Nova Scotia moose mystery--a moose sickness related to cobalt- and vitamin B12 deficiency

A wasting, debilitating disease with uncertain aetiology affecting moose (Alces alces americana) in Eastern North America has been reported repeatedly ever since the 1910s. Despite the intensive studies during 1930-1960s the cause of the sickness could not be established. In the 1960s a parasitic nematode (Parelaphostrongylus tenuis) was reported as constituting a probable explanation for the sickness, although several clinical and pathological signs remained unexplained. In Sweden, a moose disease with similar signs, has been shown to be caused by molybdenosis resulting from a nutritional imbalance. The findings of this investigation were applied in Nova Scotia to determine trace element concentrations in tissues from indigenous moose. Co deficiency was found in about half of the cases and the investigation was complemented by determining the vitamin B12 level, which proved nutritional Co/vitamin B12 deficiency, further verified by an increased MMA (methylmalonic acid) level in plasma. Deficiencies were found mainly in the Tobeatic and Cape Breton Highland regions. No indications of molybdenosis or other trace element disturbances were found in Nova Scotia. Otherwise, extremely high Cd levels (148 mg Cd/kg kidney wet wt., maximum) were found, though probably not contributing to the moose sickness. The Cd burden of moose on mainland Nova Scotia was more than 50% higher than that of moose in Huntville and Alonquin (Ontario, Canada) and five- to six-fold is higher than the highest Cd levels found in Sweden. To counteract the bio-geochemical effects of Co deficiency in the moose environment, provision of Co-containing salt licks is suggested.     

Housing subsidies and income distribution

While housing subsidy programmes directed through government budgets have become more highly focused on those in need, indirect subsidies operating through the taxation and financial systems have become greater during the inflationary period, and have generally been directed towards those with higher incomes. The Housing Subsidies Study identified several hundred housing assistance programmes in Australia, and after aggregating these to manageable proportions, estimated income distributions for the recipients of each programme.     

Quantifying Software Validity by Sampling

The point of all validation techniques is to raise assurance about the program under study, but no current methods can be realistically thought to give 100% assurance that a validated program will perform correctly. There are currently no useful ways for quantifying how 'well-validated' a program is. One measure of program correctness is the proportion of elements in the program's input domain for which it fails to execute correctly, since the proportion is zero i.f.f. the program is correct. This proportion can be estimated statistically from the results of program tests and from prior subjective assessments of the program's correctness. Three examples are presented of methods for determining s-confidence bounds on the failure proportion. It is shown that there are reasonable conditions (for programs with a finite number of paths) for which ensuring the testing of all paths does not give better assurance of program correctness.     

Judgments of consensus during group discussion.

6 groups of Ss held discussions during which the individuals' opinions and estimates of the group consensus were privately taken on various issues. "The degree of estimation accuracy achieved was not noticeably different from the accuracy found by other investigators under conditions of no discussion." (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Evaluating the scope for energy-efficiency improvements in the public sector: Benchmarking NHSScotland's smaller health buildings

The National Health Service in Scotland (NHSScotland) has, in recent years, done much to reduce energy consumption in its major healthcare buildings (hospitals). On average, a reduction of 2% per year has been achieved since 2000, based on hospital buildings. However, there had been little or no attention paid to smaller premises such as health centres, clinics, dentists, etc. Such smaller healthcare buildings in Scotland constitute 29% of the total treated floor area of all NHSScotland buildings and, therefore, may contribute a similar percentage of carbon and other emissions to the environment. By concentrating on a sample of local health centres in Scotland, this paper outlines the creation of an energy benchmark target, which is part of a wider research project to investigate the environmental impacts of small healthcare buildings in Scotland and the scope for improvements. It was found that energy consumption varied widely between different centres but this variation could not be linked to building style, floor area or volume. Overall, it was found that a benchmark of 0.2 GJ/m³ would be challenging, but realistic.     

Q￡A Hellovon

我们采访了伦敦插画家Von,去了解他结合了细节图与数码元素的独特风格。     

Comment: Use of Electronic Computers in Psychological Research.

Comments that on the Leavitt, Stone, and Wrigley discussion (October, 1954 American Psychologist) of the possibilities of a Psychological Electronic Computer (Psycheac) which, would be useful to APA members. The idea proposed by these authors is an excellent one, and efforts should be made to carry out some of their suggestions to "reduce routine computational drudgery." He presents an analysis in an effort to provide one example of the value and efficiency of an electronic computer in analyses of psychological data. An article by Meer, Stein, and Geertsma (January 1955, American Psychologist) is concerned with an analysis of the interrelationships among the Miller Analogies Test (MAT) and Wechsler-Bellevue (W-B) subtests. Their data is used in example. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)