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Studying phenotypic and genetic characteristics of age at onset (AAO) and polarity at onset (PAO) in bipolar disorder can provide new insights into disease pathology and facilitate the development of screening tools.
To examine the genetic architecture of AAO and PAO and their association with bipolar disorder disease characteristics.
Genome-wide association studies (GWASs) and polygenic score (PGS) analyses of AAO (n = 12 977) and PAO (n = 6773) were conducted in patients with bipolar disorder from 34 cohorts and a replication sample (n = 2237). The association of onset with disease characteristics was investigated in two of these cohorts.
Earlier AAO was associated with a higher probability of psychotic symptoms, suicidality, lower educational attainment, not living together and fewer episodes. Depressive onset correlated with suicidality and manic onset correlated with delusions and manic episodes. Systematic differences in AAO between cohorts and continents of origin were observed. This was also reflected in single-nucleotide variant-based heritability estimates, with higher heritabilities for stricter onset definitions. Increased PGS for autism spectrum disorder (β = −0.34 years, s.e. = 0.08), major depression (β = −0.34 years, s.e. = 0.08), schizophrenia (β = −0.39 years, s.e. = 0.08), and educational attainment (β = −0.31 years, s.e. = 0.08) were associated with an earlier AAO. The AAO GWAS identified one significant locus, but this finding did not replicate. Neither GWAS nor PGS analyses yielded significant associations with PAO.
AAO and PAO are associated with indicators of bipolar disorder severity. Individuals with an earlier onset show an increased polygenic liability for a broad spectrum of psychiatric traits. Systematic differences in AAO across cohorts, continents and phenotype definitions introduce significant heterogeneity, affecting analyses.
INTRODUCTION
In 1999 the US Fish and Wildlife Service recommended designating the black-tailed prairie dog (Cynomys ludovicianus) as warranted for listing as threatened under the US Endangered Species Act, but precluded from such listing by other, higher priority species (US Fish and Wildlife Service 1999). This ‘warranted, but precluded’ finding flamed a management controversy that had been brewing for years and instigated a flurry of activity by agricultural interests, government agencies, conservation non-governmental organizations (NGOs), scientists and others. Stakeholders became polarized between those who want to conserve prairie dogs and those who want to limit them. Although ecologists have noted for decades the huge decline of black-tailed prairie dogs, as recently as 10–15 years ago the status of prairie dogs and their management was largely neglected and therefore not controversial. How did this issue move to the forefront of conservation controversies in this country? In this chapter we use a policy sciences approach (Lasswell and McDougal 1992) to describe and analyse the controversy surrounding prairie dog conservation and management by examining the context of the issue, the key stakeholders, and the processes being used to understand and address the problem. We end with recommendations to improve prospects for black-tailed prairie dog recovery and conservation.
THE CONTEXT OF PRAIRIE DOG CONSERVATION: ORIENTING TO THE ‘PROBLEM’
Fully understanding the challenge of black-tailed prairie dog recovery requires a comprehensive assessment of the context.
To achieve long-term viability of hunted puma (Puma concolor) populations (even at historically low densities), we propose a management plan based on the metapopulation concept that designates source areas (closed to hunting) and sink areas (open to hunting). We use 11 years of data from Idaho and Utah to demonstrate how the proposed management plan might be implemented. We use minimum and maximum densities of resident animals to calculate minimum and maximum effective population sizes, neighbourhood areas (regional management units) and usable habitat within the units. We designate sink and source areas based on their size, accessibility to hunters and juxtaposition. We show that closing 63% of puma habitat to hunting would ensure long-term puma population viability while permitting traditional hunting levels in other areas. This system could be adapted to existing state (and interstate) hunting management units, and we outline several steps by which wildlife agencies might set up a process (including public participation) to manage puma hunting.
Introduction
Endangered species recovery is always difficult, and biologists need to use the best tools, skills, and experience available. While the use of appropriate biological tools is essential for successful recovery, other factors are also indispensable. These include problem analysis and problem-solving strategies, organizational design, work group effectiveness, effectiveness of interpersonal relationships, and clarity and specificity of goals and objectives. Inadequacy in any of these factors may result in inefficiency and ineffectiveness of the recovery job; ultimately, the species may not be recovered! Professional biologists and managers readily recognize the biological dimensions of recovery work, but largely overlook or depreciate the value of organizational factors. Because of the urgency and the sense of finality inherent in recovery efforts, professionals would do well to attend to such factors.
In this chapter, we introduce some organization and management concepts and recommendations that can help the work of conservationists. Specifically, we 1) provide some background on organization designs and management processes that are useful in species recovery; 2) examine the endangered species task environment in organizational terms; 3) identify the task force/project team model as the most appropriate for recovery work; 4) describe the four functions of management—organizing, planning, leading, and controlling—in these teams; 5) examine task-oriented teams versus power-, role-, or people-oriented teams; 6) introduce a procedure to analyze problems and develop action plans; and 7) offer, in an appendix, a method for developing action plans.
Introduction
The black-footed ferret (Mustela nigripes) is one of the world's most critically endangered mammals. Until about 1920, the carnivorous ferret occupied nearly 40 million ha over 12 Great Plains and Rocky Mountain states and two Canadian provinces. Agricultural interests and federal and state rodent control programs drastically eliminated ferret habitat–prairie dog (Cynomys spp.) colonies (the ‘prairie dog ecosystem’, Clark, Hinckley & Rich 1989b)–and fragmented the remainder into small patches, thus rendering isolated ferret populations highly vulnerable to extinction from various causes, including local catastrophes. Extensive searches in the late 1970s yielded no ferrets, and they were feared extinct, but in 1981 a small population was found near Meeteetse in northwestern Wyoming. By early 1986, only about ten individual ferrets were known, four in the wild and six in a single captive breeding facility. Fortunately, as of January, 1992, there were 175 ferrets in six captive breeding facilities, and 49 ferrets had been introduced to the wild. There is every reason to believe that the ferret will eventually be restored to the wild in viable numbers and distributions. Overviews of the ferret and prairie dog conservation and management effort are given by Casey, DuWaldt & Clark (1986), Clark (1986a), and Reading & Clark (1990).
The ferret's conservation history has been complex and unpromising. Both the ferret and determination of its critical habitat ranked very high in the first US Redbook of Endangered Wildlife in 1964, and again in a US Fish and Wildlife Service list of endangered species priorities in 1976.
The black-footed ferret depends on prairie dogs for both shelter and food, living in their underground ‘towns’ and preying on them. But the prairie dogs, regarded as pests by the ranchers and farmers, have been subjected to intensive poisoning campaigns which successfully exterminated them over most of their range and heavily reduced their numbers in the rest. This has brought the ferrets to the verge of extinction. A conservation management programme is urgently needed but difficult to devise, because so little is known about these elusive, nocturnal and now very rare underground dwellers. The author believes that computer simulation models now offer a good study method, and suggests how this should be done.
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