Patients' perceptions of the mechanisms underlying alcohol use problems after bariatric surgery: A qualitative systematic review.

peer reviewedAlcohol-related problems increase after bariatric surgery. The objective of this review was to synthesize findings of qualitative studies on patients' perceptions of the mechanisms leading to problematic alcohol consumption after bariatric surgery. This review followed the Joanna Briggs Institute methodology for systematic review of qualitative evidence. A comprehensive search strategy was performed in MEDLINE, PsycInfo, Scopus and Google Scholar. Study selection, data extraction and critical appraisal of included studies were undertaken by two independent reviewers. Confidence in review findings was assessed using the ConQual approach. Four studies were included in this review and led to the development of four synthesized results: (1) persistence or reappearance of psychological problems after bariatric surgery; (2) using alcohol as a coping strategy, sometimes as a replacement for food; (3) changes in the physiological response to alcohol; and (4) importance of increased information about alcohol-related risks and long-term counselling. Confidence in the synthesized results ranged from moderate to low. The results indicated postoperative problematic alcohol consumption is a complex issue, involving psychological and physiological mechanisms. Several recommendations are formulated based on the results obtained. More qualitative and quantitative studies are needed to better understand this phenomenon given the few existing qualitative studies on this topic and some divergent results found between qualitative and previous quantitative research

Movement and habitat use of headstarted Blanding’s turtles in Michigan

Captive breeding or headstarting is a management option to increase population numbers in threatened and endangered animals. The success of these programs depends on increasing population numbers while maintaining fitness within populations that contain some captiveâ reared individuals. As part of an ongoing conservation project with Shiawassee National Wildlife Refuge (SNWR) in Saginaw, Michigan, USA, the Detroit Zoological Society (DZS) headstarted Blanding’s turtles (Emydoidea blandingii) to 18 months of age. To determine survival, movements, and habitat use of these headstarted Blanding’s turtles, we externally attached radioâ transmitters to 24 turtles and released them at 4 sites in release groups of 6 along a transect in a wetland within SNWR during June 2014. We located turtles weekly during the active season (Mayâ Sep) and every 2 weeks during the inactive season (Octâ Apr) for 18 months, starting immediately after release and ending November 2015. We calculated straightâ line distances between release sites and home range centers over the study period. We examined habitat use of the turtles in relation to habitat availability. To predict movement of headstarted Blanding’s turtles away from release sites, we used geographically weighted regression (GWR) with measured habitat factors and release sites as independent variables. There were differences in home range sizes across release groups but not between years. Headstarted juvenile Blanding’s turtles in this study have home range sizes similar to those measured in other studies for wildâ hatched juveniles but smaller home ranges than those measured for wildâ hatched adults. Our study showed that headstarted Blanding’s turtles used habitats with muskrat (Ondatra zibethica) dens and cattails (Typha spp.) more than proportionally available, and used open water, willows (Salix spp.), and lowland forest less than proportionally available. The GWR model was able to predict habitat characteristics (water depth and temperature, duckweed [Lemna minor], cattails, muskrat dens and fields, buttonbush [Cephalanthus occidentalis]) that influenced the movement of turtles away from the release sites. The habitat coefficient’s influence on movement varied in relation to the current location of the turtle and as habitat characteristics increased or decreased. Turtle distance from release sites decreased as water depth, water temperature, and duckweed increased, and increased as cattails, muskrat dens and fields, and buttonbush increased. Habitat in the small spatial extent at release sites may affect movement of headstarted Blanding’s turtles. Furthermore, this study uses novel methodologies for assessing headstart programs that can aid future conservation and management efforts by providing information on habitat use and movement patterns of headstarted Blanding’s turtles after release. © 2018 The Wildlife Society.We aimed to determine survival, movements, habitat use in relation to availability, and impact of release sites on 18â monthâ old headstarted Blanding’s turtles by releasing them at 4 different sites in Shiawassee National Wildlife Refuge. We showed high survival of the headstarted Blanding’s turtles, reported differences in home range size across release groups, and used geographically weighted regression to explain how turtle distance from release sites varies by measured habitat characteristics; we concluded that habitat characteristics in the small spatial extent at release sites affect movement and space use of headstarted Blanding’s turtles.Peer Reviewedhttps://deepblue.lib.umich.edu/bitstream/2027.42/145553/1/jwmg21530.pdfhttps://deepblue.lib.umich.edu/bitstream/2027.42/145553/2/jwmg21530_am.pd

Contrast in Edge Vegetation Structure Modifies the Predation Risk of Natural Ground Nests in an Agricultural Landscape

Nest predation risk generally increases nearer forest-field edges in agricultural landscapes. However, few studies test whether differences in edge contrast (i.e. hard versus soft edges based on vegetation structure and height) affect edge-related predation patterns and if such patterns are related to changes in nest conspicuousness between incubation and nestling feeding. Using data on 923 nesting attempts we analyse factors influencing nest predation risk at different edge types in an agricultural landscape of a ground-cavity breeding bird species, the Northern Wheatear (Oenanthe oenanthe). As for many other bird species, nest predation is a major determinant of reproductive success in this migratory passerine. Nest predation risk was higher closer to woodland and crop field edges, but only when these were hard edges in terms of ground vegetation structure (clear contrast between tall vs short ground vegetation). No such edge effect was observed at soft edges where adjacent habitats had tall ground vegetation (crop, ungrazed grassland). This edge effect on nest predation risk was evident during the incubation stage but not the nestling feeding stage. Since wheatear nests are depredated by ground-living animals our results demonstrate: (i) that edge effects depend on edge contrast, (ii) that edge-related nest predation patterns vary across the breeding period probably resulting from changes in parental activity at the nest between the incubation and nestling feeding stage. Edge effects should be put in the context of the nest predator community as illustrated by the elevated nest predation risk at hard but not soft habitat edges when an edge is defined in terms of ground vegetation. These results thus can potentially explain previously observed variations in edge-related nest predation risk

'Egal wer/was'-Gefüge im DaF-Unterricht : eine Unterrichtsreihe anhand der pädagogischen Konstruktionsgrammatik

In this article, I present a series of five lessons designed to help advanced learners of German improve their argumentation skills using so-called ‘concessive conditionals’(CCs). CCs are complex sentences in which the subordinate clause strengthens the argument of the main clause by presenting potential conditions on it as irrelevant. My contribution seeks to improve on existing didactic representations of German CCs by taking into account recent linguistic research on their discourse-functional properties (Leuschner 2006; Vander Haegen 2019). To this end, I make use of Pedagogical Construction Grammar (PCxG; Herbst 2016), which conceives of grammar instruction as the teaching of constructions, i.e. entrenched form-function pairs. The series presented here is the first fully fledged implementation of PCxG for the instruction of German. It goes beyond previous applications of PCxG to the instruction of English by systematically addressing the discourse-functional properties of the constructions to be taught in both speaking and writing. The final section of the article provides concrete lesson plans; the corresponding didactic materials can be found on the website of the journal