Structure and Function of a Chihuahuan Desert Ecosystem

The Jornada Basin LTER is located in the Chihuahuan Desert, the largest in North America. This region of south central New Mexico has a history of nearly 100 years as the basis for scientific research. This work gives a thorough, encompassing review of the tremendous array of observations resulting from experiments conducted in this ecosystem. Beginning with thorough descriptions of the most salient features of the region, the book then reviews a wide range of archived and active data sets on a diversity of biotic and abiotic features. It next presents a syntheses of important topics including livestock grazing and remediation efforts. A concluding chapter provides a synthesis of the principles that have emerged from this body of work, and how these relate to the broader fields of ecology and natural resource management. It concludes with recommendations for future research directions. The insightful views expressed in this volume should guide management of arid landscapes globally. This is the sixth volume in the Long Term Ecological Network Series.

Author(s):  
Erik Gray

Love begets poetry; poetry begets love. These two propositions have seemed evident to thinkers and poets across the Western literary tradition. Plato writes that “anyone that love touches instantly becomes a poet.” And even today, when poetry has largely disappeared from the mainstream of popular culture, it retains its romantic associations. But why should this be so—what are the connections between poetry and erotic love that lead us to associate them so strongly with one another? An examination of different theories of both love and poetry across the centuries reveals that the connection between them is not merely an accident of cultural history—the result of our having grown up hearing, or hearing about, love poetry—but something more intrinsic. Even as definitions of them have changed, the two phenomena have consistently been described in parallel terms. Love is characterized by paradox. Above all, it is both necessarily public, because interpersonal, and intensely private; hence it both requires expression and resists it. In poetry, especially lyric poetry, which features its own characteristic paradoxes and silences, love finds a natural outlet. This study considers both the theories and the love poems themselves, bringing together a wide range of examples from different eras in order to examine the major structures that love and poetry share. It does not aim to be a comprehensive history of Western love poetry, but an investigation into the meaning and function of recurrent tropes, forms, and images employed by poets to express and describe erotic love.


2021 ◽  
Vol 27 ◽  
Author(s):  
Nick Kruijt ◽  
Luuk Van den Bersselaar ◽  
Marc Snoeck ◽  
Kees Kramers ◽  
Sheila Riazi ◽  
...  

: Variants in the ryanodine receptor-1 gene (RYR1) have been associated with a wide range of neuromuscular conditions, including various congenital myopathies and malignant hyperthermia (MH). More recently, a number of RYR1 variants, mostly MH-associated, have been demonstrated to contribute to rhabdomyolysis events not directly related to anesthesia in otherwise healthy individuals. This review focuses on RYR1-related rhabdomyolysis, in the context of several clinical presentations (i.e., exertional rhabdomyolysis, exertional heat illnesses and MH), and conditions involving a similar hypermetabolic state, in which RYR1 variants may be present (i.e., neuroleptic malignant syndrome and serotonin syndrome). The variety of triggers that can evoke rhabdomyolysis, on their own or in combination, as well as the number of potentially associated complications, illustrates that this is a condition relevant to several medical disciplines. External triggers include but are not limited to strenuous physical exercise, especially if unaccustomed or performed under challenging environmental conditions (e.g., high ambient temperature or humidity), alcohol/illicit drugs, prescription medication (in particular statins, other anti-lipid agents, antipsychotics and antidepressants) infection, or heat. Amongst all patients presenting with rhabdomyolysis, a genetic susceptibility is present in a proportion, with RYR1 being one of the most common genetic causes. Clinical clues for a genetic susceptibility include recurrent rhabdomyolysis, creatine kinase (CK) levels above 50 times the upper limit of normal, hyperCKemia lasting for 8 weeks or longer, drug/medication doses insufficient to explain the rhabdomyolysis event, and a positive family history. For the treatment or prevention of RYR1-related rhabdomyolysis, the RYR1 antagonist dantrolene can be administered, both in the acute phase, or prophylactically in patients with a history of muscle cramps and/or recurrent rhabdomyolysis events. Aside from dantrolene, several other drugs are being investigated for their potential therapeutic use in RYR1-related disorders. These findings offer further therapeutic perspectives for humans, suggesting an important area for future research.


1987 ◽  
Vol 119 (S140) ◽  
pp. 15-30 ◽  
Author(s):  
Henry R. Murkin ◽  
Bruce D.J. Batt

AbstractThis paper reviews the interactions of vertebrates and invertebrates in peatlands and marshes to assess current knowledge and future research needs. Living organisms may interact through a number of direct trophic and nutrient pathways and a variety of non-trophic, habitat-dependent relationships. Freshwater marshes and peatlands are dynamic aquatic environments and organisms that occupy these areas must be adapted to a wide range of environmental conditions. The avian community illustrates the main interactions of invertebrates and vertebrates in peatlands and marshes. Waterfowl, along with fish and furbearers, are the most economically important vertebrates using these habitats. Each of these groups has important trophic and habitat links to the invertebrates within wetlands.The most common interaction between vertebrates and invertebrates is the use of invertebrates as food by vertebrates. Few studies, however, have dealt with trophic dynamics or secondary production within wetlands. Waterfowl, fish, and many other wetland vertebrates, during all or part of their life cycles, regularly feed on invertebrates. Some invertebrates are vectors of disease and parasites to vertebrates. Vertebrates can directly affect the structural substrate that invertebrates depend on as habitat through consumption of macrophytes or through the use of living and dead plant material in the construction of houses and nests. Conversely, herbivorous invertebrates may directly affect the survival and distribution of macrophytes in wetlands. Macrophyte distribution, in turn, is an important factor in determining vertebrate use of wetlands. The general lack of both taxonomic and ecological information on invertebrates in wetlands is the main hindrance to future elucidation of vertebrate–invertebrate interactions in these environments. Development of invertebrate sampling techniques suitable for wetland habitats also is necessary. More specific research needs must be met to develop a better understanding of the structure and function of these dynamic systems.


2000 ◽  
Vol 1 (3) ◽  
pp. 485-506 ◽  
Author(s):  
Kathy Peiss

Beauty and business seem opposite terms but in fact have had an important and consequential relationship that business historians are only now exploring. This paper sketches several major themes and approaches to the topic. The first is the emergence of a large sector of the economy devoted to selling beauty aids, fashions, bodily care, and style to American women and men. Another is the deployment of beauty as a business strategy—in creating brands, sales, and marketing; in managing the workplace; and in projecting corporate identities. A third considers the sale of beauty itself, as a value added and attached to a wide range of goods, from art to bodies. These broad approaches suggest new directions for future research.


2014 ◽  
Vol 88 (4) ◽  
pp. 633-635 ◽  
Author(s):  
Imran A. Rahman ◽  
Selena Y. Smith

‘Virtual paleontology’ entails the use of computational methods to assist in the three-dimensional (3-D) visualization and analysis of fossils, and has emerged as a powerful approach for research on the history of life. Three-dimensional imaging techniques allow poorly understood or previously unknown anatomies of fossil plants, invertebrates, and vertebrates, as well as microfossils and trace fossils, to be described in much greater detail than formerly possible, and are applicable to a wide range of preservation types and specimen sizes (Table 1). These methods include non-destructive high-resolution scanning technologies such as conventional X-ray micro-tomography and synchrotron-based X-ray tomography. In addition, form and function can be rigorously investigated through quantitative analysis of computer models, for example finite-element analysis.


2016 ◽  
Vol 21 (4) ◽  
pp. 212-219 ◽  
Author(s):  
Sandy Toogood

Purpose The purpose of this paper is to provide a commentary on Patterson and Berry’s paper “Reflections on culture, structure and function of an intensive support service centred on positive behavioural support”. Design/methodology/approach This paper reviews key ideas presented in Patterson and Berry’s article relative to the recent history of service delivery in the UK and the growing interest being shown in positive behaviour support. Findings Patterson and Berry’s article adds to a modest literature on specialist support services and should stimulate further descriptions of service models and the concepts underpinning them. Originality/value The literature on specialist support service models is limited and this addition should be relevant to a wide range of clinicians, consumers and commissioners.


2014 ◽  
Vol 71 (1) ◽  
pp. 21-30 ◽  
Author(s):  
Brie A. Edwards ◽  
Donald A. Jackson ◽  
Keith M. Somers

When aquatic ecosystems are among those most intensely affected by local and regional environmental change, it is crucial that stressors are identified to set priorities for future research and mitigation. Studies relating changes in important or sensitive assemblages to environmental changes provide a means to quantify potential stress on aquatic biota. Crayfish are ideal taxa for this type of study because they influence ecosystem structure and function and are sensitive to biotic and abiotic changes. We used historical and contemporary crayfish abundance and select environmental data for 100 inland lakes in central Ontario, to identify factors that are correlated with community membership and species distributions at each time and to elucidate environmental factors that can be directly linked to changes in relative abundance between the two time periods. Our results show that declines in lake calcium, invasions of warm-water centrarchids, and anthropogenic shoreline development have increased in their relative influence over time. These stressors may be affecting other freshwater biota directly, or indirectly through food web changes or altered abiotic interactions among the environmental changes.


Author(s):  
Bernadette Pinel-Alloul ◽  
Alain Patoine ◽  
Jérôme Marty

This review provides a Canadian perspective on freshwater zooplankton diversity and ecology across scales and systems. It aims at describing how zooplankton is a source of biodiversity in forms and functions, a key component of plankton food web, a model for ecological theories and a sentinel for monitoring lake ecological integrity and function facing environmental changes and anthropogenic stressors. These objectives are addressed across a continuum of spatial scales and ecosystem types. Zooplankton communities demonstrated a wide range of responses to anthropogenic disturbances across scales and systems due to interactions with watershed biogeochemistry and climate. This review supports the Multiple Forces hypothesis where forcing by abiotic factors have a primordial role at global scale over Canadian ecoregions, and at regional scale in the Boreal ecozones. In contrast, forcing by biotic factors is more influential at local scale, in resort and urban regions. Future research challenge will be to combine all new concepts and approaches in a holistic perspective to examine the response of freshwater zooplankton to multiple environmental changes and anthropogenic stressors.


2014 ◽  
Vol 2014 ◽  
pp. 1-13 ◽  
Author(s):  
Narcisa Martinez-Quiles ◽  
Leigh Ann Feuerbacher ◽  
María Benito-León ◽  
Philip R. Hardwidge

The Crk adaptor family of proteins comprises the alternatively spliced CrkI and CrkII isoforms, as well as the paralog Crk-like (CrkL) protein, which is encoded by a different gene. Initially thought to be involved in signaling during apoptosis and cell adhesion, this ubiquitously expressed family of proteins is now known to play essential roles in integrating signals from a wide range of stimuli. In this review, we describe the structure and function of the different Crk proteins. We then focus on the emerging roles of Crk adaptors during Enterobacteriaceae pathogenesis, with special emphasis on the important human pathogensSalmonella,Shigella,Yersinia, and enteropathogenicEscherichia coli. Throughout, we remark on opportunities for future research into this intriguing family of proteins.


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