Examining the Overlapping Traits of Athletes and Entrepreneurs Through a Series of Case Studies

Today’s psychologists have paid close attention to personality and how it can affect many areas of a person’s life. From career success to criminal behavior psychologists continuously are trying to define key characteristics that may be contributing factors in the prediction of future happenings. This paper will look closely at theories regarding personality traits that are key to success. Those traits are identified in eight case studies relating to both entrepreneurial and athletic success with the findings showing a possible link between success and some key traits and an overlap of some traits between athletes and entrepreneurs

An eight-parent multiparent advanced generation inter-cross population for winter-sown wheat: creation, properties, and validation

MAGIC populations represent one of a new generation of crop genetic mapping resources combining high genetic recombination and diversity. We describe the creation and validation of an eight-parent MAGIC population consisting of 1091 F7 lines of winter-sown wheat (Triticum aestivum L.). Analyses based on genotypes from a 90,000-single nucleotide polymorphism (SNP) array find the population to be well-suited as a platform for fine-mapping quantitative trait loci (QTL) and gene isolation. Patterns of linkage disequilibrium (LD) show the population to be highly recombined; genetic marker diversity among the founders was 74% of that captured in a larger set of 64 wheat varieties, and 54% of SNPs segregating among the 64 lines also segregated among the eight founder lines. In contrast, a commonly used reference bi-parental population had only 54% of the diversity of the 64 varieties with 27% of SNPs segregating. We demonstrate the potential of this MAGIC resource by identifying a highly diagnostic marker for the morphological character "awn presence/absence" and independently validate it in an association-mapping panel. These analyses show this large, diverse, and highly recombined MAGIC population to be a powerful resource for the genetic dissection of target traits in wheat, and it is well-placed to efficiently exploit ongoing advances in phenomics and genomics. Genetic marker and trait data, together with instructions for access to seed, are available at http://www.niab.com/MAGIC/

Assortative Mating By Diet In A Phenotypically Unimodal But Ecologically Variable Population Of Stickleback

Speciation with gene flow may be driven by a combination of positive assortative mating and disruptive selection, particularly if selection and assortative mating act on the same trait, eliminating recombination between ecotype and mating type. Phenotypically unimodal populations of threespine stickleback (Gasterosteus aculeatus) are commonly subject to disruptive selection due to competition for alternate prey. Here we present evidence that stickleback also exhibit assortative mating by diet. Among-individual diet variation leads to variation in stable isotopes, which reflect prey use. We find a significant correlation between the isotopes of males and eggs within their nests. Because egg isotopes are derived from females, this correlation reflects assortative mating between males and females by diet. In concert with disruptive selection, this assortative mating should facilitate divergence. However, the stickleback population remains phenotypically unimodal, highlighting the fact that assortative mating and disruptive selection do not guarantee evolutionary divergence and speciation.Integrative Biolog

The impact of conditional cash transfers on health outcomes and use of health services in low and middle income countries.

BACKGROUND: Conditional cash transfers (CCT) provide monetary transfers to households on the condition that they comply with some pre-defined requirements. CCT programmes have been justified on the grounds that demand-side subsidies are necessary to address inequities in access to health and social services for poor people. In the past decade they have become increasingly popular, particularly in middle income countries in Latin America. OBJECTIVES: To assess the effectiveness of CCT in improving access to care and health outcomes, in particular for poorer populations in low and middle income countries. SEARCH STRATEGY: We searched a wide range of international databases, including the Cochrane Central Register of Controlled Trials (CENTRAL), MEDLINE and EMBASE, in addition to development studies and economic databases. We also searched the websites and online resources of numerous international agencies, organisations and universities to find relevant grey literature. The original searches were conducted between November 2005 and April 2006. An updated search in MEDLINE was carried out in May 2009. SELECTION CRITERIA: CCT were defined as monetary transfers made to households on the condition that they comply with some pre-determined requirements in relation to health care. Studies had to include an objective measure of at least one of the following outcomes: health care utilisation, health expenditure, health outcomes or equity outcomes. Eligible study designs were: randomised controlled trial, interrupted time series analysis, or controlled before-after study of the impact of health financing policies following criteria used by the Cochrane Effective Practice and Organisation of Care Group. DATA COLLECTION AND ANALYSIS: We performed qualitative analysis of the evidence. MAIN RESULTS: We included ten papers reporting results from six intervention studies. Overall, design quality and analysis limited the risks of bias. Several CCT programmes provided strong evidence of a positive impact on the use of health services, nutritional status and health outcomes, respectively assessed by anthropometric measurements and self-reported episodes of illness. It is hard to attribute these positive effects to the cash incentives specifically because other components may also contribute. Several studies provide evidence of positive impacts on the uptake of preventive services by children and pregnant women. We found no evidence about effects on health care expenditure. AUTHORS' CONCLUSIONS: Conditional cash transfer programmes have been the subject of some well-designed evaluations, which strongly suggest that they could be an effective approach to improving access to preventive services. Their replicability under different conditions - particularly in more deprived settings - is still unclear because they depend on effective primary health care and mechanisms to disburse payments. Further rigorous evaluative research is needed, particularly where CCTs are being introduced in low income countries, for example in Sub-Saharan Africa or South Asia

Evolutionary processes from the perspective of flowering time diversity.

Although it is well appreciated that genetic studies of flowering time regulation have led to fundamental advances in the fields of molecular and developmental biology, the ways in which genetic studies of flowering time diversity have enriched the field of evolutionary biology have received less attention despite often being equally profound. Because flowering time is a complex, environmentally responsive trait that has critical impacts on plant fitness, crop yield, and reproductive isolation, research into the genetic architecture and molecular basis of its evolution continues to yield novel insights into our understanding of domestication, adaptation, and speciation. For instance, recent studies of flowering time variation have reconstructed how, when, and where polygenic evolution of phenotypic plasticity proceeded from standing variation and de novo mutations; shown how antagonistic pleiotropy and temporally varying selection maintain polymorphisms in natural populations; and provided important case studies of how assortative mating can evolve and facilitate speciation with gene flow. In addition, functional studies have built detailed regulatory networks for this trait in diverse taxa, leading to new knowledge about how and why developmental pathways are rewired and elaborated through evolutionary time

A comparison of population types used for QTL mapping in Arabidopsis thaliana

In Arabidopsis, a variety of mapping populations have been used for the detection of quantitative trait loci (QTLs) responsible for natural variation. In this study, we presentan overview of the advantages and disadvantages of the different types of populations used. To do this, we compare the results of both experimental and natural populations for the commonly analysed trait flowering time. It is expected that genome wide association (GWA) mapping will be an increasingly important tool for QTL mapping because of the high allelic richness and mapping resolution in natural populations. In Arabidopsis, GWA mapping becomes ever more facilitated by the increasing availability of re-sequenced genomes of many accessions. However, specifically designed mapping populations such as recombinant inbred lines and near isogenic lines will remain important. The high QTL detection power of such experimental populations can identify spurious GWA associations, and their unique genomic structure is superior for investigating the role of low-frequency alleles. Future QTL studies will therefore benefit from a combined approach of GWA and classical linkage analysis