Mangroves are one of the most important ecosystems in the world being found in the tropical–subtropical belt. Despite their significance, they have been highly disturbed due to many anthropogenic and natural causes. A significant effort has been made to restore mangroves around the world. However, a lack of information on the seed biology of mangrove species has impeded restoration. Thus, this study aimed to produce a seed dormancy profile for selected plant species of mangroves in Sri Lanka. This profile would allow restoration ecologists to better understand what kinds of dormancy are present, how to alleviate dormancy and how to best stimulate germination to generate seedlings for nursery stock or out-planting. Mature fruits/seeds were collected from coastal zone mangroves in Sri Lanka. Germination and imbibition of non-scarified and manually scarified seeds and embryo:seed length (E:S) ratio of fresh and radicle-emerged seeds were evaluated to assess the class of dormancy. Of the 30 species, seeds from 12 (40%) were non-dormant and 18 (60%) were dormant. Three dormancy classes [physiological (PD), physical (PY) and morphophysiological (MPD)] and presence of epicotyl dormancy were identified. Among species producing dormant seeds, most of them showed PD (44%). PY, MPD and presence of epicotyl dormancy were represented by 28, 17 and 11% of the species, respectively. These findings aid practitioners to craft strategies to effectively break dormancy and germinate seeds for conservation and restoration activities of mangroves.

Literature reports that insults, such as hormonal disturbances, during critical periods of development may modulate organism physiology and metabolism favoring cardiovascular diseases (CVDs) later in life. Studies show that leptin administration during lactation leads to cardiovascular dysfunction in young and adult male Wistar rats. However, there are sex differences regarding CVD. Thus, the present work aimed to investigate neonatal leptin administration’s consequences on different outcomes in female rats at prepubertal and adult age. Newborn Wistar female rats were divided into two groups, Leptin and Control, receiving daily subcutaneous injections of this adipokine (8 μg/100 g) or saline for the first 10 of 21 d of lactation. Nutritional, biometric, hemodynamic, and echocardiographic parameters, as well as maximal effort ergometer performance, were determined at postnatal days (PND) 30 and 150. Leptin group presented lower food intake (p = 0.0003) and higher feed efficiency (p = 0.0058) between PND 21 and 30. Differences concerning echocardiographic parameters revealed higher left ventricle internal diameter (LVID) in systole (p = 0.0051), as well as lower left ventricle ejection fraction (LVEF) (p = 0.0111) and fractional shortening (FS) (p = 0.0405) for this group at PND 30. Older rats treated with leptin during lactation presented only higher LVID in systole (p = 0.0270). Systolic blood pressure and maximum effort ergometer test performance was similar between groups at both ages. These data suggest that nutritional, biometric, and cardiac outcomes due to neonatal leptin administration in female rats are age-dependent.

Literature describes breast milk as the best food for the newborn, recommending exclusive breastfeeding for up to 6 months of age. However, it is not available for more than 40% of children worldwide. Pharmacological and non-pharmacological models of 3-day early weaning were developed in rodents to investigate later outcomes related solely to this nutritional insult. Thus, the present work aimed to describe biometric, nutritional, biochemical, and cardiovascular outcomes in adult male rats submitted to 3-day early weaning achieved by maternal deprivation. This experimental model comprises not only nutritional insult but also emotional stress, simulating mother abandoning. Male offspring were physically separated from their mothers at 21st (control) or 18th (early weaning) postnatal day, receiving water/food ad libitum. Analysis performed at postnatal days 30, 90, 150, and 365 encompassed body mass and food intake monitoring and serum biochemistry determination. Further assessments included hemodynamic, echocardiographic, and cardiorespiratory evaluation. Early-weaned males presented higher body weight when compared to control as well as dyslipidemia, higher blood pressure, diastolic dysfunction, and cardiac hypertrophy in adult life. Animals early deprived of their mothers have also presented a worse performance on the maximal effort ergometer test. This work shows that 3-day early maternal deprivation favors the development of cardiovascular disease in male rats.

Previous fMRI research has found altered brain response after total sleep deprivation (TSD), with TSD effects moderated by task difficulty. Specific models of the impact of sleep deprivation and task difficulty on brain response have yet to be developed. Differences in networks of fMRI measured brain response during verbal encoding in sleep deprived and well-rested individuals were examined with structural equation modeling (SEM). During fMRI scanning, 23 healthy volunteers memorized words either easy or difficult to recall, 12 (well-rested) and 36 hours (sleep deprived) after awaking. A priori models that linked specified regions of interest were evaluated, with the focus on the extent to which two left parietal regions interacted with the left inferior frontal gyrus (Model 1) or with the right inferior frontal gyrus (Model 2). Task difficulty, not TSD, determined which model fit the brain response data; Model 2 fit best for hard words before and after TSD, whereas Model 1 fit best for easy words. TSD altered the patterns of interaction within each of the best fitting models: prefrontal interactions with the left inferior parietal lobe were diminished and intra-parietal interactions increased. Sleep deprivation and item difficulty produce different effects on brain networks involved in verbal learning. (JINS, 2006, 12, 591–597.)

A 54-year-old man complained of severe throat pain and showed subglottic oedema on fibre-optic endoscopy with a distinctly narrowed subglottic space on anteroposterior radiography of the neck and dense linear opacity at the level of the cricoid cartilage on lateral plain radiography. These findings suggested a foreign body just posterior to the cricopharyngeus, but a computed tomography (CT) scan demonstrated a dense calcified ridge on the posterior lamina of the cricoid cartilage but no foreign body.

The patient improved symptomatically with systemic antibiotics and topical steroids, and gastrointestinal endoscopy did not detect any foreign body. This is a rare case of vertical ossification of the cricoid lamina masquerading as a foreign body.

The ovulatory cycle and moulting are associated with physiological and endocrinological mechanisms involving a complex interplay of light stimulus, hypothalamus, pituitary, gonads, thyroid and adrenal glands. During ovulation, the LH surge triggers the release of a mature follicle. With advance in the age of a laying hen, egg production decreases coinciding with decrease in ovarian steroids and gonadotropins. Moulting occurs when oestrogen, progesterone and luteinizing hormone are low while thyroid hormones and corticosterone are high. The physiological processes observed during induced moulting are common to those found in natural moulting. Moulting results in the rejuvenation of reproductive tissues of old laying hens, preparing them for another laying cycle. Vitellogenin provides the two proteins (lipovitellin and phosvitin) to the developing yolk, at the same time serving as their transport protein through the blood stream. Low levels of vitellogenin in the plasma of moulting hens are attributable to decrease in oestrogen during moulting since production of vitellogenin from the liver is stimulated by oestrogen.

Background and objective: The feasibility of monitoring measured intravascular volumes and the cardiac filling pressures were compared to reflect the optimal volume status of postoperative patients.

Methods: In a prospective clinical study, 14 hypovolaemic adult patients were included after cardiac surgery. All patients received 1000 mL hydroxyethyl starch after meeting the authors’ criteria for hypovolaemia. Pressures were measured by use of a pulmonary artery catheter and volumes were determined by double-indicator dilution technique.

Results: Stroke volume index (SVI), central venous pressure (CVP), pulmonary artery occlusion pressure (PAOP), intrathoracic blood volume index (ITBVI) and total circulating blood volume (TBVIcirc) increased significantly after volume loading (30.7 ± 9.8 to 41.7 ± 9.6 mL m−2, 4.9 ± 1.7 to 9.1 ± 2.3 mmHg, 6.6 ± 1.3 to 10.6 ± 1.9 mmHg, 858 ± 255 to 965 ± 163 mL m−2, and 1806 ± 502 to 2110 ± 537 mL m−2, respectively). During the subsequent 1 h steady-state period, CVP and PAOP decreased significantly (9.1 ± 2.2 to 7.4 ± 2.2 mmHg and 10.6 ± 1.9 to 9.2 ± 2.0 mmHg, respectively), whereas SVI and intravascular volumes remained unchanged. The changes of CVP and PAOP did not correlate with changes in stroke volume during volume loading (r2 = 0.06 and 0.03, respectively) and during steady-state (r2 = 0.17 and 0.00 respectively). On the other hand, a significant correlation was found between changes of the intrathoracic blood volume and changes in stroke volume during the volume loading (r2 = 0.67) and also during the steady-state phase (r2 = 0.83).

Conclusions: Intrathoracic blood volume reflects more accurately the preload dependency of cardiac output in postoperative patients than left/right-sided cardiac filling pressures.

Background and objective To assess retrospectively the complications and morbidity of electroconvulsive therapy.

Methods Complications occurring in 75 patients during 612 electroconvulsive therapy procedures under propofol anaesthesia were reviewed by data analysis.

Results At least one complication occurred in 51 patients (68%) during the course of their treatment. Among these complications, 12 were potentially life-threatening: one patient developed angina pectoris, another aspiration pneumopathy, there were two incidences of bronchospasm, three hypoxic episodes (SpO2 < 92% with FiO2 = 1) and five severe episodes of laryngospasm which caused hypoxia. Twenty-five patients (33%) were confused for more than 2 h after the electroconvulsive therapy. Confusion recurred in 10 patients (13%) after several sessions of electroconvulsive treatment. Six patients had a traumatic complication, with one requiring surgery.

Conclusion Our results, compared with other studies, suggest that electroconvulsive therapy is not a low-risk procedure, with a particularly high rate of respiratory complications that may have been previously overlooked. Therefore, ambulatory anaesthesia may not be appropriate on a regular basis for most of these patients.

The aim of specific monitoring in neuroanaesthesia is to detect, as quickly as possible, intraoperative ischaemic insults so that the brain and the spinal cord may be protected from harmful and frequently inevitable events due to the type of surgery, patient positioning, haemodynamic changes or any intercurrent event. New monitors are being introduced into the operating theatre, but only a few are considered to be an absolute standard of care in neurosurgery, e.g. facial nerve monitoring for surgery of acoustic neuromas and recording of evoked potentials during repair of scoliosis. In the past decade, new monitoring devices have moved from the experimental stage to the operating theatre and although most are still in a phase of technological development and/or definition of their field of applicability they are being used as guides for clinical practice in those instances where cerebral well-being might be impaired. The metabolic consequences of hyperventilation, pharmacological electroencephalogram burst suppression, hypothermia, etc. can now be assessed in the operating theatre. Non-invasive monitoring is being rapidly integrated into our daily work because of its lack of secondary effects. Nevertheless, each new development is regarded as an addition rather than as a substitute for existing equipment. The perfect combination of monitors to provide essential information during an individual surgical procedure to influence a better patient outcome, is still uncertain and needs extensive clinical research.