Late wisconsin climate of northern Florida and the origin of species-rich deciduous forest.

Species-rich mesic forest covered northern Florida as early as 14,000 radiocarbon years before present. It probably originated in deciduous tree populations already present locally in conifer forest between 24,000 and 18,600 years before present. The cold, dry Late Wisconsin climate ended before 14,600 years before present. A transitional warm, dry phase preceded a precipitation increase at 14,000 years before present.

A 50,000-year record of climate oscillations from Florida and its temporal correlation with the heinrich events.

Oscillations of Pinus (pine) pollen in a 50,000-year sequence from Lake Tulane, Florida, indicate that there were major vegetation shifts during the last glacial cycle. Episodes of abundant Pinus populations indicate a climate that was more wet than intervening phases dominated by Quercus (oak) and Ambrosia-type (ragweed and marsh-elder). The Pinus episodes seem to be temporally correlated with the North Atlantic Heinrich events, which were massive, periodic advances of ice streams from the eastern margin of the Laurentide Ice Sheet. Possible links between the Tulane Pinus and Heinrich events include hemispheric cooling, the influences of Mississippi meltwater on sea-surface temperatures in the Gulf of Mexico, and the effects of North Atlantic thermohaline circulation on currents in the Gulf.

Bronchopleural fistula followed by massive fatal hemoptysis in a patient with pulmonary mucormycosis. A case report.

A patient had complications of invasive pulmonary mucormycosis. A bronchopleural fistula developed, representing a rare complication of pulmonary mucormycosis. Massive fatal hemoptysis occurred, due to the propensity of mucormycosis to invade blood vessels.

Postglacial and Interglacial Vegetation History of Southern Georgia and Central Florida.

From 8,500 to 5,000 radiocarbon years ago three sites in southeastern Georgia and peninsular Florida, Lake Louise, Scott Lake, and Mud Lake, had predominant sclerophyllous oak forest, scrub, or savanna, probably with patches of bluestem prairie. About 5,000 year ago pine forest came to predominate on upland sites, and there was a more diverse flora of broad-leaved trees than before. Bayhead and cypress swamp vegetation did not become significant until after 5,000 BP, when Fagus (beech) also became abundant for the first time. The sediments at both Lake Louise and Scott Lake present evidence for recent forest clearance and consequent modification of the lake ecosystem. No vegetation record is available for the earlier postglacial or the period of the main Wisconsin Glaciation. Probably most lake basins of the region were dry during this time because of depression of the regional water table in highly permeable Tertiary limestones, caused by eustatic depression of sea level during Wisconsin Glaciation. At Lake Louise, as at Mud Lake, organic deposits too old to be dated by the radiocarbon method underlie the postglacial sequence, separated from it by clastic sediments that represent a large sedimentational hiatus. The lower organic deposits have the characteristics of an interglacial cycle. They are referred to the Sangamon interglacial, thus modifying a previous opinion that the Mud Lake sediments were partly Illinoian and partly Sangamon in age. A basic interglacial cycle proceeding from dry oak forest and herbaceous communities with eutrophic lakes to pine forest with hammock, bayhead, and cypress swamp vegetation is reconstructed for the southeastern United States.

Resistance exercise and plasma beta-endorphin/beta-lipotrophin immunoreactivity.

Serum cortisol and plasma beta-endorphin/beta-lipotrophin hormone (LPH) immunoreactivity were measured in five males before and after endurance exercise (treadmill) and burst activity resistance exercise (weight lifting). Mean beta-endorphin/beta-LPH immunoactivity increased significantly following treadmill testing (p less than .05) and weight training (p less than .06). Post-exercise hormonal values were similar for the two activities. The hormonal changes previously reported with endurance activities also occur with burst activity exercise.

Management of suspected temporal arteritis. A decision analysis.

Management strategies for suspected temporal arteritis range from bilateral temporal artery biopsy to empiric corticosteroid therapy. A decision analysis of the clinical situation was constructed, and a sensitivity analysis for varying prevalences of temporal arteritis was used to calculate costs for different management strategies. Conclusions suggested by the analysis include the following: (1) due to the high cost of blindness, suspicion of disease must be low (less than 1.4%) not to biopsy; (2) at high suspicion of disease (greater than 30%), empiric steroids are the cheapest management; (3) when diagnostic procedures are indicated, bilateral biopsy is the cheapest initial diagnostic procedure; and (4) if unilateral biopsy is negative, a second biopsy is always cost effective.

Caterpillar-induced keratitis.

Caterpillar hairs are responsible for a well-described though infrequent form of ocular trauma and disease sometimes referred to under the term ophthalmia nodosa. Four patients with this condition are presented with a review of the pathology and treatment guidelines.

Constipation. Mechanisms and management of a common clinical problem.

Many persons, including physicians, regard a "normal" bowel habit as being at least one bowel movement per day. In truth, the spectrum of normal covers anywhere from three movements per day to three or even less per week. This article outlines aspects of the history that will be most helpful in determining if constipation is indeed present. It also provides very useful information on the mechanisms of laxative action.

The relationship of alcohol, tobacco, marijuana, and other illegal drug use to delinquency among Mexican-American, black, and white adolescent males.

This study examined the relationship between drug use and delinquent behavior among 348 high school males (154 whites, 172 Mexican-Americans, and 22 blacks) and 89 adjudicated delinquent males confined to a maximum-security facility for violent and repeat offenders (37 whites, 25 Mexican-Americans, and 27 blacks). Data were collected in the spring of 1986 using self-administered questionnaires. Analyses were performed separately for each racial subgroup. Simple correlations revealed that self-reported alcohol, tobacco, marijuana, and other illegal drug use were all significantly related to both minor and violent delinquency for all three racial groups. Multiple regression analysis revealed that the use of these substances accounted for 40% to 47% of the variance in minor delinquency and for 59% of the variance in violent delinquency among blacks, 53% of the variance in violent delinquency among Mexican-Americans, and 34% of the variance in violent delinquency among whites. The best predictors of violent delinquency were the frequent use of illegal drugs other than marijuana and use of tobacco, in that order, among Mexican-Americans; the frequent use of other illegal drugs, marijuana, and tobacco, in that order, for whites; and the frequent use of illegal drugs, followed by marijuana, for blacks.

Coastal Zone Ecosystem Services: from science to values and decision making; a case study.

This research is concerned with the following environmental research questions: socio-ecological system complexity, especially when valuing ecosystem services; ecosystems stock and services flow sustainability and valuation; the incorporation of scale issues when valuing ecosystem services; and the integration of knowledge from diverse disciplines for governance and decision making. In this case study, we focused on ecosystem services that can be jointly supplied but independently valued in economic terms: healthy climate (via carbon sequestration and storage), food (via fisheries production in nursery grounds), and nature recreation (nature watching and enjoyment). We also explored the issue of ecosystem stock and services flow, and we provide recommendations on how to value stock and flows of ecosystem services via accounting and economic values respectively. We considered broadly comparable estuarine systems located on the English North Sea coast: the Blackwater estuary and the Humber estuary. In the past, these two estuaries have undergone major land-claim. Managed realignment is a policy through which previously claimed intertidal habitats are recreated allowing the enhancement of the ecosystem services provided by saltmarshes. In this context, we investigated ecosystem service values, through biophysical estimates and welfare value estimates. Using an optimistic (extended conservation of coastal ecosystems) and a pessimistic (loss of coastal ecosystems because of, for example, European policy reversal) scenario, we find that context dependency, and hence value transfer possibilities, vary among ecosystem services and benefits. As a result, careful consideration in the use and application of value transfer, both in biophysical estimates and welfare value estimates, is advocated to supply reliable information for policy making.