Population displaced: an overview of refugees and forcibly displaced people today ; notes for a talk at Bielefeld University

Der Wandel der geopolitischen Landschaft der Welt nach dem Kalten Krieg in den 90er Jahren hat auch tiefgreifende Konsequenzen für das internationale "humanitäre Regime". Der vorliegende Bericht beschreibt in knapper Form, wie vor allem die Nicht-Regierungs-Organisationen auf die weltweiten Krisen reagiert haben und welche Schlüsse daraus für die Zukunft zu ziehen sind. Das Flüchtlingsproblem ist heute zu einer globalen Frage geworden, die nicht mehr allein durch die internationale Kooperation der betroffenen Staaten beantwortet werden kann. Nicht-Regierungs-Organisationen müssen in ihren Organisationsstrukturen entsprechend international und flexibel reagieren. Die Schwerpunkte der Aktivitäten müssen bei der Stärkung der Zivilgesellschaften, der Überwachung der lokalen Einhaltung der Menschenrechte und dem Aufbau lokaler und internationaler Organisationsformen liegen. (ICA

Determinants of Feedlot Cattle Death Loss Rates

Death loss in feedlot cattle can have significant impacts on feedlot profitability. Not only does death loss result in foregone revenue, but the operation still incurs the costs to date associated with those animals. This study uses pen-level feedlot data from a private feed-lot in the Southern Great Plains. Both company- owned and customer retained ownership cattle are included in the data set. A Tobit model is used to analyze pen characteristics’ influence on death loss in feedlot cattle, including cattle characteristics, source characteristics, management characteristics, and treatment incidence. Results imply that several pen characteristics impact death loss and that cattle source, in terms of both cattle source geographic location and market source type, has a significant influence on death loss rate

Cellular heterogeneity of the developing worker honey bee (Apis mellifera) pupa: a single cell transcriptomics analysis

It is estimated that animals pollinate 87.5% of flowering plants worldwide and that managed honey bees (Apis mellifera) account for 30-50% of this ecosystem service to agriculture. In addition to their important role as pollinators, honey bees are well-established insect models for studying learning and memory, behaviour, caste differentiation, epigenetic mechanisms, olfactory biology, sex determination and eusociality. Despite their importance to agriculture, knowledge of honey bee biology lags behind many other livestock species. In this study we have used scRNA-Seq to map cell types to different developmental stages of the worker honey bee (prepupa at day 11 and pupa at day 15), and sought to determine their gene signatures and thereby provide potential functional annotations for as yet poorly characterized genes. To identify cell type populations we examined the cell-to-cell network based on the similarity of the single-cells’ transcriptomic profiles. Grouping similar cells together we identified 63 different cell clusters of which 15 clusters were identifiable at both stages. To determine genes associated with specific cell populations or with a particular biological process involved in honey bee development, we used gene co-expression analysis. We combined this analysis with literature mining, the honey bee protein atlas and Gene Ontology analysis to determine cell cluster identity. Of the cell clusters identified, 9 were related to the nervous system, 7 to the fat body, 14 to the cuticle, 5 to muscle, 4 to compound eye, 2 to midgut, 2 to hemocytes and 1 to malpighian tubule/pericardial nephrocyte. To our knowledge, this is the first whole single cell atlas of honey bees at any stage of development and demonstrates the potential for further work to investigate their biology of at the cellular level

Sporormiella as a tool for detecting the presence of large herbivores in the Neotropics

The reliability of using the abundance of Sporormiella spores as a proxy for the presence and abundance of megaherbivores was tested in southern Brazil. Mud-water interface samples from nine lakes, in which cattle-use was categorized as high, medium, or low, were assayed for Sporormiella representation. The sampling design allowed an analysis of both the influence of the number of animals using the shoreline and the distance of the sampling site from the nearest shoreline. Sporormiella was found to be a reliable proxy for the presence of large livestock. The concentration and abundance of spores declined from the edge of the lake toward the center, with the strongest response being in sites with high livestock use. Consistent with prior studies in temperate regions, we find that Sporormiella spores are a useful proxy to study the extinction of Pleistocene megafauna or the arrival of European livestock in Neotropical landscapes

Rewiring of interactions in a changing environment: nettle‐feeding butterflies and their parasitoids

Climate and land use change can alter the incidence and strength of biotic interactions, with important effects on the distribution, abundance and function of species. To assess the importance of these effects and their dynamics, studies quantifying how biotic interactions change in space and time are needed. We studied interactions between nettle‐feeding butterflies and their shared natural enemies (parasitoids) locally and across 500 km latitudinal gradient in Sweden. We also examined the potential impact of the range‐expansion of the butterfly Araschnia levana on resident butterflies via shared parasitoids, by studying how parasitism in resident butterflies covaries with the presence or absence of the newly‐established species. We collected 6777 larvae of four nettle‐feeding butterfly species (Aglais urticae, Aglais io, Ar. levana and Vanessa atalanta), over two years, at 19 sites distributed along the gradient. We documented the parasitoid complex for each butterfly species and measured their overlap, and analysed how parasitism rates were affected by butterfly species assemblage, variations in abundance, time, and the arrival of Ar. levana. Parasitoids caused high mortality, with substantial overlap in the complex of parasitoids associated with the four host butterflies. Levels of parasitism differed significantly among butterflies and were influenced by the local butterfly species assemblage. Our results also suggest that parasitism in resident butterflies is elevated at sites where Ar. levana has been established for a longer period. In our study system, variations in butterfly species assemblages were associated in a predictable way with substantial variations in rates of parasitism. This relationship is likely to affect the dynamics of the butterfly host species, and potentially cascade to the larger number of species with which they interact. These results highlight the importance of indirect interactions and their potential to reorganise ecological communities, especially in the context of shifts in species distributions in a warmer world

Identifying generalised segmental acceleration patterns that contribute to ground reaction force features across different running tasks

Objective: To support future developments of field-based biomechanical load monitoring tools, this study aimed to identify generalised segmental acceleration patterns and their contribution to ground reaction forces (GRFs) across different running tasks. Design: Exploratory experimental design. Methods: A multivariate principal component analysis (PCA) was applied to a combination of segmental acceleration data from all body segments for fifteen team-sport athletes performing accelerated, decelerated and constant low-, moderate- and high-speed running, and 90° cutting trials. Segmental acceleration profiles were then reconstructed from each principal component (PC) and used to calculate their specific GRF contributions. Results: The first PC explained 48.57% of the acceleration variability for all body segments and was primarily related to the between-task differences in the overall magnitude of the GRF impulse. Magnitude and timing of high-frequency acceleration and GRF features (i.e. impact related characteristics) were primarily explained by the second PC (12.43%) and also revealed important between-task differences. The most important GRF characteristics were explained by the first five PCs, while PCs beyond that primarily contained small contributions to the overall GRF impulse. Conclusions: These findings show that a multivariate PCA approach can reveal generalised acceleration patterns and specific segmental contributions to GRF features, but their relative importance for different running activities are task dependent. Using segmental acceleration to assess whole-body biomechanical loading generically across various movements may thus require task identification algorithms and/or advanced sensor or data fusion approaches

Murine Models for Trypanosoma brucei gambiense Disease Progression—From Silent to Chronic Infections and Early Brain Tropism

Trypanosoma brucei gambiense is responsible for more than 90% of reported cases of human African trypanosomosis (HAT). Infection can last for months or even years without major signs or symptoms of infection, but if left untreated, sleeping sickness is always fatal. In the present study, different T. b. gambiense field isolates from the cerebrospinal fluid of patients with HAT were adapted to growth in vitro. These isolates belong to the homogeneous Group 1 of T. b. gambiense, which is known to induce a chronic infection in humans. In spite of this, these isolates induced infections ranging from chronic to silent in mice, with variations in parasitaemia, mouse lifespan, their ability to invade the CNS and to elicit specific immune responses. In addition, during infection, an unexpected early tropism for the brain as well as the spleen and lungs was observed using bioluminescence analysis. The murine models presented in this work provide new insights into our understanding of HAT and allow further studies of parasite tropism during infection, which will be very useful for the treatment and the diagnosis of the disease

Neonatal orbital frontal damage alters basal cortisol and emotional reactivity, but not stress reactive cortisol response, in adult rhesus monkeys

Rationale : Rodent studies indicate that the orbital and medial prefrontal cortex have an inhibitory control on the hypothalamic–pituitary–adrenal (HPA) axis, by restraining the acute stress response and facilitating negative feedback inhibition, which can also affect its basal tone of activity. Similarly in humans, extent of damage to the medial prefrontal cortex correlates negatively with cortisol levels. However, lesions of the orbital frontal cortex (OFC) in adult monkeys resulted in no effects on HPA activity. In the present study, we assessed the effects of neonatal OFC lesions on emotional and HPA reactivity to an acute stressor. Methods : Subjects received bilateral aspiration lesions of orbital frontal areas 11 and 13 (Neo-Oasp, n=5) or sham operations (Neo-C, n=6) between 7 and 14 days of age. Upon reaching adulthood (6–8 years), emotional responses were examined using the Human Intruder (HI) paradigm given at 7: 00 hr for all animals and blood samples were collected immediately before and after the stressor to assess HPA axis reactivity. Two days prior to the HI test, two blood samples were collected at the same time of day but without the stressor. Diurnal cortisol rhythm was assessed one year later with blood samples collected at Lights-On (7:00 hr), Mid-day (13:00hr), and Lights-Off (19:00hr). Results : In the presence of the HI, Neo-Oasp animals exhibited less species typical defensive freezing responses as compared to controls (Group: F[1,9] = 14.43, p=0.004), yet they exhibited more hostility throughout the test (Group: F[1,9] = 5.45, p=0.044). Groups did not differ in their neuroendocrine response to the HI, showing a significant increase in cortisol after the stressor as compared to baseline (F[1,9] = 22.08, p=0.001). To control for individual variability and determine that changes in hormone levels were not due to handling or sampling technique, blood samples taken without the stressor revealed that Neo-Oasp animals exhibited lower cortisol at Lights-On compared to Neo-C animals (F[1,9] = 6.01, p=0.037). This lower basal HPA activity was also observed when the diurnal cortisol rhythm was later investigated in the same animals (Group×Time of Day F[2,18] = 3.81, p=0.042). Conclusion : Results indicate that OFC damage in infancy alters emotional behaviors as well as basal but not stress reactive HPA axis function