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High-intensity cancer surgery is increasingly common among older adults. However, these patients are at high-risk for unexpected intensive care unit (ICU) admissions after surgery. How these admissions impact older adults’ long-term outcomes is unknown. We performed a population-based, cohort study of older adults (age ≥ 70 years) who underwent high-intensity cancer surgery from 2007 to 2017. Analyses were performed to examine time alive and at home following surgery, defined as time from surgery to nursing home admission or death. Patients were followed for up to 5 years. Extended Cox proportional hazards models examined the independent association between unexpected ICU admission (ICU admissions excluding routine postoperative monitoring) and remaining alive and at home. Subgroup analysis stratified patients by duration of mechanical ventilation (MV). Of 47,367 identified older adults, 7372 (15.6%) had an unexpected ICU admission. Patients with an unexpected ICU admission had a significantly lower probability of being alive and at home at 5 years (26.2%; 95% confidence interval [CI] 25.1–27.2%) compared with those without an unexpected admission (56.8%; 95% CI 56.3–57.4%). After adjusting for baseline characteristics, unexpected ICU admission remained associated with less time alive and at home. The elevated risk of death or nursing home admission persisted for 5 years after surgery (years 2–5: hazard ratio [HR] 1.58, 95% CI 1.50–1.66). Duration of MV was inversely associated with time alive and at home. Older adults with an unexpected ICU admission after high-intensity cancer surgery are at increased risk for death or admission to a nursing home for at least 5 years.

Female response to male sexual signals is context dependent and influenced by a variety of environmental factors. For instance, females often adjust mating preferences in response to predation risk. Social experiences as a juvenile, such as exposure to conspecific sexual signals, have also been shown to influence female mating preferences as adults. Experiments that examine the influence of both environmental factors and early social experiences on female preferences are needed to understand female mating behaviors in the wild. In Pacific field crickets (Teleogryllus oceanicus), males produce a calling song that females evaluate during mate choice. We examined the influence of both risk perception and juvenile exposure to calling song in shaping adult T. oceanicus female phonotaxis to either a high- or low-quality calling song. We predicted that females raised in song-less conditions would be more responsive to calling song to maximize mating opportunities, and that females would show reduced response to calling in a risky, open area. Females raised in a song-deprived environment were much more responsive to calling song compared to those reared with song. In contrast to our predictions, females raised in song-less conditions were more responsive to the high-quality song in the risky, open arena. These results suggest that juvenile acoustic rearing influences female responsiveness to male calling song, but it has less influence on strength of preference for signal quality.

Esophagogastric cancer (EGC) is one of the deadliest and costliest malignancies to treat. Care by high-volume providers can provide better outcomes for patients with EGC. Cost implications of volume-based cancer care are unclear. We examined the cost-effectiveness of care by high-volume medical oncology providers for non-curative management of EGC. We conducted a population-based cohort study of non-curative EGC over 2005–2017 by linking administrative datasets. High-volume was defined as ≥ 11 patients/provider/year. Healthcare costs ($USD/patient/month-survived) were computed from diagnosis to death or end of follow-up from the perspective of the healthcare system. Multivariable quantile regression examined the association between care by high-volume providers and costs. Sensitivity analyses were conducted by varying costing horizons and high-volume definitions. Among 7011 non-curative EGC patients, median overall survival was superior with care by high-volume providers with 7.0 (IQR 3.3–13.3) compared to 5.9 (IQR 2.6–12.1) months (p

While surgical care by high-volume providers for esophago-gastric cancer (EGC) yields better outcomes, volume–outcome relationships are unknown for systemic therapy. We examined receipt of therapy and outcomes in the non-curative management of EGC based on medical oncology provider volume. We conducted a population based retrospective cohort study of non-curative EGC over 2005–2017 by linking administrative healthcare datasets. The volume of new EGC consultations per medical oncology provider per year was calculated and divided into quintiles. High-volume (HV) medical oncologists were defined as the 4–5th quintiles. Outcomes were receipt of chemotherapy and overall survival (OS). Multivariate logistic and Cox-proportional hazards regressions examined the association between management by HV medical oncologist, receipt of systemic therapy, and OS. 7011 EGC patients with non-curative management consulted with medical oncology. 1-year OS was superior for HV medical oncologists (> 11 patients/year), with 28.4% (95% CI 26.7–30.2%) compared to 25.1% (95% CI 23.8–26.3%) for low volume (p

Frequency-dependent brightness enhancement, a perceptual illusion in which a flickering light can appear twice as bright as a constant light, has historically been reported to produce maximum effects at a flicker rate within the alpha (8-12 Hz) band (Bartley in J Exp Psychol 23(3):313-319, 1938). Our recent examinations of this phenomenon using brightness discrimination between two flickering stimuli, however, have instead revealed the brightest percepts from theta-band (4-7 Hz) flicker (Bertrand et al. in Sci Rep 8(1):6152, 2018). Two primary questions arise from these seemingly contradictory findings: first, could task differences between these studies have caused recruitment of discrete oscillatory processes? Second, could the reported theta-band flicker enhancement be the result of an aliased alpha rhythm, sequentially sampling two stimulus locations, resulting in an ~ 5 Hz half-alpha rhythm? Here, we investigated these questions with two experiments: one replicating Bartley's (1938) adjustment paradigm, and one containing both Bartley's adjustment task and Bertrand's (2018) discrimination task, but presenting stimuli only sequentially (rather than concurrently). Examination of a range of frequencies (2-12 Hz) revealed the greatest brightness enhancement arising from flicker in the delta- and theta-band across all conditions, regardless of the spatial or temporal configuration of the stimuli. We speculate that these slower rhythms play an integral role in complex visual operations (e.g., a discrimination decision) where the entrainment of the endogenous neural rhythm to matched exogenous rhythmic stimulation promotes more efficient processing of visual information and thus produces perceptual biases as seen in frequency-dependent brightness enhancement.

Animals in captivity experience drastically different selective pressures than their wild counterparts. This can cause evolutionary divergence in behavior between captive and wild populations. While most research on evolution under captivity has focused on vertebrates, we expect similar behavioral changes in insects that live and breed in commercial facilities. Using the common house cricket, Acheta domesticus, we tested how crickets reared in captivity for many generations differed from wild-caught counterparts in two aspects of social behavior: male aggression and female responsiveness to male calling song. Acheta domesticus is an important model organism for behavioral research and are often reared in dense, commercial facilities with ad-libitum access to food and no risk of mortality from predators— very different conditions from the wild. We predicted that commercially-derived males would exhibit less intrasexual aggression due to selection from living in dense conditions. We predicted that commercially-derived females would be less responsive to male calling song because they are more likely to encounter many males at random. Instead, we found that commercially-derived males were more aggressive than wild ones, and that commercially-derived and wild females did not differ in responsiveness to calling song. Insects serve as model systems for a great deal of research in evolutionary and behavioral biology. If these animals are evolving in captivity, they may not provide an accurate representation of the natural phenomena we aim to understand.

Sexual signals are gained and lost over evolutionary time. While signal gain has obvious fitness benefits, signal loss should present significant costs due to decreased mating opportunities. Just as female mating preferences can promote evolutionary gain and elaboration of sexual signals, they may also maintain signal loss. We investigated how two components of female mate choice are involved in rapid sexual signal loss in the Pacific field cricket (Teleogryllus oceanicus), in which many males have lost the ability to sing. Males that can sing (“normal-wings”) and obligately silent males (“flatwings”) coexist in Hawaiian populations. While we know that females prefer not to mate with flatwings, we tested whether females discriminate against flatwing males before copulation due to the lack of a song or something inherent about their wing morphology. We combined this assessment with a test of post-copulatory preference by presenting females with either a normal-wing or flatwing male in the presence or absence of a courtship song stimulus. Females took significantly longer to mount males in the absence of a courtship song regardless of male wing morph. This is the first evidence that females discriminate against the absence of a song during mate choice, not male wing morph. However, females retained spermatophores for equally long regardless of male wing morph and whether they heard a courtship song, suggesting no post-copulatory barriers in the absence of a song. Pre- and post-copulatory sexual selections may not operate synchronously in this system, which may help explain the success of the silent morph in wild populations. Signal loss is ubiquitous in nature, despite the associated decrease in mating opportunities. We assessed how the interaction of pre- and post-copulatory preferences may accommodate signal loss. Song attracts mates in Pacific field crickets, but some males have lost the ability to sing in response to an acoustically orienting parasitoid. We measured how long females took to mount males (pre-copulatory choice) and the length of sperm transfer, i.e., spermatophore retention time (post-copulatory choice), when presented with normal and silent males in the presence and absence of a song stimulus. Females took longer to mate in the absence of a courtship song but kept spermatophores for full sperm transfer, regardless of song presence or male type. Pre-copulatory choice in this system acts against silent males, while post-copulatory choice may not. Asynchrony between these two episodes of sexual selection may allow signal loss to persist in spite of the challenges it presents to mating.

When sexual signals are perceived during growth and development they can provide information regarding the social conditions likely to be encountered as an adult. Perception of cues related to the presence and density of future mates and potential competitors can result in altered adult phenotypes. Previous studies have shown that adult male Teleogryllus oceanicus field crickets from a Kauai, Hawaii population reared alone and without hearing conspecific song are more phonotactic than those reared with song. These naive males also reduce investment in body size and immunity. Here we examined whether another source of population density information, the presence of other males, affects behavior, size, and immunity. Specifically, we examined satellite behavior as evidenced by strength of phonotaxis, body condition, and immune response in males reared singly and in groups in the presence and absence of conspecific song. Body condition did not vary with rearing density, and immune response did not vary with either acoustic environment or rearing density. Interestingly, group-housed males were more phonotactic than singly-housed males. This pattern was largely driven by the low levels of phonotaxis exhibited by males that were singly-housed in the presence of conspecific song. These findings suggest that males respond to social cues in addition to conspecific song, but that these cues do not necessarily provide concordant information.

Sexual dimorphism in the mammalian immune system is manifested as more frequent and severe infectious diseases in males and, on the other hand, higher rates of autoimmune disease in females, yet insights underlying those differences are still lacking. Here we characterize sex differences in the immune system by RNA and ATAC sequence profiling of untreated and interferon-induced immune cell types in male and female mice. We detect very few differentially expressed genes between male and female immune cells except in macrophages from three different tissues. Accordingly, very few genomic regions display differences in accessibility between sexes. Transcriptional sexual dimorphism in macrophages is mediated by genes of innate immune pathways, and increases after interferon stimulation. Thus, the stronger immune response of females may be due to more activated innate immune pathways prior to pathogen invasion., Sexual dimorphism is observed frequently in immune disorders, but the underlying insights are still unclear. Here the authors analyze transcriptome and epigenome changes induced by interferon in various mouse immune cell types, and find only a restricted set of sexual dimorphism genes in innate immunity and macrophages.

Acoustically-signaling animals such as crickets may experience interference from environmental noise, a particular concern given the rise in anthropogenic or other novel sources of sound. We examined the potential for acoustic interference of female phonotaxis to calling song in the Pacific field cricket (Teleogryllus oceanicus) by invasive coqui frogs (Eleutherodactylus coqui) in Hawaii. The frogs were introduced to Hawaii from Puerto Rico in the 1980s. When female crickets were exposed to male calling songs with and without simultaneous broadcast of a coqui chorus, they were equally likely to move toward the cricket song, regardless of the location of the frog sound (ground level or above ground). Unlike some species of frogs and birds, T. oceanicus do not appear to experience acoustic interference from an introduced signaler, even though the introduced species’ calls subjectively seem to be masking the crickets’ songs.

We give the automata which describe time evolution rules of the box-ball system (BBS) with a carrier. It can be shown by use of tropical geometry, such systems are ultradiscrete analogues of KdV equation. We discuss their relation with the lamplighter group generated by an automaton. We present spectral analysis of the stochastic matrices induced by these automata, and verify their spectral coincidence.

Behavioral plasticity can occur on multiple timescales, from traits fixed during development to traits that remain plastic throughout an individual’s lifetime. Because mate choice is a key factor in determining selection on male ornaments, understanding the timescale of plasticity in female choice behavior is critical to understanding how this plasticity influences selection. Experience of sexual signals during both the juvenile and adult stages often shapes mating behavior, but the relative importance of experience during each stage is unclear. Does mate preference become fixed during development or does it remain plastic throughout adulthood? We manipulated the perceived social environment of female Pacific field crickets (Teleogryllus oceanicus) by exposing them to either song or silence during the juvenile and adult stages. Exposure to song during the adult stage significantly decreased measures of responsiveness to calling song, while experience of calling songs during the juvenile stage resulted in a suggestive but non-significant reduction in measures of responsiveness. Mate choice behaviors of adult female crickets are therefore predicted to track changes in their environments’ fluctuating demographics, and this plasticity may have important evolutionary implications.

This brief article examines a painting by the extraordinarily gifted artist Salvador Dali, a prominent exponent of the art termed surrealism, based on the Freudian concepts of subconscious, automatism, and free association. Particular attention is drawn in the painting to the birth canal, symbolized by an open-mouthed fish in the process of “giving birth” to a half-born tiger who is appearing to assault a sleeping female lying on the beach; as well as to a pomegranate representing the female ova.

Dioxin (2,3,7,8-tetrachlorodibenzo-p-dioxin, TCDD) is a carcinogenic and highly toxic industrial byproduct that persists in the environment and produces a pleiotropic toxicity syndrome across vertebrate species that includes wasting, hepatosteatosis, and thymus atrophy. Dioxin toxicities require binding and activation of the aryl hydrocarbon receptor (AhR), a ligand activated transcription factor. However, after nearly 50 years of study, it remains unknown how AhR activation by dioxin produces toxic effects. Here, using the chick embryo close to hatching, a well-accepted model for dioxin toxicity, we identify NAD+ loss through PARP activation as a novel unifying mechanism for diverse effects of dioxin in vivo. We show that NAD+ loss is attributable to increased PARP activity in thymus and liver, as cotreatment with dioxin and the PARP inhibitor PJ34 increased NAD+ levels and prevented both thymus atrophy and hepatosteatosis. Our findings additionally support a role for decreased NAD+ dependent Sirt6 activity in mediating dioxin toxicity following PARP activation. Strikingly, treatment in vivo with the NAD+ repleting agent nicotinamide, a form of vitamin B3, prevented thymus atrophy and hepatosteatosis by dioxin and increased sirtuin activity, providing a therapeutic approach for preventing dioxin toxicities in vivo.

In this essay, I claim that certain passages in Book IV of Benedict de Spinoza’s Ethics suggest a novel version of what is known as metaethical constructivism. The constructivist interpretation emerges in the course of attempting to resolve a tension between Spinoza’s apparent ethical egoism and some remarks he makes about the efficacy of collaborating with the right partners when attempting to promote our individual self-interest (Sect. 1). Though Spinoza maintains that individuals necessarily aim to promote their self-interest, I argue that Spinoza has an atypical conception of self (and hence of self-interest) that allows the interests of other people to be partially constitutive of one's own self-interest. In this way, Spinoza can account for the rationality of concern for the interests of others (Sect. 2). This interpretation attributes to Spinoza a form of constructivism that differs in important ways from contemporary Humean and Kantian constructivisms and which can in principle be detached from Spinoza’s particular metaphysical commitments in order to yield a third general category of constructivist view (Sect. 3). Though my treatment is necessarily brief, it is my hope that it can serve both to motivate a constructivist reading of Spinoza and, perhaps even more crucially, to suggest a Spinozistic variety of constructivism as a live theoretical option in metaethics.

Parasites can impose heavy costs on their hosts, and females may benefit from selecting mates that are parasite resistant and/or have a stronger immune response. Trade-offs between immune response and sexual signaling have been proposed as a mechanism to ensure signal honesty. Much of the work on sexual signaling and immune response does not consider parasites directly and thus cannot confirm whether a stronger immune response necessarily results in lower parasite burdens. Also, immunity is costly, and these costs can lower the overall fitness of individuals with too strong of an immune response. Males with immune responses of intermediate strength are therefore expected to be preferred by females and have the highest reproductive success. We tested whether immune response and blood parasite loads relate to sexual signaling and mating preferences in western bluebirds (Sialia mexicana). Immunity did not predict male reproductive success when considering either within- or extra-pair offspring, although a stronger immune response was correlated with lower parasite loads. However, uninfected males were more likely to sire extra-pair offspring than males infected with avian malaria. Thus, females were more likely to mate with uninfected males but not necessarily males with a stronger immune response. Our results may indicate that females select parasite-resistant males as mates to gain resistance genes for their offspring or that infected males are less likely to pursue extra-pair copulations.

Direct integration of high-mobility III–V compound semiconductors with existing Si-based complementary metal-oxide-semiconductor (CMOS) processing platforms presents the main challenge to increasing the CMOS performance and the scaling trend. Silicon hetero-nanowires with integrated III–V segments are one of the most promising candidates for advanced nano-optoelectronics, as first demonstrated using molecular beam epitaxy techniques. Here we demonstrate a novel route for InAs/Si hybrid nanowire fabrication via millisecond range liquid-phase epitaxy regrowth using sequential ion beam implantation and flash-lamp annealing. We show that such highly mismatched systems can be monolithically integrated within a single nanowire. Optical and microstructural investigations confirm the high quality hetero-nanowire fabrication coupled with the formation of atomically sharp interfaces between Si and InAs segments. Such hybrid systems open new routes for future high-speed and multifunctional nanoelectronic devices on a single chip. Open image in new window

Reproductive delays between mating and birth may provide a previously unconsidered avenue for post-copulatory sexual selection in mammals. In particular, delayed fertilization could provide an enhanced opportunity for sperm competition by extending the time for ejaculates to interact in the female reproductive tract. We tested the prediction that species with delayed fertilization exhibit greater degrees of sperm competition than those without delays by examining testis volume (a proxy for sperm competition) in 38 species of bats. Examination of fluid-preserved museum specimens of bat species with and without delays revealed that species with delays (in particular those with delayed fertilization) had significantly larger testes than species without them. Although it predicts the presence of delayed fertilization, hibernation did not predict relative testis size. We conclude that, once they evolve, reproductive delays may facilitate sperm competition.