Discriminant analysis of morphological characters.

<p>Discriminant analysis of morphological characters tested for their ability to distinguish between reference samples of American Toads, <i>Anaxyrus americanus</i>, and Canadian Toads, <i>A. hemiophrys</i>.</p

Sample sites in southeastern Manitoba and northwestern Ontario for collections of Canadian Toads, <i>Anaxyrus hemiophrys</i>, and American Toads, <i>A</i>. <i>americanus</i>, and their hybrids.

<p>Sample sites in southeastern Manitoba and northwestern Ontario for collections of Canadian Toads, <i>Anaxyrus hemiophrys</i>, and American Toads, <i>A</i>. <i>americanus</i>, and their hybrids.</p

Oscillation of an Anuran Hybrid Zone: Morphological Evidence Spanning 50 Years

<div><h3>Background</h3><p>The hybrid zone between the primarily forest-dwelling American toad, <em>Anaxyrus americanus</em>, and the prairie-adapted Canadian toad, <em>A. hemiophrys</em>, in southeastern Manitoba is known to have shifted its position during the past 50 years. Hybrid zones are areas of interbreeding between species and their movement across a landscape should reflect their underlying dynamics and environmental change. However, empirical demonstrations of hybrid zone movements over long periods of time are rare. This hybrid zone is dominated by individuals of intermediate morphology and genetic composition. We sought to determine if it had continued to move and if that movement was associated with shifts in habitat, as predicted.</p> <h3>Methodology/Principle Findings</h3><p>We used variation in the toads’ most diagnostic morphological feature, the separation between their interorbital cranial crests, to determine the geographic position of the hybrid zone center at four times between 1960 and 2009 using maximum likelihood methods. The hybrid zone center moved west by 38 km over 19 years and then east again by 10 km over the succeeding 29 years. The position of the hybrid zone did not track either the direction or the magnitude of movement of the forest-prairie habitat transition over the same time period.</p> <h3>Conclusions/Significance</h3><p>This is the first reported evidence of oscillation in the position of a hybrid zone. The back and forth movement indicates that neither species maintains a selective advantage over the other in the long term. However, the movement of the hybrid zone was not bounded by the breadth of the habitat transition. Its oscillation suggests that the hybrid zone is better described as being elastically tethered to the habitat transition.</p> </div

Geographic position (in degrees W longitude) of the centers of the clines in Cranial Crest Separation among toads and the forest-prairie transition in habitat in southeastern Manitoba, 1948–1909.

<p>Vertical bar length represents the time covered by each sampling period. Dark bars represent the center of the toads’ hybrid zone, connected by a dashed line. Light bars represent the center of the forest-prairie transition, connected by a solid line. Horizontal bars indicate the estimated width of the forest-prairie transition.</p

Cranial crests of Canadian Toad, <i>Anaxyrus hemiophrys</i>, and American Toad, <i>A</i>. <i>americanus</i>, illustrating the morphological measurements used in this study.

<p>Cranial crests of Canadian Toad, <i>Anaxyrus hemiophrys</i>, and American Toad, <i>A</i>. <i>americanus</i>, illustrating the morphological measurements used in this study.</p

Pair-wise tests of coincidence among morphological clines of cranial crest separation in toads.

<p>Pair-wise tests of coincidence among morphological clines of cranial crest separation in toads during different time periods, among habitat clines between forest and prairie during different time periods, and between clines in toad morphology and habitat at most closely comparable time periods. Likelihood Ratio Test (LRT) values are above the diagonal and probability (<i>P</i>) values are below the diagonal. Asterisks (*) indicate significant difference at α = 0.05. Daggers (^†) indicate significant difference following sequential Bonferroni correction for multiple independent tests.</p

Position and shape of clines in southeastern Manitoba in (A–D) cranial crest separation in samples of Canadian Toad, <i>Anaxyrus hemiophrys</i>, American Toad, <i>A</i>. <i>americanus</i>, and their hybrids at different times between1960 and 2008, and (E–F) the forest-prairie habitat transition at different times between 1948 and 2001.

<p>Dashed lines are the best fit shapes of clines. Solid lines depict likelihood profiles. The vertical line represents the position of the cline center.</p

Green and Size-Specific Synthesis of Stable Fe–Cu Oxides as Earth-Abundant Adsorbents for Malachite Green Removal

Many challenges remain for the mass production of nanoparticles for the removal of contaminants from water, primarily due to the complexity of the synthetic protocols involved and the use of hazardous reagents. Although the development of phytosynthetic methods for the green fabrication of nanomaterials have seen keen interest, there remains much scope for improvement in terms of maximizing adsorption capacity and controlling the size of the nanoparticles produced. A green and sustainable pathway is described using Virginia creeper (<i>Parthenocissus quinquefolia</i>) leaf extract in the presence of oxalic acid for the synthesis of earth abundant Fe,Cu-based nanoparticle adsorbents. This optimized green method could produce Fe,Cu-based nanoparticles with a remarkably high maximum adsorptive capacity (1399 mg g^–1) for aqueous Malachite Green (MG) removal. Furthermore, various particle sizes (between 160 and 1000 nm) were attained by simply varying the amount of oxalic acid. The synthesized adsorbent displayed other excellent characteristics, including (i) maintaining a high adsorption capacity over a wide range of pH conditions, (ii) remaining chemically stable under an ambient storage environment, and (iii) having good recycling potential, with consistent removal efficiency observed over four adsorption/desorption cycles. This work not only promotes the use of natural, earth-abundant, and renewable resources in synthesizing novel and efficient absorbents but also provides a simple, convenient, and cost-effective strategy for the purification of dye-laden wastewater

Supplementary material: Polymer-based drug-eluting stent treatment extends the time to reintervention for patients with symptomatic femoropopliteal artery disease: clinical evidence and potential economic value

These are peer-reviewed supplementary materials for the article 'Polymer-based drug-eluting stent treatment extends the time to reintervention for patients with symptomatic femoropopliteal artery disease: clinical evidence and potential economic value' published in the Journal of Comparative Effectiveness Research.Supplementary Table 1: Cost savings model input parametersSupplementary Figure 1: Estimation of the cost associated with second femoropopliteal artery interventionSupplementary Table 2: Codes used to identify revascularization procedures in Medicare data for the cost modelSupplementary Figure 2: Kaplan-Meier analysis of primary patency in IMPERIAL through 5 years, with standard errorsAim: Use long-term follow-up data from the IMPERIAL study to determine whether drug-eluting polymer based nitinol stent treatment can delay the time to repeat intervention for femoropopliteal artery disease and how such a delay may result in cost savings in a value-based episode of care. Patients & methods: The IMPERIAL randomized controlled trial was an international study of a paclitaxel-eluting polymer coated stent (Eluvia, Boston Scientific, MA, USA) versus a polymer-free paclitaxel-coated stent (Zilver PTX, Cook Corporation, IN, USA) for treating lesions of the femoropopliteal arterial segment. Study patients (n = 465) had symptomatic lower limb ischemia. Safety and efficacy assessments were performed through 5 years. Mean time to first reintervention was calculated in post-hoc analysis for patients who underwent a clinically driven target lesion revascularization (CD-TLR) through 3 or 5 years following the index procedure. To simulate potential cost savings associated with differential CD-TLR burden over time, a cost-avoidance analysis using input parameters from IMPERIAL and US 100% Medicare standard analytical files was developed. Results: Among patients with a first CD-TLR through 3 years of follow-up, mean time to reintervention was 5.5 months longer (difference 166 days, 95% CI: 51, 282 days; p = 0.0058) for patients treated with Eluvia (n = 56) than for those treated with Zilver PTX (n = 30). Through the 5-year study follow up period, CD-TLR rates were 29.3% (68/232) for Eluvia and 34.2% (39/114) for Zilver PTX (p = 0.3540) and mean time to first reintervention exceeded 2 years for patients treated with Eluvia at 737 days versus 645 days for the Zilver PTX group (difference 92 days, 95% CI: -85, 269 days; p = 0.3099). Simulated savings considering reinterventions occurring over 1 and 5 years following initial use of Eluvia over Zilver PTX were US $1,395,635 and US$1,531,795, respectively, when IMPERIAL CD-TLR rates were extrapolated to 1000 patients. Conclusion: IMPERIAL data suggest initial treatment with Eluvia extends the time patients spend without undergoing reintervention. This extension may be associated with cost savings in relevant time frames.</p

Inter- and Intra-Host Viral Diversity in a Large Seasonal DENV2 Outbreak

<div><p>Background</p><p>High genetic diversity at both inter- and intra-host level are hallmarks of RNA viruses due to the error-prone nature of their genome replication. Several groups have evaluated the extent of viral variability using different RNA virus deep sequencing methods. Although much of this effort has been dedicated to pathogens that cause chronic infections in humans, few studies investigated arthropod-borne, acute viral infections.</p><p>Methods and Principal Findings</p><p>We deep sequenced the complete genome of ten DENV2 isolates from representative classical and severe cases sampled in a large outbreak in Brazil using two different approaches. Analysis of the consensus genomes confirmed the larger extent of the 2010 epidemic in comparison to a previous epidemic caused by the same viruses in another city two years before (genetic distance = 0.002 and 0.0008 respectively). Analysis of viral populations within the host revealed a high level of conservation. After excluding homopolymer regions of 454/Roche generated sequences, we found 10 to 44 variable sites per genome population at a frequency of >1%, resulting in very low intra-host genetic diversity. While up to 60% of all variable sites at intra-host level were non-synonymous changes, only 10% of inter-host variability resulted from non-synonymous mutations, indicative of purifying selection at the population level.</p><p>Conclusions and Significance</p><p>Despite the error-prone nature of RNA-dependent RNA-polymerase, dengue viruses maintain low levels of intra-host variability.</p></div