The Australian Shark-Incident Database for quantifying temporal and spatial patterns of shark-human conflict.
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ABSTRACT:
SUBMITTER: Riley M
PROVIDER: S-EPMC9259633 | biostudies-literature |
REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature
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Project description:Quantifying shark distribution patterns and species-specific habitat associations in response to geographic and environmental drivers is critical to assessing risk of exposure to fishing, habitat degradation, and the effects of climate change. The present study examined shark distribution patterns, species-habitat associations, and marine reserve use with baited remote underwater video stations (BRUVS) along the entire Great Barrier Reef Marine Park (GBRMP) over a ten year period. Overall, 21 species of sharks from five families and two orders were recorded. Grey reef Carcharhinus amblyrhynchos, silvertip C. albimarginatus, tiger Galeocerdo cuvier, and sliteye Loxodon macrorhinus sharks were the most abundant species (>64% of shark abundances). Multivariate regression trees showed that hard coral cover produced the primary split separating shark assemblages. Four indicator species had consistently higher abundances and contributed to explaining most of the differences in shark assemblages: C. amblyrhynchos, C. albimarginatus, G. cuvier, and whitetip reef Triaenodon obesus sharks. Relative distance along the GBRMP had the greatest influence on shark occurrence and species richness, which increased at both ends of the sampling range (southern and northern sites) relative to intermediate latitudes. Hard coral cover and distance across the shelf were also important predictors of shark distribution. The relative abundance of sharks was significantly higher in non-fished sites, highlighting the conservation value and benefits of the GBRMP zoning. However, our results also showed that hard coral cover had a large effect on the abundance of reef-associated shark species, indicating that coral reef health may be important for the success of marine protected areas. Therefore, understanding shark distribution patterns, species-habitat associations, and the drivers responsible for those patterns is essential for developing sound management and conservation approaches.
| S-EPMC4160204 | biostudies-literature
Project description:Background:Worldwide, the number of recorded human hantavirus infections as well as the number of affected countries is on the rise. In Europe, most human hantavirus infections are caused by the Puumala virus (PUUV), with bank voles (Myodes glareolus) as reservoir hosts. Generally, infection outbreaks have been related to environmental conditions, particularly climatic conditions, food supply for the reservoir species and land use. However, although attempts have been made, the insufficient availability of environmental data is often hampering accurate temporal and spatially explicit models of human hantavirus infections. Methods:In the present study, dynamics of human PUUV infections between 2001 and 2015 were explored using ArcGIS in order to identify spatio-temporal patterns. Results:Percentage cover of forest area was identified as an important factor for the spatial pattern, whereas beech mast was found explaining temporal patterns of human PUUV infections in Germany. High numbers of infections were recorded in 2007, 2010 and 2012 and areas with highest records were located in Baden-Wuerttemberg (southwest Germany) and North Rhine-Westphalia (western Germany). Conclusion:More reliable data on reservoir host distribution, pathogen verification as well as an increased awareness of physicians are some of the factors that should improve future human infection risk assessments in Germany.
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Project description:The discovery that the adult heart is not a terminally differentiated organ and contains stem/progenitor cells has important implications for the development of cellular therapeutics to treat heart disease. Moreover the discovery of cardiac stem cells might be important in furthering our understanding of both normal and abnormal cardiac development and yet little is known about these cell populations in the developing human heart, which we have focused on in this study.The presence of ABCG2 and islet-1 expressing cells in human heart was determined using immunohistochemistry and RT-PCR (and western blotting for ABCG2). Cardiac SP cells were isolated using FACS. Co-localisation immunohistochemistry was used to determine if ABCG2 positive cells expressed other known stem/progenitor cell, endothelial markers or cardiac markers.We observed that ABCG2 expressing cells show a difference in both their temporal and spatial patterns of expression from Islet-1 expressing cardiac progenitors. We identified rare cells that expressed both ABCG2 and markers of other cell lineages including CD31, CD34 and alpha-actinin. We also noted the presence of cells that only expressed ABCG2. We isolated cardiac SP cells and confirmed the SP cell phenotype.Our results suggest that the developing human heart contains at least two distinct cardiac stem/progenitor cell populations one of which, the ABCG2 positive cells, can be readily isolated, suggesting that this tissue could be a useful source of cardiac stem cells.
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Project description:Leptospirosis is a globally important zoonotic disease. The disease is particularly important in tropical and subtropical countries. Infections in humans can be caused by exposure to infected animals or contaminated soil or water, which are suitable for Leptospira. To explore the cluster area, the Global Moran's I index was calculated for incidences per 100,000 population at the province level during 2012-2018, using the monthly and annual data. The high-risk and low-risk provinces were identified using the local indicators of spatial association (LISA). The risk factors for leptospirosis were evaluated using a generalized linear mixed model (GLMM) with zero-inflation. We also added spatial and temporal correlation terms to take into account the spatial and temporal structures. The Global Moran's I index showed significant positive values. It did not demonstrate a random distribution throughout the period of study. The high-risk provinces were almost all in the lower north-east and south parts of Thailand. For yearly reported cases, the significant risk factors from the final best-fitted model were population density, elevation, and primary rice crop arable areas. Interestingly, our study showed that leptospirosis cases were associated with large areas of rice production but were less prevalent in areas of high rice productivity. For monthly reported cases, the model using temperature range was found to be a better fit than using percentage of flooded area. The significant risk factors from the model using temperature range were temporal correlation, average soil moisture, normalized difference vegetation index, and temperature range. Temperature range, which has strongly negative correlation to percentage of flooded area was a significant risk factor for monthly data. Flood exposure controls should be used to reduce the risk of leptospirosis infection. These results could be used to develop a leptospirosis warning system to support public health organizations in Thailand.
| S-EPMC8948194 | biostudies-literature
Project description:The apoptosis cascade that plays a central role in normal and pathological processes is strictly controlled, in part by newly described members of the inhibitor of apoptosis (IAP) family (HIAP-1, HIAP-2, XIAP, NAIP, Survivin, and Livin). Here, we report the expression of IAP mRNAs and proteins in early and late gestation human placentas, term cytotrophoblast cells, and two choriocarcinoma cell lines, JEG-3 and Jar. Reverse transcriptase-polymerase chain reaction identified mRNAs derived from all of the currently known IAP genes in all samples. Analysis by immunoblotting revealed that IAP proteins are present in early and late gestation human placentas and that levels of IAPs are not identical in normal and transformed trophoblast cells. Immunohistochemical experiments performed on paraformaldehyde-fixed tissue sections taken from early and late stages of pregnancy demonstrated that expression patterns differed according to cell lineage and stage of cell differentiation. The results of this study are consistent with the postulate that IAP proteins have critical roles in placental cell survival and suggest that specific apoptosis inhibitors may protect normal and transformed trophoblast cells from cell death.
| S-EPMC1868194 | biostudies-literature
Project description:Embodied theories of cognition emphasize the central role of sensorimotor transformations in the representation of others' actions. Support for these theories is derived from the discovery of the mirror neuron system (MNS) in primates, from noninvasive techniques in humans, and from a limited number of intracranial studies. To understand the neural dynamics of the human MNS, more studies with precise spatial and temporal resolutions are essential. We used electrocorticography to define activation patterns in sensorimotor, parietal and/or frontal neuronal populations, during a viewing and grasping task. Our results show robust high gamma activation for both conditions in classic MNS sites. Furthermore, we provide novel evidence for 2 different populations of neurons: sites that were only active for viewing and grasping ("pure mirroring") and sites that were also active between viewing and grasping, and perhaps serve a more general attentional role. Lastly, a subgroup of parietal electrodes showed earlier peaks than all other regions. These results highlight the complexity of spatial-temporal patterns within the MNS and provide a critical link between single-unit research in monkeys and noninvasive techniques in human.
| S-EPMC6059139 | biostudies-literature
Project description:Somatic polyploidy or endopolyploidy is common in the plant kingdom; it ensures growth and allows adaptation to the environment. It is present in the majority of plant groups, including mosses. Endopolyploidy had only been previously studied in about 65 moss species, which represents less than 1% of known mosses. We analyzed 11 selected moss species to determine the spatial and temporal distribution of endopolyploidy using flow cytometry to identify patterns in ploidy levels among gametophytes and sporophytes. All of the studied mosses possessed cells with various ploidy levels in gametophytes, and four of six species investigated in sporophytic stage had endopolyploid sporophytes. The proportion of endopolyploid cells varied among organs, parts of gametophytes and sporophytes, and ontogenetic stages. Higher ploidy levels were seen in basal parts of gametophytes and sporophytes than in apical parts. Slight changes in ploidy levels were observed during ontogenesis in cultivated mosses; the youngest (apical) parts of thalli tend to have lower levels of endopolyploidy. Differences between parts of cauloid and phylloids of Plagiomnium ellipticum and Polytrichum formosum were also documented; proximal parts had higher levels of endopolyploidy than distal parts. Endopolyploidy is spatially and temporally differentiated in the gametophytes of endopolyploid mosses and follows a pattern similar to that seen in angiosperms.
| S-EPMC7824635 | biostudies-literature
Project description:BackgroundThe movement behavior of an animal is determined by extrinsic and intrinsic factors that operate at multiple spatio-temporal scales, yet much of our knowledge of animal movement comes from studies that examine only one or two scales concurrently. Understanding the drivers of animal movement across multiple scales is crucial for understanding the fundamentals of movement ecology, predicting changes in distribution, describing disease dynamics, and identifying efficient methods of wildlife conservation and management.MethodsWe obtained over 400,000 GPS locations of wild pigs from 13 different studies spanning six states in southern U.S.A., and quantified movement rates and home range size within a single analytical framework. We used a generalized additive mixed model framework to quantify the effects of five broad predictor categories on movement: individual-level attributes, geographic factors, landscape attributes, meteorological conditions, and temporal variables. We examined effects of predictors across three temporal scales: daily, monthly, and using all data during the study period. We considered both local environmental factors such as daily weather data and distance to various resources on the landscape, as well as factors acting at a broader spatial scale such as ecoregion and season.ResultsWe found meteorological variables (temperature and pressure), landscape features (distance to water sources), a broad-scale geographic factor (ecoregion), and individual-level characteristics (sex-age class), drove wild pig movement across all scales, but both the magnitude and shape of covariate relationships to movement differed across temporal scales.ConclusionsThe analytical framework we present can be used to assess movement patterns arising from multiple data sources for a range of species while accounting for spatio-temporal correlations. Our analyses show the magnitude by which reaction norms can change based on the temporal scale of response data, illustrating the importance of appropriately defining temporal scales of both the movement response and covariates depending on the intended implications of research (e.g., predicting effects of movement due to climate change versus planning local-scale management). We argue that consideration of multiple spatial scales within the same framework (rather than comparing across separate studies post-hoc) gives a more accurate quantification of cross-scale spatial effects by appropriately accounting for error correlation.
| S-EPMC5471724 | biostudies-literature
Project description:BackgroundThe objective of this study is to analyze the spatial and temporal patterns of malaria incidence as to determine the means by which climatic factors such as temperature, rainfall and humidity affect its distribution in Maputo province, Mozambique.MethodsThis study presents a model of malaria that evolves in space and time in Maputo province-Mozambique, over a ten years period (1999-2008). The model incorporates malaria cases and their relation to environmental variables. Due to incompleteness of climatic data, a multiple imputation technique is employed. Additionally, the whole province is interpolated through a Gaussian process. This method overcomes the misalignment problem of environmental variables (available at meteorological stations--points) and malaria cases (available as aggregates for every district--area). Markov Chain Monte Carlo (MCMC) methods are used to obtain posterior inference and Deviance Information Criteria (DIC) to perform model comparison.ResultsA Bayesian model with interaction terms was found to be the best fitted model. Malaria incidence was associated to humidity and maximum temperature. Malaria risk increased with maximum temperature over 28 °C (relative risk (RR) of 0.0060 and 95% Bayesian credible interval (CI) of 0.00033-0.0095) and humidity (relative risk (RR) of 0.00741 and 95% Bayesian CI 0.005141-0.0093). The results would suggest that additional non-climatic factors including socio-economic status, elevation, etc. also influence malaria transmission in Mozambique.ConclusionsThese results demonstrate the potential of climate predictors particularly, humidity and maximum temperature in explaining malaria incidence risk for the studied period in Maputo province. Smoothed maps obtained as monthly average of malaria incidence allowed to visualize months of initial and peak transmission. They also illustrate a variation on malaria incidence risk that might not be related to climatic factors. However, these factors are still determinant for malaria transmission and intensity in the region.
| S-EPMC3161914 | biostudies-literature
Project description:Quantitative understanding of the process of knowledge creation is crucial for accelerating the advance of science. Recent years have witnessed a great effort to address this issue by studying the publication data of scientific journals, leading to a variety of surprising discoveries at both individual level and disciplinary level. However, before scientific journals appeared on a large scale and became the mainstream for publishing research results, there are also intellectual achievements that have changed the world, which have usually become classic and are now referred to as the great ideas of great people. So far, little is known about the general law of their birth. In this paper, we reference Wikipedia and academic history books to collect 2001 magnum opuses as representations of great ideas, covering nine disciplines. Using the year and place of publication of these magnum opuses, we show that the birth of great ideas is very concentrated in geography, and more concentrated than other human activities such as contemporary knowledge production. We construct a spatial-temporal bipartite network to study the similarity of output structures between different historical periods and discover the existence of a Great Transformation around the 1870s, which may be associated with the rise of the US in academia. Finally, we re-rank cities and historical periods by employing an iterative approach to study cities' leadership and historical periods' prosperity.
| S-EPMC10032422 | biostudies-literature