Characterization of human-dog social interaction using owner report

Dog owners were surveyed for observations of social behaviors in their dogs, using questions adapted from the human Autism Diagnostic Observation Schedule (ADOS) pre-verbal module. Using 939 responses for purebred and mixed-breed dogs, three factors were identified: initiation of reciprocal social behaviors (INIT), response to social interactions (RSPNS), and communication (COMM). There were small or no effects of sex, age, breed group or training. For six breeds with more than 35 responses (Border Collie, Rough Collie, German Shepherd, Golden Retriever, Labrador Retriever, Standard Poodle), the behaviors eye contact with humans, enjoyment in interactions with human interaction, and name recognition demonstrated little variability across breeds, while asking for objects, giving/showing objects to humans, and attempts to direct humans’ attention showed higher variability across these breeds. Breeds with genetically similar backgrounds had similar response distributions for owner reports of dog response to pointing. When considering these breeds according to the broad categories of “herders” and “retrievers,” owners reported that the “herders” used more eye contact and vocalization, while the “retrievers” used more body contact. Information regarding social cognitive abilities in dogs provided by owner report suggest that there is variability across many social cognitive abilities in dogs and offers direction for further experimental investigations.     

The ecology and evolution of induced responses to herbivory and how plants perceive risk

1. Plants perceive herbivore damage or increased risk and respond. These changes may increase plant fitness, although effects on fitness have often been assumed without supporting evidence. 2. Three models have been proposed to explain induced rather than constitutive defence. The optimal defence model posits that induction allow plants to reduce allocation costs; it predicts demonstrably lower costs when defences are not needed. The moving target model posits that induction increases spatial and temporal variability; it predicts that variability will be difficult for herbivores and will provide defence. The information transfer model posits that induced responses provide cues to other tissues on that individual plant and to other organisms in the community; it predicts that induced cues will provide systemic resistance, deter herbivores, and/or attract enemies of herbivores, thereby benefiting the induced plant. 3. All three models predict that cues must be reliable to be useful. In some cases, cues provide specific information about the damaged plant tissue and the herbivore and this specific information may allow plants to fine-tune responses. Recent theory posits that selection should favour plants that minimise recognition errors and reduce fitness costs associated with errors. 4. Future research should focus on exploring different modalities used by plants to perceive herbivore risk, the benefits and costs of perceiving cues and inducing resistance, and the basic natural history of these phenomena. Induced responses have great unrealised potential in agriculture, and research should focus on host plant resistance rather than attempting to involve other trophic levels.     

Cancer screening barriers and facilitators for under and never screened populations: A mixed methods study

BackgroundCancer screening is below targets in Ontario, Canada. Our objective was to identify and quantify the barriers and facilitators for breast, cervical and colorectal cancer screening for under and never screened (UNS) residents living in Ontario between 2011 and 2013.MethodsWe used a multi-phased mixed methods study design. Results from thematic analysis of focus group discussions with health care providers and UNS community members were used to develop an on-line, province-wide, cross-sectional survey to estimate the prevalence of barriers and facilitators for the provincial population. Adjusted prevalence odds ratios and 95% confidence intervals were estimated for UNS compared to regularly screened participants using logistic regression.ResultsFour focus groups were held with health service providers and sixteen with UNS community members. Top barriers and facilitators themed around provider-patient communication, fear and embarrassment, history of physical or sexual abuse, social determinants of health (including low literacy, lack of awareness, and health insurance), symptoms appearing, and family and friends. 3075 participants completed the online survey. Compared to regularly screened participants, UNS had significantly higher odds of reporting: no regular health care provider; not feeling comfortable talking about screening; or the Doctor or Nurse Practitioner not suggesting screening. UNS also had significantly higher odds of reporting the facilitators: the test being less scary/painful or uncomfortable; friend/family insisting on getting screened; starting to have symptoms; or an easier test that could be done at home.ConclusionsInterventions addressing fear through individual, interpersonal and structural facilitators may increase cancer screening.     

Temperature coupling in cricket acoustic communication

Acoustic communication in Gryllus firmus is temperature-coupled: temperature induces parallel changes in male calling song temporal pattern, and in female preference for song. Temperature effects on song production and recognition networks were localized by selectively warming head or thorax or both head and thorax of intact crickets, then eliciting aggression song production (males) or phonotaxis to synthetic calling song (females). Because male song is produced by a thoracic central pattern generator (CPG), and because head ganglia are necessary for female song recognition, measurements of female phonotaxis under such conditions may be used to test the following competing hypotheses about organization of the song recognition network: 1. A set of neurons homologous to the male song CPG exist in the female, and are used as a template that determines preferred values of song temporal parameters for song pattern recognition (the common neural elements hypothesis), and 2. temporal pattern preference is determined entirely within the head ganglia. Neither selective warming of the head nor of the thorax was effective in changing female song preference, but simultaneous warming of head and thorax shifted preference toward a faster song in most preparations, as did warming the whole animal by raising ambient temperature. These results suggest that phonotactic preference for song temporal pattern is plurisegmentally determined in field crickets. Selective warming experiments during aggression song production in males revealed that syllable period is influenced but not completely determined by thoracic temperature; head temperature is irrelevant. The song CPG appears to receive some rate-setting information from outside the thoracic central nervous system.     

Effect of water renewal on dominance hierarchy of juvenile Nile tilapia

Nile tilapia social position (Oreochromis niloticus) can be mediated by multiple channels, including chemical communication. Absence of chemical cues in the environment prevents hierarchical settlement among pairs, and enhances time spent in confrontations. The aim of this study was to test the effect of continuously renewed water flow on the establishment of hierarchical dominance in Nile tilapia juveniles. In this condition, a high frequency of attacks and disruption on hierarchical stability were expected because chemical cues for hierarchy maintenance could be washed out. After 3 days in isolation, the fish were paired by standard size but not by sex, and submitted to two conditions: continuously renewed water flow (RENEWED, n = 7) and non-renewed water flow (NONRENEWED, n = 8). The paired fish were placed in an aquarium (40 cm × 30 cm × 40 cm) for 3 h; four 10-min sessions were video-recorded: the first, immediately after the fish were paired and the others 1, 2, and 3 h after pairing. Hierarchy was identified by a dominance index (DI = given attacks/received + given attacks) for each fish. The hierarchical stability was achieved by analyzing the difference between dominant DI and subordinate DI (DI-D). Hierarchy was established in both groups after second session because the DI was significantly higher for one fish of the pair. The frequency of attacks of the dominant fish in RENEWED and NONRENEWED conditions was similar in all observation sessions. The attack frequency by subordinate fish was also similar during the first three sessions (2-h pairing). However, the frequency of attacks by subordinate fish in the RENEWED condition was higher than in the NONRENEWED situation at the fourth observation session (means ± S.E.: RENEWED = 2.83 ± 0.94 × 10 min⁻¹ and NONRENEWED = 0.25 ± 0.16 × 10 min⁻¹; Mann–Whitney, p = 0.04). At this point, a significant reduction of the DI-D was observed (means ± S.E.: RENEWED = 0.70 ± 0.11 and NONRENEWED = 1,00 ± 0.002; Mann–Whitney, p = 0.04). The changes in DI-D were related to more frequent attacks by the subordinated fish in renewed water flow. According to our results, the unsteady agonistic interaction under renewed water flow leads to social instability. Thus, continuous water renewing can wash out relevant chemical substances and therefore disturb the dominance recognition by subordinate fish.     

转基因传播障碍中的文化因素辨析

近年来,转基因技术与产品在中国的传播遭遇了一定障碍.科学界和相关政府部门往往从科学知识的普及角度克服这些障碍.但实际上,转基因传播障碍的背后有着更为隐蔽的反智的社会态度及对传统农业的迷恋心理,三个因素都与中国传统直观外推思维方式有关.转基因传播所面临的实际是构造自然观与有机自然观之间的冲突.对有机自然观的误读与当前弥漫的反智主义关系密切,转基因带有“高科技”的突出特征,恰恰容易成为反智主义攻击的对象.在有机自然观和“反智”传统的影响下,社会上对传统农业的迷恋有着相当的市场.在此情况下,转基因技术要克服传播障碍,必须重构环境,除了以经济动力继续推动传播工作外,也要让技术发展与人们普遍接受的自然观相结合.     

Role of loud calls in brown howlers,Alouatta fusca

The loud calls of brown howler monkeys were studied during a year at the Santa Genebra Reserve, in southeastern Brazil. The study group emitted roars and barks on a total of 47 occasions, the majority of which (92%) were restricted to intergroup visual encounters. Loud calls were also elicited by the roars of distant groups (6%) and during intragroup agonistic interactions (2%). Intergroup visual encounters (n = 42) occurred predominantly in seldom used quadrats of the study group home range. In these instances, the loud calls were produced chiefly by the adult male alone (69% of cases), while the study group's two adult females joined the male in the remaining cases. Intergroup physical aggression, such as chase and displacement, was observed during 15 encounters (35% of cases). A dawn chorus does not occur in Santa Genebra—the loud calls were heard most frequently in mid-morning and again during mid-afternoon—and they were more abundant during the dry season, when the availability of food (new leaves) in the forest was lower. The data presented here provide some support for the hypothesis that roars of howler adult males are used in assessment of opponents, providing an alternative to energetically expensive chases and fights. However, given the relatively high rate of physical aggression observed during intergroup encounters, a result probably related to the high density of howlers and the consequent high frequency of intergroup encounters observed in this forest (0.7/day), ritualized aggression, in the form of loud calling, is apparently often insufficient to settle disputes. © 1995 Wiley-Liss, Inc.     

Other Species’ Alarm Calls Evoke a Predator-Specific Search Image in Birds

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