Chamber Ensemble

https://dc.ewu.edu/music_performances/1681/thumbnail.jp

Convocation

https://dc.ewu.edu/music_performances/1680/thumbnail.jp

HB 804 - Virginia Residential Landlord Tenant Act, Nonrefundable Application Fee

House Bill 804 limits when a landlord may charge a nonrefundable application fee in addition to a refundable application deposit. The bill prohibits a landlord with more than four rental dwelling units or more than a 10 percent interest in more than four rental dwelling units from charging prospective tenants any nonrefundable application fee above the amount necessary to reimburse the landlord for any actual out-of-pocket expenses paid by the landlord to a third party performing a number of pre-occupancies checks on the applicant. The originally proposed bill would have allowed an applicant to choose to provide relevant personal information to the landlord in the form of a portable tenant screening report in lieu of paying an application fee. When an applicant chooses not to provide such report, a landlord that owns four or fewer rental dwelling units may charge such applicant actual out-of-pocket expenses paid by the landlord to a third party performing certain pre-occupancy checks on the applicant or, in the case of an application for a public housing unit, an application fee of no more than $32, including any actual out-of-pocket expenses paid to a third party by the landlord performing background, credit, or other pre-occupancy checks on the applicant

A touchdown nucleic acid amplification protocol as an alternative to culture backup for immunofluorescence in the routine diagnosis of acute viral respiratory tract infections

BACKGROUND: Immunofluorescence and virus culture are the main methods used to diagnose acute respiratory virus infections. Diagnosing these infections using nucleic acid amplification presents technical challenges, one of which is facilitating the different optimal annealing temperatures needed for each virus. To overcome this problem we developed a diagnostic molecular strip which combined a generic nested touchdown protocol with in-house primer master-mixes that could recognise 12 common respiratory viruses. RESULTS: Over an 18 month period a total of 222 specimens were tested by both immunofluorescence and the molecular strip. The specimens came from 103 males (median age 3.5 y), 80 females (median age 9 y) and 5 quality assurance scheme specimens. Viruses were recovered from a number of specimen types including broncho-alveolar lavage, nasopharyngeal secretions, sputa, post-mortem lung tissue and combined throat and nasal swabs. Viral detection by IF was poor in sputa and respiratory swabs. A total of 99 viruses were detected in the study from 79 patients and 4 quality control specimens: 31 by immunofluorescence and 99 using the molecular strip. The strip consistently out-performed immunofluorescence with no loss of diagnostic specificity. CONCLUSIONS: The touchdown protocol with pre-dispensed primer master-mixes was suitable for replacing virus culture for the diagnosis of respiratory viruses which were negative by immunofluorescence. Results by immunofluorescence were available after an average of 4–12 hours while molecular strip results were available within 24 hours, considerably faster than viral culture. The combined strip and touchdown protocol proved to be a convenient and reliable method of testing for multiple viruses in a routine setting

Changes in proteinuria and albuminuria with initiation of antiretroviral therapy: data from a randomized trial comparing tenofovir disoproxil fumarate/emtricitabine versus abacavir/lamivudine

BACKGROUND: Antiretroviral therapy (ART) is associated with improved kidney function; however, the nucleotide reverse transcriptase inhibitor (NRTI) tenofovir disoproxil fumarate (TDF) has been associated with decreased kidney function and proteinuria. METHODS: We examined changes in urine protein:creatinine (UPCR) and urine albumin:creatinine (UACR) ratios in 245 ART-naive participants in A5202 randomized in a substudy to blinded NRTI (abacavir/lamivudine, ABC/3TC, n = 124 or TDF/emtricitabine, TDF/FTC, n = 121) with open-label protease inhibitor (PI) atazanavir/ritonavir or nonnucleoside reverse transcriptase inhibitor (NNRTI) efavirenz. RESULTS: At baseline, 18% of participants had clinically significant proteinuria (UPCR ≥200 mg/g), and 11% had clinically significant albuminuria (UACR ≥30 mg/g). The prevalence of clinically significant proteinuria and albuminuria decreased from baseline to week 96 in all treatment groups. In intention-to-treat analyses, there was a significant effect of NRTI component on fold change in UPCR (P = 0.011) and UACR (P = 0.018) from baseline to week 96, with greater improvements in participants randomized to ABC/3TC. There was no significant effect of NNRTI/PI component on fold change in UPCR (P = 0.23) or UACR (P = 0.88), and no significant interactions between NRTI and NNRTI/PI components. CONCLUSIONS: In this prespecified secondary analysis, ART initiation was associated with improvements in proteinuria and albuminuria, with significantly greater improvements in participants randomized to ABC/3TC versus TDF/FTC. These are the first data from a randomized trial to suggest that initiation of TDF/FTC may not be associated with the same degree of improvement in proteinuria and albuminuria that have been reported with other regimens. Future studies should consider the long-term clinical significance of these findings

Vaccination as a way forward? A case study on how a poultry vaccination intervention influences poultry keeping in Kenya

Poultry is important for many poor smallholders, but infectious diseases, such as Newcastle disease, can drastically reduce the poultry population in a village and affects the food security and the livelihood of many farmers. Newcastle disease vaccination can reduce the spread of disease, but may be hard to access for smallholders if there is not a supportive system in place. In this paper, a district in Kenya is studied where there has been support for vaccination. It is shown that households in villages which had support were more likely to vaccinate, had more chickens and also know better the basic principle of a vaccine. The vaccinators themselves also reported that vaccination had improved the poultry keeping and the knowledge of the farmers. It is concluded that a supportive system is beneficial for increased vaccination