Use of Bridges as Day Roosts by Bats in Southern Illinois

From May through July 2001, and June through August 2002 we surveyed 232 bridges in 9 southern Illinois counties for the presence of roosting bats. Fifteen bridges (6.5%) had bats roosting at the time they were surveyed. We encountered big brown bats (Eptesicus fuscus) most frequently. Eastern pipestrelles (Pipestrellus subflavus), little brown bats (Myotis lucifugus), and northern long-eared bats (M. septentrionalis) also were found roosting under bridges. The number of bats per bridge ranged from 1 to \u3e100. Bats occurred in four of the five types of bridge designs surveyed. Of the 15 bridges with bats, 11 were rechecked at a later date to determine continuity of use. Seven of the 11 (63.6%) were being used by bats when rechecked. From this, we derived an estimated usage rate of 23.6 bridges (15/0.636) during the study, or about 10% of the 232 bridges surveyed. We could not determine relationships between bat presence and habitat features around bridges

Conceptual frameworks linking agriculture and food security

Many conceptual frameworks have been developed to facilitate understanding and analysis of the linkages between agriculture and food security. Despite having usefully guided analysis and investment, these frameworks exhibit wide diversity in perspectives, assumptions and application. This Review Article examines this diversity, providing an approach to assess frameworks and suggesting improvements in the way they are specified and applied. Using criteria-based systems modelling conventions, we evaluate 36 frameworks. We find that many frameworks are developed for the purpose of illustration rather than analysis and do not clearly indicate causal relationships, tending to ignore the dynamic (stability) dimensions of agriculture and food security and lacking clear intervention points for improving food security through agriculture. By applying system modelling conventions to a widely used framework, we illustrate how such conventions can enhance the usefulness of a framework for overall illustration purposes, delineate hypotheses on agriculture–food security links and examine potential impacts of interventions.acceptedVersio

Use of Bridges as Day Roosts by Bats in Southern Illinois

ABSTRACT From May through July 2001, and June through August 2002 we surveyed 232 bridges in 9 southern Illinois counties for the presence of roosting bats. Fifteen bridges (6.5%) had bats roosting at the time they were surveyed. We encountered big brown bats (Eptesicus fuscus) most frequently. Eastern pipestrelles (Pipestrellus subflavus), little brown bats (Myotis lucifugus), and northern long-eared bats (M. septentrionalis) also were found roosting under bridges. The number of bats per bridge ranged from 1 to >100. Bats occurred in four of the five types of bridge designs surveyed. Of the 15 bridges with bats, 11 were rechecked at a later date to determine continuity of use. Seven of the 11 (63.6%) were being used by bats when rechecked. From this, we derived an estimated usage rate of 23.6 bridges (15/0.636) during the study, or about 10% of the 232 bridges surveyed. We could not determine relationships between bat presence and habitat features around bridges

Self-management skills in adolescents with chronic rheumatic disease: A cross-sectional survey

<p>Abstract</p> <p>Background</p> <p>For adolescents with a diagnosis of lifelong chronic illness, mastery of self-management skills is a critical component of the transition to adult care. This study aims to examine self-reported medication adherence and self-care skills among adolescents with chronic rheumatic disease.</p> <p>Methods</p> <p>Cross-sectional survey of 52 adolescent patients in the Pediatric Rheumatology Clinic at UCSF. Outcome measures were self-reported medication adherence, medication regimen knowledge and independence in health care tasks. Predictors of self-management included age, disease perception, self-care agency, demographics and self-reported health status. Bivariate associations were assessed using the Student's t-test, Wilcoxon rank sum test and Fisher exact test as appropriate. Independence in self-management tasks were compared between subjects age 13-16 and 17-20 using the chi-squared test.</p> <p>Results</p> <p>Subjects were age 13-20 years (mean 15.9); 79% were female. Diagnoses included juvenile idiopathic arthritis (44%), lupus (35%), and other rheumatic conditions (21%). Mean disease duration was 5.3 years (SD 4.0). Fifty four percent reported perfect adherence to medications, 40% reported 1-2 missed doses per week, and 6% reported missing 3 or more doses. The most common reason for missing medications was forgetfulness. Among health care tasks, there was an age-related increase in ability to fill prescriptions, schedule appointments, arrange transportation, ask questions of doctors, manage insurance, and recognize symptoms of illness. Ability to take medications as directed, keep a calendar of appointments, and maintain a personal medical file did not improve with age.</p> <p>Conclusions</p> <p>This study suggests that adolescents with chronic rheumatic disease may need additional support to achieve independence in self-management.</p

Transcriptional Profiling of Bacillus anthracis Sterne (34F2) during Iron Starvation

Lack of available iron is one of many environmental challenges that a bacterium encounters during infection and adaptation to iron starvation is important for the pathogen to efficiently replicate within the host. Here we define the transcriptional response of B. anthracis Sterne (34F2) to iron depleted conditions. Genome-wide transcript analysis showed that B. anthracis undergoes considerable changes in gene expression during growth in iron-depleted media, including the regulation of known and candidate virulence factors. Two genes encoding putative internalin proteins were chosen for further study. Deletion of either gene (GBAA0552 or GBAA1340) resulted in attenuation in a murine model of infection. This attenuation was amplified in a double mutant strain. These data define the transcriptional changes induced during growth in low iron conditions and illustrate the potential of this dataset in the identification of putative virulence determinants for future study

Finishing the euchromatic sequence of the human genome

The sequence of the human genome encodes the genetic instructions for human physiology, as well as rich information about human evolution. In 2001, the International Human Genome Sequencing Consortium reported a draft sequence of the euchromatic portion of the human genome. Since then, the international collaboration has worked to convert this draft into a genome sequence with high accuracy and nearly complete coverage. Here, we report the result of this finishing process. The current genome sequence (Build 35) contains 2.85 billion nucleotides interrupted by only 341 gaps. It covers ∼99% of the euchromatic genome and is accurate to an error rate of ∼1 event per 100,000 bases. Many of the remaining euchromatic gaps are associated with segmental duplications and will require focused work with new methods. The near-complete sequence, the first for a vertebrate, greatly improves the precision of biological analyses of the human genome including studies of gene number, birth and death. Notably, the human enome seems to encode only 20,000-25,000 protein-coding genes. The genome sequence reported here should serve as a firm foundation for biomedical research in the decades ahead

Impact of opioid-free analgesia on pain severity and patient satisfaction after discharge from surgery: multispecialty, prospective cohort study in 25 countries

Background: Balancing opioid stewardship and the need for adequate analgesia following discharge after surgery is challenging. This study aimed to compare the outcomes for patients discharged with opioid versus opioid-free analgesia after common surgical procedures.Methods: This international, multicentre, prospective cohort study collected data from patients undergoing common acute and elective general surgical, urological, gynaecological, and orthopaedic procedures. The primary outcomes were patient-reported time in severe pain measured on a numerical analogue scale from 0 to 100% and patient-reported satisfaction with pain relief during the first week following discharge. Data were collected by in-hospital chart review and patient telephone interview 1 week after discharge.Results: The study recruited 4273 patients from 144 centres in 25 countries; 1311 patients (30.7%) were prescribed opioid analgesia at discharge. Patients reported being in severe pain for 10 (i.q.r. 1-30)% of the first week after discharge and rated satisfaction with analgesia as 90 (i.q.r. 80-100) of 100. After adjustment for confounders, opioid analgesia on discharge was independently associated with increased pain severity (risk ratio 1.52, 95% c.i. 1.31 to 1.76; P &lt; 0.001) and re-presentation to healthcare providers owing to side-effects of medication (OR 2.38, 95% c.i. 1.36 to 4.17; P = 0.004), but not with satisfaction with analgesia (beta coefficient 0.92, 95% c.i. -1.52 to 3.36; P = 0.468) compared with opioid-free analgesia. Although opioid prescribing varied greatly between high-income and low- and middle-income countries, patient-reported outcomes did not.Conclusion: Opioid analgesia prescription on surgical discharge is associated with a higher risk of re-presentation owing to side-effects of medication and increased patient-reported pain, but not with changes in patient-reported satisfaction. Opioid-free discharge analgesia should be adopted routinely

Conceptual frameworks linking agriculture and food security

Many conceptual frameworks have been developed to facilitate understanding and analysis of the linkages between agriculture and food security. Despite having usefully guided analysis and investment, these frameworks exhibit wide diversity in perspectives, assumptions and application. This Review Article examines this diversity, providing an approach to assess frameworks and suggesting improvements in the way they are specified and applied. Using criteria-based systems modelling conventions, we evaluate 36 frameworks. We find that many frameworks are developed for the purpose of illustration rather than analysis and do not clearly indicate causal relationships, tending to ignore the dynamic (stability) dimensions of agriculture and food security and lacking clear intervention points for improving food security through agriculture. By applying system modelling conventions to a widely used framework, we illustrate how such conventions can enhance the usefulness of a framework for overall illustration purposes, delineate hypotheses on agriculture–food security links and examine potential impacts of interventions