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Documenting scientific impact for the Human Disease Ontology, presented at the 16th International Biocuration conference, Padova, Italy, April, 2023

Whole blood (WB) is carried by special operations forces as part of a remote damage control resuscitation strategy. The effects of an underwater mission on the quality and coagulation profile of WB were simulated by exposure to hyperbaric pressures in a chamber.WB units collected in CPDA-1 were exposed to three different combinations of hyperbaric pressure and duration of exposure: Group A 153.52 kPa (15.24 msw; 1.52 atm) for 4 h; n = 9, Group B 506.63 kPa (50.29 msw; 5.00 atm) for 1 h; n = 9, Group C 153.52 kPa (15.24 msw; 1.52 atm) for 1 h; n = 7. The following parameters were measured on each unit: prothrombin time/international normalized ratio, activated partial thromboplastin time, thromboelastography and concentration determinations of platelets, lactate, fibrinogen, and lactate dehydrogenase. Each sample underwent baseline, prepressurization, immediate postpressurization, and 6 h postpressurization laboratory testing.Six hours following hyperbaric exposure, the lactate concentration in group C was higher than prepressurization measurement and the platelet concentration in Group A was lower than prepressurization measurement. There were no changes in any of the other analyzed biochemical, coagulation and thromboelastogram parameters following exposure to hyperbaric stress.These data suggest that pressurization of WB up to 5 atm did not impact parameters tested. Changes observed in lactate and platelet count need further study, as well as complementary testing of red blood cell integrity. Further investigation of the hyperbaric extremes is necessary to determine if there is a damage inducing pressure to which WB should not be exposed.

HPC-TRES | The Italian National Institute of Oceanography and Applied Geophysics - OGS and CINECA drew up an agreement to implement a training program focussed on High Performance Computing (HPC) applications for Earth Sciences, the “HPC Training and Research for Earth Sciences” (HPC-TRES). The program is co-sponsored by the Minister of University and Research (MUR) under its extraordinary contribute for the Italian participation to activities related to the international infrastructure PRACE – The Partnership for Advanced Computing in Europe. The major objectives of the program are: capacity building, enhancement of human resources, and advanced training in the fields of Earth System modelling (atmosphere, hydrosphere, lithosphere and biosphere) and numerical models, the latter considered as a strategic cross cutting element for modelling activities. These objectives will be pursued through the use of national and European HPC infrastructures and services in the framework of PRACE, the optimization of algorithms and numerical codes, the optimal management of “Earth Sciences Big Data”, and the graphical visualization techniques for multidisciplinary applications in the Earth Sciences, also in the frame of the “Blue Growth” strategy. Therefore, HPC-TRES agreement establishes, sponsor and oversees training and research awards (i.e. contributes for training and research activities set up according to current regulations that regulate scholarships – to be also used for masters and specialized courses in HPC -, research grants and PhDs) that will support the research lines scientific plan of the HPC-TRES program. Some Italian research groups and institutions (INGV-Pisa, CNR/ISAC, CNR/IGG, CMCC, ICTP ESP), where the external members of the HPC-TRES Steering Committee lead their research activities and personally contributed to define the scientific plan of the HPC-TRES program, have already subscribed the HPC-TRES initiative, offering logistic support and hospitality to the winners of the training and research awards sponsored by OGS. In 2021, OGS, CINECA, CNR, INGV, CMCC, POLITO-DIATI, and ICTP signed the constitution of the Joint Research Unit HPC-TRES (JRU HPC-TRES), to further support the action of the HPC-TRES program. More information: https://www.ogs.it/it/content/hpc-training-and-research-earth-sciences-hpc-tres, Editors: M. Zanenghi, V. Mosetti, S. Salon

In European Court of Human Rights (ECtHR) 15 November 2016, No. 24130/11 and 29758/11, (A. and B. v. Norway) the Jussila-doctrine was repeated once again. The ECtHR seems to have taken the next step in the discussion whether the criminal-head guarantees of Article 6 ECHR and other fundamental rights of the Convention should not apply in the same manner concerning tax fines as they do with ‘hard core criminal law’. However, as shown in ECJ 26 February 2013, C-617/10 (Åkerberg Fransson), the European Court of Justice (ECJ) is currently on a different path. In case C-524/15 Advocate General Campos Sánchez-Bordona has advised the ECJ to stay on its present course and not to follow the ECtHR. In this article the authors discuss the different approaches of the ECtHR and the ECJ.

Mountain lakes are often situated in protected natural areas, a feature that leads to their role as sentinels of global environmental change. Despite variations in latitude, mountain lakes share many features, including their location in catchments with steep topographic gradients, cold temperatures, high incident solar and ultraviolet radiation (UVR), and prolonged ice and snow cover. These characteristics, in turn, affect mountain lake ecosystem structure, diversity, and productivity. The lakes themselves are mostly small, and up until recently, have been characterized as oligotrophic. This paper provides a review and update of the growing body of research that shows that sediments in remote mountain lakes archive regional and global environmental changes, including those linked to climate change, altered biogeochemical cycles, and changes in dust composition and deposition, atmospheric fertilization, and biological manipulations. These archives provide an important record of global environmental change that pre-dates typical monitoring windows. Paleolimnological research at strategically selected lakes has increased our knowledge of interactions among multiple stressors and their synergistic effects on lake systems. Lakes from transectsacross steep climate (i.e., temperature and effective moisture) gradients in mountain regions show how environmental change alters lakes in close proximity, but at differing climate starting points. Such research in particular highlights the impacts of melting glaciers on mountain lakes. The addition of new proxies, including DNA-based techniques and advanced stable isotopic analyses, provides a gateway to addressing novel research questions about global environmental change. Recent advances in remote sensing and continuous, high-frequency, limnological measurements will improve spatial and temporal resolution and help to add records to spatial gaps including tropical and southern latitudes. Mountain lake records provide a unique opportunity for global scale assessments that provide knowledge necessary to protect the Earth system.

Background Mapping the hypoxic brain in acute ischemic stroke has considerable potential for both diagnosis and treatment monitoring. PET using (18)F-fluoro-misonidazole (FMISO) is the reference method; however, it lacks clinical accessibility and involves radiation exposure. MR-based T2' mapping may identify tissue hypoxia and holds clinical potential. However, its validation against FMISO imaging is lacking. Here we implemented back-to-back FMISO-PET and T2' MR in rodents subjected to acute middle cerebral artery occlusion. For direct clinical relevance, regions of interest delineating reduced T2' signal areas were manually drawn. Methods Wistar rats were subjected to filament middle cerebral artery occlusion, immediately followed by intravenous FMISO injection. Multi-echo T2 and T2* sequences were acquired twice during FMISO brain uptake, interleaved with diffusion-weighted imaging. Perfusion-weighted MR was also acquired whenever feasible. Immediately following MR, PET data reflecting the history of FMISO brain uptake during MR acquisition were acquired. T2' maps were generated voxel-wise from T2 and T2*. Two raters independently drew T2' lesion regions of interest. FMISO uptake and perfusion data were obtained within T2' consensus regions of interest, and their overlap with the automatically generated FMISO lesion and apparent diffusion coefficient lesion regions of interest was computed. Results As predicted, consensus T2' lesion regions of interest exhibited high FMISO uptake as well as substantial overlap with the FMISO lesion and significant hypoperfusion, but only small overlap with the apparent diffusion coefficient lesion. Overlap of the T2' lesion regions of interest between the two raters was ∼50%. Conclusions This study provides formal validation of T2' to map non-core hypoxic tissue in acute stroke. T2' lesion delineation reproducibility was suboptimal, reflecting unclear lesion borders.

Experimental searches for the electron electric dipole moment (EDM) probe new physics beyond the Standard Model. The current best EDM limit was set by the ACME Collaboration [Science \textbf{343}, 269 (2014)], constraining time reversal symmetry ($T$) violating physics at the TeV energy scale. ACME used optical pumping to prepare a coherent superposition of ThO $H^3��_1$ states that have aligned electron spins. Spin precession due to the molecule's internal electric field was measured to extract the EDM. We report here on an improved method for preparing this spin-aligned state of the electron by using STIRAP. We demonstrate a transfer efficiency of $75\pm5\%$, representing a significant gain in signal for a next generation EDM experiment. We discuss the particularities of implementing STIRAP in systems such as ours, where molecular ensembles with large phase-space distributions are transfered via weak molecular transitions with limited laser power and limited optical access.

The Standard Model of particle physics is known to be incomplete. Extensions to the Standard Model, such as weak-scale supersymmetry, posit the existence of new particles and interactions that are asymmetric under time reversal (T) and nearly always predict a small yet potentially measurable electron electric dipole moment (EDM), d(e), in the range of 10(-27) to 10(-30) e·cm. The EDM is an asymmetric charge distribution along the electron spin (S(→)) that is also asymmetric under T. Using the polar molecule thorium monoxide, we measured d(e) = (-2.1 ± 3.7stat ± 2.5syst) × 10(-29) e·cm. This corresponds to an upper limit of |d(e)| < 8.7 × 10(-29) e·cm with 90% confidence, an order of magnitude improvement in sensitivity relative to the previous best limit. Our result constrains T-violating physics at the TeV energy scale.

Most studies on asbestos-related diseases are based on chest radiographs, and dose-response relationships are still controversial. The aim of this study was to describe the most relevant parameters of asbestos exposure linked to pleural plaques and asbestosis diagnosed by high-resolution computed tomography (HRCT). A large screening programme including systematic HRCT examinations was organised from 2003 to 2005 in France for formerly asbestos-exposed workers. The time since first exposure (TSFE), level, duration and cumulative exposure to asbestos were used in adjusted unconditional logistic regression to model the relationships of the two diseases. Analysis of a population of 5,545 subjects demonstrated that TSFE (p

Aryl sulfotransferase (AST) IV and alcohol (hydroxysteroid) sulfotransferase a (STa) catalyze the formation of sulfuric acid esters from a diverse array of xenobiotic and endogenous molecules in the liver. Despite the fact that many studies have addressed the metabolic importance and catalytic characteristics of these two sulfotransferases, relatively little is known about their comparative in situ localizations and intralobular distributions in liver. The present investigation utilized specific rabbit antisera prepared against AST IV and STa for immunoperoxidase staining of serial sections from livers of male and female Sprague-Dawley rats and computer-assisted image analysis of immunohistochemical staining intensity by means of microdensitometry. The overall concentration of AST IV was greater in males than in females, although the intralobular distribution of the enzyme was similar in the livers of both male and female rats, wherein centrilobular hepatocytes contained a greater level of AST IV than did midzonal cells, and midzonal hepatocytes had a greater concentration of AST IV than did periportal hepatocytes. In marked contrast, STa was present in livers of female rats at a much greater overall concentration than in livers of male rats. Furthermore, whereas the intralobular distribution of the enzyme was similar in both males and females, STa was present at greater concentrations in periportal hepatocytes than in midzonal hepatocytes and at greater concentrations in midzonal cells than in centrilobular hepatocytes. Significant intrazonal heterogeneity in STa levels within hepatocytes was also observed, particularly in livers of female rats. These results indicate that, whereas the overall hepatic concentrations of these enzymes are clearly sex-dependent, the intralobular distributions of AST IV and STa are characteristic of each particular sulfotransferase.

Upon the noble ship of medicine, which sails proudly on the ocean of knowledge, decked out with gay and varied flags, there floats, my honoured friends and colleagues, one banner inscribed with the word “Psychiatry.” It is, I might almost say, the last one added and the lowest in position. For although in the future we may hope that it will be uplifted higher, and acquire more and more prestige, so as probably at length to range itself on a level with its auxiliary sciences, with pathological anatomy, physiology, and practical medicine, and with other specialities of this last, as a worthy equal with them, yet, alas! this happy event is not yet realised! Still, my friends, we must feel impelled to advance further and fur ther along the new road that we have entered upon-that practical and positive path whereby alone we can attain to that goal at which we aim, the goal of truth and perfection. And, in fact, my friends, if I to-day, in this introductory discourse, do not unveil before you the dreary picture of the past in respect to this science of psychiatry–if I withdraw from memory all those dark deeds and barbarities that prevailed of old, and gladly let oblivion cover them, it is with the view that I may do homage to progress, and thereby place myself in harmony with you; for the purport of our inquiry into this science of psychiatry is, to find not what was, but what is, and still more what shall be, and what shall be for the better, and at the same time to investigate and advance it. In considering to-day the principles (stand-point) of this science, I shall therefore, first of all, take up that division which is known as clinical psychiatry.

Mr. President and Gentlemen—Allow me before I go into my subject to thank you for the kindness you have displayed to me in electing me a honorary member of your Association, and much more so as it is perhaps to-day for the last time that I shall have the honour to address you before my retirement from this branch of science.

Dr. Ludwig Meyer, of Hamburg, has had the courage to defend the non-restraint system in Germany, and also himself to practise it in the Hamburg Asylum with the best success. It is true that Dr. Meyer had previously visited England, and examined with careful eyes, impartial goodwill, and practical mind, the non-restraint system. Why do not such physicians as Casimir Pinel of Paris, Renaudin of Mareville, Dick of Klingmünster, Neumann of Pöpelwitz, and Erlenmayer of Coblenz, visit England also, and with the same honest intentions as Meyer, study a system which has been practised here for more than twenty years amongst a population of insane amounting to 50,000 patients? It must be a messing to suffering humanity and a disgrace to those who have the boldness not only to assert that they do not comprehend these facts, but also to call the system an English swindle, to hear the voice of Dr. L. Meyer in the Desert of German Restraint.

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