A deep dive into bird survey data has found that some of Australia’s favourite backyard visitors considered ‘common’ are actually on the decline as cities and suburbs opt for less greenery. The study, led by Griffith University and published in Biological Conservation, used citizen science data to examine the prevalence and diversity of bird species across Greater Brisbane, Greater Sydney, Greater Perth and Greater Melbourne. The team found that introduced species, historically prominent in Australian urban bird communities, were decreasing in prevalence in all four regions, while a small group of native urban exploiters were becoming more prevalent.

Do pediatric kidney transplant patients have better long-term outcomes when their kidney comes from living, biologically unrelated donors compared to deceased donors? A new UC Davis Health study published in the journal Pediatric Transplantation finds that they do.

The Association for the Advancement of Blood and Biotherapies (AABB) has released clinical practice guidelines for the appropriate use of COVID-19 convalescent plasma (CCP) in hospital and outpatient settings. Based on two living systematic reviews of randomized controlled trials (RCTs), the guidelines provide five specific recommendations for treating patients with COVID-19 and suggest that CCP is most effective when transfused with high neutralizing titers to infected patients early after symptom onset. The guidelines are published in Annals of Internal Medicine.