We examined diversity, community composition, and wing-state of Carabidae as a function of forest age in Piedmont North Carolina. Carabidae were collected monthly from 396 pitfall traps (12×33 sites) ...from March 2009 through February 2010, representing 5 forest age classes approximately 0, 10, 50, 85, and 150 years old. A total of 2,568 individuals, representing 30 genera and 63 species, were collected. Carabid species diversity, as estimated by six diversity indices, was significantly different between the oldest and youngest forest age classes for four of the six indices. Most carabid species were habitat generalists, occurring in all or most of the forest age classes. Carabid species composition varied across forest age classes. Seventeen carabid species were identified as potential candidates for ecological indicators of forest age. Non-metric multidimensional scaling (NMDS) showed separation among forest age classes in terms of carabid beetle community composition. The proportion of individuals capable of flight decreased significantly with forest age.
This work presents an equation of state that contains the residual Helmholtz free energy as a ratio of polynomials in density with temperature-dependent coefficients and demonstrates that it is a ...viable alternative for describing thermodynamic properties accurately. The specific form of the equation in this work has six density terms in the numerator, three density terms in the denominator, and five temperature parameters for each temperature-dependent coefficient. Nitrogen, argon, and methane serve as prototype fluids to demonstrate the capability of the form to describe p-Greek small letter rho-T behaviour, vapour pressures, speeds of sound, and isochoric heat capacities up to 1000 MPa. Characteristic curves for several properties of nitrogen generated using the equation exhibit proper behaviour at high temperatures and pressures. Because the equation contains no exponential terms or non-integer exponents, the computational time associated with the new equation is more than a factor of 10 less than that required for similar equations with comparable accuracy.
Reduced pulmonary function is an important predictor of mortality in the general population, and antioxidant vitamins are thought to positively influence pulmonary function. Vitamin C, vitamin E, ...retinol, and carotenoids are powerful antioxidants but information about the joint relation of serum levels of these antioxidants to pulmonary function is limited. We analyzed the association of FEV(1) and FVC with serum vitamins C and E, retinol, and carotenoids (beta-cryptoxanthin, lutein/zeaxanthin, beta-carotene, and lycopene) in a cross-sectional study. The analysis was carried out in a sample of 1,616 randomly selected residents of Western New York, USA, age 35 to 79 yr and free of respiratory disease. Lung function was adjusted for height, age, sex, and race and expressed as percentage of predicted normal FEV(1) (FEV(1)%) and FVC (FVC%). Participants in the lowest quartile of each of the serum antioxidants had consistently lower FEV(1)% and FVC% than those in higher quartiles. Multiple linear regression analysis revealed significant associations of vitamin C, vitamin E, beta-cryptoxanthin, lutein/zeaxanthin, beta-carotene, and retinol with FEV(1)% when these variables were investigated individually after adjustment for other covariates (smoking status, pack-years of smoking, weight, eosinophil count, and education). When all of these antioxidant vitamins were analyzed simultaneously in a multivariate regression model, the strongest association was seen with vitamin E and beta-cryptoxanthin. Only retinol showed an independent effect on FEV(1)% after controlling for vitamin E and beta-cryptoxanthin. As for FEV(1)%, vitamin E and beta-cryptoxanthin were most strongly related to FVC% when all variables were considered in the multivariate regression model. The differences in FEV(1) associated with a reduction of one standard deviation of serum vitamin E or beta-cryptoxanthin were equivalent to the negative influence of approximately 1 to 2 yr of aging. Our findings support the hypothesis that antioxidant vitamins may play a role in respiratory health and that vitamin E and beta-cryptoxanthin appear to be stronger correlates of lung function than other antioxidant vitamins.
The identification of specific variables, such as ischemic heart disease, hypertension, or peripheral vascular disease, which themselves are often subjective and ill-defined, appears to add little ...value to outcome modeling and therefore is not essential to these reporting standards.3 Renal Function Quantification of renal function does appear to predict outcome and chronic renal impairment and is well established as a factor associated with poor outcome for both open and endovascular AAA repair.7 Creatinine levels predict both 3- and 5-year survival after EVAR.3 However, creatinine itself is a poor measure of renal function, so ideally the estimated glomerular filtration rate (eGFR) should be reported. Interestingly, however, risk adjustment in 5 general surgical operations was possible using a limited model with only 5 variables, which had high correlation with both morbidity and mortality.32 Furthermore, predicting outcome of open AAA repair can be achieved using a limited preoperative dataset.10 More recent evidence has demonstrated that the Australian model utilizing only 8 data items modeled risk well in a different UK population undergoing EVAR.33 Diabetes mellitus, which has previously been demonstrated to impact outcome after open AAA repair, has not been shown to significantly influence outcome after EVAR.34 The authors, however, recognize that as our knowledge expands, this or other variables may be identified as important in predicting morbidity and mortality after EVAR and may require reporting in the future.
Assessment of potential human health risks associated with environmental and other agents requires careful evaluation of all available and relevant evidence for the agent of interest, including both ...data-rich and data-poor agents. With the advent of new approach methodologies in toxicological risk assessment, guidance on integrating evidence from mul-tiple evidence streams is needed to ensure that all available data is given due consideration in both qualitative and quantitative risk assessment. The present report summarizes the discussions among academic, government, and private sector participants from North America and Europe in an international workshop convened to explore the development of an evidence-based risk assessment framework, taking into account all available evidence in an appropriate manner in order to arrive at the best possible characterization of potential human health risks and associated uncertainty. Although consensus among workshop participants was not a specific goal, there was general agreement on the key consider-ations involved in evidence-based risk assessment incorporating 21st century science into human health risk assessment. These considerations have been embodied into an overarching prototype framework for evidence integration that will be explored in more depth in a follow-up meeting.
Carabidae beetles (Coleoptera) were sampled by flight intercept traps (FITs) and hand sampling in the understory of a lowland rainforest in eastern Ecuador. Sampling occurred in June and July of 2011 ...and 2012 at 24 sites within temporarily flooded forest (FP) and non-flooded terra firme (TF) forest. A total of 674 Carabidae (excluding Cicindelinae) individuals, representing 18 tribes, 50 genera and 133 morphospecies, were collected. Significantly more individuals were collected by hand compared to FITs, particularly by hand in FP forests. After correction through sample-based rarefaction there are no significant differences in species richness between sampling methods and forest types. Ordination and dissimilarity analysis show FITs and hand sampling target different portions of the Carabidae community. Understanding sampling biases for various sampling methods and how it may be affected by forest type will result in more accurate and efficient surveys in tropical forests.
Estimating survival for highly secretive aquatic animals, such as stream salamanders, presents numerous challenges. Salamanders often spend a considerable time in refugia where they are difficult to ...capture. Few studies have calculated vital rates for stream salamanders, yet the need is substantial as they are threatened by a wide range of land-use stressors, especially urban development. In this study, we used 34 months of continuous field samples collected at an urban and undisturbed stream and robust design mark-recapture analysis to evaluate the importance of temporary emigration, capture response, and location on survival estimates of the salamander
Desmognathus fuscus
. We constructed a set of candidate models incorporating combinations of time- and location-varying capture and recapture probabilities, capture responses, temporary emigration, and survival estimates and ranked models using Akaike’s Information Criterion. We found strong support for month-specific capture probabilities, recapture probabilities, temporary emigration and a negative behavioral response to capture in the majority of months. We found no support for variation in capture probabilities, recapture probabilities, and temporary emigration between locations. However, we found that location strongly influenced survival estimates. Specifically, survival estimates were significantly higher at the undisturbed site than at the urban site. Our results emphasize the importance of estimating capture probabilities, recapture probabilities, capture response, and temporary emigration when evaluating survival in highly secretive aquatic animals. Failure to account for these population parameters will likely yield biased estimates of survival in freshwater animal populations.
Adenosine A2A receptors are predominantly localized on striatopallidal gamma-aminobutyric acid (GABA) neurons, where they are colocalized with dopamine D2 receptors and are involved in the regulation ...of movement. Adenosine A2A receptor antagonists have been evaluated as a novel treatment for Parkinson׳s disease and have demonstrated efficacy in a broad spectrum of pharmacological and toxicological rodent and primate models. Fewer studies have been performed to evaluate the efficacy of adenosine A2A receptor antagonists in genetic models of hypodopaminergic states. SCH 412348 is a potent and selective adenosine A2A receptor antagonist that shows efficacy in rodent and primate models of movement disorders. Here we evaluated the effects of SCH 412348 in the MitoPark mouse, a genetic model that displays a progressive loss of dopamine neurons. The dopamine cell loss is associated with a profound akinetic phenotype that is sensitive to levodopa (l-dopa). SCH 412348 (0.3–10mg/kg administered orally) dose dependently increased locomotor activity in the mice. Moreover, SCH 412348 retained its efficacy in the mice as motor impairment progressed (12–22 weeks of age), demonstrating that the compound was efficacious in mild to severe Parkinson׳s disease–like impairment in the mice. Additionally, SCH 412348 fully restored lost functionality in a measure of hind limb bradykinesia and partially restored functionality in a rotarod test. These findings provide further evidence of the anti-Parkinsonian effects of selective adenosine A2A receptor antagonists and predict that they will retain their efficacy in both mild and severe forms of motor impairment.
We demonstrate with an experiment how molecules are a natural test bed for probing fundamental quantum thermodynamics. Single-molecule spectroscopy has undergone transformative change in the past ...decade with the advent of techniques permitting individual molecules to be distinguished and probed. We demonstrate that the quantum Jarzynski equality for heat is satisfied in this set-up by considering the time-resolved emission spectrum of organic molecules as arising from quantum jumps between states. This relates the heat dissipated into the environment to the free energy difference between the initial and final state. We demonstrate also how utilizing the quantum Jarzynski equality allows for the detection of energy shifts within a molecule, beyond the relative shift.
Due to the pronounced morphological variation and geographical distribution of Galápagos' Opuntia cacti, numerous hypotheses have been advanced regarding their radiation, diversification, and ...classification. The currently accepted classification is based on morphology and recognizes six species and fourteen varieties, but the plasticity of many of the characteristics renders any morphological taxonomy problematic. Our analysis of previously published morphological data agrees only partially with the current classification. We present the first molecular phylogeny of these plants. Multiple DNA sequences indicate little genetic distinction among the currently identified species, despite restricted gene flow and limited long distance dispersal within the archipelago. No clear relationship exists between morphological and genetic differences. These results suggest that both molecular and morphological data should be used in conservation planning.
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