Author: engeladmin

A Comparison of Frugivory and Scatter-Hoarding Seed-Dispersal Syndromes

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Author: Vander Wall, Stephen B.; Beck, Maurie J. Description: Frugivory (animals ingest all or part of fleshy-fruits and defecate or regurgitate seeds) and scatter-hoarding (animals store seeds in small caches in soil) are two important vertebrate-mediated seed dispersal syndromes. In both instances, there is an exchange of food for seed transport, but there are many important differences. For example, the seeds of frugivore-dispersed plants are often clumped in feces or under roosts and the microsite of depostion is often unsuitable for seedling establishment. However, frugivores can transport seeds long distances…

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Community-level assisted migration for climate-appropriate prairie restoration

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Author: McKone, Mark J.; Hernandez, Daniel L. Description: Climate change threatens the long-term survival of highly fragmented habitats such as North American tallgrass prairie. De novo plantings into former agricultural sites can contribute to efforts to conserve prairie biodiversity, but past planting practice (including our own) has focused on the use of local species and genotypes. Climate change makes this “local-only” practice obsolete because of rapidly shifting species’ ranges. We propose that new prairie plantings incorporate assisted migration at the community level; all species and genotypes that are viable in…

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Climate and Developmental Plasticity: Interannual Variability in Grapevine Leaf Morphology

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Author: Chitwood, DH; Rundell, SM; Li, DY; Woodford, QL; Yu, TT; Lopez, JR; Greenblatt, D; Kang, J; Londo, JP Description: The shapes of leaves are dynamic, changing over evolutionary time between species, within a single plant producing different shaped leaves at successive nodes, during the development of a single leaf as it allometrically expands, and in response to the environment. Notably, strong correlations between the dissection and size of leaves with temperature and precipitation exist in both the paleorecord and extant populations. Yet, a morphometric model integrating evolutionary, developmental, and…

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Estimating the capacity of Chamaecrista fasciculata for adaptation to change in precipitation

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Author: Peschel, AR; Boehm, EL; Shaw, RG Description: Adaptation through natural selection may be the only means by which small and fragmented plant populations will persist through present day environmental change. A population’s additive genetic variance for fitness (V(A) (W)) represents its immediate capacity to adapt to the environment in which it exists. We evaluated this property for a population of the annual legume Chamaecrista fasciculata through a quantitative genetic experiment in the tallgrass prairie region of the Midwestern United States, where changing climate is predicted to include more variability…

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Predicting species’ maximum dispersal distances from simple plant traits

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Author: Tamme, R; Gotzenberger, L; Zobel, M; Bullock, JM; Hooftman, DA; Kaasik, A; Partel, M Description: Many studies have shown plant species’ dispersal distances to be strongly related to life-history traits, but how well different traits can predict dispersal distances is not yet known. We used cross-validation techniques and a global data set (576 plant species) to measure the predictive power of simple plant traits to estimate species’ maximum dispersal distances. Including dispersal syndrome (wind, animal, ant, ballistic, and no special syndrome), growth form (tree, shrub, herb), seed mass, seed…

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A review of oxycodone’s clinical pharmacokinetics and pharmacodynamics

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Author: Poyhia, R; Vainio, A; Kalso, E Description: Oxycodone (14-hydroxy-7,8-dihydrocodeinone) is a strong opioid agonist that is available alone or in combination with mild analgesics. It is suitable for oral administration due to high bioavailability (60%), and may also be given intramuscularly, intravenously, subcutaneously, and rectally; it is not recommended for spinal administration. In analgesic potency, oxycodone is comparable to morphine. With the exception of hallucinations, which may occur more rarely after oxycodone than after morphine, the side effects of these drugs are closely related. The abuse potential of oxycodone…

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The use of the elevated plus maze as an assay of anxiety-related behavior in rodents

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Author: Walf, AA; Frye, CA Description: The elevated plus maze is a widely used behavioral assay for rodents and it has been validated to assess the anti-anxiety effects of pharmacological agents and steroid hormones, and to define brain regions and mechanisms underlying anxiety-related behavior. Briefly, rats or mice are placed at the junction of the four arms of the maze, facing an open arm, and entries/duration in each arm are recorded by a video-tracking system and observer simultaneously for 5 min. Other ethological parameters (i.e., rears, head dips and stretched-attend…

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Pair-housing of male and female rats during chronic stress exposure results in gender-specific behavioral responses

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Author: Westenbroek, C; Snijders, TA; den Boer, JA; Gerrits, M; Fokkema, DS; Ter Horst, GJ Description: Social support has a positive influence on the course of a depression and social housing of rats could provide an animal model for studying the neurobiological mechanisms of social support. Male and female rats were subjected to chronic footshock stress for 3 weeks and pair-housing of rats was used to mimic social support. Rats were isolated or housed with a partner of the opposite sex. A plastic tube was placed in each cage and…

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Characterizing the subjective, psychomotor, and physiological effects of oral oxycodone in non-drug-abusing volunteers

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Author: Zacny, JP; Gutierrez, S Description: RATIONALE: The subjective, psychomotor, and physiological effects of a widely prescribed and abused prescription opioid, oxycodone, have not been studied in a population of non-drug-abusing people. OBJECTIVES: To characterize the effects of oxycodone in non-drug-abusing volunteers. METHODS: Eighteen volunteers participated in a crossover, randomized, double-blind study in which they received, all p.o., placebo, 10 mg oxycodone, 20 mg oxycodone, 30 mg oxycodone, 40 mg morphine, and 2 mg lorazepam. Measures were assessed before and for 300 min after drug administration. End-of-session and 24-h post-session…

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Withdrawal from acute morphine dependence is accompanied by increased anxiety-like behavior in the elevated plus maze

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Author: Zhang, Z; Schulteis, G Description: Pretreatment with a single moderate dose of morphine (e.g. 5.6-10 mg/kg) 4-24 hr prior to challenge with an opioid antagonist such as naloxone results in reliable expression of behaviors that resemble aversive or emotional consequences of withdrawal from chronic opioid exposure, including suppression of operant responding, elevations in brain reward thresholds, and conditioned place aversion. Repeated daily or weekly treatment with these same morphine doses results in a progressive increase in naloxone potency to elicit these withdrawal signs. The current study sought to determine…

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