Ecology of Trifolium stoloniferum (Muhl. ex A. Eaton), a federally endangered vascular plant, at the Fernow Experimental Forest in West Virginia

This thesis presents work addressing the ecology of Trifolium stoloniferum, a federally endangered vascular plant species, in the Fernow Experimental Forest, West Virginia. In this thesis, I describe the historical ecology of this species and make a case that at one time it occurred in great abundance in association with trails created by large mammals and humans that intersected rich, open forests. Similar conditions exist at the Fernow Experimental Forest in West Virginia, but instead of large mammals, the requisite soil disturbance, control of competing vegetation, and canopy perforation are created by timber-harvesting related disturbances, particularly gap creation by tree felling and skidding of trees from the forest.;I conducted two distinct studies to quantitatively and qualitatively describe the habitat conditions that promote T. stoloniferum success. The first study occurred at the scale of a forested stand. At the level of the stand, total number of logging-related disturbances since 1945 was the most important characteristic in determining the presence or absence of the species, with greater number of disturbances strongly related to the presence of the species. Time since last disturbance and aspect interacted to affect T. stoloniferum density within a stand, with west-facing stands that had been disturbed more recently than 14.5 years supporting the greatest densities of T. stoloniferum. This study revealed that stands managed in uneven-aged silvicultural systems with frequent management entrances that also received high levels of light were most capable of supporting vigorous occurrences of T. stoloniferum..;The second study consisted of a detailed habitat assessment of T. stoloniferum patches. I stratified patches at the Fernow Experimental Forest based upon patch abundance and inflorescence production and conducted detailed habitat assessment of a representative sample of patch sizes and relative inflorescence production. I assessed the vegetation, substrate, physiography, and localized disturbance history, and also took canopy photographs using a hemispherical lens. Patch abundance was the result of a suite of interactions between canopy structure, tree basal area, and disturbance history. Abundant sites also had high diversity of associated herbaceous species, suggesting that good sites for T. stoloniferum are also good for a suite of early and mid-successional forest herbs. Inflorescence production was the consequence of light levels, with high light levels associated with increased inflorescence production.;The management and conservation of Trifolium stoloniferum should focus on maintaining and encouraging those processes and activities that periodically disturb soil and create light gaps in mixed, mesophytic forests. In addition to the deliberate efforts of managers, incidental management opportunities, or situations in which the promotion of T. stoloniferum is an unintended outcome, should be identified and fostered

Sexual Minorities in England Have Poorer Health and Worse Health Care Experiences: A National Survey

This is the final published version. Available from Springer via the DOI in this record.BACKGROUND: The health and healthcare of sexual minorities have recently been identified as priorities for health research and policy. OBJECTIVE: To compare the health and healthcare experiences of sexual minorities with heterosexual people of the same gender, adjusting for age, race/ethnicity, and socioeconomic status. DESIGN: Multivariate analyses of observational data from the 2009/2010 English General Practice Patient Survey. PARTICIPANTS: The survey was mailed to 5.56 million randomly sampled adults registered with a National Health Service general practice (representing 99 % of England’s adult population). In all, 2,169,718 people responded (39 % response rate), including 27,497 people who described themselves as gay, lesbian, or bisexual. MAIN MEASURES: Two measures of health status (fair/poor overall self-rated health and self-reported presence of a longstanding psychological condition) and four measures of poor patient experiences (no trust or confidence in the doctor, poor/very poor doctor communication, poor/very poor nurse communication, fairly/very dissatisfied with care overall). KEY RESULTS: Sexual minorities were two to three times more likely to report having a longstanding psychological or emotional problem than heterosexual counterparts (age-adjusted for 5.2 % heterosexual, 10.9 % gay, 15.0 % bisexual for men; 6.0 % heterosexual, 12.3 % lesbian and 18.8 % bisexual for women; p < 0.001 for each). Sexual minorities were also more likely to report fair/poor health (adjusted 19.6 % heterosexual, 21.8 % gay, 26.4 % bisexual for men; 20.5 % heterosexual, 24.9 % lesbian and 31.6 % bisexual for women; p < 0.001 for each). Adjusted for sociodemographic characteristics and health status, sexual minorities were about one and one-half times more likely than heterosexual people to report unfavorable experiences with each of four aspects of primary care. Little of the overall disparity reflected concentration of sexual minorities in low-performing practices. CONCLUSIONS: Sexual minorities suffer both poorer health and worse healthcare experiences. Efforts should be made to recognize the needs and improve the experiences of sexual minorities. Examining patient experience disparities by sexual orientation can inform such efforts.The Department of Health (England

Isolation and characterization of cDNA clones for chloroplast translational initiation factor-3 from Euglena gracilis

A complete cDNA clone encoding Euglena gracilis chloroplast translational initiation factor 3 (IF-3chl) has been obtained. Analysis of the sequence indicates that the IF-3chl mRNA contains the spliced leader found at the 5' end of nuclear encoded mRNAs in E. gracilis. The open reading frame for IF-3chl encodes a 537-amino acid protein. IF-3chl appears to be divided into four domains. The first 140 amino acids correspond to a transit peptide required for the import of IF-3chl into the chloroplast. The mature form of IF-3chl encompasses domains 2-4 and is about twice the size of Escherichia coli IF-3. The second domain has no homology to other known proteins. It begins with a stretch of 35 residues, of which about 30% are proline. Downstream from this region is a stretch of about 25 amino acids with a repeating (GX)n motif followed by a very acidic region. The third domain comprises a region of about 175 residues and has between 31 and 37% homology to the IF-3s found in other organisms. The IF-3 homology domain is followed by an acidic region which has no detectable homology to other sequences. Analysis of E. gracilis genomic DNA suggests that there are about four copies of the IF-3chl gene, one of which is probably a pseudogene. The activity of IF-3chl is inducible by light. However, the IF-3chl mRNA is present in approximately equal amounts in both dark- and light-grown cells, suggesting that the light-dependent induction of IF-3chl activity is post-transcriptional

Sexual Minorities in England Have Poorer Health and Worse Health Care Experiences: A National Survey

ABSTRACT BACKGROUND The health and healthcare of sexual minorities have recently been identified as priorities for health research and policy. OBJECTIVE To compare the health and healthcare experiences of sexual minorities with heterosexual people of the same gender, adjusting for age, race/ethnicity, and socioeconomic status. DESIGN Multivariate analyses of observational data from the 2009/2010 English General Practice Patient Survey. PARTICIPANTS The survey was mailed to 5.56 million randomly sampled adults registered with a National Health Service general practice (representing 99 % of England’s adult population). In all, 2,169,718 people responded (39 % response rate), including 27,497 people who described themselves as gay, lesbian, or bisexual. MAIN MEASURES Two measures of health status (fair/poor overall self-rated health and self-reported presence of a longstanding psychological condition) and four measures of poor patient experiences (no trust or confidence in the doctor, poor/very poor doctor communication, poor/very poor nurse communication, fairly/very dissatisfied with care overall). KEY RESULTS Sexual minorities were two to three times more likely to report having a longstanding psychological or emotional problem than heterosexual counterparts (age-adjusted for 5.2 % heterosexual, 10.9 % gay, 15.0 % bisexual for men; 6.0 % heterosexual, 12.3 % lesbian and 18.8 % bisexual for women; p < 0.001 for each). Sexual minorities were also more likely to report fair/poor health (adjusted 19.6 % heterosexual, 21.8 % gay, 26.4 % bisexual for men; 20.5 % heterosexual, 24.9 % lesbian and 31.6 % bisexual for women; p < 0.001 for each). Adjusted for sociodemographic characteristics and health status, sexual minorities were about one and one-half times more likely than heterosexual people to report unfavorable experiences with each of four aspects of primary care. Little of the overall disparity reflected concentration of sexual minorities in low-performing practices. CONCLUSIONS Sexual minorities suffer both poorer health and worse healthcare experiences. Efforts should be made to recognize the needs and improve the experiences of sexual minorities. Examining patient experience disparities by sexual orientation can inform such efforts. Electronic supplementary material The online version of this article (doi:10.1007/s11606-014-2905-y) contains supplementary material, which is available to authorized users

Associations of Mail Survey Length and Layout With Response Rates.

We assess the association between survey layout and response rates (RRs) in the 2017 Medicare Advantage Consumer Assessment of Healthcare Providers and Systems mail survey. Among 438 Medicare Advantage plans surveyed by six vendors, there was latitude in survey layout, and plans could add up to 12 supplemental items. Regression models predicted survey response from survey characteristics (page count, number of supplemental items, and survey attractiveness), and beneficiary sociodemographics. Beneficiary-age-by-survey-characteristic interactions assessed whether survey characteristics were more strongly related to RRs among older beneficiaries. We found that surveys with more supplemental items and less attractive layouts had lower adjusted odds of response. RRs were more sensitive to format among older beneficiaries. The difference in adjusted RRs for the most favorable versus the least favorable survey design was 14.5%. For a 65-year-old, this difference was 13.6%; for an 80-year-old, it was 21.0%. These findings suggest that even within a relatively standardized survey, formatting can substantially influence RRs

Identifying optimal level-of-care placement decisions for adolescent substance use treatment

Background: Adolescents respond differentially to substance use treatment based on their individual needs and goals. Providers may benefit from guidance (via decision rules) for personalizing aspects of treatment, such as level-of-care (LOC) placements, like choosing between outpatient or inpatient care. The field lacks an empirically-supported foundation to inform the development of an adaptive LOC-placement protocol. This work begins to build the evidence base for adaptive protocols by estimating them from a large observational dataset. Methods: We estimated two-stage LOC-placement protocols adapted to individual adolescent characteristics collected from the Global Appraisal of Individual Needs assessment tool (n = 10,131 adolescents). We used a modified version of Q-learning, a regression-based method for estimating personalized treatment rules over time, to estimate four protocols, each targeting a potentially distinct treatment goal: one primary outcome (a composite of ten positive treatment outcomes) and three secondary (substance frequency, substance problems, and emotional problems). We compared the adaptive protocols to non-adaptive protocols using an independent dataset. Results: Intensive outpatient was recommended for all adolescents at intake for the primary outcome, while low-risk adolescents were recommended for no further treatment at followup while higher-risk patients were recommended to inpatient. Our adaptive protocols outperformed static protocols by an average of 0.4 standard deviations (95 % confidence interval 0.2-0.6) of the primary outcome. Conclusions: Adaptive protocols provide a simple one-to-one guide between adolescents' needs and recommended treatment which can be used as decision support for clinicians making LOC-placement decisions

Absence of Inhibin Alpha and Retinoblastoma Protein Leads to Early Sertoli Cell Dysfunction

Sertoli cells, the support cells of mammalian spermatogenesis, are regulated by a number of nuclear factors and express retinoblastoma (RB) tumor suppressor protein. We hypothesized that RB is an important mediator of Sertoli cell tumorigenesis in inhibin α knockout (Inha KO) mice. In our previous mouse studies, we found that conditional knockout (cKO) of Rb in Sertoli cells caused progressive Sertoli cell dysfunction. Initially, loss of RB had no gross effect on Sertoli cell function as the mice were fertile with normal testis weights at 6 weeks of age, but by 10–14 weeks of age, mutant mice demonstrated severe Sertoli cell dysfunction and infertility. Although double knockout (dKO) of Rb and Inha did not result in exacerbation of the tumorigenic phenotype of Inha-null mice, we found that the dKO mice demonstrate an acceleration of Sertoli cell dysfunction compared to Rb cKO mice. Specifically, in contrast to Rb cKO mice, Inha/Rb dKO mice showed signs of Sertoli cell dysfunction as early as 4 weeks of age. These results demonstrate that RB is not essential for Sertoli cell tumorigenesis in Inha KO mice but that loss of Inha accelerates the infertility phenotype of Rb cKO mice

Cloud structure of three Galactic infrared dark star-forming regions from combining ground and space based bolometric observations

We have modified the iterative procedure introduced by Lin et al. (2016), to systematically combine the submm images taken from ground based (e.g., CSO, JCMT, APEX) and space (e.g., Herschel, Planck) telescopes. We applied the updated procedure to observations of three well studied Infrared Dark Clouds (IRDCs): G11.11-0.12, G14.225-0.506 and G28.34+0.06, and then performed single-component, modified black-body fits to derive $\sim$10$"$ resolution dust temperature and column density maps. The derived column density maps show that these three IRDCs exhibit complex filamentary structures embedding with rich clumps/cores. We compared the column density probability distribution functions (N-PDFs) and two-point correlation (2PT) functions of the column density field between these IRDCs with several OB cluster-forming regions. Based on the observed correlation and measurements, and complementary hydrodynamical simulations for a 10$^{4}$ $\rm M_{\odot}$ molecular cloud, we hypothesize that cloud evolution can be better characterized by the evolution of the (column) density distribution function and the relative power of dense structures as a function of spatial scales, rather than merely based on the presence of star-forming activity. Based on the small analyzed sample, we propose four evolutionary stages, namely: {\it cloud integration, stellar assembly, cloud pre-dispersal and dispersed-cloud.} The initial {\it cloud integration} stage and the final {\it dispersed cloud} stage may be distinguished from the two intermediate stages by a steeper than $-$4 power-law index of the N-PDF. The {\it cloud integration} stage and the subsequent {\it stellar assembly} stage are further distinguished from each other by the larger luminosity-to-mass ratio ($>$40 $\rm L_{\odot}/M_{\odot}$) of the latter

Thymidine Phosphorylase/β-tubulin III expressions predict the response in Chinese advanced gastric cancer patients receiving first-line capecitabine plus paclitaxel

<p>Abstract</p> <p>Background</p> <p>To assess the role of Thymidine Phosphorylase and β-tubulin III in clinical outcome of Chinese advanced gastric cancer patients receiving first-line capecitabine plus paclitaxel.</p> <p>Methods</p> <p>The clinical data and tumor biopsies prior treatment from 33 advanced gastric cancer patients receiving capecitabine plus paclitaxel (cohort 1, experimental group) and 18 patients receiving capecitabine plus cisplatin (cohort 2, control group) in Beijing Cancer Hospital from July 2003 to December 2008 were retrospectively collected and analyzed for Thymidine Phosphorylase and β-tubulin III expressions by immunohistochemistry. The relationships between expressions of biomarkers and response or survival were determined by statistical analysis.</p> <p>Results</p> <p>The median age of 51 patients was 57 years (range, 27-75) with male 34 and female 17, and the response rate, median progression-free survival and overall survival were 43.1%, 120d and 265d. Among cohort 1, the response rate, median progression-free survival and overall survival in β-tubulin III positive (n = 22) and negative patients (n = 11) were 36.4%/72.7% (positive vs negative, <it>P </it>= 0.049), 86d/237d (<it>P </it>= 0.046) and 201d/388d (<it>P </it>= 0.029), respectively; the response rate (87.5% vs 14.3%, <it>P </it>= 0.01) and median progression-free survival (251d vs 84d, <it>P </it>= 0.003) in Thymidine Phosphorylase positive & β-tubulin III negative patients (n = 8) were also significantly higher than those in Thymidine Phosphorylase negative & β-tubulin III positive patients (n = 7). There was no correlation between β-tubulin III expression and response or survival among cohort 2 (n = 18).</p> <p>Conclusions</p> <p>In Chinese advanced gastric cancer, Thymidine Phosphorylase positive & β-tubulin III negative might predict response and prognosis to capecitabine plus paclitaxel chemotherapy. Further prospective evaluation in large samples should be performed to confirm these preliminary findings.</p

Machine learning for estimation of building energy consumption and performance:a review

Ever growing population and progressive municipal business demands for constructing new buildings are known as the foremost contributor to greenhouse gasses. Therefore, improvement of energy eciency of the building sector has become an essential target to reduce the amount of gas emission as well as fossil fuel consumption. One most eective approach to reducing CO2 emission and energy consumption with regards to new buildings is to consider energy eciency at a very early design stage. On the other hand, ecient energy management and smart refurbishments can enhance energy performance of the existing stock. All these solutions entail accurate energy prediction for optimal decision making. In recent years, articial intelligence (AI) in general and machine learning (ML) techniques in specic terms have been proposed for forecasting of building energy consumption and performance. This paperprovides a substantial review on the four main ML approaches including articial neural network, support vector machine, Gaussian-based regressions and clustering, which have commonly been applied in forecasting and improving building energy performance