Assessment of ecosystem services of an urbanized tropical estuary with a focus on habitats and scenarios

Tropical estuaries are one of the most valuable ecosystems on the planet because of the number of ecosystem services they provide. The increasing anthropogenic pressure to which these estuaries are subject has caused a reduction in their natural capital stock. Therefore, the application of a pragmatic and rational ecosystem-based management approach to sustainably manage the multiple ecosystem services provided by this ecosystem is necessary. The aim of our study is to present an approach that combines prospective scenarios with habitat-based perspective to assess the supply capacity of ecosystem services, plus determine the impact of protected areas in an urbanized tropical estuary. The current situation and two scenarios were generated to evaluate the capacity of habitats to supply ecosystem services. This type of assessment will allow the decision makers to visualize the effect of their choices or the occurrence of events which might produce significant changes in the estuary. Thus, over time, measures can be taken to sustain the supply of ecosystem services. We determined that the establishment of protected areas have a positive impact; however, the effect is not the same for all of them. Consequently, indicating that actions such as community participation, research, education, management planning and infrastructure development must accompany the development of a protected area

Oxygen: A Fundamental Property Regulating Pelagic Ecosystem Structure in the Coastal Southeastern Tropical Pacific

Background: In the southeastern tropical Pacific anchovy (Engraulis ringens) and sardine (Sardinops sagax) abundance have recently fluctuated on multidecadal scales and food and temperature have been proposed as the key parameters explaining these changes. However, ecological and paleoecological studies, and the fact that anchovies and sardines are favored differently in other regions, raise questions about the role of temperature. Here we investigate the role of oxygen in structuring fish populations in the Peruvian upwelling ecosystem that has evolved over anoxic conditions and is one of the world's most productive ecosystems in terms of forage fish. This study is particularly relevant given that the distribution of oxygen in the ocean is changing with uncertain consequences. Methodology/Principal Findings: A comprehensive data set is used to show how oxygen concentration and oxycline depth affect the abundance and distribution of pelagic fish. We show that the effects of oxygen on anchovy and sardine are opposite. Anchovy flourishes under relatively low oxygen conditions while sardine avoid periods/areas with low oxygen concentration and restricted habitat. Oxygen consumption, trophic structure and habitat compression play a fundamental role in fish dynamics in this important ecosystem. Conclusions/Significance: For the ocean off Peru we suggest that a key process, the need to breathe, has been neglected previously. Inclusion of this missing piece allows the development of a comprehensive conceptual model of pelagic fish populations and change in an ocean ecosystem impacted by low oxygen. Should current trends in oxygen in the ocean continue similar effects may be evident in other coastal upwelling ecosystems

Drivers of reef shark abundance and biomass in the Solomon Islands

Remote island nations face a number of challenges in addressing concerns about shark population status, including access to rigorously collected data and resources to manage fisheries. At present, very little data are available on shark populations in the Solomon Islands and scientific surveys to document shark and ray diversity and distribution have not been completed. We aimed to provide a baseline of the relative abundance and diversity of reef sharks and rays and assess the major drivers of reef shark abundance/biomass in the Western Province of the Solomon Islands using stereo baited remote underwater video. On average reef sharks were more abundant than in surrounding countries such as Fiji and Indonesia, yet below that of remote islands without historical fishing pressure, suggesting populations are relatively healthy but not pristine. We also assessed the influence of location, habitat type/complexity, depth and prey biomass on reef shark abundance and biomass. Location was the most important factor driving reef shark abundance and biomass with two times the abundance and a 43% greater biomass of reef sharks in the more remote locations, suggesting fishing may be impacting sharks in some areas. Our results give a much needed baseline and suggest that reef shark populations are still relatively unexploited, providing an opportunity for improved management of sharks and rays in the Solomon Islands

Characterization of Schistosome Tegumental Alkaline Phosphatase (SmAP)

Schistosomes are parasitic platyhelminths that currently infect over 200 million people globally. The parasites can live for years in a putatively hostile environment - the blood of vertebrates. We have hypothesized that the unusual schistosome tegument (outer-covering) plays a role in protecting parasites in the blood; by impeding host immunological signaling pathways we suggest that tegumental molecules help create an immunologically privileged environment for schistosomes. In this work, we clone and characterize a schistosome alkaline phosphatase (SmAP), a predicted ∼60 kDa glycoprotein that has high sequence conservation with members of the alkaline phosphatase protein family. The SmAP gene is most highly expressed in intravascular parasite life stages. Using immunofluorescence and immuno-electron microscopy, we confirm that SmAP is expressed at the host/parasite interface and in internal tissues. The ability of living parasites to cleave exogenous adenosine monophosphate (AMP) and generate adenosine is very largely abolished when SmAP gene expression is suppressed following RNAi treatment targeting the gene. These results lend support to the hypothesis that schistosome surface enzymes such as SmAP could dampen host immune responses against the parasites by generating immunosuppressants such as adenosine to promote their survival. This notion does not rule out other potential functions for the adenosine generated e.g. in parasite nutrition

Talaromyces atroroseus, a new species efficiently producing industrially relevant red pigments

Some species of Talaromyces secrete large amounts of red pigments. Literature has linked this character to species such as Talaromyces purpurogenus, T. albobiverticillius, T. marneffei, and T. minioluteus often under earlier Penicillium names. Isolates identified as T. purpurogenus have been reported to be interesting industrially and they can produce extracellular enzymes and red pigments, but they can also produce mycotoxins such as rubratoxin A and B and luteoskyrin. Production of mycotoxins limits the use of isolates of a particular species in biotechnology. Talaromyces atroroseus sp. nov., described in this study, produces the azaphilone biosynthetic families mitorubrins and Monascus pigments without any production of mycotoxins. Within the red pigment producing clade, T. atroroseus resolved in a distinct clade separate from all the other species in multigene phylogenies (ITS, β-tubulin and RPB1), which confirm its unique nature. Talaromyces atroroseus resembles T. purpurogenus and T. albobiverticillius in producing red diffusible pigments, but differs from the latter two species by the production of glauconic acid, purpuride and ZG-1494α and by the dull to dark green, thick walled ellipsoidal conidia produced. The type strain of Talaromyces atroroseus is CBS 133442

The Relative Role of Perceived Partner Risks in Promoting Condom Use in a Three-City Sample of High-Risk, Low-Income Women

We examined the effect of women’s perceptions of sexual partner risks on condom use. Women from three US cities (n = 1,967) were recruited to provide data on HIV risks. In univariate models, increased odds of condom use were associated with perceiving that partners had concurrent partners and being unaware of partners': (a) HIV status, (b) bisexuality, (c) concurrency; and/or (d) injection drug use. In multivariate models, neither being unaware of the four partner risk factors nor perceiving a partner as being high risk was associated with condom use. Contextual factors associated with decreased odds of condom use were having sex with a main partner, homelessness in the past year, alcohol use during sex, and crack use in the past 30 days. Awareness of a partner’s risks may not be sufficient for increasing condom use. Contextual factors, sex with a main partner in particular, decrease condom use despite awareness of partner risk factors

Applications of lignin in the agri-food industry

Of late, valorization of agri-food industrial by-products and their sustainable utilization is gaining much contemplation world-over. Globally, 'Zero Waste Concept' is promoted with main emphasis laid towards generation of minimal wastes and maximal utilization of plantbased agri-food raw materials. One of the wastes/by-products in the agri-food industry are the lignin, which occurs as lignocellulosic biomass. This biomass is deliberated to be an environmental pollutant as they offer resistance to natural biodegradation. Safe disposal of this biomass is often considered a major challenge, especially in low-income countries. Hence, the application of modern technologies to effectively reduce these types of wastes and maximize their potential use/applications is vital in the present day scenario. Nevertheless, in some of the high-income countries, attempts have been made to efficiently utilize lignin as a source of fuel, as a raw material in the paper industry, as a filler material in biopolymer based packaging and for producing bioethanol. However, as of today, agri-food industrial applications remains significantly underexplored. Chemically, lignin is heterogeneous, bio-polymeric, polyphenolic compound, which is present naturally in plants, providing mechanical strength and rigidity. Reports are available wherein purified lignin is established to possess therapeutic values; and are rich in antioxidant, anti-microbial, anti-carcinogenic, antidiabetic properties, etc. This chapter is divided into four sub-categories focusing on various technological aspects related to isolation and characterization of lignin; established uses of lignin; proved bioactivities and therapeutic potentials of lignin, and finally on identifying the existing research gaps followed by future recommendations for potential use from agri-food industrial wastes.Theme of this chapter is based on our ongoing project- Valortech, which has received funding from the European Union’s Horizon 2020 research and innovation program under grant agreement No 810630

Membrane-mediated interactions

Interactions mediated by the cell membrane between inclusions, such as membrane proteins or antimicrobial peptides, play important roles in their biological activity. They also constitute a fascinating challenge for physicists, since they test the boundaries of our understanding of self-assembled lipid membranes, which are remarkable examples of two-dimensional complex fluids. Inclusions can couple to various degrees of freedom of the membrane, resulting in different types of interactions. In this chapter, we review the membrane-mediated interactions that arise from direct constraints imposed by inclusions on the shape of the membrane. These effects are generic and do not depend on specific chemical interactions. Hence, they can be studied using coarse-grained soft matter descriptions. We deal with long-range membrane-mediated interactions due to the constraints imposed by inclusions on membrane curvature and on its fluctuations. We also discuss the shorter-range interactions that arise from the constraints on membrane thickness imposed by inclusions presenting a hydrophobic mismatch with the membrane.Comment: 38 pages, 10 figures, pre-submission version. In: Bassereau P., Sens P. (eds) Physics of Biological Membranes. Springer, Cha

Worldwide comparison of survival from childhood leukaemia for 1995–2009, by subtype, age, and sex (CONCORD-2): a population-based study of individual data for 89 828 children from 198 registries in 53 countries

Background Global inequalities in access to health care are reflected in differences in cancer survival. The CONCORD programme was designed to assess worldwide differences and trends in population-based cancer survival. In this population-based study, we aimed to estimate survival inequalities globally for several subtypes of childhood leukaemia. Methods Cancer registries participating in CONCORD were asked to submit tumour registrations for all children aged 0-14 years who were diagnosed with leukaemia between Jan 1, 1995, and Dec 31, 2009, and followed up until Dec 31, 2009. Haematological malignancies were defined by morphology codes in the International Classification of Diseases for Oncology, third revision. We excluded data from registries from which the data were judged to be less reliable, or included only lymphomas, and data from countries in which data for fewer than ten children were available for analysis. We also excluded records because of a missing date of birth, diagnosis, or last known vital status. We estimated 5-year net survival (ie, the probability of surviving at least 5 years after diagnosis, after controlling for deaths from other causes [background mortality]) for children by calendar period of diagnosis (1995-99, 2000-04, and 2005-09), sex, and age at diagnosis (< 1, 1-4, 5-9, and 10-14 years, inclusive) using appropriate life tables. We estimated age-standardised net survival for international comparison of survival trends for precursor-cell acute lymphoblastic leukaemia (ALL) and acute myeloid leukaemia (AML). Findings We analysed data from 89 828 children from 198 registries in 53 countries. During 1995-99, 5-year agestandardised net survival for all lymphoid leukaemias combined ranged from 10.6% (95% CI 3.1-18.2) in the Chinese registries to 86.8% (81.6-92.0) in Austria. International differences in 5-year survival for childhood leukaemia were still large as recently as 2005-09, when age-standardised survival for lymphoid leukaemias ranged from 52.4% (95% CI 42.8-61.9) in Cali, Colombia, to 91.6% (89.5-93.6) in the German registries, and for AML ranged from 33.3% (18.9-47.7) in Bulgaria to 78.2% (72.0-84.3) in German registries. Survival from precursor-cell ALL was very close to that of all lymphoid leukaemias combined, with similar variation. In most countries, survival from AML improved more than survival from ALL between 2000-04 and 2005-09. Survival for each type of leukaemia varied markedly with age: survival was highest for children aged 1-4 and 5-9 years, and lowest for infants (younger than 1 year). There was no systematic difference in survival between boys and girls. Interpretation Global inequalities in survival from childhood leukaemia have narrowed with time but remain very wide for both ALL and AML. These results provide useful information for health policy makers on the effectiveness of health-care systems and for cancer policy makers to reduce inequalities in childhood survival

Framingham cardiovascular disease risk scores and incident frailty:the English longitudinal study of ageing

Cross-sectional studies show that frailty is common in older people with cardiovascular disease. Whether older people at higher risk of developing cardiovascular disease are more likely to become frail is unclear. We used multinomial logistic regression to examine the prospective relation between Framingham cardiovascular disease risk scores and incidence of physical frailty or pre-frailty, defined according to the Fried criteria, in 1,726 men and women aged 60 to over 90 years from the English Longitudinal Study of Ageing who had no history of cardiovascular disease at baseline. Men and women with higher Framingham cardiovascular risk scores were more likely to become frail over the 4-year follow-up period. For a standard deviation higher score at baseline, the relative risk ratio (95 % confidence interval) for incident frailty, adjusted for sex and baseline frailty status, was 2.76 (2.18, 3.49). There was a significant association between Framingham cardiovascular risk score and risk of pre-frailty: 1.69 (1.46, 1.95). After further adjustment for other potential confounding factors, the relative risk ratios for frailty and pre-frailty were 2.15 (1.68, 2.75) and 1.50 (1.29, 1.74), respectively. The associations were unchanged after excluding incident cases of cardiovascular disease. Separate adjustment for each component of the risk score suggested that no single component was driving the associations between cardiovascular risk score and incident pre-frailty or frailty. Framingham cardiovascular risk scores may be useful for predicting the development of physical frailty in older people. We now need to understand the biological mechanisms whereby cardiovascular risk increases the risk of frailty