Summary
With climate change, heat waves are becoming increasingly frequent, intense and broader in spatial extent. However, while the lethal effects of heat waves on humans are well documented, the ...impacts on flora are less well understood, perhaps except for crops. We summarize recent findings related to heat wave impacts including: sublethal and lethal effects at leaf and plant scales, secondary ecosystem effects, and more complex impacts such as increased heat wave frequency across all seasons, and interactions with other disturbances. We propose generalizable practical trials to quantify the critical bounding conditions of vulnerability to heat waves. Collectively, plant vulnerabilities to heat waves appear to be underappreciated and understudied, particularly with respect to understanding heat wave driven plant die‐off and ecosystem tipping points.
Patient blood management (PBM) is the timely application of evidence-informed medical and surgical concepts designed to maintain haemoglobin concentration, optimise haemostasis and minimise blood ...loss in an effort to improve patient outcomes. The aim of this consensus statement is to provide recommendations on the management of anaemia and haematinic deficiencies in pregnancy and in the post-partum period as part of PBM in obstetrics. A multidisciplinary panel of physicians with expertise in obstetrics, anaesthesia, haematology, policymaking and epidemiology was convened by the Network for the Advancement of Patient Blood Management, Haemostasis and Thrombosis (NATA) in collaboration with the International Federation of Gynaecology and Obstetrics (FIGO) and the European Board and College of Obstetrics and Gynaecology (EBCOG). Members of the task force assessed the quantity, quality and consistency of the published evidence and formulated recommendations using the system developed by the Grading of Recommendations Assessment, Development, and Evaluation (GRADE) working group. The recommendations in this consensus statement are intended for use by clinical practitioners managing the perinatal care of women in all settings and by policymakers in charge of decision making for the update of clinical practice in health-care establishments. They need to be tailored for application in individual patients or any population after consideration of the values and preferences of both health-care providers and patients, as well as equity issues; explicit assessment of harms and benefits of each recommendation; feasibility including resources, capacity and equipment; and implementability.
Abstract Over the last few decades, the scientific literature has acquired over 100 publications on pituitary surgery. Most of these papers contain a brief historical review of the work of the ...pioneers who contributed to operative modalities ( Landolt et al., 1996; Liu et al., 2001; Walker, 1951; Welbourne, 1986 ). Several have been only experimental explorations on cadavers, used on a few patients, but were eventually abandoned, retaining only anecdotal value. In fact, open surgery currently uses the two classical approaches: intracranial and extracranial. The superior transcranial approach has retained two modalities: (1) subfrontal basal with or without resection of the orbital ridge and (2) subfrontal or subfrontotemporal. The inferior trans-sphenoidal approach currently maintains two modalities: (1) endonasal lateral submucosal or Kocher-Hirsch extramucosal and (2) sublabial midline rhinoseptal of Halstead-Cushing. Further development with various instruments has improved the operative procedure. Microsurgical exploration of the hypophysis can now identify intrapituitary microadenomas, thus allowing selective microadenomectomy, which constitutes the ultimate achievement in the surgical treatment of endocrinological hyperpituitarism syndromes.
1. Analyzing the phylogenetic structure of natural communities may illuminate the processes governing the assembly and coexistence of species. For instance, an association between species ...co-occurrence in local communities and their phylogenetic proximity may reveal the action of habitat filtering, niche conservatism and/or competitive exclusion. 2. Different methods were recently proposed to test such community-wide phylogenetic patterns, based on the phylogenetic clustering or overdispersion of the species in a local community. This provides a much needed framework for addressing long standing questions in community ecology as well as the recent debate on community neutrality. The testing procedures are based on (i) a metric measuring the association between phylogenetic distance and species co-occurrence, and (ii) a data set randomization algorithm providing the distribution of the metric under a given 'null model'. However, the statistical properties of these approaches are not well-established and their reliability must be tested against simulated data sets. 3. This paper reviews metrics and null models used in previous studies. A 'locally neutral' subdivided community model is simulated to produce data sets devoid of phylogenetic structure in the spatial distribution of species. Using these data sets, the consistency of Type I error rates of tests based on 10 metrics combined with nine null models is examined. 4. This study shows that most tests can become liberal (i.e. tests rejecting too often the null hypothesis that only neutral processes structured spatially the local community) when the randomization algorithm breaks down a structure in the original data set unrelated to the null hypothesis to test. Hence, when overall species abundances are distributed non-randomly across the phylogeny or when local abundances are spatially autocorrelated, better statistical performances were achieved by randomization algorithms preserving these structural features. The most reliable randomization algorithm consists of permuting species with similar abundances among the tips of the phylogenetic tree. One metric, RPD₋DO, also proved to be robust under most simulated conditions using a variety of null models. 5. Synthesis. Given the suboptimal performances of several tests, attention must be paid to the testing procedures used in future studies. Guidelines are provided to help choosing an adequate test.
Heat waves have profoundly impacted biota globally over the past decade, especially where their ecological impacts are rapid, diverse, and broad-scale. Although usually considered in isolation for ...either terrestrial or marine ecosystems, heat waves can straddle ecosystems of both types at subcontinental scales, potentially impacting larger areas and taxonomic breadth than previously envisioned. Using climatic and multi-species demographic data collected in Western Australia, we show that a massive heat wave event straddling terrestrial and maritime ecosystems triggered abrupt, synchronous, and multi-trophic ecological disruptions, including mortality, demographic shifts and altered species distributions. Tree die-off and coral bleaching occurred concurrently in response to the heat wave, and were accompanied by terrestrial plant mortality, seagrass and kelp loss, population crash of an endangered terrestrial bird species, plummeting breeding success in marine penguins, and outbreaks of terrestrial wood-boring insects. These multiple taxa and trophic-level impacts spanned >300,000 km
-comparable to the size of California-encompassing one terrestrial Global Biodiversity Hotspot and two marine World Heritage Areas. The subcontinental multi-taxa context documented here reveals that terrestrial and marine biotic responses to heat waves do not occur in isolation, implying that the extent of ecological vulnerability to projected increases in heat waves is underestimated.
Vesicle fusion has long provided an easy and reliable method to form supported lipid bilayers (SLBs) from simple, zwitterionic vesicles on siliceous substrates. However, for complex compositions, ...such as vesicles with high cholesterol content and multiple lipid types, the energy barrier for the vesicle-to-bilayer transition is increased or the required vesicle–vesicle and vesicle–substrate interactions are insufficient for vesicle fusion. Thus, for vesicle compositions that more accurately mimic native membranes, vesicle fusion often fails to form SLBs. In this paper, we review three approaches to overcome these barriers to form complex, biomimetic SLBs via vesicle fusion: (i) optimization of experimental conditions (e.g., temperature, buffer ionic strength, osmotic stress, cation valency, and buffer pH), (ii) α-helical (AH) peptide-induced vesicle fusion, and (iii) bilayer edge-induced vesicle fusion. AH peptide-induced vesicle fusion can form complex SLBs on multiple substrate types without the use of additional equipment. Bilayer edge-induced vesicle fusion uses microfluidics to form SLBs from vesicles with complex composition, including vesicles derived from native cell membranes. Collectively, this review introduces vesicle fusion techniques that can be generalized for many biomimetic vesicle compositions and many substrate types, and thus will aid efforts to reliably create complex SLB platforms on a range of substrates.
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•Formation of complex, biomimetic SLBs using simple vesicle fusion techniques.•Optimization of experimental conditions forms complex SLBs via vesicle fusion.•α-Helical peptides act as catalyst to induce vesicle rupture and SLB formation.•Bilayer-edge induced vesicle fusion uses micro-fluidics to form native-derived SLB.
Globally, Phytophthora cinnamomi is listed as one of the 100 worst invasive alien species and active management is required to reduce impact and prevent spread in both horticulture and natural ...ecosystems. Conversely, there are regions thought to be suitable for the pathogen where no disease is observed. We developed a climex model for the global distribution of P. cinnamomi based on the pathogen's response to temperature and moisture and by incorporating extensive empirical evidence on the presence and absence of the pathogen. The climex model captured areas of climatic suitability where P. cinnamomi occurs that is congruent with all available records. The model was validated by the collection of soil samples from asymptomatic vegetation in areas projected to be suitable by the model for which there were few records. DNA was extracted, and the presence or absence of P. cinnamomi was determined by high‐throughput sequencing (HTS). While not detected using traditional isolation methods, HTS detected P. cinnamomi at higher elevations in eastern Australia and central Tasmania as projected by the climex model. Further support for the climex model was obtained using the large data set from south‐west Australia where the proportion of positive records in an area is related to the Ecoclimatic Index value for the same area. We provide for the first time a comprehensive global map of the current P. cinnamomi distribution, an improved climex model of the distribution, and a projection to 2080 of the distribution with predicted climate change. This information provides the basis for more detailed regional‐scale modelling and supports risk assessment for governments to plan management of this important soil‐borne plant pathogen.
ATR is a key regulator of cell-cycle checkpoints and homologous recombination (HR). Paradoxically, ATR inhibits CDKs during checkpoint responses, but CDK activity is required for efficient HR. Here, ...we show that ATR promotes HR after CDK-driven DNA end resection. ATR stimulates the BRCA1-PALB2 interaction after DNA damage and promotes PALB2 localization to DNA damage sites. ATR enhances BRCA1-PALB2 binding at least in part by inhibiting CDKs. The optimal interaction of BRCA1 and PALB2 requires phosphorylation of PALB2 at S59, an ATR site, and hypo-phosphorylation of S64, a CDK site. The PALB2-S59A/S64E mutant is defective for localization to DNA damage sites and HR, whereas the PALB2-S59E/S64A mutant partially bypasses ATR for its localization. Thus, HR is a biphasic process requiring both high-CDK and low-CDK periods. As exemplified by the regulation of PALB2 by ATR, ATR promotes HR by orchestrating a “CDK-to-ATR switch” post-resection, directly coupling the checkpoint to HR.
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•ATR acts after DNA end resection to promote HR•The CDK-to-ATR switch after resection is important for efficient HR•ATR promotes the BRCA1-PALB2 interaction and PALB2 localization to DSBs•ATR regulates PALB2 by driving a phosphorylation switch on S59 and S64
Activation of ATR inhibits CDKs, but paradoxically it also promotes homologous recombination (HR), a CDK-dependent repair process. Buisson et al. show that after the CDK-driven DNA end resection, ATR promotes the HR function of PALB2 by phosphorylating PALB2 and suppressing CDK-mediated PALB2 phosphorylation, directly coupling checkpoint-mediated CDK inhibition to HR.
Summary Substantial genetic, neuropathological, and biochemical evidence implicates the presynaptic neuronal protein α-synuclein in Parkinson's disease and related Lewy body disorders. How ...dysregulation of α-synuclein leads to neurodegeneration is, however, unclear. Soluble oligomeric, but not fully fibrillar, α-synuclein is thought to be toxic. The major neuronal target of aberrant α-synuclein might be the synapse. The effects of aberrant α-synuclein might include alteration of calcium homoeostasis or mitochondrial fragmentation and, in turn, mitochondrial dysfunction, which could link α-synuclein dysfunction to recessive and toxin-induced parkinsonism. α-Synuclein also seems to be linked to other genetic forms of Parkinson's disease, such as those linked to mutations in GBA or LRRK2 , possibly through common effects on autophagy and lysosomal function. Finally, α-synuclein is physiologically secreted, and this extracellular form could lead to the spread of pathological accumulations and disease progression. Consequently, factors that regulate the levels, post-translational modifications, specific aberrant cellular effects, or secretion of α-synuclein might be targets for therapy.
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