Are anthropogenic factors affecting nesting habitat of sea turtles? The case of Kanzul beach, Riviera Maya-Tulum (Mexico)

Marine coast modification and human pressure affects many species, including sea turtles. In order to study nine anthropogenic impacts that might affect nesting selection of females, incubation and hatching survival of loggerhead (Caretta caretta) and green turtle (Chelonia mydas), building structures were identified along a 5.2 km beach in Kanzul (Mexico). A high number of hotels and houses (88; 818 rooms), with an average density of 16.6 buildings per kilometer were found. These buildings form a barrier which prevents reaching the beach from inland, resulting in habitat fragmentation. Main pressures were detected during nesting selection (14.19% of turtle nesting attempts interrupted), and low impact were found during incubation (0.77%) and hatching (4.7%). There were three impacts defined as high: beach furniture that blocks out the movement of hatchlings or females, direct pressure by tourists, and artificial beachfront lighting that can potentially mislead hatchlings or females. High impacted areas showed lowest values in nesting selection and hatching success. Based on our results, we suggest management strategies to need to be implemented to reduce human pressure and to avoid nesting habitat loss of loggerhead and green turtle in Kanzul, Mexico

A Deep Learning Model for Pancreatic Ductal Adenocarcinoma Chemotherapy Outcome Prediction

Color poster with text, images, and charts.Pancreatic Ductal Adenocarcinoma (PDAC) is an aggressive abdominal malignancy, with an overall 8.5% 5-year survival rate. PDAC is often detected too late for surgical resection and associated with resistance to chemotherapy and radiation. Morphological characteristics of PDAC tumors can be extracted from CT scans and are associated with tumor characteristics and behavior. In this research, a deep-learning system for predicting chemotherapy outcome based on CT scans is being explored. To establish the foundation for this system, a comparative analysis between 2D-UNet and 3D-UNet has been performed. Experiments reveal 2D-UNet model to have higher accuracy in pancreas segmentation. To increase prediction accuracy, the effects of novel data augmentation techniques, including window level and cropping, have been utilized. By establishing techniques for standardizing CT scans from different datasets and using a flexible segmentation model, we aim to create a pipeline for pancreas segmentation followed by tumor extraction and staging using texture analysis.University of Wisconsin--Eau Claire Office of Research and Sponsored Program

Measurement of ERK 1/2 in CSF from patients with neuropsychiatric disorders and evidence for the presence of the activated form

The clinical diagnosis of neurodegenerative disorders can be supported by soluble biomarkers in cerebrospinal fluid (CSF), such as tau protein, phospho-tau, and amyloid-beta peptides. In particular, increased CSF levels of phospho-tau in Alzheimer's disease appear to reflect disease specific pathological processes. We report here evidence for the presence of soluble MAP-kinase ERK1/2 in a small set of human CSF samples from patients with Alzheimer's disease, frontotemporal degeneration, and mild cognitive impairment. The level of total ERK1/2 in CSF as measured by electrochemiluminescent assay was correlated with that of total tau and phospho-tau. A small fraction of ERK1/2 in a pooled CSF sample was found to be in the doubly phosphorylated (activated) state. Our findings suggest that i) MAP kinase ERK1/2 is apparently released under neurodegenerative conditions in parallel with tau and phospho-tau and ii) in the future, it might be possible to find in CSF samples evidence for disease related alterations in brain kinase signaling pathways by use of highly sensitive and activation-state specific anti-kinase antibodies

Soluble amyloid precursor proteins in the cerebrospinal fluid as novel potential biomarkers of Alzheimer's disease: a multicenter study

In this report, we present the results of a multicenter study to test analytic and diagnostic performance of soluble forms of amyloid precursor proteins {alpha} and {beta} (sAPP{alpha} and sAPP{beta}) in the cerebrospinal fluid (CSF) of patients with different forms of dementing conditions. CSF samples were collected from 188 patients with early dementia (mini-mental state examination >or=20 in majority of cases) and mild cognitive impairment (MCI) in 12 gerontopsychiatric centers, and the clinical diagnoses were supported by neurochemical dementia diagnostic (NDD) tools: CSF amyloid{beta} peptides, Tau and phospho-Tau. sAPP{alpha} and sAPP{beta} were measured with multiplexing method based on electrochemiluminescence. sAPP{alpha} and sAPP{beta} CSF concentrations correlated with each other with very high correlation ratio (R=0.96, P<0.001). We observed highly significantly increased sAPP{alpha} and sAPP{beta} CSF concentrations in patients with NDD characteristic for Alzheimer's disease (AD) compared to those with NDD negative results. sAPP{alpha} and sAPP{beta} highly significantly separated patients with AD, whose diagnosis was supported by NDD findings (sAPP{alpha}: cutoff, 117.4 ng ml(-1), sensitivity, 68%, specificity, 85%, P<0.001; sAPP{beta}: cutoff, 181.8 ng ml(-1), sensitivity, 75%, specificity, 85%, P<0.001), from the patients clinically assessed as having other dementias and supported by NDD untypical for AD. We conclude sAPP{alpha} and sAPP{beta} might be regarded as novel promising biomarkers supporting the clinical diagnosis of AD