Lynx And Coyote Diet And Habitat Relationships During A Low Hare Population On The Kenai Peninsula, Alaska

Thesis (M.S.) University of Alaska Fairbanks, 1995Food habits and habitat use of lynx and coyote were compared 1987-1991 on the Kenai Peninsula, Alaska when the snowshoe hare population was low ($<$0.5 hares/ha). During snow seasons, lynx fed primarily on hares (64% total items), whereas coyotes relied heavily on moose carcasses (42% total items). Diet overlap was 42% and hare use overlap was 16%. Habitat use overlap was 92%, but coyotes used roads more than lynx. Both carnivores selected 1947 burn and avoided 1969 burn and large expanses of mature forest. I conclude that there was exploitation competition for food between these predators, because both used the same habitats and hares, a major food, were scarce. The coyote, however, may be using resources that were previously used by red fox, which have been reduced to low levels. Lynx displayed little fear of humans and were vulnerable to shooting incidental to hunting and depredation events. <p

Correspondence from a Maine Citizen

Typewritten letter from a Maine citizen expressing homophobic views to former University of Maine President Winthrop Libby through the Ellsworth American. Libby forwarded the missive to President Howard Neville

Prehistoric settlement patterns in southwest Oregon

xv, 275 p. : ill., maps. A print copy of this title is available through the UO Libraries under the call numbers: KNIGHT E78.O6 W55 1993This study addresses the problem of prehistoric culture change in interior southwest Oregon as reflected in subsistence/settlement patterns. Eighty-three sites, excavated during cultural resource management projects, constitute the database. This study also demonstrates the applicability of cultural resource management data to questions of regional interest and of general importance to anthropology. Two contrasting subsistence/settlement regimes are modeled based on regional ethnographic and archaeological studies. One pattern is that of a mobile subsistence regime; the other is that of a more sedentary regime associated with permanent villages and the collection and processing of foods for over-winter storage. The first is reflected in the archaeological record by a settlement system consisting of seasonal camps and short-term task sites; the second is represented by a settlement system consisting of villages, seasonal camps, and task sites. To test these models against available data, sites were first placed in functional categories (village, seasonal camp, task site) based on qualitative and quantitative assessments of their archaeological assemblages. This analysis represents the first quantitative assessment of a large database of archaeological sites in this region, and also provide a means of testing previous archaeologists' intuitive judgments about site type. Quantitative measures distinguishing sites, based on the density and diversity of stone tools present in their assemblages include: (a) density measures for chipped stone artifacts; (b) a multidimensional scaling exercise which distinguishes sites based on assemblage diversity (richness and evenness); and (c) cobble and groundstone density measures compared with excavated feature data. The quantitative analysis also offers a methodological contribution for avoiding problems associated with comparison of archaeological samples of greatly varying sizes. Next, sites were assigned to the Middle Archaic (6,000-2,000 BP) or Late Archaic (2,000-150 BP) period. Finally, a comparison of site types manifest in the two periods shows that the predominant settlement pattern during the Middle Archaic consisted of seasonal camps and task sites, indicating a more mobile subsistence/settlement regime. A more sedentary, village-centered regime, appeared along major waterways at the end of the Middle Archaic, and spread throughout the region during the Late Archaic.Committee in charge: D. Melvin Aikens, Chair; Don E. Dumond; Ann Simonds; Patricia F. McDowel

Hydroxychloroquine and the risk of respiratory infections among RA patients

OBJECTIVES: To determine the effect of hydroxychloroquine on the incidence of new respiratory infections in a large registry of rheumatoid arthritis (RA) patients compared with a matched cohort receiving other conventional disease-modifying antirheumatic drugs (csDMARDs). METHODS: We reviewed physician-reported infections including upper respiratory infections (URI), bronchitis and pneumonia in the Corrona RA registry from June 2008 to February 2020 with the goal of comparing infections in biologic/targeted synthetic (b/ts) DMARDs naive HCQ starts compared with starts of other csDMARDs and no HCQ. Patients on different interventions were compared using time-varying adjusted Cox models adjusting for age, sex, duration of RA, BMI, disease activity, smoking status, concurrent medications, season of the year, year of onset and history of serious infections, diabetes or cardiovascular disease (CVD). A secondary analysis in a set of propensity-matched starts were also compared adjusting for time-varying covariates. The analysis was repeated including URI and bronchitis only and also for serious respiratory infections only. RESULTS: No evidence of differences was found in the incidence of any respiratory infection (URI, bronchitis, pneumonia) in patients receiving HCQ compared with other csDMARDs: HR=0.87 (0.70 to1.07) in adjusted analyses and HR=0.90 (0.70 to 1.17) in adjusted matched analysis. Similar results were found in the analysis of URI and bronchitis only and for serious respiratory infections only. CONCLUSIONS: In patients with RA, the risk for respiratory infections was similar among patients using HCQ as compared to other non-biologic DMARDs

Safety Profile of Upadacitinib up to 3 Years in Psoriatic Arthritis: An Integrated Analysis of Two Pivotal Phase 3 Trials

Introduction: This integrated analysis describes the safety profile of upadacitinib, an oral Janus kinase inhibitor, at 15 and 30&nbsp;mg once daily for up to 3&nbsp;years of exposure in patients with active psoriatic arthritis (PsA) who had a prior inadequate response or intolerance to ≥ 1 non-biologic or biologic disease-modifying antirheumatic drug. Methods: Safety data were pooled and analyzed from two randomized, placebo-controlled phase 3 trials. Both trials evaluated upadacitinib 15&nbsp;mg and 30&nbsp;mg once daily, and one trial also evaluated adalimumab 40&nbsp;mg every other week. Treatment-emergent adverse events (TEAEs) and laboratory data were summarized for four groups: pooled placebo, pooled upadacitinib 15&nbsp;mg, pooled upadacitinib 30&nbsp;mg, and adalimumab. TEAEs were reported as exposure-adjusted event rates (events per 100 patient-years [E/100 PY]) up to a data cut-off of June 29, 2020. Results: A total of 2257 patients received ≥ 1 dose of upadacitinib 15&nbsp;mg (N = 907) or 30&nbsp;mg (N = 921) for 2504.6 PY of exposure or adalimumab (N = 429) for 549.7 PY of exposure. Upper respiratory tract infection, nasopharyngitis, and increased creatine phosphokinase (CPK) were the most common TEAEs with upadacitinib. Rates of malignancies, adjudicated major adverse cardiovascular events (MACEs) and venous thromboembolic events (VTEs), and deaths were similar across treatment groups. Rates of herpes zoster (HZ) and opportunistic infections (OI; excluding tuberculosis, HZ, and oral candidiasis) were higher with upadacitinib versus adalimumab. Serious infection, anemia, and CPK elevations were most frequent with upadacitinib 30&nbsp;mg. Potentially clinically significant laboratory abnormalities were uncommon. Conclusions: Upadacitinib 15&nbsp;mg and adalimumab had similar safety profiles with the exception of HZ and OIs, consistent with what was observed in rheumatoid arthritis. Rates of malignancies, MACEs, VTEs, and deaths were comparable among patients receiving upadacitinib and adalimumab. No new safety risks emerged with longer-term exposure to upadacitinib. Trial Registration Numbers: SELECT-PsA 1: NCT03104400; SELECT-PsA 2: NCT03104374

Individualized decision aid for diverse women with lupus nephritis (IDEA-WON): A randomized controlled trial.

BackgroundTreatment decision-making regarding immunosuppressive therapy is challenging for individuals with lupus. We assessed the effectiveness of a decision aid for immunosuppressive therapy in lupus nephritis.Methods and findingsIn a United States multicenter, open-label, randomized controlled trial (RCT), adult women with lupus nephritis, mostly from racial/ethnic minority backgrounds with low socioeconomic status (SES), seen in in- or outpatient settings, were randomized to an individualized, culturally tailored, computerized decision aid versus American College of Rheumatology (ACR) lupus pamphlet (1:1 ratio), using computer-generated randomization. We hypothesized that the co-primary outcomes of decisional conflict and informed choice regarding immunosuppressive medications would improve more in the decision aid group. Of 301 randomized women, 298 were analyzed; 47% were African-American, 26% Hispanic, and 15% white. Mean age (standard deviation [SD]) was 37 (12) years, 57% had annual income of &lt;$40,000, and 36% had a high school education or less. Compared with the provision of the ACR lupus pamphlet (n = 147), participants randomized to the decision aid (n = 151) had (1) a clinically meaningful and statistically significant reduction in decisional conflict, 21.8 (standard error [SE], 2.5) versus 12.7 (SE, 2.0; p = 0.005) and (2) no difference in informed choice in the main analysis, 41% versus 31% (p = 0.08), but clinically meaningful and statistically significant difference in sensitivity analysis (net values for immunosuppressives positive [in favor] versus negative [against]), 50% versus 35% (p = 0.006). Unresolved decisional conflict was lower in the decision aid versus pamphlet groups, 22% versus 44% (p &lt; 0.001). Significantly more patients in the decision aid versus pamphlet group rated information to be excellent for understanding lupus nephritis (49% versus 33%), risk factors (43% versus 27%), medication options (50% versus 33%; p ≤ 0.003 for all); and the ease of use of materials was higher in the decision aid versus pamphlet groups (51% versus 38%; p = 0.006). Key study limitations were the exclusion of men, short follow-up, and the lack of clinical outcomes, including medication adherence.ConclusionsAn individualized decision aid was more effective than usual care in reducing decisional conflict for choice of immunosuppressive medications in women with lupus nephritis.Trial registrationClinicaltrials.gov, NCT02319525

Application of a stochastic modeling to evaluate tuberculosis onset in patients treated with tumor necrosis factor inhibitors

In this manuscript we apply stochastic modeling to investigate the risk of reactivation of latent mycobacterial infections in patients undergoing treatment with tumor necrosis factor inhibitors. First, we review the perspective proposed by one of the authors in a previous work and which consists in predicting the occurrence of reactivation of latent tuberculosis infection or newly acquired tuberculosis during treatment; this is based on variational procedures on a simple set of parameters (e.g. rate of reactivation of a latent infection). Then, we develop a full analytical study of this approach through a Markov chain analysis and we find an exact solution for the temporal evolution of the number of cases of tuberculosis infection (re)activation. The analytical solution is compared with Monte Carlo simulations and with experimental data, showing overall excellent agreement. The generality of this theoretical framework allows to investigate also the case of non-tuberculous mycobacteria infections; in particular, we show that reactivation in that context plays a minor role. This may suggest that, while the screening for tuberculous is necessary prior to initiating biologics, when considering non-tuberculous mycobacteria only a watchful monitoring during the treatment is recommended. The framework outlined in this paper is quite general and could be extremely promising in further researches on drug-related adverse events.Comment: 26 pages, 7 figure