Development of environmental health and safety database for small communities

The National Environmental Services Center (NESC) is a group of programs, national in scope, that provide a variety of environmental services directly to small community officials, engineers, technicians, regulatory officials, and private citizens.;The primary mission of each of the NESC programs is to protect public health and the environment of America\u27s small and rural communities-those communities of less than 10,000 people. The NESC programs provide information, technical assistance, and training to help small communities deal with their wastewater, drinking water, and solid waste treatment issues.;Thousands of informational materials pass through the organization each year. This material ranges from manufacturing product literature to design guidelines to state regulations to the most current field research to educational products for the general public. In order to keep on top of all this information, the organization maintains several databases.;The objective of this project was to research NESC needs and develop an effective and efficient informational product review process which will help in reducing process time, better information storage and retrieval, etc. The work also included developing a products database for storage and a corresponding search engine for easy retrieval of information.;Environmental health and safety database, also known in NESC as Products Database , represents environmental information materials about waste water, drinking water and solid waste

A comparative study of feto-maternal outcome in expectant management versus active management in pre-labor rupture of membranes at term

Background: Premature rupture of the membranes at term is spontaneous rupture of the membranes after 37 weeks of gestation and before the onset of the regular painful uterine contractions, complicates 5-10% of pregnancies, 80% of cases of PROM occur at term. It complicates the pregnancy leading to maternal and fetal complications, immediate risks such as cord prolapse, cord compression and placental abruptions, and later risks such as maternal or neonatal infection and the interventions such as caesarean section and instrumental vaginal delivery. These cases are either managed conservatively or by immediate induction of labour. Objective of present study is to compare the efficacy and safety of induction of labor versus expectant management at term PROM, in terms of maternal and fetal outcome.Methods: A randomized control trial of 100 women coming to KIMSH from 01 /04 /2015 to 01 /05 /2016 with PROM at term with duration of leak ≤6 hours and a Bishop score ≤5 were assigned to group A immediate induction group and group B expectant management group with 50 cases in each group.Results: The mean interval from PROM to delivery was significantly shorter in the induction Group 15.62±4.97 as compared with expectant group 17.58±4.78. Incidence of maternal morbidity and neonatal morbidity was comparable in both the groups. Intrapartum complications and mode of delivery were similar in both groups.Conclusions: Immediate induction of labour in cases of PROM at term using oral misoprostol resulted in shorter induction delivery interval and hospital stay. Maternal morbidity and neonatal morbidity was comparable in both groups. It is concluded that immediate induction is better than expectant management. With active management many patients delivered vaginally within 24 hours without increase in the Caesarean section rate and decreased the need for oxytocin augmentation

Towards greater transparency in neurodevelopmental disorders research: use of a proposed workflow and propensity scores to facilitate selection of matched groups

Background Matching is one commonly utilized method in quasi-experimental designs involving individuals with neurodevelopmental disorders (NDD). This method ensures two or more groups (e.g., individuals with an NDD versus neurotypical individuals) are balanced on pre-existing covariates (e.g., IQ), enabling researchers to interpret performance on outcome measures as being attributed to group membership. While much attention has been paid to the statistical criteria of how to assess whether groups are well-matched, relatively little attention has been given to a crucial prior step: the selection of the individuals that are included in matched groups. The selection of individuals is often an undocumented process, which can invite unintentional, arbitrary, and biased decision-making. Limited documentation can result in findings that have limited reproducibility and replicability and thereby have poor potential for generalization to the broader population. Especially given the heterogeneity of individuals with NDDs, interpretation of research findings depends on minimizing bias at all stages of data collection and analysis. Results In the spirit of open science, this tutorial demonstrates how a workflow can be used to provide a transparent, reproducible, and replicable process to select individuals for matched groups. Our workflow includes the following key steps: Assess data, Select covariates, Conduct matching, and Diagnose matching. Our sample dataset is from children with autism spectrum disorder (ASD; n = 25) and typically developing children (n = 43) but can be adapted to comparisons of any two groups in quasi-experimental designs. We work through this method to conduct and document matching using propensity scores implemented with the R package MatchIt. Data and code are publicly available, and a template for this workflow is provided in the Additional file 1 as well as on a public repository. Conclusions It is important to provide clear documentation regarding the selection process to establish matched groups. This documentation ensures better transparency in participant selection and data analysis in NDD research. We hope the adoption of such a workflow will ultimately advance our ability to replicate findings and help improve the lives of individuals with NDDs

Effect of the valine-threonine constraint on the dynamics of the proline helix- A molecular dynamics study

Proline residues in helices play an important role in the structure of proteins. The proline residue introduces a kink in the helix which varies from about 5° to 50°. The presence of other residues such as threonine or valine near the proline region can influence the flexibility exhibited by the kinked helix, which can have an important biological role. In the present paper, the constraint introduced by threonine and valine on a proline helix is investigated by molecular dynamics studies. The systems considered are (1) a poly-alanine helix with threonine-proline residues (TP) and (2) a poly-alanine helix with valine-threonineproline residues (VTP), in the middle. Molecular dynamics simulations are carried out on these two systems for 500 ps. The results are analyzed in terms of structural transitions, bend-related parameters and sidechain orientations

Effect of the valine-threonine constraint on the dynamics of the proline helix -A molecular dynamics study

Al~traet. Proline residues in helices play an important role in the structure of proteins. The proline residue introduces a kink in the helix which varies from about 5 ~ to 50 ~ The presence of other residues such as threonine or valine near the proline region can influence the flexibility exhibited by the kinked helix, which can have an important biological role. In the present paper, the constraint introduced by threonine and valine on a proline helix is investigated by molecular dynamics studies. The systems considered are (1) a poly-alanine helix with threonine-proline residues (TP) and (2) a poly-alanine helix with valine-threonineproline residues (VTP), in the middle. Molecular dynamics simulations are carried out on these two systems for 500ps. The results are analyzed in terms of structural transitions, bend-related parameters and sidechain orientations

A prospective, randomized trial of complete avoidance of steroids in liver transplantation with follow‐up of over 7 years

Objectives Steroids are a mainstay of treatment in orthotopic liver transplantation ( OLT ) and are associated with significant morbidity. This trial was conducted to assess the efficacy of steroids avoidance. Methods Patients undergoing OLT between June 2002 and April 2005 were entered into a prospective, randomized trial of complete steroids avoidance and followed until November 2011. Recipients received either standard therapy ( n = 50) or complete steroids avoidance ( n = 50). Analyses were performed on an intention‐to‐treat basis. The mean follow‐up of all recipients was 2095 ± 117 days. Sixteen (32%) recipients randomized to the steroids avoidance group ultimately received steroids for clinical indications. Results Incidences of diabetes and hypertension prior to or after OLT were similar in both groups, as was the incidence of rejection. Patient and graft survival rates at 1, 3 and 5 years were lower in the steroids avoidance group than in the standard therapy group (patient survival: 1‐year, 80% versus 86%; 3‐year, 68% versus 76%; 5‐year, 60% versus 72%; graft survival: 1‐year, 76% versus 76%; 3‐year, 64% versus 74%; 5‐year, 56% versus 72%), but the differences were not statistically different. Conclusions Complete steroids avoidance provides liver transplant recipients with minimal benefit and appears to result in a concerning trend towards decreased graft and recipient survival. The present data support the use of at least a short course of steroids after liver transplantation.Peer Reviewedhttp://deepblue.lib.umich.edu/bitstream/2027.42/97180/1/hpb576.pd

Is verbal reference impaired in autism spectrum disorder? A systematic review

Background and aims: Pragmatic language is a key difficulty in autism spectrum disorder. One such pragmatic skill is verbal reference, which allows the current entity of shared interest between speakers to be identified and thus enables fluid conversation. The aim of this review was to determine the extent to which studies have found that verbal reference is impaired in autism spectrum disorder. We organise the review in terms of the methodology used and the modality (production versus comprehension) in which proficiency with verbal reference was assessed. Evidence for the potential cognitive underpinnings of these skills is also reviewed. Main contribution and methods: To our knowledge, this is the first systematic review of verbal reference in autism spectrum disorder. PsychINFO and Web of Science were systematically screened using the combination of search terms outlined in this paper. Twenty-four studies met our inclusion criteria. Twenty-two of these examined production, whereby the methodology ranged from elicited conversation through to elicited narrative, the ‘director’ task and other referential communication paradigms. Three studies examined reference interpretation. (One study investigated both production and appropriacy judgement). Four studies examined the relationship between appropriate usage of verbal reference and formal language (lexico-syntactic ability). Two studies investigated whether reference production related to Theory of Mind or Executive Functioning. Conclusion and implications: Across a range of elicited production tasks, the predominant finding was that children and adults with autism spectrum disorder demonstrate a deficit in the production of appropriate verbal reference in comparison not only to typically developing groups, but also to groups with Developmental Language Disorder or Down syndrome. In contrast, the studies of reference interpretation which compared performance to typical control groups all found no between-group differences in this regard. To understand this cross-modality discrepancy, we need studies withthe same sample of individuals, whereby the task requirements for comprehension and production are as closely matched as possible. The field also requires the development of experimental manipulations which allow us to pinpoint precisely if and how each comprehension and/or production task requires mentalising and/or various components of executive functioning. Only through such detailed and controlled experimental work would it be possible to determine the precise location of impairments in verbal reference in autism spectrum disorder. A better understanding of this would contribute to the development of interventions

Author Correction: Transcriptomic and cellular decoding of regional brain vulnerability to neurogenetic disorders

An amendment to this paper has been published and can be accessed via a link at the top of the paper

Transplantation tolerance: lessons from experimental rodent models

Immunological tolerance or functional unresponsiveness to a transplant is arguably the only approach that is likely to provide long-term graft survival without the problems associated with life-long global immunosuppression. Over the past 50 years, rodent models have become an invaluable tool for elucidating the mechanisms of tolerance to alloantigens. Importantly, rodent models can be adapted to ensure that they reflect more accurately the immune status of human transplant recipients. More recently, the development of genetically modified mice has enabled specific insights into the cellular and molecular mechanisms that play a key role in both the induction and maintenance of tolerance to be obtained and more complex questions to be addressed. This review highlights strategies designed to induce alloantigen specific immunological unresponsiveness leading to transplantation tolerance that have been developed through the use of experimental models