Temporal variation in abundance and diversity of butterflies in Bornean rain forests: opposite impacts of logging recorded in different seasons

We used traps baited with fruit to examine how the temporal variation of butterflies within primary forest in Sabah, Borneo differed between species. In addition, we compared patterns of temporal variation in primary and selectively logged forest, and we tested the hypothesis that selective logging has different recorded impacts on species diversity of adults during the wet monsoon period and the drier remaining half of the year. Species of Satyrinae and Morphinae had significantly less-restricted flight periods than did species of Nymphalinae and Charaxinae, which were sampled mainly during the drier season. especially in primary forest. Species diversity of adults was significantly higher during the drier season in primary forest, but did not differ between seasons in logged forest. As a consequence, logging had opposite recorded impacts on diversity during wetter and drier seasons: primary forest had significantly higher diversity than logged forest during the drier season but significantly lower diversity than logged forest during the wetter monsoon season. The results of this study have important implications for the assessment of biodiversity in tropical rain forests, particularly in relation to habitat disturbance: short-term assessments that do not take account of seasonal variation in abundance are likely to produce misleading results, even in regions where the seasonal variation in rainfall is not that great

Nonlinear Measures for Characterizing Rough Surface Morphologies

We develop a new approach to characterizing the morphology of rough surfaces based on the analysis of the scaling properties of contour loops, i.e. loops of constant height. Given a height profile of the surface we perform independent measurements of the fractal dimension of contour loops, and the exponent that characterizes their size distribution. Scaling formulas are derived and used to relate these two geometrical exponents to the roughness exponent of a self-affine surface, thus providing independent measurements of this important quantity. Furthermore, we define the scale dependent curvature and demonstrate that by measuring its third moment departures of the height fluctuations from Gaussian behavior can be ascertained. These nonlinear measures are used to characterize the morphology of computer generated Gaussian rough surfaces, surfaces obtained in numerical simulations of a simple growth model, and surfaces observed by scanning-tunneling-microscopes. For experimentally realized surfaces the self-affine scaling is cut off by a correlation length, and we generalize our theory of contour loops to take this into account.Comment: 39 pages and 18 figures included; comments to [email protected]

The Factor Inhibiting HIF Asparaginyl Hydroxylase Regulates Oxidative Metabolism and Accelerates Metabolic Adaptation to Hypoxia.

Animals require an immediate response to oxygen availability to allow rapid shifts between oxidative and glycolytic metabolism. These metabolic shifts are highly regulated by the HIF transcription factor. The factor inhibiting HIF (FIH) is an asparaginyl hydroxylase that controls HIF transcriptional activity in an oxygen-dependent manner. We show here that FIH loss increases oxidative metabolism, while also increasing glycolytic capacity, and that this gives rise to an increase in oxygen consumption. We further show that the loss of FIH acts to accelerate the cellular metabolic response to hypoxia. Skeletal muscle expresses 50-fold higher levels of FIH than other tissues: we analyzed skeletal muscle FIH mutants and found a decreased metabolic efficiency, correlated with an increased oxidative rate and an increased rate of hypoxic response. We find that FIH, through its regulation of oxidation, acts in concert with the PHD/vHL pathway to accelerate HIF-mediated metabolic responses to hypoxia

Firefly distribution and abundance on mangrove vegetation assemblages in Sepetang estuary, Peninsular Malaysia

Pteroptyx fireflies are commonly reported to congregate in large numbers in mangroves. Not much is known about the relationships between firefly distribution and abundance with specific mangrove vegetation assemblages. We conducted a study to investigate the vegetation assemblages that structure the distribution and abundance of Pteroptyx tener in Peninsular Malaysia. The distribution and abundance of fireflies were assessed along an 8 km stretch of mangroves in Sepetang estuary using visual assessment. Statistical analysis was carried out to test the correlation between length of display section and percentage cover of P. tener colonies and the relationship between percentage cover of fireflies with different vegetation assemblages. Five distinct vegetation assemblages were identified comprising different combination of four mangrove species. It was found that shorter display sections had higher percentage cover of P. tener colonies. In addition, vegetation assemblage which consisting of mainly Sonneratia caseolaris and Nypa fruticans was the most preferred type. The results of this study point to the necessity to consider not only a single mangrove species but the entire vegetation assemblage for firefly conservation

Validation of loci at 2q14.2 and 15q21.3 as risk factors for testicular cancer.

Testicular germ cell tumor (TGCT), the most common cancer in men aged 18 to 45 years, has a strong heritable basis. Genome-wide association studies (GWAS) have proposed single nucleotide polymorphisms (SNPs) at a number of loci influencing TGCT risk. To further evaluate the association of recently proposed risk SNPs with TGCT at 2q14.2, 3q26.2, 7q36.3, 10q26.13 and 15q21.3, we analyzed genotype data on 3,206 cases and 7,422 controls. Our analysis provides independent replication of the associations for risk SNPs at 2q14.2 (rs2713206 at P = 3.03 × 10-2; P-meta = 3.92 × 10-8; nearest gene, TFCP2L1) and rs12912292 at 15q21.3 (P = 7.96 × 10-11; P-meta = 1.55 × 10-19; nearest gene PRTG). Case-only analyses did not reveal specific associations with TGCT histology. TFCP2L1 joins the growing list of genes located within TGCT risk loci with biologically plausible roles in developmental transcriptional regulation, further highlighting the importance of this phenomenon in TGCT oncogenesis

The utility of diagnostic tests in irritable bowel syndrome patients: a systematic review

The aim of this study was to determine the pretest probability of organic GI disease and the accuracy of diagnostic tests for organic GI disease in patients who meet symptom-based criteria for irritable bowel syndrome (IBS). METHODS : After a comprehensive literature search for studies examining the accuracy of diagnostic tests for organic GI disease among patients who meet symptom-based criteria for IBS, two independent observers qualitatively assessed the methodology of selected studies and extracted data. Data on the pretest probability of organic GI disease in this population and the accuracy of currently recommended diagnostic tests were converted to descriptive tables. RESULTS : Among patients meeting symptom-based criteria for IBS, the pretest probability of inflammatory bowel disease, colorectal cancer, or infectious diarrhea is less than 1%. Currently recommended diagnostic tests rarely identify organic GI disease in patients fulfilling symptom-based criteria for IBS. However, the pretest probability of celiac disease in patients meeting symptom-based criteria for IBS was 10 times higher than the prevalence of celiac disease in the general population. CONCLUSION : There is insufficient evidence to recommend the routine performance of a standardized battery of diagnostic tests in patients who meet symptom-based criteria for IBS. Based upon the increased pretest probability of celiac disease, routine performance of serological tests for celiac disease may be useful in this patient population, though additional study is needed in this area.Peer Reviewedhttp://deepblue.lib.umich.edu/bitstream/2027.42/72511/1/j.1572-0241.2002.07027.x.pd