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Human-driven environmental changes shape ecological communities from local to global scales. Within cities, landscape-scale patterns and processes and species characteristics generally drive local-scale wildlife diversity. However, cities differ in their structure, species pools, geographies and histories, calling into question the extent to which these drivers of wildlife diversity are predictive at continental scales. In partnership with the Urban Wildlife Information Network, we used occurrence data from 725 sites located across 20 North American cities and a multi-city, multi-species occupancy modelling approach to evaluate the effects of ecoregional characteristics and mammal species traits on the urbanization-diversity relationship. Among 37 native terrestrial mammal species, regional environmental characteristics and species traits influenced within-city effects of urbanization on species occupancy and community composition. Species occupancy and diversity were most negatively related to urbanization in the warmer, less vegetated cities. Additionally, larger-bodied species were most negatively impacted by urbanization across North America. Our results suggest that shifting climate conditions could worsen the effects of urbanization on native wildlife communities, such that conservation strategies should seek to mitigate the combined effects of a warming and urbanizing world.

For many sociolinguists, the issue of shyness and hesitation phenomenon has been problematic for Japanese L1 and L2 speakers, particularly in gendered interactions. Over the past decade, more Japanese are shunning conversations, relationships, and isolating themselves, which is accelerating the demographic crisis in Japan. Thus, this paper focuses on the variables concerning fluency, syntactical and lexical complexity to see if there are significant differences between gendered and same-sex interactions. It seeks to answer questions such as 'is hesitation phenomenon more marked in gendered discourse than in same-sex interactions,' and 'which gender exhibits the most fluency and dysfluency?' Results showed a significant difference in the speech between males and females in regard to speaking rates and number of words, but no significance was noted between gendered and same-sex interactions, or for the variables in lexical and syntactical complexity.

This study focused on the grammatical accuracy of Japanese students who were learning English. The database for the errors came from the Japanese University Student Corpus (JUSC) comprising 61 transcripts containing 51,061 words. An inventory, containing 400 errors in context, was taken from this corpus. The first research question related to the most common errors Japanese L2 learners made in spontaneous speech whereas the second question focused on the interpretability and recognition of errors as being intralingual or interlingual. Results showed that the primary errors were articles, verb tense, prepositions, omission, modifier errors, and subject-verb agreement. These results indicate that L1 is a factor in grammatical accuracy. We concluded that this data highlights the need for language teachers to focus on getting students to use the grammatical forms in actual dialogues.

Detailed research concerning the issue fluency, specifically relating to pauses, mean length runs, and fluency rates in Japanese EFL learners, is limited. Furthermore, the issue of tracking fluency gains has often been ignored, misunderstood or minimized in EFL educational research. The present study, which is based on six monologues conducted over a school year (2010-2011), focuses on changes in fluency and accuracy concerning students' use of the simple past and present perfect, present perfect progressive, and past perfect verb tenses. Based on the results of a university placement exam, twenty students were selected. Two groups of ten students with the highest and lowest scores were interviewed for period of six months, three times in each school semester. Research aims focus on whether or not there are changes in pausing (duration and frequency), mean length runs, fluency rates and grammatical accuracy between the two groups over the school year. Students were then videotaped concerning how they responded to different questions, which concerned students' past experiences, and views. Results, based on the transcripts of the student monologues, indicated that there was significant improvement relating to the mean length runs, and on one fluency rate, but there were no significant differences in grammatical errors either in percentage of error free clauses or in errors per 100 words between the two groups. The findings help to further our understanding of specific language gains as it relates to fluency and grammatical accuracy in students' unrehearsed speech over a school year.

OH and HO2 were measured with the Airborne Tropospheric Hydrogen Oxides Sensor (ATHOS) as part of a large measurement suite from the NASA DC-8 aircraft during the Intercontinental Chemical Transport Experiment-A (INTEX-A). This mission, which was conducted mainly over North America and the western Atlantic Ocean in summer 2004, was an excellent test of atmospheric oxidation chemistry. The HOx results from INTEX-A are compared to those from previous campaigns and to results for other related measurements from. INTEX-A. Throughout the troposphere, observed OH was generally 0.95 of modeled OH; below 8 km, observed HO2 was generally 1.20 of modeled HO2. This observed-to-modeled comparison is similar to that for TRACE-P, another midlatitude study for which the median observed-to-modeled ratio was 1.08 for OH and 1.34 for HO2, and to that for PEM-TB, a tropical study for which the median observed-to-modeled ratio was 1.17 for OH and 0.97 for HO2. HO2 behavior above 8 km was markedly different. The observed-to-modeled HO2 ratio increased from ∼1.2 at 8 km to ∼3 at 11 km with the observed-to-modeled ratio correlating with NO. Above 8 km, the observed-to-modeled HO2 and observed NO were both considerably greater than observations from previous campaigns. In addition, the observed-to-modeled HO2/OH, which is sensitive to cycling reactions between OH and HO2, increased from ∼1.5 at 8 km to almost 3.5 at 11 km. These discrepancies suggest a large unknown HOx source and additional reactants that cycle HOx from OH to HO2. In the continental planetary boundary layer, the observed-to-modeled OH ratio increased from 1 when isoprene was less than 0.1 ppbv to over 4 when isoprene was greater than 2 ppbv, suggesting that forests throughout the United States are emitting unknown HOx sources. Progress in resolving these discrepancies requires a focused research activity devoted to further examination of possible unknown OH sinks and HOx sources. Copyright 2008 by the American Geophysical Union.

We examined the effects of 2 payment systems on the rate of check processing and time spent on task by participants in a simulated work setting. Three participants experienced individual pay-for-performance (PFP) without base pay and pay-for-time (PFT) conditions. In the last phase, we asked participants to choose which system they preferred. For all participants, the PFP condition produced higher rates of check processing and more time spent on task than did the PFT condition, but choice of payment system varied both within and across participants. (Contains 2 figures.)

Liming, the application of carbonate materials (e.g., CaC[O.sub.3], CaMg[(C[O.sub.3]).sub.2]) to soils and surface waters, has been used extensively in Europe, and to a lesser extent in Canada and the United States, to mitigate the effects of acid deposition on forest and aquatic ecosystems. This literature review was conducted to assess the effects of liming on ecologically and economically important sugar maple dominated ecosystems of northeastern North America, where it is increasingly used to treat sugar maple dieback. Potential direct and indirect effects were considered to determine whether the use of liming to revitalize these forests could negatively affect other ecological parameters, including those in adjacent aquatic habitats. Based on current scientific literature, it is not anticipated that liming at rates of 1-3 t [ha.sup.-1] would have major detrimental effects on these ecosystems. However, liming could have negative effects on northern hardwood forests with regard to earthworm invasions. The choice of liming as a mitigation tool should be made not only after weighing the potentially negative effects against the benefits of restoring sugar maple dominated stands in poorly buffered soils, but also after considering ecological components that could be lost or never recovered if an acidified forest ecosystem is not limed. Key words: acidification, acid rain, mitigation, liming, sugar maple, restoration, ecosystem, forest, aquatic habitat. Le chaulage, l'application de materiel carbonate (par exemple: CaC[O.sub.3], CaMg[(C[O.sub.3]).sub.2]) sur les sols et les eaux de surface, a ete largement utilise en Europe, et dans une moindre mesure au Canada et aux Etats-Unis, afin d'attenuer les effets des depots acides sur les ecosystemes forestiers et aquatiques. Cette revue de litterature a ete effectuee afin d'evaluer les effets du chaulage sur les ecosystemes forestiers domines par l'erable a sucre, qui sont importants au plan ecologique et economique dans le nord-est de l'Amerique du Nord, dans lesquels il est de plus en plus utilise pour traiter le deperissement de l'erable a sucre. Les effets potentiels directs et indirects ont ete consideres afin de determiner si l'utilisation du chaulage pour revitaliser ces forets pourrait avoir des effets negatifs sur d'autres composantes ecologiques, incluant celles des habitats aquatiques situes a proximite. Sur la base de la litterature scientifique actuelle, il n'est pas prevu que le chaulage a des taux de 1 a 3 t [ha.sup.- 1] ait des effets nefastes importants sur ces ecosystemes. Cependant, les erablieres chaulees pourraient etre sujettes aux effets negatifs lies a l'invasion de vers de terre. La decision finale d'utiliser le chaulage comme outil de mitigation doit non seulement tenir compte des effets potentiellement positifs et negatifs de ce traitement dans les erablieres situees sur des sols a faible pouvoir tampon, mais aussi des composantes ecologiques qui pourraient etre perdues ou ne jamais etre recuperees si un ecosysteme forestier acidifie n'est pas chaule. Mots-cles: acidification, pluie acide, mitigation, chaulage, erable a sucre, restauration, foret, habitat aquatique, ecosysteme., 1. Acid deposition and the need for liming Acid deposition (acid rain) emerged as one of the most publicly visible environmental issues during the 1970s and 1980s (Driscoll et al. [...]

Cotton is a highly variable natural material that is routinely blended during textile processing to create a uniform product. Harvesting and ginning can introduce some blending before the mill. Blending earlier in the supply chain could produce a more consistent and predictable product. There has been limited research on the benefits of in-field blending of cotton cultivars, especially from a textile perspective. Experiments were conducted over two seasons to determine the economic and performance impacts of in-field blending. The seed of three cultivars with different quality parameters were blended in combinations of two cultivars at 25% increments before planting. Crop maturity, lint yield, fiber quality, and textile processing were evaluated for both years. Some combinations resulted in differences in micronaire, fineness (linear density), and fiber length, which mostly followed the blend rates of the constituent cultivars. Although there were some statistical differences, no functional differences were observed for yield, textile processing, or textile quality. The most significant result was the movement of one set of blends from the base range of micronaire to the premium range. The results showed that infield blending of cultivars could be done without harming quality or resultant textiles, as long as the cultivars are carefully selected for similar seed characteristics and maturation timing. Individual producers will have to determine if the benefits and risks are worthwhile for their specific situation. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

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Abstract Introduction The drugs gabapentin and ketamine are used frequently in the peri-operative setting. There is poor documentation whether or not gabapentin and ketamine interact to cause prolonged depression of the central nervous system. Case Presentation The following is a case report in which a patient, a 58-year-old African-American man, with a history of post-traumatic stress disorder and chronic pain underwent a cervical laminoplasty procedure. The patient presented post-operatively in a dissociative state with paralysis, anarthria and preservation of consciousness. All organic causes were excluded, with the exception of prolonged central nervous system depression from a gabapentin/ketamine drug interaction. A new onset conversion disorder could also not be excluded. Conclusion Although this case by itself is not enough evidence to substantiate a true adverse reaction between gabapentin and ketamine, it is enough to warrant further investigation.