Stephanie Luca results 41
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Serum Neurofilament Light Levels in Patients with Cerebrotendinous Xanthomatosis: a Pilot StudyNARA Subscribed
Introduction: Cerebrotendinous xanthomatosis (CTX) is a rare autosomal recessive disorder caused by pathogenic variants in CYP27A1 , leading to cholestanol accumulation and progressive neurological dysfunction. Neurofilament light chain (NfL) is a biomarker of neuroaxonal injury in several hereditary ataxias, but its role in CTX has not been investigated. We aimed to determine whether serum NfL is elevated in CTX and whether i...
Interpretable deep learning reveals spatiotemporal MRI features of brain aging that align with neurodegenerationNARA Subscribed
Cortical thinning and atrophy are hallmarks of brain aging that have been characterized using magnetic resonance imaging (MRI). Brain aging involves many neuroanatomic features whose effects on brain structure remain unexplored. To address this challenge, we trained interpretable deep neural networks (DNNs) to estimate brain age (BA) from T 1 -weighted ( T 1 w) MRI. By identifying MRI features unapparent to humans, DNNs can fi...
Predators forage by balancing the energy content of prey with the energy required to capture it, selecting prey based on their foraging strategy. In the Celtic Seas ecoregion, recent dietary data are lacking for the common dolphin ( Delphinus delphis ) despite concerns about declining body conditions and changes in prey communities over recent decades. Using conventional stomach content analysis of a large sample set (n = 138)...
Alzheimer’s disease (AD) disproportionately affects women and carriers of the apolipoprotein E ε4 allele (APOE4), yet little is known about how sex and APOE interact to influence white matter (WM) integrity during disease progression. We integrated diffusion MRI and matched blood transcriptomic data to investigate these interactions and their underlying biological mechanisms. WM microstructure was quantified using diffusion te...
Identification of small GTPases as potential target proteins of the mycotoxin and renal carcinogen ochratoxin ANARA Subscribed
Ochratoxin A (OTA), a mycotoxin commonly found as a contaminant in a variety of foods, is known for its ability to cause kidney damage and tumors in rodents. Recent research indicates that replicative stress leading to aberrant mitoses and subsequent genetic instability may play a key role in OTA carcinogenicity. However, the specific molecular targets of OTA and early key events leading to replicative stress and mitotic disru...
Changes in community composition and functional diversity of European bats under climate changeNARA Subscribed
Climate change is predicted to drive geographical range shifts that will result in changes in species diversity and functional composition and have potential repercussions for ecosystem functioning. However, the effect of these changes on species composition and functional diversity (FD) remains unclear, especially for mammals, specifically bats. We used species distribution models and a comprehensive ecological and morphometr...
Predicting the progression of MCI and Alzheimer’s disease on structural brain integrity and other features with machine learningNARA Subscribed
Machine learning (ML) on structural MRI data shows high potential for classifying Alzheimer’s disease (AD) progression, but the specific contribution of brain regions, demographics, and proteinopathy remains unclear. Using Alzheimer’s Disease Neuroimaging Initiative (ADNI) data, we applied an extreme gradient-boosting algorithm and SHAP (SHapley Additive exPlanations) values to classify cognitively normal (CN) older adults, th...
A comparative analysis of temperature trends at Modena Geophysical Observatory and Mount Cimone Observatory, ItalyNARA Subscribed
Global warming has become a critical environmental, social, and economic threat, with increasing frequency and intensity of extreme weather events. This study aims to analyse temperature trends and climate indices in the Po Valley, a significant economic and agricultural region in Italy, by examining data from two historical stations: the urban Modena Observatory and the rural Mount Cimone Observatory. The analysis extends pre...
Exploring benthic habitat assessments on coral reefs: a comparison of direct field measurements versus remote sensingNARA Subscribed
Coral reefs are spatially variable ecosystems that form biogenic structures ranging in size from 10 to 1000s of meters. Their changes in response to anthropogenic stress are occurring across increasingly broad scales, yet our ability to detect, understand and respond to these changes at relevant scales is limited. Traditional in-water observation-based coral reef ecology and remote sensing-based methods both offer valuable ins...
The global biogeography of reef morphologyNARA Subscribed
Aim The Caribbean and Indo‐Pacific are separate biogeographical realms with distinct biogeographical and evolutionary histories, a 10‐fold difference in biodiversity, and highly disparate sea‐level histories. Since reef morphology often reflects interactions between biological activity and biogeographical history, including sea levels, the widths of shallow coral reef habitats are likely to differ markedly between realms, with...
Soil depth and geographic distance modulate bacterial β‐diversity in deep soil profiles throughout the U.S. Corn BeltNARA Subscribed
Understanding how microbial communities are shaped across spatial dimensions is of fundamental importance in microbial ecology. However, most studies on soil biogeography have focused on the topsoil microbiome, while the factors driving the subsoil microbiome distribution are largely unknown. Here we used 16S rRNA amplicon sequencing to analyse the factors underlying the bacterial β‐diversity along vertical (0–240 cm of soil d...
A Near Four-Decade Time Series Shows the Hawaiian Islands Have Been Browning Since the 1980sNARA Subscribed
The Hawaiian Islands have been identified as a global biodiversity hotspot. We examine the Normalized Difference Vegetation Index (NDVI) using Climate Data Records products (0.05 × 0.05°) to identify significant differences in NDVI between neutral El Niño-Southern Oscillation years (1984, 2019) and significant long-term changes over the entire time series (1982–2019) for the Hawaiian Islands and six land cover classes. Overall...