Masked Palm Civet Paguma larvata

We studied the summer (June-August) diet of the masked palm civet (Paguma larvata) in a suburban area of Ibaraki Prefecture, using the stomach contents from road-killed carcasses. Specifically, our aim was to examine (i) monthly changes and (ii) if food habits differed between sexes, based on frequency of occurrence (FO) of the main food classes consumed. From 2009 to 2014, 61 civet carcasses were col lected along the three major national highways in Ibaraki Prefecture. Civets consumed a wide range of foods such as insects, fruits, mammals, and earthworms. The FO of mammals and fruit taxa (cherries, strawberries, and persimmons) differed substantially among months, which likely reflected the peak availability of each food category/item. Females consumed amphibians, insects, and persimmons significantly more frequently than did males, likely relating to the higher food security demands of females while raising offspring. Overall, masked palm civets in Ibaraki Prefecture proved to be opportunistic and generalist feeders, eating primarily fruits and insects with a high frequency of occurrence in summer

National trends in the outcomes of subarachnoid haemorrhage and the prognostic influence of stroke centre capability in Japan: retrospective cohort study

Objectives To examine the national, 6-year trends in in-hospital clinical outcomes of patients with subarachnoid haemorrhage (SAH) who underwent clipping or coiling and the prognostic influence of temporal trends in the Comprehensive Stroke Center (CSC) capabilities on patient outcomes in Japan.Design Retrospective study.Setting Six hundred and thirty-one primary care institutions in Japan.Participants Forty-five thousand and eleven patients with SAH who were urgently hospitalised, identified using the J-ASPECT Diagnosis Procedure Combination database.Primary and secondary outcome measures Annual number of patients with SAH who remained untreated, or who received clipping or coiling, in-hospital mortality and poor functional outcomes (modified Rankin Scale: 3–6) at discharge. Each CSC was assessed using a validated scoring system (CSC score: 1–25 points).Results In the overall cohort, in-hospital mortality decreased (year for trend, OR (95% CI): 0.97 (0.96 to 0.99)), while the proportion of poor functional outcomes remained unchanged (1.00 (0.98 to 1.02)). The proportion of patients who underwent clipping gradually decreased from 46.6% to 38.5%, while that of those who received coiling and those left untreated gradually increased from 16.9% to 22.6% and 35.4% to 38%, respectively. In-hospital mortality of coiled (0.94 (0.89 to 0.98)) and untreated (0.93 (0.90 to 0.96)) patients decreased, whereas that of clipped patients remained stable. CSC score improvement was associated with increased use of coiling (per 1-point increase, 1.14 (1.08 to 1.20)) but not with short-term patient outcomes regardless of treatment modality.Conclusions The 6-year trends indicated lower in-hospital mortality for patients with SAH (attributable to better outcomes), increased use of coiling and multidisciplinary care for untreated patients. Further increasing CSC capabilities may improve overall outcomes, mainly by increasing the use of coiling. Additional studies are necessary to determine the effect of confounders such as aneurysm complexity on outcomes of clipped patients in the modern endovascular era