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Tree growth and longevity trade-offs fundamentally shape the terrestrial carbon balance. Yet, we lack a unified understanding of how such trade-offs vary across the world's forests. By mapping life history traits for a wide range of species across the Americas, we reveal considerable variation in life expectancies from 10 centimeters in diameter (ranging from 1.3 to 3195 years) and show that the pace of life for trees can be accurately classified into four demographic functional types. We found emergent patterns in the strength of trade-offs between growth and longevity across a temperature gradient. Furthermore, we show that the diversity of life history traits varies predictably across forest biomes, giving rise to a positive relationship between trait diversity and productivity. Our pan-latitudinal assessment provides new insights into the demographic mechanisms that govern the carbon turnover rate across forest biomes.

PURPOSE: Novel interventions for the prevention or treatment of acute kidney injury (AKI) are currently lacking. To facilitate the evaluation and adoption of new treatments, the use of the most appropriate design and endpoints for clinical trials in AKI is critical and yet there is little consensus regarding these issues. We aimed to develop recommendations on endpoints and trial design for studies of AKI prevention and treatment interventions based on existing data and expert consensus. METHODS: At the 31st Acute Disease Quality Initiative (ADQI) meeting, international experts in critical care, nephrology, involving adults and pediatrics, biostatistics and people with lived experience (PWLE) were assembled. We focused on four main areas: (1) patient enrichment strategies, (2) prevention and attenuation studies, (3) treatment studies, and (4) innovative trial designs of studies other than traditional (parallel arm or cluster) randomized controlled trials. Using a modified Delphi process, recommendations and consensus statements were developed based on existing data, with > 90% agreement among panel members required for final adoption. RESULTS: The panel developed 12 consensus statements for clinical trial endpoints, application of enrichment strategies where appropriate, and inclusion of PWLE to inform trial designs. Innovative trial designs were also considered. CONCLUSION: The current lack of specific therapy for prevention or treatment of AKI demands refinement of future clinical trial design. Here we report the consensus findings of the 31st ADQI group meeting which has attempted to address these issues including the use of predictive and prognostic enrichment strategies to enable appropriate patient selection.

Platelet lysate, derived from platelets, are valuable biological products rich in bioactive molecules. Their use promotes tissue healing and modulates inflammation. However, maintaining the stability and bioactivity of platelet lysate is challenging since they degrade rapidly at room temperature. This study focused on the possibility to confer enhanced stability to freeze-dried equine platelet lysate as an alternative to platelet-rich plasma (PRP). Platelet lysate (PL) was derived from PRP and freeze-dried either as such or using various adjuvants. Primary cell cultures of porcine Vascular Wall-Mesenchymal Stem Cells were treated with different PL formulations, and cell viability was assessed using an MTT assay. Overall, the addition of PL significantly improved cell viability as compared to controls without growth factor supplementation or with foetal bovine serum. Notably, the freeze-drying process maintained the effectiveness of the PL for at least a week. Furthermore, the study revealed that varying the horse as the source of PL could yield varying effects on cell viability. Detailed freeze-drying protocols were established, including freezing, primary drying and secondary drying phases, and the type of adjuvant. This study demonstrated the potential of freeze-dried equine PL as a viable alternative to PRP and highlighted the importance of precise freeze-drying protocols and adjuvants for standardization. Equine PL showed promise for medical treatment in horses, offering advantages such as extended shelf life, ease of handling, and reduced transportation costs, with the potential for broadened therapeutic usage.

The zinc-finger antiviral protein (ZAP) is an innate immunity sensor of non-self nucleic acids. Its antiviral activity is exerted through the physical interaction with different cofactors, including TRIM25, Riplet and KHNYN. Cellular proteins that interact with infectious agents are expected to be engaged in genetic conflicts that often result in their rapid evolution. To test this possibility and to identify the regions most strongly targeted by natural selection, we applied in silico molecular evolution tools to analyze the evolutionary history of ZAP and cofactors in four mammalian groups. We report evidence of positive selection in all genes and in most mammalian groups. On average, the intrinsically disordered regions (IDRs) embedded in the four proteins evolve significantly faster than folded domains and most positively selected sites fall within IDRs. In ZAP, the PARP domain also shows abundant signals of selection, and independent evolution in different mammalian groups suggests modulation of its ADP-ribose binding ability. Detailed analyses of the biophysical properties of IDRs revealed that chain compaction and conformational entropy are conserved across mammals. The IDRs in ZAP and KHNYN are particularly compact, indicating that they may promote phase separation (PS). In line with this hypothesis, we predicted several PS-promoting regions in ZAP and KHNYN, as well as in TRIM25. Positively selected sites are abundant in these regions, suggesting that PS may be important for the antiviral functions of these proteins and the evolutionary arms race with viruses. Our data shed light into the evolution of ZAP and cofactors and indicate that IDRs represent central elements in host-pathogen interactions.

The essay explores a few strategies that the author has found effective for combining teaching and scholarship. First, broadly falling under the category of medievalism, adaptations, translations, and popular culture manifestations of medieval texts and authors work well in the classroom and have increasingly gained academic interest and a journal presence. Second, any aspects of digital humanities that one can manage to incorporate into teaching and scholarship benefit both students who need technical skills and graduate students/early-career faculty who may be considering alt-ac (alternaive academic) careers.

Acute kidney injury (AKI), which is a common complication of acute illnesses, affects the health of individuals in community, acute care and post-acute care settings. Although the recognition, prevention and management of AKI has advanced over the past decades, its incidence and related morbidity, mortality and health care burden remain overwhelming. The rapid growth of digital technologies has provided a new platform to improve patient care, and reports show demonstrable benefits in care processes and, in some instances, in patient outcomes. However, despite great progress, the potential benefits of using digital technology to manage AKI has not yet been fully explored or implemented in clinical practice. Digital health studies in AKI have shown variable evidence of benefits, and the digital divide means that access to digital technologies is not equitable. Upstream research and development costs, limited stakeholder participation and acceptance, and poor scalability of digital health solutions have hindered their widespread implementation and use. Here, we provide recommendations from the Acute Disease Quality Initiative consensus meeting, which involved experts in adult and paediatric nephrology, critical care, pharmacy and data science, at which the use of digital health for risk prediction, prevention, identification and management of AKI and its consequences was discussed.

Abstract: The tropical forest carbon sink is known to be drought sensitive, but it is unclear which forests are the most vulnerable to extreme events. Forests with hotter and drier baseline conditions may be protected by prior adaptation, or more vulnerable because they operate closer to physiological limits. Here we report that forests in drier South American climates experienced the greatest impacts of the 2015–2016 El Niño, indicating greater vulnerability to extreme temperatures and drought. The long-term, ground-measured tree-by-tree responses of 123 forest plots across tropical South America show that the biomass carbon sink ceased during the event with carbon balance becoming indistinguishable from zero (−0.02 ± 0.37 Mg C ha−1 per year). However, intact tropical South American forests overall were no more sensitive to the extreme 2015–2016 El Niño than to previous less intense events, remaining a key defence against climate change as long as they are protected.

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Il presente articolo vuole indagare la nuova eredità dell’epica nei videogiochi in ottica di genere con il fine di comprendere quali elementi siano stati mantenuti e quali si siano trasformati in base a nuovi schemi e percezioni relativi all’identità. Per farlo, verranno analizzati comparativamente alcuni casi di studio: God of War (2018), Horizon Zero Dawn (2017), Hellblade. Senua’s Sacrifice (2017) e The Last of Us (2013). L’analisi è costruita a partire dal concetto di monomito elaborato da Joseph Campbell nel volume L’eroe dai mille volti (1949), ovvero un modello comune e reiterato che caratterizza il viaggio dell’eroe. Si esplorerà quindi il viaggio dell’eroe in God of War e The Last of Us, per poi paragonarlo ai viaggi delle due eroine protagoniste di Horizon e Hellblade. Verrà pertanto esaminata la costruzione del personaggio secondo alcuni elementi delineati da Campbell per tracciare i nuovi sviluppi dell’eroe o eroina nel settore videoludico.

Mega scientific conferences increasingly suffer from the need for short and poster presentations without discussion. An alternative is to organize workshops in hotels large enough to accommodate all participants. This significantly increases the opportunities for constructive discussion during breakfasts, lunches, dinners and long evenings that can bring together experts of scientific and clinical sub-specialties and young fellows. Time for groups' discussions and new collaborations are increased so as the job opportunities for the young researchers. The Padova Muscle Days have offered in the previous thirty-five years these opportunities, which have matured into innovative and multidisciplinary results to the point that it came naturally to underline it with a neologism now included in the title of the 2025 event: “Mobility Medicine”, a discipline not yet officially recognised, that makes explicit the call for rejoining knowledges dispersed in sub-specialisations. The included program of the Padua Days on Muscle and Mobility Medicine 2025 (2025Pdm3) will be hosted at the Hotel Petrarca in Euganean Thermae (Padua, Italy) from 25 to 29 March 2025. It further testifies by listing unique Sessions that it is possible to organize valid countermeasures to the inevitable tendencies towards hyperspecialization that the explosive increase in scientific progress brings with it. Furthermore, the European Journal of Translational Myology and Mobility Medicine (Ejtm3) will accept typescripts on results presented at the 2025Pdm3, together with the Special Section: New Trends in Musculoskeletal Imaging of the MDPI (Basel) Journal Diagnostics, because diagnosis is essential to prevent, manage and follow-up not only neuro-metabolic-muscular disorders, but the unavoidable physiologicical decay of performances in early and late aging. Hoping many others share our dreams, we look forward to meeting you at 2025Pdm3 conference.

Healthcare professionals are exposed to various work conditions that can affect their mental health. Starting from the following question: “what interventions have been conducted in the field of mental health for healthcare teams working in a hospital context?”, we conducted an integrative review covering the period from 2001 to 2022, using the databases PubMed, Web of Science, Scopus, and Biblioteca Virtual em Saúde (BSV). Nine original studies with different methodological designs were included. Several variables were analyzed, including stress, burnout, job satisfaction, depression, anxiety, resilience, well-being, and quality of life, among others. Except for job satisfaction and self-efficacy, the remaining variables showed positive results.

Background Urinary Chemokine (C–C motif) ligand 14 (CCL14) is a biomarker associated with persistent severe acute kidney injury (AKI). There is limited data to support the implementation of this AKI biomarker to guide therapeutic actions.Methods Sixteen AKI experts with clinical CCL14 experience participated in a Delphi-based method to reach consensus on when and how to potentially use CCL14. Consensus was defined as ≥ 80% agreement (participants answered with ‘Yes’, or three to four points on a five-point Likert Scale).Results Key consensus areas for CCL14 test implementation were: identifying challenges and mitigations, developing a comprehensive protocol and pairing it with a treatment plan, and defining the target population. The majority agreed that CCL14 results can help to prioritize AKI management decisions. CCL14 levels above the high cutoff (> 13 ng/mL) significantly changed the level of concern for modifying the AKI treatment plan (p 13 ng/mL. The level of concern for discussion on RRT initiation between High and Low, and between Medium and Low CCL14 levels, showed significant differences.Conclusion Real world urinary CCL14 use appears to provide improved care options to patients at risk for persistent severe AKI. Experts believe there is a role for CCL14 in AKI management and it may potentially reduce AKI-disease burden. There is, however, an urgent need for evidence on treatment decisions and adjustments based on CCL14 results.

Polyneoptera includes some of the best-known insect species, such as grasshoppers and cockroaches. While the evolutionary history of many Polyneoptera orders has been thoroughly explored, others have been partially overlooked. This is the case with Xenonomia, a clade consisting of two species-poor insect orders with a relatively recent taxonomic history: Mantophasmatodea and Grylloblattodea. Here, we provide a temporal framework for their evolution, leveraging a mitochondrial phylogenomics approach encompassing all Polyneoptera orders. To strengthen the confidence in our divergence times estimation, we specifically focused on the possible impact of phylogenetic biases, such as long branch attraction, the influence of specific fossil priors, the use of nucleotide or amino acid alignments, and different clock models. Our results consistently support the origin of Xenonomia during the Carboniferous, and the divergence between the two orders is inferred to have happened before the Permian. While Grylloblattodea diversification is inferred to have occurred earlier than that of Mantophasmatodea, extant species of both orders most likely diversified after the Permian/Triassic and Triassic/Jurassic mass extinctions. Our molecular divergence time analyses complement the fossil record and support the ancient relict status of these two polyneopteran orders.

Organic materials characterized by multi-component emissive behavior including RTP features are extremely desirable for various applications. Frequently, long lasting emissions of solids are originated from intermolecular interactions whose role is far from being fully understood. In this context, positional isomers with similar molecular properties but different packing arrangement can be a useful tool to get a deeper comprehension of the mechanisms involved in the solid state emissive behavior. Here, the results obtained on two derivatives of cyclic triimidazole (TT) functionalized with a pyridin-2-yl or 4-yl ethynyl group are presented and interpreted through spectroscopical, structural and computational studies. The two isomers are hardly emissive in solution but become good emitters in blended PMMA films displaying almost overlapping fluorescence and phosphorescence. In solid-state, two additional lower energy phosphorescences are activated through the establishment of either π-π stacking or synergic π-π/hydrogen bond interactions. Stronger aggregated RTP features are observed in the pyridin-2-ylethynyl derivative which displays tighter π-π stacking interactions.

Precision agriculture enables growers to sense growth in the field and take actions at a high resolution. In this context, agriculture can be considered a feedback system, and feedback control algorithms are a promising approach for decision-making at a per-plant level. We present a control approach to assign per-plant nitrogen prescriptions for iceberg lettuce, with the objective of reducing variability at harvest and, as a result, increasing yield. The per-plant nitrogen inputs were generated using a proportional consensus-protocol style controller and non-destructive measurements of growth. This resulted in smaller lettuce plants receiving an increased dose of nitrogen and oversized plants receiving a decreased dose. In this paper, we present the results of three in-field trials applying the controller to real plants with manual applications. Our results demonstrated a reduction in the plant mass variance of outdoor crop in two of our three farm trials (32.6% and 19.7% lower variance in comparison to cohorts with a typical approach). This is a promising result, which could be improved in future work by developing a more accurate proxy measurement for crop growth and accounting for soil nitrogen.

Background Colorectal surgeries are complex procedures associated with high rates of complications and hospital readmission. Objective This study aimed to develop an electronic post-discharge follow-up plan to remotely monitor patients’ symptoms in the postoperative period of colorectal surgeries and evaluate the outcomes of emergency department visits and the rate of severe complications within 15 days after hospital discharge. Design We developed a digital tool capable of remotely assessing symptoms that could indicate complications related to colorectal surgical procedures and directing early management. This project was divided into two stages. The first was platform development with an algorithm for identifying symptoms and directing conduct, and the second was clinical validation of the program and evaluation of patient's experience. Patients who underwent elective oncological colorectal surgery were invited to participate in this study. We used commercial software (CleverCare) that was adjusted according to the clinical algorithm developed in this study, predicting complications and directing conduct with minimal human intervention using a Chatbot with Natural Language Processing (NPL) and artificial intelligence. Results We planned three Interim Analyses to evaluate the outcomes of complications, referrals to the Emergency Department (ED), ED visits, adherence, and patient satisfaction. After each analysis, specialists validated the changes before implementation. A total of 92 eligible participants agreed to participate in the study. The ability to detect complications increased with each adjustment phase, and after the third and last phase, the digital solution identified 3(4.8%) real complications, with a sensitivity of 75%, specificity of 83%, accuracy of 82%, positive predictive value of 27%, and negative predictive value of 97%. Complete adherence to the monitoring program was 83.7% with an NPS score of 94 in the last evaluation phase. Conclusion The digital platform is safe with high adherence rates and good patient acceptance.