Microwave scattering and emission properties of large impact craters on the surface of Venus

Many of the impact craters on Venus imaged by the Magellan synthetic aperture radar (SAR) have interior floors with oblique incidence angle backscatter cross sections 2 to 16 times (3 dB to 12 dB) greater than the average scattering properties of the planet's surface. Such high backscatter cross sections are indicative of a high degree of wavelength-scale surface roughness and/or a high intrinsic reflectivity of the material forming the crater floors. Fifty-three of these (radar) bright floored craters are associated with 93 percent of the parabolic-shaped radar-dark features found in the Magellan SAR and emissivity data, features that are thought to be among the youngest on the surface of Venus. It was suggested by Campbell et al. that either the bright floors of the parabolic feature parent craters are indicative of a young impact and the floor properties are modified with time to a lower backscatter cross section or that they result from some property of the surface or subsurface material at the point of impact or from the properties of the impacting object. As a continuation of earlier work we have examined all craters with diameters greater than 30 km (except 6 that were outside the available data) so both the backscatter cross section and emissivity of the crater floors could be estimated from the Magellan data

Correlated forward-backward dissociation and neutron spectra as a luminosity monitor in heavy ion colliders

Detection in zero degree calorimeters of the correlated forward-backward Coulomb or nuclear dissociation of two colliding nuclei is presented as a practical luminosity monitor in heavy ion colliders. Complementary predictions are given for total correlated Coulomb plus nuclear dissociation and for correlated forward-backward single neutrons from the giant dipole peak.Comment: 16 pages, latex, revtex source, four postscript figure

Acute neuroinflammation induces AIS structural plasticity in a NOX2-dependent manner

Background Chronic microglia-mediated inflammation and oxidative stress are well-characterized underlying factors in neurodegenerative disease, whereby reactive inflammatory microglia enhance ROS production and impact neuronal integrity. Recently, it has been shown that during chronic inflammation, neuronal integrity is compromised through targeted disruption of the axon initial segment (AIS), the axonal domain critical for action potential initiation. AIS disruption was associated with contact by reactive inflammatory microglia which wrap around the AIS, increasing association with disease progression. While it is clear that chronic microglial inflammation and enhanced ROS production impact neuronal integrity, little is known about how acute microglial inflammation influences AIS stability. Here, we demonstrate that acute neuroinflammation induces AIS structural plasticity in a ROS-mediated and calpain-dependent manner. Methods C57BL/6J and NOX2−/− mice were given a single injection of lipopolysaccharide (LPS; 5 mg/kg) or vehicle (0.9% saline, 10 mL/kg) and analyzed at 6 h–2 weeks post-injection. Anti-inflammatory Didox (250 mg/kg) or vehicle (0.9% saline, 10 mL/kg) was administered beginning 24 h post-LPS injection and continued for 5 days; animals were analyzed 1 week post-injection. Microglial inflammation was assessed using immunohistochemistry (IHC) and RT-qPCR, and AIS integrity was quantitatively analyzed using ankyrinG immunolabeling. Data were statistically compared by one-way or two-way ANOVA where mean differences were significant as assessed using Tukey’s post hoc analysis. Results LPS-induced neuroinflammation, characterized by enhanced microglial inflammation and increased expression of ROS-producing enzymes, altered AIS protein clustering. Importantly, inflammation-induced AIS changes were reversed following resolution of microglial inflammation. Modulation of the inflammatory response using anti-inflammatory Didox, even after significant AIS disruption occurred, increased the rate of AIS recovery. qPCR and IHC analysis revealed that expression of microglial NOX2, a ROS-producing enzyme, was significantly increased correlating with AIS disruption. Furthermore, ablation of NOX2 prevented inflammation-induced AIS plasticity, suggesting that ROS drive AIS structural plasticity. Conclusions In the presence of acute microglial inflammation, the AIS undergoes an adaptive change that is capable of spontaneous recovery. Moreover, recovery can be therapeutically accelerated. Together, these findings underscore the dynamic capabilities of this domain in the presence of a pathological insult and provide evidence that the AIS is a viable therapeutic target

A Southern Progressive: M. A. Cassidy and the Lexington Schools, 1886-1928

The 42-year career of M. A. Cassidy exemplifies the transition of public school leadership in Kentucky from non-educators who held religious-political ideologies to professional progressive educators who sought to make Kentucky schools more efficient through expertise and scientific management. This concept was fully adopted in Section 183 of the Kentucky Constitution (1891) which required the General Assembly to “provide for an efficient system of common schools throughout the state.” Confident that professional educators were best suited to devise solutions to social problems, and justified by the twin notions of equality of educational opportunity and meritocracy, Cassidy was part of a new breed of progressive educators who joined with the business community to declare that a modest amount of schooling would prepare all for a life of equality, not by restructuring society, but by making each individual better. Cassidy belonged to that class of Southern accommodationist progressive educators who saw themselves as the teachers and guardians of subordinate African Americans in whom they would cultivate “some measure of collaboration and consent.” Cassidy presents as a Southern-style reformer working in a border state, but one who held conservative and progressive ideals in equal measure. Like most white Southerners, Cassidy believed that blacks were inherently inferior to whites. But unlike his Southern peers--and despite being part of a community that did not embrace social mobility for blacks--Cassidy was an early adopter of educational equality that included blacks, albeit, in a separate system under Jim Crow. His attention to physical and operational improvements to black schools, including enhanced teacher training and the addition of innovative programs for students, was remarkable for its place and time. But apparent philosophical conflicts fall into place once we see Cassidy for who he was: a public official who necessarily had to work closely with his constituency to achieve his goals; a change agent who used the bully pulpit to extol the virtues of literacy and a proper education; a Christian in the Social Gospel tradition who saw a duty to the least among us; and a personable superintendent who used his sense of Southern gentility to attract more citizens to the enterprise

A Persistent Quandary: The Rural School Improvement Project, 1953-1957

Berea College\u27s Rural School Improvement Project worked directly with more than 5,000 children and 63 teaching fellows in 39 different schools over 13 counties, and one independent school district, involving 10 county school supervisors. Project estimates claimed an indirect impact on approximately 45,000 children within the RSIP school districts. The RSIP represented the thinking of national leaders of rural education in the 1950s who promoted improved administration of the schools combined with an active community engagement program based on “full respect for human personality” and “shared judgments.” Following so many decades of poverty and isolation, it is no easy task to gauge the impact of a program like the Rural School Improvement Project on the children and communities of southeastern Kentucky. Like the progress-minded projects that came before it - and those that would come after - the seemingly intractable challenges attending the Appalachian region kept educational equity at bay. Indeed, it would take another thirty-two years before the landmark Kentucky Supreme Court decision in Rose v Council for Better Education would declare the state’s inequitable and inadequate school system to be unconstitutional. “Sixty-six” property poor, and mostly rural, school districts had sued the General Assembly citing the abiding fiscal inequities which had grown to as much as an 8:1 ratio when compared to one urban district. With the passage of the Kentucky Education Reform Act, in 1990, the General Assembly provided substantial funding equity to rural schools - before returning to its historical pattern of periodic attention amid chronic neglect

Effectiveness of continuous glucose monitoring during diabetic pregnancy (GlucoMOMS trial); a randomised controlled trial

Peer reviewedPublisher PD

An allelic polymorphism within the human tumor necrosis factor alpha promoter region is strongly associated with HLA A1, B8, and DR3 alleles.

The tumor necrosis factor (TNF) alpha gene lies within the class III region of the major histocompatibility complex (MHC), telomeric to the class II and centromeric to the class I region. We have recently described the first polymorphism within the human TNF-alpha locus. This is biallelic and lies within the promoter region. Frequency analysis of the TNF-alpha polymorphism, using the polymerase chain reaction and single-stranded conformational polymorphism, in HLA-typed individuals, reveals a very strong association between the uncommon TNF allele and HLA A1, B8, and DR3 alleles. This is the first association between TNF-alpha and other MHC alleles and raises the possibility that the uncommon TNF-alpha allele may contribute to the many autoimmune associations of the A1,B8,DR3 haplotype

The effect of meloxicam on pain sensitivity, rumination time, and clinical signs in dairy cows with endotoxin-induced clinical mastitis

AbstractThe objectives of this study were to (1) evaluate the use of a pressure algometer and an automated rumination monitoring system to assess changes in pain sensitivity and rumination time in response to endotoxin-induced clinical mastitis and (2) evaluate the effect of the nonsteroidal antiinflammatory drug meloxicam on pain sensitivity and rumination time, as well as other clinical signs, in dairy cattle with endotoxin-induced clinical mastitis. Clinical mastitis was induced in 12 primiparous and 12 multiparous lactating dairy cows by intramammary infusion of 25µg of Escherichia coli lipopolysaccharide (LPS) into 1 uninfected quarter. Immediately after, half the cows were injected subcutaneously with meloxicam (treated group) and half with the same volume of a placebo solution (control group). Pain sensitivity was assessed by measuring the difference in pressure required to elicit a response on the control and challenged quarter using an algometer 3 d before, immediately before, and at 3, 6, 12, and 24h after LPS infusion and either meloxicam or placebo injection. Rumination was continuously monitored from 2 d before to 3 d after LPS infusion using rumination loggers. Udder edema, body temperature, somatic cell score, and dry matter intake were also monitored to evaluate the occurrence and the duration of the inflammation after LPS infusion. In control animals, the difference in the pressure applied to the control and challenged quarters (control − challenged quarter) increased by 1.1±0.4kg of force 6h after LPS infusion compared with the baseline, suggesting an increase in pain sensitivity in the challenged quarter. Neither the LPS infusion nor the meloxicam treatment had an effect on daily rumination time. However, the rumination diurnal pattern on the day of LPS infusion showed an overall deviation from the baseline pattern. Cows spent less time ruminating in the hours following LPS infusion and more time ruminating later in the day. Meloxicam did not alter somatic cell score or dry matter intake. However, meloxicam-treated animals had less udder edema and a lower body temperature in the hours following LPS infusion compared with control animals. In conclusion, pressure algometers and rumination loggers show promise as tools to detect mastitis and monitor recovery on farm. Further, meloxicam has a beneficial effect in relieving pain and decreasing udder edema and body temperature in LPS-induced clinical mastitis

Exploring Couples' Processes of Change in the Context of SASA!, a Violence Against Women and HIV Prevention Intervention in Uganda.

There is now a growing body of research indicating that prevention interventions can reduce intimate partner violence (IPV); much less is known, however, about how couples exposed to these interventions experience the change process, particularly in low-income countries. Understanding the dynamic process that brings about the cessation of IPV is essential for understanding how interventions work (or don't) to reduce IPV. This study aimed to provide a better understanding of how couples' involvement with SASA!-a violence against women and HIV-related community mobilisation intervention developed by Raising Voices in Uganda-influenced processes of change in relationships. Qualitative data were collected from each partner in separate in-depth interviews following the intervention. Dyadic analysis was conducted using framework analysis methods. Study findings suggest that engagement with SASA! contributed to varied experiences and degrees of change at the individual and relationship levels. Reflection around healthy relationships and communication skills learned through SASA! activities or community activists led to more positive interaction among many couples, which reduced conflict and IPV. This nurtured a growing trust and respect between many partners, facilitating change in longstanding conflicts and generating greater intimacy and love as well as increased partnership among couples to manage economic challenges. This study draws attention to the value of researching and working with both women, men and couples to prevent IPV and suggests IPV prevention interventions may benefit from the inclusion of relationship skills building and support within the context of community mobilisation interventions