History, origins and importance of temporary ponds

In Europe, temporary ponds are a naturally common and widespread habitat occurring, often in abundance, in all biogeographical regions from the boreal snow-melt pools of northern Scandinavia to the seasonally inundated coastal dune pools of southern Spain. Ecological studies in Europe and elsewhere also emphasise that temporary ponds are a biologically important habitat type, renowned both for their specialised assemblages and the considerable numbers of rare and endemic species they support. They are, however, a habitat currently under considerable threat. Most temporary ponds are inherently shallow and the majority are destroyed even by limited soil drainage for agriculture or urban development. The paper gives an overview of definitions of temporary ponds and examines their formation and abundance. The authors also summarise a visit to the Bialowieza Forest in Poland to investigate the occurrence of temporary ponds

Dangers and opportunities in managing temporary ponds

Although there is a growing awareness of the value of temporary ponds in Europe, there is still remarkably little information available to help guide their conservation and management. General principles which can be used to guide the management of temporary ponds as a whole have yet to be established. The aim of this article, therefore, is to give a broader overview of the main principles of temporary pond conservation, particularly by building on a number of general principles for managing ponds previously described by Biggs et al. (1994) and Williams et al. The authors emphasise the importance of surveys in order to get data on which to base management strategies. The main principles of temporary pond management are described, and examples of three case studies of ponds in England are given

Artifacts and landmarks: pearls and pitfalls for in vivo reflectance confocal microscopy of the skin using the tissue-coupled device

Reflectance confocal microscopy (RCM) is a non-invasive imaging tool for cellular-level examination of skin lesions, typically from the epidermis to the superficial dermis. Clinical studies show RCM imaging is highly sensitive and specific in the diagnosis of skin diseases. RCM is disseminating from academic tertiary care centers with early adopter "experts" into diverse clinical settings, with image acquisition performed by technicians and image interpretation by physicians. In the hands of trained users, RCM serves an aid to accurately diagnose and monitor skin tumors and inflammatory processes. However, exogenous and endogenous artifacts introduced during imaging can obscure RCM images, limiting or prohibiting interpretation. Herein we review the types of artifacts that may occur and techniques for mitigating them during image acquisition, to assist technicians with qualitative image assessment and provide physicians guidance on identifying artifacts that may confound interpretation. Finally, we discuss normal skin "landmarks" and how they can (i) obscure images, (ii) be exploited for additional diagnostic information, and (iii) simulate pathological structures. A deeper understanding of the principles and methods behind RCM imaging and the varying appearance of normal skin structures in the acquired images aids technicians in capturing higher quality image sets and enables physicians to increase interpretation accuracy

Precast Concrete Pavement Systems

Precast concrete pavement is becoming a favorable option to restore the functional and structural capacity of high-truck-volume traffic pavement. INDOT has a pilot project designed and constructed successfully in 2018. This session introduces the technology to practicing engineers

Peripheral vision: the Miltonic in Victorian painting, poetry, and prose, 1825–1901

This thesis explores the influence of John Milton on the edges of Victorian culture, addressing temporal, geographical, bodily, and sexual thresholds in Victorian poetry, painting, and prose. Where previous studies of Milton’s Victorian influence have focused on the poetic legacy of Paradise Lost, this project identifies traces of Miltonic concepts across aesthetic borders, analysing an interdisciplinary cultural sample in order to state anew Milton’s significance in the period between British Romanticism and early twentieth-century critical debates about the value of Paradise Lost. The project is divided into four chapters. The first explores apocalyptic images and texts from the 1820s—Mary Shelley’s The Last Man (1826) and the paintings of John Martin—in relation to Miltonic aetiology and eschatology. These texts offer a complex re-thinking of the relation between personal loss and universal catastrophe, which draws on and positions itself against prophecy and apocalypse in Paradise Lost. In the second chapter I address conceptual connections that cross boundaries of medium and nationality, identifying the presence of a Miltonic notion of powerful passivity in the writing and marginalia of Herman Melville and the paintings and anecdotal appendages of J. M. W. Turner. In the third chapter I consider Milton’s importance for A. C. Swinburne’s poetic presentation of peripheral sexualities, identifying in Milton’s poetry a pervasive metaphysics of bodily ‘melting’ or ‘cleaving’ which is essential to Swinburne’s poetic project. The final chapter analyses the presence of the Miltonic in the fiction of Thomas Hardy, whose repeated readings of Milton contributed to both establishing his poetic vocabulary, and prompting a career-long engagement with Miltonic ideas. The thesis refocuses attention on peripheral elements of the work of these writers and artists to re-articulate Milton’s importance for the Victorians, whilst bringing together models of influence which show the Victorian Milton to be at once liminal and galvanising

Roles of Education and IQ in Cognitive Reserve in Parkinson's Disease-Mild Cognitive Impairment.

Background/aimsThe role of cognitive reserve in Parkinson's disease (PD)-mild cognitive impairment (MCI) is incompletely understood.MethodsThe relationships between PD-MCI, years of education, and estimated premorbid IQ were examined in 119 consecutive non-demented PD patients using logistic regression models.ResultsHigher education and IQ were associated with reduced odds of PD-MCI in univariate analysis. In multivariable analysis, a higher IQ was associated with a significantly decreased odds of PD-MCI, but education was not.ConclusionThe association of higher IQ and decreased odds of PD-MCI supports a role for cognitive reserve in PD, but further studies are needed to clarify the interaction of IQ and education and the impact of other contributors such as employment and hobbies

Cost-effectiveness analyses for mirtazapine and sertraline in dementia: randomised controlled trial

BACKGROUND Depression is a common and costly comorbidity in dementia. There are very few data on the cost-effectiveness of antidepressants for depression in dementia and their effects on carer outcomes. AIMS To evaluate the cost-effectiveness of sertraline and mirtazapine compared with placebo for depression in dementia. METHOD A pragmatic, multicentre, randomised placebo-controlled trial with a parallel cost-effectiveness analysis (trial registration: ISRCTN88882979 and EudraCT 2006-000105-38). The primary cost-effectiveness analysis compared differences in treatment costs for patients receiving sertraline, mirtazapine or placebo with differences in effectiveness measured by the primary outcome, total Cornell Scale for Depression in Dementia (CSDD) score, over two time periods: 0-13 weeks and 0-39 weeks. The secondary evaluation was a cost-utility analysis using quality-adjusted life years (QALYs) computed from the Euro-Qual (EQ-5D) and societal weights over those same periods. RESULTS There were 339 participants randomised and 326 with costs data (111 placebo, 107 sertraline, 108 mirtazapine). For the primary outcome, decrease in depression, mirtazapine and sertraline were not cost-effective compared with placebo. However, examining secondary outcomes, the time spent by unpaid carers caring for participants in the mirtazapine group was almost half that for patients receiving placebo (6.74 v. 12.27 hours per week) or sertraline (6.74 v. 12.32 hours per week). Informal care costs over 39 weeks were £1510 and £1522 less for the mirtazapine group compared with placebo and sertraline respectively. CONCLUSIONS In terms of reducing depression, mirtazapine and sertraline were not cost-effective for treating depression in dementia. However, mirtazapine does appear likely to have been cost-effective if costing includes the impact on unpaid carers and with quality of life included in the outcome. Unpaid (family) carer costs were lower with mirtazapine than sertraline or placebo. This may have been mediated via the putative ability of mirtazapine to ameliorate sleep disturbances and anxiety. Given the priority and the potential value of supporting family carers of people with dementia, further research is warranted to investigate the potential of mirtazapine to help with behavioural and psychological symptoms in dementia and in supporting carers

Rendering sexism invisible in workplace narratives. A narrative analysis of female entrepreneurs’ stories of not being talked to by men

Taking a social constructionist and narrative approach to identity, in the analyses of a corpus of stories concerning sexism in the entrepreneurial world, we use positioning theory to provide a fine-grained analysis of the (gendered) identity work that female entrepreneurs perform to answer three research questions: 1) how female entrepreneurs themselves construct their (gendered) identities 2) how this differs from, or resembles, academic constructs of sexism and 3) what this identity work ‘means’ in terms of larger societal Discourses or ideologies that are invoked. Findings suggest that paradoxically these stories construct gender identities in which the female entrepreneurs are positioned as inferior to, and different from, their male interlocutors. However, the interviewees themselves fail to evaluate their stories as sexism-in-action. Consequently, they enforce and (re)create the often noted masculine and sexist nature of the entrepreneurial world