Highly prevalent but not always persistent: undergraduate and graduate student's misconceptions about psychology.

Although past research has documented the prevalence of misconceptions in introductory psychology classes, few studies have assessed how readily upper-level undergraduate and graduate students endorse erroneous beliefs about the discipline. In Study 1, we administered a 30-item misconception test to an international sample of 670 undergraduate, Master’s and doctoral students. Analyses indicated that participants identified and rejected the majority of misconceptions, with doctoral students performing better than their Master’s or undergraduate peers. In Study 2, we administered a revised version of our questionnaire to a novel sample of 557 students while controlling for number of years spent at university, psychology courses completed and need for cognition. Once again, we found that graduate students rejected more, affirmed less and reported lower levels of uncertainty than their undergraduate counterparts. Educational implications and future research directions are discussed

Molecular phylogenetics of Trypanosomatidae: contrasting results from 18S rRNA and protein phylogenies

Phylogenetic analyses of the family Trypanosomatidae have been conducted using both 18S rRNA gene sequences and a variety of protein sequences. Using a variety of phylogenetic methods, 18S rRNA phylogenies indicate that the genus Trypanosoma is not monophyletic. Rather, they suggest that the American and African trypanosomes constitute distinct clades. By contrast, phylogenetic analyses of available sequences in 42 protein families gene generally supported monophyly of the genus Trypanosoma. One possible explanation for these conflicting results is poor taxon sampling in the case of protein coding genes, most of which have been sequenced for only a few species of Trypanosomatidae

DNA repeat arrays in chicken and human genomes and the adaptive evolution of avian genome size

BACKGROUND: Birds have smaller average genome sizes than other tetrapod classes, and it has been proposed that a relatively low frequency of repeating DNA is one factor in reduction of avian genome sizes. RESULTS: DNA repeat arrays in the sequenced portion of the chicken (Gallus gallus) autosomes were quantified and compared with those in human autosomes. In the chicken 10.3% of the genome was occupied by DNA repeats, in contrast to 44.9% in human. In the chicken, the percentage of a chromosome occupied by repeats was positively correlated with chromosome length, but even the largest chicken chromosomes had repeat densities much lower than those in human, indicating that avoidance of repeats in the chicken is not confined to minichromosomes. When 294 simple sequence repeat types shared between chicken and human genomes were compared, mean repeat array length and maximum repeat array length were significantly lower in the chicken than in human. CONCLUSIONS: The fact that the chicken simple sequence repeat arrays were consistently smaller than arrays of the same type in human is evidence that the reduction in repeat array length in the chicken has involved numerous independent evolutionary events. This implies that reduction of DNA repeats in birds is the result of adaptive evolution. Reduction of DNA repeats on minichromosomes may be an adaptation to permit chiasma formation and alignment of small chromosomes. However, the fact that repeat array lengths are consistently reduced on the largest chicken chromosomes supports the hypothesis that other selective factors are at work, presumably related to the reduction of cell size and consequent advantages for the energetic demands of flight

Polymorphism at the apical membrane antigen 1 locus reflects the world population history of Plasmodium vivax

<p>Abstract</p> <p>Background</p> <p>In malaria parasites (genus <it>Plasmodium</it>), <it>ama-1 </it>is a highly polymorphic locus encoding the Apical Membrane Protein-1, and there is evidence that the polymorphism at this locus is selectively maintained. We tested the hypothesis that polymorphism at the <it>ama-1 </it>locus reflects population history in <it>Plasmodium vivax</it>, which is believed to have originated in Southeast Asia and is widely geographically distributed. In particular, we tested for a signature of the introduction of <it>P. vivax </it>into the New World at the time of the European conquest and African slave trade and subsequent population expansion.</p> <p>Results</p> <p>One hundred and five ama<it>-1 </it>sequences were generated and analyzed from samples from six different Brazilian states and compared with database sequences from the Old World. Old World populations of <it>P. vivax </it>showed substantial evidence of population substructure, with high sequence divergence among localities at both synonymous and nonsynonymous sites, while Brazilian isolates showed reduced diversity and little population substructure.</p> <p>Conclusion</p> <p>These results show that genetic diversity in <it>P. vivax </it>AMA-1 reflects population history, with population substructure characterizing long-established Old World populations, whereas Brazilian populations show evidence of loss of diversity and recent population expansion.</p> <p>Note</p> <p>Nucleotide sequence data reported is this paper are available in the GenBank™ database under the accession numbers <ext-link ext-link-type="gen" ext-link-id="EF031154">EF031154</ext-link> – <ext-link ext-link-type="gen" ext-link-id="EF031216">EF031216</ext-link> and <ext-link ext-link-type="gen" ext-link-id="EF057446">EF057446</ext-link> – <ext-link ext-link-type="gen" ext-link-id="EF05487">EF057487</ext-link></p

Reassortment of Ancient Neuraminidase and Recent Hemagglutinin in Pandemic (H1N1) 2009 Virus

Sequence analyses show that the outbreak of pandemic (H1N1) 2009 resulted from the spread of a recently derived hemagglutinin through a population of ancient and more diverse neuraminidase segments. This pattern implies reassortment and suggests that the novel form of hemagglutinin conferred a selective advantage

Experimental study of bore-driven swash hydrodynamics on permeable rough slopes

Peer reviewedPublisher PD

A genome-wide screen identifies a single β-defensin gene cluster in the chicken: implications for the origin and evolution of mammalian defensins

BACKGROUND: Defensins comprise a large family of cationic antimicrobial peptides that are characterized by the presence of a conserved cysteine-rich defensin motif. Based on the spacing pattern of cysteines, these defensins are broadly divided into five groups, namely plant, invertebrate, α-, β-, and θ-defensins, with the last three groups being mostly found in mammalian species. However, the evolutionary relationships among these five groups of defensins remain controversial. RESULTS: Following a comprehensive screen, here we report that the chicken genome encodes a total of 13 different β-defensins but with no other groups of defensins being discovered. These chicken β-defensin genes, designated as Gallinacin 1–13, are clustered densely within a 86-Kb distance on the chromosome 3q3.5-q3.7. The deduced peptides vary from 63 to 104 amino acid residues in length sharing the characteristic defensin motif. Based on the tissue expression pattern, 13 β-defensin genes can be divided into two subgroups with Gallinacin 1–7 being predominantly expressed in bone marrow and the respiratory tract and the remaining genes being restricted to liver and the urogenital tract. Comparative analysis of the defensin clusters among chicken, mouse, and human suggested that vertebrate defensins have evolved from a single β-defensin-like gene, which has undergone rapid duplication, diversification, and translocation in various vertebrate lineages during evolution. CONCLUSIONS: We conclude that the chicken genome encodes only β-defensin sequences and that all mammalian defensins are evolved from a common β-defensin-like ancestor. The α-defensins arose from β-defensins by gene duplication, which may have occurred after the divergence of mammals from other vertebrates, and θ-defensins have arisen from α-defensins specific to the primate lineage. Further analysis of these defensins in different vertebrate lineages will shed light on the mechanisms of host defense and evolution of innate immunity