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Recent cross-fertilisation among the fields of critical legal geography, political ecology and environmental ethics has created opportunities to examine new legal designations for more-than-human entities such as rivers. In particular, theorisations of how more-than-human assemblages ontologically co-constitute the law challenge interpretations of legal structures as purely human creations and encourage scholars to examine manifestations of non-anthropocentrism, which is defined here as an ethical position that elevates non-humans’ moral standing to that of humans. This article adopts an historical case study approach to examine an environmental conflict that occurred in the 1970s involving non-anthropocentrism and Montana water law. Specifically, this article draws from critical legal geography’s understanding of the law and the environment as being co-constituted to argue that both elements of a non-anthropocentric environmental ethic and the influence of Yellowstone River as a more-than-human entity shaped Montana Fish and Game’s position during the Yellowstone River Basin water reservation process. This article further argues that the combination of these influences affected legal interpretation of the 1973 Montana Water Use Act’s 'minimum stream flow' text and helped reconstitute the Act to include non-anthropocentric elements.

Genome-scale metabolic models are frequently used in computational biology. They offer an integrative view on the metabolic network of an organism without the need to know kinetic information in detail. However, the huge solution space which comes with the analysis of genome-scale models by using, e.g., Flux Balance Analysis (FBA) poses a problem, since it is hard to thoroughly investigate and often only an arbitrarily selected individual flux distribution is discussed as an outcome of FBA. Here, we introduce a new approach to inspect the solution space and we compare it with other approaches, namely Flux Variability Analysis (FVA) and CoPE-FBA, using several different genome-scale models of lactic acid bacteria. We examine the extent to which different types of experimental data limit the solution space and how the robustness of the system increases as a result. We find that our new approach to inspect the solution space is a good complementary method that offers additional insights into the variance of biological phenotypes and can help to prevent wrong conclusions in the analysis of FBA results.

Objective . Intracranial pressure measurement (ICP) is an essential component of deriving of multivariate data metrics foundational to improving understanding of high temporal relationships in cerebral physiology. A significant barrier to this work is artifact ridden data. As such, the objective of this review was to examine the existing literature pertinent to ICP artifact management. Methods. A search of five databases (BIOSIS, SCOPUS, EMBASE, PubMed, and Cochrane Library) was conducted based on the Preferred Reporting Items for Systematic Reviews and Meta-Analysis (PRISMA) guidelines with the PRISMA Extension for Scoping Review. The search question examined the methods for artifact management for ICP signals measured in human/animals. Results. The search yielded 5875 unique results. There were 19 articles included in this review based on inclusion/exclusion criteria and article references. Each method presented was categorized as: (1) valid ICP pulse detection algorithms and (2) ICP artifact identification and removal methods. Machine learning-based and filter-based methods indicated the best results for artifact management; however, it was not possible to elucidate a single most robust method. Conclusion. There is a significant lack of standardization in the metrics of effectiveness in artifact removal which makes comparison difficult across studies. Differences in artifacts observed on patient neuropathological health and recording methodologies have not been thoroughly examined and introduce additional uncertainty regarding effectiveness. Significance . This work provides critical insights into existing literature pertaining to ICP artifact management as it highlights holes in the literature that need to be adequately addressed in the establishment of robust artifact management methodologies., (Creative Commons Attribution license.)

Neurointensive care primarily focuses on secondary injury reduction, utilizing a variety of guideline-based approaches (including administration of high-dose sedation) to reduce the injured state. However, titration of sedation is currently based on the Richmond Agitation Sedation Scale (RASS), a subjective clinical grading score of a patient's response to external physical stimuli, and not an objective measure. Therefore, it is likely that there exists substantial variation in objective sedation depth for a given clinical grade in these patients, leading to undesired sedation depths and cerebral physiological consequences. Improper sedation can impede cerebral autoregulation, emphasizing the critical need for optimal sedation in traumatic brain injury (TBI) patients. This study evaluates the relationship between RASS to an objective measure of depth of sedation (bispectral index, BIS) and cerebral physiological measures. Fifty-nine patients were assessed using Jonckheere-Terpstra testing to compare various key physiologies with RASS. RASS (-5 through 0 categories) showed no statistically significant relationship between BIS and cerebral physiological parameters, after adjusting for multiple comparisons. Furthermore, it is crucial to note that within each RASS value, the distribution of the physiological measures all had high variability. As an exemplar, for RASS values of -5 and -4, BIS ranged from near 0 (burst suppression levels) up to over 80 (near awake states). BIS and other cerebral physiologies displayed substantial variation across each RASS category. This suggests that RASS as a means to titrate sedative medication for the goal of neuroprotection is insufficient. More momentary, individualized determination of sedation depth is required for TBI patients., (© The Author(s) 2024. Published by Mary Ann Liebert, Inc.)

Artifacts induced during patient monitoring are a main limitation for near-infrared spectroscopy (NIRS) as a non-invasive method of cerebral hemodynamic monitoring. There currently does not exist a robust "gold-standard" method for artifact management for these signals. The objective of this review is to comprehensively examine the literature on existing artifact management methods for cerebral NIRS signals recorded in animals and humans. A search of five databases was conducted based on the Preferred Reporting Items for Systematic Reviews and Meta-Analysis guidelines. The search yielded 806 unique results. There were 19 articles from these results that were included in this review based on the inclusion/exclusion criteria. There were an additional 36 articles identified in the references of select articles that were also included. The methods outlined in these articles were grouped under two major categories: (1) motion and other disconnection artifact removal methods; (2) data quality improvement and physiological/other noise artifact filtering methods. These were sub-categorized by method type. It proved difficult to quantitatively compare the methods due to the heterogeneity of the effectiveness metrics and definitions of artifacts. The limitations evident in the existing literature justify the need for more comprehensive comparisons of artifact management. This review provides insights into the available methods for artifact management in cerebral NIRS and justification for a homogenous method to quantify the effectiveness of artifact management methods. This builds upon the work of two existing reviews that have been conducted on this topic; however, the scope is extended to all artifact types and all NIRS recording types. Future work by our lab in cerebral NIRS artifact management will lie in a layered artifact management method that will employ different techniques covered in this review (including dynamic thresholding, autoregressive-based methods, and wavelet-based methods) amongst others to remove varying artifact types.

Acute traumatic neural injury, known as traumatic brain injury (TBI), stands as a significant contributor to global mortality and disability. Ideally, continuously monitoring cerebral compliance/cerebral compensatory reserve would enable timely interventions and avert further substantial deterioration in TBI cases. RAP, defined as the moving Pearson's correlation between intracranial pressure (ICP) pulse amplitude waveform and ICP, has been proposed as a continuously updating index in this context. However, the literature remains scattered and difficult to navigate. Thus, the goal of this scoping review was to comprehensively characterize the literature regarding RAP and its association with (1) other multimodal cerebral physiological monitoring, (2) neuroimaging features, and (3) long-term patient outcomes. We subsequently conducted a systematic scoping review of the human literature to highlight the association of RAP with continuous multimodal monitoring of cerebral physiology, neuroimaging, and patient outcomes in the context of adult TBI patients. Our review encompassed 21 studies focusing on these topics. The primary findings involve meticulous analysis of studies, categorizing findings into three states of RAP to clearly understand its relation to cerebral physiology and clinical outcomes. State 1 signifies a healthy condition with a small positive value near zero (RAP <0.5). Conversely, state 2, a predominant characterization of TBI patients, indicates compromised compensatory reserve, featuring a large positive RAP value (RAP > 0.4). State 3 emerges in worsened conditions, showcasing further compromised compensatory reserve, exhausted cerebrovascular reactivity, and disturbed cerebral autoregulation. A substantial number of patients with fatal outcomes was found in state 3, marked by a notable occurrence of decreasing and, in some instances, negative RAP. The significance of this review lies in establishing a platform for future research directions to enhance the precision and clinical implications of RAP in TBI care, ultimately aiming to prevent the transition from state 2 to state 3 and mitigate fatal outcomes., (© The Author(s) 2024. Published by Mary Ann Liebert, Inc.)

Global outcomes have been reported to be associated with cerebrovascular reactivity (CVR) in the acute phase following moderate and severe traumatic brain injury (TBI). The association of CVR in the acute and chronic phase of injury with patient-reported health-related quality of life metrics (HRQOL) metrics has never been explored. The aim of this study is to examine the association of CVR, as measured by the cerebral oxygen indices (COx and COx&#95;a), in the acute and chronic phase following moderate and severe TBI, with patient reported HRQOL. In this prospective cohort study, performed in a Canadian quaternary care center, the association between continuous acute and chronic phase CVR with patient reported HRQOL outcomes following moderate and severe TBI was examined. The main outcomes of interest of this study were validated measures of patient-reported HRQOL over various domains as measured by both the 12-Item Short-Form Health Survey (SF-12) and a Quality of Life after Brain Injury (QOLIBRI) questionnaire. In the 29 subjects of this cohort, acute phase CVR was found to be significantly more active in those with a favorable Mental Component Summary (MCS) scores of the SF-12 at early follow-up when measured by COx (-0.015 [IQR: -0.067 to 0.032] vs 0.040 [IQR: 0.019 to 0.137] for Favorable first MCS vs Unfavorable respectively; Mann-Whitney U test p-value = 0.046) and COx&#95;a (0.038 [IQR: 0.009 to 0.062] vs 0.112 [IQR: 0.065 to 0.167] for Favorable first MCS vs Unfavorable respectively; Mann-Whitney U test p-value = 0.014). Further, multivariable logistic regression analysis found acute phase COx and COx&#95;a to improve model performance when predicting favorable versus unfavorable early MCS scores over established parameters such as age and measures of injury severity. Associations between outcomes and chronic phase CVR were limited, potentially due to short recording periods. This is the first ever pilot study to identify a relationship between acute phase CVR following moderate-to-severe TBI with mental and cognitive outcomes as experienced by patients. Given the small cohort, these findings will need to be confirmed in a larger multicenter study. This highlights the need for additional examination of the role dysfunctional CVR may play in mental and cognitive outcomes, as well as patient-reported outcomes more generally following TBI., (© 2024. The Author(s).)

Traumatic brain injury (TBI) poses a significant global public health challenge necessitating a profound understanding of cerebral physiology. The dynamic nature of TBI demands sophisticated methodologies for modeling and predicting cerebral signals to unravel intricate pathophysiology and predict secondary injury mechanisms prior to their occurrence. In this comprehensive scoping review, we focus specifically on multivariate cerebral physiologic signal analysis in the context of multi-modal monitoring (MMM) in TBI, exploring a range of techniques including multivariate statistical time-series models and machine learning algorithms. Conducting a comprehensive search across databases yielded 7 studies for evaluation, encompassing diverse cerebral physiologic signals and parameters from TBI patients. Among these, five studies concentrated on modeling cerebral physiologic signals using statistical time-series models, while the remaining two studies primarily delved into intracranial pressure (ICP) prediction through machine learning models. Autoregressive models were predominantly utilized in the modeling studies. In the context of prediction studies, logistic regression and Gaussian processes (GP) emerged as the predominant choice in both research endeavors, with their performance being evaluated against each other in one study and other models such as random forest, and decision tree in the other study. Notably among these models, random forest model, an ensemble learning approach, demonstrated superior performance across various metrics. Additionally, a notable gap was identified concerning the absence of studies focusing on prediction for multivariate outcomes. This review addresses existing knowledge gaps and sets the stage for future research in advancing cerebral physiologic signal analysis for neurocritical care improvement., Competing Interests: Declaration of competing interest The authors assert that they have no conflicts of interest to disclose regarding this work, confirming the absence of any financial interests, affiliations, or personal relationships that may have influenced or biased this research., (Copyright © 2024 The Author(s). Published by Elsevier Ltd.. All rights reserved.)

Objective. Continuous monitoring of cerebrospinal compliance (CC) / cerebrospinal compensatory reserve (CCR) is crucial for timely interventions and preventing more substantial deterioration in the context of acute neural injury, as it enables the early detection of abnormalities in intracranial pressure (ICP). However, to date, the literature on continuous CC/CCR monitoring is scattered and occasionally challenging to consolidate. Approach. We subsequently conducted a systematic scoping review of the human literature to highlight the available continuous CC/CCR monitoring methods. Main results. This systematic review incorporated a total number of 76 studies, covering diverse patient types and focusing on three primary continuous CC or CCR monitoring metrics and methods-Moving Pearson's correlation between ICP pulse amplitude waveform and ICP, referred to as RAP, the Spiegelberg Compliance Monitor, changes in cerebral blood flow velocity with respect to the alternation of ICP measured through transcranial doppler (TCD), changes in centroid metric, high frequency centroid (HFC) or higher harmonics centroid (HHC), and the P2/P1 ratio which are the distinct peaks of ICP pulse wave. The majority of the studies in this review encompassed RAP metric analysis ( n = 43), followed by Spiegelberg Compliance Monitor ( n = 11), TCD studies ( n = 9), studies on the HFC/HHC ( n = 5), and studies on the P2/P1 ratio studies ( n = 6). These studies predominantly involved acute traumatic neural injury (i.e. Traumatic Brain Injury) patients and those with hydrocephalus. RAP is the most extensively studied of the five focused methods and exhibits diverse applications. However, most papers lack clarification on its clinical applicability, a circumstance that is similarly observed for the other methods. Significance. Future directions involve exploring RAP patterns and identifying characteristics and artifacts, investigating neuroimaging correlations with continuous CC/CCR and integrating machine learning, holding promise for simplifying CC/CCR determination. These approaches should aim to enhance the precision and accuracy of the metric, making it applicable in clinical practice., (Creative Commons Attribution license.)

Cerebrovascular pressure reactivity plays a key role in maintaining constant cerebral blood flow. Unfortunately, this mechanism is often impaired in acute traumatic neural injury states, exposing the already injured brain to further pressure-passive insults. While there has been much work on the association between impaired cerebrovascular reactivity following moderate/severe traumatic brain injury (TBI) and worse long-term outcomes, there is yet to be a comprehensive review on the association between cerebrovascular pressure reactivity and intracranial pressure (ICP) extremes. Therefore, we conducted a systematic review of the literature for all studies presenting a quantifiable statistical association between a continuous measure of cerebrovascular pressure reactivity and ICP in a human TBI cohort. The methodology described in the Cochrane Handbook for Systematic Reviews was used. BIOSIS, Cochrane Library, EMBASE, Global Health, MEDLINE, and SCOPUS were all searched from their inceptions to March of 2023 for relevant articles. Full-length original works with a sample size of ≥10 patients with moderate/severe TBI were included in this review. Data were reported in accordance with the Preferred Reporting Items for Systematic Reviews and Meta-Analyses. A total of 16 articles were included in this review. Studies varied in population characteristics and statistical tests used. Five studies looked at transcranial Doppler-based indices and 13 looked at ICP-based indices. All but two studies were able to present a statistically significant association between cerebrovascular pressure reactivity and ICP. Based on the findings of this review, impaired reactivity seems to be associated with elevated ICP and reduced ICP waveform complexity. This relationship may allow for the calculation of patient-specific ICP thresholds, past which cerebrovascular reactivity becomes persistently deranged. However, further work is required to better understand this relationship and improve algorithmic derivation of such individualized ICP thresholds., (© Kevin Y. Stein et al. 2024; Published by Mary Ann Liebert, Inc.)

Near-infrared spectroscopy (NIRS) regional cerebral oxygen saturation (rSO 2 )-based cerebrovascular reactivity (CVR) monitoring has enabled entirely non-invasive, continuous monitoring during both acute and long-term phases of care. To date, long-term post-injury CVR has not been properly characterized after acute traumatic neural injury, also known as traumatic brain injury (TBI). This study aims to compare CVR in those recovering from moderate-to-severe TBI with a healthy control group. A total of 101 heathy subjects were recruited for this study, along with 29 TBI patients. In the healthy cohort, the arterial blood pressure variant of the cerebral oxygen index (COx&#95;a) was not statistically different between males and females or in the dominant and non-dominant hemispheres. In the TBI cohort, COx&#95;a was not statistically different between the first and last available follow-up or by the side of cranial surgery. Surprisingly, CVR, as measured by COx&#95;a, was statistically better in those recovering from TBI than those in the healthy cohort. In this prospective cohort study, CVR, as measured by NIRS-based methods, was found to be more active in those recovering from TBI than in the healthy cohort. This study may indicate that in individuals that survive TBI, CVR may be enhanced as a neuroprotective measure.

Early identification of tail biting and intervention are necessary to reduce tail lesions and their impact on animal health and welfare. Removal of biters has become an effective intervention strategy, but finding them can be difficult and time-consuming. The aim of this study was to investigate whether tail biting and, in particular, individual biters could be identified by detecting pig screams in audio recordings. The study included 288 undocked weaner pigs housed in six pens in two batches. Once a tail biter (n = 7) was identified by visual inspection in the stable and removed by the farm staff, the previous days of video and audio recordings were analyzed for pig screams (sudden increase in loudness with frequencies above 1 kHz) and tail biting events until no biting before the removal was observed anymore. In total, 2893 screams were detected in four pens where tail biting occurred. Of these screams, 52.9% were caused by tail biting in the observed pen, 25.6% originated from other pens, 8.8% were not assignable, and 12.7% occurred due to other reasons. In case of a tail biting event, screams were assigned individually to biter and victim pigs. Based on the audio analysis, biters were identified between one and nine days prior to their removal from the pen after visual inspection. Screams were detected earlier than the increase in hanging tails and could therefore be favored as an early warning indicator. Analyzing animal vocalization has potential for monitoring and early detection of tail biting events. In combination with individual marks and automatic analysis algorithms, biters could be identified and tail biting efficiently reduced. In this way, biters can be removed earlier to increase animal health and welfare., (© 2024. The Author(s).)

CAOS-Barcoding is a culmination of traditional taxonomy and modern DNA barcoding. CAOS identifies taxa by diagnostic characters as is done in traditional taxonomy and produces an identification matrix for taxon discrimination similar to DNA barcoding distance matrices. Here, I describe how to set up the CAOS-Barcoder and CAOS-Classifier software, which input data is needed, and how to interpret the output data. With the CAOS-Barcoder, single marker or concatenated data can be processed into diagnostic barcodes for taxon discrimination. The CAOS-Classifier can use the diagnostic barcodes for specimen identification., (© 2024. The Author(s), under exclusive license to Springer Science+Business Media, LLC, part of Springer Nature.)

Regional cerebral oxygen saturation (rSO 2 ), a method of cerebral tissue oxygenation measurement, is recorded using non-invasive near-infrared Spectroscopy (NIRS) devices. A major limitation is that recorded signals often contain artifacts. Manually removing these artifacts is both resource and time consuming. The objective was to evaluate the applicability of using wavelet analysis as an automated method for simple signal loss artifact clearance of rSO 2 signals obtained from commercially available devices. A retrospective observational study using existing populations (healthy control (HC), elective spinal surgery patients (SP), and traumatic brain injury patients (TBI)) was conducted. Arterial blood pressure (ABP) and rSO 2 data were collected in all patients. Wavelet analysis was determined to be successful in removing simple signal loss artifacts using wavelet coefficients and coherence to detect signal loss artifacts in rSO 2 signals. The removal success rates in HC, SP, and TBI populations were 100%, 99.8%, and 99.7%, respectively (though it had limited precision in determining the exact point in time). Thus, wavelet analysis may prove to be useful in a layered approach NIRS signal artifact tool utilizing higher-frequency data; however, future work is needed.

Background: Optimal cerebral perfusion pressure (CPPopt) has emerged as a promising personalized medicine approach to the management of moderate-to-severe traumatic brain injury (TBI). Though literature demonstrating its association with poor outcomes exists, there is yet to be work done on its association with outcome transition due to a lack of serial outcome data analysis. In this study we investigate the association between various metrics of CPPopt and failure to improve in outcome over time., Methods: CPPopt was derived using three different cerebrovascular reactivity indices; the pressure reactivity index (PRx), the pulse amplitude index (PAx), and the RAC index. For each index, % times spent with cerebral perfusion pressure (CPP) above and below its CPPopt and upper and lower limits of reactivity were calculated. Patients were dichotomized based on improvement in Glasgow Outcome Scale-Extended (GOSE) scores into Improved vs. Not Improved between 1 and 3 months, 3 and 6 months, and 1- and 6-month post-TBI. Logistic regression analyses were then conducted, adjusting for the International Mission for Prognosis and Analysis of Clinical Trials (IMPACT) variables., Results: This study included a total of 103 patients from the Winnipeg Acute TBI Database. Through Mann-Whitney U testing and logistic regression analysis, it was found that % time spent with CPP below CPPopt was associated with failure to improve in outcome, while % time spent with CPP above CPPopt was generally associated with improvement in outcome., Conclusions: Our study supports the existing narrative that time spent with CPP below CPPopt results in poorer outcomes. However, it also suggests that time spent above CPPopt may not be associated with worse outcomes and is possibly even associated with improvement in outcome., (© 2023. The Author(s).)

In human infants babbling is an important developmental stage of vocal plasticity to acquire maternal language. To investigate parallels in the vocal development of human infants and non-human mammals, seven key features of human babbling were defined, which are up to date only shown in bats and marmosets. This study will explore whether these features can also be found in gray mouse lemurs by investigating how infant vocal streams gradually resemble the structure of the adult trill call, which is not present at birth. Using unsupervised clustering, we distinguished six syllable types, whose sequential order gradually reflected the adult trill. A subset of adult syllable types was produced by several infants, with the syllable production being rhythmic, repetitive, and independent of the social context. The temporal structure of the calling bouts and the tempo-spectral features of syllable types became adult-like at the age of weaning. The age-dependent changes in the acoustic parameters differed between syllable types, suggesting that they cannot solely be explained by physical maturation of the vocal apparatus. Since gray mouse lemurs exhibit five features of animal babbling, they show parallels to the vocal development of human infants, bats, and marmosets., (© 2023. The Author(s).)

AUTISM: spectrum disorders (ASD) often remain undiagnosed until adulthood. The aim of this study is to report differential diagnoses (DDX) and comorbidities of adults without intellectual impairment suspected of having an ASD and to test the self-assessment questionnaire Autism Quotient (AQ) for its suitability for screening., Methods: DDX and comorbidities were recorded with standardized scales in an autism outpatient clinic in 106 individuals. The AQ was tested against the expert judgment of an interdisciplinary case conference using ROC analysis., Results: Affective disorders were common in both groups (48%); other DDX were phobias (33%) and personality disorders (22%). The AQ showed an AUC of 0,527 with sensitivity/specificity of 70%/35%., Conclusions: Adults suspected of having autism are highly burdened by DDX and comorbidities. An interdisciplinary diagnostic procedure based on standardized scales is useful, whereas the AQ hardly differentiates between persons with and without ASD., Competing Interests: Die Autorinnen/Autoren geben an, dass kein Interessenkonflikt besteht., (Thieme. All rights reserved.)

Despite debate on intramolecular N→P interactions in peri -substituted naphthalene derivatives their coordination chemistry has not yet been reported. Herein, we describe bonding in and reactivity of dichloro(8-dimethylamino-1-naphthyl)phosphane towards pentacarbonyltungsten(0) reagents. A 1-aza-2-phospha-acenaphthene complex was obtained via the unexpected elimination of chloromethane enabled through P-coordination. Theoretical DFT calculations provide insights into P⋯N pnictogen bonding interaction as well as the reaction pathway of the elimination reaction., Competing Interests: There are no conflicts to declare., (This journal is © The Royal Society of Chemistry.)

Background: Respiratory therapists (RT) perform various tasks, including the care of patients, diagnostics, support for therapy and care, training and education as well as optimization of structures and processes. It is unclear to what extent the various activities are performed at German university hospitals and how trained employees evaluate the service., Aim: Description of activities of RT at a university hospital and evaluation of microlearning of employees., Method: Data were collected in a prospective mixed method study over 6 months. Primary outcome was the number of RT activities. Secondary outcome was the evaluation of microlearning as evaluated by employees with regard to benefits for personal knowledge gain, practical application, and for benefits for patients on scales of 1-10 (1 = very bad, 10 = very good)., Results: During the 6‑month study period, RT were called for a total of 1674 consultations and carried out 2274 activities; the three most common activities accounted for 45% (n = 1037) of all activities and included the following: 20.1% (n = 461) adjustment of non-invasive ventilation, 13.1% (n = 299) secretion management, and 12.2% (n = 277) protocolized weaning. In all, 111 RTs rated microlearning as very good 111 employees with a median of 9.8 (interquartile range 9-10). About 74% of the working time was spent in direct care and education on the wards., Conclusions: The job profile of RTs is complex, is associated with responsibility, and is largely located in direct patient care. Bedside microlearning courses for RTs may be an innovative opportunity to expand the competencies of employees., (© 2022. The Author(s), under exclusive licence to Springer Medizin Verlag GmbH, ein Teil von Springer Nature.)

Key Message: Novel QTLs and candidate genes for Sclerotinia-resistance were identified in B. villosa, a wild Brassica species, which represents a new genetic source for improving oilseed rape resistance to SSR. Sclerotinia stem rot (SSR), caused by Sclerotinia sclerotiorum, is one of the most destructive diseases in oilseed rape growing regions. To date, there is no effective genetic resistance against S. sclerotiorum in the B. napus germplasm and knowledge of the molecular plant-fungal interaction is also limited. To identify new resistance resources, we screened a set of wild Brassica species and identified B. villosa (BRA1896) with a high level of Sclerotinia-resistance. Two segregating F 2 populations for Sclerotinia-resistance, generated by interspecific crosses between the resistant B. villosa (BRA1896) and the wild susceptible B. oleracea (BRA1909) were assessed for Sclerotinia-resistance. Genetic mapping using a 15-k Illumina Infinium SNP-array resulted in a high-density genetic map containing 1,118 SNP markers and spanning a total genetic length of 792.2 cM. QTL analysis revealed seven QTLs explaining 3.8% to 16.5% of phenotypic variance. Intriguingly, RNAseq-based transcriptome analysis identified genes and pathways specific to B. villosa, of which a cluster of five genes encoding putative receptor-like kinases (RLKs) and two pathogenesis-related (PR) proteins are co-localized within a QTL on chromosome C07. Furthermore, transcriptomic analysis revealed enhanced ethylene (ET)-activated signaling in the resistant B. villosa, which is associated with a stronger plant immune response, depressed cell death, and enhanced phytoalexin biosynthesis compared to the susceptible B. oleracea. Our data demonstrates that B. villosa represents a novel and unique genetic source for improving oilseed rape resistance against SSR., (© 2023. The Author(s).)

Background: Continuous glucose monitoring (CGM) might have beneficial effects on glycemic control and body mass index (BMI) in adults with type 1 (T1D) or type 2 diabetes (T2D). Methods: The diabetes prospective follow-up registry was used to identify individuals with T1D or T2D ≥18 years starting CGM management in 2015 or later and follow-up information available. Hemoglobin A1c (HbA1c), BMI, and event rates of severe hypoglycemia in the year before CGM start were compared with two follow-up periods: (1) CGM use for 3-6 months and (2) CGM use for >6 months. Repeated measurements linear and negative binomial regressions were used (adjustment for sex, age at diabetes onset, and baseline parameters) and stratified by diabetes type. Results: Mean follow-up time was 1.8 years in T1D ( n  = 2994) and 1.9 years in T2D ( n  = 1440). In T1D, adjusted mean HbA1c decreased significantly from 7.65% (95% confidence interval: 7.62-7.68) at baseline to 7.54% (7.51-7.57) during follow-up. BMI increased slightly (baseline: 25.4 kg/m 2 [25.3-25.5], follow-up >6 months: 25.8 kg/m 2 [25.7-25.9]), whereas event rates of severe hypoglycemia were significantly lower after >6 months with CGM (9.0 events/100 patient-years [PY; 8.0-10.1]) compared with baseline (11.3 events/100 PY [10.4-12.2]) in adults with T1D. In T2D, HbA1c decreased from 7.21% (7.17%-7.25%) to 7.00% (6.95%-7.04%) and BMI did not change after CGM initiation. Conclusion: Our results provide real-world evidence on CGM management in adult individuals with T1D or T2D. We suggest strengthening patients' and physicians' readiness toward diabetes technology in T2D and more openness of health insurance to cover cost based on proven benefits.

Stellate cells are principal neurons in the entorhinal cortex that contribute to spatial processing. They also play a role in the context of Alzheimer's disease as they accumulate Amyloid beta early in the disease. Producing human stellate cells from pluripotent stem cells would allow researchers to study early mechanisms of Alzheimer's disease, however, no protocols currently exist for producing such cells. In order to develop novel stem cell protocols, we characterize at high resolution the development of the porcine medial entorhinal cortex by tracing neuronal and glial subtypes from mid-gestation to the adult brain to identify the transcriptomic profile of progenitor and adult stellate cells. Importantly, we could confirm the robustness of our data by extracting developmental factors from the identified intermediate stellate cell cluster and implemented these factors to generate putative intermediate stellate cells from human induced pluripotent stem cells. Six transcription factors identified from the stellate cell cluster including RUNX1T1 , SOX5 , FOXP1 , MEF2C , TCF4 , EYA2 were overexpressed using a forward programming approach to produce neurons expressing a unique combination of RELN , SATB2 , LEF1 and BCL11B observed in stellate cells. Further analyses of the individual transcription factors led to the discovery that FOXP1 is critical in the reprogramming process and omission of RUNX1T1 and EYA2 enhances neuron conversion. Our findings contribute not only to the profiling of cell types within the developing and adult brain's medial entorhinal cortex but also provides proof-of-concept for using scRNAseq data to produce entorhinal intermediate stellate cells from human pluripotent stem cells in-vitro ., 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 © 2022 Bergmann, Liu, Skov, Mogus, Lee, Pfisterer, Handfield, Asenjo-Martinez, Lisa-Vargas, Seemann, Lee, Patikas, Kornum, Denham, Hyttel, Witter, Gorodkin, Pers, Hemberg, Khodosevich and Hall.)

People with intellectual disability (ID) generally tend to have difficulties expressing their thoughts and feelings verbally. Art-based therapies rely less on cognitive ability and verbal skills and aim to promote mental health. Drama therapy provides a playful framework to communicate problematic issues and to foster social skills. Improvisational theatre (improv) methods applied in therapy settings were reported to show positive effects on social competences and self-esteem. This pilot study investigates the feasibility ( N  = 24) and appropriateness ( n  = 12) of an intervention using improv methods in people with mild to moderate ID. Feasibility was measured on the basis of the average participation period, while appropriateness was assessed through a standardised patient satisfaction questionnaire (CSQ-8) and a self-developed questionnaire. The frequency of the applied methods was compared in two subgroups with participants requiring different support. The average participation rate of 19 months indicated a good feasibility. High CSQ-8 scores ( M  = 27.6/max. 32) and positive feedback on the self-developed questionnaire indicated the overall appropriateness. The frequency analysis of the applied methods reflected the adaptive nature of the intervention. Further research on the efficacy of improv methods contributing to mental health in people with ID is recommended., Competing Interests: None of the authors or other persons involved in this study have any interests that might be interpreted as influencing the research., (© The British Society of Developmental Disabilities 2022.)