Speculation on the origin of sub-baseline excursions of CH4 at Cape Grim

The Advanced Global Atmospheric Gases Experiment (AGAGE) program has historically measured in situ methane (CH4 ) at Cape Grim via gas chromatography with flame ionization detection (GC-FID) in 40 minutely grab samples. By adding continuous, high precision in situ measurements of CH4 (Picarro cavity ring-down spectroscopy [CRDS]) at both Cape Grim, Tasmania, and Casey, Antarctica, a new feature has become apparent in the Cape Grim CH4 record. During the austral summer (December to February), the Cape Grim CH4 record periodically drops below baseline. For example, in Figure 1, a number of sustained episodes of depressed CH4 concentration can be seen below the baseline selected data shown in red. Notably, these episodes are also seen in the GC-FID record. In this presentation, we examine these sub-baseline excursions of CH4 . In conjunction with meteorology and a variety of other chemical species measured at Cape Grim, including radon, ozone, hydrogen and ethane, we speculate on a number of possible mechanisms that might be responsible for these dips in CH4 mixing ratio

Has the 'Fast-Track' referral system affected the route of presentation and/or clinical outcomes in patients with colorectal cancer?

Background: The aim of this study is to determine whether the 'Fast-Track' referral system has changed the route by which patients present with colorectal cancer (CRC) and whether the route of presentation has any effect on clinical outcome. Methods: A retrospective cohort study of patients diagnosed with CRC under the care of two consultant colorectal surgeons between April 2006 and December 2012. The route by which patients presented was categorised as Fast-Track (FT), non-Fast-Track (non-FT) or acute. Outcome variables were operative intent, disease stage and 2- and 5-year survival. Results: A total of 558 patients were identified. One hundred ninety-seven patients (35.3%) were referred as FT, 108 (19.4%) presented acutely and 253 patients (45.3%) presented via other routes (non-FT). Over the study period, the route of presentation did not change significantly (P=0.135). There was no significant difference between FT and non-FT groups in terms of the proportion of patients undergoing potentially curative surgery (70.6 vs 74.3%, P=0.092) or with node-negative disease (48.2 vs 52.2%, P=0.796) nor was there any difference in 2-year or 5-year survival (74.1 vs 73.9%, P=0.837 and 52.3 vs 53.8%, P=0.889, respectively). Patients who presented acutely were less likely to undergo curative resection, had more advanced disease and had worse 2- and 5-year survival. Conclusions: The Fast-Track referral system has not affected the route by which patients present with CRC nor has it had any effect on clinical outcomes. Alternative strategies are required if the desired improvement in outcomes is to be achieved

Antarctic ice sheet discharge driven by atmosphere-ocean feedbacks at the Last Glacial Termination.

Reconstructing the dynamic response of the Antarctic ice sheets to warming during the Last Glacial Termination (LGT; 18,000-11,650 yrs ago) allows us to disentangle ice-climate feedbacks that are key to improving future projections. Whilst the sequence of events during this period is reasonably well-known, relatively poor chronological control has precluded precise alignment of ice, atmospheric and marine records, making it difficult to assess relationships between Antarctic ice-sheet (AIS) dynamics, climate change and sea level. Here we present results from a highly-resolved 'horizontal ice core' from the Weddell Sea Embayment, which records millennial-scale AIS dynamics across this extensive region. Counterintuitively, we find AIS mass-loss across the full duration of the Antarctic Cold Reversal (ACR; 14,600-12,700 yrs ago), with stabilisation during the subsequent millennia of atmospheric warming. Earth-system and ice-sheet modelling suggests these contrasting trends were likely Antarctic-wide, sustained by feedbacks amplified by the delivery of Circumpolar Deep Water onto the continental shelf. Given the anti-phase relationship between inter-hemispheric climate trends across the LGT our findings demonstrate that Southern Ocean-AIS feedbacks were controlled by global atmospheric teleconnections. With increasing stratification of the Southern Ocean and intensification of mid-latitude westerly winds today, such teleconnections could amplify AIS mass loss and accelerate global sea-level rise

Knowledge, attitude and practice of women in Campinas, São Paulo, Brazil with respect to physical exercise in pregnancy: a descriptive study

<p>Abstract</p> <p>Background</p> <p>Pregnancy is a good time to develop healthy lifestyle habits including regular exercise and good nutrition. Programs of physical exercise for pregnant women have been recommended; however, there are few references on this subject in the literature. The objective of this study was to evaluate the knowledge, attitude and practice of pregnant women with respect to appropriate physical exercise during pregnancy, and also to investigate why some women do not exercise during pregnancy.</p> <p>Methods</p> <p>A descriptive study was conducted in which 161 women of 18 to 45 years of age were interviewed in the third trimester of pregnancy. These women were receiving prenatal care at National Health Service (SUS) primary healthcare units and had no pathologies for which physical exercise would constitute a risk. The women were selected at an ultrasonography clinic accredited to the SUS in Campinas, São Paulo. A previously elaborated knowledge, attitude and practice (KAP) questionnaire was used to collect data, which were then stored in an Epinfo database. Statistical analysis was conducted using Pearson's chi-square test and Fisher's exact test to evaluate the association between the study variables (p < 0.05).</p> <p>Results</p> <p>Almost two-thirds (65.6%) of the women were sufficiently informed about the practice of physical exercise during pregnancy and the vast majority (93.8%) was in favor of it. Nevertheless, only just over 20% of the women in this sample exercised adequately. Significant associations were found between an adequate knowledge of physical exercise during pregnancy and education level (p = 0.0014) and between the adequate practice of physical exercise during pregnancy and having had fewer pregnancies (p = 0.0001). Lack of time and feeling tired and uncomfortable were the principal reasons given by the women for not exercising.</p> <p>Conclusion</p> <p>These results suggest that women's knowledge concerning the practice of physical exercise during pregnancy is reasonable and their attitude is favorable; however, relatively few actually exercise during pregnancy.</p

Harnessing learning biases is essential for applying social learning in conservation

Social learning can influence how animals respond to anthropogenic changes in the environment, determining whether animals survive novel threats and exploit novel resources or produce maladaptive behaviour and contribute to human-wildlife conflict. Predicting where social learning will occur and manipulating its use are, therefore, important in conservation, but doing so is not straightforward. Learning is an inherently biased process that has been shaped by natural selection to prioritize important information and facilitate its efficient uptake. In this regard, social learning is no different from other learning processes because it too is shaped by perceptual filters, attentional biases and learning constraints that can differ between habitats, species, individuals and contexts. The biases that constrain social learning are not understood well enough to accurately predict whether or not social learning will occur in many situations, which limits the effective use of social learning in conservation practice. Nevertheless, we argue that by tapping into the biases that guide the social transmission of information, the conservation applications of social learning could be improved. We explore the conservation areas where social learning is highly relevant and link them to biases in the cues and contexts that shape social information use. The resulting synthesis highlights many promising areas for collaboration between the fields and stresses the importance of systematic reviews of the evidence surrounding social learning practices.BBSRC David Phillips Fellowship (BB/H021817/1

Timescales of transformational climate change adaptation in sub-Saharan African agriculture

Climate change is projected to constitute a significant threat to food security if no adaptation actions are taken. Transformation of agricultural systems, for example switching crop types or moving out of agriculture, is projected to be necessary in some cases. However, little attention has been paid to the timing of these transformations. Here, we develop a temporal uncertainty framework using the CMIP5 ensemble to assess when and where cultivation of key crops in sub-Saharan Africa becomes unviable. We report potential transformational changes for all major crops during the twenty-first century, as climates shift and areas become unsuitable. For most crops, however, transformation is limited to small pockets (<15% of area), and only for beans, maize and banana is transformation more widespread (â 1/430% area for maize and banana, 60% for beans). We envisage three overlapping adaptation phases to enable projected transformational changes: an incremental adaptation phase focused on improvements to crops and management, a preparatory phase that establishes appropriate policies and enabling environments, and a transformational adaptation phase in which farmers substitute crops, explore alternative livelihoods strategies, or relocate. To best align policies with production triggers for no-regret actions, monitoring capacities to track farming systems as well as climate are needed

Reconciling research and implementation in micro health insurance experiments in India: study protocol for a randomized controlled trial

<p>Abstract</p> <p>Background</p> <p>Microinsurance or Community-Based Health Insurance is a promising healthcare financing mechanism, which is increasingly applied to aid rural poor persons in low-income countries. Robust empirical evidence on the causal relations between Community-Based Health Insurance and healthcare utilisation, financial protection and other areas is scarce and necessary. This paper contains a discussion of the research design of three Cluster Randomised Controlled Trials in India to measure the impact of Community-Based Health Insurance on several outcomes.</p> <p>Methods/Design</p> <p>Each trial sets up a Community-Based Health Insurance scheme among a group of micro-finance affiliate families. Villages are grouped into clusters which are congruous with pre-existing social groupings. These clusters are randomly assigned to one of three waves of implementation, ensuring the entire population is offered Community-Based Health Insurance by the end of the experiment. Each wave of treatment is preceded by a round of mixed methods evaluation, with quantitative, qualitative and spatial evidence on impact collected. Improving upon practices in published Cluster Randomised Controlled Trial literature, we detail how research design decisions have ensured that both the households offered insurance and the implementers of the Community-Based Health Insurance scheme operate in an environment replicating a non-experimental implementation.</p> <p>Discussion</p> <p>When a Cluster Randomised Controlled Trial involves randomizing within a community, generating adequate and valid conclusions requires that the research design must be made congruous with social structures within the target population, to ensure that such trials are conducted in an implementing environment which is a suitable analogue to that of a non-experimental implementing environment.</p

Taking the strain? Impact of glaucoma on patients' informal caregivers

Purpose: To estimate informal caregiver (ICG) strain in people from a glaucoma clinic. Methods: Patients with glaucoma were consecutively identified from a single clinic in England for a cross-sectional postal survey. The sample was deliberately enriched with a number of patients designated as having advanced glaucoma (visual field [VF] mean deviation worse than -12 dB in both eyes). Patients were asked to identify an ICG who recorded a Modified Caregiver Strain Index (MCSI), a validated 13 item instrument scored on a scale of 0-26. Previous research has indicated mean MCSI to be >10 in Multiple Sclerosis and Parkinson’s disease. All participants gave a self-reported measure of general health (EQ5D). Results: Responses from 105 patients (43% of those invited) were analysed; only 38 of the 105 named an ICG. Mean (95% confidence interval [CI]) MCSI was 2.4 (1.3, 3.6) and only three ICGs recorded a MCSI > 7. The percentage of patients with an ICG was much higher in patients with advanced VF loss (82%; 9/11) when compared to those with non-advanced VF loss (31%; 29/94; p=0.001). Mean (standard deviation) MCSI was considerably inflated in the advanced patients (5.6 [4.9] vs 1.5 [2.2] for non-advanced; p=0.040). Worsening VF and poorer self-reported general health (EQ5D) of the patient were associated with worsening MCSI. Conclusion: ICG strain, as measured by MCSI, for patients with non-advanced glaucoma is negligible, compared to other chronic disease. ICG strain increases moderately with worsening VFs but this could be partly explained by worse general health in our sample of patients

Circular Permutation in Proteins

This is a ‘‘Topic Page’ ’ article for PLoS Computational Biology. Circular permutation describes a type of relationship between proteins, whereby the proteins have a changed order of amino acids in their protein sequence, such that the sequence of the first portion of one protein (adjacent to the N-terminus) is related to that of the second portion of the other protein (near its C-terminus), and vice versa (see Figure 1). This is directly analogous to the mathematical notion of a cyclic permutation over the set of residues in a protein. Circular permutation can be the result of evolutionary events, post-translational modifications, or artificially engineered mutations. The result is a protein structure with different connectivity, but overall similar three-dimensional (3D) shape. The homology between portions of the proteins can be established by observing similar sequences between N- and C-terminal portions of the tw