Continuing Environmental Change - An Example from Nova Scotia

Information from personal experience, from community elders and published literature served as a basis for evaluating environmental changes in the District of North Queens and adjacent areas of Southwestern Nova Scotia over the past century. Major events included disappearance of the Caribou (Rangifer tarandus), the arrival of White-tailed Deer (Odocoileus virginianus), the severe reduction of Canada Yew (Taxus canadensis), disappearance of Lynx (Lynx canadensis), a major dieoff of Striped Skunks (Mephitis mephitis), decline of American Beech (Fagus grandifolia), the loss of mature birch (Betula spp.), the severe reduction of Moose (Alces alces), the arrival of the American Dog Tick (Dermacentor variabilis) and Coyotes (Canis latrans), and the restoration of Beaver (Castor canadensis). The proximate cause of many of those changes were plant and animal disease, while the ultimate causes were naturally occurring animal range expansion and human impacts. The warming of the climate over the past 150 years probably played a role. The nature and timing of the events could not have been predicted

Effect of temperature and relative humidity on the development times and survival of Synopsyllus fonquerniei and Xenopsylla cheopis, the flea vectors of plague in Madagascar

Acknowledgements We would like to thank Dr Lila Rahalison and Jocelyn Ratovonjato for their advice and help during the experiment. We are grateful to the staff of the Plague Unit and the Medical Entomology Unit at the Institut Pasteur de Madagascar, particularly Dr Nohal Elissa. Without their expertise this study would not have been possible. Sincere thanks to Mr Tojo Ramihangihajason for his technical assistance. We are indebted to the Institut Pasteur de Madagascar for an internal grant which facilitated additional laboratory research. Two Wellcome Trust fellowships supported ST during this work (081705 and 095171).Peer reviewedPublisher PD

Making it happen; operational, coordination and strategic concerns in mentoring schemes

Describes operational, coordination and strategic concerns in mentoring schemes

Satellite monitoring of sea surface pollution

There are no author-identified significant results in this report

Dynamic plantar loading index detects altered foot function in individuals with rheumatoid arthritis but not changes due to orthotic use

Background Altered foot function is common in individuals with rheumatoid arthritis. Plantar pressure distributions during gait are regularly assessed in this patient group; however, the association between frequently reported magnitude-based pressure variables and clinical outcomes has not been clearly established. Recently, a novel approach to the analysis of plantar pressure distributions throughout stance phase, the dynamic plantar loading index, has been proposed. This study aimed to assess the utility of this index for measuring foot function in individuals with rheumatoid arthritis.Methods Barefoot plantar pressures during gait were measured in 63 patients with rheumatoid arthritis and 51 matched controls. Additionally, 15 individuals with rheumatoid arthritis had in-shoe plantar pressures measured whilst walking in standardized footwear for two conditions: shoes-only; and shoes with prescribed custom foot orthoses. The dynamic plantar loading index was determined for all participants and conditions. Patient and control groups were compared for significant differences as were the shod and orthosis conditions.Findings The patient group was found to have a mean index of 0.19, significantly lower than the control group's index of 0.32 (p > 0.001, 95% CI [0.054, 0.197]). No significant differences were found between the shoe-only and shoe plus orthosis conditions. The loading index was found to correlate with clinical measures of structural deformity.Interpretation The dynamic plantar loading index may be a useful tool for researchers and clinicians looking to objectively assess dynamic foot function in patients with rheumatoid arthritis; however, it may be unresponsive to changes caused by orthotic interventions in this patient group.</p

Visual comparison of two data sets: do people use the means and the variability?

In our everyday lives, we are required to make decisions based upon our statistical intuitions. Often, these involve the comparison of two groups, such as luxury versus family cars and their suitability. Research has shown that the mean difference affects judgements where two sets of data are compared, but the variability of the data has only a minor influence, if any at all. However, prior research has tended to present raw data as simple lists of values. Here, we investigated whether displaying data visually, in the form of parallel dot plots, would lead viewers to incorporate variability information. In Experiment 1, we asked a large sample of people to compare two fictional groups (children who drank ‘Brain Juice’ versus water) in a one-shot design, where only a single comparison was made. Our results confirmed that only the mean difference between the groups predicted subsequent judgements of how much they differed, in line with previous work using lists of numbers. In Experiment 2, we asked each participant to make multiple comparisons, with both the mean difference and the pooled standard deviation varying across data sets they were shown. Here, we found that both sources of information were correctly incorporated when making responses. Taken together, we suggest that increasing the salience of variability information, through manipulating this factor across items seen, encourages viewers to consider this in their judgements. Such findings may have useful applications for best practices when teaching difficult concepts like sampling variation

Embracing additive manufacture: implications for foot and ankle orthosis design

<p>Abstract</p> <p>Background</p> <p>The design of foot and ankle orthoses is currently limited by the methods used to fabricate the devices, particularly in terms of geometric freedom and potential to include innovative new features. Additive manufacturing (AM) technologies, where objects are constructed via a series of sub-millimetre layers of a substrate material, may present the opportunity to overcome these limitations and allow novel devices to be produced that are highly personalised for the individual, both in terms of fit and functionality.</p> <p>Two novel devices, a foot orthosis (FO) designed to include adjustable elements to relieve pressure at the metatarsal heads, and an ankle foot orthosis (AFO) designed to have adjustable stiffness levels in the sagittal plane, were developed and fabricated using AM. The devices were then tested on a healthy participant to determine if the intended biomechanical modes of action were achieved.</p> <p>Results</p> <p>The adjustable, pressure relieving FO was found to be able to significantly reduce pressure under the targeted metatarsal heads. The AFO was shown to have distinct effects on ankle kinematics which could be varied by adjusting the stiffness level of the device.</p> <p>Conclusions</p> <p>The results presented here demonstrate the potential design freedom made available by AM, and suggest that it may allow novel personalised orthotic devices to be produced which are beyond the current state of the art.</p