Radiative Forcing by Dust and Black Carbon on the Juneau Icefield, Alaska

Here we present the first known data set on black carbon (BC) and mineral dust concentrations in snow from the Juneau Icefield (JIF) in southeastern Alaska, where glacier melt rates are among the highest on Earth. In May 2016, concentrations of BC (0.4–3.1 μg/L) and dust (0.2–34 mg/L) were relatively low and decreased toward the interior of the JIF. The associated radiative forcing (RF) averaged 4 W/m2. In July, after 10 weeks of exposure, the aged snow surface had substantially higher concentrations of BC (2.1–14.8 μg/L) and dust (11–72 mg/L) that were not spatially distributed by elevation or distance from the coast. RF by dust and BC ranged from 70 to 130 W/m2 (87 W/m2 average) across the JIF in July, and RF was dominated by dust. The associated median snow water equivalent reduction in the July samples is estimated at 10–18 mm/day, potentially advancing melt on the scale of days to weeks. Aging of the snow surface in summer likely resulted in a positive feedback of melt consolidation, enhanced solar absorption and melting, and further concentration of surface particles. Regional projections of warming temperatures and increased rain at the expense of snow make it likely that summer season darkening will become a more important contributor to the high melt rates on the JIF. Further studies are needed to elucidate the spatiotemporal occurrence of various light‐absorbing particles on the JIF, and models of ice field wastage should incorporate their associated RF

ACVIM consensus statement on the treatment of immune-mediated hemolytic anemia in dogs

Immune‐mediated hemolytic anemia (IMHA) causes severe anemia in dogs and is associated with considerable morbidity and mortality. Treatment with various immunosuppressive and antithrombotic drugs has been described anecdotally and in previous studies, but little consensus exists among veterinarians as to the optimal regimen to employ and maintain after diagnosis of the disease. To address this inconsistency and provide evidence‐based guidelines for treatment of IMHA in dogs, we identified and extracted data from studies published in the veterinary literature. We developed a novel tool for evaluation of evidence quality, using it to assess study design, diagnostic criteria, explanation of treatment regimens, and validity of statistical methods. In combination with our clinical experience and comparable guidelines for humans afflicted with autoimmune hemolytic anemia, we used the conclusions of this process to make a set of clinical recommendations regarding treatment of IMHA in dogs, which we refined subsequently by conducting several iterations of Delphi review. Additionally, we considered emerging treatments for IMHA in dogs and highlighted areas deserving of future research. Comments were solicited from several professional bodies to maximize clinical applicability before the recommendations were submitted for publication. The resulting document is intended to provide clinical guidelines for management of IMHA in dogs. These guidelines should be implemented pragmatically, with consideration of animal, owner, and veterinary factors that may vary among cases

210Po Log-normal distribution in human urines: Survey from Central Italy people

The death in London of the former secret service agent Alexander Livtinenko on 23 November 2006 generally attracted the attention of the public to the rather unknown radionuclide 210Po. This paper presents the results of a monitoring programme of 210Po background levels in the urines of noncontaminated people living in Central Italy (near the Republic of S. Marino). The relationship between age, sex, years of smoking, number of cigarettes per day, and 210Po concentration was also studied. The results indicated that the urinary 210Po concentration follows a surprisingly perfect Log-normal distribution. Log 210Po concentrations were positively correlated to age (p < 0.0001), number of daily smoked cigarettes (p = 0.006), and years of smoking (p = 0.021), and associated to sex (p = 0.019). Consequently, this study provides upper reference limits for each sub-group identified by significantly predictive variables

Autoregression as a means of assessing the strength of seasonality in a time series

BACKGROUND: The study of the seasonal variation of disease is receiving increasing attention from health researchers. Available statistical tests for seasonality typically indicate the presence or absence of statistically significant seasonality but do not provide a meaningful measure of its strength. METHODS: We propose the coefficient of determination of the autoregressive regression model fitted to the data ([Image: see text]) as a measure for quantifying the strength of the seasonality. The performance of the proposed statistic is assessed through a simulation study and using two data sets known to demonstrate statistically significant seasonality: atrial fibrillation and asthma hospitalizations in Ontario, Canada. RESULTS: The simulation results showed the power of the [Image: see text] in adequately quantifying the strength of the seasonality of the simulated observations for all models. In the atrial fibrillation and asthma datasets, while the statistical tests such as Bartlett's Kolmogorov-Smirnov (BKS) and Fisher's Kappa support statistical evidence of seasonality for both, the [Image: see text] quantifies the strength of that seasonality. Corroborating the visual evidence that asthma is more conspicuously seasonal than atrial fibrillation, the calculated [Image: see text] for atrial fibrillation indicates a weak to moderate seasonality ([Image: see text] = 0.44, 0.28 and 0.45 for both genders, males and females respectively), whereas for asthma, it indicates a strong seasonality ([Image: see text] = 0.82, 0.78 and 0.82 for both genders, male and female respectively). CONCLUSIONS: For the purposes of health services research, evidence of the statistical presence of seasonality is insufficient to determine the etiologic, clinical and policy relevance of findings. Measurement of the strength of the seasonal effect, as can be determined using the [Image: see text] technique, is also important in order to provide a robust sense of seasonality

Linking high-frequency DOC dynamics to the age of connected water sources

Acknowledgments The authors would like to thank our NRI colleagues for all their help with field and laboratory work, especially Audrey Innes, Jonathan Dick, and Ann Porter. We would like to also thank Iain Malcolm (Marine Scotland Science) for providing AWS data and the European Research Council ERC (project GA 335910 VEWA) for funding the VeWa project. Please contact the authors for access to the data used in this paper. We would also like to thank the Natural Environment Research Council NERC (project NE/K000268/1) for funding.Peer reviewedPublisher PD

Working memory training restores aberrant brain activity in adult attention-deficit hyperactivity disorder

The development of treatments for attention impairments is hampered by limited knowledge about the malleability of underlying neural functions. We conducted the first randomized controlled trial to determine the modulations of brain activity associated with working memory (WM) training in adults with attention-deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD). At baseline, we assessed the aberrant functional brain activity in the n-back WM task by comparing 44 adults with ADHD with 18 healthy controls using fMRI. Participants with ADHD were then randomized to train on an adaptive dual n-back task or an active control task. We tested whether WM training elicits redistribution of brain activity as observed in healthy controls, and whether it might further restore aberrant activity related to ADHD. As expected, activity in areas of the default-mode (DMN), salience (SN), sensory-motor (SMN), frontoparietal (FPN), and subcortical (SCN) networks was decreased in participants with ADHD at pretest as compared with healthy controls, especially when the cognitive load was high. WM training modulated widespread FPN and SN areas, restoring some of the aberrant activity. Training effects were mainly observed as decreased brain activity during the trained task and increased activity during the untrained task, suggesting different neural mechanisms for trained and transfer tasks.Peer reviewe

Assessing the Role of Photochemistry in Driving the Composition of Dissolved Organic Matter in Glacier Runoff

Dissolved organic matter (DOM) in glacier runoff is aliphatic-rich, yet studies have proposed that DOM originates mainly from allochthonous, aromatic, and often aged material. Allochthonous organic matter (OM) is exposed to ultraviolet radiation both in atmospheric transport and post-deposition on the glacier surface. Thus, we evaluate photochemistry as a mechanism to account for the compositional disconnect between allochthonous OM sources and glacier runoff DOM composition. Six endmember OM sources (including soils and diesel particulate matter) were leached and photo-irradiated for 28 days in a solar simulator, until >90% of initial chromophoric DOM was removed. Ultrahigh-resolution mass spectrometry was used to compare the molecular composition of endmember leachates pre- and post-irradiation to DOM in supraglacial and bulk runoff from the Greenland Ice Sheet and Juneau Icefield (Alaska), respectively. Photoirradiation drove molecular level convergence between the initially aromatic-rich leachates and aromatic-poor glacial samples, selectively removing aromatic compounds (−80 ± 19% relative abundance) and producing aliphatics (+75 ± 35% relative abundance). Molecular level glacier runoff DOM composition was statistically indistinguishable to post-irradiation leachates. Bray-Curtis analysis showed substantial similarity in the molecular formulae present between glacier samples and post-irradiation leachates. Post-irradiation leachates contained 84 ± 7.4% of the molecular formulae, including 72 ± 17% of the aliphatic formulae, detected in glacier samples. Our findings suggest that photodegradation, either in transit to or on glacier surfaces, could provide a mechanistic pathway to account for the disconnect between proposed aromatic, aged sources of OM and the aliphatic-rich fingerprint of glacial DOM.Megan I. Behnke is thanked for collecting the Alaskan soil samples, Stephanie McColaugh for collecting the Russell Glacier samples, Casey Luzius for help with leachate preparations, and Sarah Ellen Johnston for assistance with DOC analyses. Funding Source: This study was supported by NSF, DEB 1145932 and OCE 1333157 to R. G. M. Spencer. Funding was provided by Alaska EPSCoR (OIA-1757348). A portion of this work was performed in the Ion Cyclotron Resonance User Facility at the National High Magnetic Field Laboratory, which is supported by the National Science Foundation Division of Chemistry and Division of Materials Research through DMR 16-44779, and the State of Florida.Ye

Accounting fraud, business failure and creative auditing: A microanalysis of the strange case of the Sunbeam Corporation

This article closely examines the Sunbeam Corporation’s path to failure and explores the reasons for its singularity. From the analysis of US fraud cases included in the UCLA-LoPucki Bankruptcy Research Database, this corporate case appears as an outlier. For Sunbeam, the time-lapse between fraud disclosure and its final bankruptcy is the longest of the entire sample; it is unique because of its length. This article uses a historical microanalysis to evaluate different hypotheses about the Sunbeam Corporation’s path to failure. The relationships between acquisitions and fraud, ‘scapegoat dynamics’ and ‘creative auditing’ are identified as the most relevant issues to be examined against a changing institutional context. The resulting reconstruction of the events provides unexpected insights and recommendations for future research on auditing and accounting fraud

Photoinduced transformation of waste-derived soluble bio-based substances

[EN] Waste-derived, soluble bin-based substances (SBO), are effective low-cost photosensitizers that could find application in pollutant photodegradation. For this reason, it is important to understand if and to what extent irradiation could modify their properties. The exposure of SBO to simulated sunlight induced important spectral and structural modifications. Both the whole material and its acid-soluble fraction were characterized, highlighting several properties in common with humic and fulvic substances, including absorption spectra, specific absorbance and fluorescence behavior. The latter was described with a three-component model using PARAFAC analysis. Irradiation induced SBO photobleaching, but the absorbance of the acid-soluble fraction increased with irradiation. This finding suggests a progressive photochemical solubilization of SBO, which is confirmed by the increase of the carboxylic groups. In addition to absorbance, the fluorescence of whole SBO was also decreased by irradiation, thereby suggesting that both chromophores and fluorophores were photodegraded. The increasingly hydrophilic character given to SBO by irradiation also accounted for the photoinduced decrease of the surfactant properties of the material. (C) 2015 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.This work was funded by the 7thFP IRSES-2010-269128-EnvironBos Marie Curie Action and by Ministero delle Politiche Agricole e Forestali (Agrienergia project). The authors are grateful to the following private and/or public Italian institutions: (a) Acea Pinerolese Spa in Pinerolo (TO) for supplying the SBO sourcing materials; (b) Studio Chiono ed Associati in Rivarolo Canavese (TO) for making available pilot equipment and services for the production of the SBO.Avetta, P.; Berto, S.; Bianco Prevot, A.; Minella, M.; Montoneri, E.; Persico, D.; Vione, D.... (2015). Photoinduced transformation of waste-derived soluble bio-based substances. Chemical Engineering Journal. 274:247-255. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.cej.2015.03.126S24725527

Addressing Cervical Cancer Disparities in Texas: Expansion of a Community-Based Prevention initiative For Medically Underserved Populations

Although cervical cancer is preventable, significant disparities exist in access to screening and prevention services. In medically underserved areas (MUAs) of Texas, these rates are 55% higher compared to the remainder of the US. In 2019, we expanded a multicomponent, comprehensive program to improve cervical cancer prevention in partnership with 13 clinics and mobile vans in MUAs of Texas. Our multicomponent intervention program consists of community education and patient navigation coupled with a training/mentoring program for local medical providers to perform diagnostic procedures and treatment for patients with abnormal screening results. Hands-on training courses to learn these skills are coupled with biweekly telementoring conferences using Project ECHO® (Extension for Community Healthcare Outcomes). This program was implemented in 2015 and expanded to other MUAs in Texas in 2019. From March 2019 to August 2022, 75,842 individuals were educated about cervical cancer screening and HPV vaccination. A total of 44,781 women underwent screening for cervical cancer, and 2,216 underwent colposcopy and 264 underwent LEEP. High-grade cervical dysplasia was diagnosed in 658 individuals and invasive cervical cancer in 33 individuals. We trained 22 providers to perform colposcopy and/or LEEP. In addition, 78 Project ECHO telementoring sessions were held with an average of 42 attendees per session, with 72 individual patient cases discussed. Our comprehensive community-based prevention initiative for medically underserved populations has led to a significant number of individuals undergoing cervical cancer screening in MUAs, as well as improved access to colposcopy and LEEP services