Better Together: Expanding Rural Partnerships to Support Families

Chronic shortages of health, social service, and mental health professionals in rural areas necessitate creative partnerships in support of families. Cooperative extension professionals in Family and Consumer Sciences and community health nurses are introduced as trusted professionals in rural communities who can bring critical skills to human services teams. Multidisciplinary prevention programs offer particularly good contexts for county extension educators and community health nurses to work in collaboration with social workers. The case of grandparents raising grandchildren illustrates the critical roles that can be filled by professionals in these two fields to extend the reach of family support programs

Pollination and Predation Limit Fruit Set in a Shrub, Bourreria succulents (Boraginaceae), after Hurricanes on San Salvador Island, Bahamas 1

Hurricanes have been assumed to reduce the reproduction of plants, either directly by leaf stripping and stress or indirectly by reducing pollinators. I examined the pollination and fruit set of a common shrub, Bourreria succulenta , after hurricanes on San Salvador island, Bahamas. Contrary to the assumption of resource limitation, B. succulenta showed unusually prolific flowering after Hurricane Lili stripped leaves from most of the plants in October 1996. I predicted that the abundant flowering would saturate pollinators and that fruit set would be pollination-limited. Fruit set was strongly pollination-limited by 71 percent. Butterflies are probably the major pollinators and were present at the site, but they rarely visited B. succulenta flowers even though flowers were brimming with nectar. Nectarivorous birds (Bananaquits and Bahama Wbodstars) visit B. succulenta flowers, but their populations were decimated by Hurricane Lili and they rarely visited flowers during this time. Fruit set was also severely predation-limited; a moth caterpillar (Gelechiidae) was extremely abundant and ate buds, flowers, and fruits, causing a further 68 percent reduction in fruit set. Together, pollination limitation and predation limitation reduced fruit set to only 7 percent or less. Predation was also intense in 1999 after Hurricane Floyd and resulted in 11 percent fruit set or less. Whether or not hurricanes were the cause of limited pollinators or abundant predators, the resulting low fruit set could have population effects because hurricanes can provide opportunities for the recruitment of new plants. These results emphasize that understanding plant–animal interactions may be necessary for predicting the effects of hurricanes on plant reproductive success, which may affect subsequent recruitment. Species on small islands like San Salvador (150 km 2 ) with relatively few species may be especially vulnerable to environmental disturbances such as hurricanes.Peer Reviewedhttp://deepblue.lib.umich.edu/bitstream/2027.42/75721/1/j.1744-7429.2001.tb00184.x.pd

Exploring Uncoupling Proteins and Antioxidant Mechanisms under Acute Cold Exposure in Brains of Fish

Exposure to fluctuating temperatures accelerates the mitochondrial respiration and increases the formation of mitochondrial reactive oxygen species (ROS) in ectothermic vertebrates including fish. To date, little is known on potential oxidative damage and on protective antioxidative defense mechanisms in the brain of fish under cold shock. In this study, the concentration of cellular protein carbonyls in brain was significantly increased by 38% within 1 h after cold exposure (from 28°C to 18°C) of zebrafish (Danio rerio). In addition, the specific activity of superoxide dismutase (SOD) and the mRNA level of catalase (CAT) were increased after cold exposure by about 60% (6 h) and by 60%–90% (1 and 24 h), respectively, while the specific glutathione content as well as the ratio of glutathione disulfide to glutathione remained constant and at a very low level. In addition, cold exposure increased the protein level of hypoxia-inducible factor (HIF) by about 50% and the mRNA level of the glucose transporter zglut3 in brain by 50%–100%. To test for an involvement of uncoupling proteins (UCPs) in the cold adaptation of zebrafish, five UCP members were annotated and identified (zucp1-5). With the exception of zucp1, the mRNA levels of the other four zucps were significantly increased after cold exposure. In addition, the mRNA levels of four of the fish homologs (zppar) of the peroxisome proliferator-activated receptor (PPAR) were increased after cold exposure. These data suggest that PPARs and UCPs are involved in the alterations observed in zebrafish brain after exposure to 18°C. The observed stimulation of the PPAR-UCP axis may help to prevent oxidative damage and to maintain metabolic balance and cellular homeostasis in the brains of ectothermic zebrafish upon cold exposure

Evidence for Female-Biased Dispersal in the Protandrous Hermaphroditic Asian Seabass, Lates calcarifer

Movement of individuals influences individual reproductive success, fitness, genetic diversity and relationships among individuals within populations and gene exchange among populations. Competition between males or females for mating opportunities and/or local resources predicts a female bias in taxa with monogamous mating systems and a male-biased dispersal in polygynous species. In birds and mammals, the patterns of dispersal between sexes are well explored, while dispersal patterns in protandrous hermaphroditic fish species have not been studied. We collected 549 adult individuals of Asian seabass (Lates calcarifer) from four locations in the South China Sea. To assess the difference in patterns of dispersal between sexes, we genotyped all individuals with 18 microsatellites. Significant genetic differentiation was detected among and within sampling locations. The parameters of population structure (FST), relatedness (r) and the mean assignment index (mAIC), in combination with data on tagging-recapture, supplied strong evidences for female-biased dispersal in the Asian seabass. This result contradicts our initial hypothesis of no sex difference in dispersal. We suggest that inbreeding avoidance of females, female mate choice under the condition of low mate competition among males, and male resource competition create a female-biased dispersal. The bigger body size of females may be a cause of the female-biased movement. Studies of dispersal using data from DNA markers and tagging-recapture in hermaphroditic fish species could enhance our understanding of patterns of dispersal in fish