Effect on Recreation Benefit Estimates from Correcting for On-Site Sampling Biases and Heterogeneous Trip Overdispersion in Count Data Recreation Demand Models (STATA)

Correction procedures (STATA commands NBSTRAT and GNBSTRAT) are applied to simultaneously account for zero-truncation, endogenous stratification, and overdispersion, and also consider heterogeneity in the overdispersion parameter. Their effect is shown on welfare estimates from previous studies, confirming that the routines perform the appropriate correction and only when endogenous stratification is expected

Crystalline Composition of Equine Urinary Sabulous Deposits

The composition and crystal morphology of 141 equine sabulous deposits were determined by infrared spectroscopy (IR), scanning electron microscopy (SEM) and energy dispersive X-ray analysis (EDX). The IR analysis revealed that all investigated deposits contained calcium carbonates (calcite, CaCO3, and/or vaterite, CaCO3) as major constituents; 42 samples were composed of calcite and vaterite, 33 of calcite, 18 of calcite/vaterite and calcium oxalate, and 17 of vaterite. The remaining specimens contained calcite/vaterite and other compounds (calcium phosphates, sulphate and/or oxalates and/or silica). The examination of 44 selected samples by means of SEM/EDX, revealed the characteristic morphology and elemental composition of the constituents of the sabulous deposits. Calcite crystals showed a typical spherical shape, as well as other less common rhombohedral habit. Vaterite displayed a flower or star appearance and also a mulberry shape. Less frequent was a spherular habit for vaterite resembling that of calcite. Elemental analysis of both calcite and vaterite crystals showed, besides calcium, varying proportions of magnesium and potassium. It is concluded that calcite and vaterite were mainly present in a substituted form. Calcium oxalate dihydrate crystals showed their characteristic bi pyramidal morphology. Calcium oxalate monohydrate crystals, which were less frequent, exhibited dumbbell or hour-glass shape

Adrenal cortex stimulation with hCG in spayed female dogs with Cushing’s syndrome: Is the LH-dependent variant possible?

Background: The expression and overexpression of luteinizing hormone (LH) receptors in the canine adrenal gland cortex have been reported. Therefore, it was hypothesized that a LH-dependent form of Cushing’s syndrome (CS) could exist in dogs.Aim: To assess whether the adrenal gland post-ovariectomy (OVx) exhibits a greater response to adrenocorticotrophin (ACTH) stimulation; to evaluate whether the adrenal gland responds to human chorionic gonadotropin (hCG) stimulation by increasing the release of cortisol; and to consider whether hCG stimulus testing would be useful as a diagnosis for possible cases of LH-dependent CS.Methods: Cortisol concentrations were measured from healthy female dogs (n=16) at baseline and following ACTH stimulation before and 2 months after gonadectomy (OVx). Cortisol concentrations were also measured for female dogs with CS (n = 14) following administration of hCG (5000 IU). A post-hCG cortisol concentration greater than 140 nmol/l was used to define dogs with LH-dependent Cushing’s syndrome.Results: In normal female dogs, both pre- and post-stimulation cortisol concentrations increased following OVx (p = 0.002 and p = 0.0003, respectively). In female dogs with CS, cortisol concentrations increased following stimulation with hCG in 57% (8/14; p = 0.002). Age at the time of OVx was associated (p = 0.015) with the cortisol response to hCG [8 (5–9) years vs. 3.5 (2–6) years, p = 0.0013).Conclusion: Based on these results, an LH-dependent form of CS occurs in spayed female dogs, and that it is more likely to occur when female dogs are spayed later in life

Angioedema: diagnosis and treatment

El angioedema es una tumefacción de dermis de la piel y tejido conjuntivo de mucosas debido a vasodilatación y edema. El hecho de que el angioedema interese al tejido conjuntivo de distintas mucosas tiene el riesgo vital de afectar a la vía aérea superior. Por tanto, nos encontramos con un síndrome de máximo interés como objeto de estudio por parte del clínico. Por una parte, es una entidad que puede tener consecuencias fatales, por otra, su exploración clínica es altamente inespecífica para orientar su etiología. De esta manera, en esta revisión se propone exponer las diferentes causas que pueden conducir a un angioedema para ayudar en la orientación diagnóstica al clínico en su práctica habitual y el manejo terapéutico del mismo.Angioedema is a swelling of the dermis and connective tissue of mucous due to vasodilatation and edema. The fact that angioedema interests mucosal tissues is a risk of affecting the upper airway. Therfore we have a syndrome of great interest as study object by the clinician. On the one hand, it is an entity that can have fatal consequences, on the other, the clinician examination is highly unspecific to guide its etiology. Thus, in this review we try to expose the main different causes that can lead to angioedema to help clinician in diagnostic practice and management thereof

Presente y futuro de los servicios de las bibliotecas médicas. Revisión de la literatura y estudio realizado en un hospital de más de 1.400 camas

More and more information resources exist in electronic format, such as online databases, journals, books, etc., instead of the traditional print format. Advances in information technology have introduced both new capabilities and interesting challenges in the access to medical literature. This has influenced dramatically medical libraries which have changed and will continue to do so. Studies of the impact of the internet on information retrieval behaviour of users in medical environments could provide very valuable information for medical libraries trying to adapt to this rapid evolution. This study aims to explore the real information needs of physicians at the hospital and their medical library use. A review was carried out of literature relating to health libraries in Pubmed, LISA, CINAHL, and Google Scholar. An ad hoc questionnaire was sent to the different hospital services. A systematic sample was made. Results of 118 completed questionnaires collected from 34 different services were analysed. Items regarding: medical information needs; change of information seeking behaviour; use of library services and services offered by the hospital librarian such as quality filtering and users training. Most users are familiar with information technologies such as Internet, online journals, webs, etc., but at the same time traditional systems are used. The assistance of professional medical librarians retrieving new and relevant information from databases and the Internet and teaching skills to retrieve and select information is considered necessary.En los últimos años se han producido grandes cambios en la forma de acceder a la información en medicina y esto ha incidido profundamente en las bibliotecas médicas y en el modo de organizar sus servicios. Los bibliotecarios médicos han dedicado un especial interés en tratar de adaptarse al cambiante entorno de la información y satisfacer las demandas de sus usuarios. El presente estudio, aparte de realizar una revisión del estado de la cuestión, pretende averiguar las necesidades reales de información de los médicos de un hospital de más de 1.400 camas. Para ello se realizó una amplia revisión de la literatura a través de las bases de datos Pubmed, LISA, CINAHL y Google Scholar con el fin de conocer la actualidad de los sistemas de acceso a la información en Biomedicina. También se confeccionó un cuestionario ad hoc, con el objetivo de recabar datos concretos sobre necesidades y hábitos actuales de información de los médicos del Hospital. Los cuestionarios se distribuyeron al azar entre los distintos profesionales de la división médica del Hospital. Se obtuvieron 118 cuestionarios completos de 34 servicios diferentes, cuyas preguntas se basaban en los siguientes apartados principales: utilización de los servicios de la biblioteca, tipos de documentos que se utilizan, necesidades y hábitos de consumo de información detectadas, utilización de tecnologías y selección de la información y formación de usuarios. Se concluye que la mayoría de usuarios ha incorporado los actuales sistemas de acceso a la información a la vez que siguen utilizando los tradicionales. Las tecnologías han multiplicado las posibilidades de acceso a la información, pero también han añadido nuevas necesidades a los lectores. La participación del bibliotecario se hace cada vez más activa en sus tareas de selección y organización de la información ya sea en bibliotecas presenciales como en bibliotecas virtuales

An intermittent extreme BL Lac: MWL study of 1ES 2344+514 in an enhanced state

Extreme high-frequency BL Lacs (EHBL) feature their synchrotron peak of the broad-band spectral energy distribution (SED) at vs ≥ 1017 Hz. The BL Lac object 1ES 2344+514 was included in the EHBL family because of its impressive shift of the synchrotron peak in 1996. During the following years, the source appeared to be in a low state without showing any extreme behaviours. In 2016 August, 1ES 2344+514 was detected with the groundbased γ -ray telescope FACT during a high γ -ray state, triggering multiwavelength (MWL) observations. We studied the MWL light curves of 1ES 2344+514 during the 2016 flaring state, using data from radio to very-high-energy (VHE) γ -rays taken with OVRO, KAIT, KVA, NOT, some telescopes of the GASP-WEBT collaboration at the Teide, Crimean, and St. Petersburg observatories, Swift-UVOT, Swift-XRT, Fermi-LAT, FACT, and MAGIC. With simultaneous observations of the flare, we built the broad-band SED and studied it in the framework of a leptonic and a hadronic model. The VHE γ -ray observations show a flux level of 55 per cent of the Crab Nebula flux above 300 GeV, similar to the historical maximum of 1995. The combination of MAGIC and Fermi-LAT spectra provides an unprecedented characterization of the inverse-Compton peak for this object during a flaring episode. The _ index of the intrinsic spectrum in the VHE γ -ray band is 2.04 ± 0.12stat ± 0.15sys.We find the source in an extreme state with a shift of the position of the synchrotron peak to frequencies above or equal to 1018 Hz.The financial support of the German BMBF and MPG, the Italian INFN and INAF, the Swiss National Fund SNF, the ERDF under the Spanish MINECO (FPA2017-87859-P, FPA2017-85668-P, FPA2017-82729-C6-2-R, FPA2017-82729-C6-6-R, FPA2017-82729-C6-5-R, AYA2015-71042-P, AYA2016-76012-C3-1-P, ESP2017-87055-C2-2-P, and FPA2017-90566-REDC), the Indian Department of Atomic Energy, the Japanese JSPS and MEXT, the Bulgarian Ministry of Education and Science, National RI Roadmap Project DO1-153/28.08.2018, and the Academy of Finland grant no. 320045 is gratefully acknowledged. This work was also supported by the Spanish Centro de Excelencia ‘Severo Ochoa’ SEV-2016-0588 and SEV-2015-0548, and Unidad de Excelencia ‘María de Maeztu’ MDM-2014-0369, by the Croatian Science Foundation (HrZZ) Project IP-2016-06-9782 and the University of Rijeka Project 13.12.1.3.02, by the DFG Collaborative Research Centers SFB823/C4 and SFB876/C3, the Polish National Research Centre grant UMO-2016/22/M/ST9/00382 and by the Brazilian MCTIC, CNPq, and FAPERJ. The FACT collaboration acknowledges the important contributions from ETH Zurich grants ETH-10.08-2 and ETH-27.12-1 as well as the funding by the Swiss SNF and the German BMBF (Verbundforschung Astro- und Astroteilchenphysik) and HAP (Helmoltz Alliance for Astroparticle Physics) are gratefully acknowledged. Part of this work is supported by Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft (DFG) within the Collaborative Research Center SFB 876 ‘Providing Information by Resource-Constrained Analysis’, project C3

Cutaneous manifestations of scleroderma: a therapeutic challenge

La esclerodermia es una conectivopatía crónica y multisistémica con alta morbi-mortalidad y de patogenia desconocida. Los principales síntomas son consecuencia del depósito de colágeno y el daño endotelial a nivel de corazón, pulmón, tubo digestivo, riñón y piel. La afectación cutánea puede llegar a ser muy incapacitante y empeorar de forma marcada la calidad de vida de los pacientes. En la presente revisión se repasan las principales manifestaciones dermatológicas de esta enfermedad, su diagnóstico y las posibilidades de tratamiento.Scleroderma is a chronic and multisystemic connective tissue disease with high morbidity and mortality and unknown pathogenesis. The main symptoms are a result of collagen deposition and endothelial damage at heart, lung, gastrointestinal tract, kidney and skin. The skin involvement can become disabling and markedly worsen the quality of life of patients. The present article reviews the main cutaneous manifestations of this disease, its diagnosis and treatment options

Public Versus Private: Does It Matter for Water Conservation? Insights from California

This article asks three connected questions: First, does the public view private and public utilities differently, and if so, does this affect attitudes to conservation? Second, do public and private utilities differ in their approaches to conservation? Finally, do differences in the approaches of the utilities, if any, relate to differences in public attitudes? We survey public attitudes in California toward (hypothetical but plausible) voluntary and mandated water conservation, as well as to price increases, during a recent period of shortage. We do this by interviewing households in three pairs of adjacent public and private utilities. We also survey managers of public and private urban water utilities to see if they differ in their approaches to conservation and to their customers. On the user side we do not find pronounced differences, though a minority of customers in all private companies would be more willing to conserve or pay higher prices under a public operator. No respondent in public utility said the reverse. Negative attitudes toward private operators were most pronounced in the pair marked by a controversial recent privatization and a price hike. Nonetheless, we find that California’s history of recurrent droughts and the visible role of the state in water supply and drought management undermine the distinction between public and private. Private utilities themselves work to underplay the distinction by stressing the collective ownership of the water source and the collective value of conservation. Overall, California’s public utilities appear more proactive and target-oriented in asking their customers to conserve than their private counterparts and the state continues to be important in legitimating and guiding conservation behavior, whether the utility is in public hands or private