Governments have committed to conserving ≥17% of terrestrial and ≥10% of marine environments globally, especially “areas of particular importance for biodiversity” through “ecologically ...representative” Protected Area (PA) systems or other “area‐based conservation measures”, while individual countries have committed to conserve 3–50% of their land area. We estimate that PAs currently cover 14.6% of terrestrial and 2.8% of marine extent, but 59–68% of ecoregions, 77–78% of important sites for biodiversity, and 57% of 25,380 species have inadequate coverage. The existing 19.7 million km² terrestrial PA network needs only 3.3 million km² to be added to achieve 17% terrestrial coverage. However, it would require nearly doubling to achieve, cost‐efficiently, coverage targets for all countries, ecoregions, important sites, and species. Poorer countries have the largest relative shortfalls. Such extensive and rapid expansion of formal PAs is unlikely to be achievable. Greater focus is therefore needed on alternative approaches, including community‐ and privately managed sites and other effective area‐based conservation measures.
Marine protected areas are a primary strategy for the conservation of marine habitats and species across the globe. In small island developing states, they often exceed their terrestrial counterparts ...in both number and area. To assess their effectiveness as a conservation measure over time, the accurate and up-to-date representation of marine protected areas through spatial and tabular data is imperative in order to establish baselines. Various regional and global agreements have set specific protection targets and these require spatial reporting on protected areas as an indicator of progress. For the insular Caribbean region, this study considers progress towards global Aichi Target 11 of the Convention on Biological Diversity which is to conserve at least 10% of coastal and marine areas, and progress towards the regional target of the Caribbean Challenge Initiative (CCI) to protect “at least 20% of nearshore marine and coastal habitats”, both aiming for a 2020 deadline. Progress towards these targets differs widely depending on the accuracy of the datasets and the methods used. In an effort to update the current baseline of protection within the insular Caribbean, multiple governments, the Nature Conservancy and the Caribbean Marine Protected Area Management Network and Forum collaborated to develop a single insular Caribbean protected area dataset with accurate boundary information and the best available ecoregional and political boundaries. This study represents the most in-depth and spatially accurate effort to date to determine marine protected area coverage in the insular Caribbean. It is found that some form of marine management has been designated for around 7.1% of our study area in the insular Caribbean; progress towards Aichi Target 11 averaged among sovereign states within the insular Caribbean stands at approximately 3.25% and only three of the 10 participating governments in the CCI have reached their 20% target. Ocean protection was further assessed across the 25 governments and the three marine ecoregions by four different marine zones. Recommendations are made on regional to global cooperation for data sharing and reporting on indicators, highlighting possible directions to fill marine conservation gaps in the insular Caribbean.
•A single insular Caribbean protected area dataset with accurate boundary information was developed.•MPA coverage across the insular Caribbean is not far behind global reference values.•The insular Caribbean has a large number of small MPAs.•Large MPAs greatly influence the protected area coverage targets.
MARINE PROTECTED AREA MANAGEMENT Jon C. Day; Dan Laffoley; Katherine Zischka ...
Protected Area Governance and Management,
04/2015
Book Chapter
Odprti dostop
Globally, the protection of marine areas has been a comparatively recent initiative compared with the use of protected areas for terrestrial conservation and resource management. Oceans cover 70 per ...cent of the Earth’s surface and contain 97 per cent of the Earth’s water. They drive climate and weather, regulate temperature, generate much of the oxygen in the atmosphere, absorb much of the carbon dioxide, and replenish freshwater to both land and sea through the formation of clouds. Oceans make up more than 90 per cent of the planet’s biologically useful habitat and contain most of the life on Earth, including
To investigate whether there is an association between complement factor H (CFH) or LOC387715 genotypes with response to treatment with intravitreal bevacizumab for exudative age-related macular ...degeneration (AMD).
Retrospective cohort study.
The study cohort consisted of 86 patients being treated for neovascular AMD with bevacizumab alone.
Genotype determination for the CFH Y402H and LOC387715 A69S polymorphisms was performed by allele-specific digestion of polymerase chain reaction products. All patients were treated with 1.25 mg intravitreal bevacizumab at 6-week intervals until choroidal neovascularization was no longer active.
CFH Y402H and LOC387715 A69S polymorphisms. Choroidal neovascular lesion characteristics were ascertained by fluorescein angiography. Snellen visual acuity (VA) was measured before and after treatment.
For the CFH Y402H polymorphism, patients with the CFH TT genotype had the largest choroidal neovascular lesions (P = 0.02). With treatment, VA improved from 20/248 to 20/166 for the CFH TT genotype and from 20/206 to 20/170 for the TC genotype, but fell from 20/206 to 20/341 for the CFH CC genotype (P = 0.016). Only 10.5% of patients with the CFH CC genotype demonstrated improved VA with treatment, compared with 53.7% of CFH TT and TC genotypes (P = 0.004). For the LOC387715 A69S variant, patients with the TT genotype had the largest choroidal neovascular lesions (P = 0.012). There was no significant difference in response to bevacizumab treatment according to LOC387715 genotype.
The AMD-associated CFH Y402H and LOC387715 A69S variants were associated with differences in choroidal neovascular lesion size in this study. Patients with the CFH CC genotype fared significantly worse with intravitreal bevacizumab than did those with the CFH TC and TT genotypes, suggesting a potential pharmacogenetic relationship. Prospective studies to confirm or refute this observation should be considered.
We previously found that administration of an interleukin 2/diphtheria toxin conjugate (DAB/IL2; Denileukin Diftitox; ONTAK) to stage IV melanoma patients depleted CD4(+)CD25(HI)Foxp3(+) regulatory T ...cells and expanded melanoma-specific CD8(+) T cells. The goal of this study was to assess the clinical efficacy of DAB/IL2 in an expanded cohort of stage IV melanoma patients.
In a single-center, phase II trial, DAB/IL2 (12 μg/kg; 4 daily doses; 21 day cycles) was administered to 60 unresectable stage IV melanoma patients and response rates were assessed using a combination of 2-(18)F-fluoro-2-deoxy-glucose (FDG)-positron emission tomography (PET) and computed tomography (CT) imaging.
After DAB/IL2 administration, 16.7% of the 60 patients had partial responses, 5% stable disease and 15% mixed responses. Importantly, 45.5% of the chemo/immuno-naïve sub-population (11/60 patients) experienced partial responses. One year survival was markedly higher in partial responders (80 ± 11.9%) relative to patients with progressive disease (23.7 ± 6.5%; p value < 0.001) and 40 ± 6.2% of the total DAB/IL2-treated population were alive at 1 year.
These data support the development of multi-center, randomized trials of DAB/IL2 as a monotherapy and in combination with other immunotherapeutic agents for the treatment of stage IV melanoma.
NCT00299689.
Celotno besedilo
Dostopno za:
DOBA, IZUM, KILJ, NUK, PILJ, PNG, SAZU, SIK, UILJ, UKNU, UL, UM, UPUK
Genetic factors influence an individual's risk for developing neovascular age-related macular degeneration (AMD), a leading cause of irreversible blindness. Previous studies on the potential genetic ...link between AMD and vascular endothelial growth factor (VEGF), a key regulator of angiogenesis and vascular permeability, have yielded conflicting results. In the present case-control association study, we aimed to determine whether VEGF or its main receptor tyrosine kinase VEGFR-2 is genetically associated with neovascular AMD.
A total of 515 Caucasian patients with neovascular AMD and 253 ethically-matched controls were genotyped for polymorphisms in the VEGFA and VEGFR-2 genes. A tagging single nucleotide polymorphism (tSNP) approach was employed to cover each gene plus two kilobases on each side, spanning the promoter and 3' untranslated regions. SNPs with a minimum allele frequency of 10% were covered by seven tSNPs in VEGFA and 20 tSNPs in VEGFR-2. Two VEGFA SNPs previously linked with AMD, rs1413711 and rs3025039, were also analyzed.
The 29 VEGFA and VEGFR-2 SNPs analyzed in our cohort demonstrated no significant association with neovascular AMD. A single rare haplotype in the VEGFR-2 gene was associated with the presence of neovascular AMD (p=0.034).
This study is the first to investigate the association of VEGFR-2 polymorphisms with AMD and evaluates VEGFA genetic variants in the largest neovascular AMD cohort to date. Despite the angiogenic and permeability-enhancing effects of VEGF/VEGFR-2 signaling, we found minimal evidence of a significant link between polymorphisms in the VEGFA and VEGFR-2 genes and neovascular AMD.
The purpose of this study was to investigate the contribution of neighbourhood disorder around alcohol outlets to pedestrian injury risk.
A spatial analysis was conducted on census block groups in ...Baltimore City. Data included pedestrian injury EMS records from 1 January 2014 to 15 April 2015 (n=858), off-premise alcohol outlet locations for 2014 (n=693) and neighbourhood disorder indicators and demographics. Negative binomial regression models were used to determine the relationship between alcohol outlet count and pedestrian injuries at the block group level, controlling for other neighbourhood factors. Attributable risk was calculated by comparing the total population count per census block group to the injured pedestrian count.
Each one-unit increase in the number of alcohol outlets was associated with a 14.2% (95% CI 1.099 to 1.192, P<0.001) increase in the RR of neighbourhood pedestrian injury, adjusting for traffic volume, pedestrian volume, population density, per cent of vacant lots and median household income. The attributable risk was 10.4% (95% CI 7.7 to 12.7) or 88 extra injuries. Vacant lots was the only significant neighbourhood disorder indicator in the final adjusted model (RR=1.016, 95% CI 1.007 to 1.026, P=0.003). Vacant lots have not been previously investigated as possible risk factors for pedestrian injury.
This study identifies modifiable risk factors for pedestrian injury previously unexplored in the literature and may provide evidence for alcohol control strategies (eg, liquor store licencing, zoning and enforcement).
Background
Alcohol outlet density has been associated with increased pedestrian injury risk. It is unclear whether this is because alcohol outlets are located in dense retail areas with heavy ...pedestrian traffic or whether alcohol outlets contribute a unique neighborhood risk. We aimed to compare the pedestrian injury rate around alcohol outlets to the rate around other, similar retail outlets that do not sell alcohol.
Methods
A spatial analysis was conducted on census block groups in Baltimore City. Data included pedestrian injury emergency medical services (EMS) records from January 1, 2014 to April 15, 2015 (n = 848); locations of alcohol outlets licensed for off‐premise (n = 726) and on‐premise consumption (n = 531); and corner (n = 398) and convenience stores (n = 192) that do not sell alcohol. Negative binomial regression was used to determine the relationship between retail outlet count and pedestrian injuries, controlling for key confounding variables. Spatial autocorrelation was also assessed and variable selection adjusted accordingly.
Results
Each additional off‐premise alcohol outlet was associated with a 12.3% increase in the rate of neighborhood pedestrian injury when controlling for convenience and corner stores and other confounders (incidence rate ratio IRR = 1.123, 95% confidence interval CI = 1.065, 1.184, p < 0.001). The attributable risk was 4.9% (95% CI = 0.3, 8.9) or 41 additional injuries. On‐premise alcohol outlets were not significant predictors of neighborhood pedestrian injury rate in multivariable models (IRR = 0.972, 95% CI = 0.940, 1.004, p = 0.194).
Conclusions
Off‐premise alcohol outlets are associated with pedestrian injury rate, even when controlling for other types of retail outlets. Findings reinforce the importance of alcohol outlets in understanding neighborhood pedestrian injury risk and may provide evidence for informing policy on liquor store licensing, zoning, and enforcement.
This study compared the number of pedestrian‐involved traffic crashes that occur near alcohol stores to those that occur near similar retail stores that do not sell alcohol. The presence of off‐premise alcohol stores was linked to a higher number of pedestrian injuries, even when controlling for other types of retail stores. These findings reinforce the importance of considering the impact of alcohol stores on health and safety issues, and can inform policy making related to liquor‐store licensing, zoning, and enforcement.
Oligonucleotides are unique chemical moieties that can serve as a useful assembly tool. Unlike most bioadhesion molecules that bind together with high affinity, the attraction between complementary ...DNA strands can vary greatly depending on strand characteristics (e.g., length and sequence choice) and solution conditions (e.g., ionic strength and temperature). We have studied DNA-mediated assembly of micron-sized, bidisperse mixtures using primarily optical and confocal microscopy. To increase hybridization efficiency between complementary strands, DNA sequences were designed to have a low self-affinity that minimizes intrastrand loop and hairpin formations. Single strands of biotinylated DNA were tethered to NeutrAvidin-coated 1.10 and 1.87 micron beads. The resulting oligonucleotide density on the large bead surface was quantified using flow cytometry. In binary mixtures, we found we could vary the degree of binding between complementary beads depending on the number of matching pairs and the ionic strength of the solution. We have also observed a variety of colloidal structures such as chains of alternating large and small particles by exploring additional experimental variables such as particle number ratio and volume fraction.
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