West Nile Virus control in Allegheny County: difficulties in utilization of the Vector Index for prediction

West Nile Virus is a mosquito-borne pathogen first discovered in Uganda in 1937. The virus was detected in the new world in 1999 in New York City, and has since spread throughout the continental United States as well as parts of Canada, Mexico, and South America. Because of the high percentage of asymptomatic cases, human surveillance alone is inadequate for West Nile Virus. Therefore, programs in the United States, including one in Allegheny County, Pennsylvania perform mosquito surveillance activities in order to find high-risk areas for human transmission. In this study, the mosquito surveillance program findings are presented for 2015. In addition, the vector index measure is used as a possible quantitative method for comparing West Nile Virus risk between the eastern neighborhoods of Pittsburgh. By aiming to increase understanding of the West Nile Virus risk in Allegheny County in 2015 and testing a quantitative method of risk comparison, this study provides public health relevance. Between May and September 2015, 562 gravid mosquito traps were set in Allegheny County. West Nile Virus was detected in samples from 172 of these traps; the highest percentage of positive traps seen in Allegheny County since the surveillance program began. The vector index measure was calculated each week for a subset of eleven different zones in eastern Pittsburgh, with values ranging from 0-5.8. While this method provided values representing risk, they were not useful for comparison because of the low sample size. If the sample size were large enough to allow the calculation of a vector index value for each zone each week, the method would be more useful

Negotiation Processes As Sources of (And Solutions To) Interorganizational Conflict

We investigate how structural features of negotiations can affect interaction processes and how negotiations can be not only a solution to, but also a source of, inter-organizational conflict. Principals, agents, and teams face different sets of constraints and opportunities in negotiations. We develop grounded theory detailing how the micro-interactions comprising a negotiation are shaped by the representation structure (principals, agents, or teams) of the parties. In qualitative and quantitative analyses of negotiations carried out by principals, agents, and teams in a laboratory experiment, we find that negotiators’ efforts to manage the constraints and opportunities of their representation structure are reflected in the micro-interactions, the broad improvisations, and the resulting substantive and relational outcomes

Occupational ego identity statuses in college students

The purpose of this study was to investigate college students who were in the process of deciding on a career, and to then classify them according to the identity statuses described by Marcia (1980). The occupational identity statuses used were achieved, foreclosed, moratorium, diffused, and finally undecided was used for participants not meeting the full criteria for the other statuses. Participants, from The College of Saint Rose in Albany, NY, were given the Deltas Identity Status Inventory for Occupation. A total of 159 participants completed the survey, 109 females and 50 males. The participants included 66 freshmen, 41 sophomores, 34 juniors, and 18 seniors in college

Adenovirus-36 antibody status and BMI comparison among obese Missouri adolescents

Worldwide obesity rates have skyrocketed since 1980, a phenomenon often attributed due to changes in diet and physical activity. Adenovirus-36 (Adv-36) has been implicated in the multi-factorial etiology of obesity. Adv-36 has been shown to cause obesity in animal models, and previous studies in the U.S. and internationally have found a higher prevalence of Adv-36 antibodies in obese persons compared to non-obese persons. The prevalence of the virus in overweight and normal-weight individuals has never been studied in a Missouri population

The Effects Of Students Predispositions Toward Communication, Learning Styles, And Sex On Academic Achievement

Females are more apprehensive when talking in class, but more nonverbally immediate, and prefer a collaborative learning style.  Males prefer independent and avoidant learning styles, and report learning less than females

Joint Representation of Spatial and Phonetic Features in the Human Core Auditory Cortex

The human auditory cortex simultaneously processes speech and determines the location of a speaker in space. Neuroimaging studies in humans have implicated core auditory areas in processing the spectrotemporal and the spatial content of sound; however, how these features are represented together is unclear. We recorded directly from human subjects implanted bilaterally with depth electrodes in core auditory areas as they listened to speech from different directions. We found local and joint selectivity to spatial and spectrotemporal speech features, where the spatial and spectrotemporal features are organized independently of each other. This representation enables successful decoding of both spatial and phonetic information. Furthermore, we found that the location of the speaker does not change the spectrotemporal tuning of the electrodes but, rather, modulates their mean response level. Our findings contribute to defining the functional organization of responses in the human auditory cortex, with implications for more accurate neurophysiological models of speech processing

Islet autoantibody profiles associated with higher diabetes risk in Lithuanian compared with English schoolchildren

Over a 15 year period, the incidence of type 1 diabetes has doubled in Lithuania, whilst increasing by a third in England, however England still has the higher incidence. Analysis of sera collected from non-diabetic schoolchildren from Lithuania and England more than 20 years ago showed a similar number of multiple autoantibody positive schoolchildren between the populations, but a higher prevalence of islet antigen-2 autoantibodies (IA-2A) in English schoolchildren. We aimed to use recently developed, more specific islet autoantibody tests, to characterise differences in humoral autoimmunity between these two general population cohorts in greater detail. Samples from 88 Lithuanian and 133 English schoolchildren previously found islet autoantibody positive were selected for measurement of additional islet autoantibodies by radioimmunoassay. Samples were tested for autoantibodies to zinc transporter 8 (ZnT8A), GAD(96-585), the protein tyrosine phosphatase region of islet antigen-2 (PTPA), and the related IA-2βA while autoantibodies to IA-2A were re-assayed using the current harmonized method. IA-2 related autoantibodies PTPA (0.13% vs. 0.45%, p=0.027) and IA-2βA (0% vs. 0.35%, p<0.001), but not IA-2A measured using the harmonized method, were less common in Lithuanian compared to English schoolchildren. Lithuanian schoolchildren who were islet autoantibody positive, were positive for fewer biochemical autoantibodies compared with English schoolchildren (p=0.043). Background rates of islet autoimmunity in childhood differ subtly between countries which have different incidences of type 1 diabetes. The optimal screening strategy (age and combination of markers) for detection of islet autoimmunity may vary between countries dependent on the pattern of autoantibodies found in the general population