Reexamination of paternal age effect in Down's syndrome

Summary Paternal age distribution for 1279 cases of Down's syndrome born in 1952–1968 was compared with the corresponding distribution for the general population, corrected for the maternal age as well as for the year of birth of the patients. Although there was no difference in the mean paternal age, the two distributions differed significantly, largely due to the excess of fathers aged 55 years and over and to the deficit of those aged 40–44 years in the patients born to mothers aged 30 years and over. The overall pattern of the relative incidence of Down's syndrome with advancing paternal age, with maternal age controlled, seems consistent with the hypothesis proposed by Stene et al. (1977). It increased from 0.8 for fathers aged 20–24 years slowly up to 1.2 for those aged 45–49 years, though with an intermediate drop to 0.8 at the age of 40–44 years, and then sharply to 2.4 for those aged 55 years and over. This rising pattern of the relative incidence with paternal age was essentially the same for the patients born in 1952–1960 and for those born in 1961–1968, although the slope was less steep in the latter than in the former group.This paper is dedicated to Professor Heinrich Schade in honor of his 70th birthday     

On estimating penetrance of the retinoblastoma gene

Summary Centrometric fission of chromosome 10 is reported in a 25-year-old psychiatric patient and his 51/2-year-old normal daughter. The relevant literature on this subject is briefly reviewed.     

The galactan sulfate from the edible,red alga Porphyra columbina

A galactan sulfate has been isolated from the seaweed Porphyra columbina, and its structure established by a combination of methylation, methanolysis, treatment with alkali followed by methylation, and ¹³C-n.m.r. spectroscopy. The polysaccharide belongs to the porphyran class, and consists of 3-linked β-d-galactosyl residues and 4-linked α-l-galactosyl residues. 3,6-Anhydro-l-galactose and l-galactose 6-sulfate residues total approximately half of the sugar units, the other half being made up of d-galactose and 6-O-methyl-d-galactose residues. Some evidence is presented that suggests that the galactan sulfate does not have a completely alternating structure.     

Contrasting Patterns in the Early Stage of SARS-CoV-2 Evolution between Humans and Minks

One of the unique features of SARS-CoV-2 is its apparent neutral evolution during the early pandemic (before February 2020). This contrasts with the preceding SARS-CoV epidemics, where viruses evolved adaptively. SARS-CoV-2 may exhibit a unique or adaptive feature which deviates from other coronaviruses. Alternatively, the virus may have been cryptically circulating in humans for a sufficient time to have acquired adaptive changes before the onset of the current pandemic. To test the scenarios above, we analyzed the SARS-CoV-2 sequences from minks (Neovision vision) and parental humans. In the early phase of the mink epidemic (April to May 2020), nonsynonymous to synonymous mutation ratio per site in the spike protein is 2.93, indicating a selection process favoring adaptive amino acid changes. Mutations in the spike protein were concentrated within its receptor-binding domain and receptor-binding motif. An excess of high-frequency derived variants produced by genetic hitchhiking was found during the middle (June to July 2020) and late phase I (August to September 2020) of the mink epidemic. In contrast, the site frequency spectra of early SARS-CoV-2 in humans only show an excess of low-frequency mutations, consistent with the recent outbreak of the virus. Strong positive selection in the mink SARS-CoV-2 implies that the virus may not be preadapted to a wide range of hosts and illustrates how a virus evolves to establish a continuous infection in a new host. Therefore, the lack of positive selection signal during the early pandemic in humans deserves further investigation.     

Late Quaternary Environmental and Human Impacts on the Mitochondrial DNA Diversity of Four Commensal Rodents in Myanmar

Journal of Mammalian Evolution - We addressed the spatiotemporal characteristics of four commensal rodent species occurring in Myanmar in comparison with other areas of the Indo-Malayan region. We...     

Malaria Burden and Artemisinin Resistance in the Mobile and Migrant Population on the Thai–Myanmar Border, 1999–2011: An Observational Study

Background

The Shoklo Malaria Research Unit has been working on the Thai–Myanmar border for 25 y providing early diagnosis and treatment (EDT) of malaria. Transmission of Plasmodium falciparum has declined, but resistance to artesunate has emerged. We expanded malaria activities through EDT and evaluated the impact over a 12-y period.

Methods and Findings

Between 1 October 1999 and 30 September 2011, the Shoklo Malaria Research Unit increased the number of cross-border (Myanmar side) health facilities from two to 11 and recorded the number of malaria consultations. Changes in malaria incidence were estimated from a cohort of pregnant women, and prevalence from cross-sectional surveys. In vivo and in vitro antimalarial drug efficacy were monitored. Over this period, the number of malaria cases detected increased initially, but then declined rapidly. In children under 5 y, the percentage of consultations due to malaria declined from 78% (95% CI 76–80) (1,048/1,344 consultations) to 7% (95% CI 6.2–7.1) (767/11,542 consultations), p<0.001. The ratio of P. falciparum/P. vivax declined from 1.4 (95% CI 1.3–1.4) to 0.7 (95% CI 0.7–0.8). The case fatality rate was low (39/75,126; 0.05% [95% CI 0.04–0.07]). The incidence of malaria declined from 1.1 to 0.1 episodes per pregnant women-year. The cumulative proportion of P. falciparum decreased significantly from 24.3% (95% CI 21.0–28.0) (143/588 pregnant women) to 3.4% (95% CI 2.8–4.3) (76/2,207 pregnant women), p<0.001. The in vivo efficacy of mefloquine-artesunate declined steadily, with a sharp drop in 2011 (day-42 PCR-adjusted cure rate 42% [95% CI 20–62]). The proportion of patients still slide positive for malaria at day 3 rose from 0% in 2000 to reach 28% (95% CI 13–45) (8/29 patients) in 2011.

Conclusions

Despite the emergence of resistance to artesunate in P. falciparum, the strategy of EDT with artemisinin-based combination treatments has been associated with a reduction in malaria in the migrant population living on the Thai–Myanmar border. Although limited by its observational nature, this study provides useful data on malaria burden in a strategically crucial geographical area. Alternative fixed combination treatments are needed urgently to replace the failing first-line regimen of mefloquine and artesunate. Please see later in the article for the Editors'' Summary     

A continuation method for spatially discretized models with nonlocal interactions conserving size and shape of cells and lattices

Journal of Mathematical Biology - In this paper, we introduce a continuation method for the spatially discretized models, while conserving the size and shape of the cells and lattices. This...     

Effects of constant and fluctuating temperatures on development of the coconut hispine beetle,Brontispa longissima (Coleoptera: Chrysomelidae) and two species of parasitoid

Abstract

The larval parasitoid Asecodes hispinarum Bou?ek has been used to control the coconut hispine beetle, Brontispa longissima (Gestro) in Vietnam. Although A. hispinarum has succeeded in suppressing B. longissima in southern Vietnam, biocontrol has not succeeded in central Vietnam. One factor underlying this failure might be the high temperature during the hot season. In the present work, we examined whether A. hispinarum parasitises the beetles within the range of temperatures that occur during the hot season in central Vietnam and we evaluated the potential use of the pupal parasitoid Tetrastichus brontispae Ferrière. Development of the beetle and two parasitoids was investigated at two constant temperatures (28 and 30°C) and at fluctuating temperatures from 25 to 35°C (corresponding to temperatures during the hot season in central Vietnam). B. longissima reached adulthood in all the temperature treatments. More than 70% of A. hispinarum emerged from hosts at 28°C, but none emerged at 30°C or under fluctuating temperature conditions, indicating that A. hispinarum cannot be used as a biological control agent in central Vietnam. However, T. brontispae could reproduce the next generation at all temperatures. These results suggest that T. brontispae is a potential agent for continuous biological control of B. longissima in central Vietnam.     

The rattan trade of Northern Myanmar: Species, supplies, and sustainability

Although Myanmar exports millions of dollars of rattan cane each year, the last systematic treatment of rattans in this country was done over 100 years ago, and virtually nothing has been written about the collection and trade of this important forest resource. Here we report the results from a study of rattans in the Hukaung Valley Tiger Reserve in northern Myanmar. A total of 15 species of rattan were encountered; seven species are new records for Myanmar and two species are new to science. Inventory transects revealed that the density of commercial rattans in local forests averages 40.5 canes ≽4m long/hectare. Populations of all species appear to be actively regenerating. The current pattern of rattan exploitation, however, is largely uncontrolled and will eventually lead to resource depletion unless some form of management is implemented.