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(1) Background: The true dislocation incidence following THA is difficult to ascertain in population-based cohorts. In this study, we explored the cumulative dislocation incidence (CDI), the relationship between the incidence of dislocation and revision surgery, patient- and surgery-related factors in patients dislocating once or multiple times, and differences between patients being revised for dislocation or not. (2) Methods: We designed an observational longitudinal cohort study linking registers. All patients with a full dataset who underwent an elective unilateral THA between 1999 and 2014 were included. The CDI and the time from the index THA to the first dislocation or to revision were estimated using the Kaplan-Meier (KM) method, giving cumulative dislocation and revision incidences at different time points. (3) Results: 136,810 patients undergoing elective unilateral THA were available for the analysis. The 30-day CDI was estimated at 0.9% (0.9-1.0). The revision rate for dislocation throughout the study period remained much lower. A total of 51.2% (CI 49.6-52.8) suffered a further dislocation within 1 year. Only 10.9% of the patients with a dislocation within the first year postoperatively underwent a revision for dislocation. (4) Discussion: The CDI after elective THA was expectedly considerably higher than the revision incidence. Further studies investigating differences between single and multiple dislocators and the criteria by which patients are offered revision surgery following dislocation are urgently needed.

The link with society is an important aspect for entrepreneurship and commerce in the commercial sector in the city of Jipijapa. Interacting positively with the community and the environment in which they operate is essential to strengthen their corporate image, promote a culture of corporate social responsibility and contribute to the sustainable development of the area. Regarding the strategic business pillars, they play a fundamental role in the creation of shared value and in the generation of positive impacts both economically and socially. Therefore, this research aimed to diagnose the current situation of businesses and ventures in the downtown sector of the city of Jipijapa. For the elaboration of this article, different methods were used, such as inductive, analytical and statistical, as well as techniques such as observation and survey, in order to collect as much information as possible to later carry out the socioeconomic analysis of the city under study. The population was made up of enterprises and businesses belonging to the commercial area of the city. It was found in the results of the surveys that businesses that have integrated the link with society into their business strategy report benefits such as better positioning, greater customer loyalty, and a greater ability to attract and retain talent. In addition, they have managed to contribute to the sustainable development of the community through initiatives such as training programs, support for local enterprises, and environmental improvement projects., La vinculación con la sociedad es un aspecto importante para los emprendimientos y comercio del sector comercial en la ciudad de Jipijapa. Interactuar de manera positiva con la comunidad y el entorno en el que operan es esencial para reforzar su imagen corporativa, promover una cultura de responsabilidad social empresarial y contribuir al desarrollo sostenible de la zona. Respecto a los pilares estratégicos empresariales desempeñan un papel fundamental en la creación de valor compartido y en la generación de impactos positivos tanto a nivel económico como social. Por lo antes expuesto, esta investigación tuvo como objetivo diagnosticar la situación actual de los negocios y emprendimientos del sector céntrico de la ciudad de Jipijapa. Para la elaboración del presente artículo se utilizaron diferentes métodos como son el inductivo, analítico y estadístico, así como también se apoyó en técnicas como la observación y la encuesta, con el fin de poder recolectar la mayor información posible para posteriormente realizar el análisis socioeconómico de la ciudad objeto de estudio. La población estuvo constituida por emprendimientos y comercios pertenecientes al área comercial de la ciudad. Se encontró en los resultados de las encuestas que los negocios que han integrado la vinculación con la sociedad en su estrategia empresarial reportan beneficios como un mejor posicionamiento, mayor lealtad de los clientes y una mayor capacidad para atraer y retener talento. Además, han logrado contribuir al desarrollo sostenible de la comunidad a través de iniciativas como programas de capacitación, apoyo a emprendimientos locales y proyectos de mejora ambiental.

This article considers the Community Court of Justice (CCJ) of the Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS) and its linkage with the African Charter of Human and People’s Rights (ACHPR). No doubt when ECOWAS was established in 1975, the main objective was the economic integration of the sub-regional body. At the beginning, the CCJ was listed as one of the mandates of the economic bloc, but it was not until 1991 that the first Protocol which created the CCJ and which gives its composition and its functioning was adopted. The Revised Treaty of 1993 also provided for the establishment of the CCJ in its Article 15. The Protocol now makes references to the African Charter on Human and Peoples Rights (ACHPR) of the African Union (AU). Not only this, the Protocol also made reference to other international human rights instruments. The main objective of this work is to bring to fore that the jurisdiction of the CCJ is expansive and broad, and that the CCJ failed to utilise the expansive jurisdiction in the matter of the late President of Chad, Hissene Habre, against the Republic of Senegal, by ruling that the Senegalese court could not try him because this will violate the principle of non-retroactivity of penal law. This ruling led to the establishment of the Extraordinary African Chambers (a special criminal tribunal) that later tried Habre. Also, where it is appropriate and desirable, a comparison between, on the one hand, the CCJ and, on the other hand, African sub-regional courts and courts of international organisations will be made. It is also the contention of this article that the CCJ ought to have an Appeal Chambers, as a core international best practice. This work will adopt the doctrinal methodology and the data collection method is content analysis.

Teaching uses different instruments to achieve a pedagogical or teaching route in a systematic and consistent way, one of them and with enough research is planning, whose instrument according to the context, historical and political moment has a sense directed under standardized criteria of the plans and programs of study, being adapted for its design-application, That is why by making a comparative reflection of practices in their design correlated to teaching performance, certain elements can be recovered that currently strengthen or recover certain skills-competencies that due to the high technological demand have been replaced. Therefore, the research carried out is focused on these characteristics and their link with the present, to give guidelines to estimate being a trigger its tangible use in the professional teaching performance, giving the opportunity that many elements of training can intervene for a more congruent design, with a certain balance between the digital era and tangible elements such as the use of a medium for its design that does not require its digital base., La docencia emplea distintos instrumentos para lograr trazar una ruta pedagógica o de enseñanza de manera sistemática y congruente, uno de ellos y con basta investigación es la planeación, cuyo instrumento conforme el contexto, momento histórico y político tiene un sentido direccionado bajo criterios estandarizados de los planes y programas de estudio, siendo adaptado para su diseño-aplicación, es por eso que al hacer una reflexión comparativa de prácticas en su diseño correlacionado al rendimiento docente, se pueden recuperar ciertos elementos que en la actualidad fortalecen o recuperan ciertas habilidades-competencias que debido a la alta demanda tecnológica se han ido sustituyendo. Por lo tanto la investigación realizada está enfocado en estas características y su vinculación con la actualidad, para dar pauta a estimar siendo un detonante su uso tangible en el rendimiento profesional docente, dando la oportunidad de que muchos elementos de formación puedan intervenir para un diseño más congruente, con cierto equilibrio entre la era digital y elementos tangibles como el uso de un medio para su diseño que no requiera su base digital.

Evolutionary genetics has long struggled with understanding how functional genes under selection remain polymorphic in natural populations. Taking as a starting point that natural selection is ultimately a manifestation of ecological processes, we spotlight an underemphasized and potentially ubiquitous ecological effect that may have fundamental effects on the maintenance of genetic variation. Negative frequency dependency is a well-established emergent property of density dependence in ecology, because the relative profitability of different modes of exploiting or utilizing limiting resources tends to be inversely proportional to their frequency in a population. We suggest that this may often generate negative frequency-dependent selection (NFDS) on major effect loci that affect rate-dependent physiological processes, such as metabolic rate, that are phenotypically manifested as polymorphism in pace-of-life syndromes. When such a locus under NFDS shows stable intermediate frequency polymorphism, this should generate epistatic selection potentially involving large numbers of loci with more minor effects on life-history (LH) traits. When alternative alleles at such loci show sign epistasis with a major effect locus, this associative NFDS will promote the maintenance of polygenic variation in LH genes. We provide examples of the kind of major effect loci that could be involved and suggest empirical avenues that may better inform us on the importance and reach of this process.

The Demographic Data Base (DDB) at the Centre for Demographic and Ageing Research (CEDAR) at Umeå University has since the 1970s been building longitudinal population databases and disseminating data for research. The databases were built to serve as national research infrastructures, useful for addressing an indefinite number of research questions within a broad range of scientific fields, and open to all academic researchers who wanted to use the data. A countless number of customized datasets have been prepared and distributed to researchers in Sweden and abroad and to date, the research has resulted in more than a thousand published scientific reports, books, and articles within a broad range of academic fields. This article will focus on the development of techniques and methods used to store and structure the data at DDB from the beginning in 1973 until today. This includes digitization methods, database design and methods for linkage. The different systems developed for implementing these methods are also described and to some extent, the hardware used.

El presente artículo pretende, por un lado, impulsar el posicionamiento del taller de diseño como un instrumento didáctico relevante para el aprendizaje significativo entre los estudiantes de nivel superior y de posgrado que participan en él y, por otro lado, poner sobre la mesa dos variables que, de acuerdo con la experiencia de un grupo de trabajo especializado, inciden de manera importante en su desempeño y en las implicaciones respecto a la generación de conocimientos, habilidades y competencias de los estudiantes participantes: la articulación interna y la vinculación estratégica con el entorno. En la parte final, el artículo pondera al taller de diseño como un instrumento didáctico relevante no sólo para impulsar el aprendizaje significativo, sino además para asumirlo como un instrumento de evaluación del aprendizaje en programas educativos de nivel superior y de posgrado no necesariamente relacionados con el arte, el diseño o la arquitectura. Su contenido tiene como fundamento una revisión documental de la experiencia de un grupo de trabajo académico, de gestión y de investigación que desde hace 5 años ha implementado procesos de colaboración transversal entre programas de licenciatura y de posgrado (UDG) para promover un modelo de trabajo multidisciplinario e interdisciplinario. Se expone además, que lejos de ser un espacio de trabajo propio de programas educativos relacionados con disciplinas vinculadas al arte, al diseño o la arquitectura, el taller de diseño es una construcción pedagógica con implicaciones positivas para el desarrollo de habilidades y competencias entre los involucrados en él.

Purpose This study aimed to describe the implementation of a new retrospective Belgian national cohort of pregnant women, the Belgian Medication Exposure during Pregnancy (BeMeP). Methods We linked the national dispensing data to birth and death certificates and hospital stay data for a 7‐year period between 2010 and 2016 for the first time in Belgium. We presented the characteristics of pregnancy events associated with the mothers enrolled in the linkage study. Next, we constructed a cohort of pregnancies and compared some characteristics computed using the BeMeP database with the national statistics. Finally, we described the use of medications during pregnancy based on the first level of the Anatomical Therapeutic Chemical (ATC) classification. Results We included 630 457 pregnant women with 900 159 pregnancy‐related events (843 780 livebirths, 1937 stillbirths, 6402 ectopic events, and 47 905 abortions) linked to medication exposure information. Overall, 96.3% of live births and 83.5% of stillbirths (national statistics as reference) were captured from the BeMeP. During pregnancy, excluding the week of birth, 78.9% of live birth pregnancies and 79.6% of stillbirth pregnancies were exposed to at least one medication. The most frequently dispensed medications were anti‐infectives (ATC code J = 50.2%) for live births and for stillbirths (44.0%). Conclusion We linked information on pregnancies, all reimbursed medications dispensed by community pharmacists, all medications dispensed during hospitalization, sociodemographic status, and infant health to create the BeMeP database. The database represents a valuable potential resource for studying exposure‐outcome associations for medication use during pregnancy., SCOPUS: ar.j, info:eu-repo/semantics/published

"Emerging Trends in Agricultural Economics and Extension" is a groundbreaking book that delves into the dynamic and evolving field of agricultural economics and extension. This comprehensive volume explores the latest developments, challenges, and opportunities in agriculture, shedding light on the critical role of economics and extension services in shaping the future of farming and food security. It provides a comprehensive and up-to-date exploration of the multifaceted field of agricultural economics and extension. This book is essential reading for students, researchers, policymakers, and anyone interested in the future of agriculture and the critical role that economics and extension services play in ensuring food security and sustainable farming practices. It offers valuable insights into the evolving challenges and opportunities in agriculture, paving the way for a more resilient and prosperous agricultural sector. Economics, often referred to as the "dismal science," is the study of how societies allocate their scarce resources to meet their diverse needs and desires. It forms the intellectual foundation for understanding how individuals, businesses, governments, and societies make choices in the face of limited resources. Economics is not just about numbers and graphs; it's about the fundamental decisions that shape our world. Extension, on the other hand, is the conduit through which knowledge and innovation flow from experts, researchers, and institutions to the grassroots level. It is the bridge that connects the latest advancements in various fields, including agriculture, community development, health, and education, to those who can benefit most from these innovations. Extension professionals are the unsung heroes who empower individuals and communities to make informed choices, adapt to change, and improve their quality of life. We extend our gratitude to the experts, practitioners, and scholars who have contributed their knowledge and insights to ma

Inversions are structural mutations that reverse the sequence of a chromosome segment and reduce the effective rate of recombination in the heterozygous state. They play a major role in adaptation, as well as in other evolutionary processes such as speciation. Although inversions have been studied since the 1920s, they remain difficult to investigate because the reduced recombination conferred by them strengthens the effects of drift and hitchhiking, which in turn can obscure signatures of selection. Nonetheless, numerous inversions have been found to be under selection. Given recent advances in population genetic theory and empirical study, here we review how different mechanisms of selection affect the evolution of inversions. A key difference between inversions and other mutations, such as single nucleotide variants, is that the fitness of an inversion may be affected by a larger number of frequently interacting processes. This considerably complicates the analysis of the causes underlying the evolution of inversions. We discuss the extent to which these mechanisms can be disentangled, and by which approach.

We present a parallel corpus study on the expression of the temporal construction ‘not…until’ in a sample of European languages. We use data from the Europarl corpus and create semantic maps by multidimensional scaling, in order to analyze cross-linguistic and language-internal variation. This paper builds on formal semantic and typological work, extending it by including conditional constructions, as well as connectives of the type as long as. In an investigation of 7 languages, we find that (i) languages use many more different constructions to convey this meaning than was expected from the literature; and (ii) the combination of polarity marking (negation/assertion) strongly correlates with the type of connective. We corroborate our results in a larger sample of 21 European languages. An analysis of clusters and dimensions of the semantic maps based on the enlarged dataset shows that connectives are not randomly distributed across the semantic space of the ‘not…until’-domain.

International regime complexity has become a prominent feature of the global economy and world politics. The international governance of derivatives markets is a notable case of this phenomenon in finance because a variety of post-crisis rules have been issued by a multitude of international standard-setting bodies. By combining the regime complexity and orchestration frameworks, we explain the precision and scope of international standards for derivatives trade reporting. We show how a collective orchestrator (the Group of Twenty) and a hub intermediary (the Financial Stability Board) managed regime complexity through the orchestration of the available intermediaries. We also seek to refine the orchestration framework by explaining how the mechanism of issue de-linkage can be used to manage the partly diverging goals among states within the collective orchestrator. Our findings are relevant for the global regulation and governance of other policy areas characterised by a multiplicity of actors and interlinked issues, such as trade, energy, and environmental policy.

This study analyzes the European Union's governance methods in Kosovo during the negotiation process for EU membership, since the country's declaration of independence. To carry out an analysis, this study uses a theory-consuming case study as its method. The study uses Steven Levitsky and Lucan Way's theory of Western Linkage and Leverage as an analytical tool to analyze what governance methods the European Union has used in Kosovo. But also to find out if they have had an impact on Kosovo's EU integration since the country's independence. The results show that the levels of Western Linkage have been high but also have developed positively since 2008. In addition, the results show that the levels of Western Leverage have been high since 2008. Thus it appears that the EU has used different governance methods in order to lead Kosovo to an increased democratization. This study also concludes that the EU can be seen as an important, normative actor for Kosovo during the negotiation process according to the theory Normative Power Europe.

We present a parallel corpus study on the expression of the temporal construction ‘not…until’ in a sample of European languages. We use data from the Europarl corpus and create semantic maps by multidimensional scaling, in order to analyze cross-linguistic and language-internal variation. This paper builds on formal semantic and typological work, extending it by including conditional constructions, as well as connectives of the type as long as. In an investigation of 7 languages, we find that (i) languages use many more different constructions to convey this meaning than was expected from the literature; and (ii) the combination of polarity marking (negation/assertion) strongly correlates with the type of connective. We corroborate our results in a larger sample of 21 European languages. An analysis of clusters and dimensions of the semantic maps based on the enlarged dataset shows that connectives are not randomly distributed across the semantic space of the ‘not…until’-domain.

Purpose: The main research issue of study is to identify the nature of existing linking mechanisms among AREE institutions at municipality level affecting the agriculture service delivery. Study also focused to explore the possibilities of university-community engagement to strengthen the linkage gaps. Design/Methodology/Approach: Convergent parallel mix methods design along with systematic review was employed to attain the study objective. Ten observation of service delivery embedded with KIIs were conducted in five Rural-Municipalities and five Municipalities. The theoretical framework was discussed to improve the current linkage interface at local level Findings: The literature from systematic review showed, top-down research and extension management, fragmented research, extension, and academic institutions, lower perception of the value of linkage, poor infrastructure of basic services, absenteeism of human resource, and with inadequate competencies were the main causes of weak research, extension, education, and farmer linkages at the local level. Implications/Originality/Value: The paper discussed and conceptualize various linkage modalities that are being practiced over the country must be contextualize based on the characteristics of agriculture research, extension and education institutions existing and working in municipalities.

This research is based on strategies to reactivate the post-covid-19 economy in Peru, which due to the health crisis has a lack of financing, a high price of monetary value and an absence of safeguards for economic interests. The implemented policies had the purpose of guaranteeing the movement in the payment chain and the soundness of the investments, preventing the cessation of work activities and the closure of business organizations. The objective was to analyze public strategies to reactivate the Peruvian economy, having as materials articles related to the subject and as methodology the documentary review of articles and the statistical review of public pages: MEF, INEI among others, in order to understand the important events and events. throughout the research development. The results are reflected in the actions of these public policies, where companies will have to adapt to the new normality, where the entire traditional business process has changed, appearing new conditions to establish alliances at a local, regional and national level. The article concludes with two very important points: public policies must help productive development and must be thought of as comprehensive policies, Esta investigación se fundamenta en estrategias para reactivar la economía post covid-19 en el Perú, que debido a la crisis sanitaria presenta carencia de financiación, elevado precio del valor monetario y ausencia de salvaguardas de los intereses económicos. Las políticas ejecutadas, tuvieron el propósito de garantizar el movimiento en la cadena de pagos y la solidez de las inversiones, impidiendo el cese de actividades laborales y el cierre de organizaciones empresariales. El objetivo fue analizar estrategias públicas para reactivar la economía peruana, teniendo como materiales artículos relacionados al tema y como metodología la revisión documentaria de artículos y la revisión estadística de páginas públicas: MEF, INEI entre otros, a fin de entender los acontecimientos y sucesos importantes a lo largo del desarrollo investigativo. Los resultados se reflejan en el accionar de estas políticas públicas, donde las empresas tendrán que adaptase a la nueva normalidad, en donde todo el proceso de negocio tradicional ha cambiado, apareciendo nuevas condiciones para poder establecer alianzas a nivel local, regional y nacional. El artículo concluye en dos puntos muy importantes: las políticas públicas deben ayudar al desarrollo productivo y deben pensarse como políticas integrales.

Epistasis refers to fitness or functional effects of mutations that depend on the sequence background in which these mutations arise. Epistasis is prevalent in nature, including populations of viruses, bacteria, and cancers, and can contribute to the evolution of drug resistance and immune escape. However, it is difficult to directly estimate epistatic effects from sampled observations of a population. At present, there are very few methods that can disentangle the effects of selection (including epistasis), mutation, recombination, genetic drift, and genetic linkage in evolving populations. Here we develop a method to infer epistasis, along with the fitness effects of individual mutations, from observed evolutionary histories. Simulations show that we can accurately infer pairwise epistatic interactions provided that there is sufficient genetic diversity in the data. Our method also allows us to identify which fitness parameters can be reliably inferred from a particular data set and which ones are unidentifiable. Our approach therefore allows for the inference of more complex models of selection from time-series genetic data, while also quantifying uncertainty in the inferred parameters.

This research is based on strategies to reactivate the post-covid-19 economy in Peru, which due to the health crisis has a lack of financing, a high price of monetary value and an absence of safeguards for economic interests. The implemented policies had the purpose of guaranteeing the movement in the payment chain and the soundness of the investments, preventing the cessation of work activities and the closure of business organizations. The objective was to analyze public strategies to reactivate the Peruvian economy, having as materials articles related to the subject and as methodology the documentary review of articles and the statistical review of public pages: MEF, INEI among others, in order to understand the important events and events. throughout the research development. The results are reflected in the actions of these public policies, where companies will have to adapt to the new normality, where the entire traditional business process has changed, appearing new conditions to establish alliances at a local, regional and national level. The article concludes with two very important points: public policies must help productive development and must be thought of as comprehensive policies, Esta investigación se fundamenta en estrategias para reactivar la economía post covid-19 en el Perú, que debido a la crisis sanitaria presenta carencia de financiación, elevado precio del valor monetario y ausencia de salvaguardas de los intereses económicos. Las políticas ejecutadas, tuvieron el propósito de garantizar el movimiento en la cadena de pagos y la solidez de las inversiones, impidiendo el cese de actividades laborales y el cierre de organizaciones empresariales. El objetivo fue analizar estrategias públicas para reactivar la economía peruana, teniendo como materiales artículos relacionados al tema y como metodología la revisión documentaria de artículos y la revisión estadística de páginas públicas: MEF, INEI entre otros, a fin de entender los acontecimientos y sucesos importantes a lo largo del desarrollo investigativo. Los resultados se reflejan en el accionar de estas políticas públicas, donde las empresas tendrán que adaptase a la nueva normalidad, en donde todo el proceso de negocio tradicional ha cambiado, apareciendo nuevas condiciones para poder establecer alianzas a nivel local, regional y nacional. El artículo concluye en dos puntos muy importantes: las políticas públicas deben ayudar al desarrollo productivo y deben pensarse como políticas integrales.

BackgroundTo identify genetic associations of quantitative metabolic syndrome (MetS) traits and characterize heterogeneity across ethnic groups.MethodsData was collected from GENetics of Noninsulin dependent Diabetes Mellitus (GENNID), a multiethnic resource of Type 2 diabetic families and included 1520 subjects in 259 African-American, European-American, Japanese-Americans, and Mexican-American families. We focused on eight MetS traits: weight, waist circumference, systolic and diastolic blood pressure, high-density lipoprotein, triglycerides, fasting glucose, and insulin. Using genotyped and imputed data from Illumina's Multiethnic array, we conducted genome-wide association analyses with linear mixed models for all ethnicities, except for the smaller Japanese-American group, where we used additive genetic models with gene-dropping.ResultsFindings included ethnic-specific genetic associations and heterogeneity across ethnicities. Most significant associations were outside our candidate linkage regions and were coincident within a gene or intergenic region, with two exceptions in European-American families: (a) within previously identified linkage region on chromosome 2, two significant GLI2-TFCP2L1 associations with weight, and (b) one chromosome 11 variant near CADM1-LINC00900 with pleiotropic blood pressure effects.ConclusionsThis multiethnic family study found genetic heterogeneity and coincident associations (with one case of pleiotropy), highlighting the importance of including diverse populations in genetic research and illustrating the complex genetic architecture underlying MetS.

Dissertation, Public parks (PP) in urban residential areas are essential for a balanced urban lifestyle. The literature gives evidence that public parks have a positive influence on the wellbeing of persons who have access to, and regularly spend time, in public parks. A fair number of public parks in the residential areas of South African cities, are found to be well-spaced and developed according to urban planning guidelines and regulations established by urban planners. Nevertheless, many of them are not functional or effectively utilised by the residents living in their vicinity. Only a few of the residents seem to visit the public parks in their area. Many factors, for instance, attractiveness, accessibility, comfortability, and social concerns such as the incidence of crime, or the fear of being exposed to crime, lifestyle, and time constraints are frequently given as the reasons for the non-utilisation of public parks. This phenomenon has been identified as a public park lacking in vibrancy. The vibrancy of public parks are determined by four key elements namely, the degree of sociability, the availability and practicality of infrastructure that encourage a variety of activities, comfort levels and image, and the conditions influencing the accessibility of a public park. The degree of influence from these four key elements towards the vibrancy of public parks in residential areas has not yet been investigated. Also, the major independent factors making up the four key elements have not yet been analysed and modelled. Consequently, an investigation into the determinants influencing vibrancy of public parks and how the degree of vibrancy of the public parks in the residential areas of South African cities can be improved, was conducted. This was done by means of a case study of the public parks in some of the residential areas of Bloemfontein, a mid-sized city in central South Africa, where many of the public parks in the city are under-utilized and far from vibrant. An appl

The Gene-pool Optimal Mixing Evolutionary Algorithm (GOMEA) is a model-based EA framework that has been shown to perform well in several domains, including Genetic Programming (GP). Differently from traditional EAs where variation acts blindly, GOMEA learns a model of interdependencies within the genotype, that is, the linkage, to estimate what patterns to propagate. In this article, we study the role of Linkage Learning (LL) performed by GOMEA in Symbolic Regression (SR). We show that the non-uniformity in the distribution of the genotype in GP populations negatively biases LL, and propose a method to correct for this. We also propose approaches to improve LL when ephemeral random constants are used. Furthermore, we adapt a scheme of interleaving runs to alleviate the burden of tuning the population size, a crucial parameter for LL, to SR. We run experiments on 10 real-world datasets, enforcing a strict limitation on solution size, to enable interpretability. We find that the new LL method outperforms the standard one, and that GOMEA outperforms both traditional and semantic GP. We also find that the small solutions evolved by GOMEA are competitive with tuned decision trees, making GOMEA a promising new approach to SR.

The Sevier-Toroweap fault system is a 250+ km high-angle normal fault located in southern Utah and northern Arizona in the High Plateaus subprovince. It is one of three main normal faults that accommodate the strain concentrated on the boundary between the Basin and Range and Colorado Plateau in the Utah Transition Zone. As with all faults in the Transition Zone, the Sevier-Toroweap fault system trends N-S but has distinct bends in the fault trace that trend northwest or northeast. These characteristic changes in strike reflect the segmentation and growth history of the fault. Since fault linkage is reflected in a fault system’s net slip distribution, this study characterizes the net slip distribution along the Sevier-Toroweap fault system reveals fault linkage patterns which can improve our understanding of how this fault formed, its extent, and geometric segmentation that could impact the potential seismic hazards associated with it.Compiled surface geology and subsurface constraints were used to construct cross-sections using kinematic forward modeling techniques in order to evaluate the subsurface geometry of the fault and calculate displacement along the main trace of the fault system. Displacement constraints collected from these cross section, published USGS cross sections and maps, and other literature were compiled to produce distance vs. displacement plots. These plots demonstrate the segmentation of the Sevier-Toroweap fault system and help reduce uncertainty as to where the northern terminus of the fault system lies. The linkage history implied by variations in fault strike, locations of fault splays, and displacement gradients along strike suggest that there are three main segments of the fault, which are different than the fault sections commonly used to describe the fault in the existing literature. Additionally, the high displacements and lack of observed decrease in displacement at the northern extent of the mapped fault suggests that the northern t

The National Spanish Institute of Statistics (INE) website is the main means of communication for official statistics in Spain. The INE publishes the annual statistics of deaths according to the cause of death. This vital statistic has improved a lot in recent years; also, thanks to the collaboration from the Autonomous Communities. There are certain areas that could optimize its usefulness. Indicator improvements could include provisional case- counts by causes of death, besides the age-standardization of specified causes of death and the Potential Years of Life Lost by cause of death, for territorial comparison. Meanwhile, the usefulness of social indicators applied to the statistics of death causes could be enhanced, as is the case of education. By updating the databases, it would be possible to maintain the registries of deceased and their causes of death without an annual closure before the statistical publication. Moreover, we could link the databases of demographic records of the population to their health files, to obtain individually the people at risk of sickness or death, and to enable their respective vital, social, health trajectories for statistics. In this way, the INE would increase its leadership and reference on mortality statistics in Spain and EuroStat, as well. Furthermore, the State, Autonomous and municipal administrations could redefine their publication offer into a more specified or innovative statistics of death causes., El portal del Instituto Nacional de Estadística (INE) es el principal medio de comunicación de la estadística oficial de España. El INE publica la estadística anual de defunciones según la causa de la muerte. Dicha estadística ha mejorado mucho en los últimos años; también, gracias a la colaboración con las Comunidades Autónomas. Existen determinadas áreas que podrían optimizar su utilidad. Entre las mejoras en los indicadores estadísticos podrían estar: los recuentos provisionales de casos por causas de muerte; la estandarización por edad para su comparación interterritorial de las causas específicas y de los años potenciales de vida perdidos según causa; además de la extensión territorial de los indicadores al municipio. A la vez que se podría reelaborar la utilidad de los indicadores sociales aplicados a la estadística de causas de muerte como es el caso de la educación. En la actualización de los registros, cabría: mantener las bases de datos de los fallecidos y sus causas sin el cierre anual tras la publicación estadística e interconectar los registros demográficos de población y los archivos sanitarios para poder disponer individualmente de las personas a riesgo de enfermar o morir, junto con sus respectivas trayectorias sociosanitarias y vitales. Así, el INE acrecentaría su liderazgo y utilidad en la estadística de mortalidad en España y ante EuroStat. Igualmente, las administraciones estatal, autonómica y municipal podrían redefinir su oferta de publicación a una estadística de mortalidad más específica o innovadora.

Germline variation and smoking are independently associated with pancreatic ductal adenocarcinoma (PDAC). We conducted genome-wide smoking interaction analysis of PDAC using genotype data from four previous genome-wide association studies in individuals of European ancestry (7,937 cases and 11,774 controls). Examination of expression quantitative trait loci data from the Genotype-Tissue Expression Project followed by colocalization analysis was conducted to determine whether there was support for common SNP(s) underlying the observed associations. Statistical tests were two sided and P < 5 similar to 10(-8) was considered statistically significant. Genome-wide significant evidence of qualitative interaction was identified on chr2q21.3 in intron 5 of the transmembrane protein 163 (TMEM163) and upstream of the cyclin T2 (CCNT2). The most significant SNP using the Empirical Bayes method, in this region that included 45 significantly associated SNPs, was rs1818613 [per allele OR in never smokers 0.87, 95% confidence interval (CI), 0.82-0.93; former smokers 1.00, 95% CI, 0.91-1.07; current smokers 1.25, 95% CI 1.12-1.40, P-interaction = 3.08 x 10(-9)). Examination of the Genotype-Tissue Expression Project data demonstrated an expression quantitative trait locus in this region for TMEM163 and CCNT2 in several tissue types. Colocalization analysis supported a shared SNP, rs842357, in high linkage disequilibrium with rs1818613 (r(2) = 0. 94) driving both the observed interaction and the expression quantitative trait loci signals. Future studies are needed to confirm and understand the differential biologic mechanisms by smoking status that contribute to our PDAC findings.Significance: This large genome-wide interaction study identifies a susceptibility locus on 2q21.3 that significantly modified PDAC risk by smoking status, providing insight into smoking-associated PDAC, with implications for prevention.

Migraine attacks are delimited, allowing investigation of changes during and outside attack. Gene expression fluctuates according to environmental and endogenous events and therefore, we hypothesized that changes in RNA expression during and outside a spontaneous migraine attack exist which are specific to migraine. Twenty-seven migraine patients were assessed during a spontaneous migraine attack, including headache characteristics and treatment effect. Blood samples were taken during attack, two hours after treatment, on a headache-free day and after a cold pressor test. RNA-Sequencing, genotyping, and steroid profiling were performed. RNA-Sequences were analyzed at gene level (differential expression analysis) and at network level, and genomic and transcriptomic data were integrated. We found 29 differentially expressed genes between 'attack' and 'after treatment', after subtracting non-migraine specific genes, that were functioning in fatty acid oxidation, signaling pathways and immune-related pathways. Network analysis revealed mechanisms affected by changes in gene interactions, e.g. 'ion transmembrane transport'. Integration of genomic and transcriptomic data revealed pathways related to sumatriptan treatment, i.e. '5HT1 type receptor mediated signaling pathway'. In conclusion, we uniquely investigated intra-individual changes in gene expression during a migraine attack. We revealed both genes and pathways potentially involved in the pathophysiology of migraine and/or migraine treatment.

Background Despite remarkable achievements in antiretroviral therapy (ART), losses to follow-up (LTFU) might prevent the long-term success of HIV treatment and might delay the achievement of the 90-90-90 objectives. This scoping review is aimed at the description and analysis of the strategies used in high-income countries to reengage LTFU in HIV care, their implementation and impact. Methods A scoping review was done following Arksey & O ' Malley's methodological framework and recommendations from Joanna Briggs Institute. Peer reviewed articles were searched for in Pubmed, Scopus and Web of Science; and grey literature was searched for in Google and other sources of information. Documents were charted according to the information presented on LTFU, the reengagement procedures used in HIV units in high-income countries, published during the last 15 years. In addition, bibliographies of chosen articles were reviewed for additional articles. Results Twenty-eight documents were finally included, over 80% of them published in the United States later than 2015. Database searches, phone calls and/or mail contacts were the most common strategies used to locate and track LTFU, while motivational interviews and strengths-based techniques were used most often during reengagement visits. Outcomes like tracing activities efficacy, rates of reengagement and viral load reduction were reported as outcome measures. Conclusions This review shows a recent and growing trend in developing and implementing patient reengagement strategies in HIV care. However, most of these strategies have been implemented in the United States and little information is available for other high-income countries. The procedures used to trace and contact LTFU are similar across reviewed studies, but their impac

Public parks (PP) in urban residential areas are essential for a balanced urban lifestyle. The literature gives evidence that public parks have a positive influence on the wellbeing of persons who have access to, and regularly spend time, in public parks. A fair number of public parks in the residential areas of South African cities, are found to be well-spaced and developed according to urban planning guidelines and regulations established by urban planners. Nevertheless, many of them are not functional or effectively utilised by the residents living in their vicinity. Only a few of the residents seem to visit the public parks in their area. Many factors, for instance, attractiveness, accessibility, comfortability, and social concerns such as the incidence of crime, or the fear of being exposed to crime, lifestyle, and time constraints are frequently given as the reasons for the non-utilisation of public parks. This phenomenon has been identified as a public park lacking in vibrancy. The vibrancy of public parks are determined by four key elements namely, the degree of sociability, the availability and practicality of infrastructure that encourage a variety of activities, comfort levels and image, and the conditions influencing the accessibility of a public park. The degree of influence from these four key elements towards the vibrancy of public parks in residential areas has not yet been investigated. Also, the major independent factors making up the four key elements have not yet been analysed and modelled. Consequently, an investigation into the determinants influencing vibrancy of public parks and how the degree of vibrancy of the public parks in the residential areas of South African cities can be improved, was conducted. This was done by means of a case study of the public parks in some of the residential areas of Bloemfontein, a mid-sized city in central South Africa, where many of the public parks in the city are under-utilized and far from vibrant. An appl

It is known that to achieve efficient scalability of an Evolutionary Algorithm (EA), dependencies (also known as linkage) must be properly taken into account during variation. In a Gray-Box Optimization (GBO) setting, exploiting prior knowledge regarding these dependencies can greatly benefit optimization. We specifically consider the setting where partial evaluations are possible, meaning that the partial modification of a solution can be efficiently evaluated. Such problems are potentially very difficult, for example, non-separable, multimodal, and multiobjective. The Gene-pool Optimal Mixing Evolutionary Algorithm (GOMEA) can effectively exploit partial evaluations, leading to a substantial improvement in performance and scalability. GOMEA was recently shown to be extendable to real-valued optimization through a combination with the real-valued estimation of distribution algorithm AMaLGaM. In this article, we definitively introduce the Real-Valued GOMEA (RV-GOMEA), and introduce a new variant, constructed by combining GOMEA with what is arguably the best-known real-valued EA, the Covariance Matrix Adaptation Evolution Strategies (CMA-ES). Both variants of GOMEA are compared to L-BFGS and the Limited Memory CMA-ES (LM-CMA-ES). We show that both variants of RV-GOMEA achieve excellent performance and scalability in a GBO setting, which can be orders of magnitude better than that of EAs unable to efficiently exploit the GBO setting.

This study utilized the Vulnerability-Stress-Adaptation model (Karney & Bradbury, 1995) to investigate how vulnerability (i.e., subclinical levels of social anxiety) and stress (i.e., manipulated social contexts) affected an interpersonal outcome (i.e., affiliation) through an adaptive process (i.e., interpersonal autonomic physiology). The present study utilized data from 58 same-sex, same ethnicity stranger dyads (N =116) who participated in a between-subjects 2 (Social interaction: Talking vs. No Talking) by 2 (Interaction orientation: Competition vs. Cooperation) experiment. Specifically, participants completed a knot-tying task with either a cooperative or competitive framing while either talking or remaining silent. Autonomic nervous system activity was measured continuously with electrocardiograph for both individuals during the interaction. Covariation of interbeat intervals was used to generate two dynamic profiles of interpersonal autonomic physiology. One profile showed an amplifying (i.e., unstable) pattern, while the other showed a damping (i.e., stable) pattern over time. It was hypothesized that conditions which decreased sociality (e.g., competition vs. cooperation) and required disclosure (talking vs. no talking) would be particularly stressful for dyads in which one or both partners were socially anxious. Additionally, it was hypothesized that this stress would be reflected in interpersonal autonomic physiology covariation (i.e., depicted by patterned trajectories), and therefore would reduce affiliation tendencies within the dyads. Models for hypothesis testing were estimated using Bayesian statistics. These hypotheses were not supported, however an exploratory analysis revealed that interpersonal autonomic physiology profile was a likely predictor of perceived similarity to partner after the task. More specifically, the unstable dynamic predicted more perceived similarity to partner, which suggests that interpersonal autonomic physiology could pl

A large proportion of upper extremity prostheses are abandoned by their users. Commonly, the main reasons for abandonment are related to comfort, control and cosmetics. Prostheses are often experienced as too heavy and have limited functionality. A pneumatic power source is able to provide a relatively high force using a small and lightweight actuator. However, state-of-the-art pneumatically powered upper extremity prosthesis offer either high grasp forces or the ability to adapt to the size and shape of an object. This article presents the design of a pneumatically powered hand prosthesis for toddlers, which focuses on being lightweight and highly functional. An underactuated 3-DOF linkage-based finger transmission mechanism was created and served as a proof-of-principle. The resulting prototype was 3D printed and tested following an elaborate list of criteria. The results demonstrate that the mechanism is capable of transmitting an actuator force of 100.5 N to a fingertip force of 32.3 N using 5 bar of pressure. The proposed mechanism also offers the functionality of adaptive grasping. The conceptual design and prototype show promising capabilities for the development of a lightweight and highly functional prosthesis for toddlers., Biomedical Engineering

The use of principal points and principal vectors in the formulation of the equations of motion of a general 4R planar four-bar linkage is shown with two kinds of methods, one that opens kinematic loops and one that does not. The opened kinematic loop approach analyses the moving links as a system with a tree connectivity, introducing reaction forces for closing the loops. Compared with the conventional Newton–Euler method, this approach results in fewer equations and constraint forces, whereas the mass matrix entries remain meaningful, but there is a stronger coupling between the equations. Two equivalent mass formulations for the closed kinematic loop approach are presented, which need not open the loop and introduce loop constraint forces in the equations of motion. With the method of complex joint masses, the mass of the links closing the loops is represented by real and virtual equivalent masses, defining the principal points. The principle of virtual work with the inclusion of inertia terms is used to derive the equations of motion. As an example the dynamic balance conditions of the four-bar linkage are derived. With the method of the equivalent mass matrix it is shown how a constant mass matrix can be used to describe the dynamics of binary links with an arbitrary mass distribution. A four-bar linkage could be modelled with only three truss elements instead of the conventional result with three or more beam elements, which gives a significant reduction of the computational complexity., Mechatronic Systems Design

The metabolic syndrome represents a cluster of cardiovascular risk factors co-occurring in the same individual. The aim of this study was to identify chromosomal regions encoding genes predisposing to the metabolic syndrome using composite factors derived from maximum likelihood-based factor analysis. Genetic data were obtained from the Quebec Family Study and included 707 subjects from 264 nuclear families. Factor analyses were performed on eight metabolic syndrome-related phenotypes including waist circumference; BMI; systolic and diastolic blood pressure; and plasma insulin, glucose, triglyceride, and high-density lipoprotein-cholesterol levels. Three factors were identified and interpreted as general metabolic syndrome, blood pressure, and blood lipids, respectively. The general metabolic syndrome factor had high factor loadings (>0.4) for all phenotypes and explained 42% of the total variance, and family membership accounted for 45.6% of the factor variance. A genome-wide linkage scan performed with this first factor revealed the existence of a quantitative trait locus on chromosome 15 (86 cM) with a logarithm of odds score of 3.15. Suggestive evidence of linkage (logarithm of odds > 1.75) was also observed on chromosomes 1p, 3p, 3q, 6q, 7p, 19q, and 21q. These quantitative trait loci may harbor genes contributing to the clustering of the metabolic syndrome-related phenotypes.

The genetic dissection of complex inherited diseases is a major challenge. Despite limited success in finding genes, substantial data based on genome-wide scan strategies is now available for a variety of diseases and related phenotypes. This can perhaps best be appreciated in the field of lipid and lipoprotein levels, where the amount of information generated is becoming overwhelming. We have created a database containing the results from whole-genome scans of lipid-related phenotypes undertaken to date. The usefulness of this database is demonstrated by performing a new autosomal genomic scan on apolipoprotein B (apoB), LDL-apoB, and apoA-I levels, measured in 679 subjects of 243 nuclear families. Linkage was tested using both allele-sharing and variance-component methods. Only two loci provided support for linkage with both methods: a LDL-apoB locus on 18q21.32 and an apoA-I locus on 3p25.2. Adding those findings to the database highlighted the fact that the former is reported as a lipid-related locus for the first time, whereas the latter has been observed before. However, concerns arise when displaying all data on the same map, because a large portion of the genome is now covered with loci supported by at least suggestive evidence of linkage.

BackgroundThis study investigated the relationship between smoking and hearing loss and deafness (HLD) and whether the relationship is modified by genetic variation. Data for these analyses was from the subset of Japanese American families collected as part of the American Diabetes Association Genetics of Non-insulin Dependent Diabetes Mellitus study. Logistic regression with generalized estimating equations assessed the relationship between HLD and smoking. Nonparametric linkage analysis identified genetic regions harboring HLD susceptibility genes and ordered subset analysis was used to identify regions showing evidence for gene-smoking interactions. Genetic variants within these candidate regions were then each tested for interaction with smoking using logistic regression models.ResultsAfter adjusting for age, sex, diabetes status and smoking duration, for each pack of cigarettes smoked per day, risk of HLD increased 4.58 times (odds ratio (OR) = 4.58; 95% Confidence Interval (CI): (1.40,15.03)), and ever smokers were over 5 times more likely than nonsmokers to report HLD (OR = 5.22; 95% CI: (1.24, 22.03)). Suggestive evidence for linkage for HLD was observed in multiple genomic regions (Chromosomes 5p15, 8p23 and 17q21), and additional suggestive regions were identified when considering interactions with smoking status (Chromosomes 7p21, 11q23, 12q32, 15q26, and 20q13) and packs-per-day (Chromosome 8q21).ConclusionsTo our knowledge this was the first report of possible gene-by-smoking interactions in HLD using family data. Additional work, including independent replication, is needed to understand the basis of these findings. HLD are important public health issues and understanding the contributions of genetic and environmental factors may inform public health messages and policies.

El presente proyecto de investigación toma como punto de partida los modos de vida y su en relación con la captura del paisaje desde el espacio urbano al interior doméstico, y reconoce la complejidad de las actividades de la contemporaneidad con el propósito de vincular críticamente el espacio íntimo con su contexto. El proyecto reconoce desde su emplazamiento y propuesta de un edificio dotacional vinculado con las unidades de vivienda construido a partir de múltiples tipologías, la búsqueda que responde a la diversidad de lo modos de vida contemporáneos. Es una investigación de interpretación histórica a partir de una selección de estudios de caso de vivienda emblemática europea de la segunda mitad del siglo XX. La investigación y el proyecto tienen como caso de estudio un proyecto de vivienda para un concurso en la ciudad de Rotterdam en los Países Bajos., The present research and project defines as starting point the lifestyle and its with the capture of the landscape, from the urban space to the domestic interior. This approach recognizes the complexity of contemporary activities with the purpose to critically establish a link between the intimate space with its context. In the search for the diversity of contemporary lifestyles the project addreses two parts, a communal facility and a housing project with multiple typologies. The research method corresponds to the strategy of Interpretive-Historical Research based on a selection of case studies of emblematic European housing from the second half of the 20th century. The research and the project have as a case study a housing project for a competition in the city of Rotterdam in The Netherlands.

The Institutions of Higher Education (IES) as trainers of knowledge, are immersed in the search and effective selection of information, which allows to transform it into knowledge for its most important client: the student, and in turn transcends to its productive environment. It is up to IES to prepare their graduates to assume, from the first years of their training, the responsibility of facing the labor market with the necessary and sufficient elements to join existing or preferred jobs, to venture into the creation of sources of employment. The challenges of globalization constitute for HEIs a great challenge for innovation and the generation of new knowledge for the benefit of society that allows us to respond to their social needs and requirements that are required for sustainable social development., Las Instituciones de Educación Superior (IES) como formadoras de saber, se encuentran inmersas en la búsqueda y selección efectiva de información, que permita transformarla en conocimiento para su cliente más importante: el estudiante, y a su vez trascienda a su entorno productivo. A las IES les corresponde preparar a sus egresados para que asuman desde los primeros años de su formación la responsabilidad de enfrentarse al mercado laboral con los elementos necesarios y suficientes para incorporarse a puestos de trabajo existentes o de preferencia, para incursionar en la creación de fuentes de empleo. Los desafíos de la globalización constituyen para las IES, un gran reto para la innovación y generación del nuevo conocimiento en beneficio de la sociedad que permita dar respuesta a sus necesidades y requerimientos sociales que se requieren para el desarrollo social sostenible.

The university extension is determined as a substantive function of the universities in that it allows a direct relationship between the institution and society as a whole, integrating this with teaching and research. This function translates into a dialogical and bidirectional relationship where knowledge is enriched and provided for the benefit of the community (UNP, 2019). This article presents the results of an investigation that characterizes the profile of the patients who consulted at the Hospital School dependent on the Faculty of Biomedical Sciences of the National University of Pilar, in the years 2016 - 2017. A quantitative, descriptive methodological approach was adopted. Retrospectively, it used the patient files as a source of information. The results allowed the describing of the main pathologies detected in the patients, according to age, sex and other variables of characterization of the beneficiaries. Knowledge of these characteristics contributes to improving extension policies and research, health planning, as well as data that help academic discussion in the careers that are implemented in the institution., La extensión universitaria es considerada como función sustantiva de las universidades, permite una relación directa de la institución con la sociedad en su conjunto, integrándose ésta con la docencia y la investigación. Esta función se traduce en una relación dialógica y bidireccional donde se enriquecen conocimientos y se aporta en beneficio de la comunidad (UNP, 2019). Este artículo presenta resultados de una investigación que caracteriza el perfil de los pacientes que consultaron en el Hospital Escuela dependiente de la Facultad de Ciencias Biomédicas de la Universidad Nacional de Pilar, en los años 2016- 2017. Adoptó un enfoque metodológico cuantitativo, de tipo descriptivo, retrospectivo, recurrió a las fichas de los pacientes como fuente de información. Los resultados permitieron describir las principales patologías detectados en los pacientes, según edad, sexo, y otras variables de caracterización de los beneficiarios. El conocimiento de estas características contribuirá a mejorar las políticas de extensión e investigación, planificación en salud, así también son datos que ayudarán para discusión académica en las carreras que se implementan en la institución.

Public parks (PP) in urban residential areas are essential for a balanced urban lifestyle. The literature gives evidence that public parks have a positive influence on the wellbeing of persons who have access to, and regularly spend time, in public parks. A fair number of public parks in the residential areas of South African cities, are found to be well-spaced and developed according to urban planning guidelines and regulations established by urban planners. Nevertheless, many of them are not functional or effectively utilised by the residents living in their vicinity. Only a few of the residents seem to visit the public parks in their area. Many factors, for instance, attractiveness, accessibility, comfortability, and social concerns such as the incidence of crime, or the fear of being exposed to crime, lifestyle, and time constraints are frequently given as the reasons for the non-utilisation of public parks. This phenomenon has been identified as a public park lacking in vibrancy. The vibrancy of public parks are determined by four key elements namely, the degree of sociability, the availability and practicality of infrastructure that encourage a variety of activities, comfort levels and image, and the conditions influencing the accessibility of a public park. The degree of influence from these four key elements towards the vibrancy of public parks in residential areas has not yet been investigated. Also, the major independent factors making up the four key elements have not yet been analysed and modelled. Consequently, an investigation into the determinants influencing vibrancy of public parks and how the degree of vibrancy of the public parks in the residential areas of South African cities can be improved, was conducted. This was done by means of a case study of the public parks in some of the residential areas of Bloemfontein, a mid-sized city in central South Africa, where many of the public parks in the city are under-utilized and far from vibrant. An appl

Admixture is increasingly being recognized as an important factor in evolutionary genetics. The distribution of genomic admixture tracts, and the resulting effects on admixture linkage disequilibrium, can be used to date the timing of admixture between species or populations. However, the theory used for such prediction assumes selective neutrality despite the fact that many famous examples of admixture involve natural selection acting for or against admixture. In this paper, we investigate the effects of positive selection on the distribution of tract lengths. We develop a theoretical framework that relies on approximating the trajectory of the selected allele using a logistic function. By numerically calculating the expected allele trajectory, we also show that the approach can be extended to cases where the logistic approximation is poor due to the effects of genetic drift. Using simulations, we show that the model is highly accurate under most scenarios. We use the model to show that positive selection on average will tend to increase the admixture tract length. However, perhaps counter-intuitively, conditional on the allele frequency at the time of sampling, positive selection will actually produce shorter expected tract lengths. We discuss the consequences of our results in interpreting the timing of the introgression ofEPAS1from Denisovans into the ancestors of Tibetans.

We investigate the situation where two or more registers, or lists, of individuals are linked both for the purpose of population size estimation and to investigate the relationship between variables appearing on all or only some of the registers. There is usually no full picture of this relationship because there are individuals that are in only some of the lists, and also individuals that are in none of the lists. These two problems have been solved simultaneously in dual system estimation using the EM algorithm. We extend this approach to four registers (including the population census) to estimate the size of the indigenous Māori population in New Zealand, where the reporting of Māori is not the same in each register and where there is a further missing data problem, with individuals included in one or more registers who did not provide their ethnicity. We consider the implications for estimating the size of the Māori population from administrative data only.