THE IMPORTANCE OF TAXONOMY ON BASE SCIENCE

Although species identification is a central component on Biological Sciences, misidentifications are quite common generating error cascade effects on other environmental studies, resulting on erroneous population estimates, status, trends, and distribution data. One of the main causes of these errors occurs when dealing with damaged material, immature specimens, sexual dimorphism, intraspecific variation, and species with poor or outdated descriptions. Furthermore, usually there is no material retained as voucher of the specimens studied in scientific collections, hindering confirmation the identified species, in morphoanatomical and genetic scope. Even with this reliance on species identification taxonomy has been in decline for many years. In this study, we present the case study of the crustaceans identified for the Minho River estuary (NW Iberian Peninsula), using a taxonomic approach comparing these results with the biological surveys obtained through various ecology studies performed for 4 decades. A total of 64 species of crustaceans were identified within this study, in which 44 were new records for the Minho River estuary, compared to the 25 species identified on the biological surveys analyzed. Being one of the first studies of this nature in the Minho River, the main objective will be to provide taxonomic support in future projects in this area, contributing to the knowledge of the fauna of Portugal and the Iberian Peninsula.

Why would you buy an electric car on Jetski Friday? Or, a critique of financial markets from an options trading room

This article presents a close, dialogue-based ethnographic account of a group of contemporary options market makers making a decision about pricing options in Tesla, Inc. Careful attention to their deliberations reveals how the rise of algorithms and automation on financial markets have rendered traders alienated and estranged from the markets they work on for their livelihood. This alienation arises, in part, due to novel cascade effects between futures and underlying equities, which algorithmic and automated trading seems to afford, and which also relate to news events as well as the actions of politicians and prominent business people. Emerging from this alienation, traders produce a critique of how highly automated financial markets allocate capital and how ripe they are for political manipulation.

Black oesophagus, upside-down stomach and cameron lesions: cascade effects of a large hiatal hernia

Acute oesophageal necrosis, black oesophagus (BE) or Gurvits syndrome (GS) is a rare form of severe oesophagitis appearing as a striking circumferential discolouration of distal mucosa with various proximal extensions abruptly terminating at the gastro-oesophageal junction. It is most commonly associated with acute exacerbations of medical comorbidities, while associations with altered gut anatomy are rare. We present a unique constellation of BE, Cameron ulcers (CU), and gastric volvulus from a large paraesophageal hiatal hernia. Our patient recently recovered from COVID-19 and was malnourished and frail, while the expanding paraesophageal hiatal hernia turned into an acute organoaxial gastric volvulus with accompanying outlet obstruction. In low-flow post-COVID coagulopathic states, compensatory mechanisms may lack against gastric stunning and sudden massive reflux on the oesophagus. We additionally performed a systematic review and discovered additional cases with coexistent volvulus and paraesophageal hernia, although there are no previous reports of BE with CU, which makes this study the first.

Parenting Styles, Depressive Symptoms, and Problematic Online Game Use in Adolescents: A Developmental Cascades Model

Abundant empirical research has demonstrated the relationship between parenting style and adolescent problematic online game use (POGU), but the direction and underlying mechanism of this association remain unclear. Using a 1-year longitudinal design across three time points, the present study explored interrelations among parenting styles, depressive symptoms, and POGU from the theoretical perspective of the developmental cascade model and examined whether depressive symptoms mediate the relationship between parenting style and POGU. A sample of 1,041 children was recruited from two junior middle schools in China, of which 46.3% were boys. Results confirmed the cascade effects and showed that the reciprocal effect of parenting style, depressive symptoms, and POGU was significant, and parental control and POGU can predict each other via depressive symptoms. Knowledge regarding the direct and underlying mechanisms between parenting style, depressive symptoms, and POGU provides reference suggestions for the prevention and intervention of adolescent depressive symptoms and problematic online game use.

COVID-19 Vaccination and Healthcare Demand

One of the driving concerns during any epidemic is the strain on the healthcare system. As we have seen many times over the globe with the COVID-19 pandemic, hospitals and ICUs can quickly become overwhelmed by cases. While strict periods of public health mitigation have certainly helped decrease incidence and thus healthcare demand, vaccination is the only clear long-term solution. In this paper, we develop a two-module model to forecast the effects of relaxation of non-pharmaceutical intervention and vaccine uptake on daily incidence, and the cascade effects on healthcare demand. The first module is a simple epidemiological model which incorporates non-pharmaceutical intervention, the relaxation of such measures and vaccination campaigns to predict caseloads into the the Fall of 2021. This module is then fed into a healthcare module which can forecast the number of doctor visits, the number of occupied hospital beds, number of occupied ICU beds and any excess demand of these. From this module we can also estimate the length of stay of individuals in ICU. For model verification and forecasting, we use the four most populous Canadian provinces as a case study.

Liposomes-based nanoplatform enlarges ultrasound-related diagnostic and therapeutic precision

: Ultrasound (US) is notable in the medical field as a safe and effective imaging modality due to its lack of ionizing radiation, non-invasive approach, and real-time monitoring capability. Accompanying recent progress in nanomedicine, US has been providing hope of theranostic capability not only for imaging-based diagnosis but also for US-based therapy by taking advantage of the bioeffects induced by US. Cavitation, sonoporation, thermal effects, and other cascade effects stimulated by acoustic energy conversion have contributed to medical problem-solving in the past decades although to varying degrees of efficacy in comparisons to other methods. Recently, the usage of liposomes-based nanoplatform fuels the development of nanomedicine and provides novel clinical strategies for antitumor, thrombolysis, and controlled drug release. Merging of novel liposome-based nanoplatforms and US-induced reactions has promise for a new blueprint for future medicine. In the present review article, the value of liposome-based nanoplatforms in US-related diagnosis and therapy will be discussed and summarized along with potential future directions for further investigations.

The carP lncRNA Is a carS-Related Regulatory Element with Broad Effects on the Fusarium fujikuroi Transcriptome

Carotenoid biosynthesis in the fungus Fusarium fujikuroi is regulated by environmental factors, with light being the main stimulating signal. The CarS RING-finger protein plays an important role in the downregulation of structural genes of the carotenoid pathway. A recent transcriptomic analysis on the effect of carS mutation identified a gene for a long non-coding RNA (lncRNA) upstream of carS, called carP, the deletion of which results in increased carS mRNA levels and lack of carotenoid production. We have investigated the function of carP by studying the transcriptomic effect of its deletion and the phenotypes resulting from the reintroduction of carP to a deletion strain. The RNA-seq data showed that the loss of carP affected the mRNA levels of hundreds of genes, especially after illumination. Many of these changes appeared to be cascade effects as a result of changes in carS expression, as suggested by the comparison with differentially expressed genes in a carS mutant. Carotenoid production only recovered when carP was integrated upstream of carS, but not at other genomic locations, indicating a cis-acting mechanism on carS. However, some genes hardly affected by CarS were strongly upregulated in the carP mutant, indicating that carP may have other regulatory functions as an independent regulatory element.

An Improved Decision Support Method for Resilience Assessment Based on Multi-Viewpoint Modeling and Functional Analysis of Interconnected Systems

Critical infrastructures provide services that are essential to the functioning and well-being of society. Failure to provide these services is unacceptable. This is a problem when considering the unpredictable nature of the environment (leading to crisis, natural disasters, terrorist attacks) and internal failures. The concern is even greater due to the interconnected and interdependent nature of critical infrastructures, which might lead to failure propagation, causing domino and cascade effects. The resilience of a system is the ability to reduce the magnitude and/or duration of disruptive events or their consequences, allowing a satisfactory level of performance and quality of services. Improving critical infrastructures' resilience before any disruption occurs can reassure society's vital needs. The goal of the paper is to define an improved decision support method for resilience by combining resilience assessment and multi-viewpoint modeling methods.

Exploring physicians and patients’ perspectives for current interventions on thyroid nodules using a MCDA method

Background The detection of thyroid cancer has rapidly increased over last few decades without an increase in disease specific mortality. Several studies claim that the diagnose of thyroid nodules through routine ultrasound imaging is often the trigger for cascade effects leading to unnecessary follow-up over many years or to invasive treatment. The objective of this study was to explore physicians’ and patients’ insights and preferences regarding the current interventions on thyroid nodules. Methods An online survey was developed using a comprehensive multi-criteria decision analysis (MCDA) framework, the EVIdence based Decision-Making (EVIDEM). The EVIDEM core model used in this study encompassed 13 quantitative criteria and four qualitative criteria. Participants were asked to provide weights referring to what matters most important in general for each criterion, performance scores for appraising the interventions on thyroid nodules and their consideration of impact of contextual criteria. Normalized weights and standardized scores were combined to calculate a value contribution across all participants, additionally differences across physicians and patients’ group were explored. Results 48 patients and 31 physicians were included in the analysis. The value estimate of the interventions on thyroid nodules reached 0.549 for patients’ group and 0.5 was reported by the physicians’ group, compared to 0.543 for all participants. The highest value contributor was ‘Comparative effectiveness’ (0.073 ± 0.020). For the physicians’ group, ‘Comparative safety’ (0.050 ± 0.023) was given with higher value. And for the patients’ group, ‘Type of preventive benefits’ (0.059 ± 0.022) contributed more positively to the value estimation. 51% participants considered ‘Population priorities and access’ having a negative impact on the interventions of nodules.66% participants thought that the ‘system capacity’ had a negative impact. Conclusion Our study shows participants’ preferences on each criterion, i.e., physician indicated keeping the interventions safe and effective more important, patients indicated quality of life after receiving interventions more important. Through comparison among participants, differences have been highlighted, which can make better communication between physicians and patients. This study provides a supportive decision-making for healthcare providers when they explored the interventions on thyroid nodules.

Incorporating Cascade Effects of Genetic Testing in Economic Evaluation: A Scoping Review of Methodological Challenges

Cascade genetic testing is indicated for family members of individuals testing positive on a genetic test, and is particularly relevant for child health because of their vulnerability and the long-term health and economic implications. Cascade testing has patient- and health system-level implications; however cascade costs and health effects are not routinely considered in economic evaluation. The methodological challenges associated with incorporating cascade effects in economic evaluation require examination. The purpose of this scoping review was to identify published economic evaluations that considered cascade genetic testing. Citation databases were searched for English-language economic evaluations reporting on cascade genetic testing. Nineteen publications were included. In four, genetic testing was used to identify new index patients—cascade effects were also considered; thirteen assessed cascade genetic testing strategies for the identification of at-risk relatives; and two calculated the costs of cascade genetic testing as a secondary objective. Methodological challenges associated with incorporating cascade effects in economic evaluation are related to study design, costing, measurement and valuation of health outcomes, and modeling. As health economic studies may currently be underestimating both the cost and health benefits attributable to genetic technologies through omission of cascade effects, development of methods to address these difficulties is required.