Stem cell therapy in necrotizing enterocolitis: Current state and future directions

Stem cell therapy is a promising treatment modality for necrotizing enterocolitis. Among the many promising stem cells identified to date, it is likely that mesenchymal stem cells will be the most useful and practical cell-based therapies for this condition. Using acellular components such as exosomes or other paracrine mediators are promising as well. Multiple mechanisms are likely at play in the positive effects provided by these cells, and further research is underway to further elucidate these effects

TRY plant trait database – enhanced coverage and open access

Plant traits - the morphological, anatomical, physiological, biochemical and phenological characteristics of plants - determine how plants respond to environmental factors, affect other trophic levels, and influence ecosystem properties and their benefits and detriments to people. Plant trait data thus represent the basis for a vast area of research spanning from evolutionary biology, community and functional ecology, to biodiversity conservation, ecosystem and landscape management, restoration, biogeography and earth system modelling. Since its foundation in 2007, the TRY database of plant traits has grown continuously. It now provides unprecedented data coverage under an open access data policy and is the main plant trait database used by the research community worldwide. Increasingly, the TRY database also supports new frontiers of trait‐based plant research, including the identification of data gaps and the subsequent mobilization or measurement of new data. To support this development, in this article we evaluate the extent of the trait data compiled in TRY and analyse emerging patterns of data coverage and representativeness. Best species coverage is achieved for categorical traits - almost complete coverage for ‘plant growth form’. However, most traits relevant for ecology and vegetation modelling are characterized by continuous intraspecific variation and trait–environmental relationships. These traits have to be measured on individual plants in their respective environment. Despite unprecedented data coverage, we observe a humbling lack of completeness and representativeness of these continuous traits in many aspects. We, therefore, conclude that reducing data gaps and biases in the TRY database remains a key challenge and requires a coordinated approach to data mobilization and trait measurements. This can only be achieved in collaboration with other initiatives

Neurologic Involvement in Children and Adolescents Hospitalized in the United States for COVID-19 or Multisystem Inflammatory Syndrome

This article is made available for unrestricted research re-use and secondary analysis in any form or by any means with acknowledgement of the original source. These permissions are granted for the duration of the World Health Organization (WHO) declaration of COVID-19 as a global pandemic.Importance Coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) affects the nervous system in adult patients. The spectrum of neurologic involvement in children and adolescents is unclear. Objective To understand the range and severity of neurologic involvement among children and adolescents associated with COVID-19. Setting, Design, and Participants Case series of patients (age <21 years) hospitalized between March 15, 2020, and December 15, 2020, with positive severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 test result (reverse transcriptase-polymerase chain reaction and/or antibody) at 61 US hospitals in the Overcoming COVID-19 public health registry, including 616 (36%) meeting criteria for multisystem inflammatory syndrome in children. Patients with neurologic involvement had acute neurologic signs, symptoms, or diseases on presentation or during hospitalization. Life-threatening involvement was adjudicated by experts based on clinical and/or neuroradiologic features. Exposures Severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2. Main Outcomes and Measures Type and severity of neurologic involvement, laboratory and imaging data, and outcomes (death or survival with new neurologic deficits) at hospital discharge. Results Of 1695 patients (909 [54%] male; median [interquartile range] age, 9.1 [2.4-15.3] years), 365 (22%) from 52 sites had documented neurologic involvement. Patients with neurologic involvement were more likely to have underlying neurologic disorders (81 of 365 [22%]) compared with those without (113 of 1330 [8%]), but a similar number were previously healthy (195 [53%] vs 723 [54%]) and met criteria for multisystem inflammatory syndrome in children (126 [35%] vs 490 [37%]). Among those with neurologic involvement, 322 (88%) had transient symptoms and survived, and 43 (12%) developed life-threatening conditions clinically adjudicated to be associated with COVID-19, including severe encephalopathy (n = 15; 5 with splenial lesions), stroke (n = 12), central nervous system infection/demyelination (n = 8), Guillain-Barré syndrome/variants (n = 4), and acute fulminant cerebral edema (n = 4). Compared with those without life-threatening conditions (n = 322), those with life-threatening neurologic conditions had higher neutrophil-to-lymphocyte ratios (median, 12.2 vs 4.4) and higher reported frequency of D-dimer greater than 3 μg/mL fibrinogen equivalent units (21 [49%] vs 72 [22%]). Of 43 patients who developed COVID-19–related life-threatening neurologic involvement, 17 survivors (40%) had new neurologic deficits at hospital discharge, and 11 patients (26%) died. Conclusions and Relevance In this study, many children and adolescents hospitalized for COVID-19 or multisystem inflammatory syndrome in children had neurologic involvement, mostly transient symptoms. A range of life-threatening and fatal neurologic conditions associated with COVID-19 infrequently occurred. Effects on long-term neurodevelopmental outcomes are unknown

Accuracy of Prehospital Care Providers in Determining Total Body Surface Area Burned in Severe Pediatric Thermal Injury

Accurate measurement of total body surface area (TBSA) burned is a key factor in the care of pediatric patients with burn, especially those with large thermal injuries. There is a paucity of data on the accuracy of these measurements by prehospital, nonburn center, and emergency department (ED) providers, which can have drastic implications for patient management and outcomes. We sought to determine the accuracy of these estimates for large pediatric burns. A retrospective chart review was conducted of patients with TBSA >= 10% admitted to an American Burn Association (ABA)-verified pediatric burn center from 2007 to 2015. Final TBSA was determined by pediatric burn surgeons and compared with prehospital emergency medical service providers, outside hospital physicians for transferred patients, and burn center ED physicians. Statistical significance was determined using a paired t-test with P < 0.05. A total of 139 patients <= 18 years of age met inclusion criteria, with an average TBSA of 18.9 +/- 1.1%, weight 23.7 +/- 1.6 kg and age of 5.4 +/- 0.41 years. When compared in a pairwise fashion to the TBSA values determined by pediatric burn surgeons, estimates of TBSA were higher by: prehospital emergency medical service providers, 40.0% (n = 67, P < 0.0001); outside hospital physicians, 18.7% (n = 46, P = 0.0009), and burn center ED physicians, 7.2% (n = 120, P = 0.0117). TBSA burn estimates for pediatric patients by prehospital, nonburn center, and ED providers are significantly higher than those recorded by burn surgeons at an ABA-verified pediatric burn center. These inaccuracies in TBSA measurement may have profound clinical implications

Vessel scaling in evergreen angiosperm leaves conforms with Murray's law and area‐filling assumptions: implications for plant size, leaf size and cold tolerance

Water transport in leaf vasculature is a fundamental process affecting plant growth, ecological interactions and ecosystem productivity, yet the architecture of leaf vascular networks is poorly understood. Although Murray's law and the West-Brown-Enquist (WBE) theories predict convergent scaling of conduit width and number, it is not known how conduit scaling is affected by habitat aridity or temperature. We measured the scaling of leaf size, conduit width and conduit number within the leaves of 36 evergreen Angiosperms spanning a large range in aridity and temperature in eastern Australia. Scaling of conduit width and number in midribs and 2 degrees veins did not differ across species and habitats (P > 0.786), and did not differ from that predicted by Murray's law (P = 0.151). Leaf size was strongly correlated with the hydraulic radius of petiole conduits (r(2) = 0.83, P 0.064), nor did the scaling exponent differ significantly from that predicted by hydraulic theory (P = 0.086). The maximum radius of conduits in petioles was positively correlated with the temperature of the coldest quarter (r(2) = 0.67; P < 0.001), suggesting that habitat temperature restricts the occurrence of wide-conduit species in cold habitats

Vessel scaling in evergreen angiosperm leaves conforms with Murray's law and area-filling assumptions : implications for plant size, leaf size and cold tolerance

Water transport in leaf vasculature is a fundamental process affecting plant growth, ecological interactions and ecosystem productivity, yet the architecture of leaf vascular networks is poorly understood. Although Murray's law and the West-Brown-Enquist (WBE) theories predict convergent scaling of conduit width and number, it is not known how conduit scaling is affected by habitat aridity or temperature. We measured the scaling of leaf size, conduit width and conduit number within the leaves of 36 evergreen Angiosperms spanning a large range in aridity and temperature in eastern Australia. Scaling of conduit width and number in midribs and 2 degrees veins did not differ across species and habitats (P > 0.786), and did not differ from that predicted by Murray's law (P = 0.151). Leaf size was strongly correlated with the hydraulic radius of petiole conduits (r(2) = 0.83, P 0.064), nor did the scaling exponent differ significantly from that predicted by hydraulic theory (P = 0.086). The maximum radius of conduits in petioles was positively correlated with the temperature of the coldest quarter (r(2) = 0.67; P < 0.001), suggesting that habitat temperature restricts the occurrence of wide-conduit species in cold habitats

BAAD: a Biomass And Allometry Database for woody plants

Understanding how plants are constructed i.e., how key size dimensions and the amount of mass invested in different tissues varies among individuals is essential for modeling plant growth, carbon stocks, and energy fluxes in the terrestrial biosphere. Allocation patterns can differ through ontogeny, but also among coexisting species and among species adapted to different environments. While a variety of models dealing with biomass allocation exist, we lack a synthetic understanding of the underlying processes. This is partly due to the lack of suitable data sets for validating and parameterizing models. To that end, we present the Biomass And Allometry Database (BAAD) for woody plants. The BAAD contains 259 634 measurements collected in 176 different studies, from 21 084 individuals across 678 species. Most of these data come from existing publications. However, raw data were rarely made public at the time of publication. Thus, the BAAD contains data from different studies, transformed into standard units and variable names. The transformations were achieved using a common workflow for all raw data files. Other features that distinguish the BAAD are: (i) measurements were for individual plants rather than stand averages; (ii) individuals spanning a range of sizes were measured; (iii) plants from 0.01-100 m in height were included; and (iv) biomass was estimated directly, i.e., not indirectly via allometric equations (except in very large trees where biomass was estimated from detailed sub‐sampling). We included both wild and artificially grown plants. The data set contains the following size metrics: total leaf area; area of stem cross‐section including sapwood, heartwood, and bark; height of plant and crown base, crown area, and surface area; and the dry mass of leaf, stem, branches, sapwood, heartwood, bark, coarse roots, and fine root tissues. We also report other properties of individuals (age, leaf size, leaf mass per area, wood density, nitrogen content of leaves and wood), as well as information about the growing environment (location, light, experimental treatment, vegetation type) where available. It is our hope that making these data available will improve our ability to understand plant growth, ecosystem dynamics, and carbon cycling in the world's vegetation