Trafficking in persons monitoring report: January 2009–June 2011

Since 2008, the Australian Government has increased the tempo on investigating and understanding these crimes, and the Australian Institute of Criminology’s research and monitoring program is part of this effort.  The Government has introduced new legislation to crack down on trafficking slavery and servile marriages. Human trafficking is a serious but underreported problem as victims are unwilling to come forward. Since 2004 only 14 people have been convicted of people trafficking-related offences (nine of the 14 defendants were convicted of slavery offences, three of sexual servitude, one of people trafficking and one of labour exploitation). Between January 2009 and June 2011 there were 73 police investigations in Australia and 145 trafficked people entering the government’s victim support program—slightly more than in the previous period. Victims continue to be overwhelmingly from south-east Asia, one-third from Thailand alone. Authored by Jacqueline Joudo Larsen, Lauren Renshaw, Samantha Gray-Barry, Hannah Andrevski, and Toby Corsbie

Landscape-Scale Geospatial Assessment of Open Pine and Natural Grassland Condition for Northern Bobwhite in the Gulf Coastal Plains and Ozarks

The National Bobwhite Conservation Initiative 2.0 (NBCI) suggests \u3e13 million acres of pine forests and \u3e600,000 acres of grasslands have high potential for northern bobwhite (Colinus virginianus) conservation in the Southeast. The Gulf Coastal Plains and Ozarks Landscape Conservation Cooperative (LCC) identifies northern bobwhite as one of 15 indicator species for open pine/woodland/savanna and grassland/prairie ecological systems, and describes specific habitat conditions considered desirable as measurable landscape endpoints in each system as part of an Integrated Science Agenda (ISA). The ISA suggests bobwhite are limited by the habitat characteristics associated with basal area and canopy cover in pine systems, and patch size, vegetation density, bare ground, shrub cover, and warm-season grass density in grassland systems across the 180 million acre LCC. We conducted Rapid Ecological Assessments (REAs) of pine and grassland systems to describe where, how much, and in what condition the desired habitat conditions exist for each system. Using endpoint threshold values, the best available geospatial data, and a dichotomous decision tree approach, the pine and grassland REAs assigned per-pixel Condition Index Values (CIV) for the entire LCC. Results indicate 46% of the 48 million acres of pine or mixed-pine hardwood forests are in patches \u3e600 acres with one other endpoint present, but only 0.2% (100,000 acres) reflect all desired open pine conditions. In the grassland system, 48% of the 32 million acres of grassland were characterized by the presence of at least one desired condition, with no areas meeting all desired conditions. In many cases, areas with high CIV scores overlap areas classified as high and medium land use opportunities in NBCI 2.0, suggesting continuity of these independent empirical and expert-driven assessments. Understanding the current condition of pine and grassland systems in concert with NBCI potential acreage targets can help refine management and population objectives in NBCI and LCC conservation planning

Study protocol: Phase III single-blinded fast-track pragmatic randomised controlled trial of a complex intervention for breathlessness in advanced disease.

BACKGROUND: Breathlessness in advanced disease causes significant distress to patients and carers and presents management challenges to health care professionals. The Breathlessness Intervention Service (BIS) seeks to improve the care of breathless patients with advanced disease (regardless of cause) through the use of evidence-based practice and working with other healthcare providers. BIS delivers a complex intervention (of non-pharmacological and pharmacological treatments) via a multi-professional team. BIS is being continuously developed and its impact evaluated using the MRC's framework for complex interventions (PreClinical, Phase I and Phase II completed). This paper presents the protocol for Phase III. METHODS/DESIGN: Phase III comprises a pragmatic, fast-track, single-blind randomised controlled trial of BIS versus standard care. Due to differing disease trajectories, the service uses two broad service models: one for patients with malignant disease (intervention delivered over two weeks) and one for patients with non-malignant disease (intervention delivered over four weeks). The Phase III trial therefore consists of two sub-protocols: one for patients with malignant conditions (four week protocol) and one for patients with non-malignant conditions (eight week protocol). Mixed method interviews are conducted with patients and their lay carers at three to five measurement points depending on randomisation and sub-protocol. Qualitative interviews are conducted with referring and non-referring health care professionals (malignant disease protocol only). The primary outcome measure is 'patient distress due to breathlessness' measured on a numerical rating scale (0-10). The trial includes economic evaluation. Analysis will be on an intention to treat basis. DISCUSSION: This is the first evaluation of a breathlessness intervention for advanced disease to have followed the MRC framework and one of the first palliative care trials to use fast track methodology and single-blinding. The results will provide evidence of the clinical and cost-effectiveness of the service, informing its longer term development and implementation of the model in other centres nationally and internationally. It adds to methodological developments in palliative care research where complex interventions are common but evidence sparse. TRIAL REGISTRATION: ClinicalTrials.gov: NCT00678405ISRCTN: ISRCTN04119516.RIGHTS : This article is licensed under the BioMed Central licence at http://www.biomedcentral.com/about/license which is similar to the 'Creative Commons Attribution Licence'. In brief you may : copy, distribute, and display the work; make derivative works; or make commercial use of the work - under the following conditions: the original author must be given credit; for any reuse or distribution, it must be made clear to others what the license terms of this work are

Feasibility study suggests no impact from protected engagement time on adverse events in mental health wards for older adults

Hospital adverse events, such as falls, violence and aggression, security, self-harm, and suicide, are difficult to manage in older people with dementia. The purpose of the present study was to determine whether protected engagement time (PET) resulted in lower adverse events and incidents compared to comparable non-PET wards for people admitted to inpatient older people's mental health wards. Ten inpatient wards for older people were included. Five followed a PET-management pathway, while five continued usual care. All adverse events and incidents were recorded in routine hospital records over 72 weeks. Data were gathered from these records and analysed as rate per person per week to assess differences in frequency and type of adverse events between wards. A total of 4130 adverse events were recorded. In the PET wards, a mean of 0.38 adverse events occurred per person per week compared to 0.40 in non-PET wards. No statistically-significant differences were found between PET and non-PET wards for adverse events (P = 0.93), or for adverse events of any particular type (P ≥ 0.15). Therefore, there is no evidence to suggest that PET has any impact on adverse events in older people's mental health wards. Further investigation with a larger cohort is warranted, using a definitive, phase 3, clinical trial

Diagnosis and monitoring of systemic sclerosis-associated interstitial lung disease using high-resolution computed tomography

Patients with systemic sclerosis are at high risk of developing systemic sclerosis-associated interstitial lung disease. Symptoms and outcomes of systemic sclerosis-associated interstitial lung disease range from subclinical lung involvement to respiratory failure and death. Early and accurate diagnosis of systemic sclerosis-associated interstitial lung disease is therefore important to enable appropriate intervention. The most sensitive and specific way to diagnose systemic sclerosis-associated interstitial lung disease is by high-resolution computed tomography, and experts recommend that high-resolution computed tomography should be performed in all patients with systemic sclerosis at the time of initial diagnosis. In addition to being an important screening and diagnostic tool, high-resolution computed tomography can be used to evaluate disease extent in systemic sclerosis-associated interstitial lung disease and may be helpful in assessing prognosis in some patients. Currently, there is no consensus with regards to frequency and scanning intervals in patients at risk of interstitial lung disease development and/or progression. However, expert guidance does suggest that frequency of screening using high-resolution computed tomography should be guided by risk of developing interstitial lung disease. Most experienced clinicians would not repeat high-resolution computed tomography more than once a year or every other year for the first few years unless symptoms arose. Several computed tomography techniques have been developed in recent years that are suitable for regular monitoring, including low-radiation protocols, which, together with other technologies, such as lung ultrasound and magnetic resonance imaging, may further assist in the evaluation and monitoring of patients with systemic sclerosis-associated interstitial lung disease. A video abstract to accompany this article is available at: https://www.globalmedcomms.com/respiratory/Khanna/HRCTinSScILD

Glacier velocities and dynamic ice discharge from the Queen Elizabeth Islands, Nunavut, Canada

Recent studies indicate an increase in glacier mass loss from the Canadian Arctic Archipelago as a result of warmer summer air temperatures. However, no complete assessment of dynamic ice discharge from this region exists. We present the first complete surface velocity mapping of all ice masses in the Queen Elizabeth Islands and show that these ice masses discharged ~2.6 ± 0.8 Gt a−1 of ice to the oceans in winter 2012. Approximately 50% of the dynamic discharge was channeled through non surge-type Trinity and Wykeham Glaciers alone. Dynamic discharge of the surge-type Mittie Glacier varied from 0.90 ± 0.09 Gt a−1 during its 2003 surge to 0.02 ± 0.02 Gt a−1 during quiescence in 2012, highlighting the importance of surge-type glaciers for interannual variability in regional mass loss. Queen Elizabeth Islands glaciers currently account for ~7.5% of reported dynamic discharge from Arctic ice masses outside Greenland.We thank NSERC, Canada Foundation for Innovation, Ontario Research Fund, ArcticNet, Ontario Graduate Scholarship, University of Ottawa and the NSERC Canada Graduate Scholarship for funding. RADARSAT-2 data were provided by MacDonald, Dettwiler and Associates under the RADARSAT-2 Government Data Allocation administrated by the Canadian Space Agency. Support to DB is provided through the Climate Change Geosciences Program, Earth Sciences Sector, Natural Resources Canada (ESS Contribution #20130293). We also acknowledge support from U.K NERC for grants R3/12469 and NE/K004999 to JAD.This is the accepted version of an article published in Geophysical Research Letters. An edited version of this paper was published by AGU. Copyright (2014) American Geophysical Union. The final version is available at http://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1002/2013GL058558/abstract;jsessionid=6A3AD907C4383DA5D4E20C4924D6EC18.f02t02

Integrative Modeling of Quantitative Plasma Lipoprotein, Metabolic, and Amino Acid Data Reveals a Multiorgan Pathological Signature of SARS-CoV-2 Infection.

The metabolic effects of severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2) infection on human blood plasma were characterized using multiplatform metabolic phenotyping with nuclear magnetic resonance (NMR) spectroscopy and liquid chromatography-mass spectrometry (LC-MS). Quantitative measurements of lipoprotein subfractions, α-1-acid glycoprotein, glucose, and biogenic amines were made on samples from symptomatic coronavirus disease 19 (COVID-19) patients who had tested positive for the SARS-CoV-2 virus (n = 17) and from age- and gender-matched controls (n = 25). Data were analyzed using an orthogonal-projections to latent structures (OPLS) method and used to construct an exceptionally strong (AUROC = 1) hybrid NMR-MS model that enabled detailed metabolic discrimination between the groups and their biochemical relationships. Key discriminant metabolites included markers of inflammation including elevated α-1-acid glycoprotein and an increased kynurenine/tryptophan ratio. There was also an abnormal lipoprotein, glucose, and amino acid signature consistent with diabetes and coronary artery disease (low total and HDL Apolipoprotein A1, low HDL triglycerides, high LDL and VLDL triglycerides), plus multiple highly significant amino acid markers of liver dysfunction (including the elevated glutamine/glutamate and Fischer's ratios) that present themselves as part of a distinct SARS-CoV-2 infection pattern. A multivariate training-test set model was validated using independent samples from additional SARS-CoV-2 positive patients and controls. The predictive model showed a sensitivity of 100% for SARS-CoV-2 positivity. The breadth of the disturbed pathways indicates a systemic signature of SARS-CoV-2 positivity that includes elements of liver dysfunction, dyslipidemia, diabetes, and coronary heart disease risk that are consistent with recent reports that COVID-19 is a systemic disease affecting multiple organs and systems. Metabolights study reference: MTBLS2014

Climatic Controls on the Snowmelt Hydrology of the Northern Rocky Mountains

The northern Rocky Mountains (NRMs) are a critical headwaters region with the majority of water resources originating from mountain snowpack. Observations showing declines in western U.S. snowpack have implications for water resources and biophysical processes in high-mountain environments. This study investigates oceanic and atmospheric controls underlying changes in timing, variability, and trends documented across the entire hydroclimatic-monitoring system within critical NRM watersheds. Analyses were conducted using records from 25 snow telemetry (SNOTEL) stations, 148 1 April snow course records, stream gauge records from 14 relatively unimpaired rivers, and 37 valley meteorological stations. Over the past four decades, midelevation SNOTEL records show a tendency toward decreased snowpack with peak snow water equivalent (SWE) arriving and melting out earlier. Temperature records show significant seasonal and annual decreases in the number of frost days (days ≤0°C) and changes in spring minimum temperatures that correspond with atmospheric circulation changes and surface–albedo feedbacks in March and April. Warmer spring temperatures coupled with increases in mean and variance of spring precipitation correspond strongly to earlier snowmeltout, an increased number of snow-free days, and observed changes in streamflow timing and discharge. The majority of the variability in peak and total annual snowpack and streamflow, however, is explained by season-dependent interannual-to-interdecadal changes in atmospheric circulation associated with Pacific Ocean sea surface temperatures. Over recent decades, increased spring precipitation appears to be buffering NRM total annual streamflow from what would otherwise be greater snow-related declines in hydrologic yield. Results have important implications for ecosystems, water resources, and long-lead-forecasting capabilities

Niobium tetrahalide complexes with neutral diphosphine ligands

The reactions of NbCl4 with diphosphine ligands o-C6H4(PMe2)2, Me2PCH2CH2PMe2 or Et2PCH2CH2PEt2 in a 1:2 molar ratio in MeCN solution produced eight-coordinate [NbCl4(diphosphine)2]. [NbBr4(diphosphine)2] (diphosphine = o-C6H4(PMe2)2 or Me2PCH2CH2PMe2) were made similarly from NbBr4. X-ray crystal structures show that [NbCl4{o-C6H4(PMe2)2)2}] has a dodecahedral geometry but the complexes with dimethylene backboned diphosphines are distorted square antiprisms. The Nb-P and <P-Nb-P angles are very similar in the two types, but Nb-Cl distances are ~ 0.1Å longer in the square antiprismatic complexes. These paramagnetic (d1) complexes were also characterised by microanalysis, magnetic measurements, IR and UV-visible spectroscopy. Using a 1:1 molar ratio of NbCl4 : diphosphine (diphosphine = Me2PCH2CH2PMe2, Et2PCH2CH2PEt2, Cy2PCH2CH2PCy2 and Ph2PCH2CH2CH2PPh2) afforded [NbCl4(diphosphine)] and [NbBr4(Me2PCH2CH2PMe2)] was obtained similarly. These 1 : 1 complexes are unstable in solution, preventing X-ray crystallographic study, but based upon their diamagnetism, IR, UV-visible and 31P{1H} NMR spectra they are formulated as halide-bridged dimers [(diphosphine)X2Nb(μ-X)4NbX2(diphosphine)] with single Nb-Nb bonds and chelating diphosphines. The Nb(IV) complexes are prone to hydrolysis and oxidation in solution and the structures of the Nb(V) complexes [NbBr4(Me2PCH2CH2PMe2)2][NbOBr4(MeCN)] with a dodecahedral cation, and [{NbOCl3{Et2P(CH2)2PEt2}}2{μ-Et2P(CH2)2PEt2}] which contains seven-coordinate Nb(V) centres with a symmetrical diphosphine bridge are reported. The structure of niobium tetrabromide, conveniently made from NbCl4 and BBr3, is a chain polymer with edge-linked NbBr6 octahedra and alternating long and short Nb-Nb distances, the latter ascribed to Nb-Nb bonds