The comparative anti-cancer effects of krill oil and oxaliplatin in an orthotopic mouse model of colorectal cancer

Background: Our in vitro studies demonstrated that krill oil (KO) has anti-cancer potential. This study aimed to compare the anti-cancer effects of KO with a commonly used chemotherapeutic drug, oxaliplatin and to identify the molecular mechanisms associated with KO supplementation in a mouse model of colorectal cancer (CRC). Methods: Thirty-six male Balb/c mice were randomly divided into six groups. Five groups received standard chow diet supplemented with KO (150 g/kg)), corn oil (150 g/kg), KO combined with ½ dose of oxaliplatin (1.5 mg/kg body weight/3 times per week), corn oil combined with ½ dose of oxaliplatin (1.5 mg/kg body weight/3 times per week), or a full dose of oxaliplatin (3 mg/kg body weight/3 times per week). The control (sham) group received a standard chow diet. Treatments started three weeks before and continued for three weeks after orthotopic CRC induction. The number of metastases, tumour weight and volume were quantified ex-vivo. The expression of cytochrome c, cleaved caspase-9 and -3, DNA damage, PD-L1, PD-L2 and HSP-70 were determined. Results: A significant reductions in the weight and volume of tumours were observed in mice treated with KO and KO plus a ½ dose of oxaliplatin compared to the sham group, similar to oxaliplatin-treated mice. KO, and KO plus ½ dose of oxaliplatin significantly increased the expression of cytochrome c, cleaved caspase-9 and -3, and DNA damage and decreased expression of PD-L1, PD-L2 and HSP-70 in tumour tissues compared to the sham group. Conclusions: The in vivo anti-cancer effects of KO are comparable with oxaliplatin. Thus, dietary KO supplementation has a great potential as a therapeutic/adjunctive agent for CRC treatment

Drivers of phytoplankton community structure change with ecosystem ontogeny during the Quaternary

Freshwater species are particularly sensitive to climate fluctuations, but little is known of their response to the large-scale environmental change that took place during the Quaternary. This is partly due to the scarcity of continuously preserved freshwater sedimentary records with orbital chronology. We use a 1.363 Ma high-resolution fossil record of planktonic diatoms from ancient Lake Ohrid to evaluate the role of global and regional versus local-scale environmental change in driving temporal community dynamics. By using a Bayesian joint species distribution model, we found that communities were mostly driven by the local-scale environment. Its effects decreased over time, becoming less important than global and regional environment at the onset of the penultimate glacial, 0.183 Ma. Global and regional control over the environment became important with successive deepening of the lake at around 1.0 Ma, and its influence remained persistent until the present. Our high-resolution data demonstrate the critical role of lake depth and its thermal dynamics in determining phytoplankton response to environmental change by influencing lake mixing, nutrient and light availability. With this study we demonstrate the relative impact of various environmental factors and their scale dependant effect on the phytoplankton communities during the Quaternary, emphasizing the importance of not only considering climate fluctuations in driving their structure and temporal dynamics but also the local environment. (c) 2021 The Authors. Published by Elsevier Ltd. This is an open access article under the CC BY license (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/)

Environmental filtering drives assembly of diatom communities over evolutionary time‐scales

Aim Ecological communities are structured through the interplay of deterministic assembly processes such as competition and environmental filtering. Whereas the drivers of spatial community structure are frequently studied in extant communities, little is known about the relative importance of assembly processes in response to environmental factors over evolutionary time-scales. Here, we use an integrative framework to unravel community assembly processes since the inception of a long-lived lake ecosystem. Location Lake Ohrid. Time period From lake formation 1.36 million years ago to the present. Major taxa studied Planktonic diatoms. Methods We constructed a dated phylogeny of extant and extinct diatoms and collected trait data for 380 fossil communities to quantify phylogenetic community structure and functional richness and to determine the relative importance of deterministic assembly processes over time. We then used regression analysis to correlate the phylogenetic community structure with palaeoenvironmental and intrinsic biological predictors and to identify primary drivers of assembly processes. Results Our results suggest a dense packing of niche space with higher species richness and co-occurrence of closely related species. There are only two short episodes in the very recent past dominated by distantly related taxa. We found distinct changes in phylogenetic community structure upon speciation or extinction events and an increase in mean community relatedness over time. Main conclusions Our finding of closely related co-occurring species implies environmental filtering as the primary assembly mechanism, with a minor but increasingly important role of competition towards the present, driven by evolutionary dynamics. Such an increase in the relative contribution of competition to the assembly of communities in relation to the aging of an insular ecosystem, together with a denser packing of morphospace in the early phase of system ontogeny is compatible with ecological predictions according to the theory of island biogeography

Deep drilling reveals massive shifts in evolutionary dynamics after formation of ancient ecosystem

The scarcity of high-resolution empirical data directly tracking diversity over time limits our understanding of speciation and extinction dynamics and the drivers of rate changes. Here, we analyze a continuous species-level fossil record of endemic diatoms from ancient Lake Ohrid, along with environmental and climate indicator time series since lake formation 1.36 million years (Ma) ago. We show that speciation and extinction rates nearly simultaneously decreased in the environmentally dynamic phase after ecosystem formation and stabilized after deep-water conditions established in Lake Ohrid. As the lake deepens, we also see a switch in the macroevolutionary trade-off, resulting in a transition from a volatile assemblage of short-lived endemic species to a stable community of long-lived species. Our results emphasize the importance of the interplay between environmental/climate change, ecosystem stability, and environmental limits to diversity for diversification processes. The study also provides a new understanding of evolutionary dynamics in long-lived ecosystems

External validation of multidimensional prognostic indices (ADO, BODEx and DOSE) in a primary care international cohort (PROEPOC/COPD cohort)

Background: Due to the heterogeneous and systemic nature of the chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD), the new guidelines are oriented toward individualized attention. Multidimensional scales could facilitate its proper clinical and prognostic assessment, but not all of them were validated in an international primary care cohort, different from the original ones used for model development. Therefore, our main aim is to assess the prognostic capacity of the ADO, BODEx and DOSE indices in primary care for predicting mortality in COPD patients and to validate the models obtained in subgroups of patients, classified by revised Global Initiative for Chronic Obstructive Lung Disease (2011) and updated Spanish Guideline (2014). Besides, we want to confirm that the prognostic capacity of all indices increases if the number of exacerbations is substituted by the interval between them and to assess the impact on health of the patient''s lifestyle, social network and adherence to treatment. Methods: Design: External validation of scales, open and prospective cohort study in primary care. Setting: 36 health centres in 6 European high, medium and low income countries. Subjects: 477 patients diagnosed with COPD, captured in clinical visit by their General Practitioner/Nurse. Predictors: Detailed patient history, exacerbations, lung function test and questionnaires at baseline. Outcomes: Exacerbations, all-cause mortality and specific mortality, within 5 years of recruitment. Analysis: Multivariate logistic regression and Cox regression will be used. Possible non-linear effect of the indices will be studied by using Structured Additive Regression models with penalised splines. Subsequently, we will assess different aspects of the regression models: discrimination, calibration and diagnostic precision. Clinical variables modulated in primary care and the interval between exacerbations will be considered and incorporated into the analysis. Discussion: The Research Agenda for General Practice/Family Medicine highlights that the evidence on predictive values of prognostic indices in primary care is scarce. A prospective cohort like that of PROEPOC/COPD provides good opportunities for research into COPD and make communication easier between family practitioners, nursing staff, pneumologists and other professionals, supporting a multi-disciplinary approach to the treatment of these patients. Trial registration:ISRCTN52402811. Date: 15/01/2015. Prospectively registered

Mediterranean winter rainfall in phase with African monsoons during the past 1.36 million years

Mediterranean climates are characterized by strong seasonal contrasts between dry summers and wet winters. Changes in winter rainfall are critical for regional socioeconomic development, but are difficult to simulate accurately1 and reconstruct on Quaternary timescales. This is partly because regional hydroclimate records that cover multiple glacial–interglacial cycles2,3 with different orbital geometries, global ice volume and atmospheric greenhouse gas concentrations are scarce. Moreover, the underlying mechanisms of change and their persistence remain unexplored. Here we show that, over the past 1.36 million years, wet winters in the northcentral Mediterranean tend to occur with high contrasts in local, seasonal insolation and a vigorous African summer monsoon. Our proxy time series from Lake Ohrid on the Balkan Peninsula, together with a 784,000-year transient climate model hindcast, suggest that increased sea surface temperatures amplify local cyclone development and refuel North Atlantic low-pressure systems that enter the Mediterranean during phases of low continental ice volume and high concentrations of atmospheric greenhouse gases. A comparison with modern reanalysis data shows that current drivers of the amount of rainfall in the Mediterranean share some similarities to those that drive the reconstructed increases in precipitation. Our data cover multiple insolation maxima and are therefore an important benchmark for testing climate model performance

ICDP workshop on the Lake Tanganyika Scientific Drilling Project: a late Miocene–present record of climate, rifting, and ecosystem evolution from the world's oldest tropical lake

The Neogene and Quaternary are characterized by enormous changes in global climate and environments, including global cooling and the establishment of northern high-latitude glaciers. These changes reshaped global ecosystems, including the emergence of tropical dry forests and savannahs that are found in Africa today, which in turn may have influenced the evolution of humans and their ancestors. However, despite decades of research we lack long, continuous, well-resolved records of tropical climate, ecosystem changes, and surface processes necessary to understand their interactions and influences on evolutionary processes. Lake Tanganyika, Africa, contains the most continuous, long continental climate record from the mid-Miocene (∼10 Ma) to the present anywhere in the tropics and has long been recognized as a top-priority site for scientific drilling. The lake is surrounded by the Miombo woodlands, part of the largest dry tropical biome on Earth. Lake Tanganyika also harbors incredibly diverse endemic biota and an entirely unexplored deep microbial biosphere, and it provides textbook examples of rift segmentation, fault behavior, and associated surface processes. To evaluate the interdisciplinary scientific opportunities that an ICDP drilling program at Lake Tanganyika could offer, more than 70 scientists representing 12 countries and a variety of scientific disciplines met in Dar es Salaam, Tanzania, in June 2019. The team developed key research objectives in basin evolution, source-to-sink sedimentology, organismal evolution, geomicrobiology, paleoclimatology, paleolimnology, terrestrial paleoecology, paleoanthropology, and geochronology to be addressed through scientific drilling on Lake Tanganyika. They also identified drilling targets and strategies, logistical challenges, and education and capacity building programs to be carried out through the project. Participants concluded that a drilling program at Lake Tanganyika would produce the first continuous Miocene–present record from the tropics, transforming our understanding of global environmental change, the environmental context of human origins in Africa, and providing a detailed window into the dynamics, tempo and mode of biological diversification and adaptive radiations.© Author(s) 2020. This open access article is distributed under the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 License

The process of forest management plans preparation in the Republic of Macedonia: Does it comprise governance principles of participation, transparency and accountability?

Leaving the centralized and trying to embrace the market economy, the forestry sector of the country has been brought to a challenge of moving from government to the new trend of governance. The paper examines whether governance principles of participation, accountability and transparency are comprised in the process of preparation of forest management plans. By scrutinizing the prevailing governance theory through a relevant legislative content analyses and conducted in-depth interviews with relevant stakeholders, the paper provides findings about cooperative forest policy-making in the process of forest management plan preparation through self organizing networks of participants from policy and society. Results obtained from the Law on forests and other related secondary legislation show that only two entities are involved in the preparation process, whereas the Ministry of forestry, agriculture and water economy and the Public enterprise \u201cMacedonian Forest\u201d. On the other hand, results obtained from the conducted in-depth interviews and the legislation content analysis correspond to the situation where the governance principles of participation, transparency and accountability are not respected in the process of creation of forest management plans

Betreuung von Online-Studierenden in der Hochschulweiterbildung - Annäherung an ein weites Themenfeld

Neben Forschung und Lehre erweitern mittlerweile auch Weiterbildungsangebote das Leistungsspektrum deutscher Universitäten und Fachhochschulen. Mit dem Bund-Länder-Wettbewerb „Aufstieg durch Bildung: offene Hochschulen“ wird seit dem Jahr 2011 das Lebenslange Lernen an Hochschulen durch den Aufbau neuer berufsbegleitender Studienangebote gefördert. Ziel dieser Qualifizierungsinitiative ist es, neuen Zielgruppen einen Zugang zu einer Hoch- und Fachhochschule zu ermöglichen (Hanft et al. 2016). Im Rahmen dieser Initiative sollten hauptsächlich für heterogene Zielgruppen neue Studiengangsformate (z.B. Online-Studiengänge) etabliert werden. Eine besondere Rolle nehmen dabei die berufstätigen Studierenden ein, die als hervorgehobener Ziel-adressat in dem Bund-Länder-Wettbewerb identifiziert worden sind (Hanft et al. 2013). Insbesondere für diese Zielgruppe wurden neue Weiterbildungsangebote konzipiert und erprobt, die meist ein Blended-Learning-Format oder sogar 100 Prozent online für ihre Form der Wissensvermittlung und Lehr-Lern-Interaktion nutzen