Age structure and abundance in populations of muscoid flies from a poultry facility in Southeast Brazil

Muscina stabulans, M. domestica, Chrysomya putoria, C. megacephala and Stomoxys calcitrans were the most abundant muscoid flies captured in a poultry facility in southeastern Brazil. We examined the gonadotrophic profiles of the females caught at different sites and different times and found that Mu. stabulans and M. domestica, the predominant species, presented similar gonadotrophic profiles only when captured on the manure under the cages, but very different and sometimes opposite gonadotrophic profiles when sampled from wooden posts, vegetation or electric cords. We also determined sex ratios and relative abundance for these two species and found significant differences between them. More than 50% of the females of both species of Chrysomya captured on manure carried eggs or exhibited signs of recent oviposition. The vast majority of S. calcitrans presented ovaries with eggs or signs of recent oviposition. A small proportion of them had ovaries in the recent emerged condition. Our data on ovarian stages, sex ratio and relative abundance allowed us to associate different gonadotrophic profiles with each site and characterize each site as a resting, ovipositing or mating site.

Like milk or wine: Does firm performance improve with age?

Our empirical literature review shows that little is known about how firm performance changes with age, presumably because of the paucity of data on firm age. For Spanish manufacturing firms, we analyse the firm performance related to firm age between 1998 and 2006. We find evidence that firms improve with age, because ageing firms are observed to have steadily increasing levels of productivity, higher profits, larger size, lower debt ratios, and higher equity ratios. Furthermore, older firms are better able to convert sales growth into subsequent growth of profits and productivity. On the other hand, we also found evidence that firm performance deteriorates with age. Older firms have lower expected growth rates of sales, profits and productivity, they have lower profitability levels (when other variables such as size are controlled for), and also that they appear to be less capable to convert employment growth into growth of sales, profits and productivity. Keywords: firm age, firm growth, LAD, financial structure, vector autoregression JEL CODES: L25, L20

An ocellar "pupil" that does not change with light intensity, but with the insect age in Triatoma infestans

The simple eyes (ocelli) of recently emerged adult Triatoma infestans exhibit a narrow elongated "pupil", surrounded by a ring of brown-reddish pigment, the "iris". This pupil does not respond to changes in the illumination, but varies in size after the imaginal ecdysis. This change corresponds, internally, with the growth of the corneal lens and the associated retina up to an age of about 20 days. This has not been previously observed in an insect. The use of this characteristic for recognising young adults of this species is suggested.

Age-specific incidence of all neoplasms after colorectal cancer.

PURPOSE: Patients diagnosed with a specific neoplasm tend to have a subsequent excess risk of the same neoplasm. The age incidence of a second neoplasm at the same site is approximately constant with age, and consequently the relative risk is greater at younger age. It is unclear whether such a line of reasoning can be extended from a specific neoplasm to the incidence of all neoplasms in subjects diagnosed with a defined neoplasm. METHODS: We considered the age-specific incidence of all non-hormone-related epithelial neoplasms after a first primary colorectal cancer (n = 9542) in the Vaud Cancer Registry data set. RESULTS: In subjects with a previous colorectal cancer, the incidence rate of all other epithelial non-hormone-related cancers was stable around 800 per 100,000 between age 30 and 60 years, and rose only about twofold to reach 1685 at age 70 to 79 years and 1826 per 100,000 at age 80 years or older. After excluding synchronous cancers, the rise was only about 1.5-fold, that is, from about 700 to 1000. In the general population, the incidence rate of all epithelial non-hormone-related cancers was 29 per 100,000 at age 30 to 39 years, and rose 30-fold to 883 per 100,000 at age 70 to 79 years. Excluding colorectal cancers, the rise of all non-hormone-related cancers was from 360 per 100,000 at age 40 to 49 years to 940 at age 70 to 79 years after colorectal cancer, and from 90 to 636 per 100,000 in the general population (i.e., 2.6- vs. 7.1-fold). CONCLUSIONS: The rise of incidence with age of all epithelial non-hormone-related second cancers after colorectal cancer is much smaller than in the general population. This can possibly be related to the occurrence of a single mutational event in a population of susceptible individuals, although alternative models are plausible within the complexity of the process of carcinogenesis.

TGFBI (BIGH3) gene mutations in German families: two novel mutations associated with unique clinical and histopathological findings.

BACKGROUND: To report the clinical, histopathological and immunohistochemical findings of two novel mutations within the TGFBI gene. METHODS: The genotype of 41 affected members of 16 families and nine sporadic cases was investigated by direct sequencing of the TGFBI gene. Clinical, histological and immunohistochemical characteristics of corneal opacification were reported and compared with the coding region changes in the TGFBI gene. RESULTS: A novel mutation Leu509Pro was detected in one family with a geographic pattern-like clinical phenotype. Histopathologically we found amyloid together with non-amyloid deposits and immunohistochemical staining of Keratoepithelin (KE) KE2 and KE15 antibodies. In two families and one sporadic case the novel mutation Gly623Arg with a late-onset, map-like corneal dystrophy was identified. Here amyloid and immunohistochemical staining of only KE2 antibodies occurred. Further, five already known mutations are reported: Arg124Cys Arg555Trp Arg124His His626Arg, Ala546Asp in 13 families and five sporadic cases of German origin. The underlying gene defect within the TBFBI gene was not identified in any of the four probands with Thiel-Behnke corneal dystrophy. CONCLUSIONS: The two novel mutations within the TGFBI gene add another two phenotypes with atypical immunohistochemical and histopathological features to those so far reported.

Validation of the French version of the Hierarchical Personality Inventory for Children (HiPIC): Influence of gender and age on personality traits from 8 to 12 years

The study was designed to investigate the psychometric properties of the French version and the cross-language replicability of the Hierarchical Personality Inventory for Children (HiPIC). The HiPIC is an instrument aimed at assessing the five dimensions of the Five-Factor Model for Children. Subjects were 552 children aged between 8 and 12 years, rated by one or both parents. At the domain level, reliability ranged from .83 to .93 and at the facet level, reliability ranged from .69 to .89. Differences between genders were congruent with those found in the Dutch sample. Girls scored higher on Benevolence and Conscientiousness. Age was negatively correlated with Extraversion and Imagination. For girls, we also observed a decrease of Emotional Stability. A series of exploratory factor analyses confirmed the overall five-factor structure for girls and boys. Targeted factor analyses and congruence coefficients revealed high cross-language replicability at the domain and at the facet levels. The results showed that the French version of the HiPIC is a reliable and valid instrument for assessing personality with children and has a particularly high cross-language replicability.

Vertebrate conserved non coding DNA regions have a high persistence length and a short persistence time.

BACKGROUND: The comparison of complete genomes has revealed surprisingly large numbers of conserved non-protein-coding (CNC) DNA regions. However, the biological function of CNC remains elusive. CNC differ in two aspects from conserved protein-coding regions. They are not conserved across phylum boundaries, and they do not contain readily detectable sub-domains. Here we characterize the persistence length and time of CNC and conserved protein-coding regions in the vertebrate and insect lineages. RESULTS: The persistence length is the length of a genome region over which a certain level of sequence identity is consistently maintained. The persistence time is the evolutionary period during which a conserved region evolves under the same selective constraints.Our main findings are: (i) Insect genomes contain 1.60 times less conserved information than vertebrates; (ii) Vertebrate CNC have a higher persistence length than conserved coding regions or insect CNC; (iii) CNC have shorter persistence times as compared to conserved coding regions in both lineages. CONCLUSION: Higher persistence length of vertebrate CNC indicates that the conserved information in vertebrates and insects is organized in functional elements of different lengths. These findings might be related to the higher morphological complexity of vertebrates and give clues about the structure of active CNC elements.Shorter persistence time might explain the previously puzzling observations of highly conserved CNC within each phylum, and of a lack of conservation between phyla. It suggests that CNC divergence might be a key factor in vertebrate evolution. Further evolutionary studies will help to relate individual CNC to specific developmental processes.

Twenty-year trends in the prevalence of Down syndrome and other trisomies in Europe: impact of maternal age and prenatal screening.

This study examines trends and geographical differences in total and live birth prevalence of trisomies 21, 18 and 13 with regard to increasing maternal age and prenatal diagnosis in Europe. Twenty-one population-based EUROCAT registries covering 6.1 million births between 1990 and 2009 participated. Trisomy cases included live births, fetal deaths from 20 weeks gestational age and terminations of pregnancy for fetal anomaly. We present correction to 20 weeks gestational age (ie, correcting early terminations for the probability of fetal survival to 20 weeks) to allow for artefactual screening-related differences in total prevalence. Poisson regression was used. The proportion of births in the population to mothers aged 35+ years in the participating registries increased from 13% in 1990 to 19% in 2009. Total prevalence per 10 000 births was 22.0 (95% CI 21.7-22.4) for trisomy 21, 5.0 (95% CI 4.8-5.1) for trisomy 18 and 2.0 (95% CI 1.9-2.2) for trisomy 13; live birth prevalence was 11.2 (95% CI 10.9-11.5) for trisomy 21, 1.04 (95% CI 0.96-1.12) for trisomy 18 and 0.48 (95% CI 0.43-0.54) for trisomy 13. There was an increase in total and total corrected prevalence of all three trisomies over time, mainly explained by increasing maternal age. Live birth prevalence remained stable over time. For trisomy 21, there was a three-fold variation in live birth prevalence between countries. The rise in maternal age has led to an increase in the number of trisomy-affected pregnancies in Europe. Live birth prevalence has remained stable overall. Differences in prenatal screening and termination between countries lead to wide variation in live birth prevalence.

Metazoan parasite fauna of the bigeye flounder, Hippoglossina macrops, from Northern Chile. Influence of host age and sex

The metazoan parasite fauna of Hippoglossina macrops (n = 123) from northern Chile (30°S) is quantitatively described for the first time, and the role of host age and sex was evaluated. Twelve parasite species were recovered, including 5 ectoparasites (2 Monogenea, 2 Copepoda and 1 Piscicolidae) and 7 endoparasites (1 Digenea, 3 Cestoda, 2 Acanthocephala, and 1 Nematoda). The copepod Holobomolochus chilensis, the monogenean Neoheterobothrium sp., the adult acanthocephalan Floridosentis sp. and the hirudinean, Gliptonobdella sp. are new geographical and host records. The most prevalent ectoparasitic species were the monogenean, Neoheterobothrium sp. and the copepod, H. chilensis. Among endoparasites, the acanthocephalans Floridosentis sp. and Corynosoma australe were most prevalent and abundant. Prevalence and mean intensity of infection for most parasitic species were not affected by host sex, however the prevalence of Floridosentis sp. was significantly greater in males. Intensity of infection was positively correlated with host age for Neoheterobothrium sp., and negatively correlated for Floridosentis sp. and H. chilensis. The helminth species richness of the host H. macrops was lower compared to related flatfishes from the Northern Hemisphere. The relationship of the helminth fauna of H. macrops, its feeding habits and ecological habitats are discussed.

Amniotic fluid insulin-like growth factor binding protein 3 concentration as early indicator of fetal growth restriction.

OBJECTIVE: Insulin-like growth factor-I (IGF-I) is an important regulator of fetal growth and its bioavailability depends on insulin-like growth factor binding proteins (IGFBPs). Genes coding for IGF-I and IGFBP3 are polymorphic. We hypothesized that either amniotic fluid protein concentration at the beginning of the second trimester or genotype of one of these two genes could be predictive of abnormal fetal growth. STUDY DESIGN: Amniotic fluid samples (14-18 weeks of pregnancy) from 123 patients with appropriate for gestational age (AGA) fetuses, 39 patients with small for gestational age (SGA) fetuses and 34 patients with large for gestational age (LGA) were analyzed. Protein concentrations were evaluated by ELISA and gene polymorphisms by PCR. RESULTS: Amniotic fluid IGFBP3 concentrations were significantly higher in SGA compared to AGA group (P=0.030), and this was even more significant when adjusted to gestational age at the time of amniocentesis and other covariates (ANCOVA analysis: P=0.009). Genotypic distribution of IGF-I variable number of tandem repeats (VNTR) polymorphism was significantly different in SGA compared to AGA group (P=0.029). 19CA/20CA genotype frequency was threefold decreased in SGA compared to AGA group and the risk of SGA occurrence of this genotype was decreased accordingly: OR=0.289, 95%CI=0.1-0.9, P=0.032. Genotype distribution of IGFBP3(A-202C) polymorphism was similar in all three groups. CONCLUSIONS: High IGFBP3 concentrations in amniotic fluid at the beginning of the second trimester are associated with increased risks of SGA while 19CA/20CA genotype at IGF-I VNTR polymorphism is associated with reduced risks of SGA. Neither IGFBP3 concentrations, nor IGF-I/IGFBP3 polymorphisms are associated with modified risks of LGA.

The impact of repeated treatment with praziquantel of schistosomiasis in children under six years of age living in an endemic area for Schistosoma haematobium infection

Praziquantel was given every eight weeks for two years to children aged under six years of age, living in a Schistosoma haematobium endemic area. Infection with S. haematobium and haematuria were examined in urine and antibody profiles (IgA, IgE, IgM, IgG1, IgG2, IgG3, and IgG4) against S. haematobium adult worm and egg antigens were determined from sera collected before each treatment. Chemotherapy reduced infection prevalence and mean intensity from 51.8% and 110 eggs per 10 ml urine, respectively, before starting re-treatment programme to very low levels thereafter. Praziquantel is not accumulated after periodic administration in children. Immunoglobulin levels change during the course of treatment with a shift towards 'protective' mechanisms. The significant changes noted in some individuals were the drop in 'blocking' IgG2 and IgG4 whereas the 'protecting' IgA and IgG1 levels increased. The antibody profiles in the rest of the children remained generally unchanged throughout the study and no haematuria was observed after the second treatment. The removal of worms before production of large number of eggs, prevented the children from developing morbidity.

Age differences in the EEG N2 and P3 components during an interference task

The age-related increase in interference susceptibility has been well documented and largely attributed to a deficit in inhibition. In the present study, event-related potentials were used to investigate EEG correlates of inhibitory processing in an interference "Arrow" task. A specific interest was addressed to theN2 and P3 components that respectively refers to conflict monitoring and to efficiency of inhibition processes (Anguera et al,. 2011). Younger (N=10, Mage=24.6) and older (N=10, Mage=65.5) participants were invited to perform a task consisting in deciding, as fast and accurately as possible, whether an arrow presented on a computer screen points to the left or the right, irrespective of its position on the screen (left, middle or right). Responses were provided by key-presses using the left and right indexes. Three conditions were considered: congruent (arrow pointing to the same direction as that of the side of the screen on which it appears), incongruent (arrow pointing to the opposite direction), and neutral (arrow presented at the center of the screen). A total of 56 trials per conditions were performed. Behaviorally, the results showed that in the incongruent condition the percent of correct responses significantly decreased in both groups. After adjustment with simple RT (additional control task), the increased RTs obtained in the old group were significantly more pronounced in the incongruent condition. With respect to electrophysiological data, results showed that frontal site (Fz), the N2 amplitude was significantly larger for the younger as compared to the older (- 2.55 μV vs. -0.62 μV respectively) whatever the condition. At central site (Cz), the P3 amplitude significantly decreased in the older compared to the younger in the incongruent condition only. Our findings suggest that the increased RTs observed in older participants during the incongruent condition is more specifically linked to late cognitive resources involved in inhibiting prepotent response tendencies rather than associated with earlier stages of treatment dedicated to conflict monitoring.