THRB ELISA Kit

Species delimitation offered by DNA-based approaches can provide important insights into the natural history and diversity of species, but the cogency of such processes is limited without multigene phylogenies. Recent attempts to barcode various Solenopsidini ant taxa (Hymenoptera: Formicidae: Myrmicinae), including the thief ant Solenopsis saudiensis Sharaf & Aldawood, 2011 described from the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia (KSA), were precipitated by the unexpected existence of a closely related species, the Nearctic S. abdita Thompson, 1989 within the S. molesta species complex native to Florida. This finding left the species status of the former uncertain. Here, we investigated the taxonomy and phylogeny of these two species to determine whether or not S. abdita represents a new global tramp species. We inferred a phylogeny of the two species using DNA sequence data from four nuclear genes (Abd-A, EF1 alpha -F1, EF1 alpha -F2, and Wingless) and one mitochondrial gene (COI) sampled from populations in Florida, Guatemala, Hawaii, and Saudi Arabia. Both species clustered into one distinct and robust clade. The taxonomy of S. saudiensis was re-examined using morphometrics. A reassessment of the morphological characters used to diagnose the worker and queen castes were consistent with molecular evidence. Based on combined morphological and molecular evidences S. saudiensis is declared as a junior synonym of S. abdita (syn. nov.). In addition, our findings indicate that S. abdita is a novel global tramp species which has a far wider distribution than previously thought and has established itself in many new habitats and different geographic realms.

Although aripiprazole is one of the most used antipsychotics, knowledge about serum concentrations in children and adolescents is scarce and age-specific therapeutic ranges have not been established yet. Data of a routine therapeutic drug monitoring service were analyzed in order to evaluate the relationship between dose and serum concentration of aripiprazole in children and adolescents. The study also aimed to evaluate whether the therapeutic reference range defined for adults with schizophrenia (100-350 ng/ml) is applicable for minors. Data from 130 patients (aged 7-19 years) treated with aripiprazole for different indications in doses of 2-30 mg/day were evaluated. Patient characteristics, doses, serum concentrations and therapeutic outcome were assessed by standardized measures. A positive mean correlation between body weight-corrected daily dose and aripiprazole concentration was found (r(p) = 0.59,p < 0.001) with variation in dose explaining 35% of the variability in serum concentrations. Girls had on average 41% higher dose-corrected concentrations than boys (244.9 versus 173.4 mg/l;p = 0.006). Aripiprazole concentrations did not vary with co-medication (p = 0.22). About 70% of all measured serum concentrations were within the recommended therapeutic range for adults. Using a calculation method in all responding patients with an ICD-10 F2 diagnosis for a rough estimation of a preliminary therapeutic window also demonstrated a similar therapeutic range of aripiprazole in minors (105.9-375.3 ng/ml) than for adults. If confirmed in larger samples and more controlled study designs, these data may contribute to the definition of a therapeutic range of aripiprazole concentrations in children and adolescents.