Thinking Like a Raven: Restoring Integrity, Stability, and Beauty to Western Ecosystems

Common ravens (Corvus corax; ravens) are generalist predators that pose a threat to several rare wildlife species in the western United States. Recent increases in raven populations, which are fueled by increased human subsidies—notably food, water, and nest sites—are concerning to those seeking to conserve rare species. Due to the challenges and inefficiencies of reducing or eliminating subsidies, managers increasingly rely on lethal removal of ravens. Over 125,000 ravens were killed by the U.S. Government from 1996 to 2019, and annual removals have increased 4-fold from the 1990s to mid-2010s. We contend that lethal removal of ravens, while capable of improving the reproduction of rare species, is at best a short-term and ethically untenable solution to a problem that will continue to grow until subsidies are meaningfully reduced or made inaccessible to ravens. In part because of ravens’ abilities to track natural and anthropogenic resources across unfamiliar and expansive areas, the removal of subsidies can lead to sustained shifts in raven abundance, which can have long-lasting benefits for sensitive species. In the Greater Yellowstone Ecosystem, USA, for example, we documented extensive use of human subsidies during fall/winter, daily 1-way commutes regularly in excess of 50 km by territorial birds to such subsidies, and dispersals of \u3e700 km by nonbreeders that exploited food and roost subsidies. We call for managers to embrace new approaches to subsidy reduction including: increased involvement of conservation social scientists; increased enforcement of local, state, and federal laws; and increased deployment of a diversity of new technologies to haze and aversively condition ravens. Tackling the hard job of reducing subsidies over the expansive area exploited by ravens is right because it will increase the integrity, stability, and beauty of western ecosystems

Simple surface functionalization strategy for immunosensing detection of aflatoxin B1

This paper describes the strategy of functionalization of gold electrodes surfaces in aim to obtain a new impedimetric immunosensor for the detection of aflatoxin B1, a common toxic food contaminant. The immunosensor elaboration is based on immobilization of anti-aflatoxin antibody on gold electrodes modified with a cross-linked film of bovine serum albumin, by a four-step protocol. The immunosensor is based on a simple design and requires small volumes of toxic aflatoxin solution. All the steps of the immunosensor elaboration and the immunochemical reaction between aflatoxin and antibody were followed using atomic force microscopy (AFM) and electrochemical impedance spectroscopy (EIS). The resistance to charge transfer (Rct) was the most sensitive parameter to changes induced to the interfacial properties of the immunosensor by the incubation with aflatoxin and varied linearly with aflatoxin concentration in the range 1-20 ng/mL. The immunosensor was applied for the detection of aflatoxin in spiked plant extracts with good recovery factors

Ochratoxin A Detection on Antibody- Immobilized on BSA-Functionalized Gold Electrodes

Ochratoxin A (OTA)-a toxin produced by Aspergillus carbonarius, Aspergillus ochraceus, and Penicillium verrucosum-is one of the most-abundant food-contaminating mycotoxins. To avoid the risk of OTA consumption for humans and animals, the rapid detection and quantitation of OTA level in different commodities are of great importance. In this work, an impedimetric immunosensor for ochratoxin A (OTA) detection, a common toxic botanical contaminant, was developed via the immobilization of anti-OTA antibody on bovine serum albumin modified gold electrodes. A four-step reaction protocol was tested to modify the gold electrode and obtain the sensing substrate. All the steps of the immunosensor elaboration and also the immunochemical reaction between surface-bound antibody and ochratoxin A were analyzed using cyclic voltammetry and electrochemical impedance spectroscopy. Modification of the impedance due to the specific antigen-antibody reaction at immunosensor surface, was used in order to detect ochratoxin A. Linear proportionality of the charge transfer resistance to the concentration of OTA allows ochratoxin A detection in the range of 2.5-100 ng/mL

Diversity of oat varieties in eliciting the early inflammatory events in celiac disease

Purpose Celiac disease (CD) is an autoimmune enteropathy, triggered by dietary gluten. The only treatment is a strict gluten-free diet. Oats are included in the list of gluten-free ingredients by European Regulation, but the safety of oats in CD is still a matter of debate. The present study examined the capability of different oat cultivars of activating the gliadin-induced transglutaminase-2 (TG2)-dependent events in some in vitro models of CD. In addition, we compared this capability with the electrophoresis pattern of peptic\u2013tryptic digests of the proteins of the oat cultivars. Methods K562(S) cells agglutination, transepithelial electrical resistance of T84-cell monolayers, intracellular levels of TG2 and phosphorylated form of protein 42\u201344 in T84 cells were the early gliadin-dependent events studied. Results The results showed that the Nave oat cultivar elicited these events, whereas Irina and Potenza varieties did not. The ability of a cultivar to activate the above-described events was associated with the electrophoretic pattern of oat proteins and their reactivity to anti-gliadin antibodies. Conclusion We found significant differences among oat cultivars in eliciting the TG2-mediated events of CD inflammation. Therefore, the safety of an oat cultivar in CD might be screened in vitro by means of biochemical and biological assays, before starting a clinical trial to definitely assess its safety

Quality control of plant food supplements

It is essential to guarantee the safety of unprocessed plants and food supplements if consumers' health is to be protected. Although botanicals and their preparations are regulated at EU level, at least in part, there is still considerable discretion at national level, and Member States may choose to classify a product either as a food supplement or as a drug. Accurate data concerning the finished products and the plant used as the starting point are of major importance if risks and safety are to be properly assessed, but in addition standardized criteria for herbal preparation must be laid down and respected by researchers and manufacturers. Physiologically active as well as potentially toxic constituents need to be identified, and suitable analytical methods for their measurement specified, particularly in view of the increasing incidence of economically motivated adulteration of herbal raw materials and extracts. It remains the duty of food operators to keep up with the scientific literature and to provide sufficient information to enable the adaptation of specifications, sampling schemes and analytical methods to a fast-changing environment

Usage of Plant Food Supplements (PFS) for weight control in six European countries: results from the PlantLIBRA PFS Consumer Survey 2011-2012

Background: Obesity is increasing worldwide and weight-control strategies, including the consumption of plant food supplements (PFS), are proliferating. This article identifies the herbal ingredients in PFS consumed for weight control and by overweight/obese dieters in six European countries, and explores the relationship between their consumption and their self-reported BMI. Methods: Data used were a subset from the PlantLIBRA PFS Consumer Survey 2011-2012, a retrospective survey of 2359 PFS consumers. The survey used a bespoke frequency-of-PFS-usage questionnaire. Analyses were performed in two consumer subsamples of 1) respondents taking the products for "body weight reasons", and 2) "dieters for overweight/obesity", to identify the herbal ingredients consumed for these reasons. The relationship between the 5 most consumed herbal ingredients and self-reported BMI in groups 1 and 2 is explored by comparing BMI proportions of consumers vs. non-consumers (using Chi-squared test). Results: 252 PFS (8.8 %) were consumed for "body weight reasons" (by 240 PFS consumers); 112 PFS consumers (4.8 %) were "dieting for overweight/obesity". Spain is the country where consuming herbal ingredients for body weight control and dieting were most popular. Artichoke was the most consumed herbal ingredient. Considering only the 5 top products consumed by those who responded "body weight", when using the total survey sample, a greater proportion of BMI 65 25 was observed among consumers of PFS containing artichoke and green tea as compared to non-consumers (58.4 % vs. 49.1 % and 63.2 % vs. 49.7 % respectively). Considering only the 5 top products consumed by "dieters" and using only the "dieters" sample, a lower proportion of BMI 65 25 was observed among pineapple-containing PFS consumers (38.5 % vs. 81.5 %); however, when using the entire survey sample, a greater proportion of BMI 65 25 was observed among artichoke-containing PFS consumers (58.4 % vs. 49.1 %). Conclusions: A comparison of results among the scarce publications evaluating the use of weight-loss supplements at the population level is limited. Nevertheless every hint is important in finding out which are the self-treatment strategies used by overweight/obese individuals in European countries. Although limited by a small sample size, our study represents a first attempt at analysing such data in six EU countries. Our findings should encourage the conduction of further studies on this topic, long-term and large sample-sized studies, ideally conducted in the general population

Duplication of clostridial binding domains for enhanced macromolecular delivery into neurons

Neurological diseases constitute a quarter of global disease burden and are expected to rise worldwide with the ageing of human populations. There is an increasing need to develop new molecular systems which can deliver drugs specifically into neurons, non-dividing cells meant to last a human lifetime. Neuronal drug delivery must rely on agents which can recognise neurons with high specificity and affinity. Here we used a recently introduced ‘stapling’ system to prepare macromolecules carrying duplicated binding domains from the clostridial family of neurotoxins. We engineered individual parts of clostridial neurotoxins separately and combined them using a strong alpha-helical bundle. We show that combining two identical binding domains of tetanus and botulinum type D neurotoxins, in a sterically defined way by protein stapling, allows enhanced intracellular delivery of molecules into neurons. We also engineered a botulinum neurotoxin type C variant with a duplicated binding domain which increased enzymatic delivery compared to the native type C toxin. We conclude that duplication of the binding parts of tetanus or botulinum neurotoxins will allow production of high avidity agents which could deliver imaging reagents and large therapeutic enzymes into neurons with superior efficiency

Metabolic Syndrome and Inflammation : A Critical Review of In Vitro and Clinical Approaches for Benefit Assessment of Plant Food Supplements

Metabolic syndrome is defined as the clustering in an individual of several metabolic abnormalities associated with insulin resistance, type 2 diabetes, and obesity, in which low-grade chronic inflammatory activity is commonly observed. Part of the European Project PlantLIBRA is concerned with methods to assess the benefits of plant food supplements (PFSs) in countering inflammatory activity and metabolic syndrome. This paper summarizes the current methods used for benefit assessment of PFS, taking into consideration only in vitro, in silico, and clinical methodologies used to investigate the anti-inflammatory properties of plants. No in silico studies (using computer simulation) related to metabolic syndrome were found; these methods appear to be used exclusively for identifying or testing potentially effective compounds in drug development. Most in vitro methods for the assessment of beneficial effects of botanicals or plant food supplements in diabetes were based on a quantitative polymerase chain reaction (PCR), whereas the preferred kind of clinical study was the double-blind randomized controlled clinical trial. Only two parameters were observed to change after treatment with botanicals in both in vitro and in vivo studies: interleukin-6 and tumour necrosis factor-alpha, and these biomarkers should be carefully considered in future studies for PFS benefit assessment

Polyurea dendrimer for efficient cytosolic siRNA delivery

PEst-OE/SAU/UI0009/2013 SFRH/BD/62957/2009The design of small interfering RNA (siRNA) delivery materials showing efficacy in vivo is at the forefront of nanotherapeutics research. Polyurea (PURE-type) dendrimers are 'smart' biocompatible 3D polymers that unveil a dynamic and elegant back-folding mechanism involving hydrogen bonding between primary amines at the surface and tertiary amines and ureas at the core. Similarly, to a biological proton pump, they are able to automatically and reversibly transform their conformation in response to pH stimulus. Here, we show that PURE-G4 is a useful gene silencing platform showing no cellular toxicity. As a proof of concept we investigated the PURE-G4-siRNA dendriplex, which was shown to be an attractive platform with high transfection efficacy. The simplicity associated with the complexation of siRNA with polyurea dendrimers makes them a powerful tool for efficient cytosolic siRNA delivery.authorsversionpublishe