Natural capital and ecosystem service concepts are embodied in the ecosystems approach to sustainable development, which is a framework being consistently adopted by decision making bodies ranging ...from national governments to the United Nations. In the Millennium Ecosystem Assessment soils are given the vital role of a supporting service, but many of the other soil goods and services remain obscured. In this review we address this using and earth-system approach, highlighting the final goods and services soils produce, in a stock-fund, fund-service model of the pedosphere. We also argue that focusing on final goods and services will be counterproductive in the long run and emphasize that final goods and services are derived from an ecosystem supply chain that relies on ecological infrastructure. We propose that an appropriate ecosystems framework for soils should incorporate soil stocks (natural capital) showing their contribution to stock-flows and emergent fund-services as part of the supply chain. By so doing, an operational ecosystems concept for soils can draw on much more supporting data on soil stocks as demonstrated in a case study with soils data from England and Wales showing stocks, gaps in monitoring and drivers of change. Although the focus of this review is on soils, we believe the earth-system approach and principles of the ecosystem supply chain are widely applicable to the ecosystems approach and bring clarity in terms of where goods and services are derived from.
► We critically review natural capital and ecosystem service concepts for soil science. ► We present a new soil framework based on the stock-flow, fund-service concepts and the ecosystem supply chain. ► We identify explicit soil provisioning goods and emergent ecosystem services soils provide. ► We present a synthesis of soil data for England and Wales within the soil ecosystem service framework.
Caloric restriction (CR) protects against aging and disease, but the mechanisms by which this affects mammalian life span are unclear. We show in mice that deletion of ribosomal S6 protein kinase 1 ...(S6K1), a component of the nutrient-responsive mTOR (mammalian target of rapamycin) signaling pathway, led to increased life span and resistance to age-related pathologies, such as bone, immune, and motor dysfunction and loss of insulin sensitivity. Deletion of S6K1 induced gene expression patterns similar to those seen in CR or with pharmacological activation of adenosine monophosphate (AMP)-activated protein kinase (AMPK), a conserved regulator of the metabolic response to CR. Our results demonstrate that S6K1 influences healthy mammalian life-span and suggest that therapeutic manipulation of S6K1 and AMPK might mimic CR and could provide broad protection against diseases of aging.
OPTN/SRTR 2017 Annual Data Report: Liver Kim, W. R.; Lake, J. R.; Smith, J. M. ...
American journal of transplantation,
February 2019, Letnik:
19, Številka:
S2
Journal Article
Recenzirano
Odprti dostop
Data on adult liver transplants performed in the US in 2017 are notable for (1) continued growth in numbers of new waitlist registrants (11,514) and of transplants performed (8,082); (2) continued ...increase in the transplant rate (51.5 per 100 waitlist‐years); (3) a precipitous decrease in waitlist registrations and transplants for hepatitis C‐related indications; (4) reciprocal increases in waitlist registrants and recipients with alcoholic liver disease and with clinical profiles consistent with non‐alcoholic fatty liver disease; and (5) continued improvement in graft survival despite changing recipient characteristics such as older age and higher rates of obesity. Variability in transplant rates remained by candidate race, presence of hepatocellular carcinoma, urgency status (status 1A versus model for end‐stage liver disease (MELD) score >35), and geography. More than half of all children listed for liver transplant in 2017 were aged younger than 5 years in 2017, and the highest rate of pretransplant mortality persisted for children aged younger than 1 year. Children underwent transplant at higher acuity than the past, as evidenced by higher MELD/pediatric end‐stage liver disease scores and listings at status 1A and 1B. Higher acuity at transplant is likely due to lack of access to suitable donor organs, which has been compensated for by persistent trends toward use of partial or split liver grafts and ABO‐incompatible grafts. Despite higher illness severity scores at transplant, pediatric graft and patient survival posttransplant have improved over time.
The Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter Camera (LROC) Wide Angle Camera (WAC) and Narrow Angle Cameras (NACs) are on the NASA Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter (LRO). The WAC is a 7-color push-frame camera (100 ...and 400 m/pixel visible and UV, respectively), while the two NACs are monochrome narrow-angle linescan imagers (0.5 m/pixel). The primary mission of LRO is to obtain measurements of the Moon that will enable future lunar human exploration. The overarching goals of the LROC investigation include landing site identification and certification, mapping of permanently polar shadowed and sunlit regions, meter-scale mapping of polar regions, global multispectral imaging, a global morphology base map, characterization of regolith properties, and determination of current impact hazards.
The extent of increasing anthropogenic impacts on large marine vertebrates partly depends on the animals’ movement patterns. Effective conservation requires identification of the key drivers of ...movement including intrinsic properties and extrinsic constraints associated with the dynamic nature of the environments the animals inhabit. However, the relative importance of intrinsic versus extrinsic factors remains elusive. We analyze a global dataset of ∼2.8 million locations from >2,600 tracked individuals across 50 marine vertebrates evolutionarily separated by millions of years and using different locomotion modes (fly, swim,walk/paddle). Strikingly,movement patterns show a remarkable convergence, being strongly conserved across species and independent of body length and mass, despite these traits ranging over 10 orders of magnitude among the species studied. This represents a fundamental difference between marine and terrestrial vertebrates not previously identified, likely linked to the reduced costs of locomotion in water. Movement patterns were primarily explained by the interaction between species-specific traits and the habitat(s) they move through, resulting in complex movement patterns when moving close to coasts compared with more predictable patterns when moving in open oceans. This distinct difference may be associated with greater complexity within coastal microhabitats, highlighting a critical role of preferred habitat in shaping marine vertebrate global movements. Efforts to develop understanding of the characteristics of vertebrate movement should consider the habitat(s) through which they move to identify how movement patterns will alter with forecasted severe ocean changes, such as reduced Arctic sea ice cover, sea level rise, and declining oxygen content.
Key insights into the behavior of materials can be gained by observing their structure as they undergo lattice distortion. Laser pulses on the femtosecond time scale can be used to induce disorder in ...a "pump-probe" experiment with the ensuing transients being probed stroboscopically with femtosecond pulses of visible light, x-rays, or electrons. Here we report three-dimensional imaging of the generation and subsequent evolution of coherent acoustic phonons on the picosecond time scale within a single gold nanocrystal by means of an x-ray free-electron laser, providing insights into the physics of this phenomenon. Our results allow comparison and confirmation of predictive models based on continuum elasticity theory and molecular dynamics simulations.
OPTN/SRTR 2017 Annual Data Report: Heart Colvin, M.; Smith, J. M.; Hadley, N. ...
American journal of transplantation,
February 2019, 2019-02-00, 20190201, Letnik:
19, Številka:
S2
Journal Article
Recenzirano
Odprti dostop
In 2017, 3273 heart transplants were performed in the United States. New listings continued to increase, and 3769 new adults were listed for heart transplant in 2017. Over the past decade, ...posttransplant mortality has declined. The number of new pediatric listings increased over the past decade, as did the number of pediatric heart transplants, although some fluctuation has occurred more recently. New listings for pediatric heart transplants increased from 481 in 2007 to 623 in 2017. The number of pediatric heart transplants performed each year increased from 330 in 2007 to 432 in 2017, slightly fewer than in 2016. Short‐term and long‐term mortality improved. Among pediatric patients who underwent transplant between 2015‐2016, 4.8% had died by 6 months and 6.2% by 1 year.
Gaps in our understanding of genetic susceptibility to malignant hyperthermia (MH) limit the application and interpretation of genetic diagnosis of the condition. Our aim was to define the prevalence ...and role of variants in the three genes implicated in MH susceptibility in the largest comprehensively phenotyped MH cohort worldwide.
We initially included one individual from each positive family tested in the UK MH Unit since 1971 to detect variants in RYR1, CACNA1S, or STAC3. Screening for genetic variants has been ongoing since 1991 and has involved a range of techniques, most recently next generation sequencing. We assessed the pathogenicity of variants using standard guidelines, including family segregation studies. The prevalence of recurrent variants of unknown significance was compared with the prevalence reported in a large database of sequence variants in low-risk populations.
We have confirmed MH susceptibility in 795 independent families, for 722 of which we have a DNA sample. Potentially pathogenic variants were found in 555 families, with 25 RYR1 and one CACNA1S variants previously unclassified recurrent variants significantly over-represented (P<1×10−7) in our cohort compared with the Exome Aggregation Consortium database. There was genotype–phenotype discordance in 86 of 328 families suitable for segregation analysis. We estimate non-RYR1/CACNA1S/STAC3 susceptibility occurs in 14–23% of MH families.
Our data provide current estimates of the role of variants in RYR1, CACNA1S, and STAC3 in susceptibility to MH in a predominantly white European population.
Review of Particle Physics Barnett, R M; Beringer, J; Dahl, O ...
Progress of theoretical and experimental physics,
2020, Letnik:
2020, Številka:
8
Journal Article
Recenzirano
Odprti dostop
Abstract
The Review summarizes much of particle physics and cosmology. Using data from previous editions, plus 3,324 new measurements from 878 papers, we list, evaluate, and average measured ...properties of gauge bosons and the recently discovered Higgs boson, leptons, quarks, mesons, and baryons. We summarize searches for hypothetical particles such as supersymmetric particles, heavy bosons, axions, dark photons, etc. Particle properties and search limits are listed in Summary Tables. We give numerous tables, figures, formulae, and reviews of topics such as Higgs Boson Physics, Supersymmetry, Grand Unified Theories, Neutrino Mixing, Dark Energy, Dark Matter, Cosmology, Particle Detectors, Colliders, Probability and Statistics. Among the 120 reviews are many that are new or heavily revised, including a new review on High Energy Soft QCD and Diffraction and one on the Determination of CKM Angles from B Hadrons.
The Review is divided into two volumes. Volume 1 includes the Summary Tables and 98 review articles. Volume 2 consists of the Particle Listings and contains also 22 reviews that address specific aspects of the data presented in the Listings.
The complete Review (both volumes) is published online on the website of the Particle Data Group (pdg.lbl.gov) and in a journal. Volume 1 is available in print as the PDG Book. A Particle Physics Booklet with the Summary Tables and essential tables, figures, and equations from selected review articles is available in print and as a web version optimized for use on phones as well as an Android app.
The BCL2 inhibitor venetoclax has shown activity in patients with chronic lymphocytic leukemia (CLL), but its efficacy in combination with other agents in patients with CLL and coexisting conditions ...is not known.
In this open-label, phase 3 trial, we investigated fixed-duration treatment with venetoclax and obinutuzumab in patients with previously untreated CLL and coexisting conditions. Patients with a score of greater than 6 on the Cumulative Illness Rating Scale (scores range from 0 to 56, with higher scores indicating more impaired function of organ systems) or a calculated creatinine clearance of less than 70 ml per minute were randomly assigned to receive venetoclax-obinutuzumab or chlorambucil-obinutuzumab. The primary end point was investigator-assessed progression-free survival. The safety of each regimen was also evaluated.
In total, 432 patients (median age, 72 years; median Cumulative Illness Rating Scale score, 8; median creatinine clearance, 66.4 ml per minute) underwent randomization, with 216 assigned to each group. After a median follow-up of 28.1 months, 30 primary end-point events (disease progression or death) had occurred in the venetoclax-obinutuzumab group and 77 had occurred in the chlorambucil-obinutuzumab group (hazard ratio, 0.35; 95% confidence interval CI, 0.23 to 0.53; P<0.001). The Kaplan-Meier estimate of the percentage of patients with progression-free survival at 24 months was significantly higher in the venetoclax-obinutuzumab group than in the chlorambucil-obinutuzumab group: 88.2% (95% CI, 83.7 to 92.6) as compared with 64.1% (95% CI, 57.4 to 70.8). This benefit was also observed in patients with
deletion, mutation, or both and in patients with unmutated immunoglobulin heavy-chain genes. Grade 3 or 4 neutropenia occurred in 52.8% of patients in the venetoclax-obinutuzumab group and in 48.1% of patients in the chlorambucil-obinutuzumab group, and grade 3 or 4 infections occurred in 17.5% and 15.0%, respectively. All-cause mortality was 9.3% in the venetoclax-obinutuzumab group and 7.9% in the chlorambucil-obinutuzumab group. These differences were not significant.
Among patients with untreated CLL and coexisting conditions, venetoclax-obinutuzumab was associated with longer progression-free survival than chlorambucil-obinutuzumab. (Funded by F. Hoffmann-La Roche and AbbVie; ClinicalTrials.gov number, NCT02242942.).
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