Prenatal application of fluorescent in situ hybridization (FISH) for identification of a mosaic Y-chromosome marker,IDIC(Yp)

An amniocentesis was performed at 13.3 weeks' gestation for advanced maternal age. A mosaic sex chromosome pattern was found: of 50 cells examined, 34 had a 45,X karyotype. In 14 cells with a modal number of 46, a recognizable Y was substituted by a small non-fluorescent marker. C-banding identified the marker as an isodicentric in 12 cells. In two cells, the non-fluorescent marker appeared to be monocentric and looked like a non-fluorescent del (Yq), but could have been an isodicentric Y with inactivation of one of the centromeres. Two cells with a modal number of 47 showed two copies of the monocentric marker. Fluorescent in situ hybridization with an alpha satellite Y-specific centromeric probe confirmed the Y-chromosome origin of the markers and allowed for more accurate prenatal diagnostic information.     

Blowing policy bubbles: rethinking emissions targets and low-carbon energy policies in the U.K.

The issue of proportionality is central to climate policy debates about setting targets for the reduction of greenhouse gas emissions and the development of low-carbon energy. In effect, these debates centre on whether the perceived social costs outweigh the benefits of policies and, if not, whether this may lead to over-investment or ‘policy bubbles’. Political attention, agenda setting and policy image are all crucial drivers of ambitious policy formation, as seen in the case of the United Kingdom's (U.K.) Climate Change Act (2008). However, as political salience waned and economic depression dragged on, the cost of long-term climate targets has been reconsidered. Based on documentary analysis and 33 interviews with central political actors, this article presents a detailed account of how economic arguments have been used to reinterpret and challenge policies, using the heuristics of ‘over-investment’ and ‘policy bubbles’. Ultimately, arguments about proportionality hinge on which costs and benefits are considered. In the U.K., economic and technical framings are typically prioritised, but they do not explain contradictory and politically motivated policy decisions. We discuss these dynamics within the context of maturing renewable energy technologies, high energy prices and the U.K.’s cross-party consensus approach to climate politics.     

The use and abuse of scientific studies

In response to Evelyn Pluhar'sWho Can Be Morally Obligated to Be a Vegetarian? in this journal issue, the author has read all of Pluhar's citations for the accuracy of her claims and had these read by an independent nutritionist. Detailed analysis of Pluhar's argument shows that she attempts to make her case by consistent misappropriation of the findings and conclusions of the studies she cites. Pluhar makes sweeping generalizations from scanty data, ignores causal explanations given by scientists, equates hypothesis with fact, draws false cause conclusions from studies, and in one case claims a conclusion opposite of what the scientist published. Such poor reasoning cannot be the basis of an argument for moral vegetarianism. A broader search of the literature and attention to reviews and textbooks in nutrition shows that each of Pluhar's claims is suspect or incorrect. Pluhar has not undermined my central claims: even if animals have certain rights and well-planned vegetarian diets are safe in complex industrialized societies, these diets cannot be so regarded if the presuppositions of high levels of wealth, education, and medical care do not exist; and, women, children, the aged and some ill persons are at greater risk on restrictive vegan diets. Thus, any duty of moral vegetarianism is not categorical but provisional in nature.     

Risk perception by offshore workers on UK oil and gas platforms

This paper reports the first investigation of risk perception by workers on offshore oil and gas installations on the UK Continental Shelf, following changes in offshore safety legislation in the wake of the Piper Alpha disaster in 1988. The Offshore Safety Case regulations (Health and Safety Executive, 1992, A Guide to the Offshore Installations (Safety Case) Regulations) put the onus on the operator to identify the major hazards and to reduce the risks to As Low As is Reasonably Practicable (ALARP). The regulations specifically state that Quantitative Risk Assessments (QRA) must be used when preparing the Safety Case. However, people do not use QRA when making everyday judgements about risk; they make subjective judgements known as risk perceptions, which are influenced by a number of different factors. This study was designed to complement the extensive QRA calculations that have already been carried out in the development of Safety Cases. The aim was to measure subjective risk perception in offshore personnel and examine how this relates to the more objective risk data available, namely accident records and QRA calculations. This paper describes the Offshore Risk Perception Questionnaire developed to collect the data and reports on UK offshore workers' perceptions of the risks associated with major and minor hazards, work tasks and other activities aboard production platforms.     

Assessing Risks to Biodiversity from Future Landscape Change

We examined the impacts of possible future land development patterns on the biodiversity of a landscape. Our landscape data included a remote sensing derived map of the current habitat of the study area and six maps of future habitat distributions resulting from different land development scenarios. Our species data included lists of all bird, mammal, reptile, and amphibian species in the study area, their habitat associations, and area requirements for each. We estimated the area requirements using home ranges, sampled population densities, or genetic area requirements that incorporate dispersal distances. Our measures of biodiversity were species richness and habitat abundance. We calculated habitat abundance in two ways. First, we computed the total habitat area for each species in each landscape. Second, we calculated the number of habitat units for each species in each landscape by dividing the size of each habitat patch in the landscape by the area requirement and summing over all patches. Species richness was based on presence of habitat. Species became extinct in the landscape if they had no habitat area or no habitat units, respectively. We then computed ratios of habitat abundance in each future landscape to habitat abundance in the present for each species. We also computed the ratio of future to present species richness. We then calculated summary statistics across all species. Species richness changed little from present to future. There were distinctly greater risks to habitat abundance in landscapes that extrapolated from present trends or zoning patterns, however, as opposed to landscapes in which land development activities followed more constrained patterns. These results were stable when tested using Monte Carlo simulations and sensitivity tests on the area requirements. We conclude that this methodology can begin to discriminate the effects of potential changes in land development on vertebrate biodiversity.     

Light levels used during feeding by primate species with different color vision phenotypes

The intensity of available light is important in determining how well a diurnal animal can distinguish color. Primates with different types of color vision may exhibit behaviors that maximize visual contrast during critical activities such as feeding. We hypothesized that (1) trichromatic taxa will feed in a wide range of light conditions because color constancy permits stabilized color appearance across changes in illumination, and (2) that taxa with a high proportion of dichromatic individuals will tend to feed at higher light levels to increase color contrast. We recorded light levels during feeding bouts of seven primate taxa with varying degrees of color vision: the dichromatic Lemur catta, two polymorphic species, Propithecus v. verreauxi and Ateles geoffroyi, and the routine trichromats, Alouatta palliata, Colobus guereza, Piliocolobus badius, and Cercopithecus ascanius. Results were equivocal for our hypotheses. While routinely trichromatic taxa used varying light levels, the pattern of results did not differ from the dichromatic Lemur catta. However, polymorphic taxa not only sought the highest light, but females, which are the only individuals in polymorphic taxa that can be trichromatic, fed in higher light levels than males when eating non-green foods. This result is consistent with selection operating to maintain a balanced polymorphism in these taxa, though the connection between light levels and color vision type for the females is unclear. Our results further suggest that trichromatic vision may afford a selective advantage because it permits foraging under a greater range of light levels.     

No cost of male mating experience on female reproductive success in the almond moth, <Emphasis Type="BoldItalic">Cadra cautella</Emphasis> (Lepidoptera; Pyralidae)

Male copulation experience may have a profound impact on female reproductive success if male reproductive investment declines over consecutive copulations and if females are unlikely to re-mate. Male reproductive investment is particularly interesting in lepidopterans because males produce dimorphic sperm: a fertilizing (eupyrene) and a non-fertilising (apyrene) sperm. In two experiments, we explored the lifetime reproductive investment of male almond moths, Cadra cautella (also known as Ephestia cautella) and examined its influence on female reproductive success. In the almond moth, females re-mate infrequently and males transfer sperm in a spermatophore. Attached to the spermatophore is a large chitinous process, the function of which is unknown. One group of males were permitted consecutive copulations with virgin females and the amount of sperm and size of the spermatophore transferred were compared for all females. We found that the number of both eupyrene and apyrene sperm per ejaculate decreased with his increased mating frequency, while the size of the spermatophore process decreased dramatically after the male’s first copulation. In a second experiment, we allowed males to mate with females throughout their lives and then compared female fecundity and fertilisation success. We found no obvious decrease in female fecundity and fertilisation success with increased male copulation experience, despite the likely reduction in male gametic investment. We discuss potential explanations for the development of this enlarged and elaborate first spermatophore of male almond moths given that it confers no clear fitness advantage to females.     

AIC model selection and multimodel inference in behavioral ecology: some background,observations, and comparisons

We briefly outline the information-theoretic (I-T) approaches to valid inference including a review of some simple methods for making formal inference from all the hypotheses in the model set (multimodel inference). The I-T approaches can replace the usual t tests and ANOVA tables that are so inferentially limited, but still commonly used. The I-T methods are easy to compute and understand and provide formal measures of the strength of evidence for both the null and alternative hypotheses, given the data. We give an example to highlight the importance of deriving alternative hypotheses and representing these as probability models. Fifteen technical issues are addressed to clarify various points that have appeared incorrectly in the recent literature. We offer several remarks regarding the future of empirical science and data analysis under an I-T framework.     

Antioxidant status, flight performance and sexual signalling in wild-type parrots

During mate choice, individuals are predicted to assess traits that honestly signal the quality of potential partners. Locomotor capacity may be such a trait, potentially signalling condition and ability to resist oxidative damage. In this study, we experimentally manipulated nutritional status: Male wild-type budgerigars, imported from Australia, were provided with either an enhanced (EQ) or reduced quality (RQ) diet varying in vitamin (particularly retinol and α-tocopherol) and mineral levels. Then, we assessed whether this influenced locomotor capacity, i.e. escape flight performance, and sexual attractiveness in male budgerigars Melopsittacus undulatus. Males in the EQ group showed significantly greater total antioxidant capacity and higher blood plasma concentrations of the dietary antioxidants retinol and α-tocopherol, but not carotenoids, than the RQ group. Over 8 weeks of flight training, males on the EQ diet showed significantly greater improvement on the most strenuous flight test than RQ males. In mate choice trials, females preferred EQ over RQ males. EQ males that were relatively fast in escape flight trials were more strongly preferred in the mate preference arena than their RQ competitors. Interestingly, males with high plasma carotenoid levels flew slower and were less attractive than males with low carotenoid levels. This might indicate that carotenoids are not effective antioxidants in birds. Overall, our results show that dietary-derived antioxidants can influence sexual attractiveness and other fitness-related traits through multiple pathways. Locomotor capacity appears to be an honest signal of male condition in birds.     

Estimating variation in surface emissivities of intertidal macroalgae using an infrared thermometer and the effects on temperature measurements

Accurate measurements of surface temperatures with an infrared (IR) thermometer require input of the emissivities of the surfaces being measured; however, few determinations of the emissivities of intertidal organisms’ surfaces have been made. Emissivities of intertidal macroalgae were measured to determine whether algal species, measurement angle, hydration, and layering affected them. Emissivities were similar and averaged 0.94 among 11 of 13 species. The species with lower and more variable emissivities (Chondracanthus exasperatus and Desmarestia viridis) differed in morphology from the other species, which were relatively flat thin blades with little surface texture. Measurement angle caused emissivities to decrease significantly in Mazzaella splendens but not in three other species. Hydration and layering of Ulva lactuca also had no effect. At 22 °C, measured temperatures were within 1 °C of actual temperatures when thermometer emissivity settings ranged from 0.75 to 1.00. When emissivities were set lower than actual values, measured temperatures were lower than actual temperatures at 15 °C and higher than actual temperatures at 60 °C. When the IR thermometer was used to measure surface temperatures of nine species of intertidal algae immediately before they were inundated by the incoming tide, temperatures were higher in mid intertidal than low intertidal individuals and higher on a sunnier day than an overcast day. Temperatures of U. lactuca increased with increasing height on the shore, but temperatures of Ulvaria obscura did not. Temperatures were also higher in Fucus distichus blades than receptacles, and lower in U. lactuca and M. splendens occurring in the lower layers of stacks of algae.