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Diet specialization has important consequences for how individuals or species deal with environmental change that causes changes in availability of prey species. We took advantage of a 'natural experiment'--establishment of a commercial insect farm--that introduced a novel prey item, black soldier flies (Hermetia illucens (Linnaeus, 1758)), to the diet-specialist European Starling (Sturnus vulgaris Linnaeus, 1758). We investigated evidence for individual diet specialization (IDS) and the consequences of diet specialization and exploitation of novel prey on breeding productivity. In all 4 years of our study, tipulid larvae were the most common prey item. Soldier flies were not recorded in diets in 2013-2014; however, coincident with the establishment of the commercial insect farming operation, they comprised 22% and 30% of all prey items in the diets of European Starling females and males, respectively, in 2015. There was marked individual variation in use of soldier flies (4%-48% and 2%-70% in females and males, respectively), but we found little evidence of dichotomous IDS, i.e., where only some individuals have a specialized diet. We found no evidence for negative effects of use of soldier flies on breeding productivity: brood size at fledging and chick quality (mass, tarsus length) were independent of the number and proportion (%) of soldier flies returned to the nest. Key words: insect farming, European Starlings, diet specialization, tipulid, Hermetia illucens, breeding productivity, specialist-generalist. La specialisation du regime alimentaire a d'importantes consequences pour la maniere dont les individus ou les especes reagissent aux changements environnementaux qui modifient la disponibilite d'especes de proies. Nous avons tire profit d'une <>, l'etablissement d'une ferme a insectes commerciale, qui introduisait une nouvelle proie, la mouche soldat noire (Hermetia illucens (Linnaeus, 1758)), pour l'etourneau sansonnet (Sturnus vulgaris Linnaeus, 1758), une espece dont le regime alimentaire est specialise. Nous avons examine les indices de specialisation du regime alimentaire individuel (IDS) et les consequences de la specialisation du regime alimentaire et de l'exploitation de nouvelles proies sur la productivite reproductrice. Pour toutes les 4 annees de l'etude, les larves de tipules constituaient les proies les plus frequentes. Des mouches soldats n'ont pas ete observees dans les regimes alimentaires en 2013-2014; cependant a la suite de l'etablissement de la ferme a insectes commerciale, elles representaient 22 % et 30 % de toutes les proies individuelles chez les femelles et les males, respectivement, en 2015. Une variation marquee entre individus de l'utilisation de mouches soldats (4 %-48 % et 2 %-70 % chez les femelles et les males, respectivement) a ete notee, mais peu d'indices d'IDS dichotome, c'est-a-dire une situation dans laquelle seuls certains individus ont un regime alimentaire specialise. Nous n'avons note aucun indice d'effets negatifs de l'utilisation de mouches soldats sur la productivite reproductrice; la taille des couvees au moment de l'envol du nid et la qualite des oisillons (masse, longueur du tarse) etaient independantes du nombre et de la proportion (%) de mouches soldats rapportees au nid. [Traduit par la Redaction] Mots-cles: culture d'insectes, etourneau sansonnet, specialisation du regime alimentaire, tipule, Hermetia illucens, productivite reproductrice, specialiste-generaliste., Introduction Ecological specialization is a key concept in ecology and evolutionary biology and the question of what governs the dietary niche of an animal has long been a central focus [...]

The presence of protein aggregates in cells is a known feature of many human age‐related diseases, such as Huntington's disease. Simulations using fixed parameter values in a model of the dynamic evolution of expanded polyglutaime (PolyQ) proteins in cells have been used to gain a better understanding of the biological system. However, there is considerable uncertainty about the values of some of the parameters governing the system. Currently, appropriate values are chosen by ad hoc attempts to tune the parameters so that the model output matches experimental data. The problem is further complicated by the fact that the data only offer a partial insight into the underlying biological process: the data consist only of the proportions of cell death and of cells with inclusion bodies at a few time points, corrupted by measurement error. Developing inference procedures to estimate the model parameters in this scenario is a significant task. The model probabilities corresponding to the observed proportions cannot be evaluated exactly, and so they are estimated within the inference algorithm by repeatedly simulating realizations from the model. In general such an approach is computationally very expensive, and we therefore construct Gaussian process emulators for the key quantities and reformulate our algorithm around these fast stochastic approximations. We conclude by highlighting appropriate values of the model parameters leading to new insights into the underlying biological processes. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The purpose of this study was to explore the validity, reliability, and generalizability of the Vedic Personality Inventory which consists of constructs derived from the Vedic literature of India. There were 57 participants (20 men, 37 women). The mean age was 44.3 yr. (SD = 15.1). The sample was predominantly older, well-educated women who volunteered to participate as respondees to invitations to participate posted in supermarkets, churches, colleges, and on the internet. Analysis yielded statistically significant correlations for scores on the Vedic Personality Inventory and on the Daily Spiritual Experiences Scale and the Brief Symptom Inventory, each of which measures domains of interest addressed by the first inventory.