Temperature and telomeres: thermal treatment influences telomere dynamics through a complex interplay of cellular processes in a cold-climate skink.

Telomere dynamics vary fundamentally between endothermic populations and species as a result of differences in life history, yet we know little about these patterns in ectotherms. In ectotherms, the relationships between climate, metabolism and life history suggest that telomere attrition should be higher at relatively high environmental temperatures compared to relatively low environmental temperatures, but these effects may vary between populations due to local adaptation. To address this hypothesis, we sampled reactive oxygen species (ROS) and telomere length of lizards from warm lowland and cool highland populations of a climatically widespread lizard species that we exposed to hot or cold basking treatments. The hot treatment increased relative telomere length compared to the cold treatment independent of climatic origin or ROS levels. Lizards from the cool highland region had lower ROS levels than those from the warm lowland region. Within the highland lizards, ROS increased more in the cold basking treatment than the hot basking treatment. These results are in the opposite direction to those predicted, suggesting that the relationships between temperature, metabolism, ROS and telomere dynamics are not straightforward. Future work incorporating detailed understanding of the thermal reaction norms of these and other linked traits is needed to fully understand these processes.

Complete stabilization of neoclassical tearing modes with lower hybrid current drive on COMPASS-D. RF teams.

Lower hybrid current drive (LHCD) with modest powers ( approximately 10% of the total power input) has been used for the first time to completely stabilize performance limiting neoclassical tearing modes in many COMPASS-D tokamak discharges. The stabilizing effect in these experiments is consistent with a reduction in the free energy available in the current profile to drive tearing modes (i.e., the stability index, delta(')) resulting from favorable current gradients (from the LHCD driven current) around the rational surface.

Deliberate self-harm: an assessment of patients' attitudes to the care they receive.

It has often been suggested that hospital staff have an unfavorable attitude to patients who deliberately harm themselves (DSH). Perhaps more important, however, is how the staff's attitudes are perceived by the patients, and how effective the various groups of professionals are in dealing with DSH patients' problems. In this study, questionnaires concerning the attitudes of staff were distributed to 142 DSH patients just prior to their discharge from hospital. In contrast to previous studies, where unfavorable attitudes towards DSH have been reported, patients were very positive about the attitudes of the staff. There were significant differences between the professional groups encountered, with nurses and social workers being particularly favorably regarded. Patients' perception of the amount of help they received was found to be highly significantly associated with certain staff attributes, in particular sympathy (r = 0.60) and listening behavior (r = 0.63). Patients requested a wide range of follow-up to be available, particularly emergency contacts (39%) and follow-up by social workers (39%) and nurses (37%). Females requested more follow-up than males. The implications of the findings for the management of DSH are discussed.