Clade identification of symbiotic zooxanthellae of dominant sclerectinian coral species of intertidal pools in Hengam Island

Zooxanthellae of reef-building corals are unicellular dinoflagellates of the Symbiodinium genus, which has an important role in bleaching phenomenon. Symbiodinium and their coral hosts are sensitive to environmental stresses that include salinity, high temperatures, low temperatures, extreme light levels and turbidity. Tidal pools have harsh conditions due to lack of nutrients, food and pronounced changes in physical conditions such as pH, salinity and temperature, hence the study of symbiotic zooxanthellae on coral reefs of tidal pool seems to be necessary. Samples of five coral species that include Siderastrea savignyana, Coscinaraea columna, Anomastrea irregulariis, Cyphastrea serailia, Psammocora superficialis were collected at intertidal pool of Hengam Island in the northern Persian Gulf. Partial 28S nuclear ribosomal (nr) DNA of Symbiodinium were amplified by polymerase chain reaction (PCR) and then PCR products were analyzed by the phylogenetic analyses of the LSU DNA sequences based on PAUP and Clustal X software. The results showed that there are at least two clades of Symbiodinium from Hengam Island. Clade D was detected from 3 of the coral species whileclade C was found in 2 species only. This study showed dominance of clade D at intertidal pool in Hengam Island and the dominace of clade D might be explained by the high environmental stresses for the Persian Gulf.Key words: Persian Gulf, clade D, tides, Symbiodinium and Hengam Island

Present Limits to Heat-Adaptability in Corals and Population-Level Responses to Climate Extremes

Climate change scenarios suggest an increase in tropical ocean temperature by 1–3°C by 2099, potentially killing many coral reefs. But Arabian/Persian Gulf corals already exist in this future thermal environment predicted for most tropical reefs and survived severe bleaching in 2010, one of the hottest years on record. Exposure to 33–35°C was on average twice as long as in non-bleaching years. Gulf corals bleached after exposure to temperatures above 34°C for a total of 8 weeks of which 3 weeks were above 35°C. This is more heat than any other corals can survive, providing an insight into the present limits of holobiont adaptation. We show that average temperatures as well as heat-waves in the Gulf have been increasing, that coral population levels will fluctuate strongly, and reef-building capability will be compromised. This, in combination with ocean acidification and significant local threats posed by rampant coastal development puts even these most heat-adapted corals at risk. WWF considers the Gulf ecoregion as “critically endangered”. We argue here that Gulf corals should be considered for assisted migration to the tropical Indo-Pacific. This would have the double benefit of avoiding local extinction of the world's most heat-adapted holobionts while at the same time introducing their genetic information to populations naïve to such extremes, potentially assisting their survival. Thus, the heat-adaptation acquired by Gulf corals over 6 k, could benefit tropical Indo-Pacific corals who have <100 y until they will experience a similarly harsh climate. Population models suggest that the heat-adapted corals could become dominant on tropical reefs within ∼20 years

Global, regional, and national incidence of six major immune-mediated inflammatory diseases: findings from the global burden of disease study 2019

Background The causes for immune-mediated inflammatory diseases (IMIDs) are diverse and the incidence trends of IMIDs from specific causes are rarely studied. The study aims to investigate the pattern and trend of IMIDs from 1990 to 2019. Methods We collected detailed information on six major causes of IMIDs, including asthma, inflammatory bowel disease, multiple sclerosis, rheumatoid arthritis, psoriasis, and atopic dermatitis, between 1990 and 2019, derived from the Global Burden of Disease study in 2019. The average annual percent change (AAPC) in number of incidents and age standardized incidence rate (ASR) on IMIDs, by sex, age, region, and causes, were calculated to quantify the temporal trends. Findings In 2019, rheumatoid arthritis, atopic dermatitis, asthma, multiple sclerosis, psoriasis, inflammatory bowel disease accounted 1.59%, 36.17%, 54.71%, 0.09%, 6.84%, 0.60% of overall new IMIDs cases, respectively. The ASR of IMIDs showed substantial regional and global variation with the highest in High SDI region, High-income North America, and United States of America. Throughout human lifespan, the age distribution of incident cases from six IMIDs was quite different. Globally, incident cases of IMIDs increased with an AAPC of 0.68 and the ASR decreased with an AAPC of −0.34 from 1990 to 2019. The incident cases increased across six IMIDs, the ASR of rheumatoid arthritis increased (0.21, 95% CI 0.18, 0.25), while the ASR of asthma (AAPC = −0.41), inflammatory bowel disease (AAPC = −0.72), multiple sclerosis (AAPC = −0.26), psoriasis (AAPC = −0.77), and atopic dermatitis (AAPC = −0.15) decreased. The ASR of overall and six individual IMID increased with SDI at regional and global level. Countries with higher ASR in 1990 experienced a more rapid decrease in ASR. Interpretation The incidence patterns of IMIDs varied considerably across the world. Innovative prevention and integrative management strategy are urgently needed to mitigate the increasing ASR of rheumatoid arthritis and upsurging new cases of other five IMIDs, respectively. Funding The Global Burden of Disease Study is funded by the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation. The project funded by Scientific Research Fund of Sichuan Academy of Medical Sciences & Sichuan Provincial People's Hospital (2022QN38)

A new hybrid simulated annealing-based genetic programming technique to predict the ultimate bearing capacity of piles

The aim of this research is to develop three soft-computing techniques, including adaptive-neuro-fuzzy inference system (ANFIS), genetic-programming (GP) tree-based, and simulated annealing–GP or SA–GP for prediction of the ultimate-bearing capacity (Qult) of the pile. The collected database consists of 50 driven piles properties with pile length, pile cross-sectional area, hammer weight, pile set and drop height as model inputs and Qult as model output. Many GP and SA–GP models were constructed for estimating pile bearing capacity and the best models were selected using some performance indices. For comparison purposes, the ANFIS model was also applied to predict Qult of the pile. It was observed that the developed models are able to provide higher prediction performance in the design of Qult of the pile. Concerning the coefficient of correlation, and mean square error, the SA–GP model had the best values for both training and testing data sets, followed by the GP and ANFIS models, respectively. It implies that the neural-based predictive machine learning techniques like ANFIS are not as powerful as evolutionary predictive machine learning techniques like GP and SA–GP in estimating the ultimate-bearing capacity of the pile. Besides, GP and SA–GP can propose a formula for Qult prediction which is a privilege of these models over the ANFIS predictive model. The sensitivity analysis also showed that the Qult of pile looks to be more affected by pile cross-sectional area and pile set