Homology-a similar trait shared by different species and derived from common ancestry, such as a seal's fin and a bird's wing-is one of the most fundamental yet challenging concepts in evolutionary ...biology. This groundbreaking book provides the first mechanistically based theory of what homology is and how it arises in evolution.
Günter Wagner, one of the preeminent researchers in the field, argues that homology, or character identity, can be explained through the historical continuity of character identity networks-that is, the gene regulatory networks that enable differential gene expression. He shows how character identity is independent of the form and function of the character itself because the same network can activate different effector genes and thus control the development of different shapes, sizes, and qualities of the character. Demonstrating how this theoretical model can provide a foundation for understanding the evolutionary origin of novel characters, Wagner applies it to the origin and evolution of specific systems, such as cell types; skin, hair, and feathers; limbs and digits; and flowers.
The first major synthesis of homology to be published in decades,Homology, Genes, and Evolutionary Innovationreveals how a mechanistically based theory can serve as a unifying concept for any branch of science concerned with the structure and development of organisms, and how it can help explain major transitions in evolution and broad patterns of biological diversity.
The evidence‐ and consensus‐based guideline on atopic eczema was developed in accordance with the EuroGuiDerm Guideline and Consensus Statement Development Manual. Four consensus conferences were ...held between December 2020 and July 2021. Twenty‐nine experts (including clinicians and patient representatives) from 12 European countries participated. This first part of the guideline includes general information on its scope and purpose, the health questions covered, target users and a methods section. It also provides guidance on which patients should be treated with systemic therapies, as well as recommendations and detailed information on each systemic drug. The systemic treatment options discussed in the guideline comprise conventional immunosuppressive drugs (azathioprine, ciclosporin, glucocorticosteroids, methotrexate and mycophenolate mofetil), biologics (dupilumab, lebrikizumab, nemolizumab, omalizumab and tralokinumab) and janus kinase inhibitors (abrocitinib, baricitinib and upadacitinib). Part two of the guideline will address avoidance of provocation factors, dietary interventions, immunotherapy, complementary medicine, educational interventions, occupational and psychodermatological aspects, patient perspective and considerations for paediatric, adolescent, pregnant and breastfeeding patients.
Bacteria living on and in leaves and roots influence many aspects of plant health, so the extent of a plant's genetic control over its microbiota is of great interest to crop breeders and ...evolutionary biologists. Laboratory-based studies, because they poorly simulate true environmental heterogeneity, may misestimate or totally miss the influence of certain host genes on the microbiome. Here we report a large-scale field experiment to disentangle the effects of genotype, environment, age and year of harvest on bacterial communities associated with leaves and roots of Boechera stricta (Brassicaceae), a perennial wild mustard. Host genetic control of the microbiome is evident in leaves but not roots, and varies substantially among sites. Microbiome composition also shifts as plants age. Furthermore, a large proportion of leaf bacterial groups are shared with roots, suggesting inoculation from soil. Our results demonstrate how genotype-by-environment interactions contribute to the complexity of microbiome assembly in natural environments.
We present ground-based and Swift photometric and spectroscopic observations of the candidate tidal disruption event (TDE) ASASSN-14li, found at the centre of PGC 043234 (d ... 90 Mpc) by the All-Sky ...Automated Survey for SuperNovae (ASAS-SN). The source had a peak bolometric luminosity of ... and a total integrated energy of ... erg radiated over the ~6 months of observations presented. The UV/optical emission of the source is well fitted by a blackbody with roughly constant temperature of T ... 35,000 K, while the luminosity declines by roughly a factor of 16 over this time. The optical/UV luminosity decline is broadly consistent with an exponential decline, ..., with t0 ... 60 d. ASASSN-14li also exhibits soft X-ray emission comparable in luminosity to the optical and UV emission but declining at a slower rate, and the X-ray emission now dominates. Spectra of the source show broad Balmer and helium lines in emission as well as strong blue continuum emission at all epochs. We use the discoveries of ASASSN-14li and ASASSN-14ae to estimate the TDE rate implied by ASAS-SN, finding an average rate of ... per galaxy with a 90 per cent confidence interval of ... per galaxy. ASAS-SN found roughly 1 TDE for every 70 Type Ia supernovae in 2014, a rate that is much higher than that of other surveys. (ProQuest: ... denotes formulae/symbols omitted.)
The evidence‐ and consensus‐based guideline on atopic eczema was developed in accordance with the EuroGuiDerm Guideline and Consensus Statement Development Manual. Four consensus conferences were ...held between December 2020 and July 2021. Twenty‐nine experts (including clinicians and patient representatives) from 12 European countries participated. This second part of the guideline includes recommendations and detailed information on basic therapy with emollients and moisturizers, topical anti‐inflammatory treatment, antimicrobial and antipruritic treatment and UV phototherapy. Furthermore, this part of the guideline covers techniques for avoiding provocation factors, as well as dietary interventions, immunotherapy, complementary medicine and educational interventions for patients with atopic eczema and deals with occupational and psychodermatological aspects of the disease. It also contains guidance on treatment for paediatric and adolescent patients and pregnant or breastfeeding women, as well as considerations for patients who want to have a child. A chapter on the patient perspective is also provided. The first part of the guideline, published separately, contains recommendations and guidance on systemic treatment with conventional immunosuppressive drugs, biologics and janus kinase (JAK) inhibitors, as well as information on the scope and purpose of the guideline, and a section on guideline methodology.
The inner region of the Milky Way halo harbors a large amount of dark matter (DM). Given its proximity, it is one of the most promising targets to look for DM. We report on a search for the ...annihilations of DM particles using γ-ray observations towards the inner 300 pc of the Milky Way, with the H.E.S.S. array of ground-based Cherenkov telescopes. The analysis is based on a 2D maximum likelihood method using Galactic Center (GC) data accumulated by H.E.S.S. over the last 10 years (2004-2014), and does not show any significant γ-ray signal above background. Assuming Einasto and Navarro-Frenk-White DM density profiles at the GC, we derive upper limits on the annihilation cross section ⟨σv⟩. These constraints are the strongest obtained so far in the TeV DM mass range and improve upon previous limits by a factor 5. For the Einasto profile, the constraints reach ⟨σv⟩ values of 6×10^{-26} cm^{3} s^{-1} in the W^{+}W^{-} channel for a DM particle mass of 1.5 TeV, and 2×10^{-26} cm^{3} s^{-1} in the τ^{+}τ^{-} channel for a 1 TeV mass. For the first time, ground-based γ-ray observations have reached sufficient sensitivity to probe ⟨σv⟩ values expected from the thermal relic density for TeV DM particles.
Humans vary substantially in their willingness to take risks. In a combined sample of over 1 million individuals, we conducted genome-wide association studies (GWAS) of general risk tolerance, ...adventurousness, and risky behaviors in the driving, drinking, smoking, and sexual domains. Across all GWAS, we identified hundreds of associated loci, including 99 loci associated with general risk tolerance. We report evidence of substantial shared genetic influences across risk tolerance and the risky behaviors: 46 of the 99 general risk tolerance loci contain a lead SNP for at least one of our other GWAS, and general risk tolerance is genetically correlated (Formula: see text ~ 0.25 to 0.50) with a range of risky behaviors. Bioinformatics analyses imply that genes near SNPs associated with general risk tolerance are highly expressed in brain tissues and point to a role for glutamatergic and GABAergic neurotransmission. We found no evidence of enrichment for genes previously hypothesized to relate to risk tolerance.
•Soil Water Index provides useful information for antecedent soil moisture estimation.•Initial soil moisture can affect flood peak to as high as double.•Lower peak events are found to be more ...sensitive to initial soil moisture.
The purpose of this paper is to contribute to the understanding of the importance of the initial soil moisture state for flash flood magnitudes. Four extreme events that occurred in different case study regions were analysed, one winter and one autumn flash flood in the Giofiros and Almirida catchments in Crete, and two summer floods in the Rastenberg catchment in Austria. The hydrological processes were simulated by the spatially distributed flash flood model Kampus. For the Crete cases Kampus model was calibrated against remotely sensed soil moisture while for the Austrian case the model was calibrated against observed runoff. Kampus model was then used to estimate the sensitivity of the stream flow peak to initial soil moisture. The largest of the events analysed (in terms of specific peak discharge) was found to have a sensitivity of less than 0.2% flood peak change per % soil moisture change while the smallest event had a sensitivity of more than 3% flood peak change per % soil moisture change. This suggests that initial soil moisture effects on the flash flood response probably depend on event magnitude rather than on the climate or region. Moreover, the Austrian catchment was found to exhibit a more nonlinear relationship between antecedent soil moisture and the peak discharge than the Cretan catchments which was explained by differences in the soil type.
In July 2012, the ATLAS and CMS collaborations at the CERN Large Hadron Collider announced the observation of a Higgs boson at a mass of around 125 gigaelectronvolts. Ten years later, and with the ...data corresponding to the production of a 30-times larger number of Higgs bosons, we have learnt much more about the properties of the Higgs boson. The CMS experiment has observed the Higgs boson in numerous fermionic and bosonic decay channels, established its spin-parity quantum numbers, determined its mass and measured its production cross-sections in various modes. Here the CMS Collaboration reports the most up-to-date combination of results on the properties of the Higgs boson, including the most stringent limit on the cross-section for the production of a pair of Higgs bosons, on the basis of data from proton-proton collisions at a centre-of-mass energy of 13 teraelectronvolts. Within the uncertainties, all these observations are compatible with the predictions of the standard model of elementary particle physics. Much evidence points to the fact that the standard model is a low-energy approximation of a more comprehensive theory. Several of the standard model issues originate in the sector of Higgs boson physics. An order of magnitude larger number of Higgs bosons, expected to be examined over the next 15 years, will help deepen our understanding of this crucial sector.
Cytomegalovirus (CMV) infection is a common, potentially life-threatening complication following allogeneic hematopoietic stem cell transplantation (allo-HSCT). We assessed prospectively the safety ...and efficacy of stem cell-donor- or third-party-donor-derived CMV-specific T cells for the treatment of persistent CMV infections after allo-HSCT in a phase I/IIa trial. Allo-HSCT patients with drug-refractory CMV infection and lacking virus-specific T cells were treated with a single dose of ex vivo major histocompatibility complex-Streptamer-isolated CMV epitope-specific donor T cells. Forty-four allo-HSCT patients receiving a T-cell-replete (D
repl; n=28) or T-cell-depleted (D
depl; n=16) graft from a CMV-seropositive donor were screened for CMV-specific T-cell immunity. Eight D
depl recipients received adoptive T-cell therapy from their stem cell donor. CMV epitope-specific T cells were well supported and became detectable in all treated patients. Complete and partial virological response rates were 62.5% and 25%, respectively. Owing to longsome third-party donor (TPD) identification, only 8 of the 57 CMV patients transplanted from CMV-seronegative donors (D
) received antigen-specific T cells from partially human leukocyte antigen (HLA)-matched TPDs. In all but one, TPD-derived CMV-specific T cells remained undetectable. In summary, adoptive transfer correlated with functional virus-specific T-cell reconstitution in D
depl patients. Suboptimal HLA match may counteract expansion of TPD-derived virus-specific T cells in D
patients.
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