Evaluation of Nitrogen and Carbon Stable Isotopes in Filter Feeding Bivalves and Surficial Sediment for Assessing Aquatic Condition in Lakes and Estuaries.

Excessive inputs of nitrogen from anthropogenic activities in watersheds can cause detrimental effects to aquatic ecosystems, but these effects can be difficult to determine based solely on nitrogen concentrations because of their temporal variability and the need to link human activities to ecological responses. Here, we (1) tested the use of stable isotopes of nitrogen (δN) and carbon (δC) in benthic organic matter (BOM) as proxies for isotope ratios of filter feeding bivalves in lakes and estuaries, which can be used as indicators but are harder to sample and often spatially sparse, and (2) evaluated if stable isotope ratios in benthic organic matter could be used to assess impacts from anthropogenic land development of watersheds. The δN in BOM isolated from surficial sediment (δN) was significantly correlated with δN in filter feeding unionid mussels ( δN) from lakes and with hard-shell clams ( δN) from estuaries.

Quantitative assessment and localization of the hollowing of the temple after craniectomy and cranioplasty-The frontozygomatic shadow.

Background: After cranioplasty, in many cases a not negligible soft tissue defect remains in the temporozygomatical area, also referred to as a hollowing defect of the temple.

Objective: To assess the precise localization and volume of the hollowing defect, to optimize future cranioplasties.

Methods: CT data of patients who received craniectomy and conventional CAD cranioplasty in our institution between 2012 and 2018 were analyzed.

Public Health Leadership in a VUCA World Environment: Lessons Learned during the Regional Emergency Rollout of SARS-CoV-2 Vaccinations in Heidelberg, Germany, during the COVID-19 Pandemic.

The purpose of this work is to share methods used and lessons learned during a comprehensive inter-institutional pandemic disaster response in Heidelberg, Germany, conveying experiences of the regional SARS-CoV-2 vaccination rollout campaign for up to 1,000,000 vaccines in the year 2020. In this volatile, uncertain, complex, and ambiguous (VUCA) environment, the following five strategic elements were pertinent for institutional arrangements so that specific contributions of the various project partners would be available fast without the necessity of extensive negotiations or information exchange: (1) robust mandate, (2) use of established networks, (3) fast onboarding and securing of commitment of project partners, (4) informed planning of supply capacity, and (5) securing the availability of critical items. Planning tools included analyses through a VUCA lens, analyses of stakeholders and their management, possible failures, and management of main risks including mitigation strategies.

Resilience of aquatic systems: Review and management implications.

Our understanding of how ecosystems function has changed from an equilibria-based view to one that recognizes the dynamic, fluctuating, nonlinear nature of aquatic systems. This current understanding requires that we manage systems for resilience. In this review, we examine how resilience has been defined, measured and applied in aquatic systems, and more broadly, in the socioecological systems in which they are embedded.

Expansion of a single transposable element family is associated with genome-size increase and radiation in the genus .

Transposable elements are one of the major contributors to genome-size differences in metazoans. Despite this, relatively little is known about the evolutionary patterns of element expansions and the element families involved. Here we report a broad genomic sampling within the genus , a freshwater cnidarian at the focal point of diverse research in regeneration, symbiosis, biogeography, and aging.

Urbanisation alters fatty acids in stream food webs.

Fatty acids are essential to macroinvertebrate growth and reproduction and can indicate food web structure and nutritional quality of basal resources. However, broad-scale examinations of how catchment land cover and associated stressors affect the proportions of fatty acids (FAs) in stream food webs are few.Here, we: (1) examine relationships among proportions of FAs among benthic periphyton and macroinvertebrate collector/gatherers, shredders, and predators; and (2) test if relationships between periphytic and macroinvertebrate FAs were altered due to the intensity of urban development in catchments.

Evaluation of the artificial sweetener sucralose as a sanitary wastewater tracer in Narragansett Bay, Rhode Island, USA.

Narragansett Bay is an urban estuary that historically has been impacted by long-term discharge of sanitary wastewater (WW) effluents. High-density water sampling was conducted in Narragansett Bay, RI, USA, in an effort to understand the distribution and behavior of sucralose, an artificial sweetener that has shown utility as a sanitary wastewater tracer. Water samples were collected at sixty-seven sites and analyzed for sucralose, whose performance was compared to other tracers present in wastewater effluents.

Use of Stable Isotopes in Benthic Organic Material as a Baseline for Estimating Fish Trophic Positions in Lakes.

Estimating the trophic position of predators in food webs using stable isotopes requires establishing a 'baseline'; typically served by bivalves or snails. However, the frequent absence of such organisms in lakes leaves researchers in a difficult situation. Here we test the hypothesis that trophic position (TP) of largemouth bass (LB) in lakes can be estimated from δN of benthic organic material (BOM) in littoral surficial sediment.

Performance of National Maps of Watershed Integrity at Watershed Scales.

Watershed integrity, the capacity of a watershed to support and maintain ecological processes essential to the sustainability of services provided to society, can be influenced by a range of landscape and in-stream factors. Ecological response data from four intensively monitored case study watersheds exhibiting a range of environmental conditions and landscape characteristics across the United States were used to evaluate the performance of a national level Index of Watershed Integrity (IWI) at regional and local watershed scales. Using Pearson's correlation coefficient (), and Spearman's rank correlation coefficient ( ), response variables displayed highly significant relationships and were significantly correlated with IWI and ICI (Index of Catchment Integrity) values at all watersheds.

Stable isotopes of algae and macroinvertebrates in streams respond to watershed urbanization, inform management goals, and indicate food web relationships.

Watershed development and anthropogenic sources of nitrogen are among leading causes of negative impacts to aquatic ecosystems around the world. The δN of aquatic biota can be used as indicators of anthropogenic sources of nitrogen enriched in N, but this mostly has been done at small spatial extents or to document effects of point sources. In this study, we sampled 77 sites along a forest to urban land cover gradient to examine food webs and the use of δN of periphyton and macroinvertebrate functional feeding groups (FFGs) as indicators of watershed development and nitrogen effects on streams.

Gastric Emphysema: A Cannot-Miss Emergency Medicine Diagnosis.

The radiographic finding of gastric emphysema with portal venous gas is classically an ominous finding, associated with a high rate of mortality. Although classically the case, this imaging finding must be quickly correlated with the overall clinical picture, allowing for the essential differentiation between the highly lethal emphysematous gastritis and the much more benign gastric emphysema, each of which has drastically different management strategies. We report a case of gastric emphysema with portal venous gas likely attributable to a gastric outlet obstruction and gastric mucosal defect in a 17-year-old girl with a chief complaint of syncope that was diagnosed in the emergency department and treated conservatively.

FTO gene variant modulates the neural correlates of visual food perception.

Variations in the fat mass and obesity associated (FTO) gene are currently the strongest known genetic factor predisposing humans to non-monogenic obesity. Recent experiments have linked these variants to a broad spectrum of behavioural alterations, including food choice and substance abuse. Yet, the underlying neurobiological mechanisms by which these genetic variations influence body weight remain elusive.

Quantifying Urban Watershed Stressor Gradients and Evaluating How Different Land Cover Datasets Affect Stream Management.

Watershed management and policies affecting downstream ecosystems benefit from identifying relationships between land cover and water quality. However, different data sources can create dissimilarities in land cover estimates and models that characterize ecosystem responses. We used a spatially balanced stream study (1) to effectively sample development and urban stressor gradients while representing the extent of a large coastal watershed (>4400 km(2)), (2) to document differences between estimates of watershed land cover using 30-m resolution national land cover database (NLCD) and <1-m resolution land cover data, and (3) to determine if predictive models and relationships between water quality and land cover differed when using these two land cover datasets.

An Obesity-Predisposing Variant of the FTO Gene Regulates D2R-Dependent Reward Learning.

Variations in the fat mass and obesity-associated (FTO) gene are linked to obesity. However, the underlying neurobiological mechanisms by which these genetic variants influence obesity, behavior, and brain are unknown. Given that Fto regulates D2/3R signaling in mice, we tested in humans whether variants in FTO would interact with a variant in the ANKK1 gene, which alters D2R signaling and is also associated with obesity.

Correction: Objects Mediate Goal Integration in Ventrolateral Prefrontal Cortex during Action Observation.

[This corrects the article DOI: 10.1371/journal.pone.

Objects Mediate Goal Integration in Ventrolateral Prefrontal Cortex during Action Observation.

Actions performed by others are mostly not observed in isolation, but embedded in sequences of actions tied together by an overarching goal. Therefore, preceding actions can modulate the observer's expectations in relation to the currently perceived action. Ventrolateral prefrontal cortex (vlPFC), and inferior frontal gyrus (IFG) in particular, is suggested to subserve the integration of episodic as well as semantic information and memory, including action scripts.

A Comprehensive Transcriptomic and Proteomic Analysis of Hydra Head Regeneration.

The cnidarian freshwater polyp Hydra sp. exhibits an unparalleled regeneration capacity in the animal kingdom. Using an integrative transcriptomic and stable isotope labeling by amino acids in cell culture proteomic/phosphoproteomic approach, we studied stem cell-based regeneration in Hydra polyps.

Sequential actions of β-catenin and Bmp pattern the oral nerve net in Nematostella vectensis.

Animal evolution is closely linked to the emergence of the nervous system. At present it is unknown how the basic mechanisms of neural induction and formation of central nervous systems evolved. We addressed this question in Nematostella vectensis, a member of cnidarians, the ancient sister group of bilaterians.

The comprehensive analysis of DEG/ENaC subunits in Hydra reveals a large variety of peptide-gated channels, potentially involved in neuromuscular transmission.

Background: It is generally the case that fast transmission at neural synapses is mediated by small molecule neurotransmitters. The simple nervous system of the cnidarian Hydra, however, contains a large repertoire of neuropeptides and it has been suggested that neuropeptides are the principal transmitters of Hydra. An ion channel directly gated by Hydra-RFamide neuropeptides has indeed been identified in Hydra - the Hydra Na+ channel (HyNaC) 2/3/5, which is expressed at the oral side of the tentacle base.

Nodal signalling determines biradial asymmetry in Hydra.

In bilaterians, three orthogonal body axes define the animal form, with distinct anterior-posterior, dorsal-ventral and left-right asymmetries. The key signalling factors are Wnt family proteins for the anterior-posterior axis, Bmp family proteins for the dorsal-ventral axis and Nodal for the left-right axis. Cnidarians, the sister group to bilaterians, are characterized by one oral-aboral body axis, which exhibits a distinct biradiality of unknown molecular nature.

Joint principles of motor and cognitive dysfunction in Parkinson's disease.

Traditionally, the lateral premotor cortex (PM) is assigned a role in stimulus-driven rather than memory-driven motor control, whereas the opposite holds for the mesial premotor cortex (supplementary motor area, SMA). Consistently, patients with Parkinson's Disease (PD), in which a specific functional degradation of the mesial loop (i.e.

Temporally remote destabilization of prediction after rare breaches of expectancy.

While neural signatures of breaches of expectancy and their immediate effects have been investigated, thus far, temporally more remote effects have been neglected. The present fMRI study explored neural correlates of temporally remote destabilization of prediction following rare breaches of expectancy with a mean delay of 14 s. We hypothesized temporally remote destabilization to be reflected either in an attenuation of areas related to long-term memory or in an increase of lateral fronto-parietal loops related to the encoding of new stimuli.

Population genetic diversity and fitness in multiple environments.

Background: When a large number of alleles are lost from a population, increases in individual homozygosity may reduce individual fitness through inbreeding depression. Modest losses of allelic diversity may also negatively impact long-term population viability by reducing the capacity of populations to adapt to altered environments. However, it is not clear how much genetic diversity within populations may be lost before populations are put at significant risk.

Three homologous subunits form a high affinity peptide-gated ion channel in Hydra.

Recently, three ion channel subunits of the degenerin (DEG)/epithelial Na(+) channel (ENaC) gene family have been cloned from the freshwater polyp Hydra magnipapillata, the Hydra Na(+) channels (HyNaCs) 2-4. Two of them, HyNaC2 and HyNaC3, co-assemble to form an ion channel that is gated by the neuropeptides Hydra-RFamides I and II. The HyNaC2/3 channel is so far the only cloned ionotropic receptor from cnidarians and, together with the related ionotropic receptor FMRFamide-activated Na(+) channel (FaNaC) from snails, the only known peptide-gated ionotropic receptor.