Cumulative costs of reproduction are predicted by life-history theories of aging, but empirical support for cumulative costs of reproduction in ungulates is limited. Examinations of the relationship between previous reproductive effort and future reproductive output are often limited to successive years. We analyzed pregnancy status, lactation duration, and age class of Elk () in Utah, United States, from 2019 to 2022 to better understand the relationship between previous reproductive effort and future reproductive output, particularly in nonsuccessive years.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFParturition timing has long been a topic of interest in ungulate research. However, few studies have examined parturition timing at fine scale (e.g.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFBackground: Information on reproduction of harvested species such as mule deer (Odocoileus hemionus) is vital for conservation and management. Furthermore, parturition in ungulates may be detected using patterns of movement logged by GPS transmitters. Several movement-based methods have been developed to detect parturition in ungulates including the Peterson method, behavioral change point analysis (BCPA), rolling minimum convex polygons (rMCP), individual-based method (IBM), and population-based method (PBM).
View Article and Find Full Text PDFAge of individuals is an intrinsic demographic parameter used in the modeling and management of wildlife. Although analysis of cementum annuli from teeth is currently the most accurate method used to age ungulates, the age of live ungulates in the field can be estimated by examining tooth wear and tooth replacement patterns. However, there may be limitations to aging based on tooth wear as the rate of tooth wear likely varies among individuals due to factors such as age, diet, environment, and sex.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFPurpose: Early treatment intensification with neoadjuvant therapy may improve outcomes in patients with high-risk, localized prostate cancer treated with radical prostatectomy. Our objective was to compare pathologic, oncologic, and safety outcomes of neoadjuvant abiraterone acetate plus leuprolide acetate with or without cabazitaxel prior to radical prostatectomy in patients with localized, high-risk prostate cancer.
Patients And Methods: This open-label, multicenter, phase II trial randomized men with clinically localized, D'Amico high-risk prostate cancer to neoadjuvant abiraterone acetate (1,000 mg/day) and leuprolide acetate (22.
Ecological context-the biotic and abiotic environment, along with its influence on population mixing dynamics and individual susceptibility-is thought to have major bearing on epidemic outcomes. However, direct comparisons of wildlife disease events in contrasting ecological contexts are often confounded by concurrent differences in host genetics, exposure histories, or pathogen strains. Here, we compare disease dynamics of a spillover event that affected bighorn sheep populations in two contrasting ecological contexts.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFBackground: The evaluation of tumour-infiltrating lymphocytes (TILs) in solid malignancies has yielded insights into immune regulation within the tumour microenvironment and has also led to the development and optimisation of adoptive T cell therapies.
Objectives: This study examined the expansion of TILs from prostate adenocarcinoma, as a preliminary step to evaluate the potential of TILs for adoptive T cell therapy. .
Introduction: Sunitinib is a multi-targeted receptor tyrosine kinase inhibitor used to treat metastatic renal cell carcinoma (mRCC). Patients on sunitinib do require regular in-person appointments to monitor for adverse events (AEs). Given the Covid-19 pandemic, regular in-person visits expose patients to an increased risk of infection in addition to potentially preventable travel costs.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFNetgun capture is a commonly used capture method for mule deer (Odocoileus hemionus) in North America. Mortalities during netgun captures are generally low, and most often caused by direct trauma and occasionally fatal capture myopathy. Capture is a stressful event for a wild animal, and subclinical capture myopathy is difficult to measure.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFWe investigated causes of antler deformities in mule deer (Odocoileus hemionus) bucks from the Paunsaugunt Plateau in southern Utah, US. A total of 10 hunter-harvested and nine live-captured bucks with antler deformities and six hunter-harvested and 43 live-captured bucks with normal antlers were included in the study. All were screened by serology for exposure to epizootic hemorrhagic disease virus (EHDV) types 1, 2, and 6, bluetongue virus, Brucella abortus, Brucella ovis, caprine arthritis, encephalitis virus, and bovine viral diarrhea virus (BVDV) types 1 and 2.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFIntroduction: In light of COVID-19, reducing patient exposure via remote monitoring is desirable. Patients prescribed abiraterone/ enzalutamide are scheduled for monthly in-person appointments to screen for adverse events (AEs). We determined time trends of drug-specific actionable AEs among users of abiraterone/enzalutamide to assess the safety of remote monitoring.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFBackground: Conservation and management of migratory animals has gained attention in recent years, but the majority of research has focused on stereotypical 'migrant' and 'resident' behaviors, often failing to incorporate any atypical behaviors or characterize migratory behaviors beyond distance and timing of the migration. With migration threatened by anthropogenic development and climate change, it is crucial that we understand the full range of migratory behaviors. Our objective was to demonstrate and characterize the variation in migration strategies, including typical and atypical migratory behaviors for mule deer (Odocoileus hemionus) in Utah, USA.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFPressure from hunting can alter the behavior and habitat selection of game species. During hunting periods, cervids such as elk (Cervus canadensis) typically select for areas further from roads and closer to tree cover, while altering the timing of their daily activities to avoid hunters. Our objective was to determine the habitat characteristics most influential in predicting harvest risk of elk.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFProstate Cancer Prostatic Dis
December 2020
Background: Statins inhibit HMG-CoA reductase, the rate-limiting enzyme of the mevalonate pathway. Epidemiological and pre-clinical evidence support an association between statin use and delayed prostate cancer (PCa) progression. Here, we evaluated the effects of neoadjuvant fluvastatin treatment on markers of cell proliferation and apoptosis in men with localized PCa.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFEfforts to conserve bats in the western United States have long been impeded by a lack of information on their winter whereabouts, particularly bats in the genus Myotis. The recent arrival of white-nose syndrome in western North America has increased the urgency to characterize winter roost habitats in this region. We compiled 4,549 winter bat survey records from 2,888 unique structures across 11 western states.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFPredator control is often implemented with the intent of disrupting top-down regulation in sensitive prey populations. However, ambiguity surrounding the efficacy of predator management, as well as the strength of top-down effects of predators in general, is often exacerbated by the spatially implicit analytical approaches used in assessing data with explicit spatial structure. Here, we highlight the importance of considering spatial context in the case of a predator control study in south-central Utah.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFUnlabelled: Several new compounds are now available for castration resistant prostate cancer (CRPC). Individual costs range between $40,000 and $93,000 with mean survival extensions from 2.4 to 4.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFIntroduction: Urinary biomarkers are being developed to detect bladder cancer recurrence/progression in patients with non-muscle-invasive bladder cancer (NMIBC). We conducted a questionnaire-based study to determine what diagnostic accuracy and cost would such test(s) need for both patients and urologic oncologists to comfortably forgo surveillance cystoscopy in favour of these tests.
Methods: Surveys were administered to NMIBC patients at followup cystoscopy visit and to physician members of the Society of Urologic Oncology.
Introduction: Repeat prostate biopsies in active surveillance patients are associated with significant complications. Novel imaging and blood/urine-based non-invasive tests are being developed to better predict disease grade and volume progression. We conducted a theoretical study to determine what test performance characteristics and costs would a non-invasive test(s) require in order for patients and their physicians to comfortably avoid biopsy.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFHemolytic disease of the fetus and newborn is a common consideration in newborn medicine, especially among the jaundiced. Maternal breastmilk provides numerous benefits to the infant, including nutrition and immunologic factors. Here, we present an infant who received three intrauterine transfusions for anemia secondary to anti-K1 (Kell), anti-C, and anti-e antibodies and whose maternal breastmilk tested positive for anti-Kell antibodies.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFDegarelix, a new gonadotropin-releasing hormone (GnRH) receptor antagonist with demonstrated efficacy as first-line treatment in the management of high-risk prostate cancer, possesses some theoretical advantages over luteinizing hormone-releasing hormone (LHRH) analogues in terms of avoiding "testosterone flare" and lower follicle-stimulating hormone (FSH) levels. We set out to determine whether preoperative degarelix influenced surrogates of disease control in a randomized phase II study. Thirty-nine patients were randomly assigned to one of three different neoadjuvant arms: degarelix only, degarelix/bicalutamide, or LHRH agonist/bicalutamide.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFThe green wave hypothesis (GWH) states that migrating animals should track or 'surf' high-quality forage at the leading edge of spring green-up. To index such high-quality forage, recent work proposed the instantaneous rate of green-up (IRG), i.e.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFUnderstanding the relative effects of climate, harvest, and density dependence on population dynamics is critical for guiding sound population management, especially for ungulates in arid and semiarid environments experiencing climate change. To address these issues for bison in southern Utah, USA, we applied a Bayesian state-space model to a 72-yr time series of abundance counts. While accounting for known harvest (as well as live removal) from the population, we found that the bison population in southern Utah exhibited a strong potential to grow from low density (β0 = 0.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFClimate plays a fundamental role in limiting the range of a species, is a key factor in the dynamics of large herbivores, and is thought to be involved in declines of moose populations in recent decades. We examined effects of climate and growing-season phenology on recruitment (8-9 months old) of young Shiras moose (Alces alces shirasi) over three decades, from 18 herds, across a large geographic area encompassing much of the southern extent of their range. Recruitment declined in 8 of 18 herds during 1980-2009, whereas others did not exhibit a temporal trend (none showed a positive trend).
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