Effects of Vegetation, Corridor Width and Regional Land Use on Early Successional Birds on Powerline Corridors

Powerline rights-of-way (ROWs) often provide habitat for early successional bird species that have suffered long-term population declines in eastern North America. To determine how the abundance of shrubland birds varies with habitat within ROW corridors and with land use patterns surrounding corridors, we ran Poisson regression models on data from 93 plots on ROWs and compared regression coefficients. We also determined nest success rates on a 1-km stretch of ROW. Seven species of shrubland birds were common in powerline corridors. However, the nest success rates for prairie warbler (Dendroica discolor) and field sparrow (Spizella pusilla) were <21%, which is too low to compensate for estimated annual mortality. Some shrubland bird species were more abundant on narrower ROWs or at sites with lower vegetation or particular types of vegetation, indicating that vegetation management could be refined to favor species of high conservation priority. Also, several species were more abundant in ROWs traversing unfragmented forest than those near residential areas or farmland, indicating that corridors in heavily forested regions may provide better habitat for these species. In the area where we monitored nests, brood parasitism by brown-headed cowbirds (Molothrus ater) occurred more frequently close to a residential area. Although ROWs support dense populations of shrubland birds, those in more heavily developed landscapes may constitute sink habitat. ROWs in extensive forests may contribute more to sustaining populations of early successional birds, and thus may be the best targets for habitat management

The distinctive gastric fluid proteome in gastric cancer reveals a multi-biomarker diagnostic profile

<p>Abstract</p> <p>Background</p> <p>Overall gastric cancer survival remains poor mainly because there are no reliable methods for identifying highly curable early stage disease. Multi-protein profiling of gastric fluids, obtained from the anatomic site of pathology, could reveal diagnostic proteomic fingerprints.</p> <p>Methods</p> <p>Protein profiles were generated from gastric fluid samples of 19 gastric cancer and 36 benign gastritides patients undergoing elective, clinically-indicated gastroscopy using surface-enhanced laser desorption/ionization time-of-flight mass spectrometry on multiple ProteinChip arrays. Proteomic features were compared by significance analysis of microarray algorithm and two-way hierarchical clustering. A second blinded sample set (24 gastric cancers and 29 clinically benign gastritides) was used for validation.</p> <p>Results</p> <p>By significance analysyis of microarray, 60 proteomic features were up-regulated and 46 were down-regulated in gastric cancer samples (<it>p </it>< 0.01). Multimarker clustering showed two distinctive proteomic profiles independent of age and ethnicity. Eighteen of 19 cancer samples clustered together (sensitivity 95%) while 27/36 of non-cancer samples clustered in a second group. Nine non-cancer samples that clustered with cancer samples included 5 pre-malignant lesions (1 adenomatous polyp and 4 intestinal metaplasia). Validation using a second sample set showed the sensitivity and specificity to be 88% and 93%, respectively. Positive predictive value of the combined data was 0.80. Selected peptide sequencing identified pepsinogen C and pepsin A activation peptide as significantly down-regulated and alpha-defensin as significantly up-regulated.</p> <p>Conclusion</p> <p>This simple and reproducible multimarker proteomic assay could supplement clinical gastroscopic evaluation of symptomatic patients to enhance diagnostic accuracy for gastric cancer and pre-malignant lesions.</p

A New Direction to Athletic Performance: Understanding the Acute and Longitudinal Responses to Backward Running

Backward running (BR) is a form of locomotion that occurs in short bursts during many overground field and court sports. It has also traditionally been used in clinical settings as a method to rehabilitate lower body injuries. Comparisons between BR and forward running (FR) have led to the discovery that both may be generated by the same neural circuitry. Comparisons of the acute responses to FR reveal that BR is characterised by a smaller ratio of braking to propulsive forces, increased step frequency, decreased step length, increased muscle activity and reliance on isometric and concentric muscle actions. These biomechanical differences have been critical in informing recent scientific explorations which have discovered that BR can be used as a method for reducing injury and improving a variety of physical attributes deemed advantageous to sports performance. This includes improved lower body strength and power, decreased injury prevalence and improvements in change of direction performance following BR training. The current findings from research help improve our understanding of BR biomechanics and provide evidence which supports BR as a useful method to improve athlete performance. However, further acute and longitudinal research is needed to better understand the utility of BR in athletic performance programs

Pathogenesis of adolescent idiopathic scoliosis in girls - a double neuro-osseous theory involving disharmony between two nervous systems, somatic and autonomic expressed in the spine and trunk: possible dependency on sympathetic nervous system and hormones with implications for medical therapy

Anthropometric data from three groups of adolescent girls - preoperative adolescent idiopathic scoliosis (AIS), screened for scoliosis and normals were analysed by comparing skeletal data between higher and lower body mass index subsets. Unexpected findings for each of skeletal maturation, asymmetries and overgrowth are not explained by prevailing theories of AIS pathogenesis. A speculative pathogenetic theory for girls is formulated after surveying evidence including: (1) the thoracospinal concept for right thoracic AIS in girls; (2) the new neuroskeletal biology relating the sympathetic nervous system to bone formation/resorption and bone growth; (3) white adipose tissue storing triglycerides and the adiposity hormone leptin which functions as satiety hormone and sentinel of energy balance to the hypothalamus for long-term adiposity; and (4) central leptin resistance in obesity and possibly in healthy females. The new theory states that AIS in girls results from developmental disharmony expressed in spine and trunk between autonomic and somatic nervous systems. The autonomic component of this double neuro-osseous theory for AIS pathogenesis in girls involves selectively increased sensitivity of the hypothalamus to circulating leptin (genetically-determined up-regulation possibly involving inhibitory or sensitizing intracellular molecules, such as SOC3, PTP-1B and SH2B1 respectively), with asymmetry as an adverse response (hormesis); this asymmetry is routed bilaterally via the sympathetic nervous system to the growing axial skeleton where it may initiate the scoliosis deformity (leptin-hypothalamic-sympathetic nervous system concept = LHS concept). In some younger preoperative AIS girls, the hypothalamic up-regulation to circulating leptin also involves the somatotropic (growth hormone/IGF) axis which exaggerates the sympathetically-induced asymmetric skeletal effects and contributes to curve progression, a concept with therapeutic implications. In the somatic nervous system, dysfunction of a postural mechanism involving the CNS body schema fails to control, or may induce, the spinal deformity of AIS in girls (escalator concept). Biomechanical factors affecting ribs and/or vertebrae and spinal cord during growth may localize AIS to the thoracic spine and contribute to sagittal spinal shape alterations. The developmental disharmony in spine and trunk is compounded by any osteopenia, biomechanical spinal growth modulation, disc degeneration and platelet calmodulin dysfunction. Methods for testing the theory are outlined. Implications are discussed for neuroendocrine dysfunctions, osteopontin, sympathoactivation, medical therapy, Rett and Prader-Willi syndromes, infantile idiopathic scoliosis, and human evolution. AIS pathogenesis in girls is predicated on two putative normal mechanisms involved in trunk growth, each acquired in evolution and unique to humans

THE RELATIONSHIP BETWEEN BODY COMPOSITION AND DYNAMIC AND STATIC BALANCE TESTING OF COLLEGE-AGED INDIVIDUALS

L.N. Bramble,J.D. Kelly, C. Kitambala, C.J. Wright Whitworth University, Spokane, WA Past research has examined the relationship between postural stability and body mass index with foci on athletic or obese populations. PURPOSE: The purpose of this study was to determine the relationship between BF% and both dynamic and static postural stability in college-aged individuals. METHODS: 49 healthy individuals (nm= 14, nf= 35, age = 20.7 ± 1.4 y, height = 1.69 ± 0.08 m, weight = 70.75 ± 12.51 kg) with no history of vestibular deficits or lower extremity injury within the previous 6 weeks participated in this study. In a single session, participants completed a body fat assessment via air displacement plethysmography. Participants then completed 4 practice trials of a Y-balance test in 3 directions (anterior [A], posterolateral [PL], posteromedial [PM]), followed by 3 recorded trials in each direction. After a 5 min rest period, participants completed 3 static, 20 second single limb stance balance trials on a force plate. All tests were completed with the dominant leg. For static balance, the dependent variables were Center of Pressure - Velocity (COPV; cm/s) and Center of Pressure 95% Area Ellipse (COPA-95; cm2). Y-balance reach distance (cm) was normalized to leg length, then for all balance tests, the average of 3 trials was used for analysis. The relationship between BF% and each postural stability variable was analyzed using separate Pearson correlations. RESULTS: There was no significant relationship between BF% and COPV (r = -0.178, p= 0.227), COPA-95 (r = 0.273, p= 0.063), Y-balance test in the A direction (r = -0.230, p = 0.115), or Y-balance test in the PL direction (r = -0.217, p = 0.063). There was a significant negative correlation between BF% and Y-balance test in the PM direction (r = -0.307, p = 0.034). Furthermore, as BF% increased, participants decreased postural stability in the PM direction for dynamic balance testing. CONCLUSION: There was a significant negative relationship between postural stability and BF% in the PM direction, therefore, future research on body composition and balance should be focused here. Additionally, since past research has reported that the posteromedial direction is the most indicative of postural stability deficits, this correlation may have important clinical implications for injury prevention in obese or overweight populations

THE RELATIONSHIP BETWEEN BODY COMPOSITION AND DYNAMIC AND STATIC BALANCE TESTING OF COLLEGE-AGED INDIVIDUALS

L.N. Bramble,J.D. Kelly, C. Kitambala, C.J. Wright Whitworth University, Spokane, WA Past research has examined the relationship between postural stability and body mass index with foci on athletic or obese populations. PURPOSE: The purpose of this study was to determine the relationship between BF% and both dynamic and static postural stability in college-aged individuals. METHODS: 49 healthy individuals (nm= 14, nf= 35, age = 20.7 ± 1.4 y, height = 1.69 ± 0.08 m, weight = 70.75 ± 12.51 kg) with no history of vestibular deficits or lower extremity injury within the previous 6 weeks participated in this study. In a single session, participants completed a body fat assessment via air displacement plethysmography. Participants then completed 4 practice trials of a Y-balance test in 3 directions (anterior [A], posterolateral [PL], posteromedial [PM]), followed by 3 recorded trials in each direction. After a 5 min rest period, participants completed 3 static, 20 second single limb stance balance trials on a force plate. All tests were completed with the dominant leg. For static balance, the dependent variables were Center of Pressure - Velocity (COPV; cm/s) and Center of Pressure 95% Area Ellipse (COPA-95; cm2). Y-balance reach distance (cm) was normalized to leg length, then for all balance tests, the average of 3 trials was used for analysis. The relationship between BF% and each postural stability variable was analyzed using separate Pearson correlations. RESULTS: There was no significant relationship between BF% and COPV (r = -0.178, p= 0.227), COPA-95 (r = 0.273, p= 0.063), Y-balance test in the A direction (r = -0.230, p = 0.115), or Y-balance test in the PL direction (r = -0.217, p = 0.063). There was a significant negative correlation between BF% and Y-balance test in the PM direction (r = -0.307, p = 0.034). Furthermore, as BF% increased, participants decreased postural stability in the PM direction for dynamic balance testing. CONCLUSION: There was a significant negative relationship between postural stability and BF% in the PM direction, therefore, future research on body composition and balance should be focused here. Additionally, since past research has reported that the posteromedial direction is the most indicative of postural stability deficits, this correlation may have important clinical implications for injury prevention in obese or overweight populations