Spatially explicit poisoning risk affects survival rates of an obligate scavenger

Obligate scavengers such as vultures provide critical ecosystem services and their populations have undergone severe declines in Asia and Africa. Intentional poisoning is a major threat to vultures in Africa, yet the impact on vulture populations of where poisoned carcasses are positioned is not known. We used re-sightings of 183 African white-backed vultures captured and tagged in two regions of South Africa, some 200 km apart, to estimate spatial differences in relative survival rates across life stages. Juvenile survival rates were similar in the two regions, whilst subadult and adult survival rates differed significantly. Using agent-based modelling, we show that this pattern of relative survival rates is consistent between regions that differ in intensity of poisoning, despite the proximity of the two regions. This may have important consequences for vulture conservation and the targeting of conservation efforts, particularly with regard to the efficacy of “vulture safe zones” around vulture breeding populations

Renal artery stenosis-when to screen, what to stent?

Renal artery stensosis (RAS) continues to be a problem for clinicians, with no clear consensus on how to investigate and assess the clinical significance of stenotic lesions and manage the findings. RAS caused by fibromuscular dysplasia is probably commoner than previously appreciated, should be actively looked for in younger hypertensive patients and can be managed successfully with angioplasty. Atheromatous RAS is associated with increased incidence of cardiovascular events and increased cardiovascular mortality, and is likely to be seen with increasing frequency. Evidence from large clinical trials has led clinicians away from recommending interventional revascularisation towards aggressive medical management. There is now interest in looking more closely at patient selection for intervention, with focus on intervening only in patients with the highest-risk presentations such as flash pulmonary oedema, rapidly declining renal function and severe resistant hypertension. The potential benefits in terms of improving hard cardiovascular outcomes may outweigh the risks of intervention in this group, and further research is needed

Metabolic Engineering of Potato Carotenoid Content through Tuber-Specific Overexpression of a Bacterial Mini-Pathway

BACKGROUND: Since the creation of “Golden Rice”, biofortification of plant-derived foods is a promising strategy for the alleviation of nutritional deficiencies. Potato is the most important staple food for mankind after the cereals rice, wheat and maize, and is extremely poor in provitamin A carotenoids. METHODOLOGY: We transformed potato with a mini-pathway of bacterial origin, driving the synthesis of beta-carotene (Provitamin A) from geranylgeranyl diphosphate. Three genes, encoding phytoene synthase (CrtB), phytoene desaturase (CrtI) and lycopene beta-cyclase (CrtY) from Erwinia, under tuber-specific or constitutive promoter control, were used. 86 independent transgenic lines, containing six different promoter/gene combinations, were produced and analyzed. Extensive regulatory effects on the expression of endogenous genes for carotenoid biosynthesis are observed in transgenic lines. Constitutive expression of the CrtY and/or CrtI genes interferes with the establishment of transgenosis and with the accumulation of leaf carotenoids. Expression of all three genes, under tuber-specific promoter control, results in tubers with a deep yellow (“golden”) phenotype without any adverse leaf phenotypes. In these tubers, carotenoids increase approx. 20-fold, to 114 mcg/g dry weight and beta-carotene 3600-fold, to 47 mcg/g dry weight. CONCLUSIONS: This is the highest carotenoid and beta-carotene content reported for biofortified potato as well as for any of the four major staple foods (the next best event being “Golden Rice 2”, with 31 mcg/g dry weight beta-carotene). Assuming a beta-carotene to retinol conversion of 6∶1, this is sufficient to provide 50% of the Recommended Daily Allowance of Vitamin A with 250 gms (fresh weight) of “golden” potatoes

Common etiological architecture underlying reward responsiveness, externally driven eating behaviors, and BMI in childhood: findings from the Gemini twin cohort

BACKGROUND: Studies have reported that impulsivity predicts childhood BMI and that the association is mediated by eating behaviors. One aspect of impulsivity-potentially crucial in the obesity context-is reward responsiveness, which may predispose to responsiveness to palatable food cues. The behavioral susceptibility theory hypothesizes that genetic susceptibility to obesity operates partly via genetically determined differences in appetite regulation. Reward responsiveness may therefore be one of the neuro-endophenotypes that mediates genetic susceptibility to obesity. OBJECTIVE: To test whether reward responsiveness, eating behaviors, and child BMI share common genetic architecture. METHODS: We examined reward responsiveness, eating behaviors, and BMI in 5-year-old children from Gemini, a UK birth cohort of 2402 twin pairs born in 2007. All measures were collected by parent report. Reward responsiveness was derived from the Behavioral Approach System. Compulsion to eat and eating for pleasure was measured with the "food responsiveness" scale of the Child Eating Behavior Questionnaire. Wanting to eat in response to environmental food cues was measured with the "external eating" scale of the Dutch Eating Behavior Questionnaire. Maximum-likelihood structural equation modeling was used to establish underlying common genetic and environmental influences. RESULTS: There were significant positive phenotypic correlations between all traits except for reward responsiveness and BMI. Genetic factors explained the majority of the association between food responsiveness and external eating (74%, 95% CI: 61, 87), whereas common shared environmental factors explained the majority of the associations between reward responsiveness with both food responsiveness (55%, 95% CI: 20, 90) and external eating (70%, 95% CI: 39, 100). CONCLUSIONS: Our study demonstrates the importance of common environmental factors in the shared etiology between reward responsiveness and childhood eating behaviors. However, the common etiology underlying both reward responsiveness and BMI is unclear, as there was no phenotypic correlation between reward responsiveness and BMI at this age. Further longitudinal research needs to detangle this complex relationship throughout development

The relationship between appetite and food preferences in British and Australian children

Background: Appetitive traits and food preferences are key determinants of children’s eating patterns but it is unclear how these behaviours relate to one another. This study explores relationships between appetitive traits and preferences for fruits and vegetables, and energy dense, nutrient poor (noncore) foods in two distinct samples of Australian and British preschool children. Methods: This study reports secondary analyses of data from families participating in the British GEMINI cohort study (n = 1044) and the control arm of the Australian NOURISH RCT (n = 167). Food preferences were assessed by parent-completed questionnaire when children were aged 3–4 years and grouped into three categories; vegetables, fruits and noncore foods. Appetitive traits; enjoyment of food, food responsiveness, satiety responsiveness, slowness in eating, and food fussiness were measured using the Children’s Eating Behaviour Questionnaire when children were 16 months (GEMINI) or 3–4 years (NOURISH). Relationships between appetitive traits and food preferences were explored using adjusted linear regression analyses that controlled for demographic and anthropometric covariates. Results: Vegetable liking was positively associated with enjoyment of food (GEMINI; β = 0.20 ± 0.03, p < 0.001, NOURISH; β = 0.43 ± 0.07, p < 0.001) and negatively related to satiety responsiveness (GEMINI; β = -0.19 ± 0.03, p < 0.001, NOURISH; β = -0.34 ± 0.08, p < 0.001), slowness in eating (GEMINI; β = -0.10 ± 0.03, p = 0.002, NOURISH; β = -0.30 ± 0.08, p < 0.001) and food fussiness (GEMINI; β = −0.30 ± 0.03, p < 0.001, NOURISH; β = -0.60 ± 0.06, p < 0.001). Fruit liking was positively associated with enjoyment of food (GEMINI; β = 0.18 ± 0.03, p < 0.001, NOURISH; β = 0.36 ± 0.08, p < 0.001), and negatively associated with satiety responsiveness (GEMINI; β = −0.13 ± 0.03, p < 0.001, NOURISH; β = −0.24 ± 0.08, p = 0.003), food fussiness (GEMINI; β = -0.26 ± 0.03, p < 0.001, NOURISH; β = −0.51 ± 0.07, p < 0.001) and slowness in eating (GEMINI only; β = -0.09 ± 0.03, p = 0.005). Food responsiveness was unrelated to liking for fruits or vegetables in either sample but was positively associated with noncore food preference (GEMINI; β = 0.10 ± 0.03, p = 0.001, NOURISH; β = 0.21 ± 0.08, p = 0.010). Conclusion: Appetitive traits linked with lower obesity risk were related to lower liking for fruits and vegetables, while food responsiveness, a trait linked with greater risk of overweight, was uniquely associated with higher liking for noncore foods

Intolerance of uncertainty and mental wellbeing: serial mediation by rumination and fear of COVID-19

The novel coronavirus-2019 (COVID-19) pandemic has become globally widespread with millions of confirmed cases and many countries implementing various levels of quarantine. Therefore, it is important to investigate the psychological consequences of this process, given the unique situation that has been experienced globally. Therefore, the present study examined whether intolerance of uncertainty was related to mental wellbeing and whether this relationship was mediated by rumination and fear of COVID-19. The sample comprised 1772 Turkish individuals (aged between 18 and 73 years) from 79 of 81 cities in Turkey, who completed measures of mental wellbeing, intolerance of uncertainty, rumination, and fear of COVID-19. Results of serial mediation analyses showed that intolerance of uncertainty had a significant direct effect on mental wellbeing. Rumination and fear of COVID-19, in combination, serially mediated the association between intolerance of uncertainty and mental wellbeing. The findings are discussed within the framework of the psychological consequences of the COVID-19 pandemic and related literature

An investigation of the mechanisms for strength gain or loss of geopolymer mortar after exposure to elevated temperature

When fly ash-based geopolymer mortars were exposed to a temperature of 800 °C, it was found that the strength after the exposure sometimes decreased, but at other times increased. This paper shows that ductility of the mortars has a major correlation to this strength gain/loss behaviour. Specimens prepared with two different fly ashes, with strengths ranging from 5 to 60 MPa, were investigated. Results indicate that the strength losses decrease with increasing ductility, with even strength gains at high levels of ductility. This correlation is attributed to the fact that mortars with high ductility have high capacity to accommodate thermal incompatibilities. It is believed that the two opposing processes occur in mortars: (1) further geopolymerisation and/or sintering at elevated temperatures leading to strength gain; (2) the damage to the mortar because of thermal incompatibility arising from non-uniform temperature distribution. The strength gain or loss occurs depending on the dominant process

Becoming original: effects of strategy instruction

Visual arts education focuses on creating original visual art products. A means to improve originality is enhancement of divergent thinking, indicated by fluency, flexibility and originality of ideas. In regular arts lessons, divergent thinking is mostly promoted through brainstorming. In a previous study, we found positive effects of an explicit instruction of metacognition on fluency and flexibility in terms of the generation of ideas, but not on the originality of ideas. Therefore, we redesigned the instruction with a focus on building up knowledge about creative generation strategies by adding more complex types of association, and adding generation through combination and abstraction. In the present study, we examined the effects of this intervention by comparing it with regular brainstorming instruction. In a pretest-posttest control group design, secondary school students in the comparison condition received the brainstorm lesson and students in the experimental condition received the newly developed instruction lesson. To validate the effects, we replicated this study with a second cohort. The results showed that in both cohorts the strategy instruction of 50 min had positive effects on students' fluency, flexibility and originality. This study implies that instructional support in building up knowledge about creative generation strategies may improve students' creative processes in visual arts education