The influence of the landscape structure within buffer zones, catchment land use and instream environmental variables on mollusc communities in a medium-sized lowland river

The world’s freshwater molluscan fauna is facing unprecedented threats from habitat loss and degradation. Declines in native populations are mostly attributed to the human impact, which results in reduced water quality. The objectives of our survey were to analyse the structure of the mollusc communities in a medium-sized lowland river and to determine the most important environmental variables at different spatial scales, including landscape structure, catchment land use and instream environmental factors that influence their structure. Our survey showed that a medium-sized river, that flows through areas included in the European Ecological Natura 2000 Network Programme of protected sites, provides diverse instream habitats and niches that support 47 mollusc species including Unio crassus, a bivalve of Community interest, whose conservation requires the designation of a special conservation area under the Habitats Directive Natura 2000. This survey showed that mollusc communities are impacted by several environmental variables that act together at multiple scales. The landscape structure within buffer zones, catchment land use and instream environmental variables were all important and influenced the structure of mollusc communities. Therefore, they should all be taken into consideration in the future restoration of the river, future management projects and programmes for the conservation of biodiversity in running waters. The results of this study may be directly applicable for the rehabilitation of river ecosystems and are recommended to stakeholders in their future decision concerning landscape planning, monitoring species and their habitats, conservation plans and management in accordance with the requirements of sustainable development

The Cost of Reaching National Cholesterol Education Program (NCEP) Goals in Hypercholesterolaemic Patients: A Comparison of Atorvastatin, Simvastatin, Lovastatin and Fluvastatin

Objective: Recognising the importance of treating hyperlipidaemia, the National Cholesterol Education Program (NCEP) has established widely accepted treatment goals for low density lipoprotein cholesterol (LDL-C). Medications used most commonly to achieve these LDL-C goals are HMG-CoA reductase inhibitors. The relative resource utilisation and cost associated with the use of reductase inhibitors of different LDL-C lowering efficacy are unknown, but are major health and economic concerns. The objective of this study was to determine the mean total cost of care to reach NCEP goals with various reductase inhibitors. Design: In a randomised, 54-week, 30-centre controlled trial we compared resources used and costs associated with treating patients to achieve NCEP goals using 4 reductase inhibitors: atorvastatin, simvastatin, lovastatin and fluvastatin. Patients and participants: The trial studied 662 patients; 318 had known atherosclerotic disease. Interventions: Reductase inhibitor therapy was initiated at recommended starting doses and increased according to NCEP guidelines and package insert information. For patients who did not reach the goal at the highest recommended dose of each reductase inhibitor, the resin colestipol was added. Main outcome measures and results: Patients treated with atorvastatin, compared with other reductase inhibitors, were more likely to reach NCEP goals during treatment (pPharmacoeconomics, Guideline-utilisation, Hypercholesterolaemia, Fluvastatin, Lovastatin, Atorvastatin, Simvastatin, Cost-analysis, Randomised-controlled-trials, Clinical-trial-design, Hmg-coa-reductase-inhibitors, Drug-utilisation

Supervised hierarchical clustering of the fresh-frozen thymomas based on the histologic groups.

<p>The figure comprises of 34 tumors (GI = group I (type AB), GII = group II (types B1–B2), and GIII = group III (type B3) and one duplicate.</p

Unsupervised hierarchical clustering of the 34 fresh-frozen thymomas showing four distinct clusters (C1–C4).

<p>One sample is included as the duplicate.</p

Heat map representing the mRNA levels of <i>AKR1B10</i>, <i>JPH1</i>, and <i>COL11A1</i> genes using TaqMan qPCR system.

<p>Data is normalized to the geometric mean of the reference genes <i>IPO8 and TFRC</i>. The heat map is generated using the Applied Biosystems DataAssist™ v3.0 software. M, tumors associated with metastasis, N, tumors with no metastasis.</p

Biological processes and canonical pathways associated with metastasis and stage using Ingenuity Pathways Analysis.

<p>The top ten significant biological functions. (A) Metastasis, (B) stage, and canonical pathways. (C) Metastasis and (D) stage were grouped based on the <i>P</i> values using right tailed Fisher exact test and with threshold less than 0.05.</p

Clinical characteristics of the patients included in the gene expression analysis.

<p>Clinical characteristics of the patients included in the gene expression analysis.</p

Earliest seadfloor hydrothermal systems on Earth- Comparison with modern analogues

Recent developments in multiple sulfur isotope analysis of sulfide and sulfate minerals provide a new tool for investigation of ore-forming processes and sources of sulfur in Archean hydrothermal systems, with important implications for the Archean sulfur cycle, the origin and impact of various microbial metabolisms and the chemistry of surface waters. In the current study we show that most of the sulfides and sulfates in the 3.49 Ga Dresser Formation and 3.24 Ga Panorama Zn-Cu field of Western Australia have non zero ΔS values that indicate variable proportions of seawater sulfate and elemental sulfur of UV-photolysis origin were incorporated into the deposits. Our results show that the multiple sulfur isotope systematics of the Dresser Formation sulfides and sulfates mainly reflect mixing between mass independently fractionated sulfur reservoirs with positive and negative ΔS. Pyrite occurring with barite is depleted in S relative to the host barite that has been interpreted as evidence for microbial sulfate reduction. We note, however, that the reported quadruple sulfur isotope systematics of pyrite-barite pairs are equally permissive of a thermochemical origin for this pyrite, which is consistent with inferred formation temperatures for the chert-barite units in excess of 100°C. The variably positive ΔS anomalies of the Panorama VHMS deposits, disequilibrium relations among sulfides and sulfates and general trend of increasing sulfide ΔS with stratigraphic height in individual ore systems most likely reflects temperature evolution and fluid mixing through the life of the hydrothermal system. The absence of sulfides with significant negative ΔS anomalies suggests that volcanic sulfur, not seawater sulfate, was the dominant sulfur source for the Panorama mineral system. The data presented here require Paleoarchean seawater to be at least locally sulfate bearing