Animal-borne telemetry: An integral component of the ocean observing toolkit

Animal telemetry is a powerful tool for observing marine animals and the physical environments that they inhabit, from coastal and continental shelf ecosystems to polar seas and open oceans. Satellite-linked biologgers and networks of acoustic receivers allow animals to be reliably monitored over scales of tens of meters to thousands of kilometers, giving insight into their habitat use, home range size, the phenology of migratory patterns and the biotic and abiotic factors that drive their distributions. Furthermore, physical environmental variables can be collected using animals as autonomous sampling platforms, increasing spatial and temporal coverage of global oceanographic observation systems. The use of animal telemetry, therefore, has the capacity to provide measures from a suite of essential ocean variables (EOVs) for improved monitoring of Earth's oceans. Here we outline the design features of animal telemetry systems, describe current applications and their benefits and challenges, and discuss future directions. We describe new analytical techniques that improve our ability to not only quantify animal movements but to also provide a powerful framework for comparative studies across taxa. We discuss the application of animal telemetry and its capacity to collect biotic and abiotic data, how the data collected can be incorporated into ocean observing systems, and the role these data can play in improved ocean management

Allergic reaction to undeclared lupin in a chocolate

Depto. de Bioquímica y Biología MolecularFac. de Ciencias QuímicasTRUEpubAPC financiada por la UC

Long-term persistence of human donor alveolar macrophages in lung transplant recipients

Background Alveolar macrophages (AMFs) are critical regulators of lung function, and may participate in graft rejection following lung transplantation. Recent studies in experimental animals suggest that most AMFs are self-maintaining cells of embryonic origin, but knowledge about the ontogeny and life span of human AMFs is scarce. Methods To follow the origin and longevity of AMFs in patients with lung transplantation for more than 100 weeks, we obtained transbronchial biopsies from 10 gender-mismatched patients with lung transplantation. These were subjected to combined in situ hybridisation for X/Y chromosomes and immunofluorescence staining for macrophage markers. Moreover, development of AMFs in humanised mice reconstituted with CD34+ umbilical cord-derived cells was assessed. Results The number of donor-derived AMFs was unchanged during the 2 year post-transplantation period. A fraction of the AMFs proliferated locally, demonstrating that at least a subset of human AMFs have the capacity to self-renew. Lungs of humanised mice were found to abundantly contain populations of human AMFs expressing markers compatible with a monocyte origin. Moreover, in patients with lung transplantation we found that recipient monocytes seeded the alveoli early after transplantation, and showed subsequent phenotypical changes consistent with differentiation into proliferating mature AMFs. This resulted in a stable mixed chimerism between donor and recipient AMFs throughout the 2-year period. Conclusions The finding that human AMFs are maintained in the lung parenchyma for several years indicates that pulmonary macrophage transplantation can be a feasible therapeutic option for patients with diseases caused by dysfunctional AMFs. Moreover, in a lung transplantation setting, long-term persistence of donor AMFs may be important for the development of chronic graft rejection

Telemedicine with special focus on allergic diseases and asthma—Status 2022: An EAACI position paper

Efficacious, effective and efficient communication between healthcare professionals (HCP) and patients is essential to achieve a successful therapeutic alliance. Telemedicine (TM) has been used for decades but during the COVID-19 pandemic its use has become widespread. This position paper aims to describe the terminology and most important forms of TM among HCP and patients and review the existing studies on the uses of TM for asthma and allergy. Besides, the advantages and risks of TM are discussed, concluding that TM application reduces costs and time for both, HCP and patients, but cannot completely replace face-to-face visits for physical examinations and certain tests that are critical in asthma and allergy. From an ethical point of view, it is important to identify those involved in the TM process, ensure confidentiality and use communication channels that fully guarantee the security of the information. Unmet needs and directions for the future regarding implementation, data protection, privacy regulations, methodology and efficacy are described

The importance of sample size in marine megafauna tagging studies

Telemetry is a key, widely used tool to understand marine megafauna distribution, habitat use, behavior, and physiology; however, a critical question remains: “How many animals should be tracked to acquire meaningful data sets?” This question has wide-ranging implications including considerations of statistical power, animal ethics, logistics, and cost. While power analyses can inform sample sizes needed for statistical significance, they require some initial data inputs that are often unavailable. To inform the planning of telemetry and biologging studies of marine megafauna where few or no data are available or where resources are limited, we reviewed the types of information that have been obtained in previously published studies using different sample sizes. We considered sample sizes from one to >100 individuals and synthesized empirical findings, detailing the information that can be gathered with increasing sample sizes. We complement this review with simulations, using real data, to show the impact of sample size when trying to address various research questions in movement ecology of marine megafauna. We also highlight the value of collaborative, synthetic studies to enhance sample sizes and broaden the range, scale, and scope of questions that can be answered.A. M. M. Sequeira was supported by an ARC Grant (DE170100841), and the Australian Institute of Marine Science, G.C. Hays by the Bertarelli Foundation as part of the Bertarelli Programme in Marine Science, and H. J. Calich by an Australian Government RTP scholarship at UWA. Workshop funding was granted to M. Thums, A. M. M. Sequeira, and C. M. Duarte by the UWA Oceans Institute, the Australian Institute of Marine Science, and the Office of Sponsored Research at King Abdullah University of Science and Technology (KAUST)

Does niche competition determine the origin of tissue-resident macrophages?

Most tissue-resident macrophages are derived from embryonic precursors but, under certain circumstances, circulating monocytes can differentiate into self-maintaining tissue-resident macrophages that resemble their embryonic counterparts. In this Opinion article, we propose that distinct macrophage precursors have an almost identical potential to develop into resident macrophages but they compete for a restricted number of niches. The tight regulation of the niche ensures that monocytes do not differentiate into macrophages when the niche is full but that these cells can differentiate efficiently into macrophages when the niche is available. Imprinting by the niche would be the dominant factor conferring macrophage identity and self-maintenance capacity, rather than origin as was previously proposed