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Abstract Background and Aims Sodium-glucose co-transporter 2 (SGLT2) inhibitors have beneficial effects in heart failure (HF), including reverse remodelling, but the mechanisms by which these benefits are conferred are unclear. Inflammation is implicated in the pathophysiology of heart failure (HF) and there are some pre-clinical data suggesting that SGLT2 inhibitors may reduce inflammation. There is however a lack of clinical data. The aim of our study was to investigate whether improvements in cardiac remodelling caused by dapagliflozin in individuals with type 2 diabetes (T2D) and left ventricular hypertrophy (LVH) were associated with its effects on inflammation. Methods We measured C-reactive protein (CRP), tumor necrosis factor alpha (TNF-α), interleukin-1β (IL-1β), interleukin 6 (IL-6), and interleukin 10 (IL-10) and neutrophil-to-lymphocyte ratio (NLR) in plasma samples of 60 patients with T2D and left ventricular hypertrophy (LVH) but without symptomatic HF from the DAPA-LVH trial in which participants were randomised dapagliflozin 10 mg daily or placebo for 12 months and underwent cardiac magnetic resonance imaging (CMR) at baseline and end of treatment. The primary analysis was to investigate the effect of dapagliflozin on inflammation and to assess the relationships between changes in inflammatory markers and LV mass and global longitudinal strain (GLS) and whether the effect of dapagliflozin on LV mass and GLS was modulated by baseline levels of inflammation. Results Following 12 months of treatment dapagliflozin significantly reduced CRP compared to placebo (mean difference of -1.96; 95% CI -3.68 to -0.24, p = 0.026). There were no significant statistical changes in other inflammatory markers. There were modest correlations between improvements in GLS and reduced inflammation (NLR (r = 0.311), IL-1β (r = 0.246), TNF-α (r = 0.230)) at 12 months. Conclusions Dapagliflozin caused a significant reduction in CRP compared to placebo. There were correlations between reductions in inflammatory markers including IL-1β and improvements in global longitudinal strain (but not reduced LV mass). Reductions in systemic inflammation might play a contributory role in the cardiovascular benefits of dapagliflozin. Trial registration Clinicaltrials.gov NCT02956811 (06/11/2016).

Abstract Background The clavicle hook plate achieves like most other operative techniques, a high percentage of union and a low percentage of complications however concerns about long term complications still exist, particularly the involvement of the acromioclavicular joint. Methods To evaluate the results and long term effects in use of this plate we performed a retrospective analysis with a mean follow up of 65 months (5.4 years) of 28 consecutive patients with acute displaced lateral clavicle fractures, treated with the clavicle hook plate. Results Short term functional results in all patients were good to excellent. All but one patient had a united fracture (96%). Nine patients (32%) developed impingement symptoms and in 7 patients (25%) subacromial osteolysis was found. These findings resolved after plate removal. Twenty-four patients were re-evaluated at a mean follow-up period of 5.4 years. The Constant-Murley score was 97 and the DASH score was 3.5. Four patients (14%) developed acromioclavicular joint arthrosis of which one was symptomatic. Three patients (11%) had extra articular ossifications of which one was symptomatic. There was no relation between the impingement symptoms, subacromial osteolysis and development of acromioclavicular joint arthrosis or extra articular ossifications. Conclusions The clavicle hook plate is a good primary treatment option for the acute displaced lateral clavicle fracture with few complications. At mid term the results are excellent and no long term complications can be addressed to the use of the plate.

Background: The cognitive organisation of working memory for nonverbal sounds and the unusual musical ability of absolute pitch is poorly understood. We recently had the opportunity to investigate this in a musician with absolute pitch who developed posterior cortical atrophy (PCA), the canonical 'visual variant' of Alzheimer's disease. Method: We studied a 59 year old professional pianist, PA, known premorbidly to have absolute pitch and fulfilling diagnostic criteria for PCA, in comparison to five healthy age‐matched female musicians (three with absolute pitch, two without). Each participant completed the melodic organisation (scale, contour, interval) and rhythm subtests of the Montreal Battery for Evaluation of Amusia (MBEA), an assessment of absolute pitch ability, a standard test of auditory verbal working memory (digit span), an equivalent working memory test for spoken letters and a series of bespoke musical working memory tasks assessing forward and reverse span for pitch sequences, rhythmic sequences and sequences combining these two dimensions. Result: PA had reduced digit span and letter span relative to healthy musician controls, as anticipated from her diagnosis. However, she had retained absolute pitch and performed normally on MBEA subtests assessing pitch and rhythm patterns and within the healthy musician range on the bespoke tests of pitch and rhythm working memory. Across musical working memory tests, PA showed a profile similar to healthy musician controls with absolute pitch: all performed better on the pitch working memory task than other musical working memory tasks. On the pitch working memory test, PA performed better than the healthy musicians without absolute pitch, all of whom performed worse on the pitch task than other musical working memory tasks. Conclusion: Our findings suggest that absolute pitch may be preserved and continue to support musical working memory (despite impaired verbal working memory) in PCA. This study has implications for our understanding of the cognitive and neural mechanisms of absolute pitch and nonverbal auditory working memory. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Objective: To estimate the effects of initiation of epidural analgesia on fetal heart rate (FHR) patterns compared with intravenous meperidine analgesia.Methods: Fetal heart rate patterns in 200 nulliparous women with term pregnancies randomized to epidural analgesia with 0.25% bupivacaine were compared with those of 156 similar women given intravenous meperidine. Fetal heart rate patterns occurring within 40 minutes of initiation of labor analgesia were retrospectively read by three maternal-fetal medicine specialists who were blind to clinical events, including type of labor analgesia.Results: Meperidine, compared with epidural analgesia, was associated with statistically significantly less beat-to-beat variability (absent or less than 5 beats per minute) of the FHR (30% versus 7% of fetuses, P <.001) in the first 40 minutes after initiation of analgesia, as well as with fewer FHR accelerations (88% versus 62% of fetuses, P <.001). Neither the incidence of FHR decelerations nor the type of deceleration were significantly different between methods of labor analgesia. Specifically, 41% of women given meperidine exhibited FHR decelerations within 40 minutes, compared with 34% given epidural analgesia (P =.353).Conclusion: Epidural analgesia does not have deleterious effects on FHR. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Objective: To determine if oral misoprostol can replace oxytocin for labor stimulation in women with ruptured membranes at term and without evidence of labor.Methods: Nulliparous women at 36 to 41 weeks with a singleton, cephalic-presenting fetus and ruptured membranes without evidence of labor were randomized to receive oral misoprostol (100 microg) or a placebo every 4 hours for a maximum of two doses. Intravenous oxytocin was initiated if active labor had not ensued within 8 hours of the initial study drug dose.Results: Fifty-one women were randomized to oral misoprostol and 51 women to the placebo. Misoprostol reduced the use of oxytocin stimulation of labor from 90% to 37% (P <.001) and was associated with approximately a 7-hour shorter elapsed time in the labor unit. Uterine hyperactivity, defined as six or more contractions in 10 minutes without fetal heart rate decelerations, occurred in 25% of women randomized to misoprostol. However, uterine hyperactivity associated with fetal heart rate decelerations occurred in only three (6%) women, none of whom required emergency cesarean delivery. Route of delivery and infant outcomes were not related to misoprostol use.Conclusion: Oral misoprostol (100 microg) given in a maximum of two doses 4 hours apart significantly reduced the use of oxytocin in the management of women with ruptured membranes without labor at term. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Functional traits offer a potential avenue to generalize and forecast the impacts of changing competition on plant communities, including changing outcomes of competition among species that currently interact (current competition) or that will interact in the future following range shifts (novel competition). However, it remains unclear how well traits explain variation in the outcomes of current and novel competition as well as the underlying processes determining coexistence or competitive exclusion, under changing climate. Here, we interacted pairs of high and low-elevation species in three sites across an elevation gradient in the Swiss Alps. For each species pair, we quantified the population-level outcomes of competition (invasion growth rates), relative fitness differences, and niche overlap and related these to 15 functional traits that were measured in each site. Most traits were significantly associated with invasion growth rates at the low elevation, where species had greater relative fitness differences, but these associations were much weaker towards higher elevations. This appears to be because traits, particularly those associated with light competition, captured species' relative fitness differences at lower elevations, but not at the high elevation site, highlighting that the predictive ability of traits can depend on environmental context. The amplified relative fitness differences towards lower elevations suggest that climate warming may increase the likelihood of competitive exclusion. In addition, novel competitors tended to show greater niche overlap than current competitors, leading to stronger overall competitive effects. However, in general, trait differences predicted competitive outcomes of novel and current competitors similarly well, suggesting that traits can predict interactions between species that do not yet interact. Our study reinforces the importance of considering changing interactions for predicting species responses to climate change and provides experimental evidence supporting the usefulness of functional trait differences in forecasting the impacts of future plant interactions under changing climate., (© 2024 The Author(s). Global Change Biology published by John Wiley & Sons Ltd.)

Local adaptation to contrasting environmental conditions along environmental gradients is a widespread phenomenon in plant populations, yet we lack a mechanistic understanding of how individual agents of selection contribute to this evolutionary process. Here, we developed a novel evolutionary functional-structural plant (E-FSP) model that recreates local adaptation of virtual plants along an environmental gradient. First, we validate the model by testing if it can reproduce two elevational ecotypes of Dianthus carthusianorum occurring in the Swiss Alps. Second, we use the E-FSP model to disentangle the relative contribution of abiotic (temperature) and biotic (competition and pollination) selection pressures to elevational adaptation in D. carthusianorum. Our results suggest that elevational adaptation in D. carthusianorum is predominantly driven by the abiotic environment. The model reproduced the qualitative differences between the elevational ecotypes in two phenological (germination and flowering time) and one morphological trait (stalk height), as well as qualitative differences in four performance variables that emerge from G × E interactions (flowering time, number of stalks, rosette area and seed production). Our approach shows how E-FSP models incorporating physiological, ecological and evolutionary mechanisms can be used in combination with experiments to examine hypotheses about patterns of adaptation observed in the field., (© 2024 The Author(s). New Phytologist © 2024 New Phytologist Foundation.)

Objective: To study improvements in spermatogenesis in men with a history of testosterone therapy using a novel fertility treatment regimen., Design: A single-center retrospective cohort analysis., Setting: Clinic., Patient(s): Seventy-seven men with previous testosterone use seeking fertility treatment from January 2020 to March 2024., Intervention(s): A treatment regimen of 3,000 IU of human chorionic gonadotropin (hCG) and 75 IU of follicle-stimulating hormone (FSH) three times a week was used., Main Outcome Measures(s): The primary outcome measured was change in sperm concentration during hCG/FSH therapy. The secondary outcome measured was whether concurrent testosterone therapy during hCG/FSH therapy affected recovery of spermatogenesis., Result(s): Within the entire cohort (n = 77), 74% of men demonstrated improvements in their sperm concentrations. There was not a significant difference in recovery of sperm concentration in men who stayed on testosterone therapy during hCG/FSH reboot (no testosterone therapy [n = 50], 74% improved, vs. concurrent testosterone therapy [n = 27], 74% improved)., Conclusion(s): We report optimal recovery of spermatogenesis with hCG/FSH therapy in men with infertility with a history of testosterone use. Concurrent testosterone therapy does not impede hCG/FSH-mediated spermatogenic recovery., Competing Interests: Declaration of Interests B.T.S. has nothing to disclose. A.G.O. has nothing to disclose. K.J.C. has nothing to disclose. J.P.L. has nothing to disclose. T.P.K. has nothing to disclose. J.M.A. has nothing to disclose. J.B.H. has nothing to disclose. L.I.L. has nothing to disclose., (Copyright © 2024 American Society for Reproductive Medicine. Published by Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.)

CTNNB1 syndrome is a rare monogenetic disorder caused by CTNNB1 de novo pathogenic heterozygous loss-of-function variants that result in cognitive and motor disabilities. Treatment is currently lacking; our study addresses this critical need. CTNNB1 encodes β-catenin which is essential for normal brain function via its dual roles in cadherin-based synaptic adhesion complexes and canonical Wnt signal transduction. We have generated a Ctnnb1 germline heterozygous mouse line that displays cognitive and motor deficits, resembling key features of CTNNB1 syndrome in humans. Compared with wild-type littermates, Ctnnb1 heterozygous mice also exhibit decreases in brain β-catenin, β-catenin association with N-cadherin, Wnt target gene expression, and Na/K ATPases, key regulators of changes in ion gradients during high activity. Consistently, hippocampal neuron functional properties and excitability are altered. Most important, we identify a highly selective inhibitor of glycogen synthase kinase (GSK)3α,β that significantly normalizes the phenotypes to closely meet wild-type littermate levels. Our data provide new insights into brain molecular and functional changes, and the first evidence for an efficacious treatment with therapeutic potential for individuals with CTNNB1 syndrome., (© 2024. The Author(s).)

Neuroscience has largely conceptualized inner speech, sometimes called covert speech, as being a part of the language system, namely, a precursor to overt speech and/or speech without the motor component (impoverished motor speech). Yet interdisciplinary work has strongly suggested that inner speech is multidimensional and situated within the language system as well as in more domain general systems. By leveraging evidence from philosophy, linguistics, neuroscience and cognitive science, we argue that neuroscience can gain a more comprehensive understanding of inner speech processes. We will summarize the existing knowledge on the traditional approach to understanding the neuroscience of inner speech, which is squarely through the language system, before discussing interdisciplinary approaches to understanding the cognitive, linguistic and neural substrates/mechanisms that may be involved in inner speech. Given our own interests in inner speech after brain injury, we finish by discussing the theoretical and clinical benefits of researching inner speech in aphasia through an interdisciplinary lens., (© 2024 The Author(s). European Journal of Neuroscience published by Federation of European Neuroscience Societies and John Wiley & Sons Ltd.)

Foraging niches become more specialized toward bird range limits.

[Correction Notice: An Erratum for this article was reported in Vol 24(3) of Emotion (see record 2024-72515-001). In the article (https://doi.org/10.1037/emo0001298), Table 1 as originally reported contained an error with respect to participant demographics. Specifically, participants who had selected multiple categories for race/ethnicity were mistakenly assigned to only the first alphabetical category selected. Updates have been made in the Race/ethnicity section of Table 1, to change the heading "American Indian or Alaska Native" to "Multiple selected," and to the relevant statistics under that heading as well as under the "Hispanic, Latino/a/x, or Spanish origin" and "Asian" headings. No inferential statistics are impacted by this correction, nor does it affect the results or conclusions of the article. All versions of this article have been corrected.] A robust experimental literature has found that word frequency and lexical valence contribute to visual word processing at the level of the individual word. Extensions of this literature to simplified sentences have essentially corroborated single-word findings, albeit with important influences of the unfolding discourse context, which may strengthen or attenuate single-word effects. This study sought to extend current knowledge one step further, beyond stand-alone sentences or sentence pairs, by investigating how word frequency and lexical valence, along with their interactions, influence oral reading performance for multisentence stimuli in a naturalistic context. Lexical features were averaged over short passages of text, which were presented to participants on-screen simultaneously, and performance was assessed as reading speed, in words per second. Overall, we find that the same patterns emerge for multisentence oral reading as in the prior literature: strong frequency effects that benefit higher-frequency content, a positivity bias that increases reading speed for more positive content, and an important interaction that disfavors relatively more negative (less positive), high-frequency content. We discuss these findings in light of possible interpretations based on associative connectivity in the mental lexicon, as well as oculomotor dynamics during naturalistic reading. Our data suggest that reading speed of multisentence texts is a viable alternative, and one that offers enhanced ecological validity, for investigations of visual word processing dynamics. (PsycInfo Database Record (c) 2024 APA, all rights reserved).

Background: Peer influence, the development of attitudes, and behavioral changes are some of the phenomenal changes that happen in adolescence., Materials and Methods: A descriptive cross-sectional study was undertaken to find out the association between peer influence and behavior among 355 adolescents within the age group of 16 to 18 years, randomly chosen from Pre-university schools of Udupi district, Karnataka using the Peer Influence Scale (PIS) and Strengths and Difficulties Questionnaire (SDQ)., Result: The results indicate that their peers highly influenced 43.9% of the participants. Meanwhile, 23.1% and 7.9% of adolescents who participated in the survey showed borderline and abnormal behavior, respectively. The association between peer influence and behaviour was assessed using the Chi-square test; the results ( χ 2 =14.545, P = 0.001) revealed that peers highly influence adolescent behavior and change adolescent conduct significantly., Conclusion: Adolescents should be aware of the accepted and non-accepted behaviors in society and be wise in choosing the right peers who later influence their behavior. Parents need to check the conduct of their children and guide them in developing their identity., Competing Interests: There are no conflicts of interest., (Copyright: © 2024 Journal of Education and Health Promotion.)

Introduction: This exploratory, preliminary, feasibility study evaluated the extent to which adults with chronic aphasia ( N  = 23) report experiencing inner speech in their daily lives by leveraging experience sampling and survey methodology., Methods: The presence of inner speech was assessed at 30 time-points and themes of inner speech at three time-points, over the course of three weeks. The relationship of inner speech to aphasia severity, demographic information (age, sex, years post-stroke), and insight into language impairment was evaluated., Results: There was low attrition (<8%) and high compliance (>94%) for the study procedures, and inner speech was experienced in most sampled instances (>78%). The most common themes of inner speech experience across the weeks were 'when remembering', 'to plan', and 'to motivate oneself'. There was no significant relationship identified between inner speech and aphasia severity, insight into language impairment, or demographic information. In conclusion, adults with aphasia tend to report experiencing inner speech often, with some shared themes (e.g., remembering, planning), and use inner speech to explore themes that are uncommon in young adults in other studies (e.g., to talk to themselves about health)., Discussion: High compliance and low attrition suggest design feasibility, and results emphasize the importance of collecting data in age-similar, non-brain-damaged peers as well as in adults with other neurogenic communication disorders to fully understand the experience and use of inner speech in daily life. Clinical implications and future directions are discussed., Competing Interests: The authors declare that the research was conducted in the absence of any commercial or financial relationships that could be construed as a potential conflict of interest., (Copyright © 2024 Alexander, Hedrick and Stark.)

Deciphering how plants interact with each other across environmental gradients is important to understand plant community assembly, as well as potential future plant responses to environmental change. Plant - plant interactions are expected to shift from predominantly negative (i.e. competition) to predominantly positive (i.e. facilitation) along gradients of environmental severity. However, most experiments examine the net effects of interactions by growing plants in either the presence or absence of neighbours, thereby neglecting the interplay of both negative and positive effects acting simultaneously within communities. To partially unravel these effects, we tested how the seedling establishment of 10 mountain grassland plants varied in the presence versus absence of plant communities at two sites along an elevation gradient. We created a third experimental treatment (using plastic plant mats to mimic surrounding vegetation) that retained the main hypothesised benefits of plant neighbours (microsite amelioration), while reducing a key negative effect (competition for soil resources). In contrast to our expectations, we found evidence for net positive effects of vegetation at the low elevation site, and net negative effects at the high elevation site. Interestingly, the negative effects of plant neighbours at high elevation were driven by high establishment rates of low elevation grasses in bare soil plots. At both sites, establishment rates were highest in artificial vegetation (after excluding two low elevation grasses at the high elevation site), indicating that positive effects of above-ground vegetation are partially offset by their negative effects. Our results demonstrate that both competition and facilitation act jointly to affect community structure across environmental gradients, while emphasising that competition can be strong also at higher elevations in temperate mountain regions. Consequently, plant - plant interactions are likely to influence the establishment of new, and persistence of resident, species in mountain plant communities as environments change., Supplementary Information: The online version contains supplementary material available at 10.1007/s00035-023-00302-8., Competing Interests: Conflict of interestThe authors have no relevant financial or non-financial interests to disclose., (© The Author(s) 2023.)

Microclimate-proximal climatic variation at scales of metres and minutes-can exacerbate or mitigate the impacts of climate change on biodiversity. However, most microclimate studies are temperature centric, and do not consider meteorological factors such as sunshine, hail and snow. Meanwhile, remote cameras have become a primary tool to monitor wild plants and animals, even at micro-scales, and deep learning tools rapidly convert images into ecological data. However, deep learning applications for wildlife imagery have focused exclusively on living subjects. Here, we identify an overlooked opportunity to extract latent, ecologically relevant meteorological information. We produce an annotated image dataset of micrometeorological conditions across 49 wildlife cameras in South Africa's Maloti-Drakensberg and the Swiss Alps. We train ensemble deep learning models to classify conditions as overcast, sunshine, hail or snow. We achieve 91.7% accuracy on test cameras not seen during training. Furthermore, we show how effective accuracy is raised to 96% by disregarding 14.1% of classifications where ensemble member models did not reach a consensus. For two-class weather classification (overcast vs. sunshine) in a novel location in Svalbard, Norway, we achieve 79.3% accuracy (93.9% consensus accuracy), outperforming a benchmark model from the computer vision literature (75.5% accuracy). Our model rapidly classifies sunshine, snow and hail in almost 2 million unlabelled images. Resulting micrometeorological data illustrated common seasonal patterns of summer hailstorms and autumn snowfalls across mountains in the northern and southern hemispheres. However, daily patterns of sunshine and shade diverged between sites, impacting daily temperature cycles. Crucially, we leverage micrometeorological data to demonstrate that (1) experimental warming using open-top chambers shortens early snow events in autumn, and (2) image-derived sunshine marginally outperforms sensor-derived temperature when predicting bumblebee foraging. These methods generate novel micrometeorological variables in synchrony with biological recordings, enabling new insights from an increasingly global network of wildlife cameras., (© 2023 The Authors. Global Change Biology published by John Wiley & Sons Ltd.)

The Anthropocene is characterized by a rapid pace of environmental change and is causing a multitude of biotic responses, including those that affect the spatial distribution of species. Lagged responses are frequent and species distributions and assemblages are consequently pushed into a disequilibrium state. How the characteristics of environmental change-for example, gradual 'press' disturbances such as rising temperatures due to climate change versus infrequent 'pulse' disturbances such as extreme events-affect the magnitude of responses and the relaxation times of biota has been insufficiently explored. It is also not well understood how widely used approaches to assess or project the responses of species to changing environmental conditions can deal with time lags. It, therefore, remains unclear to what extent time lags in species distributions are accounted for in biodiversity assessments, scenarios and models; this has ramifications for policymaking and conservation science alike. This perspective piece reflects on lagged species responses to environmental change and discusses the potential consequences for species distribution models (SDMs), the tools of choice in biodiversity modelling. We suggest ways to better account for time lags in calibrating these models and to reduce their leverage effects in projections for improved biodiversity science and policy., Competing Interests: The authors declare to have no conflicts of interest., (© 2023 The Authors. Journal of Biogeography published by John Wiley & Sons Ltd.)

AbstractSpecies' distributions can take many different forms. For example, fat-tailed or skewed distributions are very common in nature, as these can naturally emerge as a result of individual variability and asymmetric environmental tolerances, respectively. Studying the basic shape of distributions can teach us a lot about the ways climatic processes and historical contingencies shape ecological communities. Yet we still lack a general understanding of how their shapes and properties compare to each other along gradients. Here, we use Bayesian nonlinear models to quantify range shape properties in empirical plant distributions. With this approach, we are able to distil the shape of plant distributions and compare them along gradients and across species. Studying the relationship between distribution properties, we revealed the existence of broad macroecological patterns along environmental gradients-such as those expected from Rapoport's rule and the abiotic stress limitation hypothesis. We also find that some aspects of the shape of observed ranges-such as kurtosis and skewness of the distributions-could be intrinsic properties of species or the result of their historical contexts. Overall, our modeling approach and results untangle the general shape of plant distributions and provide a mapping of how this changes along environmental gradients.