The spatial structure of the 128 ka Antarctic sea ice minimum

We compare multi-ice core data with δ18O model output for the early last interglacial Antarctic sea-ice minimum. The spatial pattern of δ18O across Antarctica is sensitive to the spatial pattern of sea-ice retreat. Local sea ice retreat increases the proportion of winter precipitation, depleting δ18O at ice core sites. However, retreat also enriches δ18O because of the reduced source to-site distance for atmospheric vapour. The joint overall effect is for δ18O to increase as sea ice is reduced. Our data-model comparison indicates a winter sea-ice retreat of 67, 59 and 43 % relative to pre-industrial in the Atlantic, Indian and Pacific sectors of the Southern Ocean. A compilation of Southern Ocean sea-ice proxy data provides weak support for this reconstruction. However, most published marine core sites are located too far north of the 128,000 years BP sea ice edge, preventing independent corroboration for this sea ice reconstruction.This work was funded by NERC grant numbers NE/P009271/1, NE/P013279/1 and NE/K004514/1. MH was also supported by the EPSRC-funded Past Earth Network (Grant number EP/M008363/1). EW is supported by a Royal Society Professorship

Estimation of the solubility parameters of model plant surfaces and agrochemicals: a valuable tool for understanding plant surface interactions

Background Most aerial plant parts are covered with a hydrophobic lipid-rich cuticle, which is the interface between the plant organs and the surrounding environment. Plant surfaces may have a high degree of hydrophobicity because of the combined effects of surface chemistry and roughness. The physical and chemical complexity of the plant cuticle limits the development of models that explain its internal structure and interactions with surface-applied agrochemicals. In this article we introduce a thermodynamic method for estimating the solubilities of model plant surface constituents and relating them to the effects of agrochemicals. Results Following the van Krevelen and Hoftyzer method, we calculated the solubility parameters of three model plant species and eight compounds that differ in hydrophobicity and polarity. In addition, intact tissues were examined by scanning electron microscopy and the surface free energy, polarity, solubility parameter and work of adhesion of each were calculated from contact angle measurements of three liquids with different polarities. By comparing the affinities between plant surface constituents and agrochemicals derived from (a) theoretical calculations and (b) contact angle measurements we were able to distinguish the physical effect of surface roughness from the effect of the chemical nature of the epicuticular waxes. A solubility parameter model for plant surfaces is proposed on the basis of an increasing gradient from the cuticular surface towards the underlying cell wall. Conclusions The procedure enabled us to predict the interactions among agrochemicals, plant surfaces, and cuticular and cell wall components, and promises to be a useful tool for improving our understanding of biological surface interactions

Infant and child feeding practices: a preliminary investigation

The document attached has been archived with permission from the Australian Dental Association. An external link to the publisher’s copy is included.The objective of this preliminary investigation was to examine the feeding practices of infants and pre-school children in Adelaide, and thereby contribute to the development of appropriate preventive dental strategies. A stratified random sample of 160 two year old and three year old pre-school children in the Adelaide Statistical District was obtained. Information about feeding practices and use of comforters or ‘dummies’ was obtained through a self-administered questionnaire completed by parents of the selected children. Information was collected for the age periods of 0–3 months, 4–6 months, 7–12 months, 13–24 months and 25–36 months. Most of the children (81.8 per cent) were breast-fed at some stage. However the percentage of children being breast-fed decreased markedly across age periods, particularly to 13–24 months, when only 15.9 per cent of children were being breast-fed. Over half of the children had been bottle-fed with infant formula at some stage. The highest percentage of children being bottle-fed with infant formula occurred in the 4–6 months (42.6 per cent) closely followed by the 7–12 months age period (37.4 per cent). Nearly two-thirds of children were bottle-fed with cow's milk at some stage. The highest percentage of children being bottle-fed with cow's milk occurred in the 13–24 months age period (49.6 per cent). A quarter (24.5 per cent) of the children were put to bed at some stage with a bottle containing cariogenic fluids. The majority of children used a ‘dummy’ at some stage during both day-time and night-time. Parents are in need of advice on appropriate feeding patterns for infants and young children.Amjad H. Wyne,A. John Spencer and Fearnley S. Szuste

A systematic review and meta-synthesis of the impact of low back pain on people's lives

Copyright @ 2014 Froud et al.; licensee BioMed Central Ltd. This is an Open Access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/2.0), which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly credited.Background - Low back pain (LBP) is a common and costly problem that many interpret within a biopsychosocial model. There is renewed concern that core-sets of outcome measures do not capture what is important. To inform debate about the coverage of back pain outcome measure core-sets, and to suggest areas worthy of exploration within healthcare consultations, we have synthesised the qualitative literature on the impact of low back pain on people’s lives. Methods - Two reviewers searched CINAHL, Embase, PsycINFO, PEDro, and Medline, identifying qualitative studies of people’s experiences of non-specific LBP. Abstracted data were thematic coded and synthesised using a meta-ethnographic, and a meta-narrative approach. Results - We included 49 papers describing 42 studies. Patients are concerned with engagement in meaningful activities; but they also want to be believed and have their experiences and identity, as someone ‘doing battle’ with pain, validated. Patients seek diagnosis, treatment, and cure, but also reassurance of the absence of pathology. Some struggle to meet social expectations and obligations. When these are achieved, the credibility of their pain/disability claims can be jeopardised. Others withdraw, fearful of disapproval, or unable or unwilling to accommodate social demands. Patients generally seek to regain their pre-pain levels of health, and physical and emotional stability. After time, this can be perceived to become unrealistic and some adjust their expectations accordingly. Conclusions - The social component of the biopsychosocial model is not well represented in current core-sets of outcome measures. Clinicians should appreciate that the broader impact of low back pain includes social factors; this may be crucial to improving patients’ experiences of health care. Researchers should consider social factors to help develop a portfolio of more relevant outcome measures.Arthritis Research U

C–O–H–S fluids and granitic magma : how S partitions and modifies CO2 concentrations of fluid-saturated felsic melt at 200 MPa

Author Posting. © The Author(s), 2011. This is the author's version of the work. It is posted here by permission of Springer for personal use, not for redistribution. The definitive version was published in Contributions to Mineralogy and Petrology 162 (2011): 849-865, doi:10.1007/s00410-011-0628-1.Hydrothermal volatile-solubility and partitioning experiments were conducted with fluid-saturated haplogranitic melt, H2O, CO2, and S in an internally heated pressure vessel at 900°C and 200 MPa; three additional experiments were conducted with iron-bearing melt. The run-product glasses were analyzed by electron microprobe, FTIR, and SIMS; and they contain ≤ 0.12 wt% S, ≤ 0.097 wt.% CO2, and ≤ 6.4 wt.% H2O. Apparent values of log ƒO2 for the experiments at run conditions were computed from the [(S6+)/(S6++S2-)] ratio of the glasses, and they range from NNO-0.4 to NNO+1.4. The C-O-H-S fluid compositions at run conditions were computed by mass balance, and they contained 22-99 mol% H2O, 0-78 mol% CO2, 0-12 mol% S, and < 3 wt% alkalis. Eight S-free experiments were conducted to determine the H2O and CO2 concentrations of melt and fluid compositions and to compare them with prior experimental results for C-O-H fluid-saturated rhyolite melt, and the agreement is excellent. Sulfur partitions very strongly in favor of fluid in all experiments, and the presence of S modifies the fluid compositions, and hence, the CO2 solubilities in coexisting felsic melt. The square of the mole fraction of H2O in melt increases in a linear fashion, from 0.05-0.25, with the H2O concentration of the fluid. The mole fraction of CO2 in melt increases linearly, from 0.0003-0.0045, with the CO2 concentration of C-O-H-S fluids. Interestingly, the CO2 concentration in melts, involving relatively reduced runs (log ƒO2 ≤ NNO+0.3) that contain 2.5-7 mol% S in the fluid, decreases significantly with increasing S in the system. This response to the changing fluid composition causes the H2O and CO2 solubility curve for C-O-H-S fluid-saturated haplogranitic melts at 200 MPa to shift to values near that modeled for C-O-H fluid-saturated, S-free rhyolite melt at 150 MPa. The concentration of S in haplogranitic melt increases in a linear fashion with increasing S in C-O-H-S fluids, but these data show significant dispersion that likely reflects the strong influence of ƒO2 on S speciation in melt and fluid. Importantly, the partitioning of S between fluid and melt does not vary with the (H2O/H2O+CO2) ratio of the fluid. The fluid-melt partition coefficients for H2O, CO2, and S and the atomic (C/S) ratios of the run-product fluids are virtually identical to thermodynamic constraints on volatile partitioning and the H, S, and C contents of pre-eruptive magmatic fluids and volcanic gases for subduction-related magmatic systems thus confirming our experiments are relevant to natural eruptive systems.This research was supported in part by National Science Foundation awards EAR 0308866 and EAR-0836741 to J.D.W

Genome-wide expression quantitative trait loci (eQTL) analysis in maize

<p>Abstract</p> <p>Background</p> <p>Expression QTL analyses have shed light on transcriptional regulation in numerous species of plants, animals, and yeasts. These microarray-based analyses identify regulators of gene expression as either cis-acting factors that regulate proximal genes, or trans-acting factors that function through a variety of mechanisms to affect transcript abundance of unlinked genes.</p> <p>Results</p> <p>A hydroponics-based genetical genomics study in roots of a <it>Zea mays </it>IBM2 Syn10 double haploid population identified tens of thousands of cis-acting and trans-acting eQTL. Cases of false-positive eQTL, which results from the lack of complete genomic sequences from both parental genomes, were described. A candidate gene for a trans-acting regulatory factor was identified through positional cloning. The unexpected regulatory function of a class I glutamine amidotransferase controls the expression of an ABA 8'-hydroxylase pseudogene.</p> <p>Conclusions</p> <p>Identification of a candidate gene underlying a trans-eQTL demonstrated the feasibility of eQTL cloning in maize and could help to understand the mechanism of gene expression regulation. Lack of complete genome sequences from both parents could cause the identification of false-positive cis- and trans-acting eQTL.</p

Successful surgical excision of primary right atrial angiosarcoma

Primary cardiac angiosarcoma is a rare and aggressive tumor with a high incidence of metastatic spread (up to 89%) at the time of diagnosis, which restricts the indication for surgical resection to a small number of patients. We report the case of a 50-year old Caucasian woman with non-metastatic primary right atrial angiosarcoma, who underwent successful surgical excision of the tumor (with curative intent) and reconstruction of the right atrium with a porcine pericardial patch. However, after a symptom-free survival of five months the patient presented with bone and liver metastases without evidence of local tumor recurrence