Early editorial manuscript screening versus obligate peer review: A randomized trial
S. Claiborne JohnstonDaniel H. LowensteinDonna M. FerrieroRobert O. MessingJorge R. OksenbergStephen L. HauserAdam Stewart
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Abstract Peer review is a cornerstone of scientific publication. However, it is time consuming for reviewers and contributors, and must be balanced with editorial oversight for balance and bias. To test a more efficient method of reviewing manuscripts, we performed a randomized trial comparing traditional peer review for all manuscripts received by the Annals of Neurology with an early screening approach in which six editors rejected a manuscript without external review when the chance of acceptance was deemed very low. Of the 351 manuscripts entered into the trial, 88 were randomized to traditional external review and 263 to early screening. Rates of final acceptance were similar in the two groups ( p = 0.41). Final decisions were more delayed for traditional review (mean 48 days versus 18 days with early screening; p < 0.0001) and more reviewers were required for each manuscript (mean 2.3 versus 0.7 with early screening; p < 0.0001). Among accepted manuscripts, reviewer ratings of scientific and clinical impact were similar. We conclude that a method of early screening of manuscripts for appropriateness for publication results in substantial decreases in the time between manuscript submission and publication decisions, and reduces the burden on reviewers with minimal impact on the quality of accepted manuscripts. Editorial screening is now journal policy. Ann Neurol 2007;61:A10–A12.Keywords:
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Slave-making ants raid nests of other ant species, capture the developing offspring and rear them to slave workers. Here we compare slave-making of three formicine slave-making ants: the facultative Formica subnuda, the obligate Polyergus breviceps, and F. subintegra which previously has been considered facultative but appears to be an obligate slave-making ant. If F. subintegra is an obligate slavemaker, slave-making of F. subintegra should differ from that of F. subnuda but closely resemble slave-making of P. breviceps in the following aspects: (1) Obligate slavemakers are rarer than facultative slavemakers. (2) Slaveless colonies of facultative slavemakers are found, but obligate slavemakers always have slaves. (3) Because obligate slavemakers depend on their slaves, they should have a higher proportion of slaves than facultative slavemakers. (4) Owing to special adaptations obligate slavemakers are able to raid bigger colonies, and hence have bigger slaves than facultative slavemakers. (5) Dufour's gland of F. subintegra should be larger than that of F. subnuda. Per 100 free F. podzolica colonies, the number of P. breviceps and F. subintegra colonies with F. podzolica slaves were 1.3% and 3.9%, respectively, and the number of F. subnuda colonies with F. podzolica 3.7%, and without F. podzolica 7.5%. The proportion of slaves, when present, varied between 1–30% in the colonies of F. subnuda, and between 70–90% in the colonies of the other species. The slaves of F. subnuda were significantly smaller than those of F. subintegra and P. breviceps. The length of F. subnuda's Dufour's gland was one third of the length of F. subintegra's gland. The results show that slave-making of F. subintegra parallels that of P. breviceps, and contrary to the earlier notion, F. subintegra is an obligate slave-making ant. We suggest that F. subnuda and F. subintegra represent extreme modes of slave-making behaviour in the Formica sanguinea group.
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Obligate symbioses involving intracellular bacteria have transformed eukaryotic life, from providing aerobic respiration and photosynthesis to enabling colonization of previously inaccessible niches, such as feeding on xylem and phloem, and surviving in deep-sea hydrothermal vents. A major challenge in the study of obligate symbioses is to understand how they arise. Because the best studied obligate symbioses are ancient, it is especially challenging to identify early or intermediate stages. Here we report the discovery of a nascent obligate symbiosis in Howardula aoronymphium, a well-studied nematode parasite of Drosophila flies. We have found that Haoronymphium and its sister species harbor a maternally inherited intracellular bacterial symbiont. We never find the symbiont in nematode-free flies, and virtually all nematodes in the field and the laboratory are infected. Treating nematodes with antibiotics causes a severe reduction in fly infection success. The association is recent, as more distantly related insect-parasitic tylenchid nematodes do not host these endosymbionts. We also report that the Howardula nematode symbiont is a member of a widespread monophyletic group of invertebrate host-associated microbes that has independently given rise to at least four obligate symbioses, one in nematodes and three in insects, and that is sister to Pectobacterium, a lineage of plant pathogenic bacteria. Comparative genomic analysis of this group, which we name Candidatus Symbiopectobacterium, shows signatures of genome erosion characteristic of early stages of symbiosis, with the Howardula symbiont's genome containing over a thousand predicted pseudogenes, comprising a third of its genome.
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The evolution of sex is one of the greatest mysteries in evolutionary biology. An even greater mystery is the evolution of obligate sex, particularly when competing with facultative sex and not with complete asexuality. Here, we develop a stochastic simulation of an obligate allele invading a facultative population, where males are subject to sexual selection. We identify a range of parameters where sexual selection can contribute to the evolution of obligate sex: Especially when the cost of sex is low, mutation rate is high, and the facultative individuals do not reproduce sexually very often. The advantage of obligate sex becomes larger in the absence of recombination. Surprisingly, obligate sex can take over even when the population has a lower mean fitness as a result. We show that this is due to the high success of obligate males that can compensate the cost of sex.
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In nature, many insects, especially sap-feeding insects, harbor nutritional bacterial symbionts, which are called obligate endosymbionts. These bacteria co-evolved with their hosts for millions of years. Obligate endosymbionts are commonly found in specialized organs, named bacteriomes or mycetomes that consist of a number of insect's cells (bacteriocytes or mycetocytes). Obligate endosymbionts strictly maternally inherited, providing essential amino acids to the hosts, and relating to survival, reproduction and evolution of the insects. Because of enriched nutritional environment, compared to those free-living bacteria, the genomes of obligate endosymbionts have different characteristics, such as genome size, GC content, and gene deletion. Although the genomes of many insect endosymbionts have been carefully analysis, the gene functions of endosymbionts and the interactions between endosymbionts/hosts and endosymbionts remain unknown. Thus, to provide an insight into the co-evolution of endosymbionts and their hosts, further studies of endosymbionts at genetic level are required.
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Slave-making ants raid nests of other ant species, capture the developing offspring and rear them to slave workers. Here we compare slave-making of three formicine slave-making ants: the facultative Formica subnuda, the obligate Polyergus breviceps, and F. subintegra which previously has been considered facultative but appears to be an obligate slave-making ant. If F. subintegra is an obligate slavemaker, slave-making of F. subintegra should differ from that of F. subnuda but closely resemble slave-making of P. breviceps in the following aspects: (1) Obligate slavemakers are rarer than facultative slavemakers. (2) Slaveless colonies of facultative slavemakers are found, but obligate slavemakers always have slaves. (3) Because obligate slavemakers depend on their slaves, they should have a higher proportion of slaves than facultative slavemakers. (4) Owing to special adaptations obligate slavemakers are able to raid bigger colonies, and hence have bigger slaves than facultative slavemakers. (5) Dufour's gland of F. subintegra should be larger than that of F. subnuda. Per 100 free F. podzolica colonies, the number of P. breviceps and F. subintegra colonies with F. podzolica slaves were 1.3% and 3.9%, respectively, and the number of F. subnuda colonies with F. podzolica 3.7%, and without F. podzolica 7.5%. The proportion of slaves, when present, varied between 1–30% in the colonies of F. subnuda, and between 70–90% in the colonies of the other species. The slaves of F. subnuda were significantly smaller than those of F. subintegra and P. breviceps. The length of F. subnuda's Dufour's gland was one third of the length of F. subintegra's gland. The results show that slave-making of F. subintegra parallels that of P. breviceps, and contrary to the earlier notion, F. subintegra is an obligate slave-making ant. We suggest that F. subnuda and F. subintegra represent extreme modes of slave-making behaviour in the Formica sanguinea group.
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Obligate anaerobe
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Insect hosts derive benefits from their obligate symbionts, including nutrient supplementation and the ability to colonize otherwise inhospitable niches. But long-term symbionts sometimes also limit the ecological range of their hosts; in particular, they are often more temperature sensitive than the hosts themselves. Even small increases in average temperature, comparable to those occurring under current conditions of climate change, can kill symbionts and, with them, their hosts. In some cases, limitations imposed by obligate symbionts may help to counter the spread of invasive pests, but they also contribute to contractions in populations and geographic ranges of invertebrate species.
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The nationally-recognized Susquehanna
Chorale will delight audiences of all
ages with a diverse mix of classic and
contemporary pieces. The ChoraleAÂAÂAÂAÂAÂAÂAÂAÂAÂAÂAÂAÂAÂAÂAÂAÂAÂAÂAÂAÂAÂAÂAÂAÂAÂAÂAÂAÂAÂAÂAÂA¢AÂAÂAÂAÂAÂAÂAÂAÂAÂAÂAÂAÂAÂAÂAÂAÂAÂAÂAÂAÂAÂAÂAÂAÂAÂAÂAÂAÂAÂAÂAÂAÂAÂAÂAÂAÂAÂAÂAÂAÂAÂAÂAÂAÂAÂAÂAÂAÂAÂAÂAÂAÂAÂAÂAÂAÂAÂAÂAÂAÂAÂAÂAÂAÂs
performances have been described
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music making, successful in their
aim to make the audience feel,
to be moved, to be part of the
performance - and all this while
working at an extremely high
musical level.AÂAÂAÂAÂAÂAÂAÂAÂAÂAÂAÂAÂAÂAÂAÂAÂAÂAÂAÂAÂAÂAÂAÂAÂAÂAÂAÂAÂAÂAÂAÂA¢AÂAÂAÂAÂAÂAÂAÂAÂAÂAÂAÂAÂAÂAÂAÂAÂAÂAÂAÂAÂAÂAÂAÂAÂAÂAÂAÂAÂAÂAÂAÂAÂAÂAÂAÂAÂAÂAÂAÂAÂAÂAÂAÂAÂAÂAÂAÂAÂAÂAÂAÂAÂAÂAÂAÂAÂAÂAÂAÂAÂAÂAÂAÂA Experience choral
singing that will take you to new
heights!
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Transitions to asexuality have occurred in many animals and plants, yet the biological mechanisms causing such transitions have often remained unclear. Cyclical parthenogens, such as cladocerans, rotifers or aphids often give rise to obligate asexual lineages. In many rotifers, chemical signals that accumulate during population crowding trigger the induction of sexual stages. In this study, I tested two hypotheses on the origin of obligate parthenogenesis in the rotifer Brachionus calyciflorus: (i) that obligate parthenogens have lost the responsiveness to the sexual signal; and (ii) that obligate parthenogens have lost the ability to produce the sexual signal. Pairwise cross-induction assays among three obligate parthenogenetic strains and two cyclically parthenogenetic (sexual) strains were used to test these hypotheses. I found that obligate parthenogens can induce sexual reproduction in sexual strains, but not vice versa. This demonstrates that obligate parthenogens do still produce the sexual signal, but have lost responsiveness to that signal.
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Mutualism is a fundamental building block of ecological communities and an important driver of biotic evolution. Classic theory suggests that a pairwise two‐species obligate mutualism is fragile, with a large perturbation potentially driving both mutualist populations into extinction. In nature, however, there are many cases of pairwise obligate mutualism. Such pairwise obligate mutualisms are occasionally associated with additional interactions with facultative mutualists. Here, we use a mathematical model to show that when a two‐species obligate mutualism has a single additional link to a third facultative mutualist, the obligate mutualism can become permanently persistent. In the model, a facultative mutualist interacts with one of two inter‐dependent obligate mutualists, and the facultative mutualist enhances the persistence not only of its directly interacting obligate mutualist, but also that of the other obligate mutualist indirectly, enabling the permanent coexistence of the three mutualist species. The effect of the facultative mutualist is strong; it can allow a three‐species permanent coexistence even when two obligate mutualists by themselves are not sustainable (i.e. not locally stable). These results suggest that facultative mutualists can play a pivotal role for the persistence of obligate mutualisms, and contribute to a better understanding on the mechanisms maintaining more complex mutualistic networks of multiple species.
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