This experiment compared California ground squirrel (Spermophilus beecheyi) activity on replicated grazed and ungrazed pastures in a blue oak (Quercus douglasii) savanna. During the 4-year study, squirrel activity, measured as the number of active burrows, generally declined in grazed and ungrazed pastures without oak canopy. Squirrel activity declined least in grazed pastures with blue oak can...

Ouabain-sensitive K influx into ground squirrel and guinea pig red cells was measured at 5 and 37 degrees C as a function of external K and internal Na. In both species the external K affinity increases on cooling, being three- and fivefold higher in guinea pig and ground squirrel, respectively, at 5 than at 37 degrees C. Internal Na affinity also increased on cooling, by about the same extent....

INTRODUCTION In recent years, outcome assessment related to orthopedic surgeries has increasingly focused on patient-reported questionnaires. The Oxford Hip Score (OHS), self-administered questionnaire, is a reliable, valid, and responsive instrument for assessing hip in patients undergoing Arthroplasty. METHODS The study involved 105 adult Persian-speaking patients admitted for primary Total...

BACKGROUND The Oxford Knee Score (OKS) is a short patient-reported outcome instrument that measures pain and physical activity related to knee osteoarthritis. The purpose of this study is to evaluate, construct validity and consistent reliability of the Persian version of the OKS. METHODS The case series consisted of 80 patients who were clinically diagnosed with having knee osteoarthritis. A...

Secretogranin II (SgII) is a member of the granin family of proteins found in neuroendocrine and endocrine cells. The expression and storage of SgII in the pituitary gland of Old World primates and rodents have been linked with those of luteinizing hormone (LH). However, New World primates including squirrel monkeys do not express LH in the pituitary gland, but rather CG is expressed. If CG tak...

BACKGROUND Baecke Habitual Physical Activity Questionnaire (BHPAQ) has widely been employed in clinical and laboratorial studies as a tool for measuring subjects' physical activities. But, the reliability and validity of this questionnaire have not been investigated among Persian speakers. OBJECTIVES Therefore, the aim of the current study was examining the reliability and validity of the Per...

Oxford Elbow Score (OES) is a patient-reported questionnaire used to assess outcomes after elbow surgery. The aim of this study was to validate and adapt the OES into Persian language. After forward-backward translation of the OES into Persian, a total number of 92 patients after elbow surgeries completed the Persian OES along with the Persian DASH and SF-36. To assess test-retest reliability, ...

BACKGROUND Considering the difficulties in diagnosing bipolar disorder in clinical practice and lack of needed screening instruments in Persian language, the present study aimed at assessing sensitivity, specificity, and predictive values for the Persian Bipolar Spectrum Diagnostic Scale. METHODS The study was conducted in a university-affiliated hospital in Tehran, Iran, in a sample of 181 c...

Pituitary gonadotropins LH and FSH play central roles in reproductive function. In Old World primates, LH stimulates ovulation in females and testosterone production in males. Recent studies have found that squirrel monkeys and other New World primates lack expression of LH in the pituitary. Instead, chorionic gonadotropin (CG), which is normally only expressed in the placenta of Old World prim...

The squirrel monkey is the only primate reported to lack ocular dominance columns. Nothing anomalous about the visual capacity of squirrel monkeys has been found to explain their missing columns, leading to the suggestion that ocular dominance columns might be "an epiphenomenon, not serving any purpose" (Livingstone et al., 1995). Puzzled by the apparent lack of ocular dominance columns in squi...