Community attitudes towards Amur tigers (Panthera tigris altaica) and their prey species in Yanbian, Jilin province, a region of northeast China where tigers are returning

Community attitudes towards large carnivores are of central importance to their conservation in human-dominated landscapes. In this study, we evaluate community attitudes and perceptions towards the Amur tiger (Panthera tigris altaica), Amur leopard (Panthera pardus orientalis) and bears (Ursus thibetanus and Ursus arctos), as well as their prey species, namely sika deer (Cervus nippon), roe deer and wild boar (Sus scrofa), in Yanbian Korean Autonomous Prefecture, Jilin province, northeast China. We surveyed 139 households and found that community members' perceptions of large carnivores and their prey species were influenced by their predominant economic activities; their prior interactions with wildlife; their household income level; and whether they were either long-term residents of Yanbian or had migrated to the region from elsewhere in China. We recorded fairly neutral attitudes towards large carnivores among the communities we surveyed, but strongly negative attitudes were shown towards wild boar, particularly where respondents had lost agricultural products to crop raiding by wild boar. We recommend conservation stakeholders in northeast China utilise this finding to encourage support for large carnivore recovery and conservation by targeting messaging around the importance of the tiger as a key predator of wild boar in the ecosystem. Furthermore, our findings suggest that government provided compensation paid for cattle lost to large carnivore predation (notably, by tigers) may be helping to reduce animosity from cattle owners towards large carnivores. However, we also highlight that compensation for loss of livestock is therefore performing a useful role in mitigating human-wildlife conflict, that there are potentially unintended consequences of the current compensation program, for example it fails to dissuade livestock grazing in protected areas

Identification of a novel antiapoptotic protein that antagonizes ASK1 and CAD activities

Diverse stimuli initiate the activation of apoptotic signaling pathways that often causes nuclear DNA fragmentation. Here, we report a new antiapoptotic protein, a caspase-activated DNase (CAD) inhibitor that interacts with ASK1 (CIIA). CIIA, by binding to apoptosis signal-regulating kinase 1 (ASK1), inhibits oligomerization-induced ASK1 activation. CIIA also associates with CAD and inhibits the nuclease activity of CAD without affecting caspase-3–mediated ICAD cleavage. Overexpressed CIIA reduces H2O2- and tumor necrosis factor-α–induced apoptosis. CIIA antisense oligonucleotides, which abolish expression of endogenous CIIA in murine L929 cells, block the inhibitory effect of CIIA on ASK1 activation, deoxyribonucleic acid fragmentation, and apoptosis. These findings suggest that CIIA is an endogenous antagonist of both ASK1- and CAD-mediated signaling

Meningeal Relapse in a Patient with Acute Promyelocytic Leukemia: A Case Report and Review of the Literature

The involvement of central nervous system is rare in acute promyelocytic leukemia (APL). We report a APL patient of a 41 yr-old Korean male who presented with fever and petechia. Complete molecular remission was achieved with all-trans retinoic acid (ATRA), idarubicin, and cytarabine. Ten months later, he complained of a mild headache. The results of the physical examination and the complete blood counts were normal. The examination of cerebrospinal fluid showed the presence of promyelocyte. Bone marrow studies showed cytogenetic remission but with molecular relapse. He was treated with intrathecal and systemic chemotherapy

The Hematologic Response to Anti-apoptotic Cytokine Therapy: Results of Pentoxifylline, Ciprofloxacin, and Dexamethasone Treatment for Patients with Myelodysplastic Syndrome

TNF-α mediated apoptosis of the hematopoietic cells has been thought to contribute to the ineffective hematopoiesis observed in myelodysplastic syndrome (MDS). The combination of pentoxifylline (P) and ciprofloxacin (C) has been shown to reduce the serum levels of TNF-α, and an earlier trial of P and C with dexamethasone (D) provided good palliation for patients with MDS. The purpose of this study is to assess the hematologic response to PCD therapy for patients suffering with MDS. 21 of 25 patients who completed at least of 12 weeks of treatment were evaluable for the treatment efficacy. At baseline, the patient's median age was 60 yr (range: 18-75 yr). The diagnoses according to WHO classification included: RA (n=5), RCMD (n=10), RARS (n=1), RCMD/RS (n=1), RAEB (3), and CMML (n=1). 11 patients (52%) had at least single lineage response. 3 patients (11%) showed improvement of triple lineage cytopenia. There were no differences in the response rates between the FAB subtypes. The median time to response was 4 weeks (range: 2-12 weeks), and it is interesting that 9 of 11 patients who had a response remained without relapse for a median of 177 days (range: 78-634 days). These preliminary results indicate that anti-cytokine therapy with PCD is an effective and well tolerated palliative treatment for patients with MDS

Candida haemulonii and Closely Related Species at 5 University Hospitals in Korea: Identification, Antifungal Susceptibility, and Clinical Features

Background. Candida haemulonii, a yeast species that often exhibits antifungal resistance, rarely causes human infection. During 2004-2006, unusual yeast isolates with phenotypic similarity to C. haemulonii were recovered from 23 patients (8 patients with fungemia and 15 patients with chronic otitis media) in 5 hospitals in Korea. Methods. Isolates were characterized using D1/D2 domain and ITS gene sequencing, and the susceptibility of the isolates to 6 antifungal agents was tested in vitro. Results. Gene sequencing of the blood isolates confirmed C. haemulonii group I (in 1 patient) and Candida pseudohaemulonii (in 7 patients), whereas all isolates recovered from the ear were a novel species of which C. haemulonii is its closest relative. The minimum inhibitory concentration (MIC) ranges of amphotericin B, fluconazole, itraconazole, and voriconazole for all isolates were 0.5-32 mu g/mL (MIC(50), 1 mu g/mL), 2-128 mu g/mL (MIC(50), 4 mu g/mL), 0.125-4 mu g/mL (MIC(50), 0.25 mu g/mL), and 0.03-2 mu g/mL (MIC(50), 0.06 mu g/mL), respectively. All isolates were susceptible to caspofungin (MIC, 0.125-0.25 mu g/mL) and micafungin (MIC, 0.03-0.06 mu g/mL). All cases of fungemia occurred in patients with severe underlying diseases who had central venous catheters. Three patients developed breakthrough fungemia while receiving antifungal therapy, and amphotericin B therapeutic failure, which was associated with a high MIC of amphotericin B (32 mu g/mL), was observed in 2 patients. Conclusions. Candida species that are closely related to C. haemulonii are emerging sources of infection in Korea. These species show variable patterns of susceptibility to amphotericin B and azole antifungal agents.Shin JH, 2007, J CLIN MICROBIOL, V45, P2385, DOI 10.1128/JCM.00381-07Khan ZU, 2007, J CLIN MICROBIOL, V45, P2025, DOI 10.1128/JCM.00222-07Lee JS, 2007, J CLIN MICROBIOL, V45, P1005, DOI 10.1128/JCM.02264-06Pfaller MA, 2006, J CLIN MICROBIOL, V44, P819, DOI 10.1128/JCM.44.3.819-826.2006Sugita T, 2006, MICROBIOL IMMUNOL, V50, P469Clancy CJ, 2005, ANTIMICROB AGENTS CH, V49, P3171, DOI 10.1128/AAC.49.8.3171-3177.2005Odds FC, 2004, J CLIN MICROBIOL, V42, P3475, DOI 10.1128/JCM.42.8.3475-3482.2004Rodero L, 2002, J CLIN MICROBIOL, V40, P2266, DOI 10.1128/JCM.40.6.2266-2269.2002*CLSI, 2002, M27A2 CLSISugita T, 1999, J CLIN MICROBIOL, V37, P1985Pfaller MA, 1998, DIAGN MICR INFEC DIS, V32, P223Nguyen MH, 1998, J INFECT DIS, V177, P425Kurtzman CP, 1997, J CLIN MICROBIOL, V35, P1216LEHMANN PF, 1993, J CLIN MICROBIOL, V31, P1683GARGEYA IB, 1991, J MED VET MYCOL, V29, P335

Is the Environment of the Endoscopy Unit a Reservoir of Pathogens?

Background/AimsGiven the characteristic procedures involved in the endoscopy unit, the spread of pathogens is much more frequent in this unit than in other environments. However, there is a lack of data elucidating the existence of pathogens in the endoscopy unit. The aim of this study was to detect the presence of possible pathogens in the endoscopy unit.MethodsWe performed environmental culture using samples from the endoscopy rooms of 2 tertiary hospitals. We used sterile cotton-tipped swabs moistened with sterile saline to swab the surfaces of 197 samples. Then, we cultured the swab in blood agar plate. Samples from the colonoscopy room were placed in thioglycollate broth to detect the presence of anaerobes. After 2 weeks of culture period, we counted the colony numbers.ResultsThe most commonly contaminated spots were the doctor's keyboard, nurse's cart, and nurse's mouse. The common organisms found were non-pathogenic bacterial microorganisms Staphylococcus, Micrococcus, and Streptococcus spp.. No definite anaerobe organism was detected in the colonoscopy room.ConclusionsAlthough the organisms detected in the endoscopy unit were mainly non-pathogenic organisms, they might cause opportunistic infections in immunocompromised patients. Therefore, the environment of the endoscopy room should be managed appropriately; moreover, individual hand hygiene is important for preventing possible hospital-acquired infections

개도국 REDD+ MRV를 위한 지상 바이오매스 디폴트 값 개발

학위논문 (석사)-- 서울대학교 대학원 : 생태조경·지역시스템공학부(생태조경학), 2014. 2. 이동근.Tropical forests contain 25% of the carbon in the terrestrial biosphere covering 15% of the worlds lands, however, roughly 13 million hectares of the tropical forests are converted into other land use each year and being responsible for about 20%of global carbon emissions. Since the traditional approach of tackling deforestation and forest degradation is considered to be ineffective as the phenomenon continue unabated, a new mechanism – REDD+ (Reducing Emission from Deforestation and forest Degradation, enhancing forest carbon stocks) – has been introduced that enables developing countries to be financially compensated for achieving emission reduction from the activities associated with decreasing deforestation and forest degradation. In order to account the carbon emission reduction from the forests, developing countries need detailed data and information regarding their tropical forests, nonetheless, the forest inventory is yet to be established in most of developing countries. Consequently, many REDD+ project developers use default value that are provided by IPCC to account forest biomass and carbon putting up with high uncertainty and low credibility. Carbon accounted with low credible method is difficult to be acknowledged as valid credit in international carbon market and hard to be compensated with financial benefit. To alleviate such problem, this research aims to develop country-specific aboveground biomass default value of higher accuracy by reflecting country and regional forest data that are available in public. As East Kalimantan a sample case, first, forest in East Kalimantan was classified based on their floristic zone by DEM and their forest cover by group of trees. Secondly, in accordance with the forest classification information and collected species-specific destructive sampling data of East Kalimantan forest, allometric equation for each forest classification was developed. Thirdly, representative DBH size and tree density for each classification type were found to derive aboveground biomass default value for each forest classification. Results indicated that East Kalimantan forest is mostly dominated by lowland and hill dipterocarp species having an altitude below 800m. However, significant area of primary dipterocarp forest have been disturbed by both natural factors and human activities and transformed into secondary forest, which mostly is dominated by few pioneer species. Forest in East Kalimantan could classified into primary forest dominated with lowland and hill dipterocarp species and secondary forest dominated with pioneer species. Allometric relationship for mixed dipterocarp species was found to be y = 0.837(DBH2) - 16.472(DBH) + 276.28, whereas pioneer species was y = -0.023(DBH3) + 0.872(DBH2) - 5.212(DBH) + 10.970. With the mean value of DBH and tree density, the mean aboveground biomass default value in East Kalimantan was found to be 611.22 t/ha for primary forest with dipterocarp species, and 2.25 t/ha for secondary forest with pioneer species. Comparing the default value with the other models that are commonly used to estimate tropical forest biomass in the field, the default value seemed to underestimate forest biomass yet comparable to the other values. For the fact that IPCC aboveground biomass default value for East Kalimantan is 320 t/ha, using IPCC default value could highly underestimate or overestimate forest biomass in East Kalimantan depending on the forest type. In order to estimate forest biomass and carbon with higher accuracy in national level, following research should be extended to national scale and provided to the project developers suffering for forest data limitation, hence to offer them a chance to negotiate for financial compensation in international carbon market.Table of contents 1. Introduction 1.1 Research background and objectives 1.2 Related researches 1.2.1 Development of REDD+ 1.2.2 Monitoring, Reporting and Verification (MRV) system for REDD+ 1.2.3 Data availability in developing countries and IPCC default data 1.2.4 REDD+ in Indonesia 2. Data and Methodologies 2.1 Study Site 2.2 Research framework 2.3 Data Collection 2.4 Methodologies 2.4.1 Forest classification 2.4.2 Drawing allometric equation for each forest type 2.4.3 Develop AGB default values for each forest type 3. Results 3.1 Forest classification in East Kalimantan 3.2 Allometric equations 3.3 Default values 3.4 Comparing the value to previously published value 4. Discussion 5. Conclusion 6. ReferencesMaste