Reaching high-risk patient populations through emergency department opt-out HIV testing: A retrospective chart review

Specific Aims and Hypotheses: This study aimed to identify socioeconomic (SE), sexual, and other risk factors (RFs), among patients diagnosed with HIV infection through an emergency department-based opt-out HIV screening program, and to examine trends in intravenous drug use (IVDU) as a RF. H1: Unsafe sexual practices are the most commonly reported RF. H2: Role of IVDU as a RF has increased over the time period studied. Poster presented at 2017 APHA conference in Atlanta Georgia.https://jdc.jefferson.edu/cwicposters/1040/thumbnail.jp

Utilization of Pyrosequencing to Monitor the Microbiome Dynamics of Probiotic Treated Poultry (Gallus gallus domesticus) during Downstream Poultry Processing

Antibiotic growth promoters that have been historically employed to control pathogens and increase the rate of animal development for human consumption are currently banned in many countries. Probiotics have been proposed as an alternative to control pathogenic bacteria. Traditional culture methods typically used to monitor probiotic effects on pathogens possess significant limitations such as a lack in sensitivity to detect fastidious and non-culturable bacteria, and are both time consuming and costly. Here, we tested next generation pyrosequencing technology as a streamline and economical method to monitor the effects of a probiotic on microbial communities in juvenile poultry (Gallus gallus domesticus) after exposure to several microbiological challenges and litter conditions. Seven days and repeated again at 39 days following hatching, chicks were challenged with either Salmonella enterica serovar Enteritidis, Campylobacter jejuni, or no bacteria in the presence of, or without a probiotic (i.e., Bacillus subtilis) added to the feed. Three days following each of two challenges (i.e., days 10 and 42, respectively) the microbiome distributions of the poultry caecum were characterized based on 16S rDNA analysis. Generated PCR products were analyzed by automated identification of the samples after pooling, multiplexing and sequencing. A bioinformatics pipeline was then employed to identify microbial distributions at the phylum and genus level for the treatments. In conclusion, our results demonstrated that pyrosequencing technology is a rapid, efficient and cost-effective method to monitor the effects of probiotics on the microbiome of poultry propagated in an agricultural setting

Isotropic properties of the photonic band gap in quasicrystals with low-index contrast

We report on the formation and development of the photonic band gap in two-dimensional 8-, 10- and 12-fold symmetry quasicrystalline lattices of low index contrast. Finite size structures made of dielectric cylindrical rods were studied and measured in the microwave region, and their properties compared with a conventional hexagonal crystal. Band gap characteristics were investigated by changing the direction of propagation of the incident beam inside the crystal. Various angles of incidence from 0 \degree to 30\degree were used in order to investigate the isotropic nature of the band gap. The arbitrarily high rotational symmetry of aperiodically ordered structures could be practically exploited to manufacture isotropic band gap materials, which are perfectly suitable for hosting waveguides or cavities.Comment: 16 pages, 7 figures, submitted to PR

Digitized archive of the Kodaikanal images: Representative results of solar cycle variation from sunspot area determination

Photographic images are valuable data resources for studying long term changes in the solar magnetic field and its influence on the Earth's climate and weather. We digitized more than 100 years of white light images stored in photographic plates and films that are available at Kodaikanal observatory starting from 1904. The digitized images were calibrated for relative plate density and aligned in such a way that the solar north is in upward direction. A semi-automated sunspot detection technique was used to identify the sunspots on the digitized images. In addition to describing the calibration procedure and availability of the data, we here present preliminary results on the sunspot area measurements and their variation with time. The results show that the white-light images have a uniform spatial resolution throughout the 90 years of observations. However, the contrast of the images decreases from 1968 onwards. The images are circular and do not show any major geometrical distortions. The measured monthly averaged sunspot areas closely match the Greenwich sunspot area over the four solar cycles studied here. The yearly averaged sunspot area shows a high degree of correlation with the Greenwich sunspot area. Though the monthly averaged sunspot number shows a good correlation with the monthly averaged sunspot areas, there is a slight anti-correlation between the two during solar maximum The Kodaikanal data archive is hosted at http://kso.iiap.res.in. The long time sequence of the Kodaikanal white light images provides a consistent data set for sunspot areas and other proxies. Many studies can be performed using Kodaikanal data alone without requiring intercalibration between different data sources.Comment: 9 pages, A&A(accepted

Non-Gaussian Features of Transmitted Flux of QSO's Lyα\alpha Absorption: Intermittent Exponent

We calculate the structure function and intermittent exponent of the 1.) Keck data, which consists of 29 high resolution, high signal to noise ratio (S/N) QSO Ly$\alpha$ absorption spectra, and 2.)the Ly$\alpha$ forest simulation samples produced via the pseudo hydro scheme for the low density cold dark matter (LCDM) model and warm dark matter (WDM) model with particle mass $m_W=300, 600, 800$ and 1000 eV. These two measures detect not only non-gaussianities, but also the type of non-gaussianty in the the field. We find that, 1.) the structure functions of the simulation samples are significantly larger than that of Keck data on scales less than about 100 h$^{-1}$ kpc, 2.) the intermittent exponent of the simulation samples is more negative than that of Keck data on all redshifts considered, 3.) the order-dependence of the structure functions of simulation samples are closer to the intermittency of hierarchical clustering on all scales, while the Keck data are closer to a lognormal field on small scales. These differences are independent of noise and show that the intermittent evolution modeled by the pseudo-hydro simulation is substantially different from observations, even though they are in good agreement in terms of second and lower order statistics. (Abridged)Comment: 17 pages, 13 figures. Accepted by Ap

Determination of the chromospheric quiet network element area index and its variation during 2008-2011

Generally it has been considered that the plages and sunspots are the main contributors to the solar irradiance. There are small scale structures on the sun with intermediate magnetic fields that could also contribute to the solar irradiance. It has not yet been quantified how much of these small scale structures contribute to the solar irradiance and how much it varies over the solar cycle. In this paper, we used Ca II K images obtained from the telescope installed at Kodaikanal observatory. We report a method to separate the network elements from the background structure and plage regions. We compute the changes in the network element area index during the minimum phase of solar cycle and part of the ascending phase of cycle 24. The measured area occupied by the network elements is about 30% and plages less than 1% of the solar disk during the observation period from February 2008-2011. During the extended period of minimum activity it is observed that the network element area index decreases by about 7% compared to the area occupied by the network elements in 2008. A long term study of network element area index is required to understand the variations over the solar cycle.Comment: 12 pages, 9 Figures, Accepted for publication in RA