Comparing the survival rate of juvenile Chinook salmon migrating through hydropower systems using injectable and surgical acoustic transmitters.

Acoustic telemetry is one of the primary technologies for studying the behavior and survival of fishes throughout the world. The size and performance of the transmitter are key limiting factors. The newly developed injectable transmitter is the first acoustic transmitter that can be implanted via injection instead of surgery. A two-part field study was conducted to evaluate the performance of the injectable transmitter and its effect on the survival of implanted fish. The injectable transmitter performed well and similarly to the proceeding generation of commercially-available JSATS transmitters tested concurrently. Snake River subyearling Chinook salmon smolts implanted with the injectable transmitter had a higher survival probability from release to each of eleven downstream detection arrays, because reach-specific survival estimates were significantly higher for the injectable group in three of the eleven reaches examined. Overall, the injectable group had a 0.263 (SE = 0.017) survival probability over the entire 500 km study area compared to 0.199 (0.012) for the surgically implanted group. The reduction in size and ability to implant the new transmitter via injection has reduced the tag or tagging effect bias associated with studying small fishes. The information gathered with this new technology is helping to evaluate the impacts of dams on fishes.

Volumetric femoral BMD, bone geometry, and serum sclerostin levels differ between type 2 diabetic postmenopausal women with and without fragility fractures.

UNLABELLED: While type 2 diabetes (T2D) is associated with higher skeletal fragility, specific risk stratification remains incompletely understood. We found volumetric bone mineral density, geometry, and serum sclerostin differences between low-fracture risk and high-fracture risk T2D women. These features might help identify T2D individuals at high fracture risk in the future. INTRODUCTION: Diabetic bone disease, an increasingly recognized complication of type 2 diabetes mellitus (T2D), is associated with high skeletal fragility. Exactly which T2D individuals are at higher risk for fracture, however, remains incompletely understood. Here, we analyzed volumetric bone mineral density (vBMD), geometry, and serum sclerostin levels in two specific T2D subsets with different fracture risk profiles. We examined a T2D group with prior history of fragility fractures (DMFx, assigned high-risk group) and a fracture-free T2D group (DM, assigned low-risk group) and compared their results to nondiabetic controls with (Fx) and without fragility fractures (Co). METHODS: Eighty postmenopausal women (n = 20 per group) underwent quantitative computed tomography (QCT) to compute vBMD and bone geometry of the proximal femur. Additionally, serum sclerostin, vitamin D, parathyroid hormone (PTH), HbA1c, and glomerular filtration rate (GFR) levels were measured. Statistical analyses employed linear regression models. RESULTS: DMFx subjects exhibited up to 33 % lower femoral neck vBMD than DM subjects across all femoral sites (-19 % ≤ ΔvBMD ≤ -33 %, 0.008 ≤ p ≤0.021). Additionally, DMFx subjects showed significantly thinner cortices (-6 %, p = 0.046) and a trend toward larger bone volume (+10 %, p = 0.055) relative to DM women and higher serum sclerostin levels when compared to DM (+31.4 %, p = 0.013), Fx (+25.2 %, p = 0.033), and control (+22.4 %, p = 0.028) subjects. CONCLUSION: Our data suggest that volumetric bone parameters by QCT and serum sclerostin levels can identify T2D individuals at high risk of fracture and might therefore show promise as clinical tools for fracture risk assessment in T2D. However, future research is needed to establish diabetes-specific QCT- and sclerostin-reference databases.

Normative studies with the Scale for Interpersonal Behaviour (SIB): II. US students. A cross-cultural comparison with Dutch data.

The Scale for Interpersonal Behaviour (SIB), a multidimensional, self-report measure of state assertiveness, was administered to a nationwide sample of 2375 undergraduates enrolled at 11 colleges and universities across the USA. The SIB was developed in the Netherlands for the independent assessment of both distress associated with self-assertion in a variety of social situations and the likelihood of engaging in a specific assertive response. This is done with four factorially-derived, first-order dimensions: (i) Display of negative feelings (Negative assertion); (ii) Expression of and dealing with personal limitations; (iii) Initiating assertiveness; and (iv) Praising others and the ability to deal with compliments/praise of others (Positive assertion). The present study was designed to determine the cross-national invariance of the original Dutch factors and the construct validity of the corresponding dimensions. It also set out to develop norms for a nationwide sample of US students. The results provide further support for the reliability, factorial and construct validity of the SIB. Compared to their Dutch equivalents, US students had meaningfully higher distress in assertiveness scores on all SIB scales (medium to large effect sizes), whereas differences on the performance scales reflected small effect sizes. The cross-national differences in distress scores were hypothesized to have originated from the American culture being more socially demanding with respect to interpersonal competence than the Dutch, and from the perceived threats and related cognitive appraisals that are associated with such demands.