Detecting and understanding non-compliance with conservation rules

AbstractThis paper establishes the context for the special issue, “Detecting and Understanding Violations of Conservation Rules”. Illicit or non-compliant human behaviors may occur in all ecosystems and range from subsistence illegal resource collection to poaching by organized criminal syndicates. Such acts have an enormous impact on social–ecological systems, but monitoring non-compliance is challenging, primarily because the topic is sensitive and victims are voiceless. The future of many conservation areas depends upon compliance with conservation rules. However, with a growing human population, consumptive societies, and rapid expansion of business opportunities fueled by new technology, there is little doubt that demand will remain steady or increase for many of our natural resources. We outline major conservation compliance issues and impacts, and review models and methods used to monitor and respond to the problem for both subsistence and commercial non-compliance

Climbers for Bat Conservation: creating a citizen science program in Red River Gorge Kentucky

In recent years, North American bat populations have been presented with new conservation threats including white-nose syndrome. As these threats continue to impact bats it is important to locate and study these populations. Though most bats tend to roost and hibernate in caves, still many roost in cracks, crevices, and other hard to reach places. Rock climbers recreate on a large array of rock features that are inaccessible or unknown to bat biologists and could serve as a valuable resource in identifying the location of bat species for conservation efforts. Yet, developing and maintaining a productive relationship between recreationists and the conservation community can be challenging, making environmental communication vital to successful collaborative efforts. We explored rock climbers' willingness to participate in a citizen science program for reporting bat sightings through Climbers for Bat Conservation (CBC) while at Red River Gorge (RRG), Kentucky. We utilized a mixed methods case study consisting of a world café facilitated dialog with members of a local climbing organization, bat biologists, land managers, and landowners (n = 18) as well as semi-structured interview data (n = 12) collected at a local climbing festival. Results indicate mutual importance given to bats, climbing, and conservation from world café attendees. Additionally, attendees identified three key parts of a bat observation that would be critical data for rock climbers to report which included presence of a bat, the location, and the climbing route name. Finally, attendees identified having a local climbing ranger or climbing liaison as important to organizing other climbers to submit data. Interview data revealed that the most mentioned barriers to submitting a bat report were awareness of CBC, time, convenience, forgetfulness, fear of route closures, and access to a phone. A discussion follows detailing how this information may be used to further the design and implementation of a citizen science program as well as increase climber engagement at RRG

The Distribution and Origin of Smooth Plains on Mercury

Orbital images from the MESSENGER spacecraft show that ~27% of Mercury's surface is covered by smooth plains, the majority (greater than 65%) of which are interpreted to be volcanic in origin. Most smooth plains share the spectral characteristics of Mercury's northern smooth plains, suggesting they also share their magnesian alkali-basalt-like composition. A smaller fraction of smooth plains interpreted to be volcanic in nature have a lower reflectance and shallower spectral slope, suggesting more ultramafic compositions, an inference that implies high temperatures and high degrees of partial melting in magma source regions persisted through most of the duration of smooth plains formation. The knobby and hummocky plains surrounding the Caloris basin, known as Odin-type plains, occupy an additional 2% of Mercury’s surface. The morphology of these plains and their color and stratigraphic relationships suggest that they formed as Caloris ejecta, although such an origin is in conflict with a straightforward interpretation of crater size-frequency distributions. If some fraction is volcanic, this added area would substantially increase the abundance of relatively young effusive deposits inferred to have more mafic compositions. Smooth plains are widespread on Mercury, but they are more heavily concentrated in the north and in the hemisphere surrounding Caloris. No simple relationship between plains distribution and crustal thickness or radioactive element distribution is observed. A likely volcanic origin for some older terrain on Mercury suggests that the uneven distribution of smooth plains may indicate differences in the emplacement age of large-scale volcanic deposits rather than differences in crustal formational process

Recombination and positive selection identified in complete genome sequences of Japanese encephalitis virus

The mosquito-borne Japanese encephalitis virus (JEV) causes encephalitis in man but not in pigs. Complete genomes of a human, mosquito and pig isolate from outbreaks in 1982 and 1985 in Thailand were sequenced with the aim of identifying determinants of virulence that may explain the differences in outcomes of JEV infection between pigs and man. Phylogenetic analysis revealed that five of these isolates belonged to genotype I, but the 1982 mosquito isolate belonged to genotype III. There was no evidence of recombination among the Thai isolates, but there were phylogenetic signals suggestive of recombination in a 1994 Korean isolate (K94P05). Two sites of the genome under positive selection were identified: codons 996 and 2296 (amino acids 175 of the non-structural protein NS1 and 24 of NS4B, respectively). A structurally significant substitution was seen at NS4B position 24 of the human isolate compared with the mosquito and pig isolates from the 1985 outbreak in Thailand. The potential importance of the two sites in the evolution and ecology of JEV merits further investigation

Pre-post effects of a tetanus care protocol implementation in a sub-Saharan African intensive care unit.

BACKGROUND: Tetanus is a vaccine-preventable, neglected disease that is life threatening if acquired and occurs most frequently in regions where vaccination coverage is incomplete. Challenges in vaccination coverage contribute to the occurrence of non-neonatal tetanus in sub-Saharan countries, with high case fatality rates. The current WHO recommendations for the management of tetanus include close patient monitoring, administration of immune globulin, sedation, analgesia, wound hygiene and airway support [1]. In response to these recommendations, our tertiary referral hospital in Tanzania implemented a standardized clinical protocol for care of patients with tetanus in 2006 and a subsequent modification in 2012. In this study we aimed to assess the impact of the protocol on clinical care of tetanus patients and their outcomes. METHODS AND FINDINGS: We examined provision of care and outcomes among all patients admitted with non-neonatal tetanus to the ICU at Bugando Medical Centre between 2001 and 2016 in this retrospective cohort study. We compared three groups: the pre-protocol group (2001-2005), the Early protocol group (2006-2011), and the Late protocol group (2012-2016) and determined associations with mortality by univariable logistic regression. We observed a significant increase in provision of care as per protocol between the Early and Late groups. Patients in the Late group had a significantly higher utilization of mechanical ventilation (69.9% vs 22.0%, p40%). Institution of a standardized tetanus management protocol, in accordance with WHO recommendations, decreased immediate mortality related to primary causes of death after tetanus. However, this was offset by an increase in death due to later ICU complications such as sepsis. Our results illustrate the complexity in achieving mortality reduction even in illnesses thought to require few critical care interventions. Improving basic ICU care and strengthening vaccination programs to prevent tetanus altogether are essential components of efforts to decrease the mortality caused by this lethal, neglected disease

The prevalence and functional impact of musculoskeletal conditions amongst clients of a primary health care facility in an under-resourced area of Cape Town

BACKGROUND:The extent of disease burden of musculoskeletal conditions (MSC) not due to injury has not been well determined in sub-Saharan Africa. The 1999 Global Burden of Disease study estimated the prevalence of osteoarthritis and rheumatoid arthritis to be 150/100,000 compared to 1,500/100,000 in Europe. The objective of the study was to determine the prevalence of MSC and the functional implications in a sample of people attending community health centres in Cape Town, South Africa. METHODS: A cross-sectional, descriptive study was conducted in clinics in two resource poor communities. Phase I consisted of screening and those who screened positive for peripheral or spinal joint pain went on to complete Phase II, which included the Stanford Health Assessment Questionnaire. RESULTS: 1005 people were screened in Phase I. Of these, 362 (36%) reported MSC not due to injury in the past three months. Those with MSC had higher rates of co-morbidities in every category than those without. The mean Disability Index for those with MSC was mild to moderate and moderate to severe in those over 55 years. CONCLUSIONS: Although the sample may not be representative of the general community, the prevalence is considerably greater than those reported elsewhere even when the population of the catchment area is used as a denominator, (367/100 000). The common presentation of MSC with co-morbid diabetes and hypertension requires holistic management by appropriately trained health care practitioners. Any new determination of burden of disease due to MSC should recognise that these disorders may be more prevalent in developing countries than previously estimated

A unique population of effector memory lymphocytes identified by CD146 having a distinct immunophenotypic and genomic profile

<p>Abstract</p> <p>Background</p> <p>CD146 is a well described homotypic adhesion molecule found on endothelial cells and a limited number of other cell types. In cells from the peripheral circulation, CD146 has also been reported to be on activated lymphocytes <it>in vitro </it>and <it>in vivo</it>. The function associated with CD146 expression on lymphoid cells is unknown and very little information is available concerning the nature of CD146+ lymphocytes. In the current study, lymphocytes from healthy donors were characterized based upon the presence or absence of CD146 expression.</p> <p>Results</p> <p>CD146 was expressed on a low percentage of circulating T lymphocytes, B lymphocytes, and NK cells in healthy individuals. CD146 expression can be induced and upregulated <it>in vitro </it>on both B cells and T cells, but does not correlate with the expression of other markers of T cell activation. CD146 positive T cells do not represent clonal expansions as determined with the use of anti Vβ reagents. Data suggest that CD146 positive cells have enhanced adherence to endothelial monolayers in vitro. Gene profiling and immunophenotyping studies between CD146+ and CD146- T cells revealed several striking genotypic distinctions such as the upregulation of IL-8 and phenotypic differences including the paucity of CCR7 and CD45RA among CD146 positive T cells, consistent with effector memory function. A number of genes involved in cell adhesion, signal transduction, and cell communication are dramatically upregulated in CD146+ T cells compared to CD146- T cells.</p> <p>Conclusion</p> <p>CD146 appears to identify small, unique populations of T as well as B lymphocytes in the circulation. The T cells have immunophenotypic characteristics of effector memory lymphocytes. The characteristics of these CD146+ lymphocytes in the circulation, together with the known functions in cell adhesion of CD146 on endothelial cells, suggests that these lymphocytes may represent a small subpopulation of cells primed to adhere to the endothelium and possibly extravasate to sites of inflammation.</p

ADAM17 Deletion in Thymic Epithelial Cells Alters Aire Expression without Affecting T Cell Developmental Progression

Cellular interactions between thymocytes and thymic stromal cells are critical for normal T cell development. Thymic epithelial cells (TECs) are important stromal niche cells that provide essential growth factors, cytokines, and present self-antigens to developing thymocytes. The identification of genes that mediate cellular crosstalk in the thymus is ongoing. One candidate gene, Adam17, encodes a metalloprotease that functions by cleaving the ectodomain of several transmembrane proteins and regulates various developmental processes. In conventional Adam17 knockout mice, a non-cell autonomous role for ADAM17 in adult T cell development was reported, which strongly suggested that expression of ADAM17 in TECs was required for normal T cell development. However, knockdown of Adam17 results in multisystem developmental defects and perinatal lethality, which has made study of the role of Adam17 in specific cell types difficult. Here, we examined T cell and thymic epithelial cell development using a conditional knockout approach.We generated an Adam17 conditional knockout mouse in which floxed Adam17 is deleted specifically in TECs by Cre recombinase under the control of the Foxn1 promoter. Normal T cell lineage choice and development through the canonical αβ T cell stages was observed. Interestingly, Adam17 deficiency in TECs resulted in reduced expression of the transcription factor Aire. However, no alterations in the patterns of TEC phenotypic marker expression and thymus morphology were noted.In contrast to expectation, our data clearly shows that absence of Adam17 in TECs is dispensable for normal T cell development. Differentiation of TECs is also unaffected by loss of Adam17 based on phenotypic markers. Surprisingly, we have uncovered a novel genetic link between Adam17and Aire expression in vivo. The cell type in which ADAM17 mediates its non-cell autonomous impact and the mechanisms by which it regulates intrathymic T cell development remain to be identified

HIV and pre-neoplastic and neoplastic lesions of the cervix in South Africa: a case-control study

BACKGROUND: Cervical cancer and infection with human immunodeficiency virus (HIV) are both major public health problems in South Africa. The aim of this study was to determine the risk of cervical pre-cancer and cancer among HIV positive women in South Africa. METHODS: Data were derived from a case-control study that examined the association between hormonal contraceptives and invasive cervical cancer. The study was conducted in the Western Cape (South Africa), from January 1998 to December 2001. There were 486 women with invasive cervical cancer, 103 control women with atypical squamous cells of undetermined significance (ASCUS), 53 with low-grade squamous intraepithelial lesions (LSIL), 50 with high-grade squamous intraepithelial lesions (HSIL) and 1159 with normal cytology. Odds ratios (OR) and 95% confidence intervals (CI) were calculated using multiple logistic regression. RESULTS: The adjusted odds ratios associated with HIV infection were: 4.4 [95% CI (2.3 – 8.4) for ASCUS, 7.4 (3.5 – 15.7) for LSIL, 5.8 (2.4 – 13.6) for HSIL and 1.17 (0.75 – 1.85) for invasive cervical cancer. HIV positive women were nearly 5 times more likely to have high-risk human papillomavirus infection (HR-HPV) present compared to HIV negative women [OR 4.6 (95 % CI 2.8 – 7.5)]. Women infected with both HIV and high-risk HPV had a more than 40 fold higher risk of SIL than women infected with neither of these viruses. CONCLUSION: HIV positive women were at an increased risk of cervical pre-cancer, but did not demonstrate an excess risk of invasive cervical cancer. An interaction between HIV and HR-HPV infection was demonstrated. Our findings underscore the importance of developing locally relevant screening and management guidelines for HIV positive women in South Africa