Resolving climate impacts on fish stocks

Evidence is accumulating that the increase in CO2 is affecting the global climate, with far‐reaching implications for biological processes and ecosystem services. Recent studies suggest that there is evidence for a northward shift in the distributional range of fish species, but the mechanisms underlying these changes remain uncertain. Hence, it is largely unknown whether the observed distributional shifts are caused by a relocation of the spawning and feeding grounds, a change in the local survival of fish, or immigration into new habitats

Five-year outcome in 18 010 patients from the German Aortic Valve Registry

OBJECTIVES: To determine the 5-year outcome in patients treated by isolated transcatheter aortic valve implantation (TAVI) or surgical aortic valve replacement (sAVR)—a prospective observational cohort study. METHODS: A total of 18 010 patients were included (n = 8942 TAVI and n = 9068 sAVR) in the German Aortic Valve Registry (GARY) who were treated in 2011 and 2012 at 92 sites in central Germany. Eligible patients with TAVI and sAVR were matched using propensity scores in a nearest-neighbour approach. Patients with repeat procedures or unequivocal indication for one treatment option (e.g. frailty) were excluded (n = 4785 for TAVI and n = 2 for sAVR). This led to 13 223 patients (4157 TAVI and 9066 sAVR) as an unmatched subcohort. The main outcome measure was the 5-year all-cause mortality. RESULTS: TAVI patients were significantly older (80.9 ± 6.1 vs 68.5 ± 11.1 years, P < 0.001), had a higher Society of Thoracic Surgeons (STS) score (6.3 ± 4.9 vs 2.6 ± 3.0, P < 0.001) and a higher 5-year all-cause mortality (49.8% vs 16.5%, P < 0.0001). There was no major difference in in-hospital stroke, in-hospital myocardial infarction, or temporary and chronic dialysis. In the propensity score-matched group (n = 3640), there were 763 deaths (41.9%) among 1820 TAVI patients compared with 552 (30.3%) among 1820 treated with sAVR during the 5-year follow-up (hazard ratio 1.51, 95% confidence interval 1.35–1.68; P < 0.0001). New pacemaker implantation was performed in 448 patients (24.6%) after TAVI and in 201 (11.0%) after sAVR (P < 0.0001). CONCLUSIONS: The 5-year follow-up data show that TAVI patients were significantly older and had a higher STS score than sAVR patients. After propensity score matching, TAVI with early-generation prosthesis was associated with significantly higher 5-year all-cause mortality than sAVR

Acute myeloid leukemia of donor origin after allogeneic stem cell transplantation from a sibling who harbors germline XPD and XRCC3 homozygous polymorphisms

A 54-year-old woman was diagnosed with infiltrative ductal breast carcinoma. Two years after treatment, the patient developed an acute myeloid leukemia (AML) which harbored del(11q23) in 8% of the blast cells. The patient was submitted for allogeneic stem cell transplantation (aSCT) from her HLA-compatible sister. Ten months after transplantation, she relapsed with an AML with basophilic maturation characterized by CD45low CD33high, CD117+, CD13-/+, HLA Drhigh, CD123high, and CD203c+ blast cells lacking expression of CD7, CD10, CD34, CD15, CD14, CD56, CD36, CD64, and cytoplasmic tryptase. Karyotype analysis showed the emergence of a new clone with t(2;14) and FISH analysis indicated the presence of MLL gene rearrangement consistent with del(11q23). Interestingly, AML blast cell DNA tested with microsatellite markers showed the same pattern as the donor's, suggesting that this AML emerged from donor cells. Additionally, polymorphisms of the XPA, XPD, XRCC1, XRCC3 and RAD51 DNA repair genes revealed three unfavorable alleles with low DNA repair capacity

The main actors involved in parasitization of Heliothis virescens larva

At the moment of parasitization by another insect, the host Heliothis larva is able to defend itself by the activation of humoral and cellular defenses characterized by unusual reactions of hemocytes in response to external stimuli. Here, we have combined light and electron microscopy, staining reactions, and immunocytochemical characterization to analyze the activation and deactivation of one of the most important immune responses involved in invertebrates defense, i.e., melanin production and deposition. The insect host/parasitoid system is a good model to study these events. The activated granulocytes of the host insect are a major repository of amyloid fibrils forming a lattice in the cell. Subsequently, the exocytosed amyloid lattice constitutes the template for melanin deposition in the hemocel. Furthermore, cross-talk between immune and neuroendocrine systems mediated by hormones, cytokines, and neuromodulators with the activation of stress-sensoring circuits to produce and release molecules such as adrenocorticotropin hormone, alpha melanocyte-stimulating hormone, and neutral endopeptidase occurs. Thus, parasitization promotes massive morphological and physiological modifications in the host insect hemocytes and mimics general stress conditions in which phenomena such as amyloid fibril formation, melanin polymerization, pro-inflammatory cytokine production, and activation of the adrenocorticotropin hormone system occur. These events observed in invertebrates are also reported in the literature for vertebrates, suggesting that this network of mechanisms and responses is maintained throughout evolution

State of the art of the meiofauna of Brazilian Sandy Beaches

Abstract In Brazil, meiofauna studies began in the middle of last century, but they adopted a purely taxonomical approach, describing species from various zoological groups. After this first step, this benthic group was largely neglected until the end of the 20th century when ecological studies began. We here provide a brief review of present knowledge of the meiofauna found on Brazilian sandy beaches to provide information for ReBentos (Coastal Benthic Habitats Monitoring Network). Our methodology consisted of a bibliographic survey undertaken using different datasets (Web of ScienceTM, SCOPUS, Google Scholar and Lattes Plataform). For the survey, we considered only those studies published till early 2015. Our analysis showed that the number of meiofauna studies has increased over the last two decades, though they are mainly still concentrated on the Southeast of Brazil. These studies aim to explain the distribution pattern of the meiofauna of the intertidal region of sandy beaches. Based on the results, we presented a discussion of three main topics, i.e., (a) current knowledge of Brazilian sandy beach meiofauna, (b) sampling strategies for monitoring of the meiofauna, and (c) use of the meiofauna as a tool to assess climate change. We trust that this brief review will be useful as a starting point for the delineation of further climate change investigations into sandy beach meiofauna

Diffusion Monte Carlo Study of Para -Diiodobenzene Polymorphism Revisited

We revisit our investigation of the diffusion Monte Carlo (DMC) simulation of p-DIB molecular crystal polymorphism. [J. Phys. Chem. Lett. 2010, 1, 1789-1794] We perform, for the first time, a rigorous study of finite-size effects and choice of nodal surface on the prediction of polymorph stability in molecular crystals using fixed-node DMC. Our calculations are the largest which are currently feasible using the resources of the K computer and provide insights into the formidable challenge of predicting such properties from first principles. In particular, we show that finite-size effects can influence the trial nodal surface of a small (1×1×1) simulation cell considerably. We therefore repeated our DMC simulations with a 1×3×3 simulation cell, which is the largest such calculation to date. We used a DFT nodal surface generated with the PBE functional and we accumulated statistical samples with ∼6.4×105 core-hours for each polymorph. Our final results predict a polymorph stability consistent with experiment, but indicate that results in our previous paper were somewhat fortuitous. We analyze the finite-size errors using model periodic Coulomb (MPC) interactions and kinetic energy corrections, according to the CCMH scheme of Chiesa, Ceperley, Martin, and Holzmann. We investigate the dependence of the finite-size errors on different aspect ratios of the simulation cell (k-mesh convergence) in order to understand how to choose an appropriate ratio for the DMC calculations. Even in the most expensive simulations currently possible, we show that the finite size errors in the DMC total energies are far larger than the energy difference between the two polymorphs, although error cancellation means that the polymorph prediction is accurate. Finally, we found that the T-move scheme is essential for these massive DMC simulations in order to circumvent population explosions and large time-step biases.Chemistry and Chemical Biolog

STANDARDIZING QUALITY ASSESSMENT OF FUSED REMOTELY SENSED IMAGES

The multitude of available operational remote sensing satellites led to the development of many image fusion techniques to provide high spatial, spectral and temporal resolution images. The comparison of different techniques is necessary to obtain an optimized image for the different applications of remote sensing. There are two approaches in assessing image quality: 1. Quantitatively by visual interpretation and 2. Quantitatively using image quality indices. However an objective comparison is difficult due to the fact that a visual assessment is always subject and a quantitative assessment is done by different criteria. Depending on the criteria and indices the result varies. Therefore it is necessary to standardize both processes (qualitative and quantitative assessment) in order to allow an objective image fusion quality evaluation. Various studies have been conducted at the University of Osnabrueck (UOS) to establish a standardized process to objectively compare fused image quality. First established image fusion quality assessment protocols, i.e. Quality with No Reference (QNR) and Khan's protocol, were compared on varies fusion experiments. Second the process of visual quality assessment was structured and standardized with the aim to provide an evaluation protocol. This manuscript reports on the results of the comparison and provides recommendations for future research