Genomics meets applied ecology: Characterizing habitat quality for sloths in a tropical agroecosystem.

Understanding how habitat quality in heterogeneous landscapes governs the distribution and fitness of individuals is a fundamental aspect of ecology. While mean individual fitness is generally considered a key to assessing habitat quality, a comprehensive understanding of habitat quality in heterogeneous landscapes requires estimates of dispersal rates among habitat types. The increasing accessibility of genomic approaches, combined with field-based demographic methods, provides novel opportunities for incorporating dispersal estimation into assessments of habitat quality.

Eco-evolution in size-structured ecosystems: simulation case study of rapid morphological changes in alewife.

Background: Over the last 300 years, interactions between alewives and zooplankton communities in several lakes in the U.S. have caused the alewives' morphology to transition rapidly from anadromous to landlocked.

Insect resistance management for stored product pests: a case study of cowpea weevil (Coleoptera: Bruchidae).

The cowpea weevil, Callosobruchus maculatus F. (Coleoptera: Bruchidae), can cause up to 100% yield loss of stored cowpea seeds in a few months in West Africa. Genes expressing toxins delaying insect maturation (MDTs) are available for genetic engineering.

Modeling a western corn rootworm, Diabrotica virgifera virgifera (Coleoptera: Chrysomelidae), maturation delay and resistance evolution in Bt corn.

Background: Emergence delay and female-skewed sex ratios among adults of Diabrotica virgifera virgifera LeConte (Coleoptera: Chrysomelidae) from Bt corn have been reported in field studies. The authors used a simulation model to study the effect of a maturation delay and a female-skewed sex ratio for D. v.

Catecholaminergic polymorphic ventricular tachycardia in a patient with recurrent exertional syncope.

A 16-year-old male with a prior history of recurrent syncope was referred to our hospital after being resuscitated from cardiac arrest developed while playing volleyball. His electrocardiogram (ECG) demonstrated ventricular fibrillation at a local emergency department. After referral, an ECG showed bidirectional ventricular tachycardia (VT) and nonsustained Torsade de Pointes.

Clinical characteristics of defecation and micturition syncope compared with common vasovagal syncope.

Background: Little is known about the clinical characteristics of patients with situational syncope such as defecation syncope (DS) or micturition syncope (MS) compared with those with common vasovagal syncope (VVS).

Methods: Among 680 consecutive patients, who underwent a head-up tilt test between January 2006 and November 2010, 282 patients (40.4±16.

Aseptic Endocarditis in Behçet's Disease Presenting as Tricuspid Valve Stenosis.

Aseptic endocarditis is an uncommon complication of Behçet's disease (BD). We describe a rare case of a 39-year-old female who had BD with aseptic endocarditis of the tricuspid valve (TV) presenting as tricuspid stenosis. She was diagnosed with BD four years ago.

Prognostic value of standard electrocardiographic parameters for predicting major adverse cardiac events after acute myocardial infarction.

Background: The prognostic value of electrocardiographic (ECG) variables in predicting major adverse cardiac events (MACEs) after acute myocardial infarction (AMI) in the era of modern therapy is unclear. This study was conducted to evaluate the prognostic significance of ECG parameters in predicting 1-year MACEs for AMI patients.

Methods: Between January 2006 and January 2008, 529 AMI patients were included.

Spectroscopic and computational insight into the intermolecular interactions between Zwitter-type ionic liquids and water molecules.

Geometric and conformational changes of zwitter-type ionic liquids (ZILs) due to hydrogen-bonding interactions with water molecules are investigated by density functional theory (DFT), two-dimensional IR correlation spectroscopy (2D IR COS), and pulsed-gradient spin-echo NMR (PGSE NMR). Simulation results indicate that molecular structures in the optimized states are strongly influenced by hydrogen bonding of water molecules with the sulfonate group or imidazolium and pyrrolidinium rings of 3-(1-methyl-3-imidazolio)propanesulfonate (1) and 3-(1-methyl-1-pyrrolidinio)propanesulfonate (2), respectively. Concentration-dependent 2D IR COS reveals kinetic conformational changes of the two ZIL-H(2)O systems attributable to intermolecular interactions, as well as the interactions of sulfonate groups and imidazolium or pyrrolidinium rings with water molecules.

Epinephrine-Induced Polymorphic Ventricular Tachycardia in a Patient With Congenital Long QT Syndrome.

A 24-year-old woman presented to the department of plastic surgery for surgical excision of a nevus on her nose. Although her history failed to reveal any cardiac disease, her pre-operative electrocardiogram (ECG) showed an extremely prolonged QT interval of up to 528 msec. Repeated history-taking after admission revealed three syncopal episodes associated with both physical and emotional stress, and because the two-dimensional echocardiography and exercise ECG test were normal except for the prolonged QT interval, an epinephrine test was done to assess QT interval changes after an epinephrine infusion.