Response of rove-beetle (Staphylinidae) assemblages to the cumulative effect of wildfire and linear footprint in boreal treed peatlands.

Cumulative effects of anthropogenic and natural disturbances have become increasingly relevant in the context of biodiversity conservation. Oil and gas (OG) exploration and extraction activities have created thousands of kilometers of linear footprints in boreal ecosystems of Alberta, Canada. Among these disturbances, seismic lines (narrow corridors cut through the forest) are one of the most common footprints and have become a significant landscape feature influencing the maintenance of forest interior habitats and biodiversity. Wildfire is a common stand-replacing natural disturbance in the boreal forest, and as such, it is hypothesized that its effects can mitigate the linear footprint associated with OG exploration, but only a few studies have examined its effectiveness. We studied the short-term (1 year post-fire) response of rove-beetle assemblages to the combined effects of wildfire and linear footprint in forest, edge, and seismic line habitats at burned and unburned peatlands along the southwest perimeter of the 2016 Horse River wildfire (Fort McMurray). While rove-beetle species richness was higher in seismic lines in both the burned and unburned habitats compared with the adjacent peatland, diversity was greater only in seismic lines of burned areas. Abundance was lower in the burned adjacent peatland but similarly higher in the remaining habitats. Assemblage composition on seismic lines was significantly different from that in the adjacent forest and edge habitats within both burned and unburned sites. Moreover, species composition in burned seismic lines was different from either unburned lines or burned forest and edge. Euaesthethus laeviusculus and Gabrius picipennis were indicator species of burned line habitats, are sensitive to post-fire landscapes and can occupy wet habitats with moss cover more efficiently than when these habitats are surrounded by unburned forest. Although these results are based on short-term responses, they suggest that wildfire did not reduce the linear footprint, and instead, the cumulative effect of these two disturbances had a more complex influence on rove-beetle recovery at the landscape level than for other invertebrates. Therefore, continued monitoring of these sites can become useful to evaluate changes over time and to better understand longer-term biodiversity responses to the cumulative effects of wildfire and linear disturbances in boreal treed peatlands, given the long-lasting effect of such disturbances.

Treatment approach to a patient with catamenial epilepsy. case report

ABSTRACT Introduction: Catamenial epilepsy refers to the worsening or exacerbation of seizures due to hormonal changes during the menstrual cycle. It is thought to be secondary to the neuroactive properties of endogenous steroid hormones and the natural cyclic variation in their serum levels throughout the menstrual cycle. Case presentation: A 31-year-old female patient from Bogotá (Colombia) was admitted to the emergency department due to an episode of tonic-clonic seizure associated with the menstrual period. Since the onset of the seizures was related to menstruation (every 28 days), it was established that the patient had structural focal epilepsy with catamenial features. Advantages of medical vs. surgical treatment were discussed during a multidisciplinary medical board and it was decided to start pharmacological treatment with progestogens, which resulted in complete remission of the seizures as established during a follow-up visit. Conclusions: Catamenial epilepsy should be considered as a cause of epilepsy refractory to antiepileptic medications. Furthermore, it should be approached from a multidisciplinary perspective and its management should be focused on improving the patients' quality of life.

RESUMEN Introducción. La epilepsia catamenial se define como un empeoramiento o la exacerbación de las crisis epilépticas en relación con el cambio hormonal durante el ciclo menstrual femenino. Se cree que esta se produce por las propiedades neuroactivas de las hormonas esteroides endógenas y la variación cíclica natural en sus niveles séricos a lo largo de dicho ciclo. Presentación del caso. Mujer de 31 años de Bogotá (Colombia), quien fue llevada al servicio de urgencias por un episodio de crisis epiléptica con convulsiones tonicoclónicas asociado al período menstrual. Debido a que la aparición de las crisis epilépticas se asociaba con la menstruación (cada 28 días), se estableció que la paciente presentaba epilepsia focal estructural de características catameniales. En junta médica multidisciplinar se discutieron las ventajas del manejo médico y el manejo quirúrgico, y se decidió instaurar tratamiento farmacológico con progestágenos, el cual, tras seguimiento, evidenció supresión total de las crisis. Conclusiones. La epilepsia catamenial debe considerarse como una causa de epilepsia refractaria al tratamiento antiepiléptico. Además, su abordaje debe ser multidisciplinario y su tratamiento debe ir enfocado a mejorar la calidad de vida de los pacientes.

Short-term effects of wildfire in boreal peatlands: Does fire mitigate the linear footprint of oil and gas exploration?

Exploration practices for oil sands developments in the boreal forest of western Canada create a network of thousands of kilometers of linear features, particularly seismic lines that dissect these forests posing significant environmental challenges. As wildfire is one of the prevalent stand-replacing natural disturbances in the Canadian boreal forest, it is an important driver of environmental change and stand development that may contribute to the mitigation of such linear industrial footprint. Here, we evaluate the short-term cumulative (also known as combined) effects of seismic lines and wildfire on biodiversity and site conditions. One year after the Horse River (Fort McMurray, Alberta, Canada) fire event in the spring of 2016, we compared dissected and undisturbed forests in burned and unburned boreal peatlands, assessing changes in overall stand structure and the responses of a variety of organisms. Soil moisture was significantly higher on seismic lines than in the adjacent forest, suggesting why most of the study sites within the fire perimeter showed little evidence of burning at the line in relation to the adjacent forest. Low fire severity on seismic lines seemed an important driver of local species diversity for ants, beetles, spiders, and plants in disturbed peatlands, resulting in similar species composition on seismic lines both within and outside the burned area, but different assemblages in burned and unburned adjacent forests. Our results suggest that fire did not erase seismic lines; rather, wildfire might increase the influence of this footprint on the recovering adjacent forest. Longer-term monitoring will be necessary to understand how boreal treed peatlands respond to the cumulative effect of wildfire and linear disturbances.

Potential of the C Genome of the Different Variants of Brassica oleracea for Heterosis in Spring B. napus Canola.

The genetic base of Brassica napus canola need to be broadened for exploitation of heterosis at a greater level in the breeding of F1 hybrid canola cultivars. In this study, we evaluated 228 inbred B. napus canola lines derived from six B. napus × B. oleracea interspecific crosses and following two breeding methods (F2- and BC1-derived lines) to understand the effect of the B. oleracea alleles on heterosis for different agronomic and seed quality traits. Test hybrids of the inbreds derived from crosses involving vars. botrytis (cauliflower), alboglabra (Chinese kale) and capitata (cabbage) cv. Badger Shipper, on an average, gave about 10% mid-parent heterosis (MPH), and about 67% of the test hybrids gave higher seed yield than the common B. napus parent indicating that B. oleracea alleles can contribute to heterosis for seed yield in spring B. napus canola hybrids. This was also evident from a positive correlation of the genetic distance of the inbred lines from the common B. napus parent with MPH for seed yield (r = 0.31) as well as with hybrid yield (r = 0.26). Almost no correlation was found between genetic distance and MPH for seed oil and protein content as well as with the performance of the test hybrids for these two traits. The occurrence of positive correlation between seed yield of the inbred lines and test hybrids suggested the importance of the genes exerting additive effect for high seed yield in the hybrids. Very little or almost no heterosis was found for the other agronomic traits as well as for seed oil and protein content. While comparing the two breeding methods, no significant difference was found for seed yield of the test hybrids or the level of MPH; however, the BC1-derived inbred and test hybrid populations flowered and matured earlier and had longer grain-filling period than the F2-derived population. Thus, the results suggested that the B. oleracea gene pool can be used in the breeding of spring B. napus canola to improve seed yield in hybrid cultivars.

Ten-year responses of ground-dwelling spiders to retention harvest in the boreal forest.

The Ecosystem Management Emulating Natural Disturbances (EMEND) project tests the hypothesis that varying levels of green tree retention maintain and retain forest biodiversity better than conventional clear-cutting. We studied epigaeic spiders to assess biodiversity changes 2, 5, and 10 yr following a range of partial retention harvests (clear-cut, 10-75% retention) and unharvested controls in four boreal mixedwood cover types. A total of 56 371 adult spiders representing 220 species was collected using pitfall traps. Lasting effects on forest structure were proportional to harvest intensity. These changes strongly influenced spider richness, abundance, and species composition, as well as assemblage recovery. Distinctive assemblages were associated with disturbance level, especially with partial harvests (≤50% retention), and these were dominated by open-habitat species even 10 yr after harvest. Assemblages were more similar to those of controls in the highest (75%) retention treatment, but significant recovery toward the structure of pre-disturbance assemblages was not detected for any prescription in any cover type. Although early responses to retention harvest suggested positive effects on spider assemblages, these are better explained as lag effects after harvest because assemblages were less similar to those of unharvested controls 5 yr post-harvest, and only minor recovery was observed 10 yr following harvest. Retention of forest biodiversity decreased over time, especially in conifer stands and the lower (10-50%) retention treatments. Overall, retention harvests retained biodiversity and promoted landscape heterogeneity somewhat better than clear-cutting; however, there was a clear gradient of response and no retention "threshold" for conservation can be recommended on the basis of our data. Furthermore, results suggest that retention harvest prescriptions should be adjusted for cover type. We show that low retention ameliorated impacts in broadleaved forests characteristic of earlier stages in mixedwood succession, but only higher retention was associated with less impact in successionally older conifer forests. Although these short-term responses (10 yr) of spider assemblages support use of retention harvests, understanding the true conservation merit of these practices, relative to conventional approaches, requires evaluation over longer time scales, with work more focused on recovery of biodiversity than on its preservation after harvest.

Spider assemblages in the overstory, understory, and ground layers of managed stands in the western boreal mixedwood forest of Canada.

Logging is the main human disturbance in the boreal forest; thus, understanding the effects of harvesting practices on biodiversity is essential for a more sustainable forestry. To assess changes in spider composition because of harvesting, samples were collected from three forest layers (overstory, understory, and ground) of deciduous and conifer dominated stands in the northwestern Canadian boreal mixedwood forest. Spider assemblages and feeding guild composition were compared between uncut controls and stands harvested to 20% retention. In total, 143 spider species were collected, 74 from the ground, 60 from the understory, and 71 from the overstory, and species composition of these three pools differed considerably among layers. Distinctive spider assemblages were collected from the canopy of each forest cover type but these were only slightly affected by harvesting. However, logging had a greater impact on the species composition in the understory and ground layers when compared with unharvested controls. Guild structure differed among layers, with wandering and sheet-weaving spiders dominant on the ground while orb-weaving and ambush spiders were better represented in the understory and overstory, respectively. Given the ecological importance of spiders and the expectation of faunal changes with increased harvesting, further efforts toward the understanding of species composition in higher strata of the boreal forest are needed.

Verificación de la aplicabilidad de la fórmula de regresión logística para determinar el sexo por medio de odontometría del canino inferior, en una muestra bogotana / Verifying applicability of the logistic regression formula for gender estimation through odontometry of the lower canine in a Bogotan sample

Objetivo: Evaluar la validez predictiva de la fórmula de regresión logística propuesta por Mesa y colaboradores para determinar el sexo en una población colombiana. Métodos: Se utilizó una muestra de 98 caninos inferiores, extraídos de cuerpos de cadáveres encontra¬dos en Bogotá que ingresaron al Instituto Nacional de Medicina Legal y Ciencias Forenses (INMLCF). Utilizando un odontómetro, cada diente se midió cuidadosamente y se reimplantó dentro del alvéolo. Se construyó una base de datos en Excel y se analizaron los datos con el programa SPSS 12.0. Se hicieron pruebas de normalidad (Shapiro-Wilk y Kolmogorov-Smirnov) y de correlación (Pearson) para evaluar la asociación entre medidas dentales y sexo. Para la segunda parte del estudio se tomó la adecuación propuesta por Mesa y colaboradores para determinar el sexo de los especímenes, realizando análisis de pruebas de concordancia diagnóstica; se calcularon características operativas como sensibilidad, especificidad, valores predictivos y exactitud de diagnóstico con sus correspondientes intervalos de confianza (Win-Episcope 2.0, α=0,05). Resultados: De los 62 especímenes de hombres, el modelo de regresión logística categorizó adecuadamente 54 (87,8%), mientras que de las 36 muestras de mujeres se categorizaron adecuadamente 17 (52,8%). El por¬centaje total de categorización acertada fue 74,5%. Conclusiones: La ecuación logística mostró una mayor capacidad predictiva para establecer el sexo de los hombres que para el sexo de las mujeres, con un error cercano a 25%.

Objective: Evaluate the predictive validity of the logistic regression formula proposed by Mesa et al. for gender estimation in Colombian population. Methods: A sample of 98 mandi¬bular canines extracted from human corpses was gathered at the National Institute of Legal Medicine and Forensic Sciences (INMLCF) in Bogota. Each tooth was carefully measured using an odontometer and repositioned to the alveolar bone. A database was created to collect the data that were analyzed with SPSS 12.0. Normal distribution of data was analyzed through the Shapiro-Wilk and Kolmogorov-Smirnov tests and the association between tooth measures and gender were determined through Pearson correlation. For the second part of the study, the modification proposed by Mesa et al. was used to estimate gender in the samples through diagnostic concordance; operative characterisitics such as predictive sen¬sitivity, specificity, predictive values and diagnostic accuracy including confidence intervals were determined (Win-Episcope 2.0, α=0.05). Results: 62 samples belonged to deceased males of which 54 (87.8%) were adequately classified through the logistic regression model. On the other hand, 36 samples belonged to deceased females of which 17 were properly classified with the model. Of the total samples, 74.5% were properly classified. Conclusions: The logistic equation showed a greater predictive capacity in the estimation of gender in males than in females, failing to estimate 25% of the cases.

Management of severe hypertension in the postpartum period with intravenous hydralazine or labetalol: a randomized clinical trial.

OBJECTIVE: To compare the safety and efficacy of intravenous labetalol and intravenous hydralazine for acutely lowering blood pressure in the puerperium. DESIGN: Randomized clinical trial. SETTING: Critical care unit of gynecology and obstetrics department in the Complejo hospitalario "Dr. AAM" de la Caja de Seguro Social in Panama. POPULATION: Eighty-two women with severe hypertension during the postpartum period. METHODS: Patients were randomized to receive hydralazine (5 mg as a slow bolus dose given intravenously, and repeated every 20 minutes to a maximum of five doses) or labetalol (20 mg in an intravenous bolus dose followed by 40 mg if not effective within 20 minutes, followed by 80 mg every 20 minutes to a maximum dose of 300 mg). The primary endpoint was the successful lowering of blood pressure. Secondary endpoints were maternal complications and side-effects. RESULTS: Forty-two women were enrolled in the hydralazine group and 40 in the labetalol group. Women were similar with respect to characteristics at randomization. No significant differences were observed for persistent severe hypertension or maternal side-effects. There was only one case of persistent severe hypertension in the labetalol group. There were no maternal deaths in any of the women studied. CONCLUSIONS: This randomized clinical trial shows that intravenous hydralazine and intravenous labetalol are effective and safe in the management of severe hypertension in the postpartum period.

Los adolescentes y el SIDA / Adolescents and AIDS

Se realizó un estudio descriptivo transversal, determinándose por medio de encuestas el nivel de conocimientos sobre los factores de riesgo sexuales más frecuentes para adquirir VIH/SIDA; datos generales sobre el VIH; comportamientos sexuales y factores de riesgo de los adultos jóvenes. El universo estuvo conformado por 404 estudiantes de noveno, décimo y undécimo grados del casco urbano del municipio Arauquita, Arauca, Colombia. Se efectuó un muestreo sistemático aleatorio y se tomó como muestra 50 porciento del universo, 202 estudiantes. Se aplicó una encuesta cuestionario estructurado de carácter anónima de 30 preguntas de selección múltiple y exclusión abierta numérica

[Adolescents and AIDS]. / Los adolescentes y el SIDA.

A cross-sectional descriptive study was made based on surveys which determined the level of knowledge on the most frequent risk factors to catch HIV/AIDS; general data about HIV; sex behaviors and risk factors for young adults. The universe of study was made up of 404 students at 9th, 10th and 11th grades, who live in the urban area of Arauquita municipality, Arauca, Colombia. A randomized systematic sampling was carried out; 50 % of the students were taken as a sample, that is, 202 students. The survey used was an anonymous structured questionnaire consisting of 30 multiple choice questions and open numerical exclusion.

Perfil sociocultural de lactantes bajo control en consultorio periférico urbano / Socio-cultural profile of children aged to 23 months controlled at urban peripheric consultory

El trabajo describe un conjunto de factores que condicionan la situación de salud del lactante a través del análisis de una muestra de 100 lactantes de 0 a 23 meses de edad bajo control en el Consultorio Independencia, perteneciente al Servicio de Salud Metropolitano Norte del S.N.S.S., cuya información se obtuvo mediante una entrevista realizada a las madres o personas a cargo de dichos lactantes. Se investigan las características del grupo familiar, conocimientos de las madres relativos a salud y enfermedad del niño, las conductas adoptadas ante la enfermedad y finalmente las fuentes de conocimiento e información médica. Se concluye que existen en el hogar un grupo importante de factores que favorecen la salud del lactante, tales como edad y escolaridad de la madre y actitud de ésta ante la atención médica; algunas variables negativas estarían representadas por las características de la vivienda, la situación laboral del padre y el bajo nivel de ingresos. En relación a factores de tipo cultural, los conocimientos generales de salud que posee la madre aparecen como adecuados; las conductas de la madre frente a la enfermedad son en general apropiadas o al menos inocuas. El uso de medicina tradicional no interfiere con el adecuado manejo de la morbilidad del lactante y aparece como complementaria a la atención médica del consultorio