Prevalence and associated features of depression in women with Rett Syndrome

Background Little is known about depression among women with Rett syndrome (RTT) despite recent advances in knowledge about RTT. In this study, we aimed to establish the prevalence of depression among women with RTT as identified by a screening telephone interview and to explore the clinical factors associated with this. Methods The study employed the cross-sectional analysis of data from telephone interviews with carers of 56 women with RTT, using validated questionnaires for assessing mental health problems, challenging behaviour and RTT severity. Results Scores on the mental health assessment reached the affective/neurotic threshold in eight cases (14.3%). No significant differences were found between those reaching the threshold and those who did not in terms of severity of RTT phenotype, health problems or social circumstances. There was a significant association between screening identified depression and higher lethargy and social withdrawal. Conclusions Screening identified depression was found among a sizeable minority of women with RTT. Further investigation is needed to establish a clinically validated prevalence of depression among this group and to identify behavioural features that would lead to prompt psychiatric assessment

Persist in place or shift in space? Evaluating the adaptive capacity of species to climate change

Assessing the vulnerability of species to climate change serves as the basis for climate-adaptation planning and climate-smart conservation, and typically involves an evaluation of exposure, sensitivity, and adaptive capacity (AC). AC is a species’ ability to cope with or adjust to changing climatic conditions, and is the least understood and most inconsistently applied of these three factors. We propose an attribute-based framework for evaluating the AC of species, identifying two general classes of adaptive responses: “persist in place” and “shift in space”. Persist-in-place attributes enable species to survive in situ, whereas the shift-in-space response emphasizes attributes that facilitate tracking of suitable bioclimatic conditions. We provide guidance for assessing AC attributes and demonstrate the framework's application for species with disparate life histories. Results illustrate the broad utility of this generalized framework for informing adaptation planning and guiding species conservation in a rapidly changing climate.publishedVersio

Genesis and preservation of a uranium-rich Paleozoic epithermal system with a surface expression (Northern Flinders Ranges, South Australia): radiogenic heat driving regional hydrothermal circulation over geological timescales

The surface expressions of hydrothermal systems are prime targets for astrobiological exploration, and fossil systems on Earth provide an analogue to guide this endeavor. The Paleozoic Mt. Gee–Mt. Painter system (MGPS) in the Northern Flinders Ranges of South Australia is exceptionally well preserved and displays both a subsurface quartz sinter (boiling horizon) and remnants of aerial sinter pools that lie in near-original position. The energy source for the MGPS is not related to volcanism but to radiogenic heat produced by U-Th-K-rich host rocks. This radiogenic heat source drove hydrothermal circulation over a long period of time (hundreds of millions of years, from Permian to present), with peaks in hydrothermal activity during periods of uplift and high water supply. This process is reflected by ongoing hot spring activity along a nearby fault. The exceptional preservation of the MGPS resulted from the lack of proximal volcanism, coupled with tectonics driven by an oscillating far-field stress that resulted in episodic basement uplift. Hydrothermal activity caused the remobilization of U and rare earth elements (REE) in host rocks into (sub)economic concentrations. Radiogenic-heat-driven systems are attractive analogues for environments that can sustain life over geological times; the MGPS preserves evidence of episodic fluid flow for the past 300 million years. During periods of reduced hydrothermal activity (e.g., limited water supply, quiet tectonics), radiolytic H2 production has the potential to support an ecosystem indefinitely. Remote exploration for deposits similar to those at the MGPS systems can be achieved by combining hyperspectral and gamma-ray spectroscopy.Joël Brugger, Pierre-Alain Wülser and John Fode

A Review of the Tools Used for Marine Monitoring in the UK: Combining Historic and Contemporary Methods with Modeling and Socioeconomics to Fulfill Legislative Needs and Scientific Ambitions

Marine environmental monitoring is undertaken to provide evidence that environmental management targets are being met. Moreover, monitoring also provides context to marine science and over the last century has allowed development of a critical scientific understanding of the marine environment and the impacts that humans are having on it. The seas around the UK are currently monitored by targeted, impact-driven, programmes (e.g., fishery or pollution based monitoring) often using traditional techniques, many of which have not changed significantly since the early 1900s. The advent of a new wave of automated technology, in combination with changing political and economic circumstances, means that there is currently a strong drive to move toward a more refined, efficient, and effective way of monitoring. We describe the policy and scientific rationale for monitoring our seas, alongside a comprehensive description of the types of equipment and methodology currently used and the technologies that are likely to be used in the future. We contextualize the way new technologies and methodologies may impact monitoring and discuss how whole ecosystems models can give an integrated, comprehensive approach to impact assessment. Furthermore, we discuss how an understanding of the value of each data point is crucial to assess the true costs and benefits to society of a marine monitoring programme

The evolution of a Gondwanan collisional orogen: A structural and geochronological appraisal from the Southern Granulite Terrane, South India

Gondwana amalgamated along a suite of Himalayan-scale collisional orogens, the roots of which lace the continents of Africa, South America, and Antarctica. The Southern Granulite Terrane of India is a generally well-exposed, exhumed, Gondwana-forming orogen that preserves a record of the tectonic evolution of the eastern margin of the East African Orogen during the Ediacaran-Cambrian (circa 600–500 Ma) as central Gondwana formed. The deformation associated with the closure of the Mozambique Ocean and collision of the Indian and East African/Madagascan cratonic domains is believed to have taken place along the southern margin of the Salem Block (the Palghat-Cauvery Shear System, PCSS) in the Southern Granulite Terrane. Investigation of the structural fabrics and the geochronology of the high-grade shear zones within the PCSS system shows that the Moyar-Salem-Attur shear zone to the north of the PCSS system is early Paleoproterozoic in age and associated with dextral strike-slip motion, while the Cauvery shear zone (CSZ) to the south of the PCSS system can be loosely constrained to circa 740–550 Ma and is associated with dip-slip dextral transpression and north side-up motion.To the south of the proposed suture zone (the Cauvery shear zone), the structural fabrics of the Northern Madurai Block suggest four deformational events (D1–D4), some of which are likely to be contemporaneous. The timing of high pressure-ultrahigh temperature metamorphism and deformation (D1–D3) in the Madurai Block (here interpreted as the southern extension of Azania) is constrained to circa 550–500 Ma and interpreted as representing collisional orogeny and subsequent orogenic collapse of the eastern margin of the East African Orogen. The disparity in the nature of the structural fabrics and the timing of the deformation in the Salem and the Madurai Blocks suggest that the two experienced distinct tectonothermal events prior to their amalgamation along the Cauvery shear zone during the Ediacaran/Cambrian

Developing a predictive modelling capacity for a climate change-vulnerable blanket bog habitat: Assessing 1961-1990 baseline relationships

Aim: Understanding the spatial distribution of high priority habitats and developing predictive models using climate and environmental variables to replicate these distributions are desirable conservation goals. The aim of this study was to model and elucidate the contributions of climate and topography to the distribution of a priority blanket bog habitat in Ireland, and to examine how this might inform the development of a climate change predictive capacity for peat-lands in Ireland. Methods: Ten climatic and two topographic variables were recorded for grid cells with a spatial resolution of 1010 km, covering 87% of the mainland land surface of Ireland. Presence-absence data were matched to these variables and generalised linear models (GLMs) fitted to identify the main climatic and terrain predictor variables for occurrence of the habitat. Candidate predictor variables were screened for collinearity, and the accuracy of the final fitted GLM was evaluated using fourfold cross-validation based on the area under the curve (AUC) derived from a receiver operating characteristic (ROC) plot. The GLM predicted habitat occurrence probability maps were mapped against the actual distributions using GIS techniques. Results: Despite the apparent parsimony of the initial GLM using only climatic variables, further testing indicated collinearity among temperature and precipitation variables for example. Subsequent elimination of the collinear variables and inclusion of elevation data produced an excellent performance based on the AUC scores of the final GLM. Mean annual temperature and total mean annual precipitation in combination with elevation range were the most powerful explanatory variable group among those explored for the presence of blanket bog habitat. Main conclusions: The results confirm that this habitat distribution in general can be modelled well using the non-collinear climatic and terrain variables tested at the grid resolution used. Mapping the GLM-predicted distribution to the observed distribution produced useful results in replicating the projected occurrence of the habitat distribution over an extensive area. The methods developed will usefully inform future climate change predictive modelling for Irelan