UK hydrological review 1997 (2nd ed.)

This Hydrological Review, which also provides an overview of water resources status throughout 1997, is a reformatted version of the original commentary released as a web report in 1998. Some of the data featured in this report, particularly the more extreme flows, may have been subsequently revised. The annual Hydrological Reviews are components in the National Hydrological Monitoring Programme (NHMP) which was instigated in 1988 and is undertaken jointly by the Centre for Ecology & Hydrology (CEH) and the British Geological Survey (BGS) – both are component bodies of the Natural Environment Research Council (NERC). The National River Flow Archive (maintained by CEH) and the National Groundwater Level Archive (maintained by BGS) provide the historical perspective within which to examine contemporary hydrological conditions. A primary source of information for this review is the series of monthly UK Hydrological Summaries (for further details please visit: http://www.ceh.ac.uk/data/nrfa/nhmp/nhmp.html). The river flow and groundwater level data featured in the Hydrological Summaries – and utilised by many NHMP activities – have been provided by the Environment Agency (EA), Natural Resources Wales - Cyfoeth Naturiol Cymru, the Scottish Environment Protection Agency (SEPA) and their precursor organisations. For Northern Ireland, the hydrological data were sourced from the Rivers Agency and the Northern Ireland Environment Agency. The great majority of the reservoir level information has been provided by the Water Service Companies, the EA, Scottish Water and Northern Ireland Water (formerly Water Service). The generality of meteorological data, including the modelled assessments of evaporation and soil moisture deficits featured in the report, has been provided by the Met Office. To allow better spatial differentiation the monthly rainfall data for Britain are presented for the regional divisions of the precursor organisations of the EA and SEPA. The Met Office monthly rainfall series are Crown Copyright and may not be passed on to, or published by, any unauthorised person or organisation. The provision of the basic data, which provides the foundation both of this report and the wider activities of the NHMP, is gratefully acknowledged

Frequency over function : raised levels of CD127low/- regulatory T cells in the tumour microenvironment compared with the periphery of head and neck cancer patients

Objective: Regulatory T cells (Tregs) are known to infiltrate the tumour microenvironment of many cancers, including head and neck malignancies, and are thought to contribute to the host's impaired anti-tumour immune response. However, their immunosuppressive function remains poorly understood within the tumour microenvironment and this study aimed to address this. Methods: The frequency and suppressive capacity of two CD4?CD127low/- Treg populations, separated on the basis of different levels of CD25 expression (CD25inter and CD25high), from the tumour/node microenvironment and peripheral circulation of newly-presenting head and neck squamous cell carcinoma patients (n=19), were assessed using multicolour flow cytometry. Results: The proportion of Tregs (CD4?CD25high/?interCD127low/-) in the tumour/node microenvironment was significantly elevated compared with the peripheral circulation (p<0.001) and similar percentages were present in both the primary tumour and metastatic lymph node. The percentage of suppression induced by Tregs isolated from tumour associated nodes on the proliferation of nodal effector T cells was similar to that of peripheral Tregs on peripheral effector T cells. However, when the suppressive activity of both nodal and peripheral Tregs was compared on the same peripheral effectors, peripheral Tregs suppressed proliferation to a greater extent. Conclusion: This work shows that the recruitment and percentages of tumour infiltrating Tregs are key factors in modulating the immune environment of head and neck tumours

UK hydrological review 1998 (2nd ed.)

This Hydrological Review, which also provides an overview of water resources status throughout 1998, is a reformatted version of the original commentary released as a web report in 1999. Some of the data featured in this report, particularly the more extreme flows, may have been subsequently revised. The annual Hydrological Reviews are components in the National Hydrological Monitoring Programme (NHMP) which was instigated in 1988 and is undertaken jointly by the Centre for Ecology & Hydrology (CEH) and the British Geological Survey (BGS) – both are component bodies of the Natural Environment Research Council (NERC). The National River Flow Archive (maintained by CEH) and the National Groundwater Level Archive (maintained by BGS) provide the historical perspective within which to examine contemporary hydrological conditions. A primary source of information for this review is the series of monthly UK Hydrological Summaries (for further details please visit: http://www.ceh.ac.uk/data/nrfa/nhmp/nhmp.html). The river flow and groundwater level data featured in the Hydrological Summaries – and utilised by many NHMP activities – have been provided by the Environment Agency (EA), Natural Resources Wales - Cyfoeth Naturiol Cymru, the Scottish Environment Protection Agency (SEPA) and their precursor organisations. For Northern Ireland, the hydrological data were sourced from the Rivers Agency and the Northern Ireland Environment Agency. The great majority of the reservoir level information has been provided by the Water Service Companies, the EA, Scottish Water and Northern Ireland Water (formerly Water Service). The generality of meteorological data, including the modelled assessments of evaporation and soil moisture deficits featured in the report, has been provided by the Met Office. To allow better spatial differentiation the monthly rainfall data for Britain are presented for the regional divisions of the precursor organisations of the EA and SEPA. The Met Office monthly rainfall series are Crown Copyright and may not be passed on to, or published by, any unauthorised person or organisation. The provision of the basic data, which provides the foundation both of this report and the wider activities of the NHMP, is gratefully acknowledged

UK hydrological review 1996 (2nd ed.)

This Hydrological Review, which also provides an overview of water resources status throughout 1996, is a reformatted version of the original commentary released as a web report in 1997. Some of the data featured in this report, particularly the more extreme flows, may have been subsequently revised. The annual Hydrological Reviews are components in the National Hydrological Monitoring Programme (NHMP) which was instigated in 1988 and is undertaken jointly by the Centre for Ecology & Hydrology (CEH) and the British Geological Survey (BGS) – both are component bodies of the Natural Environment Research Council (NERC). The National River Flow Archive (maintained by CEH) and the National Groundwater Level Archive (maintained by BGS) provide the historical perspective within which to examine contemporary hydrological conditions. A primary source of information for this review is the series of monthly UK Hydrological Summaries (for further details please visit: http://www.ceh.ac.uk/data/nrfa/nhmp/nhmp.html). The river flow and groundwater level data featured in the Hydrological Summaries – and utilised by many NHMP activities – have been provided by the Environment Agency (EA), Natural Resources Wales - Cyfoeth Naturiol Cymru, the Scottish Environment Protection Agency (SEPA) and their precursor organisations. For Northern Ireland, the hydrological data were sourced from the Rivers Agency and the Northern Ireland Environment Agency. The great majority of the reservoir level information has been provided by the Water Service Companies, the EA, Scottish Water and Northern Ireland Water (formerly Water Service). The generality of meteorological data, including the modelled assessments of evaporation and soil moisture deficits featured in the report, has been provided by the Met Office. To allow better spatial differentiation the monthly rainfall data for Britain are presented for the regional divisions of the precursor organisations of the EA and SEPA. The Met Office monthly rainfall series are Crown Copyright and may not be passed on to, or published by, any unauthorised person or organisation. The provision of the basic data, which provides the foundation both of this report and the wider activities of the NHMP, is gratefully acknowledged

The diet and influence of the spionid polychaete Marenzelleria on benthic communities in coastal Newfoundland

Spionid polychaetes within the genus Marenzelleria are common inhabitants of organically enriched sediments in the Northern hemisphere. The species M. viridis has unique ventilation behaviors that create dynamic, fluctuating oxygen conditions in sediments, enhancing sulfate reduction. These behaviours may have negative effects on other macrofauna and positive effects on sulfur bacteria. A Marenzelleria species recently sampled in Newfoundland is here identified as M. viridis, and its abundance correlates little with abiotic factors and macrofaunal community composition at examined sites. Various types of surrounding sediments (oxic and suboxic as well as M. viridis burrow linings) contained surprisingly similar total prokaryotic, sulfate reducing and sulfur oxidizing bacteria numbers. The high abundance of sedimentary prokaryotes, combined with the stable isotopic composition of M. viridis tissues and lack of obvious symbionts, suggest that, thanks to its ventilation behaviour, this species may “farm” sulfur bacteria in sediments and use them as a primary food source

Investigating speech and language impairments in delirium: a preliminary case-control study

<div><p>Introduction</p><p>Language impairment is recognized as as part of the delirium syndrome, yet there is little neuropsychological research on the nature of this dysfunction. Here we hypothesized that patients with delirium show impairments in language formation, coherence and comprehension.</p><p>Methods</p><p>This was a case-control study in 45 hospitalized patients (aged 65–97 years) with delirium, dementia without delirium, or no cognitive impairment (N = 15 per group). DSM-5 criteria were used for delirium. Speech was elicited during (1) structured conversational questioning, and (2) the "Cookie Theft" picture description task. Language comprehension was assessed through standardized verbal and written commands. Interviews were audio-recorded and transcribed.</p><p>Results</p><p>Delirium and dementia groups scored lower on the conversational assessment than the control group (p<0.01, moderate effect sizes (r) of 0.48 and 0.51, resp.). In the Cookie Theft task, the average length of utterances (i.e. unit of speech), indicating language productivity and fluency, distinguished patients with delirium from those with dementia (p<0.01, r = 0.50) and no cognitive impairment (p<0.01, r = 0.55). Patients with delirium performed worse on written comprehension tests compared to cognitively unimpaired patients (p<0.01, r = 0.63), but not compared to the dementia group.</p><p>Conclusions</p><p>Production of spontaneous speech, word quantity, speech content and verbal and written language comprehension are impaired in delirious patients compared to cognitively unimpaired patients. Additionally, patients with delirium produced significantly less fluent speech than those with dementia. These findings have implications for how speech and language are evaluated in delirium assessments, and also for communication with patients with delirium. A study limitation was that the delirium group included patients with co-morbid dementia, which precludes drawing conclusions about the specific language profile of delirium.</p></div