Making Room at the Table: Enhancing Public Participation in Economic Development Process

In 2011, Mohawk Valley EDGE became the lead organization for the Mohawk Valley Regional Economic Development Council (MVREDC), one of the ten Regional Councils established in New York State. Public participation has been stressed as an essential function of all Regional Council processes. But throughout the 2012 Regional Council process, the MVREDC and EDGE had difficulty in soliciting feedback in implementing the regional strategic plan. This study examines how EDGE can foster more public engagement in local economic development

The epidemiology of injuries in Australian professional Rugby Union 2014 Super Rugby competition

BACKGROUND: Rugby union is a collision-based ball sport played at the professional level internationally. Rugby union has one of the highest reported incidences of injury of all team sports. PURPOSE: To identify the characteristics, incidence, and severity of injuries occurring in Australian professional Super Rugby Union. DESIGN: Descriptive epidemiology study. METHODS: The present study was a prospective epidemiology study on a cohort of 180 professional players from 5 Australian Super Rugby teams during the 2014 Super Rugby Union Tournament. Team medical staff collected and submitted daily training and match-play injury data through a secure, web-based electronic platform. The injury data included the main anatomic location of the injury, specific anatomic structure of the injury, injury diagnosis, training or match injury occurrence, main player position, mechanism of injury, and the severity of the injury quantified based on the number of days lost from training and/or competition due to injury. RESULTS: The total combined incidence rate for injury during training and match-play across all Australian Super Rugby Union teams was 6.96 per 1000 hours, with a mean injury severity of 37.45 days lost from training and competition. The match-play injury incidence rate was 66.07 per 1000 hours, with a mean severity of 39.80 days lost from training and competition. No significant differences were observed between forward- and back-playing positions for match or training injury incidence rate or severity. CONCLUSION: The incidence of injury for the present study was lower during match-play than has previously been reported in professional rugby union; however, the overall time loss was higher compared with previous studies in professional rugby union. The high overall time loss was due fundamentally to a high incidence of injuries with greater than 28 days’ severity

Vesuvianite From Pajsberg, Sweden, and the Role of Be In the Vesuvianite Structure

Vesuvianite from Pajsberg, Sweden contains about one atom of Mn, based on 50 cations per formula unit, and small amounts of Be, B, and As. Optical absorption analysis suggests that the Mn is predominantly or entirely trivalent. Crystal-structure analysis indicates that Mn is housed at the general octahedral site Y3, which exhibits only minor distortion from ideal octahedral symmetry. Arsenic is housed at Y2 and Z2, and the formula derived from electron microprobe and LA-ICP-MS analyses suggests minor substitution of Al for Si, also at Z2. Beryllium and B are at T1, between the edge-sharing trimers Y3Y2Y3, as is the case for B in the boron-dominant vesuvianite species wiluite. The total content at T1 is interpreted as 0.82Be, 0.34B, and 0.037Fe^(3+)

Genetic Variants of Milk Proteins - Relevance to Milk Composition and Cheese Production.

End of Project ReportObjectives: (i) to develop rapid screening procedures for the determination of milk protein polymorphism (genetic variants) (ii) to determine the frequency distribution of milk protein genetic variants in a large population of Irish Holstein-Friesians and to determine if there was an association between κ-casein variant and milk yield and composition in this group of animals, and (iii) to make Cheddar and low-moisture part-skim Mozzarella cheese from different κ-casein genetic variant milks and to assess any effect on cheese yield, composition and functional characteristics. Conclusions:Analysis of 6,007 individual Irish Holstein-Friesian milks showed that the phenotype distribution of the κ-casein BB variant was very low at 1.98% compared to 53.07% for κ-casein AA and 44.95% for κ-casein AB. While no statistically significant associations were observed between κ-casein variant and milk yield and composition, κ-casein BB variant milks had superior rennet coagulation properties to that of the AA or AB variants. Generally, κ-casein variant had little effect on compositional attributes of cheese apart from FDM (fat in dry matter) which was significantly higher in cheeses from κ-casein BB milk than in those from κ-casein AA milk. Generally, κ-casein variant had no significant effects on either primary or secondary proteolysis, or on the sensory and/or textural characteristics of Cheddar or Mozzarella cheese throughout ripening; or on the functional characteristics (e.g. flow and stretch) of baked Mozzarella on storage for 90 days at 4°C. However, κ-casein BB variant milk gave significantly higher actual, and moisture adjusted yields of Cheddar and Mozzarella cheese than either κ-casein AB or AA variant milks. For example, the moisture adjusted Cheddar yield from κ-casein BB milk was 8.2% higher than from κ-casein AA milk. In the case of Mozzarella, the moisture adjusted yield was 12% higher. Based on the results, it is estimated that the actual yield of cheese in a plant producing 20,000 tonnes per year from κ-casein AA milk would increase to approximately 21,180 tonnes of Cheddar, or 21,780 tonnes of Mozzarella if made from κ-casein BB milk. Where κ-casein AB milk is used instead of κ-casein BB milk, the estimated yield of Mozzarella would increase to 21,580 tonnes.Department of Agriculture, Food and the Marin

Entry, Growth, and Survival in the Green Industry

Economists are interested in the factors that induce firm entry, lead to growth, and help firms succeed in various markets. Such information can be helpful to policymakers but, unfortunately, such patterns have not been considered for “green industries.” This paper takes advantage of a recent definition of green industries proposed by the Bureau of Labor Statistics to investigate patterns characterizing these industries within the State of Texas. Leveraging the differences between the five sub-categories within the BLS definition, this study attempts to identify the comparative advantage each county has within the green economy

How U.S. Ocean Policy and Market Power Can Reform the Coral Reef Wildlife Trade

As the world’s largest importer of marine ornamental species for the aquaria, curio, home décor, and jewelry industries, the United States has an opportunity to leverage its considerable market power to promote more sustainable trade and reduce the effects of ornamental trade stress on coral reefs worldwide. Evidence indicates that collection of some coral reef animals for these trades has caused virtual elimination of local populations, major changes in age structure, and promotion of collection practices that destroy reef habitats. Management and enforcement of collection activities in major source countries such as Indonesia and the Philippines remain weak. Strengthening US trade laws and enforcement capabilities combined with increasing consumer and industry demand for responsible conservation can create strong incentives for improving management in source countries. This is particularly important in light of the March 2010 failure of the parties to the Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species (CITES) to take action on key groups of corals

Direct Imaging in Reflected Light: Characterization of Older, Temperate Exoplanets With 30-m Telescopes

Direct detection, also known as direct imaging, is a method for discovering and characterizing the atmospheres of planets at intermediate and wide separations. It is the only means of obtaining spectra of non-transiting exoplanets. Characterizing the atmospheres of planets in the <5 AU regime, where RV surveys have revealed an abundance of other worlds, requires a 30-m-class aperture in combination with an advanced adaptive optics system, coronagraph, and suite of spectrometers and imagers - this concept underlies planned instruments for both TMT (the Planetary Systems Imager, or PSI) and the GMT (GMagAO-X). These instruments could provide astrometry, photometry, and spectroscopy of an unprecedented sample of rocky planets, ice giants, and gas giants. For the first time habitable zone exoplanets will become accessible to direct imaging, and these instruments have the potential to detect and characterize the innermost regions of nearby M-dwarf planetary systems in reflected light. High-resolution spectroscopy will not only illuminate the physics and chemistry of exo-atmospheres, but may also probe rocky, temperate worlds for signs of life in the form of atmospheric biomarkers (combinations of water, oxygen and other molecular species). By completing the census of non-transiting worlds at a range of separations from their host stars, these instruments will provide the final pieces to the puzzle of planetary demographics. This whitepaper explores the science goals of direct imaging on 30-m telescopes and the technology development needed to achieve them.Comment: (March 2018) Submitted to the Exoplanet Science Strategy committee of the NA

Patient-specific cancer genes contribute to recurrently perturbed pathways and establish therapeutic vulnerabilities in esophageal adenocarcinoma.

The identification of cancer-promoting genetic alterations is challenging particularly in highly unstable and heterogeneous cancers, such as esophageal adenocarcinoma (EAC). Here we describe a machine learning algorithm to identify cancer genes in individual patients considering all types of damaging alterations simultaneously. Analysing 261 EACs from the OCCAMS Consortium, we discover helper genes that, alongside well-known drivers, promote cancer. We confirm the robustness of our approach in 107 additional EACs. Unlike recurrent alterations of known drivers, these cancer helper genes are rare or patient-specific. However, they converge towards perturbations of well-known cancer processes. Recurrence of the same process perturbations, rather than individual genes, divides EACs into six clusters differing in their molecular and clinical features. Experimentally mimicking the alterations of predicted helper genes in cancer and pre-cancer cells validates their contribution to disease progression, while reverting their alterations reveals EAC acquired dependencies that can be exploited in therapy

Surveying Nearby Brown Dwarfs with HGCA: Direct Imaging Discovery of a Faint, High-Mass Brown Dwarf Orbiting HD 176535 A

Brown dwarfs with well-measured masses, ages and luminosities provide direct benchmark tests of substellar formation and evolutionary models. We report the first results from a direct imaging survey aiming to find and characterize substellar companions to nearby accelerating stars with the assistance of the Hipparcos-Gaia Catalog of Accelerations (HGCA). In this paper, we present a joint high-contrast imaging and astrometric discovery of a substellar companion to HD 176535 A, a K3.5V main-sequence star aged approximately $3.59_{-1.15}^{+0.87}$ Gyrs at a distance of $36.99 \pm 0.03$ pc. In advance of our high-contrast imaging observations, we combined precision HARPS RVs and HGCA astrometry to predict the potential companion's location and mass. We thereafter acquired two nights of KeckAO/NIRC2 direct imaging observations in the $L'$ band, which revealed a companion with a contrast of $\Delta L'_p = 9.20\pm0.06$ mag at a projected separation of $\approx$0.\!\!''35 ($\approx$13 AU) from the host star. We revise our orbital fit by incorporating our dual-epoch relative astrometry using the open-source MCMC orbit fitting code $\tt orvara$. HD 176535 B is a new benchmark dwarf useful for constraining the evolutionary and atmospheric models of high-mass brown dwarfs. We found a luminosity of $\rm log(L_{bol}/L_{\odot}) = -5.26\pm0.06$ and a model-dependent effective temperature of $980 \pm 35$ K for HD 176535 B. Our dynamical mass suggests that some substellar evolutionary models may be underestimating luminosity for high-mass T dwarfs. Given its angular separation and luminosity, HD 176535 B would make a promising candidate for Aperture Masking Interferometry with JWST and GRAVITY/KPIC, and further spectroscopic characterization with instruments like the CHARIS/SCExAO/Subaru integral field spectrograph

Risks factors for significant injury after geriatric falls

Elderly falls are a healthcare epidemic. We aimed to identify risk factors of serious falls by linking data on functional status from the Global Longitudinal Study of Osteoporosis in Women (GLOW) and our institutional trauma registry. 124 of 5,091 local women enrolled in GLOW were evaluated by our trauma team for injuries related to a fall during the study period. Median injury severity score was 9. The most common injuries were intertrochanteric femur fracture (n = 25, 9.8%) and skin contusion/hematoma to face (n = 12, 4.7%). Injured women were older than the uninjured cohort (median 80 versus 68 years), more likely to have cardiovascular disease and osteoarthritis, and less likely to have high cholesterol. Prospectively collected Short Form 36 (SF-36) baseline activity status revealed greater limitation in all assessed activities in women evaluated for fall-related injuries in our trauma center. In multivariable analysis, age (per 10 year increase) and two or more self-reported falls in the baseline survey were the strongest predictors of falling (both HR 2.4, p &lt;0.0001 and p&lt;0.001 respectively), followed by history of osteoarthritis (HR 1.6, p= 0.01). Functional status was no longer associated with risk of fall when adjusting for these factors.Functional status appears to be a surrogate marker for frailty. With the aging of the US population and long lifespan of American women, this finding has important implications for both fall prevention strategies and research intended to better understand why aging women fall as burdensome validated metrics may not be the best indicators of fall risk. The authors have no conflict of interests to declare. Funding statement: This work was partially supported by grants from NIH (8KL2TR000160-03), AHRQ (R01HS22694), and PCORI (ME-1310-07682) to HS