The Blueprint: #BlackInTheArts

The Black Musicians Coalition is pleased to present The Blueprint: #blackinthearts, an interdisciplinary Black History celebration that incorporates new and old aspects of Black art and the impact that it has on current music and art styles. The production features an original arrangement of the Black National Anthem and multiple choreographed dance numbers all by KSU students as well as performances by KSU SOM faculty member Tyrone Jackson. This event is brought together by a collaboration of student leaders from each school in the College of the Arts: Music, Theater, Dance and Visual Arts. The acts highlight the students’ contributions to their disciplinary fields as well as their experiences being Black and in the arts.https://digitalcommons.kennesaw.edu/musicprograms/2373/thumbnail.jp

Disentangling the numbers behind agriculture-driven tropical deforestation

Tropical deforestation continues at alarming rates with profound impacts on ecosystems, climate, and livelihoods, prompting renewed commitments to halt its continuation. Although it is well established that agriculture is a dominant driver of deforestation, rates and mechanisms remain disputed and often lack a clear evidence base. We synthesize the best available pantropical evidence to provide clarity on how agriculture drives deforestation. Although most (90 to 99%) deforestation across the tropics 2011 to 2015 was driven by agriculture, only 45 to 65% of deforested land became productive agriculture within a few years. Therefore, ending deforestation likely requires combining measures to create deforestation-free supply chains with landscape governance interventions. We highlight key remaining evidence gaps including deforestation trends, commodity-specific land-use dynamics, and data from tropical dry forests and forests across Africa

ARIA digital anamorphosis : Digital transformation of health and care in airway diseases from research to practice

Digital anamorphosis is used to define a distorted image of health and care that may be viewed correctly using digital tools and strategies. MASK digital anamorphosis represents the process used by MASK to develop the digital transformation of health and care in rhinitis. It strengthens the ARIA change management strategy in the prevention and management of airway disease. The MASK strategy is based on validated digital tools. Using the MASK digital tool and the CARAT online enhanced clinical framework, solutions for practical steps of digital enhancement of care are proposed.Peer reviewe

What Design Research Does ... : 62 Cards Highlighting the Power and Impact of UK-based Design Research in Addressing a Range of Complex Social, Economic, Cultural and Environmental Issues

Design research makes a significant contribution to the UK economy and society as a whole. Ever since the establishment of the Government Schools of Design in the nineteenth century, the UK has been widely acknowledged as an international leader in design research. Following this lead, the What Design Research Does… cards highlight the wide range of social, economic, cultural and environmental impacts that design research, funded and based in the UK, makes all over the world. The 62 cards illustrate unambiguously the positive changes that contemporary UK-based design researchers are making in many complex issues. Each What Design Research Does… card lists the challenges and issues faced by the design researchers, who they collaborated with, the research methods and approaches taken, the outcomes of the design research, what the main results and findings have been, and what impact the design research has had. In short, the What Design Research Does… cards clearly articulate the breadth of social, economic, cultural and environmental impacts that UK-based design researchers are achieving today

Mapping the impact of subsoil constraints on soil available water capacity and potential crop yield

Context: The depth-to a constraint determines how much of the soil profile, and the water it contains, can be accessed by plant roots. Information describing the impacts of soil constraints on available water capacity (AWC) and yield is important for farm management, but is rarely considered in a spatial context. Aims and methods: The depth-to three yield-limiting constraints (sodicity, salinity, and alkalinity) was mapped across ∼80 000 ha in northern New South Wales, Australia using machine learning and digital soil mapping techniques. Soil AWC was calculated using soil data and pedotransfer functions, and water use efficiency equations were used to determine potential yield loss due to the presence of soil constraints. From this, the most-limiting constraint to yield was mapped. Key results: One or more constraints were found to be present across 54% of the study area in the upper 1.2 m of the soil profile, overall reducing the AWC by ∼50 mm and potential yield by an average of 1.1 t/ha for wheat and 0.8 bales/ha for cotton. Sodicity (Exchangeable Sodium Percentage > 15%) was identified as the most-limiting constraint to yield across the study area. Implications: The simplification of multiple sources of information into a single decision-making tool could prove valuable to growers and farm managers in managing soil constraints and understanding important interactions with available water and yield

Evaluating an industry\u27s financial performance: A study on the impact of profitability, liquidity, solvency, efficiency, and market ratios on the stock prices of three publicly listed Philippine telecommunication companies for the years 1997-2010

This study aimed to investigate the influence of a firm\u27s internal factors to changes in stock prices. Internal factors used were return on equity (ROE), operating profit margin (OPM), book value per share (BVPS), earning per share (EPS), return on investments (ROI), current ratio (CR), debt to equity (D/E), receivables turnover (RTO), and price to earnings (P/E). Research conducted on three publicly listed Philippine telecommunication companies, which are the Digital Telecommunications Phils., Inc. (DGTL), Globe Telecom, Inc. (GLO), and Philippine Long Distance Telephone Company (TEL), from years 1997-2010. The research method used is the causal or exploratory type of research. The statistical methods used to test the hypothesis is the multiple linear regression, t test and p value test at a significance level of 5%. The research results show that the three companies vary in terms of the financial ratios that appeared to have a significant effect on stock prices. The significant ratios for each of the telecommunication companies were OPM, BVPS, EPS, and CR for DGTL OPM and RTO for GLO OPM and RTO for TEL and OPM, BVPS, ROI and D/E for the whole Philippine telecommunication industry

Current and Emerging Treatment Options for Multidrug Resistant <i>Escherichia coli</i> Urosepsis: A Review

Escherichia coli is a versatile commensal and pathogenic member of the human microflora. As the primary causative pathogen in urosepsis, E. coli places an immense burden on healthcare systems worldwide. To further exacerbate the issue, multi drug resistance (MDR) has spread rapidly through E. coli populations, making infections more troublesome and costlier to treat. This paper aimed to review the literature concerning the development of MDR in uropathogenic E. coli (UPEC) and explore the existing evidence of current and emerging treatment strategies. While some MDR strains maybe treated with β-lactam-β-lactamase inhibitor combinations as well as cephalosporins, cephamycin, temocillin and fosfomycin, current treatment strategies for many MDR UPEC strains are reliant on carbapenems. Carbapenem overreliance may contribute to the alarming dissemination of carbapenem-resistance amongst some UPEC communities, which has ushered in a new age of difficult to treat infections. Alternative treatment options for carbapenem resistant UPEC may include novel β-lactam-β-lactamase or carbapenemase inhibitor combinations, cefiderocol, polymyxins, tigecycline, aminoglycosides or fosfomycin. For metallo-β-lactamase producing strains (e.g., NDM, IMP-4), combinations of cefazidime-avibacam with aztreonam have been used. Additionally, the emergence of new antimicrobials brings new hope to the treatment of such infections. However, continued research is required to successfully bring these into the clinic for the treatment of MDR E. coli urosepsis

LOTUS: A co-operation for low temperature urea-based selective catalytic reduction of NOx

The European research co-operation Lotus is presented. The main objectives of the project were i) to show the potential for a urea-based SCR system to comply with the EU standard of years 2005 and 2008 for heavy-duty Diesel engines for different driving conditions with optimal fuel consumption, ii) to reach 95 % conversion of NOx at steady state at full load on a Euro III. engine, iii) to reach 75 % NOx reduction for exhaust temperatures between 200-300\ub0C, and 85 % average NOx reduction between 200-500\ub0C. The energy content of the consumed urea should not exceed 1.0 %, calculated as specific fuel consumption. These targets were met in May 2003 and the Lotus SCR system fulfilled the Euro V NOx legislative objectives for year 2008. Copyright \ua9 2004 SAE International

Quantitative real-time PCR assay for the rapid identification of the intrinsically multidrug-resistant bacterial pathogen Stenotrophomonas maltophilia

Stenotrophomonas maltophilia is emerging as an important cause of disease in nosocomial and community-acquired settings, including bloodstream, wound and catheter-associated infections. Cystic fibrosis (CF) airways also provide optimal growth conditions for various opportunistic pathogens with high antibiotic tolerance, including S. maltophilia. Currently, there is no rapid, cost-effective and accurate molecular method for detecting this potentially life-threatening pathogen, particularly in polymicrobial specimens, suggesting that its true prevalence is underestimated. Here, we used large-scale comparative genomics to identify a specific genetic target for S. maltophilia, with subsequent development and validation of a real-time PCR assay for its detection. Analysis of 167 Stenotrophomonas spp. genomes identified a conserved 4 kb region in S. maltophilia, which was targeted for Black Hole Quencher assay design. Our assay yielded the positive detection of 89 of 89 (100%) clinical S. maltophilia strains, and no amplification of 23 non-S. maltophilia clinical isolates. S. maltophilia was detected in 10 of 16 CF sputa, demonstrating the assay's utility for direct detection in respiratory specimens. The assay demonstrated good sensitivity, with limits of detection and quantitation on pure culture of similar to 10 and similar to 100 genome equivalents, respectively. Our assay provides a highly specific, sensitive and cost-effective method for the accurate identification of S. maltophilia, and will improve the diagnosis and treatment of this under-recognized pathogen by enabling its accurate and rapid detection from polymicrobial clinical and environmental samples

How stable is repression of disallowed genes in pancreatic islets in response to metabolic stress?

<div><p>The specific phenotype of mature differentiated beta cells not only depends on the specific presence of genes that allow beta cell function but also on the selective absence of housekeeping genes (“disallowed genes”) that would interfere with this function. Recent studies have shown that both histone modifications and DNA methylation via the de novo methyltransferase DNMT3A are involved in repression of disallowed genes in neonatal beta cells when these cells acquire their mature phenotype. It is unknown, however, if the environmental influence of advanced age, pregnancy and the metabolic stress of high fat diet or diabetes could alter the repression of disallowed genes in beta cells. In the present study, we show that islet disallowed genes—which are also deeply repressed in FACS-purified beta cells—remain deeply repressed in animals of advanced age and in pregnant females. Moreover, the stability of this repression was correlated with strong and stable histone repression marks that persisted in islets isolated from 2 year old mice and with overall high expression of <i>Dnmt3a</i> in islets. Furthermore, repression of disallowed genes was unaffected by the metabolic stress of high fat diet. However, repression of about half of the disallowed genes was weakened in 16 week-old diabetic db/db mice. In conclusion, we show that the disallowed status of islet genes is stable under physiological challenging conditions (advanced age, pregnancy, high fat diet) but partially lost in islets from diabetic animals.</p></div