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Marine Drugs Nov 2021While complex lipids of seaweeds are known to display important phytochemical properties, their full potential is yet to be explored. This review summarizes the findings...
While complex lipids of seaweeds are known to display important phytochemical properties, their full potential is yet to be explored. This review summarizes the findings of a systematic survey of scientific publications spanning over the years 2000 to January 2021 retrieved from Web of Science (WoS) and Scopus databases to map the state of the art and identify knowledge gaps on the relationship between the complex lipids of seaweeds and their reported bioactivities. Eligible publications (270 in total) were classified in five categories according to the type of studies using seaweeds as raw biomass (category 1); studies using organic extracts (category 2); studies using organic extracts with identified complex lipids (category 3); studies of extracts enriched in isolated groups or classes of complex lipids (category 4); and studies of isolated complex lipids molecular species (category 5), organized by seaweed phyla and reported bioactivities. Studies that identified the molecular composition of these bioactive compounds in detail (29 in total) were selected and described according to their bioactivities (antitumor, anti-inflammatory, antimicrobial, and others). Overall, to date, the value for seaweeds in terms of health and wellness effects were found to be mostly based on empirical knowledge. Although lipids from seaweeds are little explored, the published work showed the potential of lipid extracts, fractions, and complex lipids from seaweeds as functional ingredients for the food and feed, cosmeceutical, and pharmaceutical industries. This knowledge will boost the use of the chemical diversity of seaweeds for innovative value-added products and new biotechnological applications.
Topics: Animals; Anti-Inflammatory Agents; Aquatic Organisms; Lipids; Seaweed; Structure-Activity Relationship
PubMed: 34940685
DOI: 10.3390/md19120686 -
Biology Letters Jan 2019Soil oxygen availability may influence blue carbon, which is carbon stored in coastal wetlands, by controlling the decomposition of soil organic matter. We are beginning...
Soil oxygen availability may influence blue carbon, which is carbon stored in coastal wetlands, by controlling the decomposition of soil organic matter. We are beginning to quantify soil oxygen availability in wetlands, but we lack a precise understanding of how oxygen controls soil carbon dynamics. In this paper, we synthesize existing data from oxic and anoxic wetland soil incubations to determine how oxygen controls carbon mineralization. We define the oxygen sensitivity of carbon mineralization as the ratio of carbon mineralization rate in oxic soil to this rate in anoxic soil, such that higher values of this ratio indicate greater sensitivity of carbon mineralization to oxygen. The estimates of oxygen sensitivity we derived from existing literature show a wide range of ratios, from 0.8 to 33, across wetlands. We then report oxygen sensitivities from an experimental mesocosm we developed to manipulate soil oxygen status in realistic soils. The variation in oxygen sensitivity we uncover from this systematic review and experiment indicates that Earth system models may misrepresent the oxygen sensitivity of carbon mineralization, and how it varies with context, in wetland soils. We suggest that altered soil oxygen availability could be an important driver of future blue carbon storage in coastal wetlands.
Topics: Carbon; Oxygen; Soil; Wetlands
PubMed: 30958210
DOI: 10.1098/rsbl.2018.0407 -
Frontiers in Psychology 2021Identifying the preferred place of death is a key indicator of the quality of death in cancer patients and one of the most important issues for health service...
Identifying the preferred place of death is a key indicator of the quality of death in cancer patients and one of the most important issues for health service policymakers. This study was done to determine the preferred place of death and the factors affecting it for adult patients with cancer. In this systematic review and meta-analysis study four online databases (PubMed, Scopus, web of science, ProQuest) were searched by relevant keywords. Quality assessment of papers was conducted using Newcastle-Ottawa (NOS) criterion. Odds ratios, relative risks, and 95% confidence intervals were determined for each of the factors extracted from the investigations. A total of 14,920 participants of 27 studies were included into the meta-analysis. Based on the results, 55% of cancer patients with a confidence interval [95% CI (41-49)] preferred home, 17% of patients with a confidence interval [95% CI (-12%) 23)] preferred hospital and 10% of patients with confidence interval [95% CI (13-18)] preferred hospices as their favored place to die. Effective factors were also reported in the form of demographic characteristics, disease-related factors and psychosocial factors. This study showed that more than half of cancer patients chose home as their preferred place of death. Therefore, guided policies need to ensure that the death of the patients in the preferred place should be considered with priority. https://www.crd.york.ac.uk/prospero/display_record.php?ID=CRD42020218680, identifier: CRD42020218680.
PubMed: 34512460
DOI: 10.3389/fpsyg.2021.704590 -
PeerJ 2023Evidence of male-male courtship display is widespread across the animal kingdom. Yet, its function and evolutionary origin remain unclear. Here, we hypothesise that...
BACKGROUND
Evidence of male-male courtship display is widespread across the animal kingdom. Yet, its function and evolutionary origin remain unclear. Here, we hypothesise that male-male courtship display evolved in response to selection pressure exerted by intrasexual competition during male-female courtship interactions. Intrasexual competition can be caused by bystander male pressure through eavesdropping and exploiting on displayer male's courtship interactions with females. This bystander pressure can lead to an audience effect by the displayer, who will change their courtship behaviour in the presence of bystanders and display directly towards them, even in the absence of females, as an intimidation strategy. In species where this selection pressure has taken place, we predict that the male courtship display will have a dual function: attract females and deter competitors. Therefore, we expected to find more evidence of bystander-related behaviours in species for which male-male courtship display is linked to intrasexual competition compared to species for which other explanatory hypotheses are more plausible (., mistaken identity or courtship practice).
METHODOLOGY
We conducted two systematic reviews to test this hypothesis. First, we conducted a search for studies of species with courtship display between males and of the hypotheses provided to explain this behaviour. Our goal was to identify the species with male-male courtship display and evidence of intrasexual competition. Second, among the species with male-male courtship display, we searched for evidence of bystander-related behaviours, ., articles referring to eavesdropping, exploitation, and audience effect during male-female courtship interactions. Our goal was to test whether species with intrasexual competition are also more likely to show bystander-related behaviours.
RESULTS
Although most studies reporting male courtship display towards other males do not suggest any explanatory hypothesis for this behaviour, the intrasexual competition hypothesis was largely mentioned and supported by some studies reviewed. Additionally, there is more evidence of eavesdropping and of all three bystander-related behaviours combined in species for which the intrasexual competition hypothesis was suggested.
CONCLUSIONS
Overall, our review supports the hypothesis that intrasexual competition can play a key role in male courtship display evolution, namely that male-male courtship display may have evolved as a secondary function of male-female courtship interactions bystander male pressure. However, our review also shows that despite the increasing interest in same-sex sexual behaviours, and male-male courtship display in particular, most studies were found to be merely descriptive, and the hypotheses they suggested to explain courtship display between males mostly speculative. This highlights an important gap in the literature. To clarify both the evolution and the function of male-male courtship display, this behaviour needs to be empirically studied more often. Our review can help advancing this research area, as it makes the 20 species with male-male courtship display for which the intrasexual competition hypothesis was suggested excellent candidates for empirical research.
Topics: Animals; Female; Male; Courtship; Sexual Behavior, Animal
PubMed: 36751481
DOI: 10.7717/peerj.14638 -
Toxins Jun 2024Mycotoxins, toxic secondary metabolites produced by certain fungi, pose significant threats to global food safety and public health. These compounds can contaminate a... (Review)
Review
Mycotoxins, toxic secondary metabolites produced by certain fungi, pose significant threats to global food safety and public health. These compounds can contaminate a variety of crops, leading to economic losses and health risks to both humans and animals. Traditional lab analysis methods for mycotoxin detection can be time-consuming and may not always be suitable for large-scale screenings. However, in recent years, machine learning (ML) methods have gained popularity for use in the detection of mycotoxins and in the food safety industry in general due to their accurate and timely predictions. We provide a systematic review on some of the recent ML applications for detecting/predicting the presence of mycotoxin on a variety of food ingredients, highlighting their advantages, challenges, and potential for future advancements. We address the need for reproducibility and transparency in ML research through open access to data and code. An observation from our findings is the frequent lack of detailed reporting on hyperparameters in many studies and a lack of open source code, which raises concerns about the reproducibility and optimisation of the ML models used. The findings reveal that while the majority of studies predominantly utilised neural networks for mycotoxin detection, there was a notable diversity in the types of neural network architectures employed, with convolutional neural networks being the most popular.
Topics: Mycotoxins; Machine Learning; Food Contamination; Animals; Humans; Neural Networks, Computer
PubMed: 38922162
DOI: 10.3390/toxins16060268 -
PLoS Neglected Tropical Diseases Jun 2019In 2015, Singapore had the first and only reported foodborne outbreak of invasive disease caused by the group B Streptococcus (GBS; Streptococcus agalactiae). Disease,...
One hypervirulent clone, sequence type 283, accounts for a large proportion of invasive Streptococcus agalactiae isolated from humans and diseased tilapia in Southeast Asia.
BACKGROUND
In 2015, Singapore had the first and only reported foodborne outbreak of invasive disease caused by the group B Streptococcus (GBS; Streptococcus agalactiae). Disease, predominantly septic arthritis and meningitis, was associated with sequence type (ST)283, acquired from eating raw farmed freshwater fish. Although GBS sepsis is well-described in neonates and older adults with co-morbidities, this outbreak affected non-pregnant and younger adults with fewer co-morbidities, suggesting greater virulence. Before 2015 ST283 had only been reported from twenty humans in Hong Kong and two in France, and from one fish in Thailand. We hypothesised that ST283 was causing region-wide infection in Southeast Asia.
METHODOLOGY/PRINCIPAL FINDINGS
We performed a literature review, whole genome sequencing on 145 GBS isolates collected from six Southeast Asian countries, and phylogenetic analysis on 7,468 GBS sequences including 227 variants of ST283 from humans and animals. Although almost absent outside Asia, ST283 was found in all invasive Asian collections analysed, from 1995 to 2017. It accounted for 29/38 (76%) human isolates in Lao PDR, 102/139 (73%) in Thailand, 4/13 (31%) in Vietnam, and 167/739 (23%) in Singapore. ST283 and its variants were found in 62/62 (100%) tilapia from 14 outbreak sites in Malaysia and Vietnam, in seven fish species in Singapore markets, and a diseased frog in China.
CONCLUSIONS
GBS ST283 is widespread in Southeast Asia, where it accounts for a large proportion of bacteraemic GBS, and causes disease and economic loss in aquaculture. If human ST283 is fishborne, as in the Singapore outbreak, then GBS sepsis in Thailand and Lao PDR is predominantly a foodborne disease. However, whether transmission is from aquaculture to humans, or vice versa, or involves an unidentified reservoir remains unknown. Creation of cross-border collaborations in human and animal health are needed to complete the epidemiological picture.
Topics: Adolescent; Adult; Aged; Aged, 80 and over; Animals; Asia, Southeastern; Child; Child, Preschool; Female; Fish Diseases; Foodborne Diseases; Genotype; Humans; Infant; Infant, Newborn; Male; Middle Aged; Molecular Epidemiology; Multilocus Sequence Typing; Phylogeny; Pregnancy; Streptococcal Infections; Streptococcus agalactiae; Tilapia; Whole Genome Sequencing; Young Adult
PubMed: 31246981
DOI: 10.1371/journal.pntd.0007421 -
Environmental Toxicology and... Apr 2023Since the late 70s, the continuous pharmaceuticals` input into the environment has raised concerns regarding the eventual risk posed by such compounds to human and...
Since the late 70s, the continuous pharmaceuticals` input into the environment has raised concerns regarding the eventual risk posed by such compounds to human and environmental health. A major group of pharmaceuticals in terms of environmental impact are the antineoplastic agents (AAs). Herein, we followed a systematic review method to retrieve antineoplastic agents (AAs') ecotoxicological information regarding freshwater species. In this analysis, data from diverse taxonomic groups, from microorganisms to vertebrate species, looked at different levels of biological organization, including cell lines. Furthermore, this review gathers ecotoxicological parameters (EC and LC) for imatinib (IM), cisplatin (CisPt), and 5-fluorouracil (5-FU) in species sensitivity distribution (SSD) curves and estimates the hazard concentration (HC) considering the protection of 95% of the ecological community. Lastly, we suggest how we can improve AAs' Environmental Risk Assessment (ERA), considering potential adoptable toxicity endpoints, test duration, AAs metabolites testing, and AAs mixture exposure.
Topics: Humans; Antineoplastic Agents; Imatinib Mesylate; Aquatic Organisms; Fluorouracil; Fresh Water; Pharmaceutical Preparations; Water Pollutants, Chemical; Risk Assessment
PubMed: 36921700
DOI: 10.1016/j.etap.2023.104109 -
Marine Environmental Research Oct 2018A systematic review of scientific papers on the potential impacts of climate-driven environmental changes on tuna and billfish in the Gulf of Mexico (GOM) was conducted...
A systematic review of scientific papers on the potential impacts of climate-driven environmental changes on tuna and billfish in the Gulf of Mexico (GOM) was conducted to identify the climate-driven pressures and their associated potential impacts on the reproductive success and survival of tuna and billfish, and which of those impacts may have more relevance for their management and conservation in the GOM by 2050. An Impact Screening Analysis (ISA) was developed to evaluate the potential climate impacts discovered in the literature synthesis by assessing each impact against four criteria, and assigning it a ranking based on likelihood of occurrence (High, Medium, or Low). Results show three types of climate-driven pressures within the High ranking: increased water temperature; changes in ocean circulation and eddy kinetic energy; and changes in storm and wind patterns. Our findings provide valuable information to advance our understanding of key climate-driven physico-chemical processes that can impact the biology of tuna and billfish in the GOM, and enhance conservation and management of these species.
Topics: Animals; Climate Change; Gulf of Mexico; Population Dynamics; Reproduction; Tuna
PubMed: 30077344
DOI: 10.1016/j.marenvres.2018.07.017