Escape from natural enemies during climate-driven range expansion: a case study

Abstract.  1. A major, and largely unexplored, uncertainty in projecting the impact of climate change on biodiversity is the consequence of altered interspecific interactions, for example between parasitoids and their hosts. The present study investigated parasitism in the Brown Argus butterfly, Aricia agestis ; a species that has expanded northward in Britain during the last 30  years in association with climate warming.
2.  Aricia agestis larvae suffered lower mortality from parasitoids in newly colonised areas compared with long-established populations. This result was consistent over four consecutive generations (2 years) when comparing one population of each type, and also when several populations within the historical and recently colonised range of the species were compared within a single year. Thus, A. agestis appears to be partially escaping from parasitism as it expands northwards.
3. Reduced parasitism occurred despite the fact that several of the parasitoid species associated with A. agestis were already present in the newly colonised areas, supported predominantly by an alternative host species, the Common Blue butterfly, Polyommatus icarus .
4. As the species expand their distributions into areas of increased climatic suitability, invasion fronts may escape from natural enemies, enhancing rates of range expansion. The results suggest that the decoupling of interspecific interactions may allow some species to exploit a wider range of environments and to do so more rapidly than previously thought possible.     

Water Balance in Cucumis Plants, Measured by Nuclear Magnetic Resonance, II

Nuclear magnetic resonance (NMR) was used to investigate theeffects of changes in root temperature, of changes in the areaof root in contact with culture solution and of day/night rhythmon the water balance of a cucumber and a gherkin plant. Resultsare discussed in terms of water potential, flow rate and resistanceusing a previously presented model of water balance. As longas water uptake alone is varied, flow rate and water content(or potential) will change in the same direction. In contrast,from that model it is predicted that changes in transpirationwill affect flow rate and water content in opposite ways. Anexperimental verification of this prediction was given in theprevious paper. Results obtained by the NMR method are comparedto those determined using a dendrometer. The results demonstratethat the NMR method is a valuable tool to study plant waterbalance and that it can serve as a technique for discriminatingbetween changes in plant water balance that are due to changesin water uptake by roots and those due to changes in transpiration. Key words: Water balance model, Cucumis satious L., flow, water content, NMR, water balance measurement     

<Emphasis Type="Italic">In vivo</Emphasis> assessment of the impedance ratio method used in electronic foramen locators

Background  

The results of an in vivo study on the "ratio method" used in electronic foramen locators (EFL) are presented. EFLs are becoming widely used in the determination of the working length (WL) during the root canal treatment. The WL is the distance from a coronal reference point to the point at which canal preparation and filling should terminate. The "ratio method" was assessed by many clinicians with the aim of determining its ability to locate the apical foramen (AF). Nevertheless, in vivo studies to assess the method itself and to explain why the "ratio method" is able to locate the apical foramen and is unable to determine intermediate distances were not published so far.     

Predicting deleterious nsSNPs: an analysis of sequence and structural attributes

Background  

There has been an explosion in the number of single nucleotide polymorphisms (SNPs) within public databases. In this study we focused on non-synonymous protein coding single nucleotide polymorphisms (nsSNPs), some associated with disease and others which are thought to be neutral. We describe the distribution of both types of nsSNPs using structural and sequence based features and assess the relative value of these attributes as predictors of function using machine learning methods. We also address the common problem of balance within machine learning methods and show the effect of imbalance on nsSNP function prediction. We show that nsSNP function prediction can be significantly improved by 100% undersampling of the majority class. The learnt rules were then applied to make predictions of function on all nsSNPs within Ensembl.     

Aspergillus terreus and its toxic metabolites as a food contaminant in some Egyptian Bakery products and grains

A. terreus isolates isolated from some bakery products, corn and rice were found to be able to produce territrems. 90% of theA. terreus isolated from bakery products were able to produce territrem A, with a mean of 0.09 ppm, while 80% ofA. terreus isolates produce territrem B with a mean of 0.24 ppm. On the other hand 31.8% of the isolates ofA. terreus from corn were able to produce territrem A with a mean of 0.44 ppm. ConcerningA. terreus isolates from rice, 66.7% were found to produce territrem A, with a mean of 5.28 ppm, and 77.8% of the isolates produced territrem B with a mean of 1.79 ppm.     

Effects of nestboxes on the breeding biology of Southern House Wrens Troglodytes aedon bonariae in the southern temperate zone

Nestboxes are known to increase clutch size, enhance breeding success and affect the social mating system of several cavity nesters. Although in recent years various cavity nesters have been studied in nestboxes in South America, the effects of boxes on the biology of the study species are unknown. We evaluated the effects of nestboxes on the breeding biology and social mating system of Southern House Wrens Troglodytes aedon bonariae by comparing birds breeding in nestboxes and tree cavities in two cattle ranches in Buenos Aires Province, Argentina. Southern House Wrens nesting in boxes had higher breeding success but, contrary to studies on the temperate zone, we did not find differences in clutch size between Wrens breeding in nestboxes and tree cavities. The main causes of nest failure in tree cavities were nest predation and flooding of the cavity (70 and 23% of the failures, respectively) while in nestboxes predation and desertion were the most important causes of failure (38 and 34% of the failures, respectively). The social mating system of Southern House Wrens is monogamy with biparental care, and neither was affected by the boxes. Males did not attract secondary females to additional nestboxes; however, nestboxes are safer breeding sites than tree cavities, and females seemed to prefer males with nestboxes on their territory. These results suggest that nest quality alone might be not enough for secondary females to accept polygyny.     

A comparative study of glutamate oxaloacetate transaminase (GOT) and glutamate pyruvate transaminase (GPT) levels in the saliva of diabetic and normal patients

Diabetes has been reported to affect salivary glands adversely in humans and experimental models. Glutamate oxaloacetate transaminase (GOT), glutamate pyruvate transaminase (GPT) and lactate dehydrogenase (LDH) are salivary enzymes that also are widely distributed in animal tissues. We determined GOT and GPT levels in saliva samples of 100 type 1 and 30 type 2 diabetic patients using reflectance spectrophotometry and compared them to 30 age and sex matched healthy controls. Statistically significant differences were observed in the mean values of GOT and GPT in type 1 diabetics compared to type 2 and control groups. Significantly higher GOT levels were found in the 1–20 year age group of type 1 diabetics. Our findings suggest that salivary gland damage is due to the same immunological attack that affects pancreatic β cells and results in type 1 diabetes.