Female Burying Beetles Benefit from Male Desertion: Sexual Conflict and Counter-Adaptation over Parental Investment

Sexual conflict drives the coevolution of sexually antagonistic traits, such that an adaptation in one sex selects an opposing coevolutionary response from the other. Although many adaptations and counteradaptations have been identified in sexual conflict over mating interactions, few are known for sexual conflict over parental investment. Here we investigate a possible coevolutionary sequence triggered by mate desertion in the burying beetle Nicrophorus vespilloides, where males commonly leave before their offspring reach independence. Rather than suffer fitness costs as a consequence, our data suggest that females rely on the male's absence to recoup some of the costs of larval care, presumably because they are then free to feed themselves on the carcass employed for breeding. Consequently, forcing males to stay until the larvae disperse reduces components of female fitness to a greater extent than caring for young singlehandedly. Therefore we suggest that females may have co-evolved to anticipate desertion by their partners so that they now benefit from the male's absence

All-sky search for gravitational-wave bursts in the second joint LIGO-Virgo run

We present results from a search for gravitational-wave bursts in the data collected by the LIGO and Virgo detectors between July 7, 2009 and October 20, 2010: data are analyzed when at least two of the three LIGO-Virgo detectors are in coincident operation, with a total observation time of 207 days. The analysis searches for transients of duration < 1 s over the frequency band 64-5000 Hz, without other assumptions on the signal waveform, polarization, direction or occurrence time. All identified events are consistent with the expected accidental background. We set frequentist upper limits on the rate of gravitational-wave bursts by combining this search with the previous LIGO-Virgo search on the data collected between November 2005 and October 2007. The upper limit on the rate of strong gravitational-wave bursts at the Earth is 1.3 events per year at 90% confidence. We also present upper limits on source rate density per year and Mpc^3 for sample populations of standard-candle sources. As in the previous joint run, typical sensitivities of the search in terms of the root-sum-squared strain amplitude for these waveforms lie in the range 5 10^-22 Hz^-1/2 to 1 10^-20 Hz^-1/2. The combination of the two joint runs entails the most sensitive all-sky search for generic gravitational-wave bursts and synthesizes the results achieved by the initial generation of interferometric detectors.Comment: 15 pages, 7 figures: data for plots and archived public version at https://dcc.ligo.org/cgi-bin/DocDB/ShowDocument?docid=70814&version=19, see also the public announcement at http://www.ligo.org/science/Publication-S6BurstAllSky

Eating habits and risk of esophageal cancers: a population-based case-control study

OBJECTIVE: Eating behaviors, such as the timing, speed of eating, and frequently consuming hot drinks, fried, spicy, or barbecued foods may be associated with increased risks of esophageal cancer. We analyzed data from a population-based case-control study to examine whether eating behaviors are associated with risk of esophageal cancer. METHODS: Self-administered questionnaire was used to collect data on demographic, socioeconomic, and lifestyle characteristics, and a food frequency questionnaire was used to collect data on dietary behaviors from 1,472 control subjects, 286 cases with adenocarcinoma of the esophagus, 320 cases with esophagogastric junction adenocarcinoma (EGJAC), and 238 cases with esophageal squamous cell carcinoma (ESCC). We calculated odds ratios (ORs) and 95% confidence intervals (CIs) using unconditional multivariable adjusted logistic regression, adjusting for confounders. RESULTS: Frequency of hot drinks, home-fried foods, barbecued meats, spicy foods, and the timing of eating an evening meal were not associated with esophageal cancer risk. Those who frequently consumed fried 'take-away' food had increased risks of EGJAC (OR = 1.44, 95% CI = 1.01-2.05; p value = 0.04). Eating speed was inversely associated with ESCC risk (p for trend = 0.001). CONCLUSION: We found no evidence that consumption of hot drinks, barbecued meats, spicy foods, or the timing of the evening meal are associated with increased risk of esophageal cancer in this Australian population. Associations with consumption of fried 'take-away' foods and eating speed await confirmation in future studies