Louisiana State University

About: Louisiana State University is a education organization based out in Baton Rouge, Louisiana, United States. It is known for research contribution in the topics: Population & Poison control. The organization has 40206 authors who have published 76587 publications receiving 2566076 citations. The organization is also known as: LSU & Louisiana State University and Agricultural and Mechanical College.

PICRUSt2: An improved and customizable approach for metagenome inference

Abstract: One major limitation of microbial community marker gene sequencing is that it does not provide direct information on the functional composition of sampled communities. Here, we present PICRUSt2 (https://github.com/picrust/picrust2), which expands the capabilities of the original PICRUSt method1 to predict the functional potential of a community based on marker gene sequencing profiles. This updated method and implementation includes several improvements over the previous algorithm: an expanded database of gene families and reference genomes, a new approach now compatible with any OTU-picking or denoising algorithm, and novel phenotype predictions. Upon evaluation, PICRUSt2 was more accurate than PICRUSt1 and other current approaches overall. PICRUSt2 is also now more flexible and allows the addition of custom reference databases. We highlight these improvements and also important caveats regarding the use of predicted metagenomes, which are related to the inherent challenges of analyzing metagenome data in general.

Studying configurations with qualitative comparative analysis: Best practices in strategy and organization research:

Abstract: Qualitative Comparative Analysis (QCA) is increasingly applied in strategy and organization research. The main purpose of our essay is to support this growing community of QCA scholars by identifying best practices that can help guide researchers through the key stages of a QCA empirical study (model building, sampling, calibration, data analysis, reporting and interpretation of findings) and by providing examples of such practices drawn from strategy and organization studies. Coupled with this main purpose, we respond to Miller’s (2017) essay on configuration research by highlighting our points of agreement regarding his recommendations for configurational research and by addressing some of his concerns regarding QCA. Our article thus contributes to configurational research by articulating how to leverage QCA for enriching configurational theories of strategy and organization.

Practice parameters for the evaluation of chronic insomnia

Abstract: Chronic insomnia is the most common sleep complaint which health care practitioners must confront. Most insomnia patients are not, however, seen by sleep physicians but rather by a variety of primary care physicians. There is little agreement concerning methods for effective assessment and subsequent differential diagnosis of this pervasive problem. The most common basis for diagnosis and subsequent treatment has been the practitioner's clinical impression from an unstructured interview. No systematic, evidence-based guidelines for diagnosis exist for chronic insomnia. This practice parameter paper presents recommendations for the evaluation of chronic insomnia based on the evidence in the accompanying review paper. We recommend use of these parameters by the sleep community, but even more importantly, hope the large number of primary care physicians providing this care can benefit from their use. Conclusions reached in these practice parameters include the following recommendations for the evaluation of chronic insomnia. Since the complaint of insomnia is so widespread and since patients may overlook the impact of poor sleep quality on daily functioning, the health care practitioner should screen for a history of sleep difficulty. This evaluation should include a sleep history focused on common sleep disorders to identify primary and secondary insomnias. Polysomnography, and the Multiple Sleep Latency Test (MSLT) should not be routinely used to screen or diagnose patients with insomnia complaints. However, the complaint of insomnia does not preclude the appropriate use of these tests for diagnosis of specific sleep disorders such as obstructive sleep apnea, periodic limb movement disorder, and narcolepsy that may be present in patients with insomnia. There is insufficient evidence to suggest whether portable sleep studies, actigraphy, or other alternative assessment measures including static charge beds are effective in the evaluation of insomnia complaints. Instruments such as sleep logs, self-administered questionnaires, symptom checklist, or psychological screening tests may be of benefit to discriminate insomnia patients from normals, but these instruments have not been shown to differentiate subtypes of insomnia complaints.

Effect of alternate aerobic and anaerobic conditions on redox potential, organic matter decomposition and nitrogen loss in a flooded soil

Abstract: The effect of several cycles of varying length of alternate aerobic and anaerobic conditions on redox potential, organic matter decomposition and loss of added and native nitrogen was investigated under laboratory conditions in flooded soil incubated for 128 days. Redox potential decreased rapidly when air was replaced with argon for the short-time cycles, but decreased more slowly where the aerobic period was long enough to permit build-up of nitrate. The minimum redox potential reached during the anaerobic period was generally lower for the longer cycles, but in all cases was low enough for denitrification to occur. Rate of decomposition of organic matter was faster in the treatments with a greater number of alternate aerobic and anaerobic periods. Total N (native and applied) losses as high as 24.3 per cent occurred in the treatment with the maximum number of cycles and with alternate aerobic and anaerobic periods of 2 and 2 days. Increasing the durations of the aerobic-anaerobic periods decreased the loss of N. A maximum loss of 63.0 per cent of applied 15NH4-N resulted from the shortest (2 and 2 day) aerobic and anaerobic incubation. For soil undergoing frequent changes in aeration status the only labelled N that remained at the end of incubation was found in the organic fraction. Loss of N may have been even greater if labelled inorganic N had not been immobilized by microorganisms decomposing the added rice straw. The greater loss of N resulting from the 2 and 2 day aerobic-anaerobic incubation shows that, in soils where the redox potential falls low enough for denitrification to occur, increasing the frequency of changing from aerobic to anaerobic conditions will increase the loss of N.