Estimation of out-crossing rate in a natural breeding population of Warburgia ugandensis using AFLP marker

Warburgia ugandensis Sprague (Canellaceae) occurs in East and Central Africa, and the species is of great medicinal importance to the local communities where it occurs. As the wild populations diminish,planted stands will in future be used as the source of medicinal products as well as germplasm. This study investigated the levels of out-crossing rates to provide knowledge for proper planning in futurecultivation programmes. The mating parameters estimated using the mixed mating model (software MLTR) showed the species to be predominantly out-crossing (89%) with significant levels of selfing.The multi-locus population out-crossing rate was higher than the single-locus population out-crossing rate (tm- ts= 0.023; SE = 0.010), implying that there was less likelihood of mating between relatives (biparental inbreeding). Low values were also obtained for the correlation of paternity, rp(s) = 0.028 (SE = 0.040) and correlation of selfing among family, rs = 0.016 (SE = 0.015). For most loci, allele frequencies of pollen and ovule contributions to the progeny genotypes were significantly different (

Quantitative assessment of cardiac load-responsiveness during extracorporeal life support: case and rationale

We describe a case of a patient assisted by extracorporeal life support, in which we obtained the dynamic filling index, a measure for venous volume during extracorporeal life support, and used this index to assess cardiac load-responsiveness during acute reloading. While reloading, the obtained findings on cardiac pump function by the dynamic filling index were supported by trans-esophageal echocardiography and standard pressure measurement. This suggests that the dynamic filling index can be used to assess cardiac load-responsiveness during extracorporeal life support

Scalar and vector Slepian functions, spherical signal estimation and spectral analysis

It is a well-known fact that mathematical functions that are timelimited (or spacelimited) cannot be simultaneously bandlimited (in frequency). Yet the finite precision of measurement and computation unavoidably bandlimits our observation and modeling scientific data, and we often only have access to, or are only interested in, a study area that is temporally or spatially bounded. In the geosciences we may be interested in spectrally modeling a time series defined only on a certain interval, or we may want to characterize a specific geographical area observed using an effectively bandlimited measurement device. It is clear that analyzing and representing scientific data of this kind will be facilitated if a basis of functions can be found that are "spatiospectrally" concentrated, i.e. "localized" in both domains at the same time. Here, we give a theoretical overview of one particular approach to this "concentration" problem, as originally proposed for time series by Slepian and coworkers, in the 1960s. We show how this framework leads to practical algorithms and statistically performant methods for the analysis of signals and their power spectra in one and two dimensions, and, particularly for applications in the geosciences, for scalar and vectorial signals defined on the surface of a unit sphere.Comment: Submitted to the 2nd Edition of the Handbook of Geomathematics, edited by Willi Freeden, Zuhair M. Nashed and Thomas Sonar, and to be published by Springer Verlag. This is a slightly modified but expanded version of the paper arxiv:0909.5368 that appeared in the 1st Edition of the Handbook, when it was called: Slepian functions and their use in signal estimation and spectral analysi

Treatment of Selective Mutism: Focus on Selective Serotonin Reuptake Inhibitors

Peer Reviewedhttp://deepblue.lib.umich.edu/bitstream/2027.42/90271/1/phco.28.2.214.pd

Slepian functions and their use in signal estimation and spectral analysis

It is a well-known fact that mathematical functions that are timelimited (or spacelimited) cannot be simultaneously bandlimited (in frequency). Yet the finite precision of measurement and computation unavoidably bandlimits our observation and modeling scientific data, and we often only have access to, or are only interested in, a study area that is temporally or spatially bounded. In the geosciences we may be interested in spectrally modeling a time series defined only on a certain interval, or we may want to characterize a specific geographical area observed using an effectively bandlimited measurement device. It is clear that analyzing and representing scientific data of this kind will be facilitated if a basis of functions can be found that are "spatiospectrally" concentrated, i.e. "localized" in both domains at the same time. Here, we give a theoretical overview of one particular approach to this "concentration" problem, as originally proposed for time series by Slepian and coworkers, in the 1960s. We show how this framework leads to practical algorithms and statistically performant methods for the analysis of signals and their power spectra in one and two dimensions, and on the surface of a sphere.Comment: Submitted to the Handbook of Geomathematics, edited by Willi Freeden, Zuhair M. Nashed and Thomas Sonar, and to be published by Springer Verla

The Medicine Tree: Unsettling palaeoecological perceptions of past environments and human activity

In this paper, we consider palaeoecological approaches to past landscapes and reflect upon how these are relevant to archaeological themes concerning concepts of environmental change and the role of past and present human communities in these processes. In particular, we highlight the importance of local context in the perception and understanding of landscape. Utilising a case study from Nepal, we look to ‘unsettle’ a conventional palaeoecological interpretation of a pollen record, originally constructed on western ecological principles, and instead draw on an interpretative perspective rooted in local Buddhist ecological knowledge, or a ‘folk taxonomy’, known as ‘The Medicine Tree’. We discuss how the interpretations of patterns and processes of vegetation change from a pollen record are not necessarily absolute. In particular, we outline how the palaeoecological frame of enquiry and reference is rooted in an essentially Eurocentric, Western scientific paradigm, which, in turn, shapes how we perceive and conceive of past landscapes and the role of ‘anthropogenic impact’ on vegetation. The aim of this is not to suggest that scientific approaches to the ‘reconstruction’ of past landscapes are necessarily invalid, but to illustrate how ‘empirical’ scientific methods and interpretations in archaeological science are contingent upon specific social and cultural frames of reference. We discuss the broader relevance of this, such as how we interpret past human activity and perception of landscape change, the ways in which we might look to mobilise research in the context of contemporary problems, issues concerning ‘degraded landscapes’ and how we incorporate local and archaeological perspectives with palaeoecology within an interconnected and iterative process

Specifying enough light to feel reassured on pedestrian footpaths

This article discusses lighting for pedestrians and how investigation of reassurance might lead toward an understanding of the right amount of light. A conventional approach is to evaluate reassurance after dark under road lighting of different illuminance: this tends to show the trivial result that higher illuminances enhance reassurance, and that alone does not enable an optimum light level to be identified. One reason is that the category rating procedure widely used is prone to stimulus range bias; experimental results are presented that demonstrate stimulus range bias in reassurance evaluations. This article also recommends alternative methods for future research. One such method is the day–dark rating approach, which does not tend toward ever higher illuminances, and results are presented of two studies using this method

Hypnotic analgesia reduces brain responses to pain seen in others.

Brain responses to pain experienced by oneself or seen in other people show consistent overlap in the pain processing network, particularly anterior insula, supporting the view that pain empathy partly relies on neural processes engaged by self-nociception. However, it remains unresolved whether changes in one's own pain sensation may affect empathic responding to others' pain. Here we show that inducing analgesia through hypnosis leads to decreased responses to both self and vicarious experience of pain. Activations in the right anterior insula and amygdala were markedly reduced when participants received painful thermal stimuli following hypnotic analgesia on their own hand, but also when they viewed pictures of others' hand in pain. Functional connectivity analysis indicated that this hypnotic modulation of pain responses was associated with differential recruitment of right prefrontal regions implicated in selective attention and inhibitory control. Our results provide novel support to the view that self-nociception is involved during empathy for pain, and demonstrate the possibility to use hypnotic procedures to modulate higher-level emotional and social processes

Albumin-Associated Lipids Regulate Human Embryonic Stem Cell Self-Renewal

BACKGROUND: Although human embryonic stem cells (hESCs) hold great promise as a source of differentiated cells to treat several human diseases, many obstacles still need to be surmounted before this can become a reality. First among these, a robust chemically-defined system to expand hESCs in culture is still unavailable despite recent advances in the understanding of factors controlling hESC self-renewal. METHODOLOGY/PRINCIPAL FINDINGS: In this study, we attempted to find new molecules that stimulate long term hESC self-renewal. In order to do this, we started from the observation that a commercially available serum replacement product has a strong positive effect on the expansion of undifferentiated hESCs when added to a previously reported chemically-defined medium. Subsequent experiments demonstrated that the active ingredient within the serum replacement is lipid-rich albumin. Furthermore, we show that this activity is trypsin-resistant, strongly suggesting that lipids and not albumin are responsible for the effect. Consistent with this, lipid-poor albumin shows no detectable activity. Finally, we identified the major lipids bound to the lipid-rich albumin and tested several lipid candidates for the effect. CONCLUSIONS/SIGNIFICANCE: Our discovery of the role played by albumin-associated lipids in stimulating hESC self-renewal constitutes a significant advance in the knowledge of how hESC pluripotency is maintained by extracellular factors and has important applications in the development of increasingly chemically defined hESC culture systems