Carbon isotope ratioss of coccolith-associated polysaccharides of Emiliania huxleyi as a function of growth rate and CO2 concentration

The calcite plates, or coccoliths, of haptophyte algae including Emiliania huxleyi are formed in intracellular vesicles in association with water–soluble acidic polysaccharides. These coccolith–associated polysaccharides (CAPs) are involved in regulating coccolith formation and have been recovered from sediment samples dating back to ∼180 Ma. Paired measurements of the carbon isotopic compositions of CAPs and coccolith calcite have been proposed as a novel paleo–pCO2 barometer, but additional proxy validation and development are still required. Here we present culture results quantifying carbon isotopic offsets between CAPs and other cellular components: bulk organic biomass, alkenones, and calcite. E. huxleyi was grown in nitrate–limited chemostat experiments at growth rates (µ) of 0.20–0.62/d and carbon dioxide concentrations of 10.7–17.6 µmol/kg. We find that CAPs are isotopically enriched by 4.5–10.1‰ relative to bulk organic carbon, exhibiting smaller isotopic offsets at faster growth rates and lower CO2 concentrations. This variability suggests that CAPs record a complementary signature of past growth conditions with different sensitivity than alkenones or coccolith calcite. By measuring the isotopic compositions of all three molecules and minerals of self-consistent origin, the ratio µ/[CO2(aq)] may be reconstructed with fewer assumptions than current approaches

Sorghum and the millets : their composition and nutritive value

Discusses the composition of sorghum and millet as well as the effects of genetic, environmental and agronomic factors; of processing by traditional and mechanical means; and of the interrelations of these cereals with other nutrient sources. A section on effects of antinutritive factors, a comprehensive bibliography and a glossary are also included

Implementing person-centred outcome measures (PCOMs) into routine palliative care: A protocol for a mixed-methods process evaluation of the RESOLVE PCOM Implementation Strategy

Introduction Person-centred outcome measures improve quality of care and patient outcomes but are used inconsistently in palliative care practice. To address this implementation gap, we developed the 'RESOLVE Implementation Strategy'. This protocol describes a process evaluation to explore mechanisms through which this strategy does, or does not, support the implementation of outcome measures in routine palliative care practice. Methods and analysis Multistrand, mixed-methods process evaluation. Strand one will collect routine outcomes data (palliative Phase of Illness, Integrated Palliative care Outcomes Scale, Australia-modified Karnofsky Performance Status) to map the changes in use of outcome measures over 12 months (July 2021-July 2022). Strand two will collect survey data over the same 12-month period to explore how professionals' understandings of, skills in using and ability to build organisational practices around, outcome measures change over time. Strand three will collect interview data to understand the mechanisms underpinning/affecting our implementation strategy. Thematic framework analysis and descriptive statistics will be used to analyse qualitative and quantitative data, respectively. Ethics and dissemination For strand one, ethical approval has been obtained (Cambridge REC, REF: 20/EE/0188). For strands two and three, ethical approval has been obtained from Hull York Medical School ethics committee (2105). Tailored feedback of study findings will be provided to participating sites. Abstracts and papers will be submitted to national/international conferences and peer-reviewed journals. Lay and policy briefings and newsletters will be shared through patient and public involvement and project networks, plus via the project website

Integral functions of marine vertebrates in the ocean carbon cycle and climate change mitigation

In the last decade, the ocean has absorbed a quarter of the Earth’s greenhouse gas emissions through the carbon (C) cycle, a naturally occurring process. Aspects of the ocean C cycle are now being incorporated into climate change mitigation and adaptation plans. Currently, too little is known about marine vertebrate C functions for their inclusion in policies. Fortunately, marine vertebrate biology, behavior, and ecology through the lens of C and nutrient cycling and flux is an emerging area of research that is rich in existing data. This review uses literature and trusted data sources to describe marine vertebrate C interactions, provides quantification where possible, and highlights knowledge gaps. Implications of better understanding the integral functions of marine vertebrates in the ocean C cycle include the need for consideration of these functions both in policies on nature-based climate change mitigation and adaptation, and in management of marine vertebrate populations.Thank you to the anonymous reviewers whose insightful suggestions greatly improved the manuscript. Thank you to Thomas Eikeland Fiska˚ at the University of Agder for his work on the conceptual figures and to Dr. Marion Martin and Dr. Susanna Huneide Thorbjørnsen for helpful discussions throughout the preparation of the manuscript. Thanks also to Corallie Hunt for comments and advice during the early stages of the manuscript preparation. E.M.O. received support from the Marine Science program within the Research Council of Norway, grant no. 294926 (CODSIZE). H.C.P. was supported by Fulbright Norway, GRID-Arendal, and the University of Alaska Southeast.Ye

Implementation lessons learnt when trialling palliative care interventions in the intensive care unit: relationships between determinants, implementation strategies, and models of delivery-a systematic review protocol

BACKGROUND: Heterogeneity amongst palliative care interventions in the intensive care unit (ICU) and their outcomes has meant that, even when found to be effective, translation of evidence into practice is hindered. Previous evidence reviews have suggested that the field of ICU-based palliative care would benefit from well-designed, targeted interventions, with explicit knowledge translation research demonstrating valid implementation strategies. Reviewing effectiveness studies alongside process evaluations for these interventions will give insight into the implementation barriers or constraints identified, and the implementation strategies adopted. METHODS: A systematic review to identify and synthesise knowledge on how models of integrating palliative care into the ICU have been implemented and provide critical recommendations for successful future development and implementation of complex interventions in the field. The search will be carried out using MEDLINE, Embase, Cochrane, CINAHL, and PsycINFO. The search strategy will combine terms related to palliative care, intensive care, and implementation. Only full-text articles will be considered and conference abstracts excluded. There will be no date or language restrictions. The Implementation Research Logic Model will be used as a framework for synthesis. Findings will be reported following the Preferred Reporting Items of Systematic Reviews and Meta-Analyses (PRISMA) guidelines. DISCUSSION: This review will provide understanding of implementation facilitators, barriers, and strategies, when employing palliative care interventions within the ICU. This will provide valuable recommendations for successful future development of complex interventions using implementation frameworks or theories. This can increase the potential for sustained change in practice, reduce heterogeneity in interventions, and therefore help produce measurable and comparable outcomes. SYSTEMATIC REVIEW REGISTRATION: International Prospective Register of Systematic reviews PROSPERO (CRD42022311052)

Joint modelling of multiple network wiews

Latent space models (LSM) for network data were introduced by Hoff et al. (2002) under the basic assumption that each node of the network has an unknown position in a D-dimensional Euclidean latent space: generally the smaller the distance between two nodes in the latent space, the greater their probability of being connected. In this paper we propose a variational inference approach to estimate the intractable posterior of the LSM. In many cases, different network views on the same set of nodes are available. It can therefore be useful to build a model able to jointly summarise the information given by all the network views. For this purpose, we introduce the latent space joint model (LSJM) that merges the information given by multiple network views assuming that the probability of a node being connected with other nodes in each network view is explained by a unique latent variable. This model is demonstrated on the analysis of two datasets: an excerpt of 50 girls from 'Teenage Friends and Lifestyle Study' data at three time points and the Saccharomyces cerevisiae genetic and physical protein-protein interactions

The Five Factor Model of personality and evaluation of drug consumption risk

The problem of evaluating an individual's risk of drug consumption and misuse is highly important. An online survey methodology was employed to collect data including Big Five personality traits (NEO-FFI-R), impulsivity (BIS-11), sensation seeking (ImpSS), and demographic information. The data set contained information on the consumption of 18 central nervous system psychoactive drugs. Correlation analysis demonstrated the existence of groups of drugs with strongly correlated consumption patterns. Three correlation pleiades were identified, named by the central drug in the pleiade: ecstasy, heroin, and benzodiazepines pleiades. An exhaustive search was performed to select the most effective subset of input features and data mining methods to classify users and non-users for each drug and pleiad. A number of classification methods were employed (decision tree, random forest, $k$-nearest neighbors, linear discriminant analysis, Gaussian mixture, probability density function estimation, logistic regression and na{\"i}ve Bayes) and the most effective classifier was selected for each drug. The quality of classification was surprisingly high with sensitivity and specificity (evaluated by leave-one-out cross-validation) being greater than 70\% for almost all classification tasks. The best results with sensitivity and specificity being greater than 75\% were achieved for cannabis, crack, ecstasy, legal highs, LSD, and volatile substance abuse (VSA).Comment: Significantly extended report with 67 pages, 27 tables, 21 figure

Implementing person-centred outcome measures in palliative care: An exploratory qualitative study using Normalisation Process Theory to understand processes and context

© The Author(s) 2020. Background: Despite evidence demonstrating the utility of using Person-Centred Outcome Measures within palliative care settings, implementing them into routine practice is challenging. Most research has described barriers to, without explaining the causal mechanisms underpinning, implementation. Implementation theories explain how, why, and in which contexts specific relationships between barriers/enablers might improve implementation effectiveness but have rarely been used in palliative care outcomes research. Aim: To use Normalisation Process Theory to understand and explain the causal mechanisms that underpin successful implementation of Person-Centred Outcome Measures within palliative care. Design: Exploratory qualitative study. Data collected through semi-structured interviews and analysed using a Framework approach. Setting/participants: 63 healthcare professionals, across 11 specialist palliative care services, were purposefully sampled by role, experience, seniority, and settings (inpatient, outpatient/day therapy, home-based/community). Results: Seven main themes were developed, representing the causal mechanisms and relationships underpinning successful implementation of outcome measures into routine practice. Themes were: Subjectivity of measures; Frequency and version of Integrated Palliative care Outcome Scale; Training, education, and peer support; Building and sustaining community engagement; Electronic system readiness; The art of communication; Reinforcing use through demonstrating value. Conclusions: Relationships influencing implementation resided at individual and organisational levels. Addressing these factors is key to driving the implementation of outcome measures into routine practice so that those using palliative care services can benefit from the systematic identification, management, and measurement of their symptoms and concerns. We provide key questions that are essential for those implementing and using outcome measures to consider in order to facilitate the integration of outcome measures into routine palliative care practice

Dynamical approach to the microcanonical ensemble

An analytical method to compute thermodynamic properties of a given Hamiltonian system is proposed. This method combines ideas of both dynamical systems and ensemble approaches to thermodynamics, providing de facto a possible alternative to traditional Ensemble methods. Thermodynamic properties are extracted from effective motion equations. These equations are obtained by introducing a general variational principle applied to an action averaged over a statistical ensemble of paths defined on the constant energy surface. The method is applied first to the one dimensional (\beta)-FPU chain and to the two dimensional lattice (\phi ^{4}) model. In both cases the method gives a good insight of some of their statistical and dynamical properties.Comment: 5 pages, 4 figures, RevTe