Controlling the stock or the habitat - The crisis of native invasive encroachment in the grazing land of Norwegian reindeer husbandry.

Climate change negatively impacts reindeer grazing in Fennoscandia, with the encroachment of Empetrum nigrum (crowberry) being a significant, yet largely unrecognized problem. Crowberry encroachment affects the neighboring palatable vegetation negatively, homogenizing the pasture and decreasing ecosystem biodiversity. Current husbandry management aims are based on sustainable use of the pasture land, yet pasture quality is not considered a central indicator.

Novel frontier in wildlife monitoring: Identification of small rodent species from fecal pellets using near-infrared reflectance spectroscopy (NIRS).

Small rodents are prevalent and functionally important across the world's biomes, making their monitoring salient for ecosystem management, conservation, forestry, and agriculture. There is a growing need for cost-effective and noninvasive methods for large-scale, intensive sampling. Fecal pellet counts readily provide relative abundance indices, and given suitable analytical methods, feces could also allow for the determination of multiple ecological and physiological variables, including community composition.

Global patterns in endemicity and vulnerability of soil fungi.

Fungi are highly diverse organisms, which provide multiple ecosystem services. However, compared with charismatic animals and plants, the distribution patterns and conservation needs of fungi have been little explored. Here, we examined endemicity patterns, global change vulnerability and conservation priority areas for functional groups of soil fungi based on six global surveys using a high-resolution, long-read metabarcoding approach.

Trait-based responses to cessation of nutrient enrichment in a tundra plant community.

Plant communities worldwide show varied responses to nutrient enrichment-including shifts in species identity, decreased diversity, and changes in functional trait composition-but the factors determining community recovery after the cessation of nutrient addition remain uncertain. We manipulated nutrient levels in a tundra community for 6 years of nutrient addition followed by 8 years of recovery. We examined how community recovery was mediated by traits related to plant resource-use strategy and plant ability to modify their environment.

Plant and soil nitrogen in oligotrophic boreal forest habitats with varying moss depths: does exclusion of large grazers matter?

The boreal forest consists of drier sunlit and moister-shaded habitats with varying moss abundance. Mosses control vascular plant-soil interactions, yet they all can also be altered by grazers. We determined how 2 decades of reindeer (Rangifer tarandus) exclusion affect feather moss (Pleurozium schreberi) depth, and the accompanying soil N dynamics (total and dissolvable inorganic N, δN), plant foliar N, and stable isotopes (δN, δC) in two contrasting habitats of an oligotrophic Scots pine forest.

A candidate super-Earth planet orbiting near the snow line of Barnard's star.

Barnard's star is a red dwarf, and has the largest proper motion (apparent motion across the sky) of all known stars. At a distance of 1.8 parsecs, it is the closest single star to the Sun; only the three stars in the α Centauri system are closer.

A terrestrial planet candidate in a temperate orbit around Proxima Centauri.

At a distance of 1.295 parsecs, the red dwarf Proxima Centauri (α Centauri C, GL 551, HIP 70890 or simply Proxima) is the Sun's closest stellar neighbour and one of the best-studied low-mass stars. It has an effective temperature of only around 3,050 kelvin, a luminosity of 0.

Intrafamily and Interfamilial Phenotype Variation and Immature Immunity in Patients With Netherton Syndrome and Finnish SPINK5 Founder Mutation.

Importance: Netherton syndrome (NS) is a rare and severe genodermatosis caused by SPINK5 mutations leading to the loss of lymphoepithelial Kazal-type-related inhibitor (LEKTI). Netherton syndrome is characterized by neonatal scaling erythroderma, a bamboolike hair defect, a substantial skin barrier defect, and a profound atopic diathesis. Netherton syndrome has been proposed to be a primary immunodeficiency syndrome because of the high frequency of infections.

Exoplanet detection. Comment on "Stellar activity masquerading as planets in the habitable zone of the M dwarf Gliese 581".

Robertson et al. (Reports, 25 July 2014, p. 440) claimed that activity-induced variability is responsible for the Doppler signal of the proposed planet candidate GJ 581d.

Radial velocity studies of cool stars.

Our current view of exoplanets is one derived primarily from solar-like stars with a strong focus on understanding our Solar System. Our knowledge about the properties of exoplanets around the dominant stellar population by number, the so-called low-mass stars or M dwarfs, is much more cursory. Based on radial velocity discoveries, we find that the semi-major axis distribution of M dwarf planets appears to be broadly similar to those around more massive stars and thus formation and migration processes might be similar to heavier stars.

Plant traits mediate consumer and nutrient control on plant community productivity and diversity.

The interactive effects of consumers and nutrients on terrestrial plant communities, and the role of plant functional traits in mediating these responses, are poorly known. We carried out a six-year full-factorial field experiment using mammalian herbivore exclusion and fertilization in two habitat types (fertile and infertile alpine tundra heaths) that differed in plant functional traits related to resource acquisition and palatability. Infertile habitats were dominated by species with traits indicative of a slow-growing strategy: high C:N ratio, low specific leaf area, and high condensed tannins.

[Mastocytosis as the cause of childrens' abdominal discomforts].

In mastocytosis the number of mast cells is increased, and the most common manifestation is urticaria pigmentosa. We describe four children, of which two developed ulceration of the upper gastrointestinal tract. Main symptoms in the other children were vomiting, heartburn and abdominal pains, which were manifested as intense crying spells.

Temperature sensitivity of soil carbon fractions in boreal forest soil.

Feedback to climate warming from the carbon balance of terrestrial ecosystems depends critically on the temperature sensitivity of soil organic carbon (SOC) decomposition. Still, the temperature sensitivity is not known for the majority of the SOC, which is tens or hundreds of years old. This old fraction is paradoxically concluded to be more, less, or equally sensitive compared to the younger fraction.

Novel PORCN mutations in focal dermal hypoplasia.

Focal dermal hypoplasia (FDH), Goltz or Goltz-Gorlin syndrome, is an X-linked dominant multisystem disorder characterized primarily by involvement of the skin, skeletal system and eyes. We screened for mutations in the PORCN gene in eight patients of Belgian and Finnish origin with firm clinical suspicion of FDH. First, we performed quantitative PCR (qPCR) analysis to define the copy number at this locus.

Molecular mechanisms of junctional epidermolysis bullosa: Col 15 domain mutations decrease the thermal stability of collagen XVII.

Mutations in the collagen XVII gene, COL17A1, are associated with junctional epidermolysis bullosa. Most COL17A1 mutations lead to a premature termination codon (PTC), whereas only a few mutations result in amino acid substitutions or deletions. We describe here two novel glycine substitutions, G609D and G612R, and a splice site mutation resulting in a deletion of three Gly-X-Y amino acid triplets.

Airborne occupational allergic contact dermatitis from triglycidyl-p-aminophenol and tetraglycidyl-4,4'-methylene dianiline in preimpregnated epoxy products in the aircraft industry.

Background: Very little is known about allergic contact dermatitis (ACD) from preimpregnated epoxy products (prepregs).

Objective: To describe a patient with occupational ACD from prepregs, and report new quantitative data on the content of prepregs.

Methods And Results: A laminator developed work-related vesicular hand dermatitis.

A feasibility study of realtime teledermatology in Finland.

We conducted a feasibility study of teleconsultation in dermatology using low-cost equipment. Patients and their general practitioners took part in consultations from the Primary Health Care Centre in Ikaalinen with a dermatologist 55 km away at the Tampere University Hospital (TAUH). Consultations were performed using standard commercial videoconferencing equipment, a modified document camera and a dermatoscope.

Reactivity of tixocortol pivalate-positive patients in intradermal and oral provocation tests.

Pivalone/tixocortol pivalate commonly yields positive reactions in the patch test series. The clinical relevance of these positive reactions was investigated in more detail. In the standard patch test series 5.