Take one

This item contains two issues of the Take One newsletter: January 12, and 26, 1978.Take One was published every two weeks and focused on short news items and announcements "for the people of University Hospital.

Trophic Interactions in a Semiaquatic Snake Community: Insights into the Structure of a Floodplain Food Web

Food webs provide a useful conceptual framework for evaluating the relationships that exist within ecological systems. Characterizing the interactions within these webs can improve our understanding of how communities are structured and what mechanisms stabilize them. Untangling these interactions can be an intractable problem in complex systems and insights gained from conventional methods are often accompanied by inherent sources of bias. This study used stable isotope analysis, an alternative to traditional methods, to investigate the roles and relative contributions of consumers at the top of a food web to community structure and stability. I compared the niche parameters of five syntopic semi-aquatic snake species using the ratios of naturally occurring carbon and nitrogen isotopes to determine their relative trophic positions and estimate the contributions of potential prey sources to their diets. Analyses using Bayesian mixing models revealed evidence of niche partitioning among consumer groups and indicated that competitive dynamics have helped to shape the structure of this community. I identified ontogenetic differences in the trophic niches occupied by distinct age classes from three consumer species. I also detected temporal shifts in trophic structure that might be the result of intra-annual variation in resource availability. While competition appears to play a role in structuring this community, the trophic niches occupied by consumer groups seem to be somewhat plastic. Temporal shifts in resource availability have the potential to influence not only the relationships among competing consumers, but also their interactions with prey groups. Future research should examine how periodic fluctuations in prey abundance influences the connectivity, and by extension the stability, of this community

Trophic Interactions in a Semiaquatic Snake Community: Insights into the Structure of a Floodplain Food Web

Food webs provide a useful conceptual framework for evaluating the relationships that exist within ecological systems. Characterizing the interactions within these webs can improve our understanding of how communities are structured and what mechanisms stabilize them. Untangling these interactions can be an intractable problem in complex systems and insights gained from conventional methods are often accompanied by inherent sources of bias. This study used stable isotope analysis, an alternative to traditional methods, to investigate the roles and relative contributions of consumers at the top of a food web to community structure and stability. I compared the niche parameters of five syntopic semi-aquatic snake species using the ratios of naturally occurring carbon and nitrogen isotopes to determine their relative trophic positions and estimate the contributions of potential prey sources to their diets. Analyses using Bayesian mixing models revealed evidence of niche partitioning among consumer groups and indicated that competitive dynamics have helped to shape the structure of this community. I identified ontogenetic differences in the trophic niches occupied by distinct age classes from three consumer species. I also detected temporal shifts in trophic structure that might be the result of intra-annual variation in resource availability. While competition appears to play a role in structuring this community, the trophic niches occupied by consumer groups seem to be somewhat plastic. Temporal shifts in resource availability have the potential to influence not only the relationships among competing consumers, but also their interactions with prey groups. Future research should examine how periodic fluctuations in prey abundance influences the connectivity, and by extension the stability, of this community

Occurrence and formation of disinfection by-products in the swimming pool environment: A critical review

Disinfection of water for human use is essential to protect against microbial disease; however, disinfection also leads to formation of disinfection by-products (DBPs), some of which are of health concern. From a chemical perspective, swimming pools are a complex matrix, with continual addition of a wide range of natural and anthropogenic chemicals via filling waters, disinfectant addition, pharmaceuticals and personal care products and human body excretions. Natural organic matter, trace amounts of DBPs and chlorine or chloramines may be introduced by the filling water, which is commonly disinfected distributed drinking water. Chlorine and/or bromine is continually introduced via the addition of chemical disinfectants to the pool. Human body excretions (sweat, urine and saliva) and pharmaceuticals and personal care products (sunscreens, cosmetics, hair products and lotions) are introduced by swimmers. High addition of disinfectant leads to a high formation of DBPs from reaction of some of the chemicals with the disinfectant. Swimming pool air is also of concern as volatile DBPs partition into the air above the pool. The presence of bromine leads to the formation of a wide range of bromo- and bromo/chloro-DBPs, and Br-DBPs are more toxic than their chlorinated analogues. This is particularly important for seawater-filled pools or pools using a bromine-based disinfectant. This review summarises chemical contaminants and DBPs in swimming pool waters, as well as in the air above pools. Factors that have been found to affect DBP formation in pools are discussed. The impact of the swimming pool environment on human health is reviewed

ReVision: Creating a Roadmap to Institutional Improvements

The Policy’s responsible office is charged with evaluating the policy’s effectiveness at achieving desired results and necessity for changes on an ongoing basis. Have you been wanting to or been asked to make a change to your policy? Writing or updating university rules and policy can seem daunting for many of us. Two universities will share their review process and lessons learned, including how focusing on risk management driven policy helped garner buy in and how it strengthened both policy and Youth Programs Manual through key modifications

Anti-NMDA Receptor Encephalitis in an Adolescent

We present a case of a 17 year old male who presented with altered mental status and worsening hallucinations. Past medical history includes PTSD, ADHD, and pineal gland germinoma status post radiofrequency ablation. Presentation was remarkable for slow, dysarthric speech, mental disorientation, and delayed movements upon simple commands. Otherwise, vitals, baseline labs, imaging (Brain MRI), and diagnostics (EEG) were unremarkable. A multidisciplinary team decided to initially undergo psychiatric therapeutic intervention, focused on benzodiazepines and anti-psychotics, however patient’s status worsened, demonstrating catatonia, dystonia, and explosive agitation. Further laboratory investigation ruled out electrolyte disturbances, uremia/hepatic encephalopathy, thyroid storm, drug overdose/withdrawal, eventually settling on a working diagnosis of catatonic depression. Given his deteriorating mental status throughout admission and prior oncologic history, a lumbar puncture was performed to rule out other causes of encephalopathy, with CSF studies remarkable for the presence of NMDA encephalitis autoantibodies, most likely sequelae from his existing pineal gland germinoma. Anti-NMDA receptor encephalitis is an autoimmune disease associated with antibodies against N-methyl-D-aspartate (NDMA) receptors, which control electrical impulses in the brain. These autoantibodies can variably be associated with tumors and possibly responsive to immunotherapy. Initial treatment consisted of intravenous immunoglobulin (IVIG), methylprednisolone and therapeutic plasma exchange. After minimal success, patient received rituximab and sirolimus, which resulted in improved psychomotor symptoms. Diagnosing Anti-NMDA receptor encephalitis can be quite challenging, particularly with its variable presentation in the setting of prior psychiatric diagnoses. Classically, Anti-NMDA receptor encephalitis demonstrates hyperkinetic movements (e.g. dystonia, dyskinesia, chorea, seizures); however, catatonic movements do occur, and can be a severe and life-threatening state. Being cognizant of the overlapping psychiatric and psychomotor symptoms, including catatonic features, can prompt the clinician to suspect and rule out Anti-NMDA encephalitis prior to settling on a primary psychiatric diagnosis

Women, men and news : it's life Jim, but not as we know it

In the twenty-teens, there are increasing numbers of women occupying executive positions in politics, business and the law but their words and actions rarely make the front page. In this article, we draw on data collected as part of the 2015 Global Media Monitoring Project (GMMP) and focus on England, Scotland, Wales and the Republic of Ireland. Since the first GMMP in 1995, there has been a slow but steady rise in the proportion of women who feature, report or present the news (now at 24 per cent), but that increase is a mere 7 per cent over 20 years. Not only is there a problem with visibility but our data also suggest that when women are present, their contributions are often confined to the realm of the private as they speak as citizens rather than experts and in stories about health but not politics. Just over a third of the media professionals we coded were women and older women are almost entirely missing from the media scene. Citizens and democracy more generally are poorly served by a news media which privileges men’s voices, actions and views over the other 51 per cent of the population: we surely deserve better

Women, men and news: It's life, Jim, but not as we know it

In the twenty-teens, there are increasing numbers of women occupying executive positions in politics, business and the law but their words and actions rarely make the front page. In this article, we draw on data collected as part of the 2015 Global Media Monitoring Project and focus on England, Scotland, Wales and the Republic of Ireland. Since the first GMMP in 1995, there has been a slow but steady rise in the proportion of women who feature, report or present the news (now at 24 per cent), but that increase is a mere seven per cent over twenty years. Not only is there a problem with visibility but our data also suggest that when women are present, their contributions are often confined to the realm of the private as they speak as citizens rather than experts and in stories about health but not politics. Just over a third of the media professionals we coded were women and older women are almost entirely missing from the media scene. Citizens and democracy more generally are poorly served by a news media which privileges men's voices, actions and views over the other 51 per cent of the population: we surely deserve better

Family Meanings, Contexts and Hopes Within a Clinical Trial

These qualitative analyses are a component of the clinical trial: “Effects of Sertraline Treatment for Young Children with FXS: Examination of Developmental Outcomes and Family Contexts.” We argue that inclusion of a sociocultural perspective within the context of a clinical trial affords consideration of: A dynamic view of development – simultaneous consideration of biological and sociocultural factors (Vygotsky, 1978). Application of a bioecological framework and consideration of ever changing nested settings and contexts over time (Bronfenbrenner, 2005

Verification of a Distributed Ledger Protocol for Distributed Autonomous Systems Using Monterey Phoenix

Autonomous multi-vehicle systems are becoming increasingly relevant in military operations and have demonstrated potential applicability in civilian environments as well. A problem emerges, however, when logging data within these systems. In particular, potential loss of individual vehicles and inherently lossy and noisy communications environments can result in the loss of important mission data. This paper describes a novel distributed ledger protocol that can be used to ensure that the data in such a system survives and documents verification of the behavioral correctness of this protocol using informal verification methods and tools provided by the Monterey Phoenix project