The impact of dormancy on evolutionary branching.

In this paper, we investigate the consequences of dormancy in the 'rare mutation' and 'large population' regime of stochastic adaptive dynamics. Starting from an individual-based micro-model, we first derive the Polymorphic Evolution Sequence of the population, based on a previous work by Baar and Bovier (2018). After passing to a second 'small mutations' limit, we arrive at the Canonical Equation of Adaptive Dynamics, and state a corresponding criterion for evolutionary branching, extending a previous result of Champagnat and Méléard (2011). The criterion allows a quantitative and qualitative analysis of the effects of dormancy in the well-known model of Dieckmann and Doebeli (1999) for sympatric speciation. In fact, quite an intuitive picture emerges: Dormancy enlarges the parameter range for evolutionary branching, increases the carrying capacity and niche width of the post-branching sub-populations, and, depending on the model parameters, can either increase or decrease the 'speed of adaptation' of populations. Finally, dormancy increases diversity by increasing the genetic distance between subpopulations.

Factors affecting the use of antioxidant supplements in patients with late AMD.

BACKGROUND: The purpose of this study was to assess the use of oral antioxidant supplements in patients with late age-related macular degeneration (AMD) and to identify influencing factors that may affect the use of such supplements. METHODS: The study included 47 patients with late AMD. Using a questionnaire, the patients were asked for their demographic, ophthalmologic, and systemic data, their source of recommendation of antioxidant use for AMD, and/or their reasons for nonuse. The demographic, ophthalmologic, and systemic information was correlated with use or nonuse of oral antioxidant supplements for AMD. RESULTS: Sixty-eight percent (32/47) of patients took antioxidant supplements for AMD and 32% (15/47) of patients did not. There were no statistically significant differences in demographic, ophthalmologic, and systemic parameters between patients with late AMD who used supplements and those who did not. Two thirds of patients with late AMD (66%, 31/47) reported being recommended oral antioxidant supplements for AMD by their ophthalmologist. Patients who did not use antioxidant supplements either did not obtain any recommendation or did not believe in their benefits. CONCLUSION: This study shows that most patients with late AMD use antioxidant supplements despite the recommendation to do so being missing in the Age-Related Eye Disease Study. Our study emphasizes the importance of seeking further therapeutic options for patients with late AMD.

Intuitive presentation of clinical forensic data using anonymous and person-specific 3D reference manikins.

The increasing use of CT/MR devices in forensic analysis motivates the need to present forensic findings from different sources in an intuitive reference visualization, with the aim of combining 3D volumetric images along with digital photographs of external findings into a 3D computer graphics model. This model allows a comprehensive presentation of forensic findings in court and enables comparative evaluation studies correlating data sources. The goal of this work was to investigate different methods to generate anonymous and patient-specific 3D models which may be used as reference visualizations. The issue of registering 3D volumetric as well as 2D photographic data to such 3D models is addressed to provide an intuitive context for injury documentation from arbitrary modalities. We present an image processing and visualization work-flow, discuss the major parts of this work-flow, compare the different investigated reference models, and show a number of cases studies that underline the suitability of the proposed work-flow for presenting forensically relevant information in 3D visualizations.

Factors influencing self-reported use of antioxidant supplements in patients with age-related macular degeneration.

AIM: The goals of the present study were to evaluate the current use and accuracy of dose-taking prescription among patients with age-related macular degeneration (AMD) and to detect potential factors influencing the use or non-use of oral antioxidant supplements. MATERIALS AND METHODS: This is a cross-sectional questionnaire-based study of 65 patients with AMD of Age-Related Eye Disease Study (AREDS) category 3 (intermediate AMD) or category 4 (unilateral advanced AMD). Self-report data were obtained from a structural clinical interview in clinic. The patients were asked questions regarding their demographic, ophthalmologic and systemic data, their source of recommendation for antioxidant supplement use and/or their reasons for non-use. Afterwards, this information was correlated with the use or non-use of antioxidant supplements. Statistical analyses were conducted using a series of Mann-Whitney U-tests and Fisher's exact tests. RESULTS: There were 55.4% (36 of 65) of the patients reporting antioxidant supplement use for AMD and 44.6% (29 of 65) with no supplement use. However, only 56.7% (17 of 30) took the recommended dose on label. There were significantly more female patients taking supplements than male patients (p = 0.010). A statistically significant correlation was also found between supplement use and the number of visits to an ophthalmologist per year (p = 0.037). The main reason for antioxidant supplement non-use was the missing awareness of the availability of antioxidant supplements. CONCLUSIONS: Despite the recommendation of oral antioxidant supplements in the ARED Study for patients with AMD of category 3 or 4, only about half of these patients took the supplements in this study. Identifying the factors, which influenced the decision against supplement use, may help to better support patients in the prevention of severe vision loss caused by AMD.

A reassessment of the Neanderthal teeth from Taddeo cave (southern Italy).

The Middle Paleolithic fossil human teeth from Taddeo cave in southwestern Italy were discovered in 1967, but to date only scanty and partially incorrect information has been published about them. The teeth were recovered in a reddish sandy layer from the cave's floor, which is attributed either to an early phase of Würm I (OIS 5c or 5d) or a transition phase between Würm I and Würm II (OIS 5a). In this paper, we present a revised morphological description and morphometric comparisons of the four dental remains discovered. Apart from a classic morphometric comparison, we also provide a qualitative and quantitative assessment of the internal morphology with the aid of micro-CT imaging. In addition, virtual restoration and matching of adjacent teeth were performed with 3D digital modeling and Computer-Aided Design techniques. Occlusal Fingerprint Analysis was also employed to help correctly identify each tooth. While in the previous studies, Taddeo 1 was considered either an upper right canine or a lower right canine, in the present work it has been definitely identified as lower left canine. Taddeo 2 has been reclassified as a right P(4) instead of a right P(3). Based on the occlusal and interproximal wear, we have also shown that Taddeo 2 and Taddeo 3 (right M(1)) belong to the same individual. All of the teeth show characteristic Neanderthal features in crown morphology and fissure pattern. However, although Taddeo 4 shows morphological features typical of Neanderthal M(1)s, some morphometric results (large enamel thickness, low dentine volume) recall more modern humans than Neanderthals. This result might suggest that, at least for lower first molars, the Neanderthal range of variation is large and still not clearly understood.

Nonlinear resonant transport of Bose-Einstein condensates.

The coherent flow of a Bose-Einstein condensate through a quantum dot in a magnetic waveguide is studied. By the numerical integration of the time-dependent Gross-Pitaevskii equation in the presence of a source term, we simulate the propagation process of the condensate through a double barrier potential in the waveguide. We find that resonant transport is suppressed in interaction-induced regimes of bistability, where multiple scattering states exist at the same chemical potential and the same incident current. We demonstrate, however, that a temporal control of the external potential can be used to circumvent this limitation and to obtain enhanced transmission near the resonance on experimentally realistic time scales.