Energy cost and return for hunting in African wild dogs and Cheetahs

African wild dogs (Lycaon pictus) are reported to hunt with energetically costly long chase distances. We used high-resolution GPS and inertial technology to record 1,119 high-speed chases of all members of a pack of six adult African wild dogs in northern Botswana. Dogs performed multiple short, high-speed, mostly unsuccessful chases to capture prey, while cheetahs (Acinonyx jubatus) undertook even shorter, higher-speed hunts. We used an energy balance model to show that the energy return from group hunting and feeding substantially outweighs the cost of multiple short chases, which indicates that African wild dogs are more energetically robust than previously believed. Comparison with cheetah illustrates the trade-off between sheer athleticism and high individual kill rate characteristic of cheetahs, and the energetic robustness of frequent opportunistic group hunting and feeding by African wild dogs

Two distinct populations of Bovine IL-17+ T-cells can be induced and WC1+IL-17+γδ T-cells are effective killers of protozoan parasites

IL-17 has emerged as a key player in the immune system, exhibiting roles in protection from infectious diseases and promoting inflammation in autoimmunity. Initially thought to be CD4 T-cell-derived, the sources of IL-17 are now known to be varied and belong to both the innate and adaptive arms of the immune system. Mechanisms for inducing IL-17 production in lymphoid cells are thought to rely on appropriate antigenic stimulation in the context of TGF-β1, IL-6 and/or IL-1β. Using culture protocols adapted from human studies, we have effectively induced both bovine CD4+ and WC1+ γδ T-cells to produce IL-17 termed Th17 and γδ17 cells, respectively. The negative regulatory effect of IFN-γ on mouse and human IL-17 production can be extended to the bovine model, as addition of IFN-γ decreases IL-17 production in both cell types. Furthermore we show that infection with the protozoan Neospora caninum will induce fibroblasts to secrete pro-IL-17 factors thereby inducing a γδ17 phenotype that preferentially kills infected target cells. Our study identifies two T-cell sources of IL-17, and is the first to demonstrate a protective effect of IL-17+ T-cells in ruminants. Our findings offer further opportunities for future adjuvants or vaccines which could benefit from inducing these responses

Brand Suicide? Memory and Liking of Negative Brand Names

Negative brand names are surprisingly common in the marketplace (e.g., Poison perfume; Hell pizza, and Monster energy drink), yet their effects on consumer behavior are currently unknown. Three studies investigated the effects of negative brand name valence on brand name memory and liking of a branded product. Study 1 demonstrates that relative to nonnegative brand names, negative brand names and their associated logos are better recognised. Studies 2 and 3 demonstrate that negative valence of a brand name tends to have a detrimental influence on product evaluation with evaluations worsening as negative valence increases. However, evaluation is also dependent on brand name arousal, with high arousal brand names resulting in more positive evaluations, such that moderately negative brand names are equally as attractive as some non-negative brand names. Study 3 shows evidence for affective habituation, whereby the effects of negative valence reduce with repeated exposures to some classes of negative brand name

New Role, New Country: introducing US physician assistants to Scotland

This paper draws from research commissioned by the Scottish Executive Health Department (SEHD). It provides a case study in the introduction of a new health care worker role into an already well established and "mature" workforce configuration It assesses the role of US style physician assistants (PAs), as a precursor to planned "piloting" of the PA role within the National Health Service (NHS) in Scotland

Substitution and pooling in crowding

Unless we fixate directly on it, it is hard to see an object among other objects. This breakdown in object recognition, called crowding, severely limits peripheral vision. The effect is more severe when objects are more similar. When observers mistake the identity of a target among flanker objects, they often report a flanker. Many have taken these flanker reports as evidence of internal substitution of the target by a flanker. Here, we ask observers to identify a target letter presented in between one similar and one dissimilar flanker letter. Simple substitution takes in only one letter, which is often the target but, by unwitting mistake, is sometimes a flanker. The opposite of substitution is pooling, which takes in more than one letter. Having taken only one letter, the substitution process knows only its identity, not its similarity to the target. Thus, it must report similar and dissimilar flankers equally often. Contrary to this prediction, the similar flanker is reported much more often than the dissimilar flanker, showing that rampant flanker substitution cannot account for most flanker reports. Mixture modeling shows that simple substitution can account for, at most, about half the trials. Pooling and nonpooling (simple substitution) together include all possible models of crowding. When observers are asked to identify a crowded object, at least half of their reports are pooled, based on a combination of information from target and flankers, rather than being based on a single letter

Quantifying the Spatial Ecology of Wide-Ranging Marine Species in the Gulf of California: Implications for Marine Conservation Planning

There is growing interest in systematic establishment of marine protected area (MPA) networks and representative conservation sites. This movement toward networks of no-take zones requires that reserves are deliberately and adequately spaced for connectivity. Here, we test the network functionality of an ecoregional assessment configuration of marine conservation areas by evaluating the habitat protection and connectivity offered to wide-ranging fauna in the Gulf of California (GOC, Mexico). We first use expert opinion to identify representative species of wide-ranging fauna of the GOC. These include leopard grouper, hammerhead sharks, California brown pelicans and green sea turtles. Analyzing habitat models with both structural and functional connectivity indexes, our results indicate that the configuration includes large proportions of biologically important habitat for the four species considered (25–40%), particularly, the best quality habitats (46–57%). Our results also show that connectivity levels offered by the conservation area design for these four species may be similar to connectivity levels offered by the entire Gulf of California, thus indicating that connectivity offered by the areas may resemble natural connectivity. The selected focal species comprise different life histories among marine or marine-related vertebrates and are associated with those habitats holding the most biodiversity values (i.e. coastal habitats); our results thus suggest that the proposed configuration may function as a network for connectivity and may adequately represent the marine megafauna in the GOC, including the potential connectivity among habitat patches. This work highlights the range of approaches that can be used to quantify habitat protection and connectivity for wide-ranging marine species in marine reserve networks

Judgment of Learning Accuracy in High-functioning Adolescents and Adults with Autism Spectrum Disorder

This study explored whether adults and adolescents with autism spectrum disorder (ASD) demonstrate difficulties making metacognitive judgments, specifically judgments of learning. Across two experiments, the study examined whether individuals with ASD could accurately judge whether they had learnt a piece of information (in this case word pairs). In Experiment 1, adults with ASD demonstrated typical accuracy on a standard ‘cue-alone’ judgment of learning (JOL) task, compared to age- and IQmatched neurotypical adults. Additionally, in Experiment 2, adolescents with ASD demonstrated typical accuracy on both a standard ‘cue-alone’ JOL task, and a ‘cue-target’ JOL task. These results suggest that JOL accuracy is unimpaired in ASD. These results have important implications for both theories of metacognition in ASD and educational practise

Knee-clicks and visual traits indicate fighting ability in eland antelopes: multiple messages and back-up signals

Abstract Background Given the costs of signalling, why do males often advertise their fighting ability to rivals using several signals rather than just one? Multiple signalling theories have developed largely in studies of sexual signals, and less is known about their applicability to intra-sexual communication. We here investigate the evolutionary basis for the intricate agonistic signalling system in eland antelopes, paying particular attention to the evolutionary phenomenon of loud knee-clicking. Results A principal components analysis separated seven male traits into three groups. The dominant frequency of the knee-clicking sound honestly indicated body size, a main determinant of fighting ability. In contrast, the dewlap size increased with estimated age rather than body size, suggesting that, by magnifying the silhouette of older bulls disproportionately, the dewlap acts as an indicator of age-related traits such as fighting experience. Facemask darkness, frontal hairbrush size and body greyness aligned with a third underlying variable, presumed to be androgen-related aggression. A longitudinal study provided independent support of these findings. Conclusion The results show that the multiple agonistic signals in eland reflect three separate components of fighting ability: (1) body size, (2) age and (3) presumably androgen-related aggression, which is reflected in three backup signals. The study highlights how complex agonistic signalling systems can evolve through the simultaneous action of several selective forces, each of which favours multiple signals. Specifically, loud knee-clicking is discovered to be an honest signal of body size, providing an exceptional example of the potential for non-vocal acoustic communication in mammals.</p

Allelic Gene Structure Variations in Anopheles gambiae Mosquitoes

Allelic gene structure variations and alternative splicing are responsible for transcript structure variations. More than 75% of human genes have structural isoforms of transcripts, but to date few studies have been conducted to verify the alternative splicing systematically.The present study used expressed sequence tags (ESTs) and EST tagged SNP patterns to examine the transcript structure variations resulting from allelic gene structure variations in the major human malaria vector, Anopheles gambiae. About 80% of 236,004 available A. gambiae ESTs were successfully aligned to A. gambiae reference genomes. More than 2,340 transcript structure variation events were detected. Because the current A. gambiae annotation is incomplete, we re-annotated the A. gambiae genome with an A. gambiae-specific gene model so that the effect of variations on gene coding could be better evaluated. A total of 15,962 genes were predicted. Among them, 3,873 were novel genes and 12,089 were previously identified genes. The gene completion rate improved from 60% to 84%. Based on EST support, 82.5% of gene structures were predicted correctly. In light of the new annotation, we found that approximately 78% of transcript structure variations were located within the coding sequence (CDS) regions, and >65% of variations in the CDS regions have the same open-reading-frame. The association between transcript structure isoforms and SNPs indicated that more than 28% of transcript structure variation events were contributed by different gene alleles in A. gambiae.We successfully expanded the A. gambiae genome annotation. We predicted and analyzed transcript structure variations in A. gambiae and found that allelic gene structure variation plays a major role in transcript diversity in this important human malaria vector