Fiscal year 1981 US corn and soybeans pilot preliminary experiment plan, phase 1

A draft of the preliminary experiment plan for the foreign commodity production forecasting project fiscal year 1981 is presented. This draft plan includes: definition of the phase 1 and 2 U.S. pilot objectives; the proposed experiment design to evaluate crop calendar, area estimation, and area aggregation components for corn and soybean technologies using 1978/1979 crop-year data; a description of individual sensitivity evaluations of the baseline corn and soybean segment classification procedure; and technology and data assessment in support of the corn and soybean estimation technology for use in the U.S. central corn belt

Comparing proxy rated quality of life of people living with dementia in care homes

Background: Improving quality of life (QOL) for people with dementia is a priority. In care homes, we often rely on proxy ratings from staff and family but we do not know if, or how, they differ in care homes. Methods: We compared 1056 pairs of staff and family DEMQOL-Proxy ratings from 86 care homes across England. We explored factors associated with ratings quantitatively using multilevel modelling and, qualitatively, through thematic analysis of 12 staff and 12 relative interviews. Results: Staff and family ratings were weakly correlated (ρs = 0.35). Median staff scores were higher than family's (104 v. 101; p < 0.001). Family were more likely than staff to rate resident QOL as ‘Poor’ (χ2 = 55.91, p < 0.001). Staff and family rated QOL higher when residents had fewer neuropsychiatric symptoms and severe dementia. Staff rated QOL higher in homes with lower staff:resident ratios and when staff were native English speakers. Family rated QOL higher when the resident had spent longer living in the care home and was a native English. Spouses rated residents’ QOL higher than other relatives. Qualitative results suggest differences arise because staff felt good care provided high QOL but families compared the present to the past. Family judgements centre on loss and are complicated by decisions about care home placement and their understandings of dementia. Conclusion: Proxy reports differ systematically between staff and family. Reports are influenced by the rater:staff and family may conceptualise QOL differently

Exploited resources of major perches in India

The present paper reviews the studies on the exploited resources of mqjor perches from, the Indian seas. Major perches consist of fairly large sized fishes belonging to families Serranidae, Lutjanidae and Lethrinidae, popularly known as rock cods,snappers and pigface breams respectively. They form 17% of the total perch catch. The average annual production of major perches in the country during 1990-98 is estimated as 23,800t. The highest landing of major perches is from the state ofTamilnadu (49.5%), followed by Kerala (19.74%). They inhabit the rocky and coralline grounds of/" the south west and south east coasts and the Wadge Bank and also in the rocky grounds off Gujarat and Maharashtra . Along the south west and south east coasts, the peak fishing season is from December to April. This resource could be exploited more efficiently by hooks and lines as well as the traps rather than trawl nets, as the grounds are often not trawlable

Changes in anthropometry, upper-body strength, and nutrient intake in professional Australian football players during a season

©2016 Human Kinetics,Inc. The purpose of this study was to examine the seasonal changes in body composition, nutrition, and upper-body (UB) strength in professional Australian Football (AF) players. The prospective longitudinal study examined changes in anthropometry (body mass, fat-free soft-tissue mass [FFSTM], and fat mass) via dual-energy X-ray absorptiometry 5 times during an AF season (start preseason, midpreseason, start season, midseason, end season) in 45 professional AF players. Dietary intakes and strength (bench press and bench pull) were also assessed at these time points. Players were categorized as experienced (>4 y experience, n = 23) or inexperienced (1 y to develop the appropriate levels of FFSTM in young players and take a long-term view when developing the physical and performance abilities of inexperienced players

Protein-DNA charge transport: Redox activation of a DNA repair protein by guanine radical

DNA charge transport (CT) chemistry provides a route to carry out oxidative DNA damage from a distance in a reaction that is sensitive to DNA mismatches and lesions. Here, DNA-mediated CT also leads to oxidation of a DNA-bound base excision repair enzyme, MutY. DNA-bound Ru(III), generated through a flash/quench technique, is found to promote oxidation of the [4Fe-4S](2+) cluster of MutY to [4Fe-4S](3+) and its decomposition product [3Fe-4S](1+). Flash/quench experiments monitored by EPR spectroscopy reveal spectra with g = 2.08, 2.06, and 2.02, characteristic of the oxidized clusters. Transient absorption spectra of poly(dGC) and [Ru(phen)(2)dppz](3+) (dppz = dipyridophenazine), generated in situ, show an absorption characteristic of the guanine radical that is depleted in the presence of MutY with formation instead of a long-lived species with an absorption at 405 nm; we attribute this absorption also to formation of the oxidized [4Fe-4S](3+) and [3Fe4S](1+) clusters. In ruthenium-tethered DNA assemblies, oxidative damage to the 5'-G of a 5'-GG-3' doublet is generated from a distance but this irreversible damage is inhibited by MutY and instead EPR experiments reveal cluster oxidation. With ruthenium-tethered assemblies containing duplex versus single-stranded regions, MutY oxidation is found to be mediated by the DNA duplex, with guanine radical as an intermediate oxidant; guanine radical formation facilitates MutY oxidation. A model is proposed for the redox activation of DNA repair proteins through DNA CT, with guanine radicals, the first product under oxidative stress, in oxidizing the DNA-bound repair proteins, providing the signal to stimulate DNA repair

Differentiation of dementia with Lewy bodies from Alzheimer's disease using a dopaminergic presynaptic ligand

Background: Dementia with Lewy bodies (DLB) is one of the main differential diagnoses of Alzheimer's disease (AD). Key pathological features of patients with DLB are not only the presence of cerebral cortical neuronal loss, with Lewy bodies in surviving neurones, but also loss of nigrostriatal dopaminergic neurones, similar to that of Parkinson's disease (PD). In DLB there is 40-70% loss of striatal dopamine.Objective: To determine if detection of this dopaminergic degeneration can help to distinguish DLB from AD during life.Methods: The integrity of the nigrostriatal metabolism in 27 patients with DLB, 17 with AD, 19 drug naive patients with PD, and 16 controls was assessed using a dopaminergic presynaptic ligand, I-123-labelled 2beta-carbomethoxy-3beta-(4-iodophenyl)-N-(3-fluoropropyl)nortropane (FP-CIT), and single photon emission tomography (SPET). A SPET scan was carried out with a single slice, brain dedicated tomograph (SME 810) 3.5 hours after intravenous injection of 185 MBq FP-CIT. With occipital cortex used as a radioactivity uptake reference, ratios for the caudate nucleus and the anterior and posterior putamen of both hemispheres were calculated. All scans were also rated by a simple visual method.Results: Both DLB and PD patients had significantly lower uptake of radioactivity than patients with (p<0.01) and controls (p<0.001) in the caudate nucleus and the anterior and posterior Putamen.Conclusion: FP-CIT SPET provides a means of distinguishing DLB from AD during life

Comparison of Magnetic Flux Distribution between a Coronal Hole and a Quiet Region

Employing Big Bear Solar Observatory (BBSO) deep magnetograms and H${\alpha}$ images in a quiet region and a coronal hole, observed on September 14 and 16, 2004, respectively, we have explored the magnetic flux emergence, disappearance and distribution in the two regions. The following results are obtained: (1) The evolution of magnetic flux in the quiet region is much faster than that in the coronal hole, as the flux appeared in the form of ephemeral regions in the quiet region is 4.3 times as large as that in the coronal hole, and the flux disappeared in the form of flux cancellation, 2.9 times as fast as in the coronal hole. (2) More magnetic elements with opposite polarities in the quiet region are connected by arch filaments, estimating from magnetograms and H${\alpha}$ images. (3) We measured the magnetic flux of about 1000 magnetic elements in each observing region. The flux distribution of network and intranetwork (IN) elements is similar in both polarities in the quiet region. For network fields in the coronal hole, the number of negative elements is much more than that of positive elements. However for the IN fields, the number of positive elements is much more than that of negative elements. (4) In the coronal hole, the fraction of negative flux change obviously with different threshold flux density. 73% of the magnetic fields with flux density larger than 2 Gauss is negative polarity, and 95% of the magnetic fields is negative, if we only measure the fields with their flux density larger than 20 Gauss. Our results display that in a coronal hole, stronger fields is occupied by one predominant polarity; however the majority of weaker fields, occupied by the other polarity

Quiet Sun magnetic fields from simultaneous inversions of visible and infrared spectropolarimetric observations

We study the quiet Sun magnetic fields using spectropolarimetric observations of the infrared and visible Fe I lines at 6301.5, 6302.5, 15648 and 15653 A. Magnetic field strengths and filling factors are inferred by the simultaneous fit of the observed Stokes profiles under the MISMA hypothesis. The observations cover an intra-network region at the solar disk center. We analyze 2280 Stokes profiles whose polarization signals are above noise in the two spectral ranges, which correspond to 40% of the field of view. Most of these profiles can be reproduced only with a model atmosphere including 3 magnetic components with very different field strengths, which indicates the co-existence of kG and sub-kG fields in our 1.5" resolution elements. We measure an unsigned magnetic flux density of 9.6 G considering the full field of view. Half of the pixels present magnetic fields with mixed polarities in the resolution element. The fraction of mixed polarities increases as the polarization weakens. We compute the probability density function of finding each magnetic field strength. It has a significant contribution of kG field strengths, which concentrates most of the observed magnetic flux and energy. This kG contribution has a preferred magnetic polarity, while the polarity of the weak fields is balanced.Comment: 16 pages and 14 figure

Phase Separation in Ti-6Al-4V Alloys with Boron Additions for Biomedical Applications: Scanning Kelvin Probe Force Microscopy Investigation of Microgalvanic Couples and Corrosion Initiation

To investigate the effect of boron additions on the corrosion behavior of Ti-6Al-4V for potential use in biomedical implants and devices, cast samples of Ti-6Al-4V were alloyed with 0.01% to 1.09% boron by weight and subjected to hot isostatic pressing. Subsequent analysis via scanning Kelvin probe force microscopy and scanning electron microscopy/energy-dispersive spectroscopy revealed the presence of both alpha (α) and beta (β) phase titanium, enriched in aluminum and vanadium, respectively. At all concentrations, boron additions affected the grain structure and were dispersed throughout both phases, but above the solubility limit, needle-like TiB structures also formed. The TiB needles and β phase exhibited similar surface potentials, whereas that of the α phase was found to be significantly lower. Nevertheless, when subjected to high applied electrochemical potentials in saline solutions, corrosion initiation was observed exclusively within the more noble β phase

Epidemiology of and surveillance for postpartum infections.

We screened automated ambulatory medical records, hospital and emergency room claims, and pharmacy records of 2,826 health maintenance organization (HMO) members who gave birth over a 30-month period. Full-text ambulatory records were reviewed for the 30-day postpartum period to confirm infection status for a weighted sample of cases. The overall postpartum infection rate was 6.0%, with rates of 7.4% following cesarean section and 5.5% following vaginal delivery. Rehospitalization; cesarean delivery; antistaphylococcal antibiotics; diagnosis codes for mastitis, endometritis, and wound infection; and ambulatory blood or wound cultures were important predictors of infection. Use of automated information routinely collected by HMOs and insurers allows efficient identification of postpartum infections not detected by conventional surveillance