Investigation of the Kuroshio-coastal current interaction and marine heatwave trends in the coral habitats of Northeastern Taiwan

\ua9 2024 Elsevier B.V.The continually rising concentration of the surface aqueous partial pressure of carbon dioxide has led to sustained ocean acidification and increased sea surface temperature (SST) in the coral habitats of northeastern Taiwan. Since 2016, this region has been experiencing intense marine heatwave (MHW) events, with the accumulated thermal stress reaching its peak between 2020 and 2022. Apart from the attributing factor of the increasing atmospheric carbon dioxide concentration, the Kuroshio (KC) path along the eastern coast of Taiwan has exhibited a westward tendency towards the coast of Taiwan from October to April. The westward and northward components of the KC\u27s branch into the East China Sea (ECS) shelf have rapidly increased. The interplay between the KC and the northeastern Taiwan coastal countercurrent (NETCC) near the coral habitats has formed a counterclockwise circulation, which continues to show a westward trend. This has resulted in the influx of warmer waters into northeastern Taiwan. On another note, the pronounced negative phase of the Pacific decadal oscillation (PDO) and La Ni\uf1a conditions from 2020 to 2022 have further contributed to the increased SST, with the average MHW event accumulating to 172 days annually. The coral bleaching index, degree heating week (DHW), indicates that 2020 was historically the first year for this region to experience a DHW exceeding 8\ub0C-weeks, reaching an Alert Level 2 for bleaching, and 2022 saw even more severe conditions with an average of 12 days at this level. With a reduced number of typhoon incursions in recent years in northeastern Taiwan, and the absence of periodic cold waters to mitigate the heat, the future marine environment of the coral habitats in this region is of significant concern

How do general practitioners put preventive care recommendations into practice? A cross-sectional study in Switzerland and France.

We previously identified that general practitioners (GPs) in French-speaking regions of Europe had a variable uptake of common preventive recommendations. In this study, we describe GPs' reports of how they put different preventive recommendations into practice. Cross-sectional study conducted in 2015 in Switzerland and France. 3400 randomly selected GPs were asked to complete a postal (n=1100) or online (n=2300) questionnaire. GPs who exclusively practiced complementary and alternative medicine were not eligible for the study. 764 GPs (response rate: postal 47%, online 11%) returned the questionnaire (428 in Switzerland and 336 in France). We investigated how the GPs performed five preventive practices (screening for dyslipidaemia, colorectal and prostate cancer, identification of hazardous alcohol consumption and brief intervention), examining which age group they selected, the screening frequency, the test they used, whether they favoured shared decision for prostate cancer screening and their definition of hazardous alcohol use. A large variability was observed in the way in which GPs provide these practices. 41% reported screening yearly for cholesterol, starting and stopping at variable ages. 82% did not use any test to identify hazardous drinking. The most common responses for defining hazardous drinking were, for men, ≥21 drinks/week (24%) and ≥4 drinks/occasion for binge drinking (20%), and for women, ≥14 drinks/week (28%) and ≥3 drinks/occasion (21%). Screening for colorectal cancer, mainly with colonoscopy in Switzerland (86%) and stool-based tests in France (93%), was provided every 10 years in Switzerland (65%) and 2 years in France (91%) to patients between 50 years (87%) and 75 years (67%). Prostate cancer screening, usually with shared decision (82%), was provided yearly (62%) to patients between 50 years (74%) and 75-80 years (32%-34%). The large diversity in the way these practices are provided needs to be addressed, as it could be related to some misunderstandingof the current guidelines, to barriers for guideline uptake or, more likely, to the absence of agreement between the various recommendations

Magnetic resonance imaging in osteoarthritis: which method best reflects synovial membrane inflammation? Correlations with clinical, macroscopic and microscopic features

SummaryObjectives: To study synovial membrane (SM) inflammation near the patella with different magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) approaches performed using a T1-injected sequence in knee osteoarthritis (OA), and to compare MRI results with macroscopic, microscopic and clinical findings.MethodsFifteen patients fulfilling American College of Rheumatology (ACR) criteria for knee OA and requiring joint lavage completed a functional index (Lequesne's functional index) and a pain visual analog scale (VAS). SM inflammation near the patella was assessed on axial fat saturation post-injected T1 MRI images using three different methods: (1) semi-quantitative score=MRI synovitis score; (2) synovial membrane volume (SMV) analysis; (3) SMV with low (SMVL) (<0.3%/s−1), intermediate (SMVI) (0.3%/s−1 to 1%/s−1) and high (SMVH) (≥1%/s−1) speed of enhancement. Chondral lesions and SM inflammation were macroscopically graded and SM biopsies performed for microscopic scoring.ResultsAll MRI approaches exhibited excellent intra- and inter-observer reproducibility. MRI synovitis score correlated well with macroscopic (r=0.61, P=0.003) and total microscopic scores (r=0.55, P=0.03). Correlations between SMV and macroscopic (r=0.60, P=0.02) and microscopic congestion (r=0.63, P=0.01) were good. SMVH was correlated only with microscopic congestion (r=0.79, P=0.01). Low SMV was associated with neither macroscopic nor microscopic scores. However, it did correlate well with pain-VAS score (r=0.61, P=0.03) and moderately with a functional index (r=0.46, P=0.10).ConclusionThe three MRI approaches used here provided highly reproducible information on SM inflammation near the patella in knee OA. Compared to SMV, MRI synovitis score seems sufficient to assess synovial inflammation but high SMV is an appropriate indicator of vascular congestion, and low SMV reflects pain in knee OA

The nature of the short wavelength excitations in vitreous silica: X-Rays Brillouin scattering study

The dynamical structure factor (S(Q,E)) of vitreous silica has been measured by Inelastic X-ray Scattering varying the exchanged wavevector (Q) at fixed exchanged energy (E) - an experimental procedure that, contrary to the usual one at constant Q, provides spectra with much better identified inelastic features. This allows the first direct evidence of Brillouin peaks in the S(Q,E) of SiO_2 at energies above the Boson Peak (BP) energy, a finding that excludes the possibility that the BP marks the transition from propagating to localised dynamics in glasses.Comment: 4 pages, 3 Postscript figures. To appear in Physical Review Letter

The crossover from propagating to strongly scattered acoustic modes of glasses observed in densified silica

Spectroscopic results on low frequency excitations of densified silica are presented and related to characteristic thermal properties of glasses. The end of the longitudinal acoustic branch is marked by a rapid increase of the Brillouin linewidth with the scattering vector. This rapid growth saturates at a crossover frequency Omega_co which nearly coincides with the center of the boson peak. The latter is clearly due to additional optic-like excitations related to nearly rigid SiO_4 librations as indicated by hyper-Raman scattering. Whether the onset of strong scattering is best described by hybridization of acoustic modes with these librations, by their elastic scattering (Rayleigh scattering) on the local excitations, or by soft potentials remains to be settled.Comment: 14 pages, 6 figures, to be published in a special issue of J. Phys. Condens. Matte

Interaction of quasilocal harmonic modes and boson peak in glasses

The direct proportionality relation between the boson peak maximum in glasses, $\omega_b$, and the Ioffe-Regel crossover frequency for phonons, $\omega_d$, is established. For several investigated materials $\omega_b = (1.5\pm 0.1)\omega_d$. At the frequency $\omega_d$ the mean free path of the phonons $l$ becomes equal to their wavelength because of strong resonant scattering on quasilocal harmonic oscillators. Above this frequency phonons cease to exist. We prove that the established correlation between $\omega_b$ and $\omega_d$ holds in the general case and is a direct consequence of bilinear coupling of quasilocal oscillators with the strain field.Comment: RevTex, 4 pages, 1 figur

Endophytic Bacteria From the Roots of the Medicinal Plant Alkanna tinctoria Tausch (Boraginaceae): Exploration of Plant Growth Promoting Properties and Potential Role in the Production of Plant Secondary Metabolites

Alkannin and shikonin (A/S) are enantiomeric naphthoquinones produced in the roots of certain plants from the Boraginaceae family such as Lithospermum spp. and Alkanna spp. They possess antimicrobial, anti-tumoral and wound healing properties. The production of secondary metabolites by Alkanna tinctoria might be influenced by its endomicrobiome. To study the interaction between this medicinal plant and its bacterial endophytes, we isolated bacteria from the roots of wild growing Alkanna tinctoria collected near to Athens and Thessaloniki in Greece. Representative strains selected by MALDI-TOF mass spectrometry were identified by partial 16S rRNA gene sequence analysis. In total, 197 distinct phylotypes of endophytic bacteria were detected. The most abundant genera recovered were Pseudomonas, Xanthomonas, Variovorax, Bacillus, Inquilinus, Pantoea, and Stenotrophomonas. Several bacteria were then tested in vitro for their plant growth promoting activity and the production of cell-wall degrading enzymes. Strains of Pseudomonas, Pantoea, Bacillus and Inquilinus showed positive plant growth properties whereas those of Bacteroidetes and Rhizobiaceae showed pectinase and cellulase activity in vitro. In addition, bacterial responses to alkannin and shikonin were investigated through resistance assays. Gram negative bacteria were found to be resistant to the antimicrobial properties of A/S, whereas the Gram positives were sensitive. A selection of bacteria was then tested for the ability to induce A/S production in hairy roots culture of A. tinctoria. Four strains belonging to Chitinophaga sp., Allorhizobium sp., Duganella sp., and Micromonospora sp., resulted in significantly more A/S in the hairy roots than the uninoculated control. As these bacteria can produce cell-wall degrading enzymes, we hypothesize that the A/S induction may be related with the plant-bacteria interaction during colonization

The evolution of vibrational excitations in glassy systems

The equations of the mode-coupling theory (MCT) for ideal liquid-glass transitions are used for a discussion of the evolution of the density-fluctuation spectra of glass-forming systems for frequencies within the dynamical window between the band of high-frequency motion and the band of low-frequency-structural-relaxation processes. It is shown that the strong interaction between density fluctuations with microscopic wave length and the arrested glass structure causes an anomalous-oscillation peak, which exhibits the properties of the so-called boson peak. It produces an elastic modulus which governs the hybridization of density fluctuations of mesoscopic wave length with the boson-peak oscillations. This leads to the existence of high-frequency sound with properties as found by X-ray-scattering spectroscopy of glasses and glassy liquids. The results of the theory are demonstrated for a model of the hard-sphere system. It is also derived that certain schematic MCT models, whose spectra for the stiff-glass states can be expressed by elementary formulas, provide reasonable approximations for the solutions of the general MCT equations.Comment: 50 pages, 17 postscript files including 18 figures, to be published in Phys. Rev.