When breeding, male moor frogs Rana arvalis develop a bright blue dorsal coloration which varies in intensity between males. We tested whether this colour acts as a potential signal of a male's ...genetic quality to female moor frogs by artificially crossing pairs of males differing in the extent of the blue coloration to the same female. Maternal half‐sibships provide a powerful means to detect paternal genetic effects on offspring as they control for other potentially confounding variables. We assayed the ability of offspring to survive an ecologically realistic test of fitness by exposing them to predation by the larvae of the predatory water beetle Dytiscus marginalis. Although sire's coloration did not influence tadpole body size, it did affect their ability to survive the predation trial. Offspring of bright blue males had higher survival than those of dull males when exposed to large predators, which were more voracious predators than smaller ones. Our results indicate that paternal secondary sexual traits provide information about genetic effects on offspring fitness in this species, but suggest that these effects may be context‐dependent. Variable selection caused by contextual dependence may have important consequences for the evolution of female choice rules, and for the maintenance of genetic variation for both male trait and female preference.
The French population of the Bonelli's eagle Aquila fasciata has suffered a sharp decline over the last decades, resulting in the implementation of several conservation actions since 1990. In ...parallel, a capture–recapture (CR) program has been conducted to monitor the population. Field practitioners suspected that certain breeding sites were responsible for most of the adult deaths and were interested in confirming this hypothesis in order to focus their actions on these particular sites. Our study sought to determine whether there was indeed a quantifiable difference in the quality of the eagle's breeding sites. Since Bonelli's eagles are highly faithful to their breeding site, we tested whether the turnover of breeding individuals observed at different sites resulted from a mixture of two different turnover rates. We also used the recent multi‐event CR modeling approach to test whether or not we could detect adult survival heterogeneity in the population. Our study revealed that there was a difference in breeding‐site quality a decade ago, before large efforts were made to insulate high‐voltage power lines, but failed to detect a difference in breeding‐site quality more recently. No survival heterogeneity was detected. These counterintuitive results could be due to a lack of statistical power or because the conservation actions performed over the last 20 years cloud the issue. When no a priori information is available on habitat quality differences, we advocate for the use of a mixture modeling approach since it is consistent and fairly general.
Western European populations of red‐crested pochard (Netta rufina) are characterized by low size and high fragmentation, which accentuate their sensitivity to hunting. Uncertainties regarding the ...demographic trends of these populations highlight the need for pertinent hunting regulations. This requires identification of the limits of the populations under exploitation, i.e. delimiting a management unit. We used the left domain of the mitochondrial control region and seven nuclear loci (four microsatellites and three introns) to assess the level of genetic structure and demographic independence between the fragmented Western European and the large Central Asian populations. The second objective was to investigate the colonization history of the Western European populations. This study demonstrated that the Western European populations of red‐crested pochard constitute a separate demographic conservation unit relative to the Asian population as a result of very low female dispersal (mitochondrial DNA: ΦST = 0.152). A morphometric analysis further suggested that Central Asian and Western European specimens of both sexes originate from different pools of individuals. Male dispersal seems higher than female dispersal, as suggested by the lack of clear genetic structure for the nuclear markers at this continental scale. Genetic data, in conjunction with historical demographic data, indicate that the current Western European populations probably originate from a recent colonization from Central Asia. As numbers of red‐crested pochards in Western Europe cannot be efficiently supplemented by immigration from the larger Asian populations, a management plan regulating the harvest in Western Europe is required.
The ALICE experiment at the LHC Crochet, P.
The European physical journal. ST, Special topics,
08/2008, Letnik:
162, Številka:
1
Journal Article
Recenzirano
After a general introduction on the Quark Gluon Plasma and a short overview of the experimental results obtained so far with heavy-ion collisions at the SPS and at the RHIC, the physics goals of the ...ALICE experiment at the LHC are presented.
We present measurements of the excitation function of elliptic flow at midrapidity in Au+Au collisions at beam energies from 0.09 to 1.49 GeV per nucleon. For the integral flow, we discuss the ...interplay between collective expansion and spectator shadowing for three centrality classes. A complete excitation function of transverse momentum dependence of elliptic flow is presented for the first time in this energy range, revealing a rapid change with incident energy below 0.4 AGeV, followed by an almost perfect scaling at the higher energies. The equation of state of compressed nuclear matter is addressed through comparisons to microscopic transport model calculations.
.
The production of K
+
, K
-
and
(1020) mesons is studied in Al+Al collisions at a beam energy of 1.9A GeV which is close to or below the production threshold in NN reactions. Inverse slopes, ...anisotropy parameters, and total emission yields of K
±
mesons are obtained. A comparison of the ratio of kinetic energy distributions of K
-
and K
+
mesons to the HSD transport model calculations suggests that the inclusion of the in-medium modifications of kaon properties is necessary to reproduce the ratio. The inverse slope and total yield of
mesons are deduced. The contribution to K
-
production from
meson decays is found to be
%. The results are in line with the previous K
±
and
data obtained for different colliding systems at similar incident beam energies.
The management of endometrial carcinoma is constantly evolving. The SFOG and the CNGOF decided to jointly update the previous French recommendations (Institut national du cancer 2011) and to adapt to ...the French practice the 2015 recommendations elaborated at the time of joint European consensus conference with the participation of the three concerned European societies (ESGO, ESTRO, ESMO).
A strict methodology was used. A steering committee was put together. A systematic review of the literature since 2011 has been carried out. A first draft of the recommendations has been elaborated, with emphasis on high level of evidence. An external review by users representing all the concerned discipines and all kinds of practice was completed. Three hundred and four comments were sent by 54 reviewers.
The management of endometrial carcinoma requires a precise preoperative workup. A provisional estimate of the final stage is provided. This estimation impact the level of surgical staging. Surgery should use a minimal invasive approach. The final pathology is the key of the decision concerning adjuvant therapy, which involves surveillance, radiation therapy, brachytherapy, or chemotherapy.
The management algorithms allow a fast, state of the art based, answer to the clinical questions raised by the management of endometrial cancer. They must be used only in the setting of a multidisciplinary team at all stages of the management.
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