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1.
PLoS One ; 13(2): e0191190, 2018.
Article in English | MEDLINE | ID: mdl-29444118

ABSTRACT

The rapid and large-scale urbanization of peri-urban areas poses major and complex challenges for wildlife conservation. We used population viability analysis (PVA) to evaluate the influence of urban encroachment, fire, and fauna crossing structures, with and without accounting for inbreeding effects, on the metapopulation viability of a medium-sized ground-dwelling mammal, the southern brown bandicoot (Isoodon obesulus), in the rapidly expanding city of Perth, Australia. We surveyed two metapopulations over one and a half years, and parameterized the PVA models using largely field-collected data. The models revealed that spatial isolation imposed by housing and road encroachment has major impacts on I. obesulus. Although the species is known to persist in small metapopulations at moderate levels of habitat fragmentation, the models indicate that these populations become highly vulnerable to demographic decline, genetic deterioration, and local extinction under increasing habitat connectivity loss. Isolated metapopulations were also predicted to be highly sensitive to fire, with large-scale fires having greater negative impacts on population abundance than small-scale ones. To reduce the risk of decline and local extirpation of I. obesulus and other small- to medium-sized ground-dwelling mammals in urbanizing, fire prone landscapes, we recommend that remnant vegetation and vegetated, structurally-complex corridors between habitat patches be retained. Well-designed road underpasses can be effective to connect habitat patches and reduce the probability of inbreeding and genetic differentiation; however, adjustment of fire management practices to limit the size of unplanned fires and ensure the retention of long unburnt vegetation will also be required to ensure persistence. Our study supports the evidence that in rapidly urbanizing landscapes, a pro-active conservation approach is required that manages species at the metapopulation level and that prioritizes metapopulations and habitat with greater long-term probability of persistence and conservation capacity, respectively. This strategy may help us prevent future declines and local extirpations, and currently relatively common species from becoming rare.


Subject(s)
Demography/methods , Marsupialia/classification , Marsupialia/genetics , Animals , Australia , Cities , Conservation of Natural Resources/methods , Ecosystem , Mammals , Models, Biological , Population Dynamics , Population Forecast , Urban Renewal , Urbanization
2.
J Neuropsychiatry Clin Neurosci ; 20(2): 201-9, 2008.
Article in English | MEDLINE | ID: mdl-18451191

ABSTRACT

Neuropsychiatric symptoms are well recognized in systemic lupus erythematosus (SLE), with depression and anxiety often reported. The authors' clinical observations suggested emotional lability might also be a noteworthy symptom. In a consecutive series of systemic lupus erythematosus clinic attendees the authors therefore measured depression, anxiety, and emotional lability. Additionally, based on reports linking emotional reactivity and transient mood changes to alterations in early attentional processes, the authors investigated event-related potential indices of preattentive and early orienting responses to auditory stimuli (N1, MMN, P3a and P3b). The authors observed that 15 of 32 participants with systemic lupus erythematosus had high lability scores and, comparing event-related potential measures between the high and low lability subgroups, noted that those with greater emotional lability demonstrated reduced response latencies in N1 and MMN paradigms.


Subject(s)
Affective Symptoms/etiology , Contingent Negative Variation/physiology , Emotions/physiology , Evoked Potentials, Auditory/physiology , Lupus Erythematosus, Systemic/complications , Acoustic Stimulation/methods , Adult , Analysis of Variance , Electroencephalography/methods , Female , Humans , Lupus Erythematosus, Systemic/psychology , Male , Middle Aged , Reaction Time
3.
Neurosci Lett ; 414(1): 75-9, 2007 Feb 27.
Article in English | MEDLINE | ID: mdl-17197082

ABSTRACT

We investigated whether the perception of simultaneity for pairs of nociceptive and visual stimuli was dependent upon the focus of participants' attention to a particular sensory modality (either pain or vision). Two stimuli (one painful and the other visual) were presented randomly at different stimulus onset asynchronies (SOAs) using the method of constant stimuli. Participants made unspeeded verbal responses as to which stimulus they perceived as having been presented first, or else responded that the two stimuli were presented simultaneously. This temporal discrimination task was repeated under three different attention conditions (blocks): divided attention, attend pain, and attend vision. The results showed that under conditions of divided attention, nociceptive stimuli had to be presented before visual stimuli in order for the two to be perceived as simultaneous. A comparison of the two focused attention conditions revealed that the painful stimulus was perceived as occurring earlier in time (relative to the visual stimulus) when attention was directed toward pain than when it was directed toward vision. These results provide the first empirical demonstration that attention can modulate the temporal perception of painful stimuli.


Subject(s)
Attention/physiology , Pain Threshold/physiology , Pain/psychology , Reaction Time/physiology , Time Perception/physiology , Visual Perception/physiology , Adult , Brain/physiology , Female , Humans , Male , Middle Aged , Neuropsychological Tests , Pain/physiopathology , Pain Measurement , Physical Stimulation , Time Factors , Verbal Behavior/physiology
4.
J Autism Dev Disord ; 37(2): 281-90, 2007 Feb.
Article in English | MEDLINE | ID: mdl-16865545

ABSTRACT

The aim of this study was to investigate whether a physiological measure of impaired use of context could be obtained in people with Asperger's Syndrome (AS). The experimental paradigm employed was the use of electroencephalography to measure the detection of semantic incongruity within written sentences, as indexed by an N400 event-related potential. Whilst the seven controls appropriately demonstrated N400 potentials only to semantically incongruent stimuli, the seven participants with AS inappropriately demonstrated N400 potentials to congruent stimuli. These results are compatible with the possibility that the participants with AS did not use the context within sentences to predict the final word of the sentences.


Subject(s)
Asperger Syndrome/epidemiology , Asperger Syndrome/physiopathology , Cognition Disorders/diagnosis , Cognition Disorders/epidemiology , Electroencephalography , Evoked Potentials/physiology , Semantics , Adolescent , Adult , Female , Humans , Male , Severity of Illness Index , Vocabulary
5.
Epileptic Disord ; 7(4): 363-72, 2005 Dec.
Article in English | MEDLINE | ID: mdl-16338681

ABSTRACT

This study investigated mismatch negativity (MMN) differences between subjects with non-epileptic seizures (NES), subjects with epilepsy, and healthy controls. Event-related potentials (ERPs) were obtained from 14 patients with NES, 15 patients with epilepsy and 16 healthy control subjects. A conventional MMN procedure was used with a random sequence of 12% deviant tones (922 Hz) and 88% standard tones (1000 Hz). Subjects were instructed to ignore the tones delivered through headphones whilst reading a book. Significant differences in distribution of the mismatch negativity (MMN) in patients with NES compared to controls were obtained (F3, p

Subject(s)
Auditory Pathways/physiopathology , Auditory Perception/physiology , Epilepsy/physiopathology , Evoked Potentials, Auditory , Seizures/physiopathology , Acoustic Stimulation , Adult , Affect , Diagnosis, Differential , Electrooculography , Epilepsy/diagnosis , Epilepsy/psychology , Epilepsy, Complex Partial/physiopathology , Epilepsy, Complex Partial/psychology , Epilepsy, Generalized/physiopathology , Epilepsy, Generalized/psychology , Female , Humans , Intelligence , Male , Memory/physiology , Middle Aged , Reaction Time , Seizures/diagnosis , Seizures/psychology
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