A Phylogenetic Classification of Polemoniaceae

Three hundred seventy nine species of Polemoniaceae are arranged in a phylogenetic classification composed of three subfamilies, eight tribes, and 26 genera. Nomenclature of one tribe is clarified and the circumscription of several tribes differs greatly from previous classifications. Five new genera, Bryantiella, Dayia, Lathrocasis, Microgilia, and Saltugilia, are proposed. In addition, four new species are described from the genera Allophyllum, Dayia, Giliastrum, and lpomopsis. This treatment represents a major reclassification with 59 new combinations, and the application of several additional combinations not used in recent years

Phylogenetic Relationships of Polemoniaceae: Inferences From Mitochondrial Nad1b Intron Sequences

The most recent assessments of phylogenetic relationships and diversification in the flowering plant family Polemoniaceae have relied on nuclear ribosomal and chloroplast DNA sequences. We employed the mitochondrial nad1b intron, located within the second transcription unit of the first subunit of NADH dehydrogenase, for phylogenetic inference. Maximum parsimony analysis of these data provided evidence that Polemoniaceae are more closely related to families Fouquieriaceae, Diapensiaceae, Styracaceae, and Primulaceae than to families of the Solananae, where it has been classified. Fouquieriaceae are inferred to be the sister group of Polemoniaceae; however, when indels are treated as additional characters and given twice the weight of a nucleotide substitution the sister group of Polemoniaceae is a clade that includes Fouquieriaceae, Diapensiaceae, and Primulaceae. Mitochondrial DNA sequences also provided support for an early diversification of Polemoniaceae involving three lineages: the Acanthogilia lineage, the Cobaea-Cantua-Bonplandia lineage, and a lineage including the remaining sampled genera of the family. These results are highly consistent with phylogenetic estimates based on chloroplast and nuclear gene sequences. However, because the exact branch order is not known with confidence for these three lineages, nor are the closest relatives to Polemoniaceae, assessments of homology in morphological characters remains tenuous. For example, both Fouquieriaceae and Acanthogilia possess primary leaves that become persistent spines. It was shown that, in spite of the morphological similarity, spiny primary leaves in Fouquieriaceae and Polemoniaceae are not homologous

An Accounting International Experience Course

Accounting students need practical opportunities to personally experience other cultures and international business practices if they are to effectively compete in today’s global marketplace.  In order to address this need, the Department of Accounting at Murray State University offers an international experience course which includes a short-term study tour of London.  This paper examines the rationale for an accounting international experience course, provides an overview of the class and presents a suggested itinerary for the London trip

Relationship of Patient Self-Administered COPD Assessment Test (CAT) to Physician Standard Assessment of COPD in a Family Medicine Residency Training Program

Chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD) is a leading cause of morbidity and mortality in the United States. COPD is of particular concern in certain sectors of the country, including Central Appalachia where our clinic is located. Assessing patients with COPD presents many challenges as symptoms range from those considered typical such as shortness of breath and sputum production to those less often identified like anxiety and social isolation. We conducted a pilot study comparing physician standard assessment of COPD to patient self-assessment using the COPD Assessment Test (CAT). The CAT is an eight-item questionnaire that measures the impact COPD has on an individual patient’s well-being and daily life. Based on our small sample size, physicians tend to underestimate the impact of COPD on a patient’s daily life. This discrepancy did not differ significantly by year of residency. Potential clinical impact of these findings include the need for more formalized and frequent patient self-assessment of disease burden as well as increased COPD assessment training within the residency curriculum

Can classical wormholes stabilize the brane-anti-brane system?

We investigate the static solutions of Callan and Maldecena and Gibbons to lowest order Dirac-Born-Infeld theory. Among them are charged wormhole solutions connecting branes to anti-branes. It is seen that there are no such solutions when the separation between the brane and anti-brane is smaller than some minimum value. The minimum distance coincides with the energy minimum, and depends monotonically on the charge. Making the charge sufficiently large, such that the minimum separation is much bigger than $\sqrt{\alpha '}$, may suppress known quantum processes leading to decay of the brane-anti-brane system. For this to be possible the zeroth order wormhole solutions should be reasonable approximations of solutions in the full $D-$brane theory. With this in mind we address the question of whether the zeroth order solutions are stable under inclusion of higher order corrections to the Dirac-Born-Infeld action.Comment: 21 pages, 9 figure

Flow dynamics of Byrd Glacier, East Antarctica

This is the published version. Copyright 2014Force-balance calculations on Byrd Glacier, East Antarctica, reveal large spatial variations in the along-flow component of driving stress with corresponding sticky spots that are stationary over time. On the large scale, flow resistance is partitioned between basal (∼80%) and lateral (∼20%) drag. Ice flow is due mostly to basal sliding and concentrated vertical shear in the basal ice layers, indicating the bed is at or close to the pressure-melting temperature. There is a significant component of driving stress in the across-flow direction resulting in nonzero basal drag in that direction. This is an unrealistic result and we propose that there are spatial variations of bed features resulting in small-scale flow disturbances. The grounding line of Byrd Glacier is located in a region where the bed slopes upward. Nevertheless, despite a 10% increase in ice discharge between December 2005 and February 2007, following drainage of two subglacial lakes in the catchment area, the position of the grounding line has not retreated significantly and the glacier has decelerated since then. During the speed-up event, partitioning of flow resistance did not change, suggesting the increase in velocity was caused by a temporary decrease in basal effective pressure

Depressive Symptom Clusters and Neuropsychological Performance in Mild Alzheimer's and Cognitively Normal Elderly

Objectives. Determine the relationship between depressive symptom clusters and neuropsychological test performance in an elderly cohort of cognitively normal controls and mild Alzheimer's disease (AD). Design. Cross-sectional analysis. Setting. Four health science centers in Texas. Participants. 628 elderly individuals (272 diagnosed with mild AD and 356 controls) from ongoing longitudinal study of Alzheimer's disease. Measurements. Standard battery of neuropsychological tests and the 30-item Geriatric Depression Scale with regressions model generated on GDS-30 subscale scores (dysphoria, apathy, meaninglessness and cognitive impairment) as predictors and neuropsychological tests as outcome variables. Follow-up analyses by gender were conducted. Results. For AD, all symptom clusters were related to specific neurocognitive domains; among controls apathy and cognitive impairment were significantly related to neuropsychological functioning. The relationship between performance and symptom clusters was significantly different for males and females in each group. Conclusion. Findings suggest the need to examine disease status and gender when considering the impact of depressive symptoms on cognition

Teacher Identity in the Context of Literacy Teaching: Three Explorations of Classroom Positioning and Interaction in Secondary Schools

This article presents the results of three separate studies of literacy teaching and learning in the U.S. that explore the social functions of language, specifically focused on the identity development of literacy learners and teachers. Each study offers a detailed account of how literate identities are constructed and enacted and the positive and negative consequences that occur for teachers and students when they are enacted. Taken together, these three studies demonstrate how teachers’ and students’ understandings of identity can promote or inhibit literacy teaching and learning

Designing an optimal HIV programme for South Africa: Does the optimal package change when diminishing returns are considered?

Abstract Background South Africa has a large domestically funded HIV programme with highly saturated coverage levels for most prevention and treatment interventions. To further optimise its allocative efficiency, we designed a novel optimisation method and examined whether the optimal package of interventions changes when interaction and non-linear scale-up effects are incorporated into cost-effectiveness analysis. Methods The conventional league table method in cost-effectiveness analysis relies on the assumption of independence between interventions. We added methodology that allowed the simultaneous consideration of a large number of HIV interventions and their potentially diminishing marginal returns to scale. We analysed the incremental cost effectiveness ratio (ICER) of 16 HIV interventions based on a well-calibrated epidemiological model that accounted for interaction and non-linear scale-up effects, a custom cost model, and an optimisation routine that iteratively added the most cost-effective intervention onto a rolling baseline before evaluating all remaining options. We compared our results with those based on a league table. Results The rank order of interventions did not differ substantially between the two methods- in each, increasing condom availability and male medical circumcision were found to be most cost-effective, followed by anti-retroviral therapy at current guidelines. However, interventions were less cost-effective throughout when evaluated under the optimisation method, indicating substantial diminishing marginal returns, with ICERs being on average 437% higher under our optimisation routine. Conclusions Conventional league tables may exaggerate the cost-effectiveness of interventions when programmes are implemented at scale. Accounting for interaction and non-linear scale-up effects provides more realistic estimates in highly saturated real-world settings

Relationship of Patient Self-Administered COPD Assessment Test to Physician Standard Assessment of Chronic Obstructive Pulmonary Disease in a Family Medicine Residency Training Program

Assessing the global impact of chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD) on a patient’s life can be difficult to perform in the clinical setting due to time constraints and workflow challenges. The primary objective of this study was to compare disease impact ratings between patient selfadministered COPD Assessment Test (CAT) and physician standard office assessment. This prospective study was conducted at a family medicine residency clinic in northeast Tennessee. The study included two study groups: 1) adult patients seen at the clinic during the 3-month study period with an active diagnosis of COPD, and 2) their physicians. Physicians’ assessment of the impact of COPD on their patients’ daily lives was compared to patients’ self-administered CAT assessments. Physician assessment of COPD impact and patient ssessment of CAT categories significantly differed (χ2 =11.0, P=0.012). There was very poor agreement between patient and physician ratings (κ=0.003), with 42.9% of physician ratings underestimating the impact, 28.6% overestimating the impact, and 28.6% orrectly estimating the impact COPD had on their patients’ lives. These findings support the use of validated assessment tools to help providers understand the symptom burden for patients with COPD