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Knowing credible records of harvested timber is in the interest of the forest owner, forest entrepreneur and timber-sector stakeholder. Therefore, the objective of the research was to determine the share of unrecorded Norway spruce timber volume in length allowance on the total timber volume produced by harvester technology in Czechia. We analyzed 176,980 merchantable logs (total volume of 10,333 m3) produced by 15 harvesters. Primary data were obtained from.stm files. Logs were categorized into five grades according to metric and qualitative requirements of the customers, also butt logs were distinguished. Statistical analysis were processed in the Statistica 13 package. Results showed that 1.99% of the volume of produced timber were excluded from the primary forestry records. Mean unrecorded volume of length allowance to assortments that contained both the cross-cut and cutting window allowances, varied from 2.99% up to 3.16%, while 0.27% to 0.46% of volume were unrecorded for those assortments that contained only the cutting window. In higher quality grades, we found shorter logs had a higher mean relative volume of length allowance than longer logs. The mean relative volumes of length allowances also varied between butt and other logs. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

A series of localized high-temperature granulite-facies domains ('hot spots') are present within the regional (10–100 km2scale) amphibolite-facies rocks of the Central Maine Terrane in central New Hampshire (NH), USA. Based on the spatial coincidence of a thermal anomaly and contours of depressed δ18O values centered on networks of quartz–graphite and pegmatitic veins in the vicinity of Bristol, NH, it was proposed in an earlier study that large-scale ascending hot fluid focused through a vein network drove heating and introduced isotopically distinct fluids. The thermal anomaly could be preserved only if the timescales of heating were extremely short, otherwise conduction would smooth the field temperature gradient. Herein, we conduct a petrological test to estimate the peak temperatures and the durations of metamorphism across the Bristol region, using pseudosection analysis as well as forward modeling of garnet growth–diffusion–resorption profiles. This region attained granulite-facies conditions in the sillimanite–K-feldspar–cordierite zone over a larger area than previously mapped. Cordierite is variably present, which reflects bulk compositional controls on its stability as well as its destruction during retrogression. The forward modeling reveals protracted (5–8 Myr) granulite-facies conditions of 0·5–0·6 GPa and ∼750–820°C, and an overall counterclockwise P – T path. Furthermore, a short-lived thermal anomaly or 'spike' (>100°C, ∼0·15 Myr) is superimposed on the granulite-facies core, reaching ultrahigh-temperature (UHT) conditions >900°C, much higher than previously recognized in the area. The short timescale is fully consistent with the localized radius of the thermal anomaly of ∼1·5 km. Subsequently, the area underwent variably developed amphibolite-facies retrogression at ∼650°C and 0·4–0·5 GPa, accompanied by fluid infiltration, garnet breakdown, and muscovite growth. The transient thermal spike and the counterclockwise P – T path indicate that heat transfer could not have been solely the result of internal heating of overthickened crust. We posit that external heat fluxes driven by Acadian plutonism, in addition to heat generation in crust enriched in heat-producing elements, led to the granulite-facies metamorphism. Magmatic loading in the crust, potentially in response to an elevated basal heat flux during the Acadian orogeny, can account for the counterclockwise P – T path. Heat transported advectively by channelized flow of magma or magma evolving hydrothermal fluids is the most likely cause of the transient and local UHT thermal anomaly. The results show that UHT metamorphic events can be extremely brief. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In the 1870s, Leland Stanford allegedly wagered $25,000 to prove the theory that all four of a horse's hooves leave the ground when it travels at a gallop. While the anecdote is largely considered to be untrue, the wager has been repeatedly refuted across close to a century of writing on Stanford and Eadweard Muybridge's role in the development of motion pictures. In examining the disavowal of the wager myth, this article argues the refutations illustrate contradictions between science and representation that remain central to the history of motion-picture technology. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Type A aortic dissection is an acute condition that requires urgent surgical intervention. However, in a subset of patients, aortic dissections go undiagnosed and become chronic, thereby allowing the dissected wall to undergo a distinct remodeling process from that of the surrounding intact wall. Here, we observe the biomechanical and histological changes in the aortic wall of two patients with chronic Type A aortic dissection. Partial or complete disruption of the elastic structure of the medial layer was observed in the dissected wall of both patients; however, aortic stiffness in the region of dissection covaried with a change in collagen content. A ~50% increase in viscous energy loss was observed in the region of dissection of both patients which suggests an impaired elastic recoil and Windkessel function of the proximal aorta. MMP expression (2 and 9) differed between the dissected and intact wall and was distinct between the two patients. Our observations suggest that an active remodeling process occurs in the dissected aortic wall resulting in a vastly different biomechanical behavior. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Background: Large amount of evidence supports the contribution of the Stanford Chronic Disease Self-Management Program (CDSMP) to a global chronic disease management strategy. However, many studies have suggested further exploring of the factors influencing acceptance and completion of participants in this program.Objective: This study aimed to describe and examine factors associated with acceptance and completion rates of the CDSMP among frequent users of health care services, and to highlight the experience of patients and peer leaders who facilitated the program.Methods: A descriptive design with mixed sequential data was used. Acceptance and completion rates were calculated and their relationship with patient characteristics was examined in regression analysis (n = 167). Interviews were conducted among patients who accepted (n = 11) and refused (n = 13) to participate and with the program coordinator. Focus groups were held with the seven peer leaders who facilitated the program. Data were analysed using thematic analysis.Results: Of the 167 patients invited, 60 (36%) accepted to participate in the program. Group format was the most frequent reason to decline the invitation to participate. Twenty-eight participants (47%) completed the program. Participants who dropped out during the program raised different reasons such as poor health and too much heterogeneity among participants. Factors such as location, schedule, content, group composition and facilitation were considered as important elements contributing to the success of the program.Conclusion: The CDSMP could therefore be considered as a self-management support option for this vulnerable clientele, while taking measures to avoid too much heterogeneity among participants to improve completion rates. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

European Patent No. 2430454 of Stanford University is open to opposition before the European Patent Office if such opposition is filed by 23 October 2013. This is the European equivalent of the US Patent that raised such controversy in this journal in August 2013 as being a patent on time. The European Patent, which is directed to a method of selecting embryos for implantation using the results of time-lapse microscopy, should, in the present authors' opinion, be revoked as being directed to a method of medical diagnosis, which is unpatentable under European patent law. The only party currently opposing Stanford's patent is a competitor, Unisense FertiliTech A/S which is itself seeking to patent similar methods in Europe; the objection that Stanford has patented a method of diagnosis has not been raised by Unisense FertiliTech. We submit that Stanford's patent should be opposed to safeguard competition and to protect the freedom to operate of clinicians. In this paper we explain how Stanford's patent should fail under European law. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Acute aortic syndrome is made up of three entities: aortic dissection, intramural hematoma, and penetrating ulcer. The common denominator for this pathology is the disruption of the middle layer with bleeding along the wall of the aorta resulting in separation of the layers or in some cases break trauma. Early diagnosis of aortic dissection is essential to improve the outcome, since mortality of natural evolution in the fi rst 24 hours is 20% and 7 days of 62%. One of the most significant diagnostic errors is to confuse the dissection of the aorta with a heart attack, especially if thrombolytic therapy is indicated. The aim of our event is to describe type A aortic dissection Stanford and I DeBakey in 30 year old patient who presented to the emergency department of the hospital Cardiology XXI Century, Mexican Institute of Social Security, with an emphasis on diagnosis and treatment methods to be established in the emergency department in order to decrease mortality in these patients. The pathophysiological mechanisms, diagnosis and treatment of aortic dissection are discussed. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Productivity models produced using time differences between consecutive StanForD stem files collected by harvester onboard computers were compared with models produced using traditional time and motion techniques for the same initial trees. Three sites were studied in Pinus radiata plantation clearfell operations across southern Australia. Delays and trees with multiple leaders or broken tops were removed from the data. This was done for the stem file data using filters. The same filters were applied to data from all sites. No significant differences were found between the models at each site, though the stem file productivity models generally had a poorer fit than the time and motion models. The advantages of using stem files for modelling are the ready availability of stem file data, which enables rapid creation of generalised harvester productivity models and avoids short-term changes in productivity caused by the presence of an observer (the “Hawthorne effect”). Disadvantages are the inability to account for unforeseen changes in conditions during data collection, and the inability to isolate work-cycle time-element data. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Stanford, in Exceeding Our Grasp, presents a powerful version of the pessimistic meta-induction. He claims that theories typically have empirically inequivalent but nonetheless well-confirmed, serious alternatives which are unconceived. This claim should be uncontroversial. But it alone is no threat to scientific realism. The threat comes from Stanford's further crucial claim, supported by historical examples, that a theory's unconceived alternatives are 'radically distinct' from it; there is no 'continuity'. A standard realist reply to the meta-induction is that past failures do not imply present ones because present theories are more successful than past ones. I have preferred to emphasize that present methodology is better than past ones. Stanford's response to the standard reply is surprisingly brief and inadequate. He defends the inference from the uncontroversial claim but not that from the crucial one. He does not show that past discontinuity implies present discontinuity. Realism survives. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article is an autobiographical account of the author’s childhood struggle to survive in Stanford’s Learning House, a behaviorist program in the 1970s designed to help delinquents change. “The Minotaur of the Behaviorist Maze” offers an insider’s perspective on the consequences of treating a child as a stimulus–response organism in need of modification rather than as a human being in search of restoration of his or her innate wholeness. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]