Gray Wolves and Livestock in Montana: A Recent History of Damage Management

The Montana gray wolf (Canis lupus) population grew from 2 wolves in 1979 to a minimum of 316 by late 2006. Resolving conflicts, both perceived and real, between wolves and livestock became a dominant social issue for the federal recovery program, and it remains so today. The United States Fish and Wildlife Service and now Montana Fish, Wildlife & Parks work with United States Department of Agriculture, Animal Plant Health Inspection Service, Wildlife Services to reduce depredation risks and address wolf-related conflicts through a combination of non-lethal and lethal management tools. The number of wolf complaints investigated from 1987-2006 increased as the population increased and expanded its distribution into Montana after reintroduction into Yellowstone National Park and central Idaho during 1995 and 1996. Montana wolf packs routinely encountered livestock, though wolf depredation was a relatively rare cause of livestock death and difficult to predict or prevent. Cattle and sheep were killed most often from March to October, although losses were confirmed each month. From 1987 to 2006, wolves killed 230 cattle and 436 sheep. However, confirmed losses probably represent a fraction of actual wolf losses. Few other types of livestock classes were killed. Conflicts are addressed on a case-by-case basis, striving to connect the agency response to the damage in space and time and to decrease the potential for future losses. Lethal control is implemented incrementally after predation was verified, and 254 wolves were killed from 1987 to 2006. Only complete removal of either wolves or livestock eliminates the potential for wolf depredation. The continued presence of a viable wolf population requires that a wide variety of non-lethal and lethal tools be investigated and implemented. That combination will also be required to maintain local public tolerance of wolves where the two overlap and to foster broad public acceptance of techniques used to minimize conflicts. Resolving wolf and livestock conflicts at a local scale is but one component of a larger state wolf conservation and management program. When wolves are delisted, regulated public harvest will allow us to more proactively manage the population

ALTERATION OF THE EPHA2/EPHRIN-A SIGNALING AXIS IN PSORIATIC EPIDERMIS

EphA2 is a receptor tyrosine kinase (RTK) that triggers keratinocyte differentiation upon activation and subsequently down-regulation by ephrin-A1 ligand. The objective for this study was to determine if the EphA2/ephrin-A1 signaling axis was altered in psoriasis, an inflammatory skin condition where keratinocyte differentiation is abnormal. Microarray analysis of skin biopsies from psoriasis patients revealed increased mRNA transcripts for several members of this RTK family in plaques, including the EphA1, EphA2 and EphA4 subtypes prominently expressed by keratinocytes. Of these, EphA2 showed the greatest up-regulation, a finding that was confirmed by quantitative RT-PCR, IHC analysis and ELISA. In contrast, psoriatic lesions exhibited reduced ephrin-A ligand immunoreactivity. Exposure of primary keratinocytes induced to differentiated in high calcium or a 3-dimensiosnal raft culture of human epidermis to a combination of growth factors and cytokines elevated in psoriasis increased EphA2 mRNA and protein expression while inducing S100A7 and disrupting differentiation. Pharmacological delivery of a soluble ephrin-A1 peptidomimetic ligand led to a reduction in EphA2 expression and ameliorated proliferation and differentiation in raft cultures exposed to EGF and IL-1α. These findings suggest that ephrin-A1-mediated down-regulation of EphA2 supports keratinocyte differentiation in the context of cytokine perturbation

Molecular Dynamics Simulations

A tutorial introduction to the technique of Molecular Dynamics (MD) is given, and some characteristic examples of applications are described. The purpose and scope of these simulations and the relation to other simulation methods is discussed, and the basic MD algorithms are described. The sampling of intensive variables (temperature T, pressure p) in runs carried out in the microcanonical (NVE) ensemble (N= particle number, V = volume, E = energy) is discussed, as well as the realization of other ensembles (e.g. the NVT ensemble). For a typical application example, molten SiO2, the estimation of various transport coefficients (self-diffusion constants, viscosity, thermal conductivity) is discussed. As an example of Non-Equilibrium Molecular Dynamics (NEMD), a study of a glass-forming polymer melt under shear is mentioned.Comment: 38 pages, 11 figures, to appear in J. Phys.: Condens. Matte

Conformational and Structural Relaxations of Poly(ethylene oxide) and Poly(propylene oxide) Melts: Molecular Dynamics Study of Spatial Heterogeneity, Cooperativity, and Correlated Forward-Backward Motion

Performing molecular dynamics simulations for all-atom models, we characterize the conformational and structural relaxations of poly(ethylene oxide) and poly(propylene oxide) melts. The temperature dependence of these relaxation processes deviates from an Arrhenius law for both polymers. We demonstrate that mode-coupling theory captures some aspects of the glassy slowdown, but it does not enable a complete explanation of the dynamical behavior. When the temperature is decreased, spatially heterogeneous and cooperative translational dynamics are found to become more important for the structural relaxation. Moreover, the transitions between the conformational states cease to obey Poisson statistics. In particular, we show that, at sufficiently low temperatures, correlated forward-backward motion is an important aspect of the conformational relaxation, leading to strongly nonexponential distributions for the waiting times of the dihedrals in the various conformational statesComment: 13 pages, 13 figure

Quantum Ballistic Evolution in Quantum Mechanics: Application to Quantum Computers

Quantum computers are important examples of processes whose evolution can be described in terms of iterations of single step operators or their adjoints. Based on this, Hamiltonian evolution of processes with associated step operators $T$ is investigated here. The main limitation of this paper is to processes which evolve quantum ballistically, i.e. motion restricted to a collection of nonintersecting or distinct paths on an arbitrary basis. The main goal of this paper is proof of a theorem which gives necessary and sufficient conditions that T must satisfy so that there exists a Hamiltonian description of quantum ballistic evolution for the process, namely, that T is a partial isometry and is orthogonality preserving and stable on some basis. Simple examples of quantum ballistic evolution for quantum Turing machines with one and with more than one type of elementary step are discussed. It is seen that for nondeterministic machines the basis set can be quite complex with much entanglement present. It is also proved that, given a step operator T for an arbitrary deterministic quantum Turing machine, it is decidable if T is stable and orthogonality preserving, and if quantum ballistic evolution is possible. The proof fails if T is a step operator for a nondeterministic machine. It is an open question if such a decision procedure exists for nondeterministic machines. This problem does not occur in classical mechanics.Comment: 37 pages Latexwith 2 postscript figures tar+gzip+uuencoded, to be published in Phys. Rev.

The immune cell landscape in kidneys of patients with lupus nephritis.

Lupus nephritis is a potentially fatal autoimmune disease for which the current treatment is ineffective and often toxic. To develop mechanistic hypotheses of disease, we analyzed kidney samples from patients with lupus nephritis and from healthy control subjects using single-cell RNA sequencing. Our analysis revealed 21 subsets of leukocytes active in disease, including multiple populations of myeloid cells, T cells, natural killer cells and B cells that demonstrated both pro-inflammatory responses and inflammation-resolving responses. We found evidence of local activation of B cells correlated with an age-associated B-cell signature and evidence of progressive stages of monocyte differentiation within the kidney. A clear interferon response was observed in most cells. Two chemokine receptors, CXCR4 and CX3CR1, were broadly expressed, implying a potentially central role in cell trafficking. Gene expression of immune cells in urine and kidney was highly correlated, which would suggest that urine might serve as a surrogate for kidney biopsies

Murfreesboro Addresses

https://digitalcommons.acu.edu/crs_books/1086/thumbnail.jp

HIV Infection Linked to Injection Use of Oxymorphone in Indiana, 2014-2015

BACKGROUND: In January 2015, a total of 11 new diagnoses of human immunodeficiency virus (HIV) infection were reported in a small community in Indiana. We investigated the extent and cause of the outbreak and implemented control measures. METHODS: We identified an outbreak-related case as laboratory-confirmed HIV infection newly diagnosed after October 1, 2014, in a person who either resided in Scott County, Indiana, or was named by another case patient as a syringe-sharing or sexual partner. HIV polymerase (pol) sequences from case patients were phylogenetically analyzed, and potential risk factors associated with HIV infection were ascertained. RESULTS: From November 18, 2014, to November 1, 2015, HIV infection was diagnosed in 181 case patients. Most of these patients (87.8%) reported having injected the extended-release formulation of the prescription opioid oxymorphone, and 92.3% were coinfected with hepatitis C virus. Among 159 case patients who had an HIV type 1 pol gene sequence, 157 (98.7%) had sequences that were highly related, as determined by phylogenetic analyses. Contact tracing investigations led to the identification of 536 persons who were named as contacts of case patients; 468 of these contacts (87.3%) were located, assessed for risk, tested for HIV, and, if infected, linked to care. The number of times a contact was named as a syringe-sharing partner by a case patient was significantly associated with the risk of HIV infection (adjusted risk ratio for each time named, 1.9; P<0.001). In response to this outbreak, a public health emergency was declared on March 26, 2015, and a syringe-service program in Indiana was established for the first time. CONCLUSIONS: Injection-drug use of extended-release oxymorphone within a network of persons who inject drugs in Indiana led to the introduction and rapid transmission of HIV. (Funded by the state government of Indiana and others.)

Insights into the complex regulation of rpoS in Borrelia burgdorferi

Co-ordinated regulation of gene expression is required for the transmission and survival of Borrelia burgdorferi in different hosts. The sigma factor RpoS (σS), as regulated by RpoN (σ54), has been shown to regulate key virulence factors (e.g. OspC) required for these processes. As important, multiple signals (e.g. temperature, pH, cell density, oxygen) have been shown to increase the expression of σS-dependent genes; however, little is known about the signal transduction mechanisms that modulate the expression of rpoS. In this report we show that: (i) rpoS has a σ54-dependent promoter that requires Rrp2 to activate transcription; (ii) Rrp2Δ123, a constitutively active form of Rrp2, activated σ54-dependent transcription of rpoS/P-lacZ reporter constructs in Escherichia coli; (iii) quantitative reverse transcription polymerase chain reaction (QRT-PCR) experiments with reporter cat constructs in B. burgdorferi indicated that Rrp2 activated transcription of rpoS in an enhancer-independent fashion; and finally, (iv) rpoN is required for cell density- and temperature-dependent expression of rpoS in B. burgdorferi, but histidine kinase Hk2, encoded by the gene immediately upstream of rrp2, is not essential. Based on these findings, a model for regulation of rpoS has been proposed which provides mechanisms for multiple signalling pathways to modulate the expression of the σS regulon in B. burgdorferi

A multi-stage genome-wide association study of bladder cancer identifies multiple susceptibility loci.

We conducted a multi-stage, genome-wide association study of bladder cancer with a primary scan of 591,637 SNPs in 3,532 affected individuals (cases) and 5,120 controls of European descent from five studies followed by a replication strategy, which included 8,382 cases and 48,275 controls from 16 studies. In a combined analysis, we identified three new regions associated with bladder cancer on chromosomes 22q13.1, 19q12 and 2q37.1: rs1014971, (P = 8 × 10⁻¹²) maps to a non-genic region of chromosome 22q13.1, rs8102137 (P = 2 × 10⁻¹¹) on 19q12 maps to CCNE1 and rs11892031 (P = 1 × 10⁻⁷) maps to the UGT1A cluster on 2q37.1. We confirmed four previously identified genome-wide associations on chromosomes 3q28, 4p16.3, 8q24.21 and 8q24.3, validated previous candidate associations for the GSTM1 deletion (P = 4 × 10⁻¹¹) and a tag SNP for NAT2 acetylation status (P = 4 × 10⁻¹¹), and found interactions with smoking in both regions. Our findings on common variants associated with bladder cancer risk should provide new insights into the mechanisms of carcinogenesis