Forecasting the influence of conservation strategies on landscape connectivity.

Maintaining and enhancing landscape connectivity reduces biodiversity declines due to habitat fragmentation. Uncertainty remains, however, about the effectiveness of conservation for enhancing connectivity for multiple species on dynamic landscapes, especially over long time horizons. We forecasted landscape connectivity from 2020 to 2100 under four common conservation land-acquisition strategies: acquiring the lowest cost land, acquiring land clustered around already established conservation areas, acquiring land with high geodiversity characteristics, and acquiring land opportunistically.

Warming increased bark beetle-induced tree mortality by 30% during an extreme drought in California.

Quantifying the responses of forest disturbances to climate warming is critical to our understanding of carbon cycles and energy balances of the Earth system. The impact of warming on bark beetle outbreaks is complex as multiple drivers of these events may respond differently to warming. Using a novel model of bark beetle biology and host tree interactions, we assessed how contemporary warming affected western pine beetle (Dendroctonus brevicomis) populations and mortality of its host, ponderosa pine (Pinus ponderosa), during an extreme drought in the Sierra Nevada, California, United States.

Toward mechanistic models for genotype-phenotype correlations in phenylketonuria using protein stability calculations.

Phenylketonuria (PKU) is a genetic disorder caused by variants in the gene encoding phenylalanine hydroxylase (PAH), resulting in accumulation of phenylalanine to neurotoxic levels. Here, we analyzed the cellular stability, localization, and interaction with wild-type PAH of 20 selected PKU-linked PAH protein missense variants. Several were present at reduced levels in human cells, and the levels increased in the presence of a proteasome inhibitor, indicating that proteins are proteasome targets.

The effects of the Nepal community forestry program on biodiversity conservation and carbon storage.

Approximately 15.5% of global forest is controlled by ~1 billion local people and the area under community control is increasing. However, there is limited empirical evidence as to whether community control is effective in providing critical global ecosystem services, such as biodiversity conservation and carbon storage.

Effect of meditation on psychological distress and brain functioning: A randomized controlled study.

Background: Psychological stability and brain integration are important factors related to physical and mental health and organization effectiveness. This study tested whether a mind-body technique, the Transcendental Meditation (TM) program could increase EEG brain integration and positive affect, and decrease psychological distress in government employees.

Method: Ninety-six central office administrators and staff at the San Francisco Unified School District were randomly assigned to either immediate start of the TM program or to a wait-list control group.

Validation of a novel image-weighed technique for monitoring food intake and estimation of portion size in hospital settings: a pilot study.

Objective: Optimal nutrition for hospital patients is crucial and routine monitoring of patients' nutrient intake is imperative. However, personalised monitoring and customised intervention using traditional methods is challenging and labour-intensive, consequently it is often neglected in hospital settings. The present pilot study aimed to examine the reliability and validity of the Dietary Intake Monitoring System (DIMS) against the weighed food method (WFM).

Transient plasma cobalamin elevation in patients with pneumonia - two case reports.

We report two cases of transient significantly elevated plasma cobalamin (B12) in geriatric patients acutely admitted with fever, increased C-reactive protein and X-ray verified pneumonia. Extensive diagnostic workup did not reveal kidney or liver disease, neither any signs of cancer. Furthermore, none of the patients had received therapeutic B12 supplementation prior to admission.

An Anti-GDNF Family Receptor Alpha 1 (GFRA1) Antibody-Drug Conjugate for the Treatment of Hormone Receptor-Positive Breast Cancer.

Luminal A (hormone receptor-positive) breast cancer constitutes 70% of total breast cancer patients. In an attempt to develop a targeted therapeutic for this cancer indication, we have identified and characterized Glial cell line-Derived Neurotrophic Factor (GDNF) Family Receptor Alpha 1 (GFRA1) antibody-drug conjugates (ADC) using a cleavable valine-citrulline-MMAE (vcMMAE) linker-payload. RNAseq and IHC analysis confirmed the abundant expression of GFRA1 in luminal A breast cancer tissues, whereas minimal or no expression was observed in most normal tissues.

Prioritizing forest fuels treatments based on the probability of high-severity fire restores adaptive capacity in Sierran forests.

In frequent fire forests of the western United States, a legacy of fire suppression coupled with increases in fire weather severity have altered fire regimes and vegetation dynamics. When coupled with projected climate change, these conditions have the potential to lead to vegetation type change and altered carbon (C) dynamics. In the Sierra Nevada, fuels reduction approaches that include mechanical thinning followed by regular prescribed fire are one approach to restore the ability of the ecosystem to tolerate episodic fire and still sequester C.

How to measure energy and protein intake in a geriatric department - A comparison of three visual methods.

Background & Aims: Sufficient energy and protein intake are essential to treatment and recovery of hospitalized older adults. The food intake should be assessed in order to detect patients in need of nutritional intervention. The aim of this study was to compare the accuracy of three visual methods for assessing energy and protein intake as compared to weighing food items.

Sudden Collapse of a Preschool-Aged Child on the Playground.

Purpose: Primary cardiac events are rare in children. There is little information in the literature regarding the most appropriate emergency department (ED) management of this type of pediatric patient, especially with regard to medication use.

Summary: This case highlights the pediatric ED evaluation and treatment of sudden collapse in a child with an ultimate diagnosis of hypertrophic cardiomyopathy.

Forest management scenarios in a changing climate: trade-offs between carbon, timber, and old forest.

Balancing economic, ecological, and social values has long been a challenge in the forests of the Pacific Northwest, where conflict over timber harvest and old-growth habitat on public lands has been contentious for the past several decades. The Northwest Forest Plan, adopted two decades ago to guide management on federal lands, is currently being revised as the region searches for a balance between sustainable timber yields and habitat for sensitive species. In addition, climate change imposes a high degree of uncertainty on future forest productivity, sustainability of timber harvest, wildfire risk, and species habitat.

Sudden Cardiac Arrest in Pediatrics.

Sudden cardiac arrest (SCA) in the pediatric population is a rare and potentially devastating occurrence. An understanding of the differential diagnosis for the etiology of the cardiac arrest allows for the most effective emergency care and provides the patient with the best possible outcome. Pediatric SCA can occur with or without prodromal symptoms and may occur during exercise or rest.

Utility of Pediatric Appendicitis Score in Female Adolescent Patients.

Objectives: Acute appendicitis is common in the pediatric population and is difficult to diagnose in adolescent females. The validated Pediatric Appendicitis Score (PAS) has unclear utility in female adolescents. The purpose of this study is to determine the sensitivity, specificity, negative predictive value (NPV), and positive predictive value (PPV) of the PAS for female adolescents compared to all other patients.

Climate-suitable planting as a strategy for maintaining forest productivity and functional diversity.

Within the time frame of the longevity of tree species, climate change will change faster than the ability of natural tree migration. Migration lags may result in reduced productivity and reduced diversity in forests under current management and climate change. We evaluated the efficacy of planting climate-suitable tree species (CSP), those tree species with current or historic distributions immediately south of a focal landscape, to maintain or increase aboveground biomass productivity, and species and functional diversity.

Site-specific trastuzumab maytansinoid antibody-drug conjugates with improved therapeutic activity through linker and antibody engineering.

Antibody-drug conjugates (ADCs) have a significant impact toward the treatment of cancer, as evidenced by the clinical activity of the recently approved ADCs, brentuximab vedotin for Hodgkin lymphoma and ado-trastuzumab emtansine (trastuzumab-MCC-DM1) for metastatic HER2+ breast cancer. DM1 is an analog of the natural product maytansine, a microtubule inhibitor that by itself has limited clinical activity and high systemic toxicity. However, by conjugation of DM1 to trastuzumab, the safety was improved and clinical activity was demonstrated.

Predicted effects of gypsy moth defoliation and climate change on forest carbon dynamics in the New Jersey pine barrens.

Disturbance regimes within temperate forests can significantly impact carbon cycling. Additionally, projected climate change in combination with multiple, interacting disturbance effects may disrupt the capacity of forests to act as carbon sinks at large spatial and temporal scales. We used a spatially explicit forest succession and disturbance model, LANDIS-II, to model the effects of climate change, gypsy moth (Lymantria dispar L.

An improved and robust DNA immunization method to develop antibodies against extracellular loops of multi-transmembrane proteins.

Multi-transmembrane proteins are especially difficult targets for antibody generation largely due to the challenge of producing a protein that maintains its native conformation in the absence of a stabilizing membrane. Here, we describe an immunization strategy that successfully resulted in the identification of monoclonal antibodies that bind specifically to extracellular epitopes of a 12 transmembrane protein, multi-drug resistant protein 4 (MRP4). These monoclonal antibodies were developed following hydrodynamic tail vein immunization with a cytomegalovirus (CMV) promoter-based plasmid expressing MRP4 cDNA and were characterized by flow cytometry.

Carbon dynamics in the future forest: the importance of long-term successional legacy and climate-fire interactions.

Understanding how climate change may influence forest carbon (C) budgets requires knowledge of forest growth relationships with regional climate, long-term forest succession, and past and future disturbances, such as wildfires and timber harvesting events. We used a landscape-scale model of forest succession, wildfire, and C dynamics (LANDIS-II) to evaluate the effects of a changing climate (A2 and B1 IPCC emissions; Geophysical Fluid Dynamics Laboratory General Circulation Models) on total forest C, tree species composition, and wildfire dynamics in the Lake Tahoe Basin, California, and Nevada. The independent effects of temperature and precipitation were assessed within and among climate models.

Rac and Rab GTPases dual effector Nischarin regulates vesicle maturation to facilitate survival of intracellular bacteria.

The intracellular pathogenic bacterium Salmonella enterica serovar typhimurium (Salmonella) relies on acidification of the Salmonella-containing vacuole (SCV) for survival inside host cells. The transport and fusion of membrane-bound compartments in a cell is regulated by small GTPases, including Rac and members of the Rab GTPase family, and their effector proteins. However, the role of these components in survival of intracellular pathogens is not completely understood.