not-yet-known not-yet-known not-yet-known unknown The ecological effects of sediment flushings from artificial reservoirs have been widely documented, but the underlying sediment dynamics are less known. We investigated sediment dynamics associated with a long flushing event divided into two periods (2 and 1 week) in an Alpine river, each followed by a clear water release (“washing”) from the reservoir. Suspended sediment dynamics were investigated at the event and annual time scale, and at the river segment (~1000 channel widths) and reach (~100 channel widths or less) spatial scales. Analysis of suspended sediment concentration (SSC) and streamflow time series from 5 in-situ calibrated optical turbidity sensors reveals a downstream decrease in the total passing sediment fluxes, a spatial trend that is paralleled by the theoretical suspended sediment transport capacity, allowing for the estimation of the deposited fine sediment volume in different reaches. Washing events result in variable effects among reaches, with some experiencing net sediment entrainment and others net deposition. Out of 16 quantified sediment fluxes, 5 were statistically significant with p<0.05, with an average uncertainty of 23\% in fine sediment flux quantification. Georeferenced analysis of colored gravel-cobble plots before and after the two flushing events revealed partial reach-scale mobility of the coarse bed surface material, particularly in the geomorphic units located at lower elevations and more exposed to higher flows (edges of side bars nearby riffles or rapids), while local fine sediment deposition was observed at less exposed units, as side channels or point bars in river bends. Grain size distributions of surface sediments taken in the same locations before and 1 month after the flushing reveal a clear shift towards a finer sediment composition, which is partially retrieved also 1 year after the event. Event-averaged SSC values during the flushing are considerably higher compared to natural flood events in such a regulated river, with SSC-streamflow relations being highly irregular and event-dependent, especially during the flushing. The work shows the relevance of multi-scale (time and space) investigation of sediment dynamics for planning and monitoring sediment flushing from artificial reservoirs.

This study employs mesoscale simulations using the Weather Research and Forecasting model to investigate wind-farm blockage phenomena over a six-month period in the North Atlantic Ocean. The impact of atmospheric stratification and associated gravity waves on blockage effects is assessed, unencumbered by the presence of nearby land. Simulations reveal the formation of gravity waves at specific times, especially evident in vertical velocity at hub height. Blockage analysis shows no stratification effects above a Froude number of 10 and increased blockage below 5. Different turbine layouts yield similar results, emphasizing the Froude number as a key indicator of gravity wave effects on wind farm aerodynamics. This study underscores the negative impact of stratification effects, driven by gravity waves, on wind farm production, reducing efficiency during approximately 10% of operation time.

Woodland creation is crucial for nature recovery and achieving net-zero goals. Although habitat creation to improve connectivity is assumed to benefit biodiversity, this has not been extensively quantified across multiple taxa and landscapes. Focusing on the UK, where woodland cover is low (13%), we analysed species occurrence records from citizen science for over 800 broadleaf woodland-associated invertebrate species from 15 taxa in relation to woodland cover and connectivity. Overall, we found that increased connectivity positively impacts the occurrence of these woodland-associated species (effect of connectivity across species, when accounting for the positive effect of woodland cover = 0.122). The benefits of connectivity varied considerably among these taxa: 49% of species showed a significant positive effect, while for 7% it was significantly negative. Our findings emphasise the biodiversity gains from increasing woodland cover and connectivity and highlight the importance of spatial targeting and landscape context in restoration efforts.

Immediately after hatching, larvae of coral reef fish leave their natal reef environment and begin their planktonic dispersal phase, probably to avoid high predation on the reef. The time they spend in the open ocean before settlement (planktonic larval duration, PLD) varies from species to species and depends partly on developmental processes that eventually require re-settlement to a reef. The polyglutamine region (PolyQ) as part of the clock gene has been suggested as a possible candidate that could control developmental processes and potentially the time until settlement which can be determined by counting the rings of the otoliths. We studied the potential relationship between the number of glutamine repeats in 20 species of pomacentrids and their PLDs. Most pomacentrids came from similar locations, so we avoided the impact of latitudinal clines on PLD. Within the clock gene, we found two main distinguishable, variable glutamine-rich regions (PolyQ and Qrich). Considering phylogenetic relationships, PolyQ/Qrich repeat length and planktonic larval duration were significantly positively correlated. However, when analysing this relationship in a single species, the neon damselfish (Pomacentrus coelestis), we did not find a significant correlation between PolyQ length variation and PLD. Instead, we found a significant reduction of PLD in years with increased habitat availability. Our results show that glutamine-rich regions can influence the timing of colonisation on a broader scale, but that ecological factors - such as habitat availability - can also have a significant impact.

Invasive lobular carcinoma (ILC), a subtype of breast cancer, is challenging to detect early due to its diffuse spread, and metastasis often occurs before diagnosis. While ILC commonly metastasizes to the bone and gastrointestinal (GI) tract, gastric involvement, particularly causing gastric outlet obstruction (GOO), is rare. We present a 63-year-old Southeast Asian woman with a history of left breast ILC, who developed GOO. Diagnostic evaluations, including endoscopy and PET CT, revealed a large invasive mass in the gastric antrum, confirmed as metastatic breast cancer. A stent was placed to relieve the obstruction, and the patient started chemotherapy. This case highlights the unusual presentation of ILC metastasizing to the stomach, forming a fungating mass, which deviates from the typical linitis plastica pattern. It underscores the importance of recognizing atypical metastatic behaviors in ILC and the need for further research to improve diagnostic approaches in such rare cases.

The development of the gut microbiome in infancy is a vulnerable process that may be perturbed by antibiotics or supported by probiotics. While effects of these “biotics” have been well-studied through DNA sequencing, it remains unclear how the resulting compositional changes affect the microbiome’s metabolic functions. Additionally, limits in method standardization require careful quality assessment of studies reporting fecal metabolome. We conducted a systematic search in Embase and MEDLINE for studies describing fecal metabolites from term and near-term infants, together with anti-, pre-, or probiotic intervention. The search identified 680 articles, of which 60 were assessed for eligibility and 21 included. We first developed operational checklists for transparent and reproducible reporting and evaluated the quality of metabolomic methodologies. This analysis supported our aim to summarise changes in the fecal metabolome induced by biotic interventions. Despite a varying quality of metabolomic methodology, we identified similarities in the fecal metabolome profiles in response to specific biotic interventions. Among the most frequently observed metabolites, which seemed to be consistently altered after biotic interventions, were bile acids, aromatic amino acids, and short-chain fatty acids. We conclude with a discussion on appropriate experimental design, controls, and metabolomics reporting to guide future research permitting meta-analyses.

Both environmental DNA (eDNA) and environmental RNA (eRNA) have widely adopted for biodiversity assessment. While eDNA often persists longer in environments, eRNA offers a more current view of biological activities. In eRNA metabarcoding, extracted eRNA is reverse transcribed into complementary DNA (cDNA) for metabarcoding. However, the efficacy of various reverse transcription strategies has not been evaluated. Here we compared the biodiversity recovery efficiency of three common reverse transcription strategies: random priming with hexamers, oligo(dT) priming, and taxa-specific priming using Mifish-U for fish in both high- and low-biodiversity regions. Our results demonstrate that reverse transcription strategies significantly impact biodiversity recovery. Random hexamer priming consistently detected the highest number of taxa in both low- and high-biodiversity regions. In low-biodiversity areas, oligo(dT) performed comparably to random hexamers; however, in high-biodiversity regions, random hexamers outperformed oligo(dT), particularly in recovering rare taxa. While taxa-specific priming was comparative to the other strategies for high-abundance taxa, it was less effective for rare taxa, limiting its utility for comprehensive biodiversity assessment. These differences are largely due to the multiple binding sites for random hexamers compared to the fewer or absent sites with oligo(dT) under high eRNA degradation. Combining random hexamers and oligo(dT) significantly improved taxa recovery, especially for low-abundance species, supporting its best practice in eukaryotes. For prokaryotes or genes lacking polyadenylation, random priming is favored over taxa- or gene-specific priming. Collectively, these findings underscore the critical importance of selecting appropriate reverse transcription strategies in eRNA metabarcoding, with significant implications for effective biodiversity monitoring and conservation efforts.

In many rural areas of arid and semi-arid regions, balancing agricultural and environmental water needs is a key challenge facing resource managers. This is complicated by the tendency for the water needs of cultivated crops to be better understood than those of aquatic ecosystems. In particular, the timing and magnitude of flow needed to sustain key ecological functions remain poorly quantified in many regions. This work aims to quantify hydrologic conditions that support persistence of key ecosystem species using a functional flows framework. We use the coho ( Oncorhynchus kisutch) and Chinook ( Oncorhynchus tshawytscha) salmon run in Scott Valley, a 2,109 km 2 undammed rural watershed in northern California, USA, as a case study. Taking advantage of a nearly two-decade ecological monitoring dataset and long-term stream gauge measurements, we used lasso regression to build predictive models of coho and Chinook salmon reproductive success based on hydrologic metrics. To control for cohort effects, we chose normalized ecological response metrics for coho and Chinook (number of outmigrating smolt per spawning adult or spawning adult female). For both species, we calculated optimal prediction models using a cross-validation bootstrapping approach to resample and test on unsampled observations. Lambda values, a key fitting parameter in the lasso models, were selected based on an average relative test error threshold of 1.0. Selected lambda values were used to calculate a final predictive model, or Hydrologic Benefit function, using the full dataset for each species. Hydrology could explain a greater degree of variance in relative coho reproduction than in Chinook. The hydrologic metrics that explain the greatest variance in coho reproduction values occur during the window of their parents’ spawning and, to a lesser extent, in the spring and fall of their year of rearing in freshwater. This supports an interpretation that spawning conditions may exert a significant influence on the mortality rates of the hatching juveniles. Robustness of the results indicate that this method for empirically deriving hydrologic metrics with the highest ecological benefit for a threatened species may be useful in other watersheds, where sufficient ecological data records are available, to evaluate trade-offs and support water management decisions in human-altered novel ecosystems.

Background: Despite well-documented relationships between climate and malaria transmission, there is a lack of information on how precipitation and temperature as climatic factors specifically impact malaria burden among different age groups in high-transmission areas in western Kenya. Current models often overlook the time-lagged effects of climate variables, such as precipitation and temperature, on age-group specific malaria burden. Methods: This study utilized monthly malaria positivity data from three health centers, along with climate data from western Kenya by applying Negative Binomial mixed effects models with both current and lagged climate variables. Interaction plots, analysis of deviance, and goodness-of-fit tests were used to assess the significance of some relationships or choose a model with a better fit. Results: The study revealed that lagged precipitation (Lag2) and temperature were significant predictors of malaria positivity, with older age groups showing higher susceptibility. Site-to-site and year-to-year variations were also identified as important sources of variation to be considered. Conclusions: The study highlights the importance of considering both age-specific vulnerability and climatic influences in malaria control strategies, suggesting the need for targeted interventions for malaria risk in age-specific groups following the period of precipitation.

not-yet-known not-yet-known not-yet-known unknown In this article, we indicate that under suitable assumptions of a modulus of continuity we obtain either the global (in time) existence of small data Sobolev solutions or the blow-up result of local (in time) Sobolev solutions to semi-linear damped σ-evolution equations with a modulus of continuity term in the nonlinearity of derivative type. When the latter situation occurs, another novelty of this work is to report sharp estimates for the lifespan of solutions, which have never appeared in previous literature, by catching the upper bound and the lower bound simultaneously.

Background Long-acting Gonadotropin-releasing hormone analogs(GnRHa), including leuprolide, goserelin, histrelin, buserelin, triptorelin, have been widely used for a variety of diseases including prostate cancer, breast cancer, endometriosis, uterine leiomyomas, and central precocious puberty. However, their real-world safety profile differences have not been adequately compared. Objective: We aimed to investigate the adverse event (AE) profile differences of long-acting GnRHa reported by the US Food and Drug Administration Adverse Event Reporting System (FAERS). Methods: All indications were searched long-acting GnRHa, as primary suspect drugs, from FAERS data (January 2004 to September 2023). We performed disproportionality analyses by reporting odds ratios (ROR) and conducted univariate and multivariate logistical regression analyses to determine the odds ratio (OR) of serious AEs associated with long-acting GnRHa under different exposure factors. Results: Reproductive system and breast disorders possessed the greatest proportion in AEs of the five long-acting GnRHa. Buserelin and histrelin demonstrated a higher percentage of AEs in the gastrointestinal and psychiatric disorders separately, which also exhibited a higher risk of important medical events in logistic regression analysis and the risk was lower in patients under 18 years old than those over 18 . Conclusions：Significant disparities exist between the adverse event profiles of long-acting GnRHa.The identification of high-risk factors and the enhancement of AEs monitoring are crucial during clinical application.

In pollination networks, indirect plant-plant interactions mediated by their shared pollinators, can shape community dynamics and species fitness; yet, the influence of floral traits on species roles remains unclear, particularly in diverse ecosystems like the tropical Andes. We studied hummingbird-mediated interactions among 31 flowering plants in three high-elevation shrubby habitats located in southern Ecuador. During August and November 2022, and January 2023, we collected stigma samples and constructed weighted interaction networks linked by heterospecific pollen grains. Species roles were determined by defining if they were overall donors or receptors of pollen. We also explored the association between the abundance of flowers and different floral traits and species roles. Finally, we assessed the potential influence of floral roles on species fitness by calculating the ratio of conspecific-to-heterospecific pollen grains observed in each species. We found that the identity of donor and receptor species was highly dynamic across sites and time. Donor species were characterized by being highly abundant, and having long and wide corollas, while receptor species had low abundance, and short and narrow corollas. Donor species received less heterospecific pollen than conspecific pollen, indicating that the pollen sharing roles of species could have fitness consequences. Our findings highlight the importance of floral traits and abundance in shaping floral roles and their potential fitness consequences in hummingbird-mediated indirect interactions.

Understanding the spatial and temporal distributions of rare species is important for informed management. The black-necked crane Grus nigricollis, a rare bird in China and flagship species in alpine wetlands, is nationally protected. Using site and environmental data, we use Maximum Entropy (MEM) and Random Forest (RFM) models to predict suitable habitat for this bird. Environmental variables that most affect its distribution are distance from buildings and roads, and isothermality, with contribution rates of 15.1%, 15.05%, and 5.85%, respectively. Using the AUC (area under curve) coefficient as an index to evaluate model precision, the predictions of the RFM are most consistent with the known distribution of these cranes, predicting the highest match with known crane sites (AUC = 0.945). Suitable habitat for this crane occurs mainly in Nyingchi city riverine wetland, where the centre of distribution is located in a valley where the Yarlung Tsangpo and Niyang rivers converge. A comparison between MEM and RFM outputs reduces uncertainty in predictions of black-necked crane spatial distribution, and filters optimal results for the distribution area. These results enable more-informed protection of habitat for this sacred crane.

Marine plastispheres represent dynamic microhabitats where microorganisms colonise plastic debris and interact. Metaproteomics has provided novel insights into the metabolic processes within these communities, however the early metabolic interactions driving the plastisphere formation remain unclear. This study utilised metaproteomic and metagenomic approaches to explore early plastisphere formation on low-density polyethylene (LDPE) over three (D3) and seven (D7) days, focusing on microbial diversity, metabolic activity, and biofilm development. In total, 2,948 proteins were analysed, revealing dominant proteomes from Pseudomonas and Marinomonas, with near-complete metagenome-assembled genomes. Pseudomonas dominated at D3, while at D7, Marinomonas, along with Acinetobacter, Vibrio, and other genera became more prevalent. Pseudomonas and Marinomonas showed high expression of reactive oxygen species (ROS) suppression proteins, associated with oxidative stress regulation, while granule formation, and alternative carbon utilisation enzymes, also indicated nutrient limitations. Interestingly, 13 alkane and other xenobiotic degradation enzymes were expressed by five genera. The expression of toxins, several type VI secretion system (TVISS) proteins, and biofilm formation proteins by Pseudomonas indicated their competitive advantage against other taxa. Upregulated metabolic pathways, including those relating to substrate transport also suggested enhanced nutrient cross-feeding within the biofilm. These insights enhance our understanding of plastisphere ecology and its potential for biotechnological applications.

Proximity-dependent biotinylation (PDB) is a powerful means of exploring the cellular environments in which proteins reside. Expressing a protein of interest (bait) fused to a biotin ligase and adding biotin induces the covalent biotinylation of proximal partners, which are recovered on streptavidin beads and identified by MS. However, a major technical limitation of PDB is peptide carryover into subsequent MS runs. This is mitigated via lengthy inter-sample washing, considerably lowering throughput. This study aims to optimize PDB sample acquisition using an EvoSep LC system coupled to a timsTOF mass spectrometer, which has higher throughput and sensitivity than our current system, with less carryover. Our efforts resulted in an ~15-fold increase in throughput using the 60 samples-per-day (SPD) gradient with better sensitivity, identifying nearly double the proteins found by our previously standardized workflow. Significance scoring also revealed more sensitive detection of high-confidence proximal interactions (~1.5-fold) for five well-characterized baits, validating the new experimental workflow. Importantly, carryover was extremely limited, even without inter-sample washing, and limited to easily filterable abundant proteins. Without washing, this method can process 60 samples per day, using 1/16th of the sample amount previously required.

Gallium nitride (GaN) high electron mobility transistors (HEMTs) have attracted considerable attention due to high electron mobility, wide bandgap, and other advantageous properties. However, the self-heating that occurs at high power densities has emerged as a significant challenge that restricts HEMTs’ potential in high-performance applications. This study introduces a novel approach for extracting channel temperature distributions and thermal resistance, which considers the bias-dependence of the heat source model and the electro-thermal coupling among multiple gate fingers. The thermal resistance extracted by the optimized thermal model in this study differs from the traditional thermal model by 14.8% under a power density of 8W/mm and a base temperature of 1 0 0 ◦ C . The precision of the model is validated through infrared (IR) thermography, showing only a 1.76% discrepancy in the peak surface temperature of the filtered model compared to the measurement. To evaluate the model’s applicability across various conditions, comparisons are conducted between the model’s predictions and measurements across a range of ambient temperatures and power dissipation, revealing maximum errors of 4.1% at 7 5 ◦ C and 2.7% at 1 0 0 ◦ C . Finally, the influence of thermal boundary resistance (TBR) on the total thermal resistance is explored to provide guidance for device modeling and thermal management.

Title: An Endoscopic View Of A Rare Clinical FindingFakhruddin Almuzghi* (1), Mohamed Taraina (2), Mansur Bengharbya (2), Ismail Alghanodi (2), Abdulmottaleb Abushaala (2)(1) Internal Medicine Department, Hamad General Hospital, Hamad Medical Corporation, Qatar(2) Internal Medicine Department, Misrata Medical Center, Misrata, Libya*Corresponding author:Fakhruddin Almuzghi, MBChBInternal Medicine Department,Hamad General Hospital,Hamad Medical Corporation,QatarFAlmuzghi@hamad.qa

RENAL ARTERY THROMBOSIS: A CASE REPORT OF ACUTE ABDOMINAL PAIN AND RENAL ARTERY OCCLUSION