Radically Rethinking Agriculture for the 21st Century Fedoroff, N. V.; Battisti, D. S.; Beachy, R. N. ...
Science (American Association for the Advancement of Science),
02/2010, Letnik:
327, Številka:
5967
Journal Article
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Population growth, arable land and fresh water limits, and climate change have profound implications for the ability of agriculture to meet this century's demands for food, feed, fiber, and fuel ...while reducing the environmental impact of their production. Success depends on the acceptance and use of contemporary molecular techniques, as well as the increasing development of farming systems that use saline water and integrate nutrient flows.
The increase in the prevalence and impact of infections caused by carbapenemase-producing
is a global health concern. Therefore, rapid and accurate methods to detect these organisms in any clinical ...microbiology laboratory, including those in resource-limited settings, are essential to prevent and contain their spread. It is also important to differentiate between serine- and metal-dependent carbapenemases elaborated by carbapenemase-producing isolates for epidemiologic, infection control and prevention, and therapeutic purposes. Here, we describe the development and evaluation of the EDTA-modified carbapenem inactivation method (eCIM), an assay for discriminating between serine- and metal-dependent (i.e., metallo-β-lactamases MBLs) carbapenemases when used in conjunction with the modified carbapenem inactivation method (mCIM). The eCIM had an overall sensitivity and specificity of 100% and was adopted by the Clinical and Laboratory Standards Institute as a method to use in combination with the mCIM to identify MBL-producing
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The Cosmic Ray Telescope for the Effects of Radiation (CRaTER) on the Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter (LRO) characterizes the radiation environment to be experienced by humans during future lunar ...missions. CRaTER measures the effects of ionizing energy loss in matter due to penetrating solar energetic protons (SEP) and galactic cosmic rays (GCR), specifically in silicon solid-state detectors and after interactions with tissue-equivalent plastic (TEP), a synthetic analog of human tissue. The CRaTER investigation quantifies the linear energy transfer (LET) spectrum in these materials through direct measurements with the lunar space radiation environment, particularly the interactions of ions with energies above 10 MeV, which penetrate and are detected by CRaTER. Combined with models of radiation transport through materials, CRaTER LET measurements constrain models of the biological effects of ionizing radiation in the lunar environment as well as provide valuable information on radiation effects on electronic systems in deep space. In addition to these human exploration goals, CRaTER measurements also provide new insights on the spatial and temporal variability of the SEP and GCR populations and their interactions with the lunar surface. We present here an overview of the CRaTER science goals and investigation, including: an instrument description; observation strategies; instrument testing, characterization, and calibration; and data analysis, interpretation, and modeling plans.
Our aim was to study the impact of subclinical inflammation on the development of interstitial fibrosis and tubular atrophy (IF/TA) on a 1‐year protocol biopsy in patients on rapid steroid withdrawal ...(RSW). A total of 256 patients were classified based on protocol biopsy findings at months 1 or 4. Group 1 is 172 patients with no inflammation, group 2 is 50 patients with subclinical inflammation (SCI), group 3 is 19 patients with subclinical acute rejection (SAR) and group 4 is 15 patients with clinical acute rejection (CAR). On the 1‐year biopsy, more patients in group 2 (SCI) (34%, p = 0.004) and group 3 (SAR) (53%, p = 0.0002), had an IF/TA score > 2 compared to group 1 (control) (15%). IF/TA was not increased in group 4 (CAR) (20%). The percent with IF/TA score > 2 and interstitial inflammation (Banff i score > 0) was higher in group 2 (16%, p = 0.004) and group 3 (37%, p < 0.0001) compared to group 1 (3%). In a multivariate analysis, patients in groups 2 or 3 had a higher risk of IF/TA score > 2 on the 1‐year biopsy (OR 6.62, 95% CI 2.68–16.3). We conclude that SCI and SAR increase the risk of developing IF/TA in patient on RSW.
Protocol biopsy findings during the first 4 months after kidney transplantation in a cohort of patients on rapid steroid withdrawal show that patients with earlier subclinical inflammation manifest a significantly higher risk of interstitial fibrosis and tubular atrophy on a subsequent one‐year protocol biopsy.
The preatmospheric mass of the Tagish Lake meteoroid was about 200,000 kilograms. Its calculated orbit indicates affinity to the Apollo asteroids with a semimajor axis in the middle of the asteroid ...belt, consistent with a linkage to low-albedo C, D, and P type asteroids. The mineralogy, oxygen isotope, and bulk chemical composition of recovered samples of the Tagish Lake meteorite are intermediate between CM and CI meteorites. These data suggest that the Tagish Lake meteorite may be one of the most primitive solar system materials yet studied.
Using the data taken at the Pierre Auger Observatory between December 2004 and December 2012, we have examined the implications of the distributions of depths of atmospheric shower maximum (X ...sub(max)), using a hybrid technique, for composition and hadronic interaction models. We do this by fitting the distributions with predictions from a variety of hadronic interaction models for variations in the composition of the primary cosmic rays and examining the quality of the fit. Regardless of what interaction model is assumed, we find that our data are not well described by a mix of protons and iron nuclei over most of the energy range. Acceptable fits can be obtained when intermediate masses are included, and when this is done consistent results for the proton and iron-nuclei contributions can be found using the available models. We observe a strong energy dependence of the resulting proton fractions, and find no support from any of the models for a significant contribution from iron nuclei. However, we also observe a significant disagreement between the models with respect to the relative contributions of the intermediate components.
Postkidney transplant hyperparathyroidism is a significant problem. Vitamin D receptor agonists are known to suppress parathyroid hormone (PTH) secretion. We examined the effect of oral paricalcitol ...on posttransplant secondary hyperparathyroidism by conducting an open label randomized trial in which 100 incident kidney transplant recipients were randomized 1:1 to receive oral paricalcitol, 2 μg per day, for the first year posttransplant or no additional therapy. Serial measurements of serum PTH, calcium and bone alkaline phosphatase, 24‐h urine calcium and bone density were performed. The primary endpoint was the frequency of hyperparathyroidism 1‐year posttransplant. Eighty‐seven patients completed the trial. One‐year posttransplant, 29% of paricalcitol‐treated subjects had hyperparathyroidism compared with 63% of untreated patients (p = 0.0005). Calcium supplementation was discontinued in two control and 15 treatment patients due to mild hypercalcemia or hypercalcuria. Paricalcitol was discontinued in four patients due to hypercalcuria/hypercalcemia and in one for preference. Two subjects required decreasing the dose of paricalcitol to 1 μg daily. Hypercalcemia was asymptomatic and reversible. Incidence of acute rejection, BK nephropathy and renal function at 1 year were similar between groups. Moderate renal allograft fibrosis was reduced in treated patients. Oral paricalcitol is effective in decreasing posttransplant hyperparathyroidism and may have beneficial effects on renal allograft histology.
Paricalcitol decreases the prevalence of post‐kidney transplant hyperparathyroidism and may have beneficial effects on renal allograft histology.
Context.
Several authors predicted an outburst of the Draconid meteor shower in 2018, but with an uncertain level of activity.
Aims.
Optical meteor observations were used to derive the population and ...mass indices, flux, and radiant positions of Draconid meteors.
Methods.
We performed 90 min of multi-station observations after the predicted peak of activity using highly sensitive Electron Multiplying Charge Coupled Device cameras. The data calibration is discussed in detail. A novel maximum likelihood estimation method was developed to compute the population and mass index with robust error estimation. We applied the method to observed Draconids and used the values to derive the flux. Meteor trajectories were computed and compared to predicted radiant positions from meteoroid ejection models.
Results.
We find a mass index of 1.74 ± 0.18 in the 30 min bin after the predicted peak, and 2.32 ± 0.27 in the subsequent 60 min. The location and the dispersion of the radiant are a good match to modeled values, but there is an offset of 0.4° in solar longitude.
ABSTRACT
The Global Meteor Network (GMN) utilizes highly sensitive low-cost CMOS video cameras which run open-source meteor detection software on Raspberry Pi computers. Currently, over 450 GMN ...cameras in 30 countries are deployed. The main goal of the network is to provide long-term characterization of the radiants, flux, and size distribution of annual meteor showers and outbursts in the optical meteor mass range. The rapid 24-h publication cycle the orbital data will enhance the public situational awareness of the near-Earth meteoroid environment. The GMN also aims to increase the number of instrumentally observed meteorite falls and the transparency of data reduction methods. A novel astrometry calibration method is presented which allows decoupling of the camera pointing from the distortion, and is used for frequent pointing calibrations through the night. Using wide-field cameras (88° × 48°) with a limiting stellar magnitude of +6.0 ± 0.5 at 25 frames per second, over 220 000 precise meteoroid orbits were collected since 2018 December until 2021 June. The median radiant precision of all computed trajectories is 0.47°, 0.32° for $\sim 20{{\ \rm per\ cent}}$ of meteors which were observed from 4 + stations, a precision sufficient to measure physical dispersions of meteor showers. All non-daytime annual established meteor showers were observed during that time, including five outbursts. An analysis of a meteorite-dropping fireball is presented which showed visible wake, fragmentation details, and several discernible fragments. It had spatial trajectory fit errors of only ∼40 m, which translated into the estimated radiant and velocity errors of 3 arcmin and tens of meters per second.
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