Mahlermcdonough9778

The ecosystem services concept has come into wide use in conservation and natural resource management, partly due to its appeal as an anthropocentric rationale for protecting and restoring nature. Proponents of the ecosystem services concept expect that presenting these arguments alongside biodiversity arguments should lead to a broader base of support for conservation. This raises the question of whether support for activities that ensure ecosystem service provision relates to different sets of core values, or environmental attitudes, than support for biodiversity protection. We surveyed adult Australians to evaluate the influence of values and attitudes on willingness to pay for different habitat restoration outcomes. We hypothesized that when restoration is framed with an anthropocentric rationale (such as ecosystem service provision), support for restoration would align more strongly with anthropocentric or self-centered values and attitudes. Specifically, we tested if preference for ecosystem service benefits over biodiversity attributes, as indicated by willingness to pay in different restoration scenarios, is more strongly associated with self-enhancing (Egoistic) than self-transcending (Altruistic and Biospheric) values, and more associated with a pro-use attitude towards nature (Utilization) than an anti-use attitude (Preservation). We found that support for habitat restoration is generally based on ecocentric values and attitudes, but that positive associations between pro-environmental behavior and Egoistic values emerge when emphasis is placed on ecosystem service outcomes. Individuals scoring higher on Egoistic/Utilization metrics were also more likely to anticipate disservices from restoration. Attitudes predicted behavioral intention (willingness to pay) better than core values. Our results support the notion that the ecosystem services concept garners nontraditional backers and broadens the appeal of ecological restoration.

Patients with sepsis who present to an emergency department (ED) have highly variable underlying disease severity, and can be categorized from low to high risk. Development of a risk stratification tool for these patients is important for appropriate triage and early treatment. The aim of this study was to develop machine learning models predicting 31-day mortality in patients presenting to the ED with sepsis and to compare these to internal medicine physicians and clinical risk scores.

A single-center, retrospective cohort study was conducted amongst 1,344 emergency department patients fulfilling sepsis criteria. Laboratory and clinical data that was available in the first two hours of presentation from these patients were randomly partitioned into a development (n = 1,244) and validation dataset (n = 100). Machine learning models were trained and evaluated on the development dataset and compared to internal medicine physicians and risk scores in the independent validation dataset. read more The primary outcome wals outperformed internal medicine physicians and clinical risk scores in predicting 31-day mortality. These models are a promising tool to aid in risk stratification of patients presenting to the ED with sepsis.The partial success of tumor immunotherapy induced by checkpoint blockade, which is not antigen-specific, suggests that the immune system of some patients contain antigen receptors able to specifically identify tumor cells. Here we focused on T-cell receptor (TCR) repertoires associated with spontaneous breast cancer. We studied the alpha and beta chain CDR3 domains of TCR repertoires of CD4 T cells using deep sequencing of cell populations in mice and applied the results to published TCR sequence data obtained from human patients. We screened peripheral blood T cells obtained monthly from individual mice spontaneously developing breast tumors by 5 months. We then looked at identical TCR sequences in published human studies; we used TCGA data from tumors and healthy tissues of 1,256 breast cancer resections and from 4 focused studies including sequences from tumors, lymph nodes, blood and healthy tissues, and from single cell dataset of 3 breast cancer subjects. We now report that mice spontaneously developing breast cancer manifest shared, Public CDR3 regions in both their alpha and beta and that a significant number of women with early breast cancer manifest identical CDR3 sequences. These findings suggest that the development of breast cancer is associated, across species, with biomarker, exclusive TCR repertoires.Geographic pattern of dengue fever is changing due to the global environmental and climate changes in the 21st century. Evidence of community's knowledge, mosquito bite patterns and protective behavior practices in non-endemic regions is limited. This study examined the knowledge of dengue, mosquito bite patterns, protective behavior practices and their associated factors in Hong Kong, a non-endemic subtropical city. A population-based random telephone survey (n = 590) was conducted three weeks after the government announcement of a local dengue outbreak in August 2018. Sociodemographic status, awareness, knowledge, protective measures, bite patterns of mosquito were collected. Results indicated high level of community awareness of the local outbreak (95.2%), symptom identification (84.0%) and adoption of at least one mosquito protective measures (nearly 80%). About 40% of respondents reported that they were bitten by mosquitoes during the study period, a high mosquito season in Hong Kong. Mosquito bites were prevalent near grassy area (63.4%), at home (42.6%) and at public transportation waiting spots (39.6%). Younger people ( less then 25 years old), female, those who lived on lower floors (≤the 6th) and near grassy area were at higher risk of mosquito bites at home. Respondents perceived higher threat of dengue to society were more likely to practice mosquito prevention. While residential factors affected their indoor prevention, other socio-demographic factors affected the outdoor prevention. Practicing prevention behaviors were associated with self-reported mosquito bite at home. Furthermore, the general prevention uptake rate unchanged after the announcement of local dengue outbreak. Although the uptake rate of protective measures during August was high, 40% participants reported they were bitten. Also public locations are more common area for bites, which suggested stronger mosquito prevention and control on public environments and more personal protective behaviors should be advocated.