Reduction in medical emergency team activation among postoperative surgical patients at risk for undiagnosed obstructive sleep apnea.

Study Objectives: Obstructive sleep apnea (OSA) is an under-recognized condition that results in morbidity and mortality. Postoperative complications, including medical emergency team activation (META), are disproportionally increased among surgical patients at risk for OSA. A systematic approach is needed to improve provider recognition and treatment, but protocols that demonstrate improvement in META are lacking.

Host life history strategy, species diversity, and habitat influence Trypanosoma cruzi vector infection in Changing landscapes.

Background: Anthropogenic land use may influence transmission of multi-host vector-borne pathogens by changing diversity, relative abundance, and community composition of reservoir hosts. These reservoir hosts may have varying competence for vector-borne pathogens depending on species-specific characteristics, such as life history strategy. The objective of this study is to evaluate how anthropogenic land use change influences blood meal species composition and the effects of changing blood meal species composition on the parasite infection rate of the Chagas disease vector Rhodnius pallescens in Panama.

Relative effects of disturbance on red imported fire ants and native ant species in a longleaf pine ecosystem.

The degree to which changes in community composition mediate the probability of colonization and spread of non-native species is not well understood, especially in animal communities. High species richness may hinder the establishment of non-native species. Distinguishing between this scenario and cases in which non-native species become established in intact (lacking extensive anthropogenic soil disturbance) communities and subsequently diminish the abundance and richness of native species is challenging on the basis of observation alone.

Association of anthropogenic land use change and increased abundance of the Chagas disease vector Rhodnius pallescens in a rural landscape of Panama.

Anthropogenic disturbance is associated with increased vector-borne infectious disease transmission in wildlife, domestic animals, and humans. The objective of this study was to evaluate how disturbance of a tropical forest landscape impacts abundance of the triatomine bug Rhodnius pallescens, a vector of Chagas disease, in the region of the Panama Canal in Panama. Rhodnius pallescens was collected (n = 1,186) from its primary habitat, the palm Attalea butyracea, in five habitat types reflecting a gradient of anthropogenic disturbance.

Bird community response to fruit energy.

1. The abundance and predictability of food resources have been posited as explanations for the increase of animal species richness in tropical habitats. However, the heterogeneity of natural ecosystems makes it difficult to quantify a response of animal species richness to these qualities of food resources.

A test of porous pavement effectiveness on clay soils during natural storm events.

Porous pavements allow precipitation to infiltrate through the pavement to the soil, reducing the volume of stormwater runoff produced at a site. However, porous pavements are not widely used on fine-grained soils due to concerns about their performance. Our objective was to investigate the efficacy of porous pavements in controlling stormwater runoff on clay soils.

Differential seed and seedling predation by crabs: impacts on tropical coastal forest composition.

Recently, the importance of seed predation by crabs on mangrove species distributions and densities has been established by several studies. In a tropical coastal terrestrial forest in Costa Rica, we investigated the relative importance of predation by land crabs, Gecarcinus quadratus, and hermit crabs, Coenobita compressus, on measured forest composition through a series of seed removal and seedling establishment experiments. We also used natural light-gaps and adjacent non-gap sites to test how canopy cover affects crab predation (seed removal) and seedling establishment.

The dynamics of seed harvesting in early successional communities by a tropical ant, Solenopsis geminata.

The neotropical ant, Solenopsis geminata, in the moist lowlands of southeastern Mexico was most abundant in agricultural fields and early second growth habitats. It was not found within forest habitats.In addition to its foraging for insects and general scavenging, this ant also harvests seeds.

The ecological role of ants in two Mexican agroecosystems.

The development of the ant communities and their foraging dynamics were studied in two annual agroecosystems of the Mexican tropical lowlands: a "forest milpa" of corn, beans, and squash made by cutting and buring 40-year-old forest, and a "field milpa" of corn, beans, and squash made by plowing 1-year-old second growth. The ant community was sampled using tuna fish baits 26, 52, 110 and 353 days after planting. Although immediately after planting the same number of ant species occurred in each milpa type, thereafter the ant faunas diverged.