Examination of the recommended safe and unsafe zone for placement of surgical instruments in thoracentesis and video-assisted thoracic surgery: a cadaveric study

Background: Thoracentesis and video-assisted thoracic surgery procedures can result in haemorrhage as a consequence of severing the collateral branches of the posterior intercostal artery. These branches have been shown to be most common in the 5th intercostal space (ICS). Tortuosity has been shown to be especially prevalent nearer to midline. A group of investigators have recommended the 4th and 7th ICS, 120 mm lateral to midline as a safe zone, least likely to hit branches when cutting into the ICS. The present study aimed to investigate that safe zone as a better entry points for procedures. In addition, investigation of the least safe 5th ICS was also performed. Materials and methods: A total of 56 embalmed human cadavers were selected for the study. With the cadavers laid prone, 2 cm incisions were made at the 4th, 5th and 7th ICS, 120 mm lateral to midline bilaterally. The cadavers were then placed supine and the incisions were dissected. Careful attention was paid to identify if any collateral branches were cut. Results: After thorough dissection of the 4th, 5th and 7th ICS incision sites, it was shown that damage to the 5th intercostal was seen most frequently. Conclusions: Based on this cadaveric study, a 2 cm incision at the 4th, 5th and 7th ICS 120 mm lateral from midline resulted in the most damage at the level of the 5th ICS. The 4th ICS had the least damage seen. Therefore, it is recommended that insertion should be placed at the level of the 4th ICS bilaterally

Unexpected Long-Term Variability in Jupiter's Tropospheric Temperatures

An essential component of planetary climatology is knowledge of the tropospheric temperature field and its variability. Previous studies of Jupiter hinted at periodic behavior that was non-seasonal, as well as dynamical relationships between tropospheric and stratospheric temperatures. However, these observations were made over time frames shorter than Jupiter's orbit or they used sparse sampling. We derived upper-tropospheric (300-mbar) temperatures over 40 years, extending those studies to cover several orbits of Jupiter, revealing unexpected results. Periodicities of 4, 7 8-9 and 10-14 years were discovered that involved different latitude bands and seem disconnected from seasonal changes in solar heating. Anti-correlations of variability in opposite hemispheres were particularly striking at 16, 22 and 30 degrees from the equator. Equatorial temperature variations are also anticorrelated with those 60-70 km above. Such behavior suggests a top-down control of equatorial tropospheric temperatures from stratospheric dynamics. Realistic future global climate models must address the origins of these variations in preparation for their extension to a wider array of gas-giant exoplanets.Comment: Primary file: 16 pages, 5 figures. Supplemental File (attached): 12 pages, 3 figures, 1 tabl

Single crewing in English and Welsh policing: frequency and associations with violence towards and injuries in officers

There is limited contemporary evidence concerning whether single crewing – the deployment of unaccompanied police officers – presents a risk to officer safety. This exploratory self-report study examined the frequency of single crewing in England and Wales and associations with violence-related variables. Officers represented by the Police Federation of England and Wales contributed survey data on four forms of violent victimisation and injuries requiring medical attention arising from workrelated violence experienced over the 12 months to February 2016. Respondents for whom crewing was applicable to their role indicated the frequency with which they had been single crewed during the same period. Pearson’s χ 2 tests were used to characterise socio- and occupational-demographic factors associated with single crewing, violence, and injuries. Associations between single crewing frequency and the target variables were assessed using adjusted binary logistic regression to generate odds ratios and 95% confidence intervals. Among the 11,397 respondents who indicated that crewing was applicable to their role, 53% were often and 21% always single crewed. Relative to those who were never single crewed, the odds of being subjected to verbal insults and verbal threats were significantly elevated in officers who were often or always single crewed. The odds of physical attacks and injuries requiring medical attention were significantly elevated in officers who were always single crewed. There was no association between single crewing frequency and physical attacks with a weapon. These initial cross-sectional findings suggest that tailored crewing options might represent a means by which to reduce violence towards police officers. Keywords: crewing, injury, police, violence

A Negativity Bias in Reframing Shapes Political Preferences Even in Partisan Contexts

Humans evolved to attend to valence and group membership when learning about their environment. The political domain offers a unique opportunity to study the simultaneous influence of these two broad, domain-general features of human experience. We examined whether the pervasive tendency for negatively valenced frames to “stick” in the mind applies to both intergroup and intragroup political contexts. In a preregistered experiment, we tested the effects of negative-to-positive (vs. positive-to-negative) reframing on people’s candidate preferences, first in the absence of party cue information and then in two partisan contexts: an intergroup context (analogous to a U.S. general election between opposing political parties) and an intragroup context (analogous to a U.S. primary election between candidates of the same party). We observed a persistent negativity bias in reframing effects, even in the presence of party cues. The results pave the way for future research at the intersection of psychology and political science

Development of TMDL watershed implementation plan using Annualized AGNPS

Section 319 of the amended Federal Clean Water Act requires states to outline management plans for impaired water bodies to address non-point source pollution. When determining the priority for conservation measures within a watershed* for non-point source pollution control, models are valuable tools that can provide clues as to where potential sources of water pollution may be and which problems can most easily be corrected. The USDA Annualized Agricultural Non-Point Source Pollution model (AnnAGNPS) is such a model, which has been developed to aid in the evaluation of watershed response to agricultural management practices. This paper presents the processes used for developing an implementation plan for Bayou LaFourche, one of the impaired sub-segments of Ouachita River Basin in northern Louisiana. In this study, the AnnAGNPS was used to simulate the amount of water and sediment produced from each user-specified computational area within the watershed and their contributions to the watershed outlet; AnnAGNPS was also applied to simulate the impact of alternative agricultural management options on the water quality. Through AnnAGNPS simulations, high sediment producing areas were identified and targeted for effective non-point source pollution and their impacts on water quality are also presented. Among these options, scenario G, which converts 25 percent of the highest eroding cropland in the watershed to grassland, would reduce sediment loads at the watershed outlet by 80 percent

A Negativity Bias in Reframing Shapes Political Preferences Even in Partisan Contexts

Humans evolved to attend to valence and group membership when learning about their environment. The political domain offers a unique opportunity to study the simultaneous influence of these two broad, domain-general features of human experience. We examined whether the pervasive tendency for negatively valenced frames to “stick” in the mind applies to both intergroup and intragroup political contexts. In a preregistered experiment, we tested the effects of negative-to-positive (vs. positive-to-negative) reframing on people’s candidate preferences, first in the absence of party cue information and then in two partisan contexts: an intergroup context (analogous to a U.S. general election between opposing political parties) and an intragroup context (analogous to a U.S. primary election between candidates of the same party). We observed a persistent negativity bias in reframing effects, even in the presence of party cues. The results pave the way for future research at the intersection of psychology and political science

Development of TMDL watershed implementation plan using Annualized AGNPS

Section 319 of the amended Federal Clean Water Act requires states to outline management plans for impaired water bodies to address non-point source pollution. When determining the priority for conservation measures within a watershed* for non-point source pollution control, models are valuable tools that can provide clues as to where potential sources of water pollution may be and which problems can most easily be corrected. The USDA Annualized Agricultural Non-Point Source Pollution model (AnnAGNPS) is such a model, which has been developed to aid in the evaluation of watershed response to agricultural management practices. This paper presents the processes used for developing an implementation plan for Bayou LaFourche, one of the impaired sub-segments of Ouachita River Basin in northern Louisiana. In this study, the AnnAGNPS was used to simulate the amount of water and sediment produced from each user-specified computational area within the watershed and their contributions to the watershed outlet; AnnAGNPS was also applied to simulate the impact of alternative agricultural management options on the water quality. Through AnnAGNPS simulations, high sediment producing areas were identified and targeted for effective non-point source pollution and their impacts on water quality are also presented. Among these options, scenario G, which converts 25 percent of the highest eroding cropland in the watershed to grassland, would reduce sediment loads at the watershed outlet by 80 percent.Resource /Energy Economics and Policy,

A comparison of three dimensional maximum reach estimation techniques

Spline, periodic spline and spherical harmonic maximum reach estimation procedures are compared and evaluated based on ease of usage, estimation error and bias. The comparison indicates that each method provides comparable estimates based on percent variance accounted for (R2) and standard error. Spherical harmonics, however, are less biased and provide accurate estimates of the maximum reach sphere at the north and south poles, whereas splines and periodic splines are substantially biased in these regions. Three dimensional computer graphic depictions of reach data for the seated operator illustrate these biases.Peer Reviewedhttp://deepblue.lib.umich.edu/bitstream/2027.42/23421/1/0000369.pd

Variability of Jupiter's Five-Micron Hot Spot Inventory

Global upheavals on Jupiter involve changes in the albedo of entire axisymmetric regions, lasting several years, with the last two occurring in 1989 and 2006. Against this backdrop of planetary-scale changes, discrete features such as the Great Red Spot (GRS), and other vortices exhibit changes on shorter spatial- and time-scales. We track the variability of the discrete equatorial 5-micron hot spots, semi-evenly spaced in longitude and confined to a narrow latitude band centered at 6.5degN (southern edge of the North Equatorial Belt, NEB), abundant in Voyager images. Tantalizingly similar patterns were observed in the visible (bright plumes and blue-gray regions), where reflectivity in the red is anti-correlated with 5-microns thermal radiance. Ortiz et al. (1998, GRL, 103) characterized the latitude and drift rates of the hot spots, including the descent of the Galileo probe at the southern edge of a 5-micron hot spot, as the superposition of equatorial Rossby waves, with phase speeds between 99 - 103m/s, relative to System III. We note that the high 5-micron radiances correlate well but not perfectly with high 8.57-micron radiances. Because the latter are modulated primarily by changes in the upper ammonia (NH3) ice cloud opacity, this correlation implies that changes in the ammonia ice cloud field may be responsible for the variability seen in the 5-~m maps. During the NEB fade (2011 - early 2012), however, these otherwise ubiquitous features were absent, an atmospheric state not seen in decades. The ongoing NEB revival indicates nascent 5-~m hot spots as early as April 2012, with corresponding visible dark spots. Their continuing growth through July 2012 indicates the possit.le re-establishment of Rossby waves. The South Equatorial Belt (SEB) and NEB revivals began similarly with an instability that developed into a major outbreak, and many similarities in the observed propagation of clear regions