Integrating science-based and local ecological knowledge: a case study of mangrove restoration and rehabilitation projects in the Philippines.

Mangrove forest is an ecosystem-based solution for disaster risk reduction in the Philippines, but its historical deforestation has hampered its capacity to protect coastal communities. With the increasing occurrence of storm surge in the Philippines, mangrove reforestation projects have received renewed attention, but many have failed. Community participation was deemed to be essential in those projects that did well. Hence, this paper examines successful mangrove restoration and rehabilitation projects in the Philippines to find out how community participation contributed to the accomplishments. The study found that while the transfer of science-based ecological knowledge from project managers to the community is an important factor in ensuring successful initial planning and implementation, its integration into existing local ecological knowledge-'localisation' of science-based ecological knowledge or hybrid ecological knowledge formation-helped to facilitate long-term community-based mangrove management beyond project duration by empowering community members and enabling project acceptance and ownership. Still, continuous local institutional support is a necessary anchor for community resilience.

Geometric morphometrics of face profile across horse breeds and within Arabian horses.

Horse traits under selection are largely quantitative and affected by multiple genes. Horse face shape is an example of a continuous trait, which due to the reliance on observational assessments, is classified into; "dished", "straight", and "roman-nosed". This categorization is often inadequate to convey the full spectrum of the face shape variation especially for genetic studies. The first objective of the current study was to use geometric morphometric methods to quantitatively phenotype face shapes and examine its variation across horse breeds. The second objective was to analyze the face shape variation within Arabian horses since face shape is (1) favored, valued, and genetically selected in certain lineages (e.g. Egyptian), (2) is evaluated by registries and scored in shows, and (3) in its extreme forms pose health concerns. We digitized landmarks on lateral profile photos, particularly on the dorsal curvature of the rostrum, and subjected these landmarks to Generalized Procrustes Analysis to generate independent shape and size variables which were statistically compared across breeds and within Arabians. Horse breeds varied in nasal curvature, ranging from extremely concave to extremely convex, with over 70 % of horse breeds exhibiting intermediate concavity (i.e., straight profile). Interestingly, Arabian horses possessed the highest diversity in face profile and individuals clustered into three distinct shape sub-groups (one dished and two straight profile clusters). Our quantitative phenotyping method can be the basis of future genetic studies of facial profile within Arabian lineages as a favored traits and potentially manage its extreme forms as a likely genetic disease.

Crystal structure of a three-tetrad, parallel, K+-stabilized human telomeric G-quadruplex at 1.35†Šresolution.

The crystal structure of the G-rich human telomeric DNA Tel22 has been determined at 1.35 Šresolution in space group P6. Tel22 forms a non-canonical DNA structure called the G-quadruplex. The space group and unit-cell parameters are comparable to those in the crystal structures with PDB codes 6ip3 (1.40 Šresolution) and 1kf1 (2.15 Šresolution). The G-quadruplexes are highly similar in all of the structures. However, this structure of Tel22 displays clear density for polyethylene glycol and two potassium ions, which are located outside the ion channel in the G-quadruplex and play an important role in stabilizing the crystal contacts. In addition, 111 water molecules were identified (compared with 79 and 68 in PDB entries 6ip3 and 1kf1, respectively) that participate in intricate and extensive networks providing high stability to the G-quadruplex.

External validation of the Oldham composite Covid-19 associated mortality model (OCCAM), a prognostic model for death in patients hospitalised with Covid-19.

OBJECTIVE: External validation of the Oldham Composite Covid-19 associated Mortality Model (OCCAM), a prognostic model for Covid-19 mortality in hospitalised patients comprised of age, history of hypertension, current or previous malignancy, admission platelet count < 150 × 103/µL, admission CRP ≥ 100 µg/mL, acute kidney injury (AKI), and radiographic evidence of > 50% total lung field infiltrates. PATIENTS AND METHODS: Retrospective study assessing discrimination (c-statistic) and calibration of OCCAM for death in hospital or within 30 days of discharge. 300 adults admitted to six district general and teaching hospitals in North West England for treatment of Covid-19 between September 2020 and February 2021 were included. RESULTS: Two hundred and ninety-seven patients were included in the validation cohort analysis, with a mortality rate of 32.8%. The c-statistic was 0.794 (95% confidence interval 0.742-0.847) vs. 0.805 (95% confidence interval 0.766 - 0.844) in the development cohort. Visual inspection of calibration plots demonstrate excellent calibration across risk groups, with a calibration slope for the external validation cohort of 0.963. CONCLUSION: The OCCAM model is an effective prognostic tool that can be utilised at the time of initial patient assessment to aid decisions around admission and discharge, use of therapeutics, and shared decision-making with patients. Clinicians should remain aware of the need for ongoing validation of all Covid-19 prognostic models in light of changes in host immunity and emerging variants.

Corrigendum to "A review on urban agriculture: Technology, socio-economy, and policy" [Heliyon 8(11), (2022) Article e11583].

[This corrects the article DOI: 10.1016/j.heliyon.2022.e11583.].

A review on urban agriculture: technology, socio-economy, and policy.

It has been a challenge to support the expansion of urban agriculture (UA) in cities due to its poor economic profitability. However, it is also hard to deny the increasing benefits of UA in improving the socio-environmental dimension of cities. Hence, in this review, different aspects of UA were examined to highlight its value beyond profitability such as social, health and well-being, disaster risk reduction, and environmental perspectives. A case study and relevant policies were analyzed to determine how policy makers can bridge the gap between current and future UA practices and sustainable development. Bridging these policy gaps can help the UA sector to sustainably grow and become successfully integrated in cities. Moreover, advancements in UA technologies and plant biotechnology were presented as potential solutions in increasing the future profitability of commercial UA. Consequently, as new UA-related technologies evolve, the multidisciplinary nature of UA and its changing identity from agriculture to digital technology, similarly require adaptive policies. These policies should maximize the potential of UA in contributing to resiliency and sustainability and incentivize the organic integration of UA in cities, while equally serving social justice.

Hybrid extractive scintillator resin for simultaneous concentration and detection of plutonium from aqueous solutions.

A scoping study of a commercially available resin selective for aqueous plutonium (Pu), AnaLig® Pu-02, modified with scintillator was investigated as a scheme to simultaneously concentrate and detect Pu in aquatic matrices. The extractive scintillating resin was comprised of a silica base, functionalized for plutonium extraction, grafted with plastic scintillator of polyvinyl toluene (PVT) and 2-(1-naphthyl)-4-vinyl-5- phenyloxazole (vNPO) fluor. Scintillator was incorporated onto the AnaLig® Pu-02 resin in a two-step process of silanization followed by surface-polymerization. Successful modification was facilitated by grinding the resin beads prior to silanization to expose cleaved silica surface sites appropriate for scintillator grafting. The modified resin was subjected to initial characterization of batch uptake and radioluminosity measurements where a total detection efficiency of 32.5% was observed. The modified resin was then subjected to pH 1 simulants containing environmental relevant groundwater constituents of varying concentration. Concentrations of 0.001M Fe(III) interfered with Pu uptake, while concentrations of up to 0.01M Ca(II) and 0.001 mM concentration of natural uranium and thorium had minimal influence on plutonium uptake. A translucent column packed with the modified AnaLig® Pu-02 was placed in a commercial flow-cell radiation detector for real-time detection of plutonium; a total detection efficiency of 20.4% was achieved for on-line measurements. The modification of AnaLig® Pu-02 results in a minimum detection limit capable of meeting the EPA limit for gross alpha activity in drinking water given a sufficient counting time of 15 min and approximately 300 mL of solution volume.

Tight-Binding Approach to Pyrazine-Mediated Superexchange in Copper-Pyrazine Antiferromagnets.

We investigate the cause of spatial superexchange anisotropy in a family of copper-based, quasi-two-dimensional materials with very similar geometries. The compounds in this family differ mainly in their inter-layer separation but they have very different magnetic interactions, even within the basal plane. We use density functional theory and Wannier functions to parameterize two complimentary tight-binding models and show that the superexchange between the Cu2+ ions is dominated by a σ-mediated interaction between hybrid Cu-pyrazine orbitals centered on the copper atoms. We find no correlations between the strength of this exchange interaction and homologous geometric features across the compounds, such as Cu and pyrazine bond lengths and orientations of nearby counterions. We find that the pyrazine tilt angles do not affect the Cu-pyrazine-Cu exchange because the lowest unoccupied molecular orbital on pyrazine is at a very high energy (relative to the frontier orbitals, which are Cu-based). We conclude that careful control of the entire crystal structure, including non-homologous geometric features such as the inter-layer organic ligands, is vital for engineering magnetic properties.

Scientific justifications for the political decision-making on environmental remediation carried out after the Fukushima nuclear accident.

The Japanese government decided to implement environmental remediation after the Fukushima Daiichi Nuclear Power Plant (termed "1F" in Japan) accident on 11th March 2011. As the initial additional annual dose target was set to be 1 mSv or less as a long-term goal, we examined the decision-making process undertaken by the then leaders, particularly the Minister of the Ministry of the Environment (MOE) who was responsible for the final decision. We found that technically based assessment of dose targets, health effects and risk-based approaches justified by scientific experts were not communicated to the then Minister and officials of the MOE before the remediation strategy was decided. We defined how such a decision was made based on leadership theories such as the Role Theory and the Cognitive Resources Theory. Academic leaders could have examined the Windscale accident (UK, 1957), which could be considered as the closest analogue (at least in terms of radionuclide releases) to the 1F accident. Environmental remediation could have been planned and implemented more effectively whilst still maintaining the highest possible safety standards and balancing the environmental and economic burden. Appropriate scientific input should have been provided by academic leaders to political and administrative leaders and such scientific justification should have been disclosed to the general public (especially the residents of Fukushima Prefecture) so that the general public could have developed greater trust in their leaders and have more readily accepted the decisions made.

Systematic functional analysis of Leishmania protein kinases identifies regulators of differentiation or survival.

Differentiation between distinct stages is fundamental for the life cycle of intracellular protozoan parasites and for transmission between hosts, requiring stringent spatial and temporal regulation. Here, we apply kinome-wide gene deletion and gene tagging in Leishmania mexicana promastigotes to define protein kinases with life cycle transition roles. Whilst 162 are dispensable, 44 protein kinase genes are refractory to deletion in promastigotes and are likely core genes required for parasite replication. Phenotyping of pooled gene deletion mutants using bar-seq and projection pursuit clustering reveal functional phenotypic groups of protein kinases involved in differentiation from metacyclic promastigote to amastigote, growth and survival in macrophages and mice, colonisation of the sand fly and motility. This unbiased interrogation of protein kinase function in Leishmania allows targeted investigation of organelle-associated signalling pathways required for successful intracellular parasitism.

Release of extracellular vesicle miR-494-3p by ARPE-19 cells with impaired mitochondria.

BACKGROUND: Mitochondrial function in retinal pigmented epithelial (RPE) cells and extracellular vesicle (EV) formation/release are related through the lysosomal and exocytotic pathways that process and eliminate intracellular material, including mitochondrial fragments. We propose that RPE cells with impaired mitochondria will release EVs containing mitochondrial miRNAs that reflect the diminished capacity of mitochondria within these cells. METHODS: We screened ARPE-19 cells for miRNAs that localize to the mitochondria, exhibit biological activity, and are present in EVs released by both untreated cells and cells treated with rotenone to induce mitochondrial injury. EVs were characterized by vesicle size, size distribution, presence of EV biomarkers: CD81, CD63, and syntenin-1, miRNA cargo, and number concentration of EVs released per cell. RESULTS: We found that miR-494-3p was enriched in ARPE-19 mitochondria. Knockdown of miR-494-3p in ARPE-19 cells decreased ATP production and mitochondrial membrane potential in a dose-dependent manner, and decreased basal oxygen consumption rate and maximal respiratory capacity. Increased number of EVs released per cell and elevated levels of miR-494-3p in EVs released from ARPE-19 cells treated with rotenone were also measured. CONCLUSIONS: ARPE-19 mitochondrial function is regulated by miR-494-3p. Elevated levels of miR-494-3p in EVs released by ARPE-19 cells indicate diminished capacity of the mitochondria within these cells. GENERAL SIGNIFICANCE: EV miR-494-3p is a potential biomarker for RPE mitochondrial dysfunction, which plays a central role in non-neovascular age-related macular degeneration, and may be a diagnostic biomarker for monitoring the spread of degeneration to neighboring RPE cells in the retina.

Patient characteristics and predictors of mortality in 470 adults admitted to a district general hospital in England with Covid-19.

Understanding risk factors for death from Covid-19 is key to providing good quality clinical care. We assessed the presenting characteristics of the 'first wave' of patients with Covid-19 at Royal Oldham Hospital, UK and undertook logistic regression modelling to investigate factors associated with death. Of 470 patients admitted, 169 (36%) died. The median age was 71 years (interquartile range 57-82), and 255 (54.3%) were men. The most common comorbidities were hypertension (n = 218, 46.4%), diabetes (n = 143, 30.4%) and chronic neurological disease (n = 123, 26.1%). The most frequent complications were acute kidney injury (AKI) (n = 157, 33.4%) and myocardial injury (n = 21, 4.5%). Forty-three (9.1%) patients required intubation and ventilation, and 39 (8.3%) received non-invasive ventilation. Independent risk factors for death were increasing age (odds ratio (OR) per 10 year increase above 40 years 1.87, 95% confidence interval (CI) 1.57-2.27), hypertension (OR 1.72, 95% CI 1.10-2.70), cancer (OR 2.20, 95% CI 1.27-3.81), platelets <150 × 103/µl (OR 1.93, 95% CI 1.13-3.30), C-reactive protein ≥100 µg/ml (OR 1.68, 95% CI 1.05-2.68), >50% chest radiograph infiltrates (OR 2.09, 95% CI 1.16-3.77) and AKI (OR 2.60, 95% CI 1.64-4.13). There was no independent association between death and gender, ethnicity, deprivation level, fever, SpO2/FiO2, lymphopoenia or other comorbidities. These findings will inform clinical and shared decision making, including use of respiratory support and therapeutic agents.

Performance of rice straw as mono- and co-feedstock of Ulva spp. for thalassic biogas production.

The seasonal availability of Ulva spp. (U) poses a problem for the continuous operation of thalassic (TH) biogas digesters. Hence, rice straw (RS) was tested as an alternative substrate because of its abundance in Asian countries. The anaerobic monodigestion (AMD) of RS was performed under freshwater (FW) and TH conditions to investigate the TH biogas production performance using terrestrial biomass. Biological hydrolysis (BH-P) and 3% NaOH (NaOH-P) pretreatments were employed to minimize the limitation of biomass hydrolysis in the methane fermentation process. The BH-P [FW = 62.2 ± 30.9 mLCH4 g-1VS (volatile solids); TH = 75.8 ± 5.7 mLCH4 g-1VS] of RS led to higher actual methane yield (AMY) than NaOH-P (FW = 15.8 ± 22.8 mLCH4 g-1VS; TH = 21.4 ± 4.2 mLCH4 g-1VS) under both conditions (P = 0.008), while AMY of FW BH-P was comparable (P = 0.182) to TH BH-P. Thus, TH and BH-P was applied to the anaerobic co-digestion (ACD) of U and RS of varying mixture ratios. All ACD set-ups resulted in higher AMY (25U:75RS = 107.6 ± 7.9 mLCH4 g-1VS, 50U:50RS = 130.3 ± 10.3 mLCH4 g-1VS, 75U:25RS = 121.7 ± 2.7 mLCH4 g-1VS) compared with 100% RS (75.8 ± 5.7 mLCH4 g-1VS) or 100% U (94.8 ± 6.8 mLCH4 g-1VS) alone. While the AMY of 50U:50RS was comparable to 75U:25RS (P = 0.181), it is significantly higher (P = 0.003) than its estimated methane yield (EMY; 85.3 mLCH4 g-1VS), suggesting a synergistic effect on ACD of U and RS under 50:50 ratio. The results show that RS can be used as an alternative mono-feedstock for TH biogas production, and a high AMY can be obtained when RS is used as co-feedstock with U.

Climate adaptation for rural water and sanitation systems in the Solomon Islands: A community scale systems model for decision support.

Delivering water and sanitation services are challenging in data poor rural settings in developing countries. In this paper we develop a Bayesian Belief Network model that supports decision making to increase the availability of safe drinking water in five flood-prone rural communities in the Solomon Islands. We collected quantitative household survey data and qualitative cultural and environmental knowledge through community focus group discussions. We combined these data to develop our model, which simulates the state of eight water sources and ten sanitation types and how they are affected by season and extreme events. We identify how climate and current practices can threaten the availability of drinking water for remote communities. Modelling of climate and intervention scenarios indicate that water security could be best enhanced through increased rainwater harvesting (assuming proper installation and maintenance). These findings highlight how a systems model can identify links between and improve understanding of water and sanitation, community behaviour, and the impacts of extreme events. The resultant BBN provides a tool for decision support to enhance opportunities for climate resilient water and sanitation service provision.

Current role of sentinel lymph node biopsy in the management of cutaneous melanoma: A UK consensus statement.

Sentinel node biopsy (SNB) has been at the forefront of the surgical staging of melanoma patients for the past 15 years. The high accuracy of this prognostic staging procedure is now recognised in all international guidelines for melanoma. However during this period there have been a number of important changes in the management of melanoma, many occurring within the past five years. The outcomes of five recent randomised Phase 3 trials have established the role of adjuvant targeted therapy and immunotherapy in resected Stage 3 and Stage 4 disease and have potentially changed the role of SNB. Two landmark international prospective studies have examined the benefit of performing a completion lymph node dissection (CLND) following the detection of microscopicallyinvolved sentinel nodes. Finally, the marked increase in the incidence of melanoma and the role of SNB in potentially guiding therapy has resulted in a significant increase in the pathological workload of the dermatopathology services. To address these issues a multi-disciplinary consensus meeting involving many melanoma experts from the UK was convened in May 2018. Three main areas were considered: oncology, surgery and pathology. This report is a summary of the conclusions reached, which were agreed by the clinicians attending the meeting and then externally peer reviewed. The recommendations summarised in this Consensus Statement.

Spin-State Ice in Elastically Frustrated Spin-Crossover Materials.

Molecules with bistable spin states are widely studied because of their importance to the natural world and their potential applications as molecular scale switches. In molecular crystals and framework materials, elastic interactions between molecules lead to collective phenomena including hysteresis, multistep transitions, and antiferroelastic order of spin states. Elastic frustration, the inability to simultaneously minimize competing elastic interactions, plays a key role in many of the most important phenomena in spin crossover materials. Here we use an elastic model to predict that a new phase of matter occurs for bistable molecules on the kagome lattice, which is intrinsically frustrated as it is composed of equilateral triangles. In this phase, which we call "spin-state ice" in analogy to water and spin ices, there is no long-range order of spin-states; instead they follow a local "ice rule" that each triangle must contain two metal centers in one spin state and one in the other. We show that spin-state ice supports mobile collective excitations that carry a spin midway between the two spin states of a single metal center but no electrical charge. We show that there are distinctive signatures of spin-state ice in neutron scattering, electron paramagnetic resonance, and thermodynamic experiments.

Erratum: Dynamical Reduction of the Dimensionality of Exchange Interactions and the "Spin-Liquid" Phase of κ-(BEDT-TTF)_{2}X [Phys. Rev. Lett. 119, 087204 (2017)].

This corrects the article DOI: 10.1103/PhysRevLett.119.087204.

Increase in the reduction potential of uranyl upon interaction with graphene oxide surfaces.

Coordination of uranyl (U(vi)) with carboxylate groups on functionalized graphene oxide (GO) surfaces has been shown to alter the reduction potential of the sorbed uranium ion. A quantitative measure of the reduction potential and qualitative estimation of sorption/desorption processes were conducted using cyclic voltammetry, and the proposed coordination environment was determined using the surface sensitive attenuated total reflection mode of infrared spectroscopy (ATR-FTIR). GO is a nanostructured material possessing a large amount of oxygen-containing functional groups both on basal planes and at the edges, which can form strong surface complexes with radionuclides. The presence of these functional groups on the surface of GO allows efficient immobilization of uranium due to sorption of uranyl (UO22+) to carboxylate, hydroxide, or sulfonate functional groups and the potential for enhanced reduction of U(vi) to more strongly sorbing and insoluble U(iv). Herein, binding of U(vi) to carboxylate groups on the GO surface is proposed as the primary sorption mechanism based on the FTIR study. Furthermore, the coordination of uranium with the surface increases the reduction potential of the U(vi)/U(iv) redox couple as compared to the case of the aqueous U(vi)/U(iv) species. This is consistent with the alteration of the electronic structure of the sorbed ion, which can be determined in our case due to the use of a GO-coated working electrode. Thus, GO-coated glassy carbon electrodes and other semi-conducting electrodes with high ion sorption capacities may provide a means of examining the oxidation/reduction potentials of sorbed ions.