Establishing What Constitutes a Healthy Human Gut Microbiome: State of the Science, Regulatory Considerations, and Future Directions.

On December 17, 2018, the North American branch of the International Life Sciences Institute (ILSI North America) convened a workshop "Can We Begin to Define a Healthy Gut Microbiome Through Quantifiable Characteristics?" with >40 invited academic, government, and industry experts in Washington, DC. The workshop objectives were to 1) develop a collective expert assessment of the state of the evidence on the human gut microbiome and associated human health benefits, 2) see if there was sufficient evidence to establish measurable gut microbiome characteristics that could serve as indicators of "health," 3) identify short- and long-term research needs to fully characterize healthy gut microbiome-host relationships, and 4) publish the findings. Conclusions were as follows: 1) mechanistic links of specific changes in gut microbiome structure with function or markers of human health are not yet established; 2) it is not established if dysbiosis is a cause, consequence, or both of changes in human gut epithelial function and disease; 3) microbiome communities are highly individualized, show a high degree of interindividual variation to perturbation, and tend to be stable over years; 4) the complexity of microbiome-host interactions requires a comprehensive, multidisciplinary research agenda to elucidate relationships between gut microbiome and host health; 5) biomarkers and/or surrogate indicators of host function and pathogenic processes based on the microbiome need to be determined and validated, along with normal ranges, using approaches similar to those used to establish biomarkers and/or surrogate indicators based on host metabolic phenotypes; 6) future studies measuring responses to an exposure or intervention need to combine validated microbiome-related biomarkers and/or surrogate indicators with multiomics characterization of the microbiome; and 7) because static genetic sampling misses important short- and long-term microbiome-related dynamic changes to host health, future studies must be powered to account for inter- and intraindividual variation and should use repeated measures within individuals

アイヅチ ノ スピーチ レベル ト ソノ シフト ニ ツイテ ニホンゴ ボゴワシャ ト カンコクジン ガクシュウシャ ノ ソウイ

日本語母語話者同士の会話では、友人と友人のように固定された人間関係であっても、スピーチレベルは一定になっていないことが先行研究で報告されている。しかし、先行研究で扱っているものは話し手のレベルシフトがほとんどで、聞き手の行なうあいづちに関するものはわずかであり、さらに日本語学習者を対象としたのは管見の限りではなかった。 本稿では、日本語母語話者と、韓国で学習する韓国人上級日本語学習者を対象にして、あいづちのスピーチレベルはどうなっているのか、またレベルシフトがどのように起こるのかについて会話の録音資料をもとに考察した。 分析の結果、あいづちのスピーチレベルについては、日本語母語話者ではほぼ一定してカジュアルスタイルであったのに対し、韓国人学習者は一定していないことが分かった。また、レベルシフトについては、日本語母語話者の場合、わずかではあるがレベルシフトが起こる部分が見られた。この部分について詳しく観察した結果、会話開始部と、何らかの談話の単位の終結部にレベルシフトが起こることが分かった。韓国人学習者についてはレベルシフトは多く見られたが、そこに顕著な傾向を見出すことはできなかった。In this paper, I have investigated speech levels of aizuchi and their level shifts in Japanese conversation among native Japanese and advanced-level Korean learners of Japanese who study outside Japan. Native Japanese speech levels are mostly fixed in casual style, while those of Korean learners are not fixed. Moreover, although the level shifts that take place among native Japanese only occurred slightly at the beginning of conversations and at the conclusion of each unit of discourse, such features were not found among Korean learners

Fluid Ontologies in the Search for MH370

This paper gives an account of the disappearance of Malaysian Airways Flight MH370 into the southern Indian Ocean in March 2014 and analyses the rare glimpses into remote ocean space this incident opened up. It follows the tenuous clues as to where the aeroplane might have come to rest after it disappeared from radar screens – seven satellite pings, hundreds of pieces of floating debris and six underwater sonic recordings – as ways of entering into and thinking about ocean space. The paper pays attention to and analyses this space on three registers – first, as a fluid, more-than-human materiality with particular properties and agencies; second, as a synthetic situation, a composite of informational bits and pieces scopically articulated and augmented; and third, as geopolitics, delineated by the protocols of international search and rescue. On all three registers – as matter, as data and as law – the ocean is shown to be ontologically fluid, a world defined by movement, flow and flux, posing intractable difficulties for human interactions with it

Urban coral reefs: Degradation and resilience of hard coral assemblages in coastal cities of East and Southeast Asia

© 2018 The Author(s) Given predicted increases in urbanization in tropical and subtropical regions, understanding the processes shaping urban coral reefs may be essential for anticipating future conservation challenges. We used a case study approach to identify unifying patterns of urban coral reefs and clarify the effects of urbanization on hard coral assemblages. Data were compiled from 11 cities throughout East and Southeast Asia, with particular focus on Singapore, Jakarta, Hong Kong, and Naha (Okinawa). Our review highlights several key characteristics of urban coral reefs, including “reef compression” (a decline in bathymetric range with increasing turbidity and decreasing water clarity over time and relative to shore), dominance by domed coral growth forms and low reef complexity, variable city-specific inshore-offshore gradients, early declines in coral cover with recent fluctuating periods of acute impacts and rapid recovery, and colonization of urban infrastructure by hard corals. We present hypotheses for urban reef community dynamics and discuss potential of ecological engineering for corals in urban areas

Outcomes from elective colorectal cancer surgery during the SARS-CoV-2 pandemic

This study aimed to describe the change in surgical practice and the impact of SARS-CoV-2 on mortality after surgical resection of colorectal cancer during the initial phases of the SARS-CoV-2 pandemic