Publications by authors named "Simpfendorfer C"

Article Synopsis
  • Assessing ocean biodiversity is challenging, with limited global indicators highlighting overfishing as a major threat, impacting shark and ray populations.
  • Analysis of 1199 species shows their populations have declined by 50% since 1970, with a 19% increase in extinction risk, particularly in regions with high coastal human populations.
  • Sustainable fishing practices and restrictions on threatened species can help prevent further biodiversity loss and maintain ecological balance in marine environments.
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Many citizen scientists are highly motivated to help address the current extinction crisis. Their work is making valuable contributions to protecting species by raising awareness, identifying species occurrences, assessing population trends, and informing direct management actions, such as captive breeding. However, clear guidance is lacking about how to use existing citizen science data sets and how to design effective citizen science programs that directly inform extinction risk assessments and resulting conservation actions based on the International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN) Red List criteria.

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  • Current terminology for MRI findings related to musculoskeletal infections is vague and inconsistent, prompting the need for a new classification system.
  • The study developed the Musculoskeletal Infection Reporting and Data System (MSKI-RADS) to provide a structured scoring method for assessing extremity infections in adult patients based on MRI scans obtained between June 2015 and May 2019.
  • Results showed that MSKI-RADS improved diagnostic accuracy among radiologists, achieving a 65% accuracy rate compared to 55% for traditional diagnoses, establishing it as a reliable tool for standardized communication in identifying and managing these infections.
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  • Mangrove habitats act as nurseries for sharks and rays, but the specific adaptations of these species to cope with thermal extremes in these environments remain underexplored.
  • The study focused on juvenile mangrove whiprays, identifying their critical thermal limits, oxygen uptake rates under varying temperatures, and monitoring their body temperatures in relation to environmental temperatures, finding the rays prefer cooler waters even during hot conditions.
  • The findings suggest that these young rays utilize behavioral strategies to manage temperature changes, indicating that mangrove areas are crucial for their survival, though they face threats from habitat loss and climate change.
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  • Sharks play many important roles in their ecosystems, like being predators and helping transport nutrients.
  • Sadly, overfishing and other human activities have hurt shark populations, which changes how ecosystems work.
  • To fix the problems caused by losing sharks, we need to manage their populations better and understand all the ways they help the environment.
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Vertebral body enhancement is occasionally seen on postcontrast CT imaging in the absence of osseous pathology. This enhancement can mimic sclerotic osseous metastatic disease, leading to a diagnostic dilemma for radiologists and increasing the chance of misinterpretation. Existing literature has focused on the association between this enhancement and concomitant central venous system obstruction.

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Acoustic telemetry has been used to monitor the movement of aquatic animals in a broad range of aquatic environments. Despite their importance, mangrove habitats are understudied for the spatial ecology of elasmobranchs, with acoustic telemetry rarely used inside mangrove habitats. One reason for this may be a general assumption that acoustic signals would not be able to be detected by receivers in such shallow, structurally complex, environments.

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Many shark populations are in decline around the world, with severe ecological and economic consequences. Fisheries management and marine protected areas (MPAs) have both been heralded as solutions. However, the effectiveness of MPAs alone is questionable, particularly for globally threatened sharks and rays ('elasmobranchs'), with little known about how fisheries management and MPAs interact to conserve these species.

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Background: Acoustic telemetry has become a fundamental tool to monitor the movement of aquatic species. Advances in technology, in particular the development of batteries with lives of > 10 years, have increased our ability to track the long-term movement patterns of many species. However, logistics and financial constraints often dictate the locations and deployment duration of acoustic receivers.

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The deep ocean is the last natural biodiversity refuge from the reach of human activities. Deepwater sharks and rays are among the most sensitive marine vertebrates to overexploitation. One-third of threatened deepwater sharks are targeted, and half the species targeted for the international liver-oil trade are threatened with extinction.

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Liver venous deprivation (LVD) is an emerging, minimally invasive strategy to induce rapid liver hypertrophy of the future liver remnant (FLR) before a major hepatectomy. LVD (aka "double vein embolization") entails same-session percutaneous embolization of the portal and hepatic veins of the planned liver resection. This report discusses LVD's utilization and technical challenges in managing a 49-year-old male with recurrent multifocal colorectal liver metastases (CRLM).

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Foraging is a behavioural process and, therefore, individual behaviour and diet are theorized to covary. However, few comparisons of individual behaviour type and diet exist in the wild. We tested whether behaviour type and diet covary in a protected population of Atlantic cod, Gadus morhua.

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Objective: This study is to determine whether a needle guidance device combining a 3D-printed component with a smartphone would decrease the number of passes and time required to perform a standard CT-guided needle procedure in a phantom study.

Materials And Methods: A 3D-printed mechanical guide with built-in apertures for various needle sizes was designed and printed. It was mounted on a smartphone and used to direct commercially available spring-loaded biopsy devices.

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Article Synopsis
  • River sharks (Glyphis spp.) and some sawfish (Pristidae) utilize riverine habitats, but their long-term living patterns remain unclear.
  • The study examined the movements and elemental signatures of northern river shark and sawfish species, employing a technique called LA-ICP-MS on their vertebrae to assess their habitat use based on elemental ratios.
  • Findings revealed that barium indicates freshwater use, while lithium and strontium indicate marine use; both river shark species generally favor upper-estuarine environments, with evidence that parturition happens in freshwater for the largetooth sawfish.
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A global survey of coral reefs reveals that overfishing is driving resident shark species toward extinction, causing diversity deficits in reef elasmobranch (shark and ray) assemblages. Our species-level analysis revealed global declines of 60 to 73% for five common resident reef shark species and that individual shark species were not detected at 34 to 47% of surveyed reefs. As reefs become more shark-depleted, rays begin to dominate assemblages.

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Background: We reviewed outcomes following cytoreductive surgery/hyperthermic intraperitoneal chemotherapy (HIPEC) for patients with appendiceal or colorectal neoplasms and evaluated key prognostic indicators for treatment.

Methods: All patients who underwent cytoreductive surgery/HIPEC for appendiceal and colorectal neoplasms were identified from an IRB-approved database. Patient demographics, operative reports, and postoperative outcomes were reviewed.

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AbstractUnifying models have shown that the amount of space used by animals (e.g., activity space, home range) scales allometrically with body mass for terrestrial taxa; however, such relationships are far less clear for marine species.

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Overfishing is the most significant threat facing sharks and rays. Given the growth in consumption of seafood, combined with the compounding effects of habitat loss, climate change, and pollution, there is a need to identify recovery paths, particularly in poorly managed and poorly monitored fisheries. Here, we document conservation through fisheries management success for 11 coastal sharks in US waters by comparing population trends through a Bayesian state-space model before and after the implementation of the 1993 Fisheries Management Plan for Sharks.

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Sharks and rays are key functional components of coral reef ecosystems, yet many populations of a few species exhibit signs of depletion and local extinctions. The question is whether these declines forewarn of a global extinction crisis. We use IUCN Red List to quantify the status, trajectory, and threats to all coral reef sharks and rays worldwide.

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Article Synopsis
  • A study explored the effectiveness of near-infrared fluorescence cholangiography (NIFC) in improving the visualization of biliary anatomy during laparoscopic cholecystectomy, with varying techniques and dosages noted in use.
  • A Delphi survey involving 28 international experts determined that NIFC is superior to traditional white light for identifying biliary structures and reducing surgical risks, particularly beneficial for obese patients and those with inflammation.
  • Consensus was achieved on the importance of dosing indocyanine green based on body weight and the necessity of administering it at least 45 minutes before surgery to enhance visibility, but timing for injections remained undecided.
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Shark depredation is a complex social-ecological issue that affects a range of fisheries worldwide. Increasing concern about the impacts of shark depredation, and how it intersects with the broader context of fisheries management, has driven recent research in this area, especially in Australia and the United States. This review synthesises these recent advances and provides strategic guidance for researchers aiming to characterise the occurrence of depredation, identify the shark species responsible, and test deterrent and management approaches to reduce its impacts.

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Purpose: To retrospectively review the various methods used to treat extra-abdominal desmoid fibromatosis (EDF) at our institution to compare treatment response and complications with those for the emerging option of percutaneous cryoablation therapy.

Methods: A single-center retrospective review was conducted to identify patients with EDF who underwent some form of treatment for EDF in any combination (including medical therapy, surgery, percutaneous ablation and radiation therapy) at our institution between January 2007 and January 2020. Patients with pathological evidence of EDF and pretreatment and posttreatment images were included.

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Marine protected areas (MPAs) are key tools in addressing the global decline of sharks and rays, and marine parks and shark sanctuaries of various configurations have been established to conserve shark populations. However, assessments of their efficacy are compromised by inconsistent terminology, lack of standardized approaches to assess how MPAs contribute to shark and ray conservation, and ambiguity about how to integrate movement data in assessment processes. We devised a conceptual framework to standardize key terms (e.

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The repeated evolution of the same traits in distantly related groups (convergent evolution) raises a key question in evolutionary biology: do the same genes underpin convergent phenotypes? Here, we explore one such trait, viviparity (live birth), which, qualitative studies suggest, may indeed have evolved via genetic convergence. There are >150 independent origins of live birth in vertebrates, providing a uniquely powerful system to test the mechanisms underpinning convergence in morphology, physiology, and/or gene recruitment during pregnancy. We compared transcriptomic data from eight vertebrates (lizards, mammals, sharks) that gestate embryos within the uterus.

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Background: Cardiovascular disease is the most common cause of death among kidney transplant (KT) recipients. Trials routinely exclude patients with end-stage renal disease when assessing the effect of coronary artery revascularization. We looked to compare long-term outcomes in patients who underwent percutaneous coronary intervention (PCI) before KT with those managed medically.

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