Green Plants in the Red: A Baseline Global Assessment for the IUCN Sampled Red List Index for Plants

Plants provide fundamental support systems for life on Earth and are the basis for all terrestrial ecosystems; a decline in plant diversity will be detrimental to all other groups of organisms including humans. Decline in plant diversity has been hard to quantify, due to the huge numbers of known and yet to be discovered species and the lack of an adequate baseline assessment of extinction risk against which to track changes. The biodiversity of many remote parts of the world remains poorly known, and the rate of new assessments of extinction risk for individual plant species approximates the rate at which new plant species are described. Thus the question ‘How threatened are plants?’ is still very difficult to answer accurately. While completing assessments for each species of plant remains a distant prospect, by assessing a randomly selected sample of species the Sampled Red List Index for Plants gives, for the first time, an accurate view of how threatened plants are across the world. It represents the first key phase of ongoing efforts to monitor the status of the world’s plants. More than 20% of plant species assessed are threatened with extinction, and the habitat with the most threatened species is overwhelmingly tropical rain forest, where the greatest threat to plants is anthropogenic habitat conversion, for arable and livestock agriculture, and harvesting of natural resources. Gymnosperms (e.g. conifers and cycads) are the most threatened group, while a third of plant species included in this study have yet to receive an assessment or are so poorly known that we cannot yet ascertain whether they are threatened or not. This study provides a baseline assessment from which trends in the status of plant biodiversity can be measured and periodically reassessed

Hypomineralized Second Primary Molars as Predictor of Molar Incisor Hypomineralization

Molar incisor hypomineralization (MIH) is a developmental defect of dental enamel that shares features with hypomineralized second primary molars (HSPM). Prior to permanent tooth eruption, second primary molars could have predictive value for permanent molar and incisor hypomineralization. To assess this possible relationship, a cross-sectional study was conducted in a sample of 414 children aged 8 and 9 years from the INMA cohort in Valencia (Spain). A calibrated examiner (linear-weighted Kappa 0.83) performed the intraoral examinations at the University of Valencia between November 2013 and 2014, applying the diagnostic criteria for MIH and HSPM adopted by the European Academy of Paediatric Dentistry. 100 children (24.2%) presented MIH and 60 (14.5%) presented HSPM. Cooccurrence of the two defects was observed in 11.1% of the children examined. The positive predictive value was 76.7% (63.9-86.6) and the negative predictive value 84.7% (80.6-88.3). The positive likelihood ratio (S/1-E) was 10.3 (5.9-17.9) and the negative likelihood ratio (1-S/E) 0.57 (0.47-0.68). The odds ratio was 18.2 (9.39-35.48). It was concluded that while the presence of HSPM can be considered a predictor of MIH, indicating the need for monitoring and control, the absence of this defect in primary dentition does not rule out the appearance of MIH

High glucose disrupts oligosaccharide recognition function via competitive inhibition : a potential mechanism for immune dysregulation in diabetes mellitus

Diabetic complications include infection and cardiovascular disease. Within the immune system, host-pathogen and regulatory host-host interactions operate through binding of oligosaccharides by C-type lectin. A number of C-type lectins recognise oligosaccharides rich in mannose and fucose – sugars with similar structures to glucose. This raises the possibility that high glucose conditions in diabetes affect protein-oligosaccharide interactions via competitive inhibition. Mannose binding lectin, soluble DC-SIGN & DC-SIGNR, and surfactant protein D, were tested for carbohydrate binding in the presence of glucose concentrations typical of diabetes, via surface plasmon resonance and affinity chromatography. Complement activation assays were performed in high glucose. DC-SIGN and DC-SIGNR expression in adipose tissues was examined via immunohistochemistry. High glucose inhibited C-type lectin binding to high-mannose glycoprotein and binding of DC-SIGN to fucosylated ligand (blood group B) was abrogated in high glucose. Complement activation via the lectin pathway was inhibited in high glucose and also in high trehalose - a nonreducing sugar with glucoside stereochemistry. DC-SIGN staining was seen on cells with DC morphology within omental and subcutaneous adipose tissues. We conclude that high glucose disrupts C-type lectin function, potentially illuminating new perspectives on susceptibility to infectious and inflammatory disease in diabetes. Mechanisms involve competitive inhibition of carbohydrate-binding within sets of defined proteins, in contrast to broadly indiscriminate, irreversible glycation of proteins

Ki67 index is an independent prognostic factor in epithelioid but not in non-epithelioid malignant pleural mesothelioma: a multicenter study

BACKGROUND: Estimating the prognosis in malignant pleural mesothelioma (MPM) remains challenging. Thus, the prognostic relevance of Ki67 was studied in MPM. METHODS: Ki67 index was determined in a test cohort of 187 cases from three centres. The percentage of Ki67-positive tumour cells was correlated with clinical variables and overall survival (OS). The prognostic power of Ki67 index was compared with other prognostic factors and re-evaluated in an independent cohort (n=98). RESULTS: Patients with Ki67 higher than median (>15%) had significantly (P<0.001) shorter median OS (7.5 months) than those with low Ki67 (19.1 months). After multivariate survival analyses, Ki67 proved to be-beside histology and treatment-an independent prognostic marker in MPM (hazard ratio (HR): 2.1, P<0.001). Interestingly, Ki67 was prognostic exclusively in epithelioid (P<0.001) but not in non-epithelioid subtype. Furthermore, Ki67 index was significantly lower in post-chemotherapy samples when compared with chemo-naive cases. The prognostic power was comparable to other recently published prognostic factors (CRP, fibrinogen, neutrophil-to-leukocyte ratio (NLR) and nuclear grading score) and was recapitulated in the validation cohort (P=0.048). CONCLUSION: This multicentre study demonstrates that Ki67 is an independent and reproducible prognostic factor in epithelioid but not in non-epithelioid MPM and suggests that induction chemotherapy decreases the proliferative capacity of MPM

Revisiting Politicide: State Annihilation in Israel/Palestine

State annihilation is a persistent concern in Israel/Palestine. While the specter of Israel’s destruction increasingly haunts Israeli public political debates, the actual materialization of Palestinian statehood seems to be permanently suspended, caught in an ever-protracted process of state-building. The current paper claims that to understand the unfolding of the discursive formations, as well as the spatial dimensions of conflict and control in Israel/Palestine, we should explicate the workings of the processes of politicide. Politicide, in this regard, denotes the eradication of the political existence of a group and sabotaging the turning of a community of people into a polity. This analysis suggests that the insistence that the State of Israel is under threat of extinction should be understood as a speech act, a performative reiteration, which allows for the securitization of Israeli rule in the occupied Palestinian territory, a securitization which then serves to rationalize the ongoing concrete politicide of the Palestinians. Elaborating on the concept of politicide, and diverging from defining it solely through the use of brute violence, this examination suggests that what is often overlooked in discussions of politicide are the seemingly more benign means of its implementation, the micro-power mechanisms of spatial control, prohibitions and regulations

Intrathoracic solitary fibrous tumor - an international multicenter study on clinical outcome and novel circulating biomarkers

Intrathoracic solitary fibrous tumor (SFT) is a rare disease. Radical resection is the standard of care. However, estimating prognosis and planning follow-up and treatment strategies remains challenging. Data were retrospectively collected by five international centers to explore outcome and biomarkers for predicting event-free-survival (EFS). 125 histological proven SFT patients (74 female; 59.2%; 104 benign; 83.2%) were analyzed. The one-, three-, five- and ten-year EFS after curative-intent surgery was 98%, 90%, 77% and 67%, respectively. Patients age (>/=59 vs. 10 cm vs. 5 vs. < 5 HR 3.91, CI 1.40-10.89, p = 0.009) were prognostic after univariate analyses. After multivariate analyses tumor-dignity and fibrinogen remained as independent prognosticators. Besides validating the role of age, tumor-dignity, tumor-size, stage and resection margins, we identified for the first time inflammatory markers as prognosticators in SFT

Experimental Investigation of a Temperature Change inside Pneumatic Cylinder Chambers

The investigation of the existence of a tempera-ture change with pressure inside the pneumatic cylinder chambers during the charging and dis-charging strokes in the pneumatic cylinder is ex-perimentally demonstrated. Three different varia-bles (pressure, piston displacement and tempera-ture) were measured in this work while operating with a servo pneumatic system and a discussion of the relationship between these variables was pre-sented. The cylinder used has a piston diameter of (0.05m), piston rod diameter (0.02m) and a stroke length of (0.2m). The results show a temperature rise of 23 K above atmospheric temperature at chamber (1) while air compressing and a tempera-ture drop of 17 K below atmospheric temperature at chamber (2) while air expansion and measures other temperature changes also

Increased Systemic Th17 Cytokines Are Associated with Diastolic Dysfunction in Children and Adolescents with Diabetic Ketoacidosis

Diastolic dysfunction suggestive of diabetic cardiomyopathy is established in children with T1DM, but its pathogenesis is not well understood. We studied the relationships of systemic inflammatory cytokines/chemokines and cardiac function in 17 children with T1DM during and after correction of diabetic ketoacidosis (DKA). Twenty seven of the 39 measured cytokines/chemokines were elevated at 6–12 hours into treatment of DKA compared to values after DKA resolution. Eight patients displayed at least one parameter of diastolic abnormality (DA) during acute DKA. Significant associations were present between nine of the cytokine/chemokine levels and the DA over time. Interestingly, four of these nine interactive cytokines (GM-CSF, G-CSF, IL-12p40, IL-17) are associated with a Th17 mediated cell response. Both the DA and CCL7 and IL-12p40, had independent associations with African American patients. Thus, we report occurrence of a systemic inflammatory response and the presence of cardiac diastolic dysfunction in a subset of young T1DM patients during acute DKA