Liver and inflammatory biomarker relationships to depression symptoms in healthy older adults.

INTRODUCTION: Early identification and management of physical and mental illness is vital to maintain quality of life as we age. Markers of peripheral inflammation and liver function show elevations with aging, and are also associated with depression symptoms, suggesting a similar pattern in both aging and clinical groups. METHODS: The current study examined the relationship between such markers and measures of depression/negative mood in 284 healthy older adults using data from the Australian Research Council Longevity Intervention (ARCLI). Baseline data in adults aged 60-75 included mood symptoms via Profile of Mood States and Beck Depression Inventory II, and peripheral inflammatory (TNF-α, IL-6, hs-CRP) and liver markers (GGT, ALT, AST, AST:ALT ratio) derived from blood samples. RESULTS: The inflammation and liver enzyme relationship significantly predicted mood symptoms scores. Results showed that a significant relationship between C-reactive protein (CRP) and negative mood scores on Total Mood Disturbance and four of the six subscales (all p < .01) was dependent upon higher levels of gamma-glutamyl transferase (GGT). DISCUSSION: Higher levels of normal-range liver metabolic and peripheral inflammatory markers are observed with negative mood in a healthy older sample experiencing the biological impact of aging, but in the absence of clinical depression symptoms, suggesting a possible role of oxidative stress or other biological mechanisms occurring with aging in depression etiology. Lifestyle interventions are discussed.

Sub-continental-scale carbon stocks of individual trees in African drylands.

The distribution of dryland trees and their density, cover, size, mass and carbon content are not well known at sub-continental to continental scales1-14. This information is important for ecological protection, carbon accounting, climate mitigation and restoration efforts of dryland ecosystems15-18. We assessed more than 9.9 billion trees derived from more than 300,000 satellite images, covering semi-arid sub-Saharan Africa north of the Equator. We attributed wood, foliage and root carbon to every tree in the 0-1,000 mm year-1 rainfall zone by coupling field data19, machine learning20-22, satellite data and high-performance computing. Average carbon stocks of individual trees ranged from 0.54 Mg C ha-1 and 63 kg C tree-1 in the arid zone to 3.7 Mg C ha-1 and 98 kg tree-1 in the sub-humid zone. Overall, we estimated the total carbon for our study area to be 0.84 (±19.8%) Pg C. Comparisons with 14 previous TRENDY numerical simulation studies23 for our area found that the density and carbon stocks of scattered trees have been underestimated by three models and overestimated by 11 models, respectively. This benchmarking can help understand the carbon cycle and address concerns about land degradation24-29. We make available a linked database of wood mass, foliage mass, root mass and carbon stock of each tree for scientists, policymakers, dryland-restoration practitioners and farmers, who can use it to estimate farmland tree carbon stocks from tablets or laptops.

Retrospective Analysis of Vaccination Coverage Among Rural American Indian Children Admitted With Lower Respiratory Tract Infection.

BACKGROUND: Lower respiratory tract infections (LRTIs) have shown the greatest rate disparity between US infants for hospitalizations, with rates for American Indian (AI) twice the rate for non-AI infants. Vaccination coverage disparity has been hypothesized as one cause for this disparity. Vaccination disparities between AI and non-AI pediatric patients hospitalized for LRTIs were investigated. METHODS: The study was done using data collected by Palmer et al during a retrospective cross-sectional analysis of children less than 24 months of age admitted with an LRTI to Sanford's Children's Hospital from October 2010 until December 2019. Patients in each racial group had the dates of their vaccinations recorded and were labeled as up-to-date or not up-to-date as determined by the CDC's schedule. Vaccine compliance was recorded at time of hospital admission for LRTI and at present day. RESULTS: Of the 643 patients reviewed in this study, 114 were AI and the remaining 529 were non-AI. At the time of admission for a LRTI, a significantly lower proportion of AI patients were up-to-date on vaccines (42 percent of AI vs. 70 percent non-AI). Rates of vaccination coverage in AI children continued to decline from initial admission for LRTI to present day (25 percent present day vs. 42 percent at admission for AI) in contrast to the non-AI group, which maintained consistent coverage (69 percent present day vs. 70 percent at admission for non-AI). CONCLUSIONS: Vaccination disparities between AI and non-AI patients hospitalized for LRTIs persist from time of hospitalization to present day. There is a continued need in the Northern Plains region for vaccination intervention programs for this uniquely vulnerable population.

Polar bears from space: assessing satellite imagery as a tool to track Arctic wildlife.

Development of efficient techniques for monitoring wildlife is a priority in the Arctic, where the impacts of climate change are acute and remoteness and logistical constraints hinder access. We evaluated high resolution satellite imagery as a tool to track the distribution and abundance of polar bears. We examined satellite images of a small island in Foxe Basin, Canada, occupied by a high density of bears during the summer ice-free season. Bears were distinguished from other light-colored spots by comparing images collected on different dates. A sample of ground-truthed points demonstrated that we accurately classified bears. Independent observers reviewed images and a population estimate was obtained using mark-recapture models. This estimate (N: 94; 95% Confidence Interval: 92-105) was remarkably similar to an abundance estimate derived from a line transect aerial survey conducted a few days earlier (N: 102; 95% CI: 69-152). Our findings suggest that satellite imagery is a promising tool for monitoring polar bears on land, with implications for use with other Arctic wildlife. Large scale applications may require development of automated detection processes to expedite review and analysis. Future research should assess the utility of multi-spectral imagery and examine sites with different environmental characteristics.

Honey, Hadza, hunter-gatherers, and human evolution.

Honey is the most energy dense food in nature. It is therefore not surprising that, where it exists, honey is an important food for almost all hunter-gatherers. Here we describe and analyze widespread honey collecting among foragers and show that where it is absent, in arctic and subarctic habitats, honey bees are also rare to absent. Second, we focus on one hunter-gatherer society, the Hadza of Tanzania. Hadza men and women both rank honey as their favorite food. Hadza acquire seven types of honey. Hadza women usually acquire honey that is close to the ground while men often climb tall baobab trees to raid the largest bee hives with stinging bees. Honey accounts for a substantial proportion of the kilocalories in the Hadza diet, especially that of Hadza men. Cross-cultural forager data reveal that in most hunter-gatherers, men acquire more honey than women but often, as with the Hadza, women do acquire some. Virtually all warm-climate foragers consume honey. Our closest living relatives, the great apes, take honey when they can. We suggest that honey has been part of the diet of our ancestors dating back to at least the earliest hominins. The earliest hominins, however, would have surely been less capable of acquiring as much honey as more recent, fully modern human hunter-gatherers. We discuss reasons for thinking our early ancestors would have acquired less honey than foragers ethnographically described, yet still significantly more than our great ape relatives.

An emperor penguin population estimate: the first global, synoptic survey of a species from space.

Our aim was to estimate the population of emperor penguins (Aptenodytes fosteri) using a single synoptic survey. We examined the whole continental coastline of Antarctica using a combination of medium resolution and Very High Resolution (VHR) satellite imagery to identify emperor penguin colony locations. Where colonies were identified, VHR imagery was obtained in the 2009 breeding season. The remotely-sensed images were then analysed using a supervised classification method to separate penguins from snow, shadow and guano. Actual counts of penguins from eleven ground truthing sites were used to convert these classified areas into numbers of penguins using a robust regression algorithm.We found four new colonies and confirmed the location of three previously suspected sites giving a total number of emperor penguin breeding colonies of 46. We estimated the breeding population of emperor penguins at each colony during 2009 and provide a population estimate of ~238,000 breeding pairs (compared with the last previously published count of 135,000-175,000 pairs). Based on published values of the relationship between breeders and non-breeders, this translates to a total population of ~595,000 adult birds.There is a growing consensus in the literature that global and regional emperor penguin populations will be affected by changing climate, a driver thought to be critical to their future survival. However, a complete understanding is severely limited by the lack of detailed knowledge about much of their ecology, and importantly a poor understanding of their total breeding population. To address the second of these issues, our work now provides a comprehensive estimate of the total breeding population that can be used in future population models and will provide a baseline for long-term research.