Understanding Landowner and Municipal Official Perceptions of Water Quality in a Local Watershed

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Implications of sudden oak death for wildland fire management

Human activities and climate change have altered historical disturbance regimes, introduced disturbances, and encouraged novel interactions between multiple disturbances. Ecosystems and the species that comprise them may be poorly equipped to withstand or recover from these altered disturbance regimes. In the fire-prone coastal forests of California and Oregon, sudden oak death (SOD), caused by the pathogen Phytophthora ramorum, is an emerging, non-native plant disease that causes widespread tree mortality and associated implications for fire regimes. Disease-related tree mortality alters fuel loads, with patterns of fuel accumulation varying depending on stand composition, disease severity, and time since pathogen invasion. Simulations and observational studies suggest these altered fuel profiles can impact subsequent fire behavior, and the extent of this interaction may depend on the severity and timing of disease impacts. Initial tree death can elevate the risk of crown ignition, while latter stages can increase surface fuel loading and have been linked to increased fire severity in wildfires. Further, disease history can also influence fire severity with cascading effects leading to unexpected increases in mortality of non-susceptible tree species and changes in nutrient cycling. The longer-term impacts of SOD-fire interactions on system resilience and recovery remain to be seen, but increased fire severity, changed stand structure, and altered biogeochemical cycling may have important consequences for post-fire regeneration and future ecosystem function. Fuels management strategies that diminish crown fire hazards at early stages and mitigate surface fuel hazards at later stages offer some promise, but have yet to be tested in large landscapes. Given SOD-wildfire interactions, further integration of disease- and fire-related management plans will be essential to minimizing impacts of these compounded disturbances

A Leptin-regulated Circuit Controls Glucose Mobilization During Noxious Stimuli

Adipocytes secrete the hormone leptin to signal the sufficiency of energy stores. Reductions in circulating leptin concentrations reflect a negative energy balance, which augments sympathetic nervous system (SNS) activation in response to metabolically demanding emergencies. This process ensures adequate glucose mobilization despite low energy stores. We report that leptin receptor–expressing neurons (LepRb neurons) in the periaqueductal gray (PAG), the largest population of LepRb neurons in the brain stem, mediate this process. Application of noxious stimuli, which often signal the need to mobilize glucose to support an appropriate response, activated PAG LepRb neurons, which project to and activate parabrachial nucleus (PBN) neurons that control SNS activation and glucose mobilization. Furthermore, activating PAG LepRb neurons increased SNS activity and blood glucose concentrations, while ablating LepRb in PAG neurons augmented glucose mobilization in response to noxious stimuli. Thus, decreased leptin action on PAG LepRb neurons augments the autonomic response to noxious stimuli, ensuring sufficient glucose mobilization during periods of acute demand in the face of diminished energy stores

Strategies to optimize the impact of nutritional surveys and epidemiological studies

The development of nutrition and health guidelines and policies requires reliable scientific information. Unfortunately, theoretical considerations and empirical evidence indicate that a large percentage of science-based claims rely on studies that fail to replicate. The session "Strategies to Optimize the Impact of Nutrition Surveys and Epidemiological Studies" focused on the elements of design, interpretation, and communication of nutritional surveys and epidemiological studies to enhance and encourage the production of reliable, objective evidence for use in developing dietary guidance for the public. The speakers called for more transparency of research, raw data, consistent data-staging techniques, and improved data analysis. New approaches to collecting data are urgently needed to increase the credibility and utility of findings from nutrition epidemiological studies. Such studies are critical for furthering our knowledge and understanding of the effects of diet on health

Specific Subpopulations of Hypothalamic Leptin Receptor-Expressing Neurons Mediate the Effects of Early Developmental Leptin Receptor Deletion on Energy Balance

ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS We thank MedImmune, Inc. and James Trevaskis, PhD and Christopher Rhodes, PhD for the gift of leptin. We thank members of the Myers and Olson labs for helpful discussions. Research support was provided by the Michigan Diabetes Research Center (NIH P3 0 DK020572, including the Molecular Genetics, Animal Phenotyping, and Clinical Cores), the American Diabetes Association (MGM), the Marilyn H. Vincent Foundation (MGM), the NIH (MGM: D K05673 1; ACR:DK071212; MBA: DK097861), the BBSRC (LKH: BB/NO17838/1) and WellcomeTrust (LKH: 098012).Peer reviewedPublisher PD

Tissue of origin dictates branched-chain amino acid metabolism in mutant Kras-driven cancers

Tumor genetics guides patient selection for many new therapies, and cell culture studies have demonstrated that specific mutations can promote metabolic phenotypes. However, whether tissue context defines cancer dependence on specific metabolic pathways is unknown. Kras activation and Trp53 deletion in the pancreas or the lung result in pancreatic ductal adenocarinoma (PDAC) or non-small cell lung carcinoma (NSCLC), respectively, but despite the same initiating events, these tumors use branched-chain amino acids (BCAAs) differently. NSCLC tumors incorporate free BCAAs into tissue protein and use BCAAs as a nitrogen source, whereas PDAC tumors have decreased BCAA uptake. These differences are reflected in expression levels of BCAA catabolic enzymes in both mice and humans. Loss of Bcat1 and Bcat2, the enzymes responsible for BCAA use, impairs NSCLC tumor formation, but these enzymes are not required for PDAC tumor formation, arguing that tissue of origin is an important determinant of how cancers satisfy their metabolic requirements.National Institutes of Health (U.S.) (Grant F30CA183474)National Institutes of Health (U.S.) (Grant T32GM007753

How do practitioners characterize land tenure security?

Improving land tenure security (LTS) is a significant challenge for sustainable development. The Sustainable Development Goals and other recent global initiatives have renewed and increased the need to improve LTS to address climate change, biodiversity loss, food security, poverty reduction, and other challenges. At the same time, policymakers are increasingly interested in evidence- based policies and decisions, creating urgency for practitioners and researchers to work together. Yet, incongruent characterizations of LTS (identifying the key components of LTS) by practitioners and researchers can limit collaboration and information flows necessary for research and effective policymaking. While there are systematic reviews of how LTS is characterized in the academic literature, no prior study has assessed how practitioners characterize LTS. We address this gap using data from 54 interviews of land tenure practitioners working in 10 countries of global importance for biodiversity and climate change mitigation. Practitioners characterize LTS as complex and multifaceted, and a majority of practitioners refer to de jure terms (e.g., titling) when characterizing it. Notably, in our data just one practitioner characterized LTS in terms of perceptions of the landholder, contrasting the recent emphasis in the academic literature on landholder perceptions in LTS characterizations. Researchers should be aware of incongruence in how LTS is characterized in the academic literature when engaging practitioners.Peer Reviewedhttps://deepblue.lib.umich.edu/bitstream/2027.42/155485/1/csp2186.pdfhttps://deepblue.lib.umich.edu/bitstream/2027.42/155485/2/csp2186_am.pd

Trends in thrombolytic use for ischemic stroke in the United States

BACKGROUND: Although recombinant tissue plasminogen activator (tPA) improves outcomes from ischemic stroke, prior studies have found low rates of administration. Recent guidelines and regulatory agencies have advocated for increased tPA administration in appropriate patients, but it is unclear how many patients actually receive tPA. OBJECTIVE: To determine whether national rates of tPA use for ischemic stroke have increased over time. METHODS: We identified all patients with a primary diagnosis of ischemic stroke from years 2001 to 2006 in the National Hospital Discharge Survey (NHDS), a nationally representative sample of inpatient hospitalizations, and searched for procedure codes for intravenous thrombolytic administration. Clinical and demographic factors were obtained from the survey and multivariable logistic regression used to identify independent predictors associated with thrombolytic use. RESULTS: Among the 22,842 patients hospitalized with ischemic stroke, tPA administration rates increased from 0.87% in 2001 to 2.40% in 2006 ( P < 0.001 for trend). Older patients were less likely to receive tPA (adjusted odds ratio [OR] and 95% confidence interval [CI]; 0.4 [0.3-0.6] for patients ≥80 years vs. <60 years), as were African American patients (0.4 [0.3-0.7]). Larger hospitals were more likely to administer tPA (3.3 [2.0-5.6] in hospitals with at least 300 beds compared to those with 6-99 beds). CONCLUSIONS: Although tPA administration for ischemic stroke has increased nationally in recent years, the overall rate of use remains very low. Larger hospitals were more likely to administer tPA. Further efforts to improve appropriate administration of tPA should be encouraged, particularly as the acceptable time-window for using tPA widens. Journal of Hospital Medicine 2010. © 2010 Society of Hospital Medicine.Peer Reviewedhttp://deepblue.lib.umich.edu/bitstream/2027.42/78061/1/689_ftp.pd

D-cycloserine augmentation of exposure-based cognitive behavior therapy for anxiety, obsessive-compulsive, and posttraumatic stress disorders: a systematic review and meta-analysis of individual participant data

Importance: Whether and under which conditions D-cycloserine (DCS) augments the effects of exposure-based cognitive behavior therapy for anxiety, obsessive-compulsive, and posttraumatic stress disorders is unclear. Objective: To clarify whether DCS is superior to placebo in augmenting the effects of cognitive behavior therapy for anxiety, obsessive-compulsive, and posttraumatic stress disorders and to evaluate whether antidepressants interact with DCS and the effect of potential moderating variables. Data Sources: PubMed, EMBASE, and PsycINFO were searched from inception to February 10, 2016. Reference lists of previous reviews and meta-analyses and reports of randomized clinical trials were also checked. Study Selection: Studies were eligible for inclusion if they were (1) double-blind randomized clinical trials of DCS as an augmentation strategy for exposure-based cognitive behavior therapy and (2) conducted in humans diagnosed as having specific phobia, social anxiety disorder, panic disorder with or without agoraphobia, obsessive-compulsive disorder, or posttraumatic stress disorder. Data Extraction and Synthesis: Raw data were obtained from the authors and quality controlled. Data were ranked to ensure a consistent metric across studies (score range, 0-100). We used a 3-level multilevel model nesting repeated measures of outcomes within participants, who were nested within studies. Results: Individual participant data were obtained for 21 of 22 eligible trials, representing 1047 of 1073 eligible participants. When controlling for antidepressant use, participants receiving DCS showed greater improvement from pretreatment to posttreatment (mean difference, -3.62; 95% CI, -0.81 to -6.43; P = .01; d = -0.25) but not from pretreatment to midtreatment (mean difference, -1.66; 95% CI, -4.92 to 1.60; P = .32; d = -0.14) or from pretreatment to follow-up (mean difference, -2.98, 95% CI, -5.99 to 0.03; P = .05; d = -0.19). Additional analyses showed that participants assigned to DCS were associated with lower symptom severity than those assigned to placebo at posttreatment and at follow-up. Antidepressants did not moderate the effects of DCS. None of the prespecified patient-level or study-level moderators was associated with outcomes. Conclusions and Relevance: D-cycloserine is associated with a small augmentation effect on exposure-based therapy. This effect is not moderated by the concurrent use of antidepressants. Further research is needed to identify patient and/or therapy characteristics associated with DCS response.2018-05-0