An isolated epizootic of hemorrhagic-like fever in cats caused by a novel and highly virulent strain of feline calicivirus.

An isolated epizootic of a highly fatal feline calicivirus (FCV) infection, manifested in its severest form by a systemic hemorrhagic-like fever, occurred over a 1-month period among six cats owned by two different employees and a client of a private veterinary practice. The infection may have started with an unowned shelter kitten that was hospitalized during this same period for a severe atypical upper respiratory infection. The causative agent was isolated from blood and nasal swabs from two cats; the electron microscopic appearance was typical for FCV and capsid gene sequencing showed it to be genetically similar to other less pathogenic field strains. An identical disease syndrome was recreated in laboratory cats through oral inoculation with tissue culture grown virus. During the course of transmission studies in experimental cats, the agent was inadvertently spread by caretakers to an adjoining room containing a group of four normal adult cats. One of the four older cats was found dead and a second was moribund within 48-72h in spite of symptomatic treatment; lesions in these animals were similar to those of the field cats but with the added feature of severe pancreatitis. The mortality in field cats, deliberately infected laboratory cats, and inadvertently infected laboratory cats ranged from 33-50%. This new isolate of calicivirus, named FCV-Ari, was neutralized at negligible to low titer by antiserum against the universal FCV-F9 vaccine strain. Cats orally immunized with FCV-F9, and then challenge-exposed shortly thereafter with FCV-Ari, developed a milder self-limiting form of disease, indicating partial protection. However, all of the field cats, including the three that died, had been previously immunized with parenteral FCV-F9 vaccine. FCV-Ari caused a disease that was reminiscent of Rabbit Hemorrhagic Disease, a highly fatal calicivirus infection of older rabbits

Servant first : a multicase study exploring servant leadership in community college instructional administrators

The purpose of this study was to explore the application of servant leadership principles to community college instructional administration. The study conducted was a multicase research design. The conceptual framework for the study was based on Greenleaf’s work in servant leadership as expressed in 10 characteristics of servant leaders defined by Spears: listening, empathy, healing, awareness, persuasion, conceptualization, foresight, stewardship, commitment to the growth of people, and building community. Three community college chief academic officers were selected through a nomination process. Chief academic officer participants were selected because they were identified by their presidents and peers as displaying characteristics that appeared to be consistent with servant leadership. The three chief academic officers participated in semi-structured, one-on-one interviews, observation, and document analysis. In addition, five or six direct reports of each chief academic officer participated in semi-structured, one-on-one interviews regarding their supervisor’s leadership. The major findings of the study affirmed that all three chief academic officers displayed all 10 characteristics of a servant leader identified by Spears, with three of those characteristics being identified more frequently than the others and one characteristic being identified less frequently than the others. The varied strengths were reflective of the chief academic officers’ diverse backgrounds, interests, and passions. Characteristics displayed by the three chief academic officers in addition to the 10 characteristics identified by Spears included honesty, courage, commitment to family, dedication, flexibility, and informality. The study also revealed that the direct reports attributed many positive experiences to their supervisor’s leadership philosophy and behaviors. One criticism was the amount of time consumed by the collaborative effort that is a hallmark of the three CAOs’ leadership. The study concluded that there are servant leaders who occupy positions as community college chief academic officers. It was further concluded that those who report to servant leaders who occupy positions as community college chief academic officers have very positive and satisfying work experiences that largely stem from their supervisor’s leadership style. The study concluded with recommendations for community college administrators, servant leaders, and future researchers

Cognitive Intervention For Individuals With Probable MCI: A Pilot Study

The dementia population has accumulated to 47 million people, creating an $818 billion global expense. Approximately 20% of people 65 and older are living with mild cognitive impairment (MCI), a pre-dementia stage of Alzheimer's disease. Cognitive intervention strategies have the potential to reduce the prevalence of dementia due to their ability to slow the conversion to dementia. Speech-language pathologists are uniquely positioned to identify and treat cognitive impairments. If intervention strategies could delay the onset of dementia by five years, there could be a 57% decrease in the dementia population. A single group, pre/post-test design was used. Thirty-six elders at-risk for cognitive decline participated. Eight weeks of group-based, cognitive-linguistic intervention was administered, implementing language stimulation, social engagement, and person-centered memory strategies. Measures of verbal episodic memory, linguistic comprehension and expression, mental status, and visuospatial skills were administered pre- and post-intervention. Data was analyzed using paired samples t-tests. Significant differences were found of assessment measures of linguistic comprehension, linguistic expression, and visuospatial construction following the intervention. Results nearing significance were found on assessment measures of verbal episodic memory. These results support the hypothesis that group-based, cognitive-linguistic intervention programs have the potential to improve cognition and language. Additional research is merited

Towards Quantum Repeaters with Solid-State Qubits: Spin-Photon Entanglement Generation using Self-Assembled Quantum Dots

In this chapter we review the use of spins in optically-active InAs quantum dots as the key physical building block for constructing a quantum repeater, with a particular focus on recent results demonstrating entanglement between a quantum memory (electron spin qubit) and a flying qubit (polarization- or frequency-encoded photonic qubit). This is a first step towards demonstrating entanglement between distant quantum memories (realized with quantum dots), which in turn is a milestone in the roadmap for building a functional quantum repeater. We also place this experimental work in context by providing an overview of quantum repeaters, their potential uses, and the challenges in implementing them.Comment: 51 pages. Expanded version of a chapter to appear in "Engineering the Atom-Photon Interaction" (Springer-Verlag, 2015; eds. A. Predojevic and M. W. Mitchell

Cortical functioning in children with developmental coordination disorder:a motor overflow study

This study examined brain activation in children with developmental coordination disorder (DCD) to reveal areas that may contribute to poor movement execution and/or abundant motor overflow. Using functional magnetic resonance imaging, 13 boys with DCD (mean age = 9.6 years ±0.8) and 13 typically developing controls (mean age = 9.3 years ±0.6) were scanned performing two tasks (finger sequencing and hand clenching) with their dominant hand, while a four-finger motion sensor recorded contralateral motor overflow on their non-dominant hand. Despite displaying increased motor overflow on both functional tasks during scanning, there were no obvious activation deficits in the DCD group to explain the abundant motor overflow seen. However, children with DCD were found to display decreased activation in the left superior frontal gyrus on the finger-sequencing task, an area which plays an integral role in executive and spatially oriented processing. Decreased activation was also seen in the left inferior frontal gyrus, an area typically active during the observation and imitation of hand movements. Finally, increased activation in the right postcentral gyrus was seen in children with DCD, which may reflect increased reliance on somatosensory information during the execution of complex fine motor tasks

Sexual Size Dimorphism and Body Condition in the Australasian Gannet

Funding: The research was financially supported by the Holsworth Wildlife Research Endowment. Acknowledgments We thank the Victorian Marine Science Consortium, Sea All Dolphin Swim, Parks Victoria, and the Point Danger Management Committee for logistical support. We are grateful for the assistance of the many field volunteers involved in the study.Peer reviewedPublisher PD

IRIS study: a phase II study of the steroid sulfatase inhibitor Irosustat when added to an aromatase inhibitor in ER-positive breast cancer patients

Purpose: Irosustat is a first-generation, orally active, irreversible steroid sulfatase inhibitor. We performed a multicentre, open label phase II trial of the addition of Irosustat to a first-line aromatase inhibitor (AI) in patients with advanced BC to evaluate the safety of the combination and to test the hypothesis that the addition of Irosustat to AI may further suppress estradiol levels and result in clinical benefit. Experimental design: Postmenopausal women with ER-positive locally advanced or metastatic breast cancer who had derived clinical benefit from a first-line AI and who subsequently progressed were enrolled. The first-line AI was continued and Irosustat (40 mg orally daily) added. The primary endpoint was clinical benefit rate (CBR). Secondary endpoints included safety, tolerability, and pharmacodynamic end points. Results: Twenty-seven women were recruited, four discontinued treatment without response assessment. Based on local reporting, the CBR was 18.5% (95% CI 6.3–38.1%) on an intent to treat basis, increasing to 21.7% (95% CI 7.4–43.7%) by per-protocol analysis. In those patients that achieved clinical benefit (n = 5), the median (interquartile range) duration was 9.4 months (8.1–11.3) months. The median progression-free survival time was 2.7 months (95% CI 2.5–4.6) in both the ITT and per-protocol analyses. The most frequently reported grade 3/4 toxicities were dry skin (28%), nausea (13%), fatigue (13%), diarrhoea (8%), headache (7%), anorexia (7%) and lethargy (7%). Conclusions: The addition of Irosustat to aromatase inhibitor therapy resulted in clinical benefit with an acceptable safety profile. The study met its pre-defined success criterion by both local and central radiological assessments

Trees as supplementary material in the elementary school curriculum in art, science, and resource use

The need for out-of-school materiel to integrate with in-school material is recognized by many elementary school teachers. Gerald S. Craig emphasizes this need when he declares that thinking in terms of subject matter is being eliminated in favor of thinking in terms of certain areas of experience which contribute to the pupil's development in directions useful to himself and to society. He affirms that the end of teaching is no longer the mastery of content but the total growth of the child as a result of his interaction with his environment. Consequently, the teacher is obligated to go outside the schoolroom and make use of those factors which will meet the demands of the curriculum

A framework linking discipline-based art education and visualization to a social studies curriculum

The purpose of this study was to correlate discipline-based art education with visualization and to propose a framework by which this correlation might be used to integrate the art curriculum with the social studies curriculum. The procedure was to research the critical concepts drawn from discipline-based art education and the operative concepts drawn from visualization. The concepts were integrated with the art education curriculum and the social studies curriculum. Components of the curriculum framework integrating art and social studies are: First, identification of the theories which are basic to the framework; associative recall, visualization, mental imagery, and discipline-based art education. Second, identification of the concepts from the art curriculum and the social studies curriculum which are appropriate to both curricula. Third, development of a statement using one or more of the theories and concepts to help teachers organize the subject matter. Finally, choosing content samples from the art and social studies curriculum to provide for application of the framework

A mathematical approach to an optimal strategy for the dice game pig

It was the purpose of this study to investigate various pure strategies for the dice game Pig. Two basic approaches were considered for formulating an optimal strategy: the maximum number of rolls per turn that a player should take and the maximum number of points per turn that a player should attempt to accumulate. Basically, an optimal strategy for Pig will be one which allows a player to accumulate a maximum number of points in a minimum number of turns in order to achieve a goal of 100 or more points. Computer simulation of the game was used to verify the results and to attempt to distinguish subtle differences among the competing strategies which could not be determined through a purely theoretical formulation of the game. It was found that an optimal roll-per-turn strategy will be for a player to toss no less than two times per turn and no more than three times per turn. The optimal point-per-turn strategy from initial position of zero points is to attempt to accumulate at least 25 points. Through the computer simulation of the game, it was found that optimally a player should attempt to accumulate from 22 to 26 points on any turn if he is to attempt to accumulate the same number on each turn