No silver bullet for digital soil mapping: country-specific soil organic carbon estimates across Latin America.

Country-specific soil organic carbon (SOC) estimates are the baseline for the Global SOC Map of the Global Soil Partnership (GSOCmap-GSP). This endeavor is key to explaining the uncertainty of global SOC estimates but requires harmonizing heterogeneous datasets and building country-specific capacities for digital soil mapping (DSM).We identified country-specific predictors for SOC and tested the performance of five predictive algorithms for mapping SOC across Latin America. The algorithms included support vector machines (SVMs), random forest (RF), kernel-weighted nearest neighbors (KK), partial least squares regression (PL), and regression kriging based on stepwise multiple linear models (RK). Country-specific training data and SOC predictors (5 x 5 km pixel resolution) were obtained from ISRIC - World Soil Information. Temperature, soil type, vegetation indices, and topographic constraints were the best predictors for SOC, but country-specific predictors and their respective weights varied across Latin America. We compared a large diversity of country-specific datasets and models, and were able to explain SOC variability in a range between ~ 1 and ~ 60 %, with no universal predictive algorithm among countries. A regional (n = 11 268 SOC estimates) ensemble of these five algorithms was able to explain ~ 39% of SOC variability from repeated 5-fold cross-validation.We report a combined SOC stock of 77.8 +- 43.6 Pg (uncertainty represented by the full conditional response of independent model residuals) across Latin America. SOC stocks were higher in tropical forests (30 +- 16.5 Pg) and croplands (13 +- 8.1 Pg). Country-specific and regional ensembles revealed spatial discrepancies across geopolitical borders, higher elevations, and coastal plains, but provided similar regional stocks (77.8 +- 42.2 and 76.8 +- 45.1 Pg, respectively). These results are conservative compared to global estimates (e.g., SoilGrids250m 185.8 Pg, the Harmonized World Soil Database 138.4 Pg, or the GSOCmap-GSP 99.7 Pg). Countries with large area (i.e., Brazil, Bolivia, Mexico, Peru) and large spatial SOC heterogeneity had lower SOC stocks per unit area and larger uncertainty in their predictions. We highlight that expert opinion is needed to set boundary prediction limits to avoid unrealistically high modeling estimates. For maximizing explained variance while minimizing prediction bias, the selection of predictive algorithms for SOC mapping should consider density of available data and variability of country-specific environmental gradients. This study highlights the large degree of spatial uncertainty in SOC estimates across Latin America. We provide a framework for improving country-specific mapping efforts and reducing current discrepancy of global, regional, and country-specific SOC estimates

A922 Sequential measurement of 1 hour creatinine clearance (1-CRCL) in critically ill patients at risk of acute kidney injury (AKI)

Meeting abstrac

Higher COVID-19 pneumonia risk associated with anti-IFN-α than with anti-IFN-ω auto-Abs in children

We found that 19 (10.4%) of 183 unvaccinated children hospitalized for COVID-19 pneumonia had autoantibodies (auto-Abs) neutralizing type I IFNs (IFN-alpha 2 in 10 patients: IFN-alpha 2 only in three, IFN-alpha 2 plus IFN-omega in five, and IFN-alpha 2, IFN-omega plus IFN-beta in two; IFN-omega only in nine patients). Seven children (3.8%) had Abs neutralizing at least 10 ng/ml of one IFN, whereas the other 12 (6.6%) had Abs neutralizing only 100 pg/ml. The auto-Abs neutralized both unglycosylated and glycosylated IFNs. We also detected auto-Abs neutralizing 100 pg/ml IFN-alpha 2 in 4 of 2,267 uninfected children (0.2%) and auto-Abs neutralizing IFN-omega in 45 children (2%). The odds ratios (ORs) for life-threatening COVID-19 pneumonia were, therefore, higher for auto-Abs neutralizing IFN-alpha 2 only (OR [95% CI] = 67.6 [5.7-9,196.6]) than for auto-Abs neutralizing IFN-. only (OR [95% CI] = 2.6 [1.2-5.3]). ORs were also higher for auto-Abs neutralizing high concentrations (OR [95% CI] = 12.9 [4.6-35.9]) than for those neutralizing low concentrations (OR [95% CI] = 5.5 [3.1-9.6]) of IFN-omega and/or IFN-alpha 2

Effects of Psychological Stress and Alprazolam on Development of Oral Candidiasis in Rats

Psychological stress has been found to suppress cell-mediated immune responses that are important in limiting the proliferation of Candida albicans. Since anxiolytic drugs can restore cellular immunity in rodents exposed to stress conditions, we designed experiments conducted to evaluate the effects of alprazolam (1 mg/kg of body weight/day), a central benzodiazepine anxiolytic agonist, on the development of oral candidiasis in Sprague-Dawley rats exposed to a chronic auditory stressor. Animals were submitted to surgical hyposalivation in order to facilitate the establishment and persistence of C. albicans infection. Application of stress and treatment with drugs (placebo or alprazolam) were initiated 7 days before C. albicans inoculation and lasted until the end of the experiments (day 15 postinoculation). Establishment of C. albicans infection was evaluated by swabbing the inoculated oral cavity with a sterile cotton applicator on days 2 and 15 after inoculation, followed by plating on YEPD (yeast extract-peptone-dextrose) agar. Tissue injury was determined by the quantification of the number and type (normal or abnormal) of papillae on the dorsal tongue per microscopic field. A semiquantitative scale was devised to assess the degree of colonization of the epithelium by fungal hyphae. Our results show that stress exacerbates C. albicans infection of the tongues of rats. Significant increases in Candida counts, the percentage of the tongue's surface covered with clinical lesions, the percentage of abnormal papillae, and the colonization of the epithelium by fungal hyphae were found in stressed rats compared to those found in the unstressed rats. Treatment with alprazolam significantly reversed these adverse effects of stress, showing that, besides the psychopharmacological properties of this anxiolytic drug against stress, it has consequences for Candida infection

Population Genomics Reveals the Underlying Structure of the Small Pelagic European Sardine and Suggests Low Connectivity within Macaronesia

The European sardine (Sardina pilchardus, Walbaum 1792) is indisputably a commercially important species. Previous studies using uneven sampling or a limited number of makers have presented sometimes conflicting evidence of the genetic structure of S. pilchardus populations. Here, we show that whole genome data from 108 individuals from 16 sampling areas across 5000 km of the species’ distribution range (from the Eastern Mediterranean to the archipelago of Azores) support at least three genetic clusters. One includes individuals from Azores and Madeira, with evidence of substructure separating these two archipelagos in the Atlantic. Another cluster broadly corresponds to the center of the distribution, including the sampling sites around Iberia, separated by the Almeria–Oran front from the third cluster that includes all of the Mediterranean samples, except those from the Alboran Sea. Individuals from the Canary Islands appear to belong to the Mediterranean cluster. This suggests at least two important geographical barriers to gene flow, even though these do not seem complete, with many individuals from around Iberia and the Mediterranean showing some patterns compatible with admixture with other genetic clusters. Genomic regions corresponding to the top outliers of genetic differentiation are located in areas of low recombination indicative that genetic architecture also has a role in shaping population structure. These regions include genes related to otolith formation, a calcium carbonate structure in the inner ear previously used to distinguish S. pilchardus populations. Our results provide a baseline for further characterization of physical and genetic barriers that divide European sardine populations, and information for transnational stock management of this highly exploited species towards sustainable fisheries

Patients with Crohn's disease have longer post-operative in-hospital stay than patients with colon cancer but no difference in complications' rate

BACKGROUNDRight hemicolectomy or ileocecal resection are used to treat benign conditions like Crohn's disease (CD) and malignant ones like colon cancer (CC).AIMTo investigate differences in pre- and peri-operative factors and their impact on post-operative outcome in patients with CC and CD.METHODSThis is a sub-group analysis of the European Society of Coloproctology's prospective, multi-centre snapshot audit. Adult patients with CC and CD undergoing right hemicolectomy or ileocecal resection were included. Primary outcome measure was 30-d post-operative complications. Secondary outcome measures were post-operative length of stay (LOS) at and readmission.RESULTSThree hundred and seventy-five patients with CD and 2,515 patients with CC were included. Patients with CD were younger (median = 37 years for CD and 71 years for CC (P < 0.01), had lower American Society of Anesthesiology score (ASA) grade (P < 0.01) and less comorbidity (P < 0.01), but were more likely to be current smokers (P < 0.01). Patients with CD were more frequently operated on by colorectal surgeons (P < 0.01) and frequently underwent ileocecal resection (P < 0.01) with higher rate of de-functioning/primary stoma construction (P < 0.01). Thirty-day post-operative mortality occurred exclusively in the CC group (66/2515, 2.3%). In multivariate analyses, the risk of post-operative complications was similar in the two groups (OR 0.80, 95%CI: 0.54-1.17; P = 0.25). Patients with CD had a significantly longer LOS (Geometric mean 0.87, 95%CI: 0.79-0.95; P < 0.01). There was no difference in re-admission rates. The audit did not collect data on post-operative enhanced recovery protocols that are implemented in the different participating centers.CONCLUSIONPatients with CD were younger, with lower ASA grade, less comorbidity, operated on by experienced surgeons and underwent less radical resection but had a longer LOS than patients with CC although complication's rate was not different between the two groups