Community Guide to Agriculture (Johnson County)

More than 1,000 people have been reached though the various Johnson County Guide to Agriculture programs. Among the outreach efforts were workshops, displays, farm and farm business tours, and programs on Iowa City\u27s public cable channel

Issues in forest restoration: Workforce needs of the four forest restoration initiative project: An analysis

Northern Arizona is home to the largest contiguous ponderosa pine forest in North America - spanning the Apache-Sitgreaves, Coconino, Kaibab, and Tonto national forests. This vast forest is part of a dry ecosystem that has always been subject to the powerful transformative forces of wildfire, in particular the thinning effects of low-intensity surface fires on pine seedlings and saplings. Suppression of natural fire began on a large scale at the turn of the last century, altering this natural process. As a result, stand density has increased exponentially since the settlement of the state. Recent wildfires, such as the Wallow and the Rodeo-Chediski, are fostered by these overgrown forest conditions

Impact of multileaf collimator configuration parameters on the dosimetric accuracy of 6-MV Intensity-Modulated radiation therapy treatment plans

The purpose of this study was to evaluate the impact of selected configuration parameters that govern multileaf collimator (MLC) transmission and rounded leaf offset in a commercial treatment planning system (TPS) (Pinnacle3, Philips Medical Systems, Andover, MA, USA) on the accuracy of intensity-modulated radiation therapy (IMRT) dose calculation. The MLC leaf transmission factor was modified based on measurements made with ionization chambers. The table of parameters containing rounded-leaf-end offset values was modified by measuring the radiation field edge as a function of leaf bank position with an ionization chamber in a scanning water-tank dosimetry system and comparing the locations to those predicted by the TPS. The modified parameter values were validated by performing IMRT quality assurance (QA) measurements on 19 gantry-static IMRT plans. Planar dose measurements were performed with radiographic film and a diode array (MapCHECK2) and compared to TPS calculated dose distributions using default and modified configuration parameters. Based on measurements, the leaf transmission factor was changed from a default value of 0.001 to 0.005. Surprisingly, this modification resulted in a small but statistically significant worsening of IMRT QA gamma-index passing rate, which revealed that the overall dosimetric accuracy of the TPS depends on multiple configuration parameters in a manner that is coupled and not intuitive because of the commissioning protocol used in our clinic. The rounded leaf offset table had little room for improvement, with the average difference between the default and modified offset values being -0.2 ± 0.7 mm. While our results depend on the current clinical protocols, treatment unit and TPS used, the methodology used in this study is generally applicable. Different clinics could potentially obtain different results and improve their dosimetric accuracy using our approach

Seasonal Variations of the James Webb Space Telescope Orbital Dynamics

While spacecraft orbital variations due to the Earth's tilt and orbital eccentricity are well-known phenomena, the implications for the James Webb Space Telescope present unique features. We investigate the variability of the observatory trajectory characteristics, and present an explanation of some of these effects using invariant manifold theory and local approximation of the dynamics in terms of the restricted three-body problem

Metabolic correlates of prevalent mild cognitive impairment and Alzheimer's disease in adults with Down syndrome.

IntroductionDisruption of metabolic function is a recognized feature of late onset Alzheimer's disease (LOAD). We sought to determine whether similar metabolic pathways are implicated in adults with Down syndrome (DS) who have increased risk for Alzheimer's disease (AD).MethodsWe examined peripheral blood from 292 participants with DS who completed baseline assessments in the Alzheimer's Biomarkers Consortium-Down Syndrome (ABC-DS) using untargeted mass spectrometry (MS). Our sample included 38 individuals who met consensus criteria for AD (DS-AD), 43 who met criteria for mild cognitive impairment (DS-MCI), and 211 who were cognitively unaffected and stable (CS).ResultsWe measured relative abundance of 8,805 features using MS and 180 putative metabolites were differentially expressed (DE) among the groups at false discovery rate-corrected q< 0.05. From the DE features, a nine-feature classifier model classified the CS and DS-AD groups with receiver operating characteristic area under the curve (ROC AUC) of 0.86 and a two-feature model classified the DS-MCI and DS-AD groups with ROC AUC of 0.88. Metabolite set enrichment analysis across the three groups suggested alterations in fatty acid and carbohydrate metabolism.DiscussionOur results reveal metabolic alterations in DS-AD that are similar to those seen in LOAD. The pattern of results in this cross-sectional DS cohort suggests a dynamic time course of metabolic dysregulation which evolves with clinical progression from non-demented, to MCI, to AD. Metabolomic markers may be useful for staging progression of DS-AD

Species-specific differences and similarities in the behavior of hand-raised dog and wolf pups in social situations with humans

In order to reveal early species-specific differences, we observed the behavior of dog puppies (n = 11) and wolf pups (n = 13) hand raised and intensively socialized in an identical way. The pups were studied in two object-preference tests at age 3, 4, and 5 weeks. After a short isolation, we observed the subjects' behavior in the presence of a pair of objects, one was always the subject's human foster parent (caregiver) and the other was varied; nursing bottle (3 weeks), unfamiliar adult dog (3 and 5 weeks), unfamiliar experimenter (4 and 5 weeks), and familiar conspecific age mate (4 weeks). Dogs and wolves did not differ in their general activity level during the tests. Wolf pups showed preference for the proximity of the caregiver in two of the tests; Bottle-Caregiver at the age of 3 weeks and Experimenter-Caregiver at the age of 5 weeks, while dogs showed preference to the caregiver in three tests; conspecific Pup-Caregiver and Experimenter-Caregiver at the age of 4 weeks and dog-caregiver at the age of 5. Compared to wolves, dogs tended to display more communicative signals that could potentially facilitate social interactions, such as distress vocalization, tail wagging, and gazing at the humans' face. In contrast to dog puppies, wolf pups showed aggressive behavior toward a familiar experimenter and also seemed to be more prone to avoidance. Our results demonstrate that already at this early age-despite unprecedented intensity of socialization and the comparable social (human) environment during early development-there are specific behavioral differences between wolves and dogs mostly with regard to their interactions with humans

Aberrant post-translational protein modifications in the pathogenesis of alcohol-induced liver injury

It is likely that the majority of proteins will undergo post-translational modification, be it enzymatic or non-enzymatic. These modified protein(s) regulate activity, localization and interaction with other cellular molecules thereby maintaining cellular hemostasis. Alcohol exposure significantly alters several of these post-translational modifications leading to impairments of many essential physiological processes. Here, we present new insights into novel modifications following ethanol exposure and their role in the initiation and progression of liver injury. This critical review condenses the proceedings of a symposium at the European Society for the Biomedical Research on Alcoholism Meeting held September 12-15, 2015, in Valencia, Spain

Experimental application to a water delivery canal of a distributed MPC with stability constraints

In this work, a novel distributed MPC algorithm, denoted D-SIORHC, is applied to upstream local control of a pilot water delivery canal. The D-SIORHC algorithm is based on MPC control agents that incorporate stability constraints and communicate only with their adjacent neighbors in order to achieve a coordinated action. Experimental results that show the effect of the parameters configuring the local controllers are presented