Introgression should no longer be considered as rare a phenomenon as once thought, since several studies have recently documented gene flow between closely related and radiating species. Here, we investigated evolutionary relationships among three closely related species of fruit flies of the Anastrepha fraterculus group (Anastrepha fraterculus, A. obliqua and A. sororcula). We sequenced a set of 20 genes and implemented a combined populational and phylogenetic inference with a model selection approach by an ABC framework in order to elucidate the demographic history of these species. The phylogenetic histories inferred from most genes showed a great deal of discordance and substantial shared polymorphic variation. The analysis of several population and speciation models reveal that this shared variation is better explained by introgression rather than convergence by parallel mutation or incomplete lineage sorting. Our results consistently showed these species evolving under an isolation with migration model experiencing a continuous and asymmetrical pattern of gene flow involving all species pairs, even though still showed a more closely related relationship between A. fraterculus and A. sororcula when compared with A. obliqua. This suggests that these species have been exchanging genes since they split from their common ancestor similar to 2.6 MYA ago. We also found strong evidence for recent population expansion that appears to be consequence of anthropic activities affecting host crops of fruit flies. These findings point that the introgression here found may have been driven by genetic drift and not necessary by selection, which has implications for tracking and managing fruit flies.

Prior studies have reported inconsistencies in the baseline risk profile, comorbidity burden and their association with clinical outcomes in women compared to men. More importantly, there is limited data around the sex differences and how these have changed over time in contemporary percutaneous coronary intervention (PCI) practice. We used the Nationwide Inpatient Sample to identify all PCI procedures based on ICD-9 procedure codes in the United States between 2004-2014 in adult patients. Descriptive statistics were used to describe sex-based differences in baseline characteristics and comorbidity burden of patients. Multivariable logistic regressions were used to investigate the association between these differences and in-hospital mortality, complications, length of stay and total hospital charges. Among 6,601,526 patients, 66% were men and 33% were women. Women were more likely to be admitted with diagnosis of NSTEMI (non-ST elevation acute myocardial infarction), were on average 5 years older (median age 68 compared to 63) and had higher burden of comorbidity defined by Charlson score ≥3. Women also had higher in-hospital crude mortality (2.0% vs 1.4%) and any complications compared to men (11.1% vs 7.0%). These trends persisted in our adjusted analyses where women had a significant increase in the odds of in-hospital mortality men (OR 1.20 (95% CI 1.16,1.23) and major bleeding (OR 1.81 (95% CI 1.77,1.86). In this national unselected contemporary PCI cohort, there are significant sex-based differences in presentation, baseline characteristics and comorbidity burden. These differences do not fully account for the higher in-hospital mortality and procedural complications observed in women.

Context. Young circumstellar disks are the birthplaces of planets. Their study is of prime interest to understand the physical and chemical conditions under which planet formation takes place. Only very few detections of planet candidates within these disks exist, and most of them are currently suspected to be disk features. Aims. In this context, the transition disk around the young star PDS 70 is of particular interest, due to its large gap identified in previous observations, indicative of ongoing planet formation. We aim to search for the presence of an embedded young planet and search for disk structures that may be the result of disk-planet interactions and other evolutionary processes. Methods. We analyse new and archival near-infrared images of the transition disk PDS 70 obtained with the VLT/SPHERE, VLT/NaCo, and Gemini/NICI instruments in polarimetric differential imaging and angular differential imaging modes. Results. We detect a point source within the gap of the disk at about 195 mas (similar to 22 au) projected separation. The detection is confirmed at five different epochs, in three filter bands and using different instruments. The astrometry results in an object of bound nature, with high significance. The comparison of the measured magnitudes and colours to evolutionary tracks suggests that the detection is a companion of planetary mass. The luminosity of the detected object is consistent with that of an L-type dwarf, but its IR colours are redder, possibly indicating the presence of warm surrounding material. Further, we confirm the detection of a large gap of similar to 54 au in size within the disk in our scattered light images, and detect a signal from an inner disk component. We find that its spatial extent is very likely smaller than similar to 17 au in radius, and its position angle is consistent with that of the outer disk. The images of the outer disk show evidence of a complex azimuthal brightness distribution which is different at different wavelengths and may in part be explained by Rayleigh scattering from very small grains. Conclusions. The detection of a young protoplanet within the gap of the transition disk around PDS 70 opens the door to a so far observationally unexplored parameter space of planetary formation and evolution. Future observations of this system at different wavelengths and continuing astrometry will allow us to test theoretical predictions regarding planet-disk interactions, planetary atmospheres, and evolutionary models.

This study investigates the preferences of small forest landowners regarding forest carbon credit programs while documenting characteristics of potentially successful frameworks. We designed hypothetical carbon credit programs with aggregated carbon offset projects and requirements of existing voluntary and compliance protocols in mind. We administered a mail survey to 992 forest landowners in Vermont’s Current Use Program utilizing best-worst choice, a novel preference elicitation technique, to elicit their preferences about these programs. We found that small forest landowners see revenue as the most important factor in a carbon credit program and the duration of the program as the least important factor. Landowners reported that shorter program duration, higher revenue, and lower withdrawal penalties positively impact their willingness to accept forest carbon credit programs. Notably, our study includes carbon credit program implementer as a key program attribute, allowing us to quantify landowners’ tradeoffs between non-profit, for-profit, and government organizations. Overall, we found that landowners significantly prefer working with a non-profit organization. Based on monetary estimates of willingness-to-accept compensation, our results suggest that aggregated forest carbon offset projects incorporating small forest landowners could be piloted successfully in Vermont by non-profit organizations while maintaining relatively strict guidelines of existing carbon offset protocols.

Pediatric integrative medicine (PIM) is of significant interest to patients, with 12% of the general pediatric population and up to 80% of children with chronic conditions using PIM approaches. The field of PIM has evolved over the past 25 years, approaching child health with a number of guiding principles: preventive, context-centered, relationship-based, personalized, participatory, and ecologically sustainable. This manuscript reviews important time points for the field of PIM and reports on a series of meetings of PIM leaders, aimed at assessing the state of the field and planning for its future. Efforts in the first decade of the 2000s led to increased visibility in academic and professional pediatric organizations and through international listservs, designed to link those interested in and practicing PIM, all of which continue to flourish. The PIM leadership summits in recent years resulted in specific goals to advance PIM further in the following key areas: research, clinical practice, professional education, patient and family education, and advocacy and partnerships. Additionally, goals were developed for greater expansion of PIM professional education, broader support for pediatric PIM research, and an expanded role for PIM approaches in the provision of pediatric care.

Glacier recession driven by climate change produces glacial lakes, some of which are hazardous. Our study assesses the evolution of three of the most hazardous moraine-dammed proglacial lakes in the Nepal HimalayaImja, Lower Barun, and Thulagi. Imja Lake (up to 150 m deep; 78.4 x 10(6) m(3) volume; surveyed in October 2014) and Lower Barun Lake (205 m maximum observed depth; 112.3 x 10(6) m(3) volume; surveyed in October 2015) are much deeper than previously measured, and their readily drainable volumes are slowly growing. Their surface areas have been increasing at an accelerating pace from a few small supraglacial lakes in the 1950s/1960s to 1.33 km(2) and 1.79 km(2) in 2017, respectively. In contrast, the surface area (0.89 km(2)) and volume of Thulagi lake (76 m maximum observed depth; 36.1 x 10(6) m(3); surveyed in October 2017) has remained almost stable for about two decades. Analyses of changes in the moraine dams of the three lakes using digital elevation models (DEMs) quantifies the degradation of the dams due to the melting of their ice cores and hence their natural lowering rates as well as the potential for glacial lake outburst floods (GLOFs). We examined the likely future evolution of lake growth and hazard processes associated with lake instability, which suggests faster growth and increased hazard potential at Lower Barun lake.

Fractured rock masses, which are widely distributed in the south of China, have an impartible relationship with mud-water inrush. In order to study the change laws of mud viscosity under different moisture content, flow property, and mechanism of mud-water inrush in fractured rock masses, a NDJ-8S rotary viscometer and a simulation model are used to carry out a series of experimental studies. Tests of mud viscosity show that mud viscosity depends on moisture content, and the relationship between viscosity and moisture content was proposed. Based on mud viscosity results, physical model tests' results indicated that the process of mud-water rush can be divided into four stages: that is, the preparation stage of mud-water mixture burst, the seepage period of mudwater mixture inrush, the nonstable period of mud-water mixture outburst, and the stable period of mud-water mixture outburst. The excavation disturbance, high water pressure, and effect of erosion and corrosion of water were identified as key factors which lead to mud-water inrush in fractured rock masses.

A systematic study of microscopic many-body dynamics is used to analyze a strategy for how to generate ultrashort mode locked pulses in the vertical external-cavity surface-emitting lasers with a saturable absorber mirror. The field propagation is simulated using Maxwell's equations and is coupled to the polarization from the quantum wells using the semiconductor Bloch equations. Simulations on the level of second Born-Markov are used to fit coefficients for microscopic higher order correlation effects such as dephasing of the polarization, carrier-carrier scattering and carrier relaxation. We numerically examine recent published experimental results on mode locked pulses, as well as the self phase modulation in the gain chip and SESAM.

The laminin-binding integrin (LBI) family are cell adhesion molecules that are essential for invasion and metastasis of human epithelial cancers and cell adhesion mediated drug resistance. We investigated whether copy number alteration (CNA) or mutations of a five-gene signature (ITGB4, ITGA3, LAMB3, PLEC, and SYNE3), representing essential genes for LBI adhesion, would correlate with patient outcomes within human epithelial-type tumor data sets currently available in an open access format. We investigated the relative alteration frequency of an LBI signature panel (integrin β4 (ITGB4), integrin α3 (ITGA3), laminin β3 chain (LAMB3), plectin (PLEC), and nesprin 3 (SYNE3)), independent of the epithelial cancer type, within publically available and published data using cBioPortal and Oncomine software. We rank ordered the results using a 20% alteration frequency cut-off and limited the analysis to studies containing at least 100 samples. Kaplan-Meier survival curves were analyzed to determine if alterations in the LBI signature correlated with patient survival. The Oncomine data mining tool was used to compare the heat map expression of the LBI signature without SYNE3 (as this was not included in the Oncomine database) to drug resistance patterns. Twelve different cancer types, representing 5,647 samples, contained at least a 20% alteration frequency of the five-gene LBI signature. The frequency of alteration ranged from 38.3% to 19.8%. Within the LBI signature, PLEC was the most commonly altered followed by LAMB3, ITGB4, ITGA3, and SYNE3 across all twelve cancer types. Within cancer types, there was little overlap of the individual amplified genes from each sample, suggesting different specific amplicons may alter the LBI adhesion structures. Of the twelve cancer types, overall survival was altered by CNA presence in bladder urothelial carcinoma (p=0.0143*) and cervical squamous cell carcinoma and endocervical adenocarcinoma (p=0.0432*). Querying the in vitro drug resistance profiles with the LBI signature demonstrated a positive correlation with cells resistant to inhibitors of HDAC (Vorinostat, Panobinostat) and topoisomerase II (Irinotecan). No correlation was found with the following agents: Bleomycin, Doxorubicin, Methotrexate, Gemcitabine, Docetaxel, Bortezomib, and Shikonen. Our work has identified epithelial-types of human cancer that have significant CNA in our selected five-gene signature, which was based on the essential and genetically-defined functions of the protein product networks (in this case, the LBI axis). CNA of the gene signature not only predicted overall survival in bladder, cervical, and endocervical adenocarcinoma but also response to chemotherapy. This work suggests that future studies designed to optimize the gene signature are warranted.

Following up on a faint detection of a near-infrared (NIR) source at the position of the X-ray thermal isolated neutron star RXJ0806.4-4123, we present new Hubble Space Telescope observations in the H-band. The NIR source is unambiguously detected with a Vega magnitude of 23.7 +/- 0.2 (flux density of 0.40 +/- 0.06 mu Jy at lambda = 1.54 mu m). The source position is coincident with the neutron star position, and the implied NIR flux is strongly in excess of what one would expect from an extrapolation of the optical-UV spectrum of RXJ0806.4-4123. The NIR source is extended, with a size of at least 0 8, and shows some asymmetry. The conservative upper limit on the flux contribution of a point source is 50%. Emission from gas and dust in the ambient diffuse interstellar medium can be excluded as a cause for the extended emission. The source parameters are consistent with an interpretation as either the first NIR-only detected pulsar wind nebula or the first resolved disk around an isolated neutron star.