An expert-based system to predict population survival rate from health data.

Timely detection and understanding of causes for population decline are essential for effective wildlife management and conservation. Assessing trends in population size has been the standard approach, but we propose that monitoring population health could prove more effective. We collated data from 7 bottlenose dolphin (Tursiops truncatus) populations in the southeastern United States to develop a method for estimating survival probability based on a suite of health measures identified by experts as indices for inflammatory, metabolic, pulmonary, and neuroendocrine systems.

Specialization of a mobile, apex predator affects trophic coupling among adjacent habitats.

Mobile, apex predators are commonly assumed to stabilize food webs through trophic coupling across spatially distinct habitats. The assumption that trophic coupling is common remains largely untested, despite evidence that individual behaviors might limit trophic coupling. We used stable isotope data from common bottlenose dolphins across the Gulf of Mexico to determine if these apex predators coupled estuarine and adjacent, nearshore marine habitats.

Serum correlation, demographic differentiation, and seasonality of blubber testosterone in common bottlenose dolphins, Tursiops truncatus, in Sarasota Bay, FL.

Blubber and serum testosterone levels were compared among 55 individual common bottlenose dolphins, Tursiops truncatus, in Sarasota Bay, FL during 2011-2019. A significant positive relationship between the matrices was found in male testosterone concentrations in 29 paired samples (r = 0.932).

Interleukin-8/CXCL8 forms an autocrine loop in fetal intestinal mucosa.

IL-8/CXC ligand (CXCL) 8 is ingested in high concentrations by the human fetus/neonate with amniotic fluid and human milk, and is also produced constitutively by intestinal epithelial cells (IEC). We have shown that recombinant human IL-8/CXCL8 (rhIL-8/CXCL8) protects cultured IEC against tumor necrosis factor (TNF)-alpha and cycloheximide-induced cytotoxicity. In view of its constitutive production, we hypothesized that IL-8/CXCL8 might play an autocrine role in fetal enterocyte maintenance.

Abnormal intestinal histology in neonates with congenital anomalies of the gastrointestinal tract.

In animal models, when swallowing is experimentally prevented in utero, bowel length and weight are reduced, and villus height, crypt depth, and villus function are retarded. Little is known about the intestinal histology in infants with gastrointestinal (GI) tract anomalies. We examined the histological architecture of the intestine in neonates with GI anomalies in comparison to that of normal fetuses.

Effects of interleukin-8 on the developing human intestine.

The human fetal/neonatal gastrointestinal tract is exposed to biologically significant concentrations of interleukin (IL)-8 swallowed with amniotic fluid and human milk. We hypothesized that IL-8 has a physiologic function in the developing human intestine. IL-8 was measured in preterm and term human milk, tested for stability under conditions simulating neonatal gastric and proximal small intestinal digestion, and its receptors were sought in human fetal bowel.