Migraine and vascular disease biomarkers: A population-based case-control study.

Background The underpinnings of the migraine-stroke association remain uncertain, but endothelial activation is a potential mechanism. We evaluated the association of migraine and vascular disease biomarkers in a community-based population. Methods Participants (300 women, 117 men) were recruited as a part of the Dutch CAMERA 1 (Cerebral Abnormalities in Migraine, an Epidemiologic Risk Analysis) study. Participants were aged 30-60 (mean 48) years, 155 migraine had with aura (MA), 128 migraine without aura (MO), and 134 were controls with no severe headaches. Plasma concentrations of fibrinogen, Factor II, D-dimer, high sensitivity C-reactive protein (hs-CRP), and von Willebrand factor antigen were compared between groups, also stratifying by sex. Results Fibrinogen and hs-CRP were elevated in migraineurs compared to controls. In logistic regression analyses, MO and MA had increased likelihood of elevated fibrinogen, and MA had increased likelihood of elevated Factor II and hs-CRP. Fibrinogen and Factor II were associated with MA in women but not men. In the migraine subgroup, the total number of years of aura, but not headache, predicted elevated hs-CRP, and the average number of aura, but not headache, attacks predicted all biomarkers but Factor II. Conclusions Elevated vascular biomarkers were associated with migraine, particularly MA, as well as with years of aura and number of aura attacks

Global and regional burden of hospital admissions for pneumonia in older adults::A systematic review and meta-analysis

Pneumonia constitutes a substantial disease burden among adults overall and those who are elderly. We aimed to identify all studies investigating the disease burden among older adults (age, ≥65 years) admitted to the hospital with pneumonia. We estimated the hospital admission rate and in-hospital case-fatality ratio (CFR) of pneumonia in older adults, stratified by age and economic status (industrialized vs developing), with data from a systematic review of studies published from 1996 through 2017 and from 8 unpublished population-based studies. We applied these rate estimates to population estimates for 2015 to calculate the global and regional burden in older adults who would have been admitted to the hospital with pneumonia that year. We estimated the number of in-hospital pneumonia deaths by combining in-hospital CFRs with hospital admission estimates from hospital-based studies. We identified 109 eligible studies; 73 used clinical pneumonia as the case definition, and 36 used radiologically confirmed pneumonia as the case definition. We estimated that, in 2015, 6.8 million episodes (uncertainty range [UR], 5.8-8.0 episodes) of clinical pneumonia resulted in hospital admissions of older adults worldwide. The hospital admission rate increased with advancing age and was higher in men. The total disease burden was likely underestimated when using the definition of radiologically confirmed pneumonia. Based on data from 52 hospital studies reporting data on pneumonia mortality, we estimated that about 1.1 million in-hospital deaths (UR, 0.9-1.4 in-hospital deaths) occurred among older adults. The burden of pneumonia requiring hospitalization among older adults is substantial. Appropriate prevention and management strategies should be developed to reduce its impact

Climate change reduces extent of temperate drylands and intensifies drought in deep soils

Drylands cover 40% of the global terrestrial surface and provide important ecosystem services. While drylands as a whole are expected to increase in extent and aridity in coming decades, temperature and precipitation forecasts vary by latitude and geographic region suggesting different trajectories for tropical, subtropical, and temperate drylands. Uncertainty in the future of tropical and subtropical drylands is well constrained, whereas soil moisture and ecological droughts, which drive vegetation productivity and composition, remain poorly understood in temperate drylands. Here we show that, over the twenty first century, temperate drylands may contract by a third, primarily converting to subtropical drylands, and that deep soil layers could be increasingly dry during the growing season. These changes imply major shifts in vegetation and ecosystem service delivery. Our results illustrate the importance of appropriate drought measures and, as a global study that focuses on temperate drylands, highlight a distinct fate for these highly populated areas

Connecting competitor, stress-tolerator and ruderal (CSR) theory and Lund Potsdam Jena managed Land 5 (LPJmL 5) to assess the role of environmental conditions, management and functional diversity for grassland ecosystem functions

Forage offtake, leaf biomass and soil organic carbon storage are important ecosystem services of permanent grasslands, which are determined by climatic conditions, management and functional diversity. However, functional diversity is not independent of climate and management, and it is important to understand the role of functional diversity and these dependencies for ecosystem services of permanent grasslands, since functional diversity may play a key role in mediating impacts of changing conditions. Large-scale ecosystem models are used to assess ecosystem functions within a consistent framework for multiple climate and management scenarios. However, large-scale models of permanent grasslands rarely consider functional diversity. We implemented a representation of functional diversity based on the competitor, stress-tolerator and ruderal (CSR) theory and the global spectrum of plant form and function into the Lund Potsdam Jena managed Land (LPJmL) dynamic global vegetation model (DGVM) forming LPJmL-CSR. Using a Bayesian calibration method, we parameterised new plant functional types (PFTs) and used these to assess forage offtake, leaf biomass, soil organic carbon storage and community composition of three permanent grassland sites. These are a temperate grassland and a hot and a cold steppe for which we simulated several management scenarios with different defoliation intensities and resource limitations. LPJmL-CSR captured the grassland dynamics well under observed conditions and showed improved results for forage offtake, leaf biomass and/or soil organic carbon (SOC) compared to the original LPJmL 5 version at the three grassland sites. Furthermore, LPJmL-CSR was able to reproduce the trade-offs associated with the global spectrum of plant form and function, and similar strategies emerged independent of the site-specific conditions (e.g. the C and R PFTs were more resource exploitative than the S PFT). Under different resource limitations, we observed a shift in the community composition. At the hot steppe, for example, irrigation led to a more balanced community composition with similar C, S and R PFT shares of aboveground biomass. Our results show that LPJmL-CSR allows for explicit analysis of the adaptation of grassland vegetation to changing conditions while explicitly considering functional diversity. The implemented mechanisms and trade-offs are universally applicable, paving the way for large-scale application. Applying LPJmL-CSR for different climate change and functional diversity scenarios may generate a range of future grassland productivities.</p

Joint Metabonomic and Instrumental Analysis for the Classification of Migraine Patients with 677-MTHFR Mutations

Migraine is a neurological disorder that correlates with an increased risk of cerebrovascular lesions. Genetic mutations of the MTHFR gene are correlated to migraine and to the increased risk of artery pathologies. Also, migraine patients show altered hematochemical parameters, linked to an impaired platelet aggregation mechanism. Hence, the vascular assessment of migraineurs is of primary importance

The natural stilbenoid (-)-hopeaphenol inhibits cellular entry of SARS-CoV-2 USA-WA1/2020, B.1.1.7, and B.1.351 variants

Antivirals are urgently needed to combat the global SARS-CoV-2/COVID- 19 pandemic, supplement existing vaccine efforts, and target emerging SARS-CoV-2 variants of concern. Small molecules that interfere with binding of the viral spike receptor binding domain (RBD) to the host angiotensin-converting enzyme II (ACE2) receptor may be effective inhibitors of SARS-CoV-2 cell entry. Here, we screened 512 pure compounds derived from natural products using a high-throughput RBD/ACE2 binding assay and identified (-)-hopeaphenol, a resveratrol tetramer, in addition to vatalbinoside A and vaticanol B, as potent and selective inhibitors of RBD/ACE2 binding and viral entry. For example, (-)-hopeaphenol disrupted RBD/ACE2 binding with a 50% inhibitory concentration (IC50) of 0.11 mM, in contrast to an IC50 of 28.3 mM against the unrelated host ligand/receptor binding pair PD-1/PD-L1 (selectivity index, 257.3). When assessed against the USA-WA1/2020 variant, (-)-hopeaphenol also inhibited entry of a VSVDG-GFP reporter pseudovirus expressing SARS-CoV-2 spike into ACE2-expressing Vero-E6 cells and in vitro replication of infectious virus in cytopathic effect and yield reduction assays (50% effective concentrations [EC50s], 10.2 to 23.4 mM) without cytotoxicity and approaching the activities of the control antiviral remdesivir (EC50s, 1.0 to 7.3 mM). Notably, (-)-hopeaphenol also inhibited two emerging variants of concern, B.1.1.7/Alpha and B.1.351/Beta in both viral and spike-containing pseudovirus assays with similar or improved activities over the USA-WA1/2020 variant. These results identify (-)-hopeaphenol and related stilbenoid analogues as potent and selective inhibitors of viral entry across multiple SARS-CoV-2 variants of concern

Coastal upwelling in the Rias Bajas, NW Spain: Contrasting the benthic regimes of the Rias de Arosa and de Muros

Nutrient-rich North Atlantic water upwells off the NW coast of Spain and intermittently intrudes into the rias, coastal embayments, by displacement during periods of offshore winds. High primary production associated with the upwelling supports an intensive raft culture of the edible mussel, Mytilus edulis. This culture is most intensive (ca. 2000 rafts) in the Ria de Arosa, and results in one of the highest protein yields per unit area on earth...

Resilience trinity: Safeguarding ecosystem functioning and services across three different time horizons and decision contexts

Ensuring ecosystem resilience is an intuitive approach to safeguard the functioning of ecosystems and hence the future provisioning of ecosystem services (ES). However, resilience is a multi‐faceted concept that is difficult to operationalize. Focusing on resilience mechanisms, such as diversity, network architectures or adaptive capacity, has recently been suggested as means to operationalize resilience. Still, the focus on mechanisms is not specific enough. We suggest a conceptual framework, resilience trinity, to facilitate management based on resilience mechanisms in three distinctive decision contexts and time‐horizons: 1) reactive, when there is an imminent threat to ES resilience and a high pressure to act, 2) adjustive, when the threat is known in general but there is still time to adapt management and 3) provident, when time horizons are very long and the nature of the threats is uncertain, leading to a low willingness to act. Resilience has different interpretations and implications at these different time horizons, which also prevail in different disciplines. Social ecology, ecology and engineering are often implicitly focussing on provident, adjustive or reactive resilience, respectively, but these different notions of resilience and their corresponding social, ecological and economic tradeoffs need to be reconciled. Otherwise, we keep risking unintended consequences of reactive actions, or shying away from provident action because of uncertainties that cannot be reduced. The suggested trinity of time horizons and their decision contexts could help ensuring that longer‐term management actions are not missed while urgent threats to ES are given priority

Coastal upwelling in the Rías Bajas, NW Spain: Contrasting the benthic regimes of Rías de Arosa and de Muros

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Soluble CD40 ligand and prolactin levels in migraine patients during interictal period

The relationship of migraine with cardiovascular diseases has been clarified by many studies, and currently, migraine is suggested to be a systematic vasculopathy. Inflammation, thrombosis and impaired vascular reactivity are the underlying pathophysiological mechanisms of the vasculopathy. In the present study, we aimed to investigate the relationship between prolactin levels and subclinical atherosclerosis risk factors such as soluble CD40 ligand (sCD40L) and high-sensitivity CRP (hsCRP) in migraine patients during interictal period. Fifty female migraine patients and age-matched 25 female control cases were enrolled in the study. Migraine diagnosis was settled according to the ICHD-II diagnostic criteria. A questionnaire was completed about the existence of vascular risk factors. Serum samples were used to measure sCD40L, hsCRP and prolactin levels. No difference was found between the prolactin levels of the migraine patients and the controls. The sCD40L levels were significantly higher in migraine patients (p < 0.001). High-sensitivity CRP levels showed no difference between the groups. There was no correlation between prolactin, sCD40L, and hs-CRP levels in migraine patients. We consider that the migraine patients are prone to subclinical atherosclerosis, but this tendency is independent of prolactin levels