Cultural variation in cognitive flexibility reveals diversity in the development of executive functions

Cognitive flexibility, the adaptation of representations and responses to new task demands, improves dramatically in early childhood. It is unclear, however, whether flexibility is a coherent, unitary cognitive trait, or is an emergent dimension of task-specific performance that varies across populations with divergent experiences. Three-to 5-year-old English-speaking U.S. children and Tswana-speaking South African children completed two distinct language-processing cognitive flexibility tests: the FIM-Animates, a word-learning test, and the 3DCCS, a rule-switching test. U.S. and South African children did not differ in word-learning flexibility but showed similar age-related increases. In contrast, U.S. preschoolers showed an age-related increase in rule-switching flexibility but South African children did not. Verbal recall explained additional variance in both tests but did not modulate the interaction between population sample (i.e., country) and task. We hypothesize that rule-switching flexibility might be more dependent upon particular kinds of cultural experiences, whereas word-learning flexibility is less cross-culturally variable

Nutrition-related knowledge and behaviors of healthcare professionals: A pilot study

Background: Healthcare consumers have a plethora of resources of nutrition guidance available, yet many sources provide unreliable information. Healthcare professionals are expected to be the expert source of nutrition information and dietary guidance for their clients and patients. Purpose: To determine the nutrition knowledge, behaviors, and beliefs of healthcare professionals to identify which, if any, professional group are experts in nutrition and which professionals are the best resource for nutrition information and guidance for healthcare consumers. Research Design: A self-reported online survey gathered information on participants’ (n=201) BMI, knowledge of the Dietary Guidelines for Americans, dietary intake, and beliefs about healthcare professionals’ knowledge of nutrition and providing dietary guidance. Conclusions: All groups demonstrated knowledge of the Dietary Guidelines for Americans, though RDs displayed the greatest knowledge of the guidelines and most congruence between guideline recommendations and reported dietary intake, and were identified as experts in nutrition by all professional groups surveyed

Preventing the abuse of older people by their family members

The causes of abuse of older people are complex and multifaceted, and may encompass physical, psychological, social, medical, legal and environmental factors and multiple systems. Recent South Australian research identified many barriers older people face in reporting abuse and in fleeing abusive situations. Abuse of older people requires psychological, medical, social, political and legal interventions and actions

Ecoimmunity in Darwin's finches: invasive parasites trigger acquired immunity in the medium ground finch (Geospiza fortis)

Journal ArticleInvasive parasites pose a serious threat to native animal populations, because hosts with no history of exposure may lack effective immune defenses. Invasive parasites are a particular threat to small, island populations [1,2]. For example, introduced malaria (Plasmodium relictum) has exacerbated the decline of Hawaiian honeycreeper species, many of which are now extinct [3,4]. Darwin's finches have recently been exposed to two introduced parasites of high conservation priority: avian pox virus (Poxvirus avium) and the nest fly Philornis downsi (Figure 1A, 1B) [1,2]

Does avian malaria reduce fledging success: an experimental test of the selection hypothesis

pre-printLike many parasites, avian haematozoa are often found at lower infection intensities in older birds than young birds. One explanation, known as the "selection" hypothesis, is that infected young birds die before reaching adulthood, thus removing the highest infection intensities from the host population. We tested this hypothesis in the field by experimentally infecting nestling rock pigeons (Columba livia) with the malaria parasite Haemoproteus columbae. We compared the condition and fledging success of infected nestlings to that of uninfected controls. There was no significant difference in the body mass, fledging success, age at fledging, or post-fledging survival of experimental versus control birds. These results were unexpected, given that long-term studies of older pigeons have demonstrated chronic effects of H. columbae. We conclude that H. columbae has little impact on nestling pigeons, even when they are directly infected with the parasite. Our study provides no support for the selection hypothesis that older birds have lower parasite loads because parasites are removed from the population by infected nestlings dying. To our knowledge, this is the first study to test the impact of avian malaria using experimental inoculations under natural conditions

Darwins finches combat introduced nest parasites with fumigated cotton

pre-printIntroduced parasites are a threat to biodiversity when naïve hosts lack effective defenses against such parasites [1]. Several parasites have recently colonized the Galápagos Islands, threatening native bird populations [2]. For example, the introduced parasitic nest fly Philornis downsi (Diptera: Muscidae) has been implicated in the decline of endangered species of Darwin's finches, such as the mangrove finch (Camarhynchus heliobates) [3]. Here, we show that Darwin's finches can be encouraged to "self-fumigate" nests with cotton fibers that have been treated with permethrin. Nests with permethrin-treated cotton had significantly fewer P. downsi than control nests, and nests containing at least one gram of cotton were virtually parasite-free. Nests directly fumigated with permethrin had fewer parasites and fledged more offspring than nests treated with water

Ecological basis of coevolutionary history

Journal ArticleMacroevolutionary patterns are difficult to interpret because they are the product of a time scale so vast that deterministic and chance events are hard to distinguish. Although the macroevolutionary history of a group can be reconstructed from extant species, determining the ecological context in which that group evolved is a tall order. Ecology involves interactions between organisms and both the living and nonliving components of their environments

Effect of the 'Crouch, Bind, Set' engagement routine on scrum performance in English Premiership Rugby

The effect of the new scrum engagement sequence introduced at the start of the 2013/2014 season on scrum performance has not been evaluated. This study compared scrum performance indicators pre- (2012/2013 season) and post-law change (2013/2014). Several performance indicators at the scrum were identified in 20 games from each season of the English domestic Premiership. These included the number of penalties, free kicks and resets awarded. A Mann Whitney U test showed a significant increase in the number of scrums per game, from 17.50 to 23.85 (p = 0.003, ES = 0.47). This was contributed to by a 112% increase in the number of reset scrums (p < 0.0005). Of the resets, there was a significant increase in the number of scrums reset due to collapsing, which is of concern for player welfare. However, resets for collapsing accounted for a similar proportion of the total resets pre and post law change at 52% and 53%, respectively, and may be due to the relative novelty of the technique and stringent law enforcement increasing resets. In contrast, there was a decrease in the number of early engagements from 1.65 to 0.40 per match following the law change which is likely beneficial for player welfare

State of apps targeting management for sustainability of agricultural landscapes. A review

International audienceAbstractThe triple-bottom-line approach to sustainability in agriculture requires multi- and inter-disciplinary expertise and remains a major design and implementation challenge. Tools are needed to link extension agents, development workers, farmers, and other agriculture decision-makers to information related to practices that improve sustainability across agricultural landscapes. The digital age has brought many new cloud-based and mobile device–accessible software applications (apps) targeted at farmers and others in the agriculture sector; however, the effectiveness of these tools for advancing sustainability goals is unknown. Here, we review apps for agriculture in order to identify gaps in information provisioning and sharing for tools that connect decision-makers to knowledge in support of sustainable agricultural landscapes. The major findings are (1) Agricultural apps can be categorized as supporting regulatory compliance, equipment optimization, farming simulator games, information management, agronomic reference information, product tracking, pest identification, emissions accounting, or benchmarks for marketing claims. (2) Many apps are developed to link specific products for single solutions, such as GPS-guided crop implementation or sensors within Internet-of-things connectivity. (3) While pilots, prototypes, and case studies are available in both Apple and Android digital markets, public mobile apps to improve multidirectional agriculture knowledge exchange are limited and poorly documented. (4) There remains a need for apps emphasizing knowledge exchange and resource discovery, rather than simply information delivery, to help farmers identify evidence-based practices that improve indicators of sustainability. (5) Development of a digital decision support tool requires early and ongoing interactions with targeted end users to clarify app performance objectives and social networking preferences, ensure reliability of scientific input and business management plans, and optimize the user experience

Personal nitrogen footprint tool for the United Kingdom

The global nitrogen (N) cycle has been transformed by human use of reactive N as a consequence of increased demand for food and energy. Given the considerable impact of humans on the N cycle, it is essential that we raise awareness amongst the public and policy makers as this is the first step in providing individuals and governments the opportunity to reduce their impact on the N cycle and reduce the environmental and health consequences of N pollution. Here we describe an N footprint tool for the UK developed as part of the N-PRINT program. The current per capita N footprint in the UK is 27.1 kg N per capita per year with food production constituting the largest proportion of the footprint (18.0 kg N per capita per year). Calculating an N footprint for 1971 (26.0 kg N per capita per year) demonstrates that per capita N footprints have increased slightly. The average UK footprint is smaller than that found in the USA but is higher than the Netherlands and Germany. Scenario analysis demonstrates that reducing food protein consumption to the levels recommended by the FAO and World Health Organization reduces the overall N footprint by 33%. Consuming a vegetarian diet and consuming only sustainable food both decreased the N footprint by 15% but changes in energy use have a much smaller impact