Predictably Philandering Females Prompt Poor Paternal Provisioning

One predicted cost of female infidelity in socially monogamous species is that cuckolded males should provide less parental care. This relationship is robust across species, but evidence is ambiguous within species. We do not know whether individual males reduce their care when paired with cheating females compared with when paired with faithful females (within-male adjustment) or, alternatively, if the males that pair with cheating females are the same males that provide less parental care in general (between-male effect). Our exceptionally extensive long-term data set of repeated observations of a wild passerine allows us to disentangle paternal care adjustment within males—within pairs and between males—while accounting for environmental variables. We found a within-male adjustment of paternal provisioning, but not incubation effort, relative to the cuckoldry in their nest. This effect was mainly driven by females differing consistently in their fidelity. There was no evidence that this within-male adjustment also took place across broods with the same female, and we found no between-male effect. Interestingly, males that gained more extrapair paternity provided less care. Data from a cross-foster experiment suggested that males did not use kin recognition to assess paternity. Our results provide insight into the role of individual variation in parental care and mating systems

Khuri-Treiman equations for 3π decays of particles with spin

Khuri-Treiman equations have proven to be a useful theoretical tool in the analysis of three-body decays, especially into the 3π final state. In this work we present in full detail the necessary generalization of the formalism to study the decays of particles with arbitrary spin, parity, and charge conjugation. To this extent, we find it most convenient to work with helicity amplitudes instead of the so-called invariant amplitudes, especially when dealing with the unitarity relations. The isobar expansions in the three possible (s-, t-, and u-) final channels are related with the appropriate crossing matrices. We pay special attention to the kinematical singularities and constraints of the helicity amplitudes, showing that these can be derived by means of the crossing matrix

ω→3π\omega \to 3\pi and ωπ0\omega\pi^{0} transition form factor revisited

In light of recent experimental results, we revisit the dispersive analysis of the $\omega \to 3\pi$ decay amplitude and of the $\omega\pi^0$ transition form factor. Within the framework of the Khuri-Treiman equations, we show that the $\omega \to 3\pi$ Dalitz-plot parameters obtained with a once-subtracted amplitude are in agreement with the latest experimental determination by BESIII. Furthermore, we show that at low energies the $\omega\pi^0$ transition form factor obtained from our determination of the $\omega \to 3\pi$ amplitude is consistent with the data from MAMI and NA60 experiments

Double Polarization Observables in Pentaquark Photoproduction

We investigate the properties of the hidden charm pentaquark-like resonances first observed by LHCb in 2015, by measuring the polarization transfer KLL between the incident photon and the outgoing proton in the exclusive photoproduction of J/psi near threshold. We present a first estimate of the sensitivity of this observable to the pentaquark photocouplings and hadronic branching ratios, and extend our predictions to the case of initial state helicity correlation ALL, using a polarized target. These results serve as a benchmark for the SBS experiment at Jefferson Lab, which proposes to measure for the first time the helicity correlations ALL and KLL in J/psi exclusive photoproduction, in order to determine the pentaquark photocouplings and branching ratios.Comment: 9 pages, 7 figures, 2 tables, Version published in PR

People of the British Isles: preliminary analysis of genotypes and surnames in a UK control population

There is a great deal of interest in fine scale population structure in the UK, both as a signature of historical immigration events and because of the effect population structure may have on disease association studies. Although population structure appears to have a minor impact on the current generation of genome-wide association studies, it is likely to play a significant part in the next generation of studies designed to search for rare variants. A powerful way of detecting such structure is to control and document carefully the provenance of the samples involved. Here we describe the collection of a cohort of rural UK samples (The People of the British Isles), aimed at providing a well-characterised UK control population that can be used as a resource by the research community as well as providing fine scale genetic information on the British population. So far, some 4,000 samples have been collected, the majority of which fit the criteria of coming from a rural area and having all four grandparents from approximately the same area. Analysis of the first 3,865 samples that have been geocoded indicates that 75% have a mean distance between grandparental places of birth of 37.3km, and that about 70% of grandparental places of birth can be classed as rural. Preliminary genotyping of 1,057 samples demonstrates the value of these samples for investigating fine scale population structure within the UK, and shows how this can be enhanced by the use of surnames

Iron Age and Anglo-Saxon genomes from East England reveal British migration history

British population history has been shaped by a series of immigrations, including the early Anglo-Saxon migrations after 400 CE. It remains an open question how these events affected the genetic composition of the current British population. Here, we present whole-genome sequences from 10 individuals excavated close to Cambridge in the East of England, ranging from the late Iron Age to the middle Anglo-Saxon period. By analysing shared rare variants with hundreds of modern samples from Britain and Europe, we estimate that on average the contemporary East English population derives 38% of its ancestry from Anglo-Saxon migrations. We gain further insight with a new method, rarecoal, which infers population history and identifies fine-scale genetic ancestry from rare variants. Using rarecoal we find that the Anglo-Saxon samples are closely related to modern Dutch and Danish populations, while the Iron Age samples share ancestors with multiple Northern European populations including Britain

Fewer invited talks by women in evolutionary biology symposia.

Lower visibility of female scientists, compared to male scientists, is a potential reason for the under-representation of women among senior academic ranks. Visibility in the scientific community stems partly from presenting research as an invited speaker at organized meetings. We analysed the sex ratio of presenters at the European Society for Evolutionary Biology (ESEB) Congress 2011, where all abstract submissions were accepted for presentation. Women were under-represented among invited speakers at symposia (15% women) compared to all presenters (46%), regular oral presenters (41%) and plenary speakers (25%). At the ESEB congresses in 2001-2011, 9-23% of invited speakers were women. This under-representation of women is partly attributable to a larger proportion of women, than men, declining invitations: in 2011, 50% of women declined an invitation to speak compared to 26% of men. We expect invited speakers to be scientists from top ranked institutions or authors of recent papers in high-impact journals. Considering all invited speakers (including declined invitations), 23% were women. This was lower than the baseline sex ratios of early-mid career stage scientists, but was similar to senior scientists and authors that have published in high-impact journals. High-quality science by women therefore has low exposure at international meetings, which will constrain Evolutionary Biology from reaching its full potential. We wish to highlight the wider implications of turning down invitations to speak, and encourage conference organizers to implement steps to increase acceptance rates of invited talks

Subdividing Y-chromosome haplogroup R1a1 reveals Norse Viking dispersal lineages in Britain

The influence of Viking-Age migrants to the British Isles is obvious in archaeological and place-names evidence, but their demographic impact has been unclear. Autosomal genetic analyses support Norse Viking contributions to parts of Britain, but show no signal corresponding to the Danelaw, the region under Scandinavian administrative control from the ninth to eleventh centuries. Y-chromosome haplogroup R1a1 has been considered as a possible marker for Viking migrations because of its high frequency in peninsular Scandinavia (Norway and Sweden). Here we select ten Y-SNPs to discriminate informatively among hg R1a1 sub-haplogroups in Europe, analyse these in 619 hg R1a1 Y chromosomes including 163 from the British Isles, and also type 23 short-tandem repeats (Y-STRs) to assess internal diversity. We find three specifically Western-European sub-haplogroups, two of which predominate in Norway and Sweden, and are also found in Britain; starlike features in the STR networks of these lineages indicate histories of expansion. We ask whether geographical distributions of hg R1a1 overall, and of the two sub-lineages in particular, correlate with regions of Scandinavian influence within Britain. Neither shows any frequency difference between regions that have higher (≥10%) or lower autosomal contributions from Norway and Sweden, but both are significantly overrepresented in the region corresponding to the Danelaw. These differences between autosomal and Y-chromosomal histories suggest either male-specific contribution, or the influence of patrilocality. Comparison of modern DNA with recently available ancient DNA data supports the interpretation that two sub-lineages of hg R1a1 spread with the Vikings from peninsular Scandinavia