An Agent-Based Model of Mediterranean Agricultural Land-Use/Cover Change for Examining Wildfire Risk

Humans have a long history of activity in Mediterranean Basin landscapes. Spatial heterogeneity in these landscapes hinders our understanding about the impacts of changes in human activity on ecological processes, such as wildfire. The use of spatially-explicit models that simulate processes at fine scales should aid the investigation of spatial patterns at the broader, landscape scale. Here, we present an agent-based model of agricultural land-use decision-making to examine the importance of land tenure and land use on future land cover. The model considers two 'types' of land-use decision-making agent with differing perspectives; 'commercial' agents that are perfectly economically rational, and 'traditional' agents that represent part-time or 'traditional' farmers that manage their land because of its cultural, rather than economic, value. The structure of the model is described and results are presented for various scenarios of initial landscape configuration. Land-use/cover maps produced by the model are used to examine how wildfire risk changes for each scenario. Results indicate that land tenure configuration influences trajectories of land use change. However, simulations for various initial land-use configurations and compositions converge to similar states when land-tenure structure is held constant. For the scenarios considered, mean wildfire risk increases relative to the observed landscape. Increases in wildfire risk are not spatially uniform however, varying according to the composition and configuration of land use types. These unexpected spatial variations in wildfire risk highlight the advantages of using a spatially-explicit agent-based model of land use/cover change.Land Use/Cover Change, Land Tenure, Wildfire, Mediterranean-Type Ecosystem, Agriculture, Spatial Heterogeneity

Anaesthesia for lung volume reduction surgery

No Abstract Available. Southern African Journal of Anaesthesia & Analgesia Vol. 11 (3) 2005: 103-10

A modern look at hypertension and anaesthesia

Hypertension is common among patients presenting for surgery, and is frequently untreated or inadequately treated. While the approach to the patient with hypertension presenting for anaesthesia is controversial, and the evidence base for appropriate clinical decisions is weak, this is a problem that practising clinical anaesthetists face on a regular basis. This article seeks to present a unified approach to the problem of a  hypertensive patient presenting for surgery, and offers suggestions as to the appropriate management options. As far as possible, the recommendations contained in this article have been based on the best available evidence. The authors suggest that moderate degrees of hypertension (up to 180/120 mmHg), without obvious target organ disease, should never be grounds for postponing surgery. Even with greater degrees of hypertension, the relative risk of postponing surgery should always be considered. There is little evidence that, in patients without target organ disease, delaying surgery in order to establish  antihypertensive therapy is beneficial. For very severe hypertension, the benefits of delaying surgery to establish adequate hypertensive control must be weighed against the risk of delayed surgery. Where a surgical delay is considered, adequate time to establish appropriate blood pressurecontrol must be allowed, and there is no place for sudden “cosmetic” correction of blood pressure immediately prior to anaesthesia. Previously undiagnosed hypertension, presenting for the first time at surgery, requires a basic investigation of target organ disease prior to anaesthesia, and appropriate subsequent follow-up referral for further management

The effect of hydration status on appetite and energy intake

This study investigated the effects of hydration status and fluid availability on appetite and energy intake. Sixteen males completed four 24 h trials, visiting the laboratory overnight fasted on two consecutive days. Standardised foods were provided during the 24 h and on day two an ad-libitum semi-solid porridge breakfast was provided. Water intake during the 24 h (0 or 40 mL∙kg-1) and fluid provision during the ad-libitum breakfast were manipulated so subjects were euhydrated with (EU-F) and without fluid (EU-NF) available at breakfast; and hypohydrated with (HYPO-F) and without fluid (HYPO-NF) available at breakfast. Blood samples (0 and 24 h), urine samples (0-24 h) and subjective responses (0, 24 and 24.5 h) were collected. HYPO trials decreased body mass by ~1.8%. Serum and urine osmolality increased and plasma volume decreased during HYPO trials (P<0.001). Total urine output was greater during EU than HYPO trials (P<0.001). Ad-libitum energy intake was not different between trials: 2658 (938) kJ (EU-F), 2353 (643) kJ (EU-NF), 2295 (529) kJ (HYPO-F), 2414 (954) kJ (HYPO-NF), (P=0.131). Fluid intake was ~200 mL greater during HYPO-F than EU-F (P<0.01). There was an interaction effect for thirst (P<0.001), but not hunger or fullness. These results demonstrate that mild hypohydration produced by inadequate fluid intake and fluid availability during eating does not influence ad-libitum energy intake of a semi-solid breakfast, at least in healthy young males

A modern look at hypertension and anaesthesia

Hypertension is common among patients presenting for surgery, and is frequently untreated or inadequately treated. While the approach to the patient with hypertension presenting for anaesthesia is controversial, and the evidence base for appropriate clinical decisions is weak, this is a problem that practising clinical anaesthetists face on a regular basis. This article seeks to present a unified approach to the problem of a hypertensive patient presenting for surgery, and offers suggestions as to the appropriate management options. As far as possible, the recommendations contained in this article have been based on the best available evidence. The authors suggest that moderate degrees of hypertension (up to 180/120 mmHg), without obvious target organ disease, should never be grounds for postponing surgery. Even with greater degrees of hypertension, the relative risk of postponing surgery should always be considered. There is little evidence that, in patients without target organ disease, delaying surgery in order to establish antihypertensive therapy is beneficial. For very severe hypertension, the benefits of delaying surgery to establish adequate hypertensive control must be weighed against the risk of delayed surgery. Where a surgical delay is considered, adequate time to establish appropriate blood pressure control must be allowed, and there is no place for sudden &ldquo;cosmetic&rdquo; correction of blood pressure immediately prior to anaesthesia. Previously undiagnosed hypertension, presenting for the first time at surgery, requires a basic investigation of target organ disease prior to anaesthesia, and appropriate subsequent follow-up referral for further management.Keywords: hypertension, anaesthesia, ris

The use of ultrasound-guided transversus abdominis plane blocks for total abdominal hysterectomy: A double-blind, controlled trial

Objectives: This study investigated the postoperative analgesic efficacy of bilateral ultrasound-guided transversus abdominis plane (TAP) blocks, in patients undergoing total abdominal hysterectomy.Design, setting and subjects: This was a prospective, randomised, double-blind, controlled study. Thirty patients were allocated to two groups; a TAP block group (n = 15) and a placebo group (n = 15). The TAP blocks were performed with 0.25% bupivacaine. The placebo group received sham blocks with normal saline, post induction of anaesthesia. Postoperatively,patients received patient-controlled intravenous morphine for analgesia.Outcome measures: The primary outcome was morphine consumption during the first 24 hours postoperatively. Secondary outcomes were  adequacy of pain relief, as assessed by pain scores at 0, 6 and 24 hours postoperatively, and side-effects.Results: Our study showed a significant between-group difference in morphine requirements (5.2 ± 3.9 vs. 9.7 ± 4.3 mg, p = 0.007, and 12.9 ± 8.9 mg vs. 25 ± 12.1 mg, p = 0.006) for the TAP group, compared with the placebo group at six and 24 hours, respectively. There were no significant between-group differences in pain scores. There were no complicationswith any of the blocks.Conclusion: Bilateral ultrasound-guided TAP blocks significantly reduced postoperative morphine consumption in a multimodal postoperative analgesia regimen for abdominal hysterectomy

Cancer stem cells in solid tumors: elusive or illusive?

During the past years in vivo transplantation experiments and in vitro colony-forming assays indicated that tumors arise only from rare cells. These cells were shown to bear self-renewal capacities and the ability to recapitulate all cell types within an individual tumor. Due to their phenotypic resemblance to normal stem cells, the term "cancer stem cells" is used. However, some pieces of the puzzle are missing: (a) a stringent definition of cancer stem cells in solid tumors (b) specific markers that only target cells that meet the criteria for a cancer stem cell in a certain type of tumor. These missing parts started an ongoing debate about which is the best method to identify and characterize cancer stem cells, or even if their mere existence is just an artifact caused by the experimental procedures. Recent findings query the cancer stem cell hypothesis for solid tumors itself since it was shown in xenograft transplantation experiments that under appropriate conditions tumor-initiating cells are not rare

Requests for Abortion in Latin America Related to Concern about Zika Virus Exposure.

This is the final version of the article. It first appeared from the Massachusetts Medical Society via http://dx.doi.org/10.1056/NEJMc160538

Maternal and Paternal Risk Factors for Cryptorchidism and Hypospadias: A Case–Control Study in Newborn Boys

Little is known on environmental risk factors for cryptorchidism and hypospadias, which are among the most frequent congenital abnormalities. The aim of our study was to identify risk factors for cryptorchidism and hypospadias, with a focus on potential endocrine disruptors in parental diet and occupation. In a case–control study nested within a cohort of 8,698 male births, we compared 78 cryptorchidism cases and 56 hypospadias cases with 313 controls. The participation rate was 85% for cases and 68% for controls. Through interviews, information was collected on pregnancy aspects and personal characteristics, lifestyle, occupation, and dietary phytoestrogen intake of both parents. Occupational exposure to potential endocrine disruptors was classified based on self-reported exposure and ratings of occupational hygienists based on job descriptions. Our findings indicate that paternal pesticide exposure was associated with cryptorchidism [odds ratio (OR) = 3.8; 95% confidence interval (95% CI), 1.1–13.4]. Smoking of the father was associated with hypospadias (OR = 3.8; 95% CI, 1.8–8.2). Maternal occupational, dietary, and lifestyle exposures were not associated with either abnormality. Both abnormalities were associated with suboptimal maternal health, a lower maternal education, and a Turkish origin of the parents. Being small for gestational age was a risk factor for hypospadias, and preterm birth was a risk factor for cryptorchidism. Because paternal pesticide exposure was significantly associated with cryptorchidism and paternal smoking was associated with hypospadias in male offspring, paternal exposure should be included in further studies on cryptorchidism and hypospadias risk factors

Statistically Motivated Second Order Pooling

Second-order pooling, a.k.a.~bilinear pooling, has proven effective for deep learning based visual recognition. However, the resulting second-order networks yield a final representation that is orders of magnitude larger than that of standard, first-order ones, making them memory-intensive and cumbersome to deploy. Here, we introduce a general, parametric compression strategy that can produce more compact representations than existing compression techniques, yet outperform both compressed and uncompressed second-order models. Our approach is motivated by a statistical analysis of the network's activations, relying on operations that lead to a Gaussian-distributed final representation, as inherently used by first-order deep networks. As evidenced by our experiments, this lets us outperform the state-of-the-art first-order and second-order models on several benchmark recognition datasets.Comment: Accepted to ECCV 2018. Camera ready version. 14 page, 5 figures, 3 table