Four priorities for new links between conservation science and accounting research.

Article impact statement: New collaborations with accounting research can improve conservation impact of ecosystem-based information systems.

Leveraging natural capital accounting to support businesses with nature-related risk assessments and disclosures.

Nature loss threatens businesses, the global economy and financial stability. Understanding and addressing these risks for business will require credible measurement approaches and data. This paper explores how natural capital accounting (NCA) can support business data and information needs related to nature, including disclosures aligned with the Taskforce on Nature-related Financial Disclosures recommendations. As businesses seek to measure, manage and disclose their nature-related risks and opportunities, they will need well-organized, consistent and high-quality information regarding their dependencies and impacts on nature, which few businesses currently collect or track in-house. NCA may be useful for these purposes but has not been widely used or applied by businesses. National NCA guided by the U.N. System of Environmental-Economic Accounting may provide: (i) a useful framework for businesses in conceptualizing, organizing and managing nature-related data and statistics; and (ii) data and information that can directly support business disclosures, corporate NCA and other business applications. This paper explores these opportunities as well as synergies between national and corporate natural capital accounts. In addition, the paper discusses key barriers to advancing the wider use and benefits of NCA for business, including: awareness of NCA, data access, business capabilities related to NCA, spatial and temporal scales of data, audit and assurance considerations, potential risks, and costs and incentives. This article is part of the theme issue 'Bringing nature into decision-making'.

Wearability and physiological effects of custom-fitted vs self-adapted mouthguards.

OBJECTIVES: The purpose of this study was to measure the comfort, wearability, physiological effects and its influence on athletes' physical performance, of custom-fitted compared with self-adapted mouthguards (MGs). METHODS: Eleven rugby players were put under specific efforts similar to those of the competition. Each player made three consecutive tests randomly wearing a commercially available 'boil-and-bite' self-adapted mouthguard (MG2), a custom-fitted mouthguard (MG3), and no mouthguard (reference). Forced expiratory air volume at 1 s (FEV(1)), expiratory flow rates peak (PEF), forced vital capacity (FVC), rebound (RB) jump 15 s, and counter-movement jump (CMJ) were measured on each player before and after the training exercise tests. Subjective evaluations by means of a visual analog scale (VAS) questionnaire took place. Comforts, adaptability, stability, tiredness, thirst, oral dryness, nausea, ability to talk, breathe, and drink were evaluated. RESULTS: The wearing of the self-adapted MG showed significant improvement in PEF (P < 0.05). There were no statistically significance differences regarding the others spirometer parameters. In CMJ, there were no differences between both the MGs. On RB power was similar with both MGs and control. However, RB height reduced significantly wearing MGs. MG3 showed superior properties in comfort, adaptability, stability, and ability to talk and to breathe. CONCLUSIONS: MG3 showed the smallest range of changes in players' performance, suggesting improved fit, comfort, and acceptation compared with MG2. Furthermore, its greatest advantage is the individualized design according to the proper anatomy of the oral cavity. Greater efforts must be made to improve the comfort of MGs if their use is to be increased.

HIV-coinfected patients respond worse to direct-acting antiviral-based therapy against chronic hepatitis C in real life than HCV-monoinfected individuals: a prospective cohort study.

OBJECTIVE: HIV/HCV-coinfected patients and hepatitis C virus (HCV) monoinfected subjects are thought to respond equally to direct-acting antiviral (DAA)-based therapy despite the lack of data derived from clinical trials. This study is aimed to evaluate the impact of HIV coinfection on the response to DAA-based treatment against HCV infection in the clinical practice. PATIENTS AND METHODS: In a prospective multicohort study, patients who initiated DAA-based therapy at the Infectious Disease Units of 33 hospitals throughout Spain were included. The primary efficacy outcome variables were the achievement of sustained virologic response 12 weeks after the scheduled end of therapy date (SVR12). RESULTS: A total of 908 individuals had reached the SVR12 evaluation time-point, 426 (46.9%) were HIV/HCV-coinfected, and 472 (52%) received interferon (IFN)-free therapy. In an intention-to-treat analysis, SVR12 rates in subjects with and without HIV-coinfection were 55.3% (94/170 patients) versus 67.3% (179/266 subjects; p = 0.012) for IFN-based treatment and 86.3% (221/256 subjects) versus 94.9% (205/216 patients, p = 0.002) for IFN-free regimens. Relapse after end-of-treatment response to IFN-free therapy was observed in 3/208 (1.4%) HCV-monoinfected subjects and 10/231 (4.4%) HIV/HCV-coinfected individuals (p = 0.075). In a multivariate analysis adjusted for age, sex, transmission route, body-mass index, HCV genotype, and cirrhosis, the absence of HIV-coinfection (adjusted odds ratio: 3.367; 95% confidence interval: 1.15-9.854; p = 0.027) was independently associated with SVR12 to IFN-free therapy. CONCLUSIONS: HIV-coinfection is associated with worse response to DAA-based therapy against HCV infection. In patients receiving IFN-free therapy, this fact seems to be mainly driven by a higher rate of relapses among HIV-coinfected subjects.

Incidence of oral sinus communications in 389 upper thirmolar extraction.

INTRODUCTION: The incidence of oral sinus communications (OSC) following the extraction of an upper third molar remains uncertain. OBJECTIVES: The purpose of this study was to determine the incidence of OSC following the extraction of 389 consecutive upper third molars during 2003 in the Master of Oral Surgery and Orofacial Implantology (Barcelona University, Spain). PATIENTS AND METHOD: Different variables were recorded, including patient age, sex, molar angulation, surgical technique and radiological sinus proximity, to determine the relation between third molar extraction and the incidence of OSC. RESULTS: Only 5.1% (95% CI: 2.2-7.3%) of the upper molar surgical extractions produced OSC, the risk of which was found to be similar in all age groups and increased with the depth of third molar inclusion, the complexity of the surgical technique and the performance of an ostectomy.

Coexistence of congeneric native and invasive species: the case of the green algae Codium spp. in northwestern Spain.

We examined the patterns of distribution and abundance, and reproductive traits (presence of gametophytes and size at time of reproduction) in the invasive Codium fragile ssp. fragile and the native C. tomentosum and C. vermilara on intertidal habitats of NW Spain at two dates. All three species coexist in the locations and habitats studied, although abundances were low. We found a greater proportion of C. fragile ssp. fragile towards the east of the Cantabrian coast and on upper levels on the shore, where conditions are more stressful. The proportion of thalli bearing gametangia in C. fragile ssp. fragile was greater than in the native species in all habitats. The presence of gametangia was size-dependent for all species, with the invasive species maturing at a smaller size, which combined with the previous features, might confer competitive advantages to this species over the native species. We also demonstrated that molecular analyses are necessary for the correct identification of C. fragile subspecies.

[First case report of catheter-related fungemia by Candida nivariensis in the Iberian Peninsula]. / Primer caso de fungemia asociada a catéter por Candida nivariensis en la Península Ibérica.

BACKGROUND: In recent years the incidence of candidemia caused by non-albicans Candida species has been increasing. Two cryptic species have been described within the Candida glabrata complex, Candida nivariensis and Candida bracarensis, which may be troublesome in laboratory identification and have lower susceptibility to fluconazole. AIMS: To describe the first isolation of C. nivariensis in the Iberian Peninsula from a patient suffering from a catheter-related fungemia. CASE REPORT: An 81-year-old man was hospitalized for surgical treatment of an intestinal fistula that was associated to a severe malnutrition. Cultures of the patient's central venous catheter tip and blood yielded white colonies in BD CHROMagar Candida(®) medium, which could not be identified by conventional microbiological methods. Although intravenous fluconazole was administered, blood cultures continued being positive 5 days later. The MIC values of the isolate were as follows: 1 µg/ml for amphotericin B, 0.015 µg/ml for anidulafungin, 0.125 µg/ml for caspofungin, 0.015 µg/ml for micafungin, 4 µg/ml for fluconazole, 0.25 µg/ml for itraconazole, 0.25 µg/ml for posaconazole, and 0.03 µg/ml for voriconazole. Antifungal treatment was changed to intravenous caspofungin for 2 weeks. The intestinal fistula was surgically treated. There was no evidence of relapse during the following month, and the patient was discharged. The isolate was identified as C. nivariensis based on DNA sequencing of the ITS regions of rRNA. CONCLUSIONS: C. nivariensis should be regarded as an emerging pathogen which requires molecular methods for a definitive identification. Our patient was successfully treated with caspofungin.

Prognostic value of inflammatory markers (notably cytokines and procalcitonin), nutritional assessment, and organ function in patients with sepsis.

OBJECTIVE: Procalcitonin is useful for the diagnosis of sepsis, but its prognostic value regarding mortality is unclear. Our objective was to determine the prognostic value of procalcitonin determined at the onset of sepsis, and to compare it with other markers of inflammatory response, malnutrition and organ dysfunction data. METHODS: We studied 253 hospitalized patients (146 men, 107 women) with a median age of 65 years. Sepsis was defined as infection, and at least two SIRS criteria. We assessed co-morbidities, nutritional status, bacteremia, procalcitonin and other inflammatory markers (PCR, TNF-alpha, IL6, TREM-1, IL-10, IL-1ra, CD14 and LBP), and organ function using the SOFA score. Mortality was assessed at 28 days after onset of sepsis. RESULTS: At day 28, 49 (19%) patients had died. Inflammatory markers showed only moderate predictive value for mortality, with IL-10 and IL-6 being the best predictors. Mortality was mainly related to organ dysfunction indicators (SOFA and Glasgow scores), serum lactate, ferritin and LDH levels, and to nutritional data such as subjective assessment, handgrip strength and serum transferrin levels. The most frequent location of sepsis was the lung, with 140 cases (55%), which showed more comorbidity, worse nutritional status, less frequent bacteremia and lower inflammatory response. When the analysis was limited to patients with non-pulmonary sepsis, organ dysfunction, nutritional status and inflammatory markers showed the best prognostic value. Of the inflammatory markers, procalcitonin showed only moderate predictive value; however it showed the highest correlation with bacteremia and the ability to discriminate non-complicated sepsis from severe forms. CONCLUSION: Procalcitonin only showed moderate predictive value for sepsis-related mortality, being surpassed by organ dysfunction, nutritional status, IL-10 and IL-6. However, it proved useful to discriminate between non-complicated and severe forms of sepsis.