Hydrothermal alteration of andesitic lava domes can lead to explosive volcanic behaviour

Dome-forming volcanoes are among the most hazardous volcanoes on Earth. Magmatic outgassing can be hindered if the permeability of a lava dome is reduced, promoting pore pressure augmentation and explosive behaviour. Laboratory data show that acid-sulphate alteration, common to volcanoes worldwide, can reduce the permeability on the sample lengthscale by up to four orders of magnitude and is the result of pore- and microfracture-filling mineral precipitation. Calculations using these data demonstrate that intense alteration can reduce the equivalent permeability of a dome by two orders of magnitude, which we show using numerical modelling to be sufficient to increase pore pressure. The fragmentation criterion shows that the predicted pore pressure increase is capable of fragmenting the majority of dome-forming materials, thus promoting explosive volcanism. It is crucial that hydrothermal alteration, which develops over months to years, is monitored at dome-forming volcanoes and is incorporated into real-time hazard assessments

Assessment of ecosystem services of an urbanized tropical estuary with a focus on habitats and scenarios

Tropical estuaries are one of the most valuable ecosystems on the planet because of the number of ecosystem services they provide. The increasing anthropogenic pressure to which these estuaries are subject has caused a reduction in their natural capital stock. Therefore, the application of a pragmatic and rational ecosystem-based management approach to sustainably manage the multiple ecosystem services provided by this ecosystem is necessary. The aim of our study is to present an approach that combines prospective scenarios with habitat-based perspective to assess the supply capacity of ecosystem services, plus determine the impact of protected areas in an urbanized tropical estuary. The current situation and two scenarios were generated to evaluate the capacity of habitats to supply ecosystem services. This type of assessment will allow the decision makers to visualize the effect of their choices or the occurrence of events which might produce significant changes in the estuary. Thus, over time, measures can be taken to sustain the supply of ecosystem services. We determined that the establishment of protected areas have a positive impact; however, the effect is not the same for all of them. Consequently, indicating that actions such as community participation, research, education, management planning and infrastructure development must accompany the development of a protected area

Genome-Wide Expression Profiling of Five Mouse Models Identifies Similarities and Differences with Human Psoriasis

Development of a suitable mouse model would facilitate the investigation of pathomechanisms underlying human psoriasis and would also assist in development of therapeutic treatments. However, while many psoriasis mouse models have been proposed, no single model recapitulates all features of the human disease, and standardized validation criteria for psoriasis mouse models have not been widely applied. In this study, whole-genome transcriptional profiling is used to compare gene expression patterns manifested by human psoriatic skin lesions with those that occur in five psoriasis mouse models (K5-Tie2, imiquimod, K14-AREG, K5-Stat3C and K5-TGFbeta1). While the cutaneous gene expression profiles associated with each mouse phenotype exhibited statistically significant similarity to the expression profile of psoriasis in humans, each model displayed distinctive sets of similarities and differences in comparison to human psoriasis. For all five models, correspondence to the human disease was strong with respect to genes involved in epidermal development and keratinization. Immune and inflammation-associated gene expression, in contrast, was more variable between models as compared to the human disease. These findings support the value of all five models as research tools, each with identifiable areas of convergence to and divergence from the human disease. Additionally, the approach used in this paper provides an objective and quantitative method for evaluation of proposed mouse models of psoriasis, which can be strategically applied in future studies to score strengths of mouse phenotypes relative to specific aspects of human psoriasis

Intramuscular injections in newborns: analgesic treatment and sex-linked response

Aim: To compare the analgesic effect of 3 treatments to relieve the pain produced by intramuscular injections (IMI) in term newborns, and to assess sex-linked differences in their response to pain. Material and methods: We studied 62 babies. Each baby received antibiotic IMIs for clinical aims. During each IMI, one of the following analgesic treatments was utilized: oral 33% glucose (OG), sensorial saturation (SS), or topic anesthetic cream (TAC). SS is a validated analgesic method, based on the combination of three stimulations (tactile, acoustic and gustative). During the IMI, pain level was assessed with the use of the DAN scale, a validated neonatal pain scale. All babies who received 3 distinct analgesic procedures for 3 distinct IMIs were enrolled. Mean pain scores of the 3 analgesic treatment groups were compared. We then compared mean pain scores of females vs males in the whole cohort and within each treatment group. Results: The 95% Confidence Intervals of pain scores were: 5.6-6.5 for TAC, 1.4-2.3 for OG and 0.6-1.2 for SS: when treated with TAC, babies' pain scores were significantly higher than with OG or SS ( p <0.0001); when treated with OG, babies' pain scores were higher than SS (p = 0.001). Females' mean pain score was significantly higher than males' mean pain score: (95% CI: 2.9-4.1 vs 2.0-3.1; p=0.001). OG and SS produced significantly higher mean DAN scores in females than in males. Also in the TAC group females' mean DAN scores were higher than males, though this last difference was not statistically significant. Conclusion: This is the first study to show the effectiveness of non-pharmacologic analgesia in relieving IMI pain. It is also the first study to clearly show that the sex-differences in pain perception are present since birth

Environment and early developmental care

The spectacular development of neonatal intensive care since the 1960s has allowed a drop in neonatal mortality of verylow- birth-weight (VLBW) infants from 50% to less than 15% in the last decade [1]. However 15 to 25% of the VLBW infants will present neurodevelopment impairment in the following fields: motor function, vision, auditory function, cognition, behavior, attention deficit and hyperactivity disorders, visual-motor integration and language [2, 3]. Compared to their term pairs there is substantial scientific evidence of altered early brain development [4]. These infants spend weeks and sometimes months in the neonatal intensive care unit (NICU), which is a quite different environment compared to what they would experience in utero. At this young age brain growth and development is particularly critical. The configuration of neurons is genetically predetermined, but the further organization and wiring of the neural circuits will depend on endogenous and exogenous stimulation. The existing evidence of interaction between environment and brain development has been extensively reviewed and better practices encouraged [5]. It is against the background of the potential harmful effects of the traditional NICU that developmental care and environmental strategies have gained more and more attention.SCOPUS: ch.binfo:eu-repo/semantics/publishe