Empirical food webs of 12 tropical reservoirs in Singapore.

Background: Food webs summarise trophic interactions of the biotic components within an ecosystem, which can influence nutrient dynamics and energy flows, ultimately affecting ecosystem functions and services. Food webs represent the hypothesised trophic links between predators and prey and can be presented as empirical food webs, in which the relative strength/importance of the respective links are quantified. Some common methods used in food web research include gut content analysis (GCA) and stable isotope analysis (SIA). We combine both methods to construct empirical food web models as a basis for monitoring and studying ecosystem-level outcomes of natural (e.g. species turnover in fish assemblage) and intentional environmental change (e.g. biomanipulation). New information: We present 12 food webs from tropical reservoir communities in Singapore and summarise the topology of each with widely-used network indices (e.g. connectance, link density). Each reservoir was surveyed over 4-6 sampling occasions, during which, representative animal groups (i.e. fish species and taxonomic/functional groups of zooplankton and benthic macroinvertebrates) and all likely sources of primary production (i.e. macrophytes, periphyton, phytoplankton and riparian terrestrial plants) were collected. We analysed gut content in fishes and bulk isotope (d13C and d15N) profiles of all animals (i.e. fishes and invertebrates) and plants collected. Both sets of information were used to estimate the relative strength of trophic relationships using Bayesian mixing models. We document our protocol here, alongside a script in the R programming language for executing data management/analyses/visualisation procedures used in our study. These data can be used to glean insights into trends in inter- and intra-specific or guild interactions in analogous freshwater lake habitats.

Next-generation freshwater bioassessment: eDNA metabarcoding with a conserved metazoan primer reveals species-rich and reservoir-specific communities.

Freshwater habitats are of high conservation value and provide a wide range of ecosystem services. Effective management requires regular monitoring. However, conventional methods based on direct observation or specimen collection are so invasive, expensive and labour-intensive that frequent monitoring is uncommon. Here, we test whether the evaluation of environmental DNA (eDNA) from water based on a simple protocol can be used for assessing biodiversity. We use universal metazoan primers for characterizing water eDNA across horizontal and vertical spatial dimensions in two reservoirs with known species diversity for two key taxa. eDNA obtained directly from 42 samples × 15 ml water (total = 630 ml) per reservoir yielded DNA signatures for more than 500 metazoan species, of which 105 could be identified to species/genus based on DNA barcodes. We show that eDNA can be used to assign each water sample to its reservoir of origin, and that eDNA outperforms conventional survey methods in single-sample richness comparisons, while revealing evidence for hundreds of unknown species that are undetected by conventional bioassessment methods. eDNA also confirms the presence of a recently discovered invasive snail species and provides evidence for the continued survival of a rare native species of goby not sighted in that habitat since 2007. eDNA thus promises to be a useful addition to the bioassessment toolbox for freshwater systems.

Acute bereavement services and routine referral as a mechanism to increase donation.

Efforts to develop a mechanism that improves donation rates and provides better service to patients and staff are presented in this article. The University of Nebraska Medical Center has incorporated a routine referral process into its acute bereavement services requiring representatives to respond to each in-house death to provide consistent support and management for the decedent's family and the hospital staff. Every family was offered bereavement support and the opportunity to consent to autopsy as well as to organ and tissue donation if medically appropriate. Key data related to death and consent discussions were documented, routinely reviewed, and reported to a central location. Appropriate and timely access of these data helped to modify the program and assess its need for additional education or intervention.

Board certification in health psychology.

As professional practice in health psychology has matured, mechanisms for board certification through the American Board of Professional Psychology have been developed. This article describes the American Board of Health Psychology and its role in the credentialing of practitioners who demonstrate advanced competence in the science and practice of psychology related to health, including the prevention, treatment, and rehabilitation of illness.

Psychologic aspects of sexual abuse in adolescence.

This paper reviews psychologic aspects of sexual abuse in female adolescents. It documents that sexual abuse is widespread, occurring at an alarming rate at all socioeconomic levels of society. It is perpetrated principally by adult men in the victim's family. Often its effects are tragic. Adolescent female sexual abuse victims are at high risk for subsequent acting out behavior, sexual promiscuity, physical and sexual abuse, anxiety, depression, low self-esteem, alcohol and drug abuse or dependence, chronic sleep disturbance, dissociative disorders, eating disorders, emotional numbing, dissociation, guilt, shame, hyperalertness, suicidal ideation, and multiple associated psychiatric disorders. Although it may appear at a surface level that sexual abuse victims recover from such abuse, follow-up studies suggest that many remain disabled long after the abuse has ended. Health care professionals should be especially cognizant of the magnitude of the impact of sexual abuse on adolescent girls and recognize the need of these patients for psychologic and medical services.

Effects of education and relaxation training with essential hypertension patients.

Thirty subjects with essential hypertension were assigned randomly to either a no treatment control, education, or education with relaxation training group. Independent blood pressure recordings were collected by medical staff at pretest, posttest, and 8-week follow-up. Results suggest a significant interaction between treatment and time for the dependent physiological measure, systolic blood pressure. During the pretest to follow-up period, the control group averaged a 5.9 mm. Hg. increase, the education with relaxation group an 8.8 mm. Hg. decrease, and the education group a 14.9 mm. Hg. decrease in systolic blood pressure. There was no significant difference in group means for diastolic blood pressure within groups over time. As measured at follow-up, education appeared more effective in reducing systolic blood pressure than education with relaxation training. More than one-third of subjects associated unpleasant side effects with their antihypertensive medication. Almost all treatment subjects rated the education and relaxation as helpful for understanding and managing their hypertension.

Discriminating between alcoholic and nonalcoholic blacks and whites on the MMPI.

The purpose of the present study was to investigate the influence of race (black, white) on the MMPI performance of alcoholic and nonalcoholic inpatients. Subjects were 73 (27 black, 46 white) male alcoholic inpatients and 73 (27 black, 46 white) male nonalcoholic psychiatric inpatients. While black and white alcoholics failed to differ on the MMPI, white alcoholics presented as less disturbed and black alcoholics as less defensive and distressed, compared to their respective nonalcoholic counterparts. Furthermore, only white alcoholics were accurately identified by the MMPI 2-4/4-2 high-point pair combination and only white alcoholics achieved more high-point pairs containing Scale 4 relative to nonalcoholic controls.

The Slosson Intelligence Test and young learning-disabled children: a comparative study.

Evaluated 26 children independently diagnosed as learning disabled in a counterbalanced design with the deviation IQ form of the Slosson Intelligence Test and the Wechsler Intelligence Scale for Children-Revised (WISC-R). Moderate to good correlations were obtained between the Slosson and the WISC-R Full Scale (r = .91), Verbal (r = .94) and Performance (r = .60) IQ scores. The Slosson correctly predicted functioning level to within 10 IQ points of WISC-R Full Scale scores for 88% of the Ss. These data suggest that the recent revision of the Slosson has corrected the tendency of earlier versions of this instrument to inflate the estimated IQs of young learning-disabled children.

The utility of the modified WAIS in a clinical setting.

Utilized time-saving WAIS scoring procedures in two ex post facto investigations following approaches outlined by Vincent (1979) and Himelstein (1983). These procedures direct an examiner to use an S's results on the Information subtest as a criterion for determining the point of initial questioning on other scales. Study 1 followed exactly the procedure presented by Himelstein (1983), with an obtained correlation between modified WAIS and WAIS Verbal IQ of .993. In spite of the high correlation, however, significant distortion in results occurred for some Ss, Study 2 integrated and modified slightly the methodologies of Vincent (1979) and Himelstein (1983). Obtained correlations between modified WAIS and WAIS Verbal, Performance, and Full Scale IQs (N = 40) were each .998. The percentage of IQs that differed by more than 2 points between Modified WAIS and WAIS for Verbal, Performance, and Full Scale scores was 0%, 5%, and 2.5%, respectively. In addition, the procedure maintained the integrity of subscale configurations.