Beyond spelling: the writing skills of higher education students with dyslexia

To have a clearer idea of the problems students with dyslexia may face during their studies, we compared writings of 100 students with dyslexia and 100 age matched control students in higher education. The aim of this study was to compare the writing of young adults with dyslexia and young adults without dyslexia. The study was carried out in Belgium with writers of Dutch. First, we studied the number and type of spelling errors, the quality of the texts produced, the use of words, and the handwriting, both in a précis writing task (writing a summary of an informative text) and in a dictation task (sentence writing). Our results showed medium to large effect sizes for spelling errors: d = .93 for morphosyntactic spelling errors, d = .55 for memory-related spelling errors, and a medium effect size for punctuation and capitalization errors, d = .40. Second, experts who were blind to the aims of the study were asked to judge the quality of the writing of both groups based on transcriptions that were free from spelling errors. The quality of the texts produced was judged lower for students with dyslexia than for the controls, d = .61 for text structure and d = .56 for agreeability, even though the number and types of words used by both groups were very much the same. There was no significant difference in the quality of the handwriting, d = .15. Given that remedial teaching has been shown to be effective for essay-writing skills, educational support along these lines may be helpful for students with dyslexia

52 Genetic Loci Influencing Myocardial Mass.

BACKGROUND: Myocardial mass is a key determinant of cardiac muscle function and hypertrophy. Myocardial depolarization leading to cardiac muscle contraction is reflected by the amplitude and duration of the QRS complex on the electrocardiogram (ECG). Abnormal QRS amplitude or duration reflect changes in myocardial mass and conduction, and are associated with increased risk of heart failure and death. OBJECTIVES: This meta-analysis sought to gain insights into the genetic determinants of myocardial mass. METHODS: We carried out a genome-wide association meta-analysis of 4 QRS traits in up to 73,518 individuals of European ancestry, followed by extensive biological and functional assessment. RESULTS: We identified 52 genomic loci, of which 32 are novel, that are reliably associated with 1 or more QRS phenotypes at p < 1 × 10(-8). These loci are enriched in regions of open chromatin, histone modifications, and transcription factor binding, suggesting that they represent regions of the genome that are actively transcribed in the human heart. Pathway analyses provided evidence that these loci play a role in cardiac hypertrophy. We further highlighted 67 candidate genes at the identified loci that are preferentially expressed in cardiac tissue and associated with cardiac abnormalities in Drosophila melanogaster and Mus musculus. We validated the regulatory function of a novel variant in the SCN5A/SCN10A locus in vitro and in vivo. CONCLUSIONS: Taken together, our findings provide new insights into genes and biological pathways controlling myocardial mass and may help identify novel therapeutic targets

Seasonal and diurnal variation in the proportions of female morphs of the damselfly Enallagma cyathigerum

In many damselfly species a female-limited colour polymorphism is encountered which is assumed to be the result of sexual conflict. Typically, one morph resembles the male's body colouration (andromorph), while the other is dissimilar (heteromorph). Little is known about the extent of temporal variation in female morph proportions at the water where mating occurs. Knowledge about such variation should help to identify the factors that affect female morph proportion and the scales at which these factors operate. The objective of this study is to assess the occurrence of diurnal and seasonal variation in female morph proportions at the water for the damselfly Enallagma cyathigerum. Diurnal variation was evaluated at six nearby populations, while seasonal variation was examined at one of these populations. Furthermore, we considered temporal variation in female morph proportion in relation to proxies of male harassment (i.e., male density and operational sex ratio). Our findings indicate that female morph proportion varies throughout a day but is uniform on a seasonal scale. Variation in female morph proportions could not be explained by concomitant variation in male density or operational sex ratio. We suggest future study of male mate choice may consider temporal variation in female morph proportions at the water.status: publishe

Seasonal and diurnal variation in the proportions of female morphs of the damselfly Enallagma cyathigerum

In many damselfly species a female-limited colour polymorphism is encountered which is assumed to be the result of sexual conflict. Typically, one morph resembles the male's body colouration (andromorph), while the other is dissimilar (heteromorph). Little is known about the extent of temporal variation in female morph proportions at the water where mating occurs. Knowledge about such variation should help to identify the factors that affect female morph proportion and the scales at which these factors operate. The objective of this study is to assess the occurrence of diurnal and seasonal variation in female morph proportions at the water for the damselfly Enallagma cyathigerum. Diurnal variation was evaluated at six nearby populations, while seasonal variation was examined at one of these populations. Furthermore, we considered temporal variation in female morph proportion in relation to proxies of male harassment (i.e., male density and operational sex ratio). Our findings indicate that female morph proportion varies throughout a day but is uniform on a seasonal scale. Variation in female morph proportions could not be explained by concomitant variation in male density or operational sex ratio. We suggest future study of male mate choice may consider temporal variation in female morph proportions at the water

Female morphs of a colour polymorphic damselfly differ in developmental instability and fecundity

Sex-limited colour polymorphism occurs in several animal taxa and is usually explained in the context of sexual selection. Specifically, for polymorphism restricted to the female sex, multiple phenotypes may have evolved in response to male harassment. Such male harassment is generally considered to entail differential costs to female morphs, which may ultimately result in fitness differences. However, contrary to this prediction, most previous studies do not support that female morphs (andromorphs and heteromorphs) differ in measures of quality and (or) fitness components. In this study, we evaluate quality and fitness differences between mated female morphs of the damselfly Enallagma cyathigerum. We suggest that many earlier studies may have failed to observe morph differences in quality or fitness because selection by male harassment was weak. Here, we selected a study population for which our expectation was that levels of per female capita male harassment were high. Nevertheless, also in this population mated female morphs did not differ in body size or condition (body mass/body length). However, mated female morphs did differ in levels of developmental instability: heteromorphs consistently showed a higher level of fluctuating asymmetry than andromorphs. Also, mated female morphs differed in fecundity: andromorphs had a lower clutch size than heteromorphs. In addition, larger females contained more eggs, but the slope of this relationship was steeper in heteromorphs. In conclusion, mated female morphs of the damselfly E. cyathigerum at our study site clearly differed in one quality estimate (developmental instability) and in our measure of fitness (fecundity). (C) Koninklijke Brill NV, Leiden, 2009.status: publishe

52 Genetic Loci Influencing Myocardial&nbsp;Mass.

BackgroundMyocardial mass is a key determinant of cardiac muscle function and hypertrophy. Myocardial depolarization leading to cardiac muscle contraction is reflected by the amplitude and duration of the QRS complex on the electrocardiogram (ECG). Abnormal QRS amplitude or duration reflect changes in myocardial mass and conduction, and are associated with increased risk of heart failure and death.ObjectivesThis meta-analysis sought to gain insights into the genetic determinants of myocardial mass.MethodsWe carried out a genome-wide association meta-analysis of 4 QRS traits in up to 73,518 individuals of European ancestry, followed by extensive biological and functional assessment.ResultsWe identified 52 genomic loci, of which 32 are novel, that are reliably associated with 1 or more QRS phenotypes at p&nbsp;&lt; 1&nbsp;× 10(-8). These loci are enriched in regions of open chromatin, histone modifications, and transcription factor binding, suggesting that they represent regions of the genome that are actively transcribed in the human heart. Pathway analyses provided evidence that these loci play a role in cardiac hypertrophy. We further highlighted 67&nbsp;candidate genes at the identified loci that are preferentially expressed in cardiac tissue and associated with cardiac abnormalities in Drosophila melanogaster and Mus musculus. We validated the regulatory function of a novel variant in the SCN5A/SCN10A locus in&nbsp;vitro and in&nbsp;vivo.ConclusionsTaken together, our findings provide new insights into genes and biological pathways controlling myocardial mass and may help identify novel therapeutic targets

U-BIOPRED clinical adult asthma clusters linked to a subset of sputum omics

Background: Asthma is a heterogeneous disease in which there is a differential response to asthma treatments. This heterogeneity needs to be evaluated so that a personalized management approach can be provided. Objectives: We stratified patients with moderate-to-severe asthma based on clinicophysiologic parameters and performed an omics analysis of sputum. Methods: Partition-around-medoids clustering was applied to a training set of 266 asthmatic participants from the European Unbiased Biomarkers for the Prediction of Respiratory Diseases Outcomes (U-BIOPRED) adult cohort using 8 prespecified clinic-physiologic variables. This was repeated in a separate validation set of 152 asthmatic patients. The clusters were compared based on sputum proteomics and transcriptomics data. Results: Four reproducible and stable clusters of asthmatic patients were identified. The training set cluster T1 consists of patients with well-controlled moderate-to-severe asthma, whereas cluster T2 is a group of patients with late-onset severe asthma with a history of smoking and chronic airflow obstruction. Cluster T3 is similar to cluster T2 in terms of chronic airflow obstruction but is composed of nonsmokers. Cluster T4 is predominantly composed of obese female patients with uncontrolled severe asthma with increased exacerbations but with normal lung function. The validation set exhibited similar clusters, demonstrating reproducibility of the classification. There were significant differences in sputum proteomics and transcriptomics between the clusters. The severe asthma clusters (T2, T3, and T4) had higher sputum eosinophilia than cluster T1, with no differences in sputum neutrophil counts and exhaled nitric oxide and serum IgE levels. Conclusion: Clustering based on clinicophysiologic parameters yielded 4 stable and reproducible clusters that associate with different pathobiological pathways