Degree Of Relatedness Research Articles

Initial characterization of mitochondrial DNA control region haplotypes of the Antillean manatee (Trichechus manatus manatus, Sirenia:Trichechidae) in Guatemala

Introduction: Small populations are at risk of losing genetic variability much faster than large populations; this subsequently decreases their ability to adapt when facing environmental changes. A small population of the endangered Antillean manatee (Trichechus manatus manatus) has been identified in Guatemala.
 Objective: This study explored the genetic diversity of the Antillean manatee in Guatemala by analysing mitochondrial DNA control region haplotypes in the two most important habitats for the species, Bahía La Graciosa, a coastal bay and Bocas del Polochic, a coastal wetland, both located in the Izabal State.
 Methods: Genetic samples were collected using non or minimally invasive sampling techniques: scraping of epidermal tissue, collection of floating feces, and collection of tissue from carcasses. DNA extractions, DNA amplification using polymerase chain reaction (PCR), and sequencing of the control D-loop region were used to process and analyse the samples.
 Results: Seven mitochondrial DNA sequences were obtained from 36 samples collected (minimum of four and maximum of seven individuals). Four haplotypes were identified, A01, A03, A04, and J01. No other Central American country has reported this number of haplotypes in a manatee population, and it is the first time that haplotype A01 has been reported for the region. The Guatemalan manatee population comprises at least two genetic lineages, the Florida/Greater Antilles lineage (haplotypes A01, A03, and A04) and the Mesoamerican lineage (J01).
 Conclusion: Further studies, with the use of nuclear markers, are necessary to understand the population dynamics between Bahia La Graciosa and Bocas del Polochic to identify the number of management units present in the country; also, the degree of relatedness with the Belizean population needs to be established to better coordinate conservation efforts.

Understanding Regional Branching: Knowledge Diversification via Inventor and Firm Collaboration Networks

The diversification of regions into new technologies is driven by the degree of relatedness to existing capabilities already present in the region. In cases where opportunities for diversification are rather limited, external knowledge that spills over from neighboring regions or from farther away might become an important driver of regional diversification. Despite the relative importance of interregional knowledge flows via collaborative work, we still have a very limited understanding of how collaboration networks across regions might facilitate diversification processes. The present study investigates the diversification patterns of European metropolitan and nonmetropolitan regions into new knowledge domains via technology classes reported in patent applications to the European Patent Office. The findings indicate that externally oriented inventor collaboration networks increase the likelihood that a new technology specialization enters a region, but this external orientation is less important for related diversification than for unrelated diversification. Further, the results demonstrate that interregional collaboration networks help diversification into unrelated technologies if external knowledge sourcing is based on a diverse set of regions and if collaboration is intense within companies located in distinct regions. Within-firm collaborations across regions can compensate for missing related skills in metropolitan and in nonmetropolitan regions alike but are especially important in nonmetropolitan regions. These results provide new evidence about the importance of knowledge flows within multilocation firms in the technological knowledge diversification of regions.

Prosocial aggression tracks genetic relatedness distinctly from emotional closeness.

Altruistic behavior is understood to largely stem from adaptations for kin altruism, contingent on degree of relatedness, and/or reciprocal altruism, contingent on degree of benefits conferred in exchange for help. Because kin qualify for both kin and reciprocal altruism, they should receive greater support than friends, as has been demonstrated in prior research. Here, we tested this prediction with regard to willingness to punish on another's behalf, comparing inclinations to aggress against transgressors when the victim was framed as an acquaintance, close friend, cousin, sibling, or oneself. Participants endorsed comparably greater direct aggression on behalf of the self, kin, or friends relative to acquaintances, despite reporting substantially greater emotional closeness to friends, consistent with what has been termed a kinship premium. Kin engendered greater aid than is explicable by affiliative emotion. Participants also reported less anger-yet trends toward greater disgust-when victims were acquaintances relative to all other conditions, replicating prior work distinguishing the social functions of anger and disgust. These results are discussed as they inform both the kinship premium hypothesis and sociofunctional accounts of moral emotion. (PsycInfo Database Record (c) 2022 APA, all rights reserved).

HAPNEST: efficient, large-scale generation and evaluation of synthetic datasets for genotypes and phenotypes.

Existing methods for simulating synthetic genotype and phenotype datasets have limited scalability, constraining their usability for large-scale analyses. Moreover, a systematic approach for evaluating synthetic data quality and a benchmark synthetic dataset for developing and evaluating methods for polygenic risk scores are lacking. We present HAPNEST, a novel approach for efficiently generating diverse individual-level genotypic and phenotypic data. In comparison to alternative methods, HAPNEST shows faster computational speed and a lower degree of relatedness with reference panels, while generating datasets that preserve key statistical properties of real data. These desirable synthetic data properties enabled us to generate 6.8 million common variants and nine phenotypes with varying degrees of heritability and polygenicity across 1 million individuals. We demonstrate how HAPNEST can facilitate biobank-scale analyses through the comparison of seven methods to generate polygenic risk scoring across multiple ancestry groups and different genetic architectures. A synthetic dataset of 1 008 000 individuals and nine traits for 6.8 million common variants is available at https://www.ebi.ac.uk/biostudies/studies/S-BSST936. The HAPNEST software for generating synthetic datasets is available as Docker/Singularity containers and open source Julia and C code at https://github.com/intervene-EU-H2020/synthetic_data.

The role of relatedness in firm interrelationships

PurposeThis paper analyses how firm births and deaths are influenced by previous firm births and deaths in related and unrelated sectors. Competition and multiplier effects are used as the theoretical lens for this analysis.Design/methodology/approachThis paper uses 2008–2016 Irish business demography data pertaining to 568 NACE 4-digit sectors within 20 NACE 1-digit industries across 34 Irish county and sub-county regions within 8 NUTS3 regions. A three-stage least squares (3SLS) estimation is used to analyse the impact of past firm deaths (births) on future firm births (deaths). The effect of relatedness on firm interrelationships is explicitly modelled and captured.FindingsFindings indicate that the multiplier effect operates mostly through related sectors, while the competition effect operates mostly through unrelated sectors.Research limitations/implicationsThis paper's findings show that firm interrelationships are significantly influenced by the degree of relatedness between firms. The raw data used to calculate firm birth and death rates in this analysis are count data. Each new firm is measured the same as another regardless of differing features like size. Some research has shown that smaller firms have a greater propensity to create entrepreneurs (Parker, 2009). Thus, it is possible that the death of differently sized firms may contribute differently to multiplier effects where births induce further births. Future research could seek to examine this.Practical implicationsThese findings have implications for policy initiatives concerned with increasing entrepreneurship. Some express concerns that public investment into entrepreneurship can lead to “crowding out” effects (Cumming and Johan, 2019), meaning that public investment into entrepreneurship could displace or reduce private investment into entrepreneurship (Audretsch and Fiedler, 2023; Zikou et al., 2017). This study’s findings indicate that using public investment to increase firm births could increase future firm births in related and unrelated sectors. However, more negative “crowding out” effects may also occur in unrelated sectors, meaning that public investment which stimulates firm births in a certain sector could induce firm deaths and crowd out entrepreneurship in unrelated sectors.Originality/valueThis paper is the first in the literature to explicitly account for the role of relatedness in firm interrelationships.

Heredity of pregnancy-related pelvic girdle pain in Sweden.

Pelvic girdle pain during and after pregnancy is a major public health problem with significant daily problems for affected women and their families. There is now accumulating evidence that pregnancy-related pelvic girdle pain originates from the sacroiliac joints and the pubic symphysis as well as their extra-articular ligaments. However, the heritability of the disease remains to be determined. We hypothesized that there is an increased familial risk of pregnancy-related pelvic girdle pain. A population-based national database linkage registry study of approximately 9.3 million individuals within 4.2 million families in Sweden with a recruitment period from 1997 to 2018. The Swedish Multi-generation register was used to find female pairs of twins, full siblings, half-siblings and first cousins where both in the pairs had a completed pregnancy. The outcome measure was diagnosis of pregnancy-related pelvic girdle pain (International Classification of Diseases-10 O26.7 [1997-2018]) in the first pregnancy. Data was obtained from the Swedish Hospital Discharge Register, the Swedish Outpatient Care Register, the Swedish Medical Birth Register, the Primary Healthcare Register, and Medical Treatment Register. Cox regression analysis was used to calculate adjusted estimated effect of the exposure variable familial history of pregnancy-related pelvic girdle pain on the outcome variable pregnancy-related pelvic girdle pain at first birth. From the registers, 1 010 064 women pregnant with their first child within 795 654 families were collected. In total, 109 147 women were diagnosed with pregnancy-related pelvic girdle pain. The adjusted hazard ratio for a familial risk of pregnancy-related pelvic girdle pain was 2.09 (95% CI 1.85-2.37) among twins (monozygotic and dizygotic), 1.78 (95% CI 1.74-1.82) in full siblings, 1.16 (95% CI 1.06-1.28) in half-siblings from the mother, 1.09 (95% CI 1.024-1.16) in half-siblings from the father and 1.09 (95% CI 1.07-1.12) in first cousins. This nationwide observational study showed a familial clustering of pregnancy-related pelvic girdle pain. The hazard ratio for the condition was associated with the degree of relatedness, suggesting that heredity factors contribute to the development of pregnancy-related pelvic girdle pain. There is no causal treatment available for pregnancy-related pelvic girdle pain and further studies are now encouraged to clarify the specific genetic factors that contribute to the disease and for future targeted interventions.

Preference and performance of the generalist aphid Myzus persicae on closely and distantly related plant species

AbstractThe ability of herbivorous insects to discriminate suitable host plants for the development of their progeny is not homogenous. Herbivores with broader diets show weaker correlation between oviposition preference and offspring performance in comparison with specialist insects. The neural constraints hypothesis postulates that due to neural limitation, generalist insects would have greater difficulty in processing a large number of stimuli from diverse host plants. Under this framework, it is expected that generalists would be more efficient in discriminating suitable plants when faced with more similar stimuli from closely related plants (simplified environment), and less efficient when faced with more diverse stimuli from unrelated plants (complex environment). In this study, we evaluated this in the generalist aphid Myzus persicae (Sulzer) (Hemiptera: Aphididae). Preference was evaluated as the aphid's ability to discriminate between congeneric plant species or between plants from different families. The congeneric host plants were the cultivated potato, Solanum tuberosum L., the wild potato, Solanum commersonii Dunal, tomato, Solanum lycopersicum L., and eggplant, Solanum melongena L. (Solanaceae). The plant species of different families used were spinach, Spinacia oleracea L. (Amaranthaceae), squash, Cucurbita maxima Duchesne (Cucurbitaceae), and basil, Ocimum basilicum L. (Lamiaceae). Performance was evaluated as the population growth in one generation on whole‐plant conditions and on excised leaves. The results showed positive correlations between settlement and larviposition preferences and the performance of M. persicae for all comparisons between unrelated plant species. Positive correlations between preference and performance were also observed for two of the three comparisons between congeneric plants. These results indicate that M. persicae can efficiently discriminate between suitable plants for their progeny regardless of the degree of relatedness of the plants, which is at odds with the neural constraints hypothesis. The results contribute to the knowledge of host selection mechanisms in generalist herbivores, particularly in an underrepresented insect group.

Enabling robust environmental DNA assay design with “unikseq” for the identification of taxon‐specific regions within whole mitochondrial genomes

AbstractEnvironmental DNA (eDNA) is revolutionizing species monitoring in nature. At the heart of any eDNA approach is the reliance upon sufficient DNA sequence information to satisfy the demands of eDNA assay specificity and sensitivity. The most common source of this information has been restricted to short barcoding regions of the mitochondrial genome (mitogenome) and marker genes. The use of these limited regions for assay design has often resulted in substantial trade‐offs in assay performance. With increased accessibility of full mitogenome assemblies, the potential for designing more robust eDNA assays is considerably enhanced. However, this also poses a new challenge to effectively identify suitable regions for assay design using considerably larger sequences. We present unikseq, a utility that uses words of length k (k‐mers) to identify unique regions in a reference sequence relative to tolerated (ingroup) and not‐tolerated (outgroup or non‐target) sequence sets, quickly and with low memory that can yield highly specific assays. We illustrate its application within an assay development workflow through use‐case examples for the design and validation of four quantitative real‐time polymerase chain reaction (qPCR)‐based assays selective for American bullfrog (Rana [Lithobates] catesbeiana), Burbot (Lota lota), Lake trout (Salvelinus namaycush), and Quillback rockfish (Sebastes maliger). The chosen target species vary in range, habitat, and degree of relatedness to their sympatric species that, consequently, impact eDNA assay design difficulty. We demonstrate the effectiveness of unikseq through assay validation and characterization using DNA from voucher specimens, synthetic DNA, and, where possible, field samples, to verify the specificity and sensitivity of the newly designed assays. By facilitating whole mitogenome sequence comparison, the creation of high‐performing eDNA assays is substantially enhanced. Having several adjustable parameters for specifying user requirements within unikseq, this approach can facilitate the identification of suitable regions for a broad range of applications requiring nucleotide sequence comparisons.

William George Hill. 7 August 1940—17 December 2021

William (Bill) Hill was an internationally acclaimed statistical, population and quantitative geneticist. His work was inspired by practical problems in animal breeding, but is widely applicable to evolutionary biology and human genetics. Bill's work focused on the joint effects of linkage, mutation and genetic architecture in finite populations. He showed that linked loci under selection can interfere with each other, reducing the rate of response to selection. He derived a widely used metric for linkage disequilibrium and showed that there is likely to be substantial linkage disequilibrium between closely linked variants in finite populations. He also showed that the sampling variance of linkage disequilibrium is very large, hampering its use in estimating effective population size or recombination rates. Bill derived sampling variances for inbreeding and realized relatedness between individuals with the same expected degree of relatedness. He raised awareness about the importance of new mutations for quantitative genetic variation and the response to artificial selection, and developed models for the maintenance of quantitative genetic variation by a balance between mutation and stabilizing selection. His experimental designs for estimating heritability and conducting artificial selection experiments have been widely adopted, and were utilized in his own long-term mouse selection experiments. Bill influenced animal breeding directly through consultancies with breeding companies, and his influence on quantitative genetics continues today via his numerous mentees.

Assessment of the Degree of Relatedness of Some Inbred Lines Created at ARDS Turda

Knowledge of relatedness among maize elite breeding genotypes is useful in planning crosses for hybrid and inbred line improvement and assigning them into heterotic groups. This study investigated phenotypic and genetic similarities or diversities between 7 flint inbred lines (of common origin) adapted to the early maize growing regions created at ARDS Turda-Romania. They were studied for per se traits and in two crossing systems: a diallel crossing system, resulting in 21 hybrids and a cyclic system using four testers, thus resulting in 28 maize hybrids. Both parental inbred lines and hybrids were evaluated for several traits over three years. The level of relatedness/diversity was determined by various methods, grouped into: phenotypic methods and genetic methods. Similarities were identified between certain lines and a degree of differentiation between others. The analysis of the hybrid combinations from the diallel crossings between the seven sister lines highlighted the TD236 inbred line as the only one that differs genetically from the other. Following the analysis of the data obtained in the cyclic system, some inbred lines can be sources of favorable traits: TD236 and TD233 for yield, ear weight, grain/ear weight; TD233 and TD234 for the number of kernels/row, TD237 for plant breaking resistance.

Investigation of a Staphylococcus aureus sequence type 72 food poisoning outbreak associated with food-handler contamination in Italy.

On August 2019 a staphylococcal food poisoning outbreak occurred in an elderly home in Piedmont, Italy. The epidemiological investigation performed among the persons that consumed the meal identified chicken salad as the most likely source of the outbreak. Staphylococcus aureus was isolated from a total of seven samples, namely one vomit sample from a guest of the nursing home, two food samples (chicken salad with and without mayonnaise) and nasal swabs collected from a total of four persons working in the kitchen of the nursing home. The maximum likelihood tree obtained using single nucleotide polymorphisms analysis revealed that the isolates from the aforementioned samples clustered together. Multilocus sequence typing revealed that they belonged to Sequence Type 72. Fourier transform infrared spectroscopy (FTIR) was used in parallel to single nucleotide polymorphisms and whole genome sequencing for the determination of the degree of relatedness of the isolates. The results of the FTIR showed the same clustering obtained with single nucleotide polymorphisms and whole genome sequencing and revealed the source of infection. This study underlines the importance of both laboratory evidence and epidemiological data for outbreak investigation and further confirms that FTIR is a suitable support for the short-term epidemiological investigation on source attribution in case of a S. aureus infection.

Reshaping our Psyche: Establishing Closeness to Nature ensures Wellbeing

The objective of the present study was to analyze the relationship between relatedness to nature and its impact on one’s mental health and psychological wellbeing. This study involved relation to nature as the independent variable and measures of mental health and psychological wellbeing as the dependent variables. A two-group design was followed for this study wherein the NR-6 scale was employed as a screening tool to divide the obtained sample (N = 110) into two groups: group 1 (n = 19) included those who scored low on nature relatedness while group 2 (n = 91) included those who scored high on the same. The obtained results were analyzed using descriptive statistical techniques, mainly percentage analysis. Findings indicated that a higher degree of relatedness to one's natural environment and regular exposure to greenery leads to a high level of overall psychological well-being and promotes good mental health. Future implications and limitations were also suggested.

SNP-Based Heritability of Osteochondrosis Dissecans in Hanoverian Warmblood Horses.

Before the genomics era, heritability estimates were performed using pedigree data. Data collection for pedigree analysis is time consuming and holds the risk of incorrect or incomplete data. With the availability of SNP-based arrays, heritability can now be estimated based on genotyping data. We used SNP array and 1.6 million imputed genotype data with different minor allele frequency restrictions to estimate heritabilities for osteochondrosis dissecans in the fetlock, hock and stifle joints of 446 Hanoverian warmblood horses. SNP-based heritabilities were estimated using a genomic restricted maximum likelihood (GREML) method and accounting for patterns of regional linkage disequilibrium in the equine genome. In addition, we employed GREML for family data to account for different degrees of relatedness in the study population. Our results indicate that we were able to capture a larger proportion of additive genetic variance compared to pedigree-based estimates in the same population of Hanoverian horses. Heritability estimates on the linear scale for fetlock-, hock- and stifle-osteochondrosis dissecans were 0.41-0.43, 0.62-0.63, and 0.23-0.25, respectively, with standard errors of 0.11-0.14. Accounting for linkage disequilibrium patterns had an upward effect on the imputed data and a downward impact on the SNP array genotype data. GREML for family data resulted in higher heritability estimates for fetlock-osteochondrosis dissecans and slightly higher estimates for hock-osteochondrosis dissecans, but had no effect on stifle-osteochondrosis dissecans. The largest and most consistent heritability estimates were obtained when we employed GREML for family data with genomic relationship matrices weighted through patterns of regional linkage disequilibrium. Estimation of SNP-based heritability should be recommended for traits that can only be phenotyped in smaller samples or are cost-effective.

Revisiting the relatedness hypothesis: The impact of merger relatedness on acquiring and rival firm value

Despite intuitive appeal, empirical evidence supporting the relatedness hypothesis has been scant, as it has not been established that related acquisitions generally outperform unrelated acquisitions. In considering the impact of merger relatedness on not only acquiring-firm value – as is standard in the relatedness literature – but also on non-merging rival firm value, we offer an alternative perspective that sidesteps common critiques concerning the detection of the relatedness hypothesis. Specifically, our analytical approach broadens the conception of M&A performance outcomes to allow merger relatedness to impact both acquiring and rival firms. In line with the standard approach to testing relatedness, we find higher acquiring-firm value reactions when merging firms exhibit higher degrees of relatedness; and in line with a more-novel approach to testing relatedness, we find lower rival-firm value reactions when merging firms exhibit higher degrees of relatedness. Thus, by simultaneously examining the impact of relatedness on acquiring-firm and rival-firm value in an integrated manner, the relatedness hypothesis is supported.

Isolation and Molecular Identification of Enterobacter cloacae from Pregnant Women with Urinary Tract Infections in Biu, North Eastern Nigeria, Borno State

Urinary Tract Infections (UTIs) represent a significant, widespread, and expensive public health issue owing to their high frequency and the associated health challenges on pregnant women. This study aimed to isolate, molecularly identify Enterobacter cloacae strains from pregnant women with Urinary tract infections in some General Hospitals in Biu, Borno State. A total of 250 vaginal swabs from pregnant women who attended Antenatal Care Unit whose age ranges from 15 to 45 years were recruited using a well-designed questionnaire by random sampling technique. Gram-staining, culture, and wet microscopy were employed to check the presence of bacterial pathogens in the samples. Polymerase Chain Reaction was carried out to further validate the results. The degree of relatedness of the organism was determined using NCBI software. The result revealed that 167 representing 66.8% of the total samples studied showed significant bacterial growth. The ascending order of the percentage of the bacterial agents isolated include: Enterobacter cloacae 47 (28.1%), Klebsiella pneumoniae 36 (21.6%), Escherichia coli 23 (13.8%), Proteus mirabillis 19 (11.4%), Staphylococcus epidermis 15 (9.0%), Staphylococcus aureus14 (8.3%) and Pseudomonas aeruginosa 13 (7.8%). The result of the demographic factors showed that 17 (36.2%) of pregnant women infected within the age of 15–20 years had Enterobacter cloacae. Illiterate pregnant women were 19 (40.4%), unemployed pregnant women were 29 (61.7%), those in their third trimester (27-40 weeks) were 24 (51.1%), women who had 7 and above pregnancies 25 (53.2%), symptomatic and asymptomatic pregnant women within the age of 15–20 years 19 (40.4%), and rural dwellers 33 (70.2%). This study also demonstrated culture technique as the best biochemical method for isolation of bacterial agents compared to wet mount and microscopic Gram-staining isolation method. It can be concluded that there is a 66.8% prevalence of Enterobacter cloacae in Biu LGA of Borno State.

GRAPE: genomic relatedness detection pipeline.

Classifying the degree of relatedness between pairs of individuals has both scientific and commercial applications. As an example, genome-wide association studies (GWAS) may suffer from high rates of false positive results due to unrecognized population structure. This problem becomes especially relevant with recent increases in large-cohort studies. Accurate relationship classification is also required for genetic linkage analysis to identify disease-associated loci. Additionally, DNA relatives matching service is one of the leading drivers for the direct-to-consumer genetic testing market. Despite the availability of scientific and research information on the methods for determining kinship and the accessibility of relevant tools, the assembly of the pipeline, which stably operates on a real-world genotypic data, requires significant research and development resources. Currently, there is no open source end-to-end solution for relatedness detection in genomic data, that is fast, reliable and accurate for both close and distant degrees of kinship, combines all the necessary processing steps to work on a real data, and is ready for production integration. To address this, we developed GRAPE: Genomic RelAtedness detection PipelinE. It combines data preprocessing, identity-by-descent (IBD) segments detection, and accurate relationship estimation. The project uses software development best practices, as well as Global Alliance for Genomics and Health (GA4GH) standards and tools. Pipeline efficiency is demonstrated on both simulated and real-world datasets. GRAPE is available from: https://github.com/genxnetwork/grape.

The Meaning of Experience From a Design Perspective: An Interpretative Review

Experience is being approached from a multidisciplinary perspective, involving knowledge and research from across different areas of expertise. In spite of extensive research in the field of experience, it has yet not clearly emerged and developed as a research for design application, thus interpreting and describing experience in terms of design perspective is a complex subject. Specifically, with regards to understanding the relevance of design and experience, the need for clear interpretation of experience from a design perspective is seen as critical. This paper contributes to a rudimentary understanding of design and experience based on a thorough review of literature. The objective of this paper is to make close comparisons between design and experience and determine the degree of relatedness among one another to examine and identify the meaning of experience in rational terms, specifically from a design perspective. Therefore, the paper aims to provide an overview into the meaning, provenance and detailed analysis of design and experience, and also carefully reviews across a number of key attributes of both terms. As a consequence, the paper will propose a set of four distinct determinants of experience as an important feature to consider from a design background, which are Narrative, Temporal, Emotion and Meaning. In this interpretative review, the different research and analysis emerging in literature on design and experience has been reviewed and discussed, the results and recommendations drawn from this study may be utilized as a vehicle for the development of best practice guidelines for further research in the experience design area.

Impact of an Expanded Definition of Family History on Outcomes of Active Surveillance for Prostate Cancer.

Despite family history being an established risk factor for prostate cancer, the role of a broader definition of family history inclusive of not just prostate cancer but other genetically related malignancies has not been investigated in the active surveillance population. Here, we evaluate the impact of an expanded definition of family history on active surveillance outcomes. Patients undergoing active surveillance for prostate cancer at Massachusetts General Hospital from 1997-2019 with detailed data available on family cancer history were identified. Primary outcome was biopsy progression-free survival, and secondary outcomes were treatment-free survival, adverse pathological features at prostatectomy, and biochemical recurrence after treatment. Statistical analyses were conducted using the Kaplan-Meier method and Cox regression. Among 855 evaluable patients, 300 (35.1%) patients had any family history of prostate cancer, and 95 (11.1%) had a family history of related malignancies suggestive of a hereditary cancer syndrome. Family history of prostate cancer alone was not associated with biopsy progression, whereas family history suggestive of a hereditary cancer syndrome was associated with a significantly increased risk of biopsy progression (HR 1.43, 95%CI 1.01-2.02), independent of other known clinicopathological risk factors in multivariable analysis. Similarly, family history suggestive of a hereditary cancer syndrome was associated with significantly lower treatment-free survival (HR 1.58, 95%CI 1.14-2.18) in multivariable analysis. No significant association was found between family history and adverse features on surgical pathology or biochemical recurrence. An expanded family history suggestive of a hereditary cancer syndrome is an independent predictor of biopsy progression during active surveillance. Men with such a family history may still be offered active surveillance but should be counseled regarding the higher risk of disease progression.

Morphological variability and genetic potential of henna (Lawsonia inermis) germplasms in semi-arid regions of Rajasthan

Henna (Lawsonia inermis L.) is a commercial and export-oriented important perennial shrub used in the ornamentation of palm, feet, dyeing of hair, etc. Developing high-yielding varieties and elite plant materials are the best method to increase the productivity and quality in henna. An experiment was conducted at research farm of ICAR-Central Arid Zone Research Institute, Regional Research Station, Pali-Marwar, Rajasthan during 2018–22 in Randomized block design to assess variability among morphometric traits and genetic parameters for dry leaf yield and attributing characters in Henna. The results indicated that among 19 germplasms maximum dry leaf yield and minimum number of inflorescence was recorded in CZ-RSPH-8 followed by CZ-RSPH-15. The accession CZ-RSPH-9 (2.33%) exhibited the highest lawsone content (%) followed by CZ-RSPH-8 and CZ-RSPH-15. The estimates of phenotypic co-efficient variation (PCV) were higher than the respective genotypic co-efficient variation (GCV). The number of inflorescences registered high heritability with high genetic advance. Path analysis exhibited the direct effect of the number of inflorescence with dry leaf yield. Cluster analysis revealed two major clusters classified into 6 and 13 germplasm which depicts the diverse degree of relatedness among different accessions.

Geographic ranges and the hypothesis of the dispersal of the fishes of superfamily Congiopodoidea (Pisces: Scorpaenoidei) with the Antarctic Circumpolar Current

The most probable habitat of the ancestor of the superfamily Congiopodoidea Gill, 1889 is the area of the modern Malay Archipelago and Australia; the paths of further distribution as well as places of origin of taxa of different ranks within the superfamily are shown here based on morphological data. The dispersal of Congiopodoidea most likely occurred via the cold Antarctic Circumpolar Current, while members of the sister clade, the family Synanceiidae Swainson, 1839, occupied new habitats primarily in a northerly direction. Fishes of both families of Congiopodoidea (Congiopodidae Gill, 1889 and Zanclorhynchidae Andriashev, 1993) occupied new habitats only eastward of Australia, thus Zanclorhynchus spinifer heracleus Zhukov et Balushkin, 2018 appeared at the modern distribution area in the Ridge of Hercules in the Pacific Sector of the Southern Ocean after the ancestral forms had overcome more than a round-the-world migration. Six species of the genus Congiopodus Perry, 1811 have pairwise sympatric distribution ranges. They apparently originated on the shelves of Australia – C. leucopaecilus (Richardson, 1846), C. coriaceus Paulin et Moreland, 1979, and southern South America – C. peruvianus (Cuvier, 1829), C. kieneri (Sauvage, 1878), C. torvus (Gronow, 1772) and C. spinifer (Smith, 1839); moreover, the last two migrated further – to the southern point of the African continent. In the family Zanclorhynchidae, the monotypic genus Alertichthys Moreland, 1960 remained close to the place of radiation of the ancestral forms of the superfamily; its modern range covers seamounts and shelfs of islands south of New Zealand. The path of the ancestral forms of the second genus of this family, Zanclorhynchus Günther, 1880 was much longer. The most probable place of its origin is the waters of southern part of South America, from here the ancestral form migrated to the Prince Edward Islands in the Indian Ocean sector of the Southern Ocean, where it differentiated into two species Z. spinifer Günther, 1880 and Z. chereshnevi Balushkin et Zhukov, 2016. Zanclorhynchus spinifer further continued to occupy more eastern shelfs of islands and seamounts within the Antarctic Circumpolar Current, dividing into four subspecies: Z. spinifer armatus Zhukov, 2019, Z. spinifer spinifer Günther, 1880, Z. spinifer macquariensis Zhukov, 2019, and Z. spinifer heracleus. The hypothesis about the possibility of the distribution with the Antarctic Circumpolar Current as a dispersive agent is confirmed by morphological data, when the sequence of occupation of modern habitats is considered through the degree of relatedness of the fish inhabiting them.