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\"Being stranded on a desert island is a relatively common theme in tales. However, this book teaches readers what to do if they are ever actually in such a situation. Informative text and real life stories demonstrate how to survive being trapped on an island in the middle of the ocean\"--Provided by publisher.

TTC7A deficiencyUltra-rare autosomal-recessive variants in tetratricopeptide repeat domain 7A gene (TTC7A) have been discovered in patients presenting with severe intestinal disease. Mutations in the TTC7A gene cause intestinal epithelial and immune defects resulting in apoptotic enterocolitis, multiple intestinal atresia, and recurrent intestinal stenosis. Patients face high mortality rates with palliation as the current standard of care.1 LeflunomideIn 2020 a high throughput screen identified drugs that increased cell viability in patients with TTC7A; leflunomide reduced caspase 3 and 7 (responsible for cell death) activity in cells by 96%. In zebrafish with disruption of TTC7A, leflunomide restored gut motility, reduced intestinal tract narrowing, and increased intestinal cell survival.1 From a literature review, only 3 patients in the world have been prescribed leflunomide for TTC7A deficiency with ‘encouraging results’.2 however no case reports have been completed on treatment safety or effectiveness.A common adverse effect of leflunomide is liver toxicity due to production of a toxic intermediate; however, the reaction appears to be idiosyncratic and unpredictable.3 Full blood count and liver function tests must be checked before initiation of leflunomide, every two weeks during the first six months of treatment, and every 8 weeks thereafter.4 The patientA 7-year-old male on home parenteral nutrition with TTC7A deficiency was admitted to hospital with high ileostomy output and persistent vomiting with a background of mucosal gastrointestinal inflammation and pyloric stenosis. On behalf of the gastroenterology team, the paediatric gastroenterology pharmacist applied for urgent internal funding and clinical governance approval for leflunomide treatment with the aim to ameliorate intestinal disease. Leflunomide 10 mg daily costs £3.11/month. Treatment was approved, the patient and his family were counselled by the pharmacist and the patient began treatment of leflunomide 10 mg via PEG tube daily.Adverse eventAfter two weeks of treatment the patient’s alkaline phosphate (ALP) and Gamma GT (GGT) had doubled and their alanine transaminase (ALT) had increased 10-fold. Advice from the pharmacist was sought. On review of the leflunomide summary of product characteristics4: ‘Rare cases of severe liver injury, including cases with fatal outcome, have been reported during treatment with leflunomide//If ALT elevations of more than 3-fold the upper limit of normal are present, leflunomide must be discontinued and wash-out procedures initiated.’ A decision was made to stop treatment, however a washout procedure with cholestyramine or activated charcoal was not possible as the patient had minimal oral intake due to vomiting. The pharmacist filed a yellow card report.Follow upThe patient’s ALT normalised after 3 weeks and GGT after 2 months of treatment cessation. It took 8 months for the patient’s ALP to normalise.Lessons learntUnfortunately, it was impossible to assess the potential gastrointestinal benefits of leflunomide in this patient due to the rapid onset of significant liver toxicity. Liver toxicity may have been identified sooner if a blood test was taken 1 week after treatment initiation. Monitoring liver function earlier following initiation of leflunomide treatment may be helpful to minimise liver toxicity in patients with TTC7A deficiency.ReferencesJardine S, Anderson S, Babcock S, et al. Drug screen identifies leflunomide for treatment of inflammatory bowel disease caused by TTC7A deficiency. Gastroenterology 2020;158:1000–1015.Cerretani J. Going ‘all in’ for Khori: new hope for congenital enteropathy [Internet]. Boston Children’s Hospital, 2020. [accessed May 2022]. Available from: https://answers.childrenshospital.org/khori-congenital-enteropathy/Nuray Aktay A, Gul Karadag S, Cakmak F, et al. Leflunomide in juvenile rheumatoid arthritis. Future Rheumatol 2006;1(6):673–682.Electronic Medicines Compendium [Internet]. Leflunomide 10 mg film-coated tablets, 2017 [cited May 2022]. Available from: https://www.medicines.org.uk/emc/product/5395/smpc

\"Gives essential survival tips for using tools and natural resources in the wild, including how to use wood, grass, animal sources, and other things found in nature\"--Provided by publisher.

The majority of the world's seabirds show substantial population declines, but a detailed understanding of the phenomenon is lacking. A potentially important mechanism that has received momentum lately is nest predation. This study aimed to assess the population viability of a threatened population of the lesser black‐backed gull Larus fuscus fuscus under different scenarios for nest predation and environmental conditions. We merged results from statistical analyses of 16 years of empirical data with a Leslie model, emphasising the impact of predation at the nesting stage. In the model, we quantified the effect of multiple stressors on the viability of the lesser black‐backed gull according to the IUCN Red List's 'Vulnerable' criteria (30% reductions in population size over < 3 generations). First, the empirical analyses showed that the estimated apparent survival probability, which showed declining temporal trends, was on average 0.862 and 0.470 for adults and juveniles, respectively. The average clutch size in the absence and presence of nest predation was 2.836 and 0.935 eggs nest−1, whereas the average number of fledglings nest−1 was 0.452, respectively. Nest predation and chick production showed a concave‐up temporal trend, whereas clutch size showed no trend. Second, based on the predictive models, we documented multiple stressor effects: nest predation was the single‐most‐important stressor, but its adverse effect was severely amplified when environmental conditions were poor. When important nest predators were present, L. f. fuscus met the 'Vulnerable' criteria. Nonetheless, when nest predation was absent or low, the status of our population was following IUCN Red List's 'Least Concern' criteria (its official status). Nest predation played a vital role in limiting population growth – a finding that is likely to be relevant for several other seabirds in northern Europe.

Urban areas expand worldwide, transforming landscapes and creating new challenging habitats. Some bird species, mainly omnivorous feeding on human waste and cavity nesters, commonly breed in these habitats and are, therefore, regarded as urban‐adapted. Although urban areas may provide new nesting sites and abundant human waste, the low breeding success found in some of these species suggests that the poor protein content in human waste might limit breeding parameters. We investigated whether the breeding success of a cavity nester and omnivorous species commonly breeding in urban areas, the Western Jackdaw (Corvus monedula), depended on the availability of good‐quality non‐urban food. We approached the objective by combining a literature review and experiments in the field. With the literature review, we compared jackdaw populations in different habitats across Europe and found that clutch size and number of fledglings per pair decreased with distance to non‐urban foraging grounds, even after controlling for the effect of colony size, latitude, and climate. In two experiments, we tested whether the breeding success of urban pairs could be increased by supplementing high‐quality food, first only during egg formation and second also until chick fledging. Food supplementation during egg formation led to larger eggs and higher hatching success than in urban control nests, but this did not result in higher chick survival. However, when food supplementation was prolonged until fledging in the second experiment, we observed a significant increase of nestling survival. These findings highlight that research and management actions should not only focus on species displaced by urbanization, but also on “urban‐adapted” species, as they might be suffering from a mismatch between availability of nesting sites in buildings and adequate non‐urban food resources. In these cases, nest sites should be provided in or close to adequate food resources. Urban nesting sites and human waste attract many bird species. However, low‐protein content in human waste may lead to lower breeding success. Breeding output in urban areas decreases with distance to non‐urban foraging areas. Food supplementation experiments confirmed that urban food limits reproduction. The mismatch between nesting site availability and quality food should be reduced.

\" ... introduce readers to the ... habitat known as a rain forest. Rain forests are populated with thousands of different animals, including growling panthers, sneaky spiders, and poisonous snakes. Readers will learn all about this fascinating environment as well as important survival techniques for coping in it\"--Provided by publisher.

Negative effects of long‐transported pollutants, such as many persistent organic pollutants (POPs), on seabirds and other top predators have been documented for decades. Yet, the concentrations, and hence, the negative impacts of many POPs have recently declined in the Northern Hemisphere. However, organisms are exposed to multiple stressors and the impacts of pollution act in concert with both natural and other anthropogenic stressors. In theory, this means that even sub‐lethal POP concentrations may cause adverse effects if they co‐occur with increased levels of other stressors. We tested the multiple stress hypothesis on common eiders, a marine duck with a northern geographical distribution, by assessing the relative importance of pollution, climate (winter sea surface temperature; SSTw), and egg predation on population dynamics and viability (i.e., extinction risk) using Leslie‐matrix population models. The model was parametrized by estimating reproduction and apparent adult survival using long‐term data from a common eider population in sub‐arctic Europe. Average annual adult survival was 0.80 (coefficient of variation [CV] = 22.00%) and showed a negative, both direct and delayed, relationship with SSTw. Average clutch size was 4.41 eggs (CV = 5.12%) and varied in time showing periods of both positive and negative trends, but showed no relationship with SSTw. We based immature survival on estimates from literature: 0.52 and 0.68 for juveniles and yearlings, respectively. Our model supported the multiple stress hypothesis as changes in a single stressor did not induce extinctions, unless the magnitude of our manipulations was extreme except for egg predation. The effect of pollution was, however, increasingly negative when it co‐occurred with a warming climate and egg predation—and population viability was lowest when all the stressors occurred simultaneously.

The tiger frog ( ) is widely raised by many farms in southern region of China as an economically edible frog. The growth, development, and sexual differentiation of amphibians are influenced by temperature and steroid hormone level. However, the problem of hormone residues is caused by the addition of exogenous hormones in frog breeding, it is worth considering whether non-sterol aromatase inhibitors can be used instead of hormones. In our study, tadpoles were subjected to two water temperatures (29 °C and 34 °C) and three letrozole concentrations in the feed (0, 0.1 and 1 mg/g) to examine the effects of temperature, aromatase inhibitor and their interaction on metamorphosis, locomotion, and sex ratios. A -test and contingency table were used to analyze the metamorphosis rate of tadpoles and the survival rate of froglets after feeding for 90 days. A -test was also used to analyze sex ratios in different treatment groups. Metamorphosis time and body size (snout-vent length, body mass and condition factor) were significantly different between the two temperature treatments. Metamorphosis time was longer and body size was increased at 29 °C compared to those at 34 °C. Letrozole concentration and the temperature × letrozole interaction did not affect these variables. The jumping distance of froglets following metamorphosis was positively associated with the condition factor; when controlling for condition factor, jumping distance was not affected by temperature, letrozole concentration and their interaction. Temperature and letrozole concentration also did not affect metamorphosis and survival rate. Sex ratio of the control group (0 mg/g letrozole) was 1:1 at 29 °C, but there were more males at 34 °C. The sex ratios of treated with letrozole at 29 °C and 34 °C were significantly biased toward males, and male ratio increased as letrozole concentration increased. Furthermore, more males were produced at 34 °C than at 29 °C at each letrozole concentration.