Search

In the Caribbean, reef-building scleractinian corals have declined precipitously and octocorals have emerged as one of their main successors. The success of octocorals and the formation of octocoral forests has been attributed to their continuing recruitment to reef habitats, as well as tolerance to pollution, reduced direct competition with scleractinians, and resistance and resilience to climatic events. Benthic grazers on coral reefs can facilitate the growth and recruitment of corals by reducing the abundance of competitive algal turfs and macroalgae. However, grazing can also hinder corals through sublethal damage to coral tissue and predation of recruits. We assessed the effects of grazing by fishes and the sea urchin Diadema antillarum as well as predation by mesofauna on octocoral recruitment through a series of manipulative in situ and ex situ experiments. Exposure to fish and urchin grazing significantly reduced the post-settlement survival of octocoral recruits, while turf-associated mesofauna did not significantly affect recruitment. We also found a positive relationship between octocoral recruitment and the abundance of turf algae, which may reflect the deleterious effect of grazing on both turf algae and octocoral recruits. These data suggest that grazers and predators mediate the bottleneck characteristic of recruitment, primarily through their effect on post-settlement survival. Thus, the declines in the abundance of grazing fishes and urchins throughout the Caribbean may have contributed to the increase in Caribbean octocoral abundance, concurrent with the loss of scleractinians. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Failed invasions can be a key component for understanding and controlling introduced populations because understanding mechanisms behind failures can improve effective controls. In 2000, the non-native sea anemone Sagartia elegans was first found in Salem, Massachusetts, and it recolonized each summer. No individuals of S. elegans have been found after 2010, despite intensive search efforts. A mismatch between the species' thermal tolerance and winter water temperature is the most likely mechanism for this failed invasion. In both laboratory- and field-based temperature growth studies, S. elegans began regressing at 11 [degrees]C, stopped asexually reproducing at 9 [degrees]C, and died by 4 [degrees]C. These temperatures are above the average winter sea surface temperature in the Gulf of Maine, therefore suggesting that S. elegans requires a warm-water refuge. Another potential contributor to the disappearance of S. elegans is low genetic diversity as a result of establishment of only females (likely clones) and no males., Introduction The spread of introduced species has become a global ecological and conservation crisis as invasive organisms are increasingly altering terrestrial and aquatic communities worldwide (Mooney and Cleland, 2001; Gurevitch [...]

Future African aerosol emissions, and therefore air pollution levels and health outcomes, are uncertain and understudied. Understanding the future health impacts of pollutant emissions from this region is crucial. Here, this research gap is addressed by studying the range in the future health impacts of aerosol emissions from Africa in the Shared Socioeconomic Pathway (SSP) scenarios, using the UK Earth System Model version 1 (UKESM1), along with human health concentration–response functions. The effects of Africa following a high-pollution aerosol pathway are studied relative to a low-pollution control, with experiments varying aerosol emissions from industry and biomass burning. Using present-day demographics, annual deaths within Africa attributable to ambient particulate matter are estimated to be lower by 150 000 (5th–95th confidence interval of 67 000–234 000) under stronger African aerosol mitigation by 2090, while those attributable to O 3 are lower by 15 000 (5th–95th confidence interval of 9000–21 000). The particulate matter health benefits are realised predominantly within Africa, with the O 3 -driven benefits being more widespread – though still concentrated in Africa – due to the longer atmospheric lifetime of O 3. These results demonstrate the important health co-benefits from future emission mitigation in Africa. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The regional climate impacts of hypothetical future emissions scenarios can be estimated by combining Earth system model simulations with a linear pattern scaling model such as MESMER (Modular Earth System Model Emulator with spatially Resolved output), which uses estimated patterns of the local response per degree of global temperature change. Here we use the mean trend component of MESMER to emulate the regional pattern of the surface temperature response based on historical single-forcer and future Shared Socioeconomic Pathway (SSP) CMIP6 (Coupled Model Intercomparison Project Phase 6) simulations. Errors in the emulations for selected target scenarios (SSP1–1.9, SSP1–2.6, SSP2–4.5, SSP3–7.0, and SSP5–8.5) are decomposed into two components, namely (1) the differences in scaling patterns between scenarios as a consequence of varying combinations of external forcings and (2) the intrinsic time series differences between the local and global responses in the target scenario. The time series error is relatively small for high-emissions scenarios, contributing around 20 % of the total error, but is similar in magnitude to the pattern error for lower-emissions scenarios. This irreducible time series error limits the efficacy of linear pattern scaling for emulating strong mitigation pathways and reduces the dependence on the predictor pattern used. The results help guide the choice of predictor scenarios for simple climate models and where to target for the introduction of other dependent variables beyond global surface temperature into pattern scaling models. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Future African aerosol emissions, and therefore air pollution levels and health outcomes, are uncertain. Here, the range in the future impacts of African emissions in the Shared Socioeconomic Pathway (SSP) scenarios is studied, using the Earth System Model UKESM1 along with human health concentration-response functions. Using present-day demographics, annual deaths attributable to ambient particulate matter are estimated to be lower by 150,000 under stronger African aerosol mitigation by 2090, while those attributable to O3 are lower by 15,000. The particulate matter health benefits are realised predominantly within Africa, with the O3-driven benefits being more widespread – though still concentrated in Africa – due to the longer atmospheric lifetime of O3. These results demonstrate the important health co-benefits from future emissions mitigation in Africa. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The potential future trend in African aerosol emissions is uncertain, with a large range found in future scenarios used to drive climate projections. The future climate impact of these emissions is therefore uncertain. Using the Shared Socioeconomic Pathway (SSP) scenarios, transient future experiments were performed with the UK Earth System Model (UKESM1) to investigate the effect of African emissions following the high emission SSP370 scenario as the rest of the world follows the more sustainable SSP119, relative to a global SSP119 control. This isolates the effect of Africa following a relatively more polluted future emissions pathway. Compared to SSP119, SSP370 projects higher non-biomass-burning (non-BB) aerosol emissions, but lower biomass burning emissions, over Africa. Increased shortwave (SW) absorption by black carbon aerosol leads to a global warming, but the reduction in the local incident surface radiation close to the emissions is larger, causing a local cooling effect. The local cooling persists even when including the higher African CO 2 emissions under SSP370 than SSP119. The global warming is significantly higher by 0.07 K when including the non-BB aerosol increases and higher still (0.22 K) when including all aerosols and CO 2. Precipitation also exhibits complex changes. Northward shifts in the Inter-tropical Convergence Zone (ITCZ) occur under relatively warm Northern Hemisphere land, and local rainfall is enhanced due to mid-tropospheric instability from black carbon absorption. These results highlight the importance of future African aerosol emissions for regional and global climate and the spatial complexity of this climate influence. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The potential future trend in African aerosol emissions is uncertain, with a large range found in future scenarios used to drive climate projections. The future climate impact of these emissions is therefore uncertain. Using the Shared Socioeconomic Pathway (SSP) scenarios, transient future experiments were performed with the UK Earth System Model UKESM1, investigating the effect of African emissions following the high emission SSP370 scenario as the rest of the world follows the more sustainable SSP119, relative to a global SSP119 control. This isolates the effect of Africa following a relatively more polluted future emissions pathway. SSP370 sees higher direct anthropogenic aerosol emissions, but lower biomass burning emissions, over Africa. Increased aerosol reduces the local incident surface radiation, causing a local cooling, but the dominance of the black carbon absorption effect remotely from Africa leads to a global warming. The local cooling persists even when including the higher African CO2 emissions under SSP370 than SSP119. Precipitation also exhibits complex changes, with large-scale shifts in the Inter-Tropical Convergence Zone (ITCZ) due to hemispheric asymmetries in the applied forcing, and enhanced local rainfall due to mid-tropospheric instability from BC absorption. These results highlight the importance of future African aerosol emissions for regional and global climate, and the spatial complexity of this climate influence. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The regional impacts of multiple possible future emission scenarios can be estimated by combining a few Earth System Model (ESM) simulations with a linear pattern scaling model such as MESMER which uses the pattern of local temperature responses per degree global warming. Here we use MESMER to emulate the future regional pattern of surface temperature response based on historical single-forcer and future Shared Socioeconomic Pathway (SSP) CMIP6 simulations. Pattern scaling errors are decomposed into two components: differences in scaling patterns between scenarios, and intrinsic timeseries differences between local and global responses in the target scenario. The timeseries error is relatively small for high-emissions scenarios, contributing around 20% of the total error, but is similar in magnitude to the pattern error for loweremission scenarios. This irreducible timeseries error limits the efficacy of pattern scaling for emulating strong mitigation pathways and reduces the dependence on the predictor pattern used. The results help guide the choice of predictor scenarios and where to target introducing other dependent variables beyond global surface temperature into pattern scaling models. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The efficacy of drugs for neuropathic pain has been established in randomized controlled trials that have excluded patients with comorbid conditions and those taking complex medications. However, patients with neuropathic [...]

The Neuropathic Pain Special Interest Group of the International Association for the Study of Pain recently sponsored the development of evidence-based guidelines for the pharmacological treatment of neuropathic pain. Tricyclic [...]

Abstract Background Many factors impacting cecal intubation rates have been examined in detail; however, little information exists regarding the effect of the timing of the procedure. We sought to examine any difference in cecal intubation rates between morning and afternoon colonoscopies and identify factors contributing to a discrepancy. Methods Retrospective, single-center study comparing cecal intubation rates for colonoscopies performed in the morning (begun prior to 12 noon) and colonoscopies performed in the afternoon (begun after 12 noon) over an approximately 12 month period. Univariate and multivariate analyses were performed evaluating patient demographics, procedure indication(s), endoscopist, bowel preparation type and quality, and participation by a gastroenterology fellow. Results 6087 colonoscopies were evaluated in this study. Colonoscopies (n = 3729) performed in the morning were compared to colonoscopies performed in the afternoon (n = 2358). The crude completion rate to the cecum was 95.0% in the morning group while the completion rate to the cecum was 93.6% of the afternoon exams (p = 0.02). The morning colonoscopies had better bowel preparation quality (p < 0.001). The multivariate analyses demonstrated that gender, age, and bowel preparation quality impacted completion rates. After correcting for these factors, there was no significant difference in completion rates in the morning versus afternoon. Conclusion Uncorrected cecal intubation rates were lower in the afternoon compared to the morning in outpatients undergoing colonoscopy. Bowel preparation quality was worse in the afternoon compared with the morning. Efforts at improving afternoon bowel preparation may improve the outcome of afternoon colonoscopies.