Increased cover of native and exotic plants on the rims of harvester ant (Hymenoptera: Formicidae) nests under grazing and drought.

Harvester ants create habitats along nest rims, which some plants use as refugia. These refugia can enhance ecosystem stability to disturbances like drought and grazing, but their potential role in invasion ecology is not yet tested. Here we examine the effects of drought and grazing on nest-rim refugia of 2 harvester ant species: Pogonomyrmex occidentals and P.

Zeolite-Enhanced Portland Cement: Solution for Durable Wellbore-Sealing Materials.

Wellbore-plugging materials are threatened by challenging plugging and abandonment (P&A) conditions. Hence, the integrity and resilience of these materials and their ability to provide sufficient zonal isolation in the long-term are unknown. The present work focuses on investigating the potential to use zeolites as novel additives to the commonly used Class-H cement.

Field Translocation of Mountain Pine Beetles Suggests Phoretic Mite Communities Are Locally Adapted, and Mite Populations Respond Variably to Climate Warming.

Temperature is a key determining factor in the population dynamics of forest insects and their associated biota. Bark beetles, often considered key agents of change in forest ecosystems, are particularly affected by warming in their environment. Beetles associate with various phoretic mite species that have direct/indirect effects on beetle fitness and population dynamics, although there is limited knowledge of how temperature affects these communities.

Climate and vegetation structure shape ant communities along elevational gradients on the Colorado Plateau.

Terrestrial animal communities are largely shaped by vegetation and climate. With climate also shaping vegetation, can we attribute animal patterns solely to climate? Our study observes ant community changes along climatic gradients (i.e.

Phoretic mite communities associated with bark beetles in the maritime and stone pine forests of Setúbal, Portugal.

The phoretic mite communities of prominent bark beetle pests associated with pine stands of southern Portugal were sampled to determine whether they vary across bark beetle species and stand type. Bark beetles were sampled for mites from two primary (aggressive) bark beetle species (Ips sexdentatus and Orthotomicus erosus) and the most common secondary species (Hylurgus ligniperda) in maritime pine (Pinus pinaster) and stone pine (Pinus pinea) in the Setúbal province of Portugal. Twelve mite species, spanning diverse ecological roles, are found associated with these bark beetle systems.

A retrospective review of patients with massive and submassive pulmonary embolism treated with AngioJet rheolytic thrombectomy with decreased complications due to changes in thrombolytic use and procedural modifications.

Objectives A retrospective review of treatment of patients with massive or submassive pulmonary embolism (PE) using AngioJet rheolytic thrombectomy (ART) system with procedural modifications to improve on the previously reported outcomes. Materials and Methods Thirteen patients underwent emergent pulmonary artery thrombectomy for massive and submassive PE using ART with pharmacological and procedural modification, in comparison to prior reports. The modifications included the selective use of the Solent Omni AngioJet device in all subjects, distal contrast angiography via the AngioJet catheter before device activation, and limited short run times.

Follicular neoplasm involving one lobe of thyroid: is hemithyroidectomy the adequate initial procedure?

Aim: Ultrasound-guided fine-needle aspiration cytology (FNAC), intraoperative frozen section, elastography and molecular markers have been tried to predict malignancy in indeterminate thyroid lesions. However, only histopathological evidence of capsular and vascular invasion can confirm malignancy. The aim of this study is to determine the effectiveness of hemithyroidectomy (HT) as an adequate surgical intervention in patients having cytologically proven follicular neoplasm limited to one lobe of the thyroid in a resource-limited country like India.