African forest elephant movements depend on time scale and individual behavior.

The critically endangered African forest elephant (Loxodonta cyclotis) plays a vital role in maintaining the structure and composition of Afrotropical forests, but basic information is lacking regarding the drivers of elephant movement and behavior at landscape scales. We use GPS location data from 96 individuals throughout Gabon to determine how five movement behaviors vary at different scales, how they are influenced by anthropogenic and environmental covariates, and to assess evidence for behavioral syndromes-elephants which share suites of similar movement traits. Elephants show some evidence of behavioral syndromes along an 'idler' to 'explorer' axis-individuals that move more have larger home ranges and engage in more 'exploratory' movements. However, within these groups, forest elephants express remarkable inter-individual variation in movement behaviours. This variation highlights that no two elephants are the same and creates challenges for practitioners aiming to design conservation initiatives

Forest elephant movement and habitat use in a tropical forest-grassland mosaic in Gabon

Poaching of forest elephants (Loxodonta cyclotis) for ivory has decimated their populations in Central Africa. Studying elephant movement can provide insight into habitat and resource use to reveal where, when, and why they move and guide conservation efforts. We fitted 17 forest elephants with global positioning system (GPS) collars in 2015 and 2016 in the tropical forest-grassland mosaic of the Wonga Wongué Presidential Reserve (WW), Gabon. Using the location data, we quantified movement distances, home ranges, and habitat use to examine the environmental drivers of elephant movements and predict where elephants occur spatially and temporally. Forest elephants, on average, traveled 2,840 km annually and had home ranges of 713 km2, with males covering significantly larger home ranges than females. Forest elephants demonstrated both daily and seasonal movement patterns. Daily, they moved between forest and grassland at dawn and dusk. Seasonally, they spent proportionally more time in grassland than forest during the short-wet season when grasses recruit. Forest elephants also traveled faster during the short-wet season when fruit availability was greatest, likely reflecting long, direct movements to preferred fruiting tree species. Forest elephants tended to select areas with high tree and shrub density that afford cover and browse. When villages occurred in their home ranges elephants spent a disproportionate amount of time near them, particularly in the dry season, probably for access to agricultural crops and preferred habitat. Given the importance of the grassland habitat for elephants, maintenance of the forest-grassland matrix is a conservation priority in WW. Law enforcement, outreach, and education should focus on areas of potential human-elephant conflict near villages along the borders of the reserve. GPS-tracking should be extended into multi-use areas in the peripheries of protected areas to evaluate the effects of human disturbance on elephant movements and to maintain connectivity among elephant populations in Gabon

Identification of Y-Box Binding Protein 1 As a Core Regulator of MEK/ERK Pathway-Dependent Gene Signatures in Colorectal Cancer Cells

Transcriptional signatures are an indispensible source of correlative information on disease-related molecular alterations on a genome-wide level. Numerous candidate genes involved in disease and in factors of predictive, as well as of prognostic, value have been deduced from such molecular portraits, e.g. in cancer. However, mechanistic insights into the regulatory principles governing global transcriptional changes are lagging behind extensive compilations of deregulated genes. To identify regulators of transcriptome alterations, we used an integrated approach combining transcriptional profiling of colorectal cancer cell lines treated with inhibitors targeting the receptor tyrosine kinase (RTK)/RAS/mitogen-activated protein kinase pathway, computational prediction of regulatory elements in promoters of co-regulated genes, chromatin-based and functional cellular assays. We identified commonly co-regulated, proliferation-associated target genes that respond to the MAPK pathway. We recognized E2F and NFY transcription factor binding sites as prevalent motifs in those pathway-responsive genes and confirmed the predicted regulatory role of Y-box binding protein 1 (YBX1) by reporter gene, gel shift, and chromatin immunoprecipitation assays. We also validated the MAPK-dependent gene signature in colorectal cancers and provided evidence for the association of YBX1 with poor prognosis in colorectal cancer patients. This suggests that MEK/ERK-dependent, YBX1-regulated target genes are involved in executing malignant properties

Development of creep-resistant iron aluminides

Most studies of creep resistance in Fe-Al intermetallics are oriented at typical applications of 500-650 °C in competition with conventional stainless steels. These intermetallics show excellent oxidation and corrosion resistances even above 1000 °C, where conventional steels are no longer sufficiently resistant. This overview considers attempts at the development of good creep resistance for temperatures intermediate between these two temperature regimes. A variety of cast Fe3Al-based alloys containing solution or precipitate/dispersoid-forming additions will be reported. These alloys show good room temperature strength but weaken above 500 °C due to thermally activated deformation processes. It is shown to be difficult to improve creep strength by changing matrix diffusivity. Solution additions only slightly improve creep strength above 700 °C. Hardening in some alloys containing Fe2Nb Laves precipitates will be discussed. These materials show good strength to 700 °C, but the fine precipitates coarsen rapidly at higher temperatures. Carbide and boride additions generally show poor strengthening due coarse dispersoid distributions, but excellent thermal stability allows good strength retention to very low strain rates. As well as such alloying and structural factors, the importance of processing control to obtain the desired stable microstructures will be considered. © 2006 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.Peer Reviewe

Forest elephant tracks and home ranges.

<p>Movement tracks (A and C) and 100% MCP home ranges (B and D) for female elephants (<i>top row</i>) and a subset of male elephants (<i>bottom row</i>). Female elephants tended to stay closer to the central grassland, whereas half of the males traveled up to 110 km from the central grassland to core home range areas in the reserve periphery.</p

Distance and home range statistics.

<p>Distance and home range statistics.</p