The Swedish Perioperative Register: Description, validation of data mapping and utility.

BACKGROUND: Since 2013 surgical units in Sweden have reported procedures to the national Swedish Perioperative Register (SPOR). More than four million cases have been documented. Data consist of patient ID, type of surgery, diagnoses, time stamps during the perioperative process (from the decision to operate to the time of discharge from the postoperative recovery area) and quality measures. This article aims to describe SPOR and validate data mapping. Also, we wished to illustrate the utility of the SPOR in assessing variations in national surgical capacity during the COVID-19 pandemia years 2020-2021. METHODS: After a detailed description of SPOR, we report on the validation of data performed by comparing data from local databases with data stored in the central SPOR database, assessing missing values and accuracy. Effects of the pandemic on surgical capacity were described by developing an index, based on the number of performed surgical procedures per week during four production weeks in January 2020. Subsequent weeks were then compared with this baseline. RESULTS: The validation effort demonstrated nearly 100% data accuracy for the number and type of surgical procedures between local and central data. Missing data was a problem for some parameters. The number of performed surgical procedures decreased dramatically from week 11 in 2020 compared with normal production on a national basis, mainly impairing elective surgery. DISCUSSION: Data validation revealed good agreement between local and central databases. The changes in national surgical capacity during the pandemic were illustrated by an index based on the reported surgical production.

The ectomycorrhizal fungus Tricholoma matsutake is a facultative saprotroph in vitro.

Tricholoma matsutake is an economically important ectomycorrhizal fungus of coniferous woodlands. Mycologists suspect that this fungus is also capable of saprotrophic feeding. In order to evaluate this hypothesis, enzyme and chemical assays were performed in the field and laboratory. From a natural population of T. matsutake in southern Finland, samples of soil-mycelium aggregate (shiro) were taken from sites of sporocarp formation and nearby control (PCR-negative) spots. Soil organic carbon and activity rates of hemicellulolytic enzymes were measured. The productivity of T. matsutake was related to the amount of utilizable organic carbon in the shiro, where the activity of xylosidase was significantly higher than in the control sample. In the laboratory, sterile pieces of bark from the roots of Scots pine were inoculated with T. matsutake and the activity rates of two hemicellulolytic enzymes (xylosidase and glucuronidase) were assayed. Furthermore, a liquid culture system showed how T. matsutake can utilize hemicellulose as its sole carbon source. Results linked and quantified the general relationship between enzymes secreted by T. matsutake and the degradation of hemicellulose. Our findings suggest that T. matsutake lives mainly as an ectomycorrhizal symbiont but can also feed as a saprotroph. A flexible trophic ecology confers T. matsutake with a clear advantage in a heterogeneous environment and during sporocarp formation.

Tricholoma matsutake dominates diverse microbial communities in different forest soils.

Fungal and actinobacterial communities were analyzed together with soil chemistry and enzyme activities in order to profile the microbial diversity associated with the economically important mushroom Tricholoma matsutake. Samples of mycelium-soil aggregation (shiro) were collected from three experimental sites where sporocarps naturally formed. PCR was used to confirm the presence and absence of matsutake in soil samples. PCR-denaturing gradient gel electrophoresis (DGGE) fingerprinting and direct sequencing were used to identify fungi and actinobacteria in the mineral and organic soil layers separately. Soil enzyme activities and hemicellulotic carbohydrates were analyzed in a productive experimental site. Soil chemistry was investigated in both organic and mineral soil layers at all three experimental sites. Matsutake dominated in the shiro but also coexisted with a high diversity of fungi and actinobacteria. Tomentollopsis sp. in the organic layer above the shiro and Piloderma sp. in the shiro correlated positively with the presence of T. matsutake in all experimental sites. A Thermomonosporaceae bacterium and Nocardia sp. correlated positively with the presence of T. matsutake, and Streptomyces sp. was a common cohabitant in the shiro, although these operational taxonomic units (OTUs) did not occur at all sites. Significantly higher enzyme activity levels were detected in shiro soil. These enzymes are involved in the mobilization of carbon from organic matter decomposition. Matsutake was not associated with a particular soil chemistry compared to that of nearby sites where the fungus does not occur. The presence of a significant hemicellulose pool and the enzymes to degrade it indicates the potential for obtaining carbon from the soil rather than tree roots.

Temperature sensitivity of soil carbon fractions in boreal forest soil.

Feedback to climate warming from the carbon balance of terrestrial ecosystems depends critically on the temperature sensitivity of soil organic carbon (SOC) decomposition. Still, the temperature sensitivity is not known for the majority of the SOC, which is tens or hundreds of years old. This old fraction is paradoxically concluded to be more, less, or equally sensitive compared to the younger fraction. Here, we present results that explain these inconsistencies. We show that the temperature sensitivity of decomposition increases remarkably from the youngest annually cycling fraction (Q10 < 2) to a decadally cycling one (Q10 = 4.2-6.9) but decreases again to a centennially cycling fraction (Q10 = 2.4-2.8) in boreal forest soil. Compared to the method used for current global estimates (temperature sensitivity of all SOC equal to that of the total heterotrophic soil respiration), the soils studied will lose 30-45% more carbon in response to climate warming during the next few decades, if there is no change in carbon input. Carbon input, derivative of plant productivity, would have to increase by 100-120%, as compared to the earlier estimated 70-80%, in order to compensate for the accelerated decomposition.

Transformation of Quercus petraea litter: successive changes in litter chemistry are reflected in differential enzyme activity and changes in the microbial community composition.

The links among the changes in litter chemistry, the activity of extracellular enzymes and the microbial community composition were observed in Quercus petraea litter. Three phases of decomposition could be distinguished. In the early 4-month stage, with high activities of ß-glucosidase, ß-xylosidase and cellobiohydrolase, 16.4% of litter was decomposed. Hemicelluloses were rapidly removed while cellulose and lignin degradation was slow. In months 4-12, with high endocellulase and endoxylanase activities, decomposition of cellulose prevailed and 31.8% of litter mass was lost. After the third phase of decomposition until month 24 with high activity of ligninolytic enzymes, the litter mass loss reached 67.9%. After 2 years of decay, cellulose decomposition was almost complete and most of the remaining polysaccharides were in the form of hemicelluloses. Fungi largely dominated over bacteria as leaf endophytes and also in the litter immediately before contact with soil, and this fungal dominance lasted until month 4. Bacterial biomass (measured as phospholipid fatty acid content) in litter increased with time but also changed qualitatively, showing an increasing number of Actinobacteria. This paper shows that the dynamics of decomposition of individual litter components changes with time in accordance with the changes in the microbial community composition and its production of extracellular enzymes.