The evolution of inbred social systems in spiders and other organisms: from short-term gains to long-term evolutionary dead-ends?

The question of why some social systems have evolved close inbreeding is particularly intriguing given expected short- and long-term negative effects of this breeding system. Using social spiders as a case study, we quantitatively show that the potential costs of avoiding inbreeding through dispersal and solitary living could have outweighed the costs of inbreeding depression in the origin of inbred spider sociality. We further review the evidence that despite being favored in the short term, inbred spider sociality may constitute in the long run an evolutionary dead end. We also review other cases, such as the naked mole rats and some bark and ambrosia beetles, mites, psocids, thrips, parasitic ants, and termites, in which inbreeding and sociality are associated and the evidence for and against this breeding system being, in general, an evolutionary dead end.

Scientific Evidence in Europe : Admissibility, Evaluation and Equality of Arms

This study was commissioned by the European Committee on Crime Problems at the Council of Europe to describe and discuss the standards used to asses the admissibility and appraisal of scientific evidence in various member countries. After documenting cases in which faulty forensic evidence seems to have played a critical role, the authors describe the legal foundations of the issues of admissibility and assessment of the probative value in the field of scientific evidence, contrasting criminal justice systems of accusatorial and inquisitorial tradition and the various risks that they pose in terms of equality of arms. Special attention is given to communication issues between lawyers and scientific experts. The authors eventually investigate possible ways of improving the system. Among these mechanisms, emphasis is put on the adoption of a common terminology for expressing the weight of evidence. It is also proposed to adopt an harmonized interpretation framework among forensic experts rooted in good practices of logical inference.

Importance of influx and efflux systems and xenobiotic metabolizing enzymes in intratumoral disposition of anticancer agents.

In this review, intratumoral drug disposition will be integrated into the wide range of resistance mechanisms to anticancer agents with particular emphasis on targeted protein kinase inhibitors. Six rules will be established: 1. There is a high variability of extracellular/intracellular drug level ratios; 2. There are three main systems involved in intratumoral drug disposition that are composed of SLC, ABC and XME enzymes; 3. There is a synergistic interplay between these three systems; 4. In cancer subclones, there is a strong genomic instability that leads to a highly variable expression of SLC, ABC or XME enzymes; 5. Tumor-expressed metabolizing enzymes play a role in tumor-specific ADME and cell survival and 6. These three systems are involved in the appearance of resistance (transient event) or in the resistance itself. In addition, this article will investigate whether the overexpression of some ABC and XME systems in cancer cells is just a random consequence of DNA/chromosomal instability, hypo- or hypermethylation and microRNA deregulation, or a more organized modification induced by transposable elements. Experiments will also have to establish if these tumor-expressed enzymes participate in cell metabolism or in tumor-specific ADME or if they are only markers of clonal evolution and genomic deregulation. Eventually, the review will underline that the fate of anticancer agents in cancer cells should be more thoroughly investigated from drug discovery to clinical studies. Indeed, inhibition of tumor expressed metabolizing enzymes could strongly increase drug disposition, specifically in the target cells resulting in more efficient therapies.

Hard instances of algorithms and proof systems

"Vegeu el resum a l'inici del document del fitxer adjunt."

Molecular Epidemiologic Typing Systems of Bacterial Pathogens: Current Issues and Perpectives

The epidemiologic typing of bacterial pathogens can be applied to answer a number of different questions: in case of outbreak, what is the extent and mode of transmission of epidemic clone(s )? In case of long-term surveillance, what is the prevalence over time and the geographic spread of epidemic and endemic clones in the population? A number of molecular typing methods can be used to classify bacteria based on genomic diversity into groups of closely-related isolates (presumed to arise from a common ancestor in the same chain of transmission) and divergent, epidemiologically-unrelated isolates (arising from independent sources of infection). Ribotyping, IS-RFLP fingerprinting, macrorestriction analysis of chromosomal DNA and PCR-fingerprinting using arbitrary sequence or repeat element primers are useful methods for outbreak investigations and regional surveillance. Library typing systems based on multilocus sequence-based analysis and strain-specific probe hybridization schemes are in development for the international surveillance of major pathogens like Mycobacterium tuberculosis. Accurate epidemiological interpretation of data obtained with molecular typing systems still requires additional research on the evolution rate of polymorphic loci in bacterial pathogens.

Age-dependent gain of alternative splice forms and biased duplication explain the relation between splicing and duplication.

We analyze here the relation between alternative splicing and gene duplication in light of recent genomic data, with a focus on the human genome. We show that the previously reported negative correlation between level of alternative splicing and family size no longer holds true. We clarify this pattern and show that it is sufficiently explained by two factors. First, genes progressively gain new splice variants with time. The gain is consistent with a selectively relaxed regime, until purifying selection slows it down as aging genes accumulate a large number of variants. Second, we show that duplication does not lead to a loss of splice forms, but rather that genes with low levels of alternative splicing tend to duplicate more frequently. This leads us to reconsider the role of alternative splicing in duplicate retention.

Biophysical requirements of power-supply systems: nuclear energy and fossil energy

The report presents a grammar capable of analyzing the process of production of electricity in modular elements for different power-supply systems, defined using semantic and formal categories. In this way it becomes possible to individuate similarities and differences in the process of production of electricity, and then measure and compare “apples” with “apples” and “oranges” with “oranges”. For instance, when comparing the various unit operations of the process of production of electricity with nuclear energy to the analogous unit operations of the process of production of fossil energy, we see that the various phases of the process are the same. The only difference is related to characteristics of the process associated with the generation of heat which are completely different in the two systems. As a matter of facts, the performance of the production of electricity from nuclear energy can be studied, by comparing the biophysical costs associated with the different unit operations taking place in nuclear and fossil power plants when generating process heat or net electricity. By adopting this approach, it becomes possible to compare the performance of the two power-supply systems by comparing their relative biophysical requirements for the phases that both nuclear energy power plants and fossil energy power plants have in common: (i) mining; (ii) refining/enriching; (iii) generating heat/electricity; (iv) handling the pollution/radioactive wastes. This report presents the evaluation of the biophysical requirements for the two powersupply systems: nuclear energy and fossil energy. In particular, the report focuses on the following requirements: (i) electricity; (ii) fossil-fuels, (iii) labor; and (iv) materials.

Dynamical systems of type (m,n) and their C*-algebras

Given positive integers n and m, we consider dynamical systems in which n copies of a topological space is homeomorphic to m copies of that same space. The universal such system is shown to arise naturally from the study of a C*-algebra we denote by Om;n, which in turn is obtained as a quotient of the well known Leavitt C*-algebra Lm;n, a process meant to transform the generating set of partial isometries of Lm;n into a tame set. Describing Om;n as the crossed-product of the universal (m; n) -dynamical system by a partial action of the free group Fm+n, we show that Om;n is not exact when n and m are both greater than or equal to 2, but the corresponding reduced crossed-product, denoted Or m;n, is shown to be exact and non-nuclear. Still under the assumption that m; n &= 2, we prove that the partial action of Fm+n is topologically free and that Or m;n satisfies property (SP) (small projections). We also show that Or m;n admits no finite dimensional representations. The techniques developed to treat this system include several new results pertaining to the theory of Fell bundles over discrete groups.

Report on the Regulation of Practitioners of Complementary and Alternative Medicine in Ireland

This report has been written in the context of this interest and in response to a request from the Department of Health and Children. It follows a Forum on regulatory issues that was held at the IPA in June 2001 and attended by many CAM practitioners. The Minister for Health and Children asked the Institute to build on the discussions at the Forum by preparing a report on possible options in the regulation of CAM practitioners in Ireland. The focus of the report is on regulatory and policy issues in general. It is not within the Instituteâ?Ts competence or brief to comment on more specific clinical or technical issues. Download the document here

The Strategic Adaptation of Party Organizations to New Information and Communication Technologies : A Study of Catalan and Spanish Parties

Aquest document se centra en els casos dels dos principals partits espanyols (PP i PSOE) i catalans (PSC i CDC) en el període immediatament després de les eleccions generals espanyoles de maig de 2008, quan aquests celebraren els seus congressos. En general, es poden distingir tres tipus d'actors: en primer lloc, els ciberactivistes que tracten d'obtenir el reconeixement formal de la seva activitat en els seus partits. Així com, els líders del partit que poden intentar promoure la presència del partit en el ciberespai, però que també poden romandre indecisos perquè no és clar l'impacte electoral a la xarxa del ciberactivisme. Finalment, alguns militants tradicionals (off-line) solen ser reticents al reconeixement del ciberactivisme perquè amenaça les recompenses previstes dins del partit. Aquest article mostra com els nostres partits varen respondre al desafiament del ciberactivisme i arriba a la conclusió que la seva situació electoral, mediada per la seva ideologia, estructura organitzativa i el tipus de militància, poden ajudar-nos a comprendre el grau diferent d'institucionalització en l'organització del partit.

An image quality comparison of standard and dual-side read CR systems for pediatric radiology.

An objective analysis of image quality parameters was performed for a computed radiography (CR) system using both standard single-side and prototype dual-side read plates. The pre-sampled modulation transfer function (MTF), noise power spectrum (NPS), and detective quantum efficiency (DQE) for the systems were determined at three different beam qualities representative of pediatric chest radiography, at an entrance detector air kerma of 5 microGy. The NPS and DQE measurements were realized under clinically relevant x-ray spectra for pediatric radiology, including x-ray scatter radiations. Compared to the standard single-side read system, the MTF for the dual-side read system is reduced, but this is offset by a significant decrease in image noise, resulting in a marked increase in DQE (+40%) in the low spatial frequency range. Thus, for the same image quality, the new technology permits the CR system to be used at a reduced dose level.

Relationship of mating systems and metabolic rate with cycle length of spermatogenesis and sperm production rate in shrews

SUMMARY : The shrews are among the most ancient of living eutherian mammals. They represent an interesting comparative model because of their extreme divergent species. The two shrew subfamilies, Soricinae and Crocidurinae are characterized by fundamental differences concerning their metabolic rates, litter size, period of gestation and different mating pattern. In this study we established and compared the sperm characteristics in four species of different genera of shrews (Sorex araneus, Neomys fodiens, Crocidura russula and Suncus murinus) in the context of the sperm competition hypothesis. The sperm competition concerns the competition between ejaculates of different males for fertilization of ova of a female within a single estrus period. As expected, a greater relative testis size (indicating the importance of polyandry) was associated with a higher number of cauda epididymal spermatozoa, higher level of circulating testosterone and a higher percentage of progressive sperm motility. In addition, we investigated if the basal metabolic rate (BMR) and relative testis size (RTS) may be correlated with the cycle length of spermatogenesis. In this purpose, we determined and compared the cycle length of spermatogenesis in six species of shrews belonging to two subfamilies: Soiricinae (Sorex araneus, Sorex coronatus, Sorex minutus, Neomys fodiens) and Crocidurinae (Crocidura russula, Sunctes murinus). Our results indicate that sperm competition and metabolic rate may act independently or together reducing cycle length of spermatogenesis and thus increase sperm production. We finally investigated this correlation across 32 mammalian species. After testing the data for phylogenetic independence, our results showed that BMR explained only 21 % of the variation, while the RTS explained 44% of the variation of the cycle length of spermatogenesis. The level of the sperm competition, indicated by RTS, is thus to our knowledge the most important factor influencing the speed of spermatogenesis in mammals. RESUME : Les musaraignes sont parmi les plus anciens mammifères vivants. Grâce à leurs extrêmes divergences, ils sont souvent utilisés comme modèles dans des études comparatives. Les deux sous-familles Soricinae et Crocidurinae sont caractérisées par des différences fondamentales, notamment en termes d'intensité du métabolisme, des stratégies de reproduction et du comportement social. Dans la première partie de cette étude, nous avons établi et comparé certaines "caractéristiques des spermatozoïdes chez quatre espèces de musaraignes appartenant à des genres différents (Sorex araneus, Neomys fodiens, Crocidura russula et Suncus murinus). Les résultats ont été interprétés dans le contexte de la théorie de la compétition spermatique, c'est-à-dire la compétition entre le sperme de deux ou plusieurs mâles pour féconder un maximum d'ovules de la même femelle. Cette compétition spermatique peut amener à certaines adaptations biologiques afin de produire plus de sperme. Comme attendu, une grande taille relative des testicules est associée à un nombre élevé de spermatozoïdes, dont la majorité présente une mobilité progressive. Un taux élévé de testostérone a également été observé. De plus, nous avons étudié l'influence du métabolisme basal ainsi que l'intensité de la compétition spermatique sur la durée du cycle de la spermatogenèse. Dans ce but, nous avons déterminé et comparé les durées de la spermatogenèse chez six espèces de musaraignes appartenant à deux sous-familles : Soricinae (Sorex araneus, Sorex coronatus, Sorex minutus, Neomys fodiens) et Crocidurinae (Crocidura russula, Suncus murinus). Les résultats obtenus indiquent que ces deux facteurs (l'intensité du métabolisme basal et de la compétition spermatique) agissent d'une manière dépendante ou indépendante dans le même sens. La conséquence de ces actions est une diminution de la durée de la spermatogenèse entraînant une augmentation de la production de spermatozoïdes. Nous avons finalement étudié ce phénomène dans l'ensemble des mammifères. Après avoir testé l'indépendance phylogénétique, nos résultats montrent que l'intensité de la compétition spermatique indiquée par le RTS est mieux corrélée avec la régulation de la durée de la spermatogenèse qu'avec l'intensité du métabolisme.

Acupuncture and rehabilitation of the painful shoulder: study protocol of an ongoing multicentre randomised controlled clinical trial [ISRCTN28687220]

BACKGROUND Although the painful shoulder is one of the most common dysfunctions of the locomotor apparatus, and is frequently treated both at primary healthcare centres and by specialists, little evidence has been reported to support or refute the effectiveness of the treatments most commonly applied. According to the bibliography reviewed, physiotherapy, which is the most common action taken to alleviate this problem, has not yet been proven to be effective, because of the small size of sample groups and the lack of methodological rigor in the papers published on the subject. No reviews have been made to assess the effectiveness of acupuncture in treating this complaint, but in recent years controlled randomised studies have been made and these demonstrate an increasing use of acupuncture to treat pathologies of the soft tissues of the shoulder. In this study, we seek to evaluate the effectiveness of physiotherapy applied jointly with acupuncture, compared with physiotherapy applied with a TENS-placebo, in the treatment of painful shoulder caused by subacromial syndrome (rotator cuff tendinitis and subacromial bursitis). METHODS/DESIGN Randomised controlled multicentre study with blind evaluation by an independent observer and blind, independent analysis. A study will be made of 465 patients referred to the rehabilitation services at participating healthcare centres, belonging to the regional public health systems of Andalusia and Murcia, these patients presenting symptoms of painful shoulder and a diagnosis of subacromial syndrome (rotator cuff tendinitis and subacromial bursitis). The patients will be randomised into two groups: 1) experimental (acupuncture + physiotherapy); 2) control (TENS-placebo + physiotherapy); the administration of rescue medication will also be allowed. The treatment period will have a duration of three weeks. The main result variable will be the change produced on Constant's Shoulder Function Assessment (SFA) Scale; as secondary variables, we will record the changes in diurnal pain intensity on a visual analogue scale (VAS), nocturnal pain intensity on the VAS, doses of non-steroid anti-inflammatory drugs (NSAIDs) taken during the study period, credibility scale for the treatment, degree of improvement perceived by the patient and degree of improvement perceived by the evaluator. A follow up examination will be made at 3, 6 and 12 months after the study period has ended. Two types of population will be considered for analysis: per protocol and per intention to treat. DISCUSSION The discussion will take into account the limitations of the study, together with considerations such as the choice of a simple, safe method to treat this shoulder complaint, the choice of the control group, and the blinding of the patients, evaluators and those responsible for carrying out the final analysis.

Report of Recommendations to the Iowa Department of Administrative Services on the Review of General and Application Controls over the HRIS and Payroll Systems, May 10, 2004 through June 4, 2004

State Audit Reports

Determination and Evaluation of Alternative Methods for Managing and Controlling Highway-Related Dust Phase II—Demonstration Project, June 2005

The State of Iowa currently has approximately 69,000 miles of unpaved secondary roads. Due to the low traffic count on these unpaved o nts as ng e two dust ed d roads, paving with asphalt or Portland cement concrete is not economical. Therefore to reduce dust production, the use of dust suppressants has been utilized for decades. This study was conducted to evaluate the effectiveness of several widely used dust suppressants through quantitative field testing on two of Iowa’s most widely used secondary road surface treatments: crushed limestone rock and alluvial sand/gravel. These commercially available dust suppressants included: lignin sulfonate, calcium chloride, and soybean oil soapstock. These suppressants were applied to 1000 ft test sections on four unpaved roads in Story County, Iowa. Tduplicate field conditions, the suppressants were applied as a surface spray once in early June and again in late August or early September. The four unpaved roads included two with crushed limestone rock and two with alluvial sand/gravel surface treatmewell as high and low traffic counts. The effectiveness of the dust suppressants was evaluated by comparing the dust produced on treated and untreated test sections. Dust collection was scheduled for 1, 2, 4, 6, and 8 weeks after each application, for a total testiperiod of 16 weeks. Results of a cost analysis between annual dust suppressant application and biennial aggregate replacement indicated that the cost of the dust suppressant, its transportation, and application were relatively high when compared to that of thaggregate types. Therefore, the biennial aggregate replacement is considered more economical than annual dust suppressant application, although the application of annual dust suppressant reduced the cost of road maintenance by 75 %. Results of thecollection indicated that the lignin sulfonate suppressant outperformed calcium chloride and soybean oil soapstock on all four unpavroads, the effect of the suppressants on the alluvial sand/gravel surface treatment was less than that on the crushed limestone rock, the residual effects of all the products seem reasonably well after blading, and the combination of alluvial sand/gravel surface treatment anhigh traffic count caused dust reduction to decrease dramatically.