Identification of the Dynamics of Biofouled Underwater Gliders

Marine growth has been observed to cause a drop in the horizontal and vertical velocities of underwater gliders, thus making them unresponsive and needing immediate recovery. Currently, no strategies exist to correctly identify the onset of marine growth for gliders and only limited datasets of biofouled hulls exist. Here, a field test has been run to investigate the impact of marine growth on the dynamics of underwater gliders. A Slocum glider was deployed first for eight days with drag stimulators to simulate severe biofouling; then the vehicle was redeployed with no additions to the hull for a further 20 days. The biofouling caused a speed reduction due to a significant increase in drag. Additionally, the lower speed causes the steady-state flight stage to last longer and thus a shortening of mission duration. As actual biofouling due to p. pollicipes happened during the deployment, it was possible to develop and test a system that successfully detects and identifies high levels of marine growth on the glider using steady-state flight data. The system will greatly help pilots re-plan missions to safely recover the vehicle if significant biofouling is detected

Lung MRI and impairment of diaphragmatic function in Pompe disease

Background: Pompe disease is a progressive metabolic myopathy. Involvement of respiratory muscles leads to progressive pulmonary dysfunction, particularly in supine position. Diaphragmatic weakness is considered to be the most important component. Standard spirometry is to some extent indicative but provides too little insight into diaphragmatic dynamics. We used lung MRI to study diaphragmatic and chest-wall movements in Pompe disease. Methods: In ten adult Pompe patients and six volunteers, we acquired two static spirometer-controlled MRI scans during maximum inspiration and expiration. Images were manually segmented. After normalization for lung size, changes in lung dimensions between inspiration and expiration were used for analysis; normalization was based on the cranial-caudal length ratio (representing vertical diaphragmatic displacement), and the anterior-posterior and left-right length ratios (representing chest-wall movements due to thoracic muscles). Results: We observed striking dysfunction of the diaphragm in Pompe patients; in some patients the diaphragm did not show any displacement. Patients had smaller cranial-caudal length ratios than volunteers (p < 0.001), indicating diaphragmatic weakness. This variable strongly correlated with forced vital capacity in supine position (r = 0.88) and postural drop (r = 0.89). While anterior-posterior length ratios also differed between patients and volunteers (p = 0.04), left-right length ratios did not (p = 0.1). Conclusions: MRI is an innovative tool to visualize diaphragmatic dynamics in Pompe patients and to study chest-walland diaphragmatic movements in more detail. Our data indicate that diaphragmatic displacement may be severely disturbed in patients with Pompe disease

Inclusion of sex chromosomes in noninvasive prenatal testing in Asia, Australia, Europe and the USA: A survey study

Objective: To examine the extent to which sex chromosomes are included in current noninvasive prenatal testing (NIPT) and the reporting practices with respect to fetal chromosomal sex and sex chromosome aberrations (SCAs), in addition to an update on the general implementation of NIPT. Method: A questionnaire addressing the research objectives was distributed by email to fetal medicine and clinical genetics experts in Asia, Australia, Europe and the USA. Results: Guidelines on NIPT are available in the majority of the included countries. Not all existing guidelines address reporting of fetal chromosomal sex and SCAs. In most settings, NIPT frequently includes sex chromosomes (five Australian states, China, Hong Kong, Israel, Singapore, Thailand, USA and 23 of 31 European countries). This occurs most often by default or when parents wish to know fetal sex. In most settings, a potential SCA is reported by stating the risk hereof as “low” or “high” and/or by naming the SCA. Less than 50% of all pregnant women receive NIPT according to respondents from three Australian states, China, Israel, Singapore, Thailand and 24 of 31 European countries. However, this percentage, the genomic coverage of NIPT and its application as primary or secondary screening vary by setting. Conclusion: In most of the studied countries/states, NIPT commonly includes sex chromosomes. The reporting practices concerning fetal chromosomal sex and SCAs are diverse and most commonly not addressed by guidelines. In general, NIPT is variably implemented across countries/states

Coral restoration - A systematic review of current methods, successes, failures and future directions.

Coral reef ecosystems have suffered an unprecedented loss of habitat-forming hard corals in recent decades. While marine conservation has historically focused on passive habitat protection, demand for and interest in active restoration has been growing in recent decades. However, a disconnect between coral restoration practitioners, coral reef managers and scientists has resulted in a disjointed field where it is difficult to gain an overview of existing knowledge. To address this, we aimed to synthesise the available knowledge in a comprehensive global review of coral restoration methods, incorporating data from the peer-reviewed scientific literature, complemented with grey literature and through a survey of coral restoration practitioners. We found that coral restoration case studies are dominated by short-term projects, with 60% of all projects reporting less than 18 months of monitoring of the restored sites. Similarly, most projects are relatively small in spatial scale, with a median size of restored area of 100 m2. A diverse range of species are represented in the dataset, with 229 different species from 72 coral genera. Overall, coral restoration projects focused primarily on fast-growing branching corals (59% of studies), and report survival between 60 and 70%. To date, the relatively young field of coral restoration has been plagued by similar 'growing pains' as ecological restoration in other ecosystems. These include 1) a lack of clear and achievable objectives, 2) a lack of appropriate and standardised monitoring and reporting and, 3) poorly designed projects in relation to stated objectives. Mitigating these will be crucial to successfully scale up projects, and to retain public trust in restoration as a tool for resilience based management. Finally, while it is clear that practitioners have developed effective methods to successfully grow corals at small scales, it is critical not to view restoration as a replacement for meaningful action on climate change