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Considerable interest exists in understanding how climate change affects wildfire activity. Here, we use the Community Earth System Model version 2 to show that future anthropogenic aerosol mitigation yields larger increases in fire activity in the Northern Hemisphere boreal forests, relative to a base simulation that lacks climate policy and has large increases in greenhouse gases. The enhanced fire response is related to a deeper layer of summertime soil drying, consistent with increased downwelling surface shortwave radiation and enhanced surface evapotranspiration. In contrast, soil column drying is muted under increasing greenhouse gases due to plant physiological responses to increased carbon dioxide and by enhanced melting of soil ice at a depth that increases soil liquid water. Although considerable uncertainty remains in the representation of fire processes in models, our results suggest that boreal forest fires may be more sensitive to future aerosol mitigation than to greenhouse gas-driven warming. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Cross sections of coal prices in England for 1695, 1795, and 1842 are used to infer transportation rates by sea, river, canal, and road. The effectiveness of monopolies, the degree of market integration, and the patterns of regional supply of each mining district are then established. The growth rates of productivity in sea, river, and road transport from 1695–1842 are computed and combined with a social savings assessment of canals to measure the overall growth in the productivity of shipping coal. Productivity growth was substantial but had a surprisingly limited impact on the geography of production and consumption. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Aim: Both macroecology and disturbance ecology have long been used to characterize population‐ and community‐level patterns across scales, but the integration of both approaches in characterizing disturbed ecosystems is rare. Here, we use the maximum entropy theory of ecology (METE) to model the individual size distribution (ISD) of trees in pre‐ and post‐disturbance tree populations and estimate the corresponding metabolic scaling exponents. Location: New Zealand. Time Period: 1987–1999. Major Taxa Studied: Mountain beech (Fuscospora cliffortioides Nothofagaceae). Methods: METE uses information entropy and empirical macro‐state variables to constrain predictions of ecological distributions related to biodiversity. METE has successfully predicted a range of biodiversity metrics in static or relatively undisturbed conditions. However, METE can fail to accurately model ecological patterns in disturbed ecosystems. We extend existing theoretical predictions to a highly disturbed ecosystem by treating the metabolic scaling exponent and Lagrange multipliers as free parameters in METE. Results: We showed that the fully parameterized METE (FP‐METE) model reasonably predicted the ISD of mountain beech populations in a monodominant forest after a strong earthquake, which restructured the forest. Furthermore, the FP‐METE model revealed that decreasing metabolic scaling exponent drove the substantial decline of total metabolic rate energy and the redistribution of energy towards smaller trees after the earthquake. Increased number of small trees was not sufficient to capture the full impact of disturbance on forest energy use. Main Conclusions: Our FP‐METE model applies an informatics approach to estimate the metabolic scaling relationship. We find that instead of maintaining a fixed value, the metabolic scaling exponent is variable among populations, and declines significantly after an earthquake disturbance. This leads to major shifts in the total population metabolic energy and energy distribution. With this approach, we now have the opportunity to advance beyond categorizing forms of mathematical distributions that describe biodiversity patterns and move into a predictive framework where the true constraints on ecosystems and their dynamics emerge. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Changes in anthropogenic aerosol emissions have strongly contributed to global and regional trends in temperature, precipitation, and other climate characteristics and have been one of the dominant drivers of decadal trends in Asian and African precipitation. These and other influences on regional climate from changes in aerosol emissions are expected to continue and potentially strengthen in the coming decades. However, a combination of large uncertainties in emission pathways, radiative forcing, and the dynamical response to forcing makes anthropogenic aerosol a key factor in the spread of near-term climate projections, particularly on regional scales, and therefore an important one to constrain. For example, in terms of future emission pathways, the uncertainty in future global aerosol and precursor gas emissions by 2050 is as large as the total increase in emissions since 1850. In terms of aerosol effective radiative forcing, which remains the largest source of uncertainty in future climate change projections, CMIP6 models span a factor of 5, from - 0.3 to - 1.5 W m -2. Both of these sources of uncertainty are exacerbated on regional scales. The Regional Aerosol Model Intercomparison Project (RAMIP) will deliver experiments designed to quantify the role of regional aerosol emissions changes in near-term projections. This is unlike any prior MIP, where the focus has been on changes in global emissions and/or very idealised aerosol experiments. Perturbing regional emissions makes RAMIP novel from a scientific standpoint and links the intended analyses more directly to mitigation and adaptation policy issues. From a science perspective, there is limited information on how realistic regional aerosol emissions impact local as well as remote climate conditions. Here, RAMIP will enable an evaluation of the full range of potential influences of realistic and regionally varied aerosol emission changes on near-future climate. From the policy perspective, RAMIP addresses the burning question of how local and remote decisions affecting emissions of aerosols influence climate change in any given region. Here, RAMIP will provide the information needed to make direct links between regional climate policies and regional climate change. RAMIP experiments are designed to explore sensitivities to aerosol type and location and provide improved constraints on uncertainties driven by aerosol radiative forcing and the dynamical response to aerosol changes. The core experiments will assess the effects of differences in future global and regional (Africa and the Middle East, East Asia, North America and Europe, and South Asia) aerosol emission trajectories through 2051, while optional experiments will test the nonlinear effects of varying emission locations and aerosol types along this future trajectory. All experiments are based on the shared socioeconomic pathways and are intended to be performed with 6th Climate Model Intercomparison Project (CMIP6) generation models, initialised from the CMIP6 historical experiments, to facilitate comparisons with existing projections. Requested outputs will enable the analysis of the role of aerosol in near-future changes in, for example, temperature and precipitation means and extremes, storms, and air quality. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

An archive of 5 years of cases involving the identification of human remains was curated, collecting information on: The sample type submitted, the number of STR loci yielding interpretable results, the kinship challenge posed, and the outcome for the case. A total of 129 cases of remains ID were investigated using manual DNA extraction and recovery methods with amplification of STR markers using the Power Plex 21 multiplex STR kit from Promega Corp. In 52 cases, blood spots collected by the ME were provided as sample and in 100% of those cases, probabilities of relatedness to the reference samples was ≥99%. In 77 cases, tissue other than blood was provided as a source of DNA. These other samples were grouped categorically into long bones (femur and tibia; 40 cases), skull bones/teeth (11 cases), other bones (16 cases), and tissue (normally adherent to bone) (10 cases). Reference samples provided for cases included alleged parents or child(ren) of the victim (86 cases), alleged full siblings of the victim (38 cases), or alleged second‐order relatives (five cases). The overall success rate in confirming the identity of the source of the remains in these cases was 89.2%. Our results demonstrate that a laboratory can be often successful identifying human remains using methods easily implemented in any DNA typing laboratory. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Benefits of invasive species management for terrestrial biodiversity are widely expected and promoted in New Zealand. Evidence for this is presented in policy and scientific reviews of the literature, but the robustness and repeatability of the underpinning evidence-base remains poorly understood. We evaluated the design of field-based studies assessing biodiversity responses to invasive species management in 155 peerreviewed articles published in 46 journals from 2010-2019. Each study was assessed against nine principles of experimental design, covering robustness of sampling and avoidance of bias. These principles are important in New Zealand to detect treatment effects from environmental variability driven by underlying gradients such as soil fertility, climate, and disturbance. Across all publications, about half defined the sampling universe (52%) or were unreplicated (54%), whereas most (74%) did not representatively collect data across the sampling universe. Management treatments were specified, with or without only influencing the target species, in 68% of publications. Relatively few studies quantified invasive species (15%) and biodiversity responses (27%) representatively within replicates. Initial conditions and accounting for the effects of experimental implementation were not used in 57% and 84% of publications, respectively. No publications avoided observer/analyst bias using blinding methods, despite this being widely adopted in other scientific fields. We used ordinal logistic regression to understand how these principles varied among categories of biodiversity responses and for major groups of invasive species. Our findings suggest that greater attention to experimental design principles is desirable: supported by researchers, funding agencies, reviewers, and journal editors. Greater resources are not necessarily a solution to these design issues. One alternative is undertaking fewer studies that are individually more expensive because they better adhere to experimental design principles. The challenges of meeting experimental design principles suggests a significant role for other approaches such as systematic monitoring and natural experiments, although many of the design principles we discuss still apply. Our intent in this article is to improve the robustness of future field studies for at least some principles. Robust designs have enduring value, reduce uncertainty, and increase our understanding of when, where and how often the impacts of invasive species on biodiversity are reversible. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

We study weighted composition operators on weighted Banach spaces over unbounded, locally finite metric spaces. We characterize the operators that are bounded, compact, being bounded below, having closed range, invertible, being a (surjective) isometry, and are Fredholm. Several examples are presented illustrating the diversity of such operators. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The cybersecurity of organizations is a subject of perennial concern as they are subject to mounting threats in an increasingly digitalized world. While commercial and charitable organizations have been the objects of cybersecurity research, social enterprises (SEs) have remained unexplored. As SEs have become increasingly important features of social and economic development, so their prominence as potential targets of cybercrime also increases. In order to address this knowledge gap, this article examines the factors that influence the cyber-preparedness of SEs in the U.K. Through the use of semistructured interviews with SE owner-managers, these factors are found to comprise the characteristics of the enterprise, the characteristics of the enterprise management, resource constraints, experience of cyberattacks, usage of IT, and awareness of cybersecurity schemes and resources. These insights provide valuable guidance for SE owner-managers, SE support agencies, and policy-makers when considering the cybersecurity of SEs. These findings are of immediate concern to SEs but also to other organizations that are engaged in partnerships with them as SEs may afford “gateway” opportunities to those with malicious intent. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Changes in anthropogenic aerosol emissions have strongly contributed to global and regional trends in temperature, precipitation, and other climate characteristics, and have been one of the dominant drivers of decadal trends in Asian and African precipitation. These, and other, influences on regional climate from changes in aerosol emissions are expected to continue, and potentially strengthen, in the coming decades. However, a combination of large uncertainties in emissions pathways, radiative forcing, and the dynamical response to forcing makes anthropogenic aerosol a key factor in the spread in near-term climate projections, particularly on regional scales, and therefore an important one to constrain. For example, in terms of future emissions pathways, the uncertainty in future global aerosol and precursor gas emissions by 2050 is as large as the total increase in emissions since 1850. In terms of aerosol effective radiative forcing, which remains the largest source of uncertainty in future climate change projections, CMIP6 models span a factor of five, from -0.3 to -1.5 W m-2. Both of these sources of uncertainty are exacerbated on regional scales. The Regional Aerosol Model Intercomparison Project (RAMIP) will deliver experiments designed to quantify the role of regional aerosol emissions changes in near-term projections. This is unlike any prior MIP, where the focus has been on changes in global emissions and/or very idealized aerosol experiments. Perturbing regional emissions makes RAMIP novel from a scientific standpoint, and links the intended analyses more directly to mitigation and adaptation policy issues. From a science perspective, there is limited information on how realistic regional aerosol emissions impact local as well as remote climate conditions. Here, RAMIP will enable an evaluation of the full range of potential influences of realistic and regionally varied aerosol emission changes on near-future climate. From the policy perspective, RAMIP addresses the burning question of how local and remote decisions affecting emissions of aerosols influence climate change in any given region. Here, RAMIP will provide the information needed to make direct links between regional climate policies and regional climate change. RAMIP experiments are designed to explore sensitivities to aerosol type and location, and provide improved constraints on uncertainties driven by aerosol radiative forcing and the dynamical response to aerosol changes. The core experiments will assess the effects of differences in future global and regional (East Asia, South Asia, Africa and the Middle East) aerosol emission trajectories through 2051, while optional experiments will test the nonlinear effects of varying emission location and aerosol types along this future trajectory. All experiments are based on the Shared Socioeconomic Pathways, and are intended to be performed with sixth Climate Model Intercomparison Project (CMIP6) generation models, initialised from the CMIP6 historical experiments, to facilitate comparisons with existing projections. Requested outputs will enable analysis of the role of aerosol in near-future changes in, for example, temperature and precipitation means and extremes, storms, and air quality. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The rank 1 bosonic ghost vertex algebra, also known as the β γ ghosts, symplectic bosons or Weyl vertex algebra, is a simple example of a conformal field theory which is neither rational, nor C 2 -cofinite. We identify a module category, denoted category F , which satisfies three necessary conditions coming from conformal field theory considerations: closure under restricted duals, closure under fusion and closure under the action of the modular group on characters. We prove the second of these conditions, with the other two already being known. Further, we show that category F has sufficiently many projective and injective modules, give a classification of all indecomposable modules, show that fusion is rigid and compute all fusion products. The fusion product formulae turn out to perfectly match a previously proposed Verlinde formula, which was computed using a conjectured generalisation of the usual rational Verlinde formula, called the standard module formalism. The bosonic ghosts therefore exhibit essentially all of the rich structure of rational theories despite satisfying none of the standard rationality assumptions such as C 2 -cofiniteness, the vertex algebra being isomorphic to its restricted dual or having a one-dimensional conformal weight 0 space. In particular, to the best of the authors' knowledge this is the first example of a proof of rigidity for a logarithmic non- C 2 -cofinite vertex algebra. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Background: Poor sleep leads to poor health outcomes. Inpatient sleep disturbance has been studied primarily in the ICU. Minimal research exists on sleep in surgical populations.Methods: We recruited patients undergoing elective, inpatient general surgery procedures. Participants wore Fitbit trackers while inpatient to measure total sleep time (CDC recommendation is 7 or more hours per night). At discharge, patients completed the Richards-Campbell Sleep Questionnaire (RCSQ) to measure inpatient sleep quality. The RCSQ combines 5 domains into a cumulative score (0 to 100); a higher score means better sleep quality. Patients also completed the outpatient Pittsburgh Sleep Quality Index preoperatively and postoperatively. The primary end point was percentage of patients with total sleep score ≥ 50. Secondary outcomes included mean RCSQ domain scores, Fitbit total sleep time, and percentage with Pittsburgh Sleep Quality Index Score indicating poor sleep.Results: We included 64 patients (mean ± SD age 55.0 ± 14.1 years). Mean ± SD RCSQ total sleep score was 49 ± 20.5 and 53.1% with total sleep score < 50. Mean ± SD RCSQ domain scores were Awakenings: 40.4 ± 22.8, Sleep Quality: 49.1 ± 27.9, Sleep Latency: 49.2 ± 25.3, Sleep Depth: 50.2 ± 26.5, Returning to Sleep: 55.9 ± 28.1, and Noise Disturbance: 59.1 ± 27.9. On night one, 25 devices (40%) had recorded sleep data due to enough sleep. Mean ± SD total sleep time on night 1 was 4.7 ± 2.8 hours. Mean total sleep time for nights 2, 3, and 4 remained fewer than 7 hours. Percentages for each night that achieved the CDC goal of 7 or more hours were as follows: night one 10.9%, night two 32.8%, night three 35.3%, and night four 27.6%. Per the Pittsburgh Sleep Quality Index, 88.1% of patients were poor sleepers preoperatively and 84.5% were poor sleepers at follow-up (p = 0.6).Conclusions: Elective general surgery patients experience a severe inpatient sleep disturbance, worse than in similarly studied ICU cohorts. This disturbance is driven primarily by nighttime awakenings. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

To engineer Mo-dependent nitrogenase function in plants, expression of the structural proteins NifD and NifK will be an absolute requirement. Although mitochondria have been established as a suitable eukaryotic environment for biosynthesis of oxygen-sensitive enzymes such as NifH, expression of NifD in this organelle has proven difficult due to cryptic NifD degradation. Here, we describe a solution to this problem. Using molecular and proteomic methods, we found NifD degradation to be a consequence of mitochondrial endoprotease activity at a specific motif within NifD. Focusing on this functionally sensitive region, we designed NifD variants comprising between one and three amino acid substitutions and distinguished several that were resistant to degradation when expressed in both plant and yeast mitochondria. Nitrogenase activity assays of these resistant variants in Escherichia coli identified a subset that retained function, including a single amino acid variant (Y100Q). We found that other naturally occurring NifD proteins containing alternate amino acids at the Y100 position were also less susceptible to degradation. The Y100Q variant also enabled expression of a NifD(Y100Q)-linker-NifK translational polyprotein in plant mitochondria, confirmed by identification of the polyprotein in the soluble fraction of plant extracts. The NifD(Y100Q)- linker-NifK retained function in bacterial nitrogenase assays, demonstrating that this polyprotein permits expression of NifD and NifK in a defined stoichiometry supportive of activity. Our results exemplify how protein design can overcome impediments encountered when expressing synthetic proteins in novel environments. Specifically, these findings outline our progress toward the assembly of the catalytic unit of nitrogenase within mitochondria. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The tropical belt has widened during the last several decades, and both internal variability and anthropogenic forcings have contributed. Although greenhouse gases and stratospheric ozone depletion have been implicated as primary anthropogenic drivers of tropical expansion, the possible role of other drivers remains uncertain. Here, we analyze the tropical belt width response to idealized perturbations in multiple models. Our results show that absorbing black carbon (BC) aerosol drives tropical expansion, and scattering sulfate aerosol drives contraction. BC, especially from Asia, is more efficient per unit radiative forcing than greenhouse gases in driving tropical expansion, particularly in the Northern Hemisphere. Tropical belt expansion (contraction) is associated with an increase (decrease) in extratropical static stability induced by absorbing (scattering) aerosol. Although a formal attribution is difficult, scaling the normalized expansion rates to the historical time period suggests that BC is the largest driver of the Northern Hemisphere tropical widening but with relatively large uncertainty. Plain Language Summary: The tropical belt has widened over the past several decades, and this is associated with poleward movement of the descending branches of the Hadley Cell and the subtropical dry zones. Internal climate variability and anthropogenic forcers—including greenhouse gases and stratospheric ozone depletion—are important contributors. Leveraging idealized single‐forcing experiments, we show that anthropogenic aerosols, including black carbon and sulfate, drive significant tropical expansion and contraction, respectively. Aerosols, particularly those emitted from Asia, are more efficient than greenhouse gases in perturbing tropical belt width. Although relatively large uncertainty exists, linearized scaling suggests that black carbon is the dominant driver of the Northern Hemisphere tropical widening over the historical time period. Key Points: In addition to GHGs, aerosols are capable of perturbing the width of the tropicsIncreased black carbon (BC) aerosol drives tropical expansion; sulfate drives contractionBC, particularly from Asia, is more efficient than GHGs in driving tropical expansion, especially in the NH [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Background. This is part of an ongoing set of studies to develop a framework and techniques for rich semantic modeling, based on traditional ontologies and upper ontologies. Such models should provide the basis for direct representation of complex texts such as scientific research reports and descriptions of historical events. Semantic models have been developed to describe mechanisms and explore how semantic models can be related to object-oriented programming languages. Objective. Object-oriented semantic modeling was applied to two simulations: of a waterfall and of the cardiopulmonary system. Issues related to the components of these models and their interaction were examined. Results. Complete executable models for the waterfall and the cardiopulmonary system examples are demonstrated. Specific recommendations are offered for handling States, Portions of Matter, Meta-Operators, and Systems. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In continuation of polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons (PAH) synthesis via an aryne Diels-Alder cycloaddition and bridge extrusion methodology,[[1]] we now describe a simple phenanthrene ( B 1 b ) synthesis using this strategy. For example, the human metabolism of (deuterated) phenanthrene has been used as a marker to measure the potential lung cancer susceptibility in cigarette smokers.[12] Moreover, more than 250 natural phenanthrenes have been described, mostly oxygenated analogues from higher plants.[13] While myriad syntheses of I substituted i phenanthrenes are known,[[14]] relatively few syntheses of phenanthrene itself exist. The closest example to the present work is that of Jung and Koreeda, who employed an aryne-furan cycloaddition method to prepare B 1 b and several polymethylated phenanthrenes.[17] Our synthesis of phenanthrene is shown in I Scheme 1 i . [Extracted from the article]

The infrequent and unpredictable nature of earthquakes means that their landslide‐generated impacts on forests are rarely investigated. In montane forests, landslides are the main cause of tree death and injury during earthquakes. Landslides range from soil movements that uproot and bury trees over extensive areas to rock falls that strike individual trees. We examined unexplored relationships between tree survival and distance from an epicentre, soil‐available phosphorus (P) as an indicator of soil development and tree diameter. We expected decreased tree growth in damaged forests because of tree injury.We used a plot network, established in 1974 and resurveyed regularly ever since, to quantify survival and growth responses 6–30 km from the epicentre of a 1994 earthquake in New Zealand's Southern Alps. Our Bayesian analysis used 8,518 trees from 250 plots that representatively sampled a naturally monospecific Nothofagus forest. As the time‐scales over which responses could emerge were unknown, we compared relationships for a pre‐earthquake period with 0–5 years post‐earthquake, and with 5+ years post‐earthquake.Not all plots were affected by the earthquake. We found that 0–5 years post‐earthquake survival increased logarithmically with distance from the epicentre with lowered survival up to 20 km from the epicentre. Survival was low on plots with high soil‐available P. An inverted U‐shaped relationship between survival and diameter pre‐earthquake was not found 0–5 years post‐earthquake. This was because of surprisingly high survival by large trees. The earthquake most often suppressed 0–5 years post‐earthquake growth up to 15 km from the epicentre, but this was only apparent after accounting for more general growth differences among periods. The positive relationship between growth and soil‐available P pre‐earthquake and 5+ years post‐earthquake reflected enhanced growth on young soils. This contrasted with a negative effect of soil‐available P on growth 0–5 years post‐earthquake.Synthesis. Soil‐available P, tree diameter and distance from the epicentre independently determined how tree survival and growth responded to an earthquake. The impacts on survival and growth largely occurred 0–5 years post‐earthquake and suggests a level of resilience in mountain beech forests. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Myeloperoxidase (MPO) and eosinophil peroxidase (EPO) are cationic haloperoxidases with potent microbicidal and detoxifying activities. MPO selectively binds to and kills some Gram-positive bacteria (GPB) and all Gram-negative bacteria (GNB) tested. GNB contain endotoxin, i.e., lipopolysaccharide (LPS) comprising a toxic lipid A component. The possibility that MPO and EPO bind and inhibit the endotoxin of GNB was tested by mixing MPO or EPO with LPS or lipid A and measuring for inhibition of endotoxin activity using the chromogenic Limulus amebocyte lysate (LAL) assay. The endotoxin-inhibiting activities of MPO and EPO were also tested in vivo using an LPS 90% lethal dose (LD90) mouse model studied over a five-day period. Mixing MPO or EPO with a fixed quantity of LPS from Escherichia coli O55:B5 or with diphosphoryl lipid A from E. coli F583 inhibited LAL endotoxin activity in proportion to the natural log of the MPO or EPO concentration. MPO and EPO enzymatic activities were not required for inhibition, and MPO haloperoxidase action did not increase endotoxin inhibition. Both MPO and EPO increased mouse survival in the LPS LD90 model. In conclusion, MPO and EPO nonenzymatically inhibited in vitro endotoxin activity using the LAL assay, and MPO and high-dose EPO significantly increased mouse survival in a LPS LD90 model, and such survival was increased in a dose-dependent manner. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

To date, very few studies have focused on dust and sea salt cloud interactions, particularly the semidirect effect (SDE) that results from changes in column temperature and moisture. Here, we isolate the SDE using several climate models driven by semiempirical dust and sea salt direct radiative effects. The global annual mean SDE varies from 0.01 to 0.10 W/m2, with the bulk of the signal coming from an increase in shortwave radiation. This is consistent with decreases in low cloud over ocean due to cloud burn‐off and reductions in midlevel cloud over land due to atmospheric stabilization and decreased convection. Overall, longwave effects weaken the positive SDE but with opposing effects over land and sea. High cloud is reduced over land but enhanced over sea. We conclude that dust and sea salt likely exert a global mean warming effect through cloud rapid adjustments. Key Points: The global dust‐sea salt semidirect effect (SDE) is weakly positive, ranging from 0.01 to 0.10 W/m2The positive SDE is muted by enhanced longwave cooling and primarily due to shortwave warmingLand‐sea cloud contrasts exist, with middle and high cloud decreases over land and increases over sea [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Iatrogenic common femoral artery pseudoaneurysm is a well-known vascular access complication of angiography and transfemoral intervention. Thrombin injection is a well-accepted technique in treating these pseudoaneurysms but possess a significant risk of distal lower extremity thrombosis leading to severe consequences. Several case reports described the novel approach to closing these pseudoaneurysms via a retrograde deployment of an Angio-Seal vascular closure device. We describe a case of a successful treatment of refractory iatrogenic femoral artery pseudoaneurysm using Amplatzer vascular plugs following unsuccessful retrograde deployment of an Angio-Seal vascular closure device. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The paper measures real wages in St Petersburg, Moscow, and Kursk over 1853-1937. Workers in construction and large scale industry are studied. For the imperial period and the NEP, new series of prices are collected from archival and printed sources, and these radically revise previous measures of inflation. Russian living standards grew little between 1853 and 1913, but doubled between 1913 and 1928 due to the exchange rate, price, and employment policies followed by the regime. Real wages dropped to their pre-War level between 1928 and 1937, as the social surplus was mobilized for the industrialization drive. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

A delay in first case on-time starts (FCOTS) can lead to less operating room (OR) utilization, greater facility costs, and dissatisfaction among staff and patients. FCOTS is usually measured by the patient in-room metric with a small grace period. For this study, the partnering hospital elected to target and improve delays by aggressively defining FCOTS as time of incision with no grace period. Metric standardization, goal setting, and organizational focus contributed to a 9-month implementation plan to improve the newly defined FCOTS metric. The target was achieved during implementation, with 73.6% of first cases starting on time. Annual impact showed 80,587 min, or 1,343 hr, of saved OR time, which led to $771,000 in annual savings for variable OR labor costs. This redefined metric and related interventions contributed to significant reduction in delays and savings to the hospital. Engaged physician leadership played a key role in this improvement initiative, as well. The methods employed here can be used in other hospitals looking to improve FCOTS metrics in their procedural areas. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Integrating information on physical function and pain intensity into a composite measure may provide a useful method for assessing treatment efficacy in clinical trials of chronic pain. Accordingly, we evaluated composite outcomes in trials of duloxetine, gabapentin, and pregabalin. Data on 2287 patients in 9 trials for painful diabetic peripheral neuropathy (DPN) and 1513 patients in 6 trials for postherpetic neuralgia (PHN) were analyzed. All trials assessed pain intensity on a 0 to 10 numeric rating scale and physical function with the 10-item subscale of the Short Form-36, ranging 0 to 100 with higher scores indicating better function. Correlation between change in pain intensity from baseline to posttreatment and change in physical function was small in DPN (ρ = -0.22; P < 0.001) and nonsignificant in PHN (ρ = -0.05; P = 0.08). Assay sensitivities of 10 composite outcomes were examined in a random subsample of patients enrolled in pregabalin trials for DPN and PHN. Of these, a responder outcome of ≥50% improvement in pain intensity, or a ≥20% improvement in pain intensity and ≥30% improvement in physical function was not only significantly associated with pregabalin vs placebo in the development cohorts for both pain conditions but also in the validation cohorts. Furthermore, this composite outcome was cross-validated in trials of gabapentin for PHN and duloxetine for DPN, and had slightly lower number needed to treat than a standard responder outcome of ≥50% reduction in pain intensity. In summary, this study identified a composite outcome of pain intensity and physical function that may improve the assay sensitivity of future neuropathic pain trials. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

We study composition operators on the weighted Banach spaces of an infinite tree. We characterize the bounded and the compact operators, as well as determine the operator norm and the essential norm. In addition, we study the isometric composition operators. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

A primary utility of satellite remote sensing technology is monitoring and assessment of agricultural lands for determining the area, amount, type, and quality of crop production. Since the mid-1970s agricultural scientists have sought to advance this utility through development of precision agriculture (PA) methods and technologies. Consequently, PA has taken advantage of freely available medium-spatial resolution remote sensing technology and instrumented fields to monitor crop biomass, phenology, and yield of crops at the sub-field to larger scales. The main goal of this study was to determine cotton lint yield in a 73-ha irrigated field in western Tennessee using remote sensing technology. We used two growing seasons (2013 and 2014) of Landsat 8 transformed to 8 input predictors including Red , near infra-red ( NIR ), the simple ratio ( SR ), normalized difference vegetation index ( NDVI ), green NDVI ( GNDVI ), and the tasselled cap transformation’s greenness, wetness, and soil brightness indices: GI , WI, and SBI, respectively, as proxies for cotton lint yield and crop phenology (in this study all input predictors are being referred to as crop indices, CIs). We used artificial neural network (ANN) approach to generate 61,200 models relating individual CIs and CI phenology to field estimates of lint yield to predict and map the field’s cotton lint yield in two cropping seasons. The correlation between cotton lint yield and CIs ranged from -0.20 to 0.60 in 2013 and from −0.79 to 0.84 in 2014. The best ANN models were in 2013 ( r  = 0.68 and the normalized MAE = 11%) and 2014 ( r  = 0.86 and the normalized MAE = 8%) growing seasons. The WI and GI were the best CI predictors of cotton lint yield, and overall for the early to mid-season prediction, CI phenologies had better performance than single date CI models. Consequently, we recommend the use of Landsat 8 derived WI or GI phenology to predict crop yields. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

INTRODUCTION: Diagnosis of shoulder dystocia (SD) relies on clinicians' subjective assessment of the need to apply "more-than-usual" traction. We sought to determine whether providers' diagnostic traction (DT) for SD in a simulated setting is modifiable by force training. METHODS: As part of an IRB-approved study, we tethered a fetal mannequin with embedded force sensors to a simulated pelvis such that it would not deliver. We asked participants to apply their DT for SD, and then stop. We then asked them to apply their own estimate of 20 lb of traction, which is below the published 22-lb threshold for brachial plexus injury. Blinded from participants' view, we recorded the actual force applied at each attempt and asked each participant to estimate in pounds the DT they perceived to have applied. We then revealed actual force applied and allowed participants to practice with actual force measurements in view; this was followed by another blinded sequence of traction applications and estimations. Differences between actual and estimated DT pretraining and posttraining, were compared using t test, with significance at P less than.05. RESULTS: The mean DT among 103 participants decreased from 15.3 to 12.3 lb posttraining (P <.0001). Pretraining, participants underestimated their own applied traction by an average of 30% (9.3±5.2 versus 15.3±7.9 lb, P <.001); accuracy of self-assessment improved to 100% post-training (12.1±5.5 versus 12.3±5.0 lb, P =.66). CONCLUSION: With force training, accuracy of self-assessment of DT improves significantly; and applied force to diagnose SD decreases significantly below injury threshold. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Abstract: Fluorescent dyes have been widely utilized as chemical sensors and in photodynamic therapy, but exploitation of their redox‐active nature in chemical reactions has remained mostly unexplored. This report describes the isolation of a 4,4‐difluoro‐4‐bora‐3a,4a‐diaza‐s‐indacene (BODIPY)‐based radical. The redox‐active nature of the BODIPY compound can be utilized in combination with a guanidine center, the basicity of which can be manipulated by greater than 14 pKa units, to promote the conversion of protons and electrons into H‐atoms for transfer to substrate molecules. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Abstract: Fluorescent dyes have been widely utilized as chemical sensors and in photodynamic therapy, but exploitation of their redox‐active nature in chemical reactions has remained mostly unexplored. This report describes the isolation of a 4,4‐difluoro‐4‐bora‐3a,4a‐diaza‐s‐indacene (BODIPY)‐based radical. The redox‐active nature of the BODIPY compound can be utilized in combination with a guanidine center, the basicity of which can be manipulated by greater than 14 pKa units, to promote the conversion of protons and electrons into H‐atoms for transfer to substrate molecules. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Seedlings of co-occurring species vary in their response to resource availability and this has implications for the conservation and management of forests. Differential shade-tolerance is thought to influence seedling performance in mixed Nothofagus betuloides–Nothofagus pumilio forests of Patagonia. However, these species also vary in their soil nutrient requirements. To determine the effects of light and soil nutrient resources on small seedlings we examined responses to an experimental reduction in canopy tree root competition through root trenching and restricting soil nutrient depletion through the addition of fertilizer. To understand the effect of light these treatments were undertaken in small canopy gaps and nearby beneath undisturbed canopy with lower light levels. Seedling diameter growth was greater for N. pumilio and height growth was greater for N. betuloides. Overall, diameter and height growth were greater in canopy gaps than beneath undisturbed canopy. Such growths were also greater with fertilizer and root trenching treatments, even beneath undisturbed canopy. Seedling survival was lower under such treatments, potentially reflecting thinning facilitated by resource induced growth. Finally, above-ground biomass did not vary among species although the less shade tolerant N. pumilio had higher below-ground biomass and root to shoot biomass ratio than the more shade tolerant N. betuloides. Above- and below-ground biomass were higher in canopy gaps so that the root to shoot biomass ratio was similar to that beneath undisturbed canopy. Above-ground biomass was also higher with fertilizer and root trenching treatments and that lowered the root to shoot biomass ratio. Restricting soil nutrient depletion allowed seedlings of both species to focus their responses above-ground. Our results support a view that soil nutrient resources, as well as the more commonly studied light resources, are important to seedlings of Nothofagus species occurring on infertile soils. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Observations show the tropical belt has widened over the past few decades, a phenomenon associated with poleward migration of subtropical dry zones and large-scale atmospheric circulation. Coupled climate models also simulate tropical belt widening, but less so than observed. Reasons for this discrepancy, and the mechanisms driving the expansion remain uncertain. Here, the role of unforced, natural climate variability-particularly natural sea surface temperature (SST) variability-in recent tropical widening is shown. Compared to coupled ocean-atmosphere models, atmosphere-only simulations driven by observed SSTs consistently lead to larger rates of tropical widening, especially in the Northern Hemisphere (NH), highlighting the importance of recent SST evolution. Assuming the ensemble mean SSTs from historical simulations accurately represent the externally forced response, the observed SSTs can be decomposed into a forced and an unforced component. Targeted simulations with the Community Atmosphere Model, version 5 (CAM5), show that natural SST variability accounts for nearly all of the widening associated with recent SST evolution. This is consistent with the similarity of the unforced SSTs to the observed SSTs, both of which resemble a cold El Niño-Southern Oscillation/Pacific decadal oscillation (ENSO/PDO)-like SST pattern, which is associated with a wider tropical belt. Moreover, CAM5 coupled simulations with observed central to eastern tropical Pacific SSTs yield more than double the rate of widening compared to analogous simulations without prescribed tropical Pacific SSTs and reproduce the magnitude of tropical widening in atmosphere-only simulations. The results suggest that the bulk of recent tropical widening, particularly in the NH, is due to unforced, natural SST variability, primarily related to recent ENSO/PDO variability. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Objective: Unusual clinical course Background: Influenza B viruses cause seasonal epidemics of respiratory illness, circulating concurrently with influenza A viruses. However, virological and clinical knowledge of influenza B viruses is less well advanced than for influenza A, and in particular, complications associated with influenza B infection are not as commonly reported. Complications of influenza B infection predominantly include neurological and musculoskeletal pathologies, while a review of the literature shows that bacterial infections associated with influenza B viruses often involve Gram-positive organisms, with a smaller subset featuring Gram-negative species. Case Report: In this case report we highlight an uncomplicated infection of the urinary tract by Escherichia coli immediately following influenza B infection, in an otherwise healthy adult white male with no prior history of urinary tract infection or structural abnormalities of the renal tract. Conclusions: Bacterial infections complicating influenza B infection may include organisms not commonly associated with the respiratory system, such as Escherichia coli. In addition, bacterial complications of influenza B infection may affect non-respiratory systems, including the genitourinary tract. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The authors examined the retention rates of 191 participants who were assigned to an episode of substance abuse treatment. Two types of attrition, due to participants withdrawing prematurely from treatment or failing to complete a posttest survey, were investigated. A significant finding of the study was that attrition can be predicted with some certainty. In spite of being a consistent predictor of attrition, however, quantitative measures explained only about 27 % of the variance in therapy outcomes. Therefore, recommendations for future research were included to highlight the importance of exploring the impact of contextual factors on client retention. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The primary goal of this study was to examine the importance of effective substance abuse treatment, and the contextual factors that may contribute to treatment efficacy. Personal interviews were conducted to elaborate on the understanding of contextual factors such as therapeutic alliance and motivational interviewing from the client's perspective. In this study, it was found that flexibility, negotiation, and motivation enhancement are consistent with effective treatment, and that these elements may provide a basis for strengthening the bond component. One noteworthy observation based upon relevant qualitative data is that the methodology of treatment seems to matter less than the strength of the therapeutic relationship. The present study also suggests possible applications of the research to real world settings. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Species in the class Diplura are recorded from Alaska for the first time. Two species, Tricampa rileyi Silvestri from Dall and Prince of Wales Islands in the Alexander Archipelago of Southeast Alaska and Metriocampa allocerca Conde & Geeraert from near Quartz Lake, southeast of Fairbanks, both in the family Campodeidae, are documented based on recently collected specimens deposited in the University of Alaska Museum Insect Collection. A brief review of the history of the documentation of the Alaskan soil microarthropod fauna is provided, as well as discussion of possible glacial refugia. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Through the latter half of the twentieth century, meridional shifts in tropical precipitation have been associated with severe droughts. Although linked to a variety of causes, the origin of these shifts remains elusive. Here, it is shown that they are unlikely to arise from internal variability of the climate system alone, as simulated by coupled ocean-atmosphere climate models. Similar to previous work, the authors find that anthropogenic and volcanic aerosols are the dominant drivers of simulated twentieth-century tropical precipitation shifts. Models that include the cloud-albedo and lifetime aerosol indirect effects yield significantly larger shifts than models that lack aerosol indirect effects and also reproduce most of the southward tropical precipitation shift in the Pacific. However, all models significantly underestimate the magnitude of the observed shifts in the Atlantic sector, unless driven by observed SSTs. Mechanistically, tropical precipitation shifts are driven by interhemispheric sea surface temperature variations, which are associated with hemispherically asymmetric changes in low-latitude surface pressure, winds, and low clouds, as well as the strength, location, and cross-equatorial energy transport of the Hadley cells. Models with a larger hemispheric aerosol radiative forcing gradient yield larger hemispheric temperature contrasts and, in turn, larger meridional precipitation shifts. The authors conclude that aerosols are likely the dominant driver of the observed southward tropical precipitation shift in the Pacific. Aerosols are also significant drivers of the Atlantic shifts, although one cannot rule out a contribution from natural variability to account for the magnitude of the observed shifts. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Assemblages of introduced taxa provide an opportunity to understand how abiotic and biotic factors shape habitat use by coexisting species. We tested hypotheses about habitat selection by two deer species recently introduced to New Zealand’s temperate rainforests. We hypothesised that, due to different thermoregulatory abilities, rusa deer (Cervus timorensis; a tropical species) would prefer warmer locations in winter than red deer (Cervus elaphus scoticus; a temperate species). Since adult male rusa deer are aggressive in winter (the rut), we also hypothesised that rusa deer and red deer would not use the same winter locations. Finally, we hypothesised that in summer both species would prefer locations with fertile soils that supported more plant species preferred as food. We used a 250 × 250 m grid of 25 remote cameras to collect images in a 100-ha montane study area over two winters and summers. Plant composition, solar radiation, and soil fertility were also determined for each camera location. Multiseason occupancy models revealed that direct solar radiation was the best predictor of occupancy and detection probabilities for rusa deer in winter. Multistate, multiseason occupancy models provided strong evidence that the detection probability of adult male rusa deer was greater in winter and when other rusa deer were present at a location. Red deer mostly vacated the study area in winter. For the one season that had sufficient camera images of both species (summer 2011) to allow two-species occupancy models to be fitted, the detection probability of rusa deer also increased with solar radiation. Detection probability also varied with plant composition for both deer species. We conclude that habitat use by coexisting tropical and temperate deer species in New Zealand likely depends on the interplay between the thermoregulatory and behavioural traits of the deer and the abiotic and biotic features of the habitat. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

A major issue in optimizing the resolving power of two-dimensional chromatographic separations is the choice of the two phases so as to maximize the distribution of the analytes over the separation space. In this work, we studied the choice of appropriate reversed phases to use in on-line comprehensive two-dimensional liquid chromatography ( LC × LC ). A set of four chemically different conventional bonded reversed phases was used in the first dimension. The second dimension column was either a conventional bonded C18 phase or a carbon-clad phase (CCP). The LC × LC chromatograms and contour plots were all rather similar indicating that the selectivities of the two phases were also similar regardless of the reverse phase column used in the first dimension. Further, the spatial coverage seen with all four first dimension stationary phases when paired with a second dimension C18 phase were low and the retention times were strongly correlated. However, when the C18 column was replaced with the CCP column much improved separations were observed with higher spatial coverages, greater orthogonalities and significant increases in the number of observed peaks. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Abstract: We use seed count data from a New Zealand mono‐specific mountain beech forest to test for decadal trends in seed production along an elevation gradient in relation to changes in climate. Seedfall was collected (1965 to 2009) from seed trays located on transect lines at fixed elevations along an elevation gradient (1020 to 1370 m). We counted the number of seeds in the catch of each tray, for each year, and determined the number of viable seeds. Climate variables were obtained from a nearby (<2 km) climate station (914‐m elevation). Variables were the sum or mean of daily measurements, using periods within each year known to correlate with subsequent interannual variation in seed production. To determine trends in mean seed production, at each elevation, and climate variables, we used generalized least squares (GLS) regression. We demonstrate a trend of increasing total and viable seed production, particularly at higher elevations, which emerged from marked interannual variation. Significant changes in four seasonal climate variables had GLS regression coefficients consistent with predictions of increased seed production. These variables subsumed the effect of year in GLS regressions with a greater influence on seed production with increasing elevation. Regression models enforce a view that the sequence of climate variables was additive in their influence on seed production throughout a reproductive cycle spanning more than 2 years and including three summers. Models with the most support always included summer precipitation as the earliest variable in the sequence followed by summer maximum daily temperatures. We interpret this as reflecting precipitation driven increases in soil nutrient availability enhancing seed production at higher elevations rather than the direct effects of climate, stand development or rising atmospheric CO2 partial pressures. Greater sensitivity of tree seeding at higher elevations to changes in climate reveals how ecosystem responses to climate change will be spatially variable. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]