Land abandonment is one of the most powerful global change drivers in developed countries where recent rural exodus has been the norm. Abandonment of traditional land use practices has permitted the colonization of these areas by shrub and tree species. For fleshy fruited species the colonization of new areas is determined by the dispersal assemblage composition and abundance. In this study we ...

Temperate marine rocky habitats may be alternatively characterized by well vegetated macroalgal assemblages or barren grounds, as a consequence of direct and indirect human impacts (e.g. overfishing) and grazing pressure by herbivorous organisms. In future scenarios of ocean acidification, calcifying organisms are expected to be less competitive: among these two key elements of the rocky subtid...

Habitat fragmentation increases seed dispersal limitation across the landscape and may also affect subsequent demographic stages such as seedling establishment. Thus, the development of adequate plans for forest restoration requires an understanding of mechanisms by which fragmentation hampers seed delivery to deforested areas and knowledge of how fragmentation affects the relationship between ...

This cross-sectional anthropometric study was aimed at estimating expansion of the external ear during adult life, in order to evaluate the extent to which anatomical features appearing in earprints may vary with time. A review of the literature was provided. Data extracted from photographed ears of 1353 subjects were analyzed. The effect of age on auricle length, earlobe length, and auricle wi...

In 2006, an 83-year-old Caucasian male presented himself to the outpatient clinic with cosmetic complaints of an increasingly purple-coloured right earlobe, which had developed over the last few months. His medical history consisted of hearing loss on both sides since 1993, without a clear ENT focus. Intoxication showed no smoking and moderate alcohol consumption (2 units/day). The patient was ...

Patients using domiciliary nasal ventilation, or long-term oxygen, require regular assessment which could be carried out in the home. Blood gas analysis may be regarded as an essential part of the assessment. The present study investigated the effect of a 1-h time delay on the measurement of capillary blood gases. Four samples of arterialized earlobe blood were collected from 15 outpatients. On...

Keloid disorder (KD) is an inherited wound healing ailment, frequently seen among Africans /African Americans and Asians.  Genetics of this disorder continues to be obscure and poorly understood.  Clinical manifestation of KD is quite variable and very diverse, spanning from individuals with one or very few small keloidal lesions, to those with numerous and very large lesions covering large por...

Earlobe piercing is a common office room procedure done by a plastic surgeon. Various methods of ear piercing have been described. In this article, we describe a novel method of laser ear piercing using the diode laser. An 18-year-old female patient underwent an ear piercing using a diode laser with a power of 2.0 W in continuous mode after topical local anaesthetic and pre-cooling. The diode l...

A local anaesthetic block of branches of the greater auricular and auriculotemporal nerves was used to facilitate the extraction of retained butterfly backs and ear-ring studs. A total of 28 ear blocks were performed on 26 patients. Two patients required bilateral ear blocks, and 17 earlobes were infected. Complete analgesia was obtained in 25 cases, and two patients complained of tolerable dis...