Bright Lights, Big Dreams: Global Gayness and Privilege in Manila

A review of Bobby Benedicto, Under Bright Lights: Gay Manila and the Global Scene (University of Minnesota Press, 2014)

Improving the Identification, Delivery of Care, and Outcomes of Hospital-Acquired Sepsis

Sepsis syndromes that develop among a hospital inpatient population can be difficult to differentiate from other disease processes that share systemic inflammatory response syndromes. A bedside nurse-driven screening process was developed at Baptist Health Lexington to aid with early sepsis identification and foster prompt goal-directed therapy. This retrospective study of 26 patients identified over a 6 month period measures intensive care length of stay, mortality, and sepsis severity. Exclusion criteria were pregnancy and Do Not Resuscitate orders. Screening compliance was poor at 23.1 percent (n=6). Complete compliance with goal directed therapy was 7.7 percent, though some components of therapy such as antibiotic administration (n=15, 57.5%) and blood culture acquisition (n = 15, 57.7 %) were much higher. Mortality decreased from 25% to 0%, but this was irrespective of if the patients were screened or not. Average intensive care length of stay decreased by 1.04 days. There was an reduction in sepsis severity ratios

A study of the school funding formula created by SB 287 in Missouri

The entire dissertation/thesis text is included in the research.pdf file; the official abstract appears in the short.pdf file (which also appears in the research.pdf); a non-technical general description, or public abstract, appears in the public.pdf file.Title from title screen of research.pdf file (viewed on August 9, 2007)Vita.Thesis (Ed. D.) University of Missouri-Columbia 2006.The purpose of this study was to investigate the methods of determining adequacy and equity through SB 287. The study examined the assumptions used in the calculation of adequacy and the extent to which the formula is successful in improving equity over the former formula that was developed by SB 380 in 1993. The researcher collected data from the Missouri Department of Elementary and Secondary Education. This data was used in correlation analysis to determine relationships between variables used to calculate the adequacy target. Correlations were performed between expenditure per pupil and APR scores, expenditure per pupil and percent free and reduced, expenditure per pupil and percent special education, and expenditure per pupil and percent limited English proficient. In addition, revenues per ADA under SB 380 were compared to revenues per ADA under SB 287 by calculating the coefficient of variation and the federal range ratio. Results of the study indicated that there was little correlation between the variables used to develop the adequacy target. This seemed to indicate that the successful schools method used in SB 287 to determine adequacy was invalid because it was based on the assumption that the variables are related. In addition, the results of the study indicated that the method of distributing funds decreased the variation in the amount per ADA. As a result, SB 287 seems to improve equity over the SB 380 formula.Includes bibliographical reference

Detoxification and stress response genes expressed in a western North American bumble bee, Bombus huntii (Hymenoptera: Apidae)

BACKGROUND: The Hunt bumble bee (Bombus huntii Greene, Hymenoptera: Apidae) is a holometabolous, social insect important as a pollinator in natural and agricultural ecosystems in western North America. Bumble bees spend a significant amount of time foraging on a wide variety of flowering plants, and this activity exposes them to both plant toxins and pesticides, posing a threat to individual and colony survival. Little is known about what detoxification pathways are active in bumble bees, how the expression of detoxification genes changes across life stages, or how the number of detoxification genes expressed in B. huntii compares to other insects. RESULTS: We found B. huntii expressed at least 584 genes associated with detoxification and stress responses. The expression levels of some of these genes, such as those encoding the cytochrome P450s, glutathione S-transferases (GSTs) and glycosidases, vary among different life stages to a greater extent than do other genes. We also found that the number of P450s, GSTs and esterase genes expressed by B. huntii is similar to the number of these genes found in the genomes of other bees, namely Bombus terrestris, Bombus impatiens, Apis mellifera and Megachile rotundata, but many fewer than are found in the fly Drosophila melanogaster. CONCLUSIONS: Bombus huntii has transcripts for a large number of detoxification and stress related proteins, including oxidation and reduction enzymes, conjugation enzymes, hydrolytic enzymes, ABC transporters, cadherins, and heat shock proteins. The diversity of genes expressed within some detoxification pathways varies among the life stages and castes, and we typically identified more genes in the adult females than in larvae, pupae, or adult males, for most pathways. Meanwhile, we found the numbers of detoxification and stress genes expressed by B. huntii to be more similar to other bees than to the fruit fly. The low number of detoxification genes, first noted in the honey bee, appears to be a common phenomenon among bees, and perhaps results from their symbiotic relationship with plants. Many flowering plants benefit from pollinators, and thus offer these insects rewards (such as nectar) rather than defensive plant toxins

Flux Confinement in Mesoscopic Superconductors

We report on flux confinement effects in superconducting submicron line, loop and dot structures. The main idea of our study was to vary the boundary conditions for confinement of the superconducting condensate by taking samples of different topology and, through that, modifying the lowest Landau level E_{LLL}(H). Since the critical temperature versus applied magnetic field T_{c}(H) is, in fact, E_{LLL}(H) measured in temperature units, it is varied as well when the sample topology is changed. We demonstrate that in all studied submicron structures the shape of the T_{c}(H) phase boundary is determined by the confinement topology in a unique way.Comment: 10 pages, 5 EPS figures, uses LaTeX's sup.sty, contribution to a special issue of "Superlattices and Microstructures

Occurrence of a Synchronous Hermaphroditic Striped Mullet, Mugil cephalus, from the Northern Gulf of Mexico

A synchronous hermaphroditic striped mullet, Mugil cephalus, was captured offshore of Southwest Pass, Louisiana on 6 December 1996 during the commercial roe mullet fishery harvest. The fish measured 412 mm FL, weighed 824 g and was determined to be 4 years old by otolith analysis. Gross examination of the gonads revealed four lobes: right and left ovaries and right and left testis which represents a unique occurrence among hermaphroditic fish. All lobes ended in a common sperm duct/oviduct with the exception of the left ovary which had no oviduct. Both ovaries contained vitellogenic oocytes and both testis had freely running spermatozoa. Histological examination showed many oocytes undergoing final oocyte maturation, the presence of some post ovulatory follicles and lobules full of tailed spermatozoa. There was no evidence of the intermingling of sperm and oocytes within the gonad. The capture of this fish on the spawning grounds and the advanced stage of both ovarian and testicular development suggests spawning probably would involve the release of both oocytes and spermatozoa

Global Sinusoidal Seasonality in Precipitation Isotopes

Quantifying seasonal variations in precipitation δ2H and δ18O is important for many stable isotope applications, including inferring plant water sources and streamflow ages. Our objective is to develop a data product that concisely quantifies the seasonality of stable isotope ratios in precipitation. We fit sine curves defined by amplitude, phase, and offset parameters to quantify annual precipitation isotope cycles at 653 meteorological stations on all seven continents. At most of these stations, including in tropical and subtropical regions, sine curves can represent the seasonal cycles in precipitation isotopes. Additionally, the amplitude, phase, and offset parameters of these sine curves correlate with site climatic and geographic characteristics. Multiple linear regression models based on these site characteristics capture most of the global variation in precipitation isotope amplitudes and offsets; while phase values were not well predicted by regression models globally, they were captured by zonal (0–30∘ and 30–90∘) regressions, which were then used to produce global maps. These global maps of sinusoidal seasonality in precipitation isotopes based on regression models were adjusted for the residual spatial variations that were not captured by the regression models. The resulting mean prediction errors were 0.49 ‰ for δ18O amplitude, 0.73 ‰ for δ18O offset (and 4.0 ‰ and 7.4 ‰ for δ2H amplitude and offset), 8 d for phase values at latitudes outside of 30∘, and 20 d for phase values at latitudes inside of 30∘. We make the gridded global maps of precipitation δ2H and δ18O seasonality publicly available. We also make tabulated site data and fitted sine curve parameters available to support the development of regionally calibrated models, which will often be more accurate than our global model for regionally specific studies

Win-wins or trade-offs? Site and strategy determine carbon and local ecosystem service benefits for protection, restoration, and agroforestry

Nature-based solutions (NBS) can deliver many benefits to human wellbeing, including some crucial to climate adaptation. We quantitatively assess the global potential of NBS strategies of protection, restoration, and agroforestry by modeling global climate change mitigation and local ecosystem services (water availability, sediment retention, runoff, pollination, nitrogen retention, green water storage, and coastal protection). The strategies with the most potential to help people do not necessarily deliver the most climate change mitigation: per area of conservation action, agroforestry provides substantial benefits (>20% increase in at least one local ecosystem service) to three times more people on average than reforestation while providing less than one tenth the carbon sequestration per unit area. Each strategy delivers a different suite of ecosystem service benefits; for instance, avoided forest conversion provides a strong increase in nitrogen retention (100% increase to 72 million people if fully implemented globally) while agroforestry increases pollination services (100% increase to 3.0 billion people if fully implemented globally). One common disservice shared by all the NBS strategies modeled here is that increased woody biomass increases transpiration, reducing annual runoff and in some watersheds negatively impacting local water availability. In addition, the places with the greatest potential for climate change mitigation are not necessarily the ones with the most people. For instance, reforestation in Latin America has the greatest climate change mitigation potential, but the greatest ecosystem service benefits are in Africa. Focusing on nations with high climate mitigation potential as well as high local ecosystem service potential, such as Nigeria in the case of reforestation, India for agroforestry, and the Republic of Congo for avoided forest conversion, can help identify win-win sites for implementation. We find that concentrating implementation of these three conservation strategies in critical places, covering 5.8 million km2, could benefit 2.0 billion people with increased local ecosystem services provision. These critical places cover only 35% of the possible area of implementation but would provide 80% of the benefits that are possible globally for the selected set of ecosystem services under the NBS scenarios examined here. We conclude that targeting these critical places for protection, restoration, and agroforestry interventions will be key to achieving adaptation and human wellbeing goals while also increasing nature-based carbon mitigation.Peer Reviewe

Interdigitated Paralemniscal and Lemniscal Pathways in the Mouse Barrel Cortex

Primary sensory cortical areas receive information through multiple thalamic channels. In the rodent whisker system, lemniscal and paralemniscal thalamocortical projections, from the ventral posteromedial nucleus (VPM) and posterior medial nucleus (POm) respectively, carry distinct types of sensory information to cortex. Little is known about how these separate streams of activity are parsed and integrated within the neocortical microcircuit. We used quantitative laser scanning photostimulation to probe the organization of functional thalamocortical and ascending intracortical projections in the mouse barrel cortex. To map the thalamocortical projections, we recorded from neocortical excitatory neurons while stimulating VPM or POm. Neurons in layers (L)4, L5, and L6A received dense input from thalamus (L4, L5B, and L6A from VPM; and L5A from POm), whereas L2/3 neurons rarely received thalamic input. We further mapped the lemniscal and paralemniscal circuits from L4 and L5A to L2/3. Lemniscal L4 neurons targeted L3 within a column. Paralemniscal L5A neurons targeted a superficial band (thickness, 60 μm) of neurons immediately below L1, defining a functionally distinct L2 in the mouse barrel cortex. L2 neurons received input from lemniscal L3 cells and paralemniscal L5A cells spread over multiple columns. Our data indicate that lemniscal and paralemniscal information is segregated into interdigitated cortical layers