Short- and long-term variations of norovirus concentrations in the Meuse river during a 2-year study period

Faecally impacted surface waters used for drinking water production may encompass risk for norovirus infections. To be able to assess a possible health risk, noroviruses should be quantified and fluctuations identified. In 2001, norovirus concentrations in the river Meuse displayed a seasonal distribution with high peaks during wintertime as determined by RT-PCR on serially diluted RNA. An intensified day-by-day sampling scheme in the winter of 2002/2003 revealed that the winter peak consisted of several peaks of varying duration and magnitude, possibly due to contamination events in the catchment. The highest estimated concentration was 1700 PCR-detectable units per litre (95% CI 250-8000), which if coinciding with failing treatment could lead to significant numbers in drinking water. Adaptive dynamic filtering was shown to adequately predict subsequent sample concentrations. If valid, such analyses could prove to be useful as early warning systems in risk management of water sources.     

Threshold-avoiding proteomics pipeline

We present a new proteomics analysis pipeline focused on maximizing the dynamic range of detected molecules in liquid chromatography-mass spectrometry (LC-MS) data and accurately quantifying low-abundance peaks to identify those with biological relevance. Although there has been much work to improve the quality of data derived from LC-MS instruments, the goal of this study was to extend the dynamic range of analyzed compounds by making full use of the information available within each data set and across multiple related chromatograms in an experiment. Our aim was to distinguish low-abundance signal peaks from noise by noting their coherent behavior across multiple data sets, and central to this is the need to delay the culling of noise peaks until the final peak-matching stage of the pipeline, when peaks from a single sample appear in the context of all others. The application of thresholds that might discard signal peaks early is thereby avoided, hence the name TAPP: threshold-avoiding proteomics pipeline. TAPP focuses on quantitative low-level processing of raw LC-MS data and includes novel preprocessing, peak detection, time alignment, and cluster-based matching. We demonstrate the performance of TAPP on biologically relevant sample data consisting of porcine cerebrospinal fluid spiked over a wide range of concentrations with horse heart cytochrome c.     

Achieving 0.2% relative expanded uncertainty in ion chromatography analysis using a high-performance methodology

A high-performance (HP) technique that was originally developed for inductively coupled plasma optical emission spectrometry (ICP-OES) has been successfully translated to ion chromatography (IC) to enable analyses with extremely low uncertainty. As an example application of the HP-IC methodology, analyses of several National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) Standard Reference Materials (SRMs) in the SRM 3180 series of anion standard solutions are reported. The relative expanded uncertainty values expressed at 95% confidence for these analyses range from 0.087% to 0.27% and average 0.18%. Strong correlation between analyte and internal standard anion peak heights or peak areas, as well as the use of a unique drift-correction approach, is shown to be important for attaining such low uncertainty.     

Glycosidases of wheat

Glycosidases isolated from the mill fractions made from soft and hard wheat grists were studied. α-Arabinosidase, α-galactosidase, β-galactosidase, β-glucosidase, β-glucuronidase, β-mannosidase and β-xylosidase activities in wheat flour, germ and bran were determined under standard dough conditions. There were no significant differences between the level of glycosidase activities from hard and soft grists. The level of a particular glycosidase activity was generally highest in the germ and lowest in the flour.     

How does the congruity of brand names affect evaluations of brand name extensions?

In 2 studies, with a total of 56 women and 11 men, the authors examined whether or not G. Mandler's (1982) schema congruity theory would explain students' evaluations of new products purportedly introduced by companies with established brand names that were congruent, moderately incongruent, or extremely incongruent in relationship to the product. Consistent with this theory, results showed that products associated with moderately incongruent brand names were preferred over ones that were associated with either congruent or extremely incongruent brand names. Results suggest that this finding may be mediated by students' greater elaboration of the incongruent brand name and related information and by the process of resolving incongruity. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Design Guidelines for Community Shelters for Extreme Wind Events

The design of shelter structures has received little attention from the engineering community since the days of nuclear fallout shelters, until the development of guidance for community shelters for cases of extreme wind events was released by FEMA in July 2000 (FEMA 361). To respond to the recent demand for community shelters, many states are designating existing schools or other public buildings, such as community centers or multipurpose buildings, as public shelter areas. In most cases these buildings, or portions of these buildings, were never designed for use as shelters. Most of the designated shelters were designed and constructed according to older local building codes that do not include requirements for extreme wind pressures and uplift. Even recently designed structures have been found to have inadequate features for a high-wind shelter, particularly with respect to cladding and architectural features that are vulnerable to damage from high winds and windborne debris. Damage to the cladding is often the beginning of building failure and occupant injury during an extreme wind event. This paper identifies critical issues and gaps in presently available technology for evaluating proposed shelters and providing retrofit guidance to building owners. The writers’ experience with inspections of designated shelters, proposed retrofit recommendations, and damage investigations of buildings affected by hurricanes or tornadoes is summarized. Recommendations for design considerations that include the current standards of practice as outlined in FEMA 361, ASCE 7-98, and the Florida Shelter Evaluation Guidelines are given.     

Note-taking in the employment interview: Effects on recall and judgments.

Although note-taking in the employment interview is highly recommended, little research has examined its effects. This study investigated the effects of note-taking styles, review of the notes, and content of the notes on participants' cued recall of information and decisions made from videotaped employment interviews. Note-taking increased recall accuracy but not judgment accuracy. Being able to review notes resulted in increased judgment accuracy for those taking conventional-style notes. The content of the notes also had important implications for conventional note-takers, suggesting some benefits of recording notes using the key-points style. The findings suggest that the act of note-taking may be more important for memory and legal reasons than for improving the decisions made by interviewers. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

College students' help-seeking preferences.

136 undergraduates completed a questionnaire indicating the relative likelihood that they would turn to 7 potential helpgivers with 11 personal or 5 career problems. For personal problems, Ss indicated they would be more likely to turn to a close friend for help. For career problems, Ss stated that they would be more likely to seek help from an academic advisor, instructor, close friend, or close relative. A total of 36% and 26% of the Ss said they would seek help from a professional counselor for a personal or career problem, respectively. The extent to which these findings replicate previous research is discussed. (23 ref) (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)