Substrate availability and not thermal acclimation controls microbial temperature sensitivity response to long‐term warming

Microbes are responsible for cycling carbon (C) through soils, and predicted changes in soil C stocks under climate change are highly sensitive to shifts in the mechanisms assumed to control the microbial physiological response to warming. Two mechanisms have been suggested to explain the long-term warming impact on microbial physiology: microbial thermal acclimation and changes in the quantity and quality of substrates available for microbial metabolism. Yet studies disentangling these two mechanisms are lacking. To resolve the drivers of changes in microbial physiology in response to long-term warming, we sampled soils from 13- and 28-year-old soil warming experiments in different seasons. We performed short-term laboratory incubations across a range of temperatures to measure the relationships between temperature sensitivity of physiology (growth, respiration, carbon use efficiency, and extracellular enzyme activity) and the chemical composition of soil organic matter. We observed apparent thermal acclimation of microbial respiration, but only in summer, when warming had exacerbated the seasonally-induced, already small dissolved organic matter pools. Irrespective of warming, greater quantity and quality of soil carbon increased the extracellular enzymatic pool and its temperature sensitivity. We propose that fresh litter input into the system seasonally cancels apparent thermal acclimation of C-cycling processes to decadal warming. Our findings reveal that long-term warming has indirectly affected microbial physiology via reduced C availability in this system, implying that earth system models including these negative feedbacks may be best suited to describe long-term warming effects on these soils

Reduction of iron (III) and humic substances plays a major role in anaerobic respiration in an Arctic peat soil

Arctic peat soils contain vast reserves of organic C and are largely anaerobic. However, anaerobic respiration, particularly the role of Fe(III) and humic substances as electron acceptors, is not well understood in such ecosystems. We investigated these processes in a drained thaw lake basin on the Arctic coastal plain near Barrow, Alaska. We measured concentrations of soluble Fe and other potential electron acceptors, described the microbial community, and performed experiments in the laboratory and field to measure net rates of Fe(III) reduction and the relationship of this process to C cycling. In most areas within the basin, aerobic conditions existed only in the upper few centimeters of soil, though oxygen penetrated deeper in raised areas, such as rims of ice wedge polygons. Concentrations of nitrate and sulfate in soil pore water were low or negligible. Soil pore water contained surprisingly high concentrations of Fe(II) and Fe(III), in the range of hundreds of μM, suggesting the presence of organic chelators. The solid phase contained substantial amounts of iron minerals, with a progressively reduced oxidation state throughout the growing season. The most abundant 16S rRNA sequence in our gene survey was closely related to the Fe(III)-reducing bacterium, Rhodoferax ferrireducens, and other sequences closely related to Fe-transforming bacteria were found. Field and laboratory incubations with soluble Fe(III) and the quinonic compound, AQDS (a common humic analog), stimulated respiration and verified that Fe(III) reduction occurs in these soils. We conclude that reduction of Fe(III) and humic substances are major metabolic pathways in this ecosystem

Strategy selection and outcome prediction in sport using dynamic learning for stochastic processes

We study reliability equivalence factors of a system of independent and identical components with exponentiated Weibull lifetimes. The system has n subsystems connected in parallel and subsystem i has mi components connected in series, i=1,…,n. We consider improving the reliability of the system by (a) a reduction method and (b) several duplication methods: (i) hot duplication; (ii) cold duplication with perfect switching; (iii) cold duplication with imperfect switching. We compute two types of reliability equivalence factors: survival equivalence factors and mean equivalence factors. Although our methods adapt to allow for general lifetime models, we use the exponentiated Weibull distribution because it is flexible and enables comparisons with other reliability equivalence studies. The example we present demonstrates the potential for applying these methods to address specific questions that arise when attempting to improve the reliability of simple systems or simple configurations of possibly complex subsystems in many diverse applications

Effect of Bamlanivimab vs Placebo on Incidence of COVID-19 Among Residents and Staff of Skilled Nursing and Assisted Living Facilities: A Randomized Clinical Trial

IMPORTANCE Preventive interventions are needed to protect residents and staff of skilled nursing and assisted living facilities from COVID-19 during outbreaks in their facilities. Bamlanivimab, a neutralizing monoclonal antibody against SARS-CoV-2, may confer rapid protection from SARS-CoV-2 infection and COVID-19. OBJECTIVE To determine the effect of bamlanivimab on the incidence of COVID-19 among residents and staff of skilled nursing and assisted living facilities. DESIGN, SETTING, AND PARTICIPANTS Randomized, double-blind, single-dose, phase 3 trial that enrolled residents and staff of 74 skilled nursing and assisted living facilities in the United States with at least 1 confirmed SARS-CoV-2 index case. A total of 1175 participants enrolled in the study from August 2 to November 20, 2020. Database lock was triggered on January 13, 2021, when all participants reached study day 57. INTERVENTIONS Participants were randomized to receive a single intravenous infusion of bamlanivimab, 4200mg (n = 588), or placebo (n = 587). MAIN OUTCOMES AND MEASURES The primary outcomewas incidence of COVID-19, defined as the detection of SARS-CoV-2 by reverse transcriptase–polymerase chain reaction and mild or worse disease severity within 21 days of detection, within 8 weeks of randomization. Key secondary outcomes included incidence of moderate or worse COVID-19 severity and incidence of SARS-CoV-2 infection. RESULTS The prevention population comprised a total of 966 participants (666 staff and 300 residents) who were negative at baseline for SARS-CoV-2 infection and serology (mean age, 53.0 [range, 18-104] years; 722 [74.7%] women). Bamlanivimab significantly reduced the incidence of COVID-19 in the prevention population compared with placebo (8.5%vs 15.2%; odds ratio, 0.43 [95%CI, 0.28-0.68]; P < .001; absolute risk difference, −6.6 [95%CI, −10.7 to −2.6] percentage points). Five deaths attributed to COVID-19 were reported by day 57; all occurred in the placebo group. Among 1175 participants who received study product (safety population), the rate of participants with adverse events was 20.1% in the bamlanivimab group and 18.9% in the placebo group. The most common adverse events were urinary tract infection (reported by 12 participants [2%] who received bamlanivimab and 14 [2.4%] who received placebo) and hypertension (reported by 7 participants [1.2%] who received bamlanivimab and 10 [1.7%] who received placebo). CONCLUSIONS AND RELEVANCE Among residents and staff in skilled nursing and assisted living facilities, treatment during August-November 2020 with bamlanivimab monotherapy reduced the incidence of COVID-19 infection. Further research is needed to assess preventive efficacy with current patterns of viral strains with combination monoclonal antibody therapy

Hidden in the Middle : Culture, Value and Reward in Bioinformatics

Bioinformatics - the so-called shotgun marriage between biology and computer science - is an interdiscipline. Despite interdisciplinarity being seen as a virtue, for having the capacity to solve complex problems and foster innovation, it has the potential to place projects and people in anomalous categories. For example, valorised 'outputs' in academia are often defined and rewarded by discipline. Bioinformatics, as an interdisciplinary bricolage, incorporates experts from various disciplinary cultures with their own distinct ways of working. Perceived problems of interdisciplinarity include difficulties of making explicit knowledge that is practical, theoretical, or cognitive. But successful interdisciplinary research also depends on an understanding of disciplinary cultures and value systems, often only tacitly understood by members of the communities in question. In bioinformatics, the 'parent' disciplines have different value systems; for example, what is considered worthwhile research by computer scientists can be thought of as trivial by biologists, and vice versa. This paper concentrates on the problems of reward and recognition described by scientists working in academic bioinformatics in the United Kingdom. We highlight problems that are a consequence of its cross-cultural make-up, recognising that the mismatches in knowledge in this borderland take place not just at the level of the practical, theoretical, or epistemological, but also at the cultural level too. The trend in big, interdisciplinary science is towards multiple authors on a single paper; in bioinformatics this has created hybrid or fractional scientists who find they are being positioned not just in-between established disciplines but also in-between as middle authors or, worse still, left off papers altogether

Global and Zonal-Mean Hydrological Response to Early Eocene Warmth

Earth's hydrological cycle is expected to intensify in response to global warming, with a “wet-gets-wetter, dry-gets-drier” response anticipated over the ocean. Subtropical regions (∼15°–30°N/S) are predicted to become drier, yet proxy evidence from past warm climates suggests these regions may be characterized by wetter conditions. Here we use an integrated data-modeling approach to reconstruct global and zonal-mean rainfall patterns during the early Eocene (∼56–48 million years ago). The Deep-Time Model Intercomparison Project (DeepMIP) model ensemble indicates that the mid- (30°–60°N/S) and high-latitudes (>60°N/S) are characterized by a thermodynamically dominated hydrological response to warming and overall wetter conditions. The tropical band (0°–15°N/S) is also characterized by wetter conditions, with several DeepMIP models simulating narrowing of the Inter-Tropical Convergence Zone. However, the latter is not evident from the proxy data. The subtropics are characterized by negative precipitation-evaporation anomalies (i.e., drier conditions) in the DeepMIP models, but there is surprisingly large inter-model variability in mean annual precipitation (MAP). Intriguingly, we find that models with weaker meridional temperature gradients (e.g., CESM, GFDL) are characterized by a reduction in subtropical moisture divergence, leading to an increase in MAP. These model simulations agree more closely with our new proxy-derived precipitation reconstructions and other key climate metrics and imply that the early Eocene was characterized by reduced subtropical moisture divergence. If the meridional temperature gradient was even weaker than suggested by those DeepMIP models, circulation-induced changes may have outcompeted thermodynamic changes, leading to wetter subtropics. This highlights the importance of accurately reconstructing zonal temperature gradients when reconstructing past rainfall patterns

Soil Microbial Responses to Elevated CO2 and O3 in a Nitrogen-Aggrading Agroecosystem

Climate change factors such as elevated atmospheric carbon dioxide (CO2) and ozone (O3) can exert significant impacts on soil microbes and the ecosystem level processes they mediate. However, the underlying mechanisms by which soil microbes respond to these environmental changes remain poorly understood. The prevailing hypothesis, which states that CO2- or O3-induced changes in carbon (C) availability dominate microbial responses, is primarily based on results from nitrogen (N)-limiting forests and grasslands. It remains largely unexplored how soil microbes respond to elevated CO2 and O3 in N-rich or N-aggrading systems, which severely hinders our ability to predict the long-term soil C dynamics in agroecosystems. Using a long-term field study conducted in a no-till wheat-soybean rotation system with open-top chambers, we showed that elevated CO2 but not O3 had a potent influence on soil microbes. Elevated CO2 (1.5×ambient) significantly increased, while O3 (1.4×ambient) reduced, aboveground (and presumably belowground) plant residue C and N inputs to soil. However, only elevated CO2 significantly affected soil microbial biomass, activities (namely heterotrophic respiration) and community composition. The enhancement of microbial biomass and activities by elevated CO2 largely occurred in the third and fourth years of the experiment and coincided with increased soil N availability, likely due to CO2-stimulation of symbiotic N2 fixation in soybean. Fungal biomass and the fungi∶bacteria ratio decreased under both ambient and elevated CO2 by the third year and also coincided with increased soil N availability; but they were significantly higher under elevated than ambient CO2. These results suggest that more attention should be directed towards assessing the impact of N availability on microbial activities and decomposition in projections of soil organic C balance in N-rich systems under future CO2 scenarios

Ethnic comparison in takotsubo syndrome : novel insights from the International Takotsubo Registry

© The Author(s) 2021. Open Access This article is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License, which permits use, sharing, adaptation, distribution and reproduction in any medium or format, as long as you give appropriate credit to the original author(s) and the source, provide a link to the Creative Commons licence, and indicate if changes were made. The images or other third party material in this article are included in the article's Creative Commons licence, unless indicated otherwise in a credit line to the material. If material is not included in the article's Creative Commons licence and your intended use is not permitted by statutory regulation or exceeds the permitted use, you will need to obtain permission directly from the copyright holder. To view a copy of this licence, visit http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/.Background: Ethnic disparities have been reported in cardiovascular disease. However, ethnic disparities in takotsubo syndrome (TTS) remain elusive. This study assessed differences in clinical characteristics between Japanese and European TTS patients and determined the impact of ethnicity on in-hospital outcomes. Methods: TTS patients in Japan were enrolled from 10 hospitals and TTS patients in Europe were enrolled from 32 hospitals participating in the International Takotsubo Registry. Clinical characteristics and in-hospital outcomes were compared between Japanese and European patients. Results: A total of 503 Japanese and 1670 European patients were included. Japanese patients were older (72.6 ± 11.4 years vs. 68.0 ± 12.0 years; p < 0.001) and more likely to be male (18.5 vs. 8.4%; p < 0.001) than European TTS patients. Physical triggering factors were more common (45.5 vs. 32.0%; p < 0.001), and emotional triggers less common (17.5 vs. 31.5%; p < 0.001), in Japanese patients than in European patients. Japanese patients were more likely to experience cardiogenic shock during the acute phase (15.5 vs. 9.0%; p < 0.001) and had a higher in-hospital mortality (8.2 vs. 3.2%; p < 0.001). However, ethnicity itself did not appear to have an impact on in-hospital mortality. Machine learning approach revealed that the presence of physical stressors was the most important prognostic factor in both Japanese and European TTS patients. Conclusion: Differences in clinical characteristics and in-hospital outcomes between Japanese and European TTS patients exist. Ethnicity does not impact the outcome in TTS patients. The worse in-hospital outcome in Japanese patients, is mainly driven by the higher prevalence of physical triggers.Open Access funding provided by Universität Zürich. CT has been supported by the H.H. Sheikh Khalifa bin Hamad Al-Thani Research Programme and the Swiss Heart Foundation. L.S.M. has been supported by EU HORIZON 2020 (SILICOFCM ID777204). J.R.G has received a grant “Filling the gap” from the University of Zurich. The InterTAK Registry is supported by The Biss Davies Charitable Trust.info:eu-repo/semantics/publishedVersio

Clinical correlates and prognostic impact of neurologic disorders in Takotsubo syndrome

© The Author(s) 2021. Open Access This article is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License, which permits use, sharing, adaptation, distribution and reproduction in any medium or format, as long as you give appropriate credit to the original author(s) and the source, provide a link to the Creative Commons licence, and indicate if changes were made. The images or other third party material in this article are included in the article's Creative Commons licence, unless indicated otherwise in a credit line to the material. If material is not included in the article's Creative Commons licence and your intended use is not permitted by statutory regulation or exceeds the permitted use, you will need to obtain permission directly from the copyright holder. To view a copy of this licence, visit http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/.Cardiac alterations are frequently observed after acute neurological disorders. Takotsubo syndrome (TTS) represents an acute heart failure syndrome and is increasingly recognized as part of the spectrum of cardiac complications observed after neurological disorders. A systematic investigation of TTS patients with neurological disorders has not been conducted yet. The aim of the study was to expand insights regarding neurological disease entities triggering TTS and to investigate the clinical profile and outcomes of TTS patients after primary neurological disorders. The International Takotsubo Registry is an observational multicenter collaborative effort of 45 centers in 14 countries (ClinicalTrials.gov, identifier NCT01947621). All patients in the registry fulfilled International Takotsubo Diagnostic Criteria. For the present study, patients were included if complete information on acute neurological disorders were available. 2402 patients in whom complete information on acute neurological status were available were analyzed. In 161 patients (6.7%) an acute neurological disorder was identified as the preceding triggering factor. The most common neurological disorders were seizures, intracranial hemorrhage, and ischemic stroke. Time from neurological symptoms to TTS diagnosis was ≤ 2 days in 87.3% of cases. TTS patients with neurological disorders were younger, had a lower female predominance, fewer cardiac symptoms, lower left ventricular ejection fraction, and higher levels of cardiac biomarkers. TTS patients with neurological disorders had a 3.2-fold increased odds of in-hospital mortality compared to TTS patients without neurological disorders. In this large-scale study, 1 out of 15 TTS patients had an acute neurological condition as the underlying triggering factor. Our data emphasize that a wide spectrum of neurological diseases ranging from benign to life-threatening encompass TTS. The high rates of adverse events highlight the need for clinical awareness.The International Takotsubo Registry was supported by the Biss Davies Charitable Trust. Dr. Scheitz has been supported by the Corona Foundation. Dr. Templin has been supported by the H.H. Sheikh Khalifa bin Hamad Al-Thani Research Programme and the Swiss Heart Foundation.info:eu-repo/semantics/publishedVersio

Prognostic impact of acute pulmonary triggers in patients with Takotsubo syndrome : new insights from the International Takotsubo Registry

© 2021 The Authors. ESC Heart Failure published by John Wiley & Sons Ltd on behalf of European Society of Cardiology. This is an open access article under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial License.Aims: Acute pulmonary disorders are known physical triggers of takotsubo syndrome (TTS). This study aimed to investigate prevalence of acute pulmonary triggers in patients with TTS and their impact on outcomes. Methods and results: Patients with TTS were enrolled from the International Takotsubo Registry and screened for triggering factors and comorbidities. Patients were categorized into three groups (acute pulmonary trigger, chronic lung disease, and no lung disease) to compare clinical characteristics and outcomes. Of the 1670 included patients with TTS, 123 (7%) were identified with an acute pulmonary trigger, and 194 (12%) had a known history of chronic lung disease. The incidence of cardiogenic shock was highest in patients with an acute pulmonary trigger compared with those with chronic lung disease or without lung disease (17% vs. 10% vs. 9%, P = 0.017). In-hospital mortality was also higher in patients with an acute pulmonary trigger than in the other two groups, although not significantly (5.7% vs. 1.5% vs. 4.2%, P = 0.13). Survival analysis demonstrated that patients with an acute pulmonary trigger had the worst long-term outcome (P = 0.002). The presence of an acute pulmonary trigger was independently associated with worse long-term mortality (hazard ratio 2.12, 95% confidence interval 1.33-3.38; P = 0.002). Conclusions: The present study demonstrates that TTS is related to acute pulmonary triggers in 7% of all TTS patients, which accounts for 21% of patients with physical triggers. The presence of acute pulmonary trigger is associated with a severe in-hospital course and a worse long-term outcome.C. T. has been supported by the H.H. Sheikh Khalifa binHamad Al-Thani Research Programme and the Swiss HeartFoundation. The InterTAK Registry is supported by the BissDavies Charitable Trust. L. S. M. has been supported by EUHORIZON 2020(SILICOFCM ID777204)info:eu-repo/semantics/publishedVersio