Biological Records Centre Annual Report 2005-2006

The period covered by this report is the first year of a new six-year partnership between CEH and JNCC. For this period, there is increased emphasis on targeted survey, on analysis and interpretation and on communications and outreach. These activities were always part of BRC’s work, but they have been given greater prominence as a result of rapid developments in information technology. Data are increasingly reaching BRC in electronic form, so that the effort of data entry and collation is reduced. The data, collected by many volunteers and then collated and analysed at BRC, document the changing status and distribution of plants and animals in Britain. Distribution maps are published in atlases and are available via the internet through the NBN Gateway. The effects of change or loss of habitats, the influence of climate change and the consequences of changing water quality are all examples of the environmental factors that affect our biodiversity and which BRC aims to document and understand. The results are vital for developing environmental policies, to support conservation, and for fundamental ecological research. BRC is funded jointly by JNCC and NERC through a partnership based on a Memorandum of Agreement (MoA). The partnership started in 1973 when the Nature Conservancy was divided to form the successor bodies Nature Conservancy Council (NCC) and Institute of Terrestrial Ecology (ITE). NCC was in turn divided further to form JNCC and three Country Agencies, while ITE was merged with other NERC units to form CEH. Through all these changes, the partnership has been maintained. A six-year memorandum of agreement ended on 31 January 2005 (Hill et al. 2005). The present report covers the first full year, 2005-6, of the new agreement for 2005-2010. Rapid progress in information technology continues to be highly beneficial for BRC, whose data are increasingly used by the UK country conservation agencies, environmental consultants, NGOs, research workers, policy makers and volunteers. It is gratifying to know that, through our ability to display data on the National Biodiversity Network (NBN) Gateway, some of our data suppliers now have immediate access to their own data in a convenient form. The year 2005-6 has been one of steady progress, with new datasets added to BRC, substantial additions to existing data, and improved communication with the NBN Gateway. The most high profile activity of the year has been the Harlequin Ladybird Survey, which has enabled us to observe the early stages of colonization by a mobile insect in greater detail than has been possible in any previous case

A Computational Procedure to Detect a New Type of High Dimensional Chaotic Saddle and its Application to the 3-D Hill's Problem

A computational procedure that allows the detection of a new type of high-dimensional chaotic saddle in Hamiltonian systems with three degrees of freedom is presented. The chaotic saddle is associated with a so-called normally hyperbolic invariant manifold (NHIM). The procedure allows to compute appropriate homoclinic orbits to the NHIM from which we can infer the existence a chaotic saddle. NHIMs control the phase space transport across an equilibrium point of saddle-centre-...-centre stability type, which is a fundamental mechanism for chemical reactions, capture and escape, scattering, and, more generally, ``transformation'' in many different areas of physics. Consequently, the presented methods and results are of broad interest. The procedure is illustrated for the spatial Hill's problem which is a well known model in celestial mechanics and which gained much interest e.g. in the study of the formation of binaries in the Kuiper belt.Comment: 12 pages, 6 figures, pdflatex, submitted to JPhys

A targeted e-learning program for surgical trainees to enhance patient safety in preventing surgical infection.

INTRODUCTION: Surgical site infection accounts for 20% of all health care-associated infections (HCAIs); however, a program incorporating the education of surgeons has yet to be established across the specialty. METHODS: An audit of surgical practice in infection prevention was carried out in Beaumont Hospital from July to November 2009. An educational Web site was developed targeting deficiencies highlighted in the audit. Interactive clinical cases were constructed using PHP coding, an HTML-embedded language, and then linked to a MySQL relational database. PowerPoint tutorials were produced as online Flash audiovisual movies. An online repository of streaming videos demonstrating best practice was made available, and weekly podcasts were made available on the iTunes© store for free download. Usage of the e-learning program was assessed quantitatively over 6 weeks in May and June 2010 using the commercial company Hitslink. RESULTS: During the 5-month audit, deficiencies in practice were highlighted, including the timing of surgical prophylaxis (33% noncompliance) and intravascular catheter care in surgical patients (38% noncompliance regarding necessity). Over the 6-week assessment of the educational material, the SurgInfection.com Web pages were accessed more than 8000 times; 77.9% of the visitors were from Ireland. The most commonly accessed modality was the repository with interactive clinical cases, accounting for 3463 (43%) of the Web site visits. The average user spent 57 minutes per visit, with 30% of them visiting the Web site multiple times. DISCUSSION: Interactive virtual cases mirroring real-life clinical scenarios are likely to be successful as an e-learning modality. User-friendly interfaces and 24-hour accessibility will increases uptake by surgical trainees

Preventing infection in general surgery: improvements through education of surgeons by surgeons.

Surgical patients are at particular risk of healthcare-associated infection (HCAI) due to the presence of a surgical site leading to surgical site infection (SSI), and because of the need for intravascular access resulting in catheter-related bloodstream infection (CRBSI). A two-year initiative commenced with an initial audit of surgical practice; this was used to inform the development of a targeted educational initiative by surgeons specifically for surgical trainees. Parameters assessed during the initial audit and a further audit after the educational initiative were related to intra- and postoperative aspects of the prevention of SSIs, as well as care of peripheral venous catheters (PVCs) in surgical patients. The proportion of prophylactic antibiotics administered prior to incision across 360 operations increased from 30.0% to 59.1% (P72h (10.6% vs 3.1%,

Early Detection of Aortic Dilatation in Ankylosing Spondylitis Using Echocardiography

Aortic root abnormalities including cusp thickening, subvalvular stenosis, and mild aortic root dilatation are the most common cardiac complications in patients with long standing ankylosing spondylitis (AS). Twenty-three patients with definite idiopathic AS (New York Criteria 1966) and twenty-two matched controls were studied with M-mode echocardiography. Only one of the AS patients had clinical aortic incompetence. Six of the AS patients had mildly dilated aortic roots (normal less than 3.7 cm) with a mean diameter of 3.9 cm (range 3.8 to 4.00 cm). None of the twenty-two controls matched for age, sex and blood pressure had dilated aortic roots, with a mean diameter of 3.3 cm (range 2.9 to 3.6 cm). No correlation existed between aortic dilatation and severity of disease estimated by acute phase proteins--caerulo plasmin, alpha 1-antitrypsin, alpha 1 acid glycoprotein, ferritin and C Reactive protein. Contrary to a previous report, mild aortic root dilatation occurs in long standing cases of AS. Although it is a non-specific finding, it does not appear to be related to age or blood pressure and may therefore be the forerunner of aortic incompetence

Long Range Magnetic Order and the Darwin Lagrangian

We simulate a finite system of $N$ confined electrons with inclusion of the Darwin magnetic interaction in two- and three-dimensions. The lowest energy states are located using the steepest descent quenching adapted for velocity dependent potentials. Below a critical density the ground state is a static Wigner lattice. For supercritical density the ground state has a non-zero kinetic energy. The critical density decreases with $N$ for exponential confinement but not for harmonic confinement. The lowest energy state also depends on the confinement and dimension: an antiferromagnetic cluster forms for harmonic confinement in two dimensions.Comment: 5 figure

Clinically guided core biopsy and cutaneous punch biopsy in the evaluation of breast lesions:a necessary test or an obsolete skill?

OBJECTIVE: The vast majority of breast cancers are diagnosed via image-guided procedures yet despite significant advances, imaging does not identify all breast malignancies. Clinically suspicious breast lesions with normal breast imaging remain a cause for concern. The aim of this study is to determine the diagnostic value of clinical core and cutaneous punch biopsies in the diagnosis of breast malignancy in clinically suspicious lesions with normal breast imaging. METHODS: All patients with suspicious clinical breast findings and normal imaging who underwent a clinical core and/or cutaneous punch biopsy from 2012 to 2019 were reviewed retrospectively. Patients with subsequent breast malignant diagnosis were analysed. RESULTS: A total of 283 biopsies (166 clinical core, 117 cutaneous punch) performed over the 7-year period were included in the analysis. A total of 263/283 (93%) yielded a benign outcome. A total of 2/283 (0.7%) yielded B3 lesions (probably benign). These lesions were benign on final surgical excision. A total of 18/283 (6.3%) yielded a malignant histopathology. Sixteen out of 18 were cutaneous punch biopsies, and 2/18 were clinical core biopsies. A total of 14/18 patients presented with nipple changes, while 4/18 had a palpable area of concern. Histopathological analysis demonstrated Paget’s disease of the nipple in 8/18, invasive carcinoma in 9/18 out of which two represented a recurrence of breast malignancy. Cutaneous squamous cell carcinoma was diagnosed in 1/18. CONCLUSION: Clinical core and cutaneous punch biopsies remain a valuable tool in the diagnosis of breast cancer particularly in the management of clinically suspicious radiographically occult malignancies