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Plasma-derived polyclonal antibody therapeutics, such as intravenous immunoglobulin, have multiple drawbacks, including low potency, impurities, insufficient supply, and batch-to-batch variation. Here we describe a microfluidics and molecular genomics strategy for capturing diverse mammalian antibody repertoires to create recombinant multivalent hyperimmune globulins. Our method generates thousands-diverse mixtures of recombinant antibodies, enriched for specificity and activity against therapeutic targets. Each hyperimmune globulin product comprised thousands to tens of thousands of antibodies derived from convalescent or vaccinated human donors, or immunized mice. Using this approach, we generated hyperimmune globulins with potent neutralizing activity against Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome Coronavirus-2 (SARS-CoV-2) in under three months, Fc-engineered hyperimmune globulins specific for Zika virus that lacked antibody-dependent enhancement of disease, and hyperimmune globulins specific for lung pathogens present in patients with primary immune deficiency. To address the limitations of rabbit-derived anti-thymocyte globulin (ATG), we generated a recombinant human version and demonstrated its efficacy in mice against graft-versus-host disease.

Labeo rohita (rohu) is a carp important to aquaculture in South Asia, with a production volume close to Atlantic salmon. While genetic improvements to rohu are ongoing, the genomic methods commonly used in other aquaculture improvement programs have historically been precluded in rohu, partially due to the lack of a high quality reference genome. Here we present a high-quality de novo genome produced using a combination of next-generation sequencing technologies, resulting in a 946 Mb genome consisting of 25 chromosomes and 2,844 unplaced scaffolds. Notably, while approximately half the size of the existing genome sequence, our genome represents 97.9% of the genome size newly estimated here using flow cytometry. Sequencing from 120 individuals was used in conjunction with this genome to predict the population structure, diversity, and divergence in three major rivers (Jamuna, Padma, and Halda), in addition to infer a likely sex determination mechanism in rohu. These results demonstrate the utility of the new rohu genome in modernizing some aspects of rohu genetic improvement programs.

Combined first-trimester screening (cFTS) for fetal anomalies involves maternal serum screening for biochemical markers and measurement of the nuchal translucency (NT) by ultrasound. Noninvasive prenatal screening (NIPS) analyses cell-free DNA present in a maternal blood sample for presence of fetal chromosomal aneuploidies.To compare NIPS with cFTS as frontline screening in a public hospital in Australia.Women were offered NIPS in addition to the usual cFTS routinely offered to all women at a public hospital in NSW, Australia. The cFTS sample was collected at ten weeks' gestation and the NIPS sample at 12 weeks' gestation at the ultrasound appointment.In a low-risk population of 997 women, frontline NIPS had a screen-positive rate of 0.5% (5/997) vs 4.2% (42/997) with cFTS. cFTS correctly identified one trisomy 21 case and one trisomy 18 case; however, there were two trisomy 18 false negatives. Of five positive NIPS calls, four were correctly identified as trisomy 21 (one) and trisomy 18 (three); there were no NIPS false negatives. Overall, the false-positive rate with NIPS was 0.1% vs 4.0% by cFTS.The lower screen-positive rate with NIPS for common trisomies was a result of the significantly lower false-positive rate with NIPS. Consequently, NIPS as first-line screening, even if funded by the hospital, may provide cost savings. We believe NIPS should be used from ten weeks' gestation in conjunction with morphology ultrasound for routine first-trimester prenatal management.

Countries increasingly use access and benefit-sharing laws as a tool for the conservation and sustainable use of biological resources and associated traditional knowledge. These laws generally require the recipient of resources/knowledge to obtain the provider country’s prior informed consent before collection, use or transfer and to share the benefits from their use with the provider. The aim of this literature review is to comprehensively analyse access and benefit-sharing laws and literature about the top five aquaculture-producing countries – China, India, Indonesia, Viet Nam and Bangladesh – to identify research trends and gaps in relation to accessing and sharing the benefits of aquaculture genetic resources and associated traditional knowledge. Using a systematic quantitative literature review methodology, we found only 5% of the literature examined the implications of access and benefit-sharing for aquaculture and these only related to publications about India’s arrangements. While the other countries had literature about their legal measures and literature about informal genetic resource sharing practices in aquaculture, none of them connected the two research topics. None of the countries had literature analysing the implications of access and benefit-sharing in relation to traditional knowledge associated with aquaculture. We conclude that given these are the top global producers accounting for up to 80% of all aquaculture products, urgent research is needed to fill the literature gaps to assess whether access and benefit-sharing as a legal/policy tool is achieving conservation and sustainable use goals for aquaculture genetic resources.

Lymphangiomas are rare, benign tumors of the lymphatic system. They are formed through congenital malformation leading to lymphangiectasias. Thus, lymphangiomas are mostly seen in children and infants. Lymphangiomas are a benign lesion, therefore, if the patient is asymptomatic and the lesion is stable, complete surgical resection is not required and imaging surveillance is the preferred method of follow-up. This study reports a rare presentation of lymphangioma in the pancreas. J Curr Surg. 2021;11(1):24-27 doi: https://doi.org/10.14740/jcs432

Benzene-d6 and cyclohexane-d12 have been adsorbed on the surface within the pores of high-surface-area activated carbon (AC). Their molecular motions have been characterized by variable-temperature...

Recent research has highlighted that adaptation tends to focus exclusively on the local and direct impacts of climate change and misses the crucial dimension oftransboundaryclimate risk, which all countries are likely to face, irrespective of their level of development. This paper aims to improve the coverage of transboundary climate risk in case-study research for adaptation. It proposes a protocol to help researchers identify how their case studies can incorporate an analysis of transboundary climate risk, thereby supporting more holistic, effective, and just approaches to adaptation. Existing climate risk assessment frameworks and supporting guidelines have significant strengths but also various challenges when applied to the novel context of transboundary climate risk. This is illustrated with reference to the impact chain framework. Its opportunities pertain to both its flexible form and systems-first focus while its constraints include an analytic emphasis on linear cause–effect relationships (that bely the complexity and uncertainty of systemic risk) and its limited applicability to fragmented governance landscapes (in the absence of an effective consideration of risk ownership). After critically examining the suitability of the impact chain framework, a new protocol is introduced, which builds on principles for managing complex risk and frameworks for assessing risk ownership. The protocol is designed to enable case-study researchers to better identify, assess, and appraise transboundary climate risks, as well as enquire into appropriate risk owners and adaptation options across scales. The paper argues for more innovation in adaptation research to better reflect the complexity and interdependency that characterize today’s world.

BackgroundThe Nile tilapia (Oreochromis niloticus) is the third most important freshwater fish for aquaculture. Its success is directly linked to continuous breeding efforts focusing on production traits such as growth rate and weight. Among those elite strains, the Genetically Improved Farmed Tilapia (GIFT) programme initiated by WorldFish is now distributed worldwide. To accelerate the development of the GIFT strain through genomic selection, a high-quality reference genome is necessary.FindingsUsing a combination of short (10X Genomics) and long read (PacBio HiFi, PacBio CLR) sequencing and a genetic map for the GIFT strain, we generated a chromosome level genome assembly for the GIFT. Using genomes of two closely related species (O. mossambicus, O. aureus), we characterised the extent of introgression between these species and O. niloticus that has occurred during the breeding process. Over 11Mb of O. mossambicus genomic material could be identified within the GIFT genome, including genes associated with immunity but also with traits of interest such as growth rate.ConclusionBecause of the breeding history of elite strains, current reference genomes might not be the most suitable to support further studies into the GIFT strain. We generated a chromosome level assembly of the GIFT strain, characterising its mixed origins, and the potential contributions of introgressed regions to selected traits.

Women with a disability have poorer perinatal outcomes, but little is known about the prevalence of women with a disability accessing maternity services, how they are identified and what care and services are available. Estimates suggest that nine percent of women of childbearing age have a disability.To explore how public maternity services in Australia identify pregnant women with a disability, what (if any) routine disability identification questions are used, and to examine availability and adequacy of services for women.Cross-sectional online survey of maternity managers in Australian public hospitals.Thirty-six percent (70/193) of eligible hospitals responded including all states and territories. Overall, 71 % routinely asked women about disability status (usually as part of routine history taking), however there was wide variation in how this was asked. Most (63 %) did not have standardised documentation processes and two thirds (65 %) were unable to estimate the number of women with a disability seen at their hospital. Most (68 %) did not offer specialised services, with only 13 % having specialised training for staff in disability identification, documentation and referral pathways. Only a quarter of respondents felt that there were adequate services for women with a disability related to maternity care.This is the first study to explore disability identification in maternity services in Australia. How women were asked was highly varied and documentation not standardised. National guidelines on disability identification for women accessing maternity services should be developed and collection of disability identification data should be routine.

Recent research has highlighted that adaptation tends to focus exclusively on the local and direct impacts of climate change and misses the crucial dimension of transboundary climate risk, which all countries are likely to face, irrespective of their level of development. This paper aims to improve the coverage of transboundary climate risk in case-study research for adaptation. It proposes a protocol to help researchers identify how their case studies can incorporate an analysis of transboundary climate risk, thereby supporting more holistic, effective, and just approaches to adaptation. Existing climate risk assessment frameworks and supporting guidelines have significant strengths but also various challenges when applied to the novel context of transboundary climate risk. This is illustrated with reference to the impact chain framework. Its opportunities pertain to both its flexible form and systems-first focus while its constraints include an analytic emphasis on linear cause–effect relationships (that bely the complexity and uncertainty of systemic risk) and its limited applicability to fragmented governance landscapes (in the absence of an effective consideration of risk ownership). After critically examining the suitability of the impact chain framework, a new protocol is introduced, which builds on principles for managing complex risk and frameworks for assessing risk ownership. The protocol is designed to enable case-study researchers to better identify, assess, and appraise transboundary climate risks, as well as enquire into appropriate risk owners and adaptation options across scales. The paper argues for more innovation in adaptation research to better reflect the complexity and interdependency that characterize today’s world. Significance Statement This work aims to demonstrate why the transboundary nature of climate risk requires a distinct analytical approach and proposes a seven-step guide that aims to facilitate the exploration of transboundary climate risk through case-study-based research for adaptation. Domestic climate risks continue to dominate the field of climate change research, translating into a significant blind spot in adaptation planning and action. Without the provision of practical guidance—to equip researchers with approaches and tools specifically designed to analyze the transboundary and systemic nature of climate risk—adaptation action will fail to offer sufficient protection against the full range of risks climate change presents. This article begins to address this void and ultimately—through greater recognition and understanding of transboundary climate risk—promote approaches to adaptation that are reflective of the interdependency of our world today and our shared and common future.

Resilience can be defined as the capacity of an animal to be minimally affected by perturbations or to quickly recover to the state it had before the perturbation. When applied to production animals, resilience is defined as consistency in production over time. This consistency can be quantified by the variance of deviations from the expected trait level measured at multiple time points. The objectives of this study were to estimate genetic parameters for resilience in Nile tilapia, measured as consistency in growth. We used log-transformed variance of deviations (LnVar) of body weight measured five times during grow-out in either an aerated or a non-aerated pond. The hypothesis was that fish grown in non-aerated ponds are more challenged by environmental conditions, such that heritable variation in LnVar of body weight is more expressed showing larger differences between more and less resilient fish. The heritability for LnVar was 0.10 in aerated pond and 0.12 in the non-aerated pond. In aerated ponds the genetic correlation (rg) of LnVar with harvest weight (HW) was 0.36 ± 0.26, and with thermal growth coefficient (TGC) it was 0.47 ± 0.21. In the non-aerated pond, the rg with HW and TGC were close to zero (−0.01 ± 0.29 and − 0.08 ± 0.22). The genetic correlation for LnVar between both environments was 0.80. These estimates suggest that selection for HW or TGC in aerated ponds will increase LnVar in both environments. Increased LnVar may decrease resilience and this will be detrimental to performance. Selecting for more resilient fish would lead to more constant growth rates, which makes biomass estimation more accurate and could therefore result in more optimal feeding regimes and less feed waste. This would have a favorable effect on the feed efficiency in production units and on the environmental impact of fish farming. To improve resilience together with growth we recommend that fish breeding programs collect repeated records on body weight, preferably in challenging environments.

Critical swimming speed (Ucrit) is an important measurement of swimming performance and a good indicator for cardio-respiratory health. It offers a new opportunity to select fish with better fitness. However, the genomic architecture of swimming performance at whole genome level is not clear in Nile tilapia. For this study, swimming performance was measured in 1500 fish from the Genetic Improvement of Farmed Tilapia strain in their early life, which were subsequently grown in a non-aerated pond (nocturnal hypoxia) until harvest. Our results showed that the heritability for Ucrit was 0.31 ± 0.04. Genetic correlations between Ucrit and harvest weight (−0.13 ± 0.13) and between Ucrit and daily growth coefficient (DGC) (−0.26 ± 0.13) were slightly negative. Nine single nucleotide polymorphisms (SNPs) were found to be suggestively associated with Ucrit, of which five are located in a region between 12.18 and 19.89 Mb on linkage group (LG)14, while two SNPs are located between 18.85 Mb to 18.94 Mb on LG13. The remaining two SNPs are located on LG19 and LG12, respectively. Candidate genes in high linkage disequilibrium (LD) with these SNPs were identified, including hip1, hectd1, elna, smyd1b, rrp12 and pprc1. This suggests possible involvement of neuronal growth, muscle activity, cardiovascular development and angiogenesis, and oxygen/hypoxia regulation. Three of these nine SNPs were significantly associated with both harvest weight and DGC, and SNP genotypes that associated with lowest mean Ucrit were associated with highest mean harvest weight and DGC. In conclusion, we found a clear pleiotropic effect of some SNPs that affect both growth and swimming performance in a hypoxic environment, while other SNPs had only effect on swimming performance, but not on growth. Although fast swimming fish are assumed to show slower growth, such as lower DGC and harvest weight, candidate genetic markers identified in this study provide an opportunity to select fish with good cardio-respiratory health and growth.