Forest Elephant Crisis in the Congo Basin

Debate over repealing the ivory trade ban dominates conferences of the Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species of Wild Fauna and Flora (CITES). Resolving this controversy requires accurate estimates of elephant population trends and rates of illegal killing. Most African savannah elephant populations are well known; however, the status of forest elephants, perhaps a distinct species, in the vast Congo Basin is unclear. We assessed population status and incidence of poaching from line-transect and reconnaissance surveys conducted on foot in sites throughout the Congo Basin. Results indicate that the abundance and range of forest elephants are threatened from poaching that is most intense close to roads. The probability of elephant presence increased with distance to roads, whereas that of human signs declined. At all distances from roads, the probability of elephant occurrence was always higher inside, compared to outside, protected areas, whereas that of humans was always lower. Inside protected areas, forest elephant density was correlated with the size of remote forest core, but not with size of protected area. Forest elephants must be prioritised in elephant management planning at the continental scale

Current and prospective pharmacological targets in relation to antimigraine action

Migraine is a recurrent incapacitating neurovascular disorder characterized by unilateral and throbbing headaches associated with photophobia, phonophobia, nausea, and vomiting. Current specific drugs used in the acute treatment of migraine interact with vascular receptors, a fact that has raised concerns about their cardiovascular safety. In the past, α-adrenoceptor agonists (ergotamine, dihydroergotamine, isometheptene) were used. The last two decades have witnessed the advent of 5-HT1B/1D receptor agonists (sumatriptan and second-generation triptans), which have a well-established efficacy in the acute treatment of migraine. Moreover, current prophylactic treatments of migraine include 5-HT2 receptor antagonists, Ca2+ channel blockers, and β-adrenoceptor antagonists. Despite the progress in migraine research and in view of its complex etiology, this disease still remains underdiagnosed, and available therapies are underused. In this review, we have discussed pharmacological targets in migraine, with special emphasis on compounds acting on 5-HT (5-HT1-7), adrenergic (α1, α2, and β), calcitonin gene-related peptide (CGRP 1 and CGRP2), adenosine (A1, A2, and A3), glutamate (NMDA, AMPA, kainate, and metabotropic), dopamine, endothelin, and female hormone (estrogen and progesterone) receptors. In addition, we have considered some other targets, including gamma-aminobutyric acid, angiotensin, bradykinin, histamine, and ionotropic receptors, in relation to antimigraine therapy. Finally, the cardiovascular safety of current and prospective antimigraine therapies is touched upon

Conservation and development: the influence of accessibility,\ud participatory management and immigration around the Bénoué

This article evaluates the state of conservation and development of the landscape of Bénoué National Park and its\ud surroundings in Northern Cameroon. Thirty indicators classified into five "capital asset" groups were the object of a participatory judgment between 2nd and 13th May 2006, by 13 local communities living in the hunting areas\ud around the park. The mode of evaluation based on the scales of value going from 1 (worst situation) to 5 (optimal\ud situation) was used. The data collected were presented in a spider web diagram to show the weak and strong points\ud of each category of asset: natural, social, human, physical and financial, on the assumption that the different\ud categories of assets are exchangeable. The overall results of the landscape show that local stakeholders perceive\ud the natural asset as being weaker compared to other categories of assets. The national road that passes through the network of protected area and links the two big towns of Garoua and Ngaoundere, the immigration, the mode of\ud involvement of the population in the management of natural resources are the main factors which affect the\ud landscape. It is necessary to think of the best way to reconcile the conservation interests with those of development through the development of scenarios to stimulate communication between stakeholders in the landscape and national and international decision makers. The internalization of the conservation of biodiversity within communities and decentralized municipalities benefiting partly from land lease taxes is yet to be promoted. It is the same for the development of synergies between the ministry responsible for wildlife and protected areas and other departments that influence the management of natural resources

Conservation and development: the influence of accessibility, participatory management and immigration around the Bénoué

This article evaluates the state of conservation and development of the landscape of Bénoué National Park and its surroundings in Northern Cameroon. Thirty indicators classified into five "capital asset" groups were the object of a participatory judgment between 2nd and 13th May 2006, by 13 local communities living in the hunting areas around the park. The mode of evaluation based on the scales of value going from 1 (worst situation) to 5 (optimal situation) was used. The data collected were presented in a spider web diagram to show the weak and strong points of each category of asset: natural, social, human, physical and financial, on the assumption that the different categories of assets are exchangeable. The overall results of the landscape show that local stakeholders perceive the natural asset as being weaker compared to other categories of assets. The national road that passes through the network of protected area and links the two big towns of Garoua and Ngaoundere, the immigration, the mode of involvement of the population in the management of natural resources are the main factors which affect the landscape. It is necessary to think of the best way to reconcile the conservation interests with those of development through the development of scenarios to stimulate communication between stakeholders in the landscape and national and international decision makers. The internalization of the conservation of biodiversity within communities and decentralized municipalities benefiting partly from land lease taxes is yet to be promoted. It is the same for the development of synergies between the ministry responsible for wildlife and protected areas and other departments that influence the management of natural resources

Comment on: Failure of rivaroxaban to prevent thrombosis in four patients with anti-phospholipid syndrome

International audienceAdditional data suggest that rivaroxaban does not seem to be efficient in all APS patients

EL-SIM: A Development Environment for Neuro-Fuzzy Intelligent Controllers

1 This paper presents a new technique for the design of real-time controllers based on a hybrid approach which integrates several control strategies, such as intelligent controllers (e.g., arti cial neural networks, fuzzy systems), traditional linear controllers, nite state automata. An integrated programming environment, called EL-SIM, is also presented, suited for developing high-performance intelligent controllers for industrial applications. EL-SIM provides general tools to support the development and optimization of control systems based on the aforementioned approach, by means of several cognitive or hybrid algorithms, which allow also improvement of environmental performance indexes, like power consumption or toxic waste emission. EL-SIM permits both the study of new experimental techniques in research application and the design, tuning and testing of widely used control architectures for industrial applications.

Effects of Parental Interaction on Infant Vocalization Rate, Variability and Vocal Type

Examination of infant vocalization patterns across interactive and noninteractive contexts may facilitate better understanding of early communication development. In the current study, with 24 infant-parent dyads, infant volubility increased significantly when parent interaction ceased (presenting a still face, or SF) after a period of normal interaction ( face-to-face, or FF). Infant volubility continued at the higher rate than in FF when the parent re-engaged ( reunion, or RE). Additionally, during SF, the variability in volubility across infants decreased, suggesting the infants adopted relatively similar rates of vocalization to re-engage the parent. The pattern of increasing volubility in SF was seen across all of the most common speech-like vocal types of the first half-year of life (e.g., full vowels, quasivowels, squeals, growls). Parent and infant volubility levels were not significantly correlated. The findings suggest that by six months of age infants have learned that their vocalizations have social value and that changes in volubility can affect parental engagement. Copyright © Taylor & Francis Group, LLC