Intergenerational inequities in exposure to climate extremes.

Young generations are severely threatened by climate change.

Early Holocene greening of the Sahara requires Mediterranean winter rainfall.

The greening of the Sahara, associated with the African Humid Period (AHP) between ca. 14,500 and 5,000 y ago, is arguably the largest climate-induced environmental change in the Holocene; it is usually explained by the strengthening and northward expansion of the African monsoon in response to orbital forcing. However, the strengthened monsoon in Early to Middle Holocene climate model simulations cannot sustain vegetation in the Sahara or account for the increased humidity in the Mediterranean region.

Large potential for crop production adaptation depends on available future varieties.

Climate change affects global agricultural production and threatens food security. Faster phenological development of crops due to climate warming is one of the main drivers for potential future yield reductions. To counter the effect of faster maturity, adapted varieties would require more heat units to regain the previous growing period length.

Deterministic modelling of seed dispersal based on observed behaviours of an endemic primate in Brazil.

Plant species models are among the available tools to predict the future of ecosystems threatened by climate change, habitat loss, and degradation. However, they suffer from low to no inclusion of plant dispersal, which is necessary to predict ecosystem evolution. A variety of seed dispersal models have been conceived for anemochorous and zoochorous plant species, but the coupling between vegetation models and seed dispersal processes remains rare.

Functional Molecular Network Analysis Enables Prediction of Response to Vedolizumab Therapy in Anti-TNF Refractory IBD Patients.

Background: We applied for the first time 2 label-free technologies, physiological intermolecular modulation spectroscopy (PIMS) and nematic protein organization technic (NPOT) in anti-tumor necrosis factor (TNF) refractory inflammatory bowel disease (IBD) patients to identify clinical responders to vedolizumab therapy and elucidate their underlying functional molecular network.

Methods: PIMS analysis was performed in peripheral blood taken prior to the first vedolizumab application in 20 IBD patients (Crohn disease n = 13; ulcerative colitis n = 7) refractory to at least 1 previous anti-TNF agent therapy. Peripheral blood taken from clinical responders and nonresponders at week 14 of vedolizumab therapy were additionally subjected to NPOT analysis.

Brazilian montane rainforest expansion induced by Heinrich Stadial 1 event.

The origin of modern disjunct plant distributions in the Brazilian Highlands with strong floristic affinities to distant montane rainforests of isolated mountaintops in the northeast and northern Amazonia and the Guyana Shield remains unknown. We tested the hypothesis that these unexplained biogeographical patterns reflect former ecosystem rearrangements sustained by widespread plant migrations possibly due to climatic patterns that are very dissimilar from present-day conditions. To address this issue, we mapped the presence of the montane arboreal taxa Araucaria, Podocarpus, Drimys, Hedyosmum, Ilex, Myrsine, Symplocos, and Weinmannia, and cool-adapted plants in the families Myrtaceae, Ericaceae, and Arecaceae (palms) in 29 palynological records during Heinrich Stadial 1 Event, encompassing a latitudinal range of 30°S to 0°S.

State-of-the-art global models underestimate impacts from climate extremes.

Global impact models represent process-level understanding of how natural and human systems may be affected by climate change. Their projections are used in integrated assessments of climate change. Here we test, for the first time, systematically across many important systems, how well such impact models capture the impacts of extreme climate conditions.

Tree mortality submodels drive simulated long-term forest dynamics: assessing 15 models from the stand to global scale.

Models are pivotal for assessing future forest dynamics under the impacts of changing climate and management practices, incorporating representations of tree growth, mortality, and regeneration. Quantitative studies on the importance of mortality submodels are scarce. We evaluated 15 dynamic vegetation models (DVMs) regarding their sensitivity to different formulations of tree mortality under different degrees of climate change.

Axitinib: a review of its safety and efficacy in the treatment of adults with advanced renal cell carcinoma.

Over the last seven years, seven targeted agents have been approved in the treatment of advanced or metastatic renal cell cancer, changing the therapeutic approach and prognosis of the disease dramatically. The latest agent with demonstrated efficacy is axitinib (Inlyta(®)). This new generation of tyrosine kinase agent differs from previously existing agents by its greater activity potency of inhibition of vascular endothelial growth factor-receptor (VEGFR1-3).

A plant's perspective of extremes: terrestrial plant responses to changing climatic variability.

We review observational, experimental, and model results on how plants respond to extreme climatic conditions induced by changing climatic variability. Distinguishing between impacts of changing mean climatic conditions and changing climatic variability on terrestrial ecosystems is generally underrated in current studies. The goals of our review are thus (1) to identify plant processes that are vulnerable to changes in the variability of climatic variables rather than to changes in their mean, and (2) to depict/evaluate available study designs to quantify responses of plants to changing climatic variability.

Thermal optimality of net ecosystem exchange of carbon dioxide and underlying mechanisms.

• It is well established that individual organisms can acclimate and adapt to temperature to optimize their functioning. However, thermal optimization of ecosystems, as an assemblage of organisms, has not been examined at broad spatial and temporal scales. • Here, we compiled data from 169 globally distributed sites of eddy covariance and quantified the temperature response functions of net ecosystem exchange (NEE), an ecosystem-level property, to determine whether NEE shows thermal optimality and to explore the underlying mechanisms.

Cedrus libani (A. Rich) distribution in Lebanon: past, present and future.

Long-term vegetation studies are needed to better predict the impact of future climate change on vegetation structure and distribution. According to the IPCC scenario, the Mediterranean region is expected to undergo significant climatic variability over the course of this century. Cedrus libani (A.

Effect of manipulation of the feet and ankles on postural control in elderly adults.

The purpose of the present experiment was to investigate the effect of a therapeutic manipulation of the feet and ankles on postural control during quiet standing in elderly adults. Seventeen elderly adults stood barefeet on a force platform and were asked to sway as little as possible. Within a trial, vision was suppressed by eyes closure.

Mirror versus stationary cross feedback in controlling the center of foot pressure displacement in quiet standing in elderly subjects.

Objective: To investigate the effect of mirror feedback on postural control during quiet standing in elderly adults.

Design: Before and after intervention trials.

Setting: Pneumology center in France.