Review of \u3ci\u3eOur Town on the Plains: J. J. Pennell\u27s Photographs of Junction City, Kansas, 1893-1922\u3c/i\u3e By James R. Shortridge

The nineteenth-century settlement of the Great Plains coincided with a number of technological developments, including improved railroad equipment, the steel plow, and the agricultural combine. Photography was among these technical developments, ensuring that the process of settlement would be both celebrated and recorded. The history of Junction City, Kansas, is bound up with such technological developments. Located near the junction of the Republican and Smoky Hill Rivers, it grew close by the site of Fort Riley in north central Kansas and became a railroad town and county seat by the 1870s. By 1890 the community was prosperous and its economy diversified. Enter photographer J. J. Pennell. One of the region\u27s many local photographers who established thriving businesses to record family, civic, and commercial life, Pennell operated in Junction City for nearly three decades. More artistic than many photographers, he left a fascinating record of a community both typical and unique. Following an informative introduction by John Pultz, curator of photography at the University of Kansas Spencer Art without a thought to what this has done to Native societies over time. Given this state of affairs (about which the book is silent), why is it that there are still anthropologists who insist on fashioning or inventing new theories primarily aimed at trying to explain why Native people have such difficulties adapting to the modern world? I think part of the answer to this very old question is clear and simple and staring us straight in the face-and it is called colonialist genocide. If I were asked to write a prescription for social and psychological disaster among Native peoples, something that would surely bring about a near total collapse of their ancient societies, it would go something like this: Initially, I would put them on reservations and take away their art. In this way I would sever them from their mythology, philosophy, history, religion, land, and language in one stroke since all of these are fundamentally integrated or embodied in their social systems through their land and art. Art is the primary means by which they effectuate what is equivalent to Western society\u27s libraries, churches, courthouses, theaters, and schools. I would then legislate laws, enforceable at the point of a gun, of course, which would allow me to replace their accumulated wealth of oral, historical, and spiritual knowledge and traditions with my own special brand of social philosophy, economics, and religions, all based upon a social system relying heavily upon avarice as its most basic social tenet and coupled with the identification of those Native peoples as primitives and savages. That law would then be enforceable for at least seventy years in such places as government run boarding schools. I would then insist upon using unprovable abstract scientific theories to describe the different versions of reality these ancient peoples harbor towards themselves. Furthermore, I would require everybody to use the same vernacular established by these parochial theorists whenever the subject of the Native American came up, in whatever context

Improved modeling of sediment oxygen kinetics and fluxes in lakes and reservoirs

To understand water quality degradation during hypoxia, we need to understand sediment oxygen fluxes, the main oxygen sink in shallow hypolimnia. Kinetic models, which integrate diffusion and consumption of dissolved oxygen (DO) in sediments, usually assume a downward flux of DO from the sediment-water interface (SWI) with a zero-flux condition at the lower boundary of the oxic sediment layer. In this paper, we separately account for the oxidation of an upward flux of reduced compounds by introducing a negative flux of DO as a lower boundary condition. Using in situ measurements in two lakes, kinetic models were fit to DO microprofiles using zero-order and first-order kinetics with both zero and non-zero lower boundary conditions. Based on visual inspection and goodness-of-fit criteria, the negative-flux lower boundary condition, -0.25 g O 2 m -2 d -1, was found to more accurately describe DO consumption kinetics. Fitted zero-order rate constants ranged from 50 to 510 mg L -1 d -1, and first-order rate constants ranged from 60 to 400 d -1, which agree well with prior laboratory studies. DO fluxes at the SWI calculated from the simulated profiles with the negative-flux lower boundary condition also showed better agreement with the observed DO fluxes than the simulated profiles with the zero-flux lower boundary condition. </p

Improved modeling of sediment oxygen kinetics and fluxes in lakes and reservoirs

To understand water quality degradation during hypoxia, we need to understand sediment oxygen fluxes, the main oxygen sink in shallow hypolimnia. Kinetic models, which integrate diffusion and consumption of dissolved oxygen (DO) in sediments, usually assume a downward flux of DO from the sediment−water interface (SWI) with a zero-flux condition at the lower boundary of the oxic sediment layer. In this paper, we separately account for the oxidation of an upward flux of reduced compounds by introducing a negative flux of DO as a lower boundary condition. Using in situ measurements in two lakes, kinetic models were fit to DO microprofiles using zero-order and first-order kinetics with both zero and non-zero lower boundary conditions. Based on visual inspection and goodness-of-fit criteria, the negative-flux lower boundary condition, −0.25 g O2 m−2 d−1, was found to more accurately describe DO consumption kinetics. Fitted zero-order rate constants ranged from 50 to 510 mg L−1 d−1, and first-order rate constants ranged from 60 to 400 d−1, which agree well with prior laboratory studies. DO fluxes at the SWI calculated from the simulated profiles with the negative-flux lower boundary condition also showed better agreement with the observed DO fluxes than the simulated profiles with the zero-flux lower boundary condition

The threats to Malta from invasive species

Modern transport, by land, air or sea, has provided ample opportunities for species to travel from one continent to another. As a consequence of this migration, some introduced species do not only settle in the country of introduction, but also compete with indigenous species and sometimes even change natural habitats, weakening conservation measures for local indigenous species.peer-reviewe

Impact of water uptake and mixing state on submicron particle deposition in the human respiratory tract (HRT) based on explicit hygroscopicity measurements at HRT-like conditions

Particle hygroscopicity plays a key role in determining the particle deposition in the human respiratory tract (HRT). In this study, the effects of hygroscopicity and mixing state on regional and total deposition doses on the basis of the particle number concentration for children, adults, and the elderly were quantified using the Multiple-Path Particle Dosimetry model, based on the size-resolved particle hygroscopicity measurements at HRT-like conditions (relative humidity = 98 %) performed in the North China Plain. The measured particle population with an external mixing state was dominated by hygroscopic particles (number fraction = (91.5 ± 5.7) %, mean ± standard deviation (SD); the same below). Particle hygroscopic growth in the HRT led to a reduction by around 24 % in the total doses of submicron particles for all age groups. Such a reduction was mainly caused by the growth of hygroscopic particles and was more pronounced in the pulmonary and tracheobronchial regions. Regardless of hygroscopicity, the elderly group of people had the highest total dose among three age groups, while children received the maximum total deposition rate. With 270 nm in diameter as the boundary, the total deposition doses of particles smaller than this diameter were overestimated, and those of larger particles were underestimated, assuming no particle hygroscopic growth in the HRT. From the perspective of the daily variation, the deposition rates of hygroscopic particles with an average of (2.88 ± 0.81) × 109 particles h-1 during the daytime were larger than those at night ((2.32 ± 0.24) × 109 particles h-1). On the contrary, hydrophobic particles interpreted as freshly emitted soot and primary organic aerosols exhibited higher deposition rates at nighttime ((3.39 ± 1.34) × 108 particles h-1) than those in the day ((2.58 ± 0.76) × 108 particles h-1). The traffic emissions during the rush hours enhanced the deposition rate of hydrophobic particles. This work provides a more explicit assessment of the impact of hygroscopicity and mixing state on the deposition pattern of submicron particles in the HRT. Copyright

Low adherence to recommended use of neoadjuvant chemotherapy for muscle-invasive bladder cancer

Purpose: To evaluate guideline adherence and variation in the recommended use of neoadjuvant chemotherapy (NAC) and the effects of this variation on survival in patients with non-metastatic muscle-invasive bladder cancer (MIBC). Patients and methods: In this nationwide, Netherlands Cancer Registry-based study, we identified 1025 patients newly diagnosed with non-metastatic MIBC between November 2017 and November 2019 who underwent radical cystectomy. Patients with ECOG performance status 0–1 and creatinine clearance ≥ 50 mL/min/1.73 m2 were considered NAC-eligible. Interhospital variation was assessed using case-mix adjusted multilevel analysis. A Cox proportional hazards model was used to evaluate the association between hospital specific probability of using NAC and survival. All analyses were stratified by disease stage (cT2 versus cT3-4a). Results: In total, of 809 NAC-eligible patients, only 34% (n = 277) received NAC. Guideline adherence for NAC in cT2 was 26% versus 55% in cT3-4a disease. Interhospital variation was 7–57% and 31–62%, respectively. A higher hospital specific probability of NAC might be associated with a better survival, but results were not statistically significant (HRcT2 = 0.59, 95% CI 0.33–1.05 and HRcT3-4a = 0.71, 95% CI 0.25–2.04). Conclusion: Guideline adherence regarding NAC use is low and interhospital variation is large, especially for patients with cT2-disease. Although not significant, our data suggest that survival of patients diagnosed in hospitals more inclined to give NAC might be better. Further research is warranted to elucidate the underlying mechanism. As literature clearly shows the potential survival benefit of NAC in patients with cT3-4a disease, better guideline adherence might be pursued.</p