An increasing amount of evidence indicates that different forms
of environmental stress influence
the expression of genetic variance in quantitative traits and, consequently,
their evolvability. We
...investigated the causal components of phenotypic variance and natural selection
on the body
condition index (a trait often related to fitness in wild bird populations)
of blue tit (Parus
caeruleus) nestlings under contrasting environmental conditions. In
three different study years,
nestlings grown under a poor feeding regime attained lower body condition
than their full-sibs
grown under a good feeding regime. Genetic influences on condition were
large and significant in
both feeding regimes, and in all three study years. However, although estimates
of additive genetic
variance were consistently higher in the poor than in the good environment,
heritability estimates
for body condition index were very similar in both environments due to
higher levels of
environmental variance in the poor environment. Evidence for weak genotype×environment
interactions was obtained, but these contributed little to variance in
nestling condition. Directional
natural selection on fledging condition of nestlings was detected, and
there were no indications of
year or environmental effects on the form and intensity of selection observed,
in a sample of 3659
nestlings over four years. However, selection on fledging condition was
very weak (standardized
selection gradient, β=0·027±0·016 SE),
suggesting that, in the current population, the large
additive genetic component to fledging condition is not particularly surprising.
The results of these
analyses are contrasted with those obtained for other populations and species
with similar life-histories.
The effect of interventions on the conformity of physicians with guidelines for the appropriate use of antimicrobial prophylaxis in obstetric and gynecologic surgery is reported. Guidelines on the ...appropriate use of antimicrobial prophylaxis in common obstetric and gynecologic surgical procedures were developed in late 1986 by the antibiotic subcommittee at a 1100-bed tertiary-care teaching facility. The guidelines were not adopted immediately by the department of obstetrics and gynecology (OB-GYN). An audit of the medical records of women who had received antimicrobial therapy for abdominal and vaginal hysterectomies and emergency cesarean sections during January through March 1987 showed that cefoxitin was used in 68% of the cases instead of the less expensive and equally efficacious cefazolin as recommended in the guidelines. The projected annual cost of this nonconformity was $26,500. After the subcommittee informed the physicians about the guidelines and the audit results, the OB-GYN department adopted the guidelines. A second audit performed one year later showed that cefazolin was used in the recommended manner in 93% of cases; projected annual cost savings were $25,000. Both audits showed that prophylactic treatment was inappropriately prolonged in 6% of cases. Substantial cost savings were realized by minimizing inappropriate antimicrobial drug use through efforts to promote rational and cost-effective therapy.
The alteration of lipid bilayer dynamics by phloretin and 6-ketocholestanol Przybylo, M; J. ProcekauthorLaboratory for Biophysics of Lipid Aggregates, Institute of Biomedical Engineering and Instrumentation, Wroclaw University of Technology, pl. Grunwaldzki 13, 50-377 Wroclaw, Poland; M. HofauthorJ. Heyrovsky Institute of Physical Chemistry, Academy of Sciences of the Czech Republic, v.v.i., Dolejkova 3, Prague 182 23, Czech Republic ...
2015
Journal Article
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