Altruistic Worker Policing in Honey Bees, A Multi-Level Approach

Dissertação de mestrado em Exercício e Saúde em Populações Especiais, apresentada à Faculdade de Ciências do Desporto e Educação Física da Universidade de CoimbraAs atitudes dos alunos face à inclusão de alunos com deficiência nas aulas de educação física surgem como um estudo importante, trazendo desta forma informações vantajosas para a inclusão e por sua vez para o sucesso educativo. Os objetivos principais deste estudo centram-se em investigar as atitudes dos alunos face à inclusão de alunos com deficiência nas aulas de Educação física, e a influência das variáveis “género “presença de colegas da turma com deficiência nas aulas de educação física”, “ano de escolaridade. A amostra é constituída por 458 alunos do ensino regular, da região centro, a frequentarem o 6º ano e o 12º ano de escolaridade, sendo 227 do sexo feminino e 231 do sexo masculino, com idades compreendidas entre 10 e 19 anos (M=14,03; DP=2,25) O instrumento utilizado na recolha de dados para medir as atitudes dos alunos face à inclusão foi o questionário Children‘s Attitudes Towards Integrated Physical Education- Revised (CAIPE-R), Block, 1995, traduzido e adaptado para a população portuguesa por Campos, Ferreira e Block (2013) composta por duas sub escalas de atitudes gerais face às aulas de educação física e atitudes face à alteração de regras. Do presente estudo podemos aferir que relativamente à variável género, as atitudes globais dos alunos do sexo feminino, nas aulas de EF são mais favoráveis face à inclusão de alunos com deficiência, a presença de colegas com deficiência nas aulas de educação física têm atitudes mais favoráveis face à atitude global e o ano de escolaridade, podemos afirmar que os alunos com nível de escolaridade mais baixo apresentam atitudes menos favoráveis face á atitude global e face á alteração das regras. Os resultados obtidos levaram-nos a concluir que de uma forma geral os alunos têm uma melhor atitude face à inclusão de alunos com deficiência nas aulas de EF do que relativamente à alteração de regras. The attitudes towards the inclusion of students with disabilities in physical education appear as an important study, bringing useful information for inclusion and by its time for educational success. The main purposes of this study focuses on investigating the attitudes of students towards the inclusion of peers with disabilities in physical education classes, and ascertain the influence of variables such as, "gender", "presence of classmates with disabilities in physical education classes", and "school grade level". Participants were 458 students, 227 females and 231 males from the central region, of Portugal, at the 6th grade and 12th grade levels,their ages varied between 10 and 19 years old (M=14,03;SM=2,25) The instrument used for collecting data to measure student attitudes towards inclusion was the questionnaire, Children's Attitudes Towards Integrated Physical Education - Revised (CAIPE-R), Block, (1995), translated and adapted for the Portuguese population by Campos, Ferreira and Block (2013). From this study we can infer that, regarding the gender variable, the overall attitudes of female students, in physical education classes, are more favorable towards inclusion of students with disabilities, the presence of classmates with disabilities in physical education classes, have more favorable attitudes with regard to overall attitude and grade level. We can affirm that students at lower grade levels have less favorable attitudes regarding overall attitude and changing the rules. Our results led us to conclude that students have a relatively better attitude towards the inclusion of students with disabilities in physical education classes than toward changing the rules

Wolbachia Horizontal Transmission Events in Ants: What Do We Know and What Can We Learn?

While strict vertical transmission insures the durability of intracellular symbioses, phylogenetic incongruences between hosts and endosymbionts suggest horizontal transmission must also occur. These horizontal acquisitions can have important implications for the biology of the host. Wolbachia is one of the most ecologically successful prokaryotes in arthropods, infecting an estimated 50–70% of all insect species. Much of this success is likely due to the fact that, in arthropods, Wolbachia is notorious for manipulating host reproduction to favor transmission through the female germline. However, its natural potential for horizontal transmission remains poorly understood. Here we evaluate the fundamental prerequisites for successful horizontal transfer, including necessary environmental conditions, genetic potential of bacterial strains, and means of mediating transfers. Furthermore, we revisit the relatedness of Wolbachia strains infecting the Panamanian leaf-cutting ant, Acromyrmex echinatior, and its inquiline social parasite, Acromyrmex insinuator, and compare our results to a study published more than 15 years ago by Van Borm et al. (2003). The results of this pilot study prompt us to reevaluate previous notions that obligate social parasitism reliably facilitates horizontal transfer and suggest that not all Wolbachia strains associated with ants have the same genetic potential for horizontal transmission

Support for maternal manipulation of developmental nutrition in a facultatively eusocial bee, Megalopta genalis (Halictidae)

Developmental maternal effects are a potentially important source of phenotypic variation, but they can be difficult to distinguish from other environmental factors. This is an important distinction within the context of social evolution, because if variation in offspring helping behavior is due to maternal manipulation, social selection may act on maternal phenotypes, as well as those of offspring. Factors correlated with social castes have been linked to variation in developmental nutrition, which might provide opportunity for females to manipulate the social behavior of their offspring. Megalopta genalis is a mass-provisioning facultatively eusocial sweat bee for which production of males and females in social and solitary nests is concurrent and asynchronous. Female offspring may become either gynes (reproductive dispersers) or workers (non-reproductive helpers). We predicted that if maternal manipulation plays a role in M. genalis caste determination, investment in daughters should vary more than for sons. The mass and protein content of pollen stores provided to female offspring varied significantly more than those of males, but volume and sugar content did not. Sugar content varied more among female eggs in social nests than in solitary nests. Provisions were larger, with higher nutrient content, for female eggs and in social nests. Adult females and males show different patterns of allometry, and their investment ratio ranged from 1.23 to 1.69. Adult body weight varied more for females than males, possibly reflecting increased variation in maternal investment in female offspring. These differences are consistent with a role for maternal manipulation in the social plasticity observed in M. genalis

Modulation of Serotonin Transporter Function during Fetal Development Causes Dilated Heart Cardiomyopathy and Lifelong Behavioral Abnormalities

BACKGROUND: Women are at great risk for mood and anxiety disorders during their childbearing years and may become pregnant while taking antidepressant drugs. In the treatment of depression and anxiety disorders, selective serotonin reuptake inhibitors (SSRIs) are the most frequently prescribed drugs, while it is largely unknown whether this medication affects the development of the central nervous system of the fetus. The possible effects are the product of placental transfer efficiency, time of administration and dose of the respective SSRI. METHODOLOGY/PRINCIPAL FINDINGS: In order to attain this information we have setup a study in which these parameters were measured and the consequences in terms of physiology and behavior are mapped. The placental transfer of fluoxetine and fluvoxamine, two commonly used SSRIs, was similar between mouse and human, indicating that the fetal exposure of these SSRIs in mice is comparable with the human situation. Fluvoxamine displayed a relatively low placental transfer, while fluoxetine showed a relatively high placental transfer. Using clinical doses of fluoxetine the mortality of the offspring increased dramatically, whereas the mortality was unaffected after fluvoxamine exposure. The majority of the fluoxetine-exposed offspring died postnatally of severe heart failure caused by dilated cardiomyopathy. Molecular analysis of fluoxetine-exposed offspring showed long-term alterations in serotonin transporter levels in the raphe nucleus. Furthermore, prenatal fluoxetine exposure resulted in depressive- and anxiety-related behavior in adult mice. In contrast, fluvoxamine-exposed mice did not show alterations in behavior and serotonin transporter levels. Decreasing the dose of fluoxetine resulted in higher survival rates and less dramatic effects on the long-term behavior in the offspring. CONCLUSIONS: These results indicate that prenatal fluoxetine exposure affects fetal development, resulting in cardiomyopathy and a higher vulnerability to affective disorders in a dose-dependent manner

Reproductive skew in cooperative breeding: Environmental variability, antagonistic selection, choice, and control.

A multitude of factors may determine reproductive skew among cooperative breeders. One explanation, derived from inclusive fitness theory, is that groups can partition reproduction such that subordinates do at least as well as noncooperative solitary individuals. The majority of recent data, however, fails to support this prediction; possibly because inclusive fitness models cannot easily incorporate multiple factors simultaneously to predict skew. Notable omissions are antagonistic selection (across generations, genes will be in both dominant and subordinate bodies), constraints on the number of sites suitable for successful reproduction, choice in which group an individual might join, and within-group control or suppression of competition. All of these factors and more are explored through agent-based evolutionary simulations. The results suggest the primary drivers for the initial evolution of cooperative breeding may be a combination of limited suitable sites, choice across those sites, and parental manipulation of offspring into helping roles. Antagonistic selection may be important when subordinates are more frequent than dominants. Kinship matters, but its main effect may be in offspring being available for manipulation while unrelated individuals are not. The greater flexibility of evolutionary simulations allows the incorporation of species-specific life histories and ecological constraints to better predict sociobiology