The exotic invasive plant Vincetoxicum rossicum is a strong competitor even outside its current realized climatic temperature range

Dog-strangling vine (Vincetoxicum rossicum) is an exotic plant originating from Central and Eastern Europe that is becoming increasingly invasive in southern Ontario, Canada. Once established, it successfully displaces local native plant species but mechanisms behind this plant’s high competitive ability are not fully understood. It is unknown whether cooler temperatures will limit the range expansion of V. rossicum, which has demonstrated high tolerance for other environmental variables such as light and soil moisture. Furthermore, if V. rossicum can establish outside its current climatic limit it is unknown whether competition with native species can significantly contribute to reduce fitness and slow down invasion. We conducted an experiment to test the potential of V. rossicum to spread into northern areas of Ontario using a set of growth chambers to simulate southern and northern Ontario climatic temperature regimes. We also tested plant-plant competition by growing V. rossicum in pots with a highly abundant native species, Solidago canadensis, and comparing growth responses to plants grown alone. We found that the fitness of V. rossicum was not affected by the cooler climate despite a delay in reproductive phenology. Growing V. rossicum with S. canadensis caused a significant reduction in seedpod biomass of V. rossicum. However, we did not detect a temperature x competition interaction in spite of evidence for adaptation of S. canadensis to cooler temperature conditions. We conclude that the spread of V. rossicum north within the tested range is unlikely to be limited by climatic temperature but competition with an abundant native species may contribute to slow it down

Voice Onset Time Enhanced User System (VOTEUS): a web graphic interface for the analysis of plosives’ release phases

The paper proposes an up-to-date literature review of the works using AutoVOT, a discriminative large-margin learning algorithm developed for the semi-automatic measurement of voice onset times. In order to expand the accessibility of the tool in linguistic research, we present VOTEUS, a user-friendly graphic interface written in Python. The interface is conceived to assist the researcher throughout the whole process of annotation, from the forced alignment of the corpora to the refinement of the AutoVOT tier and the extraction of the durations. The general aim is to speed up this phase of data analysis, providing a significant improvement on prevalent practice to date

The leaf phenology of woody plants in the gallery forests (central Black Sea region, Turkey)

We study the interactions between leaf emergence and leaf survival in four deciduous woody species of a Platanus orientalis gallery forest occurring in the central Black Sea region. We found Rubus discolor to be a flush leaf emergence type species. However, P. orientalis, Robinia pseudoacacia and Salix alba are intermediate leaf emergence type. Leaf durations of all species in the study area usually varied between 210–254 days. The species that have more bud scales show a tendency toward the shortening of leaf emergence duration. The peak of leaf fall was observed between November and December. Leaf fall was strongly seasonal and statistically significant differences were observed among months, species and localities in terms of leaf number

Estruturação de comunidades e potencial para efeitos indiretos de plantas polinizadas por beija-flores na Floresta Atlântica

Orientador: Marlies SazimaDissertação (mestrado) - Universidade Estadual de Campinas, Instituto de BiologiaResumo: A interação entre plantas e polinizadores influencia a estruturação das comunidades de plantas. Espécies de plantas que compartilham polinizadores podem competir ou se facilitar por sua polinização, impactando as populações de plantas e por consequência, suas ocorrências nas comunidades. Porém, ainda são poucos os estudos que investigam a influência da polinização na estruturação das comunidades e por quais mecanismos as plantas compartilham polinizadores e potencialmente exercem efeitos indiretos entre si. Nesta dissertação, enfocamos comunidades de plantas polinizadas por beija-flores na Floresta Atlântica como modelo de estudo. Utilizando uma abordagem filogenética e funcional, investigamos como o parentesco evolutivo, diferentes atributos florais e abundâncias determinam a estruturação espacial e temporal destas comunidades (Capítulo 1) e a partilha de polinizadores entre as espécies de plantas (Capítulo 2). Encontramos estrutura filogenética aleatória e estrutura funcional e temporal agregadas, indicando que processos relacionados ao atributo das espécies são importantes na escala espacial avaliada. Plantas com atributos florais semelhantes e espécies mais abundantes tem maior potencial para efeitos indiretos por compartilharem mais beija-flores. O primeiro resultado reforça o acoplamento fenotípico como um mecanismo estruturando as interações entre plantas e beija-flores, enquanto o segundo mostra que abundâncias podem se tornar importantes ao avaliar efeitos indiretos entre plantas nas comunidades. Em geral, padrões em ecologia de comunidades são contingentes à história evolutiva e atributos das espécies. Neste estudo, demonstramos que comunidades de plantas polinizadas por beija-flores podem exibir uma estrutura nos atributos florais, possivelmente devido a interações indiretas entre plantas compartilhando beija-flores. Além disso, esta estrutura também pode levar a um maior potencial para efeitos indiretos entre estas plantasAbstract: Plant-pollinator interactions influence the assembly of plant communities. Plant species sharing pollinators engage on competitive or facilitative interactions for pollination, impacting plant populations and consequently, their occurrences in communities. However, there are few studies investigating how pollination influence community assembly and by which mechanisms plants have indirect effects when sharing pollinators. Here, we focused on hummingbird-pollinated plant communities of the Atlantic forest as study model. Using a phylogenetic and functional approach, we investigate how evolutionary relatedness, floral traits and abundances determine the spatial and temporal community assembly (Chapter 1) and pollinator-sharing among plant species (Chapter 2). We found random phylogenetic structure and clustered functional and temporal structure, indicating that trait-based processes increase in importance at the spatial scale evaluated. Plants with similar floral traits and abundant species have higher potential for indirect effects by sharing more hummingbird pollinators. The first result reinforces phenotypic match as a structuring mechanism of plant-hummingbird interactions, while the latter shows that abundance increases in importance when evaluating the indirect effects among plants in communities. In general, patterns in community ecology are contingent to the evolutionary history and traits of the species. Here we found that hummingbird-pollinated plant communities can exhibit a floral trait structure, possibly caused by indirect interactions between plants sharing pollinators. Moreover, these community structure can also lead to a higher potential for indirect effects between these plantsMestradoEcologiaMestre em Ecologia13188/2014-5CNP

Consistent phenological shifts in the making of a biodiversity hotspot: the Cape flora

Background The best documented survival responses of organisms to past climate change on short (glacial-interglacial) timescales are distributional shifts. Despite ample evidence on such timescales for local adaptations of populations at specific sites, the long-term impacts of such changes on evolutionary significant units in response to past climatic change have been little documented. Here we use phylogenies to reconstruct changes in distribution and flowering ecology of the Cape flora - South Africa's biodiversity hotspot - through a period of past (Neogene and Quaternary) changes in the seasonality of rainfall over a timescale of several million years. Results Forty-three distributional and phenological shifts consistent with past climatic change occur across the flora, and a comparable number of clades underwent adaptive changes in their flowering phenology (9 clades; half of the clades investigated) as underwent distributional shifts (12 clades; two thirds of the clades investigated). Of extant Cape angiosperm species, 14-41% have been contributed by lineages that show distributional shifts consistent with past climate change, yet a similar proportion (14-55%) arose from lineages that shifted flowering phenology. Conclusions Adaptive changes in ecology at the scale we uncover in the Cape and consistent with past climatic change have not been documented for other floras. Shifts in climate tolerance appear to have been more important in this flora than is currently appreciated, and lineages that underwent such shifts went on to contribute a high proportion of the flora's extant species diversity. That shifts in phenology, on an evolutionary timescale and on such a scale, have not yet been detected for other floras is likely a result of the method used; shifts in flowering phenology cannot be detected in the fossil record

Responsiveness of the Liverpool Elbow Score in elbow arthroplasty.

BACKGROUND Responsiveness and floor and ceiling effect are important parameters for evaluating the sensitivity of an outcome instrument in detecting the changes in the clinical condition of patients after an intervention as well as evaluating the content validity of the instrument. The aim of this prospective observational study was to assess these parameters for the Liverpool Elbow Score (LES) in total elbow replacement (TER). METHODS The study included 121 cemented TER cases with linked elbow prosthesis (Discovery Elbow, Biomet Orthopaedics, Swindon, UK) for various conditions, including inflammatory arthritis, noninflammatory arthritis, trauma, and loosening. The proportion of patients with the lowest score (0 points; floor effect) and maximum score (10 points; ceiling effect) was checked preoperatively and 1 year postoperatively. Distribution-based methods (effect size [ES], standardized response mean [SRM], Guyatt responsiveness ratio [GRR]) and anchor-based methods (receiver operating characteristic [ROC] curve and Spearman correlation coefficient) were used to assess responsiveness. Patient satisfaction after TER was used as an external anchor. RESULTS Patients were a mean age of 63 years (range, 20-86 years). Large ES (1.64), SRM (1.25), and GRR (1.69) were found during the follow-up period. Area under the ROC curve was 0.71 (95% confidence interval, 0.56-0.87; P = .03). There was significant positive correlation (Spearman correlation coefficient, 0.35; P = .004) between changes in LES and satisfaction level. LES showed no floor and ceiling effect preoperatively and at 1 year postoperatively. CONCLUSION LES is a responsive measure and has no floor and ceiling effect. LEVEL OF EVIDENCE This encourages its use as an outcome instrument for TER. Basic Science Study, Development or Validation of Outcome Instruments

Can We Rely on Electronic Medical Record Systems to Reduce Medication Errors?

Expectations to Electronic Medical Record (EMR) systems in healthcare are high when it comes to reducing medication errors and increasing security in the medication process. Studies show that certain types of medication errors are eliminated when introducing EMRs; however, such systems also entail new types of errors. Based on a study in an orthopedic surgical ward in a medium-sized Danish hospital, we investigate what previous types of errors can be reduced by using the EMRs but also what new types of errors may appear. We zoom in on the process of medicine prescription and focus on what new types of errors appear in the interaction between the doctors and the technology. Identifying and understanding the nature of errors that emerge when doctors use EMRs may enable system developers and implementers to better manage implementation and maintenance of future EMR projects and accordingly set up appropriate strategies to prevent medication errors

Diferencias en la producción de frutos del roble Quercus Humboldtii Bonpl. En dos bosques Andinos de la cordillera oriental Colombiana

Knowledge of mechanisms of tree species reproduction under natural situations including fruit and seed production patterns is very important for forest management strategies. Considering the inluence of abiotic factors such as soil characteristics, humidity and rainfall on fruiting phenology, we studied fruit production patterns of the Andean oak (Quercus humboldtii: Fagaceae) in two forest sites of the Colombian Eastern Cordillera (Cachalú and Patios Altos), under contrasting environmental conditions. At both sites, we monitored monthly fruit production of 15 trees in Cachalú and 11 in Patios Altos using fruit/seed traps placed under the tree crowns. In each site soil cores were extracted below the litter layer 20 cm depth, and soil characteristics and nutrients were analyzed. In general, trees in Cachalú produced more fruits than in Patios Altos, as well as mean fruit mass (wet and dry weight) was signiicantly higher in Cachalú. At both sites, oak fruiting peaked from April to May, when the highest rainfall occurs. We found positive correlations between fruit production and rainfall one month prior. High phosphorus (P) and potassium (K) were the main variables for explaining the high production. In contrast, high aluminum (Al) contents explained the low production found in Patios Altos. We discuss the importance of including fruit production for oak management strategies, such as restoration and reforestation programs.El conocimiento acerca de los mecanismos de reproducción de las especies de árboles, incluyendo los patrones de producción de frutos y semillas en situaciones naturales, es muy importante para el manejo forestal. Considerando el efecto de los factores abióticos tales como las características del suelo, la humedad y precipitación en la fenología de fructiicación de las especies de plantas, se evaluaron los patrones de producción de frutos del roble Quercus humboldtii (Fagaceae) en dos sitios (Cachalú y Patios Altos) de la cordillera oriental en el municipio de Encino, Santander, con condiciones ambientales contrastantes. Durante 5 meses, en los dos bosques, se realizaron seguimientos mensuales de la producción de frutos de 15 individuos en Cachalú y 11 en Patios Altos por medio de trampas ubicadas bajo la copa de los árboles. En cada uno de los sitios se tomaron muestras de suelo a 20 cm para analizar sus propiedades y nutrientes. En general, los árboles de Cachalú presentaron una mayor cantidad de frutos, peso seco y húmedo por individuo y por unidad de área de copa que en Patios Altos. En los dos sitios, la mayor producción por individuo, se presentó entre los meses de abril y mayo, los cuales coinciden con el periodo de mayores lluvias. Se encontraron correlaciones positivas entre la producción de frutos y la precipitación del mes anterior en los dos sitios. Altos contenidos de fósforo (P) y potasio (K) son las principales variables en explicar la alta producción. Mientras que altos contenidos de aluminio (Al) explicaron la baja producción encontrada en Patios Altos. Se discuten estos resultados y su importancia para generar estrategias de manejo de la especie que contemplen la producción de semillas, tales como los programas de restauración y reforestación