Social assemblages and mating relationships in prairie dogs: a DNA fingerprint analysis

Mating system characterizations have been hindered by difficulties in accurately assigning parentage to offspring. We investigated the relationship between social assemblages and mating relationships in a territorial harem polygynous mammal, the Gunnison\u27s prairie dog, using a combination of behavioral and molecular analyses. We demonstrate multiple paternity and an extraordinarily high incidence of extraterritorial fertilizations (i.e., 61% of all progeny), in combination with the existence of female kin groups. On this basis, we conclude that social assemblages alone provide a poor description of the Gunnison\u27s prairie dog mating system, and suggest several potential reasons for the maintenance of territoriality in this species

Party organisational change in Italy (1991-2006)

This article analyses the organisational change in Italian political parties since 1990 with the aim of finding evidence in favour or against the widespread view in the literature that organisational resources, and hence power, are becoming more and more concentrated in the hands of party and/or parliamentary leaders, and that there is a corresponding decline in the territorial presence of parties. 10 The account made here of the evolution of Italian parties follows quite closely Katz and Mair’s approach by analysing separately their three organisational faces and observing their characteristics and change over time face by face. Trends in membership, finances, staff and party statutes confirm to a large extent the overall research hypothesis.This article analyses the organisational change in Italian political parties since 1990 with the aim of finding evidence in favour or against the widespread view in the literature that organisational resources, and hence power, are becoming more and more concentrated in the hands of party and/or parliamentary leaders, and that there is a corresponding decline in the territorial presence of parties. 10 The account made here of the evolution of Italian parties follows quite closely Katz and Mair’s approach by analysing separately their three organisational faces and observing their characteristics and change over time face by face. Trends in membership, finances, staff and party statutes confirm to a large extent the overall research hypothesis

Cosmology with X-ray Cluster Baryons

X-ray cluster measurements interpreted with a universal baryon/gas mass fraction can theoretically serve as a cosmological distance probe. We examine issues of cosmological sensitivity for current (e.g. Chandra X-ray Observatory, XMM-Newton) and next generation (e.g. Con-X, XEUS) observations, along with systematic uncertainties and biases. To give competitive next generation constraints on dark energy, we find that systematics will need to be controlled to better than 1% and any evolution in f_gas (and other cluster gas properties) must be calibrated so the residual uncertainty is weaker than (1+z)^{0.03}.Comment: 6 pages, 5 figures; v2: 13 pages, substantial elaboration and reordering, matches JCAP versio

Innovazione unica direzione.

Le attività della Direzione per le Relazioni con il territorio, l'innovazione e lo sviluppo

Exploring the Factors Contributing to the High Ultimate pH of Broiler Pectoralis Major Muscles Affected by Wooden Breast Condition

The elevated ultimate pH (pHu) found in wooden breast (WB) meat suggests an altered muscular energetic status in WB but also could be related to a prematurely terminated post-mortem pH decline. The aims of this study were to explore the factors contributing to the elevated pHu and establish whether the occurrence of WB defect alters muscle post-mortem carbohydrate metabolism and determine if the contractile apparatus reflects such changes. A total of 24 carcasses from Ross 308 male chickens were obtained from a commercial producer and harvested using commercial processing procedures. Carcasses were categorized into unaffected (NORM) and WB groups (n = 12 each), and samples were collected from cranial bone-in pectoralis major (PM) muscles at 15 min and 24 h post-mortem for the determination of pH, glycolytic metabolites, adenonucleotides, buffering capacity, phosphofructokinase (PFK) activity, and in vitro pH decline. Twenty-four additional deboned PM samples (12 NORM and 12 WB) were collected from the same processing plant to assess muscle histology and sarcomere length at four different locations throughout the PM muscle. Data show that the reduced glycolytic potential of WB muscles only partially explains the higher (P < 0.001) pHu of WB meat, as residual glycogen along with unaltered PFK activity suggests that neither glycogen nor a deficiency of PFK is responsible for arresting glycolysis prematurely. The dramatic reduction in ATP concentrations in the early post-mortem period suggests a defective ATP-generating pathway that might be responsible for the reduced pH decline in WB samples. Further, the addition of excess of ATPase extended post-mortem glycolysis of WB meat in an in vitro glycolytic system. WB-affected samples have longer (P < 0.001) sarcomeres compared to NORM, indicating the existence of compromised energy-generating pathways in myopathic muscles that may have had consequences on the muscle contraction and tension development, as in vivo, also during the post-mortem period. Considering the overall reduced glycolytic potential and the myodegenerative processes associated with WB condition, we speculate that the higher pHu of WB meat might be the outcome of a drastically impaired energy-generating pathway combined with a deficiency and/or a dysfunction of muscle ATPases, having consequences also on muscle fiber contraction degree