831 research outputs found
A note on the Gauss decomposition of the elliptic Cauchy matrix
Explicit formulas for the Gauss decomposition of elliptic Cauchy type
matrices are derived in a very simple way. The elliptic Cauchy identity is an
immediate corollary.Comment: 5 page
Greater functional diversity and redundancy of coral endolithic microbiomes align with lower coral bleaching susceptibility.
The skeleton of reef-building coral harbors diverse microbial communities that could compensate for metabolic deficiencies caused by the loss of algal endosymbionts, i.e., coral bleaching. However, it is unknown to what extent endolith taxonomic diversity and functional potential might contribute to thermal resilience. Here we exposed Goniastrea edwardsi and Porites lutea, two common reef-building corals from the central Red Sea to a 17-day long heat stress. Using hyperspectral imaging, marker gene/metagenomic sequencing, and NanoSIMS, we characterized their endolithic microbiomes together with 15N and 13C assimilation of two skeletal compartments: the endolithic band directly below the coral tissue and the deep skeleton. The bleaching-resistant G. edwardsi was associated with endolithic microbiomes of greater functional diversity and redundancy that exhibited lower N and C assimilation than endoliths in the bleaching-sensitive P. lutea. We propose that the lower endolithic primary productivity in G. edwardsi can be attributed to the dominance of chemolithotrophs. Lower primary production within the skeleton may prevent unbalanced nutrient fluxes to coral tissues under heat stress, thereby preserving nutrient-limiting conditions characteristic of a stable coral-algal symbiosis. Our findings link coral endolithic microbiome structure and function to bleaching susceptibility, providing new avenues for understanding and eventually mitigating reef loss
Functional disability and social participation restriction associated with chronic conditions in middle-aged and older adults
Abstract : Background. We examine the population impact on functional disability and social participation of physical and mental chronic conditions individually and in combination. Methods. Cross-sectional, population-based data from community-dwelling people aged 45 years and over living in the 10 Canadian provinces in 2008–2009 were used to estimate the population attributable risk (PAR) for functional disability in basic (ADL) and instrumental (IADL) activities of daily living and social participation restrictions for individual and combinations of chronic conditions, stratified by age and gender, after adjusting for confounding variables. Results. Five chronic conditions (arthritis, depression, diabetes, heart disease and eye disease) made the largest contributions to ADL-related and IADL-related functional disability and social participation restrictions, with variation in magnitude and ranking by age and gender. While arthritis was consistently associated with higher PARs across gender and most age groups, depression, alone and in combination with the physical chronic conditions, was associated with ADL and IADL disability as well as social participation restrictions in the younger age groups, especially among women. Compared to women, the combinations of conditions associated with higher PARs in men more often included heart disease and diabetes. Conclusions. Our findings suggest that in community dwelling middle-aged and older adults, the impact of combinations of mental and physical chronic conditions on functional disability and social participation restriction is substantial and differed by gender and age. Recognising the differences in the drivers of PAR by gender and age group will ultimately increase the efficiency of clinical and public health interventions
Genus Two Partition and Correlation Functions for Fermionic Vertex Operator Superalgebras I
We define the partition and -point correlation functions for a vertex
operator superalgebra on a genus two Riemann surface formed by sewing two tori
together. For the free fermion vertex operator superalgebra we obtain a closed
formula for the genus two continuous orbifold partition function in terms of an
infinite dimensional determinant with entries arising from torus Szeg\"o
kernels. We prove that the partition function is holomorphic in the sewing
parameters on a given suitable domain and describe its modular properties.
Using the bosonized formalism, a new genus two Jacobi product identity is
described for the Riemann theta series. We compute and discuss the modular
properties of the generating function for all -point functions in terms of a
genus two Szeg\"o kernel determinant. We also show that the Virasoro vector one
point function satisfies a genus two Ward identity.Comment: A number of typos have been corrected, 39 pages. To appear in Commun.
Math. Phy
Diatom Biogeography, Temporal Dynamics, and Links to Bacterioplankton across Seven Oceanographic Time-Series Sites Spanning the Australian Continent.
Diatom communities significantly influence ocean primary productivity and carbon cycling, but their spatial and temporal dynamics are highly heterogeneous and are governed by a complex diverse suite of abiotic and biotic factors. We examined the seasonal and biogeographical dynamics of diatom communities in Australian coastal waters using amplicon sequencing data (18S-16S rRNA gene) derived from a network of oceanographic time-series spanning the Australian continent. We demonstrate that diatom community composition in this region displays significant biogeography, with each site harbouring distinct community structures. Temperature and nutrients were identified as the key environmental contributors to differences in diatom communities at all sites, collectively explaining 21% of the variability observed in diatoms assemblages. However, specific groups of bacteria previously implicated in mutualistic ecological interactions with diatoms (Rhodobacteraceae, Flavobacteriaceae and Alteromonadaceae) also explained a further 4% of the spatial dynamics observed in diatom community structure. We also demonstrate that the two most temperate sites (Port Hacking and Maria Island) exhibited strong seasonality in diatom community and that at these sites, winter diatom communities co-occurred with higher proportion of Alteromonadaceae. In addition, we identified significant co-occurrence between specific diatom and bacterial amplicon sequence variants (ASVs), with members of the Roseobacter and Flavobacteria clades strongly correlated with some of the most abundant diatom genera (Skeletonema, Thalassiosira, and Cylindrotheca). We propose that some of these co-occurrences might be indicative of ecologically important interactions between diatoms and bacteria. Our analyses reveal that in addition to physico-chemical conditions (i.e., temperature, nutrients), the relative abundance of specific groups of bacteria appear to play an important role in shaping the spatial and temporal dynamics of marine diatom communities
Gender, marital and educational inequalities in mid- to late-life depressive symptoms: cross-cohort variation and moderation by urbanicity degree
Background: Although ageing populations are
increasingly residing in cities, it is unknown whether
depression inequalities are moderated by urbanicity
degree. We estimated gender, marital and educational
inequalities in depressive symptoms among older
European and Canadian adults, and examined whether
higher levels of urbanicity, captured by population
density, heightened these inequalities.
Methods: Harmonised cross-sectional data on 97 826
adults aged ≥50 years from eight cohorts were used.
Prevalence ratios (PRs) were calculated for probable
depression, depressed affect and depressive symptom
severity by gender, marital status and education within
each cohort, and combined using random-effects metaanalysis. Using a subsample of 73 123 adults from six
cohorts with available data on population density, we
tested moderating effects measured by the number of
residents per square kilometre.
Results: The pooled PRs for probable depression by female
gender, unmarried or non-cohabitating status and low
education were 1.48 (95% CI 1.28 to 1.72), 1.44 (95% CI
1.29 to 1.61) and 1.29 (95% CI 1.18 to 1.41), respectively.
PRs for depressed affect and high symptom severity were
broadly similar. Except for one Dutch cohort with findings in
an unexpected direction, there was no evidence that
population density modified depressive symptom
inequalities.
Conclusions: Despite cross-cohort variation in gender,
marital status and educational inequalities in depressive
symptoms, there was weak evidence that these
inequalities differed by levels of population density
Birthing practices of traditional birth attendants in South Asia in the context of training programmes
Traditional Birth Attendants (TBA) training has been an important component of public health policy interventions to improve maternal and child health in developing countries since the 1970s. More recently, since the 1990s, the TBA training strategy has been increasingly seen as irrelevant, ineffective or, on the whole, a failure due to evidence that the maternal mortality rate (MMR) in developing countries had not reduced. Although, worldwide data show that, by choice or out of necessity, 47 percent of births in the developing world are assisted by TBAs and/or family members, funding for TBA training has been reduced and moved to providing skilled birth attendants for all births. Any shift in policy needs to be supported by appropriate evidence on TBA roles in providing maternal and infant health care service and effectiveness of the training programmes. This article reviews literature on the characteristics and role of TBAs in South Asia with an emphasis on India. The aim was to assess the contribution of TBAs in providing maternal and infant health care service at different stages of pregnancy and after-delivery and birthing practices adopted in home births. The review of role revealed that apart from TBAs, there are various other people in the community also involved in making decisions about the welfare and health of the birthing mother and new born baby. However, TBAs have changing, localised but nonetheless significant roles in delivery, postnatal and infant care in India. Certain traditional birthing practices such as bathing babies immediately after birth, not weighing babies after birth and not feeding with colostrum are adopted in home births as well as health institutions in India. There is therefore a thin precarious balance between the application of biomedical and traditional knowledge. Customary rituals and perceptions essentially affect practices in home and institutional births and hence training of TBAs need to be implemented in conjunction with community awareness programmes
Therapeutic efficacy of regulable GDNF expression for Huntington's and Parkinson's disease by a high-induction, background-free "GeneSwitch" vector.
Gene therapy is currently an irreversible approach, without possibilities to fine-tune or halt the expression of a therapeutic gene product. Especially when expressing neurotrophic factors to treat neurodegenerative disorders, options to regulate transgene expression levels might be beneficial. We thus developed an advanced single-genome inducible AAV vector for expression of GDNF, under control of the approved small molecule drug mifepristone. In the rat brain, GDNF expression can be induced over a wide range up to three hundred-fold over endogenous background, and completely returns to baseline within 3-4 weeks. When applied with appropriate serotype and titre, the vector is absolutely free of any non-induced background expression. In the BACHD model of Huntington's disease we demonstrate that the vector can be kept in a continuous ON-state for extended periods of time. In a model of Parkinson's disease we demonstrate that repeated short-term expression of GDNF restores motor capabilities in 6-OHDA-lesioned rats. We also report on sex-dependent pharmacodynamics of mifepristone in the rodent brain. Taken together, we show that wide-range and high-level induction, background-free, fully reversible and therapeutically active GDNF expression can be achieved under tight pharmacological control by this novel AAV - "Gene Switch" vector
Accurate reconstruction of insertion-deletion histories by statistical phylogenetics
The Multiple Sequence Alignment (MSA) is a computational abstraction that
represents a partial summary either of indel history, or of structural
similarity. Taking the former view (indel history), it is possible to use
formal automata theory to generalize the phylogenetic likelihood framework for
finite substitution models (Dayhoff's probability matrices and Felsenstein's
pruning algorithm) to arbitrary-length sequences. In this paper, we report
results of a simulation-based benchmark of several methods for reconstruction
of indel history. The methods tested include a relatively new algorithm for
statistical marginalization of MSAs that sums over a stochastically-sampled
ensemble of the most probable evolutionary histories. For mammalian
evolutionary parameters on several different trees, the single most likely
history sampled by our algorithm appears less biased than histories
reconstructed by other MSA methods. The algorithm can also be used for
alignment-free inference, where the MSA is explicitly summed out of the
analysis. As an illustration of our method, we discuss reconstruction of the
evolutionary histories of human protein-coding genes.Comment: 28 pages, 15 figures. arXiv admin note: text overlap with
arXiv:1103.434
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