Zooplankton assemblages along the North American Arctic: Ecological connectivity shaped by ocean circulation and bathymetry from the Chukchi Sea to Labrador Sea

We defined mesozooplankton biogeography in the North American Arctic to elucidate drivers of biodiversity, community structure, and biomass of this key component of the Arctic marine ecosystem. A multivariate analysis identified four mesozooplankton assemblages: Arctic-oceanic, Arctic-shelf, Coastal-Hudson, and Labrador Sea. Bathymetry was a major driver of the distribution of these assemblages. In shallow waters, Cirripedia and the copepod Pseudocalanus spp. dominated the Coastal-Hudson and Arctic-shelf assemblages, which showed low species richness (19) and biomass (0.28 and 1.49 g C m-2 , respectively).The Arctic-oceanic assemblage occupied the entire North American Arctic, except for shallow breaks in the Canadian Arctic Archipelago downstream of sills blocking the Atlantic Water layer circulation below a depth of 200 m. This assemblage showed high copepod biomass (4.74 g C m-2 ) with a high share of Calanus hyperboreus, C. glacialis, and Metridia longa. In habitats below 200-m depth, C. hyperboreus represented 68% of the copepod biomass, underscoring its role as a keystone species in this ecosystem. Strong numerical representation by the borealAtlantic C. finmarchicus and Oithona atlantica stressed the strong Atlantic influence on the subarctic Labrador Sea assemblage on the northwestern Labrador Sea slope. The mixed Arctic-Atlantic composition of the Labrador Sea mesozooplankton resulted in high species richness (58) and biomass (5.73 g C m-2 ). The low abundance of Atlantic and Pacific taxa in the areas influenced by Arctic currents did not alter the Arctic status of the Arctic-oceanic, Arctic-shelf, and Coastal-Hudson assemblages.This study identifies hotspots of mesozooplankton biomass and diversity in Central Amundsen Gulf, Lancaster Sound, North Water Polynya and Baffin Bay, known for their high biological productivity and concentrations of vertebrate predators. The continental-scale zooplankton mapping furthers our understanding of the importance of bathymetry and ocean circulation for ecological connectivity in a vast and complex portion of the Arctic marine ecosystem

Comparing eDNA metabarcoding and conventional pelagic netting to inform biodiversity monitoring in deep ocean environments

The performance of environmental DNA (eDNA) metabarcoding has rarely been evaluated against conventional sampling methods in deep ocean mesopelagic environments. We assessed the biodiversity patterns generated with eDNA and two co-located conventional methods, oblique midwater trawls and vertical multinets, to compare regional and sample-level diversity. We then assessed the concordance of ecological patterns across water column habitats and evaluated how DNA markers and the level of sampling effort influenced the inferred community. We found eDNA metabarcoding characterized regional diversity well, detecting more taxa while identifying similar ecological patterns as conventional samples. Within sampling locations, eDNA metabarcoding rarely detected taxa across more than one replicate. While more taxa were found in eDNA than oblique midwater trawls within sample stations, fewer were found compared to vertical multinets. Our simulations show greater eDNA sampling effort would improve concordance with conventional methods. We also observed that using taxonomic data from multiple markers generated ecological patterns most similar to those observed with conventional methods. Patterns observed with Exact Sequence Variants were more stable across markers suggesting they are more powerful for detecting change. eDNA metabarcoding is a valuable tool for identifying and monitoring biological hotspots but some methodological adjustments are recommended for deep ocean environments

Dispersal syndromes in challenging environments: A cross‐species experiment

Dispersal is a central biological process tightly integrated into life-histories, morphology, physiology and behaviour. Such associations, or syndromes, are anticipated to impact the eco-evolutionary dynamics of spatially structured populations, and cascade into ecosystem processes. As for dispersal on its own, these syndromes are likely neither fixed nor random, but conditional on the experienced environment. We experimentally studied how dispersal propensity varies with individuals' phenotype and local environmental harshness using 15 species ranging from protists to vertebrates. We reveal a general phenotypic dispersal syndrome across studied species, with dispersers being larger, more active and having a marked locomotion-oriented morphology and a strengthening of the link between dispersal and some phenotypic traits with environmental harshness. Our proof-of-concept metacommunity model further reveals cascading effects of context-dependent syndromes on the local and regional organisation of functional diversity. Our study opens new avenues to advance our understanding of the functioning of spatially structured populations, communities and ecosystems. Keywords: context-dependent dispersal; dispersal strategy; distributed experiment; predation risk; resource limitatio

Describing adverse events in Swiss hospitalized oncology patients using the Global Trigger Tool

The occurrence rate of adverse events (AEs) related to care among hospitalized oncology patients in Switzerland remains unknown. The primary objective of this study was to describe, for the first time, the occurrence rate, type, severity of harm, and preventability of AEs related to care, reported in health records of hospitalized hematological and solid-tumor cancer patients in three Swiss hospitals.; Using an adapted version of the validated Global Trigger Tool (GTT) from the Institute for Healthcare Improvement, we conducted a retrospective record review of patients discharged from oncology units over a 6-week period during 2018. Our convenience sample included all records from adult patients (≥18 years of age), diagnosed with cancer, and hospitalized (>24 hours). Per the GTT method, two trained nurses independently assessed patient records to identify AEs using triggers, and physicians from the included units analyzed the consensus of the two nurses. Together, they assessed the severity and preventability of each AE.; From the sample of 224 reviewed records, we identified 661 triggers and 169 AEs in 94 of them (42%). Pain related to care was the most frequent AE (n = 29), followed by constipation (n = 17). AEs rates were 75.4 per 100 admissions and 106.6 per 1000 patient days. Most of the identified AEs (78%) caused temporary harm to the patient and required an intervention. Among AEs during hospitalization (n = 125), 76 (61%) were considered not preventable, 28 (22%) preventable, and 21 (17%) undetermined.; About half of the hospitalized oncology patients suffered from at least one AE related to care during their hospitalization. Pain, constipation, and nosocomial infections were the most frequent AEs. It is, therefore, essential to identify AEs to guide future clinical practice initiatives to ensure patient safety

Reconnaissance de codes correcteurs d'erreurs

PALAISEAU-Polytechnique (914772301) / SudocSudocFranceF

Iterative Design of Advanced Mobile Robots

Integration of hardware, software and decisional components is fundamental in the design of advanced mobile robotic systems capable of performing challenging tasks in unstructured and unpredictable environments. We address such integration challenges following an iterative design strategy, centered on a decisional architecture based on the notion of motivated selection of behavior-producing modules. This architecture evolved over the years from the integration of obstacle avoidance, message reading and touch screen graphical interfaces, to localization and mapping, planning and scheduling, sound source localization, tracking and separation, speech recognition and generation on a custom-made interactive robot. Designed to be a scientific robot reporter, the robot provides understandable and configurable interaction, intention and information in a conference setting, reporting its experiences for on-line and off-line analysis. This paper presents the integration of these capabilities on this robot, revealing interesting new issues in terms of planning and scheduling, coordination of audio/visual/graphical capabilities, and monitoring the uses and impacts of the robot\u27s decisional capabilities in unconstrained operating conditions. This paper also outlines new design requirements for our next design iteration, adding compliance to the locomotion and manipulation capabilities of the platform, and natural interaction through gestures using arms, facial expressions and the robot\u27s pose