Social structure of brown bear (Ursus arctos) in Eastern and Central Finland

Abstract. The brown bear is the largest carnivore living in Europe, is well represented in Finland with approx. 2000 individuals and is not in danger of extinction according to the annual census size estimation which is done by Luke (Natural Resource Institute Finland). However, this has not always been the case. At the beginning of the 20th century, the bear population in Finland was drastically reduced, mainly due to illegal bear killing such as hunting or to reindeer herder protecting reindeers in the north. After legal protection of bear started in the middle of the 20th century and closer monitoring of the bear population was established, there was increase in the bear population in Finland. Many bears have immigrated from the eastern Russia (mainly Karelia). Nowadays the bear population is mainly focused on the east, near the Russian border and in the central part of Finland. The aim of this master thesis is to evaluate the social structure of the solitary living brown bear. The social structure was studied analyzing the relatedness of the brown bears and the overlap of the individual home ranges. It is believed that the higher the degree of kinship is, the more the home ranges of brown bears overlap. We measured the relatedness in two areas: In Eastern and Central Finland in order to study if there is difference in the social structure of brown bear between these two areas: We also used GPS coordinates from radio collared brown bears in order to calculate their home range size and the percentage of overlaps. A total number of 119 samples has been analyzed for their degree of genetic relationship. Furthermore, out of 119, 53 bears were marked with GPS collars. According to the results the female’s brown bears are in Central Finland more closely related to each other than females in Eastern Finland. Male bears did not show the same significant relatedness difference between the two regions. One possible explanation might be that in eastern Finland a higher number of migrations can be observed between the Russian Karelian brown bear population and the eastern brown bear population. This leads to a higher gene flow and a higher density of brown bears in that area and less relatedness. Subadult male brown bears tends to disperse from natal area in order to find mates and to reduce the probability of inbreeding. This fact might be the reason that there was no difference in relatedness in males in the two regions. In average the female home range was significantly smaller than in male brown bears in both regions. Also, the female home range in Eastern Finland was significantly smaller than the home ranges of female brown bears in Central Finland. The size of the home range of brown bears is influenced by several characteristics such as habitat quality, density and for female reproductivity. High food availability and high bear density lead to the fact that brown dears decrease their home range. In order to avoid infanticide of cubs, female bears try to protect their offspring against male brown bears by reducing contact with other brown bears and reducing home ranges. A slightly positive correlation was detected among the relatedness and the degree of home range overlaps. The more closely the brown bears are related to each other the more home range overlaps were detected. These results can be explained by the fact that brown bears tend to be more social animals than expected. In order to increase their reproductive fitness brown bear mother’s, seem the accept home range overlap with a female offspring. With this social behavior she increases the probability that her offspring will survive successfully and on the other hand her own home range is better protected from other dominant and non-related females. Dominant females are usually older brown bears, so that it seems that age structure has also some influence for this social organization. This social interaction seems to be fluid and is not constant over years. Home ranges are strongly depended on habitat quality and reproduction status of the dominant female. Good food availability increases the acceptance in bears to overlap home ranges. Females that do not have a cup seem also roam to mate as males and thus to increase the home range overlaps. Monitoring the social behavior of brown bears is recommended as the future will challenge large carnivores with new problems such as an increasing number of human settlements’ along with more fragmented areas because of infrastructure and increasing wild animal tourism in Finland

The level of economic development and the savings rate of households

PURPOSE: The aim of this article was to present the G7 household savings rate models, including the extraction and identification of time series components that determine the formation of the studied phenomenon.DESIGN/METHODOLOGY/APPROACH: The research was carried by a detailed analysis of the savings rates of G7 households in individual quarters in the years 2000-2018. Time series decomposition and identification of time series components, including the seasonal component, trend and outliers were made using econometric tools. The analyses used the automatic seasonal adjustment procedures TRAMO-SEATS and ARIMA-X-12. The obtained models were formally verified empirically.FINDINGS: The decomposition of the time series of the G7 household savings rate provided information on the shaping of the analysed phenomenon. Using the Tramo-Seats procedure, it was shown that the savings rate of the United States, Canada and France is not subject to seasonal fluctuations, and the visible fluctuations are the result of the moving average process and outliers. Seasonal savings occurred in the case of Japan, Germany, Italy, and Great Britain. This seasonality was of a different nature, with the largest seasonal deviations recorded for Germany and Italy.PRACTICAL IMPLICATIONS: In this paper the components of the time series of savings rates of G7 households were analysed and distinguished, showing differences in the development of the analysed phenomenon in individual countries, providing the appropriate economic justification for the differences.ORIGINALITY/VALUE: In macroeconomic scale, households play an important role in the economy, creating the conditions for the sustainable development of the economy. They are an important source of financing for business investment and budget deficits. In a microeconomic perspective, a low savings rate can reduce the living conditions of the population, which has many negative effects. Taking this into account the above, learning about the development of the phenomenon under study, which is the household savings rate, allows to predict and adjust economic programs to optimize the desired effects.peer-reviewe

Life cycle synchronization is a viral drug resistance mechanism

Viral infections are one of the major causes of death worldwide, with HIV infection alone resulting in over 1.2 million casualties per year. Antiviral drugs are now being administered for a variety of viral infections, including HIV, hepatitis B and C, and influenza. These therapies target a specific phase of the virus’s life cycle, yet their ultimate success depends on a variety of factors, such as adherence to a prescribed regimen and the emergence of viral drug resistance. The epidemiology and evolution of drug resistance have been extensively characterized, and it is generally assumed that drug resistance arises from mutations that alter the virus’s susceptibility to the direct action of the drug. In this paper, we consider the possibility that a virus population can evolve towards synchronizing its life cycle with the pattern of drug therapy. The periodicity of the drug treatment could then allow for a virus strain whose life cycle length is a multiple of the dosing interval to replicate only when the concentration of the drug is lowest. This process, referred to as “drug tolerance by synchronization”, could allow the virus population to maximize its overall fitness without having to alter drug binding or complete its life cycle in the drug’s presence. We use mathematical models and stochastic simulations to show that life cycle synchronization can indeed be a mechanism of viral drug tolerance. We show that this effect is more likely to occur when the variability in both viral life cycle and drug dose timing are low. More generally, we find that in the presence of periodic drug levels, time-averaged calculations of viral fitness do not accurately predict drug levels needed to eradicate infection, even if there is no synchronization. We derive an analytical expression for viral fitness that is sufficient to explain the drug-pattern-dependent survival of strains with any life cycle length. We discuss the implications of these findings for clinically relevant antiviral strategies

The evolution of queen control over worker reproduction in the social Hymenoptera

Abstract A trademark of eusocial insect species is reproductive division of labor, in which workers forego their own reproduction while the queen produces almost all offspring. The presence of the queen is key for maintaining social harmony, but the specific role of the queen in the evolution of eusociality remains unclear. A long‐discussed scenario is that a queen either behaviorally or chemically sterilizes her workers. However, the demographic and ecological conditions that enable such manipulation are still debated. We study a simple model of evolutionary dynamics based on haplodiploid genetics. Our model is set in the commonly observed case where workers have lost the ability to lay female (diploid) eggs by mating, but retain the ability to lay male (haploid) eggs. We consider a mutation that acts in a queen, causing her to control the reproductive behavior of her workers. Our mathematical analysis yields precise conditions for the evolutionary emergence and stability of queen‐induced worker sterility. These conditions do not depend on the queen's mating frequency. We find that queen control is always established if it increases colony reproductive efficiency, but can evolve even if it decreases colony efficiency. We further derive the conditions under which queen control is evolutionarily stable against invasion by mutant workers who have recovered the ability to lay male eggs

Zero-Temperature Relaxation of Three-Dimensional Ising Ferromagnets

We investigate the properties of the Ising-Glauber model on a periodic cubic lattice of linear dimension L after a quench to zero temperature. The resulting evolution is extremely slow, with long periods of wandering on constant energy plateaux, punctuated by occasional energy-decreasing spin-flip events. The characteristic time scale tau for this relaxation grows exponentially with the system size; we provide a heuristic and numerical evidence that tau exp(L^2). For all but the smallest-size systems, the long-time state is almost never static. Instead the system contains a small number of "blinker" spins that continue to flip forever with no energy cost. Thus the system wanders ad infinitum on a connected set of equal-energy blinker states. These states are composed of two topologically complex interwoven domains of opposite phases. The average genus g_L of the domains scales as L^gamma, with gamma~1.7; thus domains typically have many holes, leading to a "plumber's nightmare" geometry.Comment: 12 pages, 20 figure, 4 tables, revtex4-1 forma

Common Phenolic Metabolites of Flavonoids, but Not Their Unmetabolized Precursors, Reduce the Secretion of Vascular Cellular Adhesion Molecules by Human Endothelial Cells

Background: Flavonoids have been implicated in the prevention of cardiovascular disease; however, their mechanisms of action have yet to be elucidated, possibly because most previous in vitro studies have used supraphysiological concentrations of unmetabolized flavonoids, overlooking their more bioavailable phenolic metabolites. Objective: We aimed to explore the effects of phenolic metabolites and their precursor flavonoids at physiologically achievable concentrations, in isolation and combination, on soluble vascular cellular adhesion molecule-1 (sVCAM-1). Method: Fourteen phenolic acid metabolites and 6 flavonoids were screened at 1 μM for their relative effects on sVCAM-1 secretion by human umbilical vein endothelial cells stimulated with tumor necrosis factor alpha (TNF-α). The active metabolites were further studied for their response at different concentrations (0.01 μM–100 μM), structure-activity relationships, and effect on vascular cellular adhesion molecule (VCAM)-1 mRNA expression. In addition, the additive activity of the metabolites and flavonoids was investigated by screening 25 unique mixtures at cumulative equimolar concentrations of 1 μM. Results: Of the 20 compounds screened at 1 μM, inhibition of sVCAM-1 secretion was elicited by 4 phenolic metabolites, of which protocatechuic acid (PCA) was the most active (−17.2%, P = 0.05). Investigations into their responses at different concentrations showed that PCA significantly reduced sVCAM-1 15.2–36.5% between 1 and 100 μM, protocatechuic acid-3-sulfate and isovanillic acid reduced sVCAM-1 levels 12.2–54.7% between 10 and 100 μM, and protocatechuic acid-4-sulfate and isovanillic acid-3-glucuronide reduced sVCAM-1 secretion 27.6% and 42.8%, respectively, only at 100 μM. PCA demonstrated the strongest protein response and was therefore explored for its effect on VCAM-1 mRNA, where 78.4% inhibition was observed only after treatment with 100 μM PCA. Mixtures of the metabolites showed no activity toward sVCAM-1, suggesting no additive activity at 1 μM. Conclusions: The present findings suggest that metabolism of flavonoids increases their vascular efficacy, resulting in a diversity of structures of varying bioactivity in human endothelial cells

Indirect Reciprocity with Optional Interactions and Private Information

We consider indirect reciprocity with optional interactions and private information. A game is offered between two players and accepted unless it is known that the other person is a defector. Whenever a defector manages to exploit a cooperator, his or her reputation is revealed to others in the population with some probability. Therefore, people have different private information about the reputation of others, which is a setting that is difficult to analyze in the theory of indirect reciprocity. Since a defector loses a fraction of his social ties each time he exploits a cooperator, he is less efficient at exploiting cooperators in subsequent rounds. We analytically calculate the critical benefit-to-cost ratio above which cooperation is successful in various settings. We demonstrate quantitative agreement with simulation results of a corresponding Wright–Fisher process with optional interactions and private information. We also deduce a simple necessary condition for the critical benefit-to-cost ratio

Mineralogical testing of femur heads and joint cartilage of patients with avascular necrosis (AVN)

Wykonano badania mineralogiczne, chemiczne i densytometryczne głów kości udowych oraz pokrywającej je chrząstki chorym z jałową martwicą, usuniętych w czasie wykonywania totalnej aloplastyki stawu biodrowego. Badania densytometryczne głów kości udowych wykonywane były chorym przed leczeniem operacyjnym, po ich usunięciu, oraz plastrom z tych głów o grubości 1,0 do 1,5 cm. Badaniom poddano głowy kości udowych 9 pacjentów w wieku 30-68 lat. Oprócz badań densytometrycznych wykonano badania przy pomocy mikroskopu cyfrowego, polaryzacyjnego i skaningowego, oraz przeprowadzono analizy chemiczne zarówno kości, jak i chrząstki stosując analizator do oznaczeń prowadzonych metodą EDS ( Electron Dispersive Spectroscopy). Wykonano także dyfraktometryczne analizy rentgenowskie chrząstek stawowych pobranych z tych głów. Badania wykazały, że w usuniętych głowach kości udowej występuje rozrzedzenie struktury kości gąbczastej zlokalizowane na szczycie głów i ich częściach bocznych . W chrząstce pokrywającej głowy występuje mineralizacja fosforanowa. Ma ona dwie postacie. przejawia się wyraźnym podwyższeniem zawartości Ca i P w chrząstce oraz, rzadziej obecnością mikro ziaren fosforanowych.Mineralogical, chemical and densitometry tests were conducted on femoral heads and cartilage acquired during total hip replacement in patients with avascular necrosis. Femoral heads densitometry was performed before and after the surgery, as well as on 1- to 1.5-centimeter slices of the femoral heads. Femoral heads from 9 patients between 30 and 68 years old were tested. In addition to densitometry, the sam les were analyzed using digital, polarizing and scanning microsco es, and chemical analysis of bone and cartilage was conducted using EDS (Electron Dispersive Spectrosco y). X-ray diffractometry of the joint cartilage acquired from the femoral heads was also performed. The tests have shown lower density of the s ongy bone on to and sides of the removed femoral heads. Femoral head cartilage shows phosphate mineralization. There are two forms of said mineralization: a distinct increase in Ca and P content in cartilage and, less frequently, presence of phos hate micrograins