Grenville Foreland Deformation and Sedimentation in Southwest Ohio Indicated by Reprocessed Seismic Reflection Profiles near Middletown, Ohio, USA

The late Mesoproterozoic to early Neoproterozoic Middle Run Formation contains vital information about the crustal evolution of the North American Craton. Four reprocessed seismic reflection lines in the vicinity of the AK Steel facility in Middletown, Ohio, provide new insights into the structural and depositional setting of the Middle Run Formation in this region. A residual statics solution improved the resolution and coherency of reflections in these profiles that underlie the Cambrian Mount Simon Sandstone. Reprocessing revealed gently inclined, west-southwest-dipping reflectors and the occurrence of an angular unconformity between the Middle Run Formation and the overlying Paleozoic strata. The weak and discontinuous seismic reflection character of the Middle Run Formation in these seismic lines overlies a sequence of stronger parallel reflections that are like those observed on the eastward ODNR-1-88 seismic line located near core hole DGS 2627, the stratotype of the Middle Run Formation. This inferred thickness indicates that the basin in which the Middle Run Formation was deposited ranges from at least 670 to 1,128 m (2,200 to 3,700 ft) deep at the AK Steel area and dips gently west-southwest, which is in contrast with the moderate easterly dip observed on the ODNR-1-88 seismic line to the northeast. Correlation of these features across the 10 km (approximately 6 mi) cross-strike gap between the AK Steel lines and the ODNR-1-88 seismic line suggests the presence of a reverse fault with approximately 792 m (2,600 ft) of estimated vertical displacement. A regional cross section—including the WSU 1990 seismic line eastward of the ODNR-1-88 line—exhibits a faulted west-verging asymmetric syncline in near proximity to the Grenville Front. This cross section also shows that deformation of the Middle Run Formation and the underlying layered sequence exhibits a consistent tectonic style of reverse faulting and folding that developed in response to Grenville Front tectonism

Lessons learned from a multiagency community mental health centre quality improvement learning collaborative in New Hampshire

Background/Aims Community mental health centres in the US often struggle to implement the evidenced-based metrics and measurement processes required for quality reporting initiatives. Through the co-design and facilitation of a learning collaborative, all 10 community mental health centres in New Hampshire agreed on the goal of demonstrating measurement alignment and improvement across three behavioural health metrics related to depression and suicide risk, aiming for a screening rate of at least 85% in a year. Methods The learning system framework and Lean Six Sigma define, measure, analyse, improve and control methodologies were used to increase participation and improve quality reporting. Teams were asked to participate in both a group learning collaborative and individual centre facilitation sessions, working with a quality improvement specialist. Reported measures were compared with subsets of the population data and between centres. Outliers were identified for potential reporting inaccuracies and opportunities for improvement. Results All 10 community mental health centres were able to accurately report screening results on all three measures. After 12 months, 70% of the teams were able to reach the group-determined goal of at least 85% of eligible patients being screened in one measure, 40% of the teams met the benchmark in two measures and 20% of the teams were able to meet the benchmark in all three measures. Conclusions Early investment by community mental health centre leadership through the development of a shared aim and project outcomes is essential to support learning and achieve positive outcomes. Quality improvement specialists are vital for facilitation of shared learning and practice across organisations

Scale-free networks with a large- to hypersmall-world transition

Recently there have been a tremendous interest in models of networks with a power-law distribution of degree -- so called "scale-free networks." It has been observed that such networks, normally, have extremely short path-lengths, scaling logarithmically or slower with system size. As en exotic and unintuitive example we propose a simple stochastic model capable of generating scale-free networks with linearly scaling distances. Furthermore, by tuning a parameter the model undergoes a phase transition to a regime with extremely short average distances, apparently slower than log log N (which we call a hypersmall-world regime). We characterize the degree-degree correlation and clustering properties of this class of networks.Comment: errors fixed, one new figure, to appear in Physica

Remote sensing and GIS

Presented at the fifth international conference on irrigation and drainage, Irrigation and drainage for food, energy and the environment on November 3-6, 2009 in Salt Lake City, Utah.Includes bibliographical references.Managing water resources in western US has been a challenge for decision makers. In the last few decades, the rapid growth rates of population along with the alarming rates of global warming have added to the complexity of this issue. In this study, remote sensing techniques have been applied to evaluate the performance of agricultural irrigation, the largest consumptive user of water. The study area, "Palo Verde irrigation District" which is located in Riverside and Imperial counties, California, is an old irrigation district with a fairly heterogeneous cropping pattern. Landsat Thematic Mapper satellite images were used to estimate the actual ET using the SEBAL energy balance model. These estimates were integrated to obtain crop water demand for different periods throughout the growing season. The amount of diverted water was also estimated for the same periods, using flow measurements within the Palo Verde irrigation district. The results were analyzed within the ArcGIS environment in conjunction with water conveyance and field boundary layers to evaluate different performance indicators such as relative water supply, overall consumed ratio, depleted fraction, crop water deficit, and relative evapotranspiration. The results of these indicators can help irrigation managers to get a general idea of how the system performs and to identify possible ways of improving it

Scaling in Small-World Resistor Networks

We study the effective resistance of small-world resistor networks. Utilizing recent analytic results for the propagator of the Edwards-Wilkinson process on small-world networks, we obtain the asymptotic behavior of the disorder-averaged two-point resistance in the large system-size limit. We find that the small-world structure suppresses large network resistances: both the average resistance and its standard deviation approaches a finite value in the large system-size limit for any non-zero density of random links. We also consider a scenario where the link conductance decays as a power of the length of the random links, $l^{-\alpha}$. In this case we find that the average effective system resistance diverges for any non-zero value of $\alpha$.Comment: 15 pages, 6 figure

Estrogen inhibits GH signaling by suppressing GH-induced JAK2 phosphorylation, an effect mediated by SOCS-2

Oral estrogen administration attenuates the metabolic action of growth hormone (GH) in humans. To investigate the mechanism involved, we studied the effects of estrogen on GH signaling through Janus kinase (JAK)2 and the signal transducers and activators of transcription (STATs) in HEK293 cells stably expressing the GH receptor (293GHR), HuH7 (hepatoma) and T-47D (breast cancer) cells. 293GHR cells were transiently transfected with an estrogen receptor-α expression plasmid and luciferase reporters with binding elements for STAT3 and STAT5 or the β-casein promoter. GH stimulated the reporter activities by four- to sixfold. Cotreatment with 17β-estradiol (E2) resulted in a dose-dependent reduction in the response of all three reporters to GH to a maximum of 49-66% of control at 100 nM (P < 0.05). No reduction was seen when E2 was added 1-2 h after GH treatment. Similar inhibitory effects were observed in HuH7 and T-47D cells. E2 suppressed GH-induced JAK2 phosphorylation, an effect attenuated by actinomycin D, suggesting a requirement for gene expression. Next, we investigated the role of the suppressors of cytokine signaling (SOCS) in E2 inhibition. E2 increased the mRNA abundance of SOCS-2 but not SOCS-1 and SOCS-3 in HEK293 cells. The inhibitory effect of E2 was absent in cells lacking SOCS-2 but not in those lacking SOCS-1 and SOCS-3. In conclusion, estrogen inhibits GH signaling, an action mediated by SOCS-2. This paper provides evidence for regulatory interaction between a sex steroid and the GH/JAK/STAT pathway, in which SOCS-2 plays a central mechanistic role

Family presence during resuscitation in a paediatric hospital: Health professionals' confidence and perceptions

Aims and objectives: To investigate medical and nursing staff's perceptions of and self-confidence in facilitating family presence during resuscitation in a paediatric hospital setting. Background: Family presence during resuscitation is the attendance of family members in a location that affords visual or physical contact with the patient during resuscitation. Providing the opportunity for families to be present during resuscitation embraces the family-centred care philosophy which underpins paediatric care. Having families present continues to spark much debate amongst health care professionals. Design: A descriptive cross-sectional randomised survey using the 'Family Presence Risk/Benefit Scale' and the 'Family Presence Self-Confidence Scale 'to assess health care professionals' (doctors and nurses) perceptions and self-confidence in facilitating family presence during resuscitation of a child in a paediatric hospital. Methods: Surveys were distributed to 300 randomly selected medical and nursing staff. Descriptive and inferential statistics were used to compare medical and nursing, and critical and noncritical care perceptions and self-confidence. Results: Critical care staff had statistically significant higher risk/benefit scores and higher self-confidence scores than those working in noncritical care areas. Having experience in paediatric resuscitation, having invited families to be present previously and a greater number of years working in paediatrics significantly affected participants' perceptions and self-confidence. There was no difference between medical and nursing mean scores for either scale. Conclusion: Both medical and nursing staff working in the paediatric setting understood the needs of families and the philosophy of family-centred care is a model of care practised across disciplines. Relevance to clinical practice: This has implications both for implementing guidelines to support family presence during resuscitation and for education strategies to shift the attitudes of staff who have limited or no experience

Evaluation of AaDOP2 Receptor Antagonists Reveals Antidepressants and Antipsychotics as Novel Lead Molecules for Control of the Yellow Fever Mosquito, Aedes aegypti s

ABSTRACT The yellow fever mosquito, Aedes aegypti, vectors disease-causing agents that adversely affect human health, most notably the viruses causing dengue and yellow fever. The efficacy of current mosquito control programs is challenged by the emergence of insecticideresistant mosquito populations, suggesting an urgent need for the development of chemical insecticides with new mechanisms of action. One recently identified potential insecticide target is the A. aegypti D 1 -like dopamine receptor, AaDOP2. The focus of the present study was to evaluate AaDOP2 antagonism both in vitro and in vivo using assay technologies with increased throughput. The in vitro assays revealed AaDOP2 antagonism by four distinct chemical scaffolds from tricyclic antidepressant or antipsychotic chemical classes, and elucidated several structure-activity relationship trends that contributed to enhanced antagonist potency, including lipophilicity, halide substitution on the tricyclic core, and conformational rigidity. Six compounds displayed previously unparalleled potency for in vitro AaDOP2 antagonism, and among these, asenapine, methiothepin, and cis-(Z)-flupenthixol displayed subnanomolar IC 50 values and caused rapid toxicity to A. aegypti larvae and/or adults in vivo. Our study revealed a significant correlation between in vitro potency for AaDOP2 antagonism and in vivo toxicity, suggesting viability of AaDOP2 as an insecticidal target. Taken together, this study expanded the repertoire of known AaDOP2 antagonists, enhanced our understanding of AaDOP2 pharmacology, provided further support for rational targeting of AaDOP2, and demonstrated the utility of efficiency-enhancing in vitro and in vivo assay technologies within our genome-to-lead pipeline for the discovery of next-generation insecticides