Comparison of Standard Length, Fork Length, and Total Length for Measuring West Coast Marine Fishes

Measurements of adult marine fishes on the U.S. west coast are usually made using one of three methods: standard length, fork length, or total length. Each method has advantages and disadvantages. In this paper we attempt to determine whether one method is faster and/or more reliable than the other methods. We found that all three methods were comparable. There was no appreciable difference in the time it took to measure fish using the different methods. Fork length had the most reproducible results; however, it had the highest level of bias between researchers. We therefore suggest that selection of measurement type be based on what other researchers have used for the species under study. The best improvement in measurement reliability probably occurs by adequate training of personnel and not type of measurement used

Society Islands (Central Eastern Polynesia) Chronology: 11 Radiocarbon Dates for the Late Prehistoric Expansion and Proto-Historic Periods in the 'Opunohu Valley, Mo'orea.

The chronology of residential site construction and occupation in the upper reaches of the 'Opunohu Valley, Mo'orea, Central Eastern Polynesia, has been debated over the last 15 yr. This paper reports a suite of 11 radiocarbon age determinations from excavations at 5 house sites and a simple temple structure (marae). Direct accelerator mass spectrometry (AMS) dating of wood charcoal identified to short-lived taxa confirms site construction and occupation during the mid-15th to 17th centuries, supporting that maximal population density was in the centuries immediately prior to European contact. The study demonstrates that targeted dating of multiple structures within residential complexes allows for multiple phases of site construction and use to be discriminated. These data are critical for adequately assessing site contemporaneity and the development, maintenance, and expansion of residential groups and their house clusters through time

Cost of HPV screening at community health campaigns (CHCs) and health clinics in rural Kenya.

BACKGROUND:Cervical cancer is the most frequent neoplasm among Kenyan women, with 4800 diagnoses and 2400 deaths per year. One reason is an extremely low rate of screening through pap smears, at 13.8% in 2014. Knowing the costs of screening will help planners and policymakers design, implement, and scale programs. METHODS:We conducted HPV-based cervical cancer screening via self-collection in 12 communities in rural Migori County, Kenya. Six communities were randomized to community health campaigns (CHCs), and six to screening at government clinics. All HPV-positive women were referred for cryotherapy at Migori County Hospital. We prospectively estimated direct costs from the health system perspective, using micro-costing methods. Cost data were extracted from expenditure records, staff interviews, and time and motion logs. Total costs per woman screening included three activities: outreach, HPV-based screening, and notification. Types of inputs include personnel, recurrent goods, capital goods, and services. We costed potential changes to implementation for scaling. RESULTS:From January to September 2016, 2899 women were screened in CHCs and 2042 in clinics. Each CHC lasted for 30 working days, 10 days each for outreach, screening, and notification. The mean cost per woman screened was $25.00 for CHCs [median:$25.09; Range: $22.06-30.21] and$29.56 for clinics [$28.90;$25.27-37.08]. Clinics had higher costs than CHCs for personnel ($14.27 vs.$11.26) and capital ($5.55 vs.$2.80). Screening costs were higher for clinics at $21.84, compared to$17.48 for CHCs. In contrast, CHCs had higher outreach costs ($3.34 vs.$0.17). After modeling a reduction in staffing, clinic per-screening costs ($25.69) were approximately equivalent to CHCs. CONCLUSIONS:HPV-based cervical cancer screening through community health campaigns achieved lower costs per woman screened, compared to screening at clinics. Periodic high-volume CHCs appear to be a viable low-cost strategy for implementing cervical cancer screening

Cross-modal cue effects in motion processing

The everyday environment brings to our sensory systems competing inputs from different modalities. The ability to filter these multisensory inputs in order to identify and efficiently utilize useful spatial cues is necessary to detect and process the relevant information. In the present study, we investigate how feature-based attention affects the detection of motion across sensory modalities. We were interested to determine how subjects use intramodal, cross-modal auditory, and combined audiovisual motion cues to attend to specific visual motion signals. The results showed that in most cases, both the visual and the auditory cues enhance feature-based orienting to a transparent visual motion pattern presented among distractor motion patterns. Whereas previous studies have shown cross-modal effects of spatial attention, our results demonstrate a spread of cross-modal feature-based attention cues, which have been matched for the detection threshold of the visual target. These effects were very robust in comparisons of the effects of valid vs. invalid cues, as well as in comparisons between cued and uncued valid trials. The effect of intramodal visual, cross-modal auditory, and bimodal cues also increased as a function of motion-cue salience. Our results suggest that orienting to visual motion patterns among distracters can be facilitated not only by intramodal priors, but also by feature-based cross-modal information from the auditory system.First author draf

Anisotropy effects in a mixed quantum-classical Heisenberg model in two dimensions

We analyse a specific two dimensional mixed spin Heisenberg model with exchange anisotropy, by means of high temperature expansions and Monte Carlo simulations. The goal is to describe the magnetic properties of the compound (NBu_{4})_{2}Mn_{2}[Cu(opba)]_{3}\cdot 6DMSO\cdot H_{2}O which exhibits a ferromagnetic transition at $T_{c}=15K$. Extrapolating our analysis on the basis of renormalisation group arguments, we find that this transition may result from a very weak anisotropy effect.Comment: 8 pages, 10 Postscript figure

Obtaining research biopsies during pediatric colonoscopy: Safety and adverse events

AIM: To investigate the safety profile of acquiring additional intestinal biopsies for research purposes in children undergoing a medically indicated colonoscopy. METHODS: A retrospective review of 122 pediatric patients who underwent colonoscopy over a 9 mo time period was completed. 38/122 participants consented to a research study in which 4 additional biopsies were obtained, in addition to routine biopsies. The outcomes after colonoscopy were measured in the research participants, and compared to 84 control participants who did not consent for the study. Groups were compared with regard to number of biopsies obtained, underlying diagnosis, and both serious and minor adverse outcomes. Data was collected including: age, gender, race, indication, diagnosis, number of biopsies obtained per case and post procedure adverse events. Medical records were reviewed and a questionnaire was completed by each of the ten gastroenterologists who performed procedures during the study. Physicians were asked about individual patient outcomes to ensure that all adverse events, such as perforation, excessive bleeding, infection, and minor gastrointestinal outcomes, were captured and included. RESULTS: The research group had more biopsies obtained (mean = 13.58 +/- 4.21) compared to controls (mean = 9.33 +/- 4.40),