bluuebunny/crossref_metadata_2025_split huggingface dataset:
The productivity, metabolism and carbon cycle of tropical forest vegetation
Authors: Malhi Yadvinder 
Published: December 2011

Summary1. Tropical forests account for one‐third of the total metabolic activity of the Earth’s land surface. Hence, understanding the controls on tropical forest photosynthesis and respiration, and the allocation of the products of photosynthesis to canopy, woody tissue and rhizosphere, is important to understand global ecosystem functioning.2. I review how studies in tropical ecosystem ecology have progressed since their inception in the 1960s towards developing a quantitative, mechanistic and global description of the carbon cycle of tropical vegetation.3. I present a synthesis of studies in tropical forest sites in the Americas and Asia for which gross primary productivity (GPP) has been reported, and a subset of these sites for which net primary productivity (NPP) and ecosystem carbon use efficiency (CUE) have been estimated. GPP ranges between 30 and 40 Mg C ha−1 year−1 in lowland moist tropical forests and declines with elevation. CUE in tropical forests is at the low end of the global range reported for forests.4. A pathway and framework are presented to explain the link between photosynthesis and tropical forest biomass, and to explain differences in carbon cycling and biomass between forests. Variation in CUE and allocation of NPP can be as important as variation in GPP in explaining differences in tropical forest growth rates between sites.5. Finally, I explore some of the key questions surrounding the functioning and future of tropical forests in the rapidly changing conditions of the early Anthropocene.6. Synthesis.There have been significant recent advances in quantifying the carbon cycle of tropical forests, but our understanding of causes of variation amongst forests is still poor. Moreover, we should expect all tropical forests in the 21st century, whether intact or disturbed, to be undergoing rapid change in function and composition; the key challenge for tropical ecosystem ecologists is to determine and understand the major and most fundamental aspects of this change.
Evolutionary changes in plant reproductive traits following habitat fragmentation and their consequences for population fitness
Authors: Jacquemyn Hans , De Meester Luc , Jongejans Eelke , Honnay Olivier 
Published: December 2011

Summary1. The effects of habitat fragmentation on plant population genetic structure and diversity are relatively well studied. Yet, most of these studies used molecular tools focusing on neutral genetic markers, and much less is known about the potential evolutionary consequences of habitat fragmentation on ecologically relevant plant traits.2. It can be expected that the altered biotic and abiotic conditions and limited gene flow following habitat fragmentation may impose strong selection pressures on traits important for plant fitness. Responses to these selection pressures may, however, be hampered by reduced genetic diversity through genetic drift. Conversely, evolutionary changes in flower or dispersal traits may itself impact the strength of inbreeding and genetic drift.3. In this review, we highlight different reproductive plant traits that may be under selection following habitat fragmentation, and we examine studies that have shown indications for rapid evolutionary responses.4. There are still relatively few studies that have convincingly shown that habitat fragmentation generates rapid evolutionary responses. Separating genetic from plastic trait responses and quantifying the long‐term fitness consequences of evolutionary changes in plant traits also remain major challenges.5. Synthesis. Many plant traits may be subject to selection following habitat fragmentation, but, until now, studies that quantified evolutionary responses to habitat fragmentation are limited. To study the consequences of changing plant traits for population fitness, we advocate applying population models that link demographic vital rates, the responding plant traits and their heritability.
The AMÉLIE project: failure mode, effects and criticality analysis: a model to evaluate the nurse medication administration process on the floor
Authors: Nguyen Christina , Côté Justine , Lebel Denis , Caron Elaine , Genest Christine , Mallet Monia , Phan Véronique , Bussières Jean‐François 
Published: December 2011

AbstractObjective  The objective of this article was to critically evaluate the causes of adverse drug events during the nurse medication administration process in paediatric care units in order to identify and prioritize interventions that need to be implemented.Methodology  This is a failure mode, effects and criticality analysis (FMECA) study. A multidisciplinary committee composed of nurses, pharmacists, physicians and risk managers evaluated through consensus the process of administering medications at the Centre hospitalier universitaire de Sainte‐Justine. By mapping the process, all the failure modes were identified and associated with at least one cause each. Using a summary grid, each failure mode was evaluated by rating frequency (from 1 to 9), likelihood of failure detection (from 0 to 100%) and severity (from 1 to 9) using adapted versions of already published scales.Results  A 10‐member committee was set up, and it met eight times between January and April 2010. In the two specialized paediatric units selected (n = 38 beds), an average number of approximately 20 000 drug doses was administered monthly from about 400 non‐proprietary names. Through consensus, the committee identified 16 processes and 53 failure modes. While frequency and severity were based on perceptions that could be objectivized with local data and scientific documentation, the likelihood of detection was mainly based on individual perception.Conclusion  FMECA is a useful approach to improve the medication process.
Generic skills in medical education: developing the tools for successful lifelong learning
Authors: Murdoch‐Eaton Deborah , Whittle Sue 
Published: December 2011

Medical Education 2012: 46: 120–128Context  Higher education has invested in defining the role of generic skills in developing effective, adaptable graduates fit for a changing workplace. Research confirms that the development of generic skills that underpin effectiveness and adaptability in graduates is highly context‐dependent and is shaped by the discipline within which these skills are conceptualised, valued and taught. This places the responsibility for generic skills enhancement clearly within the remit of global medical education.Implications  Many factors will influence the skill set with which students begin their medical training and experience at entry needs to be taken into account. Learning and teaching environments enhance effective skill development through active learning, teaching for understanding, feedback, and teacher–student and student–student interaction. Medical curricula need to provide students with opportunities to practise and develop their generic skills in a range of discipline‐specific contexts. Curricular design should include explicit and integrated generic skills objectives against which students’ progress can be monitored. Assessment and feedback serve as valuable reinforcements of the professed importance of generic skills to both learner and teacher, and will encourage students to self‐evaluate and take responsibility for their own skill development. The continual need for students to modify their practice in response to changes in their environment and the requirements of their roles will help students to develop the ability to transfer these skills at transition points in their training and future careers.Conclusions  If they are to take their place in an ever‐changing profession, medical students need to be competent in the skills that underpin lifelong learning. Only then will the doctors of the future be well placed to adapt to changes in knowledge, update their practice in line with the changing evidence base, and continue to contribute effectively as societal needs change.
Kirkpatrick’s levels and education ‘evidence’
Authors: Yardley Sarah , Dornan Tim 
Published: December 2011

Medical Education 2012: 46: 97–106Objectives  This study aims to review, critically, the suitability of Kirkpatrick’s levels for appraising interventions in medical education, to review empirical evidence of their application in this context, and to explore alternative ways of appraising research evidence.Methods  The mixed methods used in this research included a narrative literature review, a critical review of theory and qualitative empirical analysis, conducted within a process of cooperative inquiry.Results  Kirkpatrick’s levels, introduced to evaluate training in industry, involve so many implicit assumptions that they are suitable for use only in relatively simple instructional designs, short‐term endpoints and beneficiaries other than learners. Such conditions are met by perhaps one‐fifth of medical education evidence reviews. Under other conditions, the hierarchical application of the levels as a critical appraisal tool adds little value and leaves reviewers to make global judgements of the trustworthiness of the data.Conclusions  Far from defining a reference standard critical appraisal tool, this research shows that ‘quality’ is defined as much by the purpose to which evidence is to be put as by any invariant and objectively measurable quality. Pending further research, we offer a simple way of deciding how to appraise the quality of medical education research.
Seeking impact of medical schools on health: meeting the challenges of social accountability
Authors: Woollard Bob , Boelen Charles 
Published: December 2011

Medical Education 2012: 46: 21–27Context  The acquisition of sums of knowledge and mastery of sophisticated technologies by medical graduates is insufficient for their responsibilities to recognise and adapt to people's evolving needs.Response  A Global Consensus on Social Accountability for Medical Schools brought together 130 organisations and individuals from around the world with responsibility for health education, professional regulation and policy making to participate for 8 months in a three‐round Delphi process leading to a 3‐day consensus development conference which included weighted representation from all regions of the world. The resulting Consensus reflects agreement on 10 strategic directions to enable a medical school to be socially accountable.Results  The list of 10 directions embraces a system‐wide scope from identification of health needs to verification of the effects of medical schools on those needs, all driven by the quest for positive impact on peoples’ health status. This includes an understanding of the social context, an identification of health challenges and needs and the creation of relationships to act efficiently (directions 1 and 2). Within the spectrum of the health workforce required to address health needs, the anticipated role and competences of the doctor are described (direction 3) serving as a guide to the education strategy (direction 4), which the medical school is called to implement along with consistent research and service strategies (direction 5). Standards are required to steer the institution towards a high level of excellence (directions 6 and 7), which national authorities need to recognise (direction 8). While social accountability is a universal value (direction 9), local societies will be the ultimate appraisers of the achievements of the school and its graduates (direction 10).
Programmatic assessment and Kane’s validity perspective
Authors: Schuwirth Lambert W T , van der Vleuten Cees P M 
Published: December 2011

Medical Education 2012: 46: 38–48Context  Programmatic assessment is a notion that implies that the strength of the assessment process results from a careful combination of various assessment instruments. Accordingly, no single instrument is superior to another, but each has its own strengths, weaknesses and purpose in a programme. Yet, in terms of psychometric methods, a one‐size‐fits‐all approach is often used. Kane’s views on validity as represented by a series of arguments provide a useful framework from which to highlight the value of different widely used approaches to improve the quality and validity of assessment procedures.Methods  In this paper we discuss four inferences which form part of Kane’s validity theory: from observations to scores; from scores to universe scores; from universe scores to target domain, and from target domain to construct. For each of these inferences, we provide examples and descriptions of approaches and arguments that may help to support the validity inference.Conclusions  As well as standard psychometric methods, a programme of assessment makes use of various other arguments, such as: item review and quality control, structuring and examiner training; probabilistic methods, saturation approaches and judgement processes, and epidemiological methods, collation, triangulation and member‐checking procedures. In an assessment programme each of these can be used.
Effects of vaginal hysterectomy on anorectal sensorimotor functions – a prospective study
Authors: Bharucha A. E. , Klingele C. J. , Seide B. M. , Gebhart J. B. , Zinsmeister A. R. 
Published: December 2011

AbstractBackground  While bowel and bladder dysfunction are recognized consequences of a radical hysterectomy, the effects of a simple hysterectomy on anorectal sensorimotor functions, particularly rectal sensation, vary among studies and the effects on rectal compliance remain unknown. Our aims were to prospectively evaluate anorectal sensorimotor functions before and after a hysterectomy.Methods  Anal pressures, rectal compliance, capacity, sensation, and bowel symptoms were assessed before, at 2 months, and at 1 year after a simple vaginal hysterectomy for benign indications in 19 patients. Rectal staircase (0–44 mmHg, 4‐mmHg steps), ramp (0–200 mL at 50, 200 and 600 mL min−1) and phasic distentions (8, 16, and 24 mmHg above operating pressure) were performed.Key Results  Anal resting (63 ± 4 before, 56 ± 4 mmHg after) and squeeze pressures (124 ± 12 before, 124 ± 12 mmHg after), rectal compliance and capacity (285 ± 12 before, 290 ± 11 mL 1 year after), and perception of phasic distentions were not different before vs after a hysterectomy. Sensory thresholds for first sensation and the desire to defecate were also not different, but pressure and volume thresholds for urgency were somewhat greater (Hazard ratio = 0.7, 95% CI [0.5, 1.0]) 1 year after (vs before) a hysterectomy. Rectal pressures were higher (P < 0.0001) during fast compared with slow ramp distention; this rate effect was greater at 1 year after a hysterectomy, particularly at 100 mL (P = 0.04).Conclusions & Inferences  A simple vaginal hysterectomy has relatively modest effects (i.e., somewhat reduced rectal urgency and increased stiffness during rapid distention) on rectal sensorimotor functions.
Multiplicity of infection does not accelerate infectivity evolution of viral parasites in laboratory microcosms
Authors: HALL A. R. , SCANLAN P. D. , LEGGETT H. C. , BUCKLING A. 
Published: December 2011

AbstractCoinfection with multiple parasite genotypes [multiplicity of infection (MOI)] creates within‐host competition and opportunities for parasite recombination and is therefore predicted to be important for both parasite and host evolution. We tested for a difference in the infectivity of viral parasites (lytic phage Φ2) and resistance of their bacterial hosts (Pseudomonas fluorescens SBW25) under both high and low MOI during coevolution in laboratory microcosms. Results show that MOI has no effect on infectivity and resistance evolution during coevolution over ∼80 generations of host growth, and this is true when the experiment is initiated with wild‐type viruses and hosts, or with viruses and hosts that have already been coevolving for ∼330 generations. This suggests that MOI does not have a net effect of accelerating parasite adaptation to hosts through recombination, or slowing adaptation to hosts through between‐parasite conflict in this system.
Alternatives to ginger root oil aromatherapy for improved mating performance of sterile Ceratitis capitata (Diptera: Tephritidae) males
Authors: Juan‐Blasco M. , San Andrés V. , Martínez‐Utrillas M. A. , Argilés R. , Pla I. , Urbaneja A. , Sabater‐Muñoz B. 
Published: December 2011

AbstractAutocidal control of the Mediterranean fruit fly Ceratitis capitata (Wiedemann) is an environmentally friendly and safe practice employed successfully worldwide. A key component in the Sterile Insect Technique (SIT) is to release sterile males that can compete with wild males in nature. Exposure of sterile males to ginger root oil (GRO) in the form of aromatherapy prior to release has been shown to significantly improve male competitiveness and performance. However, alternatives to GRO exposure are desired to (i) reduce personnel costs and handling‐time requirements and (ii) find new aromatherapeutic compounds. In this study, alternatives to GRO aromatherapy were investigated, such as incorporating GRO into the post‐teneral diet, or employing other molecules (limonene and linalool) occurring naturally in citrus release areas. Our results reveal that both the GRO‐supplemented diet and linalool aromatherapy were equal to the GRO aromatherapy control in improving mating performance in sterile males. In contrast, exposure to limonene did not afford a mating advantage to sterile mates when compared to the control. In addition, sterile male survival was not affected by any of the treatments tested. Implications for how both new approaches could be implemented in SIT programmes in citrus production areas are discussed.
Interactions between an ectoparasitoid and a nucleopolyhedrovirus when simultaneously attacking Spodoptera exigua (Lepidoptera: Noctuidae)
Authors: Stoianova E. , Williams T. , Cisneros J. , Muñoz D. , Murillo R. , Tasheva E. , Caballero P. 
Published: December 2011

AbstractInsect pathogenic viruses and parasitoids represent distinct biological entities that exploit a shared host resource and have similar effects in suppressing host populations. This study explores the interactions between the ectoparasitoid Euplectrus plathypenae (Hymenoptera: Eulophidae) and the Spodoptera exigua multiple nucleopolyhedrovirus (SeMNPV) in larvae of S. exigua (Lepidoptera: Noctuidae). Parasitoid progeny failed to complete development in hosts that had been infected prior to parasitism. However, infection of S. exigua fourth instars at 48 h post‐parasitism had no significant effects on the survival of parasitoid progeny. Larval and pupal development times of E. plathypenae that survived on virus‐infected S. exigua did not differ significantly from that of parasitoids on healthy hosts. Virus‐induced mortality and the production of occlusion bodies were very similar in parasitized and non‐parasitized S. exigua. The virus was genetically stable over three passages in parasitized and unparasitized hosts. These results suggest that applications of SeMNPV‐based insecticides are unlikely to disrupt pest control exerted by the parasitoid E. plathypenae in biological pest control programs as long as virus applications are timed not to coincide with parasitoid releases.
How many neurons do you have? Some dogmas of quantitative neuroscience under revision
Authors: Lent Roberto , Azevedo Frederico A. C. , Andrade‐Moraes Carlos H. , Pinto Ana V. O. 
Published: December 2011

AbstractOwing to methodological shortcomings and a certain conservatism that consolidates wrong assumptions in the literature, some dogmas have become established and reproduced in papers and textbooks, derived from quantitative features of the brain. The first dogma states that the cerebral cortex is the pinnacle of brain evolution – based on the observations that its volume is greater in more ‘intelligent’ species, and that cortical surface area grows more than any other brain region, to reach the largest proportion in higher primates and humans. The second dogma claims that the human brain contains 100 billion neurons, plus 10‐fold more glial cells. These round numbers have become widely adopted, although data provided by different authors have led to a broad range of 75–125 billion neurons in the whole brain. The third dogma derives from the second, and states that our brain is structurally special, an outlier as compared with other primates. Being so large and convoluted, it is a special construct of nature, unrelated to evolutionary scaling. Finally, the fourth dogma appeared as a tentative explanation for the considerable growth of the brain throughout development and evolution – being modular in structure, the brain (and particularly the cerebral cortex) grows by tangential addition of modules that are uniform in neuronal composition. In this review, we sought to examine and challenge these four dogmas, and propose other interpretations or simply their replacement with alternative views.
Projections and interconnections of genetically defined serotonin neurons in mice
Authors: Bang Sun Jung , Jensen Patricia , Dymecki Susan M. , Commons Kathryn G. 
Published: December 2011

AbstractBrain serotonin neurons are heterogeneous and can be distinguished by several anatomical and physiological characteristics. Toward resolving this heterogeneity into classes of functional relevance, subtypes of mature serotonin neurons were previously identified based on gene expression differences initiated during development in different rhombomeric (r) segments of the hindbrain. This redefinition of mature serotonin neuron subtypes based on the criteria of genetic lineage, along with the enabling genetic fate mapping tools, now allows various functional properties, such as axonal projections, to be allocated onto these identified subtypes. Furthermore, our approach uniquely enables interconnections between the different serotonin neuron subtypes to be determined; this is especially relevant because serotonin neuron activity is regulated by several feedback mechanisms. We used intersectional and subtractive genetic fate mapping tools to generate three independent lines of mice in which serotonin neurons arising in different rhombomeric segments, either r1, r2 or both r3 and r5, were uniquely distinguished from all other serotonin neurons by their expression of enhanced green fluorescent protein. Each of these subgroups of serotonergic neurons had a unique combination of forebrain projection targets. Typically more than one subgroup innervated an individual target area. Unique patterns of interconnections between the different groups of serotonin neurons were also observed and these pathways could subserve feedback regulatory circuits. Overall, the current findings suggest that activation of subsets of serotonin neurons could result in topographic serotonin release in the forebrain coupled with feedback inhibition of serotonin neurons with alternative projection targets.