Emergency Management Training for Transportation Agencies

State transportation agencies have a variety of responsibilities related to emergency management. Field personnel manage events--from day-to-day emergencies to disasters--using the Incident Command System (ICS) as their organizational basis. At the headquarters level, the Emergency Operations Center (EOC) coordinates the use of resources across the department and its districts, with other state departments and agencies, and through the federal Emergency Support Function 1. District-level EOCs coordinate with the department. In extreme events, the transportation department may only be able to deliver limited essential services in austere conditions, so a continuity of operations/ continuity of government plan (COOP/COG) is essential. This research applied the principles of andragogy to deliver ICS field level training, EOC training and COOP/COG training to state transportation agency’s staff in all districts and at headquarters. The data supports the need for adult-oriented methods in emergency management training

Efficient Bayesian Structural Equation Modeling in Stan

Structural equation models comprise a large class of popular statistical models, including factor analysis models, certain mixed models, and extensions thereof. Model estimation is complicated by the fact that we typically have multiple interdependent response variables and multiple latent variables (which may also be called random effects or hidden variables), often leading to slow and inefficient MCMC samples. In this paper, we describe and illustrate a general, efficient approach to Bayesian SEM estimation in Stan, contrasting it with previous implementations in R package blavaan (Merkle & Rosseel, 2018). After describing the approaches in detail, we conduct a practical comparison under multiple scenarios. The comparisons show that the new approach is clearly better. We also discuss ways that the approach may be extended to other models that are of interest to psychometricians.Comment: 21 pages, 5 figure

Tracking Paths in Planar Graphs

We consider the NP-complete problem of tracking paths in a graph, first introduced by Banik et al. [Banik et al., 2017]. Given an undirected graph with a source s and a destination t, find the smallest subset of vertices whose intersection with any s-t path results in a unique sequence. In this paper, we show that this problem remains NP-complete when the graph is planar and we give a 4-approximation algorithm in this setting. We also show, via Courcelle\u27s theorem, that it can be solved in linear time for graphs of bounded-clique width, when its clique decomposition is given in advance

Homotransplantation of multiple visceral organs

It was technically possible to perform simultaneous homotransplantation of multiple visceral organs including the liver, spleen, pancreas, omentum and the entire gastrointestinal tract. Arterialization of the cooled graft was accomplished through the donor aorta which was removed with the graft and attached to that of the recipient dog. Gastrointestinal hemorrhage after surgery accounted for a high operative mortality and was thought to be due to denervation of the graft. The five dogs which survived the immediate trauma of surgery lived for five and a half to nine days. After the second day, these animals were physically active and able to resume oral alimentation. In three dogs, there was metabolic evidence of rejection of the liver. In two others, jaundice did not develop. These observations were compared with chemical, hematologic and pathologic data obtained in previous experiments involving homotransplantation of the liver alone. In some cases, there was less evidence of host versus graft rejection after the multiple organ transplants. Other data in the present study suggested the possibility that a significant graft versus host reaction may have been an important contributory cause of death. © 1962

Characterization of DNA binding, transcriptional activation, and regulated nuclear association of recombinant human NFATp

BACKGROUND: NFATp is one member of a family of transcriptional activators whose nuclear accumulation and hence transcriptional activity is regulated in mammalian cells. Human NFATp exists as a phosphoprotein in the cytoplasm of naive T cells. Upon antigen stimulation, NFATp is dephosphorylated, accumulates in nuclei, and functions to regulate transcription of genes including those encoding cytokines. While the properties of the DNA binding domain of NFATp have been investigated in detail, biochemical studies of the transcriptional activation and regulated association with nuclei have remained unexplored because of a lack of full length, purified recombinant NFATp. RESULTS: We developed methods for expressing and purifying full length recombinant human NFATp that has all of the properties known to be associated with native NFATp. The recombinant NFATp binds DNA on its own and cooperatively with AP-1 proteins, activates transcription in vitro, is phosphorylated, can be dephosphorylated by calcineurin, and exhibits regulated association with nuclei in vitro. Importantly, activation by recombinant NFATp in a reconstituted transcription system required regions of the protein outside of the central DNA binding domain. CONCLUSIONS: We conclude that NFATp is a bona fide transcriptional activator. Moreover, the reagents and methods that we developed will facilitate future studies on the mechanisms of transcriptional activation and nuclear accumulation by NFATp, a member of an important family of transcriptional regulatory proteins

Effects of Maraviroc and Efavirenz on Markers of Immune Activation and Inflammation and Associations with CD4+ Cell Rises in HIV-Infected Patients

Maraviroc treatment for HIV-1 infected patients results in larger CD4(+) T cell rises than are attributable to its antiviral activity alone. We investigated whether this is due to modulation of T cell activation and inflammation.Thirty maraviroc-treated patients from the Maraviroc versus Efavirenz Regimens as Initial Therapy (MERIT) study were randomly selected from among those who had CCR5-tropic (R5) HIV on screening and achieved undetectable HIV RNA (<50 copies/mL) by Week 48. Efavirenz-treated controls were matched for baseline characteristics to the maraviroc-treated patients selected for this substudy. Changes in immune activation and inflammation markers were examined for associations with CD4(+) T cell changes. Maraviroc treatment tended to result in more rapid decreases in CD38 expression on CD4(+) T cells and in plasma D-dimer concentrations than did treatment with efavirenz. The proportion of patients with high-sensitivity C-reactive protein >2 µg/mL increased from 45% to 66% in the efavirenz arm, but remained constant in the maraviroc arm (P = 0.033). Decreases in CD38 expression on CD8(+) T cells were correlated with CD4(+) T cell rises for maraviroc treatment (r = -0.4, P = 0.048), but not for treatment with efavirenz.Maraviroc-treated patients had earlier, modest decreases in certain markers of immune activation and inflammation, although in this small study, many of the differences were not statistically significant. Levels of high-sensitivity C-reactive protein remained constant in the maraviroc arm and increased in the efavirenz arm. Decreases in immune activation correlated with increased CD4(+) T cell gains.ClinicalTrials.gov NCT00098293