Macroevolutionary inference of complex modes of chromosomal speciation in a cosmopolitan plant lineage.

The effects of single chromosome number change-dysploidy - mediating diversification remain poorly understood. Dysploidy modifies recombination rates, linkage, or reproductive isolation, especially for one-fifth of all eukaryote lineages with holocentric chromosomes. Dysploidy effects on diversification have not been estimated because modeling chromosome numbers linked to diversification with heterogeneity along phylogenies is quantitatively challenging.

Commonly used Bayesian diversification methods lead to biologically meaningful differences in branch-specific rates on empirical phylogenies.

Identifying along which lineages shifts in diversification rates occur is a central goal of comparative phylogenetics; these shifts may coincide with key evolutionary events such as the development of novel morphological characters, the acquisition of adaptive traits, polyploidization or other structural genomic changes, or dispersal to a new habitat and subsequent increase in environmental niche space. However, while multiple methods now exist to estimate diversification rates and identify shifts using phylogenetic topologies, the appropriate use and accuracy of these methods are hotly debated. Here we test whether five Bayesian methods-Bayesian Analysis of Macroevolutionary Mixtures (BAMM), two implementations of the Lineage-Specific Birth-Death-Shift model (LSBDS and PESTO), the approximate Multi-Type Birth-Death model (MTBD; implemented in BEAST2), and the Cladogenetic Diversification Rate Shift model (ClaDS2)-produce comparable results.

Conservation applications of niche modeling: Native and naturalized ferns may compete for limited Hawaiian dryland habitat.

Premise: Competition from naturalized species and habitat loss are common threats to native biodiversity and may act synergistically to increase competition for decreasing habitat availability. We use Hawaiian dryland ferns as a model for the interactions between land-use change and competition from naturalized species in determining habitat availability.

Methods: We used fine-resolution climatic variables and carefully curated occurrence data from herbaria and community science repositories to estimate the distributions of Hawaiian dryland ferns.

Tuber, or not tuber: Molecular and morphological basis of underground storage organ development.

Underground storage organs occur in phylogenetically diverse plant taxa and arise from multiple tissue types including roots and stems. Thickening growth allows underground storage organs to accommodate carbohydrates and other nutrients and requires proliferation at various lateral meristems followed by cell expansion. The WOX-CLE module regulates thickening growth via the vascular cambium in several eudicot systems, but the molecular mechanisms of proliferation at other lateral meristems are not well understood.

You Either Pull Freight or You are Freight-Admonition #1 for Third Year Medical Students on a Surgery Service.

No abstract present.

You Will Be Held For Questioning: The Secrets of Multiple-Choice Test Makers & Test Takers.

No abstract present.

 (Alstroemeriaceae), an exceptionally small new species from the eastern Andean slopes of Ecuador.

Recent field research on the eastern slopes of the Andes resulted in the discovery of a new species of from the Cerro Candelaria Reserve in the Tungurahua province of Ecuador. is the second smallest species in the genus and differs from the smallest by the presence of glutinous trichomes on the ovary, glabrous sepals, and greenish-yellow petals with purple spots. Based on IUCN guidelines, a preliminary conservation status is assigned as Vulnerable (VU).

Everything You Need to Know about Venting during Cardiac Surgery (And It's More than You Thought!).

No abstract present.

The rapid radiation of Bomarea (Alstroemeriaceae: Liliales), driven by the rise of the Andes.

Geological events such as mountain uplift affect how, when, and where species diversify, but measuring those effects is a longstanding challenge. Andean orogeny impacted the evolution of regional biota by creating barriers to gene flow, opening new habitats, and changing local climate. B⁢o⁢m⁢a⁢r⁢e⁢a (Alstroemeriaceae) are tropical plants with (often) small, isolated ranges; in total, B⁢o⁢m⁢a⁢r⁢e⁢a species occur from central Mexico to central Chile.

I Need You to be Me: Talking with Our Patients, Their Families, and Their Doctors.

No abstract present.

Postdoctoral National Institutes of Health F32 Grants: Broken Pipeline in the Development of Surgeon-Scientists.

Objective: We examined trainees in surgery and internal medicine who received National Institutes of Health (NIH) F32 postdoctoral awards to determine their success rates in obtaining future NIH funding.

Background: Trainees participate in dedicated research years during residency (surgery) and fellowship (internal medicine). They can obtain an NIH F32 grant to fund their research time and have structured mentorship.

Using ChromEvol to Determine the Mode of Chromosomal Evolution.

The ChromEvol software was the first to implement a likelihood-based approach, using probabilistic models that depict the pattern of chromosome number change along a specified phylogeny. The initial models have been completed and expanded during the last years. New parameters that model polyploid chromosome evolution have been implemented in ChromEvol v.

Yoga Can Help You Practice and Teach Cardiothoracic Surgery.

Those who practice, and teach, thoracic and cardiovascular surgery and those who are training in this realm, as well as in many other disciplines, often endure debilitating physical stress and strain as a result of their practices. [Bishop, 2023] Despite the attention paid to issues such as proper adjustments for loupe magnification, optimal footwear, attention to 'micro-breaks', and paying attention to the ergonomics of performing long and intense operations, many surgeons still suffer discomfort and debility, and, even, disability. [Dalagher, 2019, Epstein, 2018, Alleblas, 2017, Giagio, 2019, Norasi, 2021] Dealing with those challenges should include what those practitioners can do outside of the operating room to increase their comfort and resilience, as well as what can be done in the operating room.

Zen and the Art of Thriving in the Clerkship Year of Medical School.

You, as third year medical students, are all among the best learners on the planet. You had to be to get into this, or any other, medical school. Your academic prowess has been put to good use both prior to and in the first couple of years of med school.

The Biological and Anthropogenic Soundscape of an Urbanized Port - the Charleston Harbor Estuary, South Carolina, USA.

Soundscape ecology provides a long-term, noninvasive approach to track animal behavior, habitat quality, and community structure over temporal and spatial scales. Using soniferous species as an indicator, biological soundscapes provide information about species and ecosystem health as well as their response and resiliency to potential stressors such as noise pollution. Charleston Harbor, South Carolina, USA provides important estuarine habitat for an abundance of marine life and is one of the busiest and fastest growing container ports in the southeast USA.

The White Coat Ceremony: Welcome to the Medical Profession.

We have written about a number of the transitions, or 'lurches,' that most of us in medicine encounter as we move through the various stages of education and training in our profession. Some of our prior musings have addressed the transition into a Surgery Clerkship or a Surgery externship in the third or fourth years of medical school, respectively, as well as transitions into internship, the senior years of a Surgery residency, and a new job after completing Thoracic Surgery training. [Tribble: 2019, 2021, 2018, 2021, 2022].

Helping Applicants Write Their Way into a Surgical Residency.

So, you've got students clamoring for help writing their personal statements for Surgery Residency applications? Writing a personal statement for an application to a residency program is often one of the most daunting aspects of the application process. In fact, it is probably the most daunting part of that process. However, there is a surprising paucity of information about how best to approach writing these residency application essays, in stark contrast to the plentiful advice available for other types of applications, such as those required for college or medical school admission.

Cytostatic hypothermia and its impact on glioblastoma and survival.

Patients with glioblastoma (GBM) have limited options and require novel approaches to treatment. Here, we studied and deployed nonfreezing "cytostatic" hypothermia to stunt GBM growth. This growth-halting method contrasts with ablative, cryogenic hypothermia that kills both neoplastic and infiltrated healthy tissue.

Unearthing Modes of Climatic Adaptation in Underground Storage Organs Across Liliales.

Testing adaptive hypotheses about how continuous traits evolve in association with developmentally structured discrete traits, while accounting for the confounding influence of other, hidden, evolutionary forces, remains a challenge in evolutionary biology. For example, geophytes are herbaceous plants-with underground buds-that use underground storage organs (USOs) to survive extended periods of unfavorable conditions. Such plants have evolved multiple times independently across all major vascular plant lineages.

Give Me a Shot of Holy Water: Critical Elements in Myocardial Protection during Cardiac Surgery.

There is a surprising paucity of information on myocardial protection during cardiac surgery in the popular techniques books on cardiac surgery. For instance, Khonsari's otherwise superb book, Cardiac Surgery: Safeguards and Pitfalls in Operative Technique, has only three of its 300 pages that address myocardial protection, while Cooley's book, Techniques in Cardiac Surgery, has none at all. Similarly, the major textbooks of cardiothoracic surgery (Kirklin & Barrett-Boyes, Sabiston & Spencer, and Cohn & Edmunds) all tend to dwell on basic science and pharmacology, while barely addressing the actual techniques and strategies of myocardial protection during cardiac surgical operations.

Time for a Cool Change: Getting off on the Right Foot in a New Job.

As a Thoracic Surgery resident approaching the end of your training, you may well have been in a single training program, perhaps mostly in a single hospital, for nearly a quarter of your life at the time of your graduation from residency. In a few months you will be going to work in other institutions in which you, obviously, have never worked. This transition will be challenging at best, and discombobulating at worst.

Pull Up a Chair, Sit Down, and Listen.

When I was a medical student rotating on the various clinical services and thinking about career decisions, a common refrain from those offering advice on these decisions was that an early 'branch in the career decision tree' was deciding whether you liked caring for patients or liked doing procedures. I sensed that this advice was creating, or at least suggesting, a false or inaccurate choice. In fact, I even remember hearing that surgeons should not get too close to their patients in order to retain a sense of detachment.

Sewing Proximals on the Ascending Aorta during CABG Operations.

To have coronary bypass surgery deliver on the claim made by Dr. Lytle in his Gibbon Lecture at the 2020 meeting of the American College of Surgeons, surgeons doing these operations must pay attention to every detail of the procedures.  While a lot of attention is, appropriately, focused on sewing the distal anastomoses in coronary artery bypass operations [Tribble, 2018], there is often comparatively less attention placed on creating the proximal anastomoses for coronary artery bypass grafts.

All Bleeding Stops, Eventually (But: The Sooner The Better!).

It's your first day as the surgery resident working in the cardiac surgery intensive care unit (ICU) and you are accepting the hand-off of a cardiac surgery patient that your senior resident has brought up from the operating room for admission to the ICU. During the handoff, your resident colleague tells you that the patient is 'oozing a lot and that the operating team, after a diligent search for bleeding sites, does not believe that the oozing is 'surgical.' She announces that your job will, therefore, be to stop the ongoing oozing, while, of course, being alert to the possible development of tamponade physiology.