Effects of DDT on Steroid Metabolism and Energetics in Bobwhite Quail (Colinus Virginianus)

Female bobwhite quail (Colinus virginianus) fed low levels (5 ppm) of DDT in their diets showed increased enzyme induction in the liver and consequently a significant increase in steroid (progesterone) metabolism (a mean of 54% conversion of progesterone to its more polar metabolite in experimentals compared to a mean of 24.1% conversion in controls). The mean conversion of testosterone to its polar metabolite (25.1%) in experimental males was greater than in the controls (mean 18.1%) but was only significantly greater in certain males. There was a correlation (r = 0.7 P\u3c0.01) between percent body weight of testes and percent conversion of testosterone to its metabolites (the smaller the testes the greater the conversion). A correlation (r = 0.66 P\u3c0.02) was also found between circulating levels of DDE, DDT, and testes size (the higher the pesticide level the smaller the testes). Dietary levels of DDT (10,50,100,150 ppm) affected the energetics (oxygen consumption) of bobwhite quail. All DDT-treated birds had a higher metabolic rate than the controls at all ambient temperatures tested except 30 C. After acclimation to an ambient temperature of 5 C for 10-13 weeks, birds on 100-ppm DDT diets had a significantly (P\u3c0.01) higher metabolic rate than controls. After one week of exposure to -18 C there was a significant (P\u3c0.02) increase in thyroid weight in the birds on 100-ppm diets. Birds on 100-ppm diet exposed to extreme cold for 1 week died of DDT toxicity. Data on tissue residue levels, weight changes, I uptake by the thyroid, and adrenal changes are also presented. The ecological significance of the synergistic effect of DDT and cold stress on the bobwhite quail is discussed

Personalized Virtual Reality for Upper Extremity Rehabilitation: Moving from the Clinic to a Home Exercise Program

Introduction: Traditional rehabilitation does not provide adequate repetitions for maximal motor recovery in the clinic and home exercise programs (HEPs) have low compliance rates. Personalized virtual reality (PVR) is a promising low-cost therapeutic tool for improving compliance by incorporating the client's interests, abilities, and goals into a motivating and engaging intervention using internet games. Objectives: The current study aimed to develop and refine a clinic-to-home PVR intervention, determine its feasibility and usability in an outpatient rehabilitation clinic and as a HEP, and examine its effects on motivation/engagement, compliance, motor repetitions, and functional motor performance. Methods: The PVR system utilizes a Microsoft Kinect sensor to track the participants' movements, free software to translate movements to keystrokes, and free internet games. The therapist matched participants' interests to internet games, customized therapeutic movements for game play, and increased the movement thresholds for game activation as participants improved. Two participants who had strokes resulting in upper extremity (UE) hemiplegia were recruited. The participants attended outpatient occupational therapy (OT) services twice weekly. Following training, the participants used the PVR system at home in place of their UE HEP. They continued to receive traditional OT once a week and clinic-PVR once a week for 5-8 weeks. Results: The PVR intervention was successfully implemented in the clinic and the clients' homes. PVR increased motivation and treatment compliance. The clients exhibited improvements in UE active range of motion, function, symptoms, and occupational performance. Conclusion: Preliminary evidence suggests PVR can improve motivation, compliance, function, and occupational performance. However, larger scale studies and protocol refinement are necessary

Biomedical Engineering Education and Practice Challenges and opportunities in improving health in developing countries

Abstract-While developed countries constantly pioneer new medical technologies, developing countries have been plighted with a lack of medical devices, resulting in poor health, poverty, and social inequality. Much of the medical equipment that these countries do have is broken, unusable due to a lack of electricity and infrastructure, or inappropriate for local needs. In 2000, the Global Forum for Health Research coined the term "10/90 Gap" to describe the fact that only 10% of health research funds are spent on the problems of 90% of the world's population. If the developing world is to acquire useful medical technologies, it must come from within, as the developed world has shown minimal interest in pursuing technologies for markets where the financial return is only nominal. If engineers in developed countries put their energy and resources into building the capacity of their counterparts in developing countries, they will be able to maximize their impact on the most relevant issues in global health. In order to succeed in their work abroad, biomedical engineers from developed countries must transition from being providers of solutions, to enablers of local innovation, thus contributing directly to both education and implementation. This paper addresses current challenges and appropriate solutions to tackle the lack of biomedical engineering education and innovation in developing countries

Behavioral energetics: the cost of survival in vertebrates

(print) x, 300 p. : ill. ; 24 cmPreface ix SHELDON I. LUSTICK -- SURVIVAL STRATEGY 1 -- MAKING YOUR WAY Orientational Strategies in Birds : A Tribute to W. T. Keeton MELVIN L. KREITHEN 3 -- Life Energetics of Sockeye Salmon, Oncorhynchus nerka JOHN R. BRETT 29 -- SURVIVAL STRATEGY 2 : REPRODUCTION AND AGGRESSION -- Costs of Reproduction in Baboons (Papio cynocephalus) JEANNE ALTMANN 67 -- Reproductive Behavior of Subadult Elephant Seals : The Cost of Breeding CATHLEEN R. COX 89 -- Costs of Aggression in Trout and Pupfish C. ROBERT FELDMETH 117 -- SURVIVAL STRATEGY 3 : COST-BENEFITS OF TEMPERATURE REGULATION AND FORAGING -- Amphibians and Reptiles as Low-Energy Systems F. HARVEY POUGH 141 -- Cost-Benefit Analysis of Temperature and Food Resource Use : A Synthesis with Examples from the Fishes LARRY B. CROWDER JOHN J. MAGNUSON 189 -- Economics of Foraging Strategies in Sunbirds and Hummingbirds LARRY L. WOLF F. REED HAINSWORTH 223 -- Cost-Benefit of Thermoregulation in Birds : Influences of Posture, Microhabitat Selection, and Color SHELDON I. LUSTICK 265 -- Index 29

Polarization of coalitions in an agent-based model of political discourse

Political discourse is the verbal interaction between political actors in a policy domain. This article explains the formation of polarized advocacy or discourse coalitions in this complex phenomenon by presenting a dynamic, stochastic, and discrete agent-based model based on graph theory and local optimization. In a series of thought experiments, actors compute their utility of contributing a specific statement to the discourse by following ideological criteria, preferential attachment, agenda-setting strategies, governmental coherence, or other mechanisms. The evolving macro-level discourse is represented as a dynamic network and evaluated against arguments from the literature on the policy process. A simple combination of four theoretical mechanisms is already able to produce artificial policy debates with theoretically plausible properties. Any sufficiently realistic configuration must entail innovative and path-dependent elements as well as a blend of exogenous preferences and endogenous opinion formation mechanisms

Reframing Sacred Values

Sacred values differ from material or instrumental values in that they incorporate moral beliefs that drive action in ways dissociated from prospects for success. Across the world, people believe that devotion to essential or core values – such as the welfare of their family and country, or their commitment to religion, honor, and justice – are, or ought to be, absolute and inviolable. Counterintuitively, understanding an opponent's sacred values, we believe, offers surprising opportunities for breakthroughs to peace. Because of the emotional unwillingness of those in conflict situations to negotiate sacred values, conventional wisdom suggests that negotiators should either leave sacred values for last in political negotiations or try to bypass them with sufficient material incentives. Our empirical findings and historical analysis suggest that conventional wisdom is wrong. In fact, offering to provide material benefits in exchange for giving up a sacred value actually makes settlement more difficult because people see the offering as an insult rather than a compromise. But we also found that making symbolic concessions of no apparent material benefit might open the way to resolving seemingly irresolvable conflicts. We offer suggestions for how negotiators can reframe their position by demonstrating respect, and/or by apologizing for what they sincerely regret. We also offer suggestions for how to overcome sacred barriers by refining sacred values to exclude outmoded claims, exploiting the inevitable ambiguity of sacred values, shifting the context, provisionally prioritizing values, and reframing responsibility

Different paths to the modern state in Europe: the interaction between domestic political economy and interstate competition

Theoretical work on state formation and capacity has focused mostly on early modern Europe and on the experience of western European states during this period. While a number of European states monopolized domestic tax collection and achieved gains in state capacity during the early modern era, for others revenues stagnated or even declined, and these variations motivated alternative hypotheses for determinants of fiscal and state capacity. In this study we test the basic hypotheses in the existing literature making use of the large date set we have compiled for all of the leading states across the continent. We find strong empirical support for two prevailing threads in the literature, arguing respectively that interstate wars and changes in economic structure towards an urbanized economy had positive fiscal impact. Regarding the main point of contention in the theoretical literature, whether it was representative or authoritarian political regimes that facilitated the gains in fiscal capacity, we do not find conclusive evidence that one performed better than the other. Instead, the empirical evidence we have gathered lends supports to the hypothesis that when under pressure of war, the fiscal performance of representative regimes was better in the more urbanized-commercial economies and the fiscal performance of authoritarian regimes was better in rural-agrarian economie