Macroinvertebrate Community Composition and Diversity in Ephemeral and Perennial Ponds on Unregulated Floodplain Meadows in the UK

Ponds are common and abundant landscape features in temperate environments, particularly on floodplains where lateral connectivity with riverine systems persists. Despite their widespread occurrence and importance to regional diversity, research on the ecology and hydrology of temperate ephemeral and perennial floodplain ponds lags behind that of other shallow waterbodies. This study examines the aquatic macroinvertebrate diversity of 34 ponds (20 perennial and 14 ephemeral) on two unregulated riverine floodplain meadows in Leicestershire, UK. Perennial ponds supported nearly twice the diversity of ephemeral ponds. Despite frequent inundation of floodwater and connectivity with other floodplain waterbodies, ephemeral ponds supported distinct invertebrate communities when compared to perennial ponds. When the relative importance of physical and chemical, biological and spatial characteristics was examined, physical and chemical characteristics were found to account for more variation in community composition than biological or spatial variables. The results suggest that niche characteristics rather than neutral colonisation processes dominate the structure of invertebrate communities of floodplain ponds. The maintenance of pond networks with varying hydroperiod lengths and environmental characteristics should be encouraged as part of conservation management strategies to provide heterogeneous environmental conditions to support and enhance aquatic biodiversity at a landscape scale.

Long-term community responses to droughts in the early modern period: the case study of Terrassa, Spain

New challenges posed by global environmental change have motivated scholars to pay growing attention to historical long-term strategies to deal with climate extremes. We aim to understand long-term trends in community responses to cope with droughts, to explain how many preindustrial societies coevolved with local hydro-climatic dynamics and coped with climate extremes over time. The specific goals of this work are: (1) to analyze how local communities experienced droughts over long periods of time and (2) to document the spectrum of recorded community responses to drought. Our research covers over one century (1605-1710) of responses to drought in the community of Terrassa, Barcelona, Spain. Data were collected through archival research. We reviewed and coded 2076 village council minutes. Our results show that the local community adopted a mixture of symbolic, institutional, and infrastructural responses to drought and that drought-related decisions varied through time. We discuss adaptation strategies on the basis of the distinct physical signals of drought propagation and the role of nonclimatic historical factors, such as warfare and public debt, in shaping responses. We conclude that long-term perspectives on premodern history and comparable empirical studies are fundamental to advance our understanding of past social responses to hydro-climatic extremes.

‘Tenshillingland’: Community and Commerce, Myth and Madness in the Modern Scottish Novel.

While ‘community’ as a concept has come under increasing attack in a neoliberal era, it has remained in Scotland a mythic, though not unexamined, signifier of resistance to perceived threats to national identity. Community, central to the Scottish novel since the Kailyard, continues to be a prevalent theme in the many important novels of the twentieth and twenty-first centuries explored here. Yet, while often disturbingly oppressive in tenor, many of these representations of community actually attack the myth of Scottish communalism to critique, and often expose as forms of madness, the conventional values of social class, capitalism, patriarchy, and religion.

In search of community.

Community derives from the Latin root word communis (common), which itself breaks down into two possible derivations [...]. The first, com plus munis (what is indebted, bound, or obligated together), is thought to be more philologically accurate, while the second, com plus unus (what is together as one), carries the status of a folk- etymology.

Impact of a community-based exercise programme on physical fitness in middle-aged and older patients with type 2 diabetes

Objectives: Physical fitness is related to all-cause mortality, quality of life and risk of falls in patients with type 2 diabetes. This study aimed to analyse the impact of a long-term community-based combined exercise program (aerobic + resistance + agility/balance + flexibility) developed with minimum and low-cost material resources on physical fitness in middle-aged and older patients with type 2 diabetes. Methods: This was a non-experimental pre-post evaluation study. Participants (N = 43; 62.92 ± 5.92 years old) were engaged in a community-based supervised exercise programme (consisting of combined aerobic, resistance, agility/balance and flexibility exercises; three sessions per week; 70 min per session) of 9 months' duration. Aerobic fitness (6-Minute Walk Test), muscle strength (30-Second Chair Stand Test), agility/balance (Timed Up and Go Test) and flexibility (Chair Sit and Reach Test) were assessed before (baseline) and after the exercise intervention. Results: Significant improvements in the performance of the 6-Minute Walk Test (Δ = 8.20%, p < 0.001), 30-Second Chair Stand Test (Δ = 28.84%, p < 0.001), Timed Up and Go Test (Δ = 14.31%, p < 0.001), and Chair Sit and Reach Test (Δ = 102.90%, p < 0.001) were identified between baseline and end-exercise intervention time points. Conclusions: A long-term community-based combined exercise programme, developed with low-cost exercise strategies, produced significant benefits in physical fitness in middle-aged and older patients with type 2 diabetes. This supervised group exercise programme significantly improved aerobic fitness, muscle strength, agility/balance and flexibility, assessed with field tests in community settings.

The inter-rater reliability of the Risk Instrument for Screening in the Community

Predicting risk of adverse healthcare outcomes is important to enable targeted delivery of interventions. The Risk Instrument for Screening in the Community (RISC), designed for use by public health nurses (PHNs), measures the one-year risk of hospitalisation, institutionalisation and death in community-dwelling older adults according to a five-point global risk score: from low (score 1,2), medium (3) and high (4,5). We examined the inter-rater reliability (IRR) of the RISC between student PHNs (n=32) and expert raters using six cases (two low, medium and high-risk), scored before and after RISC training. Correlations increased for each adverse outcome, statistically significantly for institutionalisation (r=0.72 to 0.80,p=0.04) and hospitalisation, (r=0.51 to 0.71,p<0.01) but not death. Training improved accuracy for low-risk but not all high-risk cases. Overall, the RISC showed good IRR, which increased after RISC training. That reliability reduced for some high-risk cases suggests that the training programme requires adjustment to further improve IRR.

Ecosystem dynamics at disturbed and undisturbed sites in North Queensland wet tropical rain forest. III. Nutrient returns to the forest floor through litterfall

The nutrient contents and accessions in litterfall over a period of 3 y are reported for undisturbed areas and at two sites disturbed by selective harvesting in tropical rain forest in North Queensland, Australia. Mean concentrations (mg g(-1) dry weight) of nutrients in litterfall ranged from 10 to 12 for nitrogen; 0.33 to 0.43 for phosphorus; 3.6 to 4.3 for potassium; 6.0 to 10.5 for calcium and 1.7 to 2.6 for magnesium. These concentrations are in the middle to lower part of the spectrum of values recorded for tropical forest. Accessions of nutrients in litterfall (kg ha(-1) y(-1)) ranged from 59 to 64 N; 1.9 to 2.4 P; 20 to 24K; 34 to 63 Ca; and 9 to 16 Mg. These rates, particularly for IN and P, are among the lowest recorded for tropical forests. There were no consistent between-site differences in total nutrient accessions in small litterfall. In terms of the contribution of litterfall to the accessions of nutrients to the forest floor, this suggests that the logged sites have recovered from the effects of selective harvesting within 25 y. Nutrient accessions at each site were distinctly seasonal, with maximum accessions occurring in the late dry season to late in the wet season. Leaf-fall accounted for the largest proportion of nutrient accessions over the study period, although at certain times accessions in both reproductive material and wood were significant. A cyclone which crossed the coast near the study sites resulted in large nutrient accessions over a short period but had little effect on the total annual accession. A comparison with previous studies of litterfall in Australian tropical rainforests indicates that nutrient return in litterfall is directly related to soil fertility.

Methadone maintenance treatment reduces heroin injection in New South Wales prisons

The purpose of this study was to examine whether methadone maintenance treatment reduces injecting risk behaviour land therefore transmission of blood-borne viral infections) among prisoners in New South Wales (NSW), using comparison of retrospective reports of drug use in prisons for people who received standard drug treatment, time-limited methadone treatment and methadone maintenance treatment, The setting for the study was the NSW prison system. One hundred and eighty-five injecting drug users who had been recently released from NSW prisons were recruited in 1993, Self-reported drug use and injecting risk behaviour were compared in inmates who received standard drug treatment (counselling), time-limited methadone treatment and methadone maintenance treatment. HIV status was determined by serology, Intervention comprised high and low dose methadone treatment and counselling. The groups were similar in terms of most basic demographic characteristics but subjects who had been maintained on methadone reported a significantly lower prevalence of heroin injection, syringe sharing and scored lower on an HIV Risk-taking Behavioural Scale than subjects who received standard drug treatment and time-limited methadone treatment, This study suggests that methadone treatment is associated with reduced injecting risk behaviour in prison with adequate (greater than 60 mg) dose and duration in treatment. These treatment conditions are known to increase effectiveness in community-based methadone programmes. Prospective studies are required to evaluate the effectiveness of methadone programmes in the prevention of HIV and other blood-borne viral infections among IDU prisoners.

Transient evoked otoacoustic emissions in two-month-old infants: A normative study

Researchers have recently reported the effects of age, sex, ear asymmetry, and subject's activity status on transient evoked otoacoustic emissions (TEOAEs). The present study aimed to expand upon such reports by describing the characteristics of TEOAE spectra obtained from a cohort of 607 two-month-old infants in community child health clinics. Results indicated significant sex, ear and activity state effects on the signal:noise ratio, response. whole wave and band reproducibility values. These findings suggest the need for TEOAE normative data to be expressed as a function of sex, ear, and activity state of infants. These characteristics of TEOAE spectra may shape future investigations into appropriate pass-fail criteria for two-month-old infants.

The burden of mental disorders in Victoria, 1996

Background: Between 1998 and 1999, a burden of disease assessment was carried out in Victoria, Australia applying and improving on the methods of the Global Burden of Disease Study. This paper describes the methods and results of the calculations of the burden due to 22 mental disorders, adding 14 conditions not included in previous burden of disease estimates, Methods: The National Survey of Mental Health and Wellbeing provided recent data on the occurrence of the major adult mental disorders in Australia. Data from international studies and expert advice further contributed to the construction of disease models, describing each condition in terms of incidence, average duration and level of severity, with adjustments for comorbidity with other mental disorders. Disability weights for the time spent in different states of mental ill health were borrowed mainly from a study in the Netherlands, supplemented by weights derived in a local extrapolation exercise. Results: Mental disorders were the third largest group of conditions contributing to the burden of disease in Victoria, ranking behind cancers and cardiovascular diseases. Depression was the greatest cause of disability in both men and women. Eight other mental disorders in men and seven in women ranked among the top twenty causes of disability. Conclusions: Insufficient information on the natural history of many of the mental disorders, the limited information on the validity of mental disorder diagnoses in community surveys and considerable differences between ICD-10 and DSM-IV defined diagnoses were the main concerns about the accuracy of the estimates. Similar and often greater concerns have been raised in relation to the estimation of the burden from common non-fatal physical conditions such as asthma, diabetes and osteoarthritis. In comparison, psychiatric epidemiology can boast greater scientific rigour in setting standards for population surveys.

Community structure of Quaternary coral reefs compared with Recent life and death assemblages

This paper assesses the reliability with which fossil reefs record the diversity and community structure of adjacent Recent reefs. The diversity and taxonomic composition of Holocene raised fossil reefs was compared with those of modern reef coral life and death assemblages in adjacent moderate and low-energy shallow reef habitats Of Madang Lagoon, Papua New Guinea. Species richness per sample area and Shannon-Wiener diversity (H') were highest in the fossil reefs, intermediate in the life assemblages, and lowest in the death assemblages. The taxonomic composition of the fossil reefs was most similar to the combination of the life and death assemblages from the modern reefs adjacent to the two fossil reefs. Depth zonation was recorded accurately in the fossil reefs. The Madang fossil reefs represent time-averaged composites of the combined life and death assemblages as they existed at the time the reef was uplifted. Because fossil reefs include overlapping cohorts from the life and death assemblages, lagoonal facies of fossil reefs are dominated by the dominant sediment-producing taxa, which are not necessarily the most abundant in the life assemblage. Rare or slow-growing taxa accumulate more slowly than the encasing sediments and are underrepresented in fossil reef lagoons. Time-averaging dilutes the contribution of rare taxa, rather than concentrating their contribution. Consequently, fidelity indices developed for mollusks in sediments yield low values in coral reef death and fossil assemblages. Branching corals dominate lagoonal facies of fossil reefs because they are abundant, they grow and produce sediment rapidly, and most of the sediment they produce is not exported. Fossil reefs distinguished kilometer-scale variations in community structure more clearly than did the modern life assemblages. This difference implies that fossil,reefs may provide a better long-term record of community structure than modern reefs. This difference also suggests that modern kilometer-scale variation in coral reef community structure may have been reduced by anthropogenic degradation, even in the relatively unimpacted reefs of Madang Lagoon. Holocene and Pleistocene fossil reefs provide a time-integrated historical record of community composition and may be used as long-term benchmarks for comparison with modern, degraded, nearshore reefs. Comparisons between fossil reefs and degraded modern reefs display gross changes in community structure more effectively than they demonstrate local extinction of rare taxa.

Homocysteine, Alzheimer genes and proteins, and measures of cognition and depression in older men

The epsilon4 allele of apolipoprotem E (APOE), and the plasma levels of APOE, amyloid beta-protein precursor, arnyloid beta1-40 (Abeta40) and homocysteine, (Hcy) have all been correlated with the presence of dementia. Mutations in the methylnetetrahydrofolate reductase enzyme (MTHFR) have been associated with elevated levels of Hcy. This study explored the association of these factors with cognition and depression in community dwelling older men. Two hundred and ninety-nine men, mean age 78.9 years (SD 2.8), were studied in this cross-sectional survey. Mean plasma Hcy was 13.5 (SD 5.3) mumol/L. The MTHFR genotype had no obvious impact on Hey levels. Ln Hcy and Ln Abeta40 were both inversely correlated with calculated glomerular filtration rate (cGFR), r = -0.41 (p < 0.001) and r = -0.28 (p < 0.001), respectively. There was a positive correlation between Ln Hey and Ln Abeta40, r = 0.19 (p < 0.001), which remained significant after adjusting for cGFR, with a doubling of Hcy associated with a 24% increase of Abeta40. The e4 allele was associated with increased depressive symptoms as measured by the Geriatric Depression Scale-15, Odds ratio (OR) = 2.59 (95% CI 1.06-6.34) and poorer performance on the Clock Drawing Test, OR = 2.32 (95% CI: 1.25-4.29). There was a positive association between Abeta40 and Hcy, even after adjustment for cGFR in this sample of well, community dwelling older men. This association may help elucidate the link between elevated levels of Hey and Alzheimer's disease.

Usefulness of Proteinuria as a Prognostic Marker of Mortality and Cardiovascular Events Among Patients Undergoing Percutaneous Coronary Intervention (Data from the Evaluation of Oral Xemilofiban in Controlling Thrombotic Events [EXCITE] Trial)

Proteinuria was associated with cardiovascular events and mortality in community-based cohorts. The association of proteinuria with mortality and cardiovascular events in patients undergoing percutaneous coronary intervention (PCI) was unknown. The association of urinary dipstick proteinuria with mortality and cardiovascular events (composite of death, myocardial infarction, or nonhemorrhagic stroke) in 5,835 subjects of the EXCITE trial was evaluated. Dipstick urinalysis was performed before PCI, and proteinuria was defined as trace or greater. Subjects were followed up for 210 days/7 months after enrollment for the occurrence of events. Multivariate Cox regression analysis evaluated the independent association of proteinuria with each outcome. Mean age was 59 years, 21% were women, 18% had diabetes mellitus, and mean estimated glomerular filtration rate was 90 ml/min/1.73 m(2). Proteinuria was present in 750 patients (13%). During follow-up, 22 subjects (2.9%) with proteinuria and 54 subjects (1.1%) without proteinuria died (adjusted hazard ratio 2.83, 95% confidence interval [CI] 1.65 to 4.84, p <0.001). The severity of proteinuria attenuated the strength of the association with mortality after PCI (low-grade proteinuria, hazard ratio 2.67, 95% CI 1.50 to 4.75; high-grade proteinuria, hazard ratio 3.76, 95% CI 1.24 to 11.37). No significant association was present for cardiovascular events during the relatively short follow-up, but high-grade proteinuria tended toward increased risk of cardiovascular events (hazard ratio 1.45, 95% CI 0.81 to 2.61). In conclusion, proteinuria was strongly and independently associated with mortality in patients undergoing PCI. These data suggest that such a relatively simple and clinically easy to use tool as urinary dipstick may be useful to identify and treat patients at high risk of mortality at the time of PCI. (C) 2008 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved. (Am J Cardiol 2008;102:1151-1155)

Effect of the bilateral hip bone density measurement on clinical practice in elderly subjects

Objectives: The aim of this study was to determine whether the addition of the measurement of bilateral hip bone mineral density (BMD) has an impact on indications for osteoporosis (OP) treatment in community-dwelling elderly individuals, based on criteria from the National Osteoporosis Foundation (NOF). Methods: In total, 605 consecutive community-dwelling elderly individuals who were 65 years and older were evaluated. Dual energy X-ray absorptiometry was used to determine the lowest T-score in the lumbar spine + unilateral hip, the bilateral hips, and the lumbar spine + bilateral hips. Risk factors associated with the lowest T-score in these three conditions were applied to indicate treatment in accordance with NOF criteria. McNemar`s test was used to assess the difference of adding bilateral hip BMD measurements. Results: There was a significant difference in the frequency of pharmacological indication using NOF criteria together with the lowest T-score for the three tests (72.8% for lumbar spine + bilateral hips and 71.2% for lumbar spine + unilateral hip; p=0.002). A higher frequency of treatment indication was also observed for lumbar spine + unilateral hip (71.2%) compared to bilateral hips (61.1%) (p<0.001). The discrepancies in treatment appeared to be more evident in women when analyzed by gender distribution. Conclusion: Our finding supports the theory that evaluation of the bilateral hips with the lumbar spine seems to be more sensitive measure for identifying patients with an osteoporosis treatment indication. Furthermore, despite the well-known artifact in the lumbar spine, this site should not be excluded when determining the indication for OP treatment in elderly people. (C) 2009 Elsevier Ireland Ltd. All rights reserved.

Antiretroviral Drug Resistance in a Respondent-Driven Sample of HIV-Infected Men Who Have Sex With Men in Brazil

Background: There are few studies on HIV subtypes and primary and secondary antiretroviral drug resistance (ADR) in community-recruited samples in Brazil. We analyzed HIV clade diversity and prevalence of mutations associated with ADR in men who have sex with men in all five regions of Brazil. Methods: Using respondent-driven sampling, we recruited 3515 men who have sex with men in nine cities: 299 (9.5%) were HIV-positive; 143 subjects had adequate genotyping and epidemiologic data. Forty-four (30.8%) subjects were antiretroviral therapy-experienced (AE) and 99 (69.2%) antiretroviral therapy-naive (AN). We sequenced the reverse transcriptase and protease regions of the virus and analyzed them for drug resistant mutations using World Health Organization guidelines. Results: The most common subtypes were B (81.8%), C (7.7%), and recombinant forms (6.9%). The overall prevalence of primary ADR resistance was 21.4% (i.e. among the AN) and secondary ADR was 35.8% (i.e. among the AE). The prevalence of resistance to protease inhibitors was 3.9% (AN) and 4.4% (AE); to nucleoside reverse transcriptase inhibitors 15.0% (AN) and 31.0% (AE) and to nonnucleoside reverse transcriptase inhibitors 5.5% (AN) and 13.2% (AE). The most common resistance mutation for nucleoside reverse transcriptase inhibitors was 184V (17 cases) and for nonnucleoside reverse transcriptase inhibitors 103N (16 cases). Conclusions: Our data suggest a high level of both primary and secondary ADR in men who have sex with men in Brazil. Additional studies are needed to identify the correlates and causes of antiretroviral therapy resistance to limit the development of resistance among those in care and the transmission of resistant strains in the wider epidemic.