Reply to Melissa Moschella

Professor Moschella begins by discussing confusions in the brain death debate surrounding the use of the concepts of “integration” and “wholeness.” Some scholars, she says, such as Alan Shewmon, take the presence of biological integration as an indication of ontological wholeness. Others, such as the members of the President’s Council for Bioethics, think that some bodily integration can persist in the body of a brain-dead individual; but that the subject in which it persists in not a whole

Retention of mouth-to-mouth, mouth-to-mask and mouth-to-face shield ventilation

Background: Retention of mouth-to-mouth, mouth-to-mask and mouth-to-face shield ventilation techniques is poorly understood.Methods: A prospective randomised clinical trial was undertaken in January 2004 in 70 candidates randomly assigned to training in mouth-to-mouth, mouth-to-mask or mouth-to-face shield ventilation. Each candidate was trained for 10 min, after which tidal volume, respiratory rate, minute volume, peak airway pressure and the presence or absence of stomach inflation were measured. 58 subjects were reassessed 1 year later and study parameters were recorded again. Data were analysed with ANOVA, \textgreekq2 and McNemar tests.Results: Tidal volume, minute volume, peak airway pressure, ventilation rate and stomach inflation rate increased significantly at reassessment with all ventilation techniques compared with the initial assessment. However, at reassessment, mean (SD) tidal volume (960 (446) vs 1008 (366) vs 1402 (302) ml; p<0.05), minute volume (12 (5) vs 13 (7) vs 18 (3) l/min; p<0.05), peak airway pressure (14 (8) vs 17 (13) vs 25 (8) cm H2O; p<0.05) and stomach inflation rate (63% vs 58% vs 100%; p<0.05) were significantly lower with mouth-to-mask and mouth-to-face shield ventilation than with mouth-to-mouth ventilation. The ventilation rate at reassessment did not differ significantly between the ventilation techniques.Conclusions: One year after a single episode of ventilation training, lay persons tended to hyperventilate; however, the degree of hyperventilation and resulting stomach inflation were lower when a mouth-to-mask or a face shield device was employed. Regular training is therefore required to retain ventilation skills; retention of skills may be better with ventilation devices

Variations in air quality of new Ohio dairy facilities with natural ventilation systems

As dairy operations evolve towards larger, concentrated facilities, air quality on and around the dairy farms becomes a concern. Data on air quality in and around large dairy facilities are insufficient and therefore very much needed. In this study, preliminary data on air quality spatial distribution and temporal variations on two new large dairy facilities with naturally ventilated free stall barns and outside manure storage were collected. Concentration of hydrogen sulfide (H2S) and ammonia (NH3) at 12 to 14 locations on each farm were measured in three seasons using portable gas analyzers. Odor samples were collected at odor sources, upwind and downwind locations. Dust was measured using a portable dust mass concentration meter Gas levels inside the dairy buildings at one leeward location were continuously monitored for three days in two seasons. In addition, indoor and outdoor temperature, relative humidity, and air velocity were measured to determine effects of these parameters on air quality. The study found that manure storage ponds have the most effect on air quality during warm and hot seasons. Variations of air quality inside the dairy building were insignificant. Inside the dairy buildings, the average dust mass concentrations range from 0.9 to 1.5 mg m(-3); ammonia 1.4 to 3 ppm, hydrogen sulfide 2 to 32 ppb; and odor concentration 90 to 140 OU m(-3). However at the downwind berm of the manure storage ponds, odor concentration reached 1256 OU/m(3) during the hot weather months. Weather conditions also affected the outdoor dispersion of air emissions. Most of the time, gas levels at 152 m downwind of the barn and manure storage were similar to upwind levels, but on hot and windy days these levels reached a point high enough to raise concerns. Inside the building, the hydrogen sulfide concentrations were not significantly different from hour to hour within a day or from day to day within a season. Although daily variation of mean ammonia concentrations were significantly different, hourly mean ammonia concentrations were not significantly different between morning hours and afternoon hours within any given day

Ornamental plants, 1988: a summary of research

Follow-up evaluation of Cyanazine, Terbacil and Metolachlor slow-release herbicide tablets on woody landscape crops / E. M. Smith and S. A. Treaster -- Tolerance of daylily and peony to Surflan, Devrinol and Treflan / E. M. Smith and S. A. Treaster -- Growth response of euonymus, juniper and azalea treated with differing rates of Osmocote 18-6-12 / E. M. Smith and S. A. Treaster -- Evaluation of Ronstar wettable powder on woody landscape crops / E. M. Smith and S. A. Treaster -- An evaluation of Ronstar plus Diflufenican on container-grown landscape crops / E. M. Smith and S. A. Treaster -- Prodiamine evaluation in container-grown landscape / E. M. Smith and S. A. Treaster -- Evaluation of flowering crabapple susceptibility to apple scab in Ohio-1987 / E. M. Smith and S. A. Treaster -- Field study of root zone heating systems in greenhouses / M. F. Brugger and R. H. Zondag -- Costs of producing field rapid-growing evergreens (]uniperus) in Ohio / R. D. Taylor, H. H. Kneen, E. M. Smith, D. E. Hahn and S. Uchida -- Costs of producing field ornamental trees (Malus) in Ohio / R. D. Taylor, H. H. Kneen, E. M. Smith, D. E. Hahn and S. Uchid

Nearly universal crossing point of the specific heat curves of Hubbard models

A nearly universal feature of the specific heat curves C(T,U) vs. T for different U of a general class of Hubbard models is observed. That is, the value C_+ of the specific heat curves at their high-temperature crossing point T_+ is almost independent of lattice structure and spatial dimension d, with C_+/k_B \approx 0.34. This surprising feature is explained within second order perturbation theory in U by identifying two small parameters controlling the value of C_+: the integral over the deviation of the density of states N(\epsilon) from a constant value, characterized by \delta N=\int d\epsilon |N(\epsilon)-1/2|, and the inverse dimension, 1/d.Comment: Revtex, 9 pages, 6 figure

From Corporate Social Responsibility to Accountability Mechanisms:The Role of the Convention on Biological Diversity

This paper traces the progressive shift at the international level from purely voluntary approaches (corporate social responsibility or CSR) towards accountability mechanisms to ensure the environmentally sound conduct of private entities. It examines whether the most recent international discussion on human rights and corporate accountability have adequately considered environmental protection concerns. It then concentrates on the growing number of international oversight mechanisms that provide a readily-available and impartial avenue for addressing complaints against private companies..

Magnetic Impurity in a Metal with Correlated Conduction Electrons: An Infinite Dimensions Approach

We consider the Hubbard model with a magnetic Anderson impurity coupled to a lattice site. In the case of infinite dimensions, one-particle correlations of the impurity electron are described by the effective Hamiltonian of the two-impurity system. One of the impurities interacts with a bath of free electrons and represents the Hubbard lattice, and the other is coupled to the first impurity by the bare hybridization interaction. A study of the effective two-impurity Hamiltonian in the frame of the 1/N expansion and for the case of a weak conduction-electron interaction (small U) reveals an enhancement of the usual exponential Kondo scale. However, an intermediate interaction (U/D = 1 - 3), treated by the variational principle, leads to the loss of the exponential scale. The Kondo temperature T_K of the effective two-impurity system is calculated as a function of the hybridization parameter and it is shown that T_K decreases with an increase of U. The non-Fermi-liquid character of the Kondo effect in the intermediate regime at the half filling is discussed.Comment: 12 pages with 8 PS figures, RevTe

The Kondo lattice model with correlated conduction electrons

We investigate a Kondo lattice model with correlated conduction electrons. Within dynamical mean-field theory the model maps onto an impurity model where the host has to be determined self-consistently. This impurity model can be derived from an Anderson-Hubbard model both by equating the low-energy excitations of the impurity and by a canonical transformation. On the level of dynamical mean-field theory this establishes the connection of the two lattice models. The impurity model is studied numerically by an extension of the non-crossing approximation to a two-orbital impurity. We find that with decreasing temperature the conduction electrons first form quasiparticles unaffected by the presence of the lattice of localized spins. Then, reducing the temperature further, the particle-hole symmetric model turns into an insulator. The quasiparticle peak in the one-particle spectral density splits and a gap opens. The size of the gap increases when the correlations of the conduction electrons become stronger. These findings are similar to the behavior of the Anderson-Hubbard model within dynamical mean-field theory and are obtained with much less numerical effort.Comment: 7 pages RevTeX with 3 ps figures, accepted by PR