What Darwin could not see: island formation and historical sea levels shape genetic divergence and island biogeography in a coastal marine species

Oceanic islands play a central role in the study of evolution and island biogeography. The Galapagos Islands are one of the most studied oceanic archipelagos but research has almost exclusively focused on terrestrial organisms compared to marine species. Here we used the Galapagos bullhead shark (Heterodontus quoyi) and single nucleotide polymorphisms (SNPs) to examine evolutionary processes and their consequences for genetic divergence and island biogeography in a shallow-water marine species without larval dispersal. The sequential separation of individual islands from a central island cluster gradually established different ocean depths between islands that pose barriers to dispersal in H. quoyi. Isolation by resistance analysis suggested that ocean bathymetry and historical sea level fluctuations modified genetic connectivity. These processes resulted in at least three genetic clusters that exhibit low genetic diversity and effective population sizes that scale with island size and the level of geographic isolation. Our results exemplify that island formation and climatic cycles shape genetic divergence and biogeography of coastal marine organisms with limited dispersal comparable to terrestrial taxa. Because similar scenarios exist in oceanic islands around the globe our research provides a new perspective on marine evolution and biogeography with implications for the conservation of island biodiversity

Impurity-Induced Quasiparticle Transport and Universal Limit Wiedemann-Franz Violation in d-Wave Superconductors

Due to the node structure of the gap in a d-wave superconductor, the presence of impurities generates a finite density of quasiparticle excitations at zero temperature. Since these impurity-induced quasiparticles are both generated and scattered by impurities, prior calculations indicate a universal limit (\Omega -> 0, T -> 0) where the transport coefficients obtain scattering-independent values, depending only on the velocity anisotropy v_f/v_2. We improve upon prior results, including the contributions of vertex corrections and Fermi liquid corrections in our calculations of universal limit electrical, thermal, and spin conductivity. We find that while vertex corrections modify electrical conductivity and Fermi liquid corrections renormalize both electrical and spin conductivity, only thermal conductivity maintains its universal value, independent of impurity scattering or Fermi liquid interactions. Hence, low temperature thermal conductivity measurements provide the most direct means of obtaining the velocity anisotropy for high T_c cuprate superconductors.Comment: 22 pages, 6 figures; revised version to be published in Phys Rev

Microwave Conductivity due to Scattering from Extended Linear Defects in d-Wave Superconductors

Recent microwave conductivity measurements of detwinned, high-purity, slightly overdoped YBa$_{2}$Cu$_{3}$O$_{6.993}$ crystals reveal a linear temperature dependence and a near-Drude lineshape for temperatures between 1 and 20 K and frequencies ranging from 1 to 75 GHz. Prior theoretical work has shown that simple models of scattering by point defects (impurities) in d-wave superconductors are inconsistent with these results. It has therefore been suggested that scattering by extended defects such as twin boundary remnants, left over from the detwinning process, may also be important. We calculate the self-energy and microwave conductivity in the self-consistent Born approximation (including vertex corrections) for a d-wave superconductor in the presence of scattering from extended linear defects. We find that in the experimentally relevant limit ($\Omega, 1/\tau \ll T \ll \Delta_{0}$), the resulting microwave conductivity has a linear temperature dependence and a near-Drude frequency dependence that agrees well with experiment.Comment: 13 pages, 7 figure

Low temperature thermal conductivity in a d-wave superconductor with coexisting charge order: Effect of self-consistent disorder and vertex corrections

Given the experimental evidence of charge order in the underdoped cuprate superconductors, we consider the effect of coexisting charge order on low-temperature thermal transport in a d-wave superconductor. Using a phenomenological Hamiltonian that describes a two-dimensional system in the presence of a Q=(\pi,0) charge density wave and d-wave superconducting order, and including the effects of weak impurity scattering, we compute the self-energy of the quasiparticles within the self-consistent Born approximation, and calculate the zero-temperature thermal conductivity using linear response formalism. We find that vertex corrections within the ladder approximation do not significantly modify the bare-bubble result that was previously calculated. However, self-consistent treatment of the disorder does modify the charge-order-dependence of the thermal conductivity tensor, in that the magnitude of charge order required for the system to become effectively gapped is renormalized, generally to a smaller value.Comment: 19 pages, 15 figure

The assessment of postpartum mood disorders and its risk factors

Wstęp: Celem pracy jest ocena rozpowszechnienia zaburzeń nastroju z uwzględnieniem występowania depresji poporodowej oraz analiza czynników predysponujących do ich występowania. Materiał i metody: Grupą badaną były pacjentki Ginekologiczno-Położniczego Szpitala Klinicznego Uniwersytetu Medycznego w Poznaniu, przebywające na oddziałach poporodowych. Badanie miało charakter kwestionariuszowy. W pracy wykorzystano skalę depresji Becka, Edynburską Skalę Depresji Poporodowej (EPDS) i kwestionariusz własny. Pacjentki wypełniły anonimowy kwestionariusz i skalę depresji Becka w 1.−7. dni po porodzie (n = 184), a następnie przesłano im skalę depresji Becka oraz EPDS po 30 dniach od porodu w celu ponownej oceny nastroju. Uzyskano 41 odpowiedzi zwrotnych. Badanie uzyskało zgodę Lokalnej Komisji Bioetycznej. Wyniki: Wśród badanych pacjentek będących w 1.−7. dniu po porodzie: 11,96% uzyskało wynik świadczący o łagodnej depresji, a 0,54% o umiarkowanej według skali Becka. Po około 30 dniach od porodu wynik ten zwiększył się do 19,51% dla łagodnej i odpowiednio 2,44% dla umiarkowanej depresji. Wnioski: Na podstawie uzyskanych wyników czynnikami predysponującymi do wystąpienia zaburzeń nastroju w 1.−7. dni po porodzie były: nieplanowana ciąża, komplikacje zdrowotne podczas trwania ciąży, pobyt w szpitalu z powodu zagrożenia ciąży, epizody depresji w przeszłości oraz wystąpienie myśli rezygnacyjnych lub samobójczych w przeszłości. Wystąpienie w przeszłości stresującego wydarzenia w postaci poronienia, martwego porodu lub śmierci dziecka wiązało się z uzyskiwaniem niższych wyników w skali Becka przez badane pacjentki. W pracy nie wykazano istotnej statystycznie zależności pomiędzy uzyskanymi wynikami w skali Becka a badanymi czynnikami ocenianymi miesiąc od porodu, analizowana grupa była istotnie mniejsza (n = 41).Introduction: The aim of our study was to estimate the prevalence of mood disorders including postpartum depression and to analyze its potential risk factors. Material and methods: The patients staying in maternity wards at the Gynecological Clinical Hospital of PUMS were examined during their postpartum period. Depressive symptoms were measured using the Edinburgh Postnatal Depression Scale (EPDS), Beck Depression Inventory (BDI) and our own questionnaire. The anonymous questionnaire and BDI were filled by the patients between 1st and 7th day after the delivery (n = 184), then they were asked to fill the BDI and EPDS after 30 days of the childbed (n = 41 patients refilled the survey). The research has obtained permission of the Local Bioethical Commission. Results: During the first week of the childbed, 11.96% of the patients achieved score, which might imply they suffer from mild depression and 0.54% from major depression according to BDI. After the second examination the score increased to 19.51% and 2.44%, respectively. Conclusions: The unplanned pregnancy, health issues during the gestation, hospitalization due to pregnancy complications, no stressful factors in the past like: history of miscarriage, stillbirth or death of the child, episodes of depression in the past, suicidal ideation in the history can be bracketing the risk factors of mood disorders after 1 to 7 days of the childbed. The significant correlation between score of the BDI and the answers in the questionnaire wasn’t demonstrated after 30 days of the postpartum period, however the analyzed group was significantly lower (n = 41)

Arithmetic Expression Construction

When can $n$ given numbers be combined using arithmetic operators from a given subset of $\{+, -, \times, \div\}$ to obtain a given target number? We study three variations of this problem of Arithmetic Expression Construction: when the expression (1) is unconstrained; (2) has a specified pattern of parentheses and operators (and only the numbers need to be assigned to blanks); or (3) must match a specified ordering of the numbers (but the operators and parenthesization are free). For each of these variants, and many of the subsets of $\{+,-,\times,\div\}$, we prove the problem NP-complete, sometimes in the weak sense and sometimes in the strong sense. Most of these proofs make use of a "rational function framework" which proves equivalence of these problems for values in rational functions with values in positive integers.Comment: 36 pages, 5 figures. Full version of paper accepted to 31st International Symposium on Algorithms and Computation (ISAAC 2020

Relationship of a big five personality questionnaire to the symptoms of affective disorders

Online assessments allow cost-effective, large-scale screening for psychiatric vulnerability (e.g., university undergraduates or military recruits). However, conventional psychiatric questionnaires may worsen mental health outcomes due to overmedicalizing normal emotional reactions. Personality questionnaires designed for occupational applications could circumvent this problem as they utilise non-clinical wording and it is well-established that personality traits influence susceptibility to psychiatric illness. Here we present a brief, free-to-use occupational personality questionnaire, and test its sensitivity to symptoms of Bipolar Disorder (BD) and Major Depressive Disorder (MDD) in an online sample. Our study used a cross-sectional, self-report design to assess the relationship between self-reported symptoms of affective disorders and scores on the personality dimensions of openness, conscientiousness, extraversion, agreeableness and neuroticism. We used SEM to compare affective symptoms in 8,470 individuals (mean age 25.6 ± 7.0 years; 4,717 male) with scores on an online adaption of the TSDI, a public-domain ‘Big Five’ personality questionnaire. ROC curve analyses assessed cut off scores for the best predictors of overall vulnerability to affective disorders (represented by a composite screening score). Neuroticism was the most robust predictor of QIDS-16 depression symptoms and MDQ Hypomania symptoms (β = 0.68 and 0.39 respectively, p < .0001). Extraversion was the most robust predictor of HCL-16 Hypomania symptoms (β = 0.34, p < .0001). ROC curve analyses suggest if the TSDI was used for screening in this sample, neuroticism cut offs of approximately 58 for men and 70 for women would provide the most useful classification of overall vulnerability to affective disorders

Consequences of cathepsin C inactivation for membrane exposure of proteinase 3, the target antigen in autoimmune vasculitis

Membrane-bound proteinase 3 (PR3(m)) is the main target antigen of anti-neutrophil cytoplasmic autoantibodies (ANCA) in granulomatosis with polyangiitis, a systemic small-vessel vasculitis. Binding of ANCA to PR3(m) triggers neutrophil activation with the secretion of enzymatically active PR3 and related neutrophil serine proteases, thereby contributing to vascular damage. PR3 and related proteases are activated from pro-forms by the lysosomal cysteine protease cathepsin C (CatC) during neutrophil maturation. We hypothesized that pharmacological inhibition of CatC provides an effective measure to reduce PR3(m) and therefore has implications as a novel therapeutic approach in granulomatosis with polyangiitis. We first studied neutrophilic PR3 from 24 patients with Papillon-Lefevre syndrome (PLS), a genetic form of CatC deficiency. PLS neutrophil lysates showed a largely reduced but still detectable (0.5-4%) PR3 activity when compared with healthy control cells. Despite extremely low levels of cellular PR3, the amount of constitutive PR3(m) expressed on the surface of quiescent neutrophils and the typical bimodal membrane distribution pattern were similar to what was observed in healthy neutrophils. However, following cell activation, there was no significant increase in the total amount of PR3(m) on PLS neutrophils, whereas the total amount of PR3(m) on healthy neutrophils was significantly increased. We then explored the effect of pharmacological CatC inhibition on PR3 stability in normal neutrophils using a potent cell-permeable CatC inhibitor and a CD34(+) hematopoietic stem cell model. Human CD34(+) hematopoietic stem cells were treated with the inhibitor during neutrophil differentiation over 10 days. We observed strong reductions in PR3(m), cellular PR3 protein, and proteolytic PR3 activity, whereas neutrophil differentiation was not compromised