Grizzly Bear and Human Use at Moth Sites in the Greater Yellowstone Ecosystem

In the greater Yellowstone ecosystem (GYE), alpine aggregations of army cutworm moths (Euxoa auxiliaris) are an important food source for grizzly bears (Ursus arctos horribilis). The number of grizzly bears utilizing this food source has increased since initial documentation in 1986 in the Shoshone National Forest, Wyoming. Dozens of bears congregate and feed on moths offering a unique viewing opportunity for bear-enthusiasts, professional media, and hikers. Currently, there is a limited understanding of how bears use these areas and no information on human use. The proximity of grizzly bears and humans poses a management concern for grizzly bears and human safety. Our objectives are to quantify grizzly bear and human use patterns and to identify areas of bear-human interactions. Our methods include occupancy and written surveys, GPS tracking unit deployment, and GIS analysis. Preliminary results from our first year of bear observations (n=220) showed 48% of bears foraging on moths, 20% foraging on vegetation, and 23% travelling. We recorded 5 groups and 26 groups of human use at two locations. We documented 18 bearhuman interactions, all on high-use travel routes common to bears and humans. Despite low human use all interactions between bears and humans resulted in bear avoidance of humans. At present, bear-human interactions appear to be very low but if human use increases, interactions will increase due to lack of alternate travel routes

Grizzly Bears and Humans at Alpine Moth Sites in Wyoming, USA

Army cutworm moths (Euxoa auxiliaris; moths) are an important seasonal higher elevational food source for grizzly bears (Ursus arctos horribilis; bears) in the Greater Yellowstone Ecosystem (Wyoming, Montana, and Idaho, USA). Increased human interaction with bears at moth sites is an important management issue because of the potential for displacing bears and the concern for human safety. Managers will need better information regarding human–bear interactions at high-density moth sites that are also accessible to humans to mitigate potential conflicts. In the summers of 2017 and 2018, we studied human–bear interactions at 2 of the most human accessible moth sites in the Shoshone National Forest, Wyoming. We completed 293 bear surveys and documented 266 bear observations. We also recorded human-use levels at the 2 study sites (north site: 3 groups/year; south site: 35 groups/year). We documented 43 interactions (at the south site only) and obtained location data for 29 interactions. During human–bear interactions, bears strongly avoided humans 80% of the time and had no apparent reaction 20% of the time. Our results indicated that human safety and bear displacement are valid management concerns at the south site. Human safety concerns were most apparent in mountain climbing groups with small group sizes (people, n = 64/70) that were unprepared for encounters with bears. Management concerns for human safety and bear displacement are much lower at the north site. We recommend placing information kiosks at trailheads to inform hikers of dangers associated with grizzly bear concentrations on moth sites

Diffusion of a Highly-Charged Supramolecular Assembly: Direct Observation of Ion-Association in Water

Understanding the solution behavior of supramolecular assemblies is essential for a full understanding of the formation and chemistry of synthetic host-guest systems. While the interaction between host and guest molecules is generally the focus of mechanistic studies of host-guest complexes, the interaction of the host-guest complex with other species in solution remains largely unknown, although in principle accessible by diffusion studies. Several NMR techniques are available to monitor diffusion and have recently been reviewed. Pulsed gradient spin-echo (PGSE) NMR methods have attracted increasing interest, since they allow diffusion coefficients to be measured with high accuracy; they have been successfully used with observation of {sup 7}Li and {sup 31}P nuclei as well as with {sup 1}H NMR. We report here the direct measurement of diffusion coefficients to observe ion-association interactions by counter cations with a highly-charged supramolecular assembly. Raymond and coworkers have described the design and chemistry of a class of metal-ligand supramolecular assemblies over the past decade. The [Ga{sub 4}L{sub 6}]{sup 12-} (L = 1,5-bis(2,3-dihydroxybenzamido)naphthalene) (1) (Figure 1) assembly has garnered the most attention, with the exploration of the dynamics and mechanism of guest exchange as well as the ability of 1 to achieve either stoichiometric or catalytic reactions inside its interior cavity. Recent studies have revealed the importance of counter cations in solution on the chemistry of 1. During the mechanistic study of the C-H bond activation of aldehydes by [Cp*Ir(PMe{sub 3})(olefin){sup +} {contained_in} 1]{sup 11-} a stepwise guest dissociation mechanism with an ion-paired intermediate was proposed. Similarly, in the mechanism for the hydrolysis of iminium cations generated from the 3-aza Cope rearrangement of enammonium cations in 1, the presence of an exterior ion association was part of the kinetic model. To further substantiate the indirect kinetic evidence for such ion-paired species, we sought to explore the solution behavior of 1 by studying the diffusion of 1 with varying alkali and tetraalkyl ammonium cations. For large molecules in solution, such as synthetic supramolecular assemblies, the diffusion behavior of host and guest molecules can provide valuable information on host-guest interaction. One characteristic feature of a stable host-guest complex is that the host and guest molecules diffuse at the same rate in solution; this has been observed in a number of supramolecular systems. In order to confirm that this system was suitable for study by diffusion NMR spectroscopy, a PGSE-DOSY spectrum was acquired of [NEt{sub 4} {contained_in} 1]{sup 11-} (Figure 2), which shows that the host and guest molecules diffuse at the same rate. Quantitative analysis of the data, from monitoring the integral of host and guest resonances as a function of applied gradient strength, gave identical diffusion coefficients, confirming that the host and guest molecules diffuse together

Internal standard-based analysis of microarray data2—Analysis of functional associations between HVE-genes

In this work we apply the Internal Standard-based analytical approach that we described in an earlier communication and here we demonstrate experimental results on functional associations among the hypervariably-expressed genes (HVE-genes). Our working assumption was that those genetic components, which initiate the disease, involve HVE-genes for which the level of expression is undistinguishable among healthy individuals and individuals with pathology. We show that analysis of the functional associations of the HVE-genes is indeed suitable to revealing disease-specific differences. We show also that another possible exploit of HVE-genes for characterization of pathological alterations is by using multivariate classification methods. This in turn offers important clues on naturally occurring dynamic processes in the organism and is further used for dynamic discrimination of groups of compared samples. We conclude that our approach can uncover principally new collective differences that cannot be discerned by individual gene analysis

Case report: Acute lymphoblastic leukemia presenting as myocarditis

Background: Myocarditis develops for a variety of reasons, the most common being viral. An uncommon cause of myocarditis is eosinophilia. Eosinophilia significant enough to cause heart damage is relatively rare. Treatment for eosinophilia varies widely depending on the etiology. Malignancy is a rare cause of eosinophilia. Case presentation: Here, we describe a patient who presented in heart failure secondary to eosinophilic myocarditis, whose eosinophilia was discovered to be secondary to pre-B cell acute lymphoid leukemia with a t(5;14) IL3/IgH rearrangement, which places an enhancer gene from chromosome 14 (IgH) next to IL-3 gene on chromosome 5, which in turn triggers eosinophil production. The patient was treated with standard chemotherapy with daunorubicin and vincristine, and his cardiac function improved on serial echocardiograms. Conclusions: Eosinophilic myocarditis is very rare and requires a thorough workup to identify the etiology of eosinophilia. Eosinophilia due to malignancy is exceedingly rare but important to keep in mind in evaluating children with myocarditis. Keywords: B-cell acute lymphoblastic leukemia; Case report; Eosinophilia; Myocarditi