Environmental and Location Effects on Nut Set, Nut Characteristics, and Yield of‘Ka'u’, ‘Kea'au’, and ‘Keauhou’ Macadamia (Macadamia Integrifolia Maiden and Betche)

This three-year study was undertaken to determine the effects of temperature, rainfall, and tree age on nut set, percent kernel, percent grade 1 kernel, and yield of three macadamia cultivars at eight locations in Hawaii. Initial nut set two weeks after anthesis was highest with maximum temperatiires from 18 to 24°C for macadamia cultivars Keauhou, Ka'u, and Kea'au. Increased rainfall in the two weeks after anthesis was associated with a reduction in initial nut set of 'Keauhou' and 'Ka'u', within a range of 1 tb 95 cm of rainfall. Final nut set of 'Keauhou' appeared optimum with a rainfall of 100 cm within a range of 1 to 215 cm during the eight weeks from anthesis to final nut set. As rainfall increased from 1 to 215 cm during the eight weeks from anthesis to final nut set, final nut set of 'Ka'u' and 'Kea'au' was reduced. Final nut set was highest at a minimum temperature of 14°C for all three cultivars. A slight increase of percent kernel of 'Keauhou' and 'Ka'u' was associated with increasing maximum temperatures from 20 to 25°C in the 90 days after anthesis. A reduction in percent kernel of 'Keauhou' and 'Ka'u' was related to maximum temperatures above 26°C. Increasing minimum temperature from 13 to 17°C was related to an increase of percent grade 1 kernels for 'Keauhou'. Percent grade l kernels of 'Keauhou' decreased with increasing age of trees. An increase in percent grade 1 kernels occurred for 'Ka'u' up to 12 years of age, followed by a decline up to 17 years when a more rapid decline occurred. Increasing minimum temperature from 13 to 19°C was associated with increased percent grade 1 kernels of 'Ka'u'. 'Keauhou' had higher yields with rainfall averaging 30 cm per month. Rainfall averaging 10 cm per month for 'Ka'u' and 'Kea'au' was related to higher yields. Average yearly minimum temperatures of about 14.5°C appeared optimum for yield of 'Keauhou'. 'Ka'u' and 'Kea'au' appeared to yield better with about 16 to 18°C average yearly minimum temperature

Are women better than men at multi-tasking?

Background: There seems to be a common belief that women are better in multi-tasking than men, but there is practically no scientific research on this topic. Here, we tested whether women have better multi-tasking skills than men.<p></p> Methods: In Experiment 1, we compared performance of 120 women and 120 men in a computer-based task-switching paradigm. In Experiment 2, we compared a different group of 47 women and 47 men on "paper-and-pencil" multi-tasking tests.<p></p> Results: In Experiment 1, both men and women performed more slowly when two tasks were rapidly interleaved than when the two tasks were performed separately. Importantly, this slow down was significantly larger in the male participants (Cohen’s d = 0.27). In an everyday multi-tasking scenario (Experiment 2), men and women did not differ significantly at solving simple arithmetic problems, searching for restaurants on a map, or answering general knowledge questions on the phone, but women were significantly better at devising strategies for locating a lost key (Cohen’s d = 0.49).<p></p> Conclusions: Women outperform men in these multi-tasking paradigms, but the near lack of empirical studies on gender differences in multitasking should caution against making strong generalisations. Instead, we hope that other researchers will aim to replicate and elaborate on our findings.<p></p&gt

A SYSTEMATIC REVIEW OF STRUCTURAL AND FUNCTIONAL MRI DIFFERENCES BETWEEN PSYCHOTIC AND NONPSYCHOTIC DEPRESSION

Background: Psychotic depression is widely accepted as a specific subtype of unipolar major depression. Magnetic resonance imaging studies have begun to investigate the neurobiological changes that differentiate this subtype of major depression from nonpsychotic depression. Any differences may eventually be useful in aiding diagnosis patients for whom there is diagnostic uncertainty. This review collates the currently available evidence. Subjects and methods: A systematic search of the Medline, PubMed, Embase & Web of Science databases was used to identify all articles comparing structural grey matter or functional magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) differences between adults (18+) with previously diagnosed psychotic and nonpsychotic depression in predefined regions of interest (hippocampus, amygdala, cingulate, insula & frontal cortices). The results were collated and organised according to brain region. Results: There is a paucity of studies addressing structural and functional changes differentiating these two disorders and recommendations regarding use of these modalities in diagnosis cannot be made. From the available studies decreases in frontal cortex grey matter volumes may differentiate psychotic from non-psychotic depression whilst further studies are required to confirm decreases in insula cortex volumes. fMRI studies show associations between altered activity in these two regions and cognitive impairments in patients with psychotic depression. The volumes of putative emotional processing regions including the amygdala, hippocampus and anterior cingulate show no difference between psychotic and nonpsychotic depression. Conclusions: Structural and functional changes in the higher associative regions of the frontal and insular cortices appear to differentiate psychotic and nonpsychotic depression to a greater degree than changes in putative emotional processing regions. The quality of the evidence both in terms of numbers of studies available and sample sizes involved is very poor but in regard to directing future study, understanding the neurobiology of psychotic depression may benefit from a more detailed assessment of these two regions

Attentional biases for food stimuli in external eaters: Possible mechanism for stress-induced eating?

External eaters reportedly increase snack intake when stressed, which could be due to an attentional shift towards food stimuli. Attentional biases for food stimuli were tested in high and low external eaters in stress and control conditions, using a computerised Stroop. A significant interaction was observed between external eating group and condition for snack word bias. This suggested that low external eaters have a greater bias for snack words when unstressed and that stressed, high external eaters have a greater bias for snack words than stressed, low external eaters, which could contribute to stress-induced snack intake in high external eaters

Inventory and monitoring of seabirds in National Park of American Samoa

Reports were scanned in black and white at a resolution of 600 dots per inch and were converted to text using Adobe Paper Capture Plug-in.This first island-wide inventory and preliminary monitoring of American Samoa seabird populations has produced several significant results. The beginning of a seabird colony catalog has been established in a digital format. The protocol for surveying seabirds around Tutuila Island by boat is described, and future efforts can be compared to baseline results reported here. A detailed survey of the National Park lands around Tutuila is mapped and photographed and seabird distributions found in the 2000 round-island survey and 2003 partial-island survey are discussed. Our results support anecdotal evidence that the inaccessible north shore of Tutuila supports the majority of that island’s resident seabirds. Greater than 90% of Red-footed Boobies and Great Frigatebird observations during the Tutuila round-island survey were made in NPSA areas. The north shore areas are important for coastal cliff nesters such as Brown, Black Noddies and Blue Noddies, a species of international significance. Bridled Terns are extending their pan tropical range to include Tutuila, including Park areas. White Terns and White-tailed Tropicbirds are more evenly distributed across forests in Tutuila within as well as outside NPSA areas.National Park Service Contract No. 8036 2 900

Taxonomic Status Of The Neotropical Caecilian Genera Brasilotyphlus Taylor, 1968, Microcaecilia Taylor, 1968 And Parvicaecilia Taylor, 1968 (Amphibia: Gymnophiona: Siphonopidae)

ABSTRACT — We review the taxonomic history and assess the status of three genera of siphonopid caecilians from South America. Evidence from dentition and squamation suggest that Microcaecilia is paraphyletic with respect to Parvicaecilia. To avoid this paraphyly we propose to relegate the latter to the synonymy of the former. We find no evidence warranting any change in the taxonomic status of Brasilotyphlus at this time. We provide a rediagnosis of Microcaecilia and a key to the fourteen currently recognized species.Peer Reviewedhttp://deepblue.lib.umich.edu/bitstream/2027.42/122718/1/OP 744.pd

Characteristic Mechanisms and Outcome of Cardiopulmonary Arrest in Congestive Heart Failure Patients

Recent studies suggest the mechanism of sudden death in congestive heart failure (CHF) patients is less frequently VT/VF than previously believed. In order to further understand the characteristics and mechanisms of death in CHF patients, we evaluated 146 patients who underwent cardiopulmonary resuscitation during hospitalization for congestive heart failure, ischemic heart disease, and noncardiac causes. Clinical characteristics and outcomes are described below:CHF/CardiacnonCHF/CardiacnoncardiacN302690Age63 (49.71)67 (60.72)63 (29.71)Sex (% male)375860Initial Rhythm N(%)VT/VF7 (25)11 (44)24 (27)Asystole6 (21.4)6 (24)33 (37.5)Bradycardia5 (17.9)2 (8)6 (6.8)EMD6 (21.4)1 (4)13 (148)Other4 (14.3)5 (20)12 (136)ROSC21 (70)13 (50)51 (56.7)Survival to D/C1 (3.3)4 (15.4)2 (2.2)Patients with nonCHF/Cardiac disease had a higher ROSC than patients with CHF and noncardiac diseases (p=0.016). In summary, patients with CHF often experience cardiopulmonary arrest with bradycardic or EMD arrests. Although patients with CHF are resuscitated with a high degree of success their in-hospital survival was low. Furthermore, the high rate of bradycardic and EMD arrests may explain the low in-hospital survival rates

Acute inflammatory demyelinating polyneuropathy and a unilateral babinski/plantar reflex

Acquired acute demyelinating peripheral polyneuropathy (AADP) is a general classification of pathologies that could affect secondary the peripheral nervous system. They are characterized by an autoimmune process directed towards myelin. Clinically they are characterized by progressive weakness and mild sensory changes. Acute inflammatory demyelinating polyneuropathy often is referred to as Guillain-Barré syndrome (GBS). GBS is the major cause of acute nontraumatic paralysis in healthy people and it is caused by autoimmune response to viral agents (influenza, coxsackie, Epstein-Barr virus, or cytomegalovirus) or bacterial infective organisms (Campylobacter jejuni, Mycoplasma pneumoniae). A detailed history, with symptoms of progressive usually bilateral weakness, hyporeflexia, with a typical demyelinating EMG pattern supports the diagnosis. Progressive affection of respiratory muscles and autonomic instability coupled with a protracted and unpredictable recovery normally results in the need for ICU management. We present a case report of a patient with a typical GBS presentation but with a unilateral upgoing plantar reflex (Babinski sign). A unifying diagnosis was made and based on a literature search in Pubmed appears to be the first described case of its kind

Learning the Structure of Auto-Encoding Recommenders

Autoencoder recommenders have recently shown state-of-the-art performance in the recommendation task due to their ability to model non-linear item relationships effectively. However, existing autoencoder recommenders use fully-connected neural network layers and do not employ structure learning. This can lead to inefficient training, especially when the data is sparse as commonly found in collaborative filtering. The aforementioned results in lower generalization ability and reduced performance. In this paper, we introduce structure learning for autoencoder recommenders by taking advantage of the inherent item groups present in the collaborative filtering domain. Due to the nature of items in general, we know that certain items are more related to each other than to other items. Based on this, we propose a method that first learns groups of related items and then uses this information to determine the connectivity structure of an auto-encoding neural network. This results in a network that is sparsely connected. This sparse structure can be viewed as a prior that guides the network training. Empirically we demonstrate that the proposed structure learning enables the autoencoder to converge to a local optimum with a much smaller spectral norm and generalization error bound than the fully-connected network. The resultant sparse network considerably outperforms the state-of-the-art methods like \textsc{Mult-vae/Mult-dae} on multiple benchmarked datasets even when the same number of parameters and flops are used. It also has a better cold-start performance.Comment: Proceedings of The Web Conference 202

Use of top-down and bottom-up fourier transform ion cyclotron resonance mass spectrometry for mapping calmodulin sites modified by platinum anticancer drugs

Calmodulin (CaM) is a highly conserved, ubiquitous, calcium-binding protein; it binds to and regulates many different protein targets, thereby functioning as a calcium sensor and signal transducer. CaM contains 9 methionine (Met), 1 histidine (His), 17 aspartic acid (Asp), and 23 glutamine acid (Glu) residues, all of which can potentially react with platinum compounds; thus, one-third of the CaM sequence is a possible binding target of platinum anticancer drugs, which represents a major challenge for identification of specific platinum modification sites. Here, top-down electron capture dissociation (ECD) was used to elucidate the transition metal–platinum(II) modification sites. By using a combination of top-down and bottom-up mass spectrometric (MS) approaches, 10 specific binding sites for mononuclear complexes, cisplatin and [Pt(dien)Cl]Cl, and dinuclear complex [{cis-PtCl2(NH3)}2(μ-NH2(CH2)4NH2)] on CaM were identified. High resolution MS of cisplatin-modified CaM revealed that cisplatin mainly targets Met residues in solution at low molar ratios of cisplatin–CaM (2:1), by cross-linking Met residues. At a high molar ratio of cisplatin:CaM (8:1), up to 10 platinum(II) bind to Met, Asp, and Glu residues. [{cis-PtCl2(NH3)}2(μ-NH2(CH2)4NH2)] forms mononuclear adducts with CaM. The alkanediamine linker between the two platinum centers dissociates due to a trans-labilization effect. [Pt(dien)Cl]Cl forms {Pt(dien)}2+ adducts with CaM, and the preferential binding sites were identified as Met51, Met71, Met72, His107, Met109, Met124, Met144, Met145, Glu45 or Glu47, and Asp122 or Glu123. The binding of these complexes to CaM, particularly when binding involves loss of all four original ligands, is largely irreversible which could result in their failure to reach the target DNA or be responsible for unwanted side-effects during chemotherapy. Additionally, the cross-linking of cisplatin to CaM might lead to the loss of the biological function of CaM or CaM–Ca2+ due to limiting the flexibility of the CaM or CaM–Ca2+ complex to recognize target proteins or blocking the binding region of target proteins to CaM