An Integrated Study Investigating Masticated Fuel Treatments in the Rocky Mountains

Many coniferous forests in the western US once supported frequent, low intensity fires, but due to a century of fire exclusion and other factors, severe wildfires have now become common. With the goal of lowering fire intensities and severities, one possible fuel treatment that is currently gaining favor in with many land managers is mastication which breaks, shreds, or grinds canopy (seedlings, saplings and pole trees) and surface fuel (fine and coarse woody material) into smaller sizes and deposits the treated fuel on the ground. However, very little is known concerning the effects of this treatment on the resulting fire behavior, vegetation community, and ecosystem responses. Managers need to be aware of the beneficial and adverse effects of mastication to more effectively manage ecosystems. The goal of this study is to investigate the effects of masticated fuels on various ecosystem processes and characteristics with the following objectives • Describe the characteristics and properties of masticated fuelbeds • Develop a sampling protocol to estimate the loading of masticated fuelbed • Describe fire behavior in burning masticated fuelbeds • Evaluate the effects of masticated fuelbed on the ecosystem We have established study sites on the Valles Caldera National Preserve, New Mexico; San Juan National Forest, Colorado; and Kootenai National Forest, Montana. Each site contains control, masticate, masticate and burn, and burn only units. As of fall 2008, all sites had received the mastication treatment but none had been prescribed burned. We found that a cover-depth sampling protocol was the best option for quantifying masticated fuel loadings and mastication reduced canopy fuels by approximately 30-50 percent

The upgraded Polaris powder diffractometer at the ISIS neutron source

This paper describes the design and operation of the Polaris time-of-flight powder neutron diffractometer at the ISIS pulsed spallation neutron source, Rutherford Appleton Laboratory, UK. Following a major upgrade to the diffractometer in 2010-2011, its detector provision now comprises five large ZnS scintillator-based banks, covering an angular range of 6\ub0 ≤ 2θ ≤ 168\ub0, with only minimal gaps between each bank. These detectors have a substantially increased solid angle coverage (ω ∼5.67 sr) compared to the previous instrument (ω ∼0.82 sr), resulting in increases in count rate of between 2 7 and 10 7, depending on 2θ angle. The benefits arising from the high count rates achieved are illustrated using selected examples of experiments studying small sample volumes and performing rapid, time-resolved investigations. In addition, the enhanced capabilities of the diffractometer in the areas of in situ studies (which are facilitated by the installation of a novel design of radial collimator around the sample position and by a complementary programme of advanced sample environment developments) and in total scattering studies (to probe the nature of short-range atomic correlations within disordered crystalline solids) are demonstrated

Kank Is an EB1 Interacting Protein that Localises to Muscle-Tendon Attachment Sites in Drosophila

Little is known about how microtubules are regulated in different cell types during development. EB1 plays a central role in the regulation of microtubule plus ends. It directly binds to microtubule plus ends and recruits proteins which regulate microtubule dynamics and behaviour. We report the identification of Kank, the sole Drosophila orthologue of human Kank proteins, as an EB1 interactor that predominantly localises to embryonic attachment sites between muscle and tendon cells. Human Kank1 was identified as a tumour suppressor and has documented roles in actin regulation and cell polarity in cultured mammalian cells. We found that Drosophila Kank binds EB1 directly and this interaction is essential for Kank localisation to microtubule plus ends in cultured cells. Kank protein is expressed throughout fly development and increases during embryogenesis. In late embryos, it accumulates to sites of attachment between muscle and epidermal cells. A kank deletion mutant was generated. We found that the mutant is viable and fertile without noticeable defects. Further analysis showed that Kank is dispensable for muscle function in larvae. This is in sharp contrast to C. elegans in which the Kank orthologue VAB-19 is required for development by stabilising attachment structures between muscle and epidermal cells

The Safety, Effectiveness and Concentrations of Adjusted Lopinavir/Ritonavir in HIV-Infected Adults on Rifampicin-Based Antitubercular Therapy

Rifampicin co-administration dramatically reduces plasma lopinavir concentrations. Studies in healthy volunteers and HIV-infected patients showed that doubling the dose of lopinavir/ritonavir (LPV/r) or adding additional ritonavir offsets this interaction. However, high rates of hepatotoxicity were observed in healthy volunteers. We evaluated the safety, effectiveness and pre-dose concentrations of adjusted doses of LPV/r in HIV infected adults treated with rifampicin-based tuberculosis treatment.Adult patients on a LPV/r-based antiretroviral regimen and rifampicin-based tuberculosis therapy were enrolled. Doubled doses of LPV/r or an additional 300 mg of ritonavir were used to overcome the inducing effect of rifampicin. Steady-state lopinavir pre-dose concentrations were evaluated every second month.18 patients were enrolled with a total of 79 patient months of observation. 11/18 patients were followed up until tuberculosis treatment completion. During tuberculosis treatment, the median (IQR) pre-dose lopinavir concentration was 6.8 (1.1-9.2) mg/L and 36/47 (77%) were above the recommended trough concentration of 1 mg/L. Treatment was generally well tolerated with no grade 3 or 4 toxicity: 8 patients developed grade 1 or 2 transaminase elevation, 1 patient defaulted additional ritonavir due to nausea and 1 patient developed diarrhea requiring dose reduction. Viral loads after tuberculosis treatment were available for 11 patients and 10 were undetectable.Once established on treatment, adjusted doses of LPV/r co-administered with rifampicin-based tuberculosis treatment were tolerated and LPV pre-dose concentrations were adequate

The Early Years

Policy concentration on the early years is of vital importance for the wellbeing of children now and for their future health outcomes and life chances. Evidence-based research points to the need for a focus that is properly holistic and to precipitate intervention to promote a healthy diet, regular patterns of activity and rest and give children the best start in life. In 2005, The United Nations Committee on the Rights of the Child (General Comment No. 7) acknowledged the need for a fresh strategy, pinpointing research findings indicating that a failure to prioritise early years’ welfare exposes children to the ills of ‘malnutrition, disease, poverty, neglect, social exclusion and a range of other adversities.’ Professor Dame Sally Davies, Chief Medical Officer of the United Kingdom, considers that robust early years’ policies make both social and economic sense: ‘Too many children and young people do not have the start in life they need, leading to high costs for society, and too many affected lives’ (Forward to ‘The 1001 Critical Days’, June 16th 2014). This observation is significant because there remains much to do. In 2012, the NSPCC reviewed the United Kingdom policy scenario for babies and very young children and concluded that identifiable advances in maternity and early years’ provision did not detract from the fact that: ‘babies are still particularly vulnerable’ and ‘their rights are not always recognised or realised’. (‘All Babies Count – But what about their rights?’ Sally Knock and Lorriann Robinson, January 2012). Knock and Robinson highlight glaring gaps of support and provision – especially in maternity services whereby the fostering of a strong parent-child bond is invariably sacrificed to a concentration upon purely medical practicalities such as labour, birth and the immunisation programme. The All Party Group on a Fit and Healthy Childhood aims, in this report, to offer the incoming Government recommendations for an early years’ strategy that are credible, feasible and evidence-based and will enable the United Kingdom to set the standard in a crucial policy field both at home and abroad. In defining ‘early childhood’, we follow the example of The United Nations (2005) Convention on the Right of the Child by examining the period of 0-8 including, as it does, the vital transition phase from pre-school to primary school. We consider the antenatal period and maternal physical and mental health, methods of feeding the newborn, parental support services both hospital and home-based and infant nutrition and socioeconomic factors that may impact upon the health and wellbeing of young children. The report examines the optimum balance between sleep, rest and activity, the need for freely-chosen play, safeguarding measures and the importance of respecting cultural diversity in all early years’ settings. Above all, we analyse the relationship between young families and the professionals whose role it is to ensure that babies have the very best start in life, supported by parents who have confidence in the choices that they make and the advice that they are given. Just as new families require mentoring so that they can act in the best interests of their children, so the early years’ workforce needs training and continuous professional development to ensure that the advice given is of the highest possible quality and specifically tailored to the individual family. Early Years’ students from The University of Northampton (interviewed) explain what a positive difference their newly acquired knowledge has made to their performance in the settings and Government recognition of The Early Years as a developmental stage in its own right and the creation of the new posts of Early Years Teacher and Early Years Educator have been positive. Yet as the Ilkeston ‘Mums Group’ (interviewed) makes clear, there is still no guarantee of uniform excellence in the delivery of services nationwide and no assurance of continuity between, for example, advice on feeding from the midwife and the health visitor, or the emphasis put on freely-chosen play in an early years’ setting and a primary school. If young children are to thrive, we believe it is essential that there is a national consensus and political will behind multi-disciplinary working in the early years. We see the early years as a window of opportunity and make no apology for the fact that each section of this report is accompanied by many policy recommendations. It has not been possible to produce a uniform handful of ‘asks’, just as the early years itself is a rich, complex and multifarious developmental phase. However, neither do we consider it to be feasible to achieve everything that we recommend in the lifespan of a single Government. This is a two, even three term journey. However, if the nation’s families and the early years workforce are to embark upon it, the Government must be prepared to provide the resources; the Cabinet Minister for Children and Families, the commitment to multi-disciplinary co-operation to achieve an early years workforce that is truly ‘joined up’ and, above all, the finance to make well–intentioned aspiration a reality. In an age of austerity, by spending early, the later savings to education, health, social or criminal justice services will be immense. Investing in the children of today is not a gambl

Spin-ice physics in cadmium cyanide

Spin-ices are frustrated magnets that support a particularly rich variety of emergent physics. Typically, it is the interplay of magnetic dipole interactions, spin anisotropy, and geometric frustration on the pyrochlore lattice that drives spin-ice formation. The relevant physics occurs at temperatures commensurate with the magnetic interaction strength, which for most systems is 1–5 K. Here, we show that non-magnetic cadmium cyanide, Cd(CN)2, exhibits analogous behaviour to magnetic spin-ices, but does so on a temperature scale that is nearly two orders of magnitude greater. The electric dipole moments of cyanide ions in Cd(CN)2 assume the role of magnetic pseudospins, with the difference in energy scale reflecting the increased strength of electric vs magnetic dipolar interactions. As a result, spin-ice physics influences the structural behaviour of Cd(CN)2 even at room temperature.ISSN:2041-172