Study of Insurance as a Means of Shifting Some Types of Farming Risks in Payne County, Oklahoma

Agricultural Economic

Do Differing Levels of Boldness Influence the Success of Translocation? : A Pilot Study on Red Squirrels (Sciurus vulgaris)

Peer reviewedPublisher PD

Probabilistic Landslide Tsunami Estimation in the Makassar Strait, Indonesia, Using Statistical Emulation

This paper presents a significant advancement in the understanding of tsunamigenic landslide hazard across the length of the Makassar Strait in Indonesia. We use statistical emulation across the length of the continental slope to conduct a probabilistic assessment of tsunami hazard on a regional scale, across 14 virtual coastal gauges. Focusing on the potential maximum wave amplitudes (distance between the wave crest and the still‐water level) from possible tsunamigenic landslide events, we generate predictions from Gaussian Process emulators fitted to input‐outputs from 50 training scenarios. We show that the most probable maximum wave amplitudes in the majority of gauges are between 1 and 5 m, with the maximum predicted amplitudes reaching values of up to 10 m on the eastern coast, and up to 50 m on the western coast. We also explore the potential use of Gaussian multivariate copulas to sample emulator prediction input values to create a more realistic distribution of volumes along the continental slope. The novel use of statistical emulation across a whole slope enables the probabilistic assessment of tsunami hazard due to landslides on a regional scale. This area is of key interest to Indonesia since the new capital will be established in the East Kalimantan region on the western side of the Makassar Strait

Paramedic student accuracy at ECG interpretation

It is critical for patients that paramedics are able to correctly interpret and identify ECG rhythms. Management and treatment of several heart related conditions is dependent on the paramedics ability to recognize rhythms.Quantitative analysis study will be undertaken to examine students ECG interpretation abilities

Is public transport a risk factor for acute respiratory infection?

<p>Abstract</p> <p>Background</p> <p>The relationship between public transport use and acquisition of acute respiratory infection (ARI) is not well understood but potentially important during epidemics and pandemics.</p> <p>Methods</p> <p>A case-control study performed during the 2008/09 influenza season. Cases (n = 72) consulted a General Practitioner with ARI, and controls with another non-respiratory acute condition (n = 66). Data were obtained on bus or tram usage in the five days preceding illness onset (cases) or the five days before consultation (controls) alongside demographic details. Multiple logistic regression modelling was used to investigate the association between bus or tram use and ARI, adjusting for potential confounders.</p> <p>Results</p> <p>Recent bus or tram use within five days of symptom onset was associated with an almost six-fold increased risk of consulting for ARI (adjusted OR = 5.94 95% CI 1.33-26.5). The risk of ARI appeared to be modified according to the degree of habitual bus and tram use, but this was not statistically significant (1-3 times/week: adjusted OR = 0.54 (95% CI 0.15-1.95; >3 times/week: 0.37 (95% CI 0.13-1.06).</p> <p>Conclusions</p> <p>We found a statistically significant association between ARI and bus or tram use in the five days before symptom onset. The risk appeared greatest among occasional bus or tram users, but this trend was not statistically significant. However, these data are plausible in relation to the greater likelihood of developing protective antibodies to common respiratory viruses if repeatedly exposed. The findings have differing implications for the control of seasonal acute respiratory infections and for pandemic influenza.</p

Whole-genome data reveal the complex history of a diverse ecological community

How widespread ecological communities assemble remains a key question in ecology. Trophic interactions between widespread species may reflect a shared population history or ecological fitting of local pools of species with very different population histories. Which scenario applies is central to the stability of trophic associations and the potential for coevolution between species. Here we show how alternative community assembly hypotheses can be discriminated using whole-genome data for component species and provide a likelihood framework that overcomes current limitations in formal comparison of multispecies histories. We illustrate our approach by inferring the assembly history of a Western Palearctic community of insect herbivores and parasitoid natural enemies, trophic groups that together comprise 50% of terrestrial species. We reject models of codispersal from a shared origin and of delayed enemy pursuit of their herbivore hosts, arguing against herbivore attainment of “enemy-free space.” The community-wide distribution of species expansion times is also incompatible with a random, neutral model of assembly. Instead, we reveal a complex assembly history of single- and multispecies range expansions through the Pleistocene from different directions and over a range of timescales. Our results suggest substantial turnover in species associations and argue against tight coevolution in this system. The approach we illustrate is widely applicable to natural communities of nonmodel species and makes it possible to reveal the historical backdrop against which natural selection acts

Exploring the relationship between job characteristics and infection: Application of a COVID-19 job exposure matrix to SARS-CoV-2 infection data in the United Kingdom

OBJECTIVE: This study aimed to assess whether workplace exposures as estimated via a COVID-19 job exposure matrix (JEM) are associated with SARS-CoV-2 in the UK. METHODS: Data on 244 470 participants were available from the Office for National Statistics Coronavirus Infection Survey (CIS) and 16 801 participants from the Virus Watch Cohort, restricted to workers aged 20-64 years. Analysis used logistic regression models with SARS-CoV-2 as the dependent variable for eight individual JEM domains (number of workers, nature of contacts, contact via surfaces, indoor or outdoor location, ability to social distance, use of face covering, job insecurity, and migrant workers) with adjustment for age, sex, ethnicity, index of multiple deprivation (IMD), region, household size, urban versus rural area, and health conditions. Analyses were repeated for three time periods (i) February 2020 (Virus Watch)/April 2020 (CIS) to May 2021), (ii) June 2021 to November 2021, and (iii) December 2021 to January 2022. RESULTS: Overall, higher risk classifications for the first six domains tended to be associated with an increased risk of infection, with little evidence of a relationship for domains relating to proportion of workers with job insecurity or migrant workers. By time there was a clear exposure-response relationship for these domains in the first period only. Results were largely consistent across the two UK cohorts. CONCLUSIONS: An exposure-response relationship exists in the early phase of the COVID-19 pandemic for number of contacts, nature of contacts, contacts via surfaces, indoor or outdoor location, ability to social distance and use of face coverings. These associations appear to have diminished over time

An action for the exact string black hole

A local action is constructed describing the exact string black hole discovered by Dijkgraaf, Verlinde and Verlinde in 1992. It turns out to be a special 2D Maxwell-dilaton gravity theory, linear in curvature and field strength. Two constants of motion exist: mass M>1, determined by the level k, and U(1)-charge Q>0, determined by the value of the dilaton at the origin. ADM mass, Hawking temperature T_H \propto \sqrt{1-1/M} and Bekenstein-Hawking entropy are derived and studied in detail. Winding/momentum mode duality implies the existence of a similar action, arising from a branch ambiguity, which describes the exact string naked singularity. In the strong coupling limit the solution dual to AdS_2 is found to be the 5D Schwarzschild black hole. Some applications to black hole thermodynamics and 2D string theory are discussed and generalizations - supersymmetric extension, coupling to matter and critical collapse, quantization - are pointed out.Comment: 41 pages, 2 eps figures, dedicated to Wolfgang Kummer on occasion of his Emeritierung; v2: added ref; v3: extended discussion in sections 3.2, 3.3 and at the end of 5.3 by adding 2 pages of clarifying text; updated refs; corrected typo