Electronic Nose To Detect Volatile Compound Profile and Quality Changes in 'Spring Belle' Peach (Prunus persica L.) during Cold Storage in Relation to Fruit Optical Properties Measured by Time-Resolved Reflectance Spectroscopy

n/

Innovation in environmental streamlining and project delivery: Oregon State bridge delivery program : final report

This report examines the Bridge Program efforts undertaken, methods used, obstacles encountered, accomplishments, and lessons learned. It is not a performance evaluation; it is a case study focusing on the social, organizational and institutional dynamics of transforming a vision for environmental streamlining into a working program. The Bridge Program is complex as well as innovative. The report therefore emphasizes particular innovative aspects of the program, requiring significant collaborative relationships, rather than describing all program facets in detail

Socio-Economic Measures for Intensively Monitoring Watersheds: The Middle Fork John Day Effectiveness Monitoring Project: Year 2 Report

This report describes the accomplishments in the second and final year of a project to develop a set of measures to monitor the socio-economic effects on the local community of the stream restoration efforts on the upper Middle Fork John Day River. A panel of Grant County residents helped develop the following metrics to reflect locally specific issues and interests

The Empower Nudge lottery to increase dual protection use: a proof-of-concept randomised pilot trial in South Africa

The objective of this study is to measure the preliminary efficacy of a pilot intervention, grounded in behavioural economics, increasing adherence of dual protection (simultaneous use of effective modern contraception and a barrier method, such as a condom) to protect against HIV, other sexually transmitted infections, and unintended pregnancy. Between 2015 and 2016, 100 women aged 18–40 years, seeking post-abortion care in Cape Town, South Africa were recruited to Empower Nudge, a randomised controlled trial to test a lottery incentive intervention designed to increase dual protection. At baseline, the mean age of participants was 27 years; 82% of them were from South Africa; 58% self-identified as Black African; average education completed was 11.7 years. At three months, assignment to the lottery intervention was associated with higher odds of returning for study visits (OR: 6.0; 95%CI: 2.45 to 14.7, p < 0.01), higher condom use (OR: 4.5; 95%CI: 1.43 to 14.1; p < 0.05), and higher use of dual protection (OR: 3.16; 95%CI: 1.01 to 9.9; p < 0.05). Only 60% of the study population returned after three months and only 38% returned after six months. Women who receive post-abortion care represent a neglected population with an urgent need for HIV and pregnancy prevention. Dual protection is a critically important strategy for this population. Lottery-based behavioural economics strategies may offer possible ways to increase dual protection use in this population. Further research with larger samples, longer exposure time, and more sites is needed to establish fully powered efficacy of lottery incentives for dual protection; using objective verification for monitoring

Financing Ecosystem Service Markets: Issues and Opportunities

INR’s long-term goal with this and other projects is to help revitalize rural economies and contribute to rural sustainability, while increasing ecosystem restoration and thoughtfully developing ecosystem services markets. To assist in meeting these goals, this project aims to understand and overcome a significant hurdle on the supply side of these emerging markets: the financing burden and risk shouldered by rural landowners who wish to invest in restoration activities. In order to accomplish these objectives, the project seeks to identify and apply financial mechanisms and institutional arrangements that enable landowners to access ecosystem services markets, a new and potentially long-term source of land and water stewardship income. Our strategy for meeting these objectives combines a number of approaches including: policy research; collaborative inquiry and learning with landowners and financiers; on-the-ground pilot project development; dissemination and outreach of project finding

Evolutionary Action of Mutations Reveals Antimicrobial Resistance Genes in Escherichia coli

Since antibiotic development lags, we search for potential drug targets through directed evolution experiments. A challenge is that many resistance genes hide in a noisy mutational background as mutator clones emerge in the adaptive population. Here, to overcome this noise, we quantify the impact of mutations through evolutionary action (EA). After sequencing ciprofloxacin or colistin resistance strains grown under different mutational regimes, we find that an elevated sum of the evolutionary action of mutations in a gene identifies known resistance drivers. This EA integration approach also suggests new antibiotic resistance genes which are then shown to provide a fitness advantage in competition experiments. Moreover, EA integration analysis of clinical and environmental isolates of antibiotic resistant of E. coli identifies gene drivers of resistance where a standard approach fails. Together these results inform the genetic basis of de novo colistin resistance and support the robust discovery of phenotype-driving genes via the evolutionary action of genetic perturbations in fitness landscapes

Estrogen Receptor Beta rs1271572 Polymorphism and Invasive Ovarian Carcinoma Risk: Pooled Analysis within the Ovarian Cancer Association Consortium

The association of ovarian carcinoma risk with the polymorphism rs1271572 in the estrogen receptor beta (ESR2) gene was examined in 4946 women with primary invasive ovarian carcinoma and 6582 controls in a pooled analysis of ten case-control studies within the Ovarian Cancer Association Consortium (OCAC). All participants were non-Hispanic white women. Odds ratios (ORs) and 95% confidence intervals (CIs) were estimated using unconditional logistic regression adjusted for site and age. Women with the TT genotype were at increased risk of ovarian carcinoma compared to carriers of the G allele (OR = 1.10; 95%; CI: 1.01–1.21; p = 0.04); the OR was 1.09 (CI: 0.99–1.20; p = 0.07) after excluding data from the center (Hawaii) that nominated this SNP for OCAC genotyping A stronger association of rs1271572 TT versus GT/GG with risk was observed among women aged ≤50 years versus older women (OR = 1.35; CI: 1.12–1.62; p = 0.002; p for interaction = 0.02) that remained statistically significant after excluding Hawaii data (OR = 1.34; CI: 1.11–1.61; p = 0.009). No heterogeneity of the association was observed by study, menopausal status, gravidity, parity, use of contraceptive or menopausal hormones, tumor histological type, or stage at diagnosis. This pooled analysis suggests that rs1271572 might influence the risk of ovarian cancer, in particular among younger women

Teaching About Health Care Disparities in the Clinical Setting

Clinical teachers often observe interactions that may contribute to health care disparities, yet may hesitate to teach about them. A pedagogical model could help faculty structure teaching about health care disparities in the clinical setting, but to our knowledge, none have been adapted for this purpose. In this paper, we adapt an established model, Time-Effective Strategies for Teaching (TEST), to the teaching of health care disparities. We use several case scenarios to illustrate the core components of the model: diagnose the learner, teach rapidly to the learner’s need, and provide feedback. The TEST model is straightforward, easy to use, and enables the incorporation of teaching about health care disparities into routine clinical teaching