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Long-term monitoring of mammal communities in the Peneda-Gerês National Park using camera-trap data.Biodiversity Data Journal 2023In the past decades, agricultural land abandonment and declining land-use intensity became common, especially in the Mediterranean countries of southern Europe. In some...
BACKGROUND
In the past decades, agricultural land abandonment and declining land-use intensity became common, especially in the Mediterranean countries of southern Europe. In some areas, this development opened up possibilities for rewilding and the recolonisation or expansion of large mammal populations. Yet, in some instances, co-occurrence of wild mammals and free-ranging domestic herbivores might lead to potential conflicts. It is, therefore, necessary to study the ecological interactions between wild and domestic mammal species to understand the effects of land abandonment and rewilding on biodiversity and ecosystem services. Camera traps are an effective tool for studying species interactions and occupancy dynamics as they allow for long-term monitoring with minimal interference. We conducted a long-term monitoring programme with camera traps in the Peneda-Gerês National Park in northern Portugal. The area has undergone substantial land-use changes following the abandonment of agricultural areas in the past 60 years. While agro-pastoral activities, especially the breeding of free-ranging horses and cattle, are still common in the area, the intensity of these activities has decreased significantly, promoting natural succession and an increase or return of several large mammal species in recent years. Overall, our project aims at: (1) assessing the population trends of the medium and large sized mammals in the area over time; (2) analysing the effects of passive rewilding on occurrence, abundance and behaviour; and (3) understanding potential interactions or conflicts between wild and domestic herbivores. In this publication, we present results of a primary occupancy analysis between 2015 and 2020, as well as a comparison between occupancy and density estimates for 2019.
NEW INFORMATION
Our publication provides a dataset from long-term camera-trap monitoring in the Peneda-Gerês National Park between 2015 and 2021. We established a 16 km² grid of 64 cameras deployed yearly during the summer months. Together with this publication, we publish the data and images collected between 2015 and 2021, using both the Camtrap DP standard and the GBIF Darwin Event Core. We obtained a total of 934,810 pictures on 41,234 trap nights. The pictures were automatically grouped into sequences with each sequence representing a distinct occurrence event, resulting in 80,191 occurrences. Out of those, 14,442 contained observations of a species, while the remaining were either blank or the species was not identifiable. We only obtained the information whether a species was present or absent on a picture, disregarding the number of individuals. Most observations were of domestic cattle () and horses (), followed by European roe deer () and wild boar ). Further observations include red fox (), gray wolf (), Eurasian badger (), stone marten (), common genet (), Iberian ibex () and red deer (). We estimated occupancy and densities for the most common species. The project is on-going and additional data will be included in the future. The dataset is freely available for ecological analysis, but also for training machine-learning systems in automated image classification as all pictures have been manually classified.
PubMed: 38327315
DOI: 10.3897/BDJ.11.e99588 -
International Journal of Nanomedicine 2021It is a fact that the use of antibiotics is inducing a growing resistance on bacteria. This situation is not only the consequence of a drugs' misuse, but a direct... (Review)
Review
It is a fact that the use of antibiotics is inducing a growing resistance on bacteria. This situation is not only the consequence of a drugs' misuse, but a direct consequence of a widespread and continuous use. Current studies suggest that this effect could be reversed by using abandoned antibiotics to which bacteria have lost their resistance, but this is only a temporary solution that in near future would lead to new resistance problems. Fortunately, current nanotechnology offers a new life for old and new antibiotics, which could have significantly different pharmacokinetics when properly delivered; enabling new routes able to bypass acquired resistances. In this contribution, we will focus on the use of porous silica nanoparticles as functional carriers for the delivery of antibiotics and biocides in combination with additional features like membrane sensitizing and heavy metal-driven metabolic-disrupting therapies as two of the most interesting combination therapies.
Topics: Anti-Bacterial Agents; Bacterial Infections; Drug Carriers; Humans; Nanoparticles; Porosity; Silicon Dioxide
PubMed: 34234434
DOI: 10.2147/IJN.S273064 -
Annual International Conference of the... Jul 2023There is a paucity of data regarding the safety of magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) in patients with abandoned epicardial leads. Few studies have reported temperature...
There is a paucity of data regarding the safety of magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) in patients with abandoned epicardial leads. Few studies have reported temperature rises up to 76 °C during MRI at 1.5 T in gel phantoms implanted with epicardial leads; however, lead trajectories used in these experiments were not clinically relevant. This work reports patient-specific RF heating of both capped and uncapped abandoned epicardial lead configurations during MRI at both 1.5 T and 3 T field strengths. We found that leads routed along realistic, patient-derived trajectories generated substantially lower RF heating than the previously reported worst-case phantom experiments. We also found that MRI at the head imaging landmark leads to substantially lower RF heating compared to MRI at the chest or abdomen landmarks at both 1.5 T and 3 T. Our results suggest that patients with abandoned epicardial leads may safely undergo MRI for head imaging, but caution is warranted during chest and abdominal imaging.Clinical Relevance- Patients with abandoned epicardial leads may safely undergo MRI for head imaging, but caution is warranted during chest and abdominal imaging.
Topics: Humans; Heating; Prostheses and Implants; Phantoms, Imaging; Temperature; Magnetic Resonance Imaging
PubMed: 38082570
DOI: 10.1109/EMBC40787.2023.10340533 -
Information Systems Frontiers : a... May 2022Anecdotal evidence suggests that artificial intelligence (AI) technologies are highly effective in digital marketing and rapidly growing in popularity in the context of...
Anecdotal evidence suggests that artificial intelligence (AI) technologies are highly effective in digital marketing and rapidly growing in popularity in the context of business-to-business (B2B) marketing. Yet empirical research on AI-powered B2B marketing, and particularly on the socio-technical aspects of its use, is sparse. This study uses Activity Theory (AT) as a theoretical lens to examine AI-powered B2B marketing as a collective activity system, and to illuminate the contradictions that emerge when adopting and implementing AI into traditional B2B marketing practices. AT is appropriate in the context of this study, as it shows how contradictions act as a motor for change and lead to transformational changes, rather than viewing tensions as a threat to prematurely abandon the adoption and implementation of AI in B2B marketing. Based on eighteen interviews with industry and academic experts, the study identifies contradictions with which marketing researchers and practitioners must contend. We show that these contradictions can be culturally or politically challenging to confront, and even when resolved, can have both intended and unintended consequences.
PubMed: 35637917
DOI: 10.1007/s10796-022-10294-1 -
ELife Sep 2022Psychophysical methods are a cornerstone of psychology, cognitive science, and neuroscience where they have been used to quantify behavior and its neural correlates for...
Psychophysical methods are a cornerstone of psychology, cognitive science, and neuroscience where they have been used to quantify behavior and its neural correlates for a vast range of mental phenomena. Their power derives from the combination of controlled experiments and rigorous analysis through signal detection theory. Unfortunately, they require many tedious trials and preferably highly trained participants. A recently developed approach, continuous psychophysics, promises to transform the field by abandoning the rigid trial structure involving binary responses and replacing it with continuous behavioral adjustments to dynamic stimuli. However, what has precluded wide adoption of this approach is that current analysis methods do not account for the additional variability introduced by the motor component of the task and therefore recover perceptual thresholds that are larger compared to equivalent traditional psychophysical experiments. Here, we introduce a computational analysis framework for continuous psychophysics based on Bayesian inverse optimal control. We show via simulations and previously published data that this not only recovers the perceptual thresholds but additionally estimates subjects' action variability, internal behavioral costs, and subjective beliefs about the experimental stimulus dynamics. Taken together, we provide further evidence for the importance of including acting uncertainties, subjective beliefs, and, crucially, the intrinsic costs of behavior, even in experiments seemingly only investigating perception.
Topics: Bayes Theorem; Humans; Perception; Psychophysics
PubMed: 36173094
DOI: 10.7554/eLife.76635 -
Journal of Personalized Medicine May 2023Cardiological and oncological patients comprise the majority of patients admitted to the emergency unit with chronic or acute conditions that are the dominant cause of...
Cardiological and oncological patients comprise the majority of patients admitted to the emergency unit with chronic or acute conditions that are the dominant cause of death worldwide. However, electrotherapy and implantable devices (pacemakers and cardioverters) improve the prognosis of cardiological patients. We present the case report of a patient who, in the past, had a pacemaker implanted due to symptomatic sick sinus syndrome (SSS) without removing the two remaining leads. Echocardiography revealed severe tricuspid valve regurgitation. The tricuspid valve septal cusp was in a restricting position due to the two ventricular leads passing through the valve. A few years later, she was diagnosed with breast cancer. We present a 65-year-old female admitted to the department due to right ventricular failure. The patient manifested symptoms of right heart failure, predominated by ascites and lower extremity edema, despite increasing doses of diuretics. The patient underwent a mastectomy two years ago due to breast cancer and was qualified for thorax radiotherapy. A new pacemaker system was implanted in the right subclavian area as the pacemaker generator occupied the radiotherapy field. In the case of right ventricular lead removal and the need for pacing and resynchronization therapy, guidelines allow a coronary sinus for LV pacing to avoid passing the leads through the tricuspid valve. We facilitated this approach in our patient, suggesting that the percentage of ventricular pacing was very low.
PubMed: 37373885
DOI: 10.3390/jpm13060896 -
JACC. Clinical Electrophysiology Sep 2019This study sought to examine outcomes of our approach to managing a large cohort of patients with Sprint Fidelis (Medtronic, Minneapolis, Minnesota) leads.
OBJECTIVES
This study sought to examine outcomes of our approach to managing a large cohort of patients with Sprint Fidelis (Medtronic, Minneapolis, Minnesota) leads.
BACKGROUND
The optimal management approach for patients with leads under advisory is unknown. Concerns regarding the risk of device infection and complications associated with delaying lead extraction have recently been suggested to argue against abandoning leads under advisory.
METHODS
All patients with a Sprint Fidelis lead implanted at our institute were included. Lead management options were discussed with patients who presented for device surgery at the time of device upgrade, lead fracture, or elective replacement indicator. Implantation of a new lead with abandonment of the Sprint Fidelis lead was the recommended strategy. Patients were subsequently followed at the device clinic at 6-month intervals and were enrolled prospectively in a longitudinal registry.
RESULTS
A total of 520 patients had Sprint Fidelis leads implanted between December 2003 and October 2007 at the study center; 217 patients underwent lead replacement (213 underwent a lead abandonment strategy and 4 underwent a lead extraction strategy). Mean follow-up after lead replacement was 55 ± 33 months. In patients undergoing lead abandonment, 10 of 213 (4.7%) had a procedural complication and 3 of 213 (1.4%) developed subsequent device infection requiring system extraction.
CONCLUSIONS
In patients with a Sprint Fidelis lead, implanting a new lead without prophylactic extraction may be a feasible and safe strategy but requires longer follow-up.
Topics: Aged; Defibrillators, Implantable; Device Removal; Female; Humans; Male; Medical Device Recalls; Middle Aged; Prospective Studies; Reoperation
PubMed: 31537335
DOI: 10.1016/j.jacep.2019.07.006 -
Chemical Biology & Drug Design Jan 2015The emergence of drug-resistant bacteria threatens to revert humanity back to the preantibiotic era. Even now, multidrug-resistant bacterial infections annually result...
The emergence of drug-resistant bacteria threatens to revert humanity back to the preantibiotic era. Even now, multidrug-resistant bacterial infections annually result in millions of hospital days, billions in healthcare costs, and, most importantly, tens of thousands of lives lost. As many pharmaceutical companies have abandoned antibiotic development in search of more lucrative therapeutics, academic researchers are uniquely positioned to fill the pipeline. Traditional high-throughput screens and lead-optimization efforts are expensive and labor intensive. Computer-aided drug-discovery techniques, which are cheaper and faster, can accelerate the identification of novel antibiotics, leading to improved hit rates and faster transitions to preclinical and clinical testing. The current review describes two machine-learning techniques, neural networks and decision trees, that have been used to identify experimentally validated antibiotics. We conclude by describing the future directions of this exciting field.
Topics: Anti-Bacterial Agents; Computer-Aided Design; Drug Discovery; Neural Networks, Computer
PubMed: 25521642
DOI: 10.1111/cbdd.12423 -
Sovremennye Tekhnologii V Meditsine 2021was to study the issue of making challenging decisions concerning abandonment or removal of non-infected superfluous leads during lead revisions or cardiac implantable...
UNLABELLED
was to study the issue of making challenging decisions concerning abandonment or removal of non-infected superfluous leads during lead revisions or cardiac implantable electronic device upgrades.
MATERIALS AND METHODS
From 2010 to 2019, a total of 482 patients who had undergone cardiac implantable electronic device implantation in the past were admitted to hospital for generator replacement or lead revision. In 126 patients, 155 malfunctioning leads were found. Mean age of the patients was 59.2±16.7. Total venous occlusion was found in 10 cases of these patients. All patients were divided into two groups: extracted leads group (n=83) and abandoned leads group (n=43). The main factor which influenced our strategy was the mean age of the lead. In group 1 the mean age of the lead was 6.9±5.6 years. In group 2 it was about 12 years.
RESULTS
Lead extraction was performed by manual traction in 69 (61.7%) leads, by lead locking device in 32 (28.5%) leads, and 11 (9.8%) leads were removed using TightRail rotating dilator sheath. In 1 case of total occlusion of the superior vena cava, we performed a video-assisted thoracoscopic lead extraction at the time of vein occlusion recanalisation and electronic device reimplantation. In abandoned leads group 3 patients had lead-related complications.
CONCLUSION
Transvenous lead extraction with the mean age of the lead less than 10 years is an effective and safe strategy. Preventive transvenous lead extraction of non-infected leads allows avoiding lead-related complications in the long-term period.
Topics: Child; Child, Preschool; Defibrillators, Implantable; Device Removal; Heart; Humans; Infant; Treatment Outcome; Vena Cava, Superior
PubMed: 34513068
DOI: 10.17691/stm2021.13.1.08 -
PloS One 2018Removal of cardiac implantable electronic devices (CIEDs) by manual traction during orthotopic heart transplantation (OHT) sometimes results in retained lead fragments....
BACKGROUND
Removal of cardiac implantable electronic devices (CIEDs) by manual traction during orthotopic heart transplantation (OHT) sometimes results in retained lead fragments. Moreover, abandoned leads and retained lead fragments are a contraindication for magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) and may be a cause of CIED infection.
OBJECTIVE
To eliminate complications of retained lead fragments, we completely removed residual leads using an excimer laser sheath technique during OHT. We report our clinical experience and high success rate of lead extraction using the excimer laser sheath compared with manual traction during OHT.
METHODS AND RESULTS
We obtained data on 84 consecutive patients receiving OHT between August 2007 and August 2017. Thirty-nine of 84 patients had undergone CIED implantation before OHT and removal of all their leads was attempted during OHT. From 2007 to 2014, defibrillator and pacemaker leads were extracted by manual traction in all patients (N = 22). After 2015, all leads were extracted with the excimer laser sheath, and surgical assistance was prepared for the procedure (N = 17). Complete procedural success was achieved in 100% of patients in the excimer laser group and 77% of patients in the manual traction group.
CONCLUSION
Extraction of abandoned leads using the excimer laser sheath system during OHT is novel and safe technique, and has a higher success rate than extraction using manual traction during OHT.
Topics: Adult; Cohort Studies; Defibrillators, Implantable; Device Removal; Electrodes, Implanted; Female; Heart Transplantation; Humans; Lasers, Excimer; Male; Middle Aged; Pacemaker, Artificial; Retrospective Studies
PubMed: 30188917
DOI: 10.1371/journal.pone.0203172