Molecular analyses clearly divided populations into broad geographic regions, with the southern lowland populations basal to (southern highland (+ northern)) populations. Intra-population polymorphism in colony-founding strategy was widespread, and polymorphism was reconstructed as the likely ancestral state. The frequency of different strategies was linked with climate, with DCF more common in colder areas. A recent inferred origin to the northern lineage suggests that colonization of northern Japan was a rapid event coincident with warming at the end of the Last Glacial Maxima, likely facilitated by the cold-adaptive advantages of DCF. We discuss how such polymorphisms could help explain the biogeography of this and other social insects.The dicarbonylation of 1,3-butadiene to adipic acid derivatives offers the potential for a more cost-efficient and environmentally benign industrial process. However, the complex reaction network of regioisomeric carbonylation and isomerization pathways, make a selective and direct transformation particularly difficult. Here, we report surprising solvent effects on this palladium-catalysed process in the presence of 1,2-bis-di-tert-butylphosphin-oxylene (dtbpx) ligands, which allow adipate diester formation from 1,3-butadiene, carbon monoxide, and methanol with 97 % selectivity and 100 % atom-economy under scalable conditions. Under optimal conditions a variety of di- and triesters from 1,2- and 1,3-dienes can be obtained in good to excellent yields.Skin cancer is the most frequently diagnosed cancer in the fair-skinned population. In recent years, the incidence of nonmelanoma skin cancer (NMSC) has been increasing worldwide. However, there is no epidemiological study on skin cancer in the Asian population. A prospective cohort study including 140 420 participants was initiated in 1990 for cohort Ⅰ and 1993 for cohort Ⅱ at baseline survey from 11 public health center (PHC) areas. Of these participants, 284 NMSC cases were diagnosed during the follow-up period (through 2012 in the Osaka PHC area and 2013 in the other PHC areas). The Cox proportional hazards model was used to estimate hazard ratios and 95% confidence intervals (CI) for NMSC incidence according to occupational type, lifestyle factors (alcohol consumption, coffee consumption, smoking status, physical activity, and body mass index), and family history of cancer. Among men, compared with indoor workers, outdoor workers were associated with 2.18 (95% CI, 1.17-4.04) higher risk of squamous cell carcinoma (SCC) but not of basal cell carcinoma (BCC). Furthermore, men who have a family history of cancer had 1.99 (95% CI, 1.10-3.62) higher SCC risk. In women, we did not observe any association between occupational type and the risk of SCC (1.26; 95% CI, 0.68-2.32) or BCC (0.74; 95% CI, 0.42-1.28). In conclusion, men who are outdoor workers or have a family history of cancer had an increased risk of SCC.Understanding the process and consequences of hybridization is one of the major challenges in evolutionary biology. A growing body of literature has reported evidence of ancient hybridization events or natural hybrid zones in primates, including humans; however, we still have relatively limited knowledge about the pattern and history of admixture because there have been little studies that simultaneously achieved genome-scale analysis and a geographically wide sampling of wild populations. Our study applied double-digest restriction site-associated DNA sequencing to samples from the six localities in and around the provisional hybrid zone of rhesus and long-tailed macaques and evaluated population structure, phylogenetic relationships, demographic history, and geographic clines of morphology and allele frequencies. A latitudinal gradient of genetic components was observed, highlighting the transition from rhesus (north) to long-tailed macaque distribution (south) as well as the presence of one northern population of long-tailed macaques exhibiting unique genetic structure. Interspecific gene flow was estimated to have recently occurred after an isolation period, and the migration rate from rhesus to long-tailed macaques was slightly greater than in the opposite direction. Although some rhesus macaque-biased alleles have widely introgressed into long-tailed macaque populations, the inflection points of allele frequencies have been observed as concentrated around the traditionally recognized interspecific boundary where morphology discontinuously changed; this pattern was more pronounced in the X chromosome than in autosomes. Thus, due to geographic separation before secondary contact, reproductive isolation could have evolved, contributing to the maintenance of an interspecific boundary and species-specific morphological characteristics.Here we investigate brain functional connectivity in patients with visual snow syndrome (VSS). Our main objective was to understand more about the underlying pathophysiology of this neurological syndrome. Twenty-four patients with VSS and an equal number of gender and age-matched healthy volunteers attended MRI sessions in which whole-brain maps of functional connectivity were acquired under two conditions at rest while watching a blank screen and during a visual paradigm consisting of a visual-snow like stimulus. Eight unilateral seed regions were selected a priori based on previous observations and hypotheses; four seeds were placed in key anatomical areas of the visual pathways and the remaining were derived from a pre-existing functional analysis. The between-group analysis showed that patients with VSS had hyper and hypoconnectivity between key visual areas and the rest of the brain, both in the resting state and during a visual stimulation, compared with controls. We found altered connectivity internally within the visual network; between the thalamus/basal ganglia and the lingual gyrus; between the visual motion network and both the default mode and attentional networks. Further, patients with VSS presented decreased connectivity during external sensory input within the salience network, and between V5 and precuneus. Our results suggest that VSS is characterised by a widespread disturbance in the functional connectivity of several brain systems. This dysfunction involves the pre-cortical and cortical visual pathways, the visual motion network, the attentional networks and finally the salience network; further, it represents evidence of ongoing alterations both at rest and during visual stimulus processing.The kinetics of the unimolecular dissociations of proton-bound dimers produced by fast-atom bombardment from nucleosides and reference amines enables the evaluation of the proton affinities (PAs) of ribonucleosides. The PAs of cytosine, guanosine, adenosine, uridine, and deoxyuridine have been thus determined. These values and those already available for the corresponding DNA homologues allow the evaluation of the effect of the hydroxyl group in position 2′ of the sugar moiety, which lowers the PAs of RNA nucleosides by 0.6-1 kcal/mol, and of the methyl group in position 5 of the thymine ring, which enhances the basicity of deoxythymidine over deoxyuridine by 0.6 kcal/mol.Making industry greener Many principles for the economic production of organic bulk chemicals, the syntheses of which have potentially the highest environmental impact, currently overlap with principles of green chemistry. However, there remain enough challenges in making industrial organic synthesis even greener while keeping them efficient, which requires research and innovative processes. How efficient industrial organic chemistry can go hand in hand with principles of green chemistry is reflected in this Science Voices article.

Psychosocial interventions can reduce cancer-related fatigue effectively. However, it is still unclear if intervention effects differ across subgroups of patients. These meta-analyses aimed at evaluating moderator effects of (a) sociodemographic characteristics, (b) clinical characteristics, (c) baseline levels of fatigue and other symptoms, and (d) intervention-related characteristics on the effect of psychosocial interventions on cancer-related fatigue in patients with non-metastatic breast and prostate cancer.

Data were retrieved from the Predicting OptimaL cAncer RehabIlitation and Supportive care (POLARIS) consortium. Potential moderators were studied with meta-analyses of pooled individual patient data from 14 randomized controlled trials through linear mixed-effects models with interaction tests. The analyses were conducted separately in patients with breast (n = 1091) and prostate cancer (n = 1008).

Statistically significant, small overall effects of psychosocial interventions on fatigue were fo

Our findings did not provide evidence that any selected demographic or clinical characteristic, or baseline levels of fatigue or pain, moderated effects of psychosocial interventions on fatigue. A specific focus on decreasing fatigue seems beneficial for patients with breast cancer with clinically relevant fatigue.Self-compassion is associated with disability, pain-related anxiety as well as depression and anger in patients with chronic pain. However, the unique value of self-compassion versus other concepts such as psychological flexibility and self-esteem is unknown. The present study therefore aimed to clarify these relationships. Individuals with chronic pain (NCP = 872) and without chronic pain (NNP = 356) took part in a longitudinal study. Participants completed self-report instruments Pain Disability Index (PDI), Pain Catastrophizing Scale (PCS), Pain Anxiety Symptom Scale (PASS-20), Patient Health Questionnaire (PHQ-9), State Trait Anger Expression Inventory (STAXI), Self-Compassion Scale (SCS), Psychological Inflexibility in Pain Scale (PIPS) and Rosenberg Self-Esteem Scale (RSES). Assessments were repeated after 8 weeks. We found differences in baseline levels of all relevant variables except for anger-out and anger-control between people with and without chronic pain. Subsequently, we computed a path model assion regarding pain, depression and anger. The relevance of self-compassion was compared to psychological flexibility and self-esteem. We can conclude that psychological flexibility, in terms of avoidance behaviour, is the most relevant predictor concerning pain.The structural complexity of the thalamus, due to its mixed composition of gray and white matter, make it challenging to disjoint and quantify each tissue contribution to the thalamic anatomy. This work promotes the use of partial-volume-based over probabilistic-based tissue segmentation approaches to better capture thalamic gray matter differences between patients at different stages of psychosis (early and chronic) and healthy controls. The study was performed on a cohort of 23 patients with schizophrenia, 41 with early psychosis and 69 age and sex-matched healthy subjects. Six tissue segmentation approaches were employed to obtain the gray matter concentration/probability images. The statistical tests were applied at three different anatomical scales whole thalamus, thalamic subregions and voxel-wise. The results suggest that the partial volume model estimation of gray matter is more sensitive to detect atrophies within the thalamus of patients with psychosis. However all the methods detected gray matter deficit in the pulvinar, particularly in early stages of psychosis.