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The waters surrounding Cape Verde comprise one of two known breeding grounds for humpback whales in the North Atlantic. The population remains very small and has apparently failed to recover since the cessation of whaling there. During the breeding seasons of 2011 and 2012, sighting surveys were carried out for humpback whales off Boa Vista, the easternmost island of the Cape Verde Island archipelago. The distribution and relative abundance of humpback whales and mother-calf pairs was investigated by plotting effort-corrected sightings using a 2km2 grid-square. The study area, a 206km2 region from the coastline up to 8km offshore, covered the western half of Boa Vista where whales have previously been regularly recorded. Following 1,954km of search effort, 117 sightings of humpback whales were made. An encounter rate of 0.11 whales per km was recorded for both years. It is hoped that these data may assist in implementing conservation measures to protect humpback whales and the habitat of Baia Sal Rei, which appears to be the single most important bay for winter breeding, calving and nursing humpback whales in the eastern North Atlantic. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Background & Aims: Full length keratin-18 (FL-K18) and High Mobility Group Box-1 (HMGB1) represent circulating indicators of necrosis during acetaminophen (APAP) hepatotoxicity in vivo. In addition, the caspase-cleaved fragment of K18 (cK18) and hyper-acetylated HMGB1 represent serum indicators of apoptosis and immune cell activation, respectively. The study aim was to assess their mechanistic utility to establish the balance between apoptosis, necrosis, and immune cell activation throughout the time course of clinical APAP hepatotoxicity. Methods: HMGB1 (total, acetylated) and K18 (apoptotic, necrotic) were identified and quantified by novel LC–MS/MS assays in APAP overdose patients (n=78). Results: HMGB1 (total; 15.4±1.9ng/ml, p <0.01, acetylated; 5.4±2.6ng/ml, p <0.001), cK18 (5649.8±721.0U/L, p <0.01), and FL-K18 (54770.2±6717.0U/L, p <0.005) were elevated in the sera of APAP overdose patients with liver injury compared to overdose patients without liver injury and healthy volunteers. HMGB1 and FL-K18 correlated with alanine aminotransferase (ALT) activity (R2 =0.60 and 0.58, respectively, p <0.0001) and prothrombin time (R2 =0.62 and 0.71, respectively, p <0.0001). Increased total and acetylated HMGB1 and FL-K18 were associated with worse prognosis (King’s College Criteria) or patients that died/required liver transplant compared to spontaneous survivors (all p <0.05–0.001), a finding not reflected by ALT and supported by ROC analysis. Acetylated HMGB1 was a better predictor of outcome than the other markers of cell death. Conclusions: K18 and HMGB1 represent blood-based tools to investigate the cell death balance clinical APAP hepatotoxicity. Activation of the immune response was seen later in the time course as shown by the distinct profile of acetylated HMGB1 and was associated with worse outcome. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]