Immigration counter-acts local micro-evolution of a major fitness component: Migration-selection balance in free-living song sparrows.

Ongoing adaptive evolution, and resulting "evolutionary rescue" of declining populations, requires additive genetic variation in fitness. Such variation can be increased by gene flow resulting from immigration, potentially facilitating evolution. But, gene flow could in fact constrain rather than facilitate local adaptive evolution if immigrants have low additive genetic values for local fitness.

Natural history of model organisms: The secret (group) life of larvae and why it matters to developmental ecology.

Model organisms such as have been key tools for advancing our fundamental and applied knowledge in biological and biomedical sciences. However, model organisms have become intertwined with the idea of controlled and stable laboratory environments, and their natural history has been overlooked.In holometabolous insects, lack of natural history information on larval ecology has precluded major advances in the field of developmental ecology, especially in terms of manipulations of population density early in life (i.

Strong foraging preferences for (Saxifragales: Grossulariaceae) in the polyphagous caterpillars of Buff-tip moth (Lepidoptera: Notodontidae).

Herbivorous insects such as butterflies and moths are essential to natural and agricultural systems due to pollination and pest outbreaks. However, our knowledge of butterflies' and moths' nutrition is fragmented and limited to few common, charismatic, or problematic species.This gap precludes our complete understanding of herbivorous insects' natural history, physiological and behavioral adaptations that drive how species interact with their environment, the consequences of habitat fragmentation and climate change to invertebrate biodiversity, and pest outbreak dynamics.

Mimicry and mitonuclear discordance in nudibranchs: New insights from exon capture phylogenomics.

Phylogenetic inference and species delimitation can be challenging in taxonomic groups that have recently radiated and where introgression produces conflicting gene trees, especially when species delimitation has traditionally relied on mitochondrial data and color pattern. , a genus of colorful and toxic nudibranch in the Indo-Pacific, has been shown to have extraordinary cryptic diversity and mimicry, and has recently radiated, ultimately complicating species delimitation. In these cases, additional genome-wide data can help improve phylogenetic resolution and provide important insights about evolutionary history.

Trend in creatinine determining methods: Conventional methods to molecular-based methods.

Renal failure (RF) disease is ranked as one of the most prevalent diseases with severe morbidity and mortality. Early diagnosis of RF leads to subsequent control of disease to reduce the poor prognosis. The level of sera creatinine is considered as a significant biomarker for kidney biofunction, which is routinely detected by the Jaffe reaction.

Multicentric origin and diversification of --like structures reveal mitochondrial gene flows in and .

Cytoplasmic male sterility (CMS) is a widely used genetic tool in modern hybrid rice breeding. Most genes conferring rice gametophytic CMS are homologous to and co-transcribe with . However, the origin, differentiation and flow of these mitochondrial genes in wild and cultivated rice species remain unclear.

Temporal and structural genetic variation in reindeer () associated with the pastoral transition in Northwestern Siberia.

Just as the domestication of livestock is often cited as a key element in the Neolithic transition to settled, the emergence of large-scaled reindeer husbandry was a fundamental social transformation for the indigenous peoples of Arctic Eurasia. To better understand the history of reindeer domestication, and the genetic processes associated with the pastoral transition in the Eurasian Arctic, we analyzed archaeological and contemporary reindeer samples from Northwestern Siberia. The material represents genealogies spanning from 15,000 years ago to the 18th century, as well as modern samples from the wild Taĭmyr population and from domestic herds managed by Nenetses.

Multigenerational exposure to elevated temperatures leads to a reduction in standard metabolic rate in the wild.

In light of global climate change, there is a pressing need to understand and predict the capacity of populations to respond to rising temperatures. Metabolic rate is a key trait that is likely to influence the ability to cope with climate change. Yet, empirical and theoretical work on metabolic rate responses to temperature changes has so far produced mixed results and conflicting predictions.

Spatiotemporal assessment of farm-gate production costs and economic potential of × , L., and grown on marginal land in China.

Spatially explicit farm-gate production costs and the economic potential of three types of energy crops grown on available marginal land in China for 2017 and 2040 were investigated using a spatial accounting method and construction of cost-supply curves. The average farm-gate cost from all available marginal land was calculated as 32.9 CNY/GJ for Mode, 27.

Ecological costs of climate change on marine predator-prey population distributions by 2050.

Identifying and quantifying the effects of climate change that alter the habitat overlap of marine predators and their prey population distributions is of great importance for the sustainable management of populations. This study uses Bayesian joint models with integrated nested Laplace approximation (INLA) to predict future spatial density distributions in the form of common spatial trends of predator-prey overlap in 2050 under the "business-as-usual, worst-case" climate change scenario. This was done for combinations of six mobile marine predator species (gray seal, harbor seal, harbor porpoise, common guillemot, black-legged kittiwake, and northern gannet) and two of their common prey species (herring and sandeels).

Food additives: Assessing the impact of exposure to permitted emulsifiers on bowel and metabolic health - introducing the FADiets study.

Emulsifiers are common components of processed foods consumed as part of a Western diet. Emerging cell-line culture, mouse model and human intestinal tissue explant studies have all suggested that very low concentrations of the food emulsifier polysorbate 80 may cause bacterial translocation across the intestinal epithelium, intestinal inflammation and metabolic syndrome. This raises the possibility that dietary emulsifiers might be factors in conditions such as coronary artery disease, type 2 diabetes and Crohn's disease.

Prediction of success at UK Specialty Board Examinations using the mandatory postgraduate UK surgical examination.

Background: While performance in other mandatory examinations taken at the beginning of a doctor's career are predictive of final training outcomes, the influence early postgraduate surgical examinations might have on success at Specialty Board Exams in the UK is currently unknown. The aim was to investigate whether performance at the mandatory Membership of the Royal College of Surgeons (MRCS) examination, and other variables, are predictive of success at the Fellowship of the Royal College of Surgeons (FRCS) examination, thus potentially identifying those who may benefit from early academic intervention.

Methods: Pearson correlation coefficients examined the linear relationship between both examinations and logistic regression analysis identified potential independent predictors of FRCS success.

Effect of breeding performance on the distribution and activity budgets of a predominantly resident population of black-browed albatrosses.

Pelagic seabirds breeding at high latitudes generally split their annual cycle between reproduction, migration, and wintering. During the breeding season, they are constrained in their foraging range due to reproduction while during winter months, and they often undertake long-distance migrations. Black-browed albatrosses () nesting in the Falkland archipelago remain within 700 km from their breeding colonies all year-round and can therefore be considered as resident.

Meta-analysis of the use of sterilized mosquito net mesh for inguinal hernia repair in less economically developed countries.

Background: Inguinal hernias are common in less economically developed countries (LEDCs), and associated with significant morbidity and mortality. Tension-free mesh repair is the standard treatment worldwide. Lack of resources combined with the high cost of commercial synthetic mesh (CSM) have limited its use in LEDCs.

Meta-analysis of laparoscopic transcystic transcholedochal common bile duct exploration for choledocholithiasis.

Background: It is not clear whether laparoscopic transcystic exploration (LTCE) laparoscopic choledochotomy (LCD) is superior in the management of choledocholithiasis. In this meta-analysis, the success of LTCE LCD was evaluated.

Methods: Cochrane Central Register of Controlled Trials, Web of Science, Trip, PubMed, Ovid and Embase databases were searched systematically for relevant literature up to May 2017.

Breeding progress and preparedness for mass-scale deployment of perennial lignocellulosic biomass crops switchgrass, miscanthus, willow and poplar.

Genetic improvement through breeding is one of the key approaches to increasing biomass supply. This paper documents the breeding progress to date for four perennial biomass crops (PBCs) that have high output-input energy ratios: namely (switchgrass), species of the genera (miscanthus), (willow) and (poplar). For each crop, we report on the size of germplasm collections, the efforts to date to phenotype and genotype, the diversity available for breeding and on the scale of breeding work as indicated by number of attempted crosses.

Nonequivalent lethal equivalents: Models and inbreeding metrics for unbiased estimation of inbreeding load.

Inbreeding depression, the deterioration in mean trait value in progeny of related parents, is a fundamental quantity in genetics, evolutionary biology, animal and plant breeding, and conservation biology. The magnitude of inbreeding depression can be quantified by the inbreeding load, typically measured in numbers of lethal equivalents, a population genetic quantity that allows for comparisons between environments, populations or species. However, there is as yet no quantitative assessment of which combinations of statistical models and metrics of inbreeding can yield such estimates.

Cumulative reproductive costs on current reproduction in a wild polytocous mammal.

The cumulative cost of reproduction hypothesis predicts that reproductive costs accumulate over an individual's reproductive life span. While short-term costs have been extensively explored, the prevalence of cumulative long-term costs and the circumstances under which such costs occur alongside or instead of short-term costs, are far from clear. Indeed, few studies have simultaneously tested for both short-term and cumulative long-term reproductive costs in natural populations.

Understanding the population consequences of disturbance.

Managing the nonlethal effects of disturbance on wildlife populations has been a long-term goal for decision makers, managers, and ecologists, and assessment of these effects is currently required by European Union and United States legislation. However, robust assessment of these effects is challenging. The management of human activities that have nonlethal effects on wildlife is a specific example of a fundamental ecological problem: how to understand the population-level consequences of changes in the behavior or physiology of individual animals that are caused by external stressors.

Population-level manipulations of field vole densities induce subsequent changes in plant quality but no impacts on vole demography.

Grazing-induced changes in plant quality have been suggested to drive the negative delayed density dependence exhibited by many herbivore species, but little field evidence exists to support this hypothesis. We tested a key premise of the hypothesis that reciprocal feedback between vole grazing pressure and the induction of anti-herbivore silicon defenses in grasses drives observed population cycles in a large-scale field experiment in northern England. We repeatedly reduced population densities of field voles () on replicated 1-ha grassland plots at Kielder Forest, northern England, over a period of 1 year.

Impact of performance in a mandatory postgraduate surgical examination on selection into specialty training.

Background: The Intercollegiate Membership of the Royal College of Surgeons (MRCS) examination is undertaken by large numbers of trainees in the UK and internationally as a mandatory step within surgical training. Unlike some high-stakes medical examinations, the MRCS is yet to be validated. A quantitative study was undertaken to assess its predictive validity by investigating the relationship between MRCS (Parts A and B) and national selection interview scores for general and vascular surgery in the UK.

Field methods for sampling tree height for tropical forest biomass estimation.

Quantifying the relationship between tree diameter and height is a key component of efforts to estimate biomass and carbon stocks in tropical forests. Although substantial site-to-site variation in height-diameter allometries has been documented, the time consuming nature of measuring all tree heights in an inventory plot means that most studies do not include height, or else use generic pan-tropical or regional allometric equations to estimate height.Using a pan-tropical dataset of 73 plots where at least 150 trees had in-field ground-based height measurements, we examined how the number of trees sampled affects the performance of locally derived height-diameter allometries, and evaluated the performance of different methods for sampling trees for height measurement.

The Big Breakfast Study: Chrono-nutrition influence on energy expenditure and bodyweight.

A growing body of evidence highlights the importance of the biological clock as a modulator of energy balance and metabolism. Recent studies in humans have shown that ingested calories are apparently utilised more efficiently in the morning than in the evening and this is manifest through improved weight loss, even under iso-energetic calorie intake. The mechanisms behind this enhanced morning energy metabolism are not yet clear, although it may result from behavioural adaptations or circadian driven variations in physiology and energy metabolism.

Guillain-Barré syndrome mimics.

The Brighton Collaboration criteria have standardized the clinical and laboratory-supported diagnosis of Guillain-Barré syndrome (GBS) and Miller Fisher syndrome (MFS) in a way that is applicable in many parts of the world with variable resources. The caveat within the criteria, "absence of an identified alternative diagnosis for weakness" makes GBS a diagnosis of exclusion. Accurate diagnosis of GBS requires a good understanding of an updated, locally contextualised list of mimics, and features that distinguish them from GBS.