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The apparent virilization of the female spotted hyena raises questions about sex differences in behavior and morphology. We review these sex differences to find a mosaic of dimorphic traits, some of which conform to mammalian norms. These include space-use, dispersal behavior, sexual behavior, and parental behavior. By contrast, sex differences are reversed from mammalian norms in the hyena's aggressive behavior, social dominance, and territory defense. Androgen exposure early in development appears to enhance aggressiveness in female hyenas. Weapons, hunting behavior, and neonatal body mass do not differ between males and females, but females are slightly larger than males as adults. Sex differences in the hyena's nervous system are relatively subtle. Overall, it appears that the "masculinized" behavioral traits in female spotted hyenas are those, such as aggression, that are essential to ensuring consistent access to food; food critically limits female reproductive success in this species because female spotted hyenas have the highest energetic investment per litter of any mammalian carnivore. Evidently, natural selection has acted to modify traits related to food access, but has left intact those traits that are unrelated to acquiring food, such that they conform to patterns of sexual dimorphism in other mammals.

The regenerative capacity of the vertebrate retina varies substantially across species. Whereas fish and amphibians can regenerate functional retina, mammals do not. In this perspective piece, we outline the various strategies nonmammalian vertebrates use to achieve functional regeneration of vision. We review key differences underlying the regenerative potential across species including the cellular source of postnatal progenitors, the diversity of cell fates regenerated, and the level of functional vision that can be achieved. Finally, we provide an outlook on the field of engineering the mammalian retina to replace neurons lost to injury or disease.

Limb loss due to traumatic injury or amputation is a major biomedical burden. Many vertebrates exhibit the ability to form and pattern normal limbs during embryogenesis from amorphous clusters of precursor cells, hinting that this process could perhaps be activated later in life to rebuild missing or damaged limbs. Indeed, some animals, such as salamanders, are proficient regenerators of limbs throughout their life span. Thus, research over the last century has sought to stimulate regeneration in species that do not normally regenerate their appendages. Importantly, these efforts are not only a vital aspect of regenerative medicine, but also have fundamental implications for understanding evolution and the cellular control of growth and form throughout the body. Here we review major recent advances in augmenting limb regeneration, summarizing the degree of success that has been achieved to date in frog and mammalian models using genetic, biochemical, and bioelectrical interventions. While the degree of whole limb repair in rodent models has been modest to date, a number of new technologies and approaches comprise an exciting near-term road map for basic and clinical progress in regeneration.

Blood and fecal samples of chukar partridge (Alectoris chukar), albino pheasant (Phasianus colchicus), silver pheasant (Lophura nycthemera), rose-ringed parakeet (Psittacula krameri) and turkeys (Meleagris gallopavo) were analyzed to check parasitic prevalence. To record parasites these five avian species were placed kept in separate cages at Avian Conservation and Research Center, Department of Wildlife an Ecology, University of Veterinary and Animal Sciences, Lahore, Pakistan. 100 fecal and 100 blood samples for each bird species were inspected to analyze internal parasites. During present study, 17 species of endoparasites 14 from fecal samples and three from blood were examined. Two species of ectoparasites i.e. mite Dermanyssus gallinae 42% and fowl ticks Args persicus 41%were studied. Blood parasites included Plasmodium juxtanucleare 50%, Leucoctoyzoon simond having parasitic prevalence 40%, and Aegyptinella pullorum having parasitic prevalence of 40%. Parasitic species recorded from fecal samples included 6 species of nematodes viz. Allodpa suctoria 2%. Syngamus trachea with parasitic prevalence of 60%, Capillaria annulata 37.5%, Ascardia galli 24%, Capillaria anatis 40% and Heterakis gallinarum 28.3%. Similarly, two species of trematodes viz. Prosthogonimus ovatus having parasitic prevalence of 50% and Prosthogonimus macrorchis 21% were also documented from fecal avian samples . Single cestode species Raillietina echinobothrida having parasitic prevalence of 72% and 3 protozoan species i.e. Eimeria maxima having parasitic prevalence of 21%, Giardia lamblia 41% and Histomonas meleagridis 18% were documented during corpological analysis. In our recommendation, proper sanitation, medication and vaccination of bird’s enclousres are suggested to avoid parasites. RESUMO Amostras de sangue e fezes de perdiz chukar (Alectoris chukar), faisão-albino (Phasianus colchicus), faisão-prateado (Lophura nycthemera), periquito-de-rosa (Psittacula krameri) e perus (Meleagris gallopavo) foram analisadas para verificar a prevalência de parasitas. Para registrar os parasitas, essas cinco espécies de aves foram colocadas em gaiolas separadas no Centro de Conservação e Pesquisa de Aves, Departamento de Vida Selvagem e Ecologia, Universidade de Veterinária e Ciências Animais, Lahore, Paquistão. Cem amostras fecais e 100 amostras de sangue para cada espécie de ave foram inspecionadas para analisar os parasitas internos. Durante o presente estudo, foram examinadas 17 espécies de endoparasitas, 14 de amostras fecais e 3 de sangue. Foram estudadas duas espécies de ectoparasitas, ou seja, o ácaro Dermanyssus gallinae 42% e o carrapato aviário Args persicus 41%. Os parasitas sanguíneos incluíram Plasmodium juxtanucleare 50%, Leucoctoyzoon simond com prevalência parasitária de 40% e Aegyptinella pullorum com prevalência parasitária de 40%. As espécies parasitas registradas em amostras fecais incluíram 6 espécies de nematoides viz. Allodpa suctoria 2%, Syngamus traqueia com prevalência parasitária de 60%, Capillaria annulata 37,5%, Ascardia galli 24%, Capillaria anatis 40% e Heterakis gallinarum 28,3%. Da mesma forma, duas espécies de trematódeos viz. Prosthogonimus ovatus com prevalência parasitária de 50% e Prosthogonimus macrorchis 21% também foram documentados em amostras fecais de aves. Espécies de cestoide único Raillietina echinobothrida com prevalência parasitária de 72% e 3 espécies de protozoários, isto é, Eimeria maxima com prevalência parasitária de 21%, Giardia lamblia 41% e Histomonas meleagridis 18% foram documentadas durante a análise corpológica. Em nossa recomendação, o saneamento adequado, medicação e vacinação de invólucros de pássaros são sugeridos para evitar parasitas.

Climate change has had large impacts on marine animals, including neon flying squid Ommastrephes bartramii (O. bartramii) in the North Pacific Ocean. O. bartramii statoliths from 2012, 2015, and 2016 were used to evaluate the variations in life cycle events. The relationship between mantle length and body weight showed significant differences between years and gender. The oldest squid was collected in 2016 at 271 days old, further proving that O. bartramii has nearly a 1-year life span. The hatching season ranged from December to May and the peak hatching time in 2015 was one-half month later than in 2012 and 2016. Growth rates varied with environmental factors such as sea surface temperature (SST) and chlorophyll a concentration (chl. a), indicating that higher SST and chl. a concentrations led to faster growth. An extreme El Nino event with lower SST in 2015 also led to younger age class and slower growth rates. The occurrence of differences in body size and growth rates between years, caused by the interannual variations of environmental factors, makes it necessary to use separate growth curves for different years when analyzing North Pacific O. Bartramii populations.

The symbolism of bird images occupies one of the central places in the system of Romantic worldview. It represents the Romantic attitude towards the outside world in Гайдук С. Образ орла як уособлення поета у поезії епохи романтизмуISSN 2411-4758109general and towards the closest human «partners» in nature, in particular. In literary works, it also shows Romantic orientations on certain artistic traditions: folk, biblical, antique. It is noted that the eagle image is one of the main bird images of the wild fauna which can be found in Romantic poetry. The purpose of the article is to highlight the peculiarities of the eagle symbolism as the personifi cation of poet in the poetry of T. Shevchenko, O. Pushkin, N. Yazykov, and J. Keats. It is stated that the eagle image is the personifi cation of such features of Romantic outlook as freedom, creative inspiration, high spiritual demands. Thus, in Romantic culture, the eagle is a symbol of poet. The poet’s personality is directly associated with such features of this bird as, high aspirations and sharp eyesight. This emphasizes the poet’s need to be over events and situations in order to depict them adequately, without conformism. To a certain extent, this is a manifestation of a Classical tradition. This eagle symbolism is very typical of Classicism. It is indicated that the aforementioned Romantic poets carry such features of eagle as pride, majesty, safety, independent glory, freedom, on the poet image as a creator. Therefore, the eagle image in their poetry becomes the personifi cation of poet, a distinctive symbol of the literary Olympus and literary fame. However, it should be remembered that symbol as one of the most signifi cant components of Romantic poetry is characterized by ambiguity. The ways of representing the eagle image in the works of Romantic poets form a multi-dimensional range of symbols. That is why the interpretation of other symbolic meanings of the eagle image in the poetry of the Romantic era is the prospect of our further research.

There is a little understanding of how apex carnivores partition their diet to coexist. We studied food habit and trophic niche overlap of two apex carnivores, tiger and leopard in the tropical forest of Similipal tiger reserve, eastern India. We used line transect and scat analysis method, to estimate the prey availability and determine the diet and prey selection of two apex carnivores. Tigers consumed mostly large and medium-sized prey, whereas leopards mostly consumed medium and small-sized prey. Both carnivores were not random in their consumption of prey, sambar and wild pigs were selectively consumed by tigers, whereas leopards selectively consumed wild pigs, barking deer and mouse deer. Dietary overlap between two carnivore species was moderate (Pianka's niche overlap index: 0.55), and trophic niche breadth (Levin's standardized niche breadth) of the leopard (0.52) was greater than that of the tiger (0.37). Overall, tigers exhibited specialized feeding habits, whereas leopards showed generalist feeding habits. Our study highlights the opportunistic nature of leopards and probably a reason for the species successfully coexist with tigers.

Increasing fuel prices and depletion of conventional sources of energy has promoted research in non-conventional sources like biodiesel from non-edible seeds and industrial wastes. The present work focuses on the elicitation of biodiesel from the seeds of capparis spinosa L. The crude bio-oil extracted from the seeds of capparis spinosa L transesterified into biodiesel using calcium oxide as a heterogeneous catalyst derived from oyster shells. The oyster shell powder is characterized before and after calcination using XRD and the calcinated oyster shell is observed through SEM to analyze the size of the particle and morphology. The produced biodiesel was characterized by GC analysis and the fuel properties of biodiesel such as density, flash point, cloud point, pour point and kinematic viscosity, ash content, carbon residue was analyzed and compared with commercial diesel.

Cerebral white matter consists mainly of axons surrounded by myelin sheaths, which are grouped to form association, commissural, and projection fasciculi. The aim of our work was to quantify and compare under the microscope the axons of the white matter association fasciculi in the cerebral hemispheres of cow (Bos taurus), pig (Sus scrofa domesticus) and rabbit (Oryctolagus cuniculus) indirectly by identification of their myelin sheaths. The samples were taken from 30 cerebral hemispheres: 10 cow, 10 pig and 10 rabbit (15 right and 15 left). They were obtained following a protocol based on the Talairach-Tournoux coordinate system for human and primate brains. The slides were stained with Luxol Fast Blue, observed by optical microscopy, and photographed at 600x. Samples were also prepared for observation in scanning transmission electron microscopy (STEM) with osmium tetroxide. The myelin sheaths/axons were counted with the ImageJ software. Statistically significant differences in the number of myelin sheaths per 410 µm² were found in the inferior and superior longitudinal fasciculi between the left and right hemispheres of cows, with predominance of the right hemisphere; and in the inferior occipitofrontal fasciculus of the rabbit with predominance of the left hemisphere. The use of animal models for experiments in the cerebral fasciculi, especially pig, could give us a greater understanding of the behavior of demyelinating and neurodegenerative diseases in humans.

Birdsong is one of the most complex signals in the animal world, as it may consist of many different sounds grouped according to certain rules. Singing acts as a distant signal, indicating, e.g., the species and gender identity of the singer. However, territorial songbirds also use singing as an interactive social signal during territorial disputes, as well while interacting with female. In these contexts, males vary the type and timing of their songs to convey graded information about their motivational state, and those variations can play a role in communication. In this review, we considered how male songbirds vary their singing in territorial context. To study such variations, researchers usually simulated territorial intrusion by broadcasting conspecific singing in territories, including singing modified in a manner necessary for the researcher. For comparison, we considered briefly how singing vary in intersexual context. The author of the paper focuses on the role of singing complexity in communication. Therefore, not all known context-dependent changes in singing are considered, but only those related to “complexity”: the diversity of song/sound types and the transitional patterns of different song/sound types in the course of singing. Our review has shown that males change their singing when they detect environmental changes such as the appearance of a female or a competitor as follows: 1) song rate increases, 2) syllable rate increases, 3) song-type switching rate increases, 4) song-type diversity increases (i.e., the observed repertoire size), and 5) longer and more complex songs are predominantly used. In some species, the song bout organization may also change, but the data is still scarce. Typically, one or more, but not all the aforementioned acoustic behaviors have been found in a given song-bird species. All these behaviors (tactics) come down to a single strategy, namely: maximizing the acoustic diversity over a short period of time (e.g., several minutes), that is, increasing the number of different song and/or note types. The proximate causes of how the increased acoustic diversity work in the territorial competition context might lie in a sensory, or perceptual bias of the receiver. Namely, habituation should occur to repeated presentation of the same song type faster than to presentation of different song types. Therefore, by vocalizing more diversely, males more effectively influence the signal recipient’s behavior.

Telomeres have been advocated to be important markers of biological age in evolutionary and ecological studies. Telomeres usually shorten with age, and shortening is frequently associated with environmental stressors and increased subsequent mortality. Telomere lengthening – an apparent increase in telomere length between repeated samples from the same individual – also occurs. However, the exact circumstances, and consequences, of telomere lengthening are poorly understood. Using longitudinal data from the Seychelles warbler (Acrocephalus sechellensis), we tested whether telomere lengthening – which occurs in adults of this species – is associated with specific stressors (reproductive effort, food availability, malarial infection and cooperative breeding) and predicts subsequent survival. In females, telomere shortening was observed under greater stress (i.e. low food availability, malaria infection), while telomere lengthening was observed in females experiencing lower stress (i.e. high food availability, assisted by helpers, without malaria). The telomere dynamics of males were not associated with the key stressors tested. These results indicate that, at least for females, telomere lengthening occurs in circumstances more conducive to self-maintenance. Importantly, both females and males with lengthened telomeres had improved subsequent survival relative to individuals that displayed unchanged, or shortened, telomeres – indicating that telomere lengthening is associated with individual fitness. These results demonstrate that telomere dynamics are bidirectionally responsive to the level of stress that an individual faces, but may poorly reflect the accumulation of stress over the lifetime. This study challenges how we think of telomeres as a marker of biological age.

This study explored the variations in oxidative stress markers in Parasitized and non- Parasitized Amietophrynus regularis in diverse conditions such as OCP-exposed, unexposed, parasitized, and unparasitized conditions. The toad specimens were collected from natural habitats and dumpsites of three (3) major areas of Lagos. 15g wet weight of the liver, intestine, and parasites were prepared and analysed for oxidative stress parameters including; SOD, CAT, GSH, and MDA activities according to well established protocols. Based on stations, there were significant differences in the SOD and MDA levels in the liver and intestine of uninfected toads obtained at the habitat and the dumpsite. Only SOD had a significant difference in the infected toads. Also, the concentration of SOD in the parasites recovered from the toads at the dumpsite was very much significantly higher than the concentration in those recovered from the toads at the natural habitat (p

Notas sobre las aves de Oaxaca central, parte II: Hirundinidae a FringillidaeSe reportan nuevos datos que amplían y clarifican nuestro conocimiento del estatus y distribución de 112 especies de aves en la región central del Estado de Oaxaca. Las observaciones se realizaron abarcando partes de los distritos de Centro, Etla, Ixtlan, Tlacolula, y Zaachila dentro de 35 km alrededor de la Ciudad de Oaxaca. El reporte se basa en observaciones tomadas durante 752 días, comprendidos entre diciembre 1996 y mayo 2002. Los principales hábitats del área son de pino-encino (incluyendo zonas pequeñas de pino-encino-oyamel y pino-encino mezclado con pastizales), matorral de encino, matorral subtropical, vegetación riparia, y vegetación secundaria, campos agrícolas y otros (incluyendo áreas urbanas, jardines, y parques). Las siguientes especies se reportan por primera vez en la zona: Progne sinaloae (registro nuevo en el estado de Oaxaca), Thryothorus felix, Hylocichla mustelina, Vermivora pinus, Vermivora chrysoptera, Dendroica pensylvanica, Dendroica magnolia, Dendroica fusca, Dendroica graciae, Oporornis philadelphia, Wilsonia canadensis, y Spiza americana.Además, las siguientes nueve especies se han reportado solamente en los Conteos Navideños o por registros únicos: Tachycineta bicolor, Dumetella carolinensis, Vermivora peregrina, Dendroica dominica, Dendroica discolor, y Piranga erythrocephala (en temporada de reproducción). Se reportan datos de la reproducción de 43 especies, 18 de los cuales no se habían registrado en estado reproductivo antes en esta zona. De estos 43, 39 se pueden agrupar como reproduciéndose en los meses de abril a julio.

1AbstractIndividuals differ in many ways. Most produce few offspring; a handful produce many. Some die early; others live to old age. It is tempting to attribute these differences in out-comes to differences in individual traits, and thus in the demographic rates experienced. However, there is more to individual variation than meets the eye of the biologist. Even among individuals sharing identical traits, life history outcomes will vary due to individual stochasticity, i.e., to chance. Quantifying the contributions of heterogeneity and chance is essential to understanding natural variability. Inter-individual differences vary across environmental conditions. Heterogeneity and stochasticity depend on environmental conditions. We show that favorable conditions increase the contributions of individual stochasticity, and reduce the contributions of heterogeneity, to variance in demographic outcomes in a seabird population. The opposite is true under poor conditions. This result has important consequence for understanding the ecology and evolution of life history strategies.

The study aimed to evaluate the comparative anatomy of the liver and intrahepatic branching of the portal vein of the Eurasian otter (Lutra lutra) and the American mink (Neovison vison). Due to their highly valuable fur, minks have expanded their range to many parts of Europe and become available for many biomedical studies. In this study, ten adult minks and five otters were used. The intrahepatic branching of the portal vein was studied by the combined injection and dissection technique. The macroscopic anatomy of the liver revealed that both species have six-lobed livers, although differences in shape, size and some additional fissures were documented. The portal vein, upon entering the liver, divides into the right and left branches. The branching pattern in otters had an additional branch at this level with a caudate process branch. The right branch of the portal vein ramified in the right lateral lobe and the caudate process in the mink livers, while the right branch in the otter livers only distributed functional blood to the right lateral lobe. The larger left portal branch, with its transverse and umbilical parts, ramified in the left liver portion, along with the quadrate, right medial lobe and papillary process.

Panthera gombaszoegensis was recorded over from 100 African and Eurasian localities, ranged between 2.5 and 0.3 Myr. Among them, seven cave sites, Żabia, Tunel Wielki, Kozi Grzbiet, Draby 3, Poludniowa, Biśnik, and Komarowa caves, dated in the range of 1.7–0.3 Myr, were those in Poland. They were located in Sudety Mts, Krakow-Czestochowa Upland, Wielun Upland and Holy Cross Mts. The material from Polish sites is not very numerous, being represented mostly by isolated teeth, metapodials and phalanges, however it is well informative diagnostically. From each site, except the Biśnik Cave, remains of a single large-sized individual, mostly of males, were found. The oldest record from Żabia Cave, dated on 1.7–1.5 Myr, because of lack of suifficient diagnostic features, was classified as P. gombaszoegensis. Bones from the other sites were assigned to Panthera gombaszoegensis gombaszoegensis, late Early and Middle Pleistocene chronoform widespread in Eurasia. Analysis of a large series of teeth size in the course of time does not showed any particular changes, and the size of the Eurasian jaguar was more or less comparatively large through its entire timespan occurrence. Panthera gombaszoegensis was ecologically flexible species able to hunt in a wide prey spectrum; its size, comparable with that of a small lion Panthera leo (Linnaeus, 1758) or island tiger Panthera tigris (Linnaeus, 1758), guaranteed this jaguar one of the leading position among large carnivores. This was a member of stabile by 1 Myr carnivore paleoguild, single, conical-toothed cat, and it was well adapted to changed environmental conditions initiated by glacial-interglacial cycles. It seems that climate changes do not affected so much on P. gombaszoegensis as previously thought. The main factor responsible for the jaguar decline was the arrival of the Pleistocene lion, which affected negatively and caused strong competition. Because to its flexibility, jaguar was able to survive relatively longer than other ancient carnivores. Gradually as the density and abundance of the lion increased, a compact and wide geographic range started to shrink up to the form of isolated areas. Areas with the last, relict jaguar survivors were located far away one from another and overwhelmed by populations of P. s. fossilis. The final extinction of the species was between 350 and 300 kyr, and among them Polish find from the layer 19ad of Biśnik Cave should be highlighted as one of the latest Eurasian record of Panthera gombaszoegensis.

Contrary to the intuition that salespeople gravitate toward big-whale sales opportunities, in reality they often avoid them. To study this phenomenon, the authors integrate contingent decision-making and conservation-of-resources theories to develop and test a framework of salespeople's decision making when prospecting. Study 1 reveals that the performance impact of salesperson initial judgment of opportunity magnitude follows an inverted U-shape, indicating that salespeople's avoidance of large opportunities results from rational benefit–cost analyses due to their conservation of resources. Interestingly, salespeople use a calibration decision-making strategy (i.e., calculating expected benefits by accounting for conversion uncertainty) at the portfolio rather than prospect level, in solution- but not product-selling contexts. Ignoring this calibration effect can lead to under- or overestimation of conversion rates of up to 100%. Study 2 shows that salespeople's past performance success and experience bias this calibration. Simulations reveal that when high performers or inexperienced salespeople believe their portfolio magnitude is large and conversion uncertainty low, they are less concerned about resource conservation and improve their quota attainment by 50%. Study 3 confirms the theoretical mechanism. These findings shed new light on salespeople's decision making and suggest ways for sales professionals to improve effectiveness when prospecting.

The present is a palaeobiological and taphonomic analysis of a Marine Isotope Stages (MIS) 4–3 (Late Pleistocene) assemblage of animal remains and hominin artefacts from layers 7–5 of Biśnik Cave, Czestochowa Upland, Poland. The analysis indicates that the bone assemblage is the result of a time-averaged palimpsest of both biotic and episodic abiotic events, the former consisting of many successive generations of animals and hominins that frequented the cave, and the latter including hydraulic winnowing. In fact, the taphonomic history of the fossil assemblage from Biśnik Cave's layers 7–5 is partially obscured by the overprint of hydraulic winnowing, which purportedly removed a certain amount of the original specimens. Besides evidence of cave bear deaths from non-violent, hibernation-related mortality and of occupation by generations of denning wolves and hyaenas, there is a wealth of flint artefacts, alongside remains of a few fireplaces and of a structure built in the cave by hominins to partition the cave chambers. The studied layer contains an impressive number of shed antlers, primarily of the red deer Cervus elaphus. Crocuta crocuta spelaea is normally held responsible for such accumulations of shed antlers in various European caves; Biśnik Cave's layers 7–5 will therefore simply add to the list. However, the role of accumulator of shed antlers attributed to the Pleistocene spotted hyena does not match the behaviour of its modern counterpart and seems not accounted for metabolically. The only reasonable alternative is that the antlers were collected by hominins. From this alternative perspective the cave would have functioned as a warehouse, where naturally shed antlers were stored as raw material, potentially to be shaped into tools and/or employed as tools to make other tools. The palaeobiological and taphonomic analysis presented here provides new insights into the succession of pre- and postdepositional events that involved the bone remains accumulated in the cave, as well as into the interactions between the animals and hominins of the time. More importantly, if hominins, and not hyaenas, were responsible for the amassment of the shed antlers in Biśnik Cave, this study raises doubts as to the hyaenid or human origin of other similar cave accumulations of shed antlers throughout Europe.

Receptor recognition is a major determinant of viral host range, as well as infectivity and pathogenesis. Emergences have been associated with serendipitous events of adaptation upon encounters with a novel host, and the high mutation rate of RNA viruses has been proposed to explain their frequent host shifts 1. SARS-CoV-2 extensive circulation in humans has been associated with the emergence of variants, including variants of concern (VOCs) with diverse mutations in the spike and increased transmissibility or immune escape 2. Here we show that unlike the initial virus, VOCs are able to infect common laboratory mice, replicating to high titers in the lungs. This host range expansion is explained in part by the acquisition of changes at key positions of the receptor binding domain that enable binding to the mouse angiotensin-converting enzyme 2 (ACE2) cellular receptor, although differences between viral lineages suggest that other factors are involved in the capacity of SARS-CoV-2 VOCs to infect mice. This abrogation of the species barrier raises the possibility of wild rodent secondary reservoirs and provides new experimental models to study disease pathophysiology and countermeasures.

Despite differences in behaviors and living conditions, vertebrate organisms share the great majority of proteins, often with subtle differences in amino acid sequence. Here, we present a simple way to analyze the difference in amino acid occurrence by comparing highly homologous proteins on a sub-proteome level between several vertebrate model organisms. Specifically, we use this method to identify a pattern of amino acid conservation as well as a shift in amino acid occurrence between homeotherms (warm-blooded species) and poikilotherms (cold-blooded species). Importantly, this general analysis and a specific example further establish a correlation, if not likely connection between the thermoadaptation of protein sequences and two of their physical features: a possible change in their protein dynamics and, even more strongly, in their solvation. For poikilotherms, such as frog and fish, the lower body temperature is expected to increase the association of proteins due to a decrease in protein internal dynamics. In order to prevent overly-sticky protein association at low temperatures, the use of amino acids suggests that poikilotherms enhance the solvation of their proteins by favoring polar groups on their protein’s surface. This feature appears to dominate over possible changes in dynamics. The results suggest that a general trend for amino acid choice is part of the mechanism for thermoadaptation of vertebrate organisms at the molecular level.

Human settlements, including cities, may provide wildlife with new ecological niches, in terms of habitat types and food availability, thus requiring plasticity for adaptation. The crested porcupine Hystrix cristata is a habitat-generalist, large-sized rodent, also recorded in some suburban areas, but no information is available on its habitat use in metropolitan landscapes. Thus, we studied land-use factors influencing the presence of crested porcupines in a metropolitan area of Central Italy. We collected data on the occurrence of crested porcupines from the metropolitan area of Rome following an observer-oriented approach to record occurrences and estimate pseudo-absences. We then related the presence/absence of H. cristata to the landscape composition. Occupancy models showed that cultivations and scrubland were positively correlated with porcupine presence, most likely as providing this species with clumped food resources and shelter sites, respectively. Although the crested porcupine has been confirmed as a “generalist” species in terms of habitat selection, a strong preference for areas limiting the risk of being killed and providing enough food and shelter was observed. We therefore suggest that the crested porcupine may adapt to deeply modified landscapes such as large cities by selecting specific favourable land-use types.

Recent evidence suggests that about 30%of patients with mild to moderate Alzheimer’s disease (AD) without a known diagnosis of epilepsy may display epileptiform spikes during electroencephalographic (EEG) recordings. These abnormal discharges occur predominantly during sleep and may be associated with accelerated disease progression. Subclinical spikes may represent a relevant target for clinical drug interventions, and there is a clear unmet need for preclinical testing of novel disease modifying agents in suitable animal models. Transgenic rodent models of AD pathology exhibit various forms of epileptiform EEG activity related to the abnormal levels of amyloid species in the brain. Among them, large-amplitude cortical and hippocampal EEG spikes in mouse and rat AD models may be reminiscent of the subclinical epileptiform EEG spikes recorded in some AD patients. This article reports the recommendations of a multidisciplinary panel of experts on optimal EEG markers and experimental designs to measure and report epileptiform activities and their response to symptomatic and disease-modifying drugs in transgenic AD model rodents. These recommendations may harmonize future preclinical EEG studies in the drug discovery research and may increase the comparability of experimental outcomes and their translational clinical value.

This corpus-based article explores London and Madrid teenagers’ use of phatic expressions as a politeness device in their everyday conversations. The starting-point for the study is Leech’s ‘Phatic Maxim’, which he suggests as a supplement to the four maxims making up Grice’s Cooperative Principle. The purport of the maxim is to avoid silence by keeping talking, which may involve anything from loose formulaic talk to connectors and the use of taboo words, all of which are phatic devices with a strong bonding effect. The teenage talk studied here is largely void of the formulaic expressions that characterize conversational openings and closings in adult speakers’ casual encounters. Both groups are frequent users of turn-final appealers which trigger turn-initial uptakes and of reaction signals realized by interjections and taboo words, all with a strongly bonding effect. Boys in particular are not only allowed but even expected to use taboo language as a sign of camaraderie and a means to reinforce the phatic strength of an exchange. In both corpora, there is ample use of fillers that help the speaker to hold the turn, and hedges, which often act as fillers in addition to helping the speaker avoid self-commitment. And whereas the Spanish teenagers use certain vocatives as a purely conversational resource to establish and maintain contact, the English teenagers insert ‘unsolicited’ minimal feedback signals (for example, realized by mhm or mm) which encourage the current speaker to go on speaking.

This study explores metapragmatic comments in Nigerian quasi-judicial public hearings, involving interactions between complainants, defendants and a hearing panel, with a view to investigating their forms, features, distribution and functions. The data are analysed quantitatively and qualitatively from a discourse-pragmatic framework that incorporates Verschueren’s theory of metapragmatics, Mey’s pragmatic act theory, Grice’s Cooperative Principle and conversation analysis. Four types of metapragmatic comments are used: speech act descriptions, talk regulation comments, maxim adherence/violation related comments and metalinguistic comments. Their distribution and functioning are shown to be partly predictable from properties of the speech event, while they also co-determine the nature and development of the analysed hearings.

Brown & Levinson opened their 1987 commentary on their theory of politeness by reemphasizing not only that their framework presumed “that Grice’s theory of conversational implicature and the framework of maxims that give rise to such implicatures is essentially correct” (p. 3), but also that their theory presupposed “the other great contribution by Grice, namely his account of the nature of communication as a special kind of intention designed to be recognized by the recipient” (p. 7; cf. Levinson 1983: 16-18; 1995: 227-232). Brown & Levinson also closed their 1987 commentary with a projection for future development of their theory

In a recent column one television critic for Toronto's The Globe and Mail bemoans the loss of "aggressive interviewing in Canadian television." He points out that "At their best, good television interviewers...have an edge and persistence that makes some subjects quirm and sweat. For viewers there is always the chance something revealing or unexpected will occur and it is this element of surprise that is altogether too rare in the painfully polite and well-behaved studios of both the state broadcaster (CBC) and the private networks." In her discussion of political interviews on Israeli television, Blum-Kulka (1983) likens such interviews to a game between speakers which "when the game is well played by all interactants, is drama" (146). "The goal of the interviewers," she states, "is not necessarily to corner the politician but to get him to state his opinions and analysis of political issues, in a manner that is quotable" (146). Blum-Kulka points out that political interviews represent a distinct genre or register wherein speakers adhere to Grice's Cooperative Principle and engage in supportive or non-supportive moves largely determined by reinforcement or non-reinforcement of presuppositions represented in the questions posed by interviewers. In the data which I examine, which consist of 23 interviews done by four interviewers, two female, two male, three Canadian, one American, and which range from political to topical interviews on both television and radio, interviewers employ an extensive repertoire of speech acts which includes requests for information, assertions, requests for confirmation, rhetorical questions, socratic questions, clarifications, and comments or evaluations. As one would expect, requests for information are the principal speech act employed by interviewers. Moreover, most requests for information employed by interviewers are direct requests. Nonetheless, a significant percentage of requests for information are indirect. Interviewers, in effect, ask to ask. For example, interviewers can state directly "Tell me about downsizing and your views on it, because it's certainly the buzzword on the current economy," using an imperative, but they can also employ a range of indirect forms such as

This study forms part of a research project on dialogic interaction modalit ies in three different situations: natural conversation, research interview and first chnical interview. In this paper natural pair conversation will be studied, in particular the effects of speaker's sex on quality and quantity of linguistic production, on content memory and personal interaction quality. The other two types of dialogic interaction, which will be further investigated in future research, will be considered to check similarities and differences and also to see whether it is possible to distinguish in the subjects' individual performance in natural conversation, some style indices of good and poor performance in the research interview and in the first clinical interview. The reciprocity of l istening, attention and involvement between the two speakers is fundamental for whatever conversational exchange, that is tor any cooperative exchange in which the two speakers share an aim (Grice 1975). These characteristics become even more important when the shared aim is the acquisition of information on the subject (research interview) or on the patient (first clinical interview), and it is of course essential in all types of psychotherapy based on speaking. The other two types of dialogue are just mentioned here, with reference to the final aim of the whole research, that is to identifu descriptive indices in different conversational styles, that might serve to evaluate also the quality of the communicative interaction which is at the basis of the subject-researcher relationship as well as of the patient-psychotherapist relationship as tar as the first

The construction is of interest first because it appears to be universal; second because an analysis of its occurrence and interpretation illustrates some of the activities pertormed by participants in discourse, the resources that language and languages make available for those activities, the principles that govern the interactions between language and context, and the ways in which speakers can manipulate those resources for narrative purposes; and third, because its successful analysis provides support for the principles and assumptions used to account for it. I will argue that the subordinate clause of the construction represents an interpretation of its local discourse context, which in turn licenses the derivation of a range of locally specific inferential connections between the context and the clause. These characteristics can be accounted for by Grice's cooperative principle (CP) and maxims of conversation. I have been looking for examples of this sentence type for several years, but have so far collected only 85. The infrequency of the construction is matched by the infrequency with which it is mentioned by linguists. I know of only seven references to it, and in three of these the construction is mentioned merely as an appendix to the discussion of another sentence form. Delahunty (1982) mentions it as a type of cleft sentence, a position endorsed by Declerck (1988, 1992), (but see Collins 199I); Quirk et al. (1985) mention it in a footnote to their discussion of obligatory extrapositive constructions; Kuno (1973) discusses the Japanese analogue,, the no

Garfinkel writes: "When I speak of accountable my interests are directed to such matters as the following. I mean observable-and-reportable, i.e., available to members as situated practices of looking-and-tellin g" (1967: 1). The elucidation of these practices is a central objective of ethnomethodology. Certain of our practices might be called "unspecifying practices." Garfinkel (3) mentions three: "et cetera," "let it pass," and "unless." The et cetera move, for example, allows us to add initially unenvisioned and unspecified instances to some inventory, without being seen to have violated the rules or instructions for constituting that inventory.t Grice, with his notion of conversational implicature (1975), has proposed what we might call "specifying practices." This might appear to be exactly the sort of contribution that would be appreciated in ethnomethodology, and yet Grice, and conversational implicature in general, has received little attention from ethnomethodologists. Perhaps the reason for this is to be found in one of Garfinkel's dictums: "A leading policy is to refuse serious consideration to the prevailing proposal that ... rational properties of practical activities be assessed, recognized, categorized, described by using a rule or standard obtained outside actual settings within which such properties are recognized, used, produced, and talked about by settings' members" (33). It is not clear to me, though, whether this objection is properly applied to Grice's maxims. At any rate, implicature does seem to take place, members do on occasion seem to draw certain conclusions that are not asserted or logically implied, and Grice tries to describe and explain how they do it. Perhaps we can reconcile Grice and Garfinkel by treating Grice's maxims as resources that members can call upon and use according to the situation, that is, "as a recoverable, reproducible stock of knowledge and skills available in daily, routine, mundane ways of talking and acting" (Lee 1992:225). The Gricean maxims are precisely about "situated practices of looking-and-telling," i.e., about accounting practices. Although the maxims are given in general terms, they are deeply indexical:2 "Make your contribution as informative as is required" or "Be

REGISTER AND THE REDEMPTION OF RELEVANCE THEORY The case of metaphor Andrew Goatly The argument I wish to advance in this paper is that Gricean theory (Grice 1968, 1969, 1975, 1978, 1981) and, in particular, the potentially useful relevance theory which developed from it (Sperber & Wilson 1986), are flawed through their failure to consider cultural and social context; but that attempts to relate linguistic pragmatics to more socially-conscious models of language use, such as register/genre theory (Ure and Ellis 1977; Halliday 1978; Gregory and Carroll 1978; Ghadessy 1988, 1993; Swales 1988; Martin 1985, 1992 etc.) may produce interesting cross-fertilization and be beneficial to both. This essay falls into three sections. The first is a brief introductory critique of Grice's theory as an asocial idealized construct. The second section brings relevance theory and genre/register theory face to face and under the spotlight, hoping to reveal the weaknesses of each and show how, theoretically, they could compensate for and complement each other. In the third section I consider the case of metaphor, arguing that and demonstrating how the account of metaphor provided in Relevance: Communication and Cognition can be supplemented in practice by considering the kinds of register/genre in which metaphors find expression

One way to classify person systems across languages is by means of the semantic category of person and/or number, where person forms, with distinct referential values, are supposed to be in complementary distribution to each other. However, when we look into some finer details in a language-particular person system, i.e. that of the Puxian dialect in Chinese, there are person forms or expressions that are engaged in supplementary distribution and have meanings beyond what is literally said (Grice 1989). Different from previous approaches, which tended to analyze a person system into separate domains of study, e.g. reflexivity, intensification, logophoricity, empathy, etc., the author proposes that all the person-related meanings (semantics & pragmatics) constitute a “function inventory”, which has a stable structure called “inventory structure”. In the structure, each of the overtly expressed person meanings is assigned to a choice of node, from which multiple outcomes can be developed. The significance of this approach is that it tries to circumvent some pre-established categories and focuses instead on meaningful differences in a system (Sausurre 1983).

Since Paul Grice first propounded his ideas surrounding conversation and implicature in 1967, they have had a continuous and tremendous impact on theorizing, and indeed on the design of entire research programmes, in philosophy, but also in many other disciplines, in particular linguistic pragmatics. Much of what builds on Grice’s original suggestions now belongs to the most powerful hypotheses in the respective fields. But while scholars outside philosophy usually acknowledge Grice’s merits for their own areas of interest, they hardly ever pay attention to his original philosophical intentions. These intentions are the central topic of the present paper. Its primary concern is to show how the theory of conversational implicature enabled Grice to adopt a unique theoretical position within 20th century analytic philosophy. In doing so, it also hopes to eliminate a number of widespread misconceptions regarding the explanatory ambitions of Grice’s original theory.

The notion of implicature was first introduced by Grice (1967, 1989), who defined it essentially as what is communicated less what is said. This definition contributed in part to the proliferation of a large number of different species of implicature by neo-Griceans. Relevance theorists have responded to this by proposing a shift back to the distinction between explicit and implicit meaning (corresponding to explicature and implicature respectively). However, they appear to have pared down the concept of implicature too much, ignoring phenomena which may be better treated as implicatures in their over-generalisation of the concept of explicature. These problems have their roots in the fact that explicit and implicit meaning intuitively overlap, and thus do not provide a suitable basis for distinguishing implicature from other types of pragmatic phenomena. An alternative conceptualisation of implicature based on the concept of implying with which Grice originally associated his notion of implicature is thus proposed. From this definition it emerges that implicature constitutes something else inferred by the addressee that is not literally said by the speaker. Instead, it is meant in addition to what the literally speaker says, and consequently, it is defeasible like all other types of pragmatic phenomena.

A large collection of goose bones was recovered from excavations at Wheatcroft Farm, Bradwell, Norfolk. The goose bones were of particular interest due to the large quantity present and the presence of medullary bone in some of the specimens. All of the goose bones derived from two 11th-12th century contexts found in close association with a grain drying kiln and related sunken structure. The majority of the bones came from a single posthole. Evidence from body part representation, butchery marks and the occurrence of medullary bone is examined. Domestic geese are common on medieval sites in England and the element distribution and butchery marks are suggestive of waste from carcass preparation for cooking, with the meatiest elements largely having been removed. It seems possible that goose ‘crowns’ were being prepared and then cooked in or close to the kiln. The presence of medullary bone is unusual due to the more seasonal laying behaviour of geese compared to chickens and is examined in detail.

This paper examines an artefact type of unknown function, found in several places across medieval England. These artefacts are mostly made from goose radii, but other species, such as chicken and hare, are also known. The worked radii have often been interpreted as being related to writing, but a closer examination suggests that they are more likely to be awls.

Non-human primates, especially rhesus macaques, have been a dominant model to study sensorimotor control of the upper limbs. Indeed, human and macaques have similar hands and homologous neural circuits to mediate manual behavior. However, few studies have systematically and quantitatively compared the manual behaviors of the two species. Such comparison is critical for assessing the validity of using the macaque sensorimotor system as a model of its human counterpart. In this study, we systematically compared the prehensile behaviors of humans and rhesus macaques using an identical experimental setup. We found human and macaque prehension kinematics to be generally similar with a few subtle differences. While the structure of the preshaping postures is similar in humans and macaques, human postures are more object-specific and human joints are less intercorrelated. Conversely, monkeys demonstrate more stereotypical grasping behaviors that are common across all grasp conditions and more variability in their postures across repeated grasps of the same object. Despite these subtle differences in manual behavior between humans and monkeys, our results bolster the use of the macaque model to understand the neural mechanisms of manual dexterity in humans.New and newsworthyMacaques have been a dominant animal model to study the neural mechanisms of human dexterity because they exhibit complex manual behavior. We show that the kinematics of prehension – a critical dexterous behavior – are largely similar in humans and macaques. However, human preshaping postures are more object-specific and the movement of human digits are less correlated with each other. The thumb, index, and wrist are major driver of these interspecies differences.

This paper focuses on new findings from Middle Paleolithic Geula Cave, Israel, located in the northern part of Mt. Carmel. The cave, consists of several small chambers that are remnants of a larger cave system, initially excavated between 1958 and 1964. The occupation at the cave was ascribed to Middle Paleolithic modern humans. In 2016, a salvage excavation was conducted in areas of the cave that were not previously explored. Analyses of the new excavation revealed a consistency in lithic technology throughout the new excavation areas, with an emphasis on Levallois production using mainly bidirectional and centripetal core preparation modes. The faunal study identified intensive hyena and porcupine activities in small chambers, probably at the back part of the cave, while fractured bones in association with flint artifacts were found at what appears as the living area in the cave. Luminescence ages indicated that Geula Cave was occupied as early as 175 ka, but that the major occupation was from 120 to 100 ka. The major occupation at Geula chronologically overlaps with the Skhul and Qafzeh Caves thus reinforcing the notion that Homo sapiens dominated the southern Levant during early MIS 5. This study demonstrates the importance of reinvestigating and reevaluating past excavated prehistoric sites and their contents to enhance our understanding of the regional, cultural and biological history.

The Cape Bathurst polynya and flaw lead (CBP) are major, predictable habitat features with ≤15% ice cover in an otherwise ice-covered Beaufort Sea, and thought to provide hunting opportunities for polar bears (Ursus maritimus Phipps, 1774). We assessed 78 adult (female; with and without cubs) and subadult (male and female) polar bears’ use of the CBP from October to June 2007–2014. The CBP was up to 725 km wide in autumn, ice-covered in winter, and

Correlated variability in neuronal activity (spike count correlations, rSC) can constrain how information is read out from populations of neurons. Traditionally, rSC is reported as a single value summarizing a brain area. However, single values, like summary statistics, stand to obscure underlying features of the constituent elements. We predict that in brain areas containing distinct neuronal subpopulations, different subpopulations will exhibit distinct levels of rSC that are not captured by the population rSC. We tested this idea in macaque superior colliculus (SC), a structure containing several functional classes (i.e., subpopulations) of neurons. We found that during saccade tasks, different functional classes exhibited differing degrees of rSC. “Delay class” neurons displayed the highest rSC, especially during saccades that relied on working memory. Such dependence of rSC on functional class and cognitive demand underscores the importance of taking functional subpopulations into account when attempting to model or infer population coding principles.

Pigment patterns and skin appendages are prominent features of vertebrate skin. In zebrafish, regularly patterned pigment stripes and an array of calcified scales form simultaneously in the skin during post-embryonic development. Understanding mechanisms that regulate stripe patterning and scale morphogenesis may lead to discovery of fundamental mechanisms that govern development of animal form. To learn about cell types and signaling interactions that govern skin patterning and morphogenesis we generated and analyzed single cell transcriptomes of skin from wild-type fish as well as fish having genetic or transgenically induced defects in squamation or pigmentation. These data reveal a previously undescribed population of epidermal cells that express transcripts encoding enamel matrix proteins, suggest hormonal control of epithelial-mesenchymal signaling, clarify the signaling network that governs scale papillae development, and identify a critical role for the hypodermis in supporting pigment cell development. Additionally, these comprehensive single-cell transcriptomic data representing skin phenotypes of biomedical relevance should provide a useful resource for accelerating discovery of mechanisms that govern skin development and homeostasis.

Relevance theory is arguably the most influential approach to pragmatics to have developed from the work of Grice (1989). It has been applied in a wide range of areas, including accounts of reasoning in general, developmental psychology, and the understanding of conditions such as autistic spectrum disorders. The majority of relevance-theoretic work has been concerned with developing accounts of linguistically encoded meanings (linguistic semantics) and how these interact with contextual assumptions in understanding utterances (pragmatics). Accounting for interpretations is a key focus of work in stylistics, so it is natural that relevance-theoretic ideas have been applied to stylistics, providing accounts of particular texts and of particular phenomena involved in the production and comprehension of texts. It has also contributed to more general theoretical debates, for example about the nature of ‘literariness’ and authorial intention, and is beginning to contribute to accounts of formal literary interpretation and formal and informal evaluation. As has often been pointed out (e.g. by Pilkington et al 1997; Wilson 2011), the aim is not to provide particular interpretations or evaluation but to explain the processes involved in arriving at these. Relevance theory can also contribute to accounts of textual production and editorial processes, and to pedagogical work of various kinds. This chapter says something about previous, ongoing and possible future work in each of these areas.

The macaque middle temporal (MT) area is well known for its visual motion selectivity and relevance to motion perception, but the possibility of it also reflecting higher-level cognitive functions has largely been ignored. We tested for effects of task performance distinct from sensory encoding by manipulating subjects' temporal evidence-weighting strategy during a direction discrimination task while performing electrophysiological recordings from groups of MT neurons in rhesus macaques (one male, one female). This revealed multiple components of MT responses that were, surprisingly, not interpretable as behaviorally relevant modulations of motion encoding, or as bottom-up consequences of the readout of motion direction from MT. The time-varying motion-driven responses of MT were strongly affected by our strategic manipulation—but with time courses opposite the subjects' temporal weighting strategies. Furthermore, large choice-correlated signals were represented in population activity distinct from its motion responses, with multiple phases that lagged psychophysical readout and even continued after the stimulus (but which preceded motor responses). In summary, a novel experimental manipulation of strategy allowed us to control the time course of readout to challenge the correlation between sensory responses and choices, and population-level analyses of simultaneously recorded ensembles allowed us to identify strong signals that were so distinct from direction encoding that conventional, single-neuron-centric analyses could not have revealed or properly characterized them. Together, these approaches revealed multiple cognitive contributions to MT responses that are task related but not functionally relevant to encoding or decoding of motion for psychophysical direction discrimination, providing a new perspective on the assumed status of MT as a simple sensory area.SIGNIFICANCE STATEMENTThis study extends understanding of the middle temporal (MT) area beyond its representation of visual motion. Combining multineuron recordings, population-level analyses, and controlled manipulation of task strategy, we exposed signals that depended on changes in temporal weighting strategy, but did not manifest as feedforward effects on behavior. This was demonstrated by (1) an inverse relationship between temporal dynamics of behavioral readout and sensory encoding, (2) a choice-correlated signal that always lagged the stimulus time points most correlated with decisions, and (3) a distinct choice-correlated signal after the stimulus. These findings invite re-evaluation of MT for functions outside of its established sensory role and highlight the power of experimenter-controlled changes in temporal strategy, coupled with recording and analysis approaches that transcend the single-neuron perspective.

El trastorno de la queratina aviar ocasiona un crecimiento anormal del pico y afecta a varias especies de aves en América y Europa. Sin embargo, hasta la fecha, no se había registrado en el grupo de los colibríes. En este trabajo reportamos a un individuo de Hylocharis leucotis con dicho trastorno, el cual fue capturado en la localidad de San Bernardino Lagunas, Vicente Guerrero, Puebla. Es posible que esta alteración afecte la alimentación y polinización de los colibríes que la padecen.

Within captive management programs for species of conservation concern, understanding the genetic mating system is of fundamental importance, given its role in generating and maintaining genetic diversity and promoting opportunities for sperm competition. If a goal of a conservation program is reintroduction, knowledge of the mating system may also inform prediction models aimed at understanding how genetic diversity may be spatially organized, thus informing decisions regarding where and which individuals should be released in order to maximize genetic diversity in the wild population. Within captive populations, such information may also influence how animals are maintained in order to promote natural behaviors. Here we investigate the genetic mating system of the Guatemalan beaded lizard, Heloderma charlesbogerti, a member of a genus lacking such information. A group of adult male and female H. charlesbogerti were co-habited for five years during the species perceived breeding season. Through genomic parentage analysis, 50% of clutches comprising multiple offspring were found to result from polyandry, with up to three males siring offspring within single clutches. Furthermore, males were found to be polygamous both within and across seasons, and females would exhibit promiscuity across seasons. As such, within this captive environment, where opportunities existed for mating with multiple sexual partners, the genetic mating system was found to be highly promiscuous, with multiple paternity common within clutches. These findings are novel for the family Helodermatidae, and the results have broader implications about how reproductive opportunities should be managed within captive conservation programs.

A 63-year-old white man with hypertension, hyperlipidemia, adrenal insufficiency, and history of metastatic spindle cell melanoma previously treated with ipilimumab, presented with unilateral papillitis in the left eye. The disc edema evolved to neuroretinitis with additional MRI findings of perineuritis. Broad laboratory evaluation confirmed active B. henselae infection, and he confirmed exposure to a newly adopted kitten. His vision improved following a course of antibiotics and oral steroids with resolution of clinical findings. To the best of our knowledge, this is the first reported case of cat-scratch neuroretinitis with MRI findings of optic nerve and optic nerve sheath enhancement.

Objective: The objective of the study was to understand and document socio-economic characteristics, production parameters, challenges and management practices used by Fijian households which keep indigenous chickens.Methods: A survey involving 200 households was carried out in coastal and inland communities of Fiji’s wet and semi-dry ecoregions. Data on the influence of ecoregion and location of households relative to the sea on management practices, challenges and productivity of indigenous chickens were analyzed using logistic regression and general linear model of SAS software.Results: Irrespective of location relative to the sea and ecoregion, households indicated that they kept indigenous chickens for food and income generation. The Welsummer was the most (p>0.05) preferred breed. Households in the semi-dry inland communities had the largest (p0.05) common predator followed by domestic dogs. Most households in the wet ecoregion’s coastal communities housed their chickens at night, whereas communities in semi-dry ecoregion housed their chickens most of the time (p0.05). Households in semi-dry ecoregion were more likely (p>0.05) to sell their chickens at the local market place.Conclusion: The productivity of local chickens in Fiji is low because of feed shortage, predators such as the mongoose and lack of market linkages.

Through an intensive ethnographic fieldwork, this project explores rural Chinese children’s understandings and experiences of peer friendships at school. When talking about ‘friend’ and ‘friendship’, children tended to brag that they were friends with many peers, but at the same time to particularly highlight a very small number of peers as the most intimate friends, in other words, their ‘best friends’. Inspired by Finch’s concept of ‘display’, this article explores how these Chinese children used different approaches to highlight their intimate friends’ particularity in intimate friendship displays at school. This article, first, unpacks three commonly used approaches in these children’s displays of intimate friendships: 1) building up an exclusionary ‘intimate friends only’ policy; 2) imparting to certain objects, actions and language sentimental and specific meanings as ‘tokens’ of their friendship; and 3) giving ‘priority’ to intimate friends. Second, it discusses the importance of audiences and cooperation between actors in intimate friendship displays.

Black soldier fly larvae (BSFL; Hermetia illucens) are known as an alternative feed for livestock, but their lack of polyunsaturated fatty acids (such as eicosapentaenoic acid (EPA) and docosahexaenoic acid (DHA)) makes it less valuable. To overcome these problems, BSFL substrate (chicken feed) was fortified with squid liver oil (SLO) at five different concentrations (0, 2.5, 5, 10, and 20%). The growth rate, feed conversion, and nutritional content of BSFL were evaluated at day 15 of rearing. Of the five concentrations, SLO 5% showed the highest growth increase (25.82-fold) among the other treatments (20.63-22.98-fold; P

Fat-tailed Barbary sheep are well-adapted to Tunisian arid areas and extensive management. Multivariate morphometric characteristics of this important breed have not been investigated. Morphometric data, collected during February-April 2014, of 249 purebred redhead Barbary ewes, ranged into young (1–2 years) and adults (2–9 years), and reared in Sfax, southern Tunisia, were used to explore the breed morphostructural characteristics under harsh arid conditions (