When does female multiple mating evolve to adjust inbreeding? : Effects of inbreeding depression, direct costs, mating constraints, and polyandry as a threshold trait

Ackowledgements: This work was funded by a European Research Council Starting Grant to JMR. All simulations were performed using the Maxwell computing cluster at the University of AberdeenPeer reviewedPublisher PD

Changes in vitamin biomarkers during a 2-year intervention trial involving increased fruit and vegetable consumption by free-living volunteers

Peer reviewedPublisher PD

Evolution of precopulatory and post-copulatory strategies of inbreeding avoidance and associated polyandry

Acknowledgments This work was funded by a European Research Council Starting Grant to JMR. Computer simulations were performed using the Maxwell Computing Cluster at the University of Aberdeen. We thank Matthew E. Wolak and two anonymous reviewers for very helpful comments.Peer reviewedPublisher PD

A spherical lamellar grating interferometer for airborne astronomical observations of far infrared objects

A lamellar grating has been developed to be used for very far infrared observations on the airborne observatory. The design characteristics and performance during laboratory testing and initial observations of Jupiter at wavelengths between 50 and 500 microns are presented

What happens after inbreeding avoidance? Inbreeding by rejected relatives and the inclusive fitness benefit of inbreeding avoidance

This work was funded by a European Research Council Grant (http://erc.europa.eu/erc-funded-projects) and a Royal Society University Research Fellowship (www.royalsociety.org) to Jane M. Reid. The funders had no role in study design, data collection and analysis, decision to publish, or preparation of the manuscript.Peer reviewedPublisher PD

Evolution of Inbreeding Avoidance and Inbreeding Preference through Mate Choice among Interacting Relatives

This work was funded by a European Research Council Consolidator Grant and a Royal Society University Research Fellowship to JMR. We thank Greta Bocedi, Hannah Kokko, Lukas Keller, Sylvain Losdat, and Matthew Wolak for their helpful comments. Computer simulations were performed using the Maxwell Computing Cluster at the University of Aberdeen.Peer reviewedPublisher PD

Inbreeding parents should invest more resources in fewer offspring

Inbreeding increases parent-offspring relatedness and commonly reduces offspring viability, shaping selection on reproductive interactions involving relatives and associated parental investment (PI). Nevertheless, theories predicting selection for inbreeding versus inbreeding avoidance and selection for optimal PI have only been considered separately, precluding prediction of optimal PI and associated reproductive strategy given inbreeding. We unify inbreeding and PI theory, demonstrating that optimal PI increases when a female’s inbreeding decreases the viability of her offspring. Inbreeding females should therefore produce fewer offspring due to the fundamental trade-off between off-spring number and PI. Accordingly, selection for inbreeding versus inbreeding avoidance changes when females can adjust PI with the degree that they inbreed. In contrast, optimal PI does not depend on whether a focal female is herself inbred. However, inbreeding causes optimal PI to increase given strict monogamy and associated biparental investment compared to female-only investment. Our model implies that understanding evolutionary dynamics of inbreeding strategy, inbreeding depression, and PI requires joint consideration of the expression of each in relation to the other. Overall, we demonstrate that existing PI and inbreeding theories represent special cases of a more general theory, implying that intrinsic links between inbreeding and PI affect evolution of behaviour and intra-familial conflict

Patient-provider communication about gestational weight gain among nulliparous women: a qualitative study of the views of obstetricians and first-time pregnant women

BACKGROUND: In 2009 the Institute of Medicine updated its guidelines for weight gain during pregnancy, in part because women of childbearing age now weigh more pre-pregnancy and tend to gain more weight during pregnancy than women did when the previous set of guidelines were released in 1990. Women who begin pregnancy overweight or obese and women who gain weight outside IOM recommendations are at risk for poor maternal and fetal health outcomes. With these concerns in mind, we examined what obstetricians communicate about gestational weight gain to their pregnant patients and how nulliparous patients perceive weight-related counseling from their obstetricians. METHODS: We conducted one-on-one, semi-structured interviews with 19 nulliparous women and 7 obstetricians recruited from a single clinic at a large academic medical center in the United States. Interviews were transcribed verbatim and analyzed inductively using thematic analysis. RESULTS: We identified 4 major themes: 1) Discussions about the amount and pace of gestational weight gain: obstetricians reported variation in the frequency and timing of weight-related discussions with patients while most patients said that weight was not emphasized by their obstetricians; 2) The content of communication about nutrition and physical activity: obstetricians said they discuss nutrition and activity with all patients while most patients reported that their obstetrician either discussed these topics in general terms or not at all; 3) Communication about postpartum weight loss: obstetricians said that they do not typically address postpartum weight loss with patients during prenatal visits while patients had concerns about postpartum weight; and 4) Patient feelings about obstetrician advice: most patients said that their obstetrician does not tend to offer “unsolicited advice”, instead offering information in response to patient questions or concerns. Women were divided about whether they desired more advice from their obstetrician on weight gain, nutrition, and activity. CONCLUSIONS: Our analysis revealed discrepancies between obstetricians’ and patients’ perceptions of their weight-related clinical interactions. Our findings suggest that there is a missed opportunity to use prenatal visits as opportunities to discuss healthy eating and exercise during pregnancy, the postpartum period, and beyond. Additional research on the design, implementation, and testing of interventions to address prenatal nutrition and physical activity is warranted