Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Iron in the Ross Sea: 1. Impact on CO2 fluxes via variation in phytoplankton functional group and non‐Redfield stoichiometry

[1] We present new model results examining nutrient and carbon biogeochemistry within the Ross Sea, focusing on the sensitivity of ecosystem dynamics to taxon-specific nutrient utilization parameters and the impact of alleviating Fe limitation of phytoplankton growth. The coupled ice-atmosphere-ocean ecosystem (CIAO) model of the Ross Sea was modified to include air-sea CO2 exchange and non-Redfield C/N/P uptake ratios of the dominant phytoplankton taxa. Model results show that the Ross Sea was a substantial sink for atmospheric CO2, driven by the high primary productivity prior to the onset of Fe limitation. Taxon-specific C/N/P uptake ratios controlled the relative rate of removal of each macronutrient, while Fe availability constrained the absolute magnitude of utilization. When Redfield C/N/P stoichiometry was applied to both phytoplankton taxa, net primary production (NPP) was overestimated in areas normally dominated by diatoms and underestimated in regions of Phaeocystis antarctica dominance, and macronutrient dynamics were misrepresented. Simulated shifts in phytoplankton taxonomic composition significantly altered uptake of atmospheric CO2 when the phytoplankton were dominated by diatoms (−70%) or P. antarctica (+35%). The ability to bloom later in the season afforded P. antarctica a relatively greater role than diatoms in controlling the air-sea flux of CO2 in the Ross Sea. In response to alleviation of Fe limitation, both total Ross Sea NPP and CO2 uptake increased by 30%. The response of the carbon cycle to Fe fertilization was predicted to be complex, and its magnitude and nature were dictated by patterns of macronutrient utilization.
Évaluation comparée de la pollution des rivières Kahuwa et Mpungwe par l'utilisation des macroinvertébrés benthiques

Les perturbations environnementales dues aux activites anthropogeniques se multiplient dans de nombreuses regions du globe et entrainent diverses pollutions des eaux. Ces pollutions sont importantes et causent un grand probleme regional et local de sante publique. Dans la ville de Bukavu et ses environs, il y a suffisamment des systemes aquatiques qui presentent des signes de pollution resultant des activites humaines. En vue d’estimer l’impact des activites anthropogeniques sur l’environnement des rivieres, cette etude a ete menee sur les rivieres Kahuwa, situee en milieu urbain, la ville de Bukavu et Mpungwe, situee en milieu rural, a 20 km de la meme ville. Des analyses physico-chimiques et biologiques realisees in situ et au laboratoire du Centre de recherche en sciences naturelles de Lwiro, Republique Democratique du Congo dans 7 sites des deux rivieres (4 dans la riviere Kahuwa et 3 dans la riviere Mpungwe). Les resultats obtenus ont montre que la riviere Kahuwa est plus polluee que la riviere Mpungwe durant la periode d’etude. Les parametres physico-chimiques etudies varient de l’amont en aval dans les deux rivieres. Les concentrations en nutriments (phosphore et azote) sont en generales tres elevees dans les sites ou les activites anthropogeniques sont intenses (Kibonge, Cheche et SNCC pour la riviere Kahuwa et Usine Murhesa pour la riviere Mpungwe). Ces concentrations montrent bien que la pollution organique est intensifiee par les apports anthropogeniques. En general, la difference des concentrations des parametres physico-chimiques dans les deux rivieres est significative (p < 0,05). Les sources de ces nutriments sont generalement les effluents domestiques, les fosses septiques, les erosions provenant de l’agriculture, les rejets des industries et rejets des dechets divers qui ne sont pas reglementes. Les sites de la riviere Kahuwa ont moins d’especes (14) que les sites de la riviere Mpungwe (31). La difference est significative entre les deux rivieres (p < 0,001) en ce qui concerne la richesse specifique. Cette faible richesse specifique de la riviere Kahuwa serait due a la degradation de la qualite des eaux comme deja observee dans les facteurs physico-chimiques. En effet, il a ete remarque que l’utilisation des terres dans le bassin versant avait un impact significatif sur la distribution des macroinvertebres. L’indice de Shannon et Weaver H’, l’indice biotique de pollution des macroinvertebres l’indice de Hilsenhof, l’indice de Simpson et l’indice de Margalef montrent des variations entre les sites de prelevement et les rivieres. Des mesures de lutte antierosive dans le bassin versant de la riviere Kahuwa et de mesures d’eco-sanitation (utilisation des toilettes VIP) sont recommandees pour diminuer la quantite des matieres organiques apportees par la riviere Kahuwa dans le Lac Kivu.
Measurement of aerosol optical depth in the Atlantic Ocean and Mediterranean Sea

A brief summary of aerosol optical depth measurements in a maritime atmosphere during the last three decades is presented. The results of more than fifty publications have been analyzed and are summarized in a single table. New results of spectral aerosol optical depth measurements (from 440 to 1030 nm) in the Mediterranean Sea and Atlantic Ocean made from aboard a research vessel are also presented. Comparison of aerosol optical depths obtained over the Mediterranean Sea in the winter 1989-1990 with other Mediterranean data indicate substantial seasonal difference. The angstrom parameter values for the central and western Atlantic indicate good agreement with the results obtained for the north Atlantic. The measurements in the subtropical Atlantic region show significant variations. The pure atmosphere in the winter 1989-1990 evolved in the fall of 1991 into very turbid conditions which were probably associated with Saharan dust.
A Parallel Approach to Identifying Biomarkers

Background: To examine the psychometric properties of the Adolescent Depression Rating Scale (ADRS), a new measure was specifically designed to evaluate adolescent depression. Methods: The 11-item clinician-report and 44-item self-report versions of the ADRS were developed from a qualitative phase involving interviews of experts and adolescents. These two instruments were then administered to 402 French speaking adolescents with and without depressive disorders. Item distribution, internal consistency, convergent validity, discriminant validity and factorial structure were assessed. Results: After reduction procedures, a 10-item clinician version and a 10-item self-report version were obtained. The ADRS demonstrated good internal consistency (alpha Cronbach coefficient >.70). It also discriminated better between adolescents with and without depression than the Hamilton Depressive Rating Scale and the Beck Depression Inventory (BDI-13). Conclusion: The ADRS is a useful, short, clinician-report and self-report scale to evaluate adolescent depression. Further studies to replicate our findings and evaluate ADRS sensitivity to effects of treatment and psychometric properties in populations of adolescents with several psychiatric disorders are warranted. Background Standardized diagnostic criteria for depression have raised several questions regarding the classification of adolescents with depression. In fact, dichotomizing the population into cases and non-cases does not take into account that a substantial proportion of depressed adolescents have sub-syndromal depressive symptomatology [1]. Yet these young people have significant morbidity and are at high risk of developing full-blown major depression [2]. Recent findings [4,24] support the view that measures of depression in adolescence are best implemented in a dimensional model, where depressive disorders are conceptualized as a continuum of severity, from mild to severe. Thus, subjects who meet DSM-IV diagnostic criteria for MDD [3] represent the extreme of a continuum rather than a distinct group [4]. The feasibility of clinical trials in adolescent populations depends on the availability of valid measures [5]. In fact, many studies have utilized depression scales despite limPublished: 12 January 2007 BMC Psychiatry 2007, 7:2 doi:10.1186/1471-244X-7-2 Received: 22 May 2006 Accepted: 12 January 2007 This article is available from: http://www.biomedcentral. com/1471-244X/7/2 © 2007 Revah-Levy et al; licensee BioMed Central Ltd. This is an Open Access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/2.0), which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited.
Remote seismic influence on large explosive eruptions

[1] The physical process governing the occurrence of the greatest explosive eruptions is characterized by a very high number of degrees of freedom. In this case, as well as for any stochastic and/or complex system, the knowledge of the process can be significantly improved by identifying any kind of nonrandom pattern. For example, a correlation with other processes would imply that some degrees of freedom are more important than the others. In this view, the main goal of this paper is to test if the perturbation induced on a volcanic area by great tectonic earthquakes can modify the probability of a volcanic event. The results obtained show that the occurrence of the largest explosive eruptions of the last century is significantly correlated to the earthquakes that occurred 0–5 and 30–35 years before, at distances up to 1000 km. Such a coupling might be attributed to the coseismic and postseismic stress diffusion. This result provides new insights that may be used in volcanic risk mitigation.
From scales to armor: Scale losses and trunk bony plate gains in ray‐finned fishes

Actinopterygians (ray‐finned fishes) are the most diversified group of vertebrates and are characterized by a variety of protective structures covering their integument, the evolution of which has intrigued biologists for decades. Paleontological records showed that the first mineralized vertebrate skeleton was composed of dermal bony plates covering the body, including odontogenic and skeletogenic components. Later in evolution, the exoskeleton of actinopterygian's trunk was composed of scale structures. Although scales are nowadays a widespread integument cover, some contemporary lineages do not have scales but bony plates covering their trunk, whereas other lineages are devoid of any such structures. To understand the evolution of the integument coverage and particularly the transition between different structures, we investigated the pattern of scale loss events along with actinopterygian evolution and addressed the functional relationship between the scaleless phenotype and the ecology of fishes. Furthermore, we examined whether the emergence of trunk bony plates was dependent over the presence or absence of scales. To this aim, we used two recently published actinopterygian phylogenies, one including >11,600 species, and by using stochastic mapping and Bayesian methods, we inferred scale loss events and trunk bony plate acquisitions. Our results reveal that a scaled integument is the most frequent state in actinopterygians, but multiple independent scale loss events occurred along their phylogeny with essentially no scale re‐acquisition. Based on linear mixed models, we found evidence supporting that after a scale loss event, fishes tend to change their ecology and adopt a benthic lifestyle. Furthermore, we show that trunk bony plates appeared independently multiple times along the phylogeny. By using fitted likelihood models for character evolution, we show that trunk bony plate acquisitions were dependent on a previous scale loss event. Overall, our findings support the hypothesis that integument cover is a key evolutionary trait underlying actinopterygian radiation.
Wet tropospheric range corrections for satellite altimeter‐derived dynamic topographies in the western North Atlantic

Radiosonde data and surface meteorological data collected from moorings and ships on both the warm and cold sides of the North Atlantic subtropical front were analyzed for the January to June 1986 time period. These data were used to investigate the magnitude and the spatial-temporal scales associated with the variation of the wet tropospheric range correction for the U.S. Navy's Geosat radar altimeter. Analysis consisted of both numerical integration of high-resolution radiosonde data and use of an atmospheric model to calculate the wet tropospheric range correction for the study region during the January-June 1986 period. Results showed that the wet tropospheric range correction varied by about 15 cm overall, i.e., ranging from approximately 10 to 25 cm. This variation however, occurred over length scales which were large and time scales which were short compared with those from the subtropical front. Based on these results, the wet tropospheric range correction represented a synoptic scale variation in the lower atmosphere which would have little effect on the mesoscale dynamic signal associated with the subtropical front or the mesoscale eddy field as measured by the Geosat altimeter.
Development of Mouse Hepatocyte Lines Permissive for Hepatitis C Virus (HCV)

The lack of a suitable small animal model for the analysis of hepatitis C virus (HCV) infection has hampered elucidation of the HCV life cycle and the development of both protective and therapeutic strategies against HCV infection. Human and mouse harbor a comparable system for antiviral type I interferon (IFN) induction and amplification, which regulates viral infection and replication. Using hepatocytes from knockout (ko) mice, we determined the critical step of the IFN-inducing/amplification pathways regulating HCV replication in mouse. The results infer that interferon-beta promoter stimulator (IPS-1) or interferon A receptor (IFNAR) were a crucial barrier to HCV replication in mouse hepatocytes. Although both IFNARko and IPS-1ko hepatocytes showed a reduced induction of type I interferons in response to viral infection, only IPS-1-/- cells circumvented cell death from HCV cytopathic effect and significantly improved J6JFH1 replication, suggesting IPS-1 to be a key player regulating HCV replication in mouse hepatocytes. We then established mouse hepatocyte lines lacking IPS-1 or IFNAR through immortalization with SV40T antigen. Expression of human (h)CD81 on these hepatocyte lines rendered both lines HCVcc-permissive. We also found that the chimeric J6JFH1 construct, having the structure region from J6 isolate enhanced HCV replication in mouse hepatocytes rather than the full length original JFH1 construct, a new finding that suggests the possible role of the HCV structural region in HCV replication. This is the first report on the entry and replication of HCV infectious particles in mouse hepatocytes. These mouse hepatocyte lines will facilitate establishing a mouse HCV infection model with multifarious applications.
Efficacy and Safety of the Use of SGLT2 Inhibitors in Patients on Incremental Hemodialysis: Maximizing Residual Renal Function, Is There a Role for SGLT2 Inhibitors?

SGLT-2i are the new standard of care for diabetic kidney disease (DKD), but previous studies have not included patients on kidney replacement therapy (KRT). Due to their high risk of cardiovascular, renal complications, and mortality, these patients would benefit the most from this therapy. Residual kidney function (RKF) conveys a survival benefit and cardiovascular health among hemodialysis (HD) patients, especially those on incremental hemodialysis (iHD). We retrospectively describe the safety and efficacy of SGLT2i regarding RKF preservation in seven diabetic patients with different clinical backgrounds who underwent iHD (one or two sessions per week) during a 12-month follow-up. All patients preserved RKF, measured as residual kidney urea clearance (KrU) in 24 h after the introduction of SGLT2i. KrU levels improved significantly from 4.91 ± 1.14 mL/min to 7.28 ± 1.68 mL/min at 12 months (p = 0.028). Pre-hemodialysis blood pressure improved 9.95% in mean systolic blood pressure (SBP) (p = 0.015) and 10.95% in mean diastolic blood pressure (DBP) (p = 0.041); as a result, antihypertensive medication was modified. Improvements in blood uric acid, hemoglobin A1c, urine albumin/creatinine ratio (UACR), and 24 h proteinuria were also significant. Regarding side effects, two patients developed uncomplicated urinary tract infections that were resolved. No other complications were reported. The use of SGLT2i in our sample of DKD patients starting iHD on a 1–2 weekly regimen appears to be safe and effective in preserving RKF.
Fitting degradation of shoreline scarps by a nonlinear diffusion model

The diffusion model of degradation of topographic features is a promising means by which vertical offsets on Holocene faults might be dated. In order to calibrate the method, we have examined present-day profiles of wave-cut shoreline scarps of late Pleistocene lakes Bonneville and Lahontan. It may be assumed that these scarps were initially at least as steep as the angle of repose. Offsets range from 1 to 12 m, and present slope angles range from 9° to 29°. A parameter called apparent diffusion age, defined as half the mean square horizontal extent of the slope function of each profile, is plotted as a function of scarp offset. The points show a clear trend of apparent age increasing nearly linearly with offset. If linear diffusion held and scarps were initially vertical, apparent diffusion age would be the same for all the shoreline profiles. The increasing trend can only partly be explained by nonvertical initial scarp slope, and therefore the rate of transport of material downslope must increase significantly faster than a linear law in the range of slopes spanned by the data. The transport law must become linear at small slope to reduce scatter between profiles with varying ambient slopes. The transport law adopted for the purpose of dating is k0(1 + 5s2), where s is local slope. The transport coefficient k0 is correlated inversely with fan slope, suggesting that there is a dependence on the particle size distribution. A table is included that allows easy application of the model to scarps with simple initial shape.
The Regulation of the Autophagic Network and Its Implications for Human Disease

Autophagy has attracted a lot of attention in recent years. More and more proteins and signaling pathways have been discovered that somehow feed into the autophagy regulatory pathways. Regulation of autophagy is complex and condition-specific, and in several diseases, autophagic fluxes are changed. Here, we review the most well-established concepts in this field as well as the reported signaling pathways or components which steer the autophagy machinery. Furthermore, we will highlight how autophagic fluxes are changed in various diseases either as cause for or as response to deal with an altered cellular homeostasis and how modulation of autophagy might be used as potential therapy for such diseases.
Alteration of detrital Fe-Ti oxides in sedimentary rocks

Scanning electron microscope study has revealed that in Proterozoic sandstones, shales, and carbonate rocks of the Visingso Group in southern Sweden, detrital Fe-Ti oxides have undergone alteration by dissolution and/or replacement mainly by titanium oxides, hematite (reddish rocks), or pyrite (greenish sandstones, shales, and carbonate rocks). The titanium oxides occur as either poorly crystalline masses, cryptocrystalline aggregates, or discrete, euhedral crystals of anatase, brookite, and rutile that attain a variety of crystal habits. Microprobe analyses have shown that the alteration of ilmenite occurs through several intermediate phases, each successively enriched in titanium and depleted in iron, to an almost pure form of TiO 2 . Some of the iron and titanium which is released during alteration of the Fe-Ti oxides is incorporated in associated clay minerals.
Uveitis as an important ocular sign to help early diagnosis in Kawasaki disease

Purpose Incomplete Kawasaki disease (KD) is frequently associated with delayed diagnosis and treatment. Delayed diagnosis leads to increasing risk of coronary artery aneurysm. Anterior uveitis is an important ocular sign of KD. The purpose of this study was to assess differences in laboratory findings, including echocardiographic measurements, clinical characteristics such as fever duration and treatment responses between KD patients with and those without uveitis. Methods We conducted a prospective study with 110 KD patients from January 2008 to June 2013. The study group (n=32, KD with uveitis) was compared with the control group (n=78, KD without uveitis). Laboratory data were obtained from each patient including complete blood count (CBC), erythrocyte sedimentation rate (ESR), platelet count, and level of alanine aminotransferase, aspartate aminotransferase, serum total protein, albumin, C-reactive protein (CRP), and N-terminal probrain natriuretic peptide (NT-pro BNP). Echocardiographic measurements and intravenous immunoglobulin responses were compared between the two groups. Results The incidence of uveitis was 29.0%. Neutrophil counts and patient age were higher in the uveitis group than in the control group. ESR and CRP level were slightly increased in the uveitis group compared with the control group, but the difference between the two groups was not significant. No significant differences in coronary arterial complication and treatment responses were observed between the two groups. Conclusion Uveitis is an important ocular sign in the diagnosis of incomplete KD. It is significantly associated with patient age and neutrophil count.
Size of metastatic deposits affects prognosis in patients undergoing pulmonary metastectomy for colorectal cancer

INTRODUCTION Pulmonary metastectomy for colorectal cancer (CRC) is a well accepted procedure although data regarding indications and prognostic outcomes are inconsistent. This study aimed to analyse our experience with resection of pulmonary CRC metastases to evaluate clinically relevant prognostic factors affecting survival. METHODS A retrospective analysis was undertaken of the records of all patients with pulmonary metastases from CRC who underwent a thoracotomy between 2004 and 2010 at a single surgical centre. RESULTS Sixty-six patients with pulmonary metastases from the colon (n=34) and the rectum (n=32) were identified. The 30-day hospital mortality rate was 0%, with 63 patients undergoing a R0 resection and 3 having a R1 resection. The median survival was 45 months and the cumulative 3-year survival rate was 61%. Size of pulmonary metastasis and ASA (American Society of Anesthesiologists) grade were statistically significant prognostic factors (p=0.047 and p=0.009 respectively) with lesions over 20mm associated with a worse prognosis. Sex, age, site, disease free interval (cut-off 36 months), primary tumour stage, hepatic metastases, number of metastases (solitary vs multiple), type of operation (wedge vs lobe resection), hilar lymph node involvement and administration of adjuvant chemotherapy were not found to be statistically significant prognostic factors. CONCLUSIONS Pulmonary metastectomy has a potential survival benefit for patients with metastatic CRC. Improved survival even in the presence of hepatic metastases or multiple pulmonary lesions justifies aggressive surgical management in carefully selected patients. In our cohort, size of metastatic deposit was a statistically significant poor prognostic factor.