The association between life events, social support, and antibody status following thymus-dependent and thymus-independent vaccinations in healthy young adults

This study determined whether stressful life events and social support were related to antibody status following both thymus-dependent and thymus-independent vaccinations. Life events in the previous year and customary social support were measured in 57 healthy students at baseline. Antibody status was also assessed at baseline and at five weeks and five months following vaccination with the trivalent influenza vaccine and the meningococcal A+C polysaccharide vaccine. Taking into account baseline antibody titre, high life events scores prior to vaccination were associated with lower responses to the B/Shangdong influenza strain at both five weeks and five months and meningococcal C at five weeks. Life events scores were not associated with response to the other two influenza viral strains nor response to meningococcal A. Those with high social support scores had stronger 5-week and 5-month antibody responses to the A/Panama influenza strain, but not to any of the other strains. These associations could not be accounted for by demographic or health behaviour factors, and also emerged from analyses comparing those who exhibited a four-fold increase in antibody titre from baseline with those who did not. Life events and social support were related to antibody status following influenza vaccination in distinctive ways that may be partly determined by vaccine novelty and prior naturalistic exposure. Life events also predicted poor antibody response to meningococcal C polysaccharide vaccination after previous meningococcal C conjugate vaccination. Neither psychosocial factor was associated with response to primary meningococcal A polysaccharide vaccination

What Is to Be Learned from a Statewide Collection of PDFs

The Texas Digital Newspaper Program, operated by the University of North Texas Libraries, actively works to digitally preserve news in the form of print and born digital newspaper content via The Portal to Texas History. For two years, TDNP has partnered with the Texas Press Association to preserve born-digital newspaper titles from its member institutions. These PDF-based print masters total more than 3 million pages from over 500 titles across the state and allow UNT Libraries to explore significant metrics associated with born-digital newspaper content at a scale that previously had been impossible. This paper reports on exploratory investigations by the TDNP to understand aggregate patterns in the generation of born-digital news editions by analyzing technical metadata extracted from the 3 million pages currently in the preservation collection. While this research is still in its early stages, the goal is to provide an overview of current publishing practices of the more than 500 newspaper publishers across Texas. Furthermore, this research can enhance libraries’ understanding about current publishing trends as they plan digital preservation policies and practices in support of publisher preservation needs

Poly-paraphyly of Hirudinidae: many lineages of medicinal leeches

<p>Abstract</p> <p>Background</p> <p>Medicinal leeches became infamous for their utility in bloodletting popularized in the 19^thcentury, and have seen a recent resurgence in post-operative treatments for flap and replantation surgeries, and in terms of characterization of salivary anticoagulants. Notorious throughout the world, the quintessential leech family Hirudinidae has been taken for granted to be monophyletic, as has the non-bloodfeeding family Haemopidae.</p> <p>Results</p> <p>This study is the first to evaluate molecular evidence from hirudinid and haemopid leeches in a manner that encompasses the global scope of their taxonomic distributions. We evaluated the presumed monophyly of the Hirudinidae and assessed previous well-accepted classification schemes. The Hirudinidae were found not to be monophyletic, falling instead into two distinct and unrelated clades. Members of the non-bloodfeeding family Haemopidae were scattered throughout the tree and among traditional hirudinid genera. A combination of nuclear 18S rDNA and 28S rDNA with mitochondrial 12S rDNA and cytochrome <it>c </it>oxidase I were analyzed with Parsimony and with Bayesian methods.</p> <p>Conclusion</p> <p>The family Hirudinidae must be refined to include only the clade containing <it>Hirudo medicinalis </it>(European medicinal leech) and related leeches irrespective of bloodfeeding behavior. A second clade containing <it>Macrobdella decora </it>(North American medicinal leech) and its relatives may yet be recognized in Semiscolecidae in order to avoid paraphyly. The African distribution of species from each of the divergent hirudinid clades suggests that a deep divergence took place in the history of the medicinal leeches hundreds of millions of years ago.</p

Expansion Potential for Irrigation within the Mississippi Delta Region

17.6 million acres, or 73 percent, of the Mississippi Delta Region is currently cropland and possesses the physical characteristics of slope, texture and soil type which are recommended for irrigation. Economic feasibility of expanding irrigation by flood, furrow and center pivot methods were examined under 24 scenarios representing two sets of crop prices, yield levels, production costs, opportunity costs and six crop rotations. Irrigation was economically feasible for 56 to 100 percent of the cropland across all scenarios. Approximately 88 percent of the cropland can be economically irrigated with flood or furrow in its present form, 8 percent yield highest net returns if furrow irrigated following land forming and 4 percent can be economically irrigated only with center pivot systems

Using metadata record graphs to understand controlled vocabulary and keyword usage for subject representation in the UNT theses and dissertations collection

An important function of metadata for electronic theses and dissertations (ETDs) is supporting the discovery of related documents through linking of data values in the fields of metadata records. While benefits of the ETD format allow for full-text searching, metadata is still an important and necessary component of the global ETD infrastructure because it is often not possible to share the full documents in aggregations such as the Global ETD Search for the Networked Digital Library of Theses and Dissertations. The metadata field that has the most potential to assist users in discovery is the subject field used to represent what a resource is about. Over the years there has been much discussion of the value of author-generated keywords versus adding subject terms from controlled vocabularies by information professionals as documents are submitted to the University repository. This research seeks to explore this problem with the help of network analysis method not used for such analyzes before by building and analyzing metadata record graphs for the University of North Texas theses and dissertations. This paper reports on the characteristics of keyword-based and controlled-vocabulary-based metadata record networks and discussions insights that can be gained from this approach to metadata quality analysis. This research seeks to explore this problem with the help of network analysis method not used for such analyzes before by building and analyzing metadata record graphs for the University of North Texas theses and dissertations. This paper reports on the characteristics of keyword-based and controlled-vocabulary-based metadata record networks and discussions insights that can be gained from this approach to metadata quality analysis. This research seeks to explore this problem with the help of network analysis method not used for such analyzes before by building and analyzing metadata record graphs for the University of North Texas theses and dissertations. This paper reports on the characteristics of keyword-based and controlled-vocabulary-based metadata record networks and discussions insights that can be gained from this approach to metadata quality analysis

Imaging the phase of an evolving Bose-Einstein condensate wavefunction

We demonstrate a spatially resolved autocorrelation measurement with a Bose-Einstein condensate (BEC) and measure the evolution of the spatial profile of its quantum mechanical phase. Upon release of the BEC from the magnetic trap, its phase develops a form that we measure to be quadratic in the spatial coordinate. Our experiments also reveal the effects of the repulsive interaction between two overlapping BEC wavepackets and we measure the small momentum they impart to each other

How Do Bacteria Move Through Soil?

The contamination of water supplies by fecal bacteria is an important water quality issue in Kentucky. Contamination may come from point sources, such as straight pipes depositing raw sewage into streams, or nonpoint sources, such as manure runoff from cropland. A direct cost of contaminating water supplies is the expense that homesteads or water companies incur to chlorinate, filter, and otherwise treat water to make it potable. Indirect costs are the time lost to illness from drinking inadequately treated water, slower weight gain in livestock drinking contaminated water, and the degradation of aquatic habitats