Wear Fast, Die Young: More Worn Teeth and Shorter Lives in Iberian Compared to Scottish Red Deer

Teeth in Cervidae are permanent structures that are not replaceable or repairable; consequently their rate of wear, due to the grinding effect of food and dental attrition, affects their duration and can determine an animal's lifespan. Tooth wear is also a useful indicator of accumulative life energy investment in intake and mastication and their interactions with diet. Little is known regarding how natural and sexual selection operate on dental structures within a species in contrasting environments and how these relate to life history traits to explain differences in population rates of tooth wear and longevity. We hypothesised that populations under harsh environmental conditions should be selected for more hypsodont teeth while sexual selection may maintain similar sex differences within different populations. We investigated the patterns of tooth wear in males and females of Iberian red deer (Cervus elaphus hispanicus) in Southern Spain and Scottish red deer (C. e. scoticus) across Scotland, that occur in very different environments, using 10343 samples from legal hunting activities. We found higher rates of both incisor and molar wear in the Spanish compared to Scottish populations. However, Scottish red deer had larger incisors at emergence than Iberian red deer, whilst molars emerged at a similar size in both populations and sexes. Iberian and Scottish males had earlier tooth depletion than females, in support of a similar sexual selection process in both populations. However, whilst average lifespan for Iberian males was 4 years shorter than that for Iberian females and Scottish males, Scottish males only showed a reduction of 1 year in average lifespan with respect to Scottish females. More worn molars were associated with larger mandibles in both populations, suggesting that higher intake and/or greater investment in food comminution may have favoured increased body growth, before later loss of tooth efficiency due to severe wear. These results illustrate how independent selection in both subspecies, that diverged 11,700 years BP, has resulted in the evolution of different longevity, although sexual selection has maintained a similar pattern of relative sex differences in tooth depletion. This study opens interesting questions on optimal allocation in life history trade-offs and the independent evolution of allopatric populations.The European Union Lifelong Learning programme (Leonardo da Vinci) supported the post-graduate students that collaborated in this study. The Scottish Government through the Rural and Environment Science and Analytical Services Division (RESAS), Deer Commission Scotland and Scottish Natural Heritage (project RP64) and Spanish Ministry of Science (projects CGL2007-63594 and CGL2010-17163) funded this study. During the writing up of this study FJPB was granted with a visiting professor fellowship by the University of Cordoba (Spain)

Cultural history as an integrative study subject in Jekabpils 2nd secondary school

Diplomdarba tēma ir „Kultūras vēsture kā integratīvs priekšmets Jēkabpils 2.vidusskolā”. Atbilstoši diplomdarba tēmai tika izvirzīts mērķis izpētīt kultūras vēstures mācību priekšmeta kopsakarības integratīvajā procesā. Lai realizētu diplomdarba mērķi tika analizēta literatūra un teorētiskais materiāls, vadītas integrētas stundas: kultūras vēsture-krievu valoda un literatūra, kultūras vēsture-latviešu valoda un literatūra, izstrādāta integratīvās stundas pašanalīzes shēma. Sniegts teorētiskais priekšstats par kultūras vēstures priekšmeta specifiku vispārizglītojošās skolas aspektā, kultūras vēstures vieta un loma pārējo mācību priekšmetu vidū, vidusskolas vecuma posma personības psihiskās attīstības raksturojums, mācību satura integrācijas pamatiezīmes un starppriekšmetu saikņu praktiskais pielietojums pamatojoties uz integrētām stundām kultūras vēsturē. Praktiskā darbība pierādīja ka, integratīvā mācību procesa mērķtiecīga organizēšana, izmantojot mācību satura starppriekšmetu saikni, veicina mācību izziņas darbības attīstību, pastiprina tās radošo, pētniecisko, starppriekšmetu raksturu, kas ir skolēna integratīvo prasmju pamatnosacījumus. Šī diplomdarba uzdevumu aprobācija tika veikta Jēkabpils 2.vidusskolā.A theme of this graduation work is „Cultural history as an integrative study subject in Jekabpils 2nd secondary school”. According to the theme of this work a goal was set – through integrative process to investigate intercommunication of themes of the lessons in the subject of Cultural history. Literature and theoretical material is analyzed to accomplish the goal, integrative lessons are conducted: Cultural history and Russian language and literature, Cultural history and Latvian language and literature, self-examination chart of an integrative lesson is developed. The theoretical presentation of Cultural history subject specifics in the aspect of secondary school is given, Cultural history subject place and its role among other school subjects; description of mental development of school age individual is given; main characteristic of lessons content integration and practical application of interconnection of school subjects are defined based on Cultural history integrative lessons. The practical part of the work proved that a purposeful organization of the integrative process of education, using interconnection of lessons content promotes understanding of lessons material and strengthens creative, research, interconnection character of the lessons, which is the main requirement for integrative education of a school pupil. Approbation of tasks of this graduation work was executed on the grounds of Jekabpils 2nd secondary school