Tumor Evasion from T Cell Surveillance

An intact immune system is essential to prevent the development and progression of neoplastic cells in a process termed immune surveillance. During this process the innate and the adaptive immune systems closely cooperate and especially T cells play an important role to detect and eliminate tumor cells. Due to the mechanism of central tolerance the frequency of T cells displaying appropriate arranged tumor-peptide-specific-T-cell receptors is very low and their activation by professional antigen-presenting cells, such as dendritic cells, is frequently hampered by insufficient costimulation resulting in peripheral tolerance. In addition, inhibitory immune circuits can impair an efficient antitumoral response of reactive T cells. It also has been demonstrated that large tumor burden can promote a state of immunosuppression that in turn can facilitate neoplastic progression. Moreover, tumor cells, which mostly are genetically instable, can gain rescue mechanisms which further impair immune surveillance by T cells. Herein, we summarize the data on how tumor cells evade T-cell immune surveillance with the focus on solid tumors and describe approaches to improve anticancer capacity of T cells

AVONET: morphological, ecological and geographical data for all birds

Functional traits offer a rich quantitative framework for developing and testing theories in evolutionary biology, ecology and ecosystem science. However, the potential of functional traits to drive theoretical advances and refine models of global change can only be fully realised when species‐level information is complete. Here we present the AVONET dataset containing comprehensive functional trait data for all birds, including six ecological variables, 11 continuous morphological traits, and information on range size and location. Raw morphological measurements are presented from 90,020 individuals of 11,009 extant bird species sampled from 181 countries. These data are also summarised as species averages in three taxonomic formats, allowing integration with a global phylogeny, geographical range maps, IUCN Red List data and the eBird citizen science database. The AVONET dataset provides the most detailed picture of continuous trait variation for any major radiation of organisms, offering a global template for testing hypotheses and exploring the evolutionary origins, structure and functioning of biodiversity

Conveting urban organic waste to energy - a study of the biogas potential in San Luis Potosí, México

Uno de los problemas actuales más apremiantes en México es el continuo crecimiento en la generación de residuos y la falta de un sistema adecuado de manejo de residuos. La mayoría de los desechos urbanos terminan en rellenos y vertederos incontrolados, donde emiten peligrosos gases de efecto invernadero a la atmosfera y causan problemas para la salud y el medio ambiente. México, al ser un principal productor de petróleo, depende en gran medida del petróleo y los hidrocarburos para su abastecimiento energético. Es el objetivo de alcanzar el 8% de fuentes de energías renovables para 2012 en México. La estrategia de convertir desechos en energía también puede ayudar a mitigar el deterioro ambiental, escasez de energía y los costos de tratamiento de residuos. La ciudad de San Luis Potosí produjo 302.000 de toneladas de residuos en 2009. Las proyecciones para 2014 para el relleno sanitario local Peñasco mostraron un potencial de biogás de 1.290m3 por hora, que podrían ser recuperados y proporcionar una capacidad eléctrica de 2.1MW a los usuarios finales en SLP

Morphometric fruit traits of plants and morphometric traits of birds on Kilimanjaro

Climate change and an increase in human disturbance are major drivers of global biodiversity loss. Yet it is not clear to what extent their effects on animal communities are direct or indirectly mediated by changes in biotic factors, such as plant diversity. Here, we disentangle the direct and indirect effects of climate, human disturbance, vegetation structure and plant functional traits on the functional diversity of avian frugivore communities across a large environmental gradient.We sampled plant and bird communities along an elevational and a human disturbance gradient and measured corresponding morphological traits of plants and birds to calculate indices of functional identity and functional diversity of plant and bird communities. We used structural equation models to disentangle direct and indirect effects of all variables on functional identity and diversity of frugivorous bird communities. Both functional identity and diversity of frugivorous bird communities were consistently related to the functional identity and diversity of plant communities. Climate had almost exclusively indirect effects on functional identity and diversity of bird communities mediated through effects on plant functional identity and diversity. In contrast, human disturbance also had direct negative effects on bird diversity.We show that plant functional identity and diversity are the most important drivers of functional identity and diversity of frugivorous birds. Although effects of climate on bird communities are almost exclusively mediated indirectly through plant communities, human disturbance resulted in a direct reduction of bird diversity. The high degree of trait matching between interdependent trophic levels over a large environmental gradient demonstrates the importance of biotic drivers for animal communities and shows that biodiversity models need to consider such bottom‐up effects in future conditions

A8_FI_birds

Current and projected future functional identity, i.e. mean bill width, mean bill length, mean Kipp’s index and mean body mass of frugivorous bird communities along an elevational gradient in the Manu National Park in south-east Peru. Mean values are computed based on the z-transformed raw traits (i.e. traits have been standardized to a mean of zero and a standard deviation of one according to the entire species pool). Projections were done according to five general circulation models (CCSM4, HadGEM2-ES, MIROC 5, MRI-CGCM and NorESM), representative concentration pathway 8.5 and the year 2080. Furthermore, we applied three vertical dispersal scenarios (range contraction, range expansion and range shift). For details on the projections, please read the methods in the published article associated with this data set

A2_Elevation_birds

Current minimum and maximum elevation and elevational range extents of 217 frugivorous bird species from the Manu National Park in south-east Peru (Dehling et al., 2013; Merkord, 2010; Walker et al., 2006). Further given are projected species-specific mean vertical distances. Species-specific mean vertical distances were projected according to five general circulation models (CCSM4, HadGEM2-ES, MIROC 5, MRI-CGCM and NorESM), representative concentration pathway 8.5 and the year 2080

A3_Traits_plants

Taxonomy and functional traits of 392 fleshy-fruited plant species from the Manu National Park in south-east Peru. Given are fruit length and width (mm), plant height (m) and crop mass (g). Fruit traits have been measured on fresh fruit samples. Number of fruits per plant (used to determine the crop mass) and plant height have been estimated in the field. Given are species mean trait values, except for 23 species for which no species-level data was available and genus mean trait values are given (see column "Genus mean")