BMC生态学和进化 -土地利用和土壤特征对土壤生物的影响与地面组合不同

This week almost 200 countries signed a historic deal at the United Nations Biodiversity Conference (COP15) in Montreal in a big push to halt our planet’s biodiversity loss by 2030. This deal includes plans to restore 30% of earth’s degraded terrestrial, inland water, coastal and marine ecosystems. While this is a great step into the right direction, understanding all parts of ecosystem loss is important to implement the right actions. Soil biodiversity (the variety of organisms that live in soil and leaf litter) has been notoriously underrepresented in biodiversity indicators like the Living Planet Index, despite its fundamental role in soil health, water purification and carbon sequestration.

在这项研究中发表在BMC生态学和进化，研究人员根据来自不同土地用途和土壤特性的地上和土壤生物的丰富性建模预测项目。该项目分析了有关人类影响的生态数据，特别是与土地利用变化和强化有关的生物多样性的影响。他们的结果表明，土壤生物多样性对土地使用的反应与地面生物相比不同。例如，土壤生物多样性受到高强度耕作的影响要大得多，并且从清晰的砍伐和造林中，与地面生物相比，清晰的砍伐和造林的恢复速度要慢得多。

这项研究凸显了需要寻找更多可持续的方法来养活迅速增长的人群而不影响土壤生物多样性的方法。此外，应权衡带有种植园森林的碳含量，以与失去健康的土壤生物多样性的风险，这是生态系统功能所必需的。需要更多的研究来了解土壤生物多样性，生态学以及地下社区和地上社区之间的相互作用的复杂性。

BMC Genomics–查塔姆岛黑罗宾（Black Robin）近乎灭绝事件的基因组轨迹

随着物种灭绝以前所未有的速度加速，寻找可靠的保护濒危物种的方法已成为联合国可持续发展目标的首要任务之一。严重濒危的物种构成了一个特殊的挑战，因为小种群中的近交会导致有害突变的积累和降低适应性。最终，这可能是由于所谓的“突变崩溃”而导致的灭绝，或者通过更有效地减少后代的有害突变来增强自然选择，这一过程称为基因清除。

在这项研究中，发表在BMC基因组学，研究人员使用严重濒危的查塔姆岛黑罗宾作为模型，以了解对近乎灭绝事件的基因组影响的见解。由于栖息地的破碎和大鼠的引入，这只鸟被灭绝了，1976年的人口大小为5人。保护工作设法增加了人口数量，2021年共有25只鸟​​，所有这些鸟类的后代都是一对。比较150年来，比较了52个查塔姆岛黑罗宾基因组的基因组，研究人员发现了全基因组多样性降低和突变负荷增加的证据。一些结果还通过基因清除来支持有害突变的丧失，这可能是早期栖息地破碎的副作用。

The genetic mechanisms described in this paper are important factors to consider in conservation biology and genetic management of threatened species. The authors suggest that when it comes to future conservation efforts, individuals with the lowest mutational load should be selected to maximize breeding success.

BMC医学研究方法–Applying the 4Ps of social marketing to retain and engage participants in longitudinal cohort studies: generation 2 Raine study participant perspectives

The Raine Study is one of the largest prospective longitudinal cohort studies, established in 1989 in Australia. The aim of this study was to investigate how events during pregnancy and early childhood affect people’s adult health and disease. In the first recruitment phase, 2,900 pregnant women (Generation 1) were included and their resultant 2,868 births were followed up with as Generation 2. Multi-generational long-term studies are invaluable for our understanding of human health and disease and can help shape policies and medical practice further down the line. But how do we retain participants over such a long period of time?

In this qualitative study published inBMC医学研究方法,研究人员描述了第二代活跃和不活跃的参与者与所谓的4P（产品，价格，地点和促销）社会营销的经验。社会营销使用商业营销原则来影响人们的行为，以使其自己或社会的利益。根据参与者的回答，研究人员可以将Raine研究的产品定义为参与者的定期健康检查，并有助于提高更大的利益。这些有益的产品以“感觉像实验室老鼠”的价格以及一再完成调查和问卷的不便。提到不便之处，必须参加Raine学习总部进行定期检查（地点），这可能阻止参与者积极参与研究。但是，活跃成员的最大促销资产是成为“ Raine研究家庭”及其相关目的，声望和重要性的感觉。

The social marketing framework described in this paper illustrates how researchers can create a deeper understanding of how participants perceive cost and benefit accrued through their participation in longitudinal studies. This in turn can help to specifically target these issues and retain participants over a longer period of time.

BMC Pregnancy and ChildbirtH–人类安全分娩的权利：来自193个国家的数据表明，性别平等确实会影响孕产妇死亡率

Due to a big effort to improve child survival, numbers of neonatal deaths dropped worldwide by more than 50% over the past 3 decades. In contrast, maternal mortality is still unacceptably high and in the majority of cases completely preventable. Most maternal deaths occur in low-income countries which greatly reflects inequalities in access to appropriate healthcare. But this is only part of the picture. Research has shown that gender inequality plays a major role in maternal health outcomes.

In this article, published inBMC怀孕和分娩,研究人员使用代表193个国家的512个性别敏感变量来研究性别平等与孕产妇死亡降低之间的相关性。他们的结果表明，孕产妇死亡率明显降低，性别平等的增加。女性教育是性别平等的重要标志，并积极影响其他关键因素，包括使用避孕和财务独立性。此外，领导和政治职位的妇女对孕产妇的健康有无可辩驳的影响。毫不奇怪，童婚，亲密的伴侣暴力和缺乏自主权具有相反的影响。

本文清楚地确定了在改善孕产妇健康方面发挥作用的变量，可用于监视该领域的进度。通过妇女的教育和赋权来解决性别平等是改善孕产妇健康的最前沿。此外，作者建议加强旨在消除童婚和亲密伴侣暴力的政策和法律。

BMC医学伦理–“我认为人们不愿意以表面价值来信任这些算法”：信任和使用机器学习算法在诊断稀有疾病中的使用

人工智能（AI）可以是一种有用且具有成本效益的工具，可帮助医疗保健专业人员进行医疗决策。AI在医学领域的应用是广泛的，从解释病理学和放射学的图像到识别患者进行临床试验或分析遗传数据。尽管这是医疗领域的明显进步，但仍有一个重要的问题要解决：我们信任医疗AI吗？

这项定性研究发表在BMC医学伦理探讨了下,气孔导度的问题itions we trust AI, from the developers’ and clinical users’ perspective. In this study, researchers interviewed members of the Minerva Initiative, a consortium of commercial, clinical, and academic researchers who work on computational phenotyping using facial recognition algorithms. This study found that trust in the reliability and quality of the tool is crucial from both the clinicians’ and the patients’ side. The tools need to work well and produce reliable and validated results. Over time the clinician’s positive experience will be directly influence the patient’s trust in the AI tools.

This study emphasizes the need for deliberate and meticulous steps in designing trustworthy and confidence-worthy AI processes. The authors suggest that randomized controlled trials or increased transparency would help signify the epistemic trustworthiness of these tools.