What If and So What in Northwest Canada : Could Climate Change Make a Difference to the Future of the Mackenzie Basin?

Global climate change, also known as global warming, is one of the most challenging elements of global environmental change. It atmospheric concentrations of carbon dioxide and other "greenhouse gases" continue to increase, global mean air temperatures are expected to rise 1.5 to 4.5 C within the next several decades. High-latitude regions are projected to experience above-average increases. What effects would such a warming have in the Canadian Arctic? In a recently completed study of the Mackenzie Basin in northwestern Canada, regional stakeholders provided their responses to the "what if?" scenario of climate change in their region. This scenario includes more frequent landslides due to permafrost thaw, lower minimum annual river and lake levels, more forest fires, and lower yields from softwoods. These impacts could offset potential benefits from a longer growing and ice-free season. Regional stakeholders, including provincial and territorial governments, aboriginal organizations and the private sector, felt confident about their abilities to adapt, so long as climate change would be predictable and gradual. Some potential impacts, however, could be very significant for renewable resources and aboriginal communities, and some stakeholders spoke of intervention into national and international policy arenas to raise awareness of the Mackenzie Basin.Le changement climatique mondial, qu'on appelle aussi «réchauffement de la planète», est l'un des aspects du changement de l'environnement planétaire qui présente le plus de défis. Si les concentrations atmosphériques en gaz carbonique et autres «gaz à effet de serre» continuent d'augmenter, les températures moyennes globales de l'air devraient s'élever de 1,5 à 4,5 °C au cours des prochaines décennies. Quelles seront les répercussions d'un tel réchauffement sur l'Arctique canadien? Dans une étude récemment achevée, portant sur le bassin du Mackenzie situé dans le nord-ouest du Canada, les parties concernées ont fourni leurs réponses au scénario d'anticipation du changement climatique dans leur région. Ce scénario comprend une augmentation de la fréquence des glissements de terrain dus au dégel du pergélisol, une baisse des niveaux minimaux de l'année des lacs et cours d'eau, une augmentation des incendies de forêt, et une baisse du rendement des résineux. Ces retombées pourraient neutraliser les bénéfices potentiels d'une plus longue saison de croissance et d'inter-glaciel. Les intervenants régionaux, y compris les gouvernements provinciaux et territoriaux, les organismes autochtones et le secteur privé, se sont dit confiants quant à leurs capacités d'adaptation, pour autant que le changement climatique soit prévisible et graduel. Certaines répercussions potentielles pourraient cependant avoir une importance majeure pour les ressources renouvelables et les collectivités autochtones. Des intervenants souhaitaient même une intervention au niveau de la politique nationale et internationale afin de sensibiliser l'opinion à l'extérieur du bassin du Mackenzie

Holocene-Neogene volcanism in northeastern Australia: chronology and eruption history

Quaternary and late Neogene volcanism is widespread in northeastern Australia, producing at least 397 eruptions covering more than 20,000 km2, including at least 20 flows over 50 km long. Despite this abundance of young volcanism, before this study numerous eruptions had tentative ages or were undated, and the area requires a comprehensive evaluation of eruption patterns through time. To help address these issues we applied multi-collector ARGUS-V 40Ar/39Ar geochronology to determine the age of four of the younger extensive flows: Undara (160 km long, 189 ± 4/4 ka; 2σ, with full analytical/external uncertainties), Murronga (40 km long, 153 ± 5/5 ka), Toomba (120 km long, 21 ± 3/3 ka), and Kinrara (55 km long, 7 ± 2/2 ka). Verbal traditions of the Gugu Badhun Aboriginal people contain features that may potentially describe the eruption of Kinrara. If the traditions do record this eruption, they would have been passed down for 230 ± 70 generations – a period of time exceeding the earliest written historical records. To further examine north Queensland volcanism through time we compiled a database of 337 ages, including 179 previously unpublished K-Ar and radiocarbon results. The compiled ages demonstrate that volcanic activity has occurred without major time breaks since at least 9 Ma. The greatest frequency of eruptions occurred in the last 2 Ma, with an average recurrence interval of <10–22 ka between eruptions. Activity was at times likely more frequent than these calculations indicate, as the geochronologic dataset is incomplete, with undated eruptions, and intraplate volcanism is often episodic. The duration, frequency, and youthfulness of activity indicate that north Queensland volcanism should be considered as potentially still active, and there are now two confirmed areas of Holocene volcanism in eastern Australia – one at each end of the continent. More broadly, our data provides another example of 40Ar/39Ar geochronology applied to Holocene and latest Pleistocene mafic eruptions, further demonstrating that this method has the ability to examine eruptions and hazards at the youngest volcanoes on Earth

Adverse drug reactions reported to a provincial public health sector pharmacovigilance programme in South Africa

Background. There are limited data in South Africa (SA) on adverse drug reaction (ADR) patterns and common causative medicines, outside of HIV and tuberculosis treatment programmes. In SA, Western Cape Province has a pharmacovigilance programme that collects spontaneous reports of suspected ADRs from public sector healthcare facilities.Objectives. To describe reports received by the pharmacovigilance programme over a 4-year period (excluding those ascribed to medicines used to treat HIV and tuberculosis), as well as challenges faced in the implementation of such a system.Methods. Reports of suspected ADRs and deaths possibly related to ADRs received between January 2015 and December 2018 were reviewed. Causality was assessed by a pharmacist, with multidisciplinary team involvement for all deaths and complicated cases. Causality was categorised according to the World Health Organization-Uppsala Monitoring Centre system. Preventability was assessed using Schumock and Thornton criteria. Observations on preventability and challenges faced in the operation of a spontaneous reporting system were also noted.Results. We received 5 346 reports containing 6 023 suspected ADRs. There were 5 486 ADRs confirmed after causality assessment, in 5 103 reports. Cough, angio-oedema, movement disorders and uterine bleeding disorders were the most common ADRs. Enalapril, etonogestrel, amlodipine and hydrochlorothiazide were the most commonly implicated drugs. Seven deaths were reported; 3 of these reports of deaths had confirmed ADRs, and these ADRs were assessed as contributing to the deaths. Approximately 3.8% of commonly reported ADRs were preventable.Conclusions. Enalapril and etonogestrel were responsible for a significant proportion of ADRs reported to this provincial programme. Future work should include quantification of preventability aspects to better inform gaps in healthcare worker knowledge that can be addressed in order to improve patient care

Multi-photon transitions between energy levels in a current-biased Josephson tunnel junction

The escape of a small current-biased Josephson tunnel junction from the zero voltage state in the presence of weak microwave radiation is investigated experimentally at low temperatures. The measurements of the junction switching current distribution indicate the macroscopic quantum tunneling of the phase below a cross-over temperature of $T^{\star} \approx 280 \rm{mK}$. At temperatures below $T^{\star}$ we observe both single-photon and \emph{multi-photon} transitions between the junction energy levels by applying microwave radiation in the frequency range between $10 \rm{GHz}$ and $38 \rm{GHz}$ to the junction. These observations reflect the anharmonicity of the junction potential containing only a small number of levels.Comment: 4 pages, 5 figure

The influence of achievement before, during and after medical school on physician job satisfaction

In this longitudinal study, we investigated the relationship between physicians' prior achievements (before, during and after medical school) and job satisfaction, and tested the two lines of reasoning that prior achievements influence job satisfaction positively or negatively, respectively. The participants were graduates who started their medical training in 1982 (n = 147), 1983 (n = 154), 1992 (n = 143) and 1993 (n = 153). We operationalised job satisfaction as satisfaction (on a 10-point scale) with 13 cognitive, affective and instrumental aspects of the participants' jobs. The measures of achievement before, during and after medical school included pre-university grade point average, study progress and a residency position in the specialty of first choice, respectively. We included the effect of curriculum type (problem-based learning versus traditional), gender and years of experience as moderator variables. Higher achievers before and during medical school were more satisfied about their income (beta = .152, p &lt;.01 and beta = .149, p &lt;.05), but less satisfied with their opportunities for personal development (beta = -.159, p &lt;.05). High achievers after medical school were more satisfied with professional accomplishments (beta = .095, p &lt;.05), with appreciation from support personnel (beta = .154, p &lt;.01) and from patients (beta = .120, p &lt;.05). Effect sizes were small. Prior achievements influenced job satisfaction. The direction of the influences depended on the job satisfaction aspect in question, which indicates that it is important to distinguish between aspects of job satisfaction. To optimize job satisfaction of high achievers, it is important for graduates to obtain their preferred specialty. Furthermore, it is vital to provide them with enough opportunities for further development.</p

Renormalization schemes and the range of two-nucleon effective field theory

The OS and PDS renormalization schemes for the effective field theory with nucleons and pions are investigated. We explain in detail how the renormalization is implemented using local counterterms. Fits to the NN scattering data are performed in the 1S0 and 3S1 channels for different values of mu_R. An error analysis indicates that the range of the theory with perturbative pions is consistent with 500 MeV.Comment: 40 pages, typos corrected, journal version. Discussion of the range in section VII clarified, conclusions unchange

Internal and external cooling methods and their effect on body temperature, thermal perception and dexterity

© 2018 The Authors. Published by PLOS. This is an open access article available under a Creative Commons licence. The published version can be accessed at the following link on the publisher’s website: https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0191416© 2018 Maley et al. This is an open access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License, which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original author and source are credited. Objective The present study aimed to compare a range of cooling methods possibly utilised by occupational workers, focusing on their effect on body temperature, perception and manual dexterity. Methods Ten male participants completed eight trials involving 30 min of seated rest followed by 30 min of cooling or control of no cooling (CON) (34C, 58% relative humidity). The cooling methods utilised were: ice cooling vest (CV0), phase change cooling vest melting at 14C (CV14), evaporative cooling vest (CVEV), arm immersion in 10C water (AI), portable water-perfused suit (WPS), heliox inhalation (HE) and ice slushy ingestion (SL). Immediately before and after cooling, participants were assessed for fine (Purdue pegboard task) and gross (grip and pinch strength) manual dexterity. Rectal and skin temperature, as well as thermal sensation and comfort, were monitored throughout. Results Compared with CON, SL was the only method to reduce rectal temperature (P = 0.012). All externally applied cooling methods reduced skin temperature (P0.05). Conclusion The present study observed that ice ingestion or ice applied to the skin produced the greatest effect on rectal and skin temperature, respectively. AI should not be utilised if workers require subsequent fine manual dexterity. These results will help inform future studies investigating appropriate pre-cooling methods for the occupational worker.This project is financially supported by the US Government through the Technical Support Working Group within the Combating Terrorism Technical Support Office.Published versio

The NN scattering 3S1-3D1 mixing angle at NNLO

The 3S1-3D1 mixing angle for nucleon-nucleon scattering, epsilon_1, is calculated to next-to-next-to-leading order in an effective field theory with perturbative pions. Without pions, the low energy theory fits the observed epsilon_1 well for momenta less than $\sim 50$ MeV. Including pions perturbatively significantly improves the agreement with data for momenta up to $\sim 150$ MeV with one less parameter. Furthermore, for these momenta the accuracy of our calculation is similar to an effective field theory calculation in which the pion is treated non-perturbatively. This gives phenomenological support for a perturbative treatment of pions in low energy two-nucleon processes. We explain why it is necessary to perform spin and isospin traces in d dimensions when regulating divergences with dimensional regularization in higher partial wave amplitudes.Comment: 17 pages, journal versio

Team Players and Collective Performance: How Agreeableness Affects Team Performance Over Time

Previous research on teams has found that agreeableness is one of the strongest personality predictors of team performance, yet one of the weakest personality predictors of individual-level job performance. In this study, we examined why teams with more agreeable members perform better. Data were collected across 4 months at 5 points in time from 107 project teams. We found that agreeableness affects performance through communication and cohesion and that communication precedes cohesion in time. Furthermore, we found that virtualness moderated the relationships between agreeableness and communication, as well as between agreeableness and team performance, such that teams only benefitted from high levels of agreeableness when interacting face-to-face.Yeshttps://us.sagepub.com/en-us/nam/manuscript-submission-guideline

Effect of a Lay Counselor Intervention on Prevention of Major Depression in Older Adults Living in Low- and Middle-Income Countries:A Randomized Clinical Trial

Importance: Preventing depression in older adults living in low- and middle-income countries is important because of the scarcity of treatment resources and the risk of disability, suicide, and dementia. Objective: To assess whether an intervention for depression prevention provided by lay counselors is effective in older adults from low- and middle-income countries. Design, Setting, and Participants: This parallel-group randomized clinical trial with masked outcome assessment was performed in 181 older adults (≥60 years) with subsyndromal depressive symptoms at rural and urban primary care clinics in Goa, India. The first participant entered the trial on March 31, 2015, and the last exited on June 2, 2017. Data analysis used the intention-to-treat approach. Interventions: Lay counselors provided problem-solving therapy, brief behavioral treatment for insomnia, education in self-care of common medical disorders such as diabetes, and assistance in accessing medical and social programs. Main Outcomes and Measures: The main outcome was incidence of major depressive episodes. The study also assessed symptom change during 12 months (12-item General Health Questionnaire [GHQ-12]; score range of 0 to 12, with higher scores indicating greater symptoms of depression and anxiety), functional status (World Health Organization Disability Assessment Schedule 2.0; score range of 12 to 60, with higher scores indicating greater disability), cognition (Hindi Mini-Mental State Examination; score range of 0 to 30, with higher scores indicating better cognitive functioning), blood pressure, and body mass index to provide further clinical context. Results: The study enrolled 181 participants (mean [SD] age, 69.6 [7.2] years; 114 [63.0%] female): 91 to the intervention arm (depression in later life [DIL] intervention) and 90 to care as usual (CAU). Incident episodes of major depression were lower in the DIL intervention than in the CAU group (4.40% vs 14.44%; log-rank P =.04; number needed to treat, 9.95; 95% CI, 5.12-182.43). The 12-month Kaplan-Meier estimates of percentage of depression-free participants were 95.1% (95% CI, 90.5%-99.9%) in the DIL group vs 87.4% (95% CI, 80.4%-95.1%) in the CAU group. The incidence of depressive symptoms (GHQ-12) was also less (12-month mean difference, -1.18; 95% CI, -2.03 to -0.31; group × time interaction P <.001). There were no changes in measures of disability or cognition. The DIL intervention was associated with a significantly greater lowering of systolic blood pressure (12-month mean difference, -6.98; 95% CI, -11.96 to -2.01; group × time interaction P <.001) and change in body mass index (12-month mean difference, 0.23; 95% CI, -0.97 to 1.43; P =.04). Conclusions and Relevance: The DIL intervention is effective for preventing episodes of major depression in older persons with subsyndromal symptoms. If replicated, the DIL intervention may be effective in older adults living in low- and middle-income countries