Integrating Behavior in Life-History Theory: Allocation versus Acquisition?

Central theories explaining the maintenance of individual differences in behavior build on the assumption that behavior mediates life-history trade-offs between current and future reproduction. However, current empirical evidence does not robustly support this assumption. This mismatch might be because current theory is not clear about the role of behavior in individual allocation versus acquisition of resources, hindering empirical testing. The relative importance of allocation compared to acquisition is a key feature of classic life-history theory, but appears to have been lost in translation in recent developments of life-history theory involving behavior. We argue that determining the relative balance between variation in resource allocation and acquisition, and the role of behavior in this process, will help to build more robust and precise predictions.Peer reviewe

La guerre d’Espagne (sur)exposée dans la presse française

L’obiettivo di questo articolo è di analizzare in che modi gli abitanti della Loira, per quanto lontani dai Pirenei, abbiano potuto seguire tutti gli avvenimenti della Guerra di Spagna e di sentirsi coinvolti attraverso i giornali del loro dipartimento. In funzione della tendenza politica del giornale (comunista, radicale, socio-democratico, conservatore), le analisi prodotte alimentano la paura dell’accerchiamento da parte delle dittature, la paura del bolscevismo che attacca i luoghi di culto, la paura – infine – provocata dalle sofferenze dei civili vittime dei bombardamenti. Questa paura induce reazioni e comportamenti differenti: sono organizzate collette, appelli a donazioni, convogli in partenza da Saint-Étienne verso la Spagna, bambini baschi accolti nel 1937… Altri utilizzano la tensione tra repubblicani spagnoli per denigrare la sinistra francese.The objective of this article is to demonstrate how the Loire inhabitants managed to keep informed about the Spanish war events. Indeed, despite being far from Spain, they felt concerned by any information related to those incidents. According to the newspapers political orientations (communist, radical, socio-democrat, right wing), the analysis fed different types of fear. The fear of being surrounded by dictatorship, the fear of Bolshevism destroying places of cult, the fear produced by the pictures of people suffering, victims of bombings. This fear produced various reactions and actions: people organised collects, called for donations, some convoys were sent from Saint-Étienne to Spain, in 1937 children from the Basque country were fostered… Other newspapers used the tensions between republicans to depreciate the French left wing.L’objectif de l’article sera de démontrer comment les habitants de la Loire, pourtant loin des Pyrénées, ont pu suivre tous les événements de la Guerre d’Espagne et se sentir concernés à travers les journaux de leur département. En fonction de la tendance politique du journal (communiste, radical, socio-démocrate, conservateur), les analyses produites alimentent la peur de l’encerclement par des dictatures, la peur du bolchévisme qui attaque les lieux de cultes, la peur, enfin, provoquée par les souffrances des civils, victimes des bombardements. Cette peur induit des réactions et des comportements différents: des collectes ainsi que des appels à des dons sont organisés, des convois partent de Saint-Étienne vers l’Espagne, des enfants basques sont accueillis en 1937… D’autres utilisent les tensions entre les républicains espagnols pour dénigrer la gauche française

High frequency of psychosis in late-stage Parkinsońs disease.

BACKGROUND: Psychosis is a frequent non-motor symptom in Parkinson's disease (PD). Estimates of the frequency of Parkinsońs disease psychosis (PDP) vary widely. Knowledge about the frequency and phenomenology of psychosis in late-stage (LS) PD patients is limited.This study aimed to determine the frequency of psychosis in LSPD patients through clinical diagnostic interview (CDI) (gold standard), according to NINDS/NIMH diagnostic criteria for PDP. The secondary objectives were to characterize the phenomenology, to test selected instruments and assess their adequacy in comparison to CDI, and to assess the psychiatric comorbidities. METHODS: A cross-sectional study including LSPD patients (patients with ≥ 7 years from symptoms onset and Hoehn and Yahr scale score > 3 or a Schwab and England scale score < 50% in the ON condition) was conducted. Patients were subjected to psychiatric, neurological, and neuropsychological evaluations. Each patient was interviewed by a psychiatrist who performed a CDI. RESULTS: 92 LSPD patients were included. 55.4% experienced psychotic symptoms according to NINDS/NIMH diagnostic criteria for PDP. Hallucinations were present in 94.1% and delusions in 29.4% of the psychotic patients. Visual hallucinations were the most common (88.23%) psychotic symptom. 72.5% of LSPD patients with psychotic symptoms had at least one comorbid psychiatric diagnosis. Lower frequency of psychosis was found when the assessment was performed only through selected instruments rather than CDI. CONCLUSIONS: A high frequency (55.4%) of psychotic symptoms and comorbid psychiatric (72.5%) diagnosis were found in LSPD patients. The use of CDI, in addition to structured scales may increase the sensitivity of detecting psychotic symptoms

Profile of cognitive impairment in late‐stage Parkinson's disease

© 2022 The Authors. Brain and Behavior published by Wiley Periodicals LLC. This is an open access article under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License, which permits use, distribution and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited.Introduction: The profile of cognitive impairment associated with the late stages of Parkinson's disease (LSPD) is rarely reported. Its characterization is necessary to better understand the cognitive changes that occur as the disease progresses and to better contribute to its management. Methods: In this cross-sectional study, we characterized the cognitive profile of LSPD patients using the comprehensive assessment methodology proposed by the International Parkinson and Movement Disorders Society Task Force. The association of clinical and demographic variables with dementia diagnosis was also investigated using binary logistic regression analysis. Results: Eighty-four LSPD patients were included (age 75.4 ± 6.9; disease duration 16.9 ± 7.5). Fifty-four (64.3%) were classified as demented and presented a global impairment cognitive profile. In the nondemented group (N = 30), 25 (83.3%) LSPD patients met the diagnostic criteria for mild cognitive impairment, mostly with multiple domain impairment (96.0%) and a heterogeneous profile. Memory was the most frequent and severely impaired cognitive domain in both groups. Disease disability, orientation, complex order comprehension, verbal learning, and visuoconstructive abilities were significantly associated with dementia diagnosis (p < .05). Conclusions: Cognitive impairment in multiple domains was common in LSPD patients. The most frequent and prominent deficits were in the memory domain, with a strong interference from attention impairment. Disease disability, orientation, complex order comprehension, verbal learning, and visuoconstructive abilities proved to be important determinants for dementia diagnosis.This work was supported by a doctoral fellowship (SFRH/BD/139853/2018) from Fundação para a Ciência e Tecnologia, Portugal, which was assigned to Catarina Severiano e Sousa.info:eu-repo/semantics/publishedVersio

Stronger net selection on males across animals

Sexual selection is considered the major driver for the evolution of sex differences. However, the eco-evolutionary dynamics of sexual selection and their role for a population’s adaptive potential to respond to environmental change have only recently been explored. Theory predicts that sexual selection promotes adaptation at a low demographic cost only if sexual selection is aligned with natural selection and if net selection is stronger on males compared to females. We used a comparative approach to show that net selection is indeed stronger in males and provide preliminary support that this sex bias is associated with sexual selection. Given that both sexes share the vast majority of their genes, our findings corroborate the notion that the genome is often confronted with a more stressful environment when expressed in males. Collectively, our study supports one of the long-standing key assumptions required for sexual selection to bolster adaptation, and sexual selection may therefore enable some species to track environmental change more efficiently