Surprise Valley and Lookout Point: Zane Grey and the Configuration of Southwestern Landscapes

Explorers on the North American continent have often sought to define their experiences by their interaction with the landscape. It is this interaction, D.H. Lawrence wrote in his exploration of the American “spirit of place,” that allowed European-Americans to begin to formulate a new identity that broke from a world they suddenly defined as "Old." At times, however, access to the landscape was complicated by the indigenous peoples who had lived on the continent for tens of thousands of years. While explorers of the eastern regions had acknowledged the presence of indigenous people within the continent, explorers of lands further west instead developed a narrative that increasingly described the places they encountered as empty. Lawrence observed that "no place exerts its full potential upon a newcomer until the old inhabitant is dead or absorbed"; in keeping with that belief, new Americans began a complex process of removing, relocating, and rendering invisible these native peoples in order to facilitate that feeling of discovery, newness, and ultimately, a complicated sense of place

Closets in the Farm Home: The Spread of Domestic Science to Rural America, 1900-1935

In the last decade of the nineteenth century, electric light and power reorganized workers in interior factory spaces around efficiency and production. In domestic spaces during this same period, home economists applied similar rules of efficiency to housework, refashioning women in the image of factory managers who held the tenants of efficiency, productivity and economy in the highest regard. Home economists reordered workspace in the home by investigating a variety of household issues with scientific rigor. No part of home life was safe from evaluation––the height of the kitchen sink, the time when peaches must be preserved, the method for laundering bedclothes in the sickroom, the exclusion of bookshelves to prevent accumulation of dust, and even the arrangement of highly specialized storage spaces for items such as mourning apparel, off-season bed linens, and kitchen cleaning supplies all received meticulous attention

Multisite peripheral joint pain: a cross-sectional study of prevalence and impact on general health, quality of life, pain intensity and consultation behaviour

Background Research into musculoskeletal conditions often focusses on pain at single sites, such as the knee, yet several studies have previously reported the high prevalence of multiple sites of musculoskeletal pain. The most common form of musculoskeletal condition is arthritis, with osteoarthritis (OA) the most common cause of joint pain in adults 45 years and over. However, there is limited recognition of the prevalence of multisite peripheral joint pain in those either living with or at risk of OA, therefore this study set out to estimate the prevalence of multisite peripheral joint pain in adults 45 years and older, and its impact on several dimensions of health. Methods A cross-sectional population survey was mailed to adults (n = 28,443) aged 45 years and over from eight general practices in the North West Midlands, United Kingdom (UK). Prevalence rates were established for multisite peripheral joint pain (pain in two or more sites; hands, hips, knees, feet). Impact was measured for general health (SF-12 MCS & PCS), QoL (EQ-5D), pain intensity (0-10 numerical ratings scale) and the number of consultations with a range of health care professionals. Results Of 15,083 responders (53%), multisite peripheral joint pain was reported by 54%. Peripheral joint pain was present in n = 11,928, of which 68% reported pain in multiple sites. Multisite peripheral joint pain was shown to be significantly associated with reduced physical (Mean difference = −5.9 95% CI -6.3,-5.5) and mental (−2.8 95% CI -3.2,-2.4) components of the SF-12, reduced QoL (−0.14 95% CI -0.15, −0.13), increased pain (+0.70 95% CI 0.62, 0.79) and increased odds of consultations with GPs (OR 2.4 95% CI 2.2, 2.6) and practice nurses (OR 2.6 (95% CI 2.1, 3.2) when compared to single site pain. Conclusions Multisite peripheral joint pain is prevalent in the population in adults 45 years and over and has a significant negative impact on several dimensions of health. Health care professionals should consider joint pain beyond the index site in order to address holistic management

Response to: Losina E. Why past research successes do not translate to clinical reality: gaps in evidence on exercise program efficiency. Osteoarthritis and Cartilage 2019;27:1-2

Letter to the editor

Tunneling-percolation origin of nonuniversality: theory and experiments

A vast class of disordered conducting-insulating compounds close to the percolation threshold is characterized by nonuniversal values of transport critical exponent t, in disagreement with the standard theory of percolation which predicts t = 2.0 for all three dimensional systems. Various models have been proposed in order to explain the origin of such universality breakdown. Among them, the tunneling-percolation model calls into play tunneling processes between conducting particles which, under some general circumstances, could lead to transport exponents dependent of the mean tunneling distance a. The validity of such theory could be tested by changing the parameter a by means of an applied mechanical strain. We have applied this idea to universal and nonuniversal RuO2-glass composites. We show that when t > 2 the measured piezoresistive response \Gamma, i. e., the relative change of resistivity under applied strain, diverges logarithmically at the percolation threshold, while for t = 2, \Gamma does not show an appreciable dependence upon the RuO2 volume fraction. These results are consistent with a mean tunneling dependence of the nonuniversal transport exponent as predicted by the tunneling-percolation model. The experimental results are compared with analytical and numerical calculations on a random-resistor network model of tunneling-percolation.Comment: 13 pages, 12 figure

Implementation of musculoskeletal Models of Care in primary care settings: Theory, practice, evaluation and outcomes for musculoskeletal health in high-income economies

Musculoskeletal conditions represent one of the largest causes of years lived with disability in high-income economies. These conditions are predominantly managed in primary care settings, and yet, there is a paucity of evidence on which approaches work well in increasing the uptake of best practice and in closing the evidence-to-practice gap. Increasingly, musculoskeletal models of service delivery (as components of models of care) such as integrated care, stratified care and therapist-led care have been tested in primary health care pathways for joint pain in older adults, for low back pain and for arthritis. In this chapter, we discuss why implementation of these models is important for primary care and how models are implemented using three case examples: we review implementation theory, principles and outcomes; we consider the role of health economic evaluation; and we propose key evidence gaps in this field. We propose the following research priorities for this area: investigating the generalisability of models of care across, for example, urban and rural settings, and for different musculoskeletal conditions; increasing support for self-management; understanding the importance of context in choosing a model of care; detailing how implementation has been undertaken; and evaluation of implementation and its impact

Grant’s Tomb An Oral History at a Commemorative Landscape

Grant‘s Tomb holds the bodies of Ulysses S. Grant and his wife, Julia Dent Grant. Built in 1897 in New York City‘s Riverside Park in Morningside Heights, the tomb and the surrounding plaza are officially the General Grant National Memorial, a name change that coincided with its establishment as a National Park Service site in 1959 after a long era of management by the Grant Monument Association. It is a historic monument and a site of public history; a New York City landmark and a place of national storytelling; a nineteenth century shrine and a complex memorial that also serves the present. In this work, I consider how Grant‘s Tomb becomes a place of diverse and personal meaning endowed with the ability to transport visitors to a past that reaches back to select points of the twentieth century, to the tomb‘s construction and Grant‘s death at the end of the nineteenth century, and to the American Civil War in the 1860s

Exercise for lower limb osteoarthritis : systematic review incorporating trial sequential analysis and network meta-analysis

Objective: To determine whether there is sufficient evidence to conclude that exercise interventions are more effective than no exercise control and to compare the effectiveness of different exercise interventions in relieving pain and improving function in patients with lower limb osteoarthritis. Data sources: Nine electronic databases searched from inception to March 2012. Study selection: Randomised controlled trials comparing exercise interventions with each other or with no exercise control for adults with knee or hip osteoarthritis. Data extraction: Two reviewers evaluated eligibility and methodological quality. Main outcomes extracted were pain intensity and limitation of function. Trial sequential analysis was used to investigate reliability and conclusiveness of available evidence for exercise interventions. Bayesian network meta-analysis was used to combine both direct (within trial) and indirect (between trial) evidence on treatment effectiveness. Results: 60 trials (44 knee, two hip, 14 mixed) covering 12 exercise interventions and with 8218 patients met inclusion criteria. Sequential analysis showed that as of 2002 sufficient evidence had been accrued to show significant benefit of exercise interventions over no exercise control. For pain relief, strengthening, flexibility plus strengthening, flexibility plus strengthening plus aerobic, aquatic strengthening, and aquatic strengthening plus flexibility, exercises were significantly more effective than no exercise control. A combined intervention of strengthening, flexibility, and aerobic exercise was also significantly more effective than no exercise control for improving limitation in function (standardised mean difference −0.63, 95% credible interval −1.16 to −0.10). Conclusions: As of 2002 sufficient evidence had accumulated to show significant benefit of exercise over no exercise in patients with osteoarthritis, and further trials are unlikely to overturn this result. An approach combining exercises to increase strength, flexibility, and aerobic capacity is likely to be most effective in the management of lower limb osteoarthritis. The evidence is largely from trials in patients with knee osteoarthritis

Thermal Tolerance and Adaptation in Cnidarians: An Investigation of Host Transcriptomic Responses and Heritable Variation Across Natural Populations

Coral reefs have become vulnerable to climate change, with mass bleaching events, the loss of symbiotic algae (Symbiodiniaceae), increasing in both frequency and severity. As climate change continues to threaten the persistence and existence of coral reefs around the world, the biggest question posed for coral reefs is “can they adapt to ongoing climate change threats?” A growing number of studies have recently shown the importance of host transcriptomic responses, evidence of genetic diversity in bleaching susceptibility, and potential adaptive responses in these traits, but there are still gaps in our understanding of these mechanisms and their distribution across corals. Therefore, the research presented in this dissertation addresses 1) the genes and genomic regions associated with genetic variation in bleaching responses, 2) heritability of thermal tolerance traits in natural populations, and 3) the roles of gene expression and symbiont communities in thermal acclimation. In Chapter 2, I used quantitative genetic and genomic approaches to investigate heritable variation in thermal tolerance in the coral species Orbicella faveolata, as well as the genomic basis for this variation. I estimated narrow-sense heritability (h²) and used a genome-wide association study to identify loci significantly associated with thermal tolerance, indicating capacity for adaptation in this natural population of corals. In addition, profiling gene expression in corals with contrasting bleaching phenotypes uncovered substantial differences in transcriptional stress responses between heat-tolerant and heat-susceptible corals. In Chapter 3, I quantified variation in thermal tolerance and investigated its genomic basis using Anthopleura elegantissima, a model system for corals. Using SNP genotypes to compare anemone aggregations, I estimated clonal repeatability (a proxy for broad sense heritability, H²) and narrow-sense heritability, revealing substantial heritable variation. Additionally, I conducted a genome-wide association study and found significant genetic markers and genes associated with thermal tolerance. Heterozygote advantage was evident across these markers, indicating a potential role in Cnidarian thermal tolerance. In Chapter 4, I conducted a comparative study across eight coral taxa to explore variation in thermal acclimation capacity at high and low temperatures. I profiled gene expression following acclimation to investigate the functional basis for variation in thermal acclimation and pinpointed genes playing more of a mechanistic role. Additionally, I surveyed changes in algal symbiont communities to investigate changes in symbiont communities during acclimation that may contribute to subsequent changes in thermal tolerance of the holobiont. This study revealed considerable variation across coral taxa and documents potential mechanisms that might explain this variation, information important for modeling biological responses to ocean warming. Together, the work presented here provides insights into the potential for adaptation and acclimation in corals threatened by climate change, and identifies potential genomic regions and genes that may become targets of selection as ocean temperatures continue to rise