Fire and climate: contrasting pressures on tropical Andean timberline species

Department of Biological Sciences; Florida Institute of Technology; Melbourne FL USA Department of Biological Sciences; Florida Institute of Technology; Melbourne FL USA Department of Biological Sciences; Florida Institute of Technology; Melbourne FL USA Geography, College of Life & Environmental Sciences; University of Exeter; Exeter UK Department of Biological Sciences; Florida Institute of Technology; Melbourne FL USA CEPSAR; The Open University; Milton Keynes UK Instituto de Geología; Universidad Nacional Autónoma de México; Ciudad Universitaria; Mexico City Mexico Department of Forest and Soil Sciences; University of Natural Resources and Life Sciences Vienna; Vienna Austria Department of Biology and Center for Energy; Environment and Sustainability; Wake Forest University; Winston Salem NC USACopyright © 2015 John Wiley & Sons Ltd.Aim: The aim was to test competing hypotheses regarding migration of the Andean timberline within the last 2000 years. Location: The upper forest limit in Manu National Park, Peru. Methods: A randomized stratified design provided 21 soil profiles from forested sites just below the timberline, 15 from puna grassland sites just above the timberline and 15 from the transitional habitat at the puna–forest boundary. From each profile a surface sample (hereafter modern) and a sample from the base of the organic horizon (hereafter historical) were collected. Pollen and charcoal were analysed from the modern and historical layers of the 51 soil profiles. A chronological framework was provided by 24 14C dates. Data were ordinated as modern and historical groups and the temporal trends illustrated by Procrustes rotation. Results: The organic layer from the soil profiles represented the last 600–2000 years. Fire was much more abundant in all habitat types (puna, transitional and forested) in the modern compared with the historical groups. Samples that had historically been in puna just above the timberline showed encroachment by woody species. Samples that had been forested were still classified as forest but their composition had become more transitional. Sites that were transitional appeared to represent a new or expanded class of sites that was far less abundant historically. Main conclusions: Our results are consistent with ongoing warming causing an upslope migration of species, although not necessarily of the timberline. Weedy fire-tolerant species are spreading upslope, creating a transitional forest, softening the boundary between forest and puna. Simultaneously, fire introduced to improve grazing outside the park has increasingly penetrated the forest and is causing the upper timberline to shift towards more fire-tolerant and weedy species. Consequently, both the form of the ecotone between forest and grassland and the species composition of these forests is changing and is expected to continue to change, representing a shifting baseline for what is considered to be natural.Gordon and Betty Moore Foundation Andes-to-Amazon programmeBlue Moon FundNational Science Foundatio

Estimation of Dietary Iron Bioavailability from Food Iron Intake and Iron Status

Currently there are no satisfactory methods for estimating dietary iron absorption (bioavailability) at a population level, but this is essential for deriving dietary reference values using the factorial approach. The aim of this work was to develop a novel approach for estimating dietary iron absorption using a population sample from a sub-section of the UK National Diet and Nutrition Survey (NDNS). Data were analyzed in 873 subjects from the 2000–2001 adult cohort of the NDNS, for whom both dietary intake data and hematological measures (hemoglobin and serum ferritin (SF) concentrations) were available. There were 495 men aged 19–64 y (mean age 42.7±12.1 y) and 378 pre-menopausal women (mean age 35.7±8.2 y). Individual dietary iron requirements were estimated using the Institute of Medicine calculations. A full probability approach was then applied to estimate the prevalence of dietary intakes that were insufficient to meet the needs of the men and women separately, based on their estimated daily iron intake and a series of absorption values ranging from 1–40%. The prevalence of SF concentrations below selected cut-off values (indicating that absorption was not high enough to maintain iron stores) was derived from individual SF concentrations. An estimate of dietary iron absorption required to maintain specified SF values was then calculated by matching the observed prevalence of insufficiency with the prevalence predicted for the series of absorption estimates. Mean daily dietary iron intakes were 13.5 mg for men and 9.8 mg for women. Mean calculated dietary absorption was 8% in men (50th percentile for SF 85 µg/L) and 17% in women (50th percentile for SF 38 µg/L). At a ferritin level of 45 µg/L estimated absorption was similar in men (14%) and women (13%). This new method can be used to calculate dietary iron absorption at a population level using data describing total iron intake and SF concentration

High (but Not Low) Urinary Iodine Excretion Is Predicted by Iodine Excretion Levels from Five Years Ago

Background: It has not been investigated whether there are associations between urinary iodine (UI) excretion measurements some years apart, nor whether such an association remains after adjustment for nutritional habits. The aim of the present study was to investigate the relation between iodine-creatinine ratio (ICR) at two measuring points 5 years apart. Methods: Data from 2,659 individuals from the Study of Health in Pomerania were analyzed. Analysis of covariance and Poisson regressions were used to associate baseline with follow-up ICR. Results: Baseline ICR was associated with follow-up ICR. Particularly, baseline ICR >300 mu g/g was related to an ICR >300 mu g/g at follow-up (relative risk, RR: 2.20; p < 0.001). The association was stronger in males (RR: 2.64; p < 0.001) than in females (RR: 1.64; p = 0.007). In contrast, baseline ICR <100 mu g/g was only associated with an ICR <100 mu g/g at follow-up in males when considering unadjusted ICR. Conclusions: We detected only a weak correlation with respect to low ICR. Studies assessing iodine status in a population should take into account that an individual with a low UI excretion in one measurement is not necessarily permanently iodine deficient. On the other hand, current high ICR could have been predicted by high ICR 5 years ago. Copyright (C) 2011 S. Karger AG, Base

Understanding economic evidence for the prevention and treatment of atopic eczema

Background Atopic eczema is an inflammatory skin condition, with a similar impact on health-related quality-of-life as other chronic diseases. Increasing pressures on resources within the NHS increase the importance of having good economic evidence to inform their allocation. This paper aims to educate dermatologists about economic methods with illustration to currently available economic evidence on eczema. Methods/design The type and role of different types of economic evidence is illustrated by evidence found in a systematic literature search conducted across 12 online databases published until 22nd May 2017. Primary empirical studies either reporting the results of a cost of illness study or evaluating the cost, utility or full economic evaluation of interventions for preventing or treating eczema were included. Two reviewers independently assessed studies for eligibility and performed data abstraction, with disagreements resolved by a third reviewer. Evidence tables of results were produced for narrative discussion. The reporting quality of economic evaluations was assessed. Results 78 studies (described in 80 papers) were deemed eligible. 33 (42%) were judged to be economic evaluations, 12 (15%) cost analyses, 6 (8%) utility analyses, 26 (34%) cost-of-illness studies and 1 feasibility study (1%). The calcineurin inhibitors: tacrolimus and pimecrolimus, as well as barrier creams had most economic evidence available. Partially hydrolysed infant formula was the most commonly evaluated prevention. Conclusions The current level of economic evidence for interventions aimed at preventing and treating eczema is limited compared to that available for clinical outcomes suggesting that greater collaboration between clinicians and economists might be beneficial

Thermotomaculum hydrothermale gen. nov., sp. nov., a novel heterotrophic thermophile within the phylum Acidobacteria from a deep-sea hydrothermal vent chimney in the Southern Okinawa Trough

http://www.godac.jamstec.go.jp/darwin/cruise/natsushima/nt08-13/

Search for new phenomena in final states with an energetic jet and large missing transverse momentum in pp collisions at √ s = 8 TeV with the ATLAS detector

Results of a search for new phenomena in final states with an energetic jet and large missing transverse momentum are reported. The search uses 20.3 fb−1 of √ s = 8 TeV data collected in 2012 with the ATLAS detector at the LHC. Events are required to have at least one jet with pT > 120 GeV and no leptons. Nine signal regions are considered with increasing missing transverse momentum requirements between Emiss T > 150 GeV and Emiss T > 700 GeV. Good agreement is observed between the number of events in data and Standard Model expectations. The results are translated into exclusion limits on models with either large extra spatial dimensions, pair production of weakly interacting dark matter candidates, or production of very light gravitinos in a gauge-mediated supersymmetric model. In addition, limits on the production of an invisibly decaying Higgs-like boson leading to similar topologies in the final state are presente

Expression of emotional arousal in two different piglet call types

Humans as well as many animal species reveal their emotional state in their voice. Vocal features show strikingly similar correlation patterns with emotional states across mammalian species, suggesting that the vocal expression of emotion follows highly conserved signalling rules. To fully understand the principles of emotional signalling in mammals it is, however, necessary to also account for any inconsistencies in the way that they are acoustically encoded. Here we investigate whether the expression of emotions differs between call types produced by the same species. We compare the acoustic structure of two common piglet calls—the scream (a distress call) and the grunt (a contact call)—across three levels of arousal in a negative situation. We find that while the central frequency of calls increases with arousal in both call types, the amplitude and tonal quality (harmonic-to-noise ratio) show contrasting patterns: as arousal increased, the intensity also increased in screams, but not in grunts, while the harmonicity increased in screams but decreased in grunts. Our results suggest that the expression of arousal depends on the function and acoustic specificity of the call type. The fact that more vocal features varied with arousal in scream calls than in grunts is consistent with the idea that distress calls have evolved to convey information about emotional arousal

Essential versus accessory aspects of cell death: recommendations of the NCCD 2015

Cells exposed to extreme physicochemical or mechanical stimuli die in an uncontrollable manner, as a result of their immediate structural breakdown. Such an unavoidable variant of cellular demise is generally referred to as ‘accidental cell death’ (ACD). In most settings, however, cell death is initiated by a genetically encoded apparatus, correlating with the fact that its course can be altered by pharmacologic or genetic interventions. ‘Regulated cell death’ (RCD) can occur as part of physiologic programs or can be activated once adaptive responses to perturbations of the extracellular or intracellular microenvironment fail. The biochemical phenomena that accompany RCD may be harnessed to classify it into a few subtypes, which often (but not always) exhibit stereotyped morphologic features. Nonetheless, efficiently inhibiting the processes that are commonly thought to cause RCD, such as the activation of executioner caspases in the course of apoptosis, does not exert true cytoprotective effects in the mammalian system, but simply alters the kinetics of cellular demise as it shifts its morphologic and biochemical correlates. Conversely, bona fide cytoprotection can be achieved by inhibiting the transduction of lethal signals in the early phases of the process, when adaptive responses are still operational. Thus, the mechanisms that truly execute RCD may be less understood, less inhibitable and perhaps more homogeneous than previously thought. Here, the Nomenclature Committee on Cell Death formulates a set of recommendations to help scientists and researchers to discriminate between essential and accessory aspects of cell death

The impact of iodine supplementation and bread fortification on urinary iodine concentrations in a mildly iodine deficient population of pregnant women in South Australia

Mild iodine deficiency during pregnancy can have significant effects on fetal development and future cognitive function. The purpose of this study was to characterise the iodine status of South Australian women during pregnancy and relate it to the use of iodine-containing multivitamins. The impact of fortification of bread with iodized salt was also assessed. Women (n = 196) were recruited prospectively at the beginning of pregnancy and urine collected at 12, 18, 30, 36 weeks gestation and 6 months postpartum. The use of a multivitamin supplement was recorded at each visit. Spot urinary iodine concentrations (UIC) were assessed. Median UICs were within the mildly deficient range in women not taking supplements (<90 μg/L). Among the women taking iodine-containing multivitamins UICs were within WHO recommendations (150–249 μg/L) for sufficiency and showed an increasing trend through gestation. The fortification of bread with iodized salt increased the median UIC from 68 μg/L to 84 μg/L (p = .011) which was still in the deficient range. Pregnant women in this region of Australia were unlikely to reach recommended iodine levels without an iodine supplement, even after the mandatory iodine supplementation of bread was instituted in October 2009.Vicki L Clifton, Nicolette A Hodyl, Paul A Fogarty, David J Torpy, Rachel Roberts, Ted Nettelbeck, Gary Ma and Basil Hetze