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This paper describes a competition-style of exercise to teach system and network security and to reinforce themes taught in class. The exercise, called NetSecLab, is conducted on a closed network with student-formed teams, each with their own Linux system to defend and from which to launch attacks. Students are expected to learn how to: 1) install the specified Linux distribution; 2) set up the required services; 3) find ways to harden the box; 4) explore attack methods; and 5) compete. The informal write-up at the end of the lab focuses on their research into defense and attack methods, which contributes to their grade, while their competition score is dependent on their abilities to attack during the competition. Surveys were performed to evaluate the efficacy of the exercise in teaching system security. (Contains 4 tables and 2 figures.)

A transition from traditional problem-based clinics to the Sports Medicine and Reconditioning Team (SMART) clinic model was completed by January 2009 at Marine Corps Base Camp Lejeune. The SMART clinic model allows for more patients to be seen and enhances coordinated care between providers. The objective of this research is to show the advantages of implementing a training room team approach for the care of musculoskeletal injuries in active duty members by comparing the number of patients seen, the number of limited duty (LIMDU) periods, the number of physical evaluation boards (PEBs), and the percentage of orthopedic referrals. Electronic medical records for patients seen at sports medicine clinics between January 1, 2007 and December 31, 2010 were reviewed. Naval Hospital Camp Lejeune provided a database of patients placed on LIMDU and PEB from 2007 through 2010. Fifty-eight and twenty-four percent more encounters occurred in 2009 and 2010, respectively, than that in 2007. The percentage of LIMDU referred for PEB in 2010 was reduced to 9% compared to that in 2007. In conclusion, the SMART clinic model allows for more patients to be seen and a reduction in the percentage of patients recommended for PEB from LIMDU. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Abstract Background The ability to determine athletic performance in varsity athletes using preseason measures has been established. The ability of pre-season performance measures and athlete’s exposure to predict the incidence of injuries is unclear. Thus our purpose was to determine the ability of pre-season measures of athletic performance to predict time to injury in varsity athletes. Methods Male and female varsity athletes competing in basketball, volleyball and ice hockey participated in this study. The main outcome measures were injury prevalence, time to injury (based on calculated exposure) and pre-season fitness measures as predictors of time to injury. Fitness measures were Apley’s range of motion, push-up, curl-ups, vertical jump, modified Illinois agility, and sit-and-reach. Cox regression models were used to identify which baseline fitness measures were predictors of time to injury. Results Seventy-six percent of the athletes reported 1 or more injuries. Mean times to initial injury were significantly different for females and males (40.6% and 66.1% of the total season (p ), respectively). A significant univariate correlation was observed between push-up performance and time to injury (Pearson’s r = 0.332, p ). No preseason fitness measure impacted the hazard of injury. Regardless of sport, female athletes had significantly shorter time to injury than males (Hazard Ratio = 2.2, p ). Athletes playing volleyball had significantly shorter time to injury (Hazard Ratio = 4.2, p ) compared to those playing hockey or basketball. Conclusions When accounting for exposure, gender, sport and fitness measures, prediction of time to injury was influenced most heavily by gender and sport.

The New Jersey Light Trap has been among the earliest trap models used for mosquito surveillance in the United States. This trap was modernized in the 1950s to the miniature CDC light trap, with the addition of CO2 following soon after. The incandescent light has the tendency to attract nontarget insects, as well as losing a substantial portion of their energy as heat. Few studies have delineated whether heat or light in isolation make a difference in field collections using the former traps within the United States. Our study focused on isolating heat and light variables by using incandescent bulbs, light emitting diode (LED) bulbs, and electric heating patches affixed to a base model CO2 trap as designed at the Salt Lake City Mosquito Abatement District. Sites were selected in the urban and suburban foothills and canyons of the Wasatch Mountain front, industrial areas near the Salt Lake City International Airport, and rural wetlands in the marshes outlying the Great Salt Lake. Five traps were replicated within each sector during the summer and fall summer seasons. Collections were composed of Aedes dorsalis (Meigen), Culex pipiens L., Culex tarsalis Coquillett, and Culiseta inornata (Williston). Composition changes were a result of seasonal, rather than spatial, shifts. The results showed that LED light traps depressed collections of key species. Otherwise, there were negligible differences in collections among incandescent, heat film, and base model traps. In the Intermountain West, the miniature CDC trap is reliable enough to make programmatic decisions even if light usage varies by district., (© The Author(s) 2024. Published by Oxford University Press on behalf of Entomological Society of America. All rights reserved. For commercial re-use, please contact reprints@oup.com for reprints and translation rights for reprints. All other permissions can be obtained through our RightsLink service via the Permissions link on the article page on our site—for further information please contact journals.permissions@oup.com.)

The air potato beetle, Lilioceris cheni Gressitt and Kimoto (Coleoptera:Chrysomelidae) , is a successful biological control agent of the air potato vine, Dioscorea bulbifera L. (Dioscoreales: Dioscoreaceae) , in the southern United States. Lilioceris cheni is currently being mass-reared by the Florida Department of Agriculture and Consumer Services Division of Plant Industry (FDACS-DPI) for biological control releases and research. The facility rears and releases over 50,000 adult beetles annually at approximately 1000 different locations. In addition to data on beetle production and distribution, studies on alternative larval and adult diets are described. Adults fed bulbils as the sole food source had reduced life spans compared with beetles given fresh air potato leaves. Adults survived without air potato leaves or bulbils for several days to two weeks depending on availability of leaves at emergence. Larvae did not survive on a modified artificial Colorado potato beetle diet containing fresh air potato vine leaves. Adults survived while consuming artificial diet but ceased oviposition. They, however, resumed egg laying less than one week after being returned to a diet of fresh air potato vine leaves.

The neural circuits responsible for animal behavior remain largely unknown. We summarize new methods and present the circuitry of a large fraction of the brain of the fruit fly Drosophila melanogaster . Improved methods include new procedures to prepare, image, align, segment, find synapses in, and proofread such large data sets. We define cell types, refine computational compartments, and provide an exhaustive atlas of cell examples and types, many of them novel. We provide detailed circuits consisting of neurons and their chemical synapses for most of the central brain. We make the data public and simplify access, reducing the effort needed to answer circuit questions, and provide procedures linking the neurons defined by our analysis with genetic reagents. Biologically, we examine distributions of connection strengths, neural motifs on different scales, electrical consequences of compartmentalization, and evidence that maximizing packing density is an important criterion in the evolution of the fly's brain., Competing Interests: LS, CX, ZL, ST, KH, GH, KS, SB, JC, PH, WK, LU, TZ, DA, JB, TD, DK, TK, KK, NN, DO, HO, ET, MI, AB, JG, TW, RS, PS, EN, CK, CA, DB, SB, JB, BC, NC, MC, MD, OD, BE, KF, SF, NF, AF, GH, EJ, SK, NK, JK, SL, AL, CM, EM, SM, CM, MN, OO, NO, CO, NP, CP, TP, EP, EP, NR, CR, MR, JR, SR, MS, AS, AS, AS, CS, KS, NS, MS, AS, JS, ST, IT, DT, ET, TT, JW, TY, JH, FL, RP, PR, VJ, MC, GJ, KI, SS, RG, IM, GR, HH, SP No competing interests declared, MJ, JM, TB, LL, PL, LL, VJ is an employee of Google., (© 2020, Scheffer et al.)

Both type-1 and type-2 bovine viral diarrhea virus (BVDV) infections are responsible for major losses in the cattle industry. However, several commercial BVDV vaccines contain only a type-1 strain. A vaccine trial was conducted to evaluate the efficacy of BVDV type-1 (Singer strain; BVDV-1) vaccine for protecting calves challenged with virulent BVDV type-2 (890 strain; BVDV-2). Thirty-eight BVDV-negative calves were randomly allocated to four groups. One group was treated with a modified live virus (MLV) BVDV-1 vaccine by i.m. injection and another group was treated with the same vaccine by s.c. injection. Two groups served as nonvaccinated controls (one i.m. and one s.c.). Twenty-eight days following vaccination, the calves were challenged with BVDV-2 and monitored for 21 days. Clinical scores and body temperatures of vaccinated calves were significantly (P<.05) lower than for controls on several days, and peak differences occurred 8 days after challenge. The control calves had significantly (P<.05) lower leukocyte counts 3 through 8 days after challenge; leukocyte counts for vaccinated animals did not decline significantly from prechallenge levels. There were no differences in protection between the i.m. and s.c. routes of vaccination. The study demonstrated satisfactory cross protection of the BVDV-1 vaccine against BVDV-2 challenge.

Aware that T and B cells in autoimmune thrombocytopenia are abnormal, including the existence of clonal B cell populations, we sought to characterize this clonal phenomenon in various immunological thrombocytopenias using platelet antibody light chain analysis, flow cytometry, Southern blot analysis, and PCR. Using a monoclonal antibody-antigen capture ELISA, we analysed sera from 21 of 26 patients with autoimmune, alloimmune, or drug-induced immunological thrombocytopenia for the light chain phenotypes of their platelet antibodies. Alloantibodies and drug-dependent antibodies from four and 14 patients, respectively, were found that expressed a predominant type of light chain, suggesting that these platelet-reactive antibodies were monoclonal or oligoclonal in nature. 14 of the 26 patients were available for light chain B cell phenotyping studies. Of these 14 patients, thrombocytopenia was due to autoimmunity in two, drug-induced immunity in four, and alloimmunity in eight. We detected clonal populations of B cells in all 14 patients by flow cytometry. Although six of these latter patients possessed platelet antibodies with clonal characteristics, light chain phenotypes of antibodies in five patients were opposite to those of their B cells. Eight of these patients were further examined for immunoglobulin gene rearrangement using Southern and/or polymerase chain reaction analysis. In all eight patients we detected clonal or oligoclonal B cell populations. Only two of these patients had malignancies (chronic lymphocytic leukaemia) that would be expected to have detectable clonal B cells, and thus the mechanism for clonal expansion in the other six patients did not appear to be related to an obvious neoplastic process. Prior to these studies, detection of clonal B cells in thrombocytopenic patients without known malignancies was limited to individuals with autoimmune thrombocytopenia, prompting the speculation that this particular autoimmune disorder arises from B cell dysregulation, rather than from expansion of specific autoantibody producing B cell clones. In contrast, the current studies provide evidence that clonal B cells are common to patients with any form of immunologically-mediated thrombocytopenia. Moreover, the majority of the platelet antibodies (86%) present in these disorders exhibited monoclonal characteristics in that there was an apparent restriction in light chain usage.

Studies were conducted to explore the effects of mevinolin, a competitive inhibitor of HMG CoA reductase, on the growth and morphology of normal and transformed murine fibroblasts. Mevinolin is known to block DNA synthesis and cell growth in a number of kinds of non-transformed cells. Eight cell lines were studied, including two normal fibroblast cell lines (C3H 10T 1/2 and NIH 3T3) and derivatives of these cell lines transformed by chemical carcinogens, X-irradiation or the H-ras oncogene. All of the eight cell lines displayed appreciable growth inhibition by 5 microM mevinolin and marked inhibition by 30 microM mevinolin. Mevinolin also induced a marked rounding in the morphology of all of the cell lines. These effects of mevinolin on cell growth and morphology were blocked or reversed by the addition of mevalonic acid. Thus, both normal and transformed cells require mevalonate, or an as yet unidentified metabolite of mevalonate for their growth, even though some transformed cells have become relatively autonomous of other growth factors. Whereas mevinolin acted primarily as a cytostatic agent for most of the cell lines studied, with the transformed cell line MCA/10T 1/2, which ordinarily grows to a very high cell density, prolonged exposure to mevinolin caused marked cytotoxicity. Thus mevinolin might be useful as an anti-tumor agent for specific tumors.

A full assessment of the efficacy of this project would require advance publicity, complete staffing, and a larger sample group. Yet, enthusiasm from both consumers and professionals was overwhelming, and many suggested that the hotline should be conducted year-round. From the data compiled and from the many positive responses received, it can be concluded that the National Nutrition Month hotline proved to be a unique, useful, and effective means of communicating nutrition information to the public.

Studies were conducted to delineate in detail the effects of platelet-derived growth factor (PDGF) upon 3-hydroxy-3-methylglutaryl coenzyme A (HMG CoA) reductase activity in cultured human fibroblasts. PDGF has a variety of coordinated effects on low density lipoprotein (LDL) and cholesterol metabolism and on DNA synthesis in these cells. We have previously shown that there is a critical time period, 10 to 20 hours after PDGF addition to quiescent cells, when mevalonate (MVA) is required for DNA synthesis to occur. The present studies demonstrate that PDGF produces a biphasic stimulation of reductase activity in cultured fibroblasts: a peak at 4 to 6 hours, followed by a decline, and then a second smaller peak at 24 hours, concurrent with DNA synthesis. The stimulation of both peaks was PDGF concentration-dependent, although quantitative differences were observed. Proportionally similar, LDL concentration-dependent reductions in both peaks of reductase activity were also seen. PDGF stimulated cholesterol synthesis from acetate in intact cells reaching peak values after 24 to 28 hours. The two peaks of reductase activity stimulated by PDGF neither coincide with the critical time period when mevalonate is needed for later DNA synthesis to occur, nor reflect the pattern of cholesterol synthesis within the cells.