The start-up of a neurosurgical service in an East Indonesian archipelagic province: The first 2-year experience of North Maluku Database in Neurosurgery (NOMADEN)

Background

Despite encouraging developments after its initial founding in Indonesia more than seven decades ago, inequity in access and availability of neurosurgical services throughout the country continues to pose a challenge. We aimed to elaborate on the start-up of a previously inactive neurosurgical service in North Maluku, an archipelagic province in East Indonesia, and describe cases managed within the first two years of service.

Methods

In the North Maluku Database in the Neurosurgery register, demographic and clinical information of neurosurgical patients admitted to Chasan Boesoirie General Hospital, Ternate, from January 2021 to December 2022, were analyzed. Surgically managed patients were rendered visually according to their decades of life and districts of events.

Results

There were 998 new patients (mean age ± standard deviation [SD]: 34.7 ± 19.6 years, 60.3% male) managed and 216 neurosurgical procedures (mean age ± SD: 33 ± 20.4 years, 67.1% male) performed. The majority of patients operated were within the 1st decade of life (18.5%), presented to the emergency room (56.5%), covered by national health insurance (69.4%), from outside Ternate (62.5%), diagnosed with neurotrauma (40.7%), and discharged alive (80.1%). Ternate was the only district where all seven types of neurological diseases were encountered. No surgeries were performed for patients from Taliabu, the farthest district from Ternate.

Conclusion

A large portion of neurosurgical patients in North Maluku were those young and at productive age who were transported from outside Ternate with acute neurological disease (particularly neurotrauma). Distance and geographical circumstances may have a profound effect on access to neurosurgical services.

Mitigating seasonality patterns in an archipelago: the role of ecotourism

Due to their insularity and small economies, several islands have become reliant on tourism activity for the livelihood of their communities. Islands of the same archipelago have faced various challenges in terms of tourism growth and related impact. Primarily, tourism has been characterised by seasonality (the strong spatio-temporal concentration of tourists in a destination) especially in the most peripheral islands. In other cases, tourism has grown considerably resulting in overemphasis on mass tourism throughout part of the year. This is largely experienced due to Sand, Sun and Sea (3S) tourism. Fieldwork, including interviews with key stakeholders and ecotours off-season, was conducted in the Aegadian Archipelago, off the west coast of Sicily. Findings revealed that ecotourism not only is the preferred alternative form of tourism among stakeholders but is also possible and ideal as confirmed through the ecotours. This is because different ecotourism activities can be practised all year round, thus mitigating seasonality. In return, this can help ease the financial, social and environmental challenges associated with current tourism models improving the well-being of local communities. Marine ecotourism is considered as a means to give more value to marine protected areas and to make existing tourism activity in the peak season more sustainable.

Wingless and Archipelago, a fly E3 ubiquitin ligase and a homolog of human tumor suppressor FBW7, show an antagonistic relationship in wing development

BACKGROUND

Archipelago (Ago) is a Drosophila homolog of mammalian F-box and WD repeat domain-containing 7 (FBW7, also known as FBXW7). In previous studies, FBW7 has been addressed as a tumor suppressor mediating ubiquitin-dependent proteolysis of several oncogenic proteins. Ubiquitination is a type of protein modification that directs protein for degradation as well as sorting. The level of beta-catenin (β-cat), an intracellular signal transducer in Wnt signaling pathway, is reduced upon overexpression of FBW7 in human cancer cell lines. Loss of function mutations in FBW7 and overactive Wnt signaling have been reported to be responsible for human cancers.

RESULTS

We found that Ago is important for the formation of shafts in chemosensory bristles at wing margin. This loss of shaft phenotype by knockdown of ago was rescued by knockdown of wingless (wg) whereas wing notching phenotype by knockdown of wg was rescued by knockdown of ago, establishing an antagonistic relationship between ago and wg. In line with this finding, knockdown of ago increased the level of Armadillo (Arm), a homolog of β-cat, in Drosophila tissue. Furthermore, knockdown of ago increased the level of Distal-less (Dll) and extracellular Wg in wing discs. In S2 cells, the amount of secreted Wg was increased by knockdown of Ago but decreased by Ago overexpression. Therefore, Ago plays a previously unidentified role in the inhibition of Wg secretion. Ago-overexpressing clones in wing discs exhibited accumulation of Wg in endoplasmic reticulum (ER), suggesting that Ago prevents Wg protein from moving to Golgi from ER.

CONCLUSIONS

We concluded that Ago plays dual roles in inhibiting Wg signaling. First, Ago decreases the level of Arm, by which Wg signaling is downregulated in Wg-responding cells. Second, Ago decreases the level of extracellular Wg by inhibiting movement of Wg from ER to Golgi in Wg-producing cells.

Phylogenomics clarifies biogeographic and evolutionary history, and conservation status of West Indian tremblers and thrashers (Aves: Mimidae)

The West Indian avifauna has provided fundamental insights into island biogeography, taxon cycles, and the evolution of avian behavior. Our interpretations, however, should rely on robust hypotheses of evolutionary relationships and consistent conclusions about taxonomic status in groups with many endemic island populations. Here we present a phylogenetic study of the West Indian thrashers, tremblers, and allies, an assemblage of at least 5 species found on 29 islands, including what is considered the Lesser Antilles' only avian radiation. We improve on previous phylogenetic studies of this group by using double-digest restriction site-associated DNA sequencing (ddRAD-seq) to broadly sample loci scattered across the nuclear genome. A variety of analyses, based on either nucleotide variation in 2223 loci recovered in all samples or at 13,282 loci confidently scored as present or absent in all samples, converged on a single well-supported phylogenetic hypothesis. Results indicate that the resident West Indian taxa form a monophyletic group, exclusive of the Neotropical-Nearctic migratory Gray Catbird Dumetella carolinensis, which breeds in North America; this outcome differs from earlier studies suggesting that Gray Catbird was nested within a clade of island resident species. Thus, our findings imply a single colonization of the West Indies without the need to invoke a subsequent 'reverse colonization' of the mainland by West Indian taxa. Additionally, our study is the first to sample both endemic subspecies of the endangered White-breasted Thrasher Ramphocinclus brachyurus. We find that these subspecies have a long history of evolutionary independence with no evidence of gene flow, and are as genetically divergent from each other as other genera in the group. These findings support recognition of R. brachyurus (restricted to Martinique) and the Saint Lucia Thrasher R. sanctaeluciae as two distinct, single-island endemic species, and indicate the need to re-evaluate conservation plans for these taxa. Our results demonstrate the utility of phylogenomic datasets for generating robust systematic hypotheses.

Hidden diversity of Nycteribiidae (Diptera) bat flies from the Malagasy region and insights on host-parasite interactions

Background

We present information on Nycteribiidae flies parasitizing the bat families Pteropodidae, Miniopteridae and Vespertilionidae from the Malagasy Region, contributing insight into their diversity and host preference.

Results

Our phylogenetic analysis identified nine clusters of nycteribiid bat flies on Madagascar and the neighbouring Comoros Archipelago. Bat flies sampled from frugivorous bats of the family Pteropodidae are monoxenous: Eucampsipoda madagascariensis, E. theodori and Cyclopodia dubia appear wholly restricted to Rousettus madagascariensis, R. obliviosus and Eidolon dupreanum, respectively. Two different host preference patterns occurred in nycteribiids infecting insectivorous bats. Flies parasitizing bats of the genera Miniopterus (Miniopteridae) and Myotis (Vespertilionidae), namely Penicillidia leptothrinax, Penicillidia sp. and Nycteribia stylidiopsis, are polyxenous and showed little host preference, while those parasitizing the genera Pipistrellus and Scotophilus (both Vespertilionidae) and referable to Basilia spp., are monoxenous. Lastly, the inferred Bayesian phylogeny revealed that the genus Basilia, as currently configured, is paraphyletic.

Conclusion

This study provides new information on the differentiation of nycteribiid taxa, including undescribed species. Host preference is either strict as exemplified by flies parasitizing fruit bats, or more relaxed as found on some insectivorous bat species, possibly because of roost site sharing. Detailed taxonomic work is needed to address three undescribed nycteribiid taxa found on Pipistrellus and Scotophilus, tentatively allocated to the genus Basilia, but possibly warranting different generic allocation.

Electronic supplementary material

The online version of this article (10.1186/s13071-017-2582-x) contains supplementary material, which is available to authorized users.

Population genetic structure of the predatory, social wasp Vespula pensylvanica in its native and invasive range

Invasive species cause extensive damage to their introduced ranges. Ocean archipelagos are particularly vulnerable to invasive taxa. In this study, we used polymorphic microsatellite markers to investigate the genetic structure of the social wasp Vespula pensylvanica in its native range of North America and its introduced range in the archipelago of Hawaii. Our goal was to gain a better understanding of the invasion dynamics of social species and the processes affecting biological invasions. We found that V. pensylvanica showed no significant genetic isolation by distance and little genetic structure over a span of 2000 km in its native range. This result suggests that V. pensylvanica can successfully disperse across large distances either through natural- or human-mediated mechanisms. In contrast to the genetic patterns observed in the native range, we found substantial genetic structure in the invasive V. pensylvanica range in Hawaii. The strong patterns of genetic differentiation within and between the Hawaiian Islands may reflect the effects of geographic barriers and invasion history on gene flow. We also found some evidence for gene flow between the different islands of Hawaii which was likely mediated through human activity. Overall, this study provides insight on how geographic barriers, invasion history, and human activity can shape population genetic structure of invasive species.

Phylogeography of the endangered Lesser Antillean iguana, Iguana delicatissima: a recent diaspora in an archipelago known for ancient herpetological endemism

Iguana delicatissima is an endangered endemic of the Lesser Antilles in the Caribbean. Phylogeographic analyses for many terrestrial vertebrate species in the Caribbean, particularly lizards, suggest ancient divergence times. Often, the closest relatives of species are found on the same island, indicating that colonization rates are so low that speciation on islands is often more likely to generate biodiversity than subsequent colonization events. Mitochondrial sequence analysis of the region spanning ND4 was performed on I. delicatissima individuals from islands across the species' range to estimate genetic divergence among geographically isolated populations. Five unique haplotypes were recovered from 46 individuals. The majority of animals carry a single common haplotype. Two of the haplotypes were only present in individuals classified as hybrids from Îles des Saintes. The final 2 haplotypes, single nucleotide substitutions, were present in animals from Îlet Chancel of Martinique and Saint Barthélemy, respectively. Despite the great distances between islands and habitat heterogeneity within islands, this species is characterized by low haplotype diversity. The low mtDNA variation of I. delicatissima suggests a single colonization coupled with rapid range expansion, potentially hastened by human-mediated dispersal.