Temperature and humidity within a mobile barchan sand dune, implications for microbial survival

International audienc

Chandra follow-up of the SDSS DR8 Redmapper catalog using the MATCha pipeline

For abstract see published article

Function Over Form: The Benefits of Aspen as Surrogate Brood-Rearing Habitat for Greater Sage-Grouse

Species of conservation concern are often habitat specialists, posing significant risk to those species when specific plant communities are threatened. As a result, practitioners habitually focus conservation efforts on these communities while ignoring ecological mechanisms that explain the wildlife–plant relationships. In doing so, practitioners may overlook alternative vegetation communities that could maintain wildlife populations under alternative conditions (e.g., climate change). Here, we term these areas surrogate habitat, defined as vegetation communities or resource sites that provide similar critical resources as conventional sites, and assess their potential for conservation using a case study of greater sage-grouse (Centrocercus urophasianus) on Parker Mountain, Utah (1998–2009). Sage-grouse are a sagebrush-obligate species and a species of conservation concern. Range-wide conservation efforts have long emphasized management of seasonal habitats within semiarid sagebrush ecosystems, specifically management of mesic or wet meadow sites that provide brood-rearing habitat required for population persistence. Despite this requirement, no conventional mesic habitat exists on Parker Mountain, yet is supports one of Utah\u27s largest sage-grouse populations. Rather, the Parker sagebrush system abuts quaking aspen (Populus tremuloides) stands that may provide brood-rearing habitat analogous to wet meadow sites. It is unclear, however, to what extent sage-grouse use these aspen stands because sage-grouse commonly avoid tall structures (e.g., trees) and their associated avian predators. Thus, we tested whether (1) sage-grouse selected for surrogate habitat (i.e., aspen edge) and (2) selection behaviors related to surrogate habitat had demographic effects on the population. As we predicted, sage-grouse selected for these areas, and the sage-grouse that spent increased time closer to aspen edges did not experience increased mortality. Together, this demonstrates that the aspen–sagebrush edge provided a surrogate for the wet meadows used by other populations. More broadly, this suggests that conservation practitioners should move beyond simplistic wildlife-habit associations toward a more holistic view of animal ecology focused on the wildlife–resource association, an approach that becomes particularly useful in areas where conventional obligate habitat may be degraded or lost. This work also implores us to examine alternative habitat potential rather than applying one-size-fits-all models to threatened species conservation

Associations of microvascular complications with all-cause death in patients with diabetes and COVID-19:the CORONADO, ABCD Covid-19 audit and AMERICADO study groups

AIM: To provide a detailled analysis of the microvascular burden in patients with diabetes hopitalized for COVD‐19. MATERIALS AND METHODS: We analysed data from the French CORONADO initiative and the UK Association of British Clinical Diabetologists (ABCD) COVID‐19 audit, two nationwide multicentre studies, and the AMERICADO, a multicentre study conducted in New York area. We assessed the association between risk of all‐cause death during hospital stay and the following microvascular complications in patients with diabetes hospitalized for COVID‐19: diabetic retinopathy and/or diabetic kidney disease and/or history of diabetic foot ulcer. RESULTS: Among 2951 CORONADO, 3387 ABCD COVID‐19 audit and 9327 AMERICADO participants, microvascular diabetic complications status was ascertained for 1314 (44.5%), 1809 (53.4%) and 7367 (79.0%) patients, respectively: 1010, 1059 and 1800, respectively, had ≥1 severe microvascular complication(s) and 304, 750 and 5567, respectively, were free of any complications. The patients with isolated diabetic kidney disease had an increased risk of all‐cause death during hospital stay: odds ratio [OR] 2.53 (95% confidence interval [CI] 1.66‐3.83), OR 1.24 (95% CI 1.00‐1.56) and OR 1.66 (95% CI 1.40‐1.95) in the CORONADO, the ABCD COVID‐19 national audit and the AMERICADO studies, respectively. After adjustment for age, sex, hypertension and cardiovascular disease (CVD), compared to those without microvascular complications, patients with microvascular complications had an increased risk of all‐cause death during hospital stay in the CORONADO, the ABCD COVID‐19 diabetes national audit and the AMERICADO studies: adjusted OR ((adj)OR) 2.57 (95% CI 1.69‐3.92), (adj)OR 1.22 (95% CI 1.00‐1.52) and (adj)OR 1.33 (95% CI 1.15‐1.53), respectively. In meta‐analysis of the three studies, compared to patients free of complications, those with microvascular complications had an unadjusted OR for all‐cause death during hospital stay of 2.05 (95% CI 1.42‐2.97), which decreased to 1.62 (95% CI 1.19‐2.119) after adjustment for age and sex, and to 1.50 (1.12‐2.02) after hypertension and CVD were further added to the model. CONCLUSION: Microvascular burden is associated with an increased risk of death in patients hospitalized for COVID‐19

Robotic telescopes and student research in the school curriculum around the OECD countries

The aim of this paper is to explore the presence and possible incorporation of inquiry-based learning approaches using Robotic Telescopes and Student Research in the regular science curriculum. This study uses preliminary findings from an extensive ongoing study, which is currently reviewing the extent of astronomy content in the school curriculum of the 35 member countries from the OECD in addition to two emerging nations in modern astronomy – China and South Africa, which are not part of the OECD. Analysis of curriculum documents from 28 OECD countries, including China and South Africa, reveals that although there is a prevalence of astronomy related content in most grades, incorporating Robotic Telescopes and Student Research into the regular science curriculum is limited by two interdependent factors. Firstly, the majority of curricula introduce astronomy-related concepts through a descriptive lens, with a focus on the “what?”, rather than the “how?” or “why?”. Secondly, astronomy in comparison to other topics gets very little time allocation. Robotic Telescopes provide teachers with enormous potential to teach students not only topics related to science, but also to afford students the opportunity to engage in “authentic science”. Thus, it is vital for the members of the astronomy community to play a greater role in the development of curricula

A novel synonymous KMT2B variant in a patient with dystonia causes aberrant splicing

BACKGROUND: Heterozygous KMT2B variants are a common cause of dystonia. A novel synonymous KMT2B variant, c.5073C>T (p.Gly1691=) was identified in an individual with childhood-onset progressive dystonia. METHODS: The splicing impact of c.5073C>T was assessed using an in vitro exon-trapping assay. The genomic region of KMT2B exons 23-26 was cloned into the pSpliceExpress plasmid between exon 2 and 3 of the rat Ins2 gene. The c.5073C>T variant was then introduced through site-directed mutagenesis. The KMT2B wild-type and c.5073C>T plasmids were transfected separately into HeLa cells and RNA was extracted 48 hours after transfection. The RNA was reverse transcribed to produce cDNA, which was PCR amplified using primers annealing to the flanking rat Ins2 sequences. RESULTS: Sanger sequencing of the PCR products revealed that c.5073C>T caused a novel splice donor site and therefore a 5-bp deletion of KMT2B exon 23 in mature mRNA, leading to a coding frameshift and premature stop codon (p.Lys1692AsnfsTer7). CONCLUSION: To our knowledge, this is the first report of a KMT2B synonymous variant associated with dystonia. Reassessment of synonymous variants may increase diagnostic yield for inherited disorders including monogenic dystonia. This is of clinical importance, given the generally favourable response to deep brain stimulation for KMT2B-related dystonia

Regulatory objectivity in action: Mild cognitive impairment and the collective production of uncertainty

In this paper, we investigate recent changes in the definition and approach to Alzheimer’s disease brought about by growing clinical, therapeutic and regulatory interest in the prodromal or preclinical aspects of this condition. In the last decade, there has been an increased interest in the biomolecular and epidemiological characterization of pre-clinical dementia. It is argued that early diagnosis of dementia, and particularly of Alzheimer‘s disease, will facilitate the prevention of dementing processes and lower the prevalence of the condition in the general population. The search for a diagnostic category or biomarker that would serve this purpose is an ongoing but problematic endeavour for research and clinical communities in this area. In this paper, we explore how clinical and research actors, in collaboration with regulatory institutions and pharmaceutical companies, come to frame these domains as uncertainties and how they re-deploy uncertainty in the ‘collective production’ of new diagnostic conventions and bioclinical standards. While drawing as background on ethnographic, documentary and interview data, the paper proposes an in-depth, contextual analysis of the proceedings of an international meeting organized by the Peripheral and Central Nervous System Drug Advisory Committee of the US Food and Drug Administration to discuss whether or not a particular diagnostic convention — mild cognitive impairment — exists and how best it ought to be studied. Based on this analysis we argue that the deployment of uncertainty is reflexively implicated in bioclinical collectives’ search for rules and conventions, and furthermore that the collective production of uncertainty is central to the ‘knowledge machinery’ of regulatory objectivity

第885回千葉医学会例会・千葉大学第二外科例会

<p><b>A</b>. NMDS ordination of 16S rRNA gene-derived microbial community structure. Similarity profile analysis, an <i>a priori</i> statistical approach that uses permutation to identify groups of communities that are more dissimilar than expected by chance, identified two distinct clusters of communities. Ellipses represent the 95% confidence intervals around the centroid for each cluster (the spatial mean in NMDS space of the communities belonging to each cluster). Lines emanating from the centroids indicate to which cluster each community belongs. Bacterial families well-correlated with the ordination (r² > 0.40) are displayed; vector length is proportional to the Pearson correlation coefficient for each family and vector direction corresponds to the direction of increasing abundance relative to the ordinated communities. Legend indicates the dune from which each ordinated community originated. Final 2-dimensional stress of the ordination is 0.12. <b>B</b>. Linear discriminant analysis (LDA) of bacterial classes indicates that the two clusters of microbial communities identified by similarity profile analysis are driven by the disparity between a high abundance of <i>Gammaproteobacteria</i> in one set of communities and more diverse population in the other set of communities. Only classes with effect size > 2.0 are displayed. <b>C</b>. NMDS ordination is based only on samples for which environmental parameters were measured. Parameters with r² > 0.1 are displayed. Final 2-dimensional stress of the ordination is 0.07.</p