Fishes of the Mountain Province Section of the Ouachita River

A survey of the fishes of the mountain province section of the Ouachita River from the headwaters to Remmel Dam using field collections, literature records, and museum collections showed the ichthyofauna to be made up of 80 species representing 16 families. Fourteen species not previously reported from the mountain province section of the river were collected in this survey. These species include Ichthyomyzon gagei, Nocomis asper, Notropis ortenburgeri, N. rubellus, Pimephales promelas, Moxostoma carinatum, Noturus taylori, Fundulus notatus, Lepomis humilis, Etheostoma histrio, E. proeliare, Percina maculata, P. nasuta, and P. uranidea. The Nocomis specimens were the first collected from the Ouachita River system and the discovery of Noturus taylori represents a major range extension

The safeguarding capability of adults in Catholic Church ministries: A global perspective

Background: In the wake of historical sexual abuse across the Catholic Church globally, the Church continues to develop policies and processes to prevent and respond to child sexual abuse, including supporting the skills, knowledge, and confidence of members of the Church. Objective: We investigated the safeguarding capabilities of a range of people with different roles within Catholic Church ministries in various countries. Participants and setting: Our 184 participants included lay people, religious men and women, school staff, safeguarding officers and tertiary students associated with the Catholic Church. Data were collected across seven different countries. Methods: We measured the awareness, confidence, attitudes, and knowledge of participants and examined differences between participants in different roles within the Church and different countries through General Linear Models. Results: We found varying levels of awareness, confidence, attitudes, and knowledge regarding sexual abuse prevention and safeguarding. We pinpointed the significant differences in three of these domains (confidence, attitudes, and knowledge) both between people with different roles in the church worldwide, but also between the countries from which participants came from. Conclusions: We found that people in various countries and roles within the Church are at different stages of their safeguarding journey. Some are still understanding their roles (attitudes), some are still learning about how it is operationalised (awareness), and others are acquiring skills that will prepare them for enacting safeguarding policies and practices (confidence)

Engaging Parents in Child-Focused Child Sexual Abuse Prevention Education Strategies : A Systematic Review

Parents are their children’s first teachers and there are long-standing calls for their involvement in child sexual abuse prevention. In this rapid systematic review, we asked the following questions: what rationales are used to justify parental involvement in child-focused child sexual abuse (CSA) prevention programs? what approaches are used for parental engagement in child-focused CSA prevention programs? and what are the facilitators and barriers to parental involvement in child-focused CSA prevention programs? We searched CINAHL, Cochrane, ERIC, Medline, PsycInfo, Scopus, and SocINDEX in May 2021. A total of 57 papers met our inclusion criteria, comprised of 50 empirical studies, and 7 program descriptions. Rationales for parental involvement included monitoring and shaping parental attitudes toward CSA program delivery in schools; reinforcing children’s learning at home; promoting parent–child communication about CSA prevention; building parent capacity to respond to child disclosures; and supporting program delivery for preschoolers. Types of parental involvement included the following: communication, learning at home, volunteering, decision-making, and collaboration with the community. Barriers to parent involvement included ineffective program engagement modalities, and parental fears and misconceptions

Exploring the Local Grammar of Evaluation: The Case of Adjectival Patterns in American and Italian Judicial Discourse

Based on a 2-million word bilingual comparable corpus of American and Italian judgments, this paper tests the applicability of a local grammar to study evaluative phraseology in judicial discourse in English and Italian. In particular, the study compares the use of two patterns: v-link + ADJ + that pattern / copula + ADJ + che and v-link + ADJ + to-infinitive pattern / copula + ADJ + verbo all’infinito in the disciplinary genre of criminal judgments delivered by the US Supreme Court and the Italian Corte Suprema di Cassazione. It is argued that these two patterns represent a viable and efficient diagnostic tool for retrieving instances of evaluative language and they represent an ideal starting point and a relevant unit of analysis for a cross-language analysis of evaluation in domainrestricted specialised discourse. Further, the findings provided shed light on important interactions occurring among major interactants involved in the judicial discourse

Nanoparticle Networks Reduce the Flammability of Polymer Nanocomposites

Synthetic polymer materials are rapidly replacing more traditional inorganic materials such as metals and natural polymeric materials such as wood. Since these novel materials are flammable, they require modifications to decrease their flammability through the addition of flame-retardant (FR) compounds. Recently, environmental regulation has restricted the use of some halogenated FR additives, initiating a search for alternative FR additives. Nanoparticle fillers are highly attractive for this purpose since they can simultaneously improve both the physical and flammability properties of the polymer nanocomposite. We show that carbon nanotubes can surpass nano-clays as effective FR additives if they form a jammed network structure within the polymer matrix, such that the material as a whole behaves rheologically like a gel. We find this kind of network formation for a variety of highly extended carbon-based nanoparticles: single and multi-walled nanotubes, as well as carbon nanofibers

Curvature Matrix Models for Dynamical Triangulations and the Itzykson-DiFrancesco Formula

We study the large-N limit of a class of matrix models for dually weighted triangulated random surfaces using character expansion techniques. We show that for various choices of the weights of vertices of the dynamical triangulation the model can be solved by resumming the Itzykson-Di Francesco formula over congruence classes of Young tableau weights modulo three. From this we show that the large-N limit implies a non-trivial correspondence with models of random surfaces weighted with only even coordination number vertices. We examine the critical behaviour and evaluation of observables and discuss their interrelationships in all models. We obtain explicit solutions of the model for simple choices of vertex weightings and use them to show how the matrix model reproduces features of the random surface sum. We also discuss some general properties of the large-N character expansion approach as well as potential physical applications of our results.Comment: 37 pages LaTeX; Some clarifying comments added, last Section rewritte

Diagnostic Ultrasound Safety Review for Point-of-Care Ultrasound Practitioners

Potential ultrasound exposure safety issues are reviewed, with guidance for prudent use of point‐of‐care ultrasound (POCUS). Safety assurance begins with the training of POCUS practitioners in the generation and interpretation of diagnostically valid and clinically relevant images. Sonographers themselves should minimize patient exposure in accordance with the as‐low‐as‐reasonably‐achievable principle, particularly for the safety of the eye, lung, and fetus. This practice entails the reduction of output indices or the exposure duration, consistent with the acquisition of diagnostically definitive images. Informed adoption of POCUS worldwide promises a reduction of ionizing radiation risks, enhanced cost‐effectiveness, and prompt diagnoses for optimal patient care

Nitric Oxide Is an Upstream Signal of Vascular Endothelial Growth Factor-induced Extracellular Signal-regulated Kinase½ Activation in Postcapillary Endothelium

Abstract We recently demonstrated that nitric oxide (NO) significantly contributes to the mitogenic effect of vascular endothelial growth factor (VEGF), suggesting a role for the NO pathway in the signaling cascade following kinase-derivative receptor activation in vascular endothelium. The aim of this study was to investigate the intracellular pathways linked to VEGF/NO-induced endothelial cell proliferation. We assessed the activity of the mitogen-activated protein kinase (MAPK) that is specifically activated by growth factors, extracellular-regulated kinase (ERK½), on cultured microvascular endothelium isolated from coronary postcapillary venules. ERK½ was immunoprecipitated, and its activity was assessed with an immunocomplex kinase assay. In endothelial cells exposed for 5 min to the NO donor drug sodium nitroprusside at a concentration of 100 μm, ERK½ activity significantly increased. VEGF produced a time- and concentration-dependent activation of ERK½. Maximal activity was obtained after 5 min of stimulation at a concentration of 10 ng/ml. The specific MAPK kinase inhibitor PD 98059 abolished ERK½ activation and endothelial cell proliferation in a concentration-dependent manner in response to VEGF and sodium nitroprusside. The NO synthase inhibitorN ω-monomethyl-l-arginine, as well as the guanylate cyclase inhibitor 1H-[1,2,4]oxadiazolo[4,3-a]quinoxalin-1-one, blocked the activation of ERK½ induced by VEGF, suggesting that NO and cGMP contributed to the VEGF-dependent ERK½ activation. These results demonstrate for the first time that kinase-derivative receptor activation triggers the NO synthase/guanylate cyclase pathway to activate the MAPK cascade and substantiates the hypothesis that the activation of ERK½ is necessary for VEGF-induced endothelial cell proliferation