Competing Demands of Prosociality & Equity in Monkeys

Prosocial decisions may lead to unequal payoffs among group members. Although an aversion to inequity has been found in empirical studies of both human and nonhuman primates, the contexts previously studied typically do not involve a trade-off between pro-sociality and inequity. Here we investigate the apparent co-existence of these two factors, specifically the competing demands of prosociality and equity. We directly compare the responses of brown capuchin monkeys (Cebus apella) among situations where pro-social preferences conflict with equality, using a paradigm comparable to other studies of cooperation and inequity in this species. By choosing to pull a tray towards themselves, subjects rewarded themselves and/or another in conditions in which the partner either received the same or different rewards, or the subject received no reward. In unequal payoff conditions, subjects could obtain equality by choosing not to pull in the tray, so that neither individual was rewarded. The monkeys showed prosocial preferences even in situations of moderate disadvantageous inequity, preferring to pull in the tray more often when a partner was present than absent. However when the discrepancy between rewards increased, prosocial behavior ceased

Give What You Get: Capuchin Monkeys (Cebus apella) and 4-Year-Old Children Pay Forward Positive and Negative Outcomes to Conspecifics

The breadth of human generosity is unparalleled in the natural world, and much research has explored the mechanisms underlying and motivating human prosocial behavior. Recent work has focused on the spread of prosocial behavior within groups through paying-it-forward, a case of human prosociality in which a recipient of generosity pays a good deed forward to a third individual, rather than back to the original source of generosity. While research shows that human adults do indeed pay forward generosity, little is known about the origins of this behavior. Here, we show that both capuchin monkeys (Cebus apella) and 4-year-old children pay forward positive and negative outcomes in an identical testing paradigm. These results suggest that a cognitively simple mechanism present early in phylogeny and ontogeny leads to paying forward positive, as well as negative, outcomes

The multilevel trigger system of the DIRAC experiment

The multilevel trigger system of the DIRAC experiment at CERN is presented. It includes a fast first level trigger as well as various trigger processors to select events with a pair of pions having a low relative momentum typical of the physical process under study. One of these processors employs the drift chamber data, another one is based on a neural network algorithm and the others use various hit-map detector correlations. Two versions of the trigger system used at different stages of the experiment are described. The complete system reduces the event rate by a factor of 1000, with efficiency $\geq$95% of detecting the events in the relative momentum range of interest.Comment: 21 pages, 11 figure

The Swiss Systemic lupus erythematosus Cohort Study (SSCS) - cross-sectional analysis of clinical characteristics and treatments across different medical disciplines in Switzerland.

OBJECTIVES: To describe disease characteristics and treatment modalities in a multidisciplinary cohort of systemic lupus erythematosus (SLE) patients in Switzerland. METHODS: Cross-sectional analysis of 255 patients included in the Swiss SLE Cohort and coming from centres specialised in Clinical Immunology, Internal Medicine, Nephrology and Rheumatology. Clinical data were collected with a standardised form. Disease activity was assessed using the Safety of Estrogens in Lupus Erythematosus National Assessment-SLE Disease Activity Index (SELENA-SLEDAI), an integer physician's global assessment score (PGA) ranging from 0 (inactive) to 3 (very active disease) and the erythrocyte sedimentation rate (ESR). The relationship between SLE treatment and activity was assessed by propensity score methods using a mixed-effect logistic regression with a random effect on the contributing centre. RESULTS: Of the 255 patients, 82% were women and 82% were of European ancestry. The mean age at enrolment was 44.8 years and the median SLE duration was 5.2 years. Patients from Rheumatology had a significantly later disease onset. Renal disease was reported in 44% of patients. PGA showed active disease in 49% of patients, median SLEDAI was 4 and median ESR was 14 millimetre/first hour. Prescription rates of anti-malarial drugs ranged from 3% by nephrologists to 76% by rheumatologists. Patients regularly using anti-malarial drugs had significantly lower SELENA-SLEDAI scores and ESR values. CONCLUSION: In our cohort, patients in Rheumatology had a significantly later SLE onset than those in Nephrology. Anti-malarial drugs were mostly prescribed by rheumatologists and internists and less frequently by nephrologists, and appeared to be associated with less active SLE

Tests of the Equivalence Principle with Neutral Kaons

We test the Principle of Equivalence for particles and antiparticles, using CPLEAR data on tagged K0 and K0bar decays into pi^+ pi^-. For the first time, we search for possible annual, monthly and diurnal modulations of the observables |eta_{+-}| and phi_{+-}, that could be correlated with variations in astrophysical potentials. Within the accuracy of CPLEAR, the measured values of |eta_{+-}| and phi_{+-} are found not to be correlated with changes of the gravitational potential. We analyze data assuming effective scalar, vector and tensor interactions, and we conclude that the Principle of Equivalence between particles and antiparticles holds to a level of 6.5, 4.3 and 1.8 x 10^{-9}, respectively, for scalar, vector and tensor potentials originating from the Sun with a range much greater than the distance Earth-Sun. We also study energy-dependent effects that might arise from vector or tensor interactions. Finally, we compile upper limits on the gravitational coupling difference between K0 and K0bar as a function of the scalar, vector and tensor interaction range.Comment: 15 pages latex 2e, five figures, one style file (cernart.csl) incorporate

Test of CPT Symmetry and Quantum Mechanics with Experimental data from CPLEAR

We use fits to recent published CPLEAR data on neutral kaon decays to $\pi^+\pi^-$ and $\pi e\nu$ to constrain the CPT--violation parameters appearing in a formulation of the neutral kaon system as an open quantum-mechanical system. The obtained upper limits of the CPT--violation parameters are approaching the range suggested by certain ideas concerning quantum gravity.Comment: 9 pages of uuencoded postscript (includes 3 figures

Management of Vascular Risk Factors in the Carotid Revascularization Endarterectomy Versus Stenting Trial (CREST)

BackgroundThe Carotid Revascularization Endarterectomy Versus Stenting Trial (CREST) is a multicenter randomized trial of stenting versus endarterectomy in patients with symptomatic and asymptomatic carotid disease. This study assesses management of vascular risk factors.Methods and ResultsManagement was provided by the patient's physician, with biannual monitoring results collected by the local site. Therapeutic targets were low‐density lipoprotein, cholesterol <100 mg/dL, systolic blood pressure <140 mm Hg, fasting blood glucose <126 mg/dL, and nonsmoking status. Optimal control was defined as achieving all 4 goals concurrently. Generalized estimating equations were used to compare risk factors at baseline with those observed in scheduled follow‐up visits for up to 48 months. In the analysis cohort of 2210, significant improvements in risk‐factor control were observed across risk factors for all follow‐up visits compared with baseline. At 48 months, achievement of the low‐density lipoprotein cholesterol goal improved from 59.1% to 73.6% (P<0.001), achievement of the systolic blood pressure goal improved from 51.6% to 65.1% (P<0.001), achievement of the glucose goal improved from 74.9% to 80.7% (P=0.0101), and nonsmoking improved from 74.4% to 80.9% (P<0.0001). The percentage with optimal risk‐factor control also improved significantly, from 16.7% to 36.2% (P<0.001), but nearly 2 of 3 study participants did not achieve optimal control during the study.ConclusionsSite‐based risk‐factor control improved significantly in the first 6 months and over the long term in CREST but was often suboptimal. Intensive medical management should be considered for future trials of carotid revascularization.Clinical Trial RegistrationURL: ClinicalTrials.gov. Unique identifier: NCT00004732

Causes and Correlates of Calf Mortality in Captive Asian Elephants (Elephas maximus)

Juvenile mortality is a key factor influencing population growth rate in density-independent, predation-free, well-managed captive populations. Currently at least a quarter of all Asian elephants live in captivity, but both the wild and captive populations are unsustainable with the present fertility and calf mortality rates. Despite the need for detailed data on calf mortality to manage effectively populations and to minimize the need for capture from the wild, very little is known of the causes and correlates of calf mortality in Asian elephants. Here we use the world's largest multigenerational demographic dataset on a semi-captive population of Asian elephants compiled from timber camps in Myanmar to investigate the survival of calves (n = 1020) to age five born to captive-born mothers (n = 391) between 1960 and 1999. Mortality risk varied significantly across different ages and was higher for males at any age. Maternal reproductive history was associated with large differences in both stillbirth and liveborn mortality risk: first-time mothers had a higher risk of calf loss as did mothers producing another calf soon (<3.7 years) after a previous birth, and when giving birth at older age. Stillbirth (4%) and pre-weaning mortality (25.6%) were considerably lower than those reported for zoo elephants and used in published population viability analyses. A large proportion of deaths were caused by accidents and lack of maternal milk/calf weakness which both might be partly preventable by supplementary feeding of mothers and calves and work reduction of high-risk mothers. Our results on Myanmar timber elephants with an extensive keeping system provide an important comparison to compromised survivorship reported in zoo elephants. They have implications for improving captive working elephant management systems in range countries and for refining population viability analyses with realistic parameter values in order to predict future population size of the Asian elephant