A novel open-source cultivation system helps establish the first full cycle chemosynthetic symbiosis model system involving the giant ciliate Zoothamnium niveum

Symbiotic interactions drive species evolution, with nutritional symbioses playing vital roles across ecosystems. Chemosynthetic symbioses are globally distributed and ecologically significant, yet the lack of model systems has hindered research progress. The giant ciliate Zoothamnium niveum and its sulfur-oxidizing symbionts represent the only known chemosynthetic symbiosis with a short life span that has been transiently cultivated in the laboratory. While it is experimentally tractable and presents a promising model system, it currently lacks an open-source, simple, and standardized cultivation setup. Following the FABricated Ecosystems (EcoFABs) model, we leveraged 3D printing and polydimethylsiloxane (PDMS) casting to develop simple flow-through cultivation chambers that can be produced and adopted by any laboratory. The streamlined manufacturing process reduces production time by 86% and cuts cost by tenfold compared to the previous system. Benchmarking using previously established optimal growth conditions, the new open-source cultivation system proves stable, efficient, more autonomous, and promotes a more prolific growth of the symbiosis. For the first time, starting from single cells, we successfully cultivated the symbiosis in flow-through chambers for 20 days, spanning multiple generations of colonies that remained symbiotic. They were transferred from chamber to chamber enabling long-term cultivation and eliminating the need for continuous field sampling. The chambers, optimized for live imaging, allowed detailed observation of the synchronized growth between the host and symbiont. Highlighting the benefit of this new system, we here describe a new step in the first hours of development where the host pauses growth, expels a coat, before resuming growth, hinting at a putative symbiont selection mechanism early in the colony life cycle. With this simple, open-source, cultivation setup, Z. niveum holds promises for comparative studies, standardization of research and wide adoption by the symbiosis research community

Dental Findings of Kidney and Liver Transplantation Patients from a Brazilian Oral Health Care Service

Objective: To describe dental findings of kidney and liver, pre and post-transplant patients of an oral health care service from a Brazilian Southeast state. Material and Methods: A descriptive cross-sectional study was developed with a sample of patients attending the oral health care program for transplantation of Universidade Federal de Minas Gerais. Participants were divided into two groups according to the kind of transplantation-kidney or liver. Characteristics of the sample, sex (male/female), age (18-44; 45-54; 55-80), living region (Belo Horizonte, or outside), phase of transplantation (pre-Tx or post-Tx), and self-report of diabetes mellitus and hypertension were presented by frequencies. Dental caries experienced was measured by Decayed, Missing and Filled-Teeth (DMF-T) index. Results: 185 patients, kidney (46; 24.9%), and liver (139; 75.1%) were included. Mean DMFT was 18.3 (20.0). DMFT scores of males (18.7; 20.0), females (17.2; 18.0), pre-transplanted (18.3; 20.0), and post-transplanted (18.1; 20.0) were similar. The liver transplantation group (19.3; 20.0) showed higher caries experience comparing to kidney´s (15.2; 17.0). Conclusion: Dental caries experience was high in kidney and liver patients under transplantation therapy. This highlights the demand for treatment need in this population

AMICO galaxy clusters in KiDS-DR3: cosmological constraints from counts and stacked weak-lensing

We present a cosmological analysis of abundances and stacked weak-lensing profiles of galaxy clusters, exploiting the AMICO KiDS-DR3 catalogue. The sample consists of 3652 galaxy clusters with intrinsic richness $\lambda^*\geq20$, over an effective area of 377 deg$^2$, in the redshift range $z\in[0.1,\,0.6]$. We quantified the purity and completeness of the sample through simulations. The statistical analysis has been performed by simultaneously modelling the comoving number density of galaxy clusters and the scaling relation between the intrinsic richnesses and the cluster masses, assessed through a stacked weak-lensing profile modelling. The fluctuations of the matter background density, caused by super-survey modes, have been taken into account in the likelihood. Assuming a flat $\Lambda$CDM model, we constrained $\Omega_{\rm m}$, $\sigma_8$, $S_8 \equiv \sigma_8(\Omega_{\rm m}/0.3)^{0.5}$, and the parameters of the mass-richness scaling relation. We obtained $\Omega_{\rm m}=0.24^{+0.03}_{-0.04}$, $\sigma_8=0.86^{+0.07}_{-0.07}$, $S_8=0.78^{+0.04}_{-0.04}$. The constraint on $S_8$ is consistent within 1$\sigma$ with the results from WMAP and Planck. Furthermore, we got constraints on the cluster mass scaling relation in agreement with those obtained from a previous weak-lensing only analysis.Comment: 12 pages, 7 figures, 2 tables. Accepted by A&

AMICO galaxy clusters in KiDS-DR3: Cosmological constraints from angular power spectrum and correlation function

We study the tomographic clustering properties of the photometric cluster catalogue derived from the Third Data Release of the Kilo Degree Survey, focusing on the angular correlation function and its spherical harmonic counterpart, the angular power spectrum. We measure the angular correlation function and power spectrum from a sample of 5162 clusters, with an intrinsic richness $\lambda^*\geq 15$, in the photometric redshift range $z\in [0.1, 0.6]$, comparing our measurements with theoretical models, in the framework of the $\Lambda$-Cold Dark Matter cosmology. We perform a Monte Carlo Markov Chain analysis to constrain the cosmological parameters $\Omega_{\mathrm{m}}$, $\sigma_8$ and the structure growth parameter $S_8\equiv\sigma_8 \sqrt{\Omega_{\mathrm{m}}/0.3}$. We adopt Gaussian priors on the parameters of the mass-richness relation, based on the posterior distributions derived from a previous joint analysis of cluster counts and weak lensing mass measurements carried out with the same catalogue. From the angular correlation function, we obtain $\Omega_{\mathrm{m}}=0.32^{+0.05}_{-0.04}$, $\sigma_8=0.77^{+0.13}_{-0.09}$ and $S_8=0.80^{+0.08}_{-0.06}$, in agreement, within $1\sigma$, with 3D clustering result based on the same cluster sample and with existing complementary studies on other datasets. For the angular power spectrum, we derive statistically consistent results, in particular $\Omega_{\mathrm{m}}=0.24^{+0.05}_{-0.04}$ and $S_8=0.93^{+0.11}_{-0.12}$, while the constraint on $\sigma_8$ alone is weaker with respect to the one provided by the angular correlation function, $\sigma_8=1.01^{+0.25}_{-0.17}$. Our results show that the 2D clustering from photometric cluster surveys can provide competitive cosmological constraints with respect to the full 3D clustering statistics, and can be successfully applied to ongoing and forthcoming spectro/photometric surveys.Comment: 14 pages, 9 figures. Submitted to Astronomy & Astrophysics (A&A

Health-Status Outcomes in Older Patients With Myocardial Infarction: Physiology-Guided Complete Revascularization Versus Culprit-Only Strategy

Background: The FIRE trial (Functional Assessment in Elderly Myocardial Infarction Patients With Multivessel Disease) enrolled 1445 older (aged ≥75 years) patients with myocardial infarction and multivessel disease in Italy, Spain, and Poland. Patients were randomized to physiology-guided complete revascularization or treatment of the only culprit lesion. Physiology-guided complete revascularization significantly reduced ischemic adverse events at 1 year. This prespecified analysis investigated the changes between the 2 study groups in angina status, quality of life, physical performance, and frailty. Methods: Patients underwent validated scales at hospital discharge (baseline) and 1 year later. Angina status was evaluated using the Seattle Angina Questionnaire, health-related quality of life by EQ visual analog scale, physical performance by short physical performance battery, and frailty by the clinical frailty scale. Mixed models for repeated measures analysis were used to study the association between the treatment arms, time, and scales. Results: Baseline and 1-year Seattle Angina Questionnaire, EQ visual analog scale, short physical performance battery, and clinical frailty scale were collected in around two-thirds of the entire FIRE study population. The mean age was 80.9±4.6 years (female sex, 35.9%). Overall, 35.3% were admitted for ST-segment-elevation myocardial infarction, whereas the others were admitted for non-ST-segment-elevation myocardial infarction. Physiology-guided complete revascularization, compared with culprit-only revascularization, was associated with greater improvement in terms of angina status (Seattle Angina Questionnaire summary score, 7.3 [95% CI, 6.1-8.6] points), health-related quality of life (EQ visual analog scale, 6.2 [95% CI, 4.4-8.1] points), and physical performance (short physical performance battery, 1.1 [95% CI, 0.9-1.3] points). After 1 year, patients randomized to culprit-only revascularization experienced a deterioration in frailty status (clinical frailty scale, 0.2 [95% CI, 0.1-0.3] points), which was not observed in patients randomized to physiology-guided complete revascularization. Conclusions: The present analysis suggested that a physiology-guided complete revascularization is associated with consistent benefits in terms of angina status, quality of life, physical performance, and the absence of further deterioration of the frailty status