The Effect of Disturbances on the Belowground System in the Black Spruce Boreal Forest: Ectomycorrhizal Community, Nutrient Availability and Decomposition Rates

Disturbances are integral to the structure and functioning of the boreal forest. However their effects upon the underground components in this ecosystem are still largely unknown. In this thesis, I describe the ectomycorrhizal and understory plant communities in the black spruce boreal forest of the Abitibi region, Québec, and discuss the effects that both forest fires and logging have on the ectomycorrhizal community, nutrient supply rates and decomposition rates. The ectomycorrhizal community from black spruce, characterized by morphotyping and molecular techniques was dominated by Cenococcum geophilum and three Piloderma species. The plant community was made up of a mosaic of vegetation patches, which are described in this thesis, as either Sphagnum dominated plots, which associated with Sphagnum, Gaultheria hispidula and Picea mariana; or ericoid/lichen dominated plots, which associated with Lichen and Vaccinium angustifolium. Statistical analysis revealed that the effect of the disturbances was largely insignificant to the ectomycorrhizal community, nutrient supply and decomposition rates, and most differences were between transects. However, both the understory plant community plot types and abundance of individual plant species were found to have significant correlations with the most abundant ectomycorrhizal species. This suggests that if we want to know how the ectomycorrhizal community will be affected by disturbances, we should look at changes in the plant community due to disturbances

Weight loss during ambulatory tube weaning: don’t put the feeds back up

Objective: To describe the prevalence of weight loss during tube weaning and its impact on wean duration and growth. Setting: Tertiary feeding clinic, UK. Patients: All children seen for weaning from long-term enteral feeding between 2008 and 2016. Interventions: Outpatient withdrawal of enteral feeding. Design: Case series of children being weaned from tube feeding, documenting clinical details, periods of weight loss and timing of feed changes, as well as height and weight at baseline and within 1 year after feed cessation. Main outcome measures: Amount and frequency of weight loss, wean duration, change in body mass index (BMI) and height SD z score. Results: Weaning was attempted in 58 children, median age 2.7 years, and 90% had stopped feeds after median (range) 5.9 (1–40) months. Weight loss was seen in 51 (88%) children and was more common and severe in children with initially higher BMI. Time to feed cessation reduced by median 4.9 months between 2008–2011 and 2012–2016, while having feeds increased prolonged the wean duration, by median 13 months. After feed cessation, mean (95% CI) BMI had dropped by 0.84 (0.5 to 1.2) z scores, but neither change in BMI, nor the amount and frequency of weight loss, related to growth. Conclusions: Short-term weight loss is to be expected during tube weaning and is not associated with compromised growth. It is important to avoid overfeeding enterally fed children and not to increase feeds again in response to weight loss

Interactions between mood and the structure of semantic memory: event-related potentials evidence

Recent evidence suggests that affect acts as modulator of cognitive processes and in particular that induced mood has an effect on the way semantic memory is used on-line. We used event-related potentials (ERPs) to examine affective modulation of semantic information processing under three different moods: neutral, positive and negative. Fifteen subjects read 324 pairs of sentences, after mood induction procedure with 30 pictures of neutral, 30 pictures of positive and 30 pictures of neutral valence: 108 sentences were read in each mood induction condition. Sentences ended with three word types: expected words, within-category violations, and between-category violations. N400 amplitude was measured to the three word types under each mood induction condition. Under neutral mood, a congruency (more negative N400 amplitude for unexpected relative to expected endings) and a category effect (more negative N400 amplitude for between- than to within-category violations) were observed. Also, results showed differences in N400 amplitude for both within- and between-category violations as a function of mood: while positive mood tended to facilitate the integration of unexpected but related items, negative mood made their integration as difficult as unexpected and unrelated items. These findings suggest the differential impact of mood on access to long-term semantic memory during sentence comprehension.The authors would like to thank to all the participants of the study, as well as to Jenna Mezin and Elizabeth Thompson for their help with data collection. This work was supported by a Doctoral Grant from Fundacao para a Ciencia e a Tecnologia - Portugal (SFRH/BD/35882/2007 to A. P. P.) and by the National Institute of Mental Health (RO1 MH 040799 to R. W. M.; RO3 MH 078036 to M.A.N.)

Sans titres: Anthologie collective Français 335 (automne 2011)

http://deepblue.lib.umich.edu/bitstream/2027.42/89432/1/sans_titres.pd

EXPORTS Measurements and Protocols for the NE Pacific Campaign

EXport Processes in the Ocean from Remote Sensing (EXPORTS) is a large-scale NASA-led and NSF co-funded field campaign that will provide critical information for quantifying the export and fate of upper ocean net primary production (NPP) using satellite information and state of the art technology

Identification and characterization of an asparaginyl proteinase (legumain) from the parasitic nematode, Haemonchus contortus

Asparaginyl proteinases (or legumains) are a recently identified, novel class of cysteine proteinase which specifically hydrolyse peptide bonds after asparagine residues. Legumains have been implicated in the activation of cysteine proteases, particularly cathepsin B-like proteinases which are thought to help degrade the bloodmeal in blood-feeding helminths such as schistosomes, hookworms and other nematode species. An EST sequence representing a full-length legumain was identified from the Haemonchus contortus dataset 1 . This encoded a protein with a predicted Mr of 49 kDa, the amino acid sequence of which showed good homology (34-40% identity) to legumains from Schistosoma mansoni, human and rat and contained a legumain-like active site. RT-PCR indicated that the legumain transcript was expressed from the L4 life-cycle stage onwards. The coding sequence was expressed in E. coli and antibodies to the resultant recombinant protein indicated that the enzyme was expressed in the microvillar surface of the intestinal cells. Legumain activity was detected in extracts of the adult parasite but not the host protective Thiol-Sepharose-binding fraction, although it was detectable in the latter by immunoblot. Activity was relatively insensitive to E64, an inhibitor of cysteine proteinases and completely inhibited by the alkylating agent, N-ethylmaleimide, consistent with inhibitor effects on previously characterized legumains

Understanding the civic impact of journalism: A realistic evaluation perspective

The importance of journalism to civil society is constantly proclaimed, but empirical evidence on journalism's impact, and how this operates, is surprisingly thin. Indeed, there is confusion even about what is meant by the term “impact”. Meanwhile, the issue of the role of journalism is becoming increasingly urgent as a consequence of the rapid changes engulfing the news media, brought about by technological change and the flow-on effect to the traditional advertising-supported business model. Assessing the impact of journalism has recently been the topic of debate among practitioners and scholars particularly in the United States, where philanthropists have responded to the perceived crisis in investigative journalism by funding not-for-profit newsrooms, with resulting new pressures being placed on journalists and editors to quantify their impact on society. These recent attempts have so far failed to achieve clarity or a satisfactory conclusion, which is not surprising given the complex web of causation within which journalism operates. In this paper, the authors propose a stratified definition of journalistic impact and function. They propose a methodology for studying impact drawing on realistic evaluation—a theory-based approach developed primarily to assess large social programmes occurring in open systems. The authors argue this could allow a conceptual and methodological advance on the question of media impacts, leading to research capable of usefully informing responses at a time of worrying change