Taking Tasers Seriously: The Need for Better Regulation of Stun Guns in New York

This report analyzes 851 Taser incident reports from eight police departments across the state as well as 10 departments' policies and guidelines for using the weapons, which deliver up to 50,000 volts of electricity and have caused the deaths of more than a dozen New Yorkers in recent years. The report concludes that police officers throughout New York State are consistently misusing and overusing Tasers

Knowledge management: Using a knowledge requirements framework to enhance UK health sector supply chains

The gaps of mismatch both knowledge and understanding of beneficiaries and solution providers at the initial stage of developing projects have led to the failures of many projects including supply chains (SC) and related information technology systems (ITS) projects (Lyytinen and Hirschheim, 1987) . The aims of this paper are first, to address theoretical framework by bridging the gaps of different types of knowledge. Second, to establishing business requirements and the flow of information in supply chains between beneficiaries and solution providers in the long and complicated supply chains of the UK’s Health Sector. On the basis of brief introduction to knowledge, knowledge management and supply chain, the paper presents a practical framework that has been developed through critical and relevant literatures in the above three subject areas. Techniques and Tools stem from both management science and information systems were used to provide a possible solution for the problem in bridging the gaps of mismatch knowledge and understanding at the initial stage of identifying requirements in projects through knowledge sharing and transfer

Effect of screening abdominal ultrasound examination on the decision to pursue advanced diagnostic tests and treatment in dogs with neurologic disease.

BackgroundAbdominal ultrasound examinations (AUS) are commonly performed before advanced neurodiagnostics to screen for diseases that might affect diagnostic plans and prognosis.ObjectivesDescribe the type and frequency of abnormalities found by AUS in dogs presenting with a neurological condition, identify risk factors associated with abnormalities, and evaluate treatment decisions based on findings.AnimalsSeven hundred and fifty-nine hospitalized dogs.MethodsRetrospective study. Medical records of dogs presented from 2007 to 2009 for neurologic disease were searched for signalment, neuroanatomic localization, and AUS findings. Whether dogs had advanced neurodiagnostics and treatment was analyzed.ResultsFifty-eight percent of dogs had abnormal findings on AUS. Probability of abnormalities increased with age (P < 0.001). Nondachshund breeds had higher probability of abnormal AUS than dachshunds (odds ratio [OR] = 1.87). Eleven percent of dogs did not have advanced neurodiagnostics and in 1.3%, this was because of abnormal AUS. Dogs with ultrasonographic abnormalities were less likely than dogs without to have advanced neurodiagnostics (OR = 0.3 [95% confidence interval [CI]: 0.17, 0.52]), however, the probability of performing advanced diagnostics was high regardless of normal (OR = 0.95 [95% CI: 0.92, 0.97]) or abnormal (OR = 0.85 [95% CI: 0.81, 0.88]) AUS. Treatment was more often pursued in small dogs and less often in dogs with brain disease.Conclusions and clinical importanceFindings from screening AUS had a small negative effect on the likelihood of pursuing advanced neurodiagnostics. Although it should be included in the extracranial diagnostic workup in dogs with significant history or physical examination abnormalities, AUS is considered a low-yield diagnostic test in young dogs and dachshunds

Altmetrics and the Scholarly Legacy

When using altmetrics to investigate the impact of a scholar's work, researchers and librarians are typically cautioned that altmetrics will be less useful for older works of scholarship. This is because it is difficult to collect social media and other attention retroactively, and the numbers will be lower if the work was published before social media marketing and promotion were widely accepted in a field. In this poster, we show that altmetrics can provide useful information about older works in the form of documenting renewed attention to past scholarship as part of a scholar's legacy. Using the PlumX profile of the late Dr. Thomas E. Starzl, often referred to as "the father of modern transplantation", we describe two cases where altmetrics provided information about renewed interest in his works: a controversy about race and genetics, and posthumous remembrances by colleagues of his contributions to a field

Tuberculosis in Dr Granville's mummy: a molecular re-examination of the earliest known Egyptian mummy to be scientifically examined and given a medical diagnosis

‘Dr Granville's mummy’ was described to the Royal Society of London in 1825 and was the first ancient Egyptian mummy to be subjected to a scientific autopsy. The remains are those of a woman, Irtyersenu, aged about 50, from the necropolis of Thebes and dated to about 600 BC. Augustus Bozzi Granville (1783–1872), an eminent physician and obstetrician, described many organs still in situ and attributed the cause of death to a tumour of the ovary. However, subsequent histological investigations indicate that the tumour is a benign cystadenoma. Histology of the lungs demonstrated a potentially fatal pulmonary exudate and earlier studies attempted to associate this with particular disease conditions. Palaeopathology and ancient DNA analyses show that tuberculosis was widespread in ancient Egypt, so a systematic search for tuberculosis was made, using specific DNA and lipid biomarker analyses. Clear evidence for Mycobacterium tuberculosis complex DNA was obtained in lung tissue and gall bladder samples, based on nested PCR of the IS6110 locus. Lung and femurs were positive for specific M. tuberculosis complex cell-wall mycolic acids, demonstrated by high-performance liquid chromatography of pyrenebutyric acid–pentafluorobenzyl mycolates. Therefore, tuberculosis is likely to have been the major cause of death of Irtyersenu

Statistical Estimate of Radon Concentration from Passive and Active Detectors in Doha

Harnessing knowledge on the physical and natural conditions that affect our health, general livelihood and sustainability has long been at the core of scientific research. Health risks of ionising radiation from exposure to radon and radon decay products in homes, work and other public places entail developing novel approaches to modelling occurrence of the gas and its decaying products, in order to cope with the physical and natural dynamics in human habitats. Various data modelling approaches and techniques have been developed and applied to identify potential relationships among individual local meteorological parameters with a potential impact on radon concentrations—i.e., temperature, barometric pressure and relative humidity. In this first research work on radon concentrations in the State of Qatar, we present a combination of exploratory, visualisation and algorithmic estimation methods to try and understand the radon variations in and around the city of Doha. Data were obtained from the Central Radiation Laboratories (CRL) in Doha, gathered from 36 passive radon detectors deployed in various schools, residential and work places in and around Doha as well as from one active radon detector located at the CRL. Our key findings show high variations mainly attributable to technical variations in data gathering, as the equipment and devices appear to heavily influence the levels of radon detected. A parameter maximisation method applied to simulate data with similar behaviour to the data from the passive detectors in four of the neighbourhoods appears appropriate for estimating parameters in cases of data limitation. Data from the active detector exhibit interesting seasonal variations—with data clustering exhibiting two clearly separable groups, with passive and active detectors exhibiting a huge disagreement in readings. These patterns highlight challenges related to detection methods—in particular ensuring that deployed detectors and calculations of radon concentrations are adapted to local conditions. The study doesn’t dwell much on building materials and makes rather fundamental assumptions, including an equal exhalation rate of radon from the soil across neighbourhoods, based on Doha’s homogeneous underlying geological formation. The study also highlights potential extensions into the broader category of pollutants such as hydrocarbon, air particulate carbon monoxide and nitrogen dioxide at specific time periods of the year and particularly how they may tie in with global health institutions’ requirements

Shear design of HSC beams with combination of links and horizontal web steel

The existing recommendations in Eurocode 2 and the British Code of Practice for the shear design of beams are derived from research conducted essentially on normal-strength concrete (NSC) with cube strengths up to 50 MPa, and it was found that the shear strengths of high-strength concrete (HSC) members made with limestone aggregate are below the characteristic resistances of identical NSC members. Previous experimental tests have also shown that significant differences exist in the angle of crack of shear failure of NSC and HSC. This paper presents data from five beam tests, which demonstrate that HSC with limestone aggregate has a reduced shear strength compared with NSC made with gravel and thus shows a gap in knowledge in the design approach to shear resistance of HSC beams. Previous investigations have suggested that horizontal web steels can contribute to the overall shear resistance of a reinforced concrete member in conjunction with the other constituents, concrete, tension and shear steel. The paper also presents data from tests on 11 beam tests and shows that the shear resistance of HSC beams is highly dependent on dowel action resulting from horizontal web bars positioned at the centre of the depth of the beam. Past attempts to quantify this dowel action are investigated and an improved design rule is proposed

Soil Moisture Conditions and Crop Water Use

Soil moisture during the growing season is essential to obtain optimal yield. Optimal yield is affected by the availability of moisture as stored water in the soil profile or timely recharge during rain events. Soil texture, tillage practices, residue cover, drainage and weed control can play a significant role in soil moisture availability. Generally, the no-till system is the most effective practice in conserving soil moisture among other tillage systems, especially during dry periods in rain-fed agricultural areas

Identification of 2-Aminothiazole-4-Carboxylate Derivatives Active against Mycobacterium tuberculosis H37Rv and the β-Ketoacyl-ACP Synthase mtFabH

Background Tuberculosis (TB) is a disease which kills two million people every year and infects approximately over one-third of the world's population. The difficulty in managing tuberculosis is the prolonged treatment duration, the emergence of drug resistance and co-infection with HIV/AIDS. Tuberculosis control requires new drugs that act at novel drug targets to help combat resistant forms of Mycobacterium tuberculosis and reduce treatment duration. Methodology/Principal Findings Our approach was to modify the naturally occurring and synthetically challenging antibiotic thiolactomycin (TLM) to the more tractable 2-aminothiazole-4-carboxylate scaffold to generate compounds that mimic TLM's novel mode of action. We report here the identification of a series of compounds possessing excellent activity against M. tuberculosis H37Rv and, dissociatively, against the β-ketoacyl synthase enzyme mtFabH which is targeted by TLM. Specifically, methyl 2-amino-5-benzylthiazole-4-carboxylate was found to inhibit M. tuberculosis H37Rv with an MIC of 0.06 µg/ml (240 nM), but showed no activity against mtFabH, whereas methyl 2-(2-bromoacetamido)-5-(3-chlorophenyl)t​hiazole-4-carboxylateinhibited mtFabH with an IC50 of 0.95±0.05 µg/ml (2.43±0.13 µM) but was not active against the whole cell organism. Conclusions/Significance These findings clearly identify the 2-aminothiazole-4-carboxylate scaffold as a promising new template towards the discovery of a new class of anti-tubercular agents

Spectropolarimetric Variability and Co-Rotating Structure in HD 92207

We report on low resolution (R~3000) spectropolarimetry of the A0 supergiant star HD 92207. This star is well-known for significant spectral variability. The source was observed on seven different nights spanning approximately 3 months in time. With a rotation period of approximately 1 year, our data covers approximately a quarter of the star's rotational phase. Variability in the continuum polarization level is observed over this period of time. The polarization across the Halpha line on any given night is typically different from the degree and position angle of the polarization in the continuum. Interestingly, Hbeta is not in emission and does not show polarimetric variability. We associate the changes at Halpha as arising in the wind, which is in accord with the observed changes in the profile shape and equivalent width of Halpha along with the polarimetric variability. For the continuum polarization, we explore a spiral shaped wind density enhancement in the equatorial plane of the star, in keeping with the suggestion of Kaufer etal (1997). Variable polarization signatures across Halpha are too complex to be explained by this simple model and will require a more intensive polarimetric follow-up study to interpret properly.Comment: to appear in A