Australian SMEs: Waste sent to landfill

Landfill waste has a negative impact on the environment and Small and Medium Enterprises (SMEs) are believed to be significant contributors. There is little government or scholarly research, however, quantifying the collective volume of waste SMEs send to landfill. The limited studies instead measure total volumes (landfill and recycling combined) and/or do not distinguish between specific waste streams (e.g. wood) and subcategories (e.g. dust). This paper contributes to knowledge by reconceptualising SME waste into subcategories and by measuring landfill volumes. It presents findings from 404 Australian SMEs which found that, in descending order, cardboard, paper, plastic wrap, wood dust and particleboard were the subcategories these SMEs sent to landfill in the greatest volumes. It also argues that this reconceptualisation and associated data collection protocols have the potential to enable scholars and policymakers to determine the waste subcategories to which SMEs contribute most, formulate targeted interventions and research/evaluate environmental outcomes

Frequent somatic mutations of GNAQ in uveal melanoma and blue naevi.

BRAF and NRAS are common targets for somatic mutations in benign and malignant neoplasms that arise from melanocytes situated in epithelial structures, and lead to constitutive activation of the mitogen-activated protein (MAP) kinase pathway. However, BRAF and NRAS mutations are absent in a number of other melanocytic neoplasms in which the equivalent oncogenic events are currently unknown. Here we report frequent somatic mutations in the heterotrimeric G protein alpha-subunit, GNAQ, in blue naevi (83%) and ocular melanoma of the uvea (46%). The mutations occur exclusively in codon 209 in the Ras-like domain and result in constitutive activation, turning GNAQ into a dominant acting oncogene. Our results demonstrate an alternative route to MAP kinase activation in melanocytic neoplasia, providing new opportunities for therapeutic intervention

GMC evolution in a barred spiral galaxy with star formation and thermal feedback

We explore the impact of star formation and thermal stellar feedback on the giant molecular cloud population forming in a M83-type barred spiral galaxy. We compare three high-resolution simulations (1.5 pc cell size) with different star formation/feedback models: one with no star formation, one with star formation but no feedback, and one with star formation and thermal energy injection. We analyse the resulting population of clouds, finding that we can identify the same population of massive, virialized clouds and transient, low-surface density clouds found in our previous work (that did not include star formation or feedback). Star formation and feedback can affect the mix of clouds we identify. In particular, star formation alone simply converts dense cloud gas into stars with only a small change to the cloud populations, principally resulting in a slight decrease in the transient population. Feedback, however, has a stronger impact: while it is not generally sufficient to entirely destroy the clouds, it does eject gas out of them, increasing the gas density in the intercloud region. This decreases the number of massive clouds, but substantially increases the transient cloud population. We also find that feedback tends to drive a net radial inflow of massive clouds, leading to an increase in the star formation rate in the bar region. We examine a number of possible reasons for this and conclude that it is possible that the drag force from the enhanced intercloud density could be responsibl

Measuring the Impact of the Affordable Care Act Medicaid Expansion on Access to Primary Care Using an Interrupted Time Series Approach

BACKGROUND: The Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act of 2010, commonly referred to as the Affordable Care Act (ACA), was created to increase access to primary care, improve quality of care, and decrease healthcare costs. A key provision in the law that mandated expansion of state Medicaid programme changed when states were given the option to voluntarily expand Medicaid. Our study sought to measure the impact of ACA Medicaid expansion on preventable hospitalization (PH) rates, a measure of access to primary care. METHODS: We performed an interrupted time series analysis of quarterly hospitalization rates across eight states from 2012 to 2015. Segmented regression analysis was utilized to determine the impact of policy reform on PH rates. RESULTS: The Affordable Care Act\u27s Medicaid expansion led to decreased rates of PH (improved access to care); however, the finding was not significant (coefficient estimate: -0.0059, CI -0.0225, 0.0107, p = 0.4856). Healthcare system characteristics, such as Medicaid spending per enrollee and Medicaid income eligibility, were associated with a significant decrease in rates of PH (improved access to care). However, the Medicaid-to-Medicare fee index (physician reimbursement) and states with a Democratic state legislature had a significant increase in rates of PH (poor access to care). CONCLUSION: Health policy reform and healthcare delivery characteristics impact access to care. Researchers should continue evaluating such policy changes across more states over longer periods of time. Researchers should translate these findings into cost analysis for state policy-makers to make better-informed decisions for their constituents. CONTRIBUTION TO KNOWLEDGE: Ambulatory care-sensitive conditions are a feasible method for evaluating policy and measuring access to primary care. Policy alone cannot improve access to care. Other factors (trust, communication, policy-makers\u27 motivations and objectives, etc.) must be addressed to improve access

Effects of zinc supplementation on cognitive function in healthy middle-aged and older adults: the ZENITH study

A randomised double-blind placebo-controlled design was employed to investigate the effects of Zn supplementation on cognitive function in 387 healthy adults aged 55–87 years. Several measures of visual memory, working memory, attention and reaction time were obtained using the Cambridge Automated Neuropsychological Test Battery at baseline and then after 3 and 6 months of 0 (placebo), 15 or 30 mg Zn/d. Younger adults (70 years), and performance improved with practice on some measures. For two out of eight dependent variables, there were significant interactions indicating a beneficial effect (at 3 months only) of both 15 and 30 mg/d on one measure of spatial working memory and a detrimental effect of 15 mg/d on one measure of attention. Further work is required to establish whether these findings generalise to older adults in poorer mental and physical health and with less adequate Zn intake and status than the present sample

Expression analysis of novel striatal-enriched genes in Huntington disease

Selective degeneration of striatal neurons is a pathologic hallmark of Huntington disease (HD). The exact mechanism(s) behind this specific neurodegeneration is still unknown. Expression studies of diseased human post-mortem brain, as well as different mouse models exhibiting striatal degeneration, have demonstrated changes in the expression of many important genes with a large proportion of changes being observed in the striatal-enriched genes. These investigations have raised questions about how enrichment of particular transcripts in the striatum can lead to its selective vulnerability to neurodegeneration. Monitoring the expression changes of striatal-enriched genes during the course of the disease may be informative about their potential involvement in selective degeneration. In this study, we analyzed a Serial Analysis of Gene Expression (SAGE) database (www.mouseatlas.org) and compared the mouse striatum to 18 other brain regions to generate a novel list of striatal-enriched transcripts. These novel striatal-enriched transcripts were subsequently evaluated for expression changes in the YAC128 mouse model of HD, and differentially expressed transcripts were further examined in human post-mortem caudate samples. We identified transcripts with altered expression in YAC128 mice, which also showed consistent expression changes in human post-mortem tissue. The identification of novel striatal-enriched genes with altered expression in HD offers new avenues of study, leading towards a better understanding of specific pathways involved in the selective degeneration of striatal neurons in H

SAGE2Splice: Unmapped SAGE Tags Reveal Novel Splice Junctions

Serial analysis of gene expression (SAGE) not only is a method for profiling the global expression of genes, but also offers the opportunity for the discovery of novel transcripts. SAGE tags are mapped to known transcripts to determine the gene of origin. Tags that map neither to a known transcript nor to the genome were hypothesized to span a splice junction, for which the exon combination or exon(s) are unknown. To test this hypothesis, we have developed an algorithm, SAGE2Splice, to efficiently map SAGE tags to potential splice junctions in a genome. The algorithm consists of three search levels. A scoring scheme was designed based on position weight matrices to assess the quality of candidates. Using optimized parameters for SAGE2Splice analysis and two sets of SAGE data, candidate junctions were discovered for 5%–6% of unmapped tags. Candidates were classified into three categories, reflecting the previous annotations of the putative splice junctions. Analysis of predicted tags extracted from EST sequences demonstrated that candidate junctions having the splice junction located closer to the center of the tags are more reliable. Nine of these 12 candidates were validated by RT-PCR and sequencing, and among these, four revealed previously uncharacterized exons. Thus, SAGE2Splice provides a new functionality for the identification of novel transcripts and exons. SAGE2Splice is available online at http://www.cisreg.ca

Prevalence of pyrazinamide resistance across the spectrum of drug resistant phenotypes of Mycobacterium tuberculosis

Pyrazinamide resistance is largely unknown in the spectrum of drug resistant phenotypes. We summarize data on PZA resistance in clinical isolates from South Africa. PZA DST should be performed when considering its inclusion in treatment of patients with rifampicin-resistant TB or MDR-TB

MinION Analysis and Reference Consortium: Phase 1 data release and analysis

The advent of a miniaturized DNA sequencing device with a high-throughput contextual sequencing capability embodies the next generation of large scale sequencing tools. The MinION™ Access Programme (MAP) was initiated by Oxford Nanopore Technologies™ in April 2014, giving public access to their USB-attached miniature sequencing device. The MinION Analysis and Reference Consortium (MARC) was formed by a subset of MAP participants, with the aim of evaluating and providing standard protocols and reference data to the community. Envisaged as a multi-phased project, this study provides the global community with the Phase 1 data from MARC, where the reproducibility of the performance of the MinION was evaluated at multiple sites. Five laboratories on two continents generated data using a control strain of Escherichia coli K-12, preparing and sequencing samples according to a revised ONT protocol. Here, we provide the details of the protocol used, along with a preliminary analysis of the characteristics of typical runs including the consistency, rate, volume and quality of data produced. Further analysis of the Phase 1 data presented here, and additional experiments in Phase 2 of E. coli from MARC are already underway to identify ways to improve and enhance MinION performance