Herbicides-protecting long-term sustainability and water quality in forest ecosystems.

World-wide, sediment is the major water quality problem. The use of herbicides for controlling competing vegetation during stand establishment can be beneficial to forest ecosystem sustainability and water quality by minimizing off-site soil loss, reducing onsite soil and org. matter displacement, and preventing deterioration of soil phys. properties. Sediment losses from sites where competing vegetation is controlled by mech. methods can be 1-2 orders of magnitude greater than natural losses from undisturbed watersheds. On a watershed basis, vegetation management techniques in general increase annual erosion by <7%. Herbicides do not increase natural erosion rates. Org. matter and nutrients that are crit. to long-term site productivity can be removed off-site by mech. vegetation-management techniques and fire, or redistributed on-site in a manner that reduces availability to the next stand. For several decades, research has been conducted on the fate of forestry-use herbicides in various watersheds throughout the southern and western US, Canada, and Australia. This research has evaluated chems. such as 2,4-D, glyphosate, hexazinone, imazapyr, metsulfuron Me, picloram, sulfometuron Me, tebuthiuron, and triclopyr. Losses in streamflow, and leaching to groundwater have been evaluated. Field study data indicate that residue concns. tend to be low, except where direct applications are made to ephemeral channels or streams, and do not persist for extended periods of time. Regional environmental impact statements in the US demonstrate that forestry herbicide presence in surface and groundwater is not a significant risk to water quality or human health. They also indicate that herbicides can greatly reduce water quality deterioration that is produced by erosion and sedimentation. [on SciFinder(R)

Minimum resolution requirements of digital pathology images for accurate classification

Digitization of pathology has been proposed as an essential mitigation strategy for the severe staffing crisis facing most pathology departments. Despite its benefits, several barriers have prevented widespread adoption of digital workflows, including cost and pathologist reluctance due to subjective image quality concerns. In this work, we quantitatively determine the minimum image quality requirements for binary classification of histopathology images of breast tissue in terms of spatial and sampling resolution. We train an ensemble of deep learning classifier models on publicly available datasets to obtain a baseline accuracy and computationally degrade these images according to our derived theoretical model to identify the minimum resolution necessary for acceptable diagnostic accuracy. Our results show that images can be degraded significantly below the resolution of most commercial whole-slide imaging systems while maintaining reasonable accuracy, demonstrating that macroscopic features are sufficient for binary classification of stained breast tissue. A rapid low-cost imaging system capable of identifying healthy tissue not requiring human assessment could serve as a triage system for reducing caseloads and alleviating the significant strain on the current workforce

Towards inclusive service delivery through social investment in England. An analysis of five sectors, with a particular focus on mental health

This report examines trends in social investment in England following the financial crisis of 2007/8. The first section considers social investment in relation to four policy arenas: housing, financial services, early childhood education and care, and water. The second part of the report provides an overview of social investment and disinvestment trends in the healthcare system in England since the 1990s with a particular focus on mental health services. This section includes a detailed account of service users’ and professionals’ experiences of the impact of liberalisation and austerity measures on mental health service delivery drawing on qualitative data collection. Throughout the report we identify policy recommendations to address the effects and impacts of emergent trends towards social disinvestment and liberalisation of public services. This study is part of the wider pan-European RE-InVEST project to investigate the impact of the EU Social Investment package on marginalised groups since the 2007 crisis

Cavopulmonary assist: Long-term reversal of the Fontan paradox

Objective Fontan circulatory inefficiency can be addressed by replacing the missing subpulmonary power source to reverse the Fontan paradox. An implantable cavopulmonary assist device is described that will simultaneously reduce systemic venous pressure and increase pulmonary arterial pressure, improving preload and cardiac output, in a univentricular Fontan circulation on a long-term basis. Methods A rotary blood pump that was based on the von Karman viscous pump was designed for implantation into the total cavopulmonary connection (TCPC). It will impart modest pressure energy to augment Fontan flow without risk of obstruction. In the event of rotational failure, it is designed to default to a passive flow diverter. Pressure-flow performance was characterized in vitro in a Fontan mock circulatory loop with blood analog. Results The pump performed through the fully specified operating range, augmenting flow in all 4 directions of the TCPC. Pressure rise of 6 to 8 mm Hg was readily achieved, ranging to 14 mm Hg at highest speed (5600 rpm). Performance was consistent across a wide range of cardiac outputs. In stalled condition (0 rpm), there was no discernible pressure loss across the TCPC. Conclusions A blood pump technology is described that can reverse the Fontan paradox and may permit a surgical strategy of long-term biventricular maintenance of a univentricular Fontan circulation. The technology is intended for Fontan failure in which right-sided circulatory inefficiencies predominate and ventricular systolic function is preserved. It may also apply before clinical Fontan failure as health maintenance to preempt the progression of Fontan disease

Content aware multi-focus image fusion for high-magnification blood film microscopy

Automated digital high-magnification optical microscopy is key to accelerating biology research and improving pathology clinical pathways. High magnification objectives with large numerical apertures are usually preferred to resolve the fine structural details of biological samples, but they have a very limited depth-of-field. Depending on the thickness of the sample, analysis of specimens typically requires the acquisition of multiple images at different focal planes for each field-of-view, followed by the fusion of these planes into an extended depth-of-field image. This translates into low scanning speeds, increased storage space, and processing time not suitable for high-throughput clinical use. We introduce a novel content-aware multi-focus image fusion approach based on deep learning which extends the depth-of-field of high magnification objectives effectively. We demonstrate the method with three examples, showing that highly accurate, detailed, extended depth of field images can be obtained at a lower axial sampling rate, using 2-fold fewer focal planes than normally required

Incremental healthcare resource utilization and costs in US patients with Cushing&apos;s disease compared with diabetes mellitus and population controls

Abstract Purpose Resource utilization and costs in Cushing&apos;s disease (CD) patients have not been studied extensively. We compared CD patients with diabetes mellitus (DM) patients and population-based controls to characterize differences in utilization and costs. Methods Using 2008-2012 MarketScan Ò database, we identified three patient groups: (1) CD patients; (2) DM patients; and (3) population-based control patients without CD. DM and control patients were matched to CD patients by age, gender, region, and review year in a 2:1 ratio. Outcomes included annual healthcare resource utilization and costs. Results There were 1852 CD patients, 3704 DM patients and 3704 controls. Mean age was 42.9 years; 78.2 % were female. CD patients were hospitalized more frequently (19.3 %) than DM patients (11.0 %, p \ .001) or controls (5.6 %, p \ .001). CD patients visited the ED more frequently (25.4 %) than DM patients (21.1 %, p \ .001) or controls (14.3 %, p \ .001). CD patients had more office visits than DM patients (19.1 vs. 10.7, p \ .001) or controls (7.1, p \ .001). CD patients on average filled more prescriptions than DM patients (51.7 vs. 42.7, p \ .001) or controls (20.5, p \ .001). Mean total healthcare costs for CD patients were $26,269 versus$12,282 for DM patients (p \ .001) and $5869 for controls (p \ .001). Conclusions CD patients had significantly higher annual rates of healthcare resource utilization compared to matched DM patients and population controls without CD. CD patient costs were double DM costs and quadruple control costs. This study puts into context the additional burdens of CD over DM, a common, chronic endocrine condition affecting multiple organ systems, and population controls