Programmable photonic circuits.

The growing maturity of integrated photonic technology makes it possible to build increasingly large and complex photonic circuits on the surface of a chip. Today, most of these circuits are designed for a specific application, but the increase in complexity has introduced a generation of photonic circuits that can be programmed using software for a wide variety of functions through a mesh of on-chip waveguides, tunable beam couplers and optical phase shifters. Here we discuss the state of this emerging technology, including recent developments in photonic building blocks and circuit architectures, as well as electronic control and programming strategies. We cover possible applications in linear matrix operations, quantum information processing and microwave photonics, and examine how these generic chips can accelerate the development of future photonic circuits by providing a higher-level platform for prototyping novel optical functionalities without the need for custom chip fabrication.

Inference in artificial intelligence with deep optics and photonics.

Artificial intelligence tasks across numerous applications require accelerators for fast and low-power execution. Optical computing systems may be able to meet these domain-specific needs but, despite half a century of research, general-purpose optical computing systems have yet to mature into a practical technology. Artificial intelligence inference, however, especially for visual computing applications, may offer opportunities for inference based on optical and photonic systems. In this Perspective, we review recent work on optical computing for artificial intelligence applications and discuss its promise and challenges.

Demographic consequences of phenological asynchrony for North American songbirds.

Changes in phenology in response to ongoing climate change have been observed in numerous taxa around the world. Differing rates of phenological shifts across trophic levels have led to concerns that ecological interactions may become increasingly decoupled in time, with potential negative consequences for populations. Despite widespread evidence of phenological change and a broad body of supporting theory, large-scale multitaxa evidence for demographic consequences of phenological asynchrony remains elusive. Using data from a continental-scale bird-banding program, we assess the impact of phenological dynamics on avian breeding productivity in 41 species of migratory and resident North American birds breeding in and around forested areas. We find strong evidence for a phenological optimum where breeding productivity decreases in years with both particularly early or late phenology and when breeding occurs early or late relative to local vegetation phenology. Moreover, we demonstrate that landbird breeding phenology did not keep pace with shifts in the timing of vegetation green-up over a recent 18-y period, even though avian breeding phenology has tracked green-up with greater sensitivity than arrival for migratory species. Species whose breeding phenology more closely tracked green-up tend to migrate shorter distances (or are resident over the entire year) and breed earlier in the season. These results showcase the broadest-scale evidence yet of the demographic impacts of phenological change. Future climate change-associated phenological shifts will likely result in a decrease in breeding productivity for most species, given that bird breeding phenology is failing to keep pace with climate change.

Longitudinal in vivo Ca2+ imaging reveals dynamic activity changes of diseased retinal ganglion cells at the single-cell level.

Retinal ganglion cells (RGCs) are heterogeneous projection neurons that convey distinct visual features from the retina to brain. Here, we present a high-throughput in vivo RGC activity assay in response to light stimulation using noninvasive Ca2+ imaging of thousands of RGCs simultaneously in living mice. Population and single-cell analyses of longitudinal RGC Ca2+ imaging reveal distinct functional responses of RGCs and unprecedented individual RGC activity conversions during traumatic and glaucomatous degeneration. This study establishes a foundation for future in vivo RGC function classifications and longitudinal activity evaluations using more advanced imaging techniques and visual stimuli under normal, disease, and neural repair conditions. These analyses can be performed at both the population and single-cell levels using temporal and spatial information, which will be invaluable for understanding RGC pathophysiology and identifying functional biomarkers for diverse optic neuropathies.

Nimodipine-associated standard dose reductions and neurologic outcomes after aneurysmal subarachnoid hemorrhage: the era of pharmacogenomics.

Nimodipine, an L-type cerebroselective calcium channel antagonist, is the only drug approved by the US Food and Drug Administration for the neuroprotection of patients with aneurysmal subarachnoid hemorrhage (aSAH). Four randomized, placebo-controlled trials of nimodipine demonstrated clinical improvement over placebo; however, these occurred before precision medicine with pharmacogenomics was readily available. The standard enteral dose of nimodipine recommended after aSAH is 60 mg every 4 h. However, up to 78% of patients with aSAH develop systemic arterial hypotension after taking the drug at the recommended dose, which could theoretically limit its neuroprotective role and worsen cerebral perfusion pressure and cerebral blood flow, particularly when concomitant vasospasm is present. We investigated the association between nimodipine dose changes and clinical outcomes in a consecutive series of 150 patients (mean age, 56 years; 70.7% women) with acute aSAH. We describe the pharmacogenomic relationship of nimodipine dose reduction with clinical outcomes. These results have major implications for future individualized dosing of nimodipine in the era of precision medicine.

Recovery of angular scattering profiles through a flexible multimode fiber.

Endoscopic angle-resolved light scattering methods have been developed for early cancer detection but they typically require multi-element coherent fiber optic bundles to recover scattering distributions from tissues. Recent work has focused on using a single multimode fiber (MMF) to measure angle resolved scattering but this approach has practical limitations to overcome before clinical translation. Here we address these limitations by proposing an MMF-based endoscope capable of measuring angular scattering patterns suitable for determining structure. Significantly, this approach implements a spectrally resolved detection scheme to reduce speckle and leverages the azimuthal symmetry of the angular scattering patterns to enable measurements that are robust to fiber bending. This results in a unique method that does not require matrix inversion or machine learning to measure a transmitted scattering distribution. The MMF utilized here is 1000 mm in length with a 200 µm core and is demonstrated to recover angular scattering distributions even with bending displacements of up to 30 cm. This advance has a significant impact on the clinical translation of biomedical endoscopic diagnostic techniques that use angular scattering to determine the size of cell nuclei to detect early cancer.

Utilizing quantitative phase microscopy to localize fluorescence in three dimensions via the transport of intensity equation.

We demonstrate the use of a novel, to the best of our knowledge, localization algorithm for digitally refocusing fluorescence images from a three-dimensional cell culture. Simultaneous phase and fluorescence intensity images are collected through a multimodal system that combines digital holography via quantitative phase microscopy (QPM) and fluorescence microscopy. Defocused fluorescence images are localized to a specific z-plane within the three-dimensional (3D) matrix using the transport of intensity equation (TIE) and depth-resolved information derived from the QPM measurements. This technique is applied to cells stained with different fluorescent tags suspended in 3D collagen hydrogel cultures. Experimental findings demonstrate the localization of defocused images, facilitating the analysis and comparison of cells within the hydrogel matrix. This method holds promise for comprehensive cellular imaging of fluorescence labeling in three-dimensional environments, enabling detailed investigations into cellular behavior and interactions.

Longitudinal imaging of vitreal hyperreflective foci in mice with acute optic nerve damage using visible-light optical coherence tomography.

Hyperreflective foci (HRFs) appear in optical coherence tomography (OCT) images of the retina and vitreous of patients with various ocular diseases. HRFs are hypothesized to be immune cells that appear in response to ischemia or tissue damage. To accurately identify HRFs and establish their clinical significance, it is necessary to replicate the detection of similar patterns in vivo in a small animal model. We combined visible-light OCT with temporal speckle averaging (TSA) to visualize and track vitreal HRFs (VHRFs) densities for three days after an optic nerve crush (ONC) injury. Resulting vis-OCT images revealed that VHRF density significantly increased approximately 10-fold at 12 h after ONC and returned to baseline three days after ONC. Additional immunohistochemistry results confirmed these VHRFs as inflammatory cells induced from optic nerve damage.

Range-wide salamander densities reveal a key component of terrestrial vertebrate biomass in eastern North American forests.

Characterizing the population density of species is a central interest in ecology. Eastern North America is the global hotspot for biodiversity of plethodontid salamanders, an inconspicuous component of terrestrial vertebrate communities, and among the most widespread is the eastern red-backed salamander, Plethodon cinereus. Previous work suggests population densities are high with significant geographic variation, but comparisons among locations are challenged by lack of standardization of methods and failure to accommodate imperfect detection. We present results from a large-scale research network that accounts for detection uncertainty using systematic survey protocols and robust statistical models. We analysed mark-recapture data from 18 study areas across much of the species range. Estimated salamander densities ranged from 1950 to 34 300 salamanders ha-1, with a median of 9965 salamanders ha-1. We compared these results to previous estimates for P. cinereus and other abundant terrestrial vertebrates. We demonstrate that overall the biomass of P. cinereus, a secondary consumer, is of similar or greater magnitude to widespread primary consumers such as white-tailed deer (Odocoileus virginianus) and Peromyscus mice, and two to three orders of magnitude greater than common secondary consumer species. Our results add empirical evidence that P. cinereus, and amphibians in general, are an outsized component of terrestrial vertebrate communities in temperate ecosystems.

Disentangling direct and indirect effects of extreme events on coastal wetland communities.

One of the primary ways in which climate change will impact coastal freshwater wetlands is through changes in the frequency, intensity, timing and distribution of extreme weather events. Disentangling the direct and indirect mechanisms of population- and community-level responses to extreme events is vital to predicting how species composition of coastal wetlands will change under future conditions. We extended static structural equation modelling approaches to incorporate system dynamics in a multi-year multispecies occupancy model to quantify the effects of extreme weather events on a coastal freshwater wetland system. We used data from an 8-year study (2009-2016) on St. Marks National Wildlife Refuge in Florida, USA, to quantify species-specific and community-level changes in amphibian and fish occupancy associated with two flooding events in 2012 and 2013. We examine how physical changes to the landscape, including potential changes in salinity and increased wetland connectivity, may have contributed to or exacerbated the effects of these extreme weather events on the biota of isolated coastal wetlands. We provide evidence that the primary effects of flooding on the amphibian community were through indirect mechanisms via changes in the composition of the sympatric fish community that may have had lethal (i.e. through direct predation) or non-lethal (i.e. through direct or indirect competitive interactions) effects. In addition, we have shown that amphibian species differed in their sensitivity to direct flooding effects and indirect changes in the fish community and wetland-specific conductance, which led to variable responses across the community. These effects led to the overall decline in amphibian species richness from 2009 to 2016, suggesting that wetland-breeding amphibian communities on St. Marks National Wildlife Refuge may not be resilient to predicted changes in coastal disturbance regimes because of climate change. Understanding both direct and indirect effects, as well as species interactions, is important for predicting the effects of a changing climate on individual species, communities and ecosystems.

Broad-Scale Assessment of Methylmercury in Adult Amphibians.

Mercury (Hg) is a toxic contaminant that has been mobilized and distributed worldwide and is a threat to many wildlife species. Amphibians are facing unprecedented global declines due to many threats including contaminants. While the biphasic life history of many amphibians creates a potential nexus for methylmercury (MeHg) exposure in aquatic habitats and subsequent health effects, the broad-scale distribution of MeHg exposure in amphibians remains unknown. We used nonlethal sampling to assess MeHg bioaccumulation in 3,241 juvenile and adult amphibians during 2017-2021. We sampled 26 populations (14 species) across 11 states in the United States, including several imperiled species that could not have been sampled by traditional lethal methods. We examined whether life history traits of species and whether the concentration of total mercury in sediment or dragonflies could be used as indicators of MeHg bioaccumulation in amphibians. Methylmercury contamination was widespread, with a 33-fold difference in concentrations across sites. Variation among years and clustered subsites was less than variation across sites. Life history characteristics such as size, sex, and whether the amphibian was a frog, toad, newt, or other salamander were the factors most strongly associated with bioaccumulation. Total Hg in dragonflies was a reliable indicator of bioaccumulation of MeHg in amphibians (R2 ≥ 0.67), whereas total Hg in sediment was not (R2 ≤ 0.04). Our study, the largest broad-scale assessment of MeHg bioaccumulation in amphibians, highlights methodological advances that allow for nonlethal sampling of rare species and reveals immense variation among species, life histories, and sites. Our findings can help identify sensitive populations and provide environmentally relevant concentrations for future studies to better quantify the potential threats of MeHg to amphibians.

No Sex Differences in the Prevalence of Intracranial Aneurysms in Patients with Ascending Thoracic Aortic Aneurysms: A Multi-Center Experience.

BACKGROUND: Previous studies suggest a coprevalence of intracranial aneurysms (IA) in patients with infrarenal abdominal aortic aneurysms (AAA). We reviewed our multicenter experience in the detection/treatment of IAs in patients with ascending thoracic aortic aneurysms (ATAA) relative to patients without ATAA. METHODS: Surgical cases of ATAA repaired at 3 sites from January 1998 to December 2018 were retrospectively reviewed. Out of these patients, those with intracranial vascular imaging were selected for our study, and these individuals were concurrently randomly matched with a control group of patients who underwent intracranial vascular imaging without an ATAA in a 1:1 ratio by age, sex, smoking history, and year of intracranial vascular imaging. Conditional logistic regression was used to calculate odds ratios (OR). RESULTS: We reviewed 2176 ATAA repairs. 74% (n = 1,615) were men. Intracranial vascular imaging was available in 298 (13.7%) patients. Ninteen patients were found to have 22 IAs for a prevalence of 6.4%. Mean size of IA was 4.6 ± 3.3 mm; mean age at IA detection, 63.4 ± 12.1 years. IA was present on head imaging in 4.7% of male and 12.5% of female patients. Eleven (58%) patients were men. The OR of having IA in female versus male patients is 2.90, 95% confidence interval [CI] [1.08-7.50], P = 0.029. Time from IA diagnosis to ATAA repair was 1.7 ± 116.2 months. Two patients underwent treatment for IA, one ruptured and one unruptured. All were diagnosed before ATAA repair. Treatment included 1 clipping and 1 coiling with subsequent reintervention of the coiling using a flow diversion device. In the matched group of patients who had intracranial vascular imaging without ATAA, the rate of IA is 5.0%. IA was detected in 3.8% of males and 9.4% of female patients for an OR of 2.59, 95% CI [0.84-7.47], P = 0.083. Association within our study and matched groups, the OR of developing an IA with and without ATAA was not statistically significant 1.29, 95% CI [0.642.59], P = 0.48. There was also no evidence of sex differences in the association of ATAA with IA (interaction P = 0.88). The OR for the association of ATAA with IA was 1.33, 95% CI [0.46-3.84], P = 0.59 in females and 1.25, 95% CI [0.49-3.17], P = 0.64 in males. CONCLUSIONS: Our study found that IA was present in 6.4% of patients with ATAA who had intracranial vascular imaging available. The odds of IA were 1.29 times higher than a matched cohort of patients who had intracranial vascular imaging without ATAA but this failed to achieve statistical significance. We found that the odds of IA were more than 2 times higher in females than males for both those with ATAA (OR = 2.90) and those without ATAA (OR = 2.59); however, it only reached statistical significance in those with ATAA.

Systematic Review on Magnetic Resonance Angiography with Vessel Wall Imaging for the Characterization of Symptomatic Carotid Artery Plaque.

BACKGROUND: To perform a systematic literature review to assess the usefulness of performing magnetic resonance angiography (MRA) with vessel wall imaging (VWI) sequences for the assessment of symptomatic carotid artery plaques and the identification of risky plaque features predisposing for stroke. METHODS: We performed a systematic review of the literature pertaining to MRA with VWI techniques in patients with carotid artery disease, focusing on symptomatic patients' plaque features and morphology. Independent reviewers screened and analyzed data extracted from eligible studies, and a modified Newcastle-Ottawa Scale was used to appraise the quality of the design and content of the selected manuscripts to achieve an accurate interpretation. RESULTS: This review included nineteen peer-reviewed manuscripts, all of them including MRA and VWI assessments of the symptomatic carotid artery plaque. We focused on patients' comorbidities and reviewed plaque features, including intraplaque hemorrhage, a lipid-rich necrotic core, a ruptured fibrous cap, and plaque ulceration. CONCLUSIONS: MRA with VWI is a useful tool in the evaluation of carotid artery plaques. This imaging technique allows clinicians to identify plaques at risk of causing a neurovascular event. The presence of intraplaque hemorrhage, plaque ulceration, a ruptured fibrous cap, and a lipid-rich necrotic core are associated with neurovascular symptoms. The timely identification of these features could have a positive impact on neurovascular event prevention.

Flow diversion using the Pipeline embolization device for intracranial and extracranial pseudoaneurysms: a systematic review and meta-analysis of the literature.

OBJECTIVE: Pseudoaneurysms (PSAs) are complex vascular lesions. Flow diversion has been proposed as an alternative treatment to parent artery occlusion that preserves laminar flow. The authors of the present study investigated the safety and short-term (< 1 year) and long-term (≥ 1 year) aneurysm occlusion rates following the treatment of intracranial and extracranial PSAs using the Pipeline embolization device (PED). METHODS: An electronic database search for full-text English-language articles in Ovid MEDLINE and Epub Ahead of Print, Ovid Embase, Ovid Cochrane Central Register of Controlled Trials, Ovid Cochrane Database of Systematic Reviews, and Scopus was conducted following the PRISMA guidelines. Studies of any design including at least 4 patients with intracranial or extracranial PSAs treated using a PED were included in this analysis. The primary outcome of interest was the rate of peri- and postprocedural complications. Secondarily, the authors analyzed the incidence of complete aneurysm occlusion. RESULTS: A total of 90 patients with 96 PSAs across 9 studies were included. The mean age was 38.2 (SD 15.14) years, and 37.8% of the patients were women. The mean PSA size was 4.9 mm. Most PSAs were unruptured, and the most common etiology was trauma (n = 32, 35.5%), followed by spontaneous formation (n = 21, 23.3%) and iatrogenic injury (n = 19, 21.1%). Among the 51 (53.1%) intracranial and 45 (46.9%) extracranial PSAs were 19 (19.8%) dissecting PSAs. Sixty-six (77.6%) PSAs were in the internal carotid artery and 10 (11.8%) in the vertebral artery. Thirty-three (34.4%) PSAs were treated with ≥ 2 devices, and 8 (8.3%) underwent adjunctive coiling. The mean clinical and angiographic follow-up durations were 10.7 and 12.9 months, respectively. The short-term (< 1 year) and long-term (≥ 1 year) complete occlusion rates were 79% (95% CI 66%-88%, p = 0.82) and 84% (95% CI 70%-92%, p = 0.95), respectively. Complication rates were 8% for iatrogenic dissection (95% CI 3%-16%, p = 0.94), 10% for silent thromboembolism (95% CI 5%-21%, p = 0.77), and 12% for symptomatic thromboembolism (95% CI 6%-23%, p = 0.48). No treatment-related hemorrhage was observed. The overall mortality rate at the last follow-up was 14%. CONCLUSIONS: The complete occlusion rate for PSAs treated with the PED was high and increased over time. Although postprocedural complications and mortality were not insignificant, flow diversion represents a reasonably safe option for managing these complex lesions.

Global and Regional Damages in Retinal Ganglion Cell Axon Bundles Monitored Non-Invasively by Visible-Light Optical Coherence Tomography Fibergraphy.

Retinal ganglion cells (RGCs) exhibit compartmentalized organization, receiving synaptic inputs through their dendrites and transmitting visual information from the retina to the brain through the optic nerve. Little is known about the structure of RGC axon bundles extending from individual RGC somas to the optic nerve head (ONH) and how they respond to disease insults. We recently introduced visible-light optical coherence tomography fibergraphy (vis-OCTF), a technique for directly visualizing and analyzing mouse RGC axon bundles in vivo In this study, we validated vis-OCTF's ability to quantify RGC axon bundles with an increased number of RGCs using mice deficient in BCL2-associated X protein (BAX-/-). Next, we performed optic nerve crush (ONC) injury on wild-type (WT) mice and showed that the changes in RGC axon bundle width and thickness were location-dependent. Our work demonstrates the potential of vis-OCTF to longitudinally quantify and track RGC damage at single axon bundle level in optic neuropathies.SIGNIFICANCE STATEMENT Nearly all clinical and preclinical studies measure the retinal nerve fiber (RNFL) thickness as the sole indicator of retinal ganglion cell (RGC) damage without investigating RGC axon bundles directly. We demonstrated visible-light optical coherence tomography fibergraphy (vis-OCTF) to directly quantify global and regional RGC axon bundle organizations in vivo as a new biomarker for RGC health. We validated in vivo vis-OCTF measures using both confocal microscopy of the immunostained flat-mounted retina and numerical simulations. Vis-OCTF for monitoring RGC axon bundle organization has the potential to bring new insight into RGC damage in optic neuropathies.

Over a decade of field physiology reveals life-history specific strategies to drought in garter snakes (Thamnophis legans).

Changing climates and severe weather events can affect population viability. Individuals need to buffer such negative fitness consequences through physiological plasticity. Whether certain life-history strategies are more conducive to surviving changing climates is unknown, but theory predicts that strategies prioritizing maintenance and survival over current reproduction should be better able to withstand such change. We tested this hypothesis in a meta-population of garter snakes having naturally occurring variation in life-history strategies. We tested whether slow pace-of-life (POL) animals, that prioritize survival over reproduction, are more resilient than fast POL animals as measured by several physiological biomarkers. From 2006 to 2019, which included two multi-year droughts, baseline and stress-induced reactivity of plasma corticosterone and glucose varied annually with directionalities consistent with life-history theory. Slow POL animals exhibited higher baseline corticosterone and lower baseline glucose, relative to fast POL animals. These patterns were also observed in stress-induced measures; thus, reactivity was equivalent between ecotypes. However, in drought years, measures of corticosterone did not differ between different life histories. Immune cell distribution showed annual variation independent of drought or life history. These persistent physiological patterns form a backdrop to several extirpations of fast POL populations, suggesting a limited physiological toolkit to surviving periods of extreme drought.

Long-term retinal protection by MEK inhibition in Pax6 haploinsufficiency mice.

Aniridia is a panocular condition characterized by impaired eye development and vision, which is mainly due to the haploinsufficiency of the paired-box-6 (PAX6) gene. Like what is seen in aniridia patients, Pax6-deficient mice Pax6Sey-Neu/+ exhibit a varied degree of ocular damage and impaired vision. Our previous studies showed that these phenotypes were partially rescued by PD0325901, a mitogen-activated protein kinase kinase (MEK or MAP2K) inhibitor. In this study, we assessed the long-term efficacy of PD0325901 treatment in retinal health and visual behavior. At about one year after the postnatal treatment with PD0325901, Pax6Sey-Neu/+ mice showed robust improvements in retina size and visual acuity, and the elevated intraocular pressure (IOP) was also alleviated, compared to age-matched mice treated with vehicles only. Moreover, the Pax6Sey-Neu/+ eyes showed disorganized retinal ganglion cell (RGC) axon bundles and retinal layers, which we termed as hotspots. We found that the PD treatment reduced the number and size of hotspots in the Pax6Sey-Neu/+ retinas. Taken together, our results suggest that PD0325901 may serve as an efficacious intervention in protecting retina and visual function in aniridia-afflicted subjects.

Using interview surveys and multispecies occupancy models to inform vertebrate conservation.

Species distribution data are an essential biodiversity variable requiring robust monitoring to inform wildlife conservation. Yet, such data remain inherently sparse because of the logistical challenges of monitoring biodiversity across broad geographic extents. Surveys of people knowledgeable about the occurrence of wildlife provide an opportunity to evaluate species distributions and the ecology of wildlife communities across large spatial scales. We analyzed detection histories of 30 vertebrate species across the Western Ghats biodiversity hotspot in India, obtained from a large-scale interview survey of 2318 people who live and work in the forests of this region. We developed a multispecies occupancy model that simultaneously corrected for false-negative (non-detection) and false-positive (misidentification) errors that interview surveys can be prone to. Using this model, we integrated data across species in composite analyses of the responses of functional species groups (based on disturbance tolerance, diet, and body mass traits) to spatial variation in environmental variables, protection, and anthropogenic pressures. We observed a positive association between forest cover and the occurrence of species with low tolerance of human disturbance. Protected areas were associated with higher occurrence for species across different functional groups compared with unprotected lands. We also observed the occurrence of species with low disturbance tolerance, herbivores, and large-bodied species was negatively associated with developmental pressures, such as human settlements, energy production and mining, and demographic pressures, such as biological resource extraction. For the conservation of threatened vertebrates, our work underscores the importance of maintaining forest cover and reducing deforestation within and outside protected areas, respectively. In addition, mitigating a suite of pervasive human pressures is also crucial for wildlife conservation in one of the world's most densely populated biodiversity hotspots.

Uso de Encuestas y Modelos de Ocupación Multiespecies para Orientar la Conservación de Vertebrados Resumen Los datos de distribución de especies son una variable esencial de la biodiversidad que requieren de un monitoreo sólido para orientar la conservación de la fauna. Aun así, dichos datos permanecen inherentemente escasos debido a los obstáculos logísticos del monitoreo de la biodiversidad a lo largo de extensiones geográficas generalizadas. Las encuestas realizadas a personas conocedoras de la incidencia de fauna proporcionan una oportunidad para evaluar la distribución de las especies y la ecología de las comunidades de fauna en escalas espaciales grandes. Analizamos las historias de detección de 30 especies de vertebrados en los Ghats Occidentales de la India obtenidos a partir de una encuesta a gran escala realizada por entrevistas a 2318 personas que viven y trabajan en los bosques de esta región. Desarrollamos un modelo de ocupación multiespecies que corrigió simultáneamente los errores falsos negativos (no detección) y los falsos positivos (identificación correcta) a los que están propensos las encuestas por entrevista. Con este modelo, integramos los datos de todas las especies a un análisis compuesto de las respuestas de los grupos funcionales de especies (con base en la tolerancia a la perturbación, dieta y características de masa corporal) para la variación espacial en las variables ambientales, protección y presiones antropogénicas. Observamos una asociación positiva entre la incidencia de especies con la baja tolerancia a la perturbación humana y a la cobertura forestal. Las áreas protegidas estuvieron asociadas con una incidencia mayor para las especies ubicadas en diferentes grupos funcionales comparadas con las áreas desprotegidas. También observamos que la incidencia de especies con una tolerancia baja a las perturbaciones, herbívoros y especies de mayor tamaño estaba asociada negativamente con las presiones de desarrollo, como los asentamientos humanos, la producción de energías y minería, y las presiones demográficas, como la extracción de recursos biológicos. Para la conservación de vertebrados amenazados, nuestro trabajo hace hincapié en la importancia de mantener la cobertura forestal y reducir la deforestación dentro y fuera de las áreas protegidas, respectivamente. Además, la mitigación de un conjunto de presiones humanas dominantes también es crucial para la conservación de la naturaleza en uno de los puntos calientes de biodiversidad con una de las mayores densidades poblacionales del mundo.

Imaging Characteristics and Reintervention in Patients after Radiation Induced Carotid Artery Stenting.

BACKGROUND: To evaluate and describe the radiographic imaging findings in a series of patients who underwent reintervention after radiation induced carotid artery stenting (RICAS). METHODS: A retrospective review of patients with prior RICAS and subsequent reintervention. RESULTS: We describe 10 patients including 8 male and 2 female patients with 12 reinterventions due to prior diagnosed radiation-induced carotid artery stenosis and subsequent stenting during the period 2000-2019. The rate of reintervention was found to be 10%. The pattern of stenosis is unique to this patient population including specifically long-segment stenosis, proximal and distal to the stent location, which tends not to occur in the atherosclerotic patient population. CONCLUSIONS: Careful surveillance after RICAS is necessary to assess for the risk and the unusual pattern of stenosis to offer reintervention in this high-risk patient population.

Youths' Perceived Impact of Invalidation and Validation on Their Mental Health Treatment Journeys.

Youths' experiences in seeking and accessing help for mental health problems can have pervasive and lasting effects on personal and interpersonal functioning. In particular, youth who experience validating experiences presumably persevere in seeking help and generally have positive treatment outcomes, whereas youth who experience invalidation are also likely to experience, at least in the short term, ruptures in therapeutic relationships, shame, and reluctance to seek services. The goal of the current study was to expand on previous research assessing youths' interactions with mental health providers, allied professionals, family members, and peers, with a focus on subjective experiences of validation and invalidation. The current study investigated both validating and invalidating experiences in seeking, accessing, and maintaining professional services among 31 Canadian youth (n = 20 girls, n = 11 boys; 12 to 21 years old [M = 16.97, SD = 2.01]) who were diagnosed or self-identified with at least one of five conditions: depression (n = 26), anxiety (n = 22), eating disorders (n = 9), autism spectrum disorder (n = 2), or conduct disorder or oppositional defiant disorder (n = 2). Youth were recruited using convenience (e.g., posted advertisements in mental health clinics) and snowball sampling methods. Journey mapping methodology (i.e., participants created visual representations of milestones of their mental health journeys) was employed accompanied by semi-structured interviews to prompt youth to expand on their experiences (e.g., "Could you describe what was happening in your life when you first felt you would need support for your mental health?"). Four themes emerged using inductive thematic analysis, marked by the presence (validation) or lack (invalidation) of: feeling heard, feeling seen, feeling understood, and receiving helpful actions. Participants also reported key consequences of validation and invalidation. Findings broaden a conceptualization of validation across supportive relationships and an understanding of factors that enhance or impede the formation or maintenance of therapeutic relationships with youth. Clinical implications and limitations are discussed.