Early Holocene human presence in Madagascar evidenced by exploitation of avian megafauna.

Previous research suggests that people first arrived on Madagascar by ~2500 years before present (years B.P.).

Differential loss of components of traditional ecological knowledge following a primate extinction event.

Traditional ecological knowledge (TEK), an important component of the modern conservation toolkit, is being eroded in indigenous communities around the world. However, the dynamics of TEK loss in response to ecosystem change and disruption to social-ecological systems, and patterns of variation in vulnerability and resilience of different components of TEK, remain poorly understood. The Hainan gibbon (), a culturally significant primate, was formerly distributed across Hainan Island, China, but became extinct across most of this range within living memory and is now restricted to a single landscape, Bawangling National Nature Reserve.

Peptide-Gold Nanoparticle Hybrids as Promising Anti-Inflammatory Nanotherapeutics for Acute Lung Injury: In Vivo Efficacy, Biodistribution, and Clearance.

Gold nanoparticles (GNPs) have shown great promises in various biomedical applications. Although GNPs exhibit excellent therapeutic efficacy in in vitro and in vivo in numerous studies, there still exists significant biosafety concerns, mainly for their nonbiodegradability and tendency to be trapped in the liver and spleen. To tackle this problem, hexapeptides are utilized to modify the GNP surface to not only impart them with potent anti-inflammatory activity, but also facilitate their rapid clearance in vivo.

Risk for Maternal Depressive Symptoms and Perceived Stress by Ethnicities in Canada: From Pregnancy Through the Preschool Years.

Objective: Past cross-sectional studies have reported that mothers from ethnic minorities experience higher levels of prenatal and post-partum psychosocial distress compared with mothers from ethnic majorities. However, no studies have examined how the pattern varies longitudinally in a Canadian population of heterogeneous ethnicity.

Methods: We analyzed data from 3,138 mothers participating in the Canadian Healthy Infant Longitudinal Development (CHILD) Study, a longitudinal multi-center study incorporating 10 distinct waves of psychosocial data collection from pregnancy until the index child was aged 5 y.

New genus of extinct Holocene gibbon associated with humans in Imperial China.

Although all extant apes are threatened with extinction, there is no evidence for human-caused extinctions of apes or other primates in postglacial continental ecosystems, despite intensive anthropogenic pressures associated with biodiversity loss for millennia in many regions. Here, we report a new, globally extinct genus and species of gibbon, , described from a partial cranium and mandible from a ~2200- to 2300-year-old tomb from Shaanxi, China. can be differentiated from extant hylobatid genera and the extinct Quaternary gibbon by using univariate and multivariate analyses of craniodental morphometric data.

Ventilation inhomogeneity in infants with recurrent wheezing.

Background: The care of infants with recurrent wheezing relies largely on clinical assessment. The lung clearance index (LCI), a measure of ventilation inhomogeneity, is a sensitive marker of early airway disease in children with cystic fibrosis, but its utility has not been explored in infants with recurrent wheezing.

Objective: To assess ventilation inhomogeneity using LCI among infants with a history of recurrent wheezing compared with healthy controls.

Shorter sleep duration is associated with reduced cognitive development at two years of age.

Background: Both short sleep duration and sleep-disordered breathing (SDB) are associated with poor neurocognitive development. However, the co-contributions of short sleep duration and SDB on neurodevelopment in pre-school children are relatively unknown.

Methods: We assessed both sleep duration and SDB by quarterly questionnaire from three months to two years of age among Canadian Healthy Infant Longitudinal Development (CHILD) birth cohort participants.

Phenotypes of sleep-disordered breathing symptoms to two years of age based on age of onset and duration of symptoms.

Objective: Childhood sleep-disordered breathing (SDB) symptoms may comprise multiple phenotypes depending on craniofacial anatomy, tonsil and adenoid growth, body habitus, and rhinitis symptoms. The primary objective of this study is to identify and characterize the different SDB phenotypes to two years of age.

Methods: Data from 770 infants in the Edmonton sub-cohort of the Canadian Healthy Infant Longitudinal Study (CHILD) were analyzed to identify SDB phenotypes based on age of onset and duration of symptoms.

Association of Exposure to Formula in the Hospital and Subsequent Infant Feeding Practices With Gut Microbiota and Risk of Overweight in the First Year of Life.

Importance: The effect of neonatal and infant feeding practices on childhood obesity is unclear. The gut microbiome is strongly influenced by feeding practices and has been linked to obesity.

Objective: To characterize the association between breastfeeding, microbiota, and risk of overweight during infancy, accounting for the type and timing of supplementary feeding.

Impact of maternal pre-pregnancy overweight on infant overweight at 1Â year of age: associations and sex-specific differences.

Background: Maternal overweight or obesity (OWOB) is linked to gestational diabetes, fetal macrosomia and higher rates of caesarean delivery.

Objectives: The study aims to assess whether maternal pre-pregnancy OWOB is associated with infant overweight in a sex-dependent manner, independent of microbiota-altering variables.

Methods: Weight and length measurements of 955 mother-infant pairs were obtained from the Canadian Healthy Infant Longitudinal Development cohort.

Reference equations for the interpretation of forced expiratory and plethysmographic measurements in infants.

Background: Pulmonary function testing is commonly performed for diagnosis and clinical management of respiratory diseases. It is important to use appropriate reference equations from healthy subjects for interpretation of data from infants with lung disease. This study aimed to determine if published reference equations were similar to forced flow measures and plethysmographic infant pulmonary function testing data collected in the Canadian Healthy Infant Longitudinal Development (CHILD) Study.

Imminent extinction in the wild of the world's largest amphibian.

Species with large geographic ranges are considered resilient to global decline [1]. However, human pressures on biodiversity affect increasingly large areas, in particular across Asia, where market forces drive overexploitation of species [2]. Range-wide threat assessments are often costly and thus extrapolated from non-representative local studies [3].

The Chinese giant salamander exemplifies the hidden extinction of cryptic species.

Overexploitation, habitat destruction, human-driven climate change and disease spread are resulting in the extinction of innumerable species, with amphibians being hit harder than most other groups [1]. Few species of amphibians are widespread, and those that are often represent complexes of multiple cryptic species. This is especially true for range-restricted salamanders [2].

Determining threatened species distributions in the face of limited data: Spatial conservation prioritization for the Chinese giant salamander ().

The purpose of this study was to determine whether limited occurrence data for highly threatened species can provide useful spatial information to inform conservation. The study was conducted across central and southern China. We developed a habitat suitability model for the Critically Endangered Chinese giant salamander () based on one biotic and three abiotic parameters from single-site locality records, which represent the only relevant environmental data available for this species.

Exclusive breastfeeding in hospital predicts longer breastfeeding duration in Canada: Implications for health equity.

Background: Breastfeeding has many established health benefits for women and children. We examined the association between maternal education, newborn feeding in hospital, and long-term breastfeeding duration.

Methods: We studied 3195 Canadian mother-infant dyads in the CHILD pregnancy cohort.

Roles of Birth Mode and Infant Gut Microbiota in Intergenerational Transmission of Overweight and Obesity From Mother to Offspring.

Importance: Maternal overweight, which often results in cesarean delivery, is a strong risk factor for child overweight. Little is known about the joint contribution of birth mode and microbiota in the infant gut to the association between maternal prepregnancy overweight and child overweight.

Objective: To investigate the association of birth mode with microbiota in the infant gut, and whether this mediates the association between maternal and child overweight.

Combination therapy with proteasome inhibitors and TLR agonists enhances tumour cell death and IL-1β production.

Proteasome inhibitors have emerged as an effective therapy for the treatment of haematological malignancies; however, their efficacy can be limited by the development of tumour resistance mechanisms. Novel combination strategies including the addition of TLR adjuvants to increase cell death and augment immune responses may help enhance their effectiveness. Although generally thought to inhibit inflammatory responses and NF-κB activation, we found that under specific conditions proteasome inhibitors can promote inflammatory responses by mediating IL-1β maturation and secretion after TLR stimulation.

Associations between infant fungal and bacterial dysbiosis and childhood atopic wheeze in a nonindustrialized setting.

Background: Asthma is the most prevalent chronic disease of childhood. Recently, we identified a critical window early in the life of both mice and Canadian infants during which gut microbial changes (dysbiosis) affect asthma development. Given geographic differences in human gut microbiota worldwide, we studied the effects of gut microbial dysbiosis on atopic wheeze in a population living in a distinct developing world environment.

Long-term archives reveal shifting extinction selectivity in China's postglacial mammal fauna.

Ecosystems have been modified by human activities for millennia, and insights about ecology and extinction risk based only on recent data are likely to be both incomplete and biased. We synthesize multiple long-term archives (over 250 archaeological and palaeontological sites dating from the early Holocene to the Ming Dynasty and over 4400 historical records) to reconstruct the spatio-temporal dynamics of Holocene-modern range change across China, a megadiverse country experiencing extensive current-day biodiversity loss, for 34 mammal species over three successive postglacial time intervals. Our combined zooarchaeological, palaeontological, historical and current-day datasets reveal that both phylogenetic and spatial patterns of extinction selectivity have varied through time in China, probably in response both to cumulative anthropogenic impacts (an 'extinction filter' associated with vulnerable species and accessible landscapes being affected earlier by human activities) and also to quantitative and qualitative changes in regional pressures.

Sex-specific impact of asthma during pregnancy on infant gut microbiota.

Asthma during pregnancy is associated with retardation of fetal growth in a sex-specific manner. Lactobacilli microbes influence infant growth. This study aimed to determine whether lactobacilli and other microbes are reduced in the gut of infants born to an asthmatic mother, and whether this differs by the sex of the infant.

Predicting the atopic march: Results from the Canadian Healthy Infant Longitudinal Development Study.

Background: The atopic march describes the progression from atopic dermatitis during infancy to asthma and allergic rhinitis in later childhood. In a Canadian birth cohort we investigated whether concomitant allergic sensitization enhances subsequent development of these allergic diseases at age 3 years.

Methods: Children completed skin prick testing at age 1 year.

Modes of Infant Feeding and the Risk of Childhood Asthma: A Prospective Birth Cohort Study.

Objective: To determine whether different modes of infant feeding are associated with childhood asthma, including differentiating between direct breastfeeding and expressed breast milk.

Study Design: We studied 3296 children in the Canadian Healthy Infant Longitudinal Development birth cohort. The primary exposure was infant feeding mode at 3 months, reported by mothers and categorized as direct breastfeeding only, breastfeeding with some expressed breast milk, breast milk and formula, or formula only.