Beluga whales are rare along the coast of east Greenland and the closest recognized stock occurs around Svalbard. Here we report on an ice entrapment of an adult beluga whale (Delphinapterus leucas) ...in north-east Greenland. The whale was observed entrapped in the fast ice on 21 April 2023 in Loch Fyne (73°54’N, 21°51’W) during a visual aerial survey for polar bears (Ursus maritimus). The whale was located >100 km from open water (i.e., pack ice) and appeared in poor body condition. A literature review back to the early 1900s failed to produce any other records of beluga whale ice entrapments in east Greenland.
Virksomhederne i en række kommuner i provinsen oplever store udfordringer med at skaffe kvalificeret arbejdskraft. Konsekvensen er nu, at de siger nej til ordrer eller udflytter opgaver til andre ...dele af Danmark – eller til udlandet. Inden da har virksomhederne ofte brugt alle værktøjerne i værktøjskassen for enten at tiltrække eller fastholde medarbejdere. Det er dyrt og tidskrævende. Kan substitution – som foreslået i dette temanummer – være en nøgle til at løse problemerne? Måske. Med afsæt i vores erfaring fra det lokale erhvervsliv i henholdsvis Esbjerg- og Skive-områderne argumenterer vi for, at substitutionsløsningen beror på flere forskellige dimensioner: Et ændret mindset hos virksomhederne løser ikke udfordringen alene. Det er mindst ligeså vigtigt, at de videregående uddannelser øger deres opmærksomhed omkring kandidaternes employability. Og at de højtuddannede vil udvise en højere grad af mobilitet – både fagligt og geografisk. Udflytningerne af statslige styrelser og uddannelsesinstitutioner til provinsen kan være et vigtigt led i den forbindelse.
Virksomhederne i en række kommuner i provinsen oplever store udfordringer med at skaffe kvalificeret arbejdskraft. Konsekvensen er nu, at de siger nej til ordrer eller udflytter opgaver til andre ...dele af Danmark – eller til udlandet. Inden da har virksomhederne ofte brugt alle værktøjerne i værktøjskassen for enten at tiltrække eller fastholde medarbejdere. Det er dyrt og tidskrævende. Kan substitution – som foreslået i dette temanummer – være en nøgle til at løse problemerne? Måske. Med afsæt i vores erfaring fra det lokale erhvervsliv i henholdsvis Esbjerg- og Skive-områderne argumenterer vi for, at substitutionsløsningen beror på flere forskellige dimensioner: Et ændret mindset hos virksomhederne løser ikke udfordringen alene. Det er mindst ligeså vigtigt, at de videregående uddannelser øger deres opmærksomhed omkring kandidaternes employability. Og at de højtuddannede vil udvise en højere grad af mobilitet – både fagligt og geografisk. Udflytningerne af statslige styrelser og uddannelsesinstitutioner til provinsen kan være et vigtigt led i den forbindelse.
Polar bears are susceptible to climate warming because of their dependence on sea ice, which is declining rapidly. We present the first evidence for a genetically distinct and functionally isolated ...group of polar bears in Southeast Greenland. These bears occupy sea-ice conditions resembling those projected for the High Arctic in the late 21st century, with an annual ice-free period that is >100 days longer than the estimated fasting threshold for the species. Whereas polar bears in most of the Arctic depend on annual sea ice to catch seals, Southeast Greenland bears have a year-round hunting platform in the form of freshwater glacial mélange. This suggests that marine-terminating glaciers, although of limited availability, may serve as previously unrecognized climate refugia. Conservation of Southeast Greenland polar bears, which meet criteria for recognition as the world’s 20th polar bear subpopulation, is necessary to preserve the genetic diversity and evolutionary potential of the species.
A new hope
Polar bears are one of the most mentioned—and iconic—potential victims of climate change. Most polar bears rely on sea ice to hunt, so the current and predicted reductions in sea ice occurrence and persistence are likely to have major impacts on their survival. Laidre
et al
. describe the discovery of an isolated population of polar bears from southeastern Greenland that is much less reliant on sea ice, instead existing at the terminal end of a glacier and relying on resources from this glacial-freshwater mélange (see the Perspective by Peacock). Discovery of this population suggests both that such environments might serve as refugia for polar bears and that conservation of this new population is essential. —SNV
A newly described population of polar bears in southeastern Greenland suggests the potential for climate refugia.
Despite their enormous size, whales make their living as voracious predators. To catch their much smaller, more maneuverable prey, they have developed several unique locomotor strategies that require ...high energetic input, high mechanical power output and a surprising degree of agility. To better understand how body size affects maneuverability at the largest scale, we used bio-logging data, aerial photogrammetry and a high-throughput approach to quantify the maneuvering performance of seven species of free-swimming baleen whale. We found that as body size increases, absolute maneuvering performance decreases: larger whales use lower accelerations and perform slower pitch-changes, rolls and turns than smaller species. We also found that baleen whales exhibit positive allometry of maneuvering performance: relative to their body size, larger whales use higher accelerations, and perform faster pitch-changes, rolls and certain types of turns than smaller species. However, not all maneuvers were impacted by body size in the same way, and we found that larger whales behaviorally adjust for their decreased agility by using turns that they can perform more effectively. The positive allometry of maneuvering performance suggests that large whales have compensated for their increased body size by evolving more effective control surfaces and by preferentially selecting maneuvers that play to their strengths.
One of the biggest global challenges in the coming decades will be the transformation from fossil-fuel dependency into self-sufficiency by the use of renewable energy. The Danish municipality of ...Ringkobing-Skjern will reach the 100-percept target by 2023. Climate change and increasing ressource scarcity are global challenges. The challenges are not easy to solve, but difficulty is no excuse for inaction. Since 2008, Ringkobing-Skjern has had a strong political focus on sustainable development and the use of renewable energy. Today, 12 years later, they can almost see the finish line. By 2023, they will be able to produce enough renewable energy to cover all consumption by their citizens, businesses, and transportation. And that's because they have gone wholeheartedly into the process of developing green, sustainable solutions.
Aim
Hypertension and diabetes mellitus (DM) are major causes of morbidity and mortality, with growing burdens in low‐income countries where they are underdiagnosed and undertreated. Advances in ...machine learning may provide opportunities to enhance diagnostics in settings with limited medical infrastructure.
Materials and Methods
A non‐interventional study was conducted to develop and validate a machine learning algorithm to estimate cardiovascular clinical and laboratory parameters. At two sites in Kenya, digital retinal fundus photographs were collected alongside blood pressure (BP), laboratory measures and medical history. The performance of machine learning models, originally trained using data from the UK Biobank, were evaluated for their ability to estimate BP, glycated haemoglobin, estimated glomerular filtration rate and diagnoses from fundus images.
Results
In total, 301 participants were enrolled. Compared with the UK Biobank population used for algorithm development, participants from Kenya were younger and would probably report Black/African ethnicity, with a higher body mass index and prevalence of DM and hypertension. The mean absolute error was comparable or slightly greater for systolic BP, diastolic BP, glycated haemoglobin and estimated glomerular filtration rate. The model trained to identify DM had an area under the receiver operating curve of 0.762 (0.818 in the UK Biobank) and the hypertension model had an area under the receiver operating curve of 0.765 (0.738 in the UK Biobank).
Conclusions
In a Kenyan population, machine learning models estimated cardiovascular parameters with comparable or slightly lower accuracy than in the population where they were trained, suggesting model recalibration may be appropriate. This study represents an incremental step toward leveraging machine learning to make early cardiovascular screening more accessible, particularly in resource‐limited settings.
Introduction Diabetes is associated with dysregulated immune function and impaired cytokine release, while transient acute hyperglycaemia has been shown to enhance inflammatory cytokine release in ...preclinical studies. Although diabetes and acute hyperglycaemia are common among patients with community-acquired pneumonia (CAP), the impact of chronic, acute, and acute-on-chronic hyperglycaemia on the host response within this population remains poorly understood. This study investigated whether chronic, acute, and acute-on- chronic hyperglycaemia are associated with distinct mediators of inflammatory, endothelial, and angiogenic host response pathways in patients with CAP. Methods In a cross-sectional study of 555 patients with CAP, HbA1c, admission plasma (p)-glucose, and the glycaemic gap (admission p-glucose minus HbA1c- derived average p-glucose) were employed as measures of chronic, acute, and acute-on-chronic hyperglycaemia, respectively. Linear regression was used to model the associations between the hyperglycaemia measures and 47 proteins involved in inflammation, endothelial activation, and angiogenesis measured at admission. The models were adjusted for age, sex, CAP severity, pathogen, immunosuppression, comorbidity, and body mass index. Adjustments for multiple testing were performed with a false discovery rate threshold of less than 0.05. Results The analyses showed that HbA1c levels were positively associated with IL-8, IL-15, IL-17A/F, IL-1RA, sFlt-1, and VEGF-C. Admission plasma glucose was also positively associated with these proteins and GM-CSF. The glycaemic gap was positively associated with IL-8, IL-15, IL-17A/F, IL-2, and VEGF-C. Conclusion In conclusion, chronic, acute, and acute-on-chronic hyperglycaemia were positively associated with similar host response mediators. Furthermore, acute and acute-on-chronic hyperglycaemia had unique associations with the inflammatory pathways involving GM-CSF and IL-2, respectively.
Heavy metal pumps (P1B-ATPases) are important for cellular heavy metal homeostasis. AtHMA4, an Arabidopsis thaliana heavy metal pump of importance for plant Zn2+ nutrition, has an extended C-terminal ...domain containing 13 cysteine pairs and a terminal stretch of 11 histidines. Using a novel size-exclusion chromatography, inductively coupled plasma mass spectrometry approach we report that the C-terminal domain of AtHMA4 is a high affinity Zn2+ and Cd2+ chelator with capacity to bind 10 Zn2+ ions per C terminus. When AtHMA4 is expressed in a Zn2+-sensitive zrc1 cot1 yeast strain, sequential removal of the histidine stretch and the cysteine pairs confers a gradual increase in Zn2+ and Cd2+ tolerance and lowered Zn2+ and Cd2+ content of transformed yeast cells. We conclude that the C-terminal domain of AtHMA4 serves a dual role as Zn2+ and Cd2+ chelator (sensor) and as a regulator of the efficiency of Zn2+ and Cd2+ export. The identification of a post-translational handle on Zn2+ and Cd2+ transport efficiency opens new perspectives for regulation of Zn2+ nutrition and tolerance in eukaryotes.
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