Do All Dogs Go to Heaven? Investigating the Association between Demographic Characteristics and Beliefs about Animal Afterlife

The purpose of this research was to explore American’s beliefs about animal afterlife based on key demographic factors such as sex, race/ethnicity, age, geographic region, religion/faith, and pet ownership. We attained a large and diverse sample of respondents (n = 800) using Amazon’s Mechanical Turk, and attempted to make the data fairly representative of the United States population by applying post-stratification weights based on auxiliary statistics obtained from US Census data. Results of the study suggest that many people perceive animal lives as similarly sacred as human lives. Evidence also suggests that one’s membership in a particular demographic category may have considerable bearing on views about animal afterlife. The authors recommend veterinarians remain cognizant that some people extend their own views on issues such as spirituality to their pets and those beliefs and values can impact veterinary care and decision-making.     

The Influence of Parental Status on Courtship Effort in a Paternal Caring Fish

It is widely assumed that caring for young limits the motivation of parents to seek additional mating opportunities. However, in situations where parental care does not involve direct provisioning of the offspring, but rather activities directed at the brood as a whole (e.g. guarding), it may be more efficient for parents to care for large numbers of young at once. This may be especially true for species with exclusive paternal care, with fathers that have recently acquired a brood of young potentially benefitting from vigorously courting prospective mates, so as to maximise their chances of attaining a large number of young to rear together. We experimentally tested this hypothesis in the three‐spined stickleback (Gasterosteus aculeatus), a fish with male only care. Contrary to our predictions, we found no evidence of any differences in courtship between recently spawned egg‐tending fathers and males that had not spawned. However, males that were permitted to spawn, but then had their eggs taken from them, courted less vigorously. Together, the results of our study suggest that the potential benefits of vigorous courtship in terms of acquiring additional young may be offset by additional costs faced by parental males.     

延续护理对产褥期妇女健康状况的影响

目的:探讨产科责任护士实施延续护理对产褥期妇女健康状况的影响。方法:将2014年3月~6月在我院产科住院分娩无并发症的初产妇115例分为实验组和对照组,实验组60人,对照组55人。实验组产妇出院后,由责任护士实施延续护理干预,在出院第3天、第7天、第14天以及第30天进行定期的电话随访、短信温馨提醒和来电咨询等措施,对照组不指定专门服务的护士,仅由专科护士在出院第3天电话随访及接受来电咨询。对两组产褥期妇女的健康状况进行统计分析。结果:实验组产妇无乳或少乳、子宫复旧不良、急性乳腺炎、痔疮、产后便秘的发病率均较对照组显著降低,出院后3天、7天、14天和30天抑郁的发生率均显著低于对照组,产褥期保健知识和新生儿护理技能掌握的优秀率、对护理工作的满意率、盆底肌功能恢复的优秀率均显著高于对照组,差异均具有统计学意义(均P0.05)。结论:专科护士实施延续护理可以有效降低产褥期妇女患病率,提高产妇的科学育儿技能,促进母婴健康,值得推广。     

Water mold infection but not paternity induces selective filial cannibalism in a goby

Many animals heavily invest in parental care but still reject at least some of their offspring. Although seemingly paradoxical, selection can favor parents to neglect offspring of particularly low reproductive value, for example, because of small survival chances. We here assess whether filial cannibalism (FC), where parents routinely eat some of their own young, is selective in response to individual offspring reproductive value. We performed two independent laboratory experiments in the common goby (Pomatoschistus microps) to test whether caring fathers preferentially cannibalize eggs of a given infection history and paternity. While males did not discriminate kin from nonkin eggs, they consumed significantly more eggs previously exposed to water mold compared to uninfected eggs. Our findings clearly show that parents differentiate between eggs based on differences in egg condition, and thus complement the prevailing view that FC arises for energetic reasons. By preventing the spread of microbial infections, the removal of molded eggs can constitute an important component of parental care and may represent a key driver of selective FC in a wide array of parental fish.     

Process development of a New Haemophilus influenzae type b conjugate vaccine and the use of mathematical modeling to identify process optimization possibilities

Vaccination is one of the most successful public health interventions being a cost‐effective tool in preventing deaths among young children. The earliest vaccines were developed following empirical methods, creating vaccines by trial and error. New process development tools, for example mathematical modeling, as well as new regulatory initiatives requiring better understanding of both the product and the process are being applied to well‐characterized biopharmaceuticals (for example recombinant proteins). The vaccine industry is still running behind in comparison to these industries. A production process for a new Haemophilus influenzae type b (Hib) conjugate vaccine, including related quality control (QC) tests, was developed and transferred to a number of emerging vaccine manufacturers. This contributed to a sustainable global supply of affordable Hib conjugate vaccines, as illustrated by the market launch of the first Hib vaccine based on this technology in 2007 and concomitant price reduction of Hib vaccines. This paper describes the development approach followed for this Hib conjugate vaccine as well as the mathematical modeling tool applied recently in order to indicate options for further improvements of the initial Hib process. The strategy followed during the process development of this Hib conjugate vaccine was a targeted and integrated approach based on prior knowledge and experience with similar products using multi‐disciplinary expertise. Mathematical modeling was used to develop a predictive model for the initial Hib process (the ‘baseline’ model) as well as an ‘optimized’ model, by proposing a number of process changes which could lead to further reduction in price. © 2016 American Institute of Chemical Engineers Biotechnol. Prog., 32:568–580, 2016     

A limit on the extent to which increased egg size can compensate for a poor postnatal environment revealed experimentally in the burying beetle,Nicrophorus vespilloides

It is often assumed that there is a positive relationship between egg size and offspring fitness. However, recent studies have suggested that egg size has a greater effect on offspring fitness in low‐quality environments than in high‐quality environments. Such observations suggest that mothers may compensate for poor posthatching environments by increasing egg size. In this paper we test whether there is a limit on the extent to which increased egg size can compensate for the removal of posthatching parental care in the burying beetle, Nicrophorus vespilloides. Previous experiments with N. vespilloides suggest that an increased egg size can compensate for a relatively poor environment after hatching. Here, we phenotypically engineered female N. vespilloides to produce large or small eggs by varying the amount of time they were allowed to feed on the carcass as larvae. We then tested whether differences between these groups in egg size translated into differences in larval performance in a harsh postnatal environment that excluded parental care. We found that females engineered to produce large eggs did not have higher breeding success, and nor did they produce larger larvae than females engineered to produce small eggs. These results suggest that there is a limit on the extent to which increased maternal investment in egg size can compensate for a poor posthatching environment. We discuss the implication of our results for a recent study showing that experimental N. vespilloides populations can adapt rapidly to the absence of posthatching parental care.