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Pre-exposure to disturbance enhances species resilience and protects from change
Get PDFIn a serial passage experiment with a 23-species model microbial community, we found that higher dispersal led to stronger spread of the effects of antibiotic disturbance across a metacommunity. This effect was cancelled by protecting the species from the disturbance through adaptation.</p
Evolutionary relationships between metabolism and behaviour require genetic correlations
Get PDFAs selection acts on multivariate phenotypes, the evolution of traits within populations not only depends on the genetic basis of each trait, but also on the genetic relationships among traits. As metabolic rate is often related to vital traits such as growth, physiology and behaviour, its variation and evolution is expected to have important repercussions on individual fitness. However, the majority of the correlations between metabolic rate and other traits has been based on phenotypic correlations, while genetic correlations, basis for indirect selection and evolution, have been overlooked. Using a case study, we explore the importance of properly estimating genetic correlations to understand and predict evolution of multivariate phenotypes. We show that selection on metabolic traits could result in indirect selection mainly on growth-related traits, owing to strong genetic correlations, but not on swimming or risk-taking and sociability behaviour even if they covary phenotypically. While phenotypic correlation can inform about genetic correlation direction, caution is needed in predicting the magnitude of genetic correlation. Therefore, even though phenotypic correlations among physiological and behavioural traits could be useful, deriving evolutionary conclusions based purely on them is not robust. In short, proper estimation of genetic correlations is needed when predicting evolutionary consequences. This article is part of the theme issue ‘The evolutionary significance of variation in metabolic rates’.</p
Relation of Blood Pressure in Childhood to Self-Reported Hypertension in Adulthood: The International Childhood Cardiovascular Cohort Consortium
Get PDFBlood pressure (BP) tracking (maintaining a BP percentile) across life is not well defined but is important in predicting which children will become hypertensive adults. We computed BP tracking in subjects with BP measured in childhood and adulthood and performed logistic regression to determine the ability of childhood BP to predict adult hypertension (N=5035, 46.7 years, 74.2% white, 17.7% black; 39.6% male). Prevalence of hypertension was 29%. Correlations between systolic BP for child and adolescent were r=0.48; for adolescent and young adult were r=0.40, and for child and young adult were r=0.24 (all P<0.0001). Participants self-reporting adult hypertension were less likely to be white (38.7% black, 27.6% white, 20.9% other; P<0.0001) and female (26.4% females, 32.9% male, P<0.0001). Participants with adult hypertension were more likely to have higher BP and adiposity by age 10 years and abnormal lipids and glucose by age 16 years. There was a graded increase in the frequency of self-reported adult hypertension across the BP change groups, even within the persistently normotensive group (X-2<0.0001) from 19% in children with a systolic BP% persistently below the median to 80% for individuals with elevated BP in both childhood and adolescence. Although our precision to predict which individual child is at risk of adult BP-related cardiovascular disease is weak, an increase in systolic BP and body mass index percentile from childhood to adolescence should signal a need for lifestyle intervention to prevent future sustained hypertension-related cardiovascular disease
Biodegradable biomaterials in orthopedic surgery: A narrative review of the current evidence
Get PDFBackground: Biomaterials are routinely used in orthopedic surgery to fill bone defects, improve bone healing, and as degradable fixation material. A wide range of materials are currently in use, and the materials are chosen according to their bioactive properties. Osteoinductive materials stimulate bone healing by promoting osteogenesis. Osteoconductive materials facilitate bone growth on the surface of the material. Despite the many materials in use and an increasing number of published studies, randomized controlled trials on the subject are scarce.Methods: This review aims to summarize the history of biodegradable biomaterials and also the published level I evidence currently available on orthopedic biomaterials.Results: Most of the studies have been superiority trials with non-significant differences compared to conventional treatment options, confirming that several biomaterials are suitable treatment options for multiple indications including bone and/or tendon fixation, filling bone defects, and spinal fusion. Biomaterials help to avoid donor site complications associated with autogenous bone grafts and often eliminate the need for implant removal. However, the surgical technique may in some cases be more demanding than with conventional methods. Careful consideration of the pros and cons is therefore recommended in clinical practice.Conclusion: Biodegradable biomaterials complement the range of available treatment options in several fields of orthopedic surgery. However, some biomaterials performed worse than expected and were not recommended for clinical use, emphasizing the need for high-quality randomized trials. It is also noteworthy that several trials included only a limited number of patients, rendering the interpretation of the results of these underpowered studies challenging.</p
Screening for Coronary Artery Disease in Patients with Diabetes
Get PDFPurpose of Review The study aims to describe methods for detecting subclinical coronary artery disease (CAD) and their potential implications in asymptomatic patients with diabetes.Recent Findings Imaging tools can assess non-invasively the presence and severity of CAD, based on myocardial ischemia, coronary artery calcium score, and coronary computed tomography coronary angiography. Subclinical CAD is common in the general population ageing 50 to 64 years with any coronary atherosclerosis present in 42.1% and obstructive CAD in 5.2%. In patients with diabetes, an even higher prevalence has been noted. The presence of myocardial ischemia, obstructive CAD, and the extent of coronary atherosclerosis provide powerful risk stratification regarding the risk of cardiovascular events. However, randomized trials evaluating systematic screening in the general population or patients with diabetes have demonstrated only moderate impact on management and no significant impact on patient outcomes.Summary Despite providing improved risk stratification, systematic screening of CAD is not recommended in patients with diabetes.</p
Multitask learning approach for PPG applications: Case studies on signal quality assessment and physiological parameters estimation
Get PDFWearable technology has expanded the applications of photoplethysmography (PPG) in remote health monitoring, enabling real-time measurement of various physiological parameters, such as heart rate (HR), heart rate variability (HRV), and respiration rate (RR). While existing studies mainly focus on individual parameters derived from PPG, they often overlook the shared characteristics among these physiological parameters. Multitask learning (MTL) offers a promising solution by training a single model to perform multiple related tasks, leveraging their interdependencies. However, the potential of MTL has not been thoroughly investigated in the context of PPG analysis. In this paper, we develop MTL approaches that exploit shared underlying characteristics across PPG-related tasks to improve the performance of PPG-based applications. We propose customized multitask deep learning models for two applications: (1) PPG quality assessment for HR and HRV features collected in free-living conditions and (2) simultaneous HR and RR estimation from PPG. Our models are evaluated on a PPG dataset collected from 46 subjects wearing smartwatches during their daily activities. Results demonstrate that the proposed MTL methods significantly outperform baseline single-task models, achieving higher accuracy in quality assessment and reduced error rates in HR and RR estimation
Cavity-breeding birds create specific microhabitats for diverse arthropod communities in boreal forests
Get PDFThe nests of secondary cavity-nesters located in tree cavities may form specific microhabitats of conservation importance due to their limited accessibility and availability. Species-specific nesting materials in nests of different secondary cavity-nesters may furthermore provide very different microhabitats for arthropods. The potential differences in arthropod communities inhabiting nests of different bird species in excavated cavities or nest boxes have, however, rarely been studied despite their relevance for conservation. Here we investigated the diversity and composition of arthropod communities in these different cavity types and bird species' nests in managed boreal forests. We identified morphologically and by DNA-metabarcoding arthropods in nest materials that were collected in and compared between (i) woodpecker-size cavities from seven different combinations of cavity type (nest box or excavated cavity), tree species (aspen or pine) and accumulation history of nest materials (single-season cleaned or uncleaned nest boxes that accumulated nests of passerines or an owl species); and (ii) nests of two different passerine species in small nest boxes. We identified 64 arthropod taxa in ten orders, from which Diptera, Coleoptera, Siphonaptera, and Lepidoptera were the most abundant. Shannon diversity index was similar among the cavity-nest-type combinations, but taxa richness was the highest in the owl nests. The arthropod communities (especially Histeridae beetles) deviated most from the other types of nests in owl and aspen cavity nests with more advanced decomposition of nest material (soil or wet environment related taxa). The differences in arthropod communities between the different nest types point out the importance of the ecological chain "tree cavities-bird nests-arthropod communities".</p
Negative C-11-PIB PET Predicts Lack of Alzheimer's Disease Pathology in Postmortem Examination
Get PDFOur aim was to assess whether in vivo C-11-PIB negative memory-impaired subjects may nonetheless exhibit brain Alzheimer's disease (AD) pathology. We re-evaluated the PET images and systematically characterized the postmortem neuropathology of six individuals who had undergone clinically indicated amyloid PET. The single case with negligible amyloid-beta (A beta) pathology had Lewy body disease, where concomitant AD changes are often seen. Further, the subject's plaques were predominantly diffuse. The predictive value of a negative C-11-PIB scan appears to be good, even in memory-impaired populations. Our results suggest that considerable neuritic A beta plaque pathology in the absence of specific/cortical C-11-PIB binding upon PET is unlikely
Fractionation of Lignin with Decreased Heterogeneity: Based on a Detailed Characteristics Study of Sequentially Extracted Softwood Kraft Lignin
Get PDFIndustrial lignin fractionation is attracting increasing interest due to its enormous potential in the development of high value-added materials. However, the widely reported fractionation approaches are primarily focused on the separation of fractions with a low polydispersity index (PDI). In this study, based on the detailed characteristic examination of carefully sequential-extracted softwood Kraft lignin fractions, a novel method to isolate lignin fraction with decreased heterogeneity (LGF-dh), was established in consideration of impurities, elemental composition, molar mass distribution, carbohydrate content, functional hydroxyl content, and the content of lignin-relevant aromatic units. To characterize the mentioned properties, an elemental analyzer, SEC-MALS, GC-MS, GC-FID, Py/GCMS, P-31-NMR, and HSQC-NMR were used to compare the differences of the sequential lignin fractions that were obtained by methyl tert-butyl ether (MTBE), ethyl acetate (EtOAc), ethanol (EtOH), methanol (MeOH), acetone, and dioxane. Moreover, a practical and feasible three-step extraction process was proposed to separate the low heterogeneity lignin fraction from industrial lignin according to the different solubilities of each fraction in the green cosolvent system of EtOH/water, MeOH/water, and acetone/water. Overall, this work presented a comprehensive study on the properties of softwood lignin as well as proposed a feasible and convenient method to reduce the heterogeneity of lignin, which would promote its valorization