We present a behavioral-contextual method for studying abandonment-related assemblages in order to ascribe them to a settlement abandonment scenario. Our approach examines the vertical and horizontal architectural contexts of assemblages, along with the nature of reconstructible vessels and other artifacts. This method accounts for gradual, rapid, mundane, and ceremonial abandonment scenarios, and for abandonment with anticipated return. Two advantages of this model are its replicability and its proposition of a shared taxonomy leading away from the concept of problematic deposits. The method is contextualized with two distinct case studies from the southern Maya lowlands: the palace of La Corona, Guatemala and an agricultural household group from greater Minanha, Belize. These dissimilar but contemporary (ca. A.D. 900) contexts revealed complex abandonment-related assemblages, including pre-abandonment middens, de facto and secondary material, and on-floor, exposed offerings. Both case studies are argued to reflect gradual, organized abandonment scenarios, although with significant temporal and behavioral distinctions.

OBJECTIVES/SPECIFIC AIMS: Our objective was to assess and compare the attitudes of patients with head and neck cancer and their clinicians regarding the commercialization of genetic research data. We explored whether such opinions changed when profits from such transactions were used to fund 1) cancer research, 2) academic research generally, or 3) if patients were given personalized genetic information in return. METHODS/STUDY POPULATION: This qualitative analysis was nested within a prospective precision oncology genomic sequencing study in an NCI-designated cancer center. We conducted paired, semi-structured interviews with enrolled participants with head & neck cancer and with their doctors (medical oncologists, surgical oncologists, and radiation oncologists). Interviews were recorded, transcribed, and coded for analysis. Codes were developed through an iterative process until saturation was reached, and all transcripts were double-coded (and discrepancies reconciled) to ensure reliability. RESULTS/ANTICIPATED RESULTS: We identified three main themes from the patients and clinicians: (1) Both clinicians and their patients were unclear about how the study protocol and informed consent form authorized patients’ genetic data to be used and commercialized in the future. (2) Patients with cancer were generally more comfortable than their clinician thought they were regarding the ongoing research use of their genetic data and commercialization thereof. (3) There is a strong interest among patients and clinicians in focusing academic medical center profits from commercialization back into the research program from which the data was acquired, rather than being invested into academic research more broadly. DISCUSSION/SIGNIFICANCE OF IMPACT: Given patients’ strong feelings about the commercialization of their data, our results highlight the need for greater transparency—both with patients and with their clinicians—about potential future use of research data. Clinicians appear inclined to be particularly cautious regarding access to and commercialization of patients’ data, however patients generally hope that their data may be used to help future cancer patients. Explicit discussions with patients about specific future uses of profits derived from commercialization of research data can ensure both transparency and participation in future primary and secondary precision health research programs.

As with many islands, Christmas Island in the Indian Ocean has suffered severe biodiversity loss. Its terrestrial lizard fauna comprised five native species, of which four were endemic. These were abundant until at least the late 1970s, but four species declined rapidly thereafter and were last reported in the wild between 2009 and 2013. In response to the decline, a captive breeding programme was established in August 2009. This attempt came too late for the Christmas Island forest skink Emoia nativitatis, whose last known individual died in captivity in 2014, and for the non-endemic coastal skink Emoia atrocostata. However, two captive populations are now established for Lister's gecko Lepidodactylus listeri and the blue-tailed skink Cryptoblepharus egeriae. The conservation future for these two species is challenging: reintroduction will not be possible until the main threats are identified and controlled.

We present the results of two 2.3 μm near-infrared (NIR) radial velocity (RV) surveys to detect exoplanets around 36 nearby and young M dwarfs. We use the CSHELL spectrograph (R ~ 46,000) at the NASA InfraRed Telescope Facility (IRTF), combined with an isotopic methane absorption gas cell for common optical path relative wavelength calibration. We have developed a sophisticated RV forward modeling code that accounts for fringing and other instrumental artifacts present in the spectra. With a spectral grasp of only 5 nm, we are able to reach long-term radial velocity dispersions of ~20–30 m s−1 on our survey targets.

The Revised6 Report on the Algorithmic Language Scheme added a mechanism to the Scheme programming language for creating new record types procedurally. While many programming languages support user defined, structured data types, these are usually handled syntactically, so that the compiler can make choices at compile time about the memory layout of these data types. The procedural record types in Scheme, however, can be constructed at run time, making the efficient run-time representation of record types important to ensure good run-time performance. The run-time representation used in our implementation provides an extended model for record types allowing record types to represent foreign scalar data types, e.g., machine word integers, and allows the base record type to be extended to create non-R6RS record-type systems. This article describes our run-time representation for record types, how the garbage collector handles foreign scalar data types, and includes extended record type systems both for an object-oriented programming model and a representation of foreign structured data types.

Objectives: The use of value of information methods to inform trial design has been widely advocated but there have been few empirical applications of these methods and there is little evidence they are widely used in decision making. This study considers the usefulness of value of information models in the context of a real clinical decision problem relating to alternative diagnostic strategies for patients with a recent non-ST elevated myocardial infarction.

Methods: A pretrial economic model is constructed to consider the cost-effectiveness of two competing strategies: coronary angiography alone or in conjunction with fractional flow reserve measurement. A closed-form solution to the expected benefits of information is used with optimal sample size estimated for a range of models reflecting increasingly realistic assumptions and alternative decision contexts.

Results: Fractional flow reserve measurement is expected to be cost-effective with an incremental cost-effectiveness ratio of GBP 1,621, however, there is considerable uncertainty in this estimate and consequently a large expected value to reducing this uncertainty via a trial. The recommended sample size is strongly affected by the reality of the assumptions of the expected value of information (EVI) model and the decision context.

Conclusions: Value of information models can provide a simple and flexible approach to clinical trial design and are more consistent with the constraints and objectives of the healthcare system than traditional frequentist approaches. However, the variation in sample size estimates demonstrates that it is essential that appropriate model parameters and decision contexts are used in their application.

Infection surveillance definitions for long-term care facilities (ie, the McGeer Criteria) have not been updated since 1991. An expert consensus panel modified these definitions on the basis of a structured review of the literature. Significant changes were made to the criteria defining urinary tract and respiratory tract infections. New definitions were added for norovirus gastroenteritis and Clostridum difficile infections.

Infect Control Hosp Epidemiol 2012;33(10):965-977