Mass movement susceptibility mapping using satellite optical imagery compared with InSAR monitoring: Zigui County, Three Gorges region, China

Mass movements on steep slopes are a major hazard to communities and infrastructure in the Three Gorges region, China. Developing susceptibility maps of mass movements is therefore very important in both current and future land use planning. This study employed satellite optical imagery and an ASTER GDEM (15 m) to derive various parameters (namely geology; slope gradient; proximity to drainage networks and proximity to lineaments) in order to create a GIS-based map of mass movement susceptibility. This map was then evaluated using highly accurate deformation signals processed using the Persistent Scatterer (PS) InSAR technique. Areas of high susceptibility correspond well to points of high subsidence, which provides a strong support of our susceptibility map

International Lessons in New Methods for Grading and Integrating Cost Effectiveness Evidence into Clinical Practice Guidelines

Economic evidence is influential in health technology assessment world-wide. Clinical Practice Guidelines (CPG) can enable economists to include economic information on health care provision. Application of economic evidence in CPGs, and its integration into clinical practice and national decision making is hampered by objections from professions, paucity of economic evidence or lack of policy commitment. The use of state-of-art economic methodologies will improve this. Economic evidence can be graded by 'checklists' to establish the best evidence for decision making given methodological rigor. New economic evaluation checklists, Multi-Criteria Decision Analyses (MCDA) and other decision criteria enable health economists to impact on decision making world-wide. We analyse the methodologies for integrating economic evidence into CPG agencies globally, including the Agency of Health Research and Quality (AHRQ) in the USA, National Health and Medical Research Council (NHMRC) and Australian political reforms. The Guidelines and Economists Network International (GENI) Board members from Australia, UK, Canada and Denmark presented the findings at the conference of the International Health Economists Association (IHEA) and we report conclusions and developments since. The Consolidated Guidelines for the Reporting of Economic Evaluations (CHEERS) 24 item check list can be used by AHRQ, NHMRC, other CPG and health organisations, in conjunction with the Drummond ten-point check list and a questionnaire that scores that checklist for grading studies, when assessing economic evidence. Cost-effectiveness Analysis (CEA) thresholds, opportunity cost and willingness-to-pay (WTP) are crucial issues for decision rules in CEA generally, including end-of-life therapies. Limitations of inter-rater reliability in checklists can be addressed by including more than one assessor to reach a consensus, especially when impacting on treatment decisions. We identify priority areas to generate economic evidence for CPGs by NHMRC, AHRQ, and other agencies. The evidence may cover demand for care issues such as involved time, logistics, innovation price, price sensitivity, substitutes and complements, WTP, absenteeism and presentism. Supply issues may include economies of scale, efficiency changes, and return on investment. Involved equity and efficiency measures may include cost-of-illness, disease burden, quality-of-life, budget impact, cost-effective ratios, net benefits and disparities in access and outcomes.. Priority setting remains essential and trade-off decisions between policy criteria can be based on MCDA, both in evidence based clinical medicine and in health planning

Superconformal symmetry and two-loop amplitudes in planar N=4 super Yang-Mills

Scattering amplitudes in superconformal field theories do not enjoy this symmetry, because the definition of asymptotic states involve a notion of infinity. Concentrating on planar $\mathcal{N}=4$ Yang-Mills, we consider a generalization of scattering amplitudes which depends on twice as many Grassmann variables. We conjecture that it restores at least half of the superconformal symmetries, and all of the dual superconformal symmetries. The object arises naturally as the dual of a null polygonal Wilson loop in an $(x,\theta,\bar\theta)$ superspace. We support the conjecture by using it to obtain the total differential of all $n$-point two-loop MHV amplitudes, and showing that the result passes consistency checks. Potential all-loop constraints are also discussed.Comment: 25 pages, 2 figures and 1 noteboo

Towards Field Theory Amplitudes From the Cohomology of Pure Spinor Superspace

A simple BRST-closed expression for the color-ordered super-Yang-Mills 5-point amplitude at tree-level is proposed in pure spinor superspace and shown to be BRST-equivalent to the field theory limit of the open superstring 5-pt amplitude. It is manifestly cyclic invariant and each one of its five terms can be associated to the five Feynman diagrams which use only cubic vertices. Its form also suggests an empirical method to find superspace expressions in the cohomology of the pure spinor BRST operator for higher-point amplitudes based on their kinematic pole structure. Using this method, Ansaetze for the 6- and 7-point 10D super-Yang-Mills amplitudes which map to their 14 and 42 color-ordered diagrams are conjectured and their 6- and 7-gluon expansions are explicitly computed.Comment: 14 pages, harvmac, v4: trivial edits in the text to comply with JHEP refere

Uniform electron gases

We show that the traditional concept of the uniform electron gas (UEG) --- a homogeneous system of finite density, consisting of an infinite number of electrons in an infinite volume --- is inadequate to model the UEGs that arise in finite systems. We argue that, in general, a UEG is characterized by at least two parameters, \textit{viz.} the usual one-electron density parameter $\rho$ and a new two-electron parameter $\eta$. We outline a systematic strategy to determine a new density functional $E(\rho,\eta)$ across the spectrum of possible $\rho$ and $\eta$ values.Comment: 8 pages, 2 figures, 5 table

UK survey of occupational therapist’s and physiotherapist’s experiences and attitudes towards hip replacement precautions and equipment

Background: Total hip replacement (THR) is one of the most common orthopaedic procedures in the United Kingdom (UK). Historically, people following THR have been provided with hip precautions and equipment such as: raised toilet seats and furniture rises, in order to reduce the risks of dislocation post-operation. The purpose of this study was to determine current practices in the provision of these interventions in the UK for people following primary THR. Methods: A 27-question, self-administered online survey was developed and distributed to UK physiotherapists and occupational therapists involved in the management of people following primary THR (target respondents). The survey included questions regarding the current practices in the provision of equipment and hip precautions for THR patients, and physiotherapist’s and occupational therapist’s attitudes towards these practices. The survey was disseminated through print and web-based/social media channels. Results: 170 health professionals (87 physiotherapists and 83 occupational therapists), responded to the survey. Commonly prescribed equipment in respondent’s health trusts were raised toilet seats (95%), toilet frames and rails (88%), furniture raises (79%), helping hands/grabbers (77%), perching stools (75%) and long-handled shoe horns (75%). Hip precautions were routinely prescribed by 97% of respondents. Hip precautions were most frequently taught in a pre-operative group (52% of respondents). Similarly equipment was most frequently provided pre-operatively (61% respondents), and most commonly by occupational therapists (74% respondents). There was variability in the advice provided on the duration of hip precautions and equipment from up to six weeks post-operatively to life-time usage. Conclusions: Current practice on hip precautions and provision of equipment is not full representative of clinician’s perceptions of best care after THR. Future research is warranted to determine whether and to whom hip precautions and equipment should be prescribed post-THR as opposed to the current ‘blanket’ provision of equipment and movement restriction provided in UK practice

DNA barcoding reveals the coral “laboratory-rat”, Stylophora pistillata encompasses multiple identities

Stylophora pistillata is a widely used coral “lab-rat” species with highly variable morphology and a broad biogeographic range (Red Sea to western central Pacific). Here we show, by analysing Cytochorme Oxidase I sequences, from 241 samples across this range, that this taxon in fact comprises four deeply divergent clades corresponding to the Pacific-Western Australia, Chagos-Madagascar-South Africa, Gulf of Aden-Zanzibar-Madagascar, and Red Sea-Persian/Arabian Gulf-Kenya. On the basis of the fossil record of Stylophora, these four clades diverged from one another 51.5-29.6 Mya, i.e., long before the closure of the Tethyan connection between the tropical Indo-West Pacific and Atlantic in the early Miocene (16–24 Mya) and should be recognised as four distinct species. These findings have implications for comparative ecological and/or physiological studies carried out using Stylophora pistillata as a model species, and highlight the fact that phenotypic plasticity, thought to be common in scleractinian corals, can mask significant genetic variation

Spatially-resolved electronic and vibronic properties of single diamondoid molecules

Diamondoids are a unique form of carbon nanostructure best described as hydrogen-terminated diamond molecules. Their diamond-cage structures and tetrahedral sp3 hybrid bonding create new possibilities for tuning electronic band gaps, optical properties, thermal transport, and mechanical strength at the nanoscale. The recently-discovered higher diamondoids (each containing more than three diamond cells) have thus generated much excitement in regards to their potential versatility as nanoscale devices. Despite this excitement, however, very little is known about the properties of isolated diamondoids on metal surfaces, a very relevant system for molecular electronics. Here we report the first molecular scale study of individual tetramantane diamondoids on Au(111) using scanning tunneling microscopy and spectroscopy. We find that both the diamondoid electronic structure and electron-vibrational coupling exhibit unique spatial distributions characterized by pronounced line nodes across the molecular surfaces. Ab-initio pseudopotential density functional calculations reveal that the observed dominant electronic and vibronic properties of diamondoids are determined by surface hydrogen terminations, a feature having important implications for designing diamondoid-based molecular devices.Comment: 16 pages, 4 figures. to appear in Nature Material

Cost-Effectiveness of Peer-Delivered Interventions for Cocaine and Alcohol Abuse among Women: A Randomized Controlled Trial

<div><h3>Aims</h3><p>To determine whether the additional interventions to standard care are cost-effective in addressing cocaine and alcohol abuse at 4 months (4 M) and 12 months (12 M) from baseline.</p> <h3>Method</h3><p>We conducted a cost-effectiveness analysis of a randomized controlled trial with three arms: (1) NIDA's Standard intervention (SI); (2) SI plus a Well Woman Exam (WWE); and, (3) SI, WWE, plus four Educational Sessions (4ES).</p> <h3>Results</h3><p>To obtain an additional cocaine abstainer, WWE compared to SI cost $7,223 at 4 M and$3,611 at 12 M. Per additional alcohol abstainer, WWE compared to SI cost $3,611 and$7,223 at 4 M and 12 M, respectively. At 12 M, 4ES was dominated (more costly and less effective) by WWE for abstinence outcomes.</p> <h3>Conclusions</h3><p>To our knowledge, this is the first cost-effectiveness analysis simultaneously examining cocaine and alcohol abuse in women. Depending on primary outcomes sought and priorities of policy makers, peer-delivered interventions can be a cost-effective way to address the needs of this growing, underserved population.</p> <h3>Trial Registration</h3><p>ClinicalTrials.gov <a href="http://www.clinicaltrials.gov/ct2/show/NCT01235091">NCT01235091</a></p> </div

3-D Ultrastructure of O. tauri: Electron Cryotomography of an Entire Eukaryotic Cell

The hallmark of eukaryotic cells is their segregation of key biological functions into discrete, membrane-bound organelles. Creating accurate models of their ultrastructural complexity has been difficult in part because of the limited resolution of light microscopy and the artifact-prone nature of conventional electron microscopy. Here we explored the potential of the emerging technology electron cryotomography to produce three-dimensional images of an entire eukaryotic cell in a near-native state. Ostreococcus tauri was chosen as the specimen because as a unicellular picoplankton with just one copy of each organelle, it is the smallest known eukaryote and was therefore likely to yield the highest resolution images. Whole cells were imaged at various stages of the cell cycle, yielding 3-D reconstructions of complete chloroplasts, mitochondria, endoplasmic reticula, Golgi bodies, peroxisomes, microtubules, and putative ribosome distributions in-situ. Surprisingly, the nucleus was seen to open long before mitosis, and while one microtubule (or two in some predivisional cells) was consistently present, no mitotic spindle was ever observed, prompting speculation that a single microtubule might be sufficient to segregate multiple chromosomes