Climate change sentiment on Twitter: An unsolicited public opinion poll

The consequences of anthropogenic climate change are extensively debated through scientific papers, newspaper articles, and blogs. Newspaper articles may lack accuracy, while the severity of findings in scientific papers may be too opaque for the public to understand. Social media, however, is a forum where individuals of diverse backgrounds can share their thoughts and opinions. As consumption shifts from old media to new, Twitter has become a valuable resource for analyzing current events and headline news. In this research, we analyze tweets containing the word climate collected between September 2008 and July 2014. Through use of a previously developed sentiment measurement tool called the Hedonometer, we determine how collective sentiment varies in response to climate change news, events, and natural disasters. We find that natural disasters, climate bills, and oildrilling can contribute to a decrease in happiness while climate rallies, a book release, and a green ideas contest can contribute to an increase in happiness. Words uncovered by our analysis suggest that responses to climate change news are predominately from climate change activists rather than climate change deniers, indicating that Twitter is a valuable resource for the spread of climate change awareness

Fetal Alcohol Spectrum Disorders (FASD): Promoting International Awareness through Ambassadors and Collaboration

Fetal Alcohol Spectrum Disorders (FASD) are a group of health conditions caused by the consumption of alcohol during pregnancy.  Alcohol use by pregnant women is a global public health issue with lifelong consequences to the baby.  In Brazil, despite educational campaigns on the problems of drinking while pregnant, many women continue to drink regardless of their pregnancy status. Currently, nursing curricula do not include in-depth information around FASD.  Therefore, the purpose of this paper is to focus on the need for the inclusion of alcohol and FASD education in Brazil by incorporating a role for the student nurse as an FASD prevention ambassador.  Student nurse ambassadors can promote FASD prevention through educating fellow students and nursing professional. An infographic to provide FASD facts for patients, nursing students, and nursing staff has been developed.  Because nurses are key figures in providing patient care, they are ideal advocates for FASD prevention

Preventing Teen Relationship Abuse and Sexual Assault through Bystander Training: Intervention Outcomes for School Personnel

The purpose of the current study was to examine the impact of exposure to Bringing in the Bystander—High School Curriculum (BITB-HSC) on school personnel, which included a seven session classroom curriculum for ninth through twelfth graders (student curriculum), a bystander training workshop for school personnel (school personnel workshop), and reading materials (handout). We examined how exposure to these various BITB-HSC intervention components was associated with school personnel’s knowledge and bystander efficacy, intentions, and barriers specific to student relationship abuse (RA) and sexual assault (SA). Participants were 488 school personnel from 12 high schools in upper New England who completed the 4-month follow-up survey that assessed for intervention exposure (284 participants completed both the baseline and follow-up survey). Whereas 53% of participants were exposed to no intervention components, the other half of the sample were exposed to a combination of intervention components. Higher baseline knowledge and reactive bystander intentions were associated with subsequent exposure to both the student curriculum and the handout, and fewer barriers to bystander action predicted exposure to the school personnel workshop. Exposure to the school personnel workshop, student curriculum, and handout was associated with subsequent greater knowledge, exposure to the student curriculum predicted reactive bystander intentions, and exposure to the handout predicted higher reactive bystander intentions and bystander efficacy. Findings suggest that despite challenges with engagement, exposure to the BITB-HSC components may be a useful tool in improving school personnel’s responses to RA and SA among high school students

Methods for identifying surgical wound infection after discharge from hospital: a systematic review.

Background: Wound infections are a common complication of surgery that add significantly to the morbidity of patients and costs of treatment. The global trend towards reducing length of hospital stay post-surgery and the increase in day case surgery means that surgical site infections (SSI) will increasingly occur after hospital discharge. Surveillance of SSIs is important because rates of SSI are viewed as a measure of hospital performance, however accurate detection of SSIs post-hospital discharge is not straightforward. Methods: We conducted a systematic review of methods of post discharge surveillance for surgical wound infection and undertook a national audit of methods of post-discharge surveillance for surgical site infection currently used within United Kingdom NHS Trusts. Results: Seven reports of six comparative studies which examined the validity of post-discharge surveillance methods were located; these involved different comparisons and some had methodological limitations, making it difficult to identify an optimal method. Several studies evaluated automated screening of electronic records and found this to be a useful strategy for the identification of SSIs that occurred post discharge. The audit identified a wide range of relevant post-discharge surveillance programmes in England, Scotland and Wales and Northern Ireland; however, these programmes used varying approaches for which there is little supporting evidence of validity and/or reliability. Conclusion: In order to establish robust methods of surveillance for those surgical site infections that occur post discharge, there is a need to develop a method of case ascertainment that is valid and reliable post discharge. Existing research has not identified a valid and reliable method. A standardised definition of wound infection ( e. g. that of the Centres for Disease Control) should be used as a basis for developing a feasible, valid and reliable approach to defining post discharge SSI. At a local level, the method used to ascertain post discharge SSI will depend upon the purpose of the surveillance, the nature of available routine data and the resources available

Grasses and Legumes for Cellulosic Bioenergy

Human life has depended on renewable sources of bioenergy for many thousands of years, since the time humans fi rst learned to control fi re and utilize wood as the earliest source of bioenergy. The exploitation of forage crops constituted the next major technological breakthrough in renewable bioenergy, when our ancestors began to domesticate livestock about 6000 years ago. Horses, cattle, oxen, water buffalo, and camels have long been used as sources of mechanical and chemical energy. They perform tillage for crop production, provide leverage to collect and transport construction materials, supply transportation for trade and migratory routes, and create manure that is used to cook meals and heat homes. Forage crops—many of which form the basis of Grass: The 1948 Yearbook of Agriculture (Stefferud, 1948), as well as the other chapters of this volume—have composed the principal or only diet of these draft animals since the dawn of agriculture

Acute alcohol consumption and secondary psychopathic traits increase ratings of the attractiveness and health of ethnic ingroup faces but not outgroup faces

Studies have consistently shown that both consumption of acute amounts of alcohol, and elevated antisocial psychopathic traits, are associated with an impaired ability for prepotent response inhibition. This may manifest as a reduced ability to inhibit prepotent race biased responses. Here we tested the effects of acute alcohol consumption, and elevated antisocial psychopathic traits, on judgments of the attractiveness and health of ethnic ingroup and outgroup faces. In the first study we show that following acute alcohol consumption, at a dose that is sufficient to result in impaired performance on tests of executive function, Caucasian participants judged White faces to be more attractive and healthier compared to when sober. However, this effect did not extend to Black faces. A similar effect was found in a second study involving sober Caucasian participants where secondary psychopathic traits were related to an intergroup bias in the ratings of attractiveness for White versus Black faces. These results are discussed in terms of a model which postulates that poor prefrontal functioning leads to increases in ingroup liking as a result of impaired abilities for prepotent response inhibition

GILPAT: An Investigation into Gill Pathologies in Marine Reared Finfish

Lead Partner: Marine Institute, Rinville, Oranmore, Co. Galway. Project Partners: Vet-Aqua International, Oranmore, Co. Galway. Coastal & Marine Research Centre (CMRC), University College Cork. Veterinary Sciences Division, Agri-Food & Biosciences Institute (AFBI), Belfast.The aims of the GILPAT project were to take a multidisciplinary approach in order to further understand the underlying causes of gill disease in Irish farmed fish. A specific aim was to establish a pilot zooplankton monitoring programme and use training workshops to enable fish farmers to upskill in areas such as zooplankton sampling and basic identification of the main zooplankton/jellyfish species common to Irish waters. Complimenting this was the development of a number of molecular diagnostic methods for the detection of potential pathogens suspected of being involved in the development of the condition. Together with a comprehensive literature review, epidemiological study, and experimental challenge studies, the project aimed to bring all these elements together with the objective of outlining potential mitigation measures and identifying areas for future research.This project (Grant-Aid Agreement No. PBA/AF/08/002(01)) was carried out under the Sea Change strategy with the support of the Marine Institute and the Marine Research Sub-Programme of the National Development Plan 2007–2013, co-financed under the European Regional Development Fund.Funder: Marine Institut

Neotropical Anacardiaceae (cashew family)

Anacardiaceae is an ecologically and economically important plant family of about 200 species in 32 genera in the Neotropics. The family is particularly diverse in leaf architecture and fruit morphology, making it a model family to study the evolution of structural diversity as it correlates with lineage diversification. This fruit diversity is the primary reason 11 of the Neotropical genera are monotypic and that so many genera are recognized in the Anacardiaceae. The economic value of the family is driven by the global markets for cashews, mangoes, and pistachios, but there is great potential value in its medicinal properties. At least 10 Neotropical genera cause contact dermatitis, which is a rich area for research in the family. Here presented is a review of the systematics and structural diversity of the family. Particular attention is given to the morphology, economic botany, paleobotany, ecology, and taxonomy of native and naturalized genera. Keys to Neotropical Anacardiaceae subfamilies and genera are provided along with descriptions of native genera