The Contribution of Forest Ecosystem Services Toward the Local Community Living Vicinity to The Forest Protected Area: The Case of Kawang Forest Reserve, Sabah Malaysia

Kawang Forest Reserve covered an area of 1,551 ha, located in the eastern part of Sabah, Malaysia. The Kawang forest was gazetted as a forest reserve since 1957 and was reclassified in 2014 from Class III (Domestic Forest) to Class I (Protected Forest). The reclassification of the forest area is an effort to preserve the main function of the area to sustain the immense amount of biodiversity of the protected area. Therefore, this study aims to evaluate the community perceptions’ on the contributions of Kawang Forest Reserve to support their livelihood. The ecosystem services that are provided by the forest are categorized into three main services namely provisioning, regulating, and cultural services. The study was conducted using structural administered questionnaires in a Likert scale (scale of 1.00 – very low to 5.00 - very high) settings. Local community living vicinity to Kawang Forest Reserve were selected as the research respondents using convenient sampling. A total of 102 respondents were selected from villages located around the forest reserve namely, Tanaki, Mook, Tampasak, Kaiduan, Bisuang and Bolotikon to assess their perceptions on the forest ecosystem services contributing to their livelihood development. The regulating services based on soil fertility and erosion control shows the highest value with an average of 4.58 min score, followed by the provisioning services based on the ‘source for clean water supply & filtration’ sub-services with a min score of 4.48 and cultural services based on ‘provides tourism area (interesting area, climbing, hiking and waterfall’ with an average min score of 4.42. Hence, the conservation of Kawang Forest Reserve is vital to support the welfare of the local community residing within the protected area as well contributing to a more sustainable forest management by the decision makers

Graphene plasmonics

Two rich and vibrant fields of investigation, graphene physics and plasmonics, strongly overlap. Not only does graphene possess intrinsic plasmons that are tunable and adjustable, but a combination of graphene with noble-metal nanostructures promises a variety of exciting applications for conventional plasmonics. The versatility of graphene means that graphene-based plasmonics may enable the manufacture of novel optical devices working in different frequency ranges, from terahertz to the visible, with extremely high speed, low driving voltage, low power consumption and compact sizes. Here we review the field emerging at the intersection of graphene physics and plasmonics.Comment: Review article; 12 pages, 6 figures, 99 references (final version available only at publisher's web site

Persisting right-sided chylothorax in a patient with chronic lymphocytic leukemia: a case report

Introduction Chylothorax caused by chronic lymphocytic leukemia is very rare and the best therapeutic approach, especially the role of modern immunochemotherapy, is not yet defined. Case presentation We present the case of a 65-year-old male Caucasian patient with right-sided chylothorax caused by a concomitantly diagnosed chronic lymphocytic leukemia. As first-line treatment four cycles of an immunochemotherapy, consisting of fludarabine, cyclophosphamide and rituximab were administered. In addition, our patient received total parenteral nutrition for the first two weeks of treatment. Despite the very good clinical response of the lymphoma to treatment, the chylothorax persisted and percutaneous radiotherapy of the thoracic duct was applied. However, eight weeks after the radiotherapy the chylothorax still persisted and our patient agreed to a surgical intervention. A ligation of the thoracic duct via a muscle sparing thoracotomy was performed, resulting in a complete cessation of the pleural effusion. Apart from the first two weeks our patient was treated on an out-patient basis for nearly six months. Conclusion In this case of chylothorax caused by chronic lymphocytic leukemia, immunochemotherapy in combination with conservative treatment, and even consecutive radiotherapy, were not able to stop pleural effusion, despite the very good clinical response of the chronic lymphocytic leukemia to treatment. Out-patient management using repetitive thoracocenteses can be safe as bridging until definitive surgical ligation of the thoracic duct

Comparison of physical fitness between healthy and mild‐to‐moderate asthmatic children with exercise symptoms: A cross‐sectional study

.Objective Asthma is a chronic disease that may affect physical fitness, although its primary effects on exercise capacity, muscle strength, functionality and lifestyle, in children and adolescents, are still poorly understood. This study aimed to evaluate the differences in cardiorespiratory fitness, muscle strength, lifestyle, lung function, and functionality between asthmatics with exercise symptoms and healthy children. In addition, we have analyzed the association between clinical history and the presence of asthma. Study Design Cross-sectional study including 71 patients with a diagnosis of asthma and 71 healthy children and adolescents (7–17 years of age). Anthropometric data, clinical history, disease control, lifestyle (KIDMED and physical activity questionnaires), lung function (spirometry), exercise-induced bronchoconstriction test, aerobic fitness (cardiopulmonary exercise test), muscle strength and functionality (timed up and go; timed up and down stairs) were evaluated. Results Seventy-one patients with asthma (mean age 11.5 ± 2.7) and 71 healthy subjects (mean age 10.7 ± 2.5) were included. All asthmatic children had mild to moderate and stable asthma. EIB occurred in 56.3% of asthmatic children. Lung function was significantly (p < .05) lower in the asthmatic group when compared to healthy peers, as well as the cardiorespiratory fitness, muscle strength, lifestyle and functionality. Moreover, asthmatic children were more likely to have atopic dermatitis, allergic reactions, food allergies, and a family history of asthma when compared to healthy children. Conclusions Children with mild-to-moderate asthma presenting exercise symptoms show a reduction in cardiorespiratory fitness, muscle strength, lung function, functionality, and lifestyle when compared to healthy peers. The study provides data for pediatricians to support exercise practice aiming to improve prognosis and quality of life in asthmatic children.S

Genetics of Sputum Gene Expression in Chronic Obstructive Pulmonary Disease

Previous expression quantitative trait loci (eQTL) studies have performed genetic association studies for gene expression, but most of these studies examined lymphoblastoid cell lines from non-diseased individuals. We examined the genetics of gene expression in a relevant disease tissue from chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD) patients to identify functional effects of known susceptibility genes and to find novel disease genes. By combining gene expression profiling on induced sputum samples from 131 COPD cases from the ECLIPSE Study with genomewide single nucleotide polymorphism (SNP) data, we found 4315 significant cis-eQTL SNP-probe set associations (3309 unique SNPs). The 3309 SNPs were tested for association with COPD in a genomewide association study (GWAS) dataset, which included 2940 COPD cases and 1380 controls. Adjusting for 3309 tests (p<1.5e-5), the two SNPs which were significantly associated with COPD were located in two separate genes in a known COPD locus on chromosome 15: CHRNA5 and IREB2. Detailed analysis of chromosome 15 demonstrated additional eQTLs for IREB2 mapping to that gene. eQTL SNPs for CHRNA5 mapped to multiple linkage disequilibrium (LD) bins. The eQTLs for IREB2 and CHRNA5 were not in LD. Seventy-four additional eQTL SNPs were associated with COPD at p<0.01. These were genotyped in two COPD populations, finding replicated associations with a SNP in PSORS1C1, in the HLA-C region on chromosome 6. Integrative analysis of GWAS and gene expression data from relevant tissue from diseased subjects has located potential functional variants in two known COPD genes and has identified a novel COPD susceptibility locus

The NRF2-mediated oxidative stress response pathway is associated with tumor cell resistance to arsenic trioxide across the NCI-60 panel

<p>Abstract</p> <p>Background</p> <p>Drinking water contaminated with inorganic arsenic is associated with increased risk for different types of cancer. Paradoxically, arsenic trioxide can also be used to induce remission in patients with acute promyelocytic leukemia (APL) with a success rate of approximately 80%. A comprehensive study examining the mechanisms and potential signaling pathways contributing to the anti-tumor properties of arsenic trioxide has not been carried out.</p> <p>Methods</p> <p>Here we applied a systems biology approach to identify gene biomarkers that underlie tumor cell responses to arsenic-induced cytotoxicity. The baseline gene expression levels of 14,500 well characterized human genes were associated with the GI₅₀ data of the NCI-60 tumor cell line panel from the developmental therapeutics program (DTP) database. Selected biomarkers were tested <it>in vitro</it> for the ability to influence tumor susceptibility to arsenic trioxide.</p> <p>Results</p> <p>A significant association was found between the baseline expression levels of 209 human genes and the sensitivity of the tumor cell line panel upon exposure to arsenic trioxide. These genes were overlayed onto protein-protein network maps to identify transcriptional networks that modulate tumor cell responses to arsenic trioxide. The analysis revealed a significant enrichment for the oxidative stress response pathway mediated by nuclear factor erythroid 2-related factor 2 (NRF2) with high expression in arsenic resistant tumor cell lines. The role of the NRF2 pathway in protecting cells against arsenic-induced cell killing was validated in tumor cells using shRNA-mediated knock-down.</p> <p>Conclusions</p> <p>In this study, we show that the expression level of genes in the NRF2 pathway serve as potential gene biomarkers of tumor cell responses to arsenic trioxide. Importantly, we demonstrate that tumor cells that are deficient for NRF2 display increased sensitivity to arsenic trioxide. The results of our study will be useful in understanding the mechanism of arsenic-induced cytotoxicity in cells, as well as the increased applicability of arsenic trioxide as a chemotherapeutic agent in cancer treatment.</p

A Molecular Signature of Proteinuria in Glomerulonephritis

Proteinuria is the most important predictor of outcome in glomerulonephritis and experimental data suggest that the tubular cell response to proteinuria is an important determinant of progressive fibrosis in the kidney. However, it is unclear whether proteinuria is a marker of disease severity or has a direct effect on tubular cells in the kidneys of patients with glomerulonephritis. Accordingly we studied an in vitro model of proteinuria, and identified 231 “albumin-regulated genes” differentially expressed by primary human kidney tubular epithelial cells exposed to albumin. We translated these findings to human disease by studying mRNA levels of these genes in the tubulo-interstitial compartment of kidney biopsies from patients with IgA nephropathy using microarrays. Biopsies from patients with IgAN (n = 25) could be distinguished from those of control subjects (n = 6) based solely upon the expression of these 231 “albumin-regulated genes.” The expression of an 11-transcript subset related to the degree of proteinuria, and this 11-mRNA subset was also sufficient to distinguish biopsies of subjects with IgAN from control biopsies. We tested if these findings could be extrapolated to other proteinuric diseases beyond IgAN and found that all forms of primary glomerulonephritis (n = 33) can be distinguished from controls (n = 21) based solely on the expression levels of these 11 genes derived from our in vitro proteinuria model. Pathway analysis suggests common regulatory elements shared by these 11 transcripts. In conclusion, we have identified an albumin-regulated 11-gene signature shared between all forms of primary glomerulonephritis. Our findings support the hypothesis that albuminuria may directly promote injury in the tubulo-interstitial compartment of the kidney in patients with glomerulonephritis

Defining motility in the Staphylococci

The ability of bacteria to move is critical for their survival in diverse environments and multiple ways have evolved to achieve this. Two forms of motility have recently been described for Staphylococcus aureus, an organism previously considered to be non-motile. One form is called spreading, which is a type of sliding motility and the second form involves comet formation, which has many observable characteristics associated with gliding motility. Darting motility has also been observed in Staphylococcus epidermidis. This review describes how motility is defined and how we distinguish between passive and active motility. We discuss the characteristics of the various forms of Staphylococci motility, the molecular mechanisms involved and the potential future research directions