Winter GPS tagging reveals home ranges during the breeding season for a boreal-nesting migrant songbird, the Golden-crowned Sparrow.

Determining space use for species is fundamental to understanding their ecology, and tracking animals can reveal insights into their spatial ecology on home ranges and territories. Recent technological advances have led to GPS-tracking devices light enough for birds as small as ~30 g, creating novel opportunities to remotely monitor fine-scale movements and space use for these smaller species. We tested whether miniaturized GPS tags can allow us to understand space use of migratory birds away from their capture sites and sought to understand both pre-breeding space use as well as territory and habitat use on the breeding grounds.

Operationalizing a fisheries social-ecological system through a Bayesian belief network reveals hotspots for its adaptive capacity in the southern North sea.

Fisheries social-ecological systems (SES) in the North Sea region confront multifaceted challenges stemming from environmental changes, offshore wind farm expansion, and marine protected area establishment. In this paper, we demonstrate the utility of a Bayesian Belief Network (BN) approach in comprehensively capturing and assessing the intricate spatial dynamics within the German plaice-related fisheries SES. The BN integrates ecological, economic, and socio-cultural factors to generate high-resolution maps of profitability and adaptive capacity potential (ACP) as prospective management targets.

Extracellular vesicle small RNA cargo discriminates non-cancer donors from pediatric B-lymphoblastic leukemia patients.

Pediatric B-acute lymphoblastic leukemia (B-ALL) is a disease of abnormally growing B lymphoblasts. Here we hypothesized that extracellular vesicles (EVs), which are nanosized particles released by all cells (including cancer cells), could be used to monitor B-ALL severity and progression by sampling plasma instead of bone marrow. EVs are especially attractive as they are present throughout the circulation regardless of the location of the originating cell.

Land cover and NDVI are important predictors in habitat selection along migration for the Golden-crowned Sparrow, a temperate-zone migrating songbird.

Background: Migrating passerines in North America have shown sharp declines. Understanding habitat selection and threats along migration paths are critical research needs, but details about migrations have been limited due to the difficulty of tracking small birds. Recent technological advances of tiny GPS-tags provide new opportunities to delineate fine-scale movements in small passerines during a life stage that has previously been inherently difficult to study.

Time-dependent metabolome and fatty acid profile changes following a high-fat diet exposure in Drosophila melanogaster.

High-fat diets (HFDs) are often used to study metabolic disorders using different animal models. However, the underlying cellular mechanisms pertaining to the concurrent loss of metabolic homeostasis characteristics of these disorders are still unclear mainly because the effects of such diets are also dependent on the time frame of the experiments. Here, we used the fruit fly, Drosophila melanogaster, to investigate the metabolic dynamic effects following 0, 2, 4, 7 and 9 days of an exposure to a HFD (standard diet supplemented with 20% w/v coconut oil, rich in 12:0 and 14:0) by combining NMR metabolomics and GC-FID fatty acid profiling.

Golden Syrian Hamster Models for Cancer Research.

The golden Syrian hamster () has long been a valuable rodent model of human diseases, especially infectious and metabolic diseases. Hamsters have also been valuable models of several chemically induced cancers such as the DMBA-induced oral cheek pouch cancer model. Recently, with the application of CRISPR/Cas9 genetic engineering technology, hamsters can now be gene targeted as readily as mouse models.

Demographic responses to climate-driven variation in habitat quality across the annual cycle of a migratory bird species.

The demography and dynamics of migratory bird populations depend on patterns of movement and habitat quality across the annual cycle. We leveraged archival GPS-tagging data, climate data, remote-sensed vegetation data, and bird-banding data to better understand the dynamics of black-headed grosbeak () populations in two breeding regions, the coast and Central Valley of California (Coastal California) and the Sierra Nevada mountain range (Sierra Nevada), over 28 years (1992-2019). Drought conditions across the annual cycle and rainfall timing on the molting grounds influenced seasonal habitat characteristics, including vegetation greenness and phenology (maturity dates).

CFTR and Gastrointestinal Cancers: An Update.

Cystic Fibrosis (CF) is a disease caused by mutations in the gene that severely affects the lungs as well as extra-pulmonary tissues, including the gastrointestinal (GI) tract. CFTR dysfunction resulting from either mutations or the downregulation of its expression has been shown to promote carcinogenesis. An example is the enhanced risk for several types of cancer in patients with CF, especially cancers of the GI tract.

A Point Prevalence Survey of Antimicrobial Usage in New Brunswick Hospitals.

Background: Prevalence surveys are useful tools for assessing the appropriateness of antimicrobial therapy.

Objectives: The primary objective was to assess patterns of antimicrobial utilization and appropriateness in New Brunswick hospitals. The secondary objective was to assess the impact of hospital size and the presence of a penicillin allergy label on antimicrobial appropriateness.

Cancer spectrum in TP53-deficient golden Syrian hamsters: A new model for Li-Fraumeni syndrome.

Background: The tumor suppressor gene is the most commonly mutated gene in human cancers. Humans who inherit mutant alleles develop a wide range of early onset cancers, a disorder called Li-Fraumeni Syndrome (LFS). -deficient mice recapitulate most but not all of the cancer phenotypes observed in -deficient human cancers, indicating that new animal models may complement current mouse models and better inform on human disease development.

Systemic and mitochondrial effects of metabolic inflexibility induced by high fat diet in Drosophila melanogaster.

Metabolic inflexibility is a condition that occurs following a nutritional stress which causes blunted fuel switching at the mitochondrial level in response to hormonal and cellular signalling. Linked to obesity and obesity related disorders, chronic exposure to a high-fat diet (HFD) in animal models has been extensively used to induce metabolic inflexibility and investigate the development of various metabolic diseases. However, many questions concerning the systemic and mitochondrial responses to metabolic inflexibility remain.

Evaluation of marine spatial planning requires fit for purpose monitoring strategies.

Marine spatial planning (MSP) has rapidly become the most widely used integrated, place-based management approach in the marine environment. Monitoring and evaluation of MSP is key to inform best practices, adaptive management and plan iteration. While standardised evaluation frameworks cannot be readily applied, accounting for evaluation essentials such as the definition of evaluation objectives, indicators and stakeholder engagement of stakeholders is a prerequisite for meaningful evaluation outcomes.

Deprescribing interventions in primary health care mapped to the Behaviour Change Wheel: A scoping review.

Background: Polypharmacy and inappropriate medication use are an increasing concern. Deprescribing may improve medication use through planned and supervised dose reduction or stopping of medications. As most medication management occurs in primary health care, which is generally described as the first point of access for day-to-day care, deprescribing in primary health care is the focus on this review.

Development and Physical Characterization of α-Glucan Nanoparticles.

α-Glucans that were enzymatically synthesized from sucrose using glucansucrase cloned from NRRL B-1118 were found to have a glass transition temperature of approximately 80 °C. Using high-pressure homogenization (~70 MPa), the α-glucans were converted into nanoparticles of ~120 nm in diameter with a surface potential of ~-3 mV. Fluorescence measurements using 1,6-diphenyl-1,3,5-hexatriene (DPH) indicate that the α-glucan nanoparticles have a hydrophobic core that remains intact from 10 to 85 °C.

Influencers on deprescribing practice of primary healthcare providers in Nova Scotia: An examination using behavior change frameworks.

Background: Deprescribing is a complex process requiring consideration of behavior change theory to improve implementation and uptake.

Aim: The aim of this study was to describe the knowledge, attitudes, beliefs, and behaviors that influence deprescribing for primary healthcare providers (family physicians, nurse practitioners (NPs), and pharmacists) within Nova Scotia using the (TDF(v2)) and the .

Methods: Interviews and focus groups were completed with primary care providers (physicians, NPs, and pharmacists) in Nova Scotia, Canada.

Activity-footprints, pressures-footprints and effects-footprints - Walking the pathway to determining and managing human impacts in the sea.

Determining the overall effects of human activities on the estuaries, seas and coasts, as a precursor to marine management, requires quantifying three aspects. These are: (a) the area in which the human activities take place, (b) the area covered by the pressures generated by the activities on the prevailing habitats and species, in which pressures are defined as the mechanisms of change, and (c) the area over which any adverse effects occur. These features can be respectively termed the activities-footprints, the pressures-footprints and the effects-footprints.

Cystic Fibrosis, CFTR, and Colorectal Cancer.

Cystic fibrosis (CF), caused by biallelic inactivating mutations in the () gene, has recently been categorized as a familial colorectal cancer (CRC) syndrome. CF patients are highly susceptible to early, aggressive colorectal tumor development. Endoscopic screening studies have revealed that by the age of forty 50% of CF patients will develop adenomas, with 25% developing aggressive advanced adenomas, some of which will have already advanced to adenocarcinomas.

Operationalizing risk-based cumulative effect assessments in the marine environment.

Ecosystem-based management requires an assessment of the cumulative effects of human pressures and environmental change. The operationalization and integration of cumulative effects assessments (CEA) into decision-making processes often lacks a comprehensive and transparent framework. A risk-based CEA framework that divides a CEA in risk identification, risk analysis and risk evaluation, could structure such complex analyses and facilitate the establishment of direct science-policy links.

Migration tracking reveals geographic variation in the vulnerability of a Nearctic-Neotropical migrant bird.

We compared the vulnerability of a Nearctic-Neotropical migrant (Swainson's Thrush, Catharus ustulatus) for three geographically-defined breeding populations in California by linking breeding and wintering regions, estimating migration distances, and quantifying relative forest loss. Using data from light-level geolocator and GPS tags, we found that breeding birds from the relatively robust coastal population in the San Francisco Bay area wintered predominantly in western Mexico (n = 18), whereas the far rarer breeding birds from two inland populations that occur near one another in the Sierra Nevada and southern Cascades mountain ranges migrated to farther wintering destinations, with birds from the Lassen region (n = 5) predominantly going to Central America and birds from the Tahoe region (n = 7) predominantly to South America. Landscape-level relative forest loss was greater in the breeding and wintering regions of the two Cascade-Sierra populations than those of coastal birds.

Socio-ecological vulnerability to tipping points: A review of empirical approaches and their use for marine management.

Sustainability in the provision of ecosystem services requires understanding of the vulnerability of social-ecological systems (SES) to tipping points (TPs). Assessing SES vulnerability to abrupt ecosystem state changes remains challenging, however, because frameworks do not operationally link ecological, socio-economic and cultural elements of the SES. We conducted a targeted literature review on empirical assessments of SES and TPs in the marine realm and their use in ecosystem-based management.

Role of ion channels in gastrointestinal cancer.

In their seminal papers Hanahan and Weinberg described oncogenic processes a normal cell undergoes to be transformed into a cancer cell. The functions of ion channels in the gastrointestinal (GI) tract influence a variety of cellular processes, many of which overlap with these hallmarks of cancer. In this review we focus on the roles of the calcium (Ca), sodium (Na), potassium (K), chloride (Cl) and zinc (Zn) transporters in GI cancer, with a special emphasis on the roles of the KCNQ1 K channel and CFTR Cl channel in colorectal cancer (CRC).

Dynamic mitochondrial responses to a high-fat diet in Drosophila melanogaster.

Mitochondria can utilize different fuels according to physiological and nutritional conditions to promote cellular homeostasis. However, during nutrient overload metabolic inflexibility can occur, resulting in mitochondrial dysfunctions. High-fat diets (HFDs) are usually used to mimic this metabolic inflexibility in different animal models.

Omega-3 Monoacylglyceride Effects on Longevity, Mitochondrial Metabolism and Oxidative Stress: Insights from .

During the last decade, essential polyunsaturated fatty acids (PUFAs) such as eicosatetraenoic acid (EPA) and docosahexaenoic acid (DHA) derived from marine sources have been investigated as nonpharmacological dietary supplements to improve different pathological conditions, as well as aging. The aim of this study was to determine the effects of dietary n-3 PUFA monoacylglycerides (MAG, both EPA and DHA) on the mitochondrial metabolism and oxidative stress of a short-lifespan model, , sampled at five different ages. Our results showed that diets supplemented with MAG-EPA and MAG-DHA increased median lifespan by 14.

A novel cancer syndrome caused by -deficiency in the golden Syrian hamster.

Background: The golden Syrian hamster is an emerging model organism. To optimize its use, our group has made the first genetically engineered hamsters. One of the first genes that we investigated is which encodes for the KCNQ1 potassium channel and also has been implicated as a tumor suppressor gene.