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Mating cues evolve rapidly and can contribute to species formation and maintenance. However, little is known about how sexual signals diverge and how this variation integrates with other barrier loci to shape the genomic landscape of reproductive isolation. Here, we elucidate the genetic basis of ultraviolet (UV) iridescence, a courtship signal that differentiates the males of Colias eurytheme butterflies from a sister species, allowing females to avoid costly heterospecific matings. Anthropogenic range expansion of the two incipient species established a large zone of secondary contact across the eastern United States with strong signatures of genomic admixtures spanning all autosomes. In contrast, Z chromosomes are highly differentiated between the two species, supporting a disproportionate role of sex chromosomes in speciation known as the large-X (or large-Z) effect. Within this chromosomewide reproductive barrier, linkage mapping indicates that cis-regulatory variation of bric a brac (bab) underlies the male UV-iridescence polymorphism between the two species. Bab is expressed in all non-UV scales, and butterflies of either species or sex acquire widespread ectopic iridescence following its CRISPR knockout, demonstrating that Bab functions as a suppressor of UV-scale differentiation that potentiates mating cue divergence. These results highlight how a genetic switch can regulate a premating signal and integrate with other reproductive barriers during intermediate phases of speciation. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Background: The liver plays critical roles in human health. Circulating level of liver function biomarkers may associate with the long-term and short-term mortality in general population., Methods: We used data from US National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey 1988-94 and 1999-2014. People aged ≥ 20 years with measured serum levels of alanine aminotransferase (ALT), aspartate aminotransferase (AST), gamma-glutamyltransferase (GGT), alkaline phosphatase (ALP), total bilirubin (TB), and albumin (ALB) at baseline were included. All-cause and cause-specific mortality was identified from the National Death Index through 31 December 2015. Additive Cox regression models were applied to assess the correlation patterns between the serum level of these analytes and mortality risk., Results: A total of 44,508 participants were included; among them, 9,721 deaths occurred during a mean follow-up of 12.5 years. A "J-shaped" correlation was found between serum levels of ALT, AST, and TB and all-cause mortality. The risk of mortality monotonically increased with increasing GGT and ALP levels when their levels exceeded the valley points. A "L-shaped" correlation was found between the serum level of ALB and all-cause mortality. The correlation patterns were comparable among deaths from different causes and were consistent in subgroup and sensitivity analyses. While the integration of all six liver function biomarkers did not yield an optimal predictive performance for mortality (area under ROC curve = 0.706), it demonstrated a significantly better performance compared to any single biomarker.., Conclusion: Circulating liver function biomarkers showed diverse nonlinear correlations with mortality and may be utilized as part of a screening process to help identify individuals who may be at elevated risk of mortality., Competing Interests: Declarations. Ethics approval and consent to participate: Not applicable. Consent for publication: Not applicable. Competing interests: The authors declare no competing interests., (© 2024. The Author(s).)

During the beginning of the coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) pandemic, nursing homes were identified as congregate settings at high risk for outbreaks of COVID-19 (1,2). Their residents also are at higher risk than the general population for morbidity and mortality associated with infection with SARS-CoV-2, the virus that causes COVID-19, in light of the association of severe outcomes with older age and certain underlying medical conditions (1,3). CDC's National Healthcare Safety Network (NHSN) launched nationwide, facility-level COVID-19 nursing home surveillance on April 26, 2020. A federal mandate issued by the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS), required nursing homes to commence enrollment and routine reporting of COVID-19 cases among residents and staff members by May 25, 2020. This report uses the NHSN nursing home COVID-19 data reported during May 25-November 22, 2020, to describe COVID-19 rates among nursing home residents and staff members and compares these with rates in surrounding communities by corresponding U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) region.* COVID-19 cases among nursing home residents increased during June and July 2020, reaching 11.5 cases per 1,000 resident-weeks (calculated as the total number of occupied beds on the day that weekly data were reported) (week of July 26). By mid-September, rates had declined to 6.3 per 1,000 resident-weeks (week of September 13) before increasing again, reaching 23.2 cases per 1,000 resident-weeks by late November (week of November 22). COVID-19 cases among nursing home staff members also increased during June and July (week of July 26 = 10.9 cases per 1,000 resident-weeks) before declining during August-September (week of September 13 = 6.3 per 1,000 resident-weeks); rates increased by late November (week of November 22 = 21.3 cases per 1,000 resident-weeks). Rates of COVID-19 in the surrounding communities followed similar trends. Increases in community rates might be associated with increases in nursing home COVID-19 incidence, and nursing home mitigation strategies need to include a comprehensive plan to monitor local SARS-CoV-2 transmission and minimize high-risk exposures within facilities., Competing Interests: All authors have completed and submitted the International Committee of Medical Journal Editors form for disclosure of potential conflicts of interest. No potential conflicts of interest were disclosed.

Recent advances in forensic science, especially the use of DNA technology, have revealed that faulty forensic analyses may have contributed to miscarriages of justice. In this study we build on recent research on the general public's perceptions of the accuracy of 10 forensic science techniques and of each stage in the investigation process. We find that individuals in the United States hold a pessimistic view of the forensic science investigation process, believing that an error can occur about half of the time at each stage of the process. We find that respondents believe that forensics are far from perfect, with accuracy rates ranging from a low of 55% for voice analysis to a high of 83% for DNA analysis, with most techniques being considered between 65% and 75% accurate. Nevertheless, respondents still believe that forensic evidence is a key part of a criminal case, with nearly 30% of respondents believing that the absence of forensic evidence is sufficient for a prosecutor to drop the case and nearly 40% believing that the presence of forensic evidence - even if other forms of evidence suggest that the defendant is not guilty - is enough to convict the defendant., (Copyright © 2020 The Chartered Society of Forensic Sciences. Published by Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.)

Background: Nonalcoholic fatty liver disease (NAFLD) is the most common form of chronic liver disease in children and can progress to liver cirrhosis during childhood. Patients with more advanced fibrosis on biopsy tend to have more liver complications. Noninvasive hepatic fibrosis scores have been developed for adult patients with NAFLD; however, these scores have not been validated in children. The aim of our study was to evaluate some of these scores in assessing the presence of fibrosis in children with biopsy-proven NAFLD., Methods: Our study consisted of 92 biopsy-proven NAFLD children from five major US centers. Fibrosis was determined by an experienced pathologist (F0-4). Clinically significant fibrosis was defined as fibrosis stage ≥ 2, and advanced fibrosis was defined as F3-4. The following fibrosis scores were calculated for each child: AST/ALT ratio, AST/platelet ratio index (APRI), NAFLD fibrosis score (NFS), and FIB-4 index. ROC was performed to assess the performance of different scores for prediction of presence of any, significant, or advanced fibrosis. A p value < 0.05 was considered statistically significant., Results: Mean age was 13.3 ± 3 years, and 33 % were females. Eleven (12 %) subjects had no fibrosis, 35 (38 %) had fibrosis score of 1, 26 (28 %) had fibrosis score of 2, and 20 (22 %) had a score of 3. APRI had a fair diagnostic accuracy for the presence of any fibrosis (AUC of 0.80) and poor diagnostic accuracy for significant or advanced fibrosis. AST/ALT, NFS, and FIB-4 index all either had poor diagnostic accuracy or failed to diagnose the presence of any, significant, or advanced fibrosis., Conclusion: Noninvasive hepatic fibrosis scores developed in adults had poor performance in diagnosing significant fibrosis in children with NAFLD. Our results highlight the urgent need to develop a reliable pediatric fibrosis score.

Objectives: This study sought to identify predictors of recurrent ischemic neurologic events within the CLOSURE I (Evaluation of the STARFlex Septal Closure System in Patients With a Stroke and/or Transient Ischemic Attack Due to Presumed Paradoxical Embolism Through a Patent Foramen Ovale) trial., Background: The CLOSURE I trial found that transcatheter patent foramen ovale (PFO) closure using the STARFlex device was not superior to medical therapy in patients with cryptogenic stroke or transient ischemic attack (TIA) and PFO., Methods: The CLOSURE I trial is a multicenter, randomized trial of transcatheter PFO closure compared with medical therapy in patients who presented with cryptogenic stroke or TIA and had a PFO. We identified clinical predictors of recurrent ischemic stroke or TIA during 2 years of follow-up using Cox proportional hazards regression within the pooled intention-to-treat cohort., Results: In 909 patients, the incidence of recurrent events was 5.7% with 25 patients suffering a recurrent stroke and 30 a TIA. Patients who had a recurrent event had higher body mass index (30.2 ± 6.2 vs. 28.3 ± 5.8%; p = 0.03) and more frequently had diabetes (19.2% vs. 7.1%; p = 0.0016), hypertension (46.2% vs. 30.1%; p = 0.015), and ischemic heart disease (3.8% vs. 0.9%; p = 0.05). Diabetes (hazard ratio [HR]: 3.39; 95% confidence interval [CI]: 1.69 to 6.84; p = 0.0007), index TIA (HR vs. stroke: 2.13; 95% CI: 1.20 to 3.80; p = 0.01), and the detection of atrial fibrillation after study enrollment (HR: 4.85; 95% CI: 2.05 to 11.47; p = 0.0003) independently predicted recurrent ischemic neurologic events. Recurrent neurologic events were more frequent in subjects with RoPE (Risk of Paradoxical Embolism) score ≤5 than those with >5 (14.5% vs. 4.2%; p < 0.0001)., Conclusions: These findings suggest an alternative etiology to paradoxical embolism was frequently responsible for recurrent events within the CLOSURE I trial. (Evaluation of the STARFlex Septal Closure System in Patients With a Stroke or TIA Due to the Possible Passage of a Clot of Unknown Origin Through a Patent Foramen Ovale (PFO) [CLOSURE I]; NCT00201461)., (Copyright © 2014 American College of Cardiology Foundation. Published by Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.)

The goal of this study was to determine the incidence of cervical and trochanteric fractures of the proximal femur in 1996 in Kaohsiung City, Taiwan. Kaohsiung City is the industrial and commercial center of southern Taiwan, with a population of 1,433,621 in 1996. The number of individuals over 65 years of age accounted for 6.2% of the total population. Data from the archives of reimbursement of the National Health Insurance program were used to investigate the incidence of fractures of the proximal femur. This study detected 580 cervical and trochanteric fractures (40.5 fractures per 100,000 population per year) in 261 males (35.8 fractures per 100,000 men per year) and 319 females (45.3 fractures per 100,000 women per year), with 420 (72%) of these fractures occurring in individuals over 65 years of age. The age-specific incidences of cervical and trochanteric fractures increased exponentially with age in both genders. The overall ratio of cervical to trochanteric fractures was 1:1.04. The mean ages of women with cervical or trochanteric fractures (71.6 and 74.0 years, respectively) were significantly higher than those of males (59.9 and 64.8 years, respectively; P < 0.01). The age-adjusted incidences of fractures of the proximal femur in Kaohsiung City were higher than in other Asian countries, but were lower than in Western countries such as the United States and Norway. The urban lifestyle and low daily calcium intake may be responsible for this increased incidence of proximal femoral fractures in Kaohsiung City.

Objective: To describe the prevalence of hand osteoarthritis (OA) by joint site, joint count and severity in a representative population of older disabled women., Methods: 1,002 moderately to severely disabled women aged > or = 65 years were selected from a representative population of community-dwelling women. Hand OA was established using a reproducible algorithm based on self-reported pain, standardized physical examinations, hand photographs, and physician questionnaire responses. OA was categorized as either symptomatic disease, intermittently symptomatic/ asymptomatic disease, possible disease, or no disease., Results: Symptomatic OA, requiring the presence of hand pain on most days for at least 1 month, occurred in approximately 23% of disabled older women in each age group, and most reported pain in the moderate to severe range. The prevalence of intermittently symptomatic/ asymptomatic OA was higher with increasing age. Finally, the most commonly affected hand OA sites were the distal interphalangeal (DIP) and the first carpometacarpal (CMC1) joint groups., Conclusion: These findings demonstrate the very high prevalence of clinical hand OA in disabled older women and show that a large proportion of hand OA results in substantial symptoms.

Objective: To assess the prevalence of persistent knee pain among older adults in the US., Design: A nationally representative cross-sectional survey with an in-person interview and medical examination, Setting and Participants: Between 1988 and 1994, 6596 adults aged 60 to 90+ years were examined as part of the National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey III. Mexican Americans and non-Hispanic blacks were over-sampled to produce reliable estimates for these groups., Main Outcome Measurements: Participants were asked to report whether they had experienced knee pain on most days for the 6 weeks preceding their medical exam., Results: Overall, 18.1% of US men and 23.5% of US women aged 60 years and older reported knee pain. Sixty- to ninety-year-old men reported knee pain less frequently than their age-matched female counterparts. There was a trend for reports of knee pain to increase steadily as these adults aged from 60 to 85 years. The highest prevalence of knee pain was reported among 85- to 90-year-old men (23.7%) and women (30.0%). Among non-Hispanic white adults older than age 60, 18.4% of men and 22.0% of women reported knee pain. Reports of knee pain among non-Hispanic black men and Mexican American men were similar to those of their non-Hispanic white counterparts. In contrast, 26.4% of Mexican American women and 32.8% of non-Hispanic black women reported knee pain. We also found that difficulty in performing physical functioning activities was associated with a higher prevalence of knee pain., Conclusions: Many US adults older than age 60 years report knee pain, and the prevalence is higher in older adults. Reports of knee pain are highest among non-Hispanic black women and the oldest Americans. Intervention strategies are needed to prevent and better manage knee pain among older US adults to stem the adverse health consequences and diminished quality of life associated with this common problem.