We present the case of a 13-year-old male with a complex congenital cardiac history who was supported with extracorporeal membrane oxygenation for 394 days while awaiting cardiac transplantation. The patient underwent successful cardiac transplantation after 394 days of support with veno-arterial extracorporeal membrane oxygenation and is currently alive 2 years after cardiac transplantation. We believe that this case represents the longest period of time that a patient has been supported with extracorporeal membrane oxygenation as a bridge to cardiac transplantation.

We also review the literature associated with prolonged support with extracorporeal membrane oxygenation. This case report documents many of the challenges associated with prolonged support with extracorporeal membrane oxygenation, including polymicrobial bacterial and fungal infections, as well as renal dysfunction. It is possible to successfully bridge a patient to cardiac transplantation with prolonged support with extracorporeal membrane oxygenation of over 1 year; however, multidisciplinary collaboration is critical.

Recent work by Kahan et al. (2017) on the psychology of motivated numeracy in the context of intracultural disagreement suggests that people are less likely to employ their capabilities when the evidence runs contrary to their political ideology. This research has so far been carried out primarily in the USA regarding the liberal–conservative divide over gun control regulation. In this paper, we present the results of a modified replication that included an active reasoning intervention with Western European participants regarding both the hierarchy–egalitarianism and individualism–collectivism divides over immigration policy (n = 746; considerably less than the preregistration sample size). We reproduce the motivated numeracy effect, though we do not find evidence of increased polarization of high-numeracy participants.

Several United States (US) federal agencies have developed visual resource inventory (VRI) and management systems that reflect specific agency missions and visual resource management objectives. These programs have varied in the degree to which they incorporate historic and cultural elements and values into the scenic inventory process. The recent nationwide expansion of renewable energy and associated transmission development is causing an increase in visual impacts on both scenic and historic/cultural resources. This increase has highlighted the need for better integration of visual and historic/cultural resource assessment and management activities for land use planning purposes. The US Department of the Interior National Park Service (NPS), in response to concerns arising from potential scenic impacts from renewable energy, electric transmission, and other types of development on lands and waters near NPS units, has developed a VRI process for high-value views both within and outside NPS unit boundaries. The NPS VRI incorporates historic and cultural elements and values into the scenic resource inventory process and provides practical guidance and metrics for successfully integrating historic and cultural concerns into the NPS’s scenic resource conservation efforts. This article describes the NPS VRI process and compares it with the VRI processes of the US Department of the Interior Bureau of Land Management and the US Department of Agriculture Forest Service, with respect to the incorporation of historic and cultural values. The article discusses why a scenic inventory approach that more robustly integrates the historic and cultural values of the landscape is essential for NPS landscapes, and for fulfillment of NPS’s mission. Inventories are underway at many NPS units, and the results indicate that the VRI process can be used successfully to capture important historic and cultural resource information and incorporate that information into the assessment of the scenic values of views within and outside NPS units.

Environmental Practice 18: 166–179 (2016)

A rare subclass of Type Ia supernovae (SNe Ia) shows evidence of strong interaction with a hydrogen-rich circumstellar medium (CSM); these objects are referred to as SNe Ia-CSM. PTF11kx began life as a SN Ia, but after a month it began to show indications of significant interaction with its CSM. This well-studied object solidified the connection between SNe Ia-CSM and more typical SNe Ia, despite their spectral similarity to Type IIn SNe (which likely come from massive star progenitors, as opposed to the white dwarf progenitors for the SNe Ia-CSM). The spectra of all ~20 known SNe Ia-CSM are dominated by Hα emission (with widths of ~2000 km s−1) and exhibit large Hα/Hβ intensity ratios; moreover, they have an almost complete lack of He I emission (see left panel of Figure 1). They also show possible evidence of dust formation through a decrease in the red wing of Hα 75–100 days past maximum brightness. The absolute magnitudes of SNe Ia-CSM are found to be -21.3 mag ≤ MR ≤ −19 mag (see right panel of Figure 1), and they also show ultraviolet emission at early times and strong infrared emission at late times (but no detected radio or X-ray emission). Finally, the host galaxies of SNe Ia-CSM imply that these objects come from a relatively young stellar population.

Never before has there been such a wealth of versatile ground- and space-based facilities with which to detect variable emission across the electromagnetic spectrum and beyond, to non-EM signals such as neutrinos and gravitational waves, to probe the most extreme phenomena in the Universe. The variable sky is already providing a wealth of new and surprising observations of phenomena such as GRBs, SNe and AGN that are pushing current theories beyond the state of the art. Multi-messenger follow-up will soon become de rigeur, and upcoming radio and optical all-sky transient surveys will revolutionise the study of the transient Universe. In addition to the technical and data challenges presented by such surveys, a major new challenge will be the interpretation of the wealth of available data and the identification of the underlying physics of new classes of variable (and potentially exotic) objects. Theoretical predictions will be vital for interpreting these future transient discoveries.

The goal of this workshop was to bring together theorists and observers in order to identify unexplored synergies across three main research areas of extreme physics: gamma-ray bursts, supernovæ and, more generically, relativistic jets. It aimed to discuss key outstanding questions in these rapidly moving fields, such as the composition and acceleration of GRB and AGN jets, GRB progenitors and central engines, the origin of the wide range of observed variability time-scales in GRB prompt and after-glow light curves and related cosmological applications, the physics of the newly-discovered ultra-luminous SN-like optical transients—as well as to speculate on what we might hope to discover with future technology.

The workshop absorbed two 90-minute sessions, selecting 3 main science topics (Relativistic Jets, GRBs and SNe) which it organised as structured discussions driven by a series of short but provocative questions. The final session featured a panel-led debate but with full audience participation.

We present photometry and spectroscopy of the peculiar Type II supernova SN 2010jp, also named PTF10aaxi. The light curve exhibits a linear decline with a relatively low peak absolute magnitude of only −15.9 (unfiltered), and a low radioactive decay luminosity at late times that suggests a low synthesized nickel mass of about 0.003 M⊙ or less. Spectra of SN 2010jp display an unprecedented triple-peaked Hα line profile, showing: (1) a narrow central component that suggests shock interaction with a dense circumstellar medium (CSM); (2) high-velocity blue and red emission features centered at −12,600 and +15,400 km s−1; and (3) very broad wings extending from −22,000 to +25,000 km s−1. We propose that this line profile indicates a bipolar jet-driven explosion, with the central component produced by normal SN ejecta and CSM interaction at mid and low latitudes, while the high-velocity bumps and broad line wings arise in a nonrelativistic bipolar jet. Jet-driven SNe II are predicted for collapsars resulting from a wide range of initial masses above 25 M⊙, especially at the sub-solar metallicity consistent with the SN host environment. It also seems consistent with the apparently low 56Ni mass that may accompany black hole formation. We speculate that the jet survives to produce observable signatures because the star's H envelope was very low mass, having been mostly stripped away by the previous eruptive mass loss.