Haplotype Affinities Resolve a Major Component of Goat (Capra hircus) MtDNA D-Loop Diversity and Reveal Specific Features of the Sardinian Stock

Goat mtDNA haplogroup A is a poorly resolved lineage absorbing most of the overall diversity and is found in locations as distant as Eastern Asia and Southern Africa. Its phylogenetic dissection would cast light on an important portion of the spread of goat breeding. The aims of this work were 1) to provide an operational definition of meaningful mtDNA units within haplogroup A, 2) to investigate the mechanisms underlying the maintenance of diversity by considering the modes of selection operated by breeders and 3) to identify the peculiarities of Sardinian mtDNA types. We sequenced the mtDNA D-loop in a large sample of animals (1,591) which represents a non-trivial quota of the entire goat population of Sardinia. We found that Sardinia mirrors a large quota of mtDNA diversity of Western Eurasia in the number of variable sites, their mutational pattern and allele frequency. By using Bayesian analysis, a distance-based tree and a network analysis, we recognized demographically coherent groups of sequences identified by particular subsets of the variable positions. The results showed that this assignment system could be reproduced in other studies, capturing the greatest part of haplotype diversity

Cognitive dynamics of intertemporal choice in gambling disorder

Gambling Disorder (GD) is a behavioral addiction characterized by the persistence of recurrent gambling behaviors despite serious adverse consequences. One of the key features of GD is a marked inability to delay gratification and an overall impairment of decision-making mechanisms. Indeed, in intertemporal choice (ITC) tasks, GD patients usually display a marked tendency to prefer smaller-sooner over larger-later rewards (temporal discounting, TD). However, ITC represents a highly verbal/explicit measure, and as such it might not be sensitive to implicit decision biases. Here we sought to uncover the implicit mechanisms underlying the ITC impairment in GD by employing the process-tracing method of mouse kinematics. To this aim, we collected and analyzed ITCs and kinematics measures from 24 GD patients and 23 matched healthy control participants (HC). In line with the relevant literature, the results showed that GD patients discounted future rewards more steeply compared to HCs. Additionally, the results of kinematics analyses showed that patients were characterized by a strong bias toward the immediate option, which was associated with straight-line trajectories. Conversely, the delayed option was selected with edge-curved trajectories, indicating a bias toward the immediate option which was revised in later stages of processing. Interestingly, kinematics indices were also found to be predictive of individual discounting preferences (i.e., discount rates) across the two groups. Taken together, these results suggest that kinematics indices, by revealing hidden and implicit patterns of attraction toward the unselected choice option, may represent reliable behavioral markers of TD in gambling disorder

Pacific Islands Ichthyoarchaeology: Implications for the Development of Prehistoric Fishing Studies and Global Sustainability

The Pacific Islands—consisting of culturally diverse Melanesia, Micronesia, and Polynesia—is the ideal region to investigate the development of prehistoric fishing studies, as nowhere else on Earth is there such environmental contrasts among island types and their marine environments. We review the ichthyoarchaeological literature for the Pacific and assess developments in recovery methods, reference collections, taxonomic identifications, quantification, taphonomy and site-formation processes, ethnoarchaeology, approaches to diet and subsistence reconstructions, sustainability, and the importance of applied zooarchaeology for fisheries management and conservation. Ichthyoarchaeologists are beginning to work more closely with resource managers, fisheries biologists, policy makers, and indigenous communities to produce holistic studies of conservation management, resource sustainability, and assessments of human impacts on marine ecosystems over centuries to millennial time scales