Habitat use and growth of yellow-stage European eel in coastal and freshwater ecosystems in Norway

Many anguillid eel species display facultative catadromy. Some eel spend their entire life cycle in marine coastal areas, but the geographical extent of this, especially at the extremes of their distributional ranges, is unknown.We analysed otolith Sr:Ca and Ba:Ca from yellow-stage European eel (Anguilla anguilla) sampled along the coast of Norway and in several freshwater lakes (58◦N–63◦N), to infer their initial settlement and later life movement patterns with regards to habitat salinity. Most eel (80%) sampled in marine habitats (n = 371) had settled and remained in marine water, but 20% had moved between marine and freshwater habitats and were hence classified as inter-habitat shifters. Among freshwater sampled eel (n = 99), 80% had settled and remained in fresh water, but 20% were classified as inter-habitat shifters. The average growth rates for marine water residents, inter-habitat shifters, and freshwater residents were 35, 27, and 17 mm·year–1, respectively. Northern European otolith microchemistry, anguillids, Anguilla anguilla, salinity, age, growth ratepublishedVersio

Cell-cell interactions during the formation of primordial follicles in humans

Gametogenesis is a complex and sex-specific multistep process during which the gonadal somatic niche plays an essential regulatory role. One of the most crucial steps during human female gametogenesis is the formation of primordial follicles, the functional unit of the ovary that constitutes the pool of follicles available at birth during the entire reproductive life. However, the relation between human fetal germ cells (hFGCs) and gonadal somatic cells during the formation of the primordial follicles remains largely unexplored. We have discovered that hFGCs can form multinucleated syncytia, some connected via interconnecting intercellular bridges, and that not all nuclei in hFGC–syncytia were synchronous regarding meiotic stage. As hFGCs progressed in development, pre-granulosa cells formed protrusions that seemed to progressively constrict individual hFGCs, perhaps contributing to separate them from the multinucleated syncytia. Our findings highlighted the cell–cell interaction and molecular dynamics between hFGCs and (pre)granulosa cells during the formation of primordial follicles in humans. Knowledge on how the pool of primordial follicle is formed is important to understand human infertility. </p

A robust and standardized method to isolate and expand mesenchymal stromal cells from human umbilical cord

Background aimsHuman umbilical cord–derived mesenchymal stromal cells (hUC-MSCs) are increasingly used in research and therapy. To obtain hUC-MSCs, a diversity of isolation and expansion methods are applied. Here, we report on a robust and standardized method for hUC-MSC isolation and expansion.MethodsUsing 90 hUC donors, we compared and optimized critical variables during each phase of the multi-step procedure involving UC collection, processing, MSC isolation, expansion and characterization. Furthermore, we assessed the effect of donor-to-donor variability regarding UC morphology and donor attributes on hUC-MSC characteristics.ResultsWe demonstrated robustness of our method across 90 UC donors at each step of the procedure. With our method, UCs can be collected up to 6 h after birth, and UC-processing can be initiated up to 48 h after collection without impacting on hUC-MSC characteristics. The removal of blood vessels before explant cultures improved hUC-MSC purity. Expansion in Minimum essential medium α supplemented with human platelet lysate increased reproducibility of the expansion rate and MSC characteristics as compared with Dulbecco's Modified Eagle's Medium supplemented with fetal bovine serum. The isolated hUC-MSCs showed a purity of ∼98.9%, a viability of >97% and a high proliferative capacity. Trilineage differentiation capacity of hUC-MSCs was reduced as compared with bone marrow-derived MSCs. Functional assays indicated that the hUC-MSCs were able to inhibit T-cell proliferation demonstrating their immune-modulatory capacity.ConclusionsWe present a robust and standardized method to isolate and expand hUC-MSCs, minimizing technical variability and thereby lay a foundation to advance reliability and comparability of results obtained from different donors and different studies.Molecular Epidemiolog

Wicking behavior and drying capability of functional knitted fabrics

Liquid transporting and drying rate are two vital factors affecting the physiological comfort of sport garments. In this study, plated knitted fabrics produced with functional fiber yarns in the back of the knit (close to the body), combined with polypropylene or polyester in the face (outer surface) were tested in terms of their wicking behavior and drying rate capacity. Functional knitted fabrics were evaluated by vertical and horizontal wicking tests. The drying capability was assessed by drying rate tests under two different conditions, namely, at 20±2°C and 65±3% relative humidity and, in an oven, at 33±2°C, in order to simulate the human body temperature. The influence of the functional fiber used and that of the ground material, polyester or polypropylene, was analyzed and discussed.This study has been developed in the framework of the ASIA-LINK Project no 002 (82158). The authors are grateful to the company SONICARLA for providing the samples for the present study

Twisting the theory on the origin of human umbilical cord coiling featuring monozygotic twins

The human umbilical cord (hUC) is the lifeline that connects the fetus to the mother. Hypercoiling of the hUC is associated with pre- and perinatal morbidity and mortality. We investigated the origin of hUC hypercoiling using state-of-the-art imaging and omics approaches. Macroscopic inspection of the hUC revealed the helices to originate from the arteries rather than other components of the hUC. Digital reconstruction of the hUC arteries showed the dynamic alignment of two layers of muscle fibers in the tunica media aligning in opposing directions. We observed that genetically identical twins can be discordant for hUC coiling, excluding genetic, many environmental, and parental origins of hUC coiling. Comparing the transcriptomic and DNA methylation profile of the hUC arteries of four twin pairs with discordant cord coiling, we detected 28 differentially expressed genes, but no differentially methylated CpGs. These genes play a role in vascular development, cell-cell interaction, and axis formation and may account for the increased number of hUC helices. When combined, our results provide a novel framework to understand the origin of hUC helices in fetal development.</p

Twisting the theory on the origin of human umbilical cord coiling featuring monozygotic twins

The human umbilical cord (hUC) is the lifeline that connects the fetus to the mother. Hypercoiling of the hUC is associated with pre- and perinatal morbidity and mortality. We investigated the origin of hUC hypercoiling using state-of-the-art imaging and omics approaches. Macroscopic inspection of the hUC revealed the helices to originate from the arteries rather than other components of the hUC. Digital reconstruction of the hUC arteries showed the dynamic alignment of two layers of muscle fibers in the tunica media aligning in opposing directions. We observed that genetically identical twins can be discordant for hUC coiling, excluding genetic, many environmental, and parental origins of hUC coiling. Comparing the transcriptomic and DNA methylation profile of the hUC arteries of four twin pairs with discordant cord coiling, we detected 28 differentially expressed genes, but no differentially methylated CpGs. These genes play a role in vascular development, cell-cell interaction, and axis formation and may account for the increased number of hUC helices. When combined, our results provide a novel framework to understand the origin of hUC helices in fetal development.</p

Reversed Holocene temperature–moisture relationship in the Horn of Africa

Anthropogenic climate change is predicted to severely impact the global hydrological cycle1, particularly in tropical regions where agriculture-based economies depend on monsoon rainfall2. In the Horn of Africa, more frequent drought conditions in recent decades3,4 contrast with climate models projecting precipitation to increase with rising temperature5. Here we use organic geochemical climate-proxy data from the sediment record of Lake Chala (Kenya and Tanzania) to probe the stability of the link between hydroclimate and temperature over approximately the past 75,000 years, hence encompassing a sufficiently wide range of temperatures to test the 'dry gets drier, wet gets wetter' paradigm6 of anthropogenic climate change in the time domain. We show that the positive relationship between effective moisture and temperature in easternmost Africa during the cooler last glacial period shifted to negative around the onset of the Holocene 11,700 years ago, when the atmospheric carbon dioxide concentration exceeded 250 parts per million and mean annual temperature approached modern-day values. Thus, at that time, the budget between monsoonal precipitation and continental evaporation7 crossed a tipping point such that the positive influence of temperature on evaporation became greater than its positive influence on precipitation. Our results imply that under continued anthropogenic warming, the Horn of Africa will probably experience further drying, and they highlight the need for improved simulation of both dynamic and thermodynamic processes in the tropical hydrological cycle

Strong fisheries management and governance positively impact ecosystem status

Bundy, Alida ... et al.-- 28 pages, 6 figures, 8 tables, supporting information https://dx.doi.org/10.1111/faf.12184Fisheries have had major negative impacts on marine ecosystems, and effective fisheries management and governance are needed to achieve sustainable fisheries, biodiversity conservation goals and thus good ecosystem status. To date, the IndiSeas programme (Indicators for the Seas) has focussed on assessing the ecological impacts of fishing at the ecosystem scale using ecological indicators. Here, we explore fisheries ‘Management Effectiveness’ and ‘Governance Quality’ and relate this to ecosystem health and status. We developed a dedicated expert survey, focused at the ecosystem level, with a series of questions addressing aspects of management and governance, from an ecosystem-based perspective, using objective and evidence-based criteria. The survey was completed by ecosystem experts (managers and scientists) and results analysed using ranking and multivariate methods. Results were further examined for selected ecosystems, using expert knowledge, to explore the overall findings in greater depth. Higher scores for ‘Management Effectiveness’ and ‘Governance Quality’ were significantly and positively related to ecosystems with better ecological status. Key factors that point to success in delivering fisheries and conservation objectives were as follows: the use of reference points for management, frequent review of stock assessments, whether Illegal, Unreported and Unregulated (IUU) catches were being accounted for and addressed, and the inclusion of stakeholders. Additionally, we found that the implementation of a long-term management plan, including economic and social dimensions of fisheries in exploited ecosystems, was a key factor in successful, sustainable fisheries management. Our results support the thesis that good ecosystem-based management and governance, sustainable fisheries and healthy ecosystems go togetherThis is a contribution to the IndiSeas Working Group, which, by the time of the study, was cofunded by IOC-UNESCO (www.ioc-unesco.org), EuroMarine (http://www.euromarinenetwork.eu), the European FP7 MEECE research project, the European Network of Excellence Eur-Oceans and the FRB EMIBIOS project (contract n°212085)Peer Reviewe

Ecological indicators to capture the effects of fishing on biodiversityand conservation status of marine ecosystems

IndiSeas (“Indicators for the Seas”) is a collaborative international working group that was established in2005 to evaluate the status of exploited marine ecosystems using a suite of indicators in a comparative framework. An initial shortlist of seven ecological indicators was selected to quantify the effects of fishing on the broader ecosystem using several criteria (i.e., ecological meaning, sensitivity to fishing, data avail-ability, management objectives and public awareness). The suite comprised: (i) the inverse coefficient of variation of total biomass of surveyed species, (ii) mean fish length in the surveyed community, (iii)mean maximum life span of surveyed fish species, (iv) proportion of predatory fish in the surveyed community, (v) proportion of under and moderately exploited stocks, (vi) total biomass of surveyed species,and (vii) mean trophic level of the landed catch. In line with the Nagoya Strategic Plan of the Convention on Biological Diversity (2011–2020), we extended this suite to emphasize the broader biodiversity and conservation risks in exploited marine ecosystems. We selected a subset of indicators from a list of empirically based candidate biodiversity indicators initially established based on ecological significance to complement the original IndiSeas indicators. The additional selected indicators were: (viii) mean intrinsic vulnerability index of the fish landed catch, (ix) proportion of non-declining exploited species in the surveyed community, (x) catch-based marine trophic index, and (xi) mean trophic level of the surveyed community. Despite the lack of data in some ecosystems, we also selected (xii) mean trophic level of the modelled community, and (xiii) proportion of discards in the fishery as extra indicators. These additional indicators were examined, along with the initial set of IndiSeas ecological indicators, to evaluate whether adding new biodiversity indicators provided useful additional information to refine our under-standing of the status evaluation of 29 exploited marine ecosystems. We used state and trend analyses,and we performed correlation, redundancy and multivariate tests. Existing developments in ecosystem-based fisheries management have largely focused on exploited species. Our study, using mostly fisheries independent survey-based indicators, highlights that biodiversity and conservation-based indicators are complementary to ecological indicators of fishing pressure. Thus, they should be used to provide additional information to evaluate the overall impact of fishing on exploited marine ecosystems

Ecological indicators to capture the effects of fishing on biodiversityand conservation status of marine ecosystems

IndiSeas (“Indicators for the Seas”) is a collaborative international working group that was established in2005 to evaluate the status of exploited marine ecosystems using a suite of indicators in a comparative framework. An initial shortlist of seven ecological indicators was selected to quantify the effects of fishing on the broader ecosystem using several criteria (i.e., ecological meaning, sensitivity to fishing, data avail-ability, management objectives and public awareness). The suite comprised: (i) the inverse coefficient of variation of total biomass of surveyed species, (ii) mean fish length in the surveyed community, (iii)mean maximum life span of surveyed fish species, (iv) proportion of predatory fish in the surveyed community, (v) proportion of under and moderately exploited stocks, (vi) total biomass of surveyed species,and (vii) mean trophic level of the landed catch. In line with the Nagoya Strategic Plan of the Convention on Biological Diversity (2011–2020), we extended this suite to emphasize the broader biodiversity and conservation risks in exploited marine ecosystems. We selected a subset of indicators from a list of empirically based candidate biodiversity indicators initially established based on ecological significance to complement the original IndiSeas indicators. The additional selected indicators were: (viii) mean intrinsic vulnerability index of the fish landed catch, (ix) proportion of non-declining exploited species in the surveyed community, (x) catch-based marine trophic index, and (xi) mean trophic level of the surveyed community. Despite the lack of data in some ecosystems, we also selected (xii) mean trophic level of the modelled community, and (xiii) proportion of discards in the fishery as extra indicators. These additional indicators were examined, along with the initial set of IndiSeas ecological indicators, to evaluate whether adding new biodiversity indicators provided useful additional information to refine our under-standing of the status evaluation of 29 exploited marine ecosystems. We used state and trend analyses,and we performed correlation, redundancy and multivariate tests. Existing developments in ecosystem-based fisheries management have largely focused on exploited species. Our study, using mostly fisheries independent survey-based indicators, highlights that biodiversity and conservation-based indicators are complementary to ecological indicators of fishing pressure. Thus, they should be used to provide additional information to evaluate the overall impact of fishing on exploited marine ecosystems