Habitat Use by the Eastern Sand Darter, Ammocrypta pellucida, in Two Lake Champlain Tributaries

The Eastern Sand Darter (Ammocrypta pellucida) is endangered or threatened throughout much of its range, which includes the St. Lawrence-Lake Ontario drainage of southern Ontario and Quebec and several Vermont tributaries of Lake Champlain. The species is known for its tendency to burrow, and field observations have suggested that habitat use may depend on substrate particle size. To determine whether Eastern Sand Darter densities were correlated with substrate particle size, fish and substrates were sampled in 156 plots in two Vermont rivers during the summers of 2001 and 2002. The Eastern Sand Darter occurred mainly in areas in which substrate composition was over 45% fine to medium sand (0.24-0.54 mm); they were much less abundant in areas in which substrate composition exceeded 25% particles greater than 1.9 mm. Substrate preference was tested by allowing 49 fish kept in aquaria to choose among four different substrates. The fish showed a significant preference (P < 0.005) for the finer substrate categories (0.24-0.54 mm, 0.55-1.0 mm), and mostly avoided the coarser substrates (1.0-1.9 mm, 2.0-4.1 mm). This suggests that the Eastern Sand Darter is selective regarding substrate composition, and therefore might be affected by fluctuations or changes in substrate composition within its habitat, such as those caused by changes in flow

The psychological impact of Kangaroo Mother Care (KMC) : a review of the literature

Thesis (MA)--Stellenbosch University, 2004.ENGLISH ABSTRACT: his review examines the literature on the psychological impact of Kangaroo Mother Care (KMC) on the mother, infant, support personnel and other caretakers. The paper summarizes the findings of the KMC research and considers the implications of it in light of high numbers of premature and low birth weight infants in South Africa. The review briefly considers theories of bonding and attachment adopted in the research and theories on why KMC is effective. The psychological impact of one component of KMC, Skin-to-Skin Care (SSC), used primarily in developed countries to supplement traditional care, has been extensively researched. In contrast, much less research has explored the psychological impact of full KMC programmes in developing countries. Our understanding of the psychological impact of KMC therefore relies predominantly on research from a very different context to the one in which KMC is used. As SSC has been utilised very differently to KMC and in first world settings, it cannot offer mothers or their family reliable information on the psychological demands and benefits ofKMC. Findings: Although KMC appears to offer invaluable physiological benefits and assists in 'humanising' neonatal care in important ways, there is currently very little published research on the short or long-term psychological impact of KMC on the mother, infant, support personnel and other caretakers. On the whole, research findings on the psychological impact of KMC were not conclusive but indicate some positive outcomes for increased maternal sensitivity and confidence, developmental benefits for the infant and an improvement in the clarity of infants' cues and communication with caregiver. Findings on the psychological impact of KMC for support personnel and other caretakers such as the family of the infant are also not conclusive and indicate that more research is necessary. Further research is required regarding cross-cultural experiences of KMC; maternal experiences of depression, anxiety and ambivalence; long-term developmental and attachment outcomes for the infant and the possible preventative value of KMC for maternal and infant mental health.AFRIKAANSE OPSOMMING: Hierdie hersiening ondersoek die literatuur aangaande die sielkundige uitwerking van Kangaroo Mother Care (KMC) op die ma, suigeling, ondersteunende personeel en ander opsigters. Die artikel is 'n opsomming van die uitspraak van KMC navorsing en oorweeg die gevolgtrekkings daarvan ten opsigte van die hoe getal vroeggebore en lae ligaamsgewig van suigelinge wat in Suid-Afrika gebore is. Die hersiening kyk kortliks na die teorie verbonde aan die binding en gehegtheid van die navorsing en teorie oor hoekom KMC doeltreffend is. Die sielkundige uitwerking van een onderdeel van KMC, Skin-to-Skin Care (SSC), wat meestal in gevorderde lande gebruik word om tradisionele versorg te verryk, is deeglik ondersoek. Inteendeel is ver minder navorsing op die sielkundige uitwerking van volle KMC programme in ontwikellende lande gedoen. Dus is ons begrip van die sielkundige uitwerking van KMC afhanklik op navorsing vanuit 'n ander konteks as die een waarin die eintlik gebruik is. SSC word baie anders benut as KMC, en in eerstewereldkontekste kan dit dus nie veel betroubare inligting op die sielkundige vereistes en voordele van KMC verskaf nie. Bevindings: Al kom dit voor dat KMC waardevolle sielkundige voordele verskaf en help in geboorte nasorg op belangrike maniere, is daar huidiglik baie min navorsing op druk oor die kort- of die langtermyn sielkundige uitwerking van KMC op die ma, suigeling, ondersteunende personeel en ander oppassers. In die algemeen, is die bevindings van navorsing oor die sielkundige uitwerking van KMC nie volkome nie, maar dui positiewe uitslae aan op verhoogde moederlike gevoelens en selfvertroue. Navorsing dui ook ontwikkelingsvoordele vir die suigeling, asook die bevordering van die duidelikheid van sy kommunikasie met die oppasser. Bevindings op die sielkundige uitwerking van KMC op die ondersteunende personeel en ander oppassers, byvoorbeeld familielede van die suigeling, is ook nie volkome nie, en dui die nodigheid van verdere navorsing aan. Verdere navorsing oor die kruiskulturele ervaring van KMC, moederlike ondervinding van moedeloosheid, angs en dubbelsinnigheid is benodig. Langtermyn ontwikkeling en gehegtigheidsake vir die suigeling en die moontlike voorkomende waarde van KMC vir moederlike en suigeling se geestelike gesondheid is ook wel benodig

Life-span changes to adults' language: Effects of memory and genre

Three different language samples were collected from a group of young adults, 18 to 28 years of age, and a group of elderly adults, 60 to 92 years of age: an oral questionnaire eliciting information about the adults' background, education, and current health and activities; an oral statement describing the person they most admired; and a written statement recounting the most significant event in their lives. In addition, the WAIS vocabulary and digit-span tests were administered to the adults. Age-related changes in the length, clause structure, and fluency of the adults' oral answers and oral and written statements were investigated. There was an overall decrement in the complexity of adults' oral and written statements attributable to an age-related loss of left-branching clauses which occurred in all three language samples. Correlations between the length, clause, and fluency measures from the language samples and the education, health, and WAIS vocabulary and digit-span tests revealed that better-educated adults scored higher on the WAIS vocabulary test, produced longer utterances, and used more right-branching clauses, and that adults with greater memory capacity, as measured by the WAIS Digits Backward test, produced more complex utterances and used more right- and left-branching clauses. Judges found the statements from the elderly adults to be more interesting and clearer than those from the young adults. This finding suggests that there is a trade-off between producing complex syntactic structures and producing clear and interesting prose

Recent advances in understanding bile duct remodeling and fibrosis [version 1; referees: 2 approved]

Cholestatic liver disease encompasses a detrimental group of diseases that are non-discriminatory in nature. These diseases occur over every age range from infancy (biliary atresia) to geriatrics (hepatitis). They also cover both genders in the form of primary sclerosing cholangitis in men and primary biliary cholangitis in women. Oftentimes, owing to the disease progression and extensive scarring, the treatment of last resort becomes a liver transplant. In this review, we will briefly discuss and explore new avenues of understanding in the progression of cholestatic liver disease and possible therapeutic targets for intervention. The greater our understanding into the idiopathic nature of cholestatic liver disease, the better our chances of discovering treatment options to halt or reverse the progression, reducing or eliminating the need for expensive and risky transplants

Twenty-four-hour ambulatory blood pressure and heart rate profiles in diagnosing orthostatic hypotension in Parkinson's disease and multiple system atrophy.

BACKGROUND AND PURPOSE: Twenty-four-hour ambulatory blood pressure and heart rate monitoring (24-h ABPM) can provide vital information on circadian blood pressure (BP) profiles, which are commonly abnormal in Parkinson's disease with and without autonomic failure (PD + AF and PD) and multiple system atrophy (MSA). Twenty-four-hour ABPM has not been directly compared between these disorders regarding cardiovascular autonomic function. Our aim was to determine the usefulness of 24-h ABPM with diary compared to head-up tilting (HUT) in diagnosing orthostatic hypotension (OH) in these patients. METHODS: Seventy-four patients (23 MSA, 18 PD + AF, 33 PD) underwent cardiovascular autonomic screening followed by 24-h ABPM with diary. Standing tests were included during 24-h ABPM. The sensitivity and specificity in detecting OH from the 24-h ABPM standing test were compared with HUT. RESULTS: There was no difference in OH during HUT between MSA and PD + AF (P > 0.05). There was a higher proportion of abnormal BP circadian rhythms in MSA and PD + AF compared to PD (P 0.05). Patients were divided into groups with OH (OH+) and without OH (OH-) on HUT. Using the standing test during 24-h ABPM, a systolic BP fall of >20 mmHg showed a sensitivity and specificity of 82% and 100% (area under the curve 0.91, 95% confidence interval 0.84-0.98) in differentiating OH+ from OH-. CONCLUSIONS: Parkinson's disease with autonomic failure and MSA patients had similar circadian BP patterns suggesting that autonomic dysfunction influences abnormal BP circadian patterns similarly in these disorders. The higher sensitivity and specificity in detecting OH using a systolic BP fall of >20 mmHg compared to a diastolic BP fall of >10 mmHg during the standing test supports its usefulness to assess autonomic function in MSA and PD

Relationship between gender, physical activity, screen time, body mass index and wellbeing in Irish children from social-disadvantage

Research has shown that childhood physical activity participation has a positive relationship with markers of wellbeing, such as self-esteem and quality of life, and physical activity participation may serve as protective mechanism against some mental illnesses including depression. The aim of the current study was to examine the relationship between gender, physical activity, screen time, body mass index and wellbeing in Irish school children (N = 705; mean age: 8.74 ± 0.52 years) from social disadvantage. In Northern Ireland, schools included in the 2010 Multiple Deprivation Measure (NIMDM) were invited to participate. Schools included for participation in the Republic of Ireland were from the Delivering Equality of Opportunity in Schools (DEIS) index. Data gathered included accelerometry (physical activity), self-report (screen time and wellbeing), and anthropometric measurements. Physical activity was objectively measured during eight consecutive days using Actigraph GT1M and GT3X devices, using stringent accelerometer protocol. Screen time activities were derived using questions adapted from the Health Promotion Agencies National Children’s Survey in Northern Ireland. The KIDSCREEN-27 is a health-related quality of life measurement, and this tool was used by participants to self-report their health and wellbeing. Results suggest that boys accumulated more minutes of daily screen time than girls, however, boys were more physically active when compared to girls. Wellbeing scores for gender showed inverse associations with daily screen time. Standard multiple regression revealed that gender, physical activity, screen time and body mass index (combined) explained little variance in the prediction of wellbeing. Results indicate the importance of gender-based considerations for physical activity and screen time with children from social disadvantage. The inverse relationship found between overall screen time and wellbeing will help guide future healthy lifestyle interventions for Irish children of low-income communities

Transactivation of the epidermal growth factor receptor in responses to myocardial stress and cardioprotection

The epidermal growth factor receptor (EGFR) family comprises the ErbB1 (EGFR) and ErbB4 receptors as well as the ‘co-receptors’ ErbB2 (which does not bind EGF ligands) and ErbB3 (which lack tyrosine kinase activity). This family of receptors is essential for cardiac development, myocardial, renal and vascular function, and cardiac responses to physiological and pathological perturbations. The EGFR appears critical in protecting cardiac cells from injury, while considerable attention has focussed on neuregulin/ErbB4 signalling in potentially ameliorating cardiomyopathy/heart failure. Indeed, the EGFRs provide a signalling nexus, upon which multiple cardioprotective stimuli appear to converge, including ischaemic preconditioning and various G protein-coupled receptors (opioid, muscarinic, adenosine, adrenergic, bradykinin, sphingosine 1-phosphate). These stimuli engage the EGFR axis (in a process referred to as transactivation) in differing ways, involving both G protein-dependent and -independent mechanisms, to promote myocardial cell survival during and following ischaemia/infarction. Elucidating the molecular processes that underpin EGFR transactivation and mediate cardiac protection will advance our understanding of the intrinsic capacity of the heart to withstand pathological insult. It should also reveal new approaches to facilitate cardioprotective therapy to limit damage during and following myocardial ischaemia/infarction, which despite intense investigation remains an unrealised, yet highly desirable, clinical goal. This review focuses on the cardiovascular functions of the EGFR, its role in cardioprotection, and the potential influences of common disease states on this signalling

Mechanisms and Geochemical Models of Core Formation

The formation of the Earth's core is a consequence of planetary accretion and processes in the Earth's interior. The mechanical process of planetary differentiation is likely to occur in large, if not global, magma oceans created by the collisions of planetary embryos. Metal-silicate segregation in magma oceans occurs rapidly and efficiently unlike grain scale percolation according to laboratory experiments and calculations. Geochemical models of the core formation process as planetary accretion proceeds are becoming increasingly realistic. Single stage and continuous core formation models have evolved into multi-stage models that are couple to the output of dynamical models of the giant impact phase of planet formation. The models that are most successful in matching the chemical composition of the Earth's mantle, based on experimentally-derived element partition coefficients, show that the temperature and pressure of metal-silicate equilibration must increase as a function of time and mass accreted and so must the oxygen fugacity of the equilibrating material. The latter can occur if silicon partitions into the core and through the late delivery of oxidized material. Coupled dynamical accretion and multi-stage core formation models predict the evolving mantle and core compositions of all the terrestrial planets simultaneously and also place strong constraints on the bulk compositions and oxidation states of primitive bodies in the protoplanetary disk.Comment: Accepted in Fischer, R., Terasaki, H. (eds), Deep Earth: Physics and Chemistry of the Lower Mantle and Core, AGU Monograp