Recent warming causes functional borealization and diversity loss in deep fish communities east of Greenland

Aim: We assessed temporal trends in functional diversity of the deep-sea demersal fish communities of East Greenland to characterize ecological responses to rising sea temperatures. Location: The study region encompasses a shelf and slope area located offshore between 63°N and 66°N, east of Greenland. Methods: A unique dataset of demersal fish abundance covering a depth range of 1500 m over 18 years was combined with a fish trait dataset which included a mix of quantitative and categorial traits that characterized species' morphology, feeding strategy, habitat, and life history. We analysed the species by trait matrix using principal component analysis (PCA). To investigate trait patterns across the communities (sites), community weighted mean (CWM) traits were calculated and analysed using PCA. Further, depth specific and temporal trends in functional diversity indices were calculated. Results: We found signs of a taxonomic and functional borealization, associated with a loss in functional diversity, down to 1000 m, characterized by an increase in mobile generalists and a decrease in bottom dwelling benthivores. Main conclusions: The increased dominance of boreal species traits was not sufficient to compensate for the loss of Arctic species traits leading to declining functional diversity. The decrease in functional diversity may negatively affect ecosystem robustness to environmental change. These responses are most likely not unique to this study area and call for more attention to ecosystem considerations in climate change management strategies in the deep-sea

Emerging targeted therapies for melanoma treatment (Review)

Cutaneous melanoma is an aggressive cancer with a poor prognosis for patients with advanced disease. The identification of several key molecular pathways implicated in the pathogenesis of melanoma has led to the development of novel therapies for this devastating disease. In melanoma, both the Ras/Raf/MEK/ERK (MAPK) and the PI3K/AKT (AKT) signalling pathways are constitutively activated through multiple mechanisms. Targeting various effectors of these pathways with pharmacologic inhibitors may inhibit melanoma cell growth and angiogenesis. Ongoing clinical trials provide hope to improve progression-free survival of patients with advanced melanoma. This review summarizes the most relevant studies focused on the specific action of these new molecular targeted agents. Mechanisms of resistance to therapy are also discussed

No Sign of Homogenisation in Reef Fish Communities Across an Ecological Transition Zone Exposed to Warming

Aim: Marine organisms are responding to warming by altering their distribution ranges, causing biogeographic range shifts and in some cases, favouring the community homogenisation. Transition zones can act as natural laboratories to explore the consequences of homogenisation. However, these habitats are relatively poorly studied in coastal areas. In this study, we aimed to investigate biotic homogenisation and changes in reef fish community composition from both a taxonomic and trait-based perspective. Location: Seven islands in the South-western Atlantic transition zone. Methods: We used a long-term survey data set of reef fish species abundances and traits of communities to calculate beta-diversity indices. By analysing the data, we derived temporal trends of beta-diversity values by separately comparing the North and South regions of the transition zone and performed pairwise comparisons to explore their dynamics when considered together. Results: Contrary to previous expectations, we found no sign of homogenisation. The colder islands (Southern) experienced a decrease in taxonomic and trait richness metrics, whereas for the warmer islands (Northern), the taxonomic and trait richness fluctuated without any significant temporal trends. Main Conclusions: While taxonomic composition may change over time, the trait composition is generally more conserved, highlighting the trait redundancy in South-western Atlantic communities and supporting the idea that these communities can maintain a range of ecological processes despite changes in taxonomic composition. Finally, the study revealed that despite non-homogenisation, the species that contribute most to variation, especially in the South, have common trait combinations indicating an increase in the trait redundancy of fish communities over time. We underline that local-scale conservation efforts may be particularly effective in preserving and protecting species and ecological functions in areas experiencing unique and fast changes in biodiversity

Modèle de comportement communicatif conventionnel pour un agent en interaction avec des humains (Approche par jeux de dialogue)

Cette thèse a pour objectif l amélioration des capacités communicatives des agents logiciels en interaction avec des humains. Dans ce but, nous proposons une méthodologie basée sur l étude d un corpus d interactions Homme-Homme orientées vers la réalisation d une tâche. Nous proposons un cadre qui s appuie sur les jeux de dialogue afin de modéliser des motifs dialogiques observés. Nous illustrons la spécification de tels jeux depuis des motifs extraits en appliquant l'ensemble des étapes de noter méthodologie à un corpus. Les jeux spécifiés sont validés en montrant qu ils décrivent de façon appropriée les motifs apparaissant dans le corpus de référence. Enfin, nous montrons l intérêt interprétatif et génératif de notre modèle pour le fondement du comportement communicatif conventionnel d un agent interagissant avec un humain. Nous implémentons ce modèle dans le module Dogma, exploitable par un agent dans un dialogue impliquant deux interlocuteurs.This research work aims at improving the communicative behaviour of software agents interacting with humans. To this purpose, we present a data-driven methodology based on the study of a task oriented corpus consisting of Human-Human interactions. We present a framework to specify dialogue games from observed interaction patterns based on the notion of social commitments and conversational gameboard. We exemplify the specification of dialogue games by implementing all the steps of our methodology ona task-oriented corpus. The produced games are validated by showing that they appropriately describe the patterns appearing in a reference corpus. Eventually, we show that an agent can take advantage of our model to regulate its conventional communicative behaviour on both interpretative and generative levels. We implement this model into Dogma, a module that can be used by an agent to manage its communicative behaviour in a two-interlocutor dialogue.ROUEN-INSA Madrillet (765752301) / SudocSudocFranceF

From traits to life-history strategies: Deconstructing fish community composition across European seas

En prens

Spatial distribution of life-history traits and their response to environmental gradients across multiple marine taxa

Trait‐based approaches enable comparison of community composition across multiple organism groups. Yet, little is known about the degree to which empirical trait responses found for one taxonomic group can be generalized across organisms. In this study, we investigated the spatial variability of marine community‐weighted mean traits and compared their environmental responses across multiple taxa and habitats, including pelagic zooplankton (copepods), demersal fish, and benthic infaunal invertebrates. We used extensive, spatially explicit datasets collected from scientific surveys in the North Sea and examined community composition of these groups using a trait‐based approach. In order to cover the key biological characteristics of an organism, we considered three life‐history traits (adult size, offspring size, and fecundity) and taxon‐specific feeding traits. While many of the traits co‐varied in space and notably demonstrated a south–north gradient, none of the traits showed a consistent spatial distribution across all groups. However, traits are often correlated as a result of trade‐offs. When studying spatial patterns of multiple traits variability in fish and copepods, we showed a high spatial correlation. This also applied to a lesser extent to fish and benthic infauna, whereas no correlation was found between benthic infauna and copepods. The result suggested a decoupling in the community traits between strictly benthic and strictly pelagic species. The strongest drivers of spatial variability for many community traits are the gradients in temperature seasonality, primary productivity, fishing effort, and depth. Spatial variability in benthic traits also co‐varied with descriptors of the seabed habitat. Overall, results showed that trait responses to environmental gradients cannot be generalized across organism groups, pointing toward potential complex responses of multi‐taxa communities to environmental changes and highlighting the need for cross‐habitat multi‐trait analyses to foresee how environmental change will affect community structure and biodiversity at large

Sorafenib dose escalation in treatment-naïve patients with metastatic renal cell carcinoma: a non-randomised, open-label, Phase 2b study

Objective: To assess the efficacy and safety of sorafenib dose escalation in metastatic renal cell carcinoma (mRCC). Patients and Methods: Intra-patient dose escalation may enhance the clinical benefit of targeted anticancer agents in metastatic disease. In this non-randomised, open-label, Phase 2b study, treatment-naïve patients with mRCC were initially treated with the standard oral sorafenib dose [400 mg twice daily (BID)]. Two dose escalations were planned, each 200 mg BID after 28 days at the prior level. Dose reductions, interruptions, or delayed escalations were used to manage adverse events (AEs). The primary endpoint was objective response rate (ORR) in the modified intent-to-treat (mITT) population, which comprised patients with ≥6 months of treatment including ≥4 months of therapy at their highest tolerated dose. Secondary endpoints included progression-free survival (PFS) and safety. Results: In all, 83 patients received sorafenib. The dose received for the longest duration was 400, 600, and 800 mg BID in 48.2%, 15.7%, and 24.1% of patients, respectively. The ORR was 44.4% [n = 8/18; 95% confidence interval (CI) 21.5–69.2] and 17.9% (n = 12/67; 95% CI 9.6–29.2) in the mITT and ITT populations, respectively. The median (95% CI) PFS was 7.4 (6.0–11.7) months (ITT). The most common AEs of any grade were hand–foot skin reaction (66.3%) and diarrhoea (63.9%). Conclusion: Sorafenib demonstrated clinical benefit in treatment-naïve patients with mRCC. However, relatively few patients could sustain doses of >400 mg BID. There was evidence that, where tolerated, escalation from the standard sorafenib dose may have enhanced clinical benefit. However, this study does not support dose escalation for most patients with treatment-naïve mRCC. Alternative protocols for sorafenib dose escalation could be explored

Marine communities do not follow the paradigm of increasing similarity through time

This is an open access article, free of all copyright, and may be freely reproduced, distributed, transmitted, modified, built upon, or otherwise used by anyone for any lawful purpose. The work is made available under the Creative Commons CC0 public domain dedication. Humans have transformed ecosystems through habitat modification, harvesting, species introduction, and climate change. Changes in species distribution and composition are often thought to induce biotic homogenization, defined as an increase in the spatial similarity of species compositions through time. However, it is unclear whether homogenization is common in ocean ecosystems and if changes in similarity exhibit linear or more complex dynamics. Here, we assessed patterns of homogenization or its converse (differentiation) across more than 175,000 samples of 2,006 demersal fish species from 34 regions spanning six decades and 20% of the planet’s continental shelf area. While ten regions (29%) recorded significant homogenization, eleven (32%) recorded significant differentiation. Non-monotonic temporal fluctuations in species composition occurred in 15 regions, highlighting complex dynamics missed by before-and-after snapshots that can drive spurious conclusions about trends in similarity. Fishing pressure and temperature helped explain variance in similarity across years and regions. However, the strength and direction of these effects differed by region. Here we showed that, despite intense anthropogenic impacts on the oceans, the majority of demersal marine fish communities do not follow the global homogenization paradigm common in other realms