820 research outputs found
Eumerus lyneborgi Ricarte & Hauser & Kinnee & Marcos-García 2020, sp. nov.
No full textRemarks on Eumerus lyneborgi sp. nov. and similar species Eumerus lyneborgi sp. nov. is similar to E. vestitus Bezzi, 1912 in body size and constitution, predominantly pollinose frons, with punctured pollinosity (females), swollen metafemur, with two ventral rows of short black spinae, one antero-apically and other postero-apical, lateral margins of terga III and IV pollinose, and tergum IV widely pollinose posteriorly. Bezzi (1912) described E. vestitus based on males and females from ‘ Guinea Portoguese’ (nowadays, Guinea-Bissau), supposedly the male and three females the authors of the present paper found in the MCSNG collection. These specimens are all labelled as ‘syntypus’ and a female has an additional label of ‘Typus’. Bezzi (1912) did not mention a holotype or type specimen for his new species in the description. Thus, according to articles 73.1.1 and 73.1.2 of the International Commission on Zoological Nomenclature (1999), this ‘Typus’ is not a valid holotype and therefore all specimens are syntypes. In addition, no subsequent type designation for E. vestitus is known to the authors of the present paper. In the past, curators sometimes labelled arbitrarily as ‘Typus’ the best looking specimen within the type series (M.A. Alonso-Zarazaga in lit.), and this is likely to be the case for this ‘Typus’ specimen. Thus, lectotype designation is possible for this nominal species in order to stabilise this species concept, especially because it is a mixed type series and the newly described species in this paper is similar to E. vestitus. Thus, we here designate the male specimen as lectotype (Fig. 9). All other specimens (females) become automatically paralectotypes (Figs 10, 11). All specimens of the type series, except for one are recognised to be conspecific. The outlier specimen (female paralectotype) has (1) denser and longer eye pilosity (eye with very short and scattered pile in the other two females) (Fig. 10C, D), (2) slight but obvious pollinosity surrounding posterior ocelli (this same area is shiny or nearly so in the other two females), (3) individual dots of frontal pollinosity very small (larger in the other females) (Fig. 10A, C), (4) basoflagellomere tapering dorsally for the apical two thirds (for the apical half or less, in the other two females) (Fig. 10C, D), (5) metatibia bumped ventrally (less bumped, tending to straight, in the other two females), (6) apex of metatibia without short black spinae (apex of metatibia with two short black spinae in the other two females) (Fig. 11). This outlier female is similar to the female of E. obliquus (Fabricius 1805) (widespread in Africa) and E. figurans Walker, 1859 (not recorded from Africa). However, it differs from that of E. obliquus in the pollinose vertex (broadly shiny in E. obliquus), wide pollinose posterior margin of scutellum (much narrower to almost absent in E. obliquus), narrow diagonal vittae of terga III and IV (wider in E. obliquus), and shiny posterior margin of tergum IV (extensively pollinose in E. obliquus); and differs from the female of E. figurans in the pollinose vertex and occiput (vertex and occiput shiny in E. figurans), the densely and homogeneously pollinose frons (frons with a medial line of sparser pollinosity in E. figurans), and the short spinae of the anteroapical row of metafemur (longer spinae in E. figurans). The outlier specimen did not key out with Lyneborg’s manuscript key to the Afrotropical species of Eumerus, and might represent an undescribed sister species of E. vestitus. However, we decided not to describe it as a separate taxon due to the absence of other specimens, including males with conspecific morphology. Additional examined material of other Eumerus species. Type series of the nominal species, Eumerus vestitus Bezzi, 1912. Lectotype: 1³, GUINEA PORTOGUESE, Rio Cassine, XII.1899 – IV.1900. L. Fea (part of the date crossed out as indicated) / SYNTYPUS ³ Eumerus vestitus Bezzi, 1912 (on pink label). Paralectotypes: 1♀, GUINEA POR- TOGUESE, Rio Cassine, XII.1899 – IV.1900. L. Fea (part of the date crossed out as indicated) / vestitus Bezzi / TYPUS (printed in red) / Eumerus vestitus n. sp. (handwritten on a pink label; ‘ n. sp. ’ is an interpretation of the actual label lettering) / SYNTYPUS ♀ Eumerus vestitus Bezzi, 1912 (on pink label) / Museo Civico di Genova; 2♀, GUINEA PORTOGUESE, Rio Cassine, XII.1899 – IV.1900. L. Fea (part of the date crossed out as indicated) / SYNTYPUS ♀ Eumerus vestitus Bezzi, 1912 (on pink label) / Museo Civico di Genova [MCSNG]. The male syntype lacks the antennae and the right prolegs, and the head is pasted to thorax in its original position. The female syntype labelled as ‘typus’ lacks the left basoflagellomere, while another female lacks the left metatarsus. There were specimens from Egypt, donated by Becker to Bezzi and found by this latter author that they were erroneously identified as E. obliquus, mentioned in the original description, which we could not locate. Additional material of Eumerus vesti-tus: 2³, 1♀, Egypt, Cairo, Gizera, 24.ix.1992, leg. M. Hauser [CSCA]; 1³, Egypt, Luxor, Westbank of Nile river 25.694N 32,628E, 1.iv.2018 leg Schmid-Egger [CSCA]; 1³, Tunisia, Monastir, 15km S Sousse, 28.vi.1994, leg. M. Hauser (first record of E. vestitus from Tunisia) [CSCA]. Eumerus obliquus: AFRICA. 1♀, ‘Cap. B. Spei.’ [South Africa, Cape of Good Hope], Coll. H. Loew, obliquus F (hand written); 1³, Africa, Coll. H. Loew [ZMB]; 1♀ [published in Marcos-García et al. (2013)], Île de la Réunion (France), Les Avirons, 24.vi.2010, Leg.: N. Estela Ribera, Det. as E. obliquus by A. Ricarte & M.A. Marcos-García in 2010 (CEUA00105083) [CEUA]; 1³, 2♀, Mozambique, Sofala Prov. Gorongosa Park, small lake, 18°56’39»S 34°26’35»E, 300m, ex Malaise, 19–30.iv.2015 leg. M. Hauser & A. Rung [CSCA]; 1³, Zambia Southern Prov., Livingston, 17.842 S 15.857 E, 960m, 1.v.2016, leg M. Hauser & CJ Borkent [CSCA]; 1³, Zambia, Northern Prov. 8.8 km WSW Kakumbi, S Luangwa NP, 22–26.iv. 2016, 525m, 13.115 S 31.726 E, Malaise trap, leg. M. Hauser, CJ Borkent & DM Ndalamei [CSCA]; 1³, Mali 30 km N Bamako, 20.vii.1991, leg. M. Schwarz [CSCA]; 1³, Ghana, Northern Region, Mole National Park, 165m, 09°15’33»N 01°51’43»W, Malaise trap, 28–30.iv.2014 leg. S. Gaimari & M. Hauser [CSCA]; 1³, Tunisia, Monastir, 15km S Sousse, 28.vi. 1994, leg. M. Hauser [CSCA]. AUSTRA-LIA. 1♀ with puparium, Palmwoods, nr Nambour, Qld, C. Hayward, emerged 17.v.1986, ex rotting guava infested with larvae of Dacus tryoni (UQIC Reg #94996) [CSCA]. EUROPE. 1♀, Spain (mainland), Alicante, San Juan, 01.iv.2020, Leg. M.A. Marcos; 1♀ [published in Ricarte et al. (2008)], Spain, Balearic Islands, Mallorca, Ses Salines, P/ 29.x.2005, Leg.: M.A. Marcos-García (#6844), Det. as E. obliquus by A. Ricarte in 2006 (CEUA00084841). Eumerus obliquus is widespread all over Africa, also found in the Canary and various Mediterranean islands, as well as in mainland Europe: Spain (first records in the present paper), southern France and Italy (Speight 2020). This species is also introduced in Australia and South America (Garcete-Barrett et al. 2020). A female of Eumerus punctifrons Loew, 1857 with the following data: Tunis, 62285 [ZMB]. Photos of the holotype of Eumerus figurans Walker, 1859 at the Natural History Museum, London, available at https://www.nhm.ac.uk/.Published as part of Ricarte, Antonio, Hauser, Martin, Kinnee, Scott & Marcos-García, Ángeles, 2020, A new Eumerus hoverfly (Diptera: Syrphidae) from Namibia and South Africa with notes on similar species, pp. 493-508 in Zootaxa 4890 (4) on pages 502-503, DOI: 10.11646/zootaxa.4890.4.3, http://zenodo.org/record/430650
High-voltage capacitively coupled contactless conductivity detection for conventional and microchip capillary electrophoresis
No full textThis thesis focuses on the optimisation of capacitively coupled contactless conductivity detection for capillary and microchip electrophoresis and its applications in analytical chemistry. First, the effect of high excitation voltages and operation frequencies on the capacitively coupled contactless conductivity detector cell for conventional capillary electrophoresis is evaluated. The detector electrodes comprised two steel tubes cut from hypodermic needles, through which the capillaries were inserted. It is demonstrated that increasing excitation voltages from 25 V pp, to 250 Vpp improves the detection limits by a factor of 10. The high actuator voltage approach was also investigated for contactless conductivity detection on a glass-microchip device with ancm long channel. The detector electrodes formed part of the microchip and were placed on the microchip directly above the microchannel. In a separate project the simplification of on-microchip contactless conductivity detection was accomplished. This was achieved by integrating the detector electrodes on to a chip-holder specifically designed for this purpose. Thus the electrodes were a part of the holder, an improvement of the previous arrangement whereby the detector electrodes were situated on the microdevice. Finally the applications and advantages of the optimised high-voltage capacitively coupled contactless conductivity detection for inorganic and organic analysis were demonstrated. The separation and detection of 14 metal ions was accomplished in less than six minutes. The compatibility of this detector with non-UV transparent, polymer capillaries has been demonstrated. The detection of native amino acids has been evaluated. Part of the work was dedicated to the on-chip analysis of various classes of organic ions. The two immunoproteins human immunoglobulin M (IgM) and immunoglobulin G (IgG), were analysed in their unlabelled state on both capillary and lab-on-chip platforms. All species involved in an immunological interaction between IgM and IgG could be detected. A method for the analysis of selected basic pharmaceutical drug substances was developed. Detection limits comparable to those supplied by direct UV detection were obtained. Main component assays of selected pharmaceutical preparations have been demonstrated
Erratum: Gaia Data Release 2: Kinematics of globular clusters and dwarf galaxies around the Milky Way (A&A (2018) 616 (A12) DOI: 10.1051/0004-6361/201832698)
No full textAn error occurred during the production process of the original published version. The following names were omitted from the author list: R. Haigron, D. Hatzidimitriou, M. Hauser, M. Haywood, U. Heiter, J. Heu, T. Hilger. The original published version has been corrected together with the publication of this corrigendum. © 2020 EDP Sciences. All rights reserved
Cooperation and the evolution of intelligence
No full textThe high levels of intelligence seen in humans, other primates, certain cetaceans and birds remain a major puzzle for evolutionary biologists, anthropologists and psychologists. It has long been held that social interactions provide the selection pressures necessary for the evolution of advanced cognitive abilities (the 'social intelligence hypothesis'), and in recent years decision-making in the context of cooperative social interactions has been conjectured to be of particular importance. Here we use an artificial neural network model to show that selection for efficient decision-making in cooperative dilemmas can give rise to selection pressures for greater cognitive abilities, and that intelligent strategies can themselves select for greater intelligence, leading to a Machiavellian arms race. Our results provide mechanistic support for the social intelligence hypothesis, highlight the potential importance of cooperative behaviour in the evolution of intelligence and may help us to explain the distribution of cooperation with intelligence across taxa.</p
Diversity and Tropism of HIV-1 Plasma Rebound Virus After Treatment Discontinuation
No full textModern antiretroviral therapies can confer effective suppression of HIV-1 infection. However,
HIV-infected people discontinuing antiretroviral therapy experience a rebound of virus from a
persistent reservoir. Characterizing this reservoir constitutes a crucial step towards developing a
cure, and we hypothesized that assessing the diversity and tropism of rebound virus would
provide insight into the types of cells that likely house the viral reservoir as well as reservoir
diversity. We examined 10 rebound samples from a project within the large-scale AIDS Clinical
Trials Group and used single genome amplification and Primer ID deep sequencing to assess the
genetic diversity of the env gene, which encodes the HIV-1 envelope protein, among rebounding
virus. Samples from the same patients with viral suppression due to antiretroviral therapy were
also available. Most rebound virus populations showed significant diversity. All env genes
examined were isoforms that would require cells to express high surface levels of the CD4
receptor for entry, consistent with the current hypothesis that virus is selectively replicated in
CD4+ T cells. These results indicate that most people discontinuing therapy release a diverse
population of virus, and this released virus targets CD4+ T cells rather than myeloid cells, which
tend to last longer. Research indicates that a small proportion of viruses have evolved to
efficiently enter myeloid cells. Current HIV-1 cure strategies focus on reactivating latent HIV-1
and targeting the resultant virus. It is essential to understand the features of rebound viruses
because they are the first such targets.Bachelor of Science in Public Healt
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Rationally designed immunogens enable immune focusing following SARS-CoV-2 spike imprinting
No full textThe emergence of SARS-CoV-2 (SARS-2) has highlighted the health risk posed by novel pathogens for which there is limited protective population immunity. Though vaccinations were developed and used rapidly across much of the world, SARS-2 continues to circulate and is evolving antigenically to escape host immunity. Several related sarbecoviruses that use the same human angiotensin converting enzyme 2 (ACE2) receptor to enter cells have been identified in animals. This suggests the possibility that additional novel sarbecoviruses may emerge. The combination of ongoing SARS-2 antigenic evolution and the possibility of zoonotic spillover underscore the need for pan-sarbecovirus vaccines that provide protection against both currently circulating variants and emerging viruses. Because a large proportion of people have previously been infected with or vaccinated against SARS-2, pan-sarbecovirus vaccine candidates must be evaluated in the context of pre-existing SARS-2 immunity.
In this thesis, we evaluated structure-guided, rational immunogen design approaches to focus the humoral immune response to conserved epitopes on the SARS-2 receptor binding domain. We have pursued this objective in the following ways.
1. We demonstrated that boosting with receptor binding domain-based immunogens, rather than the full SARS-2 spike protein, elicits a memory B cell response that is biased towards the receptor binding domain. However, both boosting approaches generate broad serum neutralization across related sarbecoviruses.
2. We leveraged hyperglycosylation and scaffolding design approaches to engineer immunogens that could focus to conserved epitopes on the receptor binding domain. Boosting with these engineered immunogens in the context of prior SARS-2 immunity focused the murine serum antibody response to conserved, broadly neutralizing epitopes. We also pursued structural characterization of several immunogen-elicited broadly neutralizing antibodies to help understand the basis of this broad serum neutralization.
3. We refined the design of one of the hyperglycosylated immunogens to focus to the epitope targeted by these broadly neutralizing antibodies. Boosting with this immunogen in the context of prior immunity to SARS-2 in mice resulted in immune focusing. Additionally, this immune focusing significantly improved serum neutralization of the antigenically distant Omicron variant. We also characterized the cross-reactive human SARS-2 antibody response and identified broadly neutralizing antibodies that targeted a similar epitope.
Our data support the use of hyperglycosylation and scaffolding immunogen design approaches to focus humoral responses to epitopes on the SARS-2 receptor binding domain in context of prior SARS-2 immunity. These tools may provide a framework for a future pan-sarbecovirus vaccine
Assessing Factors Associated with Option B+ Initiation, Retention, and Infant Follow Up in Lilongwe, Malawi
No full textBackground: Malawi launched Option B+ in July 2011, a program for all pregnant or
breastfeeding HIV-positive women to begin lifelong combination antiretroviral therapy (cART).
This study characterizes the continuum of care within an antenatal setting in Lilongwe.
Methods: Women testing HIV-positive at Bwaila Antenatal Clinic from July 2013 to January
2014 were included. HIV testing and counseling logs were examined, and HIV-infected women
were linked to HIV mastercards and infant test records. Logistic regression models were used to
analyze relationships between characteristics recorded on the logs and maternal cART initiation,
retention, and return for infant testing.
Results: During this period, 578 women tested HIV-positive. Of these women, 490 (85%) were
linked to an ART initiation record; of these women, 398 (81%) had at least one follow-up record;
and of these women, 197 (49%) were retained with full adherence to antiretroviral therapy for
three months. Two hundred twenty (38%) were linked to a record of infant testing. Women
without an ART record (aOR = 0.19; 95% CI: 0.10, 0.35), women with no follow-up visits (aOR
= 0.20; 95% CI: 0.11, 0.36), and women not fully adherent for three months (aOR = 0.56; 95%
CI: 0.37, 0.84) were less likely to return for infant testing than women who were retained and
adherent for three months.
Discussion: Even with a test-and-treat program, many women did not initiate cART, remain in
care, or bring their infant for testing. Women lost are at highest risk for transmission and were
least likely to bring infants for testing. Facilitating care-seeking at all steps of the continuum
remains an important unmet need. Ensuring maternal health has the potential to make major
contributions towards maintaining environmental health, thus augmenting the importance of this
research.Bachelor of Science in Public Healt
Development of efficient encoding in visual working memory:
No full textPrevious research has shown that infants’ visual working memory (WM) capacity for objects appears to increase over the first year of life, from one object at 6 months to three objects at 12 months (Ross-Sheehy, Oakes, & Luck, 2003; Leslie & Kaldy, 2007). However, other evidence suggests that infants are able to keep track of multiple objects, without necessarily any identifying information, and that this object-tracking capacity does not seem to change over the first year of life (Feigenson, Carey, & Hauser, 2002; Feigenson & Carey, 2003). This apparent contradiction in findings prompted us to attempt to tease apart WM for individuated objects and for object identities (features) in infants. Our research indicates that infants, like adults, have a fixed number of slots in which to store objects, but the amount of resources available for encoding identifying featural information increases over the first year of life, resulting in an increase in the resolution of WM representations.M.S.Includes bibliographical references (p. 32-34)by Melissa M. Kibb
57Fe Mössbauer-effect study of preferential site occupancy in quasicrystalline Al86Cr14−xFex alloys
No full textPT: J; CR: BANCEL PA, 1986, PHYS REV B, V33, P7917 BLACK PJ, 1955, ACTA CRYSTALLOGR, V8, P175 CAHN JW, 1986, J PHYS-PARIS, V47, P415 COOPER M, 1966, ACTA CRYSTALLOGR, V20, P614 COOPER M, 1967, ACTA CRYSTALLOGR, V23, P1106 CORBY RN, 1977, ACTA CRYSTALLOGR B, V33, P3468 DUNLAP RA, UNPUB J PHYS F DUNLAP RA, 1986, HYPERFINE INTERACT, V28, P963 DUNLAP RA, 1986, J PHYS F MET PHYS, V16, P1247 DUNLAP RA, 1987, J PHYS F MET PHYS, V17, L39 EIBSCHUTZ M, 1986, PHYS REV LETT, V56, P169 EIBSCHUTZ M, 1987, PHYS REV LETT, V59, P2443 GUYOT P, 1986, J PHYS-PARIS, V47, P389 HAUSER JJ, 1986, PHYS REV B, V33, P3577 HENLEY CL, 1986, PHYS REV B, V34, P797 HENLEY CL, 1987, COMMENTS CONDENSED M, V13, P59 LAWTHER DW, UNPUB MA J, 1986, PHYS REV LETT, V57, P1611 MACKAY AL, 1962, ACTA CRYSTALLOGR, V15, P916 NASU S, 1974, J PHYS F MET PHYS, V4, L24 SCHURER PJ, 1986, SOLID STATE COMMUN, V59, P619 STEPHENS PW, 1986, PHYS REV LETT, V56, P1168 SWARTZENDRUBER LJ, 1985, PHYS REV B, V32, P1383 WARREN WW, 1986, PHYS REV B, V34, P4902; NR: 24; TC: 40; J9: PHYS REV B; PG: 4; GA: P9232Source type: Electronic(1
Spontaneous gene flow and population structure in wild and cultivated chicory, Cichorium intybus L.
No full textSpontaneous gene flow between wild and cultivated chicory, Cichorium intybus L., may have implications for the genetic structure and evolution of populations and varieties. One aspect of this crop-wild gene flow is the dispersal of transgenes from genetically modified varieties, e.g. gene flow from GM chicory to natural chicory could have unwanted consequences. With the purpose to identify and quantify crop-wild gene flow in chicory, we analysed introgression in 19 wild chicory populations and 16 accessions of chicory varieties and landraces distributed across Northern, Central and Mediterranean Europe. The analysis used 281 AFLP markers and 75 SSAP markers giving a total of 356 polymorphic markers. Results from model based assignments with the program STRUCTURE indicated many incidents of recent gene flow. Gene flow was observed both between cultivars and wild populations, between landraces and wild populations, between different wild populations as well as between cultivars. Population structure visualized by distance-based clustering showed a North–South geographical structuring of the wild populations, and a general grouping of the cultivars corresponding to known origin. The results indicated, however, that the structuring between the two groups of wild and cultivated types was weak. As crop and wild recipients are genetically close and genes are transferred between the two types rather frequently, focus on mitigating crop-wild gene flow should be increased, before transgenic varieties are cultivated openly
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