Hordes of mandrills (Mandrillus sphinx): extreme group size and seasonal male presence

Mandrill Mandrillus sphinx hordes in the Lopé Reserve, Gabon, the approximate centre of the mandrill species range, were studied over 3 years from 1996 to 1999. Part of the study site included gallery forests within savanna areas, allowing observation of entire hordes, hitherto impossible in dense forest habitat. Horde size and composition (sex and age classes) were documented using exact records on video film whenever a horde or subgroup crossed an open space. Mean horde size was 620, and hordes of up to 845 individuals were documented, probably the largest stable group size found in any wild, unprovisioned primate population. Hordes were cohesive throughout the study period and did not seem to be aggregations of smaller units. Mandrill societies seem to be quite different from the baboon societies, to which they have been compared to date. Mature, breeding-age males were not resident members of hordes, but entered at the onset of seasonal cycles in the females (as deduced by the presence of sexual tumescence) and emigrated once female sexual cycles ceased. The number of breeding males present in the horde at any one time is best explained by the number of sexually attractive females. It is postulated that the extreme coloration of males and strong sexual dimorphism in mandrills may have evolved through an enhanced need for competitive signals in a situation where no long-term social bonds between breeding partners exist

A meta aggregation of qualitative research on retention of general practitioners in remote Canada and Australia

OBJECTIVE: Our aim was to systematically review qualitative evidence regarding the experiences and perceptions of general practitioners and what factors influence their retention in remote areas of Canada and Australia. The objectives were to identify gaps and inform policy to improve retention of remote general practitioners, which should in turn improve the health of our marginalised remote communities. DESIGN: Meta-aggregation of qualitative studies. SETTING: Remote general practice in Canada and Australia. PARTICIPANTS: General practitioners and general practice registrars who had worked in a remote area for a minimum of one year and/or were intending to stay remote long term in their current placement. RESULTS: Twenty-four studies were included in the final analysis. A total of 811 participants made up the sample with a length of retention ranging from 2 to 40 years. Six synthesised findings were identified from a total of 401 findings; these were around peer and professional support, organisational support, uniqueness of remote lifestyle and work, burnout and time off, personal family issues and cultural and gender issues. CONCLUSIONS: Long term retention of doctors in remote areas of Australia and Canada is influenced by a range of negative and positive perceptions, and experiences with key factors being professional, organisational, or personal. All six factors span a spectrum of policy domains and service responsibilities and therefore a central coordinating body could be well placed to implement a multifactorial retention strategy

Deceptive body movements reverse spatial cueing in soccer

This article has been made available through the Brunel Open Access Publishing Fund.The purpose of the experiments was to analyse the spatial cueing effects of the movements of soccer players executing normal and deceptive (step-over) turns with the ball. Stimuli comprised normal resolution or point-light video clips of soccer players dribbling a football towards the observer then turning right or left with the ball. Clips were curtailed before or on the turn (-160, -80, 0 or +80 ms) to examine the time course of direction prediction and spatial cueing effects. Participants were divided into higher-skilled (HS) and lower-skilled (LS) groups according to soccer experience. In experiment 1, accuracy on full video clips was higher than on point-light but results followed the same overall pattern. Both HS and LS groups correctly identified direction on normal moves at all occlusion levels. For deceptive moves, LS participants were significantly worse than chance and HS participants were somewhat more accurate but nevertheless substantially impaired. In experiment 2, point-light clips were used to cue a lateral target. HS and LS groups showed faster reaction times to targets that were congruent with the direction of normal turns, and to targets incongruent with the direction of deceptive turns. The reversed cueing by deceptive moves coincided with earlier kinematic events than cueing by normal moves. It is concluded that the body kinematics of soccer players generate spatial cueing effects when viewed from an opponent's perspective. This could create a reaction time advantage when anticipating the direction of a normal move. A deceptive move is designed to turn this cueing advantage into a disadvantage. Acting on the basis of advance information, the presence of deceptive moves primes responses in the wrong direction, which may be only partly mitigated by delaying a response until veridical cues emerge