A Comparative Evaluation of 2 Videolaryngoscopes as an Intubation Aid in a Simulated Difficult Airway: A Prospective Randomised Study.

Objective: Several videolaryngoscopes have been developed for using in difficult airway. We conducted this study to evaluate the performance of McGrath® MAC and King Vision® videolaryngoscopes in a simulated difficult airway.

Methods: This prospective, randomised, comparative study was conducted in 140 surgical patients.

Replacing coal in Georgia's power plants with woody biomass to increase carbon benefit: A mixed integer linear programming model.

To combat climate change, reducing carbon emissions from coal consumption in the power sector can be an effective strategy. We developed a price-exogenous mixed integer linear optimization model satisfying both traditional timber demand in Georgia and its neighboring states (Alabama, Florida, North Carolina, South Carolina, and Tennessee) and additional bioenergy demand to replace coal in the power plants of Georgia for 50 years, maximizing social welfare. We used Forest Inventory & Analysis unit level yield of five forest types (planted softwood, natural softwood, upland hardwood, bottomland hardwood, and mixed forest), timber demand, and price information, and developed three scenarios.

Trade-offs Between the Value of Ecosystem Services and Connectivity Among Protected Areas in the Upper Chattahoochee Watershed.

The Upper Chattahoochee Watershed supplies most of the drinking water to the Atlanta Metropolitan Area, a region with one of the fastest urban growth rates in the United States. Smart conservation planning is necessary to conciliate urban development and the provision of critical ecosystem services (ESs) such as water quality, carbon storage, and wildlife habitat. We employed optimization models to compare the value of the ESs provided by alternative allocations of land parcels for conservation.

Perspectives of four stakeholder groups about the participation of female forest landowners in forest management in Georgia, United States.

As the number of female forest landowners (FFLs) in the United States continues to rise, there is an increasing need to understand the perceptions of stakeholder groups about opportunities and challenges faced by FFLs in the context of sustainable forestland management. This study utilizes the technique of SWOT-AHP (Strengths, Weaknesses, Opportunities, and Treats-Analytical Hierarchy Process) to understand the perceptions of four stakeholder groups (FFLs, private foresters, government representatives, and non-profits) in Georgia-a significant forestry state located in the Southern United States. Sixteen factors (four under each SWOT category) were selected through a comprehensive literature review and detailed interviews with individuals from the identified stakeholder groups.

A framework for localizing global climate solutions and their carbon reduction potential.

Localized carbon reduction strategies are especially critical in states and regions that lack top-down climate leadership. This paper illustrates the use of coupled systems in assessments of subnational climate solutions with a case study of Georgia, a state located in the southeastern United States that does not have statewide climate goals or plans. The paper illustrates how robust place-specific plans for climate action could be derived from foundational global and national work and by embedding that research into the context of socio-ecological-technological systems.

Analyzing the provision of ecosystem services by conservation easements and other protected and non-protected areas in the Upper Chattahoochee Watershed.

A conservation easement (CE) legally places a permanent restriction on the development of a private land parcel, and in turn, can provide tax benefits to the landowner. We used the modular toolset InVEST (Integrated Valuation of Ecosystem Services and Tradeoffs) to quantify provision of five ecosystem services (ESs) (carbon storage, wildlife habitat quality, nitrogen, phosphorus, and sediment exports) provided by CEs and other land typologies (Simulated Parcels, 1 km Buffer area, Watershed Average, Federal, State and Local Protected Areas) within the Upper Chattahoochee Watershed (UCW), which provides 72% of drinking water to about six million residents of the Atlanta Metropolitan Area and is experiencing one of fastest urban growth of the United States. Simulated Parcels would represent the land cover of CEs if the development restrictions were not in place.

Impact of land cover on groundwater quality in the Upper Floridan Aquifer in Florida, United States.

Although agricultural lands are generally assumed to correlate negatively with groundwater quality, the intricate relationship between general land cover and contaminant concentrations present in an aquifer may vary substantially; contingent upon the land type, interacting factors, and scale considered. The Upper Floridan Aquifer (UFA) is a primary source of potable water supply for the state of Florida. The Suwannee River Water Management District (SRWMD), located in northcentral Florida, relies exclusively on the UFA for water supplies.

Determinants of Cookstoves and Fuel Choice Among Rural Households in India.

Roughly 2.8 billion people depend on solid fuels for cooking needs, resulting in a tremendous burden of disease from exposure to household air pollution. Despite decades of effort to promote cleaner cooking technologies, displacement of polluting technologies has progressed slowly.

Understanding perceptions of stakeholder groups about Forestry Best Management Practices in Georgia.

Forestry Best Management Practices (BMPs) are critical in ensuring sustainable forest management in the United States because of their effectiveness in protecting water quality, reducing soil erosion, maintaining riparian habitat, and sustaining site productivity. The success of forestry BMPs depends heavily on coordination among primary stakeholder groups. It is important to understand perceptions of such groups for a successful forest policy formulation.

Climate Change and Ecosystem Services Output Efficiency in Southern Loblolly Pine Forests.

Forests provide myriad ecosystem services that are vital to humanity. With climate change, we expect to see significant changes to forests that will alter the supply of these critical services and affect human well-being. To better understand the impacts of climate change on forest-based ecosystem services, we applied a data envelopment analysis method to assess plot-level efficiency in the provision of ecosystem services in Florida natural loblolly pine (Pinus taeda L.

COMPARATIVE EVALUATION OF PLAIN AND HYPERBARIC ROPIVACAINE IN PATIENTS UNDERGOING LOWER ABDOMINAL SURGERY UNDER SPINAL ANESTHESIA.

Background: Preliminary work has shown that ropivacaine provides spinal anesthesia of shorter duration with greater sensory motor dissociation than bupivacaine, and may be of particular use in the day care surgery. Hypothetically, hyperbaric solution of ropivacaine could improve and shorten both sensory and motor block.

Material And Methods: This prospective, randomized, double blind study was conducted on 80 patients undergoing lower abdominal surgeries.

Cost of abating greenhouse gas emissions with cellulosic ethanol.

We develop an integrated framework to determine and compare greenhouse gas (GHG) intensities and production costs of cellulosic ethanol derived from corn stover, switchgrass, and miscanthus grown on high and low quality soils for three representative counties in the Eastern United States. This information is critical for assessing the cost-effectiveness of utilizing cellulosic ethanol for mitigating GHG emissions and designing appropriate policy incentives to support cellulosic ethanol production nationwide. We find considerable variations in the GHG intensities and production costs of ethanol across feedstocks and locations mostly due to differences in yields and soil characteristics.

Abatement cost of GHG emissions for wood-based electricity and ethanol at production and consumption levels.

Woody feedstocks will play a critical role in meeting the demand for biomass-based energy products in the US. We developed an integrated model using comparable system boundaries and common set of assumptions to ascertain unit cost and greenhouse gas (GHG) intensity of electricity and ethanol derived from slash pine (Pinus elliottii) at the production and consumption levels by considering existing automobile technologies. We also calculated abatement cost of greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions with respect to comparable energy products derived from fossil fuels.

Low demand for nontraditional cookstove technologies.

Biomass combustion with traditional cookstoves causes substantial environmental and health harm. Nontraditional cookstove technologies can be efficacious in reducing this adverse impact, but they are adopted and used at puzzlingly low rates. This study analyzes the determinants of low demand for nontraditional cookstoves in rural Bangladesh by using both stated preference (from a nationally representative survey of rural women) and revealed preference (assessed by conducting a cluster-randomized trial of cookstove prices) approaches.