Thermal Adaptation and Diversity in Tropical Ecosystems: Evidence from Cicadas (Hemiptera, Cicadidae)

The latitudinal gradient in species diversity is a central problem in ecology. Expeditions covering approximately 16°54′ of longitude and 21°4′ of latitude and eight Argentine phytogeographic regions provided thermal adaptation data for 64 species of cicadas. We test whether species diversity relates to the diversity of thermal environments within a habitat. There are general patterns of the thermal response values decreasing in cooler floristic provinces and decreasing maximum potential temperature within a habitat except in tropical forest ecosystems. Vertical stratification of the plant communities leads to stratification in species using specific layers of the habitat. There is a decrease in thermal tolerances in species from the understory communities in comparison to middle level or canopy fauna. The understory Herrera umbraphila Sanborn & Heath is the first diurnally active cicada identified as a thermoconforming species. The body temperature for activity in H. umbraphila is less than and significantly different from active body temperatures of all other studied species regardless of habitat affiliation. These data suggest that variability in thermal niches within the heterogeneous plant community of the tropical forest environments permits species diversification as species adapt their physiology to function more efficiently at temperatures different from their potential competitors

Beyond brain size: Uncovering the neural correlates of behavioral and cognitive specialization

© Comparative Cognition Society. Despite prolonged interest in comparing brain size and behavioral proxies of "intelligence" across taxa, the adaptive and cognitive significance of brain size variation remains elusive. Central to this problem is the continued focus on hominid cognition as a benchmark and the assumption that behavioral complexity has a simple relationship with brain size. Although comparative studies of brain size have been criticized for not reflecting how evolution actually operates, and for producing spurious, inconsistent results, the causes of these limitations have received little discussion. We show how these issues arise from implicit assumptions about what brain size measures and how it correlates with behavioral and cognitive traits. We explore how inconsistencies can arise through heterogeneity in evolutionary trajectories and selection pressures on neuroanatomy or neurophysiology across taxa. We examine how interference from ecological and life history variables complicates interpretations of brain-behavior correlations and point out how this problem is exacerbated by the limitations of brain and cognitive measures. These considerations, and the diversity of brain morphologies and behavioral capacities, suggest that comparative brain-behavior research can make greater progress by focusing on specific neuroanatomical and behavioral traits within relevant ecological and evolutionary contexts. We suggest that a synergistic combination of the "bottom-up" approach of classical neuroethology and the "top-down" approach of comparative biology/psychology within closely related but behaviorally diverse clades can limit the effects of heterogeneity, interference, and noise. We argue that this shift away from broad-scale analyses of superficial phenotypes will provide deeper, more robust insights into brain evolution

Ingredients for understanding brain and behavioral evolution: Ecology, phylogeny, and mechanism

This is the final version of the article. Available from The Comparative Cognition Society via the DOI in this record.Uncovering the neural correlates and evolutionary drivers of behavioral and cognitive traits has been held back by traditional perspectives on which correlations to look for-in particular, anthropocentric conceptions of cognition and coarse-grained brain measurements. We welcome our colleagues' comments on our overview of the field and their suggestions for how to move forward. Here, we counter, clarify, and extend some points, focusing on the merits of looking for the "best" predictor of cognitive ability, the sources and meaning of "noise," and the ways in which we can deduce and test meaningful conclusions from comparative analyses of complex traits

Incidence, risk factors and clinical epidemiology of melioidosis: a complex socio-ecological emerging infectious disease in the Alor Setar region of Kedah, Malaysia

<p>Abstract</p> <p>Background</p> <p>Melioidosis, a severe and fatal infectious disease caused by <it>Burkholderia pseudomallei</it>, is believed to an emerging global threat. However, data on the natural history, risk factors, and geographic epidemiology of the disease are still limited.</p> <p>Methods</p> <p>We undertook a retrospective analysis of 145 confirmed cases extracted from a hospital-based Melioidosis Registry set up from 2005 in Hospital Sultanah Bahiyah, Alor Setar, Kedah state, Malaysia, in order to provide a first description of the contemporary incidence, risk factors, and clinical epidemiology of the disease in this putatively high risk region of the country.</p> <p>Results</p> <p>The incidence of melioidosis in Alor Setar is remarkably high at 16.35 per 100,000 population per year. The mean age of patients was 50.40 years, with infection varying nonlinearly with age. Males (75.2%; <it>P </it>< 0.0001) predominated and the majority of cases were Malays (88.9%). The overall, crude mortality rate among the study patients was 33.8%. The proportions of cases and deaths were significantly greater among patients involved in farming, forestry and fishing and the unemployed (χ²= 30.57, <it>P </it>< 0.0001). A majority of cases (62.75%) were culture positive, with mortality in these patients being 45.05%. A large proportion (83.0%) of culture positives was also bacteremic. Pneumonia accounted for 42.06% of primary diagnoses followed in importance by soft tissue abscess. In patients with pneumonia and who were culture positive, the mortality rate was as high as 65.00%. Diabetes mellitus constituted the major underlying risk factor for developing and dying from melioidosis, occurring in 57% of all diagnosed cases. The age distribution of diabetes paralleled that of melioidosis cases. There were linear associations between cases and deaths with monthly rainfall.</p> <p>Conclusions</p> <p>Melioidosis represents a complex socio-ecological public health problem in Kedah, being strongly related with age, occupation, rainfall and predisposing chronic diseases, such as diabetes mellitus. Among cases, bacteremic patients were associated with significantly high mortality despite provision of the recommended antibacterial therapy. The burden of this disease is likely to grow in this region unless better informed interventions targeted at high-risk groups and associated diseases are urgently implemented.</p

Family composition and age at menarche: findings from the international Health Behaviour in School-Aged Children Study

This research was funded by The University of St Andrews and NHS Health Scotland.Background Early menarche has been associated with father absence, stepfather presence and adverse health consequences in later life. This article assesses the association of different family compositions with the age at menarche. Pathways are explored which may explain any association between family characteristics and pubertal timing. Methods Cross-sectional, international data on the age at menarche, family structure and covariates (age, psychosomatic complaints, media consumption, physical activity) were collected from the 2009–2010 Health Behaviour in School-aged Children (HBSC) survey. The sample focuses on 15-year old girls comprising 36,175 individuals across 40 countries in Europe and North America (N = 21,075 for age at menarche). The study examined the association of different family characteristics with age at menarche. Regression and path analyses were applied incorporating multilevel techniques to adjust for the nested nature of data within countries. Results Living with mother (Cohen’s d = .12), father (d = .08), brothers (d = .04) and sisters (d = .06) are independently associated with later age at menarche. Living in a foster home (d = −.16), with ‘someone else’ (d = −.11), stepmother (d = −.10) or stepfather (d = −.06) was associated with earlier menarche. Path models show that up to 89% of these effects can be explained through lifestyle and psychological variables. Conclusions Earlier menarche is reported amongst those with living conditions other than a family consisting of two biological parents. This can partly be explained by girls’ higher Body Mass Index in these families which is a biological determinant of early menarche. Lower physical activity and elevated psychosomatic complaints were also more often found in girls in these family environments.Publisher PDFPeer reviewe

Intensity standardization of MRI prior to radiomic feature extraction for artificial intelligence research in glioma-a systematic review

Objectives Radiomics is a promising avenue in non-invasive characterisation of diffuse glioma. Clinical translation is hampered by lack of reproducibility across centres and difficulty in standardising image intensity in MRI datasets. The study aim was to perform a systematic review of different methods of MRI intensity standardisation prior to radiomic feature extraction. Methods MEDLINE, EMBASE, and SCOPUS were searched for articles meeting the following eligibility criteria: MRI radiomic studies where one method of intensity normalisation was compared with another or no normalisation, and original research concerning patients diagnosed with diffuse gliomas. Using PRISMA criteria, data were extracted from short-listed studies including number of patients, MRI sequences, validation status, radiomics software, method of segmentation, and intensity standardisation. QUADAS-2 was used for quality appraisal. Results After duplicate removal, 741 results were returned from database and reference searches and, from these, 12 papers were eligible. Due to a lack of common pre-processing and different analyses, a narrative synthesis was sought. Three different intensity standardisation techniques have been studied: histogram matching (5/12), limiting or rescaling signal intensity (8/12), and deep learning (1/12)—only two papers compared different methods. From these studies, histogram matching produced the more reliable features compared to other methods of altering MRI signal intensity. Conclusion Multiple methods of intensity standardisation have been described in the literature without clear consensus. Further research that directly compares different methods of intensity standardisation on glioma MRI datasets is required. Key Points • Intensity standardisation is a key pre-processing step in the development of robust radiomic signatures to evaluate diffuse glioma. • A minority of studies compared the impact of two or more methods. • Further research is required to directly compare multiple methods of MRI intensity standardisation on glioma datasets

An empirical investigation of the influence of collaboration in Finance on article impact

We investigate the impact of collaborative research in academic Finance literature to find out whether and to what extent collaboration leads to higher impact articles (6,667 articles across 2001-2007 extracted from the Web of Science). Using the top 5 % as ranked by the 4-year citation counts following publication, we also follow related secondary research questions such as the relationships between article impact and author impact; collaboration and average author impact of an article; and, the nature of geographic collaboration. Key findings indicate: collaboration does lead to articles of higher impact but there is no significant marginal value for collaboration beyond three authors; high impact articles are not monopolized by high impact authors; collaboration and the average author impact of high-impact articles are positively associated, where collaborative articles have a higher mean author impact in comparison to single-author articles; and collaboration among the authors of high impact articles is mostly cross-institutional

The influence of glucose-lowering therapies on cancer risk in type 2 diabetes

AIMS/HYPOTHESIS: The risk of developing a range of solid tumours is increased in type 2 diabetes, and may be influenced by glucose-lowering therapies. We examined the risk of development of solid tumours in relation to treatment with oral agents, human insulin and insulin analogues. METHODS: This was a retrospective cohort study of people treated in UK general practices. Those included in the analysis developed diabetes >40 years of age, and started treatment with oral agents or insulin after 2000. A total of 62,809 patients were divided into four groups according to whether they received monotherapy with metformin or sulfonylurea, combined therapy (metformin plus sulfonylurea), or insulin. Insulin users were grouped according to treatment with insulin glargine, long-acting human insulin, biphasic analogue and human biphasic insulin. The outcome measures were progression to any solid tumour, or cancer of the breast, colon, pancreas or prostate. Confounding factors were accounted for using Cox proportional hazards models. RESULTS: Metformin monotherapy carried the lowest risk of cancer. In comparison, the adjusted HR was 1.08 (95% CI 0.96-1.21) for metformin plus sulfonylurea, 1.36 (95% CI 1.19-1.54) for sulfonylurea monotherapy, and 1.42 (95% CI 1.27-1.60) for insulin-based regimens. Adding metformin to insulin reduced progression to cancer (HR 0.54, 95% CI 0.43-0.66). The risk for those on basal human insulin alone vs insulin glargine alone was 1.24 (95% CI 0.90-1.70). Compared with metformin, insulin therapy increased the risk of colorectal (HR 1.69, 95% CI 1.23-2.33) or pancreatic cancer (HR 4.63, 95% CI 2.64-8.10), but did not influence the risk of breast or prostate cancer. Sulfonylureas were associated with a similar pattern of risk as insulin. CONCLUSIONS/INTERPRETATION: Those on insulin or insulin secretagogues were more likely to develop solid cancers than those on metformin, and combination with metformin abolished most of this excess risk. Metformin use was associated with lower risk of cancer of the colon or pancreas, but did not affect the risk of breast or prostate cancer. Use of insulin analogues was not associated with increased cancer risk as compared with human insulin

Perceived barriers and enablers of physical activity in postpartum women: A qualitative approach

© 2016 Saligheh et al.Background: Postpartum women's recovery from birth can be assisted through increased physical activity (PA). However, women face substantial barriers to participating in exercise and require support to enable them to benefit from increased PA. Methods: This study sought to explore women's beliefs about and experiences of PA and exercise during the 6 weeks to 12 months postpartum period. A cohort of 14 postpartum women from a survey study of the barriers and enablers to exercise participation agreed to take part in interview sessions to provide an in-depth understanding of the women's perceptions of the postpartum period and their physical activity during this time. Results: Findings are presented with reference to the social ecological framework and indicate postpartum women face substantial personal and environmental barriers to PA and exercise participation: fatigue, a lack of motivation and confidence, substantial time constraints, lack of access to affordable and appropriate activities and poor access to public transport. In contrast, enablers such as possessing greater social support, in particular partner support, improved PA and exercise participation. Conclusions: The findings encourage facilitation of exercise through mothers' groups, mothers' exercise clubs or postnatal classes suggesting behavioral and social change is needed. Interaction between individuals, community, organizations and policy makers is required. In addition, the provision of specifically tailored and appropriate exercise programs could potentially enable increased PA in postpartum women, thereby improving their health