Evolution can lead to unexpected results. One such case is adaptive decline where, for example, a predator evolves to over-exploit its prey, resulting in population decline and possibly extinction. Using simulation models we explore how the tendency for predators to evolve over-exploitation of prey in simple, well-mixed populations changes as more landscape structure is added. We find that as the landscape becomes more structured, either through increasing the number of interconnected patches or decreasing the connectivity between existing patches, the amount of adaptive decline seen in the predator population decreases. This means that as the landscape becomes more complex, predator populations do not decline as much while the rate of predation evolves. This is analogous the evolution of virulence and cooperation, where spatial structure facilitates lower virulence and higher cooperation, respectively.

Platelet-rich fibrin (PRF), which is the rich source of growth factors, has been used as an efficient scaffold in tissue regeneration. In this study, tannic acid as a green crosslinker with different concentrations (0.5%,1%,5%, and 10%) was used to improve the properties of PRF. The crosslinked gel scaffolds were evaluated by analyses such as SEM, FTIR, swelling and degradation, mechanical strength, cell toxicity, cell adhesion, and antibacterial test. The results showed that the scaffold structure changes by increasing crosslinker concentration. The swelling rate decreased from 49% to 5% for samples without the crosslinker and with tannic acid (10%), respectively. A decrease in the degradation rate was shown by increasing the crosslinker concentration. The mechanical strength of the scaffold with the crosslinker increased up to three times. Cytotoxicity was not observed up to 10% crosslinker concentration. The cells proliferated well on the cross-linked scaffolds and also showed a good antibacterial effect. In general, tannic acid can improve the physical and mechanical properties of PRF without negatively affecting its biological properties.

Unoccupied aircraft systems (UAS), also known as drones, are an emerging tool for surveying animals (wildlife and domestic) and are rapidly supplanting other survey techniques. However, the behavioural response of animals to drone activities can vary according to the focal species, therefore evaluating comparisons between animals of different species and domesticity are needed. Here we investigated the impacts of drone presence on two large terrestrial mammals from Tasmania, Australia —  Bennett's wallaby  (Notamacropus rufogriseus), and Forester kangaroo (Macropus giganteus tasmaniensis), and a ground bird, the domestic chicken (Gallus  gallus domesticus) — using a commercial quadcopter model: DJI Phantom 4 Pro. We found that Forester kangaroos and Bennett's wallabies started to exhibit noticeable changes in behaviour, including evasion, when the drone motor sound exceeded ~50 decibels (dB) as heard from the ground (at flight altitudes of 30 – 50 m AGL). At lower sound levels (48 dB and below, above 50 m AGL), the macropod response was minimal. The response of domestic chickens to the drone was remarkably similar to that of the Macropus species, despite the species generally being more susceptible to, and instinctively vigilant against drone-sized aerial predators such as raptors. This study establishes essential baseline information for understanding the limitations of drone operations across species, compares the behavioural responses of wildlife and domestic animals to drone surveys, and demonstrates the viability of these surveys for both groups when disturbance is minimised.  

Limbless vertebrates display a variety of morphologies, which are often linked to a species' ecology and locomotion. Pygopodids, limbless gekkotans endemic to the Australo-Papuan region, exemplify a spectrum of ecomorphological variation in relative body-to-tail lengths. Delma molleri inhabits grasslands and represents the short-bodied and long-tailed ecomorph. We predicted that its locomotor performance would be enhanced on grass substrates as opposed to structurally simpler substrates. To test this hypothesis, we assessed locomotion of D. molleri through three ecologically relevant substrates. Locomotor performance was significantly faster on the grass substrate over multiple distances. These data provide evidence of a functional performance benefit for limbless lizards with short bodies and long tails in grassy habitats, supports theories that such a morphology may have evolved to suit the occupation of these environments, and provide the first evidence of the functional benefit of long tails for locomotion through grass in a member of the Pygopodidae.

The effects of climate change in the Arctic are particularly pronounced since temperatures have risen nearly three to four times as fast as in the rest of the planet. Shifts in climatic patterns enable the expansion of temperature-limited vegetation at a global scale to higher latitudes and elevations. The purpose of this study is to predict the distribution of pine trees (Pinus sylvestris) across Fennoscandia by drawing from three distinctive datasets. I ask (i) How will the distribution of pine trees will respond to climate change in the next 50 years? (ii) Which method used to collect data is better at predicting the distribution of pine? Three datasets on pine presence together with environmental data were used to model pine distribution with Generalized Linear Models. The first dataset belongs to the Swedish National Forest Inventory and the second is from a Swedish online portal where citizens report their observations of species. The third was compiled by setting up a network of vegetation plots along an elevation gradient in Sweden and Norway. Current and future environmental data was sourced from the Coupled Model Intercomparison Project. The probability of pine presence in general increased with temperature and decreased with precipitation. Therefore, the model forecasts that pine will expand in distribution to areas of higher elevation. The citizen science dataset was superior in predicting pine distribution due to the large number and the wide spatial distribution of observations. The conservation of the tundra and the unique ecosystem process taking place in this area will be threatened by the encroachment of the evergreen treeline which is driven by climate, and citizen science holds unique importance for wide spatial and temporal ecological research.  

With the advent of connected vehicle technology and widespread long-distance communication, leveraging data from real-world operational cases to identify and characterize vehicle dynamics and control is now possible. However, there exists a limited number of studies in the field of off-road vehicle identification as compared to on-road vehicle identification. This study explores the applications of Dynamic Mode Decomposition with Control (DMDc) for linear vehicle dynamics, linear human-driver-controller identification, and possible use for off-road vehicle identification problems. An implementation is tested using real-world data collected from the University of Illinois Modified R-Gator(UIMR), an autonomy-capable, drive-by-wire, 6x4, Ackerman Steer, wheeled off-road vehicle platform. The UIMR, partially developed by the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign’s Autonomous and Unmanned Vehicle Systems Lab, part of the Industrial and Systems Engineering department, is presented for the first time.

The criteria by which plants select symbiotic partners are largely unknown, but functional complementarity of partner traits could be important to symbioses such as arbuscular mycorrhizas. Specifically, coarse-rooted plants are more likely to be limited by nutrient diffusion compared with fine-rooted plants, and therefore more reliant on fungi that can compensate with traits that maximize soil exploration. However there remains no evidence directly linking plant root traits and fungal functional traits. We transplanted the root microbiome of 30 native and exotic plant species ranging in root diameter, onto an unrelated host plant species in multi-compartment pots. We then quantified fungal hyphal exploration and characterized the fungal community near and far from roots. We found that arbuscular mycorrhizal fungi from coarse-rooted plants produced more hyphal biomass and explored further away from the plant roots. This study provides the first evidence of functional complementarity between plant roots and arbuscular mycorrhizal fungi.

Environmental stochasticity is a key determinant of population viability. Decades of work exploring how environmental stochasticity influences population dynamics have highlighted the ability of some natural populations to limit the negative effects of environmental stochasticity, one of these strategies being demographic buffering. Whilst various methods exist to quantify demographic buffering, we still do not know which environment factors and demographic characteristics are most responsible for the demographic buffering observed in natural populations. Here, we introduce a framework to quantify the relative effects of three key drivers of demographic buffering: environment components (e.g., temporal autocorrelation and variance), population structure, and demographic rates (e.g., progression and fertility). Using Integral Projection Models, we explore how these drivers impact the demographic buffering abilities of three plant species with different life histories and demonstrate how our approach successfully characterises a population’s capacity to demographically buffer against environmental stochasticity in a changing world.

Climate warming can cause arthropods to express plastic and/or evolved changes in morphology. Previous studies have demonstrated that body sizes of Arctic butterflies are influenced by the temperatures experienced as larvae. To investigate whether this was occurring among Alaskan butterflies, we analyzed temporal trends in the wing sizes of three Holarctic species, Colias hecla, Boloria chariclea, and Boloria freija, using museum specimens collected in Arctic tundra regions of Alaska between 1971 and 1995. Wing length was compared to accumulated growing degree days (GDD) during both the spring of the year collected and the previous year’s summer during the normal period of larval development. We used mixed-effects models to test if spring and summer temperatures affected adult morphology. Results show that for every 1°C increase in average seasonal temperature, wingspans decreased between 0.7 millimeters and 5 millimeters, with B. freija the most strongly affected. Our results suggest that the morphological sensitivity of Arctic butterflies to warming is the outcome of interactions between life-history traits and regional climate, with all species sensitive to warming the summer before the flight year as well as warming the spring of the flight year. B. freija, which overwinters as late instar larvae that do not feed before pupation the following spring, was particularly strongly affected by summer warming.

How has parasitism changed for Alaskan salmon over the past several decades? Parasitological assessments of salmon are inconsistent across time, which may be an oversight: the landscape of parasite risk is changing for salmon, and long-term data are needed to quantify this change. Parasitic nematodes of the family Anisakidae use salmon as intermediate or paratenic hosts in life cycles that terminate in marine mammal definitive hosts. Alaskan marine mammals have been protected since the 1970s, and as populations recover, the density of definitive hosts in this region has increased. To assess whether anisakid burden has changed in salmon over time, we used a novel data source: salmon that were caught, canned, and thermally processed for human consumption in Alaska, USA. We examined canned fillets of chum (Oncorhynchus keta, n = 42), coho (O. kisutch, n = 22), pink (O. gorbuscha, n = 62), and sockeye salmon (O. nerka, n = 52) processed between 1979 and 2019. We dissected each fillet and quantified the number of worms per gram of salmon tissue. Anisakid burden increased over time in chum and pink salmon, but there was no change in sockeye or coho salmon. This difference may be due to differences in the prey preferences of each species, or time spent in marine systems. Canned fish serve as a window into the past, providing information on change over time in the parasite burden of commercially, culturally, and ecologically important fish species that would otherwise be lost.

AbstractCongenital peritoneal band is an exceptional etiology for small bowel obstruction on virgin abdomen especially in the elderly. It is still a diagnosis by elimination.Herein we present a surgical image of congenital peritoneal band causing small intestine obstruction.Key-words: Congenital band, small bowel obstruction, Virgin abdomen

A document by Anushka Fernando. Click on the document to view its contents.

A document by Hannah A. Varani. Click on the document to view its contents.

In order to provide a theoretical premise for the purification of soy oligosaccharides from soybean whey, this paper examines the yeast PL08 fermentation process for purifying functional soybean oligosaccharides. Using the logistic model and the Luedeking-Piret model, the kinetics of PL08 cell growth, sucrose consumption, and ethanol production were determined by nonlinear data fitting. The linearity of the models was as high as 0.98, indicating the viability of this method. At 30h, the batch fermentation procedure revealed that the purity of functional oligosaccharides was 94.12%, while the ethanol concentration continued to rise to 3.0%vol. Based on the results of kinetic studies, a 10L exponential feeding culture was conducted, and the results indicated that the alcohol concentration can be controlled below 0.10%vol, the maximum biomass concentration was 50.01g/L, and the maximum purity of functional soybean oligosaccharides was 95.59% in 21h.

Levelized cost of electricity (LCOE) is a crucial metric for assessing the socio-economic cost-efficiency potential of various energy sources including solar photovoltaics. Nevertheless, accurate LCOE estimations for commercialized high-efficiency Si solar modules with passivated emitter and rear cell (PERC) and silicon heterojunction (SHJ) structures have been lacking. In this study, we present the first global LCOE estimates for a PERC module (20% cell efficiency) and a SHJ module (23% cell efficiency), which have been derived by (i) performing rigorous energy-yield calculations with full-spectral and temperature-dependent simulations that incorporate all essential meteorological effects and (ii) considering country-specific capital costs and discount rates. Moreover, to determine the universal global LCOE, the LCOEs for three distinct installation capacities (100 MW for a utility, 500 kW for a commercial, and 5 kW for a residential system) have been unified by selecting an appropriate system size at each location based on a population density. We find that the LCOEs of both PERC and SHJ systems are below 3 cent/kWh in 2020 US dollar in many areas of China, Saudi Arabia, the United States, Australia, Chile, and Botswana where the conditions of a high energy yield, low population density, low capital cost, and low country-risk premium are satisfied simultaneously. In contrast, many European countries exhibit a moderate LCOE of 3~5 cent/kWh. Notably, Japan and Russia exhibit quite high LCOEs (6~10 cent/kWh) primarily due to significantly higher installation costs and moderate energy yields. Importantly, the global LCOEs of the PERC and SHJ modules are quite similar, with the SHJ module showing a slightly better cost performance in the regions near equator due to its low temperature coefficient. Conversely, the PERC module demonstrates cost advantage in the northern hemisphere due to a lower module cost.

Background: In this study, we aimed to evaluate the losses in the gains of children who had to discontinue their modulator therapies due to drug delivery procedures. Methods: Demographic, clinical, microbiologic, radiologic, and pulmonary function test parameters of twelve CF children, were evaluated. Parameters were divided into three groups as ‘before treatment’ (BT), ‘during treatment’ (DT) and ‘after interruption of treatment’ (AT) to show differences between. Results: There was a significant increase in forced expiratory volume in 1 s (FEV1) z-score, body mass index (BMI) z-score and Cystic Fibrosis Questionnaire-Revised respiratory domain score (CFQR-RS) of DT compared with the values BT (p=0.001, p=0.012, p<0.001; respectively). It was found that FEV1 z-score, BMI z-score and CFQR-RS of DT decreased significantly compared with the values AT (p=0.003, p=0.01, and p<0.001, respectively). When post and pre-treatment levels were compared, there was no significant difference between FEV1 z-score (p=0.07), BMI z-score (p=0.56), CFQR-RS (p=0.7). Half of patients had percent-predicted forced expiratory volume levels with a drop of more than 20%. It was also detected that Pseudomonas aeruginosa colonization was a significant factor in degradation of FEV1 z score to the lower pre-treatment levels. Conclusion: This is the first retrospective detailed study about discontinuation of modulatory therapies in children. Our study shows the importance of treatment continuation as well as the patients access to these drugs. We hope that this study will raise awareness about the regular long-term use of modulator therapies. To make these therapies available worldwide, immediate action is required.

This experiment was conducted to determine the effects of gestational maternal under-nutrition on morphometric dynamics in rabbit fetuses. Adult pregnant healthy female rabbits (n= 40) were divided into under-nourished (UNG) and well-nourished (WNG) groups. Pregnant animals, from every group (n= 5), were sacrificed, at weekly time intervals (second week, third week, fourth week, and parturition). The least fetal weight was found in UNG fetuses at 2nd week (6.76±0.86 g) of pregnancy and highest in WNG fetuses at birth (43.16±0.77 g). The minimum (0.05±0.007 g) and maximum (0.42±0.007 g) mean fetal heart weights were found in UNG fetuses at 2nd week and WNG fetuses at birth, respectively. The lowest fetal heart length (1719.3±181.39 um) and width (864.6±151.23 um) were found in UNG fetuses at 2nd week of pregnancy and the highest (8241.4±107.31 um, 6510.7±83.47 um) in WNG fetuses at birth, respectively. The lowest thoraco-abdominal length was recorded in UNG fetuses at 2nd week of pregnancy (2.26±0.07 cm) and highest in WNG fetuses at birth (5.41±0.08 cm). The lowest biparietal diameter was recorded in UNG fetuses at 2nd week of development (0.53±0.01 cm) and highest in WNG fetuses at birth (1.89±0.01 cm). The lowest mean value of crown rump length was observed in UNG fetuses at 2nd week of development (4.41±0.17 cm), and highest in WNG fetuses at birth (9.73±0.15 cm). In conclusion, maternal undernutrition and developmental age significantly affected the morphometric parameters. Maternal undernutrition had an adverse effect while developmental age increased the morphometric values.

As our understanding of the uncommon group of disorders called plastic bronchitis has evolved, so too has the classification of these disorders.

Background Influenza viruses and seasonal coronaviruses are pathogens transmitted via an airborne route that can cause respiratory diseases in humans that have similar symptoms such as fever, cough, and pneumonia. These two viruses can infect similar human tissues, such as the respiratory tract and nasal, bronchial, and alveolar epithelial cells. Influenza virus and seasonal coronavirus coinfections are poorly understood. Methods Here, we coinfected normal human bronchial epithelial (NHBE) cells with influenza A/California/04/09 (IAV) or B/Victoria/504/2000 (IBV) strains and the seasonal human beta-coronavirus OC43 and evaluated viral replication capacities. We also examined changes in the expression of various cytokines/chemokines by qPCR and Luminex assay. Results We observed that replication of IAV and IBV was not affected by coinfection with OC43. However, coinfection reduced OC43 titers (~ 3-fold) compared to infection with OC43 alone. Select cytokine/chemokine expression was increased in coinfected cells compared to all single infections with greater differences seen between coinfected cells and cells infected with OC43 alone compared to IAV- or IBV-infected cells. In addition, IL-8 and IL-1RA showed the highest expression among a panel of 22 cytokines by Luminex. Conclusions As the rate of influenza and seasonal coronavirus coinfection continue to increase, our findings may help set guidelines for the treatments of the individuals coinfected with both viruses.

Introduction Nasal packs are indispensable to nasal surgeries. The primary function of these packs is to modulate the bleeding, prevent adhesions and obstruction, with least discomfort to the subjects without risking secondary infection. However, both packing and removal of the pack is an unpleasant experience, with the latter being extremely painful. Therefore, to overcome the limitation of the standard dressing, the need of the hour is a dressing which prioritizes subject comfort without compromising other desired nasal pack properties. Methods Twenty subjects were enrolled in this interventional, open label study. The subjects had 10 hospital visits, starting from baseline (Visit 1) to postoperative day 28 (Visit 10), at regular intervals. The proportion of the population with postoperative pain alleviation and bleeding control failure (within 10 minutes) were the main objectives. Result Within 10 minutes of VELNEZ administration, all 20 participants got their bleeding under control. With VELNEZ, the painful nasal pack removal method was totally avoided because it was biodegradable. No moderate/severe pain, infection and adhesions were reported in any of the subjects, but few subjects reported moderate obstruction until Visit 3 (Discharge Day). Conclusion In the present study, for participants undergoing nasal surgery, VELNEZ proved to be a secure and reliable nasal pack.

Background: Cystic fibrosis (CF) is the most common autosomal recessive disease in Caucasian population. Allergic bronchopulmonary aspergillosis (ABPA) is one of the severe complications of CF, on which diagnosis is based on symptoms and blood IgE levels. Many techniques of specific IgG levels measures are used, which signification is still unclear. We evaluated evolution of patients who presented a first aspergillosis IgG seroconversion. Methods: Monocentric pediatric case-control study led in Rouen, France. Every patient with a first aspergillosis IgG seroconversion was paired with a seronegative patient. Clinical data, functional respiratory investigations, CT-scan and biologic data were collected a year before (Y -1), a year after (Y +1) and at the moment of the first aspergillosis seroconversion. Results: 36 cases, paired with 36 controls. Median age was 8. Forced expiratory volume in 1 second was significantly lower at Y +1 (p=0,025) and Vital Capacity was significantly lower at Y 0 (p= 0.027) in the case-population. More respiratory exacerbations were observed in the case-population (p=0,047). Higher specific IgE against A. fumigatus levels were observed at Y 0 (p=0,014), Y -1 (p=0,001) and Y +1 (p=0,04) in the case-population. Total IgG were significantly higher at Y 0 in the case-population. On the CT-scan, bronchiectasis and pulmonary infiltrates were more important in the case-population (p=0,01 and p=0,003 respectively). Conclusion: Aspergillosis seroconversion is associated with changes of clinical, respiratory functional, biologic and radiologic parameters in CF population. Aspergillosis seroconversion is a milestone in the evolution of CF. A systematic research is needed, to evaluate actions to be taken.

Nonpharmaceutical interventions (NPIs) against coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) reduced the prevalence of coronavirus among children and influenced the transmission of other viruses. This study investigates the impact of NPIs on human enterovirus (HEV) among children in Hangzhou, China. We collected and analyzed the laboratory results and clinical data of children diagnosed with hand, foot, and mouth disease (HFMD) or herpangina (HA) during the following periods: pre-COVID-19 (January 2019 to December 2019), COVID-19 pandemic (January 2020 to December 2022), and post-COVID-19 (January to August 2023). A total of 38,582 specimens that met the inclusion criteria were enrolled, of which 1,777 (5.58%) tested positive for enterovirus. In comparison to the pre-COVID-19 period, which had 695 (5.63%) HEV-positive specimens, the numbers dramatically decreased to 69 (1.19%), 398 (5.12%), and 112 (1.58%) in 2020, 2021, and 2022, respectively, but significantly increased to 503 (9.00%) in 2023. Seasonal peaks of infections occurred between May and August each year, with positive rates of 10.58%, 25.27%, 31.74%, and 10.97%, respectively. Notably, June and July accounted for half of all cases, with a rate of 57.01%. The difference in the positive rates of HEV infection between males and females was statistically significant (P<0.005), with 5.12% (1,084/21,176) and 4.43% (693/15,629) testing positive, respectively, resulting in a male to female ratio of 1.56:1. Among the same age groups, children aged 3-5 years and 5-7 years had the highest positive rates at 11.03% (342/3,102) and 10.03% (205/2,024), respectively, after synthesizing five years of data. The detection rate of HEV-positive cases increased with age, but after the age of 7, the rate declined. The detected types of HEV indicated that enterovirus 71 (EV-A71) and coxsackievirus A16 (CV-A16) are no longer the two common pathogens causing HFMD and HA. In conclusion, NPIs for COVID-19 are highly effective in reducing the transmission of HEV. However, the relaxation of NPIs results in a resurgence of HEVs, surpassing prepandemic levels. Active awareness and surveillance of the epidemiological characteristics of HEV are essential for preventing, controlling, and managing the development of HFMD and HA, as well as contributing to the development of a multivalent HFMD vaccine.

Abstract Objective The proposed study is to evaluate the rate of Caesarean section and outcomes in twin pregnancies undergoing induction of labour, in comparison to singleton pregnancies. Design A retrospective case-matched cohort study Setting A single public hospital in Hong Kong Population or sample A total of 320 patients, comprising 160 patients with singleton pregnancies and 160 patients with twin pregnancies who underwent the induction of labour between 1 January 2012 and 31 December 2020. Methods The patients with twin pregnancies were matched with singleton pregnancies on a one-to-one basis in terms of parity , maternal age and the indication for the induction of labour. Main Outcome Measures The recorded data included the mode of delivery. The matched groups were subjected to statistical analysis, utilising the McNemar test for categorical variables and paired t-tests for continuous variables. Results The number of having lower segment caesarean section was 42/160 (26.3%) in twin pregnancies and 27/160 (16.9%) in singleton pregnancies underwent induction of labour. (OR 2.14, CI 95% 1.14 to 4.04, p = 0.024) Conclusions The failure rate of induction of labour in twin pregnancy was higher than in singleton pregnancy. Nevertheless, more than 73% of patients with twin pregnancies undergoing induction of labour had successful vaginal deliveries. Funding Nil Keywords Twin pregnancy, Induction of labour, success rate

Vertebral compression fractures are a more common pathological condition with prolonged life expectancy. The decrease in bone mass with age is effective in the formation of non-traumatic vertebral compression fractures. Since non-traumatic vertebral compression fractures are usually asymptomatic for a long time, early detection in this period offers a reduction in comorbidities and the possibility of more effective treatment. Deep learning methods offer effective solutions for the detection, classification, diagnosis, and segmentation of pathological conditions with high accuracy and sensitivity in the field of health. In recent years, deep learning methods have been used more frequently in the detection of non-traumatic vertebral compression fractures and vertebral corpus segmentation research. In this study, a unique data set is presented for the application of deep learning methods by processing the raw Computed Tomography (CT) image data of the patients. The original data set was created from retrospective CT images of patients who received radiological diagnosis with CT in Istanbul University-Cerrahpasa, Cerrahpasa Faculty of Medicine, Department of Radiology. The original dataset consisted of 197 people, 100 patients with non-traumatic vertebral compression fractures and 97 patients without. Vertebral compression fracture radiological diagnoses were added to the data set with a CT report. A total of 197 people have 118200 cross-section images in DICOM format. Images are enhanced by applying the wiener filter. Segmentation of 6301 vertebrae was performed using the U-Net network at 100% dice overlap index score. 593 features of vertebral fractures confirmed by the report were extracted using the radiomics method. 537 features were selected with the logarithmic lambda method. Patients were classified with 86.7% accuracy using the Convolutional Neural Network (CNN) classification model. The classification result was evaluated by creating roc-auc, loss, and accuracy graphs.