Multi-Purpose ESS/ITS Data Collection Sites, SPR72-00-0003-042, 2014

This document presents the results of a state-of-practice survey of transportation agencies that are installing intelligent transportation sensors (ITS) and other devices along with their environmental sensing stations (ESS) also referred to as roadway weather information system (RWIS) assets.

A Multi-SNP Locus-Association Method Reveals a Substantial Fraction of the Missing Heritability.

There are many known examples of multiple semi-independent associations at individual loci; such associations might arise either because of true allelic heterogeneity or because of imperfect tagging of an unobserved causal variant. This phenomenon is of great importance in monogenic traits but has not yet been systematically investigated and quantified in complex-trait genome-wide association studies (GWASs). Here, we describe a multi-SNP association method that estimates the effect of loci harboring multiple association signals by using GWAS summary statistics. Applying the method to a large anthropometric GWAS meta-analysis (from the Genetic Investigation of Anthropometric Traits consortium study), we show that for height, body mass index (BMI), and waist-to-hip ratio (WHR), 3%, 2%, and 1%, respectively, of additional phenotypic variance can be explained on top of the previously reported 10% (height), 1.5% (BMI), and 1% (WHR). The method also permitted a substantial increase (by up to 50%) in the number of loci that replicate in a discovery-validation design. Specifically, we identified 74 loci at which the multi-SNP, a linear combination of SNPs, explains significantly more variance than does the best individual SNP. A detailed analysis of multi-SNPs shows that most of the additional variability explained is derived from SNPs that are not in linkage disequilibrium with the lead SNP, suggesting a major contribution of allelic heterogeneity to the missing heritability.

El futbol femení a Osona: desigualtats, necessitats, demanda i potencialitat d'un campus de futbol per a noies de la comarca

L’objectiu d’aquest treball és determinar si existeix una desigualtat entre el futbol femení i el masculí en esdeveniments esportius i en el seu cas realitzar propostes ajustades a les necessitats actuals. D’una banda, les dades cedides per la Federació Catalana de Futbol permeten comparar l’evolució de futbolistes federats i federades i certifiquen que hi ha un canvi de socialització de la dona dins de l’esport, concretament, del futbol osonenc. D’altra banda, de la literatura es desprèn que és possible detectar que la progressió de la dona en l’esport no va d’acord amb les necessitats d’aquest gènere. És per això, que mitjançant la tècnica de treball dels grups de discussió, integrats per jugadores, entrenadors i pares i mares, ens acostarem a la realitat per tal d’esbrinar la demanda d’un possible campus de futbol femení; els seus objectius i les preferències d’aquest col·lectiu per aconseguir satisfer les seves necessitats.

Issue review : Regents universities and the 2008 summer floods.

This issue review examines the flooding experienced by the University of Iowa and, to a much lesser degree, by Iowa State University and the University of Northern Iowa.

Issue review : tuition at Iowa Regents universities.

Examination of the growth in tuition at Iowa Regents universities with comparisons to inflation, funding sources, peer institutions, and relative to household income.

Intraoperative adverse events during laparoscopic colorectal resection-better laparoscopic treatment but unchanged incidence. Lessons learnt from a Swiss multi-institutional analysis of 3,928 patients.

PURPOSE: Intraoperative adverse events significantly influence morbidity and mortality of laparoscopic colorectal resections. Over an 11-year period, the changes of occurrence of such intraoperative adverse events were assessed in this study. METHODS: Analysis of 3,928 patients undergoing elective laparoscopic colorectal resection based on the prospective database of the Swiss Association of Laparoscopic and Thoracoscopic Surgery was performed. RESULTS: Overall, 377 intraoperative adverse events occurred in 329 patients (overall incidence of 8.4 %). Of 377 events, 163 (43 %) were surgical complications and 214 (57 %) were nonsurgical adverse events. Surgical complications were iatrogenic injury to solid organs (n = 63; incidence of 1.6 %), bleeding (n = 62; 1.6 %), lesion by puncture (n = 25; 0.6 %), and intraoperative anastomotic leakage (n = 13; 0.3 %). Of note, 11 % of intraoperative organ/puncture lesions requiring re-intervention were missed intraoperatively. Nonsurgical adverse events were problems with equipment (n = 127; 3.2 %), anesthetic problems (n = 30; 0.8 %), and various (n = 57; 1.5 %). Over time, the rate of intraoperative adverse events decreased, but not significantly. Bleeding complications significantly decreased (p = 0.015), and equipment problems increased (p = 0.036). However, the rate of adverse events requiring conversion significantly decreased with time (p < 0.001). Patients with an intraoperative adverse event had a significantly higher rate of postoperative local and general morbidity (41.2 and 32.9 % vs. 18.0 and 17.2 %, p < 0.001 and p < 0.001, respectively). CONCLUSIONS: Intraoperative surgical complications and adverse events in laparoscopic colorectal resections did not change significantly over time and are associated with an increased postoperative morbidity.

The QUASAR reproducibility study, Part II: Results from a multi-center Arterial Spin Labeling test-retest study.

Arterial Spin Labeling (ASL) is a method to measure perfusion using magnetically labeled blood water as an endogenous tracer. Being fully non-invasive, this technique is attractive for longitudinal studies of cerebral blood flow in healthy and diseased individuals, or as a surrogate marker of metabolism. So far, ASL has been restricted mostly to specialist centers due to a generally low SNR of the method and potential issues with user-dependent analysis needed to obtain quantitative measurement of cerebral blood flow (CBF). Here, we evaluated a particular implementation of ASL (called Quantitative STAR labeling of Arterial Regions or QUASAR), a method providing user independent quantification of CBF in a large test-retest study across sites from around the world, dubbed "The QUASAR reproducibility study". Altogether, 28 sites located in Asia, Europe and North America participated and a total of 284 healthy volunteers were scanned. Minimal operator dependence was assured by using an automatic planning tool and its accuracy and potential usefulness in multi-center trials was evaluated as well. Accurate repositioning between sessions was achieved with the automatic planning tool showing mean displacements of 1.87+/-0.95 mm and rotations of 1.56+/-0.66 degrees . Mean gray matter CBF was 47.4+/-7.5 [ml/100 g/min] with a between-subject standard variation SD(b)=5.5 [ml/100 g/min] and a within-subject standard deviation SD(w)=4.7 [ml/100 g/min]. The corresponding repeatability was 13.0 [ml/100 g/min] and was found to be within the range of previous studies.

Issue review : intercollegiate athletics funding at Iowa Regents universities.

An examination of the revenue and expenditures for intercollegiate sports at Iowa's three Regents universities, including a comparison of their distributions among men's and women's teams and consideration of the feasibility of varsity sports becoming self-supporting.

Application of Multi-SNP Approaches Bayesian LASSO and AUC-RF to Detect Main Effects of Inflammatory-Gene Variants Associated with Bladder Cancer Risk

The relationship between inflammation and cancer is well established in several tumor types, including bladder cancer. We performed an association study between 886 inflammatory-gene variants and bladder cancer risk in 1,047 cases and 988 controls from the Spanish Bladder Cancer (SBC)/EPICURO Study. A preliminary exploration with the widely used univariate logistic regression approach did not identify any significant SNP after correcting for multiple testing. We further applied two more comprehensive methods to capture the complexity of bladder cancer genetic susceptibility: Bayesian Threshold LASSO (BTL), a regularized regression method, and AUC-Random Forest, a machine-learning algorithm. Both approaches explore the joint effect of markers. BTL analysis identified a signature of 37 SNPs in 34 genes showing an association with bladder cancer. AUC-RF detected an optimal predictive subset of 56 SNPs. 13 SNPs were identified by both methods in the total population. Using resources from the Texas Bladder Cancer study we were able to replicate 30% of the SNPs assessed. The associations between inflammatory SNPs and bladder cancer were reexamined among non-smokers to eliminate the effect of tobacco, one of the strongest and most prevalent environmental risk factor for this tumor. A 9 SNP-signature was detected by BTL. Here we report, for the first time, a set of SNP in inflammatory genes jointly associated with bladder cancer risk. These results highlight the importance of the complex structure of genetic susceptibility associated with cancer risk.

Issue review : flood recovery at the University of Iowa.

In June 2008, the University of Iowa (UI) campus experienced severe flooding and major damage to campus facilities. This report summarizes information provided by the UI on flood recovery as of August 2012.

Remote collaborative multi-user informal learning experiences: design and evaluation

This paper presents a customizable system used to develop a collaborative multi-user problem solving game. It addresses the increasing demand for appealing informal learning experiences in museum-like settings. The system facilitates remote collaboration by allowing groups of learners tocommunicate through a videoconferencing system and by allowing them to simultaneously interact through a shared multi-touch interactive surface. A user study with 20 user groups indicates that the game facilitates collaboration between local and remote groups of learners. The videoconference and multitouch surface acted as communication channels, attracted students’ interest, facilitated engagement, and promoted inter- and intra-group collaboration—favoring intra-group collaboration. Our findings suggest that augmentingvideoconferencing systems with a shared multitouch space offers newpossibilities and scenarios for remote collaborative environments and collaborative learning.

La part du national. Comparer des politiques infranationales dans un environnement multi-niveaux

Si des enjeux, des configurations d'acteurs, ou la définition de certains problems peuvent être propres au niveau local, ceux-ci sont fréquemment influencés par des paramètres définis à d'autres niveaux de gouvernement. En particulier, il est nécessaire que les dispositifs de recherche centrés sur la comparaison de politiques infranationales abordent directement la question de l'intégration et de l'impact du cadre national. Comment faire la part du national dans les comparaisons de politiques infranationales ? À partir d'un ensemble de travaux de sociologie de l'action publique, cet article montre que dominent deux manières d'articuler national et infranational. Certains travaux privilégient le niveau national, et prennent en compte ce qui se joue à d'autres niveaux pour observer des déclinaisons ou des réappropriations de politiques mises en place au niveau national. D'autres travaux, en particulier la littérature centrée sur la gouvernance territoriale ou urbaine, accordent un primat au local tout en prenant acte de la multiplication des niveaux de gouvernement. Enfin, l'accent est placé sur les tentatives visant à concilier ces perspectives. À l'appui de nos propres travaux, nous montrons comment des approches centrées sur les acteurs permettent d'ouvrir des pistes stimulantes pour articuler plusieurs niveaux d'analyse.

Desarrollo de aplicaciones móviles con herramientas del Campus UOC

El objetivo de este trabajo es implementar una herramienta segura, intuitiva y útil de dispositivo electrónico móvil para que un alumno interactúe con el entorno educativo virtual creado por el Campus de Trabajo UOC. La herramienta ayuda al alumno a trabajar con la UOC sin necesidad de conectarse directamente desde un portátil, desde cualquier lugar, siempre y cuando, se tenga conexión a Internet. El TFG está enfocado a desarrollarse en el entorno de Windows Phone.

Actitudes y creencias en los estudiantes del Campus de Bellvitge sobre las medidas higiénicas y las precauciones estándar

Introducción: En los últimos años se han producido avances importantes en el campo de la autoprotección ante las infecciones. Por parte de los docentes que imparten temas relacionados con el campo de la autoprotección del personal de salud y la higiene en las diferentes carreras de ciencias de la salud en el Campus de Bellvitge (CB) de la Universitat de Barcelona (UB) se detectó un desconocimiento y/o confusión de materias relacionadas con la seguridad del paciente y de los profesionales. Objetivo: Mejorar la preparación de los estudiantes de Ciencias de la Salud del CB de la UB en relación con las medidas higiénicas básicas. Material y Método: Estudio de campo, causal y comparativo. Se estableció un grupo formado por los profesores implicados en estas materias para unificar criterios y llevar a cabo un análisis de la situación exhaustiva. Se hicieron entrevistas semiestructuradas a dos estudiantes de cada carrera que fueron registradas y transcritas textualmente por el análisis posterior (Atlas/Ti19). Resultados y Discusión: Del análisis de los discursos surgieron cuatro categorías: 1) El aprendizaje; los estudiantes destacan la falta de consenso entre profesores y la enseñanza demasiado teórica. 2) La experiencia laboral; los estudiantes destacan la divergencia entre la teoría y la práctica. 3) Los argumentos personales; los estudiantes relacionan las medidas con situaciones de excepcionalidad (técnicas muy invasivas) está omnipresente el discurso de"no hacer daño al paciente". 4) Las características propias de las diferentes carreras universitarias; hemos registrado percepciones de los riesgos diferentes entre ellas. Conclusiones: La formación en medidas preventivas y de higiene está contemplada en los planes de estudio como una formación puntual y no lineal en las carreras. Los estudiantes la perciben como una formación necesaria dado su grado de inexperiencia, pero que no es necesaria cuando se adquieren ciertas destrezas. Por lo que respeta a los centros de salud como a los hospitales no hay un consenso en la obligatoriedad que todos los profesionales adopten estas medidas a la práctica diaria y algunas veces los criterios entre teoría y práctica son divergentes.