Ventral Decompression of the Cervical Spinal Cord in the Dog

Cervical intervertebral disc herniation (CIDH) occurs most commonly in the chrondrodystrophic breeds of dogs. It is usually associated with degeneration of the disc and calcification of the nucleus pulposus which allows this disc material to herniate. Clinical signs such as pain, ataxia, careful placement of feet when walking, and sometimes paralysis are seen. In cases of partial or complete paralysis three surgical treatments are available: ventral fenestration, dorsal laminectomy, ventral decompression. Ventral decompression provides good surgical exposure and relieves pressure on the cervical spinal cord

An investigation of the 27 July 2018 bolide and meteorite fall over Benenitra, southwestern Madagascar

Several dozen stones of an ordinary chondrite meteorite fell in and around the town of Benenitra in southwestern Madagascar during the early evening of 27 July 2018, minutes after a widely observed meteor fireball (bolide) transit and detonation. The event was confirmed by low-frequency infrasound recordings received at ~17h15 UTC (Coordinated Universal Time; 19h15 local time) at the Comprehensive Nuclear Test Ban Treaty Organization (CTBTO) infrasound station I33MG near Antananarivo, 542 km north-northeast of Benenitra. An energy release equivalent to 2.038 kt of TNT was calculated from the infrasound signals. Seismograph readings at the SKRH station 77 km north-northwest of Benenitra recorded a twostage signal consistent with the arrivals of an initial air-coupled ground wave at 16h48:08 UTC and a stronger pulse at 16h49:22 UTC linked directly to the atmospheric pressure wave. The infrasound and seismic signal arrival times suggest that the bolide entry and detonation occurred at approximately 18h46 local time (16h46 UTC), entry was from the northwest, and the detonation hypocentre was located within ~20 km of Benenitra. Despite meteorite debris being found among buildings within Benenitra, there was no damage to structures or injuries reported. Eyewitness accounts and photographic records indicate that approximately 75 mostly intact stones were collected; however, the remoteness of the area, the rugged nature of the terrain and sales of fragments to meteorite collectors have limited scientific analysis of the fall and the extent of the strewn field. The total mass of recovered stones is estimated at between 20 kg and 30 kg, with one fragment of 11.2 kg and several of ~1 kg. Petrographic and mineral chemical analyses indicate that the stones belong to the L6 class of ordinary chondrites. Cosmogenic radionuclide analysis confirms that the fall is linked to the bolide event. The name Benenitra has been officially accepted by the Meteoritical Bulletin Database.Significance: Eyewitness reports, CTBTO infrasound records, seismograph records and cosmogenic radionuclide analysis confirm a meteorite fall over Benenitra on 27 July 2018. Petrographic and geochemical analyses confirm that the meteorite is an L6 ordinary chondrite. Recovery of meteorite falls is rare; this is Madagascar’s second known meteorite fall and the first that can be linked to a bolide. Regional and global science monitoring networks can be interrogated to improve the understanding of bolide events. Interaction of scientists with local communities is important to dispel misunderstandings around scientific phenomena, and can improve collection of data

One Size Does Not Fit All: Discharge Teaching and Child Challenging Behaviors

This study compares quality of discharge teaching and care coordination for parents of children with challenging behaviors participating in a nursing implementation project, which used an interactive iPad application, to usual discharge care. Unlike parents in the larger quasi-experimental longitudinal project, parents of children with challenging behaviors receiving the discharge teaching application (n = 14) reported lower mean scores on the quality of discharge teaching scale–delivery subscale (M = 8.2, SD = 3.1) than parents receiving usual care (n = 11) (M = 9.6, SD = 4.7) and lower scores on the Care Transition Measure (M = 2.44, SD = 1.09) than parents receiving usual care (M = 3.02, SD = 0.37), with moderate to large effects (0.554–0.775). The discharge teaching approach was less effective with this subset, suggesting other approaches might be considered for this group of parents. Further study with a larger sample specific to parents of children with challenging behaviors is needed to assess their unique needs and to optimize their discharge experience

The First Provenance Challenge

The first Provenance Challenge was set up in order to provide a forum for the community to help understand the capabilities of different provenance systems and the expressiveness of their provenance representations. To this end, a Functional Magnetic Resonance Imaging workflow was defined, which participants had to either simulate or run in order to produce some provenance representation, from which a set of identified queries had to be implemented and executed. Sixteen teams responded to the challenge, and submitted their inputs. In this paper, we present the challenge workflow and queries, and summarise the participants contributions

Analysis of water ice and ice/dust mixtures using laser-induced breakdown spectroscopy (LIBS).

In 1992, LIBS was proposed as a new method for stand-off detection of geological samples for use on landers and rovers to Mars. Recently, there has been increased interest in the technique for this and other space applications and studies have determined some of the characteristics and capabilities of the method under the conditions that these measurements will have to be made. In addition to rocks and soils, there is interest in using LIBS to analyze ices and dusts entrained in ice . This is especially true for missions to the Mars polar regions . Of particular interest is determining the nature of polar layered deposits, the geochemistry of polar surface materials, detection of water ice and the distribution of ice, and the presence of possible organics in these materials (via C/N ratios

Методи управління екологічними ризиками в системі забезпечення економічного розвитку регіону

Метою статті є дослідження методів управління екологічними ризиками в системі забезпечення економічного розвитку регіону

Garden and landscape-scale correlates of moths of differing conservation status: significant effects of urbanization and habitat diversity

Moths are abundant and ubiquitous in vegetated terrestrial environments and are pollinators, important herbivores of wild plants, and food for birds, bats and rodents. In recent years, many once abundant and widespread species have shown sharp declines that have been cited by some as indicative of a widespread insect biodiversity crisis. Likely causes of these declines include agricultural intensification, light pollution, climate change, and urbanization; however, the real underlying cause(s) is still open to conjecture. We used data collected from the citizen science Garden Moth Scheme (GMS) to explore the spatial association between the abundance of 195 widespread British species of moth, and garden habitat and landscape features, to see if spatial habitat and landscape associations varied for species of differing conservation status. We found that associations with habitat and landscape composition were species-specific, but that there were consistent trends in species richness and total moth abundance. Gardens with more diverse and extensive microhabitats were associated with higher species richness and moth abundance; gardens near to the coast were associated with higher richness and moth abundance; and gardens in more urbanized locations were associated with lower species richness and moth abundance. The same trends were also found for species classified as increasing, declining and vulnerable under IUCN (World Conservation Union) criteria

Effect of various normalization methods on Applied Biosystems expression array system data

BACKGROUND: DNA microarray technology provides a powerful tool for characterizing gene expression on a genome scale. While the technology has been widely used in discovery-based medical and basic biological research, its direct application in clinical practice and regulatory decision-making has been questioned. A few key issues, including the reproducibility, reliability, compatibility and standardization of microarray analysis and results, must be critically addressed before any routine usage of microarrays in clinical laboratory and regulated areas can occur. In this study we investigate some of these issues for the Applied Biosystems Human Genome Survey Microarrays. RESULTS: We analyzed the gene expression profiles of two samples: brain and universal human reference (UHR), a mixture of RNAs from 10 cancer cell lines, using the Applied Biosystems Human Genome Survey Microarrays. Five technical replicates in three different sites were performed on the same total RNA samples according to manufacturer's standard protocols. Five different methods, quantile, median, scale, VSN and cyclic loess were used to normalize AB microarray data within each site. 1,000 genes spanning a wide dynamic range in gene expression levels were selected for real-time PCR validation. Using the TaqMan(® )assays data set as the reference set, the performance of the five normalization methods was evaluated focusing on the following criteria: (1) Sensitivity and reproducibility in detection of expression; (2) Fold change correlation with real-time PCR data; (3) Sensitivity and specificity in detection of differential expression; (4) Reproducibility of differentially expressed gene lists. CONCLUSION: Our results showed a high level of concordance between these normalization methods. This is true, regardless of whether signal, detection, variation, fold change measurements and reproducibility were interrogated. Furthermore, we used TaqMan(® )assays as a reference, to generate TPR and FDR plots for the various normalization methods across the assay range. Little impact is observed on the TP and FP rates in detection of differentially expressed genes. Additionally, little effect was observed by the various normalization methods on the statistical approaches analyzed which indicates a certain robustness of the analysis methods currently in use in the field, particularly when used in conjunction with the Applied Biosystems Gene Expression System

Present and Future CP Measurements

We review theoretical and experimental results on CP violation summarizing the discussions in the working group on CP violation at the UK phenomenology workshop 2000 in Durham.Comment: 104 pages, Latex, to appear in Journal of Physics