Importance Of Information Research Articles

Social media in public health

While social media interactions are currently not fully understood, as individual health behaviors and outcomes are shared online, social media offers an increasingly clear picture of the dynamics of these processes. Social media is becoming an increasingly common platform among clinicians and public health officials to share information with the public, track or predict diseases. Social media can be used for engaging the public and communicating key public health interventions, while providing an important tool for public health surveillance. Social media has advantages over traditional public health surveillance, as well as limitations, such as poor specificity, that warrant additional study. Social media can provide timely, relevant and transparent information of public health importance; such as tracking or predicting the spread or severity of influenza, west nile virus or meningitis as they propagate in the community, and, in identifying disease outbreaks or clusters of chronic illnesses. Further work is needed on social media as a valid data source for detecting or predicting diseases or conditions. Also, whether or not it is an effective tool for communicating key public health messages and engaging both, the general public and policy-makers.

Borderline Resectable/Locally Advanced Pancreatic Adenocarcinoma: Improvements Needed in Population-Based Registries

Management of patients with borderline resectable/locally advanced (BR/LA) pancreatic adenocarcinoma is based on knowledge of natural history and patterns of treatment failure, information of great importance to large data registries. Using the SEER database, we examined the survival for patients with BR/LA tumors and critically evaluated the utility of the data. T3/T4 tumors from 2004 to 2007 were divided into those that involved the portal vein/superior mesenteric vein/gastroduodenal artery/hepatic artery and those that involved the superior mesenteric artery (SMA) or celiac axis. The control group (CG) included patients who were recommended surgery but did not undergo it. Multivariate disease-specific survival analyses were performed using the Cox proportional hazards model. Of 3,837 patients, 571 patients (15 %) were recommended surgery, and 323 (8 %) underwent surgical resection. We were unable to separate patients into BR/LA based on current NCCN guidelines. We were able to identify vascular involvement but not those who actually underwent vascular resection. Median survival of patients who underwent surgery with SMA and celiac involvement was 12 and 8 months compared with 7 and 6 months, respectively, in the CG (p = .01). Patients who underwent surgical resection with venous involvement had a longer survival than those with arterial involvement (18 vs 12 months, p = .001). Analysis of patients with BR/LA pancreatic adenocarcinoma who underwent pancreatic resection in the SEER database yielded limited information. New manuals must focus on obtaining information consistent with current advances in the field; our recommendations for optimizing the SEER database are included.

Hip-Fracture Care in Rural Southwestern Ontario: An Ethnographic Study of Patient Transitions and Physiotherapy Handoffs

To examine information exchange by physiotherapists during care handoffs of patients with hip fracture in a rural health care setting. This qualitative ethnographic study used observation and interviews of 11 networks of patients with hip fracture (n=11), family caregivers (n=8), and health care providers (n=24). Patients were followed from acute care through each subsequent care setting. Data were supplemented by health care records and policy documents. Findings revealed that handoffs were less successful when information transfer was untimely or incomplete. Family caregivers experienced challenges in obtaining information required to facilitate the handoff, especially when direct contact with physiotherapists was not possible as a result of distance or other factors. Physiotherapists had to navigate multiple data sources to retrieve important information, and managed information gaps in various ways. Information flow was often unidirectional and suggested no further clinical accountability for the discharging physiotherapist. Providing information in a structured and timely fashion facilitated physiotherapy handoffs. Inadequate handoffs compromised continuity of care, delayed progress in rehabilitation, and resulted in families' missing information of vital importance to their caregiving role. A multi-directional exchange of information is needed between patients, families, and health care providers across care settings.

Before You Press Record: Unanswered Questions Surrounding the First Amendment Right to Film Public Police Activity

After a wave of high profile arrests of smartphone-toting citizens whose only crime was recording police officers in the exercise of their public duties, constitutional challenges to state wiretapping laws that prohibit such activity has reached two circuit courts of appeals. In 2011, the U.S. Court of Appeals for the First Circuit issued its opinion in Glik v. Cunniffe, holding that not only did the First Amendment right to record police exist, but, despite a paucity of case law, this right was so self-evident to be considered of longstanding vintage. In 2012, the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Seventh Circuit followed suit in Alvarez v. ACLU. Like the First Circuit, the Seventh Circuit located the right to record police within the compass of the First Amendment’s protection of the inextricably related constellation of rights to gather, disseminate, and receive information of public importance. The court enjoined enforcement of Illinois’s notably draconian eavesdropping statute as applied to civilian recordation of police officers in the public exercise of their official duties, over the dissent of conservative Judge Richard A. Posner. This Article examines the several unanswered legal questions that remain in the wake of Glik and Alvarez. Though Glik and Alvarez hold sway only within their respective jurisdictions, it seems likely that the right to record public police activity will be treated as universal. Opinions of the Ninth and Eleventh Circuits contain terse recognition dicta of such a First Amendment liberty, while no courts have rendered an opinion to the contrary. Indeed, the U.S. Supreme Court denied a petition for certiorari from the Cook County State’s Attorney’s office in Alvarez. However, there remain questions regarding the definition of the right and its placement in existing First Amendment jurisprudence. Similarly, it has been left unsettled whether the right is one that will be susceptible to vindication in civil rights actions pursuant to 42 U.S.C. § 1983 (§ 1983). Part II of this Article provides summaries of the Glik and Alvarez opinions and recites the key arguments in Judge Posner’s dissent. Part III identifies four unanswered questions that remain unsettled in the wake of the Glik and Alvarez holdings. Part III.A. examines whether future courts analyzing the issue will be persuaded by Judge Posner’s dissent and determines that the dissent — while a thought provoking commentary — is too divorced from cognizable First Amendment jurisprudence to be persuasive. Part III.B. asks which constitutional standard of review future courts will apply when laws that interfere with the right to record public police activity are challenged. After analysis of the Seventh Circuit’s justification for application of scrutiny, this Part concludes that more substantial constitutional arguments militate in favor of testing these challenges under strict scrutiny. Part III.C. acknowledges that both Glik and Alvarez only stand for the proposition that open recordation of police is safeguarded by the First Amendment. After a brief summary of states that prohibit at least some forms of surreptitious recording of police, Part II.C. proposes that an open-surreptitious dichotomy in the enforcement of wiretapping laws, as applied to recorders of police, is untenable, and criminalization of surreptitious recording of police officers performing their public duties should fail even under the more deferential intermediate scrutiny calculus. Finally, Part III.D. examines whether the right to record police is clearly established under the First Amendment, a finding that, if made by future courts, would vitiate qualified immunity from civil liability for government actors who violate the right.

Celebrity journalism – An oxymoron? Forms and functions of a genre

Debate about the ideal content or purpose of journalism is as old as print itself. The messy characteristics of popular culture have always intruded into the high principles and purposes of the communication of politics and journalism’s intentions to provide information of importance for the public. In the intensity of the contemporary media era it is necessary to reconsider the interplay between celebrity news and journalism: beyond oxymoron and towards the appreciation of a paradox. This contribution seeks to explore some of the forms and functions of celebrity news in contemporary British culture and speculates on the increasing relevance of celebrity to the future of journalism.

Effect of necrosis status at the time of intervention on the outcome of severe acute pancreatitis

Effect of necrosis status at the time of intervention on the outcome of severe acute pancreatitis

Abstract 1204: Heterogeneity within triple-negative breast cancer (TNBC).

Abstract Background: TNBC refers to those breast cancers which are negative for ER, PR and Her2/neu overexpression, thereby unsuitable for hormone and trastuzumab therapy. Although TNBC overlap with basal-like breast cancers, these terms are not synonymous. We decided, in a single institution cohort, to develop a better understanding of the types of tumors that make up TNBC Materials and Methods: We carried out a clinicopathological study of a cohort of 192 patients diagnosed with TNBC at the University Health Network in 2007. Patient biodata, clinical and histopathological information of proven prognostic importance was retrieved from the records. Tissue microarrays were constructed from duplicate 0.6mm cores of representative tumour tissue and stained with 9 antibodies according to recommended protocols. The TMA slides were interpreted using the Allred method except for the Ki67 staining which was interpreted by the visual estimate method of assessing proportion of nuclei taking up stains. Results were tabulated and summary statistics was done to determine proportions. Results: The age-range is 28 - 99 years. The median and modal age group was 50 -59 years. 70.3% of the patients are aged between 40 and 69 years at the time of diagnosis. The tumour size range was 0.6cm to 16 cm. 41.67% are pT1, 51.04% are pT2 while 6.8% are pT3. Four patients had T4 tumor with skin and nipple involvement. The diagnosis was predominantly invasive ductal carcinoma (IDC) in 84.9% of patients. Metaplastic carcinoma (10.4%), pleomorphic lobular carcinoma (1.5%), and single cases of invasive lobular carcinoma (ILC), tubular, apocrine and poorly differentiated carcinoma were seen. DCIS is a prominent feature in 26.6% of the cases. The number of lymph nodes identified ranged from 0 - 46. 59.90% were in pN0 category, 16.7% in the pN1 category, pN2 - 8.3%, and 15.1% in pN3 category. Extra-nodal metastasis at diagnosis was found in 7.3% of patients. The tumour grade: Grade I - 1.55%, Grade II - 13.47% and Grade III 84.97%. CD44 was positive in 17.71%, p63 - 4.17%, p53 - 51.56%, e-cadherin - 81.77%, Vimentin - 77.60%, Cyclin D1 - 22.40%, BCL-2 - 19.27%, and androgen receptor (AR) - 5.73%. 43.75% of cases show proliferation rates of ≥15%, while 26.04% have proliferation rates of between 5% and ≤14%. Conclusion: While a large proportion of TNBCs show a high proliferation (Ki67, Cyclin D1 and grade III), a substantial number did not show this. This study provides clues to support the current hypothesis that several mechanisms drive the carcinogenesis of TNBC, with a heterogeneous pattern of biomarker expression. Further investigation is needed to better understand the factors driving the development and progression of the different types of TNBC. Citation Format: Adewunmi O. Adeoye, Bruce J. Youngson, Naomi Miller, Susan J. Done. Heterogeneity within triple-negative breast cancer (TNBC). [abstract]. In: Proceedings of the 104th Annual Meeting of the American Association for Cancer Research; 2013 Apr 6-10; Washington, DC. Philadelphia (PA): AACR; Cancer Res 2013;73(8 Suppl):Abstract nr 1204. doi:10.1158/1538-7445.AM2013-1204

Knudsen Effusion Mass Spectrometry: Technique for Obtaining Useful Thermodynamic Information and for Studying Interesting Vaporization Chemistry

Knudsen effusion mass spectrometry (KEMS) is a very powerful technique for studying the vaporization thermodynamics of inorganic systems at high temperatures. Although primarily one examines the vapor phase, information about condensed phases are also obtained through careful measurements and analysis of the results in accordance with the phase rule. In this paper, we have shown the capability of KEMS to yield information of practical importance and fundamental interest - essentially by drawing examples from the vaporization studies on some systems of tellurium, conducted in our laboratory for over two decades. The KEMS studies on M-Te (M = Fe, Cr, Ni, Mo, and Mn, the major components of stainless steel) and Mn-Te-O systems provided the pertinent information as to under what conditions the fission product Te can cause the chemical attack of 316 stainless steel cladding material used in fast breeder nuclear reactors. The study of Mn-Te and Mn-Te-O systems also reveal the effects of condensed phase transitions on the vaporization behavior. Results of such studies are discussed in detail so that KEMS studies of this type will be undertaken more often in the future.

Microneedle/nanoencapsulation-mediated transdermal delivery: Mechanistic insights

A systematic study was undertaken to gain more insight into the mechanism of transdermal delivery of nanoencapsulated model dyes across microneedle (MN)-treated skin, a complex process not yet explored. Rhodamine B (Rh B) and fluorescein isothiocyanate (FITC) as model hydrophilic and hydrophobic small/medium-size molecules, respectively, were encapsulated in poly lactic-co-glycolic acid (PLGA) nanoparticles (NPs) and delivered through full thickness porcine skin pretreated with MN array. Permeation through MN-treated skin was affected by physicochemical characteristics of NPs and the encapsulated dyes. Dye flux was enhanced by smaller particle size, hydrophilicity, and negative zeta potential of NPs. Regarding encapsulated dyes, solubility at physiological pH and potential interaction with skin proteins proved to outweigh molecular weight as determinants of skin permeation. Data were verified using confocal laser scanning microscopy imaging. Findings coupled with the literature data are supportive of a mechanism involving influx of NPs, particularly of smaller size, deep into MN-created channels, generating depot dye-rich reservoirs. Molecular diffusion of the released dye across viable skin layers proceeds at a rate determined by its molecular characteristics. Data obtained provide mechanistic information of importance to the development of formulation strategies for more effective intradermal and transdermal MN-mediated delivery of nanoencapsulated therapeutic agents.

Survival of the selfish: Contrasting self-referential and survival-based encoding

Processing information in the context of personal survival scenarios elicits a memory advantage, relative to other rich encoding conditions such as self-referencing. However, previous research is unable to distinguish between the influence of survival and self-reference because personal survival is a self-referent encoding context. To resolve this issue, participants in the current study processed items in the context of their own survival and a familiar other person's survival, as well as in a semantic context. Recognition memory for the items revealed that personal survival elicited a memory advantage relative to semantic encoding, whereas other-survival did not. These findings reinforce suggestions that the survival effect is closely tied with self-referential encoding, ensuring that fitness information of potential importance to self is successfully retained in memory.

What’s Old is New

As we welcome 2013, we find ourselves in that familiar place reflecting on the past, yet looking forward to the future. The January issue of ACS Chemical Neuroscience provides a number of vantage points for contemplation in this regard. Contributions for this issue are from participants of the Serotonin Club Meeting held in Montpellier, France in July 2012, the 25th anniversary of this organization. Serotonin (5-hydroxytryptamine) is an important signaling molecule, which acts as a neurotransmitter, neuromodulator, and neurohormone. It serves many important functions in the central and peripheral nervous systems, as well as in the gastrointestinal, immune, cardiovascular, respiratory, and reproductive systems, and in bone and placenta.1,2,5,8,9 Although serotonin is highly pleiotropic, it is most well-known in its roles modulating mood and anxiety, and as a major target of widely prescribed serotonin reuptake inhibiting antidepressants, for example, Zoloft, Paxil, Celexa, and Lexapro. In addition to the overwhelming response of the meeting participants, this issue marks a turning point for the Serotonin Club. Commemorating this anniversary, founders, councilors, and members recently voted to update the name of the Club to the “International Society for Serotonin Research,” reflecting its position as a highly influential scientific society. Much fondness remains for the Serotonin Club moniker and all it represents in terms of this group’s rich history and development. We are indebted to original Club members, Paul Vanoutte,11 Richard Green, and Charles Marsden,7 for their contributions to this issue, which include Viewpoints leveraging their wisdom and expertise. The issue also includes authoritative Viewpoints from Rodrigo Andrade and Samir Haj-Dahmane,3 Francesc Artigas,4 Lynette Daws and colleagues,6 and Dennis Murphy and co-workers.10 Each of these Viewpoints maps the history of serotonin research and charts the future. At the other end of the spectrum, the issue also features contributions from some of the Club’s youngest members. The Club remains committed to open membership and the development of young scientists, who are undoubtedly the future of serotonin research. One of the highlights of the Montpellier meeting was the “Pioneers and Prodigies” session, which featured invited talks from young travel award winners (Figure ​(Figure1)1) punctuated by commentary from venerable members. Figure 1 National Institute on Drug Abuse (NIDA) Young Investigator Travel Awardees. Travel awardees attended the 2012 Meeting of the Serotonin Club, held at the Faculty of Medicine, University of Montpellier, Montpellier, France. Awardees comprised an international ... Papers published in this issue serve to illustrate the transition to the New Year and with it new ideas. While serotonin is one of the most investigated transmitters (>120 000 PubMed citations), research on serotonin continues to elucidate new information of importance to understanding this neurotransmitter system’s roles in basic physiology, disease processes, and treatments. Moreover, these findings have wide ranging implications for new concepts in receptor and transporter mechanisms, and avenues for therapeutic development. The serotonin system continues to serve as a model system to stimulate advances in knowledge of physiology and nervous system function. The year 2013 marks the fourth year of publication for ACS Chemical Neuroscience. The year 2012 was one of tremendous growth for the journal reflected by a doubling of submissions from 2011 and a steady rise in the quality of submissions. This special issue represents the largest issue of ACS Chemical Neuroscience to date. We hope you will enjoy its panorama of Viewpoints, Letters, Articles, and Reviews. We at ACS Chemical Neuroscience wish you and yours the best for a happy and productive New Year. We would also like to take this opportunity to express our sincere gratitude to all of our authors and reviewers for their contributions to the journal and to our readers. We anticipate strong growth and impact for ACS Chemical Neuroscience in 2013. We look forward to continued influence in the worlds of chemistry, neuroscience, and their nexus.

Simulation of the Upper Urinary System

The ureter and its peristalsis motions have long been of significant interest in biomechanics. In this article we review experimental, theoretical, and numerical studies of the behavior of the ureter together with its mechanical properties, emphasizing studies that contain information of importance in building a virtual simulation tool of the complete ureter that includes its complex geometry, nonlinear material properties, and interaction with urine flow. A new technique to model the contraction of a ureter, which directly applies wall forces to model pacemaker activities, is presented. The required further steps to capture the full complex movement of the peristalsis are discussed, aiming to construct a computational platform that will provide a reliable tool to assist in the investigation and design of material devices (stents) for the renal system.

Multiple achromatic plumage ornaments signal to multiple receivers

We investigated whether achromatic plumage traits can act as multiple ornaments in an Arctic-breeding passerine, the snow bunting (Plectrophenax nivalis). Specifically, we examine whether multiple ornaments are providing multiple differing messages, are redundant, are unreliable signals of male quality, or are aimed at different receivers. We measured plumage reflectance and pigmentation patterns made conspicuous during male inter- and intrasexual displays that advertise different plumage regions. Our results indicate that although several aspects of male plumage may have redundant messages, different body regions appear aimed at different receivers. The wings of males—displayed primarily toward females during courtship—appear to indicate a pair’s future reproductive performance. Conversely, melanin-based plumage reflectance displayed during intrasexual threat displays provides information on territory features and a male’s capacity to defend it (i.e., territory size, territory quality, testosterone levels). Taken together, we suggest that snow buntings have multiple ornaments that provide information of differential importance in inter- versus intrasexual communication. This study demonstrates that achromatic plumage traits can serve in complex communication. Key wor ds: achromatic plumage, individual quality , multiple ornaments, multiple receivers, Plectrophenax nivalis. [Behav Ecol]

From Focus on Price to the Pyramid of Innovation, Information, Cooperation, Value and Trust: A Success Story of Five Swedish Building Material Manufacturers

In the building sector, value for thecustomer, is often regarded as being valuefor money and this, in turn, is achieved bymeans of competitive tendering. However,there are companies that also focus oninnovation as a competitive parameter intheir contribution; hereafter referred to asinnovative companies. Five managingdirectors from innovative companies inSweden were interviewed about howinnovation is dealt with in their respectivecompanies. As well as the importance ofinformation, this study points to twoadditional important factors for innovation,namely cooperation with a carefullychosen partner and the transference ofvalues to the employees. Those innovativecompanies made careful choices and usemeans of information, cooperation, valueand vision to create innovation in order tobuild trust for the company and for itsproducts and services.

Functional imaging in adult and paediatric brain tumours

Imaging is a key component in the management of brain tumours, with MRI being the preferred modality for most clinical scenarios. However, although conventional MRI provides mainly structural information, such as tumour size and location, it leaves many important clinical questions, such as tumour type, aggressiveness and prognosis, unanswered. An increasing number of studies have shown that additional information can be obtained using functional imaging methods (which probe tissue properties), and that these techniques can give key information of clinical importance. These techniques include diffusion imaging, which can assess tissue structure, and perfusion imaging and magnetic resonance spectroscopy, which measures tissue metabolite profiles. Tumour metabolism can also be investigated using PET, with 18F-deoxyglucose being the most readily available tracer. This Review discusses these methods and the studies that have investigated their clinical use. A strong emphasis is placed on the measurement of quantitative parameters, which is a move away from the qualitative nature of conventional radiological reporting and presents major challenges, particularly for multicentre studies.

Laminitis: Recent advances and future directions

Laminitis is common across the world and has a significant impact on equine welfare. While for many years, researchers strove to identify a unifying theory to explain its pathogenesis, in an Editorial in this issue, Professors Belknap and Geor explain that it is more likely that diverse pathways terminate with laminar failure and summarise the current and future directions in laminitis research. This concept has important implications in our understanding of why sepsis, endocrine disease and excessive weightbearing can end in the same sorry situation. It also implies that preventative and therapeutic strategies need to be more sophisticated and targeted at the specific type of laminitis concerned, each of which are discussed in more detail in the Special Focus section of this issue. Equine Veterinary Journal has a long history of promoting laminitis research. In 2004, EVJ produced a special issue dedicated to laminitis and since that time significant numbers of articles on laminitis have been published every year. In recent years, articles have included fundamental studies examining the morphology of the primary epidermal laminae 1, the lamellar basement membrane changes that occur in the developmental phase 2 and challenging the dogma that metalloproteases have a central role in the pathogenesis of laminitis 3. Considerable attention has been given to teasing out the specific contributions of inflammatory mediators in sepsis-associated laminitis 4, 5. There have been considerable steps towards understanding the role of insulin in regulating glucose transport within the hoof 6 and suggesting that while hyperinsulinaemia may be a risk factor for laminitis 7, 8, the widespread basement membrane disintegration that occurs in other forms of laminitis, is not induced by insulin infusions 9. Furthermore, insulin-glucose proxies, which are used in the clinical setting, were not able to determine llaminitis susceptibility 10. There is a clear need for further work both to clarify the underlying mechanisms and to provide better clinical tests in endocrinological laminitis. Supporting limb laminitis has received less attention but risk factors for this condition were defined, in a retrospective study, to be greater duration and higher bodyweight in horses treated with casts 11. With respect to prevention 12, evidence to underpin the use of cryotherapy, a long-established clinical practice, has come from studies using the oligofructose model and it is now clear that its mechanism of action relates to blockade of early inflammatory events 13 rather than any effect whereby inciting mediators were diverted away from the foot due to hypoperfusion, as previously proposed. Effective treatments remain elusive – what we need now are studies to examine the efficacy of cryotherapy applied after the onset of clinical signs. Disappointingly, lidocaine, which was a popular choice in equine hospitals, did not inhibit inflammatory events in either the laminae or skin in horses given black walnut extract 14 but looking to the future, some fascinating work by Carter et al. has shown that epidermal stem cells are lost in chronic laminitis and has thrown up the possibility of a novel approach to therapy 15. The internet has transformed the general public's ability to find information. Increasingly, horse owners will research ailments suffered by their animals with this powerful tool and laminitis is often targeted in this respect by horse owners desperate to find solutions for their afflicted animals. There is a problem, however, that much of the freely available material lacks rigour and quality. Many scientific journals, including EVJ, are generally not available to nonsubscribers. Currently there is much debate within scientific and political circles, supporting the concept of open access publishing and some are in favour of all scientific papers being made freely available to the readers. To date at least, EVJ has not adopted that model, but we are able to offer individual researchers the opportunity to make their work freely available using Wiley Blackwell's Online Open facility (see http://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/journal/10.1001/%28ISSN%292042-3306/homepage/FundedAccess.html for more details). EVJ is also keen to provide free access to information of particular welfare importance and interest to the equine community and to this end, this month, a virtual issue will be launched (http://www.wileyonlinelibrary.com/journal/evj) drawing together 15 original research articles with the Editorials and Review Article in this issue. The virtual issue has been made possible by generous sponsorship from BEVA Trust. I am also grateful to the guest editors of this virtual issue, James Belknap, James Orsini and Andrew van Eps for their enthusiasm, insight and support of this project.

Diphenylamine and derivatives as predictors of gunpowder age by means of HPLC and statistical models

The gunpowder age is information of great importance that could help to establish safety regulations related to the propellants use and manipulation. In this work, a forced aging treatment (65°C for 120 days) was applied to four gunpowders stabilized with diphenylamine (DPA). The evolution of DPA and derivatives (N-nitroso-DPA, 2-nitro-DPA, 4-nitro-DPA, and 4-4′-dinitro-DPA) concentration during the days was leaded by High Performance Liquid Chromatography (HPLC). The variation with time of the peak areas of these compounds was used to construct different statistical models that could predict the gunpowders age. These models were validated using nitrocellulose-based gunpowders of known manufacture date. Models that best predicted the gunpowder age provided prediction errors lower than 6, 4, and 2 years for single-base gunpowders with dinitrotoluene (≥10%(m/m)), single-base gunpowders and double-base gunpowders, respectively.

Scientific preparations for lunar exploration with the European Lunar Lander

Recent Lunar missions and new scientific results in multiple disciplines have shown that working and operating in the complex lunar environment and exploiting the Moon as a platform for scientific research and further exploration poses major challenges. Underlying these challenges are fundamental scientific unknowns regarding the Moon’s surface, its environment, the effects of this environment and the availability of potential resources. The European Lunar Lander is a mission proposed by the European Space Agency to prepare for future exploration. The mission provides an opportunity to address some of these key unknowns and provide information of importance for future exploration activities.Areas of particular interest for investigation on the Lunar Lander include the integrated plasma, dust, charge and radiation environment and its effects, the properties of lunar dust and its physical effects on systems and physiological effects on humans, the availability, distribution and potential application of in situ resources for future exploration. A model payload has then been derived, taking these objectives to account and considering potential payloads proposed through a request for information, and the mission's boundary conditions. While exploration preparation has driven the definition there is a significant synergy with investigations associated with fundamental scientific questions.This paper discusses the scientific objectives for the ESA Lunar Lander Mission, which emphasise human exploration preparatory science and introduces the model scientific payload considered as part of the on-going mission studies, in advance of a formal instrument selection.

A Mechanism for Ionization of Nonvolatile Compounds in Mass Spectrometry: Considerations from MALDI and Inlet Ionization

Mechanistic arguments relative to matrix-assisted laser desorption/ionization (MALDI) mass spectrometry (MS) address observations that predominately singly charged ions are detected. However, recently a matrix assisted laser ablation method, laserspray ionization (LSI), was introduced that can use the same sample preparation and laser as MALDI, but produce highly charged ions from proteins. In MALDI, ions are generated from neutral molecules by the photon energy provided to a matrix, while in LSI ions are produced inside a heated inlet tube linking atmospheric pressure and the first vacuum region of the mass spectrometer. Some LSI matrices also produce highly charged ions with MALDI ion sources operated at intermediate pressure or high vacuum. The operational similarity of LSI to MALDI, and the large difference in charge states observed by these methods, provides information of fundamental importance to proposed ionization mechanisms for LSI and MALDI. Here, we present data suggesting that the prompt and delayed ionization reported for vacuum MALDI are both fast processes relative to producing highly charged ions by LSI. The energy supplied to produce these charged clusters/droplets as well as their size and time available for desolvation are determining factors in the charge states of the ions observed. Further, charged droplets/clusters may be a common link for ionization of nonvolatile compounds by a variety of MS ionization methods, including MALDI and LSI.

Deep Brain Stimulation for Treatment of Voice Disorders

Vocal tremor is a common, troublesome disorder that is difficult to treat. Efficacy of deep brain stimulation (DBS) was reported more than a decade ago. Most laryngologists are not familiar with the technique or its potential. This review was undertaken to assemble relevant literature written over the past decade and assess the clinical implications of that literature. Literature review. PubMed search from 2002 through 2011. A small number of articles on the topic have been identified, some of which appear to provide information of potential clinical importance for voice patients. A review of the literature from 2002 through 2011 has revealed several studies supporting the efficacy of DBS as well as adverse consequences of specific technical approaches (such as high-frequency DBS). In the aging population, the prevalence of this voice tremor is likely to increase. We suspect that DBS may be underused; and laryngologists should collaborate with neurosurgeons, speech-language pathologists, and voice scientists to study more extensively the safety and efficacy of DBS for treatment of voice disorders.