Development and validation of a cryogenic far-infrared diffraction grating spectrometer used to post-disperse the output from a Fourier transform spectrometer.

Recent advances in far-infrared detector technology have led to increases in raw sensitivity of more than an order of magnitude over previous state-of-the-art detectors. With such sensitivity, photon noise becomes the dominant noise component, even when using cryogenically cooled optics, unless a method of restricting the spectral bandpass is employed. The leading instrument concept features reflecting diffraction gratings, which post-disperse the light that has been modulated by a polarizing Fourier transform spectrometer (FTS) onto a detector array, thereby reducing the photon noise on each detector.

Decision Factors for Glaucoma Suspects and Ocular Hypertensive Treatment at an Academic Center.

Aims And Background: Practice guidelines assert that high-risk glaucoma suspects should be treated. Yet, there is ambiguity regarding what constitutes a high enough risk for treatment. The purpose of this study was to determine which factors contribute to the decision to treat glaucoma suspects and ocular hypertensive patients in an academic ophthalmology practice.

Longitudinal assessment of SARS-CoV-2 IgG seroconversionamong front-line healthcare workers during the first wave of the Covid-19 pandemic at a tertiary-care hospital in Chile.

Background: Healthcare workers (HCWs) are at high risk of exposure to SARS-CoV-2. Cross-sectional studies have provided variable rates of seroprevalence in HCWs. Longitudinal assessments of the serological response to Covid-19 among HCWs are crucial to understanding the risk of infection and changes in antibody titers over time.

Superwomen and Sleep: an Assessment of Black College Women Across the African Diaspora.

Background: Women and racial/ethnic minority groups in the U.S. report poor sleep health.

Life vs Loans: Does Debt Affect Career Satisfaction in Osteopathic Graduates?

Background: The cost of undergraduate osteopathic medical education continues to grow. It is important to understand how the rising cost of matriculation negatively affects training and career satisfaction of entering students.

Objective: To better understand any association between level of educational debt and satisfaction with osteopathic medical education, career choice, and financial services.

Loss of Elongation-Like Factor 1 Spontaneously Induces Diverse, RNase H-Related Suppressor Mutations in .

A healthy individual may carry a detrimental genetic trait that is masked by another genetic mutation. Such suppressive genetic interactions, in which a mutant allele either partially or completely restores the fitness defect of a particular mutant, tend to occur between genes that have a confined functional connection. Here we investigate a self-recovery phenotype in , mediated by suppressive genetic interactions that can be amplified during cell culture.

A Whooping Cough Education Module for WIC Clients in Utah.

Background: Clients in the Special Supplemental Nutrition Program for Women, Infants, and Children (WIC) are required to complete education modules quarterly to maintain eligibility. The purposes of this project were to: (1) create a whooping cough vaccination education module for WIC clients; (2) evaluate baseline perceptions of WIC clients on the whooping cough vaccine and disease; and (3) evaluate whooping cough knowledge following completion of the module.

Problem: A decline in vaccination rates among infants and children using WIC services was reported by a local WIC program director who requested whooping cough vaccination education materials.

Prime Time Sister Circles(®)II: Evaluating a Culturally Relevant Intervention to Decrease Psychological and Physical Risk Factors for Chronic Disease in Mid-Life African American Women.

Purpose: This article presents the results of two evaluation studies of the Prime Time Sister Circles(®) (PTSC). The PTSC is a gender, cultural, and age specific, curriculum-based, low-cost, short-term, replicable support group approach aimed at reducing key modifiable health risk factors for chronic illnesses in midlife African American women.

Methods: Study 1 includes an evaluation of 31 PTSCs (N=656 women) documenting changes in psychological and attitudinal outcomes (health satisfaction, health locus of control), behavioral outcomes (healthy eating patterns, physical activity, stress management), and clinical outcomes (weight, BMI, blood pressure, non-fasting blood sugar).

Coxiella burnetii Infection in a Community Operating a Large-Scale Cow and Goat Dairy, Missouri, 2013.

Coxiella burnetii is a zoonotic pathogen that causes Q fever in humans and is transmitted primarily from infected goats, sheep, or cows. Q fever typically presents as an acute febrile illness; however, individuals with certain predisposing conditions, including cardiac valvulopathy, are at risk for chronic Q fever, a serious manifestation that may present as endocarditis. In response to a cluster of Q fever cases detected by public health surveillance, we evaluated C.

Epizootiological investigation of a Q fever outbreak and implications for future control strategies.

Objective: To describe the epizootiological investigation of an outbreak of Q fever (Coxiella burnetii infection).

Design: Epidemiological study.

Animals: 17 goat herds in Washington, Montana, and Oregon.

A plan for community event-based surveillance to reduce Ebola transmission - Sierra Leone, 2014-2015.

Ebola virus disease (Ebola) was first detected in Sierra Leone in May 2014 and was likely introduced into the eastern part of the country from Guinea. The disease spread westward, eventually affecting Freetown, Sierra Leone's densely populated capital. By December 2014, Sierra Leone had more Ebola cases than Guinea and Liberia, the other two West African countries that have experienced widespread transmission.

Q fever in the United States: summary of case reports from two national surveillance systems, 2000-2012.

Q fever is a worldwide zoonosis historically associated with exposure to infected livestock. This study summarizes cases of Q fever, a notifiable disease in the United States, reported to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention through two national surveillance systems with onset during 2000-2012. The overall incidence rate during this time was 0.

First reported multistate human Q fever outbreak in the United States, 2011.

In April, 2011, the Q fever bacterium Coxiella burnetii was identified at a Washington farm where an abortion storm took place among goats. Soon after, Q fever cases were reported among visitors to the farm from Washington and Montana. A cross-sectional investigation was conducted among humans and goats associated with the index farm or with 16 other farms that purchased goats from the index farm or housed goats at the index farm for breeding purposes.

Diagnosis and management of Q fever--United States, 2013: recommendations from CDC and the Q Fever Working Group.

Q fever, a zoonotic disease caused by the bacterium Coxiella burnetii, can cause acute or chronic illness in humans. Transmission occurs primarily through inhalation of aerosols from contaminated soil or animal waste. No licensed vaccine is available in the United States.

Presence and persistence of Coxiella burnetii in the environments of goat farms associated with a Q fever outbreak.

Q fever is a zoonotic disease caused by inhalation of the bacterium Coxiella burnetii. Ruminant livestock are common reservoirs for C. burnetii, and bacteria present in aerosols derived from the waste of infected animals can infect humans.

Clinician assessment for Coxiella burnetii infection in hospitalized patients with potentially compatible illnesses during Q fever outbreaks and following a health alert, Montana, 2011.

Background: Coxiella burnetii is an endemic bacterial pathogen in the United States and the causative agent of Q fever. Two outbreaks of Q fever occurred in Montana during 2011, which led to the issuance of a health alert urging clinicians to test patients with Q fever-compatible illnesses for C. burnetii infection.

Q Fever with unusual exposure history: a classic presentation of a commonly misdiagnosed disease.

We describe the case of a man presumptively diagnosed and treated for Rocky Mountain spotted fever following exposure to multiple ticks while riding horses. The laboratory testing of acute and convalescent serum specimens led to laboratory confirmation of acute Q fever as the etiology. This case represents a potential tickborne transmission of Coxiella burnetii and highlights the importance of considering Q fever as a possible diagnosis following tick exposures.

A case of person-to-person transmission of Q fever from an active duty serviceman to his spouse.

Coxiella burnetii has recently gained military relevance given its potential as a bioterrorism agent, and the multiple cases reported among U.S. military personnel deployed to the Middle East.

Seroprevalence of Q fever in the United States, 2003-2004.

We performed serum testing for IgG antibodies against Coxiella burnetii (phase I and phase II) and analyzed questionnaire data from 4,437 adults > or = 20 years of age who participated in the National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey 2003-2004 survey cycle. National Q fever seroprevalence was determined by enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay and confirmed by using immunofluorescent antibody testing. Overall seroprevalence for Coxiella burnetii was 3.

Cluster of sylvatic epidemic typhus cases associated with flying squirrels, 2004-2006.

In February 2006, a diagnosis of sylvatic epidemic typhus in a counselor at a wilderness camp in Pennsylvania prompted a retrospective investigation. From January 2004 through January 2006, 3 more cases were identified. All had been counselors at the camp and had experienced febrile illness with myalgia, chills, and sweats; 2 had been hospitalized.

Antimicrobial use in agriculture: controlling the transfer of antimicrobial resistance to humans.

Salmonella and Campylobacter infections occur commonly in children. Some of these infections are severe, requiring treatment with antimicrobial agents. Many classes of antimicrobial agents that are used in humans also are used in food animals for growth promotion, disease prevention, and therapy.

Public health consequences of use of antimicrobial agents in food animals in the United States.

The use of antimicrobial agents in food animals has caused concern regarding the impact these uses have on human health. Use of antimicrobial agents in animals and humans results in the emergence and dissemination of resistant bacteria. Resistant bacteria from food animals may be passed through the food chain to humans resulting in resistant infections.

A waterborne outbreak of Norwalk-like virus among snowmobilers-Wyoming, 2001.

In February 2001, episodes of acute gastroenteritis were reported to the Wyoming Department of Health from persons who had recently vacationed at a snowmobile lodge in Wyoming. A retrospective cohort study found a significant association between water consumption and illness, and testing identified Norwalk-like virus (NLV) in 8 of 13 stool samples and 1 well. Nucleotide sequences from the positive well-water specimen and 6 of the positive stool samples were identical.