Knocking on heaven's door : are novel invaders necessarily facing naive native species on islands ?

The impact of alien predator species on insular native biota has often been attributed to island prey naivete (i.e. lack of, or inefficient, anti-predator behavior). Only rarely, however, has the concept of island prey naivete been tested, and then only a posteriori (i.e. hundreds or thousands of years after alien species introduction). The presence of native or anciently introduced predators or competitors may be crucial for the recognition and development of adaptive behavior toward unknown predators or competitors of the same archetype (i.e. a set of species that occupy a similar ecological niche and show similar morphological and behavioral traits when interacting with other species). Here, we tested whether two squamates endemic to New Caledonia, a skink, Caledoniscincus austrocaledonicus, and a gecko, Bavayia septuiclavis, recognized and responded to the odor of two major invaders introduced into the Pacific islands, but not yet into New Caledonia. We chose one predator, the small Indian mongoose Herpestes javanicus and one competitor, the cane toad Rhinella marina, which belong respectively to the same archetype as the following two species already introduced into New Caledonia in the nineteenth century: the feral cat Felis catus and the golden bell frog Litoria aurea. Our experiment reveals that geckos are naive with respect to the odors of both an unknown predator and an unknown competitor, as well as to the odors of a predator and a competitor they have lived with for centuries. In contrast, skinks seem to have lost some naivete regarding the odor of a predator they have lived with for centuries and seem "predisposed" to avoid the odor of an unknown potential competitor. These results indicate that insular species living in contact with invasive alien species for centuries may be, although not systematically, predisposed toward developing adaptive behavior with respect to species belonging to the same archetype and introduced into their native range

Frontotemporal lobar dementia in a young woman

A 65-year-old woman was addressed to the Department of Radiology for assessment of dementia. Mnesic tests found moderate memory problems with mini-mental state (MMS) measured at 23/30. Symptoms were essentially marked by behavioral disorders of gradual onset for 2 years (decline in activity and empathy for her family). She was addressed for assessment of Alzheimer’s type dementia. MRI examination (coronal and sagittal T1 weighted sequences) found a severe asymmetrical cortico subcortical atrophy dominant at the right frontal lobe and anterior portion of right temporal lobe (Fig. A and B, white arrows). Hippocampal regions were preserved (Fig. A, asterix). The diagnosis of frontotemporal lobar dementia (FTLD) was therefore suggested

Cytidine monophospho-N-acetylneuraminic acid hydroxylase (CMAH) mutations associated with the domestic cat AB blood group

<p>Abstract</p> <p>Background</p> <p>The cat has one common blood group with two major serotypes, blood type A that is dominant to type B. A rare type AB may also be allelic and is suspected to be recessive to A and dominant to B. Cat blood type antigens are defined, N-glycolylneuraminic acid (NeuGc) is associated with type A and N-acetylneuraminic acid (NeuAc) with type B. The enzyme <it>cytidine monophospho-N-acetylneuraminic acid hydroxylase </it>(<it>CMAH</it>) determines the sugar bound to the red cell by converting NeuAc to NeuGc. Thus, mutations in <it>CMAH </it>may cause the A and B blood types.</p> <p>Results</p> <p>Genomic sequence of <it>CMAH </it>from eight cats and the cDNA of four cats representing all blood types were analyzed to identify causative mutations. DNA variants consistent with the blood types were genotyped in over 200 cats. Five SNPs and an indel formed haplotypes that were consistent with each blood type.</p> <p>Conclusion</p> <p>Mutations in type B cats likely disrupt the gene function of <it>CMAH</it>, leading to a predominance of NeuAc. Type AB concordant variants were not identified, however, cDNA species suggest an alternative allele that activates a downstream start site, leading to a CMAH protein that would be altered at the 5' region. The cat AB blood group system is proposed to be designated by three alleles, <it>A </it>> <it>a</it>^{<it>ab </it>}> <it>b</it>. The <it>A </it>and <it>b CMAH </it>alleles described herein can distinguish type A and type B cats without blood sample collections. <it>CMAH </it>represents the first blood group gene identified outside of non-human primates and humans.</p

A Microlensing Accretion Disk Size Measurement in the Lensed Quasar WFI 2026-4536

We use thirteen seasons of R-band photometry from the 1.2m Leonard Euler Swiss Telescope at La Silla to examine microlensing variability in the quadruply-imaged lensed quasar WFI 2026-4536. The lightcurves exhibit ${\sim}\,0.2\,\text{mag}$ of uncorrelated variability across all epochs and a prominent single feature of ${\sim}\,0.1\,\text{mag}$ within a single season. We analyze this variability to constrain the size of the quasar's accretion disk. Adopting a nominal inclination of 60$^\text{o}$, we find an accretion disk scale radius of $\log(r_s/\text{cm}) = 15.74^{+0.34}_{-0.29}$ at a rest-frame wavelength of 2043\,\unicode{xC5}, and we estimate a black hole mass of $\log(M_{\text{BH}}/M_{\odot}) = 9.18^{+0.39}_{-0.34}$, based on the CIV line in VLT spectra. This size measurement is fully consistent with the Quasar Accretion Disk Size - Black Hole Mass relation, providing another system in which the accretion disk is larger than predicted by thin disk theory.Comment: 26 pages, 8 figures, Appendix with data table, pg 12-2

Time-Delay Cosmography: Measuring the Hubble Constant and other cosmological parameters with strong gravitational lensing

Multiply lensed sources experience a relative time delay in the arrival of photons. This effect can be used to measure absolute distances and the Hubble constant ($H_0$) and is known as time-delay cosmography. The methodology is independent of the local distance ladder and early-universe physics and provides a precise and competitive measurement of $H_0$. With upcoming observatories, time-delay cosmography can provide a 1% precision measurement of $H_0$ and can decisively shed light on the current reported 'Hubble tension'. This paper presents the theoretical background and the current techniques applied for time-delay cosmographic studies and the measurement of the Hubble constant. The paper describes the challenges and systematics in the different components of the analysis and strategies to mitigate them. The current measurements are discussed in context and the opportunities with the anticipated data sets in the future are laid out.Comment: 30 pages, 11 figures, accepted to Space Science Reviews, Topical Collection 'Strong Gravitational Lensing', eds. J. Wambsganss et a

Density-dependent increase in superpredation linked to food limitation in a recovering population of northern goshawks, Accipiter gentilis

We are grateful to R. Lourenço and A.K. Mueller for their helpful comments. We thank Forest Research for funding all fieldwork on goshawks during 1973-1996, Forest Enterprise for funding fieldwork after 1998 and T. Dearnley and N. Geddes for allowing and facilitating work in Kielder Forest. This work was also partly funded by a Natural Environment Research Council studentship NE/J500148/1 to SH and a grant NE/F021402/1 to XL and by Natural Research. We thank I. Yoxall and B. Little for the data they collected and their contributions to this study. Lastly, we thank English Nature and the British Trust for Ornithology for kindly issuing licences to monitor goshawk nest sitesPeer reviewedPostprin

Rehabilitating antisocial personalities: treatment through self-governance strategies

Offenders with antisocial personality disorder (ASPD) are widely assumed to reject psychotherapeutic intervention. Some commentators, therefore, argue that those with the disorder are better managed in the criminal justice system, where, following the introduction of indeterminate sentences, engagement with psychological treatment is coercively linked to the achievement of parole. By comparison, National Institute of Clinical Excellence guidelines on the management and treatment of ASPD recommend that those who are treatment seeking should be considered for admission to specialist psychiatric hospitals. The rationale is that prison-based interventions are underresourced, and the treatment of ASPD is underprioritised. The justification is that offenders with ASPD can be rehabilitated, if they are motivated. One problem, however, is that little is known about why offenders with ASPD seek treatment or what effect subsequent treatment has on their self-understanding. The aim of this paper is to address these unresolved issues. It draws on the findings of Economic and Social Research Council (ESRC) funded qualitative study examining the experiences of sentenced male offenders admitted to a specialist personality disorder ward within the medium secure estate and the medical practitioners who treat them. The data are analysed with reference to Michel Foucault’s work on governmentality and strategy in power relations. Two arguments are advanced: first, offenders with ASPD are motivated by legal coercive pressures to implement a variety of Foucauldian-type strategies to give the false impression of treatment progress. Second, and related, treatment does not result in changes in self-understanding in the resistive client with ASPD. This presupposes that, in respect of this group at least, Foucault was mistaken in his claim that resistive behaviours merely mask the effectiveness of treatment norms over time. Nevertheless, the paper concludes that specialist treatment in the hospital setting can effect changes in the resistive offender’s self-understanding, but not if the completion of treatment results, as is commonplace, in his prison readmission

Disentangling the effects of environmental conditions on wintering and breeding grounds on age-specific survival rates in a trans-Saharan migratory raptor

International audienceMigratory species are subject to environmental variability occurring on breeding and wintering grounds. Estimating the relative contribution of environmental factors experienced sequentially during breeding and wintering, and their potential interaction, to the variation of survival is crucial to predict population viability of migratory species. Here we investigated this issue for the Montagu's harrier Circus pygargus, a trans‐Saharan migrant. We analysed capture‐recapture data from a 29‐yr long monitoring of wing‐tagged offspring and adults at two study sites in France (Rochefort‐RO & Maine‐et‐Loire‐ML). The study period covers a climatic shift occurring in the Sahel with increasing rainfall following a period of droughts (Sahel greening). We found that harriers’ adult survival in RO (between 1988 and 2005) varied over time and was sensitive to the interaction between the amount of rainfall in the Sahel and the annual mean breeding success, two proxies of prey availability. The occurrence of adverse conditions on breeding and wintering grounds in the same year decreased survival from 0.70‐0.77 to 0.48 ± 0.05. Juvenile survival in RO was slightly more sensitive to conditions in Europe than in the Sahel. Unexpectedly, lower survival rates were found in years with higher mean breeding success, suggesting compensatory density feedbacks may operate. By contrast, adult survival in ML, monitored between 1999 and 2017, was higher compared to RO (0.76 ± 0.03 vs. 0.66 ± 0.02), remained constant and unaffected by any proxy of prey availability. This difference seems consistent with the fact that harriers in ML experienced better and especially less variable environmental conditions during breeding and wintering seasons compared to RO. Overall, we showed that survival of a migratory bird is sensitive to the level of variability in environmental conditions and that adverse conditions on wintering grounds can amplify the negative effects of conditions during the previous breeding season on birds’ survival

COSMOGRAIL: XVII. Time delays for the quadruply imaged quasar PG 1115+080

Indexación: Scopus.Acknowledgements. The authors would like to thank R. Gredel for his help in setting up the program at the ESO MPIA 2.2 m telescope, and the anonymous referee for his or her comments on this work. This work is supported by the Swiss National Fundation. This research made use of Astropy, a community-developed core Python package for Astronomy (Astropy Collaboration et al. 2013, 2018) and the 2D graphics environment Matplotlib (Hunter 2007). K.R. acknowledge support from PhD fellowship FIB-UV 2015/2016 and Becas de Doctorado Nacional CONICYT 2017 and thanks the LSSTC Data Science Fellowship Program, her time as a Fellow has benefited this work. M.T. acknowledges support by the DFG grant Hi 1495/2-1. G. C.-F. C. acknowledges support from the Ministry of Education in Taiwan via Government Scholarship to Study Abroad (GSSA). D. C.-Y. Chao and S. H. Suyu gratefully acknowledge the support from the Max Planck Society through the Max Planck Research Group for S. H. Suyu. T. A. acknowledges support by the Ministry for the Economy, Development, and Tourism’s Programa Inicativa Científica Milenio through grant IC 12009, awarded to The Millennium Institute of Astrophysics (MAS).We present time-delay estimates for the quadruply imaged quasar PG 1115+080. Our results are based on almost daily observations for seven months at the ESO MPIA 2.2 m telescope at La Silla Observatory, reaching a signal-to-noise ratio of about 1000 per quasar image. In addition, we re-analyze existing light curves from the literature that we complete with an additional three seasons of monitoring with the Mercator telescope at La Palma Observatory. When exploring the possible source of bias we considered the so-called microlensing time delay, a potential source of systematic error so far never directly accounted for in previous time-delay publications. In 15 yr of data on PG 1115+080, we find no strong evidence of microlensing time delay. Therefore not accounting for this effect, our time-delay estimates on the individual data sets are in good agreement with each other and with the literature. Combining the data sets, we obtain the most precise time-delay estimates to date on PG 1115+080, with Δt(AB) = 8.3+1.5 -1.6 days (18.7% precision), Δt(AC) = 9.9+1.1 -1.1 days (11.1%) and Δt(BC) = 18.8+1.6 -1.6 days (8.5%). Turning these time delays into cosmological constraints is done in a companion paper that makes use of ground-based Adaptive Optics (AO) with the Keck telescope. © ESO 2018.https://www.aanda.org/articles/aa/abs/2018/08/aa33287-18/aa33287-18.htm