Habitat effects on chick-a-dee call complexity

Past studies on the communication systems of species in urban environments (such as Common Starlings (Sturnus vulgaris), nightingales (Luscinia megarhynchos Brehm), brown-headed cowbirds ( Molothrus ater), Southern brown tree frogs (Litoria ewingii )) have shown multiple ways that species change vocal signaling behavior to adjust to urban habitats (e.g. alarm calls and singing). This study further investigates the changes in signaling in relation to the chick-a-dee call of the Carolina chickadee (Poecile carolinensis). A secondary goal of this study was to compare both the amount of information and rate of calling across seasons. Six different variants of chick-a-dee calls were used in playbacks at sites in three types of habitats: closed canopy, mixed and urban. Ad lib recordings were also conducted around the area. Playback trials and ad lib recordings overlapped both the breeding and the non-breeding season to facilitate observations of seasonal changes. The recordings were analyzed for seasonal and habitat differences in call rate, information encoded in call and notes, average call length, and probability of note transitions. Our results show that chick-a-dee rates differed significantly between treatments and seasons suggesting seasonality in the context of the calls. Across the habitat types, we found indications of increased vocal complexity in closed canopy flocks. Vocal response rates and distance of approach in these closed forest flocks differed significantly between playbacks compared to the other habitats. In urban habitats there was no difference between responses to the treatments suggesting less vocal complexity. Based on our results, habitat as well as season seems to create additional complexity in the chick-a-dee call system

Peripheral blood gene expression reveals an inflammatory transcriptomic signature in Friedreich's ataxia patients.

Transcriptional changes in Friedreich's ataxia (FRDA), a rare and debilitating recessive Mendelian neurodegenerative disorder, have been studied in affected but inaccessible tissues-such as dorsal root ganglia, sensory neurons and cerebellum-in animal models or small patient series. However, transcriptional changes induced by FRDA in peripheral blood, a readily accessible tissue, have not been characterized in a large sample. We used differential expression, association with disability stage, network analysis and enrichment analysis to characterize the peripheral blood transcriptome and identify genes that were differentially expressed in FRDA patients (n = 418) compared with both heterozygous expansion carriers (n = 228) and controls (n = 93 739 individuals in total), or were associated with disease progression, resulting in a disease signature for FRDA. We identified a transcriptional signature strongly enriched for an inflammatory innate immune response. Future studies should seek to further characterize the role of peripheral inflammation in FRDA pathology and determine its relevance to overall disease progression

Post-operative cognitive function following general versus regional anesthesia, a systematic review

The effect of anesthetic technique on postoperative outcomes remains in question. This systematic review compares the role of regional versus general anesthesia, with a particular focus on postoperative cognitive function. Potentially relevant articles were identified by searching publicly available computerized databases for this systematic review. Any surgical procedure was accepted with the exception of cardiac, carotid, and neurosurgical procedures. Any regional anesthetic technique was accepted unless combined with a general anesthetic or in conjunction with propofol as a sedative. Any measure of postoperative cognitive function was accepted as long as it was performed no sooner than 7 days postoperatively. Sixteen studies met inclusion criteria and were included in the final analysis. Three studies showed some difference in cognitive function between regional and general anesthesia, whereas the remaining 13 showed no difference between regional and general anesthesia on postoperative cognitive function

Multiplexed immunofluorescence identifies high stromal CD68+PD‑L1+ macrophages as a predictor of improved survival in triple negative breast cancer

Triple negative breast cancer (TNBC) comprises 10–15% of all breast cancers and has a poor prognosis with a high risk of recurrence within 5 years. PD-L1 is an important biomarker for patient selection for immunotherapy but its cellular expression and co-localization within the tumour immune microenvironment and associated prognostic value is not well defined. We aimed to characterise the phenotypes of immune cells expressing PD-L1 and determine their association with overall survival (OS) and breast cancer-specific survival (BCSS). Using tissue microarrays from a retrospective cohort of TNBC patients from St George Hospital, Sydney (n = 244), multiplexed immunofluorescence (mIF) was used to assess staining for CD3, CD8, CD20, CD68, PD-1, PD-L1, FOXP3 and pan-cytokeratin on the Vectra Polaris™ platform and analysed using QuPath. Cox multivariate analyses showed high CD68+PD-L1+ stromal cell counts were associated with improved prognosis for OS (HR 0.56, 95% CI 0.33–0.95, p = 0.030) and BCSS (HR 0.47, 95% CI 0.25–0.88, p = 0.018) in the whole cohort and in patients receiving chemotherapy, improving incrementally upon the predictive value of PD-L1+ alone for BCSS. These data suggest that CD68+PD-L1+ status can provide clinically useful prognostic information to identify sub-groups of patients with good or poor prognosis and guide treatment decisions in TNBC

Overview of Australian Indigenous health status, 2014

The main purpose of the Overview is to provide a comprehensive summary of the most recent indicators of the health and current health status of Australia’s Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples. It has been prepared by the Australian Indigenous HealthInfoNet as a part of our contribution to ‘closing the gap’ in health between Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people and other Australians by making relevant, high quality knowledge and information easily accessible to policy makers, health service providers, other health professionals including Health workers, program managers, clinicians, researchers, students and the general community. The initial sections of this Overview provide information about the context of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander health, Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander population, and various measures of population health status. Most of the subsequent sections about specific health conditions comprise an introduction about the condition and evidence of the current burden of the condition among Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people. Information is provided for state and territories and for demographics such as gender and age when it is available and appropriate. While the Overview provides a comprehensive review of key indicators across a range of health topics, it is beyond the scope to provide detailed information on other aspects, such as the availability and use of services (including barriers to their use) and strategies and policies related to specific health topics. Interested readers should refer to the topic-specific reviews that are available on the HealthInfoNet’s website. Additional, more in depth, information about the topics summarised in this Overview is included in the corresponding sections of the HealthInfoNet’s website (www.healthinfonet.ecu.edu.au). There are a number of additions to this Overview. We have included a recognition statement, a note on the use of appropriate terminology that introduces our guidelines on the matter, and a statement of commitment to enhancing our strengths based approach to reporting

Overview of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander health status, 2015

The main purpose of the Overview is to provide a comprehensive summary of the most recent indicators of the health and current health status of Australia’s Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islanders people. It has been prepared by Australian Indigenous HealthInfoNet staff as part of our contribution to supporting those who work in the Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander health sector. The Overview is a key element of the HealthInfoNet commitment to authentic and engaged knowledge development and exchange. The initial sections of this Overview provide information about the context of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander health, population, and various measures of population health status. Most of the subsequent sections about specific health conditions comprise an introduction about the condition and evidence of the current burden of the condition among Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people. Information is provided for state and territories and for demographics such as sex and age when it is available and appropriate

Overview of Australian Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander health status 2016

This report provides a comprehensive overview of the most recent indicators of the health and wellbeing of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people. Information focuses on: Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander populations the context of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander health various measures of population health status selected health conditions health risk and protective factors. The Overview shows that the health of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people continues to improve slowly and there has been a decline in the death rates for Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people and also a significant closing of the gap in death rates between Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander and non-Indigenous people. The infant mortality rate has declined significantly. There have also been improvements in a number of areas contributing to health status such as the proportion of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander mothers who smoked during pregnancy has decreased. There has been a slight decrease in the proportion of low birth weight babies born to Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander mothers between 2004 and 2014. Age-standardised death rates for respiratory disease in NSW, Qld, WA, SA and NT declined by 26% over the period 1998-2012 for Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people. Two new sections are featured in this edition of the Overview. With the 20th anniversary of the Bringing them home report, a section has been dedicated to Healing which highlights the contribution of healing workers and organisations to supporting people, families and communities impacted by the Stolen Generations. Environmental health with its important link to the social determinants of health is also included for the first time in the Overview 2016

Multi-Messenger Gravitational Wave Searches with Pulsar Timing Arrays: Application to 3C66B Using the NANOGrav 11-year Data Set

When galaxies merge, the supermassive black holes in their centers may form binaries and, during the process of merger, emit low-frequency gravitational radiation in the process. In this paper we consider the galaxy 3C66B, which was used as the target of the first multi-messenger search for gravitational waves. Due to the observed periodicities present in the photometric and astrometric data of the source of the source, it has been theorized to contain a supermassive black hole binary. Its apparent 1.05-year orbital period would place the gravitational wave emission directly in the pulsar timing band. Since the first pulsar timing array study of 3C66B, revised models of the source have been published, and timing array sensitivities and techniques have improved dramatically. With these advances, we further constrain the chirp mass of the potential supermassive black hole binary in 3C66B to less than $(1.65\pm0.02) \times 10^9~{M_\odot}$ using data from the NANOGrav 11-year data set. This upper limit provides a factor of 1.6 improvement over previous limits, and a factor of 4.3 over the first search done. Nevertheless, the most recent orbital model for the source is still consistent with our limit from pulsar timing array data. In addition, we are able to quantify the improvement made by the inclusion of source properties gleaned from electromagnetic data to `blind' pulsar timing array searches. With these methods, it is apparent that it is not necessary to obtain exact a priori knowledge of the period of a binary to gain meaningful astrophysical inferences.Comment: 14 pages, 6 figures. Accepted by Ap

The effect of artificial selection on phenotypic plasticity in maize

Remarkable productivity has been achieved in crop species through artificial selection and adaptation to modern agronomic practices. Whether intensive selection has changed the ability of improved cultivars to maintain high productivity across variable environments is unknown. Understanding the genetic control of phenotypic plasticity and genotype by environment (G × E) interaction will enhance crop performance predictions across diverse environments. Here we use data generated from the Genomes to Fields (G2F) Maize G × E project to assess the effect of selection on G × E variation and characterize polymorphisms associated with plasticity. Genomic regions putatively selected during modern temperate maize breeding explain less variability for yield G × E than unselected regions, indicating that improvement by breeding may have reduced G × E of modern temperate cultivars. Trends in genomic position of variants associated with stability reveal fewer genic associations and enrichment of variants 0–5000 base pairs upstream of genes, hypothetically due to control of plasticity by short-range regulatory elements