Impact of Deferral for Low Hemoglobin on Donor Return

Introduction. A consistent blood supply to support life-saving transfusions relies on regular and repeat volunteer blood donations. In this study, we focused on donors previously deferred for low-hemoglobin (Hb) levels to better understand the value of supplying post-deferral educational information, and the actions donors took based on their deferral. Methods. An anonymous national survey of active and inactive donor groups (10,000 each) was conducted. The survey questions assessed post-deferral donor actions, preferences regarding post deferral education, understanding of their deferral, and demographic information. Chi-square analysis was performed to compare categorical survey results between donor groups with p \u3c 0.05 denoting statistical significance. Results. The survey resulted in 722 and 103 active and inactive donor respons- es, respectively. Active donors were more likely to recall receiving educational materials post-deferral (52% vs. 35%, p=003), take iron and vitamin supplements (54% vs. 39%, p=0.009), lived within 30 min of a donor site (94% vs. 84%, p=0.006), and more likely to be older than 45 yr (62% vs. 42%, p=0.002) than their inactive donor counter- parts. Active and inactive donors were similar (p\u3e0.05) with anemia history frequency, female-gender predominance, low-prevalence of vegans, and mixed interest in receiving information about raising hemoglobin levels. Conclusion. While active donors more frequently recalled receiving educational materials for their low hemoglobin deferral, and were more likely to take action to improve their hemoglobin, an alternative method of post-deferral recruitment should be considered given the uncertain value of post-deferral information when comparing active vs. inactive donors.https://scholarworks.uvm.edu/comphp_gallery/1253/thumbnail.jp

Concert recording 2014-04-27a

[Track 01]. Opening from Glassworks / Philip Glass -- [Track 02]. Beneath the canopy for flute and percussion. The forest beckons / Philip Parker -- [Track 03]. Beneath the canopy for flute and percussion. Rivers gently flowing / Philip Parker -- [Track 04]. Beneath the canopy for flute and percussion. Exotic birds of paradise / Philip Parker -- [Track 05]. Beneath the canopy for flute and percussion. Twilight calmness ; Song of the orchid / Philip Parker -- [Track 06]. Beneath the canopy for flute and percussion. Python dance / Philip Parker -- [Track 07]. Sculpture in wood / Rudiger Pawassar -- [Track 08]. Fear cage / Kirk J. Gay -- [Track 09]. Concerto for marimba and strings. Tempo souple / Emmanuel Sejourne

Spellburst: A Node-based Interface for Exploratory Creative Coding with Natural Language Prompts

Creative coding tasks are often exploratory in nature. When producing digital artwork, artists usually begin with a high-level semantic construct such as a "stained glass filter" and programmatically implement it by varying code parameters such as shape, color, lines, and opacity to produce visually appealing results. Based on interviews with artists, it can be effortful to translate semantic constructs to program syntax, and current programming tools don't lend well to rapid creative exploration. To address these challenges, we introduce Spellburst, a large language model (LLM) powered creative-coding environment. Spellburst provides (1) a node-based interface that allows artists to create generative art and explore variations through branching and merging operations, (2) expressive prompt-based interactions to engage in semantic programming, and (3) dynamic prompt-driven interfaces and direct code editing to seamlessly switch between semantic and syntactic exploration. Our evaluation with artists demonstrates Spellburst's potential to enhance creative coding practices and inform the design of computational creativity tools that bridge semantic and syntactic spaces

Regeneration and poverty: evidence and policy review. Final report

First paragraph: This review assesses the impact of regeneration on poverty. It is one of a series of evidence reviews produced for the Joseph Rowntree Foundation (JRF) as part of a programme of work to develop an anti-poverty strategy for the UK

Expressions 1990

https://openspace.dmacc.edu/expressions/1012/thumbnail.jp

Perturb-Seq: Dissecting Molecular Circuits with Scalable Single-Cell RNA Profiling of Pooled Genetic Screens

Genetic screens help infer gene function in mammalian cells, but it has remained difficult to assay complex phenotypes—such as transcriptional profiles—at scale. Here, we develop Perturb-seq, combining single-cell RNA sequencing (RNA-seq) and clustered regularly interspaced short palindromic repeats (CRISPR)-based perturbations to perform many such assays in a pool. We demonstrate Perturb-seq by analyzing 200,000 cells in immune cells and cell lines, focusing on transcription factors regulating the response of dendritic cells to lipopolysaccharide (LPS). Perturb-seq accurately identifies individual gene targets, gene signatures, and cell states affected by individual perturbations and their genetic interactions. We posit new functions for regulators of differentiation, the anti-viral response, and mitochondrial function during immune activation. By decomposing many high content measurements into the effects of perturbations, their interactions, and diverse cell metadata, Perturb-seq dramatically increases the scope of pooled genomic assays. Keywords: single-cell RNA-seq; pooled screen; CRISPR; epistasis; genetic interaction

Complex host genetics influence the microbiome in inflammatory bowel disease

Background: Human genetics and host-associated microbial communities have been associated independently with a wide range of chronic diseases. One of the strongest associations in each case is inflammatory bowel disease (IBD), but disease risk cannot be explained fully by either factor individually. Recent findings point to interactions between host genetics and microbial exposures as important contributors to disease risk in IBD. These include evidence of the partial heritability of the gut microbiota and the conferral of gut mucosal inflammation by microbiome transplant even when the dysbiosis was initially genetically derived. Although there have been several tests for association of individual genetic loci with bacterial taxa, there has been no direct comparison of complex genome-microbiome associations in large cohorts of patients with an immunity-related disease. Methods: We obtained 16S ribosomal RNA (rRNA) gene sequences from intestinal biopsies as well as host genotype via Immunochip in three independent cohorts totaling 474 individuals. We tested for correlation between relative abundance of bacterial taxa and number of minor alleles at known IBD risk loci, including fine mapping of multiple risk alleles in the Nucleotide-binding oligomerization domain-containing protein 2 (NOD2) gene exon. We identified host polymorphisms whose associations with bacterial taxa were conserved across two or more cohorts, and we tested related genes for enrichment of host functional pathways. Results: We identified and confirmed in two cohorts a significant association between NOD2 risk allele count and increased relative abundance of Enterobacteriaceae, with directionality of the effect conserved in the third cohort. Forty-eight additional IBD-related SNPs have directionality of their associations with bacterial taxa significantly conserved across two or three cohorts, implicating genes enriched for regulation of innate immune response, the JAK-STAT cascade, and other immunity-related pathways. Conclusions: These results suggest complex interactions between genetically altered host functional pathways and the structure of the microbiome. Our findings demonstrate the ability to uncover novel associations from paired genome-microbiome data, and they suggest a complex link between host genetics and microbial dysbiosis in subjects with IBD across independent cohorts. Electronic supplementary material The online version of this article (doi:10.1186/s13073-014-0107-1) contains supplementary material, which is available to authorized users