scholarly journals The impacts of scallop dredging on sponge assemblages in the Gulf of Kalloni (Aegean Sea, northeastern Mediterranean)

2003 ◽  
Vol 60 (2) ◽  
pp. 402-410 ◽  
Author(s):  
E Kefalas ◽  
J Castritsi-Catharios ◽  
H Miliou

Abstract Concerns have been raised on the impact of bottom-fishing activities in the shallow Gulf of Kalloni (Lesvos Island, Aegean Sea). Fishing with demersal gears was banned in 1995, but the Gulf was reopened in 1998 only for scallop dredging using the “lagamna” gear. Two series of samplings were done with this gear in 1998 and 1999 (October) before the beginning of scallop-fishing period (from November up to March), aiming to investigate possible changes in sponge assemblages. Sponges (Porifera) were the most abundant meso-megafaunal benthic organisms in the Gulf, besides scallops and other bivalves. Total abundance, number of species, species diversity, species richness and evenness of sponge assemblages reduced significantly from the year 1998 to 1999. The population of the excavating Cliona celata, the only infaunal sponge species found in the Gulf, decreased. Multivariate analysis on the abundance data of epibenthic sponge species revealed a clear separation of samples collected during the 2 years, indicating changes in the structure of sponge assemblages. The distinguishing species included a variety of growth forms: massive (Mycale massa, Suberites domuncula and Tethya citrina), lobose (Suberites massa, Tedania anhelans and Halichondria panicea), erect branching (Raspailia viminalis), encrusting (Crambe crambe) and cushion-shaped (Mycale contarenii and Chondrilla nuculla) sponges. Among these species, only S. massa increased its abundance in 1999. All others decreased. No significant loss of information occurred when multivariate analysis was applied to abundance data of genera or families. This comparative study demonstrated that the time interval between two consecutive scallop-fishing periods was insufficient for the recovery of sponge assemblages. It is concluded that scallop dredging causes long-term changes in the structure and biodiversity of sponge assemblages in the Gulf of Kalloni. An improved strategy of fishery management is required in future for the conservation of living resources in this Gulf.

Blood ◽  
2016 ◽  
Vol 128 (22) ◽  
pp. 3975-3975 ◽  
Author(s):  
Koji Sasaki ◽  
Elias J. Jabbour ◽  
Susan M. O'Brien ◽  
Deborah A Thomas ◽  
Farhad Ravandi ◽  
...  

Abstract Background: The incorporation of intensive chemotherapy, hematopoietic stem cell transplantation (HSCT), targeted therapies including rituximab and tyrosine kinase inhibitors contributes substantial improvement in the outcome of patients with ALL over decades. VAD was changed to hyper-CVAD in 1992; rituximab was added to hyper-CVAD for CD20 positive ALL in 1999/2000; inotuzumab ozogamicin in combination with low-intensity chemotherapy was offered to elderly patients starting in 2011. The aim of this study is to describe the outcome of patients with ALL over decades by age groups. Methods: From 1980 to 2016, patients with newly diagnosed ALL at our institution were analyzed. Burkitt leukemia was excluded from our analysis. Patients were divided into age groups as follows: age 15-39, age 40-60, and age >60. Patients were subsequently divided into diagnostic year cohorts by decade: 1980-1989, 1990-1999, 2000-2009, and 2010-2016. Overall survival was defined as time interval from diagnosis to the date of death regardless of any cause. Kaplan-Meier method with a log-rank test was used for survival comparison between cohorts. Stepwise multivariate analysis with Cox proportional hazards model was used to evaluate the impact of diagnosis year on OS. P-values were two-sided, and a p-value less than 0.05 was considered statistically significant. Results: Overall, 972 patients were identified and analyzed in our study. Median age at diagnosis was 39.5 years (range, 16-92) with a median follow-up of 10.4 years (range, 0.0-31.3). Patients were divided into 486 patients (50%) in the age 15-39 category, 301 patients (31%) in the age 40-60 category, and 185 patients (19%) in the age over 60 category. Baseline patient characteristics are summarized in Table 1. Overall, the median OS durations were 4.5 years, 2.8 years, and 1.3 years in age 15-39, age 40-60, and age >60, respectively (p<0.001; p<0.001). Of the 486 patients in age 15-39, the improvement in OS was observed from 1980-1989 to 1990-1999 (p<0.001); of the 301 patients in age 40-60, from 1980-1989 to 1990-1999, and from 1990-1999 to 2000-2009 (p=0.042; p=0.003); of the 185 patients in age >60, from 2000-2009 to 2010-2016 (p=0.039). Stepwise multivariate analysis identified leukocytosis, thrombocytopenia, hypoalbuminemia, elderly age, poor performance status, lack of complete response, and diagnostic year as adverse prognostic factors for OS. Each year since 1980 had an impact on OS with hazard ratio of 0.961 (95% confidence interval, 0.951-0.971; p<0.001). Conclusion: Patients with ALL have significant improvement in OS throughout all ages over decades. However, the decade time points of improvement in OS were different between age cohorts. Different treatment strategy and clinical trial designs by each age group are needed for further improvement in patient's outcome. Disclosures Jabbour: ARIAD: Consultancy, Research Funding; Pfizer: Consultancy, Research Funding; Novartis: Research Funding; BMS: Consultancy. O'Brien:Janssen: Consultancy, Honoraria; Pharmacyclics, LLC, an AbbVie Company: Consultancy, Honoraria, Research Funding. Ravandi:BMS: Research Funding; Seattle Genetics: Consultancy, Honoraria, Research Funding. Cortes:ARIAD: Consultancy, Research Funding; BMS: Consultancy, Research Funding; Novartis: Consultancy, Research Funding; Pfizer: Consultancy, Research Funding; Teva: Research Funding. Wierda:Novartis: Research Funding; Abbvie: Research Funding; Acerta: Research Funding; Gilead: Research Funding; Genentech: Research Funding. Konopleva:Cellectis: Research Funding; Calithera: Research Funding. Pemmaraju:incyte: Consultancy, Honoraria, Research Funding; novartis: Consultancy, Honoraria, Research Funding; LFB: Consultancy, Honoraria; stemline: Consultancy, Honoraria, Research Funding; cellectis: Consultancy, Research Funding; affymetrix: Research Funding. DiNardo:Agios: Other: advisory board, Research Funding; Daiichi Sankyo: Other: advisory board, Research Funding; Celgene: Research Funding; Abbvie: Research Funding; Novartis: Other: advisory board, Research Funding. Jain:Genentech: Research Funding; Novartis: Consultancy, Honoraria; Pharmacyclics: Consultancy, Honoraria, Research Funding; Novimmune: Consultancy, Honoraria; Seattle Genetics: Research Funding; Abbvie: Research Funding; Servier: Consultancy, Honoraria; Celgene: Research Funding; Pfizer: Consultancy, Honoraria, Research Funding; BMS: Research Funding; Infinity: Research Funding; ADC Therapeutics: Consultancy, Honoraria, Research Funding; Incyte: Research Funding. Andreeff:Oncoceutics: Equity Ownership, Membership on an entity's Board of Directors or advisory committees.


2020 ◽  
Vol 18 (7) ◽  
pp. 1397-1414
Author(s):  
K.S. Golondarev

Subject. This article explores the issues of business tourism clustering in Greater Moscow. Objectives. The article intends to justify the need to create a business tourism cluster in Greater Moscow to improve the investment climate in the region. Methods. For the study, I used a multivariate analysis, forecasting, and extrapolation. Results. The article shows a certain relationship between the efficient functioning of the business tourism cluster and the economy's development. Conclusions and Relevance. Certain types of tourist clusters can serve as platforms for attracting investors and implementing marketing plans. The business tourism cluster is a link between buyers and sellers in various industries. The results of the study can be used to improve the effectiveness of the cluster initiative in business tourism, as well as find ways of cooperation between the State and private investors when creating the business tourism cluster in Greater Moscow.


Cancers ◽  
2021 ◽  
Vol 13 (6) ◽  
pp. 1321
Author(s):  
Constanza Saka-Herrán ◽  
Enric Jané-Salas ◽  
Antoni Mari-Roig ◽  
Albert Estrugo-Devesa ◽  
José López-López

The purpose of this review was to identify and describe the causes that influence the time-intervals in the pathway of diagnosis and treatment of oral cancer and to assess its impact on prognosis and survival. The review was structured according to the recommendations of the Aarhus statement, considering original data from individual studies and systematic reviews that reported outcomes related to the patient, diagnostic and pre-treatment intervals. The patient interval is the major contributor to the total time-interval. Unawareness of signs and/or symptoms, denial and lack of knowledge about oral cancer are the major contributors to the process of seeking medical attention. The diagnostic interval is influenced by tumor factors, delays in referral due to higher number of consultations and previous treatment with different medicines or dental procedures and by professional factors such as experience and lack of knowledge related to the disease and diagnostic procedures. Patients with advanced stage disease, primary treatment with radiotherapy, treatment at an academic facility and transitions in care are associated with prolonged pre-treatment intervals. An emerging body of evidence supports the impact of prolonged pre-treatment and treatment intervals with poorer survival from oral cancer.


Author(s):  
Taylor Kirby ◽  
Robert Connell ◽  
Travis Linneman

Abstract Purpose The impact of a focused inpatient educational intervention on rates of medication-assisted therapy (MAT) for veterans with opioid use disorder (OUD) was evaluated. Methods A retrospective cohort analysis compared rates of MAT, along with rates of OUD-related emergency department (ED) visits and/or hospital admission within 1 year, between veterans with a diagnosis of OUD who completed inpatient rehabilitation prior to implementation of a series of group sessions designed to engage intrinsic motivation to change behavior surrounding opioid abuse and provide education about MAT (the control group) and those who completed rehabilitation after implementation of the education program (the intervention group). A post hoc, multivariate analysis was performed to evaluate possible predictors of MAT use and ED and/or hospital readmission, including completion of the opioid series, gender, age (&gt;45 years), race, and specific prior substance(s) of abuse. Results One hundred fifty-eight patients were included: 95 in the control group and 63 in the intervention group. Rates of MAT were 25% (24 of 95 veterans) and 75% (47 of 63 veterans) in control and intervention groups, respectively (P &lt; 0.01). Gender, completion of the opioid series, prior heroin use, and marijuana use met prespecified significance criteria for inclusion in multivariate regression modeling of association with MAT utilization, with participation in the opioid series (odds ratio [OR], 9.56; 95% confidence interval [CI], 4.36-20.96) and prior heroin use (OR, 3.26; 95% CI, 1.18-9.01) found to be significant predictors of MAT utilization on multivariate analysis. Opioid series participation and MAT use were independently associated with decreased rates of OUD-related ED visits and/or hospital admission (hazard ratios of 0.16 [95% CI, 0.06-0.44] and 0.32 [95% CI, 0.14-0.77], respectively) within 1 year after rehabilitation completion. Conclusion Focused OUD-related education in a substance abuse program for veterans with OUD increased rates of MAT and was associated with a decrease in OUD-related ED visits and/or hospital admission within 1 year.


Cancers ◽  
2021 ◽  
Vol 13 (10) ◽  
pp. 2398
Author(s):  
Matteo Serenari ◽  
Enrico Prosperi ◽  
Marc-Antoine Allard ◽  
Michele Paterno ◽  
Nicolas Golse ◽  
...  

Hepatic resection (HR) for hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC) may require secondary liver transplantation (SLT). However, a previous HR is supposed to worsen post-SLT outcomes. Data of patients treated by SLT between 2000 and 2018 at two tertiary referral centers were analyzed. The primary outcome of the study was to analyze the impact of HR on post-LT complications. A Comprehensive Complication Index ≥ 29.6 was chosen as cutoff. The secondary outcome was HCC-related death by means of competing-risk regression analysis. In the study period, 140 patients were included. Patients were transplanted in a median of 23 months after HR (IQR 14–41). Among all the features analyzed regarding the prior HR, only time interval between HR and SLT (time HR-SLT) was an independent predictor of severe complications after LT (OR = 0.98, p < 0.001). According to fractional polynomial regression, the probability of severe complications increased up to 15 months after HR (43%), then slowly decreased over time (OR = 0.88, p < 0.001). There was no significant association between HCC-related death and time HR-SLT at the multivariable competing risks regression model (SHR, 1.06; 95% CI: 0.69–1.62, p = 0.796). This study showed that time HR-SLT was key in predicting complications after LT, without affecting HCC-related death.


Pain Medicine ◽  
2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Mona Hussein ◽  
Wael Fathy ◽  
Ragaey A Eid ◽  
Hoda M Abdel-Hamid ◽  
Ahmed Yehia ◽  
...  

Abstract Objectives Headache is considered one of the most frequent neurological manifestations of coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19). This work aimed to identify the relative frequency of COVID-19-related headache and to clarify the impact of clinical, laboratory findings of COVID-19 infection on headache occurrence and its response to analgesics. Design Cross-sectional study. Setting Recovered COVID-19 patients. Subjects In total, 782 patients with a confirmed diagnosis of COVID-19 infection. Methods Clinical, laboratory, and imaging data were obtained from the hospital medical records. Regarding patients who developed COVID-19 related headache, a trained neurologist performed an analysis of headache and its response to analgesics. Results The relative frequency of COVID-19 related headache among our sample was 55.1% with 95% confidence interval (CI) (.516–.586) for the estimated population prevalence. Female gender, malignancy, primary headache, fever, dehydration, lower levels of hemoglobin and platelets and higher levels of neutrophil/lymphocyte ratio (NLR) and CRP were significantly associated with COVID-19 related headache. Multivariate analysis revealed that female gender, fever, dehydration, primary headache, high NLR, and decreased platelet count were independent predictors of headache occurrence. By evaluating headache response to analgesics, old age, diabetes, hypertension, primary headache, severe COVID-19, steroid intake, higher CRP and ferritin and lower hemoglobin levels were associated with poor response to analgesics. Multivariate analysis revealed that primary headache, steroids intake, moderate and severe COVID-19 were independent predictors of non-response to analgesics. Discussion Headache occurs in 55.1% of patients with COVID-19. Female gender, fever, dehydration, primary headache, high NLR, and decreased platelet count are considered independent predictors of COVID-19 related headache.


Surgery ◽  
2003 ◽  
Vol 133 (2) ◽  
pp. 180-185 ◽  
Author(s):  
Oliver Thomusch ◽  
Andreas Machens ◽  
Carsten Sekulla ◽  
Jörg Ukkat ◽  
Michael Brauckhoff ◽  
...  

2021 ◽  
Vol 13 (11) ◽  
pp. 2103
Author(s):  
Yuchen Liu ◽  
Jia Liu ◽  
Chuanzhe Li ◽  
Fuliang Yu ◽  
Wei Wang

An attempt was made to evaluate the impact of assimilating Doppler Weather Radar (DWR) reflectivity together with Global Telecommunication System (GTS) data in the three-dimensional variational data assimilation (3DVAR) system of the Weather Research Forecast (WRF) model on rain storm prediction in Daqinghe basin of northern China. The aim of this study was to explore the potential effects of data assimilation frequency and to evaluate the outputs from different domain resolutions in improving the meso-scale NWP rainfall products. In this study, four numerical experiments (no assimilation, 1 and 6 h assimilation time interval with DWR and GTS at 1 km horizontal resolution, 6 h assimilation time interval with radar reflectivity, and GTS data at 3 km horizontal resolution) are carried out to evaluate the impact of data assimilation on prediction of convective rain storms. The results show that the assimilation of radar reflectivity and GTS data collectively enhanced the performance of the WRF-3DVAR system over the Beijing-Tianjin-Hebei region of northern China. It is indicated by the experimental results that the rapid update assimilation has a positive impact on the prediction of the location, tendency, and development of rain storms associated with the study area. In order to explore the influence of data assimilation in the outer domain on the output of the inner domain, the rainfall outputs of 3 and 1 km resolution are compared. The results show that the data assimilation in the outer domain has a positive effect on the output of the inner domain. Since the 3DVAR system is able to analyze certain small-scale and convective-scale features through the incorporation of radar observations, hourly assimilation time interval does not always significantly improve precipitation forecasts because of the inaccurate radar reflectivity observations. Therefore, before data assimilation, the validity of assimilation data should be judged as far as possible in advance, which can not only improve the prediction accuracy, but also improve the assimilation efficiency.


2021 ◽  
Vol 14 (3) ◽  
pp. 117
Author(s):  
Esmeralda Jushi ◽  
Eglantina Hysa ◽  
Arjona Cela ◽  
Mirela Panait ◽  
Marian Catalin Voica

The ultimate goal of central banks, worldwide, is to promote the foundations for sustainable economic growth. In the case of developing economies, in particular, such objective requires time, huge efforts, attention, and plenty of resources in order to be accomplished to the fullest degree. This paper thoroughly investigates key factors affecting Balkan countries’ economic development (as measured by gross domestic product (GDP) growth), focusing especially on the impact of remittances. The analysis was done over an 18-year time interval (2000–2017) and builds on 144 observations. The data figures were retrieved from the World Bank database while two dummies were created to test the impact of the last financial crisis (2008–2012). Econometric tools were employed to carry out a broad analysis on the interdependencies that exist and, in particular, to determine the role of remittance income on growth. The vector auto regressive model was estimated using EViews software, and was used to come up with relevant insights. Empirical findings suggest the following: population growth, remittances, and labor force participation are insignificant factors for sustainable growth. On the other hand, previous levels of GDP, trade, and foreign direct investments (FDIs) appear to be relevant for the predictor. This research provides up-to-date conclusions, which can be considered during the decision-making process of central banks, as well as by government policymakers.


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