The electrical membrane properties of subthalamic (STH) neurons and their response characteristics to stimulation of the internal capsule (IC) were studied in an in vitro slice preparation. Most STH neurons recorded exhibited spontaneous repetitive firing. The input resistance of STH neurons was 146 +/- 48 M omega and showed both an anomalous and a delayed rectification when the membrane was hy...

High-latitude reefs support unique ecological communities occurring at the biogeographic boundaries between tropical and temperate marine ecosystems. Due to their lower ambient temperatures, they are regarded as potential refugia for tropical species shifting poleward due to rising sea temperatures. However, acute warming events can cause rapid shifts in the composition of high-latitude reef co...

Lakes evade significant amounts of carbon dioxide (CO2) to the atmosphere; yet magnitude and origin evasion are still poorly constrained. We quantified annual CO2 its (in-lake net ecosystem production vs. lateral inputs from terrestrial ecosystems) in 14 high-latitude lakes through high-frequency estimates open water flux metabolism inorganic mass-balance before after ice breakup. Annual ranged...

Single-scattering properties of ice clouds depend on both ice water content (IWC) and effective size of cloud particles (Fu 1996; Fu et al. 1998). However, only the IWC information is provided in numerical models. Stephens et al. (1990) showed that the ice cloud feedback on a CO2 warming simulation could be either positive or negative depending on the value of the ice particle size assumed. Par...

The premise that Pleistocene ice ages played an important role in generating present-day species diversity has been challenged by genetic data indicating that most of the youngest terrestrial species on Earth coalesced long before major glacial advances. However, study has been biased towards faunas distributed at low latitudes that were not directly fragmented by advancing ice sheets. Using mi...

Inorganic nitrogen depletion restricts productivity in much of the low-latitude oceans, generating a selective advantage for diazotrophic organisms capable of fixing atmospheric dinitrogen (N2). However, the abundance and activity of diazotrophs can in turn be controlled by the availability of other potentially limiting nutrients, including phosphorus (P) and iron (Fe). Here we present high-res...

BACKGROUND Soil-transmitted helminths (STH) - a class of parasites that affect billions of people - can be mitigated using mass drug administration, though reinfection following treatment occurs within a few months. Improvements to water, sanitation and hygiene (WASH) likely provide sustained benefit, but few rigorous studies have evaluated the specific WASH components most influential in reduc...

Perturbations in the southern annular mode (SAM) are shown to be significantly correlated with SST anomalies in the central tropical Pacific during austral winter and SST anomalies in the eastern tropical Pacific during austral summer. The SAM signature in the Pacific sector resembles a tropically forced Rossby wave train, the so-called Pacific–South American pattern, while the signature in the...

INTRODUCTION The purpose of this study is to examine the relevance of non-specific safety belt use data for interventions to rural teens and to pilot a data collection project to provide more specific data to traffic safety stakeholders and educators in rural areas. METHODS Twelve high schools in Southeast Georgia were used for observed safety belt data collection over a 16 month period. Obse...

BACKGROUND In Timor-Leste there have been intermittent and ineffective soil-transmitted helminth (STH) deworming programs since 2004. In a resource-constrained setting, having information on the geographic distribution of STH can aid in prioritising high risk communities for intervention. This study aimed to quantify the environmental risk factors for STH infection and to produce a risk map of ...