NEW NATIONAL CENTER FOR VALUE-ADDED AGRICULTURE

Farm Management,

Antibiotics and Antimicrobial Resistance: An Evaluation of the Knowledge, Attitude and Perception Among Dental Students and Academic Deans and Department Chairs within U.S. Dental Schools

Purpose: This study aimed to survey current 3rd and 4th year dental students, academic deans, and department chairs within U.S. dental schools to analyze the level of understanding; education; guidelines; and overall awareness regarding antibiotic use within dentistry and antimicrobial resistance. Methods: A 25-question survey intended for 3rd and 4th year dental students and a 20-question survey intended for academic deans and various department chairs of U.S dental schools were each developed utilizing REDCap. The survey invitations were sent via e-mail to the current academic dean of each U.S. dental school for distribution. Results: There were a total of 18 respondents from the academic dean and department chair survey and 172 student respondents. Overall, 71% of students reported that they could benefit from more education regarding antibiotics. The majority of both groups agreed that dentistry should play an important role in reducing antimicrobial resistance, but most dental students were ‘not at all familiar’ with the term antimicrobial stewardship and several were unsure if clinical guidelines were present at their schools. Conclusion: Improvements to the dental educational curriculum regarding the responsible use of antibiotics, along with the implementation of stewardship programs within dentistry are strongly encouraged

Gravitational Lensing Bound On The Average Redshift Of Gamma Ray Bursts In Models With Evolving Lenses

Identification of gravitationally lensed Gamma Ray Bursts (GRBs) in the BATSE 4B catalog can be used to constrain the average redshift $$ of the GRBs. In this paper we investigate the effect of evolving lenses on the of GRBs in different cosmological models of universe. The cosmological parameters $\Omega$ and $\Lambda$ have an effect on the of GRBs. The other factor which can change the $$is the evolution of galaxies. We consider three evolutionary model of galaxies. In particular, we find that the upper limit on$$ of GRBs is higher in evolving model of galaxies as compared to non-evolving models of galaxies.Comment: 23 pages,one plain LaTeX file with three postscript figures This is modified version with recent BATSE efficiency parameter and with the latest F paramete

A hydrogeomorphic approach to evaluating flood potential in central Texas from orbital and suborbital remote sensing imagery

There are no author-identified significant results in this report

Characterization of the Active Site and Insight into the Binding Mode of the Anti-angiogenesis Agent Fumagillin to the Manganese(II)-Loaded Methionyl Aminopeptidase from \u3cem\u3eEscherichia coli\u3c/em\u3e

EPR spectra were recorded for methionine aminopeptidase from Escherichia coli (EcMetAP-I) samples (~2.5 mM) to which one and two equivalents of Mn(II) were added (the latter is referred to as [MnMn(EcMetAP-I)]). The spectra for each sample were indistinguishable except that the spectrum of [MnMn(EcMetAP-I)] was twice as intense. The EPR spectrum of [MnMn(EcMetAP-I)] exhibited the characteristic six-line g≈2 EPR signal of mononuclear Mn(II) with A av(55Mn)=9.3 mT (93 G) and exhibited Curie-law temperature dependence. This signal is typical of Mn(II) in a ligand sphere comprising oxygen and/or nitrogen atoms. Other features in the spectrum were observed only as the temperature was raised from that of liquid helium. The temperature dependences of these features are consistent with their assignment to excited state transitions in the S=1, 2 ... 5 non-Kramer’s doublets, due to two antiferromagnetically coupled Mn(II) ions with an S=0 ground state. This assignment is supported by the observation of a characteristic 4.5 mT hyperfine pattern, and by the presence of signals in the parallel mode consistent with a non-Kramers’ spin ladder. Upon the addition of the anti-angiogenesis agent fumagillin to [MnMn(EcMetAP-I)], very small changes were observed in the EPR spectrum. MALDI-TOF mass spectrometry indicated that fumagillin was, however, covalently coordinated to EcMetAP-I. Therefore, the inhibitory action of this anti-angiogenesis agent on EcMetAP-I appears to involve covalent binding to a polypeptide component at or near the active site rather than direct binding to the metal ions

Comparison of Prices and Affordability of Cancer Medicines in 16 Countries in Europe and Latin America

BACKGROUND: There are concerns that high prices of cancer medicines may limit patient access. Since information on prices for cancer medicines and their impact on affordability is lacking for several countries, particularly for lower income countries, this study surveys prices of originator cancer medicines in Europe and Latin America and assesses their affordability. METHODS: For 19 cancer medicines, public procurement and ex-factory prices, as of 2017, were surveyed in five Latin American (LATAM) countries (Brazil, Chile, Colombia, Mexico, and Peru) and 11 European countries (Austria, France, Germany, Greece, Hungary, the Netherlands, Poland, Romania, Spain, Sweden, and the UK). Price data (public procurement prices in LATAM and ex-factory prices in Europe) in US dollar purchasing power parities (PPP) were analyzed per defined daily dose. Affordability was measured by setting medicines prices in relation to national minimum wages. RESULTS: The prices of cancer medicines varied considerably between countries. In European countries with higher levels of income, PPP-adjusted prices tended to be lower than in European countries of lower income and LATAM countries. Except for one medicine, all surveyed medicines were considered unaffordable in most countries. In European countries of lower income and LATAM countries, more than 15 days’ worth of minimum wages would be required by a worker to purchase one defined daily dose of several of the studied medicines. CONCLUSIONS: The high prices and large unaffordability of cancer medicines call for strengthening pricing policies with the aim of ensuring affordable treatment in cancer care. SUPPLEMENTARY INFORMATION: The online version contains supplementary material available at 10.1007/s40258-021-00670-4

Validation of the Human Ozone Challenge Model as a Tool for Assessing Anti-Inflammatory Drugs in Early Development

This study aimed to test the utility of the ozone challenge model for profiling novel compounds designed to reduce airway inflammation. The authors used a randomized, doubledummy, double-blind, placebo-controlled 3-period crossover design alternating single orally inhaled doses of fluticasone propionate (inhaled corticosteroids, 2mg), oral prednisolone (oral corticosteroids, 50mg), ormatched placebo. At a 2-week interval, 18 healthy ozone responders (>10% increase in sputum neutrophils) underwent a 3-hour ozone (250 ppb)/intermittent exercise challenge starting 1 hour after drug treatment. Airway inflammation was assessed at 2 hours (breath condensate) and 3 hours (induced sputum) after ozone challenge. Compared to placebo, pretreatment with inhaled corticosteroids or oral corticosteroids resulted in a significant reduction (mean [95% confidence interval]) of sputum neutrophils by 62% (35%, 77%) and 64% (39%, 79%) and of sputum supernatant myeloperoxidase by 55% (41%, 66%) and 42% (25%, 56%), respectively. The authors conclude that an optimized ozone challenge model (including ozone responders and ensuring adequate drug levels during exposure) may be useful for testing novel anti-inflammatory compounds in early development

Going Further with Point Pair Features

Point Pair Features is a widely used method to detect 3D objects in point clouds, however they are prone to fail in presence of sensor noise and background clutter. We introduce novel sampling and voting schemes that significantly reduces the influence of clutter and sensor noise. Our experiments show that with our improvements, PPFs become competitive against state-of-the-art methods as it outperforms them on several objects from challenging benchmarks, at a low computational cost.Comment: Corrected post-print of manuscript accepted to the European Conference on Computer Vision (ECCV) 2016; https://link.springer.com/chapter/10.1007/978-3-319-46487-9_5