Proton binding by groundwater fulvic acids of different age, origins, and structure modeled with the model V and NICA-Donnan model

The proton binding properties of four fulvic acids from pristine groundwater and leachate-polluted groundwater were measured at four different ionic strengths (0.005−0.12 M) and modeled by the Model V and the NICA−Donnan model in order to evaluate the necessity of detailed proton binding parameters for groundwater fulvic acids. The proton binding parameters derived from the various fulvic acids were very similar, and on the basis of these parameters, it was not possible to distinguish between pristine and polluted groundwater. Normalization of the proton charge density by the proton charge density at pH 7 for each fulvic acid made all four fulvic acids regress to the same curve. The effects of varying the proton binding parameters were evaluated by simulating cadmium complexation using sets of proton binding parameters for the four fulvic acids and default sets of proton binding parameters available in the models WHAM (based on Model V) and Ecosat (based on NICA−Donnan). The Model V was rather indifferent with respect to specific characteristics of fulvic acids proton binding, and for most practical uses, the default values available in the model can be used. The NICA−Donnan model resulted in larger deviations between simulations based on default values and specific parameters. However, the NICA−Donnan database is still rather limited, and specific proton binding parameters should be used until the database providing default values has been extended

Bringing Family Voice to Determinants of Health

The Family Leadership Training Institute (FLTI) is a program that can respond to data documenting the health of the nation. Participants engage in individual civic projects that align with social determinants of health and seek to ameliorate health inequities. They also discover and/or increase their civic engagement skills to more effectively take part in policy and implementation discussions and decisions. With roots in Colorado, FLTI continues to expand into rural and urban communities throughout the state. The curriculum has been translated into Spanish, and a two-generation pilot implementation has indicated promise for including youths in a parallel program. Documentation regarding program effectiveness suggests that others in Extension may benefit interested communities by assisting them in replicating FLTI

The importance of a plume of tidally-mixed water to the biological oceanography of the Gulf of Maine

During the warmer months of the year the eastern Gulf of Maine features a plume of cold water which extends from the tidally well-mixed area adjacent to Grand Manan Island at the mouth of the Bay of Fundy southwest along the Maine coast to well beyond Penobscot Bay. Near Grand Manan Island the plume waters are cold (ca. 10°C), nearly vertically isothermal and carry high concentrations of dissolved inorganic nutrients. The analysis of temperature-salinity diagrams and hydrographic vertical section plots indicate that the deeper waters in Jordan Basin, of slope water origin, upwell and contribute a significant fraction of the high nutrient concentrations. The plume waters become increasingly stratified as they flow to the southwest which leads to a phytoplankton bloom downstream. Nitrate concentrations within the euphotic zone of the plume decrease approximately linearly (ca. 194 mg-at NO3-N · m−2) along a distance of about 130 km travelled after its exit from the Grand Manan area (ca 7.5 days transit time). Cross frontal mixing and tidal flushing along the south and north sides of the plume could account for ca. 18% of this decrease. Total chlorophyll concentrations increase nearly linearly with distance along the first 80 km and then decrease in the following 50 km, presumably the result of phytoplankton being grazed by zooplankton which apparently propagate in response to the increasing chlorophyll levels. Over the distance of increasing chlorophyll concentrations (80 km) the nitrate decrease, corrected for physical losses laterally, would support a new . primary production of 1.46 gm C m−2 d−1. Our analyses suggest that as much as 44% of the new nitrate which enters the Gulf of Maine at depth through the Northeast Channel upwells in the eastern Gulf becoming part of the plume, and hence this feature appears to be very important to the nutrient budget and general biological oceanography of the inner Gulf of Maine

Assessing Pedagogical Balance in a Simulated Classroom Environment

SimSchool, an online simulator that has been used to enhance teacher preparation since 2003, models different types of students and provides virtual practice sessions for teachers to assign tasks and interact with students. In this paper the authors: 1) examine changes in pre-service teacher perceptions of teaching confidence and teaching experience resulting from simSchool use, and 2) report findings from recent studies of a new proposed measure for simSchool data, pedagogical balance. Pedagogical balance is a difference score that measures pre-service teachers’ self-reported levels of confidence minus experience which indicates a level of alignment in self-evaluation when balancing one’s perceptions of capabilities and experience. Findings from two studies show that pre-service teachers significantly (p \textless .05) improve pedagogical balance, and increase awareness of effective teaching skills through simSchool training

Some practical aspects of lossless and nearly-lossless compression of AVHRR imagery

Compression of Advanced Very high Resolution Radiometers (AVHRR) imagery operating in a lossless or nearly-lossless mode is evaluated. Several practical issues are analyzed including: variability of compression over time and among channels, rate-smoothing buffer size, multi-spectral preprocessing of data, day/night handling, and impact on key operational data applications. This analysis is based on a DPCM algorithm employing the Universal Noiseless Coder, which is a candidate for inclusion in many future remote sensing systems. It is shown that compression rates of about 2:1 (daytime) can be achieved with modest buffer sizes (less than or equal to 2.5 Mbytes) and a relatively simple multi-spectral preprocessing step

Hospital and emergency department discharge against medical advice in Western Australian Aboriginal children aged 0–4 years from 2002 to 2018: A cohort study

Background: Discharge against medical advice (DAMA) is a priority issue for the health system. Little is known about the factors associated with DAMA for Aboriginal and/or Torres Strait Islander (Aboriginal) children in Australia. Objectives: Investigate the associations between DAMA for hospital admissions and emergency department (ED) presentations and: (i) child, family and episode of service characteristics and (ii) 30-day readmission/ re-presentation. Methods: We conducted a cohort study of Aboriginal children born in Western Australia (2002–2013) who had ≥ 1 hospital admissions (n = 16,931) or ED presentations (n = 26,546) within the first 5 years of life. The outcome of interest was hospital and ED DAMA and adjusted odds ratio were derived using multilevel mixed-effects logistic regression. Results: In the Hospital Cohort, there were 43,149 hospitalisations for 16,931 children, with 684 hospitalisations (1.6%) recorded as DAMA. In the ED Cohort, there were 232,082 ED presentations in 26,546 children, with 10,918 ED presentations (4.7%) recorded as DAMA. DAMA occurring in hospitals between 2014 and 2018, the adjusted odds decreased by 75% compared to the period between 2002 and 2005. The adjusted odds of ED DAMA increased by 46% over the same period. Hospital admissions in regional and remote hospitals were almost seven times the adjusted odds of DAMA compared with hospital admissions in Perth metropolitan hospitals. The adjusted odds of ED DAMA decreased by 12% for ED presentations in regional and remote hospitals compared to those in Perth metropolitan hospitals. There was no evidence of hospital DAMA being associated with hospital readmission within 30 days and limited evidence of ED DAMA being associated with re-presenting to an ED within 30 days. Conclusions: The study identified several important determinants of DAMA, including admission status, triage status, location and calendar year. These findings could inform targeted measures to decrease DAMA, particularly in regional and remote communities