Flora of the Erie Islands: A Review of Floristic, Ecological and Historical Research and Conservation Activities, 1976 – 2010

Author Institution: Lake Erie Islands Chapter, Black Swamp Conservancy, Put-in-Bay, OHAuthor Institution: Biota of North American Program, Chapel Hill, NCAuthor Institution: Ontario Natural Heritage Information Centre, Ministry of Natural Resources, Ontario, CanadaThe purpose of this review is to survey the floristic, ecological and historical research about the Erie Islands and its flora since 1976 and to describe efforts to conserve Erie Island habitats. Island location records, surveys and multi-island inventories reveal that over 1,000 vascular plant taxa are known from the Erie Islands and new records continue to be found. Alvar habitats, rare globally, occur on the Erie Islands and are a focus of conservation efforts. Forest composition is primarily related to island elevation above lake level and moisture availability. Patterns of succession in abandoned vineyards and orchards are not the same due to differing agricultural practices prior to abandonment that favored different suites of invading species. Applying island biogeographic theory and methods to analyze the flora of the Erie Islands demonstrated that the indigenous flora on individual islands varies in relation to the size of an island in accordance with biogeographic theory whereas the non-indigenous flora on smaller islands is a constantly changing random subset of the non-indigenous flora of larger islands. Geological and palynological research about pre-settlement forests support the historic descriptions of these forests by early European settlers. Governmental and private efforts to preserve Erie Island habitats and the flora therein expanded significantly in the past 35 years. Efforts by the State of Ohio, the Province of Ontario, non-governmental organizations and island communities to acquire and conserve unique island habitats resulted in the preservation of important alvar, wetland and woodland habitat on large islands and the acquisition of Green Island, Middle Island and West Sister Island

Genetic analyses of undifferentiated small round cell sarcoma identifies a novel sarcoma subtype with a recurrent CRTC1-SS18 gene fusion

In recent years, undifferentiated small round cell sarcomas (USRCSs) have been divided into a variety of new, rare, sarcoma subtypes, including the group of Ewing-like sarcomas, which have the morphological appearance of Ewing sarcomas, but carry CIC-DUX4, BCOR-CCNB3 and other gene fusions different from the classic EWSR1-ETS gene fusion. Using high-throughput RNA-sequencing (RNA-seq) analyses, we identified a novel recurrent gene fusion, CRTC1-SS18, in two cases of USRCS that lacked any known translocation. RNA-seq results were confirmed by reverse transcription polymerase chain reaction, long-range polymerase chain reaction, and fluorescence in situ hybridization. In vitro, we showed that the cells expressing the gene fusion were morphologically distinct and had enhanced oncogenic potential as compared with control cells. Expression profile comparisons with tumours of other sarcoma subtypes demonstrated that both cases clustered close to EWSR1-CREB1-positive tumours. Moreover, these analyses indicated enhanced NTRK1 expression in CRTC1-SS18-positive tumours. We conclude that the novel gene fusion identified in this study adds a new subtype to the USRCSs with unique gene signatures, and may be of therapeutic relevance. Copyright © 2018 Pathological Society of Great Britain and Ireland. Published by John Wiley & Sons, Ltd

Visual and auditory cortices represent acoustic speech-related information during silent lip reading

Speech is an intrinsically multisensory signal and seeing the speaker’s lips forms a cornerstone of communication in acoustically impoverished environments. Still, it remains unclear how the brain exploits visual speech for comprehension and previous work debated whether lip signals are mainly processed along the auditory pathways or whether the visual system directly implements speech-related processes. To probe this question, we systematically characterized dynamic representations of multiple acoustic and visual speech-derived features in source localized MEG recordings that were obtained while participants listened to speech or viewed silent speech. Using a mutual-information framework we provide a comprehensive assessment of how well temporal and occipital cortices reflect the physically presented signals and speech-related features that were physically absent but may still be critical for comprehension. Our results demonstrate that both cortices are capable of a functionally specific form of multisensory restoration: during lip reading both reflect unheard acoustic features, with occipital regions emphasizing spectral information and temporal regions emphasizing the speech envelope. Importantly, the degree of envelope restoration was predictive of lip reading performance. These findings suggest that when seeing the speaker’s lips the brain engages both visual and auditory pathways to support comprehension by exploiting multisensory correspondences between lip movements and spectro-temporal acoustic cues

Künstlerische Forschung und Nachhaltigkeit. Ein künstlerisches Forschungsprojekt “4 questions about nature”

Das Thema “kulturelles Erbe und Nachhaltigkeit” des “World Summit of Arts Education in Funchal.Madeira.Portugal” im März 2023 gab den Impuls, ein künstlerisches Forschungsprojekt “4 questions about nature” vor Ort zu entwickeln, um Beziehungen zwischen persönlichen Orten, Natur und Nachhaltigkeit aufdecken zu können. Die ortsbezogene künstlerische Forschungsmethode des Displacements, des In Beziehung-Setzens von unterschiedlichen Positionen zu einem Thema wie Nachhaltigkeit, ermöglicht es, divergente Aspekte auch ungewöhnlich assoziativ miteinander zu vernetzen, um neue Perspektiven aufzeigen zu können. Mit Michel Foucault (1967) wird der Raum als ein Netzwerk verstanden, welches aus vielen Orten besteht. Orte stehen in Beziehung zueinander und erhalten neben ihrer physischen auch eine diskursive Bedeutung durch Geschichten, welche Menschen an Orten erleben und über Orte erzählen. Mit dem Forschungsprojekt wurden diese Geschichten erkundet, indem zehn Menschen interviewt wurden. Das Besondere an diesen Interviews war, dass die Antworten zu einer Art Ortskarte aus Schrift und Bild skizziert wurden. Derart sind zehn ortsbezogene Karten entstanden, welche nach ihrem Lesen zu einer “Landkarte der Beziehungen zwischen persönlichen Orten–Natur–Nachhaltigkeit” als künstlerisches Ergebnis der Erforschung transformiert wurden. Mit dem künstlerischen Forschungsprojekt wird die bislang vernachlässigte kulturelle Dimension von Nachhaltigkeit mit dem Motiv aufgezeigt, das Drei-Säulen-Modell (Ökologie, Ökonomie, Soziales) von Nachhaltigkeit um die kulturelle Dimension zu erweitern. Der folgende Text ist ein Bestandteil dieser künstlerischen Forschungspraxis des In Beziehung-Setzens verschiedener diskursiver Formen des Wissens aus unterschiedlichen Diskursen wie Alltag, Gesellschaft, Wissenschaft und Kunst.The theme “cultural heritage and sustainability” of the “World Summit of Arts Education in Funchal.Madeira.Portugal” in March 2023 provided the impetus to develop an artistic research project “4 questions about nature” on site in order to uncover relationships between personal places, nature and sustainability. The site-specific artistic research method of displacement, the placing of different positions in relation to a topic such as sustainability, enables divergent aspects to be linked together in an unusually associative way in order to reveal new perspectives. According to Michel Foucault (1967), space is understood as a network consisting of many places. Places are related to each other and, in addition to their physical significance, also take on a discursive meaning through stories that people experience in places and talk about places. The research project explored these stories by interviewing ten people. The special thing about these interviews was that the answers were sketched into a kind of place map made up of text and images. In this way, ten location-based maps were created which, after being read, were transformed into a "map of the relationships between personal places nature-sustainability" as an artistic result of the research. The artistic research project highlights the previously neglected cultural dimension of sustainability with the aim of expanding the three-pillar model (ecology, economy, social issues) of sustainability to include the cultural dimension. The following text is part of this artistic research practice of relating various discursive forms of knowledge from different discourses such as everyday life, society, science, and art.info:eu-repo/semantics/publishedVersio

Stellenwert der Laparoskopie-Simulation in der chirurgischen Lehre von Medizinstudierenden

Hintergrund: Die Laparoskopie spielt im modernen, chirurgischen Klinikalltag eine wichtige Rolle, welche sich zum jetzigen Zeitpunkt noch nicht in den Lehrplänen der Universitäten widerspiegelt. Laparoskopie-Simulatoren bieten die Möglichkeit, Studierenden laparoskopische Basiskenntnisse außerhalb des Operationssaals zu lehren. Zielsetzung: Ziel dieser Studie war es, Laparoskopie-Fertigkeiten der Studierenden und die darauf wirkenden Einflussfaktoren zu untersuchen. Außerdem sollten die Laparoskopie-Fertigkeiten mit anderen praktischen Fähigkeiten der Studierenden korreliert werden. Methodik: Im Rahmen der OSCE-Prüfungen wurde eine Laparoskopie-Station eingerichtet, an der n=306 (OSCE1 n=148, OSCE2 n=158) Medizinstudierende am Laparoskopie-Simulator eine definierte Laparoskopie-Übung (rope pass) durchführten. Die Durchführung wurde auf Video aufgezeichnet, standardisiert ausgewertet und mit Angaben aus einem demographischen Fragebogen, mit den Ergebnissen aus der OSCE-Prüfung und einem Fragebogen zur subjektiven Arbeitsbelastung (NASA-TLX-Score) korreliert. Ergebnisse: Laparoskopie-Vorerfahrung war der stärkste Einflussfaktor auf die Laparoskopie-Fertigkeit der Studierenden. Probanden, die die Übung schneller durchführten, zeigten eine reduzierte subjektive Arbeitsbelastung. Es gab keine Korrelation zwischen den Fähigkeiten, die zum Laparoskopieren benötigt werden und dem Abschneiden an den anderen OSCE-Stationen. Schlussfolgerung/Ausblick: Laparoskopie-Simulatoren können zur studentischen Lehre von laparoskopischen Basisfertigkeiten sowie deren Evaluation eingesetzt werden. Eine Integration von Laparoskopie-Simulation in die Lehrpläne der Universitäten bedarf weiterer Forschung zum optimalen Zeitpunkt, zum Umfang und zur konkreten Umsetzung

4-(3-Methoxy­phen­oxy)butyric acid

In the title compound, C11H14O4, an inter­mediate for the synthesis of a new kind of estrogen receptor modulator, all non-H atoms lie on a common plane (r.m.s. deviation = 0.0472 Å). All C—C bonds in the side chain are in a trans conformation, and the hydroxyl group is also trans to the methyl­ene chain. In the crystal structure, mol­ecules form centrosymmetric dimers showing a head-to-head arrangement which is stabilized by O—H⋯O hydrogen bonds. A weak C—H⋯O contact is also present

Temporal Variation in Terrestrial Invertebrate Consumption by Laughing Gulls in New York

Laughing gulls (Larus atricilla) are commonly found in many areas of North America and little is known about their diet, particularly in coastal-urban interfaces where gull-aircraft collisions can be a serious concern. The objective of this study was to describe and quantify the consumption of terrestrial invertebrates by laughing gulls at a coastal-urban interface in the northeastern United States. We examined the stomach contents of laughing gulls (n = 1053) collected during wildlife damage management operations at John F. Kennedy International Airport during the summers of 2003 and 2004. Terrestrial invertebrates consumed by laughing gulls represented 2 taxonomic phyla, 4 classes, 15 orders and 40 families. Beetles (Coleoptera) and ants (Hymenoptera) were the most common terrestrial invertebrates consumed by laughing gulls. We found evidence of temporal (i.e., monthly) variation in the frequency of occurrence of terrestrial insects in laughing gull diets. Laughing gull gender and age did not influence the frequency of occurrence of terrestrial insects in gull diets. Terrestrial environments (e.g., areas of turfgrass) appear to provide important foraging locations and food resources for laughing gulls in coastal-urban areas. This information is important for developing effective management approaches to reduce human-gull conflicts, such as gull-aircraft collisions at coastal airports

Effects of visual obstruction, prey resources, and satiety on bird use of simulated airport grasslands

Grasslands represent 39%–50% of U.S. airport properties, and a recent management framework recommended exploiting both antipredator behaviours and food resources in airport grasslands to curb use by birds considered hazardous to aviation safety. We evaluated framework predictions empirically by exposing unsated and sated brown-headed cowbirds (Molothrus ater) to visually obstructive (∼13-cm vegetation height; tall), higher-risk plots versus unobstructive (height; short) plots, and relative to prey resources. We predicted that 1) unsated birds (unfed since the previous day) would be present in greater numbers and forage more in short than tall vegetation plots 24 h post-mowing because of invertebrate flush resulting from mowing; 2) unsated birds would show increasing numbers and foraging in tall plots \u3e24 h post-mowing because of decreasing food abundance and availability in short plots; and 3) sated birds would be present in greater numbers and forage more in short vegetation overall, because vigilance needs would exceed that of food needs. We evaluated effects of visual obstruction (a metric correlated with both vegetation height and insect density) on behaviours within plots via generalized linear mixed models. Unsated cowbirds showed nearly equal numbers in tall and short plots (X [SE] individuals using tall plots: 9.5 [5.1]; short plots: 9.8 [5.1], P = 1.00, Wilcoxon Signed Ranks Test), and foraged nearly equally in both plots 24 h post-mowing (tall plots: 6.9 [4.7] individuals; short plots: 6.6 [4.1] individuals, P = 0.94). Prey availability was likely enhanced within short plots within 24 h of mowing, but possibly in adjacent tall plots as well. Over the course of the experiments (8–9 days) unsated cowbirds showed no difference in numbers between plots (tall plots: 8.2 [4.9] individuals; short plots: 11.4 [4.9] individuals, P = 0.13), but foraged more in short plots (tall plots: 4.4 [3.8] individuals; short plots: 7.8 [4.2] individuals, P = 0.01); visual obstruction was significantly and negatively correlated with foraging in tall plots. Sated cowbirds selected for short plots (use of tall plots: 5.9 [4.2] individuals; short plots: 11.7 [4.6] individuals, P \u3c 0.01; foraging in tall plots: 4.1 [3.3] individuals; short plots: 8.2 [4.6] individuals, P \u3c 0.01). Our findings support recommendations for use of visually obstructive vegetation in combination with proactive control of food resources to reduce use of airport grasslands by birds that select against visually obstructive cover