Information needs to support environmental impact assessment of the effects of European marine offshore wind farms on birds

European legislation requires Strategic Environmental Assessments (SEAs) of national offshore wind farm (OWF) programmes and Environmental Impact Assessments (EIAs) for individual projects likely to affect birds. SEAs require extensive mapping of waterbird densities to define breeding and feeding areas of importance and sensitivity. Use of extensive large scale weather, military, and air traffic control surveillance radar is recommended, to define areas, routes and behaviour of migrating birds, and to determine avian migration corridors in three dimensions. EIAs for individual OWFs should define the key avian species present; as well as assess the hazards presented to birds in terms of avoidance behaviour, habitat change and collision risk. Such measures, however, are less helpful in assessing cumulative impacts. Using aerial survey, physical habitat loss, modification, or gain and effective habitat loss through avoidance behaviour can be measured using bird densities as a proxy measure of habitat availability. The energetic consequences of avoidance responses and habitat change should be modelled to estimate fitness costs and predict impacts at the population level. Our present ability to model collision risk remains poor due to lack of data on species-specific avoidance responses. There is therefore an urgent need to gather data on avoidance responses; energetic consequences of habitat modification and avoidance flights and demographic sensitivity of key species, most affected by OWFs. This analysis stresses the importance of common data collection protocols, sharing of information and experience, and accessibility of results at the international level to better improve our predictive abilities.     

Heterozygous carriage of a dysfunctional Toll-like receptor 9 allele affects CpG oligonucleotide responses in B cells

Toll-like receptors (TLR) are employed by the innate immune system to detect microbial pathogens based on conserved microbial pathogen molecules. For example, TLR9 is a receptor for CpG-containing microbial DNA, and its activation results in the production of cytokines and type I interferons from human B cells and plasmacytoid dendritic cells, respectively. Both are required for mounting an efficient antibacterial or antiviral immune response. These effects are mimicked by synthetic CpG oligodeoxynucleotides (ODN). Although several hyporesponsive TLR9 variants have been reported, their functional relevance in human primary cells has not been addressed. Here we report a novel TLR9 allele, R892W, which is hyporesponsive to CpG ODN and acts as a dominant-negative in a cellular model system. The R892W variant is characterized by increased MyD88 binding and defective co-localization with CpG ODN. Whereas primary plasmacytoid dendritic cells isolated from a heterozygous R892W carrier responded normally to CpG by interferon-α production, carrier B cells showed impaired IL-6 and IL-10 production. This suggests that heterozygous carriage of a hyporesponsive TLR9 allele is not associated with complete loss of TLR9 function but that TLR9 signals elicited in different cell types are regulated differently in human primary cells.     

Actin Disruption by Latrunculin B Causes Turgor-Related Changes in Tip Growth of Saprolegnia ferax Hyphae

Hyphae of Saprolegnia ferax growing under normal or low-turgor conditions were exposed to 0.1-10 &mgr;g/ml latrunculin B, an actin inhibitor. In the first 10 s of addition, hyphae with normal turgor levels accelerated while those with low turgor decelerated, consistent with the suggestion that actin restrains or protrudes tips under these respective turgor conditions. Both sets of hyphae then decelerated and eventually ceased extension within 60 s. These changes were reflected in rhodamine-phalloidin staining patterns, which showed that actin caps were disrupted progressively under both conditions in a time-dependent manner. After 60 s, normal-turgored hyphae started to swell rapidly while low-turgored hyphae showed little or no swelling. Swelling was characteristically subapical, which is best explained by tip growth models which incorporate actin-mediated exocytosis.     

Core alpha1,3-fucose is a key part of the epitope recognized by antibodies reacting against plant N-linked oligosaccharides and is present in a wide variety of plant extracts

Carbohydrates have been suggested to account for some IgE cross- reactions between various plant, insect, and mollusk extracts, while some IgG antibodies have been successfully raised against plant glycoproteins. A rat monoclonal antibody raised against elderberry abscission tissue (YZ1/2.23) and rabbit polyclonal antiserum against horseradish peroxidase were screened for reactivity in enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay against a range of plant glycoproteins and extracts as well as neoglycoproteins, bee venom phospholipase, and several animal glycoproteins. Of the oligosaccharides tested, Man3XylFucGlcNAc2(MMXF3) derived from horseradish peroxidase was the most potent inhibitor of the reactivity of both YZ1/2.23 and anti- horseradish peroxidase to native horseradish peroxidase glycoprotein. The reactivity of YZ1/2. 23 and anti-horseradish peroxidase against Sophora japonica lectin was most inhibited by a neoglycoconjugate of bromelain glycopeptide cross-linked to bovine serum albumin, while the defucosylated form of this conjugate was inactive as an inhibitor. A wide range of plant extracts was found to react against YZ1/2.23 and anti-horseradish peroxidase, with particularly high reactivities recorded for grass pollen and nut extracts. All these reactivities were inhibitable with the bromelain glycopeptide/bovine serum albumin conjugate. Bee venom phospholipase and whole bee venom reacted weakly with YZ1/2.23 but more strongly with anti-horseradish peroxidase in a manner inhibitable with the bromelain glycopeptide/bovine serum albumin conjugate, while hemocyanin from Helix pomatia reacted poorly with YZ1/2.23 but did react with anti-horseradish peroxidase. It is concluded that the alpha1, 3-fucose residue linked to the chitobiose core of plant glycoproteins is the most important residue in the epitope recognized by the two antibodies studied, but that the polyclonal anti-horseradish peroxidase antiserum also contains antibody populations that recognize the xylose linked to the core mannose of many plant and gastropod N-linked oligosaccharides.      

Direct evidence for Ca2+ regulation of hyphal branch induction

Grinberg, A., and Heath, I. B. 1997. Direct evidence for Ca2+ regulation of hyphal branch induction. 22, 127-139. Irradiation of growing hyphae of Saprolegnia ferax with microbeams of UV (300-380 and 385-450 nm) light induced an increase in cytoplasmic [Ca2+] followed by precocious formation of one or more branches within about 4 min. The distribution of branches was strongly skewed toward the subapical side of the irradiation site, but otherwise was apparantly random. Apical (10-&mgr;m) irradiations were more effective than subapical (50-&mgr;m) ones in that they induced branches at comparable frequencies but with lower doses, consistent with higher concentrations of putative target intracellular Ca2+ storage structures in this region. Once formed, induced adjacent branches seem to compete for "resources," with those closer than approximately 50 &mgr;m inhibiting each other. The results are most consistent with Ca2+-induced accumulation of branch initiating factors being the cause, not the consequence, of branch formation, thus supporting a primary role for Ca2+ in regulation of hyphal tip growth. Copyright 1997 Academic Press. Copyright 1997 Academic Press     

Impact of Rifaximin on the Frequency and Characteristics of Spontaneous Bacterial Peritonitis in Patients with Liver Cirrhosis and Ascites

Background

Rifaximin is a non-absorbable antibiotic used to prevent relapses of hepatic encephalopathy which may also be a candidate for prophylaxis of spontaneous bacterial peritonitis (SBP).

Aim

To detect the impact of rifaximin on the occurrence and characteristics of SBP.

Methods

We prospectively studied all hospitalized patients that underwent a diagnostic paracentesis in our department from March 2012 to April 2013 for SBP and recorded all clinical data including type of SBP prophylaxis, prior use of rifaximin, concomitant complications of cirrhosis, as well as laboratory results and bacteriological findings. Patients were divided into the following three groups: no antibiotic prophylaxis, prophylaxis with rifaximin or with systemically absorbed antibiotic prophylaxis.

Results

Our study cohort comprised 152 patients with advanced liver cirrhosis, 32 of whom developed SBP during the study period. As expected, our study groups differed regarding a history of hepatic encephalopathy and SBP before inclusion into the study. None of the 17 patients on systemic antibiotic prophylaxis developed SBP while 8/27 patients on rifaximin and 24/108 without prophylaxis had SBP (p = 0.02 and p = 0.04 versus systemic antibiotics, respectively). In general, episodes of SBP were similar for patients treated with rifaximin and those without any prophylaxis. However, Escherichia coli and enterococci were dominant in the ascites of patients without any prophylaxis, while mostly klebsiella species were recovered from the ascites samples in the rifaximin group.

Conclusion

Rifaximin pretreatment did not lead to a reduction of SBP occurrence in hospitalized patients with advanced liver disease. However, the bacterial species causing SBP were changed by rifaximin.     

The impact of researcher disturbance on nest predation rates: a meta‐analysis

The effects of visits to nests by researchers interested in quantifying avian nesting success have received considerable attention, as researchers have long been concerned about the possible negative effects of their own activities on the resulting estimates. There is a widely held view that investigator disturbance has an overall negative effect on breeding success by increasing nest predation rates in the nests studied. However, to date no one has statistically assessed the empirical evidence for such a relationship. We undertook a meta‐analysis of published results to assess whether researcher activities increase nest predation in birds. We also assessed the variability in this effect in relation to the traits of the study species and the methodology used. These analyses used data from 18 experimental studies involving 25 species from six avian orders. Our results suggest that, contrary to the traditional view, researcher activities do not generally affect the incidence of nest predation. Moreover, this relationship appears inconsistent among avian orders and, surprisingly, nest survival of passerines increased weakly with researcher activities. We also found significant positive effects of researcher activity on nest survival for species breeding on coastal areas and for species nesting on the ground. The possible explanation for these differences among orders and guilds could be due to different nest predator communities. This new perspective on the effect of investigators could have important implications for bird management and conservation, as well as for other fields of study such as ecology and evolution, in which nest survival rates measured in the field are widely used to test and support a range of hypotheses.     

Phosphorylation and biosynthesis of high molecular weight proteins of tumor nuclear matrix

INTRODUCTIONAsearlyasin1948wehavefr8CtionatedisolatednucleifromnormalandtumorcellsbyextractionwithiMNaCIanddilutealkali[1].Thenuclearresiduewasthenstudiedmorethoroughly[2,3].Lateron,sillillarproteinousnuclearresidueswereisolatedbyotherworkers[46]andasstud…     

Evolution of mammalian X-linked and autosomal Pgk and Pdh E1 alpha subunit genes

The phylogeny and substitution rates of the mammalian X chromosome- located and autosomal phosphoglycerate kinase and pyruvate dehydrogenase genes were investigated. Compatibility analysis was used to show reticulate evolution in these genes. Analysis of the marsupial, mouse, and human phosphoglycerate kinase genes suggests that at least two recombination events have taken place, one occurring about the time of the placental-marsupial split involving exons 1-5 and the other before the primate-rodent split involving exons 9-10. Similar analysis of the pyruvate dehydrogenase genes indicates a recombination event involving exons 2-3 at a time before the primate-rodent split and a gene conversion between exons 3-4 in the human somatic and testis- specific pyruvate dehydrogenase genes after the primate-rodent split. This demonstrates that genetic exchange can occur between paralogous genes at widely separated chromosomal locations. Estimation of nucleotide substitution rates in these genes confirmed a higher substitution rate in the pyruvate dehydrogenase genes. In the phosphoglycerate kinase genes, there is no difference between the substitution rates in mice and humans and between the X chromosome- and autosome-located genes. A greater substitution rate was noted in the mouse autosomal pyruvate dehydrogenase gene when compared with the other mouse and human genes. This may be a result of either directional natural selection or a relaxation of functional constraint at this specific gene.