Pieces of Iowa’s Past, May 1, 2013

Pieces of Iowa’s Past, published by the Iowa State Capitol Tour Guides weekly during the legislative session, features historical facts about Iowa, the Capitol, and the early workings of state government. All historical publications are reproduced here with the actual spelling, punctuation, and grammar retained THIS WEEK: Steamboating on the Rivers in Iowa BACKGROUND: Built at Wheeling, Virginia, in 1819, the steamboat Virginia was a small stern-wheeler of 109-132 tons, and was owned by Redick McKee, James Pemberton, and seven others. She was 118 feet long, 18 feet 10 inches beam, and her depth was 5 feet 2 inches. She had a cabin on deck but no pilot house, being guided by a tiller at the stern.

Pieces of Iowa’s Past, May 8, 2013

Pieces of Iowa’s Past, published by the Iowa State Capitol Tour Guides weekly during the legislative session, features historical facts about Iowa, the Capitol, and the early workings of state government. All historical publications are reproduced here with the actual spelling, punctuation, and grammar retained THIS WEEK: Iowa State Capitol Furniture Past and Present Although most of the original furniture for the Capitol was ordered from established manufacturers and retail furniture stores, there were some pieces designed for specific areas of the building. These pieces were built on-site in a small wooden building erected directly west of the Capitol. Some of these remarkable pieces of furniture were subsequently dismantled and destroyed. Some of the pieces remain in the building as a reminder of the amazing craftsmanship associated with the original woodworkers for the Iowa State Capitol.

"A renewed sense of purpose": Mothers' and fathers' experience of having a child following a recent stillbirth.

Background Most research has focused on mothers¿ experiences of perinatal loss itself or on the subsequent pregnancy, whereas little attention has been paid to both parents¿ experiences of having a child following late perinatal loss and the experience of parenting this child. The current study therefore explored mothers¿ and fathers' experiences of becoming a parent to a child born after a recent stillbirth, covering the period of the second pregnancy and up to two years after the birth of the next baby.MethodIn depth interviews were conducted with 7 couples (14 participants). Couples were eligible if they previously had a stillbirth (after 24 weeks of gestation) and subsequently had another child (their first live baby) who was now under the age of 2 years. Couples who had more than one child after experiencing a stillbirth and those who were not fluent in English were excluded. Qualitative analysis of the interview data was conducted using Interpretive Phenomenological Analysis.ResultsFive superordinate themes emerged from the data: Living with uncertainty; Coping with uncertainty; Relationship with the next child; The continuing grief process; Identity as a parent. Overall, fathers' experiences were similar to those of mothers', including high levels of anxiety and guilt during the subsequent pregnancy and after the child was born. Coping strategies to address these were identified. Differences between mothers and fathers regarding the grief process during the subsequent pregnancy and after their second child was born were identified. Despite difficulties with bonding during pregnancy and at the time when the baby was born, parents' perceptions of their relationship with their subsequent child were positive.ConclusionsFindings highlight the importance of tailoring support systems not only according to mothers' but also to fathers' needs. Parents¿, and particularly fathers', reported lack of opportunities for grieving as well as the high level of anxiety of both parents about their baby's wellbeing during pregnancy and after birth implies a need for structured support. Difficulties experienced in bonding with the subsequent child during pregnancy and once the child is born need to be normalised.

Pieces of Iowa’s Past, May 15, 2013

Pieces of Iowa’s Past, published by the Iowa State Capitol Tour Guides weekly during the legislative session, features historical facts about Iowa, the Capitol, and the early workings of state government. All historical publications are reproduced here with the actual spelling, punctuation, and grammar retained THIS WEEK: First Governor’s Mansion

Pieces of Iowa’s Past, May 22, 2013

Pieces of Iowa’s Past, published by the Iowa State Capitol Tour Guides weekly during the legislative session, features historical facts about Iowa, the Capitol, and the early workings of state government. All historical publications are reproduced here with the actual spelling, punctuation, and grammar retained THIS WEEK: Fort Madison Penitentiary BACKGROUND: From A glimpse of Iowa in 1846; or the Emigrant’s Guide, and State Directory By John B. Newhall Published 1846

Misconceptions about fructose-containing sugars and their role in the obesity epidemic.

A causal role of fructose intake in the aetiology of the global obesity epidemic has been proposed in recent years. This proposition, however, rests on controversial interpretations of two distinct lines of research. On one hand, in mechanistic intervention studies, detrimental metabolic effects have been observed after excessive isolated fructose intakes in animals and human subjects. On the other hand, food disappearance data indicate that fructose consumption from added sugars has increased over the past decades and paralleled the increase in obesity. Both lines of research are presently insufficient to demonstrate a causal role of fructose in metabolic diseases, however. Most mechanistic intervention studies were performed on subjects fed large amounts of pure fructose, while fructose is ordinarily ingested together with glucose. The use of food disappearance data does not accurately reflect food consumption, and hence cannot be used as evidence of a causal link between fructose intake and obesity. Based on a thorough review of the literature, we demonstrate that fructose, as commonly consumed in mixed carbohydrate sources, does not exert specific metabolic effects that can account for an increase in body weight. Consequently, public health recommendations and policies aiming at reducing fructose consumption only, without additional diet and lifestyle targets, would be disputable and impractical. Although the available evidence indicates that the consumption of sugar-sweetened beverages is associated with body-weight gain, and it may be that fructose is among the main constituents of these beverages, energy overconsumption is much more important to consider in terms of the obesity epidemic.

Information literacy - historical and conceptual bases: constructing meanings

Recent years have witnessed the increasing interest in studies focused on information literacy, which is reflected mainly in the number of publications on the subject and goes beyond the fields of Librarianship and Information Science. The purpose of this paper is, therefore, to offer an outlook, historical and conceptual, of international researches on information literacy, trying to show some of the different ramifications which the discussion on the subject has exhibited in past few years in countries where its process of legitimation is already well established, in order to illuminate possible areas of research and action for the librarian professional. This research indicates that if the initial studies on this topic tended to be devoted to conceptualize it, discussing its relevance and determine the skills and knowledge related to information literacy, in the last decade can be noticed a proliferation of researches aimed at describing initiatives or proposing models in areas beyond the usual field such as Medical Sciences, Law, Politics or Computers, among others. The first results of this research refer to a philosophical and educational perspective of information literacy, which suggests the need for deeper understanding and characterization of information literacy in four dimensions: technical, aesthetic, ethical and political, serving both to competence as to information.

Pathogenesis of arenavirus hemorrhagic fevers.

Viral hemorrhagic fevers (VHFs) caused by arenaviruses belong to the most devastating emerging human diseases and represent serious public health problems. Arenavirus VHFs in humans are acute diseases characterized by fever and, in severe cases, different degrees of hemorrhages associated with a shock syndrome in the terminal stage. Over the past years, much has been learned about the pathogenesis of arenaviruses at the cellular level, in particular their ability to subvert the host cell's innate antiviral defenses. Clinical studies and novel animal models have provided important new information about the interaction of hemorrhagic arenaviruses with the host's adaptive immune system, in particular virus-induced immunosuppression, and have provided the first hints towards an understanding of the terminal hemorrhagic shock syndrome. The scope of this article is to review our current knowledge on arenavirus VHF pathogenesis with an emphasis on recent developments.

Recent advances in biocuration: meeting report from the fifth International Biocuration Conference.

The 5th International Biocuration Conference brought together over 300 scientists to exchange on their work, as well as discuss issues relevant to the International Society for Biocuration's (ISB) mission. Recurring themes this year included the creation and promotion of gold standards, the need for more ontologies, and more formal interactions with journals. The conference is an essential part of the ISB's goal to support exchanges among members of the biocuration community. Next year's conference will be held in Cambridge, UK, from 7 to 10 April 2013. In the meanwhile, the ISB website provides information about the society's activities (http://biocurator.org), as well as related events of interest.

Recent human-induced trophic change in the large and deep perialpine Lake Lucerne (Switzerland) compared to historical geochemical variations

This study investigates the sedimentological and geochemical changes that occurred during the last 2200 years in the meromictic Lake Lucerne (Switzerland), one of the largest freshwater lakes of Central Europe. The stable isotope composition (delta C-13 and delta O-18 values) of bulk carbonates is compared to changes in grain-size distribution (clay and silt fraction), natural trace element input (titanium and thorium concentrations), and organic material abundance (C-org, nitrogen and phosphorus) and composition (C/N ratios and hydrogen and oxygen indexes). A drop in carbonate accumulation and in the delta O-18 values of sediments between ca. AD 500 and 700 followed a large and consistent rise in chemical weathering, marked by increases in the silicate-clay fraction and in crustal element concentrations. During the following millennium, there was a long-term decreasing trend in the lithogenic trace element input and in the phosphorus loading, suggesting decreasing terrigeneous input from runoff water. The major sedimentological change over the studied period occurred after ca. AD 1800 with a significant increase in the erosion-driven silt-fraction and in the sedimentation rate. During the last century, human-induced increase in nutrient input to the lake highly enhanced the accumulation of organic matter in sediment. Changes in nutrients and oxygen conditions in the hypolimnion of Lake Lucerne during the eutrophication period (i.e., the last 40 years) highly modified the geochemical fluxes compared to the relatively stable oligotrophic conditions that prevailed during the previous 2000 years. Before the 19th century, climate driven meromixis had a limited impact on the organic matter flux to the sediments, but the accumulation of carbonate considerably decreased during periods of lower mechanical erosion rates and high chemical weathering rates. (C) 2012 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.

Inferring recent migration rates from individual genotypes.

We present a novel and straightforward method for estimating recent migration rates between discrete populations using multilocus genotype data. The approach builds upon a two-step sampling design, where individual genotypes are sampled before and after dispersal. We develop a model that estimates all pairwise backwards migration rates (m(ij), the probability that an individual sampled in population i is a migrant from population j) between a set of populations. The method is validated with simulated data and compared with the methods of BayesAss and Structure. First, we use data for an island model and then we consider more realistic data simulations for a metapopulation of the greater white-toothed shrew (Crocidura russula). We show that the precision and bias of estimates primarily depend upon the proportion of individuals sampled in each population. Weak sampling designs may particularly affect the quality of the coverage provided by 95% highest posterior density intervals. We further show that it is relatively insensitive to the number of loci sampled and the overall strength of genetic structure. The method can easily be extended and makes fewer assumptions about the underlying demographic and genetic processes than currently available methods. It allows backwards migration rates to be estimated across a wide range of realistic conditions.

Flujos de detritos recientes en la cordillera frontal de Mendoza: Un ejemplo de riesgo natural en la ruta 7 = Recent debris flows in the Frontal Cordillera of Mendoza: An example of natural risk on the Road 7

In this paper is presented a study dealing with the debris flows that reached the national road 7 in January 2005, in the km 1,118.5, Mendoza province. The area is located in the Frontal Cordillera near the limit of the Precordillera. A detailed geomorphologic map has been realized for this study using a Quickbird satellite imagery of the year 2006. Various calculations of volumes, velocities and peak discharges have been performed with the field data and using a geographic information system (GIS). The geomorphologic survey has permitted to propose three propagation scenarios in case of a new event. These allowed creating a map of debris flows susceptibility for the stretch of the road that has been studied. Finally, it has been proposed protection and mitigation measures, based on the results of the study, to protect the road from a new event.