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Anti-Inflammatory and Anti-Thrombogenic Properties of Arterial Elastic Laminae

Elastic laminae, an elastin-based, layered extracellular matrix structure in the media of arteries, can inhibit leukocyte adhesion and vascular smooth muscle cell proliferation and migration, exhibiting anti-inflammatory and anti-thrombogenic properties. These properties prevent inflammatory and thrombogenic activities in the arterial media, constituting a mechanism for the maintenance of the structural integrity of the arterial wall in vascular disorders. The biological basis for these properties is the elastin-induced activation of inhibitory signaling pathways, involving the inhibitory cell receptor signal regulatory protein α (SIRPα) and Src homology 2 domain-containing protein tyrosine phosphatase 1 (SHP1). The activation of these molecules causes deactivation of cell adhesion- and proliferation-regulatory signaling mechanisms. Given such anti-inflammatory and anti-thrombogenic properties, elastic laminae and elastin-based materials have potential for use in vascular reconstruction

Habitat Selection of American Woodcock and Its Implications for Habitat Management Where Young Forests are Rare

American woodcock (Scolopax minor; hereafter woodcock) habitat use or selection has been studied extensively since the mid-1960s; most such studies, however, have taken place when and where young forest habitat selected by woodcock was relatively common. Woodcock population declines have been mostly attributed to loss of young forest vegetation types throughout the species’ range. Thus, understanding woodcock habitat selection and the benefits of habitat management in areas where young forests are rare is important in conserving woodcock and other wildlife that uses young forest. We conducted studies of male radio-tagged woodcock in Rhode Island, USA, when and where the extent of upland young forests in non-coastal areas comprised only 1.4% of the land area and was decreasing by ≥1.5% per year. We determined habitat selection of woodcock, then used the derived resource selection function to assess potential benefits of certain forest management scenarios for male woodcock and non-target birds. Landscapes comprising deciduous wetland forests, wetland young forests with nearby agricultural openings, or patches of upland young forest received relatively high use by woodcock. After integrating habitat management scenarios into GIS, our derived resource selection function suggested that creating fewer, larger patches of upland young forest and herbaceous forest openings may be less beneficial than creating more smaller patches. Openings with early-successional forest were an important component of woodcock habitat because they provided safe nighttime roost sites where mammalian predators were less active. These openings also provided habitat for a more diverse bird assemblage than unmanaged forests. Active habitat management is required to conserve woodcock populations in many landscapes, and managers should highlight the benefits of woodcock habitat management for non-target wildlife

Mobilizing Private Landowners to Create American Woodcock Habitat: Lessons Learned in Rhode Island, USA

Engaging private landowners in the conservation of American woodcock (Scolopax minor; hereafter, woodcock) in the northeastern United States is important because most forests in the region are privately owned. For this reason, a consortium of conservation agencies in the region has been encouraging private landowners to create young forest vegetation types. This study summarizes the achievements and lessons learned through 3 components of a collaborative outreach program as practiced in Rhode Island, USA since 2008: 1) providing technical and financial assistance to private landowners to support woodcock habitat creation, 2) developing a woodcock management demonstration area in the Great Swamp Wildlife Management Area to support research and landowner trainings, and 3) conducting research on landowner involvement in the creation of young forest. We found that the financial and technical assistance was an important factor motivating private landowners to create young forest. Furthermore, response to a follow-up questionnaire after our trainings was encouraging; 83% of the participants followed up with forest management on their own properties, and creation of young forest was the most common activity. The woodcock demonstration area strongly supported the training programs by allowing landowners to see regenerating clearcuts of 4 different ages in close proximity, and it was used as a research site to determine how woodcock selected certain-aged young forest patches. Our spatial analysis confirmed that the extent of young forest created in Rhode Island during the 7 years after 2004 was almost double the extent created during the previous 7 years, and that private landowners created more habitat than either government agencies or nongovernment organizations. We conclude that private landowners can play an important role in the conservation of woodcock, and recommend an expanded outreach program to mobilize them

Selecting the Very Best: The Selection of High-Level Judges in the United States, Europe and Asia

This paper has been prepared by Kirkland & Ellis LLP for the Due Process of Law Foundation (“DPLF”), an organization dedicated to promoting and strengthening the rule of law and the respect for human rights in the Americas. The goal is to provide further stimulus to the enhancement of due process and the rule of law in Latin America by encouraging the transparent, merit-based selection and appointment of competent, independent, and impartial judges. An independent and impartial judiciary is an essential precondition to the effective operation of the rule of law, with due process for all. This, in turn, is vital for the existence of democratic societies. In sum, there is no “perfect” model for selecting judges for the highest courts of a country. The results that will be obtained by any particular model are highly dependent on the political and social context of a country—or state. A method that works well in a particular country might not produce desirable results elsewhere, which is why an analysis of the local context is always an essential starting point. That said, the analyses of the strengths and weaknesses of the selection methods adopted in the United States and in various European and Asian countries may be instructive in assessing what might work for any country considering efforts to enhance the effectiveness of the operation of the rule of law in that country

Regulation of vascular signalling by nuclear Sprouty2 in fetal lung epithelial cells:Implications for co-ordinated airway and vascular branching in lung development

This work was supported by a Wellcome Trust project grant 088032/Z/08/Z to SCL.Sprouty2 (Spry2) acts as a central regulator of tubular growth and branch patterning in the developing mammalian lung by controlling both magnitude and duration of growth factor signalling. To determine if this protein coordinates airway and vascular growth factor signalling, we tested the hypothesis that Spry2 links the primary cue for airway outgrowth, fibroblast growth factor-10 (FGF-10), to genomic events underpinning the expression and release of vascular endothelial growth factor-A (VEGF-A). Using primary fetal distal lung epithelial cells (FDLE) from rat, and immortalised human bronchial epithelial cells (16HBE14o-), we identified a nuclear sub-population of Spry2 which interacted with regions of the rat and human VEGF-A promoter spanning the hypoxia response element (HRE) and adjacent 3′ sites. In FDLE cultured at the PO2 of the fetal lung, FGF-10 relieved the Spry2 interaction at the HRE region by promoting clearance of a 39 kDa form and this was accompanied by histone-3 S10K14 phosphoacetylation, promoter de-methylation, hypoxia inducible factor-1α activation and VEGF-A expression. This repressive characteristic of nuclear Spry2 was relieved in 16HBE14o- by shRNA knockdown, and stable expression of mutants (C218A; C221A) that do not interact with the VEGF-A promoter HRE region. We conclude that nuclear Spry2 acts as a molecular link which co-ordinates airway and vascular growth of the cardiopulmonary system. This identifies Spry2 as a contributing determinant of design optimality in the mammalian lung.Publisher PDFPeer reviewe

The Effects of E-Cigarette Taxes on E-Cigarette Prices and Tobacco Product Sales: Evidence from Retail Panel Data

We explore the effect of e-cigarette taxes enacted through 2017 in eight states and two large counties on e-cigarette prices, e-cigarette sales, and sales of other tobacco products. We use the Nielsen Retail Scanner data for the years 2011 to 2017, comprising approximately 35,000 retailers nationally. We calculate a Herfindahl–Hirschman Index of 0.251 for retail-based purchases of e-cigarettes, indicating high market concentration. We estimate a tax-to-price pass-through of 1.55 (p \u3c 0.01) and an e-cigarette own-price elasticity of -2.6 (p \u3c 0.01) for the average e-cigarette tax. We also estimate a positive cross-price elasticity of demand for e-cigarettes and traditional cigarettes of roughly 1.1 for the average tax, suggesting that e-cigarettes and traditional cigarettes are economic substitutes. Our results suggest that higher e-cigarette taxes would increase e-cigarette prices and reduce e-cigarette sales, with an unintended effect of increasing traditional cigarette sales. We simulate that for every one standard e-cigarette pod (a device that contains liquid nicotine in e-cigarettes) of 0.7 ml no longer purchased as a result of an e-cigarette tax, the same tax increases traditional cigarettes purchased by 6.2 extra packs

Aortic Remodeling Kinetics in Response to Coarctation-Induced Mechanical Perturbations

Background: Coarctation of the aorta (CoA; constriction of the proximal descending thoracic aorta) is among the most common congenital cardiovascular defects. Coarctation-induced mechanical perturbations trigger a cycle of mechano-transduction events leading to irreversible precursors of hypertension including arterial thickening, stiffening, and vasoactive dysfunction in proximal conduit arteries. This study sought to identify kinetics of the stress-mediated compensatory response leading to these alterations using a preclinical rabbit model of CoA. Methods: A prior growth and remodeling (G&R) framework was reformulated and fit to empirical measurements from CoA rabbits classified into one control and nine CoA groups of various severities and durations (n = 63, 5–11/group). Empirical measurements included Doppler ultrasound imaging, uniaxial extension testing, catheter-based blood pressure, and wire myography, yielding the time evolution of arterial thickening, stiffening, and vasoactive dysfunction required to fit G&R constitutive parameters. Results: Excellent agreement was observed between model predictions and observed patterns of arterial thickening, stiffening, and dysfunction among all CoA groups. For example, predicted vascular impairment was not significantly different from empirical observations via wire myography (p-value \u3e 0.13). Specifically, 48% and 45% impairment was observed in smooth muscle contraction and endothelial-dependent relaxation, respectively, which were accurately predicted using the G&R model. Conclusions: The resulting G&R model, for the first time, allows for prediction of hypertension precursors at neonatal ages that is currently challenging to examine in preclinical models. These findings provide a validated computational tool for prediction of persistent arterial dysfunction and identification of revised severity–duration thresholds that may ultimately avoid hypertension from CoA

Why woodcock commute: testing the foraging-benefit and predation-risk hypotheses

Moving between sites is a common behavior employed by prey in order to balance trade-offs associated with acquiring resources and avoiding predators. At dusk during summer, American woodcock frequently fly from diurnal coverts in forests to nocturnal roost fields. We tested 2 hypotheses, the foraging-benefit hypothesis and predation-risk hypothesis, to determine the benefit gained by woodcock that commute. We used telemetry to identify the diurnal coverts and nocturnal roost fields used by woodcock in Rhode Island, USA, during 2 summers. At each site, we measured the availability and diversity of woodcock prey, soil properties, and mammalian predator activity. Earthworms were 3-4 times more abundant at diurnal coverts than nocturnal roost fields. The richness and diversity of woodcock foods was greater at diurnal coverts during 2011 but similar between sites during 2012. Soil moisture content was about 1.5 times greater at diurnal coverts, whereas other soil properties were similar between sites. At night, mammalian predators visited diurnal coverts more frequently than nocturnal roost fields for 73% of the woodcock we monitored during 2011. During 2012, the number of days until initial predator visit was 1.8 times greater at nocturnal roost fields. Our results provide the first empirical support for the predation-risk hypothesis. During summer, woodcock fly from diurnal coverts to nocturnal roost fields to avoid predators and not to feed