Elmer E. Rasmuson Papers, 1898-2000

Processing Funded by the Rasmuson Foundation.Biographical Outline: Elmer E. Rasmuson -- Administrative History: National Bank of Alaska -- Scope and Contents -- Series Descriptions -- Processing Descriptions -- Container Lis

Correlation Between Sequoia Type Pollen and Lower Oligocene Transgressive Deposits in the Eastern Gulf Coast

Two taxodiaceous conifer pollen species form the dominant components among sporomorphs of the Lower Oligocene Vicksburg Group in the eastern Gulf Coast. The two species, Sequoiapollenites lapillipites and Sequoiapollenites sp. 1, are very prominent in the Mint Spring Marl and Marianna Limestone at two localities in SE Mississippi and SW Alabama. These two lithostratigraphic units constitute the transgressive systems tract of the Tejas A Gulf Coast (TAGC)-4.4 sequence. Thus, the concentration of these two Sequoia type pollen species may be used as a marker for these transgressive deposits in the eastern Gulf Coast

Housing conditions & demographical survey: Housing rehabilitation for the city of North Las Vegas

The basis of this research, is to evaluate the North Las Vegas area in order to develop knowledge of what areas are in critical need of rehabilitation. Improperly maintained affordable housing is one of the largest sources of wasted resources. The research was obtained through a windshield survey process, which included approximately 12,000 homes in the North Las Vegas area to determine their conditions. The findings of the windshield survey was used to correlate the results of the housing conditions, with demographics such as: Population, Age Distribution, Racial Distribution, Median Income, Poverty Levels, Age of Homes and Female Head of Household, The data also included a breakdown of units in the census tracts into: single family, duplex, triplex, fourplex, and multi-units. The final conclusions of the report allowed funding programs, such as the Rental Rehabilitation program, Rehabilitation program and HOME, to be used more efficiently. Federal funds are provided to residents that cannot afford to, or unable to do needed repairs and maintenance on their residence. When rehabilitation programs are entered into the communities which have the highest concentrations of improperly maintained housing, the communities as well as the environment benefit

Economic and Fiscal Impacts of Proposed LNG Facility in Robbinston, Maine

The purpose of this study is to examine the economic and fiscal impacts of the proposed Downeast LNG facility on the Town of Robbinston, Washington County, and the State of Maine. The economic impact analysis focuses on the employment and income that are associated with the LNG facility construction and operations. The fiscal impact analysis considers additional local and state tax revenues associated with the facility, as well as increased local government expenditures that are projected to result from the LNG project. This report does not address the environmental, homeland security, or energy security impacts of the LNG facility. In addition, this report does not estimate any changes in the price of delivered natural gas in Maine that could potentially result from a new major energy supplier

Major surgery leads to a proinflammatory phenotype: differential gene expression following a laparotomy

Background: The trauma of surgery is a neglected area of research. Our aim was to examine the differential expression of genes of stress, metabolism and inflammation in the major organs of a rat following a laparotomy. Materials and methods: Anaesthetised Sprague-Dawley rats were randomised into baseline, 6-hr and 3-day groups (n = 6 each), catheterised and laparotomy performed. Animals were sacrificed at each timepoint and tissues collected for gene and protein analysis. Blood stress hormones, cytokines, endothelial injury markers and coagulation were measured. Results: Stress hormone corticosterone significantly increased and was accompanied by significant increases in inflammatory cytokines, endothelial markers, increased neutrophils (6-hr), higher lactate (3-days), and coagulopathy. In brain, there were significant increases in M1 muscarinic (31-fold) and α-1A-adrenergic (39-fold) receptor expression. Cortical expression of metabolic genes increased ∼3-fold, and IL-1β by 6-fold at 3-days. Cardiac β-1-adrenergic receptor expression increased up to 8.4-fold, and M2 and M1 muscarinic receptors by 2 to 4-fold (6-hr). At 3-days, cardiac mitochondrial gene expression (Tfam, Mtco3) and inflammation (IL-1α, IL-4, IL-6, MIP-1α, MCP-1) were significantly elevated. Haemodynamics remained stable. In liver, there was a dramatic suppression of adrenergic and muscarinic receptor expression (up to 90%) and increased inflammation. Gut also underwent autonomic suppression with 140-fold increase in IL-1β expression (3-days). Conclusions: A single laparotomy led to a surgical-induced proinflammatory phenotype involving neuroendocrine stress, cortical excitability, immune activation, metabolic changes and coagulopathy. The pervasive nature of systemic and tissue inflammation was noteworthy. There is an urgent need for new therapies to prevent hyper-inflammation and restore homeostasis following major surgery

Time, monetary and other costs of participation in family-based child weight management interventions: qualitative and systematic review evidence.

BACKGROUND: Childhood overweight and obesity have health and economic impacts on individuals and the wider society. Families participating in weight management programmes may foresee or experience monetary and other costs which deter them from signing up to or completing programmes. This is recognised in the health economics literature, though within this sparse body of work, costs to families are often narrowly defined and not fully accounted for. A societal perspective incorporating a broader array of costs may provide a more accurate picture. This paper brings together a review of the health economics literature on the costs to families attending child weight management programmes with qualitative data from families participating in a programme to manage child overweight and obesity. METHODS: A search identified economic evaluation studies of lifestyle interventions in childhood obesity. The qualitative work drew on interviews with families who attended a weight management intervention in three UK regions. RESULTS: We identified four cost-effectiveness analyses that include information on costs to families. These were categorised as direct (e.g. monetary) and indirect (e.g. time) costs. Our analysis of qualitative data demonstrated that, for families who attended the programme, costs were associated both with participation on the scheme and with maintaining a healthy lifestyle afterwards. Respondents reported three kinds of cost: time-related, social/emotional and monetary. CONCLUSION: Societal approaches to measuring cost-effectiveness provide a framework for assessing the monetary and non-monetary costs borne by participants attending treatment programmes. From this perspective, all costs should be considered in any analysis of cost-effectiveness. Our data suggest that family costs are important, and may act as a barrier to the uptake, completion and maintenance of behaviours to reduce child obesity. These findings have implications for the development and implementation of child weight initiatives in particular, in relation to reducing inequalities in health

There are laterality effects in memory functioning in children/adolescents with focal epilepsy.

In a sample of individuals with childhood focal epilepsy, children/adolescents with left hemisphere foci outperformed those with right foci on both measures of nonverbal learning. Participants with left foci performed worse than controls on paired associate delayed recall and semantic memory, and they had greater laterality effects in IQ. Participants with right foci performed worse than controls on delayed facial recognition. Both groups displayed reduced focused attention and poor passage retention over time. Although participants with bilateral foci displayed poor learning and lower IQ than controls, they did not have worse impairment than those with a unilateral focus

Silent learning

Contains fulltext : 200389.pdf (publisher's version ) (Closed access)We introduce the concept of "silent learning"-the capacity to learn despite neuronal cell-firing being largely absent. This idea emerged from thinking about dendritic computation [1, 2] and examining whether the encoding, expression, and retrieval of hippocampal-dependent memory could be dissociated using the intrahippocampal infusion of pharmacological compounds. We observed that very modest enhancement of GABAergic inhibition with low-dose muscimol blocked both cell-firing and the retrieval of an already-formed memory but left induction of long-term potentiation (LTP) and new spatial memory encoding intact (silent learning). In contrast, blockade of hippocampal NMDA receptors by intrahippocampal D-AP5 impaired both the induction of LTP and encoding but had no effect on memory retrieval. Blockade of AMPA receptors by CNQX impaired excitatory synaptic transmission and cell-firing and both memory encoding and retrieval. Thus, in keeping with the synaptic plasticity and memory hypothesis [3], the hippocampal network can mediate new memory encoding when LTP induction is intact even under conditions in which somatic cell-firing is blocked