Winter Habitat Use by Wolves, Canis lupus, in Relation to Forest Harvesting in West-central Alberta

Forested landscapes in west-central Alberta are facing increased pressures from forest harvesting and other land-use activities, which may alter the movements and distribution of Wolves and ungulates. Information on habitat use by Wolves in logged forests is scarce, potentially limiting effective land-use planning in the boreal forest. Nine Wolves, from four Wolf packs, were fitted with GPS radiocollars in the Rocky Mountain foothills, near Grande Cache, Alberta (2000-2001). We found Wolves did not use the landscape randomly, but rather exhibited a significant preference for non-forested natural habitats (shrubs, water), relative to their availability. Within forest habitats, Wolves used cutblocks proportionately more than unharvested forest and non-forested anthropogenic habitats (pipelines, clearings); however, selection of forest cutblocks was not statistically significant. We found no evidence that Wolves preferred or avoided forest cutblock edges. Wolf pack territories contained various levels of timber harvesting, but most areas were still in the early stages of harvest. Nevertheless, these areas have been allocated for large-scale harvesting. Understanding the potential responses of Wolves to rapidly changing landscape mosaics poses a significant challenge to researchers and managers, but such information is important to informing future land-management and conservation strategies for boreal forest Wolf-prey systems

Travel Rates of Wolves, Canis lupus, in Relation to Ungulate Kill Sites in Westcentral Alberta

Recent advancements in Global Positioning Systems (GPS) radiocollar technology permit analysis of fine-scale animal movements. We used concurrent aerial and GPS monitoring to determine winter travel rates of Wolves (Canis lupus) in relation to ungulate kill sites in managed forest landscapes in westcentral Alberta. Wolves preyed predominately on Moose (Alces alces) and travelled 4.2 times less when near ungulate kill sites than when away from them. As Wolves are thought to be an important factor in Woodland Caribou (Rangifer tarandus caribou) declines, information is needed to assess predation risk to Caribou from Wolves under a variety of landscape conditions. If Wolves have restricted movements near Moose kill sites, this may lead to decreased encounter rates with Caribou in systems where Moose are abundant. Deer (Odocoileus spp.) are probably an important component of this Wolf-prey system but little is currently known about this relationship. Projecting long-term implications of ongoing development activities requires a more detailed understanding of the responses of all species to landscape change

Pack Size of Wolves, Canis lupus, on Caribou, Rangifer tarandus, Winter Ranges in Westcentral Alberta

We studied pack size of Wolves (Canis lupus) on Woodland Caribou (Rangifer tarandus caribou) winter ranges in westcentral Alberta. These Caribou winter ranges are experiencing increasing pressure from resource extraction industries (forestry, energy sector) and concerns have been raised regarding increased Wolf predation pressure on Caribou in conjunction with landscape change. Thirty-one Wolves, from eight Wolf packs, were fitted with radiocollars on two Caribou winter ranges in the Rocky Mountain foothills, near Grande Cache, Alberta (2000-2001). There was a mean of 8.2 Wolves/pack and between 30 and 39 Wolves on each of the RedRock/Prairie Creek and Little Smoky Caribou ranges. The average pack size of Wolves in this region does not appear to have increased over that recorded historically, but the range (5-18) in the number of Wolves per pack varied considerably over our study area. Wolves preyed predominately on Moose (Alces alces), averaging one Moose kill every three to five days. There was some indication that pack size was related to prey size, with the smallest pack preying on Deer (Odocoileus spp.). It was clear that Caribou could not be the primary prey for Wolves, due to their low numbers, and relative to the pack size and Wolf kills we observed

Results of NOPHO ALL2008 treatment for patients aged 1-45 years with acute lymphoblastic leukemia

Adults with acute lymphoblastic leukemia (ALL) do worse than children. From 7/2008 to 12/2014, Nordic and Baltic centers treated 1509 consecutive patients aged 1-45 years with Philadelphia chromosome-negative ALL according to the NOPHO ALL2008 without cranial irradiation. Overall, 1022 patients were of age 1-9 years (A), 266 were 10-17 years (B) and 221 were 18-45 years (C). Sixteen patients (three adults) died during induction. All others achieved remission after induction or 1-3 intensive blocks. Subsequently, 45 patients (12 adults) died, 122 patients relapsed (32 adults) with a median time to relapse of 1.6 years and 13 (no adult) developed a second malignancy. Median follow-up time was 4.6 years. Among the three age groups, older patients more often had higher risk ALL due to T-ALL (32%/25%/9%, PPeer reviewe

Long-term results of NOPHO ALL-92 and ALL-2000 studies of childhood acute lymphoblastic leukemia

To access publisher full text version of this article. Please click on the hyperlink in Additional Links fieldAnalysis of 2668 children with acute lymphoblastic leukemia (ALL) treated in two successive Nordic clinical trials (Nordic Society of Paediatric Haematology and Oncology (NOPHO) ALL-92 and ALL-2000) showed that 75% of all patients are cured by first-line therapy, and 83% are long-term survivors. Improvements in systemic and intrathecal chemotherapy have reduced the use of central nervous system (CNS) irradiation to <10% of the patients and provided a 5-year risk of isolated CNS relapse of 2.6%. Improved risk stratification and chemotherapy have eliminated the previous independent prognostic significance of gender, CNS leukemia and translocation t(1;19)(q23;p13), whereas the post-induction level of minimal residual disease (MRD) has emerged as a new risk grouping feature. Infant leukemia, high leukocyte count, T-lineage immunophenotype, translocation t(4;11)(q21;q23) and hypodiploidy persist to be associated with lower cure rates. To reduce the overall toxicity of the treatment, including the risk of therapy-related second malignant neoplasms, the current NOPHO ALL-2008 protocol does not include CNS irradiation in first remission, the dose of 6-mercaptopurine is reduced for patients with low thiopurine methyltransferase activity, and the protocol restricts the use of hematopoietic stem cell transplantation in first remission to patients without morphological remission after induction therapy or with high levels of MRD after 3 months of therapy

Dic(9;20)(p13;q11) in childhood acute lymphoblastic leukaemia is related to low cellular resistance to asparaginase, cytarabine and corticosteroids.

To access publisher full text version of this article. Please click on the hyperlink in Additional Links fieldDic(9;20)(p13;q11) was first described as a nonrandom chromosome abnormality in B-cell precursor acute lymphoblastic leukaemia (BCP ALL) in the mid 1990s,1, 2 and 71 dic(9;20)-positive cases have since then been reported.3, 4, 5 Approximately 90% of these cases were children or adolescents, with dic(9;20) occurring in about 2% of childhood BCP ALL.6 The recent review by Forestier et al.5 describes that dic(9;20)-leukaemias are of B-cell precursor immunophenotype, never have a high hyperdiploid modal number, show a female predominance, and have a significant age incidence peak at 3 years. Most patients are allocated to non-standard risk treatment arms due to high WBC (median 24 109/l) and a relatively high frequency of CNS disease or other extra-medullary leukaemia (EML) at diagnosis. The prognostic implications of dic(9;20) are to a large extent unknown. A relatively large proportion of the relapses reported in the literature have been extra-medullary, and post-relapse treatment including block therapy has been successful in several patients, as illustrated by a p-EFS of 0.62 and a predicted overall survival of 0.82 at 5 years for the 24 Nordic cases.

On behalf of the Nordic Society of Paediatric Haematology and Oncology (NOPHO)

Myelotoxicity during thiopurine therapy is enhanced in patients, who because of single nucleotide polymorphisms have decreased activity of the enzyme thiopurine methyltransferase (TPMT) and thus more thiopurine converted into 6-thioguanine nucleotides. Of 601 children with acute lymphoblastic leukemia (ALL) who were treated by the NOPHO ALL-92 protocol, 117 had TPMT genotype determined, whereas for 484 patients only erythrocyte TPMT activity was available. The latter were classified as heterozygous, if TPMT activity was o14 IU/ ml, or deficient (o1.0 IU/ml). 526 patients had TPMT wild type, 73 were presumed heterozygous, and two were TPMT deficient. Risk of relapse was higher for the 526 TPMT wild type patients than for the remaining 75 patients (18 vs 7%, P ¼ 0.03). In cox multivariate regression analysis, sex (male worse; P ¼ 0.06), age (higher age worse, P ¼ 0.02), and TPMT activity (wild type worse; P ¼ 0.02) were related to risk of relapse. Despite a lower probability of relapse, patients in the low TPMT activity group did not have superior survival (P ¼ 0.82), possibly because of an excess of secondary cancers among these 75 patients (P ¼ 0.07). These data suggest that children with ALL and TPMT wild type might have their cure rate improved, if the pharmacokinetics/-dynamics of TPMT low-activity patients could be mimicked without a concurrent excessive risk of second cancers

Drug metabolizing enzyme activities versus genetic variances for drug of clinical pharmacogenomic relevance

Enzymes are critically important in the transportation, metabolism, and clearance of most therapeutic drugs used in clinical practice today. Many of these enzymes have significant genetic polymorphisms that affect the enzyme's rate kinetics. Regarding drug metabolism, specific polymorphisms to the cytochrome (CYP) P450 enzyme family are linked to phenotypes that describe reaction rates as "ultra", "intermediate", and "poor," as referenced to "extensive" metabolizers that are assigned to wildtype individuals. Activity scores is an alternate designation that provides more genotype-to-phenotype resolution. Understanding the relative change in enzyme activities or rate of clearance of specific drugs relative to an individual's genotypes is an important component in the interpretation of pharmacogenomic data for personalized medicine. Currently, the most relevant drug metabolizing enzymes are CYP 2D6, CYP 2C9, CYP 2C19, thiopurine methyltransferase (TPMT) and UDP-glucuronosyltransferase (UGT). Each of these enzymes is reactive to a host of different drug substrates. Pharmacogenomic tests that are in routine clinical practice include CYP 2C19 for clopidogrel, TPMT for thiopurine drugs, and UDP-1A1 for irinotecan. Other tests where there is considerable data but have not been widely implemented includes CYP 2C9 for warfarin, CYP 2D6 for tamoxifen and codeine, and CYP 2C19 for the proton pump inhibitors

Marked reduction in fertility among African women with urogenital infections:A prospective cohort study

<div><p>Background</p><p>There is paucity of data on risk factors for reduced fertility in low-income countries.</p><p>Objective</p><p>To investigate factors associated with fertility among women in rural north eastern Tanzania.</p><p>Subjects and methods</p><p>A cohort of 1248 non-pregnant women was followed with urine pregnancy testing every third month or more regularly if they reported a missed menstrual period. Pregnancy was confirmed with trans-abdominal ultrasound. Information regarding general health, socioeconomic status and obstetric-gynaecological history was collected. Factors associated with conceiving within 180 days were identified using multivariate logistic regression analyses.</p><p>Results</p><p>Among the 1248 women, 736 were followed for 180 days and 209 of these had an ultrasound confirmed pregnancy. During the follow-up period, 169/736 women were diagnosed with urogenital infections, including suspected sexually transmitted or reproductive tract infections, urinary tract infection, and vaginal candidiasis. Urogenital infections were significantly associated with reduced odds of conceiving within 180 days (adjusted OR (AOR) 0.21, 95% CI 0.11–0.36). Being above 30 years of age was also negatively associated with odds of conceiving (AOR 0.45, 95% CI 0.26–0.77). In contrast, women who recently stopped using hormonal contraceptives (AOR 2.86, 95% CI 1.45–5.70) and women with low socioeconomic status (AOR 1.56, 95% CI 1.04–2.33) were significantly more likely to become pregnant within 180 days.</p><p>Conclusion</p><p>Urogenital infection seems to be a major health factor associated with reduced chances of conceiving. Considering the availability of effective treatment options for these diseases, public health authorities should increase awareness of diagnostic tools in settings with limited resources in order to improve fertility.</p></div