A Collaborative International Research Program on the Coupled North Atlantic-Arctic System: Science Plan

This North Atlantic-Arctic science plan is derived from an international workshop held in April 2014 with support from the National Science Foundation Division of Ocean Sciences and the European Union (EU). The workshop was designed to facilitate development of a core vision for advancing the next phase of research on the North Atlantic-Arctic system and strengthening international collaborations within and between the EU and North America

Bounds on the Expected Size of the Maximum Agreement Subtree

We prove polynomial upper and lower bounds on the expected size of the maximum agreement subtree of two random binary phylogenetic trees under both the uniform distribution and Yule-Harding distribution. This positively answers a question posed in earlier work. Determining tight upper and lower bounds remains an open problem.Comment: Revised versio

Life-cycle assessment of greenhouse gas emissions from unconventional gas in Scotland

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Evidence of Resistance to Cry34/35Ab1 Corn by Western Corn Rootworm (Coleoptera: Chrysomelidae): Root Injury in the Field and Larval Survival in Plant-Based Bioassays

Western corn rootworm, Diabrotica virgifera virgifera LeConte (Coleoptera: Chrysomelidae), is a serious pest of corn in the United States, and recent management of western corn rootworm has included planting of Bt corn. Beginning in 2009, western corn rootworm populations with resistance to Cry3Bb1 corn and mCry3A corn were found in Iowa and elsewhere. To date, western corn rootworm populations have remained susceptible to corn producing Bt toxin Cry34/35Ab1. In this study, we used single-plant bioassays to test field populations of western corn rootworm for resistance to Cry34/35Ab1 corn, Cry3Bb1 corn, and mCry3A corn. Bioassays included nine rootworm populations collected from fields where severe injury to Bt corn had been observed and six control populations that had never been exposed to Bt corn. We found incomplete resistance to Cry34/35Ab1 corn among field populations collected from fields where severe injury to corn producing Cry34/35Ab1, either singly or as a pyramid, had been observed. Additionally, resistance to Cry3Bb1 corn and mCry3A corn was found among the majority of populations tested. These first cases of resistance to Cry34/35Ab1 corn, and the presence of resistance to multiple Bt toxins by western corn rootworm, highlight the potential vulnerability of Bt corn to the evolution of resistance by western corn rootworm. The use of more diversified management practices, in addition to insect resistance management, likely will be essential to sustain the viability of Bt corn for management of western corn rootworm

Calibration of myocardial T2 and T1 against iron concentration.

BACKGROUND: The assessment of myocardial iron using T2* cardiovascular magnetic resonance (CMR) has been validated and calibrated, and is in clinical use. However, there is very limited data assessing the relaxation parameters T1 and T2 for measurement of human myocardial iron. METHODS: Twelve hearts were examined from transfusion-dependent patients: 11 with end-stage heart failure, either following death (n=7) or cardiac transplantation (n=4), and 1 heart from a patient who died from a stroke with no cardiac iron loading. Ex-vivo R1 and R2 measurements (R1=1/T1 and R2=1/T2) at 1.5 Tesla were compared with myocardial iron concentration measured using inductively coupled plasma atomic emission spectroscopy. RESULTS: From a single myocardial slice in formalin which was repeatedly examined, a modest decrease in T2 was observed with time, from mean (± SD) 23.7 ± 0.93 ms at baseline (13 days after death and formalin fixation) to 18.5 ± 1.41 ms at day 566 (p<0.001). Raw T2 values were therefore adjusted to correct for this fall over time. Myocardial R2 was correlated with iron concentration [Fe] (R2 0.566, p<0.001), but the correlation was stronger between LnR2 and Ln[Fe] (R2 0.790, p<0.001). The relation was [Fe] = 5081•(T2)-2.22 between T2 (ms) and myocardial iron (mg/g dry weight). Analysis of T1 proved challenging with a dichotomous distribution of T1, with very short T1 (mean 72.3 ± 25.8 ms) that was independent of iron concentration in all hearts stored in formalin for greater than 12 months. In the remaining hearts stored for <10 weeks prior to scanning, LnR1 and iron concentration were correlated but with marked scatter (R2 0.517, p<0.001). A linear relationship was present between T1 and T2 in the hearts stored for a short period (R2 0.657, p<0.001). CONCLUSION: Myocardial T2 correlates well with myocardial iron concentration, which raises the possibility that T2 may provide additive information to T2* for patients with myocardial siderosis. However, ex-vivo T1 measurements are less reliable due to the severe chemical effects of formalin on T1 shortening, and therefore T1 calibration may only be practical from in-vivo human studies

The Dutch version of the Oral Health Impact Profile (OHIP-NL): Translation, reliability and construct validity

Background The purpose of this study was to make a cross-culturally adapted, Dutch version of the Oral Health Impact Profile (OHIP), a 49-item questionnaire measuring oral health-related quality of life, and to examine its psychometric properties. Methods The original English version of the OHIP was translated into the Dutch language, following the guidelines for cross-cultural adaptation of health-related quality of life measures. The resulting OHIP-NL's psychometric properties were examined in a sample of 119 patients (68.9 % women; mean age = 57.1 ± 12.2 yrs). They were referred to the clinic of Prosthodontics and Implantology with complaints concerning their partial or full dentures or other problems with missing teeth. To establish the reliability of the OHIP-NL, internal consistency and test-retest reliability (N = 41; 1 - 2 weeks interval) were examined, using Cronbach's alpha and intraclass correlation coefficients (ICC), respectively. Further, construct validity was established by calculating ANOVA. Results Internal consistency and test-retest reliability were excellent (Cronbach's alpha = 0.82 - 0.97; ICC = 0.78 - 0.90). In addition, all associations were significant and in the expected direction. Conclusion In conclusion: the OHIP-NL can be considered a reliable and valid instrument to measure oral health-related quality of life

'If You Desire to Enjoy Life, Avoid Unpunctual People': Women, Timetabling and Domestic Advice, 1850–1910

In the second half of the nineteenth century domestic advice manuals applied the language of modern, public time management to the private sphere. This article uses domestic advice and cookery books, including Isabella Beeton's Book of Household Management, to argue that women in the home operated within multiple, overlapping temporalities that incorporated daily, annual, linear and cyclical scales. I examine how seasonal and annual timescales coexisted with the ticking clock of daily time as a framework within which women were instructed to organize their lives in order to conclude that the increasing concern of advice writers with matters of timekeeping and punctuality towards the end of the nineteenth century indicates not the triumph of 'clock time' but rather its failure to overturn other ways of thinking about and using time

Assessing changes in vascular permeability in a hamster model of viral hemorrhagic fever

<p>Abstract</p> <p>Background</p> <p>A number of RNA viruses cause viral hemorrhagic fever (VHF), in which proinflammatory mediators released from infected cells induce increased permeability of the endothelial lining of blood vessels, leading to loss of plasma volume, hypotension, multi-organ failure, shock and death. The optimal treatment of VHF should therefore include both the use of antiviral drugs to inhibit viral replication and measures to prevent or correct changes in vascular function. Although rodent models have been used to evaluate treatments for increased vascular permeability (VP) in bacterial sepsis, such studies have not been performed for VHF.</p> <p>Results</p> <p>Here, we use an established model of Pichinde virus infection of hamsters to demonstrate how changes in VP can be detected by intravenous infusion of Evans blue dye (EBD), and compare those measurements to changes in hematocrit, serum albumin concentration and serum levels of proinflammatory mediators. We show that EBD injected into sick animals in the late stage of infection is rapidly sequestered in the viscera, while in healthy animals it remains within the plasma, causing the skin to turn a marked blue color. This test could be used in live animals to detect increased VP and to assess the ability of antiviral drugs and vasoactive compounds to prevent its onset. Finally, we describe a multiplexed assay to measure levels of serum factors during the course of Pichinde arenavirus infection and demonstrate that viremia and subsequent increase in white blood cell counts precede the elaboration of inflammatory mediators, which is followed by increased VP and death.</p> <p>Conclusions</p> <p>This level of model characterization is essential to the evaluation of novel interventions designed to control the effects of virus-induced hypercytokinemia on host vascular function in VHF, which could lead to improved survival.</p