Predation may be a significant factor in the divergence of sympatric species although its role has been largely overlooked. This study examines the consequences of predation on the fitness of a pair of lacustrine stickleback species (Gasterosteus aculeatus complex) and their F(1) hybrids. Benthic sticklebacks are found in the littoral zone of lakes associated with vegetation and bare sediments,...

Adaptive evolutionary change in only a few generations can increase the ability of non-native invasive species to spread, and yet adaptive divergence is rarely assessed in recently established populations. In this study, we experimentally test for evidence of fine-scale local adaptation in juvenile survival and growth among three populations of an invasive freshwater fish with reciprocal transp...

Using Lagrangian simulations, based on circulation models over three different hydroclimatic periods in the last 45 years in the North Atlantic Ocean, the trans-Atlantic migration of the European eel Anguilla anguilla leptocephali was simulated via the passive drift of particles released in the spawning area. Three different behaviours were modelled: drifting at fixed depth, undergoing a vertic...

Evolutionary biologists often seek to infer historical patterns of relatedness among organisms using phylogenetic methods and to gauge the evolutionary processes that determine variation among individuals in extant populations. But relatively less effort is devoted to making evolutionary biology a truly predictive science, where future evolutionary events are precisely foreseen. Accurate predic...

BACKGROUND We present survival outcomes of patients registered in the Dutch population-based Eindhoven Cancer Registry (ECR). PATIENTS AND METHODS Data on patients diagnosed with a melanoma between 1980 and 2002 were obtained from the ECR. Data on vital status up to 1 January 2005 were obtained, up-to-date survival rates were calculated using period analysis. Multivariate analyses were carrie...

Poor survival of older cervical cancer patients has been reported; however, related factors, such as the extent of disease and the competitive risk by aging have not been well evaluated. We applied the relative survival model developed by Dickman et al to resolve this issue. Study subjects were cervical cancer patients retrieved from the Osaka Cancer Registry. They were limited to the 10,048 re...

BACKGROUND Very few population-based cancer survival studies have been performed in Viet Nam. The aim of the present study was to estimate observed and relative cancer survival rates in populations of Phu Tho, Hanoi and Hue city. METHODS A retrospective-cohort study was performed for all 12 districts of Phu Tho province (semi-highland area in the north), eight districts of Hanoi city (Capital...

The most commonly reported measures of prognosis for patients with cancer or some other chronic disease are 5-or 10-year absolute or relative survival rates. Because survival rates often vary by age of patients, and because the age structure of patients often varies between populations, age adjustment is crucial for comparative analyses of survival rates. However, traditional age adjustment oft...

OBJECTIVE To estimate the incidence and 28-day and 5-year survival rates after a first acute myocardial infarction (AMI) in relation to socioeconomic status in the Basque Country (Spain) between 1999 and 2000. METHODS Data from a population-based registry of AMI were used. The study included 3,619 patients to calculate age-standardized incidence by the direct method and 2,003 patients (out-of...