Ecology of parasite Sycophilomorpha sp. on Ficus altissima and its effect on the fig-fig wasp mutualism.

Figs and their pollinating wasps are a classic example of an obligate mutualism. In addition, figs are parasitized by a suite of non-mutualistic wasps whose basic ecology is largely undescribed. Sycophilomorpha (subfamily Epichrysomallinae) fig wasps are ovule gallers and the genus contains only 1 described species. An undescribed Sycophilomorpha species parasitized Ficus altissima at Xishuangbana, Southwestern China. The wasp was observed ovipositing on the tiny immature figs that were still concealed beneath the involucral bracts. A Sycophilomorpha wasp oviposited on more than 1 fig and spent long time-periods to lay large clutches on a single fig. The wasps naturally occurred on all 7 sampled trees, but the occurrence of wasps was significantly different among trees, crops and months. These wasps were able to prevent unpollinated figs from being aborted, and their offspring were able to develop in the figs that otherwise had no pollinator wasps or seeds. The Sycophilomorpha wasp had a detrimental effect on the fig-fig wasp mutualism. Figs in which Sycophilomorpha wasps were present, produced significantly fewer seeds, pollinators and cheaters. However, the abundance of Sycophilomorpha in a fig was only significantly negatively correlated with pollinator production and not seed or cheater production. Our study illustrates a previously unknown fig wasp niche and expands our understanding of factors that can affect the fig-fig wasp interaction.

Experience with an anesthesiologist interventional model for endoscopy in a pediatric hospital.

BACKGROUND: Endoscopy is now a routine part of the work-up for many patients with gastrointestinal symptoms. Adults tolerate these procedures well, with either no sedation or a relatively light level. In contrast, children often require deep sedation or a general anesthetic to successfully perform these procedures. Therefore, pediatric endoscopies may require more time, personnel, and monitoring equipment to provide optimal conditions for the patient. The goals of this retrospective case series were to describe the anesthesia times and recovery duration of the different procedures, the types and amounts of medications commonly used, and the types and rates of complications experienced. METHODS: Patients (2,306) who underwent endoscopy in the Arkansas Children's Hospital endoscopy suite during a 4-year period were identified. A random sample of 720 charts was reviewed retrospectively. RESULTS: Patients ranged in age from younger than 1 year to 29 years. Patients most often had abdominal pain or multiple gastrointestinal symptoms. Sixty-eight percent of patients underwent esophagogastroduodenoscopies; 30% colonoscopy or a combination of the two. Ninety-five percent of patients received a propofol-based anesthetic. Midazolam, fentanyl, and alfentanil were frequently used as supplemental agents. Complications occurred infrequently and were airway related. All complications were easily treated, with no adverse sequelae. CONCLUSIONS: This model of anesthesiologist-provided sedation/anesthesia for gastrointestinal endoscopy procedures has been extremely successful in the Arkansas Children's Hospital and has served to heighten awareness of many issues surrounding sedation and anesthesia outside of the operating room, while ensuring a high level of care is provided.

Repercussions of El Niño: drought causes extinction and the breakdown of mutualism in Borneo.

Figs (Ficus spp.) and their species-specific pollinators, the fig wasps (Agaonidae), have coevolved one of the most intricate interactions found in nature, in which the fig wasps, in return for pollination services, raise their offspring in the fig inflorescence. Fig wasps, however, have very short adult lives and hence are dependent on the near-continuous production of inflorescences to maintain their populations. From January to March 1998 northern Borneo suffered a very severe drought linked to the El Niño-Southern Oscillation event of 1997-1998. This caused a substantial break in the production of inflorescences on dioecious figs and led to the local extinction of their pollinators at Lambir Hills National Park, Sarawak, Malaysia. Most pollinators had not recolonized six months after the drought and, given the high level of endemism and wide extent of the drought, some species may be totally extinct. Cascading effects on vertebrate seed dispersers, for which figs are often regarded as keystone resources, and the tree species dependent on their services are also likely. This has considerable implications for the maintenance of biodiversity under a scenario of climate change and greater climatic extremes.

Children with cognitive impairment: parent report of pain and coping.

Information about pain in children with cognitive impairment is lacking. To gather pain-relevant information in this population, parents of 145 children with borderline to profound cognitive impairment were interviewed regarding their children's pain expression, experience, treatment, and coping behavior. Descriptions of pain expression and coping behavior were associated with the level of cognitive impairment. Children with mild to moderate cognitive impairment were more likely to be described as directly communicating their pain and exhibiting procedural coping strategies similar to those observed in children without cognitive impairments. More than half of the parents reported that their children experienced pain differently than did children without cognitive impairment, with the majority perceiving decreased pain sensitivity and greater pain tolerance. Finally, one third of parents felt that their children's pain was treated differently than that of other children. Half of these parents believed that health care providers had difficulties assessing and treating their children's pain. Results contribute to the developing foundation of information about pain in this special pediatric population.

Pain assessment and treatment in children with cognitive impairment: a survey of nurses' and physicians' beliefs.

OBJECTIVE: To gather information about healthcare providers' beliefs regarding pain and its treatment in children with cognitive impairment. DESIGN: A survey consisting of two acute pain vignettes (a child undergoing surgery and a child undergoing an outpatient medical procedure) was completed by 440 nurses and 146 physicians at Arkansas Children's Hospital. Respondents completed one of four different surveys that systematically varied the child's level of cognitive impairment (none, mild, moderate, severe) in both vignettes. Questions addressed expected pain, pain assessment methods, pharmacologic regimens, and nonpharmacologic interventions. RESULTS: In general, provider discipline and level of cognitive impairment did not significantly influence responses about pain experience and treatment. Potent analgesia, regularly scheduled dosing, and nonpainful administration were selected most frequently. Self-report of pain, patient-controlled analgesia, and behavioral interventions requiring higher cognitive skills were selected less frequently for children with more severe cognitive impairment. CONCLUSIONS: The presence of cognitive impairment appeared to influence provider decisions regarding the appropriateness of specific pain assessment and treatment methods requiring skills on the part of the child. Overall, healthcare provider views regarding analgesia and sedation were similar for all children, regardless of impairment. Whether these beliefs are consistent with clinical practice is yet to be documented.

Pain assessment in children with cognitive impairment. An exploration of self-report skills.

Prior to surgery, 47 children (ages 8 to 17) with borderline to profound cognitive impairment were administered tasks to evaluate their understanding of the concepts of magnitude and ordinal position and their abilities to use a 0 to 5 numerical scale to rate pain levels in schematic faces. Of the 111 children (ages 4 to 14) without cognitive impairment, were administered the same tasks. Nurses conducting preoperative evaluations predicted whether children would understand the numerical scale. Fifty percent (n = 3) of children with borderline and 35% (n = 7) of children with mild cognitive impairment (and all children 8 years and older nonimpaired) correctly used the scale. Half of the children with cognitive impairment demonstrated skills (magnitude and ordinal position) that may allow them to use simpler pain rating methods. Nurses overestimated the abilities of cognitively impaired children (and younger children without cognitive impairment) to use the rating scale.

A comparison of deaf and hearing subjects in visual nonverbal sensitivity and information processing.

This investigation compared deaf and hearing subjects in the degree of accuracy with which they can perceive visual nonverbal information about people, their short-term recall of visual information and the extent to which they focus on different parts of the body. Subjects were asked to gauge information about relationships between people shown in photographs and later to indicate what they remembered from the photos. Neither group demonstrated a statistically significant advantage in accuracy or recall. When comparing the reasoning processes used by the two groups to arrive at their conclusions it was found that deaf subjects were more than twice as likely as hearing subjects to base their judgments upon hand and arm behavior.

Turning around patient complaints in a regional hospital.

This paper describes the introduction by a regional general hospital of a different system for handling complaints from patients. It outlines the underlying philosophy of the new system and the experiences of the hospital as the new system matured. The paper provides data for the first six quarters of operation of the system.

Relationship between oestrous behaviour and frequency of visits made by dairy cows to out-of-parlour concentrate dispensers.

Sixty-five oestruses in 38 cows were confirmed either by using progesterone concentration determined in milk or by conception to a service on the same day. The cows were fed concentrates through variable-time out-of-parlour dispensers and the number of visits made by each cow to the dispensers was automatically recorded daily and a 10-day running mean calculated. A significant increase or decrease in visits was recorded when the number of visits on one day differed from the mean number of visits during the previous 10 days by at least two standard deviations. Ninety-three increases and 40 decreases in visits occurred within +/- 10 days of the 65 confirmed oestruses. There were significantly more (16) than the expected number of increases on the day before oestrus (P less than 0.001) but at no other time. Recording increased visits to out-of-parlour concentrate dispensers may help to identify oestrus in dairy cows.

A quantitative analysis of mammary glands of dairy heifers reared at different rates of live weight gain.

The mammary glands of conventionally reared cows, never exceeding a live weight gain (LWG) of 0.74 kg/d, weighed 39% more and contained 68% more secretory tissue than glands of rapidly reared animals grown at 1.1 kg/d. In 11-month-old heifers reared at 3 rates of LWG (L, 0.57; M, 0.76 and H, 1.18 kg/d) gland weight was related to LWG, but dissected mammary parenchyma was heavier in animals on treatment L than on treatment H and followed a quadratic relationship. Parenchymal composition on treatment H was correlated to both age and body weight at puberty. No similar trend was observed in treatments L and M although group L animals had more ductal tissue and less fat than those of group M. Heifers from treatment L were reared during pregnancy at either 0.68 or 0.84 kg/d LWG (treatments LL and LH respectively) and heifers from treatment H at 0.58 kg/d (treatment HL). Total gland weight was unaffected by treatment, but the percentage by weight of secretory tissue in the gland in treatment HL was less than for treatments LL and LH. These experiments confirm that mammary development is permanently impaired by high rates of LWG in the first year of life. There was no impairment of mammary development in heifers reared moderately in the first year and more rapidly during pregnancy.

Effects of the anabolic steroid trenbolone acetate, implanted alone or in combination with oestradiol-17 beta, on liver cell ultrastructure in steers.

The ultrastructural changes in hepatocytes of steers were studied in animals implanted with 140 mg trenbolone acetate, alone or in combination with 20 mg oestradiol. The mean volume of the nucleus in the hepatocytes of the animals implanted with trenbolone acetate alone was significantly greater than that in control animals (P less than 0.001) and in animals implanted with the combined preparation (P less than 0.05). It is suggested that the increase indicates an androgen-mediated response in the nuclei which is not seen when oestradiol is included in the implant. Similarly, the peroxisome volume density was elevated significantly above that in the controls by trenbolone acetate (P less than 0.001); although the inclusion of oestradiol in the implant significantly reduced this level (P less than 0.001) it was still greater than the control values (P less than 0.05). No mitochondrial abnormalities were observed.