Tandem duplication of chromosomal segments is common in ovarian and breast cancer genomes.

The application of paired-end next generation sequencing approaches has made it possible to systematically characterize rearrangements of the cancer genome to base-pair level. Utilizing this approach, we report the first detailed analysis of ovarian cancer rearrangements, comparing high-grade serous and clear cell cancers, and these histotypes with other solid cancers. Somatic rearrangements were systematically characterized in eight high-grade serous and five clear cell ovarian cancer genomes and we report here the identification of > 600 somatic rearrangements.

Clinically significant copy number alterations and complex rearrangements of MYB and NFIB in head and neck adenoid cystic carcinoma.

Adenoid cystic carcinoma (ACC) of the head and neck is a malignant tumor with poor long-term prognosis. Besides the recently identified MYB-NFIB fusion oncogene generated by a t(6;9) translocation, little is known about other genetic alterations in ACC. Using high-resolution, array-based comparative genomic hybridization, and massively paired-end sequencing, we explored genomic alterations in 40 frozen ACCs.

Reproductive history and nest environment are correlated with circulating androgen and glucocorticoid concentrations in a parental care-providing teleost fish.

Using a long-term study population of wild smallmouth bass Micropterus dolomieu in a connected river-lake system, we investigated whether circulating glucocorticoid (cortisol) and androgen (testosterone) concentrations are influenced by reproductive investment and nesting environment in fish providing nest-guarding paternal care. For all individuals, we collected measures of reproductive history and the value of current parental care. We assessed nest environment and monitored individuals to quantify seasonal reproductive success.

Fish stranding in freshwater systems: sources, consequences, and mitigation.

Fish can become stranded when water levels decrease, often rapidly, as a result of anthropogenic (e.g., canal drawdown, hydropeaking, vessel wakes) and natural (e.

A synthesis of tagging studies examining the behaviour and survival of anadromous salmonids in marine environments.

This paper synthesizes tagging studies to highlight the current state of knowledge concerning the behaviour and survival of anadromous salmonids in the marine environment. Scientific literature was reviewed to quantify the number and type of studies that have investigated behaviour and survival of anadromous forms of Pacific salmon (Oncorhynchus spp.), Atlantic salmon (Salmo salar), brown trout (Salmo trutta), steelhead (Oncorhynchus mykiss), and cutthroat trout (Oncorhynchus clarkii).

Oxidative stress associated with paternal care in smallmouth bass (Micropterus dolomieu).

In species that provide parental care, care for offspring is often accompanied by an increase in locomotor activity and a decrease in feeding opportunities which can negatively impact endogenous energy reserves. Depletion of parental energy stores and declines in nutritional condition can cause physiological disturbances, such as an imbalance between free radical production and available antioxidants, known as oxidative stress. Using the teleost smallmouth bass (Micropterus dolomieu) as a model, we tested if the energetic challenge associated with sole paternal care was associated with oxidative stress.

Inter-observer agreement for Crohn's disease sub-phenotypes using the Montreal Classification: How good are we? A multi-centre Australasian study.

Background: Crohn's disease (CD) exhibits significant clinical heterogeneity. Classification systems attempt to describe this; however, their utility and reliability depends on inter-observer agreement (IOA). We therefore sought to evaluate IOA using the Montreal Classification (MC).

Sex and proximity to reproductive maturity influence the survival, final maturation, and blood physiology of Pacific salmon when exposed to high temperature during a simulated migration.

Some Pacific salmon populations have been experiencing increasingly warmer river temperatures during their once-in-a-lifetime spawning migration, which has been associated with en route and prespawn mortality. The mechanisms underlying such temperature-mediated mortality are poorly understood. Wild adult pink (Oncorhynchus gorbuscha) and sockeye (Oncorhynchus nerka) salmon were used in this study.

The role of tandem duplicator phenotype in tumour evolution in high-grade serous ovarian cancer.

High-grade serous ovarian carcinoma (HGSOC) is characterized by genomic instability, ubiquitous TP53 loss, and frequent development of platinum resistance. Loss of homologous recombination (HR) is a mutator phenotype present in 50% of HGSOCs and confers hypersensitivity to platinum treatment. We asked which other mutator phenotypes are present in HGSOC and how they drive the emergence of platinum resistance.

Condition dependent intra-individual repeatability of stress-induced cortisol in a freshwater fish.

The glucocorticoid (GC) stress response is thought to be an individual trait associated with behaviour and life history strategies. Studies exploring such relationships typically assume measured hormone values to be repeatable within an individual. However, repeatability of GCs has proven variable in wild animals and underlying reasons remain unknown.

A novel deletion partly removing the AVP gene causes autosomal recessive inheritance of early-onset neurohypophyseal diabetes insipidus.

Familial neurohypophyseal diabetes insipidus (FNDI) typically presents with age-dependent penetrance and autosomal dominant inheritance caused by missense variations in one allele of the AVP gene encoding the arginine vasopressin (AVP) prohormone. We present the molecular genetic characteristics underlying an unusual form of FNDI occurring with very early onset and seemingly autosomal recessive inheritance. By DNA amplification and sequencing, we identified a novel variant allele of the AVP gene carrying a 10,396 base pair deletion involving the majority of the AVP gene as well as its regulatory sequences in the intergenic region between the AVP and the OXT gene, encoding the oxytocin prohormone.

Paleodiet of extinct platyrrhines with emphasis on the Caribbean forms: three-dimensional geometric morphometrics of mandibular second molars.

A three-dimensional geometric morphometric approach was employed to examine shape variation in laser-scan generated models of lower second molars and its relationship to diet in a sample of 9 extant and 16 extinct platyrrhine genera. Principal component analysis of twenty-three x,y,z landmarks describing the occlusal table and sidewalls showed that dental relief was the main contributing factor to variation along the first axis. Discriminant function analysis (DFA) of PC 1 scores and centroid size accurately classified extant platyrrhines according to dietary preference; however, without centroid size, the DFA was less successful.

The making of platyrrhine semifolivores: models for the evolution of folivory in primates.

Among living New World monkeys, Howlers and Muriquis are by far the most folivorous. We examine how well the morphology and behavior of Alouatta and Brachyteles conform to leaf-eating adaptational models derived from other studies. Both genera match these expectations unevenly, which suggests a broader conception of primate folivory is in order.

The efficacy of field techniques for obtaining and storing blood samples from fishes.

Prompted by the dramatic increase in the use of blood analyses in fisheries research and monitoring, this study investigated the efficacy of common field techniques for sampling and storing blood from fishes. Three questions were addressed: (1) Do blood samples taken via rapid caudal puncture (the 'grab-and-stab' technique) yield similar results for live v. sacrificed groups of fishes? (2) Do rapidly obtained caudal blood samples accurately represent blood properties of fishes prior to capture? (3) Does storage of whole blood in an ice slurry for a working day (8·5 h) modify the properties of the plasma? It was shown that haematocrit, plasma ions, metabolites, stress hormones and sex hormones of caudal blood samples were statistically similar when taken from live v.

Stimulus-selective response plasticity in the visual cortex: an assay for the assessment of pathophysiology and treatment of cognitive impairment associated with psychiatric disorders.

Long-term potentiation (LTP) is a form of experimentally induced enhancement of chemical synaptic transmission that has long been proposed as a model of the endogenous processes of synaptic plasticity that mediate memory. There is a large body of evidence that the molecular mechanisms underlying experimentally induced LTP also subserve various forms of naturally occurring, experience-dependent synaptic plasticity in animals and humans. Here we describe a phenomenon called stimulus-specific response potentiation (SRP), which occurs in the primary visual cortex of mice as a result of repeated exposure to visual stimuli and is believed to reveal the mechanisms that underlie perceptual learning.

The glucocorticoid stress response is repeatable between years in a wild teleost fish.

Patterns of glucocorticoid (GC) hormone regulation exhibit considerable inter-individual variation that is often examined relative to individual traits and fitness measures. Although stress-induced GC concentrations are repeatable within an individual in captive populations, this assumption remains untested in wild animals in their natural environment across longer time periods. We assessed the repeatability of baseline and post-stress GC concentrations in a wild teleost fish.

The influence of selection for vulnerability to angling on foraging ecology in largemouth bass Micropterus salmoides.

Several traits related to foraging behaviour were assessed in young-of-the-year produced from largemouth bass Micropterus salmoides that had been exposed to four generations of artificial selection for vulnerability to angling. As recreational angling may target foraging ability, this study tested the hypothesis that selection for vulnerability to angling would affect behaviours associated with foraging ecology and prey capture success. Fish selected for low vulnerability to angling captured more prey and attempted more captures than high vulnerability fish.

Lower confidence bounds for prediction accuracy in high dimensions via AROHIL Monte Carlo.

Motivation: Implementation and development of statistical methods for high-dimensional data often require high-dimensional Monte Carlo simulations. Simulations are used to assess performance, evaluate robustness, and in some cases for implementation of algorithms. But simulation in high dimensions is often very complex, cumbersome and slow.

Reprinted article "Neovascularisation is the principal cause of varicose vein recurrence: results of a randomised trial of stripping the long saphenous vein".

Objectives: To determine whether routine stripping of the long saphenous vein reduces recurrence after varicose vein surgery.

Design: Randomised controlled trial. All operations done by a consultant vascular surgeon.

Fitness and behavioral correlates of pre-stress and stress-induced plasma cortisol titers in pink salmon (Oncorhynchus gorbuscha) upon arrival at spawning grounds.

Semelparous Pacific salmon (Onchorynchus spp.) serve as an excellent model for examining the relationships between life history, behavior and individual variation in glucocorticoid (GC) stress hormone levels because reproductive behaviors are highly variable between individuals and failure to reproduce results in zero fitness. Pink salmon (O.

Long-term potentiation and long-term depression: a clinical perspective.

Long-term potentiation and long-term depression are enduring changes in synaptic strength, induced by specific patterns of synaptic activity, that have received much attention as cellular models of information storage in the central nervous system. Work in a number of brain regions, from the spinal cord to the cerebral cortex, and in many animal species, ranging from invertebrates to humans, has demonstrated a reliable capacity for chemical synapses to undergo lasting changes in efficacy in response to a variety of induction protocols. In addition to their physiological relevance, long-term potentiation and depression may have important clinical applications.

Solving for two unknowns: an extension of vector-based models of landmark-based navigation.

Vectors are mathematical representations of distance and direction information that take the form of line segments where length represents distance and orientation in space represents direction. Vector-based models have proven beneficial in understanding the spatial behavior of a variety of species in tasks that require landmark-based navigation via vector addition and vector averaging to determine a location. Extant research regarding vector-based representational and computational accounts of landmark-based navigation has involved tasks that required solving for one unknown (i.

Evolution of platinum resistance in high-grade serous ovarian cancer.

High-grade serous ovarian cancers account for most ovarian-cancer mortality. Although this disease initially responds well to platinum-based chemotherapy, relapse and progression to chemotherapy resistance are frequently seen. Time to relapse after first-line therapy is a predictor of response to secondary platinum treatment: more than 12 months is associated with high chance of a secondary response, whereas relapses within 6 months generally indicate platinum resistance.

Physiological and molecular endocrine changes in maturing wild sockeye salmon, Oncorhynchus nerka, during ocean and river migration.

Maturing adult sockeye salmon Oncorhynchus nerka were intercepted while migrating in the ocean and upstream in freshwater over a combined distance of more than 1,300 km to determine physiological and endocrine changes associated with ionoregulation. Sockeye migrating through seawater and freshwater showed consistent declines in gill Na+/K+ -ATPase (NKA) activity, plasma osmolality and plasma chloride concentration. In contrast, plasma sodium concentration became elevated in seawater as fish approached the river mouth and was then restored after sockeye entered the river.