Using serum CA125 to assess the activity of potential cytostatic agents in ovarian cancer

Objective: New strategies are required to rapidly identify novel cytostatic agents before embarking on large randomized trials. This study investigates whether a change in rate of rise (slope) of serum CA125 from before to after starting a novel agent could be used to identify cytostatic agents. Tamoxifen was used to validate this hypothesis. Methods: Asymptomatic patients with relapsed ovarian cancer who had responded to chemotherapy were enrolled and had CA125 measurements taken every 4 weeks, then more frequently when rising. Once levels reached 4 times the upper limit of normal or nadir, they started continuous tamoxifen 20 mg daily, as well as fortnightly CA125 measurements until symptomatic progression. Because of the potentially nonlinear relationship of CA125 over time, it was felt that to enable normal approximations to be utilized a natural logarithmic standard transformation [ln(CA125)] was the most suitable to improve linearity above the common logarithmic transformation to base 10. Results: From 235 recruited patients, 81 started tamoxifen and had at least 4 CA125 measurements taken before and 4 CA125 measurements taken after starting tamoxifen, respectively. The mean regression slopes from using at least 4 1n(CA125) measurements immediately before and after starting tamoxifen were 0I0149 and 0I0093 [ln(CA125)/d], respectively. This difference is statistically significant, P = 0I001. Therefore, in a future trial with a novel agent, at least as effective as tamoxifen, using this effect size, the number of evaluable patients needed, at significance level of 5% and power of 80%, is 56. Conclusions: Further validation of this methodology is required, but there is potential to use comparison of mean regression slopes of ln(CA125) as an interim analysis measure of efficacy for novel cytostatic agents in relapsed ovarian cancer.Peer reviewedFinal Accepted Versio

Interspecific and geographic variation in the diets of sympatric carnivores: dingoes/wild dogs and red foxes in south-eastern Australia

Dingoes/wild dogs (Canis dingo/familiaris) and red foxes (Vulpes vulpes) are widespread carnivores in southern Australia and are controlled to reduce predation on domestic livestock and native fauna. We used the occurrence of food items in 5875 dingo/wild dog scats and 11,569 fox scats to evaluate interspecific and geographic differences in the diets of these species within nine regions of Victoria, south-eastern Australia. The nine regions encompass a wide variety of ecosystems. Diet overlap between dingoes/wild dogs and foxes varied among regions, from low to near complete overlap. The diet of foxes was broader than dingoes/wild dogs in all but three regions, with the former usually containing more insects, reptiles and plant material. By contrast, dingoes/wild dogs more regularly consumed larger mammals, supporting the hypothesis that niche partitioning occurs on the basis of mammalian prey size. The key mammalian food items for dingoes/wild dogs across all regions were black wallaby (Wallabia bicolor), brushtail possum species (Trichosurus spp.), common wombat (Vombatus ursinus), sambar deer (Rusa unicolor), cattle (Bos taurus) and European rabbit (Oryctolagus cuniculus). The key mammalian food items for foxes across all regions were European rabbit, sheep (Ovis aries) and house mouse (Mus musculus). Foxes consumed 6.1 times the number of individuals of threatened Critical Weight Range native mammal species than did dingoes/wild dogs. The occurrence of intraguild predation was asymmetrical; dingoes/wild dogs consumed greater biomass of the smaller fox. The substantial geographic variation in diet indicates that dingoes/wild dogs and foxes alter their diet in accordance with changing food availability. We provide checklists of taxa recorded in the diets of dingoes/wild dogs and foxes as a resource for managers and researchers wishing to understand the potential impacts of policy and management decisions on dingoes/wild dogs, foxes and the food resources they interact with

“A Cathartic Moment in a Man’s Life”: Homosociality and Gendered Fun on the Puttan Tour

Rarely addressed in academic scholarship, the puttan tour is a well-known form of entertainment in Italy where young men drive around in small groups with the aim of spotting street sex workers. On some occasions, the participants will approach the sex workers to strike up a conversation. On others, they will shout out insults from their car then drive away. This article aims to advance a detailed analysis of this underexplored cultural practice drawing on a diverse body of scholarship exploring the intersection of masculinity, leisure, and homosociality. By analyzing stories of puttan tours gathered mostly online, including written accounts and YouTube videos, our aim is to explore the appeal of the puttan tour through an analysis of how homosociality, humor, and laughter operate in this example of gendered fun. To this end, we look at the multiple and often equivocal meanings of this homosocial male-bonding ritual, its emotional and affective dynamics, and the ways in which it reproduces structures of inequality while normalizing violence against sex workers

Data used in our analyses.

The file contains 8 columns and 31 rows. The first row contains the column headings and the remaining 30 rows are the data values arranged by year (i.e. one row for each of the 30 years of the study). The first column 'Year' is the year the data relate to (first year is 1984, last year is 2013). The second column 'HunterCPUE' is the mean number of sambar deer shot per hunter per day in each of the 30 years. The third column 'nDingoScats' is the number of dingo scats collected in each of the 30 years. The fourth column 'nRedFoxScats' is the number of red fox scats collected in each of the 30 years. The fifth column 'nSambDingoScats' is the number of dingo scats collected in each year that contained sambar deer. The sixth column 'nSambRedFoxScats' is the number of red fox scats collected in each year that contained sambar deer. The seventh column 'SambFoxScatsPerc' is the percentage of red fox scats collected in each year that contained sambar deer. The eighth column 'SambDingoScatsPerc' is the percentage of red fox scats collected in each year that contained sambar deer

Data from: Functional responses of an apex predator and a mesopredator to an invading ungulate: Dingoes, red foxes and sambar deer in south-east Australia

Biological invasions by large herbivores involve the establishment of novel interactions with the receiving mammalian carnivore community, but understanding these interactions is difficult due to the large spatiotemporal scales at which such dynamics would occur. We quantified the functional responses of a native apex predator (the dingo (Canis familiaris), which includes wild dogs and their hybrids) and a non-native mesopredator (red fox; Vulpes vulpes) to an invading non-native ungulate (sambar deer; Cervus unicolor) in Australia. We predicted that the apex predator would exhibit a stronger functional response to increasing sambar deer abundance than the mesopredator. We used a state–space model to link two 30-year time series: (i) sambar deer abundance (hunter catch-per-unit-effort); and (ii) percentages of sambar deer in dingo (N = 4531) and fox (N = 5002) scats. Sambar deer abundance increased over fourfold during 1984–2013. The percentages of sambar deer in dingo and fox scats increased during this 30-year period, from nil in both species in 1984 to 8.2% in dingoes and 0.5% in foxes in 2013. Dingoes exhibited a much stronger functional response to increasing sambar deer abundance than foxes. The prediction that invading deer would be utilized more by the apex predator than by the mesopredator was therefore supported. The increasing abundance of sambar deer during the period 1984–2013 provided an increasingly important food source for dingoes. In contrast, the smaller red fox utilized sambar deer much less. Our study demonstrates that prey enrichment can be an important consequence of large herbivore invasions and that the effect varies predictably with the trophic position of the mammalian carnivores in the receiving community

Niche overlap (Pianka’s index; <i>O</i>_<i>jk</i>) and breadth (Levins’ standardised measure; <i>B</i>_<i>A</i>) of wild dog and fox diet in nine Victorian regions and all regions pooled, based on analysis of scats collected during 1983–2014.

<p>Niche overlap and breadth used data on frequency occurrence of eight diet categories: large mammal, medium mammal, small mammal, bird, reptile/amphibian, insect, other invertebrate and plant material). Sample sizes are provided in <a href="http://www.plosone.org/article/info:doi/10.1371/journal.pone.0120975#pone.0120975.t001" target="_blank">Table 1</a>.</p><p>Niche overlap (Pianka’s index; <i>O</i>_<i>jk</i>) and breadth (Levins’ standardised measure; <i>B</i>_<i>A</i>) of wild dog and fox diet in nine Victorian regions and all regions pooled, based on analysis of scats collected during 1983–2014.</p

The State of Victoria, south-eastern Australia.

<p>The nine Victorian regions defined by the Australian Government Bureau of Meteorology are: 1, Mallee; 2, Wimmera; 3, Northern Country; 4, North East; 5, East Gippsland; 6, West and South Gippsland; 7, Central; 8, North Central; and 9, South West.</p

Photographs demonstrating ecosystem variation within the State of Victoria: (a) semi-arid Mallee ecosystem (Photo: Mallee Fire and Biodiversity Project Team); (b) farmland (Photo: Jim Radford); (c) Box Ironbark forest (Photo: Andrew Bennett); (d) wet forest (Photo: Wiki commons).

<p>Photographs demonstrating ecosystem variation within the State of Victoria: (a) semi-arid Mallee ecosystem (Photo: Mallee Fire and Biodiversity Project Team); (b) farmland (Photo: Jim Radford); (c) Box Ironbark forest (Photo: Andrew Bennett); (d) wet forest (Photo: Wiki commons).</p

Mass (kg per scat) of large herbivore species in the diets of wild dogs and foxes in Victorian regions, based on analysis of scats collected during 1983–2014. Sample sizes are provided in Table 1.

<p>Mass (kg per scat) of large herbivore species in the diets of wild dogs and foxes in Victorian regions, based on analysis of scats collected during 1983–2014. Sample sizes are provided in Table <a href="http://www.plosone.org/article/info:doi/10.1371/journal.pone.0120975#pone.0120975.t001" target="_blank">1</a>.</p