Building pondscapes for amphibian metapopulations.

The success of ponds constructed to restore ecological infrastructure for pond-breeding amphibians and benefit aquatic biodiversity depends on where and how they are built. We studied effects of pond and landscape characteristics, including connectivity, on metapopulation dynamics of 12 amphibian species in Switzerland. To understand the determinants of long-term occupancy (here summarized as incidence), environmental effects on both colonization and persistence should be considered.

Interlaboratory Study to Evaluate a Testing Protocol for the Safety of Food Packaging Coatings.

According to European regulations, migration from food packaging must be safe. However, currently, there is no consensus on how to evaluate its safety, especially for non-intentionally added substances (NIAS). The intensive and laborious approach, involving identification and then quantification of all migrating substances followed by a toxicological evaluation, is not practical or feasible.

Bending the curve: Simple but massive conservation action leads to landscape-scale recovery of amphibians.

Success stories are rare in conservation science, hindered also by the research-implementation gap, where scientific insights rarely inform practice and practical implementation is rarely evaluated scientifically. Amphibian population declines, driven by multiple stressors, are emblematic of the freshwater biodiversity crisis. Habitat creation is a straightforward conservation action that has been shown to locally benefit amphibians, as well as other taxa, but does it benefit entire amphibian communities at large spatial scales? Here, we evaluate a landscape-scale pond-construction program by fitting dynamic occupancy models to 20 y of monitoring data for 12 pond-breeding amphibian species in the Swiss state Aargau, a densely populated area of the Swiss lowlands with intensive land use.

More future synergies and less trade-offs between forest ecosystem services with natural climate solutions instead of bioeconomy solutions.

To reach the Paris Agreement, societies need to increase the global terrestrial carbon sink. There are many climate change mitigation solutions (CCMS) for forests, including increasing bioenergy, bioeconomy, and protection. Bioenergy and bioeconomy solutions use climate-smart, intensive management to generate high quantities of bioenergy and bioproducts.

The traits of "trait ecologists": An analysis of the use of trait and functional trait terminology.

Trait and functional trait approaches have revolutionized ecology improving our understanding of community assembly, species coexistence, and biodiversity loss. Focusing on traits promotes comparability across spatial and organizational scales, but terms must be used consistently. While several papers have offered definitions, it remains unclear how ecologists operationalize "trait" and "functional trait" terms.

Life history trade-off moderates model predictions of diversity loss from climate change.

Climate change can trigger species range shifts, local extinctions and changes in diversity. Species interactions and dispersal capacity are important mediators of community responses to climate change. The interaction between multispecies competition and variation in dispersal capacity has recently been shown to exacerbate the effects of climate change on diversity and to increase predictions of extinction risk dramatically.

The Effectiveness of Vestibular Rehabilitation Interventions in Treating Unilateral Peripheral Vestibular Disorders: A Systematic Review.

Background And Purpose: Various types of vestibular rehabilitation therapy are routinely used in clinical practice to treat unilateral peripheral vestibular hypofunction. The purpose of this systematic review was to compare the effectiveness of vestibular rehabilitation interventions (adaptation, substitution and habituation) in people with unilateral peripheral vestibular hypofunction, exclusionary of benign paroxysmal positional vertigo and Meniere's disease.

Methods: A search of the literature was conducted using PubMed, CINAHL and Scopus.

The relationship between adherence behaviors and recovery time in adolescents after a sports-related concussion: an observational study.

Background: Adherence to rehabilitation is widely accepted as vital for recovery and return to play following sports injuries. Medical management of concussion is centered around physical and cognitive rest, a theory largely based on expert opinion, not empirical evidence. Current research on this topic focuses on factors that are predictive of adherence to rehabilitation, but fails to examine if patient adherence leads to a better outcome.

Predicting climate change effects on wetland ecosystem services using species distribution modeling and plant functional traits.

Wetlands provide multiple ecosystem services, the sustainable use of which requires knowledge of the underlying ecological mechanisms. Functional traits, particularly the community-weighted mean trait (CWMT), provide a strong link between species communities and ecosystem functioning. We here combine species distribution modeling and plant functional traits to estimate the direction of change of ecosystem processes under climate change.

Pseudomonas putida Fis binds to the lapF promoter in vitro and represses the expression of LapF.

The biofilm matrix of the rhizospheric bacterium Pseudomonas putida consists mainly of a proteinaceous component. The two largest P. putida proteins, adhesins LapA and LapF, are involved in biofilm development but prevail in different developmental stages of the biofilm matrix.

Stereochemistry of enzymatic transformations of (+)β- and (-)β-HBCD with LinA2--a HCH-degrading bacterial enzyme of Sphingobium indicum B90A.

LinA2, a bacterial enzyme expressed in various Sphingomonadaceae, catalyzes the elimination of HCl from hexachlorocyclohexanes (HCHs) and, as discussed here, the release of HBr from certain hexabromocyclododecanes (HBCDs). Both classes of compounds are persistent organic pollutants now regulated under the Stockholm Convention. LinA2 selectively catalyzes the transformation of β-HBCDs; other stereoisomers like α-, γ-, and δ-HBCDs are not converted.

Fis overexpression enhances Pseudomonas putida biofilm formation by regulating the ratio of LapA and LapF.

Bacteria form biofilm as a response to a number of environmental signals that are mediated by global transcription regulators and alarmones. Here we report the involvement of the global transcription regulator Fis in Pseudomonas putida biofilm formation through regulation of lapA and lapF genes. The major component of P.

Fis regulates the competitiveness of Pseudomonas putida on barley roots by inducing biofilm formation.

An important link between the environment and the physiological state of bacteria is the regulation of the transcription of a large number of genes by global transcription factors. One of the global regulators, Fis (factor for inversion stimulation), is well studied in Escherichia coli, but the role of this protein in pseudomonads has only been examined briefly. According to studies in Enterobacteriaceae, Fis regulates positively the flagellar movement of bacteria.

[Lung metastases].

Neither functionally not metabolically do pulmonary metastases represent an isolated problem of the respiratory organs. Rather, they are a problem of the organism as a whole, and represent the "home straight" that is common to almost all malignant diseases. This "home straight" has not yet been fully understood from the pathophysiological point of view, is not always readily accessible to diagnostic evaluation, and its response to treatment is disappointing.

Parathyroid ultrastructure after aldehyde fixation, high-pressure freezing, or microwave irradiation.

Parathyroid cell variants, commonly observed in parathyroid glands fixed by immersion in glutaraldehyde, are believed to be the result of cyclic changes in the course of parathyroid hormone secretion. Immersion of bovine parathyroid glands in a mixture consisting of 1% glutaraldehyde, 1.5% formaldehyde, and 2.

Cartilage ultrastructure after high pressure freezing, freeze substitution, and low temperature embedding. I. Chondrocyte ultrastructure--implications for the theories of mineralization and vascular invasion.

Electron microscopic examination of epiphyseal cartilage tissue processed by high pressure freezing, freeze substitution, and low temperature embedding revealed a substantial improvement in the preservation quality of intracellular organelles by comparison with the results obtained under conventional chemical fixation conditions. Furthermore, all cells throughout the epiphyseal plate, including the terminal chondrocyte adjacent to the region of vascular invasion, were found to be structurally integral. A zone of degenerating cells consistently observed in cartilage tissue processed under conventional chemical fixation conditions was not apparent.

Visualization of freeze-dried and shadowed myosin molecules immobilized on electron microscopic films.

The mica replication technique first described by Hall [5] has produced myosin molecules which were heterogeneous in appearance in terms of shadowing, decoration, contrast and background. Therefore, an alternative technique for the visualization of myosin molecules was developed: Myosin molecules are sprayed directly onto glow discharged or silicium-monoxide coated carbon filmed grids, omitting glycerol. After washing several times with distilled water, rapid freezing, and freeze-drying, the immobilized myosin molecules are visualized by shadow-casting at low temperature and at varying angles.

Single bacteriorhodopsin molecules revealed on both surfaces of freeze-dried and heavy metal-decorated purple membranes.

The flat sheets of the purple membrane from Halobacterium halobium contain only a single protein (bacteriorhodopsin) arranged in a hexagonal lattice. After freeze-drying at -80 degrees C (a method that is superior to air-drying), shadowing with tantalum/tungsten, and image processing, structural details on both surfaces are portrayed in the range of 2 nm. One surface is rough and lattice lines are clearly visible, whereas the other is smooth and the hexagonal order seems to be absent.

Ice crystals specifically decorate hydrophilic sites on freeze-fractured models membranes.

Experiments with yeast plasmalemma fracture faces, produced at -196 degrees C and exposed to pure water vapor before replication, showed a "specific decoration" with ice crystals of those pits in the extraplasmatic face where the matching particles of the plasmatic face had been removed (H. Gross et al., J.

Determination of polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons in fat products by high pressure liquid chromatography.

The method previously described by Gertz [1] for the extraction of 3,4-benzopyrene in meat- and fishproducts has been adapted for butter, margarine, edible oils and fats and extended to other polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons (PAH): 1,2-benzopyrene, 1,2,3,4-dibenzanthracene, 1,2,5,6-dibenzanthracene and 1,12-benzoperylene. The isolated PAH are determined by high-pressure liquid chromatography on reversed-phase columns with detection by fluorimetry. Recoveries range from 76 to 85%.

Myelin and glial membrane structures in the optic nerve of normal and jimpy mouse. A freeze-etching study.

In order to investigate the myelin and the glial cell membranes in the optic nerve of the mutant mouse "Jimpy," the method of freeze-etching was applied. The compact myelin lamellae and the first two glial membranes of the mutant, as compared to the normal mouse, show several abnormalities: absence of intramembraneous particles on the P-face, myelin lamellae separated by cytoplasmic layers, vesicular protrusions forming irregular invaginations, and elevations and tight junctions with a discontinuous, zigzag course. Some of these characteristics were found in the membrane of the oligodendroglia cell of the pathological animal, as well.

The influence of high pressure freezing on mammalian nerve tissue.

Vitrification of biological specimens in liquid nitrogen can be achieved under high pressure (2,100 bars). This procedure obviates the use of aldehyde fixation and cryoprotection (glycerol). The present work demonstrates its applicability to the freeze-etching of mammalian brain tissue.