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Erratum to: Rectocutaneous fistula with transmigration of the suture: a rare delayed complication of vault fixation with the sacrospinous ligament. Kadam Pratima Datta,Chuan Han How International urogynecology journal There was an oversight in the Authorship of a recent Images in Urogynecology article titled: Rectocutaneous fistula with transmigration of the suture: a rare delayed complication of vault fixation with the sacrospinous ligament (DOI 10.1007/ s00192-015-2823-5). We would like to include Adj A/P Han How Chuan’s name in the list of authors. Adj A/P Han is a Senior Consultant and Department Head of Urogynaecology at the KK Hospital for Women and Children, Singapore. 10.1007/s00192-016-2952-5
Losing a battle but winning the war: moving past preference-performance to understand native herbivore-novel host plant interactions. Brown Leone M,Breed Greg A,Severns Paul M,Crone Elizabeth E Oecologia Introduced plants can positively affect population viability by augmenting the diet of native herbivores, but can negatively affect populations if they are subpar or toxic resources. In organisms with complex life histories, such as insects specializing on host plants, the impacts of a novel host may differ across life stages, with divergent effects on population persistence. Most research on effects of novel hosts has focused on adult oviposition preference and larval performance, but adult preference may not optimize offspring performance, nor be indicative of host quality from a demographic perspective. We compared population growth rates of the Baltimore checkerspot butterfly, Euphydryas phaeton, on an introduced host, Plantago lanceolata (English plantain), and the native host Chelone glabra (white turtlehead). Contrary to the previous findings suggesting that P. lanceolata could be a population sink, we found higher population growth rates (λ) on the introduced than the native host, even though some component parameters of λ were higher on the native host. Our findings illustrate the importance of moving beyond preference-performance studies to integrate vital rates across all life stages for evaluating herbivore-host plant relationships. Single measures of preference or performance are not sufficient proxies for overall host quality nor do they provide insights into longer term consequences of novel host plant use. In our system, in particular, P. lanceolata may buffer checkerspot populations when the native host is limiting, but high growth rates could lead to crashes over longer time scales. 10.1007/s00442-016-3787-y
Novel reinforcement learning paradigm based on response patterning under interval schedules of reinforcement. Schifani Christin,Sukhanov Ilya,Dorofeikova Mariia,Bespalov Anton Behavioural brain research There is a need to develop cognitive tasks that address valid neuropsychological constructs implicated in disease mechanisms and can be used in animals and humans to guide novel drug discovery. Present experiments aimed to characterize a novel reinforcement learning task based on a classical operant behavioral phenomenon observed in multiple species - differences in response patterning under variable (VI) vs fixed interval (FI) schedules of reinforcement. Wistar rats were trained to press a lever for food under VI30s and later weekly test sessions were introduced with reinforcement schedule switched to FI30s. During the FI30s test session, post-reinforcement pauses (PRPs) gradually grew towards the end of the session reaching 22-43% of the initial values. Animals could be retrained under VI30s conditions, and FI30s test sessions were repeated over a period of several months without appreciable signs of a practice effect. Administration of the non-competitive N-methyl-d-aspartate (NMDA) receptor antagonist MK-801 ((5S,10R)-(+)-5-Methyl-10,11-dihydro-5H-dibenzo[a,d]cyclohepten-5,10-imine maleate) prior to FI30s sessions prevented adjustment of PRPs associated with the change from VI to FI schedule. This effect was most pronounced at the highest tested dose of MK-801 and appeared to be independent of the effects of this dose on response rates. These results provide initial evidence for the possibility to use different response patterning under VI and FI schedules with equivalent reinforcement density for studying effects of drug treatment on reinforcement learning. 10.1016/j.bbr.2017.04.043