1. Insects spend energy to function in high temperature environments, and because social insects employ a division of labor, it is likely that thermal tolerance varies among individuals in the colony, based on the tasks that they perform. 2. Foraging workers of the ant Neotropical ant Ectatomma ruidum are known to show temporal differences in thermal tolerance, with greater tolerance in hot afternoons, relative to cool mornings. 3. We developed three hypotheses that can account for temporal differences in thermal tolerance among workers: Thermal Acclimation, Division of Labor, and Circadian Rhythm. 4. We tested these hypotheses with a pair of experiments that involved the measurement of thermal persistence of ants at a constant temperature in time-to-failure assays. The first experiment compared ants with different behavioral roles in colonies, and the second compared colonies subjected to thermal manipulations, then iteratively sampled at daily thermal maxima and minima. 5. We found robust support for the Circadian Rhythm and Thermal Acclimation Hypotheses, and little support for the Division of Labor Hypothesis. Colonies of this species integrate multiple mechanisms of adapting to thermal challenges including time of day, ambient temperature, and the behavioral context of individual workers.

African swine fever (ASF) has circulated in Viet Nam since 2018, causing significant loss to the pig industry. The clinical signs of the ASFV-infected piglets have not been well documented. This is the first report of neonate piglets with neurological signs. ASFV was detected in brain tissues by PCRs and IHC. Also, CSF, PPV, PRRSV were not detected by PCRs suggesting that the ASFV might be the cause of neurological signs in piglets. It is recommended that brain tissues should be used in the ASFV detection in piglets, especially in neurological cases.

The accepted working assumption on the eve of the 2020 Presidential Election in the US was that his image, as well as the perception that he holds negative opinions regarding immigrants and immigration while supported by white supremacists, would result in voters casting their ballot based on racial or ethnic considerations to vote against him. This paper was aimed at examining that linkage, to see if it took place in reality, or rather if voting needs to be looked at as a choice made based on class and stature, not racial background. To examine the issue at hand, 2016 voting patterns were compared to 2020 exit polls based on racial background. The findings showed that support for President Trump rose across all races, sometimes more than doubling. At the same time, votes were analyzed based on a breakdown by class. For the study, three batches of districts were chosen: the poor of America, the average of America, and the rich of America. One district was chosen from each state, and a total of 147 districts from across the US were looked at. The research shows that as one climbs the social ladder, support for President Trump declines. Or, in the context of this paper: the lower one is on the social class ladder, especially among the 'forgotten' periphery, the higher the approval and support rate of President Trump is.

Background: Mutations in the filaggrin gene (FLG) affect epidermal barrier function and increase the risk of atopic dermatitis (AD). We hypothesized that FLG mutations affect immune cell composition in a general pediatric population. Therefore, we investigated if school-aged children with and without FLG mutations have differences in immune cell numbers. Methods: This study was embedded in a population-based prospective cohort study, the Generation R Study, and included 523 children of European genetic ancestry aged 10 years. The most common FLG mutations in the European population (R501X, S1085CfsX36, R2447X and S3247X) were genotyped. Additionally, 11-color flow cytometry was performed on peripheral blood samples to determine helper T (Th), regulatory T (Treg) and CD27+ and CD27- memory B cells. Sensitivity analysis was performed in 102 AD cases, assessed by parental questionnaires. Results: FLG mutations were observed in 8.4% of the total population and in 15.7% of the AD cases. Children with any FLG mutation had higher Th22 cell numbers compared to FLG wild-type children. Children with and without FLG mutations had no difference in Th1, Th2, Th17, Treg or memory B cell numbers. Furthermore, in children with AD, FLG mutation carriership was not associated with differences in T- and B-cells or their subsets. Conclusions: School-aged children with FLG mutations have higher Th22 cell, which might suggest an immunological defense mechanism to an altered skin barrier function. No associations between Th or Treg cells and FLG mutations suggests that FLG mutations do not otherwise affect immune composition in a general pediatric population.

Homeostatic proliferation (HP) is a physiological process to reconstitute the T-cell pool after lymphopenia with IL-7 and IL-15 being the key cytokines regulating the process. However, there is no evidence whether these cytokines influence the function of regulatory T cells (Tregs). Since lymphopenia often accompanies autoimmune diseases, we decided to study the proliferation rate and function of Tregs stimulated by IL-7 and IL-15 in patients with rheumatoid arthritis (RA) compared to healthy donors (HD). The study used peripheral blood from 14 RA patients and 18 HD. Proliferation of purified CD3+CD4+CD25+CD127lo cells was assessed by flow cytometry using CFSE. Tregs were stimulated by anti-CD3, IL-7, IL-15, IL-7, or IL-15 combined with anti-CD3, and by IL-2+anti-CD3, and their functional activity was evaluated in each case by CD4+ and CD8+ cells proliferation inhibition. The suppressive activity of peripheral Tregs did not differ between RA and HD; however, it significantly decreased when IL-7 or IL-15 were applied together with strong TCR stimulation with anti-CD3 antibodies. Herewith Treg proliferation caused by IL-7 and IL-15 was lower in RA than in HD. The revealed decrease in Treg suppressive activity can lead to the proliferation of potentially self-reactive T-cell clones, which can receive relatively strong TCR signals. This may be another explanation of why lymphopenia is associated with the development of autoimmune diseases. The revealed decrease of Treg proliferation under IL-7 and IL-15 may lead to a delay in Treg pool reconstitution in patients with rheumatoid arthritis.

Introduction The mechanisms that drives SLE remission.The aim of the present study was to measure CD4+ and CD8+ T cell exhaustion in SLE patients in prolonged remission (PR-SLE) and compared them with patients with active SLE (Act-SLE) and healthy subjects Methods We included 15 PR-SLE patients, 15 Act-SLE and 29 healthy subjects. T-cell exhaustion was determined by flow cytometry according to the expression of PD-1, Tim-3, 2B4, EOMES and T-bet in CD4+ and CD8+ T cells. Dimensionality reduction using the t-Distributed Stochastic Neighbor Embedding algorithm and Clustering Analysis was used for the identification of relevant populations. Results Percentages of CD3+, CD4+ and CD8+ T cells were similar among groups. We identified five subpopulations of CD8+ and seven of CD4+ cells. The CD4+Tbet+CD45RO+ cells identified in the unsupervised analysis were significantly increased in PR-SLE vs Act-SLE (median: 10.20, IQR: 1.74-30.50 vs. 1.68, IQR: 0.4-2.83; p<0.01). CD4+EOMES+ cells were also increased in PR-SLE vs Act-SLE (5.24, IQR: 3.38-14.70 vs. 1.39, IQR: 0.48-2.87; p<0.001). CD8+ EOMES+ cells were increased in PR-SLE vs Act-SLE (37.6, IQR: 24.9-53.2 vs 8.13, IQR: 2.33-20.5; p<0.001). Exhausted and activated T cells presented an increased frequency of PD-1, CD57 and EOMES in SLE patients vs healthy subjects. Conclusions Some subpopulations of T cells expressing markers associated with exhaustion are increased in patients in remission, supporting T-cell exhaustion as a tolerance mechanism in SLE. Exhaustion of specific populations of T cells might represent a potential therapeutic tool that will contribute to the goal of achieving sustained remission in these patients.

Frontal chromatography has seen increased interest for protein purification, in particular as a polishing step in downstream processes for therapeutic proteins production, as for example the purification of monoclonal antibodies (mAbs) from high molecular weight impurities, e.g., aggregates, using cation exchange resins. In this work we introduce a new two-column continuous process implementing frontal chromatography. The design procedure and its performance, compared to classical batch technology, are discussed. This represents an additional option in the realisation of optimised continuous downstream processing of therapeutic proteins.

Benzo[a]pyrene (B[a]P) as a representative polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons is concerned by global scientists in various fields, but its biological and biochemical actions in soil-wheat systems are still rarely reported. The B[a]P as a ubiquitous soil pollutant possesses varied contents in real environment, and herein was studied in systems of soil and wheat to obtain relative results to reveal their variations in different systems. Its bioavailability (extractability and bioaccumulation) and basic biological toxicity were tested based on three typical soil types (red, black, and brown) in China and spiked amounts (0.1, 1, and 10 mg/kg) with several orders of magnitude. Results showed that B[a]P concentrations in soil-wheat systems extracted by HPCD were insignificantly (p > 0.05) higher than Tenax-TA, and varied with soil types and spiked concentrations. Besides, the root and shoot length were mostly inhibited, in a range of -21.85%-26.35% and -0.48%-54.85%, respectively, by B[a]P in different soil types and increased with its increasing concentration. Comparatively, higher bioconcentration factor and translocation factor values were observed under lower group in red soil-wheat systems, and higher spiked groups in black and brown soil-wheat systems. Moreover, inhibitive effects posed by B[a]P were mainly targeted at wheat shoots in these soils. The simultaneous studies provided a comparable knowledge of B[a]P in ecosystems of different soil types combined with different plant species due to lots of variations, further to serve for contaminated soil remediation and sustainable agricultural management.

Glove and stocking distribution rash has previously been reported with viral infections like parvovirus etc. Drug induced glove and stocking distribution rash is very rare. We hereby report such a rsh associated with vancomycin as part of pharmacovigilance.

Colour contains rich cultural, mythical, historical, religious, political, and linguistic connotations. In the field of human cognition, there are some differences in the selection and semantic association of colour and colour words among different nationalities. As the economic and educational co-operations keep increasing between Chinese and Igbo people, there is a great need to explore linguistic and cultural connotations of color as to help reduce misunderstanding, culture shock and thus facilitate healthy cross-cultural communication. Most of Igbo people have little or no knowledge about various significance of colors in Chinese. Particularly, they know little about the application and usage of various Chinese color word. Therefore, this paper uses observation and descriptive methodology to examine the symbolism of colour/colour words in the Chinese language and culture, from ancient and contemporary usage, pointing out its significance to Igbo people. The colours selected are: white, black, red, green, and yellow. Red signifies success, prosperity, and popularity. The original symbolism of white is bad and black is good in China，however, due to the influence of western culture，the reverse became the case. Black is now seen as omen, plague, disasters, death, evil, and crime while white is adored as purity, superior, beauty, and goodness. Green colour has a significance of the good and the bad while Yellow symbolizes power, majesty, obscene, and pornographic contents. This paper has not only presented different Chinese colour symbolism that can inspire Igbo people, but also minimized the cross-cultural communication gap between Igbo and Chinese people.

In the process of second or foreign language acquisition, the learner's mother tongue or dominant language directly or indirectly affects the acquisition of the target language, and plays a positive or negative role in promoting or interfering respectively. This paper adopts an analytic and a descriptive approaches in analyzing the positive and negative language transfers of Nigerian students' Chinese language essay writing in the Department of Chinese Studies, Nnamdi Azikiwe University, from four aspects: grammar, syntax, vocabulary, and mechanical accuracy. This paper puts forward recommendations for learners and teachers on the use of effective teaching and learning strategies to reduce the negative language transfer.

The Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) envisage a desirable society where equity is a normative goal that is given attention, and ways to improve inclusivity and diversity of equity beyond concept, process and outcome are being actively explored. Here, we examine how equity is considered in a suite of papers that explored possible sustainable futures for the oceans by 2030, and mapped out pathways to achieve these, collectively aiming to move as far towards achieving the Sustainable Development Goals as technically feasible. Our analysis revealed that a large range of equity issues were recognised and considered, in outcome-based (i.e. distributive), process-based (i.e. procedural) and concept (i.e. contextual) dimensions. However, often, the equity problem was not explicitly stated, but rather implied through the action pathway identified to move towards a more sustainable 2030, highlighting that reducing inequity is interlinked with improving sustainability. Based on these findings, we reflect on the way equity is conceptualised and considered within this work as well as futures science for the oceans more broadly. These reflections are distilled into lessons learnt, a key one of which is that science and knowledge production are immediate areas where we can work to improve equity in terms of building capacity to understand and include equity issues, develop mechanisms to be more inclusive and diverse and continually, and in particular, critically reflect on our own practices to fundamentally challenge how we work and think in the space of marine science research.

In this paper, an identical approximate regularization method is extended to the Cauchy problem of two-dimensional heat conduction equation, this kind of problem is severely ill-posed. The convergence rates are obtained under a priori regularization parameter choice rule. Numerical results are presented for two examples with smooth and continuous but not smooth boundaries, and compared the identical approximate regularization solutions which are displayed in paper. The numerical results show that our method is effective, accurate and stable to solve the ill-posed Cauchy problems.

Background: Infants with atopic dermatitis (AD) are reported to be at higher risk of early childhood caries (ECC) at 3-years, but the clinical validity of the reported link remains unknown. We investigated if clinical severity of AD in young children is associated with increased ECC risk at 3-years. Methods: In Growing Up in Singapore Towards healthy Outcomes (GUSTO) mother-offspring cohort, AD was diagnosed by trained physicians using Hanifin and Rajka criteria at 18-month and 3-year clinic visits (n=837). Of the children diagnosed with AD, disease severity was assessed using SCORAD (SCORing Atopic Dermatitis) index and categorized into moderate-to-severe AD (SCORAD≥25), and mild AD (SCORAD<25), with children without AD (non-AD) as a reference group. Oral examinations for ECC detection was performed by calibrated dentists in 656 children at age 3-years. Negative binomial regression was used to calculate the adjusted incidence risk ratio (aIRR; adjusted for socio-demographic factors and prenatal tobacco smoke exposure). Results: Atopic dermatitis was diagnosed in 7.3% (61/837) children; amongst which 23% had moderate-to-severe AD and 77% had mild AD. ECC was observed in 85.7%, 36.8% and 42.8% of the children in moderate-to-severe, mild and non-AD groups, respectively. Children with moderate-to-severe AD were at higher risk of ECC (aIRR 2.30 [95% confidence interval (CI) 1.04-5.06]; p=0.03) at 3 years compared to non-AD, while no association was seen between mild AD and ECC. Conclusions: Children with moderate-to-severe atopic dermatitis were at higher risk of ECC compared to those without AD and may benefit from early dental referral.

Medical Marijuana in Pediatric Oncology: What Your Patients Are ThinkingDavid Brumbaugh, MD MSCS FAAPDepartment of Pediatrics, University of Colorado School of MedicineChildren’s Hospital Colorado13123 E. 16th Avenue, B290Aurora, CO 80045720-777-6426David.brumbaugh@childrenscolorado.orgWord count: 837Short Running Title: Medical Marijuana in Pediatric OncologyKeywords: marijuana, cannabis, complementary, pediatricsAbbreviations:MM Medical MarijuanaAYA Adolescent/young adultTHC TetrahydrocannabinolUse of complementary therapies occurs by up to 40-80% of pediatric oncology patients.1,2 Although cannabis is hardly new to the scene as a complementary treatment, legalization of both medical and recreational marijuana in many states has made these products ubiquitous. Use of and interest in medical marijuana (MM) by hospitalized pediatric patients appears to be concentrated in oncology units for the purpose of relieving symptoms such as nausea, pain, and anorexia.3 Yet clinical practitioners are still limited by the absence of high-quality research in MM to guide them. FDA approval of Epidiolex™ for specific pediatric epilepsy syndromes was an important research milestone, but marijuana remains classified as a Drug Enforcement Administration Schedule I drug, imposing an enormous barrier for clinical researchers.So how should pediatric oncology programs approach the topic of MM? In this issue of Pediatric Blood and Cancer , Ananth and colleagues used a qualitative research design to characterize patient and family perception of MM from a single institution in a state with permissive rules towards both medical and recreational marijuana. The authors interviewed both parents of younger children as well as adolescent/young adult (AYA) patients. In this cohort of pediatric oncology patients/families, although the proportion of subjects using MM was only 27%, a higher proportion were interested in MM, though with concerns about safety and effectiveness.In the Ananth study, patients/families were primarily using or interested in MM for treatment of nausea, anorexia, and anxiety. A concerning number of families in this study expressed a hope that MM would be effective as anti-cancer therapy. With the absence of high-quality randomized controlled trials of MM for treatment of cancer or treatment-related symptoms in children to inform practitioners on safety, dosing, and toxicity, there is no evidence base for pediatric oncologists to base a recommendation of MM. But should we be dissuading interested families from using MM products because they are harmful?Regarding safety of MM use, most parents and nearly all AYA patients minimized risks. When expressed, safety concerns of MM were perceived as less than with alcohol, illicit drugs, or other prescribed medications. This is not surprising, as perceived risk of marijuana in AYA has been steadily failing over last five years in the National Survey on Drug Use and Health.4 Understandably, in this study safety concerns focused on the potential for addiction, which would be associated with MM products enriched in Tetrahydrocannabinol (THC), the principal psychoactive cannabinoid found in cannabis. However, cannabis is a complex plant with over 70 distinct cannabinoids, and the MM industry now contains a broad range of different types of products that have varying concentrations of THC and consequent psychoactive potential. Carver and colleagues noted in their study of 19 hospitalized patients actively using MM, the majority were using products enriched in Cannabidiol with low concentration of THC. One limitation of the study by Ananth, et al. is that there was no attempt to classify the type of MM either being actively used or of interest to patients and parents, so the appropriateness of the concern for addiction cannot be assessed. Absent in patients/families’ perception of risk was any potential for interaction with chemotherapeutics or other prescribed medications. Since both THC and Cannabidiol can impact drug bioactivation and metabolism through multiple pathways, this potential safety concern should be known to the patient and treatment team.Despite the high level of interest in MM in their study population, the minority of patients/families had discussed MM with their oncologist and in those cases, the patient/family initiated the conversation. Absent advice from their treatment team, there was reliance on friends, family, and the internet for more information. A majority of parents desired the involvement of their physician team in any consideration of MM, and previous research has shown a high level of willingness amongst pediatric oncology providers to consider MM use by their patients, particularly when patients are seriously ill, so what stands in the way of talking about it? Providers are concerned about the absence of good research and are less knowledgeable in the domain of rules/laws regulating access to MM, particularly at the state level where there has been so much change over the last decade.5 These gaps may explain why we don’t bring up the topic of MM with our patients and families as often as they would like.Institutions may consider designating a multidisciplinary team of providers to develop greater experience in the legal and pharmacologic aspects of MM use. This team can support providers in the shared decision-making process around MM. In some institutions, it may make sense to house this expertise within the pediatric palliative care program supporting oncology patients.In summary, MM presently is an important part of the complementary therapeutic options available to pediatric oncology patients and their families, who desire the involvement of their provider team in decision making around MM. Despite the lack of evidence supporting use of MM, many patients are using MM products or may in the future, so we should invite this discussion as this will strengthen our therapeutic partnership.1. Fernandez CV, Stutzer CA, MacWilliam L, Fryer C. Alternative and complementary therapy use in pediatric oncology patients in British Columbia: prevalence and reasons for use and nonuse. J Clin Oncol. 1998;16(4):1279-1286.2. Kelly KM, Jacobson JS, Kennedy DD, Braudt SM, Mallick M, Weiner MA. Use of unconventional therapies by children with cancer at an urban medical center. J Pediatr Hematol Oncol. 2000;22(5):412-416.3. Carver AE, Jorgensen J, Barberio MW, Lomuscio CE, Brumbaugh D. A Pediatric Hospital Policy for Medical Marijuana Use. Pediatrics.2020;146(2).4. Administration SAaMHS. 2019 NSDUH Detailed Tables. samhsa.gov/data/report/2019-nsduh-detailed-tables. Published 2019. Accessed.5. Ananth P, Ma C, Al-Sayegh H, et al. Provider Perspectives on Use of Medical Marijuana in Children With Cancer. Pediatrics.2018;141(1).

Rationale, aims and objectives: Clinical incident reports are the primary means by which UK hospitals are alerted to avoidable harm in healthcare. However, data demonstrating the patterns in real-world reporting by healthcare workers have never been published in the UK. Though this journal has previously published survey data describing the discrepancies between respondents’ own behaviour compared to the incidence of perceived avoidable harm, we set out to collect data on actual reporting patterns between healthcare workers. Given the concerns raised by Robert Francis following the Mid-Staffordshire Inquiry, we specifically wished to examine the rate of reporting of doctors compared to other healthcare workers. Methods: We selected for incidents causing at least ‘moderate’ levels of harm, theorising that such levels of harm are most likely to be noticed by doctors. Data from 2011 to 2019 from the clinical governance departments of 2 NHS hospitals was requested and all available data subsequently charted. Results: This is the first study examining NHS incident reporting patterns in the medical profession. We demonstrated a stark level of underreporting of clinical incidents causing harm ranging from ‘moderate’ to death by doctors. This was particularly dramatic at the non-consultant grade level. In 1 hospital, only 2 deaths were reported by non-consultant grade doctors in 6 years. Notably 1 hospital had not stored any incident reporting data until 2017. Conclusion: The reporting behaviour of doctors has not significantly changed despite the Francis Reports. This could be improved by creating incentives for doctors to engage with patient safety initiatives and disclosure of error, as well as the use of automated systems.

Deltoid tendon rupture is an infrequent injury. We report on a young active white male who sustained a humeral sided deltoid avulsion tendon rupture while attempting a 450-pound barbell shoulder shrug. Early surgical fixation and a progressive rehabilitation program provided successful short and long-term outcomes in our young active patient.

Mating systems and patterns in reproductive success of fishes play an important role in ecology and evolution. While information on the reproductive ecology of many anadromous salmonids (Oncorhynchus spp.) is well-detailed, there is less information for non-anadromous species including the Yellowstone Cutthroat Trout (O. clarkii bouvieri), a species of recreational angling importance and conservation concern. Here, we used data from a parentage-based tagging study to describe the mating system of Yellowstone Cutthroat Trout from a spawning tributary of the South Fork Snake River, Idaho, and identify predictors of relative reproductive success. We detected evidence of monogamy, polygyny, and polyandry and showed that reproductive success was best explained by arrival time at the spawning ground and total length. Specifically, the largest adults arrived earliest in the season and produced a disproportionate number of offspring. Lastly, we estimated the effective number of breeders (Nb) and effective population size (Ne) and showed that while Nb was lower than Ne, both are sufficiently high to suggest Yellowstone Cutthroat Trout in Burns Creek represent a genetically stable and diverse population.

Il comparto suolo e sottosuolo è uno dei comparti che maggiormente viene approfondito per la redazione degli studi di impatto ambientale. La sua caratterizzazione gioca un ruolo fondamentale nell'ambito della disciplina ambientale, sia per definire lo stato preesistente dell'area oggetto di studio, sia per valutare come l'intervento proposto potrebbe alterare tale condizione.Nel seguente lavoro si descrivono, dunque, gli strumenti utili per rilevare e studiare le principali caratteristiche delle componenti e dei fattori ambientali e si riporta l'analisi di un caso studio relativo ad una vasta area soggetta al preoccupante fenomeno della combustione dei rifiuti illecitamente abbandonati.L'approfondimento del caso studio si pone l'obiettivo di illustrare le analisi effettuate e i risultati ottenuti, in termini di classificazione dei terreni in classi di rischio ai fini dell'uso agricolo, per garantire la qualità delle produzioni agroalimentari a tutela della salute umana.

Ecological communities can affect transmission pathways of parasites and pathogens, ultimately affecting disease dynamics. While the community composition of less competent decoy hosts is known to affect diseases in focal hosts, it remains poorly understood whether such diversity effects also exist when non-host organisms remove free-living parasite stages, e.g. by predation. In response surface design laboratory experiments, we investigated non-host diversity effects on the removal of cercarial stages of trematodes, ubiquitous parasites in aquatic ecosystems. In all three combinations of two non-hosts at four density levels, the addition of a second non-host did not generally result in increased parasite removal but neutralised, amplified or reduced the parasite removal exerted by the first non-host, depending on the density. These complex non-host diversity effects were probably driven by intra- and interspecific interactions and suggest the need to integrate non-host diversity effects in understanding the links between community diversity and disease risk.

Background: Diaper dermatitis (DD) is a highly common condition among neonates, infants, and toddlers. The current study aims to explore the factors influencing DD among children aged between 0-24 months in Jordan. Methods: This study utilized a descriptive cross-sectional design with a convenient sample of 140 children diagnosed with DD. Structured face-to face interviews were used to collect data from the parents of the children included in the study. Univariate and multivariate logistic regression analyses were used to test the association between diaper dermatitis and its related medical factors. Results: The prevalence of DD was found to be 98.6% among the participants. The median of the duration of the most recent DD episode in days was 3 days (Inter Quartile Range= 2 to 4 days). The factors influencing DD were the use of barrier cream (OR=.35, 95% CI = .18-.72, p=.004), and bathing frequency of ≤ 1 time per week (OR=1.15, 95% CI = .65-2.10, p=.002). Conclusion: The identified factors should be paid significant attention in order to reduce the prevalence of DD among children aged 24 months or under. Prevention-focused programs which encourage the frequent application of appropriate barrier creams and frequent bathing of more than once a week are needed.

Gene duplication is a fundamental process that has the potential to drive phenotypic differences between populations and species. While evolutionarily neutral changes have the potential to affect phenotypes, detecting selection acting on gene duplicates can uncover cases of adaptive diversification. Existing methods to detect selection on duplicates work mostly inter-specifically and are based upon selection on coding sequence changes, here we present a method to detect selection directly on a copy number variant segregating in a population. The method relies upon expected relationships between allele (new duplication) age and frequency in the population dependent upon the effective population size. Using both a haploid and a diploid population with a Moran Model under several population sizes, the neutral baseline for copy number variants is established. The ability of the method to reject neutrality for duplicates with known age (measured in pairwise dS value) and frequency in the population is established through mathematical analysis and through simulations. Power is particularly good in the diploid case and with larger effective population sizes, as expected. With extension of this method to larger population sizes, this is a tool to analyze selection on copy number variants in any natural or experimentally evolving population.

Background: Catheter ablation is highly effective for AVNRT. Generally junctional rhythm(JR) is an accepted requirement for successful ablation however there is a lack of detailed prospective studies to determine the characteristics of JR and the impact on slow pathway conduction. Methods: Multicentre prospective observational study evaluating the impact of individual radiofrequency(RF) applications in typical AVNRT(Slow/Fast). Characteristics of JR during ablation were documented and detailed testing was performed after every RF application to determine outcome. Procedural success was defined as ≤1 AV nodal echo. Results: Sixty-seven patients were included(mean age 53±18years, 57% female and a history of SVT 2.9±4.7years). RF(50w,60degrees) ablation for AVNRT was applied in 301 locations with JR in 178(59%). Successful slow pathway modification was achieved in 66(99%) patients with slow pathway block in 30(46%). Success was associated with JR in all patients. Success was achieved in 6 patients with RF<10 seconds. There was no significant difference in the CL of JR during RF between effective(587±150ms) vs ineffective (611±193ms,p=0.4) applications. Inadvertent JA-block with immediate termination of RF was observed in 19(28%) patients with AVNRT no longer inducible in 14(74%). Freedom from SVT was achieved in 66(99%) patients at a mean follow up of 15±6 months. Conclusion: In this prospective study, JR was required during RF for acute success in AVNRT. Cycle length of JR during RF was not predictive of success. Unintended JA block during faster JR was associated with slow pathway block. RF applications as short as 10s resulting in junctional rhythm may be successful in some patients.

Research in ecology and evolutionary biology (EEB) plays a key role in understanding and intervening in our current environmental and climate crisis. Although anthropogenic stressors and climate change continue to disproportionately affect Black, Indigenous, and people of colour (BIPOC) individuals, their valuable scientific voices are shockingly underrepresented within EEB. To underscore this problem, we present a case study on EEB PhD graduates in the US (1994-2018), which illustrates that BIPOC scholars are significantly underrepresented in their cohorts. We recommend key steps that the EEB Academy should take to increase representation of BIPOC scholars in EEB, including anti-racism education and practice, increased funding opportunities, integration of diverse cultural perspectives, and a community-minded shift in PhDs. Importantly, this advice is directed at those who wield power in the Academy (e.g., funding agencies, societies, institutions, departments, and faculty), rather than BIPOC scholars already struggling against inequitable frameworks in EEB.