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Endotracheal intubation may be required for the transport of critically ill neonates and children. Data suggest that first pass success (FPS) is associated with lower rates of complications. Thus, understanding factors associated with FPS can have important implications for clinical outcomes. We aimed to determine the impact of videolaryngoscopy (VL) on FPS by a pediatric critical care transport team (CCTT).

This paper focuses on Swiss GDP revisions and the uncertainty they generate from the point of view of monetary policy. After a description of the revisions features, we use GDP vintages to compute real-time output gaps using a production function approach. Then, with a nominal feedback rule, we assess the impact of GDP – and hence output gap – on revisions monetary policy. The main results are threefold. First, Swiss GDP revisions – similarly to those of other small economies – are large, and estimates converge slowly to their final value. Second, GDP mismeasurements clearly exacerbate the difficulty in estimating output gaps. Third, the impact of revisions on monetary policy varies over time. Via its effect on output gaps, ceteris paribus, the inaccuracy of GDP estimates risks introducing a procyclical bias in monetary policy decisions.

Tropical forests vary substantially in the densities of trees of different sizes and thus in above-ground biomass and carbon stores. However, these tree size distributions show fundamental similarities suggestive of underlying general principles. The theory of metabolic ecology predicts that tree abundances will scale as the -2 power of diameter. Demographic equilibrium theory explains tree abundances in terms of the scaling of growth and mortality. We use demographic equilibrium theory to derive analytic predictions for tree size distributions corresponding to different growth and mortality functions. We test both sets of predictions using data from 14 large-scale tropical forest plots encompassing censuses of 473 ha and > 2 million trees. The data are uniformly inconsistent with the predictions of metabolic ecology. In most forests, size distributions are much closer to the predictions of demographic equilibrium, and thus, intersite variation in size distributions is explained partly by intersite variation in growth and mortality.

The purpose of this study was to examine the SCL-90 profiles of adult outpatients with and without dissociative disorders. A total of 194 participants were administered the Structured Clinical Interview for DSM-IV Dissociative Disorders-Revised (SCID-D-R) and the Symptom Checklist-90 (SCL-90). Patients with dissociative identity disorder (DID) reported significantly higher SCL-90 Global Severity Index (GSI) and individual subscale scores than those without dissociative disorders. It is recommended that patients who are polysymptomatic on the SCL-90 be considered for follow-up dissociative symptom assessment to aid differential diagnosis and to inform subsequent treatment.

Summary An indicator is a measure used to express the behaviour of a system or part of a system. Indicators are widely used in the public sector, and there is widespread use of indicators for performance management of public health. In this paper, we define some of the terms used in relation to indicators. We outline some of the most important issues around selection and construction of indicators, and we include criteria for developing or assessing indicators. Use of inappropriate indicators can be misleading and can result in negative consequences for public health, and we point out the potential for pitfalls. Some misinterpretation of indicators could be avoided by use of better methods of presentation than the familiar league table. We use the example of a funnel plot to show a method of summarising indicator data which avoids ranking, and allows rapid identification of areas functioning outside normal limits.

Summary 1 Current discussions about the structure and functioning of tropical plant communities revolve around whether tropical forests are dominated by sets of widespread and locally abundant species and the relative importance of environmental variation and geographical distance as determinants of variation in species composition. We explored these questions by examining diversity and dominance patterns of palm communities in lowland rain forests in the western Amazon basin (Yasuni National Park, Ecuador and Iquitos-Pebas region, Peru). 2 We used multiple regression to analyse floristic similarity between sites as a function of environmental differences (in topographic position, elevation difference, amount of exchangeable cations and soil texture) and geographical distance. We studied dominance patterns by quantifying the correlations between local abundance and landscape frequency of species within and between the regions. 3 We found floristic composition to be highly variable and more strongly related to geographical distance than to environmental differences. Together, geographical distance and environmental differences explained 70–85% of the variation in floristic similarity. 4 Species abundant in one region were also often abundant in the other, although some dominant species in Iquitos-Pebas did not occur in Yasuni. Local dominance was more pronounced in Yasuni, where the dominant species formed a larger and less variable proportion of all individuals within transects. 5 Limited dispersal and, to a lesser extent, local environmental variation appear to act as determinants of floristic variation in the western Amazon basin. Oligarchic dominance patterns were observed, particularly in Yasuni. 6 Our results lend support to the hypothesis that dispersal across broader spatial scales plays a strong role in the assembly of local ecological communities, but indicate that such limitation supplements, rather than replaces, local ecological determinism.

The population dynamics of 8500 shade-tolerant tree seedlings of 13 tree species were followed for 10 years at rain forests in Lambir Hills National Park and Bako National Park, Malaysian Borneo. Since these dipterocarp forests have lower rates of canopy gap formation than do rain forests elsewhere, tree seedling biology was predicted to differ. Approximately 50% of seedlings present in 1986 were still alive in 1996. Seven out of thirteen had seedling populations composed predominantly of individuals that were at least 10 years old. These seedlings can undergo alternating periods of relatively rapid and slow growth. Many seedlings that grew rapidly in the first census interval survived through a period of suppression in the second census interval, and conversely many seedlings with a history of suppression had exceptionally high growth in the final census interval. Seedlings of South-East Asian forest tree species are long-lived and appear to be adapted to long periods of suppression in the understorey.

The population structure of the canopy liana Machaerium cuspidatum Kuhlm. & Hoehne (Fabaceae) was studied in ten transects covering a total of 2.5 ha of tropical rain forest in Yasuni National Park, eastern Ecuador. The aim was to investigate how trellis availability, topographic position and light availability affected the population density and structure of the most abundant liana species in the area. The environmental variation affected plants in different size classes differently. Large plants (diameter ≥ 1 cm) were almost exclusively found in areas with low canopy and dense undergrowth. These areas had the highest density of suitable host plants. Seedling-sized plants (height < 30 cm) and saplings (height ≥ 30 cm but diameter < 1 cm) occurred more frequently and withhigher density in steep upland areas than in the floodplains, presumably due to elevated seedling mortality in the periodically flooded areas. Seedling-sized plants and saplings did not grow in areas with elevated light levels, and although plants of all sizes were highly clumped, this clumping rarely coincided with patches with abundant canopy gaps. Machaerium cuspidatum reproduces clonally when branches re-root and break off from the parentplant. The density of clonally produced plants was high in areas where the density of sexually produced plants was low, whereas the total density varied little among habitat types. A higher proportion of the seedling-sized plants were of sexual origin in the upland areas. An environmentally induced increase in the production of independent ramets enables M. cuspidatum to persist in the floodplains. This shows that plants may expand theirrealised niches to habitats with a low potential for seedling survival if high seedling mortality can be compensated for by increased clonal reproduction.

Mode of tree death in relation to topography was examined in three lowland rain forests; Belalong and Andalau, in Brunei Darussalam and Danum, in Sabah, East Malaysia. In total, 1543 dead trees ≥20 cm diameter at breast height (DBH) were enumerated in an area of 36 ha. In Belalong, 31% of the dead trees had died standing, 26% had snapped, 21% had uprooted, 19% had either died-standing or snapped and 3% remained undetermined (n = 436). In Andalau, 46% had died standing, 11% had snapped, 14% had uprooted, 26% had either died standing or snapped and 3% remained undetermined (n = 591). In Danum, 37% had died standing, 22% had snapped, 14% had uprooted, 24% had either died-standing or snapped and 3% remained undetermined (n = 516). Slope position, e.g. whether the tree was located in a valley, mid-slope, upper slope or ridge, was related to mode of death in all three sites. Elevation and tree diameter were related in two of the sites, and drainage, soil depth and soil shear strength were related in one of the sites. Generally the proportion of standing deaths increased moving from the valleys up to the ridge tops while uprooting proportions had the converse relationship. Slope position had little effect on the proportions of snapped trees. The three modes of death create different types of gaps. The findings substantiate that different topographies have different proportions of these gap types. The predominant gap type may have consequences for local and regional differences in forest structure and composition.

Genetic diversity, population differentiation, and temporal variation in outcrossing rates were examined for Pithecellobium elegans, a Neotropical rain forest canopy tree. Several forest fragments and a large reserve (1500 ha) were compared for several population genetic parameters. For eight populations sampled on the Atlantic coastal plain of Costa Rica, allozyme heterozygosity (0.13), polymorphism (35%), and effective number of alleles (1.24) were similar to values reported for other tropical tree species that occur at similar densities of less than one individual per hectare. These measures of genetic variation were lowest in populations of the smallest size, farthest from the reserve, and more isolated from other populations. Differentiation among samples collected in small forest fragments and the reserve population accounted for 10% of the total genetic variation observed. There was a positive relationship between the level of differentiation of populations from the reserve population and their distance from the reserve. Though predominantly an annually flowering species, the number of trees in flower at any one time varied from 80% of observed trees to only 6%. Outcrossing rates did not differ for two episodes in which the proportions of flowering trees were 33% and 80%. But periods of low density of flowering adults resulted in poor seed crops or failure to set fruit for many individuals. Population size at many sites will be effectively decreased because of the variation in flowering. Fragmentation of what was once a large, continuous forested area is resulting in genetic erosion of small, isolated populations of Pithecellobium elegans. Examinamos la diversidad genetica, la diferenciacion de la poblacion y la variacion temporal de Pithecellobium elegans, un arbol de dosel de bosque lluvioso en el neotropico. Poblaciones de diversos fragmentos de bosque, asi como de una reserva grande (1,500 ha) fueron comparadas usando diversos parametros de geentica poblacional. En ocho poblaciones muestreadas de la planicie costera del Atlantico de Costa Rica, los valores de heterocigocidad de alosomas (0.13), polimorfismo (35%) y numero efectivo de alelos (1.24) fueron similares a los reportados para otras especies de arboles que ocurren a densidades similares de menos de un individuo por hectarea. Estas mediciones de variacion genetica fueron menores en las poblaciones de menor tamano, alejadas de la reserva y las mas aisladas de otras poblaciones. La diferenciacion entre muestras colectadas en fragmentos pequenos de bosque y la poblacion de la reserva explica 10% de la variacion genetica total observada. Existio una relacion positiva entre el nivel de diferenciacion de las poblaciones de la reserva y la distancia a la que se encontraban de la reserva. Considerada predominantemente como una especie de florecimiento anual, el numero de arboles en flor vario entre 80% de arboles observados hasta solo 6%. Las tasas de cruza exogena no fueron diferentes a dos episodios en los cuales la proporcion de arboles floreciendo fue de 33% y 80%. De cualquier manera, los periodos de baja densidad de adultos floreciendo resulto en una produccion de semillas pobre, o en carencia de frutos en muchos individuos. El tamano poblacional de muchos sitios decrecera debido a la variacion en florecimientos. La fragmentacion de lo que alguna vez fuera una vasta area arbolada de Pithecellobium elegans se esta convirtiendo en poblaciones pequenas geneticamente erosionadas y aisladas.

Carapa guianensis Aublet. (Meliaceae) is an abundant, canopy tree species often exported as fine wood products. The populations in the Atlantic coastal plain ofCosta Rica have undergone a wide variety ofhuman-induced changes in distribution and abundance, including isolation due to deforestation. Using protein electrophoretic analysis of seeds, we investigated the genetic variability and population differentiation of nine populations and the outcrossing rate in two populations that differed in density by a factor of 50%. Average polymorphism (35%) and heterozygosity (0.12) across populations were relatively low in comparison with other tropical tree species. Only 4.6% of the total genetic variability could be attributed to population differentiation even though populations were separated by as much as 70 km. However, genetic differentiation did increase with distance between pairs of compared populations. There were no apparent differences in genetic variation between logged and unlogged forests. The outcrossing rate for each population was not significantly different from 1.0, but there was evidence of nonrandom mating in the lower density population. High levels of gene flow are probably maintained by seed dispersal as seeds travel well throughout flooded forests and rivers. High population density and synchronous flowering also contribute to high outcrossing rates. These genetic characteristics suggest that Carapa guianensis is a good candidate for natural forest management where it occurs at high density. However, current management practices need to account for the rapid rate of deforestation occurring around managed natural forest sites that will result in the elimination of intervening populations.

Central banks have won in credibility as from the mid-eighties by keeping inflation under control. However, confidence in low inflation might have encouraged agents to excessive risk-taking, leading asset prices to rise. Moreover, the belief in a Federal Reserve guarantee against a sharp market decline spread across US markets as from the nineties. This belief, commonly referred to as the Greenspan put, raised again the question about the role of asset prices in monetary policy decisions. The problem is addressed by modeling the reaction of the Fed to stockmarket deviations from fundamentals over the period stretching from August 1987 to October 2008, which corresponds to the periods where Greenspan until January 2006 and Bernanke from thereon were chairmen. A Taylor rule describing the Fed's nominal feedback rule to inflation and economic activity on a monthly basis is extended to take account of asset prices. The indicators considered are deflation and volatility in stock prices. Furthermore, a Markov switching process allows to capture contemporaneous as well as forward-looking monetary policy responses to asset prices over the period. We find out that taking asset price deflation improves the Taylor rule fit by some 8%. In periods when the Fed was actively pursuing an expansive or restrictive monetary policy, its reaction to volatility or deflation of financial markets was significant. We also see that the reaction of the Fed to asset prices was greater during financial crises, especially when modeling a forward-looking decision process. Agents' confidence in a stronger response of the US central bank to significant market declines urging to an easing of monetary conditions in their favour was therefore not unfounded.

Thousands of plant and animal species in tropical regions provide a variety of non-timber products that are used by billions of people all over the world. Conservation and long term utilization of these species require that they be harvested on a sustainable basis. However, the extent to which non-timber forest products are exploited without adverse effects on natural populations is not known. There is in fact considerable evidence for non-sustainable harvest of non-timber products. We outline methods that may be used to assess the impact of harvest on population processes of the species that are being harvested. We present sampling protocols for rapid assessment as well as long term monitoring of populations. We briefly consider the limitations of these methods and suggest that the monitoring protocols we outline should be part of an overall management plan designed to extract and utilize non-timber tropical forest products on a long term basis.

T he rainforests of the Malaysian state of Sarawak on the northwest coast of Borneo have among the most diverse animal and plant life of any Old World site (Whitmore 1984). These forests are home to such rare and important species as the orangutan, the rhinoceros hornbill (a bird), giant-flowered Rafflesia, and the durian fruit. The species richness of this area makes it a natural staging ground for investigations of the factors that contribute to the development and maintenance of biological diversity in tropical forests. We have been examining these factors since 1980; however, recent economic and political developments in Sarawak have begun to affect our study of forest change. We have observed a tremendous increase in the impact of human-induced change on the composition of the rainforest as Sarawak has become a leading exporter of tropical logs. At present, human factors have a greater impact on Sarawak's forests than do natural processes. As a result, our research is increasingly oriented toward forest management and conservation issues.

In Amazonian tropical forests, recent studies have reported increases in aboveground biomass and in primary productivity, as well as shifts in plant species composition favouring fast-growing species over slow-growing ones. This pervasive alteration of mature tropical forests was attributed to global environmental change, such as an increase in atmospheric CO2 concentration, nutrient deposition, temperature, drought frequency, and/or irradiance. We used standardized, repeated measurements of over 2 million trees in ten large (16–52 ha each) forest plots on three continents to evaluate the generality of these findings across tropical forests. Aboveground biomass increased at seven of our ten plots, significantly so at four plots, and showed a large decrease at a single plot. Carbon accumulation pooled across sites was significant (+0.24 MgC ha−1 y−1, 95% confidence intervals [0.07, 0.39] MgC ha−1 y−1), but lower than reported previously for Amazonia. At three sites for which we had data for multiple census intervals, we found no concerted increase in biomass gain, in conflict with the increased productivity hypothesis. Over all ten plots, the fastest-growing quartile of species gained biomass (+0.33 [0.09, 0.55] % y−1) compared with the tree community as a whole (+0.15 % y−1); however, this significant trend was due to a single plot. Biomass of slow-growing species increased significantly when calculated over all plots (+0.21 [0.02, 0.37] % y−1), and in half of our plots when calculated individually. Our results do not support the hypothesis that fast-growing species are consistently increasing in dominance in tropical tree communities. Instead, they suggest that our plots may be simultaneously recovering from past disturbances and affected by changes in resource availability. More long-term studies are necessary to clarify the contribution of global change to the functioning of tropical forests., Author Summary Recent studies have reported major changes in mature tropical forests, with increases in both forest biomass and net primary productivity, as well as shifts in plant species composition that favour fast-growing species over slow-growing ones. These pervasive alterations were attributed to global environmental change, and may result in dramatic shifts in the functioning of tropical forest ecosystems. We reassessed these findings using a dataset of large permanent forest plots on three continents. We found that tree biomass increased at seven of our ten plots, and showed a large decrease at a single plot. Overall, this increase was significant, albeit lower than reported previously for Amazonian forests. At three sites for which we had data for multiple census intervals, we found no concerted increase in biomass gain, in conflict with the increased productivity hypothesis. With the exception of one plot, slow-growing species gained more biomass than either fast-growing species or the tree community as a whole. Hence, our results do not support the hypothesis that fast-growing species are consistently increasing in dominance in tropical tree communities. Overall, our results suggest that our plots may be simultaneously recovering from past disturbances and affected by changes in resource availability., An analysis of changes in biomass and primary productivity across ten large tropical forest plots revealed that aboveground biomass increased significantly, fast-growing species increased significantly in dominance at a single site, and slow-growing species increased significantly at half of our sites.

The cost of current reproduction on future growth, survival, and reproduction is a central concept in evolutionary ecology, but the field evidence in plants for a cost of reproduction is weak because the appropriate experimental protocol (manipulation of the level of reproduction in an experimental group of individuals) has rarely been carried out. The pink lady's slipper orchid, Cypripedium acaule, is well suited to this design because naturally occurring flowering plants only rarely fruit, whereas virtually all hand-pollinated flowers develop into fruits. In two eastern Massachusetts populations, plants were randomly assigned to be hand-pollinated or left as controls, with the treatments repeated in four successive years. After 2 yr, treatment effects were weak at one site and absent from the other site. By the third and fourth years, the high cost of reproduction was clearly demonstrated in a lower growth and flowering rate of hand-pollinated plants in comparison with the control plants. An average-siz...

W ITHIN RECENT YEARS, there has been a revival of interest in the ancient tradition of the virtues. Most of the contemporary discussion has focused on the moral and political philosophies of Plato and Aristotle especially.' But medieval contributors to this ethical tradition also figure as important, and only recently have scholars outside the field of theology begun to pay heed to moral philosophers such as Saint Thomas Aquinas. The political philosopher E. A. Goemer has cleared important ground in the philosophical study of Aquinas. In his two articles on Thomistic ethics, first published in Political Theory2 he rejects Aquinas's traditional classification as a natural law theorist. Goerner identifies the presence of two ethical standards in Aquinas's thought, natural law and natural right. Goerner takes natural law to be a set of exceptionless rules prescribing or constraining action. In contrast, the natural right theorist, of which Aristotle is an example, holds that rules "are, at best, generalizations that are not universally valid but are changeable according to circumstances."3 The real criterion of natural right ultimately must be the judgment of the virtuous person. Goerner provides an account of how these two very different standards function within Thomistic ethics. He takes up Aquinas's own distinction between intrinsic and extrinsic principles of actions.4 The intrinsic principles, moving the moral agent by love of the good, are the virtues. The extrinsic principles of action are law and grace, both of which, in some sense, move from without. Law is, minimally, constraint on the vicious, imposing penalty for violations; optimally, law can serve as an educator, "a propaedeutic to virtue."5 Nonetheless, law does not have the perfection of fully virtuous

Most ecological hypotheses about species coexistence hinge on species differences, but quantifying trait differences across species in diverse communities is often unfeasible. We examined the variation of demographic traits using a global tropical forest data set covering 4500 species in 10 large-scale tree inventories. With a hierarchical Bayesian approach, we quantified the distribution of mortality and growth rates of all tree species at each site. This allowed us to test the prediction that demographic differences facilitate species richness, as suggested by the theory that a tradeoff between high growth and high survival allows species to coexist. Contrary to the prediction, the most diverse forests had the least demographic variation. Although demographic differences may foster coexistence, they do not explain any of the 16-fold variation in tree species richness observed across the tropics.

The theory of metabolic ecology predicts specific relationships among tree stem diameter, biomass, height, growth and mortality. As demographic rates are important to estimates of carbon fluxes in forests, this theory might offer important insights into the global carbon budget, and deserves careful assessment. We assembled data from 10 oldgrowth tropical forests encompassing censuses of 367 ha and > 1.7 million trees to test the theory’s predictions. We also developed a set of alternative predictions that retained some assumptions of metabolic ecology while also considering how availability of a key limiting resource, light, changes with tree size. Our results show that there are no universal scaling relationships of growth or mortality with size among trees in tropical forests. Observed patterns were consistent with our alternative model in the one site where we had the data necessary to evaluate it, and were inconsistent with the predictions of metabolic ecology in all forests.

An ecological community's species diversity tends to erode through time as a result of stochastic extinction, competitive exclusion, and unstable host-enemy dynamics. This erosion of diversity can be prevented over the short term if recruits are highly diverse as a result of preferential recruitment of rare species or, alternatively, if rare species survive preferentially, which increases diversity as the ages of the individuals increase. Here, we present census data from seven New and Old World tropical forest dynamics plots that all show the latter pattern. Within local areas, the trees that survived were as a group more diverse than those that were recruited or those that died. The larger (and therefore on average older) survivors were more diverse within local areas than the smaller survivors. When species were rare in a local area, they had a higher survival rate than when they were common, resulting in enrichment for rare species and increasing diversity with age and size class in these complex ecosystems.

An indicator is a measure used to express the behaviour of a system or part of a system. Indicators are widely used in the public sector, and there is widespread use of indicators for performance management of public health. In this paper, we define some of the terms used in relation to indicators. We outline some of the most important issues around selection and construction of indicators, and we include criteria for developing or assessing indicators. Use of inappropriate indicators can be misleading and can result in negative consequences for public health, and we point out the potential for pitfalls. Some misinterpretation of indicators could be avoided by use of better methods of presentation than the familiar league table. We use the example of a funnel plot to show a method of summarising indicator data which avoids ranking, and allows rapid identification of areas functioning outside normal limits.