Objective: We aimed to examine the cognitive profile in adolescents with anorexia nervosa (AN) and its association with traits of autism spectrum disorder (ASD) and ADHD. In addition, resemblance in the cognitive profile between youths with AN and their parents was explored.
Methods: Adolescent females with acute AN (n = 20) and a healthy comparison group (n = 28) completed neuropsychological tasks of set-shifting (Trail making test, Wisconsin Card Sorting Test) and central coherence (Rey Complex Figures Task, Group Embedded Figures Test, object assembly subtest).
Objective: Previous research has shown anorexia nervosa (AN) to be associated with a specific neuropsychological profile, including set-shifting and central coherence deviances. A similar profile has been shown in adult unaffected relatives. The aim of this study was to examine whether poor set-shifting and central coherence abilities could be detected in children at high risk of developing AN.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFBackground: Gender dysphoria (GD) refers to psychological distress associated with the incongruence between one's sex and one's gender. In response to GD, birth-registered females may choose to undergo mastectomy. In this systematic review, we summarize and assess the certainty of the evidence on the effects of mastectomy.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFInfectious diseases continue to pose a significant threat to the health of humans globally. While the spread of pathogens transcends geographical boundaries, the management of infectious diseases typically occurs within distinct spatial units, determined by geopolitical boundaries. The allocation of management resources within and across regions (the "governance structure") can affect epidemiological outcomes considerably, and policy-makers are often confronted with a choice between applying control measures uniformly or differentially across regions.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFThe current study assessed the reliability and validity of three measures of dissociation. Three hundred students completed the Dissociative Experiences Scale Revised (DESR), the Dissociative Experiences Scale-II (DES-II), and the Dissociative Experiences Scale Comparison (DESC); an additional 252 community adults evaluated clarity of instructions. Findings revealed that the three dissociation measures showed acceptable test-retest reliability and Cronbach's alphas.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFMethods Ecol Evol
November 2021
The geodiv r package calculates gradient surface metrics from imagery and other gridded datasets to provide continuous measures of landscape heterogeneity for landscape pattern analysis. geodiv is the first open-source, command line toolbox for calculating many gradient surface metrics and easily integrates parallel computing for applications with large images or rasters (e.g.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFRemote sensing has transformed the monitoring of life on Earth by revealing spatial and temporal dimensions of biological diversity through structural, compositional and functional measurements of ecosystems. Yet, many aspects of Earth's biodiversity are not directly quantified by reflected or emitted photons. Inclusive integration of remote sensing with field-based ecology and evolution is needed to fully understand and preserve Earth's biodiversity.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFInitial efforts to mitigate transmission of SARS-CoV-2 relied on intensive social distancing measures such as school and workplace closures, shelter-in-place orders and prohibitions on the gathering of people. Other non-pharmaceutical interventions for suppressing transmission include active case finding, contact tracing, quarantine, immunity or health certification, and a wide range of personal protective measures. Here we investigate the potential effectiveness of these alternative approaches to suppression.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFLand surface models (LSMs) predict how terrestrial fluxes of carbon, water, and energy change with abiotic drivers to inform the other components of Earth system models. Here, we focus on a single human-dominated watershed in southwestern Michigan, USA. We compare multiple processes in a commonly used LSM, the Community Land Model (CLM), to observational data at the single grid cell scale.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFPlant functional diversity is strongly connected to photosynthetic carbon assimilation in terrestrial ecosystems. However, many of the plant functional traits that regulate photosynthetic capacity, including foliar nitrogen concentration and leaf mass per area, vary significantly between and within plant functional types and vertically through forest canopies, resulting in considerable landscape-scale heterogeneity in three dimensions. Hyperspectral imagery has been used extensively to quantify functional traits across a range of ecosystems but is generally limited to providing information for top of canopy leaves only.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFInitial efforts to mitigate transmission of SARS-CoV-2 relied on intensive social distancing measures such as school and workplace closures, shelter-in-place orders, and prohibitions on the gathering of people. Other non-pharmaceutical interventions for suppressing transmission include active case finding, contact tracing, quarantine, immunity or health certification, and a wide range of personal protective measures. Here we investigate the potential effectiveness of these alternative approaches to suppression.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFAvian malaria is a mosquito-borne parasitic disease of birds caused by protists of the genera Plasmodium, most notably Plasmodium relictum. This disease has been identified as a primary cause of the drastic decline and extinctions of birds, in particular Hawaiian honeycreepers (Drepanidinae), where rates of mortality may exceed 90%. We formulate an epizootiological model of the transmission dynamics of avian malaria between populations of bird hosts and mosquito vectors using a system of compartmental ordinary differential equations.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFResearch linking green space and mental health abounds. It also appears that oceanic blue spaces may be salutogenic, benefitting mental health through their expansive viewscapes, and possibly auditory and olfactory stimuli. Yet, it is unknown whether the same is true for freshwater bodies.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFRivers in the arid Western United States face increasing influences from anthropogenic contaminants due to population growth, urbanization, and drought. To better understand and more effectively track the impacts of these contaminants, biologically-based monitoring tools are increasingly being used to complement routine chemical monitoring. This study was initiated to assess the ability of both targeted and untargeted biologically-based monitoring tools to discriminate impacts of two adjacent wastewater treatment plants (WWTPs) on Colorado's South Platte River.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFThe widespread occurrence of natural and synthetic organic chemicals in surface waters can cause ecological risks and human health concerns. This study measured a suite of contaminants of emerging concern (CECs) in water samples collected by the U.S.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFSpecies-area relationships have long been used to assess patterns of species diversity across scales. Here, this concept is extended to spectral diversity using hyperspectral data collected by NASA's Airborne Visible/Infrared Imaging Spectrometer (AVIRIS) over western Michigan. This mixture of mesic forest and agricultural lands offers two end-points on the local-scale diversity continuum; one set of well-mixed forest patches and one set of highly homogeneous agricultural patches.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFTropical forests store large amounts of carbon in tree biomass, although the environmental controls on forest carbon stocks remain poorly resolved. Emerging airborne remote sensing techniques offer a powerful approach to understand how aboveground carbon density (ACD) varies across tropical landscapes. In this study, we evaluate the accuracy of the Carnegie Airborne Observatory (CAO) Light Detection and Ranging (LiDAR) system to detect top-of-canopy tree height (TCH) and ACD across the Osa Peninsula, Costa Rica.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFProc Natl Acad Sci U S A
April 2013
Understanding how and why plant communities vary across space has long been a goal of ecology, yet parsing the relative importance of different influences has remained a challenge. Species-specific models are not generalizable, whereas broad plant functional type models lack important detail. Here we consider plant trait patterns at the local scale and ask whether plant chemical traits are more closely linked to environmental gradients or to changes in species composition.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFAboveground biomass (AGB) reflects multiple and often undetermined ecological and land-use processes, yet detailed landscape-level studies of AGB are uncommon due to the difficulty in making consistent measurements at ecologically relevant scales. Working in a protected mediterranean-type landscape (Jasper Ridge Biological Preserve, California, USA), we combined field measurements with remotely sensed data from the Carnegie Airborne Observatory's light detection and ranging (lidar) system to create a detailed AGB map. We then developed a predictive model using a maximum of 56 explanatory variables derived from geologic and historic-ownership maps, a digital elevation model, and geographic coordinates to evaluate possible controls over currently observed AGB patterns.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFBackground: Anchoring the mesh in laparoscopic totally extraperitoneal groin hernia repair (TEP) with human fibrin glue has theoretical advantages. However, these have been supported and reported previously only in animal studies. Before the initiation of large patient trials, the authors wanted to confirm the feasibility, assess the costs, and rule out any flagrant short- and long-term adverse effects of fibrin glue usage in a small series of patients.
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