Patterns of Mesophotic Benthic Community Structure on Banks Off vs Inside the Continental Shelf Edge, Gulf of Mexico

Information on the biodiversity and geographic patterns of mesophotic, sessile, epibenthic communities on banks around and at the edge of the continental shelf, northern Gulf of Mexico, has been limited. These communities vary in their environments and are prone to disturbance from Outer Continental Shelf oil- and gas-related activities and fishing (trawling and long-lining). We surveyed these communities on the flanks of 13 banks to determine species richness, species composition, similarities between benthic communities, and geographic patterns in community structure. We sampled to ≤ 181 m in depth via a remotely operated vehicle using a vertically mounted digital camera bearing two lasers for scale and a flash (generally 10 drop-sites/bank, 5 transects/drop-site, and ≤11 photos/transect). Data analysis via PATN revealed three main Bank Groups: the on-shelf group containing 29 Fathom and Sonnier Banks; an anomalous bank—Geyer Bank; and the shelf edge group—Horseshoe, 28 Fathom, Bright, Alderdice, Bouma, Rankin, Rezak, Elvers, McGrail, and Sidner Banks. Most species-rich banks (Bank Group 3) occurred at the shelf edge. Two of the species-poor banks (Bank Group 1) occurred further north, inside the shelf. Geyer Bank (Bank Group 2) occurred at the shelf edge but was anomalously species-poor. Box-and-whisker analyses identified four Species Groups driving the Bank Groupings. Species Group 4 (the Elatopathes abientina/Nicella sp. group) was the largest (also containing Peysonellia sp.), primarily defining Bank Group 3. Species Groups 2 (the Antipathes sp./Gorgonian G04 group) and 3 (low species abundances) were also associated with Bank Group 3. Species Group 4 (the Elatopathes abientina/Nicella sp. group) was a major contributor to Bank Group 2 (Geyer Bank). Species Group 2 (the Antipathes sp./Gorgonian G04 group) was the primary constituent of the on-shelf Bank Group 1, also characterized by low species richness. Most species had a comparative abundance of ≤20%. The high species richness and affinities exhibited by Bank Group 3 are likely due to continual exposure to warm, low-turbidity Caribbean water at the shelf edge. Banks inside the shelf likely vary from the others as a result of exposure to cooler winter temperatures and higher turbidity due to wind-forced inshore currents. The reasons for the unique community structure on Geyer Bank are as yet unknown. Shelf-edge banks tend to be more species rich than on-shelf banks

Genetic tools discriminate strains of leishmania infantum isolated from humans and dogs in Sicily, Italy

Background Leishmaniasis is one of the most important vector-borne diseases and it represents a seri-ous world health problem affecting millions of people. High levels of Leishmania infections, affecting both humans and animals, are recognized among Italian regions. Among these, Sicily has one of the highest prevalence of Leishmania infection. Methodology/Principal Findings Seventy-eight Leishmania strains isolated from human and animal samples across Sicily, were analyzed for the polymorphic k26-gene and genotypes were assigned according to the size of the PCR products. A multilocus microsatellite typing (MLMT) approach based on the analysis of 11 independent loci was used to investigate populations structure and genetic diversity of the isolated strains. Six L. infantum reference strains were included in the analysis for comparison. Bayesian clustering analysis of microsatellite data showed that all the isolated strains clustered in two genetically distinct populations, corresponding to human and canine isolates respectively. A further subdivision was observed between the two main groups, giving a good correlation between human strains and their geographic origin, conversely canine population showed a great genetic variability diffused in the territory. Conclusions/Significance Among the 78 Leishmania isolates, K26 analysis detected 71 samples (91%) as MON-1 zymodeme, confirming it as the predominant strain in Mediterranean area and 7 human samples (9%) as non-MON-1. MLMT gives important insights into the epidemiology of leish-maniases and allows characterization of different strains to a higher resolution than possible with zymodeme typing. Two main populations presented a strong correlation respect to the different hosts, exhibiting a co-circulation of two distinct populations of L. infantum. The population found in infected humans exhibited a correlation with geographic origin. These clusters could represent a geographically restricted population of strains with the same or related genotypes. This study can contribute to an understanding of Leishmania epidemiol-ogy, including the spread of reservoirs and sand fly vectors in the different foci of infection, characterizing parasites within the different hosts

Extended mild-slope equations for compressible fluids

In this paper we derive new forms of the mildslope equation (MSE) for water waves in a weakly compressible fluid on a slowly varying bathymetry, with surface and bottom disturbances. The MSE is a powerful tool to model the refraction-diffraction dynamics of water waves propagating on a variable bathymetry [1]. Traditionally, mild-slope models are derived by assuming that the wave steepness is small, the fluid is inviscid and incompressible and the motion is irrotational. Furthermore, no disturbances are normally considered both on the free surface and at the bottom of the fluid domain [2]. In this paper we shall find new expressions of the MSE by relaxing the incompressibility hypothesis and considering both surface and bottom disturbances. We shall name the set of new formulae as the extended acoustic-gravity mild-slope equations (EAG-MSE). Such a system of equations can be implemented in numerical models for the early detection of coastal flooding based on the hydro-acoustic precursors of surface gravity waves (see [3]–[5])

Endoscopic Pilonidal Sinus Treatment. A Tertiary Care Academic Center Experience

Background: Pilonidal disease (PD) represents one of the most common proctological diseases in young adults. Although several approaches to treating PD have been described, there is still a lack of agreement on which is the best. The aim of this study was to evaluate the long-term efficacy of endoscopic pilonidal sinus treatment (EPSiT) at a tertiary care academic center. Methods: Between June 2017 and January 2021, a total of 32 patients [12 women (37.5%) and 20 men (62.5%)] with a mean age of 29.22 ± 12.98 years were treated with EPSiT. Pre- and post-operative symptoms were assessed with a score of 0–5. Success was defined as the absence of any subjective symptoms, as well as by complete post-operative wound healing. Results: Most of the patients had a midline external opening (17/32; 53.1%), with a mean number of external openings of 2.41 (1–4) ± 1.04. The median post-operative pain score was 0, and the mean follow-up period was 22 (4–42) ± 11.49 months. The time to wound healing was reduced in patients with one opening (28.14 ± 4.06 days) compared to patients with two or more openings (33.64 ± 7.3 days) (p = 0.067). The mean operative time was longer in patients who subsequently had a recurrence (41.75 ± 6.24 vs. 34.18 ± 6.24 min; p = 0.031). The overall success rate was 87.5% (28/32), and the mean time to recurrence was 3.25 (2–5) ± 1.26 months. Conclusions: EPSiT represents a viable option for the treatment of PD. More evidence and a longer follow-up period are needed to validate the results

Assessment of body composition in health and disease using bioelectrical impedance analysis (bia) and dual energy x-ray absorptiometry (dxa): A critical overview

The measurement of body composition (BC) represents a valuable tool to assess nutritional status in health and disease. The most used methods to evaluate BC in the clinical practice are based on bicompartment models and measure, directly or indirectly, fat mass (FM) and fat-free mass (FFM). Bioelectrical impedance analysis (BIA) and dual energy X-ray absorptiometry (DXA) (nowadays considered as the reference technique in clinical practice) are extensively used in epidemiological (mainly BIA) and clinical (mainly DXA) settings to evaluate BC. DXA is primarily used for the measurements of bone mineral content (BMC) and density to assess bone health and diagnose osteoporosis in defined anatomical regions (femur and spine). However, total body DXA scans are used to derive a three-compartment BC model, including BMC, FM, and FFM. Both these methods feature some limitations: the accuracy of BIA measurements is reduced when specific predictive equations and standardized measurement protocols are not utilized whereas the limitations of DXA are the safety of repeated measurements (no more than two body scans per year are currently advised), cost, and technical expertise. This review aims to provide useful insights mostly into the use of BC methods in prevention and clinical practice (ambulatory or bedridden patients). We believe that it will stimulate a discussion on the topic and reinvigorate the crucial role of BC evaluation in diagnostic and clinical investigation protocols

CYP17A1 polymorphism c.-362T>C predicts clinical outcome in metastatic castration-resistance prostate cancer patients treated with abiraterone

Background: Abiraterone became a standard hormonal therapy for patients with metastatic castration-resistance prostate cancer (mCRPC). However, patients may experience primary resistance to treatment. To date, few predictive biomarkers of efficacy have been identified. Our aim was to investigate the association between the single nucleotide polymorphism (SNP) c.-362T>C in the CYP17A1 gene, and clinical outcome in mCRPC patients treated with abiraterone. Patients and methods: mCRPC patients candidate to receive abiraterone were enrolled in the present retrospective pharmacogenetic study. Based on a literature selection, CYP17A1 rs2486758 (c.-362T > C) was selected and analysed by real-time PCR on genomic DNA extracted from whole blood. Univariate analysis was performed to test the association between the SNP and treatment-related clinical outcomes. Results: Sixty mCRPC patients were enrolled in the present study. Patients carrying the mutant CYP17A1 c.-362CT/CC genotypes showed a shorter median progression-free survival (PFS) and prostate-specific antigen-PFS (PSA-PFS) compared to patients carrying the TT genotype (10.7 vs 14.2 months and 8 vs 16 months, respectively; p = 0.04). No association between the selected SNP and the overall survival was found. Conclusions: These findings suggest an association between CYP17A1 c.-362T>C polymorphism and poorer clinical outcome with abiraterone for mCRPC patients. However, further validations on larger cohort of patients are needed to confirm its role as a predictive biomarker for abiraterone resistance

Lightweight Model for Session-Based Recommender Systems with Seasonality Information in the Fashion Domain

This paper presents the solution designed by the team "Boston Team Party"for the ACM RecSys Challenge 2022. The competition was organized by Dressipi and was framed under the session-based fashion recommendations domain. Particularly, the task was to predict the purchased item at the end of each anonymous session. Our proposed two-stage solution is effective, lightweight, and scalable. First, it leverages the expertise of several strong recommendation models to produce a pool of candidate items. Then, a Gradient-Boosting Decision Tree model aggregates these candidates alongside several hand-crafted features to produce the final ranking. Our model achieved a score of 0.18800 in the public leaderboard. To aid in the reproducibility of our findings, we open-source our materials

Motion-resonant modes of large articulated damped oscillators in waves

This paper was accepted for publication in the Journal of Fluids and Structures. The definitive published version is available at: http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.jfluidstructs.2014.06.012Using a semi-analytical approach, we show that an articulated system of large damped oscillators in the open ocean can be resonated by incoming waves at multiple frequencies. As an application, energy extraction from the system is modelled when the oscillators are used as flap-type wave energy converters. A new parameter – the absorption efficiency – is introduced to analyse the performance of the system at resonance. This allows us to identify the occurrence of detrimental processes near the resonant frequencies, which reduce the sustainability of the energy conversion process. This result challenges the diffused belief that large flap-type wave energy converters must be designed to resonate, which is based on the use of inappropriate performance descriptors