Should I Stay or Should I Go? A Habitat-Dependent Dispersal Kernel Improves Prediction of Movement

The analysis of animal movement within different landscapes may increase our understanding of how landscape features affect the perceptual range of animals. Perceptual range is linked to movement probability of an animal via a dispersal kernel, the latter being generally considered as spatially invariant but could be spatially affected. We hypothesize that spatial plasticity of an animal's dispersal kernel could greatly modify its distribution in time and space. After radio tracking the movements of walking insects (Cosmopolites sordidus) in banana plantations, we considered the movements of individuals as states of a Markov chain whose transition probabilities depended on the habitat characteristics of current and target locations. Combining a likelihood procedure and pattern-oriented modelling, we tested the hypothesis that dispersal kernel depended on habitat features. Our results were consistent with the concept that animal dispersal kernel depends on habitat features. Recognizing the plasticity of animal movement probabilities will provide insight into landscape-level ecological processes

Canagliflozin and Renal Outcomes in Type 2 Diabetes and Nephropathy

BACKGROUND Type 2 diabetes mellitus is the leading cause of kidney failure worldwide, but few effective long-term treatments are available. In cardiovascular trials of inhibitors of sodium–glucose cotransporter 2 (SGLT2), exploratory results have suggested that such drugs may improve renal outcomes in patients with type 2 diabetes. METHODS In this double-blind, randomized trial, we assigned patients with type 2 diabetes and albuminuric chronic kidney disease to receive canagliflozin, an oral SGLT2 inhibitor, at a dose of 100 mg daily or placebo. All the patients had an estimated glomerular filtration rate (GFR) of 30 to 300 to 5000) and were treated with renin–angiotensin system blockade. The primary outcome was a composite of end-stage kidney disease (dialysis, transplantation, or a sustained estimated GFR of <15 ml per minute per 1.73 m 2), a doubling of the serum creatinine level, or death from renal or cardiovascular causes. Prespecified secondary outcomes were tested hierarchically. RESULTS The trial was stopped early after a planned interim analysis on the recommendation of the data and safety monitoring committee. At that time, 4401 patients had undergone randomization, with a median follow-up of 2.62 years. The relative risk of the primary outcome was 30% lower in the canagliflozin group than in the placebo group, with event rates of 43.2 and 61.2 per 1000 patient-years, respectively (hazard ratio, 0.70; 95% confidence interval [CI], 0.59 to 0.82; P=0.00001). The relative risk of the renal-specific composite of end-stage kidney disease, a doubling of the creatinine level, or death from renal causes was lower by 34% (hazard ratio, 0.66; 95% CI, 0.53 to 0.81; P<0.001), and the relative risk of end-stage kidney disease was lower by 32% (hazard ratio, 0.68; 95% CI, 0.54 to 0.86; P=0.002). The canagliflozin group also had a lower risk of cardiovascular death, myocardial infarction, or stroke (hazard ratio, 0.80; 95% CI, 0.67 to 0.95; P=0.01) and hospitalization for heart failure (hazard ratio, 0.61; 95% CI, 0.47 to 0.80; P<0.001). There were no significant differences in rates of amputation or fracture. CONCLUSIONS In patients with type 2 diabetes and kidney disease, the risk of kidney failure and cardiovascular events was lower in the canagliflozin group than in the placebo group at a median follow-up of 2.62 years

Islamic Politics between Dissent and Power: An Overview

For much of the 20th century, Islamic politics appeared to lie beyond the pale of legitimate politics in many Muslim-majority states. This book brings about a more a serious understanding of Islamic politics by critically tracing the pathways by which Islamic politics has been transformed in the Middle East and Asia. Through the exploration of dissent and power it argues that Islamic politics had not been encased in ineffectual dissent even before the 'Arab Spring' took the Middle-East closer to historical trends of democratization elsewhere in the world.The findings from country-specific studies of Algeria, Egypt, Indonesia, Iran, Malaysia, Morocco, Pakistan, Tunisia and Turkey demonstrate that Islamic politics has developed a large and resilient capacity for adaptation and reinvention not only in the Middle-East but in Asia as well. Moreover, the international spectrum of Islamic politics stretches from marginalized dissent to established government with political parties and movements competing to different degrees of success for power, frequently by electoral means.This study traces and explains the collective progression of Islamic politics between points of dissent and positions of power, a subject that has not been directly or systematically covered by the extensive literature on Islam and politics

Hexose-6-phosphate dehydrogenase: a new risk gene for multiple sclerosis

A recent genome-wide association study (GWAS) performed by the The Wellcome Trust Case–Control Consortium based on 12 374 nonsynonymous single-nucleotide polymorphisms (SNPs) provided evidence for several genes involved in multiple sclerosis (MS) susceptibility. In this study, we aimed at verifying the association of 19 SNPs with MS, with P-values ≤0.005, in an independent cohort of 732 patients and 974 controls, all Caucasian from the South of Spain. We observed an association of the rs17368528 polymorphism with MS (P=0.04, odds ratio (OR)=0.801, 95% confidence interval (CI)=0.648–0.990). The association of this polymorphism with MS was further validated in an independent set of 1318 patients from the Canadian Collaborative Project (P=0.04, OR=0.838, 95% CI=0.716–0.964). This marker is located on chromosome 1p36.22, which is 1 Mb away from the MS-associated kinesin motor protein KIF1B, although linkage disequilibrium was not observed between these two markers. The rs17368528 SNP results in an amino-acid substitution (proline to leucine) in the fifth exon of the hexose-6-phosphate dehydrogenase (H6PD) gene, in which some variants have been reported to attenuate or abolish H6PD activity, in individuals with cortisone reductase deficiency. This study corroborates the association of one locus determined by GWAS and points to H6PD as a new candidate gene for MS

Evidence for positive density-dependent emigration in butterfly metapopulations

A positive effect of (meta)population density on emigration has been predicted by many theoretical models and confirmed empirically in various organisms. However, in butterflies, the most popular species for dispersal studies, the evidence for its existence has so far been equivocal, with negative relationships between density and emigration being reported more frequently. We analysed dispersal in sympatric metapopulations of two Maculinea butterflies, intensively surveyed with mark–release–recapture methods for 7 years. Dispersal parameters, derived using the virtual migration model, were assessed against butterfly densities, which fluctuated strongly over the study period. Emigration was positively correlated with density, and this effect was particularly strong at densities above carrying capacity, when emigration increased up to threefold in females and twofold in males compared with the normal levels. In turn, density had little impact on other dispersal parameters analysed. Our findings provide good evidence for positive density-dependence of emigration in butterflies. Emigrating at high densities is particularly beneficial for females, because it gives them a chance to lay part of their egg-load in less crowded patches, where offspring survival is higher due to lower intraspecific competition. Even though the rise in emigration becomes considerable at densities exceeding carrying capacity, i.e. relatively infrequently, it still has serious implications for many ecological phenomena, such as species range expansions, gene flow, and metapopulation persistence. Consequently, instead of treating emigration as a fixed trait, it is worth allowing for its density-dependence in applications such as population viability analyses, genetic models or metapopulation models