Open ventral hernia repair with a composite ventral patch : final results of a multicenter prospective study

Background: This study assessed clinical outcomes, including safety and recurrence, from the two-year follow-up of patients who underwent open ventral primary hernia repair with the use of the Parietex (TM) Composite Ventral Patch (PCO-VP). Methods: A prospective single-arm, multicenter study of 126 patients undergoing open ventral hernia repair for umbilical and epigastric hernias with the PCO-VP was performed. Results: One hundred twenty-six subjects (110 with umbilical hernia and 16 with epigastric hernia) with a mean hernia diameter of 1.8cm (0.4-4.0) were treated with PCO-VP. One hundred subjects completed the two-year study. Cumulative hernia recurrence was 3.0% (3/101; 95%CI: 0.0-6.3%) within 24months. Median Numeric Rating Scale pain scores improved from 2 [0-10] at baseline to 0 [0-3] at 1 month (P<0.001) and remained low at 24months 0 [0-6] (P<0.001). 99% (102/103) of the patients were satisfied with their repair at 24months postoperative. Conclusions: The use of PCO-VP to repair primary umbilical and epigastric defects yielded a low recurrence rate, low postoperative and chronic pain, and high satisfaction ratings, confirming that PCO-VP is effective for small ventral hernia repair in the two-year term after implantation. Trial registration: The study was registered publically at clinicaltrials.gov (NCT01848184 registered May 7, 2013)

Marketing a tourism industry in late stage decline: The case of the Isle of Man

Qualitative interviews in the Isle of Man uncovered local perceptions of a tourism industry in late stage decline. Social impacts of decline are pronounced including facilities loss, cultural changes and a heightening of perceived peripherality: which taken together undermine local identity. Tourists are welcomed as they help to affirm the pride residents have in their island in creating a more active atmosphere, provide social interaction opportunities and to combat negative stereotyping. Thus findings emphasise the diverse, unique and persistent benefits of tourism in the Isle of Man, despite its decline. Destination marketing recommendations are therefore made to better address the experiences and desires of communities experiencing decline

Managing tourism decline: insights from the Isle of Man

Qualitative interviews conducted in the Isle of Man investigate local perceptions of a tourism industry in long-term decline: a development stage typically overlooked. Negative impacts of decline are revealed; including facilities loss, landscape erosion, and a heightened sense of peripherality. Together such impacts undermine local identity and attractiveness of place. Tourists are welcomed as they help to affirm the pride residents have in their island, create atmosphere, provide social interaction opportunities, stimulate positive emotions and combat negative stereotyping. Emphasised is the on-going importance of tourism impacts in a peripheral location. Practioner recommendations are therefore made calling attention to the need to more carefully manage the process of decline. Potential strategies for achieving this are signposted

The Braincase and Neurosensory Anatomy of an Early Jurassic Marine Crocodylomorph: Implications for Crocodylian Sinus Evolution and Sensory Transitions

This is the pre-peer reviewed version of the following article: Brusatte, S. L., Muir, A. , Young, M. T., Walsh, S. , Steel, L. and Witmer, L. M. (2016), The Braincase and Neurosensory Anatomy of an Early Jurassic Marine Crocodylomorph: Implications for Crocodylian Sinus Evolution and Sensory Transitions. Anat. Rec., 299: 1511-1530., which has been published in final form at doi:10.1002/ar.23462. This article may be used for non-commercial purposes in accordance with Wiley Terms and Conditions for Self-Archiving." You are advised to consult the published version if you wish to cite from it

Online Preparation Of Adult Learners In Post-Secondary Education: A Triangulated Study

In this study, data from pre-service school administrators, faculty, and online documents were used to: 1) analyze how pre-service school administrators perceive the online&nbsp; preparation process, 2) analyze how faculty perceive the online preparation of school administrators, and 3) determine the extent to which quality administrators are prepared through the online process. The result of the study yielded strong evidence that the online process is a strong pedagogical tool for preparing quality school administrators for P-12 schools in this era of educational quality and accountability. Perceptions of the participants in this study toward the online process were extremely positive

Diverse New Microvertebrate Assemblage from the Upper Triassic Cumnock Formation, Sanford Subbasin, North Carolina, USA

The Moncure microvertebrate locality in the Cumnock Formation, Sanford sub-basin, North Carolina, dramatically increases the known Late Triassic age vertebrate assemblage from the Deep River Basin. The 50,000 recovered microvertebrate fossils include osteichthyans, amphibians, and numerous lepidosauromorph, archosauriform, and synapsid amniotes. Actinopterygian fossils consist of thousands of scales, teeth, skull, and lower jaw fragments, principally of redfieldiids and semionotids. Non-tetrapod sarcopterygians include the dipnoan Arganodus sp., the first record of lungfish in the Newark Supergroup. Temnospondyls are comparatively rare but the preserved centra, teeth, and skull fragments probably represent small (juvenile) metoposaurids. Two fragmentary teeth are assigned to the unusual reptile Colognathus obscurus (Case). Poorly preserved but intriguing records include acrodont and pleurodont jaw fragments tentatively assigned to lepidosaurs. Among the archosauriform teeth is a taxon distinct from R. callenderi that we assign to Revueltosaurus olseni new combination, a morphotype best assigned to cf. Galtonia, the first Newark Supergroup record of Crosbysaurus sp., and several other archosauriform tooth morphotypes, as well as grooved teeth assigned to the recently named species Uatchitodon schneideri. Synapsids represented by molariform teeth include both "traversodontids" assigned to aff. Boreogomphodon and the "dromatheriid" Microconodon. These records are biogeographically important, with many new records for the Cumnock Formation and/or the Newark Supergroup. In particular, Colognathus, Crosbysaurus, and Uatchitodon are known from basins of Adamanian age in the southwestern U.S.A. These new records include microvertebrate taxa more typical of non-Newark basins (abundant archosauriforms, temnospondyls, lungfish) as well as more typical Newark osteichthyans and synapsid-rich faunal elements

New ophthalmosaurid ichthyosaurs from the European lower cretaceous demonstrate extensive ichthyosaur survival across the Jurassic–Cretaceous boundary

Background Ichthyosauria is a diverse clade of marine amniotes that spanned most of the Mesozoic. Until recently, most authors interpreted the fossil record as showing that three major extinction events affected this group during its history: one during the latest Triassic, one at the Jurassic–Cretaceous boundary (JCB), and one (resulting in total extinction) at the Cenomanian-Turonian boundary. The JCB was believed to eradicate most of the peculiar morphotypes found in the Late Jurassic, in favor of apparently less specialized forms in the Cretaceous. However, the record of ichthyosaurs from the Berriasian–Barremian interval is extremely limited, and the effects of the end-Jurassic extinction event on ichthyosaurs remains poorly understood. Methodology/Principal Findings Based on new material from the Hauterivian of England and Germany and on abundant material from the Cambridge Greensand Formation, we name a new ophthalmosaurid, Acamptonectes densus gen. et sp. nov. This taxon shares numerous features with Ophthalmosaurus, a genus now restricted to the Callovian–Berriasian interval. Our phylogenetic analysis indicates that Ophthalmosauridae diverged early in its history into two markedly distinct clades, Ophthalmosaurinae and Platypterygiinae, both of which cross the JCB and persist to the late Albian at least. To evaluate the effect of the JCB extinction event on ichthyosaurs, we calculated cladogenesis, extinction, and survival rates for each stage of the Oxfordian–Barremian interval, under different scenarios. The extinction rate during the JCB never surpasses the background extinction rate for the Oxfordian–Barremian interval and the JCB records one of the highest survival rates of the interval. Conclusions/Significance There is currently no evidence that ichthyosaurs were affected by the JCB extinction event, in contrast to many other marine groups. Ophthalmosaurid ichthyosaurs remained diverse from their rapid radiation in the Middle Jurassic to their total extinction at the beginning of the Late Cretaceous

Elevated extinction rates as a trigger for diversification rate shifts: early amniotes as a case study

Tree shape analyses are frequently used to infer the location of shifts in diversification rate within the Tree of Life. Many studies have supported a causal relationship between shifts and temporally coincident events such as the evolution of “key innovations”. However, the evidence for such relationships is circumstantial. We investigated patterns of diversification during the early evolution of Amniota from the Carboniferous to the Triassic, subjecting a new supertree to analyses of tree balance in order to infer the timing and location of diversification shifts. We investigated how uneven origination and extinction rates drive diversification shifts, and use two case studies (herbivory and an aquatic lifestyle) to examine whether shifts tend to be contemporaneous with evolutionary novelties. Shifts within amniotes tend to occur during periods of elevated extinction, with mass extinctions coinciding with numerous and larger shifts. Diversification shifts occurring in clades that possess evolutionary innovations do not coincide temporally with the appearance of those innovations, but are instead deferred to periods of high extinction rate. We suggest such innovations did not cause increases in the rate of cladogenesis, but allowed clades to survive extinction events. We highlight the importance of examining general patterns of diversification before interpreting specific shifts