Evaluation of wood pretreatments on oak and cedar

In a separate study, we conducted a series of high-precision radiocarbon measurements using wood from Britain and New Zealand to investigate interhemispheric offsets and possible temporal variations. To minimize variability associated with different species, the pretreatment of the oak (Quercus patraea) and cedar (Librocedrus bidwilli) was to acellulose for both. This study investigates the thoroughness of a range of pretreatment processes by the stable isotope analysis of the products

Variations of radiocarbon in tree rings: southern hemisphere offset preliminary results

The Queen's University of Belfast, Northern Ireland and University of Waikato, Hamilton, New Zealand radiocarbon laboratories have undertaken a series of high-precision measurements on decadal samples of dendrochronologically dated oak (Quercus patrea) and cedar (Libocedrus bidwillii) from Great Britain and New Zealand, respectively. The results show a real atmospheric offset of 3.4 ± 0.6% (27.2 ± 4.7 ¹⁴C yr) between the two locations for the interval AD 1725 to AD 1885, with the Southern Hemisphere being depleted in ¹⁴C. This result is less than the value currently used to correct Southern Hemisphere calibrations, possibly indicating a gradient in Δ¹⁴C within the Southern Hemisphere

A mixed methods study of knee confidence and self-efficacy: perceptions of knee osteoarthritis patients from the good life with osteoarthritis in Denmark initiative

Purpose: The Good Life with osteoArthritis in Denmark (GLA:D) Initiative is an evidence-based treatment programme for patients with knee and hip osteoarthritis (OA). It incorporates training physiotherapists to deliver care in accordance with the clinical guidelines by educating patients on their condition and by delivering supervised neuromuscular exercises to relieve pain and improve function. The importance of self-efficacy, and confidence in exercise, to exercise adherence has not been reported for the GLA:D population. In addition, worse knee confidence in people with knee OA is associated with higher pain and greater perceived knee instability. The aims of this study were to investigate the association between knee confidence and self-efficacy in patients with knee OA in the GLA:D registry; and to explore patients’ perception of their experiences with the GLA:D programme, and whether confidence and self-efficacy has a role to play in continuing with the GLA:D exercises in the long-term. Methods: This study used a mixed methods design. Patients with knee OA who were offered at least two educational sessions and six weeks of GLA:D exercise programme between January–March 2015 were identified from the GLA:D registry (n = 484) and sent an online survey. Ordinal regression analyses were performed. Knee confidence, assessed using the Knee injury and Osteoarthritis Outcomes Score (KOOS; quality of life subscale, question 3), was the dependent variable and self-reported measures for exercise self-efficacy; arthritis self-efficacy; multidimensional outcomes expectations for exercise; and KOOS pain and activities of daily living (ADL) were the independent variables. Knee confidence score ranged from 0–4 with 0 indicating higher knee confidence. The independent variables ranged from 0–10 or 0–100 with 0 indicating worse symptoms or confidence. Subsequently, semi-structured interviews (n = 4) were used to explore patients’ perceived confidence and adherence to the GLA:D exercises. Interviews were transcribed verbatim, and analysed using interpretative phenomenological analysis. Results: 200 patients (41.3%) responded to the survey. At 7–10 months following treatment initiation, 9.5% of patients were not at all troubled by lack of knee confidence; 39.5% were mildly troubled; 31.5% were moderately troubled; 15.5% were severely troubled; and 4% were extremely troubled. Patients with higher arthritis self-efficacy score were more likely to have higher knee confidence (odds ratio [OR] = 0.76; 95% confidence interval [CI] 0.63, 0.93; P = 0.007). Patients with higher KOOS ADL score were more likely to have higher knee confidence, although this association was small (OR = 0.96; 95% CI 0.93, 0.99; P = 0.006). No association was found between knee confidence and exercise self-efficacy (OR = 1.00; 95% CI 0.99, 1.01; P = 0.90). Patients reflected on seeing great improvements in their confidence, pain and mobility with the programme. They felt their symptoms got worse if they did not keep up with the exercises. Patients reflected on the importance of continued contact with their physiotherapist after the 6-week programme for further motivation and reassurance. One of the barriers that discouraged patients from continuing with the exercises in the long-term was the cost for additional GLA:D exercise classes with their physiotherapist. Conclusions: Patients are troubled by the lack of knee confidence after the GLA:D exercise programme; they reflected this was due to their negative experiences prior to entering the GLA:D programme. Arthritis self-efficacy and KOOS ADL were significantly associated with knee confidence, but no association was found with exercise self-efficacy. Patients from the interview reflected that maintaining contact with their physiotherapist was an important factor to motivate them to continue exercising

Using historic cases to formulate appropriate sustainable building refurbishment strategy

Existing buildings are indispensable in a society and they will continue to exist until they reach the end of their service or economic life. While it is crucial to upkeep existing buildings, enhancing their sustainability is equally important as the energy performance of some older properties is usually less than satisfactory. Despite that, it is never easy for citizens to establish which is the most suitable sustainable refurbishment strategy for their properties. If historic cases can be captured and represented systematically, owners and occupants living in properties of similar types can review the outcomes of these cases to decide whether some sustainable building refurbishment solutions adopted by the others before are applicable to their property. In the paper, a prototype case-based reasoning model for sustainable building refurbishment is proposed. This paper demonstrates how to make use of the proposed model to retrieve and reuse previous cases to derive suitable sustainable building refurbishment strategies for existing buildings

Clusters of Galaxies: New Results from the CLEF Hydrodynamics Simulation

Preliminary results are presented from the CLEF hydrodynamics simulation, a large (N=2(428)^3 particles within a 200 Mpc/h comoving box) simulation of the LCDM cosmology that includes both radiative cooling and a simple model for galactic feedback. Specifically, we focus on the X-ray properties of the simulated clusters at z=0 and demonstrate a reasonable level of agreement between simulated and observed cluster scaling relations.Comment: 7 pages, 4 figures, accepted for publication in Advances in Space Research (proceedings of the COSPAR 2004 Assembly, Paris

The UK risk assessment scheme for all non-native species

1. A pest risk assessment scheme, adapted from the EPPO (European and Mediterranean Plant Protection Organisation) scheme, was developed to assess the risks posed to UK species, habitats and ecosystems by non-native taxa. 2. The scheme provides a structured framework for evaluating the potential for non-native organisms, whether intentional or unintentional introductions, to enter, establish, spread and cause significant impacts in all or part of the UK. Specialist modules permit the relative importance of entry pathways, the vulnerability of receptors and the consequences of policies to be assessed and appropriate risk management options to be selected. Spreadsheets for summarising the level of risk and uncertainty, invasive attributes and economic impact were created. In addition, new methods for quantifying economic impact and summarising risk and uncertainty were explored. 3. Although designed for the UK, the scheme can readily be applied elsewhere

Acute renal impairment in coronavirus-associated severe acute respiratory syndrome

Acute renal impairment in coronavirus-associated severe acute respiratory syndrome.BackgroundSevere acute respiratory syndrome (SARS) is a newly emerged infection from a novel coronavirus (SARS-CoV). Apart from fever and respiratory complications, acute renal impairment has been observed in some patients with SARS. Herein, we describe the clinical, pathologic, and laboratory features of the acute renal impairment complicating this new viral infection.MethodsWe conducted a retrospective analysis of the plasma creatinine concentration and other clinical parameters of the 536 SARS patients with normal plasma creatinine at first clinical presentation, admitted to two regional hospitals following a major outbreak in Hong Kong in March 2003. Kidney tissues from seven other patients with postmortem examinations were studied by light microscopy and electron microscopy.ResultsAmong these 536 patients with SARS, 36 (6.7%) developed acute renal impairment occurring at a median duration of 20 days (range 5–48 days) after the onset of viral infection despite a normal plasma creatinine level at first clinical presentation. The acute renal impairment reflected the different prerenal and renal factors that exerted renal insult occurring in the context of multiorgan failure. Eventually, 33 SARS patients (91.7%) with acute renal impairment died. The mortality rate was significantly higher among patients with SARS and acute renal impairment compared with those with SARS and no renal impairment (91.7% vs. 8.8%) (P < 0.0001). Renal tissues revealed predominantly acute tubular necrosis with no evidence of glomerular pathology. The adjusted relative risk of mortality associated with the development of acute renal impairment was 4.057 (P < 0.001). By multivariate analysis, acute respiratory distress syndrome and age were the most significant independent risk factors predicting the development of acute renal impairment in SARS.ConclusionAcute renal impairment is uncommon in SARS but carries a high mortality. The acute renal impairment is likely to be related to multi-organ failure rather than the kidney tropism of the virus. The development of acute renal impairment is an important negative prognostic indicator for survival with SARS

Extremal Bundles on Calabi-Yau Threefolds

We study constructions of stable holomorphic vector bundles on Calabi–Yau threefolds, especially those with exact anomaly cancellation which we call extremal. By going through the known databases we find that such examples are rare in general and can be ruled out for the spectral cover construction for all elliptic threefolds. We then introduce a general Hartshorne–Serre construction and use it to find extremal bundles of general ranks and study their stability, as well as computing their Chern numbers. Based on both existing and our new constructions, we revisit the DRY conjecture for the existence of stable sheaves on Calabi–threefolds, and provide theoretical and numerical evidence for its correctness. Our construction can be easily generalized to bundles with no extremal conditions imposed