How environment geometry affects grid cell symmetry and what we can learn from it

The mammalian hippocampal formation provides neuronal representations of environmental location but the underlying mechanisms are unclear. The majority of cells in medial entorhinal cortex and parasubiculum show spatially periodic firing patterns. Grid cells exhibit hexagonal symmetry and form an important subset of this more general class. Occasional changes between hexagonal and non-hexagonal firing patterns imply a common underlying mechanism. Importantly, the symmetrical properties are strongly affected by the geometry of the environment. Here, we introduce a field–boundary interaction model where we demonstrate that the grid cell pattern can be formed from competing place-like and boundary inputs. We show that the modelling results can accurately capture our current experimental observations.     

Intercontinental biotic invasions: what can we learn from native populations and habitats?

The effectiveness of management strategies for invasive species is often hampered by a lack of clear understanding of the factors that limit species distributions. The distribution of exotic species, especially those that are invasive, are often so dynamic that limiting factors are difficult to identify. Comparisons of exotic species between their native ranges, where they are presumably close to equilibrium with controlling factors, and their ranges in areas of introduction can circumvent this difficulty. Such studies would help identify (1) limiting factors for distributions in native ranges, (2) factors associated with a high degree of invasiveness, (3) changes in genetics and morphology since introduction, which also might contribute to invasiveness, and (4) future directions and rates of invasion as a basis for developing detection/warning systems. Findings from such comparative studies would be highly valuable for understanding the dynamics of biological invasions and for improving the effectiveness of management to prevent or control invasives.     

Polyploidy and the sexual system: what can we learn from Mercurialis annua?

The evolutionary success of polyploidy most directly requires the ability of polyploid individuals to reproduce and transmit their genes to subsequent generations. As a result, the sexual system (i.e. the mating system and the sex allocation of a species) will necessarily play a key role in determining the fate of a new polyploid lineage. The effects of the sexual system on the evolution of polyploidy are complex and interactive. They include both aspects of the genetic system, the genetic load maintained in a population and the ecological context in which selection takes place. Here, we explore these complexities and review the empirical evidence for several potentially important genetic and ecological interactions between ploidy and the sexual system in plants. We place particular emphasis on work in our laboratory on the European annual plant Mercurialis annua , which offers promising scope for detailed investigations on this topic. M. annua forms a polyploid complex that varies in its sexual system from dioecy (separate sexes) through androdioecy (males and hermaphrodites) to functional hermaphroditism.  © 2004 The Linnean Society of London, Biological Journal of the Linnean Society , 2004, 82 , 547–560.     

WPA guidance on how to combat stigmatization of psychiatry and psychiatrists

In 2009 the WPA President established a Task Force that was to examine available evidence about the stigmatization of psychiatry and psychiatrists and to make recommendations about action that national psychiatric societies and psychiatrists as professionals could do to reduce or prevent the stigmatization of their discipline as well as to prevent its nefarious consequences. This paper presents a summary of the Task Force’s findings and recommendations. The Task Force reviewed the literature concerning the image of psychiatry and psychiatrists in the media and the opinions about psychiatry and psychiatrists of the general public, of students of medicine, of health professionals other than psychiatrists and of persons with mental illness and their families. It also reviewed the evidence about the interventions that have been undertaken to combat stigma and consequent discrimination and made a series of recommendations to the national psychiatric societies and to individual psychiatrists. The Task Force laid emphasis on the formulation of best practices of psychiatry and their application in health services and on the revision of curricula for the training of health personnel. It also recommended that national psychiatric societies establish links with other professional associations, with organizations of patients and their relatives and with the media in order to approach the problems of stigma on a broad front. The Task Force also underlined the role that psychiatrists can play in the prevention of stigmatization of psychiatry, stressing the need to develop a respectful relationship with patients, to strictly observe ethical rules in the practice of psychiatry and to maintain professional competence.     

Coordinating cell polarity and cell cycle progression: what can we learn from flies and worms?

Spatio-temporal coordination of events during cell division is crucial for animal development. In recent years, emerging data have strengthened the notion that tight coupling of cell cycle progression and cell polarity in dividing cells is crucial for asymmetric cell division and ultimately for metazoan development. Although it is acknowledged that such coupling exists, the molecular mechanisms linking the cell cycle and cell polarity machineries are still under investigation. Key cell cycle regulators control cell polarity, and thus influence cell fate determination and/or differentiation, whereas some factors involved in cell polarity regulate cell cycle timing and proliferation potential. The scope of this review is to discuss the data linking cell polarity and cell cycle progression, and the importance of such coupling for asymmetric cell division. Because studies in model organisms such as Caenorhabditis elegans and Drosophila melanogaster have started to reveal the molecular mechanisms of this coordination, we will concentrate on these two systems. We review examples of molecular mechanisms suggesting a coupling between cell polarity and cell cycle progression.     

An industrial perspective on bioreactor scale-down: what we can learn from combined large-scale bioprocess and model fluid studies

For industrial bioreactor design, operation, control and optimization, the scale-down approach is often advocated to efficiently generate data on a small scale, and effectively apply suggested improvements to the industrial scale. In all cases it is important to ensure that the scale-down conditions are representative of the real large-scale bioprocess. Progress is hampered by limited detailed and local information from large-scale bioprocesses. Complementary to real fermentation studies, physical aspects of model fluids such as air-water in large bioreactors provide useful information with limited effort and cost. Still, in industrial practice, investments of time, capital and resources often prohibit systematic work, although, in the end, savings obtained in this way are trivial compared to the expenses that result from real process disturbances, batch failures, and non-flyers with loss of business opportunity. Here we try to highlight what can be learned from real large-scale bioprocess in combination with model fluid studies, and to provide suitable computation tools to overcome data restrictions. Focus is on a specific well-documented case for a 30-m(3) bioreactor. Areas for further research from an industrial perspective are also indicated.     

Avian higher-level phylogeny: well-supported clades and what we can learn from a phylogenetic analysis of 2954 morphological characters

It has been shown that increased character sampling betters the accuracy of phylogenetic reconstructions in the case of molecular data. A recently published analysis of avian higher-level phylogenetics based on 2954 morphological characters now provides an empirical example to test whether this is also true in the case of morphological characters. Several clades are discussed which are supported by multiple analyses of mutually independent molecular data (sequences of nuclear genes on different chromosomes and mitochondrial genes) as well as morphological apomorphies, but did not result from parsimony analysis of the large morphological data set. Incorrect character scorings in that analysis notwithstanding, it is concluded that in the case of morphological data, increased character sampling does not necessarily better the accuracy of a phylogenetic reconstruction. Because morphological characters usually have a strongly varying complexity, many simple and homoplastic characters may overrule fewer ones of greater phylogenetic significance in large data sets, thus producing a low ratio of phylogenetic signal to 'noise' in the data.     

Glucosaminylglycan biosynthesis: what we can learn from the X-ray crystal structures of glycosyltransferases GlcAT1 and EXTL2

The X-ray crystal structures of two glycosyltransferases (GTs)--beta 1,3-glucuronyltransferase 1 (GlcAT1) and alpha 1,4-N-acetylhexosaminyltransferase (EXTL2)--have now been determined in the presence of both donor and acceptor substrates. These enzymes are involved in glucosaminylglycan (GAG) synthesis where they catalyze inverting and retaining transfer reactions, respectively. As members of a large family of enzymes that transfer sugar groups from donor nucleotide-sugars to acceptor substrates, GlcAT1 and EXTL2 retain conserved GT folds. Comparative analysis of these structures reveals signature features for selecting specific donor sugars. Adaptive binding of the disaccharide moiety of the acceptor sugars enables the enzymes to catalyze either an inverting S(N)2-type displacement reaction or a retaining S(N)i-like transfer reaction.     

Indexation of psychiatric journals from low‐ and middle‐income countries: a survey and a case study

There is a marked underepresentation of low- and middle-income countries (LAMIC) in the psychiatric literature, which may reflect an overall low representation of LAMIC publications in databases of indexed journals. This paper investigates the worldwide distribution of indexed psychiatric journals. A survey in both Medline and ISI Web of Science was performed in order to identify journals in the field of psychiatry according to their country of origin. Two hundred and twenty-two indexed psychiatric journals were found. Of these, 213 originated from high-income countries and only nine (4.1%) from middle-income countries. None were found in low-income countries. We also present the experience of a LAMIC psychiatric journal, the Revista Brasileira de Psiquiatria, in its recent indexation process. This case study may serve as an example for other LAMIC journals to pursue indexation in major databases as a strategy to widen the international foundation of psychiatric research. There is an important need for the inclusion of LAMIC psychiatric publications in the major indexation databases. This process will require multiple agents to partner with journals from LAMIC to improve their quality and strengthen their chances of being indexed.     

生计方式对农户生活能源消费模式的影响——以甘南高原为例

生计方式变迁对农户的生活能源消费模式产生深远影响,从而给农村能源与环境问题带来新的挑战。以地处青藏高原东缘的甘南高原为研究区,基于农户调查资料,采用STIRPAT模型与二元logistic模型分析了生计方式对农户的生活能源消费量及生活能源消费模式选择的影响。结果发现:(1)随着非农化水平的提高,甘南高原农户的生活能源消费量显著下降,但它引起的生活能源消费量下降速度低于其自身的变化速度;此外,家庭规模扩大、收入提高将使农户的生活能源消费量增加;(2)生计方式对农户能源消费模式选择的影响远高于其他因素,随着非农化水平的提高,农户选择以商品性能源为主消费模式的概率将增大,收入增加、受教育程度提高及商品性能源的可得性改善亦会如此,但生物质能源的可得性增强会降低农户选择以商品性能源为主消费模式的概率。最后,提出了优化农户生活能源消费模式的建议。     

The category of roots and the roots of categories: what we learn from selection in derivation

Selection—the tendency of derivational affixes to choose the category of their base—has most often been couched in terms of syntactic categories such as Noun, Verb, and Adjective. In recent years several theories have claimed, however, that roots are categoryless, and receive category only by virtue of being merged with functional projections of various sorts. This article examines three such theories—Distributed Morphology, Borer’s Exo-Skeletal model, and DiSciullo’s Asymmetrical Morphology, and determines that none of them can handle the phenomenon of affixal selection. We may, however, maintain the claim that roots lack syntactic category if we make use of a system of lexical semantic categorization that allows us to state selection in terms of semantic categories. It is shown that the framework of Lieber (2004) allows for such categorization, and moreover that semantic categorization permits us to make generalizations that are not available in a theory in which selection is purely on the basis of syntactic category. I am grateful to the faculty and students of the University of Patras, Greece for discussion and comments on an earlier version of this work. Thanks also to Sergio Scalise, Antonietta Bisetto, Chiara Melloni, and three anonymous reviewers for useful comments.     

Sex determination from the occipital condyle: discriminant function analysis in an eighteenth and nineteenth century British sample

Fragmentary human remains compromised by different types of inhumation, or physical insults such as explosions, fires, and mutilations may frustrate the use of traditional morphognostic sex determination methods. The basicranium is protected by a large soft tissue mass comprising muscle, tendon, and ligaments. As such, the occipital region may prove useful for sex identification in cases of significantly fragmented remains. The aims of this paper are to (1) evaluate sexual dimorphism in British cranial bases by manually recorded unilateral and bilateral condylar length and width as well as intercondylar measurements and (2) develop discriminant functions for sex determination for this cranial sample. The crania selected for this study are part of the 18th-19th century documented skeletal collection of St. Bride's Church, Fleet Street, London. Adult human skulls (n = 146; male75/female71) were measured to derive statistical functions. Results indicated that expression of sexual dimorphism in the occipital condylar region within the St. Bride's population is demonstrable but low. Crossvalidated classification accuracy ranged between 69.2 and 76.7%, and sex bias ranged from 0.3 to 9.7%. Therefore, the use of discriminant functions derived from occipital condyles, especially in British skeletal populations, should only be considered in cases of fragmented cranial bases when no other morphognostic or morphometric method can be utilized for sex determination.     

生物化学教学中采用案例教学法之案例设计与分析

案例教学法是被普遍采用的一种教学方式,将其应用于生物化学教学中,并用图解的形式给出案例的归纳与分析,使抽象难懂、错综复杂、生涩冷僻的教学内容变得直观明了。加深了学生对教学内容的理解,增强了课堂教学的趣味性与学生学习的主动性,同时提高了学生分析问题和解决问题的能力。     

1995-2015年缅甸土地利用/覆被变化对生态系统服务价值的影响

缅甸土地利用变化对其生态系统服务的影响与中缅绿色"一带一路"、中缅经济走廊建设等重大战略的长期合作息息相关。利用缅甸1995年和2015年的土地利用数据,结合Costanza生态系统服务价值系数表,分析缅甸土地利用变化对生态系统服务价值的影响。结果表明：（1）1995-2015年,缅甸土地利用类型以林地（71%）和耕地（26%）为主,林地和草地面积减少,而其他地类增加;林地和耕地之间的转化显著。（2）缅甸生态系统服务价值约4600-4700亿美元,林地贡献最大;调节（48%）和支持（29%）服务价值比重较大;（3）生态系统服务总价值增加了66.26亿美元,调节、供给和支持服务价值增加,而文化服务价值减少;生态系统服务二级类型中：废物处理、食物供给、生境/避难所等增加,气候调节、遗传资源、水土保持功能等减少;（4）缅甸土地利用变化对生态系统服务总价值和生态系统服务一级类型总价值影响较小,但生态系统服务二级类型价值的"此消彼长"会影响缅甸生态安全和生物多样性,在未来中缅"一带一路"建设中需要重点关注。     

The importance of phylogenetic scale in tests of Bergmann's and Rapoport's rules: lessons from a clade of South American lizards

We tested for the occurrence of Bergmann's rule, the pattern of increasing body size with latitude, and Rapoport's rule, the positive relationship between geographical range size and latitude, in 34 lineages of Liolaemus lizards that occupy arid regions of the Andean foothills. We tested the climatic-variability hypothesis (CVH) by examining the relationship between thermal tolerance breadth and distribution. Each of these analyses was performed varying the level of phylogenetic inclusiveness. Bergmann's rule and the CVH were supported, but Rapoport's rule was not. More variance in the data for Bergmann's rule and the CVH was explained using species belonging to the L. boulengeri series rather than all species, and inclusion of multiple outgroups tended to obscure these macroecological patterns. Evidence for Bergmann's rule and the predicted patterns from the CVH remained after application of phylogenetic comparative methods, indicating a greater role of ecological processes rather than phylogeny in shaping the current species distributions of these lizards.     

Alternatives to the Chi-Square Test of Homogeneity in 2×2 Tables and to Fisher's Exact Test

In comparing two independent binomial proportions by modified X² tests: Gart's modified likelihood-ratio, Overall and Starbuck's “tailored F”, Pearson's adjusted X²[=X² multiplied by (n - 1)/n] and its skewness-corrected version proposed by Berchtold, it was found that the last two have error probabilities that in the mean are close to the significance level.     

German law on circumcision and its debate: How an ethical and legal issue turned political

The article aims to illuminate the recent debate in Germany about the legitimacy of circumcision for religious reasons. The aim is both to evaluate the new German law allowing religious circumcision, and to outline the resulting conflict between the surrounding ethical and legal issues. We first elucidate the diversity of legal and medical views on religious circumcision in Germany. Next we examine to what extent invasive and irreversible physical interventions on infant boys unable to given their consent should be carried out for non‐medical reasons. To this end, the potential benefits and harms of circumcision for non‐medical reasons are compared. We argue that circumcision does not provide any benefits for the ‘child as a child’ and poses only risks to boys. We then set out to clarify and analyse political (rather than ethical) justifications of the new circumcision law. We demonstrate through this analysis how the circumcision debate in Germany has been transformed from a legal and ethical problem into a political issue, due at least in part to Germany's unique historical context. Although such a particular political sensibility is entirely comprehensible, it raises particular problems when it comes to framing and responding to medical ethical issues – as in the case of religious circumcision.     

何氏益气养血补肾方治疗气血亏虚型类风湿关节炎并血液系统受累患者的效果分析

摘要 目的：探讨何氏益气养血补肾方治疗气血亏虚型类风湿关节炎并血液系统受累患者的治疗效果。方法：选取我院2020年10月到2022年10月收治的60例气血亏虚型类风湿关节炎并血液系统受累患者作为研究对象,分为观察组与对照组,每组30例。对照组采取常规本病治疗与对症治疗,观察组采取何氏益气养血补肾方与本病治疗,对比两组患者临床疗效,治疗前后中医证候积分变化,血红蛋白（Hb）、白细胞计数（WBC）、超敏C反应蛋白（hsCRP）及血沉（ESR）相关血液指标水平变化,CD4⁺、CD3⁺、CD4⁺/ CD8⁺相关T淋巴细胞亚群水平变化,并应用谷丙转氨酶（ALT）表达水平、谷草转氨酶（AST）评价患者治疗前后肝功能,应用血肌酐（Scr）、尿素氮(BUN)来评价患者肾功能变化。结果：观察组总有效率为93.33%明显高于对照组总有效率86.66%（P<0.05）;治疗后,两组患者神疲乏力、心悸气短、自汗、头晕眼花、怕冷、睡眠障碍相关中医证候积分均降低,且观察组低于对照组（P＜0.05）;治疗后两组患者Hb、WBC升高,观察组较对照组高,ESR、hsCRP降低,且观察组低于对照组（P＜0.05）;治疗后两组患者CD4⁺、CD3⁺和CD4⁺/ CD8⁺数值均升高,且观察组高于对照组（P＜0.05）;治疗后两组患者ALT、AST水平无明显变化,但两组患者SCr、BUN水平降低,观察组低于对照组（P＜0.05）。结论：何氏益气养血补肾方治疗气血亏虚型类风湿关节炎并血液系统受累疗效显著,可改善患者相关中医症状,提升血红蛋白和白细胞计数,提高患者免疫功能,且不对肝肾功能造成损伤,能够轻度提升患者肾功能水平,值得临床应用推广。