Remote sensing utility in a disaster struck urban environment

Six major public health areas which might be affected by a natural disaster were identified. The functions and tasks associated with each area following a disaster, potential ways remote sensing could aid these functions, and the baseline data which would expedite problem solving associated with these functions are discussed

Potential role of remote sensing in disaster relief management

Baseline or predisaster data which would be useful to decision making in the immediate postdisaster period were suggested for the six areas of public health concern along with guidelines for organizing these data. Potential sources of these data are identified. In order to fully assess the impact of a disaster on an area, information about its predisaster status must be known. Aerial photography is one way of acquiring and recording such data

INIA 317: Altiplano, variedad de papa con buena adaptacion en la region altiplanica del Peru.

La papa constituye uno de los cultivos alimenticios más importantes en la agricultura familiar de la región andina del Perú. En las condiciones agroecológicas de esta región, uno de los factores más importantes que limita los niveles de producción y productividad de la papa es el clima adverso. Con el objetivo de lograr genotipos de papa; que además, de tener buena capacidad de rendimiento, respondan mejor a los nuevos estreses abióticos y bióticos provocados por el cambio climático, el Centro Internacional de la Papa realizó cruzamientos entre los cultivares nativos pertenecientes a Solanum tuberosum subsp. andigena. La evaluación de los genotipos se realizó a partir del año 2000 en las diferentes localidades de la región andina. Desde del año 2005, la Estación Experimental Illpa-Puno del Instituto Nacional de Innovación Agraria (INIA) y el Centro Internacional de la Papa (CIP) dentro de las actividades del Proyecto ALTAGRO, evaluaron un grupo de estos clones en diversas comunidades de la Región Altiplánica del Perú, a través de la metodología de selección participativa, con el objetivo de obtener una variedad de papa con alta capacidad productiva, adaptada a las condiciones climáticas de la Región Altiplánica y con aptitud para procesamiento en tunta. Como resultado de este trabajo de investigación se ha logrado seleccionar un genotipo de papa adaptada a la Región Altiplánica del Perú, con alto potencial de rendimiento y alto contenido de materia seca. Este genotipo de papa inicialmente identificado como el clon 399085.30 (B1C5041.30), actualmente es denominado variedad INIA 317 – ALTIPLAN

Appropriating the Restoration hero(ine): intertextuality and the transformation of gender identity, 1677-1759

My dissertation considers how and why representations of female suffering in Restoration tragedy had a profound impact on the development of mid-eighteenth century novels and plays, focusing primarily on the work of Aphra Behn, Thomas Southerne, John Dryden, Samuel Richardson and David Garrick. Previous scholarship on Restoration "she-tragedies" has tended to emphasize how their heroines’ descent into hysteria, madness, and death implies a total loss of female agency and power. My project challenges this reigning interpretation: through detailed readings of Richardson’s and Garrick's adaptations of Restoration tragedy, I argue that these influential mid-century authors transform the spectacle of female suffering into a resource for female empowerment and authority over the public sphere. My four chapters analyze Restoration tragic female characters as strongly influencing eighteenth-century writers, who appropriated and adapted them in relation to changing cultural tastes, especially as regards more restricted representations of female sexuality and the heightened desire to promote a seemingly less complex version of female virtue. Scholarship in the long eighteenth-century has suffered from a tendency to emphasize distinctions between the "licentious" culture of the Restoration and the “reformed” tastes of mid-eighteenth-century readers and audiences; by allowing these two cultural moments to speak to one another, my project challenges those distinctions and considers the more nuanced ways mid-eighteenth century’s writers like Richardson and Garrick were informed and influenced by Restoration drama

A pilot randomized controlled trial of pioglitazone for the treatment of poorly controlled asthma in obesity

Background: Obese asthmatics tend to have poorly controlled asthma, and resistance to standard asthma controller medications. The purpose of this study was to determine the efficacy of pioglitazone, an anti-diabetic medication which can alter circulating adipokines and have direct effects on asthmatic inflammation, in the treatment of asthma in obesity. Methods: A two-center, 12-week, randomized, placebo-controlled, double-blinded trial. Treatments were randomly assigned with concealment of allocation. The primary outcome was difference in change in airway reactivity between participants assigned to pioglitazone versus placebo at 12weeks. Results: Twenty-three participants were randomized to treatment, 19 completed the study. Median airway reactivity, measured by PC20 to methacholine was 1.99 (IQR 3.08) and 1.60 (5.91) mg/ml in placebo and pioglitazone group at baseline, and 2.37 (15.22) and 5.08 (7.42) mg/ml after 12weeks, p=0.38. There was no difference in exhaled nitric oxide, asthma control or lung function between treatment groups over the 12week trial. Participants assigned to pioglitazone gained a significant amount more weight than those assigned to placebo (pioglitazone group mean weight 113.6, CI 94.5-132.7kg at randomization and 115.9, CI 96.9-135.1 at 12weeks; placebo mean weight 127.5, CI 108.4 - 146.6kg at randomization and 124.5, CI 105.4 - 143.6kg at 12weeks; p=0.04). Conclusions: This pilot study suggests limited efficacy for pioglitazone in the treatment of poorly controlled asthma in obesity, and also the potential for harm, given the weight gain in those assigned to active treatment, and the association between increased weight and worse outcomes in asthma. Trial Registration: Clinicaltrials.gov (NCT00634036

Grain and Nutritional Quality Traits of Southwestern U.S. Blue Maize Landraces

Anthocyanin‐rich Southwestern blue maize (Zea mays L.) landraces are receiving interest as functional foods, and commercial production is increasing. We determined variation in kernel color, anthocyanin content, texture, and selected compositional traits of representative varieties. In 2013, eight varieties were grown at four locations in New Mexico. Total kernel anthocyanin content (TAC) and component pigments were measured with spectrophotometry and HPLC, respectively. Oil, protein, starch, and kernel density were determined using NIR spectroscopy and amino acid concentrations using wet chemistry. An average of 49.6 mg/100 g of TAC with a range of 17.6–65.1 mg/100 g was observed. Cyanidin and pelargonidin were major components, and peonidin and succinyl 3‐glucoside were minor components. Low levels of disuccinyl glucoside were detected. Blue kernels were higher in anthocyanin than purple or red kernels. Floury kernels displayed the highest protein and oil contents and the lowest starch content and kernel density. The highest starch and kernel density levels were observed in small flint/dent and pop‐flint/dent kernels. Amino acid content was variable across genotypes and locations

Follicular Bronchiolitis in Primary Ciliary Dyskinesia

Ciliary dysfunction in primary ciliary dyskinesia (PCD) may be associated with bronchiolitis. Diffuse bronchiolitis has been reported in a subset of PCD patients having Kartagener's syndrome in Japan. We report the first case of follicular variant of bronchiolitis in a case of PCD presenting as recurrent episodes of cough, dyspnea and bronchiectasis

Living on the Edge: High-Latitude Porites Carbonate Production Under Temperate Eutrophic Conditions

Non-framework building high-latitude coral communities have recently received increased attention as a result of their potential to act as refugia during global change, as proxies for such change and for testing the environmental tolerance limits of various species of coral. In this study, we report on high-resolution in situ measured environmental factors influencing the development of monospecific (Porites panamensis) non-framework building coral communities and the resulting coral-derived carbonate sediment production in the northern Gulf of California, Mexico (Bahía de Los Angeles, 29°N, 113°E). Half-hourly measurements of temperature and chlorophyll a (a nutrient proxy) for a 1-year period indicate temperature extremes ranging from 14°C to 30°C, and average chlorophyll a values of 2.2 mg Chl a/m3(eutrophic). Even though P. panamensis only occur as small massive and encrusting colonies, they nonetheless show a significant carbonate sediment production potential (0.14 kg CaCO3/m2/year). A calculation of carbonate production rates vs amount of coral found in the sediment shows that this high-latitude community must have persisted for an extended period of time

Differential Response and the Reduction of Child Maltreatment and Foster Care Services Utilization in the U.S. From 2004 to 2017.

By 2014, the majority of U.S. states had implemented differential response (DR), a system policy that seeks to serve families of low-to moderate-risk for child maltreatment through family engagement, diversion from formal child protective services investigations, and service provision. However, the effects of DR programs on child welfare dynamics have yet to be evaluated nationally using causal methods. Using a quasi-experimental study design with data drawn from the National Child Abuse and Neglect Data System from 2004 to 2017, we found states with DR programs had approximately 19% fewer substantiated reports, 25% fewer children substantiated for neglect, and a 17% reduction in foster care services utilization when compared to states without DR programs. We find these estimates to be robust to the opioid epidemic and incarceration rates. Additional research is needed to better characterize DR programs and isolate the effects of DR programs geographically