Marine and freshwater fishes of Alabama: a revised checklist and discussion of taxonomic issues.

Checklists are fundamental and important tools for organizing information about biodiversity that provide a basis for conservation and additional scientific research. While Alabama is recognized as an aquatic biodiversity hotspot with the highest native freshwater fish diversity in the contiguous United States, we currently lack an up-to-date list of the states fishes. In particular, much has changed over the past ~20 years regarding our knowledge of fishes from Alabama and the Mobile River Basin, rendering past comprehensive treatments by Mettee et al. (1996) and Boschung and Mayden (2004) out of date. Here, we provide a revised checklist of marine and freshwater fishes known from the coastal and inland waters of Alabama that includes 463 species (335 primarily freshwater fishes, and 128 marine or diadromous fishes) in 35 orders, 78 families, and 176 genera. Extant, extirpated, and extinct species are included, as are putative candidate species. The checklist is based on prior work, searches of the literature and online sources, as well as parsing a large compilation of >140,000 fish records for Alabama and the Mobile River Basin from 37 data providers in the global Fishnet2 database (www.fishnet2.net) and >4000 marine survey records from the SEAMAP database (https://www.gsmfc.org/seamap.php). After editing and quality control checks, the final combined database contained 144,215 collection records, ~95% of which were georeferenced. We discuss the species descriptions, nomenclatural changes, and updates to marine species that account for changes to the state list, and we close with a discussion of ~13 candidate species forms that remain undescribed, which represent outstanding taxonomic issues in need of further research attention.

Does the Neurological Examination Correlate with Patient-Perceived Outcomes in Degenerative Cervical Myelopathy?

BACKGROUND: In patients with neurological disorders, a divergence can exist between patients' perceptions regarding the outcomes and the objective neurological findings. Degenerative cervical myelopathy (DCM), a prevalent condition characterized by progressive compression of the cervical spinal cord, can produce debilitating symptoms and profound neurological findings. The purpose of the present study was to determine whether the physician-derived neurological examination findings, as recorded by American Spine Injury Association (ASIA) summary score, correlated with the patient-derived outcome measures for DCM. METHODS: A total of 78 patients underwent surgical management of DCM with completion of preoperative and 6-month follow-up assessments. Surgical management consisted of either anterior or posterior cervical decompression. All patients underwent a neurological evaluation, including an ASIA assessment before surgery and 6 months after surgery, and completed the modified Japanese Orthopaedic Association (mJOA), neck disability index (NDI), and Short-Form 36-item (SF-36) scales pre- and postoperatively to measure both disease-specific and general perceived outcomes. RESULTS: The objective physician-derived neurological testing (ASIA) did not correlate with the patient-derived scales (mJOA, NDI, and SF-36) pre- or postoperatively. Patients reported significant improvements (P < 0.001) at 6 months postoperatively in extremity functioning (mJOA), neck pain (NDI), overall physical health (SF-36), and objective strength and sensory functioning (ASIA). All patient-perceived outcome measures correlated with each other pre- and postoperatively (P < 0.01). CONCLUSIONS: Objective scoring of postoperative neurological function did not correlate with patient-perceived outcomes before and after surgery for DCM. Traditional testing of motor and sensory function as part of the neurological assessment may not be sensitive enough to assess the scope of neurological changes experienced by patients with DCM.

Retrospective review of percutaneous synovial cyst ruptures: increased thickness of the T2 hypointense rim on post-rupture MRI may be associated with need for subsequent surgery.

OBJECTIVE: To analyze MRI characteristics of lumbar facet synovial cysts and distinguish those requiring subsequent surgical management for recurrence, after percutaneous synovial cyst rupture. METHODS AND MATERIALS: Retrospective chart review conducted in patients undergoing percutaneous synovial cyst rupture between February 2012 and April 2015. Pre- and post-percutaneous rupture procedure MRI spine studies were serially reviewed. Synovial cyst sizes, T1 and T2 signal characteristics and changes therein, T2 hypointense (or 'dark rim') thickness and change, and changes in the complexity of cyst signals were compared. Operative notes for patients who underwent subsequent surgical removal of recurrent synovial cysts were reviewed. RESULTS: 24 patients received 41 percutaneous synovial cyst rupture procedures, with a technical success rate of 82.9%. There was a significant difference in the mean increased thickness of the T2 hypointense rim on the first post-rupture MRI scan (p=0.0411) between patients requiring subsequent surgery and those who did not. There was a significant difference in the average sizes of synovial cysts before the procedure (p=0.0483) in those requiring subsequent surgery and those who did not. Five complications were noted (12.2%), mostly involving leg pain or weakness. Of the nine patients who underwent subsequent surgery post-synovial cyst rupture, six of the surgeries had recorded difficulty pertaining to scarring and/or adherence of the cyst to dura. CONCLUSIONS: A larger increase in thickness of the T2 hypointense rim on the first post-rupture MRI scan and a larger synovial cyst size were associated with the need for subsequent surgical resection.

Primary Clear Cell Chondrosarcoma of Thoracic Spine.

Clear cell chondrosarcoma is a rare cartilaginous tumor that arises commonly in the epiphyses of the proximal femur or humerus. Spinal involvement is extremely rare, but when present, it most frequently involves the thoracic spine. Clear cell chondrosarcoma is rarely reported in thoracic spine. We report a case of a 70-year-old man with clear cell chondrosarcoma of the T7-8 thoracic spine. Gross en bloc resection of T6-8 vertebral bodies with reconstruction and fusion followed by radiotherapy were performed.

Cervical Spondylotic Myelopathy: Metabolite Changes in the Primary Motor Cortex after Surgery.

Purpose To characterize longitudinal metabolite alterations in the motor cortex of patients with cervical spondylotic myelopathy (CSM) by using proton magnetic resonance (MR) spectroscopy and to evaluate white matter integrity with diffusion-tensor imaging in patients who are recovering neurologic function after decompression surgery. Materials and Methods Informed written consent was obtained for all procedures and the study was approved by Western University's Health Sciences Research Ethics Board. Twenty-eight patients with CSM and 10 healthy control subjects were prospectively recruited and underwent two separate 3-T MR imaging examinations 6 months apart. Patients with CSM underwent surgery after the first examination. N-acetylaspartate (NAA), an indicator of neuronal mitochondrial function, normalized to creatine (Cr) levels were measured from the motor cortex contralateral to the greater functional deficit side in the patient group and on both sides in the control group. Fractional anisotropy and mean diffusivity were measured by means of diffusion-tensor imaging in the white matter adjacent to the motor and sensory cortices of the hand and the entire cerebral white matter. Clinical data were analyzed by using Student t tests. Results In patients with CSM, NAA normalized to Cr (NAA/Cr) levels were significantly lower 6 months after surgery (1.48 ± 0.08; P < .03) compared with preoperative levels (1.73 ± 0.09), despite significant improvement in clinical questionnaire scores. Fractional anisotropy and mean diffusivity were the same (P > .05) between the patient and control groups in all measured regions at all time points. Conclusion NAA/Cr levels decreased in the motor cortex in patients with CSM 6 months after successful surgery. Intact white matter integrity with decreased NAA/Cr levels suggests that mitochondrial metabolic dysfunction persists after surgery. © RSNA, 2016 Online supplemental material is available for this article.

Association study of early-immediate genes in childhood-onset mood disorders and suicide attempt.

Childhood-onset mood disorders (COMD) are serious affective disorders with deleterious developmental sequelae including interpersonal dysfunction, psychotic symptoms and suicidal behavior. The current study examines 10 markers from two early-immediate genes for association with COMD and suicide attempt (SA) - HOMER1 and human neuronal pentraxin II (NPTX2). We examined individuals diagnosed with COMD versus matched controls, as well as individuals with COMD and a history of at least one lifetime SA versus COMD participants with no history of SA. No significant genotypic association was noted between any of the single nucleotide polymorphisms (SNPs) and COMD. Our sample yielded a nominally significant allelic association between the HOMER1 rs7713917 SNP and COMD. We report significant genotype associations between HOMER1 rs2290639 and SA , and between NPTX2 markers rs705315 and rs1681248 and SA, findings that remained statistically significant after multiple test correction. A three-way interaction was observed among HOMER1 rs4704560, rs2290639 and NPTX2 rs705318. The associations we describe for HOMER1 and NPTX2 with SA should be considered preliminary until replicated.

Loss of potassium homeostasis underlies hyperthermic conduction failure in control and preconditioned locusts.

At extreme temperature, neurons cease to function appropriately. Prior exposure to a heat stress (heat shock [HS]) can extend the temperature range for action potential conduction in the axon, but how this occurs is not well understood. Here we use electrophysiological recordings from the axon of a locust visual interneuron, the descending contralateral movement detector (DCMD), to examine what physiological changes result in conduction failure and what modifications allow for the observed plasticity following HS. We show that at high temperature, conduction failure in the DCMD occurred preferentially where the axon passes through the thoracic ganglia rather than in the connective. Although the membrane potential hyperpolarized with increasing temperature, we observed a modest depolarization (3-6 mV) in the period preceding the failure. Prior to the conduction block, action potential amplitude decreased and half-width increased. Both of these failure-associated effects were attenuated following HS. Extracellular potassium concentration ([K+]o) increased sharply at failure and the failure event could be mimicked by the application of high [K+]o. Surges in [K+]o were muted following HS, suggesting that HS may act to stabilize ion distribution. Indeed, experimentally increased [K+]o lowered failure temperature significantly more in control animals than in HS animals and experimentally maintained [K+]o was found to be protective. We suggest that the more attenuated effects of failure on the membrane properties of the DCMD axon in HS animals is consistent with a decrease in the disruptive nature of the [K+]o-dependent failure event following HS and thus represents an adaptive mechanism to cope with thermal stress.

Dioxygenase-catalysed dihydroxylation of arene cis-dihydrodiols and acetonide derivatives: a new approach to the synthesis of enantiopure tetraoxygenated bioproducts from arenes.

cis-Dihydrodiols of anthracene and benz[a]anthracene, and acetonide derivatives of the cis-dihydrodiols of benzene, fluorobenzene, biphenyl and phenanthrene have been identified as substrates for dioxygenase enzymes, yielding the corresponding enantiopure arene bioproducts, bis(cis-dihydrodiol)s and cis-diol acetonides respectively.

The role of attack and defense semantics in skilled players' memory for chess positions.

There is much evidence that chess skill is based on chunks in memory that represent parts of positions from previously encountered games. However, the content of these chunks is a matter for debate. According to one view, (1) the closer two pieces are to each other on a board (proximity), the more likely they are to be in the same chunk, and (2) skilled players encode the precise locations of pieces. An alternative view is that what information is encoded in a chess chunk is determined more by processing of the attack/defense relations during evaluation. In three experiments, participants evaluated positions and completed recognition tests. Experiment 1 supported the view that expert players make more use of attack/defense relations than of locations of pieces in a recognition test. Experiments 2 and 3 demonstrated that, for both long and short presentation times, expert players' recognition for a piece within a position was primed more by a piece related by attack or defense than by a piece merely proximal. These findings challenge theories of expertise for chess that assume a primary role for proximity and location in determining which pieces are grouped together in memory.