Information Security in Nonprofits: A First Glance at the State of Security in Two Illinois Regions

Information security is a hot button topic across all industries and new reports of security incidents and data breaches is a near daily occurrence. Much is known about recent trends and shortcomings in information security in the public and private sectors, but relatively little research examines the state of information security in nonprofit organizations. The underlying missions of nonprofit organizations, composition of their workforce, and their reliance on grants and donations for revenue generation streams set nonprofits apart from private business. These facts warrant an examination of information security of nonprofit organizations separate from private or commercial groups. This paper examines the state of information security in nonprofit organizations with results obtained by surveying volunteers or employees at nonprofit groups in two areas of Illinois. A qualitative discussion using observations gained from direct analysis of the security status of three organizations as part of student service learning projects is presented as well

Synchronous genitourinary lichen sclerosus signals a distinct urinary microbiome profile in men with urethral stricture disease.

PurposeAlterations in the urinary microbiome have been associated with urological diseases. The microbiome of patients with urethral stricture disease (USD) remains unknown. Our objective is to examine the microbiome of USD with a focus on inflammatory USD caused by lichen sclerosus (LS).MethodsWe collected mid-stream urine samples from men with LS-USD (cases; n = 22) and non-LS USD (controls; n = 76). DNA extraction, PCR amplification of the V4 hypervariable region of the 16S rRNA gene, and sequencing was done on the samples. Operational taxonomic units (OTUs) were defined using a > 97% sequence similarity threshold. Alpha diversity measurements of diversity, including microbiome richness (number of different OTUs) and evenness (distribution of OTUs) were calculated and compared. Microbiome beta diversity (difference between microbial communities) relationships with cases and controls were also assessed.ResultsFifty specimens (13 cases and 37 controls) produced a 16S rRNA amplicon. Mean sample richness was 25.9 vs. 16.8 (p = 0.076) for LS-USD vs. non-LS USD, respectively. LS-USD had a unique profile of bacteria by taxonomic order including Bacillales, Bacteroidales and Pasteurellales enriched urine. The beta variation of observed bacterial communities was best explained by the richness.ConclusionsMen with LS-USD may have a unique microbiologic richness, specifically inclusive of Bacillales, Bacteroidales and Pasteurellales enriched urine compared to those with non-LS USD. Further work will be required to elucidate the clinical relevance of these variations in the urinary microbiome

Impact of Quantitative Information and a Nudge on Attitudes toward Colorectal Cancer Screening

Research in behavioral economics suggests that individuals facing complex decisions benefit from being given a “nudge” towards one option, especially in situations where making any choice, as opposed to none, is preferred. Decisions about colorectal cancer (CRC) screening are of this type, since several tests are recommended by guidelines, including colonoscopy, sigmoidoscopy, and stool testing. No studies have examined the use of a nudge in the context of CRC screening. In this study, we compared the effects of two different approaches to providing quantitative information about CRC risk and benefits of screening, one with and one without a nudge towards fecal immunochemical testing (FIT) (a stool test)

Wear Properties of A Shock Consolidated Metallic Glass and Glass-Crystalline Mixtures

Powder flakes prepared from 50 μm thick melt spun ribbons of Markomet 1064 (Ni_(52.5)Mo_(38)Cr_8 B_(1.5) wt%) were shock consolidatedin the unannealed and annealed condition. The unannealed flakes (microhardness 933 kg/mm^2) are amorphous while flakes annealed at 900ºC for 2 hours have an fcc structure with a grain size of 0.3 μm and microhardness of 800 kg/mm^2. The shock consolidated amorphous powder compact (250 kJ/kg shock energy) shows no crystal peaks in an X-ray diffractometer scan. Compacts of annealed powder (400 to 600 kJ/kg shock energies) contain amorphous material (18-21%) which was rapidly quenched from the melt formed at interparticle regions during the consolidation process. The microhardness of the amorphous interparticle material is 1100 kg/mm^2. Wear properties of the compacts measured in low velocity pin on disk tests show low average dynamic friction values (∿0.03). The 60 hour cumulative wear appears to correlate with the energy of shock compaction and surface porosity of the compacts rather than the metallic glass content

Special Project--Feast or Famine: Issues, Problems, and Procedures Relating to Massive Relief Efforts with a Focus on the African Crisis

The profound promise of our era is that for the first time we may have the technical capacity to free mankind from the scourge of hunger. Therefore, today we must proclaim a bold objective--that within a decade no child will go to bed hungry, that no family will fear for its next day\u27s bread, and that no human being\u27s future and capacities will be stunted by malnutrition. One decade later, the ongoing drought and famine in Ethiopia, Chad, Mozambique and other African countries cruelly portray the failure of that promise. Each year, millions of dollars worth of aid, much of it in the form of food, funnels through the international relief system--a network of individuals, corporations, voluntary organizations, governments, and intergovernmental organizations, which disburses relief throughout the world. During the past year, the United States alone has supplied more than 1.5 million tons of agricultural commodities, approximately one-half of the total amount of food given to Africa. For those facing starvation, the provision of food meets an immediate need. But the donation of emergency aid without considering long-term food production requirements of the recipient nation is often an inappropriate response. Starvation in Africa is attributable to conditions that are both natural and man-made, deeply rooted and complex; emergency assistance alone will not remedy a disaster such as this one, engendered not only by drought but by politics and civil strife. To combat the results of such conditions, donors should supplement emergency relief with long-term development assistance

Statistical methodologies to pool across multiple intervention studies

Combining and analyzing data from heterogeneous randomized controlled trials of complex multiple-component intervention studies, or discussing them in a systematic review, is not straightforward. The present article describes certain issues to be considered when combining data across studies, based on discussions in an NIH-sponsored workshop on pooling issues across studies in consortia (see Belle et al. in Psychol Aging, 18(3):396-405, 2003). Several statistical methodologies are described and their advantages and limitations are explored. Whether weighting the different studies data differently, or via employing random effects, one must recognize that different pooling methodologies may yield different results. Pooling can be used for comprehensive exploratory analyses of data from RCTs and should not be viewed as replacing the standard analysis plan for each study. Pooling may help to identify intervention components that may be more effective especially for subsets of participants with certain behavioral characteristics. Pooling, when supported by statistical tests, can allow exploratory investigation of potential hypotheses and for the design of future interventions

Structural basis for complement factor H-linked age-related macular degeneration

This is the final version of the article. Available from the publisher via the DOI in this record.Nearly 50 million people worldwide suffer from age-related macular degeneration (AMD), which causes severe loss of central vision. A single-nucleotide polymorphism in the gene for the complement regulator factor H (FH), which causes a Tyr-to-His substitution at position 402, is linked to approximately 50% of attributable risks for AMD. We present the crystal structure of the region of FH containing the polymorphic amino acid His402 in complex with an analogue of the glycosaminoglycans (GAGs) that localize the complement regulator on the cell surface. The structure demonstrates direct coordination of ligand by the disease-associated polymorphic residue, providing a molecular explanation of the genetic observation. This glycan-binding site occupies the center of an extended interaction groove on the regulator's surface, implying multivalent binding of sulfated GAGs. This finding is confirmed by structure-based site-directed mutagenesis, nuclear magnetic resonance-monitored binding experiments performed for both H402 and Y402 variants with this and another model GAG, and analysis of an extended GAG-FH complex.B. Prosser is funded by the Wellcome Trust Structural Biology Training Program (075415/Z/04/Z). S. Johnson and P. Roversi were funded by grants to S.M. Lea from the Medical Research Council (MRC) of the United Kingdom (grants G0400389 and G0400775). D. Uhrin and P.N. Barlow were funded by the Wellcome Trust (078780/ Z/05/Z). S.J. Clark was funded by an MRC Doctoral Training Account (G78/7925), and R.B. Sim and A.J. Day were funded by MRC core funding to the MRC Immunochemistry Unit