used to develop an audit tool to determine the extent of appropriateness of antibiotic prescribing at the individual patient level in acute NHS hospitals through infection expert consensus based on the results of a Delphi process