Evidence of potential establishment of pink salmon Oncorhynchus gorbuscha in Scotland.

In spring 2022, pink salmon Oncorhynchus gorbuscha smolts were recorded in the UK. Fish were caught in the Rivers Thurso and Oykel in Scotland between 13 and 17 March. To the authors' knowledge, this is the first observation of O. gorbuscha smolts in Europe outside the Scandinavian and Kola peninsulas, including other tributaries of the White and Barents Seas. It also provides evidence of successful spawning in 2021 and completion of the freshwater phase of the life cycle, and indicates the possibility for potential establishment of an O. gorbuscha population in Great Britain

Poppy crop height and capsule volume estimation from a single UAS flight

The objective of this study was to estimate poppy plant height and capsule volume with remote sensing using an Unmanned Aircraft System (UAS). Data were obtained from field measurements and UAS flights over two poppy crops at Cambridge and Cressy in Tasmania. Imagery acquired from the UAS was used to produce dense point clouds using structure from motion (SfM) and multi-view stereopsis (MVS) techniques. Dense point clouds were used to generate a digital surface model (DSM) and orthophoto mosaic. An RGB index was derived from the orthophoto to extract the bare ground spaces. This bare ground space mask was used to filter the points on the ground, and a digital terrain model (DTM) was interpolated from these points. Plant height values were estimated by subtracting the DSM and DTM to generate a Crop Height Model (CHM). UAS-derived plant height (PH) and field measured PH in Cambridge were strongly correlated with R$^2$ values ranging from 0.93 to 0.97 for Transect 1 and Transect 2, respectively, while at Cressy results from a single flight provided R$^2$ of 0.97. Therefore, the proposed method can be considered an important step towards crop surface model (CSM) generation from a single UAS flight in situations where a bare ground DTM is unavailable. High correlations were found between UAS-derived PH and poppy capsule volume (CV) at capsule formation stage (R$^2$ 0.74), with relative error of 19.62%. Results illustrate that plant height can be reliably estimated for poppy crops based on a single UAS flight and can be used to predict opium capsule volume at capsule formation stage

Optimal search strategies for identifying sound clinical prediction studies in EMBASE

BACKGROUND: Clinical prediction guides assist clinicians by pointing to specific elements of the patient's clinical presentation that should be considered when forming a diagnosis, prognosis or judgment regarding treatment outcome. The numbers of validated clinical prediction guides are growing in the medical literature, but their retrieval from large biomedical databases remains problematic and this presents a barrier to their uptake in medical practice. We undertook the systematic development of search strategies ("hedges") for retrieval of empirically tested clinical prediction guides from EMBASE. METHODS: An analytic survey was conducted, testing the retrieval performance of search strategies run in EMBASE against the gold standard of hand searching, using a sample of all 27,769 articles identified in 55 journals for the 2000 publishing year. All articles were categorized as original studies, review articles, general papers, or case reports. The original and review articles were then tagged as 'pass' or 'fail' for methodologic rigor in the areas of clinical prediction guides and other clinical topics. Search terms that depicted clinical prediction guides were selected from a pool of index terms and text words gathered in house and through request to clinicians, librarians and professional searchers. A total of 36,232 search strategies composed of single and multiple term phrases were trialed for retrieval of clinical prediction studies. The sensitivity, specificity, precision, and accuracy of search strategies were calculated to identify which were the best. RESULTS: 163 clinical prediction studies were identified, of which 69 (42.3%) passed criteria for scientific merit. A 3-term strategy optimized sensitivity at 91.3% and specificity at 90.2%. Higher sensitivity (97.1%) was reached with a different 3-term strategy, but with a 16% drop in specificity. The best measure of specificity (98.8%) was found in a 2-term strategy, but with a considerable fall in sensitivity to 60.9%. All single term strategies performed less well than 2- and 3-term strategies. CONCLUSION: The retrieval of sound clinical prediction studies from EMBASE is supported by several search strategies

Acute changes in liver tumour perfusion measured non-invasively with arterial spin labelling

BACKGROUND: Non-invasive measures of tumour vascular perfusion are desirable, in order to assess response to vascular targeting (or modifying) therapies. In this study, hepatic arterial spin labelling (ASL) magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) was investigated to measure acute changes in perfusion of colorectal cancer in the liver, in response to vascular disruption therapy with OXi4503. METHODS: SW1222 and LS174T tumours were established in the liver of MF1 nu/nu mice via intrasplenic injection. Perfusion and R2(*) MRI measurements were acquired with an Agilent 9.4T horizontal bore scanner, before and at 90 min after 40 mg kg(-1) OXi4503. RESULTS: A significant decrease in SW1222 tumour perfusion was observed (-43±33%, P<0.005). LS174T tumours had a significantly lower baseline level of perfusion. Intrinsic susceptibility MRI showed a significant increase in R2(*) in LS174T tumours (28±25%, P<0.05). An association was found between the change in tumour perfusion and the proximity to large vessels, with pre-treatment blood flow predictive of subsequent response. Histological evaluation confirmed the onset of necrosis and evidence of heterogeneous response between tumour deposits. CONCLUSIONS: Hepatic ASL-MRI can detect acute response to targeted tumour vascular disruption entirely non-invasively. Hepatic ASL of liver tumours has potential for use in a clinical setting

California Current seascape influences juvenile salmon foraging ecology at multiple scales

Juvenile salmon Oncorhynchus spp. experience variable mortality rates during their first few months in the ocean, and high growth during this period is critical to minimize size selective predation. Examining links between the physical environment and foraging ecology is important to understand mechanisms that drive growth. These mechanisms are complex and include interactions among the physical environment, forage availability, bioenergetics, and salmon foraging behavior. Our objectives were to explore how seascape features (biological and physical) influence juvenile Chinook salmon O. tshawytscha foraging at annual and feedingevent scales in the California Current Ecosystem. We demonstrate that forage abundance was the most influential determinant of mean salmon stomach fullness at the annual scale, while at the feeding-event scale, fullness increased with greater cumulative upwelling during the 10 d prior and at closer distances to thermal fronts. Upwelling promotes nutrient enrichment and productivity, while fronts concentrate organisms, likely resulting in available prey to salmon and increased stomach fullness. Salmon were also more likely to consume krill when there was high prior upwelling,andswitchedtonon-krillinvertebrates(i.e.amphipods,decapods,copepods)inweaker upwelling conditions. As salmon size increased from 72−250 mm, salmon were more likely to consume fish, equal amounts of krill, and fewer non-krill invertebrates. Broad seascape processes determined overall prey availability and fullness in a given year, while fine- and meso-scale processes influenced local accessibility of prey to individual salmon. Therefore, processes occurring at multiple scales will influence how marine organisms respond to changing environment

Disentangling synergistic disease dynamics: Implications for the viral biocontrol of rabbits

European rabbits (Oryctolagus cuniculus) have been exposed to rabbit haemorrhagic disease virus (RHDV) and myxoma virus (MYXV) in their native and invasive ranges for decades. Yet, the long‐term effects of these viruses on rabbit population dynamics remain poorly understood.In this context, we analysed 17 years of detailed capture–mark–recapture data (2000–2016) from Turretfield, South Australia, using a probabilistic state‐space hierarchical modelling framework to estimate rabbit survival and epidemiological dynamics.While RHDV infection and disease‐induced death were most prominent during annual epidemics in winter and spring, we found evidence for continuous infection of susceptible individuals with RHDV throughout the year. RHDV‐susceptible rabbits had, on average, 25% lower monthly survival rates compared to immune individuals, while the average monthly force of infection in winter and spring was ∼38%. These combined to result in an average infection‐induced mortality rate of 69% in winter and spring.Individuals susceptible to MYXV and immune to RHDV had similar survival probabilities to those having survived infections from both viruses, whereas individuals susceptible to both RHDV and MYXV had higher survival probabilities than those susceptible to RHDV and immune to MYXV. This suggests that MYXV may reduce the future survival rates of individuals that endure initial MYXV infection.There was no evidence for long‐term changes in disease‐induced mortality and infection rates for either RHDV or MYXV.We conclude that continuous, year‐round virus perpetuation (and perhaps heterogeneity in modes of transmission and infectious doses during and after epidemics) acts to reduce the efficiency of RHDV and MYXV as biocontrol agents of rabbits in their invasive range. However, if virulence can be maintained as relatively constant through time, RHDV and MYXV will likely continue realizing strong benefits as biocontrol agents

Body composition in young female eating-disorder patients with severe weight loss and controls: evidence from the four-component model and evaluation of DXA

BACKGROUND/OBJECTIVES: Whether fat-free mass (FFM) and its components are depleted in eating-disorder (ED) patients is uncertain. Dual energy X-ray absorptiometry (DXA) is widely used to assess body composition in pediatric ED patients; however, its accuracy in underweight populations remains unknown. We aimed (1) to assess body composition of young females with ED involving substantial weight loss, relative to healthy controls using the four-component (4C) model, and (2) to explore the validity of DXA body composition assessment in ED patients. SUBJECTS/METHODS: Body composition of 13 females with ED and 117 controls, aged 10-18 years, was investigated using the 4C model. Accuracy of DXA for estimation of FFM and fat mass (FM) was tested using the approach of Bland and Altman. RESULTS: Adjusting for age, height and pubertal stage, ED patients had significantly lower whole-body FM, FFM, protein mass (PM) and mineral mass (MM) compared with controls. Trunk and limb FM and limb lean soft tissue were significantly lower in ED patients. However, no significant difference in the hydration of FFM was detected. Compared with the 4C model, DXA overestimated FM by 5 +/- 36% and underestimated FFM by 1 +/- 9% in ED patients. CONCLUSION: Our study confirms that ED patients are depleted not only in FM but also in FFM, PM and MM. DXA has limitations for estimating body composition in individual young female ED patients

Reading, Trauma and Literary Caregiving 1914-1918: Helen Mary Gaskell and the War Library

This article is about the relationship between reading, trauma and responsive literary caregiving in Britain during the First World War. Its analysis of two little-known documents describing the history of the War Library, begun by Helen Mary Gaskell in 1914, exposes a gap in the scholarship of war-time reading; generates a new narrative of "how," "when," and "why" books went to war; and foregrounds gender in its analysis of the historiography. The Library of Congress's T. W. Koch discovered Gaskell's ground-breaking work in 1917 and reported its successes to the American Library Association. The British Times also covered Gaskell's library, yet researchers working on reading during the war have routinely neglected her distinct model and method, skewing the research base on war-time reading and its association with trauma and caregiving. In the article's second half, a literary case study of a popular war novel demonstrates the extent of the "bitter cry for books." The success of Gaskell's intervention is examined alongside H. G. Wells's representation of textual healing. Reading is shown to offer sick, traumatized and recovering combatants emotional and psychological caregiving in ways that she could not always have predicted and that are not visible in the literary/historical record