Microbial ecology is the study of microorganisms present in nature. It particularly focuses on microbial interactions with any biota and with surrounding environments. Microbial ecology is entering its golden age with innovative multi-omics methods triggered by next-generation sequencing technologies. However, the extraction of ecologically relevant information from ever-increasing omics data remains one of the most challenging tasks in microbial ecology. This special issue includes 11 review articles that provide an overview of the state of the art of omics-based approaches in the field of microbial ecology, with particular emphasis on the interpretation of omics data, environmental pollution tracking, interactions in microbiomes, and viral ecology.
  Myxopapillary ependymoma (MPE) is the most frequent tumor affecting the medullary conus. The surgical therapeutic management is still debated and only few studies have focused on the postoperative clinical outcome of patients. This study aimed to demonstrate long-term postoperative outcome and to assess the predictive factors of recurrence as well as the clinical evolution of these patients.
 
  From 1984 to 2019, in four French centers, 101 adult patients diagnosed with MPE were retrospectively included.
 
  Median age at surgery was 39years. Median tumor size was 50mm and lesions were multifocal in 13% of patients.  https://www.selleckchem.com/products/lenalidomide-s1029.html  All patients benefited from surgery and one patient received postoperative radiotherapy. Gross total resection was obtained in 75% of cases. Sixteen percent of patients presented recurrence after a median follow-up of 70months. Progression free survival at 5 and 10years were respectively estimated at 83% and 79%. After multivariable analysis, sacral localization, and subtotal resection were shown to be independently associated with tumor recurrence. 85% of the patients had a favorable evolution concerning pain. 12% of the patients presented a postoperative deterioration of sphincter function and 4% of motor function.
 
  Surgery alone is an acceptable option for MPE patients. Patients with sacral location or incomplete resection are at high risk of recurrence and should be carefully monitored.
 Surgery alone is an acceptable option for MPE patients. Patients with sacral location or incomplete resection are at high risk of recurrence and should be carefully monitored.Venous-arterial extracorporeal membrane oxygenation (VA-ECMO) treatment for acute cardiogenic shock in patients who also have acute lung injury predisposes development of a serious complication called "north-south syndrome" (NSS) which causes cerebral hypoxia. NSS is poorly characterized and hemodynamic studies have focused on cerebral perfusion ignoring the heart. We hypothesized in NSS the heart would be more likely to receive hypoxemic blood than the brain due to the proximity of the coronary arteries to the aortic annulus. To test this, we conducted a computational fluid dynamics simulation of blood flow in a human supported by VA-ECMO. Simulations quantified the fraction of blood at each aortic branching vessel originating from residual native cardiac output versus VA-ECMO. As residual cardiac function was increased, simulations demonstrated myocardial hypoxia would develop prior to cerebral hypoxia. These results illustrate the conditions where NSS will develop and the relative cardiac function that will lead to organ-specific hypoxia. Illustration of the impact of north-south syndrome on organ-specific oxygen delivery. Patients on VA-ECMO have two sources of blood flow, one from the VA-ECMO circuit and one from the residual cardiac function. When there is no residual cardiac function, all organs are perfused with oxygenated blood. As myocardial recovery progresses, blood supply from the two sources will begin to mix resulting in non-homogeneous mixing and differential oxygenation based upon the anatomical site of branching vessels.
  Coronary calcification has been linked to cardiovascular events. We developed and validated an algorithm to automatically quantify coronary calcifications on intravascular ultrasound (IVUS). We aimed to assess the prognostic value of an IVUS-calcium score (ICS) on patient-oriented composite endpoint (POCE).
 
  We included patients that underwent coronary angiography plus pre-procedural IVUS imaging. The ICS was calculated per patient. The primary endpoint was a composite of all-cause mortality, stroke, myocardial infarction, and revascularization (POCE).
 
  In a cohort of 408 patients, median ICS was 85. Both an ICS ≥ 85 and a 100 unit increase in ICS increased the risk of POCE at 6-year follow-up (adjusted hazard ratio (aHR) 1.51, 95%CI 1.05-2.17, p value = 0.026, and aHR 1.21, 95%CI 1.04-1.41, p value = 0.014, respectively).
 
  The ICS, calculated by a validated automated algorithm derived from routine IVUS pullbacks, was strongly associated with the long-term risk of POCE.
 The ICS, calculated by a validated automated algorithm derived from routine IVUS pullbacks, was strongly associated with the long-term risk of POCE.The objective of this study was to analyze the available evidence of systematic reviews that evaluated the efficacy of antenatal corticosteroids in order to contribute to a reduction in magnitude and transcendence of respiratory distress syndrome of the newborn (RDS). Thus, an overview was conducted including all systematic reviews of randomized controlled trials (RCTs) that evaluated women who received corticosteroid treatment during pregnancy to prevent RDS. Therefore, a search strategy was developed using the terms "respiratory distress syndrome, newborn," "corticosteroids," "perinatal death," "neonatal death," "neonate," and "pregnancy." The electronic databases searched were MEDLINE, EMBASE, Cochrane Library, LILACS, and Google Scholar, for studies published until June 2020. We identified 354 references, 38 of which were relevant after the initial screening. Ten systematic reviews met the inclusion criteria. For RDS, 1522 cases occurred in the control group composed of 8716 participants, while in the intervention group was 1088 in 8740 participants (RR = 0.67, 95% CI 0.60-0.75). For neonatal death, 343 cases occurred in 5248 participants of the control group, while in the intervention group, there were 227 cases in 5246 participants (RR = 0.66, 95% CI 0.56-0.78). For perinatal death, there were 344 cases in 3345 participants in the control group, while in the intervention group, the number of cases was 264 in 3384 participants (RR = 0.72, 95% CI 0.58-0.89). Thus, the use of corticosteroids during pregnancy in women at risk of preterm birth is effective for the prevention of RDS in neonates and reducing the number of neonatal and perinatal deaths in preterm. PROSPERO protocol no CRD42017074604.