Amine- and Sulfide-sensing Copper(I) Iodide Films

Copper(I) iodide films were cast onto glass from solution. The CuI films absorb vapor-phase amine and sulfide molecules, producing a range of photoluminescent emission colors. Spectroscopic data suggest the presence of low energy CuI cluster-centered transitions

Developing a Catalog of Socio-Sexual Behaviors of Beluga Whales ( Delphinapterus leucas ) in the Care of Humans

The repertoire of socio-sexual and sexual behaviors of cetaceans is relatively unknown. The purpose of the current study was to advance the existing knowledge of socio-sexual behavior of beluga whales through the development of a behavioral catalog that lists the full repertoire of sexual and socio-sexual behaviors. A behavioral catalog was developed initially from 800 hours of observations, collected across a 7-year period from 11 belugas ranging in age (birth to 30+ years), sex, and social groupings. Using this behavioral catalog, observations of eight additional belugas housed between two other facilities were coded for socio-sexual and sexual behaviors. Socio-sexual and sexual behaviors of belugas were similar across all three facilities. Socio-sexual and sexual behaviors involved sequenced behaviors, had lateralized components, and were often subtle in nature. Some of these behaviors overlapped with potentially aggressive actions but showed distinct differences in their form, or topography. Complexity and duration of socio-sexual interactions varied depending on the age and sex of the participating belugas. The development of a complete behavioral catalog, or ethogram, of the socio-sexual and sexual behaviors has profound influences on understanding the mechanisms involved for successful reproduction, a problem that several groups of belugas in their natural habitat are currently facing

Financial development and economic growth in an oil-rich economy: The case of Saudi Arabia

© 2014 Elsevier B.V.We investigate the effect of financial development on economic growth in the context of Saudi Arabia, an oil-rich economy. In doing so, we distinguish between the effects of financial development on the oil and non-oil sectors of the economy. Using the Autoregressive Distributed Lag (ARDL) Bounds test technique, we find that financial development has a positive impact on the growth of the non-oil sector. In contrast, its impact on the oil-sector growth and total GDP growth is either negative or insignificant. This suggests that the relationship between financial development and growth may be fundamentally different in resource-dominated economies

NXFit: A program for simultaneously fitting X-ray and neutron diffraction pair-distribution functions to provide optimized structural parameters

NXFit is a program for obtaining optimized structural parameters from amorphous materials by simultaneously fitting X-ray and neutron pair-distribution functions. Partial correlation functions are generated in Q space, summed and Fourier transformed for comparison with the experimental data in r space. NXFit uses the Nelder-Mead method to vary a set of 'best guess' parameters to achieve a fit to experimentally derived data. The output parameters from NXFit are coordination number, atomic separation and disorder parameter for each atomic correlation used in the fitting process. The use of NXFit has been demonstrated by fitting both X-ray and neutron diffraction data from two quite different amorphous materials: a melt-quenched (Na2O) 0.5(P2O5)0.5glass and a (TiO2)0.18(SiO2)0.82sol-gel

An intraoperative telemedicine program to improve perioperative quality measures: The ACTFAST-3 randomized clinical trial

IMPORTANCE: Telemedicine for clinical decision support has been adopted in many health care settings, but its utility in improving intraoperative care has not been assessed. OBJECTIVE: To pilot the implementation of a real-time intraoperative telemedicine decision support program and evaluate whether it reduces postoperative hypothermia and hyperglycemia as well as other quality of care measures. DESIGN, SETTING, AND PARTICIPANTS: This single-center pilot randomized clinical trial (Anesthesiology Control Tower-Feedback Alerts to Supplement Treatments [ACTFAST-3]) was conducted from April 3, 2017, to June 30, 2019, at a large academic medical center in the US. A total of 26 254 adult surgical patients were randomized to receive either usual intraoperative care (control group; n = 12 980) or usual care augmented by telemedicine decision support (intervention group; n = 13 274). Data were initially analyzed from April 22 to May 19, 2021, with updates in November 2022 and February 2023. INTERVENTION: Patients received either usual care (medical direction from the anesthesia care team) or intraoperative anesthesia care monitored and augmented by decision support from the Anesthesiology Control Tower (ACT), a real-time, live telemedicine intervention. The ACT incorporated remote monitoring of operating rooms by a team of anesthesia clinicians with customized analysis software. The ACT reviewed alerts and electronic health record data to inform recommendations to operating room clinicians. MAIN OUTCOMES AND MEASURES: The primary outcomes were avoidance of postoperative hypothermia (defined as the proportion of patients with a final recorded intraoperative core temperature \u3e36 °C) and hyperglycemia (defined as the proportion of patients with diabetes who had a blood glucose level ≤180 mg/dL on arrival to the postanesthesia recovery area). Secondary outcomes included intraoperative hypotension, temperature monitoring, timely antibiotic redosing, intraoperative glucose evaluation and management, neuromuscular blockade documentation, ventilator management, and volatile anesthetic overuse. RESULTS: Among 26 254 participants, 13 393 (51.0%) were female and 20 169 (76.8%) were White, with a median (IQR) age of 60 (47-69) years. There was no treatment effect on avoidance of hyperglycemia (7445 of 8676 patients [85.8%] in the intervention group vs 7559 of 8815 [85.8%] in the control group; rate ratio [RR], 1.00; 95% CI, 0.99-1.01) or hypothermia (7602 of 11 447 patients [66.4%] in the intervention group vs 7783 of 11 672 [66.7.%] in the control group; RR, 1.00; 95% CI, 0.97-1.02). Intraoperative glucose measurement was more common among patients with diabetes in the intervention group (RR, 1.07; 95% CI, 1.01-1.15), but other secondary outcomes were not significantly different. CONCLUSIONS AND RELEVANCE: In this randomized clinical trial, anesthesia care quality measures did not differ between groups, with high confidence in the findings. These results suggest that the intervention did not affect the targeted care practices. Further streamlining of clinical decision support and workflows may help the intraoperative telemedicine program achieve improvement in targeted clinical measures. TRIAL REGISTRATION: ClinicalTrials.gov Identifier: NCT02830126

Observations of mixed-species bird flocks at Kichwa Tembo Camp, Kenya

Mixed-species foraging flocks were studied at Kichwa Tembo Camp on the edge of the Masai Mara National Reserve in Kenya between July and September 2004. Observations were made on 29 mixed-species flocks, in which 24 species participated. African Paradise-Flycatcher Terpsiphone viridis, Black-backed Puffback Dryoscopus cubla, Grey-backed Camaroptera Camaroptera brachyura, Collared Sunbird Hedydipna collars and Cabanis's Greenbul Phyllastrephus cabanisi were the most common participants in mixed-species flocks, as well as among the most frequently encountered bird species overall. The Black-backed Puffback was identified as the nuclear species in flocks due to their abundance and frequency with which they were followed by other species. Mixed-species flocks represent another niche dimension in this diverse bird community, but few of these species could be described as flock specialists; most of the birds observed in mixed-species flocks in this study were opportunistic attendant species, including the African Pygmy-Kingfisher Ispidina picta, not previously described as joining mixed-species flocks

First case of childhood Takayasu arteritis with renal artery aneurysms

Takayasu arteritis is a large vessel systemic granulomatous vasculitis characterized by stenosis or obliteration of large and medium sized arteries. It commonly involves elastic arteries such as the aorta and its main branches. Renal artery involvement is rare and has not been reported in a child. We report a 12-year-old boy with Takayasu arteritis who developed severe hypertension, proteinuria, microscopic hematuria and renal dysfunction. Conventional angiography demonstrated aneurysms of both renal arteries and multiple microaneurysms of the superior mesenteric artery. This case report illustrates that the children with Takayasu arteritis can develop renal involvement resulting in hematuria, proteinuria and even renal failure

Multiple ITS Copies Reveal Extensive Hybridization within Rheum (Polygonaceae), a Genus That Has Undergone Rapid Radiation

During adaptive radiation events, characters can arise multiple times due to parallel evolution, but transfer of traits through hybridization provides an alternative explanation for the same character appearing in apparently non-sister lineages. The signature of hybridization can be detected in incongruence between phylogenies derived from different markers, or from the presence of two divergent versions of a nuclear marker such as ITS within one individual.In this study, we cloned and sequenced ITS regions for 30 species of the genus Rheum, and compared them with a cpDNA phylogeny. Seven species contained two divergent copies of ITS that resolved in different clades from one another in each case, indicating hybridization events too recent for concerted evolution to have homogenised the ITS sequences. Hybridization was also indicated in at least two further species via incongruence in their position between ITS and cpDNA phylogenies. None of the ITS sequences present in these nine species matched those detected in any other species, which provides tentative evidence against recent introgression as an explanation. Rheum globulosum, previously indicated by cpDNA to represent an independent origin of decumbent habit, is indicated by ITS to be part of clade of decumbent species, which acquired cpDNA of another clade via hybridization. However decumbent and glasshouse morphology are confirmed to have arisen three and two times, respectively.These findings suggested that hybridization among QTP species of Rheum has been extensive, and that a role of hybridization in diversification of Rheum requires investigation

Depression and sickness behavior are Janus-faced responses to shared inflammatory pathways

It is of considerable translational importance whether depression is a form or a consequence of sickness behavior. Sickness behavior is a behavioral complex induced by infections and immune trauma and mediated by pro-inflammatory cytokines. It is an adaptive response that enhances recovery by conserving energy to combat acute inflammation. There are considerable phenomenological similarities between sickness behavior and depression, for example, behavioral inhibition, anorexia and weight loss, and melancholic (anhedonia), physio-somatic (fatigue, hyperalgesia, malaise), anxiety and neurocognitive symptoms. In clinical depression, however, a transition occurs to sensitization of immuno-inflammatory pathways, progressive damage by oxidative and nitrosative stress to lipids, proteins, and DNA, and autoimmune responses directed against self-epitopes. The latter mechanisms are the substrate of a neuroprogressive process, whereby multiple depressive episodes cause neural tissue damage and consequent functional and cognitive sequelae. Thus, shared immuno-inflammatory pathways underpin the physiology of sickness behavior and the pathophysiology of clinical depression explaining their partially overlapping phenomenology. Inflammation may provoke a Janus-faced response with a good, acute side, generating protective inflammation through sickness behavior and a bad, chronic side, for example, clinical depression, a lifelong disorder with positive feedback loops between (neuro)inflammation and (neuro)degenerative processes following less well defined triggers

Linkages between financial development, financial instability, financial liberalisation and economic growth in Africa

In the aftermath of the 2008 global financial crisis, the implications of financial liberalisation for stability and economic growth has come under increased scrutiny. One strand of literature posits a positive relationship between financial liberalisation and economic growth and development. However, others emphasise the link between financial liberalisation is intrinsically associated with financial instability which may be harmful to economic growth and development. This study assesses linkages between financial instability, financial liberalisation, financial development and economic growth in 41 African countries for the period 1985-2010. The results suggest that financial development and financial liberalisation have positive effects on financial instability. The findings also reveal that economic growth reduces financial instability and the magnitude of reduction is higher in the pre-liberalisation period compared to post-liberalisation period