Rescue plan for the vaquita
An ambitious, emergency plan to help save the vaquita, a rare species of porpoise, from extinction in the northern Gulf of California has been recommended by the International Committee for the Recovery of the Vaquita (CIRVA). The plan involves relocating some of the remaining vaquitas to a temporary sanctuary, while crucial efforts aimed at eliminating illegal fishing and removing gill nets from their environment continue. The emergency action plan will be led by the Mexican government and supported by a consortium of marine mammal experts from more than a dozen organisations around the world.
Despite substantial efforts by the Mexican government to protect the vaquita, the recovery team recently reviewed the latest results from advanced acoustic monitoring technology that showed its population continuing to rapidly decline. “We are watching this precious native species disappear before our eyes,” said Rafael Pacchiano, Mexico’s Secretary of the Environment and Natural Resources. “This critical rescue effort is a priority for the Mexican government and we are dedicated to providing the necessary resources in order to give the plan its best chance of success.” The plan will be implemented in tandem with ongoing efforts to remove the threat of gill nets in the Upper Gulf of California and eliminate illegal fishing.
Background and heart disease risk
Women from low socio-economic backgrounds are 25% more likely to suffer a heart attack than disadvantaged men, a major new study has found. Researchers from The George Institute for Global Health examined data from 22 million people from North America, Europe, Asia and Australasia.
In a review of 116 studies they demonstrated a lower socio-economic status, compared to a higher, is associated with a higher risk of cardiovascular disease for both sexes, but women from more disadvantaged backgrounds were relatively more likely to suffer from coronary heart disease than similarly affected men. There was no difference found for stroke however.
The effects of levels of education, income, job type and postcode on the risk of cardiovascular disease were assessed in the study published in the Journal of Epidemiology and Community Health . Comparisons between men and women were made.
Research fellow at The George Institute for Global Health, U.K., Dr. Sanne Peters, said: “It’s widely known that people from disadvantaged backgrounds are at greater risk of heart attack and stroke than people with more affluent backgrounds. However, our study has shown there is a significant difference between the sexes. More disadvantaged women are suffering from heart disease than their male counterparts, which is concerning.”
Humans wiped out Australian megafauna
New evidence involving the ancient excreta of some astonishing creatures that once roamed Australia indicates the primary cause of their extinction around 45,000 years ago was likely a result of humans, not climate change. Led by Monash University in Victoria, Australia, and the University of Colorado Boulder, U.S., the team used information from a sediment core drilled in the Indian Ocean off the coast of southwest Australia to help reconstruct past climate and ecosystems on the continent.
CU Boulder Professor Gifford Miller, who participated in the study, said the sediment allowed scientists to look back in time, in this case more than 150,000 years, spanning Earth’s last full glacial cycle. “The abundance of these spores is good evidence for a lot of large mammals on the southwestern Australian landscape up until about 45,000 years ago,” he said. “Then, in a window of time lasting just a few thousand years, the megafauna population collapsed.” A paper on the subject was published online on January 20 in Nature Communications .
Help to keep the beat
Heart failure affects millions of people worldwide, but treatment options are limited. If patients in advanced stages of the disease can’t get transplants, doctors can implant devices that help the heart pump blood. But those devices put patients at risk for infection and clotting, thanks to valves and pumps that come into direct contact with blood. Now, scientists have created a soft, robotic sheath that may someday help struggling hearts keep beating without that danger. Made from material that resembles the outer layers of heart tissue, the sheath encases the heart and helps it pump by applying alternating pressure and suction. Building on similar research designs moving through preclinical development, this version uses an array of actuators that function as artificial muscles to squeeze and twist simultaneously. Signals from a pacemaker wire tells the sheath when and how to move, directing it to mimic the weakened heart’s natural rhythm. In pigs whose failing hearts beat at only 47% of control levels, the devices restored heart function to 97%, the researchers have reported in Science Translational Medicine . The sheath is still far from human use — safety testing and other tweaks will require a lot more work — but scientists say the study lays the foundation for squeezing more out of heart treatment in the future. — Lindzi Wessel
