How many people is the COVID-19 pandemic pushing into poverty? A long-term forecast to 2050 with alternative scenarios.

The COVID-19 pandemic has changed the course of human development. In this manuscript we analyze the long-term effect of COVID-19 on poverty at the country-level across various income thresholds to 2050. We do this by introducing eight quantitative scenarios that model the future of Sustainable Development Goal 1 (SDG1) achievement using alternative assumptions about COVID-19 effects on both economic growth and inequality in the International Futures model.

Balancing conservation priorities for nature and for people in Europe.

There is an urgent need to protect key areas for biodiversity and nature's contributions to people (NCP). However, different values of nature are rarely considered together in conservation planning. Here, we explore potential priority areas in Europe for biodiversity (all terrestrial vertebrates) and a set of cultural and regulating NCP while considering demand for these NCP.

Conventional land-use intensification reduces species richness and increases production: A global meta-analysis.

Most current research on land-use intensification addresses its potential to either threaten biodiversity or to boost agricultural production. However, little is known about the simultaneous effects of intensification on biodiversity and yield. To determine the responses of species richness and yield to conventional intensification, we conducted a global meta-analysis synthesizing 115 studies which collected data for both variables at the same locations.

Use of demand for and spatial flow of ecosystem services to identify priority areas.

Policies and research increasingly focus on the protection of ecosystem services (ESs) through priority-area conservation. Priority areas for ESs should be identified based on ES capacity and ES demand and account for the connections between areas of ES capacity and demand (flow) resulting in areas of unique demand-supply connections (flow zones). We tested ways to account for ES demand and flow zones to identify priority areas in the European Union.

Harmonizing Biodiversity Conservation and Productivity in the Context of Increasing Demands on Landscapes.

Biodiversity conservation and agricultural production are often seen as mutually exclusive objectives. Strategies for reconciling them are intensely debated. We argue that harmonization between biodiversity conservation and crop production can be improved by increasing our understanding of the underlying relationships between them.

Impact of CMV infection on acute rejection and long-term renal allograft function: a systematic analysis in patients with protocol biopsies and indicated biopsies.

Background: Higher rates of acute rejection (AR) and reduced graft survival have been reported in patients with cytomegalovirus (CMV) infection, but an association between these factors remains controversial.

Methods: In this study, serial protocol biopsies (PBs) and clinically indicated biopsies (IBs) from a large cohort of renal allograft recipients (n ¼ 594) were analyzed to examine the relation between CMV and AR.

Results: Patients with CMV were more likely to receive IB (85 of the 153 patients; 56%) compared to patients without CMV (138 of 441 patients; 32%; P = 0.

Shedding of the endothelial receptor tyrosine kinase Tie2 correlates with leukemic blast burden and outcome after allogeneic hematopoietic stem cell transplantation for AML.

Angiogenesis plays an important role in the growth and viability of hematologic malignancies. Emerging data suggest a crucial involvement of the endothelial-specific Tie2 receptor and its antagonistic ligand Angiopoietin-2 (Ang-2) in this process. The purpose of this study was to elucidate whether the soluble domain of the Tie2 receptor (sTie2)predicts outcome in patients with acute myeloid leukemia(AML) undergoing allogeneic hematopoietic stem cell transplantation(HSCT).

Incidence of hepatotropic viruses in biliary atresia.

Biliary atresia (BA) is the most frequent indication for paediatric liver transplantation. We tested the hypothesis of a viral aetiology of this disease by screening liver samples of a large number of BA patients for the common human hepatotropic viruses. Moreover, we correlated our findings to the expression of Mx protein, which has been shown to be significantly up-regulated during viral infections.

Angiopoietin-2 predicts disease-free survival after allogeneic stem cell transplantation in patients with high-risk myeloid malignancies.

Emerging data suggest a critical role for bone marrow angiogenesis in hematologic malignancies. The angiopoietin/Tie ligand-receptor system is an essential regulator of this process. We evaluated whether circulating angiopoietin-2 (Ang-2) is a predictor for the probability of disease-free survival (DFS) in allogeneic hematopoietic stem cell transplantation (allo-HSCT) for high-risk acute myeloid leukemia or myelodysplastic syndrome.