Tests of Landscape Influence: Nest Predation and Brood Parasitism in Fragmented Ecosystems

The effects of landscape fragmentation oil nest predation and brood parasitism, the two primary Causes of avian reproductive failure, have been difficult to generalize across landscapes, yet few Studies have clearly considered the context and spatial scale of: fragmentation. Working in two river systems fragmented by agricultural and rural-housing development, we tracked nesting Success and brood parasitism in \u3e 2500 bird nests in 38 patches of deciduous riparian woodland. Patches oil both river Systems were embedded in one of two local contexts (buffered from agriculture by coniferous forest, or adjacent to agriculture), but the abundance of agriculture and human habitation within 1 km of each patch was highly variable. We examined evidence for three models of landscape effects oil nest predation based on (1) the relative importance of generalist agricultural nest predators, (2) predators associated with the natural habitats typically removed by agricultural development, or (3) an additive combination of: these two predator communities. We found strong support for all additive predation model in which landscape features affect nest predation differently at different spatial scales. Riparian habitat with forest buffers had higher nest predation rates than sites adjacent to agriculture, but nest predation also increased with increasing agriculture in the larger landscape Surrounding each site. These results suggest that predators living in remnant woodland buffers, as well as generalist nest predators associated with agriculture, affect nest predation rates, but they appear to respond at different spatial scales. Brood parasitism, in Contrast, Was unrelated to agricultural abundance oil the landscape, but showed a strong nonlinear relationship with farm and house density, indicating a critical point at which increased human habitat Causes increased brood parasitism. Accurate predictions regarding landscape effects oil nest predation and brood parasitism will require an increased appreciation of the multiple scales at which landscape components influence predator and parasite behavior

A systematic review of the treatment for hemiplegic shoulder pain in the first six months following stroke

Objective: To investigate the effect of physiotherapy and occupational-therapy interventions in the treatment of patients with hemiplegic shoulder pain (HSP) within the first six months following a stroke. Data Sources: CINHAL, PubMed and Medline were used as search databases. Study Selection: Randomised, quasi-randomised and controlled trials wereincluded in the review. Pain measurement pre- and –post interventionincluded with participants within the first six months following stroke.Studies investigating reflex sympathetic dystrophy, or central causes to HSP were excluded along with pharmacological, surgical and invasive stimulation. Eighteen articles were reviewed, with consensus of two reviewers from the original 426 identified. Data Extraction: Two reviewers independently use the CASP checklists to appraise methodological quality. Data Synthesis: A qualitative review identified 11 different interventionshad been investigated. Studies using Electrical stimulation, interferentialcurrent, TENS, aromatherapy and acupressure, dry needling and active assisted hair brushing all found significant improvement on HSP. Stretching was found to have a non-significant increased risk of pain intwo out of three studies. Bobath therapy, forced use therapy and passiverange of movement using a constant passive movement machine failed toprovide a significant improvement in patients with HSP. Conclusions: The results presented support the use of electrical-stimulation within clinical practice to treat HSP. TENS, interferential-current, hair brushing, dry needling, and aromatherapy combined withacupressure all had a significant effect on HSP, but were limited by under-powered studies. No study attempted to identify the cause for HSP prior to intervention beyond inclusion criteria of a stroke and experiencing shoulder pain

Convergent variational calculation of positronium-hydrogen-atom scattering lengths

We present a convergent variational basis-set calculational scheme for elastic scattering of positronium atom by hydrogen atom in S wave. Highly correlated trial functions with appropriate symmetry are needed for achieving convergence. We report convergent results for scattering lengths in atomic units for both singlet ($=3.49\pm 0.20$) and triplet ($=2.46\pm 0.10$) states.Comment: 11 pages, 1 postscript figure, Accepted in J. Phys. B (Letter

Differential DNA accessibility to polymerase enables 30-minute phenotypic β-lactam antibiotic susceptibility testing of carbapenem-resistant Enterobacteriaceae

The rise in carbapenem-resistant Enterobacteriaceae (CRE) infections has created a global health emergency, underlining the critical need to develop faster diagnostics to treat swiftly and correctly. Although rapid pathogen-identification (ID) tests are being developed, gold-standard antibiotic susceptibility testing (AST) remains unacceptably slow (1–2 d), and innovative approaches for rapid phenotypic ASTs for CREs are urgently needed. Motivated by this need, in this manuscript we tested the hypothesis that upon treatment with β-lactam antibiotics, susceptible Enterobacteriaceae isolates would become sufficiently permeabilized, making some of their DNA accessible to added polymerase and primers. Further, we hypothesized that this accessible DNA would be detectable directly by isothermal amplification methods that do not fully lyse bacterial cells. We build on these results to develop the polymerase-accessibility AST (pol-aAST), a new phenotypic approach for β-lactams, the major antibiotic class for gram-negative infections. We test isolates of the 3 causative pathogens of CRE infections using ceftriaxone (CRO), ertapenem (ETP), and meropenem (MEM) and demonstrate agreement with gold-standard AST. Importantly, pol-aAST correctly categorized resistant isolates that are undetectable by current genotypic methods (negative for β-lactamase genes or lacking predictive genotypes). We also test contrived and clinical urine samples. We show that the pol-aAST can be performed in 30 min sample-to-answer using contrived urine samples and has the potential to be performed directly on clinical urine specimens

An epidemiological and economic framework for evaluating the tangible and intangible impacts of emergency animal disease outbreaks

The economics of emergency animal disease outbreak response is impacted by a range of factors, such as the likelihood of an event occurring, species affected, frequency and distribution of disease incursions, transmission cycles, host interactions and climatic anomalies. Whilst empirically focussed economic evaluation tools for analysis and evaluation of control and prevention options are in frequent use, insights can be gained from an expanded framework that incorporates value-drivers used to justify decisions. The framework is build around an extrapolated cost-benefit analysis (CBA) that incorporates tangible and intangible elements. Primary steps involve risk analysis to ascertain the magnitude, priority and impact of the potential emergency situation. The framework also allows the operator to value-add to the CBA by incorporating non-commercial intangibles (such as environment, human health and animal welfare) using a series of value multipliers. These are essentially an averaged preference for a nominated approach or intervention along a scale of potential value placements using an axiological methodology. The outcome of the framework represents a holistically adjusted parametric. Potential uses of these outcomes could include (but are not limited to): (1) development of new policy for emergency animal diseases in peace time (Preparedness phase); (2) during consultative processes where multiple perspectives and values must be identified and considered: (1) for economic (tangible and intangible) justification of adjustments to response policy during an exotic animal disease (control phase); (2) for comparing and contrasting the economic (tangible and intangible) consequences of a particular control or prevention policy A case study using Hendra Virus will be given

Conductivity in Jurkat cell suspension after ultrashort electric pulsing

Ultrashort electric pulses applied to similar cell lines such as Jurkat and HL-60 cells can produce markedly different results , which have been documented extensively over the last few years. We now report changes in electrical conductivity of Jurkat cells subjected to traditional electroporation pulses (50 ms pulse length) and ultrashort pulses (10 ns pulse length) using time domain dielectric spectroscopy (TDS). A single 10 ns, 150 kV/cm pulse did not noticeably alter suspension conductivity while a 50 ms, 2.12 kV/cm pulse with the same energy caused an appreciable conductivity rise. These results support the hypothesis that electroporation pulses primarily interact with the cell membrane and cause conductivity rises due to ion transport from the cell to the external media, while pulses with nanosecond duration primarily interact with the membranes of intracellular organelles. However, multiple ultrashort pulses have a cumulative effect on the plasma membrane, with five pulses causing a gradual rise in conductivity up to ten minutes post-pulsing

Absolute differential positronium-formation cross sections

The first absolute experimental determinations of the differential cross-sections for the formation of ground-state positronium are presented for He, Ar, H2 and CO2 near 0○. Results are compared with available theories. The ratio of the differential and integrated cross-sections for the targets exposes the higher propensity for forward-emission of positronium formed from He and H2

Nanosecond electric pulses penetrate the nucleus and enhance speckle formation

Nanosecond electric pulses generate nanopores in the interior membranes of cells and modulate cellular functions. Here, we used confocal microscopy and flow cytometry to observe Smith antigen antibody (Y12) binding to nuclear speckles, known as small nuclear ribonucleoprotein particles (snRNPs) or intrachromatin granule clusters (IGCs), in Jurkat cells following one or five 10 ns, 150 kV/cm pulses. Using confocal microscopy and flow cytometry, we observed changes in nuclear speckle labeling that suggested a disruption of pre-messenger RNA splicing mechanisms. Pulse exposure increased the nuclear speckled substructures by 2.5-fold above basal levels while the propidium iodide (PI) uptake in pulsed cells was unchanged. The resulting nuclear speckle changes were also cell cycle dependent. These findings suggest that 10 ns pulses directly influenced nuclear processes, such as the changes in the nuclear RNA–protein complexes