The transformation of external harmonic series under a translation of origin

Transformation properties of coordinates in inverse power spherical harmonic expansion

Characterization Of Flavivirus Disease Resistance In Mice And Comparative Analysis Of Infections With Pathogenic And Non-Pathogenic Strains Of West Nile Virus In Pluripotent Stem Cell-Derived Central Nervous System Cells

Flaviviruses are arboviruses that can cause neurological disease in mammals. Mice demonstrate variable susceptibility to flavivirus disease due to inheritance of a single allele, Flvr. Infected mice that possess Flvr exhibit no symptoms and produce less infectious virus compared to mice with the susceptible allele Flvs. The product of the Flvr allele, full length 2′-5′ oligoadenylate synthetase 1b (Oas1b), is part of the host innate immune response and a Type 1 interferon (IFN) stimulated gene (ISG). The Flvr allele encodes a truncated protein due to a premature stop codon. Cells encode multiple OAS proteins that exert their antiviral activity by synthesizing short 2′-5′-linked oligoadenylates that activate RNase L. Oas1b lacks synthetase activity and function as a dominant negative for the active synthetase Oas1a. However, RNase L was shown to have anti-flavivirus activity. A line of Oas1b+/+/RNase L-/- mice was generated to analyze the contribution of RNase L to the Oas1b-mediated flavivirus disease resistance phenotype in vivo. The results indicated that RNase L is a component of the antiviral response to flaviviruses in mice but is not needed for the full expression of the Oas1b flavivirus resistance phenotype. West Nile Virus (WNV) is a neurotropic virus with strains exhibiting varying degrees of pathogenesis in infected humans. The factors involved in this differential pathogenicity are not well understood. Using human induced pluripotent stem cells (hiPSCs) differentiated into four types of CNS cells, infections with pathogenic WNV NY99 or non-pathogenic WNV MAD78 were characterized using traditional virology techniques and also by comparative transcriptome analysis of infected neural progenitor cells (NPCs) by next generation sequencing. NY99 replicated efficiently in all four CNS cell types and induced cell cycle arrest in NPCs. Transcriptome analysis of astrocytes infected by NY99 revealed robust activation of inflammatory response in these cells. MAD78 infected NPCs as efficiently as NY99 but infected astrocytes less efficiently than WNV NY99. Infection of astrocytes by both viruses induced secretion of pro-inflammatory cytokines. Transcriptome analysis of infected NPCs revealed that infections with both viruses induced the expression of viral defense genes, ER stress genes, and inhibited neuronal development

Why did the pheasant cross the road? Long-term road mortality patterns in relation to management changes.

This is the final version of the article. Available from Royal Society via the DOI in this record.Pheasants (Phasianus colchicus) are commonly killed on UK roads, presenting a threat to motorists and a loss to the game shooting industry. Pheasants may be inherently susceptible, or the recent increase in their artificial rearing and release may have exacerbated the situation, either through population increases or because artificial rearing has altered movement behaviour. We compared intra-annual patterns of roadkill reported in the UK from the 1960s (prior to the onset of mass release programmes) with that from the 2010s (when pheasant release was well established and widespread), considering roadkill sex and locations and accounting for changes in traffic levels. Pheasants in the UK are disproportionately likely to be reported killed on roads. However, this likelihood has not changed notably over the past 50 years. Instead, the timing of roadkill has changed. Pheasants in the 2010s are no longer susceptible during their breeding season, unlike in the 1960s, perhaps because relatively few breed successfully. Instead, roadkill first peaks in September-November as pheasants disperse from release pens, females first. Roadkill declines over winter, but when supplementary feeding ceases in February, we see a second peak in roadkill. Roadkill rates are higher in regions of the UK where there is little arable farming and hence natural food supplies are scarce.J.R.M. was funded by an ERC grant no. 616474

A problem with problem solving: motivational traits, but not cognition, predict success on novel operant foraging tasks

Published onlineRates of innovative foraging behaviours and success on problem-solving tasks are often used to assay differences in cognition, both within and across species. Yet the cognitive features of some problemsolving tasks can be unclear. As such, explanations that attribute cognitive mechanisms to individual variation in problem-solving performance have revealed conflicting results. We investigated individual consistency in problem-solving performances in captive-reared pheasant chicks, Phasianus colchicus, and addressed whether success depends on cognitive processes, such as trial-and-error associative learning, or whether performances may be driven solely via noncognitive motivational mechanisms, revealed through subjects' willingness to approach, engage with and persist in their interactions with an apparatus, or via physiological traits such as body condition. While subjects' participation and success were consistent within the same problems and across similar tasks, their performances were inconsistent across different types of task. Moreover, subjects' latencies to approach each test apparatus and their attempts to access the reward were not repeatable across trials. Successful individuals did not improve their performances with experience, nor were they consistent in their techniques in repeated presentations of a task. However, individuals that were highly motivated to enter the experimental chamber were more likely to participate. Successful individuals were also faster to approach each test apparatus and more persistent in their attempts to solve the tasks than unsuccessful individuals. Our findings therefore suggest that individual differences in problem-solving success can arise from inherent motivational differences alone and hence be achieved without inferring more complex cognitive processesWe thank Rothamsted Research North Wyke for accommodating the rearing and release of the pheasants. We thank Aidan Hulatt, Sebastian Bekker and James Foley for their help with data collection and animal husbandry. Lauren Brent and Rob Heathcote provided advice on analysis. J.R.M. and J.O.v.H. were funded by an ERC consolidator grant (616474)

Multiple behavioural, morphological and cognitive developmental changes arise from a single alteration to early life spatial environment, resulting in fitness consequences for released pheasants

This is the final version of the article. Available from the Royal Society via the DOI in this record.Subtle variations in early rearing environment influence morphological, cognitive and behavioural processes that together impact on adult fitness. We manipulated habitat complexity experienced by young pheasants (Phasianus colchicus) in their first seven weeks, adding a third accessible dimension by placing elevated perches in their rearing pens mimicking natural variation in habitat complexity. This simple manipulation provoked an interrelated suite of morphological, cognitive and behavioural changes, culminating in decreased wild mortality of birds from complex habitats compared with controls. Three mechanisms contribute to this: Pheasants reared with perches had a morphology which could enable them to fly to the higher branches and cope with prolonged roosting. They had a higher propensity to roost off the ground at night in the wild. More generally, these birds had more accurate spatial memory. Consequently, birds were at a reduced risk of terrestrial predation. The fitness consequences of variation in early rearing on behavioural development are rarely studied in the wild but we show that this is necessary because the effects can be broad ranging and not simple, depending on a complex interplay of behavioural, cognitive and morphological elements, even when effects that the treatments provoke are relatively short term and plastic.M.A.W. was jointly funded by the University of Exeter and the Game and Wildlife Conservation Trust. J.R.M. was funded by an ERC Consolidator Award (616474)

Predation of artificial nests in UK farmland by magpies (Pica pica): interacting environmental, temporal, and social factors influence a nest's risk

This is the final version. Available from the publisher via the DOI in this record.The recent decline in farmland songbirds in the UK has coincided with increases in the populations of many nest predators. However, studies which have removed nest predators and monitored the response of prey populations have found mixed results. One explanation for this ambiguity is that, within species, predators differ in how likely they are to predate nests and only the removal of particularly predatory individuals will improve the breeding success of prey populations. Predators could differ in the extent to which they take nests due to variation in the local environment and/or variation within the predator population, e.g. differences in breeding status. Additional to these broad factors, certain individuals may specialise on particular prey. We placed 460 artificial nests in a systematically balanced design in UK farmland to analyse these sources of variation in predation. Magpies (Pica pica) were the most common predators of our artificial nests and the vulnerability of our nests to magpie predation varied according to magpie breeding status (predation was higher inside breeding magpies’ territories), but this effect varied temporally. More nests were predated inside of magpie territories late in the season, when magpies had dependent fledglings. More specifically, some nest locations were especially vulnerable independent of both magpie breeding status and time in breeding season. These nests may have been disproportionately predated by specific, particularly predatory, territorial magpies. Habitat management and/or predator removal may benefit songbird populations if targeted towards reducing the effect of particular individuals identified as more likely to predate songbird nests.SongBird Surviva

Why do many pheasants released in the UK die, and how can we best reduce their natural mortality?

This is the final version of the article. Available from Springer Verlag via the DOI in this record.Around 60% of pheasants released for shooting in the UK, an estimated 21 million birds, do not end up at their intended fate: being shot. This constitutes wastage, raising economic, environmental and ethical questions. We review what is known of the fates of released pheasants and consider why they do not directly contribute to the numbers harvested. We focus on four main explanations: predation, disease, starvation and dispersal, and highlight other important causes of mortality. For each explanation, we attempt to attribute levels of loss and identify timings or conditions when such losses may be heaviest. We review factors that exacerbate losses and methods available to mitigate them. Opportunities for amelioration may arise at all stages of the rearing and release of pheasants and involve changes to the conditions under which eggs are produced, the way young pheasants are reared or the management of the environment into which they are released. We found few studies investigating impacts of post-release management techniques on pheasant survival outside of the breeding season within a UK context. We found that a number of less commonly deployed practices focusing on early-life, pre-release management may improve survival. Given the scale of pheasant releasing in the UK, even improvements in survival of 1% would mean that ~ 350,000 fewer birds die of natural causes. Complementing current post-release management with proven novel pre-release management interventions could reduce the number of pheasants required for release, whilst maintaining current shooting levels. Lowering release numbers would lower financial costs, benefit the environment and reduce some ethical concerns over the release and shooting of reared pheasants

Group social rank is associated with performance on a spatial learning task (article)

This is the final published version. Available from the Royal Society via the DOI in this record.The dataset associated with this article is located in ORE at: http://hdl.handle.net/10871/30840Dominant individuals differ from subordinates in their performances on cognitive tasks across a suite of taxa. Previous studies often only consider dyadic relationships, rather than the more ecologically relevant social hierarchies or networks, hence failing to account for how dyadic relationships may be adjusted within larger social groups. We used a novel statistical method: randomized Elo-ratings, to infer the social hierarchy of 18 male pheasants, Phasianus colchicus, while in a captive, mixed-sex group with a linear hierarchy. We assayed individual learning performance of these males on a binary spatial discrimination task to investigate whether inter-individual variation in performance is associated with group social rank. Task performance improved with increasing trial number and was positively related to social rank, with higher ranking males showing greater levels of success. Motivation to participate in the task was not related to social rank or task performance, thus indicating that these rank-related differences are not a consequence of differences in motivation to complete the task. Our results provide important information about how variation in cognitive performance relates to an individual's social rank within a group. Whether the social environment causes differences in learning performance or instead, inherent differences in learning ability predetermine rank remains to be tested.ERC Consolidator Award (616474) to J.R.M