Language and Cooperation in Hominin Scavenging

Bickerton (2009, 2014) hypothesizes that language emerged as the solution to a scavenging problem faced by proto‐humans. We design a virtual world to explore how people use words to persuade others to work together for a common end. By gradually reducing the vocabularies that the participants can use, we trace the process of solving the hominin scavenging problem. Our experiment changes the way we think about social dilemmas. Instead of asking how does a group overcome the selfinterest of its constituents, the question becomes, how do constituents persuade one another to work together for a common end that yields a common benefit

Spatiotemporal co-existence of two Mycobacterium ulcerans clonal complexes in the Offin River Valley of Ghana

In recent years, comparative genome sequence analysis of African Mycobacterium ulcerans strains isolated from Buruli ulcer (BU) lesion specimen has revealed a very limited genetic diversity of closely related isolates and a striking association between genotype and geographical origin of the patients. Here, we compared whole genome sequences of five M. ulcerans strains isolated in 2004 or 2013 from BU lesions of four residents of the Offin river valley with 48 strains isolated between 2002 and 2005 from BU lesions of individuals residing in the Densu river valley of Ghana. While all M. ulcerans isolates from the Densu river valley belonged to the same clonal complex, members of two distinct clonal complexes were found in the Offin river valley over space and time. The Offin strains were closely related to genotypes from either the Densu region or from the Asante Akim North district of Ghana. These results point towards an occasional involvement of a mobile reservoir in the transmission of M. ulcerans, enabling the spread of bacteria across different regions

Applying metrological techniques to satellite fundamental climate data records

Quantifying long-term environmental variability, including climatic trends, requires decadal-scale time series of observations. The reliability of such trend analysis depends on the long-term stability of the data record, and understanding the sources of uncertainty in historic, current and future sensors. We give a brief overview on how metrological techniques can be applied to historical satellite data sets. In particular we discuss the implications of error correlation at different spatial and temporal scales and the forms of such correlation and consider how uncertainty is propagated with partial correlation. We give a form of the Law of Propagation of Uncertainties that considers the propagation of uncertainties associated with common errors to give the covariance associated with Earth observations in different spectral channels

Prenatal development is linked to bronchial reactivity: epidemiological and animal model evidence

Chronic cardiorespiratory disease is associated with low birthweight suggesting the importance of the developmental environment. Prenatal factors affecting fetal growth are believed important, but the underlying mechanisms are unknown. The influence of developmental programming on bronchial hyperreactivity is investigated in an animal model and evidence for comparable associations is sought in humans. Pregnant Wistar rats were fed either control or protein-restricted diets throughout pregnancy. Bronchoconstrictor responses were recorded from offspring bronchial segments. Morphometric analysis of paraffin-embedded lung sections was conducted. In a human mother-child cohort ultrasound measurements of fetal growth were related to bronchial hyperreactivity, measured at age six years using methacholine. Protein-restricted rats' offspring demonstrated greater bronchoconstriction than controls. Airway structure was not altered. Children with lesser abdominal circumference growth during 11-19 weeks' gestation had greater bronchial hyperreactivity than those with more rapid abdominal growth. Imbalanced maternal nutrition during pregnancy results in offspring bronchial hyperreactivity. Prenatal environmental influences might play a comparable role in humans

The effectiveness of the controlled release of gentamicin from polyelectrolyte multilayers in the treatment of Staphylococcus aureus infection in a rabbit bone model

While the infection rate of orthopedic implants is low, the required treatment, which can involve six weeks of antibiotic therapy and two additional surgical operations, is life threatening and expensive, and thus motivates the development of a one-stage re-implantation procedure. Polyelectrolyte multilayers incorporating gentamicin were fabricated using the layer-by-layer deposition process for use as a device coating to address an existing bone infection in a direct implant exchange operation. The films eluted about 70% of their payload in vitro during the first three days and subsequently continued to release drug for more than four additional weeks, reaching a total average release of over 550 μg/cm[superscript 2]. The coatings were demonstrated to be bactericidal against Staphylococcus aureus, and degradation products were generally nontoxic towards MC3T3-E1 murine preosteoblasts. Film-coated titanium implants were compared to uncoated implants in an in vivo S. aureus bone infection model. After a direct exchange procedure, the antimicrobial-coated devices yielded bone homogenates with a significantly lower degree of infection than uncoated devices at both day four (p < 0.004) and day seven (p < 0.03). This study has demonstrated that a self-assembled ultrathin film coating is capable of effectively treating an experimental bone infection in vivo and lays the foundation for development of a multi-therapeutic film for optimized, synergistic treatment of pain, infection, and osteomyelitis.National Institutes of Health (U.S.) (National Institute on Aging Grant 5R01AG029601-03

Differences in Quadriceps Activation During Return-to-play in Lower Body Resistance-Trained Females

Muscular activation in the quadriceps is indicative of proper muscular function, which is the sole determinant of a return-to-play assessment. Specifically, the activation within the knee extensors is essential to the evaluation of ACL tears. PURPOSE: The purpose of the study was to bilaterally compare muscular activation of the vastus lateralis (VL), vastus medialis (VM), and rectus femoris (RF) during isokinetic knee extensions across velocities. METHODS: 8 lower-body resistance-trained females (n=8; age= 19 ±1, height= 169.06 ±3.85 cm, weight= 64.46 ±4.76 kg) completed this study. Using an isokinetic dynamometer, subjects performed continuous isokinetic knee extensions at velocities of 60°/sec, 180°/sec, and 240°/sec. Three separate 4-pin surface electromyography (EMG) sensors were used to record activation within the VL, VM, and RF during the protocol. Average root mean squared (RMS) values were calculated via manual editing techniques across the contractions at all three velocities. A three-way mixed factorial analysis of variance (ANOVA) (velocity [60°/sec v 180°/sec v 240°/sec] x muscle [VL v VM v RF] x leg [dominant v non-dominant]) was used to compare average RMS values during the differing velocities. RESULTS: There were no significant velocity x muscle x leg interactions (p\u3e0.05) in the RMS values. However, when collapsed by muscle and leg, there was a significant main effect (p\u3c0.05) for muscle activation at each separate velocity. CONCLUSION: These could be due to evaluation and EPOC windows during manual editing techniques, which account for potential electromechanical delays and onset of torque production

Toward an integrative understanding of social behavior: new models and new opportunities.

Social interactions among conspecifics are a fundamental and adaptively significant component of the biology of numerous species. Such interactions give rise to group living as well as many of the complex forms of cooperation and conflict that occur within animal groups. Although previous conceptual models have focused on the ecological causes and fitness consequences of variation in social interactions, recent developments in endocrinology, neuroscience, and molecular genetics offer exciting opportunities to develop more integrated research programs that will facilitate new insights into the physiological causes and consequences of social variation. Here, we propose an integrative framework of social behavior that emphasizes relationships between ultimate-level function and proximate-level mechanism, thereby providing a foundation for exploring the full diversity of factors that underlie variation in social interactions, and ultimately sociality. In addition to identifying new model systems for the study of human psychopathologies, this framework provides a mechanistic basis for predicting how social behavior will change in response to environmental variation. We argue that the study of non-model organisms is essential for implementing this integrative model of social behavior because such species can be studied simultaneously in the lab and field, thereby allowing integration of rigorously controlled experimental manipulations with detailed observations of the ecological contexts in which interactions among conspecifics occur

Anxiety and anxious-depression in Parkinson's disease over a 4-year period: A latent transition analysis

Background: Depression and anxiety in Parkinson's disease are common and frequently co-morbid, with significant impact on health outcome. Nevertheless, management is complex and often suboptimal. The existence of clinical subtypes would support stratified approaches in both research and treatment. Method: Five hundred and thirteen patients with Parkinson's disease were assessed annually for up to 4 years. Latent transition analysis (LTA) was used to identify classes that may conform to clinically meaningful subgroups, transitions between those classes over time, and baseline clinical and demographic features that predict common trajectories. Results: In total, 64.1% of the sample remained in the study at year 4. LTA identified four classes, a 'Psychologically healthy' class (approximately 50%), and three classes associated with psychological distress: one with moderate anxiety alone (approximately 20%), and two with moderate levels of depression plus moderate or severe anxiety. Class membership tended to be stable across years, with only about 15% of individuals transitioning between the healthy class and one of the distress classes. Stable distress was predicted by higher baseline depression and psychiatric history and younger age of onset of Parkinson's disease. Those with younger age of onset were also more likely to become distressed over the course of the study. Conclusions: Psychopathology was characterized by relatively stable anxiety or anxious-depression over the 4-year period. Anxiety, with or without depression, appears to be the prominent psychopathological phenotype in Parkinson's disease suggesting a pressing need to understanding its mechanisms and improve management

A novel framework to harmonise satellite data series for climate applications

Fundamental and thematic climate data records derived from satellite observations provide unique information for climate monitoring and research. Since any satellite operates over a limited period of time only, creating a climate data record requires the combination of space-borne measurements from a series of several (often similar) satellite sensors. A simple combination of calibrated measurements from several sensors, however, can produce an inconsistent climate data record. This is particularly true of older, historic sensors whose behavior in space was often different from their behavior during pre-launch calibration in the laboratory. More scientific value can be derived from considering the series of historical and present satellites as a whole. Here we consider harmonisation as a process that obtains new calibration coefficients for revised sensor calibration models by comparing calibrated measurements over appropriate satellite-to-satellite match-ups, such as simultaneous nadir overpasses. When we perform a comparison of two sensors, however, we must consider that those sensors are not observing exactly the same Earth radiance. This is in part due to differences in exact location and time tolerated by the match-up process itself, but also due to differences in the spectral response functions of the two instruments, even when nominally observing the same spectral band. To derive a harmonised data set we do not aim to correct for spectral response function differences, but to reconcile the calibration of different sensors given their estimated spectral response function differences. Here we present the concept of a framework that establishes calibration coefficients and their uncertainty and error covariance for an arbitrary number of sensors in a metrologically-rigorous manner. We describe harmonisation and its mathematical formulation as an inverse problem. Solving this problem is challenging when some hundreds of millions of match-ups are involved and the errors of fundamental sensor measurements are correlated. We solve the harmonisation problem as marginalised errors in variables regression. The algorithm involves computation of first and second order partial derivatives, for which the corresponding computer source code is generated by Automatic Differentiation. Finally we present re-calibrated AVHRR radiances from a series of 10 sensors. It is shown that the new time series have much less match-up differences while being consistent with uncertainty statistics