Professor Edward Drinker Cope’s Travels Through North Carolina, August–December 1869: Insights from the Transcriptions and Annotations of Letters to His Father and His Contributions to North Carolina Ichthyology

Since 1870, ichthyologists have pondered Edward Drinker Cope’s two publications: “On some Etheostomine Perch from Tennessee and North Carolina” and “A Partial Synopsis of the Fishes of the Fresh Waters of North Carolina”, along with correspondences to his father while traveling in North Carolina. We transcribed and annotated four of his letters searching for further knowledge regarding his field notebook(s) and original data (meristics, morphometrics, life coloration, etc.) from his travels across NC during Summer and Fall of 1869. However, unresolved questions remained - many related to unaccounted for periods of time. We did not achieve insights into who helped him with his collections. The loss of some of his larger specimens or their unavailability to be re-examined by Cope at a later date, lead us to question if Cope hastily wrote some of the descriptions in the field, or wrote them from memory afterwards in his lodging, or did he write them in a field notebook? We did not discover the existence or whereabouts of field notes or field book. We surmised he did record field notes and original data, because he could not have remembered meristic counts and which data went with which species after encountering a myriad of specimens in the field. We marveled how Cope was able to successfully achieve the rapidity in naming, writing, and publishing shortly after his trip. We concluded Cope must have been extremely impatient and perhaps consumed by his more important paleontological interests when writing two fish manuscripts in a short period of time. Cope’s two publications resulting from this trip laid a foundation for all ensuing studies of NC’s freshwater fish fauna the past 151 years. Of the 242 described species of freshwater fish in NC 45 were described by him between 1865-1871. He described 25 species from his NC trip of which 15 species are presently considered valid; the other species having since been synonymized. Cope recounted collecting 91 described and undescribed species from NC during his trip, excluding four genera, Acipenser, Carpiodes, Ictiobus, and Sander (Stizostedion), whose specimens were lost, unavailable, or unseen. We accounted for all of the species and specimens he had collected during this trip. Lots, totaling 138, representing 63 species and 943 specimens were subsequently curated at Academy of Natural Sciences of Drexel University, the National Museum of Natural History, and the University of Michigan Museum of Zoology. No additional lots were found at other museums. Various type specimens are represented in 49 lots, with the remaining 89 lots representing non-type specimens

Cost comparison of orthopaedic fracture pathways using discrete event simulation in a Glasgow hospital

Objective: Healthcare faces the continual challenge of improving outcome whilst aiming to reduce cost. The aim of this study was to determine the micro cost differences of the Glasgow non-operative trauma virtual pathway in comparison to a traditional pathway. Design:  Discrete event simulation was used to model and analyse cost and resource utilisation with an activity based costing approach. Data for a full comparison before the process change was unavailable so we utilised a modelling approach, comparing a Virtual Fracture Clinic (VFC) to a simulated Traditional Fracture Clinic (TFC). Setting:  The orthopaedic unit VFC pathway pioneered at Glasgow Royal Infirmary has attracted significant attention and interest and is the focus of this cost study. Outcome measures: Our study focused exclusively on non-operative trauma patients attending Emergency Department or the minor injuries unit and the subsequent step in the patient pathway. Retrospective studies of patient outcomes as a result of the protocol introductions for specific injuries in association with activity costs from the models.ResultsPatients are satisfied with the new pathway, the information provided and the outcome of their injuries (Evidence Level IV). There was a 65% reduction in the number of first outpatient face-to-face attendances in orthopaedics. In the VFC pathway, the resources required per day were significantly lower for all staff groups (p=<0.001). The overall cost per patient of the VFC pathway was £22.84 (95% CI: 21.74, 23.92) per patient compared with £36.81 (95% CI: 35.65, 37.97) for the TFC pathway.  Conclusions:  Our results give a clearer picture of the cost comparison of the virtual pathway over a wholly traditional face-to-face clinic system. The use of simulation-based stochastic costings in healthcare economic analysis has been limited to date, but this study provides evidence for adoption of this method as a basis for its application in other healthcare settings

Summer Cocktail Forage Research in the Panhandle of Nebraska

Four annual forage mixtures containing brown mid- rib sorghum sudangrass or German foxtail millet, cowpeas or soybeans, and forage collards were compared to the sorghum sudangrass or millet as monocultures in the Nebraska High Plains on dryland acres to determine the tonnage, crude protein, and digestibility available for beef cattle. Th e forage mixtures and the millet resulted in greater crude protein than the sorghum sudangrass. Total digestible nutrients of the mixers were similar. Sorghum sudangrass resulted in the most tonnage. These forage options could have been hayed or windrow grazed in the fall and would have likely resulted in 1.5– 2.0 lb/d gain for 500 lb calves. Grazing these forages in the summer would have likely resulted in better quality but would require rotational grazing management. Agronomic impacts of these mixtures on the subsequent crop were not measured. Foxtail millet was the most economical crop to produce

Making sense of IL-6 signalling cues in pathophysiology

Unravelling the molecular mechanisms that account for functional pleiotropy is a major challenge for researchers in cytokine biology. Cytokine–receptor cross-reactivity and shared signalling pathways are considered primary drivers of cytokine pleiotropy. However, reports epitomized by studies of Jak-STAT cytokine signalling identify interesting biochemical and epigenetic determinants of transcription factor regulation that affect the delivery of signal-dependent cytokine responses. Here, a regulatory interplay between STAT transcription factors and their convergence to specific genomic enhancers support the fine-tuning of cytokine responses controlling host immunity, functional identity, and tissue homeostasis and repair. In this review, we provide an overview of the signalling networks that shape the way cells sense and interpret cytokine cues. With an emphasis on the biology of interleukin-6, we highlight the importance of these mechanisms to both physiological processes and pathophysiological outcomes

Kepler Presearch Data Conditioning I - Architecture and Algorithms for Error Correction in Kepler Light Curves

Kepler provides light curves of 156,000 stars with unprecedented precision. However, the raw data as they come from the spacecraft contain significant systematic and stochastic errors. These errors, which include discontinuities, systematic trends, and outliers, obscure the astrophysical signals in the light curves. To correct these errors is the task of the Presearch Data Conditioning (PDC) module of the Kepler data analysis pipeline. The original version of PDC in Kepler did not meet the extremely high performance requirements for the detection of miniscule planet transits or highly accurate analysis of stellar activity and rotation. One particular deficiency was that astrophysical features were often removed as a side-effect to removal of errors. In this paper we introduce the completely new and significantly improved version of PDC which was implemented in Kepler SOC 8.0. This new PDC version, which utilizes a Bayesian approach for removal of systematics, reliably corrects errors in the light curves while at the same time preserving planet transits and other astrophysically interesting signals. We describe the architecture and the algorithms of this new PDC module, show typical errors encountered in Kepler data, and illustrate the corrections using real light curve examples.Comment: Submitted to PASP. Also see companion paper "Kepler Presearch Data Conditioning II - A Bayesian Approach to Systematic Error Correction" by Jeff C. Smith et a