Reed Warbler Hosts Do Not Fine-Tune Mobbing Defenses During the Breeding Season, Even When Cuckoos Are Rare

Hosts of brood parasitic cuckoos often employ mobbing attacks to defend their nests and, when mobbing is costly, hosts are predicted to adjust their mobbing to match parasitism risk. While evidence exists for fine-tuned plasticity, it remains unclear why mobbing does not track larger seasonal changes in parasitism risk. Here we test a possible explanation from parental investment theory: parents should defend their current brood more intensively as the opportunity to replace it declines (re-nesting potential), and therefore “counteract” any apparent seasonal decline to match parasitism risk. We take advantage of mobbing experiments conducted at two sites where reed warblers (Acrocephalus scirpaceus) experience (in Italy), or do not experience (in Finland), brood parasitism. We predicted that mobbing of cuckoos should be higher overall in Italy, but remain constant over the season as in other parasitised sites, whereas in Finland where cuckoos do not pose a local threat, we predicted that mobbing should be low at the beginning of the season but increase as re-nesting potential declined. However, while cuckoos were more likely to be mobbed in Italy, we found little evidence that mobbing changed over the season at either the parasitized or non-parasitized sites. This suggests that re-nesting potential has either little influence on mobbing behavior, or that its effects are obscured by other seasonal differences in ecology or experience of hosts

A comprehensive overview of radioguided surgery using gamma detection probe technology

The concept of radioguided surgery, which was first developed some 60 years ago, involves the use of a radiation detection probe system for the intraoperative detection of radionuclides. The use of gamma detection probe technology in radioguided surgery has tremendously expanded and has evolved into what is now considered an established discipline within the practice of surgery, revolutionizing the surgical management of many malignancies, including breast cancer, melanoma, and colorectal cancer, as well as the surgical management of parathyroid disease. The impact of radioguided surgery on the surgical management of cancer patients includes providing vital and real-time information to the surgeon regarding the location and extent of disease, as well as regarding the assessment of surgical resection margins. Additionally, it has allowed the surgeon to minimize the surgical invasiveness of many diagnostic and therapeutic procedures, while still maintaining maximum benefit to the cancer patient. In the current review, we have attempted to comprehensively evaluate the history, technical aspects, and clinical applications of radioguided surgery using gamma detection probe technology

Pluronics-Based Drug Delivery Systems for Flavonoids Anticancer Treatment

This research concerns the investigation of the preparation of polymeric nanocarriers containing a flavonoid—naringenin, xanthohumol or isoxanthohumol—based on Pluronics by the thin-film formation method. The size of the formed micelles and their stability upon dilution were evaluated using Dynamic light scattering (DLS) analysis; the high values of the drug loading and the encapsulation efficiency confirmed that the proposed systems of flavonoids delivery consisting of Pluronic P123 and F127 nanomicelles could effectively distribute the drug into tumour tissues, which makes these nanocarriers ideal candidates for passive targeting of cancer cells by the enhanced permeation and retention (EPR) effect. The in vitro cytotoxicity of proposed flavonoids in the Pluronic formulations was investigated by the SRB assay with human colon cancer cells. We designed mixed polymeric micelles, which was a successful drug delivery system for the case of naringenin not being able to enhance the bioavailability and cytotoxic activity of xanthohumol and isoxanthohumol. Furthermore, it was observed that the higher amount of polymer in the formulation achieved better cytotoxic activity

Pluronics-Based Drug Delivery Systems for Flavonoids Anticancer Treatment

This research concerns the investigation of the preparation of polymeric nanocarriers containing a flavonoid—naringenin, xanthohumol or isoxanthohumol—based on Pluronics by the thin-film formation method. The size of the formed micelles and their stability upon dilution were evaluated using Dynamic light scattering (DLS) analysis; the high values of the drug loading and the encapsulation efficiency confirmed that the proposed systems of flavonoids delivery consisting of Pluronic P123 and F127 nanomicelles could effectively distribute the drug into tumour tissues, which makes these nanocarriers ideal candidates for passive targeting of cancer cells by the enhanced permeation and retention (EPR) effect. The in vitro cytotoxicity of proposed flavonoids in the Pluronic formulations was investigated by the SRB assay with human colon cancer cells. We designed mixed polymeric micelles, which was a successful drug delivery system for the case of naringenin not being able to enhance the bioavailability and cytotoxic activity of xanthohumol and isoxanthohumol. Furthermore, it was observed that the higher amount of polymer in the formulation achieved better cytotoxic activity

Happy Spouses, Happy Parents? Family Relationships Among Finnish and Dutch Dual Earners

In this study links between spousal and parent-child relationships among Finnish (n = 157 couples) and Dutch (n = 276 couples) dual earners with young children were examined using paired questionnaire data. Variable-oriented analyses (structural equation modeling with a multigroup procedure) supported the spillover hypothesis, as higher levels of satisfaction in the spousal relationship were related to higher quality in the parent-child relationship and lower parental role restrictions. These connections did not differ by gender or country. With family typological analyses (mixture modeling), 4 family types were identified: families with satisfying relationships (73.4% of the families), families with unsatisfying parent-child relationships (13.4%), and families with either dissatisfied men (6.0%) or dissatisfied women (7.2%)

The Use of Data across Countries: Development and Application of a Data Use Framework

Part 1: Why Do We Need New Educational Management Information Systems?International audiencePromising evidence exists that data-based decision-making can result in improvements in student achievement [1], but studies, e.g. [2], show that many schools do not use data properly. Support in the use of data is urgently needed. This chapter focuses on the design of a professional development course in the use of data. In the first phase of the project, case studies were conducted in five participating countries (England, Germany, The Netherlands, Poland and Lithuania) to develop a common data use framework. In the next phase, in two schools in each of the countries, a data use needs assessment was conducted using a survey. Finally, a professional development course was developed and implemented. Results of each of the phases are discussed in this paper