Agricultural Byproducts as Amendments in Bioretention Soils for Metal and Nutrient Removal

This study investigated the effectiveness of metal and nutrient removal from stormwater in bioretention systems amended with agricultural byproducts. Both batch and column studies were conducted to evaluate three amendments: hazelnut shells, pecan shells, and spent grain from the brewing process. Batch studies using buffered synthetic water containing copper and zinc evaluated adsorptive properties of the three amendments. Of the three amendments, hazelnut shells had the highest sorption coefficient based on Kd ranges of 19,200–106,000 L=kg and 8,610–18,900 L=kg for zinc and copper, respectively. Both pecan shells and spent grain had significantly lower Kd values for zinc (2,160–6,030 L=kg and 1,702–55,932 L=kg for pecan shells and spent grain, respectively) and copper (1,090–1,760 L=kg and 1,270–2,030 L=kg for pecan shells and spent grain, respectively). However, the spent grain contained zinc that potentially could add to zinc concentrations in the stormwater. Column studies using stormwater collected from an industrial site evaluated metal and nutrient removal from stormwater. Six columns were packed with 90% bioretention soil mix and 10% hazelnut shells, pecan shells, or spent grain, and two columns were packed with 100% bioretention soil mix as a control. Five tests were conducted with stormwater collected from a nearby industrial site. Influent and effluent samples were analyzed for copper, zinc, nitrate, ammonia, total nitrogen, phosphate, and total phosphorus. The columns with pecan shells had the highest removal, with 53% removal of copper and 87% removal of zinc. Removal in the columns with hazelnut shells and spent grain was 47% and 19% for copper and 83% and 65% for zinc, respectively. All columns exported nutrients. Although hazelnut shells had the highest sorption coefficient, the pecan shells removed more metals from the stormwater. This study indicates both hazelnut and pecan shells improve metals removal potential of bioretention systems. DOI: 10.1061/(ASCE)EE.1943-7870.0001697. © 2020 American Society of Civil Engineers

Strategic Recommendations For Sherwin Williams

Our project objective was to provide Sherwin Williams with a comprehensive and well researched recommendation to aid recruitment efforts for their Management Trainee Program, as well as increase employee retention. Our team’s primary research was centered around benchmarking Sherwin Williams’ business related practices with those of similar retail companies and employees. Specifically, the research was focused on company culture, training and support, employee referrals, and treatment of part-time employees of the different organizations. To complete the benchmarking effectively, our team created two variations of a survey design to capture the necessary feedback and data. After analyzing our primary research and referring back to our secondary research, we focused our recommendations on increasing Sherwin’s corporate reputation to prospective new hires by utilizing and embracing their employer brand image. To better communicate their employer brand image, they will need to be interacting in a more communicative and engaging manner on social media. Our main recommendation for Sherwin Williams is to create employee testimonial videos that showcase their culture, and how much employees value their jobs at Sherwin. We also recommended that Sherwin Williams engage more with potential applicants on social media, while utilizing a company-wide mindset

The Evolving Paradigm of Antibody-Drug Conjugates Targeting the ErbB/HER Family of Receptor Tyrosine Kinases

Current therapies targeting the human epidermal growth factor receptor (HER) family, including monoclonal antibodies (mAbs) and tyrosine kinase inhibitors (TKIs), are limited by drug resistance and systemic toxicities. Antibody-drug conjugates (ADCs) are one of the most rapidly expanding classes of anti-cancer therapeutics with 13 presently approved by the FDA. Importantly, ADCs represent a promising therapeutic option with the potential to overcome traditional HER-targeted therapy resistance by delivering highly potent cytotoxins specifically to HER-overexpressing cancer cells and exerting both mAb- and payload-mediated antitumor efficacy. The clinical utility of HER-targeted ADCs is exemplified by the immense success of HER2-targeted ADCs including trastuzumab emtansine and trastuzumab deruxtecan. Still, strategies to improve upon existing HER2-targeted ADCs as well as the development of ADCs against other HER family members, particularly EGFR and HER3, are of great interest. To date, no HER4-targeting ADCs have been reported. In this review, we extensively detail clinical-stage EGFR-, HER2-, and HER3-targeting monospecific ADCs as well as novel clinical and pre-clinical bispecific ADCs (bsADCs) directed against this receptor family. We close by discussing nascent trends in the development of HER-targeting ADCs, including novel ADC payloads and HER ligand-targeted ADCs

Buddleja Cultivar Identification Using Microsatellite Markers

Buddleja (butterfly bush) is a genus of common landscape plants in temperate and subtropical gardens. Substantial breeding has led to a wealth of diverse cultivars with varied pedigrees. Molecular markers would be useful tools for breeders and others studying butterfly bush to identify cultivars. We evaluated SSR markers developed in Buddleja to fingerprint 11 cultivars to determine whether they were useful in cultivar identification. Markers Bud_03, Bud_10, and Bud_13 were polymorphic across all genotypes in the study and capable of accurate cultivar identification. These markers may be useful to breeders for intellectual property protection and to identify cultivars in instances of mislabeling

Approximate Controllability for Linear Stochastic Differential Equations in Infinite Dimensions

The objective of the paper is to investigate the approximate controllability property of a linear stochastic control system with values in a separable real Hilbert space. In a first step we prove the existence and uniqueness for the solution of the dual linear backward stochastic differential equation. This equation has the particularity that in addition to an unbounded operator acting on the Y-component of the solution there is still another one acting on the Z-component. With the help of this dual equation we then deduce the duality between approximate controllability and observability. Finally, under the assumption that the unbounded operator acting on the state process of the forward equation is an infinitesimal generator of an exponentially stable semigroup, we show that the generalized Hautus test provides a necessary condition for the approximate controllability. The paper generalizes former results by Buckdahn, Quincampoix and Tessitore (2006) and Goreac (2007) from the finite dimensional to the infinite dimensional case.Comment: 31 pages, submitted to AM

Tilsotolimod Exploits the TLR9 Pathway to Promote Antigen Presentation and Type 1 IFN Signaling in Solid Tumors: A Multicenter International Phase I/II Trial (ILLUMINATE-101)

PURPOSE: Tilsotolimod is an investigational synthetic Toll-like receptor 9 (TLR9) agonist that has demonstrated antitumor activity in preclinical models. The ILLUMINATE-101 phase I study explored the safety, dose, efficacy, and immune effects of intratumoral (it) tilsotolimod monotherapy in multiple solid tumors. PATIENTS AND METHODS: Patients with a diagnosis of refractory cancer not amenable to curative therapies received tilsotolimod in doses escalating from 8 to 32 mg into a single lesion at weeks 1, 2, 3, 5, 8, and 11. Additional patients with advanced malignant melanoma were enrolled into an expansion cohort at the 8 mg dose. Objectives included characterizing the safety, establishing the dose, efficacy, and immunologic assessment. Blood samples and tumor biopsies of injected and noninjected lesions were obtained at baseline and 24 hours after treatment for immune analyses. RESULTS: Thirty-eight and 16 patients were enrolled into the dose escalation and melanoma expansion cohorts, respectively. Deep visceral injections were conducted in 91% of patients. No dose-limiting toxicities (DLT) or grade 4 treatment-related adverse events were observed. Biopsies 24 hours after treatment demonstrated an increased IFN pathway signature and dendritic cell maturation. Immunologic profiling revealed upregulation of IFN-signaling genes and modulation of genes for checkpoint proteins. In the dose escalation cohort, 12 (34%) of 35 evaluable patients achieved a best overall response rate (ORR) of stable disease (SD), whereas 3 (19%) of 16 evaluable patients in the melanoma cohort achieved stable disease. CONCLUSIONS: Overall, tilsotolimod monotherapy was generally well tolerated and induced rapid, robust alterations in the tumor microenvironment. See related commentary by Punekar and Weber, p. 5007

Differentiated HIV services for transgender people in four South African districts: population characteristics and HIV care cascade.

INTRODUCTION: Transgender people in South Africa are disproportionately affected by HIV, discrimination and stigma. Access to healthcare and health outcomes are poor. Although integrating gender-affirming healthcare with differentiated HIV prevention, care and treatment services has shown improvement in HIV service uptake and health outcomes among transgender people, evidence is lacking on the implementation of differentiated service delivery models in southern Africa. This article describes a differentiated service delivery model across four South African sites and transgender individuals who access these services. We assess whether hormone therapy (HT) is associated with continued use of pre-exposure prophylaxis (PrEP) and viral load suppression. METHODS: In 2019, differentiated healthcare centres for transgender individuals opened in four South African districts, providing gender-affirming healthcare and HIV services at a primary healthcare level. Routine programme data were collected between October 2019 and June 2021. Descriptive statistics summarized patient characteristics and engagement with HIV prevention and treatment services. We conducted a multivariate logistic regression analysis to determine whether HT was associated with viral load suppression and PrEP continued use. RESULTS: In the review period, we reached 5636 transgender individuals through peer outreach services; 86% (4829/5636) of them accepted an HIV test and 62% (3535/5636) were linked to clinical services. Among these, 89% (3130/3535) were transgender women, 5% (192/3535) were transgender men and 6% (213/3535) were gender non-conforming individuals. Of those who received an HIV test, 14% (687/4829) tested positive and 91% of those initiated antiretroviral treatment. Viral load suppression was 75% in this cohort. PrEP was accepted by 28% (1165/4142) of those who tested negative. Five percent (161/3535) reported ever receiving HT through the public healthcare system. Service users who received HT were three-fold more likely to achieve viral load suppression. We did not find any association between HT and continued use of PrEP. CONCLUSIONS: A differentiated HIV and gender-affirming service delivery model at a primary healthcare level is feasible and can enhance service access in South Africa. HT can improve HIV clinical outcomes for transgender people. As trust is established between the providers and population, uptake of HIV testing and related services may increase further

Do Patient Expectations Represent a More Important Clinical Difference? A Study of Surgical Outcomes in the Cervical Spine

Objective This study aims to compare the impact of achieving an MCID or meeting preoperative expectations on patient satisfaction following cervical spine procedures. Methods A surgical database was retrospectively reviewed for cervical spine surgery patients from 2016 to 2020. Inclusion criteria were primary or revision, single- or multilevel cervical disc arthroplasty or anterior cervical discectomy and fusions (ACDF). Visual analogue scale (VAS) neck and arm pain was assessed preoperatively and postoperatively (6-week, 12-weeks, 6-months, 1-year). Preoperative patient expectation and postoperative satisfaction were recorded. MCID achievement was determined using previously established values. Expectations met and MCID achievement were compared as possible predictors of satisfaction. Results One hundred and six cervical spine patients were included. Both meeting expectations and achieving MCID were significant predictors of satisfaction for arm pain at 6-weeks and 12-weeks (all p≤0.007). Achieving MCID significantly predicted satisfaction for neck pain at all timepoints (all p≤0.007) and meeting expectations predicted satisfaction for neck pain at 6-weeks, 12-weeks, and 1-year (all p≤0.003). Comparison of coefficients revealed no significant difference in effect size between meeting expectations and achievement of MCID as predictors of patient satisfaction (all p>0.050). Conclusion MCID achievement and meeting expectations were significant predictors of satisfaction for neck pain and short-term arm pain. Both measures may be similarly useful for interpretation of patient outcomes and the optimal choice of metric may depend on practice-specific factors

Key questions in marine mammal bioenergetics

This work was funded by the Marine Mammal Commission (MMC19-173). The Office of Naval Research funded the bioenergetic workshop (N000142012392) that provided support for this work.Bioenergetic approaches are increasingly used to understand how marine mammal populations could be affected by a changing and disturbed aquatic environment. There remain considerable gaps in our knowledge of marine mammal bioenergetics, which hinder the application of bioenergetic studies to inform policy decisions. We conducted a priority-setting exercise to identify high-priority unanswered questions in marine mammal bioenergetics, with an emphasis on questions relevant to conservation and management. Electronic communication and a virtual workshop were used to solicit and collate potential research questions from the marine mammal bioenergetic community. From a final list of 39 questions, 11 were identified as ‘key’ questions because they received votes from at least 50% of survey participants. Key questions included those related to energy intake (prey landscapes, exposure to human activities) and expenditure (field metabolic rate, exposure to human activities, lactation, time-activity budgets), energy allocation priorities, metrics of body condition and relationships with survival and reproductive success and extrapolation of data from one species to another. Existing tools to address key questions include labelled water, animal-borne sensors, mark-resight data from long-term research programs, environmental DNA and unmanned vehicles. Further validation of existing approaches and development of new methodologies are needed to comprehensively address some key questions, particularly for cetaceans. The identification of these key questions can provide a guiding framework to set research priorities, which ultimately may yield more accurate information to inform policies and better conserve marine mammal populations.Publisher PDFPeer reviewe

Beyond the call of duty: Why customers contribute to firm-hosted commercial online communities

Firm-hosted commercial online communities, in which customers interact to solve each other's service problems, represent a fascinating context to study the motivations of collective action in the form of knowledge contribution to the community. We extend a model of social capital based on Wasko and Faraj (2005) to incorporate and contrast the direct impact of commitment to both the online community and the host firm, as well as reciprocity, on quality and quantity of knowledge contribution. In addition, we examine the moderating influence of three individual attributes that are particularly relevant to the firm-hosted community context: perceived informational value, sportsmanship, and online interaction propensity. We empirically test our framework using self-reported and objective data from 203 members of a firm-hosted technical support community. In addition to several interesting moderating effects, we find that a customer's online interaction propensity, commitment to the community, and the informational value s/he perceives in the community are the strongest drivers of knowledge contribution