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1.
Ecol Lett ; 23(3): 439-446, 2020 Mar.
Artigo em Inglês | MEDLINE | ID: mdl-31854097

RESUMO

Leigh Van Valen famously stated that under constant conditions extinction probability is independent of species age. To test this 'law of constant extinction', we developed a new method using deep learning to infer age-dependent extinction and analysed 450 myr of marine life across 21 invertebrate clades. We show that extinction rate significantly decreases with age in > 90% of the cases, indicating that most species died out soon after their appearance while those which survived experienced ever decreasing extinction risk. This age-dependent extinction pattern is stronger towards the Equator and holds true when the potential effects of mass extinctions and taxonomic inflation are accounted for. These results suggest that the effect of biological interactions on age-dependent extinction rate is more intense towards the tropics. We propose that the latitudinal diversity gradient and selection at the species level account for this exceptional, yet little recognised, macroevolutionary and macroecological pattern.


Assuntos
Biodiversidade , Extinção Biológica , Animais , Evolução Biológica , Fósseis , Invertebrados
2.
BMC Vet Res ; 14(1): 392, 2018 Dec 10.
Artigo em Inglês | MEDLINE | ID: mdl-30526580

RESUMO

BACKGROUND: New epidemiological data on bacterial and parasitic infections in 24 Italian wall lizards, namely Podarcis sicula (mainland population) and P. sicula klemmerii (insular population) in southern Italy were provided. To achieve this goal, samples were collected from individuals belonging to the two populations and analysed by microbiological and parasitological methods. RESULTS: A wide range of bacteria (e.g. Pantoea spp., Citrobacter spp., Morganella spp., Pseudomonas, Enterobacter spp., Staphylococcus spp. and Escherichia coli) and parasites (e.g. Ophionyssus natricis, coccidia, Dicrocoelidae) were detected in both P. sicula and P. sicula klemmerii individuals. Insular population presented similar bacterial and parasitic diversity to its mainland counterpart. Ampicillin was the antimicrobial with the highest resistance rate. CONCLUSION: This study highlighted various bacteria and parasites, some of them potentially zoonotic. Further studies are needed to better understand the epidemiology and transmission routes of these pathogens along with their impact on the welfare and behaviour of Italian wall lizards.


Assuntos
Lagartos/microbiologia , Lagartos/parasitologia , Ácaros e Carrapatos , Animais , Infecções Bacterianas/epidemiologia , Infecções Bacterianas/microbiologia , Infecções Bacterianas/veterinária , Coccídios , Coccidiose/epidemiologia , Coccidiose/parasitologia , Coccidiose/veterinária , Feminino , Itália/epidemiologia , Masculino , Infestações por Ácaros/epidemiologia , Infestações por Ácaros/parasitologia , Infestações por Ácaros/veterinária
3.
Ig Sanita Pubbl ; 74(3): 279-293, 2018.
Artigo em Italiano | MEDLINE | ID: mdl-30235468

RESUMO

Exchange of information between healthcare professionals involved in the care of patients is essential for providing effective care. Use of the Situation-BackgroundAssessment-Recommendation (SBAR) methodology is increasingly indicated in the health sector to facilitate communication during handovers of patients between clinicians or clinical teams. The present review of the literature aims to determine the effectiveness of the SBAR methodology in the handover of nursing documentation.


Assuntos
Comunicação , Continuidade da Assistência ao Paciente/normas , Transferência da Responsabilidade pelo Paciente , Humanos , Itália , Equipe de Assistência ao Paciente/normas , Transferência da Responsabilidade pelo Paciente/normas
4.
Anat Rec (Hoboken) ; 2024 Aug 09.
Artigo em Inglês | MEDLINE | ID: mdl-39126145

RESUMO

Long bone ecomorphology has proven effective for paleohabitat reconstructions across a wide range of mammalian clades. Still, there is no comprehensive framework to allow interpretation of long bone morphological variation within and between different monophyletic groups. Here, we investigated the use of humerus morphometry to classify living members of the orders Carnivora and ungulates based on their preferred habitats. Using geometric morphometrics, we extracted three different kinds of humerus shape data describing interspecific variation with and without accounting for evolutionary allometry and phylogenetic signal. The traditional a priori categorization of species in open, mixed, and closed habitats was employed in combination with selected subsets of shape variables to identify the best-predictive models for habitat adaptation. These were identified based on the statistical performance of phylogenetic and non-phylogenetic discriminant analyses and then applied to predict habitats on a subsample of fossil species. Size-free shape data combined with phylogenetic discriminant analyses showed the highest rate of accuracy in habitat classification for a combined sample of carnivorans and ungulates. Conversely, when the two groups were investigated separately, traditional shape data analyzed with phylogenetic discriminant function analyses provided models with the greatest predictive power. By combining carnivorans and ungulates within the same methodological framework we identified common adaptive features in closed habitat-adapted species that show compressed epiphyses, while open habitat-adapted species have expanded epiphyses. These morphologies evolved to allow significant degree of direction switches during locomotion in closed habitats compared to open habitat-adapted species whose forelimb joints evolved to stabilize articulations for increasing speed.

5.
Commun Biol ; 7(1): 889, 2024 Jul 21.
Artigo em Inglês | MEDLINE | ID: mdl-39034315

RESUMO

The global biodiversity crisis is generated by the combined effects of human-induced climate change and land conversion. Madagascar is one of the World's most renewed hotspots of biodiversity. Yet, its rich variety of plant and animal species is threatened by deforestation and climate change. Predicting the future of Madagascar's chameleons, in particular, is complicated by their ecological rarity, making it hard to tell which factor is the most menacing to their survival. By applying an extension of the ENphylo species distribution model algorithm to work with extremely rare species, we find that Madagascar chameleons will face intense species loss in the north-western sector of the island. Land conversion by humans will drive most of the loss, and will intersect in a complex, nonlinear manner with climate change. We find that some 30% of the Madagascar's chameleons may lose in the future nearly all their habitats, critically jeopardizing their chance for survival.


Assuntos
Biodiversidade , Mudança Climática , Conservação dos Recursos Naturais , Lagartos , Madagáscar , Animais , Lagartos/fisiologia , Ecossistema , Modelos Biológicos
6.
Commun Biol ; 7(1): 1009, 2024 Aug 17.
Artigo em Inglês | MEDLINE | ID: mdl-39154087

RESUMO

The study of evolutionary rates and patterns is the key to understand how natural selection shaped the current and past diversity of phenotypes. Phylogenetic comparative methods offer an array of solutions to undertake this challenging task, and help understanding phenotypic variation in full in most circumstances. However, complex, three-dimensional structures such as the skull and the brain serve disparate goals, and different portions of these phenotypes often fulfil different functions, making it hard to understand which parts truly were recruited by natural selection. In the recent past, we developed tools apt to chart evolutionary rate and patterns directly on three-dimensional shapes, according to their magnitude and direction. Here, we present further developments of these tools, which now allow to restitute the mapping of rates and patterns with full biological realism. The tools are condensed in a new R software package.


Assuntos
Evolução Biológica , Fenótipo , Filogenia , Software , Animais , Imageamento Tridimensional , Crânio/anatomia & histologia , Humanos , Seleção Genética
7.
Nat Ecol Evol ; 7(1): 42-50, 2023 01.
Artigo em Inglês | MEDLINE | ID: mdl-36604552

RESUMO

There is controversy around the mechanisms that guided the change in brain shape during the evolution of modern humans. It has long been held that different cortical areas evolved independently from each other to develop their unique functional specializations. However, some recent studies suggest that high integration between different cortical areas could facilitate the emergence of equally extreme, highly specialized brain functions. Here, we analyse the evolution of brain shape in primates using three-dimensional geometric morphometrics of endocasts. We aim to determine, firstly, whether modern humans present unique developmental patterns of covariation between brain cortical areas; and secondly, whether hominins experienced unusually high rates of evolution in brain covariation as compared to other primates. On the basis of analyses including modern humans and other extant great apes at different developmental stages, we first demonstrate that, unlike our closest living relatives, Homo sapiens retain high levels of covariation between cortical areas into adulthood. Among the other great apes, high levels of covariation are only found in immature individuals. Secondly, at the macro-evolutionary level, our analysis of 400 endocasts, representing 148 extant primate species and 6 fossil hominins, shows that strong covariation between different areas of the brain in H. sapiens and Homo neanderthalensis evolved under distinctly higher evolutionary rates than in any other primate, suggesting that natural selection favoured a greatly integrated brain in both species. These results hold when extinct species are excluded and allometric effects are accounted for. Our findings demonstrate that high covariation in the brain may have played a critical role in the evolution of unique cognitive capacities and complex behaviours in both modern humans and Neanderthals.


Assuntos
Hominidae , Homem de Neandertal , Animais , Humanos , Primatas , Encéfalo , Cabeça
8.
Eur J Hosp Pharm ; 28(Suppl 2): e115-e119, 2021 11.
Artigo em Inglês | MEDLINE | ID: mdl-33122403

RESUMO

OBJECTIVES: Chronic inflammatory demyelinating polyneuropathy (CIDP) is an acquired peripheral neuropathy of immunological origin with a clinical presentation and course that are extremely variable. The therapeutic approach generally includes corticosteroid drugs, intravenous immunoglobulins (IVIGs) or plasmapheresis alone or in combination as first line therapy, and immunosuppressants. In 2014 the Italian regulatory agency included subcutaneous immunoglobulins (SCIGs) in the list of off-label drugs reimbursed by the national health service. Our aim is to compare costs and outcomes of IVIG versus SCIG therapy. METHODS: Patients medical records and therapeutic plans were retrospectively analysed to collect data on IVIG treatments 1 year before the switch to SCIG, and after 1 year of treatment with SCIG. A budget impact analysis was conducted through resource identification and quantification, and healthcare and non-health care costs evaluation. RESULTS: 13 of 34 patients affected by CIDP who were referred to our neurophysiopathological unit and treated with IVIG were switched to home-based SCIG. After 1 year of receiving SCIG, 12 patients remained neurologically stable and reported good outcomes. Considering the cost of IVIG (€30.97/g) and adding to this the direct and indirect healthcare costs, the total cost of IVIG treatment for the 12 patients in a year was €371 417.06, compared with the cost of SCIG (€51.57/g) for a total annual cost of €631 745.16, not including indirect costs. CONCLUSIONS: We observe a higher cost for SCIG treatment versus IVIG, which is not in line with data in the literature. However, SCIGs offer some important safety benefits and improvements in patient quality of life.


Assuntos
Imunoglobulinas Intravenosas , Polirradiculoneuropatia Desmielinizante Inflamatória Crônica , Análise Custo-Benefício , Humanos , Imunoglobulinas Intravenosas/uso terapêutico , Infusões Subcutâneas , Polirradiculoneuropatia Desmielinizante Inflamatória Crônica/diagnóstico , Polirradiculoneuropatia Desmielinizante Inflamatória Crônica/tratamento farmacológico , Qualidade de Vida , Estudos Retrospectivos , Medicina Estatal
10.
iScience ; 23(11): 101693, 2020 Nov 20.
Artigo em Inglês | MEDLINE | ID: mdl-33163945

RESUMO

Homo sapiens is the only species alive able to take advantage of its cognitive abilities to inhabit almost all environments on Earth. Humans are able to culturally construct, rather than biologically inherit, their occupied climatic niche to a degree unparalleled within the animal kingdom. Precisely, when hominins acquired such an ability remains unknown, and scholars disagree on the extent to which our ancestors shared this same ability. Here, we settle this issue using fine-grained paleoclimatic data, extensive archaeological data, and phylogenetic comparative methods. Our results indicate that whereas early hominins were forced to live under physiologically suitable climatic conditions, with the emergence of H. heidelbergensis, the Homo climatic niche expanded beyond its natural limits, despite progressive harshening in global climates. This indicates that technological innovations providing effective exploitation of cold and seasonal habitats predated the emergence of Homo sapiens.

11.
PLoS One ; 14(12): e0226949, 2019.
Artigo em Inglês | MEDLINE | ID: mdl-31881075

RESUMO

Morphological convergence is an intensely studied macroevolutionary phenomenon. It refers to the morphological resemblance between phylogenetically distant taxa. Currently available methods to explore evolutionary convergence either: rely on the analysis of the phenotypic resemblance between sister clades as compared to their ancestor, fit different evolutionary regimes to different parts of the tree to see whether the same regime explains phenotypic evolution in phylogenetically distant clades, or assess deviations from the congruence between phylogenetic and phenotypic distances. We introduce a new test for morphological convergence working directly with non-ultrametric (i.e. paleontological) as well as ultrametric phylogenies and multivariate data. The method (developed as the function search.conv within the R package RRphylo) tests whether unrelated clades are morphologically more similar to each other than expected by their phylogenetic distance. It additionally permits using known phenotypes as the most recent common ancestors of clades, taking full advantage of fossil information. We assessed the power of search.conv and the incidence of false positives by means of simulations, and then applied it to three well-known and long-discussed cases of (purported) morphological convergence: the evolution of grazing adaptation in the mandible of ungulates with high-crowned molars, the evolution of mandibular shape in sabertooth cats, and the evolution of discrete ecomorphs among anoles of Caribbean islands. The search.conv method was found to be powerful, correctly identifying simulated cases of convergent morphological evolution in 95% of the cases. Type I error rate is as low as 4-6%. We found search.conv is some three orders of magnitude faster than a competing method for testing convergence.


Assuntos
Evolução Biológica , Algoritmos , Animais , Gatos/anatomia & histologia , Gatos/genética , Gatos/fisiologia , Fósseis , Lagartos/anatomia & histologia , Lagartos/genética , Lagartos/fisiologia , Mandíbula/anatomia & histologia , Mandíbula/fisiologia , Fenótipo , Filogenia , Índias Ocidentais
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