Waterfowl Trends in Back Bay, Virginia from 1954-1990

Back Bay, Virginia and Currituck Sound, North Carolina have long been noted and highly acclaimed as prime waterfowl wintering and migration areas. Although no formal waterfowl surveys were conducted prior to 1937, some gauge of waterfowl abundance can be obtained from harvest record examination. Harvest estimates based on extraordinarily well kept and recorded data of ten major waterfowl hunting clubs in Back Bay and Currituck Sound between 1872 and 1962 (Sincock, 1966) suggest that five million (5,000,000) ducks and 560,000 Canada geese were taken by hunting during that 90-year period. Waterfowl population trends in Back Bay for the 37-year period 1954-90 are the subject of this paper

Selective attenuation of carotid-cardiac responses to hypertension at the onset of static handgrip in humans [abstract]

Previous studies have indicated that at the onset of exercise cardiac baroreflex function is reduced in an intensity-dependent manner, which appears to be mediated by a blunted ability to buffer hypertensive challenges. However, whether cardiac baroreflex responses to a hypotensive stimulus are altered at exercise onset is unclear

Submerged Aquatic Vegetation Trends of Back Bay, Virginia

(First Paragraph): Submerged aquatic vegetation (SAV) is an important part of a healthy Back Bay ecosystem. SAV helps to stabilize sediments that enter the system and to deter shoreline erosion. The submerged macrophytes serve as filters, improving the quality of the water column by removing many pollutants and dissolved nutrients (Clark, et al., 1973; and Stevenson, et al., 1979). These aquatic plants provide important habitats for a variety of wildlife species, which use the grass beds for shelter, feeding and breeding areas. SAV is a major primary producer in the food chain associated within the aquatic and adjoining upland habitats. The added physical characteristics of the plants within the aquatic environment allow for a greater diversity of wildlife species, when compared to habitats not supporting SAV (Stevenson & Confer, 1978)

The experience of mindfulness in Western therapeutic encounters; practitioner's perspective

Background: Mindfulness has become increasingly popular in recent psychotherapeutic literature that strongly indicates its use for the treatment of a variety of psychiatric disorders. It has been incorporated into cognitive behaviour based models such as Mindfulness-Based Cognitive Behavioural Therapy (MBCBT), and Dialectical Behavioural Therapy (DBT), as well as specific model of treatment for chronic pain, Mindfulness Based Stress Reduction (MBSR). These models in particular have attracted a significant amount of outcome research that consistently suggests that they are of benefit to specific clinical populations. MBCBT and DBT are recognised as evidence based treatments of choice by organisations such as the National Institute for Clinical Excellence (NICE) in the United Kingdom. Clinically, it is something that I have some limited awareness (during DBT training, and through awareness clinical literature), and have been interested in finding out more about it. Despite these findings however, there is no established definition of mindfulness, no consensus of what it does, and no shared understanding in literature of what it means to be Mindful. Furthermore, Mindfulness originated in Buddhism around 2,500 years ago and is therefore closely related to this discipline and Eastern culture in general. These are issues that have also received little attention in the research. Mindfulness therefore finds itself in a relatively unusual position in terms of therapeutic research, generally being accepted as a beneficial and helpful practice, but with no clear understanding of what it really is, or how it works. This research attempts to explore these questions further by presenting the perspectives of psychological practitioners who routinely use Mindfulness in their therapeutic practice. Working back perhaps from the outcome literature, this research attempts to capture the participant's experience of Mindfulness therapeutically, what they feel it is, how they experience it in their clinical work with clients, and what it means to them personally, professionally and culturally. Method/ Analysis: Given that the research is based on capturing individual, phenomenological processes, qualitative methods were seen as the most appropriate methodology. As the research involves exploring the each participant's perspective with the aim of providing general themes between accounts, Interpretative Phenomenological Analysis (IPA) was chosen. IPA also recognises the role of the researcher and their potential biases, e.g. a therapist with some basic awareness of Mindfulness, as a feature within the research methodology. Recruitment letters were sent to Community Mental Teams (CMHTs), Psychology, Psychotherapy and Psychiatry Departments, and local University throughout a specific region in the United Kingdom (Devon). Participants were required to be currently working as therapists who described themselves as using Mindfulness within their clinical practice. Five from an initial response of nine participants were interviewed. Reasons for attrition included, moving job, moving area, and pregnancy resulting in change of life circumstances. The participants were three women and two men aged between their late thirties to late fifties. Professional backgrounds included Social Work Occupational Therapy, and Core Process psychotherapy, and all worked within NHS settings, and some private work. Interviews were transcribed and subject to a thematic analysis using IPA that produced three master themes. Cohen's Kappa was used to test for inter-rater reliability. Results/ Conclusion: Three master themes were identified; the Culture and Context of Mindfulness, The Subjective Experience of Mindfulness and Being a Mindfulness Practitioner. These were explored in terms a concept called 'Being-With'. 'Being-With' explored the results in terms of literature concerning core therapeutic conditions, therapeutic process, and the presence of the therapist. It was concluded that this term described the interpersonal and process based nature of Mindfulness, as well as capturing the participant's perspective that Mindfulness was not a technique but a therapeutic attitude or way of being based on ongoing personal and experiential practice. The findings are critiqued and suggestions for further research discussed

Quantum teardrops

Algebras of functions on quantum weighted projective spaces are introduced, and the structure of quantum weighted projective lines or quantum teardrops are described in detail. In particular the presentation of the coordinate algebra of the quantum teardrop in terms of generators and relations and classification of irreducible *-representations are derived. The algebras are then analysed from the point of view of Hopf-Galois theory or the theory of quantum principal bundles. Fredholm modules and associated traces are constructed. C*-algebras of continuous functions on quantum weighted projective lines are described and their K-groups computed.Comment: 18 page

A role for SETD2 loss in tumorigenesis through DNA methylation dysregulation

SETD2-dependent H3 Lysine-36 trimethylation (H3K36me3) has been recently linked to the deposition of de-novo DNA methylation. SETD2 is frequently mutated in cancer, however, the functional impact of SETD2 loss and depletion on DNA methylation across cancer types and tumorigenesis is currently unknown. Here, we perform a pan-cancer analysis and show that both SETD2 mutation and reduced expression are associated with DNA methylation dysregulation across 21 out of the 24 cancer types tested. In renal cancer, these DNA methylation changes are associated with altered gene expression of oncogenes, tumour suppressors, and genes involved in neoplasm invasiveness, including TP53, FOXO1, and CDK4. This suggests a new role for SETD2 loss in tumorigenesis and cancer aggressiveness through DNA methylation dysregulation. Moreover, using a robust machine learning methodology, we develop and validate a 3-CpG methylation signature which is sufficient to predict SETD2 mutation status with high accuracy and correlates with patient prognosis

The contribution of financial entities to the sustainable development through the reporting of corporate social responsibility information

This paper aims at examining the relationship between board composition and corporate social responsibility (CSR) of a sample of listed financial entities, discussing the driving reasons of these entities to disclose CSR information. We hypothesize that there is a positive association between outside (institutional and independent directors) and female directors and CSR disclosure and a negative relationship between inside directors and CSR reporting. Our findings provide evidence that the proportions of independent directors and female directors on boards encourage CSR disclosure. Moreover, the results also show that the proportions of inside directors and institutional directors on boards do not have influence on CSR reporting. Thus, our evidence suggests that board attributes such as independent and female directors encourage financial entities to report CSR matters, showing the effectiveness of these two corporate governance mechanisms. The paper shed light on the influence of board structure of financial entities on CSR disclosure. Therefore, this study contributes to past research by providing an index to measure CSR disclosure of financial entities and the importance of the distinction between outside and inside directors