Gut Dysbiosis in Cutaneous T-Cell Lymphoma Is Characterized by Shifts in Relative Abundances of Specific Bacterial Taxa and Decreased Diversity in More Advanced Disease

Background Cutaneous T-cell lymphoma (CTCL) patients often suffer from recurrent skin infections and profound immune dysregulation in advanced disease. The gut microbiome has been recognized to influence cancers and cutaneous conditions; however, it has not yet been studied in CTCL.ObjectivesTo investigate the gut microbiome in patients with CTCL and in healthy controls.MethodsA case-control study was conducted between January 2019 and November 2020 at Northwestern’s busy multidisciplinary CTCL clinic (Chicago, Illinois, USA) utilizing 16S ribosomal RNA gene amplicon sequencing and bioinformatics analyses to characterize the microbiota present in fecal samples of CTCL patients (n = 38) and age-matched healthy controls (n = 13) from the same geographical region.ResultsGut microbial α-diversity trended lower in patients with CTCL and was significantly lower in patients with advanced CTCL relative to controls (P = 0.015). No differences in β-diversity were identified. Specific taxa were significantly reduced in patient samples; significance was determined using adjusted P-values (q-values) that accounted for a false discovery rate threshold of 0.05. Significantly reduced taxa in patient samples included the phylum Actinobacteria (q = 0.0002), classes Coriobacteriia (q = 0.002) and Actinobacteria (q = 0.03), order Coriobacteriales (q = 0.003), and genus Anaerotruncus (q = 0.01). The families Eggerthellaceae (q = 0.0007) and Lactobacillaceae (q = 0.02) were significantly reduced in patients with high skin disease burden.ConclusionsGut dysbiosis can be seen in patients with CTCL compared to healthy controls and is pronounced in more advanced CTCL. The taxonomic shifts associated with CTCL are similar to those previously reported in atopic dermatitis and opposite those of psoriasis, suggesting microbial parallels to the immune profile and skin barrier differences between these conditions. These findings may suggest new microbial disease biomarkers and reveal a new angle for intervention

Evaluation of a proposal for reliable low-cost grid power with 100% wind, water, and solar

A number of analyses, meta-Analyses, and assessments, including those performed by the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change, the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, the National Renewable Energy Laboratory, and the International Energy Agency, have concluded that deployment of a diverse portfolio of clean energy technologies makes a transition to a low-carbon-emission energy system both more feasible and less costly than other pathways. In contrast, Jacobson et al. [Jacobson MZ, Delucchi MA, Cameron MA, Frew BA (2015) Proc Natl Acad Sci USA 112(49):15060-15065] argue that it is feasible to provide low-cost solutions to the grid reliability problem with 100% penetration of WWS [wind, water and solar power] across all energy sectors in the continental United States between 2050 and 2055 , with only electricity and hydrogen as energy carriers. In this paper, we evaluate that study and find significant shortcomings in the analysis. In particular, we point out that this work used invalid modeling tools, contained modeling errors, and made implausible and inadequately supported assumptions. Policy makers should treat with caution any visions of a rapid, reliable, and low-cost transition to entire energy systems that relies almost exclusively on wind, solar, and hydroelectric power

Developing a predictive modelling capacity for a climate change-vulnerable blanket bog habitat: Assessing 1961-1990 baseline relationships

Aim: Understanding the spatial distribution of high priority habitats and developing predictive models using climate and environmental variables to replicate these distributions are desirable conservation goals. The aim of this study was to model and elucidate the contributions of climate and topography to the distribution of a priority blanket bog habitat in Ireland, and to examine how this might inform the development of a climate change predictive capacity for peat-lands in Ireland. Methods: Ten climatic and two topographic variables were recorded for grid cells with a spatial resolution of 1010 km, covering 87% of the mainland land surface of Ireland. Presence-absence data were matched to these variables and generalised linear models (GLMs) fitted to identify the main climatic and terrain predictor variables for occurrence of the habitat. Candidate predictor variables were screened for collinearity, and the accuracy of the final fitted GLM was evaluated using fourfold cross-validation based on the area under the curve (AUC) derived from a receiver operating characteristic (ROC) plot. The GLM predicted habitat occurrence probability maps were mapped against the actual distributions using GIS techniques. Results: Despite the apparent parsimony of the initial GLM using only climatic variables, further testing indicated collinearity among temperature and precipitation variables for example. Subsequent elimination of the collinear variables and inclusion of elevation data produced an excellent performance based on the AUC scores of the final GLM. Mean annual temperature and total mean annual precipitation in combination with elevation range were the most powerful explanatory variable group among those explored for the presence of blanket bog habitat. Main conclusions: The results confirm that this habitat distribution in general can be modelled well using the non-collinear climatic and terrain variables tested at the grid resolution used. Mapping the GLM-predicted distribution to the observed distribution produced useful results in replicating the projected occurrence of the habitat distribution over an extensive area. The methods developed will usefully inform future climate change predictive modelling for Irelan

Privacy-Preserving Classifier Learning

Abstract. We present an efficient protocol for the privacy-preserving, distributed learning of decision-tree classifiers. Our protocol allows a user to construct a classifier on a database held by a remote server without learning any additional information about the records held in the database. The server does not learn anything about the constructed classifier, not even the user’s choice of feature and class attributes. Our protocol uses several novel techniques to enable oblivious classifier construction. We evaluate a prototype implementation, and demonstrate that its performance is efficient for practical scenarios

Altering ewe nutrition in late gestation: II. The impact on fetal development and offspring performance

The present study was conducted to evaluate the effects of offering Belclare X ewes a single diet rationed to 80, 100, or 120% of recommended ME requirements from d 119 of gestation to parturition, with concurrent changes in other dietary nutrients. The effects on the development of the fetus and subsequent offspring performance to weaning were monitored. Sixty twin-bearing ewes were allocated to 1 of 3 dietary treatments based on Agricultural and Food Research Council recommendations (AFRC, 1993) as amended by Robinson et al. (2002a) as follows: 80% of predicted ME requirement, 100% of predicted ME requirement, and 120% of predicted ME requirement. Ewes were individually fed for the final 4 wk of gestation. Diets fed were grass silage based; however, when silage intake failed to meet ME requirements, ewes were offered varying quantities of concentrates, on an individual basis, to ensure they met their required daily ME allocation. Concentrates offered were composed of 40% barley, 22% beet pulp nuts, 20% distillers’ dried grains, and 14% soybean meal, on a DM basis. At birth, lambs were weighed, behavioral and skeletal measurements were recorded, and plasma blood samples were collected. At 1 h postpartum, a subset of lambs (n = 10) per treatment was euthanized to assess organ weight and intestinal morphology. At birth, there was no effect of treatment on lamb live weight at birth (P = 0.31), although lambs born to ewes offered 120% ME had a larger thoracic circumference (P = 0.05). Lambs born to ewes offered the excess energy treatment (120% ME) were quickest to stand and attempt to suckle after birth, in addition to having a greater live weight at weaning (P = 0.01) and ADG from birth to weaning (P = 0.05). Nutritional treatment had no effect on the organ weights (P ≥ 0.11) or the ileal morphology (P ≥ 0.62) of the lamb measured at 1 h postpartum. In summary, the impact of applying a dietary alteration to ewes in late gestation is not directly reflected in organ weight or total live weight at birth but is present at weaning, therefore outlining the poor reliability of using birth weight as an indicator of maternal nutrition during late gestation