History of benthic research in the Northern Baltic Sea : from description to prediction

The history of studies of benthic flora and fauna in the Northern Baltic Sea (N of 58° N, including the Gulfs) is briefly reviewed from the early naturalists of the Linnaean period (mid-18th century) to the early 1970's

Neural Networks Supporting Phoneme Monitoring Are Modulated by Phonology but Not Lexicality or Iconicity: Evidence From British and Swedish Sign Language

Sign languages are natural languages in the visual domain. Because they lack a written form, they provide a sharper tool than spoken languages for investigating lexicality effects which may be confounded by orthographic processing. In a previous study, we showed that the neural networks supporting phoneme monitoring in deaf British Sign Language (BSL) users are modulated by phonology but not lexicality or iconicity. In the present study, we investigated whether this pattern generalizes to deaf Swedish Sign Language (SSL) users. British and SSLs have a largely overlapping phoneme inventory but are mutually unintelligible because lexical overlap is small. This is important because it means that even when signs lexicalized in BSL are unintelligible to users of SSL they are usually still phonologically acceptable. During fMRI scanning, deaf users of the two different sign languages monitored signs that were lexicalized in either one or both of those languages for phonologically contrastive elements. Neural activation patterns relating to different linguistic levels of processing were similar across SLs; in particular, we found no effect of lexicality, supporting the notion that apparent lexicality effects on sublexical processing of speech may be driven by orthographic strategies. As expected, we found an effect of phonology but not iconicity. Further, there was a difference in neural activation between the two groups in a motion-processing region of the left occipital cortex, possibly driven by cultural differences, such as education. Importantly, this difference was not modulated by the linguistic characteristics of the material, underscoring the robustness of the neural activation patterns relating to different linguistic levels of processing

How are trainees in clinical microbiology and infectious diseases supervised in Europe? An international cross-sectional questionnaire survey by the Trainee Association of ESCMID

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Seeing the talker’s face supports executive processing of speech in steady state noise. Front

Listening to speech in noise depletes cognitive resources, affecting speech processing. The present study investigated how remaining resources or cognitive spare capacity (CSC) can be deployed by young adults with normal hearing. We administered a test of CSC (CSCT

Anti-SARS-CoV2 antibody responses in serum and cerebrospinal fluid of COVID-19 patients with neurological symptoms

Antibody responses to SARS-CoV-2 in serum and CSF from 16 COVID-19 patients with neurological symptoms were assessed using two independent methods. IgG specific for the virus spike protein was found in 81% of cases in serum and in 56% in CSF. SARS-CoV-2 IgG in CSF was observed in two cases with negative serology. Levels of IgG in both serum and CSF were associated with disease severity (p<0.05). All patients with elevated markers of CNS damage in CSF also had CSF antibodies (p=0.002), and CSF antibodies had the highest predictive value for neuronal damage markers of all tested clinical variables

Treatment with Anti-HER2 Chimeric Antigen Receptor Tumor-Infiltrating Lymphocytes (CAR-TILs) Is Safe and Associated with Antitumor Efficacy in Mice and Companion Dogs

Patients with metastatic melanoma have a historically poor prognosis, but recent advances in treatment options, including targeted therapy and immunotherapy, have drastically improved the outcomes for some of these patients. However, not all patients respond to available treatments, and around 50% of patients with metastatic cutaneous melanoma and almost all patients with metastases of uveal melanoma die of their disease. Thus, there is a need for novel treatment strategies for patients with melanoma that do not benefit from the available therapies. Chimeric antigen receptor-expressing T (CAR-T) cells are largely unexplored in melanoma. Traditionally, CAR-T cells have been produced by transducing blood-derived T cells with a virus expressing CAR. However, tumor-infiltrating lymphocytes (TILs) can also be engineered to express CAR, and such CAR-TILs could be dual-targeting. To this end, tumor samples and autologous TILs from metastasized human uveal and cutaneous melanoma were expanded in vitro and transduced with a lentiviral vector encoding an anti-HER2 CAR construct. When infused into patient-derived xenograft (PDX) mouse models carrying autologous tumors, CAR-TILs were able to eradicate melanoma, even in the absence of antigen presentation by HLA. To advance this concept to the clinic and assess its safety in an immune-competent and human-patient-like setting, we treated four companion dogs with autologous anti-HER2 CAR-TILs. We found that these cells were tolerable and showed signs of anti-tumor activity. Taken together, CAR-TIL therapy is a promising avenue for broadening the tumor-targeting capacity of TILs in patients with checkpoint immunotherapy-resistant melanoma

Genetic variation of biomass recalcitrance in a natural Salix viminalis (L.) population

Background: Salix spp. are high-productivity crops potentially used for lignocellulosic biofuels such as bioethanol. In general, pretreatment is needed to facilitate the enzymatic depolymerization process. Biomass resistance to degradation, i.e., biomass recalcitrance, is a trait which can be assessed by measuring the sugar released after combined pretreatment and enzymatic hydrolysis. We have examined genetic parameters of enzymatic sugar release and other traits related to biorefnery use in a population of 286 natural Salix viminalis clones. Furthermore, we have evaluated phenotypic and genetic correlations between these traits and performed a genomewide association mapping analysis using a set of 19,411 markers. Results: Sugar release (glucose and xylose) after pretreatment and enzymatic saccharifcation proved highly variable with large genetic and phenotypic variations, and chip heritability estimates (h2 ) of 0.23–0.29. Lignin syringyl/guaiacyl (S/G) ratio and wood density were the most heritable traits (h2=0.42 and 0.59, respectively). Sugar release traits were positively correlated, phenotypically and genetically, with biomass yield and lignin S/G ratio. Association mapping revealed seven marker–trait associations below a suggestive signifcance threshold, including one marker associated with glucose release. Conclusions: We identifed lignin S/G ratio and shoot diameter as heritable traits that could be relatively easily evaluated by breeders, making them suitable proxy traits for developing low-recalcitrance varieties. One marker below the suggestive threshold for marker associations was identifed for sugar release, meriting further investigation while also highlighting the difculties in employing genomewide association mapping for complex trait

Negative Attitudes of Law Students: A Replication of the Alienation and Dissatisfaction Factors

This book presents some recent systems engineering and mathematical tools for health care along with their real-world applications by health care practitioners and engineers. Advanced approaches, tools, and algorithms used in operating room scheduling and patient flow are covered. State-of-the-art results from applications of data mining, business process modeling, and simulation in healthcare, together with optimization methods, form the core of the volume. Systems Analysis Tools for Better Health Care Delivery illustrates the increased need of partnership between engineers and health care professionals. This book will benefit researchers and practitioners in health care delivery institutions, staff members and professionals of specialized hospital units, and lecturers and graduate students in engineering, applied mathematics, business administration and health care.

Current mentorship practices in the training of the next generation of clinical microbiology and infectious disease specialists : an international cross-sectional survey

The purpose of this study was to describe the current practice of mentorship in clinical microbiology (CM) and infectious diseases (ID) training, to identify possible areas for improvement and to assess the factors that are associated with satisfactory mentorship. An international cross-sectional survey containing 35 questions was answered by 317 trainees or specialists who recently completed clinical training. Overall, 179/317 (56%) trainees were satisfied with their mentors, ranging from 7/9 (78%) in non-European countries, 39/53 (74%) in Northern Europe, 13/22 (59%) in Eastern Europe, 61/110 (56%) in Western Europe, 37/76 (49%) in South-Western Europe to 22/47 (47%) in South-Eastern Europe. However, only 115/317 (36%) respondents stated that they were assigned an official mentor during their training. In multivariable logistic regression analysis, the satisfaction of trainees was significantly associated with having a mentor who was a career model (OR 6.4, 95%CI 3.5–11.7), gave constructive feedback on work performance (OR 3.3, 95%CI 1.8–6.2), and knew the family structure of the mentee (OR 5.5, 95%CI 3.0–10.1). If trainees felt overburdened, 70/317 (22%) felt that they could not talk to their mentors. Moreover, 67/317 (21%) stated that they could not talk to their mentor when unfairly treated and 59/317 (19%) felt uncertain. Training boards and authorities responsible for developing and monitoring CM&ID training programmes should invest in the development of high-quality mentorship programmes for trainees in order to contribute to the careers of the next generation of professionals.Publisher PDFPeer reviewe