Sunjammer: A Solar Sail Demonstration

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Bioelectrical Impedance Analysis (BIA)-derived Phase Angle (PA) is a practical aid to nutritional assessment in hospital in-patients

Background: Nutritional status can be difficult to assess. Bioelectrical impedance analysis (BIA)-derived phase angle (PA), and the plasma markers citrulline and transthyretin (pre-albumin) have the potential to assist, but the protocol of fasting and resting for BIA renders the investigation impractical for routine use, especially so in populations at high risk of malnutrition.  Aims: 1- To clarify whether starving and resting are necessary for reliable measurement of PA. 2- To identify whether PA, citrulline and transthyretin correlate with nutritional status.  Methods: Eighty consenting adult in-patients were recruited. Nutritional status was determined by subjective global assessment (SGA) used as gold standard. The Malnutrition Universal Screening Tool (MUST) was used and anthropometric measurements were performed. Serum was analysed for citrulline and transthyretin. PA was measured using Bodystat 4000. The PA was considered to define malnutrition when lower than reference ranges for sex and age, and severe malnutrition if more than 2 integers below the lower limit. Anthropometric measurements were categorised according to WHO reference centiles. Ordinal logistic regression estimated the strength of association of PA, citrulline and transthyretin with SGA. PA values in the different metabolic states were compared using paired t tests.  Results: All 80 subjects completed the BIA and the nutritional assessments in the 3 different states; 14 declined to provide blood samples for the biochemical assays. Malnutrition was identified in 32 cases, severe malnutrition in 14 cases, the remaining 34 cases were deemed not to be malnourished. PA was strongly inversely associated with SGA (Odds Ratio [OR] per unit increase = 0.21, CI 0.12-0.37, p < 0.001). PA was not influenced by exercise (p=0.134) or food intake (p=0.184). Transthyretin was inversely associated with malnourished/severely malnourished states (OR = 0.98, 95% CI 0.97 – 0.99, p = 0.001), but had poorer predictive values than PA. There was no significant association between citrulline concentration and SGA (OR = 1.01, 95% CI 0.99-1.04, p = 0.348).  Conclusions: The BIA-derived PA reliably identifies malnutrition. It is strongly associated with SGA but requires less skill and experience, and out-performs circulating transthyretin, rendering it a promising and less operator-dependent tool for assessing nutritional status in hospital patients. Our novel demonstration that fasting and bed-rest are unnecessary consolidates that position

Habitat Manipulation for the Reestablishment of the Utah Prairie Dog in Capitol Reef National Park

Utah prairie dogs were transplanted onto the site of a former colony located on Jones Bench in the northwestern corner of Capitol Reef National Park. Shrubs on Jones Bench were significantly taller than those found on active colonies of Ut ah prairie dogs located nearby on the Awapa Plateau. Therefore, the Jones Bench site offered an opportunity to test the hypothesis that shrub height is a major inhibitory factor on occupation of sites by prairie dogs. Four sites of 5 ha each were delimited on Jones Bench prior to the transplanting o~ animals. Vegetation treatments were carried out on three of the sites and the fourth was used as a nonmanipulated control . Mechanical treatments by rotobeating and railing were accomplished in late August, 1978. A herbicidal treatment (2,4-D) was done on the third site in the spring of 1979. Shrub height and percent cover were significantly reduced on all three treatment sites. Post-treatment effects on the vegetation during the first year showed that the greatest percent moisture in herbage was found on the railed site, followed by the herbicide, rotobeaten, and control sites. Herbage production was approximately three times greater on the rotobeaten and railed sites than on the control and herbicide sites. Measurements of the visual obstructions of prairie dogs showed that the rotobeaten site had the greatest visibility followed by the railed, herbicide, and control sites. Prior to release of prairie dogs on the study area, 200 artificial burrows arranged in a matrix, were dug with an enginepowered post-hole auger on each site. In late June and early July, 1979, 200 Utah prairie dogs were live-trapped near Loa, Utah. A total of 50 immature males, immature females, mature males, and mature females were released on each site. The animal\u27s fur was dyed with a specific mark representing their respective transplant site before their release. The transplanted animals were monitored daily for 23 consecutive days following the release of the first animals and biweekly thereafter throughout the summer and early fall. Significant differences were found in the number of animals reestablished on each site except between the herbicide treatment and control site. The majority of all animals transplanted moved onto the rotobeaten site; the railed, herbicide, and control sites were selected in decreasing order. Results indicated that when transplanting animals onto sites of former colonies, particularly sites that are overgrown with shrubs, the chances of a successful transplant could be increased by first reducing shrub height and density. Proof of reestablishment at the Jones Bench site will be evident if reproduction is observed in the spring of 1980

Measurement of the electron electric dipole moment using YbF molecules

The most sensitive measurements of the electron electric dipole moment d_e have previously been made using heavy atoms. Heavy polar molecules offer a greater sensitivity to d_e because the interaction energy to be measured is typically 10^3 times larger than in a heavy atom. We report the first measurement of this kind, for which we have used the molecule YbF. Together, the large interaction energy and the strong tensor polarizability of the molecule make our experiment essentially free of the systematic errors that currently limit d_e measurements in atoms. Our first result d_e = (- 0.2 \pm 3.2) x 10^-26 e.cm is less sensitive than the best atom measurement, but is limited only by counting statistics and demonstrates the power of the method.Comment: 4 pages, 4 figures. v2. Minor corrections and clarifications made in response to referee comment

Transverse Fresnel-Fizeau drag effects in strongly dispersive media

A light beam normally incident upon an uniformly moving dielectric medium is in general subject to bendings due to a transverse Fresnel-Fizeau light drag effect. In conventional dielectrics, the magnitude of this bending effect is very small and hard to detect. Yet, it can be dramatically enhanced in strongly dispersive media where slow group velocities in the m/s range have been recently observed taking advantage of the electromagnetically induced transparency (EIT) effect. In addition to the usual downstream drag that takes place for positive group velocities, we predict a significant anomalous upstream drag to occur for small and negative group velocities. Furthermore, for sufficiently fast speeds of the medium, higher order dispersion terms are found to play an important role and to be responsible for peculiar effects such as light propagation along curved paths and the restoration of the spatial coherence of an incident noisy beam. The physics underlying this new class of slow-light effects is thoroughly discussed

The mechanobiology of tendon fibroblasts under static and uniaxial cyclic load in a 3D tissue engineered model mimicking native ECM

Tendon mechanobiology plays a vital role in tendon repair and regeneration; however, this mechanism is currently poorly understood. We tested the role of different mechanical loads on extracellular matrix (ECM) remodelling gene expression and the morphology of tendon fibroblasts in collagen hydrogels, designed to mimic native tissue. Hydrogels were subjected to precise static or uniaxial loading patterns of known magnitudes and sampled to analyse gene expression of known mechano‐responsive ECM‐associated genes (Collagen I, Collagen III, Tenomodulin, and TGF‐β). Tendon fibroblast cytomechanics was studied under load by using a tension culture force monitor, with immunofluorescence and immunohistological staining used to examine cell morphology. Tendon fibroblasts subjected to cyclic load showed that endogenous matrix tension was maintained, with significant concomitant upregulation of ECM remodelling genes, Collagen I, Collagen III, Tenomodulin, and TGF‐β when compared with static load and control samples. These data indicate that tendon fibroblasts acutely adapt to the mechanical forces placed upon them, transmitting forces across the ECM without losing mechanical dynamism. This model demonstrates cell‐material (ECM) interaction and remodelling in preclinical a platform, which can be used as a screening tool to understand tendon regeneration

A systematic review of the effectiveness and cost-effectiveness of peer education and peer support in prisons.

BACKGROUND: Prisoners experience significantly worse health than the general population. This review examines the effectiveness and cost-effectiveness of peer interventions in prison settings. METHODS: A mixed methods systematic review of effectiveness and cost-effectiveness studies, including qualitative and quantitative synthesis was conducted. In addition to grey literature identified and searches of websites, nineteen electronic databases were searched from 1985 to 2012. Study selection criteria were: Population: Prisoners resident in adult prisons and children resident in Young Offender Institutions (YOIs). INTERVENTION: Peer-based interventions Comparators: Review questions 3 and 4 compared peer and professionally led approaches. OUTCOMES: Prisoner health or determinants of health; organisational/ process outcomes; views of prison populations. STUDY DESIGNS: Quantitative, qualitative and mixed method evaluations. RESULTS: Fifty-seven studies were included in the effectiveness review and one study in the cost-effectiveness review; most were of poor methodological quality. Evidence suggested that peer education interventions are effective at reducing risky behaviours, and that peer support services are acceptable within the prison environment and have a positive effect on recipients, practically or emotionally. Consistent evidence from many, predominantly qualitative, studies, suggested that being a peer deliverer was associated with positive effects. There was little evidence on cost-effectiveness of peer-based interventions. CONCLUSIONS: There is consistent evidence from a large number of studies that being a peer worker is associated with positive health; peer support services are also an acceptable source of help within the prison environment and can have a positive effect on recipients. Research into cost-effectiveness is sparse. SYSTEMATIC REVIEW REGISTRATION: PROSPERO ref: CRD42012002349

The Scaling of Triboelectric Charging Powder Drops for Industrial Applications

Triboelectrification of granular materials is a poorly understood phenomenon that alters particle behaviour, impacting industrial processes such as bulk powder handling and conveying. At small scales (&lt; 1 g) net charging of powders has been shown to vary linearly with the total particle surface area and hence mass for a given size distribution. This work investigates the scaling relation of granular triboelectric charging, with small, medium (&lt; 200 g), and large-scale (~ 400 kg) laboratory testing of industrially relevant materials using a custom powder dropping apparatus and Faraday cup measurements. Our results demonstrate that this scaling is broken before industrially relevant scales are reached. Charge (Q) scaling with mass (m) was fitted with a function of the form Q ∝ m^b and b exponents ranging from 0.68 ± 0.01 to 0.86 ± 0.02 were determined. These exponents lie between those that would be expected from the surface area of the bulk powder (b = 2/3) and the total particle surface area (b = 1). This scaling relation is found to hold across the powders tested and at varying humidities.<br/