Incubation of penguin eggs

The preservation of rare and endangered species of birds requires finding efficient, and above all successful, methods of breeding them in captivity. One strategy adopted is to remove eggs from the mother, making her lay more eggs, and then incubating the removed eggs artificially. Artificial incubation machines must attempt to replicate the conditions of natural incubation as closely as possible. Aside from careful control of temperature and humidity within the artificial incubator, an important factor to reproduce is that eggs must be turned about their long axis from time to time. Hatching will not occur in an egg that is not subjected to some form of occasional rotation. The reason why eggs are turned and the way in which they should be turned are still not well understood. The Study Group attempted to gain some insight into why eggs have to be turned from a fluid dynamic perspective. A simple egg-turning model for an egg at the first stages of incubation was constructed, based on lubrication theory

Enhancing Workflow with a Semantic Description of Scientific Intent

Peer reviewedPreprin

Distortions to Agricultural Incentives in South Africa

Distorted incentives, agricultural and trade policy reforms, national agricultural development, Agricultural and Food Policy, International Relations/Trade, F13, F14, Q17, Q18,

High throughput sequencing in acute lymphoblastic leukemia reveals clonal architecture of central nervous system and bone marrow compartments

No abstract available

Overpressure transmission through interconnected igneous intrusions

JX Nippon UK Ltd are thanked for PSDM seismic data used in this study. Well data is from the Common Access Database (CDA). IHS Kingdom Software and Schlumberger Petrel Software was used for seismic interpretation. Schlumberger Techlog was used for display of wireline and FMI data. We would like to thank Joe Cartwright, Richard Swarbrick, Clayton Grove and Stephen O’Connor for the constructive and helpful reviews and discussions of this manuscript. PGS are thanked for continued support of the research group at Aberdeen. Barry Katz is thanked for editorial guidance and input.Peer reviewedPublisher PD

Health service pathways for patients with chronic leg ulcers: identifying effective pathways for facilitation of evidence based wound care

Background: Chronic leg ulcers cause long term ill-health for older adults and the condition places a significant burden on health service resources. Although evidence on effective management of the condition is available, a significant evidence-practice gap is known to exist, with many suggested reasons e.g. multiple care providers, costs of care and treatments. This study aimed to identify effective health service pathways of care which facilitated evidence-based management of chronic leg ulcers. Methods: A sample of 70 patients presenting with a lower limb leg or foot ulcer at specialist wound clinics in Queensland, Australia were recruited for an observational study and survey. Retrospective data were collected on demographics, health, medical history, treatments, costs and health service pathways in the previous 12 months. Prospective data were collected on health service pathways, pain, functional ability, quality of life, treatments, wound healing and recurrence outcomes for 24 weeks from admission. Results: Retrospective data indicated that evidence based guidelines were poorly implemented prior to admission to the study, e.g. only 31% of participants with a lower limb ulcer had an ABPI or duplex assessment in the previous 12 months. On average, participants accessed care 2–3 times/week for 17 weeks from multiple health service providers in the twelve months before admission to the study clinics. Following admission to specialist wound clinics, participants accessed care on average once per week for 12 weeks from a smaller range of providers. The median ulcer duration on admission to the study was 22 weeks (range 2–728 weeks). Following admission to wound clinics, implementation of key indicators of evidence based care increased (p < 0.001) and Kaplan-Meier survival analysis found the median time to healing was 12 weeks (95% CI 9.3–14.7). Implementation of evidence based care was significantly related to improved healing outcomes (p < 0.001). Conclusions: This study highlights the complexities involved in accessing expertise and evidence based wound care for adults with chronic leg or foot ulcers. Results demonstrate that access to wound management expertise can promote streamlined health services and evidence based wound care, leading to efficient use of health resources and improved health