Should advertising parental care be honest?

Species with paternal care show less exaggerated sexual ornamentation than those in which males do not care, although direct benefits from paternal care can vastly exceed the indirect benefits of mate choice. Whether condition-dependent handicaps can signal parenting ability is controversial. The good-parent process predicts the evolution of honest signals of parental investment, whereas the differential-allocation model suggests a trade-off between the attractiveness of a mate and his care-provisioning. I show that both alternatives can arise from optimal allocations to advertisement, parental investment and future reproductive value of the male, and that the male''s marginal fitness gain from multiple matings determines which option should apply. The marginal gain is diminishing if opportunities for polygyny or extra-pair copulations are limited. Advertisement is then expected to be modest and honest, indicating genetic quality and condition-dependent parental investment simultaneously. Increasing marginal gains are likely to be related to cases where genetic quality has a significant influence on offspring fitness. This alternative leads to differential allocation with stronger advertisement, more frequent extra-pair copulations, and diminished male care. Reliability is also reduced if allocation benefits have thresholds, e.g. if there is a minimum body condition required for survival, or if females use a polygyny-threshold strategy of mate choice.     

Size‐dependent resource allocation and sex allocation in herbaceous perennial plants

Individuals within a population often differ considerably in size or resource status as a result of environmental variation. In these circumstances natural selection would favour organisms not with a single, genetically determined allocation, but with a genetically determined allocation rule specifying allocation in relation to size or environment. Based on a graphical analysis of a simple evolutionarily stable strategy (ESS) model for herbaceous perennial plants, we aim to determine how cosexual plants within a population should simultaneously adjust their reproductive allocation and sex allocation to their size. We find that if female fitness gain is a linear function of resource investment, then a fixed amount of resources should be allocated to male function, and to post‐breeding survival as well, for individuals above a certain size threshold. The ESS resource allocation to male function, female function, and post‐breeding survival positively correlate if both male and female fitness gains are a saturating function of resource investment. Plants smaller than the size threshold are expected to be either nonreproductive or functionally male only.     

Applications submitted to regional research committees in 1976 and their outcome.

In 1976 regional research committees in England and their equivalent in the Welsh Office judged 608 proposals for funding under the locally organised research scheme. Of these, 521 were new proposals and 87 were resubmissions. Medically and dentally qualified applicants made 451 (87%) of the new proposals; nearly two-thirds came from teaching areas and 21% from staff of academic departments. Two hundred and ninety new proposals were approved, 154 rejected, and 77 were referred back for modification. Approval was commoner for applications from teaching areas, from medical staff, and for the less expensive projects. Some regional committees did not support research into the organisation of health services. Under a quarter of the resubmitted projects were rejected. The scheme is not yet used by a wide range of health-care professions. Medical staff in teaching areas still use it most. In some regions prospective researchers, especially those without previous experience, need a comprehensive and easily identifiable counselling service, so that the fund may be exploited in the way originally intended and the number of unsuccessful proposals reduced.     

Does a trade‐off between current reproductive success and survival affect the honesty of male signalling in species with male parental care?

Recent theory predicted that male advertisement will reliably signal investment in paternal care in species where offspring survival requires paternal care and males allocate resources between advertisement and care. However, the predicted relationship between care and advertisement depended on the marginal gains from investment in current reproductive traits. Life history theory suggests that these fitness gains are also subject to a trade‐off between current and future reproduction. Here, we investigate whether male signalling remains a reliable indicator of parental care when males allocate resources between current advertisement, paternal care and survival to future reproduction. We find that advertisement is predicted to remain a reliable signal of male care but that advertisement may cease to reliably indicate male quality because low‐quality males are predicted to invest in current reproduction, whereas higher‐quality males are able to invest in both current reproduction and survival to future reproduction.     

Sex allocation in clonal plants: might clonal expansion enhance fitness gains through male function?

The returns on investment in sexual reproduction are described by fitness gain curves and the shapes of these curves affect, among other things, the evolutionary stability of reproductive systems. The available evidence indicates that gain curves for male function decelerate, corresponding to diminishing fitness returns on investment in pollen. In contrast, the gain curve for female function is thought to decelerate less strongly than it does for male function (e.g., if seed fertility is limited by more by resources than by mating opportunities). Here we suggest that when the shapes of the female and male gain curves differ, clonality alters the rates of return on investment via the two sex functions. In particular, we propose that clonal expansion might increase fitness gains through male function because the subdivision of reproductive effort among ramets allows each ramet to take advantage of the steepest parts of the male gain curve. We examined the interaction between clonal expansion and fitness gains using numerical analysis of a model of sex allocation in which we assumed that there is no mating interference among ramets. We found that clonal expansion led to substantial increases in fitness through male function, but to decreases in fitness through female function. Under intermediate investment in clonal growth, marginal fertility gains through the two sex functions did not intersect over a broad range of sex allocation patterns, suggesting that clonality could favor the evolution of separate sexes. Finally, we suggest an alternative explanation for the common observation of male-biased sex ratios in clonal dioecious plants. If male function fitness is maximized under higher rates of clonal expansion than for female function, greater frequencies of male ramets might reflect the outcome of fertility selection, rather than constraints on clonal expansion imposed by greater costs of reproduction for females.     

Economic returns to investment in AIDS treatment in low and middle income countries

Since the early 2000s, aid organizations and developing country governments have invested heavily in AIDS treatment. By 2010, more than five million people began receiving antiretroviral therapy (ART)--yet each year, 2.7 million people are becoming newly infected and another two million are dying without ever having received treatment. As the need for treatment grows without commensurate increase in the amount of available resources, it is critical to assess the health and economic gains being realized from increasingly large investments in ART. This study estimates total program costs and compares them with selected economic benefits of ART, for the current cohort of patients whose treatment is cofinanced by the Global Fund to Fight AIDS, Tuberculosis and Malaria. At end 2011, 3.5 million patients in low and middle income countries will be receiving ART through treatment programs cofinanced by the Global Fund. Using 2009 ART prices and program costs, we estimate that the discounted resource needs required for maintaining this cohort are $14.2 billion for the period 2011-2020. This investment is expected to save 18.5 million life-years and return $12 to $34 billion through increased labor productivity, averted orphan care, and deferred medical treatment for opportunistic infections and end-of-life care. Under alternative assumptions regarding the labor productivity effects of HIV infection, AIDS disease, and ART, the monetary benefits range from 81 percent to 287 percent of program costs over the same period. These results suggest that, in addition to the large health gains generated, the economic benefits of treatment will substantially offset, and likely exceed, program costs within 10 years of investment.     

Cost-Effectiveness of Including a Nurse Specialist in the Treatment of Urinary Incontinence in Primary Care in the Netherlands

Objective

Incontinence is an important health problem. Effectively treating incontinence could lead to important health gains in patients and caregivers. Management of incontinence is currently suboptimal, especially in elderly patients. To optimise the provision of incontinence care a global optimum continence service specification (OCSS) was developed. The current study evaluates the costs and effects of implementing this OCSS for community-dwelling patients older than 65 years with four or more chronic diseases in the Netherlands.

Method

A decision analytic model was developed comparing the current care pathway for urinary incontinence in the Netherlands with the pathway as described in the OCSS. The new care strategy was operationalised as the appointment of a continence nurse specialist (NS) located with the general practitioner (GP). This was assumed to increase case detection and to include initial assessment and treatment by the NS. The analysis used a societal perspective, including medical costs, containment products (out-of-pocket and paid by insurer), home care, informal care, and implementation costs.

Results

With the new care strategy a QALY gain of 0.005 per patient is achieved while saving €402 per patient over a 3 year period from a societal perspective. In interpreting these findings it is important to realise that many patients are undetected, even in the new care situation (36%), or receive care for containment only. In both of these groups no health gains were achieved.

Conclusion

Implementing the OCSS in the Netherlands by locating a NS in the GP practice is likely to reduce incontinence, improve quality of life, and reduce costs. Furthermore, the study also highlighted that various areas of the continence care process lack data, which would be valuable to collect through the introduction of the NS in a study setting.     

Anatomy of health care reform proposals.

The current proliferation of proposals for health care reform makes it difficult to sort out the differences among plans and the likely outcome of different approaches to reform. The current health care system has two basic features. The first, enrollment and eligibility functions, includes how people get into the system and gain coverage for health care services. We describe 4 models, ranging from an individual, voluntary approach to a universal, tax-based model. The second, the provision of health care, includes how physician services are organized, how they are paid for, what mechanisms are in place for quality assurance, and the degree of organization and oversight of the health care system. We describe 7 models of the organization component, including the current fee-for-service system with no national health budget, managed care, salaried providers under a budget, and managed competition with and without a national health budget. These 2 components provide the building blocks for health care plans, presented as a matrix. We also evaluate several reform proposals by how they combine these 2 elements.     

Optimal foraging when predation risk increases with patch resources: an analysis of pollinators and ambush predators

Pollinators and their predators share innate and learned preferences for high quality flowers. Consequently, pollinators are more likely to encounter predators when visiting the most rewarding flowers. I present a model of how different pollinator species can maximize lifetime resource gains depending on the density and distribution of predators, as well as their vulnerability to capture by predators. For pollinator species that are difficult for predators to capture, the optimal strategy is to visit the most rewarding flowers as long as predator density is low. At higher predator densities and for pollinators that are more vulnerable to predator capture, the lifetime resource gain from the most rewarding flowers declines and the optimal strategy depends on the predator distribution. In some cases, a wide range of floral rewards provides near‐maximum lifetime resource gains, which may favor generalization if searching for flowers is costly. In other cases, a low flower reward level provides the maximum lifetime resource gain and so pollinators should specialize on less rewarding flowers. Thus, the model suggests that predators can have qualitatively different top‐down effects on plant reproductive success depending on the pollinator species, the density of predators, and the distribution of predators across flower reward levels.     

Actions to alleviate the mental health impact of the economic crisis

The current global economic crisis is expected to produce adverse mental health effects that may increase suicide and alcohol-related death rates in affected countries. In nations with greater social safety nets, the health impacts of the economic downturn may be less pronounced. Research indicates that the mental health impact of the economic crisis can be offset by various policy measures. This paper aims to outline how countries can safeguard and support mental health in times of economic downturn. It indicates that good mental health cannot be achieved by the health sector alone. The determinants of mental health often lie outside of the remits of the health system, and all sectors of society have to be involved in the promotion of mental health. Accessible and responsive primary care services support people at risk and can prevent mental health consequences. Any austerity measures imposed on mental health services need to be geared to support the modernization of mental health care provision. Social welfare supports and active labour market programmes aiming at helping people retain or re-gain jobs can counteract the mental health effects of the economic crisis. Family support programmes can also make a difference. Alcohol pricing and restrictions of alcohol availability reduce alcohol harms and save lives. Support to tackle unmanageable debt will also help to reduce the mental health impact of the crisis. While the current economic crisis may have a major impact on mental health and increase mortality due to suicides and alcohol-related disorders, it is also a window of opportunity to reform mental health care and promote a mentally healthy lifestyle.     

Cooperation and the common good

In this paper, we draw the attention of biologists to a result from the economic literature, which suggests that when individuals are engaged in a communal activity of benefit to all, selection may favour cooperative sharing of resources even among non-relatives. Provided that group members all invest some resources in the public good, they should refrain from conflict over the division of these resources. The reason is that, given diminishing returns on investment in public and private goods, claiming (or ceding) a greater share of total resources only leads to the actor (or its competitors) investing more in the public good, such that the marginal costs and benefits of investment remain in balance. This cancels out any individual benefits of resource competition. We illustrate how this idea may be applied in the context of biparental care, using a sequential game in which parents first compete with one another over resources, and then choose how to allocate the resources they each obtain to care of their joint young (public good) versus their own survival and future reproductive success (private good). We show that when the two parents both invest in care to some extent, they should refrain from any conflict over the division of resources. The same effect can also support asymmetric outcomes in which one parent competes for resources and invests in care, whereas the other does not invest but refrains from competition. The fact that the caring parent gains higher fitness pay-offs at these equilibria suggests that abandoning a partner is not always to the latter''s detriment, when the potential for resource competition is taken into account, but may instead be of benefit to the ‘abandoned’ mate.     

Fair Resource Allocation to Health Research: Priority Topics for Bioethics Scholarship

This article draws attention to the limited amount of scholarship on what constitutes fairness and equity in resource allocation to health research by individual funders. It identifies three key decisions of ethical significance about resource allocation that research funders make regularly and calls for prioritizing scholarship on those topics – namely, how health resources should be fairly apportioned amongst public health and health care delivery versus health research, how health research resources should be fairly allocated between health problems experienced domestically versus other health problems typically experienced by disadvantaged populations outside the funder's country, and how domestic and non‐domestic health research funding should be further apportioned to different areas, e.g. types of research and recipients. These three topics should be priorities for bioethics research because their outcomes have a substantial bearing on the achievement of health justice. The proposed agenda aims to move discussion on the ethics of health research funding beyond its current focus on the mismatch between worldwide basic and clinical research investment and the global burden of disease. Individual funders’ decision‐making on whether and to what extent to allocate resources to non‐domestic health research, health systems research, research on the social determinants of health, capacity development, and recipients in certain countries should also be the focus of ethical scrutiny.     

Rehabilitating degraded forests in Central Europe into self–sustaining forest ecosystems

There is a need for a consistent forest restoration strategy for the `Black Triangle', Central Europe. In the past 50 years, forests in this area have been heavily affected by industrial pollution. Recently, the amount of pollutants has decreased. This means that effective forest restoration programmes can be started. Forest decline must be seen as an ecological disturbance which cannot be solved by applying technical measures only. An ecosystem approach to forest restoration must be introduced into restoration policy and management. Basic principles and working methods of such an approach are briefly described and proposals are made for forest restoration policy, management and research in the area.     

ATTRACTIVE STRUCTURES AND THE STABILITY OF HERMAPHRODITIC SEX EXPRESSION IN FLOWERING PLANTS

Plant attributes serving both male and female sex functions are thought to favor hermaphroditic breeding systems over systems where sex expression is separated between individuals. Morphological features used by plants to attract biotic pollinators can be considered in this light, because such “attractive” structures are prerequisite for both pollen donation and receipt. A model involving allocation of a limiting resource between attractive structures benefiting both sex functions, structures benefiting male function only, and structures benefiting female function only, is constructed and analyzed using the evolutionary stable strategy (ESS) approach. Contrary to expectation, conditions resulting in large allocation to attractive structures tend to destabilize hermaphroditism, although the effect is slight. Substantial asymmetry in the benefits accruing to male and female fertility for a given investment in pollinator attraction produces more pronounced effects, reducing the parameter space in which hermaphroditism is expected. Results of this model are used to assess the importance of “accelerating gain” curves previously suggested for the evolution of dioecy in flowering plants. Accelerating gains associated with fruit production and dispersal represent female function only, and can be sufficient to initiate evolution toward dioecy. Accelerating gains associated with pollinator attraction may contribute to the evolution of separate sexes only if male function benefits from increased investment in attractive structures at a disproportionate rate compared to female function. Even in this instance, though, hermaphroditism may be evolutionarily stable.     

Education for expectant fathers in workplaces in Turkey

Worldwide, there is increasing recognition that if family and reproductive health programmes are to be successful, the involvement of men is essential. As part of the problem, men also have to be seen as part of the solution. The reality is that in many countries, including Turkey, men generally do not accompany their partners to health facilities for family planning, antenatal and postnatal services and are not expected to attend the labour or birth of their child. Workplace programmes are a potential strategy for meeting the reproductive health education needs of men in industrial cities such as Istanbul. This intervention study was developed to test the feasibility and effects of expanding a special programme for expectant fathers to large workplaces in Istanbul, with the aim of improving the health of Turkish families during the pregnancy, birth and newborn periods. The findings indicate that it is possible to train workplace physicians in Istanbul to conduct regular educational programmes for expectant fathers on reproductive health, and that such programmes may have beneficial effects, especially in the areas of pregnancy nutrition, exclusive breast-feeding, and support behaviours. Considering the difficulty of getting men to attend hospital or clinic-based educational programmes in large urban areas, bringing such training programmes to men at their places of work has the potential to be an important strategy. Given that large workplaces in Turkey already have full-time physicians charged with the duty of health education for employees, this is also a feasible strategy.     

Single versus subdivided population strategies in breeding against an adverse genetic correlation

In advanced conifer breeding programmes, the simultaneous genetic improvement of adversely correlated traits constitutes a major challenge. Population subdivision strategies have been proposed to deal with breeding objective uncertainty, to reduce inbreeding depression in production populations and to reduce genetic correlation adversity. We used Monte Carlo simulations based on a finite locus model to study the effect of a two-breeding-population strategy applying selection for each trait in each breeding population on the genetic correlation and on genetic gains in breeding populations (BP) and the production population (PP) within a time frame of ten generations. A single-BP and a two-subline strategy both applying multitrait index selection with equal trait weights were used as references. Two BP strategy simulations indicated that simultaneous genetic gain for the two traits could be achieved in the PP despite adverse pleiotropy. The adversity of the genetic correlations decreased in BPs of the two-BP strategy, in contrast to single-BP and subline strategies, but the adversity reduction came at the cost of a lower rate of aggregated (summed) genetic gain in the PP for the two-BP strategy compared to the single-BP or subline strategies. The subline strategy exhibited increased genetic gain in the PP at equal levels of inbreeding as intended. Two BP strategies could be useful to develop breeds specialised on different traits and to simultaneously reduce adverse genetic correlations. However, if the aggregated genetic gain should be maximised, the single-BP strategy appears a better choice.     

斑苦竹无性系生长与水分供应及其适应对策的研究

 根据对混生型斑苦竹(Pleioblastus maculata)移栽于不同土壤水分含量的微生境中的野外实验,分析了斑苦竹的无性系生长对水分资源供应的形态可塑性反应和能量投资对策。研究结果表明,水分资源供应水平越高,斑苦竹无性系的总生物量越大,同时,无性系分株的数目越少,而个体增大。在不同水分供应条件下,无性系的隔离者(地下根茎)长度和分株大小都具有显著的差异,而隔离者的节间长度则无明显差别。在低水分资源的生境中,斑苦竹无性系具有投资更多的能量于地下部分,尤其是根茎节间,从而伸长根茎,以获取资源的觅养生长对策;在高水分资源的生境中,其无性系的能量则主要投资于分株的生长。     

Survey of safety and health care in British medical laboratories.

A retrospective postal survey of 24 000 medical laboratory workers in England, Wales, and Scotland showed highly variable standards of safety and health care. Pre-employment health screening was offered to two-thirds of employees, the physicians being the least likely to be examined (15%). Scottish laboratories provided better safety control than English and Welsh laboratories, while Public Health Service Laboratories had a better record than National Health Service establishments. Mouth pipetting is still practised in 65% of English and Welsh laboratories, and the use of protective clothing is rarely compulsory. The servicing of safety cabinets is often inadequate. Known and suspected carcinogens are still apparently used in a few laboratories (2-10%). In view of the wide variation in standards among laboratories, urgent consideration should be given to establishing regulations for codes of safe practice rather than relying merely on recommendations as at present.     

Integrating genomic selection into dairy cattle breeding programmes: a review

Extensive genetic progress has been achieved in dairy cattle populations on many traits of economic importance because of efficient breeding programmes. Success of these programmes has relied on progeny testing of the best young males to accurately assess their genetic merit and hence their potential for breeding. Over the last few years, the integration of dense genomic information into statistical tools used to make selection decisions, commonly referred to as genomic selection, has enabled gains in predicting accuracy of breeding values for young animals without own performance. The possibility to select animals at an early stage allows defining new breeding strategies aimed at boosting genetic progress while reducing costs. The first objective of this article was to review methods used to model and optimize breeding schemes integrating genomic selection and to discuss their relative advantages and limitations. The second objective was to summarize the main results and perspectives on the use of genomic selection in practical breeding schemes, on the basis of the example of dairy cattle populations. Two main designs of breeding programmes integrating genomic selection were studied in dairy cattle. Genomic selection can be used either for pre-selecting males to be progeny tested or for selecting males to be used as active sires in the population. The first option produces moderate genetic gains without changing the structure of breeding programmes. The second option leads to large genetic gains, up to double those of conventional schemes because of a major reduction in the mean generation interval, but it requires greater changes in breeding programme structure. The literature suggests that genomic selection becomes more attractive when it is coupled with embryo transfer technologies to further increase selection intensity on the dam-to-sire pathway. The use of genomic information also offers new opportunities to improve preservation of genetic variation. However, recent simulation studies have shown that putting constraints on genomic inbreeding rates for defining optimal contributions of breeding animals could significantly reduce achievable genetic gain. Finally, the article summarizes the potential of genomic selection to include new traits in the breeding goal to meet societal demands regarding animal health and environmental efficiency in animal production.     

Contemporary patterns of adolescent sexuality in urban Botswana

In Botswana, as in other areas in southern Africa, there is a growing concern about the risks associated with adolescent sexuality. To facilitate the design of policies that can address these problems, it is necessary to gain a thorough understanding of contemporary patterns of adolescent sexual behaviour, and the factors that affect them. This paper examines these issues using data from the 1995 Botswana Adolescent Reproductive Health Survey in conjunction with data from focus group discussions. The results suggest that adolescents become sexually active at an early age, and that many of them, males and females alike, have multiple sex partners. This early sexual initiation implies that adolescent reproductive health programmes should target youths aged 13 or younger. For school-based programmes this implies starting no later than Grade 6 or Standard 1, and preferably earlier. Young males appear to be a particularly vulnerable group that needs further attention. Adolescents perceive that teachers, peers and parents have the largest influence on their reproductive health attitudes. Schools appear to have the most potential for providing reproductive health information, because they reach youths both directly and indirectly by educating their peers. The results also show that male and female sexual behaviour is affected by different factors. Among males, having secondary education strongly increases the odds of being sexually active, presumably because such males make attractive partners. Among females, on the other hand, being in school significantly reduces the odds of being sexually active. This finding is consistent with the policy imposing a one-year school expulsion for pregnant schoolgirls, which was implemented as a deterrent to schoolgirl pregnancy.