Summary• Inbreeding depression is common among plants and may distort mating system estimates. Mating system studies traditionally ignore this effect, nonetheless an assessment of inbreeding depression that may have occurred before progeny evaluation could be necessary.• In the neotropical Pinus chiapensis inbreeding depression was evaluated using regression analysis relating progeny F-values with seed germinability, the mating system was analysed in three populations with contrasting size, using isozymes, obtained a corrected outcrossing rate.• Selfing decreased seed viability by 19%, relative to an outcrossed plant. Multilocus outcrossing rates, t m , varied widely among populations. In the two smallest populations t m ≅ 1. Therefore, inbreeding depression did not affect the estimates, but overestimated t m by 10% in the third population, which has a true mixed mating system (selfing was the major source of inbreeding), and an unusually low t m for pines (t m = 0.54, uncorrected, t m = 0.49, corrected).• Inbreeding depression may be an uneven source of bias for outcrossing estimates even at the infraspecific level. Precision but not accuracy may be gained by including inbreeding depression in outcrossing estimates. Therefore, caution should be taken when comparing t m among species or even populations within the same species.

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A negative pleiotropic effect on fitness of nuclear sex‐determining genes (cost of restoration) could explain nuclear–cytoplasmic gynodioecy but rarely has been demonstrated empirically. In a gynodioecious Phacelia dubia population, maternal lineages produce only hermaphroditic progenies irrespective of the pollen parent (N) or can segregate females (S). Natural progenies of N maternal plants had lower seed viability than that of S. Full‐sib progenies of unrelated hermaphrodites from all possible matings between N and S lineages had similar pollen filling but differed in sporophyte performance, mainly at seed germination stage. A discrete multivariate analysis reveals that the performance of N♀ × S♂ progeny at early stages of development was significantly lower than that of the other three types of mating in agreement with the silent‐cost‐of‐restoration hypothesis, affecting the sporophyte. The restoration cost and male sterility appear to be dominant and consequence of nuclear–cytoplasmic incompatibilities that may maintain nuclear–cytoplasmic polymorphism by frequency‐dependent selection.

Copepod community structure and abundance of the most abundant species were studied during 15 cruises made between 1982 and 1989 along the west coast of the Baja California Peninsula, Mexico. The number of species and species diversity (Shannon’s index) for each sampling station of the oceanographic cruises were obtained. Though the zone was dominated during the year by the tropical copepod component, similarities between El Niño 1982–83 and 1987–88 were observed. Tropical‐equatorial populations were added to the regular tropical composition (50%) of the community of copepods resulting in a wide distribution of those populations in 1982–83 and in 1987–88. The scenario in 1984–89 (without 1987–88) was significantly different from both El Niños because of the sea surface temperature, the species diversity, and the tropical copepod component, although 1982 was similar to 1985 in diversity index and number of species. Environmental conditions prevailing along the west coast of Baja California during El Niño indicate that in 1982–83 the effect on the copepod community was greater than during the 1987–88 event.

Rhabdomyolysis-induced oxidative stress is associated with morphological and functional damage to the kidney and other organs, but applications of this model in the lung are still lacking. The aim of the present study was to determine the relationship between oxidative stress and the morphological changes occurring in the lungs of rats subjected to rhabdomyolysis. Rhabdomyolysis was induced by intramuscular glycerol injection (50% v/v, 10 ml/kg), and the control group was injected with saline vehicle. Arterial blood samples were drawn at 0, 2, 4, and 6 hrs for measurement of arterial gases, creatine kinase activity, and plasma free F2-isoprostane levels. Six hours later, the lungs were removed to determine the wet-to-dry weight ratio, reduced glutathione (GSH) and GSH disulfide (GSSG) levels, and activity of antioxidant enzymes (catalase [CAT], superoxide dismutase [SOD], and GSH peroxidase [GSH-Px]). Protein carbonylation and lipid peroxidation were assessed in the lungs by measurement of carbonyl and malondialdehyde (MDA) production, respectively. Bronchoalveolar lavage, cell counts, and lung ultrastructural studies were also performed. Six hours after glycerol injection, arterial PO2 and PCO2 were 23% and 38% lower, respectively, and plasma free F2-isoprostane levels were 72% higher, compared with control values. In lungs, protein carbonyl and MDA production were 58% and 12% higher, respectively; the GSH:GSSG ratio and GSH-Px activity were 43% and 60% lower, respectively; and activities of CAT and SOD showed no significant differences compared with controls. Rhabdomyolysis-induced ultrastructural impairment of the lung showed Type II cell damage, extracytoplasmic lamellar bodies and lack of tubular myelin reorganization, endothelial cellular edema, and no disruption of the alveolar-capillary barrier. These results provide evidence that rhabdomyolysis could induce tissue injury associated with increased oxidative stress, suggesting the contribution of oxidative stress to the pathogenic mechanism of acute lung injury.

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Background: Pulmonary diseases are common among HIV infected patients. The prevalence of the different diseases varies greatly. Aim: To identify the different pulmonary diseases that affect a Chilean population of HIV infected patients and to (Rev Méd Chile 2005; 133: 517-24).

Habitat characterization provides predictive information about the distribution of species and is useful for as­sessing habitat quality and population stability. Larval abundance of six frequent and abundant demersal species and the relationship of each with the environment were analysed through generalized additive models to determine their preferential distribution and predictive response to the environmental variables in the southern part of the California Current (25-31°N) between two periods of data collection: 1997-2000 and 2006-2010. Essentially, the main associated variables governing the distribution patterns were related to common and oceanographic characteristics of the water column (temperature and salinity at 50 m depth, dynamic height and degree of water column stratification); however, the set of variables and their ranges are usually species-specific. Species of northern distribution, Sebastes sp. and Citharichtys stigmaeus, were recorded mainly in newly emerged, relatively unstratified waters characterized by a shallow mixed layer and low temperatures. Low dynamic height values were the most significant predictor of larval distribution for Merluccius productus. Citharichthys xanthostigma and Symphurus atricaudus were widespread, distributed across the study area mainly in autumn in unstratified or stratified waters and at a shallow mixed layer. Particularly C. Xanthostigma and S. Lucioceps were related to high dynamic height val­ues, likely influenced by a coastal flow towards the pole, as evidenced by counter-currents.