Fetus in fetu: a case report

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Breakdown of the adiabatic limit in low dimensional gapless systems

It is generally believed that a generic system can be reversibly transformed from one state into another by sufficiently slow change of parameters. A standard argument favoring this assertion is based on a possibility to expand the energy or the entropy of the system into the Taylor series in the ramp speed. Here we show that this argumentation is only valid in high enough dimensions and can break down in low-dimensional gapless systems. We identify three generic regimes of a system response to a slow ramp: (A) mean-field, (B) non-analytic, and (C) non-adiabatic. In the last regime the limits of the ramp speed going to zero and the system size going to infinity do not commute and the adiabatic process does not exist in the thermodynamic limit. We support our results by numerical simulations. Our findings can be relevant to condensed-matter, atomic physics, quantum computing, quantum optics, cosmology and others.Comment: 11 pages, 5 figures, to appear in Nature Physics (originally submitted version

Causal Connections between Water Quality and Land Use in a Rural Tropical Island Watershed: Rural Tropical Island Watershed Analysis

We examined associations between riparian canopy cover, presence or absence of cattle, rainfall, solar radiation, month of year, dissolved oxygen, turbidity, salinity, and Enterococcus concentrations in riparian surface soils with Enterococcus geometric mean in-stream water concentrations at Waipā watershed on the north side of the Hawaiian island Kaua’i. Each 1% decrease in riparian canopy cover was associated with a 4.6 most probable number (MPN)/100 ml increase of the geometric mean of Enterococcus in stream water (P < 0.05). Each unit decrease in salinity (ppt) was associated with an increase of Enterococcus by 68.2 MPN/100 ml in-stream water geometric mean concentrations (P < 0.05). Month of year was also associated with increases in stream water Enterococcus geometric mean concentrations (P < 0.05). Reducing riparian canopy cover is associated with Enterococcus increases in stream water, suggesting that decreasing riparian vegetation density could increase fecal bacteria surface runoff

Can We Really Prevent Suicide?

Every year, suicide is among the top 20 leading causes of death globally for all ages. Unfortunately, suicide is difficult to prevent, in large part because the prevalence of risk factors is high among the general population. In this review, clinical and psychological risk factors are examined and methods for suicide prevention are discussed. Prevention strategies found to be effective in suicide prevention include means restriction, responsible media coverage, and general public education, as well identification methods such as screening, gatekeeper training, and primary care physician education. Although the treatment for preventing suicide is difficult, follow-up that includes pharmacotherapy, psychotherapy, or both may be useful. However, prevention methods cannot be restricted to the individual. Community, social, and policy interventions will also be essentia

Water quality and planktonic microbial assemblages of isolated wetlands in an agricultural landscape

Author Posting. © The Author(s), 2011. This is the author's version of the work. It is posted here by permission of Springer for personal use, not for redistribution. The definitive version was published in Wetlands 31 (2011): 885-894, doi:10.1007/s13157-011-0203-6.Wetlands provide ecosystem services including flood protection, water quality enhancement, food chain support, carbon sequestration, and support regional biodiversity. Wetlands occur in human-altered landscapes, and the ongoing ability of these wetlands to provide ecosystem services is lacking. Additionally, the apparent lack of connection of some wetlands, termed geographically isolated, to permanent waters has resulted in little regulatory recognition. We examined the influence of intensive agriculture on water quality and planktonic microbial assemblages of intermittently inundated wetlands. We sampled 10 reference and 10 agriculturally altered wetlands in the Gulf Coastal Plain of Georgia. Water quality measures included pH, alkalinity, dissolved organic carbon, nutrients (nitrate, ammonium, and phosphate), and filterable solids (dry mass and ash-free dry mass). We measured abundance and relative size distribution of the planktonic microbial assemblage (< 45 μm) using flow cytometry. Water quality in agricultural wetlands was characterized by elevated nutrients, pH, and suspended solids. Autotrophic microbial cells were largely absent from both wetland types. Heterotrophic microbial abundance was influenced by nutrients and suspended matter concentration. Agriculture caused changes in microbial assemblages forming the base of wetland food webs. Yet, these wetlands potentially support important ecological services in a highly altered landscape.Funding was provided by the Joseph W. Jones Ecological Research Center.2012-07-2

A review of elliptical and disc galaxy structure, and modern scaling laws

A century ago, in 1911 and 1913, Plummer and then Reynolds introduced their models to describe the radial distribution of stars in `nebulae'. This article reviews the progress since then, providing both an historical perspective and a contemporary review of the stellar structure of bulges, discs and elliptical galaxies. The quantification of galaxy nuclei, such as central mass deficits and excess nuclear light, plus the structure of dark matter halos and cD galaxy envelopes, are discussed. Issues pertaining to spiral galaxies including dust, bulge-to-disc ratios, bulgeless galaxies, bars and the identification of pseudobulges are also reviewed. An array of modern scaling relations involving sizes, luminosities, surface brightnesses and stellar concentrations are presented, many of which are shown to be curved. These 'redshift zero' relations not only quantify the behavior and nature of galaxies in the Universe today, but are the modern benchmark for evolutionary studies of galaxies, whether based on observations, N-body-simulations or semi-analytical modelling. For example, it is shown that some of the recently discovered compact elliptical galaxies at 1.5 < z < 2.5 may be the bulges of modern disc galaxies.Comment: Condensed version (due to Contract) of an invited review article to appear in "Planets, Stars and Stellar Systems"(www.springer.com/astronomy/book/978-90-481-8818-5). 500+ references incl. many somewhat forgotten, pioneer papers. Original submission to Springer: 07-June-201

Military veteran mortality following a survived suicide attempt

<p>Abstract</p> <p>Background</p> <p>Suicide is a global public health problem. Recently in the U.S., much attention has been given to preventing suicide and other premature mortality in veterans returning from Iraq and Afghanistan. A strong predictor of suicide is a past suicide attempt, and suicide attempters have multiple physical and mental comorbidities that put them at risk for additional causes of death. We examined mortality among U.S. military veterans after hospitalization for attempted suicide.</p> <p>Methods</p> <p>A retrospective cohort study was conducted with all military veterans receiving inpatient treatment during 1993-1998 at United States Veterans Affairs (VA) medical facilities following a suicide attempt. Deaths occurring during 1993-2002, the most recent available year at the time, were identified through VA Beneficiary and Records Locator System data and National Death Index data. Mortality data for the general U.S. adult population were also obtained from the National Center for Health Statistics. Comparisons within the veteran cohort, between genders, and against the U.S. population were conducted with descriptive statistics and standardized mortality ratios. The actuarial method was used estimate the proportion of veterans in the cohort we expect would have survived through 2002 had they experienced the same rate of death that occurred over the study period in the U.S. population having the age and sex characteristics.</p> <p>Results</p> <p>During 1993-1998, 10,163 veterans were treated and discharged at a VA medical center after a suicide attempt (mean age = 44 years; 91% male). There was a high prevalence of diagnosed alcohol disorder or abuse (31.8%), drug dependence or abuse (21.8%), psychoses (21.2%), depression (18.5%), and hypertension (14.2%). A total of 1,836 (18.1%) veterans died during follow up (2,941.4/100,000 person years). The cumulative survival probability after 10 years was 78.0% (95% CI = 72.9, 83.1). Hence the 10-year cumulative mortality risk was 22.0%, which was 3.0 times greater than expected. The leading causes overall were heart disease (20.2%), suicide (13.1%), and unintentional injury (12.7%). Whereas suicide was the ninth leading cause of death in the U.S. population overall (1.8%) during the study period, suicide was the leading and second leading cause among women (25.0%) and men (12.7%) in the cohort, respectively.</p> <p>Conclusions</p> <p>Veterans who have attempted suicide face elevated risks of all-cause mortality with suicide being prominent. This represents an important population for prevention activities.</p

Factors associated with low fitness in adolescents – A mixed methods study

Background: Fitness and physical activity are important for cardiovascular and mental health but activity and fitness levels are declining especially in adolescents and among girls. This study examines clustering of factors associated with low fitness in adolescents in order to best target public health interventions for young people. Methods: 1147 children were assessed for fitness, had blood samples, anthropometric measures and all data were linked with routine electronic data to examine educational achievement, deprivation and health service usage. Factors associated with fitness were examined using logistic regression, conditional trees and data mining cluster analysis. Focus groups were conducted with children in a deprived school to examine barriers and facilitators to activity for children in a deprived community. Results: Unfit adolescents are more likely to be deprived, female, have obesity in the family and not achieve in education. There were 3 main clusters for risk of future heart disease/diabetes (high cholesterol/insulin); children at low risk (not obese, fit, achieving in education), children ‘visibly at risk’ (overweight, unfit, many hospital/GP visits) and ‘invisibly at risk’ (unfit but not overweight, failing in academic achievement). Qualitative findings show barriers to physical activity include cost, poor access to activity, lack of core physical literacy skills and limited family support. Conclusions: Low fitness in the non-obese child can reveal a hidden group who have high risk factors for heart disease and diabetes but may not be identified as they are normal weight. In deprived communities low fitness is associated with non-achievement in education but in non-deprived communities low fitness is associated with female gender. Interventions need to target deprived families and schools in deprived areas with community wide campaigns