CAMPYLOBACTERIOSIS ANALYSIS FOR JOHNSON COUNTY, KANSAS

Master of Public HealthPublic Health Interdepartmental ProgramThu Annelise NguyenJohnson County is the most populated county in Kansas, with 575,000 residents. Campylobacteriosis is one of the most common enteric diseases reported in Johnson County. Its occurrence is reportable by law to the Kansas Department of Health and Environment. The purpose of this Campylobacteriosis Analysis is to look further into the burden of campylobacteriosis in Johnson County as well as compare current testing methods. The two most common testing methods for campylobacteriosis are stool culture and the stool antigen test. The stool antigen test can provide same day results but it has a variable positive predicted value ranging from 36.6% to 75.9% (Fitzgerald et al., 2016). Five hospitals in Johnson County were assessed, and it was found that the stool antigen test was the most common test in use to diagnose campylobacteriosis. Two out of the five hospitals assessed also have a protocol in place to perform stool culture confirmations on the samples, which tested positive by the stool antigen test. The culture confirmations are not required to be reported to the Johnson County Department of Health and Environment. If stool culture results were reported after the respective positive stool antigen tests, then Johnson County might see a change in the apparent prevalence of this disease. If the Johnson County Department of Health and Environment were to follow up with the hospitals’ labs to obtain the results of the culture, or the hospitals began reporting the culture results to the Health Department, then apparent campylobacteriosis numbers might decrease. Johnson County can then have a more accurate representation of campylobacteriosis cases

The Joint Staff

I welcome this opportunity to tell you about the structure of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, because some of you will in the future be either directly or indirectly engaged in the work of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, either in the departments, in the Joint Staff proper, or in kindred joint agencies

Preliminary study based on the DDSCAT software to explore increasing the contrast of breast tumors for microwave imaging

Microwave technology is being researched for its capabilities to detect breast tumors less painfully and at earlier stages. It is necessary to have a large contrast between cancerous and healthy tissue when the microwaves are reflected off the breast tissue. To model the increasing contrast between cancerous breast tissue and healthy breast tissue, the DDSCAT code is investigated for its capabilities and analyzed for its accuracy in scattering calculations. The DDSCAT is used to model homogenous and inhomogeneous targets. Simulations of the scattering field by the homogeneous and inhomogeneous targets are conducted and compared to Mie theory calculations for accuracy. Many different magnitudes of refractive indices, as well as real and complex refractive indices, are tested with the DDSCAT. Overall, the results obtained, show the DDSCAT to be a flexible code, capable of modeling many complex targets, which offers a potential to further research of breast cancer detection

The relation of the size of seed to the character of plant produced

Text taken from pages 1 and 2 of this thesis: During the past fifty years a number of investigators have reported results on the relative value of heavy and light or large and small seed grain. Each investigator has devised a some what different method, altho all have worked with the same general point of view in mind. Montgomery (I9IO) has classified the various methods used at different Stations as follows--Methods of selecting seed. 1. Hand selection. 2. Machine selection. 3. Specific gravity selection. In this paper the literature has been divided into three groups--First, where equal numbers of large and small hand selected seed were grown in pots. Second, where equal numbers of large and small hand selected seed were sown in plats at the usual rate of seeding. Third. where separation was made by machine and the results compared with checks, or where no checks were used the large and small seed were compared

Design of Integrated Current Reference Circuits for a 180-nanometer BICMOS Silicon Process

The goal of this thesis is to provide design analysis, simulation results, and physical layout structure for three current references that are to be physically fabricated in a 180- nanometer BICMOS silicon process. The report briefly discusses the need for voltage and current references in analog circuit applications, before zooming in to examine three topologies being tailored to the needs of an integrated solar micro-inverter system. These topologies are: proportional to absolute temperature (PTAT), complementary to absolute temperature (CTAT), and constant across temperature (Constant) bias circuits. First, each topology is designed schematically to meet the needs of the micro-inverter system. Those schematics are then taken in turn through simulations in Cadence Virtuoso. These simulations return successful results showing functionality throughout temperature and power supply variation, as well as system startup. Finally, the circuits are laid out in Virtuoso’s layout package, utilizing common-centroid layout schemes and process parasitic simulations. The circuits are fully prepared for fabrication

Surface-water contaminant routing using a digital stream information system

The U.S. Geological Survey is proposing to redesign its site-specific water-use data base into a topologic site-specific water-use data base that depicts water use as an integral part of the hydrologic cycle. The new data base is to be compatible with the theory of geographic information systems. By placing water use and other hydrologic data into a geographic information system framework, a stream information system can be developed. A stream information system allows a user to combine the spatial and topologic attributes of a basin with stream characteristics such as discharge, gradient, sinuosity, length, time-of-travel, and water use to develop models that simulate discharge, time-of-travel, supply and demand, and solute transport. An application of the stream information system is explored for the Umpqua River of southwestern Oregon. Here, most users rely on surface-water supplies, but these supplies are occasionally contaminated by tractor-trailer spills or by overflows of sewage treatment plants. Time-of-travel data are integrated into the stream information system to predict the time required for a contaminant to travel from a spill-site to a downstream user at a known value of discharge. Key Words: Contaminant routing, geographic information systems, water-use data base, time-of-trave

Chromosome Cohesion: A Cycle of Holding Together and Falling Apart

When a cell prepares to divide, the chromosomes need to separate at just the right moment. Regulating the cohesion of chromosomes is key to achieving thi

The Kinetochore Is an Enhancer of Pericentric Cohesin Binding

The recruitment of cohesins to pericentric chromatin in some organisms appears to require heterochromatin associated with repetitive DNA. However, neocentromeres and budding yeast centromeres lack flanking repetitive DNA, indicating that cohesin recruitment occurs through an alternative pathway. Here, we demonstrate that all budding yeast chromosomes assemble cohesin domains that extend over 20–50 kb of unique pericentric sequences flanking the conserved 120-bp centromeric DNA. The assembly of these cohesin domains requires the presence of a functional kinetochore in every cell cycle. A similar enhancement of cohesin binding was also observed in regions flanking an ectopic centromere. At both endogenous and ectopic locations, the centromeric enhancer amplified the inherent levels of cohesin binding that are unique to each region. Thus, kinetochores are enhancers of cohesin association that act over tens of kilobases to assemble pericentric cohesin domains. These domains are larger than the pericentric regions stretched by microtubule attachments, and thus are likely to counter microtubule-dependent forces. Kinetochores mediate two essential segregation functions: chromosome movement through microtubule attachment and biorientation of sister chromatids through the recruitment of high levels of cohesin to pericentric regions. We suggest that the coordination of chromosome movement and biorientation makes the kinetochore an autonomous segregation unit

Genome-Wide Mapping of the Cohesin Complex in the Yeast Saccharomyces cerevisiae

In eukaryotic cells, cohesin holds sister chromatids together until they separate into daughter cells during mitosis. We have used chromatin immunoprecipitation coupled with microarray analysis (ChIP chip) to produce a genome-wide description of cohesin binding to meiotic and mitotic chromosomes of Saccharomyces cerevisiae. A computer program, PeakFinder, enables flexible, automated identification and annotation of cohesin binding peaks in ChIP chip data. Cohesin sites are highly conserved in meiosis and mitosis, suggesting that chromosomes share a common underlying structure during different developmental programs. These sites occur with a semiperiodic spacing of 11 kb that correlates with AT content. The number of sites correlates with chromosome size; however, binding to neighboring sites does not appear to be cooperative. We observed a very strong correlation between cohesin sites and regions between convergent transcription units. The apparent incompatibility between transcription and cohesin binding exists in both meiosis and mitosis. Further experiments reveal that transcript elongation into a cohesin-binding site removes cohesin. A negative correlation between cohesin sites and meiotic recombination sites suggests meiotic exchange is sensitive to the chromosome structure provided by cohesin. The genome-wide view of mitotic and meiotic cohesin binding provides an important framework for the exploration of cohesins and cohesion in other genomes