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The human and murine type XVVIII collagen structurally resembles collagen type VI. Type XXVIII collagen is mainly located in peripheral nerves surrounding most nonmyelinating glial cells and dorsal root ganglia, but it is also present in skin calvaria, at the nodes of Ranvier, and as a component of the peripheral nervous system nodal gap. Interestingly, type XXVIII collagen is overexpressed in bleomycin-induced lung and in mouse hepatocarcinoma, suggesting it is involved in damage repair processes. Moreover, clinical studies have reported an increase in the formation of type XXVIII collagen in patients with heart failure with preserved ejection fraction and in patients with lung cancer. Type XXVIII collagen has been shown to be located in murine lungs associated with basement membranes, although the expression is not restricted to this membrane. The research on type XXVIII collagen is still emerging.

Antarctic krill is a key species in the Southern Ocean and subject to the most extensive fishery in the Antarctic. The Norwegian Institute of Marine Research has conducted acoustic-trawl monitoring of krill off the South Orkneys annually since 2011 in collaboration with the krill fishing industry. Average krill biomass within the 60000 km2 survey area ranged from 1.4 to 7.8 million tonnes in the period 2011-2020, strongly supporting that this is among the regions in the Scotia Sea with consistently highest krill densities. There were no significant (p approximate to 0.18, non-parametric Mann-Kendall test) monotonic trends in estimated krill biomass over the 10 years. The highest krill densities were associated with the shelf edge and submarine canyons on the north side of the South Orkneys. Our comparison with the CCAMLR 9.3% reference exploitation rate suggests that management of the krill fishery in the South Orkneys region is precautionary. The monitoring is run on fishing vessels, so e.g. acoustic frequencies applied could not always be in compliance with the standard CCAMLR methodology. Estimated deviance in krill backscatter when comparing 38 kHz to the standard 120 kHz ranged from -1.1% to 12.8%. Our results show that industry-based surveys are cost-efficient approaches to high-quality monitoring of krill.

In Denmark, the goal is to have a carbon neutral energy sector by 2050, which means that the fossil based district heat production of today should be replaced by renewable energy sources. A potential way to do this is to utilise geothermal energy which is a promising reliable renewable energy source. In the present work, an absorption heat transformer utilising geothermal energy for district heat production was therefore investigated. An advanced exergy analysis was performed, which is a design tool, that can give knowledge on the irreversibilities and improvement potential of the system, otherwise not possible using conventional exergy analyses. The advanced exergy analysis concluded that the absorber and generator are responsible for most of the exergy destruction in the system and most of it is unavoidable endogenous exergy destruction. The analysis revealed that the evaporator and condenser had the highest potential for optimisation. It was seen that the absorber and generator benefit from other components operating at lower efficiency, including the evaporator and condenser. Therefore, optimisation of the system would lead to trade-offs between the performance of individual components. It was however possible to reduce the overall exergy destruction with up to 9% by improvement of components to their maximum technical performance

Psychologie und Gehirn 2021 (2-4 June 2021), Item does not contain fulltext

Contains fulltext : 237452.pdf (Publisher’s version ) (Open Access), Healthy aging is accompanied by progressive decline in cognitive performance and concomitant changes in brain structure and functional architecture. Age-accompanied alterations in brain function have been characterized on a network level as weaker functional connections within brain networks along with stronger interactions between networks. This phenomenon has been described as age-related differences in functional network segregation. It has been suggested that functional networks related to associative processes are particularly sensitive to age-related deterioration in segregation, possibly related to cognitive decline in aging. However, there have been only a few longitudinal studies with inconclusive results. Here, we used a large longitudinal sample of 284 participants between 25 to 80 years of age at baseline, with cognitive and neuroimaging data collected at up to three time points over a 10-year period. We investigated age-related changes in functional segregation among two large-scale systems comprising associative and sensorimotor-related resting-state networks. We found that functional segregation of associative systems declines in aging with exacerbated deterioration from the late fifties. Changes in associative segregation were positively associated with changes in global cognitive ability, suggesting that decreased segregation has negative consequences for domain-general cognitive functions. Age-related changes in system segregation were partly accounted for by changes in white matter integrity, but white matter integrity only weakly influenced the association between segregation and cognition. Together, these novel findings suggest a cascade where reduced white-matter integrity leads to less distinctive functional systems which in turn contributes to cognitive decline in aging.

The International Society for Stem Cell Research has updated its Guidelines for Stem Cell Research and Clinical Translation in order to address advances in stem cell science and other relevant fields, together with the associated ethical, social, and policy issues that have arisen since the last update in 2016. While growing to encompass the evolving science, clinical applications of stem cells, and the increasingly complex implications of stem cell research for society, the basic principles underlying the Guidelines remain unchanged, and they will continue to serve as the standard for the field and as a resource for scientists, regulators, funders, physicians, and members of the public, including patients. A summary of the key updates and issues is presented here.

Aim: Reinstating large, native herbivores is an essential component of ecological restoration efforts, as these taxa can be important drivers of ecological processes. However, many herbivore species have gone globally or regionally extinct during the last 50,000 years, leaving simplified herbivore assemblages and trophically downgraded ecosystems. Here, we discuss to what extent trophic rewilding can undo these changes by reinstating native herbivores. Location: Global. Time period: We report functional trait changes from the Late Pleistocene to the present, and estimated trait changes under future scenarios. Major taxa studied: Wild, large (≥ 10 kg), terrestrial, mammalian herbivores. Methods: We use a functional trait dataset containing all late Quaternary large herbivores ≥ 10 kg to look at changes in the body mass and diet composition of herbivore assemblages, a proxy for species’ ecological effects. First, we assess how these traits have changed from the Late Pleistocene to the present. Next, we quantify how the current body mass and diet composition would change if all extant, wild herbivores were restored to their native ranges (and if no functional replacements were used), exploring scenarios with different baselines. Results: Defaunation has primarily removed large and grazing herbivores. Reinstating extant herbivores across their native ranges would reverse these changes, especially when reinstating them to their prehistoric distributions. It would partially restore herbivore body mass and diet composition to pre-anthropogenic conditions. However, in the absence of complementary interventions (e.g., introducing functional replacements), many herbivore assemblages would remain down-sized and browser dominated, relative to pre-anthropogenic conditions. Main conclusions: Many terrestrial herbivore assemblages—and hence ecosystems—would remain trophically downgraded, even after bringing back all extant, native herbivores. Therefore, complementary interventions

Multiple myeloma (MM) remains an incurable disease, with little information available on its management in real-world clinical practice. The results of the present prospective, noninterventional observational study revealed great diversity in the treatment regimens used to treat MM. Our results also provide data to inform health economic, pharmacoepidemiologic, and outcomes research, providing a framework for the design of protocols to improve the outcomes of patients with MM. Background: The present prospective, multinational, noninterventional study aimed to document and describe real-world treatment regimens and disease progression in multiple myeloma (MM) patients. Patients and Methods: Adult patients initiating any new MM therapy from October 2010 to October 2012 were eligible. A multistage patient/site recruitment model was applied to minimize the selection bias; enrollment was stratified by country, region, and practice type. The patient medical and disease features, treatment history, and remission status were recorded at baseline, and prospective data on treatment, efficacy, and safety were collected electronically every 3 months. Results: A total of 2358 patients were enrolled. Of these patients, 775 and 1583 did and did not undergo stem cell transplantation (SCT) at any time during treatment, respectively. Of the patients in the SCT and non-SCT groups, 49%, 21%, 14%, and 15% and 57%, 20%, 12% and 10% were enrolled at treatment line 1, 2, 3, and ≥ 4, respectively. In the SCT and non-SCT groups, 45% and 54% of the patients had received bortezomib-based therapy without thalidomide/lenalidomide, 12% and 18% had received thalidomide/lenalidomide-based therapy without bortezomib, and 30% and 4% had received bortezomib plus thalidomide/lenalidomide-based therapy as frontline treatment, respectively. The corresponding proportions of SCT and non-SCT patients in lines 2, 3, and ≥ 4 were 45% and 37%, 30% and 37%, and 12% and 3%, 33% and 27%, 35% and 32%, and 8% and