OBJECTIVES/GOALS: The goal of this presentation is to highlight the role of and challenges to the Biostatistics, Epidemiology and Research Design (BERD) Core as it transitions into (i) the resources and services module (ii) and also possibly a regional center of translational science. METHODS/STUDY POPULATION: BERD cores play key roles in translational research missions, often in the form of long-term collaborative relationships focusing on project conception and design, interim monitoring and review, analysis and dissemination. The resources and services module encourages consolidation of all resources and services under the single modular umbrella, which can pose challenges to BERD autonomy and function. CTSAs transitioning from local to regional centers can also threaten to overwhelm BERD workloads and resources. Our CTSA planned an outsource-insource model to make the BERD a central feature of the new module and transplant its functionality to partner institutions. RESULTS/ANTICIPATED RESULTS: The team has planned a centralized, web-based entry-point for both self-guided inquiry and electronic requests of all resources and services, which aides project database creation and provides notification for review. The review process adds two new approval types: guided assistance to help navigate connections to relevant resources, and triaged referrals to training modules for remediation and skills development. Our BERD has added a Consulting Laboratory for projects of sufficient but non-priority merit that would otherwise be waitlisted, and established connections with regional partner institutions to whom they can refer investigators. DISCUSSION/SIGNIFICANCE: We have consolidated all resources and services into a single, accessible location, emphasizing tailored guidance to maximize limited resources. We also planned a transportable regional model that accounts for local resources and capacity to keep from overstretching the BERD and other hubs.

Quizzes are a ubiquitous part of the dementia social care landscape. This article explores why. Using an ethnographic approach which draws on close analysis of communication, we examine dementia quizzes as a ‘social practice’, and what such a lens can tell us about their popularity in social care settings. Vignettes of real interactions drawn from ten different quizzes recorded in four different group settings attended by 28 people living with dementia and 15 staff members are presented to highlight particular issues. We show that the conditions of post-diagnosis dementia social care are uniquely well suited to an activity such as quizzes which are malleable, requiring little preparation or materials, and impose a communication framework which can help to organise the interactional space. Quizzes also draw on previously forged interactional competences, such as turn-taking and question–answer sequences, a skill that has been shown to persist even as dementia progresses. Finally, we argue that the meaning of quizzes with people with dementia feeds into wider societal values and associations attached to memory, dementia and personhood. The extent to which quizzes are akin to a ‘test’ or a fun and enjoyable social activity rests in how they are enacted. We suggest that practice can be adapted, developed and made more inclusive through input from people living with dementia themselves.

The first demonstration of laser action in ruby was made in 1960 by T. H. Maiman of Hughes Research Laboratories, USA. Many laboratories worldwide began the search for lasers using different materials, operating at different wavelengths. In the UK, academia, industry and the central laboratories took up the challenge from the earliest days to develop these systems for a broad range of applications. This historical review looks at the contribution the UK has made to the advancement of the technology, the development of systems and components and their exploitation over the last 60 years.

Layered transition metal dichalcogenides which are part of the two dimensional materials family are experiencing rapidly growing interest owing to their diverse physical and optoelectronic properties. Large area controllable synthesis of these materials is required for transition from lab scale research to practical applications. In this work, we present a single step chemical vapor deposition process for large area monolayer growth of molybdenum selenide (MoSe2). We also demonstrate controllable thermal conversion from molybdenum selenide to molybdenum sulfide.

For 63 years scientists in the Atomic Bomb Casualty Commission and its successor, the Radiation Effects Research Foundation, have been assessing the long-term health effects in the survivors of the atomic bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki and in their children. The identification and follow-up of a large population (approximately a total of 200 000, of whom more than 40% are alive today) that includes a broad range of ages and radiation exposure doses, and healthy representatives of both sexes; establishment of well-defined cohorts whose members have been studied longitudinally, including some with biennial health examinations and a high survivor-participation rate; and careful reconstructions of individual radiation doses have resulted in reliable excess relative risk estimates for radiation-related health effects, including cancer and noncancer effects in humans, for the benefit of the survivors and for all humankind. This article reviews those risk estimates and summarizes what has been learned from this historic and unique study.

(Disaster Med Public Health Preparedness. 2011;5:S122-S133)

Insulin plays an important role in regulating the partitioning of nutrients to the mammary gland, particularly in lactating ruminants fed concentrate-based diets. There is evidence that the nutritional status of the animals might also affect their response to insulin. This is largely untested in early lactating ruminants fed fresh forage. To investigate nutritional effects on insulin response, 12 lactating sheep, housed indoors, were allocated to one of two treatment groups (hyperinsulinaemic euglycaemic clamp (HEC) or control) in a randomised block design and fed perennial ryegrass (Lolium perenne)/white clover (Trifolium repens) pasture. Mammary amino acid (AA) net uptake from plasma and utilisation for milk protein synthesis was measured during the 4th day of the HEC using arterio–venous concentration differences, and 1-13C-leucine was used to estimate whole body and mammary gland leucine kinetics. There was no change in feed intake, milk protein output and mammary blood flow during the HEC (P > 0.1). The HEC decreased (P < 0.1) the arterial concentrations of all essential AA (EAA) except histidine. The mammary net uptake of some EAA (isoleucine, leucine, methionine and phenylalanine) was reduced by the HEC (P < 0.1). Leucine oxidation in the mammary gland was not altered during the HEC (P > 0.1) but mammary protein synthesis was reduced by the HEC (P < 0.05). These results show that sheep mammary gland can adapt to changing AA precursor supply to maintain milk protein production during early lactation, when fed fresh forage. How this occurs remains unclear, and this area deserves further study.

We reviewed the epidemiology, clinical manifestations, and outcomes of 3 cases of chest tube–related empyema due to methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus (MRSA). Antiseptic-impregnated chest tubes were inserted in cultures containing MRSA isolates from these 3 patients, and zone of inhibition were measured. Chest tube–related MRSA empyema might complicate tube thoracostomy, and coating the chest tube with antiseptic agents could prevent this complication.

Interrelations of fungal mycelium with other soil biota are of paramount importance in forestry and soil ecology. Here we present the results of statistical analysis of a comprehensive data set collected in the first (and the only) British fungus sanctuary over a period of four months. The variables studied included a number of soil properties, bacteria, protozoan flagellates, ciliates and amoebae, microbial and plant feeding nematodes, various microarthropods, and two fungal biomarkers – glomalin and ergosterol. One way ANOVA showed that the dynamics of the microbiota studied was influenced by seasonal changes. Superimposed on these changes, however, was variability due to biological interactions and habitat characteristics. Two fungal biomarkers, ergosterol and glomalin, were differently influenced by other biota and abiotic variables. The results indicate that the dynamics of soil fungi is influenced not only by soil microarthropods, but also by those found in forest litter. The overall outcome, therefore, is likely to be very complex and will depend upon specific conditions of any particular ecosystem.

We have calculated the total energy of a simple zeolite structure, sodalite, Na8Cl2Si6Al6O24 using the Modified Electron Gas (MEG) technique for the static lattice and for spherical ions. Comparison with the constituent oxides and chlorides gives a ΔGf of -0.394 au. Calculated bond lengths in the aluminosilicate framework are within 4% of the values obtained from experiment, but bond angles have error up to 12%.