Monitoring of Internet Forums to Evaluate Reactions to the Introduction of Reformulated OxyContin to Deter Abuse

PubMed Central

Coplan, Paul M; Black, Ryan A; Weber, Sarah E; Chilcoat, Howard D; Butler, Stephen F

2014-01-01

Background Reformulating opioid analgesics to deter abuse is one approach toward improving their benefit-risk balance. To assess sentiment and attempts to defeat these products among difficult-to-reach populations of prescription drug abusers, evaluation of posts on Internet forums regarding reformulated products may be useful. A reformulated version of OxyContin (extended-release oxycodone) with physicochemical properties to deter abuse presented an opportunity to evaluate posts about the reformulation in online discussions. Objective The objective of this study was to use messages on Internet forums to evaluate reactions to the introduction of reformulated OxyContin and to identify methods aimed to defeat the abuse-deterrent properties of the product. Methods Posts collected from 7 forums between January 1, 2008 and September 30, 2013 were evaluated before and after the introduction of reformulated OxyContin on August 9, 2010. A quantitative evaluation of discussion levels across the study period and a qualitative coding of post content for OxyContin and 2 comparators for the 26 month period before and after OxyContin reformulation were conducted. Product endorsement was estimated for each product before and after reformulation as the ratio of endorsing-to-discouraging posts (ERo). Post-to-preintroduction period changes in ERos (ie, ratio of ERos) for each product were also calculated. Additionally, post content related to recipes for defeating reformulated OxyContin were evaluated from August 9, 2010 through September 2013. Results Over the study period, 45,936 posts related to OxyContin, 18,685 to Vicodin (hydrocodone), and 23,863 to Dilaudid (hydromorphone) were identified. The proportion of OxyContin-related posts fluctuated between 6.35 and 8.25 posts per 1000 posts before the reformulation, increased to 10.76 in Q3 2010 when reformulated OxyContin was introduced, and decreased from 9.14 in Q4 2010 to 3.46 in Q3 2013 in the period following the reformulation. The sentiment profile for OxyContin changed following reformulation; the post-to-preintroduction change in the ERo indicated reformulated OxyContin was discouraged significantly more than the original formulation (ratio of ERos=0.43, P<.001). A total of 37 recipes for circumventing the abuse-deterrent characteristics of reformulated OxyContin were observed; 32 were deemed feasible (ie, able to abuse). The frequency of posts reporting abuse of reformulated OxyContin via these recipes was low and decreased over time. Among the 5677 posts mentioning reformulated OxyContin, 825 posts discussed recipes and 498 reported abuse of reformulated OxyContin by such recipes (41 reported injecting and 128 reported snorting). Conclusions After introduction of physicochemical properties to deter abuse, changes in discussion of OxyContin on forums occurred reflected by a reduction in discussion levels and endorsing content. Despite discussion of recipes, there is a relatively small proportion of reported abuse of reformulated OxyContin via recipes, particularly by injecting or snorting routes. Analysis of Internet discussion is a valuable tool for monitoring the impact of abuse-deterrent formulations. PMID:24800858

Monitoring of internet forums to evaluate reactions to the introduction of reformulated OxyContin to deter abuse.

PubMed

McNaughton, Emily C; Coplan, Paul M; Black, Ryan A; Weber, Sarah E; Chilcoat, Howard D; Butler, Stephen F

2014-05-02

Reformulating opioid analgesics to deter abuse is one approach toward improving their benefit-risk balance. To assess sentiment and attempts to defeat these products among difficult-to-reach populations of prescription drug abusers, evaluation of posts on Internet forums regarding reformulated products may be useful. A reformulated version of OxyContin (extended-release oxycodone) with physicochemical properties to deter abuse presented an opportunity to evaluate posts about the reformulation in online discussions. The objective of this study was to use messages on Internet forums to evaluate reactions to the introduction of reformulated OxyContin and to identify methods aimed to defeat the abuse-deterrent properties of the product. Posts collected from 7 forums between January 1, 2008 and September 30, 2013 were evaluated before and after the introduction of reformulated OxyContin on August 9, 2010. A quantitative evaluation of discussion levels across the study period and a qualitative coding of post content for OxyContin and 2 comparators for the 26 month period before and after OxyContin reformulation were conducted. Product endorsement was estimated for each product before and after reformulation as the ratio of endorsing-to-discouraging posts (ERo). Post-to-preintroduction period changes in ERos (ie, ratio of ERos) for each product were also calculated. Additionally, post content related to recipes for defeating reformulated OxyContin were evaluated from August 9, 2010 through September 2013. Over the study period, 45,936 posts related to OxyContin, 18,685 to Vicodin (hydrocodone), and 23,863 to Dilaudid (hydromorphone) were identified. The proportion of OxyContin-related posts fluctuated between 6.35 and 8.25 posts per 1000 posts before the reformulation, increased to 10.76 in Q3 2010 when reformulated OxyContin was introduced, and decreased from 9.14 in Q4 2010 to 3.46 in Q3 2013 in the period following the reformulation. The sentiment profile for OxyContin changed following reformulation; the post-to-preintroduction change in the ERo indicated reformulated OxyContin was discouraged significantly more than the original formulation (ratio of ERos=0.43, P<.001). A total of 37 recipes for circumventing the abuse-deterrent characteristics of reformulated OxyContin were observed; 32 were deemed feasible (ie, able to abuse). The frequency of posts reporting abuse of reformulated OxyContin via these recipes was low and decreased over time. Among the 5677 posts mentioning reformulated OxyContin, 825 posts discussed recipes and 498 reported abuse of reformulated OxyContin by such recipes (41 reported injecting and 128 reported snorting). After introduction of physicochemical properties to deter abuse, changes in discussion of OxyContin on forums occurred reflected by a reduction in discussion levels and endorsing content. Despite discussion of recipes, there is a relatively small proportion of reported abuse of reformulated OxyContin via recipes, particularly by injecting or snorting routes. Analysis of Internet discussion is a valuable tool for monitoring the impact of abuse-deterrent formulations.

How Do People Make Continence Care Happen? An Analysis of Organizational Culture in Two Nursing Homes

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Lyons, Stacie Salsbury

2010-01-01

Purpose: Although nursing homes (NHs) are criticized for offering poor quality continence care, little is known about the organizational processes that underlie this care. This study investigated the influence of organizational culture on continence care practices in two NHs. Design and Methods: This ethnographic study explored continence care…

The Malone antegrade continence enema for neurogenic and structural fecal incontinence and constipation.

PubMed

Koyle, M A; Kaji, D M; Duque, M; Wild, J; Galansky, S H

1995-08-01

Problems of fecal elimination are commonly encountered by the pediatric urologist and surgeon. The Malone antegrade continence enema has been described as a means to administer a large volume enema via a continent catheterizable appendicocecostomy, resulting in reliable fecal elimination. Of 22 patients undergoing this procedure 16 reported total continence 4 months or longer after surgery. Complications are relatively minor and tap water appears to be a safe solution for the antegrade continence enema. A nonrefluxing, imbricated appendicocecostomy is preferable to prevent cutaneous fecal or gas leaks.

Continent cecostomy. An account of 30 patients.

PubMed

Kock, N G; Myrvold, H E; Philipson, B M; Svaninger, G; Ojerskog, B

1985-10-01

In this paper, an account is given of our experience with continent colostomy in man. In five patients, the end-sigmoidostomy was provided with an intussusception valve. Evacuation of the bowel by irrigation through a catheter was laborious and time-consuming and this method was abandoned. In another group of 30 patients, the cecum was isolated from the rest of the colon and its distal end was provided with an intussusception valve. Of the 30 patients, eight were later given continent ileostomies, two were converted to conventional sigmoidostomies, and one patient with fecal incontinence preferred to have intestinal continuity reestablished. Thus, 19 patients still have continent cecostomies and are satisfied with their function. When comparing the function of the continent cecostomy with that of the continent ileostomy, however, it is obvious that the ileostomy function is superior. The experience obtained with this group of patients has resulted in a widening of the indications for constructing a continent ileostomy, including selected patients with various anorectal disorders.

Left behind and left out: The impact of the school environment on young people with continence problems.

PubMed

Whale, Katie; Cramer, Helen; Joinson, Carol

2018-05-01

To explore the impact of the secondary school environment on young people with continence problems. In-depth qualitative semi-structured interviews. We interviewed 20 young people aged 11-19 years (11 female and nine male) with continence problems (daytime wetting, bedwetting, and/or soiling). Interviews were conducted by Skype (n = 11) and telephone (n = 9). Transcripts were analysed using inductive thematic analysis. We generated five main themes: (1) Boundaries of disclosure: friends and teachers; (2) Social consequences of avoidance and deceit; (3) Strict and oblivious gatekeepers; (4) Intimate actions in public spaces; and (5) Interrupted learning. Disclosure of continence problems at school to both friends and teachers was rare, due to the perceived stigma and fears of bullying and social isolation. The lack of disclosure to teachers and other school staff, such as pastoral care staff, creates challenges in how best to support these young people. Young people with continence problems require unrestricted access to private and adequate toilet facilities during the school day. There is a need for inclusive toilet access policies and improved toilet standards in schools. Addressing the challenges faced by young people with continence problems at school could help to remove the barriers to successful self-management of their symptoms. It is particularly concerning that young people with continence problems are at higher risk of academic underachievement. Increased support at school is needed to enable young people with continence problems to achieve their academic potential. Statement of Contribution What is already known on this subject? Continence problems are among the most common paediatric health problems Self-management of continence problems requires a structured schedule of fluid intake and bladder emptying Inadequate toilet facilities and restricted access make it difficult for young people to manage their incontinence What does this study add? Improvement is needed in teacher understanding of the needs of young people with continence problems Young people are reluctant to disclose continence problems due to perceived stigma and fear of social isolation Young people with continence problems may be at increased risk of academic underachievement. © 2017 The Authors. British Journal of Health Psychology published by John Wiley & Sons Ltd on behalf of British Psychological Society.

"Dignity": A central construct in nursing home staff understandings of quality continence care.

PubMed

Ostaszkiewicz, Joan; Tomlinson, Emily; Hutchinson, Alison M

2018-02-03

To explore nursing home staff members' beliefs and expectations about what constitutes "quality continence care" for people living in nursing homes. Most nursing home residents require assistance to maintain continence or manage incontinence. Best practice guidelines promote active investigation of incontinence, treatment of underlying potentially reversible causes, and initial conservative interventions to prevent, minimise and/or treat incontinence. Despite research showing the positive benefits of implementing active interventions, translating the findings of research into practice in nursing homes has been modest. Understanding the perspectives of individuals who provide continence care may help bridge the gap between evidence and practice. A qualitative exploratory descriptive design. Qualitative interviews were conducted with 19 nursing home staff: eight registered nurses, four enrolled nurses and seven personal care workers working in a nursing home in Australia between 2014-2015. Data were analysed inductively to identify themes and subthemes that described and explained staff beliefs about quality continence care in nursing homes. Participants' understanding and expectations about quality continence care were linked to beliefs about incontinence being an intractable and undignified condition in nursing homes. The key theme to emerge was "protecting residents' dignity" which was supported by the following six subthemes: (i) using pads, ii) providing privacy, (iii) knowing how to "manage" incontinence, (iv) providing timely continence care, (v) considering residents' continence care preferences and (vi) communicating sensitively. The findings provide new insight into the basis for continence care practices in nursing homes. Education about continence care should challenge beliefs that limit continence care practice to cleaning, containing and concealing incontinence. There is a need for a multidimensional framework that is informed by social, psychological and biomedical research about incontinence, research about the fundamental elements of care, care-dependent individuals' expectations about care, and values about dignity and care. The in-depth exploration led to an understanding of the basis for continence care practices that centre on cleaning, containing and concealing residents' incontinence in some nursing homes. There is a need to review the quality of education for the aged care workforce about incontinence to ensure it equips them with a broad understanding of the fundamentals of care and how to enact dignity in continence care through a resident-centred approach. © 2018 John Wiley & Sons Ltd.

Are natural and unnatural appetites equally controllable? A response to Jensen's "Is continence enough?".

PubMed

Smith, Janet E

2004-01-01

This response challenges Jensen's analysis in no substantial way. Rather, it explains more fully some of the moral character categories that Aristotle provides. It argues that Aristotle understood there to be two forms of continence: the continence that enables us to control natural appetites and"some form"of continence directed towards unnatural appetites, generally engendered by some pathology or abuse.

The introduction of a potentially abuse deterrent oxycodone formulation: Early findings from the Australian National Opioid Medications Abuse Deterrence (NOMAD) study.

PubMed

Degenhardt, Louisa; Bruno, Raimondo; Ali, Robert; Lintzeris, Nicholas; Farrell, Michael; Larance, Briony

2015-06-01

There is increasing concern about tampering of pharmaceutical opioids. We describe early findings from an Australian study examining the potential impact of the April 2014 introduction of an abuse-deterrent sustained-release oxycodone formulation (Reformulated OxyContin(®)). Data on pharmaceutical opioid sales; drug use by people who inject drugs regularly (PWID); client visits to the Sydney Medically Supervised Injecting Centre (MSIC); and last drug injected by clients of inner-Sydney needle-syringe programmes (NSPs) were obtained, 2009-2014. A cohort of n=606 people tampering with pharmaceutical opioids was formed pre-April 2014, and followed up May-August 2014. There were declines in pharmacy sales of 80mg OxyContin(®) post-introduction of the reformulated product, the dose most commonly diverted and injected by PWID. Reformulated OxyContin(®) was among the least commonly used and injected drugs among PWID. This was supported by Sydney NSP data. There was a dramatic reduction in MSIC visits for injection of OxyContin(®) post-introduction of the new formulation (from 62% of monthly visits pre-introduction to 5% of visits, August 2014). The NOMAD cohort confirmed a reduction in OxyContin(®) use/injection post-introduction. Reformulated OxyContin(®) was cheaper and less attractive for tampering than Original OxyContin(®). These data suggest that, in the short term, introduction of an abuse-deterrent formulation of OxyContin(®) in Australia was associated with a reduction in injection of OxyContin(®), with no clear switch to other drugs. Reformulated OxyContin(®), in this short follow-up, does not appear to be considered as attractive for tampering. Copyright © 2015 Elsevier Ireland Ltd. All rights reserved.

Improving continence services for older people from the service-providers’ perspective: a qualitative interview study

PubMed Central

Orrell, Alison; McKee, Kevin; Dahlberg, Lena; Gilhooly, Mary; Parker, Stuart

2013-01-01

Objective To examine in depth the views and experiences of continence service leads in England on key service and continence management characteristics in order to identify and to improve our understanding of barriers to a good-quality service and potential facilitators to develop and to improve services for older people with urinary incontinence (UI). Design Qualitative semistructured interviews using a purposive sample recruited across 16 continence services. Setting 3 acute and 13 primary care National Health Service Trusts in England. Participants 16 continence service leads in England actively treating and managing older people with UI. Results In terms of barriers to a good-quality service, participants highlighted a failure on the part of commissioners, managers and other health professionals in recognising the problem of UI and in acknowledging the importance of continence for older people and prevalent negative attitudes towards continence and older people. Patient assessment and continence promotion regardless of age, rather than pad provision, were identified as important steps for a good-quality service for older people with UI. More rapid and appropriate patient referral pathways, investment in service capacity, for example, more trained staff and strengthened interservice collaborations and a higher profile within medical and nurse training were specified as being important facilitators for delivering an equitable and high-quality continence service. There is a need, however, to consider the accounts given by our participants as perhaps serving the interests of their professional group within the context of interprofessional work. Conclusions Our data point to important barriers and facilitators of a good-quality service for older people with UI, from the perspective of continence service leads. Further research should address the views of other stakeholders, and explore options for the empirical evaluation of the effectiveness of identified service facilitators. PMID:23901026

Trifecta outcomes after robotic-assisted laparoscopic prostatectomy.

PubMed

Shikanov, Sergey A; Zorn, Kevin C; Zagaja, Gregory P; Shalhav, Arieh L

2009-09-01

To evaluate the trifecta outcomes following robotic-assisted laparoscopic prostatectomy (RALP) and compare the results applying definitions of continence and potency as reported in the literature vs validated questionnaire. The trifecta rate of achieving continence, potency, and undetectable prostate-specific antigen (PSA) following radical prostatectomy has been estimated to be approximately 60% at 1-2 years in open radical prostatectomy series. The definitions of continence and potency were not standardized, which poses difficulty in comparing published results. A prospective, institutional RALP database was analyzed for preoperatively continent and potent men with >/= 1 year follow-up after bilateral nerve-sparing surgery. Continence and potency were evaluated preoperatively and at 3, 6, 12, and 24 months after surgery by surgeon interview (subjective) and using University of California Los-Angeles Prostate Cancer Index self-administered questionnaire (objective). Biochemical recurrence was defined as a detectable (> 0.05 ng/mL), increasing PSA on 2 consecutive tests. Among 1362 consecutive RALPs, 380 patients were preoperatively potent and continent underwent surgery with bilateral nerve-sparing technique and had sufficient follow-up. Trifecta rates applying subjective continence and potency definitions were 34%, 52%, 71%, and 76% at 3, 6, 12, and 24 months, respectively. The corresponding trifecta rates using objective continence and potency definitions stood at 16%, 31%, 44%, and 44%. The difference was statistically significant at each time point (P < .0001). RALP provides trifecta outcome rates comparable to open surgery. The outcome rates vary significantly depending on the tools used for continence and potency evaluation.

Multi-scale forcing and the formation of subtropical desert and monsoon

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Wu, G. X.; Liu, Y.; Zhu, X.; Li, W.; Ren, R.; Duan, A.; Liang, X.

2009-09-01

This study investigates three types of atmospheric forcing across the summertime subtropics that are shown to contribute in various ways to the occurrence of dry and wet climates in the subtropics. To explain the formation of desert over the western parts of continents and monsoon over the eastern parts, we propose a new mechanism of positive feedback between diabatic heating and vorticity generation that occurs via meridional advection of planetary vorticity and temperature. Monsoon and desert are demonstrated to coexist as twin features of multi-scale forcing, as follows. First, continent-scale heating over land and cooling over ocean induce the ascent of air over the eastern parts of continents and western parts of oceans, and descent over eastern parts of oceans and western parts of continents. Second, local-scale sea-breeze forcing along coastal regions enhances air descent over eastern parts of oceans and ascent over eastern parts of continents. This leads to the formation of the well-defined summertime subtropical LOSECOD quadruplet-heating pattern across each continent and adjacent oceans, with long-wave radiative cooling (LO) over eastern parts of oceans, sensible heating (SE) over western parts of continents, condensation heating (CO) over eastern parts of continents, and double dominant heating (D: LO+CO) over western parts of oceans. Such a quadruplet heating pattern corresponds to a dry climate over the western parts of continents and a wet climate over eastern parts. Third, regional-scale orographic-uplift-heating generates poleward ascending flow to the east of orography and equatorward descending flow to the west. The Tibetan Plateau (TP) is located over the eastern Eurasian continent. The TP-forced circulation pattern is in phase with that produced by continental-scale forcing, and the strongest monsoon and largest deserts are formed over the Afro-Eurasian Continent. In contrast, the Rockies and the Andes are located over the western parts of their respective continents, and orography-induced ascent is separated from ascent due to continental-scale forcing. Accordingly, the deserts and monsoon climate over these continents are not as strongly developed as those over the Eurasian Continent. A new mechanism of positive feedback between diabatic heating and vorticity generation, which occurs via meridional transfer of heat and planetary vorticity, is proposed as a means of explaining the formation of subtropical desert and monsoon. Strong low-level longwave radiative cooling over eastern parts of oceans and strong surface sensible heating on western parts of continents generate negative vorticity that is balanced by positive planetary vorticity advection from high latitudes. The equatorward flow generated over eastern parts of oceans produces cold sea-surface temperature and stable stratification, leading in turn to the formation of low stratus clouds and the maintenance of strong in situ longwave radiative cooling. The equatorward flow over western parts of continents carries cold, dry air, thereby enhancing local sensible heating as well as moisture release from the underlying soil. These factors result in a dry desert climate. Over the eastern parts of continents, condensation heating generates positive vorticity in the lower troposphere, which is balanced by negative planetary vorticity advection of the meridional flow from low latitudes. The flow brings warm and moist air, thereby enhancing local convective instability and condensation heating associated with rainfall. These factors produce a wet monsoonal climate. Overall, our results demonstrate that subtropical desert and monsoon coexist as a consequence of multi-scale forcing along the subtropics.

Urinary incontinence and voiding dysfunction after radical retropubic prostatectomy (prospective urodynamic study).

PubMed

Majoros, Attila; Bach, Dietmar; Keszthelyi, Attila; Hamvas, Antal; Romics, Imre

2006-01-01

During this prospective study we analyzed the effects of radical retropubic prostatectomy (RRP) on bladder and sphincter function by comparing preoperative and postoperative urodynamic data. The aim of the study was to determine the reason for urinary incontinence after RRP and explain why one group of patients will be immediately continent after catheter removal, while others need some time to reach complete continence. Urodynamic examination was performed in 63 patients 3-7 days before and 2 months after surgery. Forty-three (68.2%) and 53 (84.1%) patients regained continence at 2 and 9 months following RRP, respectively. Ten patients (15.9%) were immediately continent after catheter removal. Urodynamic stress incontinence was detected in 18 (28.6%), and detrusor overactivity incontinence in 2 (3.2%) patients 2 months after surgery. The amplitude of preoperative maximal voluntary sphincteric contractions was significantly higher in the postoperative continent group (125 vs. 96.5 cmH(2)O, P < 0.0001). The patients who were immediately continent following catheter removal had no lower urinary tract symptoms (LUTS) and urodynamic abnormality preoperatively, and they had significantly higher preoperative and postoperative maximum urethral closure pressure (at rest and during voluntary sphincter contraction) than those who became continent later on. These data suggest that the main cause of incontinence after RRP is sphincteric weakness. In the continent group, those who became immediately continent had significantly higher maximum urethral closure pressure values at rest and at voluntary sphincteric contraction even before the surgery. Neurourol. Urodynam. (c) 2005 Wiley-Liss, Inc.

Development and Validation of the Role Profile of the Nurse Continence Specialist: A Project of the International Continence Society.

PubMed

Paterson, Janice; Ostaszkiewicz, Joan; Suyasa, I Gede Putu Darma; Skelly, Jennifer; Bellefeuille, Lesley

Although nurses have specialized in the management of incontinence, bladder, bowel, and pelvic floor dysfunction for more than 30 years, there is a lack of awareness and underutilization of their role. This article describes a 6-year project to define, characterize, and validate a role profile of the Nurse Continence Specialist. Data collection used a 2-phase, mixed-methods design. Phase 1 of the project resulted in a draft Nurse Continence Specialist role profile and Phase 2 led to validation of the draft profile. The result was a broad consensus about what constitutes the specific skill set for Nurse Continence Specialist specialization within nursing.

Detailed Surgical Anatomy of Prostate: Relationship between Urethra and Dorsal Vein Complex with Apex.

PubMed

Tunc, Lutfi; Akin, Yigit; Gumustas, Huseyin; Ak, Esat; Peker, Tuncay; Veneziano, Domenico; Guneri, Cagri

2016-01-01

To describe our surgical technique for dissecting the apex of prostate during robotic-assisted laparoscopic radical prostatectomy (RALP) and detailed surgical anatomy of prostate including relationship between urethra and dorsal vein complex with apex. In retrospective view of prospective collected data, 73 patients underwent RALP between December 2012 and September 2014. Surgical anatomy of prostate was revealed in all procedures. Quality of life (QoL) scores were assessed before, immediately after catheter removal, and 1 month after surgery. We divided urinary continence into 3 groups, as very early continence; continence at time of urethral catheter removal, early continent; and continence 1 month after surgery. The rest of the patients were accepted as continence. The mean follow-up was 10.2 ± 5.4 months and mean age was 61.5 ± 6.6. Maximum protection of urethra could be provided in all. Mean catheter removal was 8.9 ± 1.7 days, and all patients were continent at the time of catheter removal. QoL scores before RALP could be protected after surgery (p = 0.2). Neither conversion to open/conventional laparoscopic surgery nor complications related with bladder neck were detected. Our surgical technique can be a strong candidate for being a surgical technique for preserving urethra and very early continence could be provided after surgery. © 2016 S. Karger AG, Basel.

Overactive bladder is a negative predictor of achieving continence after robot-assisted radical prostatectomy.

PubMed

Yamada, Yuta; Fujimura, Tetsuya; Fukuhara, Hiroshi; Sugihara, Toru; Miyazaki, Hideyo; Nakagawa, Tohru; Kume, Haruki; Igawa, Yasuhiko; Homma, Yukio

2017-10-01

To investigate predictors of continence outcomes after robot-assisted radical prostatectomy. Clinical records of 272 patients who underwent robot-assisted radical prostatectomy were investigated. Preoperative Overactive Bladder Symptom Score, International Prostate Symptom Score and clinicopathological factors were investigated, and relationships between factors and recovery of continence after robot-assisted radical prostatectomy were assessed. The presence of overactive bladder was defined as having urgency for more than once a week and having ≥3 points according to the Overactive Bladder Symptom Score. Age (≤66 years) was significantly associated with continence within 6 months after robot-assisted radical prostatectomy (P = 0.033). The absence of overactive bladder and lower Overactive Bladder Symptom Score (<3) were significantly associated with recovery of continence within 12 months after surgery (both variables P = 0.009). In terms of achieving recovery of continence after robot-assisted radical prostatectomy, Kaplan-Meier curves showed earlier recovery in "age ≤66 years," "prostate weight ≤40 g" and "overactive bladder symptom score <3" (P = 0.0072, 0.0172 and 0.0140, respectively). Multivariate analysis showed that the presence of overactive bladder was an independent negative predictor for recovery of continence within 12 months after surgery (P = 0.019). The presence of baseline overactive bladder seems to represent an independent negative predictor for recovery of continence at 12 months after robot-assisted radical prostatectomy. © 2017 The Japanese Urological Association.

21 CFR 876.5310 - Nonimplanted, peripheral electrical continence device.

Code of Federal Regulations, 2011 CFR

2011-04-01

... a peripheral location and used to stimulate the nerves associated with pelvic floor function to... 21 Food and Drugs 8 2011-04-01 2011-04-01 false Nonimplanted, peripheral electrical continence....5310 Nonimplanted, peripheral electrical continence device. (a) Identification. A nonimplanted...

Continents on the Move or "Where in the World Did Antarctica Come From?"

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

CSTA Journal, 1995

1995-01-01

Presents an activity in which students trace the movement of the continents over the past 600 million years to help them understand how the continents' size and position have changed over time. Includes map puzzle pieces. (MKR)

Early return of continence in patients undergoing robot-assisted laparoscopic prostatectomy using modified maximal urethral length preservation technique.

PubMed

Hamada, Alaa; Razdan, Shirin; Etafy, Mohamed H; Fagin, Randy; Razdan, Sanjay

2014-08-01

To evaluate the impact of maximal urethral length preservation (MULP) technique in comparison with posterior urethral reconstruction and anterior bladder suspension (PRAS) technique on the continence rates (CR), time to achieve continence among patients with prostate cancer (PCa) undergoing robot-assisted laparoscopic prostatectomy (RALP). We prospectively analyzed the CR, time to achieve continence, pre- and postoperative prostate-specific antigen (PSA) levels, rates of positive margins among three groups of continent men with PCa undergoing RALP from whom consent was obtained. Each group consisted of 30 patients: PRAS was performed in group A, combined MULP and PRAS in group B, and MULP in group C. Continence was measured by patient self-reporting of the number of pads/24 h. No differences were detected in the age, preoperative PSA levels, biochemical recurrence, prostate volume, and positive margins for the three groups. Men in groups B and C had marked improvement in CR 1, 3, and 6 months after catheter removal vs group A (50% and 70% vs 10%, 90% and 96.66% vs 23.3% and 100%, 100% vs 53.3%, respectively, P<0.0001). The average and median times to continence were significantly shorter in group B (5.4 and 4 weeks) and C (3.8 and 3 weeks) vs group A (27.4 and 22.5 weeks), P<0.00001. Using Cox regression analysis, only MULP and MULP+PRAS techniques were significantly correlated with continence outcomes 1, 3, and 6 months after catheter removal. MULP rather than PRAS confers higher postoperative CR and shorter time to achieve continence among patients with PCa who underwent RALP without increasing risk of positive margin.

Impact of metabolic syndrome on early recovery of continence after robot-assisted radical prostatectomy.

PubMed

Nishikawa, Masatomo; Watanabe, Hiromitsu; Kurahashi, Toshifumi

2017-09-01

To evaluate the impact of metabolic syndrome on the early recovery of urinary continence after robot-assisted radical prostatectomy. The present study included a total of 302 consecutive Japanese patients with clinically localized prostate cancer who underwent robot-assisted radical prostatectomy. In this study, postoperative urinary continence was defined as no leak or the use of a security pad. The continence status was assessed by interviews before and 1 and 3 months after robot-assisted radical prostatectomy. Metabolic syndrome was defined as follows: body mass index ≥25 kg/m 2 and two or more of the following: hypertension, diabetes mellitus and dyslipidemia. The effect of the presence of metabolic syndrome on the continence status of these patients was retrospectively examined. A total of 116 (38.4%) and 203 (67.2%) of the 302 patients were continent at 1 and 3 months after robot-assisted radical prostatectomy, respectively. A total of 31 (10.3%) patients were judged to have metabolic syndrome. Despite the operative time being longer in patients with metabolic syndrome, no significant differences were observed in the remaining preoperative, intraoperative or postoperative variables between patients with or without metabolic syndrome. On multivariate logistic regression analysis, metabolic syndrome and the duration of hospitalization were significantly correlated with the 1-month continence status. Similarly, metabolic syndrome and estimated blood loss during surgery were independent predictors of continence rates at 3 months after robot-assisted radical prostatectomy. These findings suggest that the presence of metabolic syndrome could have a significant impact on the early recovery of urinary continence after robot-assisted radical prostatectomy. © 2017 The Japanese Urological Association.

21 CFR 876.5030 - Continent ileostomy catheter.

Code of Federal Regulations, 2010 CFR

2010-04-01

... 21 Food and Drugs 8 2010-04-01 2010-04-01 false Continent ileostomy catheter. 876.5030 Section 876.5030 Food and Drugs FOOD AND DRUG ADMINISTRATION, DEPARTMENT OF HEALTH AND HUMAN SERVICES (CONTINUED) MEDICAL DEVICES GASTROENTEROLOGY-UROLOGY DEVICES Therapeutic Devices § 876.5030 Continent ileostomy...

[Continent ileostomy--indication and possibilities].

PubMed

Hahnloser, P; Säuberli, H; Geroulanos, S; Schauwecker, H H; Kock, N G

1975-06-21

Proctocolectomy with conventional ileostomy cures patients with severe ulcerative colitis but ileostomy appliances must be worn for the rest of their lives. The continent ileostomy, as devised by Kock, provides the patient with an intraabdominal ileal reservoir and a valve constructed by invaginating the efferent ileal segment into the reservoir. The patient empties his reservoir 2-3 times a day by inserting a catheter through the valve. Our experience with 14 patients is reported. The continent ileostomy was in most cases constructed as a second procedure after proctocolectomy. Minor postoperative complications, such as abscess, fistula or partial luxation of the valve were easily corrected. One patient who underwent proctocolectomy and simultaneous construction of a continent ileostomy died in acute liver failure due to a severe preexisting cirrhosis. All the other patients are continent for feces and gas and do not need external appliances. The construction of a continent ileostomy as a secondary procedure can be recommended in patients with proctocolectomy. It offers patients a life situation with differs only insignificantly from that of normal persons.

A Geological Model for the Evolution of Early Continents (Invited)

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Rey, P. F.; Coltice, N.; Flament, N. E.; Thébaud, N.

2013-12-01

Geochemical probing of ancient sediments (REE in black shales, strontium composition of carbonates, oxygen isotopes in zircons...) suggests that continents were a late Archean addition at Earth's surface. Yet, geochemical probing of ancient basalts reveals that they were extracted from a mantle depleted of its crustal elements early in the Archean. Considerations on surface geology, the early Earth hypsometry and the rheology and density structure of Archean continents can help solve this paradox. Surface geology: The surface geology of Archean cratons is characterized by thick continental flood basalts (CFBs, including greenstones) emplaced on felsic crusts dominated by Trondhjemite-Tonalite-Granodiorite (TTG) granitoids. This simple geology is peculiar because i/ most CFBs were emplaced below sea level, ii/ after their emplacement, CFBs were deformed into relatively narrow, curviplanar belts (greenstone basins) wrapping around migmatitic TTG domes, and iii/ Archean greenstone belts are richly endowed with gold and other metals deposits. Flat Earth hypothesis: From considerations on early Earth continental geotherm and density structure, Rey and Coltice (2008) propose that, because of the increased ability of the lithosphere to flow laterally, orogenic processes in the Archean produced only subdued topography (

21 CFR 876.5270 - Implanted electrical urinary continence device.

Code of Federal Regulations, 2014 CFR

2014-04-01

... 21 Food and Drugs 8 2014-04-01 2014-04-01 false Implanted electrical urinary continence device... Implanted electrical urinary continence device. (a) Identification. An implanted electrical urinary device is a device intended for treatment of urinary incontinence that consists of a receiver implanted in...

21 CFR 876.5270 - Implanted electrical urinary continence device.

Code of Federal Regulations, 2011 CFR

2011-04-01

... 21 Food and Drugs 8 2011-04-01 2011-04-01 false Implanted electrical urinary continence device... Implanted electrical urinary continence device. (a) Identification. An implanted electrical urinary device is a device intended for treatment of urinary incontinence that consists of a receiver implanted in...

21 CFR 876.5270 - Implanted electrical urinary continence device.

Code of Federal Regulations, 2012 CFR

2012-04-01

... 21 Food and Drugs 8 2012-04-01 2012-04-01 false Implanted electrical urinary continence device... Implanted electrical urinary continence device. (a) Identification. An implanted electrical urinary device is a device intended for treatment of urinary incontinence that consists of a receiver implanted in...

21 CFR 876.5270 - Implanted electrical urinary continence device.

Code of Federal Regulations, 2013 CFR

2013-04-01

... 21 Food and Drugs 8 2013-04-01 2013-04-01 false Implanted electrical urinary continence device... Implanted electrical urinary continence device. (a) Identification. An implanted electrical urinary device is a device intended for treatment of urinary incontinence that consists of a receiver implanted in...

21 CFR 876.5270 - Implanted electrical urinary continence device.

Code of Federal Regulations, 2010 CFR

2010-04-01

... Implanted electrical urinary continence device. (a) Identification. An implanted electrical urinary device is a device intended for treatment of urinary incontinence that consists of a receiver implanted in... 21 Food and Drugs 8 2010-04-01 2010-04-01 false Implanted electrical urinary continence device...

OxyContin Use on a Rural Midwest American Indian Reservation: Demographic Correlates and Reasons for Using

PubMed Central

Momper, Sandra L.; Delva, Jorge; Tauiliili, Debbie; Mueller-Williams, Amelia Cromwell; Goral, Patricia

2013-01-01

In 2009 we surveyed 400 tribal members of a midwestern American Indian reservation to assess the prevalence of OxyContin use. Thirty percent of tribal participants reported nonmedical use of OxyContin ever, 18.9% in the past year, and 13.4% in the past month. Participants aged 18 to 25 years were most likely to have used OxyContin. Reasons given for use of the drug included pain relief (59.3%) and getting high (52.2%), indicating a need for opioid treatment programs. PMID:24028230

The thermal influence of continents on a model-generated January climate

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Spar, J.; Cohen, C.; Wu, P.

1981-01-01

Two climate simulations were compared. Both climate computations were initialized with the same horizontally uniform state of rest. However, one is carried out on a water planet (without continents), while the second is repeated on a planet with geographically realistic but flat (sea level) continents. The continents in this experiment have a uniform albedo of 0.14, except where snow accumulates, a uniform roughness height of 0.3 m, and zero water storage capacity. Both runs were carried out for a 'perpetual January' with solar declination fixed at January 15.

[An alternative continence mechanism for continent catheterisable micturation].

PubMed

Honeck, P; Alken, P

2010-01-01

The creation of a stable, reliable, continent and easily catheterisable continence mechanism is an essential prerequisite for the construction of a continent cutaneous urinary reservoir. Although a substantial number of surgical methods has been described, construction is still a complex surgical procedure. The aim of this study was the evaluation of a new method for a continence mechanism using stapled small or large intestine. Small and large pig intestine was used for construction. For stapling the tube a 3 cm or 6 cm double row stapling system was used. Two variations using small and large intestine segments were constructed (IL 1, COL 1, COL 2). A 3 or 6 cm long stapler line was placed alongside a 12 Fr catheter positioned at the antimesenterial side creating a partially two-luminal segment. The open end of the non-catheterised lumen and the opposite intestinal end were closed by continuous sutures. The created tube was then embedded into the pouch. Pressure evaluation was performed for each variation. Intermittent external manual compression was used to simulate sudden pressure exposure. Construction times for the IL 1 and COL 1 variations were 10 +/- 1.5 min and 6.2 +/- 1.3 min for COL 2. All variations showed no leakage during filling or external compression. The maximum capacity was lower for the IL 1 compared to the COL variation. The maximum pressure levels reached did not differ significantly. The described technique is an easy and fast method to construct a continent and easy to catheterize continence mechanism using small or large intestine.

Differential effects of cough, valsalva, and continence status on vesical neck movement.

PubMed

Howard, D; Miller, J M; Delancey, J O; Ashton-Miller, J A

2000-04-01

We tested the null hypothesis that vesical neck descent is the same during a cough and during a Valsalva maneuver. We also tested the secondary null hypothesis that differences in vesical neck mobility would be independent of parity and continence status. Three groups were included: 17 nulliparous continent (31.3 +/- 5.6; range 22-42 years), 18 primiparous continent (30.4 +/- 4.3; 24-43), and 23 primiparous stress-incontinent (31.9 +/- 3.9; 25-38) women. Measures of vesical neck position at rest and during displacement were obtained by ultrasound. Abdominal pressures were recorded simultaneously using an intravaginal microtransducer catheter. To control for differing abdominal pressures, the stiffness of the vesical neck support was calculated by dividing the pressure exerted during a particular effort by the urethral descent during that effort. The primiparous stress-incontinent women displayed similar vesical neck mobility during a cough effort and during a Valsalva maneuver (13.8 mm compared with 14.8 mm; P =.49). The nulliparous continent women (8.2 mm compared with 12.4 mm; P =. 001) and the primiparous continent women (9.9 mm compared with 14.5 mm; P =.002) displayed less mobility during a cough than during a Valsalva maneuver despite greater abdominal pressure during cough. The nulliparas displayed greater pelvic floor stiffness during a cough compared with the continent and incontinent primiparas (22.7, 15.5, 12.2 cm H(2)O/mm, respectively; P =.001). There are quantifiable differences in vesical neck mobility during a cough and Valsalva maneuver in continent women. This difference is lost in the primiparous stress-incontinent women.

Representations of OxyContin in North American newspapers and medical journals

PubMed Central

Whelan, Emma; Asbridge, Mark; Haydt, Susan

2011-01-01

BACKGROUND: There are public concerns regarding OxyContin (Purdue Pharma, Canada) and charges within the pain medicine community that media coverage of the drug has been biased. OBJECTIVE: To analyze and compare representations of OxyContin in medical journals and North American newspapers in an attempt to shed light on how each contributes to the ‘social problem’ associated with OxyContin. METHODS: Using searches of newspaper and medical literature databases, two samples were drawn: 924 stories published between 1995 and 2005 in 27 North American newspapers, and 197 articles published between 1995 and 2007 in 33 medical journals in the fields of addiction/substance abuse, pain/anesthesiology and general/internal medicine. The foci, themes, perspectives represented and evaluations of OxyContin presented in these texts were analyzed statistically. RESULTS: Newspaper coverage of OxyContin emphasized negative evaluations of the drug, focusing on abuse, addiction, crime and death rather than the use of OxyContin for the legitimate treatment of pain. Newspaper stories most often conveyed the perspectives of law enforcement and courts, and much less often represented the perspectives of physicians. However, analysis of physician perspectives represented in newspaper stories and in medical journals revealed a high degree of inconsistency, especially across the fields of pain medicine and addiction medicine. CONCLUSION: The prevalence of negative representations of OxyContin is often blamed on biased media coverage and an ignorant public. However, the proliferation of inconsistent messages regarding the drug from physicians plays a role in the drug’s persistent status as a social problem. PMID:22059195

A unified model of avian species richness on islands and continents.

PubMed

Kalmar, Attila; Currie, David J

2007-05-01

How many species in a given taxon should be found in a delimited area in a specified place in the world? Some recent literature suggests that the answer to this question depends strongly on the geographical, evolutionary, and ecological context. For example, current theory suggests that species accumulate as a function of area differently on continents and islands. Species richness-climate relationships have been examined separately on continents and on islands. This study tests the hypotheses that (1) the functional relationship between richness and climate is the same on continents and islands; (2) the species-area slope depends on distance-based isolation; (3) species-area relationships differ among land bridge islands, oceanic islands, and continents; (4) richness differs among biogeographic regions independently of climate and isolation. We related bird species numbers in a worldwide sample of 240 continental parcels and 346 islands to several environmental variables. We found that breeding bird richness varies similarly on islands and on continents as a function of mean annual temperature, an area x precipitation interaction, and the distance separating insular samples from the nearest continent (R2 = 0.86). Most studies to date have postulated that the slope of the species-area relationship depends upon isolation. In contrast, we found no such interaction. A richness-environment relationship derived using Old World sites accurately predicts patterns of richness in the New World and vice versa (R2 = 0.85). Our results suggest that most of the global variation in richness is not strongly context-specific; rather, it reflects a small number of general environmental constraints operating on both continents and islands.

[The Kock continent urinary diversion].

PubMed

Boyd, S D; Skinner, D G; Lieskovsky, G

1989-07-01

The continent ileal reservoir as conceived by Kock produces a low-pressure, high-capacity reservoir with continent and nonrefluxing valves constructed from ileum. From August 1982 through March 1988, 531 patients underwent continent urinary diversion via a Kock reservoir at our institution. Of these, 39 males had a Kock bladder substitution, while the rest underwent cutaneous Kock diversion. Early complications occurred in 16% of all patients, and there was an operative mortality rate of 1.9%. Surgical modifications of nipple fixation, which are discussed in detail in this paper, help to reduce late complications to less than 10%. Patient satisfaction with both procedures remains excellent.

Impact of dose intensified salvage radiation therapy on urinary continence recovery after radical prostatectomy: Results of the randomized trial SAKK 09/10.

PubMed

Ghadjar, Pirus; Hayoz, Stefanie; Bernhard, Jürg; Zwahlen, Daniel R; Stein, Jürgen; Hölscher, Tobias; Gut, Philipp; Polat, Bülent; Hildebrandt, Guido; Müller, Arndt-Christian; Putora, Paul Martin; Papachristofilou, Alexandros; Schär, Corinne; Dal Pra, Alan; Biaggi Rudolf, Christine; Wust, Peter; Aebersold, Daniel M; Thalmann, George N

2018-02-01

Adjuvant radiation therapy (aRT) after radical prostatectomy (RP) is associated with impaired urinary continence recovery as compared to surveillance. Less is known regarding the effect of salvage radiation therapy (sRT) dose intensification on continence outcomes. Urinary continence recovery was investigated within a multicentre randomized trial in biochemically recurrent prostate cancer patients who received either 64 Gy (32 fractions) or 70 Gy (35 fractions) sRT. Incontinence was assessed using Common Toxicity Criteria for Adverse Events v4.0 at baseline, at the end of sRT and 3 months afterward. Quality of life (QoL) was assessed with the EORTC QoL questionnaires C30 and PR25 at baseline and 3 months after completion of sRT. A total of 344 patients were evaluable. At baseline 233 (68%) of patients were fully continent and 14% in both arms became incontinent three months after treatment. Of the remaining 111 (32%) patients being incontinent at baseline, continence recovery was achieved 3 months after sRT by 44% vs. 41% with 64 vs. 70 Gy, respectively (p = 0.8). This analysis is limited by its short follow-up. Dose intensification of sRT had no impact on early urinary continence recovery or prevalence of de novo incontinence. Copyright © 2017 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.

OxyContin: Prescription Drug Abuse. CSAT Advisory.

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration (DHHS/PHS), Rockville, MD. Center for Substance Abuse Treatment.

Recently, the media have issued numerous reports about the apparent increase in OxyContin abuse and addiction. OxyContin has been heralded as a miracle drug that allows patients with chronic pain to resume a normal life. It has also been called pharmaceutical heroin and is thought to have been responsible for a number of deaths and robberies in…

Family Planning in Five Continents: Africa, America, Asia, Europe, Oceania. December 1976 Update.

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

International Planned Parenthood Federation, London (England).

This document gives highlights of the family planning situation in many countries of the world. Its purpose is to provide a quick reference source for those who work in family planning. Population statistics are included for five continents and many countries. Data for the continents include population in 1976, projected population in 2000,…

77 FR 35959 - Atlas Pipeline Mid-Continent WestTex, LLC; Pioneer Natural Resources USA, Inc.; Notice of...

Federal Register 2010, 2011, 2012, 2013, 2014

2012-06-15

... Mid-Continent WestTex, LLC; Pioneer Natural Resources USA, Inc.; Notice of Application Take notice that on May 30, 2012, Atlas Pipeline Mid-Continent WestTex, LLC (Atlas) and Pioneer Natural Resources..., Senior Counsel, Pioneer Natural Resources USA, Inc., 5205 North O'Connor Blvd., Suite 200, Irving, TX...

Combined Bladder Neck Reconstruction and Continent Stoma Creation as a Suitable Alternative for Continence in Bladder Exstrophy: a Preliminary Report.

PubMed

Kasprenski, Matthew; Benz, Karl; Jayman, John; Lue, Kathy; Maruf, Mahir; Baumgartner, Timothy; Gearhart, John

2018-05-25

To explore the use of concomitant BNR and creation of a continent stoma (CS) in patients that are not quite eligible for BNR, but still strongly desire volitional voiding. The authors retrospectively reviewed an institutional database of EEC patients for those who underwent BNR-CS between 2000 and 2015. Indications for a BNR-CS, perioperative outcomes, and continence status were evaluated. Method of voiding and continence status were analyzed for patients with greater than six months of follow-up after the BNR-CS. A total of 24 EEC patients (15 male and 9 female) underwent BNR-CS at a median age of 8.9 years (range 5.4-17.4). This included, 18 patients with classic bladder exstrophy (CBE), 5 with epispadias, and 1 with a cloacal exstrophy variant. There were 5 (20.1%) surgical complications following the BNR-CS, including 3 febrile urinary tract infections, 1 superficial wound infection, and 1 urethrocutaneous fistula. The median follow-up time from the time of BNR-CS was 1.1 years (range 0.1-14.1). Seventeen of 24 patients (71%) had a follow-up greater than 6 months and were evaluated for continence. Twelve patients (71%) were completely dry for intervals greater than 3 hours following BNR-CS. Five (29%) did not achieve continence with BNR-CS. Of those 5 patients, 3 (60%) underwent subsequent bladder neck transection. Combined BNR and CS is a suitable alternative to achieve urinary continence in patients that are not ideal candidates for BNR alone. This approach can offer a select group of patients the opportunity for volitional voiding. Copyright © 2018. Published by Elsevier Inc.

Do nurses promote urinary continence in hospitalized older people?: An exploratory study.

PubMed

Dingwall, Lindsay; McLafferty, Ella

2006-10-01

The aim of this paper is to explore whether nurses working in elderly medicine and in acute medical settings promote urinary continence in older people or in reality use containment strategies. Untreated urinary incontinence in older adults can result in prolonged hospital admission and increased risk of admission to long-term care. Urinary incontinence can also have severe psychosocial effects on older people. Most studies relating to this topic have relied on quantitative approaches to data collection with a seeming lack of qualitative investigation into how nursing staff promote urinary continence in hospitalized older people. Focus groups and one-to-one semi-structured interviews were carried out in two NHS regions in Scotland. Registered and non-Registered Nurses were invited to participate. Five focus groups (n = 17) and four single interviews (n = 4) were conducted. Data generated were analysed thematically using QSR N-VIVO 2. Some nurses believe that older people accept urinary incontinence as a consequence of ageing. Lack of assessment results in older people being labelled as incontinent of urine. Assessment strategies in medicine for the elderly tend to focus on product identification and management of incontinence. Although nurses from all clinical areas identify the importance of promoting continence, the problem continues to be contained rather than treated. Conflicting clinical priorities, varying staff approaches to urinary continence and deficits in education are cited among the barriers to promoting continence. The results suggest that nurses continue to contain urinary incontinence rather than promoting continence in older people. Nursing staff need to be aware of the impact of untreated urinary incontinence on older people. Practitioners should promote continence rather than employing containment strategies. A validated assessment tool for older people needs to be developed. Views of older people should be sought regarding their attitudes towards urinary incontinence.

Mountain building processes during continent continent collision in the Uralides

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Brown, D.; Juhlin, C.; Ayala, C.; Tryggvason, A.; Bea, F.; Alvarez-Marron, J.; Carbonell, R.; Seward, D.; Glasmacher, U.; Puchkov, V.; Perez-Estaun, A.

2008-08-01

Since the early 1990's the Paleozoic Uralide Orogen of Russia has been the target of a significant research initiative as part of EUROPROBE and GEODE, both European Science Foundation programmes. One of the main objectives of these research programmes was the determination of the tectonic processes that went into the formation of the orogen. In this review paper we focus on the Late Paleozoic continent-continent collision that took place between Laurussia and Kazakhstania. Research in the Uralides was concentrated around two deep seismic profiles crossing the orogen. These were accompanied by geological, geophysical, geochronological, geochemical, and low-temperature thermochronological studies. The seismic profiles demonstrate that the Uralides has an overall bivergent structural architecture, but with significantly different reflectivity characteristics from one tectonic zone to another. The integration of other types of data sets with the seismic data allows us to interpret what tectonic processes where responsible for the formation of the structural architecture, and when they were active. On the basis of these data, we suggest that the changes in the crustal-scale structural architecture indicate that there was significant partitioning of tectonothermal conditions and deformation from zone to zone across major fault systems, and between the lower and upper crust. Also, a number of the structural features revealed in the bivergent architecture of the orogen formed either in the Neoproterozoic or in the Paleozoic, prior to continent-continent collision. From the end of continent-continent collision to the present, low-temperature thermochronology suggests that the evolution of the Uralides has been dominated by erosion and slow exhumation. Despite some evidence for more recent topographic uplift, it has so far proven difficult to quantify it.

Analysis of continence rates following robot-assisted radical prostatectomy: strict leak-free and pad-free continence.

PubMed

Reynolds, W Stuart; Shikanov, Sergey A; Katz, Mark H; Zagaja, Gregory P; Shalhav, Arieh L; Zorn, Kevin C

2010-02-01

To propose a strict and specific definition of continence (leak-free and pad-free [LFPF]) and apply it to robot-assisted radical prostatectomy (RARP) outcomes on the basis of University of California-Los Angeles-Prostate Cancer Index (UCLA-PCI), as postprostatectomy incontinence is not well defined. A single-institution RARP database was reviewed concerning continence variables prospectively recorded by the UCLA-PCI. Specific responses to urinary function and continence items were reviewed at baseline and 1, 3, 6, 12, and 24 months after surgery. From February 2003 to September 2007, a total of 1005 of 1500 RARP patients had data available for review. At baseline, only 73% of these patients were LFPF. This decreased to 4%, 9%, 17%, 24%, and 28% at 1, 3, 6, 12, and 24 months after surgery, respectively. Applying less strict definitions, at 24 months, 68% of patients reported no pad use and 90% of patients reported no pad use or the use of a security pad. When stratified by baseline LFPF status, patients not LFPF at baseline had higher baseline international prostate symptom score scores, lower urinary function scores, lower urinary bother scores, and larger prostate weights. Patients LFPF at baseline disproportionately regained LFPF continence starting 6 months after surgery compared with those not LFPF at baseline: 20% vs 9% (P = .005), 27% vs 15% (P = .0009), and 33% vs 15% (P = .0146) at 6, 12, and 24 months, respectively. A strict definition of urinary continence results in more conservative postoperative outcomes. Preoperative LFPF status can be predictive of postoperative LFPF continence. However, only one-third of patients LFPF at baseline returned to LFPF at 24 months. 2010 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

Changes in drug use patterns reported on the web after the introduction of ADF OxyContin: findings from the Researched Abuse, Diversion, and Addiction-Related Surveillance (RADARS) System Web Monitoring Program.

PubMed

Vosburg, Suzanne K; Haynes, Colleen; Besharat, Andrea; Green, Jody L

2017-09-01

This qualitative study summarizes information that individuals shared online about use of OxyContin following the August 2010 introduction of the abuse deterrent formulation (ADF). The primary objective was to study online posts that endorsed continued use of OxyContin or a switch from OxyContin to another formulation of oxycodone or another substance altogether following the introduction of the ADF. A secondary objective was to determine whether posts revealed that the ADF led to cessation of OxyContin use. Data were collected with the Researched Abuse, Diversion, and Addiction-Related Surveillance System Web Monitoring Program, an online surveillance system that collects and organizes posts about prescription drugs from social media websites, blogs, and forums from 3Q2009 to 4Q2014 using a commercially available web platform. Posts were categorized by whether they conveyed a switch to drugs other than reformulated OxyContin or a continuation of reformulated OxyContin abuse. "Switch posts" primarily discussed switching to immediate-release opioids. "Continue abusing" posts identified tampering strategies for alternate routes of administration, oral use, and continued use although post authors were generally unhappy with the experience. No reference to OxyContin cessation as a function of the introduction of the ADF was found; however, discontinued use was discussed. Web Monitoring data are useful for capturing cross sections of Internet conversation reflecting reactions to new drug formulations. These data support the notion that users will gravitate to non-ADFs generally, and to immediate-release non-ADF opioid formulations, specifically, as long as these options remain on the market. Copyright © 2017 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.

Abuse of reformulated OxyContin: Updated findings from a sentinel surveillance sample of individuals assessed for substance use disorder.

PubMed

Cassidy, Theresa A; Thorley, Eileen; Black, Ryan A; DeVeaugh-Geiss, Angela; Butler, Stephen F; Coplan, Paul

To examine abuse prevalence for OxyContin and comparator opioids over a 6-year period prior to and following market entry of reformulated OxyContin and assess consistency in abuse across treatment settings and geographic regions. An observational study examining longitudinal changes using cross-sectional data from treatment centers for substance use disorder. A total of 874 facilities in 39 states in the United States within the National Addictions Vigilance Intervention and Prevention Program (NAVIPPRO®) surveillance system. Adults (72,060) assessed for drug problems using the Addiction Severity Index-Multimedia Version (ASI-MV®) from January 2009 through December 2015 who abused prescription opioids. Percent change in past 30-day abuse. OxyContin had significantly lower abuse 5 years after reformulation compared to levels for original OxyContin. Consistency of magnitude in OxyContin abuse reductions across geographic regions, ranging from 41 to 52 percent with differences in abuse reductions in treatment setting categories occurred. Changes in geographic region and treatment settings across study years did not bias the estimate of lower OxyContin abuse through confounding. In the postmarket setting, limitations and methodologic challenges in abuse measurement exist and it is difficult to isolate singular impacts of any one intervention given the complexity of prescription opioid abuse. Expectations for a reasonable threshold of abuse for any one ADF product or ADF opioids as a class are still uncertain and undefined. A significant decline in abuse prevalence of reformulated OxyContin was observed 5 years after its reformulation among this treatment sample of individuals assessed for substance use disorder that was lower historically for the original formulation of this product.

A multidisciplinary treatment for encopresis in children with developmental disabilities.

PubMed

Call, Nathan A; Mevers, Joanna Lomas; McElhanon, Barbara O; Scheithauer, Mindy C

2017-04-01

Achieving continence of one's bowel movements is a key step in development and failure to do so leads to many negative consequences. Treatments for encopresis appearing in the literature have employed behavioral strategies; medications such as suppositories, laxatives, or enemas; and in some studies a combination of these approaches. To date, attempts to extend successful treatments for encopresis in typically developing children to those with developmental disabilities have been limited. The current study included three participants diagnosed with developmental disabilities who had a history of encopresis. None of the participants had a continent bowel movement under baseline conditions. Continent bowel movements increased during treatment that included the addition of suppositories to elicit continent bowel movements. Two participants began having independent continent bowel movements (i.e., without requiring suppositories) and medication was successfully faded out for the remaining participant. Treatment took between 13 and 21 days. © 2017 Society for the Experimental Analysis of Behavior.

Impact of a continence training program on patient safety and quality.

PubMed

Grandstaff, Marcia; Lyons, Deborah

2012-01-01

The purpose of this study is to examine the impact of an evidence-based training program on patient outcomes of continence, falls, and discharge disposition in the rehab population. Criteria for inclusion required new onset of two or more episodes of urinary incontinence. Sixty-six subjects were enrolled with 33 subjects receiving evidence-based interventions. The intervention group showed improvement in continence (p = .020), with no difference between groups on discharge disposition (p = .744). Results showed an unexpected higher occurrence of falls in the treatment group (p = .000). DISCUSSION AND CLINICAL RELEVANCE: This study supports existing literature indicating that continence is not an independent predictor of nursing home admission and offers new evidence that use of an evidence-based intervention bundle can significantly improve patient continence including those patients with mild to moderate cognitive impairment. © 2012 Association of Rehabilitation Nurses.

Mantle dynamics of continent-wide tilting of Australia

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Dicaprio, L.; Gurnis, M.; Muller, R. D.

2009-12-01

Australia is distinctive in that during the Cenozoic it experienced first order, broad-scale vertical motions unrelated to normal orogenic processes. The progressive continent-wide tilting down to the northeast is attributed to the horizontal motion of the continent over subducted slabs. We use plate tectonic reconstructions and a model of mantle convection to quantitatively link the geological evolution of the continent to mantle convection. The passage of slabs beneath the Southwest Pacific since 50 Ma is modeled numerically, and the results are compared to geologic observations of anomalous topography. Models show that Australia undergoes a 300 m northeast downward tilt as it approaches and overrides subducted slabs between Melanesia and the active margin along the Loyalty and proto-Tonga Kermadec subduction systems. This pattern of dynamic subsidence is consistent with observations of continent wide tilting and may indicate that during the Cenozoic Australia moved northward away from a relatively hot mantle anomaly presently located beneath Antarctica.

Preferential rifting of continents - A source of displaced terranes

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Vink, G. E.; Morgan, W. J.; Zhao, W.-L.

1984-01-01

Lithospheric rifting, while prevalent in the continents, rarely occurs in oceanic regions. To explain this preferential rifting of continents, the total strength of different lithospheres is compared by integrating the limits of lithospheric stress with depth. Comparisons of total strength indicate that continental lithosphere is weaker than oceanic lithosphere by about a factor of three. Also, a thickened crust can halve the total strength of normal continental lithosphere. Because the weakest area acts as a stress guide, any rifting close to an ocean-continent boundary would prefer a continental pathway. This results in the formation of small continental fragments or microplates that, once accreted back to a continent during subduction, are seen as displaced terranes. In addition, the large crustal thicknesses associated with suture zones would make such areas likely locations for future rifting episodes. This results in the tendency of new oceans to open along the suture where a former ocean had closed.

[Pseudo-continent perineal colostomy. Results and techniques].

PubMed

Lasser, P; Dubé, P; Guillot, J M; Elias, D

1997-09-01

This prospective study was conducted to assess functional results obtained after pseudo-continent perineal colostomy using the Schmidt procedure. Functional outcome was assessed in 40 patients who had undergone amputation of the rectum for cancer and pseudo-continent perineal colostomy reconstruction between 1989 and 1995 in our institution. The cancer pathology, operative procedure and post-operative care were noted. Morbidity, functional outcome and degree of patient satisfaction were recorded. Mean follow-up was 45 months (18-87) in 100% of the patients. There were no operative deaths. Twenty patients had post-operative complications and 2 patients required early conversion to definitive abdominal colostomy due to severe perineal complications. Function outcome showed normal continence in 4 patients, air incontinence in 23, occasional minimal leakage in 9 and incontinence requiring iliac colostomy in 2. Eighty-six percent of the patients were highly satisfied or satisfied with their continence capacity. Pseudo-continent perineal colostomy is a reliable technique which can be proposed as an alternative to left iliac colostomy after amputation of the rectum for cancer if a rigorous procedure is applied: careful patient selection, informed consent, rigorous surgical procedure, daily life-long irrigation of the colon.

Dynamic rectus abdominis muscle sphincter for stoma continence: an acute functional study in a dog model.

PubMed

Bardoel, J W; Stadelmann, W K; Perez-Abadia, G A; Galandiuk, S; Zonnevijlle, E D; Maldonado, C; Stremel, R W; Tobin, G R; Kon, M; Barker, J H

2001-02-01

Fecal stomal incontinence is a problem that continues to defy surgical treatment. Previous attempts to create continent stomas using dynamic myoplasty have had limited success due to denervation atrophy of the muscle flap used in the creation of the sphincter and because of muscle fatigue resulting from continuous electrical stimulation. To address the problem of denervation atrophy, a stomal sphincter was designed using the most caudal segment of the rectus abdominis muscle, preserving its intercostal innervation as well as its vascular supply. The purpose of the present study was to determine whether this rectus abdominis muscle island flap sphincter design could maintain stomal continence acutely. In this experiment, six dogs were used to create eight rectus abdominis island flap stoma sphincters around a segment of distal ileum. Initially, the intraluminal stomal pressures generated by the sphincter using different stimulation frequencies were determined. The ability of this stomal sphincter to generate continence at different intraluminal bowel pressures was then assessed. In all cases, the rectus abdominis muscle sphincter generated peak pressures well above those needed to maintain stomal continence (60 mmHg). In addition, each sphincter was able to maintain stomal continence at all intraluminal bowel pressures tested.

Wilson cycle studies

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

1987-01-01

Continents originate by the sweeping together of island arcs. Continental and island arc crusts are dominated by rocks of comparable compositional and density ranges, evidence of the operation of this process is abundant in the geological record, and can be seen in action today in Indonesia. Lineaments within continents are attributable to a small number of processes of continent formation and modification, but interactions among these processes may produce complex patterns.

40 CFR Table 3 to Subpart Uuu of... - Continous Monitoring Systems for Metal HAP Emissions From Catalytic Cracking Units

Code of Federal Regulations, 2014 CFR

2014-07-01

... 40 Protection of Environment 13 2014-07-01 2014-07-01 false Continous Monitoring Systems for Metal HAP Emissions From Catalytic Cracking Units 3 Table 3 to Subpart UUU of Part 63 Protection of... Sulfur Recovery Units Pt. 63, Subpt. UUU, Table 3 Table 3 to Subpart UUU of Part 63—Continous Monitoring...

40 CFR Table 3 to Subpart Uuu of... - Continous Monitoring Systems for Metal HAP Emissions From Catalytic Cracking Units

Code of Federal Regulations, 2013 CFR

2013-07-01

... 40 Protection of Environment 13 2013-07-01 2012-07-01 true Continous Monitoring Systems for Metal HAP Emissions From Catalytic Cracking Units 3 Table 3 to Subpart UUU of Part 63 Protection of... Sulfur Recovery Units Pt. 63, Subpt. UUU, Table 3 Table 3 to Subpart UUU of Part 63—Continous Monitoring...

40 CFR Table 3 to Subpart Uuu of... - Continous Monitoring Systems for Metal HAP Emissions From Catalytic Cracking Units

Code of Federal Regulations, 2012 CFR

2012-07-01

... 40 Protection of Environment 13 2012-07-01 2012-07-01 false Continous Monitoring Systems for Metal HAP Emissions From Catalytic Cracking Units 3 Table 3 to Subpart UUU of Part 63 Protection of... Sulfur Recovery Units Pt. 63, Subpt. UUU, Table 3 Table 3 to Subpart UUU of Part 63—Continous Monitoring...

Viscoelastic assessment of anal canal function using acoustic reflectometry: a clinically useful technique.

PubMed

Mitchell, Peter J; Klarskov, Niels; Telford, Karen J; Hosker, Gordon L; Lose, Gunnar; Kiff, Edward S

2012-02-01

Anal acoustic reflectometry is a new reproducible technique that allows a viscoelastic assessment of anal canal function. Five new variables reflecting anal canal function are measured: the opening and closing pressure, opening and closing elastance, and hysteresis. The aim of this study was to assess whether the parameters measured in anal acoustic reflectometry are clinically valid between continent and fecally incontinent subjects. This was an age- and sex-matched study of continent and incontinent women. The study was conducted at a university teaching hospital. One hundred women (50 with fecal incontinence and 50 with normal bowel control) were included in the study. Subjects were age matched to within 5 years. Parameters measured with anal acoustic reflectometry and manometry were compared between incontinent and continent groups using a paired t test. Diagnostic accuracy was assessed by the use of receiver operator characteristic curves. Four of the 5 anal acoustic reflectometry parameters at rest were significantly different between continent and incontinent women (eg, opening pressure in fecally incontinent subjects was 31.6 vs 51.5 cm H2O in continent subjects, p = 0.0001). Both anal acoustic reflectometry parameters of squeeze opening pressure and squeeze opening elastance were significantly reduced in the incontinent women compared with continent women (50 vs 99.1 cm H2O, p = 0.0001 and 1.48 vs 1.83 cm H2O/mm, p = 0.012). In terms of diagnostic accuracy, opening pressure at rest measured by reflectometry was significantly superior in discriminating between continent and incontinent women in comparison with resting pressure measured with manometry (p = 0.009). Anal acoustic reflectometry is a new, clinically valid technique in the assessment of continent and incontinent subjects. This technique, which assesses the response of the anal canal to distension and relaxation, provides a detailed viscoelastic assessment of anal canal function. This technique may not only aid the investigation of fecally incontinent subjects, but it may also improve our understanding of anal canal physiology during both the process of defecation and maintenance of continence.

[The continent ileostomy--indication and results].

PubMed

Säuberli, H; Akovbiantz, A; Hahnloser, P

1982-01-01

Proctocolectomy with conventional ileostomy cures patients with severe ulcerative colitis, however ileostomy appliances had to be worn for the rest of their lives. The continent ileostomy as devised by Kock provides the patient with an intraabdominal ileal reservoir and a valve constructed by invaginating the efferent ileal segment into the reservoir. The patient empties his reservoir 2 to 3 times a day by inserting a catheter through the valve. Our experience with 45 patients is reported. In most cases the continent ileostomy was constructed as a second procedure after proctocolectomy. The construction of a continent ileostomy as a secondary procedure can be recommended in patients with proctocolectomy. It offers patients a life situation differing only insignificantly from that of normal persons.

Evolutionary conservatism and convergence both lead to striking similarity in ecology, morphology and performance across continents in frogs.

PubMed

Moen, Daniel S; Irschick, Duncan J; Wiens, John J

2013-12-22

Many clades contain ecologically and phenotypically similar species across continents, yet the processes generating this similarity are largely unstudied, leaving fundamental questions unanswered. Is similarity in morphology and performance across assemblages caused by evolutionary convergence or by biogeographic dispersal of evolutionarily conserved ecotypes? Does convergence to new ecological conditions erase evidence of past adaptation? Here, we analyse ecology, morphology and performance in frog assemblages from three continents (Asia, Australia and South America), assessing the importance of dispersal and convergent evolution in explaining similarity across regions. We find three striking results. First, species using the same microhabitat type are highly similar in morphology and performance across both clades and continents. Second, some species on different continents owe their similarity to dispersal and evolutionary conservatism (rather than evolutionary convergence), even over vast temporal and spatial scales. Third, in one case, an ecologically specialized ancestor radiated into diverse ecotypes that have converged with those on other continents, largely erasing traces of past adaptation to their ancestral ecology. Overall, our study highlights the roles of both evolutionary conservatism and convergence in explaining similarity in species traits over large spatial and temporal scales and demonstrates a statistical framework for addressing these questions in other systems.

Evolutionary conservatism and convergence both lead to striking similarity in ecology, morphology and performance across continents in frogs

PubMed Central

Moen, Daniel S.; Irschick, Duncan J.; Wiens, John J.

2013-01-01

Many clades contain ecologically and phenotypically similar species across continents, yet the processes generating this similarity are largely unstudied, leaving fundamental questions unanswered. Is similarity in morphology and performance across assemblages caused by evolutionary convergence or by biogeographic dispersal of evolutionarily conserved ecotypes? Does convergence to new ecological conditions erase evidence of past adaptation? Here, we analyse ecology, morphology and performance in frog assemblages from three continents (Asia, Australia and South America), assessing the importance of dispersal and convergent evolution in explaining similarity across regions. We find three striking results. First, species using the same microhabitat type are highly similar in morphology and performance across both clades and continents. Second, some species on different continents owe their similarity to dispersal and evolutionary conservatism (rather than evolutionary convergence), even over vast temporal and spatial scales. Third, in one case, an ecologically specialized ancestor radiated into diverse ecotypes that have converged with those on other continents, largely erasing traces of past adaptation to their ancestral ecology. Overall, our study highlights the roles of both evolutionary conservatism and convergence in explaining similarity in species traits over large spatial and temporal scales and demonstrates a statistical framework for addressing these questions in other systems. PMID:24174109

Quality audit--a review of the literature concerning delivery of continence care.

PubMed

Swaffield, J

1995-09-01

This paper outlines the role of quality audit within the framework of quality assurance, presenting the concurrent and retrospective approaches available. The literature survey provides a review of the limited audit tools available and their application to continence services and care delivery, as well as attempts to produce tools from national and local standard setting. Audit is part of a process; it can involve staff, patients and their relatives and the team of professionals providing care, as well as focusing on organizational and management levels. In an era of market delivery of services there is a need to justify why audit is important to continence advisors and managers. Effectiveness, efficiency and economics may drive the National Health Service, but quality assurance, which includes standards and audit tools, offers the means to ensure the quality of continence services and care to patients and auditing is also required in the purchaser/provider contracts for patient services. An overview and progress to date of published and other a projects in auditing continence care and service is presented. By outlining and highlighting the audit of continence service delivery and care as a basis on which to build quality assurance programmes, it is hoped that this knowledge will be shared through the setting up of a central auditing clearing project.

Sonographic evaluation of the bladder neck in continent and stress-incontinent women.

PubMed

Schaer, G N; Perucchini, D; Munz, E; Peschers, U; Koechli, O R; Delancey, J O

1999-03-01

To evaluate a new sonographic method to measure depth and width of proximal urethral dilation during coughing and Valsalva maneuver and to report its use in a group of stress-incontinent and continent women. Fifty-eight women were evaluated, 30 with and 28 without stress incontinence proven urodynamically, with a bladder volume of 300 mL and the subjects upright. Urethral pressure profiles at rest were performed with a 10 French microtip pressure catheter. Bladder neck dilation and descent were assessed by perineal ultrasound (5 MHz curved linear array transducer) with the help of ultrasound contrast medium (galactose suspension-Echovist-300), whereas abdominal pressure was assessed with an intrarectal balloon catheter. Statistical analysis used the nonparametric Mann-Whitney test. The depth and diameter of urethral dilation could be measured in all women. During Valsalva, all 30 incontinent women exhibited urethral dilation. One incontinent woman showed dilation only while performing a Valsalva maneuver, not during coughing. In the continent group, 12 women presented dilation during Valsalva and six during coughing. In continent women, dilation was visible only in those who were parous. Nulliparous women did not have dilation during Valsalva or coughing. Bladder neck descent was visible in continent and incontinent women. This method permits quantification of depth and diameter of bladder neck dilation, showing that both incontinent and continent women might have bladder neck dilation and that urinary continence can be established at different locations along the urethra in different women. Parity seems to be a main prerequisite for a proximal urethral defect with bladder neck dilation.

Use of Antegrade Continence Enema for the Treatment of Fecal Incontinence and Functional Constipation in Adults: A Systematic Review.

PubMed

Patel, Abhilasha S; Saratzis, Athanasios; Arasaradnam, Ramesh; Harmston, Christopher

2015-10-01

Antegrade continence enema is a proximal colonic stoma that allows antegrade lavage of the colon for the treatment of fecal incontinence and functional constipation. Its role in the treatment of these conditions in adults has not been established. This review aimed to evaluate the clinical response and complications of antegrade continence enema in the adult population. A systematic literature search of MEDLINE, EMBASE, and Cochrane Central Register of Controlled Trials databases from January 1980 to October 2013 was conducted. Studies reporting clinical outcomes of antegrade continence enema in adult patients were considered. Only studies with participants aged 16 years and older were selected. Use of the antegrade continence enema for the treatment of constipation and incontinence in adults was investigated. The primary outcome was the number of patients irrigating their stoma. Secondary outcomes included the incidence of stoma stenosis, assessment of functional outcome, and evaluation of quality of life. Overall, 15 studies were selected, describing outcomes in 374 patients. All of the reports were observational cross-sectional studies, and 4 were prospective. The number of participants still using their stoma ranged from 47% to 100% over a follow-up period of 6 to 55 months. Eleven studies reported achievement of full continence in 33% to 100% of patients. Four studies described functional outcomes, and 7 studies reported a wide range of patient satisfaction. The rate of stoma stenosis varied from 8% to 50%. There were considerable heterogeneities within and across studies. Most studies were of poor quality, as reflected in the Methodological Index for Nonrandomized Studies score. Antegrade continence enema has been reported as an acceptable treatment of both functional constipation and fecal incontinence in adults across several analyses. There is wide variation regarding outcome measures. Larger prospective studies are required to assess the role of antegrade continence enema in the adult population.

Repeat prostate biopsies prior to radical prostatectomy do not impact erectile function recovery and mid- to long-term continence.

PubMed

Furrer, Marc A; Vilaseca, Antoni; Corradi, Renato B; Boxler, Silvan; Thalmann, George N; Nguyen, Daniel P

2018-06-01

A growing number of men undergo repeat biopsies prior to radical prostatectomy for prostate cancer. However, the long-term impact of repeat biopsies on functional outcomes in this patient population remains unelucidated. Thus, we compared functional outcomes between patients who underwent single biopsy versus repeat biopsies before radical prostatectomy. From 1996 to 2015, 1015 consecutive patients underwent radical prostatectomy, and subsequently had urinary continence and erectile function assessed for >2 years follow-up. One-fourth of patients (275; 27%) had ≥2 biopsies before prostatectomy. Logistic regression models tested whether repeat biopsy before prostatectomy predicted continence or erectile function recovery. For the overall cohort, continence rates were 84%, 92%, 96%, and 98% at 3, 6, 12, and 24 months, respectively. Repeat biopsy before prostatectomy was associated with lower continence rate at 3 months compared to single biopsy (P = 0.03); however, no significant differences were observed at 6, 12, or 24 months. In multivariable analyses adjusting for age, body mass index and diabetes/cardiovascular disease/smoking, the association between repeat biopsy and lower likelihood of continence at 3 months remained (odds ratio 0.67, 95% confidence interval 0.47-0.97; P = 0.03). Overall erectile function recovery rates were 16%, 33%, 51%, and 55% at 3, 6, 12, and 24 months, respectively. No difference in erectile function recovery rates was seen at any time point for single biopsy versus repeat biopsy. In multivariable analyses, repeat biopsy was not predictive of erectile function recovery at any time point. Repeat biopsy before radical prostatectomy impairs early continence after surgery. However, erectile function recovery and mid-term to long-term continence are not affected. These data support the current trend towards active surveillance and delayed local treatment in patients with low- to intermediate-risk prostate cancer. © 2018 Wiley Periodicals, Inc.

Preservation of the smooth muscular internal (vesical) sphincter and of the proximal urethra for the early recovery of urinary continence after retropubic radical prostatectomy: a prospective case-control study.

PubMed

Brunocilla, Eugenio; Schiavina, Riccardo; Pultrone, Cristian Vincenzo; Borghesi, Marco; Rossi, Martina; Cevenini, Matteo; Martorana, Giuseppe

2014-02-01

To evaluate the influence of preservation of the muscular internal sphincter and proximal urethra on continence recovery after radical prostatectomy. This was a prospective single-center, case-control study. A total of 40 consecutive patients with organ-confined prostate cancer were submitted to radical prostatectomy with the preservation of the muscular internal sphincter and the proximal urethra (group 1), and their outcomes were compared with those of 40 patients submitted to a standard procedure (group 2). Continence rates were assessed using a self-administrated questionnaire at 3, 7 and 30 days, and 3 and 12 months after removal of the catheter. Group 1 had a faster recovery of early continence than group 2 at day 3 (45% vs 22%; P = 0.029) and at day 7 (75% vs 50%; P = 0.018). Considering the number of pads, group 1 had a faster recovery of continence at 3, 7 and 30 days, and also had less incidence of severe incontinence. There was no statistically significant difference in terms of continence at 3 and 12 months among the two groups. Multivariate logistic regression analysis showed that surgical technique and young age were significantly associated with earlier time to continence at 3 and 7 days. The two groups had no significant differences in terms of surgical margins. Our modified technique of radical retropubic prostatectomy with preservation of the smooth muscular internal sphincter, as well as of the proximal urethra during bladder neck dissection, results in a significantly increased urinary continence at 3, 7 and 30 days after catheter removal, with a minor incidence of severe incontinence. The technique is also oncologically safe, and it does not increase the operative duration of the procedure. © 2013 The Japanese Urological Association.

Deep mantle roots and continental hypsometry: implications for whole-Earth elemental cycling, long-term climate, and the Cambrian explosion

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Lee, C. T.

2016-12-01

Most of Earth's continents today are above sea level, but the presence of thick packages of ancient sediments on top of the stable cores of continents indicates that continents must have been submerged at least once in their past. Elevations of continents are controlled by the interplay between crustal thickness, mantle root thickness and the temperature of the ambient convecting mantle. The history of a continent begins with mountain building through magmatic or tectonic crustal thickening, during which exhumation of deep-seated igneous and metamorphic rocks are highest. Mountain building is followed by a long interval of subsidence as a result of continued, but decreasing erosion and thermal relaxation, the latter in the form of a growing thermal boundary layer. Subsidence is manifest first as a boring interval in which no sedimentary record is preserved, followed by continent-scale submergence wherein sediments are deposited directly on deep-seated igneous/metamorphic basement, generating a major disconformity. The terminal resting elevation of a mature continent, however, is defined by the temperature of the ambient convecting mantle: below sea level when the mantle is hot and above sea level when the mantle is cold. Using thermobarometric constraints on secular cooling of Earth's mantle, our results suggest that Earth, for most of its history, must have been a water world, with regions of land confined to narrow orogenic belts and oceans characterized by deep basins and shallow continental seas, the latter serving as repositories of sediments and key redox-sensitive biological nutrients, such as phosphorous. Cooling of the Earth led to the gradual and irreversible rise of the continents, culminating in rapid emergence, through fits and starts and possible instabilities in climate, between 500-1000 Ma. Such emergence fundamentally altered marine biogeochemical cycling, continental weathering and the global hydrologic cycle, defining the backdrop for the Cambrian explosion, the largest biological diversification event in Earth's history.

The pursuit of colostomy continence.

PubMed

Roberts, D J

1997-03-01

The lifelong management required by patients with permanent colostomies leads to dissatisfaction with quality of life for many. Through the years, multiple techniques have been attempted to improve the quality of life by pursuing colostomy continence. Such endeavors include surgical interventions, nonsurgical devices and management, and behavior modification techniques. Efforts in research and development continue, and the desire to achieve continence of the stoma remain common cause among persons with on ostomy and those involved in their care.

Continent cutaneous diversion.

PubMed

Skinner, Eila C

2015-11-01

This article updates the recently reported intermediate to long-term results with the most commonly used forms of continent cutaneous urinary diversion, and to discuss approaches to early and late complications. Many variations on construction of a continent cutaneous diversion have been described. Results with large series of patients demonstrate acceptable results with all of them, but with a significant revision rate. Long-term complication rates and adaptation to robotic approaches have recently been described. Continent cutaneous diversion is rarely offered in the USA to patients undergoing cystectomy except in a few centers. Most studies have found a high complication rate and need for revision surgery in 10-20% of patients. However, functional results are acceptable and many patients are willing to accept the complications in exchange for avoiding an external appliance.

National audit of continence care for older people: management of urinary incontinence.

PubMed

Wagg, Adrian; Potter, Jonathan; Peel, Penny; Irwin, Penny; Lowe, Derek; Pearson, Michael

2008-01-01

the Department of Health report 'Good practice in continence services' highlights the need for proper assessment and management of urinary incontinence. The National Service Framework for Older People required service providers to establish integrated continence services by April 2004. A national audit was conducted to assess the quality of continence care for older people and whether these requirements have been met. the audit studied incontinent individuals of 65 years and over. Each site returned data on organisational structure and the process of 20 patients' care. Data were submitted via the internet, and all were anonymous. the national audit was conducted across England, Wales and Northern Ireland. Data on the care of patients/residents with bladder problems were returned by 141/326 (43%) of primary care trusts (PCT), by 159/196 (81%) of secondary care trusts (involving 198 hospitals) and by 29/309 (9%) of invited care homes. In all 58% of PCT, 48% of hospitals and 74% of care homes reported that integrated continence services existed in their area. Whilst basic provision of care appeared to be in place, the audit identified deficiencies in the organisation of services, and in the assessment and management of urinary incontinence in the elderly. the results of this audit indicate that the requirement for integrated continence services has not yet been met. Assessment and care by professionals directly looking after the older person were often lacking. There is an urgent need to re-establish the fundamentals of continence care into the practice of medical and nursing staff and action needs to be taken with regard to the establishment of truly integrated, quality services in this neglected area of practice.

Preoperative predictive model of recovery of urinary continence after radical prostatectomy.

PubMed

Matsushita, Kazuhito; Kent, Matthew T; Vickers, Andrew J; von Bodman, Christian; Bernstein, Melanie; Touijer, Karim A; Coleman, Jonathan A; Laudone, Vincent T; Scardino, Peter T; Eastham, James A; Akin, Oguz; Sandhu, Jaspreet S

2015-10-01

To build a predictive model of urinary continence recovery after radical prostatectomy (RP) that incorporates magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) parameters and clinical data. We conducted a retrospective review of data from 2,849 patients who underwent pelvic staging MRI before RP from November 2001 to June 2010. We used logistic regression to evaluate the association between each MRI variable and continence at 6 or 12 months, adjusting for age, body mass index (BMI) and American Society of Anesthesiologists (ASA) score, and then used multivariable logistic regression to create our model. A nomogram was constructed using the multivariable logistic regression models. In all, 68% (1,742/2,559) and 82% (2,205/2,689) regained function at 6 and 12 months, respectively. In the base model, age, BMI and ASA score were significant predictors of continence at 6 or 12 months on univariate analysis (P < 0.005). Among the preoperative MRI measurements, membranous urethral length, which showed great significance, was incorporated into the base model to create the full model. For continence recovery at 6 months, the addition of membranous urethral length increased the area under the curve (AUC) to 0.664 for the validation set, an increase of 0.064 over the base model. For continence recovery at 12 months, the AUC was 0.674, an increase of 0.085 over the base model. Using our model, the likelihood of continence recovery increases with membranous urethral length and decreases with age, BMI and ASA score. This model could be used for patient counselling and for the identification of patients at high risk for urinary incontinence in whom to study changes in operative technique that improve urinary function after RP. © 2015 The Authors BJU International © 2015 BJU International Published by John Wiley & Sons Ltd.

Phase locking of convectively coupled equatorial atmospheric Kelvin waves over Indian Ocean basin

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Baranowski, Dariusz; Flatau, Maria; Flatau, Piotr; Matthews, Adrian

2015-04-01

The properties of convectively coupled Kelvin waves in the Indian Ocean and their propagation over the Maritime Continent are studied. It is shown that Kelvin waves are longitude - diurnal cycle phase locked over the Maritime Continent, Africa and the Indian Ocean. Thus, it is shown that they tend to propagate over definite areas during specific times of the day. Over the Maritime Continent, longitude-diurnal cycle phase locking is such that it agrees with mean, local diurnal cycle of convection. The strength of the longitude-diurnal cycle phase locking differs between 'non-blocked' Kelvin waves, which make successful transition over the Maritime Continent, and 'blocked' waves that terminated within it. It is shown that a specific combination of Kelvin wave phase speed and time of the day at which a wave approaches the Maritime Continent influence the chance of successful transition into the Western Pacific. Kelvin waves that maintain phase speed of 10 to 11 degrees per day over the central-eastern Indian Ocean and arrive at 90E between 9UTC and 18UTC have the highest chance of being 'non-blocked' by the Maritime Continent. The distance between the islands of Sumatra and Borneo agrees with the distance travelled by an average convectively coupled Kelvin wave in one day. This suggests that the Maritime Continent may act as a 'filter' for Kelvin waves favoring successful propagation of those waves for which propagation is in phase with the local diurnal cycle of precipitation. The AmPm index, a simple measure of local diurnal cycle for propagating disturbances, is introduced and shown to be useful metric depicting key characteristics of the convection associated with propagating Kelvin waves.

Reconstructive techniques for creation of catheterizable channels: tunneled and nipple valve channels

PubMed Central

Levy, Mya E.

2016-01-01

Cutaneous catheterizable channels allow for continent bladder emptying when an alternate route is desired. The goals of channel creation in the neurogenic bladder population are successful urine elimination, renal preservation, continence and lastly cosmesis. In addition to a particular surgeon’s comfort and experience with a given procedure, individual patient factors such as medical comorbidities, anatomic factors, and occupational function should be central to the selection of a surgical approach. An ideal channel is one that is short, straight, and well supported by associated blood supply and surrounding adventitia, so as to minimize difficulty with catheterization. Two types of channel continence mechanisms are discussed at length in this review—the tunneled channel, and the nipple valve. The appendicovesicostomy (Mitrofanoff), and reconfigured ileum (Yang-Monti) are both tunneled channels. The ileocecal valve is a commonly used nipple valve and provides continence when reinforced. The continent catheterizable ileal cecocystoplasty (CCIC) is an example of this channel technique. This method couples a tapered ileal limb as a catheterizable channel, the ileocecal valve as the continence mechanism, and the cecum and ascending colon as a bladder augmentation. While this procedure has higher perioperative complications relative to a simple tunneled channel, it has increased channel length flexibility and is also coupled with a bladder augment, which is completely performed using one bowel segment. Continent channel creation in adults can improve quality of life and minimize morbidity associated with neurogenic bladder. However, the decision to proceed with creation of a catheterizable channel should be made only after careful consideration of the patient’s medical comorbidities, physical abilities social support, and surgeon experience. PMID:26904419

Anorectal function in patients with complete rectal prolapse. Differences between continent and incontinent individuals.

PubMed

Roig, J V; Buch, E; Alós, R; Solana, A; Fernández, C; Villoslada, C; García-Armengol, J; Hinojosa, J

1998-11-01

A study is made of the alterations in anorectal physiology among rectal prolapse patients, evaluating the differences between fecal continent and incontinent individuals. Eighteen patients with complete rectal prolapse were divided into two groups: Group A (8 continent individuals) and Group B (10 incontinent women), while 22 healthy women were used as controls (Group C). Clinical exploration and perineal level measurements were performed, along with anorectal manometry, electrophysiology, and anorectal sensitivity to electrical stimuli. The main antecedents of the continent subjects were excess straining efforts, while the incontinent women presented excess straining and complex deliveries. Pathological perineal descent was a frequent finding in both groups, with a hypotonic anal canal at rest (p < 0.001 vs controls) and at voluntary squeezing (p < 0.001 vs controls). In turn, the incontinent patients exhibited a significantly lower anal canal pressure at rest than the continent women (p < 0.05). There were no significant differences between Groups A and C in terms of pudendal motor latency, though latency was significantly longer in Group B than in the controls (p < 0.01). Moreover, pudendal neuropathy was more common, severe and often bilateral in Group B. There were no differences in rectal sensation to distention or in terms of the volumes required to relax the internal anal sphincter. In turn, both prolapse groups exhibited diminished anal canal and rectal sensitivity to electrical stimuli. Patients with rectal prolapse exhibit a hypotonic anal canal at rest, regardless of whether they are continent to feces or not. Continent patients have less pudendal neuropathy and therefore less pressure alterations at voluntary sphincter squeeze than incontinent individuals.

Impact of abuse-deterrent OxyContin on prescription opioid utilization.

PubMed

Hwang, Catherine S; Chang, Hsien-Yen; Alexander, G Caleb

2015-02-01

We quantified the degree to which the August 2010 reformulation of abuse-deterrent OxyContin affected its use, as well as the use of alternative extended-release and immediate-release opioids. We used the IMS Health National Prescription Audit, a nationally representative source of prescription activity in the USA, to conduct a segmented time-series analysis of the use of OxyContin and other prescription opioids. Our primary time period of interest was 12 months prior to and following August 2010. We performed model checks and sensitivity analyses, such as adjusting for marketing and promotion, using alternative lag periods, and adding extra observation points. OxyContin sales were similar before and after the August 2010 reformulation, with approximately 550 000 monthly prescriptions. After adjusting for declines in the generic extended-release oxycodone market, the formulation change was associated with a reduction of approximately 18 000 OxyContin prescription sales per month (p = 0.02). This decline corresponded to a change in the annual growth rate of OxyContin use, from 4.9% prior to the reformulation to -23.8% during the year after the reformulation. There were no statistically significant changes associated with the sales of alternative extended-release (p = 0.42) or immediate-release (p = 0.70) opioids. Multiple sensitivity analyses supported these findings and their substantive interpretation. The market debut of abuse-deterrent OxyContin was associated with declines in its use after accounting for the simultaneous contraction of the generic extended-release oxycodone market. Further scrutiny into the effect of abuse-deterrent formulations on medication use and health outcomes is vital given their popularity in opioid drug development. Copyright © 2014 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.

The Crustal Structure And CTBT Monitoring Of India: New Insights From Deep Seismic Profiling

DTIC Science & Technology

2000-09-01

transitional type crust as a major source of Deccan trap flows. The Narmada-Son lineament is the most conspicuous linear geological feature in the... Deccan proto-continents) buckling of the upper and middle crustal layers of the proto-continents took place, resulting in the western block’s lower...crustal column subducting below the Deccan proto-continents. Thus, the collision process was of such severe magnitude that the impact was seen in both

The OxyContin crisis: problematisation and responsibilisation strategies in addiction, pain, and general medicine journals.

PubMed

Whelan, Emma; Asbridge, Mark

2013-09-01

OxyContin(®) (Purdue Pharma, L.P., Stamford, CT) is now widely regarded as a drug of abuse fueling a larger opioid health crisis. While coverage in the North American press about OxyContin overwhelmingly focused upon the problems of related crime and addiction/misuse and the perspectives of law enforcement officials and police, coverage in those fields of medicine most intimately concerned with OxyContin-pain medicine and addiction medicine-was more nuanced. In this article, we draw upon the constructivist social problems tradition and Hunt's theory of moral regulation in a qualitative analysis of 24 medical journal articles. We compare and contrast pain medicine and addiction medicine representations of the OxyContin problem, the agents responsible for it, and proposed solutions. While there are some significant differences, particularly concerning the nature of the problem and the agents responsible for it, both pain medicine and addiction medicine authors 'take responsibility' in ways that attempt to mitigate the potential appropriation of the issue by law enforcement and regulatory agencies. The responses of pain medicine and addiction medicine journal articles represent strategic moves to recapture lost credibility, to retain client populations and tools necessary to their jobs, and to claim a seat at the table in responding to the OxyContin crisis. Copyright © 2013 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.

Afriflu2--second international workshop on influenza vaccination in the African continent--8 November 2012, Cape Town (South Africa).

PubMed

Schoub, Barry D; Gessner, Bradford D; Ampofo, William; Cohen, Adam L; Steffen, Christoph A

2013-08-02

The second meeting of the Afriflu conferences took place in Cape Town, South Africa, with over 60 participants from 15 countries in Africa and also outside the continent. Significant progress in surveillance has been made in better understanding the illness burden of influenza on the continent, which limited evidence suggests is greater than that in the developed world. In southern Africa HIV and TB coinfections play a major role in increasing hospitalisation and mortality, while elsewhere in Africa other cofactors still need to be determined. There is currently no indigenous vaccine production in sub-Saharan Africa and only one facility, based in South Africa, capable of filling imported bulk. Innovative vaccine strategies will need to be explored, such as maternal immunisation, and also the possibility of other influenza vaccine options, such as live attenuated influenza vaccine for young children. Sustained indigenous vaccine production is essential for the continent to have vaccine security in the event of a pandemic even though establishing local production faces considerable challenges especially ensuring adequate markets on the continent. There is an urgent need to develop effective communication messages for decision makers as well as healthcare workers addressing the importance of influenza even in the face of the major competing health burdens of the continent. Copyright © 2013 The Authors. Published by Elsevier Ltd.. All rights reserved.

Evaluation of urinary extravasation and results after continence-preserving radical retropubic prostatectomy.

PubMed

Varkarakis, John; Wirtenberger, Walter; Pinggera, Germar-Michael; Berger, Andreas; Harabayashi, Toru; Bartsch, Georg; Horninger, Wolfgang

2004-11-01

To evaluate the feasibility of urinary catheter removal 10 days after a radical retropubic prostatectomy (RRP) by assessing the incidence of urinary extravasation and its effect on postoperative stricture and continence rates. During a 4.5-year period, 619 patients undergoing RRP were evaluated. If no extravasation was detected on gravity cystography, the urinary catheter was removed 10 days after RRP. In patients with significant extravasation the catheter was left in place for 3 weeks. Overall stricture and continence rates were recorded in patients at 3, 6 and 12 months after surgery. There was extravasation during cystography in 29 patients (4.6%). At 3, 6 and 12 months, continence rates after catheter removal at 10 days were 74.9%, 87.9%, and 93.6%, respectively, while in the late-removal group they were 72.4%, 84.6% and 90.9%, respectively, with no significant difference between the groups. At 3 months the overall continence rate was 74.8% and at 12 months up to 93.5%. There was no difference in stricture rates between the groups, with an overall stricture rate of 0.7%. Catheter removal 10 days after RRP is feasible, giving excellent early and late continence rates, with low anastomotic stricture rates obtained using good surgical technique. Extravasation at 10 days was rare and with proper management did not influence the final results.

Observed Land Impacts on Clouds, Water Vapor, and Rainfall at Continental Scales

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Jin, Menglin; King, Michael D.

2005-01-01

How do the continents affect large-scale hydrological cycles? How important can one continent be to the climate system? To address these questions, 4-years of National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) Terra Moderate Resolution Imaging Spectroradiometer (MODIS) observations, Tropical Rainfall Measuring Mission (TRMM) observations, and the Global Precipitation Climatology Project (GPCP) global precipitation analysis, were used to assess the land impacts on clouds, rainfall, and water vapor at continental scales. At these scales, the observations illustrate that continents are integrated regions that enhance the seasonality of atmospheric and surface hydrological parameters. Specifically, the continents of Eurasia and North America enhance the seasonality of cloud optical thickness, cirrus fraction, rainfall, and water vapor. Over land, both liquid water and ice cloud effective radii are smaller than over oceans primarily because land has more aerosol particles. In addition, different continents have similar impacts on hydrological variables in terms of seasonality, but differ in magnitude. For example, in winter, North America and Eurasia increase cloud optical thickness to 17.5 and 16, respectively, while in summer, Eurasia has much smaller cloud optical thicknesses than North America. Such different land impacts are determined by each continent s geographical condition, land cover, and land use. These new understandings help further address the land-ocean contrasts on global climate, help validate global climate model simulated land-atmosphere interactions, and help interpret climate change over land.

Terrestrial Water Flux Responses to Global Warming in Tropical Rainforest Area

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Lan, C. W.; Lo, M. H.; Kumar, S.

2016-12-01

Precipitation extremes are expected to become more frequent in the changing global climate, which may considerably affect the terrestrial hydrological cycle. In this study, Coupled Model Intercomparison Project Phase 5 (CMIP5) archives have been examined to explore the changes in normalized terrestrial water fluxes (TWFn) (precipitation minus evapotranspiration minus total runoff, divided by the precipitation climatology) in three tropical rainforest areas: Maritime Continent, Congo, and Amazon. Results reveal that a higher frequency of intense precipitation events is predicted for the Maritime Continent in the future climate than in the present climate, but not for the Amazon or Congo rainforests. Nonlinear responses to extreme precipitation lead to a reduced groundwater recharge and a proportionately greater amount of direct runoff, particularly for the Maritime Continent, where both the amount and intensity of precipitation increase under global warming. We suggest that the nonlinear response is related to the existence of a higher near-surface soil moisture over the Maritime Continent than that over the Amazon and Congo rainforests. The wetter soil over the Maritime Continent also leads to an increased subsurface runoff. Thus, increased precipitation extremes and concomitantly reduced terrestrial water fluxes (TWF) lead to an intensified hydrological cycle for the Maritime Continent. This has the potential to result in a strong temporal heterogeneity in soil water distribution affecting the ecosystem of the rainforest region and increasing the risk of flooding and/or landslides.

Terrestrial water flux responses to global warming in tropical rainforest areas

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Lan, Chia-Wei; Lo, Min-Hui; Chou, Chia; Kumar, Sanjiv

2016-05-01

Precipitation extremes are expected to become more frequent in the changing global climate, which may considerably affect the terrestrial hydrological cycle. In this study, Coupled Model Intercomparison Project Phase 5 archives have been examined to explore the changes in normalized terrestrial water fluxes (precipitation minus evapotranspiration minus total runoff, divided by the precipitation climatology) in three tropical rainforest areas: Maritime Continent, Congo, and Amazon. Results show that a higher frequency of intense precipitation events is predicted for the Maritime Continent in the future climate than in the present climate, but not for the Amazon or Congo rainforests. Nonlinear responses to extreme precipitation lead to a reduced groundwater recharge and a proportionately greater amount of direct runoff, particularly for the Maritime Continent, where both the amount and intensity of precipitation increase under global warming. We suggest that the nonlinear response is related to the existence of a higher near-surface soil moisture over the Maritime Continent than that over the Amazon and Congo rainforests. The wetter soil over the Maritime Continent also leads to an increased subsurface runoff. Thus, increased precipitation extremes and concomitantly reduced terrestrial water fluxes lead to an intensified hydrological cycle for the Maritime Continent. This has the potential to result in a strong temporal heterogeneity in soil water distribution affecting the ecosystem of the rainforest region and increasing the risk of flooding and/or landslides.

Regulating continent growth and composition by chemical weathering

PubMed Central

Lee, Cin-Ty Aeolus; Morton, Douglas M.; Little, Mark G.; Kistler, Ronald; Horodyskyj, Ulyana N.; Leeman, William P.; Agranier, Arnaud

2008-01-01

Continents ride high above the ocean floor because they are underlain by thick, low-density, Si-rich, and Mg-poor crust. However, the parental magmas of continents were basaltic, which means they must have lost Mg relative to Si during their maturation into continents. Igneous differentiation followed by lower crustal delamination and chemical weathering followed by subduction recycling are possible solutions, but the relative magnitudes of each process have never been quantitatively constrained because of the lack of appropriate data. Here, we show that the relative contributions of these processes can be obtained by simultaneous examination of Mg and Li (an analog for Mg) on the regional and global scales in arcs, delaminated lower crust, and river waters. At least 20% of Mg is lost from continents by weathering, which translates into >20% of continental mass lost by weathering (40% by delamination). Chemical weathering leaves behind a more Si-rich and Mg-poor crust, which is less dense and hence decreases the probability of crustal recycling by subduction. Net continental growth is thus modulated by chemical weathering and likely influenced by secular changes in weathering mechanisms. PMID:18362343

The ContiNet of the International Continence Society.

PubMed

Lim, P H; Fonda, D

1997-01-01

This is an account of the International Continence Society's ContiNet--the web server linking up continence organisations worldwide with provision to upload or download vast data stores of information on continence via e-mail, FTP, mailing lists, and special tools to seek information using "search engines." Special communication devices using internet voice/phone mail and real-time "text" or "voice" chats permit conversation globally over normal phone lines linked to the Net at local telephone rates. Special features of ContiNet include announcements of upcoming conventions, information for professionals and laypeople, and the capability to conduct research via the net and conduct consultations and discussions via newsgroups. In-built devices requiring special IDs and passwords permit privacy and security for users. Simple instructions are provided on how to get your PC up and running and get connected to fellow members of ICS, link up with national continence societies, or simply surf for professional enrichment and leisure. With the advent of advanced multimedia capabilities, the current poor quality videoconferencing on the Net will be replaced by excellent videophones by 1998.

Is continence status associated with quality of life in young children with spina bifida?

PubMed

Freeman, Kurt A; Smith, Kathryn; Adams, Elizabeth; Mizokawa, Stacey; Neville-Jan, Ann

2013-01-01

To evaluate the relationship between child- and parent-reported quality of life (QOL) and bowel and bladder continence among young children with spina bifida (SB). 104 children ages 5-12 years and one of their parents/guardians completed the Pediatric Quality of Life Inventory - Generic Form (PedsQL; parent and child) and the Quality of Life in Spina Bifida Questionnaire (QOLSBQ, parent only). Data on continence, child age, and condition-specific variables were obtained by chart review. Parent and child QOL scores (on all measures of QOL) were positively correlated; parents rated child QOL lower than children's self report. QOL scores did not differ based on continence status. Total PedsQL scores were associated with age and mobility based on child report and with mobility based on parent report. QOL may not be affected by continence status among young children with SB, though demographic (i.e., age) and condition-specific (i.e., functional mobility status) variables appear relevant. Additional research is needed to further evaluate condition-specific variables, other protective variables, and possible measurement issues that influence QOL in young children with SB.

Anorectal function investigations in incontinent and continent patients. Differences and discriminatory value.

PubMed

Felt-Bersma, R J; Klinkenberg-Knol, E C; Meuwissen, S G

1990-06-01

Anal manometry, rectal capacity measurement, and the saline-infusion test were performed in 350 patients, 178 of whom had fecal incontinence and 172 of whom were continent. Anal manometry was also performed in 80 control subjects, whose results were compared with the patients. Women and older patients exhibited lower pressures. Compared with continent patients, incontinent patients had lower anal sphincter pressures at rest and during squeeze, a smaller rectal capacity, and leaked earlier and more with the saline infusion test. Differentiation between incontinent and continent patients was not possible with a single test because there was complete overlap. The maximum squeeze pressure showed the best discrimination. Combining the three tests did not show better discrimination than any individual test. Anal pressure and rectal capacity below the normal range only were found in very few incontinent patients. The authors' study demonstrates that no prediction can be made about continence with anorectal function tests. Therefore, in the individual patient, an abnormal result in one test must be interpreted with caution and only in relationship with other tests, especially when therapeutic surgery is considered.

A simplified technique for continent urinary diversion: an all-stapled colonic reservoir.

PubMed

Parra, R O

1991-12-01

A simple continent colonic reservoir was constructed in its entirety with the aid of surgical stapling techniques in 17 men and 10 women. In 5 men an orthotopic pouch was created and in the rest a continent stoma was designed. Detubularization of the entire colonic segment assures a low pressure system with disruption of directional peristaltic activity. The ureters are implanted by simply burying them in a mucosal furrow. Operative time required for the creation of the reservoir (excluding time for cystectomy) has ranged between 70 and 140 minutes (mean 95.4 minutes). With a followup of 9 to 60 months (mean 22.8 months) continence has been achieved in all but 1 patient with no ureteral reflux or obstruction. Urodynamically the pouch has achieved a large capacity (mean 750 cc) with low filling pressures (8.1 cm. water) because of technical ease of construction together with a shortened operative time due to the stapling techniques. This form of bladder replacement offers an option for select patients in whom continent urinary diversion is contemplated.

Obstacles facing Africa's young climate scientists

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Dike, Victor Nnamdi; Addi, Martin; Andang'o, Hezron Awiti; Attig, Bahar Faten; Barimalala, Rondrotiana; Diasso, Ulrich Jacques; Du Plessis, Marcel; Lamine, Salim; Mongwe, Precious N.; Zaroug, Modathir; Ochanda, Valentine Khasenye

2018-06-01

Current and future climate change poses a substantial threat to the African continent. Young scientists are needed to advance Earth systems science on the continent, but they face significant challenges.

Diagnosis and management of urinary incontinence and functional fecal incontinence (encopresis) in children.

PubMed

Nijman, Rien J M

2008-09-01

The ability to maintain normal continence for urine and stools is not achievable in all children by a certain age. Gaining control of urinary and fecal continence is a complex process, and not all steps and factors involved are fully understood. While normal development of anatomy and physiology are prerequisites to becoming fully continent, anatomic abnormalities, such as bladder exstrophy, epispadias, ectopic ureters, and neurogenic disturbances that can usually be recognized at birth and cause incontinence, will require specialist treatment, not only to restore continence but also to preserve renal function. Most forms of urinary incontinence are not caused by an anatomic or physiologic abnormality and, hence, are more difficult to diagnose and their management requires a sound knowledge of bladder and bowel function.

[Anorectal continence following manual and mechanical anastomosis suture. Results of a controlled study of rectal surgery].

PubMed

Jostarndt, L; Thiede, A; Lau, G; Hamelmann, H

1984-06-01

In a controlled clinical trial-manual vs. stapler anastomosis in rectal surgery-it was found that both suture techniques per se made no difference in the function of anal continence. The anal pressures at rest and sphincter contraction remained unchanged. A linear reduction of functional reservoir of the "neorectum" could be shown, which depended on the level and healing of the anastomosis. An anastomosis level at 6 cm from anocutaneous line is important for functional reasons. Anastomoses above this level do not cause any consequences for anal continence. Anastomoses below this level result in a reduced functional reservoir for at least 6 months. Within this period a decrease in anal continence is possible, especially in cases of disturbed healing of the anastomosis.

Evolving Continents

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Hamilton, Warren

Brian Windley succeeds very well indeed at the formidable task he sets for himself in this greatly revised second edition of a book that first appeared in 1977. He synthesizes primarily the tectonic and petrologic evolution of the continents and secondarily their economic geologic, stratigraphic, and biologic history. The book is organized in well-balanced time sequence and topical chapters, followed by a fine overview. The author describes examples, generalizes from them, and seeks understanding of variations with time and with depth of the process acting on continents within a plate tectonic framework.

Efficiency of using community organisations as catalysts for recruitment to continence promotion trials.

PubMed

Agnew, Rona; van den Heuvel, Eleanor; Tannenbaum, Cara

2013-02-01

A major challenge for determining the effectiveness of community-based continence promotion campaigns is recruitment of a representative sample of incontinent participants who have not previously sought care. To evaluate the efficiency of engaging community organisations as catalysts for recruitment of community-dwelling older women with incontinence to the 'Continence across Continents' randomised controlled trial. Seniors' and women's community-based organisations throughout the United Kingdom were solicited by telephone or email to assist recruitment for an open-label cluster randomised controlled trial testing three experimental continence promotion interventions and a control intervention for incontinent older women. Women aged 60 years and older who experienced at least weekly urinary incontinence and who had never sought treatment were eligible to participate. The response rate of the organisations and enrolment rate of eligible participants attending the continence promotion workshops were recorded. Differences in recruitment efficiency by intervention group were ascertained using analysis of variance statistics. We contacted 408 community organisations over a 1-year period. Seventy organisations (17%) agreed to host a workshop, 249 (61%) did not provide a response, and 89 (22%) refused. Workshops were administered in a group format to 61 organisations (15%); 667 women attended, 583 (87%) submitted the screening questionnaire, and 437 (66%) met eligibility criteria for inclusion. A total of 192 women consented to participate in the trial, yielding a 44% recruitment efficiency among workshop attendees known to be eligible, with no significant difference in enrolment rates between groups. However, the mean participant recruitment rate per number of attendees at each workshop was only 29%, varying substantially between groups from 19% to 37%, with the lowest rate observed for the control group. The mean annual recruitment rate expressed as the number of enrolled participants per community organisation contacted was 0.5. Reasons for women's non-response were not collected. The findings may be country specific. The recruitment rate for a continence promotion trial among older women known to be eligible and attending workshops hosted by local community organisations was high (44%). Strategies are needed to bolster community organisations' involvement in health promotion trials in general and for continence issues in particular.

Basins in ARC-continental collisions

USGS Publications Warehouse

Draut, Amy E.; Clift, Peter D.; Busby, Cathy; Azor, Antonio

2012-01-01

Arc-continent collisions occur commonly in the plate-tectonic cycle and result in rapidly formed and rapidly collapsing orogens, often spanning just 5-15 My. Growth of continental masses through arc-continent collision is widely thought to be a major process governing the structural and geochemical evolution of the continental crust over geologic time. Collisions of intra-oceanic arcs with passive continental margins (a situation in which the arc, on the upper plate, faces the continent) involve a substantially different geometry than collisions of intra-oceanic arcs with active continental margins (a situation requiring more than one convergence zone and in which the arc, on the lower plate, backs into the continent), with variable preservation potential for basins in each case. Substantial differences also occur between trench and forearc evolution in tectonically erosive versus tectonically accreting margins, both before and after collision. We examine the evolution of trenches, trench-slope basins, forearc basins, intra-arc basins, and backarc basins during arc-continent collision. The preservation potential of trench-slope basins is low; in collision they are rapidly uplifted and eroded, and at erosive margins they are progressively destroyed by subduction erosion. Post-collisional preservation of trench sediment and trench-slope basins is biased toward margins that were tectonically accreting for a substantial length of time before collision. Forearc basins in erosive margins are usually floored by strong lithosphere and may survive collision with a passive margin, sometimes continuing sedimentation throughout collision and orogeny. The low flexural rigidity of intra-arc basins makes them deep and, if preserved, potentially long records of arc and collisional tectonism. Backarc basins, in contrast, are typically subducted and their sediment either lost or preserved only as fragments in melange sequences. A substantial proportion of the sediment derived from collisional orogenesis ends up in the foreland basin that forms as a result of collision, and may be preserved largely undeformed. Compared to continent-continent collisional foreland basins, arc-continent collisional foreland basins are short-lived and may undergo partial inversion after collision as a new, active continental margin forms outboard of the collision zone and the orogen whose load forms the basin collapses in extension.

Wilson Cycle studies

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Burke, Kevin

1987-01-01

Regional lineaments in continental evolution were studied. It was concluded that lineaments within continents are attributed to a small number of processes of continent formation and modification, but interactions among these processes may produce complex patterns.

20 CFR 704.101 - Administration; compensation districts.

Code of Federal Regulations, 2013 CFR

2013-04-01

... District No. 14. (d) All areas west of the continents of North and South America (except coastal islands..., Central and South America (including coastal islands); areas east of the continents of North and South...

20 CFR 704.101 - Administration; compensation districts.

Code of Federal Regulations, 2012 CFR

2012-04-01

... District No. 14. (d) All areas west of the continents of North and South America (except coastal islands..., Central and South America (including coastal islands); areas east of the continents of North and South...

20 CFR 704.101 - Administration; compensation districts.

Code of Federal Regulations, 2014 CFR

2014-04-01

... District No. 14. (d) All areas west of the continents of North and South America (except coastal islands..., Central and South America (including coastal islands); areas east of the continents of North and South...

Management of occult stress urinary incontinence with prolapse surgery.

PubMed

Al-Mandeel, H; Al-Badr, A

2013-08-01

Pelvic organ prolapse (POP) and stress urinary incontinence (SUI), are two common health-related conditions, each affecting up to 50% women worldwide. Stress urinary incontinence only observed after the reduction of co-existent prolapse is called occult SUI (OSUI), and is found in up to 80% of women with advanced POP. Although there is no consensus on how to diagnose OSUI, there are several reported methods to better diagnose. Counseling symptomatically continent women with POP concerning the potential risk for developing SUI postoperatively cannot be overstated. Evidence suggests that positive OSUI in symptomatically continent women who are planning to have POP repair is associated with a high risk of POSUI, furthermore, adding continence procedure is found to reduce postoperative SUI. Therefore, adding continence surgery at the time of POP surgery in patients who are found to have OSUI preoperatively is advocated.

Mantle mixing and thermal evolution during Pangaea assembly and breakup

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Rudolph, M. L.; Li, M.; Zhong, S.; Manga, M.

2016-12-01

Continents insulate the underlying mantle, and it has been suggested that the arrangement of the continents can have a significant effect on sub-continental mantle temperatures. Additionally, the dispersal or agglomeration of continents may affect the efficacy of continental insulation, with some studies suggesting warming of 100K beneath supercontinents. During the most recent supercontinent cycle, Pangaea was encircled by subduction, potentially creating a `curtain' of subducted material that may have prevented mixing of the sub-Pangaea mantle with the sub-Panthalassa mantle. Using 3D spherical shell geometry mantle convection simulations, we quantify the effect of insulation by continents and supercontinents. We explore the differences in model predictions for purely thermal vs. thermochemical convection, and we use tracers to quantify the exchange of material between the sub-oceanic to the sub-continental mantle.

PT conditions of metamorphism in the Wami River granulite complex, central coastal Tanzania: implications for Pan-African geotectonics in the Mozambique Belt of eastern Africa

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Maboko, M. A. H.

1997-02-01

Solid-solution equilibria for gamet-clinopyroxene pairs in the early Pan-African Wami River granulite complex of central coastal Tanzania indicate metamorphic recrystallization at a temperature of about 700°C and a pressure of 8-9 kb, corresponding to metamorphism at a depth of 30-40 km. This suggests that granulite formation was preceded by an anomalous regional crustal thickening, similar to the crustal doubling that accompanies Phanerozoic continent-continent collisions of the Himalaya type. The analogy prompts the interpretation of the Wami River granulite complex, and possibly the rest of the granulite complexes in the Mozambique Belt, as slices of the underthrusted plate, which were accreted to the present day African plate following a continent-continent collision during early Pan-African time.

Global Mapping of Oceanic and Continental Shelf Crustal Thickness and Ocean-Continent Transition Structure

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Kusznir, Nick; Alvey, Andy; Roberts, Alan

2017-04-01

The 3D mapping of crustal thickness for continental shelves and oceanic crust, and the determination of ocean-continent transition (OCT) structure and continent-ocean boundary (COB) location, represents a substantial challenge. Geophysical inversion of satellite derived free-air gravity anomaly data incorporating a lithosphere thermal anomaly correction (Chappell & Kusznir, 2008) now provides a useful and reliable methodology for mapping crustal thickness in the marine domain. Using this we have produced the first comprehensive maps of global crustal thickness for oceanic and continental shelf regions. Maps of crustal thickness and continental lithosphere thinning factor from gravity inversion may be used to determine the distribution of oceanic lithosphere, micro-continents and oceanic plateaux including for the inaccessible polar regions (e.g. Arctic Ocean, Alvey et al.,2008). The gravity inversion method provides a prediction of continent-ocean boundary location which is independent of ocean magnetic anomaly and isochron interpretation. Using crustal thickness and continental lithosphere thinning factor maps with superimposed shaded-relief free-air gravity anomaly, we can improve the determination of pre-breakup rifted margin conjugacy and sea-floor spreading trajectory during ocean basin formation. By restoring crustal thickness & continental lithosphere thinning to their initial post-breakup configuration we show the geometry and segmentation of the rifted continental margins at their time of breakup, together with the location of highly-stretched failed breakup basins and rifted micro-continents. For detailed analysis to constrain OCT structure, margin type (i.e. magma poor, "normal" or magma rich) and COB location, a suite of quantitative analytical methods may be used which include: (i) Crustal cross-sections showing Moho depth and crustal basement thickness from gravity inversion. (ii) Residual depth anomaly (RDA) analysis which is used to investigate OCT bathymetric anomalies with respect to expected oceanic values. This includes flexural backstripping to produce bathymetry corrected for sediment loading. (iii) Subsidence analysis which is used to determine the distribution of continental lithosphere thinning. (iv) Joint inversion of time-domain deep seismic reflection and gravity anomaly data which is used to determine lateral variations in crustal basement density and velocity across the OCT, and to validate deep seismic reflection interpretations of Moho depth. The combined interpretation of these independent quantitative measurements is used to determine crustal thickness and composition across the ocean-continent-transition. This integrated approach has been validated on the Iberian margin where ODP drilling provides ground-truth of ocean-continent-transition crustal structure, continent-ocean-boundary location and magmatic type.

Intercontinental convergence of stream fish community traits along geomorphic and hydraulic gradients

USGS Publications Warehouse

Lamouroux, N.; Poff, N.L.; Angermeier, P.L.

2002-01-01

Community convergence across biogeographically distinct regions suggests the existence of key, repeated, evolutionary mechanisms relating community characteristics to the environment. However, convergence studies at the community level often involve only qualitative comparisons of the environment and may fail to identify which environmental variables drive community structure. We tested the hypothesis that the biological traits of fish communities on two continents (Europe and North America) are similarly related to environmental conditions. Specifically, from observations of individual fish made at the microhabitat scale (a few square meters) within French streams, we generated habitat preference models linking traits of fish species to local scale hydraulic conditions (Froude number), Using this information, we then predicted how hydraulics and geomorphology at the larger scale of stream reaches (several pool-riffle sequences) should quantitatively influence the trait composition of fish communities. Trait composition for fishes in stream reaches with low Froude number at low flow or high proportion of pools was predicted as nonbenthic, large, fecund, long-lived, nonstreamlined, and weak swimmers. We tested our predictions in contrasting stream reaches in France (n = 11) and Virginia, USA (n = 76), using analyses of covariance to quantify the relative influence of continent vs. physical habitat variables on fish traits. The reach-scale convergence analysis indicated that trait proportions in the communities differed between continents (up to 55% of the variance in each trait was explained by "continent"), partly due to distinct evolutionary histories. However, within continents, trait proportions were comparably related to the hydraulic and geomorphic variables (up to 54% of the variance within continents explained). In particular, a synthetic measure of fish traits in reaches was well explained (50% of its variance) by the Froude number independently of the continent. The effect of physical variables did not differ across continents for most traits, confirming our predictions qualitatively and quantitatively. Therefore, despite phylogenetic and historical differences between continents, fish communities of France and Virginia exhibit convergence in biological traits related to hydraulics and geomorphology. This convergence reflects morphological and behavioral adaptations to physical stress in streams. This study supports the existence of a habitat template for ecological strategies. Some key quantitative variables that define this habitat template can be identified by characterizing how individual organisms use their physical environment, and by using dimensionless physical variables that reveal common energetic properties in different systems. Overall, quantitative tests of community convergence are efficient tools to demonstrate that some community traits are predictable from environmental features.

Regulating continent growth and composition by chemical weathering

USGS Publications Warehouse

Lee, C.-T.A.; Morton, D.M.; Little, M.G.; Kistler, R.; Horodyskyj, U.N.; Leeman, W.P.; Agranier, A.

2008-01-01

Continents ride high above the ocean floor because they are underlain by thick, low-density, Si-rich, and Mg-poor crust. However, the parental magmas of continents were basaltic, which means they must have lost Mg relative to Si during their maturation into continents. Igneous differentiation followed by lower crustal delamination and chemical weathering followed by subduction recycling are possible solutions, but the relative magnitudes of each process have never been quantitatively constrained because of the lack of appropriate data. Here, we show that the relative contributions of these processes can be obtained by simultaneous examination of Mg and Li (an analog for Mg) on the regional and global scales in arcs, delaminated lower crust, and river waters. At least 20% of Mg is lost from continents by weathering, which translates into >20% of continental mass lost by weathering (40% by delamination). Chemical weathering leaves behind a more Si-rich and Mg-poor crust, which is less dense and hence decreases the probability of crustal recycling by subduction. Net continental growth is thus modulated by chemical weathering and likely influenced by secular changes in weathering mechanisms. ?? 2008 by The National Academy of Sciences of the USA.

Arc-continent collision of the Coastal Range in Taiwan: Geochronological constraints from U-Pb ages of zircons

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Geng, Wei; Zhang, Xun-Hua; Huang, Long

2018-04-01

The oblique arc-continent collision between the Luzon arc and the southeastern margin of the Eurasian continent caused the uplift of Taiwan. The Coastal Range in eastern Taiwan is the northern section of the Luzon arc in the collision zone and thus records important information about the arc-continent collision. In this paper, we determine and analyze the U-Pb ages of magmatic zircons from the volcanic arc and clastic zircons from the fore-arc basin in the Coastal Range. For the volcanic arc in the Coastal Range, the eruption ages range from 16.8-5 Ma. Given that the initial subduction of the South China Sea oceanic crust (17 Ma) occurred before the Luzon arc formed, we conclude that the volcanic activity of the Coastal Range began at 16.8 ± 1.3 Ma; it was most active from 14 to 8 Ma and continued until approximately 5 Ma. The U-Pb chronology also indicates that the initial stage of arc-continent collision of the Coastal Range started at approximately 5 Ma, when the northern section of the Luzon arc moved away from the magmatic chamber because of the kinematics of the Philippine Sea Plate.

Bladder continence management in adult acquired brain injury.

PubMed

Caldwell, Sheena B; Wilson, Jennifer S; Smith, Daniel; McCann, John P; Walsh, Ian K

2014-01-01

Persistence of urinary incontinence post acquired brain injury (ABI) carries important prognostic significance. We undertook to document the incidence of urinary incontinence, its management and complications in rehabilitation inpatients following ABI and to assess adherence to post ABI bladder management guidelines. A retrospective chart survey of a convenience sample of consecutive admissions to two adult neurorehabilitation units Forster Green Hospital, Belfast, and the Scottish Brain Injury Rehabilitation Service, Edinburgh (SBIRSE). Bladder continence and management on transfer to and discharge from rehabilitation, trial removal of catheter, use of bladder drill, ultrasound investigation, anticholinergic medication and complications were recorded. One hundred and forty six patients were identified. Seventy-seven (52.7%) were independent and continent of urine at rehabilitation admission and 109 (74.7%) on discharge. In all, 13 patients had urinary tract infection, 7 had urethral stricture and 1 developed haematuria whilst catheterised. Ultrasound of renal tracts was underused. Trial removal of catheter after transfer to rehabilitation occurred at a median of 10 days. Urinary continence was achieved in almost half of incontinent ABI patients during rehabilitation. There is potential for increased use of investigation of the renal tracts. Rehabilitation physicians should consider urethral stricture in the management of continence post ABI.

Dynamic magnetic resonance imaging of the behavior of the mid-urethra in healthy and stress incontinent women.

PubMed

Rinne, Kirsi Marja; Kainulainen, Sakari; Aukee, Sinikka; Heinonen, Seppo; Nilsson, Carl Gustaf

2010-03-01

Support of the mid-urethra is thought to be an essential element of urinary continence in the female. Our aim was to image the behavior of the mid-urethra in healthy volunteers and in stress urinary incontinence (SUI) patients by dynamic magnetic resonance imaging (MRI). Prospective study. Gynecology outpatient clinic association with Department of Radiology in University Hospital of Kuopio, Finland. Fifteen healthy volunteers and 40 SUI women underwent dynamic MRI at rest, during pelvic floor muscle contraction, coughing and voiding with a bladder volume of 200 ml. Our aim was to determine the precise location and movement of the mid-urethra during these activities. The co-ordinate location and movement of the mid-urethra. Continent volunteers can elevate their mid-urethra significantly higher than incontinent women. Moreover, the mid-urethra of incontinent women rotated significantly more dorsocaudally during straining and coughing than in continent women. Elevation of the mid-urethra was more marked in continent compared to urinary incontinent women on pelvic floor muscle contraction suggesting sufficient support of the urethra. Downward movement of the mid-urethra was more significant in stress incontinent women than in continent volunteers.

Effect of spinal anaesthesia on the lower urinary tract in continent women.

PubMed

Haeusler, G; Sam, C; Chiari, A; Tempfer, C; Hanzal, E; Koelbl, H

1998-01-01

To evaluate the effect of spinal anaesthesia on the bladder neck position and the urethral closure function in the resting state and during clinical stress test in healthy, continent women. Controlled clinical trial. Department of Gynaecology and Obstetrics, Vienna University Medical School. Fourteen continent women, of which seven were nulliparous and seven parous, underwent minor gynaecological procedures under spinal anaesthesia. Urodynamics and ultrasound investigations were performed before and during spinal anaesthesia. Changes in the bladder neck position and the urethral closure function before and during spinal anaesthesia. Bladder neck position was found to be lower and more posterior during spinal anaesthesia as compared with pre-operative assessment. The posterior urethrovesical angle increased significantly both at rest and during maximum straining. We observed a significant increase in bladder compliance, and all parameters of the urethral pressure profile decreased significantly. While none of the nulliparous women had a positive clinical stress test during spinal anaesthesia, 4/7 parous women demonstrated leakage (Fisher's exact test, P = 0.003). Blockage of nerve supply to the pelvic floor muscles in continent women is associated with a significant loss of support of the bladder neck region confirming the theory of an active mechanism of muscular elements providing continence.

The urethral pressure profiles in continent and stress-incontinent women.

PubMed

Henriksson, L; Andersson, K E; Ulmsten, U

1979-01-01

Simultaneous urethrocystometry, including recording of the urethral pressure profile, was performed in 127 women aged 30 to 69 years; 42 of the women were free from urologic disorders and 85 had stress incontinence of urine. Both groups were subgrouped according to age. The results in the continent and the incontinent women were analyzed separately, in order to disclose any age-related changes. The data within each decade of age were also comparatively analyzed. In the bladder pressure at rest no age-related changes were found, and the readings were similar in the continent and the incontinent women. The maximum urethral pressure fell significantly with rising age in both groups and was significantly reduced in stress incontinence. The urethral closure pressure showed variations similar to those in the maximum urethral pressure. No lower limit of urethral closure pressure that definitely predisposed to stress incontinence could be established. The functional length of the urethra diminished significantly with rising age in the continent, but not in the incontinent women. The absolute length of the urethra did not show such diminution. Both the functional and the absolute urethral length were significantly less in the incontinent than in the continent women in the age groups between 30 and 49 years.

Pregnancy after orthotopic continent urinary diversion.

PubMed

Kennedy, W A; Hensle, T W; Reiley, E A; Fox, H E; Haus, T

1993-10-01

Continent urinary diversion has become a common form of bladder management for the female exstrophy patient in whom primary reconstruction has failed. Reported are the results of successful pregnancies in four young adult females, who had previously undergone a flap vaginoplasty as part of earlier management and more recently a continent right colonic urinary reservoir with a perineal stoma (Indiana pouch). Pregnancy in each of these patients was characterized by several urinary tract infections, cervical prolapse and mild to severe maternal hydronephrosis. All of the patients had some degree of difficulty with clean intermittent catheterization. One patient required an indwelling catheter with prolonged bed rest. Maternal hydronephrosis resolved after delivery in all instances. All four patients delivered their infants by way of cesarean section, either emergently for maternal or fetal distress or electively. Cervical prolapse did not resolve in three patients and will require surgical repair. After delivery, all patients returned to their previous pattern of clean intermittent catheterization without loss of continence. All the infants delivered were healthy with appropriate weights and high Apgar scores (more than 8). Orthotopic (perineal stoma) continent urinary diversion is not a contraindication to pregnancy. However, our experience mandates delivery by cesarean section with close monitoring for maternal or fetal distress during gestation.

A Parallel Randomized Clinical Trial Examining the Return of Urinary Continence after Robot-Assisted Radical Prostatectomy with or without a Small Intestinal Submucosa Bladder Neck Sling.

PubMed

Bahler, Clinton D; Sundaram, Chandru P; Kella, Naveen; Lucas, Steven M; Boger, Michelle A; Gardner, Thomas A; Koch, Michael O

2016-07-01

Urinary continence is a driver of quality of life after radical prostatectomy. In this study we evaluated the impact of a biological bladder neck sling on the return of urinary continence after robot-assisted radical prostatectomy. This study compared early continence in patients undergoing robot-assisted radical prostatectomy with a sling and without a sling in a 2-group, 1:1, parallel, randomized controlled trial. Patients were blinded to group assignment. The primary outcome was defined as urinary continence (0 to 1 pad per day) at 1 month postoperatively. Inclusion criteria were organ confined prostate cancer and a prostate specific antigen less than 15 ng/ml. Exclusion criteria were any prior surgery on the prostate, a history of neurogenic bladder and history of pelvic radiation. A chi-squared test was used for the primary outcome. A total of 147 patients were randomized (control 74, sling 73) and 92% were available for primary end point analysis at 1 month. There were no significant differences in baseline or perioperative data except that operating room time was 20.1 minutes longer for the sling group (p=0.04). The continence rate was similar between the control and sling groups at 1 month (47.1% vs 55.2%, p=0.34) and 12 months (86.7% vs 94.5%, p=0.15), respectively. Adverse events were similar between the control and sling groups (10.8% vs 13.7%, p=0.59). The application of an absorbable urethral sling at robot-assisted radical prostatectomy was well tolerated with no increase in obstructive symptoms in this randomized trial. However, the sling failed to show a significant improvement in continence. Copyright © 2016 American Urological Association Education and Research, Inc. Published by Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

Warming increases plant biomass and reduces diversity across continents, latitudes, and species migration scenarios in experimental wetland communities.

PubMed

Baldwin, Andrew H; Jensen, Kai; Schönfeldt, Marisa

2014-03-01

Atmospheric warming may influence plant productivity and diversity and induce poleward migration of species, altering communities across latitudes. Complicating the picture is that communities from different continents deviate in evolutionary histories, which may modify responses to warming and migration. We used experimental wetland plant communities grown from seed banks as model systems to determine whether effects of warming on biomass production and species richness are consistent across continents, latitudes, and migration scenarios. We collected soil samples from each of three tidal freshwater marshes in estuaries at three latitudes (north, middle, south) on the Atlantic coasts of Europe and North America. In one experiment, we exposed soil seed bank communities from each latitude and continent to ambient and elevated (+2.8 °C) temperatures in the greenhouse. In a second experiment, soil samples were mixed either within each estuary (limited migration) or among estuaries from different latitudes in each continent (complete migration). Seed bank communities of these migration scenarios were also exposed to ambient and elevated temperatures and contrasted with a no-migration treatment. In the first experiment, warming overall increased biomass (+16%) and decreased species richness (-14%) across latitudes in Europe and North America. Species richness and evenness of south-latitude communities were less affected by warming than those of middle and north latitudes. In the second experiment, warming also stimulated biomass and lowered species richness. In addition, complete migration led to increased species richness (+60% in North America, + 100% in Europe), but this higher diversity did not translate into increased biomass. Species responded idiosyncratically to warming, but Lythrum salicaria and Bidens sp. increased significantly in response to warming in both continents. These results reveal for the first time consistent impacts of warming on biomass and species richness for temperate wetland plant communities across continents, latitudes, and migration scenarios. © 2013 John Wiley & Sons Ltd.

Addressing incontinence for people with dementia living at home: a documentary analysis of local English community nursing service continence policies and clinical guidance.

PubMed

Drennan, Vari M; Norrie, Caroline; Cole, Laura; Donovan, Sheila

2013-02-01

To establish whether the problems and issues experienced by people with dementia living at home and their carers were addressed in the clinical guidance for continence management for community nursing services in England. Internationally, the numbers of people with dementia are rising. Managing incontinence is a significant issue as the presence of incontinence is one of the triggers for people with dementia to move their residence to a care home. People with dementia living at home and their family carers report difficulties in accessing knowledgeable professionals and acceptable continence products. A review by documentary analysis of clinical policies and guidance from a sample of community nursing services in all Strategic Health Authority regions of England. A sample of clinical policy and guidance documents for continence assessment and management from up to four community nursing services in each of the ten Strategic Health Authority regions in England was sought. Documentary analysis was undertaken on the relevance of the documents identified for people with dementia living at home. Ninety-eight documents from 38 local community nursing services spread across ten Strategic Health Authority areas were obtained and analysed. Only in the documents of three services were nurses offered detailed guidance about the management of incontinence for people with dementia at home. In the documentation of only one service were people with dementia identified as a special case which warranted the provision of additional continence products. Clinical guidance on continence assessment and management for community nurses in many parts of England does not address the specific needs of people with dementia living at home or their carers. Nurses working in community settings and those providing clinical leadership in continence care should review their clinical guidance and policies to ensure relevance for people with dementia living at home and their family carers. © 2012 Blackwell Publishing Ltd.

On the pathways and timescales of intercontinental air pollution transport

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Stohl, Andreas; Eckhardt, Sabine; Forster, Caroline; James, Paul; Spichtinger, Nicole

2002-12-01

This paper presents results of a 1-year simulation of the transport of six passive tracers, released over the continents according to an emission inventory for carbon monoxide (CO). Lagrangian concepts are introduced to derive age spectra of the tracer concentrations on a global grid in order to determine the timescales and pathways of pollution export from the continents. Calculating these age spectra is equivalent to simulating many (quasi continuous) plumes, each starting at a different time, which are subsequently merged. Movies of the tracer dispersion have been made available on an Internet website. It is found that emissions from Asia experience the fastest vertical transport, whereas European emissions have the strongest tendency to remain in the lower troposphere. European emissions are transported primarily into the Arctic and appear to be the major contributor to the Arctic haze problem. Tracers from an upwind continent first arrive over a receptor continent in the upper troposphere, typically after some 4 days. Only later foreign tracers also arrive in the lower troposphere. Assuming a 2-day lifetime, the domestic tracers dominate total tracer columns over all continents except over Australia where foreign tracers account for 20% of the tracer mass. In contrast, for a 20-day lifetime even continents with high domestic emissions receive more than half of their tracer burden from foreign continents. Three special regions were identified where tracers are transported to, and tracer dilution is slow. Future field studies therefore should be deployed in the following regions: (1) In the winter, the Asia tracer accumulates over Indonesia and the Indian Ocean, a region speculated to be a stratospheric fountain. (2) In the summer, the highest concentrations of the Asia tracer are found in the Middle East. (3) In the summer, the highest concentrations of the North America tracer are found in the Mediterranean.

Outcome of excision of megarectum in children with anorectal malformation.

PubMed

Keshtgar, Alireza S; Ward, Harry C; Richards, Catherine; Clayden, Graham S

2007-01-01

Megarectum in association with anorectal malformation contributes to chronic constipation and fecal incontinence. Resection of megarectum in anorectal malformation improves bowel function, but neuropathy and poor sphincter quality may affect the outcome of fecal continence adversely. The aim of this study was to evaluate the benefits of resection of megarectum in anorectal malformation and to ascertain the impact of anal sphincter quality and neuropathy on the outcome. We studied 62 children with intractable fecal incontinence after repair of anorectal malformation between January 1991 and January 2005. All patients were investigated with anorectal manometry and anal endosonography under ketamine anesthesia. On endosonography, an intact or scarred internal anal sphincter (IAS) was classified as good and a fragmented or absent IAS as poor. On manometry, a resting anal sphincter pressure equal to or more than 30 mm Hg was classified as good and a lower pressure as poor. Functional assessment of fecal continence was done before and after excision of megarectum using a modified Wingfield scores. Sixteen children had excision of megarectum with median age of 9 years (range, 2-15 years) and postoperative follow-up of 5 years (range, 1-10 years). Seven had formation of antegrade continent enema stoma before excision of megarectum. Children were classified into three groups of anomalies: low (n = 6), intermediate (n = 4), and high (n = 6). All children were incontinent of feces. After excision of megarectum, of the 9 children with good IAS and no neuropathy, 7 became continent of feces. Of the remaining 7 children, 4 had poor IAS and 3 had neuropathy, 5 of whom required an antegrade continent enema stoma to be clean. Excision of megarectum in children who had previous repair of anorectal malformation results in fecal continence in the presence of a good IAS and absence of neuropathy. Patients with a poor IAS or neuropathy will often require artificial means of fecal continence.

Worldwide transportation directory : statistical contacts and transportation profiles by continent and country

DOT National Transportation Integrated Search

1997-05-01

The Directory was created to assist transportation data users, policy makers, planners, researchers, information specialists and others in locating statistical contacts and transportation profiles in different countries. It lists, by continent, 1,925...

About the Mid-Continent Ecology Division (MED) of EPA's National Health and Environmental Effects Research Laboratory

EPA Pesticide Factsheets

The Mid-Continent Ecology Division (MED) conducts innovative research and predictive modeling to document and forecast the effects of pollutants on the integrity of watersheds and freshwater ecosystems.

The Continental Plates are Getting Thicker.

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Kerr, Richard A.

1986-01-01

Reviews seismological studies that provide evidence of the existence of continental roots beneath the continents. Suggests, that through the collisions of plate tectonics, continents stabilized part of the mobile mantle rock beneath them to form deep roots. (ML)

Multiple sclerosis and continence issues: an exploratory study.

PubMed

Wollin, Judy; Bennie, Mary; Leech, Christine; Windsor, Carol; Spencer, Nancy

The study described in this article aimed to identify issues relating to incontinence and assess the impact of referral to a continence adviser on the lives of people with multiple sclerosis (MS). The study design used an in-depth, two-phase anonymous mail survey within a general community as nominated by the participants. Fifty-six people participated in phase 1 and eleven people completed phase 2. The results indicated that incontinence is a problem for the vast majority of participants--people with MS. One-third of the eligible participants took up the option of a consultation, assessment and treatment from a continence nurse. Reasons for not taking up the visit from the continence nurse included 'managing OK', 'didn't think it would help', 'embarrassed' and 'too busy'. Increasing awareness of urinary incontinence in the community is important and education needs to focus on at-risk groups in presenting the range of options available to assist people experiencing incontinence.

Continence technologies whitepaper: Informing new engineering science research.

PubMed

Culmer, Pete; Alazmani, Ali; Bryant, Mike; Mancuso, Elena; King, Sarah; Mapunde, Vee; Jeays-Ward, Katherine; Heron, Nicola; Pearson, Russell; Vollebregt, Paul F; Corner, Lynne; Day, Richard

2018-06-01

Advances in healthcare technology for continence have historically been limited compared to other areas of medicine, reflecting the complexities of the condition and social stigma which act as a barrier to participation. This whitepaper has been developed to inspire and direct the engineering science community towards research opportunities that exist for continence technologies that address unmet needs in diagnosis, treatment and long-term management. Our aim is to pinpoint key challenges and highlight related research opportunities for novel technological advances. To do so, we draw on experience and expertise from academics, clinicians, patients and patient groups linked to continence healthcare. This is presented in four areas of consideration: the clinical pathway, patient perspective, research challenges and effective innovation. In each we introduce seminal research, background information and demonstrative case-studies, before discussing their relevance to engineering science researchers who are interested in approaching this overlooked but vital area of healthcare.

Functional outcomes following robotic prostatectomy using athermal, traction free risk-stratified grades of nerve sparing.

PubMed

Tewari, Ashutosh K; Ali, Adnan; Metgud, Sheela; Theckumparampil, Nithin; Srivastava, Abhishek; Khani, Francesca; Robinson, Brian D; Gumpeni, Naveen; Shevchuk, Maria M; Durand, Matthieu; Sooriakumaran, Prasanna; Li, Jinyi; Leung, Robert; Peyser, Alexandra; Gruschow, Siobhan; Asija, Vinita; Harneja, Niyati

2013-06-01

To report our unique approach for individualizing robotic prostate cancer surgery by risk stratification and sub classification of the periprostatic space into 4 distinct compartments, and thus performing 4 precise different grades of nerve sparing based on neurosurgical principles and to present updated potency and continence outcomes data of patients undergoing robotic-assisted laparoscopic prostatectomy (RALP) using our risk-stratified approach based on layers of periprostatic fascial dissection. (1) Between January 2005 and December 2010, 2,536 men underwent RALP by a single surgeon at our institution. (2) Included patients were those with ≥ 1-year follow-up and were preoperatively continent and potent, defined as having a SHIM questionnaire score of >21; thus, the final number of patient in the study cohort was 1,335. (3) Postoperative potency was defined as the ability to have successful intercourse (score of ≥ 4 on question 2 of the SHIM); continence was defined as the use of no pads per 24 h. (1) The potency and continence for NS grades 1, 2, 3, and 4 were found to be 90.6, 76.2, 60.5, and 57.1 % (P < 0.001) and 98, 93.2, 90.1, and 88.9 % (P < 0.001), respectively. (2) The overall PSM rates for patients with NS grades 1, 2, 3, and 4 were 10.5, 7, 5.8, and 4.8 %, respectively (P = 0.064). The study found a correlation between risk-stratified grades of NS technique and continence and potency. Patients with lesser grades of NS had higher rates of potency and continence.

Systematic review of the management of incontinence and promotion of continence in older people in care homes: descriptive studies with urinary incontinence as primary focus

PubMed Central

Roe, Brenda; Flanagan, Lisa; Jack, Barbara; Barrett, James; Chung, Alan; Shaw, Christine; Williams, Kate

2011-01-01

Aim This is a review of descriptive studies with incontinence as the primary focus in older people in care homes. Background Incontinence is prevalent among residents of care home populations. Data sources MEDLINE and CINAHL were searched from 1996 to 2007 using the highly sensitive search strings of the Cochrane Incontinence Review Group for urinary and faecal incontinence including all research designs. Search strings were modified to enhance selectiveness for care homes and older people and exclude studies involving surgical or pharmacological interventions. Searching of reference sections from identified studies was also used to supplement electronic searches. The Cochrane Library was searched for relevant systematic reviews to locate relevant studies from those included or excluded from reviews. The search was limited to English-language publications. Methods A systematic review of studies on the management of incontinence, promotion of continence or maintenance of continence in care homes was conducted in 2007–2009. This is a report of descriptive studies. Results Ten studies were identified that reported on prevalence and incidence of incontinence (urinary with or without faecal), policies, assessment, documentation, management or economic evaluation of its management. Use of incontinence pads and toileting programmes comprised the most common management approaches used. No studies were identified that attempted to maintain continence of residents in care homes. Conclusions Studies on maintaining continence and identifying components of toileting programmes that are successful in managing or preventing incontinence and promoting continence in residents of care home populations along with their economic evaluation are warranted. PMID:21105895

Introital ultrasonography: a comparison of women with stress incontinence due to urethral hypermobility and continent women.

PubMed

Cassadó, Jordi; Pessarrodona, Antoni; Tulleuda, Raquel; Cabero, Lluís; Valls, Marta; Quintana, Salvador; Rodríguez-Carballeira, Mónica

2006-10-01

To determine if there is a variable on introital ultrasonography (IUS) that can be used to distinguish between women with stress urinary incontinence (SUI) due to urethral hypermobility (UH) and continent women. This single-centre, prospective, blind, cohort, observational study comprised 383 women (245 continent and 138 incontinent) who were all appropriately informed volunteers selected according to the inclusion criteria. IUS with a convex probe was performed on all women; the measurement plane was standardized and coordinates were obtained at rest and on straining. Several distances were measured to determine if any provided an objective distinction between continent and incontinent women. Among all the IUS variables assessed, sliding (calculated as the difference between the distance urethra-bladder neck, U-BN, at rest and under stress) was the best for distinguishing continent and incontinent women. The receiver operating characteristic curves showed that with a threshold of 8 mm, sliding had a sensitivity of 92% and a specificity of 79.6% for detecting SUI due to UH. The distances symphysis-urethra (S-U) and U-BN at rest could also discriminate, but with lower significance. IUS is an important tool for diagnosing SUI; there are three independent variables, one dynamic (sliding) and two static (distances S-U and U-BN), that can be used to distinguish between continent women and those with SUI due to UH. Sliding is the most reliable, as it has the highest sensitivity and specificity. We think that the simplicity, low financial cost and reliability of IUS could allow it to be a routine procedure for physicians working in incontinence units.

Significance of preoperatively observed detrusor overactivity as a predictor of continence status early after robot-assisted radical prostatectomy

PubMed Central

Yanagiuchi, Akihiro; Miyake, Hideaki; Tanaka, Kazushi; Fujisawa, Masato

2014-01-01

Several recent studies have reported the involvement of bladder dysfunction in the delayed recovery of urinary continence following radical prostatectomy (RP). The objective of this study was to investigate the significance of detrusor overactivity (DO) as a predictor of the early continence status following robot-assisted RP (RARP). This study included 84 consecutive patients with prostate cancer undergoing RARP. Urodynamic studies, including filling cystometry, pressure flow study, electromyogram of the external urethral sphincter and urethral pressure profile, were performed in these patients before surgery. Urinary continence was defined as the use of either no or one pad per day as a precaution only. DO was preoperatively observed in 30 patients (35.7%), and 55 (65.5%) and 34 (40.5%) were judged to be incontinent 1 and 3 months after RARP, respectively. At both 1 and 3 months after RARP, the incidences of incontinence in patients with DO were significantly higher than in those without DO. Of several demographic and urodynamic parameters, univariate analyses identified DO and maximal urethral closure pressure (MUCP) as significant predictors of the continence status at both 1 and 3 months after RARP. Furthermore, DO and MUCP appeared to be independently associated with the continence at both 1 and 3 months after RARP on multivariate analysis. These findings suggest that preoperatively observed DO could be a significant predictor of urinary incontinence early after RARP; therefore, it is recommended to perform urodynamic studies for patients who are scheduled to undergo RARP in order to comprehensively evaluate their preoperative vesicourethral functions. PMID:25038181

Multimetric Macroinvertebrate Indices for Mid-continent US Great Rivers

EPA Science Inventory

We developed a set of great river macroinvertebrate indices of condition (GRMICs) for the mid-continent great rivers. We used a multiscale (site, reach, landscape) multimetric abiotic stressor gradient to select macroinvertebrate assemblage metrics sensitive to human disturbance ...

78 FR 48177 - Purdue Pharma L.P.; Withdrawal of Approval of a New Drug Application for Oxycontin

Federal Register 2010, 2011, 2012, 2013, 2014

2013-08-07

... or misuse. Both original and reformulated OxyContin are opioid agonist products. Original OxyContin was indicated for the management of moderate to severe pain when a continuous, around-the-clock opioid...

MODELING TRANSPORT AND TRANSFORMATION OF HG COMPOUNDS IN CONTINENTAL AIR MASSES

EPA Science Inventory

The global mercury cycle involves both continental and marine environments. However, there are special considerations for modeling atmospheric mercury over continents. Most anthropogenic sources of atmospheric mercury are on continents and they emit a large fraction in oxidized ...

Indicators of climate change for the African continent derived from radiosondes

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Añel, J. A.; Gimeno, L.; Tesouro, M.; de La Torre, L.; Nieto, R.; Ribera, P.; García, R.; Hernández, E.

2003-04-01

Here we study the interannual variability of different parameters calculated from radiosonde data in the African continent. Data used in the analysis were a subset of the National Climatic Data Center Upper Air Digital Files of the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (USA) (CARDS). This work show the climatic trends in the studied region during the period and from 1973 to 1998). Results show that radiosonde stations were useful for this analysis in the African continent. Main oscillations and the relationship with the Northern Annular Mode and El Niño-Southern Oscillation were also studied.

CONTIN XPCS: Software for Inverse Transform Analysis of X-Ray Photon Correlation Spectroscopy Dynamics

PubMed Central

Narayanan, Suresh; Zhang, Fan; Kuzmenko, Ivan; Ilavsky, Jan

2018-01-01

X-ray photon correlation spectroscopy (XPCS) and dynamic light scattering (DLS) both reveal dynamics using coherent scattering, but X-rays permit investigating of dynamics in a much more diverse array of materials. Heterogeneous dynamics occur in many such materials, and we showed how classic tools employed in analysis of heterogeneous DLS dynamics extend to XPCS, revealing additional information that conventional Kohlrausch exponential fitting obscures. This work presents the software implementation of inverse transform analysis of XPCS data called CONTIN XPCS, an extension of traditional CONTIN that accommodates dynamics encountered in equilibrium XPCS measurements. PMID:29875507

CONTIN XPCS: Software for Inverse Transform Analysis of X-Ray Photon Correlation Spectroscopy Dynamics.

PubMed

Andrews, Ross N; Narayanan, Suresh; Zhang, Fan; Kuzmenko, Ivan; Ilavsky, Jan

2018-02-01

X-ray photon correlation spectroscopy (XPCS) and dynamic light scattering (DLS) both reveal dynamics using coherent scattering, but X-rays permit investigating of dynamics in a much more diverse array of materials. Heterogeneous dynamics occur in many such materials, and we showed how classic tools employed in analysis of heterogeneous DLS dynamics extend to XPCS, revealing additional information that conventional Kohlrausch exponential fitting obscures. This work presents the software implementation of inverse transform analysis of XPCS data called CONTIN XPCS, an extension of traditional CONTIN that accommodates dynamics encountered in equilibrium XPCS measurements.

Culture and ethics in medical education: The Asian perspective.

PubMed

Shamim, Muhammad Shahid; Baig, Lubna; Torda, Adrienne; Balasooriya, Chinthaka

2018-03-01

The world is geographically divided into hemispheres, continents and countries, with varying cultures in different regions. Asia, the largest of continents, has a variety of philosophically distinctive cultures and lifestyles, informing the norms of societies that are much different from cultures in other continents. These complexities in the societal norms in Asian cultures have created unique issues in development of ethics education in the region. This paper looks in to the distinctions in what is generally referred to as the "non-western" Asian culture, the importance of cultural context and how it influences the ethics curriculum in the region.

Emergence of silicic continents as the lower crust peels off on a hot plate-tectonic Earth

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Chowdhury, Priyadarshi; Gerya, Taras; Chakraborty, Sumit

2017-09-01

The rock record and geochemical evidence indicate that continental recycling has been occurring since the early history of the Earth. The stabilization of felsic continents in place of Earth's early mafic crust about 3.0 to 2.0 billion years ago, perhaps due to the initiation of plate tectonics, implies widespread destruction of mafic crust during this time interval. However, the physical mechanisms of such intense recycling on a hotter, (late) Archaean and presumably plate-tectonic Earth remain largely unknown. Here we use thermomechanical modelling to show that extensive recycling via lower crustal peeling-off (delamination but not eclogitic dripping) during continent-continent convergence was near ubiquitous during the late Archaean to early Proterozoic. We propose that such destruction of the early mafic crust, together with felsic magmatism, may have caused both the emergence of silicic continents and their subsequent isostatic rise, possibly above the sea level. Such changes in the continental character have been proposed to influence the Great Oxidation Event and, therefore, peeling-off plate tectonics could be the geodynamic trigger for this event. A transition to the slab break-off controlled syn-orogenic recycling occurred as the Earth aged and cooled, leading to reduced recycling and enhanced preservation of the continental crust of present-day composition.

Mechanism of continence after repair of posterior urethral disruption: evidence of rhabdosphincter activity.

PubMed

Whitson, Jared M; McAninch, Jack W; Tanagho, Emil A; Metro, Michael J; Rahman, Nadeem U

2008-03-01

Controversy exists regarding continence mechanisms in patients who undergo posterior urethral reconstruction after pelvic fracture. Some evidence suggests that continence after posterior urethroplasty is maintained by the bladder neck or proximal urethral mechanism without a functioning distal mechanism. We studied distal urethral sphincter activity in patients who have undergone posterior urethroplasty for pelvic fracture. A total of 12 patients who had undergone surgical repair of urethral disruption involving the prostatomembranous region underwent videourodynamics with urethral pressure profiles at rest, and during stress and hold maneuvers. Bladder pressure and urethral pressure, including proximal and distal urethral sphincter activity and pressure, were assessed in each patient. All 12 patients had daytime continence of urine postoperatively with a followup after anastomotic urethroplasty of 12 to 242 months (mean 76). Average maximum urethral pressure was 71 cm H2O. Average maximum urethral closure pressure was 61 cm H2O. The average urethral pressure seen during a brief hold maneuver was 111 cm H2O. Average functional sphincteric length was 2.5 cm. Six of the 12 patients had clear evidence of distal urethral sphincter function, as demonstrated by the profile. Continence after anastomotic urethroplasty for posttraumatic urethral strictures is maintained primarily by the proximal bladder neck. However, there is a significant contribution of the rhabdosphincter in many patients.

Parameters of two-dimensional perineal ultrasonography for evaluation of urinary incontinence after Radical Prostatectomy.

PubMed

Costa Cruz, Danilo Souza Lima da; D'Ancona, Carlos Arturo Levi; Baracat, Jamal; Alves, Marco Antonio Dionisio; Cartapatti, Marcelo; Damião, Ronaldo

2014-01-01

Urinary incontinence remains a major concern for patients undergoing radical prostatectomy. Its prevalence can reach 20% in the late postoperative period. This clinical study investigated the differences of a dynamic evaluation of the urethra and pelvic floor contraction using perineal ultrasound in men without prostate surgery and in men submitted to radical prostatectomy with and without stress urinary incontinence. Ninety two male patients were included, which 70% of them underwent radical prostatectomy (RP) for more than one year. Thirty one men with clinically post prostatectomy incontinence were compared by two-dimensional (2D) perineal ultrasound to 34 patients without post prostatectomy incontinence and to 27 men without surgery in two centers in Brazil. Our results showed that the continent group presented the urethral angle at rest significantly lower than the prostate group (p = 0.0002). We also observed that the incontinent group showed the displacement of the anterior bladder neck during contraction significantly lower than the continent group (p = 0.008). We found that the continent group presented the urethral angle at rest significantly lower than the prostate group. The incontinent group also showed the anterior bladder neck displacement during contraction significantly lower than the continent group. It was more evident when the severe incontinent group and the continent group were compared.

A constrained regularization method for inverting data represented by linear algebraic or integral equations

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Provencher, Stephen W.

1982-09-01

CONTIN is a portable Fortran IV package for inverting noisy linear operator equations. These problems occur in the analysis of data from a wide variety experiments. They are generally ill-posed problems, which means that errors in an unregularized inversion are unbounded. Instead, CONTIN seeks the optimal solution by incorporating parsimony and any statistical prior knowledge into the regularizor and absolute prior knowledge into equallity and inequality constraints. This can be greatly increase the resolution and accuracyh of the solution. CONTIN is very flexible, consisting of a core of about 50 subprograms plus 13 small "USER" subprograms, which the user can easily modify to specify special-purpose constraints, regularizors, operator equations, simulations, statistical weighting, etc. Specjial collections of USER subprograms are available for photon correlation spectroscopy, multicomponent spectra, and Fourier-Bessel, Fourier and Laplace transforms. Numerically stable algorithms are used throughout CONTIN. A fairly precise definition of information content in terms of degrees of freedom is given. The regularization parameter can be automatically chosen on the basis of an F-test and confidence region. The interpretation of the latter and of error estimates based on the covariance matrix of the constrained regularized solution are discussed. The strategies, methods and options in CONTIN are outlined. The program itself is described in the following paper.

Frequency of operative trauma to anal sphincters: evaluation with endoanal ultrasound.

PubMed

Stamatiadis, Apostolos; Konstantinou, Evangelos; Theodosopoulou, Eleni; Mamoura, Konstantinia

2002-01-01

Sphincter trauma after anorectal surgery is usually asymptomatic. Frequency of trauma cannot be established with the clinical examination only. The frequency of operative sphincter defects and their correlation with disorders of continence was evaluated with the endoanal ultrasound. This study includes 123 subjects who had undergone anorectal surgery in the past and were examined with endoanal ultrasound for various indications such as continence disorders, recurrent fistula, idiopathic perineal pain, or simple postoperative follow-up. No subjects had isolated external anal sphincter defects. Nineteen of 123 patients (15%) had minor or major continence disorders, 55 patients (45%) had no sphincter defects, 42 (34%) had only internal anal sphincter (IAS) defects, and 26 (21%) had simultaneously external and internal anal sphincter (EAS) defects. The incidence of IAS and EAS trauma after Milligan-Morgan hemorrhoidectomy was 1/18 (5.5%) and 0/18 respectively; after fistula repair, 24/42 (57%) and 12/42 (29%); and after anal dilatation, 13/17 (76%) and 4/17 (24%). Sixteen of 26 patients (62%) with EAS trauma and 51/68 patients (75%) with IAS trauma did not report any disorders of continence. In patients with two or more operations, the frequency of IAS trauma was 74%, 30% for EAS trauma, and 26% for continence disorders.

Maritime Continent seasonal climate biases in AMIP experiments of the CMIP5 multimodel ensemble

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Toh, Ying Ying; Turner, Andrew G.; Johnson, Stephanie J.; Holloway, Christopher E.

2018-02-01

The fidelity of 28 Coupled Model Intercomparison Project phase 5 (CMIP5) models in simulating mean climate over the Maritime Continent in the Atmospheric Model Intercomparison Project (AMIP) experiment is evaluated in this study. The performance of AMIP models varies greatly in reproducing seasonal mean climate and the seasonal cycle. The multi-model mean has better skill at reproducing the observed mean climate than the individual models. The spatial pattern of 850 hPa wind is better simulated than the precipitation in all four seasons. We found that model horizontal resolution is not a good indicator of model performance. Instead, a model's local Maritime Continent biases are somewhat related to its biases in the local Hadley circulation and global monsoon. The comparison with coupled models in CMIP5 shows that AMIP models generally performed better than coupled models in the simulation of the global monsoon and local Hadley circulation but less well at simulating the Maritime Continent annual cycle of precipitation. To characterize model systematic biases in the AMIP runs, we performed cluster analysis on Maritime Continent annual cycle precipitation. Our analysis resulted in two distinct clusters. Cluster I models are able to capture both the winter monsoon and summer monsoon shift, but they overestimate the precipitation; especially during the JJA and SON seasons. Cluster II models simulate weaker seasonal migration than observed, and the maximum rainfall position stays closer to the equator throughout the year. The tropics-wide properties of these clusters suggest a connection between the skill of simulating global properties of the monsoon circulation and the skill of simulating the regional scale of Maritime Continent precipitation.

Continence outcomes in patients undergoing robotic assisted laparoscopic mitrofanoff appendicovesicostomy.

PubMed

Wille, Mark A; Zagaja, Gregory P; Shalhav, Arieh L; Gundeti, Mohan S

2011-04-01

Continent catheterizable channels for emptying the bladder are typically performed via an open surgical approach. We present our surgical approach and initial outcomes with specific attention to continence for robotic assisted laparoscopic Mitrofanoff appendicovesicostomy formation. Between February 2008 and April 2010, 13 patients were considered for robotic assisted laparoscopic Mitrofanoff appendicovesicostomy and 11 underwent the procedure (2 open conversions). Five patients underwent enterocystoplasty with appendicovesicostomy and 6 underwent isolated appendicovesicostomy. The appendicovesicostomy anastomosis was performed on the anterior (without augmentation) or posterior (with augmentation) bladder wall and the stoma was brought to the umbilical site or right lower quadrant. Detrusor backing (4 cm) was ensured except in 1 patient (number 5). Mean patient age at surgery was 10.4 years (range 5 to 14). Mean estimated blood loss was 61.8 cc. Mean operative time for isolated appendicovesicostomy was 347 minutes and there were no intraoperative complications. Incontinence through the stoma developed in 1 patient with inadequate detrusor backing (less than 4 cm), which resolved with dextranomer/hyaluronic acid injection into the appendicovesicostomy anastomosis. This patient had resolution of incontinence with an increase in bladder capacity to 300 cc. Three patients required skin flap revision for cutaneous scarring. To date all patients are catheterizing without difficulty and are continent. Median followup was 20 months (range 3 to 29). We are encouraged by our preliminary experience with the robotic assisted laparoscopic Mitrofanoff appendicovesicostomy continent urinary diversion with or without ileocystoplasty. Early in the experience we emphasize the importance of 4 cm of detrusor backing to maintain stomal continence. Copyright © 2011 American Urological Association Education and Research, Inc. Published by Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

Modeling Archean Subduction Initiation from Continental Spreading with a Free-Surface

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Adams, A.; Thielmann, M.; Golabek, G.

2017-12-01

Earth is the only planet known to have plate tectonics, however the onset of plate tectonics and Earth's early tectonic environment are highly uncertain. Modern plate tectonics are characterized by the sinking of dense lithosphere at subduction zones; however this process may not have been feasible if Earth's interior was hotter in the Archean, resulting in thicker and more buoyant oceanic lithosphere than observed at present [van Hunen and van den Berg, 2008]. Previous studies have proposed gravitational spreading of early continents at passive margins as a mechanism to trigger early episodes of plate subduction using numerical simulations with a free-slip upper boundary condition [Rey et al., 2014]. This study utilizes 2D thermo-mechanical numerical experiments using the finite element code MVEP2 [Kaus, 2010; Thielmann et al., 2014] to investigate the viability of this mechanism for subduction initiation in an Archean mantle for both free-slip and free-surface models. Radiogenic heating, strain weakening, and eclogitization were systematically implemented to determine critical factors for modeling subduction initiation. In free-slip models, results show episodes of continent spreading and subduction initiation of oceanic lithosphere for low limiting yield stresses (100-150 MPa) and increasing continent width with no dependency on radiogenic heating, strain weakening, or eclogitization. For models with a free-surface, subduction initiation was observed at low limiting yield stresses (100-225 MPa) with increasing continent width and only in models with eclogitization. Initial lithospheric stress states were studied as a function of density and viscosity ratios between continent and oceanic lithosphere, and results indicate the magnitude of lithospheric stresses increases with increasing continental buoyancy. This work suggests continent spreading may trigger episodes of subduction in models with a free-surface with critical factors being low limiting yield stresses and eclogitization.

Analysis of the Environmental Management System based on ISO 14001 on the American continent.

PubMed

Neves, Fábio de Oliveira; Salgado, Eduardo G; Beijo, Luiz A

2017-09-01

The American continent is in broad economic and industrial development. Consequently, a more detailed discussion of the impacts generated by such development is needed. Moreover, there is an increase in the number of ISO 14001 certificates issued to this continent. Given the above, no studies were found that bridge the gap to identify the influence of different factors on ISO 14001 in the Americas. Thus, this article has as its main aim to check which economic, environmental and cultural factors have influence on ISO 14001 Certification in the American Continent. The data were collected in the ISO Survey, World Bank, United Nations Development Programme and International Energy Agency. Among the countries of that continent, thirteen were analyzed and only two did not show the economic factors as the influence factor in the multiple regression models fitted with Brazil and the United State. In these models, all presented environmental factors as influencing factors. Only in Brazil the index HDI presented as cultural factor in multiple regression model fitted. The economic factors: Gross Domestic Product and exports of goods and services and environmental: Carbon Dioxide (CO 2 ) and fossil fuel consumption were the most influential in ISO 14001 certification. Venezuela, Uruguay, Colombia and the United States were countries that had factors dependent on each other, featuring the environmental marketing. Briefly, this study brings up several implications: to the academy, with the proposal of new concepts and guidance on the factors that assist in ISO 14001 certification in the American Continent. Additionally, taking into account the industry, the factors serve as efficiency parameters for the implementation of ISO 14001 standard, and for the Government to improve through factors that do not fit in multiple regression models. Copyright © 2017 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

Survival, Continence and Potency (SCP) recovery after radical retropubic prostatectomy: a long-term combined evaluation of surgical outcomes.

PubMed

Schiavina, R; Borghesi, M; Dababneh, H; Pultrone, C V; Chessa, F; Concetti, S; Gentile, G; Vagnoni, V; Romagnoli, D; Della Mora, L; Rizzi, S; Martorana, G; Brunocilla, E

2014-12-01

To offer a comprehensive account of surgical outcomes on a defined series of patients treated with radical retropubic prostatectomy (RRP) for prostate cancer in a single European Center after 5-year minimum follow-up according to the Survival, Continence and Potency (SCP) system. We evaluated our Institutional database of patients who underwent RRP from November 1995 to September 2008. Oncological and functional outcomes were reported according to the recently proposed SCP system. The 5- and 10-year biochemical recurrence-free survival rates were 80.1% and 55.8%, respectively. At the end of follow-up, 611 (78.5%) patients were fully continent (C0), 107 (13.8%) used 1 pad for security (C1) and 60 (7.7%) patients were incontinent (C2). Of the 112 patients who underwent nerve-sparing RRP, 22 (19.6%) were fully potent without aids (P0), 13 (11.6%) were potent with assumption of PDE-5 inhibitors (P1) and 77 (68.8%) experienced erectile dysfunction (P2). The combined SCP outcomes were reported together only in 95 (12.2%) evaluable patients. In patients preoperatively continent and potent, who received a nerve-sparing and did not require adjuvant therapy, oncological and functional success was attained by 29 (30.5%) patients. In the subgroup of 508 patients not evaluable for potency recovery, oncological and continence outcomes were obtained in 357 patients (70.3%). Survival, Continence and Potency (SCP) classification offer a comprehensive report of surgical results, even in those patients who do not represent the best category, thus allowing to provide a much more accurate evaluation of outcomes after RP. Copyright © 2014 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

Changes in self assessment of continence status between telephone survey and subsequent clinical visit

PubMed Central

Thomas, A; Kane Low, L; Tumbarello, JA; Miller, JM; Fenner, DE; DeLancey, JOL

2012-01-01

AIMS To explore variance in reporting continence information obtained by telephone survey with face-to-face clinician interview in a clinical setting. METHODS As part of a cross-sectional, epidemiologic study of incontinence prevalence among Black and White women ages 35-64 years, randomly selected households were contacted from geographic areas of known racial composition. Of 2814 women who completed a 20-minute, 137-item telephone interview, 1702 were invited for future components of the study. A subset of these women was recruited for a clinical evaluation that was conducted within a mean of 82 days (SD 38 days) following the interviews. Prior to urodynamics testing, a clinician interview was conducted inquiring about continence status. The criterion for incontinence for both the telephone interview and the clinician interview was constant: twelve or more episodes of incontinence per year. Women whose subjective reports of continence information differed between telephone and clinician interviews were designated as “switchers”. RESULTS Of the 394 women (222 Black, 172 White) who completed the clinical portion, 24.6% (n=97) were switchers. Switchers were four times more likely to change from continent to incontinent (80.4% N=78) than from incontinent to continent (19.4%; N=19 p=.000) and nearly three times more likely to be Black (69% N=67) than White (31%; N=30 p=.001). Telephone qualitative interviews were completed with 72 of the switchers. The primary reason for switching was changes in women’s life circumstances such as variation in seasons, activities of daily living, and health status followed by increased awareness of leakage secondary to the phone interview. CONCLUSION One-time subjective telephone interviews assessing incontinence symptoms may underestimate the prevalence of incontinence especially among Black women. PMID:19816917

Is there any difference in pelvic floor muscles performance between continent and incontinent women?

PubMed

Burti, Juliana Schulze; Hacad, Claudia R; Zambon, João Paulo; Polessi, Emily Assis; Almeida, Fernando G

2015-08-01

To compare pelvic floor muscles (PFMs) performance in women with and without stress urinary incontinence (SUI) during endurance test. It is a prospective case-control clinical trial. After determining PFM maximal voluntary contraction (MVC) by electromyography (EMG), women underwent endurance test, which consisted of consecutively PFM 1-sec fast contractions reaching MVC amplitude followed by 1-sec rest. Training time guided by Borg perceived exertion scale was noted. Heart rate (HR) behavior and EMG variables were assessed before and after training making a physiological analysis in both groups. A total of 56 women, mean age 52.19 years old, were evaluated (26 continent and 30 incontinent women). The time that SUI and continent women took to reach fatigue (Borg 10) was 9.1 ± 4.7 and 14.19 ± 8.32 min, respectively (P = 0.006). Confirming that all women performed similar effort during the test, analysis of variance with repeated measures showed that during the endurance test both groups presented similar increase in HR, showing detectable and significant increase from resting time to Borg 10 (P < 0.001). Besides, there was similar behavior in EMG for continent and SUI women, with a decrease from the baseline resting amplitude (P = 0.003 for SUI women and P = 0.006 for continent women). Women with SUI showed worse performance during an endurance test than continent women. It suggests that women have different capacity to perform PFM training. An initial evaluation based on PFM performance would help to define the best individualized PFM training. © 2014 Wiley Periodicals, Inc.

Is "Warm Arctic, Cold Continent" A Fingerprint Pattern of Climate Change?

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Hoerling, M. P.; Sun, L.; Perlwitz, J.

2015-12-01

Cold winters and cold waves have recently occurred in Europe, central Asia and the Midwest to eastern United States, even as global mean temperatures set record highs and Arctic amplification of surface warming continued. Since 1979, Central Asia winter temperatures have in fact declined. Conjecture has it that more cold extremes over the mid-latitude continents should occur due to global warming and the impacts of Arctic sea ice loss. A Northern Hemisphere temperature signal termed the "Warm Arctic, Cold Continent" pattern has thus been surmised. Here we use a multi-model approach to test the hypothesis that such a pattern is indeed symptomatic of climate change. Diagnosis of a large model ensemble of historical climate simulations shows some individual realizations to yield cooling trends over Central Asia, but importantly the vast majority show warming. The observed cooling has thus likely been a low probability state of internal variability, not a fingerprint of forced climate change. We show that daily temperature variations over continents decline in winter due to global warming, and cold waves become less likely. This is partly related to diminution of Arctic cold air reservoirs due to warming-induced sea ice loss. Nonetheless, we find some evidence and present a physical basis that Arctic sea ice loss alone can induce a winter cooling over Central Asia, though with a magnitude that is appreciably smaller than the overall radiative-forced warming signal. Our results support the argument that recent cooling trends over central Asia, and cold extreme events over the winter continents, have principally resulted from atmospheric internal variability and have been neither a forced response to Arctic seas ice loss nor a symptom of global warming. The paradigm of climate change is thus better expressed as "Warm Arctic, Warm Continent" for the NH winter.

Systematic review of the management of incontinence and promotion of continence in older people in care homes: descriptive studies with urinary incontinence as primary focus.

PubMed

Roe, Brenda; Flanagan, Lisa; Jack, Barbara; Barrett, James; Chung, Alan; Shaw, Christine; Williams, Kate

2011-02-01

This is a review of descriptive studies with incontinence as the primary focus in older people in care homes. Incontinence is prevalent among residents of care home populations. MEDLINE and CINAHL were searched from 1996 to 2007 using the highly sensitive search strings of the Cochrane Incontinence Review Group for urinary and faecal incontinence including all research designs. Search strings were modified to enhance selectiveness for care homes and older people and exclude studies involving surgical or pharmacological interventions. Searching of reference sections from identified studies was also used to supplement electronic searches. The Cochrane Library was searched for relevant systematic reviews to locate relevant studies from those included or excluded from reviews. The search was limited to English-language publications. A systematic review of studies on the management of incontinence, promotion of continence or maintenance of continence in care homes was conducted in 2007-2009. This is a report of descriptive studies. Results. Ten studies were identified that reported on prevalence and incidence of incontinence (urinary with or without faecal), policies, assessment, documentation, management or economic evaluation of its management. Use of incontinence pads and toileting programmes comprised the most common management approaches used. No studies were identified that attempted to maintain continence of residents in care homes. Studies on maintaining continence and identifying components of toileting programmes that are successful in managing or preventing incontinence and promoting continence in residents of care home populations along with their economic evaluation are warranted. © 2010 The Authors. Journal of Advanced Nursing © 2010 Blackwell Publishing Ltd.

76 FR 82205 - Airworthiness Directives; Cessna Aircraft Company Airplanes

Federal Register 2010, 2011, 2012, 2013, 2014

2011-12-30

... (ACO), 1801 Airport Road, Room 100, Mid- Continent Airport, Wichita, Kansas 67209; phone: (316) 946-4154; fax: (316) 946-4107; email: [email protected] . SUPPLEMENTARY INFORMATION: Comments Invited... (ACO), 1801 Airport Road, Room 100, Mid-Continent Airport, Wichita, Kansas 67209; phone: (316) 946-4154...

Trucking and Size and Weight Regulations in the Mid-Continent Corridor

DOT National Transportation Integrated Search

1996-11-01

This thesis is an empirical analysis of trucking and truck size and weight (TS&W) regulations in the Mid-continent corridor. Based on this analysis, it compares and contrasts plausible near term TS&W policy options relating to this corridor. The appr...

Smart wireless continence management system for persons with dementia.

PubMed

Wai, Aung Aung Phyo; Fook, Victor Foo Siang; Jayachandran, Maniyeri; Biswas, Jit; Nugent, Chris; Mulvenna, Maurice; Lee, Jer-En; Kiat, Philp Yap Lian

2008-10-01

Incontinence is highly prevalent in the elderly population, especially in nursing home residents with dementia. It is a distressing and costly health problem that affects not only the patients but also the caregivers. Effective continence management is required to provide quality care, and to eliminate high labor costs and annoyances to the caregivers resulting from episodes of incontinence. This paper presents the design, development, and preliminary deployment of a smart wireless continence management system for dementia-impaired elderly or patients in institutional care settings such as nursing homes and hospitals. Specifically, the mote wireless platform was used to support the deployment of potentially large quantities of wetness sensors with wider coverage and with dramatically less complexity and cost. It consists of an intelligent signal relay mechanism so that the residents are free to move about in the nursing home or hospital and allows personalized continence management service. Preliminary results from a trial in a local nursing home are promising and can significantly improve the quality of care for patients.

Analysis of pan-African Centres of excellence in health innovation highlights opportunities and challenges for local innovation and financing in the continent.

PubMed

Nwaka, Solomon; Ochem, Alexander; Besson, Dominique; Ramirez, Bernadette; Fakorede, Foluke; Botros, Sanaa; Inyang, Uford; Mgone, Charles; Adae-Mensah, Ivan; Konde, Victor; Nyasse, Barthelemy; Okole, Blessed; Guantai, Anastasia; Loots, Glaudina; Atadja, Peter; Ndumbe, Peter; Sanou, Issa; Olesen, Ole; Ridley, Robert; Ilunga, Tshinko

2012-07-27

A pool of 38 pan-African Centres of Excellence (CoEs) in health innovation has been selected and recognized by the African Network for Drugs and Diagnostics Innovation (ANDI), through a competitive criteria based process. The process identified a number of opportunities and challenges for health R&D and innovation in the continent: i) it provides a direct evidence for the existence of innovation capability that can be leveraged to fill specific gaps in the continent; ii) it revealed a research and financing pattern that is largely fragmented and uncoordinated, and iii) it highlights the most frequent funders of health research in the continent. The CoEs are envisioned as an innovative network of public and private institutions with a critical mass of expertise and resources to support projects and a variety of activities for capacity building and scientific exchange, including hosting fellows, trainees, scientists on sabbaticals and exchange with other African and non-African institutions.

Analysis of pan-African Centres of excellence in health innovation highlights opportunities and challenges for local innovation and financing in the continent

PubMed Central

2012-01-01

A pool of 38 pan-African Centres of Excellence (CoEs) in health innovation has been selected and recognized by the African Network for Drugs and Diagnostics Innovation (ANDI), through a competitive criteria based process. The process identified a number of opportunities and challenges for health R&D and innovation in the continent: i) it provides a direct evidence for the existence of innovation capability that can be leveraged to fill specific gaps in the continent; ii) it revealed a research and financing pattern that is largely fragmented and uncoordinated, and iii) it highlights the most frequent funders of health research in the continent. The CoEs are envisioned as an innovative network of public and private institutions with a critical mass of expertise and resources to support projects and a variety of activities for capacity building and scientific exchange, including hosting fellows, trainees, scientists on sabbaticals and exchange with other African and non-African institutions. PMID:22838941

Ancient Continental Lithosphere Dislocated Beneath Ocean Basins Along the Mid-Lithosphere Discontinuity: A Hypothesis

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Wang, Zhensheng; Kusky, Timothy M.; Capitanio, Fabio A.

2017-09-01

The documented occurrence of ancient continental cratonic roots beneath several oceanic basins remains poorly explained by the plate tectonic paradigm. These roots are found beneath some ocean-continent boundaries, on the trailing sides of some continents, extending for hundreds of kilometers or farther into oceanic basins. We postulate that these cratonic roots were left behind during plate motion, by differential shearing along the seismically imaged mid-lithosphere discontinuity (MLD), and then emplaced beneath the ocean-continent boundary. Here we use numerical models of cratons with realistic crustal rheologies drifting at observed plate velocities to support the idea that the mid-lithosphere weak layer fostered the decoupling and offset of the African continent's buoyant cratonic root, which was left behind during Meso-Cenozoic continental drift and emplaced beneath the Atlantic Ocean. We show that in some cratonic areas, the MLD plays a similar role as the lithosphere-asthenosphere boundary for accommodating lateral plate tectonic displacements.

The dynamic interdependence of international financial markets: An empirical study on twenty-seven stock markets

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Zhang, Xingwei; Zheng, Xiaolong; Zeng, Daniel Dajun

2017-04-01

In this paper, we aim to investigate the dynamic interdependence of international financial markets. Based on the data regarding daily returns of each market during the period 2006-2015 from Yahoo finance, we mainly focus on examining 27 markets from three continents, including Asia, America and Europe. By checking the dynamic interdependence between those markets, we find that markets from different continents have strong correlation at specific time shift. We also obtain that markets from different continents not only have a strong linkage with others at same day, but at a delay of one day, especially between Asia, Europe and Asia, America. In addition, we further analyze the time-varying influence strength between each two continents and observe that this value has abnormal changes during the financial crisis. These findings can provide us significant insights to understand the underlying dynamic interdependency of international financial markets and further help us make corresponding reasonable decisions.

Improving and ensuring best practice continence management in residential aged care.

PubMed

Heckenberg, Gayle

2008-06-01

Background  Continence Management within residential aged care is an every day component of care that requires assessment, implementation of strategies, resource allocation and evaluation. At times the management of incontinence of aged residents can be challenging and unsuccessful. The project chosen through the Clinical Fellowship program was Continence Management with the aim of raising awareness of best practice to assist in improving and providing person-centred resident care. Aims/objectives •  Review the literature on best practice management of incontinence •  Evaluate current practice in continence management for elderly residents within residential aged care services •  Improve adherence to best practice strategies of care for incontinence •  Raise awareness within the nursing home of the best practice management of incontinence •  Promote appropriate and effective use of resources for continence management •  Deliver individualised person-centred care to residents. •  Ensure best practice in continence management Methods  The Joanna Briggs Institute (JBI) Practical Application of Clinical Evidence System clinical audit tool was utilised to measure current practice against best practice. The results identify gaps that require improvement. The Getting Research into Practice process then allowed analysis of the level of compliance with each of the audit criteria, which would identify any barriers in implementing a selected course of action and aim to improve compliance. The project team was consulted with additional stakeholder consultation to form an action plan and implement strategies to improve practice. Results  Although 100% compliance with all audit criteria in audit 1 and 2 was not achieved, there was improvement in the criteria concerning the documented fluid intake for residents. Further strategies have been identified and implemented and this continues to be a 'work in progress'. Staff now have an acute awareness of what best practice means and the impact their practices have on continence management. The JBI clinical audit and feedback cycle will continue to facilitate the measuring and implementation of best practice for resident outcomes in residential aged care. © 2008 The Author. Journal Compilation © Blackwell Publishing Asia Pty Ltd.

Fecal incontinence after minor anorectal surgery.

PubMed

Zbar, A P; Beer-Gabel, M; Chiappa, A C; Aslam, M

2001-11-01

Fecal leakage after open lateral internal anal sphincterotomy for chronic anal fissure is common, but underreported. The aim of this study was to prospectively assess the physiologic and morphologic effects of sphincterotomy, comparing continent and incontinent patients after surgery. This group was further compared with an unselected group of patients presenting with incontinence after hemorrhoidectomy. Between January 1997 and June 1999, 23 patients were prospectively followed up through internal sphincterotomy with conventional and vector volume anorectal manometry, parametric assessment of the rectoanal inhibitory reflex, and endoanal magnetic resonance imaging. Fourteen continent patients were compared with 9 incontinent postoperative cases, 9 patients referred with incontinence after hemorrhoidectomy, and 33 healthy volunteers without anorectal disease. Significant differences were noted between continent and incontinent postsphincterotomy cases for all resting conventional and vector volume parameters and for some squeeze parameters. Although there was a significant reduction in postoperative high pressure zone length at rest, there were no differences between the postoperative groups. There was an increase in sphincter asymmetry of 6.7 percent (+/- 3.5 percent) in incontinent postsphincterotomy patients and a decrease of 2.8 percent (+/- 3.2 percent) in continent cases. Significant differences were noted for resting parameters between incontinent postsphincterotomy and posthemorrhoidectomy patients, with a higher resting sphincter asymmetry in the latter group. The area under the rectoanal inhibitory curve was smaller in postsphincterotomy incontinent patients when compared with continent cohorts over the distal and intermediate sphincter zones at rest with a reduced latency of inhibition. There was no difference in the magnetic resonance images of the sphincterotomy site between incontinent and continent postsphincterotomy cases and no posthemorrhoidectomy case had evidence of sphincteric damage. There are complex significant differences in the postoperative physiology of patients undergoing lateral internal sphincterotomy who become incontinent when compared with those who maintain continence. These physiologic changes are not reflected in detectable morphologic sphincteric differences. It is unknown whether these changes predict for long-term incontinence, and it is suggested that postoperative incontinence after minor anorectal surgery is not necessarily related either to a preexisting sphincter defect or inadvertent intraoperative sphincter injury.

A conceptual model of the risk of elder abuse posed by incontinence and care dependence.

PubMed

Ostaszkiewicz, Joan

2017-12-08

To describe and critically analyse the thinking that led to the concept of an association between incontinence, care dependence and elder abuse. Coercive or abusive continence care practices include chastising a person for their incontinence and overriding their attempts to resist continence care. Neglect in continence care is characterised by withholding or delaying responding to requests for help to maintain continence or to manage incontinence, and restricting a person's access to toileting assistance, incontinence aids or hygiene care. Contemporary biomedical understandings about incontinence and influencing concepts from the fields of sociology, psychology and nursing were analysed to inform the design of a conceptual model that elucidates possible associations between incontinence, care dependence and elder abuse. Ideas generated from an analysis of the concepts led to the development of a model termed the "Model of Attributes to Abuse of Dependent Elders in Continence Care" (MADE-CC). The MADE-CC theorises factors that cause and contribute to abuse in continence care. Carer factors include physical and emotional exhaustion, frustration related to the inability to control or predict incontinence, resentment associated with constraints imposed by care dependence, disgust associated with physical contact with urine/faeces, limited knowledge and skills about incontinence and ethical conflicts concerning care. Care recipient factors include frequent and severe incontinence, cognitive impairment and a history of physical or psychological trauma. Social factors that are theorised include the stigmatised nature of incontinence, social taboos and cultural norms and the private nature of continence care. The MADE-CC illuminates the potential risk of elder abuse posed by incontinence and care dependence. It should be used to improve ethical care of older people and stimulate debate about everyday ethics in the care of older people who are care dependent and to optimise their participation in decisions about their health and well-being. Nurses and carers should be aware of the multiple interrelated factors that contribute to the risk of elder abuse in the caregiving encounter, including the role of emotions. © 2017 John Wiley & Sons Ltd.

Finite-Frequency Seismic Imaging of Upper-Mantle Velocity Structures Beneath the South China Continent

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Qu, P.; Chen, Y. J.; Yu, Y.

2017-12-01

South China Continent is major formed from the Paleo-South China plate. The continent has experienced complicated tectonic history after Neoproterozoic. Previous studies suggested some possible model for the collision between South China Continent and North China Continent. Body wave tomography and surface wave tomography are widely used to inverse upper mantle velocity structure. In our study, finite frequency tomography were carried on to get explanation more correctly. We gathered nearly 60000 pieces of teleseismic event records by 166 broad band seismic stations with Mw > 5.5. Here sensitive kernel of ak135 velocity structure was calculated, which is based on Born approximation, and then we applied multi-channel cross-correlation to pick arrival time difference under 3 frequency band. Combining with crust thickness correct from receiver function, we solve the inversion matrix by LSQR method, and get accurate upper mantle structure of P, S velocity. For more accurate results, we apply a method to calculate Vp/Vs ratio, to help to verify the velocity anomaly. The result in this research shows: 1. A strong velocity anomaly exists in the northern of South China Continent, in an area 31°N between 112°-118°E. The anomaly is about . We suggest that, this anomaly is related to the collision from North China Continent. It implies the collision underthrusted to southward. 2. A clearly slow velocity anomaly exists in the northern of Cathaysia block. This low velocity anomaly exist on the boundary of Yangtz block and Cathysian block, it is related to the left over of block collision in early phanerozoic. 3. We recognized some little velocity anomaly exit in the research area. Comparing these velocity anomaly with U-Pb zircon ages, we suggest complicated orogenesis in Phanerozoic is the cause of the formation of these little anomaly. The result in our study support the collision model, which shows the underthrust direction is southward, on the south of Qinling-Dabie Orogen. The anomaly mass is larger than the composite orogenic in Yangtze block.

Summary of results of January climate simulations with the GISS coarse-mesh model

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Spar, J.; Cohen, C.; Wu, P.

1981-01-01

The large scale climates generated by extended runs of the model are relatively independent of the initial atmospheric conditions, if the first few months of each simulation are discarded. The perpetual January simulations with a specified SST field produced excessive snow accumulation over the continents of the Northern Hemisphere. Mass exchanges between the cold (warm) continents and the warm (cold) adjacent oceans produced significant surface pressure changes over the oceans as well as over the land. The effect of terrain and terrain elevation on the amount of precipitation was examined. The evaporation of continental moisture was calculated to cause large increases in precipitation over the continents.

Immunology in Africa.

PubMed

Cose, Stephen; Bagaya, Bernard; Nerima, Barbara; Joloba, Moses; Kambugu, Andrew; Tweyongyere, Robert; Dunne, David W; Mbidde, Edward; Kaleebu, Pontiano; Elliott, Alison M

2015-12-01

Africa is a continent with a large burden of both infectious and non-communicable diseases. If we are to move forward as a continent, we need to equip our growing cadre of exceptional young scientists with the skills needed to tackle the diseases endemic to this continent. For this, immunology is among the key disciplines. Africans should be empowered to study and understand the diseases that affect them, and to perform their cutting-edge research in their country of origin. This requires a multifaceted approach, with buy-in from funders, overseas partners and perhaps, most important of all, African governments themselves. © 2015 The Authors. Tropical Medicine & International Health published by John Wiley & Sons Ltd.

A note on the annual cycles of surface heat balance and temperature over a continent. [North America

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Spar, J.; Crane, G.

1974-01-01

A surface heating function, defined as the ratio of the time derivative of the mean annual temperature curve to the surface heat balance, is computed from the annual temperature range and heat balance data for the North American continent. An annual cycle of the surface heat balance is then reconstructed from the surface heating function and the annual temperature curve, and an annual cycle of evaporative plus turbulent heat loss is recomputed from the annual cycles of radiation balance and surface heat balance for the continent. The implications of these results for long range weather forecasting are discussed.

21 CFR 876.5310 - Nonimplanted, peripheral electrical continence device.

Code of Federal Regulations, 2010 CFR

2010-04-01

... 21 Food and Drugs 8 2010-04-01 2010-04-01 false Nonimplanted, peripheral electrical continence device. 876.5310 Section 876.5310 Food and Drugs FOOD AND DRUG ADMINISTRATION, DEPARTMENT OF HEALTH AND HUMAN SERVICES (CONTINUED) MEDICAL DEVICES GASTROENTEROLOGY-UROLOGY DEVICES Therapeutic Devices § 876...

21 CFR 876.5310 - Nonimplanted, peripheral electrical continence device.

Code of Federal Regulations, 2014 CFR

2014-04-01

... 21 Food and Drugs 8 2014-04-01 2014-04-01 false Nonimplanted, peripheral electrical continence device. 876.5310 Section 876.5310 Food and Drugs FOOD AND DRUG ADMINISTRATION, DEPARTMENT OF HEALTH AND HUMAN SERVICES (CONTINUED) MEDICAL DEVICES GASTROENTEROLOGY-UROLOGY DEVICES Therapeutic Devices § 876...

Continental Jigsaw.

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Oringer, Richard H.

1985-01-01

The article outlines an activity for providing a hands-on opportunity for elementary and middle school science students to study the theory of the earth's crustal change over the past several hundred million years. The theory of continents drifting away from one super continent is presented with the supportive evidence that scientists have…

Prolapse and continence surgery in countries of the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development in 2012.

PubMed

Haya, Nir; Baessler, Kaven; Christmann-Schmid, Corina; de Tayrac, Renaud; Dietz, Viviane; Guldberg, Rikke; Mascarenhas, Teresa; Nussler, Emil; Ballard, Emma; Ankardal, Maud; Boudemaghe, Thierry; Wu, Jennifer M; Maher, Christopher F

2015-06-01

The purpose of this study was to report the rates and types of pelvic organ prolapse (POP) and female continence surgery performed in member countries of the Organization for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) in 2012. The published health outcome data sources of the 34 OECD countries were contacted for data on POP and female continence interventions from 2010-2012. In nonresponding countries, data were sought from national or insurer databases. Extracted data were entered into an age-specific International Classification of Disease, edition 10 (ICD-10)-compliant Excel spreadsheet by 2 authors independently in English-speaking countries and a single author in non-English-speaking countries. Data were collated centrally and discrepancies were resolved by mutual agreement. We report on 684,250 POP and 410,352 continence procedures that were performed in 15 OECD countries in 2012. POP procedures (median rate, 1.38/1000 women; range, 0.51-2.55 prolapse procedures/1000 women) were performed 1.8 times more frequently than continence procedures (median rate, 0.75/1000 women; range, 0.46-1.65 continence procedures/1000 women). Repairs of the anterior vaginal compartment represented 54% of POP procedures; posterior repairs represented 43% of the procedures, and apical compartment repairs represented 20% of POP procedures. Median rate of graft usage was 15.7% of anterior vaginal repairs (range, 3.3-25.6%) and 8.5% (range, 3.2-17%) of posterior vaginal repairs. Apical compartment repairs were repaired vaginally at a median rate of 70% (range, 35-95%). Sacral colpopexy represented a median rate of 17% (range, 5-65%) of apical repairs; 61% of sacral colpopexies were performed minimally invasively. Between 2010 and 2012, there was a 3.7% median reduction in transvaginal grafts, a 4.0% reduction in midurethral slings, and a 25% increase in sacral colpopexies that were performed per 1000 women. Midurethral slings represented 82% of female continence surgeries. The 5-fold variation in the rate of prolapse interventions within OECD countries needs further evaluation. The significant heterogeneity (>10 times) in the rates at which individual POP procedures are performed indicates a lack of uniformity in the delivery of care to women with POP and demands the development of uniform guidelines for the surgical management of prolapse. In contrast, the midurethral slings were the standard female continence surgery performed throughout OECD countries in 2012. Copyright © 2015 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

Multiple Invasions into Freshwater by Pufferfishes (Teleostei: Tetraodontidae): A Mitogenomic Perspective

PubMed Central

Yamanoue, Yusuke; Miya, Masaki; Doi, Hiroyuki; Mabuchi, Kohji; Sakai, Harumi; Nishida, Mutsumi

2011-01-01

Pufferfishes of the Family Tetraodontidae are the most speciose group in the Order Tetraodontiformes and mainly inhabit coastal waters along continents. Although no members of other tetraodontiform families have fully discarded their marine lives, approximately 30 tetraodontid species spend their entire lives in freshwaters in disjunct tropical regions of South America, Central Africa, and Southeast Asia. To investigate the interrelationships of tetraodontid pufferfishes and thereby elucidate the evolutionary origins of their freshwater habitats, we performed phylogenetic analysis based on whole mitochondrial genome sequences from 50 tetraodontid species and closely related species (including 31 newly determined sequences). The resulting phylogenies reveal that the family is composed of four major lineages and that freshwater species from the different continents are independently nested in two of the four lineages. A monophyletic origin of the use of freshwater habitats was statistically rejected, and ancestral habitat reconstruction on the resulting tree demonstrates that tetraodontids independently entered freshwater habitats in different continents at least three times. Relaxed molecular-clock Bayesian divergence time estimation suggests that the timing of these invasions differs between continents, occurring at 0–10 million years ago (MA) in South America, 17–38 MA in Central Africa, and 48–78 MA in Southeast Asia. These timings are congruent with geological events that could facilitate adaptation to freshwater habitats in each continent. PMID:21364898

Intradetrusor onabotulinumtoxinA injections for refractory neurogenic detrusor overactivity incontinence: do we need urodynamic investigation for outcome assessment?

PubMed

Koschorke, Miriam; Leitner, Lorenz; Sadri, Helen; Knüpfer, Stephanie C; Mehnert, Ulrich; Kessler, Thomas M

2017-12-01

To evaluate if urinary continence in patients with refractory neurogenic detrusor overactivity (NDO) incontinence after intradetrusor onabotulinumtoxinA injections is sufficient for appropriate outcome assessment or if urodynamic investigation (UDI) is needed. A consecutive series of 148 patients undergoing intradetrusor onabotulinumtoxinA injections for refractory NDO incontinence were prospectively evaluated. Patients underwent UDI before and at 6 weeks after onabotulinumtoxinA injections. The primary outcome was the prevalence of maximum storage detrusor pressure (Pdet max storage) of >40 cmH 2 O in continent patients at 6 weeks after treatment. The secondary outcomes were treatment effects on other clinical and video-urodynamic variables. At 6 weeks after intradetrusor onabotulinumtoxinA injections, 98 of the 148 patients (66%) with NDO incontinence were continent. Of these patients, 18 (18%, confidence interval 12-27%) had a Pdet max storage of >40 cmH 2 O. Gender, underlying neurological disorder, and high Pdet max storage before treatment appear to increase the risk of poor urodynamic outcomes. Urinary continence is not sufficient for outcome assessment after intradetrusor onabotulinumtoxinA injections, as high intravesical pressures threatening the upper urinary tract may be missed in a relevant proportion of continent patients. Therefore, we strongly recommend UDI as a routine part of the follow-up. © 2017 The Authors BJU International © 2017 BJU International Published by John Wiley & Sons Ltd.

77 FR 24349 - Airworthiness Directives; Learjet Inc. Airplanes

Federal Register 2010, 2011, 2012, 2013, 2014

2012-04-24

..., Kansas 67209-2942; telephone 316-946-2000; fax 316-946-2220; email [email protected] ; Internet... 100, Mid- Continent Airport, Wichita, Kansas 67209; phone: 316-946-4135; fax: 316-946-4107; email... Road, Room 100, Mid-Continent Airport, Wichita, Kansas 67209; phone: 316- 946-4135; fax: 316-946-4107...

76 FR 78520 - Airworthiness Directives; Learjet Inc. Airplanes

Federal Register 2010, 2011, 2012, 2013, 2014

2011-12-19

... Learjet, Inc., One Learjet Way, Wichita, Kansas 67209-2942; telephone (316) 946-2000; fax (316) 946-2220... Road, Room 100, Mid-Continent Airport, Wichita, KS 67209; phone: (316) 946-4152; fax: (316) 946-4129... 100, Mid-Continent Airport, Wichita, KS 67209; phone: (316) 946-4152; fax: (316) 946-4129; email: paul...

20 CFR 704.101 - Administration; compensation districts.

Code of Federal Regulations, 2010 CFR

2010-04-01

... District No. 14. (d) All areas west of the continents of North and South America (except coastal islands..., Central and South America (including coastal islands); areas east of the continents of North and South... administration of this Act areas assigned to the compensation districts established for administration of the...

The Great Tradition

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Brann, Eva

2012-01-01

Is not America the West's very West, from the East Coast across the continent, "Western" even in its latest, pervasive piety--diversity? For diversity-preachment, in spite of all its excesses, is a recognition that this continent hosts--except for a tiny remnant of "Native" Americans--an immigrant population, who themselves, or through their…

Costs and Benefits of a Mid-Continent Expansion of Loran-C

DOT National Transportation Integrated Search

1979-03-01

Loran-C chains currently in operation or approved for construction will soon cover not only the U.S. coastal and Great Lakes waters, but also 63 percent of the land area and 92 percent of the population of the contiguous 48 states. The mid-continent ...

Modeled summer background concentration nutrients and suspended sediment in the mid-continent (USA) great rivers

EPA Science Inventory

We used regression models to predict background concentration of four water quality indictors: total nitrogen (N), total phosphorus (P), chloride, and total suspended solids (TSS), in the mid-continent (USA) great rivers, the Upper Mississippi, the Lower Missouri, and the Ohio. F...

CyberHunt: Head Off to Antarctica.

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Kloza, Brad

2001-01-01

Explains how to take an elementary class on a cyber visit to the continent of Antarctica, the highest, driest, and coldest continent on earth. A student reproducible page presents eight web sites to visit in this quest as well as questions to answer about each site. Answers to the questions are included. (SM)

Littoral and Shoreline Wood in Mid-continent Great Rivers (USA)

EPA Science Inventory

Less is known about the ecology of wood in great rivers than in smaller lotic systems. We used a probability survey to estimate the abundance of littoral and shoreline wood along the mid-continent great rivers of the United States: the Missouri, Upper Mississippi, and the Ohio Ri...

Investigating Students' Ideas about Plate Tectonics

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Ford, Brent; Taylor, Melanie

2006-01-01

Giant exploding volcanoes...asteroids crashing into Earth...continents floating across the oceans...massive pools of lava...violent earthquakes splitting continents--middle school students hold a variety of ideas about Earth, how it has changed over time, and what has caused these changes. Listening to students talk about how the world works is…

African Universities Tackle the Continent's Agricultural Crisis

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Lindow, Megan

2009-01-01

Pests, population growth, and depleted soil have wreaked havoc on agriculture in Africa, so universities across the continent are rethinking how they teach the topic. Some African universities have been building their own networks and pooling their limited resources to train more agricultural scientists and improve their responsiveness to the…

Understanding Barriers to Continence Care in Institutions

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Tannenbaum, Cara; Labrecque, Danielle; Lepage, Christiane

2005-01-01

This work seeks to identify factors that facilitate or diminish care-providers' propensity to improve continence care in long-term care (LTC) settings. We conducted a cross-sectional qualitative study using focus group methodology in four long-term care institutions in Montreal, QC. Forty-two nurses, nursing assistants, and orderlies caring for…

An Assessment of Stressor Extent and Biological Condition in the North American Mid-continent Great Rivers (USA)

EPA Science Inventory

We assessed the North American mid-continent great rivers (Upper Mississippi, Missouri, and Ohio). We estimated the extent of each river in most- (MDC) or least-disturbed condition (LDC) based on multiple biological response indicators: fi sh and macroinvertebrate, trophic stat...

Staying the Course: Vital U.S. Interests on the African Continent

DTIC Science & Technology

2012-03-13

much needed agricultural development. On the continent in which desertification has its greatest impact,11 taking action to minimize avoidable stress on... Desertification Home Page at ―Regions-Africa,‖ http://www.unccd.int (accessed March 12, 2012). 12 Gianluca Rampolla, ―Transforming Risks into Cooperation

The Edges of the Ocean: An Introduction.

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Burke, Kevin

1979-01-01

Introduces a series of related articles on the study of ocean/continent boundaries (margins) within the framework of plate tectonics. Topics discussed include: early attempts to interpret ocean/continent boundaries, Atlantic-type margins, Pacific-type margins, the edges of ancient oceans, and future challenges in the study of continental margins.…

A Model of Continental Growth and Mantle Degassing Comparing Biotic and Abiotic Worlds

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Höning, D.; Hansen-Goos, H.; Spohn, T.

2012-12-01

While examples for interaction of the biosphere with the atmosphere can be easily cited (e.g., production and consumption of O2), interaction between the biosphere and the solid planet and its interior is much less established. It has been argued (e.g., Rosing et al. 2006; Sleep et al, 2012) that the formation of continents could be a consequence of bioactivity harvesting solar energy through photosynthesis to help build the continents and that the mantle should carry a chemical biosignature. We present an interaction model that includes mantle convection, mantle water vapor degassing at mid-oceanic ridges and regassing through subduction zones, continental crust formation and erosion and water storage and transport in a porous oceanic crust that includes hydrous mineral phases. The mantle viscosity in this model depends on the water concentration in the mantle. We use boundary layer theory of mantle convection to parameterize the mantle convection flow rate and assume that the plate speed equals the mantle flow rate. The biosphere enters the calculation through the assumption that the continental erosion rate is enhanced by a factor of several through bioactivity and through an assumed reduction of the kinetic barrier to diagenetic and metamorphic reactions (e.g., Kim et al. 2004) in the sedimentary basins in subduction zones that would lead to increased water storage capacities. We further include a stochastic model of continent-to-continent interactions that limits the effective total length of subduction zones. We use present day parameters of the Earth and explore a phase plane spanned by the percentage of surface coverage of the Earth by continents and the total water content of the mantle. We vary the ratio of the erosion rate in a postulated abiotic Earth to the present Earth, as well as the activation barrier to diagenetic and metamorphic reactions that affect the water storage capacity of the subducting crust. We find stable and unstable fixed points in the phase area where the net degassing and continental growth rates are zero. Many of the parameter combinations result in one stable fixed point with a completely dry mantle that lacks continents altogether and a second stable fixed point with a continent coverage and mantle water concentration close to that of the present Earth. In addition, there is an unstable fixed point situated between the two. In general, the abiotic world has a larger zone of attraction for the fixed point with a dry mantle and no continents than the biotic world. Thus a biotic world is found to be more likely to develop continents and a have wet mantle. Furthermore, the biotic model is generally found to have a wetter mantle than an abiotic model with the same continent coverage. Through the effect of water on the mantle rheology, the biotic world would thus tend to be tectonically more active and have a more rapid long-term carbon silicate cycle. References: J. Kim, H. Dong, J. Seabaugh, S. W. Newell, D. D. Eberl, Science 303, 830-832, 2004 N. H. Sleep, D. K. Bird, E. Pope, Annu. Rev. Earth Planet. Sci. 40, 277-300, 2012 M. T. Rosing, D. K. Bird, N. H. Sleep, W. Glassley, F. Albarede, Paleo3 232, 90-113, 2006

Engineering processes for the African VLBI network

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Thondikulam, Venkatasubramani L.; Loots, Anita; Gaylard, Michael

2013-04-01

The African VLBI Network (AVN) is an initiative by the SKA-SA and HartRAO, business units of the National Research Foundation (NRF), Department of Science and Technology (DST), South Africa. The aim is to fill the existing gap of Very Long Baseline Interferometry (VLBI)-capable radio telescopes in the African continent by a combination of new build as well as conversion of large redundant telecommunication antennas through an Inter-Governmental collaborative programme in Science and Technology. The issue of human capital development in the Continent in the techniques of radio astronomy engineering and science is a strong force to drive the project and is expected to contribute significantly to the success of Square Kilometer Array (SKA) in the Continent.

Building the Next Generation of Scientists with US-Africa Exchange Programs

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Sheth, Kartik

2014-01-01

In the past couple of decades and in the upcoming decade an explosion of cutting edge multi-wavelength facilities have begun or are expected to be operating across the African continent (SALT, HESS, MITRA, AVN, PAPER, MeerKAT, African VLBI and the SKA). At the same time countries across the continent are developing human capacity in science and technology using astronomy as a gateway science. Building on previous collaborations between the National Radio Astronomy Observatory and South Africa, we are embarking on an effort to build a new international (and national) partnership to exchange students and faculty between the US and the African continent. I will describe the status and future development plans for this program.

Analysis of MAGSAT and surface data of the Indian region

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Agarwal, G. C. (Principal Investigator)

1983-01-01

Techniques and significant results of an analysis of MAGSAT and surface data of the Indian region are described. Specific investigative tasks included: (1) use of the multilevel data at different altitudes to develop a model for variation of magnetic anomaly with altitude; (2) development of the regional model for the description of main geomagnetic field for the Indian sub-continent using MAGSAT and observatory data; (3) development of regional mathematical model of secular variations over the Indian sub-continent; and (4) downward continuation of the anomaly field obtained from MAGSAT and its combination with the existing observatory data to produce a regional anomaly map for elucidating tectonic features of the Indian sub-continent.

Horizontal gravity gradient - An aid to the definition of crustal structure in North America

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Sharpton, V. L.; Grieve, R. A. F.; Thomas, M. D.; Halpenny, J. F.

1987-01-01

A map of the magnitude of the horizontal Bouguer gravity gradient over the North American continent is used to delineate lateral discontinuities in upper crustal density and/or thickness associated with such processes as suturing and rifting. The usefulness of gradient trends in mapping major structural boundaries, which are sometimes poorly exposed or completely buried, is demonstrated by examples such as the buried southward extension of the Grenville Front and buried boundaries of the Superior Province. Gradient trends also draw attention to poorly known structures, which may have major tectonic significance, and to a continent-wide structural fabric, which may provide a record of the tectonic growth of the North American continent.

Malaria in South America: a drug discovery perspective.

PubMed

Cruz, Luiza R; Spangenberg, Thomas; Lacerda, Marcus V G; Wells, Timothy N C

2013-05-24

The challenge of controlling and eventually eradicating malaria means that new tools are urgently needed. South America's role in this fight spans both ends of the research and development spectrum: both as a continent capable of discovering and developing new medicines, and also as a continent with significant numbers of malaria patients. This article reviews the contribution of groups in the South American continent to the research and development of new medicines over the last decade. Therefore, the current situation of research targeting malaria control and eradication is discussed, including endemicity, geographical distribution, treatment, drug-resistance and diagnosis. This sets the scene for a review of efforts within South America to discover and optimize compounds with anti-malarial activity.

Family Planning Services Available to Migratory Farm Workers in the Mid-Continent Streams.

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Planned Parenthood--World Population, Austin, TX. Southwest Region.

The information in this directory is designed to promote continuity in family planning services for migrant families in mid-continent streams. It provides professional personnel with a new tool to help meet the distinctive needs of individual migrants. Names, addresses, schedules, methods, and fee information of service agencies (health…

A Magic Carpet Trip to Learning Geography.

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Kapp, Billie M.

1991-01-01

Presents a series of hands-on activities for teaching about continents and oceans. Includes projects on (1) why earth is the blue planet; (2) continent names, shapes, and locations; and (3) continental drift. Discusses use of poetry, music games, mathematics, and science to interest students. Suggests ending with using maps in following directions…

Papers presented to the Conference on Heat and Detachment in Crustal Extension on Continents and Planets

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

1985-01-01

Several topics relative to heat and detachment in crustal extension on continents and planets are discussed. Rifting on Venus, heat flow and continental breakup, magnetism, the mountains and tectonic processes of Io, and the ductile extension of planetary lithospheres are among the topics covered.

Taking the pulse of a continent: Expanding site-based research infrastructure for regional- to continental-scale ecology

USDA-ARS?s Scientific Manuscript database

Many of the most dramatic and surprising effects of global change on ecological systems will occur across large spatial extents, from regions to continents. Multiple ecosystem types will be impacted across a range of interacting spatial and temporal scales. The ability of ecologists to understand an...

Feldspar basalts in lunar soil and the nature of the lunar continents

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Reid, A. M.; Ridley, W. I.; Harmon, R. S.; Warner, J.; Brett, R.; Jakes, P.; Brown, R. W.

1974-01-01

It is found that 25% on the Apollo-14 glasses have the same composition as the glasses in two samples taken from the Luna-16 column. The compositions are equivalent to feldspar basalt and anorthosite gabbro, and are similar to the feldspar basalts identified from Surveyor-7 analysis for lunar continents.

Positive Reinforcement and Logical Consequences in the Treatment of Classroom Encopresis.

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Lyon, Mark A.

1984-01-01

A child with a diagnosis of mild mental retardation was treated for encopresis. Positive reinforcement procedures for continence and logical consequences for soiling were effective in accomplishing complete continence during the final phase of treatment. An ABCDA design with a decelerating rate of reinforcement was utilized to assess treatment…

Reduction of Risk in Exploration and Prospect Generation through a Multidisciplinary Basin-Analysis Program in the South-Central Mid-Continent Region

DOE Office of Scientific and Technical Information (OSTI.GOV)

Banerjee, S.; Barker, C.; Fite, J.

1999-04-02

This report will discuss a series of regional studies that were undertaken within the South-Central Mid-Continent region of the U.S. Coverage is also provided about a series of innovative techniques that were used for this assessment.

Local and Remote Climate Response to Deforestation in Maritime Continent

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Chen, C. C.; Lo, M. H.; Yu, J. Y.

2016-12-01

Deforestation in tropical regions would lead to changes in local energy and moisture budget, resulting in further impacts on regional and global climate. Previous studies have indicated that the reduction of evapotranspiration dominates the influence of tropical deforestation, which causes a warmer and drier climate. Most studies agree that the deforestation leads to an increase in temperature and decline in precipitation over the deforested area. However, unlike Amazon or Africa, Maritime Continent consists of islands surrounded by oceans so the drying effects found in Amazon or Africa may not be the case in Maritime Continent. Thus, our objective is to investigate the local and remote climate responses to deforestation in such unique region. We conduct deforestation experiments using NCAR Community Earth System Model (CESM) and through converting the tropical rainforest into grassland. The preliminary results show that deforestation in Maritime Continent leads to an increase in both temperature and precipitation, which is not predicted by earlier studies. We will further perform moisture budget analysis to explore how the precipitation changes with the deforestation forcing.

Balancing water resources development and environmental sustainability in Africa: a review of recent research findings and applications.

PubMed

McClain, Michael E

2013-09-01

Sustainable development in Africa is dependent on increasing use of the continent's water resources without significantly degrading ecosystem services that are also fundamental to human wellbeing. This is particularly challenging in Africa because of high spatial and temporal variability in the availability of water resources and limited amounts of total water availability across expansive semi-arid portions of the continent. The challenge is compounded by ambitious targets for increased water use and a rush of international funding to finance development activities. Balancing development with environmental sustainability requires (i) understanding the boundary conditions imposed by the continent's climate and hydrology today and into the future, (ii) estimating the magnitude and spatial distribution of water use needed to meet development goals, and (iii) understanding the environmental water requirements of affected ecosystems, their current status and potential consequences of increased water use. This article reviews recent advancements in each of these topics and highlights innovative approaches and tools available to support sustainable development. While much remains to be learned, scientific understanding and technology should not be viewed as impediments to sustainable development on the continent.

Integrated Mid-Continent Carbon Capture, Sequestration & Enhanced Oil Recovery Project

DOE Office of Scientific and Technical Information (OSTI.GOV)

Brian McPherson

2010-08-31

A consortium of research partners led by the Southwest Regional Partnership on Carbon Sequestration and industry partners, including CAP CO2 LLC, Blue Source LLC, Coffeyville Resources, Nitrogen Fertilizers LLC, Ash Grove Cement Company, Kansas Ethanol LLC, Headwaters Clean Carbon Services, Black & Veatch, and Schlumberger Carbon Services, conducted a feasibility study of a large-scale CCS commercialization project that included large-scale CO{sub 2} sources. The overall objective of this project, entitled the 'Integrated Mid-Continent Carbon Capture, Sequestration and Enhanced Oil Recovery Project' was to design an integrated system of US mid-continent industrial CO{sub 2} sources with CO{sub 2} capture, and geologicmore » sequestration in deep saline formations and in oil field reservoirs with concomitant EOR. Findings of this project suggest that deep saline sequestration in the mid-continent region is not feasible without major financial incentives, such as tax credits or otherwise, that do not exist at this time. However, results of the analysis suggest that enhanced oil recovery with carbon sequestration is indeed feasible and practical for specific types of geologic settings in the Midwestern U.S.« less

Transport and scavenging of biomass burning aerosols in the maritime continent

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Lee, H. H.; Wang, C.

2014-12-01

Biomass burning frequently occurs in summertime over the maritime continent, especially in Malaysia peninsula, Sumatra, and Borneo. Under certain weather conditions, particulate matters emitted from such fires cause degrade of air quality and thus occurrence of often weekly long haze in downwind locations such as Singapore. It is possible that these biomass burning aerosols may have influenced convective clouds in the maritime continent though such cases have not been well simulated and understood. In order to improve understanding of the spatiotemporal coverage and influence of biomass burning aerosols in the maritime continent, we have used the Weather Research and Forecasting (WRF) model to study the transport of biomass burning aerosols from Malaysia peninsula, Sumatra, and Borneo, using biomass burning emissions from the Fire INventory from NCAR (FINN) version 1.0. We choose to use emissions from the month of August because the annual emissions peak often occurs within this month. Based on a multi-year ensemble simulation, we have examined the influences of various meteorological regimes on the aerosol transport and wet removal.

Comparative urodynamic studies of continent and stress incontinent women in pregnancy and in the puerperium.

PubMed

Iosif, S; Ulmsten, U

1981-07-15

Twelve pregnant women were examined by urethral pressure profile measurement and simultaneous urethrocystometry early in pregnancy (weeks 12 to 16), in the thirty-eighth week, and 5 to 7 days after delivery. All patients reported symptoms of stress incontinence starting at an early 5 to 7 days after delivery. All patients reported symptoms of stress incontinence starting at an early gestational age, it was found that that the stress incontinent women, compared to 14 continent, healthy women from whom measurements were obtained earlier, had shorter urethral lengths. Furthermore, no increase in urethral length during pregnancy was registered among the stress incontinent women, whereas such an increase did occur in the continent women. In contrast to the continent women, the incontinent patients had a low urethral closure pressure at rest and this pressure did not appear to increase sufficiently to compensate for the progressive increase in bladder pressure during pregnancy. As a result the urethral closure pressure in the stress incontinent women, therefore, decreased more and more during stress situations as pregnancy progressed, resulting in an increased leakage of urine.

A study on the birth and globalization of sports originated from each continent.

PubMed

Lee, Byung Jin; Kim, Tae Young

2016-02-01

The purpose of this research is to see how continent specific sports rose to its modern-day status through globalization. This research focuses on the historical background of how England's football, America's national pastime, baseball, Japan's Judo, and Korea's Taekwondo developed into sports in addition to the reasoning behind its globalization. Promoted by England and the rest of the European continent, Soccer is considered to be one of the world's most popular sports and has served its function as a form of cultural imperialism. It has also advanced alongside commerce, missionary work and other types of cultural clashes. In America, baseball was used to integrate its multicultural society and developed so that the team captain leads the rest of his team. The sports of Oriental countries were reborn through modernization that was influenced by the modern rationality, education etc. of its Western counterparts. Judo and Taekwondo were introduced globally through the Olympic Games. As mentioned above the birth of sporting events has a close connection to a nation's cultural background and globalization has taken different forms depending on which continent it originated from.

The history of the North African mitochondrial DNA haplogroup U6 gene flow into the African, Eurasian and American continents

PubMed Central

2014-01-01

Background Complete mitochondrial DNA (mtDNA) genome analyses have greatly improved the phylogeny and phylogeography of human mtDNA. Human mitochondrial DNA haplogroup U6 has been considered as a molecular signal of a Paleolithic return to North Africa of modern humans from southwestern Asia. Results Using 230 complete sequences we have refined the U6 phylogeny, and improved the phylogeographic information by the analysis of 761 partial sequences. This approach provides chronological limits for its arrival to Africa, followed by its spreads there according to climatic fluctuations, and its secondary prehistoric and historic migrations out of Africa colonizing Europe, the Canary Islands and the American Continent. Conclusions The U6 expansions and contractions inside Africa faithfully reflect the climatic fluctuations that occurred in this Continent affecting also the Canary Islands. Mediterranean contacts drove these lineages to Europe, at least since the Neolithic. In turn, the European colonization brought different U6 lineages throughout the American Continent leaving the specific sign of the colonizers origin. PMID:24885141

Experiences of surgical continence management approaches for cloacal anomalies: a qualitative analysis based on 6 women.

PubMed

Liao, L-M; Baker, E; Boyle, M E; Woodhouse, C R J; Creighton, S M

2014-10-01

The aim of this qualitative study was to gain insight into health care experiences of young women diagnosed with cloacal anomalies, with a special focus on continence management. Qualitative analysis of one-to-one interviews. A tertiary center for congenital anomalies of the urogenital tract in London. Six women aged 16 to 24 with cloacal anomalies. Tape-recorded one-to-one semi-stuctured interviews with a skilled interviewer. The taped interviews were transcribed and analyzed verbatim using interpretative phenomenological analysis according to the research question. Organizing themes across all of the accounts were identified. Two organizing themes concerning our research interests are summarized. The first theme Personal Agency in the Hands of Experts focuses on the interviewees' appreciation of their life-saving surgical care and their involvement in treatment decisions. The second theme Compromises and Trade-Offs focuses on what it was like to live with the more traditional versus the more advanced continence methods. Reliability emerged as a key priority in terms of continence treatment outcome. Gratitude may have interfered with the women's honest communications during treatment decision and evaluation consultations. A more developed approach to communication about the complex interventions proposed, founded on a nuanced understanding of users perspectives, can enhance informed decision making about continence management approaches. Despite these specific gaps, the interviewees were appreciative of their care and optimistic about life. Copyright © 2014 North American Society for Pediatric and Adolescent Gynecology. Published by Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

How Genes Have Illuminated the History of Early Americans and Latino Americans

PubMed Central

Ruiz-Linares, Andrés

2015-01-01

The American continent currently accounts for ∼15% of the world population. Although first settled thousands of years ago and fitting its label as “the New World,” the European colonial expansion initiated in the late 15th century resulted in people from virtually every corner of the globe subsequently settling in the Americas. The arrival of large numbers of immigrants led to a dramatic decline of the Native American population and extensive population mixing. A salient feature of the current human population of the Americas is, thus, its great diversity. The genetic variation of the Native peoples that recent immigrants encountered had been shaped by demographic events acting since the initial peopling of the continent. Similarly, but on a compressed timescale, the colonial history of the Americas has had a major impact on the genetic makeup of the current population of the continent. A range of genetic analyses has been used to study both the ancient settlement of the continent and more recent history of population mixing. Here, I show how these two strands of research overlap and make use of results from other scientific disciplines to produce a fuller picture of the settlement of the continent at different time periods. The biological diversity of the Americas also provides prominent examples of the complex interaction between biological and social factors in constructing human identities and of the difficulties in defining human populations. PMID:25256008

Seismic imaging of a mid-lithospheric discontinuity beneath Ontong Java Plateau

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Tharimena, Saikiran; Rychert, Catherine A.; Harmon, Nicholas

2016-09-01

Ontong Java Plateau (OJP) is a huge, completely submerged volcanic edifice that is hypothesized to have formed during large plume melting events ∼90 and 120 My ago. It is currently resisting subduction into the North Solomon trench. The size and buoyancy of the plateau along with its history of plume melting and current interaction with a subduction zone are all similar to the characteristics and hypothesized mechanisms of continent formation. However, the plateau is remote, and enigmatic, and its proto-continent potential is debated. We use SS precursors to image seismic discontinuity structure beneath Ontong Java Plateau. We image a velocity increase with depth at 28 ± 4 km consistent with the Moho. In addition, we image velocity decreases at 80 ± 5 km and 282 ± 7 km depth. Discontinuities at 60-100 km depth are frequently observed both beneath the oceans and the continents. However, the discontinuity at 282 km is anomalous in comparison to surrounding oceanic regions; in the context of previous results it may suggest a thick viscous root beneath OJP. If such a root exists, then the discontinuity at 80 km bears some similarity to the mid-lithospheric discontinuities (MLDs) observed beneath continents. One possibility is that plume melting events, similar to that which formed OJP, may cause discontinuities in the MLD depth range. Plume-plate interaction could be a mechanism for MLD formation in some continents in the Archean prior to the onset of subduction.

Tectonics of the Western Gulf of Oman

DOE Office of Scientific and Technical Information (OSTI.GOV)

White, R.S.; Ross, D.A.

1979-07-10

The Oman line, running northward from the Strait of Hormuz separates a continent-continent plate boundary to the northwest (Persian Gulf region) from an ocean-continent plate boundary to the southeast (Gulf of Oman region). A large basement ridge detected on multichannel seismic reflection and gravity profiles to the west of the Oman line is probably a subsurface continuation of the Musandam peninsula beneath the Strait of Hormuz. Collision and underthrusting beneath Iran of the Arabian plate on which this ridge lies has caused many of the large earthquakes that have occurred in this region. Convergence between the oceanic crust of themore » Arabian plate beneath the Gulf of Oman and the continental Eurasian plate beneath Iran to the north is accommodated by northward dipping subduction. A deformed sediment prism which forms the offshore Makran continental margin and which extends onto land in the Iranian Makran has accumulated above the descending plate. In the western part of the Gulf of Oman, continued convergence has brought the opposing continental margin of Oman into contact with the Makran continental margin. This is an example of the initial stages of a continent-continent type collision. A model of imbricate thrusting is proposed to explain the development of the fold ridges and basins on the Makran continental margin. Sediments from the subducting plate are buckled and incorporated into the edge of the Makran continental margin in deformed wedges and subsequently uplifted along major faults that penetrate the accretionary prism further to the north.« less

Factors affecting return of continence 3 months after robot-assisted radical prostatectomy: analysis from a large, prospective data by a single surgeon.

PubMed

Ko, Young Hwii; Coelho, Rafael F; Chauhan, Sanket; Sivaraman, Ananthakrishnan; Schatloff, Oscar; Cheon, Jun; Patel, Vipul R

2012-01-01

In this study we identified preoperative or intraoperative factors responsible for the early return of continence after robot-assisted radical prostatectomy using data from a high volume center. Data from 1,299 patients who underwent robot-assisted radical prostatectomy performed by a single surgeon from January 2008 to June 2010 were collected prospectively and analyzed retrospectively. Patients were categorized according to whether they regained continence (no pad and no urinary leakage) within 3 months and variables were then compared. A self-administered validated questionnaire (Expanded Prostate Cancer Index Composite) was used for assessment of continence status and time to recovery. Within 3 months after surgery 86.3% of patients (1,121/1,299) had recovered continence. Multivariable Cox regression analysis revealed that only age (p <0.001, hazard ratio 0.98, 95% CI 0.97-0.99) and performance of a nerve sparing procedure were independent predictors. After adjusting for age, the hazard ratio was 1.61 (95% CI 1.25-2.07, p <0.001) for partial nerve sparing and 1.44 (1.13-1.83, p = 0.003) for bilateral nerve sparing compared to the nonnerve sparing group. Median time (95% CI) to the recovery of continence was prolonged in the nonnerve sparing group compared to nerve sparing counterparts at 6 (5.12-6.88), 4 (3.60-4.40) and 5 weeks (4.70-5.30) in the nonnerve sparing, partial nerve sparing and bilateral nerve sparing groups, respectively, with log rank p <0.01. Findings from our analysis indicate that the likelihood of postoperative urinary control was significantly higher in younger patients and when a nerve sparing procedure was performed. Copyright © 2012 American Urological Association Education and Research, Inc. Published by Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

‘What does that mean?’: a qualitative exploration of the primary and secondary clinical care experiences of young people with continence problems in the UK

PubMed Central

Whale, Katie; Cramer, Helen; Wright, Anne; Sanders, Caroline; Joinson, Carol

2017-01-01

Objectives To explore the clinical care experiences of young people with continence problems. Design In-depth semistructured qualitative interviews were conducted by Skype and telephone, with the addition of art-based participatory research techniques. Transcripts were analysed using inductive thematic analysis. Setting Primary and secondary care in the UK. Participants We interviewed 20 participants (9 females, 11 males) aged 11–20 years. There were six participants with bedwetting alone, five with daytime wetting alone, five with combined (day and night) wetting and four with soiling. Results We identified four themes: appointment experiences, treatment experiences, engagement with treatment and internalisation and externalisation of the continence problem. Patient-focused appointments using age-appropriate language were highly desirable. Continuity of care was highlighted as an important aspect of positive clinical experiences; however, this was found to be rare with many participants seeing a different person on each visit. Participants had tried a wide range of treatments for their continence problems with varying degrees of success. Relapse and treatment failure were common. Experiencing relapse was distressing and diminished participants’ belief in the success of future treatments and undermined adherence. Participants would be seen to adopt two opposing coping strategies for dealing with their continence problem— internalisation and externalisation. Conclusion Incontinence in young people is challenging to manage. Young people may need to try a range of treatments before their symptoms improve. Due to challenges in treatment, there is an increased risk of poor adherence. During patient-focused appointments, clinicians should work to build rapport with patients and use age-appropriate language. Involving young people in their own care decisions is important. The way in which young people understand their continence problem can influence their coping strategies and adherence to treatment regimes. PMID:29042374

Improved quality of life and sexuality with continent urinary diversion in quadriplegic women with umbilical stoma.

PubMed

Moreno, J G; Chancellor, M B; Karasick, S; King, S; Abdill, C K; Rivas, D A

1995-08-01

Quality of life issues prompted us to offer continent urinary diversion to quadriplegic women who required cystectomy for end-stage neurogenic vesical dysfunction complicated by urethral destruction as a result of chronic indwelling catheterization. Three women with spinal cord injury (SCI) and resultant quadriplegia of 5 to 15 years duration underwent continent urinary diversion. Preoperative evaluation and urodynamic studies in each showed a bladder capacity of less than 150mL, bilateral vesicoureteral reflux, recurrent febrile urinary tract infections, an incompetent urethral sphincter, and incontinence around an indwelling catheter in all three patients. Although highly motivated, these women showed minimal dexterity and were unable to perform urethral self-catheterization. Each was opposed to having an incontinent abdominal urinary stoma. The urinary reservoir was created from 30cm of detubularized right colon. The continence mechanism used an intussuscepted and imbricated ileocecal valve. The umbilicus was chosen as the urostomy site because of cosmetic appearance and ease of catheterization for a patient with minimal dexterity. Follow-up ranged from 18 to 30 months. Reservoir capacity ranged from 550 to 800mL without evidence of reflux or stomal leakage. The incidence of symptomatic autonomic dysreflexia and urinary tract infection decreased postoperatively in all patients. Of the two women who were sexually active, the frequency of activity increased from 8 to 15 episodes per month in one and 3 to 4 episodes per month in the other. Both reported improved sexual enjoyment. Body image and satisfaction with urologic management increased in all three patients. In conclusion, continent urinary diversion in selected quadriplegic patients is a reasonable alterative to incontinent intestinal urinary diversion. The umbilical stoma provides an excellent cosmetic result which patients with minimal dexterity are able to catheterize easily. Continent urinary diversion in women results in improved self-image, quality of life, and enables greater sexual satisfaction.

Robotic radical prostatectomy for elderly patients: probability of achieving continence and potency 1 year after surgery.

PubMed

Shikanov, Sergey; Desai, Vikas; Razmaria, Aria; Zagaja, Gregory P; Shalhav, Arieh L

2010-05-01

We assessed the probability of achieving continence and potency after robotic radical prostatectomy in elderly patients. The cohort included 1,436 robotic radical prostatectomy cases performed at our institution between 2003 and 2008. Continence (pad-free) and potency (erection sufficient for intercourse) at baseline and 1 year after surgery were evaluated by the UCLA-PCI questionnaire. Point estimates of the predicted probabilities of continence and potency for age 65, 70 and 75 years were calculated from multivariate logistic regression models adjusting for age, nerve sparing status, baseline International Prostate Symptom Score and baseline Sexual Health Inventory for Men score. Patients who were impotent before surgery or those who received hormones or radiation within 1 year after surgery were censored. Mean patient age was 60 years (range 38 to 85) with 25% older than 65 years and 77 (5%) 70 years old or older. Age (OR 0.97, p = 0.002), baseline I-PSS (OR 0.98, p = 0.02) and Sexual Health Inventory for Men scores (OR 1.02, p = 0.005) were independently associated with being pad-free. Age (OR 0.92, p <0.0001), baseline Sexual Health Inventory for Men score (OR 1.1, p <0.0001) and bilateral nerve sparing (OR 2.92, p <0.0001) were independently associated with achieving potency. Predicted probabilities (95% CI) of postoperative 1-year continence at age 65, 70 and 75 years were 0.66 (0.63, 0.69), 0.63 (0.57, 0.68) and 0.59 (0.52, 0.66), respectively. The corresponding probabilities of postoperative 1-year potency after bilateral nerve sparing were 0.66 (0.62, 0.71), 0.56 (0.49, 0.64) and 0.46 (0.36, 0.56). In our experience there is an acceptable probability of achieving continence and potency after robotic radical prostatectomy in selected elderly patients. 2010 American Urological Association Education and Research, Inc. Published by Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

OxyContin in Ontario: the multiple materialities of prescription painkillers.

PubMed

King, Samantha

2014-05-01

In the past decade, OxyContin diversion and misusehave been firmly established in Ontarian public discourse as serious problems requiring major intervention.This article contextualizes and theorizesthe processes through which the marketing of the prescription opioid and its subsequent problematization occurred. Theanalysis refuses the impossible choice between the 'deserving pain patient' and the 'undeserving addict,' between the war on pain and the war on drugs, and between a notion of OxyContin as either miracle panacea or destructive poison. Rather than falling in step with these binaries, OxyContinis theorized across them, or multiply, with the aim of moving beyond established moral and theoretical registers for exploring embodied consumption. This discursive study is based on a broad range of texts collected between 2009-2013: Hansard reports from the Legislative Assembly of Ontario; newspaper, magazine, and internet coverage of OxyContin; and policy documents, research reports, and position papers and news releases produced by government agencies, advocacy organizations, professional bodies, think tanks, tribal councils, and law enforcement agencies. Pharmaceutical industry and state actors have attempted to dualistically parse disparate materializations of OxyContin, a tactic that intensified as media pressure helped produce the notion of a public health crisis and, implicitly, a crisis of welfare dependence. By focusing on the (impossible) task of stratifying proper from improper use, the drug's advocatessought to secure the integrity of opioid painkillers and to protect their materialization as vehicles for maintaining a body that is normal, stable, and in control, as opposed to a body of excess that threatens to expose the consumerist logic of contemporary medicine. Attempts to contain the multiplicity of OxyContin result in the further entrenchment of privatized and individualized approaches to pain and painkilling and serve to undermine rather than secure public health and safety. Copyright © 2014 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.

The risk of urinary retention following robot-assisted radical prostatectomy and its impact on early continence outcomes.

PubMed

Alnazari, Mansour; Zanaty, Marc; Ajib, Khaled; El-Hakim, Assaad; Zorn, Kevin C

2017-12-22

We aimed to evaluate the risk factors of acute urinary retention (AUR) following robot-assisted radical prostatectomy (RARP), as well as the relationship of AUR with early continence outcomes. The records of 740 consecutive patients who underwent RARP by two experienced surgeons at our institution were retrospectively reviewed from a prospectively collected database. Multiple factors, including age, body mass index (BMI), international prostate symptom score (IPSS), prostate volume, presence of median lobe, nerve preservation status, anastomosis time, and catheter removal time (Day 4 vs. 7), were evaluated as risk factors for AUR using univariate and multivariate analysis. The relation between AUR and early return of continence (one and three months) post-RARP was also evaluated. The incidence of clinically significant vesico-urethral anastomotic (VUA) leak and AUR following catheter removal were 0.9% and 2.2% (17/740), respectively. In men who developed AUR, there was no significant relationship with regards to age, BMI, IPSS, prostatic volume, median lobe, nerve preservation, or anastomosis time; however, the incidence of AUR was significantly higher for men with catheter removal at Day 4 (4.5% [16/351]) vs. Day 7 (0.2% [1/389]) (p=0.004). Moreover, patients with early removal of the catheter (Day 4) who developed AUR had an earlier one-month return of 0-pad continence 87.5% (14/16) compared to patients without AUR 45.6% (153/335), with no significant difference at three months. While AUR is an uncommon complication of RARP, its incidence is much higher than VUA leakage. Further, it is often not well-discussed during patient counselling preoperatively. Moreover, earlier return of urinary continence was observed in patients experiencing AUR following RARP exclusively with catheter removal at Day 4. Future studies are warranted to validate the long-term impact of AUR on continence outcomes.

Ultrafast MR imaging of the pelvic floor.

PubMed

Unterweger, M; Marincek, B; Gottstein-Aalame, N; Debatin, J F; Seifert, B; Ochsenbein-Imhof, N; Perucchini, D; Kubik-Huch, R A

2001-04-01

The aim of this study was to compare pelvic floor anatomy and laxity at rest and on straining (Valsalva's maneuver) using dynamic ultrafast MR imaging in women who were continent versus those with stress incontinence differing in obstetric history. Thirty continent women were divided into three equal groups (nulliparous, previous cesarean delivery, previous vaginal delivery) and compared with 10 women with stress-incontinence with a history of at least one vaginal delivery. MR imaging of the pelvic floor at rest and on maximal strain was performed, using axial T2-weighted fast spin-echo images followed by sagittal ultrafast T2-weighted single-shot fast spin-echo sequences. Mean population age (age range, 22-45 years; mean +/- SD, 36 +/- 5.4 years), was similar in the four groups, as was parity in the three parous groups. Mean distances between the bladder floor and pubococcygeal line at rest did not differ between the four groups. On straining, bladder floor descent was 1.1 +/- 0.9, 1.0 +/- 1.1, and 1.9 +/- 0.9 cm in continent nulliparous, cesarean delivery, and vaginal delivery women, respectively, versus 3.2 +/- 1.0 cm in incontinent women (p = 0.0005). Cervical descent was greater in incontinent versus nulliparous women (p = 0.0019). Bladder floor descent was greater in the continent vaginal delivery group than in continent cesarean delivery control patients (p = 0.04). In patients with stress incontinence, symptoms did not correlate with amplitude of descent. The right levator muscle was thinner overall than the left, regardless of frequency direction (p = 0.001). Ultrafast MR imaging using the T2-weighted single-shot fast spin-echo sequence allows dynamic evaluation of the pelvic compartments at maximal strain with no need for contrast medium. Pelvic floor laxity and supporting fascia abnormalities were most common in patients with stress incontinence followed by continent women with a history of vaginal delivery. The results are therefore compatible with the hypothesis of vaginal delivery as a contributory factor to stress incontinence in older parous women.

African Cenozoic hotpot tectonism: new insights from continent-scale body-wave tomography

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Bastow, I. D.; Boyce, A.; Caunt, E.; Guilloud De Courbeville, J.; Desai, S.; Kounoudis, R.; Golos, E. M.; Burdick, S.; van der Hilst, R. D.

2017-12-01

The African plate is an ideal study locale for mantle plumes and Cenozoic hotspot tectonism. On the eastern side of the continent, the uplifted East African and Ethiopian plateaus, and the 30Ma Ethiopian Traps, are widely considered to be the result of the African Superplume: a broad thermochemical anomaly that originates below southern Africa. Precisely where and how the superplume traverses the mantle transition zone is debated however. On the western side of the continent, the Cameroon Volcanic Line is a hotspot track with no age-progression; it is less easily attributed to the effects of a mantle plume. Central to our understanding of these issues is an improved picture of mantle seismic structure. Body-wave studies of African mantle wave-speed structure are typically limited to regional relative arrival-time studies that utilize data from temporary seismograph networks of aperture less than 1000km. The resulting tomographic images are higher resolution than continent-scale surface-wave models, but anomaly amplitudes cannot be compared from region to region using the relative arrival-time approach: the 0% contour in each region refers to the regional, not global mean. The challenge is thus to incorporate the often-noisy body-wave data from temporary seismograph networks into a continent-scale absolute delay-time model. We achieve this using the new Absolute Arrival-time Recovery Method (AARM) method of Boyce et. al., (2017) and the tomographic inversion approach described by Li et. al., (2008). We invert for mantle wavespeed structure using data recorded since 1990 by temporary networks in the Atlas Mountains, Cameroon, South Africa, East African Rift system, Ethiopia and Madagascar. Our model is well resolved to lower mantle depths beneath these temporary networks, and offers the most detailed picture yet of mantle wavespeed structure beneath Africa. The contrast between East African and Cameroon mantle structure suggests multiple development mechanisms for hotspot tectonism across the African continent.

A Review of Recent Developments in the Study of Regional Lithospheric Electrical Structure of the Asian Continent

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Zhang, Letian

2017-09-01

The Asian continent was formed through the amalgamation of several major continental blocks that were formerly separated by the Paleo-Asian and Tethyan Oceans. During this process, the Asian continent underwent a long period of continental crustal growth and tectonic deformation, making it the largest and youngest continent on Earth. This paper presents a review of the application of geophysical electromagnetic methods, mainly the magnetotelluric (MT) method, in recent investigations of the diverse tectonic features across the Asian continent. The case studies cover the major continental blocks of Asia, the Central Asian orogenic system, the Tethyan orogenic system, as well as the western Pacific subduction system. In summary, most of the major continental blocks of Asia exhibit a three-layer structure with a resistive upper crust and upper mantle and a relatively conductive mid-lower crust. Large-scale conductors in the upper mantle were interpreted as an indication of lithospheric modification at the craton margins. The electrical structure of the Central Asian orogenic system is generally more resistive than the bordering continental blocks, whereas the Tethyan orogenic system displays more conductive, with pervasive conductors in the lower crust and upper mantle. The western Pacific subduction system shows increasing complexity in its electrical structure from its northern extent to its southern extent. In general, the following areas of the Asian continent have increasingly conductive lithospheric electrical structures, which correspond to a transition from the most stable areas to the most active tectonic areas of Asia: the major continental blocks, the accretionary Central Asian orogenic system, the collisional Tethyan orogenic system, and the western Pacific subduction system. As a key part of this review, a three-dimensional (3-D) model of the lithospheric electrical structure of a large portion of the Tibetan Plateau is presented and discussed in detail; the model indicates tearing of the underthrusting Indian slab as well as complex crustal conductor geometries, which are not obviously consistent with the hypothesis of a continuous, eastward channel flow. These studies have greatly enhanced our knowledge of the formation and deformation processes of the Asian continent. Lastly, future research to expand field data coverage, improve related techniques, and integrate data from other disciplines is suggested.

Trocar-guided trans-vaginal mesh surgery for pelvic organ prolapse: effects on urinary continence and anatomical and functional outcomes. A prospective observational study.

PubMed

Natale, F; Costantini, E; La Penna, C; Illiano, E; Balsamo, R; Carbone, A; Cervigni, M

2017-03-01

Primary objective of this study was to assess the effects of trocar-guided transvaginal mesh surgery (TVM) on cure and prevention rates for incontinence, without concomitant surgery for Stress Urinary Incontinence (SUI). Our secondary objectives were anatomical outcomes, relief of symptoms and effect on quality of life (QoL). This prospective observational study evaluated women who underwent TVM for symptomatic stage >2 Pelvic Organ Prolapse (POP). SUI was evaluated objectively using the cough stress test with prolapse reduced. SUI and urge urinary incontinence (UUI) were subjectively evaluated using ICIQ-SF. Anatomical cure was defined as stage <2 at POP-Q. McNemar chi-square test; paired t-test; Mann-Whitney test. Seventy-two patients reached final evaluation (mean follow-up 72 months). In the 40 pre-op continent patients, 34 (85%) remained continent postoperatively and 6 (15%) showed de novo SUI. Only 1 patient chose to undergo subsequent TVT. The number needed to treat was 6 to prevent 1 women developing de novo objective SUI and 39 to prevent 1 woman having to undergo SUI surgery. In the 32 pre-op incontinent patients, 18 (56.3%) became continent postoperatively. Only 1 patient chose to undergo subsequent TVT. UUI was present in 44 patients pre-operatively and 15 (20.8%) post-operatively (1 de novo). Forty-four patients (61.1%) were continent post-operatively for SUI and UUI. We observed a significant improvement in storage, voiding, post-micturition and prolapse-related symptoms. The anatomical cure rate was 87.5% for the anterior compartment and 90.3%.for the apical segment. The apical recurrence was 8.3% in the patients previously hysterectomised, 18.8% in the patients with uterus preservation and 0% in the patients with concomitant hysterectomy. QoL scores improved in all domains except sleep and personal relationships. We observed mesh exposure in 10 patients (13.9%), in 5 of whom it was associated with a concomitant hysterectomy CONCLUSIONS: TVM showed excellent results in terms of continence and can be performed without contemporary anti-incontinence surgery, for both continent and incontinent women. Patients should have pre-operative counselling before POP surgery. For severe uterine prolapse the Perigee™ System should be employed with concomitant hysterectomy because uterus preservation is associated with significantly higher apical recurrence rates. Copyright © 2016 Elsevier Ireland Ltd. All rights reserved.

Deepwater fold and thrust belt classification, tectonics, structure and hydrocarbon prospectivity: A review

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Morley, C. K.; King, R.; Hillis, R.; Tingay, M.; Backe, G.

2011-01-01

Deepwater fold and thrust belts (DWFTBs) are classified into near-field stress-driven Type 1 systems confined to the sedimentary section, and Type 2 systems deformed by either far-field stresses alone, or mixed near- and far-field stresses. DWFTBs can occur at all stages of the Wilson cycle up to early stage continent continent collision. Type 1 systems have either weak shale or salt detachments, they occur predominantly on passive margins but can also be found in convergent-related areas such as the Mediterranean and N. Borneo. Examples include the Niger and Nile deltas, the west coast of Africa, and the Gulf of Mexico. Type 2 systems are subdivided on a tectonic setting basis into continent convergence zones and active margin DWFTBs. Continent convergence zones cover DWFTBs developed during continent-arc or continent-continent collision, and those in a deepwater intracontinental setting (e.g. W. Sulawesi, Makassar Straits). Active margins include accretionary prisms and transform margins. The greatest variability in DWFTB structural style occurs between salt and shale detachments, and not between tectonic settings. Changes in fold amplitude and wavelength appear to be more related to thickness of the sedimentary section than to DWFTB type. In comparison with shale, salt detachment DWFTBS display a lower critical wedge taper, more detachment folds, long and episodic duration of deformation and more variation in vergence. Structures unique to salt include canopies and nappes. Accretionary prisms also standout from other DWFTBs due to their relatively long, continuous duration, rapid offshore propagation of the thrust front, and large amount of shortening. In terms of petroleum systems, many similar issues affect all DWFTBs, these include: the oceanward decrease in heat flow, offshore increase in age of mature source rock, and causes of trap failure (e.g. leaky oblique and frontal thrust faults, breach of top seal by fluid pipes). One major difference between Type 1 and Type 2 systems is reservoir rock. High quality, continent-derived, quartz-rich sandstones are generally prevalent in Type 1 systems. More diagenetically reactive minerals derived from igneous and ophiolitic sources are commonly present in Type 2 systems, or many are simply poor in well-developed turbidite sandstone units. However, some Type 2 systems, particularly those adjacent to active orogenic belts are partially sourced by high quality continent-derived sandstones (e.g. NW Borneo, S. Caspian Sea, Columbus Basin). In some cases very high rates of deposition in accretionary prisms adjacent to orogenic belts, coupled with uplift due to collision, results in accretionary prism related fold belts that pass laterally from sub-aerial to deepwater conditions (e.g. S. Caspian Sea, Indo-Burma Ranges). The six major hydrocarbon producing regions of DWFTBs worldwide (Gulf of Mexico, Niger Delta, NW Borneo, Brazil, West Africa, S. Caspian Sea) stand out as differing from most other DWFTBs in certain fundamental ways, particularly the very large volume of sediment deposited in the basins, and/or the great thickness and extent of salt or overpressured shale sdetachments.

Excisional hemorrhoidal surgery and its effect on anal continence

PubMed Central

Li, Yan-Dong; Xu, Jia-He; Lin, Jian-Jiang; Zhu, Wei-Fang

2012-01-01

AIM: To investigate the role of anal cushions in hemorrhoidectomy and its effect on anal continence of the patients. METHODS: Seventy-six consecutive patients (33 men and 43 women) with a mean age of 44 years were included. They underwent Milligan-Morgan hemorrhoidectomy because of symptomatic third- and fourth-degree hemorrhoids and failure in conservative treatment for years. Wexner score was recorded and liquid continence test was performed for each patient before and two months after operation using the techniques described in our previous work. The speed-constant rectal lavage apparatus was prepared in our laboratory. The device could output a pulsed and speed-constant saline stream with a high pressure, which is capable of overcoming any rectal resistance change. The patients were divided into three groups, group A (< 900 mL), group B (900-1200 mL) and group C (> 1200 mL) according to the results of the preoperative liquid continence test. RESULTS: All the patients completed the study. The average number of hemorrhoidal masses excised was 2.4. Most patients presented with hemorrhoidal symptoms for more than one year, including a mean duration of incontinence of 5.2 years. The most common symptoms before surgery were anal bleeding (n = 55), prolapsed lesion (n = 34), anal pain (n = 12) and constipation (n = 17). There were grade III hemorrhoids in 39 (51.3%) patients, and grade IV in 37 (48.7%) patients according to Goligher classification. Five patients had experienced hemorrhoid surgery at least once. Compared with postoperative results, the retained volume in the preoperative liquid continence test was higher in 40 patients, lower in 27 patients, and similar in the other 9 patients. The overall preoperative retained volume in the liquid continence test was 1130.61 ± 78.35 mL, and postoperative volume was slightly decreased (991.27 ± 42.77 mL), but there was no significant difference (P = 0.057). Difference was significant in the test value before and after hemorrhoidectomy in group A (858.24 ± 32.01 mL vs 574.18 ± 60.28 mL, P = 0.011), but no obvious difference was noted in group B or group C. There was no significant difference in Wexner score before and after operation (1.68 ± 0.13 vs 2.10 ± 0.17, P = 0.064). By further stratified analysis, there was significant difference before and 2 months after operation in group A (2.71 ± 0.30 vs 3.58 ± 0.40, P = 0.003). In contrast, there were no significant differences in group B or group C (1.89 ± 0.15 vs 2.11 ± 0.19, P = 0.179; 0.98 ± 0.11 vs 1.34 ± 0.19, P = 0.123). CONCLUSION: There is no difference in the continence status of patients before and after Milligan-Morgan hemorrhoidectomy. However, patients with preoperative compromised continence may have further deterioration of their continence, hence Milligan-Morgan hemorrhoidectomy should be avoided in such patients. PMID:22912558

The effect of plumes and a free surface on mantle dynamics with continents and self-consistent plate tectonics

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Jain, Charitra; Rozel, Antoine; Tackley, Paul

2014-05-01

Rolf et al. (EPSL, 2012) and Coltice et al. (Science, 2012) investigated the thermal and dynamical influences of continents on plate tectonics and the thermal state of Earth's mantle, but they did not explicitly consider the influence of mantle plumes. When present, strong mantle plumes arising from the deep mantle can impose additional stresses on the continents, thereby facilitating continental rifting (Storey, Nature 1995; Santosh et al., Gondwana Research 2009) and disrupting the supercontinent cycle (Philips and Bunge, Geology 2007). In recent years, several studies have characterized the relation between the location of the plumes and the continents, but with contradicting observations. While Heron and Lowman (GRL, 2010; Tectonophysics, 2011) propose regions where downwelling has ceased (irrespective of overlying plate) as the preferred location for plumes, O'Neill et al. (Gondwana Research, 2009) show an anti-correlation between the average positions of subducting slabs at continental margins, and mantle plumes at continental/oceanic interiors. Continental motion is attributed to the viscous stresses imparted by the convecting mantle and the extent of this motion depends on the heat budget of the mantle. Core-mantle boundary (CMB) heat flux, internal heating from decay of radioactive elements, and mantle cooling contribute to this heat budget. Out of these sources, CMB heat flux is not well defined; however, the recent determination that the core's thermal conductivity is much higher than previously thought requires a CMB heat flow of at least 12 TW (de Koker et al., PNAS 2012; Pozzo et al., Nature 2012; Gomi et al., PEPI 2013), much higher than early estimates of 3-4 TW (Lay et al., Nature 2008). Thus, it is necessary to characterize the effect of increased CMB heat flux on mantle dynamics. In almost all mantle convection simulations, the top boundary is treated as a free-slip surface whereas Earth's surface is a deformable free surface. With a free-slip boundary condition, the uppermost part of the model is not allowed to move vertically. In contrast, a free surface boundary condition allows for the development of topography and leads to realistic single-sided (asymmetric) subduction (Crameri et al., GJI 2012; Crameri et al., GRL 2012). A free-slip surface may also create incorrect stresses in the model continents, forcing them to spread horizontally along the boundary to minimize the gravitational potential. This is something we aim to test here. Here, we test (i) the impact of increased basal heating on mantle dynamics with continents and self-consistent plate tectonics, including whether plumes prefer to develop under continents; (ii) the influence of a free surface on continents in the context of self-consistent plate tectonics. The existing model from Rolf et al. (EPSL 2012) is developed further but with weaker continents. A 'sticky-air' approach is used, in which a low density and a small viscosity fluid layer is added to the top of the model. We study these using StagYY code (Tackley, PEPI 2008), which uses a finite-volume discretization, a multigrid solver to obtain a velocity-pressure solution at each timestep on a staggered grid and tracers to track composition.

The Colonial Era. An Eyewitness History.

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Jaycox, Faith

To the explorer or colonist of the 16th and 17th centuries, North America was a vast and uncharted land. The continent appealed to European eyes--blind to the claims of the Native Americans who, to varying degrees of density, inhabited the entire continent--as an open field to claim, to exploit, and to settle. Once permanent settlements were…

Factors Influencing African Postgraduate International Students' Choice of South Africa as a Study Destination

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Mpinganjira, Mercy

2012-01-01

Many African countries are concerned with the targeting of international postgraduate students by developed countries for skilled migration. Increased provision of postgraduate studies within the continent would go a long way in dealing with the problem. Success will however depend on the ability of countries in the continent to attract…

Globalization and Multilingualism: Case Studies of Indigenous Culture-Based Education from the Indian Sub-Continent and Their Implications

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Singh, Navin Kumar

2013-01-01

This paper presents some of the major program initiatives honoring Indigenous knowledge, culture, heritage, arts, and skills through curricular reforms and culturally appropriate educational practices on the Indian sub-continent. It presents case studies of Indigenous culture-based education, with reference to mother tongue and multicultural…

Lost Continents? Children's Understanding of the Location and Orientation of the Earth's Land Masses.

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Wiegand, Patrick; Stiell, Bernadette

1996-01-01

Presents the results of an experiment that asked 53 middle school children to identify continent shapes and to arrange them to form a map of the world. Australia, Europe, and Asia were the most recognized. Misidentified and misaligned most consistently were Africa and Antarctica. Discusses possible reasons and teachers' responses. (MJP)

Forest disturbance and North American carbon flux

Treesearch

S. N. Goward; J. G. Masek; W. Cohen; G. Moisen; G. J. Collatz; S. Healey; R. A. Houghton; C. Huang; R. Kennedy; B. Law; S. Powell; D. Turner; M. A. Wulder

2008-01-01

North America's forests are thought to be a significant sink for atmospheric carbon. Currently, the rate of sequestration by forests on the continent has been estimated at 0.23 petagrams of carbon per year, though the uncertainty about this estimate is nearly 50%. This offsets about 13% of the fossil fuel emissions from the continent [Pacala et al., 2007]. However...

Using the Mesozoic History of the Canadian Cordillera as a Case Study in Teaching Plate Tectonics.

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Chamberlain, Valerie Elaine

1989-01-01

Reviews a model used in the teaching of plate tectonics which includes processes and concepts related to: terranes and the amalgamation of terranes, relative plate motion and oblique subduction, the effects of continent-continent collision, changes in plate motion, plate configuration, and the type of plate boundary. Diagrams are included.…

Rotational inertia of continents: A proposed link between polar wandering and plate tectonics

USGS Publications Warehouse

Kane, M.F.

1972-01-01

A mechanism is proposed whereby displacement between continents and the earth's pole of rotation (polar wandering) gives rise to latitudinal transport of continental plates (continental drift) because of their relatively greater rotational inertia. When extended to short-term polar wobble, the hypothesis predicts an energy change nearly equivalent to the seismic energy rate.

A plan for the North American Bat Monitoring Program (NABat)

Treesearch

Susan C. Loeb; Thomas J. Rodhouse; Laura E. Ellison; Cori L. Lausen; Jonathan D. Reichard; Kathryn M. Irvine; Thomas E. Ingersoll; Jeremy T.H. Coleman; Wayne E. Thogmartin; John R. Sauer; Charles M. Francis; Mylea L. Bayless; Thomas R. Stanley; Douglas H. Johnson

2015-01-01

The purpose of the North American Bat Monitoring Program (NABat) is to create a continent-wide program to monitor bats at local to rangewide scales that will provide reliable data to promote effective conservation decisionmaking and the long-term viability of bat populations across the continent. This is an international, multiagency program. Four approaches will be...

Can Individualized Health Care Plans Help Increase Continence in Children with Dysfunctional Elimination Syndrome?

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Boisclair-Fahey, Anne

2009-01-01

School-age children with dysfunctional elimination syndrome (DES) do not always have school support for their treatment plans, including an every 2-hr voiding schedule. The objective of this study was to increase school support of treatment plans by allowing access to bathrooms, thereby improving continence. An eight-question survey about bathroom…

The danger of imperfect regulation: OxyContin use in the United States and Canada.

PubMed

Lexchin, Joel; Kohler, Jillian Clare

2011-01-01

Drug companies aggressively market their products to increase sales and economic rewards. Different countries have different regulatory regimes for controlling promotion. In the United States control rests directly with the Food and Drug Administration whereas Canada relies on a mixture of voluntary self-regulation and an autonomous agency. Each method has significant weaknesses. We examine these weaknesses by analyzing the promotion of OxyContin (the time release version of the opioid oxycodone) by Purdue in Canada and the United States. We then look at the association between promotion and the misuse and abuse of OxyContin in both countries. Finally, we advance specific recommendations for regulating promotion for drugs that may have a high abuse potential.

The development of a physiotherapy continence promotion program using a customer focus.

PubMed

Chiarelli, Pauline; Cockburn, Jill

1999-01-01

Health promotion programs provide information, education for health and opportunity for the development of the skills that people need to make healthy choices. The current climate of health care practice also directs its focus to the needs and wants of the health care consumers. This entails active input from the target group. The present study used focus groups in an attempt to ensure input from women in early postpartum into the development of a postpartum continence promotion program. The focus groups revealed anomalies in women's perceived susceptibility to, and knowledge about, urinary incontinence and pelvic floor exercises, while highlighting other areas of need. Focus groups proved an invaluable tool in the development of a more effective physiotherapy continence promotion program.

Madagascar: Heads It's a Continent, Tails It's an Island

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

de Wit, Maarten J.

Neither geologists nor biologists have a definition that is capable of classifying Madagascar unambiguously as an island or a continent; nor can they incorporate Malagasy natural history into a single model rooted in Africa or Asia. Madagascar is a microcosm of the larger continents, with a rock record that spans more than 3000 million years (Ma), during which it has been united episodically with, and divorced from, Asian and African connections. This is reflected in its Precambrian history of deep crustal tectonics and a Phanerozoic history of biodiversity that fluctuated between cosmopolitanism and parochialism. Both vicariance and dispersal events over the past 90 Ma have blended a unique endemism on Madagascar, now in decline following rapid extinctions that started about 2000 years ago.

The North Pacific Summer Jet and Climate Extremes Over North America: Mechanisms and Model Biases

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Schubert, S. D.; Wang, H.; Chang, Y.; Koster, R. D.; Molod, A.

2017-12-01

The North Pacific summer jet (NPSJ) plays a critical role as a waveguide for weather systems and other sub-seasonal Rossby waves entering North America and therefore has a controlling influence on the warm season weather and climate extremes over much of the continent. In particular, much of the warm season precipitation that occurs over the central United States depends on subseasonal transients that are able to tap moisture from the Gulf of Mexico as they propagate across the continent. The GEOS-5 atmospheric general circulation model (AGCM), like many AGCMs, is deficient in the simulation of the NPSJ. It is shown that the deficiency is composed of: 1) a stunted jet in which the strongest winds are confined to the Asian continent, failing to extend across the North Pacific into the Gulf of Alaska as observed, and 2) a zonally symmetric poleward shift in the jet. These biases combine to impede the eastward propagation of the weather systems into the continent (the stunted jet), and deprive those systems that do enter the continent access to the moisture from the Gulf (the northward shift), leading to a dry bias over the central US. It is shown that the stunted jet bias is the result of too strong heating that occurs just south of the jet core over and near Tibet. Furthermore, it is shown that the poleward shift of the NPSJ can be corrected in the current GEOS-5 AGCM by increasing the vertical resolution. The implications of these results for improving warm season forecasts of extreme events will be discussed.

Urinary and sexual function outcomes among different age groups after robot-assisted laparoscopic prostatectomy.

PubMed

Mendiola, Frederick P; Zorn, Kevin C; Mikhail, Albert A; Lin, Shang; Orvieto, Marcelo A; Zagaja, Gregory P; Shalhav, Arieh L

2008-03-01

We present an age-stratified prospective assessment of urinary and sexual function of 300 patients after robot-assisted laparoscopic prostatectomy (RALP). Subjective assessment data of continence and potency were collected for different age groups (<50, 50-59, and > or =60 years old) preoperatively, and at 1, 3, 6, and 12 months after RALP. Health-related quality of life questionnaires evaluated return of baseline urinary and sexual function at the same time intervals. The three age groups included 21, 129, and 150 patients (aged <50, 50-59, and >60 years old, respectively). Using Kaplan-Meier curves, younger men achieved subjective continence significantly earlier than older age groups when age groups were compared using a 60-year-old cut-off point (P = 0.02). However, subjective continence was noted to be equal among all age groups after 1 year of follow-up. Time to recovery of subjective potency among age groups shows a significant difference in favor of the younger age group (P = 0.01) Objective urinary function is equal between age groups at all time points, while objective sexual function assessment showed a trend toward better results in the younger age group. Younger men will likely have an earlier return of continence and potency compared to older men after RALP. However, continence outcomes were noted to be equal among age groups after I year of follow-up, while younger men continue to report superior potency outcomes compared to older men over the first postoperative year. Such findings are valuable in counseling older men undergoing this procedure.

Age-stratified outcomes after robotic-assisted laparoscopic radical prostatectomy.

PubMed

Zorn, Kevin C; Mendiola, Frederick P; Rapp, David E; Mikhail, Albert A; Lin, Shang; Orvieto, Marcelo A; Zagaja, Gregory P; Shalhav, Arieh L

2007-01-01

We sought to evaluate post-operative return of urinary and sexual function in men undergoing robotic-assisted laparoscopic radical prostatectomy (RLRP). Prospective assessment of urinary continence and sexual function was performed in patients undergoing RLRP. Subjective assessment involved the use of the validated RAND-36 Item Health Survey/UCLA Prostate Cancer Index questionnaire. Questionnaires were completed pre-operatively and at 1, 3, 6 and 12 months post-operatively. Subset analyses were performed to assess the effect of age on functional outcomes. A total of 338 consecutive patients underwent RLRP between February 2003 and August 2005. Included patients for evaluation comprised of 21, 129, and 150 patients, aged <50, 50-59, and ≥60 years old, respectively. Kaplan-Meier curve analysis demonstrated that younger men (<60 years) achieved subjective continence significantly earlier than older age group (≥60 years) (P = 0.02). Continence rates, however, equalized among all age groups at 1 year follow-up. Younger men (<50 years) also demonstrated a quicker and greater return of sexual function (P = 0.01), which persisted through assessment at 1 year post-operatively. Our results suggest that younger men may have an earlier return of continence and potency when compared to men > 60 years. Despite this finding, continence outcomes appear to be equal among age groups after 1 year of follow-up. Moreover, men < 60 years continue to report superior potency outcomes compared to men > 60 years at 1 year post-operatively. Such findings are valuable in counseling patients undergoing RLRP.

A harbinger of plate tectonics: a commentary on Bullard, Everett and Smith (1965) 'The fit of the continents around the Atlantic'.

PubMed

Dewey, John F

2015-04-13

In the 1960s, geology was transformed by the paradigm of plate tectonics. The 1965 paper of Bullard, Everett and Smith was a linking transition between the theories of continental drift and plate tectonics. They showed, conclusively, that the continents around the Atlantic were once contiguous and that the Atlantic Ocean had grown at rates of a few centimetres per year since the Early Jurassic, about 160 Ma. They achieved fits of the continental margins at the 500 fathom line (approx. 900 m), not the shorelines, by minimizing misfits between conjugate margins and finding axes, poles and angles of rotation, using Euler's theorem, that defined the unique single finite difference rotation that carried congruent continents from contiguity to their present positions, recognizing that the real motion may have been more complex around a number of finite motion poles. Critically, they were concerned only with kinematic reality and were not restricted by considerations of the mechanism by which continents split and oceans grow. Many of the defining features of plate tectonics were explicit or implicit in their reconstructions, such as the torsional rigidity of continents, Euler's theorem, closure of the Tethyan ocean(s), major continental margin shear zones, the rapid rotation of small continental blocks (Iberia) around nearby poles, the consequent opening of small wedge-shaped oceans (Bay of Biscay), and misfit overlaps (deltas and volcanic piles) and underlaps (stretched continental edges). This commentary was written to celebrate the 350th anniversary of the journal Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society.

A harbinger of plate tectonics: a commentary on Bullard, Everett and Smith (1965) ‘The fit of the continents around the Atlantic’

PubMed Central

Dewey, John F.

2015-01-01

In the 1960s, geology was transformed by the paradigm of plate tectonics. The 1965 paper of Bullard, Everett and Smith was a linking transition between the theories of continental drift and plate tectonics. They showed, conclusively, that the continents around the Atlantic were once contiguous and that the Atlantic Ocean had grown at rates of a few centimetres per year since the Early Jurassic, about 160 Ma. They achieved fits of the continental margins at the 500 fathom line (approx. 900 m), not the shorelines, by minimizing misfits between conjugate margins and finding axes, poles and angles of rotation, using Euler's theorem, that defined the unique single finite difference rotation that carried congruent continents from contiguity to their present positions, recognizing that the real motion may have been more complex around a number of finite motion poles. Critically, they were concerned only with kinematic reality and were not restricted by considerations of the mechanism by which continents split and oceans grow. Many of the defining features of plate tectonics were explicit or implicit in their reconstructions, such as the torsional rigidity of continents, Euler's theorem, closure of the Tethyan ocean(s), major continental margin shear zones, the rapid rotation of small continental blocks (Iberia) around nearby poles, the consequent opening of small wedge-shaped oceans (Bay of Biscay), and misfit overlaps (deltas and volcanic piles) and underlaps (stretched continental edges). This commentary was written to celebrate the 350th anniversary of the journal Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society. PMID:25750142

Measurement of Dynamic Urethral Pressures with a High Resolution Manometry System in Continent and Incontinent Women

PubMed Central

Kirby, Anna C; Tan-Kim, Jasmine; Nager, Charles W.

2015-01-01

Objectives Female stress urinary incontinence (SUI) is caused by urethral dysfunction during dynamic conditions, but current technology has limitations in measuring urethral pressures under dynamic conditions. An 8-French high resolution manometry catheter (HRM) currently in clinical use in gastroenterology may accurately measure urethral pressures under dynamic conditions because it has a 25ms response rate and circumferential pressure sensors along the length of the catheter (ManoScan® ESO, Given Imaging). We evaluated the concordance, repeatability, and tolerability of this catheter. Methods We measured resting, cough, and strain maximum urethral closure pressures (MUCPs) using HRM and measured resting MUCPs with water perfusion side-hole catheter urethral pressure profilometry (UPP) in 37 continent and 28 stress incontinent subjects. Maneuvers were repeated after moving the HRM catheter along the urethral length to evaluate whether results depend on catheter positioning. Visual analog pain scores evaluated the comfort of HRM compared to UPP. Results The correlation coefficient for resting MUCPs measured by HRM vs. UPP was high (r = 0.79, p<0.001). Repeatability after catheter repositioning was high for rest, cough, and strain with HRM: r= 0.92, 0.89, and 0.89. Mean MUCPs (rest, cough, strain) were higher in continent than incontinent subjects (all p < 0.001) and decreased more in incontinent subjects than continent subjects during cough and strain maneuvers compared to rest. Conclusions This preliminary study shows that HRM is concordant with standard technology, repeatable, and well tolerated in the urethra. Incontinent women have more impairment of their urethral closure pressures during cough and strain than continent women. PMID:25185595

Measurement of dynamic urethral pressures with a high-resolution manometry system in continent and incontinent women.

PubMed

Kirby, Anna C; Tan-Kim, Jasmine; Nager, Charles W

2015-01-01

Female stress urinary incontinence is caused by urethral dysfunction during dynamic conditions, but current technology has limitations in measuring urethral pressures under these conditions. An 8-French high-resolution manometry (HRM) catheter currently in clinical use in gastroenterology may accurately measure urethral pressures under dynamic conditions because it has a 25-millisecond response rate and circumferential pressure sensors along the length of the catheter (ManoScan ESO; Given Imaging, Yoqneam, Israel). We evaluated the concordance, repeatability, and tolerability of this catheter. We measured resting, cough, and strain maximum urethral closure pressures (MUCPs) using HRM and measured resting MUCPs with water-perfusion side-hole catheter urethral pressure profilometry (UPP) in 37 continent and 28 stress-incontinent subjects. Maneuvers were repeated after moving the HRM catheter along the urethral length to evaluate whether results depend on catheter positioning. Visual analog pain scores evaluated the comfort of HRM compared to UPP. The correlation coefficient for resting MUCPs measured by HRM versus UPP was high (r = 0.79, P < 0.001). Repeatability after catheter repositioning was high for rest, cough, and strain with HRM: r = 0.92, 0.89, and 0.89. Mean MUCPs (rest, cough, and strain) were higher in continent than in incontinent subjects (all P < 0.001) and decreased more in incontinent subjects than in continent subjects during cough and strain maneuvers compared to rest. This preliminary study shows that HRM is concordant with standard technology, repeatable, and well tolerated in the urethra. Incontinent women have more impairment of their urethral closure pressures during cough and strain than continent women.

The North Pacific Summer Jet and Climate Extremes over North America: Mechanisms and Model Biases

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Schubert, S.; Wang, H.; Chang, Y.; Koster, R.; Molod, A.; Barahona, D.

2017-01-01

The North Pacific summer jet (NPSJ) plays a critical role as a waveguide for weather systems and other sub-seasonal Rossby waves entering North America and therefore has a controlling influence on the warm season weather and climate extremes over much of the continent. In particular, much of the warm season precipitation that occurs over the central United States depends on subseasonal transients that are able to tap moisture from the Gulf of Mexico as they propagate across the continent. The GEOS-5 atmospheric general circulation model (AGCM), like many AGCMs, is deficient in the simulation of the NPSJ. It is shown that the deficiency is composed of: 1) a stunted jet in which the strongest winds are confined to the Asian continent, failing to extend across the North Pacific into the Gulf of Alaska as observed, and 2) a zonally symmetric poleward shift in the jet. These biases combine to impede the eastward propagation of the weather systems into the continent (the stunted jet), and deprive those systems that do enter the continent access to the moisture from the Gulf (the northward shift), leading to a dry bias over the central US. It is shown that the stunted jet bias is the result of too strong heating that occurs just south of the jet core over and near Tibet. Furthermore, it is shown that the poleward shift of the NPSJ can be corrected in the current GEOS-5 AGCM by increasing the vertical resolution. The implications of these results for improving warm season forecasts of extreme events will be discussed.

Annotated Bibliography of Children's Literature Resources on War, Terrorism, and Disaster since 1945: By Continents/Countries for Grades K-8

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Gangi, Jane M.

2009-01-01

This article presents an annotated bibliography of children's literature resources on war, terrorism, and disaster since 1945. This annotated bibliography focuses on grades K-8 from different continents/countries, including (1) Africa; (2) Asia; (3) The Caribbean; (4) Central and South America; (5) Europe; and (6) The Middle East.

Role of Nigeria in the Development of Higher Education in Africa

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Sunday, Akinwumi Femi

2010-01-01

In most countries of the world, higher education is highly subsidized by the public sector. The subsidy is a result of the role of higher education sector on the economy and good governance of the nations. Enrolment into higher institutions of learning is quite low in Africa compare to other continents of the world due to the continent's low and…

Meteor Shower observations from the Indian Sub-Continent (Visual Photographic and Radio)

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Dabhade, R.; Savant, V.; Belapure, J.

2011-01-01

We review the present status of meteor shower observing from the Indian sub-continent. Some amateur groups are active in visual observations, although they are restricted by the lack of good observing sites. Ham radio appears to be promising as a technique to monitor the major meteor showers in this region. We present radio observations of the 2006 Quadrantids.

A northern Cordilleran ocean-continent transect: Sitka Sound, Alaska, to Atlin Lake, British Columbia

USGS Publications Warehouse

Brew, D.A.; Karl, S.M.; Barnes, D.F.; Jachens, R.C.; Ford, A.B.; Horner, R.

1991-01-01

The 155 km wide, 310 km long Sitka Sound - Atlin Lake continent-ocean transect includes almost all the geologic, geophysical, and geotectonic elements of the Canadian Cordillera. It crosses the Chugach, Wrangellia, Alexander, Stikine, and Cache Creek terranes, the Gravina and Laberge overlap assemblages, intrusive and metamorphic belts, and neotectonic faults that bound major blocks. -from Authors

Manipulation of the Family Photo Album: Esther Parada's Transplant--A Tale of Three Continents

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Eggemeyer, Valerie

2004-01-01

In this article, the author focuses on Esther Parada's non-traditional use of the Web to communicate her art, and offers a critique of Parada's work, "Transplant: A Tale of Three Continents," and suggestions for critiquing Web art in the school classroom. Parada creates an intersection between this new medium and the more traditional medium of…

75 FR 44881 - Special Conditions: Garmin International G1000 and GFC700 System Installation in the Cessna Model...

Federal Register 2010, 2011, 2012, 2013, 2014

2010-07-30

... the Cessna Model 525 Citation Jet; Installation of Mid- Continent MD835 Lithium Ion Battery AGENCY... MD835 Lithium Ion (Li-ion) battery. The applicable airworthiness regulations do not contain adequate or... installation of the Mid-Continent Instruments MD835 Lithium Ion battery in the G1000 & GFC700 equipped Cessna...

Step Into Africa: Elementary Level Activities Using Africa Is Not a Country

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Starbird, Caroline; Bahrenburg, Amy

2004-01-01

This book takes student inside the vast continent of Africa. The goal of these lessons is to provide young students with a look at contemporary Africa and to give them a feeling for the rich diversity of the many different nations of the continent. The lessons integrate language arts and geography, and some lessons include math. This book…

Potential Predictability of U.S. Summer Climate with "Perfect" Soil Moisture

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Yang, Fanglin; Kumar, Arun; Lau, K.-M.

2004-01-01

The potential predictability of surface-air temperature and precipitation over the United States continent was assessed for a GCM forced by observed sea surface temperatures and an estimate of observed ground soil moisture contents. The latter was obtained by substituting the GCM simulated precipitation, which is used to drive the GCM's land-surface component, with observed pentad-mean precipitation at each time step of the model's integration. With this substitution, the simulated soil moisture correlates well with an independent estimate of observed soil moisture in all seasons over the entire US continent. Significant enhancements on the predictability of surface-air temperature and precipitation were found in boreal late spring and summer over the US continent. Anomalous pattern correlations of precipitation and surface-air temperature over the US continent in the June-July-August season averaged for the 1979-2000 period increased from 0.01 and 0.06 for the GCM simulations without precipitation substitution to 0.23 and 0.3 1, respectively, for the simulations with precipitation substitution. Results provide an estimate for the limits of potential predictability if soil moisture variability is to be perfectly predicted. However, this estimate may be model dependent, and needs to be substantiated by other modeling groups.

Contrasting introduction scenarios among continents in the worldwide invasion of the banana fungal pathogen Mycosphaerella fijiensis.

PubMed

Robert, S; Ravigne, V; Zapater, M-F; Abadie, C; Carlier, J

2012-03-01

Reconstructing and characterizing introduction routes is a key step towards understanding the ecological and evolutionary factors underlying successful invasions and disease emergence. Here, we aimed to decipher scenarios of introduction and stochastic demographic events associated with the global spread of an emerging disease of bananas caused by the destructive fungal pathogen Mycosphaerella fijiensis. We analysed the worldwide population structure of this fungus using 21 microsatellites and 8 sequence-based markers on 735 individuals from 37 countries. Our analyses designated South-East Asia as the source of the global invasion and supported the location of the centre of origin of M. fijiensis within this area. We confirmed the occurrence of bottlenecks upon introduction into other continents followed by widespread founder events within continents. Furthermore, this study suggested contrasting introduction scenarios of the pathogen between the African and American continents. While potential signatures of admixture resulting from multiple introductions were detected in America, all the African samples examined seem to descend from a single successful founder event. In combination with historical information, our study reveals an original and unprecedented global scenario of invasion for this recently emerging disease caused by a wind-dispersed pathogen. © 2012 Blackwell Publishing Ltd.

A study on the birth and globalization of sports originated from each continent

PubMed Central

Lee, Byung Jin; Kim, Tae Young

2016-01-01

The purpose of this research is to see how continent specific sports rose to its modern-day status through globalization. This research focuses on the historical background of how England’s football, America’s national pastime, baseball, Japan’s Judo, and Korea’s Taekwondo developed into sports in addition to the reasoning behind its globalization. Promoted by England and the rest of the European continent, Soccer is considered to be one of the world’s most popular sports and has served its function as a form of cultural imperialism. It has also advanced alongside commerce, missionary work and other types of cultural clashes. In America, baseball was used to integrate its multicultural society and developed so that the team captain leads the rest of his team. The sports of Oriental countries were reborn through modernization that was influenced by the modern rationality, education etc. of its Western counterparts. Judo and Taekwondo were introduced globally through the Olympic Games. As mentioned above the birth of sporting events has a close connection to a nation’s cultural background and globalization has taken different forms depending on which continent it originated from. PMID:26933653

Paleomagnetic data for Siberia and Baltica in the context of testing some geodynamic models of the formation of the Central Asian Mobile Belt

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Shatsillo, A. V.; Kuznetsov, N. B.; Dronov, A. V.

2017-09-01

The synthesis of the paleomagnetic data for the Siberian (Siberia) and East European (Baltica) platforms shows that since the Early Paleozoic they could have experienced coherent movements as a part of consolidated continental agglomeration (a composite continent), which also includes the Arctida continent. Based on the paleomagnetic data, the relative positions of the Siberia and Baltica during the Ordovician is reconstructed, and a series of paleogeographical reconstructions describing the drift of the composite continent is suggested. The results of the lithologic-facial analysis of the sedimentation settings within the Ordovician basins of the Siberian and East European platforms and paleoclimatic markers are consistent with the suggested configuration and paleogeographical position of the composite continent. The suggested reconstructions and the ages of detrital zircons from the Early Paleozoic complexes of the platform margins and some objects of the Central Asian Mobile Belt (CAMB) reasonably well agree with the hypothesis (Sengör et al., 1993) which interprets the formation of the structure of CAMB Paleozoides as a result of the evolution of the island arc stretching along the margins of Siberia and Baltica.

[Physics of materials and female stress urinary continence: New concepts: I) Elasticity under bladder].

PubMed

Guerquin, B

2015-09-01

Improving the understanding of the adaptation to stress of urinary continence. A transversal analysis between physics of materials and the female anatomy. Laws of physics of the materials and of their viscoelastic behavior are applied to the anatomy of the anterior vaginal wall. The anterior vaginal wall may be divided into two segments of different viscoelastic behavior, the vertical segment below the urethra and the horizontal segment below the bladder. If the urethra gets crushed on the first segment according to the hammock theory, the crushing of the bladder on the second segment is, on the other hand, damped by its important elasticity. The importance of this elasticity evokes an unknown function: damping under the bladder that moderates and delays the increase of intravesical pressure. This damping function below the bladder is increased in the cystocele, which is therefore a continence factor; on the other hand, it is impaired in obesity, which is therefore a factor of SUI. It is necessary to include in the theory of stress continence, the notion of a damping function below the bladder. Copyright © 2015 Elsevier Masson SAS. All rights reserved.

Evidence for Geographic Isolation and Signs of Endemism within a Protistan Morphospecies†

PubMed Central

Boenigk, Jens; Pfandl, Karin; Garstecki, Tobias; Harms, Hauke; Novarino, Gianfranco; Chatzinotas, Antonis

2006-01-01

The possible existence of endemism among microorganisms resulting from and preserved by geographic isolation is one of the most controversial topics in microbial ecology. We isolated 31 strains of “Spumella-like” flagellates from remote sampling sites from all continents, including Antarctica. These and another 23 isolates from a former study were characterized morphologically and by small-subunit rRNA gene sequence analysis and tested for the maximum temperature tolerance. Only a minority of the Spumella morpho- and phylotypes from the geographically isolated Antarctic continent follow the worldwide trend of a linear correlation between ambient (air) temperature during strain isolation and heat tolerance of the isolates. A high percentage of the Antarctic isolates, but none of the isolates from locations on all other continents, were obligate psychrophilic, although some of the latter were isolated at low ambient temperatures. The drastic deviation of Antarctic representatives of Spumella from the global trend of temperature adaptation of this morphospecies provides strong evidence for geographic transport restriction of a microorganism; i.e., Antarctic protistan communities are less influenced by transport of protists to and from the Antarctic continent than by local adaptation, a subtle form of endemism. PMID:16885260

The geographic diversity of nontuberculous mycobacteria isolated from pulmonary samples: an NTM-NET collaborative study.

PubMed

Hoefsloot, Wouter; van Ingen, Jakko; Andrejak, Claire; Angeby, Kristian; Bauriaud, Rosine; Bemer, Pascale; Beylis, Natalie; Boeree, Martin J; Cacho, Juana; Chihota, Violet; Chimara, Erica; Churchyard, Gavin; Cias, Raquel; Daza, Rosa; Daley, Charles L; Dekhuijzen, P N Richard; Domingo, Diego; Drobniewski, Francis; Esteban, Jaime; Fauville-Dufaux, Maryse; Folkvardsen, Dorte Bek; Gibbons, Noel; Gómez-Mampaso, Enrique; Gonzalez, Rosa; Hoffmann, Harald; Hsueh, Po-Ren; Indra, Alexander; Jagielski, Tomasz; Jamieson, Frances; Jankovic, Mateja; Jong, Eefje; Keane, Joseph; Koh, Wo-Jung; Lange, Berit; Leao, Sylvia; Macedo, Rita; Mannsåker, Turid; Marras, Theodore K; Maugein, Jeannette; Milburn, Heather J; Mlinkó, Tamas; Morcillo, Nora; Morimoto, Kozo; Papaventsis, Dimitrios; Palenque, Elia; Paez-Peña, Mar; Piersimoni, Claudio; Polanová, Monika; Rastogi, Nalin; Richter, Elvira; Ruiz-Serrano, Maria Jesus; Silva, Anabela; da Silva, M Pedro; Simsek, Hulya; van Soolingen, Dick; Szabó, Nora; Thomson, Rachel; Tórtola Fernandez, Teresa; Tortoli, Enrico; Totten, Sarah E; Tyrrell, Greg; Vasankari, Tuula; Villar, Miguel; Walkiewicz, Renata; Winthrop, Kevin L; Wagner, Dirk

2013-12-01

A significant knowledge gap exists concerning the geographical distribution of nontuberculous mycobacteria (NTM) isolation worldwide. To provide a snapshot of NTM species distribution, global partners in the NTM-Network European Trials Group (NET) framework (www.ntm-net.org), a branch of the Tuberculosis Network European Trials Group (TB-NET), provided identification results of the total number of patients in 2008 in whom NTM were isolated from pulmonary samples. From these data, we visualised the relative distribution of the different NTM found per continent and per country. We received species identification data for 20 182 patients, from 62 laboratories in 30 countries across six continents. 91 different NTM species were isolated. Mycobacterium avium complex (MAC) bacteria predominated in most countries, followed by M. gordonae and M. xenopi. Important differences in geographical distribution of MAC species as well as M. xenopi, M. kansasii and rapid-growing mycobacteria were observed. This snapshot demonstrates that the species distribution among NTM isolates from pulmonary specimens in the year 2008 differed by continent and differed by country within these continents. These differences in species distribution may partly determine the frequency and manifestations of pulmonary NTM disease in each geographical location.

Reconstructing Rodinia by Fitting Neoproterozoic Continental Margins

USGS Publications Warehouse

Stewart, John H.

2009-01-01

Reconstructions of Phanerozoic tectonic plates can be closely constrained by lithologic correlations across conjugate margins by paleontologic information, by correlation of orogenic belts, by paleomagnetic location of continents, and by ocean floor magmatic stripes. In contrast, Proterozoic reconstructions are hindered by the lack of some of these tools or the lack of their precision. To overcome some of these difficulties, this report focuses on a different method of reconstruction, namely the use of the shape of continents to assemble the supercontinent of Rodinia, much like a jigsaw puzzle. Compared to the vast amount of information available for Phanerozoic systems, such a limited approach for Proterozoic rocks, may seem suspect. However, using the assembly of the southern continents (South America, Africa, India, Arabia, Antarctica, and Australia) as an example, a very tight fit of the continents is apparent and illustrates the power of the jigsaw puzzle method. This report focuses on Neoproterozoic rocks, which are shown on two new detailed geologic maps that constitute the backbone of the study. The report also describes the Neoproterozoic, but younger or older rocks are not discussed or not discussed in detail. The Neoproterozoic continents and continental margins are identified based on the distribution of continental-margin sedimentary and magmatic rocks that define the break-up margins of Rodinia. These Neoproterozoic continental exposures, as well as critical Neo- and Meso-Neoproterozoic tectonic features shown on the two new map compilations, are used to reconstruct the Mesoproterozoic supercontinent of Rodinia. This approach differs from the common approach of using fold belts to define structural features deemed important in the Rodinian reconstruction. Fold belts are difficult to date, and many are significantly younger than the time frame considered here (1,200 to 850 Ma). Identifying Neoproterozoic continental margins, which are primarily extensional in origin, supports recognition of the Neoproterozoic fragmentation pattern of Rodinia and outlines the major continental masses that, prior to the breakup, formed the supercontinent. Using this pattern, Rodinia can be assembled by fitting the pieces together. Evidence for Neoproterozoic margins is fragmentary. The most apparent margins are marked by miogeoclinal deposits (passive-margin deposits). The margins can also be outlined by the distribution of continental-margin magmatic-arc rocks, by juvenile ocean-floor rocks, or by the presence of continent-ward extending aulacogens. Most of the continental margins described here are Neoproterozoic, and some had an older history suggesting that they were major, long-lived lithospheric flaws. In particular, the western margin of North America appears to have existed for at least 1,470 Ma and to have been reactivated many times in the Neoproterozoic and Phanerozoic. The inheritance of trends from the Mesoproterozoic by the Neoproterozoic is particularly evident along the eastern United States, where a similarity of Mesoproterozoic (Grenville) and Neoproterozoic trends, as well as Paleozoic or Mesozoic trends, is evident. The model of Rodinia presented here is based on both geologic and paleomagnetic information. Geologic evidence is based on the distribution and shape of Neoproterozoic continents and on assembling these continents so as to match the shape, history, and scale of adjoining margins. The proposed model places the Laurasian continents?Baltica, Greenland, and Laurentia?west of the South American continents (Amazonia, Rio de La Plata, and Sa? Francisco). This assembly is indicated by conjugate pairs of Grenville-age rocks on the east side of Laurentia and on the west side of South America. In the model, predominantly late Neoproterozoic magmatic-arc rocks follow the trend of the Grenville rocks. The boundary between South America and Africa is interpreted as the site of a Wilson cycle

Toxoplasma and Africa: One Parasite, Two Opposite Population Structures.

PubMed

Galal, Lokman; Ajzenberg, Daniel; Hamidović, Azra; Durieux, Marie-Fleur; Dardé, Marie-Laure; Mercier, Aurélien

2018-02-01

Exploring the genetic diversity of Toxoplasma gondii is essential for an understanding of its worldwide distribution and the determinants of its evolution. Africa remains one of the least studied areas of the world regarding T. gondii genetic diversity. This review has compiled published data on T. gondii strains from Africa to generate a comprehensive map of their continent-wide geographical distribution. The emerging picture about T. gondii strain distribution in Africa suggests a geographical separation of the parasite populations across the continent. We discuss the potential role of a number of factors in shaping this structure. We finally suggest the next steps towards a better understanding of Toxoplasma epidemiology in Africa in light of the strains circulating on this continent. Copyright © 2017 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

Postpubertal urodynamic and upper urinary tract changes in children with conservatively treated myelomeningocele.

PubMed

Almodhen, Fayez; Capolicchio, Jean Paul; Jednak, Roman; El Sherbiny, Mohamed

2007-10-01

We examined the urodynamic and upper urinary tract changes in children with myelomeningocele treated conservatively through puberty at our institution between 1980 and 2006. A total of 40 patients were exclusively treated conservatively with or without anticholinergics and/or clean intermittent catheterization through puberty at our institution. The records of 37 patients (17 males and 20 females) were available for review and constituted the subject matter for our study. The neurological lesion was sacral in 4 patients, lumbosacral in 5, thoracic in 12 and lumbar in 16. Clinical evaluations, radiological imaging studies of the upper urinary tract and urodynamic studies were repeated every 6 to 12 months. Data were collected and comparisons were made with respect to prepubertal (age 10 years) and postpubertal (15) continence status, urodynamic parameters and upper urinary tract changes. Children spontaneously achieving urinary continence postpubertally were examined in a similar fashion as a separate subgroup. Continence was defined as a dry interval of 4 hours or more. Of the 26 patients with urinary incontinence before puberty 12 (2 males and 10 females, 45%, p <0.003) achieved continence following puberty. Hydronephrosis remained stable in 4 patients, improved in 3 and was new onset in 3 (p >0.05). Vesicoureteral reflux persisted in 1 patient, resolved in 4 and was new onset in 1 (p >0.05). Total cystometric bladder capacity, maximum detrusor pressure and detrusor leak point pressure all increased significantly after puberty, from 277 +/- 82 to 487 +/- 140 ml, 45 +/- 17 to 54 +/- 20 cm H(2)O and 49 +/- 16 to 59 +/- 21 cm H2O, respectively. In patients achieving urinary continence following puberty total cystometric bladder capacity increased significantly from 284 +/- 58 to 473 +/- 93 ml (p <0.005). Maximum detrusor pressure and detrusor leak point pressure showed insignificant changes after puberty, increasing from 45 +/- 11 to 47 +/- 16 cm H2O and from 46 +/- 11 to 55 +/- 21 cm H2O, respectively. This study demonstrates that total cystometric bladder capacity, maximum detrusor pressure and detrusor leak point pressure increase significantly in patients with myelomeningocele following puberty. The increase in bladder capacity could be attributed to increasing bladder outlet resistance resulting from prostate gland enlargement in males and estrogenization in females. A significant number of patients spontaneously achieve continence at puberty, and continence becomes more likely when increased total cystometric bladder capacity is not associated with an increase in maximum detrusor pressure. Finally, no significant postpubertal upper urinary tract deterioration was observed in our series.

Mantle temperature under drifting deformable continents during the supercontinent cycle

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Yoshida, Masaki

2013-04-01

The thermal heterogeneity of the Earth's mantle under the drifting continents during a supercontinent cycle is a controversial issue in earth science. Here, a series of numerical simulations of mantle convection are performed in 3D spherical-shell geometry, incorporating drifting deformable continents and self-consistent plate tectonics, to evaluate the subcontinental mantle temperature during a supercontinent cycle. Results show that the laterally averaged temperature anomaly of the subcontinental mantle remains within several tens of degrees (±50 °C) throughout the simulation time. Even after the formation of the supercontinent and the development of subcontinental plumes due to the subduction of the oceanic plates, the laterally averaged temperature anomaly of the deep mantle under the continent is within +10 °C. This implies that there is no substantial temperature difference between the subcontinental and suboceanic mantles during a supercontinent cycle. The temperature anomaly immediately beneath the supercontinent is generally positive owing to the thermal insulation effect and the active upwelling plumes from the core-mantle boundary. In the present simulation, the formation of a supercontinent causes the laterally averaged subcontinental temperature to increase by a maximum of 50 °C, which would produce sufficient tensional force to break up the supercontinent. The periodic assembly and dispersal of continental fragments, referred to as the supercontinent cycle, bear close relation to the evolution of mantle convection and plate tectonics. Supercontinent formation involves complex processes of introversion, extroversion or a combination of these in uniting dispersed continental fragments, as against the simple opening and closing of individual oceans envisaged in Wilson cycle. In the present study, I evaluate supercontinent processes in a realistic mantle convection regime. Results show that the assembly of supercontinents is accompanied by a combination of introversion and extroversion processes. The regular periodicity of the supercontinent cycles observed in previous 2D and 3D simulation models with rigid nondeformable continents is not confirmed. The small-scale thermal heterogeneity is dominated in deep mantle convection during the supercontinent cycle, although the large-scale, active upwelling plumes intermittently originate under drifting continents and/or the supercontinent. Results suggest that active subducting cold plates along continental margins generate thermal heterogeneity with short-wavelength structures, which is consistent with the thermal heterogeneity in the present-day mantle convection inferred from seismic tomography models. References: [1] Yoshida, M. Mantle temperature under drifting deformable continents during the supercontinent cycle, Geophys. Res. Lett., 2013, in press. [2] Yoshida, M. and M. Santosh, Mantle convection modeling of supercontinent cycle: Introversion, extroversion, or combination?, 2013, submitted.

Anthelmintic resistance in sheep farms: update of the situation in the American continent.

PubMed

Torres-Acosta, J F J; Mendoza-de-Gives, P; Aguilar-Caballero, A J; Cuéllar-Ordaz, J A

2012-09-30

The present paper reviews the frequency of anthelmintic resistance in sheep farms in different countries of the American continent and describes some aspects that might influence the trend in sheep farms. The situation of anthelmintic resistance in sheep farms has been explored mainly in south of the continent (Argentina, Brazil and Uruguay) where sheep farming is an important industry. In those three countries, as well as in Paraguay, the first comprehensive surveys of anthelmintic resistance were performed among countries in the continent, which showed evidence of high frequency of sheep farms with anthelmintic resistance. Today, it is common to find sheep flocks with multiple-resistant worms. In North and Central America, a similar situation has been reported in sheep farms in the south of the United States of America, parts of Mexico and Costa Rica. On the other hand, other areas of the continent show low frequency of farms with anthelmintic resistance. From many areas no results have been published regarding situation on anthelmintic resistance or, alternatively, published results have received limited dissemination. Although the diagnosis of anthelmintic resistance is important for decision making of helminth management/control at the farm level, this is still an aspiration rather than a reality. For decades, researchers working on anthelmintic resistance in the American continent have expressed the need to change farmers' attitudes towards anthelmintic drugs. A common advice has been to check the anthelmintic drug efficacy regularly and reduce the dependence on these with alternative control measures. In spite of such advice, the challenge to stop/delay the advancement of anthelmintic resistance against the available anthelmintic drugs is still present. The evidence suggests that anthelmintic resistance is a growing phenomenon in the American continent. The situation described might be the tip of the iceberg, as anthelmintic resistance is still largely under-diagnosed. Hence, a different approach to tackle the advancement of anthelmintic resistance in sheep farms must be found. Awareness of farmers on the importance of diagnosis of anthelmintic resistance is not enough. Technical support schemes that provide the diagnostic service cheaply and timely must be implemented together with the research aiming at the adoption of control methods to reduce the dependence on conventional anthelmintic drugs. Unless these elements are readily available for producers, the negative consequences of anthelmintic resistance on sheep farming in America will continue to worsen with time. Copyright © 2012. Published by Elsevier B.V.

Migration Background and Participation in Continuing Education in Germany: An Empirical Analysis Based on Data from the German Socio-Economic Panel Study (SOEP)

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Ozturk, Halit; Kaufmann, Katrin

2009-01-01

Europe as an "immigration continent" is going to become an "integration continent". Within this context continuing education has acquired an increasing meaning. Based on the German Socio-Economic Panel (SOEP) study data from 2001-04 the authors examine a broad spectrum of possible factors which may influence participation in…

Our changing continent

USGS Publications Warehouse

,

1969-01-01

Where were the land areas and oceans of the North American Continent one million years ago, compared to our present geography? Was North America always about the same size and shape as it is today? To answer these questions, we must construct maps of the lands and sea that existed during the past ages. This process of reconstructing ancient geography is called paleogeography (from the Greek word "palaios," meaning ancient).

Examination of 2015 Human Development Index in Terms of Education: Comparison of the Continents and Turkey

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Nartgün, Senay Sezgin; Sezen-Gültekin, Gözde; Limon, Ibrahim

2017-01-01

This study aims to compare Turkey to the first three countries from each continent in terms of educational indicators in 2015 Human Development Report. In line with this aim, it is a case study utilizing document review method. Analysis of the data has been carried out on a single document which is United Nations Development Report (2015). To…

Total pelvic exenteration: the Albert Einstein College of Medicine/Montefiore Medical Center Experience (1987 to 2003).

PubMed

Goldberg, Gary L; Sukumvanich, Paniti; Einstein, Mark H; Smith, Harriet O; Anderson, Patrick S; Fields, Abbie L

2006-05-01

To review the trends, modifications and results of 103 consecutive total pelvic exenterations (TPE) performed at the Montefiore Medical Center and Albert Einstein College of Medicine from 1987 to 2003. All patients who underwent TPE from January 1987 to December 2003 were included. The medical record, complications, follow-up, clinical status and demographic information were entered in a database. The procedure performed, the method of urinary diversion, colonic diversion, pelvic floor support and vaginal reconstruction were documented. Surviving patients were surveyed regarding their satisfaction with the urinary diversion, the vaginal reconstruction and their sexual function since the surgery. 103 pts were identified. Indications for TPE were recurrent cancers of the cervix (95), endometrium (2), colon and rectum (5), vulva (1). Overall 5-year survival was 47%. 5-year survival for pts with recurrent cervix cancer was 48%. Six pts (6%) recurred >5 years after the TPE. 14 pts (14%) had ureteral anastomotic leaks (no difference between ileal conduit 9/65 (14%) versus 5/38 (13%) continent conduit (P = 0.92). 34 pts (89%) with continent conduits were "continent." 14 pts (17%) had wound complications. 4 pts (4%) had parastomal hernias. 5/11 (46%) pts who had a low rectal reanastomosis developed recurrence in the pelvis. 21/39 (54%) of pts with continent conduits would choose an ileal conduit if they had the option again. Long-term renal function was similar in pts with ileal and continent conduits. Mesh of any type for pelvic floor reconstruction is associated with infection and bowel/urinary fistulas. VRAM flaps for neovagina fill the pelvic dead space, reduce the risk of fistulas and 20/36 pts (55%) are sexually active. Our overall 5-year survival is encouraging, and modifications in surgical technique have improved the reconstructive phase. Low rectal anastomoses at TPE adversely affects survival. Many of our pts with continent urinary diversions would not choose this method again. Mesh of any type is associated with sepsis and bowel/urinary fistulas. VRAM for neovagina reduces fistula rate and are functional in >55% of pts. TPE remains a potentially curative option for these pts.

The Effect of Plumes on the Dynamics of Supercontinents in a Self-Consistent Plate Tectonics Setting

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Jain, C.; Rozel, A.; Tackley, P. J.

2014-12-01

Strong mantle plumes arising from the deep mantle can impose stresses on the continents, thereby facilitating continental rifting and disrupting the supercontinent cycle (Storey, Nature 1995; Santosh et al., Gondwana Research 2009). In recent years, several studies have characterized the relation between the location of the plumes and the continents, but with contradicting observations. While Heron and Lowman (GRL, 2010; Tectonophysics, 2011) propose regions where downwelling has ceased (irrespective of overlying plate) as the preferred location for plumes, O'Neill et al. (Gondwana Research, 2009) show an anti-correlation between the average positions of subducting slabs at continental margins, and mantle plumes at continental/oceanic interiors. Extent of continental motion depends on the heat budget of the mantle (CMB heat flux, radiogenic heating, mantle cooling). CMB heat flux is not well defined; however, the recent determination of core's high thermal conductivity requires a CMB heat flow of at least 12 TW (de Koker et al., PNAS 2012; Pozzo et al., Nature 2012; Gomi et al., PEPI 2013), much higher than early estimates of 3-4 TW (Lay et al., Nature 2008). Thus, it is necessary to characterize the effect of increased CMB heat flux on mantle dynamics. In almost all mantle convection simulations, the top boundary is treated as a free-slip surface whereas Earth's surface is a deformable free surface. Unlike free-slip, a free surface boundary condition allows for the development of topography and leads to realistic single-sided (asymmetric) subduction (Crameri et al., GJI 2012; Crameri et al., GRL 2012). Using StagYY code (Tackley, PEPI 2008), we test (i) the impact of increased basal heating on mantle dynamics with continents and self-consistent plate tectonics, including whether plumes prefer to develop under continents; (ii) the influence of a free surface on continents using the 'sticky air' approach, in which a low density and a small viscosity fluid layer is added to the top of the model. The existing model from Rolf et al. (EPSL 2012) is developed further but with weaker continents.

Seismic multiple attenuation in the northern continent-ocean transition zone of the South China Sea

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Chen, N.; Li, C. F.

2017-12-01

In seismic exploration, especially in marine oil and gas exploration, presence of multiple reflections lowers signal-to-noise ratio of seismic data and makes it difficult to analyze seismic velocity. In northern continent-ocean transition zone of the South China Sea (SCS), low-velocity Cenozoic strata cover sets of high-velocity carbonate strata directly, and over 1000 m thick of sediments were deposited on the igneous basement in the northwest SCS. These sedimentary boundaries generate quite strong impedance interfaces and strong internal multiples. Diffractions as a result of variation of seabed topography, coupled with the vibration, free surface multiples and refraction multiples, cause a variety of strong energy disturbances and missing of frequency component. In this study, we process four recently acquired multichannel reflection seismic profiles from the northern continent-ocean transition zone of the SCS with a new combination of demultiple techniques. There is a variety of strong multiples in the raw data, and the seabed multiple occurs between 9 to 11 seconds in two-way travel time (TWTT), and we apply Surface-related Multiple Elimination (SRME) to attenuate the free surface multiples. After SRME, we use high-resolution Radon transform (RAMUR) to attenuate deep multiples concentrating below 10 seconds in TWTT. Normal moveout correction (NMO) is necessary to flatten true reflections and turn multiples into a parabola before RAMUR, and we can attenuate the deep multiples in theτ-p domain. The seabed topography varies greatly in the continent-ocean transition zone, so the diffractions are well developed. However, SRME and RAMUR are not effective in attenuating diffractions and internal multiples. We select diffracted multiple attenuation (DIMAT) after many trials and detailed analysis. The diffractions are extracted in decomposed frequency bands. The internal multiples below 11 seconds in TWTT and high-amplitude noises are successfully suppressed while keeping the primary events. This combination of SRME, RAMUR and DIMAT in sequence demonstrates to be quite effective in attenuating these types of multiples on the continent-ocean transition zone. Keywords: Continent-ocean transition zone, seismic exploration, data processing, multiple attenuation

Influence of pelvic floor muscle contraction on the profile of vaginal closure pressure in continent and stress urinary incontinent women.

PubMed

Shishido, Keiichi; Peng, Qiyu; Jones, Ruth; Omata, Sadao; Constantinou, Christos E

2008-05-01

We characterized the vaginal pressure profile as a representation of closure forces along the length and circumference of the vaginal wall. Vaginal pressure profile data were used to test the hypothesis that the strength of pelvic floor muscle contractions differs significantly between continent women and women with stress urinary incontinence. Vaginal pressure profile recordings were made in 23 continent subjects and in 10 patients with stress urinary incontinence. The recordings characterized closure forces along the entire length of the vagina and identified differences among the anterior, posterior, left and right sides of the vaginal wall. Using a novel, directionally sensitive vaginal probe we made vaginal pressure profile measurements with the women at rest and during pelvic floor muscle contraction while supine. The nature of the vaginal pressure profile was characterized in terms of force distribution in the anterior and posterior vaginal walls, which was significantly greater than that on the left and right sides. The continent group had significant greater maximum pressure than the stress urinary incontinence group on the posterior side at rest (mean +/- SE 3.4 +/- 0.3 vs 2.01 +/- 0.36 N/cm(2)) and during pelvic floor muscle contraction (4.18 +/- 0.26 vs 2.25 +/- 0.41 N/cm(2)). The activity pressure difference between the posterior and anterior vaginal walls in the continent group was significantly increased when the pelvic floor muscles contracted vs that at rest (3.29 +/- 0.21 vs 2.45 +/- 0.26 N/cm(2)). However, the change observed in the stress urinary incontinence group was not significant (1.85 +/- 0.38 vs 1.35 +/- 0.27 N/cm(2)). The results demonstrate that the voluntary pelvic floor muscles impose significant closure forces along the vaginal wall of continent women but not in women with stress urinary incontinence. The implication of these findings is that extrinsic urethral closure pressure is insufficiently augmented by pelvic floor muscle contraction in women with stress urinary incontinence.

Impact of regional hypothermia on urinary continence and potency after robot-assisted radical prostatectomy.

PubMed

Finley, David S; Chang, Alexandra; Morales, Blanca; Osann, Kathryn; Skarecky, Douglas; Ahlering, Thomas

2010-07-01

This is the third publication that updates clinical outcomes using a novel technique to apply locoregional hypothermia to the pelvis during robot-assisted radical prostatectomy (RARP) to reduce inflammatory injury. This report updates urinary and sexual clinical outcomes with a minimum of 1 year follow-up. Regional pelvic cooling (<30 degrees C) [corrected] was achieved with a prototype endorectal cooling balloon (ECB) during the course ofRARP. All clinical data were entered prospectively into an electronic database for historic (cases 1-666) and hypothermic groups (115 pts). Urinary and sexual outcomes were obtained using self-administered validated questionnaires. Continence was defined as no pads, and potency was defined as two affirmative answers to "erections adequate for penetration" and "were the erections satisfactory." Six patients were excluded: three ECB malfunction, three previous radiation/surgery. Median time to zero pad use was 39 days vs 62 days (hypothermic vs controls, P = 0.0003). At 1 year, overall pad-free continence was 96.3% (105/109) vs controls of 86.6%, P < 0.001. Potency was evaluated in all men (40-78 years) with preoperative International Index of Erectile Function-5 scores of 22 to 25. At 3 months, potency results were unchanged between groups: 24% vs 23%. At 15 months, the potency rates were significantly better for the hypothermic group, 83% vs controls 66%, P = 0.045. No difference in oncologic outcome was noted with cooling. Using a prototype cooling balloon, hypothermic RARP significantly improved time to continence and overall continence. Hypothermia also resulted in a modest but statistically significant improvement in potency at 15 months. Once cooling parameters have been optimized, a randomized multicenter clinical trial will be needed for validation.

Management of recurrent post-prostatectomy incontinence after previous failed retrourethral male slings

PubMed Central

Al-Najar, Amr; Kaufmann, Sascha; Boy, Soenke; Naumann, Carsten Maik; Jünemann, Peter-Klaus; van der Horst, Christof

2011-01-01

Objective: Our objective was to establish the feasibility of combining 2 minimally invasive procedures in patients with failed primary treatment (male sling) in post-prostatectomy incontinence (PPI) patients. Methods: From January 2007 to July 2008, 40 men with PPI were implanted with a suburethral tape (2 patients with Seratim, 3 with I-Stop and 35 with Advance). The median preoperative pad count was 4 (range 2–10). Prior to sling placement, 6 patients had undergone ProACT implantation. Of these, 4 patients required explantation due to balloon migration and 2 patients had their balloons kept in situ, with the balloons deflated. Results: Twenty-five patients were socially continent at this time. Fifteen patients (37.5%) did not improve or their improvement was not significant. These patients had a preoperative pad count between 7 and 10. Two of these patients had prostate adjustable continence therapy (ProACT) systems still in place. By gradually filling the balloons to 3 mL, both of these patients achieved complete continence, which was maintained at a mean follow-up of 8.5 months. Three patients with prior pelvic irradiation received an artificial urinary sphincter and achieved continence at mean follow-up of 8.3 months. The remaining 10 patients received a ProACT system in addition to the already implanted sling. After appropriate healing and filling of the balloons (average balloon volume 5 mL), all 10 patients reached complete continence; they were pad-free at a mean follow-up of 6 months (range 3–9). Conclusions: The combination of ProACT and a suburethral tape was demonstrated to be a possible treatment option in recurrent or persistent PPI. PMID:21470536

Discordant Reporting of Nonmedical Opioid Use in a Nationally Representative Sample of US High School Seniors

PubMed Central

Palamar, Joseph J.; Shearston, Jenni A.; Cleland, Charles M.

2016-01-01

Background Nonmedical opioid use has become a major public health concern due to increases in treatment admissions, overdoses, and deaths. Use has also been linked to heroin initiation. Reliable data on nonmedical opioid use is needed to continue to inform prevention. Objective To determine the prevalence and correlates of discordant self-reports of nonmedical use of opioids in a national sample. Methods Utilizing a nationally representative sample of 31,149 American high school seniors in the Monitoring the Future study (2009–2013), discordant responses between self-reported 12-month nonmedical opioid use and self-reported 12-month nonmedical Vicodin and OxyContin use (reporting Vicodin/OxyContin use, but not reporting “opioid” use) were assessed. We also determined characteristics of students who were most likely to provide a discordant response. Results 37.1% of those reporting nonmedical Vicodin use and 28.2% of those reporting nonmedical OxyContin use did not report overall nonmedical opioid use. Prevalence of nonmedical opioid use (8.3%) would increase when factoring in Vicodin, OxyContin, or both, by 2.8%, 1.3%, and 3.3%, respectively. Females were more likely to provide a discordant response for Vicodin and highly religious students were more likely to provide a discordant response regarding OxyContin use. Those who reported cocaine or nonmedical tranquilizer use were at consistently low odds for discordant responses. Nonmedical amphetamine users were at low odds for providing a discordant Vicodin response. Conclusion Prevalence of nonmedical opioid use may be underreported on some surveys, particularly among specific subpopulations. Further research on the affect of question order and skip-patterns (e.g., “gate” questions) is needed. PMID:27315427

Discordant reporting of nonmedical opioid use in a nationally representative sample of US high school seniors.

PubMed

Palamar, Joseph J; Shearston, Jenni A; Cleland, Charles M

2016-09-01

Nonmedical opioid use has become a major public health concern due to increases in treatment admissions, overdoses, and deaths. Use has also been linked to heroin initiation. Reliable data on nonmedical opioid use are needed to continue to inform prevention. To determine the prevalence and correlates of discordant self-report of nonmedical use of opioids in a national sample. Utilizing a nationally representative sample of 31,149 American high school seniors in the Monitoring the Future study (2009-2013), discordant responses between self-reported 12-month nonmedical opioid use and self-reported 12-month nonmedical Vicodin and OxyContin use (reporting Vicodin/OxyContin use, but not reporting "opioid" use) were assessed. We also used multivariable logistic regression to determine the characteristics of students who were most likely to provide a discordant response. 37.1% of those reporting nonmedical Vicodin use and 28.2% of those reporting nonmedical OxyContin use did not report overall nonmedical opioid use. Prevalence of nonmedical opioid use (8.3%) would increase when factoring in Vicodin, OxyContin, or both, by 2.8%, 1.3%, and 3.3%, respectively. Females were more likely to provide a discordant response to Vicodin and highly religious students were more likely to provide a discordant response regarding OxyContin use. Those who reported cocaine or nonmedical tranquilizer use were at consistently low odds for discordant responses. Nonmedical amphetamine users were at low odds for providing a discordant Vicodin response. Prevalence of nonmedical opioid use may be underreported on some surveys, particularly among specific subpopulations. Further research on the effect of question order and skip-patterns (e.g., "gate" questions) is needed. Reliable data on nonmedical opioid use are needed to continue to accurately inform prevention.

Intraseasonal Cold Air Outbreak over East Asia and the preceding atmospheric condition over the Barents-Kara Sea

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Hori, M. E.; Inoue, J.

2011-12-01

Frequent occurrence of cold air outbreak is a dominant feature of the East Asian winter monsoon. A contributing factor for the this cold air outbreak is the role of stationary Rossby waves over the Eurasian continent which intensifies the surface Siberian High and the accompanying cold air outflow. Reduced sea ice and increase in turbulence heat flux is hypothesized as a source of such stationary waves (Honda et al. 2009). In particular, the winter of 2009/2010 saw a strong correlation of high pressure anomaly over the Barents/Kara sea and the following cold air buildup over the Eurasian continent and its advection towards East Asia (Hori et al. 2011). The lag correlation of surface temperature over Japan and the 850hPa geopotential height shows a cyclonic anomaly appearing over the Barents/Kara sea which creates a cold air advection over the Eurasian continent. The pressure anomaly subsequently shifted westward to mature into a blocking high which created a wave- train pattern downstream advecting the cold air buildup eastward toward East Asia and Japan (Fig1). We further examine this mechanism for other years including the 2005/2006, 2010/2011 winter and other winters with extreme cold air outbreaks. Overall, the existence of an anticyclonic anomaly over the Barents/Kara sea correlated well with the seasonal dominance of cold air over the Eurasian continent thereby creating a contrast of a warm Arctic and cold Eurasian continent.In the intraseasonal timescale, the existence of this anticyclone corresponds to a persisting atmospheric blocking in the high latitudes. In the presentation, we address the underlying chain of events leading up to a strong cold air outbreak over East Asia from an atmosphere - sea ice - land surafce interaction point of view for paritular cold winter years.

Globalization in Urology: A Bibliographical Analysis of Cross-Continent Publication between 2002 and 2012.

PubMed

Mani, Jens; Juengel, Eva; Bartsch, Georg; Filmann, Natalie; Ackermann, Hanns; Nelson, Karen; Haferkamp, Axel; Engl, Tobias; Blaheta, Roman A

2015-01-01

Asian scientists have now increasingly begun to contribute to globalization; yet it is not clear whether publishing in the field of urology is paralleled by elevated cross-continental scientific publishing. An exemplary bibliometric analysis of urologic journals from 3 different continents was conducted between 2002 and 2012. Based on the ISI Web of Knowledge Journal Citation Reports, 2 urologic journals with similar impact factors (IFs) in 2013 were selected from Europe ('British Journal of Urology International', 'World Journal of Urology'), Asia ('International Journal of Urology', 'Asian Journal of Andrology') and North America ('Urologic Oncology-Seminars and Original Investigations', 'Urology'). The home continent of the journal, the workplace continental affiliation of the last author, article type (clinical, experimental or review) as well as the IF were documented. Most authors published their manuscripts in journals from the same continent in which they worked. However, a significant increase in cross-continental publishing was apparent from 2002 to 2012. Asians publishing in North America increased from 17% in 2002 to 35% in 2012. Europeans also increased the number of articles they published in North American journals, while publications from North American authors were shifted towards both European and Asian journals. Experimental and clinical articles showed significant increases in cross-continental publishing, while review publishing showed no significant change. The average IF for authors from all 3 continents increased from 2002 to 2012 (p < 0.001). The largest increase in the IF was found for Asian authors (0.11 per year). Cross-continental publication significantly increased during the period from 2002 to 2012. The impact that the Asian authors have experienced was found to be gradually impacting the North American and European colleagues. © 2015 S. Karger AG, Basel.

Cold cratonic roots and thermal blankets: How continents affect mantle convection

USGS Publications Warehouse

Trubitsyn, V.P.; Mooney, W.D.; Abbott, D.H.

2003-01-01

Two-dimensional convection models with moving continents show that continents profoundly affect the pattern of mantle convection. If the continents are wider than the wavelength of the convection cells (???3000 km, the thickness of the mantle), they cause neighboring deep mantle thermal upwellings to coalesce into a single focused upwelling. This focused upwelling zone will have a potential temperature anomaly of about 200??C, much higher than the 100??C temperature anomaly of upwelling zones generated beneath typical oceanic lithosphere. Extensive high-temperature melts (including flood basalts and late potassic granites) will be produced, and the excess temperature anomaly will induce continental uplift (as revealed in sea level changes) and the eventual breakup of the supercontinent. The mantle thermal anomaly will persist for several hundred million years after such a breakup. In contrast, small continental blocks (<1000 km diameter) do not induce focused mantle upwelling zones. Instead, small continental blocks are dragged to mantle downwelling zones, where they spend most of their time, and will migrate laterally with the downwelling. As a result of sitting over relatively cold mantle (downwellings), small continental blocks are favored to keep their cratonic roots. This may explain the long-term survival of small cratonic blocks (e.g., the Yilgarn and Pilbara cratons of western Australia, and the West African craton). The optimum size for long-term stability of a continental block is <3000 km. These results show that continents profoundly affect the pattern of mantle convection. These effects are illustrated in terms of the timing and history of supercontinent breakup, the production of high-temperature melts, and sea level changes. Such two-dimensional calculations can be further refined and tested by three-dimensional numerical simulations of mantle convection with moving continental and oceanic plates.

Phase Locking between Atmospheric Convectively Coupled Equatorial Kelvin Waves and the Diurnal Cycle of Precipitation over the Maritime Continent

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Flatau, M. K.; Baranowski, D. B.; Flatau, P. J.; Matthews, A. J.

2016-12-01

Although the importance of the Maritime Continent to the global atmospheric circulation has been long recognized, many researchers have argued that scale separation prevents local processes, such as the local diurnal cycle of precipitation, from directly influencing global scale phenomena such as the variability of atmospheric circulation associated with the equatorial waves. In our study we show that in fact multiscale interactions, which link processes in local and global scales, may play a crucial role for propagation of the CCKWs, which along with the Madden-Julian Oscillation (MJO) are the main eastward propagating component of intraseasonal variability. In our study, we show that not only do CCKWs bring excess amounts of precipitation to the Maritime Continent, but events which are phase locked with the local diurnal cycle of convection have a precipitation signal up to three times larger than average. That means that CCKWs are a primary candidate for extreme precipitation events over the densely populated areas of Indonesia and Malaysia. The complex terrain created by mixture of oceans and lands within the Maritime Continent is unique: the distance between the two main land masses at the equator (islands of Sumatra and Borneo) is approximately the same as the distance travelled by a CCKW in one day. Therefore a CCKW event that is synchronized with a local diurnal cycle over Sumatra is likely to be synchronized over Borneo as well. We find that CCKWs, which are in phase with the local diurnal cycle of precipitation over Sumatra, Borneo and surrounding seas, have a 40% larger chance to successfully cross the Maritime Continent than other CCKWs. That unique feature is a likely a clear example of a multiscale interaction within the region.

Colon pouch (Mainz III) for continent urinary diversion.

PubMed

Stolzenburg, Jens-Uwe; Schwalenberg, Thilo; Liatsikos, Evangelos N; Sakelaropoulos, George; Rödder, Kilian; Hohenfellner, Rudolph; Fisch, Margit

2007-06-01

To evaluate the use of a continent cutaneous pouch made exclusively of colon (Mainz pouch III), as excellent results with the Mainz pouch III in irradiated patients suggested that the indication for this type of urinary diversion could be extended. The outcome of 24 patients with continent cutaneous urinary diversions using colon segments (Mainz pouch III) was investigated retrospectively. Overall, 22 of the patients had a malignant disease and two a benign disease; 16 had a hysterectomy and pelvic exenteration for gynaecological tumours; two men with a rhabdomyosarcoma of the prostate had a radical cystoprostatectomy; one woman had pelvic exenteration for bladder cancer; one man had a simultaneous rectum resection due to infiltrating rectal cancer, and another a left nephrectomy with cystectomy for concomitant kidney and bladder tumour. Benign indications were hyper-reflexive bladder after polytrauma and two cases of neurogenic bladder dysfunction. Eighteen patients had radiotherapy (32-48 Gy) before the urinary diversion. The mean (range) follow-up was 35 (12-65) months. The mean pouch capacity was 293.8 mL. Three patients died during the follow-up (two from disease progression and one suicide); 20 patients were fully continent, four with reduced pouch capacity (<300 mL) had slight incontinence and are wearing a protective pad (band-aid at the umbilicus). All patients use intermittent self-catheterization (mean catheterization frequency 6.8/day, range 6-12). Complications related to the pouch were one outlet stenosis that required revision. Postoperative pouchograms showed asymptomatic reflux in four patients. None of the patients developed metabolic acidosis or diarrhoea. The Mainz pouch III is an alternative to other types of continent urinary diversion.

Responses of Mean and Extreme Precipitation to Deforestation in the Maritime Continent

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Chen, C. C.; Lo, M. H.; Yu, J. Y.

2017-12-01

Anthropogenic land use and land cover change, including tropical deforestation, could have substantial effects on local surface energy and water budgets, and thus on the atmospheric stability which may result in changes in precipitation. Maritime Continent has undergone severe deforestation in recent decades but has received less attention than Amazon or Congo rainforests. Therefore, this study is to decipher the precipitation response to deforestation in the Maritime Continent. We conduct deforestation experiments using Community Earth System Model (CESM) and through converting the tropical rainforest into grassland. The results show that deforestation in Maritime Continent leads to an increase in both mean temperature and mean precipitation. Moisture budget analysis indicates that the increase in precipitation is associated with the vertically integrated vertical moisture advection, especially the dynamic component (changes in convection). In addition, through moist static energy (MSE) budget analysis, we find the atmosphere among deforested areas become unstable owing to the combined effects of positive specific humidity anomalies at around 850 hPa and anomalous warming extended from the surface to 750 hPa. This instability will induce anomalous ascending motion, which could enhance the low-level moisture convergence, providing water vapor from the surrounding warm ocean. To further evaluate the precipitation response to deforestation, we examine the precipitation changes under La Niña events and global warming scenario using CESM Atmospheric Model Intercomparison Project (AMIP) simulations and Representative Concentration Pathway (RCP) 8.5 simulations. We find that the precipitation increase caused by deforestation in Maritime Continent is comparable in magnitude to that generated by either natural variability or global warming forcing. Besides the changes in mean precipitation, preliminary results show the extreme precipitation also increases. We will further explore how the extreme precipitation changes with the deforestation forcing.

Significant geographic gradients in particulate sulfate over Japan determined from multiple-site measurements and a chemical transport model: Impacts of transboundary pollution from the Asian continent

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Aikawa, Masahide; Ohara, Toshimasa; Hiraki, Takatoshi; Oishi, Okihiro; Tsuji, Akihiro; Yamagami, Makiko; Murano, Kentaro; Mukai, Hitoshi

2010-01-01

We found a significant geographic gradient (longitudinal and latitudinal) in the sulfate (SO 42-) concentrations measured at multiple sites over the East Asian Pacific Rim region. Furthermore, the observed gradient was well reproduced by a regional chemical transport model. The observed and modeled SO 42- concentrations were higher at the sites closer to the Asian continent. The concentrations of SO 42- from China as calculated by the model also showed the fundamental features of the longitudinal/latitudinal gradient. The proportional contribution of Chinese SO 42- to the total in Japan throughout the year was above 50-70% in the control case, using data for Chinese sulfur dioxide (SO 2) emission from the Regional Emission Inventory in Asia (40-60% in the low Chinese emissions case, using Chinese SO 2 emissions data from the State Environmental Protection Administration of China), with a winter maximum of approximately 65-80%, although the actual concentrations of SO 42- from China were highest in summer. The multiple-site measurements and the model analysis strongly suggest that the SO 42- concentrations in Japan were influenced by the outflow from the Asian continent, and this influence was greatest in the areas closer to the Asian continent. In contrast, we found no longitudinal/latitudinal gradient in SO 2 concentrations; instead SO 2 concentrations were significantly correlated with local SO 2 emissions. Our results show that large amounts of particulate sulfate are transported over long distances from the East Asian Pacific Rim region, and consequently the SO 42- concentrations in Japan are controlled by the transboundary outflow from the Asian continent.

Failed pelvic pouch substituted by continent ileostomy.

PubMed

Wasmuth, H H; Tranø, G; Wibe, A; Endreseth, B H; Rydning, A; Myrvold, H E

2010-07-01

The long-term failure rate of ileal pouch-anal anastomosis (IPAA) is 10-15%. When salvage surgery is unsuccessful, most surgeons prefer pouch excision with conventional ileostomy, thus sacrificing 40-50 cm of ileum. Conversion of a pelvic pouch to a continent ileostomy (CI, Kock pouch) is an alternative that preserves both the ileal surface and pouch properties. The aim of the study was to evaluate clinical outcome after the construction of a CI following a failed IPAA. During 1984-2007, 317 patients were operated with IPAA at St Olavs Hospital and evaluated for failure, treatment and outcome. Seven patients with IPAA failure had CI. Four patients with IPAA failure referred from other hospitals underwent conversion to CI and are included in the final analysis. Seven patients had a CI constructed from the transposing pelvic pouch and four had the pelvic pouch removed and a new continent pouch constructed from the distal ileum. Median follow up after conversion to CI was 7 years (0-17 years). Two CI had to be removed due to fistulae. One patient needed a revision of the nipple valve due to pouch loosening. At the end of follow-up, 8 of the 11 patients were fully continent. One patient with Crohn's disease had minor leakage. In patients with pelvic pouch failure, the possibility of conversion to CI should be presented to the patient as an alternative to pouch excision and permanent ileostomy. The advantage is the continence and possibly a better body image. Construction of a CI on a new ileal segment may be considered, but the consequences of additional small bowel loss and risk of malnutrition if the Kock pouch fails should be appraised.

Evaluation of combined oncologic and functional outcomes after robotic-assisted laparoscopic extraperitoneal radical prostatectomy: trifecta rate of achieving continence, potency and cancer control.

PubMed

Xylinas, Evanguelos; Durand, Xavier; Ploussard, Guillaume; Campeggi, Alexandre; Allory, Yves; Vordos, Dimitri; Hoznek, Andras; Abbou, Claude Clément; de la Taille, Alexandre; Salomon, Laurent

2013-01-01

Outcomes of continence, erectile function, and oncologic control are well-described in isolation especially for the retropubic open approach. However, only few series have yet reported combined results after radical prostatectomy. To determine the proportion of men who are continent, potent, and cancer-free (trifecta rate) 2 years after robot-assisted laparoscopic radical prostatectomy (RALRP). We included patients who underwent a RALRP at our department and who were followed during at least 2 years. Men who were impotent or incontinent before the surgery were excluded from the analysis. Overall, 500 men were included. All patients prospectively completed validated questionnaires (IIEF-5, ICS) before the medical visit and concerning their voiding and sexual disorders, preoperatively, 3, 6, 12, 18, and 24 months after RALRP. Biochemical recurrence was defined as any detectable serum PSA (≥ 0.2 ng/ml). The study end point was the trifecta rate (cancer control, continence, and potency) at 2 years of the surgery. Predictive factors of the trifecta outcome were assessed in univariate and multivariate analyses. Median age and PSA level were 62.2 years and 9.7 ng/mL. A trifecta outcome was achieved in 44% and 53% of men at 12 and 24 months, respectively. The 2-year trifecta rate reached 62% in men undergoing bilateral nerve-sparing surgery and 71% in men < 60 years. Age < 60 years, PSA level < 10 ng/ml, organ-confined disease, and bilateral nerve-sparing procedure were significantly associated with the 2-year trifecta outcome. Two years after RALRP, the trifecta outcome is achieved in 53% of preoperatively potent and continent men. Copyright © 2013 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

The contemporary North Pangea supercontinent and the geodynamic causes of its formation

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Kovalenko, V. I.; Yarmolyuk, V. V.; Bogatikov, O. A.

2010-11-01

The supercontinental status of the contemporary aggregation of continents called North Pangea is substantiated. This supercontinent comprises all continents with the probable exception of Antarctica. In addition to the spatial contiguity of continents, the supercontinent is characterized by the prevalence of the continental crust that combines North America and Eurasia, Eurasia and Africa, and Eurasia and Australia. Over the course of the 300-250-Ma evolution from Wegener's Pangea to contemporary North Pangea, the aggregation of continents has not lost its supercontinental status, despite modification of the supercontinent shape and opening and closure of the newly formed Paleotethys, Tethys, Atlantic, and Indian oceans. Over the last 250-300 Ma, all movements of the lithospheric plates have most likely occurred within the Indo-Atlantic segment of the Earth, whereas the Pacific segment has remained oceanic. In short, the formation of the North Pangea supercontinent can be outlined in the following terms. The long and deep subduction of the lithospheric plates beneath Eurasia and North America gave rise to the stabilization of the continents and accumulation of huge bodies of the cold lithosphere commensurable in volume with the upper mantle at the deeper mantle levels. This brought about compensation ascent of hot mantle (mantle plumes) near the convergent plate boundaries and far from them. A special geodynamic setting develops beneath the supercontinent. Due to encircling subduction of the lithospheric plates and related squeezing of the hot mantle, an ascending flow, or plume (superplume) formed beneath the central part of the supercontinent. In our view, the African superplume broke up Wegener's Pangea in the Atlantic region, caused the opening of the Atlantic and Indian oceans, and migrated to the Arctic Region 53 Ma ago.

Continence and pelvic floor status in nulliparous women at midterm pregnancy.

PubMed

Hilde, Gunvor; Stær-Jensen, Jette; Ellström Engh, Marie; Brækken, Ingeborg Hoff; Bø, Kari

2012-09-01

A Cochrane review recommends antenatal pelvic floor muscle training (PFMT) in urinary incontinence (UI) prevention. The aim of the study was to investigate nulliparous pregnant women's knowledge about and practising of PFMT, their pelvic floor muscle (PFM) function, and ability to contract correctly. It was hypothesized that continent women had higher PFM strength and endurance than women with UI. Three hundred nulliparous women at gestational week 18-22 were included in a cross-sectional study. Vaginal resting pressure, maximum voluntary contraction, and PFM endurance were measured by manometer. UI was assessed by International Consultation on Incontinence Questionnaire Urinary Incontinence Short Form (ICIQ-UI-SF). Comparisons of PFM function in continent women and women with UI were analyzed using independent-samples t test. Mean differences with 95 % confidence interval (CI) are presented. Of 300 women, 89 % had heard of PFMT at mid pregnancy, and 35 % performed PFMT once or more a week. After thorough instruction 4 % were unable to contract correctly. Thirty-five percent reported UI, of whom 48 % performed PFMT once or more a week. Continent women had significantly higher PFM strength and endurance when compared with women having UI, with mean differences of 6.6 cmH(2)O (CI 2.3-10.8, p = 0.003), and 41.5 cmH(2)Osec (CI 9.8-73.1, p = 0.010), respectively. No difference was found for vaginal resting pressure (p = 0.054). Most nulliparous pregnant women knew about PFMT. Thirty-five percent performed PFMT once or more a week. Incontinent nulliparous pregnant women had weaker PFM than their continent counterparts. More emphasis on information regarding PFM function and PFMT is warranted during pregnancy.

Urethral pressure reflectometry during intra-abdominal pressure increase-an improved technique to characterize the urethral closure function in continent and stress urinary incontinent women.

PubMed

Saaby, Marie-Louise; Klarskov, Niels; Lose, Gunnar

2013-11-01

to assess the urethral closure function by urethral pressure reflectometry (UPR) during intra-abdominal pressure-increase in SUI and continent women. Twenty-five urodynamically proven SUI women and eight continent volunteer women were assessed by ICIQ-SF, pad-weighing test, incontinence diary, and UPR. UPR was conducted during resting and increased intra-abdominal pressure (P(Abd)) by straining. Related values of P(Abd) and urethral opening pressure (P(o)) were plotted into an abdomino-urethral pressuregram. Linear regression of the values was conducted, and the slope of the line ("APIR") and the intercept with the y-axis found. By the equation of the line, Po was calculated for various values of P(Abd), for example, 50 cm H2O (P(o-Abd 50)). The resting P(o) (P(o-rest)) and APIR, respectively, significantly differed in SUI and continent women but could not separate the two groups. The urethral closure equation (UCE) based on P(o-rest) and APIR provided a more detailed characterization of a woman's closure function based on the permanent closure forces (primarily generated by the urethral sphincteric unit) and the adjunctive closure forces (primarily generated by the support system). P(o-Abd 50) and UCE, respectively, which express the combined permanent and adjunctive closure forces and estimate the efficiency of the closure function, separated SUI and continent women and were highly significantly negatively correlated with ICIQ-SF, pad test, and the number of incontinence episodes. New parameters for characterization of the urethral closure function and possible dysfunctions and its efficiency were provided. P(o-Abd 50) and UCE may be used as diagnostic tests and severity measures. © 2013 Wiley Periodicals, Inc.

Obesity and stress urinary incontinence in women: compromised continence mechanism or excess bladder pressure during cough?

PubMed

Swenson, Carolyn W; Kolenic, Giselle E; Trowbridge, Elisa R; Berger, Mitchell B; Lewicky-Gaupp, Christina; Margulies, Rebecca U; Morgan, Daniel M; Fenner, Dee E; DeLancey, John O

2017-09-01

We compared two hypotheses as to why obesity is associated with stress urinary incontinence (SUI): (1) obesity increases demand on the continence system (e.g. higher cough pressure) and (2) obesity compromises urethral function and urethrovaginal support. A secondary analysis was performed using data from a case-control study of SUI in women. Measurements of urethrovaginal support (POP-Q point Aa, urethral axis), urethral function (maximal urethral closure pressure, MUCP), and measures of continence system demand (intravesical pressures at rest and during maximal cough) were analyzed. Cases and controls were divided into three body mass index (BMI) groups: normal (18.5-24.9 kg/m 2 ); overweight (25.0-29.9 kg/m 2 ); and obese (≥30 kg/m 2 ). Logistic regression models where created to investigate variables related to SUI for each BMI group. Structural equation modeling was used to test the direct and indirect relationships among BMI, SUI, maximal cough pressure, MUCP, and POP-Q point Aa. The study included 108 continent controls and 103 women with SUI. MUCP was the factor most strongly associated with SUI in all BMI groups. Maximal cough pressure was significantly associated with SUI in obese women (OR 3.191, 95% CI 1.326, 7.683; p < 0.01), but not in normal weight or overweight women. Path model analysis showed a significant relationship between BMI and SUI through maximal cough pressure (indirect effect, p = 0.038), but not through MUCP (indirect effect, p = 0.243) or POP-Q point Aa (indirect effect, p = 0.410). Our results support the first hypothesis that obesity is associated with SUI because of increased intravesical pressure, which therefore increases demand on the continence mechanism.

The Diurnal Cycle over the Maritime Continent and its Interaction with the MJO

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Matthews, A. J.; Peatman, S.; Baranowski, D. B.; Stevens, D. P.; Heywood, K. J.; Flatau, P. J.; Schmidtko, S.

2014-12-01

The complex land-sea distribution and topography of the maritime continent acts to disrupt or even completely block the eastward propagation of the Madden-Julian Oscillation (MJO) from the Indian Ocean to the western Pacific. This leads to changes in tropical latent heat release and subsequent impacts on global circulation. Convection over the maritime continent is dominated by the diurnal cycle. Where the mean diurnal cycle is strong (over the islands and surrounding seas), 80% of the MJO precipitation signal in the maritime continent is accounted for by changes in the amplitude of the diurnal cycle. The canonical view of the MJO as the smooth eastward propagation of a large-scale precipitation envelope also breaks down over the islands of the Maritime Continent. Instead, a vanguard of precipitation jumps ahead of the main body by approximately 6 days or 2000 km. Hence, there can be enhanced precipitation over Sumatra, Borneo or New Guinea when the large-scale MJO envelope over the surrounding ocean is one of suppressed precipitation. This behaviour is discussed in terms of an interaction between the diurnal cycle and the MJO circulation. The diurnal cycle is also strong in the ocean. Seaglider measurements taken during the CINDY/DYNAMO campaign show the existence of a diurnal warm layer in the upper few metres of the ocean. This has a significant effect on the surface fluxes, of an order of Watts per square metre. The diurnal warm layer is favoured during the inactive phase of the MJO and may act to help precondition the atmosphere to convection. The activities of the MJO Task Force and Subseasonal to Seasonal Prediction project will be discussed in this context.

First results from a full-waveform inversion of the African continent using Salvus

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

van Herwaarden, D. P.; Afanasiev, M.; Krischer, L.; Trampert, J.; Fichtner, A.

2017-12-01

We present the initial results from an elastic full-waveform inversion (FWI) of the African continent which is melded together within the framework of the Collaborative Seismic Earth Model (CSEM) project. The continent of Africa is one of the most geophysically interesting regions on the planet. More specifically, Africa contains the Afar Depression, which is the only place on Earth where incipient seafloor spreading is sub-aerially exposed, along with other anomalous features such as the topography in the south, and several smaller surface expressions such as the Cameroon Volcanic Line and Congo Basin. Despite its significance, relatively few tomographic images exist of Africa, and, as a result, the debate on the geophysical origins of Africa's anomalies is rich and ongoing. Tomographic images of Africa present unique challenges due to uneven station coverage: while tectonically active areas such as the Afar rift are well sampled, much of the continent exhibits a severe lack of seismic stations. And, while Africa is mostly surrounded by tectonically active spreading plate boundaries, the interior of the continent is seismically quiet. To mitigate such issues, our simulation domain is extended to include earthquakes occurring in the South Atlantic and along the western edge of South America. Waveform modelling and inversion is performed using Salvus, a flexible and high-performance software suite based on the spectral-element method. Recently acquired recordings from the AfricaArray and NARS seismic networks are used to complement data obtained from global networks. We hope that this new model presents a fresh high-resolution image of African geodynamic structure, and helps advance the debate regarding the causative mechanisms of its surface anomalies.

High-rate injection is associated with the increase in U.S. mid-continent seismicity

USGS Publications Warehouse

Weingarten, Matthew; Ge, Shemin; Godt, Jonathan W.; Bekins, Barbara A.; Rubinstein, Justin L.

2015-01-01

An unprecedented increase in earthquakes in the U.S. mid-continent began in 2009. Many of these earthquakes have been documented as induced by wastewater injection. We examine the relationship between wastewater injection and U.S. mid-continent seismicity using a newly assembled injection well database for the central and eastern United States. We find that the entire increase in earthquake rate is associated with fluid injection wells. High-rate injection wells (>300,000 barrels per month) are much more likely to be associated with earthquakes than lower-rate wells. At the scale of our study, a well’s cumulative injected volume, monthly wellhead pressure, depth, and proximity to crystalline basement do not strongly correlate with earthquake association. Managing injection rates may be a useful tool to minimize the likelihood of induced earthquakes.

Maniac Talk - Dr. William Lau

NASA Image and Video Library

2014-01-24

William Lau Maniac Lecture, 24 January, 2014 Dr. William Lau, Deputy Director for Atmospheres, Earth Science Division at NASA Goddard, presented a Maniac Talk entitled "My Story: A Tale of Three Continents." Bill shared his early childhood under a colonial education system with strong Chinese cultural influence and how world events, cultural and education system of three major continents, Europe, Asia and North America shaped his upbringing career goals and work ethics.

A Comparison of Food Supply from 1984 to 2009 and Degree of Dietary Westernization in Taiwan with Asian Countries and World Continents

PubMed Central

Peng, Cheau-Jane; Lin, Cheng-Yao; Guo, How-Ran

2015-01-01

Objective. To compare quality, quantity, and trends of food supply from 1984 to 2009 and degree of food westernization in Taiwan with Asian countries and world continents by using food balance data. Methods. We compiled data from food balance sheets of Taiwan and Food and Agriculture Organization, including five continents and three most populated countries each in Eastern, Southern, and Southeastern Asia over the period 1984–2009. Quantity of food supply per capita was referenced to Taiwan food guides. The population-weighted means of food supply from Europe, North America, South America, and Australia and New Zealand continents in terms of energy and nutrient distributions, animal/plant sources, and sugar/alcohol contribution were used as indicators of westernization. Trends of food supply per capita of six food groups were plotted, and linear regression was applied to evaluate food changes. Findings. Taiwan's food supply provided sufficient quantity in food energy, with the lowest cereals/roots supply and rice to wheat ratio, but the highest meat and oil supplies per capita among the 10 studied Asian countries. Taiwan food supply showed the most westernization among these countries. Conclusion. Food supply of Taiwan, although currently sufficient, indicated some security problems and high tendency of diet westernization. PMID:26295045

A Comparison of Food Supply from 1984 to 2009 and Degree of Dietary Westernization in Taiwan with Asian Countries and World Continents.

PubMed

Peng, Cheau-Jane; Lin, Cheng-Yao; Guo, How-Ran

2015-01-01

To compare quality, quantity, and trends of food supply from 1984 to 2009 and degree of food westernization in Taiwan with Asian countries and world continents by using food balance data. We compiled data from food balance sheets of Taiwan and Food and Agriculture Organization, including five continents and three most populated countries each in Eastern, Southern, and Southeastern Asia over the period 1984-2009. Quantity of food supply per capita was referenced to Taiwan food guides. The population-weighted means of food supply from Europe, North America, South America, and Australia and New Zealand continents in terms of energy and nutrient distributions, animal/plant sources, and sugar/alcohol contribution were used as indicators of westernization. Trends of food supply per capita of six food groups were plotted, and linear regression was applied to evaluate food changes. Taiwan's food supply provided sufficient quantity in food energy, with the lowest cereals/roots supply and rice to wheat ratio, but the highest meat and oil supplies per capita among the 10 studied Asian countries. Taiwan food supply showed the most westernization among these countries. Food supply of Taiwan, although currently sufficient, indicated some security problems and high tendency of diet westernization.

Orogeny can be very short

PubMed Central

Dewey, John F.

2005-01-01

In contrast to continent/continent collision, arc–continent collision generates very short-lived orogeny because the buoyancy-driven impedance of the subduction of continental lithosphere, accompanied by arc/suprasubduction-zone ophiolite obduction, is relieved by subduction polarity reversal (flip). This tectonic principle is illustrated by the early Ordovician Grampian Orogeny in the British and Irish Caledonides, in which a wealth of detailed sedimentologic, heavy mineral, and geochronologic data pin the Orogeny to a very short Arenig/Llanvirn event. The Orogeny, from the initial subduction of continental margin sediments to the end of postflip shortening, lasted ≈18 million years (my). The collisional shortening, prograde-metamorphic phase of the Orogeny lasted 8 my, extensional collapse and exhumation of midcrustal rocks lasted 1.5 my, and postflip shortening lasted 4.5 my. Strain rates were a typical plate-boundary-zone 10-15. Metamorphism, to the second sillimanite isograd, with extensive partial melting, occurred within a few my after initial collision, indicating that conductive models for metamorphic heat transfer in Barrovian terrains are incorrect and must be replaced by advective models in which large volumes of mafic/ultramafic magma are emplaced, syn-tectonically, below and into evolving nappe stacks. Arc/continent collision generates fast and very short orogeny, regional metamorphism, and exhumation. PMID:16126898

Observational Evidence of Changes in Soil Temperatures across Eurasian Continent

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Zhang, T.

2015-12-01

Soil temperature is one of the key climate change indicators and plays an important role in plant growth, agriculture, carbon cycle and ecosystems as a whole. In this study, variability and changes in ground surface and soil temperatures up to 3.20 m were investigated based on data and information obtained from hydrometeorological stations across Eurasian continent since the early 1950s. Ground surface and soil temperatures were measured daily by using the same standard method and by the trained professionals across Eurasian continent, which makes the dataset unique and comparable over a large study region. Using the daily soil temperature profiles, soil seasonal freeze depth was also obtained through linear interpolation. Preliminary results show that soil temperatures at various depths have increased dramatically, almost twice as much as air temperature increase over the same period. Regionally, soil temperature increase was more dramatically in high northern latitudes than mid/lower latitude regions. Air temperature changes alone may not be able to fully explain the magnitude of changes in soil temperatures. Further study indicates that snow cover establishment started later in autumn and snow cover disappearance occurred earlier in spring, while winter snow depth became thicker with a decreasing trend of snow density. Changes in snow cover conditions may play an important role in changes of soil temperatures over the Eurasian continent.

Intracontinental movements in Western Gondwanaland: a palaeomagnetic test

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Rapalini, A. E.; Abdeldayem, A. L.; Tarling, D. H.

1993-04-01

Early Cretaceous intracontinental movements within Africa and/or South America, to account for misfit problem in the pre-drift reconstruction of Western Gondwana, have been tested using palaeomagnetic poles from both continents. Each continent has been considered as comprising separate subplates according to the boundaries proposed by Pindell and Dewey (1982) and Curie (1983): i.e., northern Africa ( NAF), southern Africa ( SAF), northern South America (nsa) and southern South America ( SSA). Visual and statistical distribution of Late Permian to Jurassic poles from the African subplates indicate two distinct groups before rotating SAF relative to NAF, while after the rotation they become indistinguishable. The distribution and sparsity of data from South America limit the study in this continent as the data are statistically indistinguishable before and after rotation of SSA with respect to NSA. When the test is extended to the reconstruction of Western Gondwana, the tightest grouping of the poles occurs when an intracontinental movement is assumed within Africa. This suggests that the misfit between the two continents is probably due to intracontinental deformation within Africa and not in South America. If confirmed, this may have profound implications in the kinematics of the processes related to the opening of the South and Central Atlantic Oceans and also the origin of the West African Rift System.

Investigation of conditions for the generation and propagation of low-frequency disturbances in the troposphere

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Mordvinov, V. I.; Devyatova, E. V.; Kochetkova, O. S.; Oznobikhina, O. A.

2013-01-01

Low-frequency disturbances responsible for the excitation of torsional oscillations—variations in the zonal mean flow intensity with a characteristic scale of 15-20 days—propagating along the meridian at mid and low latitudes of both hemispheres are investigated [1]. As data observed over the eastern parts of continents and the western parts of oceans are processed with the lag correlation statistics, traveling waves intersecting the eastern parts of continents from northwest to southeast and then returning to the north along the ocean coasts are identified. In this case, trains of anomalies oriented in the zonal direction periodically appear and are destructed in the western parts of continents. The simulation of the propagation of disturbances in the quasi-geostrophic approximation made it possible to explain the specific features of lag correlation statistics over continents by the dispersion of two-dimensional Rossby waves from traveling sources. The turnover of disturbances over Asia and wave trains to the west from the pole were reproduced. Torsional oscillations caused by the dispersion of two-dimensional Rossby waves have a characteristic form of inclined bands in the latitude-time diagram, whose steepness is controlled by the velocity of displacement of the vorticity source along the meridian.

Geothermal activity helps life survive glacial cycles

PubMed Central

Fraser, Ceridwen I.; Terauds, Aleks; Smellie, John; Convey, Peter; Chown, Steven L.

2014-01-01

Climate change has played a critical role in the evolution and structure of Earth’s biodiversity. Geothermal activity, which can maintain ice-free terrain in glaciated regions, provides a tantalizing solution to the question of how diverse life can survive glaciations. No comprehensive assessment of this “geothermal glacial refugia” hypothesis has yet been undertaken, but Antarctica provides a unique setting for doing so. The continent has experienced repeated glaciations that most models indicate blanketed the continent in ice, yet many Antarctic species appear to have evolved in almost total isolation for millions of years, and hence must have persisted in situ throughout. How could terrestrial species have survived extreme glaciation events on the continent? Under a hypothesis of geothermal glacial refugia and subsequent recolonization of nongeothermal regions, we would expect to find greater contemporary diversity close to geothermal sites than in nongeothermal regions, and significant nestedness by distance of this diversity. We used spatial modeling approaches and the most comprehensive, validated terrestrial biodiversity dataset yet created for Antarctica to assess spatial patterns of diversity on the continent. Models clearly support our hypothesis, indicating that geothermally active regions have played a key role in structuring biodiversity patterns in Antarctica. These results provide critical insights into the evolutionary importance of geothermal refugia and the history of Antarctic species. PMID:24616489

Left-colon antegrade continence enema (LACE) procedure for fecal incontinence.

PubMed

Churchill, Bernard M; De Ugarte, Daniel A; Atkinson, James B

2003-12-01

Antegrade continence enemas (ACE) are an efficacious therapeutic option for patients with fecal incontinence. The authors review their institution's experience with a variation of the Monti-Malone ACE procedure using the left colon as a source of an intestinal conduit and enema reservoir. From 2000 to 2002, 18 patients with fecal incontinence or intractable constipation underwent left-colon ACE (LACE) procedure. Concomitant Mitrofanoff appendicovesicostomy was performed in 15 patients and bladder augmentation in 9. The majority of patients had neural tube defects. A segment of left colon was tubularized, tunneled into the muscular wall of the distal colon, and exteriorized through the left upper quadrant or midabdomen. Stomal catherization and enema installation were started one month postoperatively. Fifteen patients (83%) achieved fecal continence, 2 remain incontinent of stool, and 1 experienced stomal closure (mean follow-up was 24 +/- 9 months). Two patients had stomal stenosis that required revision. The mean enema volume in patient's achieving continence was 360 +/- 216 mL, and the mean transit time was 18 +/- 12 minutes. LACE is an efficacious procedure for fecal incontinence that can be performed safely at the time of major urologic reconstruction. Administration of enemas into the left colon has several physiologic advantages that result in predictable bowel evacuation.

Continent vesicovaginal fistula

PubMed Central

de Toledo, Luís Gustavo Morato; Santos, Victor Espinheira; Maron, Paulo Eduardo Gourlat; Vedovato, Bruno César; Fucs, Moacyr; Perez, Marjo Deninson Cardenuto

2013-01-01

ABSTRACT Vesicovaginal fistula is an abnormal communication between the bladder and vagina and represents the most frequent type of fistula in the urinary tract. The most common cause in Brazil is iatrogenic fistula, secondary to histerectomia. Classically these women present continuous urinary leakage from the vagina and absence of micturition, with strong negative impact on their quality of life. We present a case of totally continent vesicovaginal fistula, with a follow-up of 11 years with no complications. PMID:23579756

Barriers to overcome for effective cancer control in Africa.

PubMed

Harford, Joe B

2015-08-01

Cancer control in Africa is complicated due to large differences in cancer incidence between countries caused by differences in exposure to known risk factors. For example, substantial differences are seen when selected cancers in north Africa are compared with those in sub-Saharan Africa. In the future, population growth and demographic shifts are likely to have profound effects on the prevalence of cancer across the continent. Likewise, many factors outside of health care such as language differences, conflict, and poverty can affect cancer control efforts. Although cooperation in cancer control efforts is desirable, differences in cultural and geopolitical factors that characterise African countries and their populations, together with the sheer size of the continent, present unique challenges to effective cancer control. This Series paper discusses factors related to the size, diversity, and conditions within Africa that present barriers to optimal collaboration in cancer control efforts across the continent. Copyright © 2015 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

Provenance establishment of coffee using solution ICP-MS and ICP-AES.

PubMed

Valentin, Jenna L; Watling, R John

2013-11-01

Statistical interpretation of the concentrations of 59 elements, determined using solution based inductively coupled plasma mass spectrometry (ICP-MS) and inductively coupled plasma emission spectroscopy (ICP-AES), was used to establish the provenance of coffee samples from 15 countries across five continents. Data confirmed that the harvest year, degree of ripeness and whether the coffees were green or roasted had little effect on the elemental composition of the coffees. The application of linear discriminant analysis and principal component analysis of the elemental concentrations permitted up to 96.9% correct classification of the coffee samples according to their continent of origin. When samples from each continent were considered separately, up to 100% correct classification of coffee samples into their countries, and plantations of origin was achieved. This research demonstrates the potential of using elemental composition, in combination with statistical classification methods, for accurate provenance establishment of coffee. Copyright © 2013 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

Stress urinary incontinence: where are we now, where should we go?

PubMed

DeLancey, J O

1996-08-01

Stress urinary incontinence results from specific damage to the muscles, fascial structures, and nerves of the pelvic floor. Scientific data are accumulating about the nature of each of these injuries. As we begin to define the damage occurring in each element of the continence mechanism, we should be able to precisely select treatment plans on the basis of the abnormality found in individual patients. For example, a woman who has lost all neural control of her pelvic muscles could be saved the useless frustration of attempting pelvic muscle strengthening, whereas a woman with intact but weak muscles can be made continent with exercise. Before these advances can be realized, we must change our current empiric approach that assigns women to treatment because they have stress urinary incontinence to one that asks about the status of each part of the continence mechanism.

Clinical anatomy of fecal incontinence in women.

PubMed

Kadam-Halani, Priyanka K; Arya, Lily A; Andy, Uduak U

2017-10-01

Fecal incontinence is a devastating condition that has a severe impact on quality of life. This condition disproportionately affects women and its incidence is increasing with the aging United States population. Fecal continence is maintained by coordination of a functioning anal sphincter complex, intact sensation of the anorectum, rectal compliance, and the ability to consciously control defecation. Particularly important are the puborectalis sling of the levator ani muscle complex and intact innervation of the central and peripheral nervous systems. An understanding of the intricate anatomy required to maintain continence and regulate defecation will help clinicians to provide appropriate medical and surgical management and diminish the negative impact of fecal incontinence. In this article, we describe the anatomic and neural basis of fecal continence and normal defecation as well as changes that occur with fecal incontinence in women. Clin. Anat. 30:901-911, 2017. © 2017 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. © 2017 Wiley Periodicals, Inc.

Relationship of multispectral satellite data to land surface evaporation from the Australian continent

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Smith, R. C. G.; Choudhury, B. J.

1990-01-01

Based on NOAA-9 AVHRR and Nimbus-7 SMMR satellite data, satellite indices of vegetation from the Australian continent are calculated for the period of May 1986 to April 1987. Visible (VIS) and near infrared (NIR) reflectances and the normalized difference (ND) vegetation index are calculated from the AVHRR sensor. The microwave polarization difference (PD) is also calculated as the difference between the vertically and horizontally polarized brightness temperatures at 37 GHz. ND, PD, VIS, and NIR indices were plotted against rainfall and water balance estimates of evaporation. It is concluded that direct satellite monitoring of annual evaporation across the Australian continent using PD or VIS satellite indices of vegetation biomass appears possible for areas with evaporation less than 600 mm/y and that use of the ND relationship at continental scale may underpredict monthly evaporation of forests relative to agriculture.

Why do we need detailed gravity over continents: Some Australian examples

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Lambeck, K.

1985-01-01

Geophysical quantities available over a continent are gravity and components of the magnetic field. Direct inferences on crustal structure are difficult to make and strongly dependent on mechanical assumptions the isostatic state. The data for Australia represents one of the best continental scale gravity surveys. The gravity anomalies are generally bland over the continent which confirms that stress relaxation and erosion and rebound were instrumental in reducing nonhydrostatic stresses. In central Australia very large gravity anomalies occur and the region is out of isostatic equilibrium despite the fact that tectonic activity ceased 300 ma ago. The isostatic response functions points to a substantial horizontal compression in the crust. Similar conclusions are drawn for the large anomalies in western Australia. The tectonic implications of these anomalies are examined. In eastern Australia the gravity anomalies are explained in terms of a model of erosion of the highlands and concomitant regional isostatic rebound.

Image of the Moho across the continent-ocean transition, US east coast

DOE Office of Scientific and Technical Information (OSTI.GOV)

Holbrook, W.S.; Purdy, G.M.; Reiter, E.C.

1992-03-01

Strong wide-angle reflections from the Moho were recorded by ocean-bottom seismic instruments during the 1988 Carolina Trough multichannel seismic experiment, in an area where the Moho is difficult to detect with vertical-incidence seismic data. Prestack depth migration of these reflections has enabled the construction of a seismic image of the Moho across the continent-ocean transition of a sedimented passive margin. The Moho rises across the margin at a slope of 10{degree}-12{degree}, from a depth of about 33 km beneath the continental shelf to 20 km beneath the outer rise. This zone of crustal thinning defines a distinct, 60-70-km-wide continent-ocean transitionmore » zone. The authors interpret the Moho in the Carolina Trough as a Jurassic feature, formed by magmatic intrusion and underplating during the rifting of Pangea.« less

Power Doppler of the urethra in continent or incontinent, pre- and postmenopausal women.

PubMed

Jármy-Di Bella, Z I; Girão, M J; Sartori, M F; Di Bella Júnior, V; Lederman, H M; Baracat, E C; Lima, G R

2000-06-01

Urethral pressure should exceed bladder pressure, both at rest and on stress, for urinary continence to occur. A decrease in urethral pressure is a major factor explaining the pathogenesis of urinary incontinence. A number of elements, such as smooth and striated periurethral muscles, and connective, vascular and elastic tissues, contribute to urethral pressure. The periurethral vessels are influenced by hormonal changes during the menstrual cycle, during pregnancy and postmenopause. We studied the periurethral vessels in 97 women, 57 of whom were incontinent and 40 continent, using power color Doppler velocimetry. The number of periurethral vessels, systolic peak, minimum diastolic values, pulsatility and resistance indexes, as well as systolic-diastolic ratio, were assessed. Statistically significant differences were found between incontinent women in the premenopausal period and those in the postmenopausal period, regarding the number of periurethral vessels, systolic peak, minimum diastolic values, pulsatility and resistance indexes.

DOE Office of Scientific and Technical Information (OSTI.GOV)

Kooperman, Gabriel J.; Chen, Yang; Hoffman, Forrest M.

Understanding how anthropogenic CO 2 emissions will influence future precipitation is critical for sustainably managing ecosystems, particularly for drought-sensitive tropical forests. Although tropical precipitation change remains uncertain, nearly all models from the Coupled Model Intercomparison Project Phase 5 predict a strengthening zonal precipitation asymmetry by 2100, with relative increases over Asian and African tropical forests and decreases over South American forests. Here we show that the plant physiological response to increasing CO 2 is a primary mechanism responsible for this pattern. Applying a simulation design in the Community Earth System Model in which CO 2 increases are isolated over individualmore » continents, we demonstrate that different circulation, moisture and stability changes arise over each continent due to declines in stomatal conductance and transpiration. The sum of local atmospheric responses over individual continents explains the pan-tropical precipitation asymmetry. Our analysis suggests that South American forests may be more vulnerable to rising CO 2 than Asian or African forests.« less

The odyssey of the Cache Creek terrane, Canadian Cordillera: Implications for accretionary orogens, tectonic setting of Panthalassa, the Pacific superwell, and break-up of Pangea

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Johnston, S. T.; Borel, G. D.

2007-01-01

The Cache Creek terrane (CCT) of the Canadian Cordillera consists of accreted seamounts that originated adjacent to the Tethys Ocean in the Permian. We utilize Potential Translation Path plots to place quantitative constraints on the location of the CCT seamounts through time, including limiting the regions within which accretion events occurred. We assume a starting point for the CCT seamounts in the easternmost Tethys at 280 Ma. Using reasonable translation rates (11 cm/a), accretion to the Stikinia-Quesnellia oceanic arc, which occurred at about 230 Ma, took place in western Panthalassa, consistent with the mixed Tethyan fauna of the arc. Subsequent collision with a continental terrane, which occurred at about 180 Ma, took place in central Panthalassa, > 4000 km west of North America yielding a composite ribbon continent. Westward subduction of oceanic lithosphere continuous with the North American continent from 180 to 150 Ma facilitated docking of the ribbon continent with the North American plate. The paleogeographic constraints provided by the CCT indicate that much of the Canadian Cordilleran accretionary orogen is exotic. The accreting crustal block, a composite ribbon continent, grew through repeated collisional events within Panthalassa prior to docking with the North American plate. CCT's odyssey requires the presence of subduction zones within Panthalassa and indicates that the tectonic setting of the Panthalassa superocean differed substantially from the current Pacific basin, with its central spreading ridge and marginal outward dipping subduction zones. A substantial volume of oceanic lithosphere was subducted during CCT's transit of Panthalassa. Blanketing of the core by these cold oceanic slabs enhanced heat transfer out of the core into the lowermost mantle, and may have been responsible for the Cretaceous Normal Superchron, the coeval Pacific-centred mid-Cretaceous superplume event, and its lingering progeny, the Pacific Superswell. Far field tensile stress attributable to the pull of the slab subducting beneath the ribbon continent from 180 to 150 Ma instigated the opening of the Atlantic, initiating the dispersal phase of the supercontinent cycle by breaking apart Pangea. Docking of the ribbon continent with the North American plate at 150 Ma terminated the slab pull induced stress, resulting in a drastic reduction in the rate of spreading within the growing Atlantic Ocean.

Low-level precipitation sublimation on the coasts of East Antarctica

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Grazioli, Jacopo; Genthon, Christophe; Madeleine, Jean-Baptiste; Lemonnier, Florentin; Gallée, Hubert; Krinner, Gerhard; Berne, Alexis

2017-04-01

The weather of East Antarctica is affected by the peculiar morphology of this large continent and by its isolation from the surroundings. The high-elevation interior of the continent, very dry in absolute terms, originates winds that can reach the coastal areas with very high speed and persistence in time. The absence of topographic barriers and the near-ground temperature inversion allow these density-driven air movements to fall from the continent towards the coasts without excessive interaction and mixing with the atmosphere aloft. Thus, the air remains dry in absolute terms, and very dry in relative terms because of the higher temperatures near the coast and the adiabatic warming due to the descent. The coasts of Antarctica are less isolated and more exposed to incoming moist air masses than the rest of the continent, and precipitation in the form of snowfall more frequently occurs. Through its descent, however, snowfall encounters the layer of dry air coming from the continent and the deficit in humidity can lead to the partial or complete sublimation of the precipitating flux. This phenomenon is named here LPS (Low-level Precipitation Sublimation) and it has been observed by means of ground-based remote sensing instruments (weather radars) and atmospheric radio-sounding balloons records in the framework of the APRES3 campaign (Antarctic Precipitation: REmote Sensing from Surface and Space) in the coastal base of Dumont d' Urville (Terre Adélie), and then examined at the continental scale thanks to numerical weather models. LPS occurs over most of the coastal locations, where the total sublimated snowfall can be a significant percentage of the total snowfall. For example, in Dumont d' Urville the total yearly snowfall at 341 m height is less than 80% of the snowfall at 941 m height (the height of maximum yearly accumulation), and at shorter time scales complete sublimation (i.e. virga) often occurs. At the scale of individual precipitation events, LPS is overall inversely proportional to the intensity of precipitation, because more developed systems can extend further into the continent and eventually saturate the low levels of the atmosphere. This contribution presents the data, models, and analysis used to characterize LPS over the coastal regions of East Antarctica and discusses the possible implications for predicting climate change in Antarctica.

Sensory feedback from the urethra evokes state-dependent lower urinary tract reflexes in rat.

PubMed

Danziger, Zachary C; Grill, Warren M

2017-08-15

The lower urinary tract is regulated by reflexes responsible for maintaining continence and producing efficient voiding. It is unclear how sensory information from the bladder and urethra engages differential, state-dependent reflexes to either maintain continence or promote voiding. Using a new in vivo experimental approach, we quantified how sensory information from the bladder and urethra are integrated to switch reflex responses to urethral sensory feedback from maintaining continence to producing voiding. The results demonstrate how sensory information regulates state-dependent reflexes in the lower urinary tract and contribute to our understanding of the pathophysiology of urinary retention and incontinence where sensory feedback may engage these reflexes inappropriately. Lower urinary tract reflexes are mediated by peripheral afferents from the bladder (primarily in the pelvic nerve) and the urethra (in the pudendal and pelvic nerves) to maintain continence or initiate micturition. If fluid enters the urethra at low bladder volumes, reflexes relax the bladder and evoke external urethral sphincter (EUS) contraction (guarding reflex) to maintain continence. Conversely, urethral flow at high bladder volumes, excites the bladder (micturition reflex) and relaxes the EUS (augmenting reflex). We conducted measurements in a urethane-anaesthetized in vivo rat preparation to characterize systematically the reflexes evoked by fluid flow through the urethra. We used a novel preparation to manipulate sensory feedback from the bladder and urethra independently by controlling bladder volume and urethral flow. We found a distinct bladder volume threshold (74% of bladder capacity) above which flow-evoked bladder contractions were 252% larger and evoked phasic EUS activation 2.6 times as often as responses below threshold, clearly demonstrating a discrete transition between continence (guarding) and micturition (augmenting) reflexes. Below this threshold urethral flow evoked tonic EUS activity, indicative of the guarding reflex, that was proportional to the urethral flow rate. These results demonstrate the complementary roles of sensory feedback from the bladder and urethra in regulating reflexes in the lower urinary tract that depend on the state of the bladder. Understanding the neural control of functional reflexes and how they are mediated by sensory information in the bladder and urethra will open new opportunities, especially in neuromodulation, to treat pathologies of the lower urinary tract. © 2017 The Authors. The Journal of Physiology © 2017 The Physiological Society.

Ophiolites in ocean-continent transitions: From the Steinmann Trinity to sea-floor spreading

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Bernoulli, Daniel; Jenkyns, Hugh C.

2009-05-01

Before the theory of plate tectonics took hold, there was no coherent model for ocean-continent transitions that included both extant continental margins and fragmentary ancient examples preserved in orogenic belts. Indeed, during the early 1900, two strands of thought developed, one relying on the antiquity and permanence of continents and oceans, advocated by the mainstream of the scientific community and one following mobilist concepts derived from Wegener's hypothesis (1915) of continental drift. As an illustration of the prevailing North-American view, the different composition and thickness of continental and oceanic crust and the resulting isostatic response showed "how improbable it would be to suppose that a continent could founder or go to oceanic depth or that ocean floor at ± 3000 fathoms could ever have been a stable land area since the birth of the oceans" [H.H. Hess, Trans. R. Soc. London, A 222 (1954) 341-348]. Because of the perceived permanence of oceans and continents, mountain chains were thought to originate from narrow, elongated, unstable belts, the geosynclines, circling the continents or following "zones of crustal weakness" within them, from which geanticlines and finally mountain belts would develop. This teleological concept, whereby a geosyncline would inevitably evolve into a mountain chain, dominated geological interpretations of orogenic belts for several decades in the mid-twentieth century. However, the concept of permanence of oceans and continents and the concept of the geosyncline had already met with the critiques of Suess and others. As early as 1905, Steinmann considered the association of peridotite, "diabase" (basalt/dolerite) and radiolarite (a typical ocean-continent transition assemblage), present in the Alps and Apennines, as characteristic of the deep-ocean floor and Bailey (1936) placed Steinmann's interpretation into the context of continental drift and orogeny. Indeed, in both authors' writings, the concept of ophiolites as ocean crust is apparent. Between 1920 and 1930, the stage was thus potentially set for modern mobilist concepts that were, however, to prove attractive to only a small circle of Alpine and peri-Gondwanian geologists. After the Second World War, the 1950s saw the rapid progress of the geophysical and geological exploration of oceans and continental margins that provided the data for a reevaluation of the geosynclinal concept. Actualistic models now equated the former preorogenic miogeosyncline of Stille (1940) and Kay (1951) with passive continental margins [C.L. Drake, M. Ewing, G.H. Sutton, Continental margin and geosynclines: the east coast of North America, north of Cape Hatteras, in: L. Ahrens, et al. (Eds.), Physics and Chemistry of the Earth 3, Pergamon Press, London, 1959, pp. 110-189], the (American version of the) eugeosyncline and its igneous rocks with "collapsing continental rises" [R.S. Dietz, J. Geol. 71 (1963) 314-333] and the ophiolites, the Steinmann Trinity, of the (European) eugeosyncline with fragments of oceanic lithosphere [H.H. Hess, History of ocean basins, in: Petrologic Studies: a Volume to Honor A.F. Buddington, Geol. Soc. Am., New York. 1962, pp. 599-620]. The concept of sea-floor spreading [H.H. Hess, History of ocean basins, in: Petrologic Studies: a Volume to Honor A.F. Buddington, Geol. Soc. Am., New York. 1962, pp. 599-620; H.H. Hess, Mid-oceanic ridges and tectonics of the sea-floor, in: W.F. Whittard, R. Bradshaw (Eds), Submarine Geology and Geophysics, Colston Papers 17, Butterworths, London, 1965, pp. 317-333] finally eliminated the weaknesses in Wegener's hypothesis and, with the coming of the "annus mirabilis" of 1968, the concept of the geosyncline could be laid to rest. Ocean-continent transitions of modern oceans, as revealed by seismology and deep-sea drilling, could now be compared with the remnants of their ancient counterparts preserved in the Alps and elsewhere.

Preoperative Nutritional Status and The Impact on Radical Cystectomy Recovery: An International Comparative Study.

PubMed

Jensen, Bente Thoft; Dalbagni, Guido; Borre, Michael; Love-Retinger, Nora

2016-01-01

In radical cystectomy, under-nutrition is common and has detrimental physiological and clinical effects, which can lead to increased complications and prolonged recovery. This article compares measurements and outcomes across continents in this patient population with advanced bladder cancer. The association of preoperative nutritional risk, nutritional status, and length of stay is equal across continents, and the results promote increased clinical awareness that women at severe risk should be identified preoperatively.

The flu fighters

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Colizza, Vittoria; Vespignani, Alessandro

2010-02-01

The Black Death was one of the most devastating pandemics in history. Beginning in 1347, the plague took just three years to spread from Constantinople in western Turkey to Italy and then on to the rest of Europe, leaving nearly a quarter of the continent's population dead in its wake. Historical studies confirm that the disease diffused smoothly, generating an epidemic front that travelled through the continent as a continuous wave at a rate of about 200-400 miles per year.

Makran Mountain Range, Indus River Valley, Pakistan, India

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

1984-01-01

The enormous geologic pressures exerted by continental drift can be very well illustrated by the long northward curving parallel folded mountain ridges and valleys of the coastal Makran Range of Pakistan (27.0N, 66.0E). As a result of the collision of the northward bound Indian sub-continent into the Asian Continent, the east/west parallel range has been bent in a great northward arc and forming the Indus River valley at the interface of the collision.

An Integrated Geologic Framework for EarthScope's USArray

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Tikoff, Basil; van der Pluijm, Ben; Hibbard, Jim; Keller, George Randy; Mogk, David; Selverstone, Jane; Walker, Doug

2006-06-01

The GeoFrame initiative is a new geologic venture that focuses on the construction, stabilization, and modification of the North American continent through time. The initiative's goals can be achieved through systematic integration of geologic knowledge-and particularly geologic time-with the unprecedented Earth imaging to be collected under the USArray program of EarthScope (http://www.earthscope.org/usarray). The GeoFrame initiative encourages a cooperative community approach to collecting and sharing data and will take a coast-to-coast perspective of the continent, focusing not only on the major geologic provinces, but also on the boundaries between these provinces. GeoFrame also offers a tangible, `you can see it and touch it' basis for a national approach to education and outreach in the Earth sciences. The EarthScope project is a massive undertaking to investigate the structure and evolution of the North American continent. Sponsored by the U.S. National Science Foundation (NSF), EarthScope uses modern observational, analytical, and telecommunications technologies to establish fundamental and applied research in the Earth's dynamics, contributing to natural resource exploration and development, the mitigation of geologic hazards and risk, and a greater public understanding of solid Earth systems. One part of this project is USArray, a moving, continent-scale network of seismic stations designed to provide a foundation for the study of the lithosphere and deep Earth.

Combination of pseudocontinent perineal colostomy and appendicostomy: a new approach in the treatment of low rectal cancer.

PubMed

Azizi, Rasoul; Alvandipour, Mina; Shoar, Saeed; Mahjoubi, Bahar

2013-10-01

Abdominal perineal resection (APR) with applied colostomy remains the standard treatment for low rectal cancer; however, to date, a very high morbidity rate has been reported. The aims of this study were to assess fecal continence, persistence of disease-related symptoms, and quality of life in patients with low rectal cancer after APR and pseudocontinent perineal colostomy and concomitant appendicostomy. We included 17 patients with low rectal cancer who underwent APR at our hospital in this cross-sectional study. Following APR, pseudocontinent perineal colostomy and concomitant appendicostomy were performed. Patients then underwent antegrade colonic enema with tap water. Patients' symptoms, fecal continence, and quality of life were evaluated at regular time intervals. After a median follow-up of 12 months, 15 of 17 patients completed the study period. All patients were able to perform an antegrade enema by themselves. Mean continence score was 7 (out of 20) based on the Wexner Scale scoring system. Mean global health status score was 78, physical function was 93, and emotional function was 88. Minor morbidity was observed in 6 patients (40%). Pseudocontinent perineal colostomy with appendicostomy provides an acceptable level of continence and functional and emotional improvement in patients with low rectal cancer undergoing APR. Hence, this combinative method could be considered as an alternative for abdominal colostomy in selected patients.

Striking Seasonality in the Secular Warming of the Northern Continents: Structure and Mechanisms

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Nigam, S.; Thomas, N. P.

2017-12-01

The linear trend in twentieth-century surface air temperature (SAT)—a key secular warming signal— exhibits striking seasonal variations over Northern Hemisphere continents; SAT trends are pronounced in winter and spring but notably weaker in summer and fall. The SAT trends in historical twentieth-century climate simulations informing the Intergovernmental Panel for Climate Change's Fifth Assessment show varied (and often unrealistic) strength and structure, and markedly weaker seasonal variation. The large intra-ensemble spread of winter SAT trends in some historical simulations was surprising, especially in the context of century-long linear trends, with implications for the detection of the secular warming signal. The striking seasonality of observed secular warming over northern continents warrants an explanation and the representation of related processes in climate models. Here, the seasonality of SAT trends over North America is shown to result from land surface-hydroclimate interactions and, to an extent, also from the secular change in low-level atmospheric circulation and related thermal advection. It is argued that the winter dormancy and summer vigor of the hydrologic cycle over middle- to high-latitude continents permit different responses to the additional incident radiative energy from increasing greenhouse gas concentrations. The seasonal cycle of climate, despite its monotony, provides an expanded phase space for the exposition of the dynamical and thermodynamical processes generating secular warming, and an exceptional cost-effective opportunity for benchmarking climate projection models.

Longitudinal Study of Intestinal Symptoms and Fecal Continence in Patients With Conformal Radiotherapy for Prostate Cancer

DOE Office of Scientific and Technical Information (OSTI.GOV)

Geinitz, Hans, E-mail: hans.geinitz@lrz.tu-muenchen.d; Thamm, Reinhard; Keller, Monika

2011-04-01

Purpose: To prospectively assess the intestinal symptoms and fecal continence in patients who had undergone conformal radiotherapy (CRT) for prostate cancer. Methods and Materials: A total of 78 men who had undergone definitive CRT for prostate cancer were evaluated. The patients were assessed before, during (treatment Weeks 4 and 6), and 2, 12, and 24 months after CRT completion. The intestinal symptoms and fecal continence were evaluated with comprehensive standardized questionnaires. Results: The intestinal symptoms were mostly intermittent, with only a small minority of patients affected daily. Defecation pain, fecal urge, and rectal mucous discharge increased significantly during therapy. Defecationmore » pain and rectal mucous discharge had returned to baseline levels within 8 weeks and 1 year after CRT, respectively. However, fecal urge remained significantly elevated for {<=}1 year and then returned toward the pretreatment values. The prevalence of rectal bleeding was significantly elevated 2 years after CRT. Fecal continence deteriorated during CRT and remained impaired at 1 year after treatment. Incontinence was mostly minor, occurring less than once per week and predominantly affecting incontinence for gas. Conclusion: Intestinal symptoms and fecal incontinence increased during prostate CRT. Except for rectal bleeding, the intestinal symptoms, including fecal incontinence, returned to baseline levels within 1-2 years after CRT. Thus, the rate of long-term late radiation-related intestinal toxicity was low.« less

Natural Products with Antiplatelet Action.

PubMed

Hirsch, Gabriela Elisa; Viecili, Paulo Ricardo Nazario; de Almeida, Amanda Spring; Nascimento, Sabrina; Porto, Fernando Garcez; Otero, Juliana; Schmidt, Aline; da Silva, Brenda; Parisi, Mariana Migliorini; Klafke, Jonatas Zeni

2017-01-01

Complex hemostatic mechanisms are involved in the pathophysiology of various diseases, including cardiovascular diseases. Among them, dysregulation of platelet activity is linked to the progression of atherosclerosis and mainly involves platelet aggregation and a decrease in blood flow in the vascular endothelium. The major platelet activation pathways mediated by agonists involve the arachidonic acid pathway, adenosine diphosphate pathway, serotonin pathway, nitric oxide pathway, and action of free radicals on molecules involved in platelet aggregation. These mechanisms have been widely studied and discussed because they are inhibited by the use of medicinal plants in complementary and alternative medicine, thus reducing platelet aggregation. Of the main plants discussed in this review, which have antiplatelet activity, some include saffron, garlic, green tea, St. John's wort, ginger, ginkgo biloba, ginseng, and guavirova. These herbal medicines have phytochemical components, which are directly related to the antiplatelet activity of the plant, such as flavonoids, curcumins, catechins, terpenoids, polyphenols, and saponins. While the majority of the medicinal plants mentioned here were native to the Asian continents, some are distributed worldwide, and found to a smaller extent throughout the American continent, European continent, Mediterranean, African continent, and the Middle East. This review showed that several plants and/or compounds exhibit anti-platelet activity, and are therefore potential research targets for developing drugs to treat diseases related to aggregation disorders. Copyright© Bentham Science Publishers; For any queries, please email at epub@benthamscience.org.

New Caledonia a classic example of an arc continent collision

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Aitchison, J.

2011-12-01

The SW Pacific island of New Caledonia presents a classic example of an arc-continent collision. This event occurred in the Late Eocene when elements of an intra-oceanic island arc system, the Loyalty-D'Entrecasteaux arc, which stretched SSE from near Papua New Guinea east of New Caledonia to offshore New Zealand, collided with micro-continental fragments that had rifted off eastern Gondwana (Australia) in the late Cretaceous. Intervening Late Cretaceous to Paleogene oceanic crust of the South Loyalty Basin was eliminated through eastward subduction beneath this west-facing intra-oceanic island arc. As with many arc-continent collisions elsewhere collision was accompanied by ophiolite emplacement. The erosional remnants of which are extensive in New Caledonia. Collision led to subduction flip, followed by extensive rollback in front of the newly established east-facing Vitiaz arc. Post-collisional magmatism occurred after slab break-off and is represented by small-scale granitoid intrusions. Additional important features of New Caledonia include the presence of a regionally extensive UHP metamorphic terrain consisting of blueschists and eclogites that formed during the subduction process and were rapidly exhumed as a result of the collision Not only was collision and associated orogeny short-lived this collision system has not been overprinted by any major subsequent collision. New Caledonia thus provides an exceptional location for the study of processes related to arc-continent collision in general.

Pattern recognition receptor-mediated cytokine response in infants across 4 continents.

PubMed

Smolen, Kinga K; Ruck, Candice E; Fortuno, Edgardo S; Ho, Kevin; Dimitriu, Pedro; Mohn, William W; Speert, David P; Cooper, Philip J; Esser, Monika; Goetghebuer, Tessa; Marchant, Arnaud; Kollmann, Tobias R

2014-03-01

Susceptibility to infection as well as response to vaccination varies among populations. To date, the underlying mechanisms responsible for these clinical observations have not been fully delineated. Because innate immunity instructs adaptive immunity, we hypothesized that differences between populations in innate immune responses may represent a mechanistic link to variation in susceptibility to infection or response to vaccination. Determine whether differences in innate immune responses exist among infants from different continents of the world. We determined the innate cytokine response following pattern recognition receptor (PRR) stimulation of whole blood from 2-year-old infants across 4 continents (Africa, North America, South America, and Europe). We found that despite the many possible genetic and environmental exposure differences in infants across 4 continents, innate cytokine responses were similar for infants from North America, South America, and Europe. However, cells from South African infants secreted significantly lower levels of cytokines than did cells from infants from the 3 other sites, and did so following stimulation of extracellular and endosomal but not cytosolic PRRs. Substantial differences in innate cytokine responses to PRR stimulation exist among different populations of infants that could not have been predicted. Delineating the underlying mechanism(s) for these differences will not only aid in improving vaccine-mediated protection but possibly also provide clues for the susceptibility to infection in different regions of the world. Copyright © 2013 The Authors. Published by Mosby, Inc. All rights reserved.

Resource-assessment perspectives for unconventional gas systems

USGS Publications Warehouse

Schmoker, J.W.

2002-01-01

Concepts are described for assessing those unconventional gas systems that can also be defined as continous accumulations. Continuous gas accumulations exist more or less independently of the water column and do not owe their existence directly to the bouyancy of gas in water. They cannot be represented in terms of individual, countable fields or pools delineated by downdip water contacts. For these reasons, traditional resource-assessment methods based on estimating the sizes and numbers of undiscovered discrete fields cannot not be applied to continuous accumulations. Specialized assessment methods are required. Unconventional gas systems that are also continous accumulations include coalbed methane, basin-centered gas, so-called tight gas, fractured shale (and chalk) gas, and gas hydrates. Deep-basin and bacterial gas systems may or may not be continuous accumulations, depending on their geologic setting. Two basic resource-assessment approaches have been employed for continous accumulations. The first approach is based on estimates of gas in place. A volumetric estimate of total gas in place is commonly coupled with an overall recovery factor to narrow the assessment scope from a treatment of gas volumes residing in sedimentary strata to a prediction of potential additions to reserves. The second approach is based on the production performance of continous gas reservoirs, as shown empirically by wells and reservoir-simulation models. In these methods, production characteristics (as opposed to gas in place) are the foundation for forecasts of potential additions to reserves.

Spreading continents kick-started plate tectonics.

PubMed

Rey, Patrice F; Coltice, Nicolas; Flament, Nicolas

2014-09-18

Stresses acting on cold, thick and negatively buoyant oceanic lithosphere are thought to be crucial to the initiation of subduction and the operation of plate tectonics, which characterizes the present-day geodynamics of the Earth. Because the Earth's interior was hotter in the Archaean eon, the oceanic crust may have been thicker, thereby making the oceanic lithosphere more buoyant than at present, and whether subduction and plate tectonics occurred during this time is ambiguous, both in the geological record and in geodynamic models. Here we show that because the oceanic crust was thick and buoyant, early continents may have produced intra-lithospheric gravitational stresses large enough to drive their gravitational spreading, to initiate subduction at their margins and to trigger episodes of subduction. Our model predicts the co-occurrence of deep to progressively shallower mafic volcanics and arc magmatism within continents in a self-consistent geodynamic framework, explaining the enigmatic multimodal volcanism and tectonic record of Archaean cratons. Moreover, our model predicts a petrological stratification and tectonic structure of the sub-continental lithospheric mantle, two predictions that are consistent with xenolith and seismic studies, respectively, and consistent with the existence of a mid-lithospheric seismic discontinuity. The slow gravitational collapse of early continents could have kick-started transient episodes of plate tectonics until, as the Earth's interior cooled and oceanic lithosphere became heavier, plate tectonics became self-sustaining.

A soil moisture index derived from thermal infrared sensor on-board geostationary satellites over Europe, Africa and Australia

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Ghilain, Nicolas; Trigo, Isabel; Arboleda, Alirio; Barrios, Jose-Miguel; Batelaan, Okke; Gellens-Meulenberghs, Françoise

2017-04-01

Soil moisture plays a central role in the water cycle. In particular, it is a major component which variability controls the evapotranspiration process. Over the past years, there has been a large commitment of the remote sensing research community to develop satellites and retrieval algorithm for soil moisture monitoring over continents. Most of those rely on the observation in the microwave lengths, making use either of passive, active or both methods combined. However, the available derived products are given at a relatively low spatial resolution for applications at the kilometer scale over entire continents, and with a revisit time that may not be adequate for all applications, as for example agriculture. Thermal infrared observations from a combination of geostationary satellites offer a global view of continents every hour (or even at higher frequency) at a few kilometers resolution, which makes them attractive as another, and potentially complementary, source of information of surface soil moisture. In this study, the Copernicus LST and the LSA-SAF LST are used to derive soil moisture over entire continents (Europe, Africa, Australia). The derived soil moisture is validated against in-situ observations and compared to other available products from remote sensing (SMOS, ASCAT) and from numerical weather prediction (ECMWF). We will present the result of this validation, and will show how it could be used in continental scale evapotranspiration monitoring.

Where does subduction initiate and die? Insights from global convection models with continental drift

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Ulvrova, Martina; Williams, Simon; Coltice, Nicolas; Tackley, Paul

2017-04-01

Plate tectonics is a prominent feature on Earth. Together with the underlying convecting mantle, plates form a self-organized system. In order to understand the dynamics of the coupled system, subduction of the lithospheric plates plays the key role since it links the exterior with the interior of the planet. In this work we study subduction initiation and death with respect to the position of the continental rafts. Using thermo-mechanical numerical calculations we investigate global convection models featuring self-consistent plate tectonics and continental drifting employing a pseudo-plastic rheology and testing the effect of a free surface. We consider uncompressible mantle convection in Boussinesq approximation that is basaly and internaly heated. Our calculations indicate that the presence of the continents alterns stress distribution within a certain distance from the margins. Intra-oceanic subudction initiation is favorable during super-continent cycles while the initiation at passive continental margin prevails when continents are dispersed. The location of subduction initiation is additionally controlled by the lithospheric strength. Very weak lithosphere results in domination of intra-oceanic subduction initiation. The subduction zones die more easily in the vicinity of the continent due to the strong rheological contrast between the oceanic and continental lithosphere. In order to compare our findings with subduction positions through time recorded on Earth, we analyse subduction birth in global plate reconstruction back to 410 My.

Parallel Evolution of Copy-Number Variation across Continents in Drosophila melanogaster

PubMed Central

Schrider, Daniel R.; Hahn, Matthew W.; Begun, David J.

2016-01-01

Genetic differentiation across populations that is maintained in the presence of gene flow is a hallmark of spatially varying selection. In Drosophila melanogaster, the latitudinal clines across the eastern coasts of Australia and North America appear to be examples of this type of selection, with recent studies showing that a substantial portion of the D. melanogaster genome exhibits allele frequency differentiation with respect to latitude on both continents. As of yet there has been no genome-wide examination of differentiated copy-number variants (CNVs) in these geographic regions, despite their potential importance for phenotypic variation in Drosophila and other taxa. Here, we present an analysis of geographic variation in CNVs in D. melanogaster. We also present the first genomic analysis of geographic variation for copy-number variation in the sister species, D. simulans, in order to investigate patterns of parallel evolution in these close relatives. In D. melanogaster we find hundreds of CNVs, many of which show parallel patterns of geographic variation on both continents, lending support to the idea that they are influenced by spatially varying selection. These findings support the idea that polymorphic CNVs contribute to local adaptation in D. melanogaster. In contrast, we find very few CNVs in D. simulans that are geographically differentiated in parallel on both continents, consistent with earlier work suggesting that clinal patterns are weaker in this species. PMID:26809315

Bony Pelvis Dimensions in Women With and Without Stress Urinary Incontinence

PubMed Central

Berger, Mitchell B.; Doumouchtsis, Stergios K.; DeLancey, John O.

2012-01-01

AIMS To test the null hypothesis that bony pelvis dimensions are similar in women with and without stress urinary incontinence, both in the postpartum and midlife periods. METHODS Secondary analyses were performed of two case-control studies comparing women with stress urinary incontinence to asymptomatic controls. One study examined primiparas in the first 9–12 months postpartum; the other study involved middle-aged women. Stress urinary incontinence was confirmed by full-bladder stress test. All subjects underwent pelvic magnetic resonance imaging. The interspinous and intertuberous diameters, subpubic angle and sacrococcygeal joint-to-the inferior pubic point distance were measured from the images independently by two authors. RESULTS In the young cohorts, we compared primiparas with de novo postpartum stress urinary incontinence to both continent primiparas and nulliparas. Postpartum stress urinary incontinence is associated with a wider subpubic angle. There is also a trend towards wider interspinous and intertuberous diameters in the stress-incontinent primiparas as compared to the continent cohorts, although this did not reach statistical significance with our sample sizes. By contrast, no significant differences in bony pelvis dimensions were identified when comparing middle-aged women with stress urinary incontinence and their continent controls. CONCLUSIONS Bony pelvis dimensions are different in women with stress urinary incontinence than in matched continent controls. However, these differences are only identified in young primiparas in the postpartum period, not in middle-aged women. PMID:22674676

Does menopausal status impact urinary continence outcomes following abdominal sacrocolpopexy without anti-incontinence procedures in continent women?

PubMed Central

Inan, Abdurrahman Hamdi; Toz, Emrah; Beyan, Emrah; Gurbuz, Tutku; Ozcan, Aykut; Oner, Oznur

2016-01-01

Objective: We investigated the impact of menopausal status on urinary continence following abdominal sacrocolpopexy (ASC) without an anti-incontinence procedure in continent women. Methods: We conducted a clinical follow-up study of 137 patients diagnosed with stage 3 or higher pelvic organ prolapse (POP) without urinary incontinence between January 2012 and December 2014. Patients were provided with detailed a priori information pertaining to the abdominal sacrocolpopexy procedure and were invited to attend follow-up visits at 1, 3, 12, and 24 months. Follow-up visits included a gynecological examination, cough test, and validated Urinary Distress Inventory-6 (UDI-6) and Incontinence Impact Questionnaire-7 (IIQ-7) questionnaires. Results: The mean follow-up time for the cohort was 16.5±3.45 months. The study group was divided according to menopausal status: premenopausal (Group-1) and postmenopausal women (Group-II). Anatomical recurrence was not detected during the follow-up period in either group, but de novo stress urinary incontinence was seen in 15 of 53 (28.3%) Group-I patients and in 6 of 84 (7.1%; p < 0.01) Group-II patients. Conclusions: The risk of de novo stress urinary incontinence in postmenopausal women after ASC is low. However, premenopausal patients have a higher incidence of de novo stress incontinence which affect quality of life. PMID:27648027

Continued improvement of perioperative, pathological and continence outcomes during 700 robot-assisted radical prostatectomies.

PubMed

Zorn, Kevin C; Wille, Mark A; Thong, Alan E; Katz, Mark H; Shikanov, Sergey A; Razmaria, Aria; Gofrit, Ofer N; Zagaja, Gregory P; Shalhav, Arieh L

2009-08-01

Several robot-assisted radical prostatectomy (RARP) series have reviewed the impact of the initial learning curve on perioperative outcomes. However, little is known about the impact of experience on urinary and sexual outcomes. Herein, we review the perioperative, pathological and functional outcomes of our initial 700 consecutive procedures with at least 1 year follow up. From 2003-2006, 700 consecutive men underwent RARP at a single, academic institution. Perioperative data and pathologic outcomes were prospectively collected. Validated, UCLA-PCI-SF36v2 quality-of-life questionnaires were also obtained at 1, 3, 6 and 12 months following surgery. Outcomes between groups (cases 1-300, 301-500, and 501-700) were compared. Mean operative time (OT) and blood loss significantly decreased during the experience (286, 198, 190 min; p or=7 in 24%, 40%, 44%; p

An estimation of the artisanal small-scale production of gold in the world.

PubMed

Seccatore, Jacopo; Veiga, Marcello; Origliasso, Chiara; Marin, Tatiane; De Tomi, Giorgio

2014-10-15

The increase in gold price of over 400% between 2002 and 2012, due to a shift towards safe investments in a period of crisis in the global economy, created a rapid increase in gold production. A response to this shift in production was observed for artisanal and small-scale mining (ASM) units in remote locations of the world, but this phenomenon has not been quantified yet. The work presented here was done to provide a quantitative tool for estimation of the gold (Au) produced by ASM and the population of workers involved in the production process, and assessment of mercury (Hg) consumed. The following hypotheses were addressed: i) It is possible to estimate, on first approximation, the amount of Au production in the world by artisanal mining; ii) Au production by artisanal mining varies by country and continent and iii) Hg consumption due to ASM can be correlated with the methods applied in the different countries and continents for the production of Au. To do this we estimated the number of miners, calculated the change in Au price and production and then applied an adjustment factor to calculate Hg production by country and continent. The amount of Au produced depends on technology of the miners by continents (highest in South America, medium in Asia and Central America, and lowest in Africa), and the geologic setting (not investigated here). The results of the estimation show that, as of 2011, over 16 million Artisanal Miners, in the world, were involved in gold extraction (mining or treatment), producing between 380 and 450 t of gold per year, with clear global behavior between the continents in terms of recovery efficiency, confirmed by data on Hg release that is higher in countries with lower technology. Copyright © 2014 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.

Continental collision with a sandwiched accreted terrane: Insights into Himalayan-Tibetan lithospheric mantle tectonics?

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Kelly, Sean; Butler, Jared P.; Beaumont, Christopher

2016-12-01

Many collisional orogens contain exotic terranes that were accreted to either the subducting or overriding plate prior to terminal continent-continent collision. The ways in which the physical properties of these terranes influence collision remain poorly understood. We use 2D thermomechanical finite element models to examine the effects of prior 'soft' terrane accretion to a continental upper plate (retro-lithosphere) on the ensuing continent-continent collision. The experiments explore how the style of collision changes in response to variations in the density and viscosity of the accreted terrane lithospheric mantle, as well as the density of the pro-lithospheric mantle, which determines its propensity to subduct or compress the accreted terrane and retro-lithosphere. The models evolve self-consistently through several emergent phases: breakoff of subducted oceanic lithosphere; pro-continent subduction; shortening of the retro-lithosphere accreted terrane, sometimes accompanied by lithospheric delamination; and, terminal underthrusting of pro-lithospheric mantle beneath the accreted terrane crust or mantle. The modeled variations in the properties of the accreted terrane lithospheric mantle can be interpreted to reflect metasomatism during earlier oceanic subduction beneath the terrane. Strongly metasomatized (i.e., dense and weak) mantle is easily removed by delamination or entrainment by the subducting pro-lithosphere, and facilitates later flat-slab underthrusting. The models are a prototype representation of the Himalayan-Tibetan orogeny in which there is only one accreted terrane, representing the Lhasa terrane, but they nonetheless exhibit processes like those inferred for the more complex Himalayan-Tibetan system. Present-day underthrusting of the Tibetan Plateau crust by Indian mantle lithosphere requires that the Lhasa terrane lithospheric mantle has been removed. Some of the model results support previous conceptual interpretations that Tibetan lithospheric mantle was removed by convective coupling to the pro-lithosphere. They can also be interpreted to suggest that delamination beneath Tibet was facilitated by densification and weakening of the plateau lithosphere, perhaps owing to long-lived pre- to syn-collisional subduction-related metasomatism beneath the Asian margin.

Biomechanical properties of the pelvic floor muscles of continent and incontinent women using an inverse finite element analysis.

PubMed

Silva, M E T; Brandão, S; Parente, M P L; Mascarenhas, T; Natal Jorge, R M

2017-06-01

Pelvic disorders can be associated with changes in the biomechanical properties in the muscle, ligaments and/or connective tissue form fascia and ligaments. In this sense, the study of their mechanical behavior is important to understand the structure and function of these biological soft tissues. The aim of this study was to establish the biomechanical properties of the pelvic floor muscles of continent and incontinent women, using an inverse finite element analysis (FEA). The numerical models, including the pubovisceral muscle and pelvic bones were built from magnetic resonance (MR) images acquired at rest. The numerical simulation of Valsalva maneuver was based on the finite element method and the material constants were determined for different constitutive models (Neo-Hookean, Mooney-Rivlin and Yeoh) using an iterative process. The material constants (MPa) for Neo-Hookean (c 1 ) were 0.039 ± 0.022 and 0.024 ± 0.004 for continent vs. incontinent women. For Mooney-Rivlin (c 1 ) the values obtained were 0.026 ± 0.010 vs. 0.016 ± 0.003, and for Yeoh (c 1 ) the values obtained were 0.031 ± 0.023 vs. 0.016 ± 0.002, (p < 0.05). Muscle displacements obtained in the numerical simulations of Valsalva maneuver were compared with the muscle displacements obtained through additional dynamic MRI. Incontinent women presented a higher antero-posterior displacement than the continent women. The results were also similar between MRI and numerical simulations (40.27% vs. 42.17% for Neo-Hookean, 39.87% for Mooney-Rivlin and 41.61% for Yeoh). Using an inverse FEA coupled with MR images allowed to obtain the in vivo biomechanical properties of the pelvic floor muscles, leading to a relationship between them for the continent and incontinent women in a non-invasive manner.

'We just do the dirty work': dealing with incontinence, courtesy stigma and the low occupational status of carework in long-term aged care facilities.

PubMed

Ostaszkiewicz, Joan; O'Connell, Beverly; Dunning, Trisha

2016-09-01

To systematically examine, describe and explain how continence care was determined, delivered and communicated in Australian long aged care facilities. Incontinence is a highly stigmatising condition that affects a disproportionally large number of people living in long-term aged care facilities. Its day-to-day management is mainly undertaken by careworkers. We conducted a Grounded theory study to explore how continence care was determined, delivered and communicated in long-term aged care facilities. This paper presents one finding, i.e. how careworkers in long-term aged care facilities deal with the stigma, devaluation and the aesthetically unpleasant aspects of their work. Grounded theory. Eighty-eight hours of field observations in two long-term aged care facilities in Australia. In addition, in-depth interviews with 18 nurses and careworkers who had experience of providing, supervising or assessment of continence care in any long-term aged care facility in Australia. Occupational exposure to incontinence contributes to the low occupational status of carework in long-term aged care facilities, and continence care is a symbolic marker for inequalities within the facility, the nursing profession and society at large. Careworkers' affective and behavioural responses are characterised by: (1) accommodating the context; (2) dissociating oneself; (3) distancing oneself and (4) attempting to elevate one's role status. The theory extends current understandings about the links between incontinence, continence care, courtesy stigma, emotional labour and the low occupational status of carework in long-term aged care facilities. This study provides insights into the ways in which tacit beliefs and values about incontinence, cleanliness and contamination may affect the social organisation and delivery of care in long-term aged care facilities. Nurse leaders should challenge the stigma and devaluation of carework and careworkers, and reframe carework as 'dignity work'. © 2016 John Wiley & Sons Ltd.

Orgasm-associated incontinence (climacturia) after bladder neck-sparing radical prostatectomy: clinical and video-urodynamic evaluation.

PubMed

Manassero, Francesca; Di Paola, Giuseppe; Paperini, Davide; Mogorovich, Andrea; Pistolesi, Donatella; Valent, Francesca; Selli, Cesare

2012-08-01

Orgasm-Associated Incontinence (OAI) or climacturia has been observed in male patients maintaining sexual potency after radical prostatectomy and cystectomy. We investigated the incidence and video-urodynamic aspects of this event in continent and potent patients after bladder neck-sparing (BNS) radical prostatectomy (RP). Comparing functional and morphological aspects between climacturic and non-climacturic patients to identify a possible explanation of this unusual kind of leakage that could seriously impact the sexual life after surgery. In a pool of 84 men, potent and continent at least 1 year after BNS RP, 24 (28.6%) reported climacturia and 7 agreed to undergo video-urodynamic evaluation (group 1), which was performed also in 5 controls (group 2). Those 12 men were also evaluated with 24-hour pad test, 5-item International Index of Erectile Function and International Prostate Symptom Score questionnaires. Functional urethral length (FUL) was significantly lower in the climacturia group (P=0.02) and time to continence recovery was significantly longer (P=0.05). No other significant differences were found between the two groups. The radiological appearance of the vesicourethral junction at voiding cystourethrography was similar. To the best of our knowledge, this is the first functional and morphological evaluation of climacturia after RP. In our experience, this event is indirectly associated with a reduced FUL in the sphincter area, although both patients and controls were continent during daily activities. BNS technique seems to reduce time to continence recovery, although climacturic patients need longer time than control patients. Since in our series no rigidity of the vesicourethral anastomosis was radiographically evident, we believe that differences in FUL could explain OAI. Anatomical difference in membranous urethra length could explain the occurrence of this symptom in patients treated with the same surgical technique. © 2012 International Society for Sexual Medicine.

Late Jurassic-Early Cretaceous continental convergence and intracontinental orogenesis in East Asia: A synthesis of the Yanshan Revolution

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Dong, Shuwen; Zhang, Yueqiao; Zhang, Fuqin; Cui, Jianjun; Chen, Xuanhua; Zhang, Shuanhong; Miao, Laicheng; Li, Jianhua; Shi, Wei; Li, Zhenhong; Huang, Shiqi; Li, Hailong

2015-12-01

The basic tectonic framework of continental East Asia was produced by a series of nearly contemporaneous orogenic events in the late Middle Jurassic to Early Cretaceous. Commonly, the Late Mesozoic orogenic processes were characterized by continent-continent collision, large-scale thrusting, strike-slip faulting and intense crustal shortening, crustal thickening, regional anatexis and metamorphism, followed by large-scale lithospheric extension, rifting and magmatism. To better understand the geological processes, this paper reviews and synthesizes existing multi-disciplinary geologic data related to sedimentation, tectonics, magmatism, metamorphism and geochemistry, and proposes a two-stage tectono-thermal evolutionary history of East Asia during the late Middle Jurassic to Early Cretaceous (ca. 170-120 Ma). In the first stage, three orogenic belts along the continental margins were formed coevally at ca. 170-135 Ma, i.e., the north Mongol-Okhotsk orogen, the east paleo-Pacific coastal orogen, and the west Bangong-Nujiang orogen. Tectonism related to the coastal orogen caused extensive intracontinental folding and thrusting that resulted in a depositional hiatus in the Late Jurassic, as well as crustal anatexis that generated syn-kinematic granites, adakites and migmatites. The lithosphere of the East Asian continent was thickened, reaching a maximum during the latest Jurassic or the earliest Cretaceous. In the second stage (ca. 135-120 Ma), delamination of the thickened lithosphere resulted in a remarkable (>120 km) lithospheric thinning and the development of mantle-derived magmatism, mineralization, metamorphic core complexes and rift basins. The Middle Jurassic-Early Cretaceous subduction of oceanic plates (paleo-Pacific, meso-Tethys, and Mongol-Okhotsk) and continent-continent collision (e.g. Lhasa and Qiangtang) along the East Asian continental margins produced broad coastal and intracontinental orogens. These significant tectonic activities, marked by widespread intracontinental orogeny and continental reconstruction, are commonly termed the Yanshan Revolution (Movement) in the Chinese literature.

Relationship between abdominal and pelvic floor muscle activation and intravaginal pressure during pelvic floor muscle contractions in healthy continent women.

PubMed

Madill, Stéphanie J; McLean, Linda

2006-01-01

Activation of the abdominal muscles might contribute to the generation of a strong pelvic floor muscle contraction, and consequently may contribute to the continence mechanism in women. The purpose of this study was to determine the abdominal muscle activation levels and the patterns of muscle activity associated with voluntary pelvic floor muscle (PFM) contractions in urinary continent women. Fifteen healthy continent women participated. They performed three maximal contractions of each of the four abdominal muscles and of their PFMs while in supine. Abdominal and PFM activity was recorded using electromyography (EMG), and intravaginal pressure was recorded using a custom modified Femiscan probe. During voluntary maximal PFM contractions, rectus abdominus was activated to 9.61 (+/-7.42)% maximal voluntary electrical activity (MVE), transversus abdominus was activated to 224.30(+/-47.4)% MVE, the external obliques were activated to 18.72(+/-13.33)% MVE, and the internal obliques were activated to 81.47(+/-63.57)% MVE. A clear pattern of activation emerged, whereby the transversus abdominus, internal oblique, and rectus abdominus muscles worked with the PFM in the initial generation of maximal intravaginal pressure. PFM activity predominated in the initial rise in lower vaginal pressure, with later increases in pressure (up to 70% maximum pressure) being associated with the combined activation of the PFM, rectus abdominus, internal obliques, and transverses abdominus. These abdominal muscles were the primary source of intravaginal pressure increases in the latter 30% of the task, whereas there was little increase in PFM activation from this point on. The external oblique muscles showed no clear pattern of activity, but worked at approximately 20% MVE throughout the PFM contractions, suggesting that their role may be predominantly in postural setting prior to the initiation of intravaginal pressure increases. Defined patterns of abdominal muscle activity were found in response to voluntary PFM contractions in healthy continent women. (c) 2006 Wiley-Liss, Inc.

The formation of Pangea

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Stampfli, G. M.; Hochard, C.; Vérard, C.; Wilhem, C.; vonRaumer, J.

2013-05-01

The making of Pangea is the result of large-scale amalgamation of continents and micro-continents, which started at the end of the Neoproterozoic with the formation of Gondwana. As pieces were added to Gondwana on its South-American, Antarctica and Australia side, ribbon-like micro-continents were detached from its African and South-Chinese side: Cadomia in the late Neoproterozoic, Avalonia and Hunia in the Ordovician, Galatia in the Devonian and Cimmeria in the Permian. Cadomia was re-accreted to Gondwana, but the other ribbon-continents were accreted to Baltica, North-China, Laurussia or Laurasia. Finding the origin of these numerous terranes is a major geological challenge. Recently, a global plate tectonic model was developed together with a large geological/geodynamic database, at the Lausanne University, covering the last 600 Ma of the Earth's history. Special attention was given to the placing of Gondwana derived terranes in their original position, using all possible constraints. We propose here a solution for the Variscan terranes, another paper deals with the Altaids. The Galatian super-terrane was detached from Gondwana in the Devonian, during the opening of Paleotethys, and was quickly separated into four sub-terranes that started to by-pass each other. The leading terranes collided at the end of the Devonian with the Hanseatic terrane detached from Laurussia. In the Carboniferous, Gondwana started to impinge onto the amalgamated terranes, creating the Variscan chain and the Pangean super-continent. East of Spain Paleotethys remained opened until the Triassic, subducting northward under Laurasia. Roll-back of the Paleotethyan slab triggered the collapse of most of the European Variscan orogen, which was replaced by series of Permian rifts, some of them becoming oceanized back-arc basins during the Triassic. Major force changes at the Pangean plate limits at the end of the Triassic provoked its break-up, through the opening of the proto-Caribbean, central-Atlantic, Alpine-Tethys oceanic seaways.

The significance of the open bladder neck associated with pelvic fracture urethral distraction defects.

PubMed

Iselin, C E; Webster, G D

1999-08-01

As a result of pelvic fracture urethral distraction defects, urinary continence relies predominantly on intact bladder neck function. Hence, when cystoscopy and/or cystography reveals an open bladder neck before urethroplasty, the probability of postoperative urinary incontinence may be significant. Unresolved issues are the necessity, the timing and the type of bladder neck repair. We report the outcome of various therapeutic options in patients with pelvic fracture urethral distraction defects and open bladder neck. We also attempt to identify prognostic factors of incontinence before urethroplasty. We retrospectively reviewed the records of 15 patients with a mean age of 30 years in whom an open bladder neck was identified before posterior urethroplasty between January 1981 and October 1997. Of the 15 patients 6 were continent and 8 were incontinent postoperatively. One patient underwent artificial urethral sphincter implantation simultaneously with pelvic fracture urethral distraction defect repair and was dry postoperatively without sphincter activation. Average bladder neck and prostatic urethral opening on the cystourethrogram before urethroplasty was significantly longer in incontinent (1.68 cm.) than in continent (0.9 cm.) patients. Of the 8 patients who were incontinent 6 underwent bladder neck reconstruction, 1 artificial urinary sphincter and 1 periurethral collagen implant. Five patients with bladder neck reconstruction are totally continent and 1 requires 1 pad daily. The patient who underwent collagen implant requires 2 pads daily and the patient who received an artificial urethral sphincter has minor urge leakage. Open bladder neck before urethroplasty may herald postoperative incontinence which may be predicted by radiographic and cystoscopic features. Evaluation of the risk of postoperative incontinence may be valuable, and eventually guide the necessity and timing of anti-incontinence surgery, although our preference remains to manage the pelvic fracture urethral distraction defects and bladder neck problem sequentially. Bladder neck reconstruction provides good postoperative continence rates and is our technique of choice.

Spatial distribution of vaginal closure pressures of continent and stress urinary incontinent women.

PubMed

Peng, Qiyu; Jones, Ruth; Shishido, Keiichi; Omata, Sadao; Constantinou, Christos E

2007-11-01

Clinically the strength of the contraction of the female pelvic floor is qualitatively evaluated by vaginal tactile palpation. We therefore developed a probe to enable the quantitative evaluation of the closure pressures along the vagina. Four force sensors mounted on the four orthogonal directions of an intra-vaginal probe were used to measure the vaginal pressure profile (VPP) along the vaginal wall. Clinical experiments on 23 controls and 10 patients with stress urinary incontinence (SUI) were performed using the probe to test the hypothesis that the strength of pelvic floor muscle (PFM) contractions, imposed by voluntary contraction, is related to urinary continence. The results show that VPPs, characterized in terms of pressure distribution on the anterior and posterior vaginal walls, are significantly greater than those in the left and right vaginal walls. When the PFM contracted, the positions of the maximum posterior pressures in continent females and SUI patients were 0.63+/-0.15 cm and 1.19+/-0.2 cm proximal from their peak points of anterior pressure, which are 1.52+/-0.09 cm and 1.69+/-0.13 cm proximal from the introitus of vagina, respectively. The statistical analysis shows that the maximum posterior vaginal pressures of the controls were significantly greater than those of the SUI patients both at rest (continent: 3.4+/-0.3 N cm(-2), SUI: 2.01+/-0.36 N cm(-2), p<0.05) and during PFM contraction (continent: 4.18+/-0.26 N cm(-2), SUI: 2.25+/-0.41 N cm(-2), p<0.01). In addition, the difference between the posterior and anterior vaginal walls is significantly increased when the controls contract the PFM. By contrast, there are no significant differences in the SUI group. The results show that the VPP measured by the prototype probe can be used to quantitatively evaluate the strength of the PFM, which is a clinical index for the diagnosis or assessment of female SUI.

On the determination of the carbon balance of continents (Vladimir Ivanovich Vernadsky Medal Lecture)

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Dolman, Albertus J. Han

2013-04-01

The carbon balance of regions, the size of continents, can be determined, albeit with significant uncertainty, by combining several bottom up and top down methods. The bottom up methods use eddy covariance techniques, biometric inventory measurements and modeling, while the top down methods use atmospheric observations and inverse models. There has been considerable progress in the last few years in determining these balances through more or less standard protocols, as highlighted for instance by studies of the REgional Carbon Cycle Assessment and Processes (RECAPP) project of the Global Carbon Project. Important areas where uncertainty creeps in are the scaling of point measurements in the bottom up methods, the sparseness of the observation network and the role of model and other errors in the inversion methods. Typically these balances hold for periods of several years. They therefore do not resolve the impact of anomalies in weather and climate directly. The role of management in these balances also differs for different continents. For instance in Europe management plays a strong role in the carbon balance, whereas for the Russian continent this is less important. Management in the European carbon balance may potentially override climatically driven variability. In contrast, for Russia, the importance of the role of forest is paramount, but there the vulnerability of the Arctic regions and permafrost is a key uncertainty for future behaviour. I hope to show the importance of these different aspects of the terrestrial carbon balance by comparing the two continents, and also discuss the significant uncertainty we still face in determining the carbon budgets of large areas. I will argue that we need to get a clearer picture of the role of management in these budgets, but also of the time variability of the budgets to be able to determine the impact of anomalous weather and the vulnerability in a future climate.

Continental Growth and Mantle Hydration as Earth System Feedback Cycles and possible Effects of the Biosphere

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Höning, D.; Spohn, T.

2016-12-01

The evolution of Earth is charcterized by intertwined feedback cycles. We focus on two feedback cycles that include the mantle water budget and the continental crust and study possible effects of the Earth's biosphere. The first feedback loop includes cycling of water into the mantle at subduction zones and outgassing at volcanic chains and mid-ocean ridges. Water will reduce the viscosity of mantle rock, and therefore the speed of mantle convection and plate subduction will increase with the mantle water concentration, eventually enhancing the rates of mantle water regassing and outgassing. A second feedback loop includes the production and erosion of continental crust. Continents grow by volcanism above subduction zones, whose total length is determined by the total area of the continents. Furthermore, the erosion rate of the continents is proportional to the total surface area of continental crust. The rate of sediment subduction affects the rate of transport of water to the mantle and the production rate of new continental crust. We present a model that includes both cycles and show how the system develops stable and unstable fixed points in a plane defined by mantle water concentration and surface are of continents. The stable points represent either an Earth mostly covered by continents and a wet mantle or an Earth mostly covered by oceans with a dry mantle. The presently observed Earth is inbetween these extreme states but the state is intrinsically unstable. We couple the feedback model to a parameterized thermal evolution model. We show how Earth evolved towards its present unstable state. We argue that other feedback cycles such as the carbonate silicate cycle may act to stabilize the present state, however. By enhancing continental weathering and erosion, and eventually the sediment transport into subduction zones, the biosphere impacts both feedback cycles and might play a crucial role in regulating Earth's system and keep continental crust coverage and mantle water budget at its present day state.

Outcomes of single- vs double-cuff artificial urinary sphincter insertion in low- and high-risk profile male patients with severe stress urinary incontinence.

PubMed

Ahyai, Sascha A; Ludwig, Tim A; Dahlem, Roland; Soave, Armin; Rosenbaum, Clemens; Chun, Felix K-H; Fisch, Margit; Schmid, Marianne; Kluth, Luis A

2016-10-01

To evaluate continence and complication rates of bulbar single-cuff (SC) and distal bulbar double-cuff (DC) insertion in male patients with severe stress urinary incontinence (SUI) according to whether the men were considered low or high risk for unfavourable artificial urinary sphincter (AUS) outcomes. In all, 180 male patients who underwent AUS implantation between 2009 and 2013 were followed according to institutional standards. Patients with previous pelvic radiation therapy, open bulbar urethral or UI surgery ('high risk') underwent distal bulbar DC (123 patients) insertion, all others ('low risk') had proximal bulbar SC (57) insertion. Primary and secondary endpoints consisted of continence and complication rates. Kaplan-Meier analysis determined explantation-free survival, and Cox regression models assessed risk factors for persistent UI and explantation. The median follow-up was 24 months. Whereas there was no significant difference in pad usage/objective continence after SC vs DC insertion, superior rates of subjective/social continence and less persistent UI were reported by the patients with DC devices (all P ≤ 0.02). Overall, device explantation (erosion, infection or mechanical failure) occurred in 12.8% of patients. While early (<6 weeks) complication rates compared with SC patients were similar (P > 0.05), DC patients had a 5.7-fold higher risk of device explantation during late follow-up (P = 0.02) and significantly shorter explantation-free survival (log-rank, P = 0.003). Distal bulbar DC insertion in patients with a 'high-risk' profile (previous pelvic radiation, urethral surgery) leads to similar objective continence, but higher explantation rates when compared with patients considered 'low risk' with proximal bulbar SCs. Randomised controlled trials comparing both devices will be needed to determine whether the higher explanations rates are attributable to the DC device or to underlying risk factors. © 2016 The Authors BJU International © 2016 BJU International Published by John Wiley & Sons Ltd.

The Genetic Diversity of the Americas.

PubMed

Adhikari, Kaustubh; Chacón-Duque, Juan Camilo; Mendoza-Revilla, Javier; Fuentes-Guajardo, Macarena; Ruiz-Linares, Andrés

2017-08-31

The history of the Americas involved the encounter of millions of Native Americans, Europeans, and Africans. A variable admixture of these three continental groups has taken place throughout the continent, influenced by demography and a range of social factors. This variable admixture has had a major influence on the genetic makeup of populations across the continent. Here, we summarize the demographic history of the region, highlight some social factors that affected historical admixture, and review major patterns of ancestry across the Western Hemisphere based on genetic data.

Toward the 21st Century. A Continent in Crisis: Building a Future for Africa in the 21st Century. A Special Report by the Population Institute to the 101st Congress.

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Burdett, Hal; And Others

Africa's population is now 630 million, and it is growing faster than any other region in the world. But while Africa's population grows by 3.1 percent annually, the continent's food supply increases by only 1.1 percent per year. Throughout the 1980s more and more African governments have agreed that lasting development is possible only if…

Geophysical constraints on geodynamic processes at convergent margins: A global perspective

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Artemieva, Irina; Thybo, Hans; Shulgin, Alexey

2016-04-01

Convergent margins, being the boundaries between colliding lithospheric plates, form the most disastrous areas in the world due to intensive, strong seismicity and volcanism. We review global geophysical data in order to illustrate the effects of the plate tectonic processes at convergent margins on the crustal and upper mantle structure, seismicity, and geometry of subducting slab. We present global maps of free-air and Bouguer gravity anomalies, heat flow, seismicity, seismic Vs anomalies in the upper mantle, and plate convergence rate, as well as 20 profiles across different convergent margins. A global analysis of these data for three types of convergent margins, formed by ocean-ocean, ocean-continent, and continent-continent collisions, allows us to recognize the following patterns. (1) Plate convergence rate depends on the type of convergent margins and it is significantly larger when, at least, one of the plates is oceanic. However, the oldest oceanic plate in the Pacific ocean has the smallest convergence rate. (2) The presence of an oceanic plate is, in general, required for generation of high-magnitude (M N 8.0) earthquakes and for generating intermediate and deep seismicity along the convergent margins. When oceanic slabs subduct beneath a continent, a gap in the seismogenic zone exists at depths between ca. 250 km and 500 km. Given that the seismogenic zone terminates at ca. 200 km depth in case of continent-continent collision, we propose oceanic origin of subducting slabs beneath the Zagros, the Pamir, and the Vrancea zone. (3) Dip angle of the subducting slab in continent-ocean collision does not correlate neither with the age of subducting oceanic slab, nor with the convergence rate. For ocean-ocean subduction, clear trends are recognized: steeply dipping slabs are characteristic of young subducting plates and of oceanic plates with high convergence rate, with slab rotation towards a near-vertical dip angle at depths below ca. 500 km at very high convergence rate. (4) Local isostasy is not satisfied at the convergent margins as evidenced by strong free air gravity anomalies of positive and negative signs. However, near-isostatic equilibrium may exist in broad zones of distributed deformation such as Tibet. (5) No systematic patterns are recognized in heat flow data due to strong heterogeneity of measured values which are strongly affected by hydrothermal circulation, magmatic activity, crustal faulting, horizontal heat transfer, and also due to low number of heat flow measurements across many margins. (6) Low upper mantle Vs seismic velocities beneath the convergent margins are restricted to the upper 150 km and may be related to mantle wedge melting which is confined to shallow mantle levels. Artemieva, I.M., Thybo, H., and Shulgin, A., 2015. Geophysical constraints on geodynamic processes at convergent margins: A global perspective. Gondwana Research, http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.gr.2015.06.010

Phytoplankton bloom in Spencer Gulf, South Australia

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

2002-01-01

Summer in southern Australia is the dry season, and in this true-color MODIS image of South Australia and the Spencer Gulf from October 20,2001, the area's vegetation is losing much of the lushness it possessed in the winter rainy season (See image from September 19, 2001). In southern hemisphere summer, the high pressure systems that dominate the continent's weather move south, and block the rain-bearing westerly winds. The resulting changes in seasonal rainfall are extreme. Many of the rivers are impermanent, and flow into dry or impermanent salt lakes, such as Lake Torrens (long, thin lake bed, roughly in the center of the image), and Lake Eyre (pink and white lake bed to the northwest of Torrens). Between the Eyre Peninsula (lower left) and the Yorke Peninsula further east lies the Spencer Gulf, showing the blue-green swirls that indicate a phytoplankton bloom. Australia gets less rainfall than any continent except Antarctica, and the low and seasonal flows contribute to problems with salinity and algal blooms in the continent's surface waters.

Forest response to rising CO 2 drives zonally asymmetric rainfall change over tropical land

DOE PAGES

Kooperman, Gabriel J.; Chen, Yang; Hoffman, Forrest M.; ...

2018-04-27

Understanding how anthropogenic CO 2 emissions will influence future precipitation is critical for sustainably managing ecosystems, particularly for drought-sensitive tropical forests. Although tropical precipitation change remains uncertain, nearly all models from the Coupled Model Intercomparison Project Phase 5 predict a strengthening zonal precipitation asymmetry by 2100, with relative increases over Asian and African tropical forests and decreases over South American forests. Here we show that the plant physiological response to increasing CO 2 is a primary mechanism responsible for this pattern. Applying a simulation design in the Community Earth System Model in which CO 2 increases are isolated over individualmore » continents, we demonstrate that different circulation, moisture and stability changes arise over each continent due to declines in stomatal conductance and transpiration. The sum of local atmospheric responses over individual continents explains the pan-tropical precipitation asymmetry. Our analysis suggests that South American forests may be more vulnerable to rising CO 2 than Asian or African forests.« less

Forest response to rising CO2 drives zonally asymmetric rainfall change over tropical land

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Kooperman, Gabriel J.; Chen, Yang; Hoffman, Forrest M.; Koven, Charles D.; Lindsay, Keith; Pritchard, Michael S.; Swann, Abigail L. S.; Randerson, James T.

2018-05-01

Understanding how anthropogenic CO2 emissions will influence future precipitation is critical for sustainably managing ecosystems, particularly for drought-sensitive tropical forests. Although tropical precipitation change remains uncertain, nearly all models from the Coupled Model Intercomparison Project Phase 5 predict a strengthening zonal precipitation asymmetry by 2100, with relative increases over Asian and African tropical forests and decreases over South American forests. Here we show that the plant physiological response to increasing CO2 is a primary mechanism responsible for this pattern. Applying a simulation design in the Community Earth System Model in which CO2 increases are isolated over individual continents, we demonstrate that different circulation, moisture and stability changes arise over each continent due to declines in stomatal conductance and transpiration. The sum of local atmospheric responses over individual continents explains the pan-tropical precipitation asymmetry. Our analysis suggests that South American forests may be more vulnerable to rising CO2 than Asian or African forests.

Ross Ice Shelf airstream driven by polar vortex cyclone

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Schultz, Colin

2012-07-01

The powerful air and ocean currents that flow in and above the Southern Ocean, circling in the Southern Hemisphere's high latitudes, form a barrier to mixing between Antarctica and the rest of the planet. Particularly during the austral winter, strong westerly winds isolate the Antarctic continent from heat, energy, and mass exchange, bolstering the scale of the annual polar ozone depletion and driving the continent's record-breaking low temperatures. Pushing through this wall of high winds, the Ross Ice Shelf airstream (RAS) is responsible for a sizable amount of mass and energy exchange from the Antarctic inland areas to lower latitudes. Sitting due south of New Zealand, the roughly 470,000-square-kilometer Ross Ice Shelf is the continent's largest ice shelf and a hub of activity for Antarctic research. A highly variable lower atmospheric air current, RAS draws air from the inland Antarctic Plateau over the Ross Ice Shelf and past the Ross Sea. Drawing on modeled wind patterns for 2001-2005, Seefeldt and Cassano identify the primary drivers of RAS.

Colostomy, management and quality of life for the patient.

PubMed

Swan, Elaine

The aim of this article is to describe the development and use of a new and unique continence control device (CCD). The Vitala TM CCD is a pouchless ostomy device that seals against the stoma and prevents the passage of stool, while allowing the release and deodorization of flatus. This will enable many end-colostomates to control their effluent. It is the first non-invasive product to temporarily meet the colostomate's need of faecal continence. The reasons why people receive stomas and the different products available for their management will be explored in this article. Issues with regard to quality of life and the patient experience are discussed in the context of results from a VitalaTM CCD phase III 12-hour study. Two short case studies are also presented to illustrate how VitalaTM CCD can be used by ostomates experiencing functional and/or psychological problems to improve quality of life by allowing them to regain continence for up to 12 hours.

"The cough game": are there characteristic urethrovesical movement patterns associated with stress incontinence?

PubMed

Lewicky-Gaupp, Christina; Blaivas, Jerry; Clark, Amanda; McGuire, Edward J; Schaer, Gabriel; Tumbarello, Julie; Tunn, Ralf; DeLancey, John O L

2009-02-01

This study was carried out to determine whether five experts in female stress urinary incontinence (SUI) could discover a pattern of urethrovesical movement characteristic of SUI on dynamic perineal ultrasound. A secondary analysis of data from a case-control study was performed. Ultrasounds from 31 cases (daily SUI) and 42 controls (continent volunteers) of similar age and parity were analyzed. Perineal ultrasound was performed during a single cough. The five experts, blinded to continence status and urodynamics, classified each woman as stress continent or incontinent. Correct responses ranged from 45.7% to 65.8% (mean 57.4 +/- 7.6). Sensitivity was 53.0 +/- 8.8% and specificity 61.2 +/- 12.4%. The positive predictive value was 48.8 +/- 8.2% and negative predictive value was 65.0 +/- 7.3%. Inter-rater reliability, evaluated by Cohen's kappa statistic, averaged 0.47 [95% CI 0.40-0.50]. Experts could not identify a pattern of urethrovesical movement characteristic of SUI on ultrasound.

Functional assessment of the elderly. A comparison of standard instruments with clinical judgment.

PubMed

Pinholt, E M; Kroenke, K; Hanley, J F; Kussman, M J; Twyman, P L; Carpenter, J L

1987-03-01

Using specific instruments and scales to measure mental status, nutritional state, visual acuity, gait, and activities of daily living, we studied 79 medical inpatients aged 70 years or older. We then interviewed the patients' primary physicians and nurses and asked them to rate their patients. The prevalence of functional impairment was high: 25 (32%) of the 79 patients were mentally impaired, 31 (39%) were malnourished, 18 (23%) were visually impaired, 31 (39%) had impaired gait, and 23 (29%) had problems with continence. Although clinicians recognized severe impairments, the sensitivity of their clinical judgment was poor in detecting moderate impairment in four categories: mental status sensitivity was 28% (5/18); nutrition, 54% (14/26); vision, 27% (4/15); and continence, 42% (5/12). With clinical judgment alone, physicians and nurses correctly identify severe impairment, but the more prevalent moderate impairments in mental status, nutrition, vision, and continence are poorly recognized. Comprehensive functional assessment instruments can detect these moderate impairments, which may be remediable through early intervention.

What is the best surgical intervention for stress urinary incontinence in the very young and very old? An International Consultation on Incontinence Research Society update.

PubMed

Robinson, Dudley; Castro-Diaz, David; Giarenis, Ilias; Toozs-Hobson, Philip; Anding, Ralf; Burton, Claire; Cardozo, Linda

2015-11-01

An increasing number of continence procedures are being performed in women of all ages. An overview of the existing literature and consensus regarding surgery for stress urinary incontinence (SUI) in the young and the old was presented and discussed at the International Consultation on Incontinence Research Society Think Tank. This manuscript reflects the Think Tank's summary and opinion. Despite the increasing number of continence procedures, there are relatively few data to guide management in the very young and the very old. When considering continence surgery in the young, long-term efficacy and safety are paramount, and the future effects of pregnancy and childbirth need to be carefully considered. Conversely, in the elderly, minimally invasive procedures with low morbidity are important, especially in the frail elderly who may have significant co-morbidities. Further research including prospective randomised trials, cohort studies and national registries, should help guide our management in these two challenging groups of patients.

“The Cough Game”: Are there characteristic urethrovesical movement patterns associated with stress incontinence?

PubMed Central

LEWICKY-GAUPP, Christina; BLAIVAS, Jerry; CLARK, Amanda; McGUIRE, Edward J.; SCHAER, Gabriel; TUMBARELLO, Julie; TUNN, Ralf; DeLANCEY, John O.L.

2009-01-01

Introduction and Hypothesis To determine if 5 experts in female stress urinary incontinence (SUI) could discover a pattern of urethrovesical movement characteristic of SUI on dynamic perineal ultrasound. Methods A secondary analysis of data from a case-control study was performed. Ultrasounds from 31 cases (daily SUI) and 42 controls (continent volunteers) of similar age and parity were analyzed. Perineal ultrasound was performed during a single cough. The 5 experts, blinded to continence status and urodynamics, classified each woman as stress continent or incontinent. Results Correct responses ranged from 45.7% to 65.8% (mean 57.4 ± 7.6). Sensitivity was 53.0 ± 8.8% and specificity 61.2 ± 12.4%. The positive predictive value was 48.8 ± 8.2% and negative predictive value was 65.0 ± 7.3%. Inter-rater reliability, evaluated by Cohen's kappa statistic, averaged 0.47 [95% CI 0.40 – 0.50]. Conclusions Experts could not identify a pattern of urethrovesical movement characteristic of SUI on ultrasound. PMID:18850057

Assessment and management of urinary incontinence in women.

PubMed

Stewart, Ellie

2018-05-02

Urinary incontinence is a common and usually hidden issue that can affect women of all ages. It is often ignored by the patient because of their misconception that incontinence is an inevitable consequence of ageing and their low expectations of successful treatment. There are various types of incontinence, with symptoms that can significantly affect patients' quality of life. This article aims to enhance nurses' understanding of the types of urinary incontinence affecting women, associated risk factors and continence assessment, as well as the initial investigations and conservative treatments that can be instigated by general nurses. It also discusses some of the advanced treatments offered by specialist services. The article emphasises the importance of undertaking a holistic continence assessment to ensure appropriate continence care is provided, and how tailoring this care to the individual can improve adherence to treatment plans. © 2018 RCN Publishing Company Ltd. All rights reserved. Not to be copied, transmitted or recorded in any way, in whole or part, without prior permission of the publishers.

Chemical elements in the environment: multi-element geochemical datasets from continental to national scale surveys on four continents

USGS Publications Warehouse

Caritat, Patrice de; Reimann, Clemens; Smith, David; Wang, Xueqiu

2017-01-01

During the last 10-20 years, Geological Surveys around the world have undertaken a major effort towards delivering fully harmonized and tightly quality-controlled low-density multi-element soil geochemical maps and datasets of vast regions including up to whole continents. Concentrations of between 45 and 60 elements commonly have been determined in a variety of different regolith types (e.g., sediment, soil). The multi-element datasets are published as complete geochemical atlases and made available to the general public. Several other geochemical datasets covering smaller areas but generally at a higher spatial density are also available. These datasets may, however, not be found by superficial internet-based searches because the elements are not mentioned individually either in the title or in the keyword lists of the original references. This publication attempts to increase the visibility and discoverability of these fundamental background datasets covering large areas up to whole continents.

Precambrian Basement Structure Map of the Continental United States - An Interpretation of Geologic and Aeromagnetic Data

USGS Publications Warehouse

Sims, Paul K.; Saltus, Richard W.; Anderson, Eric D.

2008-01-01

The Precambrian basement rocks of the continental United States are largely covered by younger sedimentary and volcanic rocks, and the availability of updated aeromagnetic data (NAMAG, 2002) provides a means to infer major regional basement structures and tie together the scattered, but locally abundant, geologic information. Precambrian basement structures in the continental United States have strongly influenced later Proterozoic and Phanerozoic tectonism within the continent, and there is a growing awareness of the utility of these structures in deciphering major younger tectonic and related episodes. Interest in the role of basement structures in the evolution of continents has been recently stimulated, particularly by publications of the Geological Society of London (Holdsworth and others, 1998; Holdsworth and others, 2001). These publications, as well as others, stress the importance of reactivation of basement structures in guiding the subsequent evolution of continents. Knowledge of basement structures is an important key to understanding the geology of continental interiors.

A Brave New World for an Old World Pest: Helicoverpa armigera (Lepidoptera: Noctuidae) in Brazil

PubMed Central

Walsh, Thomas; Thomazoni, Danielle; Silvie, Pierre; Behere, Gajanan T.; Anderson, Craig; Downes, Sharon

2013-01-01

The highly polyphagous Old World cotton bollworm Helicoverpa armigera is a quarantine agricultural pest for the American continents. Historically H. armigera is thought to have colonised the American continents around 1.5 to 2 million years ago, leading to the current H. zea populations on the American continents. The relatively recent species divergence history is evident in mating compatibility between H. zea and H. armigera under laboratory conditions. Despite periodic interceptions of H. armigera into North America, this pest species is not believed to have successfully established significant populations on either continent. In this study, we provide molecular evidence via mitochondrial DNA (mtDNA) cytochrome oxidase I (COI) and cytochrome b (Cyt b) partial gene sequences for the successful recent incursion of H. armigera into the New World, with individuals being detected at two sites (Primavera do Leste, Pedra Preta) within the State of Mato Grosso in Brazil. The mtDNA COI and Cyt b haplotypes detected in the Brazilian H. armigera individuals are common throughout the Old World, thus precluding identification of the founder populations. Combining the two partial mtDNA gene sequences showed that at least two matrilines are present in Brazil, while the inclusion of three nuclear DNA Exon-Primed Intron-Crossing (EPIC) markers identified a further two possible matrilines in our samples. The economic, biosecurity, resistance management, ecological and evolutionary implications of this incursion are discussed in relation to the current agricultural practices in the Americas. PMID:24260345

Effects of introducing a specialized nurse in the care of community-dwelling women suffering from urinary incontinence: a randomized controlled trial.

PubMed

Du Moulin, M F M T; Hamers, J P H; Paulus, A; Berendsen, C L; Halfens, R

2007-01-01

Urinary incontinence (UI) often remains inadequately treated. In the literature, there are indications that continence nurses' diagnoses and treatment advices are beneficial in terms of clinical outcomes. However, the precise short-term and long-term effects are unclear. This study investigates the short-term and long-term effects of the introduction of a continence nurse in the care of community-dwelling women suffering from UI. In a cluster randomized study, 38 women were referred to the continence nurse who, guided by a protocol, assessed and advised the patients about therapy, lifestyle, or medication. If progress was disappointing, therapy was revised. Results were compared to a group of 13 women who received "usual care" by the general practitioner. Data on frequency and volume of incontinence, quality of life, and patient satisfaction were collected at baseline and after 3, 6, and 12 months. After 6 months, women in the intervention group reported a greater reduction in "moderate" incontinent episodes when compared to women in the control group. No treatment effect was found after 12 months. Although there was a stronger improvement in scores as regards to quality of life in the intervention group, with the exception of the dimension "physical," no treatment effect was found. The introduction of a continence nurse demonstrates short-term benefit to community-dwelling women suffering from UI. However, the long-term effects should be further explored with larger study populations. ISRCTN15553880.

Internet surveillance: content analysis and monitoring of product-specific internet prescription opioid abuse-related postings.

PubMed

Butler, Stephen F; Venuti, Synne Wing; Benoit, Christine; Beaulaurier, Richard L; Houle, Brian; Katz, Nathaniel

2007-09-01

This study describes the development of a systematic approach to the analysis of Internet chatter as a means of monitoring potentially abusable opioid analgesics. Message boards dedicated to drug abuse were selected using specific inclusion criteria. Threaded discussions containing 48,293 posts were captured. A coding system was created to compare content of posts related to 3 opioid analgesics: Kadian, Vicodin, and OxyContin. The number of posts containing mentions of the target drugs were significantly different [OxyContin (1813)>Vicodin (940)>Kadian (27), P<0.001]. Analyses revealed that these differences were not simply a reflection of the availability of each product (ie, number of prescriptions written). Reliability tests indicated that the content coding system achieved good interrater reliability coefficients (average kappa across all categories=0.76, range=0.52 to 1.0). Content analysis of a sample of 234 randomly selected posts indicated that the proportion of Internet posts endorsing abuse of Kadian was statistically significantly less than OxyContin (45.5% vs. 68.4%, P=0.036, not adjusted for multiple comparisons). These results suggest that a systematic approach to postmarketing surveillance of Internet chatter related to pharmaceutical products is feasible and yields reliable information about the quantity of discussion of specific products and qualitative information regarding the nature of the discussions. Kadian was associated with fewer Internet mentions than either OxyContin or Vicodin. This investigation stands as a first attempt to establish systematic methods for conducting Internet surveillance.

Ultrasound Thickness of Bladder Wall in Continent and Incontinent Women and Its Correlation with Cystometry

PubMed Central

Otsuki, Edney Norio; Oliveira, Emerson; Sartori, Marair Gracio Ferreira; Girão, Manoel João Batista Castelo; Jármy-Di Bella, Zsuzsanna Ilona Katalin

2014-01-01

Objective. To compare bladder wall thickness in two kinds of urinary incontinent women—stress urinary incontinence (SUI) and overactive bladder (OAB) with urodynamic detrusor overactivity (DO), and to compare them with continent patients by ultrasound, also, correlate with cystometric results in incontinent women. Methods. 91 women were divided into the following groups: continent (n = 31), SUI (n = 30), and DO (n = 30) groups after clinical evaluation and urodynamic test (only in incontinent women). Transvaginal ultrasound was performed to the bladder wall thickness (BWT) measurement. The mean of BWT was calculated and data were analyzed with ANOVA and Turkey's multiple comparison tests. Pearson's correlation coefficient (r) was used to compare two variables. Receiver operating characteristic (ROC) curve was performed to study BWT as a diagnostic parameter. Results. BWT in DO group was significantly higher than that in the other groups (P < 0.005). A moderate positive correlation was found between BWT and maximum bladder pressure during involuntary bladder contraction. There was no difference in BWT between SUI and continent groups. DO group had lower first desire to void and cystometric capacity. Maximum bladder pressure at detrusor contraction had a moderate positive correlation with BWT. The ROC revealed an area under the curve of 0.962 (95% CI, 0.90–1.01). Conclusions. DO patients have increased bladder wall thickness, lower first desire to void, and lower cystometric capacity. There was a moderate correlation between BWT and maximum bladder pressure during involuntary bladder contraction. PMID:25538959

OxyContin® as Currency: OxyContin® Use and Increased Social Capital among Rural Appalachian Drug Users

PubMed Central

Jonas, Adam B.; Young, April M.; Oser, Carrie B.; Leukefeld, Carl G.; Havens, Jennifer R.

2012-01-01

Studies have shown that position within networks of social relations can have direct implications on the health behaviors of individuals. The present study examines connections between drug use and individual social capital within social networks of drug users (n=503) from rural Appalachian Kentucky, U.S.A. Respondent driven sampling was used to recruit individuals age 18 and older who had used one of the following drugs to get high: cocaine, crack, heroin, methamphetamine, or prescription opioids. Substance use was measured via self-report and social network analysis of participants’ drug use network was used to compute effective size, a measure of social capital. Drug network ties were based on sociometric data on recent (past 6 month) drug co-usage. Multivariate multi-level ordinal regression was used to model the independent effect of sociodemographic and drug use characteristics on social capital. Adjusting for gender, income, and education, daily OxyContin® use was found to be significantly associated with greater social capital, and daily marijuana use was associated with less social capital. These results suggest that in regions with marked economic disparities such as rural Appalachia, OxyContin® may serve as a form of currency that is associated with increased social capital among drug users. Interventions focusing on increasing alternate pathways to acquiring social capital may be one way in which to alleviate the burden of drug use in this high-risk population. PMID:22465379

Sn-wave velocity structure of the uppermost mantle beneath the Australian continent

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Wei, Zhi; Kennett, Brian L. N.; Sun, Weijia

2018-06-01

We have extracted a data set of more than 5000 Sn traveltimes for source-station pairs within continental Australia, with 3-D source relocation using Pn arrivals to improve data consistency. We conduct tomographic inversion for S-wave-speed structure down to 100 km using the Fast Marching Tomography (FMTOMO) method for the whole Australian continent. We obtain a 3-D model with potential resolution of 3.0° × 3.0°. The new S-wave-speed model provides strong constraints on structure in a zone that was previously poorly characterized. The S velocities in the uppermost mantle are rather fast, with patterns of variation generally corresponding to those for Pn. We find strong heterogeneities of Swave speed in the uppermost mantle across the entire continent of Australia with a close relation to crustal geological features. For instance, the cratons in the western Australia usually have high S velocities (>4.70 km s-1), while the volcanic regions on the eastern margin of Australia are characterized by low S velocities (<4.40 km s-1). Exploiting an equivalent Pn inversion, we also determine the Vp/Vs ratios across the whole continent. We find that most of the uppermost mantle has Vp/Vs between 1.65 and 1.85, but with patches in central Australia and in the east with much higher Vp/Vs ratios. Distinctive local anomalies on the eastern margin may indicate the positions of remnants of mantle plumes.

Fifteen years of experience in the treatment of anorectal malformations.

PubMed

Julià, Victoria; Tarrado, Xavier; Prat, Jordi; Saura, Laura; Montaner, Albert; Castañón, Montserrrat; Ribó, Josep Maria

2010-02-01

To analyze our experience in the treatment of anorectal malformations (ARM) with the posterior sagittal anorectoplasty (PSARP), and our modifications through the last few years and the outcomes. We reviewed 107 cases divided into two groups: Former (F: 1994-2003) and Recent (R: 2004-2008). Type of ARM, associated anomalies, management and complications were noted. A telephone questionnaire regarding continence outcome was addressed to the 74 cases older than 3 years. According to the type of ARM, there were 53 perineal fistulas, 2 anal stenoses, 11 no fistulas, 12 rectourethral fistulas (5 rectobulbar and 7 rectoprostatic fistulas), 22 vestibular fistulas, 1 rectovesical fistulas and 6 cloacas. A total of 47 patients presented with 73 associated malformations. As much as 45 colostomies were performed, including 5 perineal fístulas, with 6 of 7 vestibular fístulas in group F and only 8 of 15 in group R. We had 19 complications of PSARP. The most frequent one was rectal mucosa prolapse in 14 (12F and 2R) and 2 wound infections (F). Continence was good in 62, poor in 3 and fair in 5. Seven out of eight children with poor or fair continence had associated malformations. All perineal fístulas can be managed without colostomy. Vestibular fístulas can be safely treated without colostomy in otherwise healthy patients without severe malformations. Overall, continence is good, and fair/poor results are related to associated malformations. Cumulative experience helps avoid colostomies and reduce complication and reoperation rates.

Factors affecting choice between ureterostomy, ileal conduit and continent reservoir after radical cystectomy: Japanese series.

PubMed

Sugihara, Toru; Yasunaga, Hideo; Horiguchi, Hiromasa; Fujimura, Tetsuya; Fushimi, Kiyohide; Yu, Changhong; Kattan, Michael W; Homma, Yukio

2014-12-01

Little is known about the disparity of choices between three urinary diversions after radical cystectomy, focusing on patient and institutional factors. We identified urothelial carcinoma patients who received radical cystectomy with cutaneous ureterostomy, ileal conduit or continent reservoir using the Japanese Diagnosis Procedure Combination database from 2007 to 2012. Data comprised age, sex, comorbidities (converted into the Charlson index), TNM classification (converted into oncological stage), hospitals' academic status, hospital volume, bed volume and geographical region. Multivariate ordinal logistic regression analyses fitted with the proportional odds model were performed to analyze factors affecting urinary diversion choices. For dependent variables, the three diversions were converted into an ordinal variable in order of complexity: cutaneous ureterostomy (reference), ileal conduit and continent reservoir. Geographical variations were also examined by multivariate logistic regression models. A total of 4790 patients (1131 cutaneous ureterostomies [23.6 %], 2970 ileal conduits [62.0 %] and 689 continent reservoirs [14.4 %]) were included. Ordinal logistic regression analyses showed that male sex, lower age, lower Charlson index, early tumor stage, higher hospital volume (≥3.4 cases/year) and larger bed volume (≥450 beds) were significantly associated with the preference of more complex urinary diversion. Significant geographical disparity was also found. Good patient condition and early oncological status, as well as institutional factors, including high hospital volume, large bed volume and specific geographical regions, are independently related to the likelihood of choosing complex diversions. Recognizing this disparity would help reinforce the need for clinical practice uniformity.

Characterization of Wildfire-Induced Aerosol Emissions From the Maritime Continent Peatland and Central African Dry Savannah with MISR and CALIPSO Aerosol Products

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Lee, Huikyo; Jeong, Su-Jong; Kalashnikova, Olga; Tosca, Mika; Kim, Sang-Woo; Kug, Jong-Seong

2018-03-01

Aerosol plumes from wildfires affect the Earth's climate system through regulation of the radiative budget and clouds. However, optical properties of aerosols from individual wildfire smoke plumes and their resultant impact on regional climate are highly variable. Therefore, there is a critical need for observations that can constrain the partitioning between different types of aerosols. Here we present the apparent influence of regional ecosystem types on optical properties of wildfire-induced aerosols based on remote sensing observations from two satellite instruments and three ground stations. The independent observations commonly show that the ratio of the absorbing aerosols is significantly lower in smoke plumes from the Maritime Continent than those from Central Africa, so that their impacts on regional climate are different. The observed light-absorbing properties of wildfire-induced aerosols are explained by dominant ecosystem types such as wet peatlands for the Maritime Continent and dry savannah for Central Africa, respectively. These results suggest that the wildfire-aerosol-climate feedback processes largely depend on the terrestrial environments from which the fires originate. These feedbacks also interact with climate under greenhouse warming. Our analysis shows that aerosol optical properties retrieved based on satellite observations are critical in assessing wildfire-induced aerosols forcing in climate models. The optical properties of carbonaceous aerosol mixtures used by state-of-the-art chemistry climate models may overestimate emissions for absorbing aerosols from wildfires over the Maritime Continent.

[Raz's technics in the surgical treatment of stress urinary incontinence in women].

PubMed

Gutiérrez Baños, J L; de Diego Rodríguez, E; Portillo Martín, J A; Martín García, B; Hernández Rodríguez, R; Correas Gómez, M A; del Valle Schaan, J I; Roca Edreira, A; Rado Velázquez, M A

1999-05-01

To analyze our results in the surgery of the stress urinary incontinence in women with the Raz's techniques, to assess the association among continence and factors like surgical technique, grade of incontinence and urethral pressure profile. We do a retrospective study of 88 operations in 81 patients between the first of January 1990 and the thirty-one of December 1998. We describe the patients, previous treatments, grade of incontinence ans urodynamics data. We analyze the pre and post-operative complications. The outcome is evaluated by the Kaplan-Meier method, and the results are compared by the log rank test. 11 patients had a previous surgery and 7 had done physiotherapy; the grade of incontinence was 1 in 7 patients, 2 in 56 and 3 in 18. There were neither significative difference between UPP and abdominal leak point pressure and grade of incontinence nor between those parameters and continence. We did the Raz 1 technique in 67 patients, Raz 2 in 3, Raz 3 in 18. There were no significant difference among them. There are a progressive loose in the continence rate along the two first years; after that the continence rates are stabilized about 75%. The complications rate was scarce, except for the postoperative urinary retention, that reached the 20.45%. Our results are similar to those cited in the bibliography, mainly in the Spanish one. The highest rate of failure is in the two first years.

Dynamic MRI evaluation of urethral hypermobility post-radical prostatectomy.

PubMed

Suskind, Anne M; DeLancey, John O L; Hussain, Hero K; Montgomery, Jeffrey S; Latini, Jerilyn M; Cameron, Anne P

2014-03-01

One postulated cause of post-prostatectomy incontinence is urethral and bladder neck hypermobility. The objective of this study was to determine the magnitude of anatomical differences of urethral and bladder neck position at rest and with valsalva in continent and incontinent men post-prostatectomy based on dynamic MRI. All subjects underwent a dynamic MRI protocol with valsalva and non-valsalva images and a standard urodynamic evaluation. MRI measurements were taken at rest and with valsalva, including (1) bladder neck to sacrococcygeal inferior pubic point line (SCIPP), (2) urethra to pubis, and (3) bulbar urethra to SCIPP. Data were analyzed in SAS using two-tailed t tests. A total of 21 subjects (13 incontinent and 8 continent) had complete data and were included in the final analysis. The two groups had similar demographic characteristics. On MRI, there were no statistically significant differences in anatomic position of the bladder neck or urethra either at rest or with valsalva. The amount of hypermobility ranged from 0.8 to 2 mm in all measures. There were also no differences in the amount of hypermobility (position at rest minus position at valsalva) between groups. We found no statistically significant differences in bladder neck and urethral position or mobility on dynamic MRI evaluation between continent and incontinent men status post-radical prostatectomy. A more complex mechanism for post-prostatectomy incontinence needs to be modeled in order to better understand the continence mechanism in this select group of men. © 2013 Wiley Periodicals, Inc.

Clinical application of continent anal plug in bedridden patients with intractable diarrhea.

PubMed

Kim, J; Shim, M C; Choi, B Y; Ahn, S H; Jang, S H; Shin, H J

2001-08-01

Some patients bedridden from various causes such as stroke or spinal cord injury experience poor control of bowel movement. This causes fecal leakage and diarrhea, increases the risk of perianal excoriation and bed sores, and is a burden on caregivers. To evaluate the efficacy of fecal evacuation and the prevention and treatment of skin complications in intractable diarrhea patients using a new device. A continent anal plug (US Patent No. 5 569 216) comprises an inner balloon surrounded by an outer balloon, both of which are mounted on a silicone tube containing a pair of air passages and an enema fluid inlet. The tube is secured in place in the rectum by the inflatable outer balloon and is designed to drain fecal matter through a thin collapsible hose situated in the anal canal. Thirty-two patients (21 male; median age 61 (range, 28-76) years) were evaluated after fully informed consent. Median duration was 12 (range, 3-37) days. The continent anal plug evacuated efficiently in those patients with loose or watery stools who only required irrigation once daily or not at all. Skin excoriations improved in three to seven days. Minimal leakage was seen around the anus. There was no anorectal mucosal injury noted over 37 days. The continent anal plug is an efficient method of treating patients with loss of bowel control and incontinence because it enables controlled fecal evacuation and helps reduce skin complications without causing anorectal mucosal injury.

Differential preservation in the geologic record of intraoceanic arc sedimentary and tectonic processes

USGS Publications Warehouse

Draut, Amy; Clift, Peter D.

2013-01-01

Records of ancient intraoceanic arc activity, now preserved in continental suture zones, are commonly used to reconstruct paleogeography and plate motion, and to understand how continental crust is formed, recycled, and maintained through time. However, interpreting tectonic and sedimentary records from ancient terranes after arc–continent collision is complicated by preferential preservation of evidence for some arc processes and loss of evidence for others. In this synthesis we examine what is lost, and what is preserved, in the translation from modern processes to the ancient record of intraoceanic arcs. Composition of accreted arc terranes differs as a function of arc–continent collision geometry. ‘Forward-facing’ collision can accrete an oceanic arc on to either a passive or an active continental margin, with the arc facing the continent and colliding trench- and forearc-side first. In a ‘backward-facing’ collision, involving two subduction zones with similar polarity, the arc collides backarc-first with an active continental margin. The preservation of evidence for contemporary sedimentary and tectonic arc processes in the geologic record depends greatly on how well the various parts of the arc survive collision and orogeny in each case. Preservation of arc terranes likely is biased towards those that were in a state of tectonic accretion for tens of millions of years before collision, rather than tectonic erosion. The prevalence of tectonic erosion in modern intraoceanic arcs implies that valuable records of arc processes are commonly destroyed even before the arc collides with a continent. Arc systems are most likely to undergo tectonic accretion shortly before forward-facing collision with a continent, and thus most forearc and accretionary-prism material in ancient arc terranes likely is temporally biased toward the final stages of arc activity, when sediment flux to the trench was greatest and tectonic accretion prevailed. Collision geometry and tectonic erosion vs. accretion are important controls on the ultimate survival of material from the trench, forearc, arc massif, intra-arc basins, and backarc basins, and thus on how well an ancient arc terrane preserves evidence for tectonic processes such as subduction of aseismic ridges and seamounts, oblique plate convergence, and arc rifting. Forward-facing collision involves substantial recycling, melting, and fractionation of continent-derived material during and after collision, and so produces melts rich in silica and incompatible trace elements. As a result, forward-facing collision can drive the composition of accreted arc crust toward that of average continental crust.

Irrigation management of sigmoid colostomy.

PubMed

Jao, S W; Beart, R W; Wendorf, L J; Ilstrup, D M

1985-08-01

Questionnaires were sent to 270 patients who had undergone abdominoperineal resection and sigmoid colostomy at the Mayo Clinic, Rochester, Minn, during the ten years from 1972 to 1982; 223 patients returned their questionnaires with evaluable data. Sixty percent of the patients were continent with irrigation, and 22% were incontinent with irrigation. Eighteen percent had discontinued irrigation for various reasons. The proportion continent was higher in women, younger patients, and previously constipated patients. A poorly constructed colostomy may cause acute angle, parastoma hernia, stomal prolapse, or stenosis and thus be the cause of failure of irrigation.

Two Simple Leg Net Devices Designed to Protect Lower-Extremity Skin Grafts and Donor Sites and Prevent Decubitus Ulcer

DTIC Science & Technology

2007-02-01

Outcomes in clinical practice: pressure ulcer prevalence and incidence studies. Ostomy /Wound Manage 1997;43:28–38. 4. Gordon M, Gottschlich M, Helvig... Ostomy Continence Nurs 2000;27:209–15. 20. Ooka M, Kemp MG, McMyn R, et al. Evaluation of three types of support surfaces for preventing pressure ulcers...in patients in a surgical intensive care unit. J Wound Ostomy Continence Nurs 1995;22:271–9. 21. Agency for Health Care Policy and Research. Pressure

The relationship between the opening of South China Sea and the formation of the Tibetan Plateau (Invited)

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Mo, X.

2010-12-01

The South China Sea is one of the largest marginal seas in western Pacific and underwent a complex history. Xu et al.(2004) suggested that the evolution of the South China Sea can be divided into two first order phases: Paleogene (—Early Miocene) rifting and Neogene post- rifting. An oceanic crust was formed during 32-17 Ma. Whether or not the opening of South China Sea were related to Indo-Eurasia collision and the formation of the Tibetan Plateau is one of challenging problem in Earth sciences. With an exception of the southwestern China, the Chinese continent has become an united continent in the Triassic by the Indosinian orogeny. However, the Qinghai-Tibet area in SW China was still an oceanic region, that is, the Neo-Tethys. During the period of 145-100 Ma, the Lhasa terrane collided with the Qiangtang terrane and added to the south margin of the Eurasian continent. On the other hand, the Indian plate subducted underneath the Eurasian continent since Jurassic- Cretaceous. Subsequently, collision between the two continents, India and Eurasia, were completed during 65-40 Ma, and went into a post-collisional stage, characterized by intra-continental movements, including intra-continental subduction, overthrust, strike-slip and so on. The Tibetan Plateau, the highest plateau in the world had been formed by multi-stage uplifts. Several huge strike-slip shear zone such as the Red River Fault and the Altyn were formed during that period. The >1000-km-long Oligocene—Miocene left-lateral Red River shear zone (RRSZ) and the Pliocene—active right-lateral Red River fault (RRF), stretching from SE Tibet to the South China Sea, has been cited as a lithospheric scale strike-slip fault. The age of RRSZ was recently determined no earlier than 31.9-24.2Ma and no later than 21.7 Ma (Searle et al., 2010). Many geologists believe that there possibly be close relationship between the opening of the South China Sea and Indo-Eurasia collision and the formation of the Tibetan Plateau via the evolution of the Red River shear zone.

Future climate change scenarios in Central America at high spatial resolution.

PubMed

Imbach, Pablo; Chou, Sin Chan; Lyra, André; Rodrigues, Daniela; Rodriguez, Daniel; Latinovic, Dragan; Siqueira, Gracielle; Silva, Adan; Garofolo, Lucas; Georgiou, Selena

2018-01-01

The objective of this work is to assess the downscaling projections of climate change over Central America at 8-km resolution using the Eta Regional Climate Model, driven by the HadGEM2-ES simulations of RCP4.5 emission scenario. The narrow characteristic of continent supports the use of numerical simulations at very high-horizontal resolution. Prior to assessing climate change, the 30-year baseline period 1961-1990 is evaluated against different sources of observations of precipitation and temperature. The mean seasonal precipitation and temperature distribution show reasonable agreement with observations. Spatial correlation of the Eta, 8-km resolution, simulations against observations show clear advantage over the driver coarse global model simulations. Seasonal cycle of precipitation confirms the added value of the Eta at 8-km over coarser resolution simulations. The Eta simulations show a systematic cold bias in the region. Climate features of the Mid-Summer Drought and the Caribbean Low-Level Jet are well simulated by the Eta model at 8-km resolution. The assessment of the future climate change is based on the 30-year period 2021-2050, under RCP4.5 scenario. Precipitation is generally reduced, in particular during the JJA and SON, the rainy season. Warming is expected over the region, but stronger in the northern portion of the continent. The Mid-Summer Drought may develop in regions that do not occur during the baseline period, and where it occurs the strength may increase in the future scenario. The Caribbean Low-Level Jet shows little change in the future. Extreme temperatures have positive trend within the period 2021-2050, whereas extreme precipitation, measured by R50mm and R90p, shows positive trend in the eastern coast, around Costa Rica, and negative trends in the northern part of the continent. Negative trend in the duration of dry spell, which is an estimate based on evapotranspiration, is projected in most part of the continent. Annual mean water excess has negative trends in most part of the continent, which suggests decreasing water availability in the future scenario.

Future climate change scenarios in Central America at high spatial resolution

PubMed Central

Imbach, Pablo; Chou, Sin Chan; Rodrigues, Daniela; Rodriguez, Daniel; Latinovic, Dragan; Siqueira, Gracielle; Silva, Adan; Garofolo, Lucas; Georgiou, Selena

2018-01-01

The objective of this work is to assess the downscaling projections of climate change over Central America at 8-km resolution using the Eta Regional Climate Model, driven by the HadGEM2-ES simulations of RCP4.5 emission scenario. The narrow characteristic of continent supports the use of numerical simulations at very high-horizontal resolution. Prior to assessing climate change, the 30-year baseline period 1961–1990 is evaluated against different sources of observations of precipitation and temperature. The mean seasonal precipitation and temperature distribution show reasonable agreement with observations. Spatial correlation of the Eta, 8-km resolution, simulations against observations show clear advantage over the driver coarse global model simulations. Seasonal cycle of precipitation confirms the added value of the Eta at 8-km over coarser resolution simulations. The Eta simulations show a systematic cold bias in the region. Climate features of the Mid-Summer Drought and the Caribbean Low-Level Jet are well simulated by the Eta model at 8-km resolution. The assessment of the future climate change is based on the 30-year period 2021–2050, under RCP4.5 scenario. Precipitation is generally reduced, in particular during the JJA and SON, the rainy season. Warming is expected over the region, but stronger in the northern portion of the continent. The Mid-Summer Drought may develop in regions that do not occur during the baseline period, and where it occurs the strength may increase in the future scenario. The Caribbean Low-Level Jet shows little change in the future. Extreme temperatures have positive trend within the period 2021–2050, whereas extreme precipitation, measured by R50mm and R90p, shows positive trend in the eastern coast, around Costa Rica, and negative trends in the northern part of the continent. Negative trend in the duration of dry spell, which is an estimate based on evapotranspiration, is projected in most part of the continent. Annual mean water excess has negative trends in most part of the continent, which suggests decreasing water availability in the future scenario. PMID:29694355

Contemporary Model Fidelity over the Maritime Continent: Examination of the Diurnal Cycle, Synoptic, Intraseasonal and Seasonal Variability

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Baranowski, D.; Waliser, D. E.; Jiang, X.

2016-12-01

One of the key challenges in subseasonal weather forecasting is the fidelity in representing the propagation of the Madden-Julian Oscillation (MJO) across the Maritime Continent (MC). In reality both propagating and non-propagating MJO events are observed, but in numerical forecast the latter group largely dominates. For this study, comprehensive model performances are evaluated using metrics that utilize the mean precipitation pattern and the amplitude and phase of the diurnal cycle, with a particular focus on the linkage between a model's local MC variability and its fidelity in representing propagation of the MJO and equatorial Kelvin waves across the MC. Subseasonal to seasonal variability of mean precipitation and its diurnal cycle in 20 year long climate simulations from over 20 general circulation models (GCMs) is examined to benchmark model performance. Our results show that many models struggle to represent the precipitation pattern over complex Maritime Continent terrain. Many models show negative biases of mean precipitation and amplitude of its diurnal cycle; these biases are often larger over land than over ocean. Furthermore, only a handful of models realistically represent the spatial variability of the phase of the diurnal cycle of precipitation. Models tend to correctly simulate the timing of the diurnal maximum of precipitation over ocean during local solar time morning, but fail to acknowledge influence of the land, with the timing of the maximum of precipitation there occurring, unrealistically, at the same time as over ocean. The day-to-day and seasonal variability of the mean precipitation follows observed patterns, but is often unrealistic for the diurnal cycle amplitude. The intraseasonal variability of the amplitude of the diurnal cycle of precipitation is mainly driven by model's ability (or lack of) to produce eastward propagating MJO-like signal. Our results show that many models tend to decrease apparent air-sea contrast in the mean precipitation and diurnal cycle of precipitation patterns over the Maritime Continent. As a result, the complexity of those patterns is heavily smoothed, to such an extent in some models that the Maritime Continent features and imprint is almost unrecognizable relative to the eastern Indian Ocean or Western Pacific.

Reformulation of controlled-release oxycodone and pharmacy dispensing patterns near the US-Canada border.

PubMed

Gomes, Tara; Paterson, J Michael; Juurlink, David N; Dhalla, Irfan A; Mamdani, Muhammad M

2012-01-01

In August 2010, a tamper-resistant formulation of controlled-release oxycodone (OxyContin-OP) was introduced in the United States but not in Canada. Our objective was to determine whether introduction of OxyContin-OP in the United States influenced prescription volumes for the original controlled-release oxycodone formulation (OxyContin) at Canadian pharmacies near the international border. We conducted a population-based, serial, cross-sectional study of prescriptions dispensed from pharmacies in the 3 cities with the highest volume of US-Canada border crossings in Ontario: Niagara Falls, Windsor and Sarnia. We analyzed data on all outpatient prescriptions for OxyContin dispensed by Canadian pharmacies near each border crossing between 2010 Apr. 1 and 2012 Feb. 29. We calculated and compared monthly prescription rates, adjusted per 1000 population and stratified by tablet strength. The number of tablets dispensed near 4 border crossings in the 3 Canadian cities remained stable over the study period. However, the rate of dispensing at pharmacies near the Detroit-Windsor Tunnel increased roughly 4-fold between August 2010 and February 2011, from 505 to 1969 tablets per 1000 population. By April 2011, following warnings to prescribers and pharmacies regarding drug-seeking behaviour, the dispensing rate declined to 1683 tablets per 1000 population in this area. By November 2011, the rate had returned to levels observed in early 2010. Our analyses suggest that 242 075 excess OxyContin tablets were dispensed near the Detroit-Windsor Tunnel between August 2010 and October 2011. Prescribing of the original formulation of controlled-release oxycodone rose substantially near a major international border crossing following the introduction of a tamper-resistant formulation in the United States. It is possible that the restriction of this finding to the area surrounding the Detroit-Windsor Tunnel reflects specific characteristics of this border crossing, including its high traffic volume, direct access to the downtown core and drug-trafficking patterns in the Detroit area. Our findings highlight the potential impact of cross-border differences in medication availability on drug-seeking behaviour.

What Works to Improve and Manage Fecal Incontinence in Care Home Residents Living With Dementia? A Realist Synthesis of the Evidence.

PubMed

Buswell, Marina; Goodman, Claire; Roe, Brenda; Russell, Bridget; Norton, Christine; Harwood, Rowan; Fader, Mandy; Harari, Danielle; Drennan, Vari M; Malone, Jo Rycroft; Madden, Michelle; Bunn, Frances

2017-09-01

The prevalence of fecal incontinence (FI) in care homes is estimated to range from 30% to 50%. There is limited evidence of what is effective in the reduction and management of FI in care homes. Using realist synthesis, 6 potential program theories of what should work were identified. These addressed clinician-led support, assessment, and review; the contribution of teaching and support for care home staff on how to reduce and manage FI; addressing the causes and prevention of constipation; how cognitive and physical capacity of the resident affects outcomes; how the potential for recovery, reduction, and management of FI is understood by those involved; and how the care of people living with dementia and FI is integral to the work patterns of the care home and its staff. Dementia was a known risk factor for fecal incontinence (FI), but how it affected uptake of different interventions or the dementia specific continence and toileting skills staff require, were not addressed in the literature. There was a lack of dementia-specific evidence on continence aids. Most care home residents with FI will be doubly incontinent; there is, therefore, limited value in focusing solely on FI or single causes, such as constipation. Medical and nursing support for continence care is an important resource, but it is unhelpful to create a distinction between what is continence care and what is personal or intimate care. Prompted toileting is an approach that may be particularly beneficial for some residents. Valuing the intimate and personal care work unqualified and junior staff provide to people living with dementia and reinforcement of good practice in ways that are meaningful to this workforce are important clinician-led activities. Providing dementia-sensitive continence care within the daily work routines of care homes is key to helping to reduce and manage FI for this population. Copyright © 2017 AMDA – The Society for Post-Acute and Long-Term Care Medicine. Published by Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

Orthotopic ileal bladder substitution in women: factors influencing urinary incontinence and hypercontinence.

PubMed

Gross, Tobias; Meierhans Ruf, Susan D; Meissner, Claudia; Ochsner, Katharina; Studer, Urs E

2015-10-01

Urinary incontinence or the inability to void spontaneously after ileal orthotopic bladder substitution is a frequent finding in female patients. To evaluate how hysterectomy and nerve sparing affect functional outcomes and whether these relate to pre- and postoperative urethral pressure profile (UPP) results. Prospectively performed pre- and postoperative UPPs of 73 female patients who had undergone cystectomy and bladder substitution were correlated with postoperative voiding and continence status. Outcome analyses were performed with the Kruskal-Wallis test, Wilcoxon-Mann-Whitney, or two-group post hoc testing with the Bonferroni correction. Chi-square or Fisher exact tests were applied for the categorical data. Of postoperatively continent or hypercontinent patients, 22 of 43 (51.2%) had the uterus preserved; of incontinent patients, only 4 of 30 (13.3%, p<0.01) had the uterus preserved. Of postoperatively continent or hypercontinent patients, 27 of 43 patients (62.8%) had bilateral and 15 of 43 (34.9%) had unilateral attempted nerve sparing. In incontinent patients, 11 of 30 (36.7%) had bilateral and 16 of 30 (53.3%) had unilateral attempted nerve sparing (p=0.02). When compared with postoperatively incontinent patients, postoperatively continent patients had a longer functional urethral length (median: 32mm vs 24mm; p<0.001), a higher postoperative urethral closing pressure at rest (56cm H2O vs 35cm H2O; p<0.001) as well as a higher preoperative urethral closing pressure at rest (74cm H2O vs 47.5cm H2O; p=0.01). The main limitation was the limited number of patients. In female patients undergoing radical cystectomy and bladder substitution, preservation of the uterus and attempted nerve sparing results in better functional outcomes. The preoperative UPPs correlate with postoperative voiding and continence status and may predict which patients are at a higher risk of functional failure after bladder substitution. If preservation of the urethra's innervation is not possible during cystectomy, poor functional results with bladder substitutes are likely. Copyright © 2015 European Association of Urology. Published by Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.

Modern sands of South America: composition, provenance and global significance

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Potter, P. E.

1994-03-01

Standard petrographic methods were used to study 604 modern sands from South America, of which 351 came from rivers and 253 from beaches. In spite of the wide geomorphic contrasts, these sands belong to only three great families: (1) an immature Andean family of lithic arenites rich in volcanic and metamorphic grains that covers about 30% of South America; (2) a cratonic association rich in quartz that covers about 62% of the continent; and (3) a transitional, molasse association, which occurs between these two and covers only about 8% of the continent. The grand arithmetic average Q:F: Rf ratio for the entire continent is 60:11:29 and the area-weighted, carbonate-free average Qa:Fa:Rfa is 68:10:22, a superior continental estimate, and the first ever for an entire continent. Rock fragments are the most informative of all the provenance indicators and in South America they range from tropical alterites of the cratonic family through the dominant volcanic and metamorphic grains of the Andean family to biogenic carbonate in beach sands. Carbonate grains are almost totally absent in modern South American rivers because of present day tropical weathering and a long geological evolution that has favored sand production. They are present in many of the beach sands, however, and are most abundant along the tropical Brazilian and Caribbean coasts. Metamorphic grains rival volcanics as earmarks of the Andean family and survive tropical weathering far better than volcanic grains. There is a strong association between continental soil types and the composition of river sand, but the ultimate controls are tectonic history — the ancient landscapes preserved on the Gondwana shields of South America versus the tectonically young landscapes of the Andes — and climate. Climate can either cause ‘leaks’ to a far distant ocean where weathering is retarded by aridity or it can serve as a barrier to continental sand dispersion, where tropical weathering eliminates unstable grains in transit to the sea. When provenance studies are conducted across an entire, unglaciated continent, events in the far distant past need to be considered when seeking fundamental explanations of its contemporary, surficial sands.

Regional climate projection of the Maritime Continent using the MIT Regional Climate Model

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

IM, E. S.; Eltahir, E. A. B.

2014-12-01

Given that warming of the climate system is unequivocal (IPCC AR5), accurate assessment of future climate is essential to understand the impact of climate change due to global warming. Modelling the climate change of the Maritime Continent is particularly challenge, showing a high degree of uncertainty. Compared to other regions, model agreement of future projections in response to anthropogenic emission forcings is much less. Furthermore, the spatial and temporal behaviors of climate projections seem to vary significantly due to a complex geographical condition and a wide range of scale interactions. For the fine-scale climate information (27 km) suitable for representing the complexity of climate change over the Maritime Continent, dynamical downscaling is performed using the MIT regional climate model (MRCM) during two thirty-year period for reference (1970-1999) and future (2070-2099) climate. Initial and boundary conditions are provided by Community Earth System Model (CESM) simulations under the emission scenarios projected by MIT Integrated Global System Model (IGSM). Changes in mean climate as well as the frequency and intensity of extreme climate events are investigated at various temporal and spatial scales. Our analysis is primarily centered on the different behavior of changes in convective and large-scale precipitation over land vs. ocean during dry vs. wet season. In addition, we attempt to find the added value to downscaled results over the Maritime Continent through the comparison between MRCM and CESM projection. Acknowledgements.This research was supported by the National Research Foundation Singapore through the Singapore MIT Alliance for Research and Technology's Center for Environmental Sensing and Modeling interdisciplinary research program.

The voyage of an invasive species across continents: genetic diversity of North American and European Colorado potato beetle populations.

PubMed

Grapputo, Alessandro; Boman, Sanna; Lindström, Leena; Lyytinen, Anne; Mappes, Johanna

2005-12-01

The paradox of successful invading species is that they are likely to be genetically depauperate compared to their source population. This study on Colorado potato beetles is one of the few studies of the genetic consequences of continent-scale invasion in an insect pest. Understanding gene flow, population structure and the potential for rapid evolution in native and invasive populations offers insights both into the dynamics of small populations that become successful invaders and for their management as pests. We used this approach to investigate the invasion of the Colorado potato beetle (Leptinotarsa decemlineata) from North America to Europe. The beetles invaded Europe at the beginning of the 20th century and expanded almost throughout the continent in about 30 years. From the analysis of mitochondrial DNA (mtDNA) and amplified fragment length polymorphism (AFLP) markers, we found the highest genetic diversity in beetle populations from the central United States. The European populations clearly contained only a fraction of the genetic variability observed in North American populations. European populations show a significant reduction at nuclear markers (AFLPs) and are fixed for one mitochondrial haplotype, suggesting a single successful founder event. Despite the high vagility of the species and the reduction of genetic diversity in Europe, we found a similar, high level of population structure and low gene flow among populations on both continents. Founder events during range expansion, agricultural management with crop rotation, and selection due to insecticide applications are most likely the causes partitioning genetic diversity in this species.

Codon usage and expression level of human mitochondrial 13 protein coding genes across six continents.

PubMed

Chakraborty, Supriyo; Uddin, Arif; Mazumder, Tarikul Huda; Choudhury, Monisha Nath; Malakar, Arup Kumar; Paul, Prosenjit; Halder, Binata; Deka, Himangshu; Mazumder, Gulshana Akthar; Barbhuiya, Riazul Ahmed; Barbhuiya, Masuk Ahmed; Devi, Warepam Jesmi

2017-12-02

The study of codon usage coupled with phylogenetic analysis is an important tool to understand the genetic and evolutionary relationship of a gene. The 13 protein coding genes of human mitochondria are involved in electron transport chain for the generation of energy currency (ATP). However, no work has yet been reported on the codon usage of the mitochondrial protein coding genes across six continents. To understand the patterns of codon usage in mitochondrial genes across six different continents, we used bioinformatic analyses to analyze the protein coding genes. The codon usage bias was low as revealed from high ENC value. Correlation between codon usage and GC3 suggested that all the codons ending with G/C were positively correlated with GC3 but vice versa for A/T ending codons with the exception of ND4L and ND5 genes. Neutrality plot revealed that for the genes ATP6, COI, COIII, CYB, ND4 and ND4L, natural selection might have played a major role while mutation pressure might have played a dominant role in the codon usage bias of ATP8, COII, ND1, ND2, ND3, ND5 and ND6 genes. Phylogenetic analysis indicated that evolutionary relationships in each of 13 protein coding genes of human mitochondria were different across six continents and further suggested that geographical distance was an important factor for the origin and evolution of 13 protein coding genes of human mitochondria. Copyright © 2017 Elsevier B.V. and Mitochondria Research Society. All rights reserved.

Tracing Males From Different Continents by Genotyping JC Polyomavirus in DNA From Semen Samples.

PubMed

Rotondo, John Charles; Candian, Tommaso; Selvatici, Rita; Mazzoni, Elisa; Bonaccorsi, Gloria; Greco, Pantaleo; Tognon, Mauro; Martini, Fernanda

2017-05-01

The human JC polyomavirus (JCPyV) is an ubiquitous viral agent infecting approximately 60% of humans. Recently, JCPyV sequences have been detected in semen samples. The aim of this investigation was to test whether semen JCPyV genotyping can be employed to trace the origin continent of males. Semen DNA samples (n = 170) from males of different Continents were investigated by PCR for the polymorphic JCPyV viral capsid protein 1 (VP1) sequences, followed by DNA sequencing. JCPyV sequences were detected with an overall prevalence of 27.6% (47/170). DNA sequencing revealed that European males carried JCPyV types 1A (71.4%), 4 (11.4%), 2B (2.9%), 2D1 (2.9%), and 3A (2.9%). Asians JCPyV type 2D1 (66.7%) and Africans JCPyV types 3A (33.3%) and 1A (33.3%). In 10.6% of males, two different JCPyV genotypes were detected, suggesting that the second JCPyV genotype was acquired in the destination country. This study indicates that the majority of semen samples found to be JCPyV-positive, were infected with the JCPyV genotype found in the geographic area of male origin. Therefore, semen JCPyV genotyping could be employed to trace the origin continent of males. Our findings could be applied to forensic investigations, in case of for instance sexual crimes. Indeed, JCPyV genotyping should enable investigators to make additional detailed profiling of the offender. J. Cell. Physiol. 232: 982-985, 2017. © 2016 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. © 2016 Wiley Periodicals, Inc.

Parallel Evolution of Copy-Number Variation across Continents in Drosophila melanogaster.

PubMed

Schrider, Daniel R; Hahn, Matthew W; Begun, David J

2016-05-01

Genetic differentiation across populations that is maintained in the presence of gene flow is a hallmark of spatially varying selection. In Drosophila melanogaster, the latitudinal clines across the eastern coasts of Australia and North America appear to be examples of this type of selection, with recent studies showing that a substantial portion of the D. melanogaster genome exhibits allele frequency differentiation with respect to latitude on both continents. As of yet there has been no genome-wide examination of differentiated copy-number variants (CNVs) in these geographic regions, despite their potential importance for phenotypic variation in Drosophila and other taxa. Here, we present an analysis of geographic variation in CNVs in D. melanogaster. We also present the first genomic analysis of geographic variation for copy-number variation in the sister species, D. simulans, in order to investigate patterns of parallel evolution in these close relatives. In D. melanogaster we find hundreds of CNVs, many of which show parallel patterns of geographic variation on both continents, lending support to the idea that they are influenced by spatially varying selection. These findings support the idea that polymorphic CNVs contribute to local adaptation in D. melanogaster In contrast, we find very few CNVs in D. simulans that are geographically differentiated in parallel on both continents, consistent with earlier work suggesting that clinal patterns are weaker in this species. © The Author 2016. Published by Oxford University Press on behalf of the Society for Molecular Biology and Evolution. All rights reserved. For permissions, please e-mail: journals.permissions@oup.com.

Protocol: changes in rates of opioid overdose and poisoning events in an integrated health system following the introduction of a formulation of OxyContin® with abuse-deterrent properties.

PubMed

Janoff, Shannon L; Perrin, Nancy A; Coplan, Paul M; Chilcoat, Howard D; Campbell, Cynthia I; Green, Carla A

2016-05-14

Addiction, overdoses and deaths resulting from prescription opioids have increased dramatically over the last decade. In response, several manufacturers have developed formulations of opioids with abuse-deterrent properties. For many of these products, the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) recognized the formulation with labeling claims and mandated post-marketing studies to assess the abuse-deterrent effects. In response, we assess differences in rates of opioid-related overdoses and poisonings prior to and following the introduction of a formulation of OxyContin® with abuse-deterrent properties. To assess effects of this formulation, electronic medical record (EMR) data from Kaiser Permanente Northwest (KPNW) and Kaiser Permanente Northern California (KPNC) are linked to state death data and compared to chart audits. Overdose and poisoning events will be categorized by intentionality and number of agents involved, including illicit drugs and alcohol. Using 6-month intervals over a 10-year period, trends will be compared in rates of opioid-related overdoses and poisoning events associated with OxyContin® to rates of events associated with other oxycodone and opioid formulations. Qualitative interviews with patients and relatives of deceased patients will be conducted to capture circumstances surrounding events. This study assesses and tracks changes in opioid-related overdoses and poisoning events prior to and following the introduction of OxyContin® with abuse-deterrent properties. Public health significance is high because these medications are designed to reduce abuse-related behaviors that lead to important adverse outcomes, including overdoses and deaths.

Hydration, dehydration, and melting of metamorphosed granitic and dioritic rocks at high- and ultrahigh-pressure conditions

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Massonne, Hans-Joachim

2009-10-01

Phase relations of three common upper crustal rocks, quartz diorite, granite and evolved granite, with different water contents were studied by calculating P- T pseudosections with the computer program PERPLE_X for the range 0.5 to 4.5 GPa and 500 to 1250 °C. Of particular interest were the generation of fluids and the consumption of H 2O along various P- T paths typical for high-pressure and ultrahigh-pressure (UHP) metamorphism to better understand crustal rocks involved in deep-seated continent-continent collisional environments. The phase relations in all studied rock compositions are similar. Typically, jadeite/omphacite + phengite (Si apfu between 3.3 and 3.5) + garnet + coesite ± kyanite occur at UHP. At T < 700 °C, K-feldspar and lawsonite can also be present at "dry" and "wet" conditions, respectively. The exhumation of a lawsonite-absent UHP assemblage leads either to phengite-dehydration melting accompanied by garnet growth or, at slight cooling, to no dehydration whereas dehydration is typical for exhumation from depths corresponding to 1.5 GPa. These findings are applied to the UHP Sulu terrane in eastern China. The majority of gneisses of this terrane typically do not show garnet. It is assumed that these rocks are of low-pressure nature and would, thus, probably belong to the upper plate during Triassic continent-continent collision. The reported UHP gneisses occur locally, are associated with eclogites, experienced fluid infiltration at UHP, and were exhumed accompanied by slight cooling as no phengite-dehydration melting took place. These characteristics could point to metamorphism in a subduction channel.

Stress urinary incontinence in female neurological patients: long-term functional outcomes after artificial urinary sphincter (AMS 800TM ) implantation.

PubMed

Phé, Véronique; Léon, Priscilla; Granger, Benjamin; Denys, Pierre; Bitker, Marc-Olivier; Mozer, Pierre; Chartier-Kastler, Emmanuel

2017-03-01

To report the long-term functional outcomes of artificial urinary sphincter (AUS) implantation in female adult neurological patients suffering from stress urinary incontinence (SUI) due to sphincter deficiency. Female patients with neurological disease suffering from SUI due to sphincter deficiency who underwent AUS (AMS 800 TM ) implantation between 1984 and 2011 were included. Continence rate defined as no need for pads and survival rates of the device without needing explantation or revision using Kaplan-Meier curves were reported. Overall, 26 patients, median age 49.2 years (IQR 28.5-59.7) were included. The median follow-up time was 7.5 years (IQR 3.9-23.8). At the end of follow-up period, 15 patients (57.7%) still had their primary AUS. The AUS was explanted in five women because of infection or erosion. Survival rates, without AUS explantation were 90%, 84%, 84%, and 74% at 5, 10, 15, 20 years, respectively. Survival rates without AUS revision were 75%, 51%, 51%, and 51% at 5, 10, 15, 20 years, respectively. 71.4% of patients with AUS were continent. When considering the 26 initial patients, including the patients in whom the AUS was explanted, the continence rate was 57.7%. For treating neurogenic sphincter deficiency in the long term, the AMS 800 TM can offer a satisfying rate of continence to female patients, with a tolerable rate of explantation and revision. Neurourol. Urodynam. 36:764-769, 2017. © 2016 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. © 2016 Wiley Periodicals, Inc.

Interannual Weakening of the Tropical Pacific Walker Circulation Due to Strong Tropical Volcanism

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Miao, Jiapeng; Wang, Tao; Wang, Huijun; Sun, Jianqi

2018-06-01

In order to examine the response of the tropical Pacific Walker circulation (PWC) to strong tropical volcanic eruptions (SVEs), we analyzed a three-member long-term simulation performed with HadCM3, and carried out four additional CAM4 experiments. We found that the PWC shows a significant interannual weakening after SVEs. The cooling effect from SVEs is able to cool the entire tropics. However, cooling over the Maritime Continent is stronger than that over the central-eastern tropical Pacific. Thus, non-uniform zonal temperature anomalies can be seen following SVEs. As a result, the sea level pressure gradient between the tropical Pacific and the Maritime Continent is reduced, which weakens trade winds over the tropical Pacific. Therefore, the PWC is weakened during this period. At the same time, due to the cooling subtropical and midlatitude Pacific, the Intertropical Convergence Zone (ITCZ) and South Pacific convergence zone (SPCZ) are weakened and shift to the equator. These changes also contribute to the weakened PWC. Meanwhile, through the positive Bjerknes feedback, weakened trade winds cause El Niño-like SST anomalies over the tropical Pacific, which in turn further influence the PWC. Therefore, the PWC significantly weakens after SVEs. The CAM4 experiments further confirm the influences from surface cooling over the Maritime Continent and subtropical/midlatitude Pacific on the PWC. Moreover, they indicate that the stronger cooling over the Maritime Continent plays a dominant role in weakening the PWC after SVEs. In the observations, a weakened PWC and a related El Niño-like SST pattern can be found following SVEs.

Initial India-Asia Collision: Sedimentologic, Paleomagnetic and Paleontologic Evidence From the Ghazij Formation, Balochistan, Pakistan

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Clyde, W. C.; Khan, I. H.; Gingerich, P. D.

2003-12-01

Initial continental collision between India and Asia is thought to have caused significant changes to global climate and biota, yet its timing and biogeographic consequences are uncertain. Structural and geophysical evidence indicates initial collision during the early Paleogene, but sedimentary evidence of this has been controversial owing to the intense deformation and metamorphism along the suture zone. Modern orders of mammals that appeared abruptly on northern continents coincident with the global warming event marking the Paleocene-Eocene boundary are hypothesized to have originated on the Indian subcontinent, but no relevant paleontologic information has been available to test this idea. Here we present sedimentologic, paleomagnetic, and paleontologic results that show the lower Eocene Ghazij Formation of western Pakistan records continental sedimentation and mammalian dispersal associated with initial India-Asia collision. Sedimentologically, the Ghazij exhibits a clear transition from shallow-marine facies in the lower part, to paralic deltaic facies in the middle part, and continental fluvial facies in the upper part. Paleomagnetic data indicate that Ghazij deposition occurred just before a pronounced decrease in the sea-floor spreading rate of the Indian Ocean. Large fossil mammal assemblages show strong endemism in the middle part of the formation but increasing cosmopolitanism and affiliation with northern continents higher in the formation. Our results support the hypothesis that initial continent-continent contact occurred near the Paleocene-Eocene boundary along the northwest edge of the Indo-Pakistan plate and that subsequent closure occurred diachronously along the rest of the suture. However, it appears that during initial collision, modern orders of mammals dispersed into India rather than out of it.

Multiple Introductions and Recent Spread of the Emerging Human Pathogen Mycobacterium ulcerans across Africa

PubMed Central

Meehan, Conor J.; Eddyani, Miriam; Affolabi, Dissou; Phanzu, Delphin Mavinga; Eyangoh, Sara; Jordaens, Kurt; Portaels, Françoise; Mangas, Kirstie; Seemann, Torsten; Marsollier, Laurent; Marion, Estelle; Chauty, Annick; Landier, Jordi; Fontanet, Arnaud; Leirs, Herwig; Stinear, Timothy P.; de Jong, Bouke C.

2017-01-01

Buruli ulcer (BU) is an insidious neglected tropical disease. Cases are reported around the world but the rural regions of West and Central Africa are most affected. How BU is transmitted and spreads has remained a mystery, even though the causative agent, Mycobacterium ulcerans, has been known for more than 70 years. Here, using the tools of population genomics, we reconstruct the evolutionary history of M. ulcerans by comparing 165 isolates spanning 48 years and representing 11 endemic countries across Africa. The genetic diversity of African M. ulcerans was found to be restricted due to the bacterium’s slow substitution rate coupled with its relatively recent origin. We identified two specific M. ulcerans lineages within the African continent, and inferred that M. ulcerans lineage Mu_A1 existed in Africa for several hundreds of years, unlike lineage Mu_A2, which was introduced much more recently, approximately during the 19th century. Additionally, we observed that specific M. ulcerans epidemic Mu_A1 clones were introduced during the same time period in the three hydrological basins that were well covered in our panel. The estimated time span of the introduction events coincides with the Neo-imperialism period, during which time the European colonial powers divided the African continent among themselves. Using this temporal association, and in the absence of a known BU reservoir or—vector on the continent, we postulate that the so-called "Scramble for Africa" played a significant role in the spread of the disease across the continent. PMID:28137745

20th-Century Climate Change over Africa: Seasonal Variation in Hydroclimate Trends and Sahara Desert Extent

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Nigam, S.; Thomas, N. P.

2017-12-01

Twentieth-century trends in seasonal temperature and precipitation over the African continent are analyzed from observational data sets and historical climate simulations. Given the agricultural economy of the continent, a seasonal perspective is adopted as it is more pertinent than an annual-average one which can mask off-setting but agriculturally-sensitive seasonal hydroclimate variations. Examination of linear trends in seasonal surface air temperature (SAT) shows that heat stress has increased in several regions, including Sudan and Northern Africa where largest SAT trends occur in the warm season. Broadly speaking, the northern continent has warmed more than the southern one in all seasons. Precipitation trends are varied but notable declining trends are found in the countries along the Gulf of Guinea, especially in the source region of Niger river in West Africa, and in the Congo river basin. Rainfall over the African Great Lakes - one of the largest freshwater repositories - has however increased. We show that the Sahara Desert has expanded significantly over the 20th century - by 12-20% depending on the season. The desert expanded southward in summer, reflecting retreat of the northern edge of the Sahel rainfall belt; and to the north in winter, indicating potential impact of the widening of the Tropics. Specific mechanisms driving the expansion in each season are investigated. Finally, this observational analysis is used to evaluate the state-of-the-art climate models from a comparison of the 20th-century hydroclimate trends with those manifest in historical climate simulations. The evaluation shows that modeling regional hydroclimate change over the Africa continent remains challenging.

Central control of micturition in women: Brain-bladder pathways in continence and urgency urinary incontinence.

PubMed

Arya, Nisha G; Weissbart, Steven J

2017-04-01

Urinary incontinence disproportionately affects women. Anatomical textbooks typically describe continence mechanisms in women in the context of the pelvic floor support of the urinary bladder and the urethral sphincters. However, the urinary bladder and urethral sphincters are under the central control of the brain through a complex network of neurons that allow storage of urine followed by voiding when socially appropriate. Recent studies suggest that the most common type of urinary incontinence in women, urgency urinary incontinence, involves significant dysfunction of the central control of micturition. In this paper, we review the anatomy and functional connectivity of the nervous system structures involved in the control of micturition. Clinical application of this anatomy in the context of urgency urinary incontinence is also discussed. Understanding the anatomy of the neural structures that control continence will allow clinicians to better understand the underlying pathology of urge incontinence and consider new ways of treating this distressing condition. Clin. Anat. 30:373-384, 2017. © 2017 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. © 2017 Wiley Periodicals, Inc.

Web-based Teaching Radio Interferometer for Africa

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Carignan, Claude

2015-08-01

Practical training for the future use of the African VLBI Network (AVN) or any VLBI experiment starts by understanding the basic principles of radio observations and radio interferometry. The aim of this project is to build a basic interferometer that could be used remotely via a web interface from any country on the African continent. This should turn out as a much less expensive and much more efficient way to train AVN researchers from SKA partner countries to the principles of radio astronomy and to interferometric data analysis. The idea is based on the very successful EUHOU (European Hands-On Universe) already very successful in Europe. The former EUHOU manager, Dr Yannick Liebert, arrived for a 3 years postdoc with Prof Claude Carignan at the University of Cape Town to implement the same project on the African continent (AHI: African Hands-on Interferometry). Besides the use of AHI for the AVN researchers, this web-based system could be used be any undergraduate program on radio astronomical techniques across the African continent as the EUHOU is used all across Europe.

Continent-wide survey reveals massive decline in African savannah elephants

PubMed Central

Schlossberg, Scott; Griffin, Curtice R.; Bouché, Philippe J.C.; Djene, Sintayehu W.; Elkan, Paul W.; Ferreira, Sam; Grossman, Falk; Kohi, Edward Mtarima; Landen, Kelly; Omondi, Patrick; Peltier, Alexis; Selier, S.A. Jeanetta; Sutcliffe, Robert

2016-01-01

African elephants (Loxodonta africana) are imperiled by poaching and habitat loss. Despite global attention to the plight of elephants, their population sizes and trends are uncertain or unknown over much of Africa. To conserve this iconic species, conservationists need timely, accurate data on elephant populations. Here, we report the results of the Great Elephant Census (GEC), the first continent-wide, standardized survey of African savannah elephants. We also provide the first quantitative model of elephant population trends across Africa. We estimated a population of 352,271 savannah elephants on study sites in 18 countries, representing approximately 93% of all savannah elephants in those countries. Elephant populations in survey areas with historical data decreased by an estimated 144,000 from 2007 to 2014, and populations are currently shrinking by 8% per year continent-wide, primarily due to poaching. Though 84% of elephants occurred in protected areas, many protected areas had carcass ratios that indicated high levels of elephant mortality. Results of the GEC show the necessity of action to end the African elephants’ downward trajectory by preventing poaching and protecting habitat. PMID:27635327

A urinary incontinence continuing education online course for community health nurses in South Korea.

PubMed

De Gagne, Jennie C; Park, Sunah; So, Aeyoung; Wu, Bei; Palmer, Mary H; McConnell, Eleanor S

2015-04-01

Although urinary incontinence is prevalent among older women living in rural Korea, a lack of awareness and education exists in this population and among health professionals. Geographic isolation and limited resources also contribute to having few educational offerings for rural nurses. The authors' aim was to develop an online continuing education course on continence care for community health nurses and to examine its effectiveness. A one-group, pretest-posttest design was used to detect changes in knowledge and attitudes after taking the online education course. Participant satisfaction was also measured at the end of the training. A significant improvement in knowledge and attitudes toward continence care was noted. More than 95% of participants responded that they would recommend the online program to other health care providers and indicated the program would be helpful regarding continence care in their practice. The continuing education online course is a feasible strategy to support rural community health nurses' learning to improve knowledge and attitudes toward urinary incontinence management and care. Copyright 2015, SLACK Incorporated.

Improvement of continence rate with pelvic floor muscle training post-prostatectomy: a meta-analysis of randomized controlled trials.

PubMed

Fernández, Rubén Arroyo; García-Hermoso, Antonio; Solera-Martínez, Montserrat; Correa, Ma Teresa Martín; Morales, Asunción Ferri; Martínez-Vizcaíno, Vicente

2015-01-01

The aim of this meta-analysis was to evaluate the evidence of the effect of pelvic floor muscle training on urinary incontinence after radical prostatectomy. A bibliographic search was conducted in four databases. Studies were grouped according to the intervention program(muscle training versus control and individual home-based versus physiotherapist-guided muscle training). Eight studies were selected for meta-analysis after satisfying the selection criteria. The data show that pelvic floor muscle training improves continence rate in the short (RR=2.16; p<0.001), medium (RR=1.45; p=0.001) and long term (RR=1.23; p=0.019) after surgery. The number of randomized controlled trials and the heterogeneity in the study population and type of pelvic floor muscle training were the main limitations. Programs including at least three sets of 10 repetitions of muscle training daily appear to improve continence rate after radical prostatectomy. Our meta-analysis shows that muscle training programs for urinary incontinence provide similar results to those of physiotherapist-guided programs, therefore being more cost-effective. © 2014 S. Karger AG, Basel.

Continent-wide survey reveals massive decline in African savannah elephants.

PubMed

Chase, Michael J; Schlossberg, Scott; Griffin, Curtice R; Bouché, Philippe J C; Djene, Sintayehu W; Elkan, Paul W; Ferreira, Sam; Grossman, Falk; Kohi, Edward Mtarima; Landen, Kelly; Omondi, Patrick; Peltier, Alexis; Selier, S A Jeanetta; Sutcliffe, Robert

2016-01-01

African elephants (Loxodonta africana) are imperiled by poaching and habitat loss. Despite global attention to the plight of elephants, their population sizes and trends are uncertain or unknown over much of Africa. To conserve this iconic species, conservationists need timely, accurate data on elephant populations. Here, we report the results of the Great Elephant Census (GEC), the first continent-wide, standardized survey of African savannah elephants. We also provide the first quantitative model of elephant population trends across Africa. We estimated a population of 352,271 savannah elephants on study sites in 18 countries, representing approximately 93% of all savannah elephants in those countries. Elephant populations in survey areas with historical data decreased by an estimated 144,000 from 2007 to 2014, and populations are currently shrinking by 8% per year continent-wide, primarily due to poaching. Though 84% of elephants occurred in protected areas, many protected areas had carcass ratios that indicated high levels of elephant mortality. Results of the GEC show the necessity of action to end the African elephants' downward trajectory by preventing poaching and protecting habitat.

The use of colonic irrigation to control fecal incontinence in dogs with colostomies.

PubMed

Williams, F A; Bright, R M; Daniel, G B; Hahn, K A; Patton, S A

1999-01-01

To determine if once-daily colonic irrigation results in fecal continence for a 24-hour period in dogs with colostomies and if colonic volume increased in response to the irrigation. A prospective controlled experimental study. Four intact male and one intact female mixed breed dogs. All dogs received left end-on paralumbar colostomies. Four dogs received once-daily colonic irrigation for 8 weeks, whereas the control dog did not. Daily fecal weights were recorded for the length of the study in all dogs. Barium enema studies and volumetric studies were used to determine colonic volumes. Daily fecal weights were significantly decreased in treatment dogs compared with the control dog. Colonic volume increased in irrigated dogs in response to daily irrigation over the 8 week period of the study. Colonic irrigation resulted in significantly decreased fecal production over a 24-hour period. Therefore management of dogs with colostomies would be more practical and cost effective. It did not result in complete fecal continence in this study. Further clinical studies are indicated to determine if longer periods of irrigation would result in complete continence.

The Influence of a Substellar Continent on the Climate of a Tidally Locked Exoplanet

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Lewis, Neil T.; Lambert, F. Hugo; Boutle, Ian A.; Mayne, Nathan J.; Manners, James; Acreman, David M.

2018-02-01

Previous studies have demonstrated that continental carbon-silicate weathering is important to the continued habitability of a terrestrial planet. Despite this, few studies have considered the influence of land on the climate of a tidally locked planet. In this work we use the Met Office Unified Model, coupled to a land-surface model, to investigate the climate effects of a continent located at the substellar point. We choose to use the orbital and planetary parameters of Proxima Centauri B as a template, to allow comparison with the work of others. A region of the surface where T s > 273.15 K is always retained, and previous conclusions on the habitability of Proxima Centauri B remain intact. We find that substellar land causes global cooling and increases day–night temperature contrasts by limiting heat redistribution. Furthermore, we find that substellar land is able to introduce a regime change in the atmospheric circulation. Specifically, when a continent offset to the east of the substellar point is introduced, we observe the formation of two mid-latitude counterrotating jets, and a substantially weakened equatorial superrotating jet.

[Functional anatomy of the male continence mechanism].

PubMed

Schwalenberg, T; Neuhaus, J; Dartsch, M; Weissenfels, P; Löffler, S; Stolzenburg, J-U

2010-04-01

The basic structures and organs contributing to continence in men are far less well investigated than in women. This concerns anatomical and functional aspects as well. Especially the cooperation of single components and the dynamic anchoring in the pelvic floor require further investigation. An improved anatomical-functional interpretation is needed to generate therapeutic concepts orientated at the physiology of the bladder neck.Therefore, the focus of anatomical investigations should be on the external sphincter which is the main muscle responsible for urethral closure as well as on the connective tissue, smooth muscular and neuronal structures in the pelvis. The smooth muscular structures involved are the internal sphincter, the inner parts of the external sphincter, the urethral longitudinal musculature, and parts of the centrum perinei and of the ventral suspension apparatus which fixes the position of the bladder neck and seems to be vital for continence and initiation of micturition. These new findings imply an integral concept for men as was developed for women. A first step in this regard would be a consistent and updated anatomical nomenclature.

[Stress urinary incontinence after radical cystectomy: neobladder construction and placement of the functional retrourethral sling].

PubMed

Mayer, M; Bauer, R M; Walther, S; Becker, A J; Stief, C G; Bastian, P J; Gozzi, C

2009-06-01

Stress urinary incontinence (SUI) following radical cystectomy and orthotopic ileal neobladder construction represents a challenging problem. The incidence of incontinence following this surgery is reported to be 30-60% and is - despite a better understanding of the male (and female) pelvic anatomy - still regarded as an adverse outcome of this surgery.Therapeutic options have been limited up until now and include pharmacological agents, surgical treatment and pelvic floor training with only moderate amelioration of the symptoms and often unacceptable side effects. Nevertheless, urinary continence is probably the most important key to patient satisfaction. Here we introduce the perineal approach of the functional retrourethral mesh as a new and innovative sling suspension based on a non-obstructive procedure in a patient with urinary stress incontinence after ileal neobladder. The sling adjusts the changed anatomy after radical cystectomy returning it to the former preoperative position and thus continence can be achieved again. The approach of the sling in a patient with ileal neobladder is safe and the good result concerning continence is promising.

Large allele frequency differences between human continental groups are more likely to have occurred by drift during range expansions than by selection.

PubMed

Hofer, T; Ray, N; Wegmann, D; Excoffier, L

2009-01-01

Several studies have found strikingly different allele frequencies between continents. This has been mainly interpreted as being due to local adaptation. However, demographic factors can generate similar patterns. Namely, allelic surfing during a population range expansion may increase the frequency of alleles in newly colonised areas. In this study, we examined 772 STRs, 210 diallelic indels, and 2834 SNPs typed in 53 human populations worldwide under the HGDP-CEPH Diversity Panel to determine to which extent allele frequency differs among four regions (Africa, Eurasia, East Asia, and America). We find that large allele frequency differences between continents are surprisingly common, and that Africa and America show the largest number of loci with extreme frequency differences. Moreover, more STR alleles have increased rather than decreased in frequency outside Africa, as expected under allelic surfing. Finally, there is no relationship between the extent of allele frequency differences and proximity to genes, as would be expected under selection. We therefore conclude that most of the observed large allele frequency differences between continents result from demography rather than from positive selection.

Late recurrent urothelial carcinoma in the Studer neobladder: conversion to continent reservoir

PubMed Central

Kotb, AF; Alkosiry, M; AbdElkawy, N; Atta, MA

2012-01-01

Bladder cancer represents a considerable issue in Egypt and the Middle East. Radical cystectomy and orthotopic neobladder represent the standard of care for managing cases with invasive bladder tumour. There are few cases reported in the literature considering the urothelial recurrence in the urethra, connected to neobladder. We are presenting a rare case of a young female patient, with an aggressive urothelial tumour, recurring 13-year post-radical cystectomy, and the Studer neobladder. Our case was managed by urethrectomy and conversion of the neobladder into continent reservoir, with good short-term oncological and functional outcomes. We can conclude that bladder cancer cases should be followed thoroughly throughout their life. Follow-up urethroscopy and cytology should be done for all cases of post-radical cystectomy, regardless of patients’ symptoms. Key message Late urothelial recurrence of post-radical cystectomy is possible and, in our case, happened 13 years following surgery. The Studer neobladder can be safely converted into continent reservoir, allowing good functional outcomes. Also, recurrence in the Studer neobladder can be safely managed, allowing good oncological outcomes, without the need for any ureteroileal interventions. PMID:22973413

Continents as lithological icebergs: The importance of buoyant lithospheric roots

USGS Publications Warehouse

Abbott, D.H.; Drury, R.; Mooney, W.D.

1997-01-01

An understanding of the formation of new continental crust provides an important guide to locating the oldest terrestrial rocks and minerals. We evaluated the crustal thicknesses of the thinnest stable continental crust and of an unsubductable oceanic plateau and used the resulting data to estimate the amount of mantle melting which produces permanent continental crust. The lithospheric mantle is sufficiently depleted to produce permanent buoyancy (i.e., the crust is unsubductable) at crustal thicknesses greater than 25-27 km. These unsubductable oceanic plateaus and hotspot island chains are important sources of new continental crust. The newest continental crust (e.g., the Ontong Java plateau) has a basaltic composition, not a granitic one. The observed structure and geochemistry of continents are the result of convergent margin magmatism and metamorphism which modify the nascent basaltic crust into a lowermost basaltic layer overlain by a more silicic upper crust. The definition of a continent should imply only that the lithosphere is unsubductable over ??? 0.25 Ga time periods. Therefore, the search for the oldest crustal rocks should include rocks from lower to mid-crustal levels.

Amasia and Supercontinent Formation by Orthoversion

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Mitchell, R. N.; Evans, D. A.; Kilian, T. M.

2015-12-01

Traditional models of the supercontinent cycle predict that the next supercontinent—'Amasia'—will form either where Pangaea rifted (the 'introversion' model) or on the opposite side of the world (the 'extroversion' models). In contrast, a new model termed "orthoversion", predicts a new supercontinent will form 90° away from the previous one, somewhere along the subduction girdle encircling its predecessor. As continents are expected to aggregate over mantle convective downwellings, orthoversion predicts that a continent central to the assembling supercontinent would plot 90° away from the center of the dispersing continent. Supercontinent centers can be quantified by identifying the long-lived axis of oscillatory true polar wander associated with each supercontinent cycle; measuring the angle between two successive true polar wander axes allows one to test between the various models (0˚, 90˚, or 180˚) of supercontinent formation. The past three supercontinents (Pangea, Rodinia, and Nuna) appear to follow the 90° "orthoversion" model closely. Orthoversion predicts that Amasia will take form ~100 million years from now over the North Pole by closing the Caribbean and Artic oceans which are located in Pangea's subduction girdle.

International Continence Society guidelines on urodynamic equipment performance.

PubMed

Gammie, Andrew; Clarkson, Becky; Constantinou, Chris; Damaser, Margot; Drinnan, Michael; Geleijnse, Geert; Griffiths, Derek; Rosier, Peter; Schäfer, Werner; Van Mastrigt, Ron

2014-04-01

These guidelines provide benchmarks for the performance of urodynamic equipment, and have been developed by the International Continence Society to assist purchasing decisions, design requirements, and performance checks. The guidelines suggest ranges of specification for uroflowmetry, volume, pressure, and EMG measurement, along with recommendations for user interfaces and performance tests. Factors affecting measurement relating to the different technologies used are also described. Summary tables of essential and desirable features are included for ease of reference. It is emphasized that these guidelines can only contribute to good urodynamics if equipment is used properly, in accordance with good practice. © 2014 Wiley Periodicals, Inc.

Spatial reconstruction of semi-quantitative precipitation fields over Africa during the nineteenth century from documentary evidence and gauge data

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Nicholson, Sharon E.; Klotter, Douglas; Dezfuli, Amin K.

2012-07-01

The article presents a newly created precipitation data set for the African continent and describes the methodology used in its creation. It is based on a combination of proxy data and rain gauge records. The data set is semi-quantitative, with a "wetness" index of - 3 to + 3 to describe the quality of the rainy season. It covers the period AD 1801 to 1900 and includes data for 90 geographical regions of the continent. The results underscore a multi-decadal period of aridity early in the nineteenth century.

Promoting Simulation Globally: Networking with Nursing Colleagues Across Five Continents.

PubMed

Alfes, Celeste M; Madigan, Elizabeth A

Simulation education is gaining momentum internationally and may provide the opportunity to enhance clinical education while disseminating evidence-based practice standards for clinical simulation and learning. There is a need to develop a cohesive leadership group that fosters support, networking, and sharing of simulation resources globally. The Frances Payne Bolton School of Nursing at Case Western Reserve University has had the unique opportunity to establish academic exchange programs with schools of nursing across five continents. Although the joint and mutual simulation activities have been extensive, each international collaboration has also provided insight into the innovations developed by global partners.

ARC-1990-AC91-2006

NASA Image and Video Library

1990-12-08

This color picture of Antarctica is one part of a mosaic of pictures covering the entire polar continent taken during the hours following Galileo's historic first encounter with its home planet. The view shows the Ross Ice Shelf to the right and its border with the sea. An occasional mountain can be seen poking through the ice near the McMurdo Station. It is late spring in Antarctica, so the sun never sets on the frigid, icy continent. This picture was taken about 6:20 pm PST. From top to bottom, the frame looks across about half of Antarctica.

The Promotion and Marketing of OxyContin: Commercial Triumph, Public Health Tragedy

PubMed Central

2009-01-01

I focus on issues surrounding the promotion and marketing of controlled drugs and their regulatory oversight. Compared with noncontrolled drugs, controlled drugs, with their potential for abuse and diversion, pose different public health risks when they are overpromoted and highly prescribed. An in-depth analysis of the promotion and marketing of OxyContin illustrates some of the associated issues. Modifications of the promotion and marketing of controlled drugs by the pharmaceutical industry and an enhanced capacity of the Food and Drug Administration to regulate and monitor such promotion can have a positive impact on the public health. PMID:18799767

Antarctica: Chile’s Claim,

DTIC Science & Technology

1987-01-01

0D-4187 935 AN DKT4S /W a UNCLASSIFID F/C 5/4 II. 40~L 4 4i iii~ 1L3.2 k ~ a )CP EO TO ES HR j It FILE COPY This dom~ment has bucprv for aalcZIQse...National Defense University Fort Lesley J . McNair Washington, DC 20319-6000 Tais documenthais ben aproyfr public release and moiq St i"jbutjon js...Geographic~~~ fetso Atrtc I N 1. The Antarctic Continent T HE ANTARCTIC CONTINENT TODAY is an object of concern. And in the coming decade, it will oc

MAGSAT and aeromagnetic data in the North American continent

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

1981-01-01

Problems were encountered in deriving a proper reference field to be subtracted from the aeromagnetic data obtained from Project MAGNET. Field models tried thus far do not seem to eliminate properly the main field. The MAGSAT data in the North American continent for the period November 1 to December 22, 1979 are being compiled and compared with MAGNET data. Efforts are being made to eliminate the orbital bias errors. A computer program was developed and successfully tested which computes a topographic profile of the Curie depth isotherm which fits best to the observed vector or scalar field magnetic data.

Continent-continent collision in southern Alps studied

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Henyey, T.; Stern, T.; Molnar, P.

Developing a scientific plan for geophysical study of the Southern Alps, New Zealand, was the focus of a workshop convened from April 5 to 10 at Victoria University in Wellington, New Zealand. The study is a cooperative effort between U.S. and New Zealand scientists. The workshop was convened by F. Davey, Institute for Geological and Nuclear Sciences, Wellington, New Zealand; T. Stern, Victoria University, Wellington; and T. Henyey and D. Okaya, University of Southern California, Los Angeles. It was sponsored by the National Science Foundation Continental Dynamics Program with assistance from the New Zealand Institute of Geological and Nuclear Sciences and Victoria University.

[Book review] The geochronology and evolution of Africa

USGS Publications Warehouse

Wilson, Frederic H.

1987-01-01

This book was written 'to provide an up-to-date data bank from which those wishing to construct models concerned with the evolution of Africa .... can draw.' As such, it attempts a survey of 'integrated geology and geochronology' of the African continent throughout the Precambrian and into the Phanerozoic. Political and language divisions often hinder the synthesis of continent-wide data, therefore, this well-indexed inventory of selected data and synthesis of present geochronological knowledge for Africa as a whole provides an important reference for researchers and explorationists, many of whom have limited access to complete collections of the geological literature of Africa.

Seismotectonic features of the African plate: the possible dislocation of a continent

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Meghraoui, Mustapha

2014-05-01

The African continent is made of seismically active structures with active deformation in between main substratum shields considered as stable continental interiors. Seismically active regions are primarily located along rift zones, thrust and fold mountain belts, transform faults and volcanic fields. The active tectonic structures generated large and destructive earthquakes in the past with significant damage and economic losses in Africa. Although some regions of the continent show a low-level of seismic activity, several large earthquakes (with M > 7) have occurred in the past. The presence of major active faults that generate destructive earthquakes is among the most important geological and geophysical hazards for the continent. National and International scientific projects dealing with the seismic hazards assessment are increasing in seismically active regions in Africa. The UNESCO-SIDA/IGCP (Project 601 http://eost.u-strasbg.fr/~igcp601/) support the preparation and implementation of the "Seismotectonic Map of Africa". Therefore, new seismotectonic data with the regional analysis of earthquake hazards became necessary as a basis for a mitigation of the earthquake damage. A database in historical and instrumental seismicity, active tectonics, stress tensor distribution, earthquake geology and paleoseismology, active deformation, earthquake geodesy (GPS) and gravity, crustal structure studies, magnetic and structural segmentation, volcanic fields, collision tectonics and rifting processes is prepared to constrain the geodynamic evolution of the continent. Taking into account the geological, tectonic and geophysical characteristics, we define six seismotectonic provinces that characterize the crustal deformation. With the previously identified Somalia tectonic block, the seismotectonic and geophysical framework of the continent reveal the existence of the Cameroon volcanic line, the South African tectonic block with transform faulting and Cape folding system, the Libyan rifting and Maghreb thrusting. Although bearing a relatively slow deformation with regards to the East Africa Rift System, the Nubia plate previously considered as a homogeneous tectonic block appears to be dislocating progressively also forming a system of microplates. A synthesis of earthquake studies and regional deformation exposed in a seismotectonic map hitherto serves as a basis for the seismic hazard evaluations and the reduction of seismic risks. * IGCP/SIDA: International Geoscience Program/Swedish International Cooperation Authority http://www.unesco.org/science/IGCP IGCP-601 Working Group: Paulina Amponsah (Ghana Atomic Energy Commission), Atalay Ayele (Addis Ababa University, Ethiopia), Bekoa Ateba (Inst. of Geol. and Min. Res., Buea, Cameroon), Abdelhakim Ayadi (CRAAG, Algeria), Abdunnur Bensuleman (University of Tripoli, Libya), Damien Delvaux (Royal Museum for Central Africa, Tervuren, Belgium), Mohamed El Gabry (National Research Institute of Geophysics, Cairo, Egypt), Rui-Manuel Fernandes (Universidade da Beira Interior, Portugal), Mustapha Meghraoui (IPG Strasbourg, France), Vunganai Midzi & Magda Roos (Council for Geoscience, Pretoria, South Africa), and Youssef Timoulali (CNRST, Rabat, Morocco).

Imaging the subsurface of Taiwan using ambient noise tomography and full waveform inversion

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Rodzianko, Anastasia

Arc-continent collision is a process that over millions of years built most of the existing continents. Continental crust is thought to remain on the surface during these plate interactions, and its mass loss is accounted for by shortening. Remnants and clues about the mechanics of this process are available on the surface of Earth, but to understand the mechanics one must probe the subsurface of modern day arc-continent collisions. Taiwan is such an example: it is the result of a complex, actively deforming tectonic boundary between the Eurasian and Philippine Sea plates. This seismically active location provides an excellent venue for seismically imaging processes related to arc-continent collision, which is what the TAIGER (TAiwan Integrated GEodynamics Research) project was created to accomplish. In this thesis, data collected by the TAIGER deployment, supplemented by observations from the permanent BATS (Broadband Array in Taiwan for Seismology) network, is used to create a 3D elastic wave velocity model of the crust and upper mantle beneath Taiwan. This model addresses an outstanding question about arc-continent interactions using the tectonic structure of Taiwan: do arc-continent collisions involve the consumption of continental crust? Ambient noise tomography techniques create a 3D Vs model by using continuous ambient noise, which is whitened and cross-correlated between stations to construct empirical Green's functions of Rayleigh waves. The correlations are graded by the signal to noise ratio prior to recovering group and phase velocities of the fundamental mode for periods between 6 and 30 seconds. The results are combined to generate a 3D Vs model from which a Vp model is calculated using a constant Vp/Vs ratio of 1.7. This model, combined with the arrival time model of Kuo-Chen et al. (2012), is used as a starting model for full waveform inversion of teleseismic body and surface waves using the 2.5D technique of Roecker et al. (2010). The results of this study show strong evidence for continental subduction in the southern part of the island. Throughout the entire island, lower shear wave speeds indicate that the crust thickens below the Coastal Mountain Range, forming a root up to ~50 km depth and extending to 90 km depth in the southern part of the island. The west half of the island is generally characterized by a thinner crust and the slowest shear wave speeds in the model. Continental subduction is not inferred from the resulting model of the northern part of the island, where the crustal root is ~60km deep; however, some low-velocity mantle structures are present.

The Antarctic Ice Sheet, Sea Ice, and the Ozone Hole: Satellite Observations of how they are Changing

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Parkinson, Claire L.

2012-01-01

Antarctica is the Earth's coldest and highest continent and has major impacts on the climate and life of the south polar vicinity. It is covered almost entirely by the Earth's largest ice sheet by far, with a volume of ice so great that if all the Antarctic ice were to go into the ocean (as ice or liquid water), this would produce a global sea level rise of about 60 meters (197 feet). The continent is surrounded by sea ice that in the wintertime is even more expansive than the continent itself and in the summertime reduces to only about a sixth of its wintertime extent. Like the continent, the expansive sea ice cover has major impacts, reflecting the sun's radiation back to space, blocking exchanges between the ocean and the atmosphere, and providing a platform for some animal species while impeding other species. Far above the continent, the Antarctic ozone hole is a major atmospheric phenomenon recognized as human-caused and potentially quite serious to many different life forms. Satellites are providing us with remarkable information about the ice sheet, the sea ice, and the ozone hole. Satellite visible and radar imagery are providing views of the large scale structure of the ice sheet never seen before; satellite laser altimetry has produced detailed maps of the topography of the ice sheet; and an innovative gravity-measuring two-part satellite has allowed mapping of regions of mass loss and mass gain on the ice sheet. The surrounding sea ice cover has a satellite record that goes back to the 1970s, allowing trend studies that show a decreasing sea ice presence in the region of the Bellingshausen and Amundsen seas, to the west of the prominent Antarctic Peninsula, but increasing sea ice presence around much of the rest of the continent. Overall, sea ice extent around Antarctica has increased at an average rate of about 17,000 square kilometers per year since the late 1970s, as determined from satellite microwave data that can be collected under both light and dark conditions and irrespective of whether clouds are in the way between the surface and the satellite. In contrast, the highest quality satellite measurements of the ozone hole use ultraviolet light, which requires daylight conditions. Still, satellite ultraviolet measurements of the ozone hole have also been made since the late 1970s, and these show a marked increase in the area and depth of the ozone hole in the 1980s and early 1990s, followed by a welcome leveling off of both measures since the mid-1990s.

PP-4 ANORECTAL MALFORMATIONS: MOTILITY STUDIES AND RESPONSE TO BIOFEEDBACK THERAPY.

PubMed

Bigliardi, Roman N; Ditaranto, A; Reynoso, R; Vidal, J H; Messere, G; Toca, M; Silvestri, G; Ortiz, G; Noriega, S; Varela, A

2015-10-01

Anorectal malformations (ARM) are infrequent anatomic defects with a prevalence of 1 each 5000 alive newborns. Most of the patients repaired of this illness have some degree of constipation or fecal incontinence. There are few reports about manometric studies and biofeedback treatment in patients with anorectal malformations. To evaluate of our population's anorectal functionality late after surgery by anorectal manometry; To study the response to diet, toilet training, and/or biofeedback. Anorectal manometry was done in 39 patients with ARM and 35 of them received combinated treatment of diet, toilet training and biofeedback. Age: 6 to 17 years old. Mean age: 8.05 years. Descriptive study. From april 2004 to april 2015. 14 patients had high malformations(36%), 18 had low malformations(46%) and 7 had cloaca(18%). children over 6 years of age with anorectal malformation operated using Peña's technique (postsagittal anorectoplasty). patients with neurological disorders that do not non-compliant with study and treatment indications. Average resting pressure was 28 mmHg(High level 25,5 and Low level 29,8 mmHg), range between 7 and 51 mmHg. Squeezing pressure between 29 and 120 mmHg(mean:69mmHg). Combined treatment of diet, toilet training, and biofeedback was succesfull to get total continence in 22 patients (4 cloacas, 10 high malformations and 8 low malformations), partial continence in 6(all low) and without response in 3(1 low, 1 high and 1 cloaca); 2 patients archived continence only with toilet training and 2 were lost in follow up(T.Fisher: 0,1). In high ARM 8 had positive(+) rectoanal inhibitory reflex(RAIR) and 6 negative(¬). In cloacas it was (+) in 3, (¬) in 3 and doubtful in 1. In low ARM 15(+), 2 (¬) and 1 doubtful. Reflex was obtained with 20 to 60cc of air(mean 31,36). The RRAI duration was 10 to 17 seconds(mean: 13 seconds).From 22 total continent, RAIR was (+) in 13, (¬) in 7 and hazardous in 2. All 6 partially continent had (+) RAIR; and from 3 incontinent, 2 had (+) RAIR and 1 (¬). From succesfully treated, 10 showed low resting pressures at the anal channel and 12 had normal pressures. Squeezing pressure was normal in 35 and negative in 4. 1) RAIR was (+) in most of low malformations, while in high and cloacas only nearly half of them were (+). 2) RAIR and resting pressures at the anal channel were not useful to predict treatment success. 3) Malformation Height was not significant to determine patients outcome. 4) Combined dietary, toilet training and biofeedback therapy was effective for achievement of fecal continence in most of our population.

Geoethical approach to mineral activities in Antarctica

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Talalay, Pavel

2013-04-01

Antarctica is the outermost from civilization space continent. From 14.0 million km2 of surface area about 98% of Antarctica is covered by ice that averages at least 1.6 km in thickness. Geologically, the continent is the least explored in the world, and it is almost absolutely unknown what mineral resources Antarctica has as they are buried in rock that is covered by a thick ice sheet. It is thought to have large and valuable mineral deposits under the ice. This is because of what has been found in samples taken from the small areas of rock that are exposed, and also from what has been found in South Africa and South America. Up until 180 million years ago, Antarctica was a part of the Gondwanaland super continent, attached to South America, the Southern part of Africa, India and Australia, these continents then drifted apart until they reached their current positions. This leads to a possibility that Antarctica may also share some of the mineral wealth of these continents. Right now on the ice-free areas of Antarctica iron ore, chromium, copper, gold, nickel, platinum, coal and hydrocarbons have been found. The Protocol on Environmental Protection to the Antarctic Treaty, also known as the Madrid Protocol, was signed in 1991 by the signatories to the Antarctic Treaty and became law in January 1998. The Protocol provides for comprehensive protection of the Antarctic environment and associated ecosystems and includes a ban on all commercial mining for at least fifty years (this is up for review in 2041). Current climate change and melting ice in Polar Regions is opening up new opportunities to exploit mineral and oil resources. Even Antarctica's weather, ice and distance from any industrialized areas mean that mineral extraction would be extremely expensive and also extremely dangerous, the depletion of mineral recourses on the Earth can reverse banning of mining in Antarctica in future. There is no question that any resource exploitation in Antarctica will cause severe not only permanent, local impact on the environment, but also will have implications for other Earth's systems as a whole. Mineral prospecting and exploration in Antarctica need to be reflected and respected in any concept of environmental sustainability. Anyway, first stage of the geological surveying should be carried purely scientific and not designed to explore for and identify mineral deposits. It's obvious that although various countries claim sovereignty in certain regions of Antarctica, the continent should be continued to be politically neutral. Efforts of scientists and politicians should respect their own responsibility for the protection of the fragile Antarctic environment and of our planet in the whole taking care for future generations.

The tropical rain belts with an annual cycle and a continent model intercomparison project: TRACMIP

DOE PAGES

Voigt, Aiko; Biasutti, Michela; Scheff, Jacob; ...

2016-11-16

This paper introduces the Tropical Rain belts with an Annual cycle and a Continent Model Intercomparison Project (TRACMIP). TRACMIP studies the dynamics of tropical rain belts and their response to past and future radiative forcings through simulations with 13 comprehensive and one simplified atmosphere models coupled to a slab ocean and driven by seasonally-varying insolation. Five idealized experiments, two with an aquaplanet setup and three with a setup with an idealized tropical continent, fill the space between prescribed-SST aquaplanet simulations and realistic simulations provided by CMIP5/6. The simulations reproduce key features of the present-day climate and expected future climate change,more » including an annual-mean intertropical convergence zone (ITCZ) that is located north of the equator and Hadley cells and eddy-driven jets that are similar to the present-day climate. Quadrupling CO 2 leads to a northward ITCZ shift and preferential warming in Northern high-latitudes. The simulations show interesting CO 2-induced changes in the seasonal excursion of the ITCZ and indicate a possible state-dependence of climate sensitivity. The inclusion of an idealized continent modulates both the control climate and the response to increased CO 2; for example it reduces the northward ITCZ shift associated with warming and, in some models, climate sensitivity. In response to eccentricity-driven seasonal insolation changes, seasonal changes in oceanic rainfall are best characterized as a meridional dipole, while seasonal continental rainfall changes tend to be symmetric about the equator. Finally, this survey illustrates TRACMIP’s potential to engender a deeper understanding of global and regional climate phenomena and to address pressing questions on past and future climate change.« less

Mantle flow and deforming continents, insights from the Tethys realm

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Jolivet, Laurent; Faccenna, Claudio; Becker, Thorsten; Tesauro, Magdala

2017-04-01

Continent deformation is partly a consequence of plate motion along plate boundaries. Whether underlying asthenospheric flow can also deform continents through basal shear or push on topographic irregularities of the base of the lithosphere is an open question. Eurasia has been extending at different scales since 50 Ma, from the Mediterranean back-arc domains to extension of Asia between the India-Asia collision zone and the Pacific subduction zones. While compression at plate margins, in subduction or collision zones can propagate far within continents, the mechanism explaining extension distributed over thousands of kilometres is unclear. We use trajectories of continental plates and continental fragments since 50 Ma in different kinematic frames and compare them with various proxies of asthenospheric flow such as seismic anisotropy at various depths. These trajectories partly fit sub-lithospheric seismic anisotropy with two main circulations, one carrying Africa and Eurasia away from the large low velocity anomaly (LLSVP) underlying South and West Africa and one carrying the Pacific plate away from the LLSVP underlying the southern Pacific. Under eastern Eurasia the flow converges with the Pacific flow and distributed extension affects eastern Asia all the way to Western Pacific back-arc basins. We speculate that the flow carrying India northward and Eurasia eastward has invaded the Pacific domain and caused this widely distributed extension that interferes with the strike-slip faults issued from the Himalaya-Tibet collision zone. This model is in line with earlier propositions based on geochemical proxies. We discuss this model and compare it to other widely distributed extensional deformation episodes such as the Early Cretaceous extension of Africa and lastly propose a scheme of large-scale continental deformation in relation to underlying mantle convection at different scales.

Mantle flow and deforming continents, the Tethys realm

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Jolivet, L.; Faccenna, C.; Becker, T. W.

2016-12-01

Continent deformation is partly a consequence of plate motion along plate boundaries. Whether underlying asthenospheric flow can also deform continents through basal shear or push on topographic irregularities of the base of the lithosphere is an open question. Eurasia has been extending at different scales since 50 Ma, from the Mediterranean back-arc domains to extension of Asia between the India-Asia collision zone and the Pacific subduction zones. While compression at plate margins, in subduction or collision zones can propagate far within continents, the mechanism explaining extension distributed over thousands of kilometres is unclear. We use trajectories of continental plates and continental fragments since 50 Myrs in different kinematic frames and compare them with various proxies of asthenospheric flow such as seismic anisotropy at various depths. These trajectories partly fit sub-lithospheric seismic anisotropy with two main circulations, one carrying Africa and Eurasia away from the large low velocity anomaly (LLSVP) underlying South and West Africa and one carrying the Pacific plate away from the LLSVP underlying the southern Pacific. Under eastern Eurasia the flow converges with the Pacific flow and distributed extension affects eastern Asia all the way to Western Pacific back-arc basins. We speculate that the flow carrying India northward and Eurasia eastward has invaded the Pacific domain and caused this widely distributed extension that interferes with the strike-slip faults issued from the Himalaya-Tibet collision zone. This model is in line with earlier propositions based on geochemical proxies. We discuss this model and compare it to other widely distributed extensional deformation episodes such as the Early Cretaceous extension of Africa and finally propose a scheme of large-scale continental deformation in relation to underlying mantle convection at different scales.

Environmental contamination in Antarctic ecosystems.

PubMed

Bargagli, R

2008-08-01

Although the remote continent of Antarctica is perceived as the symbol of the last great wilderness, the human presence in the Southern Ocean and the continent began in the early 1900s for hunting, fishing and exploration, and many invasive plant and animal species have been deliberately introduced in several sub-Antarctic islands. Over the last 50 years, the development of research and tourism have locally affected terrestrial and marine coastal ecosystems through fuel combustion (for transportation and energy production), accidental oil spills, waste incineration and sewage. Although natural "barriers" such as oceanic and atmospheric circulation protect Antarctica from lower latitude water and air masses, available data on concentrations of metals, pesticides and other persistent pollutants in air, snow, mosses, lichens and marine organisms show that most persistent contaminants in the Antarctic environment are transported from other continents in the Southern Hemisphere. At present, levels of most contaminants in Antarctic organisms are lower than those in related species from other remote regions, except for the natural accumulation of Cd and Hg in several marine organisms and especially in albatrosses and petrels. The concentrations of organic pollutants in the eggs of an opportunistic top predator such as the south polar skua are close to those that may cause adverse health effects. Population growth and industrial development in several countries of the Southern Hemisphere are changing the global pattern of persistent anthropogenic contaminants and new classes of chemicals have already been detected in the Antarctic environment. Although the Protocol on Environmental Protection to the Antarctic Treaty provides strict guidelines for the protection of the Antarctic environment and establishes obligations for all human activity in the continent and the Southern Ocean, global warming, population growth and industrial development in countries of the Southern Hemisphere will likely increase the impact of anthropogenic contaminants on Antarctic ecosystems.

Atmospheric rivers causing high accumulation storms in East Antarctica: regional climate model evaluation

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Lazzara, M. A.; Tsukernik, M.; Gorodetskaya, I.

2016-12-01

Recent studies confirmed that atmospheric rivers (ARs) reach the continent of Antarctica and thus influence the Antarctic accumulation patterns and the ice sheet mass balance (Gorodetskaya et al. 2014, GRL). Similar to mid-latitude ARs, Antarctic ARs are associated with a blocking pattern downstream of a cyclone, which allows channeling of moisture toward the continent. However, due to the extremely cold atmosphere, Antarctic ARs possess some unique features. First, the existence of an AR in high latitudes is always associated with warm advection. Second, in order for an AR to penetrate the continent, it needs to overcome strong low-level outflow winds - katabatic winds - coming from the interior of the continent. Thirdly, sea ice surrounding the Antarctic ice sheet introduces an additional "cold barrier" decreasing the tropospheric moisture holding capacity and promoting precipitation before reaching the ice sheet. We believe these factors contribute to the scarcity of AR events influencing the ice sheet surface mass balance. Nevertheless, their presence is clearly seen in the long-term record. In particular, anomalous accumulation in 2009 and 2011 in Dronning Maud Land in East Antarctica has been linked to atmospheric rivers. We performed a detailed investigation of several AR storm events from 2009 and 2011 using the Weather Research and Forecasting (WRF) model simulations. These simulations depicted the synoptic scale development of storms that led to an anomalous precipitation pattern in the East Antarctic. We investigated the role of the upper level vs. lower level forcing in the formation of the contributing storms. The moisture and temperature anomalies of each case are evaluated in the context of synoptic and large-scale atmospheric forcing. We also performed sensitivity studies to determine the role of sea ice in the development of these systems.

Internet-based survey of nonmedical prescription opioid use in the United States.

PubMed

Katz, Nathaniel; Fernandez, Kathrine; Chang, Alan; Benoit, Christine; Butler, Stephen F

2008-01-01

Prescription opioid misuse is a growing problem in the United States. There are limited data to illuminate the nature of this issue. The Internet seems to be a novel approach in surveying populations of opioid users. An Internet-based survey of nonmedical opioid users visiting informational drug websites was used to measure rates of nonmedical use and characterize users. The prescription opioid module of the Addiction Severity Index Multimedia Version Connect was adapted to include variables such as favorite opioid. Links to the survey were posted on an informational drug website. Nonmedical use rates for KADIAN (morphine sulfate extended-release tablets), OxyContin (oxycodone HCl controlled-release tablets), Vicodin (hydrocodone bitartrate and acetaminophen tablets), and product-classes (morphine ER, oxycodone ER, and hydrocodone) were calculated. Descriptive statistics were calculated for remaining questions. During a 1-month recruitment period, 896 valid individuals completed the survey. Majority were white (78.3%) and male (72.4%). Participants were less likely to have used KADIAN in the past 30 days compared with OxyContin (P<0.0001) and Vicodin (P=0.0021). Additionally, participants were less likely to have used morphine ER in the previous 30 days than either oxycodone ER (P<0.0001) or hydrocodone (P<0.0001). Among OxyContin, Vicodin, and KADIAN users, OxyContin (43.8%), Dilaudid (15.6%), and fentanyl (9.4%) were the top 3 favorite opioids. This project demonstrates the feasibility of conducting product-specific, online surveys with rapid recruitment of participants from websites. This approach differentiates rates of nonmedical use of specific prescription opioids and provides other insights into individuals who nonmedically use opioids.

[TVT and TOT for surgical correction of female stress urinary incontinence. Comparison between techniques].

PubMed

Torres Zambrano, G; Lujan Galán, M; Martín García, C; García Tello, A; Rodríguez García, N; Berenguer Sánchez, A

2008-10-01

Retrospective analysis of a series of patients with stress urinary incontinence that underwent surgery in our department, by means of the TVT and TOT techniques. We evaluate post operative continence, considering "cured" the patient with complete continence and "failure" any type of involuntary stress urine leak, independently of its severity registering the time of its appearance. For this purpose we used the Kaplan-Meier analysis comparing both techniques with the Breslow test. Additionally, postoperative complications were evaluated. 128 patients who underwent surgery by TVT (69 patients, 53.9%) and TOT (59 patients, 46.1%). Mean age was 54.4 years for TVT (95% CI 52.0-56.8) and 59 years for TOT (95% CI 55.9-62.1). Mean follow-up time was 18.7 months for TVT (95% CI 15.6-21.9) and 7.4 months for TOT (95% CI 5.8-8.9). Overall continence rate was 86.7%, 88.4% for TVT and 84.7% for TOT The probability of being continent six months after surgery was 89.1% for TVT and 78.2% for TOT (no significant differences, p = 0.31), with almost all failures within the first six months after surgery. TVT was more frecuently associated with urgency symptoms (33.3%, p = 0.001) and urge incontinence (18.8%,p = 0.16), urinary retention (11.6%, p = 0.38), and prevesical hematoma requiring mesh retrieval. Greater post operative pain was observed with TOT (20.3%, p = 0.005). Our results evidence a similar efficacy with both techniques, with the failures appearing over the first months after surgery. Complications of the voiding urgency type are significantly more frequent with TVT.

Future climate change enhances rainfall seasonality in a regional model of western Maritime Continent

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Kang, Suchul; Im, Eun-Soon; Eltahir, Elfatih A. B.

2018-03-01

In this study, future changes in rainfall due to global climate change are investigated over the western Maritime Continent based on dynamically downscaled climate projections using the MIT Regional Climate Model (MRCM) with 12 km horizontal resolution. A total of nine 30-year regional climate projections driven by multi-GCMs projections (CCSM4, MPI-ESM-MR and ACCESS1.0) under multi-scenarios of greenhouse gases emissions (Historical: 1976-2005, RCP4.5 and RCP8.5: 2071-2100) from phase 5 of the Coupled Model Inter-comparison Project (CMIP5) are analyzed. Focusing on dynamically downscaled rainfall fields, the associated systematic biases originating from GCM and MRCM are removed based on observations using Parametric Quantile Mapping method in order to enhance the reliability of future projections. The MRCM simulations with bias correction capture the spatial patterns of seasonal rainfall as well as the frequency distribution of daily rainfall. Based on projected rainfall changes under both RCP4.5 and RCP8.5 scenarios, the ensemble of MRCM simulations project a significant decrease in rainfall over the western Maritime Continent during the inter-monsoon periods while the change in rainfall is not relevant during wet season. The main mechanism behind the simulated decrease in rainfall is rooted in asymmetries of the projected changes in seasonal dynamics of the meridional circulation along different latitudes. The sinking motion, which is marginally positioned in the reference simulation, is enhanced and expanded under global climate change, particularly in RCP8.5 scenario during boreal fall season. The projected enhancement of rainfall seasonality over the western Maritime Continent suggests increased risk of water stress for natural ecosystems as well as man-made water resources reservoirs.

What Do GDGT Thermometers Tell us About Environmental Changes During the Holocene in Central Africa?

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Menot, G.; Garcin, Y.; Bard, E. G.; Deschamps, P.

2017-12-01

Africa has been recognized by the IPCC group as one of the most vulnerable continents to climate change. Validation of models currently used for future climate projections relies in part on their ability to reproduce past climate variability. Especially the past abrupt climatic and environmental events that have punctuated the recent history of the African continent are of prime interest to model the transient and non-linear response of the African monsoon and vegetation to both external forcing and internal feedbacks. The role of temperature among other controls of the hydrological cycle has to be assessed. However, reliable temperature benchmark sequences on continents remain scare and not evenly distributed. The recent discovery of tetraethers as paleothermometer has raised a considerable interest as these lipid biomarkers fill a gap between "quantitative but discrete" and "qualitative but continuous" proxies on continents. Their broad application is however to date hampered by the few constrains on their origin as well as on their dynamics and fates related to pedogenic, transport and sedimentary processes. Previous studies on the lake Barombi (Cameroon) demonstrate the potential of newly retrieved lacustrine sequences to document hydrological changes associated with the African humid Period and vegetation changes related to the late Holocene `rainforest crisis' with an appropriate time resolution. Preliminary reconstructed temperature profile reveals a clear shift at the end of the African Humid Period. Prior any interpretation of a climate signal, a more complete characterization of the tetraether distributions is however needed together with a thorough comparison with other sedimentological proxies. Such an approach should allow identifying the processes that have altered the validity of the tetraether record as changes in soil erosion or lacustrine stratification.

Multiple Introductions and Recent Spread of the Emerging Human Pathogen Mycobacterium ulcerans across Africa.

PubMed

Vandelannoote, Koen; Meehan, Conor J; Eddyani, Miriam; Affolabi, Dissou; Phanzu, Delphin Mavinga; Eyangoh, Sara; Jordaens, Kurt; Portaels, Françoise; Mangas, Kirstie; Seemann, Torsten; Marsollier, Laurent; Marion, Estelle; Chauty, Annick; Landier, Jordi; Fontanet, Arnaud; Leirs, Herwig; Stinear, Timothy P; de Jong, Bouke C

2017-03-01

Buruli ulcer (BU) is an insidious neglected tropical disease. Cases are reported around the world but the rural regions of West and Central Africa are most affected. How BU is transmitted and spreads has remained a mystery, even though the causative agent, Mycobacterium ulcerans, has been known for more than 70 years. Here, using the tools of population genomics, we reconstruct the evolutionary history of M. ulcerans by comparing 165 isolates spanning 48 years and representing 11 endemic countries across Africa. The genetic diversity of African M. ulcerans was found to be restricted due to the bacterium's slow substitution rate coupled with its relatively recent origin. We identified two specific M. ulcerans lineages within the African continent, and inferred that M. ulcerans lineage Mu_A1 existed in Africa for several hundreds of years, unlike lineage Mu_A2, which was introduced much more recently, approximately during the 19th century. Additionally, we observed that specific M. ulcerans epidemic Mu_A1 clones were introduced during the same time period in the three hydrological basins that were well covered in our panel. The estimated time span of the introduction events coincides with the Neo-imperialism period, during which time the European colonial powers divided the African continent among themselves. Using this temporal association, and in the absence of a known BU reservoir or-vector on the continent, we postulate that the so-called "Scramble for Africa" played a significant role in the spread of the disease across the continent. © The Author(s) 2017. Published by Oxford University Press on behalf of the Society for Molecular Biology and Evolution.

Collision-induced rotation in an arc-continent collision: Constrained by continuous GPS observations in Mindoro, Philippines

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Rau, R.; Hung, H.; Yang, C.; Tsai, M.; Ching, K.; Bacolcol, T.; Solidum, R.; Chang, W.

2012-12-01

The Mindoro Island, situated at the southern end of the Manila trench, is a modern arc-continent collision. Seismic activity in Mindoro concentrates mainly in the northern segment of the island as part of the Manila subduction processes; in contrast, seismicity in the middle and the southern parts of the island is rather diffuse. Although the Mindoro Island has been experiencing intense seismic activities and is a type example of arc-continent collision, the modern mode of deformation of the Mindoro collision remains unclear. We have installed eight dual-frequency continuous GPS stations in the island since May 2010. The questions we want to address by using continuous GPS observations are (1) if there are still compressions within the Mindoro collision? Have they ceased as seen by the diffuse seismicity, or are the thrust faults locked? (2) What is the mode of deformation in the Mindoro collision and what are the roles of thrust and strike-slip faults playing in the collision? (3) How does the Mindoro collision compare with the other collision, such as the Taiwan orogen? Do they share similar characteristics for the subduction-collision transition zone? For the results of the first two years GPS measurements, if we take the Sablayan site near the southern end of the Manila trench as the reference station, a large counterclockwise rotation from south to north, with horizontal velocities of 1.9-31.1 mm/yr from 165 to 277 degrees, are found in the island. The deformation of the Mindoro is similar to the pattern of the transition zone from collision to subduction in northeastern Taiwan. This result suggests that collision-induced rotation is occurring in the Mindoro Island and the Mindoro arc-continent collision is still active.

Anal incontinence among first time mothers - what happens in pregnancy and the first year after delivery?

PubMed

Johannessen, Hege Hølmo; Wibe, Arne; Stordahl, Arvid; Sandvik, Leiv; Mørkved, Siv

2015-09-01

Pregnancy- and delivery-related factors affect postpartum anal incontinence. We aimed to explore changes in continence status among primiparas from late pregnancy through the first year postpartum. In this prospective cohort study set in two Norwegian hospitals, 862 healthy primiparas completed questionnaires about the main outcome measure anal incontinence, including flatus incontinence and urgency, at three time points; late pregnancy, 6 and 12 months postpartum. Socioeconomic and delivery-related data were obtained from hospital records. Logistic regression analyses were applied to determine the association between continence status at 12 months postpartum, and continence status in late pregnancy, 6 months postpartum, demographic and delivery-related characteristics. Among the 189 (22%) primiparas reporting anal incontinence in late pregnancy, 34 (18%) had persistent anal incontinence 1 year later. Forty-eight (43%) of the 113 women incontinent at 6 months postpartum experienced persistent anal incontinence at 12 months. Eight percent of previously continent women reported new onset anal incontinence at 6 and 12 months after delivery. Occipitoposterior presentation was the only delivery-related factor increasing the risk of postpartum anal incontinence [odds ratio (OR) 1.8, 95% confidence interval (CI) 1.0-3.4]. Young age increased the risk of anal incontinence at 1 year after delivery, whereas incontinence in late pregnancy increased the risk of anal incontinence persisting through 6 and 12 months postpartum. In most first-time mothers with postpartum anal incontinence, the onset of anal incontinence was before delivery. Except for occipitoposterior presentation, no delivery-related factors increased the risk of postpartum anal incontinence. This may indicate that hormonal, mechanical or neuromuscular changes in pregnancy affect long-term anal incontinence more than vaginal delivery. © 2015 Nordic Federation of Societies of Obstetrics and Gynecology.

Fear not the tectosphere (and other -spheres)

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Lee, C. A.

2004-12-01

Based on a highly unrepresentative sampling of the community, not unlike Fox news polls, it has been recognized that the use of words having the suffix "-sphere" is confused and often abused. Such words include lithosphere, asthenosphere, perisphere, tectosphere, and mesosphere. In addition, there appears to be equal confusion in the use of the related terms: mechanical boundary layer, thermal boundary layer, chemical boundary layer, low velocity zone, low viscosity zone, effective elastic thickness, etc. This confusion is not confined to beginning students of the Earth sciences but is also manifest in seasoned Earth scientists (including myself), that is, it is not uncommon to find a geochemist and a geophysicist with completely different definitions of "lithosphere" and "tectosphere", for example. In this poster, an attempt will be made to illustrate the concepts behind some of these terms using visual and verbal aids. One of the focuses, could be the concept of a tectosphere, which may go something like this: A Wise maN once said to me; That cOntinents float because they are light; Then said my dog - DiorITE; Oceans sInk because they are heavy; And so I ask, why miGht this be?; With a Laugh and a Bark, she says the oceans are cOld; And to test if she's rigHT; I stick a tHermometer in the continent's core; To my surprise coNtinents are cold, if not more; So something does not Jive; A parAdox has come alive; Perhaps you surMise that the story is not coMplete; Indeed, you may be right; BecausE under the contiNents lie Green rocks - PerIdotite!; InFertile as Hell and fortuitouslY light; Together they fOrm the TecToSphere; And this is why we are here; Fear not the TecToSphere.

[Arboviruses also have an American dream].

PubMed

Rodhain, F

2017-08-01

Some arboviruses that originated in the Old World have been introduced by humans into the American continent. The first of them was the yellow fever virus, coming from the West African coast with slaves in the 17th-19th centuries, followed by dengue viruses, which were always prevalent within the Americas. Next was theWest Nile virus, introduced in New York in 1999, that spread in only a few years over the whole continent. Then, Chikungunya virus arrived on Saint Martin Island in 2013 after its outbreak in Polynesia; it is now widespread in the Caribbean Islands and on the American continent from the United States to Brazil. Finally, Zika virus, already active in Asia and in the South Pacific region, was introduced in Brazil and spread between the southern part of United States and south Brazil. These unexpected emergences are the consequence of the generalization of transoceanic trading; so, it is humans who are truly responsible for such transportation of viruses from the African and Asian continents. The mechanisms of virus establishment in unusual ecosystems have to be analyzed in order to understand the conditions for the circulation of the viruses, which supposes an adaptation to new hosts and vectors that are sometimes local species (like Culex vectors of West Nile virus) but mainly previously introduced mosquitoes (like Aedes aegypti and/or Aedes albopictus). Over time, all these vectors developed a strong anthropophily and, most of them, a remarkable adaptation to urban environment; hence, these arboviruses can disseminate both in rural and urban context. This type of arboviral emergences will certainly continue in the following years and we must imperatively develop preventive strategies by detecting virus mutations with capacity for emergence, enhancing the sensibility and rapidity of epidemiological surveillance, and becoming ready to face such events that cause a truly international health crisis.

The impact of the diurnal cycle on the MJO over the Maritime Continent: a modeling study assimilating TRMM rain rate into global analysis

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Oh, Ji-Hyun; Kim, Baek-Min; Kim, Kwang-Yul; Song, Hyo-Jong; Lim, Gyu-Ho

2013-02-01

In the present study, we use modeling experiments to investigate the impact of the diurnal cycle on the Madden-Julian Oscillation (MJO) during the Australian summer. Physical initialization and a nudging technique enable us to assimilate the observed Tropical Rainfall Measuring Mission (TRMM) rain rate and atmospheric variables from the National Centers for Environmental Prediction—National Center for Atmospheric Research Reanalysis 2 (R2) into the Florida State University Global Spectral Model (FSUGSM), resulting in a realistic simulation of the MJO. Model precipitation is also significantly improved by TRMM rain rate observation via the physical initialization. We assess the influence of the diurnal cycle on the MJO by modifying the diurnal component during the model integration. Model variables are nudged toward the daily averaged values from R2. Globally suppressing the diurnal cycle (NO_DIURNAL) exerts a strong impact on the Maritime Continent. The mean state of precipitation increases and intraseasonal variability becomes stronger over the region. It is well known that MJO weakens as it passes over the Maritime Continent. However, the MJO maintains its strength in the NO_DIURNAL experiment, and the diminution of diurnal signals during the integration does not change the propagating speed of the MJO. We suggest that diminishing the diurnal cycle in NO_DIURNAL consumes less moist static energy (MSE), which is required to trigger both diurnal and intraseasonal convection. Thus, the remaining MSE may play a major role along with larger convective instability and stronger lower level moisture convergence in intensifying the MJO over the Maritime Continent in the model simulation.

The resolution sensitivity of the South Asian monsoon and Indo-Pacific in a global 0.35° AGCM

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Johnson, Stephanie J.; Levine, Richard C.; Turner, Andrew G.; Martin, Gill M.; Woolnough, Steven J.; Schiemann, Reinhard; Mizielinski, Matthew S.; Roberts, Malcolm J.; Vidale, Pier Luigi; Demory, Marie-Estelle; Strachan, Jane

2016-02-01

The South Asian monsoon is one of the most significant manifestations of the seasonal cycle. It directly impacts nearly one third of the world's population and also has substantial global influence. Using 27-year integrations of a high-resolution atmospheric general circulation model (Met Office Unified Model), we study changes in South Asian monsoon precipitation and circulation when horizontal resolution is increased from approximately 200-40 km at the equator (N96-N512, 1.9°-0.35°). The high resolution, integration length and ensemble size of the dataset make this the most extensive dataset used to evaluate the resolution sensitivity of the South Asian monsoon to date. We find a consistent pattern of JJAS precipitation and circulation changes as resolution increases, which include a slight increase in precipitation over peninsular India, changes in Indian and Indochinese orographic rain bands, increasing wind speeds in the Somali Jet, increasing precipitation over the Maritime Continent islands and decreasing precipitation over the northern Maritime Continent seas. To diagnose which resolution-related processes cause these changes, we compare them to published sensitivity experiments that change regional orography and coastlines. Our analysis indicates that improved resolution of the East African Highlands results in the improved representation of the Somali Jet and further suggests that improved resolution of orography over Indochina and the Maritime Continent results in more precipitation over the Maritime Continent islands at the expense of reduced precipitation further north. We also evaluate the resolution sensitivity of monsoon depressions and lows, which contribute more precipitation over northeast India at higher resolution. We conclude that while increasing resolution at these scales does not solve the many monsoon biases that exist in GCMs, it has a number of small, beneficial impacts.

The Middlesex Fells Volcanic Complex: A Revised Tectonic Model based on Geochronology, Geochemistry, and Field Data

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Hampton, R.

2017-12-01

The Boston Bay area is composed of several terranes originating on the paleocontinent of Avalonia, an arc terrane that accreted onto the continent of Laurentia during the Devonian. Included in these terranes is the Middlesex Fells Volcanic Complex, a bimodal complex composed of both intrusive and extrusive igneous rocks. Initial studies suggested that this volcanic complex formed during a rift event as the Avalonian continent separated from its parent continent 700-900 Ma. New geochemical and geochronological data and field relationships observed in this study establishes a new tectonic model. U-Pb laser ablation zircon data on four samples from different units within the complex reveal that the complex erupted 600 Ma. ICP-MS geochemical analysis of the metabasalt member of the complex yield a trace element signature enriched in Rb, Pb, and Sr and depleted in Th, indicating a subduction component to the melt and interpreted as an eruption into a back-arc basin. The felsic units similarly have an arc related signature when plotted on trace element spider diagrams and tectonic discrimination diagrams. Combined with the field relationships, including an erosional unconformity, stratigraphic and intrusional relationships and large faults from episodic extension events, this data suggests that the Middlesex Fells Volcanic Complex was erupted as part of the arc-sequence of Avalonia and as part of the formation of a back-arc basin well after Avalonia separated from its parent continent. This model presents a significantly younger eruption scenario for the Middlesex Fells Volcanics than previously hypothesized and may be used to study and compare to other volcanics from Avalon terranes in localities such as Newfoundland and the greater Boston area.

The S.A.C.S. (Satisfaction-Anatomy-Continence-Safety) score for evaluating pelvic organ prolapse surgery: a proposal for an outcome-based scoring system.

PubMed

Mearini, Luigi; Zucchi, Alessandro; Nunzi, Elisabetta; Di Biase, Manuel; Bini, Vittorio; Costantini, Elisabetta

2015-07-01

To date, there is no overall consensus on the definition of cure after surgery for pelvic organ prolapse (POP). The aim of the study was to design and test the scoring system S.A.C.S. (Satisfaction-Anatomy-Continence-Safety) to assess and compare the outcomes of POP repair. A total of 233 women underwent open sacrocolpopexy. The S.A.C.S. outcome scoring system was scheduled at 24 months of follow-up, and each component was detected according to: Satisfaction by mean of Patient Global Improvement Inventory scale, Anatomy by mean of POP Quantification system and bulge symptom, Continence by mean of pad use, and Safety by mean of the Clavien-Dindo classification of surgical complications. Each component produced a binary nominal categorical variable (1 or 0), with a total score of 4 representing cure. As a comparative tool, patients answered a simple yes/no question: "If you had to undergo surgery all over again, would you still do it?". The degree of concordance was estimated using Cohen's Kappa test. According to the S.A.C.S. scoring system, only 160 patients (68.6 %) reached the maximum score of cure. Sensitivity of the S.A.C.S. score was 74.1 %, specificity was 90 %, total diagnostic capacity was 75.5 %. The S.A.C.S. score internal consistency was good; the k-coefficient was higher for the satisfaction component of the score (k = 0.560). This study proposes an original, simple post-operative scoring system integrating satisfaction, anatomy, continence, and safety reports for patients undergoing surgery for POP, providing a complete, although perfectible, method to accurately report outcomes in all clinical scenarios.

Effects of surgeon variability on oncologic and functional outcomes in a population-based setting.

PubMed

Carlsson, Sigrid; Berglund, Anders; Sjoberg, Daniel; Khatami, Ali; Stranne, Johan; Bergdahl, Svante; Lodding, Pär; Aus, Gunnar; Vickers, Andrew; Hugosson, Jonas

2014-03-06

Oncologic and functional outcomes after radical prostatectomy (RP) can vary between surgeons to a greater extent than is expected by chance. We sought to examine the effects of surgeon variation on functional and oncologic outcomes for patients undergoing RP for prostate cancer in a European center. The study comprised 1,280 men who underwent open retropubic RP performed by one of nine surgeons at an academic institution in Sweden between 2001 and 2008. Potency and continence outcomes were measured preoperatively and 18 months postoperatively by patient-administered questionnaires. Biochemical recurrence (BCR) was defined as a prostate-specific antigen (PSA) value > 0.2 ng/mL with at least one confirmatory rise. Multivariable random effect models were used to evaluate heterogeneity between surgeons, adjusting for case mix (age, PSA, pathological stage and grade), year of surgery, and surgical experience. Of 679 men potent at baseline, 647 provided data at 18 months with 122 (19%) reporting potency. We found no evidence for heterogeneity of potency outcomes between surgeons (P = 1). The continence rate for patients at 18 months was 85%, with 836 of the 979 patients who provided data reporting continence. There was statistically significant heterogeneity between surgeons (P = 0.001). We did not find evidence of an association between surgeons' adjusted probabilities of functional recovery and 5-year probability of freedom from BCR. Our data support previous studies regarding a large heterogeneity among surgeons in continence outcomes for patients undergoing RP. This indicates that some patients are receiving sub-optimal care. Quality assurance measures involving performance feedback, should be considered. When surgeons are aware of their outcomes, they can improve them to provide better care to patients.

Effects of surgeon variability on oncologic and functional outcomes in a population-based setting

PubMed Central

2014-01-01

Background Oncologic and functional outcomes after radical prostatectomy (RP) can vary between surgeons to a greater extent than is expected by chance. We sought to examine the effects of surgeon variation on functional and oncologic outcomes for patients undergoing RP for prostate cancer in a European center. Methods The study comprised 1,280 men who underwent open retropubic RP performed by one of nine surgeons at an academic institution in Sweden between 2001 and 2008. Potency and continence outcomes were measured preoperatively and 18 months postoperatively by patient-administered questionnaires. Biochemical recurrence (BCR) was defined as a prostate-specific antigen (PSA) value > 0.2 ng/mL with at least one confirmatory rise. Multivariable random effect models were used to evaluate heterogeneity between surgeons, adjusting for case mix (age, PSA, pathological stage and grade), year of surgery, and surgical experience. Results Of 679 men potent at baseline, 647 provided data at 18 months with 122 (19%) reporting potency. We found no evidence for heterogeneity of potency outcomes between surgeons (P = 1). The continence rate for patients at 18 months was 85%, with 836 of the 979 patients who provided data reporting continence. There was statistically significant heterogeneity between surgeons (P = 0.001). We did not find evidence of an association between surgeons’ adjusted probabilities of functional recovery and 5-year probability of freedom from BCR. Conclusions Our data support previous studies regarding a large heterogeneity among surgeons in continence outcomes for patients undergoing RP. This indicates that some patients are receiving sub-optimal care. Quality assurance measures involving performance feedback, should be considered. When surgeons are aware of their outcomes, they can improve them to provide better care to patients. PMID:24602348

Three-dimensional body-wave model of Nepal using finite difference tomography

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Ho, T. M.; Priestley, K.; Roecker, S. W.

2017-12-01

The processes occurring during continent-continent collision are still poorly understood. Ascertaining the seismic properties of the crust and uppermost mantle in such settings provides insight into continental rheology and geodynamics. The most active present-day continent-continent collision is that of India with Eurasia which has created the Himalayas and the Tibetan Plateau. Nepal provides an ideal laboratory for imaging the crustal processes resulting from the Indo-Eurasia collision. We build body wave models using local body wave arrivals picked at stations in Nepal deployed by the Department of Mining and Geology of Nepal. We use the tomographic inversion method of Roecker et al. [2006], the key feature of which is that the travel times are generated using a finite difference solution to the eikonal equation. The advantage of this technique is increased accuracy in the highly heterogeneous medium expected for the Himalayas. Travel times are calculated on a 3D Cartesian grid with a grid spacing of 6 km and intragrid times are estimated by trilinear interpolation. The gridded area spans a region of 80-90o longitude and 25-30o latitude. For a starting velocity model, we use IASP91. Inversion is performed using the LSQR algorithm. Since the damping parameter can have a significant effect on the final solution, we tested a range of damping parameters to fully explore its effect. Much of the seismicity is clustered to the West of Kathmandu at depths < 30 km. Small areas of strong fast wavespeeds exist in the centre of the region in the upper 30 km of the crust. At depths of 40-50 km, large areas of slow wavespeeds are present which track along the plate boundary.

Two-dimensional seismic velocity models of southern Taiwan from TAIGER transects

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

McIntosh, K. D.; Kuochen, H.; Van Avendonk, H. J.; Lavier, L. L.; Wu, F. T.; Okaya, D. A.

2013-12-01

We use a broad combination of wide-angle seismic data sets to develop high-resolution crustal-scale, two-dimensional, velocity models across southern Taiwan and the adjacent Huatung Basin. The data were recorded primarily during the TAIGER project and include records of thousands of marine airgun shots, several land explosive sources, and ~90 Earthquakes. Both airgun sources and earthquake data were recorded by dense land arrays, and ocean bottom seismographs (OBS) recorded airgun sources east of Taiwan. This combination of data sets enables us to develop a high-resolution upper- to mid-crustal model defined by marine and explosive sources, while also constraining the full crustal structure - with depths approaching 50 km - by using the earthquake and explosive sources. These data and the resulting models are particularly important for understanding the development of arc-continent collision in Taiwan. McIntosh et al. (2013) have shown that highly extended continental crust of the northeastern South China Sea rifted margin is underthrust at the Manila trench southwest of Taiwan but then is structurally underplated to the accretionary prism. This process of basement accretion is confirmed in the southern Central Range of Taiwan where basement outcrops can be directly linked to high seismic velocities measured in the accretionary prism well south of the continental shelf, even south of Taiwan. These observations indicate that the southern Central Range begins to grow well before there is any direct interaction between the North Luzon arc and the Eurasian continent. Our transects provide information on how the accreted mass behaves as it approaches the continental shelf and on deformation of the arc and forearc as this occurs. We suggest that arc-continent collision in Taiwan actually develops as arc-prism-continent collision.

Assessing the effectiveness of specially protected areas for conservation of Antarctica's botanical diversity.

PubMed

Hughes, Kevin A; Ireland, Louise C; Convey, Peter; Fleming, Andrew H

2016-02-01

Vegetation is sparsely distributed over Antarctica's ice-free ground, and distinct plant communities are present in each of the continent's 15 recently identified Antarctic Conservation Biogeographic Regions (ACBRs). With rapidly increasing human activity in Antarctica, terrestrial plant communities are at risk of damage or destruction by trampling, overland transport, and infrastructure construction and from the impacts of anthropogenically introduced species, as well as uncontrollable pressures such as fur seal (Arctocephalus gazella) activity and climate change. Under the Protocol on Environmental Protection to the Antarctic Treaty, the conservation of plant communities can be enacted and facilitated through the designation of Antarctic Specially Protected Areas (ASPAs). We examined the distribution within the 15 ACBRs of the 33 ASPAs whose explicit purpose includes protecting macroscopic terrestrial flora. We completed the first survey using normalized difference vegetation index (NDVI) satellite remote sensing to provide baseline data on the extent of vegetation cover in all ASPAs designated for plant protection in Antarctica. Large omissions in the protection of Antarctic botanical diversity were found. There was no protection of plant communities in 6 ACBRs, and in another 6, <0.4% of the ACBR area was included in an ASPA that protected vegetation. Protected vegetation cover within the 33 ASPAs totaled 16.1 km(2) for the entire Antarctic continent; over half was within a single protected area. Over 96% of the protected vegetation was contained in 2 ACBRs, which together contributed only 7.8% of the continent's ice-free ground. We conclude that Antarctic botanical diversity is clearly inadequately protected and call for systematic designation of ASPAs protecting plant communities by the Antarctic Treaty Consultative Parties, the members of the governing body of the continent. © 2015 The Authors. Conservation Biology published by Wiley Periodicals, Inc. on behalf of Society for Conservation Biology.

Comparative analysis of the pressure profilometry of vesicocutaneous continent catheterizable conduits between patients with and without rectus abdominis neosphincter (Yachia principle).

PubMed

Rondon, Atila; Leslie, Bruno; Arcuri, Leonardo Javier; Ortiz, Valdemar; Macedo, Antonio

2015-09-01

To assess whether crossing rectus abdominis muscle strips, as proposed by Yachia, would change urinary catheterizable conduit's pressure profilometry, in static and dynamic conditions. Non-randomized selection of 20 continent patients that underwent Macedo's ileum-based reservoir, 10 including Yachia's technique (Study Group) and 10 without this mechanism of continence (Control Group). Demographics and cystometric data were assessed. Conduit's pressure profilometry was obtained by infusing saline through a multichannel catheter, at rest and during Valsalva maneuver. We assessed the pressure: (a) in the bladder; (b) in conduit's proximal segment; and (c) in conduit's distal segment, which is presumably the abdominal wall and crossed muscle strips site. Mean age at surgery was 6.1 years in the Control Group and 7.7 years in the Study Group. There was no statistically significant difference between groups regarding maximum cystometric bladder capacity and leakage point pressure. At rest, the pressure profilometry showed similar results between groups in all segments analyzed. During Valsalva maneuver, pressure profilometry showed similar results between groups in bladder and conduit's proximal segment pressure. In this condition, conduit's distal segment pressure in the Study Group (Mean = 72.9 and Peak = 128.7 cmH2 O) was significantly greater (P < 0.05) than conduit's distal segment pressure in the Control Group (Mean = 48.3 and Peak = 65.1 cmH2 O). Crossing muscle strips over the conduit significantly increases the pressure in its distal segment during contraction of the rectus abdominis muscle, which can be important in moments of sudden increase in abdominal pressure in order to keep continence. © 2014 Wiley Periodicals, Inc.

Mechanisms of Pelvic Floor Muscle Function and the Effect on the Urethra during a Cough

PubMed Central

Lovegrove Jones, Ruth C.; Peng, Qiyu; Stokes, Maria; Humphrey, Victor F.; Payne, Christopher; Constantinou, Christos E.

2009-01-01

Background Current measurement tools have difficulty identifying the automatic physiologic processes maintaining continence, and many questions still remain about pelvic floor muscle (PFM) function during automatic events. Objective To perform a feasibility study to characterise the displacement, velocity, and acceleration of the PFM and the urethra during a cough. Design, setting, and participants A volunteer convenience sample of 23 continent women and 9 women with stress urinary incontinence (SUI) from the general community of San Francisco Bay Area was studied. Measurements Methods included perineal ultrasound imaging, motion tracking of the urogenital structures, and digital vaginal examination. Statistical analysis used one-tailedunpaired student t tests, and Welch’s correction was applied when variances were unequal. Results and limitations The cough reflex activated the PFM of continent women to compress the urogenital structures towards the pubic symphysis, which was absent in women with SUI. The maximum accelerations that acted on the PFM during a cough were generally more similar than the velocities and displacements. The urethras of women with SUI were exposed to uncontrolled transverse acceleration and were displaced more than twice as far (p = 0.0002), with almost twice the velocity (p = 0.0015) of the urethras of continent women. Caution regarding the generalisability of this study is warranted due to the small number of women in the SUI group and the significant difference in parity between groups. Conclusions During a cough, normal PFM function produces timely compression of the pelvic floor and additional external support to the urethra, reducing displacement, velocity, and acceleration. In women with SUI, who have weaker urethral attachments, this shortening contraction does not occur; consequently, the urethras of women with SUI move further and faster for a longer duration. PMID:19560261

Three-dimensional translabial ultrasound assessment of urethral supports and the urethral sphincter complex in stress urinary incontinence.

PubMed

Cassadó Garriga, Jordi; Pessarrodona Isern, Antoni; Rodríguez Carballeira, Monica; Pallarols Badia, Mar; Moya Del Corral, Manuela; Valls Esteve, Marta; Huguet Galofré, Eva

2017-09-01

The pathophysiological mechanism of incontinence is multifactorial. We evaluated the role of 3D-4D ultrasound in the assessment of the fascial supports of the urethra and the urethral sphincter complex (USC) for diagnosing stress urinary incontinence. Observational case-control study in women with and without stress urinary incontinence attending a urogynecology service and a general gynecology service. All women were interviewed, examined, and classified according to the Pelvic Organ Prolapse Quantification (POP-Q) and underwent a 3D-4D translabial ultrasound. Fascial supports of the urethra were assessed by tomographic ultrasound and were considered to be intact or absent if it was possible to identify them at eight levels on each side, urethral mobility was assessed on maximal Valsalva in sagittal section and the length and volume of the USC at rest and on maximal Valsalva were determined using the Virtual Organ Computer-aided Analysis (VOCAL) program. Variables were compared between continent and incontinent women. A total of 173 women were examined, 78 continent and 95 incontinent. There was a significant difference in urethral mobility between continent and incontinent women (12.82 mm vs. 21.85 mm, P < 0.001), but there was no significant difference in the percentage of supports affected (43.27% vs. 35.94%, P < 0.070). The length of the USC at rest was significantly shorter (P < 0.001) ​​in incontinent patients. Ultrasound evaluation of urethral supports does not discriminate between continent and incontinent women. However, the length of the USC at rest was shorter and urethral mobility was higher in incontinent women. Neurourol. Urodynam. 9999:XX-XX, 2016. © 2016 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. © 2017 Wiley Periodicals, Inc.

Neuromuscular Characterization of the Urethra in Continent Women

PubMed Central

Kenton, Kimberly; Mueller, Elizabeth; Brubaker, Linda

2011-01-01

Objectives To describe quantitative urethral function parameters in a racially diverse group of continent women. Materials and Methods Following Institutional Review Board approval, we recruited women without urinary incontinence from the community. To be considered continent, participants answered “never” to the first six questions on the stress subscale of the Medical, Epidemiologic, and Social Aspects of Aging urinary incontinence (MESA) questionnaire. Participants all underwent quantitative concentric urethral electromyography (EMG) and urodynamic testing (UDS). Results Thirty-one women with a mean±SD age of 39±14 years underwent EMG and UDS. The cohort was racially diverse with 13 Caucasians (43%), 13 African Americans (43%), and 4 Hispanics (14%). Body mass index (BMI) (P=.12, .06), age (P=.40, .64), and vaginal parity (P=.53, .76) did not differ by race or ethnicity. We did not detect differences in any EMG parameter by race, ethnicity or vaginally parity. A mean (range) of 30 motor unit action potential analysis (MUP) (10-55) were identified and analyzed in Multi-MUP analysis and 14 (8-21) were identified and analyzed in IP analysis. On average, 37±20% MUPs were polyphasic. Age significantly correlated with several measures of urethral sphincter function. Increasing age was inversely correlated with interference analysis (IP) turns (−.57, p=.001), IP amplitude (r=−.43, p=.02), IP turns/amplitude (r=−.54, p=.003), maximum urethral closure pressures (MUCP) (r=−.41, p=.04). Similarly, MUCP correlated with IP amplitude (r=.38, p=.04). Conclusions This urethral neuromuscular function data on the largest cohort of continent women fully characterized with quantitative urethral EMG demonstrates significant neuropathic MUP changes with advancing age. PMID:22453105

The effects of Pilates method on pelvic floor muscle strength in patients with post-prostatectomy urinary incontinence: A randomized clinical trial.

PubMed

Gomes, Cíntia S; Pedriali, Fabiana R; Urbano, Mariana R; Moreira, Eliane H; Averbeck, Marcio A; Almeida, Silvio Henrique M

2018-01-01

To assess the effects of a Pilates exercise program compared to conventional pelvic floor muscle training (PFMT) protocol on pelvic floor muscle strength (PFMS) in patients with post-prostatectomy urinary incontinence. Patients were randomized into three treatment groups (G1: Pilates, G2: electrical stimulation combined with PFMT, and G3: control group). Duration of therapy was 10 weeks. Baseline assessment included the 24 h pad-test and the ICI-Q questionnaire. PFMS was measured using a manometric perineometry device at baseline and 4 months after radical prostatectomy (RP). The level of significance was P < 0.05. One hundred twenty three patients were randomized and 104 patients completed the study protocol (G1: n = 34; G2: n = 35; G3: n = 35). Post-treatment assessment showed statistically significant improvements in maximum strength in G2, increased endurance in G1 and G2, and increment of muscle power in all three groups (P < 0.05). However, there were no significant differences in the mean changes of maximum strength, endurance, and muscle power between groups after treatment (P > 0.05). G1 and G2 achieved a higher number of fully continent patients than G3 (P < 0.05). At the end of treatment, 59% of patients in G1, 54% in G2, and 26% in G3 were continent (no pads/day). Improvements in PFMS parameters were distinct among active treatment groups versus controls, but did not predict recovery of urinary continence at final assessment. The Pilates method promoted similar outcomes in the proportion of fully continent patients when compared to conventional PFMT 4 months after RP. © 2017 Wiley Periodicals, Inc.

The Tropical Rain Belts with an Annual Cycle and a Continent Model Intercomparison Project: TRACMIP

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Voigt, Aiko; Biasutti, Michela; Scheff, Jacob; Bader, Juergen; Bordoni, Simona; Codron, Francis; Dixon, Ross D.; Jonas, Jeffrey; Kang, Sarah M.; Klingaman, Nicholas P.;

Subduction Initiation Existed Along the Ancient Continent Margins? Evidence of U-Pb ages of zircons from the Bonin Trench, Japan

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Li, Y. B.; Pearce, J. A.; Ryan, J. G.; Li, X. H.; Haraguchi, S.; Iizuka, T.; Kon, Y.; Yamamoto, S.; Sawaki, Y.; Ishii, T.; Maruyama, S.

2017-12-01

Although it is not cleanly known when and where the subduction initiation began on the Paleo-Izu-Bonin-Mariana (IBM) Trench, Jurassic and Cretaceous plutonic rocks, such as gabbroic, granitic and metamorphic rocks had been sampled from the Amami Plateau-Daito Ridge-Okidaito Ridge (ADO) in the Philippine Sea Plate. Furthermore, Mesozonic to Paleozonic ages zircons were obtained from volcaniclastic sandstones collected from northern Izu-Bonin forarc (Tani et al., 2012). We present U-Pb ages, Hf-O isotopes and trace element compositions of zircon grains separated from sediment, volcanic rock, dolerite and gabbro, collected from Chichijima Island and Bonin forearc seafloor (KH03-3, KT04-28 cruise of the University of Tokyo, IODP Leg 352). In the zircon age histogram, several age groups were identified. The age peaks are 0-3 Ma and 13 Ma (Hahajima Seamount: soft mud and volcanic tuff); 38 Ma (Oomachi Seamount: sandstone); 45 Ma (Chichijima Island: volcanic rock); 40 Ma, 48 Ma and 52 Ma (Hahajima Seamount: dolerite and gabbro); 45 Ma and 164-165 Ma (IODP Leg 352: volcanic rock), respectively. Zircon U-Pb ages ranging 0-52 Ma correspond well to the multi-stages of magmatism in the IBM. However, 164-165 Ma maybe represent the ages of zircon xenocryst including in forearc volcanic rock , which pre-existing in ancient continent crustal materials (SE China Continent Crust?) as the basement of Paleo-IBM. It seems reasonable to suppose that the subduction initiation of IBM existed along the ancient SE China Continent margins. The initiation of subduction zone is a consequence of lateral compositional buoyancy contrast within the lithosphere, that advocated by Niu et al. (2003, 2016).

Global genetic differentiation in a cosmopolitan pest of stored beans: effects of geography, host-plant usage and anthropogenic factors.

PubMed

Tuda, Midori; Kagoshima, Kumiko; Toquenaga, Yukihiko; Arnqvist, Göran

2014-01-01

Genetic differentiation can be promoted allopatrically by geographic isolation of populations due to limited dispersal ability and diversification over time or sympatrically through, for example, host-race formation. In crop pests, the trading of crops across the world can lead to intermixing of genetically distinct pest populations. However, our understanding of the importance of allopatric and sympatric genetic differentiation in the face of anthropogenic genetic intermixing is limited. Here, we examined global sequence variation in two mitochondrial and one nuclear genes in the seed beetle Callosobruchus maculatus that uses different legumes as hosts. We analyzed 180 samples from 42 populations of this stored bean pest from tropical and subtropical continents and archipelagos: Africa, the Middle East, South and Southeast Asia, Oceania and South America. For the mitochondrial genes, there was weak but significant genetic differentiation across continents/archipelagos. Further, we found pronounced differentiation among subregions within continents/archipelagos both globally and within Africa but not within Asia. We suggest that multiple introductions into Asia and subsequent intermixing within Asia have generated this pattern. The isolation by distance hypothesis was supported globally (with or without continents controlled) but not when host species was restricted to cowpeas Vigna unguiculata, the ancestral host of C. maculatus. We also document significant among-host differentiation both globally and within Asia, but not within Africa. We failed to reject a scenario of a constant population size in the recent past combined with selective neutrality for the mitochondrial genes. We conclude that mitochondrial DNA differentiation is primarily due to geographic isolation within Africa and to multiple invasions by different alleles, followed by host shifts, within Asia. The weak inter-continental differentiation is most likely due to frequent inter-continental gene flow mediated by human crop trade.

Autoimmunity and the Gut

PubMed Central

Campbell, Andrew W.

2014-01-01

Autoimmune diseases have increased dramatically worldwide since World War II. This is coincidental with the increased production and use of chemicals both in industrial countries and agriculture, as well as the ease of travel from region to region and continent to continent, making the transfer of a pathogen or pathogens from one part of the world to another much easier than ever before. In this review, triggers of autoimmunity are examined, principally environmental. The number of possible environmental triggers is vast and includes chemicals, bacteria, viruses, and molds. Examples of these triggers are given and include the mechanism of action and method by which they bring about autoimmunity. PMID:24900918

Gravity domains and assembly of the North American continent by collisional tectonics

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Thomas, M. D.; Grieve, R. A. F.; Sharpton, V. L.

1988-01-01

A gravity trend map of North America, based on a horizontal Bouguer gravity gradient map produced from gravity data for Canada and the conterminous United States, is presented and used to define a continental mosaic of gravity trend domains akin to structural domains. Contrasting trend characteristics at gravity domain boundaries support the concept of outward growth of the continent primarily by accretionary tectonics. Gravity patterns, however, indicate a different style of tectonics dominated in the development of now-buried Proterozoic orogenic belts in the south-central United States, supporting a view that these belts formed along the leading edge of a southward-migrating Proterozoic continental margin.

[Magnetic closure for ileostomy (author's transl)].

PubMed

Loygue, J; Salmon, R; Bloch, P

1980-09-20

The Maclet magnetic stoma seal already used by the authors for colostomies was applied to the closure of permanent terminal ileostomies. A reservoir is constructed upstreams of the closure with the last loop of ileum, so that the faeces accumulate and can be evacuated by intermittence. Patients empty the reservoir by removing the cap which blocks the intestinal lumen and introducing a probe into it. The technique was used on 2 patients who had undergone total proctocolectomy for familial polyposis of the colon. One patient has now been followed up for 3 years and the other for 6 months. The perfect continence obtained by this method favourably compares with Kock's continent ileostomy.

Trace gas measurements from whole air samples collected over the Antarctic continent

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Heidt, L. E.; Vedder, J. F.; Pollock, Walter H.; Henry, Bruce E.; Lueb, Richard A.

1988-01-01

Whole air samples collected aboard the NASA DC-8 and ER-2 aircraft as part of the Airborne Antarctic Ozone Experiment (AAOE) were analyzed in a field laboratory set up at Punta Arenas, Chile, in August and September, 1987. Mixing ratios obtained from gas chromatographic analyses of these samples are presented for N2O, CFCl3, CFCl2, C2F3Cl3, CH3CCl3, CH4, and CO. Variations in the mixing ratios of these gases along the individual flight paths of the aircraft are used as tracers to indicate the history of air masses over and near the Antarctic continent.

Biomaterials in the treatment of anal fistula: hope or hype?

PubMed

Scoglio, Daniele; Walker, Avery S; Fichera, Alessandro

2014-12-01

Anal fistula (AF) presents a chronic problem for patients and colorectal surgeons alike. Surgical treatment may result in impairment of continence and long-term risk of recurrence. Treatment options for AFs vary according to their location and complexity. The ideal approach should result in low recurrence rates and minimal impact on continence. New technical approaches involving biologically derived products such as biological mesh, fibrin glue, fistula plug, and stem cells have been applied in the treatment of AF to improve outcomes and decrease recurrence rates and the risk of fecal incontinence. In this review, we will highlight the current evidence and describe our personal experience with these novel approaches.

Formation of an Oceanic Transform Fault During Continental Rifting

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Illsley-Kemp, F.; Bull, J. M.; Keir, D.; Gerya, T.; Pagli, C.; Gernon, T.; Ayele, A.; Goitom, B.; Hammond, J. O. S.; Kendall, J. M.

2017-12-01

We integrate evidence from surface faults, geodetic measurements, local seismicity, and 3D numerical modelling of the subaerial Afar continental rift to show that an oceanic-style transform fault is forming during the final stages of continental breakup. Transform faults are a fundamental tenet of plate tectonics, connecting offset extensional segments of mid-ocean ridges, and are vital in palaeotectonic reconstructions of passive margins. The current consensus is that transform faults initiate after the onset of seafloor spreading. However this inference has been difficult to test given the lack of observations of transform fault formation. We present the first direct observation of transform fault initiation, and shed unprecedented light on their formation mechanisms. We demonstrate that they originate during late-stage continental rifting, earlier in the rifting cycle than previously thought. Our results have important implications for reconstructing the breakup history of the continents. Palaeotectonic reconstructions that use transform fault terminations as an indicator of the continent-ocean boundary may have placed the continent-ocean boundary landward of its true location. This will have led to an overestimation of the age of continental breakup of between 8-18 Myr. Our results therefore have significant implications for studies that rely on accurate dating of continental breakup events.

Cases of white piedra of the hair on the American continent: a case report and a systematic literature review.

PubMed

Ramírez-Soto, Max Carlos; Andagua-Castro, J; Quispe, Maria Antonieta; Aguilar-Ancori, Elsa G

2018-06-11

White piedra of the hair is a rare superficial fungal infection caused by several Trichosporon spp. 1 It typically manifests as white to light brown hard nodules, firmly attached to frontal, occipital, and parietal scalp hair. 1-9 The incidence of white piedra varies from country to country, and men and women of all ages are affected. 1 In Latin America, children and women appear to be the most affected with white piedra of the hair. 1-9 Given the variability of causative agents and the paucity of literature, very little is known about the geographical distribution of white piedra of the hair in American continent countries to help understand its epidemiology and aid in its diagnosis and treatment. In this report, we describe a case of white piedra of the hair in a Peruvian woman. We also conducted a systematic literature review of all case reports of white piedra on the American continent, with a view to determining the geographical distribution of the condition and identifying Trichosporon spp. commonly associated with this infection. This article is protected by copyright. All rights reserved. This article is protected by copyright. All rights reserved.

Eurasian Heat Waves: Mechanisms and Predictability

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Wang, Hailan; Schubert, Siegfried; Koster, Randal; Suarez, Max

2012-01-01

This study uses the NASA MERRA reanalysis and GEOS 5 model simulations to examine the causes of Eurasian heat waves including the recent extreme events that occurred in Europe during 2003 and in Russia during 2010. The focus is on the warm season and the part of the Eurasian continent that extends north of about 40oN, or roughly to the north of the mean upper tropospheric jet stream. The results show that such extreme events are an amplification of natural patterns of atmospheric variability that develop over the Eurasian continent as a result of internal atmospheric forcing. The amplification occurs when the wave occasionally becomes locked in place for several weeks to months resulting in extreme heat and drying with the location depending on the phase of the upper atmospheric wave. An ensemble of very long GEOS-S model simulations (spanning the 20th century) forced with observed SST and greenhouse gases show that the model is capable of generating very similar heat waves, and that they have become more intense in the last thirty years as a result of the overall warming of the Asian continent. Sensitivity experiments with perturbed initial conditions indicate that these events have limited predictability.

Systematic review of descriptive studies that investigated associated factors with the management of incontinence in older people in care homes.

PubMed

Roe, Brenda; Flanagan, Lisa; Jack, Barbara; Shaw, Christine; Williams, Kate; Chung, Alan; Barrett, James

2013-03-01

Incontinence is prevalent among older populations and residents in care homes. This paper is a review of descriptive studies that investigated associated factors related to managing urinary incontinence in older people in care homes. A systematic literature review was undertaken. MEDLINE and CINHAL were searched from 1996-2010 using the Cochrane Incontinence Review Group search strings for urinary and faecal incontinence including all research designs. Sixteen studies were identified that reported on associated factors related to comorbidities, management preferences, policies, staff views and knowledge or methodological studies. Non-invasive methods involving toileting and use of pads were common management approaches. No studies aimed at maintaining continence were identified. Factors associated with incontinence need to also be considered when planning and managing care for individuals, and developing and designing systems of care within care homes. Further study in care home populations to change or inform practice and provide effective care is warranted. Preventive studies that maintain continence are required. Older people and their families should be involved with decisions regarding their preferred care, goals, management and outcomes for managing incontinence, promoting or maintaining continence. © 2011 Blackwell Publishing Ltd.

Evolution of plant growth and defense in a continental introduction.

PubMed

Agrawal, Anurag A; Hastings, Amy P; Bradburd, Gideon S; Woods, Ellen C; Züst, Tobias; Harvey, Jeffrey A; Bukovinszky, Tibor

2015-07-01

Substantial research has addressed adaptation of nonnative biota to novel environments, yet surprisingly little work has integrated population genetic structure and the mechanisms underlying phenotypic differentiation in ecologically important traits. We report on studies of the common milkweed Asclepias syriaca, which was introduced from North America to Europe over the past 400 years and which lacks most of its specialized herbivores in the introduced range. Using 10 populations from each continent grown in a common environment, we identified several growth and defense traits that have diverged, despite low neutral genetic differentiation between continents. We next developed a Bayesian modeling approach to account for relationships between molecular and phenotypic differences, confirming that continental trait differentiation was greater than expected from neutral genetic differentiation. We found evidence that growth-related traits adaptively diverged within and between continents. Inducible defenses triggered by monarch butterfly herbivory were substantially reduced in European populations, and this reduction in inducibility was concordant with altered phytohormonal dynamics, reduced plant growth, and a trade-off with constitutive investment. Freedom from the community of native and specialized herbivores may have favored constitutive over induced defense. Our replicated analysis of plant growth and defense, including phenotypically plastic traits, suggests adaptive evolution following a continental introduction.

Deep Europe today: Geophysical synthesis of the upper mantle structure and lithospheric processes over 3.5 Ga

USGS Publications Warehouse

Artemieva, I.M.; Thybo, H.; Kaban, M.K.; ,

2006-01-01

We present a summary of geophysical models of the subcrustal lithosphere of Europe. This includes the results from seismic (reflection and refraction profiles, P- and S-wave tomography, mantle anisotropy), gravity, thermal, electromagnetic, elastic and petrological studies of the lithospheric mantle. We discuss major tectonic processes as reflected in the lithospheric structure of Europe, from Precambrian terrane accretion and subduction to Phanerozoic rifting, volcanism, subduction and continent-continent collision. The differences in the lithospheric structure of Precambrian and Phanerozoic Europe, as illustrated by a comparative analysis of different geophysical data, are shown to have both a compositional and a thermal origin. We propose an integrated model of physical properties of the European subcrustal lithosphere, with emphasis on the depth intervals around 150 and 250 km. At these depths, seismic velocity models, constrained by body-and surface-wave continent-scale tomography, are compared with mantle temperatures and mantle gravity anomalies. This comparison provides a framework for discussion of the physical or chemical origin of the major lithospheric anomalies and their relation to large-scale tectonic processes, which have formed the present lithosphere of Europe. ?? The Geological Society of London 2006.

Formation of continental crust by intrusive magmatism

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Rozel, A. B.; Golabek, G. J.; Jain, C.; Tackley, P. J.; Gerya, T.

2017-09-01

How were the continents formed in the Earth? No global numerical simulation of our planet ever managed to generate continental material self-consistently. In the present study, we show that the latest developments of the convection code StagYY enable to estimate how to produce the early continents, more than 3 billion years ago. In our models, melting of pyrolitic rocks generates a basaltic melt and leaves behind a depleted solid residue (a harzburgite). The melt generated in the mantle is transported to the surface. Only basaltic rocks melting again can generate continental crust. Should the basaltic melt always reach the open air and cool down? Should the melt be intruded warm in the pre-existing crust? The present study shows that both processes have to be considered to produce continents. Indeed, granitoids can only be created in a tight window of pressure-temperature. If all basalt is quickly cooled by surface volcanism, the lithosphere will be too cold. If all basalt is intruded warm below the crust then the lithosphere will be too warm. The key is to have both volcanism and plutonism (intrusive magmatism) to reach the optimal temperature and form massive volumes of continental material.

Natural infection in Pampas fox (Lycalopex gymnocercus) by Lagochilascaris major Leiper, 1910 (Nematoda: Ascarididae) in Buenos Aires, Argentina.

PubMed

Scioscia, Nathalia Paula; Olmos, Leandro; Gorosábel, Antonella; Bernad, Lucía; Pedrana, Julieta; Denegri, Guillermo María

2018-06-25

Lagochilascariosis is an emerging parasitic disease limited to the American continent, caused by nematodes of the genus Lagochilascaris. Its life cycle is heteroxenous, involving natural definitive hosts (wild carnivores), accidental hosts (domestic carnivores and humans), and intermediate hosts (rodents). Here we report, for the first time, the occurrence of Lagochilascaris major in female of a Pampas fox (Lycalopex gymnocercus) which was found in the Mar Chiquita basin, Buenos Aires province, Argentina. At necropsy, multiple Lagochilascaris larvae and several adults (1 female and 5 male) were observed inserted in the mucosa of the trachea and a male was also collected in the stomach. The diagnosis was made by observing the different stages with optical microscopy, by scanning electron microscopy of adult males and coproparasitological analysis. Although cases of lagochilascariosis have been reported in wildlife in different countries of the American continent, in Argentina, cases are really rare and were only found in domestic cats. Graphical abstract ᅟLagochilascariosis is an emerging parasitic disease limited to the American continent. In Argentina, sporadic cases of Lagochilascariosis were reported in domestic cats but this work represents the first record in a wild carnivore (L. gymnocercus) naturally infected with L. major.

Diversity and disparity of sparassodonts (Metatheria) reveal non-analogue nature of ancient South American mammalian carnivore guilds

PubMed Central

Dolgushina, Tatiana; Wesley, Gina

2018-01-01

This study investigates whether terrestrial mammalian carnivore guilds of ancient South America, which developed in relative isolation, were similar to those of other continents. We do so through analyses of clade diversification, ecomorphology and guild structure in the Sparassodonta, metatherians that were the predominant mammalian carnivores of pre-Pleistocene South America. Body mass and 16 characters of the dentition are used to quantify morphological diversity (disparity) in sparassodonts and to compare them to extant marsupial and placental carnivores and extinct North American carnivoramorphans. We also compare trophic diversity of the Early Miocene terrestrial carnivore guild of Santa Cruz, Argentina to that of 14 modern and fossil guilds from other continents. We find that sparassodonts had comparatively low ecomorphological disparity throughout their history and that South American carnivore palaeoguilds, as represented by that of Santa Cruz, Argentina, were unlike modern or fossil carnivore guilds of other continents in their lack of mesocarnivores and hypocarnivores. Our results add to a growing body of evidence highlighting non-analogue aspects of extinct South American mammals and illustrate the dramatic effects that historical contingency can have on the evolution of mammalian palaeocommunities. PMID:29298933

Significance of the antireflux valve for upper urinary tract pressure. An experimental study in patients with urinary diversion via a continent ileal reservoir.

PubMed

Berglund, B; Brevinge, H; Akerlund, S; Kock, N G

1992-01-01

When bladder substitution is required, a low pressure receptacle and an antireflux valve with low resistance to flow is essential for preservation of the upper urinary tract. The aim of this study was to evaluate whether these criteria are attained in the continent ileal reservoir used for urinary diversion. The investigations were performed in six patients more than one year after supravesical urinary diversion via a continent ileal reservoir. The pressure was recorded simultaneously both in the afferent loop and in the reservoir during filling of the reservoir. There was a slow parallel increase in the basal pressure in the reservoir and the afferent loop. Pressure waves appeared sometimes simultaneously and sometimes in only one compartment at a time. Only during short periods of time did the pressure exceed 25 cm of water. The frequency of pressure waves increased with increased filling of the reservoir. The "total pressure" was larger in the reservoir than in the afferent loop. It is the antireflux valve which prevents pressure rises in the reservoir from being conveyed to the upper urinary tract. The resistance to urinary flow was moderate.

Distributions of high-velocity lower crust and seismic anisotropy across the continental U.S.: Integration of seismic, xenolith, and surface geologic data to address lithospheric dynamics and history

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Schulte-Pelkum, V.; Mahan, K. H.; Shen, W.; Stachnik, J.; Caine, J. S.; Russo, R.

2017-12-01

Continental crust contains an integrated record of its tectonic history in its composition and preserved rock deformation fabrics. In this contribution, we highlight efforts to synthesize aspects of both of these records for the North American continent employing a variety of seismic and geologic data. We used EarthScope and pre-existing active source seismic data and selected xenolith studies to map the distribution of high-velocity lower crust, indicating mafic or garnet-bearing material, across the U.S. and assess its relationship to proposed emplacement and loss mechanisms such as under- and intraplating, collision, extension, heating, cooling, hydration, and delamination. Thin layers of high-velocity crust related to regional processes are found scattered throughout the continent. Thicker layers in large areas are found in the central and eastern U.S. in areas with thick crust, bounded roughly by the Rocky Mountain Front, which cuts across Proterozoic provinces. Hence, the difference between the two domains may reflect garnet growth with aging of continental crust in much of the central and eastern U.S., while conditions in the western U.S. appear unfavorable for growth and maintenance of thick layers of high-velocity garnet-bearing lower crust. In new research, we aim to complete a synthesis of seismic data and structural geologic data to derive constraints on the deformation history of the continent. EarthScope data have already been used to image seismic anisotropy from local scales along brittle faults and ductile shear zones to regional and continent-wide scales. These studies used multiple methods sensitive to different anisotropic parameters over a range of depths from shallow through deep crust and into the lithospheric mantle. Regional- to continent-wide comparisons of these results to geological data are currently hampered by a lack of large-scale geological data compilations. Our research seeks to facilitate ingestion of existing digital structural data (e.g., foliations, lineations, and orientations of major ductile and brittle faults) into EarthCube-funded and USGS-held databases. We will test scaling methods to link representative rock tensors via mapped rock fabric patterns to seismic wavelength-scale anisotropy in order to relate anisotropy to continental strain history.

Lithospheric strength across the ocean-continent transition in the NW of the Iberian Peninsula

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Martín-Velázquez, Silvia; Martín-González, Fidel

2014-05-01

The main objective of this work is to investigate the relation between the strength of the lithosphere and the observed pattern of seismicity across the ocean-continent transition in the NW margin of the Iberian Peninsula. The seismicity is diffuse in this intraplate area, far from the seismically active margin of the plate: the Eurasia-African plate boundary, where convergence occurs at a rate of 4-5mm/year. The earthquake epicentres are mainly limited to an E-W trending zone (onshore seismicity is more abundant than offshore), and most earthquakes occur at depths less than 30 km, however, offshore depths are up to 150 km). Moreover, one of the problems to unravel in this area is that the seismotectonic interpretations of the anomalous seismicity in the NW peninsular are contradictory. The temperature and strength profiles have been modelled in three domains along the non-volcanic rifted West Iberian Margin: 1) the oceanic lithosphere of the Iberian Abyssal Plain, 2) the oceanic lithosphere near the ocean-continent transition of the Galicia Bank, and 3) the continental lithosphere of the NW Iberian Massif. The average bathymetry and topography have been used to fit the thermal structures of the three types of lithospheres, given that the heat flow and heat production values show a varied range. The geotherms, together with the brittle and ductile rheological laws, have been used to calculate the strength envelopes in different stress regimes (compression, shear and tensile). The continental lithosphere-asthenosphere boundary is located at 123 km and several brittle-ductile transitions appear in the crust and the mantle. However, the oceanic lithospheres are thinner (110 km near the Galicia Bank and 87 km in the Iberian Abbysal Plain) and more simple (brittle behaviour in the crust and upper mantle). The earthquake distribution is best explained by lithospheres with dry compositions and shear or tensile stress regimes. These results are similar can be compared to those of the Gulf of Cadiz oceanic-continental transition near the Eurasia-African plate boundary (Neves and Neves, 2009), and they contribute to complete the knowledge about seismicity and lithospheric strength in the ocean-continent transition of the Iberian Peninsula. References Neves M.C., Neves, R.G.M., 2009. Flexure and seismicity across the ocean-continent transition in the Gulf of Cadiz. Journal of Geodynamics, 47, 119-129.

Gravity anomalies and associated tectonic features over the Indian Peninsular Shield and adjoining ocean basins

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Mishra, D. C.; Arora, K.; Tiwari, V. M.

2004-02-01

A combined gravity map over the Indian Peninsular Shield (IPS) and adjoining oceans brings out well the inter-relationships between the older tectonic features of the continent and the adjoining younger oceanic features. The NW-SE, NE-SW and N-S Precambrian trends of the IPS are reflected in the structural trends of the Arabian Sea and the Bay of Bengal suggesting their probable reactivation. The Simple Bouguer anomaly map shows consistent increase in gravity value from the continent to the deep ocean basins, which is attributed to isostatic compensation due to variations in the crustal thickness. A crustal density model computed along a profile across this region suggests a thick crust of 35-40 km under the continent, which reduces to 22/20-24 km under the Bay of Bengal with thick sediments of 8-10 km underlain by crustal layers of density 2720 and 2900/2840 kg/m 3. Large crustal thickness and trends of the gravity anomalies may suggest a transitional crust in the Bay of Bengal up to 150-200 km from the east coast. The crustal thickness under the Laxmi ridge and east of it in the Arabian Sea is 20 and 14 km, respectively, with 5-6 km thick Tertiary and Mesozoic sediments separated by a thin layer of Deccan Trap. Crustal layers of densities 2750 and 2950 kg/m 3 underlie sediments. The crustal density model in this part of the Arabian Sea (east of Laxmi ridge) and the structural trends similar to the Indian Peninsular Shield suggest a continent-ocean transitional crust (COTC). The COTC may represent down dropped and submerged parts of the Indian crust evolved at the time of break-up along the west coast of India and passage of Reunion hotspot over India during late Cretaceous. The crustal model under this part also shows an underplated lower crust and a low density upper mantle, extending over the continent across the west coast of India, which appears to be related to the Deccan volcanism. The crustal thickness under the western Arabian Sea (west of the Laxmi ridge) reduces to 8-9 km with crustal layers of densities 2650 and 2870 kg/m 3 representing an oceanic crust.

The longevity of Archean mantle residues in the convecting upper mantle and their role in young continent formation

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Liu, Jingao; Scott, James M.; Martin, Candace E.; Pearson, D. Graham

2015-08-01

The role played by ancient melt-depleted lithospheric mantle in preserving continental crust through time is critical in understanding how continents are built, disrupted and recycled. While it has become clear that much of the extant Archean crust is underpinned by Archean mantle roots, reports of Proterozoic melt depletion ages for peridotites erupted through Phanerozoic terranes raise the possibility that ancient buoyant lithospheric mantle acts as a "life-raft" for much of the Earth's continental crust. Here we report the largest crust-lithospheric mantle age decoupling (∼2.4 Ga) so far observed on Earth and examine the potential cause for such extreme age decoupling. The Phanerozoic (<300 Ma) continental crust of West Otago, New Zealand, is intruded by Cenozoic diatremes that have erupted cratonic mantle-like highly depleted harzburgites and dunites. These peridotites have rhenium depletion Os model ages that vary from 0.5 to 2.7 Ga, firmly establishing the record of an Archean depletion event. However, the vast range in depletion ages does not correlate with melt depletion or metasomatic tracer indices, providing little support for the presence of a significant volume of ancient mantle root beneath this region. Instead, the chemical and isotopic data are best explained by mixing of relict components of Archean depleted peridotitic mantle residues that have cycled through the asthenosphere over Ga timescales along with more fertile convecting mantle. Extensive melt depletion associated with the "docking" of these melt residues beneath the young continental crust of the Zealandia continent explains the decoupled age relationship that we observe today. Hence, the newly formed lithospheric root incorporates a mixture of ancient and modern mantle derived from the convecting mantle, cooled and accreted in recent times. We argue that in this case, the ancient components played no earlier role in continent stabilization, but their highly depleted nature along with that of their younger counterparts now represents a highly viscous, stable continental keel. This model could account for the large spectrum of ages observed in fertile to moderately depleted peridotites sampled from lithospheric mantle beneath SE Australia, W Antarctica and other locations in Zealandia, as well as the oceanic mantle. Our data confirm the longevity and dispersal of ancient depleted mantle domains in the convecting mantle and their re-appearance beneath young continents.

Magmatism at the Eurasian-North American modern plate boundary: Constraints from alkaline volcanism in the Chersky Belt (Yakutia).

PubMed

Tschegg, Cornelius; Bizimis, Michael; Schneider, David; Akinin, Vyacheslav V; Ntaflos, Theodoros

2011-07-01

The Chersky seismic belt (NE-Russia) forms the modern plate boundary of the Eurasian-North American continental plate. The geodynamic evolution of this continent-continent setting is highly complex and remains a matter of debate, as the extent and influence of the Mid-Arctic Ocean spreading center on the North Asian continent since the Eocene remains unclear. The progression from a tensional stress regime to a modern day transpressional one in the Chersky seismic belt, makes the understanding even more complicated. The alkaline volcanism that has erupted along the Chersky range from Eocene through to the Recent can provide constraints on the geodynamic evolution of this continental boundary, however, the source and petrogenetic evolution of these volcanic rocks and their initiating mechanisms are poorly understood. We studied basanites of the central Chersky belt, which are thought to represent the first alkaline volcanic activity in the area, after initial opening of the Arctic Ocean basin. We present mineral and bulk rock geochemical data as well as Sr-Nd-Pb-Hf isotopes of the alkaline suite of rocks combined with new precise K-Ar and 40 Ar/ 39 Ar dating, and discuss an integrated tectono-magmatic model for the Chersky belt. Our findings show that the basanites were generated from a homogeneous asthenospheric mantle reservoir with an EM-1 isotopic flavor, under relatively 'dry' conditions at segregation depths around 110 km and temperatures of ~ 1500 °C. Trace element and isotope systematics combined with mantle potential temperature estimates offer no confirmation of magmatism related to subduction or plume activity. Mineral geochemical and petrographical observations together with bulk geochemical evidence indicate a rapid ascent of melts and high cooling rates after emplacement in the continental crust. Our preferred model is that volcanism was triggered by extension and thinning of the lithosphere combined with adiabatic upwelling of the underlying mantle at 37 Ma. This suggests that at that time, rift tectonics in the Mid-Arctic Ocean most likely had also affected the North-Asian continent, causing volcanic activity in the Chersky belt, before the regional geodynamic regime changed from a tensional to compressional. Our conclusions contribute not only to the understanding of volcanism in the Chersky seismic belt (NE-Russia) but also to general aspects of plate dynamics between the Eurasian and North American continent.

An 1-2-1 Cyclic Model for the Evolution of Mantle Structure

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Zhong, S.; Zhang, N.

2006-12-01

The present-day Earth`s mantle is predominated by long-wavelength structures including circum-Pacific subducted slabs and Africa and Pacific super-plumes. These long-wavelength structures are largely controlled by the history of plate tectonic motion. Although it dictates the evolution of mantle structure, global plate tectonic history prior to 120 Ma is poorly constrained except for continental motions that can be reliably traced back to >1 Ga. An important observation of continental motions in the last 1 Ga is the two episodes of formation and breakup of super-continents Pangea and Rodinia. We formulated 3D global models of mantle convection with temperature- and depth-dependent viscosity to study the formation of mantle structure. We found that for the upper mantle with 30 times smaller viscosity than the lower mantle, in the absence of continents, mantle convection is characterized by a hemispherically asymmetric structure in which one hemisphere is largely upwellings, while the other hemisphere contains downwellings (i.e., degree-1 convection). This is the first study in which degree-1 mantle convection is observed in mobile-lid/plate-tectonic convection regime at high Rayleigh number. This result suggests that degree-1 convection is a dynamically preferred state for the Earth`s mantle. We suggest that the evolution of mantle structure is controlled by a cyclic process of formation and breakdown of degree-1 convection modulated strongly by continents. The formation and breakup of supercontinents are surface manifestation of this cyclic process. During the degree-1 convection state, the upwellings in one hemisphere push all continents into the other hemisphere with the downwellings to form a supercontinent. The non-subducting nature of continents dictates that subduction in the downwelling hemisphere occurs along the edge of the supercontinent upon its formation. The insulating effect of a supercontinent and return flow from the circum-supercontinent subduction should heat up sub-continental mantle and lead to formation of another upwelling system below the supercontinent and eventually to breakup of the supercontinent. After the breakup of a supercontinent, the mantle with two large upwellings, similar to that for the present-day Earth, is then evolved back to degree-1 convection state. We will also discuss the geological and geophysical consequences of our proposed model.

Late orogenic processes between Baltica and Siberia cratons during the building of Pangea

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Puchkov, V.

2003-04-01

Since the Middle Carboniferous, the territory between the Baltica, Kazakhstania and Siberia plates have been part of the continental crust, the last oceanic crust having by then been subducted. At this time continent-continent collision started and proceeded until the latest epochs of the Paleozoic, forming the Uralide orogen. Two features of this collision standout: 1) The northward movement of the Kazakhstanian block between the Baltica and Siberia plates resulted in a large-scale oroclinal bend of structures in West Siberia, which is well expressed in the magnetic field, as well as in the exposed Kazakhstanian structures, and 2) The orogenic event affected the whole territory between the Baltica and Siberia cratons, including the Kazakhstanian continent. A series of intermontane molasse basins are distributed throughout the orogen and in some places, like Bolshoi Karatau, are affected by Late Paleozoic deformation. Continent-continent collision had ceased by the end of the Permian, and in many places Triassic sediments unconformably overly the orogen. Triassic sedimentary sequences are typically coarse-grained (eventually proluvial), evidencing a new stage of mountain building, though many researchers have attributed this to a superplume event. The reason being the widespread flood basalt eruptions that took place not only between, but also on the cratons under discussion. There is a point of view that the break-up of the supercontinents (e.g., Pangea and Rodinia) was preceded by such a superplume event, passing to formation of linear graben systems and then to oceanic spreading. In the case under discussion, the process was arrested (the West Siberian basin with its grabens is often called a "failed ocean"). There is reason to suspect that the Paleozoic collision that led to formation of the Uralides left an enclosed ocean basin in the North, between the Baltica and Siberia plates. Only in the Early Jurassic, with the advent of the Old Kimmerian collision did it finally close, creating the Paykhoy-Novaya Zemlya foldbelt and reworking the Taymyr system. Paleomagnetic data support the conclusion that this event resulted from a rotation of the Siberian craton and high-amplitude strike-slip movements. Elsewhere in Pangea, the processes leading to its break-up had started by the time of the Old Kimmerian event.

Greater India

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Ali, Jason R.; Aitchison, Jonathan C.

2005-10-01

"Greater India" is an 80-yr-old concept that has been used by geoscientists in plate tectonic models of the India-Asia collision system. Numerous authors working on the orogen and/or plate models of the broader region have added various sized chunks of continental lithosphere to the now northern edge of their reconstructed Indian plate. Prior to plate tectonic theory, Emile Argand (1924) [Argand, E., 1924. La tectonique de l' Asie. Proc. 13th Int. Geol. Cong. 7 (1924), 171-372.] and Arthur Holmes (1965) [Holmes, A., 1965. Principles of Physical Geology, Second Edition. The Ronald Press Company, New York, 1128.] thought that the Himalayan Mountains and Tibetan Plateau had been raised due to the northern edge of the Indian craton under-thrusting the entire region. Since the advent of plate tectonic theory, Greater India proposals have been based principally on three lines of logic. One group of workers has added various amounts of continental lithosphere to India as part of their Mesozoic Gondwana models. A second form of reconstruction is based on Himalayan crustal-shortening estimates. A third body of researchers has used India continent extensions as means of allowing initial contact between the block and the Eurasian backstop plate in southern Tibet to take place at various times between the Late Cretaceous and late Eocene in what we call "fill-the-gap" solutions. The Indian craton and the southern edge of Eurasia were almost invariably some distance from one another when the collision was supposed to have started; extensions to the sub-continent were used to circumvent the problem. Occasionally, Greater India extensions have been based on a combination of fill-the-gap and shortening estimate arguments. In this paper, we exhume and re-examine the key Greater India proposals. From our analysis, it is clear that many proponents have ignored key information regarding the sub-continent's pre break-up position within Gondwana and the bathymetry of the Indian Ocean west of Australia, in particular the Wallaby-Zenith Plateau Ridge and the Wallaby-Zenith Fracture Zone. We suggest that the Indian continent probably extended no more than 950 km in the central portion of the Main Boundary Thrust, up to the Wallaby-Zenith Fracture Zone. At the Western Syntaxis, the extension was about 600 km. These estimates are broadly compatible with some of the geophysically-derived models depicting subducted Indian lithosphere beneath Tibet, as well as estimates of Himalayan shortening. Models requiring sub-continent extensions > 9° ahead of the craton are probably wrong. We also suggest that northern India did not have a thinned rifted passive margin due to the earlier rifting of blocks away from it when it formed part of Gondwana. Instead, the boundary developed as a transform fault and probably had a very narrow ocean-continent transition zone (5-10 km wide), similar to the Romanche Fracture Zone offshore of Ghana, West Africa.

Self-consistent formation of continents on early Earth

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Noack, Lena; Van Hoolst, Tim; Breuer, Doris; Dehant, Véronique

2013-04-01

In our study we want to understand how Earth evolved with time and examine the initiation of plate tectonics and the possible formation of continents on Earth. Plate tectonics and continents seem to influence the likelihood of a planet to harbour life [1], and both are strongly influenced by the planetary interior (e.g. mantle temperature and rheology) and surface conditions (e.g. stabilizing effect of continents, atmospheric temperature), and may also depend on the biosphere. Earth is the only terrestrial planet (i.e. with a rocky mantle and iron core) in the solar system where long-term plate tectonics evolved. Knowing the factors that have a strong influence on the occurrence of plate tectonics allows for prognoses about plate tectonics on terrestrial exoplanets that have been detected in the past decade, and about the likelihood of these planets to harbour Earth-like life. For this purpose, planetary interior and surface processes are coupled via 'particles' as computational tracers in the 3D code GAIA [2,3]. These particles are dispersed in the mantle and crust of the modelled planet and can track the relevant rock properties (e.g. density or water content) over time. During the thermal evolution of the planet, the particles are advected due to mantle convection and along melt paths towards the surface and help to gain information about the thermo-chemical system. This way basaltic crust that is subducted into the silicate mantle is traced in our model. It is treated differently than mantle silicates when re-molten, such that granitic (felsic) crust is produced (similar to the evolution of continental crust on early Earth [4]), which is stored in the particle properties. We apply a pseudo-plastic rheology and use small friction coefficients (since an increased reference viscosity is used in our model). We obtain initiation of plate tectonics and self-consistent formation of pre-continents after a few Myr up to several Gyr - depending on the initial conditions and applied rheology. Furthermore, our first results indicate that continents can stabilize plate tectonics, analogous to the results obtained by [5]. The model will be further developed to treat hydration and dehydration of oceanic crust as well as subduction of carbonates to allow for a self-consistent 3D model of early Earth including a direct link between interior and atmosphere via both outgassing [6] and regassing. References [1] Ward, P.D. and Brownlee, D. (2000), Rare Earth, Springer. [2] Hüttig, C. and Stemmer, K. (2008), PEPI, 171(1-4):137-146. [3] Plesa, A.-C., Tosi, N. and Hüttig, C. (2013), in: Integrated Information and Computing Systems for Natural, Spatial, and Social Sciences, IGI Global, 302-323. [4] Arndt, N.T. and Nisbet, E.G. (2012), Annu. Rev. Earth Planet. Sci., 40:521-549. [5] Rolf, T. and Tackley, P.J. (2011), GRL, 38:L18301. [6] Noack, L., Breuer, D. and Spohn, T. (2012), Icarus, 217(2):484-498.

Geochemical Interpretation of Collision Volcanism

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Pearce, Julian

2014-05-01

Collision volcanism can be defined as volcanism that takes place during an orogeny from the moment that continental subduction starts to the end of orogenic collapse. Its importance in the Geological Record is greatly underestimated as collision volcanics are easily misinterpreted as being of volcanic arc, extensional or mantle plume origin. There are many types of collision volcanic province: continent-island arc collision (e.g. Banda arc); continent-active margin collision (e.g. Tibet, Turkey-Iran); continent-rear-arc collision (e.g. Bolivia); continent-continent collision (e.g. Tuscany); and island arc-island arc collision (e.g. Taiwan). Superimposed on this variability is the fact that every orogeny is different in detail. Nonetheless, there is a general theme of cyclicity on different time scales. This starts with syn-collision volcanism resulting from the subduction of an ocean-continent transition and continental lithosphere, and continues through post-collision volcanism. The latter can be subdivided into orogenic volcanism, which is related to thickened crust, and post-orogenic, which is related to orogenic collapse. Typically, but not always, collision volcanism is preceded by normal arc volcanism and followed by normal intraplate volcanism. Identification and interpretation of collision volcanism in the Geologic Record is greatly facilitated if a dated stratigraphic sequence is present so that the petrogenic evolution can be traced. In any case, the basis of fingerprinting collision terranes is to use geochemical proxies for mantle and subduction fluxes, slab temperatures, and depths and degrees of melting. For example, syn-collision volcanism is characterized by a high subduction flux relative to mantle flux because of the high input flux of fusible sediment and crust coupled with limited mantle flow, and because of high slab temperatures resulting from the decrease in subduction rate. The resulting geochemical patterns are similar regardless of collision type with extreme LILE and significant HFSE enrichment relative to MORB and with large negative Nb-Ta and Ti anomalies. Post-collision volcanism is usually ascribed to combinations of slab detachment, delamination, and slab roll back (orogenic) and extension (post-orogenic). The magma source is typically conductively-heated, sub-continental mantle lithosphere with composition and depth of melting depending on the nature and evolution of the collision zone in question. Geochemical patterns may be similar to those of syn-collision basalts or of intraplate, continental basalts - or transitional between these. This variability in space and time, though problematic for geochemical fingerprinting, can give clues to the polarity and development of the collision zone, for example by highlighting the distribution of subduction-modified mantle lithosphere and hence of pre-collision subduction zones. One characteristic common to this setting is a high crustal input resulting from the presence of a hot, thick 'crustal chemical filter' which is evident on geochemical projections that highlight AFC-type processes. Using this, and other, geochemical features it is possible to develop methodologies to at least partly see through the complexity of collision terranes.

First Report of Outbreaks of the Fall Armyworm Spodoptera frugiperda (J E Smith) (Lepidoptera, Noctuidae), a New Alien Invasive Pest in West and Central Africa

PubMed Central

Sankung, Sagnia B.; Togola, Abou; Tamò, Manuele

2016-01-01

The fall armyworm Spodoptera frugiperda is a prime noctuid pest of maize on the American continents where it has remained confined despite occasional interceptions by European quarantine services in recent years. The pest has currently become a new invasive species in West and Central Africa where outbreaks were recorded for the first time in early 2016. The presence of at least two distinct haplotypes within samples collected on maize in Nigeria and São Tomé suggests multiple introductions into the African continent. Implications of this new threat to the maize crop in tropical Africa are briefly discussed. PMID:27788251

The (146,147)Sm-(142,143)Nd systematics of early terrestrial differentiation and the lost continents of the early Earth

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Harper, Charles L., Jr.; Jacobsen, Stein B.

1992-01-01

The very early history of the Earth has been one of the great enduring puzzles in the history of geology. We report evidence which clearly can be described as a vestige of a beginning, because the evidence that we report cannot be interpreted in any other way except as a geochemical signal of processes active in the very early history of the Earth. The evidence itself is a very small anomaly in the abundance of SM-146. The primary aims of this study were to: (1) verify the existence of the 'lost continents' of the Hadean era; and (2) determine their mean age.

The decline of North American freshwater fishes

USGS Publications Warehouse

Walsh, Stephen J.; Jelks, Howard L.; Burkhead, Noel M.

2009-01-01

North America has a broad array of freshwater ecosystems because of the continent's complex geography and geological history. Within a multitude of habitats—that include streams, large rivers, natural lakes, springs, and wetlands—rich assemblages of fishes reside, representing diverse taxonomic groups with unique ecological requirements. They face an unprecedented conservation crisis.1 In the last few decades, the proportion of inland fishes of North America, which are considered imperiled or extinct, increased from 20 to 40%.2 Although extinctions have occurred, many species and populations are declining in range size and abundance. The fish biota of the continent as a whole remains diverse; however, we can take action to stem any further declines.

CONTIN XPCS: software for inverse transform analysis of X-ray photon correlation spectroscopy dynamics

DOE Office of Scientific and Technical Information (OSTI.GOV)

Andrews, Ross N.; Narayanan, Suresh; Zhang, Fan

X-ray photon correlation spectroscopy (XPCS) and dynamic light scattering (DLS) reveal materials dynamics using coherent scattering, with XPCS permitting the investigation of dynamics in a more diverse array of materials than DLS. Heterogeneous dynamics occur in many material systems. The authors' recent work has shown how classic tools employed in the DLS analysis of heterogeneous dynamics can be extended to XPCS, revealing additional information that conventional Kohlrausch exponential fitting obscures. The present work describes the software implementation of inverse transform analysis of XPCS data. This software, calledCONTIN XPCS, is an extension of traditionalCONTINanalysis and accommodates the various dynamics encountered inmore » equilibrium XPCS measurements.« less

Importance of bovine mastitis in Africa.

PubMed

Motaung, Thabiso E; Petrovski, Kiro R; Petzer, Inge-Marie; Thekisoe, Oriel; Tsilo, Toi J

2017-06-01

Bovine mastitis is an important animal production disease that affects the dairy industry globally. Studies have estimated the prevalence of this disease in approximately 30% of African countries, with the highest prevalence found in Ethiopia. This is despite the wide cattle distribution in Africa, and the largest number of dairy farms and herds in countries such as South Africa, Kenya and Uganda. Furthermore, the estimated financial losses due to direct and indirect impacts of bovine mastitis are lacking in this continent. Therefore, intensive research efforts will help determine the continent-wide economic impacts and advance careful monitoring of disease prevalence and epidemiology. Here, published cases supporting the occurrence and importance of bovine mastitis in certain regions of Africa are outlined.

CONTIN XPCS: software for inverse transform analysis of X-ray photon correlation spectroscopy dynamics

DOE PAGES

Andrews, Ross N.; Narayanan, Suresh; Zhang, Fan; ...

2018-02-01

X-ray photon correlation spectroscopy (XPCS) and dynamic light scattering (DLS) reveal materials dynamics using coherent scattering, with XPCS permitting the investigation of dynamics in a more diverse array of materials than DLS. Heterogeneous dynamics occur in many material systems. The authors' recent work has shown how classic tools employed in the DLS analysis of heterogeneous dynamics can be extended to XPCS, revealing additional information that conventional Kohlrausch exponential fitting obscures. The present work describes the software implementation of inverse transform analysis of XPCS data. This software, calledCONTIN XPCS, is an extension of traditionalCONTINanalysis and accommodates the various dynamics encountered inmore » equilibrium XPCS measurements.« less

A photoelectric amplifier as a dye detector

USGS Publications Warehouse

Ebel, Wesley J.

1962-01-01

A dye detector, based on a modified photoelectric amplifier, has been planned, built, and tested. It was designed to record automatically the time of arrival of fluorescein dye at predetermined points in a stream system. Laboratory tests and stream trials proved the instrument to be efficient. Small changes in color can be detected in turbid or clear water. The unit has been used successfully for timing intervals of more than 17 hours; significant savings of time and manpower have resulted. Replacement of the clock, included in the original device, with a recording milliammeter increases the efficiency of the unit by contin,!ously recording changes in turbidity. The addition of this component would increase the cost from $75 to approximately $105.

Strain-specific and pooled genome sequences for populations of Drosophila melanogaster from three continents.

PubMed Central

Bergman, Casey M.; Haddrill, Penelope R.

2015-01-01

To contribute to our general understanding of the evolutionary forces that shape variation in genome sequences in nature, we have sequenced genomes from 50 isofemale lines and six pooled samples from populations of Drosophila melanogaster on three continents. Analysis of raw and reference-mapped reads indicates the quality of these genomic sequence data is very high. Comparison of the predicted and experimentally-determined Wolbachia infection status of these samples suggests that strain or sample swaps are unlikely to have occurred in the generation of these data. Genome sequences are freely available in the European Nucleotide Archive under accession ERP009059. Isofemale lines can be obtained from the Drosophila Species Stock Center. PMID:25717372

Strain-specific and pooled genome sequences for populations of Drosophila melanogaster from three continents.

PubMed

Bergman, Casey M; Haddrill, Penelope R

2015-01-01

To contribute to our general understanding of the evolutionary forces that shape variation in genome sequences in nature, we have sequenced genomes from 50 isofemale lines and six pooled samples from populations of Drosophila melanogaster on three continents. Analysis of raw and reference-mapped reads indicates the quality of these genomic sequence data is very high. Comparison of the predicted and experimentally-determined Wolbachia infection status of these samples suggests that strain or sample swaps are unlikely to have occurred in the generation of these data. Genome sequences are freely available in the European Nucleotide Archive under accession ERP009059. Isofemale lines can be obtained from the Drosophila Species Stock Center.

Early cretaceous dinosaurs from the sahara.

PubMed

Sereno, P C; Wilson, J A; Larsson, H C; Dutheil, D B; Sues, H D

1994-10-14

A major question in Mesozoic biogeography is how the land-based dinosaurian radiation responded to fragmentation of Pangaea. A rich fossil record has been uncovered on northern continents that spans the Cretaceous, when continental isolation reached its peak. In contrast, dinosaur remains on southern continents are scarce. The discovery of dinosaurian skeletons from Lower Cretaceous beds in the southern Sahara shows that several lineages of tetanuran theropods and broad-toothed sauropods had a cosmopolitan distribution across Pangaea before the onset of continental fragmentation. The distinct dinosaurian faunas of Africa, South America, and Asiamerica arose during the Cretaceous by differential survival of once widespread lineages on land masses that were becoming increasingly isolated from one another.

Does Europe have a centre? Reflections on the history of Western and Central Europe

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Mout, Nicolette

2006-05-01

Any definition of Central Europe based on geographical and/or historical facts causes difficulties. The line dividing Europe during the Cold War has a very limited use because it does not take into account Central Europe as a special part of the continent. Historians such as Geoffrey Barraclough, Hugh Seton-Watson and Oskar Halecki discussed the idea of a separate identity of Central Europe during the Cold War. Especially after the fall of the Berlin Wall, this discussion was re-opened. From a historian's point of view, the most important contributions came from Piotr Wandycz and Jeno Szucs. An imaginary centre of Europe can only be found in the continent's common history.

Biomaterials in the Treatment of Anal Fistula: Hope or Hype?

PubMed Central

Scoglio, Daniele; Walker, Avery S.; Fichera, Alessandro

2014-01-01

Anal fistula (AF) presents a chronic problem for patients and colorectal surgeons alike. Surgical treatment may result in impairment of continence and long-term risk of recurrence. Treatment options for AFs vary according to their location and complexity. The ideal approach should result in low recurrence rates and minimal impact on continence. New technical approaches involving biologically derived products such as biological mesh, fibrin glue, fistula plug, and stem cells have been applied in the treatment of AF to improve outcomes and decrease recurrence rates and the risk of fecal incontinence. In this review, we will highlight the current evidence and describe our personal experience with these novel approaches. PMID:25435826

First Report of Outbreaks of the Fall Armyworm Spodoptera frugiperda (J E Smith) (Lepidoptera, Noctuidae), a New Alien Invasive Pest in West and Central Africa.

PubMed

Goergen, Georg; Kumar, P Lava; Sankung, Sagnia B; Togola, Abou; Tamò, Manuele

2016-01-01

The fall armyworm Spodoptera frugiperda is a prime noctuid pest of maize on the American continents where it has remained confined despite occasional interceptions by European quarantine services in recent years. The pest has currently become a new invasive species in West and Central Africa where outbreaks were recorded for the first time in early 2016. The presence of at least two distinct haplotypes within samples collected on maize in Nigeria and São Tomé suggests multiple introductions into the African continent. Implications of this new threat to the maize crop in tropical Africa are briefly discussed.