Pastoral Herding Strategies and Governmental Management Objectives: Predation Compensation as a Risk Buffering Strategy in the Saami Reindeer Husbandry

Previously it has been found that an important risk buffering strategy in the Saami reindeer husbandry in Norway is the accumulation of large herds of reindeer as this increases long-term household viability. Nevertheless, few studies have investigated how official policies, such as economic compensation for livestock losses, can influence pastoral strategies. This study investigated the effect of received predation compensation on individual husbandry units’ future herd size. The main finding in this study is that predation compensation had a positive effect on husbandry units’ future herd size. The effect of predation compensation, however, was nonlinear in some years, indicating that predation compensation had a positive effect on future herd size only up to a certain threshold whereby adding additional predation compensation had little effect on future herd size. More importantly, the effect of predation compensation was positive after controlling for reindeer density, indicating that for a given reindeer density husbandry units receiving more predation compensation performed better (measured as the size of future herds) compared to husbandry units receiving less compensation

Use of nanomaterials in the pretreatment of water samples for environmental analysis

The challenge of providing clean drinking water is of enormous relevance in today’s human civilization, being essential for human consumption, but also for agriculture, livestock and several industrial applications. In addition to remediation strategies, the accurate monitoring of pollutants in water sup-plies, which most of the times are present at low concentrations, is a critical challenge. The usual low concentration of target analytes, the presence of in-terferents and the incompatibility of the sample matrix with instrumental techniques and detectors are the main reasons that renders sample preparation a relevant part of environmental monitoring strategies. The discovery and ap-plication of new nanomaterials allowed improvements on the pretreatment of water samples, with benefits in terms of speed, reliability and sensitivity in analysis. In this chapter, the use of nanomaterials in solid-phase extraction (SPE) protocols for water samples pretreatment for environmental monitoring is addressed. The most used nanomaterials, including metallic nanoparticles, metal organic frameworks, molecularly imprinted polymers, carbon-based nanomaterials, silica-based nanoparticles and nanocomposites are described, and their applications and advantages overviewed. Main gaps are identified and new directions on the field are suggested.publishe

Expression of an estrogen-regulated variant transcript of the peroxisomal branched chain fatty acid oxidase ACOX2 in breast carcinomas

Background Alternate transcripts from a single gene locus greatly enhance the combinatorial flexibility of the human transcriptome. Different patterns of exon usage have been observed when comparing normal tissue to cancers, suggesting that variant transcripts may play a role in the tumor phenotype. Methods Ribonucleic acid-sequencing (RNA-seq) data from breast cancer samples was used to identify an intronic start variant transcript of Acyl-CoA oxidase 2, ACOX2 (ACOX2-i9). Difference in expression between Estrogen Receptor (ER) positive and ER negative patients was assessed by the Wilcoxon rank sum test, and the findings validated in The Cancer Genome Atlas (TCGA) breast cancer dataset (BRCA). ACOX2-i9 expression was also assessed in cell lines using both quantitative reverse transcriptase-polymerase chain reaction (qRT-PCR) and Western blot analysis. Knock down by short hairpin RNA (shRNA) and colony formation assays were used to determine whether ACOX2-i9 expression would influence cellular fitness. The effect of ACOX2-i9 expression on patient survival was assessed by the Kaplan-Meier survival function, and association to clinical parameters was analyzed using a Fisher exact test. Results The expression and translation of ACOX2-i9 into a 25 kDa protein was demonstrated in HepG2 cells as well as in several breast cancer cell lines. shRNA knock down of the ACOX2-i9 variant resulted in decreased cell viability of T47D and MDA-MB 436 cells. Moreover, expression of ACOX2-i9 was shown to be estrogen regulated, being induced by propyl pyrazoletriol and inhibited by tamoxifen and fulvestrant in ER+ T47D and Mcf-7 cells, but not in the ER- MDA-MB 436 cell line. This variant transcript showed expression predominantly in ER-positive breast tumors as assessed in our initial set of 53 breast cancers and further validated in 87 tumor/normal pairs from the TCGA breast cancer dataset, and expression was associated with better outcome in ER positive patients. Conclusions ACOX2-i9 is specifically enriched in ER+ breast cancers where expression of the variant is associated with improved outcome. These data identify variant ACOX2 as a potential novel therapeutic biomarker in ER+ breast tumors

Zinc, copper, and oxysterol levels in patients with type 1 and type 2 diabetes mellitus

Background: The present study has the objective to assess the zinc (Zn), copper (Cu), and oxysterols plasma levels in type 1 (DM1) (n = 26) and type 2 (DM2) (n = 80) diabetes patients, as compared to healthy controls (n = 71), in order to testify whether metal levels may have a significant impact on the association between oxysterols and diabetes. Methods: Plasma trace elements and plasma oxysterols were assessed using atomic absorption spectrometry and LC-MS/MS, respectively. Lifestyle, smoking status, alcohol intake, and drug usage, as well as microvascular complications, were also monitored and reported. Results: The obtained data demonstrated that both DM1 and DM2 patients were characterized by significantly elevated HbA1c, FBG, TC, LDL-C, VLDL-C, and TG levels as compared to controls. Plasma Zn levels and Zn/Cu ratio in DM1 and DM2 patients were about 3- and 2-fold lower than controls. No significant differences in plasma Cu levels were reported. The 7-ketocholesterol (7-kchol) levels in DM1 and DM2 patients exceeded these values in healthy individuals by 2.5 and 5-fold, respectively. Similarly, cholestan-3β, 5α, 6β-triol (chol-triol) levels were more than 3- and 6-fold higher when compared to the respective values in non-diabetic controls. In regression models decreased plasma Zn and elevated oxysterol levels were significantly associated with HbA1c and fasting plasma glucose levels, after adjustment for anthropometric and clinical variables, as well as routine biochemical markers. Conclusions: Plasma Zn concentration is inversely associated with both 7-kchol and chol-triol levels. Assessment of Zn and oxysterol levels may be used both for risk assessment and as targets for the treatment of diabetes mellitus. © 2019 Elsevier Ltd and European Society for Clinical Nutrition and Metabolis