'Friendship' for fitness in chimpanzees?

It has been repeatedly suggested that primates trade social services for fitness benefits in their relationships with the opposite sex. We tested this proposal in a colony of captive chimpanzees, Pan troglodytes, by examining behavioural data on grooming, agonistic support and food sharing in relation to genetically established paternity. We found no support for the notion of trade. First, males did not sire more offspring with females that they actively groomed more frequently, that they supported more often or with which they shared food more frequently. Correspondingly, females did not give birth to more offspring sired by males from which they received more services. Second, males that showed more affiliative behaviour towards females in general did not sire more progeny. Furthermore, females did not bear more offspring sired by males to which they themselves directed more sociopositive behaviour. Results from this captive colony are compatible with those reported for chimpanzees under natural conditions. Copyright 1999 The Association for the Study of Animal Behaviour.     

Hunter Movement and its Role in National Game Bird Surveys

Analysis of sample survey data on the species composition of waterfowl kill for resident and nonresident hunters for provinces of Canada during 1974 and 1975 showed that a successful game bird hunter who hunted in more than one area (degree block) had both a higher average season kill and more successful days of hunting in which one or more birds were bagged, than one who hunted in the same area during the season. Adjustment for days hunted resulted in a higher daily hunting for those who hunted in more than one degree block. However, the higher kill of the successful hunter is attributable more to a larger number of days hunted than to a larger kill per successful day. Also, hunters hunting in more than one degree block had their successful hunting days more evenly spread across the season. The estimates of kill per successful hunter and days hunted for stratified sampling by areas of hunting were considerably more efficient than simple random sampling.     

Restriction analysis of the plasmid and chromosomal DNA of the strain Streptomyces fradiae--a producer of neomycin

Plasmid DNA with a molecular weight of 53-55 Md was isolated from Streptomyces fradiae strain 676 producing neomycin on centrifugation of the DNA preparation at the density gradient of cesium chloride-ethidium bromide. The extrachromosomal DNA had 6 recognition sites for Bgl II, more than 13 recognition sites for Bam HI, more than 14 recognition sites for Kpn I, more than 18 recognition sites for Pst I, more than 20 recognition sites for Sac I, more than 21 recognition sites for Pvu II and no recognition sites for Eco RI, Eco RV, Hind III and Sla I.     

Species–energy relationships and habitat complexity in bird communities

Species–energy theory is a commonly invoked theory predicting a positive relationship between species richness and available energy. The More Individuals Hypothesis (MIH) attempts to explain this pattern, and assumes that areas with greater food resources support more individuals, and that communities with more individuals include more species. Using a large dataset for North American birds, I tested these predictions of the MIH, and also examined the effect of habitat complexity on community structure. I found qualitative support for the relationships predicted by the MIH, however, the MIH alone was inadequate for fully explaining richness patterns. Communities in more productive sites had more individuals, but they also had more even relative abundance distributions such that a given number of individuals yielded a greater number of species. Richness and evenness were also higher in structurally complex forests compared to structurally more simple grasslands when controlling for available energy.     

Estimation of Heritability in Heteroscedastic One‐Way Unbalanced Random Model

A modified estimator of heritability is proposed under heteroscedastic one way unbalanced random model. The distribution, moments and probability of permissible values (PPV) for conventional and modified estimators are derived. The behaviour of two estimators has been investigated, numerically, to devise a suitable estimator of heritability under variance heterogeneity. The numerical results reveal that under balanced case the heteroscedasticity affects the bias, MSE and PPV of conventional estimator, marginally. In case of unbalanced situations, the conventional estimator underestimates the parameter when more variable group has more observations and overestimates when more variable group has less observations, MSE of the conventional estimator decreases when more variable group has more observations and increases when more variable group has less observations and PPV is marginally decreased. The MSE and PPV are comparable for two estimators while the bias of modified estimator is less than the conventional estimator particularly for small and medium values of the parameter. These results suggest the use of modified estimator with equal or more observations for more variable group in presence of variance heterogeneity.     

Lead discovery using molecular docking

As the structures of more and more proteins and nucleic acids become available, molecular docking is increasingly considered for lead discovery. Recent studies consider the hit-rate enhancement of docking screens and the accuracy of docking structure predictions. As more structures are determined experimentally, docking against homology-modeled targets also becomes possible for more proteins. With more docking studies being undertaken, the 'drug-likeness' and specificity of docking hits is also being examined.     

Primary care for nontraumatic illness at the emergency department and the family physician's office.

A total of 1117 visits by patients to two hospital emergency departments and 15 family physicians'' offices for nontraumatic complaints over two 2-week periods were studied. Patients visiting the two settings fell into two distinct subgroups, and they appeared to select where to seek care by the acuteness and duration of the complaint. Several highly significant differences were noted between the two groups: those who visited an emergency department had complaints of shorter duration, underwent more investigations (which more often gave abnormal results), were more likely to undergo investigation for mental symptoms, had more consultations, received counselling and drug therapy less often (but intramuscular injections more often), were admitted to hospital more often, returned for further care for the same complaint less often, complied with disposal instructions less often, were more likely to receive fewer than 5 days'' care and were less likely to receive more than 31 days'' care; those without a family physician more often received additional care (were referred, admitted or asked to return).     

Comparison of members of pro‐ and anti‐abortion organizations in Missouri

Abstract

Comparisons were made between members of Missouri Citizens for Life (MCL) and of the Abortion Rights Alliance (ARA) of Missouri. ARA members were more educated, urbanized, and had fewer children. MCL members were predominantly Catholic, and compared to ARA members, highly religious. ARA members were more inclined to favor equality of the sexes, especially in their approval of the ERA. ARA members were politically more liberal and more committed to free speech for social deviants. MCL members were much more committed to a conservative approach to matters of personal morality. MCL members regarded suicide and euthanasia as more objectionable than did their ARA counterparts, but they were also more militaristic.     

The limits of protein sequence comparison?

Modern sequence alignment algorithms are used routinely to identify homologous proteins, proteins that share a common ancestor. Homologous proteins always share similar structures and often have similar functions. Over the past 20 years, sequence comparison has become both more sensitive, largely because of profile-based methods, and more reliable, because of more accurate statistical estimates. As sequence and structure databases become larger, and comparison methods become more powerful, reliable statistical estimates will become even more important for distinguishing similarities that are due to homology from those that are due to analogy (convergence). The newest sequence alignment methods are more sensitive than older methods, but more accurate statistical estimates are needed for their full power to be realized.     

Preference for children and subsequent fertility in Matlab: does wife-husband agreement matter?

This study examines wife-husband preference for children and subsequent fertility for a period of 5 years in the treatment and comparison areas of Matlab, Bangladesh. The two data sets used were: the In-depth Survey (1984) and the Demographic Surveillance System (1984-89). In the case of wives' preferences for children, subsequent childbearing was 13.8% higher than desired in the treatment area and 44.7% higher than desired in the comparison area. After controlling for all variables in the model, the likelihood of giving birth was 1.78 times higher for wives who wanted no more children, but whose husbands did want more, compared with couples where neither husband nor wife wanted more children. For couples where the wife wanted more, but the husband did not want more children, the likelihood of giving birth was 0.63 times that of couples where both the husband and wife wanted more children. This finding suggests that to enhance the decline in fertility in these two areas of Matlab, it will be necessary to motivate both wives and husbands to cease childbearing.     

Developing sustainable food supply chains

This paper reviews the opportunities available for food businesses to encourage consumers to eat healthier and more nutritious diets, to invest in more sustainable manufacturing and distribution systems and to develop procurement systems based on more sustainable forms of agriculture. The important factors in developing more sustainable supply chains are identified as the type of supply chain involved and the individual business attitude to extending responsibility for product quality into social and environmental performance within their own supply chains. Interpersonal trust and working to standards are both important to build more sustainable local and many conserved food supply chains, but inadequate to transform mainstream agriculture and raw material supplies to the manufactured and commodity food markets. Cooperation among food manufacturers, retailers, NGOs, governmental and farmers' organizations is vital in order to raise standards for some supply chains and to enable farmers to adopt more sustainable agricultural practices.     

In the eyes of the beholders: Female choice and avian predation risk associated with an exaggerated male butterfly color

Color ornaments are often viewed as products of countervailing sexual and natural selection, because more colorful, more attractive individuals may also be more conspicuous to predators. However, while evidence for such countervailing selection exists for vertebrate color ornaments (e.g., Trinidadian guppies), similar studies have yet to be reported in invertebrates. Indeed, evidence for female mate choice based on extant variation in male coloration is limited in invertebrates, and researchers have not explicitly asked whether more attractive males are also more conspicuous to predators. Here we provide evidence that more chromatic male cabbage white butterflies (Pieris rapae) are more attractive to females but should also be more conspicuous to predators. Female P. rapae preferentially mate with more chromatic males when choosing from populations of males with naturally occurring or commensurate, experimentally induced color variation. Mathematical models of female color vision confirm that females should be able to discriminate color differences between prospective mates. Further, chromatic and luminance contrast scores from female visual system models better predicted male mating success than did measures of male color derived more directly from color spectra. Last, models of avian color vision suggest that preferred males should be more conspicuous to known avian predators.     

The social grooming of captive female rhesus monkeys: Effects of the births of their infants

We observed the grooming interactions of 13 female rhesus monkeys (Macaca mulatta)before and for 12 weeks after the births of their infants. Mothers groomed for similar amounts of time before and after the birth of their infants, but after the birth, the grooming they directed to their infants may have been at the expense of that directed to other partners. Lactating females did not receive more grooming from other females but were approached more often, suggesting that they were more attractive. Mothers that groomed their infants most groomed others least, as if grooming time was limited for each mother or as if she was trying to compensate for avoiding interactions with other partners. Mothers of male infants groomed others more than mothers with female infants did, which might be due to mothers with daughters receiving more aggression and therefore avoiding interaction. Experienced and high-ranking mothers groomed their newborn infants considerably more than primiparous mothers did in the 24 hr following birth. Grooming was preferentially directed at close kin before the births of the infants. Mothers tended to groom higher-ranked partners more than they were groomed by them, and they tended to receive more grooming from lower-ranked partners than they gave, as suggested in models of rank attractiveness.     

CHROMOSOME NUMBERS IN COMPOSITAE VII: ASTEREAE III

Reports of 129 new chromosome counts are made for the tribe Astereae of Compositae. They are mostly based on determinations of meiotic material, including first counts for one genus and 43 species or subspecies. Counts are now available for more than 63 of the 100-120 genera and 564 of the approximately 2,000 species in the tribe. Three of every four genera with more than one species counted show more than one chromosome number; 15 genera have species with populations with different numbers. Such variation is very high and indicates the need for more detailed cytotaxonomical study in the group.     

Male mating success in the Azorean rock-pool blenny: the effects of body size, male behaviour and nest characteristics

Larger male Azorean rock-pool blennies Parablennius sanguinolentus parvicornis received more female visits, were courted more often by females and received more spawnings. Larger males also received a higher number of male intrusions, attacked more conspecifics and defended larger territories. Larger males showed more nest cleaning behaviour and a marginally non-significant trend for higher egg fanning rate. Male courtship, male attack rate against conspecifics and parental behaviour were all correlated with the frequency of female spawnings received by each male even when controlling for male size, suggesting that these behaviour patterns influence male mating success. On the other hand, a positive partial correlation was found between female courtship and the frequency of female spawnings, controlling for the number of female visits, which suggests a role for female mate choice on male mating success. Finally, males nesting in chambers in the bottom of pools received more spawnings than males nesting either in crevices or under boulders. However, nest opening area was associated significantly negatively with male mating success, when controlling for male size. Thus, the present data suggest strongly that male characteristics overrule nest characteristics in determining male mating success in the Azorean rock-pool blenny.     

Treatment of phenylketonuria with a formula consisting of low-phenylalanine peptide. A collaborative study

A method of preparation of a more palatable therapeutic formula for phenylketonuria (PKU), consisting of low-phenylalanine peptide (LPP), was reported. There were no adverse effects and, in fact, there was a reduced frequency of diarrhea in patients who received LPP formula for more than 6 months. The LPP formula can be used not only as a more palatable therapeutic milk for PKU, but also as an ingredient to make more palatable foods of low-phenylalanine content.     

Changes in Neutrophil Granule Protein and Cytoplasmic Fibrils in Human Acute Myeloid Leukemias

Granule protein deficiencies in morphologically mature neutrophil cells of peripheral blood from human patients with acute myeloid leukemia was demonstrated using post-embedding immunocytochemistry. Abnormal immunoreactivity of granule proteins was detected in seven of nine patients. Decreased immunoreactivity patterns were found more for the primary granule markers elastase and myeloperozidase than for the secondary granule marker lactoferrin. Leukemias with a predominant myeloid component, in contrast to those with a predominant monocytoid component, had more neutrophil cells showing immunodeficiencies for one or more granule markers. The proportion of neutrophil cells showing immunodeficiencies varied greatly for each granule marker; more variation was obtained for elastase, lactoferrin and myeloperoxi-dase than for lysozyme, possibly because lysozyme is a marker for both granule types. In addition, no correlation could be found between any of the immunoreactivity deficiencies for the neutrophil granule glycoproteins elastase, lactoferrin, lysozyme and myeloperozidase and the abundance of a particular set of ultrastructural features in the circulating leukemic cells from any of the nine patients. Nonetheless, most of the immature myeloid cells from peripheral blood of leukemic patients showing neutrophil protein im-munoreactivity abnormalities in one or more granule markers often and randomly displayed one or more unusual ultrastructural features. The clinical and pathological significance of neutrophil granule protein deficiencies and the abundance of fibrillar structures in malignant myeloid cells presently is uncertain.     

3S技术与生物多样性研究

生物多样性是地球生物圈和人类发展的基础,是国际社会所共同关注的焦点问题。3S技术是集遥感、全球定位与地理信息系统于一体的高新技术手段,为生物多样性研究提供强有力的技术支持。近年来该领域的研究越来越受到人们的重视,并取得了大量的研究成果。     

医院综合网络系统的设计与实现

本文介绍了本市一家省级医院计算机综合网络系统的设计与实现。随着医院计算机应用水平的不断提高,对于计算机网络的要求也越来越高。本文在对医院的诸多信息子系统的应用功能进行分析的基础上,提出了切实可行的设计原则和解决的方案,并提出了网络的具体设计和网络实现方法,应用于医院的综合网络系统的建设。