Biodiversity impacts of the 2019-2020 Australian megafires.

With large wildfires becoming more frequent, we must rapidly learn how megafires impact biodiversity to prioritize mitigation and improve policy. A key challenge is to discover how interactions among fire-regime components, drought and land tenure shape wildfire impacts. The globally unprecedented 2019-2020 Australian megafires burnt more than 10 million hectares, prompting major investment in biodiversity monitoring.

Smooth or Stepped? Laboratory Comparison of Enhanced Sonifications for Monitoring Patient Oxygen Saturation.

Background: The pulse oximeter (PO) provides anesthesiologists with continuous visual and auditory information about a patient's oxygen saturation (SpO). However, anesthesiologists' attention is often diverted from visual displays, and clinicians may inaccurately judge SpO values when relying on conventional PO auditory tones. We tested whether participants could identify SpO value (e.

Prey productivity and predictability drive different axes of life-history variation in carnivorous marsupials.

Variation in life-history strategies has usually been characterized as a single fast-slow continuum of life-history variation, in which mean lifespan increases with age at maturity as reproductive output at each breeding event declines. Analyses of plants and animals suggest that strategies of reproductive timing can vary on an independent axis, with iteroparous species at one extreme and semelparous species at the other. Insectivorous marsupials in the Family Dasyuridae have an unusually wide range of life-history strategies on both purported axes.

Time-lapse camera trapping as an alternative to pitfall trapping for estimating activity of leaf litter arthropods.

Pitfall trapping is the standard technique to estimate activity and relative abundance of leaf litter arthropods. Pitfall trapping is not ideal for long-term sampling because it is lethal, labor-intensive, and may have taxonomic sampling biases. We test an alternative sampling method that can be left in place for several months at a time: verticallyplaced time-lapse camera traps that have a short focal distance, enabling identification of small arthropods.

Phenotypes of the ovarian follicular basal lamina predict developmental competence of oocytes.

Background: The ovarian follicular basal lamina underlies the epithelial membrana granulosa and maintains the avascular intra-follicular compartment. Additional layers of basal lamina occur in a number of pathologies, including pili annulati and diabetes. We previously found additional layers of follicular basal lamina in a significant percentage of healthy bovine follicles.

Treatment choices, preferences and decision-making by patients with rheumatoid arthritis.

Objectives: To explore rheumatoid arthritis (RA) patient treatment preferences, their decision-making and the treatment choices they would make when faced with three anti-tumour necrosis factor-alpha (TNF-alpha) therapy options.

Methods: Two methods of enquiry were used: postal questionnaire and one-to-one interviews. RA patients not taking anti-TNF-alpha medications were asked to complete a questionnaire after reading a written scenario, which involved choosing and identifying factors that influenced their treatment choice from three anti-TNF-alpha therapies: etanercept (Enbrel), adalimumab (Humira) and infliximab (Remicade).

Oxygen-regulated expression of GLUT-1, GLUT-3, and VEGF in the mouse blastocyst.

The oxygen concentration used in the incubation atmosphere during embryo culture influences embryo development rates and embryo quality. In somatic cells, oxygen levels can influence the expression of a range of genes, including glucose transporters, glycolytic enzymes, and angiogenic growth factors. Many of these oxygen-regulated genes have important roles in embryonic development and metabolism.

Social skills, expectancies, and drinking in adolescents.

Research in the field of teenage drinking behavior has shown relationships between both social skills and drinking and alcohol expectancies and drinking. The present research investigated the comparative power of both of these sets of variables in predicting teenage drinking behavior, as well as looking at the contribution of more global cognitive structures. It was hypothesised that adolescents with high alcohol involvement would be discriminated from those with low involvement on the basis of social skills, cognitive structures, and alcohol expectancies.

An investigation of environmental levels of cadmium and lead in airborne matter and surface soils within the locality of a municipal waste incinerator.

The results of an investigation into the environmental impact of heavy metals in the airborne emissions from the Baldovie municipal waste incinerator, Scotland, are presented. A sampling network of 1-km grid squares covering a 7 x 9 km area was established over the incinerator plant and its surroundings. Surface soil core samples were collected from within each 1 km2 and analysed for cadmium and lead content.

A retrospective evaluation of 301 TMJ Proplast-Teflon implants.

A retrospective review of 301 meniscectomies with Proplast-Teflon implants was performed. Factors such as interincisal opening, occlusion, joint sounds, joint degeneration, and patient satisfaction were examined. The overall surgical success rate was 88.

The surgical management of the anophthalmic syndrome with the concomitant malunion of the zygomatico-maxillary complex: review of the literature and report of a case.

A case of anophthalmic syndrome complicated by a depressed malunited fracture of the zygomatico-maxillary complex is presented. The components of the syndrome and the approaches to treatment are also discussed. A Teflon sled, Proplast malar implant and ptosis correction acheived the desired results.