HABITAT CHARACTERISTICS AROUND FALL BLACKBIRD ROOSTS

In the fall, blackbirds form large flocks and roost overnight in cattail marshes. These blackbirds cause millions of dollars in damage to ripening sunflower fields in North Dakota, South Dakota, and Minnesota. By knowing the habitat characteristics around fall blackbird roosts sites, management officials may be able to predict future roost locations and then implement control techniques to help reduce blackbird damage to sunflower fields. We present data on the available habitat around blackbird roosts to determine if there is a relationship between the habitat and fall roost sites

The possible statistical relation of Pc1 pulsations to Earthquake occurrence at low latitudes

We examine the association between earthquakes and Pc1 pulsations observed at a low-latitude station in Parkfield, California. The period under examination is ~7.5 years in total, from February 1999 to July 2006, and we use an automatic identification algorithm to extract information on Pc1 pulsations from the magnetometer data. These pulsations are then statistically correlated to earthquakes from the USGS NEIC catalog within a radius of 200 km around the magnetometer, and <I>M</I>>3.0. Results indicate that there is an enhanced occurrence probability of Pc1 pulsations ~5–15 days in advance of the earthquakes, during the daytime. We quantify the statistical significance and show that such an enhancement is unlikely to have occurred due to chance alone. We then examine the effect of declustering our earthquake catalog, and show that even though significance decreases, there is still a statistically significant daytime enhancement prior to the earthquakes. Finally, we select only daytime Pc1 pulsations as the fiducial time of our analysis, and show that earthquakes are ~3–5 times more likely to occur in the week following these pulsations, than normal. Comparing these results to other events, it is preliminarily shown that the normal earthquake probability is unaffected by geomagnetic activity, or a random event sequence

Discussing Interfaces in Digital Scholarly Editing

Interfaces define how research material is presented. They shape the view recipients acquire from historical sources. Since the digital medium is more open to variations than the once traditional form of presenting Scholarly Editions in printed book form, discussions on how to deal with the new possibilities started at a very early stage after the emergence of digital scholarly editions. In the beginning these were strongly influenced by traditional presentation practices but have shifted to aspects more associated with the digital paradigm. Theoretical approaches towards interfaces, however, were only sporadically published and have been continuously demanded by the scholarly community. This introduction attempts to summarize the scholarly discussions on interfaces and provides an overview of the papers presented in these proceedings: they offer both theoretical approaches and discussions of practical implementations together with studies evaluating interfaces

Web: A Wireless Experiment Box for the Dextre Pointing Package ELC Payload

The Wireless Experiment Box (WEB) was proposed to work with the International Space Station (ISS) External Wireless Communication (EWC) system to support high-definition video from the Dextre Pointing Package (DPP). DPP/WEB was a NASA GSFC proposed ExPRESS Logistics Carrier (ELC) payload designed to flight test an integrated suite of Autonomous Rendezvous and Docking (AR&D) technologies to enable a wide spectrum of future missions across NASA and other US Government agencies. The ISS EWC uses COTS Wireless Access Points (WAPs) to provide high-rate bi-directional communications to ISS. In this paper, we discuss WEB s packaging, operation, antenna development, and performance testing

Biology ideology and pastiche hegemony

As knowledge about the biological foundation of the modern patriarchal gender order is increasingly challenged within late-modern social worlds enclaves persist in which men and women can attempt to recreate understandings of the "natural" basis of sex difference. Within "Power Gym," male boxers were able to symbolize their bodies and behaviors in such a manner. The language and logic of popular scientific discourses authored and authorized notions of an "innate" manhood. The ability to instrumentally deploy one's manliness in symbolically legitimate ways could then be represented and emotionally experienced as a man's biological right and obligation. Through scripted performances of "mimetic" violence and self-bullying, the boxers were able to experience this discursive naturalness and carve out a masculinity-validating social enclave. As such, they accessed a "patriarchal dividend" by securing a local pastiche hegemony in which discourses surrounding men's natural place as physically and psychologically dominant remained largely uncontested. Through the reflexive appropriation of "science," within appropriate subcultural codes, these men could negotiate taboos and restrictions that are characteristic of late-modern social worlds. When considered in this way, the power of "scientific" truth claims to explain and justify a certain level of violence, aggression, and behaviors coded as masculine, comes to the fore

Long-term functional outcomes and the patient perspective following altered fractionation with concomitant boost for oropharyngeal cancer

With no long-term data available in published research to date, this study presents details of the swallowing outcomes as well as barriers to and facilitators of oral intake and weight maintenance at 2 years after altered fractionation radiotherapy with concomitant boost (AFRT-CB). Twelve patients with T1-T3 oropharyngeal cancer who received AFRT-CB were assessed at baseline, 6 months, and 2 years post-treatment for levels of dysphagia and salivary toxicity, food and fluid tolerance, functional swallowing outcomes, patient-reported function, and weight. At 2 years, participants were also interviewed to explore barriers and facilitators of oral intake. Outcomes were significantly worse at 2 years when compared to baseline for late toxicity, functional swallowing, and patient-rated physical aspects of swallowing. Most patients (83%) tolerated a full diet pretreatment, but the rate fell to 42% (remainder tolerated soft diets) at 2 years. Multiple barriers to oral intake that impacted on activity and participation levels were identified. Participants lost 11 kg from baseline to 2 years, which was not regained between 6 months and 2 years. Global, social, and emotional domains of patient-reported function returned to pretreatment levels. At 2 years post AFRT-CB, worsening salivary and dysphagia toxicity, declining functional swallowing, and multiple reported ongoing barriers to oral intake had a negative impact on participants' activity and participation levels relating to eating. These ongoing deficits contributed to significant deterioration in physical swallowing functioning determined by the MDADI. In contrast, patients perceived their broader functioning had improved at 2 years, suggesting long-term adjustment to ongoing swallowing deficits

Physiological changes to the swallowing mechanism following (Chemo)radiotherapy for head and neck cancer: a systematic review

Emerging research suggests that preventative swallowing rehabilitation, undertaken before or during (chemo)radiotherapy ([C]RT), can significantly improve early swallowing outcomes for head and neck cancer (HNC) patients. However, these treatment protocols are highly variable. Determining specific physiological swallowing parameters that are most likely to be impacted post-(C)RT would assist in refining clear targets for preventative rehabilitation. Therefore, this systematic review (1) examined the frequency and prevalence of physiological swallowing deficits observed post-(C)RT for HNC, and (2) determined the patterns of prevalence of these key physiological deficits over time post-treatment. Online databases were searched for relevant papers published between January 1998 and March 2013. A total of 153 papers were identified and appraised for methodological quality and suitability based on exclusionary criteria. Ultimately, 19 publications met the study’s inclusion criteria. Collation of reported prevalence of physiological swallowing deficits revealed reduced laryngeal excursion, base-of-tongue (BOT) dysfunction, reduced pharyngeal contraction, and impaired epiglottic movement as most frequently reported. BOT dysfunction and impaired epiglottic movement showed a collective prevalence of over 75 % in the majority of patient cohorts, whilst reduced laryngeal elevation and pharyngeal contraction had a prevalence of over 50 %. Subanalysis suggested a trend that the prevalence of these key deficits is dynamic although persistent over time. These findings can be used by clinicians to inform preventative intervention and support the use of specific, evidence-based therapy tasks explicitly selected to target the highly prevalent deficits post-(C)RT for HNC

The My Active and Healthy Aging (My-AHA) ICT platform to detect and prevent frailty in older adults: Randomized control trial design and protocol

[EN] Introduction Frailty increases the risk of poor health outcomes, disability, hospitalization, and death in older adults and affects 7%¿12% of the aging population. Secondary impacts of frailty on psychological health and socialization are significant negative contributors to poor outcomes for frail older adults. Method The My Active and Healthy Aging (My-AHA) consortium has developed an information and communications technology¿based platform to support active and healthy aging through early detection of prefrailty and provision of individually tailored interventions, targeting multidomain risks for frailty across physical activity, cognitive activity, diet and nutrition, sleep, and psychosocial activities. Six hundred adults aged 60 years and older will be recruited to participate in a multinational, multisite 18-month randomized controlled trial to test the efficacy of the My-AHA platform to detect prefrailty and the efficacy of individually tailored interventions to prevent development of clinical frailty in this cohort. A total of 10 centers from Italy, Germany, Austria, Spain, United Kingdom, Belgium, Sweden, Japan, South Korea, and Australia will participate in the randomized controlled trial. Results Pilot testing (Alpha Wave) of the My-AHA platform and all ancillary systems has been completed with a small group of older adults in Europe with the full randomized controlled trial scheduled to commence in 2018. Discussion The My-AHA study will expand the understanding of antecedent risk factors for clinical frailty so as to deliver targeted interventions to adults with prefrailty. Through the use of an information and communications technology platform that can connect with multiple devices within the older adult's own home, the My-AHA platform is designed to measure an individual's risk factors for frailty across multiple domains and then deliver personalized domain-specific interventions to the individual. The My-AHA platform is technology-agnostic, enabling the integration of new devices and sensor platforms as they emerge.This project has received funding from the European Union's Horizon 2020 research and innovation program under grant agreement No 689582 and the Australian National Health and Medical Research Council (NHRMC) European Union grant scheme (1115818). M.J.S. reports personal fees from Eli Lilly (Australia) Pty Ltd and grants from Novotech Pty Ltd, outside the submitted work. All other authors report nothing to disclose.Summers, MJ.; Rainero, I.; Vercelli, AE.; Aumayr, GA.; De Rosario Martínez, H.; Mönter, M.; Kawashima, R. (2018). 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