Parent‐offspring inference in inbred populations

Genealogical relationships are fundamental components of genetic studies. However, it is often challenging to infer correct and complete pedigrees even when genome-wide information is available. For example, inbreeding can obscure genetic differences between individuals, making it difficult to even distinguish first-degree relatives such as parent-offspring from full siblings. Similarly, genotyping errors can interfere with the detection of genetic similarity between parents and their offspring. Inbreeding is common in natural, domesticated, and experimental populations and genotyping of these populations often has more errors than in human data sets, so efficient methods for building pedigrees under these conditions are necessary. Here, we present a new method for parent-offspring inference in inbred pedigrees called specific parent-offspring relationship estimation (spore). spore is vastly superior to existing pedigree-inference methods at detecting parent-offspring relationships, in particular when inbreeding is high or in the presence of genotyping errors, or both. spore therefore fills an important void in the arsenal of pedigree inference tools

Current practices, supports, and challenges in speech-language pathology service provision for autistic preschoolers

Background: Speech-language pathology services are among the most frequently accessed services for young autistic children. Therefore, understanding the nature of these services, what challenges these clinicians face, and what supports they value is critical for developing appropriate policies and practices that can maximize positive outcomes for children and families. This study had two primary aims. The first was to examine the self-reported assessment and intervention practices of community-based Speech Language Pathologists (SLPs) and communicative disorders assistants (CDAs; who provide services under the supervision of a SLP) in supporting preschool children with suspected and diagnosed autism. The second aim was to identify barriers and supports (facilitators) to providing services in the community using the Consolidated Framework for Implementation Research (CFIR) as a framework. Methods: A cross-sectional online survey was used to collect qualitative and quantitative data from clinicians in Ontario Canada who were providing speech and language services to preschool children with suspected or diagnosed autism. Quantitative data were used to describe clinicians” practices, and qualitative data captured their perspectives on barriers and supports to providing services. Results: A total of 258 clinicians participated in the survey. On average, clinicians reported almost half of the preschoolers on their caseload had either diagnosed or suspected autism. There was consistency across the skill development areas assessed by SLPs, and targeted during therapy sessions, with the top four areas targeted being: foundational social communication, language, play and pragmatics. However, there was wide variation in speech and language assessment and intervention practices reported by this sample of clinicians (i.e., service delivery models, tools or programs used, length and duration of therapy services, level of collaboration with other professionals). Clinicians identified several barriers to providing services: limited funding and time, lack of inter-professional collaboration, difficulty accessing services, community messaging about autism services, family readiness and clinician knowledge. Supports (facilitators) include access to autism-focused professional development, inter- and intra-professional collaboration, and access to additional supports in the communit

Acrylamide in almond products

Acrylamide was determined in 86 different almond products, such as roasted almonds, almond-containing bakery products, raw almonds, and marzipan. The highest acrylamide concentrations were found in dark roasted almonds, while only moderate acrylamide contents were determined in bakery products. Roasting experiments under different process conditions showed that acrylamide increases with time and that temperature has a much stronger effect on acrylamide formation than time. During roasting reducing sugars are consumed faster and to a larger extent than free asparagine, suggesting that the content of reducing sugars may be a critical factor for acrylamide formation in roasted almonds. Acrylamide was found to decrease in roasted almonds during storage at room temperatur

Experimental evidence of parasite-induced behavioural alterations modulated by food availability in wild capuchin monkeys

In disease dynamics, host behaviour can both determine the quantity of parasites a host is exposed to, and be a consequence of infection. Observational and experimental studies in non-human primates have consistently found that parasitic infections result in less movement and reduced foraging, which was interpreted as an adaptive response of the host to counter infection. Variation in host nutritional condition may add complexity to the infection-behaviour relationship, and its influence may shed light on its significance. To experimentally evaluate how host activity and social relationships are affected by the interaction of parasitism and nutrition, during two years we manipulated food availability by provisioning bananas, and helminth infections by applying antiparasitic drugs, in two groups of wild black capuchin monkeys (Sapajus nigritus) in Iguazú National Park, Argentina. We collected faecal samples to determine the intensity of helminthic infections, as well as data on behaviour and social proximity. Individuals with unmanipulated helminth burdens foraged less than dewormed individuals only when food provisioning was low. Resting time was increased when capuchins were highly provisioned, but it did not vary according to the antiparasitic treatment. Proximity associations to other group members were not affected by the antiparasitic treatment. This is the first experimental evidence of a modulating effect of food availability on the influence of helminth infection on activity in wild primates. The findings are more consistent with an impact on host behaviour due to the debilitating effect caused by parasites than with an adaptive response to help fight infections.Fil: Agostini, Ilaria. Administración de Parques Nacionales. Parque Nacional "Nahuel Huapi"; Argentina. Consejo Nacional de Investigaciones Científicas y Técnicas. Centro Científico Tecnológico Conicet - Nordeste. Instituto de Biología Subtropical. Instituto de Biología Subtropical - Nodo Puerto Iguazú | Universidad Nacional de Misiones. Instituto de Biología Subtropical. Instituto de Biología Subtropical - Nodo Puerto Iguazú; Argentina. Centro de Investigaciones del Bosque Atlántico; ArgentinaFil: Vanderhoeven, Ezequiel Andres. Consejo Nacional de Investigaciones Científicas y Técnicas. Centro Científico Tecnológico Conicet - Nordeste. Instituto de Biología Subtropical. Instituto de Biología Subtropical - Nodo Puerto Iguazú | Universidad Nacional de Misiones. Instituto de Biología Subtropical. Instituto de Biología Subtropical - Nodo Puerto Iguazú; Argentina. Centro de Investigaciones del Bosque Atlántico; ArgentinaFil: Pfoh, Romina Vanesa. Consejo Nacional de Investigaciones Científicas y Técnicas. Centro Científico Tecnológico Conicet - Nordeste. Instituto de Biología Subtropical. Instituto de Biología Subtropical - Nodo Puerto Iguazú | Universidad Nacional de Misiones. Instituto de Biología Subtropical. Instituto de Biología Subtropical - Nodo Puerto Iguazú; Argentina. Centro de Investigaciones del Bosque Atlántico; ArgentinaFil: Tiddi, Barbara. Bristol Zoological Society; Reino UnidoFil: Beldomenico, Pablo Martín. Consejo Nacional de Investigaciones Científicas y Técnicas. Centro Científico Tecnológico - CONICET - Santa Fe. Instituto de Ciencias Veterinarias del Litoral; Argentina. Laboratorio de Ecología de Enfermedades; Argentin

Experiences Developing Safe and Fault-Tolerant Tele-Operated Service Robots. A Case Study in Shipyards

Human operators use tele-operated service robots for performing more or less hazardous operations (manipulation of heavy and/or dangerous products) in more or less hostile environments (nuclear reactors, space missions, warehouses, etc). Anyway, independently of the operation, the robot has to interact with both the environment it is working on and with human operators. Therefore, it is essential that the design (which include both software and hardware) of the robot involves no risk, or at least an acceptable level of risk, neither for the operators, nor for the environment nor for the robot itself. Nevertheless, it is not always possible to make a system free of failures in its design or operation. Apart from the risk inherent to the use of the mechanisms themselves, these systems work in hazardous environments, where the probability of the risk is higher than normal. Should a failure happen, its consequences could even involve the loss of human lives. (Neumann, 1994) documents many cases of computer-related failures, such as the Therac-25 (a radiation-therapy device), the missiles shield in Saudi Arabia, etc. Nevertheless, safety aspects are seldom included in the early phases of the system design process from the beginning, even though they are a critic aspect. Generally, safety has to conform and adapt to the already designed system and not vice versa, when it is widely known that safety involves not only the design of the software but also the hardware. Even more, a simple hardware solution can eliminate a hazard or simplify the software design in many situations.This research has been funded by the Spanish CICYT project MEDWSA (TIN2006-15175- C05-02) and the Regional Government of Murcia Séneca Program (02998-PI-05)

Providing Support for the Optimized Management of Declarative Processes

Declarative process models are becoming increasingly popular due to the high flexibility they offer to process participants. Based on a declarative process model, there exist numerous possible enactment plans, each one with specific values for relevant objective functions (e.g., overall completion time). How to actually execute such a model is quite challenging due to several reasons:(1) proper objective functions must be considered to find optimized enactment plans, (2) users often do not have an understanding of the overall process, (3) the presence of a variety of temporal constraints to be met during process enactment, and (4) the need to coordinate multiple instances of a process concurrently exe-cuted (which compete for shared resources). This is further complicated by the fact that the enactment of new process instances may continuously start over time and many organizations do not exactly know their future demands. In such con-text, to properly support users in enacting declarative process models, this paper suggests generating optimized enactment plans from declarative process models. The generated enactment plans may be used for different purposes, e.g., to pro-vide personal schedules to users. Moreover, they may be dynamically adapted if required. To evaluate the applicability of our approach in practical settings we apply it to a real process scenario from the healthcare domain

Exchange Interactions and High-Energy Spin States in Mn_12-acetate

We perform inelastic neutron scattering measurements on the molecular nanomagnet Mn_12-acetate to measure the excitation spectrum up to 45meV (500K). We isolate magnetic excitations in two groups at 5-6.5meV (60-75K) and 8-10.5meV (95-120K), with higher levels appearing only at 27meV (310K) and 31meV (360K). From a detailed characterization of the transition peaks we show that all of the low-energy modes appear to be separate S = 9 excitations above the S = 10 ground state, with the peak at 27meV (310K) corresponding to the first S = 11 excitation. We consider a general model for the four exchange interaction parameters of the molecule. The static susceptibility is computed by high-temperature series expansion and the energy spectrum, matrix elements and ground-state spin configuration by exact diagonalization. The theoretical results are matched with experimental observation by inclusion of cluster anisotropy parameters, revealing strong constraints on possible parameter sets. We conclude that only a model with dominant exchange couplings J_1 ~ J_2 ~ 5.5meV (65K) and small couplings J_3 ~ J_4 ~ 0.6meV (7K) is consistent with the experimental data.Comment: 17 pages, 12 figure

Drivers and interpretations of doctoral education today: National comparisons

Peer reviewe