2,314 research outputs found
Assessing the hunting practices of Namibia's commercial seal hunt
Following mounting public concerns regarding the treatment of animals in recent years, there has been increasing interest in the development of science-based guidelines for animal welfare in industries such as agriculture and hunting.1,2,3 In the latter case, for example, the European Food Safety Authority (EFSA) was requested by the European Commission, in 2007, to issue a scientific opinion regarding welfare aspects of seal hunting and to assess the most appropriate killing methods, to reduce unnecessary suffering. As part of its assessment, EFSA's Scientific opinion4 compared seal hunting to the killing of livestock in abattoirs. It noted that while slaughter conditions vary considerably, the goal should be the same: to kill animals with the minimum amount of pain, distress and fear and without causing any avoidable suffering. The report concluded that there was strong evidence that effective killing is not always practiced during seal hunts and that unnecessary and avoidable pain and suffering occurs. Subsequently, Russia ended its commercial hunt for harp seals Pagophilus groenlandicus in the White Sea in February 20095 and banned the killing of all seals under the age of one year in March of 2009.6Two months later, the European Parliament voted 550-49 in favour of a resolution banning the importation of seal hunt products, which comes into effect in 2010.7 Canada and Norway have subsequently lodged challenges against the EU ban with the World Trade Organization
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Learning Statistics Through Exemplars
This paper implements recent proposals for enhancing the learning of mathematics by developing statistics instruction and assessment for eighth grade students that c^italizes on the use of exemplars. The goal of instruction was for small groups to learn about statistics by engaging in hands-on activities as well as to ^ply their knowledge and skills by creating statistics projects tfiat involved designing, conducting, and presenting a mini-experimeni. Performance criteria which reflected the statistical concepts taught in the instruction were explained to students to ensure their understanding of the task (i.e., project). Groups were assigned to two treatments-exemplars and nonexemplars?Av'hich differed in the degree to which criteria modeled the processes of hypothesis generation, data collection, data analysis, and graphic representation. The effectiveness of elaborating on criteria through examples and text (i.e., exemplars) or just text (i.e., nonexemplars) for enhancing learning was examined. Both treatments demonstrated significant performance gains from pretest to posttest. However, students' understanding of representative sampling was significantly better as a result of receiving the exemplars treatment than the nonexemplars treatment. Making criteria more elaborate through examples of performance can thus enhance students' understanding of more abstfact statistical concepts such as sampling
Histopathologic parameters as predictors of response to endoscopic sinus surgery in nonallergic patients with chronic rhinosinusitis
OBJECTIVE: To estimate the predictable value of histopathologic parameters in chronic rhinosinusitis (CRS) for response to endoscopic sinus surgery (ESS). - - - - - STUDY DESIGN: Symptomatology was rated in 100 patients prior to as well as 12 and 24 months after surgery. Specimens taken during the procedure were examined and scored for goblet cells, subepithelial thickening, mast cells, and eosinophils. Multiple regression analysis was performed to predict the total score of subjective symptoms before treatment by histopathologic parameters. The correlation between histopathologic parameters and postoperative symptoms was then evaluated. - - - - - RESULTS: Goblet cells were the best predictor correlating with 5 symptoms. Subepithelial thickening correlated with 4 symptoms. Mast cell infiltration correlated with 3 symptoms. Eosinophilic infiltration correlated with only one symptom (P<0.05). - - - - - CONCLUSION: Certain histopathologic parameters in CRS are predictive of favorable response to ESS. - - - - - SIGNIFICANCE: Pathologic evaluation may help the ENT surgeon to predict the persistence of certain CRS symptoms after ESS, even in patients at low risk for surgical failure. - - - - - EBM rating: C-4
The 2006 July 17 Java (Indonesia) tsunami from satellite imagery and numerical modelling: A single or complex source?
The Mw 7.8 2006 July 17 earthquake off the southern coast of Java, Indonesia, has been responsible for a very large tsunami causing more than 700 casualties. The tsunami has been observed on at least 200 km of coastline in the region of Pangandaran (Wes
Nemaline bodies as unique pathological feature in the course of treated dermatomyositis.
Dermatomyositis was diagnosed on clinical and muscle histological criteria in a 42-year-old woman. Despite treatment, the patient complained of deterioration of her muscle condition. Since her symptoms were discordant with the rest of the data, muscle biopsy was performed and disclosed rod-bearing non-atrophic fibers as the unique and predominant pathological feature. Their significance is examined in this paper
Traitement du PTI et de l’AHAI au cours du DICV : revue systématique de la littérature
INTRODUCTION: Ten to 15% of common variable immunodeficiencies (CVID) develop auto-immune hemolytic anemia (AIHA) and immune thrombocytopenia (ITP). Treatment is based on immunosuppressants, which produce blocking effects in the CVID. Our objective was to assess their risk-benefit ratio in these immunocompromised patients.
METHODS: We identified 17 articles detailing the treatment of AIHA and/or ITP in patients suffering from CVID through a systematic review of the MEDLINE database.
RESULTS: The increased infectious risk with corticosteroids does not call into question their place in the first line of treatment of ITP and AIHA in CVID. High-doses immunoglobulin therapy remain reserved for ITP with a high risk of bleeding. In second-line treatment, rituximab appears to be effective, with a lower infectious risk than the splenectomy. Immunosuppressants (azathioprine, methotrexate, mycophenolate, cyclophosphamide, vincristine, ciclosporine) are moderately effective and often lead to severe infections, meaning that their use is justified only in resistant cases and steroid-sparing. Dapsone, danazol and anti-D immunoglobulins have an unfavorable risk-benefit ratio. The place of TPO receptor agonists is still to be defined. The establishment of immunoglobulin replacement in the place of immunosuppressants (except for short-term corticotherapy) or splenectomy appears to be essential to limit the risk of infections, including in the absence of previous infections.
CONCLUSION: The presence of CVID does not mean that it is necessary to give up on corticosteroids as a first-line treatment and rituximab as a second-line treatment for AIHA and ITP, but it should be in addition to immunoglobulin replacement. A splenectomy should be reserved as a third-line treatment
Multi-compartment poroelastic models of perfused biological soft tissues: implementation in FEniCSx
Soft biological tissues demonstrate strong time-dependent and strain-rate
mechanical behavior, arising from their intrinsic visco-elasticity and
fluid-solid interactions (especially at sufficiently large time scales). The
time-dependent mechanical properties of soft tissues influence their
physiological functions and are linked to several pathological processes.
Poro-elastic modeling represents a promising approach because it allows the
integration of multiscale/multiphysics data to probe biologically relevant
phenomena at a smaller scale and embeds the relevant mechanisms at the larger
scale. The implementation of multi-phasic flow poro-elastic models however is a
complex undertaking, requiring extensive knowledge. The open-source software
FEniCSx Project provides a novel tool for the automated solution of partial
differential equations by the finite element method. This paper aims to provide
the required tools to model the mixed formulation of poro-elasticity, from the
theory to the implementation, within FEniCSx. Several benchmark cases are
studied. A column under confined compression conditions is compared to the
Terzaghi analytical solution, using the L2-norm. An implementation of
poro-hyper-elasticity is proposed. A bi-compartment column is compared to
previously published results (Cast3m implementation). For all cases, accurate
results are obtained in terms of a normalized Root Mean Square Error (RMSE).
Furthermore, the FEniCSx computation is found three times faster than the
legacy FEniCS one. The benefits of parallel computation are also highlighted.Comment: https://github.com/Th0masLavigne/Dolfinx_Porous_Media.gi
Quantifying bamboo coral growth rate nonlinearity with the radiocarbon bomb spike : a new model for paleoceanographic chronology development
© The Author(s), 2017. This is the author's version of the work. It is posted here under a nonexclusive, irrevocable, paid-up, worldwide license granted to WHOI. It is made available for personal use, not for redistribution. The definitive version was published in Deep Sea Research Part I: Oceanographic Research Papers 125 (2017): 26-39, doi:10.1016/j.dsr.2017.04.006.Bamboo corals, long-lived cold water gorgonin octocorals, offer unique paleoceanographic archives of the
intermediate ocean. These Isididae corals are characterized by alternating gorgonin nodes and high Mg-calcite
internodes, which synchronously extend radially. Bamboo coral calcite internodes have been utilized to obtain
geochemical proxy data, however, growth rate uncertainty has made it difficult to construct precise
chronologies for these corals. Previous studies have relied upon a tie point from records of the anthropogenic
Δ14C bomb spike preserved in the gorgonin nodes of live-collected corals to calculate a mean radial extension
rate for the outer ~50 years of skeletal growth. Bamboo coral chronologies are typically constructed by
applying this mean extension rate to the entire coral record, assuming constant radial extension with coral age.
In this study, we aim to test this underlying assumption by analyzing the organic nodes of six California margin
bamboo corals at high enough resolution (<0.5 mm) to identify the Δ14C bomb spike, including two tie points
at 1957 and 1970, plus coral collection date (2007.5) for four samples. Radial extension rates between tie points
ranged from 10 to 204 μm/year, with a decrease in growth rate evident between the 1957-1970 and 1970-
2007.5 periods for all four corals. A negative correlation between growth rate and coral radius (r = -0.7; p =
0.03) was determined for multiple bamboo coral taxa and individuals from the California margin,
demonstrating a decline in radial extension rate with specimen age and size. To provide a mechanistic basis for
these observations, a simple mathematical model was developed based on the assumption of a constant
increase in circular cross sectional area with time to quantify this decline in radial extension rate with coral size
between chronological tie points. Applying the area-based model to our Δ14C bomb spike time series from
individual corals improves chronology accuracy for all live-collected corals with complete Δ14C bomb spikes.
Hence, this study provides paleoceanographers utilizing bamboo corals with a method for reducing age model
uncertainty within the anthropogenic bomb spike era (~1957-present). Chronological uncertainty is larger for
the earliest portion of coral growth, particularly for skeleton precipitated prior to bomb spike tie points,
meaning age estimations for samples living before 1957 remain uncertain. Combining this technique with
additional chronological markers could improve age models for an entire bamboo coral. Finally, the relative
consistency in growth rate in similarly-aged corals of the same depth and location supports the hypothesis that
skeletal growth may be limited by local environmental conditions.This research was made possible
by National Science Foundation Award #1420984 to M. LaVigne and a Clare Boothe Luce Fellowship to M.
Frenkel
Virulence Potential of Staphylococcus aureus Strains Isolated From Diabetic Foot Ulcers: A new paradigm
OBJECTIVE—The purpose of this study was to assess the virulence potential of Staphylococcus aureus strains isolated from diabetic foot ulcers and to discriminate noninfected from infected ulcers
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