bluuebunny/crossref_metadata_2025_split huggingface dataset:
Freshening increases the susceptibility to heat stress in intertidal mussels (Mytilus edulis) from the Arctic
Authors: Nielsen Martin B. , Vogensen Trine K. , Thyrring Jakob , Sørensen Jesper G. , Sejr Mikael K. 
Published: March 2021

Abstract

Temperatures in the Arctic are increasing at a faster pace than at lower latitudes resulting in range expansion of boreal species. In Greenland, the warming also drives accelerating melt of the Greenland Ice Sheet resulting in more meltwater entering Greenland fjords in summer.

Our aim was to determine if increasing summer temperatures combined with lower salinity can induce the expression of stress‐related proteins, for example, heat shock protein, in boreal intertidal mussels in Greenland, and whether low salinity reduces the upper thermal limit at which mortality occurs.

We conducted a mortality experiment, using 12 different combinations of salinity and air temperature treatments during a simulated tidal regime, and quantified the change in mRNA levels of five stress‐related genes (hsp24, hsp70, hsp90, sod and p38) in surviving mussels to discern the level of sublethal stress.

Heat‐induced mortality occurred in mussels exposed to an air temperature of 30°C and mortality was higher in treatments with lowered salinity (5 and 15‰), which confirms that low habitat salinity decreases the upper thermal limit of Mytilus edulis. The gene expression analysis supported the mortality results, with the highest gene expression found at combinations of high temperature and low salinity.

Combined with seasonal measurements of intertidal temperatures in Greenland, we suggest heat stress occurs in low salinity intertidal area, and that further lowered salinity in coastal water due to increased run‐off can make intertidal bivalves more susceptible to summer heat stress. This study thus provides an example of how different impacts of climate warming can work synergistically to stress marine organisms.
Disentangling the nonlinear effects of habitat complexity on functional responses
Authors: Mocq Julien , Soukup Pavel R. , Näslund Joacim , Boukal David S. 
Published: March 2021

AbstractStructural complexity of habitats modifies trophic interactions by providing refuges and altering predator and prey behaviour. Nonlinear effects on trophic interaction strengths driven by these mechanisms may alter food web dynamics and community structure in response to habitat modifications. However, changes in functional response, the relationship between prey density and feeding rate, along habitat complexity (HC) gradients are little understood.We quantified functional responses along a HC gradient from an entirely unstructured to highly structured habitat in a freshwater system, using dragonfly larvae (Aeshna cyanea) preying onChaoborus obscuripeslarvae. To disentangle mechanisms by which changes in HC affect functional responses, we used two different approaches—a population‐level and a behavioural experiment—applied an information theoretic approach to identify plausible links between HC and functional response parameters, and compared our results to previous studies.Functional response shape did not change, but we found strong evidence for nonlinear dependence of attack rate and handling time on HC in our study. Combined results from both experiments imply that attack rate increased stepwise between the unstructured and structured habitats in line with the threshold hypothesis, because the predators gained better access to the prey. Handling time was lowest at an intermediate HC level in the population‐level experiment while the direct estimate of handling time did not vary with HC in the behavioural experiment. These differences point towards HC‐driven changes in foraging activity and other predator and prey behaviour.Most previous studies reported stepwise decrease in attack rate in line with the threshold hypothesis or no change with increasing HC. Moreover, changes in the handling time parameter with HC appear to be relatively common but not conforming to the threshold hypothesis. Overall, increased HC appears to, respectively, weaken and strengthen trophic links in 2D and 3D predator–prey interactions.We conclude that detailed understanding of HC effects on food webs requires complementary experimental approaches across HC gradients that consider predator foraging strategies and predator and prey behaviour. Such studies can also help guide conservation efforts as addition of structural elements is frequently used for restoration of degraded aquatic habitats.
Grow fast but don't die young: Maternal effects mediate life‐history trade‐offs of lizards under climate warming
Authors: Hao Xin , Zou Ting‐Ting , Han Xing‐Zhi , Zhang Fu‐Shun , Du Wei‐Guo 
Published: March 2021

AbstractAs postulated by life‐history theory, not all life‐history traits can be maximized simultaneously. In ectothermic animals, climate warming is predicted to increase growth rates, but at a cost to overall life span. Maternal effects are expected to mediate this life‐history trade‐off, but such effects have not yet been explicitly elucidated.To understand maternal effects on the life‐history responses to climate warming in lizard offspring, we conducted a manipulative field experiment on a desert‐dwelling viviparous lacertid lizardEremias multiocellata, using open‐top chambers in a factorial design (maternal warm climate and maternal present climate treatments × offspring warm climate and offspring present climate treatments).We found that the maternal warm climate treatment had little impact on the physiological and life‐history traits of adult females (i.e. metabolic rate, reproductive output, growth and survival). However, the offspring warm climate treatment significantly affected offspring growth, and both maternal and offspring warm climate treatments interacted to affect offspring survival.Offspring from the warm climate treatment grew faster than those from the present climate treatment. However, the offspring warm climate treatment significantly decreased the survival rate of offspring from maternal present climate treatment, but not for those from the maternal warm climate treatment.Our study demonstrates that maternal effects mediate the trade‐off between growth and survival of offspring lizards, allowing them to grow fast without a concurrent cost of low survival rate (short life span). These findings stress the importance of adaptive maternal effects in buffering the impact of climate warming on organisms, which may help us to accurately predict the vulnerability of populations and species to future warming climates.
Lianas have more acquisitive traits than trees in a dry but not in a wet forest
Authors: Medina‐Vega José A. , Bongers Frans , Poorter Lourens , Schnitzer Stefan A. , Sterck Frank J. 
Published: March 2021

Abstract

Lianas are increasing in relative abundance and biomass in many tropical forests. We tested the hypothesis that lianas conform to the fast and acquisitive end of the continuum of plant strategies, allowing lianas to acquire resources faster than trees.

We assessed functional traits representative of the leaf (LES) and wood economics spectrum (WES), including plant hydraulics, in 16 liana and 16 tree species in the canopy of two tropical forests at the extremes of the climatic and geological gradient across the Isthmus of Panama.

For both forests, we observed a trade‐off between the construction of more productive leaves with rapid turnover and expensive leaves with slower turnover. We also found trait variation associated with wood and hydraulic traits. These two axes were orthogonal, suggesting that trade‐offs at the leaf and stem, including plant hydraulics, operate independently.

For the dry forest, lianas had cheaper and more efficient leaves than trees. For the wet forest, lianas and trees overlapped in leaf and stem characteristics. Moreover, the duration of green foliage highly explained the variation between dry forest species, reflecting different adaptations to drought. In the wet forest, fast‐growing species benefited from a higher return on investments of leaf vascular tissues than slow‐growing species and they had a higher capacity to transport water through the leaf.

A higher capacity to construct more productive leaves and display leaves with lower costs may favour lianas over trees in light interception, photosynthetic rates, and growth under high light and nutrient availability in dry forests.

Synthesis. Lianas in a dry tropical forest had a more acquisitive strategy than trees, characterized by more productive leaves and more efficient display for light interception. In dry environments, lianas appear to benefit from high‐light and nutrient‐rich soils and thus take advantage of higher resource conditions compared to trees. By contrast, in a wet tropical forest, lianas and trees overlapped in leaf and stem characteristics and lianas were not more acquisitive than trees. In wet environments, low light availability and nutrient‐poor soils in a context of low water limitation may constrain variation in resource acquisition strategies between lianas and trees.
Effects of pigment richness and size variation on coexistence, richness and function in light‐limited phytoplankton
Authors: Spaak Jurg Werner , De Laender Frederik 
Published: March 2021

Abstract

Trait diversity is traditionally seen as promoting species richness and ecosystem function. Species with dissimilar traits would partition available resources, increasing niche differences, facilitating coexistence and increasing ecosystem function.

Here we first show, using theory and simulations for light‐limited phytoplankton, that combing photosynthetic pigments is indeed a necessary condition for coexistence and stimulates ecosystem function.

However, pigment richness does mostly not permit the coexistence of more than two species, and increases productivity at most 40% compared to single‐pigment communities. That is because blending in more pigments leads to coexistence of species with many pigments and therefore flat absorption spectra, which equalizes their fitness but decreases their niche differences. Similarly, seeding species with more variable size leads to an excess of large‐celled species, which does not only decrease fitness differences but also niche differences.

Empirical data and additional simulations suggest that pigment richness effects can be stronger during transient dynamics but inevitably weaken with time, that is, pigment richness effects on species richness and function are likely short‐lived.

Synthesis. Our results highlight the need to apply coexistence theory to understand the long‐term effects of trait diversity on biodiversity and ecosystem function.
What is in a name? Autonomic imbalance and medically unexplained symptoms in Taiwan
Authors: Chen Jia‐shin 
Published: March 2021

AbstractMedically unexplained symptoms (MUS) are persistent bodily symptoms without known pathology. An unofficial term has recently emerged in Taiwan to accommodate MUS: autonomic imbalance (AI). AI literally refers to disturbances of the autonomic nervous system (ANS) that innervates vital organs. However, AI is variously conceptualised by different parties. This study intends to investigate what is in the name of AI. It draws on available databases and in‐depth interviews with AI sufferers and Western and Chinese medicine physicians. Some physicians research ANS functions through heart rate variability measurements. Research findings show that physicians regard AI as a convenient term for clinical communication and a euphemistic substitute for MUS or even psychiatric diagnoses. It is not a ‘real thing’. However, AI sufferers treat AI as a bona fide disease, only that it has not been officially classified. AI is therefore an unfaithful translation, or an uncontrolled equivocation, of MUS. The paper concludes by discussing the implications of treating AI as an equivocation. These implications include the limitations of the current diagnostic criteria, the necessity to rethink the dichotomy of mind and body, and the underlying realities exposed or masked by ‘diagnosis’.
The datafication of nature: data formations and new scales in natural history
Authors: Nadim Tahani 
Published: March 2021

AbstractIn this essay, I consider the scales and connections lost and gained as natural history adopts digital data infrastructures. On the basis of ongoing work in the Museum für Naturkunde Berlin, I track the relations between insect specimens and their material and digital informational ecologies. Using Latour's notion of the ‘circulating reference’, I follow the insect specimens as they make their way into taxonomies, databases, and digitization apparatuses. In focusing on human‐data mediations in museum practices of ordering, describing, and distributing specimens, I show how the datafication of nature makes present conventionally dissociated contexts, including German colonialism. Proposing the concept of a data formation, I suggest that ethnographers have much to contribute in bringing forward the sociocultural and historical specificities and contingencies within data.
Data – ova – gene – data
Authors: Walford Antonia 
Published: March 2021

AbstractIn this essay, I observe that data is valuable not only for what it is, but also for what it will become: that is, that data is a form of potential. I explore two aspects of this by drawing two comparisons with other forms of potential: ova and genes. First, building on ethnographic fieldwork with environmental scientists and technicians in the Brazilian Amazon, I compare data processing with ova donation in the United Kingdom in order to explore how data processing might be considered a form of reproductive labour. I then turn to emergent big data infrastructures in the environmental sciences, and compare the environmental sciences with genomics, in order to gesture towards some critical questions that need to be asked of such open data initiatives. I end with a reflection on comparison as a privileged means of drawing out the forms understood to be latent within data.
Establishing the protocols for the South Australian Emergency Department Admission Blood Psychoactive Testing (EDABPT) programme for drug surveillance
Authors: Partridge Emma , Alfred Sam , Camilleri Andrew , Green Hannah , Haustead Daniel , Kostakis Chris , Mallon Jake , Mason Kerryn , Rivers‐Kennedy April , Stockham Peter 
Published: March 2021

AbstractObjectiveED presentations because of illicit use of psychotropic drugs and pharmaceuticals result in significant medical harm and resource consumption. Patient assessment is complicated by the regular emergence of new psychoactive substances, difficulties associated with their identification and a lack of information about their effects. Here we report the protocol for the Emergency Department Admission Blood Psychoactive Testing (EDABPT) programme, an observational study utilising clinical data capture and definitive drug identification to assess the medical impact and patterns of illicit drug use in the community, and their geographic and temporal fluctuations. The study provides data to an early warning system targeting an improved public health response to emerging drugs of concern.MethodsEnrolment of adult patients presenting with suspected illicit drug use occurs at four major EDs in a single urban setting. Clinical and demographic data are collected by treating clinicians. Blood samples are collected at presentation and frozen on site prior to transport to a specialised forensic facility for comprehensive toxicological screening.ResultsResults are fed back to clinicians and disseminated more broadly via an existing local early warning system. Targeted warnings and public health releases are instigated where heightened risk or harm is identified.ConclusionThe study pairs city‐wide patient enrolment with analytically confirmed toxicology results to allow broad sampling and identification of illicit drugs causing medical harm. It provides a mechanism for the identification of new agents as they emerge in the community, delivers a relevant and reliable source of information for public health agencies and clinicians and supplements existing local early warning mechanisms.
SimBit: A high performance, flexible and easy‐to‐use population genetic simulator
Authors: Matthey‐Doret Remi 
Published: March 2021

AbstractSimBit is a general purpose, high performance forward‐in‐time population genetics simulator. SimBit can simulate a wide variety of selection scenarios (any selection and dominance coefficients variation, any epistatic interaction, any spatial and temporal changes of selection scenario, etc.), demographic scenarios (any changes in patch sizes, migration rates, realistic demography dependent on fecundity, hard vs. soft selection, exponential vs. logistic growth, gametic or zygotic dispersion, etc.) and mating systems (cloning and selfing rates, hermaphrodites or males and females). SimBit can also track QTLs (with hyperdimensional phenotypes, explicit fitness landscape, plasticity, developmental noise, etc.). Finally, SimBit can simulate multiple species with their ecological relationships. SimBit comes with a R wrapper that simplifies the management of an entire research project from the creation of a grid of parameters and corresponding inputs, running simulations and gathering outputs for analysis. SimBit's performance was extensively benchmarked in comparison to SLiM, Nemo and SFS_CODE, varying population size, recombination rate, mutation rate, and the number of loci. I also reproduced simulations from previous studies, benchmarked QTLs and coalescent tree recording techniques. SimBit was most often the highest performing program with the only notable exception of SLiM outperforming SimBit in scenarios with few loci and low genetic diversity.
Diagnostic value of anti‐citrullinated α‐enolase peptide 1 antibody in patients with rheumatoid arthritis: A systematic review and meta‐analysis
Authors: Li Haolong , Li Liubing , Liu Chenxi , Cheng Linlin , Yan Songxin , Chen Haizhen , Li Yongzhe 
Published: March 2021

AbstractAimTo evaluate the diagnostic value of anti‐citrullinated α‐enolase peptide 1 (anti‐CEP 1) antibody in patients with rheumatoid arthritis (RA) by conducting a systematic review and meta‐analysis.MethodsThe PubMed, Web of Science, Embase, Scopus, and Cochrane Library databases were searched for relevant studies published until September 23, 2020. A bivariate mixed‐effects model was used to calculate the diagnostic indices from primary data of eligible studies. We performed meta‐regression and subgroup analysis to explore the sources of heterogeneity.ResultsTwenty‐four articles, with a total of 17 380 patients with RA and 7505 control participants, met the criteria for inclusion in the meta‐analysis. The pooled sensitivity, specificity, and positive and negative likelihood ratios for the anti‐CEP 1 antibody were 44% (95% CI: 38%‐51%), 97% (95% CI: 96%‐98%), and 14.81 (95% CI: 10.66‐20.57) and 0.57 (95% CI: 0.52‐0.64), respectively. The pooled positive and negative predictive values were 0.96 (95% CI: 0.95‐0.97) and 0.53 (95% CI: 0.43‐0.63), respectively. The area under the summary receiver operating characteristic curve was 0.86. Meta‐regression indicated that the anti‐CEP 1 antibody detection method may be a source of heterogeneity. The subgroup analysis of the group in which the anti‐CEP 1 antibody was detected by using a commercial enzyme‐linked immunosorbent assay (ELISA) kit had a sensitivity of 59% (95% CI: 50%‐68%) and a specificity of 93% (95% CI: 85%‐97%).ConclusionsThe anti‐CEP 1 antibody had moderate RA diagnostic value with relatively low sensitivity and high specificity. An ELISA may increase the RA diagnostic sensitivity.
ExpandingTNMfor lung cancer through machine learning
Authors: Hueman Matthew , Wang Huan , Liu Zhenqiu , Henson Donald , Nguyen Cuong , Park Dean , Sheng Li , Chen Dechang 
Published: March 2021

AbstractBackgroundExpanding the tumor, lymph node, metastasis (TNM) staging system by accommodating new prognostic and predictive factors for cancer will improve patient stratification and survival prediction. Here, we introduce machine learning for incorporating additional prognostic factors into the conventional TNM for stratifying patients with lung cancer and evaluating survival.MethodsData were extracted from SEER. A total of 77 953 patients were analyzed using factors including primary tumor (T), regional lymph node (N), distant metastasis (M), age, and histology type. Ensemble algorithm for clustering cancer data (EACCD) and C‐index were applied to generate prognostic groups and expand the current staging system.ResultsWith T, N, and M, EACCD stratified patients into 11 groups, resulting in a significantly higher accuracy in survival prediction than the 10 AJCC stages (C‐index = 0.7346 vs. 0.7247, increase in C‐index = 0.0099, 95% CI: 0.0091–0.0106,p‐value = 9.2 × 10−147). There nevertheless remained a strong association between the EACCD grouping and AJCC staging (rank correlation = 0.9289;p‐value = 6.7 × 10−22). A further analysis demonstrated that age and histological tumor could be integrated with the TNM. Data were stratified into 12 prognostic groups with an even higher prediction accuracy (C‐index = 0.7468 vs. 0.7247, increase in C‐index = 0.0221, 95% CI: 0.0212–0.0231,p‐value <5 × 10−324).ConclusionsEACCD can be successfully applied to integrate additional factors with T, N, M for lung cancer patients.
Angiomatoid fibrosis histiocytoma in the pulmonary artery: A case report
Authors: Mishima Shuji , Mishima Osamu , Azuhata Koji , Shimojo Hisashi , Ito Nobuo , Misawa Kenji , Shimizu Kimihiro 
Published: March 2021

AbstractAngiomatoid fibrosis histiocytoma (AFH) is a rare neoplastic disease. Only one report has demonstrated an intraluminal tumor of the pulmonary artery (PA) corresponding to AFH to date. We describe the case of AFH with EWSR1‐CREB1 fusion occurring in the ascending artery. A 42‐year‐old man exhibited an abnormal nodule on chest computed tomography (CT) during checkup. It revealed an intraluminal mass in the ascending artery with significant metabolic uptake in positron emission tomography (PET)/CT. Therefore, right upper lobectomy with wedge resection of the PA trunk was performed. Histologically, the tumor was multinodular and surrounded by a dense lymphoplasmacytic cuff. Each nodule was composed of myxoid stroma and comprised ovoid or spindle cell fascicles with mild atypia. Fluorescent in situ hybridization (FISH) analysis confirmed EWSR1‐CREB1 fusion. A diagnosed as AFH was made. This report widens the spectrum of differential diagnoses of primary tumors occurring in the PA.
Archaeological evidence of an early Islamic monastery in the centre of al‐Qusur (Failaka Island, Kuwait)
Authors: Bonnéric Julie 
Published: March 2021

AbstractThe history of Christianity in the Gulf is still largely unknown since both archaeological and written sources are sparse. Many questions remain about the development and disappearance of Christian communities, as well as their form. A few sites were identified as Christian because of the discovery of churches or crosses. A church was excavated at al‐Qusur (Failaka Island, Kuwait) by the French Mission to Kuwait in 1988–1989. Since 2011, a new French–Kuwaiti Archaeological Mission in Failaka (MAFKF) has aimed to better understand the site’s phasing and organisation. The discovery of a large refectory and a small tripartite building that is most probably a monk’s cell, as well as the reinterpretation of a church‐like building as a structure perhaps dedicated to the spiritual education of monks has demonstrated that at least the central part was a monastery, making it the second Christian settlement in the Gulf to be proven to be a monastery.