474 research outputs found
Diverse response of shallow lake water levels to decadal weather patterns in a heterogeneous glacial Boreal Plains landscape
To examine the relative controls of landscape and climate on spatial variability, we measured water level dynamics of shallow lakes over two decades that represent both the heterogeneity of surficial geology classifications, and thus the potential range in surface and groundwater connectivity, and the longâterm weather patterns of the Boreal Plain hydrogeoclimatic setting. Large ranges in shallow lakes water levels (between 0.25 and 2 m) were observed corresponding to extremes in precipitation relative to the longâterm mean precipitation over the study period. We found low concurrence in water level dynamics among four detailed study lakes that received the same meteorological weather signal, but were located in different surficial geology texture classifications that incorporated important landscape parameters associated with lake water balance and storage. Surficial geology classification alone did not, however, distinguish between different ranges in lake water level measured in a broader synoptic survey of 26 lakes across the region. Thus, simple surficial geology classifications cannot alone be applied to classify Boreal Plain lake water level dynamics and other controls, notably landscape position, must also be considered. We further show that interâannual variability in lake water levels was significantly greater than seasonal variability in this hydrogeoclimatic setting. This emphasizes the need for studies of sufficient length to capture weather extremes that include periods of wetting and drying, and demonstrates how observed magnitudes of water level variability, and lake function, can be an artefact of study length and initiation date. These findings provide a foundation to test and calibrate conceptual understanding of the wider controls of lake water levels to form holistic frameworks to mitigate ecological and societal impacts due to hydrological changes under climate and anthropogenic disturbance within and between hydrogeoclimatic settings
Runoff Threshold Responses in Continental Boreal Catchments:Nexus of Subhumid Climate, LowâRelief, Surficial Geology, and Land Cover
Post-fire ecohydrological conditions at peatland margins in different hydrogeological settings of the Boreal Plain
Hydroclimatic influences on peatland CO<sub>2</sub>Â exchange following upland forest harvesting on the boreal plains
Preventable deaths involving opioids in England and Wales, 2013â2022: a systematic case series of coronersâ reports
Background
Opioid deaths have increased in England and Wales. Coronersâ Prevention of Future Deaths reports (PFDs) provide important insights that may enable safer use and avert harms, yet reports implicating opioids have not been synthesized. We aimed to identify opioid-related PFDs and explore coronersâ concerns to prevent future deaths.
Methods
In this systematic case series, we screened 3897 coronial PFDs dated between 01 July 2013 and 23 February 2022, obtained by web scraping the UKâs Courts and Tribunals Judiciary website. PFDs were included when an opioid was implicated in the death. Included PFDs were descriptively analysed, and content analysis was used to assess concerns reported by coroners.
Results
Opioids were involved in 219 deaths reported in PFDs (5·6% of PFDs), equating to 4418 years of life lost (median 33 years/person). Morphine (29%), methadone (23%) and diamorphine (16%) were the most common implicated opioids. Coroners most frequently raised concerns regarding systems and protocols (52%) or safety issues (15%). These concerns were most often addressed to National Health Service (NHS) organizations (51%), but response rates were low overall (47%).
Conclusions
Opioids could be used more safely if coronersâ concerns in PFDs were addressed by national organizations such as NHS bodies, government agencies and policymakers, as well as individual prescribing clinicians
Engaging with patient online health information use: a survey of primary health care nurses
Internet health information is used by patients for health care decision making. Research indicates this information is not necessarily disclosed in interactions with health professionals. This study investigated primary health care nursesâ engagement with patient online health information use along with the respondentsâ disclosure of online sources to their personal health care provider. A questionnaire was posted to a random sample of 1,000 New Zealand nurses with 630 responses. Half the respondents assessed patientsâ online use (n = 324) and had encountered patients who had wrongly interpreted information. Health information quality evaluation activities with patients indicated the need for nursing information literacy skills. A majority of respondents (71%, n = 443) used online sources for personal health information needs; 36.3% (n = 155) of the respondents using online sources did not tell their personal health care provider about information obtained. This study identifies that there are gaps in supporting patient use but more nursing engagement with online sources when compared with earlier studies
IGF1-mediated human embryonic stem cell self-renewal recapitulates the embryonic niche.
Our understanding of the signalling pathways regulating early human development is limited, despite their fundamental biological importance. Here, we mine transcriptomics datasets to investigate signalling in the human embryo and identify expression for the insulin and insulin growth factor 1 (IGF1) receptors, along with IGF1 ligand. Consequently, we generate a minimal chemically-defined culture medium in which IGF1 together with Activin maintain self-renewal in the absence of fibroblast growth factor (FGF) signalling. Under these conditions, we derive several pluripotent stem cell lines that express pluripotency-associated genes, retain high viability and a normal karyotype, and can be genetically modified or differentiated into multiple cell lineages. We also identify active phosphoinositide 3-kinase (PI3K)/AKT/mTOR signalling in early human embryos, and in both primed and naĂŻve pluripotent culture conditions. This demonstrates that signalling insights from human blastocysts can be used to define culture conditions that more closely recapitulate the embryonic niche
PEAT-CLSM : A Specific Treatment of Peatland Hydrology in the NASA Catchment Land Surface Model
Peatlands are poorly represented in global Earth system modeling frameworks. Here we add a peatland-specific land surface hydrology module (PEAT-CLSM) to the Catchment Land Surface Model (CLSM) of the NASA Goddard Earth Observing System (GEOS) framework. The amended TOPMODEL approach of the original CLSM that uses topography characteristics to model catchment processes is discarded, and a peatland-specific model concept is realized in its place. To facilitate its utilization in operational GEOS efforts, PEAT-CLSM uses the basic structure of CLSM and the same global input data. Parameters used in PEAT-CLSM are based on literature data. A suite of CLSM and PEAT-CLSM simulations for peatland areas between 40 degrees N and 75 degrees N is presented and evaluated against a newly compiled data set of groundwater table depth and eddy covariance observations of latent and sensible heat fluxes in natural and seminatural peatlands. CLSM's simulated groundwater tables are too deep and variable, whereas PEAT-CLSM simulates a mean groundwater table depth of -0.20 m (snow-free unfrozen period) with moderate temporal fluctuations (standard deviation of 0.10 m), in significantly better agreement with in situ observations. Relative to an operational CLSM version that simply includes peat as a soil class, the temporal correlation coefficient is increased on average by 0.16 and reaches 0.64 for bogs and 0.66 for fens when driven with global atmospheric forcing data. In PEAT-CLSM, runoff is increased on average by 38% and evapotranspiration is reduced by 19%. The evapotranspiration reduction constitutes a significant improvement relative to eddy covariance measurements.Peer reviewe
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