Pasture condition guides for the Murchison River catchment

Knowledge of the pasture resource and its capabilities is essential to sustainable use of the rangelands. Rangeland managers must be able to recognise firstly the different pasture types, and secondly, the differences between present condition classes for each type. Both factors affect the stock carrying capacity, and appropriate pastoral management of a pasture. This guide has been produced for use by pastoralists to assist them to recognise and assess the condition of the perennial pasture resource of their own properties. The guide describes the condition states found in 10 of the most widespread pastures of the Murchison River catchment (Fig. 1). This region has been the subject of a detailed inventory and mapping, as part of the rangeland survey programme conducted in 1985-87 by the departments of Agriculture and Land Administration. Results of this survey provide the basis for this guide. The guide has been produced with funding support from the National Soil Conservation Programme as part of the Murchison Catchment Management Project

Neo-logicism and a priori arithmetic

In this thesis I argue that the neo-logicist philosophy of arithmetic provides a possible response to a challenge that stems from Benacerraf's paper 'Mathematical Truth'. I discuss the precise nature of the challenge and argue that it deserves to be taken seriously. Frege's own solution to something like this challenge is to appeal to the context principle – that one should “never... ask for the meaning of a word in isolation, but only in the context of a proposition.” (Grundlagen der Arithmetik, Introduction). I evaluate this principle (interpreted as a principle governing both sense and reference) and argue that if it is accepted, the neo-logicist response becomes an epistemic possibility. I then assess Wright's version of neo-logicism as developed in his Frege's Conception of Numbers as Objects and subsequent papers. I highlight the way in which his argument for the analyticity of arithmetic appeals to the analyticity of Hume's Principle (HP). I focus on his argument for the claim that HP is analytic, and give a novel argument that it is not. I argue that HP is false in its most general formulation, and that any variant of HP that is true and from which the axioms of secondorder Dedekind-Peano arithmetic follow is not analytic on any reasonable conception of analyticity that can bear the requisite epistemological burden. However, it would be premature to give up on neo-logicism because of the inadequacy of HP. I emphasise the epistemological nature of the problem to which neo-logicism is supposed to be a solution, and hence assess whether some alternative, non-analytic but nonetheless a priori, principle can be used to salvage neo-logicism. Without coming to any firm conclusions, I argue that the most plausible version of this kind of neo-logicism is one that adopts Heck's 'Finite Hume's Principle' rather than HP itself

Quantification of vaporized targeted nanodroplets using high-frame-rate ultrasound and optics

Owing to their ability to efficiently deliver biological cargo and sense the intracellular milieu, vertical arrays of high aspect ratio nanostructures, known as nanoneedles,are being developed as minimally invasive tools for cell manipulation. However, little is known of the mechanisms of cargo transfer across the cell membrane-nanoneedle interface. Particularly,the contributions of membrane piercing, modulation of membrane permeability and endocytosis to cargo transfer remain largelyunexplored. Here, combining state-of-the-art electron and scanning ion conductance microscopy with molecular biology techniques, we show that porous silicon nanoneedle arrays concurrently stimulate independent endocytic pathways which contribute to enhanced biomolecule delivery into human mesenchymal stem cells. Electron microscopy of the cell membrane at nanoneedle sites shows an intact lipid bilayer, accompanied by an accumulation of clathrin-coated pits and caveolae. Nanoneedles enhance the internalisation of biomolecular markers of endocytosis, highlighting the concurrent activation of caveolae-and clathrin-mediated endocytosis, alongside macropinocytosis. These events contribute to the nanoneedle-mediated delivery (nanoinjection) of nucleic acids into human stem cells, which distribute across the cytosol and the endolysosomal system. This data extends the understanding of how nanoneedles modulate biological processes to mediate interaction with the intracellular space, providing indications for the rational design of improved cell-manipulation technologies

Persistent Aortic Stiffness and Left Ventricular Hypertrophy in Children of Diabetic Mothers

Publisher Copyright: © 2020 Canadian Cardiovascular SocietyBackground: Fetuses of diabetic mothers develop left ventricular (LV) hypertrophy and are at increased long-term risk of cardiovascular disease. In our previous longitudinal study from midgestation to late infancy we showed persistence of LV hypertrophy and increased aortic stiffness compared with infants of healthy mothers, the latter of which correlated with third trimester maternal hemoglobin A1c. In the present study, we reexamined the same cohort in early childhood to determine if these cardiovascular abnormalities persisted. Methods: Height, weight, and right arm blood pressure were recorded. A full functional and structural echocardiogram was performed with offline analysis of LV posterior wall and interventricular septal diastolic thickness (IVSd), systolic and diastolic function, and aortic pulse wave velocity. Vascular reactivity was assessed using digital thermal monitoring. Participants also completed a physical activity questionnaire. Results: Twenty-five children of diabetic mothers (CDMs) and 20 children from healthy pregnancies (mean age, 5.6 ± 1.7 and 5.3 ± 1.3 years, respectively; P = not significant) were assessed. Compared with controls, IVSd z score was increased in CDMs (1.2 ± 0.6 vs 0.5 ± 0.3, respectively; P = 0.006), with one-fifth having a z score of more than +2.0. Aortic pulse wave velocity was increased in CDMs (3.2 ± 0.6 m/s vs 2.2 ± 0.4 m/s; P = 0.001), and correlated with IVSd z score (R2 = 0.81; P = 0.001) and third trimester maternal A1c (R2 = 0.65; P < 0.0001). Body surface area, height, weight, blood pressure, vascular reactivity, and physical activity scores did not differ between groups. Our longitudinal analysis showed that individuals with greater IVSd, and aortic stiffness in utero, early and late infancy also tended to have greater measures in early childhood (P < 0.001 and P < 0.0001, respectively). Conclusions: CDMs show persistently increased interventricular septal thickness and aortic stiffness in early childhood.Peer reviewe

Beyond Cookie Monster Amnesia:Real World Persistent Online Tracking

Browser fingerprinting is a relatively new method of uniquely identifying browsers that can be used to track web users. In some ways it is more privacy-threatening than tracking via cookies, as users have no direct control over it. A number of authors have considered the wide variety of techniques that can be used to fingerprint browsers; however, relatively little information is available on how widespread browser fingerprinting is, and what information is collected to create these fingerprints in the real world. To help address this gap, we crawled the 10,000 most popular websites; this gave insights into the number of websites that are using the technique, which websites are collecting fingerprinting information, and exactly what information is being retrieved. We found that approximately 69\% of websites are, potentially, involved in first-party or third-party browser fingerprinting. We further found that third-party browser fingerprinting, which is potentially more privacy-damaging, appears to be predominant in practice. We also describe \textit{FingerprintAlert}, a freely available browser extension we developed that detects and, optionally, blocks fingerprinting attempts by visited websites

Neutrophil to lymphocyte count ratio as an early indicator of blood stream infection in the emergency department

Objectives Early identification of patients with blood stream infection (BSI), especially bacteraemia, is important as prompt treatment improves outcome. The initial stages of severe infection may be characterised by increased numbers of neutrophils in the peripheral blood and depression of the lymphocyte count (LC). The neutrophil to LC ratio (NLCR) has previously been compared with conventional tests, such as C-reactive protein (CRP) and white cell count (WCC), and has been proposed as a useful marker in the timely diagnosis of bacteraemia. Methods Data on consecutive adult patients presenting to the emergency department with pyrexial illness during the study period, November 2009 to October 2010, were analysed. The main outcome measure was positive blood cultures (bacteraemia). Sensitivity, specificity, positive and negative predictive values and likelihood ratios were determined for NLCR, CRP, WCC, neutrophil count and LC. Results 1954 patients met the inclusion criteria. Blood cultures were positive in 270 patients, hence the prevalence of bacteraemia was 13.8%. With the exception of WCC, there were significant differences in the mean value for each marker between bacteraemic and non-bacteraemic patients (p<0.001). The area under the receiver operating characteristic curve was highest for NLCR (0.72; 95% CI 0.69 to 0.75) and LC (0.71; 0.68 to 0.74) and lowest for WCC (0.54; 0.40 to 0.57). The sensitivity and specificity of NLCR for predicting bacteraemia were 70% (64% to 75%) and 57% (55% to 60%), respectively. Positive and negative predictive values for NLCR were 0.20 (0.18 to 0.23) and 0.92 (0.91 to 0.94), respectively. The positive likelihood ratio was 1.63 (1.48 to 1.79) and the negative likelihood ratio was 0.53 (0.44 to 0.64). Conclusions Although NLCR outperforms conventional markers of infection, it is insufficient in itself to guide clinical management of patients with suspected BSI, and it offers no advantage over LC. However, it may offer some diagnostic utility when taken into account as part of the overall assessment

Building a reduced dictionary of relevant perfusion patterns from CEUS data for the classification of testis lesions

Radical orchifunicolectomy has traditionally been the main clinical treatment for small testicular masses (STMs); however STMs represent a constantly increasing and often incidental finding. Since many of them result benign, a more conservative testis-sparing surgery was proposed, but it requires a preliminary differentiation between benign and malignant masses: this however remains challenging. Although common understanding in radiology and oncology is that perfusion patterns might provide a useful information about the type of masses, no guidelines or consensus is available for the differentiation of STMs. We propose to build a dictionary of relevant perfusion patterns, extracted using non-negative matrix factorization on pixel-wise time-intensity curves from contrast-enhanced ultrasound data. When data from a lesion are reconstructed using this dictionary, a vector containing the frequency of utilization of each pattern can be used as a tissue signature. Using this signature, a support vector machine classifier has been trained, and the cross validated accuracy reached 100% in our pilot cohort

Stärkung der Integration von Klimaanpassung an Hitze und Starkregen in die kommunale Planung

Damit eine Stadt gegenüber dem fortschreitenden Klimawandel gewappnet ist, sind die Integration von Klimaanpas­sungsmaßnahmen in kommunale Planungsprozesse und die Schaffung von konkreten Planungs- und Handlungsgrund­lagen wesentlich. Dieses politische Empfehlungspapier fasst für Bund, Länder und Kommunen zwölf Handlungsempfehlungen zusammen, die zur Stärkung der Integration von Klimaanpassung an Hitze und Starkregen in die kommunale Planung beitragen. Es verfolgt dabei zwei Ziele: Erstens sollen die Rahmenbedingungen zur Integration von Klimaanpassungsbelangen in die Stadtplanung auf Bundes- und Landes­ebene verbessert werden. Zweitens sollen Klimaanpassungsbelange insgesamt stärker und ange­messener in die formelle und informelle Planung der kommunalen Ebene integriert werden. Die Empfehlungen richten sich an politische Entscheidungsträgerinnen und Akteurinnen, die direkt oder indirekt bei der Integration von Klimaanpassung in kommunale Planungsprozesse mitwirken und mitentscheiden. Dies sind insbesondere politische Entscheidungsträgerinnen auf Bundes-, Landes- und kommunaler Ebene, die kommunale Verwaltung, Klimaanpassungsmanagerinnen, Landschafts- und Städteplanerinnen, sowie Multiplikatorin­nen wie der Landkreistag und der Städte- und Gemeindebund. Die Handlungsempfeh­lungen wurden im Rahmen des Forschungsprojektes "ExTrass: Urbane Resilienz gegenüber extremen Wetterereignissen — Typologien und Transfer von Anpassungsstrategien in kleinen Großstädten und Mittelstädten" (als Teil der BMBF-Leit­initiative Zukunftsstadt) im engen Austausch zwischen kommunalen Fachplanerinnen, weiteren kommunalen Vertre­terinnen und Wissenschaftlerinnen erarbeitet