User-Fee Financing of USDA Meat and Poultry Inspection

USDA's Food Safety and Inspection Service (FSIS) finances about 13.5 percent of its budget outlays through user fees for overtime and unscheduled meat and poultry inspections. User fees play an increasingly important role in financing government programs, and FSIS has frequently requested expanded authority to charge user fees for more of its operations. Congress has consistently rejected the FSIS requests and has placed important restrictions on fees and the uses of fee revenue at those agencies that have been granted more extensive user fee authority. This report surveys the application of user-fees for financing meat and poultry inspection programs in other countries; reviews user-fee systems in other Federal agencies, particularly those with food and agricultural missions or regulatory responsibilities; and discusses the relevant economics literature on the use and design of user fees. Finally, we suggest several elements that should underlie the structure of user fees for meat and poultry inspection, should such a program be introduced. euser fees, meat inspection, public finance, Livestock Production/Industries, Public Economics,

Colocalization of neurons in optical coherence microscopy and Nissl-stained histology in Brodmann’s area 32 and area 21

Published in final edited form as: Brain Struct Funct. 2019 January ; 224(1): 351–362. doi:10.1007/s00429-018-1777-z.Optical coherence tomography is an optical technique that uses backscattered light to highlight intrinsic structure, and when applied to brain tissue, it can resolve cortical layers and fiber bundles. Optical coherence microscopy (OCM) is higher resolution (i.e., 1.25 µm) and is capable of detecting neurons. In a previous report, we compared the correspondence of OCM acquired imaging of neurons with traditional Nissl stained histology in entorhinal cortex layer II. In the current method-oriented study, we aimed to determine the colocalization success rate between OCM and Nissl in other brain cortical areas with different laminar arrangements and cell packing density. We focused on two additional cortical areas: medial prefrontal, pre-genual Brodmann area (BA) 32 and lateral temporal BA 21. We present the data as colocalization matrices and as quantitative percentages. The overall average colocalization in OCM compared to Nissl was 67% for BA 32 (47% for Nissl colocalization) and 60% for BA 21 (52% for Nissl colocalization), but with a large variability across cases and layers. One source of variability and confounds could be ascribed to an obscuring effect from large and dense intracortical fiber bundles. Other technical challenges, including obstacles inherent to human brain tissue, are discussed. Despite limitations, OCM is a promising semi-high throughput tool for demonstrating detail at the neuronal level, and, with further development, has distinct potential for the automatic acquisition of large databases as are required for the human brain.Accepted manuscrip

Protein Antigens Increase the Protective Efficacy of a Capsule-Based Vaccine against Staphylococcus aureus in a Rat Model of Osteomyelitis

Staphylococcus aureus is an invasive bacterial pathogen, and antibiotic resistance has impeded adequate control of infections caused by this microbe. Moreover, efforts to prevent human infections with single-component S. aureus vaccines have failed. In this study, we evaluated the protective efficacy in rats of vaccines containing both S. aureus capsular polysaccharides (CPs) and proteins. The serotypes 5 CP (CP5) and 8 CP (CP8) were conjugated to tetanus toxoid and administered to rats alone or together with domain A of clumping factor A (ClfA) or genetically detoxified alpha-toxin (dHla). The vaccines were delivered according to a preventive or a therapeutic regimen, and their protective efficacy was evaluated in a rat model of osteomyelitis. Addition of dHla (but not ClfA) to the CP5 or CP8 vaccine induced reductions in bacterial load and bone morphological changes compared with immunization with either conjugate vaccine alone. Both the prophylactic and therapeutic regimens were protective. Immunization with dHla together with a pneumococcal conjugate vaccine used as a control did not reduce staphylococcal osteomyelitis. The emergence of unencapsulated or small-colony variants during infection was negligible and similar for all of the vaccine groups. In conclusion, addition of dHla to a CP5 or CP8 conjugate vaccine enhanced its efficacy against S. aureus osteomyelitis, indicating that the inclusion of multiple antigens will likely enhance the efficacy of vaccines against both chronic and acute forms of staphylococcal disease.Fil: Lattar, Santiago Martín. Consejo Nacional de Investigaciones Científicas y Técnicas. Oficina de Coordinación Administrativa Houssay. Instituto de Investigaciones en Microbiología y Parasitología Médica. Universidad de Buenos Aires. Facultad de Medicina. Instituto de Investigaciones en Microbiología y Parasitología Médica; ArgentinaFil: Noto Llana, Mariangeles. Consejo Nacional de Investigaciones Científicas y Técnicas. Oficina de Coordinación Administrativa Houssay. Instituto de Investigaciones en Microbiología y Parasitología Médica. Universidad de Buenos Aires. Facultad de Medicina. Instituto de Investigaciones en Microbiología y Parasitología Médica; ArgentinaFil: Denoël, Philippe. GlaxoSmithKline Vaccines; BélgicaFil: Germain, Sophie. GlaxoSmithKline Vaccines; BélgicaFil: Buzzola, Fernanda Roxana. Consejo Nacional de Investigaciones Científicas y Técnicas. Oficina de Coordinación Administrativa Houssay. Instituto de Investigaciones en Microbiología y Parasitología Médica. Universidad de Buenos Aires. Facultad de Medicina. Instituto de Investigaciones en Microbiología y Parasitología Médica; ArgentinaFil: Lee, Jean C.. Harvard Medical School; Estados UnidosFil: Sordelli, Daniel Oscar. Consejo Nacional de Investigaciones Científicas y Técnicas. Oficina de Coordinación Administrativa Houssay. Instituto de Investigaciones en Microbiología y Parasitología Médica. Universidad de Buenos Aires. Facultad de Medicina. Instituto de Investigaciones en Microbiología y Parasitología Médica; Argentin

The Zwitterionic Cell Wall Teichoic Acid of Staphylococcus aureus Provokes Skin Abscesses in Mice by a Novel CD4+ T-Cell-Dependent Mechanism

Zwitterionic polysaccharide (ZPS) components of the bacterial cell envelope have been shown to exert a major histocompatibility complex (MHC) II-dependent activation of CD4+ T cells, which in turn can modulate the outcome and progression of infections in animal models. We investigated the impact of zwitterionic cell wall teichoic acid (WTA) produced by Staphylococcus aureus on the development of skin abscesses in a mouse model. We also compared the relative biological activities of WTA and capsular polysaccharide (CP), important S. aureus pathogenicity factors, in abscess formation. Expression of both WTA and CP markedly affected the ability of S. aureus to induce skin abscess formation in mice. Purified wild-type zwitterionic WTA was more active in inducing abscess formation than negatively charged mutant WTA or purified CP8. To assess the ability of purified native WTA to stimulate T cell proliferation in vitro, we co-cultivated WTA with human T-cells and antigen presenting cells in the presence and absence of various inhibitors of MHC-II presentation. Wild-type WTA induced T cell proliferation to a significantly greater extent than negatively charged WTA. T cell activation was dependent on the presentation of WTA on MHC II, since inhibitors of MHC II-dependent presentation and antibodies to MHC II significantly reduced T cell proliferation. T cells activated in vitro with wild-type WTA, but not negatively charged WTA, induced abscess formation when injected subcutaneously into wild-type mice. CD4−/− mice similarly injected with WTA failed to develop abscesses. Our results demonstrate that the zwitterionic WTA of S. aureus induces CD4+ T-cell proliferation in an MHCII-dependent manner, which in turn modulates abscess formation in a mouse skin infection model. An understanding of this novel T cell-dependent host response to staphylococcal abscess formation may lead to the development of new strategies to combat S. aureus skin and soft tissue infections

Market Segmentation of Information Systems Academic Programs

Past Information Systems (IS) curriculum studies recognize the importance of the practitioner’s perspective and attempt to incorporate “real world” IS skill requirements within recommended IS model curriculum guidelines. While recent IS curriculum recommendations move towards a greater customer orientation, many practitioners still feel IS education programs are not producing the types of IS professionals needed on their job sites. This raises an important question: Given the significant role that practitioners have played in recommending new curriculum designs, why are IS practitioners not satisfied with the quality and skill training of IS graduates? While many reasons, such as poor curriculum implementation and the rapid change of technology, may contribute to this problem, a significant contributor may be that blanket adoption of national IS model curriculum fails to recognize the basic marketing concept of segmentation. We posit that understanding the customers of IS academic programs in segmented markets should lead to better designed curriculum and accordingly, deliver students that better meet specific market demands. Rather than simply ranking IS employer skill preferences on a national basis, this study relies on the marketing reference discipline for guidance in introducing a market segmentation model and an implementation approach to help bridge the gap between academia and practitioners

Description of a quantum convolutional code

We describe a quantum error correction scheme aimed at protecting a flow of quantum information over long distance communication. It is largely inspired by the theory of classical convolutional codes which are used in similar circumstances in classical communication. The particular example shown here uses the stabilizer formalism, which provides an explicit encoding circuit. An associated error estimation algorithm is given explicitly and shown to provide the most likely error over any memoryless quantum channel, while its complexity grows only linearly with the number of encoded qubits.Comment: 4 pages, uses revtex4. Minor correction in the encoding and decoding circuit