High throughput genomic sequencing of bioaerosols in broiler chicken production facilities

Chronic inhalation exposure to agricultural dust promotes the development of chronic respiratory diseases among poultry workers. Poultry dust is composed of dander, chicken feed, litter bedding and microbes. However, the microbial composition and abundance has not been fully elucidated. Genomic DNA was extracted from settled dust and personal inhalable dust collected while performing litter sampling or mortality collection tasks. DNA libraries were sequenced using a paired-end sequencing-by-synthesis approach on an Illumina HiSeq 2500. Sequencing data showed that poultry dust is predominantly composed of bacteria (64–67%) with a small quantity of avian, human and feed DNA (\u3c 2% of total reads). Staphylococcus sp. AL1, Salinicoccus carnicancri and Lactobacillus crispatus were the most abundant bacterial species in personal exposure samples of inhalable dust. Settled dust had a moderate relative abundance of these species as well as Staphylococcus lentus and Lactobacillus salivarius. There was a statistical difference between the microbial composition of aerosolized and settled dust. Unlike settled dust composition, aerosolized dust composition had little variance between samples. These data provide an extensive analysis of the microbial composition and relative abundance in personal inhalable poultry dust and settled poultry dust

SampleHST: Efficient On-the-Fly Selection of Distributed Traces

Since only a small number of traces generated from distributed tracing helps in troubleshooting, its storage requirement can be significantly reduced by biasing the selection towards anomalous traces. To aid in this scenario, we propose SampleHST, a novel approach to sample on-the-fly from a stream of traces in an unsupervised manner. SampleHST adjusts the storage quota of normal and anomalous traces depending on the size of its budget. Initially, it utilizes a forest of Half Space Trees (HSTs) for trace scoring. This is based on the distribution of the mass scores across the trees, which characterizes the probability of observing different traces. The mass distribution from HSTs is subsequently used to cluster the traces online leveraging a variant of the mean-shift algorithm. This trace-cluster association eventually drives the sampling decision. We have compared the performance of SampleHST with a recently suggested method using data from a cloud data center and demonstrated that SampleHST improves sampling performance up to by 9.5×

Effectiveness of whole-body vibration on improving balance in athletes with chronic ankle instability

Context: Chronic ankle instability is a condition that can occur after multiple ankle injuries, or one severe ankle injury, and can affect balance, proprioception and walking mechanics. Improving balance can be helpful in rehabilitating those with chronic ankle instability. Whole body vibration treatment (WBV), vibration delivered at a specific amplitude and frequency through a platform that the patient is standing on, has been used to help increase neuromuscular control and proprioception in lower extremity injury rehabilitation but very little is known about WBV’s effect on balance. Balance in athletes with CAI has been seen to improve with balance training but there is little research on the effects of using WBV in this population.Clinical Question: Does Whole-Body Vibration treatment effectively improve balance in athletes with Chronic ankle Instability more than balance training?Summary of Key Findings: The following data bases were used to search terms of Chronic Ankle Instability (CAI), whole body vibration treatment (WBV), CAI and Athlete, CAI and WBV (PubMed, EBSCOHost, and SPORTSDiscus.) Only peer-reviewed studies that were randomized control trials that were published within the last 5 years were included. Of the two studies included, both found that whole body vibration treatment did not improve balance when compared to balance programs.Clinical Bottom Line: There is moderate evidence that indicates that WBV does help improve balance but does not improve balance more than a balance training in athletes with CAI. While recent, there is limited research on this topic at this time.Strength of recommendation:

Correlation between gluteus medius strength and lower back pain in middle-aged adults: a critically appraised topic

Background: Low back pain is one of the most common complaints of middle-aged individuals. Low back pain tends to be the result of a more sedentary lifestyle and even for those who are active, normal biomechanics can often neglect activation of the gluteus medius muscle. Therefore, it is important to determine appropriate means of preventing this lower back pain with the thought that there is a correlation between the gluteus medius and lower back pain.Methods: Cooper et al. looked at manual muscle tests of the GMed, TFL, and GMax in correlation to patient reported low back pain. Jeoung et al. looked at lumbar stabilizing muscles plus strengthening the muscles of the gluteus using biofeedback response on patient reported low back pain. Penny et al. looked at manual muscle tests and SLS to determine weakness and correlation between weakness and patient reported low back pain.Clinical Question: Are gluteus medius strengthening programs effective in decreasing low back pain in adults?Results: One study investigated symptoms including gluteus medius weakness and tenderness in people with chronic low back pain, one studied the difference between lumbar strengthening exercises and the gluteus group with the lumbar strengthening exercises in relation to chronic low back pain, and one studied to identify the relation between strength of the gluteus medius to low back pain.Conclusion: There is moderate evidence to support the efficacy of strengthening the gluteus medius to improve low back pain in individuals 30-50 years of age.Strength of Recommendation: Level B evidence exists according to Grading of Recommendations Assessment, Development and Evaluation (GRADE), that intervention to the gluteus medius and hip abductors can decrease low back pain in middle age individuals

Spin-dynamics of the low-dimensional magnet (CH3)2NH2CuCl3

Dimethylammonium copper (II) chloride (also known as DMACuCl3 or MCCL) is a low dimensional S=1/2 quantum spin system proposed to be an alternating ferro-antiferromagnetic chain with similar magnitude ferromagnetic (FM) and antiferromagnetic (AFM) exchange interactions. Subsequently, it was shown that the existing bulk measurements could be adequately modeled by considering DMACuCl3 as independent AFM and FM dimer spin pairs. We present here new inelastic neutron scattering measurements of the spin-excitations in single crystals of DMACuCl3. These results show significant quasi-one-dimensional coupling, however the magnetic excitations do not propagate along the expected direction. We observe a band of excitations with a gap of 0.95 meV and a bandwidth of 0.82 meV.Comment: 3 pages, 2 figures included in text, submitted to proceedings of International Conference on Neutron Scattering, December 200

“I Can’t Go On, I’ll Go On”: Liminality in Undergraduate Writing

According to Jan Meyer and Ray Land (2006), along with being troublesome, integrative, transformative, and probably irreversible, threshold concepts are characterized as liminal. Their liminal nature is summarized by Linda Adler- Kassner and Elizabeth Wardle (2016): “Threshold concepts involve what the name implies— thresholds. But the movement toward and the (hopeful) crossing of those thresholds isn’t straightforward; instead, it happens in a two- steps- forward- one- step- back kind of way as learners push against troublesome knowledge” (ix). Glynis Cousin (2006) observes that the idea of liminal states aids “our understanding of the conceptual transformations students undergo” in challenging learning situations, like the grasping of threshold concepts (4). And yet, Ray Land, Julie Rattray, and Peter Vivian (2014) suggest that the liminal space “has remained relatively ill- defined, something of a ‘black box’ within the conceptual framework of Threshold Concepts” (201). This chapter focuses on this liminal space. Specifically, we wanted to better understand the nature, occurrence, and impact of liminality in undergraduate writing through the lens of threshold concepts of writing, through which those concepts could in turn provide an effective theoretical and pedagogical framework for our particular context. Our setting is a relatively new writing center (established 2011) in an Irish university that has an undergraduate population of 10,050 students and a postgraduate enrollment of 1,900. Following a presentation of our distilled findings, we explore and contextualize one key action- oriented insight about undergraduates’ experiences with threshold concepts of writing that emerged from the data, that of the coexistence of apparent liminality, a stage that can be paralyzing for students, and authentic liminality, a stage that is important for students grappling with threshold concepts and that is therefore productive and potentially transformative. In the next section, we review literature that has contributed to these ideas of liminality; following that review, we describe the research that led us to these definition

Detecting SARS-CoV-2 3CLpro Expression and Activity Using a Polyclonal Antiserum and a Luciferase-Based Biosensor

The need to stem the current outbreak of SARS-CoV-2 responsible for COVID-19 is driving the search for inhibitors that will block coronavirus replication and pathogenesis. The coronavirus 3C-like protease (3CLpro) encoded in the replicase polyprotein is an attractive target for antiviral drug development because protease activity is required for generating a functional replication complex. Reagents that can be used to screen for protease inhibitors and for identifying the replicase products of SARS-CoV-2 are urgently needed. Here we describe a luminescence-based biosensor assay for evaluating small molecule inhibitors of SARS-CoV-2 3CLpro/main protease. We also document that a polyclonal rabbit antiserum developed against SARS-CoV 3CLpro cross reacts with the highly conserved 3CLpro of SARS-CoV-2. These reagents will facilitate the pre-clinical evaluation of SARS-CoV-2 protease inhibitors

Effectiveness of global postural re-education in reducing chronic non-specific low back pain and improving daily function in adults

Clinical Scenario: Low back pain (LBP) is one of the most common complaints in adults. Research indicates that the implementation of global postural re-education may decrease pain in those with chronic low back pain and improve daily function.Clinical Question: How effective is the Global Postural Re-education technique in reducing chronic or non-specific low back pain in adults compared to conventional treatment methods?Summary of Key Findings: A search was conducted for articles comparing GPR to standard physical therapy techniques. Three articles were included in this critically appraised topic; two randomized controlled trials and one quasi-randomized controlled trial. All compared GPR to standard physical therapy techniques including static stretching and motor control exercises. All three articles found a significant improvement in both control and treatment groups, but a greater improvement in pain, daily function, and range of motion.Clinical Bottom Line: There is moderate level of evidence that clinicians may opt to use GPR and postural re-education methods when treating patients with chronic LBP to reduce pain levels, increase hip and back range of motion, and improve overall function with activities of daily living.Strength of Recommendation: The studies included in this review show level B evidence based on the SORT scale that GPR may be an effective treatment method for reducing chronic LBP short term compared to conventional treatment methods

Intensive HST, RXTE and ASCA Monitoring of NGC 3516: Evidence Against Thermal Reprocessing

During 1998 April 13-16, NGC 3516 was monitored almost continuously with HST for 10.3 hr in the UV and 2.8 d in the optical, and simultaneous RXTE and ASCA monitoring covered the same period. The X-rays were strongly variable with the soft (0.5-2 keV) showing stronger variations (~65% peak-to-peak) than the hard (2-10 keV; ~50% peak-to-peak). The optical continuum showed much smaller but highly significant variations: a slow ~2.5% rise followed by a faster ~3.5% decline. The short UV observation did not show significant variability. The soft and hard X-ray light curves were strongly correlated with no significant lag. Likewise, the optical continuum bands (3590 and 5510 A) were also strongly correlated with no measurable lag above limits of <0.15 d. However no significant correlation or simple relationship could be found for the optical and X-ray light curves. These results appear difficult to reconcile with previous reports of correlations between X-ray and optical variations and of measurable lags within the optical band for some other Seyfert 1s. These results also present serious problems for "reprocessing" models in which the X-ray source heats a stratified accretion disk which then reemits in the optical/ultraviolet: the synchronous variations within the optical would suggest that the emitting region is <0.3 lt-d across, while the lack of correlation between X-ray and optical variations would indicate, in the context of this model, that any reprocessing region must be >1 lt-d in size. It may be possible to resolve this conflict by invoking anisotropic emission or special geometry, but the most natural explanation appears to be that the bulk of the optical luminosity is generated by some other mechanism than reprocessing.Comment: 23 pages including 6 figures, accepted for publication in Ap