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Highest Correlation (highest + correlation)
Selected Abstracts,Prefrontal' cognitive performance of healthy subjects positively correlates with cerebral FDOPA influx: An exploratory [18F]-fluoro-L-DOPA-PET investigationHUMAN BRAIN MAPPING, Issue 10 2007Ingo Vernaleken Abstract Dopamine neurotransmission influences those cognitive processes, which are generally regarded as prefrontal cortical functions. In previous positron-emission-tomography (PET) studies, net blood-brain clearance of [18F]-fluoro-l-DOPA (FDOPA) correlated with impaired cognitive performance in patients with Parkinson's disease or schizophrenia. We hypothesized that FDOPA influx also correlates with performance of cognitive tasks associated with prefrontal functioning in healthy volunteers. The net blood-brain clearance of FDOPA (K) was mapped in a group of 11 healthy volunteers and calculated in striatal volumes-of-interest. The Wisconsin-Card-Sorting-Test (WCST), Stroop-Test, Trail-Making-Test (TMT-A/B), and Continuous-Performance-Test (CPT-M) had been administered previously to the same subjects. No correlation of K with perseverative errors in WCST or age could be found. However, there were significant positive correlations between the magnitude of K in caudate nucleus, putamen, and midbrain with performance of the TMT-B, CPT-M, and the Stroop test. Highest correlations were found between the time needed to perform the Stroop interference task and the K of striatal areas (Caudate nucleus: ,0.780, P = 0.005; putamen: ,0.870, P < 0. 001). Thus, the present findings reveal a strong correlation between dopamine synthesis capacity in striatum of healthy volunteers and performance of cognitive tasks linked to the prefrontal cortex. Hum Brain Mapp 2006. © 2006 Wiley-Liss, Inc. [source] Panic Disorder Severity Scale: Reliability and validity of the Turkish version,,DEPRESSION AND ANXIETY, Issue 1 2004E. Serap Monkul M.D. Abstract We assessed the reliability and validity of the Turkish version of the seven-item Panic Disorder Severity Scale (PDSS). We recruited 174 subjects, including 104 with current DSM-IV panic disorder with (n = 76) or without(n = 28)agoraphobia, 14 with a major depressive episode, 24 with a non-panic anxiety disorder, and 32 healthy controls. Assessment instruments were Panic Disorder Severity Scale, Panic and Agoraphobia Scale, both the observer-rated (P&Ao) and self-rating (P&Asr); Clinical Global Impression Scale (CGI); Hamilton Anxiety Scale, and Beck Depression Inventory. We repeated the measures for a group of panic disorder patients (n = 51) after 4 weeks to assess test,retest reliability. The internal consistency (Cronbach's ,) of the PDSS was .92,94. The inter-rater correlation coefficient was .79. The test,retest correlation coefficient after 4 weeks was .63. In discriminant validity analyses, the highest correlation for PDSS was with P&Ao, P&Asr (r=.87 and .87, respectively) and CGI (r=.76) and the lowest with Beck Depression Inventory (r=.29). The cut-off point was six/seven, associated with high sensitivity (99%) and specificity (98%). This study confirmed the objectivity, reliability and validity of the Turkish version of the PDSS. Depression and Anxiety 00:000,000, 2004. © 2004 Wiley-Liss, Inc. [source] Mothers reduce egg provisioning with ageECOLOGY LETTERS, Issue 4 2003David Giron Abstract Precise and comprehensive data on resource allocation into individual eggs are rare and this empirical void in the literature of life history strategies contrasts with the large number of theoretical studies. We show a marked decrease in reproductive investment in eggs with mother's age for egg size, sugar, protein, lipid and energy contents of eggs for a parasitic wasp. Egg size is a good predictor of offspring fitness, measured as survival of starving neonate larvae, but does not reveal possible biochemical changes. Lipids stabilize quickly at a minimal threshold while proteins and sugars decrease smoothly down to about 30% of the amount invested in the first egg. Because proteins have the highest correlation with egg size, we predict that they should be better predictors of larval fitness than lipids and sugars. Assessing the adaptive value of the observed patterns will require a multidimensional approach to egg provisioning. [source] SAT Validity for Linguistic Minorities at the University of California, Santa BarbaraEDUCATIONAL MEASUREMENT: ISSUES AND PRACTICE, Issue 1 2004Rebecca Zwick The validity of the SAT as an admissions criterion for Latinos and Asian Americans who are not native English speakers was examined. The analyses, based on 1997 and 1998 UCSB freshmen, focused on the effectiveness of SAT scores and high school grade-point average (HSGPA) in predicting college freshman grade-point average (FGPA). When regression equations were estimated based on all students combined, some systematic prediction errors occurred. For language minorities, using only high school grades as a predictor led to predicted FGPAs that tended to exceed actual FGPAs, particularly for Latinos. Including SAT scores in the equation notably reduced prediction bias. Further analyses showed that, while HSGPA had the highest correlation with FGPA for most groups, SAT verbal score was the strongest predictor of FGPA for language minorities in 1998. An overriding conclusion is that combining data across language groups can obscure important test validity information. [source] Evaluation of estrogenic activity of phthalate esters by gene expression profiling using a focused microarray (estrarray®),ENVIRONMENTAL TOXICOLOGY & CHEMISTRY, Issue 6 2008Meher Parveen Abstract Phthalates are used industrially as plasticizers and are known to contaminate natural environments, mostly as di-ester or mono-ester complexes. Because they are structurally similar to natural estrogens, they could act as endocrine disruptors. Here, we used a DNA microarray containing estrogen responsive genes (EstrArray®) to examine gene expression profiles in MCF-7 cells treated with 10 ,M butylbenzyl phthalate (BBP), dibutyl phthalate (DBP), diethyl phthalate (DEP), and diisopropyl phthalate (DIP) along with the natural estrogen 17,-estradiol ([E2], 10 nM). The profiles for phthalate esters and E2 were examined by correlation analysis using correlation coefficients (r -values) and cluster analysis. We found that BBP showed the highest correlation with E2 (r = 0.85), and DEP and DIP showed moderate r -values (r = 0.52 and r = 0.49, respectively). Dibutyl phthalate exhibited the lowest (but still significant) correlation with E2 (r = 0.36). Furthermore, among the pairs of chemicals, DEP-DIP and DIP-DBP showed very high correlations (r = 0.90 and r = 0.80, respectively), and the other pairs showed moderate relationships, which reflected how structurally close they are to each other. The analysis of six functional groups of genes (enzymes, signaling, proliferation, transcription, transport, and others) indicated that the genes belonging to the enzyme, transcription, and other functional groups showed common responses to phthalate esters and E2. Although the effect of BBP was similar to that of E2, the other phthalate esters showed different types of effects. These results indicate that the structure of estrogenic chemicals is strongly related to their estrogenic activity and can be evaluated by appropriate grouping of the responsive genes by focused microarray analysis. [source] Comparison of surrogate and direct measurement of insulin resistance in chronic hepatitis C virus infection: Impact of obesity and ethnicity,HEPATOLOGY, Issue 1 2010Khoa D. Lam Studies using surrogate estimates show high prevalence of insulin resistance in hepatitis C infection. This study prospectively evaluated the correlation between surrogate and directly measured estimates of insulin resistance and the impact of obesity and ethnicity on this relationship. Eighty-six nondiabetic, noncirrhotic patients with hepatitis C virus (age = 48 ± 7 years, 74% male, 44% white, 22% African American, 26% Latino, 70% genotype 1) were categorized into normal-weight (body mass index [BMI] < 25, n = 30), overweight (BMI = 25-29.9, n = 38), and obese (BMI , 30, n = 18). Insulin-mediated glucose uptake was measured by steady-state plasma glucose (SSPG) concentration during a 240-minute insulin suppression test. Surrogate estimates included: fasting glucose and insulin, glucose/insulin, homeostasis model assessment (HOMA-IR), quantitative insulin sensitivity check index (QUICKI), insulin (I-AUC) and glucose (G-AUC) area under the curve during oral glucose tolerance test, and the Belfiore and Stumvoll indexes. All surrogate estimates correlated with SSPG, but the magnitude of correlation varied (r = 0.30-0.64). The correlation coefficients were highest in the obese. I-AUC had the highest correlation among all ethnic and weight groups (r = 0.57-0.77). HOMA-IR accounted for only 15% of variability in SSPG in the normal weight group. The common HOMA-IR cutoff of ,3 to define insulin resistance had high misclassification rates especially in the overweight group independent of ethnicity. HOMA-IR > 4 had the lowest misclassification rate (75% sensitivity, 88% specificity). Repeat HOMA-IR measurements had higher within-person variation in the obese (standard deviation = 0.77 higher than normal-weight, 95% confidence interval = 0.25-1.30, P = 0.005). Conclusion: Because of limitations of surrogate estimates, caution should be used in interpreting data evaluating insulin resistance especially in nonobese, nondiabetic patients with HCV. HEPATOLOGY 2010 [source] Folivory in the white-tipped plantcutter Phytotoma rutila: seasonal variations in diet composition and qualityJOURNAL OF AVIAN BIOLOGY, Issue 2 2003Enrique H. Bucher Plantcutters (Phytotomidae) represent the only Passeriformes with a predominantly folivorous diet. Little is known however about their feeding habits and adaptations for leaf consumption. Here we analyze the relationship between diet composition and nutritional value in the white-tipped plantcutter Phytotoma rutila in a Chaco woodland in Córdoba, Argentina. The white-tipped plantcutter consumed mainly dicot leaves (91%), complemented with a small proportion of fruits (7%) and flowers (2%). Eleven plant species were utilized, of which five were strongly dominant: Lycium cestroides (38%), Prosopis alba and P. nigra (28%), Celtis tala (22%), and Schinus longifolius (8%). No animal food was consumed. The leaf material ingested by the white-tipped plantcutter had high protein content and low proportion of fibers and phenols. In multivariate analysis, leaf chemical properties accounted for over 81% of the variation in diet composition throughout the year. However, only protein and phenols content related significantly with diet composition in single regressions. The quality index that relates protein with lignin and phenols showed the highest correlation with diet composition. Availability of highly nutritive leaves of Lycium cestroides during the dry season seems to be a key factor for the occurrence of the white-tipped plantcutter in the study area. Our results confirm that plantcutters are truly folivorous passerine species, being able to obtain a highly nutritional diet throughout the year. [source] Expression of CD66a in multiple myelomaJOURNAL OF CLINICAL LABORATORY ANALYSIS, Issue 2 2002Yukihiko Satoh Abstract CD66a is a member of the carcinoembryonic antigen family and has been suggested to function as an intercellular adhesion molecule and cell growth regulator. Expression of CD66a in myeloma cells was examined with mAb TS135 against CD66a transfectants of murine-transformed fibroblasts. The reactivity of mAb TS135 with CD66a, CD66c, and CD66e was revealed. CD66a in myeloma cells was considered to be detectable with this mAb, since CD66c and CD66e are not expressed in them. CD66a was detected in three myeloma cell lines and an IgM-producing B-cell line. In clinical bone marrow specimens, including 18 multiple myeloma, two primary macroglobulinemia, and a case of CLL-like chronic lymphoproliferation with monoclonal IgG production, CD66a and three conventional myeloma cell markers (PCA-1, CD38, and CD56) were examined by indirect immunofluorescence assay. The results showed that 18 out of 21 cases (86%) were CD66a+, and PCA-1 showed the highest correlation with CD66a among conventional markers. Primary macroglobulinemia and chronic lymphoproliferation were also CD66a+. Two-dimensional flow cytometry with mAbs TS135 and CD38 confirmed the reactivity of TS135 with myeloma cells in those bone marrow specimens. The findings suggest that CD66a is expressed in multiple myeloma with high frequency. J. Clin. Lab. Anal. 16:79,85, 2002. © 2002 Wiley-Liss, Inc. [source] Effect of various estimates of renal function on prediction of vancomycin concentration by the population mean and Bayesian methodsJOURNAL OF CLINICAL PHARMACY & THERAPEUTICS, Issue 4 2009Y. Tsuji BSc Summary Objective:, Renal function was estimated in 129 elderly patients with methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus (MRSA) who were treated with vancomycin (VCM). The estimation was performed by substituting serum creatinine (SCR) measured enzymatically and a value converted using the Jaffe method into the Cockcroft-Gault and Modification of Diet in Renal Disease (MDRD) equations. The serum trough level was predicted from three estimates of renal function by the population mean (PM) and Bayesian methods and the predictability was assessed. Methods:, Two-compartment model-based Japanese population parameters for VCM were used, and the mean prediction error (ME) and root mean squared error (RMSE) were calculated as indices of bias and accuracy, respectively, for predictions by the PM and Bayesian methods. Results:, The PM method gave the highest correlation with the measured value using the estimate of renal function obtained by substituting the Jaffe-converted SCR into the Cockcroft-Gault equation. There was no positive or negative bias in the ME and the value was significantly smaller than for other predicted data (P < 0·05). RMSE was also the smallest, indicating that this method increases the predictability of the serum VCM trough level. While, ME showed a negative bias for all values predicted by the Bayesian method, both the ME and RMSE were very small. Conclusion:, In the application of the PM method for VCM treatment of elderly patients with MRSA, substitution of SCR based on the Jaffe method into the Cockcroft-Gault equation increases the predictability of the serum VCM trough level. The Bayesian method predicted the serum VCM trough level with high accuracy using any of the estimates of renal function. [source] Phosphate buffer,extractable organic nitrogen as an index of soil-N availability for sorghum and pearl milletJOURNAL OF PLANT NUTRITION AND SOIL SCIENCE, Issue 2 2010Asako Mori Abstract The availability of soil nitrogen (N) is usually quantified by the amount of mineralized N as determined after several weeks of soil incubation. Various alternative methods using chemical solvents have been developed to extract the available organic N, which is easily mineralized. We compared one such solution, neutral phosphate buffer (NPB), with conventional incubation and 0.01 M,CaCl2 extraction, as measures of soil N available to two major cereal crops of the semiarid tropics, based on the total N uptake by plants in a pot experiment. Mineralized N had the highest correlation with N uptake by pearl millet (Pennisetum glaucum L., r = 0.979***) and sorghum (Sorghum bicolor [L.] Moench, r = 0.978***). NPB-extractable N was also highly correlated with N uptake (pearl millet, r = 0.876***; sorghum, r = 0.872***). Only one major peak was detected when NPB extracts were analyzed using size-exclusion high-performance liquid chromatography, regardless of soil properties. In addition, the organic N extracted with NPB was characterized by determining the content of peptidoglycan, the main component of bacterial cell walls. Although the characteristics of NPB-extractable organic N are still unclear, it offers a promising quick assay of available N. [source] Temporal dynamics of marginal steppic vegetation over a 26-year period of substantial environmental changeJOURNAL OF VEGETATION SCIENCE, Issue 2 2009Silvia Matesanz Abstract Questions: (1) Is climate a strong driver of vegetation dynamics, including interannual variation, in a range margin steppic community? (2) Are there long-term trends in cover and species richness in this community, and are these consistent across species groups and species within groups? (3) Can long-term trends in plant community data be related to variation in local climate over the last three decades? Location: A range margin steppic grassland community in central Germany. Methods: Cover, number and size of all individuals of all plant species present in three permanent 1-m2 plots were recorded in spring for 26 years (1980,2005). Climatic data for the study area were used to determine the best climatic predictor for each plant community, functional group and species variable (annual data and interannual variation) using best subsets regression. Results: April and autumn temperature showed the highest correlation with total cover and species richness and with interannual variations of cover and richness. However, key climate drivers differed between the five most abundant species. Similarly, total cover and number and cover of perennials significantly decreased over time, while no trend was found for the cover and number of annuals. However, within functional groups there were also contrasting species-specific responses. Long-term temperature increases and high interannual variability in both temperature and precipitation were strongly related to long-term trends and interannual variations in plant community data. Conclusions: Temporal trends in vegetation were strongly associated with temporal trends in climate at the study site, with key roles for autumn and spring temperature and precipitation. Dynamics of functional groups and species within groups and their relationships to changes in temperature and precipitation reveal complex long-term and interannual patterns that cannot be inferred from short-term studies with only one or a few individual species. Our results also highlight that responses detected at the functional group level may mask contrasting responses within functional groups. We discuss the implications of these findings for attempts to predict the future response of biodiversity to climate change. [source] Electrocardiographic Quantitation of Heterogeneity of Ventricular RepolarizationANNALS OF NONINVASIVE ELECTROCARDIOLOGY, Issue 1 2000Peter M. Okin M.D. Background:QT interval dispersion (QTd) measured from the surface ECG has emerged as the most common noninvasive method for assessing heterogeneity of ventricular repolarization. Although QTd correlates with dispersion of monophasic action potential duration at 90% repolarization and with dispersion of recovery time recorded from the epicardium, total T-wave area, representing a summation of vectors during this time interval, has been shown to have the highest correlation with these invasive measures of dispersion of repolarization. However, recent clinical studies suggest that the ratio of the second to first eigenvalues of the spatial T-wave vector using principal component analysis (PCA ratio) may more accurately reflect heterogeneity of ventricular repolarization. Methods:To better characterize the ECG correlates of surface ECG measures of heterogeneity of ventricular repolarization and to establish normal values of these criteria using an automated measurement method, the relations of QRS onset to T-wave offset (QTod) and to T-wave peak (QTpd) dispersion and the PCA ratio to T-wave area and amplitude, heart rate, QRS axis and duration, and the QTo interval were examined in 163 asymptomatic subjects with normal resting ECGs and normal left ventricular mass and function. QTod and QTpd were measured by computer from digitized ECGs as the difference between the maximum and minimum QTo and QTp intervals, respectively. Results:In univariate analyses, a significant correlation was found between the sum of the T-wave area and the PCA ratio (R =,0.46, P < 0.001), but there was no significant correlation of the sum of T-wave area with QTod (R = 0.11, P = NS) or QTpd (R=0.09, P = NS). There were only modest correlations between QTod and QTpd (R = 0.45) and between the PCA ratio and QTod (R = 0.29) and QTpd (R = 0.49) (each P < 0.001). In stepwise multivariate linear regression analyses, the PCA ratio was significantly related to the sum of T-wave area, T-wave amplitude in aVL, and to female gender (overall R = 0.54, P < 0.001), QTod correlated only with the maximum QTo0 interval (R = 0.39, P < 0.001), and QTpd was related to heart rate and QRS axis (overall R = 0.36, P <0.001). In addition, the normal interlead dispersion of repolarization as measured by QTod was significantly greater than dispersion measured by QTod (23.5 ± 11.5 ms vs 18.3 ± 11.2 ms, P < 0.001). Conclusions: These findings provide new information on ECG measures of heterogeneity of repolarization in normal subjects, with a significantly higher intrinsic variability of Q to T-peak than Q to T-offset dispersion and only modest correlation between these wo measures. The independent relation of the PCA ratio to the sum of T-wave area suggests that the PCA ratio may be a more accurate surface ECG reflection of the heterogeneity of ventricular repolarizat on. A.N.E. 2000;5(1):79,87 [source] Refining exposure definitions for studies of periodontal disease and systemic disease associationsCOMMUNITY DENTISTRY AND ORAL EPIDEMIOLOGY, Issue 6 2008Ryan T. Demmer Abstract,,, Background:, Substantial variation exists in reported associations between periodontal infections and cardiovascular disease. Imprecise periodontal exposure definitions are possible contributors to this variability. We studied appropriate exposure definitions for studying associations between clinical periodontal disease (PD) and systemic disease. Methods:, Data originate from men and women aged 20,79 enrolled in the Study of Health in Pomerania (SHIP) from 1997,2001. Age and sex-adjusted correlation analysis identified PD definitions with the highest cross-sectional associations with three subclinical markers of systemic disease: plasma fibrinogen (n = 3481), serum hemoglobin A1c (HbA1c) (n = 3480), and common carotid artery intima-media thickness (c-IMT) (n = 1745, age , 45). Results:, In men and women, percent of sites with attachment loss (AL) ,6 mm and tooth loss both revealed the highest correlation with HbA1c (, = 0.11; several other definitions related similarly), while the strongest fibrinogen correlation was observed with percent of sites with pocket depth ,3 mm (, = 0.19). Findings for c-IMT among men were strongest for percent of sites with AL ,6 mm (, = 0.14; several other definitions related similarly) while among women, percent of sites with pocket depth ,5 or 6 mm had the highest observed correlation (, = 0.13). Conclusions:, A range of near optimal definitions varied according to gender and whether the systemic disease marker reflected an acute or chronic situation. Pocket depth was more strongly correlated with the acute marker fibrinogen while attachment and tooth loss tended to be more strongly correlated with the chronic markers, HbA1c, and c-IMT. These findings can be useful in designing future studies investigating the association between PD and systemic disease. [source] Suitability for psychoanalytic psychotherapy: a reviewACTA PSYCHIATRICA SCANDINAVICA, Issue 3 2004K. Valbak Objective:, To review empirical studies on outpatients' pretherapy suitability for psychoanalytic psychotherapy. Method:, A literature search for studies in English was made in the databases MEDLINE, PsychInfo and EM-base. Forty-one studies spanning 20 years were selected for a thorough evaluation. Results:, Seventy-five per cent of the studies concerned brief dynamic psychotherapy. In general, application of single measures of suitability had a modest predictive value with correlations in the range of 0.17,0.73. There was no consistent difference between various formats of therapies. Most promising variables with the highest correlations with good outcome were: ,good quality of object relations', ,psychological mindedness' and ,motivation for change'. Some clinical guidelines can be drawn from quantitative research to provide the therapist with best method and format. Conclusion:, The importance of psychological variables known from the development of the brief dynamic therapies and earlier research was confirmed. Most correlations were modest and single factors could not be identified. Multivariate designs that combine different methods and formats with patient characteristics seem most promising in future predictor-outcome research. [source] Modularity of the rodent mandible: Integrating bones, muscles, and teethEVOLUTION AND DEVELOPMENT, Issue 6 2008Miriam Leah Zelditch Summary Several models explain how a complex integrated system like the rodent mandible can arise from multiple developmental modules. The models propose various integrating mechanisms, including epigenetic effects of muscles on bones. We test five for their ability to predict correlations found in the individual (symmetric) and fluctuating asymmetric (FA) components of shape variation. We also use exploratory methods to discern patterns unanticipated by any model. Two models fit observed correlation matrices from both components: (1) parts originating in same mesenchymal condensation are integrated, (2) parts developmentally dependent on the same muscle form an integrated complex as do those dependent on teeth. Another fits the correlations observed in FA: each muscle insertion site is an integrated unit. However, no model fits well, and none predicts the complex structure found in the exploratory analyses, best described as a reticulated network. Furthermore, no model predicts the correlation between proximal parts of the condyloid and coronoid, which can exceed the correlations between proximal and distal parts of the same process. Additionally, no model predicts the correlation between molar alveolus and ramus and/or angular process, one of the highest correlations found in the FA component. That correlation contradicts the basic premise of all five developmental models, yet it should be anticipated from the epigenetic effects of mastication, possibly the primary morphogenetic process integrating the jaw coupling forces generated by muscle contraction with those experienced at teeth. [source] Possibilities of using near infrared reflectance/transmittance spectroscopy for determination of polymeric protein in wheatJOURNAL OF THE SCIENCE OF FOOD AND AGRICULTURE, Issue 8 2007Éva Scholz Abstract Possibilities of using near-infrared reflectance and near-infrared transmittance (NIR/NIT) spectroscopic techniques for detecting differences in amount and size distribution of polymeric proteins in wheat were investigated. To evaluate whether differences in polymeric protein due to genetic or environmental variations were detectable by NIR/NIT techniques, wheat materials of different background were used. Size-exclusion high-performance liquid chromatography was applied to detect variation in polymeric protein. Partial least squares regression gave high R2 values between many protein parameters and NIR/NIT spectra (particularly second-derivative spectra of NIR 1100,2500 nm region) of flours, while no such relationship was found for whole wheat grains. Most and highest correlations were found for total amount of extractable and unextractable proteins and monomer/polymer protein ratio. Some positive relationships were found between percentage of total unextractable polymeric protein in the total polymeric protein and percentage of large unextractable polymeric protein in the total large polymeric protein and NIR/NIT spectra. Thus, it was possible to detect differences in polymeric proteins with NIR/NIT techniques. The highest amount of positive correlations between NIR/NIT spectra and protein parameters was found to be due to environmental influences. Some correlations were found for breeding lines with a broad variation in gluten strength and polymeric protein composition, while a more homogeneous sample showed less correlation. Thereby, detection of variation in amount and size distribution of polymeric protein due to cultivar differences with NIR/NIT methods might be difficult. Copyright © 2007 Society of Chemical Industry [source] Which cranial regions reflect molecular distances reliably in humans?AMERICAN JOURNAL OF HUMAN BIOLOGY, Issue 1 2009Evidence from three-dimensional morphology Knowledge of the degree to which various subsets of morphological data reflect molecular relationships is crucial for studies attempting to estimate genetic relationships from patterns of morphological variation. This study assessed the phylogenetic utility of six different human cranial regions, plus the entire cranium. Three-dimensional landmark data were collected for 83 landmarks from samples of skulls from 14 modern human populations. The data were subsequently divided into anatomical regions: basicranium, upper face, mandible, temporal bone, upper jaw, cranial vault, and a subset of points from around the entire cranium. Depictions of population molecular distances were calculated using published data on microsatellites for the same or closely related populations. Distances based on morphological variation of each of the anatomical regions were compared with molecular distances, and the correlations assessed. The morphology of the basicranium, temporal bone, upper face, and entire cranium demonstrated the highest correlations with molecular distances. The morphology of the mandible, upper jaw, and cranial vault, as measured here, were not significantly correlated with molecular distances. As the three-dimensional morphology of the temporal bone, upper face, basicranium, and entire cranium appear to consistently reflect genetic relationships in humans, especially with more reliability than the cranial vault, it would be preferable to focus on these regions when attempting to determine the genetic relationships of human specimens with no molecular data. Am. J.Hum. Biol., 2009. © 2008 Wiley-Liss, Inc. [source] Threshold levels of purified natural Bos d 2 for inducing bronchial airway response in asthmatic patientsCLINICAL & EXPERIMENTAL ALLERGY, Issue 10 2002T. Zeiler Summary Background Provocation tests are invaluable in establishing threshold levels and a causal relationship between atopic asthma and a certain allergen source, especially in relation to work-associated exposure. Purified major allergens open possibilities for a more accurate assessment of sensitization. Objective To determine the threshold dose of purified major bovine dander allergen Bos d 2 in bronchial provocation in comparison with the standard allergen and a set of other parameters of allergy. Method Nine consecutive patients referred to hospital for confirming the bovine origin of their occupational asthma were subjected to bronchial provocation tests with purified natural Bos d 2 and a standard bovine dander allergen. Additional tests included bronchial histamine challenge, measurements of total IgE, specific IgE antibody determinations and skin prick tests (SPT) with both allergens. Results In the provocation tests with Bos d 2, a 15% decrease in the forced expiratory volume in 1 s (FEV1) and/or peak expiratory flow (PEF) values in eight out of nine patients confirmed the predominant role of Bos d 2 in the sensitization. The threshold dose of Bos d 2 varied from 0.1 µg to > 100 µg (median ± median absolute deviation = 4.5 ± 3.9 µg). A positive SPT was induced by a median dose of 13.9 ± 9.8 µg of Bos d 2. Bronchial response to histamine and IgE antibodies against Bos d 2 showed the highest correlations to the provocations results. Conclusions The efficacy of Bos d 2 in bronchial provocation in patients with occupational cattle-associated asthma was confirmed and the range of the threshold level was determined. There were individual variations, but the response in provocation remains the reference method for identification of the cause of occupational atopic asthma. SPT and the measurement of specific IgE antibodies, preferably with purified or recombinant major allergens, increase the accuracy of the diagnosis. [source] | ||||||||||||||||