Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
GENETICS OF HOST‐CACTUS RESPONSE AND LIFE‐HISTORY EVOLUTION AMONG ANCESTRAL AND DERIVED POPULATIONS OF CACTOPHILIC DROSOPHILA MOJAVENSIS

The extent of host‐specific genetic variation for two life‐history traits, egg to adult developmental time and viability, and one morphological trait closely tied to fitness, adult thorax size, was exposed by employing a nested half‐sib/full‐sib breeding design with Baja and mainland populations of Drosophila mojavensis recently extracted from nature. This study was motivated by the presence of substantial variation in life histories among populations of D. mojavensis that use the fermenting tissues of particular species of columnar cacti for feeding and breeding in the Sonoran Desert. Full‐sib progeny from all sire‐dam crosses were split into cultures of agria cactus, Stenocereus gummosus, and organ pipe cactus, S. thurberi, to examine patterns of genotype‐by‐environment interaction for these fitness components. Baja flies expressed shorter egg‐to‐adult developmental times, higher viabilities, and smaller body sizes than mainland flies consistent with previous studies. Significant sire and dam components of variance were exposed for developmental time and thorax size. Genotype‐by‐environment interactions were significant at the level of dams for developmental time and nearly significant for viability (P = 0.09). Narrow‐ and broad‐sense heritabilities were influenced by host cactus, sex, and population. No strong pattern of genetic correlation emerged among fitness components suggesting that host‐range expansion has not been accompanied by formation of coadapted life histories, yet the ability to estimate genetic correlations and their standard errors was compromised by the unbalanced nature of the data set. Genetic correlations in performance across cacti were slightly positive, evidence for ecological generalism among populations explaining the observed pattern of multiple host cactus use within the species range of D. mojavensis.
The School Years in Newcastle Upon Tyne

This book has been long awaited and finishes up the longitudinal study of 1,000 families in Newcastle upon Tyne, England. It is an account of the children in these families from ages 5 through 15 years. Of the original 1,142 children born in 1947, a total of 763 (67%) remained in the study at the end of 15 years. Losses were mainly due to moving. The book is divided into three major parts. Part 1 concerns the "biological performance" of the child, including illness, growth patterns, and the like. The second section is devoted to social performance of the children, including such topics as bed-wetting, speech disorders, and disturbed behavior. The third part deals largely with school performance. As in the first two volumes, these measures of child functioning are related to both biological and environmental variables. In terms of illness patterns, the most striking finding is the falloff in
Evaluation of Abdominal Ultrasound Performed by the Gastroenterologist in the Office

Goals To evaluate the utility of gastroenterologist operated abdominal ultrasound (US) in a community practice. Background Imaging is frequently required to guide management of patients with abdominal disorders. In the United States, gastroenterologists do not perform abdominal US on their own patients. Study Retrospective review of patients who underwent US by a gastroenterologist. Diagnostic accuracy of US was assessed on patients who underwent subsequent analysis with computed tomography, magnetic resonance imaging, or endoscopic retrograde cholangiopancreatography. Results A total of 310 patients were examined during their office visit over a period of 10 months. Abdominal pain (64%) and abnormal liver function tests (16%) were the most common indications. US did not detect any pathologies in 149 (48%) patients. Abnormal US were observed in 161 patients (52%). The most common abnormal US findings were fatty liver (21%) and biliary abnormalities (19%). US examination provided clinical useful findings guiding the management in 200 patients (65%); 22 patients (7%) showed severe abnormalities that required urgent management. The initial US interpretation was correct in all 22 cases. Among the 310 patients, 84 (27%) underwent subsequent computed tomography, magnetic resonance imaging, or endoscopic retrograde cholangiopancreatography within a period of 1 month. A normal US diagnosis was confirmed in 35 (88%) of 40 patients. Abnormal US results were confirmed in 41 (93%) of 44 patients. US missed 3 (4%) significant clinical lesions (choledocholithiasis, cirrhosis, and ureteral stone); CT misinterpreted 2 (2%) patients (cholelithiasis and dilated biliary tract). Conclusions Gastroenterologist-operated US provides instant and accurate information relevant to the diagnosis and management of abdominal disorders.
BEHAVIORAL EVIDENCE FOR HOST‐RACE FORMATION IN EUROSTA SOLIDAGINIS

We report behavioral evidence that Eurosta solidaginis, a stem‐galling tephritid fly, has formed host races on its two goldenrod hosts, Solidago altissima and S. gigantea. Previous work has shown that flies from each host plant differ electrophoretically at the level of host races. The two host‐associated populations were truly sympatric and were frequently found on host plants of the two species growing interdigitated with each other. Each host‐associated population demonstrated a strong preference for ovipuncturing its own host. The S. gigantea–associated population emerged 10 to 14 d earlier than the S. altissima–associated population, contributing to the reproductive isolation between populations. Partial reproductive isolation is also maintained by a preference for mating on the host from which the fly emerged. The populations meet the criteria established for host races, suggesting that they may be in an intermediate stage of sympatric speciation.
Drought-induced changes in flow regimes lead to long-term losses in mussel-provided ecosystem services

Extreme hydro-meteorological events such as droughts are becoming more frequent, intense, and persistent. This is particularly true in the south central USA, where rapidly growing urban areas are running out of water and human-engineered water storage and management are leading to broad-scale changes in flow regimes. The Kiamichi River in southeastern Oklahoma, USA, has high fish and freshwater mussel biodiversity. However, water from this rural river is desired by multiple urban areas and other entities. Freshwater mussels are large, long-lived filter feeders that provide important ecosystem services. We ask how observed changes in mussel biomass and community composition resulting from drought-induced changes in flow regimes might lead to changes in river ecosystem services. We sampled mussel communities in this river over a 20-year period that included two severe droughts. We then used laboratory-derived physiological rates and river-wide estimates of species-specific mussel biomass to estimate three aggregate ecosystem services provided by mussels over this time period: biofiltration, nutrient recycling (nitrogen and phosphorus), and nutrient storage (nitrogen, phosphorus, and carbon). Mussel populations declined over 60%, and declines were directly linked to drought-induced changes in flow regimes. All ecosystem services declined over time and mirrored biomass losses. Mussel declines were exacerbated by human water management, which has increased the magnitude and frequency of hydrologic drought in downstream reaches of the river. Freshwater mussels are globally imperiled and declining around the world. Summed across multiple streams and rivers, mussel losses similar to those we document here could have considerable consequences for downstream water quality although lost biofiltration and nutrient retention. While we cannot control the frequency and severity of climatological droughts, water releases from reservoirs could be used to augment stream flows and prevent compounded anthropogenic stressors.
Small Intestinal Release Mesalamine for the Treatment of Refractory Celiac Disease Type I

Goal The goal of this study is to evaluate the safety and efficacy of Small intestinal release mesalamine (SIRM) for symptom relief in refractory celiac disease (RCD). Background Therapeutic options for the RCD are inadequate and treatment with corticosteroids and immunosuppressants is limited by side effects. SIRM has been shown to have local antiinflammatory action and excellent tolerability. Study We reviewed records of the RCD patients who received SIRM in an open-label therapeutic trial. Data included demographics, disease characteristics, dose and duration of SIRM therapy, and response. Response was categorized as complete if there was complete resolution of symptoms, partial if there was at least 50% improvement, and nonresponsive if there was less than 50% improvement. Results Four patients were treated with SIRM alone and 6 received SIRM and oral budesonide. Within 4 weeks, 50% had complete response and an additional 10% had partial response. Two of the 6 patients were able to discontinue budesonide. One patient discontinued SIRM owing to headaches. Conclusion SIRM seems to be a safe and efficacious treatment option in patients with RCD. Larger, controlled trials of this agent are warranted.
INBREEDING DEPRESSION IN TWO MIMULUS TAXA MEASURED BY MULTIGENERATIONAL CHANGES IN THE INBREEDING COEFFICIENT

In mixed‐mating plant populations, one can estimate the relative fitness of selfed progeny w by measuring the inbreeding coefficient F and selfing rate s of adults of one generation, together with F of adults in the following generation (after selection). In the first application of this multigenerational method, we estimated F and s for adults over three consecutive generations in adjacent populations of two annual Mimulus taxa: the outbreeding M. guttatus and the inbreeding M. platycalyx. This gave estimates of w for the last two generations. Although average multilocus selfing rates were high in both taxa (0.63 in M. guttatus; 0.84 in M. platycalyx), the relative fitness of selfed progeny averaged only 0.19 in M. guttatus and 0.32 in M. platycalyx. An alternative estimator for w that incorporates biparental inbreeding gave even lower estimates of w. These values are significantly below the 0.5 threshold thought to favor selfing, and show that partially selfing populations can harbor substantial genetic load. In accordance with the purging hypothesis, the more highly selfing M. platycalyx showed marginally lower inbreeding depression than M. guttatus in both years (P = 0.08). Inbreeding depression and selfing rates also varied among years in concert among taxa. Several sources of bias are discussed, but computer simulations indicate it is unlikely that w is biased downwards by linkage of marker loci to load loci.
Seed viability and germination success of Acacia tortilis along land‐use and aridity gradients in the Eastern Sahara

Abstract Our study focuses on the keystone species Acacia tortilis and is the first to investigate the effect of domestic ungulates and aridity on seed viability and germination over an extensive part of the Eastern Sahara. Bruchids infest its seeds and reduce their viability and germination, but ingestion by ruminant herbivores diminishes infestation levels and enhances/promotes seed viability and germination. The degree of these effects seems to be correlated with animal body mass. Significantly reduced numbers of wild ruminant ungulates have increased the potential importance of domestic animals and pastoral nomadism for the functionality of arid North African and Middle Eastern ecosystems. We sampled seeds (16,543) from A. tortilis in eight areas in three regions with different aridity and land use. We tested the effect of geography and sampling context on seed infestation using random effects logistic regressions. We did a randomized and balanced germination experiment including 1193 seeds, treated with different manure. Germination time and rates across geography, sampling context, and infestation status were analyzed using time‐to‐event analyses, Kaplan–Meier curves and proportional hazards Cox regressions. Bruchid infestation is very high (80%), and the effects of context are significant. Neither partial infestation nor adding manure had a positive effect on germination. There is a strong indication that intact, uningested seeds from acacia populations in the extremely arid Western Desert germinate more slowly and have a higher fraction of hard seeds than in the Eastern Desert and the Red Sea Hills. For ingested seeds in the pastoralist areas we find that intact seeds from goat dung germinate significantly better than those from camel dung. This is contrary to the expected body‐mass effect. There is no effect of site or variation in tribal management.
THE EFFECTS OF POPULATION SIZE AND PLANT DENSITY ON OUTCROSSING RATES IN LOCALLY ENDANGERED SALVIA PRATENSIS

Multilocus outcrossing rates were estimated in natural and experimental populations of Salvia pratensis, an entomophilous, gynodioecious, protandrous perennial. Male steriles were used to check the estimation procedure of outcrossing rates in hermaphrodites. Estimates of outcrossing rates in hermaphroditic plants ranged from 38.2% to 81.8% in natural populations and from 71.5% to 95.5% in experimental populations. No correlations were found between outcrossing rates and population size. However, outcrossing in hermaphrodites was promoted by high plant densities and low frequencies of male steriles. It is argued that effective management to preserve genetic variation in populations of S. pratensis should provide for the maintenance of high plant densities.
Comment on the article about safety of blind percutaneous liver biopsy in obese children.

To the Editor: We read with great interest the article by Harwood et al published in issue 10 of J Clin Gastroenterol 2010. Authors retrospectively analyzed the results of 107 blind percutaneous liver biopsies (PLB) and compared their results in obese and nonobese children. They concluded that blind PLB could be safely carried out in obese children with no increase in complication rate compared with nonobese children. Similarly, there was no difference in number of passes, biopsy size, portal triads per biopsy, or biopsy success in obese children. However, there are several important points that need to be addressed. From our point of view, after a long experience in performing ultrasound (US) guidance PLB, we believe that direct US control of the needle pathway during the procedure represents the guarantee that hepatic fragment obtained by PLB is adequate for histologic analysis and additionally reduces complication rates. Several studies showed that complications appeared more often in “blind” than in “US-guided” biopsies. In this study, authors have presented similar statements in discussion section. In a prospective study, Riley reported that US examination before the PLB forced a change of the site of biopsy in 15.1% of the cases because of interposition of lung, gallbladder, large central vessel, ascites, colonic loop, and slim liver edge. Our main concern is based on the question whether blind biopsy (especially in children) would be ethical nowadays, with extensive use of US. Above all, many physicians consider US “the stethoscope of 21st century”. The opinion that the blind method of PLB (without visual inspection of the needle pathway) has the same chances for successful outcome is simply not realistic (especially regarding safety of the intervention and its complication rate). Therefore, we believe that blind biopsy is to a certain degree acceptable for clinicians (gastroenterologists/hepatologists) in the countries where only radiologists are allowed to perform US examination. In the countries where clinicians do perform US examination, we cannot recommend blind biopsy as US-guided method is likely to reduce the risk of complications and improves the quality of specimens obtained, as recommended by the American Association for the Study of Liver Diseases guidelines.
Importance of the study context in community assembly processes: a quantitative synthesis of forest bird communities

Species composition is constrained by two upper-level processes in ecological contexts where the dispersion of organisms is not severely limited, namely selection and ecological drift. This intuitive framework has motivated a constant flow of empirical models for linking the species matrix to the local environmental descriptors, in which the environment rarely explains more than 30–40% of the variation in species composition. In most cases, researchers only approximate the environmental axes that drive fitness differences between species, as the list of measured descriptors reflect both logistical constraints and hypothesis-driven questions. Moreover, contextual factors, such as the species pool size (SPS) and the spatial extent of the sampled area, could moderate species–environment associations through sampling effects and dispersal limitations. This study’s objective was to quantify the influence of contextual factors (i.e., related to the circumstances in which the study was conducted) on the species–environment association strength on the basis of a synthesis of 156 models of forest bird communities. Our results reveal that factors related to the SPS and the number of independent environmental axes studied affect our capacity to detect selection, whereas spatial factors such as the study’s spatial extent and latitude are less important determinants. The study context explains almost a third of the observed variation in the strength of the species– environment association. We conclude that strong species–environment associations can be found for properly designed studies of forest bird communities, which raises the question of whether ecologists have underestimated the importance of selection in community assembly processes.
EVOLUTIONARY SHIFTS IN THE SPECTRAL PROPERTIES OF SPIDER SILKS

We measured the reflectance properties of unpigmented silks spun by a systematic array of primitive (Deinopoidea) and derived (Araneoidea) aerial, web‐spinning spiders, as well as silks spun by Araneomorphae and Mygalomorphae spiders that do not spin aerial webs. Our data show that all of the primitive aerial web spinners produce catching silks with a spectral peak in the ultraviolet (UV), and cladistic analysis suggests that high UV reflection is the primitive character state for silk spectral properties. In contrast, all of the derived aerial web spinners produce silks that are spectrally flat or characterized by reduced reflectance in the UV. Correlated with the evolution of these catching silks is a 37‐fold increase in species number and apparent habitat expansion. This suggests that the unique silk proteins spun by the araneoids have been important to their ecological and evolutionary diversity.
EVOLUTIONARY ECOLOGY OF DATURA STRAMONIUM L. IN CENTRAL MEXICO: NATURAL SELECTION FOR RESISTANCE TO HERBIVOROUS INSECTS

It has been assumed that herbivores constitute a selective agent for the evolution of plant resistance. However, few studies have tested this hypothesis. In this study, we look at the annual weed Datura stramonium for evidence of current natural selection for resistance to herbivorous insects. Paternal half‐sib families obtained through controlled crosses were exposed to herbivores under natural conditions. The plants were damaged by two folivorous insects: the tobacco flea beetle Epitrix parvula and the grasshopper Sphenarium purpurascens. Selection was estimated using a multiple‐regression analysis of plant size and of damage by the two herbivores on plant fitness measured as fruit production for both individual phenotypes and family breeding values (genetic analysis). Directional phenotypic selection was detected for both larger plant size and lower resistance to the flea beetles, whereas stabilizing phenotypic selection was revealed for resistance to S. purpurascens. However, performing the same analyses on the breeding values of the characters revealed directional and stabilizing selection only for plant size. Thus, no agreement existed between the results of the two types of analyses, nor was there any detectable potential for genetic change in the studied population because of selection on herbivore resistance. The narrow‐sense heritability of every trait studied was small (all <0.1) and not different from zero. The potential for evolutionary response to natural selection for higher resistance to herbivores in the studied population of D. stramonium is probably limited by lack of genetic variation. Natural selection acts on phenotypes, and the detection of phenotypic selection on resistance to herbivores confirms their ecological importance in determining plant fitness. However, evolutionary inferences based solely on phenotypic selection analyses must be interpreted with caution.
POLYPHYLY OF THE BLACKBIRD GENUS AGELAIUS AND THE IMPORTANCE OF ASSUMPTIONS OF MONOPHYLY IN COMPARATIVE STUDIES

A phylogeny for Agelaius blackbirds was constructed using sequence data from an 890 base‐pair (bp) region of the mitochondrial cytochrome‐b gene in nine species of Agelaius and a single species from all but 1 of the 28 described blackbird genera and subgenera. The genus was found to be polyphyletic with the South American members of Agelaius more closely related to other South American blackbird genera. Application of bootstrap and jackknife manipulations supports this conclusion. That this relatively well‐known genus is polyphyletic represents a warning to those attempting to construct phylogenies without first demonstrating monophyly of the ingroup. The conclusion that Agelaius is polyphyletic necessitates (1) the reinterpretation of previous studies that assumed monophyly and (2) the initiation of a variety of new comparative behavioral and ecological studies suggested by this finding.
SOME EVOLUTIONARY POSSIBILITIES FOR A MICROBE THAT CAUSES INCOMPATIBILITY IN ITS HOST

This note concerns some speculations about the evolution of Wolbachia, an intracellular bacterium found in many insects. O'Neill et al. (1992) reported the results of a survey of a limited number of insects, and more recently R. Giordano and H. M. Robertson have found it in more than 10% of more than 500 species surveyed (pers. comm. 1992). In several insects, it has been shown to cause unidirectional incompatibility between males carrying the microbe and females that do not (O'Neill et al. 1992; Stevens and Wade 1990). In haplo-diploids, it can cause sex-ratio distortion and parthenogenesis (Stouthammer et al. 1993). This note concerns the incompatibility effect, in which the Wolbachia spreads by partially sterilizing those females that do not carry it. Because of this mode of increase, Hurst et al. (1992) referred to the organism as a "selfish gene. " Rousset and Raymond (1991) titled their paper on the subject "Why sterilize females? " and compared the system to "spiteful behavior. " One objective of this note is to illustrate how such anthropomorphic metaphors might be misleading and cause diversion from interesting and perhaps useful questions. The exercise that follows examines the population behavior of possible kinds of nonsterilizing strains of Wolbachia. This system, then, has three kinds of hosts: unifected hosts, u; hosts carrying Wolbachia with the normal sterilizing allele, s; and hosts carrying the microbe with one or the other of two kinds of nonsterilizing alleles, explained below. The recurrence equations for this system were derived in an analogous way to that of Nigro and Prout (1990) who also had three host states. The assumptions are random mating of the host, matriclinous transmission of the microbe, and discrete generations. Additional biology is identified in the parameter definitions below. The equations are