Interaction of climate change with effects of conspecific and heterospecific density on reproduction

We studied the relationship between temperature and the coexistence of great titParus majorand blue titCyanistes caeruleus, breeding in 75 study plots across Europe and North Africa. We expected an advance in laying date and a reduction in clutch size during warmer springs as a general response to climate warming and a delay in laying date and a reduction in clutch size during warmer winters due to density-dependent effects. As expected, as spring temperature increases laying date advances and as winter temperature increases clutch size is reduced in both species. Density of great tit affected the relationship between winter temperature and laying date in great and blue tit. Specifically, as density of great tit increased and temperature in winter increased both species started to reproduce later. Density of blue tit affected the relationship between spring temperature and blue and great tit laying date. Thus, both species start to reproduce earlier with increasing spring temperature as density of blue tit increases, which was not an expected outcome, since we expected that increasing spring temperature should advance laying date, while increasing density should delay it cancelling each other out. Climate warming and its interaction with density affects clutch size of great tits but not of blue tits. As predicted, great tit clutch size is reduced more with density of blue tits as temperature in winter increases. The relationship between spring temperature and density on clutch size of great tits depends on whether the increase is in density of great tit or blue tit. Therefore, an increase in temperature negatively affected the coexistence of blue and great tits differently in both species. Thus, blue tit clutch size was unaffected by the interaction effect of density with temperature, while great tit clutch size was affected in multiple ways by these interactions terms.Peer reviewe

Derivation and validation of the SLE Disease Activity Score (SLE-DAS): A new SLE continuous measure with high sensitivity for changes in disease activity

OBJECTIVES: To derive and validate a new disease activity measure for systemic lupus erythematosus (SLE), the SLE Disease Activity Score (SLE-DAS), with improved sensitivity to change as compared with SLE Disease Activity Index (SLEDAI), while maintaining high specificity and easiness of use. METHODS: We studied 520 patients with SLE from two tertiary care centres (derivation and validation cohorts). At each visit, disease activity was scored using the Physician Global Assessment (PGA) and SLEDAI 2000 (SLEDAI-2K). To construct the SLE-DAS, we applied multivariate linear regression analysis in the derivation cohort, with PGA as dependent variable. The formula was validated in a different cohort through the study of: (1) correlations between SLE-DAS, PGA and SLEDAI-2K; (2) performance of SLEDAI-2K and SLE-DAS in identifying a clinically meaningful change in disease activity (\u394PGA 650.3); and (3) accuracy of SLEDAI-2K and SLE-DAS time-adjusted means in predicting damage accrual. RESULTS: The final SLE-DAS instrument included 17 items. SLE-DAS was highly correlated with PGA (r=0.875, p<0.0005) and SLEDAI-2K (r=0.943, p<0.0005) in the validation cohort. The optimal discriminative \u394SLE-DAS cut-off to detect a clinically meaningful change was 1.72. In the validation cohort, SLE-DAS showed a higher sensitivity than SLEDAI-2K (change 654) to detect a clinically meaningful improvement (89.5% vs 47.4%, p=0.008) or worsening (95.5% vs 59.1%, p=0.008), while maintaining similar specificities. SLE-DAS performed better in predicting damage accrual than SLEDAI-2K. CONCLUSION: SLE-DAS has a good construct validity and has better performance than SLEDAI-2K in identifying clinically significant changes in disease activity and in predicting damage accrua

Definition of Low Disease Activity State based on the SLE-DAS: Derivation and validation in a multicentre real-life cohort

Objectives: To derive and validate a definition of low disease activity (LDA) for systemic lupus erythematosus (SLE) based on the SLE Disease Activity Score (SLE-DAS), in a real-life multicentre cohort of SLE patients. Methods: Derivation was conducted using data from a monocentric cohort of SLE (Portugal), and validation was performed in a multicentre cohort (Italy, France, and Spain). The Lupus Low Disease Activity State (LLDAS) was used as comparator. We applied receiver operating characteristics (ROC) curve analysis against the LLDAS to determine the cut-off of SLE-DAS for LDA using bootstrap methodology. In a second step, we tested a definition of SLE-DAS LDA that included: (i) the statistically derived SLE-DAS upper threshold for LDA, and (ii) prednisone dose 647.5\u2009mg/day. In the multicentre validation cohort, we assessed the classification performance of this SLE-DAS LDA definition. Results: We included 774 patients, 300 in the derivation and 474 in the validation cohorts, respectively. In the derivation cohort, the optimal cut-off to identify patients in LLDAS was SLE-DAS 642.48, presenting an area under the curve (AUC) of 0.965 (95%CI 0.935-0.994). When applied to the multicentre validation cohort, the SLE-DAS LDA definition showed a sensitivity of 97.1% and a specificity of 97.7% for LLDAS and an almost perfect agreement (Cohen's Kappa =0.933; p< 0.001). McNemar's test found no significant differences between the two definitions (p= 0.092). Conclusion: The SLE-DAS LDA is a validated, accurate, and easy-to-use definition for classifying SLE patients in LDA state

Legal Philosophy in the Twentieth Century: The Civil Law World. Tome 1: Language Areas. Tome 2: Main Orientations and Topics

"A Treatise of Legal Philosophy and General Jurisprudence" is the first-ever treatment of issues in legal philosophy and general jurisprudence in a single multivolume work offering a perspective at once theoretical and historical. Volume 12 of the Treatise, titled "Legal Philosophy in the Twentieth Century: The Civil-Law World" is a two-tome volume offering the first comprehensive account of the complex development that legal philosophy has undergone in continental Europe and Latin America since 1900. In Tome 1 of this volume, scholars from the different language areas making up the civil-law world give an account of the way legal philosophy has evolved in these areas in the 20th century, the outcome being an overall mosaic of civil-law legal philosophy in this arc of time. Tome 2, which instead takes a more thematic approach, traces out the development that legal philosophy has undergone in the 20th century, focusing on four of its main strands (namely, legal positivism, legal realism, natural law theory, and the theory of legal reasoning) and discussing the different conceptions that have been put forward under these labels. The volume is thus structured in such a way that the historical analysis can be viewed in light of the subsequent developments in the contemporary theoretical debate

Permanent Genetic Resources added to Molecular Ecology Resources Database 1 April 2013-31 May 2013

This article documents the addition of 234 microsatellite marker loci to the Molecular Ecology Resources Database. Loci were developed for the following species: Acipenser sinensis, Aleochara bilineata, Aleochara bipustulata, Barbus meridionalis, Colossoma macropomum, Delia radicum, Drosophila nigrosparsa, Fontainea picrosperma, Helianthemum cinereum, Liomys pictus, Megabalanus azoricus, Pelteobagrus vachelli, Pleuragramma antarcticum, Podarcis hispanica type 1A, Sardinella brasiliensis and Sclerotinia homoeocarpa. These loci were cross-tested on the following species: Acipenser dabryanus, Barbus balcanicus, Barbus barbus, Barbus cyclolepis, Drosophila hydei, Drosophila melanogaster, Drosophila obscura, Drosophila subobscura, Fontainea australis, Fontainea fugax, Fontainea oraria, Fontainea rostrata, Fontainea venosa, Podarcis bocagei, Podarcis carbonelli, Podarcis liolepis, Podarcis muralis and Podarcis vaucheri

Permanent Genetic Resources added to Molecular Ecology Resources Database 1 April 2013-31 May 2013

This article documents the addition of 234 microsatellite marker loci to the Molecular Ecology Resources Database. Loci were developed for the following species: Acipenser sinensis, Aleochara bilineata, Aleochara bipustulata, Barbus meridionalis, Colossoma macropomum, Delia radicum, Drosophila nigrosparsa, Fontainea picrosperma, Helianthemum cinereum, Liomys pictus, Megabalanus azoricus, Pelteobagrus vachelli, Pleuragramma antarcticum, Podarcis hispanica type 1A, Sardinella brasiliensis and Sclerotinia homoeocarpa. These loci were cross-tested on the following species: Acipenser dabryanus, Barbus balcanicus, Barbus barbus, Barbus cyclolepis, Drosophila hydei, Drosophila melanogaster, Drosophila obscura, Drosophila subobscura, Fontainea australis, Fontainea fugax, Fontainea oraria, Fontainea rostrata, Fontainea venosa, Podarcis bocagei, Podarcis carbonelli, Podarcis liolepis, Podarcis muralis and Podarcis vaucheri