Comparison of polysomnographic characteristics between low birthweight and normal birthweight children in the Northern Territory of Australia: A case-control study.

Objectives: To describe the sleep architecture of pediatric patients according to whether they were born low birthweight (birthweight <2500 g, LBW) or normal birthweight (birthweight >2500 g).

Design: Case control study.

Setting: Pediatric sleep laboratory in the Northern Territory of Australia during a 5-year study period (2015- 2020).

Sleep quality and obstructive sleep apnoea in Indigenous and non-Indigenous Australian children.

Background: Literature pertaining to the prevalence of obstructive sleep apnoea (OSA) and sleep quality among Indigenous Australian children is sparse. This study assessed various sleep related parameters and outcomes between Indigenous and non-Indigenous Australian children.

Methods: Children referred to the sleep health service in the Northern Territory of Australia for a clinically suspected sleep disorder between 2015 and 2021 were included in this study.

Strong floristic distinctiveness across Neotropical successional forests.

Forests that regrow naturally on abandoned fields are important for restoring biodiversity and ecosystem services, but can they also preserve the distinct regional tree floras? Using the floristic composition of 1215 early successional forests (≤20 years) in 75 human-modified landscapes across the Neotropic realm, we identified 14 distinct floristic groups, with a between-group dissimilarity of 0.97. Floristic groups were associated with location, bioregions, soil pH, temperature seasonality, and water availability.

Multidimensional tropical forest recovery.

Tropical forests disappear rapidly because of deforestation, yet they have the potential to regrow naturally on abandoned lands. We analyze how 12 forest attributes recover during secondary succession and how their recovery is interrelated using 77 sites across the tropics. Tropical forests are highly resilient to low-intensity land use; after 20 years, forest attributes attain 78% (33 to 100%) of their old-growth values.

Propranolol's effects on the sleep of infants with hemangiomas: A prospective pilot study.

Objective: To assess propranolol's impact on sleep when used in infants and toddlers with infantile hemangioma (80% under 6 months old).

Methods: Parents and caregivers of infants and toddlers with infantile hemangioma presenting to a tertiary pediatric hospital's dermatology clinic and assessed by their dermatologist as requiring propranolol treatment were invited to participate. All participants completed an extended version of the Brief Infant Sleep Questionnaire (BISQ) prior to propranolol treatment initiation, which acted as the control, and 5 weeks after treatment commencement.

Generation of a selectable marker free, highly expressed single copy locus as landing pad for transgene stacking in sugarcane.

A selectable marker free, highly expressed single copy locus flanked by insulators was created as landing pad for transgene stacking in sugarcane. These events displayed superior transgene expression compared to single-copy transgenic lines lacking insulators. Excision of the selectable marker gene from transgenic sugarcane lines was supported by FLPe/FRT site-specific recombination.

Biodiversity recovery of Neotropical secondary forests.

Old-growth tropical forests harbor an immense diversity of tree species but are rapidly being cleared, while secondary forests that regrow on abandoned agricultural lands increase in extent. We assess how tree species richness and composition recover during secondary succession across gradients in environmental conditions and anthropogenic disturbance in an unprecedented multisite analysis for the Neotropics. Secondary forests recover remarkably fast in species richness but slowly in species composition.

An Amazonian rainforest and its fragments as a laboratory of global change.

We synthesize findings from one of the world's largest and longest-running experimental investigations, the Biological Dynamics of Forest Fragments Project (BDFFP). Spanning an area of ∼1000 km in central Amazonia, the BDFFP was initially designed to evaluate the effects of fragment area on rainforest biodiversity and ecological processes. However, over its 38-year history to date the project has far transcended its original mission, and now focuses more broadly on landscape dynamics, forest regeneration, regional- and global-change phenomena, and their potential interactions and implications for Amazonian forest conservation.

Carbon sequestration potential of second-growth forest regeneration in the Latin American tropics.

Regrowth of tropical secondary forests following complete or nearly complete removal of forest vegetation actively stores carbon in aboveground biomass, partially counterbalancing carbon emissions from deforestation, forest degradation, burning of fossil fuels, and other anthropogenic sources. We estimate the age and spatial extent of lowland second-growth forests in the Latin American tropics and model their potential aboveground carbon accumulation over four decades. Our model shows that, in 2008, second-growth forests (1 to 60 years old) covered 2.

Biomass resilience of Neotropical secondary forests.

Land-use change occurs nowhere more rapidly than in the tropics, where the imbalance between deforestation and forest regrowth has large consequences for the global carbon cycle. However, considerable uncertainty remains about the rate of biomass recovery in secondary forests, and how these rates are influenced by climate, landscape, and prior land use. Here we analyse aboveground biomass recovery during secondary succession in 45 forest sites and about 1,500 forest plots covering the major environmental gradients in the Neotropics.

Nocturnal respiratory failure in a child with congenital myopathy - management using average volume-assured pressure support (AVAPS).

This is a case report of the effective use of bi-level positive airway pressure support (BPAP) using the volume-assured pressure support feature in a pediatric patient with a congenital myopathy and significant nocturnal hypoventilation. Our patient was started on nocturnal nasal mask BPAP but required high pressures to improve her oxygen saturations and CO2 baseline. She was then trialed on a BPAP machine with the volume-assured pressure support feature on.

Successional dynamics in Neotropical forests are as uncertain as they are predictable.

Although forest succession has traditionally been approached as a deterministic process, successional trajectories of vegetation change vary widely, even among nearby stands with similar environmental conditions and disturbance histories. Here, we provide the first attempt, to our knowledge, to quantify predictability and uncertainty during succession based on the most extensive long-term datasets ever assembled for Neotropical forests. We develop a novel approach that integrates deterministic and stochastic components into different candidate models describing the dynamical interactions among three widely used and interrelated forest attributes--stem density, basal area, and species density.

Growing pains and periodic limb movements of sleep in children.

Aim: To investigate whether there was any association between growing pains (GP) and periodic limb movements of sleep (PLMS) in children referred for polysomnography (PSG), in light of the possible shared genetic determinants between GP and restless legs syndrome.

Methods: Records of all 903 children who underwent PSG at a paediatric hospital between January 2009 and May 2010 were retrospectively reviewed. Children aged 3-16 years, without neuromuscular or neurological/developmental disorders who were seen by a single sleep physician were included in the analysis.

Radial wood allocation in Schizolobium parahyba.

Premise Of The Study: Pioneer species of tropical trees allocate wood specific gravity (SG) differently across the radius. Some species exhibit relatively uniform, low SG wood, whereas many others exhibit linear increases in SG across the radius. Here, we measured changes in SG across the radius of Schizolobium parahyba (Fabaceae-Caesalpinioideae), a wide-ranging, neotropical pioneer, used extensively in land reclamation and forest restoration in Brazil.

Constituents of Calamintha ashei: effects on Florida sandhill species.

Chemical constituents of the perennial shrub Calamintha ashei have been characterized as part of our investigation of the allelopathic properties of this plant. Besides the known monoterpenes, (+)-evodone, (-)-calaminthone and (+)-desacetylcalaminthone, fresh aerial parts of C. ashei provided six new menthofurans, two new germacrane sesquiterpenes, and the six, known flavonoids: 5-desmethoxynobiletin, 5-hydroxy-6,7,8,4'-tetramethoxyflavone, 5,4'-dihydroxy-6,7,8,3'-tetramethoxyflavone, thymonin, 5,4'-dihydroxy-6,7-dimethoxyflavone and 6-hydroxy-7,3'-dimethoxyluteolin.

Dung beetle communities: a neotropical-north temperate comparison.

Dung beetle communities have been compared across north temperate latitudes. Tropical dung beetle communities appear to be more diverse based on studies using different methodologies. Here, we present results from a standardized sampling protocol used to compare dung beetle communities across five neotropical forests in Brazil and Ecuador and two warm, north temperate forests in Mississippi and Louisiana.

Measuring wood specific gravity...Correctly.

The specific gravity (SG) of wood is a measure of the amount of structural material a tree species allocates to support and strength. In recent years, wood specific gravity, traditionally a forester's variable, has become the domain of ecologists exploring the universality of plant functional traits and conservationists estimating global carbon stocks. While these developments have expanded our knowledge and sample of woods, the methodologies employed to measure wood SG have not received as much scrutiny as SG's ecological importance.

Parental symptom report and periodic limb movements of sleep in children.

Study Objectives: To examine the prevalence of raised periodic limb movements of sleep (PLMS) index in children referred for polysomnography (PSG) and whether parental report of symptoms correlates with objective measurement during PSG.

Methods: Records of children undergoing PSG from January 2006 to July 2006 were retrospectively reviewed. At their initial sleep clinic visit, parents had been asked whether their child was restless or moved their legs excessively during sleep.

The distributions of howling monkeys (Alouatta pigra and A. palliata) in southeastern Mexico and Central America.

We compared the distributions of Alouatta palliata and A. pigra in southeastern Mexico and Central America with geographic and ecological features to infer current barriers and ecological preferences. Distribution data were obtained from museum specimen localities, study sites, historic records and field surveys and integrated into digital elevation and ecosystem maps using GIS.

Incidence of sleep disorders in children with presumed normal variant short stature.

Objective: To determine whether unrecognized obstructive sleep apnoea (OSA) is present in some children diagnosed with normal variant short stature.

Methods: One hundred and fifty-eight children aged less than 15 years and previously diagnosed with familial short stature or constitutional delay of growth were identified from the endocrine clinic database. A validated, standardized questionnaire designed to screen for symptoms of sleep disorders in children was mailed to the parents of eligible children.

Factors affecting the distribution of benthic macrofauna in estuaries contaminated by urban runoff.

Contaminants derived from urban runoff have been shown to accumulate in estuarine sediments, reaching concentrations potentially capable of causing biological effects. Demonstration of effects, however, is difficult due to strong natural environmental gradients and the effects of past or present point-sources of contamination. We used multivariate methods to test two hypotheses relating to the effects of urban-derived contaminants on estuarine benthic communities.

Allelopathic potential of menthofuran monoterpenes fromCalamintha ashei.

A reversed-phase HPLC analysis was used to separate and quantify five menthofuran monoterpenes inCalamintha ashei leaf soaks and washes. (+)-Evodone and desacetylcalaminthone were the major constituents of both soaks and washes. Concentrations of (+)-evodone and desacetylcalaminthone were as high as 0.

Bioassays for allelopathy: Measuring treatment responses with independent controls.

In bioassays for allelopathy, where responses to treatments are determined in conjunction with responses to independent controls, statistical comparisons among treatments require an index which measures each treatment response (T) in relation to its control response (C). The most commonly used index, the treatment-control ratio (T/C), exhibits two analytical problems. First, means ofT/C values are distorted upward when any of the individual values is greater than one, i.