Widespread diversity deficits of coral reef sharks and rays.

A global survey of coral reefs reveals that overfishing is driving resident shark species toward extinction, causing diversity deficits in reef elasmobranch (shark and ray) assemblages. Our species-level analysis revealed global declines of 60 to 73% for five common resident reef shark species and that individual shark species were not detected at 34 to 47% of surveyed reefs. As reefs become more shark-depleted, rays begin to dominate assemblages.

Enhanced study of facial soft tissues using a novel large scale histology technique.

The safety and effectiveness of facial cosmetic surgery procedures are dependent on detailed 3D understanding of the complex surgical anatomy of the face. Traditional, small sample size anatomical dissection studies have limitations in providing definitive clarification of the fascial layers of the face, and especially in their relationship with the facial nerve, and their reaction to surgical manipulation. The objective study of large tissue areas is required to effectively demonstrate the broader architecture.

Author Correction: Global status and conservation potential of reef sharks.

An Amendment to this paper has been published and can be accessed via a link at the top of the paper.

Global status and conservation potential of reef sharks.

Decades of overexploitation have devastated shark populations, leaving considerable doubt as to their ecological status. Yet much of what is known about sharks has been inferred from catch records in industrial fisheries, whereas far less information is available about sharks that live in coastal habitats. Here we address this knowledge gap using data from more than 15,000 standardized baited remote underwater video stations that were deployed on 371 reefs in 58 nations to estimate the conservation status of reef sharks globally.

New insights into the identities of the elasmobranch fauna of Sri Lanka.

Identities of elasmobranchs from Sri Lanka encountered during collections conducted in an intensive nine-day survey of fish markets and landing sites at 11 localities in the North Western, Northern, and Eastern Provinces in March of 2018 were assessed. In total, 111 specimens representing 34 elasmobranch species were examined. Sequence data for the NADH2 gene were generated for all specimens.

Automatic detection of one-on-one tackles and ruck events using microtechnology in rugby union.

Objectives: To automate the detection of ruck and tackle events in rugby union using a specifically-designed algorithm based on microsensor data.

Design: Cross-sectional study.

Methods: Elite rugby union players wore microtechnology devices (Catapult, S5) during match-play.

Sonogashira diversification of unprotected halotryptophans, halotryptophan containing tripeptides; and generation of a new to nature bromo-natural product and its diversification in water.

The blending together of synthetic chemistry with natural product biosynthesis represents a potentially powerful approach to synthesis; to enable this, further synthetic tools and methodologies are needed. To this end, we have explored the first Sonogashira cross-coupling to halotryptophans in water. Broad reaction scope is demonstrated and we have explored the limits of the scope of the reaction.

Knowledge-Assisted Ranking: A Visual Analytic Application for Sports Event Data.

Organizing sports video data for performance analysis can be challenging, especially in cases involving multiple attributes and when the criteria for sorting frequently changes depending on the user's task. The proposed visual analytic system enables users to specify a sort requirement in a flexible manner without depending on specific knowledge about individual sort keys. The authors use regression techniques to train different analytical models for different types of sorting requirements and use visualization to facilitate knowledge discovery at different stages of the process.

Transformation of an uncertain video search pipeline to a sketch-based visual analytics loop.

Traditional sketch-based image or video search systems rely on machine learning concepts as their core technology. However, in many applications, machine learning alone is impractical since videos may not be semantically annotated sufficiently, there may be a lack of suitable training data, and the search requirements of the user may frequently change for different tasks. In this work, we develop a visual analytics systems that overcomes the shortcomings of the traditional approach.

A forward modeling approach for interpreting impeller flow logs.

A rigorous and practical approach for interpretation of impeller flow log data to determine vertical variations in hydraulic conductivity is presented and applied to two well logs from a Chalk aquifer in England. Impeller flow logging involves measuring vertical flow speed in a pumped well and using changes in flow with depth to infer the locations and magnitudes of inflows into the well. However, the measured flow logs are typically noisy, which leads to spurious hydraulic conductivity values where simplistic interpretation approaches are applied.

An overview of the pharmacology, efficacy, safety and cost-effectiveness of lansoprazole.

Lansoprazole is a proton pump inhibitor that reduces gastric acid secretion in a dose-dependent manner via inhibition of H+/K+-adenosine triphosphatase in gastric parietal cells. It also exhibits antibacterial activity against Helicobacter pylori in vitro. During almost 10 years of clinical use, lansoprazole has proved effective and well tolerated in a wide range of acid-related disorders, including gastro-oesophageal reflux disease (GORD), duodenal ulcers, gastric ulcers, non-steroidal anti-inflammatory drug-related ulcers, as well as non-ulcer dyspepsia and acid hypersecretion.

Colorectal carcinoma in patients with ulcerative colitis and recent colonoscopy.

Longstanding ulcerative colitis, particularly pancolitis, is associated with an increased risk of colorectal neoplasia. For this reason surveillance colonoscopy at regular intervals has been recommended to identify early cancers or high grade dysplasia. Three cases are described of patients with ulcerative colitis of greater than 10 years duration who presented with colorectal carcinoma within three years of colonoscopy.

Comparison of occult blood loss caused by pirazolac and diclofenac sodium: a double-blind crossover study.

A study was carried out in 10 healthy subjects to compare the faecal blood loss caused by pirazolac, a new non-steroidal anti-inflammatory drug, and diclofenac sodium, using chromium51-labelled red blood cells. After 1 week on placebo, subjects received at random either 200 mg pirazolac 3-times daily or 50 mg diclofenac sodium 3-times daily for 7 days. They were then crossed over to the alternative medication for a further 7 days, preceded and followed by 1 week on placebo.

Jejunal motility in patients with functional abdominal pain.

A radiotelemetric system using dual pressure pills was used to record the jejunal motility in man. Prolonged recordings were made under relatively physiological conditions. Six patients with functional abdominal pain and six age/sex matched normal subjects were studied.

A controlled trial of alternate day prednisolone as a maintenance treatment for ulcerative colitis in remission.

A double-blind crossover trial compared prednisolone, 40 mg given orally on alternate days, with placebo as a maintenance treatment for ulcerative colitis in remission. In each patient, the study was over two periods of 3 months. Of 24 patients who completed both periods, 11 relapsed while taking placebo but not while taking prednisolone, and 1 relapsed on prednisolone but did not on placebo (p less than 0.

Pericarditis and inflammatory bowel disease.

Pericarditis is an uncommon but important complication of inflammatory bowel disease. Five new cases are described and the published literature on nine other cases is reviewed. The pericarditis occurred during an active phase of the colitis in all our cases and was associated with other extra-colonic manifestations of colitis in three.

Double-blind withdrawal trial of azathioprine as maintenance treatment for Crohn's disease.

51 patients with Crohn's disease who were in good health while taking azathiprine, 2 mg/kg body-weight/day, for at least six months were allocated either to a group in which azathioprine was continued or to one in which a control tablet was substituted. The trial lasted one year unless relapse recurred earlier. The cumulative probability of relapse was nil at six months and 5% (+/-5 S.

A comparison of oral prednisolone given as single or multiple daily doses for active proctocolitis.

Forty mg has been shown to be the optimal daily dosage of prednisone for outpatients requiring oral steroids for active proctocolitis. Although daily doses of oral steroids are commonly divided, a single dose each morning causes less adrenal suppression and is more convenient to take. A randomized controlled trial has been performed on patients with proctocolitis, in which 23 received 40 mg prednisolone each morning as one dose, and 22 received 10 mg four times a day, over two weeks.

The contingent negative variation and psychological findings in chronic hepatic encephalopathy.

Early diagnosis of chronic hepatic encephalopathy (CHE) in the latent stage before the appearance of clinical signs, should reduce both morbidity and mortality as deterioration is often preventable by treatment. Since existing diagnostic procedures are inadequate, we have investigated a test in which morphine is used as a provocative agent and any resulting change in cerebral function assessed by measurement of the CNV in conjuction with a psychological trail test. Twenty six patients were studied, 6 of whom had clinically overt CHE.

Primary biliary cirrhosis in brothers.

This is the first report of two brothers who demonstrated the classical clinical course, histology, biochemistry and auto-antibodies of primary biliary cirrhosis. Both also exhibited an associated keratoconjunctivitis sicca and, in one, renal tubular acidosis resulted in severe systemic acidosis after lactulose therapy and with a subsequent intraperitoneal variceal rupture. Screening of the relatives recalled a high incidence of ‘auto-immune’ disease and auto-antibodies.