Studies Related to Nutrients Entering Groundwater From the Heber Valley Sewer Farm and Dairies

Foreword: This report includes the results from a two year study in the Heber Valley to determine amounts of nutrients that are entering the groundwaters of the Heber Valley, and might ultimately enter Deer Creek Reservoir. Since Deer Creek Reservoir in Heber Valley, Utah supplies approximately 65 percent of the water distributed to Salt Lake County, the maintenance of its quality is of considerable importance. To maintain the quality of this reservoir and limit its eutrophication best management practices for surface water have been implemented gradually during the past decade in Heber Valley. These practices have significantly improved the qualities of surface streams flowing into the reservoir. However, data for amounts of phosphorus and nitrogen in groundwater inflows to the reservoir are several times larger than predicted from 1967 data. Concern has been voiced that perhaps cleaning up the surface inflows by spreading treated sewage on land, retaining dairy wastes in lagoon, etc, have only delayed the arrival time of nutrients into Deer Creek Reservoir, and that their transmission through gruondwaters into the reservoir will result in eutrophication unless other measures are implemented. To provide data for better understanding of the processes assocaited with soil sorption and transmission of chemicals (with a focus on phosphorus and nitrogen) into the saturated groundwater and ultimately into Deer Creek Reservoir, a three pronged research program was initiated by Utah State University during the Spring of 1989. This program consisted of: 1. Installation of unsaturated zone (Vandose zone) samples that extract water from the partially saturated soil at 6 sites (with two samplers at different depths at each site) within the land disposal area of the Heber Valley Special Service District (referred to as the sewer farm hereafter), and adjacent to two liquid manure lagoons at dairy farms. 2. Laboratory sorption studies on soil columns that were acquired in an undistrubed state from the 6 sites in the above sewer farm , and 3. Development of computer solutions to estimate the transmission of nutrients through the unsaturated top soil into the groundwater. An earlier 1990 preliminary report Interim Report for Studies related to Nutrients Entering Groundwater from the Heber Valley Sewer Farm and Dairies provided information related to the results of the laboratory sorption studies, and tentative results from the field studies based on the data collected during the summer of 1989. Since the field data given in the earlier report covered only a portion of ayear, and the study was continued for a second year that report is superceded by this report. This report provides the data collected over the two year period of the study, 1989-1990. Included in this report are field data obtained from the most critical spring period of 1990 when the surface soils recieve the relatively large quantities of snow melt water. The 1990 water year was again a dry year in which precipitation was considerably below normal. Thus the field collection period did not include a truly wet condition as will undoubtedly occur during years of above normal precipitation. Above normal rainfall did occur during the months of April and May, 1991. However this was not anticipated and the field samplers were unfortunately removed prior to these occurences to allow more easy working of the farm area. Since only a few copies of the above mentioned interim report were reproduced, this report duplicates the description of the field instrumentation, and the laboratory sorption studies. The data tables contained in that report have been updated to include field data from the second year through 1990. The results from the computer solutions that were contained in the interim report as Appendix A are not included herein, however. That report must be consulted for this detail. Field data collected from the first year indicated that larger quantities of nitrogen in the form of nitrate (NO3) than phophorus were within the unsaturated surface soils of the farm irrigated by the treated sewage, and by the dairy lagoons. Based on this information an additional research program, or changing the emphasis of the research, was directed to studying the nitrogen cycle in the groundwater system of Heber Valley to determine in natural processes reduce the amount of NO3- reaching Deer Creek Reservoir through the Heber Valley aquifers. More specifically the additional emphasis was deirected to determine whether conditions exist that favor denitrification and the extent by which such process might be reducing the amounts of NO3- input to Deer Creek Reservoir from the irrigated farm of the Heber Valley Special Service District, and two dairy lagoons. Denitrification is a process whereby bacteria transfer electrons from compounds, known as electron donors, to NO3-, an electron acceptor. The end products of this reduction are gases of N2O and N2, both of which escape to the atmosphere and thus reduce the amount of nitrogen in the water. The results of this sadditional research will be reported in a forthcoming project report consisting of the Ph.D. dissertation by Scott F. Korom Denitrification in the Unconsolidated Deposits of the Heber Valley Aquifer. This dissertation is being written in the format now allowed by Utah State University where different sections are designed as separate papers for submission to professional journals. Therefore the results of the denitrification phases of the research should also be available in future professional journal papers

Combining classifiers for robust PICO element detection

<p>Abstract</p> <p>Background</p> <p>Formulating a clinical information need in terms of the four atomic parts which are Population/Problem, Intervention, Comparison and Outcome (known as PICO elements) facilitates searching for a precise answer within a large medical citation database. However, using PICO defined items in the information retrieval process requires a search engine to be able to detect and index PICO elements in the collection in order for the system to retrieve relevant documents.</p> <p>Methods</p> <p>In this study, we tested multiple supervised classification algorithms and their combinations for detecting PICO elements within medical abstracts. Using the structural descriptors that are embedded in some medical abstracts, we have automatically gathered large training/testing data sets for each PICO element.</p> <p>Results</p> <p>Combining multiple classifiers using a weighted linear combination of their prediction scores achieves promising results with an <it>f</it>-measure score of 86.3% for P, 67% for I and 56.6% for O.</p> <p>Conclusions</p> <p>Our experiments on the identification of PICO elements showed that the task is very challenging. Nevertheless, the performance achieved by our identification method is competitive with previously published results and shows that this task can be achieved with a high accuracy for the P element but lower ones for I and O elements.</p

Expectations and needs of patients with a chronic disease toward self-management and eHealth for self-management purposes

Background: Self-management is considered as an essential component of chronic care by primary care professionals. eHealth is expected to play an important role in supporting patients in their self-management. For effective implementation of eHealth it is important to investigate patients’ expectations and needs regarding self-management and eHealth. The objectives of this study are to investigate expectations and needs of people with a chronic condition regarding self-management and eHealth for self-management purposes, their willingness to use eHealth, and possible differences between patient groups regarding these topics. Methods: Five focus groups with people with diabetes (n = 14), COPD (n = 9), and a cardiovascular condition (n = 7) were conducted in this qualitative research. Separate focus groups were organized based on patients’ chronic condition. The following themes were discussed: 1) the impact of the chronic disease on patients’ daily life; 2) their opinions and needs regarding self-management; and 3) their expectations and needs regarding, and willingness to use, eHealth for self-management purposes. A conventional content analysis approach was used for coding. Results: Patient groups seem to differ in expectations and needs regarding self-management and eHealth for self-management purposes. People with diabetes reported most needs and benefits regarding self-management and were most willing to use eHealth, followed by the COPD group. People with a cardiovascular condition mentioned having fewer needs for self-management support, because their disease had little impact on their life. In all patient groups it was reported that the patient, not the care professional, should choose whether or not to use eHealth. Moreover, participants reported that eHealth should not replace, but complement personal care. Many participants reported expecting feelings of anxiety by doing measurement themselves and uncertainty about follow-up of deviant data of measurements. In addition, many participants worried about the implementation of eHealth being a consequence of budget cuts in care. Conclusion: This study suggests that aspects of eHealth, and the way in which it should be implemented, should be tailored to the patient. Patients’ expected benefits of using eHealth to support self-management and their perceived controllability over their disease seem to play an important role in patients’ willingness to use eHealth for self-management purposes

Rationale and design of the PRAETORIAN-COVID trial:A double-blind, placebo-controlled randomized clinical trial with valsartan for PRevention of Acute rEspiraTORy dIstress syndrome in hospitAlized patieNts with SARS-COV-2 Infection Disease

There is much debate on the use of angiotensin receptor blockers (ARBs) in severe acute respiratory syndrome–coronavirus-2 (SARS-CoV-2)–infected patients. Although it has been suggested that ARBs might lead to a higher susceptibility and severity of SARS-CoV-2 infection, experimental data suggest that ARBs may reduce acute lung injury via blocking angiotensin-II–mediated pulmonary permeability, inflammation, and fibrosis. However, despite these hypotheses, specific studies on ARBs in SARS-CoV-2 patients are lacking. Methods: The PRAETORIAN-COVID trial is a multicenter, double-blind, placebo-controlled 1:1 randomized clinical trial in adult hospitalized SARS-CoV-2–infected patients (n = 651). The primary aim is to investigate the effect of the ARB valsartan compared to placebo on the composite end point of admission to an intensive care unit, mechanical ventilation, or death within 14 days of randomization. The active-treatment arm will receive valsartan in a dosage titrated to blood pressure up to a maximum of 160 mg bid, and the placebo arm will receive matching placebo. Treatment duration will be 14 days, or until the occurrence of the primary end point or until hospital discharge, if either of these occurs within 14 days. The trial is registered at clinicaltrials.gov (NCT04335786, 2020). The PRAETORIAN-COVID trial is a double-blind, placebo-controlled 1:1 randomized trial to assess the effect of valsartan compared to placebo on the occurrence of ICU admission, mechanical ventilation, and death in hospitalized SARS-CoV-2–infected patients. The results of this study might impact the treatment of SARS-CoV-2 patients globally

Previous fracture and subsequent fracture risk : a meta-analysis to update FRAX

A large international meta-analysis using primary data from 64 cohorts has quantified the increased risk of fracture associated with a previous history of fracture for future use in FRAX. The aim of this study was to quantify the fracture risk associated with a prior fracture on an international basis and to explore the relationship of this risk with age, sex, time since baseline and bone mineral density (BMD). We studied 665,971 men and 1,438,535 women from 64 cohorts in 32 countries followed for a total of 19.5 million person-years. The effect of a prior history of fracture on the risk of any clinical fracture, any osteoporotic fracture, major osteoporotic fracture, and hip fracture alone was examined using an extended Poisson model in each cohort. Covariates examined were age, sex, BMD, and duration of follow-up. The results of the different studies were merged by using the weighted β-coefficients. A previous fracture history, compared with individuals without a prior fracture, was associated with a significantly increased risk of any clinical fracture (hazard ratio, HR = 1.88; 95% CI = 1.72-2.07). The risk ratio was similar for the outcome of osteoporotic fracture (HR = 1.87; 95% CI = 1.69-2.07), major osteoporotic fracture (HR = 1.83; 95% CI = 1.63-2.06), or for hip fracture (HR = 1.82; 95% CI = 1.62-2.06). There was no significant difference in risk ratio between men and women. Subsequent fracture risk was marginally downward adjusted when account was taken of BMD. Low BMD explained a minority of the risk for any clinical fracture (14%), osteoporotic fracture (17%), and for hip fracture (33%). The risk ratio for all fracture outcomes related to prior fracture decreased significantly with adjustment for age and time since baseline examination. A previous history of fracture confers an increased risk of fracture of substantial importance beyond that explained by BMD. The effect is similar in men and women. Its quantitation on an international basis permits the more accurate use of this risk factor in case finding strategies

Mammal responses to global changes in human activity vary by trophic group and landscape

Wildlife must adapt to human presence to survive in the Anthropocene, so it is critical to understand species responses to humans in different contexts. We used camera trapping as a lens to view mammal responses to changes in human activity during the COVID-19 pandemic. Across 163 species sampled in 102 projects around the world, changes in the amount and timing of animal activity varied widely. Under higher human activity, mammals were less active in undeveloped areas but unexpectedly more active in developed areas while exhibiting greater nocturnality. Carnivores were most sensitive, showing the strongest decreases in activity and greatest increases in nocturnality. Wildlife managers must consider how habituation and uneven sensitivity across species may cause fundamental differences in human–wildlife interactions along gradients of human influence.Peer reviewe

Phylogenetic ctDNA analysis depicts early-stage lung cancer evolution.

The early detection of relapse following primary surgery for non-small-cell lung cancer and the characterization of emerging subclones, which seed metastatic sites, might offer new therapeutic approaches for limiting tumour recurrence. The ability to track the evolutionary dynamics of early-stage lung cancer non-invasively in circulating tumour DNA (ctDNA) has not yet been demonstrated. Here we use a tumour-specific phylogenetic approach to profile the ctDNA of the first 100 TRACERx (Tracking Non-Small-Cell Lung Cancer Evolution Through Therapy (Rx)) study participants, including one patient who was also recruited to the PEACE (Posthumous Evaluation of Advanced Cancer Environment) post-mortem study. We identify independent predictors of ctDNA release and analyse the tumour-volume detection limit. Through blinded profiling of postoperative plasma, we observe evidence of adjuvant chemotherapy resistance and identify patients who are very likely to experience recurrence of their lung cancer. Finally, we show that phylogenetic ctDNA profiling tracks the subclonal nature of lung cancer relapse and metastasis, providing a new approach for ctDNA-driven therapeutic studies

Multiple novel prostate cancer susceptibility signals identified by fine-mapping of known risk loci among Europeans

Genome-wide association studies (GWAS) have identified numerous common prostate cancer (PrCa) susceptibility loci. We have fine-mapped 64 GWAS regions known at the conclusion of the iCOGS study using large-scale genotyping and imputation in 25 723 PrCa cases and 26 274 controls of European ancestry. We detected evidence for multiple independent signals at 16 regions, 12 of which contained additional newly identified significant associations. A single signal comprising a spectrum of correlated variation was observed at 39 regions; 35 of which are now described by a novel more significantly associated lead SNP, while the originally reported variant remained as the lead SNP only in 4 regions. We also confirmed two association signals in Europeans that had been previously reported only in East-Asian GWAS. Based on statistical evidence and linkage disequilibrium (LD) structure, we have curated and narrowed down the list of the most likely candidate causal variants for each region. Functional annotation using data from ENCODE filtered for PrCa cell lines and eQTL analysis demonstrated significant enrichment for overlap with bio-features within this set. By incorporating the novel risk variants identified here alongside the refined data for existing association signals, we estimate that these loci now explain ∼38.9% of the familial relative risk of PrCa, an 8.9% improvement over the previously reported GWAS tag SNPs. This suggests that a significant fraction of the heritability of PrCa may have been hidden during the discovery phase of GWAS, in particular due to the presence of multiple independent signals within the same regio