From Public City to “Philanthropolis”: The Making of the Indianapolis Cultural Trail

poster abstractThe Cultural Trail was brought to life by the Central Indiana Community Foundation (CICF), a local philanthropy, with the city acting mainly as a consultant. Beginning in 1999, as a way to highlight different sections of the city, six cultural districts were established and the Indianapolis Cultural Trail emerged as a biking and pedestrian path to link these communities. The Central Indiana Community Foundation provided the primary impetus for the Cultural Trail. The route and design standards were driven by CICF with city staff members participating in the planning process primarily as invited guests, rather than as the main drivers of the project. Since the establishment of the Cultural Trail, city officials and local businesses have raised questions as to what entity is actually responsible for its upkeep. In addition to tracing the history of the Cultural Trail and looking at the issue of trail maintenance, another member of our team is analyzing the link between the multiple uses of the trail and economic growth for the city. Our primary objective in this research is to document and understand the implications of this new model of philanthropic development by using downtown Indianapolis as our study site

Tshiluba Language Structures

This poster provides a preliminary description of the linguistic features of Tshiluba (also known as Luba-Kasai), a major language spoken in the south-central, Kasai region of the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) and by several refugee families in the Boise area. Tshiluba is characterized as an Atlantic-Congo, Narrow Bantu, Central language (L31) within the Niger-Congo language family and, although it is spoken by over 6 million people and enjoys national language status in DRC, it has not received extensive recent attention in the linguistic literature. Over the course of a semester, our group has met with native speakers of Tshiluba to document the phonological, morphological, and syntactic features of the language as well as several semantic domains of interest. The analysis of these features, along with recordings made by our group, serves the greater linguistic community by providing theoretical linguists with new language data to support their research. It will also serve the Tshiluba community in the diaspora by providing documentation and archived recordings of this language for future generations to access. One goal in the community is to encourage the development of teaching materials to support others interested in learning the language

Guidelines for Diagnosis and Management of Infective Endocarditis in Adults: A WikiGuidelines Group Consensus Statement.

IMPORTANCE Practice guidelines often provide recommendations in which the strength of the recommendation is dissociated from the quality of the evidence. OBJECTIVE To create a clinical guideline for the diagnosis and management of adult bacterial infective endocarditis (IE) that addresses the gap between the evidence and recommendation strength. EVIDENCE REVIEW This consensus statement and systematic review applied an approach previously established by the WikiGuidelines Group to construct collaborative clinical guidelines. In April 2022 a call to new and existing members was released electronically (social media and email) for the next WikiGuidelines topic, and subsequently, topics and questions related to the diagnosis and management of adult bacterial IE were crowdsourced and prioritized by vote. For each topic, PubMed literature searches were conducted including all years and languages. Evidence was reported according to the WikiGuidelines charter: clear recommendations were established only when reproducible, prospective, controlled studies provided hypothesis-confirming evidence. In the absence of such data, clinical reviews were crafted discussing the risks and benefits of different approaches. FINDINGS A total of 51 members from 10 countries reviewed 587 articles and submitted information relevant to 4 sections: establishing the diagnosis of IE (9 questions); multidisciplinary IE teams (1 question); prophylaxis (2 questions); and treatment (5 questions). Of 17 unique questions, a clear recommendation could only be provided for 1 question: 3 randomized clinical trials have established that oral transitional therapy is at least as effective as intravenous (IV)-only therapy for the treatment of IE. Clinical reviews were generated for the remaining questions. CONCLUSIONS AND RELEVANCE In this consensus statement that applied the WikiGuideline method for clinical guideline development, oral transitional therapy was at least as effective as IV-only therapy for the treatment of IE. Several randomized clinical trials are underway to inform other areas of practice, and further research is needed

Silencing of Vlaro2 for chorismate synthase revealed that the phytopathogen Verticillium longisporum induces the cross-pathway control in the xylem

The first leaky auxotrophic mutant for aromatic amino acids of the near-diploid fungal plant pathogen Verticillium longisporum (VL) has been generated. VL enters its host Brassica napus through the roots and colonizes the xylem vessels. The xylem contains little nutrients including low concentrations of amino acids. We isolated the gene Vlaro2 encoding chorismate synthase by complementation of the corresponding yeast mutant strain. Chorismate synthase produces the first branch point intermediate of aromatic amino acid biosynthesis. A novel RNA-mediated gene silencing method reduced gene expression of both isogenes by 80% and resulted in a bradytrophic mutant, which is a leaky auxotroph due to impaired expression of chorismate synthase. In contrast to the wild type, silencing resulted in increased expression of the cross-pathway regulatory gene VlcpcA (similar to cpcA/GCN4) during saprotrophic life. The mutant fungus is still able to infect the host plant B. napus and the model Arabidopsis thaliana with reduced efficiency. VlcpcA expression is increased in planta in the mutant and the wild-type fungus. We assume that xylem colonization requires induction of the cross-pathway control, presumably because the fungus has to overcome imbalanced amino acid supply in the xylem

Impact of COVID-19 on cardiovascular testing in the United States versus the rest of the world

Objectives: This study sought to quantify and compare the decline in volumes of cardiovascular procedures between the United States and non-US institutions during the early phase of the coronavirus disease-2019 (COVID-19) pandemic. Background: The COVID-19 pandemic has disrupted the care of many non-COVID-19 illnesses. Reductions in diagnostic cardiovascular testing around the world have led to concerns over the implications of reduced testing for cardiovascular disease (CVD) morbidity and mortality. Methods: Data were submitted to the INCAPS-COVID (International Atomic Energy Agency Non-Invasive Cardiology Protocols Study of COVID-19), a multinational registry comprising 909 institutions in 108 countries (including 155 facilities in 40 U.S. states), assessing the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on volumes of diagnostic cardiovascular procedures. Data were obtained for April 2020 and compared with volumes of baseline procedures from March 2019. We compared laboratory characteristics, practices, and procedure volumes between U.S. and non-U.S. facilities and between U.S. geographic regions and identified factors associated with volume reduction in the United States. Results: Reductions in the volumes of procedures in the United States were similar to those in non-U.S. facilities (68% vs. 63%, respectively; p = 0.237), although U.S. facilities reported greater reductions in invasive coronary angiography (69% vs. 53%, respectively; p < 0.001). Significantly more U.S. facilities reported increased use of telehealth and patient screening measures than non-U.S. facilities, such as temperature checks, symptom screenings, and COVID-19 testing. Reductions in volumes of procedures differed between U.S. regions, with larger declines observed in the Northeast (76%) and Midwest (74%) than in the South (62%) and West (44%). Prevalence of COVID-19, staff redeployments, outpatient centers, and urban centers were associated with greater reductions in volume in U.S. facilities in a multivariable analysis. Conclusions: We observed marked reductions in U.S. cardiovascular testing in the early phase of the pandemic and significant variability between U.S. regions. The association between reductions of volumes and COVID-19 prevalence in the United States highlighted the need for proactive efforts to maintain access to cardiovascular testing in areas most affected by outbreaks of COVID-19 infection

Mining biodiversity databases establishes a global baseline of cosmopolitan Insecta mOTUs: a case study on Platygastroidea (Hymenoptera) with consequences for biological control programs

In the past decade, several platygastroid biological control agents were found to be adventive in North America and Europe while under evaluation in quarantine. The scope and relative risk of this phenomenon is not fully known, but it is clearly a trend with implications for classical biological control. As a means of assessing the issue, and providing a global baseline, we implemented a data-mining approach with DNA sequences in the Barcode of Life Database, which yielded 201 platygastroid BINs with intercontinental and island distributions. At least fifty-five BINs displayed exact COI barcode matches across continents, with many more BINs being inconclusive due to sequence length variation. These intercontinental and island BINs include biocontrol agents known to be adventive and many species identified only to genus. We provide 2,500 identifications for platygastroid BOLD BINs, 88% to genus, to encourage additional research on this distributional phenomenon. The intercontinental BOLD BINs were compared to literature records and GBIF occurrences of cosmopolitan species to identify gaps and discordance across data sources. A small COI barcode dataset from localities in Florida and Germany, including topotypical specimens, revealed more intercontinental matches. To assess the scale of intercontinental distributions for host taxa, and to examine the scale for a broader range of taxa, we analyzed COI sequences in BOLD for the entirety of Insecta. The discovery that adventive parasitoids are following their invasive hosts has important implications for biosecurity and biological control and may lead to an increased emphasis on early detection

Mining biodiversity databases establishes a global baseline of cosmopolitan Insecta mOTUs: a case study on Platygastroidea (Hymenoptera) with consequences for biological control programs

In the past decade, several species of platygastroid wasps were found to be adventive in North America and Europe while under evaluation in quarantine as biological control agents of invasive pests. The scope and relative risk of this phenomenon is not fully known, but it is clearly a trend with implications for classical biological control. As a means of assessing the issue and to provide a global baseline, we implemented a data-mining approach with DNA sequences in the Barcode of Life Database, yielding 201 platygastroid BINs with intercontinental and island distributions. At least fifty-five BINs displayed exact COI barcode matches across continents, with many more BINs scored as inconclusive due to sequence length variation. These intercontinental and island BINs include biocontrol agents known to be adventive, as well as many species identified only to genus with uncertain geographic origins. We provide 2,500 identifications for platygastroid BOLD BINs, 88% to genus, to encourage additional research on this distributional phenomenon. The intercontinental BOLD BINs were compared to literature records and GBIF occurrences of cosmopolitan species to identify gaps and discordance across data sources. Smaller COI barcode datasets from localities in Florida and Germany, including topotypical specimens, revealed more intercontinental matches. We analyzed COI sequences in BOLD for the entirety of Insecta and Araneae to assess this phenomenon more broadly and because these taxa contain many hosts for platygastroid wasps. This method revealed that the intercontinental distribution phenomenon is widespread with implications for assessing biological diversity, taxonomic methodology and regulatory frameworks

Clinical Impact of a Real-Time PCR Assay for Rapid Identification of Staphylococcal Bacteremia

The purpose of this study was to evaluate the impact of real-time PCR reporting both on timely identification of clustered Gram-positive cocci (GPC) in blood cultures and on appropriate antibiotic treatment. This retrospective, interventional cohort study evaluated inpatients with blood cultures positive for GPC in the pre-PCR (15 January 2009 to 14 January 2010) and post-PCR (15 January 2010 to 14 January 2011) periods. Post-PCR implementation, laboratory services completed batched PCR; results other than methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus (MRSA) were reported in the electronic medical record without additional interventions. The assay's sensitivity and specificity, time to identification of staphylococcal bacteremia, and clinically relevant outcomes, including time to optimal antibiotic therapy, were evaluated. Demographic information was also collected and analyzed. Sixty-eight and 58 patients with Staphylococcus aureus bacteremia from the pre- and post-PCR periods, respectively, met inclusion criteria. Similar numbers of consecutive patients with coagulase-negative staphylococci were analyzed for comparison. The time to identification was significantly reduced post-PCR implementation (mean, 13.2 h; 95% confidence interval [95% CI], 10.5 to 15.9 h; P < 0.0001). However, the time to optimal antibiotic therapy was not significantly reduced. We conclude that implementation of a PCR assay demonstrated the potential to improve appropriate antibiotic use based on clinically meaningful and statistically significant reductions in the time to microbiologic identification. However, in order to realize this potential benefit, processes must be optimized and additional interventions initiated to facilitate providers' use of the PCR result

Guidelines for Diagnosis and Management of Infective Endocarditis in Adults: A WikiGuidelines Group Consensus Statement.

IMPORTANCE: Practice guidelines often provide recommendations in which the strength of the recommendation is dissociated from the quality of the evidence. OBJECTIVE: To create a clinical guideline for the diagnosis and management of adult bacterial infective endocarditis (IE) that addresses the gap between the evidence and recommendation strength. EVIDENCE REVIEW: This consensus statement and systematic review applied an approach previously established by the WikiGuidelines Group to construct collaborative clinical guidelines. In April 2022 a call to new and existing members was released electronically (social media and email) for the next WikiGuidelines topic, and subsequently, topics and questions related to the diagnosis and management of adult bacterial IE were crowdsourced and prioritized by vote. For each topic, PubMed literature searches were conducted including all years and languages. Evidence was reported according to the WikiGuidelines charter: clear recommendations were established only when reproducible, prospective, controlled studies provided hypothesis-confirming evidence. In the absence of such data, clinical reviews were crafted discussing the risks and benefits of different approaches. FINDINGS: A total of 51 members from 10 countries reviewed 587 articles and submitted information relevant to 4 sections: establishing the diagnosis of IE (9 questions); multidisciplinary IE teams (1 question); prophylaxis (2 questions); and treatment (5 questions). Of 17 unique questions, a clear recommendation could only be provided for 1 question: 3 randomized clinical trials have established that oral transitional therapy is at least as effective as intravenous (IV)-only therapy for the treatment of IE. Clinical reviews were generated for the remaining questions. CONCLUSIONS AND RELEVANCE: In this consensus statement that applied the WikiGuideline method for clinical guideline development, oral transitional therapy was at least as effective as IV-only therapy for the treatment of IE. Several randomized clinical trials are underway to inform other areas of practice, and further research is needed