Population genomics reveals strong impacts of genetic drift without purging and guides conservation of bull and giant kelp.

Kelp forests are declining in many parts of the northeast Pacific. In small populations, genetic drift can reduce adaptive variation and increase fixation of recessive deleterious alleles, but natural selection may purge harmful variants. To understand evolutionary dynamics and inform restoration strategies, we investigated genetic structure and the outcomes of genetic drift and purging by sequencing the genomes of 429 bull kelp (Nereocystis luetkeana) and 211 giant kelp (Macrocystis sp.

Effects of temperature and nutrients on microscopic stages of the bull kelp (Nereocystis luetkeana, Phaeophyceae).

Warming ocean temperatures have been linked to kelp forest declines worldwide, and elevated temperatures can act synergistically with other local stressors to exacerbate kelp loss. The bull kelp Nereocystis luetkeana is the primary canopy-forming kelp species in the Salish Sea, where it is declining in areas with elevated summer water temperatures and low nutrient concentrations. To determine the interactive effects of these two stressors on microscopic stages of N.

Emotion recognition depends on subjective emotional experience and not on facial expressivity: evidence from traumatic brain injury.

Background: Recognizing how others feel is paramount to social situations and commonly disrupted following traumatic brain injury (TBI). This study tested whether problems identifying emotion in others following TBI is related to problems expressing or feeling emotion in oneself, as theoretical models place emotion perception in the context of accurate encoding and/or shared emotional experiences.

Methods: Individuals with TBI (n = 27; 20 males) and controls (n = 28; 16 males) were tested on an emotion recognition task, and asked to adopt facial expressions and relay emotional memories according to the presentation of stimuli (word and photos).

Overview of Niphargidae (Crustacea: Amphipoda) in Belgium: distribution, taxonomic notes and conservation issues.

Niphargidae is among the largest families of freshwater subterranean amphipods in the world, and one of the most important macroinvertebrate groups in European groundwaters. The knowledge of their species diversity on a country level is often incomplete due to demanding taxonomy. In this paper we critically evaluated species diversity of the family in Belgium, using published records and samples from our own field work.

Quantifying the effectiveness of shoreline armoring removal on coastal biota of Puget Sound.

Shoreline armoring is prevalent around the world with unprecedented human population growth and urbanization along coastal habitats. Armoring structures, such as riprap and bulkheads, that are built to prevent beach erosion and protect coastal infrastructure from storms and flooding can cause deterioration of habitats for migratory fish species, disrupt aquatic-terrestrial connectivity, and reduce overall coastal ecosystem health. Relative to armored shorelines, natural shorelines retain valuable habitats for macroinvertebrates and other coastal biota.

[How I treat... chronic insomnia by cognitive and behavioral therapy].

Today, insomnia is predominantly treated by pharmacotherapy. Yet, cognitive-behavioral therapy has better long-term outcomes. In this paper, we describe the basic principles of this short-term psychotherapeutic treatment.

Emotion perception after moderate-severe traumatic brain injury: The valence effect and the role of working memory, processing speed, and nonverbal reasoning.

Objective: Traumatic brain injury (TBI) impairs emotion perception. Perception of negative emotions (sadness, disgust, fear, and anger) is reportedly affected more than positive (happiness and surprise) ones. It has been argued that this reflects a specialized neural network underpinning negative emotions that is vulnerable to brain injury.

Facial emotion recognition deficits following moderate-severe Traumatic Brain Injury (TBI): re-examining the valence effect and the role of emotion intensity.

Unlabelled: Many individuals who sustain moderate-severe traumatic brain injuries (TBI) are poor at recognizing emotional expressions, with a greater impairment in recognizing negative (e.g., fear, disgust, sadness, and anger) than positive emotions (e.

[Adherence to chronic medication: also a frequent problem in Belgium!].

Medication adherence in chronic conditions such as asthma, type 2 diabetes, heart failure, HIV and cancer appears to be a frequent problem. However, the literature on adherence in patients who use inhaled corticosteroids (ICS), oral hypoglycemic agents, drugs for heart failure, antiretrovirals or oral chemotherapy, contains little or no relevant data for Belgium. In the context of a Master thesis in Pharmaceutical care at KU Leuven, a quantitative study was performed to determine the prevalence of adherence to chronic medication in Belgium.

Identity in schizophrenia: a study of trait self-knowledge.

Identity results from interlock of two systems which are a set of abstracted representations about oneself and a phenomenological self. Literature highlights identity disturbance in schizophrenia that affects each of both systems. In the same vein, the present study investigates the stability and the quality of traits self-knowledge, a component of abstracted representations of self, in schizophrenia patients.

Emotional regulation impairments following severe traumatic brain injury: an investigation of the body and facial feedback effects.

The object of this study was to evaluate the combined effect of body and facial feedback in adults who had suffered from a severe traumatic brain injury (TBI) to gain some understanding of their difficulties in the regulation of negative emotions. Twenty-four participants with TBI and 28 control participants adopted facial expressions and body postures according to specific instructions and maintained these positions for 10 s. Expressions and postures entailed anger, sadness, and happiness as well as a neutral (baseline) condition.

Spontaneous and posed emotional facial expressions following severe traumatic brain injury.

Aim: The current study aimed to test the intensity of spontaneous emotional expressions and the accuracy of posed emotional expressions in patients with severe traumatic brain injury (TBI).

Method: Twenty-three participants with TBI and 27 matched control participants were asked to relate personal angry, happy, and sad events (spontaneous expressivity) and to pose angry, happy, and sad expressions in response to a photo or word cue (posed expressivity). Their emotional facial expressions were coded via judges' ratings.

Capacity for cognitive and emotional empathy in alcohol-dependent patients.

This study assessed two previously unexplored facets of empathy in alcohol-dependent patients (ADs) divided into two groups according to Cloninger's alcoholism typology: the attribution of intentions according to emotional facial expressions (EFEs) and emotional contagion in reaction to EFEs. Twenty-three male Type-I ADs, 21 male Type-II ADs, and 24 male control participants were compared in two computerized tasks. First, participants rated the extent to which an adjective descriptive of personality weighted on interpersonal dimensions (of rejection, aggressiveness, dominance, and affiliation) corresponded with a video of a neutral EFE that changed to an intense EFE.

Stress ecology in fucus: abiotic, biotic and genetic interactions.

Stress regimes defined as the synchronous or sequential action of abiotic and biotic stresses determine the performance and distribution of species. The natural patterns of stress to which species are more or less well adapted have recently started to shift and alter under the influence of global change. This was the motivation to review our knowledge on the stress ecology of a benthic key player, the macroalgal genus Fucus.

Cardiovascular drug use prior to diagnosis of diabetes: a pilot study in community pharmacy.

Objectives: The literature indicates that cardiovascular drug use is higher during the years prior to diagnosis of type 2 diabetes mellitus. As there are pharmaco-epidemiological and economic consequences of enhanced medication use prior to diagnosis of diabetes, there is a need for a comparative analysis of the drug-use pattern by patients with a subsequent diagnosis of diabetes and control patients. This pilot study aimed to investigate cardiovascular drug use in patients with a subsequent diagnosis of diabetes using data extracted from 200 community pharmacies in the Belgian township of Hasselt.

Restricted ranges in physical factors may constitute subtle stressors for estuarine biota.

Biotic trends along estuarine gradients can be affected by co-varying processes ranging from large-scale oceanographic to local-scale physico-chemical effects. As a baseline for future process studies, we investigated the distinct gradients in species richness and biomass in pebble-sand shorelines along the estuarine axis of Puget Sound, and the scales of variation of some of their physical correlates. Higher richness and biomass at beaches at the more marine end of the Sound are temporally consistent and seen in all trophic groups.

Impacts of roads, hunting, and habitat alteration on nocturnal mammals in African rainforests.

Nocturnal mammals are poorly studied in Central Africa, a region experiencing dramatic increases in logging, roads, and hunting activity. In the rainforests of southern Gabon, we used spotlighting surveys to estimate abundances of nocturnal mammal species and guilds at varying distances from forest roads and between hunted and unhunted treatments (comparing a 130-km(2) oil concession that was nearly free of hunting, with nearby areas outside the concession that had moderate hunting pressure). At each of 12 study sites that were evenly divided between hunted and unhunted areas, we established standardized 1-km transects along road verges and at 50, 300, and 600 m from the road.

Fructose 2,6-bisphosphate in germinating oat seeds. A biochemical study of seed dormancy.

When dormant oat seeds were imbibed at the non-permissive temperature of 30 degrees C, the concentration of phosphoenolpyruvate and of glycerate 3-phosphate, which are two inhibitors of phosphofructokinase 2, increased almost linearly during 30 h. By contrast, these metabolites increased only after a lag period of about 10 h in non-dormant seeds imbibed at the same temperature. As a consequence of this, the concentration of the C3 derivatives remained always remarkably lower in non-dormant than in dormant seeds.

Experimental studies of herbivory and algal competition in a low intertidal habitat.

Ecological factors regulating the species composition and abundance of the plant assemblage in the low intertidal zone were studied in the semiprotected San Juan Islands in Washington state. In particular, the roles of an abundant herbivore (the chiton Katharina tunicata) and competition among plants were evaluated experimentally. Densities of Katharina were manipulated in large areas to establish 3 treatments: Katharina removals (N=2), controls (N=2), and Katharina addition (N=1).

Heteromorphic algal life histories: The seasonal pattern and response to herbivory of the brown crust, Ralfsia californica.

Little is known about the natural history of crustose phases of heteromorphic algae. A qualitative model describing their life history strategies has hypothesized that the morphologies and seasonal occurrences of the two phases evolved largely in response to variable grazing pressure. Crustose phases are predicted to occur when grazing is intense, and erect phases when grazing is reduced.