Diel activity rhythms and factors affecting the duration of daily activity were studied in nine male common weasels Mustela nivalis vulgaris, radio-tracked in the pristine deciduous woodland in ...eastern Poland from April 1990 to August 1991. During the study, mean daily temperature varied from -5.3 °C to 25.5 °C, and densities of forest rodents (bank voles Clethrionomys glareolus and yellow-necked mice Apodemus flavicollis) ranged from 2 to 270 ind. ha-1. Weasels showed clearly diurnal activity, with a peak around 1000—1300 hrs. On average, weasels were active for 3.8 h day-1 (SE = 0.3, range 0—14 h day-1), with 0 to 7 bouts of activity (mean 2.1, SE = 0.1), each bout lasting, on average, 1.8 h (SE = 0.1). Spells of activity were separated by short inactivity bouts (on average 2 h, SE = 0.2). Long (nocturnal) inactivity lasted, on average 17.5 h day-1 (SE = 0.7). A remarkable seasonal variation in the duration of weasel daily activity and number of activity bouts per day was related to changes in ambient temperature. In winter, weasels were active in 1—2 bouts day-1 each bout lasting 1—2 h; whereas in summer they showed 3—4 (maximally 7) bouts of activity. The highest level of activity coincided with the mating season. Fluctuations of rodent numbers had little effect on weasel activity pattern.
Post-vasectomy semen analysis (PVSA) is the traditional method of confirming sterility after vasectomy. However, PVSA protocols vary in the end points accepted, and the number and timing of tests. In ...this systematic review we make evidence based recommendations on the appropriate PVSA protocol.
Databases (MEDLINE, Current Contents, Cochrane Library and EMBASE) were searched up to and including March 2003. Studies were included if they dealt with post-vasectomy testing and contained data on at least 1 of the time or number of ejaculations to azoospermia, pregnancy, repeat vasectomy and histological analysis of vas specimens.
A total of 56 studies were included in the review. Time to achieve azoospermia was variable, although the median incidence of patients with azoospermia was consistently more than 80% after 3 months and after 20 ejaculations. A small percent of patients (14,845 or 1.4%) demonstrated persistent nonmotile sperm, although some of them eventually achieved azoospermia. The reappearance of nonmotile sperm was reported in 7 studies, occurring up to 22 months after vasectomy.
The evidence supports a PVSA protocol with 1 test showing azoospermia after 3 months and 20 ejaculations. If the sample is positive, periodic testing can continue until azoospermia is achieved. Patients with persistent nonmotile sperm in low numbers could be given cautious assurance of success. No evidence was located to support histological testing of the excised vas deferens.
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The combination of a production target for secondary beams, an optimized ion optical beam line setting, in-beam detectors for minimum ionizing particles with high rate capability, and an efficient ...large acceptance spectrometer around the reaction target constitutes an experimental opportunity to study in detail hadronic interactions utilizing pion beams impinging on nucleons and nuclei. For the 0.4-2.0GeV/c pion momentum regime such a facility is located at the heavy ion synchrotron accelerator SIS18 in Darmstadt (Germany). The layout of the apparatus, performance of its components and encouraging results from a first commissioning run are presented.
The pattern of autumn migration of the Robin was studied through an analysis of daily dynamics for the birds caught in the years 1984–1997 at four ringing stations (two on the Baltic coast and two in ...inland Poland). In a given year, migration dynamics was found to be distinctly similar at all stations. It showed conspicuous consistence (± 2 days) in the dates with peak numbers. This could be explained by assuming that Robins take off at the same time across a large breeding ground, and arrive almost simultaneously at stopover sites located over extensive areas. Moreover, migration dynamics from year to year at a given station was also remarkably similar, though this phenomenon was more distinct at the inland stations than at the coastal ones. Day-to-day fluctuations in numbers were on an average the highest at the coastal station most exposed to variable weather, the lowest at the inland stations, and intermediate at the more “sheltered” of the coastal station. The paper discusses the extent to which such results can reflect the influence of weather conditions on passage, or else a precise internal (physiological and genetic) mechanism responsible for the timing of migration.
Trapping data from six ringing stations on the east coast of the Baltic Sea were used to study fluctuations in the numbers of migrating Great Tits Parus major. In the years 1971-97, the number of ...autumn migrating Great Tits was typically found to fluctuate less than those of partial migrants, but similarly to those of obligatory migrants at Hanko (Finland), Kabli (Estonia) and Neringa (Lithuania). The numbers of Great Tits at Mierzeja Wislana (Poland) fluctuated more than those at the northern stations but far less than numbers among irruptive species. We found no significant correlation between the intensity of migration and: the share of young birds, the share of males and the distance between wintering grounds and ringing stations. Nor were the numbers of migrating Great Tits found to correlate significantly with the crop of beechnuts in the species' wintering area the preceding autumn. We also compared data gathered over 20 years concerning the breeding populations of 20 bird species in Bialowieza National Park, eastern Poland. Numbers of breeding Great Tits were stable (like those of obligatory migrants), in contrast with the strongly fluctuating irruptive populations of Coal Tits Parus ater and Great Spotted Woodpeckers Dendrocopos major. Overall, the results indicate that Great Tits behave like regular partial migrants, with the migration in northern and eastern Europe not being affected by the crop of beechnuts in the wintering area.
Secretoneurin is a recently described peptide derived by endoproteolytic processing from secretogranin II, previously named chromogranin C. In this study, we have investigated the distribution of ...secretoneurin‐like immunoreactivity in the human hippocampus in controls and in Alzheimer's disease patients, and compared the staining pattern to that of calretinin. Secretoneurin‐like immunoreactivity is present throughout the hippocampal formation. At the border of the dentate molecular layer and the granule cell layer, a band of dense secretoneurin immunostaining appeared. In this part, as in the area of the CA2 sector, the high density of secretoneurin‐immunoreactivity coincided with calretinin‐like immunoreactivity. The mossy fibre system displayed a moderate density of secretoneurin‐immunoreactivity. In the entorhinal cortex, a particularly high density of secretoneurin‐immunoreactivity was observed. The density of secretoneurin‐like immunoreactivity was significantly reduced in the innermost part of the molecular layer and in the outer molecular layer of the dentate gyrus in Alzheimer's disease. For calretinin‐like immunoreactivity, a less pronounced decrease was found in the innermost part of the molecular layer. About 40–60% of neuritic plaques were secretoneurin‐immunopositive.
This study shows that secretoneurin is distinctly distributed in the human hippocampus and that significant changes of secretoneurin‐like immunoreactivity occur in Alzheimer's disease, reflecting synaptic loss.
Abstract
We present high-statistic data on charged-pion emission from Au + Au collisions at
$$\sqrt{s_{\mathrm{NN}}} = 2.4~\hbox {GeV}$$
s
NN
=
2.4
GeV
(corresponding to
$$E_{beam} = 1.23~\hbox {A ...GeV}$$
E
beam
=
1.23
A GeV
) in four centrality classes in the range 0–40% of the most central collisions. The data are analyzed as a function of transverse momentum, transverse mass, rapidity, and polar angle. Pion multiplicity per participating nucleon decreases moderately with increasing centrality. The polar angular distributions are found to be non-isotropic even for the most central event class. Our results on pion multiplicity fit well into the general trend of the available world data, but undershoot by
$$2.5~\sigma $$
2.5
σ
data from the FOPI experiment measured at slightly lower beam energy. We compare our data to state-of-the-art transport model calculations (PHSD, IQMD, PHQMD, GiBUU and SMASH) and find substantial differences between the measurement and the results of these calculations.
We present first data on sub-threshold production of Ks0 mesons and Λ hyperons in Au+Au collisions at sNN=2.4 GeV. We observe an universal 〈Apart〉 scaling of hadrons containing strangeness, ...independent of their corresponding production thresholds. Comparing the yields, their 〈Apart〉 scaling, and the shapes of the rapidity and the pt spectra to state-of-the-art transport model (UrQMD, HSD, IQMD) predictions, we find that none of them can simultaneously describe these observables with reasonable χ2 values.
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