Comparison of Internal Energy Distributions of Ions Created by Electrospray Ionization and Laser Ablation-Liquid Vortex Capture/Electrospray Ionization.

Recently a number of techniques have combined laser ablation with liquid capture for mass spectrometry spot sampling and imaging applications. The newly developed noncontact liquid-vortex capture probe has been used to efficiently collect material ablated by a 355 nm UV laser in a continuous flow solvent stream in which the captured material dissolves and then undergoes electrospray ionization. This sampling and ionization approach has produced what appears to be classic electrospray ionization spectra; however, the 'softness' of this sampling/ionization process versus simple electrospray ionization has not been definitely determined.

Reexamining Sample Size Requirements for Multivariate, Abundance-Based Community Research: When Resources are Limited, the Research Does Not Have to Be.

Community ecologists commonly perform multivariate techniques (e.g., ordination, cluster analysis) to assess patterns and gradients of taxonomic variation.

Genomic Data from Extinct North American Camelops Revise Camel Evolutionary History.

Recent advances in paleogenomic technologies have enabled an increasingly detailed understanding of the evolutionary relationships of now-extinct mammalian taxa. However, a number of enigmatic Quaternary species have never been characterized with molecular data, often because available fossils are rare or are found in environments that are not optimal for DNA preservation. Here, we analyze paleogenomic data extracted from bones attributed to the late Pleistocene western camel, Camelops cf.

Personal health records, symptoms, uncertainty, and mood in brain tumor patients.

Background: The advantages of patient access to the electronic medical record (EMR) through integrated personal health records (PHR) may be substantial, and foremost is the enhanced information flow between patient and practitioner. Because this is an emerging technology, the actualized benefits to complex patient groups remain largely unknown. MD Anderson Cancer Center provides web-based PHR portal access to the EMR including clinic notes, MRI results, and pathology reports.

Ectomycorrhizal fungi mediate indirect effects of a bark beetle outbreak on secondary chemistry and establishment of pine seedlings.

Dendroctonus ponderosae has killed millions of Pinus contorta in western North America with subsequent effects on stand conditions, including changes in light intensity, needle deposition, and the composition of fungal community mutualists, namely ectomycorrhizal fungi. It is unknown whether these changes in stand conditions will have cascading consequences for the next generation of pine seedlings. To test for transgenerational cascades on pine seedlings, we tested the effects of fungal inoculum origin (beetle-killed or undisturbed stands), light intensity and litter (origin and presence) on seedling secondary chemistry and growth in a glasshouse.

Religion, Spirituality, and the Hidden Curriculum: Medical Student and Faculty Reflections.

Context: Religion and spirituality play an important role in physicians' medical practice, but little research has examined their influence within the socialization of medical trainees and the hidden curriculum.

Objectives: The objective is to explore the role of religion and spirituality as they intersect with aspects of medicine's hidden curriculum.

Methods: Semiscripted, one-on-one interviews and focus groups (n = 33 respondents) were conducted to assess Harvard Medical School student and faculty experiences of religion/spirituality and the professionalization process during medical training.

Disentangling root system responses to neighbours: identification of novel root behavioural strategies.

Plants live in a social environment, with interactions among neighbours a ubiquitous aspect of life. Though many of these interactions occur in the soil, our understanding of how plants alter root growth and the patterns of soil occupancy in response to neighbours is limited. This is in contrast to a rich literature on the animal behavioural responses to changes in the social environment.

Compound risk: History of traumatic stress predicts posttraumatic stress disorder symptoms and severity in sudden cardiac arrest survivors.

Background: Sudden cardiac arrest (SCA) survivors can develop posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD) which is associated with worse clinical outcomes. The purpose of this study was to evaluate the prevalence and predictors of PTSD in a large sample of SCA survivors. Prior history of psychological trauma and the effects of repeated trauma exposure on subsequent PTSD and symptom severity after SCA were also explored.

Scaling disturbance instead of richness to better understand anthropogenic impacts on biodiversity.

A primary impediment to understanding how species diversity and anthropogenic disturbance are related is that both diversity and disturbance can depend on the scales at which they are sampled. While the scale dependence of diversity estimation has received substantial attention, the scale dependence of disturbance estimation has been essentially overlooked. Here, we break from conventional examination of the diversity-disturbance relationship by holding the area over which species richness is estimated constant and instead manipulating the area over which human disturbance is measured.

The psychosis-like effects of Δ(9)-tetrahydrocannabinol are associated with increased cortical noise in healthy humans.

Background: Drugs that induce psychosis may do so by increasing the level of task-irrelevant random neural activity or neural noise. Increased levels of neural noise have been demonstrated in psychotic disorders. We tested the hypothesis that neural noise could also be involved in the psychotomimetic effects of delta-9-tetrahydrocannabinol (Δ(9)-THC), the principal active constituent of cannabis.

Limited impacts of extensive human land use on dominance, specialization, and biotic homogenization in boreal plant communities.

Background: Niche theory predicts that human disturbance should influence the assembly of communities, favouring functionally homogeneous communities dominated by few but widespread generalists. The decline and loss of specialists leaves communities with species that are functionally more similar. Evenness of species occupancy declines, such that species become either widespread of rare.

Membrane fusion during phage lysis.

In general, phages cause lysis of the bacterial host to effect release of the progeny virions. Until recently, it was thought that degradation of the peptidoglycan (PG) was necessary and sufficient for osmotic bursting of the cell. Recently, we have shown that in Gram-negative hosts, phage lysis also requires the disruption of the outer membrane (OM).

Rapid Increases in forest understory diversity and productivity following a mountain pine beetle (Dendroctonus ponderosae) outbreak in pine forests.

The current unprecedented outbreak of mountain pine beetle (Dendroctonus ponderosae) in lodgepole pine (Pinus contorta) forests of western Canada has resulted in a landscape consisting of a mosaic of forest stands at different stages of mortality. Within forest stands, understory communities are the reservoir of the majority of plant species diversity and influence the composition of future forests in response to disturbance. Although changes to stand composition following beetle outbreaks are well documented, information on immediate responses of forest understory plant communities is limited.

Superlinear growth of Rayleigh scattering-induced intensity noise in single-mode fibers.

Rayleigh scattering generates intensity noise close to an optical carrier that propagates in a single-mode optical fiber. This noise degrades the performance of optoelectronic oscillators and RF-photonic links. When using a broad linewidth laser, we previously found that the intensity noise power scales linearly with optical power and fiber length, which is consistent with guided entropy mode Rayleigh scattering (GEMRS), a third order nonlinear scattering process, in the spontaneous limit.

Linkages of plant-soil feedbacks and underlying invasion mechanisms.

Soil microbial communities and processes have repeatedly been shown to impact plant community assembly and population growth. Soil-driven effects may be particularly pronounced with the introduction of plants to non-native ranges, as introduced plants are not typically accompanied by transference of local soil communities. Here we describe how the mechanisms by which soil community processes influence plant growth overlap with several known and well-described mechanisms of plant invasion.

Managing pain in prison: staff perspectives.

Purpose: The purpose of this paper is to present the findings of one part of a larger study, funded by the National Institute for Health Research, which explored the management of pain in adult male prisoners in one large category B prison in England. In this paper, the authors focus on the attitudes and perceptions of prison staff towards pain management in prison.

Design/methodology/approach: A qualitative design was utilised to explore the staff perceptions of pain and pain management in one adult male prison.

The rising trend in allergic contact dermatitis to acrylic nail products.

Shellac is a newly available type of long-wearing nail polish, which is becoming increasingly popular. We describe four cases of allergic contact dermatitis (ACD) to acrylates found in Shellac nail products, involving three beauticians and one consumer who purchased the product over the internet. Increasing use of these new acrylic nail products means that dermatologists need to be aware of the possibility of ACD occurring.

Δ9-THC Disrupts Gamma (γ)-Band Neural Oscillations in Humans.

Gamma (γ)-band oscillations play a key role in perception, associative learning, and conscious awareness and have been shown to be disrupted by cannabinoids in animal studies. The goal of this study was to determine whether cannabinoids disrupt γ-oscillations in humans and whether these effects relate to their psychosis-relevant behavioral effects. The acute, dose-related effects of Δ-9-tetrahydrocannabinol (Δ(9)-THC) on the auditory steady-state response (ASSR) were studied in humans (n=20) who completed 3 test days during which they received intravenous Δ(9)-THC (placebo, 0.

Towards an understanding of the dynamic sociomaterial embodiment of interprofessional collaboration.

Many notions of interprofessional collaboration appear to aim for the ideal of trouble-free co-operative communication between healthcare professionals. This study challenges such an ideal as too far removed from the complex and contested relations of power that characterise the albeit skilful everyday social interactions which take place within healthcare practice, along with the associated pragmatic compromises made by disempowered practitioners. It is noted that these may be facilitated by modes of comforting myth and denial.

Characterization of core-shell MOF particles by depth profiling experiments using on-line single particle mass spectrometry.

Materials with core-shell structures have distinct properties that lend themselves to a variety of potential applications. Characterization of small particle core-shell materials presents a unique analytical challenge. Herein, single particles of solid-state materials with core-shell structures were measured using on-line aerosol time-of-flight mass spectrometry (ATOFMS).

A sociotechnical model of the flight crew task.

Objective: The objective of this research was to advance an improved model of Flight Crew task performance.

Background: Existing task models present a "local" description of Flight Crew task performance.

Method: Process mapping workshops, interviews, and observations were conducted with both pilots and flight operations personnel from five airlines, as part of the Human Integration into the Lifecycle of Aviation Systems (HILAS) project.

Genomic evidence of geographically widespread effect of gene flow from polar bears into brown bears.

Polar bears are an arctic, marine adapted species that is closely related to brown bears. Genome analyses have shown that polar bears are distinct and genetically homogeneous in comparison to brown bears. However, these analyses have also revealed a remarkable episode of polar bear gene flow into the population of brown bears that colonized the Admiralty, Baranof and Chichagof islands (ABC islands) of Alaska.

Reducing the duration of untreated psychosis and its impact in the U.S.: the STEP-ED study.

Background: Early intervention services for psychotic disorders optimally interlock strategies to deliver: (i) Early Detection (ED) to shorten the time between onset of psychotic symptoms and effective treatment (i.e. Duration of Untreated Psychosis, DUP); and (ii) comprehensive intervention during the subsequent 2 to 5 years.