Vulnerability Assessment for Groundwater Dependent Streams

This guidance document “Vulnerability Assessment for Groundwater Dependent Streams”, describes a multi-step, risk-based approach for evaluating the vulnerability of groundwater dependent streams to changes in the aquifer system. There is a particular emphasis on the summer low flow period, because it is during this time that streams can be sensitive to changes in the aquifer system; however, in principle the methodology can be used to assess stream vulnerability year round

An Assessment of the Methodologies Used for Analyzing Hydraulic Test Data from Bedrock Wells in British Columbia

Hydraulic test data are typically analyzed using one of several common analytical methods (e.g. Theis, Cooper-Jacob). However, each analytical method has its specific limitations, and should be used only when the assumptions inherent to the model are valid for the aquifer being characterized. The aim of this research was to identify what types of flow conditions are typically present in bedrock aquifers around the province of BC to determine how these are manifest as subtle departures from ideal flow conditions as exhibited in the hydraulic test data

Climate Change and Health in British Columbia: Projected Impacts and a Proposed Agenda for Adaptation Research and Policy

This is a case study describing how climate change may affect the health of British Columbians and to suggest a way forward to promote health and policy research, and adaptation to these changes. After reviewing the limited evidence of the impacts of climate change on human health we have developed five principles to guide the development of research and policy to better predict future impacts of climate change on health and to enhance adaptation to these change in BC. We suggest that, with some modification, these principles will be useful to policy makers in other jurisdictions

How Important Are Those Fracture Zones? Scale Dependent Characteristics Revealed Through Field Studies and an Integrated Hydrological Model of a Mountain Headwater Catchment

Modeling groundwater flow in bedrock can be particularly challenging due to heterogeneities associated with fracture zones. However, fracture zones can be difficult to map, particularly in forested areas where tree cover obscures land surface features. This study presents the evidence of fracture zones in a small, snowmelt-dominated mountain headwater catchment and explores the significance of these fracture zones on groundwater flow in the catchment. A newly acquired bare earth image acquired using LiDAR identifies a previously undetected linear erosion zone that passes near a deep bedrock well at low elevation in the catchment. Borehole geophysical logs indicate more intense fracturing in this well compared to two wells at higher elevation. The well also exhibited a linear flow response during a pumping test, which is interpreted to reflect the influence of a nearby vertical fracture zone. The major ion chemistry and stable isotope composition reveal a slightly different chemical composition and a more depleted isotopic signature for this well compared to other groundwaters and surface waters sampled throughout the catchment. With this evidence of fracturing at the well scale, an integrated land surface – subsurface hydrologic model is used to explore four different model structures at the catchment scale. The model is refined in steps, beginning with a single homogeneous bedrock layer, and progressively adding 1) a network of large-scale fracture zones within the bedrock, 2) a weathered bedrock zone, and 3) an updated LiDAR-derived digital elevation model, to gain insight into how increasing subsurface geological complexity and land surface topography influence model fit to observed data and the various water balance components. Ultimately, all of the models are considered plausible, with similar overall fit to observed data (snow, streamflow, pressure heads in piezometers, and groundwater levels) and water balance results. However, the models with fracture zones and a weathered zone had better fits for the low elevation well. These models contributed slightly more baseflow (~14% of streamflow) compared to models without a weathered zone (~1%). Thus, in the watershed scale model, including a weathered bedrock zone appears to more strongly influence the hydrology than only including fracture zones

Propagators for p-forms in AdS_{2p+1} and correlation functions in the AdS_7/(2,0) CFT correspondence

In AdS_{2p+1} we construct propagators for p-forms whose lagrangians contain terms of the form A / d A. In particular we explore the case of forms satisfying ``self duality in odd dimensions'', and the case of forms with a topological mass term. We point out that the ``complete'' set of maximally symmetric bitensors previously used in all the other propagator papers is incomplete - there exists another bitensor which can and does appear in the formulas for the propagators in this particular case. Nevertheless, its presence does not affect the other propagators computed so far. On the AdS side of the correspondence we compute the 2 and 3 point functions involving the self-dual tensor of the maximal 7d gauged supergravity (sugra), S_{\mu\nu\rho}. Since the 7 dimensional antisymmetric self-dual tensor obeys first order field equations (S + * d S=0), to get a nonvanishing 2 point function we add a certain boundary term (to satisfy the variational principle on a manifold with boundary) to the 7d action. The 3 point functions we compute are of the type SSB and SBB, describing vertex interactions with the gauge fields B_{\mu}.Comment: 21 pages, Latex file, one reference adde

Broader impacts of an intervention to transform school environments on student behaviour and school functioning: post hoc analyses from the INCLUSIVE cluster randomised controlled trial.

BACKGROUND: We have previously reported benefits for reduced bullying, smoking, alcohol and other drug use and mental health from a trial of 'Learning Together', an intervention that aimed to modify school environments and implement restorative practice and a social and emotional skill curriculum. OBJECTIVES: To conduct post hoc theory-driven analyses of broader impacts. DESIGN: Cluster randomised trial. SETTINGS: 40 state secondary schools in southern England. PARTICIPANTS: Students aged 11/12 years at baseline. OUTCOMES: Student self-reported measures at 24 and 36 months of: cyberbullying victimisation and perpetration; observations of other students perpetrating aggressive behaviours at school; own perpetration of aggressive behaviours in and outside school; perceived lack of safety at school; participation in school disciplinary procedures; truancy and e-cigarette use. RESULTS: We found evidence of multiple impacts on other health (reduced e-cigarette use, cyberbullying perpetration, perpetration of aggressive behaviours) and educational (reduced participation in school disciplinary procedures and truancy) outcomes. CONCLUSION: These analyses suggested that the intervention was effective in bringing about a broader range of beneficial outcomes, adding to the evidence that the intervention is a promising approach to promote adolescent health via an intervention that is attractive to schools. TRIAL REGISTRATION NUMBER: ISRCTN10751359

Susceptibility of Beavers to Chronic Wasting Disease

Chronic wasting disease (CWD) is a contagious, fatal, neurodegenerative prion disease of cervids. The expanding geographical range and rising prevalence of CWD are increasing the risk of pathogen transfer and spillover of CWD to non-cervid sympatric species. As beavers have close contact with environmental and food sources of CWD infectivity, we hypothesized that they may be susceptible to CWD prions. We evaluated the susceptibility of beavers to prion diseases by challenging transgenic mice expressing beaver prion protein (tgBeaver) with five strains of CWD, four isolates of rodent-adapted prions and one strain of Creutzfeldt–Jakob disease. All CWD strains transmitted to the tgBeaver mice, with attack rates highest from moose CWD and the 116AG and H95+ strains of deer CWD. Mouse-, rat-, and especially hamster-adapted prions were also transmitted with complete attack rates and short incubation periods. We conclude that the beaver prion protein is an excellent substrate for sustaining prion replication and that beavers are at risk for CWD pathogen transfer and spillover. © 2022 by the authors. Licensee MDPI, Basel, Switzerland

Implementation of the Good School Toolkit in Uganda: a quantitative process evaluation of a successful violence prevention program.

BACKGROUND: The Good School Toolkit, a complex behavioural intervention designed by Raising Voices a Ugandan NGO, reduced past week physical violence from school staff to primary students by an average of 42% in a recent randomised controlled trial. This process evaluation quantitatively examines what was implemented across the twenty-one intervention schools, variations in school prevalence of violence after the intervention, factors that influence exposure to the intervention and factors associated with students' experience of physical violence from staff at study endline. METHODS: Implementation measures were captured prospectively in the twenty-one intervention schools over four school terms from 2012 to 2014 and Toolkit exposure captured in the student (n = 1921) and staff (n = 286) endline cross-sectional surveys in 2014. Implementation measures and the prevalence of violence are summarised across schools and are assessed for correlation using Spearman's Rank Correlation Coefficient. Regression models are used to explore individual factors associated with Toolkit exposure and with physical violence at endline. RESULTS: School prevalence of past week physical violence from staff against students ranged from 7% to 65% across schools at endline. Schools with higher mean levels of teacher Toolkit exposure had larger decreases in violence during the study. Students in schools categorised as implementing a 'low' number of program school-led activities reported less exposure to the Toolkit. Higher student Toolkit exposure was associated with decreased odds of experiencing physical violence from staff (OR: 0.76, 95%CI: 0.67-0.86, p-value< 0.001). Girls, students reporting poorer mental health and students in a lower grade were less exposed to the toolkit. After the intervention, and when adjusting for individual Toolkit exposure, some students remained at increased risk of experiencing violence from staff, including, girls, students reporting poorer mental health, students who experienced other violence and those reporting difficulty with self-care. CONCLUSIONS: Our results suggest that increasing students and teachers exposure to the Good School Toolkit within schools has the potential to bring about further reductions in violence. Effectiveness of the Toolkit may be increased by further targeting and supporting teachers' engagement with girls and students with mental health difficulties. TRIAL REGISTRATION: The trial is registered at clinicaltrials.gov , NCT01678846, August 24th 2012

Initiating change locally in bullying and aggression through the school environment (INCLUSIVE) trial: update to cluster randomised controlled trial protocol.

BACKGROUND: Systematic reviews suggest that multi-component interventions are effective in reducing bullying victimisation and perpetration. We are undertaking a phase III randomised trial of the INCLUSIVE multi-component intervention. This trial aims to assess the effectiveness and cost-effectiveness of the INCLUSIVE intervention in reducing aggression and bullying victimisation in English secondary schools. This paper updates the original trial protocol published in 2014 (Trials 15:381, 2014) and presents the changes in the process evaluation protocol and the secondary outcome data collection. METHODS: The methods are summarised as follows. DESIGN: cluster randomised trial. PARTICIPANTS: 40 state secondary schools. Outcomes assessed among the cohort of students at the end of year 7 (n = 6667) at baseline. INTERVENTION: INCLUSIVE is a multi-component school intervention including a social and emotional learning curriculum, changes to school environment (an action group comprising staff and students reviews local data on needs to review rules and policies and determine other local actions) and staff training in restorative practice. The intervention will be delivered by schools supported in the first two years by educational facilitators independent of the research team, with a third intervention year involving no external facilitation but all other elements. Comparator: normal practice. OUTCOMES: Primary: Two primary outcomes at student level assessed at baseline and at 36 months: 1. Aggressive behaviours in school: Edinburgh Study of Youth Transitions and Crime school misbehaviour subscale (ESYTC) 2. Bullying and victimisation: Gatehouse Bullying Scale (GBS) Secondary outcomes assessed at baseline, 24 and 36 months will include measures relating to the economic evaluation, psychosocial outcomes in students and staff and school-level truancy and exclusion rates. SAMPLE SIZE: 20 schools per arm will provide 90% power to identify an effect size of 0.25 SD with a 5% significance level. Randomisation: eligible consenting schools were randomised stratified for single-sex versus mixed-sex schools, school-level deprivation and measures of school attainment. DISCUSSION: The trial involves independent research and intervention teams and is supervised by a Trial Steering Committee and a Data Monitoring Committee. TRIAL REGISTRATION: Current Controlled Trials, ISRCTN10751359 . Registered on 11 March 2014

Mapping the spatiotemporal dynamics of calcium signaling in cellular neural networks using optical flow

An optical flow gradient algorithm was applied to spontaneously forming net- works of neurons and glia in culture imaged by fluorescence optical microscopy in order to map functional calcium signaling with single pixel resolution. Optical flow estimates the direction and speed of motion of objects in an image between subsequent frames in a recorded digital sequence of images (i.e. a movie). Computed vector field outputs by the algorithm were able to track the spatiotemporal dynamics of calcium signaling pat- terns. We begin by briefly reviewing the mathematics of the optical flow algorithm, and then describe how to solve for the displacement vectors and how to measure their reliability. We then compare computed flow vectors with manually estimated vectors for the progression of a calcium signal recorded from representative astrocyte cultures. Finally, we applied the algorithm to preparations of primary astrocytes and hippocampal neurons and to the rMC-1 Muller glial cell line in order to illustrate the capability of the algorithm for capturing different types of spatiotemporal calcium activity. We discuss the imaging requirements, parameter selection and threshold selection for reliable measurements, and offer perspectives on uses of the vector data.Comment: 23 pages, 5 figures. Peer reviewed accepted version in press in Annals of Biomedical Engineerin