Declining trends in the majority of Greenland’s thick-billed murre (Uria lomvia) colonies 1981–2011

Large population declines were reported for the thick-billed murre (Uria lomvia) in Greenland for the period 1930s–1980s, but no national status has been published for the past 20 years. Meanwhile, the murres have gained more protection and several human-induced mortality factors have been markedly reduced. Here, we give an updated status based on the past 30 years of murre count data. The total Greenland population in 2011 was estimated to 468,300 birds (95 % CI 430,700–505,900) or around 342,000 breeding pairs, distributed within 19 colonies. This represents an overall reduction of 13 % since the mid-/late 1980s. In the same period, five colonies went extinct. Large and apparently stable colonies in Qaanaaq (Northwest Greenland) account for more than half the population (68 %), but most other colonies declined heavily, with up to 6 % p.a. in the most critical areas. So far, nothing indicates that food is a limiting factor in Greenland during the breeding season, although rather few colonies have been studied in details. In contrast, illegal hunting and disturbances during the breeding season are still a problem in Greenland, despite more restrictive hunting regulations, and may explain much of the continued population decline. In addition, recent studies from Svalbard indicate that a large-scale deterioration of the marine environment in the North Atlantic, due to oceanographic changes, may impact recruitment to some of the Greenland colonies. Murre colonies in southern Upernavik, Disko Bay, South Greenland and East Greenland are in urgent need of additional conservation initiatives to avoid further declines and local extinctions.     

Giving the silent majority a stronger voice? Initiatives to empower Muslim women as part of the UK's ‘War on Terror’

Abstract

This article provides a gendered analysis of the ‘War on Terror’ in the UK context. Specifically it looks at initiatives to empower Muslim women, which were part of New Labour's Preventing Violent Extremism (PVE) agenda, the impetus for which stemmed from the idea that, as ‘the silent majority’, women need to be given a ‘stronger voice’. Based on analysis of qualitative interviews, this article situates these initiatives within a broader policy landscape of debates on multiculturalism, community cohesion and Britishness. It explores interviewees' understandings of Muslim women's silence in relation to those suggested by policy discourse, considering the ways in which the state's attempt to ‘give voice’ worked in practice. I argue that the operation of such initiatives continued to constrain Muslim women's voices, restricting ‘voice’ to a narrow range of speakers speaking about a narrow range of issues.     

The majority of the genetic risk for Paget’s disease of bone is explained by genetic variants close to the CSF1, OPTN, TM7SF4, and TNFRSF11A genes

Paget’s disease of bone (PDB) is one of the most frequent metabolic bone disorders (1–5%), next to osteoporosis, affecting individuals above age 55. Sequestosome1 mutations explain a part of the PDB patients, but still the disease pathogenesis in the remaining PDB patients is largely unknown. Therefore, association studies investigating the relationship between genetic polymorphisms and sporadic PDB have been performed to find the genetic risk variants. Previously such studies indicated a role of the OPG and RANK gene. The latter was recently confirmed in a genome-wide association study (GWAS) which also indicated the involvement of chromosomal regions harbouring the CSF1 and OPTN gene. In this study, we sought to replicate these findings in a Belgian and a Dutch population. Similar significant results were obtained for the single nucleotide polymorphisms and the haplotypes. The most significant results are found in the CSF1 gene region, followed by the OPTN and TNFRSF11A gene region (p values ranging from 1.3 × 10^?4 to 3.8 × 10^?8, OR = 1.523–1.858). We next obtained significant association with a polymorphism from the chromosomal region around the TM7SF4 gene (p = 2.7 × 10^?3, OR = 1.427), encoding DC-STAMP which did not reach genome-wide significance in the GWAS, but based on its function in osteoclasts it can be considered a strong candidate gene. After meta-analysis with the GWAS data, p values ranged between 2.6 × 10^?4 and 8.8 × 10^?32. The calculated cumulative population attributable risk of these four loci turned out to be about 67% in our two populations, indicating that most of the genetic risk for PDB is coming from genetic variants close to these four genes.     

Gastroprotective mechanisms of Citrus lemon (Rutaceae) essential oil and its majority compounds limonene and β-pinene: involvement of heat-shock protein-70, vasoactive intestinal peptide, glutathione, sulfhydryl compounds, nitric oxide and prostaglandin E₂

Citrus lemon (CL) belongs to Rutaceae family and is popularly known in Brazil as limão siciliano. The phytochemical analysis of CL fruit bark essential oil showed two majority components, limonene (LIM) and β-pinene (PIN). This study aimed to evaluate the gastroprotective mechanism of action from CL, LIM and PIN in ethanol- and indomethacin-induced gastric ulcers and its in vitro anti-Helicobacter pylori activity. After ethanol-induced gastric ulcer, the ulcer area was measured and the stomachs were destined to histology (HE and PAS), immunohistochemistry for HSP-70 and VIP and glutathione (GSH) measurement. The involvement of nitric oxide (NO) and sulfhydryl (SH) compounds was determined. The ulcer area for indomethacin-induced gastric ulcers was measured. PGE₂ concentration was biochemically measured. The minimum inhibitory concentration (MIC) against H. pylori was determined in vitro. In ethanol model, CL and LIM demonstrated 100% of gastroprotection, while PIN did not exert effective gastroprotection (53.26%). In the indomethacin model, CL and LIM offered effective gastroprotection but PIN did not show gastroprotective effect. The gastric ulcer area of rats pretreated with NO-synthase inhibitor or SH-blocker was decreased in comparison to the control group. The MIC obtained for CL was 125 μg/mL, for LIM was 75 μg/mL and for PIN was 500 μg/mL. The gastroprotective effect of CL and LIM was involved with increasing in mucus secretion, HSP-70 and VIP, but not with GSH, NO or SH compounds. CL gastroprotective mechanism is involved with PGE₂. PIN did not present gastroprotective activity.