Changes in the foraging strategy of female South American sea lions (Carnivora: Pinnipedia) after parturition.

This study tests the hypothesis that female South American sea lions shift from off-shore, pelagic prey to coastal, benthic prey after parturition in order to reduce the foraging trip duration and hence the time pups remain unattended on the beach during early lactation. The δ13C and δ15N values of the serum and blood cells of 26 South American sea lion suckling pups from northern Patagonia were used to track the dietary changes of their mothers from late pregnancy to early lactation, after correction for differential isotopic fractionation between tissues. Primary producers and potential prey species were also analysed to establish a baseline for interpreting the stable isotope concentration of serum and blood cells. Isotopic ratios revealed a generalized increase in the consumption of coastal-benthic prey after parturition. Such a generalized post-partum shift will allow females to spend more time on land and look after their pups. The effects of this foraging strategy on the nutritional quality of the female"s diet are discussed.

User experience strategy

L'objectiu d'aquest projecte era desenvolupar una metodologia de user experience strategy per aconseguir que el client d'una pàgina web tingui una mateixa experiència tant si fa servir una plataforma com una altra, aplicant diferents tècniques de disseny centrades en l'usuari.

Optimizing the supply chain strategy of a multi-unit Finnish nursery company

Abstract

Limited sampling strategies for monitoring tacrolimus in paediatric liver transplant recipients

Ce travail de recherche a été réalisé dans le laboratoire de pharmacologie clinique, au Centre Hospitalier Universitaire Sainte-Justine, à Montréal. C'est une étude rétrospective basée sur le suivi thérapeutique du Tacrolimus prescrit chez les enfants après transplantation hépatique. Ce suivi est nécessaire car le Tacrolimus possède une importante variabilité pharmacocinétique inter et intra-individuelle ainsi qu'un index thérapeutique très étroit. Actuellement, l'individualisation des doses prescrites est basée sur la mesure de la concentration de base - du médicament dans le sang (C0), mais des études récentes montrent que cette mesure ne reflète pas précisément l'exposition du Tacrolimus dans l'organisme chez les enfants. Le meilleur reflet de cette exposition est la mesure de l'aire sous la courbe (AUC). Cependant, cette dernière implique la mesure de multiples concentrations tout au long de l'intervalle entre 2 doses de médicament (Tacrolimus: 12 heures) ce qui est long, cher et impraticable en ambulatoire. De nouvelles méthodes utilisant un nombre limité de prélèvements ont donc été développées pour prédire au mieux cette AUC. Ce sont les "Limited sampling strategies" ou LSS. La plupart de ces LSS pour le Tacrolimus ont été développées et validées chez des patients transplantés adultes et leur application directe chez les transplantés pédiatriques n'est pas possible en raison de différences importantes au niveau des paramètres pharmacocinétiques du médicament entre ces deux populations. Aussi, le but de ce travail était de développer et valider, pour la première fois, des LSS chez les enfants transplantés hépatiques. Pour cela, une analyse de 36 profils pharmacocinétiques de 28 patients transplantés hépatiques âgés de 0.4- 18.5 ans a été effectuée. Tous les profils ont été réalisés au Centre Hospitalier Universitaire Sainte-Justine entre janvier 2007 et janvier 2009. Les LSS comportant au maximum 4 mesures de concentration ont été développées en utilisant une analyse de régression multiple. Parmi tous les modèles obtenus, cinq ont été sélectionnés sur la base de critères précis puis validés selon la méthode décrite par Sheiner et Beal.¦Les résultats montrent que ces cinq modèles peuvent prédire l'AUC du Tacrolimus avec une précision cliniquement acceptable de ± 15% alors que la C0 présente la plus faible corrélation avec l'AUC.¦En conclusion, cette étude confirme que la C0 ne permet pas de prédire de manière efficace l'exposition du Tacrolimus dans l'organisme dans notre population de patients pédiatriques contrairement aux LSS analysées qui offrent une méthode pratique et fiable. Par ailleurs, en permettant d'obtenir une estimation précise et simplifiée de l'AUC complète du Tacrolimus chez les patients, ces LSS ouvrent la porte à de futures études prospectives visant à mieux définir l'AUC cible du médicament et à déterminer si le suivi basé sur la mesure de l'AUC est plus efficace et plus sûr que celui basé sur la mesure de la C0.

Interpolating and sampling sequences in finite Riemann surfaces

We provide a description of the interpolating and sampling sequences on a space of holomorphic functions on a finite Riemann surface, where a uniform growth restriction is imposed on the holomorphic functions.

Gesture sampling for instrumental sound synthesis: violin bowing as a case study

This paper presents a framework in which samples of bowing gesture parameters are retrieved and concatenated from a database of violin performances by attending to an annotated input score. Resulting bowing parameter signals are then used to synthesize sound by means of both a digital waveguide violin physical model, and an spectral-domainadditive synthesizer.

Status Epilepticus Severity Score (STESS): a tool to orient early treatment strategy

BACKGROUND : Status epilepticus (SE) treatment ranges from small benzodiazepine doses to coma induction. For some SE subgroups, it is unclear how the risk of an aggressive therapeutic approach balances with outcome improvement. We recently developed a prognostic score (Status Epilepticus Severity Score, STESS), relying on four outcome predictors (age, history of seizures, seizure type and extent of consciousness impairment), determined before treatment institution. Our aim was to assess whether the score might have a role in the treatment strategy choice. METHODS : This cohort study involved adult patients in three centers. For each patient, the STESS was calculated before primary outcome assessment: survival vs. death at discharge. Its ability to predict survival was estimated through the negative predictive value for mortality (NPV). Stratified odds ratios (OR) for mortality were calculated considering coma induction as exposure; strata were defined by the STESS level. RESULTS : In the observed 154 patients, the STESS had an excellent negative predictive value (0.97). A favorable STESS was highly related to survival (P < 0.001), and to return to baseline clinical condition in survivors (P < 0.001). The combined Mantel-Haenszel OR for mortality in patients stratified after coma induction and their STESS was 1.5 (95 % CI: 0.59-3.83). CONCLUSION : The STESS reliably identifies SE patients who will survive. Early aggressive treatment could not be routinely warranted in patients with a favorable STESS, who will almost certainly survive their SE episode. A randomized trial using this score would be needed to confirm this hypothesis.

Long-distance wolf recolonization of France and Switzerland inferred from non-invasive genetic sampling over a period of 10 years

In the early 1900s, the wolf (Canis lupus) was extirpated from France and Switzerland. There is growing evidence that the species is presently recolonizing these countries in the western Alps. By sequencing the mitochondrial DNA (mtDNA) control region of various samples mainly collected in the field (scats, hairs, regurgitates, blood or tissue; n = 292), we could (1) develop a non-invasive method enabling the unambiguous attribution of these samples to wolf, fox (Vulpes vulpes) or dog (Canis familiaris), among others; (2) demonstrate that Italian, French and Swiss wolves share the same mtDNA haplotype, a haplotype that has never been found in any other wolf population world-wide. Combined together, field and genetic data collected over 10 years corroborate the scenario of a natural expansion of wolves from the Italian source population. Furthermore, such a genetic approach is of conservation significance, since it has important consequences for management decisions. This first long-term report using non-invasive sampling demonstrates that long-distance dispersers are common, supporting the hypothesis that individuals may often attempt to colonize far from their native pack, even in the absence of suitable corridors across habitats characterized by intense human activities.

Late side-effects after curative intent radiotherapy: Identification of hypersensitive patients for personalized strategy.

Radiation therapy undeniably enhances local control and thus improves overall survival in cancer patients. However, some long-term cancer survivors (less than 10%) develop severe late radio-induced toxicities altering their quality of life. Therefore, there is a need to identify patients who are sensitive to those toxicities and who could benefit from adapted care. In this review, we address all available techniques aiming to detect patients' hyper-radiosensitivity and present the scientific rationales these techniques are based on.

Using niche-based models to improve the sampling of rare species

Because data on rare species usually are sparse, it is important to have efficient ways to sample additional data. Traditional sampling approaches are of limited value for rare species because a very large proportion of randomly chosen sampling sites are unlikely to shelter the species. For these species, spatial predictions from niche-based distribution models can be used to stratify the sampling and increase sampling efficiency. New data sampled are then used to improve the initial model. Applying this approach repeatedly is an adaptive process that may allow increasing the number of new occurrences found. We illustrate the approach with a case study of a rare and endangered plant species in Switzerland and a simulation experiment. Our field survey confirmed that the method helps in the discovery of new populations of the target species in remote areas where the predicted habitat suitability is high. In our simulations the model-based approach provided a significant improvement (by a factor of 1.8 to 4 times, depending on the measure) over simple random sampling. In terms of cost this approach may save up to 70% of the time spent in the field.

Iowa Drug Control Strategy, 2014

The Governor’s Office of Drug Policy Control offers the 2014 Drug Control Strategy pursuant to Iowa Code §80E.1. The purpose of the strategy is to describe the activities of the office and other state departments related to drug enforcement, substance abuse treatment and prevention. This report also highlights trends in respect to substance abuse within the state and sets out innovative approaches to reduce drug abuse and its associated damage to society. Finally, the Strategy shows the state funding levels for the various agencies working in this area, as divided among the three areas of emphasis: prevention, treatment and enforcement.