Measures of Success: A Snapshot of the Montana Wolf Program in 2009

Montana’s gray wolf (Canis lupus) population continues to be secure, while the political and legal environments remain dynamic. Wolf delisting is a two-step process. Biological recovery criteria must be met and clearly demonstrated, along with an adequate regulatory framework. Secondly, the delisting decision must be upheld during inevitable legal challenges. The northern Rockies wolf population has met or exceeded numeric and connectivity requirements for many years. The northern Rockies gray wolf population was initially delisted in 2008, but a legal challenge reinstated federal legal protections under the Endangered Species Act mid-summer. By the end of 2008, Montana Fish, Wildlife and Parks estimated a minimum of 497 wolves in 84 verified packs, 34 of which met the definition of breeding pair. Federal delisting efforts resumed early in 2009 and took effect throughout Montana on 4 May. The second delisting decision was challenged again in Federal Court, although a preliminary injunction request to reinstate federal protections was denied in September. With delisting in Montana, the wolf was automatically reclassified as a species in need of management. Montana’s laws, administrative rules, and management plan also took effect. Montana Tribes lead wolf management activities on their respective reservations. The first fair chase wolf hunting season in Montana occurred in 2009. Seventy-two wolves were harvested through a quota-based framework. Wolves and their management continue to be controversial to a diversity of publics for a wide variety of reasons. Nonetheless, Montana’s wolf program has a solid regulatory foundation and the population is biologically sound. This presentation will provide an update on a variety of topics

Gray Wolves and Livestock in Montana: A Recent History of Damage Management

The Montana gray wolf (Canis lupus) population grew from 2 wolves in 1979 to a minimum of 316 by late 2006. Resolving conflicts, both perceived and real, between wolves and livestock became a dominant social issue for the federal recovery program, and it remains so today. The United States Fish and Wildlife Service and now Montana Fish, Wildlife & Parks work with United States Department of Agriculture, Animal Plant Health Inspection Service, Wildlife Services to reduce depredation risks and address wolf-related conflicts through a combination of non-lethal and lethal management tools. The number of wolf complaints investigated from 1987-2006 increased as the population increased and expanded its distribution into Montana after reintroduction into Yellowstone National Park and central Idaho during 1995 and 1996. Montana wolf packs routinely encountered livestock, though wolf depredation was a relatively rare cause of livestock death and difficult to predict or prevent. Cattle and sheep were killed most often from March to October, although losses were confirmed each month. From 1987 to 2006, wolves killed 230 cattle and 436 sheep. However, confirmed losses probably represent a fraction of actual wolf losses. Few other types of livestock classes were killed. Conflicts are addressed on a case-by-case basis, striving to connect the agency response to the damage in space and time and to decrease the potential for future losses. Lethal control is implemented incrementally after predation was verified, and 254 wolves were killed from 1987 to 2006. Only complete removal of either wolves or livestock eliminates the potential for wolf depredation. The continued presence of a viable wolf population requires that a wide variety of non-lethal and lethal tools be investigated and implemented. That combination will also be required to maintain local public tolerance of wolves where the two overlap and to foster broad public acceptance of techniques used to minimize conflicts. Resolving wolf and livestock conflicts at a local scale is but one component of a larger state wolf conservation and management program. When wolves are delisted, regulated public harvest will allow us to more proactively manage the population

A metadata reporting framework (FRAMES) for synthesis of ecohydrological observations

Metadata describe the ancillary information needed for data preservation and independent interpretation, comparison across heterogeneous datasets, and quality assessment and quality control (QA/QC). Environmental observations are vastly diverse in type and structure, can be taken across a wide range of spatiotemporal scales in a variety of measurement settings and approaches, and saved in multiple formats. Thus, well-organized, consistent metadata are required to produce usable data products from diverse environmental observations collected across field sites. However, existing metadata reporting protocols do not support the complex data synthesis and model-data integration needs of interdisciplinary earth system research. We developed a metadata reporting framework (FRAMES) to enable management and synthesis of observational data that are essential in advancing a predictive understanding of earth systems. FRAMES utilizes best practices for data and metadata organization enabling consistent data reporting and compatibility with a variety of standardized data protocols. We used an iterative scientist-centered design process to develop FRAMES, resulting in a data reporting format that incorporates existing field practices to maximize data-entry efficiency. Thus, FRAMES has a modular organization that streamlines metadata reporting and can be expanded to incorporate additional data types. With FRAMES\u27s multi-scale measurement position hierarchy, data can be reported at observed spatial resolutions and then easily aggregated and linked across measurement types to support model-data integration. FRAMES is in early use by both data originators (persons generating data) and consumers (persons using data and metadata). In this paper, we describe FRAMES, identify lessons learned, and discuss areas of future development

Does amyloid deposition produce a specific atrophic signature in cognitively normal subjects?☆

The objective of our study was to evaluate whether cognitively normal (CN) elderly participants showing elevated cortical beta-amyloid (Aβ) deposition have a consistent neuroanatomical signature of brain atrophy that may characterize preclinical Alzheimer's disease (AD). 115 CN participants who were Aβ-positive (CN +) by amyloid PET imaging; 115 CN participants who were Aβ-negative (CN −); and 88 Aβ-positive mild cognitive impairment or AD participants (MCI/AD +) were identified. Cortical thickness (FreeSurfer) and gray matter volume (SPM5) were measured for 28 regions-of-interest (ROIs) across the brain and compared across groups. ROIs that best discriminated CN − from CN + differed for FreeSurfer cortical thickness and SPM5 gray matter volume. Group-wise discrimination was poor with a high degree of uncertainty in terms of the rank ordering of ROIs. In contrast, both techniques showed strong and consistent findings comparing MCI/AD + to both CN − and CN + groups, with entorhinal cortex, middle and inferior temporal lobe, inferior parietal lobe, and hippocampus providing the best discrimination for both techniques. Concordance across techniques was higher for the CN − and CN + versus MCI/AD + comparisons, compared to the CN − versus CN + comparison. The weak and inconsistent nature of the findings across technique in this study cast doubt on the existence of a reliable neuroanatomical signature of preclinical AD in elderly PiB-positive CN participants

Characterization of sclerostin’s response within white adipose tissue to an obesogenic diet at rest and in response to acute exercise in male mice

This study examined the effect of a high-fat diet (HFD) on sclerostin content within subcutaneous inguinal visceral white adipose tissue (iWAT), and visceral epididymal WAT (eWAT) depots at rest and in response to acute aerobic exercise. Male C57BL/6 mice (n=40, 18 weeks of age) underwent 10 weeks of either a low-fat diet (LFD) or HFD. Within each diet group, mice were assigned to either remain sedentary (SED) or perform 2h of endurance treadmill exercise at 15 m·min-1 with 5° incline (EX), creating 4 groups: LFD+SED (N=10), LFD+EX (N=10), HFD+SED (N=10), and HFD+EX (N=10). Serum and WAT depots were collected 2h post-exercise. Serum sclerostin showed a diet-by-exercise interaction, reflecting HFD+EX mice having higher concentration than HFD-SED (+31%, p=0.03), and LFD mice being unresponsive to exercise. iWAT sclerostin content decreased post-exercise in both 28 kDa (-31%, p=0.04) and 30 kDa bands (-36%, main effect for exercise, p=0.02). iWAT b-catenin (+44%, p=0.03) and GSK3b content were elevated in HFD mice compared to LFD (+128%, main effect for diet, p=0.005). Monomeric sclerostin content was abolished in eWAT of HFD mice (-96%, main effect for diet, p<0.0001), was only detectable as a 30 kDa band in LFD mice and was unresponsive to exercise. b-catenin and GSK3b were both unresponsive to diet and exercise within eWAT. These results characterized sclerostin’s mobilization to WAT depots in response to acute exercise, which appears to be specific to a reduction in iWAT and identified a differential regulation of sclerostin’s form/post-translational modifications depending on diet and WAT depot.This research was funded by the Natural Sciences and Engineering Research Council of Canada (NSERC grant to P. Klentrou # 2020-00014). N. Kurgan, B. Baranowski and Joshua Stoikos hold NSERC doctoral scholarships

Optimizing PiB-PET SUVR change-over-time measurement by a large-scale analysis of longitudinal reliability, plausibility, separability, and correlation with MMSE

AbstractQuantitative measurements of change in β-amyloid load from Positron Emission Tomography (PET) images play a critical role in clinical trials and longitudinal observational studies of Alzheimer's disease. These measurements are strongly affected by methodological differences between implementations, including choice of reference region and use of partial volume correction, but there is a lack of consensus for an optimal method. Previous works have examined some relevant variables under varying criteria, but interactions between them prevent choosing a method via combined meta-analysis. In this work, we present a thorough comparison of methods to measure change in β-amyloid over time using Pittsburgh Compound B (PiB) PET imaging.MethodsWe compare 1,024 different automated software pipeline implementations with varying methodological choices according to four quality metrics calculated over three-timepoint longitudinal trajectories of 129 subjects: reliability (straightness/variance); plausibility (lack of negative slopes); ability to predict accumulator/non-accumulator status from baseline value; and correlation between change in β-amyloid and change in Mini Mental State Exam (MMSE) scores.Results and conclusionFrom this analysis, we show that an optimal longitudinal measure of β-amyloid from PiB should use a reference region that includes a combination of voxels in the supratentorial white matter and those in the whole cerebellum, measured using two-class partial volume correction in the voxel space of each subject's corresponding anatomical MR image

Adaptive Wolf Management: The Regulated Public Harvest Component

Montana’s wolf (Canis lupus) conservation and management plan is based on adaptive management principles and includes regulated public harvest as a population management tool. The need and opportunity to implement public harvest in 2008, 2009, and 2010 required Montana Fish, Wildlife and Parks (FWP) to develop a stepped down adaptive management framework specific to harvest. For 2008 and 2009, FWP set modest objectives: implement a harvest, maintain a recovered population, and begin the learning process to inform development of future hunting regulations and quotas. In 2010, FWP used a formal Structured Decision Making Process to more clearly define priorities and challenges of setting a wolf season, outline objectives of a successful season, and evaluate consequences and trade-offs between alternative management actions. For all years, FWP used a modeling process to simulate a wide range of harvest rates across three harvest units and to predict harvest effects on the minimum number of wolves, packs and breeding pairs. Model inputs were derived from minimum wolf numbers observed in the field. Modeling allowed consideration of a range of harvest quotas, predicted outcomes, and risk that harvest could drive the population below federally-required minimums. It also facilitated explicit consideration of how well a particular quota achieved objectives and how to adapt future regulations and quotas. Legal challenges to federal delisting restricted implementation of the first fair chase hunting season to 2009. Montana’s wolf population is securely recovered, despite the dynamic political and legal environments. Regardless, FWP remains committed to a scientific, data-driven approach to adaptive management

Characterization of Alzheimer's disease‐like neuropathology in Duchenne's muscular dystrophy using the DBA/2J mdx mouse model

Duchenne muscular dystrophy (DMD) is a progressive muscle wasting disorder caused by a mutation in the dystrophin gene. In addition to muscle pathology, some patients with DMD will exhibit cognitive impairments with severity being linked to age and type of genetic mutation. Likewise, some studies have shown that mdx mice display impairments in spatial memory compared with wild-type (WT) controls, while others have not observed any such effect. Most studies have utilized the traditional C57BL/10 (C57) mdx mouse, which exhibits a mild disease phenotype. Recently, the DBA/2J (D2) mdx mouse has emerged as a more severe and perhaps clinically relevant DMD model; however, studies examining cognitive function in these mice are limited. Thus, in this study we examined cognitive function in age-matched C57 and D2 mdx mice along with their respective WT controls. Our findings show that 8- to 12-week-old C57 mdx mice did not display any differences in exploration time when challenged with a novel object recognition test. Conversely, age-matched D2 mdx mice spent less time exploring objects in total as a well as less time exploring the novel object, suggestive of impaired recognition memory. Biochemical analyses of the D2 mdx brain revealed higher soluble amyloid precursor protein b(APPb) and APP in the prefrontal cortex of mdx mice compared with WT, and lower soluble APPa in the hippocampus, suggestive of a shift towards amyloidogenesis and a similar pathogenesis to Alzheimer’s disease. Furthermore, our study demonstrates the utility of the D2 mdx model in studying cognitive impairment.Canadian Network for Research and Innovation in Machining Technology, Natural Sciences and Engineering Research Council of Canad

The Astropy Project: Building an Open-science Project and Status of the v2.0 Core Package

The Astropy Project supports and fosters the development of open-source and openly developed Python packages that provide commonly needed functionality to the astronomical community. A key element of the Astropy Project is the core package astropy, which serves as the foundation for more specialized projects and packages. In this article, we provide an overview of the organization of the Astropy project and summarize key features in the core package, as of the recent major release, version 2.0. We then describe the project infrastructure designed to facilitate and support development for a broader ecosystem of interoperable packages. We conclude with a future outlook of planned new features and directions for the broader Astropy Project