Representational Difference Analysis (RDA) for Detection of Genetic Elements Associated with Increased Incidence of Serogroup C Neisseria meningitidis Infection

Previous studies have demonstrated that the increased incidence of invasive disease caused by serogroup C Neisseria meningitidis in the United States during the 1990s was attributed primarily to strains belonging to the ST11 clonal complex. Subcapsular genotyping of a subset of isolates from Maryland identified distinct "early" and "late" clones defined by antigenic shift at the FetA outer membrane protein. Representational difference analysis (RDA) was used to identify additional genetic differences that may have contributed to the emergence of the late clone. A collection of serogroup C isolates representative of the early and late clone was subjected to pulsed field gel electrophoresis (PFGE) to determine genetic relatedness among the isolates and to identify a candidate tester/driver pair for RDA. RsaI-digested tester genomic DNA (late clone) was ligated to specific adaptors followed by two rounds of subtractive hybridization with RsaI-digested driver genomic DNA (early clone). PCR amplification of subtracted tester DNA with adaptor specific primers generated at least three late clone-specific bands that were absent from the early clone. These products were cloned and sequenced and confirmed by Southern blotting with tester and driver digoxigenin-labeled genomic DNA probes to be tester specific. A BLAST search of late clone-specific sequences identified homology to either IS1301 or pJS-B plasmid N. meningitidis sequences. PCR with primers specific to either IS1301 or pJS-B plasmid sequences amplified these elements from late clone isolates but not from early clone isolates. Thus, RDA successfully identified two unique genetic elements present in an emergent N. meningitidis serogroup C ST-11 clone that had undergone antigenic shift at FetA. Further investigation is required to determine the potential role of these elements in clonal emergence and N. meningitidis pathogenesis. The public health significance of this project stems from increased incidence of meningococcal disease being a major concern: morbidity and mortality increase, outbreaks produce panic and disruption in communities, public health agencies must respond for control and prevention, and mass immunization and antibiotic prophylaxis are often required

Greek Music Theory vs. the Bible

The great philosophers of Ancient Greece have been studied in depth and are known throughout society. Famous Greek philosophers and writers, such as Plato and Pythagoras, formulated theories on musical philosophy — it’s purpose, use, dangers, power, and importance in society. Greek philosophy of music heavily influenced early European society’s view and development of music, it only partially supports Biblical views and principles of music and worship. Pythagoras introduces the theory that music is more than just entertainment with his notion of Music of the Spheres but fails to align with the biblical view of stars and planets as mere creation. Plato, drawing on Pythagoras’ ideas, explains that music has the power to influence people and thus should only have good music. Even though the Bible agrees with this notion, it does not specify as to what degree music influences people and what ultimately defines “good” music. Lastly, Augustine provides his argument that music provides a means in numerical beauty that brings us closer to God, or even god-like. The Bible supports using music as a means to worship and praise God, bringing closeness in the relationship, but not in the sense of making one more perfect and like God. Ultimately there proves to be some conflict in the roles and importance of music in society between these theories and the Bible. Even so, these theories helped develop and increase the popularity of music in early European society and in the early church

Infrastructure Practices of Select World-Class Research Organizations - A Benchmark of Campus Design, Development, and Implementation Strategies

This report presents case studies and benchmarking conclusion for seven world-class research facilities in the areas of academia, industry, government, and non-profit institutions

Sustainable Harvest for Food and Fuel Preliminary Food & Fuel Gap Analysis Report

To promote economic growth and energy security, and to protect the environment, the U.S. is pursuing a national strategy of energy independence and climatic protection in which domestic renewable carbon-neutral biofuels displace 30 percent of U.S. oil consumption by the mid-21st century. Such fuels, including ethanol and biodiesel, will be produced from biological feed stocks (biomass). The availability of this billion-ton biomass will hinge on the application of modern scientific and engineering tools to create a highly-integrated biofuel production system. Efforts are underway to identify and develop energy crops, ranging from agricultural residues to genetically engineered perennials; to develop biology-based processing methods; and, to develop large-scale biorefineries to economically convert biomass into fuels. In addition to advancing the biomass-to-biofuel research and development agenda, policy makers are concurrently defining the correct mix of governmental supports and regulations. Given the volumes of biomass and fuels that must flow to successfully enact a national biomass strategy, policies must encourage large-scale markets to form and expand around a tightly integrated system of farmers, fuel producers and transporters, and markets over the course of decades. In formulating such policies, policy makers must address the complex interactions of social, technical, economic, and environmental factors that bound energy production and use. The Idaho National Laboratory (INL) is a science-based, applied engineering national laboratory dedicated to supporting the U.S. Department of Energy (DOE). The INL Bioenergy Program supports the DOE and the U.S. Department of Agriculture. Key multidisciplinary INL capabilities are being leveraged to address major science and technology needs associated with the cost-effective utilization of biomass. INL’s whole crop utilization (WCU) vision is focused on the use of the entire crop, including both the grain and traditionally discarded plant biomass to produce food, feed, fiber, energy, and value-added products

Sustainable System for Residual Hazards Management

Hazardous, radioactive and other toxic substances have routinely been generated and subsequently disposed of in the shallow subsurface throughout the world. Many of today’s waste management techniques do not eliminate the problem, but rather only concentrate or contain the hazardous contaminants. Residual hazards result from the presence of hazardous and/or contaminated material that remains on-site following active operations or the completion of remedial actions. Residual hazards pose continued risk to humans and the environment and represent a significant and chronic problem that require continuous longterm management (i.e. >1000 years). To protect human health and safeguard the natural environment, a sustainable system is required for the proper management of residual hazards. A sustainable system for the management of residual hazards will require the integration of engineered, institutional and land-use controls to isolate residual contaminants and thus minimize the associated hazards. Engineered controls are physical modifications to the natural setting and ecosystem, including the site, facility, and/or the residual materials themselves, in order to reduce or eliminate the potential for exposure to contaminants of concern (COCs). Institutional controls are processes, instruments, and mechanisms designed to influence human behavior and activity. System failure can involve hazardous material escaping from the confinement because of system degradation (i.e., chronic or acute degradation) or by externalintrusion of the biosphere into the contaminated material because of the loss of institutional control. An ongoing analysis of contemporary and historic sites suggests that the significance of the loss of institutional controls is a critical pathway because decisions made during the operations/remedial action phase, as well as decisions made throughout the residual hazards management period, are key to the longterm success of the prescribed system. In fact, given that society has become more reliant on and confident of engineered controls, there may be a growing tendency to be even less concerned with institutional controls

THE INTEGRATION OF ENGINEERED AND INSTITUTIONAL CONTROLS: A CASE STUDY APPROACH WITH LESSONS LEARNED FROM PREVIOUSLY CLOSED SITES

Environmental remediation efforts that are underway at hundreds of contaminated sites in the United States will not be able to remediate large portions of those sites to conditions that would permit unrestricted access. Rather, large volumes of waste materials, contaminated soils and cleanup residuals will have to be isolated either in place or in new, often on-site, disposal cells with long term monitoring, maintenance and institutional control needs. The challenge continues to be to provide engineering systems and controls that can ensure the protection of public health and the environment over very long time horizons (hundreds to perhaps thousands of years) with minimal intervention. Effective long term management of legacy hazardous and nuclear waste requires an integrated approach that addresses both the engineered containment and control system itself and the institutional controls and other responsibilities that are needed. Decisions concerning system design, monitoring and maintenance, and the institutional controls that will be employed are best done through a "risk-nformed, performance-based" approach. Such an approach should incorporate an analysis of potential "failure" modes and consequences for all important system features, together with lessons learned from experience with systems already in place. The authors will present the preliminary results of a case study approach that included several sites where contamination isolation systems including institutional controls have been implemented. The results are being used together with failure trees and logic diagrams that have been developed for both the engineered barriers and the institutional controls. The use of these analytical tools to evaluate the potential for different levels of failure and associated consequences will be discussed. Of special interest is the robustness of different approaches to providing long-term protection through redundancy and defense in depth

Buried Waste Integrated Demonstration Fiscal Year 1992 Close-Out Report

The mission of the Buried Waste Integrated Demonstration Program (BWID) is to support the development and demonstration of a suite of technologies that when integrated with commercially-available baseline technologies form a comprehensive remediation system for the effective and efficient remediation of buried waste disposed of throughout the US Department of Energy complex. To accomplish this mission of identifying technological solutions for remediation deficiencies, the Office of Technology Development initiated the BWID at the Idaho National Engineering Laboratory in fiscal year (FY)-91. This report summarizes the activities of the BWID Program during FY-92

\u3ci\u3eA Kindergarten for the 21st Century\u3c/i\u3e

Called to action by parents, teachers, administrators, and other early childhood professionals in Nebraska, the Nebraska Department of Education (NDE), Office of Early Childhood began the process of revising the Kindergarten Position Statement in 2007. NDE’s previous Kindergarten Position Statement was written in 1984 and was a landmark document in the world of kindergarten, not only in Nebraska, but nationwide. The revision of this statement reinforces the expectation of providing high quality experiences for all children to help them reach their full potential, regardless of individual circumstances. The intent of this document is to provide a summary of information about kindergarten that is deeply grounded in years of research, early childhood science, and best practices for young children. The full Position Statement, A Kindergarten for the 21st Century, can be downloaded from http://www.education.ne.gov/oec/pubs/KStatement.pdf.https://digitalcommons.unomaha.edu/facultybooks/1177/thumbnail.jp

Post-training ethanol disrupts trace conditioned fear in rats: Effects of timing of ethanol, dose and trace interval duration

Ethanol has complex effects on memory performance, although hippocampus-dependent memory may be especially vulnerable to disruption by acute ethanol intoxication occurring during or shortly after a training episode. In the present experiments, the effects of post-training ethanol on delay and trace fear conditioning were examined in adolescent rats. In Experiment 1, 30-day-old Sprague-Dawley rats were given delay or trace conditioning trials in which a 10 s flashing light CS was paired with a 0.5 mA shock US. For trace groups, the trace interval was 10 s. On days 31-33, animals were administered ethanol once daily (0.0 or 2.5 g/kg via intragastric intubation), and on day 34 animals were tested for CS-elicited freezing. Results showed that post-training ethanol affected the expression of trace, but had no effect on delay conditioned fear. Experiment 2 revealed that this effect was dose-dependent; doses lower than 2.5 g/kg were without effect. Experiment 3 evaluated whether proximity of ethanol to the time of training or testing was critical. Results show that ethanol administration beginning 24 h after training was more detrimental to trace conditioned freezing than administration that was delayed by 48 h. Finally, in Experiment 4 animals were trained with one of three different trace intervals: 1, 3 or 10 s. Results indicate that post-training administration of 2.5 g/kg ethanol disrupted trace conditioned fear in subjects trained with a 10 s, but not with a I or 3 s, trace interval. Collectively the results suggest that ethanol administration impairs post-acquisition memory processing of hippocampus-dependent trace fear conditioning. (C) 2008 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved