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Riparian zones are important for their contribution to biodiversity and ecosystem services, especially in the western USA where riparian zones occupy a small proportion of the landscape but support a majority of the biodiversity. However, few accurate datasets of riparian zone locations are available over broad spatial extents, and cost efficient methods to map riparian zones at fine spatial resolutions do not currently exist. We created a multi-scale, hierarchical, and process-guided method to map the location of riparian zones using readily available, national datasets. We demonstrate the applicably of this straightforward method in the Southern Rockies Ecoregion, where we mapped both current riparian zones (the riparian zone that is not strongly modified by human land uses and is assumed to support natural riparian vegetation) and potential riparian zones (the area that would likely support natural riparian vegetation in the absence of human activity). The overall accuracy of our method for potential and current riparian zones was 92%. The Southern Rockies Ecoregion is composed of 3.1% (±0.3%) potential and 2.5 (±0.2%) current riparian zones, indicating that roughly 21.0% (±0.5%) of riparian zones have been removed by human activities. This modelling approach can be used to create detailed maps of riparian zones to inform regional conservation and management decision-making, and the methods can be applied to different regions at multiple scales from small watersheds to a national analysis. Copyright © 2016 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

BackgroundAlthough the association between cannabis use and violence has been reported in the literature, the precise nature of this relationship, especially the directionality of the association, is unclear.MethodYoung males from the Cambridge Study of Delinquent Development (n = 411) were followed up between the ages of 8 and 56 years to prospectively investigate the association between cannabis use and violence. A multi-wave (eight assessments, T1–T8) follow-up design was employed that allowed temporal sequencing of the variables of interest and the analysis of violent outcome measures obtained from two sources: (i) criminal records (violent conviction); and (ii) self-reports. A combination of analytic approaches allowing inferences as to the directionality of associations was employed, including multivariate logistic regression analysis, fixed-effects analysis and cross-lagged modelling.ResultsMultivariable logistic regression revealed that compared with never-users, continued exposure to cannabis (use at age 18, 32 and 48 years) was associated with a higher risk of subsequent violent behaviour, as indexed by convictions [odds ratio (OR) 7.1, 95% confidence interval (CI) 2.19–23.59] or self-reports (OR 8.9, 95% CI 2.37–46.21). This effect persisted after controlling for other putative risk factors for violence. In predicting violence, fixed-effects analysis and cross-lagged modelling further indicated that this effect could not be explained by other unobserved time-invariant factors. Furthermore, these analyses uncovered a bi-directional relationship between cannabis use and violence.ConclusionsTogether, these results provide strong indication that cannabis use predicts subsequent violent offending, suggesting a possible causal effect, and provide empirical evidence that may have implications for public policy. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Rationale: It is becoming increasingly clear that the development of treatments for cognitive symptoms of schizophrenia requires urgent attention, and that valid animal models of relevant impairments are required. With subchronic psychotomimetic agent phencyclidine (scPCP), a putative model of such impairment, the extent to which changes following scPCP do or do not resemble those following dysfunction of the prefrontal cortex is of importance. Objectives: The present study carried out a comparison of the most common scPCP dosing regimen with excitotoxin-induced medial prefrontal cortex (mPFC) dysfunction in rats, across several cognitive tests relevant to schizophrenia. Methods: ScPCP subjects were dosed intraperitoneal with 5 mg/kg PCP or vehicle twice daily for 1 week followed by 1 week washout prior to behavioural testing. mPFC dysfunction was induced via fibre-sparing excitotoxin infused into the pre-limbic and infralimbic cortex. Subjects were tested on spontaneous novel object recognition, touchscreen object-location paired-associates learning and touchscreen reversal learning. Results: A double-dissociation was observed between object-location paired-associates learning and object recognition: mPFC dysfunction impaired acquisition of the object-location task but not spontaneous novel object recognition, while scPCP impaired spontaneous novel object recognition but not object-location associative learning. Both scPCP and mPFC dysfunction resulted in a similar facilitation of reversal learning. Conclusions: The pattern of impairment following scPCP raises questions around its efficacy as a model of cognitive impairment in schizophrenia, particularly if importance is placed on faithfully replicating the effects of mPFC dysfunction. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Rationale: Previously we demonstrated reduced D receptor availability in the ventral striatum of hyper-impulsive rats on the five-choice serial reaction time task (5-CSRTT). However, the anatomical locus of D receptor dysfunction in high impulsive (HI) rats is unknown. Objective: In the present study, we investigated whether D receptor dysfunction in HI rats is localised to the core or shell sub-regions of the nucleus accumbens (NAcb). Methods: Rats were selected for low (low impulsive, LI) and high impulsivity on the 5-CSRTT and implanted with guide cannulae targeting the NAcb core and shell. The D receptor agonist quinpirole was locally injected in the NAcb (0.1, 0.3 and 1 μg per infusion) and its effects investigated on the performance of LI and HI rats on the 5-CSRTT as well as spontaneous locomotor activity in an open field. Results: Intra-NAcb core quinpirole increased premature responding in HI rats but not in LI rats. In contrast, intra-NAcb shell quinpirole strongly increased locomotor activity in HI rats, unlike LI rats. This effect was blocked by intra-NAcb shell infusions of the D receptor antagonist nafadotride (0.03 μg). However, nafadotride was ineffective in blocking the effects of intra-NAcb core quinpirole on premature responding in HI rats. Conclusions: These findings indicate that impulsivity and hyperactivity are separately regulated by core and shell sub-regions of the NAcb and that HI rats show an enhanced response to D receptor activation in these regions. These results suggest that the symptom clusters of hyperactivity and impulsivity in attention-deficit hyperactivity disorder may be neurally dissociable at the level of the NAcb. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Context: Pain and depression are 2 of the most prevalent and treatable cancer-related symptoms, yet they frequently go unrecognized, undertreated, or both.Objective: To determine whether centralized telephone-based care management coupled with automated symptom monitoring can improve depression and pain in patients with cancer.Design, Setting, and Patients: Randomized controlled trial conducted in 16 community-based urban and rural oncology practices involved in the Indiana Cancer Pain and Depression (INCPAD) trial. Recruitment occurred from March 2006 through August 2008 and follow-up concluded in August 2009. The participating patients had depression (Patient Health Questionnaire-9 score > or = 10), cancer-related pain (Brief Pain Inventory [BPI] worst pain score > or = 6), or both.Intervention: The 202 patients randomly assigned to receive the intervention and 203 to receive usual care were stratified by symptom type. Patients in the intervention group received centralized telecare management by a nurse-physician specialist team coupled with automated home-based symptom monitoring by interactive voice recording or Internet.Main Outcome Measures: Blinded assessment at baseline and at months 1, 3, 6, and 12 for depression (20-item Hopkins Symptom Checklist [HSCL-20]) and pain (BPI) severity.Results: Of the 405 participants enrolled in the study, 131 had depression only, 96 had pain only, and 178 had both depression and pain. Of the 274 patients with pain, 137 patients in the intervention group had greater improvements in BPI pain severity over the 12 months of the trial whether measured as a continuous severity score or as a categorical pain responder (> or = 30% decrease in BPI) than the 137 patients in the usual-care group (P < .001 for both). Similarly, of the 309 patients with depression, the 154 patients in the intervention group had greater improvements in HSCL-20 depression severity over the 12 months of the trial whether measured as a continuous severity score or as a categorical depression responder (> or = 50% decrease in HSCL) than the 155 patients in the usual care group (P < .001 for both). The standardized effect size for between-group differences at 3 and 12 months was 0.67 (95% confidence interval [CI], 0.33-1.02) and 0.39 (95% CI, 0.01-0.77) for pain, and 0.42 (95% CI, 0.16-0.69) and 0.41 (95% CI, 0.08-0.72) for depression.Conclusion: Centralized telecare management coupled with automated symptom monitoring resulted in improved pain and depression outcomes in cancer patients receiving care in geographically dispersed urban and rural oncology practices.Trial Registration: clinicaltrials.gov Identifier: NCT00313573. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The core and shell subregions of the nucleus accumbens receive differential projections from areas of the medial prefrontal cortex that have dissociable effects on impulsive and perseverative responding. The contributions of these subregions to simple instrumental behaviour, inhibitory control and behavioural flexibility were investigated using a ‘forced choice’ task, various parameter manipulations and an omission schedule version of the task. Post-training, selective core lesions were achieved with microinjections of quinolinic acid and shell lesions with ibotenic acid. After a series of behavioural task manipulations, rats were re-stabilized on the standard version of the task and challenged with increasing doses of d -amphetamine (vehicle, 0.5 or 1.0 mg/kg i.p. 30 min prior to test). Neither core- nor shell-lesioned rats exhibited persistent deficits in simple instrumental behaviour or challenges to behavioural flexibility or inhibitory control. Significant differences between lesion groups were unmasked by d-amphetamine challenge in the standard version of the forced task. Core lesions potentiated and shell lesions attenuated the dose-dependent effect of d-amphetamine on increasing anticipatory responses seen in sham rats. These data imply that the accumbens core and shell subregions do not play major roles in highly-trained task performance or in challenges to behavioural control, but may have opposed effects following d-amphetamine treatment. Specifically, they suggest the shell subregion to be necessary for dopaminergic activation driving amphetamine-induced impulsive behaviour and the core subregion for the normal control of this behaviour via conditioned influences. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Although there has been an increased interest in health care delivery for rural community populations, concerns remain regarding the lack of access to primary health care and specialty services (such as palliative care), particularly in rural areas that are medically underserved (MU). This survey was conducted to examine the perceptions of palliative care services in rural communities and toward identifying perceived barriers that interfere with accessing palliative care services. In conducting the study, personnel from various disciplines throughout the Community Cancer Care (CCC) network (the largest private provider of oncology services in Indiana) completed a survey that assessed their perceptions of the strengths and weaknesses of the available palliative care services in their communities. These responses, which indicate discrepancies in perceptions among staff within sites, suggest problems of integration of palliative care in given locations. Results revealed three particularly problematic areas: accessing pain control, accessing psychological or psychiatric services or both, and overcoming barriers to hospice care. Although no significant differences were found for any variables between MU and adequately medically served (AMS) areas, in general palliative care is limited and unintegrated into oncology care. Confusion among staff at a particular oncology program likely contributes to the haphazard delivery and poor integration of palliative care. Conclusions are tempered by important study limitations but the results suggest the need for programs that improve delivery of palliative care in rural Indiana. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Replying to T. Yonezawa & M. Hasegawa 468, 10.1038/nautre09482 (2010)Yonezawa and Hasegawa provide an example from two apparently unrelated families of nucleic acid coding sequences for which an Akaike information criterion (AIC) model selection test, similar to mine, chooses a common origin hypothesis. Although this may seem surprising, the coding sequences in this example were aligned in the same reading frame. The constraints of the genetic code are expected to induce correlations between these sequences (and among all coding sequences) that are not due to common ancestry. For instance, owing to codon bias and the structure of the genetic code, in these sequences the second codon position is biased towards T (about twofold over average), whereas the third position is usually an A (∼50%) and rarely a G (∼4%). [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]