Having a diagnosis of schizophrenia is a risk factor for involuntary admission to psychiatric inpatient care, but we have a limited understanding of why some patients and not others require involuntary admission. We aimed to identify the predictors of involuntary admission in first episode schizophrenia. We used validated instruments to assess clinical and socio-demographic variables in all patients (n = 78) with first episode schizophrenia from a defined geographical area admitted to a Dublin psychiatric hospital over a 4-year period. Involuntary patients (n = 17) could not be distinguished from voluntary patients (n = 61) on the basis of age, gender, living status, marital status, drug abuse or duration of untreated psychosis. Neither positive nor negative symptoms were useful predictors of admission status. Lack of insight was a strong predictor of involuntary status.

The aim of this study was to identify the features of first episode schizophrenia that predict adherence antipsychotic medication at six-month follow-up. We used validated instruments to assess clinical and socio-demographic variables in all patients with first episode schizophrenia from a defined geographical area admitted to a Dublin psychiatric hospital over a four-year period (N = 100). At six-month follow-up (N = 60) we assessed adherence to medication using the Compliance Interview. One third of patients with schizophrenia were non-adherent with medication within six months of their first episode of illness. High levels of positive symptoms at baseline, lack of insight at baseline, alcohol misuse at baseline and previous drug misuse predict non-adherence. These results indicate that an identifiable subgroup of patients with first episode schizophrenia is at high risk of early non-adherence to medication. While high positive symptom scores pre-date and predict non-adherence in most patients, reduced insight is the best predictor of non-adherence in patients who do not misuse alcohol or other drugs.

Following an outbreak of highly pathogenic avian influenza virus (HPAIV) in a poultry house, control measures are put in place to prevent further spread. An essential part of the control measures based on the European Commission Avian Influenza Directive 2005/94/EC is the cleansing and disinfection (C&D) of infected premises. Cleansing and disinfection includes both preliminary and secondary C&D, and the dismantling of complex equipment during secondary C&D is also required, which is costly to the owner and also delays the secondary cleansing process, hence increasing the risk for onward spread. In this study, a quantitative risk assessment is presented to assess the risk of re-infection (recrudescence) occurring in an enriched colony-caged layer poultry house on restocking with chickens after different C&D scenarios. The risk is expressed as the number of restocked poultry houses expected before recrudescence occurs. Three C&D scenarios were considered, namely (i) preliminary C&D alone, (ii) preliminary C&D plus secondary C&D without dismantling and (iii) preliminary C&D plus secondary C&D with dismantling. The source-pathway-receptor framework was used to construct the model, and parameterisation was based on the three C&D scenarios. Two key operational variables in the model are (i) the time between depopulation of infected birds and restocking with new birds (TbDR) and (ii) the proportion of infected material that bypasses C&D, enabling virus to survive the process. Probability distributions were used to describe these two parameters for which there was recognised variability between premises in TbDR or uncertainty due to lack of information in the fraction of bypass. The risk assessment estimates that the median (95% credible intervals) number of repopulated poultry houses before recrudescence are 1.2 × 104 (50 to 2.8 × 106), 1.9 × 105 (780 to 5.7 × 107) and 1.1 × 106 (4.2 × 103 to 2.9 × 108) under C&D scenarios (i), (ii) and (iii), respectively. Thus for HPAIV in caged layers, undertaking secondary C&D without dismantling reduces the risk by 16-fold compared to preliminary C&D alone. Dismantling has an additional, although smaller, impact, reducing the risk by a further 6-fold and thus around 90-fold compared to preliminary C&D alone. On the basis of the 95% credible intervals, the model demonstrates the importance of secondary C&D (with or without dismantling) over preliminary C&D alone. However, the extra protection afforded by dismantling may not be cost beneficial in the context of reduced risk of onward spread.

Almost all living organisms on Earth utilize the same 20 amino acids to build their millions of different proteins, even though there are hundreds of amino acids naturally occurring on Earth. Although it is likely that both the prebiotic and the current environment of Earth shaped the selection of these 20 proteinogenic amino acids, environmental conditions on extraterrestrial planets and moons are known to be quite different than those on Earth. In particular, the surfaces of planets and moons such as Mars, Europa and Enceladus have a much greater flux of UV and gamma radiation impacting their surface than that of Earth. Thus, if life were to have evolved extraterrestrially, a different lexicon of amino acids may have been selected due to different environmental pressures, such as higher radiation exposure. One fundamental property an amino acid must have in order to be of use to the evolution of life is relative stability. Therefore, we studied the stability of three different proteinogenic amino acids (tyrosine, phenylalanine and tryptophan) as compared with 20 non-proteinogenic amino acids that were structurally similar to the aromatic proteinogenic amino acids, following ultraviolet (UV) light (254, 302, or 365 nm) and gamma-ray irradiation. The degree of degradation of the amino acids was quantified using an ultra-high performance liquid chromatography-mass spectrometer (UPLC-MS). The result showed that many non-proteinogenic amino acids had either equal or increased stability to certain radiation wavelengths as compared with their proteinogenic counterparts, with fluorinated phenylalanine and tryptophan derivatives, in particular, exhibiting enhanced stability as compared with proteinogenic phenylalanine and tryptophan amino acids following gamma and select UV irradiation.

OBJECTIVES/SPECIFIC AIMS: Describe (1) the features of the first release of Duke’s myRESEARCHhome portal for researchers, and 2) the methods and results of adoption strategies METHODS/STUDY POPULATION: Through methods described previously (cite ACTS poster, 2016), the myRESEARCHhome portal team conducted a needs assessment to determine priorities for inclusion in the tool. Based on results of that assessment, the “minimal viable product” launched in June 2016 included the following features, organized into 9 distinct widgets: Access to all web-based research applications; ability to find and request research services; at-a-glance view of financial, protocol, and salary distribution information; access to financial and personnel reports; access to status of agreements and patents; access to CTSA-supported navigation services; visibility into required training and expiration dates; listing of announcements relevant to researchers; customized links area; ability to customize portal. The portal was developed using Ruby on Rails™, with a REACT grid framework. The development team, internal to Duke University, followed industry-standard best practices for development. After the initial release, the team employed several strategies to ensure awareness and adoption. Although written communications were an important factor for awareness, the presentations and hands-on studios proved most important. RESULTS/ANTICIPATED RESULTS: Use of the portal was directly related to in-person outreach efforts. There were small spikes after written communications, but strategies such as presentations, hands-on demonstrations, training sessions, and faculty meetings garnered the steadiest adoption rates. As of early January, 2017, almost 3000 users have interacted with the portal, with numbers rising steadily. There are an estimated 10,000+ faculty, staff, and trainees engaged in research at Duke. DISCUSSION/SIGNIFICANCE OF IMPACT: To maintain high adoption rates with the research community, engagement strategies must be ongoing. In addition to frequent in-person demonstrations, updates via written communications, and attendance at events, the portal team will employ a key adopt strategy—engaging the researchers in ongoing needs assessments. By maintaining the portal’s relevance to the needs of the research community, the tool can better improve the efficiency of research at a large academic medical center.

This study proposes a sampling method for ground-truthing LiDAR-derived data that will allow researchers to verify or predict the accuracy of results over a large area. Our case study is focused on a 24 km2 area centered on the site of Yaxnohcah in the Yucatan Peninsula. This area is characterized by a variety of dense tropical rainforest and wetland vegetation zones with limited road and trail access. Twenty-one 100 x 100 m blocks were selected for study, which included examples of several different vegetation zones. A pedestrian survey of transects through the blocks was conducted, recording two types of errors. Type 1 errors consist of cultural features that are identified in the field, but are not seen in the digital elevation model (DEM) or digital surface model (DSM). Type 2 errors consist of features that appear to be cultural when viewed on the DEM or DSM, but are caused by different vegetative features. Concurrently, we conducted an extensive vegetation survey of each block, identifying major species present and heights of stories. The results demonstrate that the lidar survey data are extremely reliable and a sample can be used to assess data accuracy, fidelity, and confidence over a larger area.

Many Neotropical felids are threatened with extinction due to direct effects of habitat destruction and/or human persecution. However, indirect and synergistic effects of human-felid conflict remain under-studied and potentially include increased stress and diet shifts that may negatively impact felid health. We hypothesized that faecal glucocorticoid metabolites (FGM) and endoparasite species richness (ESR) would be higher, and diet would shift, for felids outside protected areas where conflict occurs. In north-western Belize, a scat-detector dog located 336 faecal samples, identified to species and individual using DNA analyses. DNA amplification success was substantially higher within protected areas than outside. We detected jaguar, puma, ocelot, jaguarundi and domestic cat. FGMs were higher in puma and jaguarundi than in other felids, while ESR was similar across felids with domestic cats exhibiting the highest number of genera. Diet partitioning occurred among felids, but domestic cats may compete with ocelot and jaguarundi for small prey. Outside of protected areas, large cats shifted their diet to smaller prey and livestock remains were not found. Contrary to our hypotheses, FGM and ESR did not differ inside versus outside protected areas, but sample sizes were low in human-modified areas. We provide a baseline on wild felid adrenal activity, endoparasites and diet and suggest improvements to increase sample sizes outside protected areas. Our research provides a template for expanding non-invasive sampling approaches more widely across the range of Neotropical felids.