Flight-Initiation Distance (FID)-a direct measure of an individual animal's escape response-is a widely used method to study escape ecology in fauna. The technique has primarily been applied to bird species that are active by day. Indexing the escape behaviour of nocturnal species has been limited due to the need for light to detect and observe animals which confounds behavioural responses.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFThe coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) pandemic and respective shutdowns dramatically altered human activities, potentially changing human pressures on urban-dwelling animals. Here, we use such COVID-19-induced variation in human presence to evaluate, across multiple temporal scales, how urban birds from five countries changed their tolerance towards humans, measured as escape distance. We collected 6369 escape responses for 147 species and found that human numbers in parks at a given hour, day, week or year (before and during shutdowns) had a little effect on birds' escape distances.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFAnticoagulant rodenticides (ARs) influence predator populations and threaten the stability of ecosystems. Understanding the prevalence and impact of rodenticides in predators is crucial to inform conservation planning and policy. We collected dead birds of four nocturnal predatory species across differing landscapes: forests, agricultural, urban.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFOral health is crucial to overall health, and periodontal disease (PDD) is a chronic inflammatory disease. Over the past decade, PDD has been recognized as a significant contributor to systemic inflammation. Here, we relate our seminal work defining the role of lysophosphatidic acid (LPA) and its receptors (LPARs) in the oral system with findings and parallels relevant to cancer.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFAnimal tolerance towards humans can be a key factor facilitating wildlife-human coexistence, yet traits predicting its direction and magnitude across tropical animals are poorly known. Using 10,249 observations for 842 bird species inhabiting open tropical ecosystems in Africa, South America, and Australia, we find that avian tolerance towards humans was lower (i.e.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFHabitat destruction and fragmentation increasingly bring humans into close proximity with wildlife, particularly in urban contexts. Animals respond to humans using nuanced anti-predator responses, especially escape, with responses influenced by behavioral and life history traits, the nature of the risk, and aspects of the surrounding environment. Although many studies examine associations between broad-scale habitat characteristics (i.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFFrom cassettes to digital, use of video in education has evolved. Supplemental digital media is a common educational adjunct within gross anatomy courses. As these aids have advanced technologically, so has production cost.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFThe powerful owl (Ninox strenua) is a threatened apex predator that consumes mainly arboreal marsupial prey. Low density populations reside in urban landscapes where their viability is tenuous. The catalyst for this research was the reported death of eight powerful owls around Melbourne, Australia, in less than one year (2020/2021).
View Article and Find Full Text PDFDental microwear formation on the posterior dentition is largely attributed to an organism's diet. However, some have suggested that dietary and environmental abrasives contribute more to the formation process than food, calling into question the applicability of dental microwear to the reconstruction of diet in the fossil record. Creating microwear under controlled conditions would benefit this debate, but requires accurately replicating the oral environment.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFObjectives: To determine biopsy device failures, causative factors, complications and sample quality of the 16G end-cut Biopince and side-notch Bard needles.
Methods: All ultrasound-guided non-targeted liver biopsies between 01/01/2016 and 31/12/2018 were included. Operator, device, number of failures, complications and repeat biopsies were recorded.
Background: Adult granulosa cell tumor (AGCT) of the ovary generally has a good prognosis. Recurrences tend to be late and confined to the abdominopelvis. Bone metastases are extremely rare.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFFew studies of animal escape behaviour simultaneously investigate behavioural and physiological responses. Differences between these response types, however, have consequences for the way in which habituation or tolerance is interpreted - behavioural habituation may incur physiological costs. We simultaneously measured heart rate (HR) and behavioural responses during standardised approaches to incubating Masked Lapwings Vanellus miles, an urban-frequenting ground-nesting bird.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFBackground: Ultrasound is being utilized more frequently to diagnose fractures in bone and track fracture reduction quickly, and without radiation exposure in the ED. Realistic and practical methods of teaching sonographic fracture identification to medical trainees are needed. The objective of this study is to determine the feasibility of using formalin-embalmed human cadavers in teaching medical trainees to use ultrasound to identify synthetic fractures in tibia, radius, and metacarpal bones.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFThe retinoblastoma family of pocket proteins (pRBs), composed of Rb1, p107, and p130 are negative regulators of cell-cycle progression. The deletion of any individual pRB in the auditory system triggers hair cells' (HCs) and supporting cells' (SCs) proliferation to different extents. Nevertheless, accessing their combined role in the inner ear through conditional or complete knockout methods is limited by the early mortality of the triple knockout.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFTo characterize treatment patterns and survival outcomes for patients with locally advanced or metastatic malignancy of the urothelial tract during a period immediately preceding the widespread use of immune checkpoint inhibitors in the UK. We retrospectively examined the electronic case notes of patients attending the Leeds Cancer Center, UK with locally advanced or metastatic urothelial carcinoma, receiving chemotherapy between January 2003 and March 2017. Patient characteristics, treatment patterns, and outcomes were collected.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFRadiological guided intervention techniques are discussed in obstetric and gynecologic patients. Fallopian tube recanalization, postpartum hemorrhage control, techniques of treating uterine leiomyomas, pelvic congestion treatment, and the use of percutaneous and transvaginal ultrasonography-guided aspirations and biopsy are covered. These techniques use basic radiological interventional skills and show how they are adapted for use in the female pelvis.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFObjectives: This study was conducted in order to establish the joint Society of Abdominal Radiology (SAR) and European Society of Urogenital Radiology (ESUR) guidelines on placenta accreta spectrum (PAS) disorders and propose strategies to standardize image acquisition, interpretation, and reporting for this condition with MRI.
Methods: The published evidence-based data and the opinion of experts were combined using the RAND-UCLA Appropriateness Method and formed the basis for these consensus guidelines. The responses of the experts to questions regarding the details of patient preparation, MRI protocol, image interpretation, and reporting were collected, analyzed, and classified as "recommended" versus "not recommended" (if at least 80% consensus among experts) or uncertain (if less than 80% consensus among experts).
Invasive candidiasis (IC) is the most common nosocomial infection and a leading cause of mycoses-related deaths. High-systemic toxicity and emergence of antifungal-resistant species warrant the development of newer preventive approaches against IC. Here, we have adopted an immunotherapeutic peptide vaccine-based approach, to enhance the body's immune response against invasive candida infections.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFIn endometrial cancer (EC), adrenal metastases are rare indicating advanced disease. We report an unusual presentation of EC with solitary adrenal metastases at the time of diagnosis and provide with an updated literature review. A 68-year-old woman was referred with postmenopausal bleeding of several weeks' duration.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFSex-biases in populations can have important implications for species' social biology, population demography and mating systems. It has recently been suggested that in some shorebirds, sex-specific bias in survival of precocial young may occur. This may be driven by variation in the brood sex-ratio and/or the sexual size dimorphism of young birds, which may influence predator escape capacity.
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