Getting off the ladder: Disentangling water quality indices to enhance the valuation of divergent ecosystem services.

Many water quality valuation studies and Federal cost-benefit analyses build from pioneering work using a "water quality ladder" or a single water quality index (WQI) to characterize both current conditions and effects of policies. When policies lead to contrasting changes in valued ecosystem services like recreational fishing and swimming, analyses using a single ladder or index might obscure important underlying service trade-offs. We test for this effect using alternative approaches that separate water quality indices and value changes in distinct ecosystem services stemming from policies with small to moderate changes in water quality. The indices we test relate to nutrient loadings in Michigan's rivers, lakes, and Great Lakes. Our split-sample experiment compares economic values for treatments with two versus three quality metrics. The key distinction is that the two-index survey, like many existing studies, aggregates subindices for water contact (for swimming and boating) and fish biomass scores (for fishing) into a single WQI, whereas the three-index survey separately utilizes both. We find that changes in our index reflecting changes in fecal bacteria and water clarity are valued differently from changes in our recreational fishing index. Aggregating changes in these two distinct recreational services using a single WQI yields consistently lower benefit estimates across a range of underlying changes in our experiment. In valuation scenarios with small changes in overall water quality, the WQI-based benefit estimates can differ substantially from benefits measured by decomposing the index and valuing the disparate subindices, differences which might change balance of benefits and costs in regulatory evaluations.

Molecular genetic diversity and linkage disequilibrium structure of the Egyptian faba bean using Single Primer Enrichment Technology (SPET).

Faba bean is an important legume crop. The genetic diversity among faba bean genotypes is very important for the genetic improvement of target traits. A set of 128 fab bean genotypes that are originally from Egypt were used in this study to investigate the genetic diversity and population structure. The 128 genotypes were genotyped using the Single Primer Enrichment Technology (SPET) by which a set of 6759 SNP markers were generated after filtration. The SNP markers were distributed on all chromosomes with a range extending from 822 (Chr. 6) to 1872 (Chr.1). The SNP markers had wide ranges of polymorphic information content (PIC), gene diversity (GD), and minor allele frequency. The analysis of population structure divided the Egyptian faba bean population into five subpopulations. Considerable genetic distance was found among all genotypes, ranging from 0.1 to 0.4. The highly divergent genotype was highlighted in this study and the genetic distance among genotypes ranged from 0.1 and 0.6. Moreover, the structure of linkage disequilibrium was studied, and the analysis revealed a low level of LD in the Egyptian faba bean population. A slow LD decay at the genomic and chromosomal levels was observed. Interestingly, the distribution of haplotype blocks was presented in each chromosome and the number of haplotype block ranged from 65 (Chr. 4) to 156 (Chr. 1). Migration and genetic drift are the main reasons for the low LD in the Egyptian faba bean population. The results of this study shed light on the possibility of the genetic improvement of faba bean crop in Egypt and conducting genetic association analyses to identify candidate genes associated with target traits (e.g. protein content, grain yield, etc.) in this panel.

Phylogenomic analyses and reclassification of the Mesorhizobium complex: proposal for 9 novel genera and reclassification of 15 species.

BACKGROUD: The genus Mesorhizobium is shown by phylogenomics to be paraphyletic and forms part of a complex that includes the genera Aminobacter, Aquamicrobium, Pseudaminobacter and Tianweitania. The relationships for type strains belong to these genera need to be carefully re-evaluated. RESULTS: The relationships of Mesorhizobium complex are evaluated based on phylogenomic analyses and overall genome relatedness indices (OGRIs) of 61 type strains. According to the maximum likelihood phylogenetic tree based on concatenated sequences of 539 core proteins and the tree constructed using the bac120 bacterial marker set from Genome Taxonomy Database, 65 type strains were grouped into 9 clusters. Moreover, 10 subclusters were identified based on the OGRIs including average nucleotide identity (ANI), average amino acid identity (AAI) and core-proteome average amino acid identity (cAAI), with AAI and cAAI showing a clear intra- and inter-(sub)cluster gaps of 77.40-80.91% and 83.98-86.16%, respectively. Combined with the phylogenetic trees and OGRIs, the type strains were reclassified into 15 genera. This list includes five defined genera Mesorhizobium, Aquamicrobium, Pseudaminobacter, Aminobacterand Tianweitania, among which 40/41 Mesorhizobium species and one Aminobacter species are canonical legume microsymbionts. The other nine (sub)clusters are classified as novel genera. Cluster III, comprising symbiotic M. alhagi and M. camelthorni, is classified as Allomesorhizobium gen. nov. Cluster VI harbored a single symbiotic species M. albiziae and is classified as Neomesorhizobium gen. nov. The remaining seven non-symbiotic members were proposed as: Neoaquamicrobium gen. nov., Manganibacter gen. nov., Ollibium gen. nov., Terribium gen. nov., Kumtagia gen. nov., Borborobacter gen. nov., Aerobium gen. nov.. Furthermore, the genus Corticibacterium is restored and two species in Subcluster IX-1 are reclassified as the member of this genus. CONCLUSION: The Mesorhizobium complex are classified into 15 genera based on phylogenomic analyses and OGRIs of 65 type strains. This study resolved previously non-monophyletic genera in the Mesorhizobium complex.

A comprehensive overview of diffuse correlation spectroscopy: Theoretical framework, recent advances in hardware, analysis, and applications.

Diffuse correlation spectroscopy (DCS) is a powerful tool for assessing microvascular hemodynamic in deep tissues. Recent advances in sensors, lasers, and deep learning have further boosted the development of new DCS methods. However, newcomers might feel overwhelmed, not only by the already-complex DCS theoretical framework but also by the broad range of component options and system architectures. To facilitate new entry to this exciting field, we present a comprehensive review of DCS hardware architectures (continuous-wave, frequency-domain, and time-domain) and summarize corresponding theoretical models. Further, we discuss new applications of highly integrated silicon single-photon avalanche diode (SPAD) sensors in DCS, compare SPADs with existing sensors, and review other components (lasers, sensors, and correlators), as well as data analysis tools, including deep learning. Potential applications in medical diagnosis are discussed and an outlook for the future directions is provided, to offer effective guidance to embark on DCS research.

Extending Species-Area Relationships Into the Realm of Ecoacoustics: The Soundscape-Area Relationship.

The rise in species richness with area is one of the few ironclad ecological relationships. Yet, little is known about the spatial scaling of alternative dimensions of diversity. Here, we provide empirical evidence for a relationship between the richness of acoustic traits emanating from a landscape, or soundscape richness, and island area, which we term the SoundScape-Area Relationship (SSAR). We show a positive relationship between the gamma soundscape richness and island area. This relationship breaks down at the smallest spatial scales, indicating a small-island effect. Moreover, we demonstrate a positive spatial scaling of the plot-scale alpha soundscape richness, but not the beta soundscape turnover, suggesting a direct effect of species on acoustic trait diversity. We conclude that the general scaling of biodiversity can be extended into the realm of ecoacoustics, implying soundscape metrics are sensitive to fundamental ecological patterns and useful in disentangling their complex mechanistic drivers.

The correlation between systemic inflammatory markers and efficiency for advanced gastric cancer patients treated with ICIs combined with chemotherapy.

Currently lacking research to explore the correlation between inflammatory markers and the efficacy of immune checkpoint inhibitors (ICIs) combined with chemotherapy in the treatment of advanced gastric cancer. This study is a retrospective study and included patients with advanced gastric cancer who receiving ICIs combined with chemotherapy from January 2020 to December 2022. We analysed the relationship between systemic inflammatory markers and the efficacy of ICIs combined chemotherapy and constructed a clinical prediction model. A nomogram was constructed based on the results of the bidirectional stepwise regression model. A total of 197 patients were enrolled in the training group, with a median follow-up period of time 26 months. Kaplan Meier analysis showed that the median OS of patients with low systemic immune-inflammatory index (SII) and low platelet to lymphocyte ratio (PLR) was superior to those with high SII and PLR. Univariate and multivariate Cox regression analysis showed that SII, NLR, PLR, and N stage as independent prognostic factors for OS. Adding SII to the conventional model improved the predictive ability of the 12-month OS. A total of 95 patients were included in the validation group, and external validation of the SII-based nomogram showed favourable predictive performance. Baseline SII, PLR, and N stage may serve as independent predictive factors for survival outcomes in advanced gastric cancer patients undergoing ICIs combined with chemotherapy. The SII-based nomogram can provide intuitive and accurate prognosis prediction of individual patients.

Addressing bias due to measurement error of an outcome with unknown sensitivity in database epidemiological studies.

In epidemiological database studies, the occurrence of an event is measured with error through an indicator whose specificity is often maximised, at the expense of sensitivity. However, if the indicator has low sensitivity, measures of occurrence are underestimated. In association studies, risk difference is biased, and risk ratio may be biased as well, in either direction, if the sensitivity is differential across exposure groups. In this work, we show that if an auxiliary screening indicator can be defined to complement the main indicator, estimates of the positive predictive value of both indicators provide tools to estimate the sensitivity of the primary indicator, or a lower bound thereof. This mitigates bias in estimating the number of cases, prevalence, cumulative incidence, rate (particularly when the event is rare), and in association studies, risk ratio and risk difference. They also allow testing for non-differential sensitivity. While direct estimation of sensitivity is often infeasible, this novel methodology improves evidence based on data obtained from re-use of existing databases, which may prove critical for regulatory and public health decisions.

Effect of disability, homelessness, and neighborhood marginalization on risk-adjustment for hospital performance measurement.

Background It is not known how disability, homelessness, or neighborhood marginalization influence risk-adjusted hospital performance measurement in a universal health care system. Methods We evaluated the effect of including these equity-related factors in risk-adjustment models for in-hospital mortality, and 7- and 30-day readmission in 28 hospitals in Ontario, Canada. We compared risk-adjustment with commonly-used clinical factors to models that also included homelessness, disability, and neighborhood indices of marginalization. We evaluated models in historical data using internal-external cross-validation. We calculated risk-standardized outcome rates for each hospital in a recent reporting period using mixed-effects logistic regression. Results The cohort included 544,805 admissions. Adjustment for disability, homelessness, and neighborhood marginalization had little impact on discrimination or calibration of risk-adjustment models. However, it influenced comparative hospital performance on risk-standardized 30-day readmission rates, resulting in 5 hospitals being reclassified between below-average, average, and above-average groups. No hospitals were reclassified for mortality and 7-day readmission. Conclusion In a system with universally insured hospital services, adjustment for disability, homelessness, and neighborhood marginalization influenced estimates of hospital performance for 30-day readmission but not 7-day readmission or in-hospital mortality. These findings can inform researchers and policymakers as they thoughtfully consider when to adjust for these factors in hospital performance measurement.

Sweet corn (Zea mays L.) seed performance enhanced under drought stress by chitosan and minerals coating.

Sweet corn (Zea mays L.) var. Saccharata is a tropical and semitropical annual cereal with low germination, poor vigor, and weak seedling establishment in the soil. In order to enhance the physical properties of sweet corn and examine the effects of seed coating on the morphological, biochemical, and physiological characteristics of sweet corn seedlings under drought stress conditions, we conducted a factorial experiment in greenhouse conditions. Seed coating was carried out using a mixture of vermiculite (V), kaolin (K), and perlite (P) in a ratio of 3:1.5:2. The main factors of the greenhouse experiment comprised three levels of coating treatment (chitosan 0.5% + V10K2.5P5 (gr), NaAlg 1% + V10K2.5P5 (gr), and non-coated seeds as a control) along with drought stress at four levels (0, -0.3, -0.6, and -0.9 bar). In greenhouse conditions, the growth indexes of sweet corn seedlings were studied under increasing levels of drought stress. The results showed that as drought stress levels increased, certain growth indicators such as seedling emergence and seedling emergence rate, soluble protein, chlorophyll total content, nitrogen, and phosphorus content decreased. On the other hand, mean emergence, proline, potassium, soluble sugars, malondialdehyde, and hydrogen peroxide were increased. The study found that the highest seedling emergence percentage occurred in the coating treatment of chitosan 0.5% + V10K2.5P5 (gr) at all levels of drought stress. Overall, seed coating with the Chitosan 0.5% + V10K2.5P5 (gr) treatment improved the performance of sweet corn seeds and reduced the negative effects of drought stress by increasing seedling emergence and establishment.

The Chinese visceral adiposity index: a novel indicator more closely related to cardiovascular disease than other abdominal obesity indices among postmenopausal women.

BACKGROUND: Several abdominal obesity indices including waist circumference (WC), waist-hip ratio (WHR), visceral adiposity index (VAI), lipid accumulation product (LAP), and Chinese visceral adiposity index (CVAI) were considered effective and useful predictive markers for cardiovascular disease (CVD) in general populations or diabetic populations. However, studies investigating the associations between these indices among postmenopausal women are limited. Our study aimed to investigate the associations of the five indices with incident CVD and compare the predictive performance of CVAI with other abdominal obesity indices among postmenopausal women. METHODS: A total of 1252 postmenopausal women without CVD at baseline were analyzed in our investigation based on a 10-year follow-up prospective cohort study. Link of each abdominal obesity index with CVD were assessed by the Cox regression analysis and the Kaplan-Meier curve. The receiver operating characteristic (ROC) curves were drawn to compare the predictive ability for CVD. RESULTS: During the median follow-up of 120.53 months, 121 participants newly developed CVD. Compared to quartile 1 of LAP and CVAI, quartile 4 had increased risk to develop CVD after fully adjusted among postmenopausal women. When WC, VAI and CVAI considered as continuous variables, significant increased hazard ratios (HRs) for developing CVD were observed. The areas under the curve (AUC) of CVAI (0.632) was greatly higher than other indices (WC: 0.580, WHR: 0.538, LAP: 0.573, VAI: 0.540 respectively). CONCLUSIONS: This study suggested that the abdominal obesity indices were associated with the risk of CVD excluded WHR and highlighted that CVAI might be the most valuable abdominal obesity indicator for identifying the high risk of CVD in Chinese postmenopausal women.

Multi-domain effectiveness of guselkumab evaluated via composite indices through 1 year in patients with PsA and inadequate response to TNFi: post hoc analysis of COSMOS.

OBJECTIVE: Evaluate guselkumab efficacy, an anti-interleukin-23p19-subunit antibody, in patients with active psoriatic arthritis (PsA) and inadequate response to 1-2 tumour necrosis factor inhibitors (TNFi-IR), utilizing composite indices assessing disease activity across disease domains. METHODS: In the Phase IIIb COSMOS trial, 285 adults with TNFi-IR PsA were randomized (2:1) to receive guselkumab 100 mg or placebo at Week (W)0, W4, then every 8 weeks through W44. Patients receiving placebo crossed over to guselkumab at W24. In this post-hoc analysis, composite indices evaluated included the Disease Activity Index for Psoriatic Arthritis (DAPSA), Disease Activity Score 28 (DAS28), Psoriatic Arthritis Response Criteria (PsARC), Psoriatic Arthritis Disease Activity Score (PASDAS), GRAPPA Composite score (GRACE), modified Composite Psoriatic Disease Activity Index (mCPDAI), minimal disease activity (MDA) and very low disease activity (VLDA). Through W24, treatment failure rules were applied. Through W48, non-responder imputation was used for missing data. RESULTS: Greater proportions of guselkumab- than placebo-randomized patients achieved composite index endpoints relating to low disease activity (LDA; 14.8-52.4% vs 3.1-28.1%) or remission (3.7-5.3% vs 0.0-2.1%) at W24. Among guselkumab-randomized patients, LDA rates increased to W48 (DAPSA, 44.4%; DAS28, 47.8%; PASDAS, 34.4%; GRACE, 33.3%; mCPDAI, 40.2%), and 27.0% and 64.0% achieved MDA and a PsARC response, respectively. In the placebo→guselkumab crossover group, W48 response rates were similar to the guselkumab-randomized group. CONCLUSION: Guselkumab treatment provided substantial benefits across multiple disease domains, with increasing proportions of patients achieving LDA/remission over 1 year, highlighting the effectiveness of guselkumab despite previous inadequate response to TNFi.

C-Reactive Protein/Albumin Ratio Is an Independent Risk Factor for Recurrence and Survival Following Curative Resection of Stage I-III Colorectal Cancer in Older Patients.

BACKGROUND: The number of older patients with cancer has increased, and colorectal cancer is expected to be affected by this trend. This study aimed to compare prognostic factors, including nutritional and inflammation-based indices, between patients aged ≥ 70 and < 70 years following curative resection of stage I-III colorectal cancer. PATIENTS AND METHODS: This study included 560 patients with stage I-III colorectal cancer who underwent curative resection between May 2010 and June 2018. A retrospective analysis was performed to identify prognosis-associated variables in patients aged ≥ 70 and < 70 years. RESULTS: Preoperative low body mass index, high C-reactive protein/albumin ratio, and comorbidities were mainly associated with poor prognosis in patients aged ≥ 70 years. Tumor factors were associated with a poor prognosis in patients aged < 70 years. The C-reactive protein/albumin ratio was independently associated with poor overall survival and recurrence-free survival in those aged ≥ 70 years. The time-dependent area under the curve for the C-reactive protein/albumin ratio was superior to those of other nutritional and inflammation-based indices in most postoperative observation periods in patients aged ≥ 70 years. CONCLUSIONS: Tumor factors were associated with a poor prognosis in patients aged < 70 years. In addition to lymph node metastasis, preoperative statuses were associated with poor prognosis in patients aged ≥ 70 years. Specifically, the preoperative C-reactive protein/albumin ratio was independently associated with long-term prognosis in patients aged ≥ 70 years with stage I-III colorectal cancer after curative resection.

Prediction of various insulin resistance indices for the risk of hypertension among military young adults: the CHIEF cohort study, 2014-2020.

BACKGROUND: Non-insulin-based insulin resistance (NI-IR) indices have been reported to have an association with prevalent hypertension, however, no cohort studies to date have compared their prediction of hypertension among young adults. METHODS: A total of 2,448 military men and women, aged 18-39 years, without baseline hypertension in Taiwan were followed for incident hypertension events from 2014 until the end of 2020. All subjects underwent annual health examinations including measurements of blood pressure (BP) in mmHg. Systolic BP (SBP) 130-139/diastolic BP (DBP) < 80, SBP < 130/DBP 80-89, and SBP 130-139/DBP 80-89 were respectively defined as stage I isolated systolic hypertension (ISH), isolated diastolic hypertension (IDH) and combined hypertension (CH). The cut-off levels of stage II hypertension for SBP and DBP were 140-159 and 90-99, respectively. Four NI-IR indices included the ratio of serum triglycerides (TG) to high-density lipoprotein cholesterol (HDL-C), TyG index defined as ln[TG* fasting glucose (FG)/2], Metabolic Score for IR (METS-IR) defined as ln[(2* FG) + TG)* body mass index (BMI)/(ln(HDL-C))], and ZJU index defined as BMI + FG + TG + 3* alanine transaminase/aspartate transaminase (+ 2 if female). Multivariable Cox regression analysis was performed with adjustments for baseline age, sex, body mass index, BP, substance use, family history for early onset cardiovascular diseases or hypertension, low-density lipoprotein cholesterol, kidney function, serum uric acid and physical activity to determine the associations. RESULTS: During a median follow-up of 6.0 years, there were 920 hypertension events (37.6%). Greater TyG, TG/HDL-C and METS-IR indices were associated with a higher risk of stage I IDH (hazard ratios (HRs) and 95% confidence intervals: 1.376 (1.123-1.687), 1.082 (1.039-1.127) and 3.455 (1.921-6.214), respectively), whereas only greater ZJU index was associated with a higher risk of stage II IDH [HRs: 1.011 (1.001-1.021)]. In addition, greater ZJU index was associated with a higher risk of stage II ISH [HR: 1.013 (1.003-1.023)], and greater TyG index was associated with a higher risk of stage II CH [HR: 2.821 (1.244-6.395)]. CONCLUSION: Insulin resistance assessed by various NI-IR indices was associated with a higher risk of hypertension in young adults, while the assessment ability for specific hypertension category may differ by NI-IR indices.

Comparison of triglyceride glucose index and modified triglyceride glucose indices in prediction of cardiovascular diseases in middle aged and older Chinese adults.

BACKGROUND: Triglyceride and glucose (TyG) index, a surrogate marker of insulin resistance, has been validated as a predictor of cardiovascular disease. However, effects of TyG-related indices combined with obesity markers on cardiovascular diseases remained unknown. We aimed to investigate the associations between TyG index and modified TyG indices with new-onset cardiovascular disease and the time-dependent predictive capacity using a national representative cohort. METHODS: This study is a retrospective observational cohort study using data from China Health and Retirement Longitudinal Study (CHARLS) of 7 115 participants. The TyG index was calculated as Ln [fasting triglyceride (mg/dL) × fasting glucose (mg/dL)/2]. The modified TyG indices were developed combining TyG with body mass index (BMI), waist circumference (WC) and waist-to-height ratio (WHtR). We used adjusted Cox proportional hazards regression to analyze the association and predictive capacity based on hazard ratio (HR) and Harrell's C-index. RESULTS: Over a 7-year follow-up period, 2136 participants developed cardiovascular disease, including 1633 cases of coronary heart disease and 719 cases of stroke. Compared with the lowest tertile group, the adjusted HR (95% CI) for new-onset cardiovascular disease in the highest tertile for TyG, TyG-BMI, TyG-WC, and TyG-WHtR were 1.215 (1.088-1.356), 1.073 (0.967-1.191), 1.078 (0.970-1.198), and 1.112 (1.002-1.235), respectively. The C-indices of TyG index for cardiovascular disease onset were higher than other modified TyG indices. Similar results were observed for coronary heart disease and stroke. CONCLUSION: TyG and TyG-WhtR were significantly associated with new-onset cardiovascular diseases, and TyG outperformed the modified TyG indices to identify individuals at risk of incident cardiovascular event.

Hyperspectral imaging for chloroplast movement detection.

We employed hyperspectral imaging to detect chloroplast positioning and assess its influence on common vegetation indices. In low blue light, chloroplasts move to cell walls perpendicular to the direction of the incident light. In high blue light, chloroplasts exhibit the avoidance response, moving to cell walls parallel to the light direction. Irradiation with high light results in significant changes in leaf reflectance and the shape of the reflectance spectrum. Using mutants with disrupted chloroplast movements, we found that blue-light-induced changes in the reflectance spectrum are mostly due to chloroplast relocations. We trained machine learning methods in the classification of leaves according to the chloroplast positioning, based on the reflectance spectra. The convolutional network showed low levels of misclassification of leaves irradiated with high light even when different species were used for training and testing, suggesting that reflectance spectra may be used to detect chloroplast avoidance in heterogeneous vegetation. We also examined the correlation between chloroplast positioning and values of indices of normalized-difference type for various combinations of wavelengths and identified an index sensitive to chloroplast positioning. We found that values of some of the vegetation indices, including those sensitive to the carotenoid levels, may be altered due to chloroplast rearrangements.

Radiomorphometric indices of the mandible as indicators of decreased bone mineral density and osteoporosis - meta-analysis and systematic review.

This review aims to evaluate the accuracy of various mandibular radiomorphometric indices in comparison with DEXA BMD measurements in the diagnosis of osteopenia and osteoporosis based on a meta-analysis of the sensitivity and specificity of the indices. PRISMA statement was followed. The materials for analysis were collected in August 2023 by searching three databases: PubMed Central, Web of Science, and Scopus. The selection of studies consisted of three selection stages, and 64 articles were finally obtained. Quality assessment was performed with the QUADAS-2 tool, and the general methodological quality of retrieved studies was low. Statistical analysis was performed based on 2 × 2 tables and estimated sensitivity and specificity were obtained using SROC curves. The most used indices were MCI, MCW and PMI. The best results in detecting reduced BMD obtained for MCW ≤ 3 mm, estimated sensitivity and specificity were 0.712 (95% CI, 0.477-0.870) and 0.804 (95% CI, 0.589-0.921), respectively. The most prone to the risk of bias is the MCI due to the examiner's subjectivism. Radiomorphometric indices of the mandible can be useful as a screening tool to identify patients with low BMD, but should not be used as a diagnostic method. Further research needs to focus on analysing the ability of the indices to detect osteoporosis and also in combination the indices with clinical parameters.

Anthropometric measures, predicted visceral adipose tissue and biomarkers of chronic inflammation.

BACKGROUND: Evidence has linked low-grade systemic inflammation and visceral adipose tissue (VAT) with development of chronic conditions. Cytokines and select proteins released by VAT may promote a low-grade inflammatory response. A number of equations have been developed to estimate VAT levels. In this study, we compared predicted VAT equation relationships with biomarkers of inflammation. METHODS: This was a cross-sectional study of 2038 men and women aged 46-73 years. Correlation and linear regression analyses were performed to examine inflammatory biomarker relationships with four commonly assessed anthropometric measures and 10 predicted VAT equations. RESULTS: Compared with anthropometric measures, predicted VAT equations were found to explain a greater proportion of variance in CRP (R2 = .075, p = .001), IL-6 (R2 = .060, p = .001), TNF-α (R2 = .017, p = .005), resistin (R2 = .011, p = .012), monocyte (R2 = .027, p = .001), eosinophil (R2 = .012, p = .01) and basophil (R2 = .015, p = .002) levels in males, and a greater variance in concentrations of C3 (R2 = .175, p = .001), IL-6 (R2 = .090, p = .001), TNF-α (R2 = .036, p = .001), adiponectin (R2 = .121, p = .001), the adiponectin-to-leptin ratio (R2 = .444, p = .001), resistin (R2 = .025, p = .001), white blood cell count (R2 = .057, p = .001), neutrophils (R2 = .061, p = .001) and lymphocytes (R2 = .020, p = .001) in females. CONCLUSION: Equations for assessing VAT levels might be useful to characterise metabolic health. Further studies that examine predicted VAT relationships with disease and mortality outcomes are warranted.

Northeast Atlantic species distribution shifts over the last two decades.

Marine species are widely shifting their distributions in response to global changes and it is commonly expected they will move northward and to greater depths to reach cooler, less disturbed habitats. However, local manifestations of global changes, anthropogenic pressures, and species characteristics may lead to unanticipated and varied responses by individual species. In this regard, the Celtic-Biscay Shelf is a particularly interesting study system because it has historically been heavily fished and occurs at the interface between two distinct biogeographic provinces, its community thus comprised of species with diverse thermal preferenda. In the context of rapidly warming temperatures and intense fishery exploitation, we investigated the distribution shifts of 93 taxa (65 Actinopteri, 10 Elasmobranchii, 11 Cephalopoda, 5 Malacostraca, and 2 Bivalvia), which were sampled annually from 1997 to 2020 during a scientific bottom trawl survey. We used a set of 11 complementary spatial indices to quantify taxon distribution shifts over time. Then, we explored the relative effect of taxon abundance, fishing pressure, and climatic conditions on taxon's distribution shift when a significant shift was detected. We observed that 56% of the taxa significantly shifted. Not all taxa will necessarily shift northward and to deeper areas, as it is often expected. Two opposite patterns were identified: taxa either moving deeper and to the southeast, or moving closer to the surface and to the northwest. The main explanatory factors were climate change (short- and long-term temperatures) and taxon abundance. Fishing pressure was the third, but still significant, explanatory factor of taxa of greater commercial importance. Our research highlights that taxa are displaying complex distribution shifts in response to the combined anthropogenic disturbances and underscores the need to conduct regional studies to better understand these responses at the ecosystem scale to develop more suitable management plans and policies.

Divergent ecological responses to typhoon disturbance revealed via landscape-scale acoustic monitoring.

Climate change is increasing the frequency, intensity, and duration of extreme weather events across the globe. Understanding the capacity for ecological communities to withstand and recover from such events is critical. Typhoons are extreme weather events that are expected to broadly homogenize ecological dynamics through structural damage to vegetation and longer-term effects of salinization. Given their unpredictable nature, monitoring ecological responses to typhoons is challenging, particularly for mobile animals such as birds. Here, we report spatially variable ecological responses to typhoons across terrestrial landscapes. Using a high temporal resolution passive acoustic monitoring network across 24 sites on the subtropical island of Okinawa, Japan, we found that typhoons elicit divergent ecological responses among Okinawa's diverse terrestrial habitats, as indicated by increased spatial variability of biological sound production (biophony) and individual species detections. This suggests that soniferous communities are capable of a diversity of different responses to typhoons. That is, spatial insurance effects among local ecological communities provide resilience to typhoons at the landscape scale. Even though site-level typhoon impacts on soundscapes and bird detections were not particularly strong, monitoring at scale with high temporal resolution across a broad spatial extent nevertheless enabled detection of spatial heterogeneity in typhoon responses. Further, species-level responses mirrored those of acoustic indices, underscoring the utility of such indices for revealing insight into fundamental questions concerning disturbance and stability. Our findings demonstrate the significant potential of landscape-scale acoustic sensor networks to capture the understudied ecological impacts of unpredictable extreme weather events.

Gustative Roussy Immune Score is a Predictor for Major Pathological Response in Rectal Cancer: A Result from the Preoperative Intraarterial Chemoembolization Combined with Radiotherapy (PCAR) Study.

Despite the emergence of various treatment strategies for rectal cancer based on neoadjuvant chemoradiotherapy, there is currently a lack of reliable biomarkers to determine which patients will respond well to neoadjuvant chemoradiotherapy. Through collecting hematological and biochemical parameters data of patients prior to receiving neoadjuvant chemoradiotherapy, we evaluated the predictive value of systemic inflammatory indices for pathological response and prognosis in rectal cancer patients. We found that baseline GRIm-Score was an independent predictor for MPR in rectal cancer patients. However, no association was observed between several commonly systemic inflammation indices and long-term outcome.