Habitat Partitioning in Sympatric Delphinids show the usefulness of such refinements applied to a carefully chosen spatially limited dataset as a cost-effective approach to elucidating species distribution patterns. Our methodology and software implementations can be easily applied to transect survey data of other marine and terrestrial taxa.

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Multi-cohort projects in medicine provide an opportunity to investigate scientific questions beyond the boundaries of a single institution and endeavor to increase the sample size for obtaining more reliable results. However, the complications of these kinds of collaborations arise during management, with many administrative hurdles. Hands-on approaches and lessons learned from previous collaborations provide solutions for optimized collaboration models. Here, we use our experience in running PGX-link, a Swiss multi-cohort project, to show the strategy we used to tackle different challenges from project setup to obtaining the relevant permits, including ethics approval. We set PGX-link in an international context because our struggles were similar to those encountered during the SYNCHROS (SYNergies for Cohorts in Health: integrating the ROle of all Stakeholders) project. We provide ad hoc solutions for cohorts, general project management strategies, and suggestions for unified protocols between cohorts that would ease current management hurdles. Project managers are not necessarily familiar with medical projects, and even if they are, they are not aware of the intricacies behind decision-making and consequently, of the time needed to set up multi-cohort collaborations. This paper is meant to be a brief overview of what we experienced with our multi-cohort project and provides the necessary practices for future managers.

Abstract. The production of dimethyl sulfide (DMS) is poorly quantified in tropical reef environments but forms an essential process that couples marine and terrestrial sulfur cycles and affects climate. Here we quantified net aqueous DMS production and the concentration of its cellular precursor dimethylsulfoniopropionate (DMSP) in the sea anemone Aiptasia sp., a model organism to study coral-related processes. Bleached anemones did not show net DMS production whereas symbiotic anemones produced DMS concentrations (mean ± standard error) of 160.7 ± 44.22 nmol g −1 dry weight (DW) after 48 h incubation. Symbiotic and bleached individuals showed DMSP concentrations of 32.7 ± 6.00 and 0.6 ± 0.19 µmol g −1 DW, respectively. We applied these findings to a Monte Carlo simulation to demonstrate that net aqueous DMS production accounts for only 20 % of gross aqueous DMS production. Monte Carlo-based estimations of sea-to-air fluxes of gaseous DMS showed that reefs may release 0.1 to 26.3 µmol DMS m −2 coral surface area (CSA) d −1 into the atmosphere with 40 % probability for rates between 0.5 and 1.5 µmol m −2 CSA d −1 . These predictions were in agreement with directly quantified fluxes in previous studies. Conversion to a flux normalised to sea surface area (SSA) (range 0.1 to 17.4, with the highest probability for 0.3 to 1.0 µmol DMS m −2 SSA d −1 ) suggests that coral reefs emit gaseous DMS at lower rates than the average global oceanic DMS flux of 4.6 µmol m −2 SSA d −1 (19.6 Tg sulfur per year). The large difference between simulated gross and quantified net aqueous DMS production in corals suggests that the current and future potential for its production in tropical reefs is critically governed by DMS consumption processes. Hence, more research is required to assess the sensitivity of DMS-consumption pathways to ongoing environmental change in order to address the impact of predicted degradation of coral reefs on DMS production in tropical coastal ecosystems and its impact on future atmospheric DMS concentrations and climate.

UNSTRUCTURED Multi-cohort projects are increasingly important in medicine as they provide the opportunity to increase data readiness, i.e. join data and efforts in order e.g. to increase sample size and investigate questions beyond the scope of a single institution. However, multi-cohort projects are also challenging as different cohorts have specific purposes, focus areas, and policies as well as their own established methods of managing, collecting and sharing data. A big challenge is also to already test timely overarching scientific questions in an early convergence phase of different cohorts or registries due to the heterogeneity of patient populations between cohorts caused by the intrinsically different subjects of the different cohorts. Although being complex, multi-cohort projects encourage cross-boundary collaborations and synergies between cohorts by providing staff and funding to homogenize and standardize the current heterogeneous multi-cohort environment for joint endeavors. We show the PGX-link project as a case study to demonstrate the complexity of setting up a two-year multi-cohort project in pharmacogenetics. The project is a feasibility study, focused on building an infrastructure to connect clinical and pharmacogenomics data between three nationally-operating Swiss cohorts: the Swiss HIV Cohort Study (SHCS), the Swiss Transplant Cohort Study (STCS), and the Swiss Clinical Quality Management in rheumatic disease (SCQM). The project infrastructure is funded by the Swiss National Science Foundation (SNSF) in the BioLink program fostering collaborations between cohorts and their biobanks, while the laboratory work and genetic analyses are funded by the Bern Centre for Precision Medicine (BCPM). We show the evolution of the study protocol for PGX-link from the original SNF grant proposal to the submission to the ethics committee and acceptance by the cohorts’ Scientific Boards (SBs). We highlight obstacles we encountered in setting up and managing PGX-link as an inter-cohort collaboration, we explain in detail the changes in the proposal necessary for obtaining the project approval by the ethics committee (EC), and we provide suggestions and potential solutions that improve and support such processes for future multi-cohort projects and likewise serve as a guidance for funding agencies.

No abstract

Laboratory medicine is a digital science. Every large hospital produces a variety of data each day - from simple numerical results from e.g. sodium measurements to highly complex output of “-omics” analyses, as well as quality control results and meta-data. Processing, connecting, storing, and ordering extensive parts of these individual data requires big data techniques. Though overshadowed in recent years by the term “artificial intelligence”, the big data concept remains fundamental for any sophisticated data analysis. To make laboratory medicine data optimally usable for clinical and research purposes, they need to be FAIR: findable, accessible, interoperable, and reusable. This can be achieved for example by automated recording, connection of devices, efficient ETL processes, careful data governance, and modern data security solutions. The possibilities for research are endless: Enriched with clinical data they serve projects to gain pathophysiological insights, improve patient care, or they can be used to develop reference intervals. Nevertheless, big data in laboratory medicine does not come without challenges: The growing number of analyses and data derived from them is a demanding task to be taken care of. Laboratory medicine experts are and will be needed to drive this development, take an active role in the ongoing digitalization, and provide guidance for their clinical colleagues engaging with the laboratory data in research.

<p><strong>Abstract.</strong> The production of dimethyl sulfide (DMS) is poorly quantified in tropical reef environments but forms an essential process that couples marine and terrestrial sulfur cycles and affects climate. Here we used gas chromatography to quantify net DMS production and the concentration of its cellular precursor dimethylsulfoniopropionate (DMSP) in the sea anemone <i>Aiptasia</i> sp., a model organism to study coral-related processes. Bleached anemones did not show net DMS production whereas symbiotic anemones produced DMS concentrations (mean ± standard error) of 160.7 ± 44.22 nmol g<sup>−1</sup> dry weight (DW) after 48 h incubation. Symbiotic and bleached individuals showed DMSP concentrations of 32.7 ± 6.00 and 0.6 ± 0.19 μmol g<sup>−1</sup> DW, respectively. We applied these findings to a Monte-Carlo simulation of DMS flux into the atmosphere and demonstrate that net aqueous DMS production accounts for only 0.5–2.0 % of gross aqueous DMS production, and that reefs may release up to 15 μmol DMS m<sup>−2</sup> coral surface area d<sup>−1</sup> into the atmosphere with 40 % probability for rates between 0.5 and 1.5 μmol m<sup.−2</sup> d<sup>−1</sup>. Conversion to a flux rate normalised to sea surface area (range 0.3–10 with highest probability for 0.3–1 μmol DMS m<sup>−2</sup> d<sup>−1</sup>) suggests that coral reefs continuously emit DMS at lower rates than the average global oceanic DMS flux of 6.7 μmol m<sup>−2</sup> d<sup>−1</sup>. The high gross DMS-production rates in corals suggest that it is important to assess the sensitivity of DMS-consumption pathways to environmental change before addressing the impact of predicted degradation of coral reefs on DMS production in tropical coastal ecosystems and its impact on future atmospheric DMS concentrations and climate.</p>