Coccolithophores have global ecological and biogeochemical significance as the most important calcifying marine phytoplankton group. The structure and selection of prokaryotic communities associated with the most abundant coccolithophore and bloom-forming species, Emiliania huxleyi, are still poorly known. In this study, we assessed the diversity of bacterial communities associated with an E. huxleyi bloom in the Celtic Sea, exposed axenic E. huxleyi cultures to prokaryotic communities derived from bloom and non-bloom conditions and followed the dynamics of their microbiome composition over one year. Bloom-associated prokaryotic communities were dominated by SAR11, Marine group II Euryarchaeota, Rhodobacterales and contained substantial proportions of known indicators of phytoplankton bloom demises such as Flavobacteriaceae and Pseudoalteromonadaceae. Taxonomic richness of replicated co-cultures resulting from natural communities with axenic E. huxleyi rapidly shifted and then stabilized over time, presumably by ecological selection favoring more beneficial populations. Recruited microbiomes from the environment were consistently dependent on the composition of the initial bacterioplankton community. Phycosphere-associated communities derived from the E. huxleyi bloom depth were highly similar to one another, suggesting deterministic processes, whereas cultures from non-bloom conditions show an effect of both deterministic processes and stochasticity. Overall, this work sheds new light on the importance of the initial inoculum composition in microbiome recruitment and elucidates the temporal dynamics of its composition and long-term stability.

Despite sustained global efforts to avoid, reduce, and reverse land degradation, estimates of land degradation nationally and regionally vary considerably. Land degradation reduces agricultural productivity, impacts the provision of vital ecosystem services, and disproportionately affects vulnerable populations. The 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development, through Sustainable Development Goal (SDG) 15.3, sets out to achieve land degradation neutrality (LDN) by improving the livelihoods of those most affected and building resilience in areas affected by or at risk from degradation. The United Nations Convention to Combat Desertification (UNCCD) leads the charge in creating a spatially-explicit framework for monitoring and reporting on LDN goals that countries can integrate into their land planning policies. However, it remains difficult to operationalize the integration of biophysical indicators of land degradation with climatic and socio-economic indicators to assess the impact of land degradation on vulnerable populations. We present an integrative framework that demonstrates how freely available global geospatial datasets can be leveraged through an open-source platform (Trends.Earth) to simplify and operationalize monitoring and reporting on progress towards achieving LDN. Then, we summarize a suite of datasets and approaches that can be used to understand and quantify the socio-ecological interactions between drought, land degradation and population exposed to desertification, land degradation and drought (DLDD). We discuss how improvements in Earth Observation (EO) datasets and algorithms will allow UNCCD land-based progress sub-indicators (changes in primary productivity, land cover, soil organic carbon, drought, and population exposure) to be computed at enhanced spatial resolutions.

Here, we propose a method to obtain local analytic approximate solutions of ordinary differential equations with variable coefficients, or even some non-linear equations, inspired in the Lyapunov method, where instead of polynomial approximations, we use truncated Fourier series with variable coefficients as approximate solutions. In the case of equations admitting periodic solutions, an averaging over the coefficients gives global solutions. We show that, under some restrictive condition, the method is equivalent to the Picard-Lindel\”of method. After some numerical experiments showing the efficiency of the method, we apply it to equations of interest in Physics, in which we show that our method possesses an excellent precision even with low iterations.

The paper investigates the low-symmetric state of the compensating field of the distortion tensor and proves that there is a gap in this state. It is shown that the distortion tensor is the compensating field of the minimal interaction induced by a translation subgroup. In this paper, for the first time, an exact wave solution for sound pressure in a continuous medium is obtained from the equations of state for the distortion tensor. It is shown that the sound is described as “massive” wave of the distortion tensor, the spectrum of which has the minimal frequency, which corresponds to a gap. The presence of a gap in the low-symmetric state gives reason to believe that the distortion tensor, as the compensating interaction field, describes a strong fundamental interaction. As it is known, the description of the gap in the strong fundamental interaction has been declared a Millennium problem by the Clay Mathematical Institute.

Increasing evidence suggests that fungal communities are key components of biogeochemical cycles in coastal ecosystems. While several studies highlighted strong spatial patterns in fungal abundance and diversity, there are very few studies using a more integrative approach to study the spatio-temporal distribution of fungi, taking also the active part of the community into account. To better understand the consequences of anthropogenic activities, e.g. marine aquaculture, for fungal community composition and activities, we simultaneously evaluated the temporal (four different seasons) and spatial dynamics in total (DNA) and active (RNA) fungal communities in relation to several major physicochemical properties. Fungal communities were highly diverse, but showed the ubiquitous dominance of Dikarya and the occasional predominance of Glomeromycota, Mucoromycota, Mortierellomycota, Chytridiomycota, Mortierellomycota, Olpidiomycota, and Rozellomycota. Thereby, fungal diversity indices showed a much higher seasonal variation than with the degree of aquaculture activity, for both total and active communities. This notion is supported by co-occurrence networks exhibiting a clear seasonal pattern. Furthermore, fungal community structure in coastal waters showed distinct relationships with environmental factors varying both with season and in space. For both, total and active fungal communities, a combination of environmental variables such as temperature, DO and NO2- exhibited the greatest impact on community structure. Our study demonstrates a distinct spatio-temporal dynamics of both, total and active fungi and provides a foundation to better understand the ecological roles of marine fungi in coastal ecosystems in relation to mariculture activities.

The use of sutureless valves in infective endocarditis has been previously reported. Singh et al have reported a single-center successful surgical treated pulmonary endocarditis in 2 cases with a sutureless bioprosthesis.

A document by Jordan Llerena-Velastegui. Click on the document to view its contents.

AbstractThe persistence of a gender gap in academic medicine has been documented in thousands of studies in the last decade. Notable disparity between representation by men and women is present in leadership positions, invited keynote speakers, and publication counts. The COVID-19 pandemic provided an additional context for this disparity; while many journals continue to experience rapid increases in manuscript submissions, these submissions are disproportionately from men. The results of efforts aimed at raising awareness and advocating for women have been underwhelming. Allowing this disparity to continue significantly limits the diversity and quality of vision in leadership and research. We can—and must—do better. How do we bridge the gaps between intention, interpretation, and results? How can advocates ensure that they aren’t unintentionally creating situations that undermine the very women they seek to empower? Until these questions are answered, the goal of ending gender discrimination risks being unattainable. In this critical review we argue that the gender gap is a symptom of a much larger issue. Specifically, the power of social expectations, culture and gender stereotypes remains a resistant force against calls for action. The power of stereotypes shapes the decisions that men and women make about their careers. In turn, these decisions impact the amount of time that women can dedicate to leadership, self-promotion, and research. Drawing on our combined lived experiences and a rich multidisciplinary literature, we offer a practical guide to allies in the fight against the gender gap.

Modeling splicing is essential for tackling the challenge of variant interpretation as each nucleotide variation can be pathogenic by affecting pre-mRNA splicing via disruption/creation of splicing motifs such as 5’/3’ splice sites, branch sites or splicing regulatory elements. Unfortunately, most in silico tools focus on a specific type of splicing motif, which is why we developed the Splicing Prediction Pipeline (SPiP) to perform, in one single bioinformatic analysis based on machine learning approach, comprehensive assessment of variant effect on different splicing motifs. We gathered a curated set of 4,616 variants scattered all along the sequence of 227 genes, with their corresponding splicing studies. Bayesian analysis provided us the number of control variants, i.e. variants without impact on splicing, to mimic the deluge of variants from high throughput sequencing data. Results show that SPiP can deal with the diversity of splicing alterations, with 83.13% sensitivity and 99% specificity to detect spliceogenic variants. Overall performance as measured by area under the receiving operator curve was 0.986, significantly better than 0.965 spliceAI for the same dataset. SPiP lends itself to a unique suite for comprehensive prediction of spliceogenicity in the genomic medicine era. SPiP is available at: [https://sourceforge.net/projects/splicing-prediction-pipeline/](https://sourceforge.net/projects/splicing-prediction-pipeline/)

The present study proposes a method for evaluating and ranking the efficiency of decision-making units (DMUs) that has a two-stage network structure in data envelopment analysis (DEA). Measuring the efficiency of two-stage network systems in data envelopment analysis has developed considerably, but ranking it in a logical and accurate analysis is a subject that still needs further study. In the present study, a model is presented that can consider the impact of each efficient DMUs on the whole two-stage network system, as well as using the reference frontier, the impact of each efficient DMUs in each evaluating non-efficient DMUs. It also provided more information to rank and identify the impact of extreme efficient DMUs on non-efficient DMUs by reference frontier. The concept of reference frontier introduced in the present study has the potential to determine the contribution of each extreme efficient DMUs in constructing a reference frontier for each non-extreme efficient DMUs and non-efficient DMUs. These facts have been investigated using logical reasoning and proof of several theorems, and have been discussed with a Practical example.

The damage of composite structure caused by impact events is one of the most critical damages that have been caused several design problems. Understanding damage and failure of composite materials is critical in order to produce a reliable and cost-effective design. Generally, the character of impact response influences the extent of structural degradation and type of damage. Therefore, it is important to identify the properties and physical parameters that determine the nature of impact response. We need to detect, characterise, size and localise the impact damage. This study presents types of damages in composite materials, impact damage and its classification in composite materials.

One of the most pervasive types of structural problems in aircraft industries is fatigue cracking that can potentially occur without anticipation with catastrophic failures and unexpected downtime. Acoustic emission (AE) is a passive structural health monitoring (SHM) technique, since it offers real time damage detection based on stress waves generated by cracking in the structure. Machine learning techniques have presented great success over the past few years with a large number of applications. This study assesses the progression of damage occurring on glass fiber reinforced polyester composite specimens using two approaches of machine learning, namely, Supervised and Unsupervised learning. A methodology for damage detection and characterization of composite is presented. The result shows that machine learning can predict damages in composite materials. All predictive models and their performance as well as AE parameters had a direct relationship with the applied stress values, suggesting that these correlations are reliable means of predicting fatigue life in a composite material.

The root tip of a plant is highly sensitive to environmental cues and exerts sensory, chemical and movement responses and has even been likened to an animal’s brain. Yet, the assemblage of microbes at the root tip, the control of their diversity, the nature of their recruitment to that particular volume, and their roles in plant phenotypic function, remain poorly understood. This study investigated longitudinal niche differentiation of the root-associated microbiome in chickpeas ( Cicer arietinum L.) and its interactions with both diverse soil types and host plants with genetic variation in phenology, from the exterior to the interior of the root. Compared with late flowering (LF) genotypes, endophyte microbiomes at the apical zone of the early flowering (EF) host were characterised by greater diversity, higher compositional similarity to the basal zone, and closely inhabiting Rhizobacter and Methylotenera across soils. Additionally, EF genotypes secreted a specific composition of metabolites from the apical zone, with more carboxylates and amino acids (especially propionic acid and benzoic acid) than the LF plant. Our findings demonstrate that longitudinal differentiation within a seedling root is an essential feature shaping the root microbiome and indicative of genetic variation in phenology of host plants.

Exploring highly active and stable electrocatalyst for oxygen evolution reaction is important for the development of water splitting and rechargeable metal-air batteries. Herein, a hybrid electrocatalyst of CoFe alloy and CoxN heterojunction encapsulated and embedded in N-doped carbon support (CoFe-CoxN@NC) was in situ coupling via a pyrolysis process of a novel coordination polymer from lignin biomacromolecule. CoFe-CoxN@NC exhibited an excellent OER activity with a low overpotential of 270 mV at 10 mA•cm−2 and stability with increment of 20 mV, comparable to commercial Ir/C. DFT calculations revealed that CoxN and N-doped grapheme encapsulation can reduce the binding strength between *O and CoFe alloy, prevent metals leaching and agglomeration, and improve electron transfer efficiency, thereby, remarkably enhancing the OER activity and stability. In situ coupling strategy of alloy and nitride heterojunction on N-doped lignin-derived carbon provided a promising and universal catalyst design for the development of renewable energy conversion technologies.

This research paper is concerned with developing, analyzing, and implementing an adaptive optimized one-step block Nyström method for solving second-order initial value problems of ODEs and time-dependent partial differential equations. The new technique is developed through a collocation method with a new approach for selecting the collocation points. An embedding-like procedure is used to estimate the error of the proposed optimized method. The current approach has produced approximate solutions to real-world oscillatory, periodic and stiff application problems. The numerical experiments demonstrate that the introduced error estimation and stepsize control strategy presented in this manuscript has produced a good performance compared with some of the other existing numerical methods.

Organic materials are essential to increase soil organic carbon (SOC). However, it is unclear whether C sequestration is primarily affected by the form of organic materials or soil types. Wheat straw, tobacco straw, and their derived biochars were added to acidic soil, saline soil and calcareous soil in the same C concentration and incubated for 30, 90, and 180 days, respectively. The contents of humic substances (HS), the structural characteristic of SOC, and enzyme activities were investigated. The results revealed that both biochar-C and crop straw-C were mainly sequestered in humin (HU) across all soil types. Moreover, humic acid (HA) levels increased in straw treatments but not in biochar treatments. The cluster analysis and principal components analysis showed that HU had a significantly positive correlation with SOC. The aryl C of SOC increased in biochar treatments, while phenolic C and O-alkyl C of SOC increased in straw treatments. A positive correlation was found between aromatic C and SOC concentration, as well as between polyphenol oxidase activity and O-alkyl C. The formation of O-alkyl C was affected by polyphenol oxidase activity. These findings suggest that the form of organic materials and microbial activity, rather than soil types, influence the formation of HS and functional groups of SOC. Soil amended with biochar can sequester more recalcitrant C while also increasing the hydrophobicity of SOC.

Objective: To analyse the longitudinal effect of a supervised mild-moderate physical exercise program during pregnancy on uteroplacental and fetal Doppler. Design: Planned secondary analysis of an RCT Setting: Hospital Universitario de Torrejón, Madrid-Spain Sample: 124 women were randomized at 12+0-15+6 weeks to exercise vs non-exercise. Methods: Obstetric appointments were scheduled at about 12, 20, 28 and 36 weeks of gestation. GEE models were adjusted to assess longitudinal changes in Doppler measurements according to randomization group. Main Outcome Measures: Fetal middle cerebral artery, umbilical artery, cerebral placental ratio and uterine artery pulsatility index, were longitudinally measured by Doppler ultrasound throughout gestation, and normalized by MoMs or z-score calculation Results: No significant differences in fetal or maternal Doppler measurements were found at any check-up time-points. However, umbilical artery behaved differently in the exercise group where, starting from a not significantly higher pulsatility index, it showed a continuous decrease during pregnancy to a lower level than the non-exercise group, in which it remained unmodified throughout pregnancy. Conclusion: A regular supervised mild-moderate exercise program during pregnancy does not deteriorate fetal or maternal Doppler, suggesting that fetal wellbeing is not compromised. UAPI z-score decreases during pregnancy in the exercise group, while it remains stable in the non-exercise group. Funding statement: Research Grants were provided by Hospital Universitario de Torrejón (Madrid, Spain), Universidad Politécnica de Madrid (Madrid, Spain), Sanitas Healthcare and iMaterna Foundation.

Porokeratotic adnexal ostial nevus (PAON) is a term encompassing porokeratotic eccrine ostial and dermal duct naevus (PEODDN) and porokeratotic eccrine and hair follicle naevus (PEHFN). We present the case of a seven-year-old girl who presented with hyperkeratotic verrucous papules in a blaschkolinear distribution on the sole of her left foot.

This case report describes a patient in the ICU in need of urgent intubation, for whom video laryngoscope-guided intubation had previously failed. The Infrared Red Intubation System may enhance the chance of successful flexible bronchoscope intubation, especially when performed by non-experts in hospitals without ear, nose and throat surgical backup.

Granuloma annulare is a benign inflammatory skin disease. Here, we report an atypical clinical presentation of localized GA associated with cysts and open comedones in a 85-year-old woman.

The use of sutureless and rapid-deployment prostheses is generally avoided in patients with BAV due to anatomical concerns and the elevated risk of para-prosthetic leaks. Multiple studies have reported the use of these prostheses in patients with BAV with varying degrees of success. The focus of this review is to consolidate the available evidence on this topic. A scoping review was conducted using a comprehensive search strategy within Medline, Embase, and Cochrane Central Register of Controlled Clinical Trials for relevant articles. All abstracts and full texts were screened by two independent reviewers according to predefined inclusion and exclusion criteria. Of 1052 total citations, 44 underwent full text review and 13 (4 case reports, 6 retrospective analyses, and 3 prospective analyses) were included in the scoping review. Across all 13 studies, a total of 314 patients with BAV were used for data analysis. In sutureless and rapid-deployment prostheses, the mean postoperative aortic valvular gradients were less than 15mmHg in all studies with mean postoperative aortic valvular areas all greater than 1.3cm. There were 186 total complications for an overall rate of 59%. Individual complications included new onset atrial fibrillation (n=65), required pacemaker insertion (n=24), intraprosthetic aortic regurgitation (n=20), new onset atrioventricular block (n=18), and new onset paravalvular leakage (n=10). The use of sutureless and rapid deployment prostheses in patients with BAV showed comparable intraoperative and implantation success rates to patients without BAV. Various techniques have been described to minimize complications in patients with BAV receiving sutureless or rapid-deployment prostheses.

We report a first case with the use of extracorporeal carbon dioxide removal system as a bridge to re-do lung transplant in complete situs inversus patient. A 29-year-old female with Kartagener syndrome and complete situs inversus underwent a double lung transplant for end stage lung disease. Within one year after transplant the patient had primarily hypercapnic respiratory failure with radiographic signs of chronic lung allograft dysfunction. To optimize her nutritional status and muscle strength before re-do lung transplantation, we decided to bridge her with an extracorporeal carbon dioxide removal system due to anatomical difficulty. She was listed and underwent an uneventful re-do double lung transplant with cardiopulmonary support.

Atraumatic convexity subarachnoid hemorrhage (cSAH) is a rare non-aneurysmal SAH, commonly due to ipsilateral internal carotid artery (ICA) stenosis. It is unusual for the cSAH to occur contralaterally to the infarct. We report two cases of acute ischemic stroke associated with contralateral and ipsilateral cSAH that had different presentations.

Global energy production is in high demand and is expanding its development into new landscapes, including grasslands. This expansion has intensive impacts on above and belowground components of grasslands which need to be addressed during reclamation to promote long-term ecological integrity. This study was conducted to ascertain how alternative reclamation practices may improve soil structure (i.e., compaction) while aiding in the creation of conditions that are conducive for both the establishment and continued growth of native grassland plant species. The grassland was reclaimed with different combinations of seeding mixtures (grass or grass and forb), ripping techniques (subsoil ripping or topsoil ripping), and the integration of mulch into the soil profile. Species composition and abundance of the vegetation community was estimated, and volumetric soil moisture and penetration resistance readings were obtained. Year, seed mixtures, ripping techniques and their interactions significantly affected community composition and species diversity. Topsoil-ripping and grass-forb treatment had a higher association with native, perennial grasses while subsoil-ripping and grass treatment favor more short-lived species. Similar trends persisted across penetration resistance and soil moisture readings where topsoil-ripping and grass-forb treatment were different from subsoil-ripping and Grass treatments (p<0.10). Additionally, Kentucky bluegrass, an invasive grass species, increased 76% over one year and was more common in the topsoil-ripping and grass-forb treatments. While early in the reclamation process, results suggest topsoil-ripping and grass-forb treatment are a promising combination reclamation practice that can establish a native grassland community and initiate the improvement of compacted soil conditions.