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Vance McPherson posted an update 1 day, 19 hours ago
Forest fragmentation and deforestation are major threats to primates at a global scale. The survival of primates in forest fragments largely depends on their behavioral and dietary flexibility, as well as their ability to use a modified matrix in anthropogenic landscapes, hence the importance of determining these ecological parameters in habitats with strong anthropic interventions. This paper aims to describe the activity budget and diet of two groups of the Colombian night monkey (Aotus lemurinus) and to estimate their home range in two peri-urban forest fragments in the city of Manizales, Colombia. We combined scan sampling and handheld GPS fixes in order to determine the behavioral, dietary and spatial patterns of the study groups. Night monkeys spent most of their time resting and traveling and were mainly frugivorous relying on at least 26 plant species in their diet. The most consumed plants included Persea americana, Cecropia angustifolia, Musa x paradisiaca, Cecropia telenitida, and Croton cf. mutisianus. Two of these plants are cultivated species and can provide important resources for populations in small forest fragments. Home range sizes were estimated at 1.7 to 1.8 hectares, using a grid count method. Our results suggest the potential adaptability that these primates have when exposed to anthropogenic habitat disturbances and habitat degradation. Nonetheless, future studies should evaluate the influence of demographic factors and resource availability on the behavioral, dietary and spatial patterns of A. lemurinus in peri-urban forests, in order to further understand their ability to cope with the pervasive processes of habitat fragmentation in the northern Andes.Neurogenesis occurs in adults of most organisms, both vertebrates and invertebrates. In semiterrestrial crabs of the infraorder Brachyura, the deutocerebrum, where neurogenesis occurs, processes the olfactory sensory information from the antennae. The deutocerebrum is composed of a pair of olfactory lobes associated with cell clusters 9 and 10 (Cl 9 and Cl 10), containing proliferating cells. Because the location of the neurogenic niche in brachyuran semiterrestrial crabs has not been defined, here we describe a neurogenic niche in the central olfactory system of the crab Ucides cordatus and report two types of glial cells in the deutocerebrum, based on different markers. Serotonin (5-hydroxytryptamine) labeling was used to reveal neuroanatomical aspects of the central olfactory system and the neurogenic niche. The results showed a zone of proliferating neural cells within Cl 10, which also contains III beta-tubulin (Tuj1)+ immature neurons, associated with a structure that has characteristics of the neurogenic niche. For the first time, using two glial markers, glial fibrillary acidic protein (GFAP) and glutamine synthetase (GS), we identified two types of astrocyte-like cells in different regions of the deutocerebrum. This study adds to the understanding of neurogenesis in a brachyuran semiterrestrial crustacean and encourages comparative studies between crustaceans and vertebrates, including mammals, based on shared aspects of both mechanisms of neurogenesis and regenerative potentials.Visual salience is a key component of attentional selection, the process that guards the scarce resources needed for conscious recognition and perception. In previous works, we proposed a measure of visual salience based on a formal theory of visual selection. However, the strength of visual salience depends on the time course as well as local physical contrasts. Evidence from multiple experimental designs in the literature suggests that the strength of salience rises initially and declines after approximately 150 ms. The present article amends the theory-based salience measure beyond local physical contrasts to the time course of salience. It does so through a first experiment which reveals that-contrary to expectations-salience is not reduced during the first 150 ms after onset. Instead, the overall visual processing capacity is severely reduced, which corresponds to a reduced processing speed of all stimuli in the visual field. A second experiment confirms this conclusion by replicating the result. We argue that the slower stimulus processing may have been overlooked previously because the attentional selection mechanism had not yet been modeled in studies on the time course of salience.
Deep white matter lesions (DWMLs), T2 high-intensity areas in the subcortical white matter on magnetic resonance imaging (MRI), are a clinical phenotype of cerebral small vessel disease. Factors such as age and hypertension have been reported to significantly contribute to the presence and severity of DWMLs in cross-sectional studies. We herein report a 10-year longitudinal study on DWMLs in elderly Japanese subjects to reveal the clinical variables contributing to the progression of DWMLs.
A total of 469 Japanese subjects were invited to participate in the study. Of the participants at baseline, 259 subjects completed the revisit MRI study 10 years later. In those 259 subjects, we evaluated the correlation between the progression of DWMLs and clinical variables, such as the gender, age, and overt vascular risk factors. To clarify the role of hypertension, 200 subjects with grade 1 DWMLs at baseline were categorized into three groups according to their status of hypertension and its treatment.
Of the 200 subjects with grade 1 DWMLs, 47 subjects (23.5%) showed progression of DWMLs (progression group). In the progression group, the percentage of subjects with hypertension and the systolic blood pressure values were higher than in the non-progression group. Diltiazem In addition, subjects ≥ 60 years old at baseline tended to show deterioration of DWMLs in the group with hypertension without antihypertensive treatment.
The results of this 10-year longitudinal study imply a positive correlation between long-standing hypertension and the progression of DWMLs.
The results of this 10-year longitudinal study imply a positive correlation between long-standing hypertension and the progression of DWMLs.