Local attitudes toward Apennine brown bears: Insights for conservation issues

Human-carnivore coexistence is a multi-faceted issue that requires an understanding of the diverse attitudes and perspectives of the communities living with large carnivores. To inform initiatives that encourage behaviors in line with conservation goals, we focused on assessing the two components of attitudes (i.e., feelings and beliefs), as well as norms of local communities coexisting with Apennine brown bears (Ursus arctos marsicanus) for a long time. This bear population is under serious extinction risks due to its persistently small population size, which is currently confined to the long-established protected area of Abruzzo, Lazio and Molise National Park (PNALM) and its surrounding region in central Italy. We interviewed 1,611 residents in the PNALM to determine attitudes and values toward bears. We found that support for the bear's legal protection was widespread throughout the area, though beliefs about the benefits of conserving bears varied across geographic administrative districts. Our results showed that residents across our study areas liked bears. At the same time, areas that received more benefits from tourism were more strongly associated with positive feelings toward bears. Such findings provide useful information to improve communication efforts of conservation authorities with local communities

Molecular evaluation of Chagas disease reactivation and treatment follow-up in HIV coinfected patients

Background: Chagas disease reactivation is an AIDS defined illness that usually affects Central Nervous System. Gold-Standard diagnosis for T.cruzi reactivation is based on microscopical observation methods.Methods & Materials: Seven patients with HIV/AIDS diagnosis, T.cruzi serological findings, neurological disorders, and suspected of Chagas disease reactivation were included between 2015?2017 from two health centers of Buenos Aires, Argentina. Real-time PCRs (qPCR) against T.cruzi satellite DNA were carried out from cerebrospinal fluid (CSF) and peripheral blood samples (BS) for parasite load quantification. Molecular parasite characterization was based on amplification of spliced leader intergenic region, 24 srDNA, and A10 polymorphic sequences.Results: Patients were aged from 41 to 69 years old, 43% were women, CD4+ T cell counts were between 7 and 53 cell/mm3. All of them received tripanocidal treatment (TrypT).Five CSFs were withdrawn before TrypT starting. Two had microscopical detection of trypomastigote forms (MDTryp) and quantification over 500 p.e/mL by qPCR. The other 3 CSF samples were non-detectable by both methods. The remaining two patients CSF were obtained after starting TrypT with MDTryp negative findings but qPCR positive results with parasite burden below 13 p.e/mL.Among the 3 patients with negative CSF findings, 2 had positive MDTryp on BS with 119 and 3512 p.e/mL. The third was negative by MDTryp and had 2 p.e/mL before TrypT.All patients had qPCR positive findings on BS (2 -1426 p.e/mL) and decreased their parasitic loads during TrypT.All characterized parasites from BS and CSF samples belonged to DTU (Discrete Typing Unit) II, V or VI, frequently found in Southern Cone region.Out of this small series, 4 patients died: 2 because of brain ?Chagoma?, 1 due to status epilepticus and 1 due to acute abdomen. Two of the 3 survivors were those with negative CSF findings for both methods.Conclusion: Chagas disease reactivation occurred on deep inmunosupressed HIV people. Its diagnosis by MDTryp and qPCR is complementary. qPCR detected T.cruzi DNA on negative MDTryp findings even during treatment. TrypT always reduces T.cruzi DNA loads. qPCR might be an useful therapeutical marker.Fil: Fernandez, Marisa. Gobierno de la Ciudad de Buenos Aires. Hospital de Infecciosas "Dr. Francisco Javier Muñiz"; ArgentinaFil: Besuschio, Susana. Consejo Nacional de Investigaciones Científicas y Técnicas. Instituto de Investigaciones en Ingeniería Genética y Biología Molecular "Dr. Héctor N. Torres"; ArgentinaFil: Nicita, D.. Gobierno de la Ciudad de Buenos Aires. Hospital de Infecciosas "Dr. Francisco Javier Muñiz"; ArgentinaFil: Latini, V.. Sanatorio de la Trinidad Mitre; ArgentinaFil: Biondi, M. L.. Gobierno de la Ciudad de Buenos Aires. Hospital de Infecciosas "Dr. Francisco Javier Muñiz"; ArgentinaFil: García, J.. Gobierno de la Ciudad de Buenos Aires. Hospital de Infecciosas "Dr. Francisco Javier Muñiz"; ArgentinaFil: Corti, Marcelo. Gobierno de la Ciudad de Buenos Aires. Hospital de Infecciosas "Dr. Francisco Javier Muñiz"; ArgentinaFil: Schijman, Alejandro Gabriel. Consejo Nacional de Investigaciones Científicas y Técnicas. Instituto de Investigaciones en Ingeniería Genética y Biología Molecular "Dr. Héctor N. Torres"; ArgentinaFil: Burgos, J.. Consejo Nacional de Investigaciones Científicas y Técnicas. Centro Científico Tecnológico Conicet - Mar del Plata. Instituto de Investigaciones Biológicas. Universidad Nacional de Mar del Plata. Facultad de Ciencias Exactas y Naturales. Instituto de Investigaciones Biológicas; Argentina18th International Congress on Infectious Diseases (ICID)Ciudad Autónoma de Buenos AiresArgentinaInternational Society fot Infectious Disease

Reduction In body weight is an independent risk factor for mortality in chronic heart failure. Insights from GISSI-HF and Val-HeFT trials

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Direct comparison of B-Type Natriuretic Peptide (BNP) and amino-terminal proBNP in a large population of patients with chronic and symptomatic heart failure: the Valsartan Heart Failure (Val-HeFT) data

Background: The B-type or brain natriuretic peptides (BNP) and the amino-terminal probrain natriuretic peptide (NT-proBNP) are good markers of prognosis and diagnosis in chronic heart failure (HF). It is unclear, however, whether differences in their biological characteristics modify their clinical correlates and prognostic performance in HF. This work aimed to provide a direct comparison of the prognostic value of BNP and NTproBNP in patients with chronic and stable HF. Methods: We measured BNP and NT-proBNP at baseline in 3916 patients enrolled in the Valsartan Heart Failure Trial. To identify the variables associated with both peptides, we conducted simple and multivariable linear regression analyses. We used Cox multivariable regression models to evaluate the independent prognostic value for all-cause mortality, mortality and morbidity, and hospitalization for HF. Prognostic performance was assessed by pairwise comparisons of the area under the curve of receiver-operator characteristic curves. Results: NT-proBNP and BNP had similar relationships with age, left ventrical ejection fraction, and internal diameter and creatinine clearance. Either peptide ranked as the first independent predictor of outcome after adjustment for major confounding clinical characteristics. ROC curves were almost superimposable for all-cause mortality (area under the curve (SE): BNP 0.665 (0.011) vs NT-proBNP 0.679 (0.011); P 0.0734), but NT-proBNP was superior to BNP for predicting mortality and morbidity (P 0.032) or hospitalization for HF (P 0.0143). Overall sensitivity and specificity ranged from 0.590 to 0.696. Conclusions: The natriuretic peptides BNP and NTproBNP showed subtle differences in their relation to clinical characteristics and prognostic performance in a large population of patients with chronic and stable HF. They were the most powerful independent markers of outcome in HF

Neurofilament light compared to neuron-specific enolase as a predictor of unfavourable outcome after out-of-hospital cardiac arrest

Aim: We compared the prognostic abilities of neurofilament light (NfL) and neuron-specific enolase (NSE) in patients resuscitated from out-ofhospital cardiac arrest (OHCA) of various aetiologies. Methods: We analysed frozen blood samples obtained at 24 and 48 hours from OHCA patients treated in 21 Finnish intensive care units in 2010 and 2011. We defined unfavourable outcome as Cerebral Performance Category (CPC) 3-5 at 12 months after OHCA. We evaluated the prognostic ability of the biomarkers by calculating the area under the receiver operating characteristic curves (AUROCs [95% confidence intervals]) and compared these with a bootstrap method. Results: Out of 248 adult patients, 12-month outcome was unfavourable in 120 (48.4%). The median (interquartile range) NfL concentrations for patients with unfavourable and those with favourable outcome, respectively, were 689 (146-1804) pg/mL vs. 31 (17-61) pg/mL at 24 h and 1162 (147-4360) pg/mL vs. 36 (21-87) pg/mL at 48 h, p < 0.001 for both. The corresponding NSE concentrations were 13.3 (7.2-27.3) mg/L vs. 8.5 (5.8- 13.2) mg/L at 24 h and 20.4 (8.1-56.6) mg/L vs. 8.2 (5.9-12.1) mg/L at 48 h, p < 0.001 for both. The AUROCs to predict an unfavourable outcome were 0.90 (0.86-0.94) for NfL vs. 0.65 (0.58-0.72) for NSE at 24 h, p < 0.001 and 0.88 (0.83-0.93) for NfL and 0.73 (0.66-0.81) for NSE at 48 h, p < 0.001. Conclusion: Compared to NSE, NfL demonstrated superior accuracy in predicting long-term unfavourable outcome after OHCA.Peer reviewe

Understanding lactatemia in human sepsis potential impact for early management

Rationale: Hyperlactatemia in sepsis may derive from a prevalent impairment of oxygen supply/demand and/or oxygen use. Discriminating between these two mechanisms may be relevant for the early fluid resuscitation strategy. Objectives: To understand the relationship among central venous oxygen saturation (ScvO2), lactate, and base excess to better determine the origin of lactate. Methods: This was a post hoc analysis of baseline variables of 1,741 patients with sepsis enrolled in the multicenter trial ALBIOS (Albumin ItalianOutcome Sepsis). Variableswere analyzed as a function of sextiles of lactate concentration and sextiles of ScvO2.Wedefined the "alactic base excess," as the sum of lactate and standard base excess. Measurements and Main Results: Organ dysfunction severity scores, physiologic variables of hepatic, metabolic, cardiac, and renal function, and 90-day mortality were measured. ScvO2 was lower than 70% only in 35% of patients. Mortality, organ dysfunction scores, and lactate were highest in the first and sixth sextiles of ScvO2. Although lactate level related strongly to mortality, it was associated with acidemia only when kidney function was impaired (creatinine &gt;2 mg/dl), as rapidly detected by a negative alactic base excess. In contrast, positive values of alactic base excess were associated with a relative reduction of fluid balance. Conclusions: Hyperlactatemia is powerfully correlated with severity of sepsis and, in established sepsis, is caused more frequently by impaired tissue oxygen use, rather than by impaired oxygen transport. Concomitant acidemia was only observed in the presence of renal dysfunction, as rapidly detected by alactic base excess. The current strategy of fluid resuscitation could be modified according to the origin of excess lactate

Making the hyper--K\"ahler structure of N=2 quantum string manifest

We show that the Lorentz covariant formulation of N=2 string in a curved space reveals an explicit hyper--K\"ahler structure. Apart from the metric, the superconformal currents couple to a background two--form. By superconformal symmetry the latter is constrained to be holomorphic and covariantly constant and allows one to construct three complex structures obeying a (pseudo)quaternion algebra.Comment: 8 pages, no figures, PACS: 04.60.Ds; 11.30.Pb, Keywords: N=2 string, hyper-K\"ahler geometry. Presentation improved, references added. The version to appear in PR

Unconventional excitonic states with phonon sidebands in layered silicon diphosphide

Complex correlated states emerging from many-body interactions between quasiparticles (electrons, excitons and phonons) are at the core of condensed matter physics and material science. In low-dimensional materials, quantum confinement affects the electronic, and subsequently, optical properties for these correlated states. Here, by combining photoluminescence, optical reflection measurements and ab initio theoretical calculations, we demonstrate an unconventional excitonic state and its bound phonon sideband in layered silicon diphosphide (SiP2), where the bound electron–hole pair is composed of electrons confined within one-dimensional phosphorus–phosphorus chains and holes extended in two-dimensional SiP2 layers. The excitonic state and emergent phonon sideband show linear dichroism and large energy redshifts with increasing temperature. Our ab initio many-body calculations confirm that the observed phonon sideband results from the correlated interaction between excitons and optical phonons. With these results, we propose layered SiP2 as a platform for the study of excitonic physics and many-particle effects

ABI3 ectopic expression reduces in vitro and in vivo cell growth properties while inducing senescence

<p>Abstract</p> <p>Background</p> <p>Mounting evidence has indicated that <it>ABI3 </it>(ABI family member 3) function as a tumor suppressor gene, although the molecular mechanism by which ABI3 acts remains largely unknown.</p> <p>Methods</p> <p>The present study investigated <it>ABI3 </it>expression in a large panel of benign and malignant thyroid tumors and explored a correlation between the expression of ABI3 and its potential partner ABI3-binding protein (ABI3BP). We next explored the biological effects of <it>ABI3 </it>ectopic expression in thyroid and colon carcinoma cell lines, in which its expression was reduced or absent.</p> <p>Results</p> <p>We not only observed that <it>ABI3 </it>expression is reduced or lost in most carcinomas but also that there is a positive correlation between <it>ABI3 </it>and <it>ABI3BP </it>expression. Ectopic expression of <it>ABI3 </it>was sufficient to lead to a lower transforming activity, reduced tumor <it>in vitro </it>growth properties, suppressed <it>in vitro </it>anchorage-independent growth and <it>in vivo </it>tumor formation while, cellular senescence increased. These responses were accompanied by the up-regulation of the cell cycle inhibitor <it>p21 </it>^WAF1and reduced ERK phosphorylation and <it>E2F1 </it>expression.</p> <p>Conclusions</p> <p>Our result links <it>ABI3 </it>to the pathogenesis and progression of some cancers and suggests that ABI3 or its pathway might have interest as therapeutic target. These results also suggest that the pathways through which <it>ABI3 </it>works should be further characterized.</p

Complications following surgical intervention for stress urinary incontinence: A national perspective

Aims Stress urinary incontinence (SUI) impacts many women. Treatment is primarily surgical. Post-operative morbidity considerably affects individuals and the health care system. Our objective is to describe complications following surgery for SUI and how they affect resource utilization. Methods Utilizing the Nationwide Inpatient Sample (a nationally representative dataset), 147,473 patients who underwent surgery for SUI from 1988 to 2000 were identified by ICD-9 codes. Comorbid conditions/complications were extracted using ICD-9 codes, including complication rates, length of stay (LOS), hospital charges, and discharge status. Results Overall complication rate was 13.0% (not equal to sum of complication sub-types, as each woman may have had = 1 complication), with 2.8% bleeding, 1.4% surgical injury, 4.3% urinary/renal, 4.4% infectious, 0.1% wound, 1.1% pulmonary insufficiency, 0.5% myocardial infarction, 0.2% thromboembolic. The “gold standard” surgical technique for SUI, the pubovaginal sling, had the lowest morbidity at 12.5%. Mean LOS increased with morbidity: from 2.9 to 4.1 to 6.1 days for those with 0, 1, and =2 complications respectively ( P  < 0.001). Similarly, inflation-adjusted hospital charges increased with morbidity: from $7,918 to$9,828 to $15,181 for those with 0, 1, and =2 complications respectively ( P  < 0.001). The percentage of patients requiring post-discharge subacute or home care increased with morbidity: from 4.4% to 8.4% to 14.3% for those with 0, 1, and =2 complications ( P  < 0.001). Conclusions A substantial percentage of women experience complications following surgery for SUI. Post-operative morbidity leads to dramatically increased resource utilization. Prospective studies are needed to identify pre-operative risk factors and intraoperative process measures to optimize the quality of care. Neurourol. Urodynam. © 2005 Wiley-Liss, Inc.Peer Reviewedhttp://deepblue.lib.umich.edu/bitstream/2027.42/34912/1/20186_ftp.pd