321 research outputs found
Summer Habitat Use, Home Range, and Effect of Catch and Release Mortality on the Trophy Potential of Muskellunge, (Esox masquinongy, Mitchill, 1824), in a Southern Reservoir Population
Research on Muskellunge (Esox masquinongy, Mitchill, 1824) catch-and-release mortality has been historically focused on the Midwest, Great Lakes, and Ontario. In the southern portion of their range, which we consider to be the portion of the species distribution south of the Mason-Dixon Line (~40°N), Muskellunge, may experience significantly warmer temperatures than those in previous studies and anglers have expressed concern about summer catch-and-release mortality. As part of a broader study to quantify catch-and-release summer mortality in the southern range of Muskellunge, we utilized radio telemetry and active tracking to verify individual movement and survival of Muskellunge in Stonewall Jackson Lake, WV. The lake has a 52-inch minimum size limit for Muskellunge, making it effectively catch-and-release except for trophy-sized individuals. We tagged 45 Muskellunge in the spring of 2020 and 47 Muskellunge in the spring of 2021 with radio telemetry transmitters, PIT tags, and an external dart tag for unique identification by anglers. Muskellunge were tracked weekly from June through September and monthly in October, November, March, April, and May. GPS location and water quality parameters were taken at each unique location. We collaborated closely with anglers and Muskies, Inc. to promote cooperation in the study and to provide rewards to anglers catching and reporting tagged fish. Our estimate of angling mortality was based on survival of individuals reported caught by anglers versus survival of fish not reported caught-and-released. In 2020, 10 fish were caught by anglers when the temperatures exceeded 25o C, and mortality was 10 percent. In 2021, 19 fish were caught by anglers when temperatures exceeded 25o C, mortality was 10.5 percent. Twenty-six fish were caught during Spring, Fall, and Winter, and survival was 100%. Individual growth model simulations were used to estimate the effect that catch and release mortality has on trophy potential under different levels of mortality and summer exploitation. Small differences, \u3c 2 % difference in the proportion of the population reaching memorably size, were seen at what we estimate are current values of summer catch and release mortality (Cm = 0.1) and summer exploitation (Se = 0.15). Effects are more pronounced at higher levels of catch and release mortality and exploitation (Se = 0.19; Cm = 0.3). A closed summer season doubles the number of trophy individuals from 20 to 40 individuals (2 and 4% of the 1000 age-1 individuals).
Muskellunge oxy-thermal habitat use, home range, and movement was identified from radio telemetry locations. Summer surface water temperatures where Muskellunge were located averaged 27.5 ± 0.17 °C in 2020 and 26.5 ± 0.74 °C in 2021, with maximum surface water temperatures for Muskellunge location reaching 32.5 ° C. However, Muskellunge were able to access thermal refugia near the thermocline and had an average transmitter temperature of 23 ° C. Oxy-thermal refugia at tracking locations were calculated using TDO3, and the summer average was 17.3°C for the east side of the lake and 21.8°C for the west side. Muskellunge on the west side of the lake were utilizing water temperatures at or below the TDO3 levels during July and August based on their transmitter temperatures. In 2021 we used temperature-sensitive transmitters and documented summer thermal habitat use to be 23.1 ° C and observed dense clustering of Muskellunge in thermal refugia habitat. Thermal stress, which we measured with cumulative degree days (CDD) over 25 ° C, has been increasing steadily since 2003. The summer 95% minimum convex polygon (MCP) home range size averaged 30 ha in 2020 (SE=5.9) and 19 hectares (SE=2.9) in 2021. Muskellunge that were recaptured by anglers during the summer period had on average 16-hectare larger home range sizes than non-angled fish. Weekly distance moved did not differ significantly between seasons. Increased kernel density estimates of Muskellunge during the summer period are likely by driven by oxy-thermal refugia. This study provides managers with information on how the thermal regimes of a reservoir system impacts catch and release mortality, home range, and movement of Muskellunge
Between the Noise and Silence: An Autoethnography Challenging Schools of Social Work to Evolve for Trans Students
Social work programs have been largely silent in the face of legislative at- tacks on transgender/nonbinary (TGNB or “trans”) communities across the U.S., which signals to TGNB students that they may not be supported in their respective programs. Consequently, TGNB students, staff, and faculty shoulder the burden to advocate for change within social work academic institutions and to speak out about violence perpetrated against TGNB communities. Using our voices as two trans doctoral students and a queer cisgender associate professor, we employed collaborative and critical autoethnography to share insights about the impact of this burden on TGNB social work students and their mentors. These burdens take the shape of gender and race “noise,” invisibility and abandonment, and the need to scavenge for resources and community. We end with a discussion and recommendations to recruit, retain, and support TGNB graduate students as they matriculate through schools of social work
Solid State Aircraft Concept Overview
Due to recent advances in polymers, photovoltaics, and batteries a unique type of aircraft may be feasible. This is a solid-state aircraft, with no conventional mechanical moving parts. Airfoil, propulsion, energy production, energy storage and control are combined in an integrated structure. The key material of this concept is an ionic polymeric-metal composite (IPMC) that provides source of control and propulsion. This material has the unique capability of deforming in an electric field and returning to its original shape when the field is removed. Combining the IPMC with thin-film batteries and thin-film photovoltaics provides both energy source and storage in the same structure. The characteristics of the materials enables flapping motion of the wing to be utilized to generate the main propulsive force. Analysis shows that a number of design configurations can be produced to enable flight over a range of latitudes on Earth, Venus and possibly Mars
HRTF upsampling with a generative adversarial network using a gnomonic equiangular projection
An individualised head-related transfer function (HRTF) is essential for
creating realistic virtual reality (VR) and augmented reality (AR)
environments. However, acoustically measuring high-quality HRTFs requires
expensive equipment and an acoustic lab setting. To overcome these limitations
and to make this measurement more efficient HRTF upsampling has been exploited
in the past where a high-resolution HRTF is created from a low-resolution one.
This paper demonstrates how generative adversarial networks (GANs) can be
applied to HRTF upsampling. We propose a novel approach that transforms the
HRTF data for convenient use with a convolutional super-resolution generative
adversarial network (SRGAN). This new approach is benchmarked against two
baselines: barycentric upsampling and a HRTF selection approach. Experimental
results show that the proposed method outperforms both baselines in terms of
log-spectral distortion (LSD) and localisation performance using perceptual
models when the input HRTF is sparse.Comment: 13 pages, 9 figures, Preprint (Submitted to Transactions on Audio,
Speech and Language Processing on the 24 Feb 2023
Transitioning from manual to stirred-tank bioreactor manufacturing of IDCT, An allogeneiccell therapy to treat lumbar degenerative disc disease
DiscGenics is a clinical stage regenerative medicine company focused on developing cell therapies that alleviate pain and restore function in patients with degenerative disc disease (DDD), a major cause of low back pain which is a driver of disability worldwide. The Company’s lead product candidate, IDCT, is a homologous, allogeneic, off-the-shelf, injectable cell therapy under investigational use in the US (ClinicalTrials.gov Identifier: NCT03347708). The manufacturing process for IDCT involves isolating cells from donated intervertebral disc tissue and expanding them into proprietary progenitor cells known as discogenic cells. For preclinical and early clinical testing, cell production was a manual process which relied on pooling individual flasks to achieve the desired lot size. For successful scale-up and commercial production, DiscGenics seeks to modify the IDCT manufacturing process to utilize one large, single vessel per lot, while also applying bioprocess controls and more robust analytical methods to ensure consistent and optimal production of drug product. Once these changes are implemented, the product critical quality attributes (CQAs) must be maintained. DiscGenics has engaged GE Healthcare (GEHC) and the Centre for Commercialization of Regenerative Medicine (CCRM) for assay, media, and process development at the Centre for Advanced Therapeutic Cell Technologies (CATCT) in Toronto, ON., Canada. In partnership with the Federal Economic Development Agency for Southern Ontario (FedDev Ontario), CATCT accelerates the development, industrialization, and adoption of cell manufacturing technologies to improve patient access to cell and gene therapies. In this collaborative project, discogenic cells were generated in traditional static culture using CellStacks (Corning), in PBS-MINI bioreactor systems (PBS Biotech), and in stirred-tank reactors (STRs) (Eppendorf), which was led by the GEHC/CCRM team. Parameters such as cell viability, fold growth, and identity via flow cytometry were compared across modalities. For the STRs, multiple control parameters were evaluated to improve cell growth and assess successful maintenance of a consistent environment for cell quality. In this study, we found that we are able to maintain CQAs between the production modalities, with cell growth being significantly improved in the STR platform. In the STRs, in-process measurements of metabolites aligned with cell growth found using a custom sampling method. Increased cell expansion was facilitated by modified agitation, inoculation, and perfusion feeding strategies. Additionally, the process-controlled STRs provide non-invasive, continuous process data monitoring which allow for development of specified control ranges of manufacturing parameters. The quality by design (QbD) approach taken for the STR process development and improvement has allowed an increase in the lot size, process knowledge, and data-driven process definition. This presentation describes the approach and benefits of transitioning from a manual process to a suspension-based, process-controlled, stirred-tank reactor to produce allogeneic cell therapies
Diagnostic and Prognostic Plasma Biomarkers for Idiopathic Pneumonia Syndrome after Hematopoietic Cell Transplantation
Idiopathic pneumonia syndrome (IPS) is a noninfectious pulmonary complication after hematopoietic cell transplantation (HCT) and is difficult to diagnose. In 41 patients with IPS, we evaluated 6 candidate proteins in plasma samples at day 7 post-HCT and at onset of IPS to identify potential diagnostic or prognostic biomarkers for IPS. Samples at similar times from 162 HCT recipients without documented infections and 37 HCT recipients with respiratory viral pneumonia served as controls. In multivariable models, a combination of Stimulation-2 (ST2; odds ratio [OR], 2.8; P < .001) and IL-6 (OR, 1.4; P = .025) was the best panel for distinguishing IPS at diagnosis from unaffected controls, whereas tumor necrosis factor receptor 1 (TNFR1; OR, 2.9; P = .002) was the best marker when comparing patients with IPS and viral pneumonia. The areas under the curve of the receiver operating characteristic (ROC) curves for discriminating between IPS and unaffected controls at day 7 post-HCT were .8 for ST2, .75 for IL-6, and .68 for TNFR1. Using estimated sensitivity and specificity values from cutoffs determined with the ROC analysis (cutoff level: ST2, 21 ng/mL; IL-6, 61 pg/mL; TNFR1, 3421 pg/mL), we calculated positive predictive values (PPV) for a range of estimated population prevalence values of IPS. Among the 3 markers, ST2 showed the highest PPV for IPS occurrence. Based on an assumed prevalence of 8%, a positive ST2 test increased likelihood of IPS to 50%. We conclude that a prospective validation study is warranted to determine whether a plasma biomarker panel can aid the noninvasive diagnosis and prognosis of IPS
Peptidylarginine Deiminase 3 (PAD3) Is Upregulated by Prolactin Stimulation of CID-9 Cells and Expressed in the Lactating Mouse Mammary Gland
Peptidylarginine deiminases (PADs) post-translationally convert arginine into neutral citrulline residues. Our past work shows that PADs are expressed in the canine and murine mammary glands; however, the mechanisms regulating PAD expression and the function of citrullination in the normal mammary gland are unclear. Therefore, the first objective herein was to investigate regulation of PAD expression in mammary epithelial cells. We first examined PAD levels in CID-9 cells, which were derived from the mammary gland of mid-pregnant mice. PAD3 expression is significantly higher than all other PAD isoforms and mediates protein citrullination in CID-9 cells. We next hypothesized that prolactin regulates PAD3 expression. To test this, CID-9 cells were stimulated with 5 mug/mL of prolactin for 48 hours which significantly increases PAD3 mRNA and protein expression. Use of a JAK2 inhibitor and a dominant negative (DN)-STAT5 adenovirus indicate that prolactin stimulation of PAD3 expression is mediated by the JAK2/STAT5 signaling pathway in CID-9 cells. In addition, the human PAD3 gene promoter is prolactin responsive in CID-9 cells. Our second objective was to investigate the expression and activity of PAD3 in the lactating mouse mammary gland. PAD3 expression in the mammary gland is highest on lactation day 9 and coincident with citrullinated proteins such as histones. Use of the PAD3 specific inhibitor, Cl4-amidine, indicates that PAD3, in part, can citrullinate proteins in L9 mammary glands. Collectively, our results show that upregulation of PAD3 is mediated by prolactin induction of the JAK2/STAT5 signaling pathway, and that PAD3 appears to citrullinate proteins during lactation
#CDCGrandRounds and #VitalSigns : A Twitter Analysis
BACKGROUND: The CDC hosts monthly panel presentations titled 'Public Health Grand Rounds' and publishes monthly reports known as Vital Signs. Hashtags #CDCGrandRounds and #VitalSigns were used to promote them on Twitter. Objectives: This study quantified the effect of hashtag count, mention count, and URL count and attaching visual cues to #CDCGrandRounds or #VitalSigns tweets on their retweet frequency. METHODS: Through Twitter Search Application Programming Interface, original tweets containing the hashtag #CDCGrandRounds (n = 6,966; April 21, 2011-October 25, 2016) and the hashtag #VitalSigns (n = 15,015; March 19, 2013-October 31, 2016) were retrieved respectively. Negative binomial regression models were applied to each corpus to estimate the associations between retweet frequency and three predictors (hashtag count, mention count, and URL link count). Each corpus was sub-set into cycles (#CDCGrandRounds: n = 58, #VitalSigns: n = 42). We manually coded the 30 tweets with the highest number of retweets for each cycle, whether it contained visual cues (images or videos). Univariable negative binomial regression models were applied to compute the prevalence ratio (PR) of retweet frequency for each cycle, between tweets with and without visual cues. FINDINGS: URL links increased retweet frequency in both corpora; effects of hashtag count and mention count differed between the two corpora. Of the 58 #CDCGrandRounds cycles, 29 were found to have statistically significantly different retweet frequencies between tweets with and without visual cues. Of these 29 cycles, one had a PR estimate < 1; twenty-four, PR > 1 but < 3; and four, PR > 3. Of the 42 #VitalSigns cycles, 19 were statistically significant. Of these 19 cycles, six were PR > 1 and < 3; and thirteen, PR > 3. Conclusions: The increase of retweet frequency through attaching visual cues varied across cycles for original tweets with #CDCGrandRounds and #VitalSigns. Future research is needed to determine the optimal choice of visual cues to maximize the influence of public health tweets
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