Impact of road construction on giant panda’s habitat and its carrying capacity in Qinling Mountains

The Qinling giant panda (Ailuropoda melanoleuca) is an endangered endemic species to China. Despite ongoing efforts to ensure its conservation, concerns about maintaining its populations persist. We used GIS fed with data on land use including road network of 2001, third national giant panda survey, and a digital elevation model (DEM) to assess the impact of road construction on giant panda habitat, and estimate the carrying capacity of the Qinling Mountain area. We assessed habitat suitability with a mechanistic model, and conducted correlation analysis to evaluate relationship between the extent of giant panda habitat and amount of sites occupied by pandas within of 5 km × 5 km grid. We also estimated the carrying capacity of the Qinling Mountainous Area.
Our results revealed a significant correlation (R² = 0.447, P < 0.01) between the number of sites with signs left by giant panda and the extent of habitat within of 5 km × 5 km grid. The minimum habitat area that can support one panda was 10 km². Before the road network construction, the area of habitat suitable for the panda amounted about 1561 km² and that of marginally suitable habitat about 1499 km². The corresponding carrying capacity represented about 240 individuals. After the road network construction, the suitable habitat area was reduced by nearly 30% to 1093 km². Marginally suitable habitat and unsuitable habitat have both increased by 17% and 1%, respectively. As a result, the potential population size which the habitat could support was reduced to 217 individuals. The study results also suggested that most impacts on habitat from road construction took place in the high elevation areas above 1500 m. However, regarding the impact on the giant panda habitat, road networks developed much more inside the current nature reserves than outside of them.     

Weight Loss and Impact on Quality of Life in Parkinson’s Disease

IntroductionWeight loss is common in Parkinson’s Disease (PD) and sometimes may precede the diagnosis. Weight loss is associated with multiple factors but its impact on health-related quality of life (HRQL) in PD remains unknown. We sought to investigate the factors associated with weight change and to quantify its effect on HRQL.MethodsThe National Parkinson Foundation Quality Improvement Initiative (NPF-QII) data was used to analyze PD patients longitudinally between two visits, separated by 12±6 months. Multiple linear regression analyses were used to assess the associations between baseline covariates and body weight change per month, and to evaluate whether, and to what degree, Parkinson’s Disease Questionnaire (PDQ-39) scores were affected.ResultsA higher Hoehn & Yahr stage, higher number of comorbidities, older age, lower MOCA estimate, and higher rate of levodopa usage were observed in patients who lost weight. Multivariate regression analysis indicated that age and levodopa usage were significantly associated with weight loss. Furthermore, monthly body weight loss was significantly associated with HRQL decline in PD patients. Loss of 1 lb (0.45 kg) per month was associated with a decline in QOL: an increase of 0.5% in PDQ-39 Summary Index score (p=0.004), and 1.1% and 1.5% increases in the mobility and ADL dimensions, respectively.ConclusionWeight loss in PD is common and seems to correlate with worsened HRQL. Awareness of factors associated with weight loss and its relation to HRQL may help practitioners improve patient management and expectations.     

Estimating the household costs of human–wildlife conflict in China’s giant panda national park

Human–wildlife conflict is a major cause of losses resulting from the establishment of protected areas, most of which are borne by the communities within these areas. It is therefore important to establish a compensation system for such losses. This study measures the total costs of human-wildlife conflict by surveying communities within and surrounding China's Giant Panda National Park. The results show that the primary visible costs from human–wildlife conflict, which include crop loss, livestock depredation, property damage, and human fatalities and injury, were 2185.6 Yuan ($316.9) per household. Approximately 64.9% of households were affected by this conflict in 2020. For each affected household, the average visible costs per capita was 952.6 Yuan ($138.1) or 7.2% of per capita net income. When converting well-being losses caused by human-wildlife conflict into economic costs, we consider visible costs and hidden costs (e.g., transaction, opportunity, and health costs). This study shows that human–wildlife conflict reduced per capita net income by 15.3% and significantly affected household well-being. The average cost of the well-being loss caused by human-wildlife conflict was 38.5 % of per capita net income.     

Impact of Dental Atmosphere and Behaviour of the Dentist on Children’s Cooperation

During dental treatment children are usually under psychological pressure. With the Sarnat Behaviour Score five different types of patients can be distinguished. There is no method that measures the impact of dental atmosphere and dentist's behaviour on the young patients' readiness to cooperate. The objective of the present study was the implementation and evaluation of a questionnaire on this subject. Eighty-eight patients participated in this study. In the first part of the new questionnaire personal information was collected. The second part consists of 43 items and investigates the relationship between dentist and patient and reflects the atmosphere of the environment. Statistical analysis was performed using the Chi-square test. There were statistically significant differences between the cooperative and non-cooperative group, as regards the perceived honesty of the dentist, the ability to explain and wish to help. Uncooperative children are significantly more often afraid of the dental environment. Sympathy alone has only a minor effect on children's cooperation. Children should be treated with empathy. Especially younger patients appreciate detailed explanations by the dentist. Children's non-cooperative behaviour results often from their aroused interest in the unknown environment, which causes an unpleasant perception of the whole setting.     

New approach for determination of an optimum honeybee colony’s carrying capacity based on productivity and nectar secretion potential of bee forage species

The present study was carried out to determine an optimum honeybee colony’s carrying capacity of selected valleys dominated by Ziziphus spina-christi and Acacia tortilis in the Al-Baha region, Kingdom of Saudi Arabia. The study was conducted based on the assessment of the number of colonies kept, their productivities and the existing productive bee forage resources in the target valleys with its economic implication. In the existing beekeeping practice, the average number of managed honeybee colonies introduced per square kilometer was 530 and 317 during the flowering period of Z. spina-christi and A. tortilis, respectively. Furthermore, the overall ratios of productive bee forage plants to the number of honeybee colonies introduced were 0.55 and 11.12 to Ziziphus trees and A. tortilis shrubs respectively. In the existing situation the average honey production potential of 5.21 and 0.34 kg was recorded per Ziziphus and A. tortilis plants per flowering season, respectively. The present study, revealed that the number of honeybee colonies introduced in relation to the existing bee forage potential was extremely overcrowding which is beyond the carrying capacity of bee forage resources in selected valleys and it has been observed to affect the productivities and subsequent profitability of beekeeping. The study infers that, by keeping the optimum honeybee colony’s carrying capacity of valleys (88 traditional hives/km² or 54 Langstroth hives/km² in Ziziphus field and 72 traditional hives/km² or 44 Langstroth hives/km² in A. tortilis field), profitability of beekeeping can be boosted up to 130.39% and 207.98% during Z. spina-christi and A. tortilis, flowering seasons, respectively.     

Structural Impact of Phosphorylation and Dielectric Constant Variation on Synaptotagmin’s IDR

We used time-resolved Förster resonance energy transfer, circular dichroism, and molecular dynamics simulation to investigate the structural dependence of synaptotagmin 1’s intrinsically disordered region (IDR) on phosphorylation and dielectric constant. We found that a peptide corresponding to the full-length IDR sequence, a ～60-residue strong polyampholyte, can sample structurally collapsed states in aqueous solution, consistent with its κ-predicted behavior, where κ is a sequence-dependent parameter that is used to predict IDR compaction. In implicit solvent simulations of this same sequence, lowering the dielectric constant to more closely mimic the environment near a lipid bilayer surface promoted further sampling of collapsed structures. We then examined the structural tendencies of central region residues of the IDR in isolation. We found that the exocytosis-modulating phosphorylation of Thr¹¹² disrupts a local disorder-to-order transition induced by trifluoroethanol/water mixtures that decrease the solution dielectric constant and stabilize helical structure. Implicit solvent simulations on these same central region residues testing the impact of dielectric constant alone converge on a similar result, showing that helical structure is formed with higher probability at a reduced dielectric. In these helical conformers, lysine-aspartic acid salt bridges contribute to stabilization of transient secondary structure. In contrast, phosphorylation results in formation of salt bridges unsuitable for helix formation. Collectively, these results suggest a model in which phosphorylation and compaction of the IDR sequence regulate structural transitions that in turn modulate neuronal exocytosis.     

Aboveground biomass and its biotic and abiotic modulators of a main food bamboo of the giant panda in a subalpine spruce–fir forest in southwestern China

中国西南亚高山云冷杉林中大熊猫主食竹的地上生物量及其生物和非生物影响因子作为大熊猫(Ailuropoda melanoleuca)的主食竹之一,缺苞箭竹(Fargesia denudate)广泛分布在中国西南山地云冷杉林的林下。然而,缺苞箭竹生物量及其分布的驱动因素仍不清楚。本研究基于对王朗大样地(25.2 ha) 209个样方(投影面积为20 m × 20 m)中的乔木层和灌木层(包括竹子等木质草本)的系统调查,探讨非生物因素(地形和土壤理化性质)和生物因素(乔木密度、乔木总胸高断面积(TBA)和灌木盖度等) 对缺苞箭竹地上生物量的影响。研究结果表明,样方缺苞箭竹地上生物量平均为1.17 ton/ha,在209 个 调查样方中差异很大(0–4.88 ton/ha,95%置信区间)。缺苞箭竹生物量随海拔、坡度和乔木平均胸径的增 加而显著增加,随乔木密度、灌木盖度和土壤pH的增加而显著降低,而与乔木TBA、坡向、土壤有机质或总氮含量无显著线性关系。随机森林模型表明,地形和生物因素对缺苞箭竹生物量的影响比土壤理化性质更大。具体来说,地形主要通过改变乔木密度和土壤理化性质来影响缺苞箭竹的生物量。本研究结果可为大熊猫的保护和亚高山云冷杉林的管理提供科学参考。     

Polymorphism of follicle stimulating hormone beta (FSHβ) subunit gene and its association with litter traits in giant panda

The different SSCP patterns of the follicle stimulating hormone beta (FSHβ) gene amplified by three pairs of primers were sequenced. Comparisons among the three nucleotide sequences of three genotypes indicated that three base substitutions (A213T, A91G, and A89C) were detected in FSHβ gene, which A213T substitution led to one amino acids mutation (Lys > Met), and the other two substitutions were synonymous mutations. The AA, AB and BB genotypes patterns obtained by FSHβ primer1 had evident relation with the litter traits, but the SSCP genotypes patterns obtained by FSHβ primer2 and primer3 had no evident relation with the litter traits in giant panda. The giant panda with AA and AB genotype had the largest litter size and multiparity rate compared with the BB genotypes (P < 0.05). We speculated that the giant pandas with the A allele have better litter traits than those with the B allele.     

Effects of industrial storage on the bioreduction capacity of brewer’s yeast

The effects of industrial storage on the changes of the cell viability and the activities of intracellular alcohol dehydrogenase (ADH) and glucose-6-phosphate dehydrogenase (G6PDH) in brewer’s yeast, and the corresponding capacity for the bioconversion of ethyl-3-oxobutanoate (EOB) to ethyl (S)-3-hydroxybutanoate ((S)-EHB), were investigated. The viability of fresh brewer’s yeast cells stored in industrial circulating cooling water at 1–2°C showed 4 and 15% drop after the storage of 7 and 15 days, respectively, after which cells died rapidly. The pretreatment of the stored brewer’s yeast cells by washing and screening significantly enhanced cell viability during industrial storage. The intracellular levels of ADH and G6PDH after permeabilization of these stored cells with cetyltrimetylammonium bromide (CTAB) were much higher, which showed only slight decrease within 2 weeks during the industrial storage. When the stored cells after the permeabilization treatment was used as the biocatalyst at 90–120 g/L, EOB was converted almost completely into enantiopure (S)-EHB with an enantiomeric excess (ee) more than 99% and a yield of over 96%, by fed-batch bioconversion of 560 mM EOB within 6 h. Electronic supplementary material  The online version of this article (doi:) contains supplementary material, which is available to authorized users.     

Impact of Human,workplace and indoor environmental risk factors on operator’s reliability in control rooms

Abstract

Adequate design of control rooms is very important for increasing the reliability of operators working in them. Therefore, it is necessary to choose the best solution for improving the compliance between operators and elements of control room while dealing with problems of illumination, thermal climate and noise. For this purpose we will analyze the impact of execution time of operator's information processing tasks, motor and logical operator's tasks, operator's functional state, workplace risk factors and indoor environment parameters on operator's reliability in control room. Methodological approaches for these five groups are formed and used for experimental research and to determine the level of their quantitative values. Research results are showing the following levels of reliability for specific indicators: reaction time ‐ very good, coefficient of task complexity ‐ optimal, operator's error caused by stress ‐ very good, workplace risk factor ‐ critical and indoor environment ‐ good. Because the functional appropriateness and efficiency in the operator's workplace were inadequate, the following recommendations and solutions were proposed: signaling and control elements should be placed on the central part of the control desk, because due to poor control desk construction, they cause uneven burden on various operator's body parts.     

Oxidative stress and its effect on cell functional activity in Alzheimer’s disease

The review summarizes literature data on the importance of oxidative stress as one of the pathogenetic mechanisms in Alzheimer’s disease. Special attention is paid to the main specific and nonspecific ways of reactive oxygen species (ROS) generation in the course of the disease development. Generated ROS influence functional activity of cells, particularly, apoptosis and the mitotic cycle. Phosphorylation/dephosphorylation processes associated with intense phosphorylation of tau protein and mitosis-specific proteins play the nodal regulatory role in the cell. Alzheimer’s disease is accompanied by impairments of the regulatory functions of peptidyl-prolyl isomerases, particularly, Pin1 involved in maintaining a balanced state of phosphorylation/dephosphorylation processes. Taking into consideration the multifactorial impairment of the cell cycle control, this process should be considered from the viewpoint of the general state of metabolic processes, and oxidative stress has one of the key positions in aging.     

Biomechanism of impact resistance in the woodpecker’s head and its application

The woodpecker does not suffer head/eye impact injuries while drumming on a tree trunk with high acceleration(more than 1000×g) and high frequency.The mechanism that protects the woodpecker’s head has aroused the interest of ornithologists,biologists and scientists in the areas of mechanical engineering,material science and electronics engineering.This article reviews the literature on the biomechanisms and materials responsible for protecting the woodpecker from head impact injury and their applications in engineering and human protection.     

Dust Storms and Their Impact on Ocean and Human Health: Dust in Earth’s Atmosphere

Satellite imagery has greatly influenced our understanding of dust activity on a global scale. A number of different satellites such as NASAs Earth-Probe Total Ozone Mapping Spectrometer (TOMS) and Sea-viewing Field-of-view Sensor (SeaWiFS) acquire daily global-scale data used to produce imagery for monitoring dust storm formation and movement. This global-scale imagery has documented the frequent transmission of dust storm-derived soils through Earths atmosphere and the magnitude of many of these events. While various research projects have been undertaken to understand this normal planetary process, little has been done to address its impact on ocean and human health. This review will address the ability of dust storms to influence marine microbial population densities and transport of soil-associated toxins and pathogenic microorganisms to marine environments. The implications of dust on ocean and human health in this emerging scientific field will be discussed.     

Impact of Free Delivery Care on Health Facility Delivery and Insurance Coverage in Ghana’s Brong Ahafo Region

Background

Many sub-Saharan countries, including Ghana, have introduced policies to provide free medical care to pregnant women. The impact of these policies, particularly on access to health services among the poor, has not been evaluated using rigorous methods, and so the empirical basis for defending these policies is weak. In Ghana, a recent report also cast doubt on the current mechanism of delivering free care – the National Health Insurance Scheme. Longitudinal surveillance data from two randomized controlled trials conducted in the Brong Ahafo Region provided a unique opportunity to assess the impact of Ghana’s policies.

Methods

We used time-series methods to assess the impact of Ghana’s 2005 policy on free delivery care and its 2008 policy on free national health insurance for pregnant women. We estimated their impacts on facility delivery and insurance coverage, and on socioeconomic differentials in these outcomes after controlling for temporal trends and seasonality.

Results

Facility delivery has been increasing significantly over time. The 2005 and 2008 policies were associated with significant jumps in coverage of 2.3% (p = 0.015) and 7.5% (p<0.001), respectively after the policies were introduced. Health insurance coverage also jumped significantly (17.5%, p<0.001) after the 2008 policy. The increases in facility delivery and insurance were greatest among the poorest, leading to a decline in socioeconomic inequality in both outcomes.

Conclusion

Providing free care, particularly through free health insurance, has been effective in increasing facility delivery overall in the Brong Ahafo Region, and especially among the poor. This finding should be considered when evaluating the impact of the National Health Insurance Scheme and in supporting the continuation and expansion of free delivery care.     

Hierarchical analysis of Swainson’s Spurfowl Pternistis swainsonii habitat use on Highveld maize and livestock farms

This paper explains habitat use by Swainson’s Spurfowl Pternistis swainsonii on maize Zea mays and livestock farms on the Highveld south-east of Johannesburg, South Africa. The purpose is to describe habitat modification methods to manipulate the abundance of Swainson’s Spurfowl on Highveld farms where maize is produced. Field observations were conducted along a 100 km road transect during June 2014–May 2015. A hierarchical habitat analysis with three spatial levels was applied. The location of adult male Swainson’s Spurfowl was used as an indicator of habitat use. Females breed and rear broods in male territories. The micro (2.5-m-radius plot around the birds) and macro (>2.5-m-radius plot) habitats and landscape features were recorded for each sighting. Spurfowl moved within landscapes on a seasonal basis. A micro/macro combination linked with landscape features was a reliable indicator of spurfowl habitat preferences. Micro- and macro-habitats within landscapes can potentially be modified at a single spatial level, or a combination of levels, to manipulate spurfowl abundance on Highveld farms with maize production and livestock.     

Ubiquitin-protein ligase parkin and its role in the development of Parkinson’s disease

Parkin is a protein encoded by the corresponding parkin gene. It exhibits ubiquitin-protein ligase activity. In this review, we analyze domain structure, substrate specificity, subcellular localization of parkin, and regulation of its activity. Then we discuss data on the effects of various mutations in the parkin gene on structure and functions of this protein and results obtained with parkin knock-out animals. Better understanding of parkin biochemistry, its compartmentalization, functions, and altered functions would help the development of new approaches for the treatment of both inherited and sporadic cases of Parkinson’s disease. Published in Russian in Biokhimiya, 2006, Vol. 71, No. 8, pp. 1050–1061.