Clinical outcomes of percutaneous coronary intervention in patients turned down for surgical revascularization

Peer Reviewedhttps://deepblue.lib.umich.edu/bitstream/2027.42/137727/1/ccd26781_am.pdfhttps://deepblue.lib.umich.edu/bitstream/2027.42/137727/2/ccd26781.pd

Early Cenozoic denudation of central west Britain in response to transient and permanent uplift above a mantle plume

Upwelling mantle plumes beneath continental crust are predicted to produce difficult to quantify, modest uplift and denudation. The contribution of permanent and transient components to the uplift is also difficult to distinguish. A pulse of denudation in Britain in the Early Paleogene has been linked, although with some controversy, with the arrival of the proto-Iceland mantle plume. In this contribution we show that combining apatite and zircon (U-Th-Sm)/He and apatite fission track analyses from central west Britain with numerical modeling clearly identifies a pulse of early Cenozoic denudation. The data indicate that rock uplift and denudation were centered on the northern East Irish Sea Basin and 1.0–2.4 km of rocks were removed during the latest Cretaceous-early Paleogene. Uplift and erosion appears to have started a few million years before the earliest magmatism in the region. The regional denudation pattern mirrors the distribution of low-density magmatic rocks that has been imaged in the deep crust. However, the injection of the underplating melt is not enough to account for the total denudation. An additional regional uplift of at least 300 m is required, which is consistent with a transient thermal effect from the hot mantle plume. The rapid exhumation event ceased by ~40 Ma and the data do not require significant Neogene exhumation

Neuropsychological patterns following lesions of the anterior insula in a series of forty neurosurgical patients

In the present study we investigated the effects of lesions affecting mainly the anterior insula in a series of 22 patients with lesions in the left hemisphere (LH), and 18 patients with lesions involving the right hemisphere (RH). The site of the lesion was established by performing an overlap of the probabilistic cytoarchitectonic maps of the posterior insula. Here we report the patients\u2019 neuropsychological profile and an analysis of their pre-surgical symptoms. We found that pre-operatory symptoms significantly differed in patients depending on whether the lesion affected the right or left insula and a strict parallelism between the patterns emerged in the pre-surgery symptoms analysis, and the patients\u2019 cognitive profile. In particular, we found that LH patients showed cognitive deficits. By contrast, the RH patients, with the exception of one case showing an impaired performance at the visuo-spatial planning test were within the normal range in performing all the tests. In addition, a sub-group of patients underwent to the post-surgery follow-up examination

Green turtles (Chelonia mydas) foraging at Arvoredo Island in Southern Brazil: Genetic characterization and mixed stock analysis through mtDNA control region haplotypes

We analyzed mtDNA control region sequences of green turtles (Chelonia mydas) from Arvoredo Island, a foraging ground in southern Brazil, and identified eight haplotypes. Of these, CM-A8 (64%) and CM-A5 (22%) were dominant, the remainder presenting low frequencies (< 5%). Haplotype (h) and nucleotide (π) diversities were 0.5570 ± 0.0697 and 0.0021 ± 0.0016, respectively. Exact tests of differentiation and AMOVA ΦST pairwise values between the study area and eight other Atlantic foraging grounds revealed significant differences in most areas, except Ubatuba and Rocas/Noronha, in Brazil (p > 0.05). Mixed Stock Analysis, incorporating eleven Atlantic and one Mediterranean rookery as possible sources of individuals, indicated Ascension and Aves islands as the main contributing stocks to the Arvoredo aggregation (68.01% and 22.96%, respectively). These results demonstrate the extensive relationships between Arvoredo Island and other Atlantic foraging and breeding areas. Such an understanding provides a framework for establishing adequate management and conservation strategies for this endangered species

Refining transcriptional regulatory networks using network evolutionary models and gene histories

<p>Abstract</p> <p>Background</p> <p>Computational inference of transcriptional regulatory networks remains a challenging problem, in part due to the lack of strong network models. In this paper we present evolutionary approaches to improve the inference of regulatory networks for a family of organisms by developing an evolutionary model for these networks and taking advantage of established phylogenetic relationships among these organisms. In previous work, we used a simple evolutionary model and provided extensive simulation results showing that phylogenetic information, combined with such a model, could be used to gain significant improvements on the performance of current inference algorithms.</p> <p>Results</p> <p>In this paper, we extend the evolutionary model so as to take into account gene duplications and losses, which are viewed as major drivers in the evolution of regulatory networks. We show how to adapt our evolutionary approach to this new model and provide detailed simulation results, which show significant improvement on the reference network inference algorithms. Different evolutionary histories for gene duplications and losses are studied, showing that our adapted approach is feasible under a broad range of conditions. We also provide results on biological data (<it>cis</it>-regulatory modules for 12 species of <it>Drosophila</it>), confirming our simulation results.</p

Omanicotyle heterospina n. gen. et n. comb. (Monogenea: Microcotylidae) from the gills of Argyrops spinifer (Forsskal) (Teleostei: Sparidae) from the Sea of Oman

Background: The Sultanate of Oman's aquaculture industry is expanding with an on-going assessment of potential new fish species for culture. The king soldier bream, Argyrops spinifer (Forssk&aring;l) (Sparidae), is one such species that is under consideration. During a routine health assessment of specimens caught in the Sea of Oman throughout the period November 2009 to March 2011, a number of gill polyopisthocotylean monogeneans were recovered. Methods: A subsequent study of the monogeneans using a range of morphology-based approaches indicated that these were Bivagina heterospina Mamaev et Parukhin, 1974. In the absence of pre-existing molecular data, an expanded description of this species is provided, including a differential diagnosis with other species and genera belonging to the subfamily Microcotylinae Monticelli, 1892 with the subsequent movement of this species to a new genus to accommodate it. Results: The polyopisthocotyleans collected from the gills of A. spinifer appear to be unique within the family Microcotylidae Taschenberg, 1879 in that, morphologically, they possess a pair of large, muscular vaginae each armed with a full crown of 16-18 robust spines and a unique dorsal region of folded tegument, which permits their discrimination from species of Bivagina Yamaguti, 1963. Sequencing of the SSU rDNA (complete 1968 bp) and LSU rDNA (partial 949 bp) places the specimens collected during this study within the subfamily Microcotylinae, but the LSU rDNA sequence differs from Bivagina and also from other microcotylid genera. Morphological features of B. heterospina sensu Mamaev et Parukhin, 1974 and the specimens collected from the current study are consistent with one another and represent a single species. The vaginal armature of these worms is unique and differs from all other genera within the Microcotylinae, including Bivagina, and its movement to Omanicotyle n. gen. to accommodate this species is proposed. Conclusions: A new genus, Omanicotyle n. gen., is erected to accommodate Omanicotyle [Bivagina] heterospina n. comb. which represents the first monogenean to be described from Omani marine waters. Given the pathogenic potential of microcotylids on captive held fish stocks, a full assessment of Omanicotyle heterospina n. gen. et n. comb. is now required before large-scale production commences

Haptic Edge Detection Through Shear

Most tactile sensors are based on the assumption that touch depends on measuring pressure. However, the pressure distribution at the surface of a tactile sensor cannot be acquired directly and must be inferred from the deformation field induced by the touched object in the sensor medium. Currently, there is no consensus as to which components of strain are most informative for tactile sensing. Here, we propose that shape-related tactile information is more suitably recovered from shear strain than normal strain. Based on a contact mechanics analysis, we demonstrate that the elastic behavior of a haptic probe provides a robust edge detection mechanism when shear strain is sensed. We used a jamming-based robot gripper as a tactile sensor to empirically validate that shear strain processing gives accurate edge information that is invariant to changes in pressure, as predicted by the contact mechanics study. This result has implications for the design of effective tactile sensors as well as for the understanding of the early somatosensory processing in mammals

Molecular Phylogenetic Evaluation of Classification and Scenarios of Character Evolution in Calcareous Sponges (Porifera, Class Calcarea)

Calcareous sponges (Phylum Porifera, Class Calcarea) are known to be taxonomically difficult. Previous molecular studies have revealed many discrepancies between classically recognized taxa and the observed relationships at the order, family and genus levels; these inconsistencies question underlying hypotheses regarding the evolution of certain morphological characters. Therefore, we extended the available taxa and character set by sequencing the complete small subunit (SSU) rDNA and the almost complete large subunit (LSU) rDNA of additional key species and complemented this dataset by substantially increasing the length of available LSU sequences. Phylogenetic analyses provided new hypotheses about the relationships of Calcarea and about the evolution of certain morphological characters. We tested our phylogeny against competing phylogenetic hypotheses presented by previous classification systems. Our data reject the current order-level classification by again finding non-monophyletic Leucosolenida, Clathrinida and Murrayonida. In the subclass Calcinea, we recovered a clade that includes all species with a cortex, which is largely consistent with the previously proposed order Leucettida. Other orders that had been rejected in the current system were not found, but could not be rejected in our tests either. We found several additional families and genera polyphyletic: the families Leucascidae and Leucaltidae and the genus Leucetta in Calcinea, and in Calcaronea the family Amphoriscidae and the genus Ute. Our phylogeny also provided support for the vaguely suspected close relationship of several members of Grantiidae with giantortical diactines to members of Heteropiidae. Similarly, our analyses revealed several unexpected affinities, such as a sister group relationship between Leucettusa (Leucaltidae) and Leucettidae and between Leucascandra (Jenkinidae) and Sycon carteri (Sycettidae). According to our results, the taxonomy of Calcarea is in desperate need of a thorough revision, which cannot be achieved by considering morphology alone or relying on a taxon sampling based on the current classification below the subclass level

Efficient Coding and Statistically Optimal Weighting of Covariance among Acoustic Attributes in Novel Sounds

To the extent that sensorineural systems are efficient, redundancy should be extracted to optimize transmission of information, but perceptual evidence for this has been limited. Stilp and colleagues recently reported efficient coding of robust correlation (r = .97) among complex acoustic attributes (attack/decay, spectral shape) in novel sounds. Discrimination of sounds orthogonal to the correlation was initially inferior but later comparable to that of sounds obeying the correlation. These effects were attenuated for less-correlated stimuli (r = .54) for reasons that are unclear. Here, statistical properties of correlation among acoustic attributes essential for perceptual organization are investigated. Overall, simple strength of the principal correlation is inadequate to predict listener performance. Initial superiority of discrimination for statistically consistent sound pairs was relatively insensitive to decreased physical acoustic/psychoacoustic range of evidence supporting the correlation, and to more frequent presentations of the same orthogonal test pairs. However, increased range supporting an orthogonal dimension has substantial effects upon perceptual organization. Connectionist simulations and Eigenvalues from closed-form calculations of principal components analysis (PCA) reveal that perceptual organization is near-optimally weighted to shared versus unshared covariance in experienced sound distributions. Implications of reduced perceptual dimensionality for speech perception and plausible neural substrates are discussed

Using complementary techniques to distinguish cryptic species: A new Erysimum (Brassicaceae) species from North Africa

&bull; Premise of the study : Cryptic species are superfi cially morphologically indistinguishable and therefore erroneously classifi ed under one single name. The identifi cation and delimitation of these species is usually a diffi cult task. The main aim of this study is to provide an inclusive methodology that combines standard and new tools to allow accurate identifi cation of cryptic species. We used Erysimum nervosum s.l. as a model system. &bull; Methods : Four populations belonging to E. nervosum s.l. were sampled at their two distribution ranges in Morocco (the Atlas Mountains and the Rif Mountains). Fifteen individuals per population were collected to assess standard taxonomic traits. Additionally, corolla color and shape were quantifi ed in 30 individuals per population using spectrophotometry and geometric morphometrics, respectively. Finally, we collected tissue samples from each population per species to study the phylogenetic relationships among them. &bull; Key results : Using the standard taxonomic traits, we could not distinguish the four populations. Nonetheless, there were differences in corolla color and shape between plants from the two mountain ranges. The population differentiation based on quantitative morphological differences were confi rmed and supported by the phylogenetic relationships obtained for these populations and the rest of the Moroccan Erysimum species. &bull; Conclusions : The joint use of the results obtained from standard taxonomic traits, quantitative analyses of plant phenotype, and molecular data suggests the occurrence of two species within E. nervosum s.l. in Morocco, one located in the Atlas Mountains ( E. nervosum s.s.) and the other in the Rif Mountains ( E. riphaeanum sp. nov.). Consequently, we suggest that combining quantitative and molecular approaches with standard taxonomy greatly benefi ts the identifi cation of cryptic species