•eBird is a rapidly evolving citizen-science project that meets the needs of a broad user community.•We are developing a novel approach to citizen science based on interdisciplinary collaboration.•We ...have successfully increased data quantity, while maintaining rigorous data quality.•eBird is a major source of avian biodiversity data, now being used across many disciplines.•Feedback and communication from all aspects of the eBird enterprise improve the project’s success.
Citizen-science projects engage volunteers to gather or process data to address scientific questions. But citizen-science projects vary in their ability to contribute usefully for science, conservation, or public policy. eBird has evolved from a basic citizen-science project into a collective enterprise, taking a novel approach to citizen science by developing cooperative partnerships among experts in a wide range of fields: population and distributions, conservation biologists, quantitative ecologists, statisticians, computer scientists, GIS and informatics specialists, application developers, and data administrators. The goal is to increase data quantity through participant recruitment and engagement, but also to quantify and control for data quality issues such as observer variability, imperfect detection of species, and both spatial and temporal bias in data collection. Advances at the interface among ecology, statistics, and computer science allow us to create new species distribution models that provide accurate estimates across broad spatial and temporal scales with extremely detailed resolution. eBird data are openly available and used by a broad spectrum of students, teachers, scientists, NGOs, government agencies, land managers, and policy makers. Feedback from this broad data use community helps identify development priorities. As a result, eBird has become a major source of biodiversity data, increasing our knowledge of the dynamics of species distributions, and having a direct impact on the conservation of birds and their habitats.
A microporous hypercrosslinked polymer resin was synthesized and shown to adsorb 3.04 wt.% hydrogen at 77 K and 15 bar; this represents the highest level of hydrogen adsorption yet observed for an ...organic polymer.
Oesophageal adenocarcinoma (EAC) incidence is rapidly increasing in Western countries. A better understanding of EAC underpins efforts to improve early detection and treatment outcomes. While large ...EAC exome sequencing efforts to date have found recurrent loss-of-function mutations, oncogenic driving events have been underrepresented. Here we use a combination of whole-genome sequencing (WGS) and single-nucleotide polymorphism-array profiling to show that genomic catastrophes are frequent in EAC, with almost a third (32%, n=40/123) undergoing chromothriptic events. WGS of 22 EAC cases show that catastrophes may lead to oncogene amplification through chromothripsis-derived double-minute chromosome formation (MYC and MDM2) or breakage-fusion-bridge (KRAS, MDM2 and RFC3). Telomere shortening is more prominent in EACs bearing localized complex rearrangements. Mutational signature analysis also confirms that extreme genomic instability in EAC can be driven by somatic BRCA2 mutations. These findings suggest that genomic catastrophes have a significant role in the malignant transformation of EAC.
Our work group report details the importance of pest allergen exposure in inner-city asthma. We will focus specifically on mouse and cockroach exposure. We will discuss how exposure to these pests is ...common in the inner city and what conditions exist in urban areas that might lead to increased exposure. We will discuss how exposure is associated with allergen sensitization and asthma morbidity. Finally, we will discuss different methods of intervention and the effectiveness of these tactics.
Artificial drainage ditches are common features in lowland agricultural catchments that support a wide range of ecosystem services at the landscape scale. Current paradigms in river management ...suggest activities that increase habitat heterogeneity and complexity resulting in more diverse floral and faunal assemblages; however, it is not known if the same principles apply to artificial drainage ditch systems. We examined the effects of four artificial substrates, representing increasing habitat complexity and heterogeneity (bricks, gravel, netting and vegetation), on macroinvertebrate community structure within artificial drainage ditches. Each substrate type supported a distinct macroinvertebrate community highlighting the importance of habitat heterogeneity in maintaining macroinvertebrate assemblages. Each substrate type also displayed differing degrees of community heterogeneity, with gravel communities being most variable and artificial vegetation being the least. In addition, several macroinvertebrate diversity metrics increased along the gradient of artificial substrate complexity, although these differences were not statistically significant. We conclude that habitat management practices that increase habitat complexity are likely to enhance macroinvertebrate community heterogeneity within artificial drainage channels regardless of previous management activities.
•Despite a substantial body of literature examining university technology transfer, the entrepreneur’s perspective has received little consideration.•We introduce an opportunity evaluation framework ...to consider how technology attributes influence entrepreneurs' decisions to license the technology.•The technology’s prototype maturity, segment clarity, and regulatory hurdles are all significant predictors of entrepreneur’s decision to license.•Active search for a technology license opportunity moderates the relationship between prototype maturity and the decision to license.•Both specific knowledge of the technology and active search moderate the relationship between regulatory hurdles and the decision to license.
Despite the fundamental role entrepreneurs play in the commercialization of university technology, very little research has focused on their decisions to license. In this study, we conceptualize entrepreneurs’ decisions to license a university technology as a matter of opportunity evaluation and theorize key opportunity attributes entrepreneurs evaluate in deciding whether to pursue or forgo license opportunities. We conduct a conjoint analysis experiment to test our model. Data from 784 decisions made by 98 entrepreneurs revealed that their considerations of prototype maturity, market segment clarity, and regulatory hurdles significantly influence the likelihood of licensing university technology. We further document that technology specific knowledge and active search for a technology license opportunity are key individual difference variables that moderate the effects of some technology attributes. A key finding is that regulatory hurdles, an attribute mostly ignored in prior university technology commercialization research, are instrumental in entrepreneurs’ evaluations.
Quality of life of paediatric patients after burn injury is often assessed through parents who may score differently to their child. Non-severe burns are the most common type of burn injury in ...Western Australia, however, despite low severity and high survival rates, they can cause long term physical and psychosocial problems which need to be detected early in order to provide patients with optimal holistic care.
Demographic and clinical data were collected from paediatric patients (5–16-year-old) with non-severe burns (<20% total body surface area), and Paediatric quality of life (PedsQL) questionnaires were collected from both the patient and their parent. Two cohorts of patients were assessed: first, those at approximately six months after burn, and second, those more than one-year after burn. Differences between parent-scores and self-scores were analysed using multivariate linear regression to assess the relationship between risk factors and observed differences in PedsQL scores.
Parents reported poorer Psychosocial Function (PSF) for younger children (p = 0.01) and for patients from higher socioeconomic status areas (p = 0.05) compared to their children. In the ‘Early Recovery Cohort’, female patients had significantly different scores to their parents (p < 0.01). In the ‘Late Recovery Cohort’, parents rated older patients lower than they rated themselves (p = 0.03).
Age at burn, socioeconomic status, and female gender may increase the discrepancy in quality-of-life assessments between parents and patients.
•For early recovery, there are more differences if patients are younger, female and/or from low socioeconomic backgrounds.•For long term recovery, there is high agreeance in psychosocial scores, but older age at burn increases differences.•The influence of demographic and clinical factors on psychosocial scores diminishes over time.
Liver disease is a leading contributor to morbidity and mortality during HIV infection, despite the use of combination antiretroviral therapy (cART). The precise mechanisms of liver disease during ...HIV infection are poorly understood partially due to the difficulty in obtaining human liver samples as well as the presence of confounding factors (e.g. hepatitis co-infection, alcohol use). Utilizing the simian immunodeficiency virus (SIV) macaque model, a controlled study was conducted to evaluate the factors associated with liver inflammation and the impact of cART. We observed an increase in hepatic macrophages during untreated SIV infection that was associated with a number of inflammatory and fibrosis mediators (TNFα, CCL3, TGFβ). Moreover, an upregulation in the macrophage chemoattractant factor CCL2 was detected in the livers of SIV-infected macaques that coincided with an increase in the number of activated CD16+ monocyte/macrophages and T cells expressing the cognate receptor CCR2. Expression of Mac387 on monocyte/macrophages further indicated that these cells recently migrated to the liver. The hepatic macrophage and T cell levels strongly correlated with liver SIV DNA levels, and were not associated with the levels of 16S bacterial DNA. Utilizing in situ hybridization, SIV-infected cells were found primarily within portal triads, and were identified as T cells. Microarray analysis identified a strong antiviral transcriptomic signature in the liver during SIV infection. In contrast, macaques treated with cART exhibited lower levels of liver macrophages and had a substantial, but not complete, reduction in their inflammatory profile. In addition, residual SIV DNA and bacteria 16S DNA were detected in the livers during cART, implicating the liver as a site on-going immune activation during antiretroviral therapy. These findings provide mechanistic insights regarding how SIV infection promotes liver inflammation through macrophage recruitment, with implications for in HIV-infected individuals.
Celotno besedilo
Dostopno za:
DOBA, IZUM, KILJ, NUK, PILJ, PNG, SAZU, SIK, UILJ, UKNU, UL, UM, UPUK
The PEPITES (Peanut EPIT Efficacy and Safety) trial, a 12-month randomized controlled study of children with peanut allergy and 4 to 11 years old, previously reported the safety and efficacy of ...epicutaneous immunotherapy (EPIT) for peanut allergy (250 μg, daily epicutaneous peanut protein; DBV712 250 μg).
We sought to assess interim safety and efficacy of an additional 2 years of EPIT from the ongoing (5-year treatment) PEOPLE (PEPITES Open-Label Extension) study.
Subjects who completed PEPITES were offered enrollment in PEOPLE. Following an additional 2 years of daily DBV712 250 μg, subjects who had received DBV712 250 μg in PEPITES underwent month-36 double-blind, placebo-controlled food challenge with an optional month-38 sustained unresponsiveness assessment.
Of 213 eligible subjects who had received DBV712 250 μg in PEPITES, 198 (93%) entered PEOPLE, of whom 141 (71%) had assessable double-blind, placebo-controlled food challenge at month 36. At month 36, 51.8% of subjects (73 of 141) reached an eliciting dose of ≥1000 mg, compared with 40.4% (57 of 141) at month 12; 75.9% (107 of 141) demonstrated increased eliciting dose compared with baseline; and 13.5% (19 of 141) tolerated the full double-blind, placebo-controlled food challenge of 5444 mg. Median cumulative reactive dose increased from 144 to 944 mg. Eighteen subjects underwent an optional sustained unresponsiveness assessment; 14 of those (77.8%) maintained an eliciting dose of ≥1000 mg at month 38. Local patch-site skin reactions were common but decreased over time. There was no treatment-related epinephrine use in years 2 or 3. Compliance was high (96.9%), and withdrawals due to treatment-related adverse events were low (1%).
These results demonstrate that daily EPIT treatment for peanut allergy beyond 1 year leads to continued response from a well-tolerated, simple-to-use regimen.
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