Dictyota dichotoma in Virginia

Hoyt (1917-1918), in his excellent work on the marine algae of Beaufort, North Carolina, pointed out that this area is a transitional one between northern and southern algal floras of the Atlantic coast of the United States. Of the 84 genera he reported for the Beaufort area, 24 genera and 46 species reached their northern known limit there, while 4 genera and 9 species reached their southern known limit at Beaufort. Subsequent publications by others have added considerably to the numbers of both groups

Key to the genera of marine bluegreen algae of southeastern North America

Mode of access: Internet

The Marine Algae of Virginia

Starting with initial collections near Yorktown back in 1946, Humm over the years gathered information on algae appearing all seasons of the year from bays, marshes, reefs, wrecks and a variety of substrates from the Eastern Shore, Chesapeake Bay and tidewater areas. Includes a systematic list of species, keys, descriptions, drawings and images of specimens.https://scholarworks.wm.edu/vimsbooks/1008/thumbnail.jp

The Benthic Marine Algae of Timbalier Bay, Louisiana

Paper by Harold J. Humm and Theresa M. Ber

Contributions to the marine algae of Newfoundland

Volume: 71Start Page: 110End Page: 15

Differentiation of Cardiac from Noncardiac Pleural Effusions in Cats using Second-Generation Quantitative and Point-of-Care NT-proBNP Measurements

BACKGROUND: Pleural effusion is a common cause of dyspnea in cats. N‐terminal pro‐B‐type natriuretic peptide (NT‐proBNP) measurement, using a first‐generation quantitative ELISA, in plasma and pleural fluid differentiates cardiac from noncardiac causes of pleural effusion. HYPOTHESIS/OBJECTIVES: To determine whether NT‐proBNP measurements using second‐generation quantitative ELISA and point‐of‐care (POC) tests in plasma and pleural fluid distinguish cardiac from noncardiac pleural effusions and how results compare to the first‐generation ELISA. ANIMALS: Thirty‐eight cats (US cohort) and 40 cats (UK cohort) presenting with cardiogenic or noncardiogenic pleural effusion. METHODS: Prospective cohort study. Twenty‐one and 17 cats in the US cohort, and 22 and 18 cats in the UK cohort were classified as having cardiac or noncardiac pleural effusion, respectively. NT‐proBNP concentrations in paired plasma and pleural fluid samples were measured using second‐generation ELISA and POC assays. RESULTS: The second‐generation ELISA differentiated cardiac from noncardiac pleural effusion with good diagnostic accuracy (plasma: sensitivity, 95.2%, specificity, 82.4%; pleural fluid: sensitivity, 100%, specificity, 76.5%). NT‐proBNP concentrations were greater in pleural fluid (719 pmol/L (134–1500)) than plasma (678 pmol/L (61–1500), P = 0.003), resulting in different cut‐off values depending on the sample type. The POC test had good sensitivity (95.2%) and specificity (87.5%) when using plasma samples. In pleural fluid samples, the POC test had good sensitivity (100%) but low specificity (64.7%). Diagnostic accuracy was similar between first‐ and second‐generation ELISA assays. CONCLUSIONS AND CLINICAL IMPORTANCE: Measurement of NT‐proBNP using a quantitative ELISA in plasma and pleural fluid or POC test in plasma, but not pleural fluid, distinguishes cardiac from noncardiac causes of pleural effusion in cats

Evaluation of Few-View Reconstruction Parameters for Illicit Substance Detection using Fast-Neutron Transmission Spectroscopy

We have evaluated the performance of an illicit substance detection system that performs image reconstruction using the Maximum Likelihood algebraic reconstruction algorithm, a few number of projections, and relatively coarse projection and pixel resolution. This evaluation was done using receiver operator curves and simulated data from the fast-neutron transmission spectroscopy system operated in a mode to detect explosives in luggage. The results show that increasing the number of projection angles is more important than increasing the projection resolution, the reconstructed pixel resolution, or the number of iterations in the Maximum Likelihood algorithm. A 100% detection efficiency with essentially no false positives is possible for a square block of RDX explosive, a projection resolution of 2 cm, a reconstructed pixel size of 2x2 cm, and five projection angles. For rectangular shaped explosives more angles are required to obtain the same system performance