Warming and soil water availability affect plant-flower visitor interactions for Stylosanthes capitata, a tropical forage legume.

The reproductive success of a zoophilous plant species depends on biological interaction with pollinators, which involves both the provision and exploitation of flower resources. Currently, there is little information about how future climate change scenarios will impact interactions between plants and their flower visitors in the tropics. This study analyzes the effects of warming and two soil water conditions on interactions between the tropical forage legume species Stylosanthes capitata and its floral visitors during the flowering period.

Warming and elevated CO induces changes in the reproductive dynamics of a tropical plant species.

Tropical plant species are vulnerable to climate change and global warming. Since flowering is a critical factor for plant reproduction and seed-set, warming and elevated atmospheric carbon dioxide concentrations (eCO) are crucial climate change factors that can affect plant reproductive dynamics and flowering related events in the tropics. Using a combined free-air CO enrichment and a free-air temperature-controlled enhancement system, we investigate how warming (+2 °C above ambient, eT) and elevated [CO] (~600 ppm, eCO) affect the phenological pattern, plant-insect interactions, and outcrossing rates in the tropical legume forage species Stylosanthes capitata Vogel (Fabaceae).

Addition of Primary Metastatic Site on Bone, Brain, and Liver to IMDC Criteria in Patients With Metastatic Renal Cell Carcinoma: A Validation Study.

Background: The International Metastatic Renal Cell Carcinoma Database Consortium (IMDC) criteria have been largely adopted in clinical practice. In a recent retrospective study, we assessed that the addition of the first site of metastatic disease to brain, bone, and liver improves prognostic stratification of patients with metastatic renal cell carcinoma (mRCC). Here, we performed an external validation in patients with mRCC.

Association between hepatitis C and hepatocellular carcinoma.

Hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC) is the fifth most common cancer, the third most common cause for cancer death in the world, a major cause of death in patients with chronic hepatitis C virus infection, and responsible for approximately one million deaths each year. Overwhelming lines of epidemiological evidence have indicated that persistent infection with hepatitis C virus (HCV) is a major risk for the development of HCC. The incidence of HCC is expected to increase in the next two decades, largely due to hepatitis C infection and secondary cirrhosis, and detection of HCC at an early stage is critical for a favorable clinical outcome.