Anthropogenic and climatic factors interact to influence reproductive timing and effort.

Reproduction, although absolutely essential to a species' persistence, is in itself challenging. As anthropogenic change increasingly affects every landscape on Earth, it is critical to understand how specific pressures impact the reproductive efforts of individuals, which directly contribute to the success or failure of populations. However, organisms rarely encounter a single burden at a time, and the interactions of environmental challenges can have compounding effects.

Measuring adrenal and reproductive hormones in hair from Southern Beaufort Sea polar bears (Ursus maritimus).

Polar bears (Ursus maritimus) use sea ice to access marine mammal prey. In Alaska's Southern Beaufort Sea, the declining availability of sea ice habitat in summer and fall has reduced opportunities for polar bears to routinely hunt on the ice for seals, their primary prey. This reduced access to prey may result in physiological stress with subsequent potential consequences to reproductive function (physiological changes that accompany reproduction), which can be measured via reproductive hormones.

Comparative in vitro study of honey based and silver based wound preparations on cell viability.

Background: Since the early 1980s a plethora of dressings has been developed to promote wound healing. The objective of this study was to compare the effects of silver based dressings and honey based dressings on cell viability.

Materials And Methods: In this blinded study, keratinocyte cultures were exposed to prepared extracts of each of the following wound dressings for 40 h: Silver based dressings: Acticoat, Actisorb, Askina, Atrauman-Ag and Contreet.