Reapportionment, Regional Politics and Partisan Gains

Geographers and demographers have been analyzing U.S. regional population change for decades. From the perspective of politics and governance, understanding these population changes over time is very important because seats in the House of Representatives are reapportioned every decade in accordance with the U.S. Constitution. Representation in the House, in turn, affects the distribution of votes in the Electoral College and thus the impact of regional population change affects the presidency as well as the Congress. As political geographers we have studied the possible impacts of this population change on elections, issues in Congress and the nation, and if a particular political party has gained or lost in the process. This article is adapted from our recently published co-edited book, Atlas of the 2012 Elections, which examines both short-term and long-term state and regional gains and losses in the House of Representatives and Electoral College to see how the Democrats and Republicans have fared

Gene copy-number changes and chromosomal instability induced by aneuploidy confer resistance to chemotherapy

Mitotic errors lead to aneuploidy, a condition of karyotype imbalance, frequently found in cancer cells. Alterations in chromosome copy number induce a wide variety of cellular stresses, including genome instability. Here, we show that cancer cells might exploit aneuploidy-induced genome instability and the resulting gene copy-number changes to survive under conditions of selective pressure, such as chemotherapy. Resistance to chemotherapeutic drugs was dictated by the acquisition of recurrent karyotypes, indicating that gene dosage might play a role in driving chemoresistance. Thus, our study establishes a causal link between aneuploidy-driven changes in gene copy number and chemoresistance and might explain why some chemotherapies fail to succeed

Clinical comparison of QUANTA flash dsDNA chemiluminescent immunoassay with four current assays for the detection of anti-dsDNA autoantibodies

Introduction. The objective of the present study was to compare QUANTA Flash dsDNA, a chemiluminescent immunoassay (CIA) on the BIO-FLASH, a rapid-response chemiluminescent analyzer, to three other anti-dsDNA antibody assays and to Crithidia luciliae indirect immunofluorescence test (CLIFT). Methods. In the first part of the study, 161 samples, 61 from patients suffering from systemic lupus erythematosus (SLE) and 100 from a disease control group, were tested by QUANTA Flash dsDNA CIA, QUANTA Lite dsDNA SC ELISA, BioPlex 2200 multiplex flow immunoassay (MFI), ImmuLisa dsDNA ELISA, and NOVA Lite CLIFT. A second cohort of 69 SLE patients was then tested by QUANTA Flash dsDNA and CLIFT to expand the study. Results. The overall qualitative agreements varied between 77.0% (NOVA Lite CLIFT versus QUANTA Lite) and 89.4% (ImmuLisa versus NOVA Lite CLIFT). The clinical sensitivities for the anti-dsDNA antibody tests varied from 8.2% (NOVA Lite CLIFT) to 54.1% (QUANTA Lite), while the clinical specificities varied from 88.0% (BioPlex 2200) to 100.0% (NOVA Lite CLIFT). Good correlation was found between QUANTA Flash dsDNA and NOVA Lite CLIFT. Conclusion. Significant variations among dsDNA methods were observed. QUANTA Flash dsDNA provides a good combination of sensitivity and specificity for the diagnosis of SLE and good agreement to CLIFT

Prevalence and Predictors of Persistence of COVID-19 Symptoms in Older Adults: A Single-Center Study

Objectives: Symptom persistence weeks after laboratory-confirmed severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2) clearance is a relatively common long-term complication of Coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19). Little is known about this phenomenon in older adults. The present study aimed at determining the prevalence of persistent symptoms among older COVID-19 survivors and identifying symptom patterns. Design: Cross-sectional study. Setting and Participants: We analyzed data collected in people 65 years and older (n = 165) who were hospitalized for COVID-19 and then admitted to the Day Hospital Post-COVID 19 of the Fondazione Policlinico Universitario “Agostino Gemelli” IRCCS (Rome, Italy) between April and December 2020. All patients tested negative for SARS-CoV-2 and met the World Health Organization criteria for quarantine discontinuation. Measures: Patients were offered multidisciplinary individualized assessments. The persistence of symptoms was evaluated on admission using a standardized questionnaire. Results: The mean age was 73.1 ± 6.2 years (median 72, interquartile range 27), and 63 (38.4%) were women. The average time elapsed from hospital discharge was 76.8 ± 20.3 days (range 25−109 days). On admission, 137 (83%) patients reported at least 1 persistent symptom. Of these, more than one-third reported 1 or 2 symptoms and 46.3% had 3 or more symptoms. The rate of symptom persistence was not significantly different when patients were stratified according to median age. Compared with those with no persistent symptoms, patients with symptom persistence reported a greater number of symptoms during acute COVID-19 (5.3 ± 3.0 vs 3.3 ± 2.0; P < .001). The most common persistent symptoms were fatigue (53.1%), dyspnea (51.5%), joint pain (22.2%), and cough (16.7%). The likelihood of symptom persistence was higher in those who had experienced fatigue during acute COVID-19. Conclusions and Implications: Persistent symptoms are frequently experienced by older adults who have been hospitalized for COVID-19. Follow-up programs should be implemented to monitor and care for long-term COVID-19–related health issues

Gaussian Mixture Model of Heart Rate Variability

Heart rate variability (HRV) is an important measure of sympathetic and parasympathetic functions of the autonomic nervous system and a key indicator of cardiovascular condition. This paper proposes a novel method to investigate HRV, namely by modelling it as a linear combination of Gaussians. Results show that three Gaussians are enough to describe the stationary statistics of heart variability and to provide a straightforward interpretation of the HRV power spectrum. Comparisons have been made also with synthetic data generated from different physiologically based models showing the plausibility of the Gaussian mixture parameters

A 4-gigabase physical map unlocks the structure and evolution of the complex genome of Aegilops tauschii, the wheat D-genome progenitor

The current limitations in genome sequencing technology require the construction of physical maps for high-quality draft sequences of large plant genomes, such as that of Aegilops tauschii, the wheat D-genome progenitor. To construct a physical map of the Ae. tauschii genome, we fingerprinted 461,706 bacterial artificial chromosome clones, assembled contigs, designed a 10K Ae. tauschii Infinium SNP array, constructed a 7,185-marker genetic map, and anchored on the map contigs totaling 4.03 Gb. Using whole genome shotgun reads, we extended the SNP marker sequences and found 17,093 genes and gene fragments. We showed that collinearity of the Ae. tauschii genes with Brachypodium distachyon, rice, and sorghum decreased with phylogenetic distance and that structural genome evolution rates have been high across all investigated lineages in subfamily Pooideae, including that of Brachypodieae. We obtained additional information about the evolution of the seven Triticeae chromosomes from 12 ancestral chromosomes and uncovered a pattern of centromere inactivation accompanying nested chromosome insertions in grasses. We showed that the density of noncollinear genes along the Ae. tauschii chromosomes positively correlates with recombination rates, suggested a cause, and showed that new genes, exemplified by disease resistance genes, are preferentially located in high-recombination chromosome regions