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Contains fulltext : 252489.pdf (Publisher’s version ) (Open Access)

Temporal lobe epilepsy, a common drug-resistant epilepsy in adults, is primarily a limbic network disorder associated with predominant unilateral hippocampal pathology. Structural MRI has provided an in vivo window into whole-brain grey matter structural alterations in temporal lobe epilepsy relative to controls, by either mapping (i) atypical inter-hemispheric asymmetry; or (ii) regional atrophy. However, similarities and differences of both atypical asymmetry and regional atrophy measures have not been systematically investigated. Here, we addressed this gap using the multisite ENIGMA-Epilepsy dataset comprising MRI brain morphological measures in 732 temporal lobe epilepsy patients and 1418 healthy controls. We compared spatial distributions of grey matter asymmetry and atrophy in temporal lobe epilepsy, contextualized their topographies relative to spatial gradients in cortical microstructure and functional connectivity calculated using 207 healthy controls obtained from Human Connectome Project and an independent dataset containing 23 temporal lobe epilepsy patients and 53 healthy controls and examined clinical associations using machine learning. We identified a marked divergence in the spatial distribution of atypical inter-hemispheric asymmetry and regional atrophy mapping. The former revealed a temporo-limbic disease signature while the latter showed diffuse and bilateral patterns. Our findings were robust across individual sites and patients. Cortical atrophy was significantly correlated with disease duration and age at seizure onset, while degrees of asymmetry did not show a significant relationship to these clinical variables. Our findings highlight that the mapping of atypical inter-hemispheric asymmetry and regional atrophy tap into two complementary aspects of temporal lobe epilepsy-related pathology, with the former revealing primary substrates in ipsilateral limbic circuits and the latter capturing bilateral disease effects. These findings refine ou

Epilepsy is associated with genetic risk factors and cortico-subcortical network alterations, but associations between neurobiological mechanisms and macroscale connectomics remain unclear. This multisite ENIGMA-Epilepsy study examined whole-brain structural covariance networks in patients with epilepsy and related findings to postmortem epilepsy risk gene expression patterns. Brain network analysis included 578 adults with temporal lobe epilepsy (TLE), 288 adults with idiopathic generalized epilepsy (IGE), and 1328 healthy controls from 18 centres worldwide. Graph theoretical analysis of structural covariance networks revealed increased clustering and path length in orbitofrontal and temporal regions in TLE, suggesting a shift towards network regularization. Conversely, people with IGE showed decreased clustering and path length in fronto-temporo-parietal cortices, indicating a random network configuration. Syndrome-specific topological alterations reflected expression patterns of risk genes for hippocampal sclerosis in TLE and for generalized epilepsy in IGE. These imaging-transcriptomic signatures could potentially guide diagnosis or tailor therapeutic approaches to specific epilepsy syndromes.

Epilepsy is increasingly conceptualized as a network disorder. In this cross-sectional mega-analysis, we integrated neuroimaging and connectome analysis to identify network associations with atrophy patterns in 1021 adults with epilepsy compared to 1564 healthy controls from 19 international sites. In temporal lobe epilepsy, areas of atrophy colocalized with highly interconnected cortical hub regions, whereas idiopathic generalized epilepsy showed preferential subcortical hub involvement. These morphological abnormalities were anchored to the connectivity profiles of distinct disease epicenters, pointing to temporo-limbic cortices in temporal lobe epilepsy and fronto-central cortices in idiopathic generalized epilepsy. Negative effects of age on atrophy further revealed a strong influence of connectome architecture in temporal lobe, but not idiopathic generalized, epilepsy. Our findings were reproduced across individual sites and single patients and were robust across different analytical methods. Through worldwide collaboration in ENIGMA-Epilepsy, we provided deeper insights into the macroscale features that shape the pathophysiology of common epilepsies.

The interactions between Dacini male fruit flies and phytochemical male lures are unique. Lure response, fate and its effects after consumption on fruit fly mating behaviour are species- and lure-specific. Bactrocera frauenfeldi is known to respond to the phenylbutanoids raspberry ketone (RK) and cue lure (CL), anisyl acetone (AA), and zingerone (ZN), which are produced by some rainforest orchids. Here we compared the relative field responses of B. frauenfeldi males to these phenylbutanoids in two selected locations to determine the most attractive lure for this species. We also performed gas chromatographic-mass spectral analyses of male rectal pheromone glands to understand the fate of the ingested compounds. Results showed that B. frauenfeldi males were most responsive to CL, equally to RK and AA, while poorly to ZN in Cairns, a site with high population density. No significant difference was observed in Lockhart River which has a low population density of B. frauenfeldi. Chemical analyses showed that most of the ingested phenylbutanoids were sequestered into rectal glands, either unchanged or with minimal structural changes except for AA, which is converted to RK via a demethylation of the methoxy- to a hydroxy-moiety and reduced to 4-(4-methoxyphenyl)-2-butanol via the keto-moiety. This study provides both practical and ecological implications: it identified the most attractive lure, which is important for monitoring and management of B. frauenfeldi; and based on the relative responses, conversion and retention rates by B. frauenfeldi males, revealed the ecological significance of these phytochemical lures in plant-fruit fly co-evolution.

Epilepsy is among the most common chronic neurologic disorders, with 30%-40% of patients having seizures despite antiepileptic drug treatment. The advent of brain imaging and network analyses has greatly improved the understanding of this condition. In particular, developments in magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) have provided measures for the noninvasive characterization and detection of lesions causing epilepsy. MRI techniques can probe structural and functional connectivity, and network analyses have shaped our understanding of whole-brain anomalies associated with focal epilepsies. This review considers the progress made by neuroimaging and connectomics in the study of drug-resistant epilepsies due to focal substrates, particularly temporal lobe epilepsy related to mesiotemporal sclerosis and extratemporal lobe epilepsies associated with malformations of cortical development. In these disorders, there is evidence of widespread disturbances of structural and functional connectivity that may contribute to the clinical and cognitive prognosis of individual patients. It is hoped that studying the interplay between macroscale network anomalies and lesional profiles will improve our understanding of focal epilepsies and assist treatment choices.

Evaluation of the performance of computer-based algorithms to automatically detect mammalian vocalizations often relies on comparisons between detector outputs and a reference data set, generally obtained by manual annotation of acoustic recordings. To explore the reproducibility of these annotations, inter- and intra-analyst variability in manually annotated Antarctic blue whale (ABW) Z-calls are investigated by two analysts in acoustic data from two ocean basins representing different scenarios in terms of call abundance and background noise. Manual annotations exhibit strong inter- and intra-analyst variability, with less than 50% agreement between analysts. This variability is mainly caused by the difficulty of reliably and reproducibly distinguishing single calls in an ABW chorus made of overlaying distant calls. Furthermore, the performance of two automated detectors, based on spectrogram correlation or subspace-detection strategy, is evaluated by comparing detector output to a “conservative” manually annotated reference data set, which comprises only analysts' matching events. This study highlights the need for a standardized approach for human annotations and automatic detections, including a quantitative description of their performance, to improve the comparability of acoustic data, which is particularly relevant in the context of collaborative approaches in collecting and analyzing large passive acoustic data sets.

Eupyrgota Coquillett is newly reported from Australia, based on a female specimen of the widespread species E. (Taeniomastix) pictiventris (Hendel, 1914) collected in Cairns in northern Queensland and an undescribed species from the Iron Range area of Cape York Peninsula, NE Queensland.

Anthropogenic climate change is a major factor driving shifts in the distributions of pests and invasive species. The Queensland fruit fly, Bactrocera tryoni Froggatt (Qfly), is the most economically damaging insect pest of Australia's horticultural industry, and its management is a key priority for plant protection and biosecurity. Identifying the extent to which climate change may alter the distribution of suitable habitat for Qfly is important for the development and continuation of effective monitoring programs, phytosanitary measures, and management strategies. We used Maxent, a species distribution model, to map suitable habitat for Qfly under current climate, and six climate scenarios for 2030, 2050 and 2070. Our results highlight that south-western Australia, northern regions of the Northern Territory, eastern Queensland, and much of south-eastern Australia are currently suitable for Qfly. This includes southern Victoria and eastern Tasmania, which are currently free of breeding populations. There is substantial agreement across future climate scenarios that most areas currently suitable will remain so until at least 2070. Our projections provide an initial estimate of the potential exposure of Australia's horticultural industry to Qfly as climate changes, highlighting the need for long-term vigilance across southern Australia to prevent further range expansion of this species.

Since Linnaeus (1753) described two bramble species in his Species Plantarum, thousands of names of Rubus in Europe have been published. The only overview of these was the monograph of Sudre (1908-13) who arranged these taxa in an artificial system, which is actually no more than an annotated database. From the 1970s onwards, authors have tried to bring order in this confusion by taking into account geographical distribution, variability, and taxonomic structure. A major requirement for obtaining clarity is typification. This article is a contribution in this regard. The almost 300 names published by Philipp Jakob Müller (Müller 1858, 1859a, 1859b, 1861) are listed and their types confirmed or selected. The status of these types is indicated. A separate list of the Mullerian taxa in Wirtgen’s Herbarium Ruborum Rhenanorum is added. Synonyms were mentioned, where available. Linnaeus publiceerde slechts twee soorten Rubus uit het subgenus Rubus, de echte bramen. In de eerste zeven decaden na hem werden daaraan slechts een beperkt aantal namen toegevoegd, merendeels van opvallende soorten. Vanaf 1820 richten botanici zich echter expliciet op het genus Rubus. De monografie van Weihe & Nees (1822-27) kan als het startpunt daarvan gelden. Dit werk met de ambitieuze titel Rubi Germanici was hoofdzakelijk een lokale bramenflora van het dorp Mennighüffen, waar Weihe woonde, aangevuld met enkele soorten gebaseerd op materiaal dat hij van anderen kreeg. In samenwerking met Weihe deden in de jaren daarna anderen nog enkele van dit soort lokale bramenoverzichten het licht zien, bijvoorbeeld Wimmer & Grabowski (1829) en Lejeune & Courtois (1831). Ook op de Britse eilanden verschenen enkele lokale bramenflora’s.