Australian Sphingidae – DNA Barcodes Challenge Current Species Boundaries and Distributions

© 2014 Rougerie et al. This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License, which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original author and source are credited. The attached file is the published version of the article

Tumour seeding in the tract of percutaneous renal tumour biopsy: A report on seven cases from a UK tertiary referral centre

The role of percutaneous renal tumour biopsy (RTB) in the management of radiological indeterminate renal masses is long established. Patients with small renal masses who have biopsy-proven renal cell carcinoma (RCC) may be offered surgery, ablative therapy, or active surveillance, and RTB can provide diagnostic tissue from patients with metastatic disease who might benefit from systemic therapy. Current guidelines suggest that tumour seeding along the needle tract is anecdotal, but several cases have been reported recently, although some have been associated with lack of a coaxial sheath. We report on seven patients who underwent surgical resection of RCC in our tertiary referral institution following diagnostic RTB between 2014 and 2017 for whom RTB tract seeding by tumour was identified on histological examination of the resection specimen. One of these patients subsequently developed local tumour recurrence at the site of the previous biopsy

Distribution, Abundance and Molecular Analysis of Genus Barbadocladius Cranston & Krosch (Diptera, Chironomidae) in Tropical, High Altitude Andean Streams and Rivers

The distribution of the genus Barbadocladius Cranston & Krosch (Diptera: Chironomidae), previously reported from Chile to Bolivia, has extended northwards. Larvae, pupae and pupal exuviae of this genus have been found in the high mountain tropical streams of Peru to 9°22′56″, but are restricted to very high altitude streams (altitudes over 3,278 m asl) compared to the lower altitude streams (below 1,100 m asl) in which the genus is reported in Chile and Argentina. Based on morphological studies, both described species in the genus, Barbadocladius andinus Cranston & Krosch and Barbadocladius limay Cranston & Krosch, have been found in Peru as pupae or pupal exuviae. Morphological analysis of the larvae and pupae revealed no differences between the two described species from Patagonia and Peru, which are of similar size and with a similar armament of hooklets and spines in pupal tergites and sternites. However, molecular analysis of larvae and pupae revealed that in Peru, there are at least two different evolutionary lines, one distributed widely and another restricted to one site. Phylogenetic analysis (using cox1 mitochondrial sequences) of all available sequences of Barbadocladius shows that the Chilean and Argentinean material differs from that of Peru. Therefore, a total of four molecular segregates are identified, although morphologically, neither larvae nor the pupae may be differentiated

Impaired hypoglycaemia awareness in type 1 diabetes:lessons from the lab

Hypoglycaemia remains the most common metabolic adverse effect of insulin and sulfonylurea therapy in diabetes. Repeated exposure to hypoglycaemia leads to a change in the symptom complex that characterises hypoglycaemia, culminating in a clinical phenomenon referred to as impaired awareness of hypoglycaemia (IAH). IAH effects approximately 20–25% of people with type 1 diabetes and increases the risk of severe hypoglycaemia. This review focuses on the mechanisms that are responsible for the much higher frequency of hypoglycaemia in people with diabetes compared with those without, and subsequently how repeated exposure to hypoglycaemia leads to the development of IAH. The mechanisms that result in IAH development are incompletely understood and likely to reflect changes in multiple aspects of the counterregulatory response to hypoglycaemia, from adaptations within glucose and non-glucose-sensing cells to changes in the integrative networks that govern glucose homeostasis. Finally, we propose that the general process that incorporates many of these changes and results in IAH following recurrent hypoglycaemia is a form of adaptive memory called ‘habituation’

Discovery of a single male Aedes aegypti (L.) in Merseyside, England

© The Author(s). 2017. This article is distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/), which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided you give appropriate credit to the original author(s) and the source, provide a link to the Creative Commons license, and indicate if changes were made. The Creative Commons Public Domain Dedication waiver (http://creativecommons.org/publicdomain/zero/1.0/) applies to the data made available in this article, unless otherwise stated. The file attached is the published (publishers PDF) version of the article

Intraregional variability in chironomid-inferred temperature estimates and the influence of river inundations on lacustrine chironomid assemblages.

Floodplain lakes are rarely analysed for fossil chironomids and usually not incorporated in modern chironomid-climate calibration datasets because of the potential complex hydrological processes that could result from flooding of the lakes. In order to investigate this potential influence of river inundations on fossil chironomid assemblages, 13 regularly inundated lakes and 20 lakes isolated from riverine influence were sampled and their surface sediments analysed for subfossil chironomid assemblages. The physical and chemical settings of all lakes were similar, although the variation in the environmental variables was higher in the lakes isolated from riverine influence. Chironomid concentration and taxon richness show significant differences between the two classes of lakes, and the variation in these variables is best explained by loss-on-ignition of the sediments (LOI). Relative chironomid abundances show some differences between the two groups of lakes, with several chironomid taxa occurring preferentially in one of the two lake-types. The variability in chironomid assemblages is also best explained by LOI. Application of a chironomid-temperature inference model shows that both types of lakes reconstruct July air temperatures that are equal to, or slightly underestimating, the measured temperature of the region. We conclude that, although there are some differences between the chironomid assemblages of floodplain lakes and of isolated lakes, these differences do not have a major effect on chironomid-based temperature reconstruction. © 2007 Springer Science+Business Media B.V

Twisting of light around rotating black holes

Kerr black holes are among the most intriguing predictions of Einstein's general relativity theory. These rotating massive astrophysical objects drag and intermix their surrounding space and time, deflecting and phase-modifying light emitted nearby them. We have found that this leads to a new relativistic effect that imposes orbital angular momentum onto such light. Numerical experiments, based on the integration of the null geodesic equations of light from orbiting point-like sources in the Kerr black hole equatorial plane to an asymptotic observer, indeed identify the phase change and wavefront warping and predict the associated light-beam orbital angular momentum spectra. Setting up the best existing telescopes properly, it should be possible to detect and measure this twisted light, thus allowing a direct observational demonstration of the existence of rotating black holes. Since non-rotating objects are more an exception than a rule in the Universe, our findings are of fundamental importance.Comment: Article: 18 pages (11 pages in form of an Appendix). Total number of figures:

West Nile virus vector Culex modestus established in southern England

Background: The risk posed to the United Kingdom by West Nile virus (WNV) has previously been considered low, due to the absence or scarcity of the main Culex sp. bridge vectors. The mosquito Culex modestus is widespread in southern Europe, where it acts as the principle bridge vector of WNV. This species was not previously thought to be present in the United Kingdom. Findings: Mosquito larval surveys carried out in 2010 identified substantial populations of Cx. modestus at two sites in marshland in southeast England. Host-seeking-adult traps placed at a third site indicate that the relative seasonal abundance of Cx. modestus peaks in early August. DNA barcoding of these specimens from the United Kingdom and material from southern France confirmed the morphological identification. Conclusions: Cx. modestus appears to be established in the North Kent Marshes, possibly as the result of a recent introduction. The addition of this species to the United Kingdom’s mosquito fauna may increase the risk posed to the United Kingdom by WNV