Assembly of a reference transcriptome for the gymnosome pteropod Clione limacina and profiling responses to short-term CO2 exposure

© The Author(s), 2017. This is the author's version of the work. It is posted here under a nonexclusive, irrevocable, paid-up, worldwide license granted to WHOI. It is made available for personal use, not for redistribution. The definitive version was published in Marine Genomics 34 (2017): 39-45, doi:10.1016/j.margen.2017.03.003.The gymnosome (unshelled) pteropod Clione limacina is a pelagic predatory mollusc found in polar and sub-polar regions. It has been studied for its distinctive swimming behavior and as an obligate predator on the closely related thecosome (shelled) pteropods. As concern about ocean acidification increases, it becomes useful to compare the physiological responses of closely-related calcifying and non-calcifying species to acidification. The goals of this study were thus to generate a reference transcriptome for Clione limacina, to expose individuals to CO2 for a period of 3 days, and to explore differential patterns of gene expression. Our Trinity assembly contained 300,994 transcripts of which ~26% could be annotated. In total, only 41 transcripts were differentially expressed following the CO2 treatment, consistent with a limited physiological response of this species to short-term CO2 exposure. The differentially expressed genes identified in our study were largely distinct from those identified in previous studies of thecosome pteropods, although some similar transcripts were identified, suggesting that comparison of these transcriptomes and responses may provide insight into differences in OA responses among phylogenetically and functionally distinct molluscan lineages.A. Thabet is grateful for a fellowship from the Egyptian Culture and Education Bureau and for mentoring from Drs. M.M. Sarhan and M.M. Fouda. Funding for this research was provided by a National Science Foundation grant to Lawson, Maas, and Tarrant (OCE-1316040)

Life cycle and early development of the thecosomatous pteropod Limacina retroversa in the Gulf of Maine, including the effect of elevated CO2 levels

Author Posting. © The Author(s), 2015. This is the author's version of the work. It is posted here by permission of Springer for personal use, not for redistribution. The definitive version was published in Marine Biology 162 (2015): 2235-2249, doi:10.1007/s00227-015-2754-1.Thecosome pteropods are pelagic molluscs with aragonitic shells. They are considered to be especially vulnerable among plankton to ocean acidification (OA), but to recognize changes due to anthropogenic forcing a baseline understanding of their life history is needed. In the present study, adult Limacina retroversa were collected on five cruises from multiple sites in the Gulf of Maine (between 42° 22.1’–42° 0.0’ N and 69° 42.6’–70° 15.4’ W; water depths of ca. 45–260 m) from October 2013−November 2014. They were maintained in the laboratory under continuous light at 8° C. There was evidence of year-round reproduction and an individual life span in the laboratory of 6 months. Eggs laid in captivity were observed throughout development. Hatching occurred after 3 days, the veliger stage was reached after 6−7 days, and metamorphosis to the juvenile stage was after ~ 1 month. Reproductive individuals were first observed after 3 months. Calcein staining of embryos revealed calcium storage beginning in the late gastrula stage. Staining was observed in the shell gland, shell field, mantle, and shell margin in later stages. Exposure of two batches of larvae at the gastrula stage to elevated CO2 levels (800 and 1200 ppm) resulted in significantly increased mortality in comparison with individuals raised under ambient (~400 ppm) conditions and a developmental delay in the 1200 ppm treatment compared with the ambient and 800 ppm treatments.A. Thabet is grateful for a fellowship from the Egyptian Culture and Education Bureau and for mentoring from Drs. S.A. Saber, M.M. Sarhan and M.M. Fouda. Funding for this research was provided by a National Science Foundation grant to Lawson, Maas, and Tarrant (OCE-1316040). Additional support for field sampling was provided by the WHOI Coastal Ocean Institute and Pickman Foundation to Wang, Maas, and Lawson.2016-10-2

Assessment of ultrasound features of placenta accreta spectrum in women at high risk: association with outcome and interobserver concordance

OBJECTIVES: The aims of this study were to evaluate the prenatal ultrasound features associated with operative complications and to assess the interobserver agreement in a cohort with detailed intraoperative and histopathologic data. METHODS: We conducted a retrospective, multicentre cohort study of 102 patients at high-risk of placenta accreta spectrum (PAS) between January 2019 and May 2022. De-identified ultrasound images were reviewed retrospectively and independently by two experienced operators blinded to clinical details, intra-operative features, outcome, and the histopathologic findings. The diagnosis of PAS was confirmed by the failure of detachment of one or more placental cotyledon from the uterine wall at delivery and the absence of decidua with distortion of the utero-placental interface by fibrinoid deposition on histologic examination of the accreta areas obtained by guided-sampling of partial myometrial resection or hysterectomy specimens. Antenatal categorisation was low or high probability of the likelihood of PAS at birth. Interobserver agreement was assessed using kappa statistic. Primary outcome was major operative morbidity (blood loss of ≥2000 ml, unintentional injury to the viscera, admission to intensive care unit or death). RESULTS: There were 66 cases with, and 36 cases without evidence PAS at birth. When blinded to other clinical details, the examiners agreed on the low or high probability of PAS in 87/102 cases (73.5%) on ultrasound features. The kappa statistic is 0.47 (95% CI: 0.28 - 0.66) showing moderate agreement. Morbidity was twice as common with a diagnosis of PAS. Concordant assessment of high probability of PAS was associated with the highest morbidity (66.6%) and a high (97.6%) chance of histopathological confirmation. CONCLUSIONS: The probability of histopathological confirmation is exceedingly high with concordant prenatal assessment suggestive of PAS. The interoperator agreement for preoperative assessment for histopathological confirmation of PAS is only moderate. Morbidity is linked to both histopathological diagnosis and antenatal assessment concordant of PAS. This article is protected by copyright. All rights reserved

Assessment of ultrasound features of placenta accreta spectrum in women at high risk: association with outcome and interobserver concordance.

OBJECTIVES: To evaluate the prenatal ultrasound features associated with operative complications and to assess the interobserver agreement of prenatal ultrasound assessment with histopathologic confirmation of placenta accreta spectrum (PAS) in a cohort of high-risk patients with detailed intraoperative and histopathologic data. METHODS: This was a retrospective multicenter cohort study of patients at high risk of PAS referred for specialist perinatal care and management between January 2019 and May 2022. Deidentified ultrasound images were reviewed independently by two experienced operators blinded to clinical details, intraoperative features, outcome and histopathologic findings. The diagnosis of PAS was confirmed by failure of detachment of one or more placental cotyledons from the uterine wall at delivery, and the absence of decidua with distortion of the uteroplacental interface by fibrinoid deposition on histologic examination of the accretic areas obtained by guided sampling of partial myometrial resection or hysterectomy specimens. Patients were categorized as having a low or high likelihood of PAS at birth. Interobserver agreement of prenatal ultrasound assessment with histopathologic confirmation of PAS was assessed using the kappa statistic. Primary outcome was major operative morbidity (blood loss ≥ 2000 mL, unintentional injury to the viscera, admission to intensive care unit or death). RESULTS: A total of 102 women at high risk of PAS were referred, of whom 66 had evidence of PAS at birth and 36 did not. When blinded to other clinical details, the examiners agreed on the low or high probability of PAS, according to ultrasound features, in 75/102 cases (73.5%). The kappa statistic was 0.47 (95% CI, 0.28-0.66), showing moderate agreement. Morbidity was twice as common with concordant prenatal diagnosis of PAS vs concordant diagnosis of not PAS. Concordant assessment of high probability of PAS was associated with the highest morbidity (66.6%) and a very high (97.6%) likelihood of histopathologic confirmation. CONCLUSIONS: The probability of histopathologic confirmation is very high with concordant prenatal assessment suggestive of PAS. The interobserver agreement for preoperative assessment with histopathologic confirmation of PAS is only moderate. Morbidity is associated with both histopathologic diagnosis and concordant antenatal assessment of PAS. © 2023 The Authors. Ultrasound in Obstetrics & Gynecology published by John Wiley & Sons Ltd on behalf of International Society of Ultrasound in Obstetrics and Gynecology

Parent and child agreement for acute stress disorder, post-traumatic stress disorder and other psychopathology in a prospective study of children and adolescents exposed to single-event trauma

Examining parent-child agreement for Acute Stress Disorder (ASD) and Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD) in children and adolescents is essential for informing the assessment of trauma-exposed children, yet no studies have examined this relationship using appropriate statistical techniques. Parent-child agreement for these disorders was examined by structured interview in a prospective study of assault and motor vehicle accident (MVA) child survivors, assessed at 2-4 weeks and 6 months post-trauma. Children were significantly more likely to meet criteria for ASD, as well as other ASD and PTSD symptom clusters, based on their own report than on their parent's report. Parent-child agreement for ASD was poor (Cohen's κ = -.04), but fair for PTSD (Cohen's κ = .21). Agreement ranged widely for other emotional disorders (Cohen's κ = -.07-.64), with generalised anxiety disorder found to have superior parent-child agreement (when assessed by phi coefficients) relative to ASD and PTSD. The findings support the need to directly interview children and adolescents, particularly for the early screening of posttraumatic stress, and suggest that other anxiety disorders may have a clearer presentation post-trauma

Dynamic 3D shape of the plantar surface of the foot using coded structured light:a technical report

The foot provides a crucial contribution to the balance and stability of the musculoskeletal system, and accurate foot measurements are important in applications such as designing custom insoles/footwear. With better understanding of the dynamic behavior of the foot, dynamic foot reconstruction techniques are surfacing as useful ways to properly measure the shape of the foot. This paper presents a novel design and implementation of a structured-light prototype system providing dense three dimensional (3D) measurements of the foot in motion. The input to the system is a video sequence of a foot during a single step; the output is a 3D reconstruction of the plantar surface of the foot for each frame of the input. Methods Engineering and clinical tests were carried out to test the accuracy and repeatability of the system. Accuracy experiments involved imaging a planar surface from different orientations and elevations and measuring the fitting errors of the data to a plane. Repeatability experiments were done using reconstructions from 27 different subjects, where for each one both right and left feet were reconstructed in static and dynamic conditions over two different days. Results The static accuracy of the system was found to be 0.3 mm with planar test objects. In tests with real feet, the system proved repeatable, with reconstruction differences between trials one week apart averaging 2.4 mm (static case) and 2.8 mm (dynamic case). Conclusion The results obtained in the experiments show positive accuracy and repeatability results when compared to current literature. The design also shows to be superior to the systems available in the literature in several factors. Further studies need to be done to quantify the reliability of the system in clinical environment

Time-Fractional Optimal Control of Initial Value Problems on Time Scales

We investigate Optimal Control Problems (OCP) for fractional systems involving fractional-time derivatives on time scales. The fractional-time derivatives and integrals are considered, on time scales, in the Riemann--Liouville sense. By using the Banach fixed point theorem, sufficient conditions for existence and uniqueness of solution to initial value problems described by fractional order differential equations on time scales are known. Here we consider a fractional OCP with a performance index given as a delta-integral function of both state and control variables, with time evolving on an arbitrarily given time scale. Interpreting the Euler--Lagrange first order optimality condition with an adjoint problem, defined by means of right Riemann--Liouville fractional delta derivatives, we obtain an optimality system for the considered fractional OCP. For that, we first prove new fractional integration by parts formulas on time scales.Comment: This is a preprint of a paper accepted for publication as a book chapter with Springer International Publishing AG. Submitted 23/Jan/2019; revised 27-March-2019; accepted 12-April-2019. arXiv admin note: substantial text overlap with arXiv:1508.0075

Knowledge and training in paediatric medical traumatic stress and trauma-informed care among emergency medical professionals in low- and middle-income countries

© 2018, © 2018 The Author(s). Published by Informa UK Limited, trading as Taylor & Francis Group. Background: Provision of psychosocial care, in particular trauma-informed care, in the immediate aftermath of paediatric injury is a recommended strategy to minimize the risk of paediatric medical traumatic stress. Objective: To examine the knowledge of paediatric medical traumatic stress and perspectives on providing trauma-informed care among emergency staff working in low- and middle-income countries (LMICs). Method: Training status, knowledge of paediatric medical traumatic stress, attitudes towards incorporating psychosocial care and barriers experienced were assessed using an online self-report questionnaire. Respondents included 320 emergency staff from 58 LMICs. Data analyses included descriptive statistics, t-tests and multiple regression. Results: Participating emergency staff working in LMICs had a low level of knowledge of paediatric medical traumatic stress. Ninety-one percent of respondents had not received any training or education in paediatric medical traumatic stress, or trauma-informed care for injured children, while 94% of respondents indicated they wanted training in this area. Conclusions: There appears to be a need for training and education of emergency staff in LMICs regarding paediatric medical traumatic stress and trauma-informed care, in particular among staff working in comparatively lower income countries