Where and when to revegetate : a quantitative method for scheduling landscape reconstruction

Restoration of native vegetation is required in many regions of the world, but determining priority locations for revegetation is a complex problem. We consider the problem of determining spatial and temporal priorities for revegetation to maximize habitat for 62 bird species within a heavily cleared agricultural region, 11 000 km2 in area. We show how a reserve-selection framework can be applied to a complex, large-scale restoration-planning problem to account for multi-species objectives and connectivity requirements at a spatial extent and resolution relevant to management. Our approach explicitly accounts for time lags in planting and development of habitat resources, which is intended to avoid future population bottlenecks caused by delayed provision of critical resources, such as tree hollows. We coupled species-specific models of expected habitat quality and fragmentation effects with the dynamics of habitat suitability following replanting to produce species-specific maps for future times. Spatial priorities for restoration were determined by ranking locations (150-m grid cells) by their expected contribution to species habitat through time using the conservation planning tool, ‘‘Zonation.’’ We evaluated solutions by calculating expected trajectories of habitat availability for each species. We produced a spatially explicit revegetation schedule for the region that resulted in a balanced increase in habitat for all species. Priority areas for revegetation generally were clustered around existing vegetation, although not always. Areas on richer soils and with high rainfall were more highly ranked, reflecting their potential to support high-quality habitats that have been disproportionately cleared for agriculture. Accounting for delayed development of habitat resources altered the rank-order of locations in the derived revegetation plan and led to improved expected outcomes for fragmentation-sensitive species. This work demonstrates the potential for systematic restoration planning at large scales that accounts for multiple objectives, which is urgently needed by land and natural resource managers

Despotic, high-impact species and the subcontinental scale control of avian assemblage structure

Some species have disproportionate influence on assemblage structure, given their numbers or biomass. Most examples of such "strong interactors'' come from small-scale experiments or from observations of the effects of invasive species. There is evidence that entire avian assemblages in open woodlands can be influenced strongly by individual species over very large areas in eastern Australia, with small-bodied species (2000 km). A series of linked Bayesian models was used to identify large-bodied (>= 50 g) bird species that were associated with changes in occurrence and abundance of small-bodied species. One native species, the Noisy Miner (Manorina melanocephala; family Meliphagidae), was objectively identified as the sole large-bodied species having similar detrimental effects in all districts, depressing occurrence of 57 of 71 small-bodied species. Adverse effects on abundances of small-bodied species were profound when the Noisy Miner occurred with mean site abundances >= 1.6 birds/2 ha. The Noisy Miner may be the first species to have been shown to influence whole-of-avifauna assemblage structure through despotic aggressiveness over subcontinental scales. These substantial shifts in occurrence rates and abundances of small-bodied species flow on to alter species abundance distributions of entire assemblages over much of eastern Australia

A role for the orphan nuclear receptor TLX in the interaction between neural precursor cells and microglia

Microglia are an essential component of the neurogenic niche in the adult hippocampus and are involved in the control of neural precursor cell (NPC) proliferation, differentiation and the survival and integration of newborn neurons in hippocampal circuitry. Microglial and neuronal cross-talk is mediated in part by the chemokine fractalkine/chemokine (C-X3-C motif) ligand 1 (CX3CL1) released from neurons, and its receptor CX3C chemokine receptor 1 (CX3CR1) which is expressed on microglia. A disruption in this pathway has been associated with impaired neurogenesis yet the specific molecular mechanisms by which this interaction occurs remain unclear. The orphan nuclear receptor TLX (Nr2e1; homologue of the Drosophila tailless gene) is a key regulator of hippocampal neurogenesis, and we have shown that in its absence microglia exhibit a pro-inflammatory activation phenotype. However, it is unclear whether a disturbance in CX3CL1/CX3CR1 communication mediates an impairment in TLX-related pathways which may have subsequent effects on neurogenesis. To this end, we assessed miRNA expression of up- and down-stream signalling molecules of TLX in the hippocampus of mice lacking CX3CR1. Our results demonstrate that a lack of CX3CR1 is associated with altered expression of TLX and its downstream targets in the hippocampus without significantly affecting upstream regulators of TLX. Thus, TLX may be a potential participant in neural stem cell (NSC)–microglial cross-talk and may be an important target in understanding inflammatory-associated impairments in neurogenesis

Estimating and Modelling Bias of the Hierarchical Partitioning Public-Domain Software: Implications in Environmental Management and Conservation

BACKGROUND: Hierarchical partitioning (HP) is an analytical method of multiple regression that identifies the most likely causal factors while alleviating multicollinearity problems. Its use is increasing in ecology and conservation by its usefulness for complementing multiple regression analysis. A public-domain software "hier.part package" has been developed for running HP in R software. Its authors highlight a "minor rounding error" for hierarchies constructed from >9 variables, however potential bias by using this module has not yet been examined. Knowing this bias is pivotal because, for example, the ranking obtained in HP is being used as a criterion for establishing priorities of conservation. METHODOLOGY/PRINCIPAL FINDINGS: Using numerical simulations and two real examples, we assessed the robustness of this HP module in relation to the order the variables have in the analysis. Results indicated a considerable effect of the variable order on the amount of independent variance explained by predictors for models with >9 explanatory variables. For these models the nominal ranking of importance of the predictors changed with variable order, i.e. predictors declared important by its contribution in explaining the response variable frequently changed to be either most or less important with other variable orders. The probability of changing position of a variable was best explained by the difference in independent explanatory power between that variable and the previous one in the nominal ranking of importance. The lesser is this difference, the more likely is the change of position. CONCLUSIONS/SIGNIFICANCE: HP should be applied with caution when more than 9 explanatory variables are used to know ranking of covariate importance. The explained variance is not a useful parameter to use in models with more than 9 independent variables. The inconsistency in the results obtained by HP should be considered in future studies as well as in those already published. Some recommendations to improve the analysis with this HP module are given

Dairy science and health in the tropics: challenges and opportunities for the next decades

EditorialIn the next two decades, the world population will increase significantly; the majority in the developing countries located in the tropics of Africa, Asia, Latin America, and the Caribbean. To feed such a population, it is necessary to increase the availability of food, particularly high-value animal protein foods produced locally, namely meat and dairy products. Dairy production in tropical regions has a lot of growth potential, but also poses a series of problems, particularly as dairy production systems were developed in temperate countries and in most cases are difficult to implement in the tropics. Drawbacks include hot weather and heat stress, the lack of availability of adequate feeds, poor infrastructure, and cold chain and the competition with cheap imports from temperate countries. This position paper reviews the major drawbacks in dairy production for the five major dairy species: cattle, water buffalo, sheep, goat, and camel, as well as the future trends in research and development. It also concerns the major trends in reproduction and production systems and health issues as well as environmental concerns, particularly those related to greenhouse gas emissions. Tropical Animal Health and Production now launches a topical collection on Tropical Dairy Science. We aim to publish interesting and significant papers in tropical dairy science. On behalf of the editorial board of the Tropical Animal Health and Production, we would like to invite all authors working in this field to submit their works on this topic to this topical collection in our journalinfo:eu-repo/semantics/publishedVersio

Potent Innate Immune Response to Pathogenic Leptospira in Human Whole Blood

Background: Leptospirosis is caused by pathogenic spirochetes of the genus Leptospira. The bacteria enter the human body via abraded skin or mucous membranes and may disseminate throughout. In general the clinical picture is mild but some patients develop rapidly progressive, severe disease with a high case fatality rate. Not much is known about the innate immune response to leptospires during haematogenous dissemination. Previous work showed that a human THP-1 cell line recognized heat-killed leptospires and leptospiral LPS through TLR2 instead of TLR4. The LPS of virulent leptospires displayed a lower potency to trigger TNF production by THP-1 cells compared to LPS of non-virulent leptospires. Methodology/Principal Findings: We investigated the host response and killing of virulent and non-virulent Leptospira of different serovars by human THP-1 cells, human PBMC's and human whole blood. Virulence of each leptospiral strain was tested in a well accepted standard guinea pig model. Virulent leptospires displayed complement resistance in human serum and whole blood while in-vitro attenuated non-virulent leptospires were rapidly killed in a complement dependent manner. In vitro stimulation of THP-1 and PBMC's with heat-killed and living leptospires showed differential serovar and cell type dependence of cytokine induction. However, at low, physiological, leptospiral dose, living virulent complement resistant strains were consistently more potent in whole blood stimulations than the corresponding non-virulent complement sensitive strains. At higher dose living virulent and non-virulent leptospires were equipotent in whole blood. Inhibition of different TLRs indicated that both TLR2 and TLR4 as well as TLR5 play a role in the whole blood cytokine response to living leptospires. Conclusions/Significance: Thus, in a minimally altered system as human whole blood, highly virulent Leptospira are potent inducers of the cytokine response

Mapping of Data-Sharing Repositories for Paediatric Clinical Research—A Rapid Review

The re-use of paediatric individual patient data (IPD) from clinical trials (CTs) is essential to overcome specific ethical, regulatory, methodological, and economic issues that hinder the progress of paediatric research. Sharing data through repositories enables the aggregation and dissemination of clinical information, fosters collaboration between researchers, and promotes transparency. This work aims to identify and describe existing data-sharing repositories (DSRs) developed to store, share and re-use paediatric IPD from CTs. A desk review of platforms providing access to electronic DSRs was conducted. A two-stage process was used to characterize DSRs: a first step of identification, followed by a second step of suitability assessment using a set of eight purpose-built indicators. From an initial set of forty-five publicly available DSRs, twenty-one DSRs were identified as meeting the eligibility criteria. Only two DSRs were found to be totally focused on the paediatric population. Despite an increased awareness of the importance of data-sharing, the results of this study show that paediatrics remains an area in which targeted efforts are still needed. Promoting initiatives to raise awareness of these DSRs and creating ad-hoc measures and common standards for the sharing of paediatric CTs data could help to bridge this gap in paediatric research

A JWST/MIRI and NIRCam Analysis of the Young Stellar Object Population in the Spitzer I region of NGC 6822

We present an imaging survey of the Spitzer~I star-forming region in NGC 6822 conducted with the NIRCam and MIRI instruments onboard JWST. Located at a distance of 490 kpc, NGC 6822 is the nearest non-interacting low-metallicity ($\sim$0.2 $Z_{\odot}$) dwarf galaxy. It hosts some of the brightest known HII regions in the local universe, including recently discovered sites of highly-embedded active star formation. Of these, Spitzer I is the youngest and most active, and houses 90 color-selected candidate young stellar objects (YSOs) identified from Spitzer Space Telescope observations. We revisit the YSO population of Spitzer~I with these new JWST observations. By analyzing color-magnitude diagrams (CMDs) constructed with NIRCam and MIRI data, we establish color selection criteria and construct spectral energy distributions (SEDs) to identify candidate YSOs and characterize the full population of young stars, from the most embedded phase to the more evolved stages. In this way, we have identified 129 YSOs in Spitzer I. Comparing to previous Spitzer studies of the NGC 6822 YSO population, we find that the YSOs we identify are fainter and less massive, indicating that the improved resolution of JWST allows us to resolve previously blended sources into individual stars.Comment: 17 pages, 9 figures, 2 tables, to be submitted to ApJ, comments welcom

Surgical experience and identification of errors in laparoscopic cholecystectomy.

BACKGROUND: Surgical errors are acts or omissions resulting in negative consequences and/or increased operating time. This study describes surgeon-reported errors in laparoscopic cholecystectomy. METHODS: Intraoperative videos were uploaded and annotated on Touch SurgeryTM Enterprise. Participants evaluated videos for severity using a 10-point intraoperative cholecystitis grading score, and errors using Observational Clinical Human Reliability Assessment, which includes skill, consequence, and mechanism classifications. RESULTS: Nine videos were assessed by 8 participants (3 junior (specialist trainee (ST) 3-5), 2 senior trainees (ST6-8), and 3 consultants). Participants identified 550 errors. Positive relationships were seen between total operating time and error count (r2 = 0.284, P < 0.001), intraoperative grade score and error count (r2 = 0.578, P = 0.001), and intraoperative grade score and total operating time (r2 = 0.157, P < 0.001). Error counts differed significantly across intraoperative phases (H(6) = 47.06, P < 0.001), most frequently at dissection of the hepatocystic triangle (total 282; median 33.5 (i.q.r. 23.5-47.8, range 15-63)), ligation/division of cystic structures (total 124; median 13.5 (i.q.r. 12-19.3, range 10-26)), and gallbladder dissection (total 117; median 14.5 (i.q.r. 10.3-18.8, range 6-26)). There were no significant differences in error counts between juniors, seniors, and consultants (H(2) = 0.03, P = 0.987). Errors were classified differently. For dissection of the hepatocystic triangle, thermal injuries (50 in total) were frequently classified as executional, consequential errors; trainees classified thermal injuries as step done with excessive force, speed, depth, distance, time or rotation (29 out of 50), whereas consultants classified them as incorrect orientation (6 out of 50). For ligation/division of cystic structures, inappropriate clipping (60 errors in total), procedural errors were reported by junior trainees (6 out of 60), but not consultants. For gallbladder dissection, inappropriate dissection (20 errors in total) was reported in incorrect planes by consultants and seniors (6 out of 20), but not by juniors. Poor economy of movement (11 errors in total) was reported more by consultants (8 out of 11) than trainees (3 out of 11). CONCLUSION: This study suggests that surgical experience influences error interpretation, but the benefits for surgical training are currently unclear

Comparative Transcriptional and Translational Analysis of Leptospiral Outer Membrane Protein Expression in Response to Temperature

Leptospirosis, caused by Leptospira spp., is a disease of worldwide significance affecting millions of people annually. Bacteria of this species are spread by various carrier animals, including rodents and domestic livestock, which shed the leptospires via their urine into the environment. Humans become infected through direct contact with carrier animals or indirectly via contaminated water or soil. Temperature is a key trigger used by many bacteria to sense changes in environmental conditions, including entry from the environment into the host. This study was the first comprehensive research into changes occurring in the outer membrane of Leptospira in response to temperature and how these changes correlate with gene expression changes. An understanding of the regulation and function of these proteins is important as they may provide an adaptation and survival advantage for the microorganism which may enhance its ability to infect hosts and cause disease. Our data suggest regulation of proteins in the outer membrane which may possibly be a mechanism to minimise interactions with the host immune response