Secondary sexual characters and female quality in primates

Honest advertisement models of sexual selection propose that exaggerated secondary sexual ornaments are condition-dependent, and that only individuals with superior disease resistance will be able to express costly ornamentation. Studies of secondary sexual ornamentation and their maintenance by sexual selection tend to focus on males. However, females may also possess showy ornaments. We investigated whether female ornaments, in the form of sexual swellings, reliably signal female fitness in a semifree-ranging colony of mandrills (Mandrillus sphinx) at the Centre International de Recherches Médicales, Franceville (CIRMF), Gabon. We measured swelling height and width using photographs of periovulatory females over three mating seasons and compared swelling size with parasitism (using fecal analysis over one annual cycle), immune status (ratio of lymphocytes to neutrophils in blood smears made during captures), and genetic diversity (microsatellite heterozygosity). Swelling size varied by up to 10% between cycles in individual females, giving some support to the hypothesis that size differences may indicate the quality of individual swelling cycles. However, there was no significant difference in swelling size between conceptive and nonconceptive cycles. Measures of swelling size varied more between females than within females across swelling cycles, implying that swelling size was a relatively consistent characteristic of individual females. Swelling size was not significantly related to either general measures of parasitism and immune status, or to the closest available measures to each swelling cycle. Nor was swelling size significantly related to genetic diversity. The healthy, provisioned nature of the colony and problems associated with observational, correlational studies restrict interpretation of our data. However, in combination with previous findings that females of higher reproductive success do not show larger swellings, and that males do not allocate mating effort as a function of swelling size, these results imply that sexual swelling size does not indicate female quality in these semifree-ranging mandrills.     

Temporal pessimism and spatial optimism in environmental assessments: An 18-nation study

The personal assessments of the current and expected future state of the environment by 3232 community respondents in 18 nations were investigated at the local, national, and global spatial levels. These assessments were compared to a ranking of each country's environmental quality by an expert panel. Temporal pessimism (“things will get worse”) was found in the assessments at all three spatial levels. Spatial optimism bias (“things are better here than there”) was found in the assessments of current environmental conditions in 15 of 18 countries, but not in the assessments of the future. All countries except one exhibited temporal pessimism, but significant differences between them were common. Evaluations of current environmental conditions also differed by country. Citizens' assessments of current conditions, and the degree of comparative optimism, were strongly correlated with the expert panel's assessments of national environmental quality. Aside from the value of understanding global trends in environmental assessments, the results have important implications for environmental policy and risk management strategies.     

Hunted hunters? Effect of group size on predation risk and growth in the Australian subsocial crab spider Diaea ergandros

A reduced predation risk is considered to be a major adaptive advantage of sociality. While most studies are concerned with non-predatory prey species, group-living predators are likely to face similar threats from higher-order predators. We studied the relationship between group size and predation risk in the subsocial crab spider Diaea ergandros by testing predictions from theoretical models including attack abatement as well as the formation of protective retreats. In a field survey, we found predatory clubionid spiders in 35 % of the D. ergandros nests and as predicted, nest size did not correlate with predator presence. In a subsequent laboratory experiment, we observed survival probability, nest construction activity and feeding behaviour including weight development between groups of different sizes as well as in the absence or presence of a predator. Large groups had an advantage in terms of survival and growth compared to smaller groups or single individuals. They also built significantly larger nests than smaller groups, supporting the idea of protective retreat formation being an adaptive benefit to group living. Even though clubionids did attack D. ergandros, they did not significantly affect overall mortality of D. ergandros. The feeding experiment showed that spiders fed on a larger proportion of flies in the presence of a predator. However, these groups gained significantly less weight compared to the control groups, indicating that the potential predators not only act as predators but also as food competitors, constituting a twofold cost for D. ergandros.     

Polygyny,relatedness and nest founding in the polygynous myrmicine ant Leptothorax acervorum (Hymenoptera; Formicidae)

Summary There is high within-nest relatedness for functional queens (with corpora lutea), nonfunctional queens (without corpora lutea), and workers in polygynous nests of Leptothorax acervorum. The high functional queen relatedness suggests that young mated queens are adopted back to their mother nest. Functional queen relatedness does not change with the number of queens present in the nest, suggesting that the number of generations of queens, on average two to three, is rather stable. Worker relatedness decreases with increasing number of functional queens per nest (Tables 5, 6). The number of queens contributing offspring to the nest (mothers), estimated from worker and functional queen relatedness, is lower than the number of functional queens, particularly in highly polygynous nests. Estimates of number of mothers in monogynous nests indicate that these nests previously were polygynous (Table 7). There is no correlation between nest relatedness and distance between nests, and budding-off, if present, thus appears to be a rare mode of nest founding (Table 8). There are no indications of inbreeding in the two populations studied since the frequency of heterozygotes is as high as expected from random mating (Table 4). Most likely, polygyny is the rule in L. acervorum and serves to secure the presence of queens in the nest.     

Avoiding cultural trauma: climate change and social inertia

ABSTRACT

The failure of societies to respond in a concerted, meaningful way to climate change is a core concern of the social science climate literature. Existing explanations of social inertia display little coherence. Here, a theoretical approach is suggested that integrates disparate perspectives on social inertia regarding climate change. Climate change constitutes a potential cultural trauma. The threat of cultural trauma is met with resistance and attempts to restore and maintain the status quo. Thus, efforts to avoid large-scale social changes associated with climate change constitute an effort to avoid cultural trauma, and result in social inertia regarding climate change at individual, institutional, and societal levels. Existing approaches to social inertia are reviewed. An intellectual framework utilizing the work of Pierre Bourdieu is proposed to integrate these different levels of social interaction. Social processes that maintain social order and thus avoid cultural trauma create social inertia regarding climate change.     

The use of image fusion in prenatal medicine

Fusion imaging (FI), the simultaneous display of the same anatomical region using two imaging modalities, has been used in other areas of medicine for both diagnosis and guiding interventions. Examples include positron emission tomography-computed tomography (PET-CT) imaging in oncology and ultrasound-magnetic resonance imaging (US-MRI) fusion in biopsies of the prostate gland. The underlying principle is to take advantage of the complementary information in each modality to improve accuracy, be it diagnostic accuracy or targeting accuracy in biopsies. For example, PET-CT overlays the metabolic activity of lesions on the superb spatial and anatomical detail of CT. While the historical mainstay of fetal imaging has been ultrasound, advances in ultrafast MR imaging together with advances in fetal MRI over the past two decades, have resulted in the opportunity to explore fusion imaging in fetal medicine. We present an overview of the principles of US-MRI fusion imaging in prenatal medicine, report our local experience, and review the literature in this emerging area. We share our perspective on how FI can improve diagnostic confidence, be used as an educational tool, and potentially enhance guidance in certain fetal procedures.