Background: Neurosurgical conditions impose a significant burden on the Canadian healthcare system. This study quantifies the economic impact and explores predictive models for postoperative length of stay. Methods: We analyzed data from the Canadian Institute for Health Information National Health Expenditure Trends database for 2015-2019, focusing on case volumes, healthcare costs, and lengths of stay (LOS) across age groups and conditions. Decision tree models were created to predict total LOS from patient age and average acute LOS. Results: There was a modest increase in case volumes from 6,220 ± 3,103 in 2015 to 6,492 ± 3,240 in 2018, with a slight decrease in 2019. The total estimated hospital costs ranged from 2.27 ± 0.38 million CAD in 2015 to 2.23 ± 0.44 million CAD in 2019. The highest costs were seen in the 18-59 age group, at 2.53 ± 0.43 million CAD. Decision tree models showed high accuracy for predicting LOS in cases like spinal injury (F1-score: 0.98) but were less accurate for interventions with trauma or complications (F1-scores from 0.66 to 0.97). Conclusions: The study delineates the financial demands of neurosurgery in Canada and suggests decision tree models as useful tools for predicting hospital stay, with variable accuracy depending on the case complexity.

Background: Chordomas are rare, malignant bone tumors that present significant challenges in management and treatment due to their complex anatomical locations and propensity for recurrence. Advancements in artificial intelligence (AI) and machine learning (ML) show promise in improving chordoma management. Methods: A comprehensive literature search was conducted following PRISMA guidelines across multiple databases, including MEDLINE, Cochrane, Embase, Scopus, and Web of Science. The search targeted articles related to AI and ML applications in clinical tasks associated with chordoma management. The selection process involved systematic screening, data extraction, and assessment of inter-rater variability. Results: The search yielded 1,006 records, with 18 included for analysis. Convolutional neural networks (CNNs) excelled in tumor volume estimation, with the state-of-the-art model achieving a Dice similarity score of 74.2%, sensitivity of 79.4%, and positive predictive value of 74.3%. Clustering algorithms were effective in prognostic evaluations. Bayesian models and logistic regression demonstrated robustness in diagnostics. Support vector machines (SVMs) were noted for their diagnostic precision. Conclusions: AI and ML algorithms, particularly CNNs, clustering algorithms, Bayesian models, logistic regression, and SVMs, show promise in improving chordoma management through enhanced imaging, diagnostics, and prognostics. Future research should focus on larger, externally validated datasets and explore underutilized techniques like multi-modal data integration.

Many organisms live in fragmented populations, which has profound consequences on the dynamics of associated parasites. Metapopulation theory offers a canonical framework for predicting the effects of fragmentation on spatiotemporal host–parasite dynamics. However, empirical studies of parasites in classical metapopulations remain rare, particularly for vector-borne parasites. Here, we quantify spatiotemporal patterns and possible drivers of infection probability for several ectoparasites (fleas, Ixodes trianguliceps and Ixodes ricinus) and vector-borne microparasites (Babesia microti, Bartonella spp., Hepatozoon spp.) in a classically functioning metapopulation of water vole hosts. Results suggest that the relative importance of vector or host dynamics on microparasite infection probabilities is related to parasite life-histories. Bartonella, a microparasite with a fast life-history, was positively associated with both host and vector abundances at several spatial and temporal scales. In contrast, B. microti, a tick-borne parasite with a slow life-history, was only associated with vector dynamics. Further, we provide evidence that life-history shaped parasite dynamics, including occupancy and colonization rates, in the metapopulation. Lastly, our findings were consistent with the hypothesis that landscape connectivity was determined by distance-based dispersal of the focal hosts. We provide essential empirical evidence that contributes to the development of a comprehensive theory of metapopulation processes of vector-borne parasites.

Gem minerals at Lava Plains, northeast Queensland, offer further insights into mantle-crustal gemformation under young basalt fields. Combined mineralogy, U-Pb age determination, oxygen isotope and petrological data on megacrysts and meta-aluminosilicate xenoliths establish a geochemical evolution in sapphire, zircon formation between 5 to 2 Ma. Sapphire megacrysts with magmatic signatures (Fe/Mg ∼100–1000, Ga/Mg 3–18) grew with ∼3 Ma micro-zircons of both mantle (δ18O 4.5–5.6%) and crustal (δ18O 9.5–10.1‰) affinities. Zircon megacrysts (3±1 Ma) show mantle and crustal characteristics, but most grew at crustal temperatures (600–800°C). Xenolith studies suggest hydrous silicate melts and fluids initiated from amphibolized mantle infiltrated into kyanite+sapphire granulitic crust (800°C, 0.7 GPa). This metasomatized the sapphire (Fe/Mg ∼50–120, Ga/Mg ∼3–11), left relict metastable sillimanite-corundum-quartz and produced minerals enriched in high field strength, large ion lithophile and rare earth elements. The gem suite suggests a syenitic parentage before its basaltic transport. Geographical trace-element typing of the sapphire megacrysts against other eastern Australian sapphires suggests a phonolitic involvement.

Interaction of Greenland’s marine-terminating glaciers with the ocean has emerged as a key term in the ice-sheet mass balance and a plausible trigger for their recent acceleration. Our knowledge of the dynamics, however, is limited by scarcity of ocean measurements at the glacier/ocean boundary. Here data collected near six marine-terminating glaciers (79 North, Kangerdlugssuaq, Helheim and Petermann glaciers, Jakobshavn Isbræ, and the combined Sermeq Kujatdleq and Akangnardleq) are compared to investigate the water masses and the circulation at the ice/ocean boundary. Polar Water, of Arctic origin, and Atlantic Water, from the subtropical North Atlantic, are found near all the glaciers. Property analysis indicates melting by Atlantic Water (AW; found at the grounding line depth near all the glaciers) and the influence of subglacial discharge at depth in summer. AW temperatures near the glaciers range from 4.5˚C in the southeast, to 0.16˚C in northwest Greenland, consistent with the distance from the subtropical North Atlantic and cooling across the continental shelf. A review of its offshore variability suggests that AW temperature changes in the fjords will be largest in southern and smallest in northwest Greenland, consistent with the regional distribution of the recent glacier acceleration.

Accurate and complete reporting of study methods, results and interpretation are essential components for any scientific process, allowing end-users to evaluate the internal and external validity of a study. When animals are used in research, excellence in reporting is expected as a matter of continued ethical acceptability of animal use in the sciences. Our primary objective was to assess completeness of reporting for a series of studies relevant to mitigation of pain in neonatal piglets undergoing routine management procedures. Our second objective was to illustrate how authors can report the items in the Reporting guidElines For randomized controLled trials for livEstoCk and food safety (REFLECT) statement using examples from the animal welfare science literature. A total of 52 studies from 40 articles were evaluated using a modified REFLECT statement. No single study reported all REFLECT checklist items. Seven studies reported specific objectives with testable hypotheses. Six studies identified primary or secondary outcomes. Randomization and blinding were considered to be partially reported in 21 and 18 studies, respectively. No studies reported the rationale for sample sizes. Several studies failed to report key design features such as units for measurement, means, standard deviations, standard errors for continuous outcomes or comparative characteristics for categorical outcomes expressed as either rates or proportions. In the discipline of animal welfare science, authors, reviewers and editors are encouraged to use available reporting guidelines to ensure that scientific methods and results are adequately described and free of misrepresentations and inaccuracies. Complete and accurate reporting increases the ability to apply the results of studies to the decision-making process and prevent wastage of financial and animal resources.

Antarctic and Southern Ocean science is vital to understanding natural variability, the processes that govern global change and the role of humans in the Earth and climate system. The potential for new knowledge to be gained from future Antarctic science is substantial. Therefore, the international Antarctic community came together to ‘scan the horizon’ to identify the highest priority scientific questions that researchers should aspire to answer in the next two decades and beyond. Wide consultation was a fundamental principle for the development of a collective, international view of the most important future directions in Antarctic science. From the many possibilities, the horizon scan identified 80 key scientific questions through structured debate, discussion, revision and voting. Questions were clustered into seven topics: i) Antarctic atmosphere and global connections, ii) Southern Ocean and sea ice in a warming world, iii) ice sheet and sea level, iv) the dynamic Earth, v) life on the precipice, vi) near-Earth space and beyond, and vii) human presence in Antarctica. Answering the questions identified by the horizon scan will require innovative experimental designs, novel applications of technology, invention of next-generation field and laboratory approaches, and expanded observing systems and networks. Unbiased, non-contaminating procedures will be required to retrieve the requisite air, biota, sediment, rock, ice and water samples. Sustained year-round access to Antarctica and the Southern Ocean will be essential to increase winter-time measurements. Improved models are needed that represent Antarctica and the Southern Ocean in the Earth System, and provide predictions at spatial and temporal resolutions useful for decision making. A co-ordinated portfolio of cross-disciplinary science, based on new models of international collaboration, will be essential as no scientist, programme or nation can realize these aspirations alone.

Piglets reared in swine production in the USA undergo painful procedures that include castration, tail docking, teeth clipping, and identification with ear notching or tagging. These procedures are usually performed without pain mitigation. The objective of this project was to develop recommendations for pain mitigation in 1- to 28-day-old piglets undergoing these procedures. The National Pork Board funded project to develop recommendations for pain mitigation in piglets. Recommendation development followed a defined multi-step process that included an evidence summary and estimates of the efficacies of interventions. The results of a systematic review of the interventions were reported in a companion paper. This manuscript describes the recommendation development process and the final recommendations. Recommendations were developed for three interventions (CO2/O2 general anesthesia, non-steroidal anti-inflammatory drugs (NSAIDs), and lidocaine) for use during castration. The ability to make strong recommendations was limited by low-quality evidence and strong certainty about variation in stakeholder values and preferences. The panel strongly recommended against the use of a CO2/O2 general anesthesia mixture, weakly recommended for the use of NSAIDs and weakly recommended against the use of lidocaine for pain mitigation during castration of 1- to 28-day-old piglets.

Coronal Multi-channel Polarimeter (CoMP-S), developed by HAO/NCAR, has been introduced to regular operation at the Lomnicky Peak Observatory (High Tatras in northern Slovakia, 2633 m a.s.l.) of the Astronomical Institute of Slovak Academy of Sciences. We present here the technical parameters of the current version of the instrument and its potential for observations of prominences in the visual and near-IR spectral regions. The first results derived from observations of prominences in the Hα emission line taken during a coordinated observing campaign of several instruments in October 2012 are shown here.

A heuristic greedy algorithm is developed for efficiently tiling spatially dense redshift surveys. In its first application to the Galaxy and MassAssembly (GAMA) redshift survey we find it rapidly improves the spatial uniformity of our data, and naturally corrects for any spatial bias introduced by the 2dF multi-object spectrograph. We make conservative predictions for the final state of the GAMA redshift survey after our final allocation of time, and can be confident that even if worse than typical weather affects our observations, all of our main survey requirements will be met.

Most treatments of the problem of dirty hands in politics assume that merely holding a position of great political power will require a political actor to violate important moral standards. They assume that the successful political leader must inevitably be morally corrupted by the iniquitous choices that must inevitably be made, and, further, that this casts a shadow upon political life as a moral enterprise. This article argues, instead, that the conventional dirty hands problem is not particularly significant and that a much more serious test of the moral quality of public life in a given polity is how it makes its arrangements for formal public retrospection upon and judgment of the inevitable episodes of unwise, intemperate or immoral political action by leaders. In short, it is the deliberate corruption of democracy that should attract our scrutiny, not the condition of the soul of the supra-ethical or maverick leader.

The article defends the classical version of ministerial responsibility against recent initiatives to implement a form of direct accountability for administrators. Constitutional convention and ministerial resignations from active cabinets in the Canadian federal government and in Britain are described: in neither country do ministers resign for maladministration by their officials, nor does doctrine suggest they should. Rather, the pattern of resignations indicates the importance of collective responsibility, as well as the relative unimportance of ministerial misbehaviour. The conclusion sets out the negative implications for democratic government of substituting a kind of direct “accountability” of officials, extracted in political forums, for the responsibility of ministers.

In this article the potential for use of electronic portfolios by healthcare practitioners and students is considered in the context of work currently being undertaken in the School of Health at the University of Wolverhampton. We write at a time when knowledge of, and interest in, eportfolios is expanding beyond a relatively small number of projects and into the consciousness of a wider audience of academics and institutions. In the last 2 years interest in eportfolios has grown rapidly, particularly within a Higher Education sector keen to meet the Higher Education Funding Council for England/Quality Assurance Agency progress file deadline in 2005, but also spurred by the reports of Burgess (Universities UK. Measuring and recording student achievement, 2004 [Online report] [Accessed: 01 March 2006]. Available from: http://bookshop.universitiesuk.ac.uk/downloads/measuringachievement.pdf) and of Tomlinson (DfES. Harnessing Technology: Transforming learning and children's services, 2005. [Online Report]. Published 15 March 2005 [Accessed: 01 Mar 2006]. Available from: http://www.dfes.gov.uk/publications/e-strategy/index.shtml). Examples of the use of eportfolio as a means of recording achievement and, in particular, facilitating reflective practice are discussed. The potential of an eportfolio system incorporating asynchronous communication features to resolve the tensions between academic and clinical practitioner roles is explored.

We present results of a self-consistent model of the spectral energy distribution (SED) of starburst galaxies. Two parameters control the IR SED, the mean pressure in the ISM and the destruction timescale of molecular clouds. Adding a simplified AGN spectrum provides mixing lines on IRAS color : color diagrams. This reproduces the observed colors of both AGNs and starbursts.To search for other articles by the author(s) go to: http://adsabs.harvard.edu/abstract_service.html

A review of the properties of Type II Cepheids and RV Tauri stars in the Magellanic Clouds is presented. In the behaviour of their light and colour curves, the RV Tauri stars appear to be a direct extension of the Type II Cepheids to longer periods. A single P – L – C relationship describes both the Type II Cepheids and RV Tauri stars in the LMC. The derived high intrinsic magnitudes for the RV Tauri variables supports the proposition that these objects are luminous stars evolving off the AGB. Preliminary analysis of the long time-series MACHO photometry indicates one star (MACHO*05:37:45.0–69:54:16) has an obvious ‘period-quadrupled’ periodicity, which is supporting evidence for a period-doubling bifurcation transition to chaotic pulsations.

We present the first results of the analysis of 22 Blazhko stars. We find: 1) Blazhko RRab stars that are nearly pure amplitude modulators; 2) Blazhko RRab stars that have both amplitude and phase modulation; 3) A Blazhko RRab star that has an abrupt period change; 4) Proof of the Blazhko effect in RRc stars. Our data show the character of the amplitude and phase modulations of the light curves over the Blazhko cycles far better than has been previously possible.

We present the first massive frequency analysis of the 1200 first overtone RR Lyrae stars in the Large Magellanic Cloud observed in the first 4.3 yr of the MACHO project. Besides the many new double-mode variables, we also discovered stars with closely spaced frequencies. These variables are most probably nonradial pulsators.