Non-breeding competition between migrant American Redstarts (Setophaga ruticilla) and resident Adelaide's warblers (Dendroica adelaidae) in the Guanica Biosphere Reserve, southwest Puerto Rico

"July 2011"Title from PDF of title page (University of Missouri--Columbia, viewed on May 18, 2012).The entire thesis text is included in the research.pdf file; the official abstract appears in the short.pdf file; a non-technical public abstract appears in the public.pdf file.Dissertation advisor: Dr. John FaaborgVita.I tested the hypothesis that migratory American Redstarts (Redstart; Setophaga ruticilla) and resident Adelaide's Warbler (Adelaide's; Dendroica adelaidae) compete for food in a dry forest of southwest Puerto Rico. Competition will not occur unless food is limiting and the foraging niche of the two species is similar. In dry years, total arthropod biomass declined and body condition of both species decreased. Moreover, these species had a very high degree of overlap in both foraging location and type of attack. Simulated territorial intrusions also indicated that these species are competing. However, Adelaide's did not shift their foraging niche after Redstarts left and these species were not interspecifically territorial. Therefore, neither depletion nor interference competition is occurring. Instead, the evidence suggests that Redstarts listen to the frequent vocalizations of Adelaide's, and forage using temporary competition refuges.Includes bibliographical reference

The Relationship between Physical Inactivity and Family Life Course Stage

Physical inactivity is a well-documented risk factor for numerous chronic diseases and a major public health problem in Canada. Since social-ecological models suggest that behaviour is influenced by the person as well as the social and physical environment, it is important to be sensitive to other factors when examining physical activity participation. The purpose of this study was to explore the associations between physical inactivity, marital status and family stage for men and women in Canada. The study was based on data from the Canadian Community Health Survey, Cycle 2.1, for adults aged 18-64 living with a spouse or partner (with or without children) or single living with children. Respondents were classified as inactive or active according to self-reported leisure-time physical activity. Logistic regression was used to examine gender differences in the relationship between household composition and physical inactivity. Explanatory variables included parents’ age, sex, age of youngest child, income adequacy and interview mode. Family stage was significantly associated with adult physical inactivity levels. Individuals with very young children (\u3c 6 years old) were more likely to be inactive compared to childless adults or those with older children (\u3e12 years old). Having children between 6-12 years old was related to increased physical activity, possibly due to more family leisure pursuits involving physical activity. Living with a partner was associated with greater physical inactivity, particularly when controlling for income adequacy. Furthermore, those with high income adequacy were less likely to be inactive, and having a very young child increased this difference. In conclusion, family life course stage and income adequacy were most influential in determining levels of physical inactivity. Therefore, physically active leisure programs targeting adults with very young children, particularly those at lower income levels, may be helpful in increasing physical activity and decreasing health risks associated with inactivity. Margo Hilbrecht is a Postdoctoral Fellow at the University of Guelph’s Centre for Families, Work and Well-Being. She recently received her Ph.D. from the University of Waterloo in Recreation and Leisure Studies. Her research focuses on time use and work-life integration as it pertains to non-traditional work arrangements, gender and leisure. These interests extend to perceptions of time pressure and stress associated with the coordination of employment, school, and leisure activities in families with school-age children. Her current research explores the social and health consequences of unpredictable work schedules for parents employed in the retail sector

Search for dark matter produced in association with bottom or top quarks in √s = 13 TeV pp collisions with the ATLAS detector

A search for weakly interacting massive particle dark matter produced in association with bottom or top quarks is presented. Final states containing third-generation quarks and miss- ing transverse momentum are considered. The analysis uses 36.1 fb−1 of proton–proton collision data recorded by the ATLAS experiment at √s = 13 TeV in 2015 and 2016. No significant excess of events above the estimated backgrounds is observed. The results are in- terpreted in the framework of simplified models of spin-0 dark-matter mediators. For colour- neutral spin-0 mediators produced in association with top quarks and decaying into a pair of dark-matter particles, mediator masses below 50 GeV are excluded assuming a dark-matter candidate mass of 1 GeV and unitary couplings. For scalar and pseudoscalar mediators produced in association with bottom quarks, the search sets limits on the production cross- section of 300 times the predicted rate for mediators with masses between 10 and 50 GeV and assuming a dark-matter mass of 1 GeV and unitary coupling. Constraints on colour- charged scalar simplified models are also presented. Assuming a dark-matter particle mass of 35 GeV, mediator particles with mass below 1.1 TeV are excluded for couplings yielding a dark-matter relic density consistent with measurements

31st Annual Meeting and Associated Programs of the Society for Immunotherapy of Cancer (SITC 2016) : part two

Background The immunological escape of tumors represents one of the main ob- stacles to the treatment of malignancies. The blockade of PD-1 or CTLA-4 receptors represented a milestone in the history of immunotherapy. However, immune checkpoint inhibitors seem to be effective in specific cohorts of patients. It has been proposed that their efficacy relies on the presence of an immunological response. Thus, we hypothesized that disruption of the PD-L1/PD-1 axis would synergize with our oncolytic vaccine platform PeptiCRAd. Methods We used murine B16OVA in vivo tumor models and flow cytometry analysis to investigate the immunological background. Results First, we found that high-burden B16OVA tumors were refractory to combination immunotherapy. However, with a more aggressive schedule, tumors with a lower burden were more susceptible to the combination of PeptiCRAd and PD-L1 blockade. The therapy signifi- cantly increased the median survival of mice (Fig. 7). Interestingly, the reduced growth of contralaterally injected B16F10 cells sug- gested the presence of a long lasting immunological memory also against non-targeted antigens. Concerning the functional state of tumor infiltrating lymphocytes (TILs), we found that all the immune therapies would enhance the percentage of activated (PD-1pos TIM- 3neg) T lymphocytes and reduce the amount of exhausted (PD-1pos TIM-3pos) cells compared to placebo. As expected, we found that PeptiCRAd monotherapy could increase the number of antigen spe- cific CD8+ T cells compared to other treatments. However, only the combination with PD-L1 blockade could significantly increase the ra- tio between activated and exhausted pentamer positive cells (p= 0.0058), suggesting that by disrupting the PD-1/PD-L1 axis we could decrease the amount of dysfunctional antigen specific T cells. We ob- served that the anatomical location deeply influenced the state of CD4+ and CD8+ T lymphocytes. In fact, TIM-3 expression was in- creased by 2 fold on TILs compared to splenic and lymphoid T cells. In the CD8+ compartment, the expression of PD-1 on the surface seemed to be restricted to the tumor micro-environment, while CD4 + T cells had a high expression of PD-1 also in lymphoid organs. Interestingly, we found that the levels of PD-1 were significantly higher on CD8+ T cells than on CD4+ T cells into the tumor micro- environment (p < 0.0001). Conclusions In conclusion, we demonstrated that the efficacy of immune check- point inhibitors might be strongly enhanced by their combination with cancer vaccines. PeptiCRAd was able to increase the number of antigen-specific T cells and PD-L1 blockade prevented their exhaus- tion, resulting in long-lasting immunological memory and increased median survival