58 research outputs found
The role of CYP3A5 polymorphism and dose adjustments following conversion of twice-daily to once-daily tacrolimus in renal transplant recipients
The Effect of Diet and Opponent Size on Aggressive Interactions Involving Caribbean Crazy Ants (Nylanderia fulva)
Biotic interactions are often important in the establishment and spread of invasive species. In particular, competition
between introduced and native species can strongly influence the distribution and spread of exotic species and in some
cases competition among introduced species can be important. The Caribbean crazy ant, Nylanderia fulva, was recently
introduced to the Gulf Coast of Texas, and appears to be spreading inland. It has been hypothesized that competition with
the red imported fire ant, Solenopsis invicta, may be an important factor in the spread of crazy ants. We investigated the
potential of interspecific competition among these two introduced ants by measuring interspecific aggression between
Caribbean crazy ant workers and workers of Solenopsis invicta. Specifically, we examined the effect of body size and diet on
individual-level aggressive interactions among crazy ant workers and fire ants. We found that differences in diet did not alter
interactions between crazy ant workers from different nests, but carbohydrate level did play an important role in
antagonistic interactions with fire ants: crazy ants on low sugar diets were more aggressive and less likely to be killed in
aggressive encounters with fire ants. We found that large fire ants engaged in fewer fights with crazy ants than small fire
ants, but fire ant size affected neither fire ant nor crazy ant mortality. Overall, crazy ants experienced higher mortality than
fire ants after aggressive encounters. Our findings suggest that fire ant workers might outcompete crazy ant workers on an
individual level, providing some biotic resistance to crazy ant range expansion. However, this resistance may be overcome
by crazy ants that have a restricted sugar intake, which may occur when crazy ants are excluded from resources by fire ants
Preliminary evidence that both blue and red light can induce alertness at night
<p>Abstract</p> <p>Background</p> <p>A variety of studies have demonstrated that retinal light exposure can increase alertness at night. It is now well accepted that the circadian system is maximally sensitive to short-wavelength (blue) light and is quite insensitive to long-wavelength (red) light. Retinal exposures to blue light at night have been recently shown to impact alertness, implicating participation by the circadian system. The present experiment was conducted to look at the impact of both blue and red light at two different levels on nocturnal alertness. Visually effective but moderate levels of red light are ineffective for stimulating the circadian system. If it were shown that a moderate level of red light impacts alertness, it would have had to occur via a pathway other than through the circadian system.</p> <p>Methods</p> <p>Fourteen subjects participated in a within-subject two-night study, where each participant was exposed to four experimental lighting conditions. Each night each subject was presented a high (40 lx at the cornea) and a low (10 lx at the cornea) diffuse light exposure condition of the same spectrum (blue, λ<sub>max </sub>= 470 nm, or red, λ<sub>max </sub>= 630 nm). The presentation order of the light levels was counterbalanced across sessions for a given subject; light spectra were counterbalanced across subjects within sessions. Prior to each lighting condition, subjects remained in the dark (< 1 lx at the cornea) for 60 minutes. Electroencephalogram (EEG) measurements, electrocardiogram (ECG), psychomotor vigilance tests (PVT), self-reports of sleepiness, and saliva samples for melatonin assays were collected at the end of each dark and light periods.</p> <p>Results</p> <p>Exposures to red and to blue light resulted in increased beta and reduced alpha power relative to preceding dark conditions. Exposures to high, but not low, levels of red and of blue light significantly increased heart rate relative to the dark condition. Performance and sleepiness ratings were not strongly affected by the lighting conditions. Only the higher level of blue light resulted in a reduction in melatonin levels relative to the other lighting conditions.</p> <p>Conclusion</p> <p>These results support previous findings that alertness may be mediated by the circadian system, but it does not seem to be the only light-sensitive pathway that can affect alertness at night.</p
Visual detail about the body modulates tactile localisation biases
The localisation of tactile stimuli requires the integration of visual and somatosensory inputs within an internal representation of the body surface, and is prone to consistent bias. Joints may play a role in segmenting such internal body representations, and may therefore influence tactile localisation biases, although the nature of this influence remains unclear. Here, we investigate the relationship between conceptual knowledge of joint locations and tactile localisation biases on the hand. In one task, participants localised tactile stimuli applied to the dorsum of their hand. A distal localisation bias was observed in all participants, consistent with previous results. We also manipulated the availability of visual information during this task, to determine whether the absence of this information could account for the distal bias observed here and by Mancini and colleagues (2011). The observed distal bias increased in magnitude when visual information was restricted, without a corresponding decrease in precision. In a separate task, the same participants indicated, from memory, knuckle locations on a silhouette image of their hand. Analogous distal biases were also seen in the knuckle localisation task. The accuracy of conceptual joint knowledge was not correlated with tactile localisation bias magnitude, although a similarity in observed bias direction suggests that both tasks may rely on a common, higher-order body representation. These results also suggest that distortions of conceptual body representation may be more common in healthy individuals than previously thought
Limited sampling strategy for prolonged-release tacrolimus in renal transplant patients by use of the dried blood spot technique
Modeling working memory: An interference model of complex span
This article introduces a new computational model for the complex-span task, the most popular task for studying working memory. SOB-CS is a two-layer neural network that associates distributed item representations with distributed, overlapping position markers. Memory capacity limits are explained by interference from a superposition of associations. Concurrent processing interferes with memory through involuntary encoding of distractors. Free time in-between distractors is used to remove irrelevant representations, thereby reducing interference. The model accounts for benchmark findings in four areas: (1) effects of processing pace, processing difficulty, and number of processing steps; (2) effects of serial position and error patterns; (3) effects of different kinds of item-distractor similarity; and (4) correlations between span tasks. The model makes several new predictions in these areas, which were confirmed experimentally
Executive Function in Pediatric Bipolar Disorder and Attention-Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder: In Search of Distinct Phenotypic Profiles
Soil and groundwater pollution of an urban catchment by trace metals: case study of the Addis Ababa region, central Ethiopia
- …