OPN/CD44v6 overexpression in laryngeal dysplasia and correlation with clinical outcome

Laryngeal dysplasia is a common clinical concern. Despite major advancements, a significant number of patients with this condition progress to invasive squamous cell carcinoma. Osteopontin (OPN) is a secreted glycoprotein, whose expression is markedly elevated in several types of cancers. We explored OPN as a candidate biomarker for laryngeal dysplasia. To this aim, we examined OPN expression in 82 cases of dysplasia and in hyperplastic and normal tissue samples. OPN expression was elevated in all severe dysplasia samples, but not hyperplastic samples, with respect to matched normal mucosa. OPN expression levels correlated positively with degree of dysplasia (P=0.0094) and negatively with disease-free survival (P<0.0001). OPN expression was paralleled by cell surface reactivity for CD44v6, an OPN functional receptor. CD44v6 expression correlated negatively with disease-free survival, as well (P=0.0007). Taken as a whole, our finding identify OPN and CD44v6 as predictive markers of recurrence or aggressiveness in laryngeal intraepithelial neoplasia, and overall, point out an important signalling complex in the evolution of laryngeal dysplasia

Effects of Vegetation, Corridor Width and Regional Land Use on Early Successional Birds on Powerline Corridors

Powerline rights-of-way (ROWs) often provide habitat for early successional bird species that have suffered long-term population declines in eastern North America. To determine how the abundance of shrubland birds varies with habitat within ROW corridors and with land use patterns surrounding corridors, we ran Poisson regression models on data from 93 plots on ROWs and compared regression coefficients. We also determined nest success rates on a 1-km stretch of ROW. Seven species of shrubland birds were common in powerline corridors. However, the nest success rates for prairie warbler (Dendroica discolor) and field sparrow (Spizella pusilla) were <21%, which is too low to compensate for estimated annual mortality. Some shrubland bird species were more abundant on narrower ROWs or at sites with lower vegetation or particular types of vegetation, indicating that vegetation management could be refined to favor species of high conservation priority. Also, several species were more abundant in ROWs traversing unfragmented forest than those near residential areas or farmland, indicating that corridors in heavily forested regions may provide better habitat for these species. In the area where we monitored nests, brood parasitism by brown-headed cowbirds (Molothrus ater) occurred more frequently close to a residential area. Although ROWs support dense populations of shrubland birds, those in more heavily developed landscapes may constitute sink habitat. ROWs in extensive forests may contribute more to sustaining populations of early successional birds, and thus may be the best targets for habitat management

Purification and partial characterization of an antibiotic produced by <i>Myxococcus xanthus</i>

A strain of Myxococcus xanthus, referred to as M. xanthus TA, has been isolated which produces an antibiotic capable of inhibiting growth of certain Gram-positive and Gram-negative bacteria. Antibiotic production was significantly inhibited when the concentration of protein hydrolysate in the production medium exceeded 1%. The antibiotic was purified over 1000 times to apparent homogeneity by silicic acid chromatography and by a variety of preparative alumina thin-layer chromatographic procedures. The purified antibiotic was partially characterized by its chromatographic behavior in six solvent systems, stability to acid, alkali and heat, infrared, ultraviolet, and mass spectra. The antibiotic has a λmax of 242 nm in methanol. </jats:p

Bactericidal Action of an Antibiotic Produced by Myxococcus xanthus

Myxococcus xanthus produced an antibiotic during the end of its exponential growth phase which was capable of inhibiting growth of several gram-positive and gram-negative bacteria. The antibiotic was bactericidal to growing cultures only; chloramphenicol inhibited the bactericidal action of the antibiotic. Upon addition of the antibiotic to Escherichia coli B, deoxyribonucleic acid and ribonucleic acid as well as turbidity of the culture continued to increase even after the viable count decreased; the culture lysed about 60 min after addition of sufficient concentrations of the antibiotic. Spheroplasts could be prepared if the antibiotic was added to a culture growing in the presence of high concentrations of sucrose and MgSO(4). Mutants of M. xanthus FB which are incapable of fruiting body formation or glycerol-induced myxospore formation also produced the antibiotic. A mutant of E. coli resistant to the purified antibiotic was isolated in order to study the role of the antibiotic in the predatory behavior of myxococci

The Invisible Prevalence of Citizen Science in Global Research: Migratory Birds and Climate Change

<div><p>Citizen science is a research practice that relies on public contributions of data. The strong recognition of its educational value combined with the need for novel methods to handle subsequent large and complex data sets raises the question: Is citizen science effective at science? A quantitative assessment of the contributions of citizen science for its core purpose – <i>scientific research</i> – is lacking. We examined the contribution of citizen science to a review paper by ornithologists in which they formulated ten central claims about the impact of climate change on avian migration. Citizen science was never explicitly mentioned in the review article. For each of the claims, these ornithologists scored their opinions about the amount of research effort invested in each claim and how strongly the claim was supported by evidence. This allowed us to also determine whether their trust in claims was, unwittingly or not, related to the degree to which the claims relied primarily on data generated by citizen scientists. We found that papers based on citizen science constituted between 24 and 77% of the references backing each claim, with no evidence of a mistrust of claims that relied heavily on citizen-science data. We reveal that many of these papers may not easily be recognized as drawing upon volunteer contributions, as the search terms “citizen science” and “volunteer” would have overlooked the majority of the studies that back the ten claims about birds and climate change. Our results suggest that the significance of citizen science to global research, an endeavor that is reliant on long-term information at large spatial scales, might be far greater than is readily perceived. To better understand and track the contributions of citizen science in the future, we urge researchers to use the keyword “citizen science” in papers that draw on efforts of non-professionals.</p></div

Ten claims with mean values for support and knowledge basis from Knudsen et al. [34].

<p>*excluded papers that we were unable to classify (1 in claim 6 and 1 in claim 10).</p><p>The number of papers used for assessment of each claim, and the number and percent of papers that used citizen science.</p><p>Ten claims with mean values for support and knowledge basis from Knudsen et al. <a href="http://www.plosone.org/article/info:doi/10.1371/journal.pone.0106508#pone.0106508-Knudsen1" target="_blank">[34]</a>.</p

No relationship between the mean values of the expert opinions on the knowledge base of each claim in Knudsen et al. [34] were not correlated to the proportion of citizen science supporting each claim.

<p>No relationship between the mean values of the expert opinions on the knowledge base of each claim in Knudsen et al. <a href="http://www.plosone.org/article/info:doi/10.1371/journal.pone.0106508#pone.0106508-Knudsen1" target="_blank">[34]</a> were not correlated to the proportion of citizen science supporting each claim.</p

Future winters present a complex energetic landscape of decreased costs and reduced risk for a freeze-tolerant amphibian, the Wood Frog (Lithobates sylvaticus)

Winter climate warming is rapidly leading to changes in snow depth and soil temperatures across mid‐ and high‐latitude ecosystems, with important implications for survival and distribution of species that overwinter beneath the snow. Amphibians are a particularly vulnerable group to winter climate change because of the tight coupling between their body temperature and metabolic rate. Here, we used a mechanistic microclimate model coupled to an animal biophysics model to predict the spatially explicit effects of future climate change on the wintering energetics of a freeze‐tolerant amphibian, the Wood Frog (Lithobates sylvaticus), across its distributional range in the eastern United States. Our below‐the‐snow microclimate simulations were driven by dynamically downscaled climate projections from a regional climate model coupled to a one‐dimensional model of the Laurentian Great Lakes. We found that warming soil temperatures and decreasing winter length have opposing effects on Wood Frog winter energy requirements, leading to geographically heterogeneous implications for Wood Frogs. While energy expenditures and peak body ice content were predicted to decline in Wood Frogs across most of our study region, we identified an area of heightened energetic risk in the northwestern part of the Great Lakes region where energy requirements were predicted to increase. Because Wood Frogs rely on body stores acquired in fall to fuel winter survival and spring breeding, increased winter energy requirements have the potential to impact local survival and reproduction. Given the geographically variable and intertwined drivers of future under‐snow conditions (e.g., declining snow depths, rising air temperatures, shortening winters), spatially explicit assessments of species energetics and risk will be important to understanding the vulnerability of subnivium‐adapted species

Value of protected areas to avian persistence across 20 years of climate and land-use change

Establishing protected areas, where human activities and land cover changes are restricted, is among the most widely used strategies for biodiversity conservation. This practice is based on the assumption that protected areas buffer species from processes that drive extinction. However, protected areas can maintain biodiversity in the face of climate change and subsequent shifts in distributions have been questioned. We evaluated the degree to which protected areas influenced colonization and extinction patterns of 97 avian species over 20 years in the northeastern United States. We fitted single-visit dynamic occupancy models to data from Breeding Bird Atlases to quantify the magnitude of the effect of drivers of local colonization and extinction (e.g., climate, land cover, and amount of protected area) in heterogeneous landscapes that varied in the amount of area under protection. Colonization and extinction probabilities improved as the amount of protected area increased, but these effects were conditional on landscape context and species characteristics. In this forest-dominated region, benefits of additional land protection were greatest when both forest cover in a grid square and amount of protected area in neighboring grid squares were low. Effects did not vary with species’ migratory habit or conservation status. Increasing the amounts of land protection benefitted the range margins species but not the core range species. The greatest improvements in colonization and extinction rates accrued for forest birds relative to open-habitat or generalist species. Overall, protected areas stemmed extinction more than they promoted colonization. Our results indicate that land protection remains a viable conservation strategy despite changing habitat and climate, as protected areas both reduce the risk of local extinction and facilitate movement into new areas. Our findings suggest conservation in the face of climate change favors creation of new protected areas over enlarging existing ones as the optimal strategy to reduce extinction and provide stepping stones for the greatest number of species