Paleoecology, Diagenesis and Biological Affinity of Tetradiids in the Upper Ordovician (Sandbian) Black River Group of the Kingston Area, Ontario, Canada

Tetradiids are a group of colonial, tubular fossils that occur globally in Middle to Upper Ordovician strata. Tetradiids were first described as a type of tabulate coral; however, based on their four-fold symmetry, division, and presence of a central-sparry canal, they were recently reinterpreted as a florideophyte rhodophyte algae, a reinterpretation that is tested in this thesis. This study focused on understanding the affinity and taphonomy of this order of fossil. Research was conducted by stratigraphic and petrographic analyses of the Black River Group in the Kingston, Ontario region. Tetradiid occurrences were divided into fragment or colonial, with three morphologies of tetradiids described (Tetradium, Phytopsis and Paratetradium). Morphology is specific to depositional environment, with compact Tetradium consistently within ooid grainstones and open branching Phytopsis and chained Paratetradium consistently within mudstones. Two types of patch reefs were recognized: a Paratetradium bioherm, and a Paratetradium, Phytopsis, stromatolite bioherm. The presence of bioherms implies that tetradiids were capable of hypercalcifying. Preservation styles of tetradiids were investigated, and were compared to brachiopods, echinoderms, mollusks, and ooids. Tetradiids were preferentially preserved as molds and demonstrated complete dissolution of skeletal material. Rare specimens, however, demonstrated preserved horizontal partitions, central plates, and a double wall. Skeletal molds were filled with either calcite spar, mud or encrusted by a cryptomicrobial colony. Both calcitic and aragonitic ooids were discovered. The co-occurrence of aragonitic ooids, aragonitic crytodontids, and the evolution of aragonitic, hypercalcifying tetradiids is interpreted as representing the geochemical favoring of aragonite and HMC in a time of global calcite seas. The geochemical favoring of aragonite is interpreted to be independent to global Mg: Ca ratios, but was the result of increased saturation levels and temperature driven by high atmospheric pCO2. Based on the presence of epitheca, tabulae, septa, and the commonality of growth forms, tetradiids are interpreted as an order of Cnidaria. The evolution of an aragonitic skeleton in tetradiids is interpreted to be the result of de novo acquisition of a skeleton from an unmineralized clade.

The relationship between non-suicidal self-injury and suicidality

The overall purpose of this study was to explain the overlap and distinctiveness of non-suicidal self-injury (NSSI) and suicidality from a diathesis-stress perspective. The first part of this study evaluated the third variable theory as an explanation for the high rates of lifetime co-occurrence between NSSI and suicidality. Specifically, it was hypothesized that these forms of self-harm share a common vulnerability profile comprised of five affective, cognitive and behavioural diatheses. The second part of this study tested the hypothesis that NSSI and suicidality become distinguishable on the basis of immediate, proximal stressors, namely psychache and survival and coping beliefs (SCB). Participants (N = 262) were community individuals aged 16-24 years who reported either no history of self-harm (i.e., no history of NSSI, suicidality, or both), a history of NSSI, suicidality or both, or current NSSI-only or current NSSI+suicidality. They were recruited online to complete an online battery of questionnaires. Using a set of discriminant function analyses, it was found that the vulnerability profile was unable to distinguish between the three self-harm groups, but was able to differentiate the no self-harm group from a collated self-harm group. Result patterns were also analyzed for gender differences. It was also found that a current NSSI+suicidality group exhibited significantly higher psychache and lower SCB (for women only) than a current NSSI-only group. These results suggest that NSSI and suicidality may tend to co-occur because they have similar long-term diatheses, but that they may become more distinct with respect to immediate psychological stressors.

The effects of the non-native invertebrate predator Bythotrephes longimanus and declining aqueous calcium on crustacean zooplankton communities in Canadian Shield lakes

Over the last several decades, human activities have resulted in environmental changes that have increased the number of stressors that can act on a single environment. In Canadian Shield lakes, two recent stressors, the invasion of Bythotrephes longimanus and calcium decline, have been documented. Widespread acidification of hundreds of North American lakes has resulted in the precipitous decline of lake water calcium concentration. Crustacean zooplankton with high calcium demands are likely to be vulnerable to calcium decline, especially <1.5 mg Ca/L, where survival and reproduction rates are reduced. These taxa are also vulnerable to predation by Bythotrephes that has been implicated in the loss of pelagic biodiversity in soft water lakes. Despite laboratory and field studies aimed at understanding the independent impact of these stressors, it is unclear how their co-occurrence will influence community response. Using a combination of data from a large regional lake survey and field experiments, I examined the individual and joint effects of Bythotrephes and calcium decline on native zooplankton community structure. Results demonstrated that much is known about Bythotrephes and our findings of reduced total zooplankton and species richness, due to the loss of Cladocera, are consistent with field surveys and other experimental studies. While we did not detect strong evidence for an effect of calcium on zooplankton using the lowest calcium concentration among invaded lakes (1.2 mg Ca/L), there is evidence that, as lake water calcium concentrations fall <1 mg Ca/L, per capita growth rates of a broad variety of taxa are expected to decline. At the regional scale, negative effects of Bythotrephes and calcium on abundances of small cladocerans and Daphnia pulicaria, respectively, were in agreement with my experimental observations. We also observed significant interactions between Bythotrephes and calcium for a broad variety of taxa. As Bythotrephes continues to spread and invade lakes that are also declining in aqueous calcium, both stressors are likely to amplify negative effects on Cladocera that appear the most vulnerable. Loss of these important zooplankton in response to both Bythotrephes and calcium decline, is likely to lower zooplankton productivity, with potential effects on phytoplankton and higher trophic levels.

Assessment of the EEE-4 oral test: a discourse analysis based on complex networks.

With the development of information technology, the theory and methodology of complex network has been introduced to the language research, which transforms the system of language in a complex networks composed of nodes and edges for the quantitative analysis about the language structure. The development of dependency grammar provides theoretical support for the construction of a treebank corpus, making possible a statistic analysis of complex networks. This paper introduces the theory and methodology of the complex network and builds dependency syntactic networks based on the treebank of speeches from the EEE-4 oral test. According to the analysis of the overall characteristics of the networks, including the number of edges, the number of the nodes, the average degree, the average path length, the network centrality and the degree distribution, it aims to find in the networks potential difference and similarity between various grades of speaking performance. Through clustering analysis, this research intends to prove the network parameters’ discriminating feature and provide potential reference for scoring speaking performance.

Big Bath and Impairment of Goodwill : A study of the European telecommunications industry

Income decreasing strategies conducted by management could be harmful for various stakeholders. One example is big bath accounting, which could be accomplished in numer- ous ways. This study focus on big baths achieved by recognising impairments of goodwill. Purpose - The purpose of this study is to examine patterns of association between big bath accounting and impairment of goodwill within the telecommunication service industry in Europe. Further, this study aim at contributing to the discussion regarding utilisation of big baths through impairments of goodwill, and takes the perspective of an external stakehold- er. Delimitations - The study is restricted to European telecommunication entities comprised in STOXX Europe 600 Index. Method - This study was conducted using a hybrid of qualitative and quantitative research strategy with a deductive approach. The five indicators used to identify various big bath behaviours were inspired and derived from theory and previous research. Data from 2009 to 2015 was collected from the companies’ annual reports and websites, and analysed by the help of codification of each fulfilled indicator where 2009 merely served as a compara- tive year for 2010. By the use of a scoreboard the collected data was summarised on an ag- gregated yearly basis as the industry, not the specific companies, were analysed. Empirical findings - The results of this study suggests that big baths are executed among tele- communication companies within Europe. These are conducted simultaneously as impair- ments of goodwill are present, facilitated by earning management. A possible explanation is considered to be the room for interpretation inherent in IAS 36, enabling goodwill impair- ments to be recognised on managers’ command. Thereby an impairment could be “saved” for better or worse circumstances, or recognised when there exist an opportunity to max- imise (the manager's) wealth in the future. This study reveal the co-occurrence of goodwill impairments and big bath-indications, however a review of causal relationships are not en- abled by the limitations of the chosen method. 

Novel pharmacogenomic markers of irinotecan-induced severe toxicity in metastatic colorectal cancer patients

L’irinotécan est un agent de chimiothérapie largement utilisé pour le traitement de tumeurs solides, particulièrement pour le cancer colorectal métastatique (mCRC). Fréquemment, le traitement par l’irinotécan conduit à la neutropénie et la diarrhée, des effets secondaires sévères qui peuvent limiter la poursuite du traitement et la qualité de vie des patients. Plusieurs études pharmacogénomiques ont évalué les risques associés à la chimiothérapie à base d’irinotécan, en particulier en lien avec le gène UGT1A, alors que peu d’études ont examiné l’impact des gènes codant pour des transporteurs. Par exemple, le marqueur UGT1A1*28 a été associé à une augmentation de 2 fois du risque de neutropénie, mais ce marqueur ne permet pas de prédire la toxicité gastrointestinale ou l’issue clinique. L’objectif de cette étude était de découvrir de nouveaux marqueurs génétiques associés au risque de toxicité induite par l’irinotécan, en utilisant une stratégie d’haplotype/SNP-étiquette permettant de maximiser la couverture des loci génétiques ciblés. Nous avons analysé les associations génétiques des loci UGT1 et sept gènes codants pour des transporteurs ABC impliqués dans la pharmacocinétique de l’irinotécan, soient ABCB1, ABCC1, ABCC2, ABCC5, ABCG1, ABCG2 ainsi que SLCO1B1. Les profils de 167 patients canadiens atteints de mCRC sous traitement FOLFIRI (à base d’irinotécan) ont été examinés et les marqueurs significatifs ont par la suite été validés dans une cohorte indépendante de 250 patients italiens. Nous avons découvert dans la région intergénique en aval du gène UGT1, un nouveau marqueur (rs11563250G) associé à un moindre risque de neutropénie sévère (rapport des cotes (RC)=0.21; p=0.043 chez les canadiens, RC=0.27; p=0.036 chez les italiens, et RC=0.31 p=0.001 pour les deux cohortes combinées). De plus, le RC est demeuré significatif après correction pour multiples comparaisons (p=0.041). Par ailleurs, pour l’haplotype défini par les marqueurs rs11563250G et UGT1A1*1 (rs8175347 TA6), le RC était de 0.17 (p=0.0004). Un test génétique évaluant ces marqueurs permettrait d’identifier les patients susceptibles de bénéficier d’une augmentation de dose d’irinotécan. En revanche, une autre combinaison de marqueurs, ABCC5 rs3749438 et rs10937158 (T–C), a prédit un risque plus faible de diarrhée sévère dans les deux cohortes (RC = 0.43; p=0.001). La coexistence des marqueurs ABCG1 rs225440T et ABCC5 rs2292997A a prédit un risque accru de neutropénie (RC=5.93; p=0.0002), alors qu’une prédiction encore plus significative a été obtenue lorsque ces marqueurs sont combinés au marqueur de risque bien établi UGT1A1*28 rs8175347 (RC=7.68; p<0.0001). Enfin, les porteurs de l’allèle de protection UGT1 rs11563250G en absence d’allèles de risque, ont montré une incidence réduite de neutropénie sévère (8.2% vs. 34.0%; p<0.0001). Nous concluons que ces nouveaux marqueurs génétiques prédictifs pourraient permettre d’améliorer l’évaluation du risque de toxicité et personnaliser le traitement à base d’irinotécan pour les patients atteints du cancer colorectal métastatique.

Padrões de organização das assembleias de aves florestais em uma paisagem fragmentada de Floresta Atlântica

Brazil is home to one of the richest avifaunas the world, which is subject to high levels of environmental degradation, in particular forest fragmentation. The Atlantic Forest biome depicts this history of devastation and today remains as small isolated fragments on highly degraded landscapes. This project aimed to evaluate the effects of forest fragmentation in an area with Atlantic Forest remnants in northern Paraná (Brazil) on the distribution and the organization of assemblage of forest birds and tested the hypothesis that the structure of the assembly in the fragments is different than expected by chance. We did four qualitative samplings of birds in three sets of forest fragments in the landscape, each with three fragments: large, medium and small. The method applied in the sampling was point counts along transects, traveled randomly for four hours in each fragment. Samples were taken in two periods: from September to November / 2013, and between March and May / 2014. The structure of the meeting was assessed by rates of co-occurring species (Checkerboard and CScore) and α diversity patterns (wealth) and β (turnover of species), while the landscape structure was analyzed from the parameters: area, distance between fragments, fractal dimension, edge density, fragment shape index and nuclear area index. The null hypothesis of no structure in the assembly of birds in the landscape was tested with null models from the co-occurrence indexes. The effects of landscape structure on the assembly of the structure were analyzed by the Mantel test and principal component analysis (PCA). The assembly of the structure in the landscape showed a pattern of spatiotemporal organization significantly different from that expected by chance, revealing a structure most influenced by segregation of the species. The fragments showed significant differences in richness, unlike sets of fragments, indicating relative homogeneity in the landscape structure. The differences between the size and the distance between the fragments significantly influenced the patterns of organization of the meeting of forest birds in the landscape and patterns of α and β diversity, indicating that the higher the fragment and smaller distances between them, more the standard of species cooccurrence is different than expected by chance. Thus, the fragmented landscape of remnants of the northern Paraná Atlantic Forest still has availability of environmental resources and physical characteristics that allow a persistent organizational structure of the assembly of forest birds in space over time.

Prioritization of Multimedication in Multimorbidity: Where Are We Now?

Multimorbidity, the co-occurrence of multiple chronic conditions in an individual, and the frequently associated multimedication is a health issue mostly dealt with in primary care consultations.

Zmienność genetyczna, specyficzność żywicielska i zdolność do przenoszenia wirusa mozaiki smugowatej pszenicy (WSMV) w obrębie kompleksu gatunków Aceria tosichella

Wydział Biologii: Instytut Biologii Środowiska

Diabetes mellitus among tuberculosis patients: a cross sectional study from Pakistan

Background: The co-occurrence of diabetes mellitus (DM) and tuberculosis (TB) is largely associated with high frequency of morbidity. Objective: To determine the prevalence of DM among TB patients and describe the socio-demographic and behavioral factors associated with TB-DM co-occurrence . Methods: We enrolled 500 TB patients from September, 2014 to August 2015 at four major public sector hospitals of Lahore, Pakistan. A questionnaire was used to collect information regarding associated socio-demographic and behavioral factors of the patients. We monitored the fasting blood sugar of each patient by using a semi automated clinical chemistry analyzer followed by an HbA1c level check of all hyperglycemic patients. Results: The prevalence of TB-DM co-occurrence was 14.8%. The prevalence of TB-DM was higher (62.2%) among males. The >57 year age group had the highest proportion of patients (35.1%), with co-existent TB-DM. Most were illiterate (73.0%) and unemployed (48%). Moreover, among the 74 patients positive for TB-DM had a history of smoking. Age and education level were significantly associated with DM-TB while gender, occupation and smoking were not associated. Conclusion: The study revealed a 14.8% prevalence of DM among TB patients. This was associated with several socio-demographic factors, including age, unemployment, literacy and polluted environment. Thus, poor and unhealthy lifestyles were the factors associated with DM among immunologically compromised individuals due to TB.

Response of Core Microbial Consortia to Chronic Hydrocarbon Contaminations in Coastal Sediment Habitats

Traditionally, microbial surveys investigating the effect of chronic anthropogenic pressure such as polyaromatic hydrocarbons (PAHs) contaminations consider just the alpha and beta diversity and ignore the interactions among the different taxa forming the microbial community. Here, we investigated the ecological relationships between the three domains of life (i.e., Bacteria, Archaea, and Eukarya) using 454 pyrosequencing on the 16S rRNA and 18S rRNA genes from chronically impacted and pristine sediments, along the coasts of the Mediterranean Sea (Gulf of Lion, Vermillion coast, Corsica, Bizerte lagoon and Lebanon) and the French Atlantic Ocean (Bay of Biscay and English Channel). Our approach provided a robust ecological framework for the partition of the taxa abundance distribution into 859 core Operational taxonomic units (OTUs) and 6629 satellite OTUs. OTUs forming the core microbial community showed the highest sensitivity to changes in environmental and contaminant variations, with salinity, latitude, temperature, particle size distribution, total organic carbon (TOC) and PAH concentrations as main drivers of community assembly. The core communities were dominated by Gammaproteobacteria and Deltaproteobacteria for Bacteria, by Thaumarchaeota, Bathyarchaeota and Thermoplasmata for Archaea and Metazoa and Dinoflagellata for Eukarya. In order to find associations among microorganisms, we generated a co-occurrence network in which PAHs were found to impact significantly the potential predator – prey relationship in one microbial consortium composed of ciliates and Actinobacteria. Comparison of network topological properties between contaminated and non-contaminated samples showed substantial differences in the network structure and indicated a higher vulnerability to environmental perturbations in the contaminated sediments.

Detection of all four dengue serotypes in Aedes aegypti female mosquitoes collected in a rural area in Colombia

The Aedes aegypti vector for dengue virus (DENV) has been reported in urban and periurban areas. The information about DENV circulation in mosquitoes in Colombian rural areas is limited, so we aimed to evaluate the presence of DENV in Ae. aegypti females caught in rural locations of two Colombian municipalities, Anapoima and La Mesa. Mosquitoes from 497 rural households in 44 different rural settlements were collected. Pools of about 20 Ae. aegypti females were processed for DENV serotype detection. DENV in mosquitoes was detected in 74% of the analysed settlements with a pool positivity rate of 62%. The estimated individual mosquito infection rate was 4.12% and the minimum infection rate was 33.3/1,000 mosquitoes. All four serotypes were detected; the most frequent being DENV-2 (50%) and DENV-1 (35%). Two-three serotypes were detected simultaneously in separate pools. This is the first report on the co-occurrence of natural DENV infection of mosquitoes in Colombian rural areas. The findings are important for understanding dengue transmission and planning control strategies. A potential latent virus reservoir in rural areas could spill over to urban areas during population movements. Detecting DENV in wild-caught adult mosquitoes should be included in the development of dengue epidemic forecasting models.

The specific shapes of gender imbalance in scientific authorships : a network approach

Gender differences in collaborative research have received little at- tention when compared with the growing importance that women hold in academia and research. Unsurprisingly, most of bibliomet- ric databases have a strong lack of directly available information by gender. Although empirical-based network approaches are often used in the study of research collaboration, the studies about the influence of gender dissimilarities on the resulting topological outcomes are still scarce. Here, networks of scientific subjects are used to characterize patterns that might be associated to five categories of authorships which were built based on gender. We find enough evidence that gen- der imbalance in scientific authorships brings a peculiar trait to the networks induced from papers published in Web of Science (WoS) in- dexed journals of Economics over the period 2010-2015 and having at least one author affiliated to a Portuguese institution. Our re- sults show the emergence of a specific pattern when the network of co-occurring subjects is induced from a set of papers exclusively au- thored by men. Such a male-exclusive authorship condition is found to be the solely responsible for the emergence that particular shape in the network structure. This peculiar trait might facilitate future network analyses of research collaboration and interdisciplinarity.

Threshold values of sagittal abdominal diameter for the detection of cardio-metabolic risk factors in Northeastern Mexico: a cross-sectional study

Background: The use of sagittal abdominal diameter (SAD) has been proposed for screening cardio-metabolic risk factors; however, its accuracy can be influenced by the choice of thresholds values. Aim: To determine the SAD threshold values for cardio-metabolic risk factors in Mexican adults; to assess whether parallel and serial SAD testing can improve waist circumference (WC) sensitivity and specificity; and to analyze the effect of considering SAD along with WC and body mass index (BMI) in detecting cardio-metabolic risk. Methods: This cross-sectional study was conducted during 2012-2014 in Northeast Mexico (n = 269). Data on anthropometric, clinical, and biochemical measurements were collected. Sex-adjusted receiver-operating characteristic curves (ROC) were obtained using hypertension, dysglycemia, dyslipidemia and insulin resistance as individual outcomes and metabolic syndrome as a composite outcome. Age-adjusted odds ratios and 95% confidence intervals (CI) were estimated using logistic regression. Results: The threshold value for SAD with acceptable combination of sensitivity and specificity was 24.6 cm in men and 22.5 cm in women. Parallel SAD testing improved WC sensitivity and serial testing improved WC specificity. The co-occurrence of high WC/high SAD increased the risk for insulin resistance by 2.4-fold (95% CI: 1.1-5.3), high BMI/high SAD by 4.3-fold (95% CI: 1.7-11.9) and SAD alone by 2.2-fold (95% CI: 1.2.-4.2). Conclusions: The use of SAD together with traditional obesity indices such as WC and BMI has advantages over using either of these indices alone. SAD may be a powerful screening tool for interventions for high-risk individuals.

Alcohol use disorders and psychiatric diseases in Colombia

Background: An accurate understanding of co-occurrence and comorbidity of alcohol use disorders (AUD) in Colombia is crucial for public health. Objective: A secondary analysis was conducted, using a 2003/2004 government´s population database to determine the lifetime associations between AUD and other mental and addictive disorders in people of Colombia aged 18-65 years. Methods: Several statistical analysis were performed: testing prevalence difference in mental disorders by whether the individual had an AUD; a stratified analysis by gender and logistic regression analyses accounting for differences in demographic, socio-economic, behavioral and self-reported health status variables. Results: People with AUD comprised 9% of the population, of which 88% were males and on average 37 years old. They were more likely to be males, be working, and be current smokers; and less likely to be at home or retired. The population with AUD had greater chance to comply with criteria for all disorders but minor depressive disorder, post-traumatic stress disorder, nicotine dependence, and oppositional defiant disorder. Conclusion: This study demonstrates a high prevalence of mental disorders in the adult population with AUD in Colombia. The findings highlight the importance of comorbidity as a sign of disease severity and impact on public health and supports the need for training of more professionals and developing appropriate interventions and services.