Plio-Pleistocene time evolution of the 100-ky cycle in marine paleoclimate records

To constrain theories for the dynamical evolution of global ice mass through the late Neogene, it is important to determine whether major changes in the record were gradual or rapid. Of particular interest is the evolution of the near 100-ky ice age cycle in the middle Pleistocene. We have applied a new technique based on multiple taper spectrum analysis which allows us to model the time evolution of quasi-periodic signals. This technique uses both phase and amplitude information, and enables us to address the question of abrupt versus gradual onset of the 100-ky periodicity in the middle Pleistocene

The Transformation of Science with HPC, Big Data, and AI

High performance computing has matured into an indispensable tool for not only academic research and government labs and agencies, but also for many industry sectors: energy, manufacturing, healthcare, financial services, even digital content creation. More recently, the advent of Big Data has enabled the use of HPC techniques for large scale data analysis, expanding the scope of HPC and the reach of it into more research and enterprise use cases. Since 2012, a new regime of data-driven analytics, deep learning, has erupted in popularity, fueled by both the massive performance increases in HPC technologies and in the explosive rate of digital data being generated, collected and managed. While data analytics, including deep learning, will never eliminate the need for HPC-enabled simulations in research, the emergence of deep learning will enable both researchers and enterprises to accomplish discovery and innovation in new ways and in ways that complement, extend, and sometimes even substitute for more traditional HPC simulation techniques. Together, HPC and AI will enable the transformation for science to continue, and a new explosion in enterprise and consumer applications

Nature, socioeconomics and adaptation to natural disasters: new evidence from floods

The authors analyze the determinants of fatalities in 2,194 large flood events in 108 countries between 1985 and 2008. Given that socioeconomic factors can affect mortality right in the aftermath of a flood, but also indirectly by influencing flood frequency and magnitude, they distinguish between direct and indirect effects of development on flood mortality. The authors find that income is negatively associated with the frequency of floods and, conditional on their magnitude, the fatalities they cause in developing countries. However, for developed countries they find that increased income is associated with more fatalities, both directly (conditional on flood occurrence and magnitude) and indirectly through an increase in the frequency and magnitude of flood events. Also in contrast to the literature, they find that the effect of governance on flood frequency and fatalities in developing countries is U-shaped, with improvements in governance reducing the numbers of floods and deaths when governance is weaker but raising them when governance is stronger.Hazard Risk Management,Natural Disasters,Governance Indicators,Disaster Management,Flood Control

Necessary Factors for the Creation of a Master\u27s Degree In Commercial Music

The purpose of this study is to determine the necessary elements and important factors in a “Plan to Plan” to create a Master’s Degree in Commercial Music that will lead to eventual accreditation by the National Association of Schools of Music (NASM). This study poses the question: What essential elements and salient factors are considered important by Music Industry Leaders, Academic Music Executives, previous Commercial Music Graduates, and the appropriate accrediting body for the creation of a Master’s degree program in Commercial Music? The creation of a new graduate program of study, such as this, must include the ability for managing change while creating an environment conducive for life-long learning and the pursuit of knowledge. Results from the literature review on new program creation suggested many Schools of Music have created programs based on a reactionary approach that does not address planning for inevitable change. The literature recommends that program creation should be strategically planned to manage change including the use of a vision shared by all constituents thus helping to avoid past mistakes made by other institutions. The “Plan to Plan” created in this study helps to address many of these issues.The results from research utilizing the three groups chosen for participation identified 31 factors suggested by these groups as necessary for the creation of the new program. All 31 factors were placed in one of the eight categories identified as necessary by NASM. The categories set forth by NASM as required criteria for plan and final approval are strengthened and possibly made more specific by the results of this study. Real world instruction and real world interaction was supported by Music Industry Leaders and former graduates; and Music Executives emphasize the need to maintain artistic standards. NASM requires inclusion of both. Results of this study seem to indicate the need for collaborative work between industry leaders and higher education institutions in a possible consortium relationship. The need for a shared vision for all constituents, as discussed in the literature, was reinforced through the research. This collaboration may be the most necessary factor for creation of the Master’s degree in Commercial Music

Office-Based Deep Sedation for Pediatric Ophthalmologic Procedures Using a Sedation Service Model

Aims. (1) To assess the efficacy and safety of pediatric office-based sedation for ophthalmologic procedures using a pediatric sedation service model. (2) To assess the reduction in hospital charges of this model of care delivery compared to the operating room (OR) setting for similar procedures. Background. Sedation is used to facilitate pediatric procedures and to immobilize patients for imaging and examination. We believe that the pediatric sedation service model can be used to facilitate office-based deep sedation for brief ophthalmologic procedures and examinations. Methods. After IRB approval, all children who underwent office-based ophthalmologic procedures at our institution between January 1, 2000 and July 31, 2008 were identified using the sedation service database and the electronic health record. A comparison of hospital charges between similar procedures in the operating room was performed. Results. A total of 855 procedures were reviewed. Procedure completion rate was 100% (C.I. 99.62–100). There were no serious complications or unanticipated admissions. Our analysis showed a significant reduction in hospital charges (average of $1287 per patient) as a result of absent OR and recovery unit charges. Conclusions. Pediatric ophthalmologic minor procedures can be performed using a sedation service model with significant reductions in hospital charges

Identification of an Actin-Based Antidiabetic Action of Chromium in Skeletal Muscle

poster abstractWe recently demonstrated that cortical filamentous actin (F-actin) loss contributes to cellular insulin resistance induced by hyperinsulinemia. New animal and human analyses suggest a similar loss of F-actin is present in insulin-resistant skeletal muscle and results from cellular cholesterol accrual. Interestingly, we found that chromium picolinate (CrPic), a dietary supplement recognized to improve insulin action, lowers plasma membrane cholesterol in cultured adipocytes. Understanding whether CrPic can improve F-actin structure in insulinresistant skeletal muscle via lowering membrane cholesterol is not known, yet significant, as skeletal muscle is responsible for a large majority of insulin-stimulated glucose transport. In L6 myotubes stably expressing the insulin-responsive glucose transporter GLUT4 carrying an exofacial myc-epitope tag, acute insulin stimulation (20 min, 100 nM) increased myc-epitope labeling at the surface of intact cells by ~2-fold (P<0.05). In contrast, the ability of insulin to stimulate this process was inhibited 25% (P<0.05) by sustained exposure of L6 myotubes to insulin (12 h, 5 nM). Defects in insulin signaling did not readily account for the observed disruption. However, we found that insulin-induced insulin-resistant myotubes displayed a 28% elevation (P<0.05) in membrane cholesterol with a reciprocal 14% loss (P<0.05) in F-actin. This cholesterol/actin imbalance and insulin/GLUT4 dysfunction was corrected by the cholesterollowering action of CrPic. Mechanistically, CrPic increased the activity of the AMP-activated protein kinase (AMPK). Tests also revealed that other well-recognized activators of AMPK (e.g., AICAR, DNP) lowered membrane cholesterol and that, in a fashion similar to that witnessed for CrPic, improved regulation of GLUT4 in insulin-induced insulin-resistant myotubes. These data, as well as findings from ongoing siRNA-mediated AMPK knockdown experiments, are consistent with AMPK mediating its antidiabetic action by lowering cellular cholesterol. We predict that chromium, via AMPK activation, protects against cholesterol accrual that induces skeletal muscle F-actin loss and insulin resistance

“A Bridge over Troubled Water”: The Value One Team of Multi-Specialty Skilled Nurses Bring Community Hospitals in Oregon

https://digitalcommons.psjhealth.org/summit_all/1000/thumbnail.jp

Correction: A Novel Role for the TIR Domain in Association with Pathogen-Derived Elicitors.

[This corrects the article DOI: 10.1371/journal.pbio.0050068.]

Evaluating interventions for informed consent for surgery (ICONS) :Protocol for the development of a core outcome set

Abstract Background The concept of informed consent is fundamental to medical practice. Shortcomings in the process can lead to patient complaints, litigation, unmet expectations and poor outcomes. Consent research has focused on developing tools to improve patient recall and understanding. However, the definitions, methods of measurement and timing of measurement vary widely across the studies that have been done. Although a Cochrane review has reported that many of these interventions appear to work, the high level of heterogeneity in outcome reporting prevents the identification of those interventions that work best and why they do so. It is also not clear which outcomes are most important to each party involved in the consent process and why. Methods/design This project will develop a core outcome set for assessing the effects of interventions aimed at improving informed consent for surgery and other invasive procedures for adult patients with the capacity to consent for themselves. We will conduct a systematic review of the qualitative and quantitative literature to identify outcomes used to date in consent research and map these into domains. A series of semi-structured key stakeholder interviews will also be used to identify relevant outcomes. These processes will produce a list of potential outcomes for assessing the effects of interventions to improve consent, which will be refined through an international Delphi survey and consensus webinars involving key stakeholders to produce the core outcome set. Discussion The ICONS study aims to develop a core outcome set for use in trials and reviews of interventions designed to improve the informed consent process for surgery and other invasive procedures. Our aim is that this core outcome set will reduce the level of selection and reporting bias in consent research and help clinicians to compare tools to improve consent

Análise preliminar revela baixos níveis de diversidade na estrutura filogeográfica da cascavel mexicana Crotalus polystictus (Serpentes: Viperidae).

Se investigaron las relaciones matrilineales entre poblaciones de la serpiente de cascabel Mexicana cabeza de lanza  (Crotalus polystictus), esta especie se distribuye en valles que presentan elevaciones altas de la meseta del sur de México. Se analizó un fragmento mitocondrial de la ATPasa 8 y 6, los genes (589 pares de bases) revelaron bajos niveles de diversidad genética, con poco polimorfismo nucleótico entre la muestra geográfica analizada. La poca divergencia (1.0%) intraespecífica encontrada en los genes de la ATPasa 8 y 6 en C. polystictus contrastan con los fuertes porcentajes de divergencia (~1.0–14.1%) que han sido observados dentro de otros linajes de serpientes de cascabel mexicanas que habitan elevaciones altas. La variación intraespecífica es observadacomúnmente en especies de cascabel que se distribuyen en elevaciones menores y que presentan una distribución amplia (por ejemplo, C. tigris). Proponemos que la baja diversidad genética encontrada en C. polystictus comparada con la diversidad registrada en otras serpientes de cascabel que habitan elevaciones altas, se debe a diferencias ecológicas que han dado como resultado una respuesta evolutiva diferente en esta especie a los eventos climáticos del Pleistoceno. Nuestros resultados de una aparente baja diversidad genética en C. polystictus son un fuerte soporte para hacer un llamadoa la importancia de realizar iniciativas de conservación para proteger praderas con elevaciones altas en el centro de México.Foram investigadas as relações matrilineares entre as populações da cascavel mexicana Crotalus polystictus, uma espécie que habita vales de altitude do planalto do sul do México. Os genes (589 pares de bases) de um fragmento mitocondrial da ATPase 8 e 6 revelaram níveis relativamente baixos de diversidade genética, com poucos polimorfismos de nucleotídeos entre a amostra geográfica analisada. A baixa divergência da sequência intraespecífica (1.0%) encontrada nos genes da ATPase 8 e 6 de C. polystictus contrasta com asfortes divergências (~1.0–14.1%) observadas em outras linhagens de cascavel que habitam grandes altitudes, sendo que a variação intra-específica é observada comumente em espécies de cascavel que estão distribuídas em altitudes mais baixas e apresentam uma ampla distribuição (por exemplo, C.tigris). Propomos que a baixa diversidade genética encontrada em C. polystictus, comparada com a de outras cascavéis que habitam altitudes elevadas, pode refletir diferenças ecológicas que resultaram em uma resposta evolutiva diferente aos eventos climáticos do Pleistoceno. Nossos resultados deuma baixa diversidade genética aparente em C. polystictus destacam a importância de iniciativas de conservação para proteger os campos de altitude da região central do México.We investigated matrilineal relationships among populations of the Mexican lance-headed rattlesnake (Crotalus polystictus), a pitviper inhabiting high-elevation valleys of the densely populated southern Mexican Plateau. A fragment of the mitochondrial ATPase 8 and 6 genes (589 base pairs) revealed comparatively low levels of genetic diversity, with few nucleotide polymorphisms across the portion of the geographic distribution sampled. The shallow intraspecific sequence divergence (1.0%) in C. polystictus ATPase 8 and 6 genes contrasts with deepdivergences (~1.0–14.1%) observed within other montane rattlesnake lineages from the Mexican highlands, and is more typical of intraspecific variation observed in lowland rattlesnake species with similar distributional extents (e.g., C. tigris). We posit that the low genetic diversity in C. polystictus relative to that of other highland rattlesnakes may reflect ecological differences resulting in a different evolutionary response to Pleistocene climatic events. Our finding of apparently low genetic diversity in C. polystictus highlights the importance of conservation initiatives to protect high elevation grasslands in central Mexico