Evaluation of ADCP wave, WAVEWATCH III and HF radar data on the GBR

Wave climate can have a very significant impact on the dynamics of the near-coastal oceans, including geomorphology and currents. This study is a preliminary investigation of the suitability and compatibility of a wave-capable Acoustic Doppler Current Profiler (ADCP) mooring, an HF ocean radar system and the numerical model WAVEWATCH III (WW3), with the focus on the area of the Capricorn and Bunker Groups of reefs and islands, Australia

Linking chondrocyte and synovial transcriptional profile to clinical phenotype in osteoarthritis.

OBJECTIVES: To determine how gene expression profiles in osteoarthritis joint tissues relate to patient phenotypes and whether molecular subtypes can be reproducibly captured by a molecular classification algorithm. METHODS: We analysed RNA sequencing data from cartilage and synovium in 113 osteoarthritis patients, applying unsupervised clustering and Multi-Omics Factor Analysis to characterise transcriptional profiles. We tested the association of the molecularly defined patient subgroups with clinical characteristics from electronic health records. RESULTS: We detected two patient subgroups in low-grade cartilage (showing no/minimal degeneration, cartilage normal/softening only), with differences associated with inflammation, extracellular matrix-related and cell adhesion pathways. The high-inflammation subgroup was associated with female sex (OR 4.12, p=0.0024) and prescription of proton pump inhibitors (OR 4.21, p=0.0040). We identified two independent patient subgroupings in osteoarthritis synovium: one related to inflammation and the other to extracellular matrix and cell adhesion processes. A seven-gene classifier including MMP13, APOD, MMP2, MMP1, CYTL1, IL6 and C15orf48 recapitulated the main axis of molecular heterogeneity in low-grade knee osteoarthritis cartilage (correlation ρ=-0.88, p<10-10) and was reproducible in an independent patient cohort (ρ=-0.85, p<10-10). CONCLUSIONS: These data support the reproducible stratification of osteoarthritis patients by molecular subtype and the exploration of new avenues for tailored treatments

Effects of Mesenchymal Stem Cell and Growth Factor Delivery on Cartilage Repair in a Mini-Pig Model

We have recently shown that mesenchymal stem cells (MSCs) embedded in a hyaluronic acid (HA) hydrogel and exposed to chondrogenic factors (transforming growth factor–β3 [TGF-β3]) produce a cartilage-like tissue in vitro. The current objective was to determine if these same factors could be combined immediately prior to implantation to induce a superior healing response in vivo relative to the hydrogel alone

Genome-wide association study identifies 30 loci associated with bipolar disorder.

Bipolar disorder is a highly heritable psychiatric disorder. We performed a genome-wide association study (GWAS) including 20,352 cases and 31,358 controls of European descent, with follow-up analysis of 822 variants with P &lt; 1 × 10-4 in an additional 9,412 cases and 137,760 controls. Eight of the 19 variants that were genome-wide significant (P &lt; 5 × 10-8) in the discovery GWAS were not genome-wide significant in the combined analysis, consistent with small effect sizes and limited power but also with genetic heterogeneity. In the combined analysis, 30 loci were genome-wide significant, including 20 newly identified loci. The significant loci contain genes encoding ion channels, neurotransmitter transporters and synaptic components. Pathway analysis revealed nine significantly enriched gene sets, including regulation of insulin secretion and endocannabinoid signaling. Bipolar I disorder is strongly genetically correlated with schizophrenia, driven by psychosis, whereas bipolar II disorder is more strongly correlated with major depressive disorder. These findings address key clinical questions and provide potential biological mechanisms for bipolar disorder

Chapter 4 Design Options, Implementation Issues and Evaluating Success of Ecologically Engineered Shorelines

Human population growth and accelerating coastal development have been the drivers for unprecedented construction of artificial structures along shorelines globally. Construction has been recently amplified by societal responses to reduce flood and erosion risks from rising sea levels and more extreme storms resulting from climate change. Such structures, leading to highly modified shorelines, deliver societal benefits, but they also create significant socioeconomic and environmental challenges. The planning, design and deployment of these coastal structures should aim to provide multiple goals through the application of ecoengineering to shoreline development. Such developments should be designed and built with the overarching objective of reducing negative impacts on nature, using hard, soft and hybrid ecological engineering approaches. The design of ecologically sensitive shorelines should be context-dependent and combine engineering, environmental and socioeconomic considerations. The costs and benefits of ecoengineered shoreline design options should be considered across all three of these disciplinary domains when setting objectives, informing plans for their subsequent maintenance and management and ultimately monitoring and evaluating their success. To date, successful ecoengineered shoreline projects have engaged with multiple stakeholders (e.g. architects, engineers, ecologists, coastal/port managers and the general public) during their conception and construction, but few have evaluated engineering, ecological and socioeconomic outcomes in a comprehensive manner. Increasing global awareness of climate change impacts (increased frequency or magnitude of extreme weather events and sea level rise), coupled with future predictions for coastal development (due to population growth leading to urban development and renewal, land reclamation and establishment of renewable energy infrastructure in the sea) will increase the demand for adaptive techniques to protect coastlines. In this review, we present an overview of current ecoengineered shoreline design options, the drivers and constraints that influence implementation and factors to consider when evaluating the success of such ecologically engineered shorelines

Induction of Larval Metamorphosis of the Coral Acropora millepora by Tetrabromopyrrole Isolated from a Pseudoalteromonas Bacterium

The induction of larval attachment and metamorphosis of benthic marine invertebrates is widely considered to rely on habitat specific cues. While microbial biofilms on marine hard substrates have received considerable attention as specific signals for a wide and phylogenetically diverse array of marine invertebrates, the presumed chemical settlement signals produced by the bacteria have to date not been characterized. Here we isolated and fully characterized the first chemical signal from bacteria that induced larval metamorphosis of acroporid coral larvae (Acropora millepora). The metamorphic cue was identified as tetrabromopyrrole (TBP) in four bacterial Pseudoalteromonas strains among a culture library of 225 isolates obtained from the crustose coralline algae Neogoniolithon fosliei and Hydrolithon onkodes. Coral planulae transformed into fully developed polyps within 6 h, but only a small proportion of these polyps attached to the substratum. The biofilm cell density of the four bacterial strains had no influence on the ratio of attached vs. non-attached polyps. Larval bioassays with ethanolic extracts of the bacterial isolates, as well as synthetic TBP resulted in consistent responses of coral planulae to various doses of TBP. The lowest bacterial density of one of the Pseudoalteromonas strains which induced metamorphosis was 7,000 cells mm−2 in laboratory assays, which is on the order of 0.1 –1% of the total numbers of bacteria typically found on such surfaces. These results, in which an actual cue from bacteria has been characterized for the first time, contribute significantly towards understanding the complex process of acroporid coral larval settlement mediated through epibiotic microbial biofilms on crustose coralline algae