Anti-acetylcholine receptor antibodies (AChR Abs) are detected in 85% of myasthenia gravis (MG) patients, at higher rates in patients with late-onset disease. AChR Ab frequency is generally thought to be much lower in ocular MG (OMG), although recent studies reported positivity rates higher than 70%. We hypothesized that the improved AChR Ab diagnostic yield in OMG could be related to an increased frequency of late-onset disease, as observed in generalized MG.
 
  We compared OMG patients, with disease onset before or after 1998, for the age of onset, sex, presence of thymoma, immunosuppressive therapy rate, AChR Ab positivity, and follow-up duration. All patients had a follow-up ≥ 2years. AChR Abs were tested by radioimmunoassay.
 
  The study included 133 patients. Disease onset occurred before 1998 in 54/133 cases (41%). Age of onset, the proportion of late-onset patients, and AChR Ab positivity rate were significantly increased in the more recent population. Thymoma frequency was similar in the two series. On multivariate analysis, the only variable predicting AChR Ab positivity was the age at onset ≥ 50years (OR = 6.50, 95% CI = 2.70-15.63, p < 0.0001).
 
  Our results confirm that current AChR Ab positivity in OMG may be higher than generally thought. In our population, this finding was associated with an increased frequency of late-onset cases.
 Our results confirm that current AChR Ab positivity in OMG may be higher than generally thought. In our population, this finding was associated with an increased frequency of late-onset cases.
  Children with neuromuscular disorders have been assumed to be a particularly vulnerable population since the beginning of COVID-19. Although this is a plausible hypothesis, there is no evidence that complications or mortality rates in neuromuscular patients are higher than in the general population. The aim of this study is to describe the clinical characteristics and outcome of COVID-19 in children with neuromuscular disorders.
 
  A registry of children with neuromuscular conditions and laboratory-confirmed-SARS-CoV-2 infection was set up by the Neuromuscular Working Group of the Spanish Pediatric Neurology Society (SENEP). Data to be collected were focused on the characteristics and baseline status of the neuromuscular condition and the course of COVID-19.
 
  Severe complications were not observed in our series of 29 children with neuromuscular disorders infected by SARS-CoV-2. Eighty-nine percent of patients were clinically categorized as asymptomatic or mild cases and 10% as moderate cases.  https://www.selleckchem.com/products/gyy4137.html  Patients with a relatively more severe course of COVID-19 had SMA type 1 and were between 1 and 3years.
 
  The course of COVID-19 in children with neuromuscular disorders may not be as severe as expected. The protective role of young age seems to outweigh the risk factors that are common in neuromuscular patients, such as a decreased respiratory capacity or a weak cough. Further studies are needed to know if this finding can be generalized to children with other chronic diseases.
 The course of COVID-19 in children with neuromuscular disorders may not be as severe as expected. The protective role of young age seems to outweigh the risk factors that are common in neuromuscular patients, such as a decreased respiratory capacity or a weak cough. Further studies are needed to know if this finding can be generalized to children with other chronic diseases.Direct and indirect effects both influence population and community dynamics. The relative strengths of these pathways are often compared using experimental approaches, but their evaluation in situ has been less frequent. We examined how individual and aggregate impacts of direct and indirect effects of species densities, proxies for competition and predation pressure, and habitat variables influenced patterns of larval density and body size of ringed (Ambystoma annulatum) and spotted salamanders (A. maculatum). We surveyed > 150 ponds in Missouri, USA, from 2012 to 2014 to measure the density and body size of each focal species, the density of co-occurring pond food web members, and select habitat features. We used structural equation modeling to quantify the relative importance of direct and indirect pathways on both body size and larval density. Overall, both responses were explained through a combination of direct and indirect effects. However, the magnitudes of direct effects were often greater than indirect effects. Some of the direct and indirect relationships with larval salamander size and density were also consistent with results from experimental studies. Finally, total direct and indirect effects were often weaker due to habitat and density variables negating each other's impacts. Overall, our study shows that direct effects were equivalent to, or more important than, indirect effects. We also demonstrate that the effects stemming from individual relationships can sum to produce net patterns that are negligible in magnitude. Further work on direct and indirect effects with observational data are needed to examine their magnitudes in natural communities.Plants make leaf-level trade-offs between photosynthetic carbon assimilation and water loss, and the optimal balance between the two is dependent, in part, on water availability. "Conservative" water-use strategies, in which minimizing water loss is prioritized over assimilating carbon, tend to be favored in arid environments, while "aggressive" water-use strategies, in which carbon assimilation is prioritized over water conservation, are often favored in mesic environments. When derived from foliar carbon isotope ratios, intrinsic water-use efficiency (iWUE) serves as a seasonally integrated indicator of the balance of carbon assimilation to water loss at the leaf level. Here, we used a multi-decadal record of annual iWUE, growth, and flowering from a single population of Encelia farinosa in the Mojave Desert to evaluate the effect of iWUE on plant performance across interannual fluctuations in water availability. We identified substantial variability in iWUE among individuals and found that iWUE interacted with water availability to significantly influence growth and flowering.