We apply the author's computational approach to groups to our empirical work studying and modelling riots. We suggest that assigning roles in particular gives insight, and measuring the frequency of bystander behaviour provides a method to understand the dynamic nature of intergroup conflict, allowing social identity to be incorporated into models of riots.

Background: Daptomycin is considered an effective alternative to vancomycin in patients with methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus bloodstream infection (MRSA BSI). Objective: We investigated the real-world effectiveness of recommended daptomycin doses compared with vancomycin. Methods: This nationwide retrospective cohort study included patients from 124 Veterans’ Affairs hospitals who had a MRSA BSI and were initially treated with vancomycin during 2007–2014. Patients were categorized into 3 groups by daptomycin dose calculated using adjusted body weight: low (>6 mg/kg/day), standard (6–8 mg/kg/day), and high (≥8 mg/kg/day). International Classification of Diseases, Ninth Revision (ICD-9) diagnosis codes were used to identify other prior or concurrent infections and comorbidities. Multivariate cox regression was used to compare 30-day all-cause mortality as the primary outcome comparing patients on either low-dose, standard-dose, or high-dose daptomycin with vancomycin. Hazard ratio (HR) and 95% confidence intervals (CIs) were reported. Results: Of the 7,518 patients in the cohort, 683 (9.1%) were switched to daptomycin after initial treatment with vancomycin for their MRSA BSI episode. A low dose of daptyomycin was administered to 181 patients (26.5%), a standard dose was given to 377 patients (55.2%), and a high dose was administered to 125 patients (18.3%). Dose groups differed significantly in body mass index (BMI), presence of an osteomyelitis diagnosis, and diagnosis of diabetes. Thirty-day mortality was significantly lower in daptomycin patients than in those given vancomycin (11.3% vs 17.6%; P < .0001). Treatment with daptomycin was associated with improved 30-day survival compared with vancomycin (HR, 0.66; 95% CI, 0.53–0.84), after adjusting for age, BMI, diagnosis of endovascular infection, skin and soft-tissue infection and osteomyelitis, hospitalization in the prior year, immunosuppression, diagnosis of diabetes, and vancomycin minimum inhibitory concentration (MIC). Treatment with a standard dose of daptomycin was associated with lower mortality compared with vancomycin (HR, 0.63; 95% CI, 0.46–0.86). High and low daptomycin dose groups had a trend toward improved 30-day survival compared with vancomycin (Fig. 1). In 2 separate sensitivity analyses excluding vancomycin patients, there was no difference in 30-day mortality between a standard dose and a high dose (HR, 1.01; 95% CI, 0.51–1.97). However, we detected a trend toward poor survival with a low dose compared with a standard dose (HR, 1.21; 95% CI, 0.73–2.02). Conclusions: A standard dose of daptomycin was significantly associated with lower 30-day mortality compared with continued vancomycin treatment. Accurate dosage of daptomycin and avoidance of low-dose daptomycin should be a part of good antibiotic stewardship practice.

Funding: None

Disclosures: None

Flagellar dyneins are the molecular motors responsible for producing the propagating bending motions of cilia and flagella. They are located within a densely packed and highly organised super-macromolecular cytoskeletal structure known as the axoneme. Using the mesoscale simulation technique Fluctuating Finite Element Analysis (FFEA), which represents proteins as viscoelastic continuum objects subject to explicit thermal noise, we have quantified the constraints on the range of molecular conformations that can be explored by dynein-c within the crowded architecture of the axoneme. We subsequently assess the influence of crowding on the 3D exploration of microtubule-binding sites, and specifically on the axial step length. Our calculations combine experimental information on the shape, flexibility and environment of dynein-c from three distinct sources; negative stain electron microscopy, cryo-electron microscopy (cryo-EM) and cryo-electron tomography (cryo-ET). Our FFEA simulations show that the super-macromolecular organisation of multiple protein complexes into higher-order structures can have a significant influence on the effective flexibility of the individual molecular components, and may, therefore, play an important role in the physical mechanisms underlying their biological function.

In this cohort of Escherichia coli and Klebsiella spp hospital-onset bacteremia, isolated fluoroquinolone resistance had a larger relative impact on mortality than other phenotypic resistance patterns. This finding may support stewardship efforts targeting unnecessary fluoroquinolone use and increased attention from infection prevention and control departments.

Diagnosing delirium superimposed on dementia (DSD) remains challenging because of a lack of specific tools, though motor dysfunction in delirium has been relatively under-explored. This study aimed to use dysfunction in balance and mobility (with the Hierarchical Assessment of Balance And Mobility: HABAM) to identify DSD. This is a cross-sectional multicenter study, recruiting consecutive patients ≥70 years admitted to five acute or rehabilitation hospitals in Ireland, Italy, Portugal, and Switzerland. Delirium was diagnosed using DSM-5 criteria; dementia was determined by the Mini-Mental State Examination and the Questionnaire of Cognitive Decline in the Elderly. HABAM score was recorded at admission. Out of 114 patients (mean age ± SD = 82 ± 7; 54% female), dementia alone was present in 24.6% (n = 28), delirium alone in 18.4% (n = 21) and DSD in 27.2% (n = 31). Patients with DSD had a mean HABAM score 7 points greater than those with dementia alone (19.8 ± 8.7 vs 12.5 ± 9.5; p < 0.001); 70% of participants with DSD were correctly identified using the HABAM at a cut off of 22 (sensitivity 61%, specificity 79%, AUC = 0.76). Individuals with delirium have worse motor function than those without delirium, even in the context of comorbid dementia. Measuring motor function using the HABAM in older people at admission may help to diagnose DSD.

The main question that Firestone & Scholl (F&S) pose is whether “what and how we see is functionally independent from what and how we think, know, desire, act, and so forth” (sect. 2, para. 1). We synthesize a collection of concerns from an interdisciplinary set of coauthors regarding F&S's assumptions and appeals to intuition, resulting in their treatment of visual perception as context-free.

Using a stochastic version of the POLYSYS modeling framework, an examination of projected variability in agricultural prices, supply, demand, stocks, and incomes is conducted for corn, wheat, soybeans, and cotton during the 1998–2006 period. Increased planting flexibility introduced in the 1996 farm bill results in projections of significantly higher planted acreage variability compared to recent historical levels. Variability of ending stocks and stock-to-use ratios is projected to be higher for corn and soybeans and lower for wheat and cotton compared to the 1986–96 period. Significantly higher variability is projected for corn prices, with wheat and soybean prices also being more variable. No significant change in cotton price variability is projected.

Agricultural pesticide use has come under an intensive attack from an environmentally aware society. The Environmental Protection Agency has placed restrictions on use of selected pesticides, including DDT. The use of pesticide is a paradox in itself. Without feasible alternative insecticide strategies, such as biological control, restrictions on the use of pesticides will decrease agricultural output and food costs will increase. However, with pesticide use, social costs in the form of environmental damages may occur. To make an equitable decision as to the future of pesticides, researchers and policy-makers have tried to determine the optimal level of use, optimal timing of application, extent of economic benefits, extent of social costs, and the effects on the economy of pesticide restrictions.

The Renewable Fuel Standard mandates in the Energy Independence and Security Act of 2007 will require 36 billion gallons of ethanol to be produced in 2022. The mandates require that 16 of the 36 billion gallons must be produced from cellulosic feedstocks. The potential land use implications resulting from these mandates were examined using two methods, the POLYSYS model and a general equilibrium model. Results of the POLYSYS analysis indicated that 72.1 million tons of corn stover, 23.5 million tons of wheat straw, and 24.7 million acres would be used to produce 109 million tons of switchgrass in 2025 to meet the mandate. Results of the CGE analysis indicated that 10.9 billion bushels of corn grain, 71 million tons of corn stover, and 56,200 tons of switchgrass is needed to meet the mandate.

A rare find was made in 2012 when a metal-detectorist on land near Bridge, a few miles south of Canterbury, Kent, recovered a copper alloy brooch, other metal items, and a quantity of burnt bone contained in a near complete, probably imported Gallic, helmet of Iron Age type. Excavation was undertaken to ascertain the immediate context of the helmet, confirm that it represented a cremation burial, and determine if it formed part of a larger funerary deposit. The helmet and brooch suggest a burial date in the mid-1st century bc and the apparently isolated cremation burial, of a possibly female adult, can be broadly placed within the Aylesford–Swarling tradition; the helmet taking the place of a more usual pottery cinerary urn. Cropmark evidence suggests that the burial was made within a wider landscape of Iron Age occupation.