Beetles and spiders as indicators of recovery on Prince of Wales Island, Alaska

Thesis (M.S.) University of Alaska Fairbanks, 2014.Commercial logging is among the most important disturbance factors affecting forest biota. An indirect effect of commercial logging is minimal understory within young even-aged forests, which can decrease forest biodiversity. To improve management of young even-aged forest stands within the Tongass National Forest (TNF), foresters are testing alternative forestry practices under the Tongass-Wide Young-Growth Studies (TWYGS). However, little is known about how the new thinning treatments included in the TWYGS will affect forest biota and the recovery of young even-aged forest stands as they transition back into old growth forests. To investigate the effects of thinned secondary growth on forest biota in the TNF on Prince of Wales Island, Alaska, I compared spider and beetle biodiversity in thinned secondary growth to old growth forest stands, clearcuts, and un-thinned secondary growth. Pitfall traps, Berlese funnels, and Lindgren© funnel traps were used to collect spiders and beetles in each forest type to compare species richness, diversity, and assemblages, as well as to identify possible ecological indicators within each habitat. I hypothesized that thinned secondary growth would have a mix of old growth and clearcut species and be further in the process of recovery than un-thinned secondary growth. I found that (1) spider and beetle species richness and diversity from thinned secondary growth were not significantly different from other forest treatments; (2) spider assemblages in thinned secondary growth were significantly different from other forest treatments, whereas beetle assemblages were not different; (3) spider and beetle assemblage structure was mainly influenced by Leaf Area Index (LAI) and; (4) spider and beetle ecological indicators of clearcuts and old growth stands were found within thinned and un-thinned secondary growth stands. These findings support my hypothesis that thinned secondary growth would have both old growth and clearcut species; however, thinned secondary growth was not found to be further in the process of recovery than unthinned secondary growth at the time of this study. Although thinned secondary growth was not further in the process of recovery, it did not adversely affect the biodiversity of spiders and beetles. My results suggest that logging on Prince of Wales Island can change spider and beetle assemblages, but it doesn't negatively impact species richness or diversity. Thinned secondary growth spider and beetle biodiversity may be in the process of recovery to the biodiversity seen in old growth forests. Therefore, spider and beetle biodiversity may resemble old growth forest biodiversity as LAI values increase with closing canopy in thinned secondary growth forest stands. In addition, a checklist of arthropods collected on Prince of Wales Island, Alaska, as part of this work, combined with records from other projects and publications, are included followed by a description of a new species I discovered, Caurinus tlagu Sikes & Stockbridge 2013 (Mecoptera, Boreidae, Caurininae).Chapter 1. Introduction -- 1.1. Commercial Logging Effects on Arthropods -- 1.2. Coastal Temperate Rainforests -- 1.3. Old Growth vs. Young Even-Aged Stands -- 1.4. TNF Management -- 1.5. Ecological Indicators -- 1.6. Goal of Study -- Chapter 2. Methods -- 2.1. System Descriptions -- 2.1.1. Study Area -- 2.1.2. Tongass-Wide Young-Growth Studies Sites -- 2.2. Study Design -- 2.3. Field and Laboratory Methods -- 2.3.1. Collection of Beetles and Spiders -- 2.3.2. Vegetation -- 2.3.3. Laboratory -- 2.4. Statistics -- 2.4.1. Beetle and Spider Data -- 2.4.2. Species Richness and Diversity -- 2.4.3. Assemblages -- 2.4.4. Feeding Groups -- 2.4.5. Linking Arthropod Biotic Structure to Vegetation Variables -- Chapter 3. Results -- 3.1. Species Richness and Diversity -- 3.1.1. Spiders -- 3.1.2. Beetles -- 3.1.3. Spiders and Beetles -- 3.2. Taxonomic Assemblages -- 3.2.1. Spiders -- 3.2.2. Beetles -- 3.3. Feeding Groups -- 3.4. Vegetation Correlations -- 3.4.1. Spiders -- 3.4.2. Beetles -- 3.4.3. Spiders and Beetles -- Chapter 4. Discussion -- 4.1. Overview -- 4.2. Species Richness and Diversity -- 4.3. Assemblages -- 4.4. Ecological Indicators -- Chapter 5. Conclusion -- References -- Appendices

The Company Prosodic Deficits Keep Following Right Hemisphere Stroke: A Systematic Review

Objectives: The aim of this systematic review was to identify the presence and nature of relationships between specific forms of aprosodia (i.e., expressive and receptive emotional and linguistic prosodic deficits) and other cognitive-communication deficits and disorders in individuals with right hemisphere damage (RHD) due to stroke. Methods: One hundred and ninety articles from 1970 to February 2020 investigating receptive and expressive prosody in patients with relatively focal right hemisphere brain damage were identified via database searches. Results: Fourteen articles were identified that met inclusion criteria, passed quality reviews, and included sufficient information about prosody and potential co-occurring deficits. Twelve articles investigated receptive emotional aprosodia, and two articles investigated receptive linguistic aprosodia. Across the included studies, receptive emotional prosody was not systematically associated with hemispatial neglect, but did co-occur with deficits in emotional facial recognition, interpersonal interactions, or emotional semantics. Receptive linguistic processing was reported to co-occur with amusia and hemispatial neglect. No studies were found that investigated the co-occurrence of expressive emotional or linguistic prosodic deficits with other cognitive-communication impairments. Conclusions: This systematic review revealed significant gaps in the research literature regarding the co-occurrence of common right hemisphere disorders with prosodic deficits. More rigorous empirical inquiry is required to identify specific patient profiles based on clusters of deficits associated with right hemisphere stroke. Future research may determine whether the co-occurrences identified are due to shared cognitive-linguistic processes, and may inform the development of evidence-based assessment and treatment recommendations for individuals with cognitive-communication deficits subsequent to RHD

Detection of T wave peak for serial comparisons of JTp interval

Electrocardiogram (ECG) studies of drug-induced prolongation of the interval between the J point and the peak of the T wave (JTp interval) distinguished QT prolonging drugs that predominantly block the delayed potassium rectifier current from those affecting multiple cardiac repolarisation ion channel currents. Since the peak of the T wave depends on ECG lead, a “global” T peak requires to combine ECG leads into one-dimensional signal in which the T wave peak can be measured. This study aimed at finding the optimum one-dimensional representation of 12-lead ECGs for the most stable JTp measurements. Seven different one-dimensional representations were investigated including the vector magnitude of the orthogonal XYZ transformation, root mean square of all 12 ECG leads, and the vector magnitude of the 3 dominant orthogonal leads derived by singular value decomposition. All representations were applied to the representative waveforms of 660,657 separate 10-second 12-lead ECGs taken from repeated day-time Holter recordings in 523 healthy subjects aged 33.5±8.4 years (254 women). The JTp measurements were compared with the QT intervals and with the intervals between the J point and the median point of the area under the T wave one-dimensional representation (JT50 intervals) by means of calculating the residuals of the subject-specific curvilinear regression models relating the measured interval to the hysteresis-corrected RR interval of the underlying heart rate. The residuals of the regression models (equal to the intra-subject standard deviations of individually heart rate corrected intervals) expressed intra-subject stability of interval measurements. For both the JTp intervals and the JT50 intervals, the curvilinear regression residuals of measurements derived from the orthogonal XYZ representation were marginally but statistically significantly lower compared to the other representations. Using the XYZ representation, the residuals of the QT/RR, JTp/RR and JT50/RR regressions were 5.6±1.1 ms, 7.2±2.2 ms, and 4.9±1.2 ms, respectively (all statistically significantly different; p<0.0001). The study concludes that the orthogonal XYZ ECG representation might be proposed for future investigations of JTp and JT50 intervals. If the ability of classifying QT prolonging drugs is further confirmed for the JT50 interval, it might be appropriate to replace the JTp interval since it appears more stable

Exploring Young Women\u27s Construction of Social and Political Communicative Realities

The time-honored role that communication plays in the symbolic construction of young adults’ reality is always changing, perhaps no more so than in the age of ubiquitous global media. Yet research on how young people construct contemporary social media and political experiences is lacking. This panel, designed to extend research, reports the results of a qualitative examination of young women’s experiences with two salient aspects of contemporary life: the social, focusing on their parasocial involvement with social media influencers, but also the more politically consequential arena, with a look at the development of political attitudes as a function of political events and mediated politics

Enhanced diffusion and bound exciton interactions of high density implanted bismuth donors in silicon

This study reports the effect of an increasing ion dose on both the electrical activation yield and the characteristic properties of implanted bismuth donors in silicon. A strong dependence of implant fluence is observed on both the yield of bismuth donors and the measured impurity diffusion. This is such that higher ion concentrations result in both a decrease in activation and an enhancement in donor migration through interactions with mobile silicon lattice vacancies and interstitials. Furthermore, the effect of implant fluence on the properties of the Si:Bi donor bound exciton, D0X, is also explored using photoluminescence (PL) measurements. In the highest density sample, centers corresponding to the PL of bismuth D0Xs within both the high density region and the lower concentration diffused tail of the implanted donor profile are identifiable

A Universality in Oscillating Flows

We show that oscillating flow of a simple fluid in both the Newtonian and the non-Newtonian regime can be described by a universal function of a single dimensionless scaling parameter $\omega\tau$, where $\omega$ is the oscillation (angular) frequency and $\tau$ is the fluid relaxation-time; geometry and linear dimension bear no effect on the flow. Experimental energy dissipation data of mechanical resonators in a rarefied gas follow this universality closely in a broad linear dimension ($10^{-6}$ m$< L < 10^{-2}$ m) and frequency ($10^5$ Hz $< \omega/2\pi < 10^8$ Hz) range. Our results suggest a deep connection between flows of simple and complex fluids.Comment: To be published in Physical Review Letter

Environmental chemical exposures and disturbances of heme synthesis.

Porphyrias are relatively uncommon inherited or acquired disorders in which clinical manifestations are attributable to a disturbance of heme synthesis (porphyrin metabolism), usually in association with endogenous or exogenous stressors. Porphyrias are characterized by elevations of heme precursors in blood, urine, and/or stool. A number of chemicals, particularly metals and halogenated hydrocarbons, induce disturbances of heme synthesis in experimental animals. Certain chemicals have also been linked to porphyria or porphyrinuria in humans, generally involving chronic industrial exposures or environmental exposures much higher than those usually encountered. A noteworthy example is the Turkish epidemic of porphyria cutanea tarda produced by accidental ingestion of wheat treated with the fungicide hexachlorobenzene. Measurements of excreted heme precursors have the potential to serve as biological markers for harmful but preclinical effects of certain chemical exposures; this potential warrants further research and applied field studies. It has been hypothesized that several otherwise unexplained chemical-associated illnesses, such as multiple chemical sensitivity syndrome, may represent mild chronic cases of porphyria or other acquired abnormalities in heme synthesis. This review concludes that, although it is reasonable to consider such hypotheses, there is currently no convincing evidence that these illnesses are mediated by a disturbance of heme synthesis; it is premature or unfounded to base clinical management on such explanations unless laboratory data are diagnostic for porphyria. This review discusses the limitations of laboratory measures of heme synthesis, and diagnostic guidelines are provided to assist in evaluating the symptomatic individual suspected of having a porphyria

Challenges of Cardio-Kidney Composite Outcomes in Large-Scale Clinical Trials

Patients with chronic cardiovascular or metabolic diseases, including diabetes, hypertension, obesity, and heart failure, often have comorbid kidney disease. Indeed, long-term outcomes are worse in the setting of both cardiac and kidney disease compared with either disease in isolation. In addition, the clinical presentations of certain acute cardiovascular events (such as heart failure) and worsening kidney function are overlapping and may be challenging to distinguish. Recently, certain novel treatments have demonstrated beneficial effects on both cardiac and kidney outcomes. Sodium-glucose cotransporter-2 inhibitors have exhibited concordant risk reduction and clinically important benefits in chronic kidney disease with and without diabetes, diabetes and established cardiovascular disease or multiple atherosclerotic vascular disease risk factors, and heart failure with reduced ejection fraction with and without diabetes mellitus. In addition, primary trial results have revealed that sacubitril-valsartan therapy improves cardiovascular outcomes in patients with chronic heart failure with reduced ejection fraction and post-hoc analyses suggest favorable kidney effects. A concordant pattern of kidney benefit with sacubitril-valsartan has also been observed in chronic heart failure with preserved ejection fraction. Given the complex interplay between cardiac and kidney disease and the possibility that treatments may show concordant cardio-kidney benefits, there has been recent interest to acknowledge formally, define, and utilize composite cardio-kidney outcomes in future cardiovascular trials. This review describes potential challenges in utilization of such outcomes that should be considered and addressed prior to their incorporation into such trials