Fruit Resources Research Articles

Status of Polygonati Rhizome industry and suggestion for its sustainable development

Field surveys and literatures show that Polygonati Rhizome (Huangjing) was firstly recorded in Shen Nong&s Herbal Classic, and widely used as a medicinal and edible plant. It has a long history of cultivation, and the researches on chemistry have made some progress. The future development is prospected on health market. But the Polygonati Rhizome industry has faced a lot of problems, including the resource depletion, unstable quality, low-tech in cultivation and germplasm confusion, unclear of functional composition, decentralized, small scaled and primary processing products. The suggestion for sustainable development are listed below. First, the relevant researches should focused on material basis and biological mechanism of core effects. To speed up the selection and breeding of improved varieties, ensure the supply of high-quality seedlings and eliminate the unauthentic species are the most important measures. Secondly, to strengthen the conservation and rational use of wild resources, break through the key technologies of high-quality artificial cultivation on light regulation, site control, density control and precision harvesting are also very important. Thirdly, to reveal the toxicity-reducing-and-efficacy-enhancing mechanism of processing, optimize the parameters and setup the standard operating procedure are indispensable. Fourthly, that full advantage of the root, leaf, flower and fruit resources should be strengthened for enlarged health products based on the development of exact functional factors. Above all, Polygonati Rhizome could be a growing market in the future driven by the technological innovation, cultural creativity, integration of three industries, brand strategy and internet+technique.

Scales of selection and perception: landscape heterogeneity of an important food resource influences habitat use by a large omnivore

Variation in food abundance and distribution influences animal foraging behavior, but response is contingent on the amount of resource heterogeneity detected, which is consistent with environmental ‘grain’ size. Large mammals presumably perceive their surroundings at broad spatial scales, but the importance of landscape‐level food resource properties for habitat use is generally less understood. We evaluated the role of heterogeneity of Canada buffaloberry Shepherdia canadensis, defined by fruit distribution and variability in patch quality (fruit density), in grizzly bear Ursus arctos habitat selection by comparing patch‐ and landscape‐level foraging strategies (resource use). Our objectives were to: 1) identify the spatial scale at which grizzly bears select buffaloberry fruit resources; 2) determine whether patch‐ or landscape‐level foraging strategies explain resource use; and 3) assess the importance of resource heterogeneity in structuring habitat selection. Buffaloberry patch and landscape variables were combined with GPS radio‐telemetry data from eight collared grizzly bears in west‐central Alberta, Canada, to fit resource selection functions (RSFs). We found that a spatial scale of 1887 m, corresponding to an average travel distance for bears over 5.5 h, was the most supported scale for buffaloberry use. Landscape‐level foraging strategies generally had more support than those of the patch‐level, with spatial heterogeneity of buffaloberry patches best explaining grizzly bear selection for fruit resources. Bears selected for areas with a wider distribution of buffaloberry fruit and greater variability in patch quality, thus providing both a higher probability of shrub encounter and greater contrast between resource patches. A negative interaction between distribution and variability, however, indicated a tradeoff where use of areas with a more widespread fruit distribution decreased when variability in resource quality was high. These results demonstrate the influence of food resource heterogeneity on animal habitat use and emphasize the value in considering spatial scale in studies of animal—resource interactions.

The Authenticity of the Algerian English Textbooks: The Case of Third Year High School Textbook 'New Prospects'

This research paper evolves from and revolves around a prevailing assertion: namely, that is the teaching-learning process has a firm attitudinal footing. Differently stated, the aim of this study is to explore and evaluate the authenticity of the Algerian English textbooks at high school level as they are considered as an important instructional materials and fruitful resources for helping English language learners develop communicative competence. This investigation is tackled by inquiring about the following questions: To what extent are the texts and tasks included in the Algerian secondary school textbooks authentic? And how far does “New Prospects” help English as a foreign language (EFL) learners improve their communicative competence?. It should be noted that the targeted population of this study are the Algerian secondary school teachers of English in the region of Mascara of which 35 English language teachers responded to the questionnaire copies in addition to the use of an informal observation as research instruments. The findings of this investigation disclose that the English textbook “New Prospects” that is currently used by third year Algerian high school pupils doesn’t offer classroom learners adequate opportunities for learning authentic language. This is due to many reasons such as the choice of one type of English at the expense of another which is more dictated by both political and economical considerations rather than by pedagogical concerns in addition to the lack of an appropriate model because most English adopted versions lack Englishness in addition to the mechanical way in which the tasks presented in the prescribed textbook are tackled and being dealt with. According to the obtained results, the researcher suggested the use of visual aids, Informational Communicative Technologies (ICTs), and some useful communicative tasks as pedagogical recommendations so as to remedy the situation.

Efficient Exploitation of Local Fruit Resources Through Sustainable Production and High Added Value Processing

Fruit production in Europe has a dual system organization: an industrial type with high density planting systems in large extension farms and a small size orchard type in family owned farms. Certainly, the two systems are quite different in terms of fruit varieties, planting systems, orchard management and fruit production valorisation. In recent years, the smart family fruit farms became more and more important for the rural economy by increasing the efficient use of local resources, by offering social security and comfort and by reducing the environmental fruit finger print. Besides the already existing orchards, new ones are planted with trees produced using local species and varieties, better adapted to soil and climate conditions, grafted on resistant rootstocks. Low input orchard technologies, organic fertilization and integrated pest management are generally used. Natural windbreaks and shelters, grass soil cover management are generalized in order to ensure a higher biodiversity and the protection of wild life. Local fruits are produced in many cases under registered Protected Designation of Origin (PDO), Protected Geographical Indication (PGI), and Traditional Specialties Guaranteed (TSG). Those insure the product authenticity, a quality control system and a better marketing. Fruits are sold fresh on the local markets and in modern distribution network but also processed in the farm or in cooperative processing units. Special products are obtained following traditional recipes, some of the being sugar free, rich in vitamins, active principles and considered functional food. Continuous science and technology development brings innovation also in orchard technologies in European small fruit farms aiming to maintain their sustainability and competitiveness, by producing top quality fruits, with nearly to zero residues and no environmental negative impact. The European model of small smart fruit farms could be introduced and tested to Indonesian condition. Keywords: small smart farms; local varieties; planting systems; sustainable orchard management; plant protection; local fruit processing

Marshall Sklare Award Lecture, 2017: Beyond Policy: New Directions for Jewish Demography

The era of national Jewish demographic studies appears to have ended. The 2013 Pew Portrait of Jewish Americans study is an excellent substitute, but it is an opinion survey and lacks demographic questions important for studying intermarriage. The American Jewish Population Project of the Steinhardt Social Research Institute at the Cohen Center for Modern Jewish Studies at Brandeis University is an innovative alternative utilizing meta-analyses of national surveys that include Jews, but these surveys usually include only Jews by religion and do not include questions about Jewish identification and practice. Local Jewish population surveys, once the main source for quantitative research on American Jews, remain a viable alternative, but have become more descriptive and policy-driven than theoretical because the 1990 and 2000-01 National Jewish Population Surveys rendered them redundant for this purpose. Even so, local Jewish population surveys can once again be a fruitful resource for Jewish social research when used to study theoretical questions such as spatiality, suburbanization, and the individual community as a predictive variable in comparative analyses. Some studies have included theoretical topics such as spirituality that have not been utilized for secondary analysis. More theoretical questions (which are nonetheless policy relevant) could be added to future studies, but this will require a culture change on the part of the Jewish communities that sponsor them. In the meantime, we should look to qualitative research to break new ground and develop new perspectives that will become so compelling that they will be examined quantitatively in future local studies.

Species traits and interaction rules shape a species-rich seed-dispersal interaction network.

Species phenotypic traits affect the interaction patterns and the organization of seed‐dispersal interaction networks. Understanding the relationship between species characteristics and network structure help us understand the assembly of natural communities and how communities function. Here, we examine how species traits may affect the rules leading to patterns of interaction among plants and fruit‐eating vertebrates. We study a species‐rich seed‐dispersal system using a model selection approach to examine whether the rules underlying network structure are driven by constraints in fruit resource exploitation, by preferential consumption of fruits by the frugivores, or by a combination of both. We performed analyses for the whole system and for bird and mammal assemblages separately, and identified the animal and plant characteristics shaping interaction rules. The structure of the analyzed interaction network was better explained by constraints in resource exploitation in the case of birds and by preferential consumption of fruits with specific traits for mammals. These contrasting results when looking at bird–plant and mammal–plant interactions suggest that the same type of interaction is organized by different processes depending on the assemblage we focus on. Size‐related restrictions of the interacting species (both for mammals and birds) were the most important factors driving the interaction rules. Our results suggest that the structure of seed‐dispersal interaction networks can be explained using species traits and interaction rules related to simple ecological mechanisms.

Functionally specialised birds respond flexibly to seasonal changes in fruit availability.

Interactions between resource and consumer species result in complex ecological networks. The overall structure of these networks is often stable in space and time, but little is known about the temporal stability of the functional roles of consumer species in these networks. We used a trait-based approach to investigate whether consumers (frugivorous birds) show similar degrees of functional specialisation on resources (plants) in ecological networks across seasons. We additionally tested whether closely related bird species have similar degrees of functional specialisation and whether birds that are functionally specialised on specific resource types within a season are flexible in switching to other resource types in other seasons. We analysed four seasonal replicates of two species-rich plant-frugivore networks from the tropical Andes. To quantify fruit preferences of frugivorous birds, we projected their interactions with plants into a multidimensional plant trait space. To measure functional specialisation of birds, we calculated a species' functional niche breadth (the extent of seasonal plant trait space utilised by a particular bird) and functional originality (the extent to which a bird species' fruit preference functionally differs from those of other species in a seasonal network). We additionally calculated functional flexibility, i.e. the ability of bird species to change their fruit preference across seasons in response to variation in plant resources. Functional specialisation of bird species varied more among species than across seasons, and phylogenetically similar bird species showed similar degrees of functional niche breadth (phylogenetic signal λ=0·81) and functional originality (λ=0·89). Additionally, we found that birds with high functional flexibility across seasons had narrow functional niche breadth and high functional originality per season, suggesting that birds that are seasonally specialised on particular resources are most flexible in switching to other fruit resources across seasons. The high flexibility of functionally specialised bird species to switch seasonally to other resources challenges the view that consumer species rely on functionally similar resources throughout the year. This flexibility of consumer species may be an important, but widely neglected mechanism that could potentially stabilise consumer-resource networks in response to human disturbance and environmental change.

Home range and habitat use of Trumpeter Hornbills Bycanistes bucinator in an urban–forest mosaic, Eshowe, South Africa

Despite the negative impacts of urbanisation, some species adapt to pressures of habitat loss and fragmentation. Trumpeter Hornbills Bycanistes bucinator are a large avian forest frugivore that uses urban environments in South Africa. Consequently, we used GPS/UHF transmitters to study their home range size, movement and habitat use in an urban–forest mosaic in Eshowe, South Africa from March to October 2014. We estimated the home range size using three methods: minimum convex polygon (MCP), kernel density estimation (KDE) and local convex hull (LoCoH). Our results showed that overall monthly home range size was 5.1 ± 1.28 km2 (mean ± SE; 95% MCP), 4.6 ± 1.14 km2 (95% KDE) and 1.9 ± 0. 46 km2 (95% LoCoH). However, individual home range sizes varied monthly and seasonally. We found that all individuals tagged used mostly the indigenous forest and frequently utilised urban residential areas (gardens) with little or no use of cultivated land. Observed individual variations in monthly and seasonal home ranges could be a response to variations in availability of key fruit resources in the urban residential and indigenous forest mosaic. This study supports the use of more than one method of home range estimation for insight regarding home range and habitat use in urban–forest mosaics for this large forest frugivore.

Feeding behavior and activity budget of the southern yellow-cheeked crested gibbons (Nomascus gabriellae) in a lowland tropical forest.

The southern yellow-cheeked crested gibbon (Nomascus gabriellae), an endangered species native to Vietnam and Cambodia, lives exclusively in undisturbed tropical forests and depends primarily on ripe fruit for food. Although this species is highly threatened, its ecology and conservation status remain relatively unknown. In order to understand how this heavily frugivorous primate adapts to the seasonal fluctuation of fruit resources in the forest, we collected feeding behavior and ranging activity data on one group of southern yellow-cheeked crested gibbons in Cat Tien National Park, Vietnam, over 1-year period. We compared these data to information on phenological patterns at the site gleaned during a prior study. We found that the gibbons gathered most of their food from 69 different plant species and also consumed insects and bird eggs. Fruits were the main dietary item (43.3%), followed by leaves (38.4%), flowers (11.6%), and other plant parts (6.0%). A significant seasonal shift in diet was observed; fruit generally dominated the diet in the rainy season and leaves in the dry season. The gibbons often started daily activities very early (05:10 am) in the morning and also ended quite early (16:45 pm) in the afternoon. Socializing was concentrated in the early morning, feeding had a bimodal pattern of high activity levels in mid-morning and mid-afternoon, and resting was most intense at the earliest and latest hours of the day and at midday, with proportionally less time used for traveling at these times. Averaged over the annual cycle, the gibbons spent 45% of their time feeding, 31.9% resting, 14.1% traveling, and 9.0% socializing. The percentage of time allocated to different activities varied significantly across months and between the dry and rainy seasons. Monthly variation in the activity budget was strongly related to changes in diet. In the rainy season, when the gibbons ate a higher percentage of fruit, they decreased their feeding time, while increasing traveling time in search of food; conversely, in the dry season, when they fed on a higher percentage of leaves, they decreased traveling time. Overall, our results show that the activity budget and diet of the southern yellow-cheeked crested gibbon are associated with seasonal shifts in climate. This study provides information relevant to the conservation and management of this endangered species by identifying important habitat conditions for reintroducing captive animals into the wild and providing insight into dietary needs, which may be relevant to the maintenance of animals in rescue centers.

Pierre Bourdieu: Expanding the scope of nursing research andpractice.

Bourdieu is an important thinker within the sociological tradition and has a philosophically sophisticated approach to theoretical knowledge and research practice. In this paper, we examine the implication of his work for nursing and the health sciences more broadly. We argue that his work is best described as a reflexive realist who provides a space for a nonpositivist approach to knowledge that does not fall into the trap of idealism or relativism. We emphasize that Bourdieu was not an abstract theorist, but only utilized theories to understand and explain the social world in all its empirical complexity. Theory is emphasized over method without denying the importance of method. We then provide a brief overview of some of his key concepts: habitus, field and capital. His work is a scientifically astute practice that has an emancipatory purpose, with particular resonance to the problems of nursing as a social practice. Some have criticized Bourdieu for undermining agency and we briefly address this issue, but argue that his conceptual framework helps us to understand what endures in social practice and why change is often problematic. In short, this paper argues that Bourdieu's work is a fruitful resource for critiquing existing nursing approaches that are preoccupied with agency over structure.

A review of genetic resources of almonds and stone fruits (Prunus spp.) in Iran

Iran is amongst the countries in the world widely known for cultivation of Prunus spp. (or stone fruits). It is both a centre of origin and diversity of the stone fruits. Numerous wild species as well as many cultivars and landraces of these fruit crops are important genetic resources today in Iran and can be used for improvement and breeding of scion and rootstock cultivars which are resistant to many biotic and abiotic stresses through modern genomics and genetic technologies. This paper discusses the distribution, ethno-botany, diversity and utilization of wild and domesticated genetic resources of stone fruits including almond (Prunus dulcis (Miller) D. A. Webb.), peach and nectarine (P. persica Batsch), European and Japanese plum (P. × domestica L., and P. salicina L., respectively), sweet and sour cherry (P. avium L., and P. cerasus L., respectively), and apricot (P. armeniaca L.), all of which are members of the Rosaceae family. The goal of this paper is to highlight the importance of Iran as a main contributor to the diversity of Prunus genetic resources in the world, as well as, present major achievements regarding identification, collection, evaluation, conservation and utilization of this valuable genetic resource in Iran.

The Paucity of Frugivores in Madagascar May Not Be Due to Unpredictable Temperatures or Fruit Resources.

The evolution of ecological idiosyncrasies in Madagascar has often been attributed to selective pressures stemming from extreme unpredictability in climate and resource availability compared to other tropical areas. With the exception of rainfall, few studies have investigated these assumptions. To assess the hypothesis that Madagascar’s paucity of frugivores is due to unreliability in fruiting resources, we use statistical modeling to analyze phenology datasets and their environmental correlates from two tropical wet forests, the Réserve Naturelle Intégrale Betampona in Madagascar, and Kibale National Park in Uganda. At each site we found that temperature is a good environmental predictor of fruit availability. We found no evidence of a significant difference in the predictability of fruit availability between the two sites, although the shorter duration of phenological monitoring at Betampona (two years, versus 15 years at Kibale) limits our ability to infer long-term patterns. Comparisons of long-term temperature data from each site (15 years from Kibale and 14 from Betampona) indicate that temperature is more predictable at Betampona than at Kibale. However, there does appear to be a difference between the two sites in the total fruit availability at any given time, with fruit being generally less abundant at Betampona. Our results appear contrary to the prevailing hypothesis of a selective force imposed by unpredictable resource availability or temperature, and we suggest other possible explanations for Madagascar’s unique biota.

Introducing Science Stories in Palestinian Elementary Classrooms: Facilitating Teacher Learning

ABSTRACTThis qualitative interpretive study aimed to explore the use of content-based story writing as an educative curriculum to promote science teachers’ professional learning. It also aimed to help teachers interact and reflect on their students’ science stories to generate and explore content and pedagogical content knowledge. This study was carried out in the fourth and fifth-grade classrooms of 6 science teachers in Jerusalem, Palestine, during the 2013–2014 school year. Classroom observations; video recordings; teachers’ focus group conversations; students’ stories; teachers’ reflections; and field notes from the teachers, the students, and the supervisor were collected and analyzed. Thematic analysis was used to develop themes that emerged from the data. The findings showed that teachers explained many educative features, including how their views and beliefs toward teaching science changed as a result of the use of educative curriculum materials (professional learning). Teachers understood more about their new roles as science teachers as students were engaged in the learning process through producing stories that acted in later stages as a fruitful resource of knowledge for teachers and students. Teachers experienced the development of content knowledge (personal growth and self-awareness) and pedagogical knowledge (the power of using stories to enhance classroom interaction and discussion, motivation and feedback as a strategy for enhancing writing and rewriting stories). Finally, the use of stories cultivated students’ imagination and identified areas in which students needed to develop further understanding. These findings imply that educative curriculum materials that support teachers in using content-based story writing have potential for supporting Palestinian teachers who work in a complex area with very limited resources.

Carl Jung’s Archetypes in Malayalam Film: A Case Study on The Film ‘Urumi’

Movies are the visual- auditory symbolic narrative that explains the living reality of people. Films employ Carl Jung’s concept of archetypes-prototypical characters. This research provides an insight about the theory of archetype based on the assumption that archetypes resides deep inside human mind. The researcher proposes that the Malayalam film industry in India showcases the western concept of archetype using the movie Urumi as a case study. For this study, different clips are taken from the movie to represent six essential archetypes, namely, Hero, Anima, Animus, Mentor (sage), Shadow, and Trickster. The psychoanalysis of this movie carried out in this paper provides evidence for the existence of all six essential archetypes identified by Carl Jung. Thus this article will be a fruitful resource for future research in the field of psychoanalysis of movies.

Oxidation-mediated chitosan as additives for creation of chitosan aerogels with diverse three-dimensional interconnected skeletons

Naturally occurring polymer-based aerogels have myriad practical utilizations due to environmentally benign and fruitful resources. However, engineering morphology-controllable biomass aerogels still represents a great challenge. Here we present a facile solution to synthesize chitosan aerogels having distinguished textures by reacting oxidized chitosan with formaldehyde and chitosan sol. In more detail, chitosan was chemically oxidized using two types of oxidation agents such as ammonium persulphate (SPD) and sodium periodate (APS) to obtain corresponding oxidized chitosan, subsequently cross-linked with chitosan solution containing formaldehyde to harvest SPD-oxidized chitosan aerogels (SCAs) and APS-SPD-oxidized ones (ASCAs) after aging, solvent exchange and supercritical drying processes. We found that the morphologies of as-prepared chitosan aerogels are strongly dependent upon the oxidation pattern towards chitosan. The structural textures of SCAs and ASCAs appear nanoflake-like and nanofiber-like structures, which may be related to spatial freedom of active groups located in chitosan. Selected area electron diffraction analysis reveals that the crystalline properties of chitosan aerogels generally appear the serious deterioration comparing to raw chitosan owing to their interconnected skeletal structure formation. The occurrence of characteristic groups displays cross-linked chain construction by using chemical state measurements such as FT-IR and XPS. Further, a plausible mechanism for controlling morphology of chitosan aerogels is also established. This new family of method for creation of chitosan aerogels may open up a perspective for biomass aerogels with controllable textures.

Virtue in Medical Practice: An Exploratory Study

Virtue ethics has long provided fruitful resources for the study of issues in medical ethics. In particular, study of the moral virtues of the good doctor—like kindness, fairness and good judgement—have provided insights into the nature of medical professionalism and the ethical demands on the medical practitioner as a moral person. Today, a substantial literature exists exploring the virtues in medical practice and many commentators advocate an emphasis on the inculcation of the virtues of good medical practice in medical education and throughout the medical career. However, until very recently, no empirical studies have attempted to investigate which virtues, in particular, medical doctors and medical students tend to have or not to have, nor how these virtues influence how they think about or practise medicine. The question of what virtuous medical practice is, is vast and, as we have written elsewhere, the question of how to study doctors’ moral character is fraught with difficulty. In this paper, we report the results of a first-of-a-kind study that attempted to explore these issues at three medical schools (and associated practice regions) in the United Kingdom. We identify which character traits are important in the good doctor in the opinion of medical students and doctors and identify which virtues they say of themselves they possess and do not possess. Moreover, we identify how thinking about the virtues contributes to doctors’ and medical students’ thinking about common moral dilemmas in medicine. In ending, we remark on the implications for medical education.

Howlers and marmosets in Pacatuba: an overcrowded existence in a semi-deciduous Atlantic forest fragment?

Abstract The Atlantic forest of Brazil is extremely fragmented. This fragmentation has had a toll on the mammal’s assemblages. Although different species are not equally susceptible to fragmentation, populations of some species have become locally extinct. Primate populations in these fragments are in decline or have gone locally extinct. However, there is a dearth of information on density of primates in the highly fragmented Atlantic forest of NE Brazil. We conducted a series of censuses to record primates and other mammals in the Pacatuba semi deciduous forest (~267 ha). Most of the midsized and large mammals disappeared, even fragment-tolerant species such as sloths and coatis are missing in the area. Currently, marmosets (Callithrix jacchus Linnaeus, 1758) and red handed howlers (Alouatta belzebul Linnaeus, 1766) are the most abundant species. Howlers preferred areas with larger trees and marmosets were more common in edge habitat. Marmosets were the most abundant species (264 individual/km2). Howlers attained the highest densities recorded so far in the Atlantic forest (94.7 individual/km2), and the fragment is probably hyper abundant with howlers. The high availability of larger trees and fruit resources combined with the lack of natural predators, the reduced possibility of dispersal and the semi-deciduousness of the forest could explain these results.

The POSNA-COUR International Scholar Program. Results of the First 7 Years.

The Pediatric Orthopedic Society of North America (POSNA)-Children's Orthopedics in Underserved Regions (COUR) International Scholar Program was initiated in 2007 to provide educational opportunities for emerging leaders who treat children with orthopaedic conditions in resource-challenged environments worldwide. Financial support is available each year for 4 to 6 orthopaedic surgeons to attend either the POSNA Annual Meeting or the International Pediatric Orthopedic Symposium. The scholars are also encouraged to visit selected centers for observerships during their trip. Since 2007 there have been 41 international scholars who have participated in the program. We wished to assess the impact of the program and to obtain feedback to improve the experience for future participants. A 23-question web-based survey was created and sent to 38 past scholars from 22 countries who have participated in the program by July 2013. The responses were gathered online and the data were analyzed for the 24 (62%) respondents from 18 countries who completed the survey. Of the respondents, 16/24 (66%) reported that their current practice is comprised of at least 75% pediatrics. Twelve of 24 (52%) were fellowship trained in pediatric orthopaedics, typically outside of North America. All scholars found the meeting they attended to be very useful and have subsequently made changes to their clinical practice. Nineteen of 24 (82%) did a premeeting or postmeeting observership. Twenty-two of 24 (92%) participants have remained in contact with POSNA members they met at the meeting, with 86% of respondents stating that they have subsequently consulted POSNA members on management of patients. Sixty-two percent of the scholars had a POSNA member visit them following the scholarship and 29% have since returned to visit POSNA members for further clinical observerships. Twenty-one of 24 (91%) have had the opportunity to share the knowledge they gained with others in their region through lectures, surgical demonstrations, and/or clinical training. A common response from the scholars was that the scholarship program was a truly transformative life experience that provided them with an opportunity to receive the highest quality of professional education. The main challenges that these scholars report are lack of available fellowship/subspecialty training in their region, patients' inability to pay, and excessive physician workload. All of the respondents expressed interest in arranging a POSNA cosponsored regional meeting. Since 2007, the POSNA-COUR international scholar program has been a fruitful resource for orthopaedists practicing in resource-challenged environments worldwide. It has provided unique training for the scholars and has further enabled them to teach others in their region. The program has thus far succeeded in fostering lasting relationships that have led to continued educational exchanges. Level IV-case series.

Effects of forests, roads and mistletoe on bird diversity in monoculture rubber plantations.

Rising global demand for natural rubber is expanding monoculture rubber (Hevea brasilensis) at the expense of natural forests in the Old World tropics. Conversion of forests into rubber plantations has a devastating impact on biodiversity and we have yet to identify management strategies that can mitigate this. We determined the life-history traits that best predict bird species occurrence in rubber plantations in SW China and investigated the effects of surrounding forest cover and distance to roads on bird diversity. Mistletoes provide nectar and fruit resources in rubber so we examined mistletoe densities and the relationship with forest cover and rubber tree diameter. In rubber plantations, we recorded less than half of all bird species extant in the surrounding area. Birds with wider habitat breadths and low conservation value had a higher probability of occurrence. Species richness and diversity increased logarithmically with surrounding forest cover, but roads had little effect. Mistletoe density increased exponentially with rubber tree diameters, but was unrelated to forest cover. To maximize bird diversity in rubber-dominated landscapes it is therefore necessary to preserve as much forest as possible, construct roads through plantations and not forest, and retain some large rubber trees with mistletoes during crop rotations.

Dietary Flexibility and Feeding Strategies of Eulemur: A Comparison with Propithecus

Despite the great variety of habitats in Madagascar, Eulemur has successfully populated most forested habitats on the island. Although the high dietary flexibility of Eulemur is often credited as one of the drivers of its evolutionary success, other behavioral evidence suggests a limited capacity for dietary switching. To shed light on the feeding strategies of Eulemur, we compared the dietary flexibility between populations of this genus with that of another widespread lemur taxon, Propithecus. We hypothesized that Eulemur would show greater dietary flexibility than Propithecus, which has a digestive system specialized for folivory, and that Eulemur living in dry forests would switch its diet from fruit to other food seasonally. To examine these hypotheses, we performed a phylogenetic least-squares analysis on 10 populations of Eulemur and 7 of Propithecus to assess the contribution of environmental variables and body mass on their dietary flexibility while controlling for phylogenetic relatedness. Eulemur relied heavily on fruit and did not show large variations in primary food over the year. Propithecus consumed leaves and fruits equally and exhibited considerable flexibility across seasons. Therefore, in contrast to our predictions, the anatomical specialization for fiber digestion heightens dietary flexibility in Propithecus. At the intrageneric level, we found similar ecogeographic variation; populations of both genera with heavier body mass consumed more fruit. As we predicted, Eulemur in drier habitats switched the diet from fruit to alternative food more frequently. To compensate for low dietary flexibility, Eulemur mostly adopts a power-feeding strategy by which it increases energy expenditure to acquire patchily distributed fruit resources.