Toward Human-Carnivore Coexistence: Understanding Tolerance for Tigers in Bangladesh

Fostering local community tolerance for endangered carnivores, such as tigers (Panthera tigris), is a core component of many conservation strategies. Identification of antecedents of tolerance will facilitate the development of effective tolerance-building conservation action and secure local community support for, and involvement in, conservation initiatives. We use a stated preference approach for measuring tolerance, based on the ‘Wildlife Stakeholder Acceptance Capacity’ concept, to explore villagers’ tolerance levels for tigers in the Bangladesh Sundarbans, an area where, at the time of the research, human-tiger conflict was severe. We apply structural equation modeling to test an a priori defined theoretical model of tolerance and identify the experiential and psychological basis of tolerance in this community. Our results indicate that beliefs about tigers and about the perceived current tiger population trend are predictors of tolerance for tigers. Positive beliefs about tigers and a belief that the tiger population is not currently increasing are both associated with greater stated tolerance for the species. Contrary to commonly-held notions, negative experiences with tigers do not directly affect tolerance levels; instead, their effect is mediated by villagers’ beliefs about tigers and risk perceptions concerning human-tiger conflict incidents. These findings highlight a need to explore and understand the socio-psychological factors that encourage tolerance towards endangered species. Our research also demonstrates the applicability of this approach to tolerance research to a wide range of socio-economic and cultural contexts and reveals its capacity to enhance carnivore conservation efforts worldwide

A cross-sectional investigation of regional patterns of diet and cardio-metabolic risk in India

<p>Abstract</p> <p>Background</p> <p>The role of diet in India's rapidly progressing chronic disease epidemic is unclear; moreover, diet may vary considerably across North-South regions.</p> <p>Methods</p> <p>The India Health Study was a multicenter study of men and women aged 35-69, who provided diet, lifestyle, and medical histories, as well as blood pressure, fasting blood, urine, and anthropometric measurements. In each region (Delhi, n = 824; Mumbai, n = 743; Trivandrum, n = 2,247), we identified two dietary patterns with factor analysis. In multiple logistic regression models adjusted for age, gender, education, income, marital status, religion, physical activity, tobacco, alcohol, and total energy intake, we investigated associations between regional dietary patterns and abdominal adiposity, hypertension, diabetes, and dyslipidemia.</p> <p>Results</p> <p>Across the regions, more than 80% of the participants met the criteria for abdominal adiposity and 10 to 28% of participants were considered diabetic. In Delhi, the "fruit and dairy" dietary pattern was positively associated with abdominal adiposity [highest versus lowest tertile, multivariate-adjusted OR and 95% CI: 2.32 (1.03-5.23); P_trend= 0.008] and hypertension [2.20 (1.47-3.31); P_trend< 0.0001]. In Trivandrum, the "pulses and rice" pattern was inversely related to diabetes [0.70 (0.51-0.95); P_trend= 0.03] and the "snacks and sweets" pattern was positively associated with abdominal adiposity [2.05 (1.34-3.14); P_trend= 0.03]. In Mumbai, the "fruit and vegetable" pattern was inversely associated with hypertension [0.63 (0.40-0.99); P_trend= 0.05] and the "snack and meat" pattern appeared to be positively associated with abdominal adiposity.</p> <p>Conclusions</p> <p>Cardio-metabolic risk factors were highly prevalent in this population. Across all regions, we found little evidence of a Westernized diet; however, dietary patterns characterized by animal products, fried snacks, or sweets appeared to be positively associated with abdominal adiposity. Conversely, more traditional diets in the Southern regions were inversely related to diabetes and hypertension. Continued investigation of diet, as well as other environmental and biological factors, will be needed to better understand the risk profile in this population and potential means of prevention.</p

Neoadjuvant chemotherapy in breast cancer-response evaluation and prediction of response to treatment using dynamic contrast-enhanced and diffusion-weighted MR imaging

Objective To explore the predictive value of MRI parameters and tumour characteristics before neoadjuvant chemotherapy (NAC) and to compare changes in tumour size and tumour apparent diffusion coefficient (ADC) during treatment, between patients who achieved pathological complete response (pCR) and those who did not. Methods Approval by the Regional Ethics Committee and written informed consent were obtained. Thirty-one patients with invasive breast carcinoma scheduled for NAC were enrolled (mean age, 50.7; range, 37–72). Study design included MRI before treatment (Tp0), after four cycles of NAC (Tp1) and before surgery (Tp2). Data in pCR versus non-pCR groups were compared and cut-off values for pCR prediction were evaluated. Results Before NAC, HER2 overexpression was the single significant predictor of pCR (p=0.006). At Tp1 ADC, tumour size and changes in tumour size were all significantly different in the pCR and non-pCR groups. Using 1.42×10−3 mm2/s as the cut-off value for ADC, pCR was predicted with sensitivity and specificity of 88% and 80%, respectively. Using a cut-off value of 83% for tumour volume reduction, sensitivity and specificity for pCR were 91% and 80%. Conclusion ADC, tumour size and tumour size reduction at Tp1 were strong independent predictors of pCR

Endophytic and epiphytic phyllosphere fungal communities are shaped by different environmental factors in a mediterranean ecosystem

The online version of this article (https://doi.org/10.1007/s00248-018-1161-9) contains supplementary material, which is available to authorized users.The diversity and factors influencing fimgal assemblages in phyllosphere of Mediterranean tree species have been barely studied, especially when endophytic and epiphytic communities are simultaneously considered. In this work, the endophytic and epiphytic fungal communities from olive tree phyllosphere were studied. This tree species is natural from the Mediterranean region and adapted to grow under adverse climatic conditions. The main objectives were to determine whether there are differences between both fungal communities and to examine whether different abiotic (climate-related) and biotic (plant organs) factors play a pivotal role in structuring these communities. Both communities differed in size and composition, with epiphytic community being richer and more abundant, displaying also a dominance of melanized fungi. Season was the major driver of community composition, especially of epiphytes. Other drivers shaping epiphytes were wind speed and temperature, while plant organ, rainfall, and temperature were the major drivers for endophytic composition. In contrast, canopy orientation caused slight variations in community composition of fungi, but with distinct effects in spring and autumn seasons. In conclusion, epiphytic and endophytic communities are not driven by the same factors. Several sources of variation undergo complex interactions to form and maintain phyllosphere fungal community in Mediterranean climates. Climatic parameters have influence on these fungal communities, suggesting that they are likely to be affected by climate changes in a near future.This work is funded by FEDER funds through COMPETE (Programa Operacional Factores de Competitividade) and by national funds by FCT (Fundacao para a Ciencia e a Tecnologia) within the framework of the project EXCL/AGR-PRO/0591/2012. T. Gomes thanks FCT, POPH-QREN, and FSE for PhD SFRH/BD/98127/2013 grant

Mycobacterium tuberculosis causing tuberculous lymphadenitis in Maputo, Mozambique

BACKGROUND: The zoonosis bovine tuberculosis (TB) is known to be responsible for a considerable proportion of extrapulmonary TB. In Mozambique, bovine TB is a recognised problem in cattle, but little has been done to evaluate how Mycobacterium bovis has contributed to human TB. We here explore the public health risk for bovine TB in Maputo, by characterizing the isolates from tuberculous lymphadenitis (TBLN) cases, a common manifestation of bovine TB in humans, in the Pathology Service of Maputo Central Hospital, in Mozambique, during one year. RESULTS: Among 110 patients suspected of having TBLN, 49 had a positive culture result. Of those, 48 (98 %) were positive for Mycobacterium tuberculosis complex and one for nontuberculous mycobacteria. Of the 45 isolates analysed by spoligotyping and Mycobacterial Interspersed Repetitive Unit - Variable Number Tandem Repeat (MIRU-VNTR), all were M. tuberculosis. No M. bovis was found. Cervical TBLN, corresponding to 39 (86.7 %) cases, was the main cause of TBLN and 66.7 % of those where from HIV positive patients. We found that TBLN in Maputo was caused by a variety of M. tuberculosis strains. The most prevalent lineage was the EAI (n?=?19; 43.2 %). Particular common spoligotypes were SIT 48 (EAI1_SOM sublineage), SIT 42 (LAM 9), SIT 1 (Beijing) and SIT53 (T1), similar to findings among pulmonary cases. CONCLUSIONS: M. tuberculosis was the main etiological agent of TBLN in Maputo. M. tuberculosis genotypes were similar to the ones causing pulmonary TB, suggesting that in Maputo, cases of TBLN arise from the same source as pulmonary TB, rather than from an external zoonotic source. Further research is needed on other forms of extrapulmonary TB and in rural areas where there is high prevalence of bovine TB in cattle, to evaluate the risk of transmission of M. bovis from cattle to humans.Swedish International Development Cooperation Agency / Department for Research Cooperation (Sida/SAREC) through Eduardo Mondlane University and Karolinska Institutet Research and Training (KIRT) collaboratio

Meta-analysis indicates that common variants at the DISC1 locus are not associated with schizophrenia

Several polymorphisms in the Disrupted-in-Schizophrenia-1 (DISC1) gene are reported to be associated with schizophrenia. However, to date, there has been little effort to evaluate the evidence for association systematically. We carried out an imputation-driven meta-analysis, the most comprehensive to date, using data collected from 10 candidate gene studies and three genome-wide association studies containing a total of 11 626 cases and 15 237 controls. We tested 1241 single-nucleotide polymorphisms in total, and estimated that our power to detect an effect from a variant with minor allele frequency >5% was 99% for an odds ratio of 1.5 and 51% for an odds ratio of 1.1. We find no evidence that common variants at the DISC1 locus are associated with schizophrenia

Functional proteomics can define prognosis and predict pathologic complete response in patients with breast cancer

<p>Abstract</p> <p>Purpose</p> <p>To determine whether functional proteomics improves breast cancer classification and prognostication and can predict pathological complete response (pCR) in patients receiving neoadjuvant taxane and anthracycline-taxane-based systemic therapy (NST).</p> <p>Methods</p> <p>Reverse phase protein array (RPPA) using 146 antibodies to proteins relevant to breast cancer was applied to three independent tumor sets. Supervised clustering to identify subgroups and prognosis in surgical excision specimens from a training set (n = 712) was validated on a test set (n = 168) in two cohorts of patients with primary breast cancer. A score was constructed using ordinal logistic regression to quantify the probability of recurrence in the training set and tested in the test set. The score was then evaluated on 132 FNA biopsies of patients treated with NST to determine ability to predict pCR.</p> <p>Results</p> <p>Six breast cancer subgroups were identified by a 10-protein biomarker panel in the 712 tumor training set. They were associated with different recurrence-free survival (RFS) (log-rank p = 8.8 E-10). The structure and ability of the six subgroups to predict RFS was confirmed in the test set (log-rank p = 0.0013). A prognosis score constructed using the 10 proteins in the training set was associated with RFS in both training and test sets (p = 3.2E-13, for test set). There was a significant association between the prognostic score and likelihood of pCR to NST in the FNA set (p = 0.0021).</p> <p>Conclusion</p> <p>We developed a 10-protein biomarker panel that classifies breast cancer into prognostic groups that may have potential utility in the management of patients who receive anthracycline-taxane-based NST.</p

Electrical modalities beyond pacing for the treatment of heart failure

In this review, we report on electrical modalities, which do not fit the definition of pacemaker, but increase cardiac performance either by direct application to the heart (e.g., post-extrasystolic potentiation or non-excitatory stimulation) or indirectly through activation of the nervous system (e.g., vagal or sympathetic activation). The physiological background of the possible mechanisms of these electrical modalities and their potential application to treat heart failure are discussed