Nitrogen load predictions under land management scenarios for a boreal river basin in northern Finland

In Finland municipal and industrial waste water purification has effectively decreased nutrient emissions from point sources leading to improved water quality. No clear effects of decreasing non-point loading (atmospheric deposition, agriculture, forestry) are found, however, and nitrate concentrations are increasing in some rivers. The aim of this study was to determine the origin and timing of inorganic nitrogen loading to the Simojoki using the dynamic, semi-distributed INCA-N model. The simulation results showed that, at the river outlet, only about half of the inorganic nitrogen load originated from anthropogenic sources. The inorganic nitrogen load largely depended on runoff and half of the annual load was centred around the snowmelt period in April–May. There was a risk of increasing nitrogen load due to changes in agricultural land use. Water protection measures at all diffuse sources could decrease the anthropogenic part of the inorganic N load to the sea, but individual measures would only result in small reductions

Histomic and transcriptomic features of MRI-visible and invisible clinically significant prostate cancers are associated with prognosis

Magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) is increasingly used to triage patients for prostate biopsy. However, 9% to 24% of clinically significant (cs) prostate cancers (PCas) are not visible in MRI. We aimed to identify histomic and transcriptomic determinants of MRI visibility and their association to metastasis, and PCa-specific death (PCSD). We studied 45 radical prostatectomy-treated patients with csPCa (grade group [GG]2-3), including 30 with MRI-visible and 15 with MRI-invisible lesions, and 18 men without PCa. First, histological composition was quantified. Next, transcriptomic profiling was performed using NanoString technology. MRI visibility-associated differentially expressed genes (DEGs) and Reactome pathways were identified. MRI visibility was classified using publicly available genes in MSK-IMPACT and Decipher, Oncotype DX, and Prolaris. Finally, DEGs and clinical parameters were used to classify metastasis and PCSD in an external cohort, which included 76 patients with metastatic GG2-4 PCa, and 84 baseline-matched controls without progression. Luminal area was lower in MRI-visible than invisible lesions and low luminal area was associated with short metastasis-free and PCa-specific survival. We identified 67 DEGs, eight of which were associated with survival. Cell division, inflammation and transcriptional regulation pathways were upregulated in MRI-visible csPCas. Genes in Decipher, Oncotype DX and MSK-IMPACT performed well in classifying MRI visibility (AUC = 0.86-0.94). DEGs improved classification of metastasis (AUC = 0.69) and PCSD (AUC = 0.68) over clinical parameters. Our data reveals that MRI-visible csPCas harbor more aggressive histomic and transcriptomic features than MRI-invisible csPCas. Thus, targeted biopsy of visible lesions may be sufficient for risk stratification in patients with a positive MRI