27 - Effects of temperature during non-breeding months on size of three species of sparrow

Earth’s climate has warmed at an average rate of 0.17°C (0.31°F) per decade since 1970, and many scientists question how birds might adapt to this temperature change. Vertebrate body size likely has been associated with temperature based on two prominent hypotheses. Bergmann’s rule states that body size is larger in cooler climates because larger-bodied animals are better able to maintain stable internal temperatures. Allen’s rule states that appendages are smaller in cooler climates to decrease the amount surface area to lose heat. We hypothesize that as temperatures increase, body mass will decrease and wing chord will increase. We captured 932 swamp sparrows, 794 song sparrows, and 373 field sparrows at Panola Mountain State Park, in Stockbridge, GA between 2007-2017. We recorded the hatch year by back-calculating from age at capture, body mass, and wing chord length. We compared these measurements to the average temperature during non-breeding months at Panola Mountain, obtained from the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration database. Swamp sparrows born in warmer years were smaller in eight out of the nine years, as predicted by Bergmann’s rule. Similarly, Swamp sparrows born in warmer years had larger wing chords in eight out of nine years, as predicted by Allen’s rule. Neither Song sparrow nor Field sparrow mass or wing chord length were associated with temperature in any years. Our study shows that Swamp sparrow size may be affected by the temperature during their first winter and may be more susceptible to climate changes than other sparrow species

Bereavement Behind Bars: Prison and the Grieving Process

Prisoners experience bereavement at a much higher rate than the general population and are likely to have suffered a ‘catalogue of losses’ both prior to and as part of their sentence. Bereavements and other traumas, including imprisonment, typically trigger a grief response which, if it not acknowledged and supported, can lead to disenfranchised grief. Disenfranchised grief refers to a hidden sorrow arising from a loss that is not acknowledged by society. The griever or their loss may not be validated by those around them. Feelings of mourning are therefore compounded by a sense of alienation and wrongness, a sense that we are alone and unsupported in our suffering, and perhaps ought not to feel as we do. This can have severe mental and physical health consequences and can impact on reoffending risk. Despite this, there are very few services targeted towards helping inmates with grief, compared to, say, rehabilitation programmes for addiction, domestic violence, or offending behaviour

International Advertising and the Use of the Sex Appeal: Acceptance of Sex Appeal in China

Modern American culture reflects equality between men and women. Modern Chinese culture reflects a growing equality between men and women

Continuity of Care from Hospital to Home

Students were given the opportunity to interact with the case of an 87 year-old Chinese-American woman in three stages, with an emphasis on interdisciplinary communication and continuity of care throughout the case. Students addressed the woman\u27s initial admission to the hospital for surgery, her transfer to a skilled nursing facility, and her return home with the help of rehabilitation and an interdisciplinary support team

Two Years in the Making: Library Resources for Transgender Topics

Inspired by Reid Boehm’s presentation “Beyond Pronouns: Caring for Transgender Medical Research Data to Benefit All People,” at the Research Data Access and Preservation Summit (RDAP) in March 2018, four librarians from the University of Minnesota (UMN) set out to create a LibGuide to support research on transgender topics as a response to Boehm’s identification of insufficient traditional mechanisms for describing, securing, and accessing data on transgender people and topics. This commentary describes the process used to craft the LibGuide, Library Resources for Transgender Topics, including assembling a team of interested library staff, defining the scope of the project, interacting with stakeholders and community partners, establishing a workflow, and designing an ongoing process to incorporate user feedback

Challenging the current hypothesis that thrombosis is responsible for the post-COVID-19 condition

People with the post-COVID-19 condition suffer symptoms that persist beyond 12 weeks following acute COVID-19 infection. Fatigue, shortness of breath, and cognitive dysfunction (“brain fog”) are common. Scientists, clinicians, and patients debate the pathophysiology. One pathophysiological hypothesis is that prothrombotic changes associated with acute COVID-19 persist, causing clots that lead to symptoms. This theory, arising from a research team in South Africa and supported by a paper in Nature Medicine, has been widely disseminated on social media and entered the public narrative as a cause of the post-COVID-19 condition.We describe the development of this theory, examine the findings of a Cochrane review that critically appraises the “microclot” beliefs, and critically appraise the influential study relating clotting biomarkers to cognitive deficits. We conclude the inferences for the hypothesis are not based on evidence, unlicensed use of antithrombotic medication is not justified, and apheresis should not be considered outside of a well-designed clinical trial

Agricultural and food security impacts from the 2010 Russia flash drought

The flash drought and its associated heat wave that affected western Russia in the summer of 2010 had significant cascading agricultural and socioeconomic impacts. Drought indicators sensitive to soil moisture and evapotranspiration (ET) showed that the flash drought began in June 2010, then intensified rapidly and expanded to cover much of western Russia. By early July, almost all of the major wheat producing regions of Russia were experiencing extreme water stress to the winter and spring wheat crops. The timing of the onset of the flash drought was particularly devastating as the period of most rapid intensification overlapped with the flowering stage for both the winter and spring wheat crops. As a result, wheat yields in Russia were reduced by over 70 percent in top wheat producing oblasts and total wheat production was reduced by 20 million metric tons (MT) compared to the previous seasons. In fulfillment of its recently adopted Food Security Doctrine, the Russian government banned the export of wheat in early August 2010 to preserve wheat for its own consumption. Further compounding matters on a global scale, the significant reduction in wheat production in Russia coincided with wheat production issues in places like western Australia, which led to a large drop in global wheat stocks. The sharp drop in global wheat stocks coincided with a rapid increase in wheat prices across the globe. The rapid increase in wheat prices, partly resulting from the rapid intensification of drought in Russia, led to increased prices for wheat flour and bread in many countries throughout the world. This ultimately led to an increase in poverty and civil unrest in countries like Mozambique and Egypt with a history of inequality and poverty

Selective Serotonin Reuptake Inhibitors and Associated Bleeding Risks: A Narrative and Clinical Review.

Major Depressive Disorder (MDD) is a major cause of disability worldwide and is associated with serious lasting impairment. A leading hypothesis of the pathophysiology of MDD is the monoamine deficiency hypothesis which suggests that depression is caused by depletion of serotonin, norepinephrine, or dopamine in the central nervous system. Serotonin is the most widely studied neurotransmitter in the pathophysiology of depression, with studies showing that reduced central serotonin synthesis leads to depressive symptoms in individuals at risk for depression. Selective Serotonin Reuptake Inhibitors (SSRI) inhibit serotonin reuptake and subsequently increase the amount of serotonin available in synapses. Common side effects of SSRIs include increased suicidality of patients under the age of 25, sexual dysfunction, anxiety, dizziness, weight gain, gastrointestinal distress, and headache. Other side effects include prolonging the QT interval, coagulopathy, and the risk of serotonin syndrome, as well as SSRI discontinuation syndrome. Sites of increased bleeding related to SSRI use have been reported to occur in the upper gastrointestinal tract, as well as intracranially. Based on the current literature, three studies have found that SSRIs are not associated with increased bleeding and/or increased perioperative risk, while others have demonstrated that SSRIs are associated with an increased risk in perioperative use. The inhibition of serotonin reuptake can affect platelet aggregation since platelets also express the serotonin transporter. SSRIs can result in decreased storage of serotonin in platelet dense granules. Increased serotonin can also increase gastric acid secretion, which increases the risk for ulceration. SSRIs in combination with NSAIDs also show a significantly increased risk of upper GI bleeding. Some studies show an increased bleeding risk from 30% to 70% when taking a combination of vitamin K antagonists and SSRIs in hospitalized patients. Related to the high prevalence of conditions that are treated with SSRIs, the bleeding risk associated with this class of medication merits further study