The linkage of stomatal behavior with photosynthetic processes is critical to understanding water and carbon cycles under global change. The slope ( g1) of stomatal conductance ( gs) versus CO 2 assimilation ( Anet) serves as a proxy of the marginal water cost of carbon acquisition and the trade-off between carbon gain and water loss. Here we use g1 to assess species differences in the response of stomatal behavior to experimental climate change manipulations, asking whether generalizable patterns exist across species and climate contexts. A total of 17,727 Anet- gs measurements made in a long-term open-air experiment under ambient and +3.3°C warming, and ambient and ~40% summer rainfall reduction provided > 2,700 estimates of g1 across 21 boreal and temperate tree species. All species became more conservative in their water use (lower g1) in warming and/or reduced rainfall treatments because of lower soil moisture. In contrast to these phenotypic responses, species from warmer and drier habitats tended to have slightly higher g1 and to be the least sensitive to the decrease in soil water. Overall, both warming and rainfall reduction consistently made stomatal behavior more conservative in terms of water loss per unit carbon gain across 21 species and a decade of experimental observation.

Saltwater- and freshwater environments have opposing physiological challenges, yet, there are fish species that are able to enter both habitats during short time-spans, and as individuals they must therefore adjust quickly to osmoregulatory contrasts. In this study, we conducted an experiment to test for plastic responses to abrupt sainity changes in two poplulations of threespine stickleback, Gasterosteus aculeatus, representing two ecotypes (freshwater and ancestral saltwater). We exposed both ecotypes to abrupt native (control treatment) and non-native salinities (0 and 30‰) and sampled gill-tissue for transcriptomic analyses after six hours exposure. To investigate genomic responses to salinity, we analysed four different comparisons; one for each ecotype (in their control and exposure salinity; 1 and 2), one between ecotypes in their control salinity (3), and the fourth comparison included all transcripts identified in (3) that did not show any expressional changes within ecotype in either the control or the exposed salinity (4). Abrupt salinity transfer affected the expression of 10 and 1530 transcripts for the saltwater and freshwater ecotype, respectively, and 1314 were differentially expressed between the controls, including 502 that were not affected by salinity within ecotype (fixed expression). In total, these results indicate that factors other than genomic expressional plasticity are important for osmoregulation in stickleback, due to the need for opposite physiological pathways to survive the abrupt change in salinity.

After establishing secondary contact, recently diverged populations may remain reproductively isolated or hybridize to a varying extent depending on factors such as hybrid fitness and the strength of assortative mating. Replicated contact zones between hybridizing taxa offer a unique opportunity to explore how different factors interact to shape patterns of hybridization. Here, we used genomic and phenotypic data from three independent contact zones between subspecies of the Variable Seedeater (Sporophila corvina), to examine how coloration and genetic divergence shape patterns of hybridization. We found that plumage coloration has limited introgression across contact zones, but the degree of plumage divergence does not explain overall patterns of introgression. Across two parallel contact zones between populations with divergent phenotypes (entirely black vs. pied plumage) populations hybridized extensively across one contact zone but not the other, suggesting that plumage divergence is not sufficient to maintain reproductive isolation. Where subspecies hybridized, hybrid zones were wide and formed by later-generation hybrids, suggesting that hybrids present similar or higher fitness than parental subspecies. Moreover, contemporary gene flow has played an important role in shaping patterns of genetic diversity between populations. Overall, our results demonstrate that divergence in plumage coloration is important in reducing gene flow but insufficient in maintaining reproductive isolation in this clade, and that other factors such as divergence in song and time since secondary contact may also play an important role in driving patterns of reduced hybridization and gene flow.

Title Page:Title : Letter To the Editor: Outcomes of Preoperative Antiplatelet Therapy in Patients With Acute Type A Aortic DissectionArticle Type : Letter To The EditorCorrespondence : 1. Sandhya KumariContact no: +92-3321346164 Email: [email protected]: Ziauddin University KarachiAddress: Bungalow Number 7/2, 26th Street, Tauheed Commercial Area, Phase 5 Defence Karachi.ORCID: 0000-0001-8842-8738Co-Author : 2. Roomi RajaContact No: +92-3342946940 Email: [email protected]: Ziauddin University KarachiAddress: Hemilton Courts Block G-1 Flat 408 Near Teen Talwar Clifton KarachiORCID: 0000-0001-9104-3644Word Count : 340Conflict of interest : NoneAcknowledgement : NoneDeclaration : NoneDisclosure : NoneFunding : NoneDear Editor,We have, in recent times, read with great interest the article entitled “ Outcomes of Preoperative Antiplatelet Therapy in Patients With Acute Type A Aortic Dissection” by Xuan Jiang MD et al.1 We highly appreciate the author’s efforts towards this highly sensitive topic and it needs to be applauded by the readers.We acknowledge the primary conclusion of the article that patients receiving antiplatelet therapy before having surgery for acute type A aortic dissection is associated with increased mortality and increased need for blood transfusions. However, some concerns appear, disturbing the validity of the study.Even though the authors have highlighted the use of multiple different antiplatelet drugs before the surgery such as ticagrelor, clopidogrel and aspirin, there remains some factors that made an impact on the findings. Firstly, the authors should have considered the patients who are on Dual antiplatelet therapy because mortality and blood transfusion rate in patients using dual antiplatelet therapy is higher as compared to a single antiplatelet drug user.2 Secondly, the authors should have widened their inclusion criteria and could have included patients with preoperative characteristic such as cardiac tamponade and lower systolic blood pressure, like the study of 2014 included these two as variables and found increased prevalence of mortality associated with these variables.3Thirdly, the authors should have classified the patients using Debakey class 1,2 and Penn class A,B,C classifications. For example, a study in 2019 stated that the patients who experienced major bleeding were associated with Debakey class 1 and higher Penn class.4 Lastly, the authors should have taken into consideration some measures while transferring a patient to the ICU to minimize the mortality rate. For example, a study of 2022 stated that patients on new oral anticoagulants required norepinephrine and other inotropic agents while transferring to ICU as compared to patients taking warfarin (Coumadin).5In last, additional new studies should be conducted on patients receiving antiplatelet therapy before undergoing mitral valve surgery so that incidents leading to mortality goes down and prognosis becomes better.References:1- Jiang X, Khan F, Shi E, Fan R, Qian X, Zhang H, Gu T. Outcomes of preoperativeantiplatelet therapy in patients with acute type A aortic dissection. J Card Surg. 2022Jan;37(1):53-61. doi: 10.1111/jocs.16080. Epub 2021 Oct 17. PMID: 34657299.2- Chemtob RA, Moeller-Soerensen H, Holmvang L, Olsen PS, Ravn HB. OutcomeAfter Surgery for Acute Aortic Dissection: Influence of Preoperative AntiplateletTherapy on Prognosis. J Cardiothorac Vasc Anesth. 2017 Apr;31(2):569-574. doi:10.1053/j.jvca.2016.10.007. Epub 2016 Oct 11. PMID: 28017673.3- Hansson EC, Dellborg M, Lepore V, Jeppsson A. Prevalence, indications andappropriateness of antiplatelet therapy in patients operated for acute aortic dissection:associations with bleeding complications and mortality. Heart. 2013 Jan;99(2):116-21. doi: 10.1136/heartjnl-2012-302717. Epub 2012 Oct 9. PMID: 23048167.4- Hansson EC, Geirsson A, Hjortdal V, Mennander A, Olsson C, Gunn J, et al.Preoperative dual antiplatelet therapy increases bleeding and transfusions but notmortality in acute aortic dissection type a repair [Internet]. OUP Academic. OxfordUniversity Press; 2019: doi: org/10.1093/ejctz/ezy469. Epub 2019 january 16.5- Sromicki J, Van Hemelrijck M, Schmiady MO, Krüger B, Morjan M, Bettex D, VogtPR, Carrel TP, Mestres CA. Prior intake of new oral anticoagulants adversely affectsoutcome following surgery for acute type A aortic dissection. Interact CardiovascThorac Surg. 2022 Jun 15;35(1):ivac037. doi: 10.1093/icvts/ivac037. PMID:35258082; PMCID: PMC9252133.

Since this is a HP today contribution I understand that it should not have an abstract

Background: Allogeneic hematopoietic cell transplantation (allo-HCT) remains a curative option for patients with high-risk myeloid malignancies. Procedure: We present our ten-year experience (October 2012-October 2021) of consecutive allo-HCT in patients with myeloid malignancies treated on the pediatric HCT service and conditioned with myeloablative targeted dose-busulfan (BU), fludarabine (FLU) and melphalan (MEL). Twenty-three children, adolescents, and young adult patients (CAYA) (median age 15.4yr) with acute myeloid leukemia (AML, n=17), myelodysplastic syndrome (MDS, n=4), or chronic myeloid leukemia (CML, n=2) underwent allo-HCT post-BU-FLU-MEL. Four patients had treatment-related AML/MDS. Donor/stem cell source was MSD PBSC (n=7), MUD PBSC (n=2), UCB (n=3) or haploidentical-BMT (n=11). Risk stratification was low (n=2), intermediate (n=15), high (=3) and very high risk (n=1). The two patients with CML had failed tyrosine kinase inhibitor therapies. Results: With a median follow-up of 39.6 months the relapse rate is only 4.5% with an OS 100%, PFS 95.5% and graft-versus-host-free-relapse-free survival (GRFS) 67.8%. The donor source and the GvHD prophylaxis regimen significantly impacted grades II-IV aGvHD 66.7% versus 19.2% ( P=0.039) and cGvHD 66.7% versus 0% ( P=0.002) in the patients receiving matched sibling (MSD) or matched unrelated donor (MUD) PBSC compared to haplo-BMT respectively, resulting in improved GRFS in haplo-BMT, 83.3% compared to 40% matched donor PBSCT ( P=0.025). Conclusions: Our results demonstrate that BU-FLU-MEL is efficacious conditioning for disease control in young patients with myeloid malignancies undergoing MSD or alternative donor allo-HCT but in the setting of PBSC grafts with CSA-MTX GvHD prophylaxis it results in an unacceptably high incidence of GvHD.

Childhood and adolescent/young adult (AYA) cancer survivors experience poor health outcomes in adulthood. Adverse Childhood Experiences (ACEs) also portend poor health outcomes for the general population. Resilience can mitigate effects of ACEs. We examined the feasibility of assessing ACEs and resilience in childhood/AYA cancer patients. We also described occurrences of ACEs, resilience, and poor health outcomes. Of 52 participants, most rated their study experience favorably, with privacy in answering sensitive questions. Half reported ACEs, and those with ACEs had lower resilience, X2(3,N=52)=9.39, p=0.02. Further investigations of ACEs and resilience in larger cohorts are warranted to delineate associations with long-term health outcomes.

Background: Pediatric CNS tumors are the leading cause of pediatric cancer mortality. Research addressing genomic biomarkers and clinical outcomes is needed to inform therapeutic decision making. Methods: We conducted a retrospective analysis of pediatric patients (age <21) diagnosed with a primary CNS tumor at four upstate New York hospitals from 2008 to 2021. Clinical and histopathologic data were identified from each patient, including genomic analysis of somatic mutations and tumor mutation burden (TMB) where available. These variables were each compared with overall survival using cox-regression analyses. Multivariable analysis was conducted to identify patient characteristics that may independently predict survival. Results: We identified 119 patients. Common tumor types included low-grade glioma (N=51), high-grade glioma (N=29), and medulloblastoma (N=11). Common driver-mutations included TP53 inactivation (N=16), BRAF-KIAA1549 fusion (N=16), FGFR1 amplification (N=12), BRAF V600E mutation (N=12), NF1 loss (N=12), and H3F3A K28M mutation (N=6). Median TMB was 1 mutation/megabase (mut/Mb, range=0-132). Overall survival was 79.9%. Variables associated with poorer survival on univariable analysis were higher TMB (p=0.002, HR 4.97), high grade tumors (p=0.009, HR 84.3), and high-grade glioma histology (p=0.021, HR 3.14). Multivariable analyses further identified TMB (p=0.011, HR 4.46) and high-grade histology (p=0.015, HR 5.28) as independently predictive of worse survival. Tumor progression was more common in high TMB (N=15, 44%) than in low TMB tumors (N=19, 35%). Conclusions: High TMB is correlated with higher rates of progression and death as compared to low TMB tumors. These findings may help identify patients who may benefit from alternative treatments, such as immunotherapies.

DNA barcoding has been used worldwide to identify biological specimens and to delimit species. It represents a cost-effective, fast and efficient way to assess biodiversity with help of the public Barcode of Life Database (BOLD) accounting for more than 236,000 animal species and more than ten million barcode sequences. Here, we performed a meta-analysis of available barcode data of central European Coleoptera to detect intraspecific genetic patterns among ecological groups in relation to geographic distance with the aim to investigate a possible link between infraspecific variation and species ecology. We collected information regarding feeding style, body size as well as habitat and biotope preferences. Mantel tests and two variants of Procrustes analysis, both involving the Principal Coordinates Neighborhood Matrices (PCNM) approach, were applied on genetic and geographic distance matrices. However, significance levels were too low to further use the outcome for further trait investigation: these were in mean for all ecological guilds only 7.5, 9.4, or 15.6 % for PCNM+PCA, NMDS+PCA, and Mantel test, respectively, or at best 28% for a single guild. Our study confirmed that certain ecological traits were associated with higher species diversity and foster stronger genetic differentiation. Results suggest that increased numbers of species, sampling localities, and specimens for a chosen area of interest may give new insights to explore barcode data and species ecology for the scope of conservation on a larger scale.

Sexual imprinting is widespread in birds and other species but its existence requires explanation. Here we show that sexual imprinting leads to speciation in locally-adapted populations if a neutral mating cue – e.g., novel plumage coloration – arises through mutation. Local adaptations occur when evolution results in stable genetic polymorphisms with one allele predominating in some areas while others predominate elsewhere. Here we use a deterministic two-niche population genetic model to map the set of migration and selection rates for which polymorphic evolutionary outcomes, i.e., local adaptations, can occur. Equations for the boundaries of the set of polymorphic evolutionary outcomes were derived by (Bulmer, 1972), but our results, obtained by deterministic simulation of the evolutionary process, show that one of Bulmer’s equations is inaccurate except when the level of dominance is 0.5, and fails if one of the alleles is dominant. Having an accurate map of the set of migration and selection rates for which polymorphic evolutionary outcomes can occur, we then show using the model of (Sibly et al., 2019) that local adaptation in all cases leads to speciation if a new neutral mating cue arises by mutation. We finish by considering how genome sequencing makes possible testing of our results.

Objective Assess whether coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) vaccination impacts menstrual bleeding quantity. Design Retrospective cohort Setting Five global regions Populations Vaccinated and unvaccinated regularly cycling individuals using the digital fertility-awareness application “Natural Cycles”. Methods We used prospectively collected menstrual cycle data and multivariable longitudinal Poisson GEE models, multivariable multinomial logistic regression models, and calculated the adjusted difference between vaccination groups. All regression models were adjusted for confounders. Outcome measures Mean number of heavy bleeding days (fewer, no change, more) and changes in bleeding quantity (less, no change, more) at three time points (first dose, second dose, and post-exposure menses). Results We included 9,555 individuals (7,401 vaccinated, 2,154 unvaccinated). About 2/3 of individuals reported no change in the number of heavy bleeding days regardless of vaccination status. After adjusting for confounders, there were no significant differences in the number of heavy bleeding days by vaccination status. A larger proportion of vaccinated individuals experienced an increase in total bleeding quantity (34.5% unvaccinated, 38.4% vaccinated; 4.0% [0.7, 7.2%] adjusted difference). This translates to an estimated 40 additional people per 1,000 normally cycling individuals who experience more total bleeding quantity following the first vaccine dose due to vaccination. Differences resolved in the cycle post-exposure. Conclusion A small increase in the probability of more total bleeding quantity occurs following the first COVID-19 vaccine dose which resolved the cycle post-vaccination cycle. Total number of heavy bleeding days did not differ by vaccination status. Our findings can reassure the public that any changes are small and transie

A document by Alessandro Farsi. Click on the document to view its contents.

Title PageTitle: Letter to the Editor: Acute Aortic Dissection Type A; Impact Of Aortic Specialists on Short and Long TermArticle Type: Letter to the Editor

Geobacter species have great application potential in remediation processes and electrobiotechnology. In all applications, understanding the metabolism will enable target-oriented optimization of the processes. The typical electron donor and carbon source of the Geobacter species is acetate, while fumarate is the usual electron acceptor. Here, we could show that depending on the donor/acceptor ratio in batch cultivation of G. sulfurreducens different product patterns occur. With a donor/acceptor ratio of 1:2.5 malate accumulated as an intermediate product but was metabolized to succinate subsequently. At the end of the cultivation, the ratio of fumarate consumed and succinate produced was approximately 1:1. When fumarate was added in excess, malate accumulated in the fermentation broth without further metabolization. After the addition of acetate to stationary cells, malate concentration decreased immediately and additional succinate was synthesized. Finally, it was shown that also resting cells of G. sulfurreducens could efficiently convert fumarate to malate without an additional electron donor. Overall, it was demonstrated that by altering the donor/acceptor ratio, targeted optimization of the metabolite conversion by G. sulfurreducens can be realized.

White sponge nevus (WSN) /Canon’s disease is a rare, autosomal dominant mucosal disorder. WSN falls in the category of Oral Genodermatosis which can be easily diagnosed based on the history and clinical examination. Here we report the first two cases of WSN in a young girl and her mother.

Prostate cancer is one of the most common cancers that metastasize to the bone. bone metastasis is usually osteoblastic, and diffuse osteolytic lesion on presentation is unusual. Here, we are reporting MRI image of patient presented with diffuse osteolytic lesion and found to have metastatic prostate cancer.

A 55-year-old male cancer patient with ICI therapy (PD-1 antibody) started to manifest myasthenia gravis (MG) symptoms, cardiac injury, intermittent third-degree atrioventricular block, and ventricular pause necessitating temporary cardiac pacing. Intravenous steroids and immunoglobulin, pyridostigmine, and mycophenolate mofetil were sequentially initiated and the above symptoms were gradually resolved.

Introduction: Brain tumors in children are the main cause of cancer related death in the pediatric population. Brainstem tumors incidence comprises 10.9% of all brain tumors having the Pediatric Diffuse Intrinsic Pontine Gliomas (DIPG) a fatal prognosis. Some countries have developed a national and international register database, to characterize their population. This study provides a retrospective population-based data to describe the epidemiology of children with DIPG in México from 2001-2021, and assesses the proposed prognostic factors previously described for survival outcome. Methods: Health Institutions from México were invited to fill in a retrospective registry of DIPG patients. Epidemiological, clinical, diagnostic, histopathologic and treatment variables were described. Fisher exact test was used to compare long, and short-term survivors and overall survival was estimated using the Kaplan-Meier Method. Differences between survival curves were evaluated using the Log-rank test and Cox proportional hazards regression analysis. Results: One-hundred and ten patients were included in the analysis. Median age at diagnosis was 7 years. Sixty patients (54.5%) presented with symptoms in less than 6 months being the most frequent ataxia (56.4%). Treatment was offered to 90 patients (81.8%), overall survival at 160 weeks (4 years) was 11.4%, and 16 patients (14.5%) arrived at clinical centers to die. We found no significant survival differences in any of the prognostic factors. Conclusion: This study highlights the need to develop improvement strategies to streamline healthcare processes and enhance quality of care to strengthen our situational diagnosis in Mexico.