Ejaculate Investment in a Promiscuous Rodent, \u3cem\u3ePeromyscus maniculatus\u3c/em\u3e: Effects of Population Density and Social Role

Questions: How does average male investment in ejaculates vary with changing population density (and thus with the risk of sperm competition) in a promiscuous species? Do individual male investment strategies vary with population density? Data studied: Total testicular mass, somatic mass and annual population density for wild-caught male deer mice, Peromyscus maniculatus, collected by snap-trapping over a 23-year period in Algonquin Provincial Park, Ontario, Canada. Search methods: We analysed the relation between mean testicular mass and mouse population densities across years. To investigate individual investment patterns, we compared the relation between total testicular mass and somatic mass among males for years differing in population density. Conclusions: Average investment in the testes was positively correlated with annual population density. An individual’s investment in testes depended on both the abundance of rival males and on relative body size, a trait associated with social rank

Laurier Biology Departmental Seminars Poster Colouring Book (Vol 1)

Departmental seminar posters are largely utilitarian affairs – who is talking?, when are they speaking?, where is the seminar? (and maybe will there will be refreshments served?). While functional, they often fail to capture the beauty and excitement of their subject matter, and may fail to engage a wider audience. As the organizer of the Wilfrid Laurier University Department of Biology seminar series in 2014, on a lark, I started drawing posters that tried to illustrate our speaker’s research in a non-conventional manner, and hopefully appeal to those that might otherwise find attending a departmental seminar intimidating. Little did I know that 8 years, and \u3e120 posters later, that I would still be at it. Over the years, it has been suggested to me that I assemble these posters into a colouring book, so here you will find some of my all-time favourites

HCPRDU Evaluation tool for mixed methods studies

Critical appraisal tool for qualitative studies. Developed by Long et al, at the Health Care Practice R&D Unit (HCPRDU), University of Salford as part of a feasibility study for examining the feasibility of undertaking systematic reviews in social care - Long AF, Godfrey M, Randall T, Brettle AJ and Grant MJ (2002) Developing Evidence Based Social Care Policy and Practice. Part 3: Feasibility of Undertaking Systematic Reviews in Social Care. Leeds: Nuffield Institute for Health

Mix design considerations of foamed bitumen mixtures with reclaimed asphalt pavement material

In the present work, a mix design parametric study was carried out with the aim of proposing a practical and consistent mix design procedure for foamed bitumen mixtures (FBMs). The mix design parameters that were adopted in the study are mixing and compaction water content (MWC), compaction effort using a gyratory compactor and aggregate temperature. This parametric study was initially carried out on FBMs with virgin limestone aggregate without reclaimed asphalt pavement (RAP) material and a mix design procedure was proposed. This proposed methodology was also found to apply to FBMs with RAP. A detailed consideration was also given to characterising the RAP material so as to understand its contribution to the mechanical properties of FBMs. Optimum MWC was achieved by optimising mechanical properties such as indirect tensile stiffness modulus and indirect tensile strength (ITS-dry and ITS-wet). A rational range of 75–85% of optimum water content obtained by the modified Proctor test was found to be the optimum range of MWC that gives optimum mechanical properties for FBMs. It was also found that the presence of RAP influenced the design foamed bitumen content, which means that treating RAP as black rock in FBM mix design is not appropriate. To study the influence of bitumen and water during compaction, modified Proctor compaction and gyratory compaction were employed on mixes with varying amounts of water and bitumen. By this, the work also evaluated the validity of the total fluid (water + bitumen) concept that is widely used in bitumen–emulsion-treated mixes, and found it not to be applicable

Association of combined PD- L1 expression and tumour- infiltrating lymphocyte features with survival and treatment outcomes in patients with metastatic melanoma

BackgroundRecent advances obtained with immune checkpoint inhibitors (ICIs) targeting the programmed cell death- 1 (PD- 1) protein have significantly improved the outcome of patients with metastatic melanoma. The PD- L1 expression in tumour cells as detected by immunohistochemistry is a predictive biomarker in some solid tumours, but appears insufficient as prognostic or predictive factor of response to ICIs in metastatic melanomas.ObjectivesWe investigated whether the presence and the features of pretreatment CD8+tumour- infiltrating T lymphocytes (TILs) could be a complementary prognostic or predictive biomarker in patients with metastatic melanoma.MethodsIn this retrospective study, we evaluated the association of PD- L1 expression - ¥5% of tumour cells combined with TIL features (CD8, CD28, Ki67) with the overall survival (OS) among 51 patients treated with ICIs and 54 patients treated with other treatment options (non- ICIs).ResultsPD- L1 positivity was observed in 33% and 39% of primary melanomas and matched metastases, respectively, with, however, poor concordance between the primary and the matched metastatic site (κ = 0.283). No significant association was noted between PD- L1 expression and CD8+TIL profile analysed as single markers and OS or response to immunotherapy. Instead, their combined analysis in primary melanoma samples showed that the PD- L1- /CD8+status was significantly associated with prolonged OS in the whole population (P = 0.04) and in the subgroup treated with non- ICIs (P = 0.009). Conversely, the PD- L1+/CD8+ status was a good prognostic factor in patients treated with ICIs (P = 0.022), whereas was significantly associated with poor prognosis in patients treated with non- ICIs (P = 0.014). While the expression of CD28 was not related to outcome, the Ki67 expression was significantly associated with poor OS in the subgroup CD8+TIL+/PD- L1- (P = 0.02).ConclusionsThe pretreatment combination of PD- L1 expression with the level of CD8+TILs could better assess OS and predict therapeutic response of patients with metastatic melanoma treated by either immunotherapy or other treatment regimens.Peer Reviewedhttps://deepblue.lib.umich.edu/bitstream/2027.42/155478/1/jdv16016_am.pdfhttps://deepblue.lib.umich.edu/bitstream/2027.42/155478/2/jdv16016.pd

Accretion, Outflows, and Winds of Magnetized Stars

Many types of stars have strong magnetic fields that can dynamically influence the flow of circumstellar matter. In stars with accretion disks, the stellar magnetic field can truncate the inner disk and determine the paths that matter can take to flow onto the star. These paths are different in stars with different magnetospheres and periods of rotation. External field lines of the magnetosphere may inflate and produce favorable conditions for outflows from the disk-magnetosphere boundary. Outflows can be particularly strong in the propeller regime, wherein a star rotates more rapidly than the inner disk. Outflows may also form at the disk-magnetosphere boundary of slowly rotating stars, if the magnetosphere is compressed by the accreting matter. In isolated, strongly magnetized stars, the magnetic field can influence formation and/or propagation of stellar wind outflows. Winds from low-mass, solar-type stars may be either thermally or magnetically driven, while winds from massive, luminous O and B type stars are radiatively driven. In all of these cases, the magnetic field influences matter flow from the stars and determines many observational properties. In this chapter we review recent studies of accretion, outflows, and winds of magnetized stars with a focus on three main topics: (1) accretion onto magnetized stars; (2) outflows from the disk-magnetosphere boundary; and (3) winds from isolated massive magnetized stars. We show results obtained from global magnetohydrodynamic simulations and, in a number of cases compare global simulations with observations.Comment: 60 pages, 44 figure

D* Production in Deep Inelastic Scattering at HERA

This paper presents measurements of D^{*\pm} production in deep inelastic scattering from collisions between 27.5 GeV positrons and 820 GeV protons. The data have been taken with the ZEUS detector at HERA. The decay channel $D^{*+}\to (D^0 \to K^- \pi^+) \pi^+$ (+ c.c.) has been used in the study. The $e^+p$ cross section for inclusive D^{*\pm} production with $5<Q^2<100 GeV^2$ and $y<0.7$ is 5.3 \pms 1.0 \pms 0.8 nb in the kinematic region {$1.3<p_T(D^{*\pm})<9.0$ GeV and $| \eta(D^{*\pm}) |<1.5$}. Differential cross sections as functions of p_T(D^{*\pm}), $\eta(D^{*\pm}), W$ and $Q^2$ are compared with next-to-leading order QCD calculations based on the photon-gluon fusion production mechanism. After an extrapolation of the cross section to the full kinematic region in p_T(D^{*\pm}) and $\eta$(D^{*\pm}), the charm contribution $F_2^{c\bar{c}}(x,Q^2)$ to the proton structure function is determined for Bjorken $x$ between 2 $\cdot$ 10$^{-4}$ and 5 $\cdot$ 10$^{-3}$.Comment: 17 pages including 4 figure

Search for lepton-flavor violation at HERA

A search for lepton-flavor-violating interactions $e p \to \mu X$ and $e p\to \tau X$ has been performed with the ZEUS detector using the entire HERA I data sample, corresponding to an integrated luminosity of 130 pb^{-1}. The data were taken at center-of-mass energies, $\sqrt{s}$, of 300 and 318 GeV. No evidence of lepton-flavor violation was found, and constraints were derived on leptoquarks (LQs) that could mediate such interactions. For LQ masses below $\sqrt{s}$, limits were set on $\lambda_{eq_1} \sqrt{\beta_{\ell q}}$, where $\lambda_{eq_1}$ is the coupling of the LQ to an electron and a first-generation quark $q_1$, and $\beta_{\ell q}$ is the branching ratio of the LQ to the final-state lepton $\ell$ ($\mu$ or $\tau$) and a quark $q$. For LQ masses much larger than $\sqrt{s}$, limits were set on the four-fermion interaction term $\lambda_{e q_\alpha} \lambda_{\ell q_\beta} / M_{\mathrm{LQ}}^2$ for LQs that couple to an electron and a quark $q_\alpha$ and to a lepton $\ell$ and a quark $q_\beta$, where $\alpha$ and $\beta$ are quark generation indices. Some of the limits are also applicable to lepton-flavor-violating processes mediated by squarks in $R$-Parity-violating supersymmetric models. In some cases, especially when a higher-generation quark is involved and for the process $e p\to \tau X$, the ZEUS limits are the most stringent to date.Comment: 37 pages, 10 figures, Accepted by EPJC. References and 1 figure (Fig. 6) adde