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El Niño-Southern Oscillation (ENSO) events activate long-distance teleconnections through the atmosphere and ocean that can dramatically impact marine ecosystems along the West Coast of NorthAmerica, affecting diverse organisms ranging from plankton to exploitable and protected species. Such ENSO-related changes to marine ecosystems can ultimately affect humans in many ways, including via depressed plankton and fish production, dramatic range shifts formany protected and exploited species, inaccessibility of traditionally fished resources, more prevalent harmful algal blooms, altered oxygen and pH of waters used in mariculture, and proliferation of pathogens. Theprincipal objective of the Forecasting ENSO Impacts on Marine Ecosystems of the US West Coast workshop was to develop a scientific framework for building an ENSO-related forecast system of ecosystem indicators along the West Coast of North America, including major biological and biogeochemical responses. Attendees realized thata quantitative, biologically-focused forecast system is a much more challenging objective than forecasting the physical system alone; it requires an understanding of the ocean-atmospheric physical system and of diverse organism-level, population-level, and geochemicalresponses that, in aggregate, lead to altered ecosystem states.

Abstract Background American Indians and Alaska Natives (AI/AN) are disproportionately affected by adolescent obesity, adolescent pregnancy and gestational diabetes mellitus (GDM). GDM is associated with increased risk for perinatal death, obesity, and subsequent type 2 diabetes (T2D) for the offspring. Moreover, mothers with GDM are also at increased risk for T2D post-partum. Yet few lifestyle interventions exist to reduce GDM risk prior to pregnancy. We describe the process of adapting an existing validated preconception counseling intervention for AI/AN adolescent girls at-risk for GDM and their mothers. Perspectives and recommendations were gathered from a diverse array of stakeholders to assure the new program called Stopping GDM was culturally responsive and developed with tribal voices and perspectives represented. Methods We conducted focus groups and individual interviews with multiple AI/AN stakeholders (n = 55). Focus groups and interviews were digitally recorded, transcribed verbatim, and analyzed using a thematic content approach to construct cross-cutting themes across the focus groups and interviews. Results Four key themes emerged reflecting issues important to planning a reproductive health intervention: 1) Limited awareness, knowledge, and health education resources about GDM; 2) The importance of acknowledging traditional AI/AN values and the diversity of traditions and culture among AI/AN tribes; 3) The need to cultivate healthy decision-making skills and empower girls to make safe and healthy choices; and 4) Lack of communication about reproductive health between AI/AN mothers and daughters and between AI/AN women and health care professionals. Conclusion Findings have been used to inform the cultural tailoring and adaptation of an existing preconception counseling program, originally designed for non-AI/AN adolescent girls with diabetes, for AI/AN adolescents at-risk for GDM in future pregnancies.

El Niño-Southern Oscillation (ENSO) events activate long-distance teleconnections through the atmosphere and ocean that can dramatically impact marine ecosystems along the West Coast of NorthAmerica, affecting diverse organisms ranging from plankton to exploitable and protected species. Such ENSO-related changes to marine ecosystems can ultimately affect humans in many ways, including via depressed plankton and fish production, dramatic range shifts formany protected and exploited species, inaccessibility of traditionally fished resources, more prevalent harmful algal blooms, altered oxygen and pH of waters used in mariculture, and proliferation of pathogens. Theprincipal objective of the Forecasting ENSO Impacts on Marine Ecosystems of the US West Coast workshop was to develop a scientific framework for building an ENSO-related forecast system of ecosystem indicators along the West Coast of North America, including major biological and biogeochemical responses. Attendees realized thata quantitative, biologically-focused forecast system is a much more challenging objective than forecasting the physical system alone; it requires an understanding of the ocean-atmospheric physical system and of diverse organism-level, population-level, and geochemicalresponses that, in aggregate, lead to altered ecosystem states.

Background: Glycerol is a substrate for gluconeogenesis and fatty acid esterification in the liver, processes which are upregulated in obesity and may contribute to excess fat accumulation. Glycine and glutamate, in addition to cysteine, are components of glutathione, the major antioxidant in the liver. In principle, glycerol could be incorporated into glutathione via the TCA cycle or 3-phosphoglycerate, but it is unknown whether glycerol contributes to hepatic de novo glutathione biosynthesis. Methods: Glycerol metabolism to hepatic metabolic products including glutathione was examined in the liver from adolescents undergoing bariatric surgery. Participants received oral [U–13C3]glycerol (50 mg/kg) prior to surgery and liver tissue (0.2–0.7g) was obtained during surgery. Glutathione, amino acids, and other water-soluble metabolites were extracted from the liver tissue and isotopomers were quantified with nuclear magnetic resonance spectroscopy. Results: Data were collected from 8 participants (2 male, 6 female; age 17.1 years [range 14–19]; BMI 47.4 kg/m2 [range 41.3–63.3]). The concentrations of free glutamate, cysteine, and glycine were similar among participants, and so were the fractions of 13C-labeled glutamate and glycine derived from [U–13C3]glycerol. The signals from all component amino acids of glutathione - glutamate, cysteine and glycine - were strong and analyzed to obtain the relative concentrations of the antioxidant in the liver. The signals from glutathione containing [13C2]glycine or [13C2]glutamate derived from the [U–13C3]glycerol drink were readily detected, and 13C-labelling patterns in the moieties were consistent with the patterns in corresponding free amino acids from the de novo glutathione synthesis pathway. The newly synthesized glutathione with [U–13C3]glycerol trended to be lower in obese adolescents with liver pathology. Conclusions: This is the first report of glycerol incorporation into glutathione through glycine or glutamate metabolism in human liver. This could represent a compensatory mechanism to increase glutathione in the setting of excess glycerol delivery to the liver.

This paper introduces methods and a novel toolbox that efficiently integrates high-dimensional Neural Mass Models (NMMs) specified by two essential components. The first is the set of nonlinear Random Differential Equations (RDEs) of the dynamics of each neural mass. The second is the highly sparse three-dimensional Connectome Tensor (CT) that encodes the strength of the connections and the delays of information transfer along the axons of each connection. To date, simplistic assumptions prevail about delays in the CT, often assumed to be Dirac-delta functions. In reality, delays are distributed due to heterogeneous conduction velocities of the axons connecting neural masses. These distributed-delay CTs are challenging to model. Our approach implements these models by leveraging several innovations. Semi-analytical integration of RDEs is done with the Local Linearization (LL) scheme for each neural mass, ensuring dynamical fidelity to the original continuous-time nonlinear dynamic. This semi-analytic LL integration is highly computationally-efficient. In addition, a tensor representation of the CT facilitates parallel computation. It also seamlessly allows modeling distributed delays CT with any level of complexity or realism. This ease of implementation includes models with distributed-delay CTs. Consequently, our algorithm scales linearly with the number of neural masses and the number of equations they are represented with, contrasting with more traditional methods that scale quadratically at best. To illustrate the toolbox's usefulness, we simulate a single Zetterberg-Jansen and Rit (ZJR) cortical column, a single thalmo-cortical unit, and a toy example comprising 1000 interconnected ZJR columns. These simulations demonstrate the consequences of modifying the CT, especially by introducing distributed delays. The examples illustrate the complexity of explaining EEG oscillations, e.g., split alpha peaks, since they only appear for distinct neural masses. We provide an open-source Script for the toolbox.