Estimating moose population parameters from aerial surveys

Successful moose management depends on knowledge of population dynamics. The principal parameters required are size, rate of change, recruitment, sex composition, and mortality. Moose management in Alaska has been severely hampered by the lack of good estimates of these parameters, and unfortunately, this lack contributed to the decline of many Alaskan moose populations during the 1970s (e.g., Gasaway et al. 1983). The problems were: (1) population size not adequately estimated, (2) rapid rates of decline not acknowledged until populations were low, (3) meaningful recruitment rates were not available in the absence of good population estimates, and (4) calf and adult mortality rates were grossly underestimated. Frustration of moose managers working with inadequate data led to development of aerial survey procedures that yield minimally biased, sufficiently precise estimates of population parameters for most Alaskan moose management and research. This manual describes these procedures. Development of these procedures would have been impossible without the inspiration, support, advice, and criticism of many colleagues. We thank these colleagues for their contributions. Dale Haggstrom and Dave Kelleyhouse helped develop flight patterns, tested and improved early sampling designs, and as moose managers, put these procedures into routine use. Pilots Bill Lentsch and Pete Haggland were instrumental in developing and testing aerial surveying techniques. Their interest and dedication to improving moose management made them valuable allies. Statisticians Dana Thomas of the University of Alaska and W. Scott Overton of Oregon State University provided advice on variance approximations for the population estimator. Warren Ballard, Sterling Miller, SuzAnne Miller, Doug Larsen, and Wayne Kale tested procedures and provided valuable criticisms and suggestions. Jim Raymond initially programmed a portable calculator to make lengthy calculation simple, fast, and error-free. Angie Babcock, Lisa Ingalls, Vicky Leffingwell, and Laura McManus patiently typed several versions of this manual. John Coady and Oliver Burris provided continuous moral and financial support for a 3-year project that lasted 6 years. Joan Barnett, Rodney Boetje, Steven Peterson, and Wayne Regelin of the Alaska Department of Fish and Game provided helpful editorial suggestions in previous drafts. Finally, we thank referees David Anderson of the Utah Cooperative Wildlife Research Unit, Vincent Schultz of Washington State University, and James Peek, E. "Oz" Garton, and Mike Samuel of the University of Idaho whose comments and suggestions improved this manual. This project was funded by the Alaska Department of Fish and Game through Federal Aid in Wildlife Restoration Projects W-17-9 through W-22-1

Cognitive Change during the Life Course and Leukocyte Telomere Length in Late Middle-Aged Men

AbstractImportance: Cognitive skills are known to decline through the lifespan with large individual differences. The molecular mechanisms for this decline are incompletely understood. Although leukocyte telomere length provides an index of cellular age that predicts the incidence of age-related diseases, it is unclear whether there is an association between cognitive decline and leukocyte telomere length. Objective: To examine the association between changes in cognitive function during adult life and leukocyte telomere length after adjusting for confounding factors such as education, mental health and life style. Design, setting and participants: Two groups of men with negative (n=97) and positive (n=93) change in cognitive performance were selected from a birth cohort of 1985 Danish men born in 1953. Cognitive performance of each individual was assessed at age ~20 and ~56 years. Leukocyte telomere length at age ~58 was measured using qPCR. Linear regression models were used to investigate the association between cognitive function and leukocyte telomere length. Results: Men with negative change in cognitive performance during adult life had significantly shorter mean leukocyte telomere length than men with positive change in cognitive performance (unadjusted difference β= - 0.09, 95% CI -0.16 - -0.02, p= 0.02). This association remained significant after adjusting for smoking, alcohol consumption, leisure time activity, body mass index and cholesterol (adjusted difference β= -0.09, 95% CI -0.17 - -0.01, p= 0.02) but was nonsignificant after adjusting for smoking, alcohol consumption, leisure time activity, body mass index cholesterol, current cognitive function, depression and education (adjusted difference β= -0.07, 95% CI -0.16 - -0.01, p= 0.08). Conclusion and relevance: Preclinical cognitive changes may be associated with leukocyte telomere length

The risk‐taking channel in the United States : A GVAR approach

Using a panel of large U.S. banks, we examine banks' risk‐taking behaviour in response to monetary policy shocks. Our investigation provides support for the presence of a risk‐taking channel: banks' non‐performing loans increase in the medium to long‐run following an expansionary monetary policy shock. We also find that banks' capital structure plays an important role in explaining bank's risk‐taking appetite. Impulse response analysis shows that shocks emanating from larger banks spill over to the rest of the sector but no such effect is observed for smaller banks. These findings are confirmed for banks' Z‐score

An unusual case of low-grade tubulopapillary adenocarcinoma of the sinonasal tract

<p>Abstract</p> <p>Background</p> <p>Low-grade papillary adenocarcinomas of the sinonasal tract are rare neoplasms. Over recent years, little doubt remains that this tumour represents a separate entity based on morphology, ultrastructural features and behaviour. We outline a case of this rare entity displaying a not hitherto described immunophenotype.</p> <p>Case presentation</p> <p>A 32 year old man presented recurrent epistaxis was evaluated with endoscopy which revealed a well circumscribed pedunculated mass lesion in left nares. The mass was arising from the nasal septum which was excised along with the mass. The biopsy revealed low-grade, non-intestinal type sinonasal tubulopapillary adenocarcinoma.</p> <p>Conclusion</p> <p>TTF-1 immunoreactivity in absence of thyroid or pulmonary primary in the present case remains an enigma. However, this raises the possibility of the utility of this antibody to predict a better clinical outcome in the subset of low grade non-intestinal sinonasal adenocarcinoma. More cases of similar morphological appearance may need to be examined for TTF-1 immunoreactivity and clinically followed up to establish this theory.</p

International Guillain-Barré Syndrome Outcome Study (IGOS): protocol of a prospective observational cohort study on clinical and biological predictors of disease course and outcome in Guillain-Barré syndrome

Guillain-Barré syndrome (GBS) is an acute polyradiculoneuropathy with a highly variable clinical presentation, course, and outcome. The factors that determine the clinical variation of GBS are poorly understood which complicates the care and treatment of individual patients. The protocol of the ongoing International GBS Outcome Study (IGOS), a prospective, observational, multi-centre cohort study that aims to identify the clinical and biological determinants and predictors of disease onset, subtype, course and outcome of GBS is presented here. Patients fulfilling the diagnostic criteria for GBS, regardless of age, disease severity, variant forms, or treatment, can participate if included within two weeks after onset of weakness. Information about demography, preceding infections, clinical features, diagnostic findings, treatment, course and outcome is collected. In addition, cerebrospinal fluid and serial blood samples for serum and DNA is collected at standard time points. The original aim was to include at least 1000 patients with a follow-up of 1-3 years. Data are collected via a web-based data entry system and stored anonymously. IGOS started in May 2012 and by January 2017 included more than 1400 participants from 143 active centres in 19 countries across 5 continents. The IGOS data/biobank is available for research projects conducted by expertise groups focusing on specific topics including epidemiology, diagnostic criteria, clinimetrics, electrophysiology, antecedent events, antibodies, genetics, prognostic modelling, treatment effects and long-term outcome of GBS. The IGOS will help to standardize the international collection of data and biosamples for future research of GBS. ClinicalTrials.gov Identifier: NCT01582763

Genetic Association of Multiple Sclerosis with the Marker rs391745 near the Endogenous Retroviral Locus HERV-Fc1: Analysis of Disease Subtypes

We have previously described the occurrence of multiple sclerosis (MS) to be associated with human endogenous retroviruses, specifically the X-linked viral locus HERV-Fc1. The aim of this study was to investigate a possible association of the HERV-Fc1 locus with subtypes of MS. MS patients are generally subdivided into three categories: Remitting/Relapsing and Secondary Progressive, which together constitute Bout Onset MS, and Primary Progressive. In this study of 1181 MS patients and 1886 controls we found that Bout Onset MS was associated with the C-allele of the marker rs391745 near the HERV-Fc1 locus (p = 0.003), while primary progressive disease was not. The ability to see genetic differences between subtypes of MS near this gene speaks for the involvement of the virus HERV-Fc1 locus in modifying the disease course of MS

Honeybee Colony Vibrational Measurements to Highlight the Brood Cycle

Insect pollination is of great importance to crop production worldwide and honey bees are amongst its chief facilitators. Because of the decline of managed colonies, the use of sensor technology is growing in popularity and it is of interest to develop new methods which can more accurately and less invasively assess honey bee colony status. Our approach is to use accelerometers to measure vibrations in order to provide information on colony activity and development. The accelerometers provide amplitude and frequency information which is recorded every three minutes and analysed for night time only. Vibrational data were validated by comparison to visual inspection data, particularly the brood development. We show a strong correlation between vibrational amplitude data and the brood cycle in the vicinity of the sensor. We have further explored the minimum data that is required, when frequency information is also included, to accurately predict the current point in the brood cycle. Such a technique should enable beekeepers to reduce the frequency with which visual inspections are required, reducing the stress this places on the colony and saving the beekeeper time

EFNS guidelines on the molecular diagnosis of ataxias and spastic paraplegias

Background and purpose:  These EFNS guidelines on the molecular diagnosis of neurogenetic disorders are designed to provide practical help for the general neurologist to make appropriate use of molecular genetics in diagnosing neurogenetic disorders.Methods:  Literature searches were performed before expert members of the task force wrote proposals, which were discussed in detail until final consensus had been reached among all task force members.Results and conclusion:  This paper provides updated guidelines for molecular diagnosis of two particularly complex groups of disorders, the ataxias and spastic paraplegias. Possibilities and limitations of molecular genetic diagnosis of these disorders are evaluated and recommendations are provided

Urine cadmium and acute myocardial infarction among never smokers in the Danish Diet, Cancer and Health cohort

Cadmium exposure has been associated with cardiovascular disease. Cigarette smoking is a key source of cadmium exposure and thus a potential confounder in observational studies of environmental cadmium and cardiovascular disease that include tobacco smokers. We leveraged up to 20 years of follow-up in the Danish Diet, Cancer and Health cohort to test the hypothesis that cadmium exposure is associated with acute myocardial infarction (AMI) among people who never smoked. Between 1993–1997, 19,394 never-smoking participants (ages 50–64 years) were enrolled and provided a urine sample. From this sample, we randomly selected a subcohort of 600 males and 600 females. We identified 809 AMI cases occurring between baseline and the end of 2015 using the Danish National Patient Registry. We quantified cadmium, creatinine, and osmolality in baseline urine samples. Using an unweighted case-cohort approach, we estimated adjusted hazard ratios (aHR) for AMI in Cox proportional hazards models with age as the time axis. Participants had relatively low concentrations of urinary cadmium, as expected for never smokers (median = 0.20; 25(th), 75(th) = 0.13, 0.32 μg cadmium/g creatinine). We did not find strong evidence to support an association between higher urinary cadmium and AMI when comparing the upper versus lowest quartile (aHR = 1.16; 95% CI: 0.86 – 1.56) and per IQR increment in cadmium concentration (aHR = 1.02; 95% CI: 0.93 – 1.12). Results were not materially different across strata defined by sex. Results were generally similar using creatinine or osmolality to account for differences in urine dilution. While cadmium exposure has been identified as a risk factor for cardiovascular disease, we did not find strong evidence that urinary cadmium at relatively low-levels is associated with AMI among people who have never smoked