Microplastic Contamination in Karst Groundwater Systems

Groundwater in karst aquifers constitutes about 25% of drinking water sources globally. Karst aquifers are open systems, susceptible to contamination by surface‐borne pollutants. In this study, springs and wells from two karst aquifers in Illinois, USA, were found to contain microplastics and other anthropogenic contaminants. All microplastics were fibers, with a maximum concentration of 15.2 particles/L. The presence of microplastic was consistent with other parameters, including phosphate, chloride and triclosan, suggesting septic effluent as a source. More studies are needed on microplastic sources, abundance, and impacts on karst ecosystems

Exile Vol. XVI No. 2

PREFACE 3 ESSAY Observations At The Gap by Paul A. Dimitruk 4 Those Who Choose Words By Keith McWalter 5-6 On Victoria\u27s England by Paul A. Dimitruk 7-8 Facts Are The Enemy of Truth by Nancy Gutierrez FICTION Harmon by Barbara Mackey 22-25 Pilgrimage by Keith McWalter 35-44 ARTWORK by Wandi Solez: 6, 15, 23, 27 by Ken Wernz 10 by Stephen Swift 11 by Laura M. Hyslop 12 by Skip Staudt 19 by W. A. Hoffman 25 by Mary Ann Kowaski 34 by Jo Ann Orgo 40 PHOTOGRAPHY by Roger Block 16 by Tim Heath- all other POETRY My Poems by Susan Hallock 13 Counter-Fugue At Six-Thirty by Sherry Stodola 14-16 Apple Tree Poem by Darby Williams 17 When Snow Falls Into A Pond by Bruce Kidd 17 Woman-Man by Darby Williams 18 Transcendence by Wandi Solez 20 Paris Reflection by Wandi Solez 20 A Sleepless Night In Valencia, Spain by Wandi Solez 21 # 319 by Wandi Solez 21 Strange Lady by John Gillespie 26 Strange Lady II by John Gillespie 26 Where The Hell Is Rembrandt? by John Loveland 26 Years Ago by John Whitt 29 I\u27ve Finished Growing Now by Keith McWalter 29 Charisma by John Whitt 30 I Thought Of Cutting by John Loveland 31 Make Me Eat Peanut Butter by Fred Walton 31 The Cat by John Loveland 32 On The Rim by John Whitt 33 Undercurrent by Keith McWalter 33 Cover: Gail Lutsch Layouts: Keith McWalte

Community pharmacy interventions for health promotion: effects on professional practice and health outcomes (Protocol)

This is the protocol for a review and there is no abstract. The objectives are as follows: Primary objective To assess the effectiveness of health promotion interventions in community pharmacy practice settings on pharmacy workers and pharmacy clients (including diagnosed patients) when compared to i) No treatment controls ii) Usual treatment controls iii) Other active intervention Secondary objectives To assess whether there are differences in effectiveness of health promotion interventions in community pharmacy practice settings on i) Pharmacy worker ii) Client (patient) with regard to: i) Ethnicity of patients ii) Country income level (World Bank Group 2009) iii) Extent of adverse health behaviour (defined according to national guidelines where available) iv) Type of pharmacy worker delivering the intervention (e.g. pharmacist versus pharmacist technician) v) Theoretical constructs/components and behaviour change techniques employed in the intervention vi) Costs of health car

Measuring nickel masses in Type Ia supernovae using cobalt emission in nebular phase spectra

The light curves of Type Ia supernovae (SNe Ia) are powered by the radioactive decay of $^{56}$Ni to $^{56}$Co at early times, and the decay of $^{56}$Co to $^{56}$Fe from ~60 days after explosion. We examine the evolution of the [Co III] 5892 A emission complex during the nebular phase for SNe Ia with multiple nebular spectra and show that the line flux follows the square of the mass of $^{56}$Co as a function of time. This result indicates both efficient local energy deposition from positrons produced in $^{56}$Co decay, and long-term stability of the ionization state of the nebula. We compile 77 nebular spectra of 25 SN Ia from the literature and present 17 new nebular spectra of 7 SNe Ia, including SN2014J. From these we measure the flux in the [Co III] 5892 A line and remove its well-behaved time dependence to infer the initial mass of $^{56}$Ni ($M_{Ni}$) produced in the explosion. We then examine $^{56}$Ni yields for different SN Ia ejected masses ($M_{ej}$ - calculated using the relation between light curve width and ejected mass) and find the $^{56}$Ni masses of SNe Ia fall into two regimes: for narrow light curves (low stretch s~0.7-0.9), $M_{Ni}$ is clustered near $M_{Ni}$ ~ 0.4$M_\odot$ and shows a shallow increase as $M_{ej}$ increases from ~1-1.4$M_\odot$; at high stretch, $M_{ej}$ clusters at the Chandrasekhar mass (1.4$M_\odot$) while $M_{Ni}$ spans a broad range from 0.6-1.2$M_\odot$. This could constitute evidence for two distinct SN Ia explosion mechanisms.Comment: 16 pages, 12 figures (main text), plus data tables in appendix. Spectra released on WISeREP. Submitted to MNRAS, comments welcom

Increased Lead Biomarker Levels Are Associated with Changes in Hormonal Response to Stress in Occupationally Exposed Male Participants

Background: Lead (Pb) exposure has been associated with a host of pathological conditions in humans. In rodents Pb exposure has been shown to alter the hypothalamic–pituitary–adrenal (HPA) axis function

Population neuroimaging:generation of a comprehensive data resource within the ALSPAC pregnancy and birth cohort

Neuroimaging offers a valuable insight into human brain development by allowing in vivo assessment of structure, connectivity and function. Multimodal neuroimaging data have been obtained as part of three sub-studies within the Avon Longitudinal Study of Parents and Children, a prospective multigenerational pregnancy and birth cohort based in the United Kingdom. Brain imaging data were acquired when offspring were between 18 and 24 years of age, and included acquisition of structural, functional and magnetization transfer magnetic resonance, diffusion tensor, and magnetoencephalography imaging. This resource provides a unique opportunity to combine neuroimaging data with extensive phenotypic and genotypic measures from participants, their mothers, and fathers

A Comparison of Four Treatments for Generalized Convulsive Status Epilepticus

ABSTRACT Background and Methods Although generalized convulsive status epilepticus is a life-threatening emergency, the best initial drug treatment is uncertain. We conducted a five-year randomized, doubleblind, multicenter trial of four intravenous regimens: diazepam (0.15 mg per kilogram of body weight) followed by phenytoin (18 mg per kilogram), lorazepam (0.1 mg per kilogram), phenobarbital (15 mg per kilogram), and phenytoin (18 mg per kilogram). Patients were classified as having either overt generalized status epilepticus (defined as easily visible generalized convulsions) or subtle status epilepticus (indicated by coma and ictal discharges on the electroencephalogram, with or without subtle convulsive movements such as rhythmic muscle twitches or tonic eye deviation). Treatment was considered successful when all motor and electroencephalographic seizure activity ceased within 20 minutes after the beginning of the drug infusion and there was no return of seizure activity during the next 40 minutes. Analyses were performed with data on only the 518 patients with verified generalized convulsive status epilepticus as well as with data on all 570 patients who were enrolled. Results Three hundred eighty-four patients had a verified diagnosis of overt generalized convulsive status epilepticus. In this group, lorazepam was successful in 64.9 percent of those assigned to receive it, phenobarbital in 58.2 percent, diazepam and phenytoin in 55.8 percent, and phenytoin in 43.6 percent (P=0.02 for the overall comparison among the four groups). Lorazepam was significantly superior to phenytoin in a pairwise comparison (P=0.002). Among the 134 patients with a verified diagnosis of subtle generalized convulsive status epilepticus, no significant differences among the treatments were detected (range of success rates, 7.7 to 24.2 percent). In an intention-to-treat analysis, the differences among treatment groups were not significant, either among the patients with overt status epilepticus (P=0.12) or among those with subtle status epilepticus (P=0.91). There were no differences among the treatments with respect to recurrence during the 12- hour study period, the incidence of adverse reactions, or the outcome at 30 days. Conclusions As initial intravenous treatment for overt generalized convulsive status epilepticus, lorazepam is more effective than phenytoin. Although lorazepam is no more efficacious than phenobarbital or diazepam and phenytoin, it is easier to use. (N Engl J Med 1998;339:792-8.

Tourist Photographers and the Promotion of Travel: the Polytechnic Touring Association, 1888–1939

The Polytechnic Touring Association (PTA) was a London-based, originally philanthropic turned commercial travel firm whose historical origins coincided with the arrival of the Kodak camera in 1888 – thus, of popular (tourist) photography. This article examines the PTA’s changing relationship with tourist photographers, and how this influenced the company’s understanding of what role photography could play in promoting the tours, in the late nineteenth and early twenty century. This inquiry is advanced on the basis of the observation that, during this time, the PTA’s passage from viewing tourists as citizens to educate, to customers to please, paralleled the move from using photography-based images to mixed media. Such a development was certainly a response to unprecedented market demands; this article argues that it should also be considered in relation to the widening of photographic perceptions engendered by the democratization of the medium, to which the PTA responded, first as educator, then as service provider. In doing so, the article raises several questions about the shifting relationship between “high”, or established, and “low”, or emerging, forms of culture, as mass photography and the mass marketing of tourism developed

The twilight of the Liberal Social Contract? On the Reception of Rawlsian Political Liberalism

This chapter discusses the Rawlsian project of public reason, or public justification-based 'political' liberalism, and its reception. After a brief philosophical rather than philological reconstruction of the project, the chapter revolves around a distinction between idealist and realist responses to it. Focusing on political liberalism’s critical reception illuminates an overarching question: was Rawls’s revival of a contractualist approach to liberal legitimacy a fruitful move for liberalism and/or the social contract tradition? The last section contains a largely negative answer to that question. Nonetheless the chapter's conclusion shows that the research programme of political liberalism provided and continues to provide illuminating insights into the limitations of liberal contractualism, especially under conditions of persistent and radical diversity. The programme is, however, less receptive to challenges to do with the relative decline of the power of modern states

Constitutivism

A brief explanation and overview of constitutivism