Hand-Holding, Brow-Beating, and Shaming Into Compliance

Tax authorities and policy planners have a variety of tools at their disposal to create mechanisms to encourage and enforce compliance with revenue collection systems. Traditionally, these mechanisms include the possibility of criminal prosecution as well as civil pecuniary sanctions. Despite the dominate role that prosecution and pecuniary sanctions hold internationally, there exists a range of alternative enforcement mechanisms utilized. The United States has recently started to implement nonpecuniary enforcement devices to achieve policy goals, namely the encouragement of participating with the federal taxing system. This Note attempts to take an initial step into exploring the range of international enforcement mechanisms available to policy planners. Then, it contrasts these histories with the more recent development of taxation in the United States. It concludes that given international harmonization, the United States is more likely on the forefront rather than behind the learning curve of enforcement devices. While nonpecuniary devices may hold promise to encourage participation, further research is needed to develop refined devices which live up to that promise

Use of Supplemental Feeding and Delivery of Oral Treatment for Managing Wildlife Diseases: A Case Study of Ivermectin Use in South Texas

Biosurveillance of zoonotic diseases of public health concern is a necessary action to protect communities and animal health from potentially life-threatening effects. Many zoonoses have a wildlife component which presents a challenge for effective delivery of treatment to prevent disease. Bovine babesiosis (cattle fever) caused by infection with Babesia bovis or B. bigemina and vectored by two species of ticks, Rhipicephalus microplus and R. annulatus, had devastating impacts on the United States cattle industry in the late 1800’s and the first half of the 20th century. Due to the continued presence of cattle fever ticks along the Texas-Mexico border and occasional outbreaks recorded beyond the permanent quarantine zone, treatment programs targeting wildlife, which also can be hosts for the tick vectors in addition to cattle, are now being implemented. The use of corn treated with ivermectin, an anti-parasitic agent effective at killing cattle fever ticks, has been identified as an effective method to treat white-tailed deer (Odocoileus virginianus) to treat and prevent infestation with cattle fever ticks. In Texas, many white-tailed deer populations are accustomed to consuming corn from supplemental feeders, and previous studies found feeding ivermectin treated corn is a successful method for controlling ticks on deer. Infested white-tailed deer were recently discovered in Port Mansfield, TX. However, on East Foundation’s El Sauz Ranch, an adjacent property to Port Mansfield, cattle fever ticks were not found. Therefore, as a preventative measure, ivermectin treated corn is being used to keep ticks from coming onto the property. The overall research goal is to evaluate the use of ivermectin treated corn feeders for mitigating tick infestation. White-tailed deer were the primary target species in my study. Deer frequency and corn consumption data were collected from feeder stations utilizing infrared cameras to capture animal species and feeder visitation. The distances for 18 feeders on El Sauz Ranch relative to the study boundary fence line were categorized as near (2.5 km). Ivermectin treated corn consumption for the treatment period (March-July 2020) after pre-baiting for one or two months was highest at near feeders, with an average consumption rate of 750 pounds, followed by far feeders (709 pounds) and mid feeders (629 pounds). Pre-baiting was conducted in December of 2019 and January of 2020. Due to visitation of larger male deer, it is likely that they are consuming more ivermectin corn and have a higher chance of receiving treatment for tick infestation. This study found that feed availability encouraged wildlife visitations throughout the year and pilot results suggest pre-baiting increased ivermectin treated corn consumption, which is recommended to aid in maintaining the current cattle fever tick free environment

MONTE CARLO SIMULATIONS OF SYNCHROTON RADIATION AND VACUUM PERFORMANCE OF THE MAX IV LIGHT SOURCE

Abstract In the 3 GeV ring of MAX IV light source in Lund, Sweden, the intense synchrotron radiation (SR) distributed along the ring generates important thermal and vacuum effects. By means of a Monte Carlo simulation package, which is currently developed at CERN, both thermal and vacuum effects are quantitatively analysed, in particular near the crotch absorbers and the surrounding NEG-coated vacuum chambers. Using SynRad+, the beam trajectory of the upstream bending magnet is calculated; SR photons are generated and traced through the geometry until their absorption. This allows an analysis of the incident power density on the absorber, and to calculate the photon induced outgassing. The results are imported to Molflow+, a Monte Carlo vacuum simulator that works in the molecular flow regime, and the pressure in the vacuum system and the saturation length of the NEG coating are determined using iterations

Motor ability in children treated for idiopathic clubfoot. A controlled pilot study

<p>Abstract</p> <p>Background</p> <p>To study motor ability at seven years of age in children treated for idiopathic clubfoot and its relation to clubfoot laterality, foot status and the amount of surgery performed.</p> <p>Methods</p> <p>Twenty children (mean age 7.5 years, SD 3.2 months) from a consecutive birth cohort from our hospital catchments area (300.000 inhabitants from southern Sweden) were assessed with the Movement Assessment Battery for Children (MABC) and the Clubfoot Assessment Protocol (CAP).</p> <p>Results</p> <p>Compared to typically developing children an increased prevalence of motor impairment was found regarding both the total score for MABC (p < 0.05) and the subtest ABC-Ball skills (p < 0.05). No relationship was found between the child's actual foot status, laterality or the extent of foot surgery with the motor ability as measured with MABC. Only the CAP item "one-leg stand" correlated significantly with the MABC (rs = -0.53, p = 0.02).</p> <p>Conclusions</p> <p>Children with idiopathic clubfoot appear to have an increased risk of motor activity limitations and it is possible that other factors, independent of the clinical status, might be involved. The ability to keep balance on one leg may be a sufficient tool for determining which children in the orthopedic setting should be more thoroughly evaluated regarding their neuromotor functioning.</p

Investigating the value of radiomics stemming from DSC quantitative biomarkers in IDH mutation prediction in gliomas

ObjectiveThis study aims to assess the value of biomarker based radiomics to predict IDH mutation in gliomas. The patient cohort consists of 160 patients histopathologicaly proven of primary glioma (WHO grades 2–4) from 3 different centers.MethodsTo quantify the DSC perfusion signal two different mathematical modeling methods were used (Gamma fitting, leakage correction algorithms) considering the assumptions about the compartments contributing in the blood flow between the extra- and intra vascular space.ResultsThe Mean slope of increase (MSI) and the K1 parameter of the bidirectional exchange model exhibited the highest performance with (ACC 74.3% AUROC 74.2%) and (ACC 75% AUROC 70.5%) respectively.ConclusionThe proposed framework on DSC-MRI radiogenomics in gliomas has the potential of becoming a reliable diagnostic support tool exploiting the mathematical modeling of the DSC signal to characterize IDH mutation status through a more reproducible and standardized signal analysis scheme for facilitating clinical translation

Immune monitoring and TCR sequencing of CD4 T cells in a long term responsive patient with metastasized pancreatic ductal carcinoma treated with individualized, neoepitope-derived multipeptide vaccines : a case report

Abstract Background Cancer vaccines can effectively establish clinically relevant tumor immunity. Novel sequencing approaches rapidly identify the mutational fingerprint of tumors, thus allowing to generate personalized tumor vaccines within a few weeks from diagnosis. Here, we report the case of a 62-year-old patient receiving a four-peptide-vaccine targeting the two sole mutations of his pancreatic tumor, identified via exome sequencing. Methods Vaccination started during chemotherapy in second complete remission and continued monthly thereafter. We tracked IFN-γ+ T cell responses against vaccine peptides in peripheral blood after 12, 17 and 34 vaccinations by analyzing T-cell receptor (TCR) repertoire diversity and epitope-binding regions of peptide-reactive T-cell lines and clones. By restricting analysis to sorted IFN-γ-producing T cells we could assure epitope-specificity, functionality, and TH1 polarization. Results A peptide-specific T-cell response against three of the four vaccine peptides could be detected sequentially. Molecular TCR analysis revealed a broad vaccine-reactive TCR repertoire with clones of discernible specificity. Four identical or convergent TCR sequences could be identified at more than one time-point, indicating timely persistence of vaccine-reactive T cells. One dominant TCR expressing a dual TCRVα chain could be found in three T-cell clones. The observed T-cell responses possibly contributed to clinical outcome: The patient is alive 6 years after initial diagnosis and in complete remission for 4 years now. Conclusions Therapeutic vaccination with a neoantigen-derived four-peptide vaccine resulted in a diverse and long-lasting immune response against these targets which was associated with prolonged clinical remission. These data warrant confirmation in a larger proof-of concept clinical trial