Culture Techniques for Rearing Soil Anthropods

Excerpt: Interest in soil biology has been prompted by recent investigations into the action of insecticides on plants and animals. Observations in the field must be supplemented by laboratory investigations conducted under controlled conditions. Consequently, it becomes necessary to rear and handle soil animals under artificial situations for bio-assay and life cycle studies. When large numbers of individuals are required, special problems in maintenance and manipulation arise. Relatively inexpensive and simple methods for such projects are essential and this paper describes some of those techniques which we have found expedient

Left ventricular rotational mechanics in children after heart transplantation

Background: Left ventricular (LV) dysfunction after orthotopic heart transplantation (OHT) is multifactorial and can be an indicator of graft rejection or coronary artery vasculopathy. Analysis of rotational mechanics may help in the early diagnosis of ventricular dysfunction. Studies describing the left ventricular rotational strain in children after OHT are lacking. It is important to establish the baseline rotational mechanics in pediatric OHT to pursue further studies in this population. Methods and Results: Rotational strain measured by speckle tracking was compared in 32 children after OHT, with no evidence of active rejection or coronary artery vasculopathy with 35 age-matched normal controls. Twelve OHT patients and 13 controls underwent moderate exercise with pre- and postexercise echocardiography. Torsion, slope of the systolic limb of the torsion–radial displacement loop, and the untwist rate were significantly higher in OHT patients (torsion: median 2.7°/cm [Q1–Q3, 2.3–3.2] versus 2.3°/cm [Q1–Q3, 1.9–2.7]; P=0.03, torsion–radial displacement loop: 2.7°/mm [Q1–Q3, 2.1–3.6] versus 2.0°/mm [Q1–Q3, 1.6–2.7]; P=0.008, indexed peak untwist rate: −21.6°/s/cm [Q1–Q3, −24.3 to −15.7] versus −17.1°/s/cm [Q1–Q3, −19.6 to −13.3]; P=0.01). Contrary to controls, OHT recipients were unable to increase torsion with exercise (OHT: 2.8°/cm [2.7–3.2] versus 3°/cm [2.4–3.5]; P=0.81, controls: 2.2°/cm [2–2.6] versus 3°/cm [2.4–3.7]; P=0.01, pre and post exercise, respectively). The systolic slope of the torsion–radial displacement loop relationship decreased with exercise in most OHT patients. Conclusions: Baseline rotational strain in OHT patients is higher than normal with a blunted response to exercise. The slope of torsion–radial displacement loop, and its response to exercise, may serve as a marker of left ventricular dysfunction in OHT patients

Synchronized Scheduling: Choosing to Experience Different Events in Different Places at the Same Time as Others

This research documents a preference for synchronized scheduling—when people choose to experience different events in different places at the same time as others. We find that people are willing to incur costs—for example, by scheduling negative events sooner or positive events later—to synchronize their schedules. Thus, when unable to share physical space, people can nevertheless share “temporal space” by choosing to schedule separate experiences at the same time. Eight studies (=3,075) explore this preference, which does not extend to disliked others and persists even when only one person knows. We explain that this is because synchronized scheduling acts as “social glue,” increasing feelings of not only person-to-person social connection but also solidarity, trust, and cohesion within the group. As a result, it counteracts experienced and anticipated physical disconnection. We highlight implications for individuals and organizations seeking to create psychologically connected experiences in an increasingly physically disconnected world

Compression of Multi-frequency Eddy Current Data using Principal Components Analysis for Pressure Tube to Calandria Tube Gap Measurement

Inspection of components with multi-variable influential parameters may result in a loss of accuracy for the measurement of the target variable. A particular example occurs in the case of a pressure tube (PT) that is contained within a calandria tube (CT) in the fuel channels of CANDU® nuclear reactors. Eddy current (EC) based measurement of gap between PT and CT, as required by nuclear regulators, is affected by variation of PT wall thickness and resistivity, which may confound the accurate gap measurement. In this work principal components analysis (PCA) is examined as a means of simplifying changes in multi-frequency EC data so that the effect on EC signals from multiple parameters may be identified. PCA of analytical model and laboratory results are examined and redundant information in the multi-frequency EC data is removed. An additional benefit of PCA is compressed data acquisition, which permits increased inspection speed and monitoring of multi-parameter variation using a reduced number of variables

Political Decision-Making behind the Oregon Health Plan: Making the Hard Choice

Oregon has been regarded nationally as an innovative healthcare policy state because of its creation of the Oregon Health Plan (OHP) conceived by State Senator and Governor John Kitzhaber. The OHP was designed and created to help curb soaring healthcare costs and broaden the eligibility of healthcare to the working poor. Developed in 1994, after a drawn-out process and numerous delays, the OHP was crafted using political decision-making determined by different advocacy coalitions. This paper is a historical account and analysis of the creation and political decision-making process used to create the OHP. This paper will discuss the process of the decision-making by government officials, healthcare providers, insurers, and Oregon community members in order to create the OHP. The coalitions that were involved in this process will be examined along with their core policy beliefs. This is an explanatory piece that will help communities and policy-makers better understand the process of coalition building and the healthcare policies they can create. Core policy beliefs will be examined among different coalitions, along with the implications of these beliefs. The process used to create the OHP was unique, using collaborative methods that involved participatory action and high levels of community engagement

Reinforced Approximate Exploratory Data Analysis

Exploratory data analytics (EDA) is a sequential decision making process where analysts choose subsequent queries that might lead to some interesting insights based on the previous queries and corresponding results. Data processing systems often execute the queries on samples to produce results with low latency. Different downsampling strategy preserves different statistics of the data and have different magnitude of latency reductions. The optimum choice of sampling strategy often depends on the particular context of the analysis flow and the hidden intent of the analyst. In this paper, we are the first to consider the impact of sampling in interactive data exploration settings as they introduce approximation errors. We propose a Deep Reinforcement Learning (DRL) based framework which can optimize the sample selection in order to keep the analysis and insight generation flow intact. Evaluations with 3 real datasets show that our technique can preserve the original insight generation flow while improving the interaction latency, compared to baseline methods.Comment: Appears in the 37th AAAI Conference on Artificial Intelligence (AAAI), 202

Guidance on clinical research involving infants, children and young people: an update for researchers and research ethics committees

The British Paediatric Association, the forerunner of the Royal College of Paediatrics and Child Health (RCPCH), first published guidance in relation to research involving children in 1980.1 Prior to this time, little clinical research involved children. The 1980 guidance initiated a sea change, stating ‘research involving children is important’, ‘should be supported and encouraged’ and ‘research which involves a child and is of no benefit to that child (non-therapeutic research) is not necessarily either unethical or illegal’. Updated guidance was issued by the RCPCH in 2000.2 Both documents have been cited extensively