South Skagit Highway realignment: ENVS 493 winter 2013

The existing placement of the South Skagit Highway disconnects the Skagit River from approximately 62 acres of floodplain in the project area alone and has direct impacts on habitat conditions. Approximately, 5.2 acres of wetlands are completely inaccessible to fish due to the current highway alignment. An additional 21.7 acres of slough and wetland habitat have only partial fish access due to restricted hydrologic connectivity with the river. Routine dredging and maintenance is required for the 900 feet of Savage Creek which currently runs in the highway ditch. Savage Slough runs under the highway through an undersized culvert that is often blocked by flooding from Mill Creek. An alluvial fan of Mill Creek runs under an undersized bridge making the channel prone to migration, avulsion, and erosion. The channel has been subject to numerous maintenance projects, including dredging and channelization. Seattle City Light (SCL) purchased approximately 212 acres of property on the Skagit River near Mill and Savage Creeks. A large portion of the acquired property has been deforested and disturbed by the South Skagit Highway, which runs through the Skagit River\u27s floodplain and disconnects a variety of existing tributary and wetland habitats. In order to implement habitat restoration and protect the property for conservation, SCL has been working with Skagit River System Cooperative (SRSC) and Skagit County to restore the floodplain to its original ecological functionality, providing habitat for several species. Maintenance costs of the current road would also be reduced. The restoration is likely to include demolition, riparian and floodplain plantings, and culvert removals. Possibilities for floodplain restoration were evaluated after an initial scoping procedure. Suggested restoration would either demolish and realign the existing road or install new bridges and culverts on the existing road. The initial scoping and evaluation narrowed the list of feasible projects down to two, mostly due to the Washington State Department of Transportation\u27s (WSDOT) high cost estimate of the other projects. Project funding has come from both SCL and the Salmon Recovery Funding Board (SRFB, project #091450) and several additional sources

An update on cardiac implantable electronic devices for the general physician

Cardiac electronic device implantation is a common and important intervention for patients with tachy- and bradyarrhythmia. An increasing number of patients are receiving more complex devices such as cardiac resynchronisation therapy or devices with a defibrillation function. Over the last 5 years, two new models of cardiac device have emerged, subcutaneous defibrillators and leadless pacemakers. With an ageing population and data demonstrating 2000 per 100,000 of the population aged over 75 years have a cardiac device, it is essential that the general physician remains updated on the common pacemaker indications and available therapies

Keratan sulfate, a complex glycosaminoglycan with unique functional capability

From an evolutionary perspective keratan sulfate (KS) is the newest glycosaminoglycan (GAG) but the least understood. KS is a sophisticated molecule with a diverse structure, and unique functional roles continue to be uncovered for this GAG. The cornea is the richest tissue source of KS in the human body but the central and peripheral nervous systems also contain significant levels of KS and a diverse range of KS-proteoglycans with essential functional roles. KS also displays important cell regulatory properties in epithelial and mesenchymal tissues and in bone and in tumor development of diagnostic and prognostic utility. Corneal KS-I displays variable degrees of sulfation along the KS chain ranging from non-sulfated polylactosamine, mono-sulfated and disulfated disaccharide regions. Skeletal KS-II is almost completely sulfated consisting of disulfated disaccharides interrupted by occasional mono-sulfated N-acetyllactosamine residues. KS-III also contains highly sulfated KS disaccharides but differs from KS-I and KS-II through 2-O-mannose linkage to serine or threonine core protein residues on proteoglycans such as phosphacan and abakan in brain tissue. Historically, the major emphasis on the biology of KS has focused on its sulfated regions for good reason. The sulfation motifs on KS convey important molecular recognition information and direct cell behavior through a number of interactive proteins. Emerging evidence also suggest functional roles for the poly-N-acetyllactosamine regions of KS requiring further investigation. Thus further research is warranted to better understand the complexities of KS