PREMISE OF THE STUDY We investigated the origins of 252 Southern Appalachian woody species representing 158 clades to analyze larger patterns of biogeographic connectivity around the northern hemisphere. We tested biogeographic hypotheses regarding the timing of species disjunctions to eastern Asia and among areas of North America. METHODS We delimited species into biogeographically informati...

Globalization of trade has dramatic socioeconomic effects, and, intuitively, significant ecological effects should follow. However, few quantitative examples exist of the interrelationship of globalization, socioeconomics, and ecological patterns. We present a striking illustration of a cascade in which bovine spongiform encephalopathy (BSE; "mad cow disease") outbreaks in Europe exerted pressu...

—The potential for ecological and economic damage caused by invasive species is only beginning to be appreciated. A recently arrived, and particularly worrisome, invader in North America is the Asian longhorned beetle Anoplophora glabripennis (Motschulsky), the larvae of which damage trees and forests. The geographic extent and likely path of its possible invasion of North American forests, how...

As part of a biosystematic study of the Lentinellus ursinus species complex in eastern North America, field and herbarium specimens from North America, Central America, and Europe were examined. Crossing single basidiospore isolates demonstrated tetrapolar (bifactorial) mating systems. Three biological species are recognized as L. ursinus, L. angustifolius, and L. vulpinus. The production of gl...

Is the transport of heat northward by the Gulf Stream and North Atlantic Drift, and its subsequent release into the midlatitude westerlies, the reason why Europe’s winters are so much milder than those of eastern North America and other places at the same latitude? Here, it is shown that the principal cause of this temperature difference is advection by the mean winds. South-westerlies bring wa...

Ten North Temperate taxa representing diverse angiosperm lineages were analyzed for biogeographic histories using the dispersal-vicariance analysis method to gain insights into the origin and evolution of disjunct distributions in the Northern Hemisphere. Results indicate four general biogeographic patterns: (1) origin and speciation in eastern Asia with subsequent expansion into North America ...

1 Duke University, Center for AIDS Research Central QA Unit, Durham, North Carolina, United States of America, 2 International AIDS Vaccine Initiative, Rockville, Maryland, United States of America, 3 Henry M. Jackson Foundation for the Advancement of Military Medicine–Division of AIDS, National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases, National Institutes of Health, Department of Health an...

Although the prognosis of ambulatory heart failure (HF) has improved dramatically there have been few advances in the management of acute HF (AHF). Despite regional differences in patient characteristics, background therapy, and event rates, AHF clinical trial enrollment has transitioned from North America and Western Europe to Eastern Europe, South America, and Asia-Pacific where regulatory bu...