Blood Parasite Infection Differentially Relates to Carotenoid-Based Plumage and Bill Color in the American Goldfinch

Male and female American goldfinches (Spinus tristis) express condition-dependent carotenoid-based plumage and bill coloration. Plumage color is relatively static, as pigments incorporated into feathers during the spring molt cannot be mobilized thereafter. In contrast, bill color is dynamic, reflecting changes in condition over short time periods. Previous studies have shown that male and female ornaments, though similar in expression, are differentially related to measures of immunocompetence, suggesting that the relationship between ornamentation and parasite infection may differ between the sexes. In this study, we evaluate the relationship between condition-dependent ornamentation (plumage and bill color) and blood parasite infection in male and female American goldfinches. We captured goldfinches after completion of the pre-alternate molt and prior to the onset of nesting and assessed prevalence of Trypanosoma parasites via blood smears. Plumage color strongly predicted trypanosome infection: Birds with more colorful plumage were less likely to present infections. In contrast, we detected no relationship between infection and bill color, which in other studies has been shown to dynamically reflect current condition. Sex did not affect the relationship between infection status and either ornament. Together, these results suggest that physiological pathways linking carotenoid ornamentation and infection may vary even within a single species

Relationships Between Traits Other Than Production and Longevity in New Zealand Dairy Cows

Reduced longevity in dairy cattle is recognised world-wide to be a considerable cost to the dairy industry, especially in seasonal calving grazing production environments. The objective of the present study was to investigate the relationships among traits other than production (TOP) and true and functional longevity in purebred and crossbred New Zealand cows from commercial herds operating seasonal calving grass-based systems of milk production. This study made use of survival analysis, a technique used to allow the inclusion of incomplete (i.e., censored) longevity data in the analysis while simultaneously accounting for the skewed distribution of longevity data and the changing environmental and genetic effects over time

The use of a chronic disease and risk factor surveillance system to determine the age, period and cohort effects on the prevalence of obesity and diabetes in South Australian adults--2003-2013

Age, period and cohort (APC) analyses, using representative, population-based descriptive data, provide additional understanding behind increased prevalence rates

Examining the intersection of child protection and public housing: development, health and justice outcomes using linked administrative data

OBJECTIVE: We described development, health and justice system outcomes for children in contact with child protection and public housing. DESIGN: Descriptive analysis of outcomes for children known to child protection who also had contact with public housing drawn from the South Australian (SA) Better Evidence Better Outcomes Linked Data (BEBOLD) platform. SETTING: The BEBOLD platform holds linked administrative records collected by government agencies for whole-population successive birth cohorts in SA beginning in 1999. PARTICIPANTS: This study included data from birth registrations, perinatal, child protection, public housing, hospital, emergency department, early education and youth justice for all SA children born 1999–2013 and followed until 2016. The base population notified at least once to child protection was n=67 454. PRIMARY OUTCOME MEASURE: Contact with the public housing system. SECONDARY OUTCOME MEASURES: Hospitalisations and emergency department presentations before age 5, and early education at age 5, and youth justice contact before age 17. RESULTS: More than 60% of children with at least one notification to child protection had contact with public housing, and 60.2% of those known to both systems were known to housing first. Children known to both systems experienced more emergency department and hospitalisation contacts, greater developmental vulnerability and were about six times more likely to have youth justice system contact. CONCLUSIONS: There is substantial overlap between involvement with child protection and public housing in SA. Those children are more likely to face a life trajectory characterised by greater contact with the health system, greater early life developmental vulnerability and greater contact with the criminal justice system. Ensuring the highest quality of supportive early life infrastructure for families in public housing may contribute to prevention of contact with child protection and better life trajectories for children

Seeing-good-gene-based mate choice:From genes to behavioural preferences

1. Although vertebrates have been reported to gain higher reproductive outputs by choosing mates, few studies have been conducted on threatened species. However, species recovery should benefit if natural mate choice could improve reproductive output (i.e., pair performance related to offspring number, such as increased clutch size, numbers of fertilized egg and fledglings). We assessed the evidence for major histocompatibility complex (MHC)-based mate preference in the endangered crested ibis (Nipponia nippon), and quantified the impacts of such choice on reproductive output. 2. We tested the hypothesis that crested ibis advertise “good genes” through external traits, by testing whether nuptial plumage characteristics and body morphology mediate mate choice for underlying genetic MHC variation. 3. We found differences between males and females in preferred MHC genotypes, external traits used in mate choice, and contributions to reproductive outputs. Females preferred MHC-heterozygous males, which had darker [i.e., lower total reflectance and ultraviolet (UV) reflectance] nuptial plumage. Males preferred females lacking the DABd allele at the MHC classⅡDAB locus, which had higher average body mass. DABd-free females yielded heavier eggs and more fledglings, while MHC-heterozygous males contributed to more fertilized eggs and fledglings. Fledging rate was highest when both parents had the preferred MHC genotypes (i.e., MHC-heterozygous father and DABd-free mother). Comparisons showed that free-mating wild and seminatural pairs yielded more fertilized eggs and more fledglings, with a higher fledging rate, than captive pairs matched artificially based on pedigree. 4. Conservation programs seldom apply modern research results to population management, which could hinder recovery of threatened species. Our results show that mate choice can play an important role in improving reproductive output, with an example in which an endangered bird selects mates using UV visual capability. Despite the undoubted importance of pedigree-based matching of mates in conservation programs, we show that free-mating can be a better alternative strategy

In the wake of austerity: social impact bonds and the financialisation of the welfare state in Britain

This paper provides an analysis of the financialisation of the British welfare state. In a continuation of neo-liberal privatisation and labour market activation, the financialised welfare state pursues a policy of welfare retrenchment, while engaging in forms of social engineering aimed at producing self-responsibilised individuals and communities who are financially literate, ‘investment-ready’ and economically productive. New financial instruments such as social impact bonds are deployed to these ends, both to ‘solve social problems’ and enable cost saving. Through the use of such financial instruments, the implementation of regulatory infrastructures and tax incentives, the financialised welfare state becomes a vehicle for the transfer of wealth from the public to private investors, while subjecting the domain of social policy to the vicissitudes of global financial markets. This paper offers a critique of these developments, situating the case of Britain within the broader global context and with regard to the implications for understanding the current political economy of the welfare state

The production and reproduction of inequality in the UK in times of austerity

Inequality appears to be back on the intellectual and political agenda. This paper provides a commentary on this renewed interest, drawing on an empirical discussion of inequality in the UK. The paper argues that inequality should be seen as produced in the inherently unequal social relations of production, drawing attention to the role of social struggle in shaping dynamics of inequality. However, inequality is not just produced in dynamic class struggle in the formal economy, but also through the social reproduction of labour power on a day-to-day and inter-generational basis. As such, inequalities of household resources at any point in time may be reproductive of greater future inequality. It is argued that inequality has risen in the UK over recent decades because of changes in the social relations of production in the formal economy and social reproduction in the domestic sector, both of which have witnessed significant state interventions that have increased structural inequalities. It is argued that, absent of significant change, the underpinning structural dynamics in the UK will lead to further increases in inequality over the short and longer-term. Given this, we might expect to see an already emergent ‘New Politics of Inequality’ intensifying in the coming decades.n/

How is female mate choice affected by male competition?

Author Posting. © Cambridge Philosophical Society, 2005. This article is posted here by permission of Cambridge Philosophical Society for personal use, not for redistribution. The definitive version was published in Biological Reviews 80: (2005) 559-571, doi:10.1017/S1464793105006809.The plethora of studies devoted to the topics of male competition and female mate choice belie the fact that their interaction remains poorly understood. Indeed, on the question of whether competition should help or hinder the choice process, opinions scattered throughout the sexual selection literature seem unnecessarily polarised. We argue, in the light of recent theoretical and empirical advances, that the effect of competition on mate choice depends on whether it results in the choosy sex attaining high breeding value for total fitness, considering both direct and indirect fitness benefits. Specifically, trade-offs may occur between different fitness benefits if some are correlated with male competitive ability whilst others are not. Moreover, the costs and benefits of mating with competitive males may vary in time and/or space. These considerations highlight the importance of injecting a life-history perspective into sexual selection studies. Within this context, we turn to the sexual selection literature to try to offer insights into the circumstances when competition might be expected to have positive or negative implications for pre-copulatory female choice. In this regard, we elaborate on three stages where competition might impact upon the choice process: (i) during mate detection, (ii) mate evaluation, and (iii) in dictating actual mating outcomes. We conclude by offering researchers several potentially rewarding avenues for future research.This study was supported by an Australian Postgraduate Award, a Sir Keith Murdoch Fellowship, and a Centre for International Mobility Fellowship (to B.B.M.W) and the Academy of Finland (to U.C.)

Mark Carney and the gendered political economy of British central banking

In this article we explore Mark Carney’s place in the gendered political economy of British central banking. We document the gendered narratives surrounding Carney around the time of his appointment as Governor of the Bank of England, suggesting that they worked to naturalise certain gender constructions in finance. We show how Carney seemingly had the ability to successfully embody a combination of two ideal-types of masculinity: both ‘transnational business masculinity’ and ‘traditional bourgeois masculinity’. We argue this contributed to three depoliticising moves, each of which gain their strength in part from the naturalisation of masculinities in finance, while obfuscating important questions of gendered finance. To elucidate the latter, we highlight some of the gendered outcomes that are obscured by the furore surrounding Carney’s character, suggesting that the monetary and financial stability concerns of the Bank under his stewardship are likely to reproduce the uneven and exploitative relations of gendered finance

Selection and inheritance of sexually dimorphic juvenile plumage coloration

Sexually dimorphic plumage coloration is widespread in birds and is generally thought to be a result of sexual selection for more ornamented males. Although many studies find an association between coloration and fitness related traits, few of these simultaneously examine selection and inheritance. Theory predicts that sex-linked genetic variation can facilitate the evolution of dimorphism, and some empirical work supports this, but we still know very little about the extent of sex linkage of sexually dimorphic traits. We used a longitudinal study on juvenile Florida scrub-jays (Aphelocoma coerulescens) to estimate strength of selection and autosomal and Z-linked heritability of mean brightness, UV chroma, and hue. Although plumage coloration signals dominance in juveniles, there was no indication that plumage coloration was related to whether or not an individual bred or its lifetime reproductive success. While mean brightness and UV chroma are moderately heritable, hue is not. There was no evidence for sex-linked inheritance of any trait with most of the variation explained by maternal effects. The genetic correlation between the sexes was high and not significantly different from unity. These results indicate that evolution of sexual dimorphism in this species is constrained by low sex-linked heritability and high intersexual genetic correlation.Peer reviewe