Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Cetacean range and climate in the eastern North Atlantic: future predictions and implications for conservation

There is increasing evidence that the distributions of a large number of species are shifting with global climate change as they track changing surface temperatures that define their thermal niche. Modelling efforts to predict species distributions under future climates have increased with concern about the overall impact of these distribution shifts on species ecology, and especially where barriers to dispersal exist. Here we apply a bio‐climatic envelope modelling technique to investigate the impacts of climate change on the geographic range of ten cetacean species in the eastern North Atlantic and to assess how such modelling can be used to inform conservation and management. The modelling process integrates elements of a species' habitat and thermal niche, and employs “hindcasting” of historical distribution changes in order to verify the accuracy of the modelled relationship between temperature and species range. If this ability is not verified, there is a risk that inappropriate or inaccurate models will be used to make future predictions of species distributions. Of the ten species investigated, we found that while the models for nine could successfully explain current spatial distribution, only four had a good ability to predict distribution changes over time in response to changes in water temperature. Applied to future climate scenarios, the four species‐specific models with good predictive abilities indicated range expansion in one species and range contraction in three others, including the potential loss of up to 80% of suitable white‐beaked dolphin habitat. Model predictions allow identification of affected areas and the likely time‐scales over which impacts will occur. Thus, this work provides important information on both our ability to predict how individual species will respond to future climate change and the applicability of predictive distribution models as a tool to help construct viable conservation and management strategies.
Eficacia del midazolam contra la ansiedad en niños de 1-3 años sometidos a cirugía

Introduction: any surgical procedure creates anxiety, especially in children, and also parental separation anxiety is added at the entrance to the operating room. Objective : to determine the effectiveness of midazolam syrup against anxiety in children aged 1 to 3 years old who were undergoing surgery and requiring general anesthesia, in Pepe Portilla Provincial Pediatric Teaching Hospital of Pinar del Rio, in the period 2008-2009. Material and method : a prospective, longitudinal and cohort study of cases and control was carried out in children (ASA I or II). Thirty received the syrup by drops, in a dose of 0.5 mg/kg, and 60 controls who did not receive it, under informed parental consent. Sedation period, vital signs, adverse reactions and degree of satisfaction of parents and staff of the operating room were measured. Frequencies compared using the chi-square test also calculated. Results : the sample was homogeneous by sex, age and type of surgery performed (p> 0.05). Sedation was obtained from 10 minutes on in 24 out of 30 children. Bradypnea was the only adverse effect observed with midazolam syrup in 7 children. The controls (100% tachypneic and crying children). 76.7% of the parents and 100% of the medical staff were satisfied with the sedative effect of midazolam. Conclusions : this is the first time this drug has been used as a premedication in children aged 1 to 3 years old, and the effectiveness and efficacy has been proved, with few adverse and wide acceptability and satisfaction by the parents and the medical staff.
Process‐based models not always better than empirical models for simulating budburst of Norway spruce and birch in Europe

Budburst models have mainly been developed to capture the processes of individual trees, and vary in their complexity and plant physiological realism. We evaluated how well eleven models capture the variation in budburst of birch and Norway spruce in Germany, Austria, the United Kingdom and Finland. The comparison was based on the models performance in relation to their underlying physiological assumptions with four different calibration schemes. The models were not able to accurately simulate the timing of budburst. In general the models overestimated the temperature effect, thereby the timing of budburst was simulated too early in the United Kingdom and too late in Finland. Among the better performing models were three models based on the growing degree day concept, with or without day length or chilling, and an empirical model based on spring temperatures. These models were also the models least influenced by the calibration data. For birch the best calibration scheme was based on multiple sites in either Germany or Europe, and for Norway spruce the best scheme included multiple sites in Germany or cold years of all sites. Most model and calibration combinations indicated greater bias with higher spring temperatures, mostly simulating earlier than observed budburst.
Measuring fluxes of trace gases and energy between ecosystems and the atmosphere – the state and future of the eddy covariance method

The application of the eddy covariance flux method to measure fluxes of trace gas and energy between ecosystems and the atmosphere has exploded over the past 25 years. This opinion paper provides a perspective on the contributions and future opportunities of the eddy covariance method. First, the paper discusses the pros and cons of this method relative to other methods used to measure the exchange of trace gases between ecosystems and the atmosphere. Second, it discusses how the use of eddy covariance method has grown and evolved. Today, more than 400 flux measurement sites are operating world‐wide and the duration of the time series exceed a decade at dozens of sites. Networks of tower sites now enable scientists to ask scientific questions related to climatic and ecological gradients, disturbance, changes in land use, and management. The paper ends with discussions on where the field of flux measurement is heading. Topics discussed include role of open access data sharing and data mining, in this new era of big data, and opportunities new sensors that measure a variety of trace gases, like volatile organic carbon compounds, methane and nitrous oxide, and aerosols, may yield.
Negative, neutral, and positive interactions among nonnative plants: patterns, processes, and management implications

The movement of species is one of the most pervasive forms of global change, and few ecosystems remain uninvaded by nonnative species. Studying species interactions is crucial for understanding their distribution and abundance, particularly for nonnative species because interactions may influence the probability of invasion and consequent ecological impact. Interactions among nonnatives are relatively understudied, though the likelihood of nonnative species co‐occurrence is high. We quantify and describe the types of interactions among nonnative plants and determine what factors affect interaction outcomes for ecosystems globally. We reviewed 65 studies comprising 201 observations and recorded the interaction type, traits of the interacting species, and study characteristics. We conducted a census of interaction types and a meta‐analysis of experiments that tested nonnative competition intensity. Both methods showed that negative and neutral interactions prevailed, and a number of studies reported that the removal of a dominant nonnative led to competitive release of other nonnatives. Positive interactions were less frequently reported and positive mean effect sizes were rare, but the plant characteristics nitrogen fixation, life cycle (annual or perennial), and functional group significantly influenced positive interactions. Positive interactions were three times more frequent when a neighboring nonnative was a nitrogen fixer and 3.5 times lower when a neighboring nonnative was an annual. Woody plants were two or four times more likely to have positive interactions relative to grasses or herbs, respectively. The prevalence of negative interactions suggests that managers should prepare for reinvasion of sites when treating dominant nonnatives. Though positive interactions were infrequent, managers may be able to anticipate positive interactions among nonnatives based upon traits of the co‐occurring invaders. Predicting positive nonnative interactions is an important tool for determining habitat susceptibility to a particular invasion and for prioritizing management of nonnatives with a higher likelihood of positive interactions.
Integrating ecophysiology and forest landscape models to improve projections of drought effects under climate change

Fundamental drivers of ecosystem processes such as temperature and precipitation are rapidly changing and creating novel environmental conditions. Forest landscape models (FLM) are used by managers and policy‐makers to make projections of future ecosystem dynamics under alternative management or policy options, but the links between the fundamental drivers and projected responses are weak and indirect, limiting their reliability for projecting the impacts of climate change. We developed and tested a relatively mechanistic method to simulate the effects of changing precipitation on species competition within the LANDIS‐II FLM. Using data from a field precipitation manipulation experiment in a piñon pine (Pinus edulis) and juniper (Juniperus monosperma) ecosystem in New Mexico (USA), we calibrated our model to measurements from ambient control plots and tested predictions under the drought and irrigation treatments against empirical measurements. The model successfully predicted behavior of physiological variables under the treatments. Discrepancies between model output and empirical data occurred when the monthly time step of the model failed to capture the short‐term dynamics of the ecosystem as recorded by instantaneous field measurements. We applied the model to heuristically assess the effect of alternative climate scenarios on the piñon–juniper ecosystem and found that warmer and drier climate reduced productivity and increased the risk of drought‐induced mortality, especially for piñon. We concluded that the direct links between fundamental drivers and growth rates in our model hold great promise to improve our understanding of ecosystem processes under climate change and improve management decisions because of its greater reliance on first principles.
Quantifying surface albedo and other direct biogeophysical climate forcings of forestry activities

By altering fluxes of heat, momentum, and moisture exchanges between the land surface and atmosphere, forestry and other land‐use activities affect climate. Although long recognized scientifically as being important, these so‐called biogeophysical forcings are rarely included in climate policies for forestry and other land management projects due to the many challenges associated with their quantification. Here, we review the scientific literature in the fields of atmospheric science and terrestrial ecology in light of three main objectives: (i) to elucidate the challenges associated with quantifying biogeophysical climate forcings connected to land use and land management, with a focus on the forestry sector; (ii) to identify and describe scientific approaches and/or metrics facilitating the quantification and interpretation of direct biogeophysical climate forcings; and (iii) to identify and recommend research priorities that can help overcome the challenges of their attribution to specific land‐use activities, bridging the knowledge gap between the climate modeling, forest ecology, and resource management communities. We find that ignoring surface biogeophysics may mislead climate mitigation policies, yet existing metrics are unlikely to be sufficient. Successful metrics ought to (i) include both radiative and nonradiative climate forcings; (ii) reconcile disparities between biogeophysical and biogeochemical forcings, and (iii) acknowledge trade‐offs between global and local climate benefits. We call for more coordinated research among terrestrial ecologists, resource managers, and coupled climate modelers to harmonize datasets, refine analytical techniques, and corroborate and validate metrics that are more amenable to analyses at the scale of an individual site or region.
Sponge erosion under acidification and warming scenarios: differential impacts on living and dead coral

Ocean acidification will disproportionately impact the growth of calcifying organisms in coral reef ecosystems. Simultaneously, sponge bioerosion rates have been shown to increase as seawater pH decreases. We conducted a 20‐week experiment that included a 4‐week acclimation period with a high number of replicate tanks and a fully orthogonal design with two levels of temperature (ambient and +1 °C), three levels of pH (8.1, 7.8, and 7.6), and two levels of boring sponge (Cliona varians, present and absent) to account for differences in sponge attachment and carbonate change for both living and dead coral substrate (Porites furcata). Net coral calcification, net dissolution/bioerosion, coral and sponge survival, sponge attachment, and sponge symbiont health were evaluated. Additionally, we used the empirical data from the experiment to develop a stochastic simulation of carbonate change for small coral clusters (i.e., simulated reefs). Our findings suggest differential impacts of temperature, pH and sponge presence for living and dead corals. Net coral calcification (mg CaCO3 cm−2 day−1) was significantly reduced in treatments with increased temperature (+1 °C) and when sponges were present; acidification had no significant effect on coral calcification. Net dissolution of dead coral was primarily driven by pH, regardless of sponge presence or seawater temperature. A reevaluation of the current paradigm of coral carbonate change under future acidification and warming scenarios should include ecologically relevant timescales, species interactions, and community organization to more accurately predict ecosystem‐level response to future conditions.
Changes in soil moisture drive soil methane uptake along a fire regeneration chronosequence in a eucalypt forest landscape

Disturbance associated with severe wildfires (WF) and WF simulating harvest operations can potentially alter soil methane (CH4) oxidation in well‐aerated forest soils due to the effect on soil properties linked to diffusivity, methanotrophic activity or changes in methanotrophic bacterial community structure. However, changes in soil CH4 flux related to such disturbances are still rarely studied even though WF frequency is predicted to increase as a consequence of global climate change. We measured in‐situ soil–atmosphere CH4 exchange along a wet sclerophyll eucalypt forest regeneration chronosequence in Tasmania, Australia, where the time since the last severe fire or harvesting disturbance ranged from 9 to >200 years. On all sampling occasions, mean CH4 uptake increased from most recently disturbed sites (9 year) to sites at stand ‘maturity’ (44 and 76 years). In stands >76 years since disturbance, we observed a decrease in soil CH4 uptake. A similar age dependency of potential CH4 oxidation for three soil layers (0.0–0.05, 0.05–0.10, 0.10–0.15 m) could be observed on incubated soils under controlled laboratory conditions. The differences in soil CH4 uptake between forest stands of different age were predominantly driven by differences in soil moisture status, which affected the diffusion of atmospheric CH4 into the soil. The observed soil moisture pattern was likely driven by changes in interception or evapotranspiration with forest age, which have been well described for similar eucalypt forest systems in south‐eastern Australia. Our results imply that there is a large amount of variability in CH4 uptake at a landscape scale that can be attributed to stand age and soil moisture differences. An increase in severe WF frequency in response to climate change could potentially increase overall forest soil CH4 sinks.
Role of translocator protein density, a marker of neuroinflammation, in the brain during major depressive episodes.

IMPORTANCE The neuroinflammatory hypothesis of major depressive disorder is supported by several main findings. First, in humans and animals, activation of the immune system causes sickness behaviors that present during a major depressive episode (MDE), such as low mood, anhedonia, anorexia, and weight loss. Second, peripheral markers of inflammation are frequently reported in major depressive disorder. Third, neuroinflammatory illnesses are associated with high rates of MDEs. However, a fundamental limitation of the neuroinflammatory hypothesis is a paucity of evidence of brain inflammation during MDE. Translocator protein density measured by distribution volume (TSPO VT) is increased in activated microglia, an important aspect of neuroinflammation. OBJECTIVE To determine whether TSPO VT is elevated in the prefrontal cortex, anterior cingulate cortex (ACC), and insula in patients with MDE secondary to major depressive disorder. DESIGN, SETTING, AND PARTICIPANTS Case-control study in a tertiary care psychiatric hospital from May 1, 2010, through February 1, 2014. Twenty patients with MDE secondary to major depressive disorder and 20 healthy control participants underwent positron emission tomography with fluorine F 18-labeled N-(2-(2-fluoroethoxy)benzyl)-N-(4-phenoxypyridin-3-yl)acetamide ([18F]FEPPA). Patients with MDE were medication free for at least 6 weeks. All participants were otherwise healthy and nonsmokers. MAIN OUTCOMES AND MEASURES Values of TSPO VT in the prefrontal cortex, ACC, and insula. RESULTS In MDE, TSPO VT was significantly elevated in all brain regions examined (multivariate analysis of variance, F15,23 = 4.5 [P = .001]). The magnitude of TSPO VT elevation was 26% in the prefrontal cortex (mean [SD] TSPO VT, 12.5 [3.6] in patients with MDE and 10.0 [2.4] in controls), 32% in the ACC (mean [SD] TSPO VT, 12.3 [3.5] in patients with MDE and 9.3 [2.2] in controls), and 33% in the insula (mean [SD] TSPO VT, 12.9 [3.7] in patients with MDE and 9.7 [2.3] in controls). In MDE, greater TSPO VT in the ACC correlated with greater depression severity (r = 0.63 [P = .005]). CONCLUSIONS AND RELEVANCE This finding provides the most compelling evidence to date of brain inflammation, and more specifically microglial activation, in MDE. This finding is important for improving treatment because it implies that therapeutics that reduce microglial activation should be promising for MDE. The correlation between higher ACC TSPO VT and the severity of MDE is consistent with the concept that neuroinflammation in specific regions may contribute to sickness behaviors that overlap with the symptoms of MDE.
Different Fetal and Neonatal Growth between Early- and Late-Onset Preeclampsia

Preeclampsia is a heterogeneous disease, and there are major differences in severity, fetal growth and poor placentation between early- and late-onset preeclampsia. Here, we examined the effect of onset period on fetal and neonatal growth in preeclampsia with a cross-sectional study including 102 pregnant women with preeclampsia visited Okayama University Hospital from 2009 to 2013. The subjects were retrospectively compared in terms of body mass index (BMI), weight gain during pregnancy, complications, weeks of delivery, neonatal body weight and BMI at birth, fetal growth restriction (FGR), small for gestational age (SGA), pathological findings in the placenta, and infant’s weight at 1 month after birth. Neonatal body weight and BMI at birth were significantly lower and the extent of FGR and the frequency of SGA were higher in early-onset group compared with late-onset group. Mean daily weight gain during the neonatal period was significantly lower in the early-onset group compared with the late-onset group, however the weight gain rate during the neonatal period in the early-onset group was higher than that in late-onset group. In conclusions, there are significant differences in fetal and neonatal growth between early- and late-onset preeclampsia and the catch up for growth might start during neonatal period.
Influences of extreme weather, climate and pesticide use on invertebrates in cereal fields over 42 years

Cereal fields are central to balancing food production and environmental health in the face of climate change. Within them, invertebrates provide key ecosystem services. Using 42 years of monitoring data collected in southern England, we investigated the sensitivity and resilience of invertebrates in cereal fields to extreme weather events and examined the effect of long‐term changes in temperature, rainfall and pesticide use on invertebrate abundance. Of the 26 invertebrate groups examined, eleven proved sensitive to extreme weather events. Average abundance increased in hot/dry years and decreased in cold/wet years for Araneae, Cicadellidae, adult Heteroptera, Thysanoptera, Braconidae, Enicmus and Lathridiidae. The average abundance of Delphacidae, Cryptophagidae and Mycetophilidae increased in both hot/dry and cold/wet years relative to other years. The abundance of all 10 groups usually returned to their long‐term trend within a year after the extreme event. For five of them, sensitivity to cold/wet events was lowest (translating into higher abundances) at locations with a westerly aspect. Some long‐term trends in invertebrate abundance correlated with temperature and rainfall, indicating that climate change may affect them. However, pesticide use was more important in explaining the trends, suggesting that reduced pesticide use would mitigate the effects of climate change.
Increased expression of T- cell- surface CXCR4 in asthmatic children

Background: Signals delivered through the chemokine receptor CXCR4 upon interaction with its ligand, SDF-1 α/β result in the most efficacious chemoattraction of T lymphocytes to the asthmatic airways with the resultant lung inflammation and airway hyperresponsiveness. Objective: The extensive pharmacological and physiological evidence that CXCR4 chemokine receptor influences the allergic airway disease has stimulated us to study the relation between its expression in peripheral blood T lymphocytes and the exacerbation of asthmatic attacks of varying severity. Methods: The chemokine receptor CXCR4 was assayed by flow cytometry in peripheral blood T lymphocytes from 25 asthmatic children, during asthma exacerbation and after complete remission of symptoms and physical signs. The results were compared to those of 30 healthy children. Results: The CXCR4 expression in peripheral blood T lymphocytes was significantly increased in children with acute exacerbations of bronchial asthma as compared to controls (mean ± SD = 62.27 ± 17.57% versus 24.76 ± 6.88%; p < 0.001). After remission of acute attacks, the CXCR4 expression decreased significantly as compared to the values during attacks (mean ± SD = 40.90 ± 13.25%), however, the level of expression during quiescence was still significantly higher than the values of the controls (mean ± SD = 40.90 ± 13.25%; p < 0.001). The CXCR4 expression was significantly higher in children with acute severe asthma as compared to those with either mild or moderate attacks. During remission, patients with mild intermittent asthma had less expression of CXCR4 when compared to any grade of persistent asthma, while the results were comparable between all groups of persistent asthma of varying severity. A significant positive correlation could link the CXCR4% to the absolute eosinophilic count during acute asthma attacks. Conclusion: CXCR4 is over-expressed in T lymphocytes of asthmatic children. It was found to be related to disease activity and seems to be involved in the establishment and maintenance of chronic inflammation of the airways. Keywords: Asthma, chemokine receptors, CXCR4, children, T lymphocytes Egypt J Pediatr Allergy Immunol 2003; 1(2): 80-5