The role of the environment in allergic skin disease.

Purpose Of Review: This paper explores how environmental factors influence allergic skin diseases, including atopic dermatitis (AD), contact dermatitis (CD), urticaria, angioedema, and reactions to drugs and insect bites.

Recent Findings: Research indicates a significant impact of environmental elements on allergic skin diseases. High air pollution levels exacerbate symptoms, while climate change contributes to increased skin barrier dysfunction, particularly affecting AD.

Clinicopathologic Features of IDEDNIK (MEDNIK) Syndrome in a Term Infant: Histopathologic Features of the Gastrointestinal Tract and Report of a Novel Variant.

Inherited syndromes of congenital enteropathy are rare, with many genetic causes described. Mutations of the gene results in the syndrome of intellectual disability, enteropathy, deafness, peripheral neuropathy, ichthyosis, and keratoderma (IDEDNIK, formerly in the medical literature as MEDNIK). The clinicopathologic features of the enteropathy in IDEDNIK syndrome have not been fully explored.

A Unique Case of Syphilitic Hypopyon Panophthalmitis.

Purpose: This work reports a unique case of syphilitic hypopyon panophthalmitis.

Methods: A case report is presented.

Results: A 25-year-old man with a history of HIV and intravenous (IV) drug use presented to an outside hospital with blurred vision and swelling of the right eye.

Case Series of Patients With Hereditary Benign Intraepithelial Dyskeratosis.

Purpose: The purpose of this retrospective case series was to compare the outcomes of different treatment options for patients diagnosed with hereditary benign intraepithelial dyskeratosis (HBID).

Methods: The study is designed as a single-institution retrospective chart review of patients who were clinically diagnosed with HBID during their care at the Duke Eye Center. Patient demographics were obtained, and disease course after different therapies was analyzed.

Biogeographical survey of soil microbiomes across sub-Saharan Africa: structure, drivers, and predicted climate-driven changes.

Background: Top-soil microbiomes make a vital contribution to the Earth's ecology and harbor an extraordinarily high biodiversity. They are also key players in many ecosystem services, particularly in arid regions of the globe such as the African continent. While several recent studies have documented patterns in global soil microbial ecology, these are largely biased towards widely studied regions and rely on models to interpolate the microbial diversity of other regions where there is low data coverage.

Expanding Our Reach: Development of a Civilian Helicopter Air Ambulance K9 Response Program.

This short communication highlights the development and implementation of the first civilian helicopter air ambulance canine response program in the United States.

Why Plants Harbor Complex Endophytic Fungal Communities: Insights From Perennial Bunchgrass in the Namib Sand Sea.

All perennial plants harbor diverse endophytic fungal communities, but why they tolerate these complex asymptomatic symbioses is unknown. Using a multi-pronged approach, we conclusively found that a dryland grass supports endophyte communities comprised predominantly of latent saprophytes that can enhance localized nutrient recycling after senescence. A perennial bunchgrass, , which persists along a gradient of extreme abiotic stress in the hyper-arid Namib Sand Sea, was the focal point of our study.

A Case Report of Peripheral Nerve Stimulation for Acute Neuropathic Pain in Guillain-Barre Syndrome.

Guillain-Barre syndrome (GBS) is a peripheral demyelinating neuromuscular disorder occasionally associated with pharmacologically refractory neuropathic pain. We present a case of acute neuropathic pain in a 22-year-old man with GBS managed with percutaneous peripheral nerve stimulation (PNS). Following implantation of leads in the bilateral sciatic, femoral, and brachial plexus nerve distribution, the patient experienced significant pain reduction in both the upper and lower extremities.

First Measurements of the Double-Polarization Observables F, P, and H in ω Photoproduction off Transversely Polarized Protons in the N^{*} Resonance Region.

First measurements of double-polarization observables in ω photoproduction off the proton are presented using transverse target polarization and data from the CEBAF Large Acceptance Spectrometer (CLAS) FROST experiment at Jefferson Lab. The beam-target asymmetry F has been measured using circularly polarized, tagged photons in the energy range 1200-2700 MeV, and the beam-target asymmetries H and P have been measured using linearly polarized, tagged photons in the energy range 1200-2000 MeV. These measurements significantly increase the database on polarization observables.

Namib Desert primary productivity is driven by cryptic microbial community N-fixation.

Carbon exchange in drylands is typically low, but during significant rainfall events (wet anomalies) drylands act as a C sink. During these anomalies the limitation on C uptake switches from water to nitrogen. In the Namib Desert of southern Africa, the N inventory in soil organic matter available for mineralisation is insufficient to support the observed increase in primary productivity.

Namib Desert Soil Microbial Community Diversity, Assembly, and Function Along a Natural Xeric Gradient.

The hyperarid Namib desert is a coastal desert in southwestern Africa and one of the oldest and driest deserts on the planet. It is characterized by a west/east increasing precipitation gradient and by regular coastal fog events (extending up to 75 km inland) that can also provide soil moisture. In this study, we evaluated the role of this natural aridity and xeric gradient on edaphic microbial community structure and function in the Namib desert.

Nonrainfall water origins and formation mechanisms.

Dryland ecosystems cover 40% of the total land surface on Earth and are defined broadly as zones where precipitation is considerably less than the potential evapotranspiration. Nonrainfall waters (for example, fog and dew) are the least-studied and least-characterized components of the hydrological cycle, although they supply critical amounts of water for dryland ecosystems. The sources of nonrainfall waters are largely unknown for most systems.

Metaviromes of Extracellular Soil Viruses along a Namib Desert Aridity Gradient.

The Namib Desert in southwest Africa is hyperarid and composed of distinct microbial communities affected by a longitudinal aridity gradient. Here, we report four soil metaviromes from the Namib Desert, assessed using deep sequencing of metavirome libraries prepared from DNA extracted from gravel plain surface soils.

Diel-scale temporal dynamics recorded for bacterial groups in Namib Desert soil.

Microbes in hot desert soil partake in core ecosystem processes e.g., biogeochemical cycling of carbon.

Namib Desert edaphic bacterial, fungal and archaeal communities assemble through deterministic processes but are influenced by different abiotic parameters.

The central Namib Desert is hyperarid, where limited plant growth ensures that biogeochemical processes are largely driven by microbial populations. Recent research has shown that niche partitioning is critically involved in the assembly of Namib Desert edaphic communities. However, these studies have mainly focussed on the Domain Bacteria.

The Impact of Rainfall on Soil Moisture Dynamics in a Foggy Desert.

Soil moisture is a key variable in dryland ecosystems since it determines the occurrence and duration of vegetation water stress and affects the development of weather patterns including rainfall. However, the lack of ground observations of soil moisture and rainfall dynamics in many drylands has long been a major obstacle in understanding ecohydrological processes in these ecosystems. It is also uncertain to what extent rainfall controls soil moisture dynamics in fog dominated dryland systems.

Temporal dynamics of hot desert microbial communities reveal structural and functional responses to water input.

The temporal dynamics of desert soil microbial communities are poorly understood. Given the implications for ecosystem functioning under a global change scenario, a better understanding of desert microbial community stability is crucial. Here, we sampled soils in the central Namib Desert on sixteen different occasions over a one-year period.

Cyanobacterial Neurotoxin BMAA and Mercury in Sharks.

Sharks have greater risk for bioaccumulation of marine toxins and mercury (Hg), because they are long-lived predators. Shark fins and cartilage also contain β-N-methylamino-l-alanine (BMAA), a ubiquitous cyanobacterial toxin linked to neurodegenerative diseases. Today, a significant number of shark species have found their way onto the International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN) Red List of Threatened Species.

Unique Microbial Phylotypes in Namib Desert Dune and Gravel Plain Fairy Circle Soils.

Unlabelled: Fairy circles (FCs) are barren circular patches of soil surrounded by grass species. Their origin is poorly understood. FCs feature in both the gravel plains and the dune fields of the Namib Desert.

Metagenomic analysis provides insights into functional capacity in a hyperarid desert soil niche community.

In hyperarid ecosystems, macroscopic communities are often restricted to cryptic niches, such as hypoliths (microbial communities found beneath translucent rocks), which are widely distributed in hyperarid desert environments. While hypolithic communities are considered to play a major role in productivity, the functional guilds implicated in these processes remain unclear. Here, we describe the metagenomic sequencing, assembly and analysis of hypolithic microbial communities from the Namib Desert.

Namib Desert dune/interdune transects exhibit habitat-specific edaphic bacterial communities.

The sand dunes and inter-dune zones of the hyper-arid central Namib Desert represent heterogeneous soil habitats. As little is known about their indigenous edaphic bacterial communities, we aimed to evaluate their diversity and factors of assembly and hypothesized that soil physicochemistry gradients would strongly shape dune/interdune communities. We sampled a total of 125 samples from 5 parallel dune/interdune transects and characterized 21 physico-chemical edaphic parameters coupled with 16S rRNA gene bacterial community fingerprinting using T-RFLP and 454 pyrosequencing.

Water regime history drives responses of soil Namib Desert microbial communities to wetting events.

Despite the dominance of microorganisms in arid soils, the structures and functional dynamics of microbial communities in hot deserts remain largely unresolved. The effects of wetting event frequency and intensity on Namib Desert microbial communities from two soils with different water-regime histories were tested over 36 days. A total of 168 soil microcosms received wetting events mimicking fog, light rain and heavy rainfall, with a parallel "dry condition" control.

Non-rainfall moisture activates fungal decomposition of surface litter in the Namib Sand Sea.

The hyper-arid western Namib Sand Sea (mean annual rainfall 0-17 mm) is a detritus-based ecosystem in which primary production is driven by large, but infrequent rainfall events. A diverse Namib detritivore community is sustained by minimal moisture inputs from rain and fog. The decomposition of plant material in the Namib Sand Sea (NSS) has long been assumed to be the province of these detritivores, with beetles and termites alone accounting for the majority of litter losses.