Incorporating baseline functional status to improve validity of neurological outcome assessments following cardiac arrest.

Background: Neurological status at hospital discharge is routinely used to assess patient outcome after cardiac arrest. However, attribution of impairment to the arrest is valid only if baseline neurological status is known. This study evaluated whether incorporating baseline neurological status improves performance of a widely employed neurological outcome scale for quantifying arrest-attributable morbidity.

Linking reproduction, locomotion, and habitat use in the Trinidadian guppy (Poecilia reticulata).

Pregnancy inhibits locomotion, increases predation risk and may translate into reduced survival. The extent to which animals modify behavior in the wild to compensate for the locomotor costs of pregnancy remains poorly understood. We have investigated how reproductive allocation (RA-the proportion of body mass devoted to reproduction) affects locomotor performance and habitat use in Trinidadian guppy (Poecilia reticulata) populations from low- and high-predation regimes.