Women, men and news : it's life Jim, but not as we know it

In the twenty-teens, there are increasing numbers of women occupying executive positions in politics, business and the law but their words and actions rarely make the front page. In this article, we draw on data collected as part of the 2015 Global Media Monitoring Project (GMMP) and focus on England, Scotland, Wales and the Republic of Ireland. Since the first GMMP in 1995, there has been a slow but steady rise in the proportion of women who feature, report or present the news (now at 24 per cent), but that increase is a mere 7 per cent over 20 years. Not only is there a problem with visibility but our data also suggest that when women are present, their contributions are often confined to the realm of the private as they speak as citizens rather than experts and in stories about health but not politics. Just over a third of the media professionals we coded were women and older women are almost entirely missing from the media scene. Citizens and democracy more generally are poorly served by a news media which privileges men’s voices, actions and views over the other 51 per cent of the population: we surely deserve better

Women, men and news: It's life, Jim, but not as we know it

In the twenty-teens, there are increasing numbers of women occupying executive positions in politics, business and the law but their words and actions rarely make the front page. In this article, we draw on data collected as part of the 2015 Global Media Monitoring Project and focus on England, Scotland, Wales and the Republic of Ireland. Since the first GMMP in 1995, there has been a slow but steady rise in the proportion of women who feature, report or present the news (now at 24 per cent), but that increase is a mere seven per cent over twenty years. Not only is there a problem with visibility but our data also suggest that when women are present, their contributions are often confined to the realm of the private as they speak as citizens rather than experts and in stories about health but not politics. Just over a third of the media professionals we coded were women and older women are almost entirely missing from the media scene. Citizens and democracy more generally are poorly served by a news media which privileges men's voices, actions and views over the other 51 per cent of the population: we surely deserve better

A novel approach to using seabed geomorphology as a predictor of habitat use in highly mobile marine predators : implications for ecology and conservation

Department for Business, Energy, and Industrial Strategy (BEIS, formerly DECC) Offshore Energy Strategic Environmental Assessment programme funded the purchase of the tags and their deployment (OESEA-14-47) and supported HMEW (OESEA-20-118). DJFR was supported by NERC National Public Good- National Capability funding to SMRU (NE/R015007/1). MIDC was supported by project EcoSTAR, funded under NERC INSITE Phase II (grant no. NE/T010614/1). Funds for open access publication fees were from the research grants of supervisors at University of St Andrews.Understanding how marine predators find patchily distributed prey resources in a dynamic environment is key to identifying important ecological areas for ecosystem-level conservation management. However, the mechanisms underpinning important foraging areas often result from complex interactions between static and dynamic covariates (e.g. topography and currents). Modelling habitat associations with hydrodynamic processes is rarely useful when attempting to identify and characterise foraging areas across an individual’s foraging range. Investigating the influence of static habitat features on predator behaviour can provide a more tractable baseline understanding of habitat associations, upon which additional complexity can be added. Seabed gradient covariates (e.g. slope and aspect) are often used, yet such metrics are computed at singular user-defined resolutions, and provide limited ecological insight when used in isolation. Instead, categorising the seabed into geomorphological features may provide better characterisation of seabed structure. Here we explore the utility of a pattern recognition algorithm to delineate whole geomorphological features (“geomorphons”) on the seabed (e.g. valleys, ridges, footslopes) from bathymetry data, and examine the influence of geomorphology on marine predator habitat use. We demonstrate the potential application of this approach in a case study, examining the influence of geomorphons on the at-sea behaviour of a highly mobile predator inhabiting shelf seas: the grey seal (Halichoerus grypus). We analyse GPS tracking data from three seals tagged in the southern North Sea, an area with heterogeneous geomorphology. We use hidden Markov models (HMMs) to infer foraging and travelling behaviour and model the effect of different feature types on the probability of switching between states. All three seals showed an increased probability of transitioning from travelling to foraging when encountering slopes, footslopes and hollows, and foraging activity was concentrated at slopes on the fringes of the Dogger Bank. We hypothesise that such features may host prey aggregations, or lead to increased prey capture success. The results suggest the importance of such areas for grey seals in the southern North Sea, a region undergoing rapid and widespread anthropogenic habitat change. This method could be incorporated into future species distribution models to improve estimates of predator distribution, informing conservation management and marine spatial planning.Publisher PDFPeer reviewe

Navigating uncertain waters:a critical review of inferring foraging behaviour from location and dive data in pinnipeds

In the last thirty years, the emergence and progression of biologging technology has led to great advances in marine predator ecology. Large databases of location and dive observations from biologging devices have been compiled for an increasing number of diving predator species (such as pinnipeds, sea turtles, seabirds and cetaceans), enabling complex questions about animal activity budgets and habitat use to be addressed. Central to answering these questions is our ability to correctly identify and quantify the frequency of essential behaviours, such as foraging. Despite technological advances that have increased the quality and resolution of location and dive data, accurately interpreting behaviour from such data remains a challenge, and analytical methods are only beginning to unlock the full potential of existing datasets. This review evaluates both traditional and emerging methods and presents a starting platform of options for future studies of marine predator foraging ecology, particularly from location and two-dimensional (time-depth) dive data. We outline the different devices and data types available, discuss the limitations and advantages of commonly-used analytical techniques, and highlight key areas for future research. We focus our review on pinnipeds - one of the most studied taxa of marine predators - but offer insights that will be applicable to other air-breathing marine predator tracking studies. We highlight that traditionally-used methods for inferring foraging from location and dive data, such as first-passage time and dive shape analysis, have important caveats and limitations depending on the nature of the data and the research question. We suggest that more holistic statistical techniques, such as state-space models, which can synthesise multiple track, dive and environmental metrics whilst simultaneously accounting for measurement error, offer more robust alternatives. Finally, we identify a need for more research to elucidate the role of physical oceanography, device effects, study animal selection, and developmental stages in predator behaviour and data interpretation

From pup to predator; generalized hidden Markov models reveal rapid development of movement strategies in a naïve long‐lived vertebrate

Rapid development of a successful foraging strategy is critical for juvenile survival, especially for naïve animals that receive no parental guidance. However, this process is poorly understood for many species. Although observation of early‐life movements is increasingly possible with miniaturisation of animal‐borne telemetry devices, analytical limitations remain. Here, we tracked 29 recently‐weaned, grey seal Halichoerus grypus pups from colonies in two geographically distinct regions of the United Kingdom. We analysed at‐sea movements of pups throughout their initial months of nutritional independence to investigate the ontogeny of behaviour‐specific (foraging and travelling) movement patterns. Using generalized hidden Markov models (HMMs), we extended the conventional HMM framework to account for temporal changes in putative foraging and travelling movement characteristics, and investigate the effects of intrinsic (sex) and extrinsic (environment) factors on this process. Putative foraging behaviour became more tortuous with time, and travelling became faster and more directed, suggesting a reduction in search scale and an increase in travel efficiency as pups shifted from exploration to an adult‐like repeatable foraging strategy. Sex differences in movement characteristics were evident from colony departure, but sex‐specific activity budgets were only detected in one region. We show that sex‐specific behavioural strategies emerge before sexual size dimorphism in grey seals, and suggest that this phenomenon may occur in other long‐lived species. Our results also indicate that environmental variation may affect the emergence of sex‐specific foraging behaviour, highlighting the need to consider interacting intrinsic and extrinsic factors in shaping movement strategies of long‐lived vertebrates. Moreover, comparing the behavioural state estimations to those of a conventional HMM (no variation in state‐specific movement parameters) revealed differences in the amount and location of foraging activity, with implications for spatial conservation management. Overlooking intrinsic and extrinsic variation in movement processes could distort our understanding of foraging ecology, population dynamics, and conservation requirements

Micronutrients in HIV: A Bayesian MetaAnalysis

Background: Approximately 28.5 million people living with HIV are eligible for treatment (CD4&500), but currently have no access to antiretroviral therapy. Reduced serum level of micronutrients is common in HIV disease. Micronutrient supplementation (MNS) may mitigate disease progression and mortality. Objectives: We synthesized evidence on the effect of micronutrient supplementation on mortality and rate of disease progression in HIV disease. Methods: We searched MEDLINE, EMBASE, the Cochrane Central, AMED and CINAHL databases through December 2014, without language restriction, for studies of greater than 3 micronutrients versus any or no comparator. We built a hierarchical Bayesian random effects model to synthesize results. Inferences are based on the posterior distribution of the population effects; posterior distributions were approximated by Markov chain Monte Carlo in OpenBugs. Principal Findings: From 2166 initial references, we selected 49 studies for full review and identified eight reporting on disease progression and/or mortality. Bayesian synthesis of data from 2,249 adults in three studies estimated the relative risk of disease progression in subjects on MNS vs. control as 0.62 (95% credible interval, 0.37, 0.96). Median number needed to treat is 8.4 (4.8, 29.9) and the Bayes Factor 53.4. Based on data reporting on 4,095 adults reporting mortality in 7 randomized controlled studies, the RR was 0.84 (0.38, 1.85), NNT is 25 (4.3, ∞). Conclusions: MNS significantly and substantially slows disease progression in HIV+ adults not on ARV, and possibly reduces mortality. Micronutrient supplements are effective in reducing progression with a posterior probability of 97.9%. Considering MNS low cost and lack of adverse effects, MNS should be standard of care for HIV+ adults not yet on ARV

Ariel - Volume 11 Number 1

Executive Editors Ellen Feldman Leonardo S. Nasca, Jr. Business Managers Barbara L. Davies Martin B. Getzow News Editor Aaron D. Bleznak Features Editor Dave Van Wagoner CAHS Editor Joan M. Greco Editorial Page Editor Samuel Markind Photography Editor Leonardo S. Nasca, Jr. Sports Editor Paul F. Mansfiel

Epstein-Barr Virus Infection of Naïve B Cells In Vitro Frequently Selects Clones with Mutated Immunoglobulin Genotypes: Implications for Virus Biology

Epstein-Barr virus (EBV), a lymphomagenic human herpesvirus, colonises the host through polyclonal B cell-growth-transforming infections yet establishes persistence only in IgD+ CD27+ non-switched memory (NSM) and IgD− CD27+ switched memory (SM) B cells, not in IgD+ CD27− naïve (N) cells. How this selectivity is achieved remains poorly understood. Here we show that purified N, NSM and SM cell preparations are equally transformable in vitro to lymphoblastoid cells lines (LCLs) that, despite upregulating the activation-induced cytidine deaminase (AID) enzyme necessary for Ig isotype switching and Ig gene hypermutation, still retain the surface Ig phenotype of their parental cells. However, both N- and NSM-derived lines remain inducible to Ig isotype switching by surrogate T cell signals. More importantly, IgH gene analysis of N cell infections revealed two features quite distinct from parallel mitogen-activated cultures. Firstly, following 4 weeks of EBV-driven polyclonal proliferation, individual clonotypes then become increasingly dominant; secondly, in around 35% cases these clonotypes carry Ig gene mutations which both resemble AID products and, when analysed in prospectively-harvested cultures, appear to have arisen by sequence diversification in vitro. Thus EBV infection per se can drive at least some naïve B cells to acquire Ig memory genotypes; furthermore, such cells are often favoured during an LCL's evolution to monoclonality. Extrapolating to viral infections in vivo, these findings could help to explain how EBV-infected cells become restricted to memory B cell subsets and why EBV-driven lymphoproliferative lesions, in primary infection and/or immunocompromised settings, so frequently involve clones with memory genotypes