Cyclical Patterns of Hand,Foot and Mouth Disease Caused by Enterovirus A71 in Malaysia

Enterovirus A71 (EV-A71) is an important emerging pathogen causing large epidemics of hand, foot and mouth disease (HFMD) in children. In Malaysia, since the first EV-A71 epidemic in 1997, recurrent cyclical epidemics have occurred every 2–3 years for reasons that remain unclear. We hypothesize that this cyclical pattern is due to changes in population immunity in children (measured as seroprevalence). Neutralizing antibody titers against EV-A71 were measured in 2,141 residual serum samples collected from children ≤12 years old between 1995 and 2012 to determine the seroprevalence of EV-A71. Reported national HFMD incidence was highest in children <2 years, and decreased with age; in support of this, EV-A71 seroprevalence was significantly associated with age, indicating greater susceptibility in younger children. EV-A71 epidemics are also characterized by peaks of increased genetic diversity, often with genotype changes. Cross-sectional time series analysis was used to model the association between EV-A71 epidemic periods and EV-A71 seroprevalence adjusting for age and climatic variables (temperature, rainfall, rain days and ultraviolet radiance). A 10% increase in absolute monthly EV-A71 seroprevalence was associated with a 45% higher odds of an epidemic (adjusted odds ratio, aOR1.45; 95% CI 1.24–1.69; P<0.001). Every 10% decrease in seroprevalence between preceding and current months was associated with a 16% higher odds of an epidemic (aOR = 1.16; CI 1.01–1.34 P<0.034). In summary, the 2–3 year cyclical pattern of EV-A71 epidemics in Malaysia is mainly due to the fall of population immunity accompanying the accumulation of susceptible children between epidemics. This study will impact the future planning, timing and target populations for vaccine programs.     

Rituals,Repetitiveness and Cognitive Load

A central hypothesis to account for the ubiquity of rituals across cultures is their supposed anxiolytic effects: rituals being maintained because they reduce existential anxiety and uncertainty. We aimed to test the anxiolytic effects of rituals by investigating two possible underlying mechanisms for it: cognitive load and repetitive movement. In our pre-registered experiment (osf.io/rsu9x), 180 undergraduates took part in either a stress or a control condition and were subsequently assigned to either control, cognitive load, undirected movement, a combination of undirected movement and cognitive load, or a ritualistic intervention. Using both repeated self-report measures and continuous physiological indicators of anxiety, we failed to find direct support for a cognitive suppression effect of anxiety through ritualistic behavior. Nevertheless, we found that induced stress increased participants’ subsequent repetitive behavior, which in turn reduced physiological arousal. This study provides novel evidence for plausible underlying effects of the proposed anxiolytic effect of rituals: repetitive behavior but not cognitive load may decrease physiological stress responses during ritual.     

Comparing Behavioural Patterns of Thrips tabaci Lindeman on Leek and Cucumber

This study documents the behavioural repertoire of Thrips tabaci. Seventeen behavioural elements shown by adult females were videotaped, described and classified into seven behavioural categories. The comparison of thrips behaviour on leek and cucumber over 24 h (L:D = 16:8) revealed that on cucumber thrips spent significantly less time being inactive, but significantly more time with feeding resulting in significantly higher feeding damage compared to leek. Oviposition behaviour incidence and oviposition rate were somewhat, but not significantly lower on cucumber compared to leek. Sequences of leaf surface exploration lasted significantly longer on cucumber than on leek. Thrips females were as active during light as during dark periods. Our results show that T. tabaci females spend different amounts of time with resting, feeding and explorative behaviours on leek and cucumber, thus indicating differences in host use on these two crops.     

Cultural Rules, Rituals, and Behavior Regulation

While it is generally agreed that culture and biology are both relevant to an understanding of human behavior, there is little consensus about the appropriate use of reductionist procedures. Disagreement abounds concerning the nature of the interaction and the relative contribution of distal and proximal mechanisms. An understanding of such issues may emerge only with long study of the interaction of variables at different conceptual levels of organization that intervene between the genes and culture. It is toward this larger end that the limited efforts of this paper are directed. Two cultural phenomena are considered: Murdoch's social laws of sexual choice, and aspects of human ritual behavior. Although these constitute a unique organization of cultural items, I attempt to show how they are influenced by underlying biopsychological processes. I specifically reject, however, the view that cultural phenomena are isomorphic with, or can be completely reduced to, such processes. Emergent novelty and multiple possibilities are always present at more inclusive levels of organization. I argue that the relationship between the different sets of system variables is based on homologous functions and not merely on analogies.
SEYMOUR PARKER is Professor, Department of Anthropology, University of Utah, Salt Lake City. UT 84112     

Biological Invasions in Austria: Patterns and Case Studies

This paper provides a review of the first national inventory of non-indigenous species in Austria. In summary, 1110 vascular plant species (27 of the entire flora), 83 mycetes and at least 500 animal species (approximately 1 of the entire fauna) were documented for Austria, which are introduced intentionally or unintentionally by humans after 1492 and reported from the wild. About 25 of non-indigenous vascular plant species have become naturalized. Most non-indigenous vascular plants are native to the Palaearctic region (55%; with 33% originating from the Mediterranean subregion) and North America (20%). More than 90% of non-indigenous plant species are confined to naturally and anthropogenically disturbed (ruderal, urban, arable land, and riverine) habitats. Aquatic ecosystems are more affected and vulnerable to changes in their animal species composition. The current data demonstrate that non-indigenous species continue to invade and disperse and it also emphasize the necessity and responsibility to develop scientific strategies to minimize the impact of biological invasions and to raise public awareness of the problem.     

Rituals of Gender: A Study of Etiquette, Public Symbols, and Cognition

The purposes of this article are embodied in three questions central to the development of symbolic anthropology. How does one identify the alleged symbolic message in public rituals, and does this meaning have some sort of empirically demonstrable analogue in the minds of the actors, or consequences for their behavior? Second, can these questions be answered by a method of interpreting symbols that is empirical and that utilizes clearly specified and replicable procedures? Finally, is it legitimate to attribute symbolic meanings to behavior if the participants themselves are not aware of such meanings? If nonconscious meaning exists, does it have any effect on attitudes and motivation for behavior? Analysis of data, derived from responses to Osgood's Semantic Differential relating to concepts of gender and manners between the sexes, provides affirmative answers to the questions raised above.     

一个多食性天敌与害虫系统的有界性和稳定性

本文讨论一个多食性天敌与害虫系统的有界性和稳定性,给出了该系统有界性和稳定性的充分条件,与之同时还阐述了它们的生态意义．     

Behavioural Biology: The Past and a Future

Behavioural biologists have typically combined interests in the control, function, development and evolution of behaviour. They have used observational and experimental methods, and their findings have been both attractive and scientifically invigorating. A future to be hoped for is that they will continue to combine an understanding of behaviour with studies carried out at other levels but that they will not become too locked into a purely analytical framework. Methodologies are needed that enable scientists to deal with all the principal factors that influence behaviour. In so doing, behavioural biologists should be able to retain a grasp of what is to be an intact, freely moving animal. I believe that the late Günther Tembrock, to whom this paper is dedicated, would have approved of such a systems approach to behaviour.     

Rituals of Gender Identity: Markers of Siberian Khanty Ethnicity, Status, and Belief

Siberian Khanty (Ostiak) menstrual taboos and related rituals of birth, naming, and marriage are analyzed, in order to explore cross-cultural theories of menstrual restriction, gender stratification, and female conservatism. Emphasis is placed on Mary Douglas's idea that conflicting norms of male dominance and female independence can encourage pollution beliefs. The importance of ancestresses, female shamans, and postmenopausal women in Khanty ritual indicates that there is no male monopoly on concepts of culture, power, the sacred and the "public." Khanty ideas about women, changing with Russian influence, are discussed in terms of slowly shifting definitions of "self and ethnicity. Data result from 13 months in the Soviet Union, including a summer ethnographic expedition to the Northern Ob River . [symbolic anthropology, pollution beliefs, gender stratification, ethnicity, Siberian Khanty (Ostiak)]     

Carving The Palm: The Role of Metaphor in Mayawo Marriage Rituals

…With metaphor we experience the metamorphosis of both language and reality. Paul Ricoeur. ‘Creativity in Language’. The Philosophy of Paul Ricoeur. pp. 132–133 (1973).     

Scavengers on the Move: Behavioural Changes in Foraging Search Patterns during the Annual Cycle

Background

Optimal foraging theory predicts that animals will tend to maximize foraging success by optimizing search strategies. However, how organisms detect sparsely distributed food resources remains an open question. When targets are sparse and unpredictably distributed, a Lévy strategy should maximize foraging success. By contrast, when resources are abundant and regularly distributed, simple Brownian random movement should be sufficient. Although very different groups of organisms exhibit Lévy motion, the shift from a Lévy to a Brownian search strategy has been suggested to depend on internal and external factors such as sex, prey density, or environmental context. However, animal response at the individual level has received little attention.

Methodology/Principal Findings

We used GPS satellite-telemetry data of Egyptian vultures Neophron percnopterus to examine movement patterns at the individual level during consecutive years, with particular interest in the variations in foraging search patterns during the different periods of the annual cycle (i.e. breeding vs. non-breeding). Our results show that vultures followed a Brownian search strategy in their wintering sojourn in Africa, whereas they exhibited a more complex foraging search pattern at breeding grounds in Europe, including Lévy motion. Interestingly, our results showed that individuals shifted between search strategies within the same period of the annual cycle in successive years.

Conclusions/Significance

Results could be primarily explained by the different environmental conditions in which foraging activities occur. However, the high degree of behavioural flexibility exhibited during the breeding period in contrast to the non-breeding period is challenging, suggesting that not only environmental conditions explain individuals'' behaviour but also individuals'' cognitive abilities (e.g., memory effects) could play an important role. Our results support the growing awareness about the role of behavioural flexibility at the individual level, adding new empirical evidence about how animals in general, and particularly scavengers, solve the problem of efficiently finding food resources.     

Behavioural divergence,interfertility and speciation: A review

Behavioural compatibility between mates is fundamental for maintaining species boundaries and is achieved through appropriate communication between males and females. A breakdown in communication will lead to behavioural divergence and reduced interfertility. In this review, we summarise the current knowledge on male signals and female perception of these signals, integrating the literature from several taxa. We advocate that signaller–perceiver coevolution, which is usually under strong stabilising selection to enable mating, forms the basis of species-specific mate recognition systems. The mechanisms (phylogeny, geography, ecology, biology) shaping signaller–perceiver systems are briefly discussed to demonstrate the factors underpinning the evolution of signaller–perceiver couplings. Since divergence and diversification of communication systems is driven by changes in the mechanical properties of sensory pathways and morphology of sensory organs, we highlight signal modalities (auditory, olfactory, visual, tactile) and their importance in communication, particularly in mate selection. Next, using available examples and generating a stylised model, we suggest how disruption (biological, ecological, stochastic) of signaller–perceiver systems drives behavioural divergence and consequently results in reduced interfertility and speciation. Future studies should adopt an integrative approach, combining multiple parameters (phylogeny, adaptive utility of communication systems, genetics and biomechanical/biochemical properties of signals and perception) to explore how disruption of signaller–perceiver systems results in behavioural divergence and reduced interfertility. Finally, we question the impact that rapid environmental change will have on disruption of communication systems, potentially interfering with signaller–perceiver couplings.     

The biology of rarity: Patterns, causes and consequences

There is a growing body of evidence suggesting that locally rare and geographically restricted species may have characteristics that differ from those of taxa that are more common. Several studies show that rare taxa have lower levels of self-incompatibility, a tendency toward asexual reproductive pathways, lower overall reproductive effort and poorer dispersal abilities. There are several mechanisms that could be responsible for such differences, but they may in practice be difficult to differentiate. Nonetheless, the documentation of recurrent rare-common differences is of vital importance because it may allow us to compensate partially for the bias of the published literature toward studies of common taxa.     

Primate Rituals: The Function of Greetings between Male Guinea Baboons

The bond‐testing hypothesis suggests that social animals can obtain honest information about the quality of their dyadic relationships by exchanging costly, high‐risk signals (Zahavi & Zahavi 1997). We evaluated this hypothesis by investigating whether adult male baboons use intense greeting interactions to test the quality and strength of their social bonds. Intense greetings involve intimate and risky behaviors such as embracing and the diddling of the penis and/or scrotum. Data were collected on a colony of 40 Guinea baboons (Papio papio) at the Brookfield Zoo in Chicago. Fifteen adult male baboons were focally observed for 30‐min sessions over a 6‐mo period, resulting in 195 h of observation. We assessed the quality of male–male relationships using measures of affiliation, aggression, and social tolerance. As predicted by the bond‐testing hypothesis, dyads with strong social bonds exchanged a higher frequency of intense greetings than did pairs with poor relationships. We found no support for the competing hypotheses, that suggest that greetings have an aggressive or submissive function or are used as a form of post‐conflict reconciliatory behavior. Neither dominance relationships nor contextual variables were predictive of intense greeting patterns. We suggest that by imposing on his partner, a male baboon is able to obtain reliable information about this individual's current willingness to cooperate and invest in the relationship.