Contributions in the field of palaeopalynology at the Bernard Price Institute, past, present and future

Main articleA brief chronological summary of the palynological research carried out by students and past members of the staff at the Bernard Price Institute for Palaeontological Research is presented. The contribution that each of these studies has made to the understanding of stratigraphic relationships in the southern African region is highlighted. A correlation chart of palynological biozones documented from South African localities is presented (Table 1).Non

Transverse multi-mode effects on the performance of photon-photon gates

The multi-mode character of quantum fields imposes constraints on the implementation of high-fidelity quantum gates between individual photons. So far this has only been studied for the longitudinal degree of freedom. Here we show that effects due to the transverse degrees of freedom significantly affect quantum gate performance. We also discuss potential solutions, in particular separating the two photons in the transverse direction.Comment: 5 pages, 3 figures, published versio

Using a hypothetical scenario to assess public preferences for colorectal surveillance following screening-detected, intermediate-risk adenomas: annual home-based stool test vs. triennial colonoscopy

Background To assess public preferences for colorectal cancer (CRC) surveillance tests for intermediate-risk adenomas, using a hypothetical scenario. Methods Adults aged 45–54 years without CRC were identified from three General Practices in England (two in Cumbria, one in London). A postal survey was carried out during a separate study on preferences for different first-line CRC screening modalities (non- or full-laxative computed tomographic colonography, flexible sigmoidoscopy, or colonoscopy). Individuals were allocated at random to receive a pack containing information on one first-line test, and a paragraph describing CRC surveillance recommendations for people who are diagnosed with intermediate-risk adenomas during screening. All participants received a description of two surveillance options: annual single-sample, home-based stool testing (consistent with Faecal Immunochemical Tests; FIT) or triennial colonoscopy. Invitees were asked to imagine they had been diagnosed with intermediate-risk adenomas, and then complete a questionnaire on their surveillance preferences. Results 22.1 % (686/3,100) questionnaires were returned. 491 (15.8 %) were eligible for analysis. The majority of participants stated a surveillance preference for the stool test over colonoscopy (60.8 % vs 31.0 %; no preference: 8.1 %; no surveillance: 0.2 %). Women were more likely to prefer the stool test than men (66.7 % vs. 53.6 %; p = .011). The primary reason for preferring the stool test was that it would be done more frequently. The main reason to prefer colonoscopy was its superiority at finding polyps. Conclusions A majority of participants stated a preference for a surveillance test resembling FIT over colonoscopy. Future research should test whether this translates to greater adherence in a real surveillance setting

Dissociable Neural Substrates for Agentic versus Conceptual Representations of Self

Although humans generally experience a coherent sense of selfhood, we can nevertheless articulate different aspects of self. Recent research has demonstrated that one such aspect of self—conceptual knowledge of one's own personality traits—is subserved by ventromedial prefrontal cortex (vMPFC). Here, we examined whether an alternative aspect of “self”—being an agent who acts to achieve one's own goals—relies on cognitive processes that overlap with or diverge from conceptual operationalizations of selfhood. While undergoing fMRI, participants completed tasks of both conceptual self-reference, in which they judged their own or another person's personality traits, and agentic self-reference, in which they freely chose an object or watched passively as one was chosen. The agentic task failed to modulate vMPFC, despite producing the same memory enhancement frequently observed during conceptual self-referential processing (the “self-reference” effect). Instead, agentic self-reference was associated with activation of the intraparietal sulcus (IPS), a region previously implicated in planning and executing actions. Experiment 2 further demonstrated that IPS activity correlated with later memory performance for the agentic, but not conceptual, task. These results support views of the “self” as a collection of distinct mental operations distributed throughout the brain, rather than a unitary cognitive system

Bridging the gap: The St. Cloud Somali community’s view of illness and disease in a Western society & its effects on patient care

In this ethnographic study, we looked at how the Somali people view illness and disease in a Western society. In addition, we looked at how differing views and cultural practices affected their treatment and interpretation of Western medicine. Due to the ongoing increase of Somali people in the United States, this topic is important in showcasing the difficulties that newcomers face when it comes to medicine and how these experiences shape their view of Western medicine. These difficulties include language barriers and cultural differences. Our main focus was on the St. Cloud area due to its close proximity to the College of Saint Benedict and the fact that Minnesota has the highest percentage of Somali people in the U.S. The study involved interviews from the director of English Learners at Discovery Community Elementary School, doctors at the St. Cloud Hospital emergency department and within the CentraCare clinic system, a Somali community health worker, and Somali college students

Generating and evaluating a ranked candidate gene list for potential vertebrate heart field regulators

The vertebrate heart develops from two distinct lineages of cardiomyocytes that arise from the first and second heart fields (FHF and SHF, respectively). The FHF forms the primitive heart tube, while adding cells from the SHF allows elongation at both poles of the tube. Initially seen as an exclusive characteristic of higher vertebrates, recent work has demonstrated the presence of a distinct FHF and SHF in lower vertebrates, including zebrafish. We found that key transcription factors that regulate septation and chamber formation in higher vertebrates, including Tbx5 and Pitx2, influence relative FHF and SHF contributions to the zebrafish heart tube. To identify molecular modulators of heart field migration, we used microarray-based expression profiling following inhibition of tbx5a and pitx2ab in embryonic zebrafish (Mosimann & Panakova, et al, 2015; GSE70750). Here, we describe in more detail the procedure used to process, prioritize, and analyze the expression data for functional enrichment

Violence, uncertainty, and resilience among refugee women and community workers: An evaluation of gender-based violence case management services in the Dadaab refugee camps.

Reports of gender-based violence (GBV) are common in camps for refugees and displaced populations. In the Dadaab refugee camps in north-eastern Kenya, the International Rescue Committee (IRC) and CARE International (CARE) implement programmes that aim to both respond to and prevent GBV. A cornerstone of this work has been to train refugees, known as refugee community workers, to deliver aspects of GBV prevention and response work in order to develop a broader implementation of traditional GBV outreach, community mobilisation, and case management. To date, there has been limited rigorous research on this broader GBV case management plus task sharing approach in the context of a refugee camp setting. To address this key gap in evidence, the London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine (LSHTM) and the African Population and Health Research Centre (APHRC), in collaboration with IRC and CARE, have sought to assess this model to understand its feasibility, acceptability, and influence among female survivors of GBV accessing care. Data for this study, funded by UK aid, were collected in the Dadaab refugee camps between 2014 and 2017, which coincided with a temporary decision to close the camp and repatriate Somali refugees. The research confirms the magnitude and complexity of the violence that women and girls experience in the camps in Dadaab. In the year leading up to this study, 47% of women accessing the GBV centres for case management reported experiencing intimate partner violence and 39% reported experiencing non-partner violence. In addition, the study highlights the specific risks, challenges, opportunities and rewards experienced by refugee community workers in their dual role of community members and GBV activists living side-by-side with survivors and perpetrators of violence. Solely related to their work as GBV caseworkers, one in three refugee community workers reported experiencing non-partner violence in the last 12 months. Despite this, 93% of refugee community workers stated their work was rewarding or extremely rewarding. The majority of women (82%) accessing services reported that their interactions with refugee community workers had a positive effect, and that working with them was useful. However, having refugees deliver services to their own community was not without its challenges, and survivors raised issues on confidentiality, mistranslations, and perceived biases on clan differences. The study also provides an insight into the importance of contextual factors in case management, and the impact of the announcement of the (now-delayed) camp closure in Dadaab. Priorities of both the camp population and service providers (GBV and referral services) shifted greatly during this time of uncertainty and affected when and how women were accessing services

Chloridobis[diphenyl­glyoximato(1–)-κ2 N,N′](1H-imidazole-κN 3)cobalt(III) hemihydrate

The Co centre in the title compound, [Co(C14H11N2O2)2Cl(C3H4N2)]·0.5H2O, shows a slightly distorted octa­hedral coordination geometry. The glyoximate units of the mol­ecule are linked by O—H⋯O hydrogen bonds with the H atom almost in the middle of the two O atoms. The crystal packing is stabilized through inter­molecular N—H⋯O, N—H⋯N and O—H⋯Cl hydrogen bonds. The uncoordinated water mol­ecule shows half-occupation

Source attribution, prevalence and enumeration of Campylobacter spp. from retail liver

Funding Information: We thank Food Standards Agency, Scotland for funding this work.Peer reviewedPreprin

Locating and sizing energy storage systems for distribution feeder expansion planning

In this paper we present a mixed integer programming (MIP) formulation of an electricity network expansion planning model that considers the location, sizing, and operation of energy storage systems (ESS) as well as additional circuits. The model includes constraints to manage generator ramp rates, ESS charge/discharge rates, and losses on power transferred to, from, and within storage. Two new test networks based on representative feeder taxonomies identified by the National Feeder Taxonomy Study are used to demonstrate the use of the model, and a procedure to create other such test systems is defined. We find that ESS are typically omitted from the expansion plan as the cost of installing the new circuits is currently less than the cost of distribution scale energy storage