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The objective of this study was to examine the accuracy of indexing for "Appalachian Region"[Mesh]. Researchers performed a search in PubMed for articles published in 2019 using "Appalachian Region"[Mesh] or "Appalachia" or "Appalachian" in the title or abstract. Only 17.88% of the articles retrieved by the search were about Appalachia according to the ARC definition. Most articles retrieved appeared because they were indexed with state terms that were included as part of the mesh term. Database indexing and searching transparency is of growing importance as indexers rely increasingly on automated systems to catalog information and publications. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Mycobacterium abscessus is the second most common nontuberculous mycobacterium respiratory pathogen and shows in vitro resistance to nearly all oral antimicrobials. M abscessus treatment success is low in the presence of macrolide resistance. Does treatment with amikacin liposome inhalation suspension (ALIS) improve culture conversion in patients with M abscessus pulmonary disease who are treatment naive or who have treatment-refractory disease? In an open-label protocol, patients were given ALIS (590 mg) added to background multidrug therapy for 12 months. The primary outcome was sputum culture conversion defined as three consecutive monthly sputum cultures showing negative results. The secondary end point included development of amikacin resistance. Of 33 patients (36 isolates) who started ALIS with a mean age of 64 years (range, 14-81 years), 24 patients (73%) were female, 10 patients (30%) had cystic fibrosis, and nine patients (27%) had cavitary disease. Three patients (9%) could not be evaluated for the microbiologic end point because of early withdrawal. All pretreatment isolates were amikacin susceptible and only six isolates (17%) were macrolide susceptible. Eleven patients (33%) were given parenteral antibiotics. Twelve patients (40%) received clofazimine with or without azithromycin as companion therapy. Fifteen patients (50%) with evaluable longitudinal microbiologic data demonstrated culture conversion, and 10 patients (67%) sustained conversion through month 12. Six of the 33 patients (18%) demonstrated mutational amikacin resistance. All were patients using clofazimine or clofazimine plus azithromycin as companion medication(s). Few serious adverse events occurred for ALIS users; however, reduction of dosing to three times weekly was common (52%). In a cohort of patients primarily with macrolide-resistant M abscessus , one-half of the patients using ALIS showed sputum culture conversion to negative findings. The emergence of mutational amikacin resistance was not uncommon and occurred with the use of clofazimine monotherapy. ClinicalTrials.gov; No.: NCT03038178; URL: www.clinicaltrials.gov [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Background: In the CONVERT study, treatment with amikacin liposome inhalation suspension (ALIS) added to guideline-based therapy (GBT) met the primary end point of increased culture conversion by month 6 in patients with treatment-refractory Mycobacterium avium complex lung disease (ALIS plus GBT, 29% [65/224] vs GBT alone, 8.9% [10/112]; P < .0001).Research Question: In patients who achieved culture conversion by month 6 in the CONVERT study, was conversion sustained (negative sputum culture results for 12 months with treatment) and durable (negative sputum culture results for 3 months after treatment) and were there any additional safety signals associated with a full treatment course of 12 months after conversion?Study Design and Methods: Adults were randomized 2:1 to receive ALIS plus GBT or GBT alone. Patients achieving culture conversion by month 6 continued therapy for 12 months followed by off-treatment observation.Results: More patients randomized to ALIS plus GBT (intention-to-treat population) achieved conversion that was both sustained and durable 3 months after treatment vs patients randomized to GBT alone (ALIS plus GBT, 16.1% [36/224] vs GBT alone, 0% [0/112]; P < .0001). Of the patients who achieved culture conversion by month 6, 55.4% of converters (36/65) in the ALIS plus GBT treated arm vs no converters (0/10) in the GBT alone arm achieved sustained and durable conversion (P = .0017). Relapse rates through 3 months after treatment were 9.2% (6/65) in the ALIS plus GBT arm and 30.0% (3/10) in the GBT alone arm. Common adverse events among ALIS plus GBT-treated patients (dysphonia, cough, dyspnea, hemoptysis) occurred mainly within the first 8 months of treatment.Interpretation: In a refractory population, conversion was sustained and durable in more patients treated with ALIS plus GBT for 12 months after conversion than in those treated with GBT alone. No new safety signals were associated with 12 months of treatment after conversion.Trial Registry: ClinicalTrials.gov; No.: NCT02344004; URL: www.clinicaltrials.gov. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The article explores the body of scholarship on mockumentary horror cinema and the ways in which the challenges posed to factual media in the post-truth era are manifested in the interplay between style, genre and meaning. Topics discussed include argument of Linnie Blake about horror cinema, information on "Apollo 18," a typical example of the mockumentary horror subgenre, and reason the documentary-like style works in the found footage horror cycle.

Rationale: Patients with refractory Mycobacterium avium complex (MAC) lung disease have limited treatment options. In the CONVERT study, amikacin liposome inhalation suspension (ALIS) added to guideline-based therapy (GBT) increased culture conversion rates versus GBT alone by Month 6. Limited data are available regarding >6-month treatment in a refractory population.Objectives: Evaluate 12-month safety, tolerability, and efficacy of ALIS+GBT.Methods: Adults with refractory MAC lung disease not achieving culture conversion by CONVERT Month 6 could enroll in this open-label extension (INS-312) to receive 590 mg once-daily ALIS+GBT for 12 months. Two cohorts enrolled: the "ALIS-naive" cohort included patients randomized to GBT alone in CONVERT, and the "prior-ALIS" cohort included those randomized to ALIS+GBT in CONVERT. Safety and tolerability of ALIS over 12 months (primary endpoint) and culture conversion by Months 6 and 12 were assessed.Results: In the ALIS-naive cohort, 83.3% of patients (n = 75/90) experienced respiratory treatment-emergent adverse events (TEAEs), and 35.6% (n = 32) had serious TEAEs; 26.7% (n = 24) achieved culture conversion by Month 6 and 33.3% (n = 30) by Month 12. In the prior-ALIS cohort, 46.6% of patients (n = 34/73) experienced respiratory TEAEs, and 27.4% (n = 20) had serious TEAEs; 9.6% (n = 7) achieved culture conversion by Month 6 (≤14 mo ALIS exposure) and 13.7% (n = 10) by Month 12 (≤20 mo ALIS exposure). Nephrotoxicity-related TEAEs and measured hearing decline were infrequent in both cohorts.Conclusions: In up to 20 months of ALIS use, respiratory TEAEs were common, nephrotoxicity and hearing decline were infrequent, and culture conversion continued beyond 6 months of therapy.Clinical trial registered with www.clinicaltrials.gov (NCT02628600). [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Anilocra chromis Williams & Williams, 1981 (Isopoda, Cymothoidae) from the brown chromis, Chromis multilineata (Guichenot, 1853) (Perciformis, Pomacentridae) in the northeastern Caribbean were previously named and described. A. chromis occurred allopatrically on blue chromis, Chromis cyanea Poey, 1860, in other localities in the Caribbean. Brown chromis hosts were found to be predisposed to the presence of A. chromis , and that adult and juvenile brown chromis could be infected with juvenile A. chromis. The isopod in this study always occurred as an adult under one eye of an adult brown chromis host. Mancae juveniles were thought to have limited dispersal abilities, but this has not been experimentally tested. After natural release, each juvenile swims up to near the surface apparently to avoid planktivores near the reef, and at night, returns to the reef to infect small fishes as transfer hosts or mixes under female A. chromis to breed. Despite these previous studies, how far the juveniles can disperse is not known. Understanding the dispersal of Anilocra spp. and other isopod mancae juveniles is a critical, and largely unknown, part of their life history. A series of field experiments were conducted over 3 years to solve this question out of the NOAA Hydrolab Habitat in the St. Croix Salt River Canyon. We censused and removed, respectively, 96 and 98% of C. multilineata infected with A. chromis in 2 years. After 18 and 12 months, respectively, we re-censused the infected fish. Hosts numbers recovered completely in both experiments. A. chromis numbers recovered completely in 18 months, but only recovered 39% of their number in 12 months. A. chromis sectors established on the ends of the study area on a linear and uniform reef recovered to levels of control sections (approx. 18-19% hosts). However, A. chromis prevalence on the inner segments was only 35% of the control segments. Therefore, juveniles only traveled a short distance before infecting a host. Although description of the "complete" life cycles of several parasitic isopods have been published, the natural release, behavior before attaching to the final host, and now natural dispersal have only been documented in A. chromis. This is important for understanding distributions, isolations, and speciation of fish-parasitic isopods or even methods of control. Resumen: Anilocra chromis Williams & Williams, 1981 (Isopoda, Cymothoidae) de castañeta parda, Chromis multilineata (Guichenot, 1853) (Perciformis, Pomacentridae) en el noreste del Caribe fueron nombradas y descritas previamente. A. chromis se presentó alopátricamente en castañeta azul, Chromis cyanea Poey, 1860, en otras localidades del Caribe. Se encontró que los castañeta parda estaban predispuestos a la presencia de A. chromis , y que los adultos y los juveniles de castañeta parda podrían estar infectados con los juveniles de A. chromis. El isópodo en este estudio siempre se encontró como un adulto debajo de un ojo de un hospedero adulto de castañeta parda. Se pensaba que los juveniles (mancae) tenían capacidades de dispersión limitadas, pero esto no ha sido probado experimentalmente. Después de la liberación natural, cada juvenil nada hasta cerca de la superficie aparentemente para evitar planctívoros cerca del arrecife y, por la noche, regresa al arrecife para infectar peces pequeños como hospederos de transferencia, o debajo de la hembra A. chromis , para reproducirse. A pesar de estos estudios previos, se desconoce hasta qué punto pueden dispersarse los juveniles. Comprender la dispersión de Anilocra spp. y otros juveniles de isópodos (mancae) es una parte crítica, y en gran parte desconocida, de su historia de vida. Se llevó a cabo una serie de experimentos de campo durante 3 años para resolver esta cuestión, usando el Hábitat Hydrolab de NOAA, en el Cañón del Río Salado de St. Croix. Contamos y removimos 96 y 98% de C. multilineata infectada con A. chromis en 2 años. Después de 18 y 12 meses, respectivamente, realizamos otro censo de los peces infectados. El número de hospederos se recuperó completamente en ambos experimentos. El número de A. chromis se recuperó completamente en 18 meses, aunque sólo se recuperó el 39% en 12 meses. A. chromis establecidos en secciones en los extremos del área de estudio en un arrecife lineal y uniforme, se recuperó a niveles de secciones control (approx. 18-19% de huéspedes). Sin embargo, la prevalencia de A. chromis en los segmentos internos fue sólo del 35% de los segmentos control. Por lo tanto, los juveniles sólo viajaron una corta distancia antes de infectar a un hospedero. Aunque se ha publicado una descripción de los ciclos de vida "completos" de varios isópodos parásitos. La liberación natural, el comportamiento antes de adherirse al hospedero final, y ahora, la dispersión natural, sólo se han documentado en A. chromis. Esto es importante para comprender las distribuciones, los aislamientos y la especiación de los isópodos parásitos de peces o incluso los métodos de control. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Background We recently mitigated a clonal outbreak of hospital-acquired Mycobacterium abscessus complex (MABC), which included a large cluster of adult patients who developed invasive infection after exposure to heater-cooler units during cardiac surgery. Recent studies have detailed Mycobacterium chimaera infections acquired during cardiac surgery; however, little is known about the epidemiology and clinical courses of cardiac surgery patients with invasive MABC infection. Methods We retrospectively collected clinical data on all patients who underwent cardiac surgery at our hospital and subsequently had positive cultures for MABC from 2013 through 2016. Patients with ventricular assist devices or heart transplants were excluded. We analyzed patient characteristics, antimicrobial therapy, surgical interventions, and clinical outcomes. Results Ten cardiac surgery patients developed invasive, extrapulmonary infection from M. abscessus subspecies abscessus in an outbreak setting. Median time from presumed inoculation in the operating room to first positive culture was 53 days (interquartile range [IQR], 38–139 days). Disseminated infection was common, and the most frequent culture-positive sites were mediastinum (n = 7) and blood (n = 7). Patients received a median of 24 weeks (IQR, 5–33 weeks) of combination antimicrobial therapy that included multiple intravenous agents. Six patients required antibiotic changes due to adverse events attributed to amikacin, linezolid, or tigecycline. Eight patients underwent surgical management, and 6 patients required multiple sternal debridements. Eight patients died within 2 years of diagnosis, including 4 deaths directly attributable to MABC infection. Conclusions Despite aggressive medical and surgical management, invasive MABC infection after cardiac surgery caused substantial morbidity and mortality. New treatment strategies are needed, and compliance with infection prevention guidelines remains critical. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Algorithms based on singleton arc consistency (SAC) show considerable promise for improving backtrack search algorithms for constraint satisfaction problems (CSPs). The drawback is that even the most efficient of them is still comparatively expensive. Even when limited to preprocessing, they give overall improvement only when problems are quite difficult to solve with more typical procedures such as maintained arc consistency (MAC). The present work examines a form of partial SAC and neighbourhood SAC (NSAC) in which a subset of the variables in a CSP are chosen to be made SAC-consistent or neighbourhood-SAC-consistent. Such consistencies, despite their partial character, are still well-characterized in that algorithms have unique fixpoints. Heuristic strategies for choosing an effective subset of variables are described and tested, the best being choice by highest degree and a more complex strategy of choosing by constraint weight after random probing. Experimental results justify the claim that these methods can be nearly as effective as the corresponding full version of the algorithm in terms of values discarded or problems proven unsatisfiable, while significantly reducing the effort required to achieve this. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In the field of environmental studies and sciences (ESS), teachers and students face a daily barrage of dire news and information from all manner of sources and all corners of the earth. Accepting, processing, and using that information in a professional learning context present existential, emotional, intellectual, and physical challenges that are too seldom made explicit in teaching and learning. This lack of explicit recognition of the deeply personal challenges of teaching and learning ESS represents a missed opportunity that disadvantages faculty and students alike by increasing, rather than decreasing, the likelihood of anxiety and despair in ESS. We analyze and provide a perspective on these circumstances, and offer several strategies for improving our ability to integrate personal and collective wellbeing into formal teaching and learning in ESS. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Pre-reading and early childhood literacy skills are important for brain development and fundamental to a child's long-term cognitive and social well-being. As such, the fostering of these skills is an important preventive health measure. Family physicians can play key roles in encouraging parents to routinely read with their children. However, in Romania, early childhood literacy screening and promotion are not currently integrated into medical practice. This paper summarizes mixed-methods research into the feasibility of implementing a physician-promoted early childhood literacy programme in Romania based on the American 'Reach Out and Read' initiative; it describes and evaluates a small-scale implementation of a pilot early childhood literacy programme, Citesc Zilnic ('Read Everyday'), in 15 medical practices. Results indicate that most Romanian family physicians recognize that early childhood literacy is important for child development, but do not screen for early childhood literacy skills, nor promote early childhood literacy as a preventive medical strategy. With institutional and cultural adaptations to a 'Reach Out and Read'-based model, this research concludes that a high proportion of family physicians are very interested in a programme to screen for and promote early childhood literacy and may also find strong potential for promoting the basic concept of preventive health measures to the Romanian public, going beyond the initial goals of an early childhood literacy-promotion programme. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Adult women are disproportionately affected by overweight and obesity in Sub-Saharan African (SSA) countries. Existing evidence on the sociocultural context remains unconsolidated. In this qualitative research synthesis, we aggregate research literature on contextual factors that potentially predispose adult women and adolescent girls to overweight and obesity to inform research, policies and programs over the life course. PubMed, CINAHL, PsychInfo, ProQuest Central, EMBASE, and Web of Science were searched to locate qualitative research articles conducted in SSA countries beginning in the year 2000. After assessment for eligibility and critical appraisal, 17 studies were included in the synthesis. Textual data and quotes were synthesized using meta-aggregation methods proposed by the Joanna Briggs Institute. The synthesized studies were conducted in South Africa, Ghana, Kenya and Botswana. The three overarching themes across these studies were body size and shape ideals, barriers to healthy eating, and barriers to physical activity, with cultural and social factors as cross-cutting influences within the major themes. Culturally, the supposedly ideal African woman was expected to be overweight or obese, and voluptuous, and this was associated with their identity. Although being overweight or obese was not acceptable to adolescent girls, they desired to be voluptuous. Healthy food choices among women and adolescent girls were hampered by several factors including affordability of nutritious foods and peer victimization. Both adult women and adolescent girls experienced ageism as a barrier to physical activity. This is the first qualitative research synthesis to amplify the voices of women and girls in SSA countries highlighting the challenges they face in maintaining a healthy body weight. Sociocultural, institutional and peer-related factors were powerful forces shaping body size preferences, food choices and participation in physical activity. Our study findings provide insights for the design of contextually appropriate obesity prevention interventions and lay the foundation for further research studies. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In the wake of the Deepwater Horizon disaster, much has been learned about the biological, ecological, physical, and chemical conditions of the Gulf of Mexico. In parallel, the research community has also gained insight about the social and organizational structures and processes necessary for oil spill response and subsequent marine and coastal restoration. However, even with these lessons from both the Deepwater Horizon and previous spills, including 1989's Exxon Valdez and the Ixtoc 1 in 1979, our understanding of how to avoid future crises has not advanced at the same pace as offshore oil and gas development. We argue that this progress deficit indicates a continued devaluing of marine and coastal resources. We believe that we must, instead, advance a proactive conservation ethic based on the precautionary principle and an appropriately placed burden of proof—strategies that will help reduce our reliance on costly restoration and protect marine and coastal ecosystems. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Objectives: This multicenter study's aim was to assess the performance of two commercially available matrix-assisted laser desorption/ionization time of flight mass spectrometry systems in identifying a challenge collection of clinically relevant nontuberculous mycobacteria (NTM).Methods: NTM clinical isolates (n = 244) belonging to 23 species/subspecies were identified by gene sequencing and analyzed using Bruker Biotyper with Mycobacterial Library v5.0.0 and bioMérieux VITEK MS with v3.0 database.Results: Using the Bruker or bioMérieux systems, 92% and 95% of NTM strains, respectively, were identified at least to the complex/group level; 62% and 57%, respectively, were identified to the highest taxonomic level. Differentiation between members of Mycobacterium abscessus, M fortuitum, M mucogenicum, M avium, and M terrae complexes/groups was problematic for both systems, as was identification of M chelonae for the Bruker system.Conclusions: Both systems identified most NTM isolates to the group/complex level, and many to the highest taxonomic level. Performance was comparable. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Attention to environmental sources of Mycobacterium avium complex (MAC) infection is a vital component of disease prevention and control. We investigated MAC colonization of household plumbing in suburban Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, USA. We used variable-number tandem-repeat genotyping and whole-genome sequencing with core genome single-nucleotide variant analysis to compare M. avium from household plumbing biofilms with M. avium isolates from patient respiratory specimens. M. avium was recovered from 30 (81.1%) of 37 households, including 19 (90.5%) of 21 M. avium patient households. For 11 (52.4%) of 21 patients with M. avium disease, isolates recovered from their respiratory and household samples were of the same genotype. Within the same community, 18 (85.7%) of 21 M. avium respiratory isolates genotypically matched household plumbing isolates. Six predominant genotypes were recovered across multiple households and respiratory specimens. M. avium colonizing municipal water and household plumbing may be a substantial source of MAC pulmonary infection. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The December 2023 issue of Frontiers in Ecology & the Environment will be the last to feature the Life Lines column, written by Adrian Burton. Adrian has been a prominent figure in the journal since its inception in 2003, initially as a news writer and later as the author of the popular back-page column. His writing style skillfully combined scientific information with historical anecdotes and humor, providing readers with an engaging exploration of various taxa. The editors express their gratitude for Adrian's contributions and eagerly anticipate his future work. [Extracted from the article]

Rising collection costs sometimes necessitate tough decisions regarding cancellation of popular products. In 2015–2016, the East Tennessee State University Medical Library subscribed to UpToDate and DynaMed Plus, both clinical point-of-care products, with the understanding that one product would be canceled at the fiscal year end. The librarian team undertook a year-long community engagement campaign to inform library users about the pending product cancellation decision. Ultimately, DynaMed Plus was selected and UpToDate was cancelled. The campaign generated user engagement with the decision making, along with perceived benefits including increased awareness of the library's budget constraints, increased discussion of scholarly publishing, and greater faculty/student knowledge of evaluating evidence-based products. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Rationale: Improved therapeutic options are needed for patients with treatment-refractory nontuberculous mycobacterial lung disease caused by Mycobacterium avium complex (MAC). Objectives: To evaluate the efficacy and safety of daily amikacin liposome inhalation suspension (ALIS) added to standard guideline-based therapy (GBT) in patients with refractory MAC lung disease. Methods: Adults with amikacin-susceptible MAC lung disease and MAC-positive sputum cultures despite at least 6 months of stable GBT were randomly assigned (2:1) to receive ALIS with GBT (ALIS + GBT) or GBT alone. Once-daily ALIS was supplied in single-use vials delivering 590 mg amikacin to the nebulizer. The primary endpoint was culture conversion, defined as three consecutive monthly MAC-negative sputum cultures by Month 6. Measurements and Main Results: Enrolled patients (ALIS + GBT, n = 224; GBT-alone, n = 112) were a mean 64.7 years old and 69.3% female. Most had underlying bronchiectasis (62.5%), chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (14.3%), or both (11.9%). Culture conversion was achieved by 65 of 224 patients (29.0%) with ALIS + GBT and 10 of 112 (8.9%) with GBT alone (odds ratio, 4.22; 95% confidence interval, 2.08-8.57; P < 0.001). Patients in the ALIS + GBT arm versus GBT alone were more likely to achieve conversion (hazard ratio, 3.90; 95% confidence interval, 2.00-7.60). Respiratory adverse events (primarily dysphonia, cough, and dyspnea) were reported in 87.4% of patients receiving ALIS + GBT and 50.0% receiving GBT alone; serious treatment-emergent adverse events occurred in 20.2% and 17.9% of patients, respectively. Conclusions: Addition of ALIS to GBT for treatment-refractory MAC lung disease achieved significantly greater culture conversion by Month 6 than GBT alone, with comparable rates of serious adverse events. Clinical trial registered with www.clinicaltrials.gov (NCT02344004). [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

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In this paper we propose a new optimization for Apriori-based association rule mining algorithms where the frequency of items can be encoded and treated in a special manner drastically increasing the efficiency of the frequent itemset mining process. An efficient algorithm, called TFI-Apriori, is developed for mining the complete set of frequent itemsets. In the preprocessing phase of the proposed algorithm, the most frequent items from the database are selected and encoded. The TFI-Apriori algorithm then takes advantage of the encoded information to decrease the number of candidate itemsets generated in the mining process, and consequently drastically reduces execution time in candidate generation and support counting phases. Experimental results on actual datasets – databases coming from applications with very frequent items – demonstrate how the proposed algorithm is an order of magnitude faster than the classical Apriori approach without any loss in generation of the complete set of frequent itemsets. Additionally, TFI-Apriori has a smaller memory requirement than the traditional Apriori-based algorithms and embedding this new optimization approach in well-known implementations of the Apriori algorithm allows reuse of existing processing flows. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Integrity implies individual responsibility to community goals of the academy, including dignity goals, fairness, and responsibility. Integrity problems occur when individuals' personal and professional capacities and ethics are impeded in meeting those goals. We give a case wherein faculty, staff, and students are thwarted by colleagues, administrators, and organisational factors. This caused a debilitating integrity problem for some community members. Integrity problems affect individuals' effectiveness, motivation, and health, as well as programmatic integrity, organisational operations, interpersonal relations, and matters of individual trust, morale, and insecurity. In turn, the integrity problem has significant consequences for education and its societal role. We offer individual and organisational strategies to address the integrity problem and strengthen communities of academic practice for enhanced integrity. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Earlier this year, we organized a US National Science Foundation-funded community workshop (award #2209643) to explore the intersection between scholarly publishing and diversity, equity, and inclusion (DEI). Technology has given us many tools to communicate; new publication formats such as preprints and data papers will be essential to modernizing how we share our science. We need to think more broadly and creatively about how we communicate science - what qualifies as a publication, how we assign value to different types of publications, and how our professional incentive and reward systems manipulate that value. [Extracted from the article]

An interview is presented with Ian Francis, Director of the Flatpack Film Festival. Topics discussed include running projects in British cinema; an account of the Birmingham, England's film culture; and his involvement with British Film Institute's Film Audience Network and its implications on development of regional film culture.

Cinema projection is usually understood to be a male-dominated occupation, with the projection box characterised as a gendered space separate from the more typically feminine front-of-house roles. Although this is a fairly accurate representation, it risks eliminating all traces of women's labour in the projection box. Previous work by David R. and Rebecca Harrison (2016) has addressed the role of women projectionists during wartime, and this article begins to excavate a hidden history of women projectionists in a peacetime context. The article uses oral testimony from two women - Florence Barton and Joan Pearson - who worked as projectionists in the mid-twentieth century. Their accounts are presented in the article as two portraits, which aim to convey a sense of the women's everyday lives in the projection box, as well as think about implications that their stories have for our understanding of women's roles in projection more broadly. Of particular significance to both Barton and Pearson are the relationships that they had with their male colleagues, the possibilities afforded for career progression (and the different paths taken by the women) and the nature of projection work. The women's repeated assertions that they were expected to do the same jobs as their male counterparts form a key aspect of the interviews, which suggest there is scope for further investigation of women's labour specifically in projection boxes and in cinemas more generally. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Cinema projection went digital in the early twenty-first century. In Britain, the major chains completed the transition in the early 2010s, with the Odeon chain finalising the process in November 2011, while the process was expedited in the art houses and other, particularly regional, venues through the UK Film Council's Digital Screen Network initiative launched in 2004.[1] By 2014, 35mm film projection had become an exception, limited to specialist occasions and exhibition contexts. Film festivals, such as Birmingham's Flatpack, or well-established independent cinemas such as Dalston's Rio or Newcastle's Tyneside, advertise 35mm screenings as special events for cineastes. In this transition to digital, most cinema projectionists were made redundant. A few projectionists, particularly in specialist, subsidised cinemas, retained posts which were redesignated 'technician'. For most multiplexes, though, film files arrive on a hard drive or are downloaded, and are simply dragged-and-dropped into pre-existing playlists with pre-set timings; the employees in the building are primarily there to sell drinks, popcorn, confectionery and tickets. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article addresses the digital transformation in UK cinemas between 2000 and 2014, as viewed by cinema projectionists. During this period digital projectors replaced mechanical 35mm film projectors throughout UK cinemas. This resulted in many redundancies and a fundamental change in the way films are shown. This article draws on interview material with a number of current and former cinema projectionists (including a number who were made redundant and some members of the trade union BECTU) to provide an account of this period of change as it was experienced by those most affected by it. The ways in which the speed of the change was perceived are examined in detail. The article also considers how narratives of personal and professional change and redundancy are mediated through the attachment to technology and the experience of technological change. The respondents' descriptions of the arrival of the digital projectors and the focus on 'the final show' are common themes around which such narratives are constructed. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Interdisciplinarity is a means to integrate knowledge and action for people seeking sustainable natural resource science, management, and policy. We suggest that professionals who integrate via interdisciplinarity aim to create environments where human dignity is maximized and ecosystem functions are maintained. The goals of justice and environmental sustainability are recognized worldwide as overriding goals for humanity. We introduce a practical, analytic framework that can help our sustainability work. This problem-oriented, multi-method, and contextual approach is known as the “policy sciences.” It is used in work reported in the Journal of Sustainable Forestry. It is used at the individual and small-team level, and in diverse settings worldwide. Skilled interdisciplinary professionals use it as an explicit, analytic, and systematic approach in framing problems, mapping contexts, and inventing practical solutions for learning and adaptation. However, this framework is not widely known, in part due to complex barriers to using Interdisciplinarity and innovation. Nevertheless, the interdisciplinary approach is used in case studies available to wide audiences. In the end, we contend that interdisciplinarity offers a way to understand seemingly intractable, problematic social and ecological trends, and a way to support the twin goals of justice and sustainability. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

This article uses the case study of the University of Warwick's 'Voices of the University: memories of Warwick, 1965-2015' project to explore the politics and practicalities of institutional oral histories and anniversary culture. It sketches the project's aims and its position within the university's wider anniversary celebrations. We then explore how interviewees reflect on the university at fifty and argue that a significant portion of interviewees seek to use their interviews to tell an alternative institutional history. The article finishes with an exploration of student protest. Using interviews with students and staff, we reflect on how the highly-publicised protests in the 1970s have been remembered. Overall, we argue that anniversary culture prompts individuals to consider who owns institutional memories. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article examines the issues that arise when interviewing subjects experienced in recounting their own histories. Brian Harrison has called such interviewees 'professional recollectors', and the article focuses on a single interview conducted with Glaswegian twin brothers John and Peter Douglas, both of whom had careers as cinema projectionists. The interview demonstrates some of the ways in which memory is structured into a 'performance', and the implications that this has for oral historians. Although the anecdotal aspects of the interview (and others like it) offer a highly constructed and rehearsed set of narratives, the article concludes that they are nevertheless useful historical sources because the anecdotal 'set-ups' frequently involve detailed accounts of the working life of the projectionists. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

A major unresolved issue in the cloning of mammals by somatic cell nuclear transfer (SCNT) is the mechanism by which the process fails after embryos are transferred to the uterus of recipients before or during the implantation window. We investigated this problem by using RNA sequencing (RNA-seq) to compare the transcriptomes in cattle conceptuses produced by SCNT and artificial insemination (AI) at day (d) 18 (preimplantation) and d 34 (postimplantation) of gestation. In addition, endometrium was profiled to identify the communication pathways that might be affected by the presence of a cloned conceptus, ultimately leading to mortality before or during the implantation window. At d 18, the effects on the transcriptome associated with SCNT were massive, involving more than 5,000 differentially expressed genes (DEGs). Among them are 121 genes that have embryonic lethal phenotypes in mice, cause defects in trophoblast and placental development, and/or affect conceptus survival in mice. In endometria at d 18, <0.4% of expressed genes were affected by the presence of a cloned conceptus, whereas at d 34, ~36% and <0.7% of genes were differentially expressed in intercaruncular and caruncular tissues, respectively. Functional analysis of DEGs in placental and endometrial tissues suggests a major disruption of signaling between the cloned conceptus and the endometrium, particularly the intercaruncular tissue. Our results support a "bottleneck" model for cloned conceptus survival during the periimplantation period determined by gene expression levels in extraembryonic tissues and the endometrial response to altered signaling from clones. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Neighbourhood singleton arc consistency (NSAC) is a type of singleton arc consistency (SAC) in which the subproblem formed by variables adjacent to a variable with a singleton domain is made arc consistent. This paper describes two extensions to neighbourhood SAC. The first is a generalization from NSAC to k-NSAC, where k is the maximum length of the shortest path between the singleton variable and any variable in the subgraph. The second is an extension of k-NSAC to problems with n-ary constraints, which retains the basic definition of a k-neighbourhood subgraph. To establish such consistencies a suite of algorithms is considered based on various SAC algorithms including SAC-1, SACQ, SAC-SDS, and SAC-3. In analyzing these different algorithms it was found useful to distinguish between "light-weight" and "heavy-weight" SAC algorithms, based on the complexity of data structures and procedures needed to carry out the task of establishing (N)SAC. Under this classification, SAC-1 and SACQ are light-weight; the other two (and SAC-2) are heavy-weight. It was found that only light-weight algorithms can be readily and effectively transformed into efficient NSAC algorithms. In contrast, because of their specialized procedures, it was necessary to modify heavy-weight algorithms significantly, which also compromised performance. Extensive experimental analysis shows that with a spectrum of neighbourhood consistencies and attendant algorithms, one can finesse the fundamental tradeoff between efficiency and effectiveness across a greater range of problems than with SAC and NSAC algorithms alone. This work serves to enlarge the scope of SAC-based consistency maintenance as well as defining the various niches that light-weight and heavy-weight algorithms are best suited for. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Data uncertainty in real-life problems is a current challenge in many areas, including Operations Research (OR) and Constraint Programming (CP). This is especially true given the continual and accelerating increase in the amount of data associated with real-life problems, to which Large Scale Combinatorial Optimization (LSCO) techniques may be applied. Although data uncertainty has been studied extensively in the literature, many approaches do not take into account the partial or complete lack of information about uncertainty in real-life settings. To meet this challenge, in this paper we present a strategy for extrapolating data from limited uncertain information to ensure a certain level of robustness in the solutions obtained. Our approach is motivated and evaluated with real-world applications of harvesting and supplying timber from forests to mills and the well known knapsack problem with uncertainty. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article examines the work of John Cura, a freelance photographer who took over half a million still images of British television programmes between 1947 and 1968. Called Tele-snaps, these photographs constitute an archive of British television from a period where only a limited quantity of programme material survives. Based on papers relating to Cura's work, available in the BBC's Written Archive Centre, the article details the development of Cura's relationship with the BBC as a freelancer, from his speculative attempts at securing clients in the late 1940s to his long-standing contractual work with production offices throughout the 1950s and 1960s. Cura's interactions with the BBC also shed light on the development of British television in the period before 1970. The article documents the changes that took place in the BBC's photographic department in the early 1950s, when photographs for presentational and archival purposes ceased, as well as the concern that the Tele-snaps caused the BBC's legal team by raising questions about television images and copyright. In doing so, the article raises questions about the way that television was valued by those who made it, given that Cura was able to sustain a successful business for twenty years by creating a lasting record of a wide range of television programmes, many of which no longer exist in the BBC's archive. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Non-tuberculous mycobacteria (NTM) are ubiquitous environmental organisms that can cause chronic pulmonary infection, particularly in individuals with pre-existing inflammatory lung disease such as cystic fibrosis (CF). Pulmonary disease caused by NTM has emerged as a major threat to the health of individuals with CF but remains difficult to diagnose and problematic to treat. In response to this challenge, the US Cystic Fibrosis Foundation (CFF) and the European Cystic Fibrosis Society (ECFS) convened an expert panel of specialists to develop consensus recommendations for the screening, investigation, diagnosis and management of NTM pulmonary disease in individuals with CF. Nineteen experts were invited to participate in the recommendation development process. Population, Intervention, Comparison, Outcome (PICO) methodology and systematic literature reviews were employed to inform draft recommendations. An anonymous voting process was used by the committee to reach consensus. All committee members were asked to rate each statement on a scale of: 0, completely disagree, to 9, completely agree; with 80% or more of scores between 7 and 9 being considered 'good' agreement. Additionally, the committee solicited feedback from the CF communities in the USA and Europe and considered the feedback in the development of the final recommendation statements. Three rounds of voting were conducted to achieve 80% consensus for each recommendation statement. Through this process, we have generated a series of pragmatic, evidence-based recommendations for the screening, investigation, diagnosis and treatment of NTM infection in individuals with CF as an initial step in optimising management for this challenging condition. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Rationale: Microbiologically based criteria such as sputum culture conversion to negative have traditionally been used to define treatment success for mycobacterial diseases. There are, however, limited data regarding whether nontuberculous mycobacterial sputum culture conversion or semiquantitative culture analysis correlates with subjective or nonmicrobiologic objective indices of treatment response.Objectives: To determine whether a semiquantitative mycobacterial culture scale correlated with clinical disease status and was predictive of long-term sputum mycobacterial culture conversion to negative in a cohort of patients with nodular/bronchiectatic Mycobacterium avium complex lung disease undergoing therapy.Methods: One hundred and eighty patients undergoing standard macrolide-based therapy for M. avium complex lung disease were monitored at standard frequent intervals with symptomatic, radiographic, and microbiologic data collected, including semiquantitative mycobacterial culture analysis. Analyses were used to evaluate clinical and microbiologic predictors of long-term sputum conversion to culture negative.Measurements and Main Results: After 12 months of therapy, 148 (82%) patients had sputum conversion to culture negative. Baseline semiquantitative sputum culture scores did not differ between patients with sputum conversion and those without. The change in sputum culture semiquantitative score from baseline to Month 3 was highly predictive of subsequent sputum long-term conversion status indicative of treatment success, as was improvement in cough, and especially early radiographic improvement.Conclusions: Early semiquantitative sputum agar plate culture results can be used to predict symptomatic and radiographic improvement as well as long-term sputum culture conversion to negative in this population. We suggest that semiquantitative sputum culture scores can be a useful tool for evaluating new nontuberculous mycobacterial lung disease therapies. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Constraint programming is a paradigm wherein relations between variables are stated in the form of constraints. Many real life problems come from uncertain and dynamic environments, where the initial constraints and domains may change during its execution. Thus, the solution found for the problem may become invalid. The search for robust solutions for constraint satisfaction problems (CSPs) has become an important issue in the field of constraint programming. In some cases, there exists knowledge about the uncertain and dynamic environment. In other cases, this information is unknown or hard to obtain. In this paper, we consider CSPs with discrete and ordered domains where changes only involve restrictions or expansions of domains or constraints. To this end, we model CSPs as weighted CSPs (WCSPs) by assigning weights to each valid tuple of the problem constraints and domains. The weight of each valid tuple is based on its distance from the borders of the space of valid tuples in the corresponding constraint/domain. This distance is estimated by a new concept introduced in this paper: coverings. Thus, the best solution for the modeled WCSP can be considered as a most robust solution for the original CSP according to these assumptions. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Humans face enormous and growing ecological and social problems. Knowledge and methods of inquiry are necessary to understand and address these problems. Although this seems obvious, arguments rage over which methods are reliable and whose perspectives and epistemology (disciplinary or otherwise) are best suited to address problems. To compound matters, knowledge is fragmented in its organization, classification, production, and use in academe, in the professions, and in society. A practical conceptualization of interdisciplinarity in the interests of integration is needed to address the multiple perspectives, epistemologies, and fragmentation inherent in these problems. Here, we offer a conception of integration that fosters an interrelated dynamic system of healthy people, society, and nature. Next, we look at 'knowledge'-its classification, levels, and challenges. Following that, we review a model of integration almost a century old that has been abstracted into a practical, interdisciplinary meta-framework that organizes both diagnostics and prescriptive inquiry. Finally, educating about integration is a subject of central concern in many colleges and universities today, one that we discuss in terms of goals, student competence, educational designs, practical challenges, and how to address them. Our entire endeavor is couched in terms of the overarching goal of seeking the common interest of human dignity in healthy environments for all. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

We launch this mini-symposium, 'Status Quo, Conflict, and Innovation in the ESS Curriculum,' with a background and overview of essays, closing with recommendations for future trajectories. The notion of Kuhnian paradigms and the related distinction between settled, 'puzzle solving' vs. unsettled, 'paradigm shift' moments in the history of knowledge is applied to the Environmental Studies and Sciences (ESS) curriculum to explore its own tendencies toward settlement and unsettlement. We argue that the current moment in ESS is less settled than some believe, and understandably so; moving toward settlement is important and timely, but must be done with proper reflection, which thankfully is evidenced in a range of recent literature. This mini-symposium, which builds upon a number of recent related discussions, includes six articles exploring the contemporary ESS curriculum from a variety of perspectives: high school preparation, the undergraduate student experience, curricular assumptions regarding social change, recent national-scale curricular assessments, the need for greater attention to regionalism, and the creative possibilities afforded by teaching through objects. We ultimately suggest, via this introduction and the following essays, that rather than accept the curricular status quo as a settled trajectory, we can embrace the richness and diversity of current engagement contributing to the future development of the ESS curriculum. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]