Estimating shifts in diversification rates based on higher-level phylogenies.

Macroevolutionary studies recently shifted from only reconstructing the past state, i.e. the species phylogeny, to also infer the past speciation and extinction dynamics that gave rise to the phylogeny.

Temperature dependence of evolutionary diversification: differences between two contrasting model taxa support the metabolic theory of ecology.

Biodiversity patterns are largely determined by variation of diversification rates across clades and geographic regions. Although there are multiple reasons for this variation, it has been hypothesized that metabolic rate is the crucial driver of diversification of evolutionary lineages. According to the metabolic theory of ecology (MTE), metabolic rate - and consequently speciation - is driven mainly by body size and environmental temperature.

[A new method to estimate glomerular filtration rate based on serum concentration of creatinine, urea and albumin (MDRD, Modification of Diet in Renal Disease)].

The equation developed from the MDRD (Modification of Diet in Renal Disease) study provides more accurate estimate of GFR than other commonly used equations. The aim of this study was to compare prediction of GFR based on MDRD and Cockcrof-Gault (CG) method. The study was performed in 111 patients (mean age 42 +/- 5 years) with chronic renal impairment (Scr = 281 +/- 83 micromol/l).