Age and Huddling as Determinants of Metabolic Rate in Grasshopper Mice (Onychomys leucogaster)

The metabolic rates of grasshopper mice (Onychomys leucogaster) were determined every third day from birth to adulthood. Metabolic rates were quantitated by measuring oxygen consumption in an open circuit system. There was a rapid fall in oxygen consumption from the third day after birth until the ninth day. Mice which were housed separately assumed a constant metabolic rate at an earlier age than mice which were kept with litter-mates. The greatest increases in metabolism occurred when immature mice were separated from litter-mates for oxygen consumption determinations. It is concluded that huddling plays an important role in reducing the metabolic rate of young grasshopper mice

Ballad Health: Understanding Appalachia’s Regional Healthcare Monopoly

The Ballad Health merger of 2018, which combined the now 21 hospitals in the region under one organization, has impacted the healthcare landscape in Northeast Tennessee and Southwest Virginia. Historically, Appalachia has had to persevere through primary physician shortages, a lack of specialty care, geographic obstacles to accessing healthcare, challenges related to substance abuse, and much more. Since the merger of Mountain States Health Alliance and Wellmont Health System, little research has been done to assess the perceived impact the aggregation of providers has had on the population it serves. This study utilizes an online survey to better understand the perceived changes in quality and delivery of healthcare provided by Ballad Health in the Tennessee counties of Greene, Washington, Sullivan, Unicoi, Hawkins, Carter, Hancock, and Johnson. After survey data was collected, researchers analyzed participant responses to try to quantify the impact on quality and delivery of healthcare services after the Ballad Merger. The 683 completed surveys showed an almost 2 point difference in overall quality between the two time periods, and a negative trend for every dependent variable that seeks to measure delivery. The data not only shows dissatisfaction with the quality and delivery of services offered by Ballad Health, but a clear negative impact on individuals\u27 perception of healthcare in general

A test of the nutrient-productivity model in the Gulf of Maine using the intertidal mussel Mytilus edulis

Historical concepts of top-down control (predator-prey interactions) on rocky intertidal community structure have transitioned to studies on bottom-up effects (nutrient supply and larval transport) as significant factors affecting rocky intertidal community structure. Studies performed on rocky intertidal locations along the Gulf of Maine (GOM) at multiple sites and seasons in 2004 and 2006 examined the ecology of Mytilus edulis populations by measuring size frequency distributions, diet quality (stable isotope composition) and physiological performance of individuals using condition indices and RNA/DNA ratios. Data were correlated to satellite imagery for sea surface temperature and chlorophyll a concentration and individuals were genetically tested to look for lineage sorting. Populations of M. edulis in the GOM were found to be genetically homogenous, consuming a mixed diet of phytoplankton and detritus, with shell size and physiological performance tied to chlorophyll a concentration and temperature, providing strong evidence for community structure being linked to environmental variability

Sexual arousal and masculinity-femininity of women.

Studies with volunteers in sexual arousal experiments suggest that women are, on average, physiologically sexually aroused to both male and female sexual stimuli. Lesbians are the exception because they tend to be more aroused to their preferred sex than the other sex, a pattern typically seen in men. A separate research line suggests that lesbians are, on average, more masculine than straight women in their nonsexual behaviors and characteristics. Hence, a common influence could affect the expression of male-typical sexual and nonsexual traits in some women. By integrating these research programs, we tested the hypothesis that male-typical sexual arousal of lesbians relates to their nonsexual masculinity. Moreover, the most masculine-behaving lesbians, in particular, could show the most male-typical sexual responses. Across combined data, Study 1 examined these patterns in women’s genital arousal and self-reports of masculine and feminine behaviors. Study 2 examined these patterns with another measure of sexual arousal, pupil dilation to sexual stimuli, and with observer-rated masculinity-femininity in addition to self-reported masculinity-femininity. Although both studies confirmed that lesbians were more male-typical in their sexual arousal and nonsexual characteristics, on average, there were no indications that these 2 patterns were in any way connected. Thus, women’s sexual responses and nonsexual traits might be masculinized by independent factors

Adequately assessing dehydration: A holy grail of paediatric emergency medicine

We read the work by Pringle at al. [1] with interest. One of the holy grails of Paediatric Emergency Medicine has been the rapid and reliable identification of the child with serious dehydration, and the converse, the ability to know when to safely discharge a child with a history of gastroenteritis. Recently there has been an external validation of a previously derived clinical dehydration scale by Bailey et al. [2]. It is encouraging to see this type of study as too often scoring systems are created without further testing. However we wondered about the generalisability of this result to routine Pediatric Emergency Care. Specifically we noted that in that study participating nurses undertook an additional training programme prior to study commencement. Is the score still valid if used by Pediatric Emergency Care staff who have not had this additional training? Our previous work has shown that experience and training in assessment may be vital in correctly assigning dehydration categories in children [3]. We found significant variability between junior doctors' assessments of dehydration compared to their seniors. We concluded previous studies on dehydration scoring systems may have benefited from well-trained staff and the introduction of these systems to naive health care professionals may not replicate initial results. The Pringle et al. study, while containing only a small number of subjects, challenges this conclusion again as it appears the care setting may influence the utility of the tool. The holy grail has yet to be found

DETC2004-57620 RUNNING UNDERGRADUATE PROJECTS IN DEVELOPING COMMUNITIES: IMPLEMENTING A HEALTHCARE INFORMATION SYSTEM IN A HISPANIC, BORDER COMMUNITY

ABSTRACT An information system was designed for a non-profit organization located in an international, developing community for an undergraduate engineering course. The project team went through the process of identifying needs, generating concepts, selecting a design, and implementing and testing the final design. In this paper, similarities and differences of this project compared to other projects in the course are explored. The team was confronted with unique problems resulting from working with an international sponsor in a developing community. Communication and donations of varying types were important players in overcoming these obstacles. FRAME OF REFERENCE Interdisciplinary Design at the University of Arizona ENGR 498, Cross-disciplinary Engineering Design, is a two-semester course at the University of Arizona in which teams of students from different majors work with a project sponsor on a single design project. A highly abstracted version of the design process taught in ENGR 498 is shown i

Representing the Intertwined Visual And Heritage Implications of Sea-level Rise

Visualizing the impacts of urban development, energy infrastructure and forest harvest practices has become a key element in the discussion and approval or rejection of development plans. Great efforts are expended to achieve accuracy and repeatability in representation to ensure that decision-making is well-informed. Professional ethics on the part of those creating the visualizations generally require fact-based representations that minimize appeal to the emotions. “Sense of place”, an aesthetic or culturally-driven response, is implicitly active in determining the appropriateness, or not, of a landscape intervention but has not lent itself to systematic scientific study. Perceived sense of place may, however, be disproportionately active in determining people’s reactions to the incremental impacts of climate change. There is substantial evidence that, despite science-based projections of future flood and damage-prone areas, people will choose to stay in place—for many reasons but importantly because of attachment to place, an emotional response. Addressing the effects of climate change might then require directly representing altered sense of place in order to motivate people to act wisely in the face of unavoidable and unwanted change. We have developed a prototype immersive visualization and verbal elicitation tool to deliberately engage citizens and elicit their responses to projective representations of the future with supporting cultural narratives, for a threatened community with deep cultural roots, and have developed some guidance and prototypes for achieving appropriate citizen engagement. We report here on a pilot study to investigate the linked impacts of landscape visual change and change narratives on place attachment and on anticipated actions in the face of climate-related changes

The influence of preconceptions on perceived sound reduction by environmental noise barriers

The paper presents research that answers three main questions: (1) Do preconceptions held about the constituent materials of an environmental noise barrier affect how people perceive the barrier will perform at attenuating noise? (2) Does aesthetic preference influence the perception of how a barrier will perform? (3) Are barriers, which are deemed more aesthetically pleasing, more likely to be perceived as better noise attenuators? In a virtual reality setting with film to improve the contextual realism of the intersensory interaction test, participants were required to compare the perceived effectiveness of five standard 'in-situ' noise barriers, including concrete, timber, metal, transparent acrylic and a vegetative screen. The audio stimulus was held at a constant sound pressure level (SPL), whilst the visual stimulus changed, as the influential factor. As the noise levels projected during the study were held constant, it was possible to attribute the participants' perception of noise attenuation by the barriers, to preconceptions of how the varying barrier material would attenuate noise. There was also an inverse correlation between aesthetics and perception of how a noise barrier would perform. The transparent and deciduous vegetation barriers, judged most aesthetically pleasing, were judged as the least effective at attenuating noise. (c) 2010 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved

Prostate-specific membrane antigen: evidence for the existence of a second related human gene.

Prostate-specific membrane antigen (PSM) is a glycoprotein recognised by the prostate-specific monoclonal antibody 7E11-C5, which was raised against the human prostatic carcinoma cell line LNCaP. A cDNA clone for PSM has been described. PSM is of clinical importance for a number of reasons. Radiolabelled antibody is being evaluated both as an imaging agent and as an immunotherapeutic in prostate cancer. Use of the PSM promoter has been advocated for gene therapy applications to drive prostate-specific gene expression. Although PSM is expressed in normal prostate as well as in primary and secondary prostatic carcinoma, different splice variants in malignant tissue afford the prospect of developing reverse transcription-polymerase chain reaction (RT-PCR)-based diagnostic screens for the presence of prostatic carcinoma cells in the circulation. We have undertaken characterisation of the gene for PSM in view of the protein's interesting characteristics. Unexpectedly, we have found that there are other sequences apparently related to PSM in the human genome and that PSM genomic clones map to two separate and distinct loci on human chromosome 11. Investigation of the function of putative PSM-related genes will be necessary to enable us to define fully the role of PSM itself in the development of prostatic carcinoma and in the clinical management of this malignancy