Calculating Chemical Evolution on the Web

We have constructed a web site that may be of interest to cosmochemists seeking to under-stand the evolution of isotopes in the Galaxy. The URL is http://photon.phys.clemson.edu/gce.html. It is fully interactive and uses IDL on the Net (ION) to construct tables and graphs dynamically. The resulting tables may be downloaded as text files while the graphs may be downloaded as gif or postscript files. The present ab-stract presents a brief tutorial on using the “GCE tool” on this site and illustrates some of its capabilities. Ques-tions or comments should be addressed to either of the first two authors

Reflections on the 1976 Swine Flu Vaccination Program

The swine flu vaccination program has implications for the current pandemic preparedness

Sinkhole Distribution and Density of Waterloo Quadrangle, Monroe County, Illinois

Relief shown by contours and spot heights"Geology based on field work by S.V. Panno, J.C. Angel, D.O. Nelson, C.P. Weibel, and F.B. Denny, 2000.""Digital cartography by J. Domier, D. Nelson, M. Jones, S. Geegan, and S. Radil, Illinois State Geological Survey."Includes text, 1 location map with index diagram, and 2 aerial photosIncludes bibliographical references (p. 5-6 of text

Informing investment to reduce inequalities: a modelling approach

Background: Reducing health inequalities is an important policy objective but there is limited quantitative information about the impact of specific interventions. Objectives: To provide estimates of the impact of a range of interventions on health and health inequalities. Materials and methods: Literature reviews were conducted to identify the best evidence linking interventions to mortality and hospital admissions. We examined interventions across the determinants of health: a ‘living wage’; changes to benefits, taxation and employment; active travel; tobacco taxation; smoking cessation, alcohol brief interventions, and weight management services. A model was developed to estimate mortality and years of life lost (YLL) in intervention and comparison populations over a 20-year time period following interventions delivered only in the first year. We estimated changes in inequalities using the relative index of inequality (RII). Results: Introduction of a ‘living wage’ generated the largest beneficial health impact, with modest reductions in health inequalities. Benefits increases had modest positive impacts on health and health inequalities. Income tax increases had negative impacts on population health but reduced inequalities, while council tax increases worsened both health and health inequalities. Active travel increases had minimally positive effects on population health but widened health inequalities. Increases in employment reduced inequalities only when targeted to the most deprived groups. Tobacco taxation had modestly positive impacts on health but little impact on health inequalities. Alcohol brief interventions had modestly positive impacts on health and health inequalities only when strongly socially targeted, while smoking cessation and weight-reduction programmes had minimal impacts on health and health inequalities even when socially targeted. Conclusions: Interventions have markedly different effects on mortality, hospitalisations and inequalities. The most effective (and likely cost-effective) interventions for reducing inequalities were regulatory and tax options. Interventions focused on individual agency were much less likely to impact on inequalities, even when targeted at the most deprived communities

Environmental drivers of freshwater macrophyte diversity and community composition in calcareous warm-water rivers of America and Africa

1. This study assessed the hypothesis that spatial and environmental drivers of river macrophyte diversity and community composition differ in relative importance in calcareous river systems located in warm regions of America versus Africa. 2. We collected aquatic vegetation and spatio-environmental data, during 2006–11, from >200 hardwater rivers, and associated floodplain waterbodies, located up to 30° north or south of the Equator, in México, Trinidad, Brazil, Argentina, U.S.A. (Florida), South Africa, Botswana and Zambia. 3. Species rarefaction procedures were used to assess the impacts of differing sampling effort in the two continents upon estimation of γ-diversity (“species pool”). We then used a cluster analysis approach (two-way indicator species analysis: TWINSPAN) to classify samples into groups based upon species composition. Variation in species richness, community composition and six spatial and environmental variables, among samples making up these groups, were compared using ANOVA and Kruskal–Wallis procedures. Regression trees and redundancy analysis were used to infer the relative importance of spatial and environmental drivers in explaining variation in local species richness and species community composition between the two continents. Sorensen's index (Cs) was calculated to estimate species turnover (β-diversity) between African and American samples. 4. In total, 378 macrophyte taxa were recorded, with no significant difference in mean macrophyte α-diversity between African and American sites, but with evidence for high species turnover between the two continents (Cs = 0.17). Rarefaction analysis confirmed the existence of a larger macrophyte species pool in the hardwater rivers sampled in Africa compared to America. TWINSPAN classification identified seven sample end-groups, only one of which contained a mix of sites from both continents. PERMANOVA and non-metric multidimensional scaling ordination analysis confirmed significant differences in community composition present in these sample-groups. There were substantial differences between the sample-groups for α-diversity, and for spatial and environmental variables. 5. The high species turnover between Africa and America may be accounted for by geographical segregation, along with differences in aquatic habitat characteristics, and varying long-distance dispersal capacities of individual species. The relative importance of spatial and physicochemical drivers (latitude, pH, altitude, alkalinity and electrical conductivity but not flow) differed between the continents in influencing variation in both macrophyte diversity and community composition. Latitude was a significant, although nonlinear and rather complex, spatial driver of macrophyte α-diversity in both American and African hardwater rivers. Water chemistry variables varied in relative importance as drivers of macrophyte α-diversity for African and American sites individually, and for all sites combined, but pH and/or electrical conductivity were more important than alkalinity in each case. In all three cases, altitude was consistently the third most important driver of α-diversity. Spatial and environmental variables played important roles in structuring macrophyte community composition in warm-water calcareous rivers in both America and Africa, with latitude being the strongest individual driver. Thus, this spatial variable, which is a surrogate for numerous enviro-climatic variables, appears to be of importance in determining macrophyte distributions at large spatial scales, for the ecosystem type examined here

Facilitated Practice-based Research Report: Working together in Safeguarding Children and Vulnerable Adults

The purpose of the report is to share findings from a small-scale exploratory research study, conducted by a group of practitioners who participated in a Facilitated Practice-based Research project. The aim of the research was to understand how partner professional e.g. from health, mental health, education, police, housing, charities etc. perceive and experience safeguarding when working with social workers. A qualitative survey was distributed across the Northeast region with all partner professionals invited to participate, who had experience of working with any Local Authority in the NESWA partnership. Each survey consisted of five open-ended questions giving participants the opportunity to explain their responses, and a total of 67 responses were received – of these 33 worked with adults and 34 with children

Protein-coding variants implicate novel genes related to lipid homeostasis contributing to body-fat distribution.

Body-fat distribution is a risk factor for adverse cardiovascular health consequences. We analyzed the association of body-fat distribution, assessed by waist-to-hip ratio adjusted for body mass index, with 228,985 predicted coding and splice site variants available on exome arrays in up to 344,369 individuals from five major ancestries (discovery) and 132,177 European-ancestry individuals (validation). We identified 15 common (minor allele frequency, MAF ≥5%) and nine low-frequency or rare (MAF <5%) coding novel variants. Pathway/gene set enrichment analyses identified lipid particle, adiponectin, abnormal white adipose tissue physiology and bone development and morphology as important contributors to fat distribution, while cross-trait associations highlight cardiometabolic traits. In functional follow-up analyses, specifically in Drosophila RNAi-knockdowns, we observed a significant increase in the total body triglyceride levels for two genes (DNAH10 and PLXND1). We implicate novel genes in fat distribution, stressing the importance of interrogating low-frequency and protein-coding variants

Energy efficiency in friction-based locomotion mechanisms for soft and hard robots: slower can be faster

Many recent designs of soft robots and nano-robots feature locomotion mechanisms that cleverly exploit slipping and sticking phenomena. These mechanisms have many features in common with peristaltic locomotion found in the animal world. The purpose of the present paper is to examine the energy efficiency of a locomotion mechanism that exploits friction. With the help of a model that captures most of the salient features of locomotion, we show how locomotion featuring stick-slip friction is more efficient than a counterpart that only features slipping. Our analysis also provides a framework to establish how optimal locomotion mechanisms can be selected

Tri-State Geological Field Conference

Includes bibliographical references