"Rapid and dramatic changes in vegetation" of a small pond on Holy Island (Northumbria): Chaotic dynamics?

This note describes changes to the relative extent of four structurally dominant submerged macrophytes in a pond on Holy Island National Nature Reserve, Northumbria, between 1991 and 1998. The estimated extent of the four submerged macrophytes and bare substratum between 1991 and 1998 showed dramatic changes with no obvious pattern or periodicity, as well as no identifiable natural or anthropogenic causes. Chaotic variation may be an important character of submerged pond plant populations, so that surveys taken in a single year may give an unreliable picture of plant populations

Management of rapid eye movement sleep behavior disorder in patients with Parkinson's disease

Among all of the devastating effects that Parkinson’s disease (PD) has on an individual, sleep dysfunction is one that can have a profound effect on the entire family of the patient. The most potentially destructive of these sleep syndromes being that of Rapid Eye Movement Sleep Behavior Disorder (RBD). This disorder not only causes sleep impairment to the patient, but can occasionally result in life-threatening injury to the individual or their bed partner. While this condition is manageable with medication, the current treatment of choice is a long-acting benzodiazepine, clonazepam. This drug, while effective in treating RBD, comes with a significant burden of side effects. Patients with neurodegenerative disorders, like PD, are at even higher risk of suffering the negative impacts of this treatment. One potential alternative treatment that has been considered is a supplement of exogenous melatonin, a hormone that plays a role in maintaining one’s circadian rhythm. Several small case studies have shown potential efficacy of this treatment, and with very few side effects. However, this efficacy has not yet been proven by randomized clinical trial. This proposed study will perform a double-blind randomized clinical trial of melatonin vs. placebo in a population of PD patients with RBD. Subjects will be analyzed via polysomnographic sleep study, where symptoms will be scored on the RBD Severity Scale (RBDSS) at baseline and after a treatment intervention. Statistical analysis will then ascertain whether or not a significant symptom reduction is seen following melatonin treatment, compared to a group receiving placebo. If melatonin proves to be efficacious in this patient population, this would give clinicians a new treatment option to consider to effectively manage symptoms of RBD with a much lower risk of potentially harmful side effects. Finding an effective method of managing this condition, the prevalence of which continues to rise worldwide, will have a great impact on improving the safety and quality of life of these patients

The Dirichlet problem

Thesis (M.A.)--Boston UniversityThe problem of finding the solution to a general eliptic type partial differential equation, when the boundary values are given, is generally referred to as the Dirichlet Problem. In this paper I consider the special eliptic equation of ∇2 J=0 which is Laplace's equation, and I limit myself to the case of two dimensions. Subject to these limitations I discuss five proofs for the existence of a solution to Laplace's equation for arbitrary regions where the boundary values are given. [TRUNCATED

Using rotation, magnetic activity and lithium to estimate the ages of low mass stars

The rotation rate, level of magnetic activity and surface lithium abundance are age-dependent quantities in stars of about a solar mass and below. The physical reasons for the evolution of these phenomena are qualitatively understood, but accurate quantitative models remain dependent on empirical calibration using the Sun and stars of known age, chiefly in clusters. In this work I review the status of these "empirical age indicators", outlining the astrophysics of their time dependence, describing the measurements, assessing the precision (and accuracy) of age estimates when applied to individual stars, and identifying their principle limitations in terms of the mass and age ranges over which they are useful. Finally, I discuss the "lithium depletion boundary" technique which, in contrast to the empirical methods, appears to provide robust, almost model-independent ages that are both precise and accurate, but which is only applicable to coeval groups of stars.Comment: 38 pages; contribution to the proceedings of the 23rd Evry Schatzman School on Stellar Astrophysics, "The Ages of Stars", Roscoff 2013, EAS Publications Series, eds. C. Charbonnel et al. This version has minor corrections/additions to the bibliograph

Amabile‘s consensual assessment technique: Why has it not been used more in design creativity research?

Amabile’s Consensual Assessment Technique (CAT) has been described as the “gold standard” of creativity assessment; been extensively used within creativity research, and is seen as the most popular method of assessing creative outputs. Its discussion within scholarly research has continued to grow year by year. However, since 1996, a systematic review of the CAT has not been undertaken, and, within design journals, appears not to have occurred, in relation to design, or more broadly, the creative industries in general. Yet, the consensus of domain judges is a prevalent methodology for design education, and professional design awards. This paper presents the findings from a systematic literature review of the CAT covering works from 1982 to 2011. It details key journals and authors publishing or citing CAT related studies, and highlights the limited number of CAT studies within design journals, with suggestions for why this may be the case

The growing utility of microbial genome sequences (Meeting Report)

© 2000 GenomeBiology.comA report from the Genome Biology session of the 4th annual conference on microbial genomes, Virginia, February 12-15, 2000