Effects of growth rate, size, and light availability on tree survival across life stages: a demographic analysis accounting for missing values and small sample sizes.

The data set supporting the results of this article is available in the Dryad repository, http://dx.doi.org/10.5061/dryad.6f4qs. Moustakas, A. and Evans, M. R. (2015) Effects of growth rate, size, and light availability on tree survival across life stages: a demographic analysis accounting for missing values.Plant survival is a key factor in forest dynamics and survival probabilities often vary across life stages. Studies specifically aimed at assessing tree survival are unusual and so data initially designed for other purposes often need to be used; such data are more likely to contain errors than data collected for this specific purpose

Reshaping of Bulbar Odor Response by Nasal Flow Rate in the Rat

The impact of respiratory dynamics on odor response has been poorly studied at the olfactory bulb level. However, it has been shown that sniffing in the behaving rodent is highly dynamic and varies both in frequency and flow rate. Bulbar odor response could vary with these sniffing parameter variations. Consequently, it is necessary to understand how nasal airflow can modify and shape odor response at the olfactory bulb level.To assess this question, we used a double cannulation and simulated nasal airflow protocol on anesthetized rats to uncouple nasal airflow from animal respiration. Both mitral/tufted cell extracellular unit activity and local field potentials (LFPs) were recorded. We found that airflow changes in the normal range were sufficient to substantially reorganize the response of the olfactory bulb. In particular, cellular odor-evoked activities, LFP oscillations and spike phase-locking to LFPs were strongly modified by nasal flow rate.Our results indicate the importance of reconsidering the notion of odor coding as odor response at the bulbar level is ceaselessly modified by respiratory dynamics

Metamorphosis of Subarachnoid Hemorrhage Research: from Delayed Vasospasm to Early Brain Injury

Delayed vasospasm that develops 3–7 days after aneurysmal subarachnoid hemorrhage (SAH) has traditionally been considered the most important determinant of delayed ischemic injury and poor outcome. Consequently, most therapies against delayed ischemic injury are directed towards reducing the incidence of vasospasm. The clinical trials based on this strategy, however, have so far claimed limited success; the incidence of vasospasm is reduced without reduction in delayed ischemic injury or improvement in the long-term outcome. This fact has shifted research interest to the early brain injury (first 72 h) evoked by SAH. In recent years, several pathological mechanisms that activate within minutes after the initial bleed and lead to early brain injury are identified. In addition, it is found that many of these mechanisms evolve with time and participate in the pathogenesis of delayed ischemic injury and poor outcome. Therefore, a therapy or therapies focused on these early mechanisms may not only prevent the early brain injury but may also help reduce the intensity of later developing neurological complications. This manuscript reviews the pathological mechanisms of early brain injury after SAH and summarizes the status of current therapies

Estudo das habilidades auditivas de resolução temporal e figura-fundo em dançarinos

Resumo:OBJETIVO:avaliar a habilidade auditiva de resolução temporal e de identificação de sentenças com mensagem competitiva em dançarinos.MÉTODOS:trata-se de um estudo prospectivo em que foram avaliados 40 indivíduos distribuídos em dois grupos: grupo 1 (dançarinos) e grupo 2 (não-dançarinos). Os instrumentos de avaliação do processamento auditivo utilizados foram: teste Gaps-in-noise (GIN) e teste de reconhecimento de sentenças na presença de mensagem competitiva (SSI).RESULTADOS:os limiares de gap de ambos os grupos variaram de 3 a 6 ms e não demostraram diferença estatisticamente significante na comparação entre os grupos. Houve diferença estatisticamente significante ao comparar a porcentagem de identificação de gaps entre os dois grupos, sendo que o grupo de dançarinos apresentou média maior que o grupo de não dançarinos.O teste de reconhecimento de frases em escuta monótica (rel -10dB) mostrou resultados que variaram de 50% até 100% para o grupo de dançarinos e de 40% até 100% para o de não - dançarinos. A idade de início da dança (antes ou depois dos sete anos) não influenciou no desempenho dos testes estudados. Não houve correlação entre as variáveis dos achados obtidos nos testes estudados no grupo de dançarinos considerando o tempo de dança.CONCLUSÃO:a dança influenciou positivamente a habilidade auditiva de resolução temporal, pois o grupo de dançarinos apresentou desempenho melhor do que o grupo de não-dançarinos. A dança parece não ter influenciado a habilidade auditiva de figura-fundo

AusTraits, a curated plant trait database for the Australian flora

We introduce the AusTraits database - a compilation of values of plant traits for taxa in the Australian flora (hereafter AusTraits). AusTraits synthesises data on 448 traits across 28,640 taxa from field campaigns, published literature, taxonomic monographs, and individual taxon descriptions. Traits vary in scope from physiological measures of performance (e.g. photosynthetic gas exchange, water-use efficiency) to morphological attributes (e.g. leaf area, seed mass, plant height) which link to aspects of ecological variation. AusTraits contains curated and harmonised individual- and species-level measurements coupled to, where available, contextual information on site properties and experimental conditions. This article provides information on version 3.0.2 of AusTraits which contains data for 997,808 trait-by-taxon combinations. We envision AusTraits as an ongoing collaborative initiative for easily archiving and sharing trait data, which also provides a template for other national or regional initiatives globally to fill persistent gaps in trait knowledge