Prospects for management of primate pests

Parmi les nombreux types de relations commensales entre l'homme et les primates non-humains, les plus problématiques sont aujourd'hui les situations de conflit. Au cours d'une étude de longue durée des babouins olive (Papio anubis) au Kenya, nous avons pu étudier la réponse de 4 troupes de babouins sauvages à l'irruption de l'agriculture. Nous avons expérimenté plusieurs techniques pour réduire les conflits ainsi créés. Le développement du comportement de pillage n'était pas inévitable, les babouins se montrant très prudents, à l'exception des individus ayant déjà consommé des aliments d'origine humaine. Nous avons observé diverses formes de réponse à cette perturbation d'origine agricole: accroissement du domaine vital, réduction de la taille des groupes, changement de zone, et enfin pillage comme ressource annexe ou principal

Educating Pharmacy Students to Improve Quality (EPIQ) in Colleges and Schools of Pharmacy

Objective. To assess course instructors’ and students’ perceptions of the Educating Pharmacy Students and Pharmacists to Improve Quality (EPIQ) curriculum. Methods. Seven colleges and schools of pharmacy that were using the EPIQ program in their curricula agreed to participate in the study. Five of the 7 collected student retrospective pre- and post-intervention questionnaires. Changes in students’ perceptions were evaluated to assess their relationships with demographics and course variables. Instructors who implemented the EPIQ program at each of the 7 colleges and schools were also asked to complete a questionnaire. Results. Scores on all questionnaire items indicated improvement in students’ perceived knowledge of quality improvement. The university the students attended, completion of a class project, and length of coverage of material were significantly related to improvement in the students’ scores. Instructors at all colleges and schools felt the EPIQ curriculum was a strong program that fulfilled the criteria for quality improvement and medication error reduction education. Conclusion. The EPIQ program is a viable, turnkey option for colleges and schools of pharmacy to use in teaching students about quality improvement

Beach erosion and accretion at Virginia Beach

This report is published to provide coastal engineers with a description of beach erosion and accretion at Virginia Beach, Virginia, including the effect of continuing beach replenishment, and the apparent unimportance of land use in determining erosion. This report also provides bench-mark data on coastal processes at the shore north of the CERC Field Research Facility at Duck, North Carolina. The work was carried out under the beach evaluation program of the U.S. Army Coastal Engineering Research Center (CERC)

Maternal Condition Does Not Influence Birth Sex Ratios in Anubis Baboons (Papio anubis)

Trivers and Willard predicted that when parental condition has differential effects on the fitness of male and female offspring, parents who are in good condition will bias investment toward the sex that benefits most from additional investment. Efforts to test predictions derived from Trivers and Willard's model have had mixed results, perhaps because most studies have relied on proxy measures of parental condition, such as dominance rank. Here, we examine the effects of female baboons condition on birth sex ratios and post-natal investment, based on visual assessments of maternal body condition. We find that local environmental conditions have significant effects on female condition, but maternal condition at conception has no consistent relationship with birth sex ratios. Mothers who are in poorer condition at the time of conception resume cycling significantly later than females who are in better condition, but the sex of their infants has no effect on the time to resumption of cycling. Thus, our findings provide strong evidence that maternal condition influences females' ability to reproduce, but females do not facultatively adjust the sex ratio of their offspring in relation to their dominance rank or current condition

Community Pharmacists’ Classification of Prescription Drugs into an Expanded Class of Nonprescription Drugs under the FDA's Proposed NSURE Initiative

Objectives: There has been considerable debate over the last few decades about creating a third class of drugs that would not require a prescription or not be available freely over the counter, but require a pharmacist’s consultation upon purchase. These debates reignited again in 2012, when the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) held a hearing about a third class of drugs positioned as an expanded nonprescription drug class under the FDAs Nonprescription Safe-Use Regulatory Expansion (NSURE) Initiative. The objective of this study was to determine which prescription drugs community pharmacists believe are acceptable additions to an expanded definition of nonprescription drugs that would be available pending pharmacists’ consultation with a patient. Methods: This cross-sectional study was conducted using a self-report, web-based survey administered to a national panel of community pharmacists. The survey contained a list of 24 current “prescription-only” drugs which may be potential candidates for an expanded nonprescription drug class, based on criteria outlined by the FDA, and questions related to respondent demographic and practice characteristics. The respondents were asked to indicate whether a particular drug should be marketed as a prescription drug, nonprescription drug or as part of an expanded non-prescription drug class. Descriptive analyses were conducted to determine the drugs that community pharmacists believed would be suitable additions to an expanded non-prescription drug class under the NSURE initiative. Results: 462 completed surveys were received. Most respondents indicated that clopidogrel bisulfate (85.3%) and zolpidem (86.6%) should continue to be dispensed as prescription drugs. Atorvastatin, metformin, and sildenafil (among others) were considered appropriate to be marketed as an expanded nonprescription drug, in other words, dispensed without a prescription but upon pharmacist consultation. Desloratadine (64.6%) and pre-natal vitamins (50.2%) were considered appropriate for nonprescription status (over-the-counter, without pharmacist intervention). Conclusions: Respondents suggested that 18 out of 24 drugs (75%) on the list provided could be categorized into an expanded class of nonprescription drugs. Adding more drugs to an expanded nonprescription drug class has the potential to expand pharmacists’ provision of patient care under the FDA’s proposed NSURE program.   Type: Student Projec

miR-132/212 knockout mice reveal roles for these miRNAs in regulating cortical synaptic transmission and plasticity

miR-132 and miR-212 are two closely related miRNAs encoded in the same intron of a small non-coding gene, which have been suggested to play roles in both immune and neuronal function. We describe here the generation and initial characterisation of a miR-132/212 double knockout mouse. These mice were viable and fertile with no overt adverse phenotype. Analysis of innate immune responses, including TLR-induced cytokine production and IFNβ induction in response to viral infection of primary fibroblasts did not reveal any phenotype in the knockouts. In contrast, the loss of miR-132 and miR-212, while not overtly affecting neuronal morphology, did affect synaptic function. In both hippocampal and neocortical slices miR-132/212 knockout reduced basal synaptic transmission, without affecting paired-pulse facilitation. Hippocampal long-term potentiation (LTP) induced by tetanic stimulation was not affected by miR-132/212 deletion, whilst theta burst LTP was enhanced. In contrast, neocortical theta burst-induced LTP was inhibited by loss of miR-132/212. Together these results indicate that miR-132 and/or miR-212 play a significant role in synaptic function, possibly by regulating the number of postsynaptic AMPA receptors under basal conditions and during activity-dependent synaptic plasticity

Rosiglitazone Induces Mitochondrial Biogenesis in Differentiated Murine 3T3-L1 and C3H/10T1/2 Adipocytes

Growing evidence indicates that PPARγ agonists, including rosiglitazone (RSG), induce adipose mitochondrial biogenesis. By systematically analyzing mitochondrial gene expression in two common murine adipocyte models, the current study aimed to further establish the direct role of RSG and capture temporal changes in gene transcription. Microarray profiling revealed that in fully differentiated 3T3-L1 and C3H/10T1/2 adipocytes treated with RSG or DMSO vehicle for 1, 2, 4, 7, 24, and 48 hrs, RSG overwhelmingly increased mitochondrial gene transcripts time dependently. The timing of the increases was consistent with the cascade of organelle biogenesis, that is, initiated by induction of transcription factor(s), followed by increases in the biosynthesis machinery, and then by increases in functional components. The transcriptional increases were further validated by increased mitochondrial staining, citrate synthase activity, and O2 consumption, and were found to be associated with increased adiponectin secretion. The work provided further insight on the mechanism of PPARγ-induced mitochondrial biogenesis in differentiated adipocytes