Towards an urban marine ecology: Characterizing the drivers, patterns, and processes of marine ecosystems in coastal cities

This is the author accepted manuscript. The final version is available from Wiley via the DOI in this record Human population density within 100 km of the sea is approximately three times higher than the global average. People in this zone are concentrated in coastal cities that are hubs for transport and trade – which transform the marine environment. Here, we review the impacts of three interacting drivers of marine urbanization (resource exploitation, pollution pathways and ocean sprawl) and discuss key characteristics that are symptomatic of urban marine ecosystems. Current evidence suggests these systems comprise spatially heterogeneous mosaics with respect to artificial structures, pollutants and community composition, while also undergoing biotic homogenization over time. Urban marine ecosystem dynamics are often influenced by several commonly observed patterns and processes, including the loss of foundation species, changes in biodiversity and productivity, and the establishment of novel assemblages, ruderal species and synanthropes. Further, we discuss potential urban acclimatization and adaptation among marine taxa, interactive effects of climate change and marine urbanization, and ecological engineering strategies for enhancing urban marine ecosystems. By assimilating research findings across disparate disciplines, we aim to build the groundwork for urban marine ecology – a nascent field; we also discuss research challenges and future directions for this new field as it advances and matures. Ultimately, all sides of coastal city design: architecture, urban planning, and civil and municipal engineering, will need to prioritize the marine environment if negative effects of urbanization are to be minimized. In particular, planning strategies that account for the interactive effects of urban drivers and accommodate complex system dynamics could enhance the ecological and human functions of future urban marine ecosystems.National Research Foundation, Prime Minister’s Office SingaporeUS National Science Foundatio

Th2 Cell-Intrinsic Hypo-Responsiveness Determines Susceptibility to Helminth Infection

The suppression of protective Type 2 immunity is a principal factor driving the chronicity of helminth infections, and has been attributed to a range of Th2 cell-extrinsic immune-regulators. However, the intrinsic fate of parasite-specific Th2 cells within a chronic immune down-regulatory environment, and the resultant impact such fate changes may have on host resistance is unknown. We used IL-4gfp reporter mice to demonstrate that during chronic helminth infection with the filarial nematode Litomosoides sigmodontis, CD4(+) Th2 cells are conditioned towards an intrinsically hypo-responsive phenotype, characterised by a loss of functional ability to proliferate and produce the cytokines IL-4, IL-5 and IL-2. Th2 cell hypo-responsiveness was a key element determining susceptibility to L. sigmodontis infection, and could be reversed in vivo by blockade of PD-1 resulting in long-term recovery of Th2 cell functional quality and enhanced resistance. Contrasting with T cell dysfunction in Type 1 settings, the control of Th2 cell hypo-responsiveness by PD-1 was mediated through PD-L2, and not PD-L1. Thus, intrinsic changes in Th2 cell quality leading to a functionally hypo-responsive phenotype play a key role in determining susceptibility to filarial infection, and the therapeutic manipulation of Th2 cell-intrinsic quality provides a potential avenue for promoting resistance to helminths

Hepatitis B Vaccine Antibody Response and the Risk of Clinical AIDS or Death

Whether seroresponse to a vaccine such as hepatitis B virus (HBV) vaccine can provide a measure of the functional immune status of HIV-infected persons is unknown.This study evaluated the relationship between HBV vaccine seroresponses and progression to clinical AIDS or death. (HR 3.40; 95% CI, 1.39–8.32).

Reporting bias in medical research - a narrative review

Reporting bias represents a major problem in the assessment of health care interventions. Several prominent cases have been described in the literature, for example, in the reporting of trials of antidepressants, Class I anti-arrhythmic drugs, and selective COX-2 inhibitors. The aim of this narrative review is to gain an overview of reporting bias in the medical literature, focussing on publication bias and selective outcome reporting. We explore whether these types of bias have been shown in areas beyond the well-known cases noted above, in order to gain an impression of how widespread the problem is. For this purpose, we screened relevant articles on reporting bias that had previously been obtained by the German Institute for Quality and Efficiency in Health Care in the context of its health technology assessment reports and other research work, together with the reference lists of these articles

Early onset of zooplanktivory in equatorial reef coral recruits

10.1007/s12526-013-0156-5Marine Biodiversity433177-17

EEG KISS: Shared Multi-modal, Multi Brain Computer Interface Experience, in Public Space

Can shared intimate experience of social touch be mediated through multi-brain-computer interface (Multi-brain BCI) interaction in public space? Two artistic EEG KISS orchestrations, both multi-modal, multi-brain BCIs, are shown to create novel shared experiences of social touch in public space. These orchestrations purposefully disrupt and translate known forms of face-to-face connection and sound, to re-orchestrate unfamiliar sensory syntheses of seeing, hearing, touching and moving, connected to data-visualization and audification of brain activity. The familiar sensory relations between ‘who you kiss and who is being kissed, what you see and what you hear’ are captured in a model of digital synaesthetics in multi-modal multi brain BCI interaction for social touch. This model links hosted self-disclosure, witnessing, dialogue and reflection to intimate experience in public space through syntheses of the senses. As such, this model facilitates the design of new shared intimate experiences of multi modal multi brain BCI interaction through social touch in public space.Green Open Access added to TU Delft Institutional Repository ‘You share, we take care!’ – Taverne project https://www.openaccess.nl/en/you-share-we-take-care Otherwise as indicated in the copyright section: the publisher is the copyright holder of this work and the author uses the Dutch legislation to make this work public.System Engineerin