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Research into the threats affecting flagship terrestrial and freshwater species in the Amazon has operated within disciplinary and ecological silos, neglecting the interconnectedness between these species and ecosystems. In this study, we aimed to bridge these divides by identifying Amazon areas harboring high jaguar densities and high richness of migratory freshwater species, highlighting the potential co‐benefits of integrated terrestrial and freshwater conservation approaches. We also assessed the risks posed to these areas by habitat and connectivity loss due to impending dam construction, deforestation, and the lack of coverage by area‐based conservation schemes. We found that 17% of the Amazon River Basin is covered by areas of high jaguar density and freshwater migratory species richness, 83% of which are found in Brazil and Peru. A third of these areas are located outside of formal protected areas or Indigenous territories, with Bolivia representing the largest gap in formal protection. The proposed construction of 54 hydroelectric dams and the expansion of deforestation poses an immediate threat to the habitats and connectivity of these areas. Given the risk of an Amazon ecological tipping point, our study underscores the need for integrated terrestrial and freshwater conservation approaches that set in motion international collaboration to secure transboundary flagship and umbrella species. This study shows that 17% of the Amazon River Basin is covered by areas of high jaguar density and freshwater migratory species richness, 83% of which are found in Brazil and Peru. A third of these areas are located outside of formal protected areas or Indigenous territories. The construction of 54 proposed hydroelectric dams and the expansion of deforestation poses an immediate threat to the habitats and connectivity of these areas. The research underscores the need for integrated conservation approaches and international collaboration to safeguard these vulnerable ecosystems.

Capsella is a model genus for studying the transition from outcrossing to selfing, with or without change in ploidy levels. The genomic consequences and changes in reproductive traits (selfing syndrome) associated with these shifts have been studied in depth. However, potential ecological divergence among species of the genus has not been determined. Among ecological traits, competitive ability could be relevant for selfing evolution, as selfing has been shown to be statistically associated with reduced competitiveness in a recent meta-analysis. We assessed the effect of competition on three Capsella species differing in their mating system and ploidy level. We used an experimental design where fitness related traits were measured in focal individuals with and without competitors. The diploid selfer (C. rubella) was most sensitive to competition, whereas the tetraploid selfer (C. bursa-pastoris) performed the best, with the diploid outcrosser (C. grandiflora) being intermediate. These results add to the detailed characterization of Capsella species and highlight the possible roles of ecological context and ploidy in the evolutionary trajectories of selfing species.

Human–wildlife conflict (HWC) presents a growing challenge to conservation and development worldwide. World Wide Fund for Nature (WWF) and experts on human–wildlife coexistence strategies have responded to this challenge by developing a holistic, globally applicable approach to HWC management that can be tailored to specific local, regional, or national contexts. Its framework addresses the complexity of essential HWC management and long‐term coexistence strategies and is implemented in a structured yet contextualized step‐by‐step sequence by a team of facilitators and multiple stakeholders. The C2C: Conflict to Coexistence Approach centers on four principles (tolerance is maintained, responsibility is shared, resilience is built, holism is fundamental), four outcomes (wildlife thrives alongside human presence, habitat sufficient to maintain viable wildlife populations, people able and willing to live alongside wildlife, livelihoods/assets secured against presence of wildlife), and six HWC management elements (policy and governance, understanding interactions, prevention, response, mitigation, monitoring) that are to be implemented in an integrated way. It is currently undergoing testing in diverse pilot sites across three continents and demonstrating positive initial results. Here, we share the framework and methodology of the approach and initial results and experiences from these pilot sites. We introduce the C2C:Conflict to Coexistence Approach, with its holistic and integrated framework and globally applicable methodology for the management of human–wildlife conflict (HWC) that can be tailored to specific local, regional, or national contexts. Its framework addresses the complexity of essential HWC management and long‐term coexistence strategies and is implemented in a structured yet contextualized step‐by‐step sequence by a team of process facilitators involving multiple stakeholders. The video summary is uploaded to our website on human‐wildlife conflict, which can be found here: Human Wildlife Conflict

Predictive constructions are a powerful way of characterizing the probability laws of stochastic processes with certain forms of invariance, such as exchangeability or Markov exchangeability. When de Finetti-like representation theorems are available, the predictive characterization implicitly defines the prior distribution, starting from assumptions on the observables; moreover, it often helps in designing efficient computational strategies. In this paper we give necessary and sufficient conditions on the sequence of predictive distributions such that they characterize a Markov exchangeable probability law for a discrete valued process X. Under recurrence, Markov exchangeable processes are mixtures of Markov chains. Our predictive conditions are in some sense minimal sufficient conditions for Markov exchangeability; we also provide predictive conditions for recurrence. We illustrate their application in relevant examples from the literature and in novel constructions.

Measure-valued Pólya urn processes (MVPP) are Markov chains with an additive structure that serve as an extension of the generalized k-color Pólya urn model towards a continuum of possible colors. We prove that, for any MVPP (μn)n≥0 on a Polish space X, the normalized sequence (μn/μn(X))n≥0 agrees with the marginal predictive distributions of some random process (Xn)n≥1. Moreover, μn=μn−1+RXn, n≥1, where x↦Rx is a random transition kernel on X; thus, if μn−1 represents the contents of an urn, then Xn denotes the color of the ball drawn with distribution μn−1/μn−1(X) and RXn—the subsequent reinforcement. In the case RXn=WnδXn, for some non-negative random weights W1,W2,…, the process (Xn)n≥1 is better understood as a randomly reinforced extension of Blackwell and MacQueen’s Pólya sequence. We study the asymptotic properties of the predictive distributions and the empirical frequencies of (Xn)n≥1 under different assumptions on the weights. We also investigate a generalization of the above models via a randomization of the law of the reinforcement.

Background Considering the enormous burden represented by the opioid use disorder (OUD), it is important to always consider, when implementing opioid agonist therapy (OAT), the potential impact on patient’s adherence, quality of life, and detoxification. Thus, the purpose of the study is to evaluate how the introduction of a novel OAT approach influences these key factors in the management of OUD. Case presentation This article marks the pioneering use of OAT through buprenorphine implant in Europe and delves into the experience of six patients diagnosed with OUD at a relatively young age. The patients, comprising both males and a female, are of Caucasian Italian and African Italian ancestry (case 4) and exhibit an age range from 23 to 63, with an average drug abuse history of 19 ± 12 years. All patients were on stable traditional OAT before transitioning to buprenorphine implants. Despite the heterogeneity in social and educational backgrounds, health status, and drug abuse initiation histories, the case series reveals consistent positive treatment outcomes such as detoxification, absence of withdrawal symptoms and of side effects. Notably, all patients reported experiencing a newfound sense of freedom and improved quality of life. Conclusions These results emphasise the promising impact of OAT via buprenorphine implants in enhancing the well-being and quality of life in the context of OUD.

Background Intravenous thrombolysis (IVT)-ineligible patients undergoing direct thrombectomy tended to have poorer functional outcome as compared with IVT-eligible patients undergoing bridging therapy. We aimed to assess radiological and functional outcomes in large vessel occlusion-related stroke patients receiving direct thrombectomy in the presence of absolute exclusion criteria for IVT vs relative exclusion criteria for IVT and vs non-exclusion criteria for IVT. Methods A cohort study on prospectively collected data from 2282 patients enrolled in the Italian Registry of Endovascular Treatment in Acute Stroke cohort for treatment with direct thrombectomy ( n  = 486, absolute exclusion criteria for IVT alone; n  = 384, absolute in combination with relative exclusion criteria for IVT; n  = 777, relative exclusion criteria for IVT alone; n  = 635, non-exclusion criteria for IVT). Results After adjustment for unbalanced variables (model 1), ORs for 3-month death was higher in the presence of absolute exclusion criteria for IVT alone (vs relative exclusion criteria for IVT alone) (1.595, 95% CI 1.042–2.440) and in the presence of absolute exclusion criteria for IVT alone (vs non-exclusion criteria for IVT) (1.235, 95% CI 1.014–1.504). After adjustment for predefined variables (model 2: age, sex, pre-stroke mRS ≤ 1, NIHSS, occlusion in the anterior circulation, onset-to-groin time, and procedure time), ORs for 3-month death was higher in the presence of absolute exclusion criteria for IVT alone (vs relative exclusion criteria for IVT alone) (1.235, 95% CI 1.014–1.504) and in the presence of absolute exclusion criteria for IVT alone (vs non-exclusion criteria for IVT) (1.246, 95% CI 1.039–1.495). No significant difference was found between the groups as regards any type of intracerebral hemorrhage and parenchymal hematoma within 24 h, successful and complete recanalization after procedure, and modified Rankin Scale score 0–2 at 3 months. After adjustment for predefined variables of model 2, ORs for death were higher in the presence of recent administration of IV heparin (OR: 2.077), platelet count < 100,000/mm 3 (OR: 4.798), bacterial endocarditis (OR: 15.069), neoplasm with increased hemorrhagic risk (OR: 6.046), and severe liver disease (OR: 6.124). Conclusions Radiological outcomes were similar after direct thrombectomy in patients with absolute, relative, and non- exclusion criteria for IVT, while an increase of fatal outcome was observed in the presence of some absolute exclusion criterion for IVT.

There is currently a renewed interest in the Bayesian predictive approach to statistics. This paper offers a review on foundational concepts and focuses on predictive modeling, which by directly reasoning on prediction, bypasses inferential models or may characterize them. We detail predictive characterizations in exchangeable and partially exchangeable settings, for a large variety of data structures, and hint at new directions. The underlying concept is that Bayesian predictive rules are probabilistic learning rules, formalizing through conditional probability how we learn on future events given the available information. This concept has implications in any statistical problem and in inference, from classic contexts to less explored challenges, such as providing Bayesian uncertainty quantification to predictive algorithms in data science, as we show in the last part of the paper. The paper gives a historical overview, but also includes a few new results, presents some recent developments and poses some open questions.

We define and prove limit results for a class of dominant Pólya sequences, which are randomly reinforced urn processes with color-specific random weights and unbounded number of possible colors. Under fairly mild assumptions on the expected reinforcement, we show that the predictive and the empirical distributions converge almost surely (a.s.) in total variation to the same random probability measure \\(\\tilde{P}\\); moreover, \\(\\tilde{P}(\\mathcal{D})=1\\) a.s., where \\(\\mathcal{D}\\) denotes the set of dominant colors for which the expected reinforcement is maximum. In the general case, the predictive probabilities and the empirical frequencies of any \\(\\delta\\)-neighborhood of \\(\\mathcal{D}\\) converge a.s. to one. That is, although non-dominant colors continue to be regularly observed, their distance to \\(\\mathcal{D}\\) converges in probability to zero. We refine the above results with rates of convergence. We further hint potential applications of dominant Pólya sequences in randomized clinical trials and species sampling, and use our central limit results for Bayesian inference.