Contradiction and complacency shape attitudes towards the toll of roads on wildlife

© 2016 by the authors; licensee MDPI, Basel, Switzerland. Most people in the world now live in cities. Urbanisation simultaneously isolates people from nature and contributes to biodiversity decline. As cities expand, suburban development and the road infrastructure to support them widens their impact on wildlife. Even so, urban communities, especially those on the peri-urban fringe, endeavour to support biodiversity through wildlife friendly gardens, green spaces and corridors, and conservation estates. On one hand, many who live on city fringes do so because they enjoy proximity to nature, however, the ever increasing intrusion of roads leads to conflict with wildlife. Trauma (usually fatal) to wildlife and (usually emotional and financial) to people ensues. Exposure to this trauma, therefore, should inform attitudes towards wildlife vehicle collisions (WVC) and be linked to willingness to reduce risk of further WVC. While there is good anecdotal evidence for this response, competing priorities and better understanding of the likelihood of human injury or fatalities, as opposed to wildlife fatalities, may confound this trend. In this paper we sought to explore this relationship with a quantitative study of driver behaviour and attitudes to WVC from a cohort of residents and visitors who drive through a peri-urban reserve (Royal National Park) on the outskirts of Sydney, Australia. We distributed a self-reporting questionnaire and received responses from 105 local residents and 51 visitors to small townships accessed by roads through the national park. We sought the respondents’ exposure to WVC, their evasive actions in an impending WVC, their attitudes to wildlife fatalities, their strategies to reduce the risk of WVC, and their willingness to adopt new ameliorative measures. The results were partitioned by driver demographics and residency. Residents were generally well informed about mitigation strategies but exposure led to a decrease in viewing WVC as very serious. In addition, despite most respondents stating they routinely drive slower when collision risk is high (at dusk and dawn), our assessment of driving trends via traffic speeds suggested this sentiment was not generally adhered to. Thus we unveil some of the complexities in tackling driver’s willingness to act on reducing risk of WVC, particularly when risk of human trauma is low

Advances in ophthalmic drug delivery

Various strategies for ocular drug delivery are considered; from basic formulation techniques for improving availability of drugs; viscosity enhancers and mucoadhesives aid drug retention and penetration enhancers promote drug transport into the eye. The use of drug loaded contact lenses and ocular inserts allows drugs to be better placed where they are needed for more direct delivery. Developments in ocular implants gives a means to overcome the physical barriers that traditionally prevented effective treatment. Implant technologies are under development allowing long term drug delivery from a single procedure, these devices allow posterior chamber diseases to be effectively treated. Future developments could bring artificial corneas to eliminate the need for donor tissue and one-off implantable drug depots lasting the patient’s lifetime

The iTEC Technical Artefacts, Architecture and Educational Cloud

This chapter introduces the technical artefacts of the iTEC project in the context of a cloud architecture. The rationale for the technology developed in the iTEC project follows from its overall aim to re-engineer the uptake of ICT in schools. To that end, iTEC focused (a) on some important barriers for the uptake of ICT such the effort that teachers must make in redesigning their teaching and fi nding the right resources for that, and (b) on enablers for the uptake of ICT, such as providing engaging experiences both for the learner and teacher. The technical innovations are centred around three themes: innovations in the support of learning design, innovations by using a-typical resources, and innovations in the integration and management of learning services and resources. Next this chapter presents the cloud architecture adopted by all technology providers, including a shared user management and control system, the shared data models and interoperability solutions. The technical artefacts and then further elaborated in the ensuing chapters

A functional methylome map of ulcerative colitis

The etiology of inflammatory bowel diseases is only partially explained by the current genetic risk map. It is hypothesized that environmental factors modulate the epigenetic landscape and thus contribute to disease susceptibility, manifestation, and progression. To test this, we analyzed DNA methylation (DNAm), a fundamental mechanism of epigenetic long-term modulation of gene expression. We report a three-layer epigenome-wide association study (EWAS) using intestinal biopsies from 10 monozygotic twin pairs (n = 20 individuals) discordant for manifestation of ulcerative colitis (UC). Genome-wide expression scans were generated using Affymetrix UG 133 Plus 2.0 arrays (layer 1). Genome-wide DNAm scans were carried out using Illumina 27k Infinium Bead Arrays to identify methylation variable positions (MVPs, layer 2), and MeDIP-chip on Nimblegen custom 385k Tiling Arrays to identify differentially methylated regions (DMRs, layer 3). Identified MVPs and DMRs were validated in two independent patient populations by quantitative real-time PCR and bisulfite-pyrosequencing (n = 185). The EWAS identified 61 disease-associated loci harboring differential DNAm in cis of a differentially expressed transcript. All constitute novel candidate risk loci for UC not previously identified by GWAS. Among them are several that have been functionally implicated in inflammatory processes, e.g., complement factor CFI, the serine protease inhibitor SPINK4, and the adhesion molecule THY1 (also known as CD90). Our study design excludes nondisease inflammation as a cause of the identified changes in DNAm. This study represents the first replicated EWAS of UC integrated with transcriptional signatures in the affected tissue and demonstrates the power of EWAS to uncover unexplained disease risk and molecular events of disease manifestation

Postage stamp multiple anterior capsulorhexisotomies in pediatric cataract surgery

BACKGROUND: Capsule related complications are common following pediatric cataract surgery. We report a new technique of multiple anterior capsulorhexisotomies after lens aspiration and intraocular lens (IOL) implantation. METHODS: After performing automated lens aspiration, an IOL was implanted into the capsular bag. A bent 26 gauge needle was introduced through one side port and multiple small cuts were made in one half of the circumference of the anterior capsular rim by making a radial movement of the needle tip centripetally over the margin of the anterior capsular rim. The needle was again introduced through the other side port and multiple similar cuts were made in the other half thereby creating nearly 20 – 30 cuts at the margin of the anterior capsular rim. RESULTS: The mean size of the primary capsulorhexis was 4.33 ± 0.20 mm. A uniform enlargement of the capsulorhexis could be performed in all the eyes without peripheral extension in any of the eyes. There was no damage to the posterior capsule and no scratch mark on the IOL. In one eye, the primary capsulorhexis was slightly eccentric, though it was covering the IOL optic all around. The rhexisotomies in this eye were limited to the capsular rim that was overlapping more on the IOL optic (sectoral anterior capsulorhexisotomies). CONCLUSION: The technique of postage stamp anterior capsulorhexisotomies is a feasible technique in pediatric cataracts

How the blood pool properties at onset affect the temporal behavior of simulated bruises

The influence of initial blood pool properties on the temporal behavior of bruises is currently unknown. We addressed this important issue by utilizing three typical classes of bruises in our three-layered finite compartment model. We simulated the effects of their initial shapes, regularity of boundaries and initial blood concentration distributions (gaussian vs. homogeneous) on the hemoglobin and bilirubin areas in the dermal top layer. Age determination of bruises with gaussian hemoglobin concentration was also addressed. We found that the initial blood pool properties strongly affect bruise behavior. We determined the age of a 200-h simulated bruise with gaussian hemoglobin concentration with 3 h uncertainty. In conclusion, bruise behavior depends non-intuitively on the initial blood pool properties; hence, a model that includes shape, area and concentration distribution at onset is indispensable. Future age determination, including inhomogeneous hemoglobin distributions, will likely be based on the presented method for gaussian distributions

Complementarity of Spike- and Rate-Based Dynamics of Neural Systems

Relationships between spiking-neuron and rate-based approaches to the dynamics of neural assemblies are explored by analyzing a model system that can be treated by both methods, with the rate-based method further averaged over multiple neurons to give a neural-field approach. The system consists of a chain of neurons, each with simple spiking dynamics that has a known rate-based equivalent. The neurons are linked by propagating activity that is described in terms of a spatial interaction strength with temporal delays that reflect distances between neurons; feedback via a separate delay loop is also included because such loops also exist in real brains. These interactions are described using a spatiotemporal coupling function that can carry either spikes or rates to provide coupling between neurons. Numerical simulation of corresponding spike- and rate-based methods with these compatible couplings then allows direct comparison between the dynamics arising from these approaches. The rate-based dynamics can reproduce two different forms of oscillation that are present in the spike-based model: spiking rates of individual neurons and network-induced modulations of spiking rate that occur if network interactions are sufficiently strong. Depending on conditions either mode of oscillation can dominate the spike-based dynamics and in some situations, particularly when the ratio of the frequencies of these two modes is integer or half-integer, the two can both be present and interact with each other

Hiring expert consultants in e-healthcare: an analytics-based two sided matching approach

Very often in some censorious healthcare scenario, there may be a need to have some expert consultancies (especially by doctors) that are not available in-house to the hospitals. Earlier, this interesting healthcare scenario of hiring the expert consultants (mainly doctors) from outside of the hospitals had been studied with the robust concepts of mechanism design with money and mechanism design without money. In this paper, we explore the more realistic two sided matching market in our healthcare set-up. In this, the members of the two participating communities, namely the patients and the doctors are revealing the strict preference ordering over the members of the opposite community for a stipulated amount of time. We assume that the patients and doctors are strategic in nature. With the theoretical analysis, we demonstrate that the TOMHECs, that results in the stable allocation of doctors to the patients, satisfies the several economic properties such as strategy-proof-ness (or truthfulness) and optimality. Further, the analytically based analysis of our proposed mechanisms i.e. RAMHECs and TOMHECs are carried out on the ground of the expected distance of the allocation done by the mechanisms from the top most preference. The proposed mechanisms are also validated with the help of exhaustive experiments.Peer ReviewedPostprint (author's final draft

Human α2β1HI CD133+VE epithelial prostate stem cells express low levels of active androgen receptor

Stem cells are thought to be the cell of origin in malignant transformation in many tissues, but their role in human prostate carcinogenesis continues to be debated. One of the conflicts with this model is that cancer stem cells have been described to lack androgen receptor (AR) expression, which is of established importance in prostate cancer initiation and progression. We re-examined the expression patterns of AR within adult prostate epithelial differentiation using an optimised sensitive and specific approach examining transcript, protein and AR regulated gene expression. Highly enriched populations were isolated consisting of stem (α(2)β(1)(HI) CD133(+VE)), transiently amplifying (α(2)β(1)(HI) CD133(-VE)) and terminally differentiated (α(2)β(1)(LOW) CD133(-VE)) cells. AR transcript and protein expression was confirmed in α(2)β(1)(HI) CD133(+VE) and CD133(-VE) progenitor cells. Flow cytometry confirmed that median (±SD) fraction of cells expressing AR were 77% (±6%) in α(2)β(1)(HI) CD133(+VE) stem cells and 68% (±12%) in α(2)β(1)(HI) CD133(-VE) transiently amplifying cells. However, 3-fold lower levels of total AR protein expression (peak and median immunofluorescence) were present in α(2)β(1)(HI) CD133(+VE) stem cells compared with differentiated cells. This finding was confirmed with dual immunostaining of prostate sections for AR and CD133, which again demonstrated low levels of AR within basal CD133(+VE) cells. Activity of the AR was confirmed in prostate progenitor cells by the expression of low levels of the AR regulated genes PSA, KLK2 and TMPRSS2. The confirmation of AR expression in prostate progenitor cells allows integration of the cancer stem cell theory with the established models of prostate cancer initiation based on a functional AR. Further study of specific AR functions in prostate stem and differentiated cells may highlight novel mechanisms of prostate homeostasis and insights into tumourigenesis