The structural heterogeneity of an urbanised mangrove forest area in southeastern Brazil: Influence of environmental factors and anthropogenic stressors

Abstract The objective of this study is to evaluate the characteristics of the forest in an urbanised mangrove using vegetation structure and abiotic conditions to distinguish habitat heterogeneity/quality. A total of 16 points in Vitória Bay were selected in the fringe and basin forests. The variables evaluated were height and diameter of the individual trees, basal area, density, dominance, interstitial water, litter mass, grain size, organic matter and anthropogenic influences. The results indicated that the mangrove area, due to suffering intensely from various anthropogenic effects, forests with varying degrees of maturity. Areas more distant from direct human effects had a higher degree of development and environmental quality relative to points closer to urban pressures. Intermediate development levels were also observed, which indicated pulses of environmental change. Human interventions caused alterations in the development of the forest which increased the mortality rate and reduced the diameter and height of the trees. The environmental variables of salinity, organic matter, litter mass, grain size and anthropogenic stressors contributed to the structural patterns. Our data suggest that an analysis of the vegetation structure and the abiotic factors are useful indicators to evaluate habitat quality, thus providing a basis for future management

Clinical significance of Q-TC interval in children with sleep-disordered breathing

Aim: We investigated the usefulness of ECG (Q-Tc interval) in determining the optional treatment modality for pediatric Sleep disordered breathing (SDB). METHOD: Fifty-six children presenting with snoring and associated symptoms of obstructive SDB had adenotonsillectomy (A&T) as an optional treatment modality. All studied children had ECG as routine preoperative evaluation in the absence of polysomnographic facilities. At 12 weeks post-adenotonsillectomy ECG was repeated. A Q-Tc interval = or >0.43 was regarded as prolonged. Duration of study was 4 years (September 2002 to August 2006). RESULTS: There was disappearance of symptoms in 98.21 % of children by the second week following A&T. At 12 weeks post-A&T only 26 (46.42%) of patients were available for ECG re-evaluation. Mean pre-op versus post-op Q-Tc was 0.4482 and 0.3932 (t -5.484, df 25, p=0.000.) while mean heart rate was 106.15 and 105.19 (t -.179, df 25, p=0.859.). Adenotonsillectomy resulted in a reversal of prolonged Q-Tc to within the normal range. Five (19.23%) of the children with normal Q-Tc 0.39, 0.41, 0.40, 0.41 and 0.35 preoperatively assumed even lower values post operatively (0.37, 0.40, 0.39, 0.406 and 0.32 respectively). There was no statistical correlation between heart rates and Q-Tc intervals in the pre and post adenotonsillectomy patients. (Pearson correlation; -.058, P = 0.389 and -.266, p = .095 respectively). CONCLUSION: Prolonged Q-Tc interval can be a reasonable pointer to the severity of SDB and its correction is an objective assessment of adenotonsillectomy as an effective treatment option for childhood SDB. Global Journal of Mathematical Sciences Vol. 6 (1) 2007: pp. 41-4

Additional file 1 of A P2RY12 deficiency results in sex-specific cellular perturbations and sexually dimorphic behavioral anomalies

Additional file 1. Flow experimental design and fluorescent intensity of cortical P2RY12 expression. (A) Overview of the flow cytometry experimental design used to assess P2RY12 expression. (B) Gating strategy employed to differentiate P2RY12 expression levels between male and female mice. (C) Representative cortical images depicting P2RY12 expression in adult male and female mice. (D) Quantitative analysis of P2RY12 expression reveals no significant differences between sexes in the cortex, as determined by Student’s t-test. Data are presented as mean ± SEM for N = 4 mice per group. Scale bar: 10μm. FS-H (forward scatter height) and FS-A (forward scatter area) are included to detail the flow cytometry analysis parameters

Defect states of complexes involving a vacancy on the boron site in boronitrene

First principles calculations have been performed to investigate the ground state properties of freestanding monolayer hexagonal boronitrene (h-BN). We have considered monolayers that contain native point defects and their complexes, which form when the point defects bind with the boron vacancy on the nearest neighbour position. The changes in the electronic structure are analysed to show the extent of localization of the defect-induced mid-gap states. The variations in formation energies suggest that defective h-BN monolayers that contain carbon substitutional impurities are the most stable structures irrespective of the changes in growth conditions. The high energies of formation of the boron vacancy complexes suggest that they are less stable, and their creation by ion bombardment would require high energy ions compared to point defects. Using the relative positions of the derived mid-gap levels for the double vacancy complex, it is shown that the quasi donor-acceptor pair interpretation of optical transitions is consistent with stimulated transitions between electron–hole states in boronitrene.The National Institute for Theoretical Physicshttp://prb.aps.org/nf201