Movement and Behavior of Walleye, Stizostedion Vitruem Vitreum (Mitchell), in Jamestown Reservoir, North Dakota, As Determined by Biotelemetry

Radio biotelemetry was used to study the movements and behavior of walleyes in Jamestown Reservoir during the summer of 1980. Four walleyes weighing from 1.7 to 4.4 kg were surgically implanted with radio transmitters. Only one fish could be successfully tracked. It was found that conductivity prevented the reception of radio signals from water deeper than 4.5 m. In 1981, eight walleyes were surgically implanted with ultrasonic transmitters. The ultrasonic transmitters performed as expected. Seven walleyes were successfully tracked throughout the summer. Two of the walleyes appeared to be nomadic and did not form activity areas. Five walleyes formed activity areas, with two fish having multiple activity areas. The average size of the activity area was 45.4 ha. Three types movement patterns were observed; directional, random, and movements following the shoreline. Walleyes were seldom found resting. The walleyes moved into deeper water as the summer progressed. Four to five meters was the average locational depth. Light did not limit the fish\u27s activity in shallow water. No relationship was evident between weather conditions and other outside influences on walleye activity

Association of Long Runs of Homozygosity With Alzheimer Disease Among African American Individuals

IMPORTANCE: Mutations in known causal Alzheimer disease (AD) genes account for only 1% to 3% of patients and almost all are dominantly inherited. Recessive inheritance of complex phenotypes can be linked to long (>1-megabase [Mb]) runs of homozygosity (ROHs) detectable by single-nucleotide polymorphism (SNP) arrays. OBJECTIVE: To evaluate the association between ROHs and AD in an African American population known to have a risk for AD up to 3 times higher than white individuals. DESIGN, SETTING, AND PARTICIPANTS: Case-control study of a large African American data set previously genotyped on different genome-wide SNP arrays conducted from December 2013 to January 2015. Global and locus-based ROH measurements were analyzed using raw or imputed genotype data. We studied the raw genotypes from 2 case-control subsets grouped based on SNP array: Alzheimer's Disease Genetics Consortium data set (871 cases and 1620 control individuals) and Chicago Health and Aging Project-Indianapolis Ibadan Dementia Study data set (279 cases and 1367 control individuals). We then examined the entire data set using imputed genotypes from 1917 cases and 3858 control individuals. MAIN OUTCOMES AND MEASURES: The ROHs larger than 1 Mb, 2 Mb, or 3 Mb were investigated separately for global burden evaluation, consensus regions, and gene-based analyses. RESULTS: The African American cohort had a low degree of inbreeding (F ~ 0.006). In the Alzheimer's Disease Genetics Consortium data set, we detected a significantly higher proportion of cases with ROHs greater than 2 Mb (P = .004) or greater than 3 Mb (P = .02), as well as a significant 114-kilobase consensus region on chr4q31.3 (empirical P value 2 = .04; ROHs >2 Mb). In the Chicago Health and Aging Project-Indianapolis Ibadan Dementia Study data set, we identified a significant 202-kilobase consensus region on Chr15q24.1 (empirical P value 2 = .02; ROHs >1 Mb) and a cluster of 13 significant genes on Chr3p21.31 (empirical P value 2 = .03; ROHs >3 Mb). A total of 43 of 49 nominally significant genes common for both data sets also mapped to Chr3p21.31. Analyses of imputed SNP data from the entire data set confirmed the association of AD with global ROH measurements (12.38 ROHs >1 Mb in cases vs 12.11 in controls; 2.986 Mb average size of ROHs >2 Mb in cases vs 2.889 Mb in controls; and 22% of cases with ROHs >3 Mb vs 19% of controls) and a gene-cluster on Chr3p21.31 (empirical P value 2 = .006-.04; ROHs >3 Mb). Also, we detected a significant association between AD and CLDN17 (empirical P value 2 = .01; ROHs >1 Mb), encoding a protein from the Claudin family, members of which were previously suggested as AD biomarkers. CONCLUSIONS AND RELEVANCE: To our knowledge, we discovered the first evidence of increased burden of ROHs among patients with AD from an outbred African American population, which could reflect either the cumulative effect of multiple ROHs to AD or the contribution of specific loci harboring recessive mutations and risk haplotypes in a subset of patients. Sequencing is required to uncover AD variants in these individuals

Interaction of Mesoporous Silica Nanoparticles with Human Red Blood Cell Membranes: Size and Surface Effects

The interactions of mesoporous silica nanoparticles (MSNs) of different particle sizes and surface properties with human red blood cell (RBC) membranes were investigated by membrane filtration, flow cytometry, and various microscopic techniques. Small MCM-41-type MSNs (∼100 nm) were found to adsorb to the surface of RBCs without disturbing the membrane or morphology. In contrast, adsorption of large SBA-15-type MSNs (∼600 nm) to RBCs induced a strong local membrane deformation leading to spiculation of RBCs, internalization of the particles, and eventual hemolysis. In addition, the relationship between the degree of MSN surface functionalization and the degree of its interaction with RBC, as well as the effect of RBC−MSN interaction on cellular deformability, were investigated. The results presented here provide a better understanding of the mechanisms of RBC−MSN interaction and the hemolytic activity of MSNs and will assist in the rational design of hemocompatible MSNs for intravenous drug delivery and in vivo imaging

Changing foreign policy: the Obama Administration’s decision to oust Mubarak

This paper analyses the decision of the Obama administration to redirect its foreign policy towards Egypt in the wake of the Arab Spring. It attempts to highlight the issue of how governments deal with decision-making at times of crisis, and under which circumstances they take critical decisions that lead to major shifts in their foreign policy track record. It focuses on the process that led to a reassessment of US (United States) foreign policy, shifting from decades of support to the autocratic regime of Hosni Mubarak, towards backing his ouster. Specifically, the paper attempts to assess to what extent the decision to withdraw US support from a longstanding state-leader and ally in the Middle East can be seen as a foreign policy change (FPC). A relevant research question this paper pursues is: how can the withdrawal of US support to a regime considered as an ally be considered, in itself, as a radical FPC

Motivational Interviewing as Evidence-Based Practice? An Example from Sexual Risk Reduction Interventions Targeting Adolescents and Young Adults

This paper critically examines sexual risk reduction interventions, more specifically how they are evaluated and the implications that this has for sexual health policy. The focus is on motivational interviewing (MI) interventions which aim to promote protective behaviors related to sexual risk on the part of young people. MI has become increasingly popular, largely due to it being a highly flexible counseling approach that may, with adequate staff training, and fidelity in implementation, be tailored to many different settings (e.g., health care, schools and in community work). Following a scoping review that comprised 34 papers, of which 29 were unique studies, the range and type of existing research were examined. The results show a wide range of study designs and evaluation procedures, MI conceptualizations, modes of MI delivery, and the particular sub-populations of youth and sexual risk behaviors targeted. While this makes it difficult to draw any generalized conclusions about “what works” in prevention, it provides important insights about the complexity of sexual risk behavior as well as complex behavioral treatment approaches like MI. We therefore problematize the political drive to implement evidence-based methods without adequate resource allocation and contextual adaptation

Nurses' perceptions of aids and obstacles to the provision of optimal end of life care in ICU

Contains fulltext : 172380.pdf (publisher's version ) (Open Access

31st Annual Meeting and Associated Programs of the Society for Immunotherapy of Cancer (SITC 2016) : part two

Background The immunological escape of tumors represents one of the main ob- stacles to the treatment of malignancies. The blockade of PD-1 or CTLA-4 receptors represented a milestone in the history of immunotherapy. However, immune checkpoint inhibitors seem to be effective in specific cohorts of patients. It has been proposed that their efficacy relies on the presence of an immunological response. Thus, we hypothesized that disruption of the PD-L1/PD-1 axis would synergize with our oncolytic vaccine platform PeptiCRAd. Methods We used murine B16OVA in vivo tumor models and flow cytometry analysis to investigate the immunological background. Results First, we found that high-burden B16OVA tumors were refractory to combination immunotherapy. However, with a more aggressive schedule, tumors with a lower burden were more susceptible to the combination of PeptiCRAd and PD-L1 blockade. The therapy signifi- cantly increased the median survival of mice (Fig. 7). Interestingly, the reduced growth of contralaterally injected B16F10 cells sug- gested the presence of a long lasting immunological memory also against non-targeted antigens. Concerning the functional state of tumor infiltrating lymphocytes (TILs), we found that all the immune therapies would enhance the percentage of activated (PD-1pos TIM- 3neg) T lymphocytes and reduce the amount of exhausted (PD-1pos TIM-3pos) cells compared to placebo. As expected, we found that PeptiCRAd monotherapy could increase the number of antigen spe- cific CD8+ T cells compared to other treatments. However, only the combination with PD-L1 blockade could significantly increase the ra- tio between activated and exhausted pentamer positive cells (p= 0.0058), suggesting that by disrupting the PD-1/PD-L1 axis we could decrease the amount of dysfunctional antigen specific T cells. We ob- served that the anatomical location deeply influenced the state of CD4+ and CD8+ T lymphocytes. In fact, TIM-3 expression was in- creased by 2 fold on TILs compared to splenic and lymphoid T cells. In the CD8+ compartment, the expression of PD-1 on the surface seemed to be restricted to the tumor micro-environment, while CD4 + T cells had a high expression of PD-1 also in lymphoid organs. Interestingly, we found that the levels of PD-1 were significantly higher on CD8+ T cells than on CD4+ T cells into the tumor micro- environment (p < 0.0001). Conclusions In conclusion, we demonstrated that the efficacy of immune check- point inhibitors might be strongly enhanced by their combination with cancer vaccines. PeptiCRAd was able to increase the number of antigen-specific T cells and PD-L1 blockade prevented their exhaus- tion, resulting in long-lasting immunological memory and increased median survival