United States Customs and Border Protection

Organizational support theory (OST) proposes that employees form a generalized perception concerning the extent to which the organization values their contributions and cares about their well-being (perceived organizational support, or POS). Based on hypotheses involving social exchange, attribution, and self-enhancement, we carried out a meta-analytic assessment of OST using results from 558 studies. OST was generally successful in its predictions concerning both the antecedents of POS (leadership, employee–organization context, human resource practices, and working conditions) and its consequences (employee’s orientation toward the organization and work, employee performance, and well-being). Notably, OST successfully predicted the relative magnitudes of different relationships, influences of process variables, and mediational effects. General implications of the findings for OST and research on POS are discussed.

OBJECTIVE: Interest in candidate gene and candidate gene-by-environment interaction hypotheses regarding major depressive disorder remains strong despite controversy surrounding the validity of previous findings. In response to this controversy, the present investigation empirically identified 18 candidate genes for depression that have been studied 10 or more times and examined evidence for their relevance to depression phenotypes. METHODS: Utilizing data from large population-based and case-control samples (Ns ranging from 62,138 to 443,264 across subsamples), the authors conducted a series of preregistered analyses examining candidate gene polymorphism main effects, polymorphism-by-environment interactions, and gene-level effects across a number of operational definitions of depression (e.g., lifetime diagnosis, current severity, episode recurrence) and environmental moderators (e.g., sexual or physical abuse during childhood, socioeconomic adversity). RESULTS: No clear evidence was found for any candidate gene polymorphism associations with depression phenotypes or any polymorphism-by-environment moderator effects. As a set, depression candidate genes were no more associated with depression phenotypes than noncandidate genes. The authors demonstrate that phenotypic measurement error is unlikely to account for these null findings. CONCLUSIONS: The study results do not support previous depression candidate gene findings, in which large genetic effects are frequently reported in samples orders of magnitude smaller than those examined here. Instead, the results suggest that early hypotheses about depression candidate genes were incorrect and that the large number of associations reported in the depression candidate gene literature are likely to be false positives.

Abstract: A cDNA clone encoding a human γ‐aminobutyric acid (GABA) transporter has been isolated from a brain cDNA library, and its functional properties have been examined in mammalian cells. The nucleotide sequence predicts a transporter with 614 amino acids and 12 putative transmembrane domains. The highest degree of amino acid identity is with a betaine/GABA transporter originally cloned from the dog termed BGT‐1 (91%) and a related transporter from mouse brain (87%). These identities are similar to those for species homologues of other neurotransmitter transporters and suggest that the new clone represents the human homologue of BGT‐1. The transporter displays high affinity for GABA (IC 50 of 30 µ M ) and is also sensitive to phloretin, l ‐2,4‐diaminobutyric acid, and hypotaurine (IC 50 values of ∼150–400 µ M ). The osmolyte betaine is ∼25‐fold weaker than GABA, displaying an IC 50 of ∼1 m M . The relative potencies of these inhibitors at human BGT‐1 differ from those of mouse and dog BGT‐1. Northern blot analysis reveals that BGT‐1 mRNA is widely distributed throughout the human brain. The cloning of the human homologue of BGT‐1 will further our understanding of the roles of GABA and betaine in neural function.

Abstract This contribution presents an extended global derivative recovery for enriched finite element methods (FEMs), such as the extended FEM along with an associated error indicator. Owing to its simplicity, the proposed scheme is ideally suited to industrial applications. The procedure is based on global minimization of the L 2 norm of the difference between the raw strain field ( C −1 ) and the recovered ( C 0 ) strain field. The methodology engineered in this paper extends the ideas of Oden and Brauchli ( Int. J. Numer. Meth. Engng 1971; 3 ) and Hinton and Campbell ( Int. J. Numer. Meth. Engng 1974; 8 ) by enriching the approximation used for the construction of the recovered derivatives (strains) with the gradients of the functions employed to enrich the approximation employed for the primal unknown (displacements). We show linear elastic fracture mechanics examples, both in simple two‐dimensional settings, and for a three‐dimensional structure. Numerically, we show that the effectivity index of the proposed indicator converges to unity upon mesh refinement. Consequently, the approximate error converges to the exact error , indicating that the error indicator is valid. Additionally, the numerical examples suggest a novel adaptive strategy for enriched approximations in which the dimensions of the enrichment zone are first increased, before standard h ‐ and p ‐adaptivities are applied; we suggest to coin this methodology e‐adaptivity . Copyright © 2008 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.

BACKGROUND: Since the declaration of the 10th Ebola Virus Disease (EVD) outbreak in DRC on 1st Aug 2018, several neighboring countries have been developing and implementing preparedness efforts to prevent EVD cross-border transmission to enable timely detection, investigation, and response in the event of a confirmed EVD outbreak in the country. We describe Uganda's experience in EVD preparedness. RESULTS: On 4 August 2018, the Uganda Ministry of Health (MoH) activated the Public Health Emergency Operations Centre (PHEOC) and the National Task Force (NTF) for public health emergencies to plan, guide, and coordinate EVD preparedness in the country. The NTF selected an Incident Management Team (IMT), constituting a National Rapid Response Team (NRRT) that supported activation of the District Task Forces (DTFs) and District Rapid Response Teams (DRRTs) that jointly assessed levels of preparedness in 30 designated high-risk districts representing category 1 (20 districts) and category 2 (10 districts). The MoH, with technical guidance from the World Health Organisation (WHO), led EVD preparedness activities and worked together with other ministries and partner organisations to enhance community-based surveillance systems, develop and disseminate risk communication messages, engage communities, reinforce EVD screening and infection prevention measures at Points of Entry (PoEs) and in high-risk health facilities, construct and equip EVD isolation and treatment units, and establish coordination and procurement mechanisms. CONCLUSION: As of 31 May 2019, there was no confirmed case of EVD as Uganda has continued to make significant and verifiable progress in EVD preparedness. There is a need to sustain these efforts, not only in EVD preparedness but also across the entire spectrum of a multi-hazard framework. These efforts strengthen country capacity and compel the country to avail resources for preparedness and management of incidents at the source while effectively cutting costs of using a "fire-fighting" approach during public health emergencies.

DNA metabarcoding provides great potential for species identification in complex samples such as food supplements and traditional medicines. Such a method would aid Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species of Wild Fauna and Flora (CITES) enforcement officers to combat wildlife crime by preventing illegal trade of endangered plant and animal species. The objective of this research was to develop a multi-locus DNA metabarcoding method for forensic wildlife species identification and to evaluate the applicability and reproducibility of this approach across different laboratories. A DNA metabarcoding method was developed that makes use of 12 DNA barcode markers that have demonstrated universal applicability across a wide range of plant and animal taxa and that facilitate the identification of species in samples containing degraded DNA. The DNA metabarcoding method was developed based on Illumina MiSeq amplicon sequencing of well-defined experimental mixtures, for which a bioinformatics pipeline with user-friendly web-interface was developed. The performance of the DNA metabarcoding method was assessed in an international validation trial by 16 laboratories, in which the method was found to be highly reproducible and sensitive enough to identify species present in a mixture at 1% dry weight content. The advanced multi-locus DNA metabarcoding method assessed in this study provides reliable and detailed data on the composition of complex food products, including information on the presence of CITES-listed species. The method can provide improved resolution for species identification, while verifying species with multiple DNA barcodes contributes to an enhanced quality assurance.

To test the hypothesis that elemental composition of otoliths (sagittae) could be influenced by differences in natural prey type, young‐of‐the‐year bluefish Pomatomus saltatrix were captured immediately after their migration from oceanic waters into mid‐Atlantic Bight estuaries and fed either shrimp, Crangon septemspinosa and Palaemonetes spp. or fish Menidia menidia under similar temperature and salinity regimes in two separate 60 day experiments. Unlimited rations of fish and shrimp prey were provided in the first experiment which led to differences in bluefish growth rate between the two prey treatments; fish prey was limited in the second experiment to ensure that growth rates of bluefish in the two prey treatments were similar. Concentrations of seven elements in bluefish otoliths were determined using solution‐based inductively coupled plasma mass spectrometry (ICPMS). There was no significant effect of diet on five of the seven elements examined (Na, Mg, K, Ca and Mn). The levels of Sr and Ba in the otoliths of shrimp‐fed bluefish, however, were significantly higher than fish‐fed bluefish in both experiments. Concentrations of Ba in shrimp‐fed bluefish otoliths were double that found in fish‐fed bluefish. The results suggest that diet can explain some of the variation in otolith chemistry previously attributed to physical and chemical properties of the water.

Forensic analysis of glass samples was performed in different laboratories within the NITE-CRIME (Natural Isotopes and Trace Elements in Criminalistics and Environmental Forensics) European Network, using a variety of Laser Ablation Inductively Coupled Plasma Mass Spectrometry (LA-ICP-MS) systems. The main objective of the interlaboratory tests was to cross-validate the different combinations of laser ablation systems with different ICP-MS instruments. A first study using widely available samples, such as the NIST SRM 610 and NIST SRM 612 reference glasses, led to deviations in the determined concentrations for trace elements amongst the laboratories up to 60%. Extensive discussion among the laboratories and the production of new glass reference standards (FGS 1 and FGS 2) established an improved analytical protocol, which was tested on a well-characterized float glass sample (FG 10-1 from the BKA Wiesbaden collection). Subsequently, interlaboratory tests produced improved results for nearly all elements with a deviation of < 10%, demonstrating that LA-ICP-MS can deliver absolute quantitative measurements on major, minor and trace elements in float glass samples for forensic and other purposes.

The factor structure of mental abilities has most often been depicted using a higher-order model. Under this model, general mental ability (g) is placed at the top of a pyramid, with “loading” arrows going from it to the other factors of intelligence, which in turn go to subtest scores. In contrast, under the bifactor model (also known as the nested factors/direct hierarchical model), each subtest score has its own direct loading on g; the non-g factors (e.g., the broad abilities) do not mediate the relationships of the subtest scores with g. Here we summarized past research that compared the fit of higher-order and bifactor models using confirmatory factor analysis (CFA). We also analyzed additional archival datasets to compare the fit of the two models. Using a total database consisting of 31 test batteries, 58 datasets, and 1,712,509 test takers, we found stronger support for a bifactor model of g than for the traditional higher-order model. Across 166 comparisons, the bifactor model had median increases of 0.076 for the Comparative Fit Index (CFI), 0.083 for the Tucker-Lewis Index (TLI), and 0.078 for the Normed Fit Index (NFI) and decreases of 0.028 for the root mean square error of approximation (RMSEA) and 1343 for the Akaike Information Criterion (AIC). Consequently, researchers should consider using bifactor models when conducting CFAs. The bifactor model also makes the unique contributions of g and the broad abilities to subtest scores more salient to test users.

The Water Ice Subsurface Deposit Observation on Mars (WISDOM) Ground Penetrating Radar (GPR) is one of the instruments that have been selected as part of the Pasteur payload of the European Space Agency's (ESA's) 2018 ExoMars Rover mission. The main scientific objectives of the mission are to search for evidence of past and present life and to characterize the nature of the shallow subsurface. The Rover is equipped with a drill that can sample the subsurface down to a depth of approximately 2 m. The WISDOM GPR is the only instrumentation capable of obtaining information about the nature of the subsurface along the Rover path before drilling. WISDOM has been designed to explore the first ~3 m of the subsurface with a vertical resolution of a few centimeters. The paper presents a description of the WISDOM instrument with a particular emphasis on the electronic architecture and antenna design that have been chosen to meet the challenging technical objectives. Some preliminary measurements obtained with the prototype are given to illustrate the instrument's potential performance.

The volume of water ingested by swimmers while swimming is of great interest to individuals who develop risk assessments using quantitative microbial risk assessment or epidemiological approaches. We have used chloroisocyanurate disinfected swimming pool waters to determine the amount of water swallowed by swimmers during swimming activity. The chloroisocyanurate, which is in equilibrium with chlorine and cyanuric acid in the pool water, provides a biomarker, cyanuric acid, that once swallowed passes through the body into the urine unchanged. The concentration of cyanuric acid in a 24 hour urine specimen and the concentration in pool water can be used to calculate the amount of water swallowed. Our study population of 549 participants, which was about evenly divided by gender, and young and adult swimmers, indicated that swimmers ingest about 32 mL per hour (arithmetic mean) and that children swallowed about four times as much water as adults during swimming activities. It was also observed that males had a tendency to swallow more water than females during swimming activity and that children spent about twice as much time in the water than adults.

In many jurisdictions, public safety and public health entities are working together to enhance the timeliness and accuracy of the analytical characterization and toxicology testing of novel synthetic opioids. The improved sharing and early detection of these analytical data are intended to inform surveillance, interdiction efforts, patient intervention and treatment, all of which are critical to curbing the opioid epidemic. Forensic practitioners working to identify novel synthetic opioids struggle to provide timely results when encountering new or unknown substances, such as the fentanyl analogs. These compounds, which mimic heroin in pharmacologic effect but can be far more potent, are inconsistently present in chemical identification libraries, and are currently largely unavailable as reference materials for analytical comparison. Additionally, federal, state and local governments as well as nongovernmental organizations require potency, toxicity and potential-for-abuse data to evaluate the potential health risks of emerging drug threats. Subsequent scheduling efforts and criminal prosecutions also require these thorough drug characterization studies. Pilot programs have demonstrated that early communication of real-time drug toxicity and analytical data significantly impacts the successful response to emerging opioids. High-quality, real-time, national-level data on chemical composition, toxicological test data, drug toxicity and overdoses, and analysis of seized materials by law enforcement are needed to track drug trends. However, the USA still lacks a national system to coordinate and communicate toxicology, medical and medical examiner and coroner data with the broader medical and law enforcement communities. Opportunities to address these gaps as well as recent advancements collected through interagency efforts and technical workshops in the toxicology and analytical chemistry communities are presented here. Opportunities for partnership, increased communication and expanding best practices to move toward an integrated, holistic analytical response are also explored.

Botrytis is one of the oldest, most well studied, and most economically important fungal taxa. Nonetheless, many species in this genus have remained obscured for nearly 300 years because of the difficulty in distinguishing these species by conventional mycological methods. Aided by the use of phylogenetic tools, the genus is currently undergoing a taxonomic revolution. The number of putative species in the genus has nearly doubled over the last 10 years and more species are likely to be discovered in the future. The implementation of phylogenetic species recognition concepts in Botrytis is providing for more resolution on the relatedness among species than ever before, and this has helped to overcome issues in historical species recognition using morphology, sexual crosses, and pathogenicity tests. Meanwhile, the use of genetic tools is helping to reveal surprising insight into this archetypal necrotroph’s behavior, making these approaches increasingly important in species recognition and identification. As Botrytis taxonomy continues to evolve at a rapid pace, researchers should be encouraged to continue to employ the powerful tool of phylogenetics while considering how it fits into a larger framework of classical Botrytis species recognition. Starting points for discussion on how to move forward with Botrytis species recognition are included herein, with an emphasis on the implications and utility of new species descriptions.

This article presents the results of 2 studies that examine the effect of presenting a warning of response verification by others on the relationship between measures of personality and cognitive ability. In both a field study and a laboratory study, stronger correlations were generally found between measures of personality and cognitive ability when a warning of verification was present. The results from the studies also showed that the warning of verification was associated with slower item response latencies for certain personality scales, suggesting that exposure to the warning increased the complexity of the response decision. Results are discussed in terms of the effects of altering test instructions on the construct validity of personality measures used in applied settings.

This paper provides a survey of conventional and emerging techniques that are available for characterizing engineered nanoparticles in complex matrices. Techniques that were considered include microscopy (TEM, SEM, HRTEM, DLS, SNOM), chromatography (HDC, FFF), mass spectroscopy (ICP-MS, SEC-ICP/MS, MALDI, FFF-ICP-MS), sp-ICP-MS, and electrochemical techniques. A case study is presented from the authors’ laboratories for the design of a portable nanoparticle analyzer based on tangential flow filtration and electrochemical detection (EC-TFF). EC-TFF is equipped with poly(amic) acid membrane filter electrodes (PMFE) arrays that perform multiple functions to capture, isolate, and detect (CID) engineered nanoparticles. The application of EC-TFF is presented for the characterization of engineered nanosilver in real-world samples. A size-dependent isolation of AgNPs was achieved at varying particle sizes with over 98.5% removal efficiency. PEC-TFF AA showed an excellent performance not only for isolation at subnanometer-sized ranges but also as a platform for detection of engineered nanoparticles at low ppb levels.

This paper describes the preparation and optimization of the analytical properties of the protein based drug delivery platform apoferritin. In biological systems, the protein cage ferritin is used to store iron and to keep it from building to toxic levels in cells. When the iron atoms are removed from ferritin, apoferritin is formed. In this study, daunomycin, an anthracycline antibiotic drug that has been used for specific types of cancer treatment such as acute myeloid leukemia and acute lymphocytic leukemia, was encapsulated within the protein cage for drug delivery. Daunomycin slows or stops the growth of cancer cells by binding with the cell's DNA. The model for daunomycin-DNA complex binding mechanism is intercalation, where daunomycin binds with approximately every 3 base pairs causing a local unwinding, but a negligible distortion of the helical conformation. The binding affinity for free DNA is higher than that of structured DNA in cells. Upon binding with DNA the fluorescence intensity of daunomycin decreases. We used apoferritin's ability to disassemble and reassemble under pH control to load the therapeutic compound daunomycin. The combination of a modifiable interior and exterior surface and the passable hydrophobic and hydrophilic channels through the cage allows the containment or attachment of both insoluble and soluble drugs for delivery. At experimental pH 5 conditions the interaction between the apoferritin interior cage and daunomycin is weak making it difficult to encapsulate the drug effectively within the protein cage. The incorporation of poly-L-aspartic acid (PLAA), a polypeptide and biodegradable material that does not increase the toxicity of the drug delivery system and is negatively charged at pH 5.0, into the drug delivery system resulted in a substantial improvement in the drug encapsulation. The binding properties of free daunomycin with DNA were compared to the newly synthesized apoferritin protein based drug delivery system. Encapsulation of the daunomycin within the apoferritin protein cage had little effect upon the intrinsic binding constant, Ki, or the exclusion parameter n as compared to the free daunomycin model. The study resulted in the design and optimization of a unique protein based drug delivery platform using the protein cage apoferritin for potential therapeutic administration of the anti-cancer agent daunomycin.

Purpose The purpose of this paper is to examine the presence of generational differences in items measuring workplace attitudes (e.g. job satisfaction, employee engagement). Design/methodology/approach Data from two empirical studies were used; the first study examined generational differences in large sample, multi-organizational administrations of an employee survey at both the item and general-factor levels. The second study compared job satisfaction ratings between parents and their children from a large nationwide longitudinal survey. Findings Although statistically significant, most generational differences in Study 1 did not meet established cutoffs for a medium effect size. Type II error was ruled out given the large power. In Study 2, generational differences again failed to reach Cohen’s cutoff for a medium effect size. Across both studies, over 98 percent of the variance in workplace attitudes lies within groups, as opposed to between groups, and the distributions of scores on these variables overlap by over 79 percent. Originality/value Prior studies examining generational differences in workplace attitudes focused on scale-level constructs. The present paper focused on more specific item-level constructs and employed larger sample sizes, which reduced the effects of sampling error. In terms of workplace attitudes, it appears that generations are more similar than they are different.

A method for determining the country of origin of garlic by comparing the trace metal profile of the sample to an authentic garlic database is presented. Protocols for sample preparation, high-resolution inductively coupled plasma mass spectrometry, and multivariate statistics are provided. The criteria used for making a country of origin prediction are also presented. Indications are that the method presented here may be used to determine the geographic origin of other agricultural products. Keywords: Country of origin; agricultural; garlic; Allium sativum; HR-ICPMS; multivariate statistics; trace-metal; profiles; prediction

The criterion‐related validities of empirical, rational, and hybrid keying procedures for a biodata inventory were compared at different sample sizes. Rational keying yielded the lowest validities. Hybrid keying performed best at the smallest sample sizes studied, followed by empirical keying at moderate sizes, and stepwise regression weighting of items at the largest sample sizes.

ABSTRACT Food‐grade oxidants and browning agents were compared for prevention of undesirable raw appearance of cooked dark‐cutting (DC) beef patties. DC beef had higher pH (6.6 vs 5.7) and lower 24h oxidation‐reduction potential (–190 vs –108 mV) than controls, with higher cooked yield and cohesiveness, but lower beef flavor intensity scores. DC patties with lactic acid (LA) had acceptable cooked appearance and increased myoglobin (Mb) denaturation during cooking (77%‐LA; 63%‐normal control; 41%‐DC control), but a tangy off‐flavor. Calcium peroxide increased Mb denaturation to 69%, but caused excessive oxidation. Caramel color eliminated undercooked appearance without increasing Mb denaturation, but raw and cooked patties were dark.