Betting the farm: A review of Ball Python and other reptile trade from Togo, West Africa

Our review of the CITES trade database confirmed that the ball python is the most exported species by Togo; with 1,657,814 live individuals – comprising 60% of all live reptiles – reported by importing countries since 1978 (almost 55,000 annually since 1992). In total, 99% of the ball pythons legally exported from Togo under CITES were intended for commercial use, presumably as exotic pets. Since the turn of the century, wild-sourced snakes exported from Togo have been largely replaced with ranched snakes, to the extent that in the last 10 years 95% of these live exports were recorded using CITES source code “R” with the majority destined for the USA. We found discrepancies in the CITES trade database that suggest ball python exports were consistently underestimated by Togo and that both ranched and wild-sourced ball python annual quotas have been exceeded on multiple occasions including as recently as 2017. Furthermore, our field visits to seven of these “python farms” revealed that they are also involved in the commercial trade in at least 46 other reptile species, including eight that are already involved in formal CITES trade reviews due to concerns regarding their sustainability and legality. Ranching operations in West Africa were once thought to provide a degree of protection for the ball python; however, in light of recent research, there is growing concern that ranching may not confer any significant net conservation benefits. Further scrutiny and research are required to ensure the long-term survival of wild ball python and other reptile species populations in Togo.

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Long-Term Survival for Hemodialysis Patients Differ in Japan Versus Europe and the USA. What Might the Reasons Be?

Artificial Organs ◽

10.1111/aor.13363 ◽

2018 ◽

Vol 42 (12) ◽

pp. 1112-1118 ◽

Cited By ~ 7

Author(s):

Kenichi Matsuda ◽

Rachel Fissell ◽

Stephen Ash ◽

Bernd Stegmayr

Keyword(s):

Hemodialysis Patients ◽

Term Survival ◽

Long Term Survival ◽

The Usa

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Institutional volume affects long-term survival following lung transplantation in the USA

European Journal of Cardio-Thoracic Surgery ◽

10.1093/ejcts/ezz014 ◽

2019 ◽

Vol 56 (2) ◽

pp. 271-276 ◽

Cited By ~ 6

Author(s):

Arman Kilic ◽

Thomas G Gleason ◽

Hiroshi Kagawa ◽

Ahmet Kilic ◽

Ibrahim Sultan

Keyword(s):

Lung Transplantation ◽

High Volume ◽

Term Survival ◽

Long Term Survival ◽

Kaplan Meier ◽

The Usa ◽

Institutional Volume ◽

Low Volume ◽

The Impact

Abstract OBJECTIVES The aim of this study was to evaluate the impact of institutional volume on long-term outcomes following lung transplantation (LTx) in the USA. METHODS Adults undergoing LTx were identified in the United Network for Organ Sharing registry. Patients were divided into equal size tertiles according to the institutional volume. All-cause mortality following LTx was evaluated using the risk-adjusted multivariable Cox regression and the Kaplan–Meier analyses, and compared between these volume cohorts at 3 points: 90 days, 1 year (excluding 90-day deaths) and 10 years (excluding 1-year deaths). Lowess smoothing plots and receiver-operating characteristic analyses were performed to identify optimal volume thresholds associated with long-term survival. RESULTS A total of 13 370 adult LTx recipients were identified. The mean annual centre volume was 33.6 ± 20.1. After risk adjustment, low-volume centres were found to be at increased risk for 90-day mortality, [hazard ratio (HR) 1.56, P < 0.001], 1-year mortality excluding 90-day deaths (HR 1.46, P < 0.001) and 10-year mortality excluding 1-year deaths (HR 1.22, P < 0.001). These findings persisted when the centre volume was modelled as a continuous variable. The Kaplan–Meier analysis also demonstrated significant reductions in survival at each of these time points for low-volume centres (each P < 0.001). The 10-year survival conditional on 1-year survival was 37.4% in high-volume centres vs 28.0% in low-volume centres (P < 0.001). The optimal annual volume threshold for long-term survival was 26 LTx/year. CONCLUSIONS The institutional volume impacts long-term survival following LTx, even after excluding deaths within the first post-transplant year. Identifying the processes of care that lead to longer survival in high-volume centres is prudent.

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Understanding Contributor to Developer Turnover Patterns in OSS Projects: A Case Study of Apache Projects

ISRN Software Engineering ◽

10.1155/2014/535724 ◽

2014 ◽

Vol 2014 ◽

pp. 1-10 ◽

Cited By ~ 5

Author(s):

Aftab Iqbal

Keyword(s):

Social Relation ◽

Source Code ◽

Term Survival ◽

Long Term Survival ◽

High Interest ◽

Before And After ◽

Research Questions

OSS projects are dynamic in nature. Developers contribute to a project for a certain period of time and later leave the project or join other projects of high interest. Hence, the OSS community always welcomes members who can attain the role of a developer in a project. In this paper, we investigate contributions made by members who have attained the role of a developer. In particular, we study the contributions made by the members in terms of bugs reported, comments on bugs, source-code patch submissions, and their social relation with other members of an OSS community. Further, we study the significance of nondevelopers contribution and investigate if and to what extent they play a role in the long-term survival of an OSS project. Moreover, we investigate the ratio of contributions made by a member before and after attaining the role of a developer. We have outlined 4 research questions in this regard and further discuss our findings based on the research questions by taking into account data from software repositories of 4 different Apache projects.

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Virulence Pattern Analysis of Three Listeria monocytogenes Lineage I Epidemic Strains with Distinct Outbreak Histories

Microorganisms ◽

10.3390/microorganisms9081745 ◽

2021 ◽

Vol 9 (8) ◽

pp. 1745

Author(s):

Martin Wagner ◽

Jörg Slaghuis ◽

Werner Göbel ◽

José Antonio Vázquez-Boland ◽

Kathrin Rychli ◽

...

Keyword(s):

Intestinal Epithelial ◽

Term Survival ◽

Long Term Survival ◽

Virulence Potential ◽

Virulence Pattern ◽

The Usa ◽

Future Work

Strains of the food-borne pathogen Listeria (L.) monocytogenes have diverse virulence potential. This study focused on the virulence of three outbreak strains: the CC1 strain PF49 (serovar 4b) from a cheese-associated outbreak in Switzerland, the clinical CC2 strain F80594 (serovar 4b), and strain G6006 (CC3, serovar 1/2a), responsible for a large gastroenteritis outbreak in the USA due to chocolate milk. We analysed the genomes and characterized the virulence in vitro and in vivo. Whole-genome sequencing revealed a high conservation of the major virulence genes. Minor deviations of the gene contents were found in the autolysins Ami, Auto, and IspC. Moreover, different ActA variants were present. Strain PF49 and F80594 showed prolonged survival in the liver of infected mice. Invasion and intracellular proliferation were similar for all strains, but the CC1 and CC2 strains showed increased spreading in intestinal epithelial Caco2 cells compared to strain G6006. Overall, this study revealed long-term survival of serovar 4b strains F80594 and PF49 in the liver of mice. Future work will be needed to determine the genes and molecular mechanism behind the long-term survival of L. monocytogenes strains in organs.

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