A Neuropsychological Approach For Differentiating the Residual Effects of Neonatal Intraventricular Hemorrhage

It is well documented in the literature that low-birth-weight (LBW) and prematurity are associated with a variety of developmental disabilities. Within this population of LBW children it is estimated that at birth, up to 45% of them experience intraventricular hemorrhage (IVH). Only recently has pediatric research begun to look at the potentially unique effects of IVH, and attempt to separate these out form the effects of LBW in general. The purpose of this study was to investigate the neuropsychological differences that may occur in children with a history of mild or sever IVH, who are now approaching school age. The main objective was to determine whether children, ages 4 and 5, who were diagnosed with a mild IVH at birth would perform differently on a neuropsychological screening from children who were diagnosed with a severe IVH. Twenty-nine 4- and 5-year-olds born at the University of Utah Medical Center and Primary Children\u27s Medical Center constituted the sample for this study. Potential children were identified through the medical records, where documentation of incident and severity of IVH was obtained. Descriptive medical data and documentation of other common sequelae of LBW was also obtained from the medical records. Parents of potential subjects were contacted from the respective medical centers, and interested parents were then contacted by the research team and included in the study. The children were tested on a variety of neuropsychological functions by trained examiners from the Early Intervention Research Institute at Utah State University and from the Neuropsychological Consultation Services in Salt Lake City, Utah. Analysis of this data was used in determining whether or not there were residual differences in the performance of preschool-age children who have a history of IVH at birth. The results did not indicate significant difference between mild and severe IVH groups in performance on the neuropsychological assessment. Discriminant analysis showed no significant results which did not indicate that group membership could be predicted based upon test performance. Individual subtest analyses also did not indicate a significant difference in performance. Further analysis indicated significant relationships between the presence of other common sequelae of LBW/IVH such as seizure disorder and birth asphyxia, and the neuropsychological test results. Further research is needed to determine the reliability of these findings

Sea Turtle Conservation: Reviewing the Efficacy of Land- and Sea-based Management Strategies for Loggerhead (Caretta caretta) and Leatherback (Dermochelys coriacea) Sea Turtles

As cosmopolitan species, loggerhead and leatherback turtles are confronted with a multitude of threats as they progress through their respective life stages. These range from depredation and poaching of eggs, hatchlings, and females on nesting beaches, to incidental hooking in pelagic longline fisheries and capture in trawl fisheries. Some threats are species specific on regional scales, though most impact both species. To confront these threats, various conservation strategies have been developed and implemented, including monitoring and caging of nests and changes to hook shape and trawl design. Here, current conservation methods are presented and discussed on a global scale for both species. Population modeling was employed to elucidate the impacts these strategies are having for loggerhead turtles in the North Atlantic. Unfortunately, even with the myriad of strategies employed throughout the world, most populations of these species are still declining. This arises due to a poor understanding of several of the fundamental elements of population dynamics for each species, deficient tracking of fisheries impacts, and a lack of unified conservation plans to address population declines on regional and global scales

Grow, peak or plateau - the outlook for car travel

At the request of the New Zealand Ministry of Transport, a meeting of UK researchers and commentators was convened in London on ‘peak car’, a hypothesis that per capita car use is close to its maximum level, and may stabilise or turn down. In both countries car traffic forecasts have been overestimated, though current official thinking is that recent levelling off and decline in car use is a temporary result of poor economic conditions, and that a resumption of strong growth is expected in future. Research findings include features that may show evidence of structural changes in the influence of economic and other drivers of car travel, and/or demand reaching natural saturation levels where further growth gives little benefit to travellers. The discussion reflected diverse experience and judgements, not all in agreement, and mostly related to UK experience, though influenced by a growing international research literature, mostly empirical in focus, showing some important similarities in many other countries. Key features included:•There have been strongly divergent trends in different locations (the main areas of decline being in cities, with growth continuing in many lower density areas) and among different groups (young men showing a decline, women an increase), with noticeable differences by journey purpose, length and mode (rail use has grown strongly at the same time as car use has fallen). As a result the trends in national aggregate totals have been damped, not fully revealing underlying causes, and disaggregate experience has varied not only in size but also in direction of change.•At the aggregate level, evidence of shifts in demand predates recent economic difficulties, including decoupling of traffic growth and economic growth, reductions in propensity to learn to drive, changing land use and migration trends (which had previously been dominated by movements to areas encouraging higher car use, and in the 2000s reversed), growth of internet use, and decline in traffic levels in London and some other urban areas. These shifts have mostly been observed in the 1990s and early 2000s, including periods of strong economic growth.•Over the same period, there have been changes in transport policy and travel conditions favouring public transport, walking and cycling in some places, changes in tax effects on prices (especially company car use), parking control, congestion levels, and fuel prices. It has often been the case that policy changes, though worthy, are deemed to have rather small effects on travel demand, but there is a view that the cumulative effects may have been larger than expected, the resulting car use levels representing a new equilibrium to the prevailing conditions.Taken together, these features would imply that per capita car use is influenced by both economic and other structural factors, cannot be converted to total traffic levels simply by multiplying by population, and demands serious re-examination. Although all these features are researchable, there is not currently a professional consensus backing either the official forecasts or any specific alternative, and a strong implication is that methods of policy formulation and project design should test robustness to a much wider span of feasible futures than is reflected by traditional methods involving rather narrow bands of statistical uncertainty

Don’t make me laugh: Responsive laughter in (dis)affiliation

This paper examines laughter as a methodical resource for marking a just-prior turn as laughable, even when that turn has not been designed as such by its producer. It focuses in particular on one usage, where laughter targets a prior turn as preposterous and thus laughable: laughter is seen to be but one possible response in such contexts, and, as such, highly disaffiliative. By examining instances of video-taped family interaction and audio recordings of broadcast interviews, I examine the sequential environment both leading up to the production of the laughter – what makes the targeted turn so laughable – and subsequent to it, that is, how the laughter is elaborated verbally. I also examine the features of the laughter itself, and specifically what makes it recognizable as marking a highly negative stance with respect to what it targets. But who exactly produces the responsive laughter is here critical: when the laugh producer is not the ostensible recipient of the prior, laughable turn, the laughter produced is heard both to disaffiliate from that prior but in so doing, to affiliate with its recipient. Such uses show how a single action can be simultaneously both affiliative and disaffiliative

Pathogen propagation in cultured three-dimensional tissue mass

A process for propagating a pathogen in a three-dimensional tissue mass cultured at microgravity conditions in a culture vessel containing culture media and a culture matrix is provided. The three-dimensional tissue mass is inoculated with a pathogen and pathogen replication in the cells of the tissue mass achieved

Quantifying the effect of solution formulation on the removal of soft solid food deposits from stainless steel substrates

The role of detergent formulation on the cleaning of a complex carbohydrate-fat food soil from stainless steel surfaces was studied using a modified version of the millimanipulation device described by Ali et al. (2015b) which allowed the force required to scrape the soil from the surface to be measured as the soil is immersed, in situ and in real time. This allowed the influence of temperature, solution chemistry and time on the mechanical forces (rheology) and removal behaviour of the soil to be studied – in effect quantifying the relationships in Sinner’s cleaning circle. The soil simulated a burnt-on baked-on deposit and featured regular cracking in the 300 μm thick layer. The removal force decreased noticeably on hydration: the cleaning mechanism was then determined by the agents present. At 20ºC, below the temperature at which the fat phase was mobile, removal was characterised by cohesive failure except in the presence of the cationic surfactant CTAB, which promoted adhesive failure and fast decay in removal force. At 50ºC, when the fat was mobile, a transition between cohesive and adhesive failure was observed at pH 7 which was inhibited at higher pH. Adhesive failure and fast decay in removal force was observed at higher pH and 50ºC in the presence of the anionic and non-ionic surfactants, SDBS and TX-100, respectively.EPSRC iCASE Studentship Support from Proctor & Gambl

Production of Normal Mammalian Organ Culture Using a Medium Containing Mem-Alpha, Leibovitz L 15, Glucose Galactose Fructose

Normal mammalian tissue and the culturing process has been developed for the three groups of organ, structural and blood tissue. The cells are grown in vitro under micro- gravity culture conditions and form three dimensional cells aggregates with normal cell function. The microgravity culture conditions may be microgravity or simulated microgravity created in a horizontal rotating wall culture vessel. The medium used for culturing the cells, especially a mixture of epithelial and mesenchymal cells contains a mixture of Mem-alpha and Leibovits L15 supplemented with glucose, galactose and fructose

Cultured normal mammalian tissue and process

Normal mammalian tissue and the culturing process has been developed for the three groups of organ, structural and blood tissue. The cells are grown in vitro under microgravity culture conditions and form three dimensional cell aggregates with normal cell function. The microgravity culture conditions may be microgravity or simulated microgravity created in a horizontal rotating wall culture vessel