Are Regions Important in British Elections? Valence Politics and Local Economic Contexts at the 2010 General Election

Pattie C. J., Johnston R. J., Schipper M. and Potts L. Are regions important in British elections? Valence politics and local economic contexts at the 2010 General Election, Regional Studies. Electoral support for major parties is influenced by judgements of economic performance. This helps account for electoral geographies, as economic conditions vary spatially. Past work, concentrating on objective economic indicators or on voters' personal economic evaluations, suggested that contextual effects work most powerfully when very local, suggesting that regional voting trends are artefacts of more intimate geographies. This paper extends that work by examining how voters' decisions are influenced by the economic evaluations of others in their communities and demonstrates that some contextual effects, at least, really are more powerful at the regional than at more local scales

Detection of Overhead Contact Lines with a 2D-Digital-Beamforming Radar System for Automatic Guidance of Trolley Trucks

The benefit of trolley truck systems is the substitution of the diesel fuel by the cheaper and more ecological electrical energy. Trolley trucks are powered by electricity fromtwo overhead contact lines, where one is the supply and the other the return conductor. Such trolley trucks are used for haulage at open pit mining sites but could also be used for freight traffic at roadways in the future. Automatic guidance prevents the trolley-powered trucks fromleaving the track and thus allows higher operating speeds, higher loading capacity, and greater efficiency. Radar is the ideal sensing technique for automatic guidance in such environments.The presented radar systemwith two-dimensional digital beamforming capability offers a compact measurement solution as it can be installed on top of the truck. Besides the distance measurement, this radar system allows to detect the location and inclination of the overhead contact lines by digital beamforming in two dimensions. Besides automatic guidance, the knowledge of the inclination of the overhead contact lines could allow automatic speed adaption, which would help to achieve maximum speed especially in hilly terrain

Intact but empty forests? Patterns of hunting-induced mammal defaunation in the tropics

Tropical forests are increasingly degraded by industrial logging, urbanization, agriculture, and infrastructure, with only 20% of the remaining area considered intact. However, this figure does not include other, more cryptic but pervasive forms of degradation, such as overhunting. Here, we quantified and mapped the spatial patterns of mammal defaunation in the tropics using a database of 3,281 mammal abundance declines from local hunting studies. We simultaneously accounted for population abundance declines and the probability of local extirpation of a population as a function of several predictors related to human accessibility to remote areas and species’ vulnerability to hunting. We estimated an average abundance decline of 13% across all tropical mammal species, with medium-sized species being reduced by >27% and large mammals by >40%. Mammal populations are predicted to be partially defaunated (i.e., declines of 10%–100%) in ca. 50% of the pantropical forest area (14 million km2), with large declines (>70%) in West Africa. According to our projections, 52% of the intact forests (IFs) and 62% of the wilderness areas (WAs) are partially devoid of large mammals, and hunting may affect mammal populations in 20% of protected areas (PAs) in the tropics, particularly in West and Central Africa and Southeast Asia. The pervasive effects of overhunting on tropical mammal populations may have profound ramifications for ecosystem functioning and the livelihoods of wild-meat-dependent communities, and underscore that forest coverage alone is not necessarily indicative of ecosystem intactness. We call for a systematic consideration of hunting effects in (large-scale) biodiversity assessments for more representative estimates of human-induced biodiversity loss

The Axis-Ratio Distribution of Galaxy Clusters in the SDSS-C4 Catalog as a New Cosmological Probe

We analyze the C4 catalog of galaxy clusters from the Sloan Digital Sky Survey (SDSS) to investigate the axis-ratio distribution of the projected two dimensional cluster profiles. We consider only those objects in the catalog whose virial mass is close to 10^{14}h^{-1}M_{sun}, with member galaxies within the scale radius 1000 kpc. The total number of such objects turns out to be 336. We also derive a theoretical distribution by incorporating the effect of projection onto the sky into the analytic formalism proposed recently by Lee, Jing, & Suto. The theoretical distribution of the cluster axis-ratios is shown to depend on the amplitude of the linear power spectrum (sigma_8) as well as the density parameter (Omega_{m}). Finally, fitting the observational data to the analytic distribution with Omega_{m} and sigma_{8} as two adjustable free parameters, we find the best-fitting value of sigma_{8}=(1.01 +/- 0.09)(Omega_{m}/0.6)^{(0.07 +/- 0.02) +0.1 Omega_{m}}$. It is a new sigma_{8}-Omega_{m} relation, different from the previous one derived from the local abundance of X-ray clusters. We expect that the axis-ratio distribution of galaxy clusters, if combined with the local abundance of clusters, may put simultaneous constraints on sigma_{8} and Omega_{m}.Comment: accepted for publication in ApJ, 17 pages, 3 figures, improved analysis, more discussion on the validity and the caveats of the mode

Professional Skills and Competence for Safe and Effective Procedural Sedation in Children: Recommendations Based on a Systematic Review of the Literature

Objectives. To investigate which skills and competence are imperative to assure optimal effectiveness and safety of procedural sedation (PS) in children and to analyze the underlying levels of evidence. Study Design and methods. Systematic review of literature published between 1993 and March 2009. Selected papers were classified according to their methodological quality and summarized in evidence-based conclusions. Next, conclusions were used to formulate recommendations. Results. Although the safety profiles vary among PS drugs, the possibility of potentially serious adverse events and the predictability of depth and duration of sedation define the imperative skills and competence necessary for a timely recognition and appropriate management. The level of effectiveness is mainly determined by the ability to apply titratable PS, including deep sedation using short-acting anesthetics for invasive procedures and nitrous oxide for minor painful procedures, and the implementation of non-pharmacological techniques. Conclusions. PS related safety and effectiveness are determined by the circumstances and professional skills rather than by specific pharmacologic characteristics. Evidence based recommendations regarding necessary skills and competence should be used to set up training programs and to define which professionals can and cannot be credentialed for PS in children

A Nicotinic Acetylcholine Receptor Agonist Prevents Loss of Retinal Ganglion Cells in a Glaucoma Model

Purpose.: The purpose of this study was to analyze the neuroprotective effect of an α7 nAChR agonist, PNU-282987, using an in vivo model of glaucoma in Long Evans rats. Methods.: One eye in each animal was surgically manipulated to induce glaucoma in control untreated animals and in animals that were treated with intravitreal injections of PNU-282987. To induce glaucoma-like conditions, 0.05 mL of 2 M NaCl was injected into the episcleral veins of right eyes in each rat to create scar tissue and increase intraocular pressure. The left eye in each rat acted as an internal control. One month following NaCl injection, rats were euthanized, retinas were removed, flatmounted, fixed, and nuclei were stained with cresyl violet or RGCs were immunostained with an antibody against Thy 1.1 or against Brn3a. Stained nuclei in the RGC layer and labeled RGCs in NaCl-injected retinas were counted and compared with cell counts from untreated retinas in the same animal. Results.: NaCl injections into the episcleral veins caused a significant loss of cells by an average of 27.35% (±2.12 SEM) in the RGC layer within 1 month after NaCl injection, which corresponded to a significant loss of RGCs. This loss of RGCs was eliminated if 5 μL of 100 μM PNU-282987 was injected into the right eye an hour before NaCl injection. Conclusions.: The results from this study support the hypothesis that the α7 agonist, PNU-282987, has a neuroprotective effect in the rat retina. PNU-282987 may be a viable candidate for future therapeutic treatments of glaucoma

New Improved cGMP Analogues to Target Rod Photoreceptor Degeneration

: Retinitis pigmentosa (RP) is a form of retinal degeneration affecting a young population with an unmet medical need. Photoreceptor degeneration has been associated with increased guanosine 3',5'-cyclic monophosphate (cGMP), which reaches toxic levels for photoreceptors. Therefore, inhibitory cGMP analogues attract interest for RP treatments. Here we present the synthesis of dithio-CN03, a phosphorodithioate analogue of cGMP, prepared using the H-phosphonothioate route. Two crystal modifications were identified as a trihydrate and a tetrahydrofuran monosolvates. Dithio-CN03 featured a lower aqueous solubility than its RP-phosphorothioate counterpart CN03, a drug candidate, and this characteristic might be favorable for sustained-release formulations aimed at retinal delivery. Dithio-CN03 was tested in vitro for its neuroprotective effects in photoreceptor models of RP. The comparison of dithio-CN03 to CN03 and its diastereomer SP-CN03, and to their phosphate derivative oxo-CN03 identifies dithio-CN03 as the compound with the highest efficacy in neuroprotection and thus as a promising new candidate for the treatment of RP

Combined effects of land use and hunting on distributions of tropical mammals

Land use and hunting are 2 major pressures on biodiversity in the tropics. Yet, their combined impacts have not been systematically quantified at a large scale. We estimated the effects of both pressures on the distributions of 1884 tropical mammal species by integrating species’ range maps, detailed land-use maps (1992 and 2015), species-specific habitat preference data, and a hunting pressure model. We further identified areas where the combined impacts were greatest (hotspots) and least (coolspots) to determine priority areas for mitigation or prevention of the pressures. Land use was the main driver of reduced distribution of all mammal species considered. Yet, hunting pressure caused additional reductions in large-bodied species’ distributions. Together, land use and hunting reduced distributions of species by 41% (SD 30) on average (year 2015). Overlap between impacts was only 2% on average. Land use contributed more to the loss of distribution (39% on average) than hunting (4% on average). However, hunting reduced the distribution of large mammals by 29% on average; hence, large mammals lost a disproportional amount of area due to the combination of both pressures. Gran Chaco, the Atlantic Forest, and Thailand had high levels of impact across the species (hotspots of area loss). In contrast, the Amazon and Congo Basins, the Guianas, and Borneo had relatively low levels of impact (coolspots of area loss). Overall, hunting pressure and human land use increased from 1992 to 2015 and corresponding losses in distribution increased from 38% to 41% on average across the species. To effectively protect tropical mammals, conservation policies should address both pressures simultaneously because their effects are highly complementary. Our spatially detailed and species-specific results may support future national and global conservation agendas, including the design of post-2020 protected area targets and strategies