Reinventory of permanent plots show that kelo lichens face an extinction debt

Intensive forestry has led to landscape level deficits of important substrates such as deadwood and its associated biodiversity. Several taxa face extinction debts due to continuous declines and lack of regeneration of important habitats. Deadwood-dependent lichens are of great conservation concern due to a general lack of deadwood and due to their slow establishment, especially of rare species. In a field restoration experiment in central Sweden, we studied deadwood-dependent lichens for eight years, their association to different types of deadwood and their response to environmental change caused by variable retention forestry, deadwood enrichment and prescribed burning. Prescribed burning and site preparation caused depauperate lichen species assemblages throughout the study period but retention felling did not majorly affect lichen species assemblages. We found that lichen species were nested along deadwood qualities and deadwood created in the experiment only hosted a subset of lichen species found on kelo wood. Despite large reductions of kelo wood with lichen occurrences over the study period, overall species richness did not decrease. The fact that a large part of the lichen community occur only on kelo wood and that kelo wood is not regenerated implies that lichens associated with kelo wood face an extinction debt. In order to avoid local extinctions of deadwood-dependent lichens, site preparation and prescribed burning should be avoided in areas rich in high quality deadwood. There is urgent need to start creating new kelo wood through reoccurring fires in order to halt the impending extinction debt

Sammanställd redovisning i förgrunden eller bakgrunden : En kartläggning av Skånes kommuners årsredovisningar

Betydande delar av denkommunalaverksamhetenbedrivs utanför nämnds-och förvaltningsorganisationen, i bolag, kommunalförbund etc. En stor del av kommunernas tillgångar, åtaganden och kostnader redovisas därför inte i förvaltningsorganisationen. Därför är den sammanställda redovisningen, ”kommunal koncernredovisning” betydelsefull,för att visa hela kommunens ekonomi, och därmed ekonomiska hushållning.Trots att det, ur såväl ett meborgarperspektiv som ett styrningsperspektiv,borde vara intressant att visa kommunens samlade tillgångar, skulderoch kostnader visar denna studie av de skånska kommunernas årsredovisningar för 2014 att den sammanställda redovisningen tillmäts relativt liten betydelse. Detta visar sigbl.a.genomattkommuner vid övergripande presentation avverksamheternaendast lämnar ett fåtal, oftast intenågon, uppgift från den sammanställdaredovisningen. Även i förvaltningsberättelsen gesden sammanställda redovisningenbegränsat utrymme ochen undanskymd plats.För årsredovisningens mer tekniska delar där resultat-och balansräkningar presenteras, redovisningsprinciper beskrivs och tilläggsupplysningar lämnas finner viatt det finns en stor förbättringspotential. Förbättrad kvalitet och analys av den sammanställda redovisningen torde också varanödvändig om dennaska kunna användas för ledning och styrning av hela den kommunala verksamheten

Electrostimulation of the lingual nerve by an intraoral device may lead to salivary gland regeneration : a case series study

Salivary gland function is controlled by the salivary reflex, whose efferent arm is composed by the parasympathetic and the sympathetic divisions of the autonomic nervous system. Parenchymal injury is the main salivary gland involvement of Sjögren?s syndrome and head and neck radiotherapy, but neural damage has been reported as well. Recently an intraoral device for electrostimulation of the lingual nerve in vicinity to the lower third molar has been introduced. At this point this nerve carries efferent fibers for the innervation of the submandibular, sublingual and several minor salivary glands and afferent fibers of the salivary reflex. Therefore, excitation of these fibers potentially leads to increased secretion of all salivary glands. Thus, the study objective was to assess whether comprehensive neural activation by electrostimulation of the lingual nerve carries the potential to induce the regeneration of damaged salivary glands. The device was tested on three patients with no collectable resting and stimulated secretion of saliva during a double blind, sham controlled period of two months and nine open-label months. All three subjects developed the capacity to spit saliva, not only in direct response to the electrostimulation but also after free intervals without electrostimulation. In addition, their symptoms of dry mouth severity and frequency improved. This recovery is probably due to the combined effect of increase in secretory functional gland mass and regain of nervous control of the secretory elements and blood vessels. Both are phenomena that would contribute to gland regeneration

The atypical antipsychotic drug amisulpride. Secretory effects on rat salivary glands observed by HRSEM

The atypical antipsychotic drug clozapine, used in the treatment of schizophrenia, induces sialorrhea, that is reported to be abolished by amisulpride (1), a dopamine and serotonin antagonist. Preclinical studies show, however, amisulpride to be without inhibitory effect on the clozapine-evoked salivary flow in rats. Unexpectedly, amisulpride, without evoking any secretion per se did, instead, enhance the salivary response to both nerve stimulation and autonomic drugs by unknown mechanisms. The aim of this study is to observe, by high resolution scanning electron microscopy (HRSEM), the morphological effects of amisulpride on serous cells of submandibular and parotid glands in vivo and in vitro. Rats were intravenously given amisulpride (2), glandular tissue was removed, fixed for electron microscopy, and subjected to our variant of the OsO4 maceration method (3); some specimens exposed in vitro (4) to the drug, were also included. In order to observe the morphological changes on the plasmalemma involved in secretory processes, we shook slices during maceration time removing all cytoplasmic organelles. In HRSEM images, on the cytoplasmic side of intercellular canaliculi, we calculated the density of microvilli, microbuds, and protrusions per µm2 of luminal membrane (4). Our morphological images and morphometrical data showed differences between control and treated specimens: in particular, in the canaliculi of both types of glands the density of protrusions, related to docked-granules, was increased. We conclude that amisulpride per se initiates secretory activity in the glands. This activity may be the pre-requisite for the potentiating effect of amisulpride

Socially induced stress and behavioural inhibition in response to angling exposure in rainbow trout

It is well known that fish can learn to avoid angling gear after experiencing a catch‐and‐release event, that is, after a private hooking experience. However, the possible importance of social information cues and their influence on an individual's vulnerability to angling remains largely unexplored, that is, social experience of a conspecific capture. The effects of private and social experience of hooking on the stress response of fish and subsequent catch rates were examined. Hatchery‐reared rainbow trout, Oncorhynchus mykiss (Walbaum), were implanted with heart rate loggers and experimentally subjected to private or social experience of hooking. Private and social experience of angling induced an increased heart rate in fish compared with naïve control fish. While private experience of hooking explained most of the reduced vulnerability to capture, no clear evidence was found that social experience of hooking affected angling vulnerability in fish that had never been hooked before. While both private and social experiences of angling constitute significant physiological stressors for rainbow trout, only the private experience reduces an individual's vulnerability to angling and in turn affecting population‐level catchability

Human submandibular glands treated in vitro with amisulpride. An HRSEM morphological and morphometrical study

Amisulpride, alike sulpiride, is a benzamide substitute used in treating schizophrenia and dysthymia in a few European countries (1). Authors describe amisulpride as D2 and D3 receptor antagonist, and recently as 5-HT7a serotonin receptors antagonist (2). Moreover, a few case reports and clinical trials indicate amisulpride as a drug to reduce atypical antipsychotic-induced sialorrhea (3). Aim of this study is to investigate, by high resolution scanning electron microscopy (HRSEM), morphological changes induced in vitro by amisulpride in serous cells of human submandibular glands. Samples of human non-pathological submandibular glands obtained at surgery, were immersed in an oxygenated inorganic medium, according to the procedure described in our previous works (4), stimulated in vitro with amisulpride, and treated by our modification of the osmium maceration technique (5). By removing from serous cells all cytoplasmic organelles, we are able to visualize, by HRSEM, and quantify, with statistical method, the morphological changes on the surfaces of the plasmalemma involved in secretory processes. In particular, we calculated the density of microvilli, that of microbuds, and that of protrusions per µm2 of the intercellular canaliculi luminal membrane. Our results show that amisulpride acts on secretory serous cells of human submandibular glands, promoting a reduction of microvilli and an increase of microbuds density. In particular, microbuds increased density indicate the presence of microexocytosis profiles that allow secretion of protein into lumen. Whereas the clinical treatment of sialorrhea with amisulpride (3) demonstrates a reduction of saliva production, our data illustrate that this drug has peculiar effects on secretory mechanisms involved in protein secretion. 1) Mortimer AM.: Neuropsychiatr Dis Treat, 5:267-77. 2009 2) Abbas AI. et al.: Psychopharmacology, 205:E-pub. 2009 3) Kreinin A. et al.: Int Clin Psychopharmacol, 21:99-103. 2006 4) Testa Riva F. et al.: Cell Tissue Res, 324:347-52. 2006 5) Riva A. et al.: Scanning Microscopy 13:111-22. 199