Using Cumulative Impact Mapping to Prioritize Marine Conservation Efforts in Equatorial Guinea

This is the final version. Available on open access from Frontiers Media via the DOI in this recordData Availability Statement Ensemble ecological niche models (EENMs) and threat maps (anthropogenic footprint, cumulative impact, and cumulative utilization and impact) for each species (Atlantic humpback dolphin Sousa teuszii; bottlenose dolphin Tursiops truncatus; humpback whale Megaptera novaeangliae; leatherback Dermochelys coriacea; and olive ridley sea turtle Lepidochelys olivacea) are available from the Dryad Digital Repository doi: 10.5061/dryad.v6wwpzgr9 (Trew et al., 2019).Marine biodiversity is under extreme pressure from anthropogenic activity globally, leading to calls to protect at least 10% of the world’s oceans within marine protected areas (MPAs) and other effective area-based conservation measures. Fulfilling such commitments, however, requires a detailed understanding of the distribution of potentially detrimental human activities, and their predicted impacts. One such approach that is being increasingly used to strengthen our understanding of human impacts is cumulative impact mapping; as it can help identify economic sectors with the greatest potential impact on species and ecosystems in order to prioritize conservation management strategies, providing clear direction for intervention. In this paper, we present the first local cumulative utilization impact mapping exercise for the Bioko-Corisco-Continental area of Equatorial Guinea’s Exclusive Economic Zone – situated in the Gulf of Guinea, one of the most important and least studied marine regions in the Eastern Central Atlantic. This study examines the potential impact of ten direct anthropogenic activities on a suite of key marine megafauna species and reveals that the most suitable habitats for these species, located on the continental shelf, are subject to the highest threat scores. However, in some coastal areas, the persistence of highly suitable habitat subject to lower threat scores suggests that there are still several strategic areas that are less impacted by human activity that may be suitable sites for protected area expansion. Highlighting both the areas with potentially the highest impact, and those with lower impact levels, as well as particularly damaging activities can inform the direction of future conservation initiatives in the region.Waitt FoundationWildlife Conservation SocietyDarwin InitiativeDepartment for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs (Defra)Waterloo FoundationNatural Environment Research Council (NERC)Marine Turtle Conservation Fund (United States Fish and Wildlife Service, United States Department of the Interior)Vaalco EnergyHarvest Natural ResourcesSea World and Busch Gardens Conservation FundTullow OilOld Dominion UniversityWWFWildlife Conservation SocietyUniversity of Exete

Further rejection of the cybercrime hypothesis

We recently rejected the hypothesis that increases in cybercrime may have caused the international crime drop. Critics subsequently argued that offenders switched from physical crime to cybercrime in recent years, and that lifestyle changes due to ‘leisure IT’ may have caused the international crime drop. Here we explain how the critics misrepresented our argument and do not appear to introduce anything new

Parameters of Pseudo-Random Quantum Circuits

Pseudorandom circuits generate quantum states and unitary operators which are approximately distributed according to the unitarily invariant Haar measure. We explore how several design parameters affect the efficiency of pseudo-random circuits, with the goal of identifying relevant trade-offs and optimizing convergence. The parameters we explore include the choice of single- and two-qubit gates, the topology of the underlying physical qubit architecture, the probabilistic application of two-qubit gates, as well as circuit size, initialization, and the effect of control constraints. Building on the equivalence between pseudo-random circuits and approximate $t$-designs, a Markov matrix approach is employed to analyze asymptotic convergence properties of pseudo-random second-order moments to a 2-design. Quantitative results on the convergence rate as a function of the circuit size are presented for qubit topologies with a sufficient degree of symmetry. Our results may be theoretically and practically useful to optimize the efficiency of random state and operator generation.Comment: 17 pages, 14 figures, 2 Appendice

Effect of floor type on the performance, physiological and behavioural responses of finishing beef steers

peer-reviewedBackground:The study objective was to investigate the effect of bare concrete slats (Control), two types of mats [(Easyfix mats (mat 1) and Irish Custom Extruder mats (mat 2)] fitted on top of concrete slats, and wood-chip to simulate deep bedding (wood-chip placed on top of a plastic membrane overlying the concrete slats) on performance, physiological and behavioral responses of finishing beef steers. One-hundred and forty-four finishing steers (503 kg; standard deviation 51.8 kg) were randomly assigned according to their breed (124 Continental cross and 20 Holstein–Friesian) and body weight to one of four treatments for 148 days. All steers were subjected to the same weighing, blood sampling (jugular venipuncture), dirt and hoof scoring pre study (day 0) and on days 23, 45, 65, 86, 107, 128 and 148 of the study. Cameras were fitted over each pen for 72 h recording over five periods and subsequent 10 min sampling scans were analysed. Results: Live weight gain and carcass characteristics were similar among treatments. The number of lesions on the hooves of the animals was greater (P < 0.05) on mats 1 and 2 and wood-chip treatments compared with the animals on the slats. Dirt scores were similar for the mat and slat treatments while the wood-chip treatment had greater dirt scores. Animals housed on either slats or wood-chip had similar lying times. The percent of animals lying was greater for animals housed on mat 1 and mat 2 compared with those housed on concrete slats and wood chips. Physiological variables showed no significant difference among treatments. Conclusions: In this exploratory study, the performance or welfare of steers was not adversely affected by slats, differing mat types or wood-chip as underfoot material

IL-4 Amplifies the Pro-Inflammatory Effect of Adenosine in Human Mast Cells by Changing Expression Levels of Adenosine Receptors

Adenosine inhalation produces immediate bronchoconstriction in asthmatics but not in normal subjects. The bronchospastic effect of adenosine is largely mediated through adenosine-induced mast cell activation, the mechanism of which is poorly understood due to limitations in culturing human primary mast cells. Here, we show that human umbilical cord blood -derived mast cells incubated with the Th2 cytokine IL-4 develop increased sensitivity to adenosine. Potentiation of anti-IgE- induced and calcium ionophore/PMA-induced degranulation was augmented in mast cells cultured with IL-4, and this effect was reduced or abolished by pre-treatment with A2BsiRNA and selective A2B receptor antagonists, respectively. IL-4 incubation resulted in the increased expression of A2B and reduced expression of A2A adenosine receptors on human mast cells. These results suggest that Th2 cytokines in the asthmatic lung may alter adenosine receptor expression on airway mast cells to promote increased responsiveness to adenosine

Antimicrobial resistance determinants are associated with Staphylococcus aureus bacteraemia and adaptation to the healthcare environment: a bacterial genome-wide association study

Staphylococcus aureus is a major bacterial pathogen in humans, and a dominant cause of severe bloodstream infections. Globally, antimicrobial resistance (AMR) in S. aureus remains challenging. While human risk factors for infection have been defined, contradictory evidence exists for the role of bacterial genomic variation in S. aureus disease. To investigate the contribution of bacterial lineage and genomic variation to the development of bloodstream infection, we undertook a genome-wide association study comparing bacteria from 1017 individuals with bacteraemia to 984 adults with asymptomatic S. aureus nasal carriage. Within 984 carriage isolates, we also compared healthcare-associated (HA) carriage with community-associated (CA) carriage. All major global lineages were represented in both bacteraemia and carriage, with no evidence for different infection rates. However, kmers tagging trimethoprim resistance-conferring mutation F99Y in dfrB were significantly associated with bacteraemia-vs-carriage (P=10-8.9-10-9.3). Pooling variation within genes, bacteraemia-vs-carriage was associated with the presence of mecA (HMP=10-5.3) as well as the presence of SCCmec (HMP=10-4.4). Among S. aureus carriers, no lineages were associated with HA-vs-CA carriage. However, we found a novel signal of HA-vs-CA carriage in the foldase protein prsA, where kmers representing conserved sequence allele were associated with CA carriage (P=10-7.1-10-19.4), while in gyrA, a ciprofloxacin resistance-conferring mutation, L84S, was associated with HA carriage (P=10-7.2). In an extensive study of S. aureus bacteraemia and nasal carriage in the UK, we found strong evidence that all S. aureus lineages are equally capable of causing bloodstream infection, and of being carried in the healthcare environment. Genomic variation in the foldase protein prsA is a novel genomic marker of healthcare origin in S. aureus but was not associated with bacteraemia. AMR determinants were associated with both bacteraemia and healthcare-associated carriage, suggesting that AMR increases the propensity not only to survive in healthcare environments, but also to cause invasive disease

Long-term (trophic) purinergic signalling: purinoceptors control cell proliferation, differentiation and death

The purinergic signalling system, which uses purines and pyrimidines as chemical transmitters, and purinoceptors as effectors, is deeply rooted in evolution and development and is a pivotal factor in cell communication. The ATP and its derivatives function as a 'danger signal' in the most primitive forms of life. Purinoceptors are extraordinarily widely distributed in all cell types and tissues and they are involved in the regulation of an even more extraordinary number of biological processes. In addition to fast purinergic signalling in neurotransmission, neuromodulation and secretion, there is long-term (trophic) purinergic signalling involving cell proliferation, differentiation, motility and death in the development and regeneration of most systems of the body. In this article, we focus on the latter in the immune/defence system, in stratified epithelia in visceral organs and skin, embryological development, bone formation and resorption, as well as in cancer. Cell Death and Disease (2010) 1, e9; doi:10.1038/cddis.2009.11; published online 14 January 201

A Novel Family of Toxoplasma IMC Proteins Displays a Hierarchical Organization and Functions in Coordinating Parasite Division

Apicomplexans employ a peripheral membrane system called the inner membrane complex (IMC) for critical processes such as host cell invasion and daughter cell formation. We have identified a family of proteins that define novel sub-compartments of the Toxoplasma gondii IMC. These IMC Sub-compartment Proteins, ISP1, 2 and 3, are conserved throughout the Apicomplexa, but do not appear to be present outside the phylum. ISP1 localizes to the apical cap portion of the IMC, while ISP2 localizes to a central IMC region and ISP3 localizes to a central plus basal region of the complex. Targeting of all three ISPs is dependent upon N-terminal residues predicted for coordinated myristoylation and palmitoylation. Surprisingly, we show that disruption of ISP1 results in a dramatic relocalization of ISP2 and ISP3 to the apical cap. Although the N-terminal region of ISP1 is necessary and sufficient for apical cap targeting, exclusion of other family members requires the remaining C-terminal region of the protein. This gate-keeping function of ISP1 reveals an unprecedented mechanism of interactive and hierarchical targeting of proteins to establish these unique sub-compartments in the Toxoplasma IMC. Finally, we show that loss of ISP2 results in severe defects in daughter cell formation during endodyogeny, indicating a role for the ISP proteins in coordinating this unique process of Toxoplasma replication

The stellar and sub-stellar IMF of simple and composite populations

The current knowledge on the stellar IMF is documented. It appears to become top-heavy when the star-formation rate density surpasses about 0.1Msun/(yr pc^3) on a pc scale and it may become increasingly bottom-heavy with increasing metallicity and in increasingly massive early-type galaxies. It declines quite steeply below about 0.07Msun with brown dwarfs (BDs) and very low mass stars having their own IMF. The most massive star of mass mmax formed in an embedded cluster with stellar mass Mecl correlates strongly with Mecl being a result of gravitation-driven but resource-limited growth and fragmentation induced starvation. There is no convincing evidence whatsoever that massive stars do form in isolation. Various methods of discretising a stellar population are introduced: optimal sampling leads to a mass distribution that perfectly represents the exact form of the desired IMF and the mmax-to-Mecl relation, while random sampling results in statistical variations of the shape of the IMF. The observed mmax-to-Mecl correlation and the small spread of IMF power-law indices together suggest that optimally sampling the IMF may be the more realistic description of star formation than random sampling from a universal IMF with a constant upper mass limit. Composite populations on galaxy scales, which are formed from many pc scale star formation events, need to be described by the integrated galactic IMF. This IGIMF varies systematically from top-light to top-heavy in dependence of galaxy type and star formation rate, with dramatic implications for theories of galaxy formation and evolution.Comment: 167 pages, 37 figures, 3 tables, published in Stellar Systems and Galactic Structure, Vol.5, Springer. This revised version is consistent with the published version and includes additional references and minor additions to the text as well as a recomputed Table 1. ISBN 978-90-481-8817-

Collaboration and knowledge exchange between scholars in Britain and the empire, 1830–1914

In recent years there has been a growing interest among historians in the British Empire as a space of knowledge production and circulation. Much of this work assumes that scholarly cooperation and collaboration between individuals and institutions within the Empire had the effect (and often also the aim) of strengthening both imperial ties and the idea of empire. This chapter argues, however, that many examples of scholarly travel, exchange, and collaboration were undertaken with very different goals in mind. In particular, it highlights the continuing importance of an ideal of scientific internationalism, which stressed the benefits of scholarship for the whole of humanity and prioritized the needs and goals of individual academic and scientific disciplines. As the chapter shows, some scholars even went on to develop nuanced critiques of the imperial project while using the very structures of empire to further their own individual, disciplinary and institutional goals