Do wood-boring beetles influence the flammability of deadwood?

Global warming increases the risk of wildfire and insect outbreaks, potentially reducing the carbon storage function of coarse woody debris (CWD). There is an increasing focus on the interactive effects of wildfire and insect infestation on forest carbon, but the impact of wood-boring beetle tunnels via their effect on the flammability of deadwood remains unexplored. We hypothesized that the presence of beetle holes, at natural densities, can affect its flammability positively through increased surface area and enhanced oxygen availability in the wood.

Flexible or fortified? How lichens balance defence strategies across climatic harshness gradients.

Lichens play important roles in habitat formation and community succession in polar and alpine ecosystems. Despite their significance, the ecological effects of lichen traits remain poorly researched. We propose a trait trade-off for managing light exposure based on climatic harshness.

Sustained treatment-free remission in two chronic myeloid leukemia patients after asciminib discontinuation: a report of two cases.

Selected chronic myeloid leukemia (CML) patients may discontinue their tyrosine kinase inihibitor (TKI) in an attempt to achieve sustained treatment-free remission (TFR), which mitigates therapy-related side effects and limits treatment costs. TFR has been extensively studied following the discontinuation of adenosine triphosphate (ATP) - competitive TKI. However, there is minimal data concerning TFR after the discontinuation of the novel TKI asciminib.

Environmental enrichment affects immunity and reduces disease severity in pigs after co-infection, with stronger effects when applied from birth than from weaning.

We investigated whether environmental enrichment applied at different life stages of pigs affects the susceptibility to and severity of disease by studying immune cell functions around weaning and during nursery, the effects of infection in models and using a co-infection model of (PRRSV) followed by an infection. Pigs were either conventionally housed (CCH) or enriched housed throughout life, with enrichment consisting of extra space, rooting materials and co-mingling with another litter before weaning (EEH), or they were switched from conventional to enriched housing at weaning (CEH). Sixty days after birth, ten pigs per treatment were infected with PRRSV followed by an infection eight days later.