Efficiency of universal barcode gene (Cox1) on morphologically cryptic Mugilidae fishes delineation.

An effort was made to assess the utility of 650 bp partial Cytochrome C oxidase subunit I (DNA barcode) gene in delineating the members of taxonomically ambiguous marine fin fishes (Family: Mugilidae). To address the issue we used all the 95 barcode sequences of Mugilidae family available at NCBI (National Centre for Biotechnological Information) along with the barcode data generated from Mugilidae fishes of Parangipettai coastal waters. The average GC content of Mugilidae was found to be 46.46%. Crenimugil crenilabis showed less GC content (44.55%) whereas Liza macrolepis showed high GC content (48.53%) among the mullet species studied. The phylogenetic and genetic distance data showed that Mugil platanus and M. liza represent the continuum of same species. Among the members of family Mugilidae, the genus Mugil might possibly contains more haplotype diversity as revealed by intra-species genetic distance data. Species within genera of Mugilidae family invariably clustered in single clade with high bootstrap value. We conclude that partial COI sequencing (barcoding) in identifying the members of the family and that way has resolved the taxonomic ambiguity among the members of the family Mugilidae

Global burden of 288 causes of death and life expectancy decomposition in 204 countries and territories and 811 subnational locations, 1990–2021: a systematic analysis for the Global Burden of Disease Study 2021

BACKGROUND Regular, detailed reporting on population health by underlying cause of death is fundamental for public health decision making. Cause-specific estimates of mortality and the subsequent effects on life expectancy worldwide are valuable metrics to gauge progress in reducing mortality rates. These estimates are particularly important following large-scale mortality spikes, such as the COVID-19 pandemic. When systematically analysed, mortality rates and life expectancy allow comparisons of the consequences of causes of death globally and over time, providing a nuanced understanding of the effect of these causes on global populations. METHODS The Global Burden of Diseases, Injuries, and Risk Factors Study (GBD) 2021 cause-of-death analysis estimated mortality and years of life lost (YLLs) from 288 causes of death by age-sex-location-year in 204 countries and territories and 811 subnational locations for each year from 1990 until 2021. The analysis used 56 604 data sources, including data from vital registration and verbal autopsy as well as surveys, censuses, surveillance systems, and cancer registries, among others. As with previous GBD rounds, cause-specific death rates for most causes were estimated using the Cause of Death Ensemble model-a modelling tool developed for GBD to assess the out-of-sample predictive validity of different statistical models and covariate permutations and combine those results to produce cause-specific mortality estimates-with alternative strategies adapted to model causes with insufficient data, substantial changes in reporting over the study period, or unusual epidemiology. YLLs were computed as the product of the number of deaths for each cause-age-sex-location-year and the standard life expectancy at each age. As part of the modelling process, uncertainty intervals (UIs) were generated using the 2·5th and 97·5th percentiles from a 1000-draw distribution for each metric. We decomposed life expectancy by cause of death, location, and year to show cause-specific effects on life expectancy from 1990 to 2021. We also used the coefficient of variation and the fraction of population affected by 90% of deaths to highlight concentrations of mortality. Findings are reported in counts and age-standardised rates. Methodological improvements for cause-of-death estimates in GBD 2021 include the expansion of under-5-years age group to include four new age groups, enhanced methods to account for stochastic variation of sparse data, and the inclusion of COVID-19 and other pandemic-related mortality-which includes excess mortality associated with the pandemic, excluding COVID-19, lower respiratory infections, measles, malaria, and pertussis. For this analysis, 199 new country-years of vital registration cause-of-death data, 5 country-years of surveillance data, 21 country-years of verbal autopsy data, and 94 country-years of other data types were added to those used in previous GBD rounds. FINDINGS The leading causes of age-standardised deaths globally were the same in 2019 as they were in 1990; in descending order, these were, ischaemic heart disease, stroke, chronic obstructive pulmonary disease, and lower respiratory infections. In 2021, however, COVID-19 replaced stroke as the second-leading age-standardised cause of death, with 94·0 deaths (95% UI 89·2-100·0) per 100 000 population. The COVID-19 pandemic shifted the rankings of the leading five causes, lowering stroke to the third-leading and chronic obstructive pulmonary disease to the fourth-leading position. In 2021, the highest age-standardised death rates from COVID-19 occurred in sub-Saharan Africa (271·0 deaths [250·1-290·7] per 100 000 population) and Latin America and the Caribbean (195·4 deaths [182·1-211·4] per 100 000 population). The lowest age-standardised death rates from COVID-19 were in the high-income super-region (48·1 deaths [47·4-48·8] per 100 000 population) and southeast Asia, east Asia, and Oceania (23·2 deaths [16·3-37·2] per 100 000 population). Globally, life expectancy steadily improved between 1990 and 2019 for 18 of the 22 investigated causes. Decomposition of global and regional life expectancy showed the positive effect that reductions in deaths from enteric infections, lower respiratory infections, stroke, and neonatal deaths, among others have contributed to improved survival over the study period. However, a net reduction of 1·6 years occurred in global life expectancy between 2019 and 2021, primarily due to increased death rates from COVID-19 and other pandemic-related mortality. Life expectancy was highly variable between super-regions over the study period, with southeast Asia, east Asia, and Oceania gaining 8·3 years (6·7-9·9) overall, while having the smallest reduction in life expectancy due to COVID-19 (0·4 years). The largest reduction in life expectancy due to COVID-19 occurred in Latin America and the Caribbean (3·6 years). Additionally, 53 of the 288 causes of death were highly concentrated in locations with less than 50% of the global population as of 2021, and these causes of death became progressively more concentrated since 1990, when only 44 causes showed this pattern. The concentration phenomenon is discussed heuristically with respect to enteric and lower respiratory infections, malaria, HIV/AIDS, neonatal disorders, tuberculosis, and measles. INTERPRETATION Long-standing gains in life expectancy and reductions in many of the leading causes of death have been disrupted by the COVID-19 pandemic, the adverse effects of which were spread unevenly among populations. Despite the pandemic, there has been continued progress in combatting several notable causes of death, leading to improved global life expectancy over the study period. Each of the seven GBD super-regions showed an overall improvement from 1990 and 2021, obscuring the negative effect in the years of the pandemic. Additionally, our findings regarding regional variation in causes of death driving increases in life expectancy hold clear policy utility. Analyses of shifting mortality trends reveal that several causes, once widespread globally, are now increasingly concentrated geographically. These changes in mortality concentration, alongside further investigation of changing risks, interventions, and relevant policy, present an important opportunity to deepen our understanding of mortality-reduction strategies. Examining patterns in mortality concentration might reveal areas where successful public health interventions have been implemented. Translating these successes to locations where certain causes of death remain entrenched can inform policies that work to improve life expectancy for people everywhere. FUNDING Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation

Asymptomatic and Biochemically Silent Pheochromocytoma with Characteristic Findings on Imaging

Pheochromocytomas are tumors that originate from the chromaffin tissue of the adrenal medulla and commonly produce catecholamines. The diagnosis is typically established by the measurement of catecholamines or their metabolites in urine or plasma, and tumors are localized with the use of radiographic and scintigraphic studies. Pheochromocytomas can occur in asymptomatic patients, and the preferred treatment is surgical removal of the tumor. We report a 48-year-old male with a left adrenal incidentaloma, which progressively increased in size from 1.1 cm to 2.6 cm over a 4-year period, as measured by an adrenal computed tomography (CT) scan. Throughout his entire course of treatment, he was asymptomatic with normal blood pressure readings. His biochemical screening was unremarkable for the first three years of tumor surveillance. Follow-up imaging, including CT and MRI, showed findings suspicious for pheochromocytoma, and the diagnosis was ultimately made with the combination of imaging and laboratory studies. He underwent laparoscopic resection of the adrenal mass with confirmation of pheochromocytoma on histology. This case illustrates how CT and MRI findings can alert providers to the presence of a pheochromocytoma, even in an asymptomatic, biochemically negative patient

Electron beam velocimetry

Communication to : Advanced Research Workshop on 'New Trends in Instrumentation for Hypersonic Research', Le Fauga-Mauzac (France), April 27th - May 1st 1992SIGLEAvailable at INIST (FR), Document Supply Service, under shelf-number : 22419, issue : a.1993 n.104 / INIST-CNRS - Institut de l'Information Scientifique et TechniqueFRFranc

Optical properties of soot particles emitted by standard and alternative aviation fuels

International audienceOptical properties of soot particles emitted by aircraft engines are affected by the chemical composition of the fuel and by the combustion conditions. In this work we investigate the response of certified instruments to soot particles with different physico-chemical properties (chemical composition, organic content, structure, number, etc.). A Combustion Aerosol STandard generator (CAST) designed to burn aeronautic fuel and dedicated to study the emissions after the combustion of Jet A-1 kerosene and synthetic paraffinic kerosene (SPK) is used in atmospheric combustion conditions at three oxidation airflow settings for each fuel. The CAST exhaust is monitored with a multitude of techniques which give information on the physico-chemical properties of particulates and other combustion induced pollutants. Therefore two complementary laser induced incandescence (LII) systems (custom-built and commercial) were used for the evaluation of soot emissions and mass spectrometry was used to study the chemical composition of non-volatile particulate matter (nvPM), semi-volatile particulate matter (svPM) and volatile particulate matter (vPM). A condensation particle counter (CPC) was used to obtain the particle number, a scanning mobility particle sizer (SMPS) was used to measure the particle size distributions and gas detectors were used to monitor the CO/CO2 and SO2 values. The emitted PM was characterized with two mass spectrometry techniques which linked the optical properties of the emissions to their chemical composition function of the experimental configuration and the combustion conditions

Semi–technical aero-engine combustors – a glimpse on combustion processes given by in-situ optical techniques

International audienceThe high-pressure combustion of kerosene is studied on a semi-technical aeronautic combustor equipped with a single-swirled injector using laser optical techniques. These experiments answer to nowadays milestones encountered in the aeronautic sector related to energy consumption and emissions reduction. With a focus on these objectives, our study presents a close look into the complex physicochemical processes taking place in severe combustion conditions representative of airplane engine landing-take-off (LTO) operation modes. The primary energy source (combustion) is studied with diagnostics as laser induced fluorescence/incandescence, scattering and particle image velocimetry. These techniques bring information about the precursors of soot particles, namely polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons, soot particles, fuel spray characteristics, and velocity flow fields. Combined results are used to understand and identify the main principles governing the behavior of combustion, production of particulate and gas pollutants, as well as their radiative effects. The feasibility of selected optical techniques in these specific environments is discussed as well

Optical properties of soot particles emitted by standard and alternative aviation fuels

International audienceOptical properties of soot particles emitted by aircraft engines are affected by the chemical composition of the fuel and by the combustion conditions. In this work we investigate the response of certified instruments to soot particles with different physico-chemical properties (chemical composition, organic content, structure, number, etc.). A Combustion Aerosol STandard generator (CAST) designed to burn aeronautic fuel and dedicated to study the emissions after the combustion of Jet A-1 kerosene and synthetic paraffinic kerosene (SPK) is used in atmospheric combustion conditions at three oxidation airflow settings for each fuel. The CAST exhaust is monitored with a multitude of techniques which give information on the physico-chemical properties of particulates and other combustion induced pollutants. Therefore two complementary laser induced incandescence (LII) systems (custom-built and commercial) were used for the evaluation of soot emissions and mass spectrometry was used to study the chemical composition of non-volatile particulate matter (nvPM), semi-volatile particulate matter (svPM) and volatile particulate matter (vPM). A condensation particle counter (CPC) was used to obtain the particle number, a scanning mobility particle sizer (SMPS) was used to measure the particle size distributions and gas detectors were used to monitor the CO/CO2 and SO2 values. The emitted PM was characterized with two mass spectrometry techniques which linked the optical properties of the emissions to their chemical composition function of the experimental configuration and the combustion conditions