Commutative orders revisited

This article studies commutative orders, that is, commutative semigroups having a semigroup of quotients. In a commutative order S, the square-cancellable elements S(S) constitute a well-behaved separable subsemigroup. Indeed, S(S) is also an order and has a maximum semigroup of quotients R, which is Clifford.We present a new characterisation of commutative orders in terms of semilattice decompositions of S(S) and families of ideals of S. We investigate the role of tensor products in constructing quotients, and show that all semigroups of quotients of S are homomorphic images of the tensor product R ⊗S(S) S. By introducing the notions of generalised order and semigroup of generalised quotients, we show that if S has a semigroup of generalised quotients, then it has a greatest one. For thiswe determine those semilattice congruences on S(S) that are restrictions of congruences on S

Negative Space: An Alternative Framework for Archaeoacoustics

Hearing the remote past seems impossible. Archaeoacoustics is a contemporary field intent on reconstructing the evolution of early communication systems, offering the possibility of developing methodologies relating to past sound signaling and music. Through a contribution of the emerging sensory field of archaeoacoustics and an example of acoustic assessments conducted at the site of Coves del Toll, can we understand signals of the past in order to investigate human behaviour and trace its cognitive evolution? This paper explores alternative methodological and theoretical approaches to understanding prehistoric sonic behaviours in early hominids and aims to set out a framework to theoretically and philosophically approach the “sound record” of the past. The theoretical proposition of this paper integrates the musical and sound art disciplines of spectralism and sound ecology to challenge the current limitations of listening to sound

Differences in Proinflammatory Cytokines and Monocyte Subtypes in Older as Compared With Younger Kidney Transplant Recipients.

Background:The number of elderly patients with end-stage kidney disease requiring kidney transplantation continues to grow. Evaluation of healthy older adults has revealed proinflammatory changes in the immune system, which are posited to contribute to age-associated illnesses via "inflamm-aging." Immunologic dysfunction is also associated with impaired control of infections. Whether these immunologic changes are found in older kidney transplant recipients is not currently known, but may have important implications for risk for adverse clinical outcomes. Methods:Three months after transplant, innate immune phenotype was evaluated by flow cytometry from 60 kidney transplant recipients (22 older [≥60 years] and 38 younger [<60 years old]). Multiplex cytokine testing was used to evaluate plasma cytokine levels. Younger patients were matched to older patients based on transplant type and induction immune suppression. Results:Older kidney transplant recipients demonstrated decreased frequency of intermediate monocytes (CD14++CD16+) compared with younger patients (1.2% vs 3.3%, P = 0.007), and a trend toward increased frequency of proinflammatory classical monocytes (CD14++CD16-) (94.5% vs 92.1%) (P = 0.065). Increased levels of interferon-gamma (IFN-γ) were seen in older patients. Conclusions:In this pilot study of kidney transplant recipients, we identified differences in the innate immune system in older as compared with younger patients, including increased levels of IFN-γ. This suggests that age-associated nonspecific inflammation persists despite immune suppression. The ability to apply noninvasive testing to transplant recipients will provide tools for patient risk stratification and individualization of immune suppression regimens to improve outcomes after transplantation

People living without health insurance in Durham County, North Carolina : an action-oriented community assessment

This document details the methods and findings from an Action-Oriented Community Assessment (AOCA) of people living without health insurance in Durham County, North Carolina. A group of four graduate students from the University of North Carolina School of Public Health conducted this assessment from September 2006 to April 2007 under the direction of preceptors Sarah Covington, the Coordinator of the Partnership for a Healthy Durham, and Tekola Fisseha, Director of Health Education at the Durham County Health Department (DCHD). The overarching goals of this AOCA were to: 1) inform the DCHD’s countywide health assessment with findings on the strengths and needs among people living without health insurance, in general, and those served by Lincoln Community Health Center (LCHC), in particular; and 2) engage the Lincoln community and service providers in discussing AOCA findings to determine concrete action steps for initiating change. We began the process by conducting participant observations of local neighborhoods and community events to define and gain entry into our community of interest. Next, we collected and reviewed secondary data sources for background information and also to inform our interview guides. We spoke with 47 community members and service providers to the uninsured, including 27 individual interviews and two focus groups. Our data analysis revealed nine themes on needs. Of these, the forum planning committee prioritized four as the most important and changeable for discussion at the community forum. The forum was attended by approximately 50 participants and was held at the Lyon Park Community Center in Durham on Thursday, April 19th, from 6:00 – 8:00 p.m. The purpose was to engage community members and service providers in discussing our findings and generating their own action steps. A description of these themes, as well as key action steps that were generated during the forum, are as follows: Access to Healthcare. Many people in Durham are uninsured or underinsured. Because Lincoln is the only healthcare option for many, the extent of healthcare is limited by what Lincoln is able to provide. Action Steps: 1. Begin research and planning within health department for creation of a bumper sticker that has a main telephone number for all Durham services. 2. Plan and host a health fair at a participant’s church. 3. Increase participation in the Access to Healthcare Committee of the Partnership for a Healthy Durham. Crime and Safety. Most people agree that crime and safety are important issues within the community. Although steps have been taken to address these issues, most people feel that something more can be done. Action Steps: 1. Put pressure on church congregations to take a role in making neighborhoods safer. 2. Parents will make efforts to stress the importance of obeying the law to their children. 3. Make a connection with the kids in your neighborhood and community. Education. Community members agree that limited education hinders their ability to obtain adequate employment, health insurance, and a living wage. Action Steps: 1. Increase awareness of educational opportunities available in Durham. 2. Develop programs for parents promoting the importance of education for their children. 3. Increase the variety of educational opportunities in Durham, such as more certificate programs. Race Relations. Durham is rich with diversity. The increasing diversity of the community sometimes results in misunderstandings and conflict between different racial and ethnic groups. These tensions intensify pre-existing racism, which negatively affects daily interactions within the community. Action Steps: 1. Advocate for cultural competency at workplaces. 2. Speak to youth groups about race relations in Durham. 3. Step out of one’s comfort zone. Other domains and themes found, but were not discussed at the community forum were: Transportation: Access to, safety of, and other limitations of available transportation affect people’s ability to access healthcare settings, employment opportunities, and other local resources. Employment: Limited options for employment in the community combined with limited work experience and educational attainment increase the difficulty to obtain adequate employment. Housing: The ability to obtain quality and affordable housing is limited and is a fundamental issue in the community which affects all aspects of life (i.e. employment, transportation, healthcare, etc). Health & Healthy Living: Despite a variety of community resources that promote healthy living, there are also numerous barriers (i.e. limited time and money for proper diet and exercise). Healthy living is often not prioritized by individuals because of these and other more immediate concerns.Master of Public Healt

El perrito sin hogar

Victoria Rodrigo, PhD- Serie Leamos’ EditorProfessor of Spanish World Languages and Cultures DepartmentGeorgia State Universityhttps://scholarworks.gsu.edu/wcl_leamos/1023/thumbnail.jp

Development and validation of a Clostridium difficile infection risk prediction model

OBJECTIVE: The purpose of this study was to develop and validate a risk prediction model that could identify patients at high risk for Clostridium difficile infection (CDI) before they develop disease. DESIGN: Retrospective cohort. SETTING: Tertiary care medical center. PATIENTS: Patients admitted to the hospital for ≥48 hours from 1-1-2003 through 12-31-2003. METHODS: Data were collected electronically from the hospital’s Medical Informatics database and analyzed with logistic regression to determine variables that best predicted patients’ risk for development of CDI. Model discrimination and calibration were calculated. The model was bootstrapped 500 times to validate the predictive accuracy. A receiver operating characteristic (ROC) curve was calculated to evaluate potential risk cut-offs. RESULTS: 35,350 admissions with 329 CDI cases were included. Variables in the risk prediction model were age, CDI pressure, admissions in previous 60 days, modified Acute Physiology Score, days on high risk antibiotics, low albumin, admission to an ICU, and receipt of laxatives, gastric acid suppressors, or antimotility drugs. The calibration and discrimination of the model were very good to excellent (C index=0.88; Brier score 0.009). CONCLUSIONS: The CDI risk prediction model performed well. Further study is needed to determine if it could be used in a clinical setting to prevent CDI-associated outcomes and reduce costs

Visual acuity and contrast sensitivity in preterm and full-term children using a novel digital test

Visual assessment in preverbal children mostly relies on the preferential looking paradigm. It requires an experienced observer to interpret the child’s responses to a stimulus. DIVE (Device for an Integral Visual Examination) is a digital tool with an integrated eye tracker (ET) that lifts this requirement and automatizes this process. The aim of our study was to assess the development of two visual functions, visual acuity (VA) and contrast sensitivity (CS), with DIVE, in a large sample of children from 6 months to 14 years (y) of age, and to compare the results of preterm and full-term children. Participants were recruited in clinical settings from five countries. There were 2208 children tested, 609 of them were born preterm. Both VA and CS improved throughout childhood, with the maximum increase during the first 5 years of age. Gestational age, refractive error and age had an impact on VA results, while CS values were only influenced by age. With this study we report normative reference outcomes for VA and CS throughout childhood and validate the DIVE tests as a useful tool to measure basic visual functions in children

Apical Rooted Cuttings Revolutionize Seed Potato Production by Smallholder Farmers in the Tropics

Potato apical rooted cuttings (ARC) originating from juvenile simple rounded leaf mother plants are a significant new way of transplanting and field growing of seed potatoes under smallholder field conditions in the tropical highlands. The aim of this paper is to highlight the development of the technology by researchers and farmers in Vietnam, Philippines, Kenya and Uganda. The development of cultivars with late blight resistance for which no source of tuber seed was available stimulated the creation of using ARC. The demystification of tissue culture by the 1980s greatly aided this development. The key hurdle was to multiply tissue culture plants in beds of growing media and maintain the physiological young stage of the mother plants from which apical cuttings could be repeatedly taken for several months to produce ARC for sale to farmers who demanded the new cultivars (cvs) with all the desirable attributes. The technology was first developed in warmer climates at lower elevations of less than 1,500 meters above mean sea level (mamsl) but gradually it was successfully developed at cooler climates in East Africa. The technology is well established in the highlands of Vietnam and Philippines. The largest family operation is producing over 4 million ARC annually. These high-quality ARC along with improved cvs have markedly improved yields of smallholder farmers, improving food security and increasing their income levels. In Kenya and Uganda there is a rapid adoption of ARC by seed producers, smallholder farmers and youths. The ARC revolution is bringing a great deal of excitement and promise of prosperity to remote poor highland communities

The Potential Biotechnological Applications of the Exopolysaccharide Produced by the Halophilic Bacterium Halomonas almeriensis

We have studied the extracellular polysaccharide (EPS) produced by the type strain, M8T, of the halophilic bacterium Halomonas almeriensis, to ascertain whether it might have any biotechnological applications. All the cultural parameters tested influenced both bacterial growth and polysaccharide production. EPS production was mainly growth-associated and under optimum environmental and nutritional conditions M8T excreted about 1.7 g of EPS per litre of culture medium (about 0.4 g of EPS per gram of dry cell weight). Analysis by anion-exchange chromatography and high-performance size-exclusion chromatography indicated that the exopolysaccharide was composed of two fractions, one of 6.3 × 106 and another of 1.5 × 104 Daltons. The monosaccharide composition of the high-molecular-weight fraction was mannose (72% w/w), glucose (27.5% w/w) and rhamnose (0.5% w/w). The low-molecular-weight fraction contained mannose (70% w/w) and glucose (30% w/w). The EPS has a substantial protein fraction (1.1% w/w) and was capable of emulsifying several hydrophobic substrates, a capacity presumably related to its protein content. The EPS produced solutions of low viscosity with pseudoplastic behaviour. It also had a high capacity for binding some cations. It contained considerable quantities of sulphates (1.4% w/w), an unusual feature in bacterial polysaccharides. All these characteristics render it potentially useful as a biological agent, bio-detoxifier and emulsifier.This research was supported by grants from the Dirección General de Investigación Científica y Técnica BOS 2003-00498; CGL2005-05947; CGL2008-02399; BIO2011-2013 and by grants from the Plan Andaluz de Investigación PO6-CVI-01850

MCC950/CRID3 potently targets the NACHT domain of wild-type NLRP3 but not disease-associated mutants for inflammasome inhibition

The nucleotide-binding-domain (NBD)-and leucine-rich repeat (LRR)-containing (NLR) family, pyrin-domain-containing 3 (NLRP3) inflammasome drives pathological inflammation in a suite of autoimmune, metabolic, malignant, and neurodegenerative diseases. Additionally, NLRP3 gain-of-function point mutations cause systemic periodic fever syndromes that are collectively known as cryopyrin-associated periodic syndrome (CAPS). There is significant interest in the discovery and development of diarylsulfonylurea Cytokine Release Inhibitory Drugs (CRIDs) such as MCC950/CRID3, a potent and selective inhibitor of the NLRP3 inflammasome pathway, for the treatment of CAPS and other diseases. However, drug discovery efforts have been constrained by the lack of insight into the molecular target and mechanism by which these CRIDs inhibit the NLRP3 inflammasome pathway. Here, we show that the NAIP, CIITA, HET-E, and TP1 (NACHT) domain of NLRP3 is the molecular target of diarylsulfonylurea inhibitors. Interestingly, we find photoaffinity labeling (PAL) of the NACHT domain requires an intact (d)ATP-binding pocket and is substantially reduced for most CAPS-associated NLRP3 mutants. In concordance with this finding, MCC950/CRID3 failed to inhibit NLRP3-driven inflammatory pathology in two mouse models of CAPS. Moreover, it abolished circulating levels of interleukin (IL)-1 beta and IL-18 in lipopolysaccharide (LPS)-challenged wild-type mice but not in Nlrp3(L351P) knock-in mice and ex vivo-stimulated mutant macrophages. These results identify wild-type NLRP3 as the molecular target of MCC950/CRID3 and show that CAPS-related NLRP3 mutants escape efficient MCC950/CRID3 inhibition. Collectively, this work suggests that MCC950/CRID3-based therapies may effectively treat inflammation driven by wild-type NLRP3 but not CAPS-associated mutants