Non-target Impacts to Eelgrass from Treatments to Control Spartina in Willapa Bay, Washington

Four methods to control the smooth cordgrass Spartina (Spartina alterniflora) and the footwear worn by treatment personnelat several sites in Willapa Bay, Washington were evaluatedto determine the non-target impacts to eelgrass (Zostera japonica). Clone-sized infestations of Spartina were treated bymowing or a single hand-spray application of Rodeo® formulatedat 480 g L-1acid equivalence (ae) of the isopropylaminesalt of glyphosate (Monsanto Agricultural Co., St. Louis, MO;currently Dow AgroSciences, Indianapolis, IN) with the nonionic surfactant LI 700® (2% v/v) or a combination of mowing and hand spraying. An aerial application of Rodeo® with X-77 Spreader® (0.13% v/v) to a 2-ha meadow was also investigated. Monitoring consisted of measuring eelgrass shoot densities and percent cover pre-treatment and 1-yr post-treatment. Impacts to eelgrass adjacent to treated clones were determined 1 m from the clones and compared to a control 5-m away. Impacts from footwear were assessed at 5 equidistant intervals along a 10-m transect on mudflat and an untreated control transect at each of the three clone treatment sites. Impacts from the aerial application were determined by comparing shoot densities and percent cover 1, 3 and 10 m from the edge of the treated Spartina meadow to that at comparable distances from an untreated meadow. Methods utilized to control Spartina clones did not impact surrounding eelgrass at two of three sites. Decreases in shoot densities observed at the third site were consistent across treatments. Most impacts to eelgrass from the footwear worn by treatment personnel were negligible and those that were significant were limited to soft mud substrate. The aerial application of the herbicide was associated with reductions in eelgrass (shoot density and percent cover) at two of the three sampling distances, but reductions on the control plot were greater. We conclude that the unchecked spread of Spartina is a far greater threat to the survival and health of eelgrass than that from any of the control measures we studied. The basis for evaluating control measures for Spartina should be efficacy and logistical constraints and not impacts to eelgrass. PDF is 7 pages

The local space density of dwarf galaxies

We estimate the luminosity function of field galaxies over a range of ten magnitudes (-22 < M_{B_J} < -12 for H_0 = 100 km/s/Mpc) by counting the number of faint APM galaxies around Stromlo-APM redshift survey galaxies at known distance. The faint end of the luminosity function rises steeply at M_{B_J} \approx -15, implying that the space density of dwarf galaxies is at least two times larger than predicted by a Schechter function with flat faint-end slope. Such a high abundance of dwarf galaxies at low redshift can help explain the observed number counts and redshift distributions of faint galaxies without invoking exotic models for galaxy evolution.Comment: 20 pages, 5 included postscript figures, uses AAS LaTex macros. Accepted for publication in the Astrophysical Journal. Two figures and associated discussion added; results and conclusions unchange

The proposal of adding a society value to the software process improvement manifesto

The use of computers has become ubiquitous and spread out to every part of our personal lives and businesses. Computer Ethics focuses on the questions of right and wrong that arise from the development and deployment of computers. Thus, it urges that the social impact of computers must be analysed. In software engineering, the Software Process Improvement (SPI) Manifesto was developed by groups of experts in the field and aimed to improve the software produced, by improving the process, the attitudes of software engineers, and the organisational culture and practices. The manifesto is centred on three basic values: people, business focus and organisational change, underpinning the philosophy of software process improvement; and ten corresponding principles, which serve as foundations for action. In this paper, we argue that SPI professionals, need to, in addition to fulfilling duties to the Organisation, the Business, the Employees who participate in SPI, and the People who will be most affected, broaden their obligations to include wider society. The impact of developed and deployed software systems is often beyond the organisation and affects the daily lives and activities of citizens in society. This paper argues for the inclusion, in the SPI Manifesto, of a fourth value titled Society, along with six corresponding principles. These half-dozen principles are based on traditional moral and ethical concepts, sourced from the field of Computer Ethics. This proposed revision to the SPI manifesto would explicitly espouse the notion of serving the public interest. It will likely help SPI professionals to remember that working in the public interest is also important in Software Process Improvement, thus, making the duty to society clear and obvious or evident

Improving access to contraception through integration of family planning services into a multidrug-resistant tuberculosis treatment programme

Objectives: Multidrug-resistant tuberculosis (MDR-TB) is a global public health priority. The advent of the World Health Organisation’s Short Course regimen for MDR-TB, which halves treatment duration, has transformed outcomes and treatment acceptability for affected patients. Bedaquiline, a cornerstone of the Short Course regimen, has unknown teratogenicity and the WHO therefore recommends reliable contraception for all female MDR-TB patients in order to secure eligibility for bedaquiline. We were concerned that low contraceptive uptake among female patients in our rural South African MDR-TB treatment programme could jeopardise their access to bedaquiline. We therefore conducted a service delivery improvement project that aimed to audit contraceptive use in female MDR-TB patients, integrate family planning services into MDR-TB care, and increase the proportion of female patients eligible for bedaquiline therapy. Methods: Contraceptive use and pregnancy rates were audited in all female patients aged 13–50 years initiated on our MDR-TB treatment programme in 2016. We then implemented an intervention consisting of procurement of depot-medroxyprogesterone acetate (DMPA) for the MDR-TB unit and training of specialist MDR-TB nurses in administration of DMPA. The audit cycle was repeated for all female patients aged 13–50 years initiated on the programme in January–October 2017 (post-intervention). Results: The proportion of women on injectable contraceptives by the time of MDR-TB treatment initiation increased significantly in the post-intervention cohort (77.4% vs 23.9%, p<0.0001). Conclusion: By integrating contraceptive services into our MDR-TB programme we significantly increased contraceptive uptake, protecting women from the obstetric risks associated with pregnancy during MDR-TB treatment and maximising their eligibility for bedaquiline therapy

Health Disparity in Preventive Care Among Nigerian Immigrants in the United States

The roles of immigration status in preventive health care services among Nigerian immigrants in the United States were investigated in this quantitative, cross-sectional survey study. About 260,724 Nigerian immigrants reside in the Unites States, but many do not complete lifesaving preventive health services such as immunization and screening, a major factor contributing to the rise in the cost of healthcare resultant from their use of emergency room services. This study investigated the extent to which immigration status independently explains the relationship between health disparities and risks in non-completion of preventive health care among Nigerian immigrants in the United States by comparing data from Nigerian immigrant adults residing in the United States to data from the African American adults in the United States. Socio-cognitive theory and the social behavioral model served as the conceptual framework for this study. There were 291 adult Nigerian immigrants in the cross-sectional survey using a purposive sampling technique. The data were analyzed using the Levene\u27s test for homogeneity of variances, the Pearson\u27s Chi- Square test and the Kruskal-Wallis non-parametric test. The Kruskal-Wallis results showed that there was a significant difference in screening for preventive care services among the 4 immigrant status categories (p = .000) based on length of residency in the United States. Understanding the health disparities of this population according to their country of origin and immigration status will assist health providers with awareness of population-specific health needs, and may be beneficial in designing public health programs for this population group

Working together for student success: cross-functional collaboration at community colleges

The purpose of this study was to identify and describe the underlying mechanisms within community colleges that influence cross-functional collaboration. The study also explored the role of community college leadership in fostering internal collaboration. The following questions guided the research: (1) What does cross-functional collaboration look like at a community college known for strong collaborative work? (2) What organizational factors influence cross-functional collaboration in the community college? (3) How does college leadership facilitate cross-functional collaboration in the community college? Critical realism provided the philosophical perspective for this post-positivist study, and the research method utilized was a multiple, instrumental case study that was replicated at three community colleges. The data collected and analyzed included interviews with 31 participants and relevant written and electronic documents. The findings of a cross-case analysis revealed five general themes that described the context of cross-functional collaboration in the community college. In the colleges included within this study, cross-functional collaboration: (a) arose from necessity, (b) was primed by upper management, (c) was kept on track by accountability, (d) was guided by a team leader, and (e) was supported by committed team participants. Six organizational factors were identified as having an impact on cross-functional collaboration in community colleges. The common organizational factors found to influence cross-functional collaboration included: (a) an environment of support, (b) common vision, (c) processes, (d) resources, (e) accountability, and (f) recognition. The college president and other top-level administrators were found to play a significant role in facilitating cross-functional collaboration at their institutions. The themes that emerged across all three cases showed that college leaders influenced collaboration by: (a) contributing to an environment of support, (b) establishing the project as a college priority, (c) implementing processes that facilitated collaboration, (d) involving the right people, (e) providing clear direction and goals, and (f) owning responsibility for effective functioning. Subthemes and examples related to each of these findings provide insight regarding effective cross-functional collaboration in community colleges

Dermatoglyphic Patterns of Autistic Children in Nigeria

Dermatoglyphic patterns have positive correlation in a number of genetic diseases. This research was carried out to determine any possible relationship between dermatoglyphics and autism in Nigeria using digital and palmar patterns, total ridge count, a-b ridge count and crease pattern. The digital and palmar prints of 20 autistic subjects from an autistic centre in Port Harcourt, Rivers state Nigeria were taken with parental guidance. The percentage frequency distribution of the digital pattern of the autistic subject was 49.5% for the arch, 18.5% for the whorl, 28.5% for the ulnar loop and 3.5% for the radial loop against 44% for the ulnar loop, 25.5% for the arch, 22% for the whorl and 8.5% for the radial loop for normal subjects. The mean values of the a –b ridge counts on the right and left hands of autistic male were 34.66 and 33.33 against 36.40 and 31.33  in non-autistic children respectively while in  female they were 38.6 and 35.8 against 41.40 and 38.6 respectively. Though no statistical significant difference was observed when the two groups were compared (P&gt;0.05). It was, however, observed that the number of the total ridge counts in the right and left hands of the autistic children were lower than those of the normal subjects. Thus, there is need for further investigation using larger sample size. The data from this study will serve as a good reference for future study on this subject in Nigeria. Key Words: Dermatoglyphics and Autis

Statistics of clustering of ultra-high energy cosmic rays and the number of their sources

Observation of clustering of ultra-high energy cosmic rays (UHECR) suggests that they are emitted by compact sources. Assuming small deflection of UHECR during the propagation, the statistical analysis of clustering allows to estimate the spatial density of the sources, h, including those which have not yet been observed directly. When applied to astrophysical models involving extra-galactic sources, the estimate based on 14 events with energy E>10^{20} eV gives h ~ 6 X 10^{-3} Mps^{-3}. With increasing statistics, this estimate may lead to exclusion of the models which associate the production of UHECR with exceptional galaxies such as AGN, powerful radio-galaxies, dead quasars, and models based on gamma ray bursts.Comment: The version accepted for publication in Phys. Rev. Lett. Notations changed to conventional ones. The estimate of the effective GZK radius replaced by the result of numerical simulatio

Moving towards universal health coverage: Strengthening the evidence ecosystem for the South African health system

Health policy and systems research (HPSR) guides health system reforms and is essential for South Africa (SA)’s progress towards universal coverage of high-quality healthcare. For HPSR evidence to inform and strengthen health systems, it needs to flow efficiently between evidence producers, evidence synthesisers, evidence processers and disseminators and evidence implementors in an evidence ecosystem. A substantial body of evidence for health systems strengthening is generated in SA, and this informs national and international health system guidelines and guidance. In this manuscript, in celebration of the 50th anniversary of the SA Medical Research Council, we apply an evidence ecosystem lens to the SA health system, and discuss its current functioning in support of the achievement of a high-quality health system that is able to achieve universal health coverage. We use three case studies to describe successes, challenges and gaps in the functioning of the evidence ecosystem. The first case study focuses on using evidence to strengthen health-system governance and support for community health worker programmes. The second case focuses on managing the growing epidemic of drug-resistant tuberculosis, while the third case focuses on social protection, the child support grant and its impact on health. SA scientists are part of global initiatives to strengthen the health-systems evidence ecosystem, specifically through pioneering methods to synthesise evidence and produce evidence-informed guidelines to facilitate evidence use in health-system decision-making. SA institutes of health policy analysis facilitate involvement of evidence producers and synthesisers in the national health system policy-making process. A future priority is to further strengthen national initiatives to translate evidence into policy and practice and to sustain capacity for continuous technical support to health-systems policy development and implementation

Scale Dependent Dimension of Luminous Matter in the Universe

We present a geometrical model of the distribution of luminous matter in the universe, derived from a very simple reaction-diffusion model of turbulent phenomena. The apparent dimension of luminous matter, $D(l)$, depends linearly on the logarithm of the scale $l$ under which the universe is viewed: $D(l) \sim 3\log(l/l_0)/\log(\xi/l_0)$, where $\xi$ is a correlation length. Comparison with data from the SARS red-shift catalogue, and the LEDA database provides a good fit with a correlation length $\xi \sim 300$ Mpc. The geometrical interpretation is clear: At small distances, the universe is zero-dimensional and point-like. At distances of the order of 1 Mpc the dimension is unity, indicating a filamentary, string-like structure; when viewed at larger scales it gradually becomes 2-dimensional wall-like, and finally, at and beyond the correlation length, it becomes uniform.Comment: 6 pages, 2 figure