Treed Avalanche Forecasting: Mitigating Avalanche Danger Utilizing Bayesian Additive Regression Trees

Little Cottonwood Canyon Highway is a dead‐end, two‐lane road leading to Utah's Alta and Snowbird ski resorts. It is the only road access to these resorts and is heavily traveled during the ski season. Professional avalanche forecasters monitor this road throughout the ski season in order to make road closure decisions in the face of avalanche danger. Forecasters at the Utah Department of Transportation (UDOT) avalanche guard station at Alta have maintained an extensive daily winter database on explanatory variables relating to avalanche prediction. Whether or not an avalanche crosses the road is modeled in this paper via Bayesian additive tree methods. Utilizing daily winter data from 1995 to 2011, results show that using Bayesian tree analysis outperforms traditional statistical methods in terms of realized misclassification costs that take into consideration asymmetric losses arising from two types of error. Closing the road when an avalanche does not occur is an error harmful to resort owners, and not closing the road when one does may result in injury or death. Copyright © 2016 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

ABCG2 null alleles define the Jr(a-) blood group phenotype

The high-incidence erythrocyte blood group antigen Jr(a) has been known in transfusion medicine for over 40 years. To identify the gene encoding Jr(a), we performed SNP analysis of genomic DNA from six Jr(a-) individuals. All individuals shared a homozygous region of 397,000 bp at chromosome 4q22.1 that contained the gene ABCG2, and DNA sequence analysis showed that ABCG2 null alleles define the Jr(a-) phenotype.     

Common variants at MS4A4/MS4A6E, CD2AP, CD33 and EPHA1 are associated with late-onset Alzheimer's disease

The Alzheimer Disease Genetics Consortium (ADGC) performed a genome-wide association study of late-onset Alzheimer disease using a three-stage design consisting of a discovery stage (stage 1) and two replication stages (stages 2 and 3). Both joint analysis and meta-analysis approaches were used. We obtained genome-wide significant results at MS4A4A (rs4938933; stages 1 and 2, meta-analysis P (P(M)) = 1.7 × 10(-9), joint analysis P (P(J)) = 1.7 × 10(-9); stages 1, 2 and 3, P(M) = 8.2 × 10(-12)), CD2AP (rs9349407; stages 1, 2 and 3, P(M) = 8.6 × 10(-9)), EPHA1 (rs11767557; stages 1, 2 and 3, P(M) = 6.0 × 10(-10)) and CD33 (rs3865444; stages 1, 2 and 3, P(M) = 1.6 × 10(-9)). We also replicated previous associations at CR1 (rs6701713; P(M) = 4.6 × 10(-10), P(J) = 5.2 × 10(-11)), CLU (rs1532278; P(M) = 8.3 × 10(-8), P(J) = 1.9 × 10(-8)), BIN1 (rs7561528; P(M) = 4.0 × 10(-14), P(J) = 5.2 × 10(-14)) and PICALM (rs561655; P(M) = 7.0 × 10(-11), P(J) = 1.0 × 10(-10)), but not at EXOC3L2, to late-onset Alzheimer's disease susceptibility.     

Variable female preferences drive complex male displays

Complexity in male sexual displays is widely appreciated but diversity in female mate choice has received little attention. Males of many species have sexual displays composed of multiple display traits, and females are thought to use these different traits in mate choice. Models of multiple display trait evolution suggest that these traits provide females with different kinds of information in different stages of the mate choice process, or function as redundant signals to improve the accuracy of mate assessment. We suggest that complex male displays might also arise because of variation in female preferences for particular male display traits. The causes of female preference variation have received little attention, and the role of preference variation in shaping complex male displays is unclear. Here we show that in satin bowerbirds (Ptilonorhynchus violaceus) female mate choice is a multistage process, where females of different ages use different male display traits in successive stages. Age- and stage-specific female preferences may contribute to explaining the widespread occurrence of multifaceted male displays.     

The staining of starch gels with Coomassie Brilliant Blue G 250 perchloric acid solution

Summary Coomassie Brilliant Blue G250 dissolved in dilute perchloric acid solution was used to stain protein bands in starch gels. The bands were visible within min, no destaining was required and the gels could be stored indefinitely.     

极可能存在的基因外遗传

众所周知,人类的各种性状来自基因,而基因则来自双亲。但是,现有可望不可及的强烈暗示：人类还遗传一些来自基因外的性状──请想象,地球上的太空人声称,他们已给人类作了技术处理,人类将一代接着一代地变小、变弱、变得更易控制。当然,人群的反抗是强烈的。技术人员们日以继夜地工作,几百万接着几百万的人类基因组被筛检,企图剔除有被疑为太空人做了手脚的基因的人。秘密很快被揭开,人类基因似乎未被触及。但是,个儿愈来愈小的婴儿不断增加。正当我们似乎要绝望的时刻,太空人动了怜悯之心,决定公开他们的生物技术诀窍：“有D…     

Identification of the gene responsible for methylmalonic aciduria and homocystinuria, cblC type

Methylmalonic aciduria and homocystinuria, cblC type (OMIM 277400), is the most common inborn error of vitamin B(12) (cobalamin) metabolism, with about 250 known cases. Affected individuals have developmental, hematological, neurological, metabolic, ophthalmologic and dermatologic clinical findings. Although considered a disease of infancy or childhood, some individuals develop symptoms in adulthood. The cblC locus was mapped to chromosome region 1p by linkage analysis. We refined the chromosomal interval using homozygosity mapping and haplotype analyses and identified the MMACHC gene. In 204 individuals, 42 different mutations were identified, many consistent with a loss of function of the protein product. One mutation, 271dupA, accounted for 40% of all disease alleles. Transduction of wild-type MMACHC into immortalized cblC fibroblast cell lines corrected the cellular phenotype. Molecular modeling predicts that the C-terminal region of the gene product folds similarly to TonB, a bacterial protein involved in energy transduction for cobalamin uptake.     

The branching programme of mouse lung development

Mammalian lungs are branched networks containing thousands to millions of airways arrayed in intricate patterns that are crucial for respiration. How such trees are generated during development, and how the developmental patterning information is encoded, have long fascinated biologists and mathematicians. However, models have been limited by a lack of information on the normal sequence and pattern of branching events. Here we present the complete three-dimensional branching pattern and lineage of the mouse bronchial tree, reconstructed from an analysis of hundreds of developmental intermediates. The branching process is remarkably stereotyped and elegant: the tree is generated by three geometrically simple local modes of branching used in three different orders throughout the lung. We propose that each mode of branching is controlled by a genetically encoded subroutine, a series of local patterning and morphogenesis operations, which are themselves controlled by a more global master routine. We show that this hierarchical and modular programme is genetically tractable, and it is ideally suited to encoding and evolving the complex networks of the lung and other branched organs.     

Male displays adjusted to female's response.

Models of sexual selection generally assume that behavioural courtship displays reflect intrinsic male qualities such as condition, and that males display with maximum intensity to attract females to mate. Here we use robotic females in a field experiment to demonstrate that male satin bowerbirds (Ptilonorhynchus violaceus) do not always display at maximum intensity - rather, successful males modulate their displays in response to signals from females. Our results indicate that sexual selection may favour those males that can produce intense displays but which know how to modify these according to the female response.