An early Portuguese mariner's astrolabe from the Sodré Wreck‐site, Al Hallaniyah, Oman

A unique leaded‐gunmetal disc decorated with iconic Portuguese markings was recovered in 2014 during archaeological excavations at the Sodré shipwreck site in Al Hallaniyah, Oman. Initially the identity and function of the disc was unknown, although it did possess characteristics suggesting it could be an astrolabe. Laser imaging of the disc post conservation revealed regular scale marks on the limb of its upper right quadrant. Accurate digital measurements of the marks show them to be graded at close to 5‐degree intervals, thus confirming the identity of the disc as a mariner's astrolabe and the earliest known example discovered to date

A Persistent Simulation Environment for Autonomous Systems

The age of Autonomous Unmanned Aircraft Systems (AUAS) is creating new challenges for the accreditation and certification requiring new standards, policies and procedures that sanction whether a UAS is safe to fly. Establishing a basis for certification of autonomous systems via research into trust and trustworthiness is the focus of Autonomy Teaming and TRAjectories for Complex Trusted Operational Reliability (ATTRACTOR), a new NASA Convergent Aeronautics Solution (CAS) project. Simulation Environments to test and evaluate AUAS decision making may be a low-cost solution to help certify that various AUAS systems are trustworthy enough to be allowed to fly in current general and commercial aviation airspace. NASA is working to build a peer-to-peer persistent simulation (P3 Sim) environment. The P3 Sim will be a Massively Multiplayer Online (MMO) environment were AUAS avatars can interact with a complex dynamic environment and each other. The focus of the effort is to provide AUAS researchers a low-cost intuitive testing environment that will aid training for and assessment of decisions made by autonomous systems such as AUAS. This presentation focuses on the design approach and challenges faced in development of the P3 Sim Environment is support of investigating trustworthiness of autonomous systems

Distributional Impacts of Retail Vaccine Availability

We examine the potential for exploiting retailer location choice in targeting health interventions. Using geospatial data, we quantify proximity to vaccines created by a U.S. federal program distributing COVID-19 vaccines to commercial retail pharmacies. We assess the distributional impacts of a proposal to provide vaccines at Dollar General, a low-priced general merchandise retailer. Adding Dollar General to the federal program would substantially decrease the distance to vaccine sites for low-income, rural, and minority U.S. households, groups for which COVID-19 vaccine take-up has been disproportionately slow

Understanding supply chain security strategy

In the post-9/11 environment, organizations are acutely aware of the need to secure their supply chains from risks of being a target of, or an unwilling participant in, a terror attack. However, supply chain security (SCS) comes at a cost and increasing levels of protection have increasing levels of costs to the firm. So some firms engage in strategic initiatives to secure the supply chain (SC) while others do not; and each firm engages in varying degrees of activities to ensure SCS. Therefore, in this study, the researchers sought to explore what types of SCS strategies exist. The researchers analyze 162 responses to a SCS survey completed by executives from a broad range of firms and industries and identify three general SCS strategies: Advanced, Laggards, and Compliant. Implications for researchers and practitioners are presented

Trauma Immediately Preceding REM-Behavior Disorder:A Valuable Prognostic Marker?

Background: The definition of rapid eye movement (REM) sleep behavior disorder (RBD) has varied over the years. Rapid eye movement sleep behavior disorder can be considered isolated or idiopathic or can occur in the context of other disorders, including trauma-associated sleep disorder (TSD) and overlap parasomnia. However, whether trauma in RBD carries any prognostic specificity is currently unknown. Study Objectives: To test the hypothesis that RBD secondary to trauma is less likely to result in the development of neurodegeneration compared to idiopathic RBD (iRBD) without trauma in the general population. Methods: A retrospective cohort study of 122 consecutive RBD patients (103 males) at two tertiary sleep clinics in Europe between 2005 and 2020 was studied. Patients were diagnosed as having iRBD by video polysomnography (vPSG) and had a semi-structured interview at presentation, including specifically eliciting any history of trauma. Patients with secondary RBD to recognized causes were excluded from the study. Patients with iRBD were categorized into three groups according to reported trauma history: (1) No history of trauma, (2) traumatic experience at least 12 months prior to RBD symptom onset, and (3) traumatic experience within 12 months of RBD symptom onset. Idiopathic RBD duration was defined as the interval between estimated onset of RBD symptoms and last hospital visit or death. Follow-up duration was defined as the interval between iRBD diagnosis and last hospital visit or death. Results: In a follow-up period of up to 18 years, no patient who experienced trauma within 12 months preceding their iRBD diagnosis received a diagnosis of a neurodegenerative disorder (n = 35), whereas 38% of patients without trauma within the 12 months of symptom onset developed a neurodegenerative illness. These patients were also significantly more likely to have a family history of α-synucleinopathy or tauopathy. Conclusions: The development of RBD within 12 months of experiencing a traumatic life event, indistinguishable clinically from iRBD, did not lead to phenoconversion to a neurodegenerative disorder even after 18 years (mean follow up 6 years). We suggest that a sub-type of RBD be established and classified as secondary RBD due to trauma. Additionally, we advocate that a thorough psychological and trauma history be undertaken in all patients presenting with dream enactment behaviors (DEB)

High-Throughput and Cost-Effective Characterization of Induced Pluripotent Stem Cells.

Reprogramming somatic cells to induced pluripotent stem cells (iPSCs) offers the possibility of studying the molecular mechanisms underlying human diseases in cell types difficult to extract from living patients, such as neurons and cardiomyocytes. To date, studies have been published that use small panels of iPSC-derived cell lines to study monogenic diseases. However, to study complex diseases, where the genetic variation underlying the disorder is unknown, a sizable number of patient-specific iPSC lines and controls need to be generated. Currently the methods for deriving and characterizing iPSCs are time consuming, expensive, and, in some cases, descriptive but not quantitative. Here we set out to develop a set of simple methods that reduce cost and increase throughput in the characterization of iPSC lines. Specifically, we outline methods for high-throughput quantification of surface markers, gene expression analysis of in vitro differentiation potential, and evaluation of karyotype with markedly reduced cost

Enhanced Approaches for Identifying Amadori Products: Application to Peanut Allergens

The dry roasting of peanuts is suggested to influence allergic sensitization as a result of the formation of advanced glycation end products (AGEs) on peanut proteins. Identifying AGEs is technically challenging. The AGEs of a peanut allergen were probed with nano-scale liquid chromatography−electrospray ionization−mass spectrometry (nanoLC−ESI−MS) and tandem mass spectrometry (MS/MS) analyses. Amadori product ions matched to expected peptides and yielded fragments that included a loss of three waters and HCHO. As a result of the paucity of b and y ions in the MS/MS spectrum, standard search algorithms do not perform well. Reactions with isotopically labeled sugars confirmed that the peptides contained Amadori products. An algorithm was developed on the basis of information content (Shannon entropy) and the loss of water and HCHO. Results with test data show that the algorithm finds the correct spectra with high precision, reducing the time needed to manually inspect data. Computational and technical improvements allowed for better identification of the chemical differences between modified and unmodified proteins

Approaches toward Sustainable Forage-Livestock Systems: Strip-Planting a Legume into a Warm-Season Perennial Grass Pasture

Despite the demonstrated potential of rhizoma peanut (Arachis glabrata Benth.; RP) for grazing in the southeastern USA (Ortega-S. et al. 1992), high establishment cost and removal of land from production during establishment have limited its use to primarily hay production systems. The premise of this experiment is that strip-planting RP in existing bahiagrass (Paspalum notatum Flügge) pastures offers the opportunity to use grass forage during the legume establishment phase so that land need not be totally removed from grazing, while allowing successful establishment of the legume

Field triage for endovascular stroke therapy: a population-based comparison

BackgroundEndovascular therapy (EVT) for stroke improves outcomes but is time sensitive.ObjectiveTo compare times to treatment and outcomes between patients taken to the closest primary stroke center (PSC) with those triaged in the field to a more distant comprehensive stroke center (CSC).MethodsDuring the study, a portion of our region allowed field triage of patients who met severity criteria to a more distant CSC than the closest PSC. The remaining patients were transported to the closest PSC. We compared times to treatment and clinical outcomes between those two groups. Additionally, we performed a matched-pairs analysis of patients from both groups on stroke severity and distance to CSC.ResultsOver 2 years, 232 patients met inclusion criteria and were closest from the field to a PSC; 144 were taken to the closest PSC and 88 to the more distant CSC. The median additional transport time to the CSC was 7 min. Times from scene departure to alteplase and arterial puncture were faster in the direct group (50 vs 62 min; 93 vs 152 min; p<0.001 for both). Among patients who were independent before the stroke, the OR for less disability in the direct group was 1.47 (95% CI 1.13 to 1.93, p=0.003), and 2.06 (95% CI 1.10 to 3.89, p=0.01) for the matched pairs.ConclusionsIn a densely populated setting, for patients with stroke who are EVT candidates and closest to a PSC from the field, triage to a slightly more distant CSC is associated with faster time to EVT, no delay to alteplase, and less disability at 90 days