‘O father: where art thou?’— Paternity assessment in an open fission–fusion society of wild bottlenose dolphins (Tursiops sp.) in Shark Bay,Western Australia

Sexually mature male bottlenose dolphins in Shark Bay cooperate by pursuing distinct alliance strategies to monopolize females in reproductive condition. We present the results of a comprehensive study in a wild cetacean population to test whether male alliance membership is a prerequisite for reproductive success. We compared two methods for inferring paternity: both calculate a likelihood ratio, called the paternity index, between two opposing hypotheses, but they differ in the way that significance is applied to the data. The first method, a Bayesian approach commonly used in human paternity testing, appeared to be overly conservative for our data set, but would be less susceptible to assumptions if a larger number of microsatellite loci had been used. Using the second approach, the computer program cervus 2.0, we successfully assigned 11 paternities to nine males, and 17 paternities to 14 out of 139 sexually mature males at 95% and 80% confidence levels, respectively. It appears that being a member of a bottlenose dolphin alliance is not a prerequisite for paternity: two paternities were obtained by juvenile males (one at the 95%, the other at the 80% confidence level), suggesting that young males without alliance partners pursue different mating tactics to adults. Likelihood analyses showed that these two juvenile males were significantly more likely to be the true father of the offspring than to be their half-sibling (P < 0.05). Using paternity data at an 80% confidence level, we could show that reproductive success was significantly skewed within at least some stable first-order alliances (P < 0.01). Interestingly, there is powerful evidence that one mating was incestuous, with one calf apparently fathered by its mother's father (P < 0.01). Our study suggests that the reproductive success of both allied males, and of nonallied juveniles, needs to be incorporated into an adaptive framework that seeks to explain alliance formation in male bottlenose dolphins.     

Cytogenetic implications of artificial hybrids between the hawaiian silversword alliance and North American tarweeds (Asteraceae: Heliantheae—Madiinae)

Two vigorous transoceanic, bigeneric hybrids, Dubautia laevigata (n = 14) × Raillardiopsis muirii (n = 8) and [Dubautia knudsenii × laxa] (n = 14) × Madia bolanderi (n = 6), and one vigorous transoceanic trigeneric hybrid, Dubautia scabra (n = 14) × [M. bolanderi × R. muirii], between mainland tarweeds and Hawaiian silversword allies were artificially produced and subjected to cytogenetic analysis. In addition to univalents, ≈46–80% of the microsporocytes scored from these hybrids exhibited from one to four bivalents. However, some of the bivalents scored in the second bigeneric hybrid represented infragenomic association of Dubautia chromosomes. Stainable pollen of these hybrids ranged from 4.4 to 49%, mostly comprising large, tetracolporate, apparently diploid grains. The functionality of such grains was demonstrated in the primary hybrid M. bolanderi × R. muirii that was used to produce the trigeneric hybrid, and suggests the possible mode of origin of the Hawaiian genome via allopolyploidy. Illustrations of parents and F₁s indicate that the hybrids produced in this study generally exhibit intermediate character states. However, the phenotypes of the “ray” flowers in hybrids between discoid and radiate species were noticeably unpredictable; in one case intermediacy appeared to be expressed largely in quantitative terms, while in two others intermediacy appeared to be expressed largely in qualitative terms.     

TRUSTED CONSENT AND RESEARCH BIOBANKS: TOWARDS A ‘NEW ALLIANCE’ BETWEEN RESEARCHERS AND DONORS

We argue that, in the case of research biobanks, there is a need to replace the currently used informed consent with trusted consent. Accordingly, we introduce a proposal for the structure of the latter. Further, we discuss some of the issues that can be addressed effectively through our proposal. In particular, we illustrate: i) which research should be authorized by donors; ii) how to regulate access to information; iii) the fundamental role played by a Third Party Authority in assuring compliance with the reciprocal expectations and obligations of donors and scientists. Finally, we briefly analyse two issues that might represent important elements of a ‘new alliance’ between researchers and donors to which the trusted consent could pave the way: i) the correlations between needs and rights of the two parties, and ii) possible economic transactions.     

ROCCIPI框架下区域医疗联合体的问题识别与分析

我国割裂的医疗服务体系和碎片化服务已经严重阻碍了医改成效，区域医疗联合体孕育而生并成为弥合割裂的战略选择。但医疗联合体并非“一联就灵”，也面临着一些困难和问题。文章以ROCCIPI技术为分析框架，系统全面地识别区域医疗联合体发展中存在的问题，并提出改进策略，为区域医疗联合体实践提供参考。     

基于远程医疗的异地转诊就医一体化实践探索

为探索借助远程医疗解决异地转诊就医一体化的问题，为异地转诊就医患者提供医疗保障。某医院成立专科疾病医联体，借助远程医疗对异地转诊就医患者提供医疗服务，总结某医院借助远程医疗，以专科疾病医联体进行精准转诊、异地就医，提供医疗保障的实践经验。某医院借助远程医疗，以专科疾病医联体为抓手，制定了精准转诊的规章制度，为异地就医患者提供了更加方便快捷的服务，同时降低了医疗费用，节省了医疗基金的开支，实践效果显著。借助远程医疗，成立专科疾病医联体，可以很好的实现患者精准转诊、精准医疗，解决异地就诊患者“看病难、看病贵”问题，为异地就医患者提供更好的医疗保障，助推实现全国异地就医一体化的大健康战略。     

The importance of the Mexican taxa of Asteraceae in the family phylogeny

Asteraceae is the largest plant family in México with about 417 genera and 3113 species, and with more than 60% of them being endemic. Phylogenetic relationships at subfamily and tribal levels have been previously resolved employing both nuclear and plastid molecular markers. However, Asteraceae species native to Mexico have been underrepresented in such phylogenies. To tackle this issue, the taxon sampling of this study included 90 Asteraceae species native to México, four species from the Caribbean, 119 previously sequenced species, and six outgroups. With this sampling, all the Asteraceae subfamilies and all of the tribes recognized to date are represented. The analyzed dataset consisted of eleven chloroplast markers (atpB, matK, ndhC, ndhD, ndhF, ndhI, ndhJ, ndhK, rbcL, trnL-trnF, and 23S-trnA). We present two phylogenetic reconstructions obtained by maximum likelihood and pseudocoalescent methods. Besides, we present a time-calibrated phylogeny, which is used to infer the best configuration of diversification rate shifts. Our results show that Mexican species are distributed mainly in the subfamily Asteroideae (80 species), followed by Cichorioideae (6 species), Carduoideae (2 species), and Mutisioideae (2 species). Four net diversification rate shifts were found: One near the base of the tree and four within Asteroideae subfamily. Our extended sampling of the family with the representation of native species to Mexico allowed us to identify important events in the evolutionary history of the family.