Assessing the effect of beard hair lengths on face masks used as personal protective equipment during the COVID-19 pandemic

Background Globally, a large percentage of men keep a beard at least occasionally. Workplace regulations prohibit beards with N95 respirators, but there is little information on the effect of beards with face masks worn by the public for protection against SARS-CoV-2. Methods and findings We examined the fitted filtration efficiency (FFE) of five commonly worn protective face masks as a function of beard length following the US Occupational Safety and Health Administration Quantitative Fit Test: N95 (respirator), KF94 and KN95, surgical/procedure, and cloth masks. A comparison using N95 respirators was carried out in shaven and bearded men. A detailed examination was conducted for beard lengths between 0 and 10 mm (0.5 mm increments). The effect of an exercise band covering the beard on FFE was also tested. Although N95 respirators showed considerable variability among bearded men, they had the highest FFE for beard lengths up to 10 mm. KF94 and KN95 masks lost up to 40% of their FFE. Procedure and cotton masks had poor performance even on bare skin (10–30% FFE) that did not change appreciably with beard length. Marked performance improvements were observed with an exercise band worn over the beard. Conclusions Though variable, N95 respirators offer the best respiratory protection for bearded men. While KF94 and KN95 FFE is compromised considerably by increasing beard length, they proved better options than procedure and cotton face masks. A simple exercise band improves FFE for face masks commonly used by bearded men during the COVID-19 pandemic

Differences in bacterial diversity, composition and function due to long-term agriculture in soils in the Eastern Free State of South Africa

Land-use change from natural to managed agricultural ecosystems significantly impacts soil bacterial diversity and function. The Eastern Free State (EFS) is one of the most productive agricultural regions in South Africa. However, no studies aiming to understand the changes in bacterial diversity, composition and function due to land-use change in this area have been conducted. This study investigated, using high-throughput 16S rRNA gene amplicon sequencing, the e ects of long-term agriculture on bacterial diversity, composition and putative function in the EFS by comparing microbiomes from lands that have been under agronomic activity for over 50 years to those from uncultivated land. Results indicate that agriculture increased bacterial diversity. Soil chemical analysis showed that land-use shifted soils from being oligotrophic to copiotrophic, which changed bacterial communities from being Actinobacteria dominated to Proteobacteria dominated. Predictive functional analysis using Phylogenetic Investigation of Communities by Reconstruction of Unobserved States (PICRUSt) suggested that agricultural soil was abundant in genes associated with plant fitness and plant growth promotion, while non-agricultural soil was abundant in genes related to organic matter degradation. Together, these results suggest that edaphic factors induced by long-term agriculture resulted in shifts in bacterial diversity and putative function in the EFS.Supplementary Material: Figure S1: Sunburst chart showing the total relative abundance of bacterial phyla detected in investigated samples, Figure S2: Rarefaction analyses of samples at phylum level, Figure S3: Unique and shared KEGG Orthologs (KOs) between the agricultural and non-agricultural soils, Figure S4: Extended error bar plot for the six active features (high-level subsystems) that had significant di erences between agricultural and non-agricultural samples, Figure S5. Extended error bar plot showing the abundances of functions associated with plant interaction that had significant di erences between agricultural and non-agricultural samples, Figure S6: Heat map showing di erences in relative abundance of the 50 most abundant bacterial genera as revealed by ClustVis statistical analysis, Figure S7. Relative abundance of di erent genera involved in plant growth promotion and plant fitness between agricultural and non- agricultural soils.This research was funded by Potatoes South Africa, grant specific unique reference number (UID) 105649.https://www.mdpi.com/journal/diversityam2020BiochemistryGeneticsMicrobiology and Plant PathologyPlant Production and Soil Scienc

UNOLS establishes SCOAR to promote research aircraft facilities for U.S. ocean sciences

The ocean sciences community is currently engaged in the process of defining new facilities that will support oceanographic research, education, and monitoring efforts for the next several decades. New research vessels, drilling ships, coastal and deep-ocean observing systems, satellites, and submersibles will be designed to increase ocean access in terms of geographical coverage, depth, temporal continuity, and resolution of events. Aircraft may be largely overlooked facilities that are capable of providing observations and data in ways that satisfy many research goals, and they should be considered an important component in the future mix of oceanographic facilities

Possible charge inhomogeneities in the CuO2 planes of YBa2Cu3O6+x (x=0.25, 0.45, 0.65, 0.94) from pulsed neutron diffraction

The atomic pair distribution functions (PDF) of four powder samples of YBa2Cu3O6+x (x=0.25, 0.45, 0.65, 0.94) at 15 K have been measured by means of pulsed neutron diffraction. The PDF is modelled using a full-profile fitting approach to yield structural parameters. In contrast to earlier XAFS work we find no evidence of a split apical oxygen site. However, a slightly improved fit over the average crystallographic model results when the planar Cu(2) site is split along the z-direction. This is interpreted in terms of charge inhomogeneities in the CuO2 planes.Comment: 8 pages, 3 figure

Mapping alveolar oxygen partial pressure in COPD using hyperpolarized helium-3: the multi-ethnic study of atherosclerosis (MESA) COPD study

Chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD) and emphysema are characterized by functional and structural damage which increases the spaces for gaseous diffusion and impairs oxygen exchange. Here we explore the potential for hyperpolarized (HP) 3He MRI to characterize lung structure and function in a large-scale population-based study. Participants (n = 54) from the Multi-Ethnic Study of Atherosclerosis (MESA) COPD Study, a nested case-control study of COPD among participants with 10+ packyears underwent HP 3He MRI measuring pAO2, apparent diffusion coefficient (ADC), and ventilation. HP MRI measures were compared to full-lung CT and pulmonary function testing. High ADC values (>0.4 cm2/s) correlated with emphysema and heterogeneity in pAO2 measurements. Strong correlations were found between the heterogeneity of global pAO2 as summarized by its standard deviation (SD) (p < 0.0002) and non-physiologic pAO2 values (p < 0.0001) with percent emphysema on CT. A regional study revealed a strong association between pAO2 SD and visual emphysema severity (p < 0.003) and an association with the paraseptal emphysema subtype (p < 0.04) after adjustment for demographics and smoking status. HP noble gas pAO2 heterogeneity and the fraction of non-physiological pAO2 results increase in mild to moderate COPD. Measurements of pAO2 are sensitive to regional emphysematous damage detected by CT and may be used to probe pulmonary emphysema subtypes. HP noble gas lung MRI provides non-invasive information about COPD severity and lung function without ionizing radiation

An Integrated TCGA Pan-Cancer Clinical Data Resource to Drive High-Quality Survival Outcome Analytics

For a decade, The Cancer Genome Atlas (TCGA) program collected clinicopathologic annotation data along with multi-platform molecular profiles of more than 11,000 human tumors across 33 different cancer types. TCGA clinical data contain key features representing the democratized nature of the data collection process. To ensure proper use of this large clinical dataset associated with genomic features, we developed a standardized dataset named the TCGA Pan-Cancer Clinical Data Resource (TCGA-CDR), which includes four major clinical outcome endpoints. In addition to detailing major challenges and statistical limitations encountered during the effort of integrating the acquired clinical data, we present a summary that includes endpoint usage recommendations for each cancer type. These TCGA-CDR findings appear to be consistent with cancer genomics studies independent of the TCGA effort and provide opportunities for investigating cancer biology using clinical correlates at an unprecedented scale. Analysis of clinicopathologic annotations for over 11,000 cancer patients in the TCGA program leads to the generation of TCGA Clinical Data Resource, which provides recommendations of clinical outcome endpoint usage for 33 cancer types

Genome-Wide Discovery of Somatic Regulatory Variants in Diffuse Large B-Cell Lymphoma

Diffuse large B-cell lymphoma (DLBCL) is an aggressive cancer originating from mature B-cells. Prognosis is strongly associated with molecular subgroup, although the driver mutations that distinguish the two main subgroups remain poorly defined. Through an integrative analysis of whole genomes, exomes, and transcriptomes, we have uncovered genes and non-coding loci that are commonly mutated in DLBCL. Our analysis has identified novel cis-regulatory sites, and implicates recurrent mutations in the 3′ UTR of NFKBIZ as a novel mechanism of oncogene deregulation and NF-κB pathway activation in the activated B-cell (ABC) subgroup. Small amplifications associated with over-expression of FCGR2B (the Fcγ receptor protein IIB), primarily in the germinal centre B-cell (GCB) subgroup, correlate with poor patient outcomes suggestive of a novel oncogene. These results expand the list of subgroup driver mutations that may facilitate implementation of improved diagnostic assays and could offer new avenues for the development of targeted therapeutics.&nbsp

Tilly's Technical Accounts and Standard Stories Explored in Financial Markets:The Case of the Istanbul Stock Exchange

In this article, I follow the lead opened up by Tilly (1999, 2002) who was interested in people's storytelling. I do so by looking at sense-making and the legitimacy narratives of market actors in the Istanbul Stock Exchange. Tilly (2006, 2008) himself walked the narrative path and investigated Why and how people give reasons and how people attribute Credit and Blame to other's actions. These books provide insights into people's storytelling in the everyday situations of the home, courtrooms, hospitals, and so on. Nevertheless, Tilly's faith in the prevalence of technical accounts as modes of explanation in intra and inter organisational settings, and superior stories as mode of communication between expert givers and non-specialized receivers, seems to ignore informational uncertainties, intra and inter organisational hierarchies and conflicts pertinent to organisations. It is these factors that push standard stories (Tilly, 1999) into the forefront at the expense of technical stories within the story exchanges of market actors. I demonstrate this by presenting a sample of story exchanges from the Istanbul Stock Exchange under situations of informational uncertainties and organisational conflicts