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In den letzten Jahren hat Radiomics die klinische Beurteilung von Tumoren revolutioniert. Durch das Extrahieren von quantitativen Merkmalen aus medizinischen Bildern bietet dieser Ansatz eine objektive Analyse von Tumorgewebe, was letztlich medizinischen Expertinnen und Experten bei Entscheidungsfindungsprozessen in Bezug auf Diagnose und Behandlung hilft. Radiomics ist jedoch in hohem Maße von der Qualität der Tumorsegmentierung abhängig. Unterschiedliche Tumorabgrenzungen, die sich aus der Variabilität innerhalb und zwischen den Beobachterinnen und Beobachtern ergeben, können die Ergebnisse der Radiomics–Analyse erheblich beeinträchtigen. Unseres Wissens wurde bisher noch nicht untersucht, wie sich die Unterschiede zwischen den Beobachterinnen und Beobachtern bei der Tumorsegmentierung auf die Radiomics-Analytik auswirken. Diese Arbeit untersucht, wie verschiedene Tumorsegmentierungen die Radiomics–Analyse beeinflussen. Wir entwickeln daher das Visual Analytics Tool ProSeRa (Probabilistic Segmentation on Radiomics, übersetzt: Probabilistische Segmentierung auf Radiomics), das Visual Analytics zur Erforschung der Auswirkungen probabilistischer Tumorsegmentierung auf Radiomics bietet. Wir befähigen die Benutzerinnen und Benutzer dazu, die Ergebnisse unserer Radiomics-Analyse mit Bezug auf klinischen Daten in Anlehnung an Schwellenwerten für die Segmentierungsgenauigkeit, die wir anhand der Übereinstimmung der Beobachterinnen und Beobachter berechnen, zu untersuchen. Wir bieten Möglichkeiten zur Erkundung und Analyse der Radiomics-Daten, u.a. mithilfe von Algorithmen zur Dimensionalitätsreduktion und Mechanismen zur Clusteranalyse in Verknüpfung mit effektiven und aussagekräftigen Visualisierungen. ProSeRa erleichtert die Bewertung der Robustheit der Radiomics-Analyse und unterstützt die Erforschung der Auswirkungen der Segmentierung auf die Analyse. Basierend auf der Evaluierung unserer Ergebnisse können wir schlussfolgern, dass, wie erwartet, die Variabilität bei Tumorsegmentierung die Ergebnisse der Radiomics-Analyse erheblich beeinflusst. Die Auswirkung war besonders deutlich in der Clusteranalyse, die unterschiedliche Ergebnisse für verschiedene Schwellenwerte der Segmentierungsgenauigkeit geliefert hatte. Dabei haben wir festgestellt, dass zusätzliche Variablen, wie z.B. das Gesamttumorstadium, für die Gruppierung von Patienten in Cluster entscheidend sind., In recent years, radiomics has revolutionized the clinical assessment of tumors. By extracting quantitative features from medical images, this approach provides an objective analysis of tumorous tissues, which ultimately aids medical experts in decision-making processes regarding diagnosis and treatment. However, radiomics is highly dependent on the quality of tumor segmentation. Different tumor delineations resulting from intra- and interobserver variability may significantly affect the results of radiomics analysis. To our knowledge, no prior research has been conducted on the impact of interobserver differences in tumor segmentations on radiomic analytics.This thesis aims to investigate how different tumor segmentations influence radiomics analysis. We therefore design and propose the visual analytics tool ProSeRa (Probabilistic Segmentation on Radiomics), which provides visual analytics strategies for exploring the impact of probabilistic tumor segmentation on radiomics. We empower the users to examine the results of our radiomics analysis with respect to clinical data based on segmentation accuracy thresholds, which we calculate based on the observers’ agreement. We provide ways to explore and analyze the radiomics data using, among others, dimensionality reduction algorithms and cluster analysis mechanisms in conjunction with effective and expressive visualizations. ProSeRa facilitates the assessment of the robustness of the radiomics analysis and supports the exploration of the impact of segmentation on the analysis. Based on the evaluation of our results, we conclude that, as anticipated, variability intumor segmentations considerably influences the radiomics analysis results. The impactwas especially prominent in the cluster analysis, which provided different outcomes fordifferent segmentation accuracy thresholds. Thereby, we detected additional variables, such as the overall tumor stage, being crucial for grouping patients into clusters.

Data mirroring for long-term integrity of these critical geospatial resources. Included here are expert geographic range maps aligned to the taxonomy of the Handbook of the Mammals of the World (HMW) volumes 1-9, where were published from 2009 to 2019 and are available from Lynx Ediciones: https://www.lynxeds.com/product/handbook-of-the-mammals-of-the-world-volumes-1-9/. That taxonomy includes 6,258 total species, of which 5 were not able to be mapped -- yielding maps for 6,253 species. The unmapped HMW species are as follows: excludes 2 species for which no spatial information was available (Nycticeius aenobarbus and Phoniscus aerosus); and excludes 2 species that are mapped in CMW and MDD but not HMW (Biswamoyopterus laoensis and Ctenomys dorsalis); and excludes 1 species has a range map in the MDD, but not in the CMW or HMW (Makalata obscura). ### File inventory ### Order-level zipped files (27 total), one for each extant order of mammals, unzips to geopackage (*.gpg) format; Mammalia-wide zipped file (1: "HMW_Mammalia.zip"), includes maps for all 27 orders, unzips to gpg format; and Subset of HMW vol. 1-9 taxonomy for which range maps are here provided (6,253 species) in csv format ("hmw_spList_wFamilieswOrders_mapped_6253species.csv"). ### Full citation ### Marsh, C.J., Sica, Y.V., Burgin, C.J., Dorman, W.A., Anderson, R.C., del Toro Mijares, I., Vigneron, J.G., Barve, V., Dombrowik, V.L., Duong, M., Guralnick, R., Hart, J.A., Maypole, J.K., McCall, K., Ranipeta, A., Schuerkmann, A., Torselli, M.A., Lacher Jr, T., Mittermeier, R.A., Rylands, A.B., Sechrest, W., Wilson, D.E., Abba, A.M., Aguirre, L.F., Arroyo-Cabrales, J., Astúa, D., Baker, A.M., Braulik, G., Braun, J.K., Brito, J., Busher, P.E., Burneo, S.F., Camacho, M.A., Cavallini, P., de Almeida Chiquito, E., Cook, J.A., Cserkész, T., Csorba, G., Cuéllar Soto, E., da Cunha Tavares, V., Davenport, T.R.B., Deméré, T., Denys, C., Dickman, C.R., Eldridge, M.D.B., Fernandez-Duque, E., Francis, C.M., Frankham, G., Franklin, W.L., Freitas, T., Friend, J.A., Gadsby, E.L., Garbino, G.S.T., Gaubert, P., Giannini, N., Giarla, T., Gilchrist, J.S., Gongora, J., Goodman, S.M., Gursky-Doyen, S., Hackländer, K., Hafner, M.S., Hawkins, M., Helgen, K.M., Heritage, S., Hinckley, A., Hintsche, S., Holden, M., Holekamp, K.E., Honeycutt, R.L., Huffman, B.A., Humle, T., Hutterer, R., Ibáñez Ulargui, C., Jackson, S.M., Janecka, J., Janecka, M., Jenkins, P., Juškaitis, R., Juste, J., Kays, R., Kilpatrick, C.W., Kingston, T., Koprowski, J.L., Kryštufek, B., Lavery, T., Lee Jr, T.E., Leite, Y.L.R., Novaes, R.L.M., Lim, B.K., Lissovsky, A., López-Antoñanzas, R., López-Baucells, A., MacLeod, C.D., Maisels, F.G., Mares, M.A., Marsh, H., Mattioli, S., Meijaard, E., Monadjem, A., Morton, F.B., Musser, G., Nadler, T., Norris, R.W., Ojeda, A., Ordóñez-Garza, N., Pardiñas, U.F.J., Patterson, B.D., Pavan, A., Pennay, M., Pereira, C., Prado, J., Queiroz, H.L., Richardson, M., Riley, E.P., Rossiter, S.J., Rubenstein, D.I., Ruelas, D., Salazar-Bravo, J., Schai-Braun, S., Schank, C.J., Schwitzer, C., Sheeran, L.K., Shekelle, M., Shenbrot, G., Soisook, P., Solari, S., Southgate, R., Superina, M., Taber, A.B., Talebi, M., Taylor, P., Vu Dinh, T., Ting, N., Tirira, D.G., Tsang, S., Turvey, S.T., Valdez, R., Van Cakenberghe, V., Veron, G., Wallis, J., Wells, R., Whittaker, D., Williamson, E.A., Wittemyer, G., Woinarski, J., Zinner, D., Upham, N.S., Jetz, W., 2022. Expert range maps of global mammal distributions harmonised to three taxonomic authorities. Journal of Biogeography 49 (5):979-992. https://doi.org/10.1111/jbi.14330 ### Data downloads on Map of Life ### All range maps for the three taxonomic sources are openly available for non-commercial use through https://mol.org/datasets or at species-level at https://mol.org/species, or for bulk download at https://doi.org/10.48600/mol-7r3j-8066 (HMW), https://doi.org/10.48600/mol-zzrs-q778 (CMW) and https://doi.org/10.48600/mol-48vz-p413 (MDD). ### Abstract ### Aim: Comprehensive, global information on species' occurrences is an essential biodiversity variable and central to a range of applications in ecology, evolution, biogeography and conservation. Expert range maps often represent a species' only available distributional information and play an increasing role in conservation assessments and macroecology. We provide global range maps for the native ranges of all extant mammal species harmonised to the taxonomy of the Mammal Diversity Database (MDD) mobilised from two sources, the Handbook of the Mammals of the World (HMW) and the Illustrated Checklist of the Mammals of the World (CMW). Location: Global. Taxon: All extant mammal species. Methods: Range maps were digitally interpreted, georeferenced, error-checked and subsequently taxonomically aligned between the HMW (6253 species), the CMW (6431 species) and the MDD taxonomies (6362 species). Results: Range maps can be evaluated and visualised in an online map browser at Map of Life (mol.org) and accessed for individual or batch download for non-commercial use. Main conclusion: Expert maps of species' global distributions are limited in their spatial detail and temporal specificity, but form a useful basis for broad-scale characterizations and model-based integration with other data. We provide georeferenced range maps for the native ranges of all extant mammal species as shapefiles, with species-level metadata and source information packaged together in geodatabase format. Across the three taxonomic sources our maps entail, there are 1784 taxonomic name differences compared to the maps currently available on the IUCN Red List website. The expert maps provided here are harmonised to the MDD taxonomic authority and linked to a community of online tools that will enable transparent future updates and version control. Keywords: GIS; Mammalia; biodiversity; biogeography; conservation planning; mapping; species distributions.

Endothelial dysfunction in childhood obesity may precede cerebrovascular damage and cognitive impairment in adulthood. A noninvasive proxy of microvascular health is required to identify the risk for microvascular damage in obese children.The associations of hippocampal volumes and global cerebral atrophy were assessed with retinal vessel caliber in 40 normal BMI controls and 62 obese age-matched nondiabetic adolescents and the contribution of inflammation, obesity, and insulin resistance to retinal vessel caliber was evaluated.Compared to controls, obese adolescents had smaller retinal arterioles (8.3% decrease, P0.05) and wider venules (5.4% increase, P0.01). Larger retinal arteriole diameters were associated with less global cerebral atrophy (B = -0.24 [95% confidence interval, CI: -0.48, -0.002]) and larger hippocampal volumes (B = 0.01 [95% CI: 0, 0.02]). Venule diameters (B = 84.2 [95% CI: 30.3, 138.1]) were predicted by inflammation (fibrinogen). Arteriolar diameters were predicted by insulin resistance, indicated by logHOMA (homeostatic model assessment, HOMA) values (B = -17.03 [95% CI: -28.25, -5.81)] and body mass index (BMI) (B = -.67 [95% CI: -1.09, -0.24)]. All analyses were adjusted for mean arterial pressure, sleep apnea, and vessel diameter.Measures of brain health, BMI, and insulin resistance are associated with retinal vessel caliber. If confirmed in larger studies, retinal arteriolar caliber may serve as a possible noninvasive proxy for brain atrophy in obese adolescents, and the identification of elevated risk for cerebral microvascular disease in adulthood.

Clinical observations suggest that treatment of Rituximab might be less effective in patients with nephrotic range proteinuria when compared to nonnephrotic patients. It is conceivable that the reason for this is that significant amounts of Rituximab might be lost in the urine in a nephrotic patient and that these patients require a repeated or higher dosage. However, this has not been systematically studied. In this case report we describe two different patients with nephrotic range proteinuria receiving Rituximab. The first patient received Rituximab for therapy resistant cryoglobulinemic membranoproliferative glomerulonephritis and the other for second line treatment of Felty’s syndrome. We employed flow cytometry to determine the amount of Rituximab excretion in both urine and peritoneal fluid specimens in these patients following administration of Rituximab. We found that a significant amount of Rituximab is lost from the circulation by excretion into the urine. Furthermore we saw a close correlation of the excretion of Rituximab to the excretion of IgG molecules suggesting selectivity of proteinuria as the determining factor of Rituximab excretion. Further larger scale clinical studies could have the potential to evaluate an optimal cut-off value of IgG urinary loss before a possible administration of Rituximab therefore contributing to a more individualized treatment approach in patients with nonselective and nephrotic range proteinuria.

Obesity is a risk factor for the development of acute respiratory distress syndrome (ARDS) but mechanisms mediating this association are unknown. While obesity is known to impair systemic blood vessel function, and predisposes to systemic vascular diseases, its effects on the pulmonary circulation are largely unknown. We hypothesized that the chronic low grade inflammation of obesity impairs pulmonary vascular homeostasis and primes the lung for acute injury. The lung endothelium from obese mice expressed higher levels of leukocyte adhesion markers and lower levels of cell-cell junctional proteins when compared to lean mice. We tested whether systemic factors are responsible for these alterations in the pulmonary endothelium; treatment of primary lung endothelial cells with obese serum enhanced the expression of adhesion proteins and reduced the expression of endothelial junctional proteins when compared to lean serum. Alterations in pulmonary endothelial cells observed in obese mice were associated with enhanced susceptibility to LPS-induced lung injury. Restoring serum adiponectin levels reversed the effects of obesity on the lung endothelium and attenuated susceptibility to acute injury. Our work indicates that obesity impairs pulmonary vascular homeostasis and enhances susceptibility to acute injury and provides mechanistic insight into the increased prevalence of ARDS in obese humans.