While generalists were always abundant, numerous specialists that were either rare or absent in most samples, increased in abundance for short periods, appearing to be overall abundant. Statistical and network analyses showed that the protistan

seasonal organization was influenced by environmental parameters. It also highlighted that in addition to grazers, fungi and parasites played potentially significant roles during phytoplankton blooms. Overall, while the protistan succession was mainly Metabolism inhibitor shaped by environmental variations, biotic interactions among co-occurring taxa were the main structural drivers of the temporal assemblages.”
“Background:\n\nChronic alcohol-dependent patients (ALC) exhibit neurocognitive impairments attributed to alcohol-induced fronto-cerebellar damage. Deficits are typically found in complex task performance, whereas simple tasks may not be significantly compromised, perhaps because

of little understood compensatory changes.\n\nMethods:\n\nWe compared finger tapping with either hand at externally paced (EP) or NSC23766 concentration maximal self-paced (SP) rates and concomitant brain activation in ten pairs of right-hand dominant, age-, and gender-matched, severe, uncomplicated ALC and normal controls (NC) using functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI).\n\nResults:\n\nMean tapping rates were not significantly different in ALC and NC for either task, but SP tapping variances were greater in ALC for both hands. SP tapping was more rapid with dominant hand (DH) than non-dominant hand (NDH) for both groups. EP and SP tapping with the non-dominant hand demonstrated significantly more activation in ALC than NC in the pre and postcentral gyri, inferior frontal gyrus, inferior parietal lobule, and the middle temporal gyrus. Areas activated only by ALC (not at all by NC) during NDH tapping included the inferior frontal gyrus, middle temporal gyrus, and postcentral gyrus. There were no significant group activation differences with DH tapping. No brain regions activated more in NC than ALC. SP tapping in contrast to EP activated fronto-cerebellar

networks in NC, including postcentral gyrus, anterior cingulate, and the anterior lobe and vermis of the cerebellum, but only parietal precuneus in ALC.\n\nConclusions:\n\nThese Fludarabine inhibitor findings with NDH finger tapping support previous reports of neurocognitive inefficiencies in ALC. Inferior frontal activation with EP in ALC, but not in NC, suggests engagement of regions needed for planning, organization, and impulse regulation; greater contralateral parietal lobe activation with SP in ALC may reflect right hemispheric impairments in visuospatial performance. Contrasting brain activation during SP and EP suggests that ALC may not have enlisted a fronto-cerebellar network as did NC but rather employed a higher order planning mode by recruiting parietal lobe functions to attain normal mean finger tapping rates.