Are Newly Discovered HI High Velocity Clouds Minihalos in the Local Group?

A set of HI sources extracted from the north Galactic polar region by the ongoing ALFALFA survey has properties that are consistent with the interpretation that they are associated with isolated minihalos in the outskirts of the Local Group (LG). Unlike objects detected by previous surveys, such as the Compact High Velocity Clouds of Braun & Burton (1999), the HI clouds found by ALFALFA do not violate any structural requirements or halo scaling laws of the LambdaCDM structure paradigm, nor would they have been detected by extant HI surveys of nearby galaxy groups other than the LG. At a distance of d Mpc, their HI masses range between $5 x 10^4 d^2 and 10^6 d^2 solar and their HI radii between <0.4d and 1.6 d kpc. If they are parts of gravitationally bound halos, the total masses would be on order of 10^8--10^9 solar, their baryonic content would be signifcantly smaller than the cosmic fraction of 0.16 and present in a ionized gas phase of mass well exceeding that of the neutral phase. This study does not however prove that the minihalo interpretation is unique. Among possible alternatives would be that the clouds are shreds of the Leading Arm of the Magellanic Stream.Comment: 4 pages, 3 figures, 1 table; to appear Ap.J. Letter

Iniciativa de la Fundación MacArthur para promover la partería en México

La Fundación MacArthur, en colaboración con una amplia diversidad de aliadas, sostiene que la partería profesional puede contribuir a incrementar la calidad de la atención en la salud materna en México, fortalecer el primer nivel de atención e incrementar el número de proveedores en la atención primaria de la salud que trabajan en las zonas rurales y de alta marginalidad, donde se concentra la mayor razón de muerte materna del país. Después de décadas de trabajar para mejorar la salud reproductiva, en 2015 la Fundación lanzó una iniciativa final mediante el diseño cuidadoso de un portafolio de acciones enfocadas en la institucionalización de la partería profesional. En este documento se describe la información de la línea de base, obtenida al inicio de dicha Iniciativ

Quantifying nitrogen fluxes and their influence on the greenhouse gas balance: recent findings of the NitroEurope Integrated Project

The generation of reactive nitrogen (Nr) by human activities to stimulate agricultural productivity and the unintended formation of Nr in combustion processes both have major impacts on the global environment. Effects of excess Nr include the deterioration of air quality, water quality, soil quality and a decline in biodiversity. One of the most controversial impacts of nitrogen, however, is on the greenhouse gas balance. While recent papers have highlighted a possible benefit of nitrogen in enhancing rates of carbon sequestration, there remain many trade-offs between nitrogen and greenhouse gas exchange. The result is that the net effect of Nr on the global radiative balance has yet to be fully quantified. To better understand these relationships requires intense measurement and modelling of Nr fluxes at various temporal and spatial scales in order to make the link between different nitrogen forms and their fate in the environment. It is essential to measure fluxes for a wide range of ecosystems considering the biosphere-atmosphere exchange of the Nr components and greenhouse gases, as well as the fixation of di-nitrogen and its creation by denitrification. Long-term observations are needed for representative ecosystems, together with results from experiments addressing the responses of the key nitrogen and greenhouse gas fluxes to different global change drivers. The NitroEurope Integrated Project (in short NEU IP), funded under the 6th Framework Programme of the European Commission, has developed and applied a strategy for quantifying these different terms on multiple scales. With the project nearing completion, this presentation reports selected preliminary findings. It highlights the first estimates of Nr inputs and net green-house gas exchange for a series of 13 flux ‘supersites’, complemented by the emerging results of Nr concentrations and related N inputs at a network of 58 ‘inferential sites’, which extend the European representativity of the results. In addition, new low cost methods to measure nitrogen fluxes will be reported, which have been extensively tested at those sites. Results from this 3-tier flux network are underpinned by emerging findings from an extensive network of manipulation sites. A combination of modelling at plot, landscape and European scales is used to upscale the results. Finally the talk will illustrate how nitrogen mitigation techniques are being considered at the European scale, including an estimation of the scale of costs involved in simultaneously mitigating nitrous oxide, ammonia and nitrate losse

A pilot study on peritraumatic dissociation and coping styles as risk factors for posttraumatic stress, anxiety and depression in parents after their child's unexpected admission to a Pediatric Intensive Care Unit

Aim: To study the prevalence of posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD), anxiety and depression in parents three months after pediatric intensive care treatment of their child and examine if peritraumatic dissocation and coping styles are related to these mental health problems. Methods: This is a prospective cohort study and included parents of children unexpectedly admitted to the Pediatric Intensive Care Unit (PICU) from January 2006 to March 2007. At three months follow-up parents completed PTSD (n = 115), anxiety and depression (n = 128) questionnaires. Immediately after discharge, parents completed peritraumatic dissocation and coping questionnaires. Linear regression models with generalized estimating equations examined risk factors for mental health problems. Results: Over 10% of the parents were likely to meet criteria for PTSD and almost one quarter for subclinical PTSD. Respectively 15% to 23% of the parents reported clinically significant levels of depression and anxiety. Peritraumatic dissocation was most strongly associated with PTSD, anxiety as well as depression. Avoidance coping was primarily associated with PTSD. Conclusion: A significant number of parents have mental health problems three months after unexpected PICU treatment of their child. Improving detection and raise awareness of mental health problems is important to minimize the negative effect of these problems on parents' well-being. © 2009 Bronner et al; licensee BioMed Central Ltd

The taxonomic name resolution service : an online tool for automated standardization of plant names

© The Author(s), 2013. This article is distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License. The definitive version was published in BMC Bioinformatics 14 (2013): 16, doi:10.1186/1471-2105-14-16.The digitization of biodiversity data is leading to the widespread application of taxon names that are superfluous, ambiguous or incorrect, resulting in mismatched records and inflated species numbers. The ultimate consequences of misspelled names and bad taxonomy are erroneous scientific conclusions and faulty policy decisions. The lack of tools for correcting this ‘names problem’ has become a fundamental obstacle to integrating disparate data sources and advancing the progress of biodiversity science. The TNRS, or Taxonomic Name Resolution Service, is an online application for automated and user-supervised standardization of plant scientific names. The TNRS builds upon and extends existing open-source applications for name parsing and fuzzy matching. Names are standardized against multiple reference taxonomies, including the Missouri Botanical Garden's Tropicos database. Capable of processing thousands of names in a single operation, the TNRS parses and corrects misspelled names and authorities, standardizes variant spellings, and converts nomenclatural synonyms to accepted names. Family names can be included to increase match accuracy and resolve many types of homonyms. Partial matching of higher taxa combined with extraction of annotations, accession numbers and morphospecies allows the TNRS to standardize taxonomy across a broad range of active and legacy datasets. We show how the TNRS can resolve many forms of taxonomic semantic heterogeneity, correct spelling errors and eliminate spurious names. As a result, the TNRS can aid the integration of disparate biological datasets. Although the TNRS was developed to aid in standardizing plant names, its underlying algorithms and design can be extended to all organisms and nomenclatural codes. The TNRS is accessible via a web interface at http://tnrs.iplantcollaborative.org/ webcite and as a RESTful web service and application programming interface. Source code is available at https://github.com/iPlantCollaborativeOpenSource/TNRS/ webcite.BJE was supported by NSF grant DBI 0850373 and TR by CSIRO Marine and Atmospheric Research, Australia,. BB and BJE acknowledge early financial support from Conservation International and TEAM who funded the development of early prototypes of taxonomic name resolution. The iPlant Collaborative (http://www.iplantcollaborative.org) is funded by a grant from the National Science Foundation (#DBI-0735191)

Posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD) in children after paediatric intensive care treatment compared to children who survived a major fire disaster

<p>Abstract</p> <p>Background</p> <p>The goals were to determine the presence of posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD) in children after paediatric intensive care treatment, to identify risk factors for PTSD, and to compare this data with data from a major fire disaster in the Netherlands.</p> <p>Methods</p> <p>Children completed the Dutch Children's Responses to Trauma Inventory at three and nine months after discharge from the paediatric intensive care unit (PICU). Comparison data were available from 355 children survivors who completed the same questionnaire 10 months after a major fire disaster.</p> <p>Results</p> <p>Thirty-six children aged eight to 17 years completed questionnaires at three month follow-up, nine month follow-up, or both. More than one third (34.5%) of the children had subclinical PTSD, while 13.8% were likely to meet criteria for PTSD. Maternal PTSD was the strongest predictor for child PTSD. There were no significant differences in (subclinical) PTSD symptoms either over time or compared to symptoms of survivors from the fire disaster.</p> <p>Conclusion</p> <p>This study shows that a considerable number of children have persistent PTSD after PICU treatment. Prevention of PTSD is important to minimize the profound adverse effects that PTSD can have on children's well-being and future development.</p

HFE Gene Variants Modify the Association between Maternal Lead Burden and Infant Birthweight: A Prospective Birth Cohort Study in Mexico City, Mexico

<p>Abstract</p> <p>Background</p> <p>Neonatal growth is a complex process involving genetic and environmental factors. Polymorphisms in the hemochromatosis (<it>HFE</it>) iron regulatory genes have been shown to modify transport and toxicity of lead which is known to affect birth weight.</p> <p>Methods</p> <p>We investigated the role of <it>HFE C282Y</it>, <it>HFE H63 D</it>, and transferrin <it>(TF) P570 S </it>gene variants in modifying the association of lead and infant birthweight in a cohort of Mexican mother-infant pairs. Subjects were initially recruited between 1994-1995 from three maternity hospitals in Mexico City and 411 infants/565 mothers had archived blood available for genotyping. Multiple linear regression models, stratified by either maternal/infant <it>HFE </it>or <it>TF </it>genotype and then combined with interaction terms, were constructed examining the association of lead and birthweight after controlling for covariates.</p> <p>Results</p> <p>3.1%, 16.8% and 17.5% of infants (N = 390) and 1.9%, 14.5% and 18.9% of mothers (N = 533) carried the <it>HFE C282Y</it>, <it>HFE H63D</it>, and <it>TF P570 S </it>variants, respectively. The presence of infant <it>HFE H63 D </it>variants predicted 110.3 g (95% CI -216.1, -4.6) decreases in birthweight while maternal <it>HFE H63 D </it>variants predicted reductions of 52.0 g (95% CI -147.3 to 43.2). Interaction models suggest that both maternal and infant <it>HFE H63 D </it>genotype may modify tibia lead's effect on infant birthweight in opposing ways. In our interaction models, maternal <it>HFE H63 D </it>variant carriers had a negative association between tibia lead and birthweight.</p> <p>Conclusions</p> <p>These results suggest that the <it>HFE H63 D </it>genotype modifies lead's effects on infant birthweight in a complex fashion that may reflect maternal-fetal interactions with respect to the metabolism and transport of metals.</p

Outcome of paediatric intensive care survivors

The development of paediatric intensive care has contributed to the improved survival of critically ill children. Physical and psychological sequelae and consequences for quality of life (QoL) in survivors might be significant, as has been determined in adult intensive care unit (ICU) survivors. Awareness of sequelae due to the original illness and its treatment may result in changes in treatment and support during and after the acute phase. To determine the current knowledge on physical and psychological sequelae and the quality of life in survivors of paediatric intensive care, we undertook a computerised comprehensive search of online databases for studies reporting sequelae in survivors of paediatric intensive care. Studies reporting sequelae in paediatric survivors of cardiothoracic surgery and trauma were excluded, as were studies reporting only mortality. All other studies reporting aspects of physical and psychological sequelae were analysed. Twenty-seven studies consisting of 3,444 survivors met the selection criteria. Distinct physical and psychological sequelae in patients have been determined and seemed to interfere with quality of life. Psychological sequelae in parents seem to be common. Small numbers, methodological limitations and quantitative and qualitative heterogeneity hamper the interpretation of data. We conclude that paediatric intensive care survivors and their parents have physical and psychological sequelae affecting quality of life. Further well-designed prospective studies evaluating sequelae of the original illness and its treatment are warranted

The psychological science accelerator’s COVID-19 rapid-response dataset

In response to the COVID-19 pandemic, the Psychological Science Accelerator coordinated three large-scale psychological studies to examine the effects of loss-gain framing, cognitive reappraisals, and autonomy framing manipulations on behavioral intentions and affective measures. The data collected (April to October 2020) included specific measures for each experimental study, a general questionnaire examining health prevention behaviors and COVID-19 experience, geographical and cultural context characterization, and demographic information for each participant. Each participant started the study with the same general questions and then was randomized to complete either one longer experiment or two shorter experiments. Data were provided by 73,223 participants with varying completion rates. Participants completed the survey from 111 geopolitical regions in 44 unique languages/dialects. The anonymized dataset described here is provided in both raw and processed formats to facilitate re-use and further analyses. The dataset offers secondary analytic opportunities to explore coping, framing, and self-determination across a diverse, global sample obtained at the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic, which can be merged with other time-sampled or geographic data