Frog eat frog: exploring variables influencing anurophagy

Background. Frogs are generalist predators of a wide range of typically small prey items. But descriptions of dietary items regularly include other anurans, such that frogs are considered to be among the most important of anuran predators. However, the only existing hypothesis for the inclusion of anurans in the diet of post-metamorphic frogs postulates that it happens more often in bigger frogs. Moreover, this hypothesis has yet to be tested

SINTESIS MAGNETIT (Fe3O4) NANOPARTIKEL DENGAN NATRIUM DODESIL SULFAT

Telah dilakukan sintesis magnetit (Fe3O4) nanopartikel dengan Natrium Dodesil Sulfat (NaDS). Penelitian ini bertujuan untuk mengetahui pengaruh NaDS terhadap karakter kimia dan fisik magnetit nanopartikel hasil sintesis dengan metode kopresipitasi. Sintesis magnetit nanopartikel dilakukan dengan mereaksikan FeSO4.7H2O dan FeCl3.6H2O dengan perbandingan mol 1:2 serta natrium hidroksida (NaOH) sebagai presipitan dengan proses pengadukan pada suhu 60 °C selama 2 jam. Kajian pengaruh surfaktan pada sintesis magnetit nanopartikel dilakukan dengan variasi konsentrasi NaDS dari 1%, 3% dan 6% (b/v). Material hasil sintesis dikarakterisasi dengan spektrofotometer X-ray diffraction (XRD), Fourier Transform Infrared Spectrometer (FTIR), Scanning Electron Microscope-Energy Dispersive X-ray (SEM-EDX) dan Surface Area Analyzer (SAA). Hasil penelitian menunjukkan bahwa magnetit nanopartikel berhasil disintesis. Magnetit ditunjukkan oleh puncak difraksi utama pada 2θ 30,43o; 35,53o; 43,46o; 57,32o dan 62,84o. Ikatan Fe–O ditunjukkan dengan puncak serapan 565 cm-1 yang dianalisa lebih lanjut menggunakan EDX menunjukkan adanya unsur Fe dan O. Adanya surfaktan NaDS menaikkan ukuran partikel dan ukuran kristal magnetit dengan meningkatnya konsentrasi NaDS yang ditambahkan. Morfologi magnetit-NaDS semakin homogen berbentuk butiran-butiran kecil (grain) dengan ukuran partikel sekitar 30-100 nm. Ukuran kristal magnetit sebesar 11,07 nm (magnetit tanpa surfaktan); 13,62 nm (magnetit-NaDS 1%); 16,12 nm (magnetit-NaDS 3%) dan 11,17 nm (magnetit-NaDS 6%). Luas permukaan magnetit nanopartikel berturut-turut sebesar 89,67 m2/g (magnetit tanpa surfaktan); 102,50 m2/g (magnetit-NaDS 1%); 98,45 m2/g (magnetit-NaDS 3%) dan 82,92 m2/g (magnetit-NaDS 6%)

Chromosomal microarray testing in adults with intellectual disability presenting with comorbid psychiatric disorders.

Chromosomal copy-number variations (CNVs) are a class of genetic variants highly implicated in the aetiology of neurodevelopmental disorders, including intellectual disabilities (ID), schizophrenia and autism spectrum disorders (ASD). Yet the majority of adults with idiopathic ID presenting to psychiatric services have not been tested for CNVs. We undertook genome-wide chromosomal microarray analysis (CMA) of 202 adults with idiopathic ID recruited from community and in-patient ID psychiatry services across England. CNV pathogenicity was assessed using standard clinical diagnostic methods and participants underwent comprehensive medical and psychiatric phenotyping. We found an 11% yield of likely pathogenic CNVs (22/202). CNVs at recurrent loci, including the 15q11-q13 and 16p11.2-p13.11 regions were most frequently observed. We observed an increased frequency of 16p11.2 duplications compared with those reported in single-disorder cohorts. CNVs were also identified in genes known to effect neurodevelopment, namely NRXN1 and GRIN2B. Furthermore deletions at 2q13, 12q21.2-21.31 and 19q13.32, and duplications at 4p16.3, 13q32.3-33.3 and Xq24-25 were observed. Routine CMA in ID psychiatry could uncover ~11% new genetic diagnoses with potential implications for patient management. We advocate greater consideration of CMA in the assessment of adults with idiopathic ID presenting to psychiatry services

Parsimonious Higher-Order Hidden Markov Models for Improved Array-CGH Analysis with Applications to Arabidopsis thaliana

Array-based comparative genomic hybridization (Array-CGH) is an important technology in molecular biology for the detection of DNA copy number polymorphisms between closely related genomes. Hidden Markov Models (HMMs) are popular tools for the analysis of Array-CGH data, but current methods are only based on first-order HMMs having constrained abilities to model spatial dependencies between measurements of closely adjacent chromosomal regions. Here, we develop parsimonious higher-order HMMs enabling the interpolation between a mixture model ignoring spatial dependencies and a higher-order HMM exhaustively modeling spatial dependencies. We apply parsimonious higher-order HMMs to the analysis of Array-CGH data of the accessions C24 and Col-0 of the model plant Arabidopsis thaliana. We compare these models against first-order HMMs and other existing methods using a reference of known deletions and sequence deviations. We find that parsimonious higher-order HMMs clearly improve the identification of these polymorphisms. Moreover, we perform a functional analysis of identified polymorphisms revealing novel details of genomic differences between C24 and Col-0. Additional model evaluations are done on widely considered Array-CGH data of human cell lines indicating that parsimonious HMMs are also well-suited for the analysis of non-plant specific data. All these results indicate that parsimonious higher-order HMMs are useful for Array-CGH analyses. An implementation of parsimonious higher-order HMMs is available as part of the open source Java library Jstacs (www.jstacs.de/index.php/PHHMM)

Overland movement in African clawed frogs (Xenopus laevis): empirical dispersal data from within their native range

Dispersal forms are an important component of the ecology of many animals, and reach particular importance for predicting ranges of invasive species. African clawed frogs (Xenopus laevis) move overland between water bodies, but all empirical studies are from invasive populations with none from their native southern Africa. Here we report on incidents of overland movement found through a capture-recapture study carried out over a three year period in Overstrand, South Africa. The maximum distance moved was 2.4 km with most of the 91 animals, representing 5% of the population, moving ∼150 m. We found no differences in distances moved by males and females, despite the former being smaller. Fewer males moved overland, but this was no different from the sex bias found in the population. In laboratory performance trials, we found that males outperformed females, in both distance moved and time to exhaustion, when corrected for size. Overland movement occurred throughout the year, but reached peaks in spring and early summer when temporary water bodies were drying. Despite permanent impoundments being located within the study area, we found no evidence for migrations of animals between temporary and permanent water bodies. Our study provides the first dispersal kernel for X. laevis and suggests that it is similar to many non-pipid anurans with respect to dispersal

High efficiency liquid chromatography on conventional columns and instrumentation by using temperature as a variable Kinetic plots and experimental verification

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