Higher Education Systems and Institutions, Qatar

The tertiary education sector in Qatar has grown very rapidly, viewed as key to national development on the path to the “knowledge society,” also to reduce its reliance on limited natural resources. The states of the Islamic world, with a significant but long-obscured past of scientific achievement, are witnessing a contemporary renaissance. The establishment of international offshore, satellite or branch campuses in the Persian or Arabian Gulf region emphasizes the dynamism of higher education development. With a history of several decades, Qatar’s higher education and science policies join contrasting strategies prevalent in capacity building attempts worldwide – to emulate the strongest global exemplars through importation as well as to cultivate local, indigenous assets. Thus, university-related and science policymaking on the peninsula has been designed to directly connect with global developments while building local capacity in higher education and scientific productivit

Quantifying the relative roles of selective and neutral processes in defining eukaryotic microbial communities

We have a limited understanding of the relative contributions of different processes that regulate microbial communities, which are crucial components of both natural and agricultural ecosystems. The contributions of selective and neutral processes in defining community composition are often confounded in field studies because as one moves through space, environments also change. Managed ecosystems provide an excellent opportunity to control for this and evaluate the relative strength of these processes by minimising differences between comparable niches separated at different geographic scales. We use next-generation sequencing to characterize the variance in fungal communities inhabiting adjacent fruit, soil and bark in comparable vineyards across 1000 kms in New Zealand. By compartmentalizing community variation, we reveal that niche explains at least four times more community variance than geographic location. We go beyond merely demonstrating that different communities are found in both different niches and locations by quantifying the forces that define these patterns. Overall, selection unsurprisingly predominantly shapes these microbial communities, but we show the balance of neutral processes also have a significant role in defining community assemblage in eukaryotic microbes

Habitat Fragmentation, Variable Edge Effects, and the Landscape-Divergence Hypothesis

Edge effects are major drivers of change in many fragmented landscapes, but are often highly variable in space and time. Here we assess variability in edge effects altering Amazon forest dynamics, plant community composition, invading species, and carbon storage, in the world's largest and longest-running experimental study of habitat fragmentation. Despite detailed knowledge of local landscape conditions, spatial variability in edge effects was only partially foreseeable: relatively predictable effects were caused by the differing proximity of plots to forest edge and varying matrix vegetation, but windstorms generated much random variability. Temporal variability in edge phenomena was also only partially predictable: forest dynamics varied somewhat with fragment age, but also fluctuated markedly over time, evidently because of sporadic droughts and windstorms. Given the acute sensitivity of habitat fragments to local landscape and weather dynamics, we predict that fragments within the same landscape will tend to converge in species composition, whereas those in different landscapes will diverge in composition. This ‘landscape-divergence hypothesis’, if generally valid, will have key implications for biodiversity-conservation strategies and for understanding the dynamics of fragmented ecosystems

Evolution of Burkholderia pseudomallei in Recurrent Melioidosis

Burkholderia pseudomallei, the etiologic agent of human melioidosis, is capable of causing severe acute infection with overwhelming septicemia leading to death. A high rate of recurrent disease occurs in adult patients, most often due to recrudescence of the initial infecting strain. Pathogen persistence and evolution during such relapsing infections are not well understood. Bacterial cells present in the primary inoculum and in late infections may differ greatly, as has been observed in chronic disease, or they may be genetically similar. To test these alternative models, we conducted whole-genome comparisons of clonal primary and relapse B. pseudomallei isolates recovered six months to six years apart from four adult Thai patients. We found differences within each of the four pairs, and some, including a 330 Kb deletion, affected substantial portions of the genome. Many of the changes were associated with increased antibiotic resistance. We also found evidence of positive selection for deleterious mutations in a TetR family transcriptional regulator from a set of 107 additional B. pseudomallei strains. As part of the study, we sequenced to base-pair accuracy the genome of B. pseudomallei strain 1026b, the model used for genetic studies of B. pseudomallei pathogenesis and antibiotic resistance. Our findings provide new insights into pathogen evolution during long-term infections and have important implications for the development of intervention strategies to combat recurrent melioidosis

Rhabdomyoblastic Differentiation in Head and Neck Malignancies Other Than Rhabdomyosarcoma

Rhabdomyosarcoma is a relatively common soft tissue sarcoma that frequently affects children and adolescents and may involve the head and neck. Rhabdomyosarcoma is defined by skeletal muscle differentiation which can be suggested by routine histology and confirmed by immunohistochemistry for the skeletal muscle-specific markers myogenin or myoD1. At the same time, it must be remembered that when it comes to head and neck malignancies, skeletal muscle differentiation is not limited to rhabdomyosarcoma. A lack of awareness of this phenomenon could lead to misdiagnosis and, subsequently, inappropriate therapeutic interventions. This review focuses on malignant neoplasms of the head and neck other than rhabdomyosarcoma that may exhibit rhabdomyoblastic differentiation, with an emphasis on strategies to resolve the diagnostic dilemmas these tumors may present. Axiomatically, no primary central nervous system tumors will be discussed.info:eu-repo/semantics/publishedVersio

ISSN exercise & sport nutrition review: research & recommendations

Sports nutrition is a constantly evolving field with hundreds of research papers published annually. For this reason, keeping up to date with the literature is often difficult. This paper is a five year update of the sports nutrition review article published as the lead paper to launch the JISSN in 2004 and presents a well-referenced overview of the current state of the science related to how to optimize training and athletic performance through nutrition. More specifically, this paper provides an overview of: 1.) The definitional category of ergogenic aids and dietary supplements; 2.) How dietary supplements are legally regulated; 3.) How to evaluate the scientific merit of nutritional supplements; 4.) General nutritional strategies to optimize performance and enhance recovery; and, 5.) An overview of our current understanding of the ergogenic value of nutrition and dietary supplementation in regards to weight gain, weight loss, and performance enhancement. Our hope is that ISSN members and individuals interested in sports nutrition find this review useful in their daily practice and consultation with their clients