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Humid tropical forests play a dominant role in the functioning of Earth but are under increasing threat from changes in land use and climate. How forest vulnerability varies across space and time and what level of stress forests can tolerate before facing a tipping point are poorly understood. Here, we develop a tropical forest vulnerability index (TFVI) to detect and evaluate the vulnerability of global tropical forests to threats across space and time. We show that climate change together with land-use change have slowed the recovery rate of forest carbon cycling. Temporal autocorrelation, as an indicator of this slow recovery, increases substantially for above-ground biomass, gross primary production, and evapotranspiration when climate stress reaches a critical level. Forests in the Americas exhibit extensive vulnerability to these stressors, while in Africa, forests show relative resilience to climate, and in Asia reveal more vulnerability to land use and fragmentation. TFVI can systematically track the response of tropical forests to multiple stressors and provide early-warning signals for regions undergoing critical transitions.

We have infected peripheral blood-derived monocyte/macrophage cultures with HIV-l in order to determine the effect of such infection on cellular immunoregulatory function. We have confirmed that monocytes/macrophages are susceptible to infection by HIV-l, as determined by in situ hybridization using a HIV- I -specific RNA probe and by the presence of reverse transcriptase activity in culture supernatants. The cells employed efficiently supported viral replication in the absence of significant cytopathic effect, and secreted as little as 20% of the amount of IL-l activity of uninfected controls in response to stimulation with either latex beads or lipopolysaccha ride. This effect was not observed when UV-inactivated HIV-I was used to infect the cells. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Granulosa cells are not easily accessible, unless they are examined in follicular fluid after oocyte retrieval. These samples are usually contaminated with blood. We have set up a general technique for analysis of granulosa cells without physically separating them from blood cells. The sample is stained with CD45, which is a pan-leukocyte marker, and granulosa cells are consecutively selected as CD45 negative during flow cytometric analysis. Analysis of forward scatter of the granulosa cells, which is correlated to cell size, shows a wide size range throughout the whole population rather than two distinct populations as previously suggested. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

Reinforcing thermoset polymers with continuous carbon fiber (CF) tow has emerged as a promising avenue to overcome the thermal and mechanical performance limitations of 3D printed polymeric structures for load-bearing applications. Unlike traditional methods, manufacturing continuous fiber-reinforced composites by 3D printing has the unique capability of locally varying the mechanical properties of the composites. In this study, continuous CF thermoset composite specimens were printed with varying line spacing, resin flow rate, and nozzle sizes. The resin flow rates for different line spacings and nozzle sizes were optimized by topographic analysis. Printed composite mechanical properties were evaluated, and their trends were correlated with the trend of print parameter changes. Results showed that tensile strength and modulus could be altered and improved by ~50% by adjusting the printing process parameters. Higher composite strength and modulus were obtained by shortening the line spacing and nozzle diameter.

Continuous carbon fiber-reinforced (CCFR) thermoset composites have received significant attention due to their excellent mechanical and thermal properties. The implementation of 3D printing introduces cost-effectiveness and design flexibility into their manufacturing processes. The light-assisted 3D printing process shows promise for manufacturing CCFR composites using low-viscosity thermoset resin, which would otherwise be unprintable. Because of the lack of shape-retaining capability, 3D printing of various shapes is challenging with low-viscosity thermoset resin. This study demonstrated an overshoot-associated algorithm for 3D printing various shapes using low-viscosity thermoset resin and continuous carbon fiber. Additionally, 3D-printed unidirectional composites were mechanically characterized. The printed specimen exhibited tensile strength of 390 ± 22 MPa and an interlaminar strength of 38 ± 1.7 MPa, with a fiber volume fraction of 15.7 ± 0.43%. Void analysis revealed that the printed specimen contained 5.5% overall voids. Moreover, the analysis showed the presence of numerous irregular cylindrical-shaped intra-tow voids, which governed the tensile properties. However, the inter-tow voids were small and spherical-shaped, governing the interlaminar shear strength. Therefore, the printed specimens showed exceptional interlaminar shear strength, and the tensile strength had the potential to increase further by improving the impregnation of polymer resin within the fiber.

Background Internal medicine residents frequently experience distressing clinical events; critical event debriefing is one tool to help mitigate their effects. Objective To evaluate the effectiveness of a 1-hour workshop teaching residents a novel, efficient approach to leading a team debrief after emotionally charged clinical events. Methods An internal needs assessment identified time and confidence as debriefing barriers. In response, we created the STREAM (Structured, Timely, Reflection, tEAM-based) framework, a 15-minute structured approach to leading a debrief. Senior residents participated in a 1-hour workshop on the first day of an inpatient medicine rotation to learn the STREAM framework. To evaluate learning outcomes, participants completed the same survey immediately before and after the session, and at the end of their 4-week rotation. Senior residents at another site who did not complete the workshop also evaluated their comfort leading debriefs. Results Fifty out of 65 senior residents (77%) participated in the workshop. After the workshop, participants felt more prepared to lead debriefs, learned a structured format for debriefing, and felt they had enough time to lead debriefs. Thirty-four of 50 (68%) workshop participants and 20 of 41 (49%) comparison residents completed the end-of-rotation survey. Senior residents who participated in the workshop were more likely than nonparticipants to report feeling prepared to lead debriefs. Conclusions A brief workshop is an effective method for teaching a framework for leading a team debrief.

Background: Higher education institutions face challenges in providing effective mental health services for diverse student needs. In the UK, discrepancies between healthcare and education service provision create barriers for students and require stronger alignment through partnerships., Objectives: This study aimed to identify risks, barriers and enablers to developing service partnerships between universities and the National Health Service (NHS) in England. It investigated existing partnerships and strategies that facilitate effective collaborative working., Design and Setting: A case study approach was employed, including coproduction and stakeholder involvement with staff and service users, to gather information from eight English universities developing regional student mental health hubs. This research received appropriate ethical approval., Participants: In total, 27 professional staff from counselling, mental health, disability and well-being services participated and represented their respective services., Outcome Measures: Descriptive information was collected from service websites, handbooks, reports and 11 focus groups using a standardised data collection template. Inter-rater reliability was used to determine the agreement between coders and finalise focus group themes. EQUATOR (Enhancing the QUAlity and Transparency Of health Research) Standards for Reporting Qualitative Research were adopted., Results: Using inductive thematic analysis, five themes were identified for developing partnerships: building blocks, facing barriers, achieving positive outcomes, shaping student services and developing coordinated care. Fleiss' kappa showed strong agreement between raters regarding the partnership factors ( k =0.84 (95% CI 0.81 to 0.87), p<0.0005). Effective communication, shared understanding and trust were essential. Barriers included restrictions to information sharing and incompatible data infrastructures between services., Conclusions: Stronger partnerships between universities and NHS are needed to meet increasing student mental health demands. Addressing barriers and implementing strategies to develop partnerships can enhance student services., Preregistration: https://osf.io/u54qk/., Competing Interests: Competing interests: None declared., (© Author(s) (or their employer(s)) 2023. Re-use permitted under CC BY-NC. No commercial re-use. See rights and permissions. Published by BMJ.)

Additive manufacturing (AM) is one of the fastest-growing manufacturing technologies in modern times. One of the major challenges in the application of 3D-printed polymeric objects is expanding the applications to structural components, as they are often limited by their mechanical and thermal properties. To enhance the mechanical properties of 3D-printed thermoset polymer objects, reinforcing the polymer with continuous carbon fiber (CF) tow is an expanding direction of research and development. A 3D printer was constructed capable of printing with a continuous CF-reinforced dual curable thermoset resin system. Mechanical performance of the 3D-printed composites varied with the utilization of different resin chemistries. Three different commercially available violet light curable resins were mixed with a thermal initiator to improve curing by overcoming the shadowing effect of violet light by the CF. The resulting specimens' compositions were analyzed, and then the specimens were mechanically characterized for comparison in tensile and flexural performance. The 3D-printed composites' compositions were correlated to the printing parameters and resin characteristics. Slight enhancements in tensile and flexural properties from some commercially available resins over others appeared to be the result of better wet-out and adhesion.

Adolescents (aged 12-14 years) from the United States (n = 539) and Japan (n = 644) completed surveys regarding tobacco use, perceptions of friend and peer smoking, and their own likelihood of using smoking refusal skills. U.S. youth were more likely to report lifetime or monthly tobacco use, whereas Japanese youth were more likely to smoke ≥20 cigarettes per week. High perceived friend and peer smoking prevalence predicted lifetime smoking, whereas direct refusal skill use (e.g., "saying no") predicted less lifetime tobacco use. Results are discussed in terms of cultural influences that may mediate the effect of risk factors on U.S. and Japanese youth.

Purpose: To investigate the relative efficacy of Japanese commercial soft contact lens disinfectant solutions against Acanthamoeba trophozoites and cysts., Materials and Methods: Eight types of multipurpose solution (MPS), two types of hydrogen peroxide solution, and one povidone-iodine solution were evaluated to determine their effect against Acanthamoeba trophozoites and cysts (ATCC 50514). Acanthamoeba cysts were cultured in encystment medium for either 1 or 2 weeks (1 and 2-week-old cysts). The trophozoites and cysts were treated with each disinfectant solution for 0, 2, 4, 8, or 24 h. After performing four tenfold serial dilutions of each test solution, dilutions were cultured for 10 days. The number of surviving organisms was calculated using the trimmed Spearman-Karber method., Results: Among the MPS tested, only four were effective against trophozoites after treatment for 4 h, and none was effective against 2-week-old cysts. Hydrogen peroxide had a significant effect on trophozoites and 1-week-old cysts, but not on 2-week-old cysts. In contrast, povidone-iodine caused a 2.6 log reduction in 2-week-old cysts., Conclusions: MPS were found to have limited efficacy against trophozoites and no efficacy against 2-week-old cysts. Only povidone-iodine had any efficacy against 2-week-old cysts.

A total of 79 hospice palliative care volunteers from 2 community-based hospice programs responded to a 27-item Boundary Issues Questionnaire that was specifically developed for this study. Volunteers were asked to indicate whether or not they considered each item (eg, "Lend personal belongings to a patient or family," "Agree to be a patient's power of attorney," "Attend/go into a patient's medical appointment") to be something they should not do and to indicate whether or not they have ever done it. On the basis of the volunteers' responses, the authors distinguished between "definite boundary issues" (things volunteers should never do, for example, "Accept money from a patient or family"), "potential boundary issues" (things volunteers should stop and think twice about doing, for example, "Accept a gift from a patient or family"), and "questionable boundary issues" (things volunteers should be aware of doing, for example, "Give your home phone number to a patient or family"). The implications of these findings for training volunteers are discussed and the need for clear and unambiguous organizational policies and procedures to preserve boundaries is stressed. Without clear policies, etc, community-based hospice programs may be putting themselves at legal risk.

Hazard Analysis and Critical Control Points (HACCP) systems are a risk based preventive approach developed to increase levels of food safety assurance. This is part 1 of a pilot study on the development, implementation and evaluation of a HACCP-based approach for the control of good udder health in dairy cows. The paper describes the use of a novel approach based on a deconstruction of the infectious process in mastitis to identify Critical Control Points (CCPs) and develop a HACCP-based system to prevent and control mastitis in dairy herds. The approach involved the creation of an Infectious Process Flow Diagram, which was then cross-referenced to two production process flow diagrams of the milking process and cow management cycle. The HACCP plan developed, may be suitable for customisation and implementation on dairy farms. This is a logical, systematic approach to the development of a mastitis control programme that could be used as a template for the development of control programmes for other infectious diseases in the dairy herd.

Part 1 of the study described the development of a Hazard Analysis and Critical Control Point (HACCP) based programme and accompanying handbook for the control of mastitis. This paper describes the implementation and evaluation of customised HACCP-based programmes, which were developed from the handbook and assessed on six Irish dairy farms. Both quantitative and qualitative (action research) research methodologies were used to measure the success of implementation and efficacy of control of sub-clinical mastitis as measured by Somatic Cell Counts (SCC) and the degree of compliance by farmers in adopting and maintaining recommendations throughout the course of the study period. No overall differences in SCC before and during the implementation of the study were found when all six farms were considered together. Three of the six study farms experienced a significant decrease in herd milk recorded SCC during the implementation of the control programme. An essential part of the study was achieving initial agreement on recommendations as well as ongoing monitoring of compliance during the study. This pilot study shows that HACCP can be implemented on farms as a means of working towards the control of mastitis and that farmer attitude, and understanding of mastitis are crucial in terms of motivation irrespective of practical approaches used to manage mastitis.

Purpose: Cosmetic product application may be an etiologic risk factor for dry eye syndrome. This study aimed to investigate whether a cosmetic product material (CPM) could migrate onto the ocular surface and whether eyedrop instillation might exacerbate this migration., Methods: CPM was prepared by mixing equal volumes of hydroxyethyl cellulose gel (Scopisol; Senju Pharmaceutical Co. Ltd., Osaka, Japan) and a 10% fluorescein solution. Seventy-five female volunteers were randomly separated into three groups: the outer eyelash line group, in which CPM was applied on the upper and lower eyelids approximately 2 mm from the eyelash line; the eyelash line (EL) group, in which CPM was applied close to the eyelash line but without touching it; and the inner eyelash line group, in which CPM was applied on the eyelash line extending to the margin of the eyelids. The right eye was used for this study. At 5 and 30 minutes after CPM application, slit-lamp examination was carried out to detect fluorescence, an indication of CPM migration and contamination of the ocular surface. A strip of Schirmer test paper was used to collect tears, and the color of the paper was scored (contamination score: 0-5) to determine the relative quantity of CPM contamination on the ocular surface. In another set of experiments, 5 minutes after CPM application, one drop of balanced saline solution was instilled into the eye. Thirty seconds later, eyes were examined by slit-lamp microscopy and tears were collected to determine the migration percentage (eyes with CPM migration/total eyes) and contamination score., Results: At 5 minutes after CPM application, the inner eyelash line group displayed a significantly higher migration percentage (96%) and average contamination score (3.35 ± 0.77) compared with the outer eyelash line (12%; 0.15 ± 0.34) and EL (20%; 0.35 ± 0.32) groups. At 30 minutes, both the migration percentage and the average contamination score increased remarkably in the EL group (60% and 2.71 ± 1.01). The migration percentage and average contamination score in the outer eyelash line group (P = 0.005 and P = 0.003, respectively) and EL group (P = 0.009 and P = 0.006, respectively) were significantly higher after eyedrop instillation compared with values before eyedrop instillation., Conclusion: CPM can migrate onto the ocular surface when applied close to the eyelid margin. This migration increases with time and can be exacerbated by eyedrop instillation.

The interaction of cells with the extracellular matrix regulates cell shape, motility, growth, survival, differentiation and gene expression, through integrin-mediated signal transduction. We used a two-hybrid screen to isolate genes encoding proteins that interact with the beta 1-integrin cytoplasmic domain. The most frequently isolated complementary DNA encoded a new, 59K serine/threonine protein kinase, containing four ankyrin-like repeats. We report here that this integrin-linked kinase (ILK) phosphorylated a beta 1-integrin cytoplasmic domain peptide in vitro and coimmunoprecipitated with beta 1 in lysates of mammalian cells. Endogenous ILK kinase activity was reduced in response to fibronectin. Overexpression of p59ILK disrupted epithelial cell architecture and inhibited adhesion to integrin substrates, while inducing anchorage-independent growth. We propose that ILK is a receptor-proximal protein kinase regulating integrin-mediated signal transduction.

There is much interest in staphylococcal enterotoxins as T cell mitogens in humans, mice and rabbits. Rat spleen cells were shown to proliferate in response to staphylococcal enterotoxins A and B and toxic shock syndrome toxin-1 at concentrations (5 to 500 ng ml-1) which also stimulate mouse spleen cells. The proliferative response to all these enterotoxins was inhibited by cyclosporin A, indicating the response to be predominantly that of T cells. These results indicate that the rat provides another convenient model for the analysis of T cell responses to enterotoxins.

Transforming growth factor-beta is likely to be an important factor controlling placental activities, including growth, differentiation, invasiveness, hormone production, and immunosuppression. We have used a chemical cross-linking technique with either 125I-TGF-beta 1 or 125I-TGF-beta 2 and bis(sulfosuccinimidyl) suberate (BS3) to characterize TGF-beta binding components on human placental cells in primary culture. Trophoblast-enriched primary cultures exhibited a predominant affinity-labelled complex characteristic of membrane-anchored betaglycan (formerly termed the Type III TGF-beta receptor) and relatively low levels of the Type I and Type II TGF-beta receptor complexes. The results from affinity labelling saturation and competition experiments with TGF-beta 1 and TGF-beta 2 suggest the existence of two distinct subtypes of betaglycan: one subtype has a lower capacity and higher affinity, binds both TGF-beta 1 and TGF-beta 2, yet has a preferential affinity for TGF-beta 2; the second subtype has a higher capacity and lower affinity and binds TGF-beta 1 exclusively. In contrast, mesenchymal cell-enriched placental primary cultures possessed only one subtype of the betaglycan component that binds the two TGF-beta isoforms with similar affinities and capacities as observed on most cell lines. These experiments demonstrate that the betaglycan component which exhibits a higher affinity for TGF-beta 2 than for TGF-beta 1, that we had observed previously on term placental membranes, is actually present on trophoblast cells. In addition to the two distinctive betaglycan subtypes, subtypes of the Type I and II TGF-beta receptors were detected on the trophoblast-enriched cultures. In competition experiments, when 125I-TGF-beta 1 was used as the radiotracer, the Type I and II TGF-beta receptors show a much higher affinity for TGF-beta 1 than for TGF-beta 2, as observed with other cell types. However, when 125I-TGF-beta 2 was used, low abundance subtypes of both the Type I and II receptors that show similar affinities for TGF-beta 1 and TGF-beta 2 were also revealed.

The majority of cells of the human leukaemic line HL60 appear to be promyelocytes which can be stimulated to mature into functioning neutrophils. We report here the derivation of stable subclones from the parent line which differ. Two forms of variant were obtained: (1) those with a defined lesion, selected by resistance to kill by 6-thioguanine, which matured in the presence of DMSO and retinoic acid but not in hypoxanthine. They also continued to express peroxidase and a major granulocyte antigen, and (2) those obtained by clonal growth in DMSO which did not mature in the presence of any compound tested including hypoxanthine, DMSO, retinoic acid and actinomycin D and lacked granules, peroxidase and the granulocyte antigen. The concurrent loss of the characteristic of maturability and the phenotype of myeloid commitment suggests that the control of the two phenomena may be related. These variant cell lines provide a useful model in which to study how human leukaemic cells may become arrested in less differentiated stages of development.

Maturation of normal polymorphonuclear neutrophils is characterized by successive periods of granule synthesis, a process which frequently is abnormal in leukemia. Recently, the human leukemic cell line HL60, displaying a promyelocytic phenotype, has been used to study granulocyte maturation. We describe a variant line of HL60, called HL60-A7, resulting from growth in actinomycin D, which contains atypical large azurophilic granules deficient in myeloperoxidase. The products of in-vitro translation of A7 RNA contained less than 5% of the immunoreactive MPO found in the parent line. Electrophoresis of plasma membrane polypeptides radioiodinated by the lactoperoxidase technique revealed several differences. Karyotypic analysis identified a consistent chromosome 1q+ abnormality which was not found in any of the parental cells examined. This constellation of differences between HL60 and HL60-A7, i.e. MPO deficiency, abnormal granule morphology, cell surface changes, and further cytogenetic abnormalities, may point to a common site sensitive to altered regulation in some leukemic promyelocytes.

We have assessed the ability of HIV to infect cultures of peripheral blood lymphocytes derived from different healthy donors, varying in age between 20 and 76. The results indicate that cells from all of these people can be infected, although the percentage of infected cells varied from case to case. A similar variation was observed when attempts were made to infect cells from the same donor on more than one occasion. In most cases, infection by HIV led to persistence of an activated cell state, as indicated by the presence of Tac Ag or IL-2 receptor, at the cell surface. Co-incubation of HIV-infected lymphocytes with uninfected cells did not affect the ability of the latter either to respond to phytohaemagglutinin (PHA) or to express Tac Ag.

Over a period of six months, we have followed a total of six different EBV-transformed B cell lines, each of which has been infected by the human immunodeficiency virus (HIV-1). The results indicate that all of these lines were initially able to produce progeny HIV-1, but that over time three of them ceased to produce infectious virus and two lines failed to elaborate significant levels of reverse transcriptase activity into the medium. We further found that two of the latter cell lines continued to express the viral antigens p17, p24 and/or gp41, as determined by indirect immunofluorescence assay, at times after progeny HIV-1 could no longer be detected. Those cell lines which continued to secrete progeny HIV-1 did so intermittently with large amounts of virus production on some days but not others. We further found that treatment of such cells with 3' azido-3'-deoxythymidine (AZT) completely inhibited production of progeny HIV-1.