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The U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) created the GenomeTrakr Whole Genome Sequencing (WGS) Network in 2013, as a tool to improve food safety. This study presents an analysis of Whole Genome source tracking implementation on potential food contamination and related illnesses through theoretical, empirical, and cost benefit analyses. We conduct empirical tests using data from FDA regulated food commodity outbreaks garnering FDA response from 1999 through 2019 and examine the effect of the National Center for Biotechnology Information (NCBI) Pathogen detection program of source tracking WGS isolates collected in the U.S. on outbreak illnesses for three pilot pathogens ( E . coli , Listeria , and Salmonella ). Empirical results are consistent with the theoretical model and suggest that each additional 1,000 WGS isolates added to the public NCBI database is associated with a reduction of approximately 6 illnesses per WGS pathogen, per year. Empirical results are connected to existing literature for a Monte Carlo analysis to estimate benefits and costs. By 2019, annual health benefits are estimated at nearly$500 million, compared to an approximately $ 22 million investment by public health agencies. Even under conservative assumptions, the program likely broke even in its second year of implementation and could produce increasing public health benefits as the GenomeTrakr network matures.

In 2017 and 2019, five outbreaks of infections from multiple strains of Salmonella linked to the consumption of whole, fresh Maradol papayas were reported in the United States, resulting in 325 ill persons. Traceback, laboratory, and epidemiologic evidence indicated papayas as the likely vehicle for each of these outbreaks and identified the source of papayas. State and U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) laboratories recovered Salmonella from papaya samples from various points of distribution, including at import entry, and conducted serotyping, pulsed-field gel electrophoresis, and phylogenetic analyses of whole genome sequencing data. Federal and state partners led traceback investigations to determine the source of papayas. Four different suppliers of papayas were linked by traceback and laboratory results to five separate outbreaks of Salmonella infections associated with papayas. In 2017, multiple states tested papaya samples collected at retail, and Maryland and Virginia investigators recovered strains of Salmonella associated with one outbreak. FDA collected 183 papaya samples in 2017, and 11 samples yielded 62 isolates of Salmonella. Eleven serotypes of Salmonella were recovered from FDA papaya samples, and nine serotypes were closely related genetically by pulsed-field gel electrophoresis and whole genome sequencing to clinical isolates of four outbreaks, including the outbreak associated with positive state sample results. Four farms in Mexico were identified, and their names were released to the general public, retailers, and foreign authorities. In 2019, FDA collected 119 papaya samples, three of which yielded Salmonella; none yielded the 2019 outbreak strain. Investigators determined that papayas of interest had been sourced from a single farm in Campeche, Mexico, through traceback. This information was used to protect public health through public guidance, recalls, and import alerts and helped FDA collaborate with Mexican regulatory partners to enhance the food safety requirements for papayas imported from Mexico.

The purpose of this study was to determine the usefulness of an appendiceal CT protocol in a community hospital to more accurately diagnose acute appendicitis in order to decrease the negative appendectomy rate. Methods From January 1999 to July 2002, 423 patients with right lower quadrant pain or other symptoms consistent with acute appendicitis were studied with a focused CT of the appendix using a protocol adapted from Rao [8]. There were 6 false positive studies; however, at the time of surgery 1 patient was found to have Crohn's disease, 2 with ruptured ovarian cysts, 1 with torsion of the right ovary, and 1 was found to have fibrous obliteration of the lumen by histopathology.

Despite its crucial importance to the art form, rhyme has been markedly undertheorized within the recent proliferation of otherwise sophisticated analytical approaches to rap music. The conception of rhyme in rap scholarship has been dominated by the conventional model inherited from the study of poetry, resulting in analyses that insufficiently capture the depth and complexity with which emcees manipulate speech sounds for musical purposes. This dissertation seeks to correct this deficit by reformulating a cohesive musical theory of rhyme that treats speech sounds as musical materials. Chapter 1 lays the groundwork for understanding the current state of rap music theory and the need to improve how the field as a whole approaches rhyme. Chapters 2 and 3 present an exhaustive review of previous scholarship on rhyme in rap and other popular music, and the variety of methods deployed by present scholars, including several detailed critiques of their published rhyme analyses. Chapter 4 presents my original theory of musical phonology, distilling the musically relevant aspects of speech sounds and developing a new model for conceptualizing and visualizing lyrics as music, including an original form of notation designed to capture the musical quality of lyrics called Lyric Notation. Chapter 5 applies the lessons of the previous chapters and reconsiders the concept of rhyme in rap through a musical lens, redefining rhyme as a musical technique. It then provides a cohesive taxonomy for the elements of rhyme with a system of concepts and associated terminology that can be used to describe with precision any type of lyrical rhyme structure. Next, the chapter presents my hierarchical musical theory of rhyming structures and techniques in rap, defining the essential distinction between schematic and sporadic rhyming styles and identifying rap’s most essential structural design: the couplet. Finally, a series of visual analyses using Lyric Notation demonstrate a new methodology for analyzing the role of rhyme in rap music, outlining some ways rappers employ rhyme as a critical structural component of their music.

On Janu 4, 2016, CDC PulseNet, the molecular subtyping network for foodborne disease surveillance, identified a cluster of 10 Shiga toxin-producing Escherichia coli (STEC) O157:H7 infections with indistinguishable pulsed-field gel electrophoresis (PFGE) pattern combinations. STEC infections with the identified outbreak PFGE pattern are commonly reported to PulseNet, with an average of 40-50 illnesses reported annually. Because this was a relatively common strain of STEC, multiple locus variable-number tandem repeat analysis (MLVA), another subtyping technique used to characterize the genetic relatedness of bacteria, was used to help define cases in the cluster. CDC collaborated with state and local health and agricultural agencies and the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) to investigate the outbreak. A case was defined as STEC O157:H7 infection with an isolate having PFGE and MLVA patterns indistinguishable from the outbreak strain in a person with diarrheal illness onset during Dec 6, 2015-Feb 9, 2016.

Today's competitive business environments require business enterprises to employ every method at their disposal in order to understand their internal and external business environments. Business organizations no longer can sustain a competitive advantage for a prolonged period without proactively collecting and analyzing business intelligence (BI) and competitive intelligence (CI) to manage their businesses performance (BPM) in real-time. A linear quantitative approach will support the qualitative portion of the research. Many leading business research firm, have stated that business organizations do not understand the current need to incorporate real-time (BI), (CI), and BPM in conjunction with their strategic business plan to gain or maintain a competitive advantage. An in-depth analysis has been performed where 110 participant responses have been grouped into 29 variables and 6 factors. The mixed methodology of deductive grounded theory and factorial analysis allowed the research to develop a set of guidelines that offer business organizations the potential to avoid risk and gain competitive advantage.

On Janu 4, 2016, CDC PulseNet, the molecular subtyping network for foodborne disease surveillance, identified a cluster of 10 Shiga toxin-producing Escherichia coli (STEC) O157:H7 infections with indistinguishable pulsed-field gel electrophoresis (PFGE) pattern combinations. STEC infections with the identified outbreak PFGE pattern are commonly reported to PulseNet, with an average of 40-50 illnesses reported annually. Because this was a relatively common strain of STEC, multiple locus variable-number tandem repeat analysis (MLVA), another subtyping technique used to characterize the genetic relatedness of bacteria, was used to help define cases in the cluster. CDC collaborated with state and local health and agricultural agencies and the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) to investigate the outbreak. A case was defined as STEC O157:H7 infection with an isolate having PFGE and MLVA patterns indistinguishable from the outbreak strain in a person with diarrheal illness onset during Dec 6, 2015-Feb 9, 2016.