MINNESOTA SHIPPERS AND STATE TRUCK SIZE/WEIGHT REGULATIONS: A REPORT SUBMITTED TO THE MINNESOTA DEPARTMENT OF TRANSPORTATION

Motor carriers face a number of regulations in carrying on their business. Trucks are typically regulated as to their length, width, height, load (in terms of gross vehicle weight), and axle weight. The purpose of these regulations is to promote public safety and protect the quality of road surfaces. Highway regulations affecting motor carriers are primarily a state-level responsibility in the United States. Minnesota has its own set of truck size and weight regulations as do neighboring states and Canadian provinces. Because states set their own regulations on truck size and weight, the commercial trucking industry measures the appropriateness of Minnesota regulations to a large extent based on their congruence with those in adjacent states. The object of this study is to determine the extent to which major shippers, the clients of commercial motor carriers, feel constrained by truck size and weight regulations in Minnesota and whether their needs are being met.Public Economics,

Quantifying the sensitivity of post-glacial sea level change to laterally varying viscosity

We present a method for calculating the derivatives of measurements of glacial isostatic adjustment (GIA) with respect to the viscosity structure of the Earth and the ice sheet history. These derivatives, or kernels, quantify the linearised sensitivity of measurements to the underlying model parameters. The adjoint method is used to enable efficient calculation of theoretically exact sensitivity kernels within laterally heterogeneous earth models that can have a range of linear or non-linear viscoelastic rheologies. We first present a new approach to calculate GIA in the time domain, which, in contrast to the more usual formulation in the Laplace domain, is well suited to continuously varying earth models and to the use of the adjoint method. Benchmarking results show excellent agreement between our formulation and previous methods. We illustrate the potential applications of the kernels calculated in this way through a range of numerical calculations relative to a spherically symmetric background model. The complex spatial patterns of the sensitivities are not intuitive, and this is the first time that such effects are quantified in an efficient and accurate manner

Strong signature of natural selection within an FHIT intron implicated in prostate cancer risk

Previously, a candidate gene linkage approach on brother pairs affected with prostate cancer identified a locus of prostate cancer susceptibility at D3S1234 within the fragile histidine triad gene (FHIT), a tumor suppressor that induces apoptosis. Subsequent association tests on 16 SNPs spanning approximately 381 kb surrounding D3S1234 in Americans of European descent revealed significant evidence of association for a single SNP within intron 5 of FHIT. In the current study, resequencing and genotyping within a 28.5 kb region surrounding this SNP further delineated the association with prostate cancer risk to a 15 kb region. Multiple SNPs in sequences under evolutionary constraint within intron 5 of FHIT defined several related haplotypes with an increased risk of prostate cancer in European-Americans. Strong associations were detected for a risk haplotype defined by SNPs 138543, 142413, and 152494 in all cases (Pearson's χ2 = 12.34, df 1, P = 0.00045) and for the homozygous risk haplotype defined by SNPs 144716, 142413, and 148444 in cases that shared 2 alleles identical by descent with their affected brothers (Pearson's χ2 = 11.50, df 1, P = 0.00070). In addition to highly conserved sequences encompassing SNPs 148444 and 152413, population studies revealed strong signatures of natural selection for a 1 kb window covering the SNP 144716 in two human populations, the European American (π = 0.0072, Tajima's D= 3.31, 14 SNPs) and the Japanese (π = 0.0049, Fay & Wu's H = 8.05, 14 SNPs), as well as in chimpanzees (Fay & Wu's H = 8.62, 12 SNPs). These results strongly support the involvement of the FHIT intronic region in an increased risk of prostate cancer. © 2008 Ding et al

Sakagija u konja: pregled literature.

Glanders is a common infectious disease of horses in certain parts of the world. The disease also affects other animal species and is of zoonotic importance. The causative agent is newly classified under the genus Burkholderia and the biochemical characteristics of the bacteria are listed. Clinical signs of the disease vary among horses but may be manifested by cutaneous nodules, bronchopneumonia and/or nasal ulceration. The diagnosis, differential diagnosis, treatment and control of glanders are discussed.Sakagija je česta zarazna bolest konja u određenim dijelovima svijeta. Bolest napada i neke druge životinjske vrste, a važna je kao zoonoza. Uzročnik je u najnovije doba svrstan u rod Burkholderia. Navode se njegove biokemijske značajke. Klinički znakovi bolesti u konja variraju, a očituju se tvorbom čvorova po koži, bronhopneumonijom i/ili ulceracijama po nosnoj sluznici. Opisana je dijagnostika, diferencijalna dijagnostika, liječenje i kontrola bolesti

Counter Radicalization Analysis in Efforts to Prevent the Spread of Radical Ideology in Indonesia

Terrorism is a product of the radicalization process, the massive effects of radicalization of IS ideology have resulted in an increase in the threat of terrorism in Indonesia. Factually, the increase in the threat of terrorism in Indonesia can be seen from the large number of victims who fell, namely as many as 35 police died and 67 police were injured in an effort to fight terrorism in the 2014 to 2015. From a total of 171 terrorism acts that have been successfully revealed. During 2000 to 2015, there were 1,064 suspected terrorists who had been arrested. Meanwhile, as many as 408 Indonesians are in Syria to join IS. Indonesia alone there were around 543 people identified as core groups, 246 identified as support groups, and 296 identified as IS sympathizers. The fact that after the establishment of National counterterrorism agency (BNPT) in 2010 which replaced the role of the Counter Terrorism Coordination Desk (DKPT) apparently there were various acts of terrorism and radical radicalization processes in Indonesia. Support and bai\u27at simultaneously and massively that occurred in various provinces in Indonesia seemed to successfully open our eyes that radicalization as a process is actually being and continues to happen to the people of Indonesia. And this indirectly creates a big question mark about the BNPT prevention program that has been done so far. Therefore, this study was made to find out and conduct an in-depth analysis of how the implementation of counter-radicalization programs carried out by the Directorate of Prevention of BNPT in an effort to prevent the spread of radical ideology in Indonesia. The method in this paper is qualitative research by interview and observation with the stake holders related to counter-radicalization programs carried out by the BNPT and Detachment 88 AT the National Police. The fact finding that the implementation of the counter-radicalization program policy by the Directorate of Prevention of BNPT is carried out with the suitability and compliance between policy direct on and policy implementation in the form of offline or online strategy programs. The offline strategy by the BNPT Prevention Directorate was conducted by procuring programs for seminars, workshops and training activities for BNPT partners, both government agencies, NGOs, and community leaders who were members of the Counter Terrorism Coordination Forum (FKPT). And this is done by BNPT formally, and directly without undercover and third-party intermediaries. The online strategy by the Directorate of Prevention of BNPT is carried out by means of media literacy involving the Media Literacy Task Force, the Peace Media Center (PMD) as managers (coordinators, evaluators, analysts), content formulators, and implementing activities through website, social media, media electronics, and or print media. The content presented contains an image of the government\u27s perspective through BNPT, but now there is a website that is managed by a third party in collaboration with PMD and the Directorate of Prevention of BNPT as an effective counter-narrative media. Even so, this program has just been implemented and certainly requires a process and time to get optimal results. The impact of counterradicalization policies and programs from the Directorate of Prevention of BNPT is still not in accordance with the formulated vision that is prevention of terrorism in a whole, protecting the dignity of the nation and free from violence . The indicator that marks the non-fulfillment of the vision of the Prevention Directorate is the fact that radical radicalization of offline ideology is still occurring both offline and online by radical terrorist groups in Indonesia, especially IS. In addition, acts of terror continue to occur in Indonesia until now

Chromosomal-level assembly of the Asian Seabass genome using long sequence reads and multi-layered scaffolding

We report here the ~670 Mb genome assembly of the Asian seabass (Lates calcarifer), a tropical marine teleost. We used long-read sequencing augmented by transcriptomics, optical and genetic mapping along with shared synteny from closely related fish species to derive a chromosome-level assembly with a contig N50 size over 1 Mb and scaffold N50 size over 25 Mb that span ~90% of the genome. The population structure of L. calcarifer species complex was analyzed by re-sequencing 61 individuals representing various regions across the species' native range. SNP analyses identified high levels of genetic diversity and confirmed earlier indications of a population stratification comprising three clades with signs of admixture apparent in the South-East Asian population. The quality of the Asian seabass genome assembly far exceeds that of any other fish species, and will serve as a new standard for fish genomics

Complex I assembly function and fatty acid oxidation enzyme activity of ACAD9 both contribute to disease severity in ACAD9 deficiency

Acyl-CoA dehydrogenase 9 (ACAD9) is an assembly factor for mitochondrial respiratory chain Complex I (CI), and ACAD9 mutations are recognized as a frequent cause of CI deficiency. ACAD9 also retains enzyme ACAD activity for long-chain fatty acids in vitro, but the biological relevance of this function remains controversial partly because of the tissue specificity of ACAD9 expression: high in liver and neurons and minimal in skin fibroblasts. In this study, we hypothesized that this enzymatic ACAD activity is required for full fatty acid oxidation capacity in cells expressing high levels of ACAD9 and that loss of this function is important in determining phenotype in ACAD9-deficient patients. First, we confirmed that HEK293 cells express ACAD9 abundantly. Then, we showed that ACAD9 knockout in HEK293 cells affected long-chain fatty acid oxidation along with Cl, both of which were rescued by wild type ACAD9. Further, we evaluated whether the loss of ACAD9 enzymatic fatty acid oxidation affects clinical severity in patients with ACAD9 mutations. The effects on ACAD activity of 16 ACAD9 mutations identified in 24 patients were evaluated using a prokaryotic expression system. We showed that there was a significant inverse correlation between residual enzyme ACAD activity and phenotypic severity of ACAD9-deficient patients. These results provide evidence that in cells where it is strongly expressed, ACAD9 plays a physiological role in fatty acid oxidation, which contributes to the severity of the phenotype in ACAD9-deficient patients. Accordingly, treatment of ACAD9 patients should aim at counteracting both CI and fatty acid oxidation dysfunction

AAV gene therapy for Duchenne muscular dystrophy: The EMBARK phase 3 randomized trial

Duchenne muscular dystrophy (DMD) is a rare, X-linked neuromuscular disease caused by pathogenic variants in the DMD gene that result in the absence of functional dystrophin, beginning at birth and leading to progressive impaired motor function, loss of ambulation and life-threatening cardiorespiratory complications. Delandistrogene moxeparvovec, an adeno-associated rh74-viral vector-based gene therapy, addresses absent functional dystrophin in DMD. Here the phase 3 EMBARK study aimed to assess the efficacy and safety of delandistrogene moxeparvovec in patients with DMD. Ambulatory males with DMD, ≥4 years to \u3c8 years of age, were randomized and stratified by age group and North Star Ambulatory Assessment (NSAA) score to single-administration intravenous delandistrogene moxeparvovec (1.33 × 1

Factors that affect proliferation of Salmonella in tomatoes post-harvest: the roles of seasonal effects, irrigation regime, crop and pathogen genotype

MAIN OBJECTIVES: Fresh fruits and vegetables become increasingly recognized as vehicles of human salmonellosis. Physiological, ecological, and environmental factors are all thought to contribute to the ability of Salmonella to colonize fruits and vegetables pre- and post-harvest. The goal of this study was to test how irrigation levels, fruit water congestion, crop and pathogen genotypes affect the ability of Salmonella to multiply in tomatoes post-harvest. EXPERIMENTAL DESIGN: Fruits from three tomato varieties, grown over three production seasons in two Florida locations, were infected with seven strains of Salmonella and their ability to multiply post-harvest in field-grown tomatoes was tested. The field experiments were set up as a two-factor factorial split plot experiment, with the whole-plot treatments arranged in a randomized complete-block design. The irrigation treatment (at three levels) was the whole-plot factor, and the split-plot factor was tomato variety, with three levels. The significance of the main, two-way, and three-way interaction effects was tested using the (type III) F-tests for fixed effects. Mean separation for each significant fixed effect in the model was performed using Tukey's multiple comparison testing procedure. MOST IMPORTANT DISCOVERIES AND SIGNIFICANCE: The irrigation regime per se did not affect susceptibility of the crop to post-harvest proliferation of Salmonella. However, Salmonella grew significantly better in water-congested tissues of green tomatoes. Tomato maturity and genotype, Salmonella genotype, and inter-seasonal differences were the strongest factors affecting proliferation. Red ripe tomatoes were significantly and consistently more conducive to proliferation of Salmonella. Tomatoes harvested in the driest, sunniest season were the most conducive to post-harvest proliferation of the pathogen. Statistically significant interactions between production conditions affected post-harvest susceptibility of the crop to the pathogen. UV irradiation of tomatoes post-harvest promoted Salmonella growth