Striatal Dopamine Transporter Availability Is Not Associated with Food Craving in Lean and Obese Humans; a Molecular Imaging Study.

Brain dopamine signaling is essential for the motivation to eat, and obesity is associated with altered dopaminergic signaling and increased food craving. We used molecular neuroimaging to explore whether striatal dopamine transporter (DAT) availability is associated with craving as measured with the General Food Craving Questionnaire-Trait (G-FCQ-T). We here show that humans with obesity ( = 34) experienced significantly more craving for food compared with lean subjects ( = 32), but food craving did not correlate significantly with striatal DAT availability as assessed with I-FP-CIT single-photon emission computed tomography.

Early warning scores to assess the probability of critical illness in patients with COVID-19.

Objective: Validated clinical risk scores are needed to identify patients with COVID-19 at risk of severe disease and to guide triage decision-making during the COVID-19 pandemic. The objective of the current study was to evaluate the performance of early warning scores (EWS) in the ED when identifying patients with COVID-19 who will require intensive care unit (ICU) admission for high-flow-oxygen usage or mechanical ventilation.

Methods: Patients with a proven SARS-CoV-2 infection with complete resuscitate orders treated in nine hospitals between 27 February and 30 July 2020 needing hospital admission were included.

Towards an ecosystem service-based method to quantify the filtration services of mussels under chemical exposure.

As filter-feeders, freshwater mussels provide the ecosystem service (ES) of biofiltration. Chemical pollution may impinge on the provisioning of mussels' filtration services. However, few attempts have been made to estimate the impacts of chemical mixtures on mussels' filtration capacities in the field, nor to assess the economic benefits of mussel-provided filtration services for humans.

Towards nationally harmonized mapping and quantification of ecosystem services.

The EU 2020 Biodiversity Strategy requests EU Member States to map and assess ecosystem services within national territories, and to promote and integrate these values into policy-making. This calls for standardized and harmonized data, indicators, and methods to assess ecosystem services within national boundaries. Current approaches for assessing ecosystem services often oversimplify cross-scale heterogeneity, sacrificing the spatial and thematic detail required to support the needs and expectations of decision-makers at different levels.