The relation between cartilage biomarkers (C2C,C1,2C,CS846, and CPII) and the long-term outcome of rheumatoid arthritis patients within the CAMERA trial

Introduction  

The aim of this study was to investigate whether serum biomarker levels of C2C, C1,2C, CS846, and CPII can predict the long-term course of disease activity and radiographic progression early in the disease course of rheumatoid arthritis (RA).     

Individual differences in the ability to recognise facial identity are associated with social anxiety

Previous research has been concerned with the relationship between social anxiety and the recognition of face expression but the question of whether there is a relationship between social anxiety and the recognition of face identity has been neglected. Here, we report the first evidence that social anxiety is associated with recognition of face identity, across the population range of individual differences in recognition abilities. Results showed poorer face identity recognition (on the Cambridge Face Memory Test) was correlated with a small but significant increase in social anxiety (Social Interaction Anxiety Scale) but not general anxiety (State-Trait Anxiety Inventory). The correlation was also independent of general visual memory (Cambridge Car Memory Test) and IQ. Theoretically, the correlation could arise because correct identification of people, typically achieved via faces, is important for successful social interactions, extending evidence that individuals with clinical-level deficits in face identity recognition (prosopagnosia) often report social stress due to their inability to recognise others. Equally, the relationship could arise if social anxiety causes reduced exposure or attention to people's faces, and thus to poor development of face recognition mechanisms.     

Reconsidering null models of diversity: Do geometric constraints on species ranges necessarily cause a mid‐domain effect?

Recent null models that place species ranges randomly within a bounded domain have produced controversial results. Many such geometric constraint models predict a peak in species richness in the centre of domains in the absence of underlying environmental gradients or interspecific interactions. We used two-dimensional simulation models to explore different ways that species ranges could interact with the domain boundary. In the rejection model, a randomly generated range that overlaps a domain boundary is removed from the simulation. In the reshaping model, a range that overlaps the domain boundary is reshaped so that the entire range is placed within the domain. The truncation model allows potential ranges to extend across the boundary, but only that portion of the range within the domain is included in the realized range. Both rejection and reshaping models produced a drop in species richness near domain boundaries, though the effect was less pronounced in the reshaping model. Our truncation model did not produce any spatial pattern in species richness. Thus the random placement of species ranges within a bounded domain does not necessarily lead to a mid-domain effect.
  Range truncation is consistent with bioclimate envelope models, which can successfully predict a species range in response to the availability of appropriate climate conditions. We argue that such flexible range sizes are more realistic than the assumption that range size is an unvarying characteristic of a species. Other range characteristics, including size and shape, can change near domain boundaries in the null models, including the truncation model. A broader consideration of range characteristics near domain boundaries could be productive.     

A Robust Method of Measuring Other-Race and Other-Ethnicity Effects: The Cambridge Face Memory Test Format

Other-race and other-ethnicity effects on face memory have remained a topic of consistent research interest over several decades, across fields including face perception, social psychology, and forensic psychology (eyewitness testimony). Here we demonstrate that the Cambridge Face Memory Test format provides a robust method for measuring these effects. Testing the Cambridge Face Memory Test original version (CFMT-original; European-ancestry faces from Boston USA) and a new Cambridge Face Memory Test Chinese (CFMT-Chinese), with European and Asian observers, we report a race-of-face by race-of-observer interaction that was highly significant despite modest sample size and despite observers who had quite high exposure to the other race. We attribute this to high statistical power arising from the very high internal reliability of the tasks. This power also allows us to demonstrate a much smaller within-race other ethnicity effect, based on differences in European physiognomy between Boston faces/observers and Australian faces/observers (using the CFMT-Australian).     

Effect of temperature on seed production in the invasive grass Glyceria maxima (Hartm.) Holmb. (Poaceae) in South Africa

Temperature is one of the main factors that determine sexual reproduction in terrestrial and emergent aquatic plant species. The effect of temperature on sexual reproduction and seed production of Glyceria maxima (Hartm.) Holmb. in the southern hemisphere is unknown. Glyceria maxima collections in February 2010 at three isolated infestations in KwaZulu-Natal failed to yield a single seed, only empty panicles. Laboratory experiments showed that vernalisation had no consistent effect on seed production. Field- and laboratory-grown plants produced seeds in the 2010/2011 season, because of having sufficient time at optimum temperatures required for seed production (1 491 and 1 585 hours, respectively), compared to a shorter period (1 352 hours) of suitable temperatures during the 2009/2010 growing season. An inadequate period of optimum temperatures (15–25°C) during seed production resulted in the lack of seeds in the field in the 2009/2010 growing season. This study showed that temperature and duration of exposure thereto during the seed-production period play vital roles in G. maxima sexual reproduction.     

Marmoset phylogenetics, conservation perspectives, and evolution of the mtDNA control region

Marmosets (genus Callithrix) are a diverse group of platyrrhine primates with 13-15 purported taxa, many of them considered endangered. Morphological analyses constitute most of the basis for recognition of these forms as distinct taxa. The purpose of this study was to provide a molecular view, based on mitochondrial control region sequences, of the evolutionary history of the marmosets, concomitant with a molecular phylogenetic perspective on species diversity within the group. An additional purpose was to provide the first comparative examination of a complete New World monkey control region sequence with those of other mammals. The phylogenetic analyses provide convincing support for a split between the Atlantic forest and Amazonian marmosets, with the inclusion of the pygmy marmoset (Cebuella pygmaea) at the base of the Amazonian clade. The earliest branch of the Atlantic forest group was C. aurita. In the Amazonian group, the analyses do not support the recognition of C. humeralifer and the recently described C mauesi as distinct taxa. They do, however, support a clear distinction between C. argentata and a strongly supported mixed clade of C. humeralifer and C. mauesi. In the Atlantic forest group, the phylogenetic tree suggests mixing between C. penicillata, C. kuhli, and possibly C. jacchus. Most of the sequence features characteristic of other mammal control regions were also evident in marmosets, with the exception that conserved sequence blocks (CSBs) 2 and 3 were not clearly identifiable. Tandem repeat units often associated with heteroplasmy in a variety of other mammals were not evident in the marmoset sequences.      

Persistent nuclear ribosomal DNA sequence polymorphism in the Amelanchier agamic complex (Rosaceae)

Individual plants of several Amelanchier taxa contain many polymorphic nucleotide sites in the internal transcribed spacers (ITS) of nuclear ribosomal DNA (nrDNA). This polymorphism is unusual because it is not recent in origin and thus has resisted homogenization by concerted evolution. Amelanchier ITS sequence polymorphism is hypothesized to be the result of gene flow between two major North American clades resolved by phylogenetic analysis of ITS sequences. Western North American species plus A. humilis and A. sanguinea of eastern North America form one clade (A), and the remaining eastern North American Amelanchier make up clade B. Five eastern North American taxa are polymorphic at many of the nucleotide sites where clades A and B have diverged and are thought to be of hybrid origin, with A. humilis or A. sanguinea as one parent and various members of clade B as the other parent. Morphological evidence suggests that A. humilis is one of the parents of one of the polymorphic taxa, a microspecies that we refer to informally as A. "erecta." Sequences of 21 cloned copies of the ITS1- 5.8S gene-ITS2 region from one A. "erecta" individual are identical to A. humilis sequence or to the clade B consensus sequence, or they are apparent recombinants of A. humilis and clade B ITS repeats. Amelanchier "erecta" and another polymorphic taxon are suspected to be relatively old because both grow several hundred kilometers beyond the range of one of their parents. ITS sequence polymorphisms have apparently persisted in these two taxa perhaps because of polyploidy and/or agamospermy (asexual seed production), which are prevalent in the genus.