Joint profiling of DNA methylation and chromatin architecture in single cells.

We report a molecular assay, Methyl-HiC, that can simultaneously capture the chromosome conformation and DNA methylome in a cell. Methyl-HiC reveals coordinated DNA methylation status between distal genomic segments that are in spatial proximity in the nucleus, and delineates heterogeneity of both the chromatin architecture and DNA methylome in a mixed population. It enables simultaneous characterization of cell-type-specific chromatin organization and epigenome in complex tissues

Misfit-dislocation generation by dissociated dislocations in quantum-well heterostructures

The mechanisms whereby 60° misfit dislocations are generated from dissociated threading dislocations in quantum-well heterostructures are considered. The two partial dislocations experience different misfit stresses, resulting in each partial having a different critical thickness. As a consequence, a number of different dislocation configurations are predicted, including the possibility of producing stacking faults of infinite width. © 1994 The American Physical Societ

In vitro acaricidal activity of several natural products against ibex-derived Sarcoptes scabiei

In this study we analysed the effect of the temperature, diverse strains of Bacillus thuringiensis, Lysinibacillus sphaericus and nanoformulations with essential plant oils (EONP) on the survival of Sarcoptes scabiei mites derived from naturally-infested Iberian ibex (Capra pyrenaica). In general, mites maintained at 12ºC survived more than those maintained at 35ºC (40.7 hr and 31.2 hr, respectively). Mites with no treatment survived 27.6 h on average. Mites treated with B. thuringiensis serovar. konkukian and geranium EONP showed significant reduction in their survival. Despite the fact that these agents seem to be promising candidates for controlling sarcoptic mange in the field, further research is still needed to get stable, efficient and eco-friendly acaricides

Effects of G/A polymorphism, rs266882, in the androgen response element 1 of the PSA gene on prostate cancer risk, survival and circulating PSA levels

Prostate-specific antigen (PSA) is a protease produced in the prostate that cleaves insulin-like growth factor binding protein-3 and other proteins. Production is mediated by the androgen receptor (AR) binding to the androgen response elements (ARE) in the promoter region of the PSA gene. Studies of a single nucleotide polymorphism (PSA −158 G/A, rs266882) in ARE1 of the PSA gene have been conflicting for risk of prostate cancer and effect on plasma PSA levels. In this nested case–control analysis of 500 white cases and 676 age- and smoking-matched white controls in the Physicians' Health Study we evaluated the association of rs266882 with risk and survival of prostate cancer and prediagnostic total and free PSA plasma levels, alone or in combination with AR CAG repeats. We used conditional logistic regression, linear regression and Cox regression, and found no significant associations between rs266882 (GG allele vs AA allele) and overall prostate cancer risk (RR=1.21, 95% confidence intervals (CI): 0.88–1.67) or prostate cancer-specific survival (RR=0.94, 95%CI: 0.56–1.58). Similarly, no associations were found among high grade or advanced stage tumours, or by calendar year of diagnosis. There was no significant association between rs266882 and baseline total or free PSA levels or the AR CAG repeats, nor any interaction associated with prostate cancer risk. Meta-analysis of 12 studies of rs266882 and overall prostate cancer risk was null

I just want to count them! Considerations when choosing a deer population monitoring method

Effective management of any population involves decisions based on the levels of abundance at particular points in time. Hence the choice of an appropriate method to estimate abundance is critical. Deer are not native to Australia and are a declared pest in some states where their numbers must be controlled in environmentally sensitive areas. The aim of this research was to help Australian land managers choose between widely used methods to count deer. We compared population estimates or indices from: distance sampling, aerial surveys, spotlight counts, and faecal pellet counts. For each we estimated the labour input, cost, and precision. The coefficient of variation varied with method and time of year from 8.7 to 36.6%. Total labour input per sampling event varied from 11 to 136 h. Total costs of vehicles and equipment per sampling event varied from AU$913 to$2966. Overall, the spotlight method performed the best at our study site when comparing labour input, total cost and precision. However, choice of the most precise, cost effective method will be site specific and rely on information collected from a pilot study. We provide recommendations to help land managers choose between possible methods in various circumstances

Compression-based Modelling of Musical Similarity Perception

Similarity is an important concept in music cognition research since the similarity between (parts of) musical pieces determines perception of stylistic categories and structural relationships between parts of musical works. The purpose of the present research is to develop and test models of musical similarity perception inspired by a transformational approach which conceives of similarity between two perceptual objects in terms of the complexity of the cognitive operations required to transform the representation of the first object into that of the second, a process which has been formulated in informationtheoretic terms. Specifically, computational simulations are developed based on compression distance in which a probabilistic model is trained on one piece of music and then used to predict, or compress, the notes in a second piece. The more predictable the second piece according to the model, the more efficiently it can be encoded and the greater the similarity between the two pieces. The present research extends an existing information-theoretic model of auditory expectation (IDyOM) to compute compression distances varying in symmetry and normalisation using high-level symbolic features representing aspects of pitch and rhythmic structure. Comparing these compression distances with listeners’ similarity ratings between pairs of melodies collected in three experiments demonstrates that the compression-based model provides a good fit to the data and allows the identification of representations, model parameters and compression-based metrics that best account for musical similarity perception. The compression-based model also shows comparable performance to the best-performing algorithms on the MIREX 2005 melodic similarity task

The World Amphipoda Database: history and progress

We provide an overview of the World Amphipoda Database (WAD), a global species database that is part of the World Register of Marine Species (WoRMS). Launched in 2013, the database contains entries for over 10,500 accepted species names. Edited currently by 31 amphipod taxonomists, following WoRMS priorities, the WAD has at least one editor per major group. All accepted species are checked by the editors, as is the authorship available for all of the names. The higher classification is documented for every species and a type species is recorded for every genus name. This constitutes five of the 13 priorities for completion, set by WoRMS. In 2015, five LifeWatch grants were allocated for WAD activities. These included a general training workshop in 2016, together with data input for the superfamily Lysianassoidea and for a number of non-marine groups. Philanthropy grants in 2019 and 2021 covered more important gaps across the whole group. Further work remains to complete the linking of unaccepted names, original descriptions, and environmental information. Once these tasks are completed, the database will be considered complete for 8 of the 13 priorities, and efforts will continue to input new taxa annually and focus on the remaining priorities, particularly the input of type localities. We give an overview of the current status of the order Amphipoda, providing counts of the number of genera and species within each family belonging to the six suborders currently recognized