Examination of Regional Transit Service Under Contracting: A Case Study in the Greater New Orleans Region, Research Report 10-09

Many local governments and transit agencies in the United States face financial difficulties in providing adequate public transit service in individual systems, and in providing sufficient regional coordination to accommodate transit trips involving at least one transfer between systems. These difficulties can be attributed to the recent economic downturn, continuing withdrawal of the state and federal funds that help support local transit service, a decline in local funding for transit service in inner cities due to ongoing suburbanization, and a distribution of resources that responds to geographic equity without addressing service needs. This study examines two main research questions: (1) the effect of a “delegated management” contract on efficiency and effectiveness within a single transit system, and (2) the effects of a single private firm—contracted separately by more than one agency in the same region—on regional coordination, exploring the case in Greater New Orleans. The current situation in New Orleans exhibits two unique transit service conditions. First, New Orleans Regional Transit Authority (RTA) executed a “delegated management” contract with a multinational private firm, outsourcing more functions (e.g., management, planning, funding) to the contractor than has been typical in the U.S. Second, as the same contractor has also been contracted by another transit agency in an adjacent jurisdiction—Jefferson Transit (JeT), this firm may potentially have economic incentives to improve regional coordination, in order to increase the productivity and effectiveness of its own transit service provision. Although the limited amount of available operation and financial data has prevented us from drawing more definitive conclusions, the findings of this multifaceted study should provide valuable information on a transit service contracting approach new to the U.S.: delegated management. This study also identified a coherent set of indices with which to evaluate the regional coordination of transit service, the present status of coordination among U.S. transit agencies, and barriers that need to be resolved for regional transit coordination to be successful

A study of incremental sheet forming by using water jet

In this work, a variant of the incremental sheet forming (ISF) process, namely the incremental sheet forming by using water jet (ISF-WJ), was studied. In the investigation, an ISF-WJ prototype machine was designed and developed. Different design concepts of the water jet nozzle were proposed and evaluated to achieve the maximum forming pressure by performing computational fluid dynamic (CFD) simulations. Based on the forming pressure distribution modeled by CFD simulations, finite element (FE) models were developed to study the sheet deformation behavior under the ISF-WJ process condition. Based on the understanding gained from the numerical study, experiments were conducted to validate the ISF-WJ process and the developed prototype machine. The results suggest that ISF-WJ is a feasible process to achieve improved surface finish of thin sheet parts. In addition, this study has found that water jet pressure plays an important role in preventing sheet wrinkling and obtaining an accurate geometry of formed parts

Ethnic differences in the association between blood pressure components and chronic kidney disease in middle aged and older Asian adults

10.1186/1471-2369-14-86BMC Nephrology141

Sensitive Detection of Plasmodium vivax Using a High-Throughput, Colourimetric Loop Mediated Isothermal Amplification (HtLAMP) Platform: A Potential Novel Tool for Malaria Elimination.

INTRODUCTION: Plasmodium vivax malaria has a wide geographic distribution and poses challenges to malaria elimination that are likely to be greater than those of P. falciparum. Diagnostic tools for P. vivax infection in non-reference laboratory settings are limited to microscopy and rapid diagnostic tests but these are unreliable at low parasitemia. The development and validation of a high-throughput and sensitive assay for P. vivax is a priority. METHODS: A high-throughput LAMP assay targeting a P. vivax mitochondrial gene and deploying colorimetric detection in a 96-well plate format was developed and evaluated in the laboratory. Diagnostic accuracy was compared against microscopy, antigen detection tests and PCR and validated in samples from malaria patients and community controls in a district hospital setting in Sabah, Malaysia. RESULTS: The high throughput LAMP-P. vivax assay (HtLAMP-Pv) performed with an estimated limit of detection of 1.4 parasites/ μL. Assay primers demonstrated cross-reactivity with P. knowlesi but not with other Plasmodium spp. Field testing of HtLAMP-Pv was conducted using 149 samples from symptomatic malaria patients (64 P. vivax, 17 P. falciparum, 56 P. knowlesi, 7 P. malariae, 1 mixed P. knowlesi/P. vivax, with 4 excluded). When compared against multiplex PCR, HtLAMP-Pv demonstrated a sensitivity for P. vivax of 95% (95% CI 87-99%); 61/64), and specificity of 100% (95% CI 86-100%); 25/25) when P. knowlesi samples were excluded. HtLAMP-Pv testing of 112 samples from asymptomatic community controls, 7 of which had submicroscopic P. vivax infections by PCR, showed a sensitivity of 71% (95% CI 29-96%; 5/7) and specificity of 93% (95% CI87-97%; 98/105). CONCLUSION: This novel HtLAMP-P. vivax assay has the potential to be a useful field applicable molecular diagnostic test for P. vivax infection in elimination settings

Non-destructive shoot biomass evaluation using a handheld NDVI sensor for field-grown staking Yam (Dioscorea rotundata Poir.)

Open Access Article; Published online: 20 Nov 2018Crop phenotyping is a key process used to accelerate breeding programs in the era of high-throughput genotyping. However, most rapid phenotyping methods developed to date have focused on major cereals or legumes, and their application to minor crops has been delayed. In this study, we developed a non-destructive method to predict shoot biomass by measuring spectral reflectance in staking yam (Dioscorea rotundata). The normalized difference vegetation index (NDVI) was evaluated using a handheld sensor that was vertically scanned from the top to the bottom of a plant alongside the stake. A linear regression model was constructed to predict shoot biomass through Bayesian analysis using NDVI as a parameter. The model well predicted the observed values of shoot biomass, irrespective of the growth stage and genotypes. Conversely, the model tended to underestimate the shoot biomass when the actual shoot biomass exceeded 150 g plant−1; this was compensated for when the parameter green area, calculated from plant image, was included in the model. This method reduced the time, cost, effort, and field space needed for shoot biomass evaluation compared with that needed for the sampling method, enabling shoot biomass phenotyping for a large population of plants. A total of 210 cross-populated plants were evaluated, and a correlation analysis was performed between the predicted shoot biomass and tuber yield. In addition to the prediction of tuber yield, this method could also be applied for the evaluation of crop models and stress tolerance, as well as for genetic analyses

Effect of seed sett size on sprouting, shoot growth, and tuber yield of white guinea yam (Dioscorea rotundata)

Open Access JournalApproximately 30% of harvested yams are used in subsequent plantings as seed tubers, which reduces the harvest size; however, planting tuber pieces (setts) potentially represents a viable alternative. To determine how sett size affects yam production, different sett sizes were compared for sprouting, shoot growth, and tuber yield. Larger setts exhibited faster sprouting with greater shoot biomass due to larger shoot growth rates during the early growth period. Tuber yield from 200 g setts was higher than that from 50 g setts; however, this yield advantage was not enough to compensate for the cost of larger sett size. Thus, planting 50 g setts might be the most cost-effective. Even the 50 g setts yielded higher than 1 kg tuber per plant which were available for selling in markets. Thus, planting with smaller setts can be promising method for efficiently improving yam production

Alzheimer's Disease: a Review of its Visual System Neuropathology. Optical Coherence Tomography-a Potential Role As a Study Tool in Vivo

Alzheimer's disease (AD) is a prevalent, long-term progressive degenerative disorder with great social impact. It is currently thought that, in addition to neurodegeneration, vascular changes also play a role in the pathophysiology of the disease. Visual symptoms are frequent and are an early clinical manifestation; a number of psychophysiologic changes occur in visual function, including visual field defects, abnormal contrast sensitivity, abnormalities in color vision, depth perception deficits, and motion detection abnormalities. These visual changes were initially believed to be solely due to neurodegeneration in the posterior visual pathway. However, evidence from pathology studies in both animal models of AD and humans has demonstrated that neurodegeneration also takes place in the anterior visual pathway, with involvement of the retinal ganglion cells' (RGCs) dendrites, somata, and axons in the optic nerve. These studies additionally showed that patients with AD have changes in retinal and choroidal microvasculature. Pathology findings have been corroborated in in-vivo assessment of the retina and optic nerve head (ONH), as well as the retinal and choroidal vasculature. Optical coherence tomography (OCT) in particular has shown great utility in the assessment of these changes, and it may become a useful tool for early detection and monitoring disease progression in AD. The authors make a review of the current understanding of retinal and choroidal pathological changes in patients with AD, with particular focus on in-vivo evidence of retinal and choroidal neurodegenerative and microvascular changes using OCT technology.info:eu-repo/semantics/publishedVersio

Biology of human hair: Know your hair to control it

Hair can be engineered at different levels—its structure and surface—through modification of its constituent molecules, in particular proteins, but also the hair follicle (HF) can be genetically altered, in particular with the advent of siRNA-based applications. General aspects of hair biology are reviewed, as well as the most recent contributions to understanding hair pigmentation and the regulation of hair development. Focus will also be placed on the techniques developed specifically for delivering compounds of varying chemical nature to the HF, indicating methods for genetic/biochemical modulation of HF components for the treatment of hair diseases. Finally, hair fiber structure and chemical characteristics will be discussed as targets for keratin surface functionalization

Why Are Outcomes Different for Registry Patients Enrolled Prospectively and Retrospectively? Insights from the Global Anticoagulant Registry in the FIELD-Atrial Fibrillation (GARFIELD-AF).

Background: Retrospective and prospective observational studies are designed to reflect real-world evidence on clinical practice, but can yield conflicting results. The GARFIELD-AF Registry includes both methods of enrolment and allows analysis of differences in patient characteristics and outcomes that may result. Methods and Results: Patients with atrial fibrillation (AF) and ≥1 risk factor for stroke at diagnosis of AF were recruited either retrospectively (n = 5069) or prospectively (n = 5501) from 19 countries and then followed prospectively. The retrospectively enrolled cohort comprised patients with established AF (for a least 6, and up to 24 months before enrolment), who were identified retrospectively (and baseline and partial follow-up data were collected from the emedical records) and then followed prospectively between 0-18 months (such that the total time of follow-up was 24 months; data collection Dec-2009 and Oct-2010). In the prospectively enrolled cohort, patients with newly diagnosed AF (≤6 weeks after diagnosis) were recruited between Mar-2010 and Oct-2011 and were followed for 24 months after enrolment. Differences between the cohorts were observed in clinical characteristics, including type of AF, stroke prevention strategies, and event rates. More patients in the retrospectively identified cohort received vitamin K antagonists (62.1% vs. 53.2%) and fewer received non-vitamin K oral anticoagulants (1.8% vs . 4.2%). All-cause mortality rates per 100 person-years during the prospective follow-up (starting the first study visit up to 1 year) were significantly lower in the retrospective than prospectively identified cohort (3.04 [95% CI 2.51 to 3.67] vs . 4.05 [95% CI 3.53 to 4.63]; p = 0.016). Conclusions: Interpretations of data from registries that aim to evaluate the characteristics and outcomes of patients with AF must take account of differences in registry design and the impact of recall bias and survivorship bias that is incurred with retrospective enrolment. Clinical Trial Registration: - URL: http://www.clinicaltrials.gov . Unique identifier for GARFIELD-AF (NCT01090362)