Knowledge of botulism among health care students

Scholarly project (M.S.)

Privacy Preservation Framework for Smart Connected Toys

Advances in the toy industry and interconnectedness resulted in rapid and pervasive development of Smart Connected Toy (SCT), which built to aid children in learning, socialization, and development. A SCT is a physical embodiment artifact that acts as a child user interface for toy computing services in cloud. These SCTs are built as part of Internet of Things (IoT) with the potential to collect terabytes of personal and usage information. They introduce the concept of increasing privacy, and serious safety concerns for children, who are the vulnerable sector of our community and must be protected from exposure of offensive content, violence, sexual abuse, and exploitation using SCTs. SCTs are capable to gather data on the context of the child user’s physical activity state (e.g., voice, walking, standing, running, etc.) and store personalized information (e.g., location, activity pattern, etc.) through camera, microphone, Global Positioning System (GPS), and various sensors such as facial recognition or sound detection. In this chapter we are going to discuss the seriousness of privacy implication for these devices, survey related work on privacy issues within the domain of SCT, and discuss some global perspective (legislation, etc.) on such devices. The chapter will conclude by proposing some common best practice for parents and toy manufactures can both adopt as part of Smart Connected Toy Privacy Common body of knowledge for child safety

Widespread contribution of transposable elements to the rewiring of mammalian 3D genomes

Transposable elements (TEs) are major contributors of genetic material in mammalian genomes. These often include binding sites for architectural proteins, including the multifarious master protein, CTCF, which shapes the 3D genome by creating loops, domains, compartment borders, and RNA-DNA interactions. These play a role in the compact packaging of DNA and have the potential to facilitate regulatory function. In this study, we explore the widespread contribution of TEs to mammalian 3D genomes by quantifying the extent to which they give rise to loops and domain border differences across various cell types and species using several 3D genome mapping technologies. We show that specific families and subfamilies of TEs have contributed to lineage-specific 3D chromatin structures across mammalian species. In many cases, these loops may facilitate sustained interaction between distant cis-regulatory elements and target genes, and domains may segregate chromatin state to impact gene expression in a lineage-specific manner. An experimental validation of our analytical findings using CRISPR-Cas9 to delete a candidate TE resulted in disruption of species-specific 3D chromatin structure. Taken together, we comprehensively quantify and selectively validate our finding that TEs contribute to shaping 3D genome organization and may, in some cases, impact gene regulation during the course of mammalian evolution

Impact of an addiction medicine consult service on patients admitted to the hospital with injection drug use-associated infective endocarditis

Background: The addition of an addiction medicine consult service has been shown to improve mortality and decrease hospital costs but its impact on the proportion of patients discharged against medical advice (DAMA) and in-hospital initiation of medication for opioid use disorder (MOUD) has not been examined. Methods: A retrospective before-after cohort study was performed at an urban, academic medical center between January 1, 2015 and November 1, 2019. We included adult patients with infective endocarditis and injection drug use determined by admitting diagnosis ICD-9 or ICD-10 codes or documentation within the history section of electronic health recordEHR. Our institution implemented a formal addiction medicine consult service on July 1, 2018. We determined the proportion of patients DAMA and the proportion of patients started on MOUD among patients in the pre-intervention (i.e. hospitalized before July 1, 2018) and intervention (i.e. hospitalized July 1, 2018 or after) groups. Results: A total of 171 patients among hospitalized patients with injection drug use-associated infective endocarditis were included with 119 patients in the pre-intervention group and 52 patients in the intervention group. There was no statistically significant difference in patients DAMA [19% vs 15%, absolute risk difference 4.6% (95% confidence interval -8.6% to 17.7%)] between the intervention and pre-intervention groups. However, there was an increase in the proportion of inpatient MOUD initiation in the intervention group compared to the pre-intervention group [56% vs 21%, absolute risk difference 35% (95% confidence interval 19% to 50%)]. Conclusions: The initiation of an addiction medicine consult service was associated with a higher proportion of MOUD initiation but there was no statistically significant association with the proportion of patients DAMA

Detection of Novel RNA Viruses in wild Noble Crayfish (Astacus astacus): a Virome Analysis in Swiss water bodies.

European native crayfish populations are undergoing a strong decline due to environmental factors and the introduction of highly competitive non-native species. Pathogens are an additional threat to native crayfish. However, aside from the crayfish plague, other infectious diseases are still widely unknown. This study aimed to investigate viruses present in seven populations of wild noble crayfish (Astacus astacus) in Switzerland, through high-throughput sequencing. Sequence analysis revealed the presence of 11 novel RNA viruses (one bunya-like, four hepe-like, two dicistro-like, three picorna-like, and one permutotetra-like) in the samples. The discovery of a novel bunya-like virus in noble crayfish without associated mortality or macroscopical alterations is of particular interest since it is closely related to the bunya-like brown spot virus, a virus described in 2019 from diseased native white-clawed crayfish (Austropotamobius pallipes) during a mass mortality event in France. It seems that these two closely related viruses have very different impacts on their respective hosts, raising the need for further investigations on virulence factors and host susceptibility towards these viruses. This study provides a basis for future investigations, permitting to gradually fill the knowledge gap in crayfish viral diseases

Triphenylene-Derived Electron Acceptors and Donors on Ag(111):Formation of Intermolecular Charge-Transfer Complexes with Common Unoccupied Molecular States

Over the past years, ultrathin films consisting of electron donating and accepting molecules have attracted increasing attention due to their potential usage in optoelectronic devices. Key parameters for understanding and tuning their performance are intermolecular and molecule–substrate interactions. Here, the formation of a monolayer thick blend of triphenylene‐based organic donor and acceptor molecules from 2,3,6,7,10,11‐hexamethoxytriphenylene (HAT) and 1,4,5,8,9,12‐hexaazatriphenylenehexacarbonitrile (HATCN), respectively, on a silver (111) surface is reported. Scanning tunneling microscopy and spectroscopy, valence and core level photoelectron spectroscopy, as well as low‐energy electron diffraction measurements are used, complemented by density functional theory calculations, to investigate both the electronic and structural properties of the homomolecular as well as the intermixed layers. The donor molecules are weakly interacting with the Ag(111) surface, while the acceptor molecules show a strong interaction with the substrate leading to charge transfer and substantial buckling of the top silver layer and of the adsorbates. Upon mixing acceptor and donor molecules, strong hybridization occurs between the two different molecules leading to the emergence of a common unoccupied molecular orbital located at both the donor and acceptor molecules. The donor acceptor blend studied here is, therefore, a compelling candidate for organic electronics based on self‐assembled charge‐transfer complexes

SDSS J094604.90+183541.8: A Gravitationally Lensed Quasar at z=4.8

We report the discovery of a gravitationally lensed quasar identified serendipitously in the Sloan Digital Sky Survey (SDSS). The object, SDSS J094604.90+183541.8, was initially targeted for spectroscopy as a luminous red galaxy, but the SDSS spectrum has the features of both a z=0.388 galaxy and a z=4.8 quasar. We have obtained additional imaging that resolves the system into two quasar images separated by 3.06 arcsec and a bright galaxy that is strongly blended with one of the quasar images. We confirm spectroscopically that the two quasar images represent a single lensed source at z=4.8 with a total magnification of 3.2, and we derive a model for the lensing galaxy. This is the highest redshift lensed quasar currently known. We examine the issues surrounding the selection of such an unusual object from existing data and briefly discuss implications for lensed quasar surveys.Comment: AJ accepted, 9 pages, 6 figures, referee suggestions include

Intrinsic activity in the fly brain gates visual information during behavioral choices

The small insect brain is often described as an input/output system that executes reflex-like behaviors. It can also initiate neural activity and behaviors intrinsically, seen as spontaneous behaviors, different arousal states and sleep. However, less is known about how intrinsic activity in neural circuits affects sensory information processing in the insect brain and variability in behavior. Here, by simultaneously monitoring Drosophila's behavioral choices and brain activity in a flight simulator system, we identify intrinsic activity that is associated with the act of selecting between visual stimuli. We recorded neural output (multiunit action potentials and local field potentials) in the left and right optic lobes of a tethered flying Drosophila, while its attempts to follow visual motion (yaw torque) were measured by a torque meter. We show that when facing competing motion stimuli on its left and right, Drosophila typically generate large torque responses that flip from side to side. The delayed onset (0.1-1 s) and spontaneous switch-like dynamics of these responses, and the fact that the flies sometimes oppose the stimuli by flying straight, make this behavior different from the classic steering reflexes. Drosophila, thus, seem to choose one stimulus at a time and attempt to rotate toward its direction. With this behavior, the neural output of the optic lobes alternates; being augmented on the side chosen for body rotation and suppressed on the opposite side, even though the visual input to the fly eyes stays the same. Thus, the flow of information from the fly eyes is gated intrinsically. Such modulation can be noise-induced or intentional; with one possibility being that the fly brain highlights chosen information while ignoring the irrelevant, similar to what we know to occur in higher animals

Human Whole-Exome Genotype Data For alzheimer\u27s Disease

The heterogeneity of the whole-exome sequencing (WES) data generation methods present a challenge to a joint analysis. Here we present a bioinformatics strategy for joint-calling 20,504 WES samples collected across nine studies and sequenced using ten capture kits in fourteen sequencing centers in the Alzheimer\u27s Disease Sequencing Project. The joint-genotype called variant-called format (VCF) file contains only positions within the union of capture kits. The VCF was then processed specifically to account for the batch effects arising from the use of different capture kits from different studies. We identified 8.2 million autosomal variants. 96.82% of the variants are high-quality, and are located in 28,579 Ensembl transcripts. 41% of the variants are intronic and 1.8% of the variants are with CADD \u3e 30, indicating they are of high predicted pathogenicity. Here we show our new strategy can generate high-quality data from processing these diversely generated WES samples. The improved ability to combine data sequenced in different batches benefits the whole genomics research community