Step-patterned survivorship curves: Mortality and loss of equilibrium responses to high temperature and food restriction in juvenile rainbow trout (Oncorhynchus mykiss).

While survivorship curves typically exhibit smooth declines over time, step-patterned curves can occur with multiple stressors within a life stage. To explore this process, we examined the effects of heat (24°C) and food restriction on juvenile rainbow trout (Oncorhynchus mykiss Walbaum) in challenge experiments. We observed step-patterned survivorship curves determined by mortality and loss of equilibrium (LOE) endpoints. To examine the cause of heterogeneity in the stress responses from early to late mortality and LOE, we measured indices of energetic reserves. The step transition in the survivorship curves, the peak mortality rates, and start of when individuals reached a critical energetic threshold (14% dry mass; 4.0 kJ·g-1 energy) all occurred at around days 10-15 of the challenge. The coherence in these temporal patterns suggest heterogeneity in the cohort stress responses, in which an early subgroup died from heat stress and a late subgroup died from starvation. Thus, their endpoint sensitivities resulted in step-patterned survivorship curves. We discuss the implications of the study for understanding effects of multiple stressors on population heterogeneity and note the possible significance of stress response selection under climate change in which heat stress and food limitations occur in concert.

The changing physical and ecological meanings of North Pacific Ocean climate indices.

Climate change is likely to change the relationships between commonly used climate indices and underlying patterns of climate variability, but this complexity is rarely considered in studies using climate indices. Here, we show that the physical and ecological conditions mapping onto the Pacific Decadal Oscillation (PDO) index and North Pacific Gyre Oscillation (NPGO) index have changed over multidecadal timescales. These changes apparently began around a 1988/1989 North Pacific climate shift that was marked by abrupt northeast Pacific warming, declining temporal variance in the Aleutian Low (a leading atmospheric driver of the PDO), and increasing correlation between the PDO and NPGO patterns. Sea level pressure and surface temperature patterns associated with each climate index changed after 1988/1989, indicating that identical index values reflect different states of basin-scale climate over time. The PDO and NPGO also show time-dependent skill as indices of regional northeast Pacific ecosystem variability. Since the late 1980s, both indices have become less relevant to physical-ecological variability in regional ecosystems from the Bering Sea to the southern California Current. Users of these climate indices should be aware of nonstationary relationships with underlying climate variability within the historical record, and the potential for further nonstationarity with ongoing climate change.

Conservation planning for freshwater-marine carryover effects on Chinook salmon survival.

Experiences of migratory species in one habitat may affect their survival in the next habitat, in what is known as carryover effects. These effects are especially relevant for understanding how freshwater experience affects survival in anadromous fishes. Here, we study the carryover effects of juvenile salmon passage through a hydropower system (Snake and Columbia rivers, northwestern United States). To reduce the direct effect of hydrosystem passage on juveniles, some fishes are transported through the hydrosystem in barges, while the others are allowed to migrate in-river. Although hydrosystem survival of transported fishes is greater than that of their run-of-river counterparts, their relative juvenile-to-adult survival (hereafter survival) can be less. We tested for carryover effects using generalized linear mixed effects models of survival with over 1 million tagged Chinook salmon, Oncorhynchus tshawytscha (Walbaum) (Salmonidae), migrating in 1999-2013. Carryover effects were identified with rear-type (wild vs. hatchery), passage-type (run-of-river vs. transported), and freshwater and marine covariates. Importantly, the Pacific Decadal Oscillation (PDO) index characterizing cool/warm (i.e., productive/nonproductive) ocean phases had a strong influence on the relative survival of rear- and passage-types. Specifically, transportation benefited wild Chinook salmon more in cool PDO years, while hatchery counterparts benefited more in warm PDO years. Transportation was detrimental for wild Chinook salmon migrating early in the season, but beneficial for later season migrants. Hatchery counterparts benefited from transportation throughout the season. Altogether, wild fish could benefit from transportation approximately 2 weeks earlier during cool PDO years, with still a benefit to hatchery counterparts. Furthermore, we found some support for hypotheses related to higher survival with increased river flow, high predation in the estuary and plume areas, and faster migration and development-related increased survival with temperature. Thus, pre- and within-season information on local- and broad-scale conditions across habitats can be useful for planning and implementing real-time conservation programs.

One Size Doesn't Fit All: New Continua of Figure Drawings and Their Relation to Ideal Body Image.

OBJECTIVE: This study introduces a new figure drawing measure, the Presentation of Images on a Continuum Scale (PICS), which includes continua of bodies from thin to obese and thin to muscular for both men and women. PARTICIPANTS: Participants were undergraduate students from a private, Catholic university in Connecticut. The data were collected in the spring of 2010. METHODS: Three hundred forty-eight undergraduates completed an online survey that assessed current versus ideal body image as well as attractiveness of body types. RESULTS: Results showed that current versus ideal body selection discrepancies on the PICS among women (but not among men) were related to several negative outcomes involving increased body concerns, less body satisfaction, and lower self-esteem, as well as increased drive for muscularity among men. Study implications are described from a social norming perspective.

Analysis of vitamin D status at two academic medical centers and a national reference laboratory: result patterns vary by age, gender, season, and patient location.

BACKGROUND: Testing for 25-hydroxyvitamin D [25(OH)D] has increased dramatically in recent years. The present report compares overall utilization and results for 25(OH)D orders at two academic medical centers - one in New York and one in Iowa - in order to characterize the vitamin D status of our inpatient and outpatient populations. Results are also compared to those from a national reference laboratory to determine whether patterns at these two institutions reflect those observed nationally. METHODS: Retrospective data queries of 25(OH)D orders and results were conducted using the laboratory information systems at Weill Cornell Medical College / New York Presbyterian Hospital (WCMC), University of Iowa Hospitals and Clinics (UIHC), and ARUP Laboratories (ARUP). Chart review was conducted for cases with very high or low serum 25(OH)D levels in the WCMC and UIHC datasets. RESULTS: The majority of tests were ordered on females and outpatients. Average serum 25(OH)D levels were higher in female versus male patients across most ages in the WCMC, UIHC, and ARUP datasets. As expected, average serum 25(OH)D levels were higher in outpatients than inpatients. Serum 25(OH)D levels showed seasonal periodicity, with average levels higher in summer than winter and correlating to regional UV index. Area plots demonstrated a peak of increased 25(OH)D insufficiency / deficiency in adolescent females, although overall worse 25(OH)D status was found in male versus female patients in the WCMC, UIHC, and ARUP datasets. Surprisingly, improved 25(OH)D status was observed in patients starting near age 50. Finally, chart review of WCMC and UIHC datasets revealed over-supplementation (especially of ≥ 50,000 IU weekly doses) in the rare cases of very high 25(OH)D levels. General nutritional deficiency and/or severe illness was found in most cases of severe 25(OH)D deficiency. CONCLUSIONS: 25(OH)D status of patients seen by healthcare providers varies according to age, gender, season, and patient location. Improved 25(OH)D status was observed later in life, a finding that may reflect the previously described increased use of vitamin D-containing supplements in such populations. Severe vitamin D deficiency is much more common than vitamin D toxicity.

Resource competition induces heterogeneity and can increase cohort survivorship: selection-event duration matters.

Determining when resource competition increases survivorship can reveal processes underlying population dynamics and reinforce the importance of heterogeneity among individuals in conservation. We ran an experiment mimicking the effects of competition in a growing season on survivorship during a selection event (e.g., overwinter starvation, drought). Using a model fish species (Poecilia reticulata), we studied how food availability and competition affect mass in a treatment stage, and subsequently survivorship in a challenge stage of increased temperature and starvation. The post-treatment mean mass was strongly related to the mean time to mortality and mass at mortality at all levels of competition. However, competition increased variance in mass and extended the right tail of the survivorship curve, resulting in a greater number of individuals alive beyond a critical temporal threshold ([Formula: see text]) than without competition. To realize the benefits from previously experienced competition, the duration of the challenge ([Formula: see text]) following the competition must exceed the critical threshold [Formula: see text] (i.e., competition increases survivorship when [Formula: see text]). Furthermore, this benefit was equivalent to increasing food availability by 20 % in a group without competition in our experiment. The relationship of [Formula: see text] to treatment and challenge conditions was modeled by characterizing mortality through mass loss in terms of the stochastic rate of loss of vitality (individual's survival capacity). In essence, when the duration of a selection event exceeds [Formula: see text], competition-induced heterogeneity buffers against mortality through overcompensation processes among individuals of a cohort. Overall, our study demonstrates an approach to quantify how early life stage heterogeneity affects survivorship.

Abelson interactor-1 (ABI-1) interacts with MRL adaptor protein MIG-10 and is required in guided cell migrations and process outgrowth in C. elegans.

Directed cell migration and process outgrowth are vital to proper development of many metazoan tissues. These processes are dependent on reorganization of the actin cytoskeleton in response to external guidance cues. During development of the nervous system, the MIG-10/RIAM/Lamellipodin (MRL) signaling proteins are thought to transmit positional information from surface guidance cues to the actin polymerization machinery, and thus to promote polarized outgrowth of axons. In C. elegans, mutations in the MRL family member gene mig-10 result in animals that have defects in axon guidance, neuronal migration, and the outgrowth of the processes or 'canals' of the excretory cell, which is required for osmoregulation in the worm. In addition, mig-10 mutant animals have recently been shown to have defects in clustering of vesicles at the synapse. To determine additional molecular partners of MIG-10, we conducted a yeast two-hybrid screen using isoform MIG-10A as bait and isolated Abelson-interactor protein-1 (ABI-1). ABI-1, a downstream target of Abl non-receptor tyrosine kinase, is a member of the WAVE regulatory complex (WRC) involved in the initiation of actin polymerization. Further analysis using a co-immunoprecipitation system confirmed the interaction of MIG-10 and ABI-1 and showed that it requires the SH3 domain of ABI-1. Single mutants for mig-10 and abi-1 displayed similar phenotypes of incomplete migration of the ALM neurons and truncated outgrowth of the excretory cell canals, suggesting that the ABI-1/MIG-10 interaction is relevant in vivo. Cell autonomous expression of MIG-10 isoforms rescued both the neuronal migration and the canal outgrowth defects, showing that MIG-10 functions autonomously in the ALM neurons and the excretory cell. These results suggest that MIG-10 and ABI-1 interact physically to promote cell migration and process outgrowth in vivo. In the excretory canal, ABI-1 is thought to act downstream of UNC-53/NAV2, linking this large scaffolding protein to actin polymerization during excretory canal outgrowth. abi-1(RNAi) enhanced the excretory canal truncation observed in mig-10 mutants, while double mutant analysis between unc-53 and mig-10 showed no increased truncation of the posterior canal beyond that observed in mig-10 mutants. Morphological analysis of mig-10 and unc-53 mutants showed that these genes regulate canal diameter as well as its length, suggesting that defective lumen formation may be linked to the ability of the excretory canal to grow out longitudinally. Taken together, our results suggest that MIG-10, UNC-53, and ABI-1 act sequentially to mediate excretory cell process outgrowth.

Pregnancy after age 50: defining risks for mother and child.

Assisted reproductive technology using donor-egg in vitro fertilization (D-IVF) has enabled women 50 years and above to successfully achieve pregnancy. We examine the safety profile of these pregnancies through a large, single-center case series and retrospective cohort analysis in which all participants were carefully screened medically prior to conception. Consecutive women aged ≥ 50 years (n = 101) who achieved a viable pregnancy via D-IVF were identified and their perinatal outcomes were recorded. These data were compared with control data from younger (≤ 42 years) recipients of D-IVF (n = 41) who also achieved a viable pregnancy at our center during the same period. Compared with the younger women, older recipients had statistically similar rates of hypertensive disorders of pregnancy (23% versus 14%, odds ratio [OR] 1.9 [0.65 to 5.4]), gestational diabetes (4.0% versus 3.0%, OR 1.4 [0.15 to 113.0]), preterm premature rupture of membranes/preterm labor (8.9% versus 14%, OR 0.59 [0.18 to 1.9]), and abnormal placentation (2.1% versus 0%). Cesarean delivery was high in women ≥ 50 (81% of singletons, 100% of multiples). There was one maternal death, which occurred before delivery in a 49-year-old woman who would have been 50 at term had she survived, presumably secondary to myocardial infarction. Primary neonatal outcomes of gestational age and birth weight were excellent and similar between groups. Women ≥ 50 years who achieve pregnancy via D-IVF are at high risk for maternal complications, particularly hypertensive disorders and cesarean section, but at rates similar to those seen in younger recipients.

Life after HIV: examination of HIV serodiscordant couples' desire to conceive through assisted reproduction.

The current study addresses fertility desires and considerations among 143 HIV serodiscordant, opposite-sex couples (in which only the male partner is HIV positive) in the Northeastern U.S. Couples responded to questionnaires during their initial consultation for assisted reproduction, and data were collected over 7 years and analyzed retrospectively. Results indicated that a majority of the male participants had HIV when they met their partner, and a majority also disclosed their HIV status upon meeting. Most couples reported that they had previously discussed or considered a host of fertility-related issues, including the potential risk of HIV infection to the mother and the fetus during the process of fertility treatment. The majority of couples had also discussed the possibility that the male partner could die prematurely due to HIV/AIDS and had considered making arrangements for third-party parenting in the event of the male partner's death. If their fertility treatment were to be successful in the future, most couples desired additional children, and most believed that their future child should be told of the male partner's HIV status. Predictors of the desire for additional children after successful fertility treatment included: younger age, shorter relationship duration, being childless currently, and beginning their relationship after the male partner had already been diagnosed as HIV positive. Future research on fertility desires should include perspectives of HIV positive men on fatherhood, as well as concerns and issues specific to HIV serodiscordant couples.