Production of Industrial Hemp in Kentucky

Hemp, or Cannabis sativa, is a plant that can be used for many products, such as textiles, oils, and seeds. Currently, the four most important textiles in the United States’ manufacturing industry are cotton, wood, silk, and linen. In the 1950s, the United States Government banned the production of hemp, as it was legislated into the marijuana policy of this industry. Because of this, the hemp crop was pushed out of the textile industry and replaced by cloth, linens, and textiles. Section 7606 of the Agriculture Act of 2014 declares the State Department of Agriculture’s legalization of industrial hemp research in institutions and universities, regulated by the state government. With a rise in hemp production in Kentucky, many universities became involved to create change in state research. The focus of this study was on the production of industrial hemp at Murray State University. This study aimed to gain a better knowledge of the production rate and viability of four varieties of industrial hemp. These four varieties were Futura 75, Santhica, Canda, and Delores. This research studied the yield, soil content, weather, and THC and CBD content so that farmers can develop a more tactical approach to grow this crop in the future. The study contained analysis on weather, soil, and THC and CBD levels for the hemp crops grown in 2014-2017 at Murray State University

Kentucky Rural Development

The main objective of this study is to examine the development of rural areas to more urbanized ones within Kentucky. Landsat images were used to show the urban land cover change over a 10 year span, from 2001 to 2011. The study shows specifically how the city of Louisville has expanded because it was one of the most changed cities in Kentucky during the period of the study. Maps were created from these Landsat images. Studying these developments can help to predict the amount of change that might happen in certain areas in the future. Using geographic information systems (GIS) technology the change of areas in the past can be studied to better plan for future changes. Better planning for the future means better infrastructure and an overall better layout for populations in Kentucky. It will also help us to protect important crop lands from the expansion of urbanization. As a whole, Western Kentucky has developed much more over the past ten years than Eastern Kentucky or Central Kentucky have. Looking at individual cities, the most growth over ten years was seen in Louisville

Unsettling planning theory

Recent political developments in many parts of the world seem likely to exacerbate rather than ameliorate the planetary-scale challenges of social polarization, inequality and environmental change societies face. In this unconventional multi-authored essay, we therefore seek to explore some of the ways in which planning theory might respond to the deeply unsettling times we live in. Taking the multiple, suggestive possibilities of the theme of unsettlement as a starting point, we aim to create space for reflection and debate about the state of the discipline and practice of planning theory, questioning what it means to produce knowledge capable of acting on the world today. Drawing on exchanges at a workshop attended by a group of emerging scholars in Portland, Oregon in late 2016, the essay begins with an introduction section exploring the contemporary resonances of ‘unsettling’ in, of and for planning theory. This is followed by four, individually authored responses which each connect the idea of unsettlement to key challenges and possible future directions. We end by calling for a reflective practice of theorizing that accepts unsettlement but seeks to act knowingly and compassionately on the uneven terrain that it creates

The development and validation of a scoring tool to predict the operative duration of elective laparoscopic cholecystectomy

Background: The ability to accurately predict operative duration has the potential to optimise theatre efficiency and utilisation, thus reducing costs and increasing staff and patient satisfaction. With laparoscopic cholecystectomy being one of the most commonly performed procedures worldwide, a tool to predict operative duration could be extremely beneficial to healthcare organisations. Methods: Data collected from the CholeS study on patients undergoing cholecystectomy in UK and Irish hospitals between 04/2014 and 05/2014 were used to study operative duration. A multivariable binary logistic regression model was produced in order to identify significant independent predictors of long (> 90 min) operations. The resulting model was converted to a risk score, which was subsequently validated on second cohort of patients using ROC curves. Results: After exclusions, data were available for 7227 patients in the derivation (CholeS) cohort. The median operative duration was 60 min (interquartile range 45–85), with 17.7% of operations lasting longer than 90 min. Ten factors were found to be significant independent predictors of operative durations > 90 min, including ASA, age, previous surgical admissions, BMI, gallbladder wall thickness and CBD diameter. A risk score was then produced from these factors, and applied to a cohort of 2405 patients from a tertiary centre for external validation. This returned an area under the ROC curve of 0.708 (SE = 0.013, p  90 min increasing more than eightfold from 5.1 to 41.8% in the extremes of the score. Conclusion: The scoring tool produced in this study was found to be significantly predictive of long operative durations on validation in an external cohort. As such, the tool may have the potential to enable organisations to better organise theatre lists and deliver greater efficiencies in care

The mutational landscape of normal human endometrial epithelium

All normal somatic cells are thought to acquire mutations, but understanding of the rates, patterns, causes and consequences of somatic mutations in normal cells is limited. The uterine endometrium adopts multiple physiological states over a lifetime and is lined by a gland-forming epithelium . Here, using whole-genome sequencing, we show that normal human endometrial glands are clonal cell populations with total mutation burdens that increase at about 29 base substitutions per year and that are many-fold lower than those of endometrial cancers. Normal endometrial glands frequently carry 'driver' mutations in cancer genes, the burden of which increases with age and decreases with parity. Cell clones with drivers often originate during the first decades of life and subsequently progressively colonize the epithelial lining of the endometrium. Our results show that mutational landscapes differ markedly between normal tissues-perhaps shaped by differences in their structure and physiology-and indicate that the procession of neoplastic change that leads to endometrial cancer is initiated early in life

A Fiber-Based Ratiometric Optical Cardiac Mapping Channel Using a Diffraction Grating and Split Detector

Optical fiber-based mapping systems are used to record the cardiac action potential (AP) throughout the myocardium. The optical AP contains a contraction-induced motion artifact (MA), which makes it difficult to accurately measure the action potential duration (APD). MA is removed by preventing contraction with electrical-mechanical uncoupling drugs, such as 2,3-butanedione monoxime (BDM). We designed a novel fiber-based ratiometric optical channel using a blue light emitting diode, a diffraction grating, and a split photodetector that can accurately measure the cardiac AP without the need for BDM. The channel was designed based on simulations using the optical design software ZEMAX. The channel has an electrical bandwidth of 150 Hz and an root mean-square dark noise of 742 μV. The channel successfully recorded the cardiac AP from the wall of five rabbit heart preparations without the use of BDM. After 20-point median filtering, the mean signal/noise ratio was 25.3 V/V. The APD measured from the base of a rabbit heart was 134 ± 8.4 ms, compared to 137.6 ± 3.3 ms from simultaneous microelectrode recordings. This difference was not statistically significant (p-value = 0.3). The quantity of MA removed was also measured using the motion ratio. The reduction in MA was significant (p-value = 0.0001). This fiber-based system is the first of its kind to enable optical APD measurements in the beating heart wall without the use of BDM