High Macroalgal Cover and Low Coral Recruitment Undermines the Potential Resilience of the World's Southernmost Coral Reef Assemblages

Coral reefs are under increasing pressure from anthropogenic and climate-induced stressors. The ability of reefs to reassemble and regenerate after disturbances (i.e., resilience) is largely dependent on the capacity of herbivores to prevent macroalgal expansion, and the replenishment of coral populations through larval recruitment. Currently there is a paucity of this information for higher latitude, subtropical reefs. To assess the potential resilience of the benthic reef assemblages of Lord Howe Island (31°32′S, 159°04′E), the worlds' southernmost coral reef, we quantified the benthic composition, densities of juvenile corals (as a proxy for coral recruitment), and herbivorous fish communities. Despite some variation among habitats and sites, benthic communities were dominated by live scleractinian corals (mean cover 37.4%) and fleshy macroalgae (20.9%). Live coral cover was higher than in most other subtropical reefs and directly comparable to lower latitude tropical reefs. Juvenile coral densities (0.8 ind.m−2), however, were 5–200 times lower than those reported for tropical reefs. Overall, macroalgal cover was negatively related to the cover of live coral and the density of juvenile corals, but displayed no relationship with herbivorous fish biomass. The biomass of herbivorous fishes was relatively low (204 kg.ha−1), and in marked contrast to tropical reefs was dominated by macroalgal browsing species (84.1%) with relatively few grazing species. Despite their extremely low biomass, grazing fishes were positively related to both the density of juvenile corals and the cover of bare substrata, suggesting that they may enhance the recruitment of corals through the provision of suitable settlement sites. Although Lord Howe Islands' reefs are currently coral-dominated, the high macroalgal cover, coupled with limited coral recruitment and low coral growth rates suggest these reefs may be extremely susceptible to future disturbances

BioTIME: A database of biodiversity time series for the Anthropocene.

MotivationThe BioTIME database contains raw data on species identities and abundances in ecological assemblages through time. These data enable users to calculate temporal trends in biodiversity within and amongst assemblages using a broad range of metrics. BioTIME is being developed as a community-led open-source database of biodiversity time series. Our goal is to accelerate and facilitate quantitative analysis of temporal patterns of biodiversity in the Anthropocene.Main types of variables includedThe database contains 8,777,413 species abundance records, from assemblages consistently sampled for a minimum of 2 years, which need not necessarily be consecutive. In addition, the database contains metadata relating to sampling methodology and contextual information about each record.Spatial location and grainBioTIME is a global database of 547,161 unique sampling locations spanning the marine, freshwater and terrestrial realms. Grain size varies across datasets from 0.0000000158 km2 (158 cm2) to 100 km2 (1,000,000,000,000 cm2).Time period and grainBioTIME records span from 1874 to 2016. The minimal temporal grain across all datasets in BioTIME is a year.Major taxa and level of measurementBioTIME includes data from 44,440 species across the plant and animal kingdoms, ranging from plants, plankton and terrestrial invertebrates to small and large vertebrates.Software format.csv and .SQL

Functional and Molecular Effects of Arginine Butyrate and Prednisone on Muscle and Heart in the mdx Mouse Model of Duchenne Muscular Dystrophy

The number of promising therapeutic interventions for Duchenne Muscular Dystrophy (DMD) is increasing rapidly. One of the proposed strategies is to use drugs that are known to act by multiple different mechanisms including inducing of homologous fetal form of adult genes, for example utrophin in place of dystrophin.In this study, we have treated mdx mice with arginine butyrate, prednisone, or a combination of arginine butyrate and prednisone for 6 months, beginning at 3 months of age, and have comprehensively evaluated the functional, biochemical, histological, and molecular effects of the treatments in this DMD model. Arginine butyrate treatment improved grip strength and decreased fibrosis in the gastrocnemius muscle, but did not produce significant improvement in muscle and cardiac histology, heart function, behavioral measurements, or serum creatine kinase levels. In contrast, 6 months of chronic continuous prednisone treatment resulted in deterioration in functional, histological, and biochemical measures. Arginine butyrate-treated mice gene expression profiling experiments revealed that several genes that control cell proliferation, growth and differentiation are differentially expressed consistent with its histone deacetylase inhibitory activity when compared to control (saline-treated) mdx mice. Prednisone and combination treated groups showed alterations in the expression of genes that control fibrosis, inflammation, myogenesis and atrophy.These data indicate that 6 months treatment with arginine butyrate can produce modest beneficial effects on dystrophic pathology in mdx mice by reducing fibrosis and promoting muscle function while chronic continuous treatment with prednisone showed deleterious effects to skeletal and cardiac muscle. Our results clearly indicate the usefulness of multiple assays systems to monitor both beneficial and toxic effects of drugs with broad range of in vivo activity

Reducing the environmental impact of surgery on a global scale: systematic review and co-prioritization with healthcare workers in 132 countries

Abstract Background Healthcare cannot achieve net-zero carbon without addressing operating theatres. The aim of this study was to prioritize feasible interventions to reduce the environmental impact of operating theatres. Methods This study adopted a four-phase Delphi consensus co-prioritization methodology. In phase 1, a systematic review of published interventions and global consultation of perioperative healthcare professionals were used to longlist interventions. In phase 2, iterative thematic analysis consolidated comparable interventions into a shortlist. In phase 3, the shortlist was co-prioritized based on patient and clinician views on acceptability, feasibility, and safety. In phase 4, ranked lists of interventions were presented by their relevance to high-income countries and low–middle-income countries. Results In phase 1, 43 interventions were identified, which had low uptake in practice according to 3042 professionals globally. In phase 2, a shortlist of 15 intervention domains was generated. In phase 3, interventions were deemed acceptable for more than 90 per cent of patients except for reducing general anaesthesia (84 per cent) and re-sterilization of ‘single-use’ consumables (86 per cent). In phase 4, the top three shortlisted interventions for high-income countries were: introducing recycling; reducing use of anaesthetic gases; and appropriate clinical waste processing. In phase 4, the top three shortlisted interventions for low–middle-income countries were: introducing reusable surgical devices; reducing use of consumables; and reducing the use of general anaesthesia. Conclusion This is a step toward environmentally sustainable operating environments with actionable interventions applicable to both high– and low–middle–income countries

Protein composition and movements of membrane swellings associated with primary cilia

Dysfunction of many ciliary proteins has been linked to a list of diseases, from cystic kidney to obesity and from hypertension to mental retardation. We previously proposed that primary cilia are unique communication organelles that function as microsensory compartments that house mechanosensory molecules. Here we report that primary cilia exhibit membrane swellings, which based on their unique ultrastructure and motility, could be mechanically regulated by fluid-shear stress. Together with the ultrastructure analysis of the bulb, which contains monosialodihexosylganglioside (GM3), our results show that ciliary membrane swelling has a distinctive set of functional proteins, including GM3 synthase (GM3S), bicaudal-c1 (Bicc1) and polycystin-2 (PC2). In fact, results from our cilia isolation demonstrated for the first time that GM3S and Bicc1 are members of the primary cilia proteins. Although these proteins are not required for ciliary membrane swelling formation under static condition, fluid-shear stress induced swelling formation is partially modulated by GM3S. We therefore propose that the ciliary membrane swelling exhibits a sensory function within the mechano-ciliary structure. Overall, our studies provided an important step toward understanding the ciliary membrane swelling function and structure