Bio-ORACLE: a global environmental dataset for marine species distribution modeling

The oceans harbor a great diversity of organisms whose distribution and ecological preferences are often poorly understood. Species distribution modeling (SDM) could improve our knowledge and inform marine ecosystem management and conservation. Although marine environmental data are available from various sources, there are currently no user-friendly, high-resolution global datasets designed for SDM applications. This study aims to ?ll this gap by assembling a comprehensive, uniform, high-resolution and readily usable package of global environmental rasters. We compiled global coverage data, e.g. satellite-based and in situ measured data, representing various aspects of the marine environment relevant for species distributions. Rasters were assembled at a resolution of 5 arcmin (c. 9.2 km) and a uniform landmask was applied. The utility of the dataset was evaluated by maximum entropy SDM of the invasive seaweed Codium fragile ssp. fragile. We present Bio-ORACLE (ocean rasters for analysis of climate and environment), a global dataset consisting of 23 geophysical, biotic and climate rasters. This user-friendly data package for marine species distribution modeling is available for download at http://www.bio-oracle.ugent.be. The high predictive power of the distribution model of C. fragile ssp. fragile clearly illustrates the potential of the data package for SDM of shallow-water marine organisms. The availability of this global environmental data package has the potential to stimulate marine SDM. The high predictive success of the presence-only model of a notorious invasive seaweed shows that the information contained in Bio-ORACLE can be informative about marine distributions and permits building highly accurate species distribution models

The effect of two different Individually Ventilated Cage systems on anxiety-related behaviour and welfare in two strains of laboratory mouse

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Improving transferability of introduced species' distribution models: new tools to forecast the spread of a highly invasive seaweed

Extent: 13 p.The utility of species distribution models for applications in invasion and global change biology is critically dependent on their transferability between regions or points in time, respectively. We introduce two methods that aim to improve the transferability of presence-only models: density-based occurrence thinning and performance-based predictor selection. We evaluate the effect of these methods along with the impact of the choice of model complexity and geographic background on the transferability of a species distribution model between geographic regions. Our multifactorial experiment focuses on the notorious invasive seaweed Caulerpa cylindracea (previously Caulerpa racemosa var. cylindracea) and uses Maxent, a commonly used presence-only modeling technique. We show that model transferability is markedly improved by appropriate predictor selection, with occurrence thinning, model complexity and background choice having relatively minor effects. The data shows that, if available, occurrence records from the native and invaded regions should be combined as this leads to models with high predictive power while reducing the sensitivity to choices made in the modeling process. The inferred distribution model of Caulerpa cylindracea shows the potential for this species to further spread along the coasts of Western Europe, western Africa and the south coast of Australia.Heroen Verbruggen, Lennert Tyberghein, Gareth S. Belton, Frederic Mineur, Alexander Jueterbock, Galice Hoarau, C. Frederico D. Gurgel, Olivier De Clerc

Weak Liouville-Arnold Theorems & Their Implications

This paper studies the existence of invariant smooth Lagrangian graphs for Tonelli Hamiltonian systems with symmetries. In particular, we consider Tonelli Hamiltonians with n independent but not necessarily involutive constants of motion and obtain two theorems reminiscent of the Liouville-Arnold theorem. Moreover, we also obtain results on the structure of the configuration spaces of such systems that are reminiscent of results on the configuration space of completely integrable Tonelli Hamiltonians.Comment: 24 pages, 1 figure; v2 corrects typo in online abstract; v3 includes new title (was: A Weak Liouville-Arnold Theorem), re-arrangement of introduction, re-numbering of main theorems; v4 updates the authors' email and physical addresses, clarifies notation in section 4. Final versio

Concurrent trastuzumab with adjuvant radiotherapy in HER2-positive breast cancer patients: acute toxicity analyses from the French multicentric study

Background: Trastuzumab (T) combined with chemotherapy has been recently shown to improve outcome in HER2-positive breast cancer (BC). The aim of this study was to evaluate the toxic effects of concurrent radiation therapy (RT) and T administration in the adjuvant setting. Patients and methods: Data of 146 patients with stages II-III HER2-positive BC were recorded. Median age was 46 years. In all, 32 (23%) and 114 (77%) patients received a weekly and a 3-week T schedule, respectively. A median dose of 50 Gy was delivered after surgery. Internal mammary chain (IMC) was irradiated in 103 (71%) patients. Results: Grade >2 dermatitis and esophagitis were noted in 51% and 12%, respectively. According to the Common Toxicity Criteria v3.0 scale and HERA (HERceptin Adjuvant) trial criteria, respectively, 10% and 6% of the patients had a grade ≥2 of left ventricular ejection fraction (LVEF) decrease after RT. Multivariate analyses revealed two independent prognostic factors: weekly T administration (for LVEF decrease) and menopausal status (for dermatitis). Higher level of T cumulative dose (>1600 mg) was only borderline of statistical significance for acute esophagitis toxicity. Conclusion: We showed that weekly concurrent T and RT are feasible in daily clinical practice with, however, a decrease of LVEF. Cardiac volume sparing and patient selections for IMC irradiation are highly recommended. Longer follow-up is warranted to evaluate late toxic effect

Subgroup analysis of patients with metastatic colorectal cancer (mCRC) treated with regorafenib (REG) in the CORRECT trial who had progression-free survival (PFS) longer than 4 months

No abstract availabl

Pervasive and opposing effects of Unpredictable Chronic Mild Stress (UCMS) on hippocampal gene expression in BALB/cJ and C57BL/6J mouse strains

Background: BALB/cJ is a strain susceptible to stress and extremely susceptible to a defective hedonic impact in response to chronic stressors. The strain offers much promise as an animal model for the study of stress related disorders. We present a comparative hippocampal gene expression study on the effects of unpredictable chronic mild stress on BALB/cJ and C57BL/6J mice. Affymetrix MOE 430 was used to measure hippocampal gene expression from 16 animals of two different strains (BALB/cJ and C57BL/6J) of both sexes and subjected to either unpredictable chronic mild stress (UCMS) or no stress. Differences were statistically evaluated through supervised and unsupervised linear modelling and using Weighted Gene Coexpression Network Analysis (WGCNA). In order to gain further understanding into mechanisms related to stress response, we cross-validated our results with a parallel study from the GENDEP project using WGCNA in a meta-analysis design. Results: The effects of UCMS are visible through Principal Component Analysis which highlights the stress sensitivity of the BALB/cJ strain. A number of genes and gene networks related to stress response were uncovered including the Creb1 gene. WGCNA and pathway analysis revealed a gene network centered on Nfkb1. Results from the meta-analysis revealed a highly significant gene pathway centred on the Ubiquitin C (Ubc) gene. All pathways uncovered are associated with inflammation and immune response. Conclusions: The study investigated the molecular mechanisms underlying the response to adverse environment in an animal model using a GxE design. Stress-related differences were visible at the genomic level through PCA analysis highlighting the high sensitivity of BALB/cJ animals to environmental stressors. Several candidate genes and gene networks reported are associated with inflammation and neurogenesis and could serve to inform candidate gene selection in human studies and provide additional insight into the pathology of Major Depressive Disorder