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| 2. |
- Raia, P., et al.
(författare)
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Progress to extinction: increased specialisation causes the demise of animal clades
- 2016
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Ingår i: Scientific Reports. - : Springer Science and Business Media LLC. - 2045-2322. ; 6
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Tidskriftsartikel (refereegranskat)abstract
- Animal clades tend to follow a predictable path of waxing and waning during their existence, regardless of their total species richness or geographic coverage. Clades begin small and undifferentiated, then expand to a peak in diversity and range, only to shift into a rarely broken decline towards extinction. While this trajectory is now well documented and broadly recognised, the reasons underlying it remain obscure. In particular, it is unknown why clade extinction is universal and occurs with such surprising regularity. Current explanations for paleontological extinctions call on the growing costs of biological interactions, geological accidents, evolutionary traps, and mass extinctions. While these are effective causes of extinction, they mainly apply to species, not clades. Although mass extinctions is the undeniable cause for the demise of a sizeable number of major taxa, we show here that clades escaping them go extinct because of the widespread tendency of evolution to produce increasingly specialised, sympatric, and geographically restricted species over time.
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| 3. |
- Block, Keith I., et al.
(författare)
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Designing a broad-spectrum integrative approach for cancer prevention and treatment
- 2015
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Ingår i: Seminars in Cancer Biology. - : Academic Press. - 1044-579X .- 1096-3650. ; 35, s. S276-S304
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Forskningsöversikt (refereegranskat)abstract
- Targeted therapies and the consequent adoption of "personalized" oncology have achieved notable successes in some cancers; however, significant problems remain with this approach. Many targeted therapies are highly toxic, costs are extremely high, and most patients experience relapse after a few disease-free months. Relapses arise from genetic heterogeneity in tumors, which harbor therapy-resistant immortalized cells that have adopted alternate and compensatory pathways (i.e., pathways that are not reliant upon the same mechanisms as those which have been targeted). To address these limitations, an international task force of 180 scientists was assembled to explore the concept of a low-toxicity "broadspectrum" therapeutic approach that could simultaneously target many key pathways and mechanisms. Using cancer hallmark phenotypes and the tumor microenvironment to account for the various aspects of relevant cancer biology, interdisciplinary teams reviewed each hallmark area and nominated a wide range of high-priority targets (74 in total) that could be modified to improve patient outcomes. For these targets, corresponding low-toxicity therapeutic approaches were then suggested, many of which were phytochemicals. Proposed actions on each target and all of the approaches were further reviewed for known effects on other hallmark areas and the tumor microenvironment Potential contrary or procarcinogenic effects were found for 3.9% of the relationships between targets and hallmarks, and mixed evidence of complementary and contrary relationships was found for 7.1%. Approximately 67% of the relationships revealed potentially complementary effects, and the remainder had no known relationship. Among the approaches, 1.1% had contrary, 2.8% had mixed and 62.1% had complementary relationships. These results suggest that a broad-spectrum approach should be feasible from a safety standpoint. This novel approach has potential to be relatively inexpensive, it should help us address stages and types of cancer that lack conventional treatment, and it may reduce relapse risks. A proposed agenda for future research is offered. (C) 2015 The Authors. Published by Elsevier Ltd.
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| 5. |
- Pellegrino, T, et al.
(författare)
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Moderated Poster Session 3 : Monday 4 May 2015, 10
- 2015
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Ingår i: European Heart Journal Cardiovascular Imaging. - : Oxford University Press (OUP). - 2047-2404 .- 2047-2412. ; 16 Suppl 1
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Tidskriftsartikel (refereegranskat)
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| 6. |
- Piras, P., et al.
(författare)
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Evolution of the sabertooth mandible: A deadly ecomorphological specialization
- 2018
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Ingår i: Palaeogeography Palaeoclimatology Palaeoecology. - : Elsevier BV. - 0031-0182. ; 496, s. 166-174
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Tidskriftsartikel (refereegranskat)abstract
- Saber-toothed cats were armed with formidable weapons. They evolved a number of highly derived morphological features, most notably a pair of extremely long upper canines, which makes them unique within the felid family. Although the sabertooth character evolved several times among carnivorous mammals, sabertooth clades mostly had disjunctive occurrences both in space and time, and no sabertooth is alive today. We studied the rates of phenotypic and taxonomic diversification in the mandible of sabertooths, as compared to the rates calculated for both extinct and extant conical toothed cats. We found that the mandible's shape and physical properties in sabertooth clades evolved at distinctly higher rates than the rest of the felid tree. In addition, sabertooths had similar speciation rate to conical toothed cats, but statistically higher extinction rate. The wealth of morphological specializations required to be a sabertooth, and their tendency to focus on large-sized species as prey, was likely responsible for such high extinction rate, and for the peculiar, disjunctive patterns of sabertooth Glade occurrence in the fossil record.
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| 7. |
- Saha, M., et al.
(författare)
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Using chemical language to shape future marine health
- 2019
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Ingår i: Frontiers in Ecology and the Environment. - : Wiley. - 1540-9295 .- 1540-9309. ; 17:9, s. 530-537
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Tidskriftsartikel (refereegranskat)abstract
- "Infochemicals" (information-conveying chemicals) dominate much of the underwater communication in biological systems. They influence the movement and behavior of organisms, the ecological interactions between and across populations, and the trophic structure of marine food webs. However, relative to their terrestrial equivalents, the wider ecological and economic importance of marine infochemicals remains understudied and a concerted, cross-disciplinary effort is needed to reveal the full potential of marine chemical ecology. We highlight current challenges with specific examples and suggest how research on the chemical ecology of marine organisms could provide opportunities for implementing new management solutions for future "blue growth" (the sustainable use of ocean resources) and maintaining healthy marine ecosystems.
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