Forest biodiversity monitoring: Guide to community-based approaches

Monitoring of natural resources and their management is a key element for effective decision-making in constantly changing and uncertain situations. Monitoring can reduce risks, increase transparency and accountability, enhance learning, and improve the successful implementation of activities. It helps ensure that changes to management approaches come from learning and reflection instead of hasty reactions or unilateral decisions. Involving local communities in monitoring initiatives makes the process more participatory and contextually relevant, less dependent on external inputs, simpler and usually less expensive. Participatory monitoring initiatives, particularly the ones that are community driven, can increase the sense of ownership towards the management of natural resources and favour the development of adaptive management strategies by facilitating discussion, participation and learning within local communities. This guide is designed to help facilitators develop community-based monitoring initiatives for forest biodiversity by providing a series of steps, recommendations and examples to guide the process. While the guide applies to forest biodiversity, similar approaches can be used to monitor other aspects of natural-resource management. The guide includes tips on using participatory tools for the collection of biodiversity data and insights on how to encourage the participation of local actors across social groups in decision-making processes that affect forest biodiversity resources in their communities and surrounding landscapes

Superconductivity in the YIr2Si2 and LaIr2Si2 Polymorphs

We report on existence of superconductivity in YIr2Si2 and LaIr2Si2 compounds in relation to crystal structure. The two compounds crystallize in two structural polymorphs, both tetragonal. The high temperature polymorph (HTP) adopts the CaBe2Ge2-structure type (space group P4/nmm) while the low temperature polymorph (LTP) is of the ThCr2Si2 type (I4/mmm). By studying polycrystals prepared by arc melting we have observed that the rapidly cooled samples retain the HTP even at room temperature (RT) and below. Annealing such samples at 900C followed by slow cooling to RT provides the LTP. Both, the HTP and LTP were subsequently studied with respect to magnetism and superconductivity by electrical resistivity, magnetization, AC susceptibility and specific heat measurements. The HTP and LTP of both compounds respectively, behave as Pauli paramagnets. Superconductivity has been found exclusively in the HTP of both compounds below Tsc (= 2.52 K in YIr2Si2 and 1.24 K in LaIr2Si2). The relations of magnetism and superconductivity with the electronic and crystal structure are discussed with comparing experimental data with the results of first principles electronic structure calculations

Allele-specific miRNA-binding analysis identifies candidate target genes for breast cancer risk

Most breast cancer (BC) risk-associated single-nucleotide polymorphisms (raSNPs) identified in genome-wide association studies (GWAS) are believed to cis-regulate the expression of genes. We hypothesise that cis-regulatory variants contributing to disease risk may be affecting microRNA (miRNA) genes and/or miRNA binding. To test this, we adapted two miRNA-binding prediction algorithms-TargetScan and miRanda-to perform allele-specific queries, and integrated differential allelic expression (DAE) and expression quantitative trait loci (eQTL) data, to query 150 genome-wide significant ( P≤5×10-8 ) raSNPs, plus proxies. We found that no raSNP mapped to a miRNA gene, suggesting that altered miRNA targeting is an unlikely mechanism involved in BC risk. Also, 11.5% (6 out of 52) raSNPs located in 3'-untranslated regions of putative miRNA target genes were predicted to alter miRNA::mRNA (messenger RNA) pair binding stability in five candidate target genes. Of these, we propose RNF115, at locus 1q21.1, as a strong novel target gene associated with BC risk, and reinforce the role of miRNA-mediated cis-regulation at locus 19p13.11. We believe that integrating allele-specific querying in miRNA-binding prediction, and data supporting cis-regulation of expression, improves the identification of candidate target genes in BC risk, as well as in other common cancers and complex diseases.Funding Agency Portuguese Foundation for Science and Technology CRESC ALGARVE 2020 European Union (EU) 303745 Maratona da Saude Award DL 57/2016/CP1361/CT0042 SFRH/BPD/99502/2014 CBMR-UID/BIM/04773/2013 POCI-01-0145-FEDER-022184info:eu-repo/semantics/publishedVersio

Genome-Wide Gene Amplification during Differentiation of Neural Progenitor Cells In Vitro

DNA sequence amplification is a phenomenon that occurs predictably at defined stages during normal development in some organisms. Developmental gene amplification was first described in amphibians during gametogenesis and has not yet been described in humans. To date gene amplification in humans is a hallmark of many tumors. We used array-CGH (comparative genomic hybridization) and FISH (fluorescence in situ hybridization) to discover gene amplifications during in vitro differentiation of human neural progenitor cells. Here we report a complex gene amplification pattern two and five days after induction of differentiation of human neural progenitor cells. We identified several amplified genes in neural progenitor cells that are known to be amplified in malignant tumors. There is also a striking overlap of amplified chromosomal regions between differentiating neural progenitor cells and malignant tumor cells derived from astrocytes. Gene amplifications in normal human cells as physiological process has not been reported yet and may bear resemblance to developmental gene amplifications in amphibians and insects

Ambivalent improvements: biography, biopolitics, and colonial Delhi

This paper explores the ambivalent feelings towards the Government of India produced in one of the government’s own employees. In establishing the Delhi Improvement Trust in the 1930s, Arthur Parke Hume had to battle against governmental cost cutting in an attempt to secure the rehousing of slum evictees. The refusal of the government to accept this welfarist commitment to investment led to the stalling of the improvement projects and great emotional disquiet for Hume. This is traced through his personal correspondence with his parents. In interweaving these insights with the imperial archive, three biographical approaches are adopted. A traditional chronology is used to order the events, an analytical approach is used to outline the discursive regularities of Hume’s observations, and a genealogical approach is used to suggest the influences on Hume’s writings and the broader governmental rationalities that he had to negotiate

The International Deep Brain Stimulation Registry and Database for Gilles de la Tourette Syndrome: How Does It Work?

Tourette Syndrome (TS) is a neuropsychiatric disease characterized by a combination of motor and vocal tics. Deep brain stimulation (DBS), already widely utilized for Parkinson's disease and other movement disorders, is an emerging therapy for select and severe cases of TS that are resistant to medication and behavioral therapy. Over the last two decades, DBS has been used experimentally to manage severe TS cases. The results of case reports and small case series have been variable but in general positive. The reported interventions have, however, been variable, and there remain non-standardized selection criteria, various brain targets, differences in hardware, as well as variability in the programming parameters utilized. DBS centers perform only a handful of TS DBS cases each year, making large-scale outcomes difficult to study and to interpret. These limitations, coupled with the variable effect of surgery, and the overall small numbers of TS patients with DBS worldwide, have delayed regulatory agency approval (e.g., FDA and equivalent agencies around the world). The Tourette Association of America, in response to the worldwide need for a more organized and collaborative effort, launched an international TS DBS registry and database. The main goal of the project has been to share data, uncover best practices, improve outcomes, and to provide critical information to regulatory agencies. The international registry and database has improved the communication and collaboration among TS DBS centers worldwide. In this paper we will review some of the key operation details for the international TS DBS database and registry

Trans-ethnic study design approaches for fine-mapping.

Studies that traverse ancestrally diverse populations may increase power to detect novel loci and improve fine-mapping resolution of causal variants by leveraging linkage disequilibrium differences between ethnic groups. The inclusion of African ancestry samples may yield further improvements because of low linkage disequilibrium and high genetic heterogeneity. We investigate the fine-mapping resolution of trans-ethnic fixed-effects meta-analysis for five type II diabetes loci, under various settings of ancestral composition (European, East Asian, African), allelic heterogeneity, and causal variant minor allele frequency. In particular, three settings of ancestral composition were compared: (1) single ancestry (European), (2) moderate ancestral diversity (European and East Asian), and (3) high ancestral diversity (European, East Asian, and African). Our simulations suggest that the European/Asian and European ancestry-only meta-analyses consistently attain similar fine-mapping resolution. The inclusion of African ancestry samples in the meta-analysis leads to a marked improvement in fine-mapping resolution

Large publishing consortia produce higher citation impact research but co-author contributions are hard to evaluate

This paper introduces a simple agglomerative clustering method to identify large publishing consortia with at least 20 authors and 80% shared authorship between articles. Based on Scopus journal articles 1996-2018, under these criteria, nearly all (88%) of the large consortia published research with citation impact above the world average, with the exceptions being mainly the newer consortia for which average citation counts are unreliable. On average, consortium research had almost double (1.95) the world average citation impact on the log scale used (Mean Normalised Log Citation Score). At least partial alphabetical author ordering was the norm in most consortia. The 250 largest consortia were for nuclear physics and astronomy around expensive equipment, and for predominantly health-related issues in genomics, medicine, public health, microbiology and neuropsychology. For the health-related issues, except for the first and last few authors, authorship seem to primary indicate contributions to the shared project infrastructure necessary to gather the raw data. It is impossible for research evaluators to identify the contributions of individual authors in the huge alphabetical consortia of physics and astronomy, and problematic for the middle and end authors of health-related consortia. For small scale evaluations, authorship contribution statements could be used, when available