An analysis of perceived prominent decision making areas in commercial Springbuck (Antidorcas marsupialis) production decision making

The development of the highly individualistic commercial springbuck (Antidorcas marsupialis) production systems and the resulting growth in the commercial value of the springbuck has opened a new realm of game management decision making. These relatively undomesticated production systems demand sophisticated technical and preference decisions in an effort to reconcile ecological, commercial and management principles and practices into efficient production units. This paper endeavours to identify and define the relative prominence of different decision making areas in commercial springbuck production decision making, using qualitative and quantitative techniques associated with phenomenological studies. Overall indications are that a clear understanding exists that different challenges (of achieving perceived optimum efficiency) attract different sets of decisions. The array of decision making areas subjectively associated with the achievement of perceived optimum efficiency suggests the complexity of the decision making process in commercial springbuck production systems. A major need for research and information generation and distribution (extension) concerning the effects of herd structure and management on commercial springbuck production is identified. Keywords: Game ranch management, decision making, risk perception, springbuck.South African Journal of Agricultural Extension Vol. 36 (1) 2007: pp. 249-26

Regulation and Function of the Caspase-1 in an Inflammatory Microenvironment.

The inflammasome is a complex of proteins that has a critical role in mounting an inflammatory response in reply to a harmful stimulus that compromises the homeostatic state of the tissue. The NLRP3 inflammasome, which is found in a wound-like environment, is comprised of three components: the NLRP3, the adaptor protein ASC and caspase-1. Interestingly, although ASC levels do not fluctuate, caspase-1 levels are elevated in both physiological and pathological conditions. Despite the observation that merely raising caspase-1 levels is sufficient to induce inflammation, the crucial question regarding the mechanism governing its expression is unexplored. We found that, in an inflammatory microenvironment, caspase-1 is regulated by NF-κB. Consistent with this association, the inhibition of caspase-1 activity parallels the effects on wound healing caused by the abrogation of NF-κB activation. Surprisingly, not only does inhibition of the NF-κB/caspase-1 axis disrupt the inflammatory phase of the wound-healing program, but it also impairs the stimulation of cutaneous epithelial stem cells of the proliferative phase. These data provide a mechanistic basis for the complex interplay between different phases of the wound-healing response in which the downstream signaling activity of immune cells can kindle the amplification of local stem cells to advance tissue repair

Developing cardiac and skeletal muscle share fast-skeletal myosin heavy chain and cardiac troponin-I expression

Skeletal muscle derived stem cells (MDSCs) transplanted into injured myocardium can differentiate into fast skeletal muscle specific myosin heavy chain (sk-fMHC) and cardiac specific troponin-I (cTn-I) positive cells sustaining recipient myocardial function. We have recently found that MDSCs differentiate into a cardiomyocyte phenotype within a three-dimensional gel bioreactor. It is generally accepted that terminally differentiated myocardium or skeletal muscle only express cTn-I or sk-fMHC, respectively. Studies have shown the presence of non-cardiac muscle proteins in the developing myocardium or cardiac proteins in pathological skeletal muscle. In the current study, we tested the hypothesis that normal developing myocardium and skeletal muscle transiently share both sk-fMHC and cTn-I proteins. Immunohistochemistry, western blot, and RT-PCR analyses were carried out in embryonic day 13 (ED13) and 20 (ED20), neonatal day 0 (ND0) and 4 (ND4), postnatal day 10 (PND10), and 8 week-old adult female Lewis rat ventricular myocardium and gastrocnemius muscle. Confocal laser microscopy revealed that sk-fMHC was expressed as a typical striated muscle pattern within ED13 ventricular myocardium, and the striated sk-fMHC expression was lost by ND4 and became negative in adult myocardium. cTn-I was not expressed as a typical striated muscle pattern throughout the myocardium until PND10. Western blot and RT-PCR analyses revealed that gene and protein expression patterns of cardiac and skeletal muscle transcription factors and sk-fMHC within ventricular myocardium and skeletal muscle were similar at ED20, and the expression patterns became cardiac or skeletal muscle specific during postnatal development. These findings provide new insight into cardiac muscle development and highlight previously unknown common developmental features of cardiac and skeletal muscle. © 2012 Clause et al

Variational Methods for Biomolecular Modeling

Structure, function and dynamics of many biomolecular systems can be characterized by the energetic variational principle and the corresponding systems of partial differential equations (PDEs). This principle allows us to focus on the identification of essential energetic components, the optimal parametrization of energies, and the efficient computational implementation of energy variation or minimization. Given the fact that complex biomolecular systems are structurally non-uniform and their interactions occur through contact interfaces, their free energies are associated with various interfaces as well, such as solute-solvent interface, molecular binding interface, lipid domain interface, and membrane surfaces. This fact motivates the inclusion of interface geometry, particular its curvatures, to the parametrization of free energies. Applications of such interface geometry based energetic variational principles are illustrated through three concrete topics: the multiscale modeling of biomolecular electrostatics and solvation that includes the curvature energy of the molecular surface, the formation of microdomains on lipid membrane due to the geometric and molecular mechanics at the lipid interface, and the mean curvature driven protein localization on membrane surfaces. By further implicitly representing the interface using a phase field function over the entire domain, one can simulate the dynamics of the interface and the corresponding energy variation by evolving the phase field function, achieving significant reduction of the number of degrees of freedom and computational complexity. Strategies for improving the efficiency of computational implementations and for extending applications to coarse-graining or multiscale molecular simulations are outlined.Comment: 36 page

Interrogating Institutionalized Establishments: Urban-Rural Inequalities in China’s Higher Education

postprin

Anti-Allergic Cromones Inhibit Histamine and Eicosanoid Release from Activated Human and Murine Mast Cells by Releasing Annexin A1

PMCID: PMC3601088This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License, which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original author and source are credited

Molecular characterisation of protist parasites in human-habituated mountain gorillas (Gorilla beringei beringei), humans and livestock, from Bwindi impenetrable National Park, Uganda

Over 60 % of human emerging infectious diseases are zoonotic, and there is growing evidence of the zooanthroponotic transmission of diseases from humans to livestock and wildlife species, with major implications for public health, economics, and conservation. Zooanthroponoses are of relevance to critically endangered species; amongst these is the mountain gorilla (Gorilla beringei beringei) of Uganda. Here, we assess the occurrence of Cryptosporidium, Cyclospora, Giardia, and Entamoeba infecting mountain gorillas in the Bwindi Impenetrable National Park (BINP), Uganda, using molecular methods. We also assess the occurrence of these parasites in humans and livestock species living in overlapping/adjacent geographical regions

Effectiveness of Carboplatin and Paclitaxel as First- and Second-Line Treatment in 61 Patients with Metastatic Melanoma

BACKGROUND: Patients with metastatic melanoma have a very unfavorable prognosis with few therapeutic options. Based on previous promising experiences within a clinical trial involving carboplatin and paclitaxel a series of advanced metastatic melanoma patients were treated with this combination. METHODS: Data of all patients with cutaneous metastatic melanoma treated with carboplatin and paclitaxel (CP) at our institution between October 2005 and December 2007 were retrospectively evaluated. For all patients a once-every-3-weeks dose-intensified regimen was used. Overall and progression free survival were calculated using the method of Kaplan and Meier. Tumour response was evaluated according to RECIST criteria. RESULTS: 61 patients with cutaneous metastatic melanoma were treated with CP. 20 patients (85% M1c) received CP as first-line treatment, 41 patients (90.2% M1c) had received at least one prior systemic therapy for metastatic disease. Main toxicities were myelosuppression, fatigue and peripheral neuropathy. Partial responses were noted in 4.9% of patients, stable disease in 23% of patients. No complete response was observed. Median progression free survival was 10 weeks. Median overall survival was 31 weeks. Response, progression-free and overall survival were equivalent in first- and second-line patients. 60 patients of 61 died after a median follow up of 7 months. Median overall survival differed for patients with controlled disease (PR+SD) (49 weeks) compared to patients with progressive disease (18 weeks). CONCLUSIONS: Among patients with metastatic melanoma a subgroup achieved disease control under CP therapy which may be associated with a survival benefit. This potential advantage has to be weighed against considerable toxicity. Since response rates and survival were not improved in previously untreated patients compared to pretreated patients, CP should thus not be applied as first-line treatment

Expedition 382 Preliminary Report: Iceberg Alley and Subantarctic Ice and Ocean Dynamics

This is the final version. Available from International Ocean Discovery Program via the DOI in this record. International Ocean Discovery Program (IODP) Expedition 382, Iceberg Alley and Subantarctic Ice and Ocean Dynamics, investigated the long-term climate history of Antarctica, seeking to understand how polar ice sheets responded to changes in insolation and atmospheric CO2 in the past and how ice sheet evolution influenced global sea level and vice versa. Five sites (U1534–U1538) were drilled east of the Drake Passage: two sites at 53.2°S at the northern edge of the Scotia Sea and three sites at 57.4°–59.4°S in the southern Scotia Sea. We recovered continuously deposited late Neogene sediment to reconstruct the past history and variability in Antarctic Ice Sheet (AIS) mass loss and associated changes in oceanic and atmospheric circulation. The sites from the southern Scotia Sea (Sites U1536–U1538) will be used to study the Neogene flux of icebergs through “Iceberg Alley,” the main pathway along which icebergs calved from the mar- gin of the AIS travel as they move equatorward into the warmer wa- ters of the Antarctic Circumpolar Current (ACC). In particular, sediments from this area will allow us to assess the magnitude of iceberg flux during key times of AIS evolution, including the following: • The middle Miocene glacial intensification of the East Antarctic Ice Sheet, • The mid-Pliocene warm period, • The late Pliocene glacial expansion of the West Antarctic Ice Sheet, • The mid-Pleistocene transition (MPT), and • The “warm interglacials” and glacial terminations of the last 800 ky. We will use the geochemical provenance of iceberg-rafted detritus and other glacially eroded material to determine regional sources of AIS mass loss. We will also address interhemispheric phasing of ice sheet growth and decay, study the distribution and history of land-based versus marine-based ice sheets around the continent over time, and explore the links between AIS variability and global sea level. By comparing north–south variations across the Scotia Sea be- tween the Pirie Basin (Site U1538) and the Dove Basin (Sites U1536 and U1537), Expedition 382 will also deliver critical information on how climate changes in the Southern Ocean affect ocean circulation through the Drake Passage, meridional overturning in the region, water mass production, ocean–atmosphere CO2 transfer by wind- induced upwelling, sea ice variability, bottom water outflow from the Weddell Sea, Antarctic weathering inputs, and changes in oceanic and atmospheric fronts in the vicinity of the ACC. Comparing changes in dust proxy records between the Scotia Sea and Antarctic ice cores will also provide a detailed reconstruction of changes in the Southern Hemisphere westerlies on millennial and orbital timescales for the last 800 ky. Extending the ocean dust record beyond the last 800 ky will help to evaluate dust-climate couplings since the Pliocene, the potential role of dust in iron fertilization and atmospheric CO2 drawdown during glacials, and whether dust input to Antarctica played a role in the MPT. The principal scientific objective of Subantarctic Front Sites U1534 and U1535 at the northern limit of the Scotia Sea is to recon- struct and understand how ocean circulation and intermediate water formation responds to changes in climate with a special focus on the connectivity between the Atlantic and Pacific basins, the “cold water route.” The Subantarctic Front contourite drift, deposited between 400 and 2000 m water depth on the northern flank of an east–west trending trough off the Chilean continental shelf, is ideally situated to monitor millennial- to orbital-scale variability in the export of Antarctic Intermediate Water beneath the Subantarctic Front. During Expedition 382, we recovered continuously deposited sediments from this drift spanning the late Pleistocene (from ~0.78 Ma to recent) and from the late Pliocene (~3.1–2.6 Ma). These sites are expected to yield a wide array of paleoceanographic records that can be used to interpret past changes in the density structure of the Atlantic sector of the Southern Ocean, track migrations of the Sub- antarctic Front, and give insights into the role and evolution of the cold water route over significant climate episodes, including the following: • The most recent warm interglacials of the late Pleistocene and • The intensification of Northern Hemisphere glaciation.National Science Foundatio

Functional Structure of Biological Communities Predicts Ecosystem Multifunctionality

The accelerating rate of change in biodiversity patterns, mediated by ever increasing human pressures and global warming, demands a better understanding of the relationship between the structure of biological communities and ecosystem functioning (BEF). Recent investigations suggest that the functional structure of communities, i.e. the composition and diversity of functional traits, is the main driver of ecological processes. However, the predictive power of BEF research is still low, the integration of all components of functional community structure as predictors is still lacking, and the multifunctionality of ecosystems (i.e. rates of multiple processes) must be considered. Here, using a multiple-processes framework from grassland biodiversity experiments, we show that functional identity of species and functional divergence among species, rather than species diversity per se, together promote the level of ecosystem multifunctionality with a predictive power of 80%. Our results suggest that primary productivity and decomposition rates, two key ecosystem processes upon which the global carbon cycle depends, are primarily sustained by specialist species, i.e. those that hold specialized combinations of traits and perform particular functions. Contrary to studies focusing on single ecosystem functions and considering species richness as the sole measure of biodiversity, we found a linear and non-saturating effect of the functional structure of communities on ecosystem multifunctionality. Thus, sustaining multiple ecological processes would require focusing on trait dominance and on the degree of community specialization, even in species-rich assemblages