Middleborns disadvantaged? testing birth-order effects on fitness in pre-industrial finns

Parental investment is a limited resource for which offspring compete in order to increase their own survival and reproductive success. However, parents might be selected to influence the outcome of sibling competition through differential investment. While evidence for this is widespread in egg-laying species, whether or not this may also be the case in viviparous species is more difficult to determine. We use pre-industrial Finns as our model system and an equal investment model as our null hypothesis, which predicts that (all else being equal) middleborns should be disadvantaged through competition. We found no overall evidence to suggest that middleborns in a family are disadvantaged in terms of their survival, age at first reproduction or lifetime reproductive success. However, when considering birth-order only among same-sexed siblings, first-, middle-and lastborn sons significantly differed in the number of offspring they were able to rear to adulthood, although there was no similar effect among females. Middleborn sons appeared to produce significantly less offspring than first-or lastborn sons, but they did not significantly differ from lastborn sons in the number of offspring reared to adulthood. Our results thus show that taking sex differences into account is important when modelling birth-order effects. We found clear evidence of firstborn sons being advantaged over other sons in the family, and over firstborn daughters. Therefore, our results suggest that parents invest differentially in their offspring in order to both preferentially favour particular offspring or reduce offspring inequalities arising from sibling competition

Hybridisation and chloroplast capture between distinct Themeda triandra lineages in Australia

Ecotypes are distinct populations within a species that are adapted to specific environmental conditions. Understanding how these ecotypes become established, and how they interact when reunited, is fundamental to elucidating how ecological adaptations are maintained. This study focuses on Themeda triandra, a dominant grassland species across Asia, Africa and Australia. It is the most widespread plant in Australia, where it has distinct ecotypes that are usually restricted to either wetter and cooler coastal regions or the drier and hotter interior. We generate a reference genome for T. triandra and use whole genome sequencing for over 80 Themeda accessions to reconstruct the evolutionary history of T. triandra and related taxa. Organelle phylogenies confirm that Australia was colonized by T. triandra twice, with the division between ecotypes predating their arrival in Australia. The nuclear genome provides evidence of differences in the dominant ploidal level and gene-flow among the ecotypes. In northern Queensland there appears to be a hybrid zone between ecotypes with admixed nuclear genomes and shared chloroplast haplotypes. Conversely, in the cracking claypans of Western Australia, there is cytonuclear discordance with individuals possessing the coastal chloroplast and interior clade nuclear genome. This chloroplast capture is potentially a result of adaptive introgression, with selection detected in the rpoC2 gene which is associated with water use efficiency. The reason that T. triandra is the most widespread plant in Australia appears to be a result of distinct ecotypic genetic variation and genome duplication, with the importance of each depending on the geographic scale considered

Irradiation of the potential cancer stem cell niches in the adult brain improves progression-free survival of patients with malignant glioma

<p>Abstract</p> <p>Background</p> <p>Glioblastoma is the most common brain tumor in adults. The mechanisms leading to glioblastoma are not well understood but animal studies support that inactivation of tumor suppressor genes in neural stem cells (NSC) is required and sufficient to induce glial cancers. This suggests that the NSC niches in the brain may harbor cancer stem cells (CSCs), Thus providing novel therapy targets. We hypothesize that higher radiation doses to these NSC niches improve patient survival by eradicating CSCs.</p> <p>Methods</p> <p>55 adult patients with Grade 3 or Grade 4 glial cancer treated with radiotherapy at UCLA between February of 2003 and May of 2009 were included in this retrospective study. Using radiation planning software and patient radiological records, the SVZ and SGL were reconstructed for each of these patients and dosimetry data for these structures was calculated.</p> <p>Results</p> <p>Using Kaplan-Meier analysis we show that patients whose bilateral subventricular zone (SVZ) received greater than the median SVZ dose (= 43 Gy) had a significant improvement in progression-free survival if compared to patients who received less than the median dose (15.0 vs 7.2 months PFS; P = 0.028). Furthermore, a mean dose >43 Gy to the bilateral SVZ yielded a hazard ratio of 0.73 (P = 0.019). Importantly, similarly analyzing total prescription dose failed to illustrate a statistically significant impact.</p> <p>Conclusions</p> <p>Our study leads us to hypothesize that in glioma targeted radiotherapy of the stem cell niches in the adult brain could yield significant benefits over radiotherapy of the primary tumor mass alone and that damage caused by smaller fractions of radiation maybe less efficiently detected by the DNA repair mechanisms in CSCs.</p

Evolution of Reproductive Morphology in Leaf Endophytes

The endophytic lifestyle has played an important role in the evolution of the morphology of reproductive structures (body) in one of the most problematic groups in fungal classification, the Leotiomycetes (Ascomycota). Mapping fungal morphologies to two groups in the Leiotiomycetes, the Rhytismatales and Hemiphacidiaceae reveals significant divergence in body size, shape and complexity. Mapping ecological roles to these taxa reveals that the groups include endophytic fungi living on leaves and saprobic fungi living on duff or dead wood. Finally, mapping of the morphologies to ecological roles reveals that leaf endophytes produce small, highly reduced fruiting bodies covered with fungal tissue or dead host tissue, while saprobic species produce large and intricate fruiting bodies. Intriguingly, resemblance between asexual conidiomata and sexual ascomata in some leotiomycetes implicates some common developmental pathways for sexual and asexual development in these fungi

Disability in young adults following major trauma: 5 year follow up of survivors

BACKGROUND: Injuries are a major cause of mortality and morbidity in young people. Despite this, the long-term consequences for young survivors of severe injury are relatively unexplored. METHODS: Population based cohort study involving 5 year post injury structured interview of all cases of major trauma (Injury Severity Score > 15) identified retrospectively for 12 month period (1988 to 1989) within former Yorkshire Health Authority area of the United Kingdom. RESULTS: 125 individuals aged 11–24 years at time of injury were identified. Of these, 109 (87%) were interviewed. Only 20% (95% CI 14–29%) of those interviewed reported no disability. Mean Office of Population Census and Surveys (OPCS) disability score of the remainder was 7.5 (median 5.8, range 0.5 to 19.4). The most commonly encountered areas of disability were behaviour (54%, 95% CI 45–63%), intellectual functioning (39%, 95% CI 31–49%) and locomotion (29%, 95% CI 22–39%). Many respondents reported that their daily lives were adversely affected by their health problems for example, causing problems with work, 54% (95% CI 45–63%), or looking after the home, 28% (95% CI 21–38%). Higher OPCS scores were usually but not always associated with greater impact on daily activities. The burden of caring responsibilities fell largely on informal carers. 51% (95% CI 42–61%) of those interviewed would have liked additional help to cope with their injury and disability. CONCLUSION: The study has revealed significant disability amongst a cohort of young people 5 years post severe injury. Whilst many of these young people were coping well with the consequences of their injuries, others reported continuing problems with the activities of daily life. The factors underpinning the young people's differing experiences and social outcome should be explored

Neck dissection and post-operative chemotherapy with dimethyl triazeno imidazole carboxamide and cisplatin protocol are useful for oral mucosal melanoma

<p>Abstract</p> <p>Background</p> <p>Oral mucosal melanoma (OMM) is a clinically rare disease with poor prognosis. Various treatment methods have been investigated with the aim of improving the prognosis. This study aimed to analyze the data of a single institution in the management of OMM.</p> <p>Methods</p> <p>A total of 78 consecutive OMM patients were included in this retrospective study. The intraoral lesion was treated either by cryotherapy, surgery or both; the neck was treated by neck dissection or observation; post-operative chemotherapy with dimethyl triazeno imidazole carboxamide and cisplatin was performed in some patients. The Kaplan-Meier method was used for statistical analysis.</p> <p>Results</p> <p>Among the 78 patients, there were 50 males and 28 females with an average age of 53.8 years (ranging from 27 to 85 years). The most common sites of OMM were the hard palate and gingiva. The main cause of death in OMM was distant metastasis. No significant difference was found between the intraoral/cervical lesion recurrence/post-operative distant metastasis and the intraoral lesion site/biopsy method/treatment method. The metastasis rate of cervical lymph node was high in the OMM patients, even in the patients with clinically negative necks. Cervical lesion recurrence was correlated with N stage and intraoral lesion recurrence. The survival period was longer in the patients with T3 staging, clinical stage III disease, with post-operative chemotherapy and without post-operative distant metastasis when compared to those patients with T4a staging, clinical stage IV disease, without post-operative chemotherapy and with post-operative distant metastasis.</p> <p>Conclusions</p> <p>Radical surgery including wide intraoral resection and neck dissection is recommended for OMM patients. Post-operative chemotherapy may also be beneficial for both primary and recurrent OMM patients.</p

Wave-of-Advance Models of the Diffusion of the Y Chromosome Haplogroup R1b1b2 in Europe

Whether or not the spread of agriculture in Europe was accompanied by movements of people is a long-standing question in archeology and anthropology, which has been frequently addressed with the help of population genetic data. Estimates on dates of expansion and geographic origins obtained from genetic data are however sensitive to the calibration of mutation rates and to the mathematical models used to perform inference. For instance, recent data on the Y chromosome haplogroup R1b1b2 (M269) have either suggested a Neolithic origin for European paternal lineages or a more ancient Paleolithic origin depending on the calibration of Y-STR mutation rates. Here we examine the date of expansion and the geographic origin of hgR1b1b2 considering two current estimates of mutation rates in a total of fourteen realistic wave-of-advance models. We report that a range expansion dating to the Paleolithic is unlikely to explain the observed geographical distribution of microsatellite diversity, and that whether the data is informative with respect to the spread of agriculture in Europe depends on the mutation rate assumption in a critical way

Performance of CMS muon reconstruction in pp collision events at sqrt(s) = 7 TeV

The performance of muon reconstruction, identification, and triggering in CMS has been studied using 40 inverse picobarns of data collected in pp collisions at sqrt(s) = 7 TeV at the LHC in 2010. A few benchmark sets of selection criteria covering a wide range of physics analysis needs have been examined. For all considered selections, the efficiency to reconstruct and identify a muon with a transverse momentum pT larger than a few GeV is above 95% over the whole region of pseudorapidity covered by the CMS muon system, abs(eta) < 2.4, while the probability to misidentify a hadron as a muon is well below 1%. The efficiency to trigger on single muons with pT above a few GeV is higher than 90% over the full eta range, and typically substantially better. The overall momentum scale is measured to a precision of 0.2% with muons from Z decays. The transverse momentum resolution varies from 1% to 6% depending on pseudorapidity for muons with pT below 100 GeV and, using cosmic rays, it is shown to be better than 10% in the central region up to pT = 1 TeV. Observed distributions of all quantities are well reproduced by the Monte Carlo simulation.Comment: Replaced with published version. Added journal reference and DO