Measuring the state of consciousness in a free-living diving sea turtle

We report on results from two types of data-logger attached to hawksbill turtles (Eretmochelys coriacea) in the breeding season at the Seychelles, Indian Ocean. Conventional time-depth recorders (TDRs) showed prolonged bouts of long dives to the seabed, consistent with benthic resting. This behaviour has been widely reported in sea turtles and appears to be a common feature for energy conservation. An Inter-Mandibular Angle Sensor (IMASEN) recorded mouth opening and buccal pumping by one turtle for 2.5 days. Buccal pumping occurred widely while the turtle was submerged, consistent with a function of olfactory sensory perception of the turtle's environment. However, buccal pumping stopped during the middle of long benthic dives consistent with the turtle entering a phase of sleep. It therefore appears that by recording buccal oscillations, it is possible to assess the state of consciousness of turtles allowing the eco-physiology of diving to be more fully explored. (C) 2007 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.

Living arrangements, relationship to people in the household and admission to care homes for older people

Objective: to assess the separate contributions of marital status, living arrangements and the presence of children to subsequent admission to a care home.

Design and methods: a longitudinal study derived from the health card registration system and linked to the 2001 Census, comprising 28% of the Northern Ireland population was analysed using Cox regression to assess the likelihood of admission for 51,619 older people in the 6 years following the census. Cohort members’ age, sex, marital and health status and relationship to other household members were analysed.

Results: there were 2,138 care home admissions; a rate of 7.4 admissions per thousand person years. Those living alone had the highest likelihood of admission [hazard ratio (HR) compared with living with partner 1.66 (95% CI 1.48, 1.87)] but there was little difference between the never-married and the previously married. Living with children offered similar protection as living with a partner (HR 0.97; 95% CI 0.81, 1.16). The presence of children reduced admissions especially for married couples (HR 0.67 95% CI 0.54, 0.83; models adjusting for age, gender and health). Women were more likely to be admitted, though there were no gender differences for people living alone or those co-habiting with siblings.

Implications: presence of potential caregivers within the home, rather than those living elsewhere, is a major factor determining admission to care home. Further research should concentrate on the health and needs of these co-residents.

Evolution in the deep sea: a combined analysis of the earliest diverging living chitons (Mollusca : Polyplacophora : Lepidopleurida)

Lepidopleurida is the earliest diverged group of living polyplacophoran molluscs. They are found predominantly in the deep sea, including sunken wood, cold seeps, other abyssal habitats, and a few species are found in shallow water. The group is morphologically identified by anatomical features of their gills, sensory aesthetes, and gametes. Their shell features closely resemble the oldest fossils that can be identified as modern polyplacophorans. We present the first molecular phylogenetic study of this group, and also the first combined phylogenetic analysis for any chiton, including three gene regions and 69 morphological characters. The results show that Lepidopleurida is unambiguously monophyletic, and the nine genera fall into five distinct clades, which partly support the current view of polyplacophoran taxonomy. The genus Hanleyella Sirenko, 1973 is included in the family Protochitonidae, and Ferreiraellidae constitutes another distinct clade. The large cosmopolitan genus Leptochiton Gray, 1847 is not monophyletic; Leptochiton and Leptochitonidae sensu stricto are restricted to North Atlantic and Mediterranean taxa. Leptochitonidae s. str. is sister to Protochitonidae. The results also suggest two separate clades independently inhabiting sunken wood substrates in the south-west Pacific. Antarctic and other chemosynthetic-dwelling species may be derived from wood-living species. Substantial taxonomic revision remains to be done to resolve lepidopleuran classification, but the phylogeny presented here is a dramatic step forward in clarifying the relationships within this interesting group.

Living through the death of a child: A qualitative study of bereaved parents’ experiences

Design: Cross-sectional qualitative study.

Data sources: Interviews with purposeful sample of 25 recently bereaved parents.

Methods: Semi-structured in-depth interviews.

Results: Four analytically distinct processes were identified in the responses of parents to the death of a child. These are referred to as ‘piloting’, ‘providing’, ‘protecting’ and ‘preserving’. Regardless of individual circumstances, these processes were integral to all parents’ coping, enabling an active ‘doing’ for their child and family throughout the trajectory of their child's illness and into bereavement.

Conclusions: Facilitating the capacity of parents to ‘do’ is central to coping with the stress and uncertainty of living through the death of a child. The provision of informational, instrumental and emotional support by health care professionals in the context of ‘doing’ is core to quality palliative care.

Keywords: Bereaved parents; Cancer; Dying child; End-of-life; Palliative care; Non-malignant

Pastoral

This chapter argues that Milton’s Epitaphium Damonis, a neo-Latin pastoral lament on the death of Charles Diodati, is marked by the author's Petrarchan self-fashioning. This is achieved through intertextual engagement with Petrarch's Bucolicum Carmen (especially Ecls. 1 and 10). Milton as the wandering Thyrsis, undertaking a methaphorical and literal journey into the world of Italian humanism, appropriates and adapts the metaphorical departure from and return to a pastoral world now shattered by plague and death. Recourse to the quasi-Augustinian monasticism of Petrarchan neo-Latin pastoral facilitates the poem's crossing of a monastic limen via its subtle interaction with a hagiographic intertext, the Vita Sancti Deodati. Now pastoral saint and scholar become united in death and in subsequent apotheosis.

Providing psychological support for adults living with cancer. End of Life Care

http://endoflifejournal.stchristophers.org.uk/article/providing-psychological-support-for-adults-living-with-cancer

Chernobyl: Living with Risk and Uncertainty

The nuclear accident in Chernobyl in 1986 is a dramatic example of the type of incidents that are characteristic of a risk society. The consequences of the incident are indeterminate, the causes complex and future developments unpredictable. Nothing can compensate for its effects and it affects a broad population indiscriminately. This paper examines the lived experience of those who experienced biographical disruption as residents of the region on the basis of qualitative case studies carried out in 2003 in the Chernobyl regions of Russia, Ukraine and Belarus. Our analysis indicates that informants tend to view their future as highly uncertain and unpredictable; they experience uncertainty about whether they are already contaminated, and they have to take hazardous decisions about where to go and what to eat. Fear, rumours and experts compete in supplying information to residents about the actual and potential consequences of the disaster, but there is little trust in, and only limited awareness of, the information that is provided. Most informants continue with their lives and do what they must or even what they like, even where the risks are known. They often describe their behaviour as being due to economic circumstances; where there is extreme poverty, even hazardous food sources are better than none. Unlike previous studies, we identify a pronounced tendency among informants not to separate the problems associated with the disaster from the hardships that have resulted from the break-up of the USSR, with both events creating a deep-seated sense of resignation and fatalism. Although most informants hold their governments to blame for lack of information, support and preventive measures, there is little or no collective action to have these put in place. This contrasts with previous research which has suggested that populations affected by disasters attribute crucial significance to that incident and, as a consequence, become increasingly politicized with regard to related policy agendas.

THE DISTRIBUTION AND POPULATION REGULATION OF THE WOOD MOUSE APODEMUS-SYLVATICUS ON FIELD BOUNDARIES OF PASTORAL FARMLAND

1. The population characteristics and distribution of wood mice Apodemus sylvaticus (L.) were investigated along field margins of farmland dominated by grass production. 2. Turnover, sex ratio, breeding season, spatial density dependence and density dependence in reproductive activity indicated that the population ecology of A. sylvaticus is consistent in different habitats in the same geographical region. 3. Spatial variation in the abundance of A.sylvaticus was related negatively to percentage of land under pasture and distance from woodland and positively related to variables associated with food supply and cover. 4. Variation in numbers of overwintered mice at the start of the breeding season was related more closely to breeding opportunity than to environmental factors. This was particularly so in males. 5. The association of overwintered male and female A. sylvaticus remained evident in the later half of the breeding season. Young males and females of the year, however, were distributed more with respect to physical and biological features than towards adults or reproductive opportunity. 6. A. sylvaticus is an important species of field margins, even where these are poorly developed and agriculture is pastoral rather than arable. Further studies of this species in a wider range of agricultural systems are desirable.