Assessment of large-diameter and small-diameter SoftK specialty contact lenses for early-stage keratoconus.

Introduction: Soft contact lenses may be a good alternative for early-stage keratoconus (KC) patients who do not tolerate rigid gas permeable (RGP) lenses due to ocular discomfort or complications. This prospective study compared outcomes obtained after 2 weeks of wearing two types of soft silicone hydrogel contact lenses for keratoconus that varied in their diameter and central thickness (cc).

Methods: Patients with Amsler-Krumeich grades I or II KC were fitted with small-diameter (14.

Assessment of a Clinical Test for Detection of Alteration in Visual Perception Due to Astigmatism.

Purpose: Astigmatism blurs the retinal image of a circular spot along a particular orientation rendering it an elliptical shape. Astigmatic patients demonstrate adaptation to residual astigmatic blur that may affect their discrimination between oval and circular targets. The Wilkins Egg and Ball Test (WEBT) was created to detect altered visual perception due to residual astigmatic blur by discriminating a circle within a row of oval elements.

Nitrogen loading resulting from major floods and sediment resuspension to a large coastal embayment.

Major floods pose a severe threat to coastal receiving environments, negatively impacting environmental health and ecosystem services through direct smothering with sediment and nutrient loading. This study examined the short and long-term impacts of the February 2022 major flood event on mud extent and sediment nitrogen flux in Moreton Bay (the Bay), a large, sub-tropical embayment in Southeast Queensland, Australia. Short-term impacts were assessed three days after the flood peak by sampling surface water at 47 sites in the direction of the predominant circulation pattern.

Reef-building corals farm and feed on their photosynthetic symbionts.

Coral reefs are highly diverse ecosystems that thrive in nutrient-poor waters, a phenomenon frequently referred to as the Darwin paradox. The energy demand of coral animal hosts can often be fully met by the excess production of carbon-rich photosynthates by their algal symbionts. However, the understanding of mechanisms that enable corals to acquire the vital nutrients nitrogen and phosphorus from their symbionts is incomplete.

A retinoscopic survey of donkeys and goats.

Purpose: Assess the refractive states of donkeys and goats.

Methods: Forty-two donkeys and 28 goats were enrolled. The mean ± SD ages were 7.

Fine-scale heterogeneity reveals disproportionate thermal stress and coral mortality in thermally variable reef habitats during a marine heatwave.

Unlabelled: Increasing ocean temperatures threaten coral reefs globally, but corals residing in habitats that experience high thermal variability are thought to be better adapted to survive climate-induced heat stress. Here, we used long-term ecological observations and in situ temperature data from Heron Island, southern Great Barrier Reef to investigate how temperature dynamics within various thermally variable vs. thermally stable reef habitats change during a marine heatwave and the resulting consequences for coral community survival.

Temporal gene expression patterns in the coral reveal the complexity of biological clocks in the cnidarian-algal symbiosis.

Studying chronobiology in reef-building corals is challenging due to the tightly coupled symbiosis with their photosynthetic algae, Symbiodiniaceae. Although symbiosis requires metabolic synchronization and coordination of cellular processes in the holobiont, the cross-talk between the host and symbiont's clocks is still puzzling. Here, we use the mesophotic coral to examine temporal gene expression patterns in symbiotic and aposymbiotic morphs exposed to natural light/dark cycles and constant darkness.

Selective deep water coral bleaching occurs through depth isolation.

Climate change is degrading coral reefs around the world. Mass coral bleaching events have become more frequent in recent decades, leading to dramatic declines in coral cover. Mesophotic coral ecosystems (30-150 m depth) comprise an estimated 50-80 % of global coral reef area.

Coral fluorescence: a prey-lure in deep habitats.

Fluorescence is highly prevalent in reef-building corals, nevertheless its biological role is still under ongoing debate. This feature of corals was previously suggested to primarily screen harmful radiation or facilitate coral photosynthesis. In mesophotic coral ecosystems (MCEs; 30-150 m depth) corals experience a limited, blue-shifted light environment.

Reef accumulation is decoupled from recent degradation in the central and southern Red Sea.

Reefs are biogenic structures that result in three-dimensional accumulations of calcium carbonate. Over geological timescales, a positive balance between the production and accumulation of calcium carbonate versus erosional and off-reef transport processes maintains positive net accretion on reefs. Yet, how ecological processes occurring over decadal timescales translate to the accumulation of geological structures is poorly understood, in part due to a lack of studies with detailed time-constrained chronologies of reef accretion over decades to centuries.

The Role of Hub Neurons in Modulating Cortical Dynamics.

Many neurodegenerative diseases are associated with the death of specific neuron types in particular brain regions. What makes the death of specific neuron types particularly harmful for the integrity and dynamics of the respective network is not well understood. To start addressing this question we used the most up-to-date biologically realistic dense neocortical microcircuit (NMC) of the rodent, which has reconstructed a volume of 0.

Mesophotic Coral Ecosystems in the Eastern Tropical Pacific: The current state of knowledge and the spatial variability of their depth boundaries.

In the Eastern Tropical Pacific (ETP), Mesophotic Coral Ecosystems (MCEs) are limited by oceanographic conditions and are thought to be mostly absent. However, considering the currently discussed more flexible approach to define mesophotic boundaries, based on light availability, we performed a systematic search to assess their current state of knowledge. Using MODIS-Aqua satellite data (Kd), we calculated the mesophotic boundaries in the ETP, based on optical depths, and performed a bibliographic search of studies carried out at those depths, including those present in turbid waters with Kd values up to 0.

Elucidation of the speciation history of three sister species of crown-of-thorns starfish (Acanthaster spp.) based on genomic analysis.

The crown-of-thorns starfish (COTS) is a coral predator that is widely distributed in Indo-Pacific Oceans. A previous phylogenetic study using partial mitochondrial sequences suggested that COTS had diverged into four distinct species, but a nuclear genome-based analysis to confirm this was not conducted. To address this, COTS species nuclear genome sequences were analysed here, sequencing Northern Indian Ocean (NIO) and Red Sea (RS) species genomes for the first time, followed by a comparative analysis with the Pacific Ocean (PO) species.

Morphological stasis masks ecologically divergent coral species on tropical reefs.

Coral reefs are the epitome of species diversity, yet the number of described scleractinian coral species, the framework-builders of coral reefs, remains moderate by comparison. DNA sequencing studies are rapidly challenging this notion by exposing a wealth of undescribed diversity, but the evolutionary and ecological significance of this diversity remains largely unclear. Here, we present an annotated genome for one of the most ubiquitous corals in the Indo-Pacific (Pachyseris speciosa) and uncover, through a comprehensive genomic and phenotypic assessment, that it comprises morphologically indistinguishable but ecologically divergent lineages.

An Indo-Pacific coral spawning database.

The discovery of multi-species synchronous spawning of scleractinian corals on the Great Barrier Reef in the 1980s stimulated an extraordinary effort to document spawning times in other parts of the globe. Unfortunately, most of these data remain unpublished which limits our understanding of regional and global reproductive patterns. The Coral Spawning Database (CSD) collates much of these disparate data into a single place.

A ubiquitous subcuticular bacterial symbiont of a coral predator, the crown-of-thorns starfish, in the Indo-Pacific.

Background: Population outbreaks of the crown-of-thorns starfish (Acanthaster planci sensu lato; COTS), a primary predator of reef-building corals in the Indo-Pacific Ocean, are a major threat to coral reefs. While biological and ecological knowledge of COTS has been accumulating since the 1960s, little is known about its associated bacteria. The aim of this study was to provide fundamental information on the dominant COTS-associated bacteria through a multifaceted molecular approach.

Reciprocal-transplantation between shallow and mesophotic stony corals.

Most studies to date on the various life-history aspects of scleractinian corals (e.g. reproduction, connectivity, and physiology) have focused on their innate habitats.

Impact of higher order network structure on emergent cortical activity.

Synaptic connectivity between neocortical neurons is highly structured. The network structure of synaptic connectivity includes first-order properties that can be described by pairwise statistics, such as strengths of connections between different neuron types and distance-dependent connectivity, and higher order properties, such as an abundance of cliques of all-to-all connected neurons. The relative impact of first- and higher order structure on emergent cortical network activity is unknown.

The Complexity of the Holobiont in the Red Sea Coral under Heat Stress.

The recognition of the microbiota complexity and their role in the evolution of their host is leading to the popularization of the holobiont concept. However, the coral holobiont (host and its microbiota) is still enigmatic and unclear. Here, we explore the complex relations between different holobiont members of a mesophotic coral .

Effects of Light Pollution on the Early Life Stages of the Most Abundant Northern Red Sea Coral.

The growth in human population along coastal areas is exposing marine environments to increasing anthropogenic light sources. Despite the potential effects of this modern phenomenon, very few studies have examined its implications for corals. Here, we present a long-term study of coral early life stages under light pollution conditions at night.

Mesophotic.org: a repository for scientific information on mesophotic ecosystems.

Mesophotic coral ecosystems (MCEs) and temperate mesophotic ecosystems (TMEs) occur at depths of roughly 30-150 m depth and are characterized by the presence of photosynthetic organisms despite reduced light availability. Exploration of these ecosystems dates back several decades, but our knowledge remained extremely limited until about a decade ago, when a renewed interest resulted in the establishment of a rapidly growing research community. Here, we present the 'mesophotic.

The Algal Symbiont Modifies the Transcriptome of the Scleractinian Coral Euphyllia paradivisa During Heat Stress.

The profound mutualistic symbiosis between corals and their endosymbiotic counterparts, Symbiodiniaceae algae, has been threatened by the increase in seawater temperatures, leading to breakdown of the symbiotic relationship-coral bleaching. To characterize the heat-stress response of the holobiont, we generated vital apo-symbiotic corals that lacked the endosymbiotic algae. Using RNA sequencing, we analyzed the gene expression of these apo-symbionts vs.