Impacts of a South African coastal golf estate on shrubland bird communities

Golf courses and estates are one form of development threatening coastal vegetation in South Africa's Cape Floristic Region. They occupy substantial tracts of land, fragmenting indigenous vegetation. This study investigates the effects on bird community structure and function of replacing natural Strandveld vegetation with a 170-ha golf estate in which 46 ha of Strandveld vegetation was retained in conditions ranging from pristine to moderately degraded. Bird assemblages of the remaining Strandveld patches in the golf estate were compared with those of an adjacent Strandveld conservation area. Field work was conducted during the birds' breeding season, in October and November 2005. The golf estate was more species rich overall, but many species were uncommon, several were present only as a consequence of the creation of new habitats, and species were not evenly distributed across the remaining Strandveld fragments. Bird diversity and abundance were significantly higher in the adjacent conservation area. It is estimated that more than 8500 individual birds were displaced by construction of the golf estate and four Strandveld species were not represented at all within the estate. Within the estate, species richness rose with increasing Strandveld patch size and the minimum area of continuous pristine vegetation required to maintain the natural species assemblage was estimated at 51 ha. The golf estate was characterized by a high proportion of generalist and granivorous species, but at the cost of reduced numbers of frugivores and nectarivores. Energy flow through the bird communities in the two areas was thus markedly different, and pollination and fruit dispersal potential within the golf estate were reduced substantially. Golf courses and golf estates inevitably will not substitute for the natural habitats they have replaced, but careful design with input from ecological theory can reduce the adverse effects of fragmentation

Staying in place during times of change in Arctic Alaska: The implications of attachment,alternatives, and buffering

The relationship between stability and change in social-ecological systems has received considerable attention in recent years, including the expectation that significant environmental changes will drive observable consequences for individuals, communities, and populations. Migration, as one example of response to adverse economic or environmental changes, has been observed in many places, including parts of the Far North. In Arctic Alaska, a relative lack of demographic or migratory response to rapid environmental and other changes has been observed. To understand why Arctic Alaska appears different, we draw on the literature on environmentally driven migration, focusing on three mechanisms that could account for the lack of response: attachment, the desire to remain in place, or the inability to relocate successfully; alternatives, ways to achieve similar outcomes through different means; and buffering, the reliance on subsidies or use of reserves to delay impacts. Each explanation has different implications for research and policy, indicating a need to further explore the relative contribution that each makes to a given situation in order to develop more effective responses locally and regionally. Given that the Arctic is on the front lines of climate change, these explanations are likely relevant to the ways changes play out in other parts of the world. Our review also underscores the importance of further attention to the details of social dynamics in climate change impacts and responses

Neither phylogenomic nor palaeontological data support a Palaeogene origin of placental mammals.

O'Leary et al. (O'Leary et al. 2013 Science 339, 662-667. (doi:10.1126/science.1229237)) performed a fossil-only dating analysis of mammals, concluding that the ancestor of placentals post-dated the Cretaceous-Palaeogene boundary, contradicting previous palaeontological and molecular studies that placed the ancestor in the Cretaceous. They incorrectly used fossil ages as species divergence times for crown groups, while in fact the former should merely form minimum-age bounds for the latter. Statistical analyses of the fossil record have shown that crown groups are significantly older than the oldest ingroup fossil, so that fossils do not directly reflect the true ages of clades. Here, we analyse a 20 million nucleotide genome-scale alignment in conjunction with a probabilistic interpretation of the fossil ages from O'Leary et al. Our combined analysis of fossils and molecules demonstrates that Placentalia originated in the Cretaceous.This work was financially supported by BBSRC grant no. BB/J009709/1

Votes at 16: democracy experts respond to Ed Miliband’s proposal

Ed Miliband used his speech to the Labour Party conference this week to announce his support for lowering the voting age to 16 for all UK elections. This follows the decision to allow 16- and 17-year-olds to vote in the Scottish independence referendum. In this post, Democratic Audit asks leading experts and practitioners to respond to Miliband’s proposal

The Virtual Computing Environment

A network of supercomputers and high-performance workstations appears to be the only reasonable way to provide adequate computing resources for the Grand Challenge problems of the next century. Such a collection of computers and supporting software environments is called a virtual computing environment (VCE). This paper describes the motivation and goals of the VCE project, followed by a description of the system. The paper concentrates on the runtime aspects of the VCE, and concludes with a discussion of a small prototype system that has been built using the Isis distributed toolkit

Habitat availability explains variation in climate-driven range shifts across multiple taxonomic groups

Range shifting is vital for species persistence, but there is little consensus on why individual species vary so greatly in the rates at which their ranges have shifted in response to recent climate warming. Here, using 40 years of distribution data for 291 species from 13 invertebrate taxa in Britain, we show that interactions between habitat availability and exposure to climate change at the range margins explain up to half of the variation in rates of range shift. Habitat generalists expanded faster than more specialised species, but this intrinsic trait explains less of the variation in range shifts than habitat availability, which additionally depends on extrinsic factors that may be rare or widespread at the range margin. Similarly, while climate change likely underlies polewards expansions, we find that more of the between-species variation is explained by differences in habitat availability than by changes in climatic suitability. A model that includes both habitat and climate, and their statistical interaction, explains the most variation in range shifts. We conclude that climate-change vulnerability assessments should focus as much on future habitat availability as on climate sensitivity and exposure, with the expectation that habitat restoration and protection will substantially improve species' abilities to respond to uncertain future climates

Primary Sjögren's Syndrome: health experiences and predictors of health quality among patients in the United States

<p>Abstract</p> <p>Objective</p> <p>To assess the health related quality of life of patients with primary Sjögren's Syndrome (PSS) in a large US sample.</p> <p>Methods</p> <p>Questionnaires were mailed to 547 patients with a confirmed diagnosis of PSS (PhysR-PSS) and all active members of the Sjögren's Syndrome Foundation USA (SSF-PSS), half of whom identified a friend without PSS to also complete the survey.</p> <p>Results</p> <p>277 PhysR-PSS patients were compared to 606 controls. The mean age was 62 years in the PhysR-PSS group and 61 years in the control group. 90% in both groups were women. Time from first symptom to diagnosis of PSS was a mean of 7 years. Sicca related morbidity, fatigue severity, depression and pain (assessed by validated questionnaires, PROFAD-SSI, FACIT-F, CES-D, BPI) were significantly greater, and all eight SF-36 domains were significantly diminished, in patients compared to controls. Somatic fatigue was the dominant predictor of physical function and of general health. Depression was the dominant predictor of emotional well being. Health care utilization was higher in patients than controls, including out of pocket dental expenses (mean: PhysR-PSS = $1473.3, controls =$503.6), dental visits (mean: PhysR-PSS = 4.0, controls = 2.3), current treatments (mean: PhysR-PSS = 6.6, controls = 2.5), and hospitalizations (53% PhysR-PSS, vs. 40% controls).</p> <p>Conclusion</p> <p>Diminished health quality and excess health costs are prevalent among PSS patients. Health experiences and functional impact of PSS is similar among US and European patients. Delayed diagnosis, sicca related morbidity, fatigue, pain and depression are substantial suggesting unmet health needs and the importance of earlier recognition of PSS.</p

Re-engineering the Functions of a Terminally Differentiated Epithelial Cell in Vivo

Because of their easy access, and important role in oral homeostasis, mammalian salivary glands provide a unique site for addressing key issues and problems in tissue engineering. This manuscript reviews studies by us in three major directions involving re-engineering functions of salivary epithelial cells. Using adenoviral-mediated gene transfer in vivo , we show approaches to i) repair damaged, hypofunctional glands and ii) redesign secretory functions to include endocrine as well as exocrine pathways. The third series of studies show our general approach to develop an artificial salivary gland for clinical situations in which all glandular tissue has been lost.Peer Reviewedhttp://deepblue.lib.umich.edu/bitstream/2027.42/72101/1/j.1749-6632.1999.tb08512.x.pd

Visual ratings of atrophy in MCI: prediction of conversion and relationship with CSF biomarkers.

Medial temporal lobe atrophy (MTA) and cerebrospinal fluid (CSF) markers of Alzheimer's disease (AD) pathology may aid the early detection of AD in mild cognitive impairment (MCI). However, the relationship between structural and pathological markers is not well understood. Furthermore, while posterior atrophy (PA) is well recognized in AD, its value in predicting conversion from late-onset amnestic MCI to AD is unclear. In this study we used visual ratings of MTA and PA to assess their value in predicting conversion to AD in 394 MCI patients. The relationship of atrophy patterns with CSF Aβ1-42, tau, and p-tau(181) was further investigated in 114 controls, 192 MCI, and 99 AD patients. There was a strong association of MTA ratings with conversion to AD (p < 0.001), with a weaker association for PA ratings (p = 0.047). Specific associations between visual ratings and CSF biomarkers were found; MTA was associated with lower levels of Aβ1-42 in MCI, while PA was associated with elevated levels of tau in MCI and AD, which may reflect widespread neuronal loss including posterior regions. These findings suggest both that posterior atrophy may predict conversion to AD in late-onset MCI, and that there may be differential relationships between CSF biomarkers and regional atrophy patterns

Long-term safety of secukinumab in patients with moderate-to-severe plaque psoriasis, psoriatic arthritis, and ankylosing spondylitis: integrated pooled clinical trial and post-marketing surveillance data.

BACKGROUND: Secukinumab, a fully human immunoglobulin G1-kappa monoclonal antibody that directly inhibits interleukin (IL)-17A, has been shown to have robust efficacy in the treatment of moderate-to-severe psoriasis (PsO), psoriatic arthritis (PsA), and ankylosing spondylitis (AS) demonstrating a rapid onset of action and sustained long-term clinical responses with a consistently favorable safety profile in multiple Phase 2 and 3 trials. Here, we report longer-term pooled safety and tolerability data for secukinumab across three indications (up to 5 years of treatment in PsO and PsA; up to 4 years in AS). METHODS: The integrated clinical trial safety dataset included data pooled from 21 randomized controlled clinical trials of secukinumab 300 or 150 or 75 mg in PsO (14 Phase 3 trials and 1 Phase 4 trial), PsA (3 Phase 3 trials), and AS (3 Phase 3 trials), along with post-marketing safety surveillance data with a cut-off date of June 25, 2017. Adverse events (AEs) were reported as exposure-adjusted incident rates (EAIRs) per 100 patient-years. Analyses included all patients who received ≥ 1 dose of secukinumab. RESULTS: A total of 5181, 1380, and 794 patients from PsO, PsA, and AS clinical trials representing secukinumab exposures of 10,416.9, 3866.9, and 1943.1 patient-years, respectively, and post-marketing data from patients with a cumulative exposure to secukinumab of ~ 96,054 patient-years were included in the analysis. The most frequent AE was upper respiratory tract infection. EAIRs across PsO, PsA, and AS indications were generally low for serious infections (1.4, 1.9, and 1.2, respectively), Candida infections (2.2, 1.5, and 0.7, respectively), inflammatory bowel disease (0.01, 0.05, and 0.1, respectively), and major adverse cardiac events (0.3, 0.4, and 0.6, respectively). No cases of tuberculosis reactivation were reported. The incidence of treatment-emergent anti-drug antibodies was low with secukinumab across all studies, with no discernible loss of efficacy, unexpected alterations in pharmacokinetics, or association with immunogenicity-related AEs. CONCLUSIONS: Secukinumab demonstrated a favorable safety profile over long-term treatment in patients with PsO, PsA, and AS. This comprehensive assessment demonstrated that the safety profile of secukinumab was consistent with previous reports in patients with PsO, PsA, and AS, supporting its long-term use in these chronic conditions