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Climate change is expected to disproportionately affect species occupying ecosystems with relatively hard boundaries, such as alpine ecosystems. Wildlife managers must identify actions to conserve and manage alpine species into the future, while considering other issues and uncertainties. Climate change and respiratory pathogens associated with widespread pneumonia epidemics in bighorn sheep (Ovis canadensis) may negatively affect mountain goat (Oreamnos americanus) populations. Mountain goat demographic and population data are challenging to collect and sparsely available, making population management decisions difficult. We developed predictive models incorporating these uncertainties and analyzed results within a structured decision making framework to make management recommendations and identify priority information needs in Montana, USA. We built resource selection models to forecast occupied mountain goat habitat and account for uncertainty in effects of climate change, and a Leslie matrix projection model to predict population trends while accounting for uncertainty in population demographics and dynamics. We predicted disease risks while accounting for uncertainty about presence of pneumonia pathogens and risk tolerance for mixing populations during translocations. Our analysis predicted that new introductions would produce more area occupied by mountain goats at mid-century, regardless of the effects of climate change. Population augmentations, carnivore management, and harvest management may improve population trends, although this was associated with considerable uncertainty. Tolerance for risk of disease transmission affected optimal management choices because translocations are expected to increase disease risks for mountain goats and sympatric bighorn sheep. Expected value of information analyses revealed that reducing uncertainty related to population dynamics would affect the optimal choice among management strategies to improve mountain goat trends. Reducing uncertainty related to the presence of pneumonia-associated pathogens and consequences of mixing microbial communities should reduce disease risks if translocations are included in future management strategies. We recommend managers determine tolerance for disease risks associated with translocations that they and constituents are willing to accept. From this, an adaptive management program can be constructed wherein a portfolio of management actions are chosen based on risk tolerance in each population range, combined with the amount that uncertainty is reduced when paired with monitoring, to ultimately improve achievement of fundamental objectives.

As a single working mother, my friend Tina Bailey found it was a big job to keep up with the horses, goats and dogs on her small North Judson farm. So, in March 1998, she decided to hire someone to \"break\" her appaloosa. Joe Woods of North Judson, an accomplished rodeo rider and a handsome young cowhand, showed up for the job. He not only broke the horse, he lassoed Tina's heart. They began making plans for a wedding on June 10 of this year, and it seemed totally appropriate to incorporate their love of horses. They decided to marry at Winamac's Tippecanoe River State Park, where there are horse trails, so it was an easy matter to carry out. When it came time for the 2 p.m. ceremony, Joe and his four groomsmen rode down one trail, and Tina and her four attendants rode down another.

The use of the edible photosynthetic cyanobacterium Arthrospira platensis (spirulina) as a biomanufacturing platform has been limited by a lack of genetic tools. Here we report genetic engineering methods for stable, high-level expression of bioactive proteins in spirulina, including large-scale, indoor cultivation and downstream processing methods. Following targeted integration of exogenous genes into the spirulina chromosome (chr), encoded protein biopharmaceuticals can represent as much as 15% of total biomass, require no purification before oral delivery and are stable without refrigeration and protected during gastric transit when encapsulated within dry spirulina. Oral delivery of a spirulina-expressed antibody targeting campylobacter—a major cause of infant mortality in the developing world—prevents disease in mice, and a phase 1 clinical trial demonstrated safety for human administration. Spirulina provides an advantageous system for the manufacture of orally delivered therapeutic proteins by combining the safety of a food-based production host with the accessible genetic manipulation and high productivity of microbial platforms. Spirulina is used to manufacture a therapeutic antibody against campylobacter.

This study investigated how measures of decoding, fluency, and comprehension in middle school students overlap with one another, whether the pattern of overlap differs between struggling and typical readers, and the relative frequency of different types of reading difficulties. The 1,748 sixth, seventh, and eighth grade students were oversampled for struggling readers (n = 1,025) on the basis of the state reading comprehension proficiency measure. Multigroup confirmatory factor analyses showed partial invariance among struggling and typical readers (with differential loadings for fluency and for comprehension), and strict invariance for decoding and a combined fluency/comprehension factor. Among these struggling readers, most (85 %) also had weaknesses on nationally standardized measures, particularly in comprehension; however, most of these also had difficulties in decoding or fluency. These results show that the number of students with a specific comprehension problem is lower than recent consensus reports estimate and that the relation of different reading components varies according to struggling versus proficient readers.

Environmental monitoring is both a scientific and management imperative for effective coastal and estuarine resources research, management, and education. The establishment of monitoring programs provides for baseline studies, trend analyses, and impact assessments as related to both short-term variability and long-term change within estuarine environments. The effectiveness of these programs is dependent not only on the data collection but also on the implementation and maintenance of procedures to ensure access to high-quality data, data documentation, and derived products. Advances in information technology are improving the way resource managers and researchers can assimilate, manage, disseminate, and share environmental data and information. The Integrated Ocean Observing System (IOOS) initiative is developing an integrated national system for the United States' coastal zone built upon federal monitoring efforts and regional coastal observing systems that monitor the state and variability of the coastal waters and estuaries of the United States. The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration's (NOAA) National Estuarine Research Reserve System (NERRS) acknowledges the importance of long-term environmental monitoring programs and data and information dissemination via the NERRS System-Wide Monitoring Program (SWMP). Consistent with the IOOS initiative and in support of sound data-management and -dissemination practices, the NERRS SWMP has implemented and sustains procedures to manage the basic infrastructure and data protocol to support the assimilation and exchange of quality-controlled data, metadata, and information within the framework of NERRS sites, state coastal zone management programs, and NOAA/OCRM as well as other state and federally funded education, monitoring, and research programs.

Advances in information technology are improving the way resource managers and researchers can assimilate, manage, disseminate, and share environmental data and information. The Integrated Ocean Observing System (IOOS) initiative is developing an integrated national system for the US's coastal zone built upon federal monitoring efforts and regional coastal observing systems that monitor the state and variability of the coastal waters and estuaries of the US. The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration's (NOAA) National Estuarine Research Reserve System (NERRS) acknowledges the importance of long-term environmental monitoring programs and data and information dissemination via the NERRS System-Wide Monitoring Program (SWMP). Consistent with the IOOS initiative and in support of sound data-management and data-dissemination practices, the NERRS SWMP has implemented and sustains procedures to manage the basic infrastructure and data protocol to support the assimilation and exchange of quality-controlled data, metadata, and information within the framework of NERRS sites, state coastal zone management programs, and NOAA/OCRM as well as other state and federally funded education, monitoring, and research programs.

The 24-week extension of AIDS Clinical Trials Group Protocol 359, a study of human immunodeficiency virus (HIV)–infected, indinavir-experienced patients, was designed to study the durability of “salvage” treatment regimens. Patients received saquinavir in combination with either ritonavir or nelfinavir and, in addition, delavirdine, adefovir, or both. Patients who demonstrated a virologic response at weeks 12–16 were eligible to continue therapy in the extension through week 48. Of the 105 eligible subjects who were enrolled in the extension, 86 (82%) completed 48 weeks, and 49 (57%) of those 86 had HIV RNA levels ⩽500 copies/mL at week 48. For these 86 subjects who completed 48 weeks, the median change in CD4 cell count from baseline was +72 cells/mm3. Greater body weight, higher CD4 cell count, and greater degree of phenotypic susceptibility to indinavir and saquinavir at baseline were significantly associated with durable virologic suppression. These results show that some patients who experience treatment failure can demonstrate durable virologic and immunologic responses with salvage antiretroviral regimens