Coyote, Canis latrans - Rio Grande Turkey, Meleagris gallopavo intermedia, Interactions

Coyotes (Canis latrans) are widely known to be predators of Wild Turkeys (Meleagris gallopauo sspp.). We describe two observations of single Coyotes coming within 10 m of feeding Wild Turkey flocks without attempting to predate them in Stevens County, Kansas. We relate these observations to Coyote predation on turkeys and mobbing behavior

Plasma zonulin levels in childhood nephrotic syndrome

© 2019 Trachtman, Gipson, Lemley, Troost, Faul, Morrison, Vento, Ahn and Goldberg. This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (CC BY). The use, distribution or reproduction in other forums is permitted, provided the original author(s) and the copyright owner(s) are credited and that the original publication in this journal is cited, in accordance with accepted academic practice. No use, distribution or reproduction is permitted which does not comply with these terms. Objective: We conducted this study to test the hypothesis that plasma zonulin levels are elevated in pediatric patients with nephrotic syndrome compared to healthy controls. Study Design: Plasma zonulin levels were measured by ELISA in 114 children enrolled in the NEPTUNE study. Clinical and laboratory data were retrieved from the NEPTUNE database. Results: The median age of the patients was 10 (IQR = 5 to 14) years, 59 were male, 64 had minimal change disease, 47 focal segmental glomerulosclerosis, median eGFR was 96 (IQR = 80 to 114) ml/min/1.73 m2, and median urine protein:creatinine ratio was 0.5 (IQR = 0.1 to 3.4) (g:g). The plasma zonulin level was 14.2 ± 5.0 vs. 10.2 ± 2.5 ng/ml in healthy adults in a report using the same assay kit, P = 0.0025. These findings were confirmed in an independent cohort of children with nephrotic syndrome compared to healthy age-matched controls, P = 0.01. Zonulin concentrations did not differ in children with minimal change disease vs. focal segmental glomerulosclerosis, frequently relapsing vs. steroid-dependent vs. steroid-resistant clinical course, and were not influenced by the immunosuppressive treatment regimen. There was no relationship between plasma zonulin levels and the absolute or percentage change in proteinuria from enrollment until the time of the zonulin assay. Conclusion: Plasma zonulin levels are elevated in childhood nephrotic syndrome regardless of level of proteinuria or specific treatment. The cause of the high plasma zonulin levels and whether zonulin contributes to glomerular injury requires further study

Vacuum energy in a spherically symmetric background field

The vacuum energy of a scalar field in a spherically symmetric background field is considered. It is expressed through the Jost function of the corresponding scattering problem. The renormalization is discussed in detail and performed using the uniform asymptotic expansion of the Jost function. The method is demonstrated in a simple explicit example.Comment: 14 pages, 1 Postscript figur

Text Messaging for Disease Monitoring in Childhood Nephrotic Syndrome

© 2019 International Society of Nephrology Introduction: There is limited information on effective disease monitoring for prompt interventions in childhood nephrotic syndrome. We examined the feasibility and effectiveness of a novel text messaging system (SMS) for disease monitoring in a multicenter, prospective study. Methods: A total of 127 patients results, symptoms, and medication adherence were sent to a designated caregiver (n = 116) or adolescent patient (n = 3). Participants responded by texting. Feasibility of SMS was assessed by SMS adoption, retention, and engagement, and concordance between participant-reported results and laboratory/clinician assessments. The number of disease relapses and time-to-remission data captured by SMS were compared with data collected by conventional visits. Results: A total of 119 of 127 (94%) patients agreed to SMS monitoring. Retention rate was 94%, with a median follow-up of 360 days (interquartile range [IQR] 353–362). Overall engagement was high, with a median response rate of 87% (IQR, 68–97). Concordance between SMS-captured home urine protein results and edema status with same-day in-person study visit was excellent (kappa values 0.88 and 0.92, respectively). SMS detected a total of 108 relapse events compared with 41 events captured by scheduled visits. Median time to remission after enrollment was 22 days as captured by SMS versus 50 days as captured by scheduled visits. Conclusion: SMS was well accepted by caregivers and adolescent patients and reliably captured nephrotic syndrome disease activity between clinic visits. Additional studies are needed to explore the impact of SMS on disease outcomes

Molecular Population Structure for Feral Swine in the United States

Feral swine (Sus scrofa) have invaded most of the United States and continue to expand throughout North America. Given the ecological and economic threats posed by increasing feral swine abundance, it is imperative to develop an understanding of their patterns of natural range expansion and human-mediated introductions. Towards this goal, we used molecular markers to elucidate the genetic structure of feral swine populations throughout the United States and evaluated the association between historical introductions and contemporary patterns of genetic organization. We used STRUCTURE and discriminant analysis of principal components (DAPC) to delineate genetic clusters for 959 individuals genotyped at 88 single nucleotide polymorphism loci. We identified 10 and 12 genetic clusters for the 2 clustering approaches, respectively. We observed strong agreement in clusters across approaches, with both describing clusters having strong geographic association at regional levels reflecting past introduction and range expansion patterns. In addition, we evaluated patterns of isolation by distance to test for and estimate spatial scaling of population structure within western, central, and eastern regions of North America. We found contrasting spatial patterns of genetic relatedness among regions, suggesting differences in the invasion process, likely as a result of regional variation in landscape heterogeneity and the influence of human mediated introductions. Our results indicate that molecular analyses of population genetic structure can provide reliable insights into the invasion processes of feral swine, thus providing a useful basis for management focused on minimizing continued range expansion by this problematic species

Diurnal/semidiurnal polar motion excited by oceanic tidal angular momentum

The axial component of the oceanic tidal angular momentum (OTAM) has been demonstrated to be responsible for most of the diurnal and semidiurnal variations in Earth's rotational rate. In this paper we study the equatorial components of OTAM and their corresponding effects on the orientation of Earth's rotational axis, or polar motion. Three ocean tide models derived from TOPEX/Poseidon satellite altimetry are employed to predict the polar motion excited by eight major diurnal/semidiurnal tides (Q₁,O₁,P₁, K₁, N₂, M₂, S₂, K₂). The predictions are compared with geodetic measurements of polar motion from both long‐term observations and during the intensive campaign Cont94. The prograde diurnal and prograde and retrograde semidiurnal periods are treated, whereas the retrograde diurnal polar motion is not treated (because it cannot be observed directly and uniquely.) The comparison shows generally good agreement, with discrepancies typically within 10–30 micro‐arc‐ seconds for the largest tides. The eight tides collectively explain nearly 60% of the total variance in subdaily polar motion during Cont94. This establishes the dominant role of OTAM in exciting the diurnal/semidiurnal polar motion and paves the way for detailed studies of short‐period nontidal polar motion. The present accuracy, however, is inadequate to shed light on the prograde diurnal polar libration

Urinary Epidermal Growth Factor as a Marker of Disease Progression in Children With Nephrotic Syndrome

© 2019 International Society of Nephrology Introduction: Childhood-onset nephrotic syndrome has a variable clinical course. Improved predictive markers of long-term outcomes in children with nephrotic syndrome are needed. This study tests the association between baseline urinary epidermal growth factor (uEGF) excretion and longitudinal kidney function in children with nephrotic syndrome. Methods: The study evaluated 191 participants younger than 18 years enrolled in the Nephrotic Syndrome Study Network, including 118 with their first clinically indicated kidney biopsy (68 minimal change disease; 50 focal seNorthwell Healthntal glomerulosclerosis) and 73 with incident nephrotic syndrome without a biopsy. uEGF was measured at baseline for all participants and normalized by the urine creatinine (Cr) concentration. Renal epidermal growth factor (EGF) mRNA was measured in the tubular compartment microdissected from kidney biopsy cores from a subset of patients. Linear mixed models were used to test if baseline uEGF/Cr and EGF mRNA expression were associated with change in estimated glomerular filtration rate (eGFR) over time. Results: Higher uEGF/Cr at baseline was associated with slower eGFR decline during follow-up (median follow-up = 30 months). Halving of uEGF/Cr was associated with a decrease in eGFR slope of 2.0 ml/min per 1.73 m2 per year (P \u3c 0.001) adjusted for age, race, diagnosis, baseline eGFR and proteinuria, and APOL1 genotype. In the biopsied subgroup, uEGF/Cr was correlated with EGF mRNA expression (r = 0.74; P \u3c 0.001), but uEGF/Cr was retained over mRNA expression as the stronger predictor of eGFR slope after multivariable adjustment (decrease in eGFR slope of 1.7 ml/min per 1.73 m2 per year per log2 decrease in uEGF/Cr; P \u3c 0.001). Conclusion: uEGF/Cr may be a useful noninvasive biomarker that can assist in predicting the long-term course of kidney function in children with incident nephrotic syndrome

Modernizing and Expanding the NASA Space Geodesy Network to Meet Future Geodetic Requirements

NASA maintains and operates a global network of Very Long Baseline Interferometry (VLBI), Satellite Laser Ranging (SLR), and Global Navigation Satellite System ground stations as part of the NASA Space Geodesy Program. The NASA Space Geodesy Network (NSGN) provides the geodetic products that support Earth observations and the related science requirements as outlined by the US National Research Council (NRC in Precise geodetic infrastructure: national requirements for a shared resource, National Academies Press, Washington, 2010. http://nap.edu/12954, Thriving on our changing planet: a decadal strategy for Earth observation from space, National Academies Press, Washington, 2018. http://nap.edu/24938). The Global Geodetic Observing System (GGOS) and the NRC have set an ambitious goal of improving the Terrestrial Reference Frame to have an accuracy of 1 mm and stability of 0.1 mm per year, an order of magnitude beyond current capabilities. NASA and its partners within GGOS are addressing this challenge by planning and implementing modern geodetic stations colocated at existing and new sites around the world. In 2013, NASA demonstrated the performance of its next-generation systems at the prototype next-generation core site at NASAs Goddard Geophysical and Astronomical Observatory in Greenbelt, Maryland. Implementation of a new broadband VLBI station in Hawaii was completed in 2016. NASA is currently implementing new VLBI and SLR stations in Texas and is planning the replacement of its other aging domestic and international legacy stations. In this article, we describe critical gaps in the current global network and discuss how the new NSGN will expand the global geodetic coverage and ultimately improve the geodetic products. We also describe the characteristics of a modern NSGN site and the capabilities of the next-generation NASA SLR and VLBI systems. Finally, we outline the plans for efficiently operating the NSGN by centralizing and automating the operations of the new geodetic stations