Ultralight reactive metal foams produced as structural shapes in space: System design

This autonomous experiment for foaming metals in space involved: (1) payload support structure; (2) furnace and foaming apparatus; (3) electronic controls; (4) battery power; and (5) metallurgy. Emphasis was laid on a modular design which was easily modifiable and which offered maximum durability, safety, and failure tolerance

Overtly anaphoric control in type logical grammar

In this paper we analyse anaphoric pronouns in control sentences and we investigate the implications of these kinds of sentences in relation to the Propositional Theory versus Property Theory question. For these purposes, we invoke the categorial calculus with limited contraction, a conservative extension of Lambek calculus that builds contraction into the logical rules for a customized slash type-constructor.Peer ReviewedPostprint (author's final draft

Antimicrobial Stewardship in Long-Term Care Facilities: A Call to Action

Antimicrobial resistance is a global public health crisis and a national security threat to the United States, as stated in an executive order signed by the president in September 2014. This crisis is a result of indiscriminant antimicrobial use, which promotes selection for resistant organisms, increases the risk of adverse drug events, and renders patients vulnerable to drug-resistant infections. Antimicrobial stewardship is a key measure to combat antimicrobial resistance and specifically seeks to do this by improving antimicrobial use. Antimicrobial stewardship compliments infection control practices and it is important to note that these 2 disciplines are distinct and cannot be discussed interchangeably. Antimicrobial stewardship promotes the appropriate diagnosis, drug, dose, and duration of treatment. The appropriate diagnosis falls into the hands of the prescriber and clinical staff. Optimal antimicrobial drug selection, dosing strategy, and duration of treatment, however, often require expertise in antimicrobial therapy, such as an infectious disease–trained physician or pharmacist. Therefore, successful antimicrobial stewardship programs must be comprehensive and interdisciplinary. Most antimicrobial stewardship programs focus on hospitals; yet, in long-term care, up to 75% of antimicrobial use is inappropriate or unnecessary. Thus, one of the most pressing areas in need for antimicrobial stewardship is in long-term care facilities. Unfortunately, there is little evidence that describes effective antimicrobial stewardship interventions in this setting. This review discusses the need for and barriers to antimicrobial stewardship in long-term care facilities. Additionally, this review describes prior interventions that have been implemented and tested to improve antimicrobial use in long-term care facilities

Bicyclic Boronate β-Lactamase Inhibitors: The Present Hope against Deadly Bacterial Pathogens

The use of β-lactamase inhibitors in combination with β-lactam antibiotics is an emerging area in drug discovery. This strategy allows the restoration of the therapeutic efficacy of these antibiotics in clinical use against multiresistant bacteria. These pathogens are drug resistant because they express β-lactamase enzymes, which prevent the antibiotic therapeutic action by catalyzing the hydrolysis of the β-lactam ring. These enzymes are quite diverse in both their structural architecture and hydrolytic capability, as well as in the mechanism of action. The ever-increasing emergence of pathogens that are capable of coproducing different types of β-lactamases has triggered the search for ultrabroad-spectrum inhibitors capable of deactivating both serine- and metallo-β-lactamases. A recent breakthrough in this long-pursued and unmet need is the discovery of bicyclic boronate inhibitors, specifically taniborbactam, VNRX-7145, and QPX7728, which are currently under clinical development in combination with cefepime, ceftibuten, and QPX2014, respectively. The present article highlights the therapeutic potential of these inhibitors and their spectrum of efficacy is compared with those of other β-lactam/β-lactamase inhibitor combinations recently approved by the food and drug administration. The molecular basis of the ultrabroad-spectrum of activity of boron-based inhibitors is also discussed, on the basis of the available crystal structures and the results of computational studiesinancial support from the Spanish Ministry of Economy and Competiveness (SAF2016-75638-R, PID2019-105512RB-I00), the Xunta de Galicia [ED431B 2018/04 and Centro singular de investigación de Galicia accreditation 2019–2022 (ED431G 2019/03)], and the European Regional Development Fund (ERDF) is gratefully acknowledgedS

Massively distributed authorship of academic papers

Wiki-like or crowdsourcing models of collaboration can provide a number of benefits to academic work. These techniques may engage expertise from different disciplines, and potentially increase productivity. This paper presents a model of massively distributed collaborative authorship of academic papers. This model, developed by a collective of thirty authors, identifies key tools and techniques that would be necessary or useful to the writing process. The process of collaboratively writing this paper was used to discover, negotiate, and document issues in massively authored scholarship. Our work provides the first extensive discussion of the experiential aspects of large-scale collaborative researc

The Levellers, political literacy and contemporary citizenship education in England

This paper analyses the concept of political literacy (as introduced in the 1998 Crick Report) in relation to Citizenship in the English National Curriculum. It argues that political literacy has not been sufficiently emphasised or facilitated within this foundation subject and that the concept is particularly important for students at a time of considerable political and social conflict in England (and elsewhere). The authors state that engagement with the ideas and practices of the Levellers (a political group writing and agitating at the time of the Civil Wars) could enable students and teachers to explore political literacy (especially the implications of social media) by looking at a political group who utilised mass pamphlettering as a form of political communication. The paper will also investigate the context of Citizenship within the English National Curriculum and some of the philosophical concerns around Citizenship education. It contains a section placing the Levellers in their contemporary and historiographical contexts

Theoretical Risk of Genetic Reassortment Should Not Impede Development of Live, Attenuated Rift Valley Fever (RVF) Vaccines Commentary on the Draft WHO RVF Target Product Profile

In November 2019, The World Health Organization (WHO) issued a draft set of Target Product Profiles (TPPs) describing optimal and minimally acceptable targets for vaccines against Rift Valley fever (RVF), a Phlebovirus with a three segmented genome, in both humans and ruminants. The TPPs contained rigid requirements to protect against genomic reassortment of live, attenuated vaccines (LAVs) with wild-type RVF virus (RVFV), which place undue constraints on development and regulatory approval of LAVs. We review the current LAVs in use and in development, and conclude that there is no evidence that reassortment between LAVs and wild-type RVFV has occurred during field use, that such a reassortment event if it occurred would have no untoward consequence, and that the TPPs should be revised to provide a more balanced assessment of the benefits versus the theoretical risks of reassortment

Evidence for the impact of the 8.2-kyBP climate event on Near Eastern early farmers.

The 8.2-thousand years B.P. event is evident in multiple proxy records across the globe, showing generally dry and cold conditions for ca. 160 years. Environmental changes around the event are mainly detected using geochemical or palynological analyses of ice cores, lacustrine, marine, and other sediments often distant from human settlements. The Late Neolithic excavated area of the archaeological site of Çatalhöyük East [Team Poznań (TP) area] was occupied for four centuries in the ninth and eighth millennia B.P., thus encompassing the 8.2-thousand years B.P. climatic event. A Bayesian analysis of 56 radiocarbon dates yielded a high-resolution chronological model comprising six building phases, with dates ranging from before 8325-8205 to 7925-7815 calibrated years (cal) B.P. Here, we correlate an onsite paleoclimate record constructed from δ2H values of lipid biomarkers preserved in pottery vessels recovered from these buildings with changes in architectural, archaeozoological, and consumption records from well-documented archaeological contexts. The overall sequence shows major changes in husbandry and consumption practices at ca. 8.2 thousand years B.P., synchronous with variations in the δ2H values of the animal fat residues. Changes in paleoclimate and archaeological records seem connected with the patterns of atmospheric precipitation during the occupation of the TP area predicted by climate modeling. Our multiproxy approach uses records derived directly from documented archaeological contexts. Through this, we provide compelling evidence for the specific impacts of the 8.2-thousand years B.P. climatic event on the economic and domestic activities of pioneer Neolithic farmers, influencing decisions relating to settlement planning and food procurement strategies

Juvenile Facility Staff Contestations of Change

This article explores juvenile facility frontline staff members’ contestations of change to custodial practices aimed at reducing restraints, introducing trauma-informed practices, and downsizing juvenile facilities. Drawing from qualitative research about frontline staff members in a U.S. state undergoing reform, the article points to the ways that the reforms challenge staff members’ investments in behavioral control practices as a vehicle for achieving order and control in their everyday lives as workers. It also points to shifts in the broader political economy of punishment at the local, facility level, and the subsequent impact on staff member perceptions of order, control and criminality

Symbols for Computer-Aided Design Software Operations: Selection and Effect on User Recall

Computer Aided Design (CAD) software can be difficult to learn. Past research has not investigated how the selection of symbols used to represent CAD operations affects a new user’s ability to learn CAD concepts. In this paper, we explore how symbol choice impacts short-term recall as measured by accuracy and response time. We performed an initial study to identify what 2D symbols users draw to perform common CAD operations. This study identified common symbols for five CAD operations and highlighted differences between symbols drawn by inexperienced and experienced CAD users. Then, we conducted a second study with three groups using different input methods: selecting Autodesk Inventor CAD operation icons, selecting 2D symbols derived from the first study, and physically drawing those same symbols. There is not a statistically significant difference between the three groups’ average question accuracy. For time taken to submit responses, the group selecting Autodesk icons was lowest, followed by the group selecting the symbols, and then the group drawing the symbols. Additionally, the group drawing the symbols had a greater improvement in response time compared to the group selecting Autodesk icons. Other differences between groups were not found to be statistically significant. The results from our second study suggest a negative correlation between our set of user-created symbols and response time, and the potential for further research on other symbols from our first study