bluuebunny/crossref_metadata_2025 huggingface dataset:
Biodiversity and ecosystem functioning
Authors: Mittelbach Gary G. , McGill Brian J.
Published: September 2019

This chapter examines the relationship between biodiversity (most often measured as species richness) and the functioning of ecosystems. Examined in detail are the effects of biodiversity on: ecosystem productivity, nutrient use and nutrient retention, community and ecosystem stability, and invasibility by exotic species. A careful look, over two decades, at experimental results and meta-analyses confirms the positive impact of species richness on productivity, ecosystem stability, and nutrient retention. Thus, we can confidently conclude that biodiversity matters to the healthy functioning of ecosystems, although we do not yet know how many species are needed to ensure the successful functioning of any given ecosystem. The chapter concludes with a discussion of six important, but unanswered question in the study of biodiversity and ecosystem functioning.
Species interactions in ecological networks
Authors: Mittelbach Gary G. , McGill Brian J.
Published: September 2019

This chapter explores ecological networks and their properties. Ecological networks summarize the many potential interactions between species within a community by representing species as nodes in the network and using links between nodes to represent the interactions between species. The earliest and best-studied ecological networks are food webs that describe who eats whom within a community (trophic links). Most food webs contain a few strong and many weak links between species; the preponderance of weak links promotes food web stability. Body size is a key trait in determining the pattern and strength of trophic interactions in food webs. Mutualistic networks describe the positive interactions between species in a community, where patterns of species associations may be characterized as either “nested” or “modular”. Nestedness may increase stability in mutualistic networks. A major challenge to future research is to incorporate multiple types of species interactions into the same ecological network.
All Hail to the Archpriest
Authors: Lake Peter , Questier Michael
Published: September 2019

This volume revisits the debates and disputes known collectively in the literature on late sixteenth- and early seventeenth-century England as the ‘Archpriest Controversy’. We argue that this was an extraordinary instance of the conduct of contemporary public politics and that, in its apparent strangeness, it is in fact a guide to the ways in which contemporaries negotiated the unstable later Reformation settlement in England. The published texts which form the core of the arguments involved in this debate survive, as do several caches of manuscript material generated by the dispute. Together they tell us a good deal about the aspirations of the writers and the networks that they inhabited. They also allow us to retell the progress of the dispute both as a narrative and as an instance of contemporary public argument about topics such as the increasingly imminent royal succession, late Elizabethan puritanism, and the function of episcopacy. Our contention is that, if one takes this material seriously, it is very hard to sustain standard accounts of the accession of James VI in England as part of an almost seamless continuity of royal government, contextualized by a virtually untroubled and consensus-based Protestant account of the relationship between Church and State. Nor is it possible to maintain that by the end of Elizabeth’s reign the fraction of the national Church, separatist and otherwise, which regarded itself or was regarded by others as Catholic had been driven into irrelevance.
The Archpriest Cometh
Authors: Lake Peter , Questier Michael
Published: September 2019

The purging of the dissenters in the English College in Rome was followed by the appointment of an archpriest over the English secular clergy, one George Blackwell. He was reckoned, by some, to be a cat’s paw of the Society of Jesus. The claim was that the lobbying in Rome for his nomination had been, in effect, the product of a factional grab for power. This, it was alleged, was likely to antagonize the queen’s government. Blackwell’s friends argued in reverse that the majority of English Catholics welcomed the Roman curia’s wisdom in establishing this new form of hierarchy. All this led to the first appeal against Blackwell in December 1598.
The New Appeal
Authors: Lake Peter , Questier Michael
Published: September 2019

The first appeal was a comprehensive failure, but this did not mean that Blackwell’s and the Society’s critics simply gave up. The arguably unwise labelling of them as schismatics, and the suspension of several of the archpriest’s opponents, triggered a new appeal which, for complex political reasons, had the support of the French monarchy and of intellectuals in the Sorbonne. It also had the backing of figures inside the late Elizabethan regime, notably Richard Bancroft. This was the period which saw the publication of the principal texts of the controversy. Some of the appellants’ pamphlets were published on a royal press. The assistance rendered to these Catholics produced fury among those who regarded it as evidence of a popish conspiracy inside the regime. The new appeal was heard in Rome during 1602.
Jesuit Popularity in Practice and Theory
Authors: Lake Peter , Questier Michael
Published: September 2019

This chapter deals with the issue of ‘popularity’, that is, as a recognizably bad form of public politics. The appellants attacked their Jesuit opponents for conducting their business, and for lobbying their community, in much the same style as Elizabethan puritans had been attacked by their conformist opponents, for their attempts to reform the national Church, and, by mobilizing a mob of voices, for telling the queen what to do. In turn, this worked itself into a rhetoric of financial and other sorts of corruption in which we can see much of what we tend to associate with the language of anti-popery, and the character of the archetypally evil Jesuit, emerging in fact in Catholic circles, although the association of Jesuits with puritans was a common enough contemporary observation.
Both Catholic and English—the Enemies of the Society of Jesus and the Pursuit of Toleration
Authors: Lake Peter , Questier Michael
Published: September 2019

It went without saying that both sides in the dispute promised that their prescriptions for, or answers to, the questions raised by the controversy would guarantee an arrangement via which Catholics would obtain a toleration from the State. By and large, the appellants argued that this was possible only if Catholics put aside the ridiculous and often seditious nostrums of the Jesuits. By way of response, the appellants’ enemies tended to accuse them of cutting and running, that is, of betraying the bulk of the community in return for favours granted merely to themselves, a minority of the English Catholics.
The Appellant Agitation and the Kingdom of France
Authors: Lake Peter , Questier Michael
Published: September 2019

A significant section of the English Catholic community had traditionally looked to the French court and the French national Church for patronage and intellectual validation. During the wars of religion some English Catholics empathized with and drew upon the evolution of resistance theory among the Catholics of the Holy League. Once Henry of Navarre had converted to Rome and had taken the crown, that game was over. Although King Henry offered his protection to the Society of Jesus, the appellant clergy looked to the French court to endorse their programme and to give them diplomatic protection at Rome.
(Hostile) Reception and Response
Authors: Lake Peter , Questier Michael
Published: September 2019

This chapter looks at the response to Catholic toleration agitation immediately before James VI’s accession as king of England and Great Britain. It focuses principally on a pamphlet entitled Humble Motives for Association to Maintaine Religion Established, which we think was written by the disgruntled puritan MP Sir Francis Hastings. Hastings was still furious about the failure of the draft recusancy legislation in the 1601 parliament, and he warned against the dangers inherent in the appellants’ demands for tolerance and declared also that their closeness to some people inside the regime was a scandal.
What Is the Good of Money?
Authors: Hayward Tim
Published: September 2019

This chapter considers what kind of thing money is, and, particularly, how to conceptualize it as ‘flowing’ from one place to another. A further question is what kind of good this complex thing is. We know money can be regarded as an economic good, but economic goods are of a variety of kinds. In its different forms money can function differently for different purposes, any adequate account of which would have a sociological dimension. For money is available to be used only on certain terms as set by those who control the institutions. Thus the question of ‘where money comes from’ is also of notable normative significance: money is a product of complex social arrangements and normative orders grounded in deep-seated power relations. Powers to create money and to control the conditions of its creation are powers that people have good reason to want subject to legitimate political authority.
Constituting Finance as a Global Public Good: the Scope of the Challenge
Authors: Hayward Tim
Published: September 2019

This chapter proposes some parameters for constructive thought regarding institutions of a more just and sustainable world order. Currently, an institutional system involving a global constitutionalizing of private corporations’ rights utilizes the power of nation-states to serve interests at odds with those states as protectors of peoples. A global elite can use legitimately constituted states to extract benefits from their domestic law enforcement capabilities while escaping any burdens of support for those states. Accordingly, the path towards a globally just and morally cosmopolitan normative order, with finance as a properly public good, might conceivably lead through initial strengthening of some powers of sovereign states rather than their further dissolution. Certainly, such constitutional questions as that of the appropriate relationship between a central bank and the political government of a state need to be carefully examined, especially in view of how politically unaccountable is the international banking system.
The Reshaping of West European Party Politics
Authors: Green-Pedersen Christoffer
Published: September 2019

Long gone are the times when class-based political parties with extensive membership dominated politics. Instead, party politics has become issue-based. Surprisingly few studies have focused on how the issue content of West European party politics has developed over the past decades. Empirically, this books studies party politics in Belgium, Denmark, France, Germany, the Netherlands, Sweden, and the UK from 1980 and onwards. The book highlights the more complex party system agenda with the decline, but not disappearance, of macroeconomic issues as well as the rise in ‘new politics’ issues together with education and health care. Moreover, various ‘new politics’ issues such as immigration, the environment, and European integration have seen very different trajectories. To explain the development of the individual issues, the book develops a new theoretical model labelled the ‘issue incentive model’ of party system attention. The aim of the model is to explain how much attention issues get throughout the party system, which is labelled ‘the party system agenda’. To explain the development of the party system agenda, one needs to focus on the incentives that individual policy issues offer to large, mainstream parties, i.e. the typical Social Democratic, Christian Democratic, or Conservative/Liberal parties that have dominated West European governments for decades. The core idea of the model is that the incentives that individual policy issues offer to these vote- and office-seeking parties depend on three factors, namely issue characteristics, issue ownership, and coalition considerations. The issue incentive model builds on and develops a top-down perspective on which the issue content of party politics is determined by the strategic considerations of political parties and their competition with each other.
Who or What Can be a Legal Person?
Authors: Kurki Visa A.J.
Published: September 2019

The chapter assesses the rather popular claim that anything can be endowed with legal personhood. This ‘everything-goes’ view is often supported by examples such as the putative legal personhood of Indian idols and the Whanganui River in New Zealand. The chapter exposes a conflation of two senses of the phrase ‘legal person’, which can refer both to the holders of legal positions (rights and duties) or to the legal positions themselves. This conflation often underlies the everything-goes view, rendering it unsustainable. Instead, one must either have the capacity to act or the capacity for claim-rights in order to qualify as a potential legal person. As rivers can neither act nor hold claim-rights, rivers cannot be legal persons. The Whanganui River arrangement should rather be understood as endowing a collectivity—the Maori and other sentient beings who are dependent on the river—with legal personhood.
Legal Personhood in Normative Reasoning
Authors: Kurki Visa A.J.
Published: September 2019

This concluding chapter considers the role of legal personhood in normative argumentation, distinguishing normative questions that are ‘internal’ to law from ‘external’ normative questions. Particular focus is placed on the different normative claims regarding the legal status of animals. The chapter shows how the Bundle Theory can structure the most central accounts, including the widely-adopted ‘welfarist approach’, the ‘habeas corpus approach’ of the Nonhuman Rights Project, as well as the ‘abolitionist approach’ of Gary Francione. The import of the term ‘person’ in legal materials is discussed. The chapter ends with a conclusion that ties together the book as a whole.
Smell in Eighteenth-Century England
Authors: Tullett William
Published: September 2019

In England during the period between the 1670s and the 1820s a transformation took place in how smell and the senses were viewed. This book traces that transformation. The role of smell in creating medical and scientific knowledge came under intense scrutiny and the equation of smell with disease was actively questioned. Yet a new interest in smell’s emotive and idiosyncratic dimensions offered odours a new power in the sociable spaces of eighteenth-century England. Using a wide range of sources from diaries, letters, and sanitary records to satirical prints, consumer objects, and magazines, William Tullett traces how individuals and communities perceived the smells around them. From paint and perfume to onions and farts, this book highlights the smells that were good for eighteenth-century writers to think with. In doing so, the study challenges a popular, influential, and often cited narrative. Smell in Eighteenth-Century England is not a tale of the medicalization and deodorization of English olfactory culture. Instead, the book demonstrates that it was a new recognition of smell’s asocial-sociability, its capacity to create atmospheres of uncomfortable intimacy, that transformed the relationship between the senses and society. To trace this shift, the book also breaks new methodological ground. Smell in Eighteenth-Century England makes the case for new ways of thinking about the history of the senses, experience, and the body. Understanding the way past peoples perceived their world involves tracing processes of habituation, sensitization, and attention. These processes help explain which odours entered the archive and why they did so. They force us to recognise that the past was, for those who lived there, not just a place of unmitigated stench
Fooling Yourself
Authors: Smith Gary , Cordes Jay
Published: September 2019

Clowns fool themselves. Scientists don’t. Often, the easiest way to differentiate a data clown from a data scientist is to track the successes and failures of their predictions. Clowns avoid experimentation out of fear that they’re wrong, or wait until after seeing the data before revealing what they expected to find. Scientists share their theories, question their assumptions, and seek opportunities to run experiments that will verify or contradict themselves. Most new theories are not correct and will not be supported by experiments (randomized controlled trials). Scientists are comfortable with that reality and don’t try to ram a square peg in a round hole by torturing data or mangling theories. They know that science works, but only if it’s done right.
Case Study
Authors: Smith Gary , Cordes Jay
Published: September 2019

In the 1970s banks began selling mortgages to public and private mortgage funds that sell shares to investors. In the late 1990s and early 2000s, many mortgages to “subprime” borrowers with low credit ratings and modest income were approved because banks and mortgage brokers made money by making loans and then selling them, and didn’t care if borrowers defaulted. Matters were complicated by financial engineering and compliant rating agencies. The Great Recession resulted from many people falling into several of the pitfalls of data science. They fooled themselves, they worshipped mathematics, they used bad data, they tortured data, and they did harm.
Corpus Christi, Catholics, and the Elizabethan Reformation
Authors: Gajda Alexandra
Published: September 2019

This chapter looks at the impact of the Elizabethan Religious Settlement upon institutions and the individuals who peopled them. Beginning with the protestant ‘conversion‘ of Corpus Christi College and the university in the 1560s, it shows that the micro-history of the college’s experience of reformation speaks revealingly to a broader historiography about the implementation of the Settlement in the tense first decade of the Queen’s reign. The imposition of protestant religion within the university and its colleges and halls can be seen as a test case of the state’s ability to compel obedience to the parliamentary statutes that established the new church. This process was rendered exceptionally difficult both by the strength of adherence to Catholicism in ‘conservative‘ Oxford, but also by the complexity of the university’s structure: the overlapping jurisdictions between the university and its colleges and halls and the traditions of autonomy and self-government within each.
Closing Remarks III: Life of the Mind
Authors: Feingold Mordechai
Published: September 2019

This concluding chapter argues that scholars still debate the nature of Richard Fox’s evolving views concerning his college and the extent to which the humanist curriculum he implemented is indicative of a ‘secularist‘ agenda—as some contemporaries assumed. Erasmus, for one, believed the new foundation aimed ‘expressly for the humanities‘. Richard Fox’s statutes exhibited a more circumscribed position insofar as the humanities were concerned. He conceived virtue and knowledge to be two poles of a ladder, the steps of which would assist his bees—and those whom they nourished—to soar heavenward. In other words, learning was subservient to the true goal of the college: to bolster religion. Thus, when discussing the responsibilities of the theology lecturer, Fox made it explicit how it ‘behooves‘ other lecturers ‘to obey, wait on, and serve‘ him.
Do Activist Campaigns Benefit Society?
Authors: Abito Jose Miguel , Besanko David , Diermeier Daniel
Published: September 2019

Using the three-period model from Chapter 2, this chapter explores whether the presence of activists enhances or harms social welfare. Campaigns have both static and dynamic effects which have fairly different but complementary effects on social welfare. The canonical case in which an activist campaign increases welfare involves a firm that cares intensely about protecting itself against reputation loss, an activist that is not excessively passionate, and a campaign aimed at addressing a high-stakes negative externality. A sufficiently high marginal benefit from private regulation is necessary for an activist to be socially beneficial, while campaigns resulting in private regulation that is essentially redistributive necessarily reduce social welfare.
From Grain to Grape
Authors: Wang Wenling
Published: September 2019

In contrast to the other case studies in this book, Bamei agriculture is characterized by strong State intervention. The State regulates market prices, quotas, and land use, thus leaving less room of manoeuvre to farmers. Since agricultural policy was decentralized in China about twenty years ago, the quality of flexibility and adaptive capacity has been relocated from the individual farmer to the District policy level.
Swimming Upstream
Authors: Khandkar Arundhati C. , Khandkar Ashok C.
Published: September 2019

Around the turn of the twentieth century, as Gandhi was getting the satyāgraha movement off the ground, a number of thinkers had begun advocating for social and religious reforms. Among them was Laxmanshastri Joshi, a Sanskritist, Vedic scholar and an articulate, passionate champion for erasing the hold that the caste divide and other Hindu dogmatic traditions had on Indian society. He armed Gandhi with arguments that helped bring the so-called Untouchables into the mainstream. With courage and civility, he sought the higher truth and spoke out against Hindu orthodoxy and for the heterodoxy and polemical debate in the immense sweep of Hindu religion. As an ardent humanist, when confronted with blind adherence to dogma, he provided evidence to the contrary. His arguments were as innovative as they were simple, helping transcend convention instead of bowing to it. Like Tagore, he was in every respect one of India’s renaissance men. From a scholar to reformer, from opposing British imperialism to urging Indian Congress leaders to support the British against the Japanese, Laxmanshastri went from obscurity to become one of India’s leading voices in the making of a free, secular, modern, and democratic India. Swimming Upstream traces Laxmanshastri’s life of scholarship, abiding humanity, courage, and his steadfast quest for truth.
The Five Nations model for prison health surveillance: lessons from practice across the UK and Republic of Ireland
Authors: Perrett S , Plugge E , Conaglen P , O’Moore E , Sturup-Toft S
Published: September 2019

Background

Prison populations experience an increased burden of physical, mental and social health needs compared to the community, further impacted by the prison environment. Surveillance systems to monitor health and well-being trends in prisons are lacking, presenting a challenge to services planners, and policy makers who often lack evidence to inform decisions.

Method

The Five Nations Health and Justice Collaboration, a body of experts on prison health across the UK and Republic of Ireland (ROI), met to share and discuss challenges and opportunities to developing robust prison health surveillance systems that could inform local provision, guide national policy and enable cross-border comparisons.

Results

Challenges to robust prison health surveillance systems were shared across the UK and ROI. Methods of surveillance differed across nations and included performance indicators and outcome measures as part of local or national programs. All nations had strong public health infectious disease notification systems.

Conclusions

The Five Nations Health and Justice Collaboration is proposing a new model for prison health surveillance, based on established guidelines for public health surveillance but with additional features that recognize the uniqueness of the prison environment and need for a whole prison approach, built on collaboration and sharing of data between health and justice sectors.
Exploring the barriers and facilitators for the use of digital health technologies for the management of COPD: a qualitative study of clinician perceptions
Authors: Slevin P , Kessie T , Cullen J , Butler M W , Donnelly S C , Caulfield B
Published: September 2019

Background

Digital health technology (DHT) promises to support patients and healthcare professionals (HCPs) to optimize the management of chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD). However, there is a lack of evidence demonstrating the effectiveness of DHT for the management of COPD. One reason for this is the lack of user-involvement in the development of DHT interventions in COPD meaning their needs and preferences are rarely accounted for in the design phase. Although HCP adoption issues have been identified in relation to DHT, little is known about the challenges perceived by HCPs providing care to COPD patients. Therefore, this study aims to qualitatively explore the barriers and facilitators HCPs perceive for the use of DHT in the management of COPD.

Methods

Participants (n = 32) were recruited using snowball sampling from two university hospitals and several general practitioner clinics. A semi-structured interview was conducted with each participant. NVivo 12 software was used to complete thematic analysis on the data.

Results

Themes identified include: data quality; evidence-based care; resource constraints; and digital literacy presented as barriers; and facilitators include the following themes: digital health training and education; improving HCP digital literacy; and Personalized prescribing. Patient-centered approaches, such as pulmonary rehabilitation and shared decision-making were suggested as implementation strategies to ease the adoption of digital health for the management of COPD.

Conclusion

These findings contribute new insights about the needs and preferences of HCPs working in COPD regarding DHT. The findings can be used to help mitigate user-experience issues by informing the design of person-centered implementation and adoption strategies for future digital health interventions in COPD.
Chronic Nucleoside Reverse Transcriptase Inhibitors Disrupt Mitochondrial Homeostasis and Promote Premature Endothelial Senescence
Authors: Chen Yi-Fan , Stampley James E , Irving Brian A , Dugas Tammy R
Published: September 2019

Combination antiretroviral therapy (cART) has improved the life expectancy of HIV patients, thus increasing the number of people living with HIV (PLWH). However, cardiovascular diseases (CVD) are now one of the most prevalent causes of death among PLWH. Nucleoside reverse transcriptase inhibitors (NRTIs) are the backbone of cART, and the emtricitabine (FTC) and tenofovir disoproxil fumarate (TDF) coformulation is commonly used. In prior studies, acute NRTI treatment-induced endothelial dysfunction, increased reactive oxygen species production, and mitophagic activity, suggesting that mitochondrial dysfunction may be critical to NRTI-induced endothelial dysfunction. Mitochondrial dysfunction plays a causal role in endothelial senescence, whereas premature endothelial senescence can promote the development of CVD. We hypothesize that for chronic NRTI treatment, a disruption in mitochondrial homeostasis leads to premature endothelial senescence and predisposes PLWH to CVD. We used human aortic endothelial cells (HAEC) and HIV-1 transgenic (Tg26) mice to test the interrelationship between mitochondrial and vascular dysfunction after chronic NRTI treatment in vitro and in vivo. Mitochondrial DNA copy number was decreased in late-passage HAEC treated with NRTIs, and senescence-associated β-galactosidase accumulation was elevated. In late-passage HAEC, NRTIs decreased the activity of Parkin-mediated mitophagy. In Tg26 mice treated with FTC, plasma nitrite levels were decreased. Endothelium-dependent vasodilation in NRTI-treated Tg26 mice was also reduced. Our work suggests that long-term use of NRTI may disrupt mitochondrial homeostasis, induce premature endothelial senescence, and impair vascular function.
Characterization of Natural Isolates ofBipolaris maydisAssociated with Mating Types, Genetic Diversity, and Pathogenicity in Fujian Province, China
Authors: Dai Yuli , Gan Lin , Ruan Hongchun , Shi Niuniu , Du Yixin , Chen Furu , Yang Xiujuan
Published: September 2019

Due to the natural destructiveness and persistence of the southern corn leaf blight (SCLB) fungus Bipolaris maydis (Nisikado et Miyake) Shoem, the characterization of B. maydis field isolates is essential to guide the rational distribution of resistant materials in corn-growing regions. In the present study, 102 field isolates collected from seven locations covering the entire region of Fujian Province, China, were assessed for mating type distribution, genetic diversity, and pathogenicity toward local sweet corn cultivars. Mating type detection via polymerase chain reaction indicated that 36.3 and 63.7% of isolates were MAT1-1 and MAT1-2, respectively; more than 80% of these isolates were confirmed using cross assays with known mating type isolates. Thirteen intersimple sequence repeat (ISSR) markers within and among two mating type populations revealed a high level of DNA polymorphism for all combined isolates and between MAT1-1 and MAT1-2 populations. The MAT1-2 population was more diverse based on DNA polymorphism than the MAT1-1 population. The value of GSTwas 0.0070, ranging from 0.0399 to 0.3044 based on analysis of combined isolates and individual regional populations, respectively, suggesting the presence of genetic differentiation in the two mating type populations from different locations. Pathogenicity assays revealed that both MAT1-1 and MAT1-2 populations were pathogenic to all 11 local sweet corn cultivars tested in this study. The potential of sexual reproduction, existence of genetic diversity in the two mating type populations, and pathogenicity suggest that B. maydis populations have independently clonally adapted under natural field conditions during corn cultivation.
Numerical simulation of induced cutting in deep coal
Authors: Liu Si-fei , Lu Shuai-feng , Wan Zhi-jun , Zhang Hong-wei , Xing Ke-ke
Published: September 2019

Deep coal cutting is a hot research topic at present. In this paper, the cutting technology of three-drum shearer was proposed based on previous studies. Besides, the influence of confining pressure on coal cutting performance was studied by using the discrete element method, and the induction effect of central cutting on coal cutting performance was discussed. Moreover, coal cutting with different boundary conditions was simulated with the aid of PFC
2D
software. The results show that as the confining pressure increases, the model dominated by tensile failure does not change, but the crack gradually develops from the vertical direction to the free surface of coal. The cutting debris first increases and then decreases; so does the cutting force. Under the effect of central cutting, the crack tends to develop towards the free surface of coal more, and both the peak cutting force and the specific energy consumption increase with the increase of confining pressure. Induced by central cutting, with the increase of confining pressure, the reduction value of peak cutting force increases first and then decreases while the reduction value of cutting specific energy consumption increases.
Placental genotype affects early postpartum maternal behaviour
Authors: Gardner Sarah , Grindstaff Jennifer L. , Campbell Polly
Published: September 2019

The mammalian placenta is a source of endocrine signals that prime the onset of maternal care at parturition. While consequences of placental dysfunction for offspring growth are well defined, how altered placental signalling might affect maternal behaviour is unstudied in a natural system. In the cross between sympatric mouse species,
Mus musculus domesticus
and
Mus spretus
, hybrid placentas are undersized and show misexpression of genes critical to placental endocrine function. Using this cross, we quantified the effects of placental dysregulation on maternal and anxiety-like behaviours in mice that differed only in pregnancy type. Relative to mothers of conspecific litters, females exposed to hybrid placentas did not differ in anxiety-like behaviours but were slower to retrieve 1-day-old pups and spent less time in the nest on the night following parturition. Early deficits in maternal responsiveness were not explained by reduced ultrasonic vocalization production in hybrid pups and there was no effect of pup genotype on measures of maternal behaviour and physiology collected after the first 24 h postpartum. These results suggest that placental dysregulation leads to poor maternal priming, the effect of which is alleviated by continued exposure to pups. This study provides new insight into the placental mediation of mother–offspring interactions.
Wolf-like or dog-like? A comparison of gazing behaviour across three dog breeds tested in their familiar environments
Authors: Maglieri Veronica , Prato-Previde Emanuela , Tommasi Erica , Palagi Elisabetta
Published: September 2019

Human-directed gazing, a keystone in dog–human communication, has been suggested to derive from both domestication and breed selection. The influence of genetic similarity to wolves and selective pressures on human-directed gazing is still under debate. Here, we used the ‘unsolvable task’ to compare Czechoslovakian Wolfdogs (CWDs, a close-to-wolf breed), German Shepherd Dogs (GSDs) and Labrador Retrievers (LRs). In the ‘solvable task’, all dogs learned to obtain the reward; however, differently from GSDs and LRs, CWDs rarely gazed at humans. In the ‘unsolvable task’, CWDs gazed significantly less towards humans compared to LRs but not to GSDs. Although all dogs were similarly motivated to explore the apparatus, CWDs and GSDs spent a larger amount of time in manipulating it compared to LRs. A clear difference emerged in gazing at the experimenter versus owner. CWDs gazed preferentially towards the experimenter (the unfamiliar subject manipulating the food), GSDs towards their owners and LRs gazed at humans independently from their level of familiarity. In conclusion, it emerges that the artificial selection operated on CWDs produced a breed more similar to ancient breeds (more wolf-like due to a less-intense artificial selection) and not very human-oriented. The next step is to clarify GSDs' behaviour and better understand the genetic role of this breed in shaping CWDs’ heterospecific behaviour.
Trophy hunters pay more to target larger-bodied carnivores
Authors: Mihalik Ilona , Bateman Andrew W. , Darimont Chris T.
Published: September 2019

Hunters often target species that require resource investment disproportionate to associated nutritional rewards. Costly signalling theory provides a potential explanation, proposing that hunters target species that impose high costs (e.g. higher failure and injury risks, lower consumptive returns) because it signals an ability to absorb costly behaviour. If costly signalling is relevant to contemporary ‘big game’ hunters, we would expect hunters to pay higher prices to hunt taxa with higher perceived costs. Accordingly, we hypothesized that hunt prices would be higher for taxa that are larger-bodied, rarer, carnivorous, or described as dangerous or difficult to hunt. In a dataset on 721 guided hunts for 15 North American large mammals, prices listed online increased with body size in carnivores (from approximately $550 to $1800 USD/day across the observed range). This pattern suggests that elements of costly signals may persist among contemporary non-subsistence hunters. Persistence might simply relate to deception, given that signal honesty and fitness benefits are unlikely in such different conditions compared with ancestral environments in which hunting behaviour evolved. If larger-bodied carnivores are generally more desirable to hunters, then conservation and management strategies should consider not only the ecology of the hunted but also the motivations of hunters.
A proof that multiple waves propagate in ensemble-averaged particulate materials
Authors: Gower Artur L. , Abrahams I. David , Parnell William J.
Published: September 2019

Effective medium theory aims to describe a complex inhomogeneous material in terms of a few important macroscopic parameters. To characterize wave propagation through an inhomogeneous material, the most crucial parameter is the
effective wavenumber
. For this reason, there are many published studies on how to calculate a single effective wavenumber. Here, we present a proof that there
does not
exist a unique effective wavenumber; instead, there are an infinite number of such (complex) wavenumbers. We show that in most parameter regimes only a small number of these effective wavenumbers make a significant contribution to the wave field. However, to accurately calculate the reflection and transmission coefficients, a large number of the (highly attenuating) effective waves is required. For clarity, we present results for scalar (acoustic) waves for a two-dimensional material filled (over a half-space) with randomly distributed circular cylindrical inclusions. We calculate the effective medium by ensemble averaging over all possible inhomogeneities. The proof is based on the application of the Wiener–Hopf technique and makes no assumption on the wavelength, particle boundary conditions/size or volume fraction. This technique provides a simple formula for the reflection coefficient, which can be explicitly evaluated for monopole scatterers. We compare results with an alternative numerical matching method.
Fluctuating fortunes: genomes and habitat reconstructions reveal global climate-mediated changes in bats' genetic diversity
Authors: Chattopadhyay Balaji , Garg Kritika M. , Ray Rajasri , Rheindt Frank E.
Published: September 2019

Over the last approximately 2.6 Myr, Earth's climate has been dominated by cyclical ice ages that have profoundly affected species' population sizes, but the impact of impending anthropogenic climate change on species’ extinction potential remains a worrying problem. We investigated 11 bat species from different taxonomic, ecological and geographical backgrounds using combined information from palaeoclimatic habitat reconstructions and genomes to analyse biotic impacts of historic climate change. We discover tightly correlated fluctuations between species' historic distribution and effective population size, identify frugivores as particularly susceptible to global warming, pinpoint large insectivores as having overall low effective population size and flag the onset of the Holocene (approx. 10–12 000 years ago) as the period with the generally lowest effective population sizes across the last approximately 1 Myr. Our study shows that combining genomic and palaeoclimatological approaches reveals effects of climatic shifts on genetic diversity and may help predict impacts of future climate change.
A place for everything and everything in its place: spatial organization of individuals on nests of the primitively eusocial waspRopalidia marginata
Authors: Sharma Nitika , Gadagkar Raghavendra
Published: September 2019

Non-random space use is common among animals across taxa and habitats. Social insects often use space non-randomly, outside as well as inside their nests. While such non-random space use outside the nest may improve foraging efficiency, inside the nest, it is often associated with the efficient division of labour. Non-random space use by adults on their nests has been hypothesized to result from dyadic dominance interactions, non-random distribution of tasks, differential activity levels, workers avoiding their queens or prophylactic avoidance of disease spread. These hypotheses are generally derived from species in which the tasks of the workers are themselves non-randomly distributed on the nest. Here, we study the primitively eusocial waspRopalidia marginata, in which tasks are not distributed non-randomly, and show that 62.4% ± 16.2% of the adults nevertheless use space on their nest non-randomly. In this species, we find that non-random space use may help optimizing nutritional exchange between individuals while prophylactically minimizing disease spread among nest-mates. We did not find evidence for the roles of dominance interactions, activity levels or location of larvae in non-random space use. Spatial organization appears to be a mechanism of minimizing the costs and maximizing the benefits of social life.
Multiple models generate a geographical mosaic of resemblance in a Batesian mimicry complex
Authors: Akcali Christopher K. , Pérez-Mendoza Hibraim Adán , Kikuchi David W. , Pfennig David W.
Published: September 2019

Batesian mimics—benign species that receive protection from predation by resembling a dangerous species—often occur with multiple model species. Here, we examine whether geographical variation in the number of local models generates geographical variation in mimic–model resemblance. In areas with multiple models, selection might be relaxed or even favour imprecise mimicry relative to areas with only one model. We test the prediction that model–mimic match should vary with the number of other model species in a broadly distributed snake mimicry complex where a mimic and a model co-occur both with and without other model species. We found that the mimic resembled its model more closely when they were exclusively sympatric than when they were sympatric with other model species. Moreover, in regions with multiple models, mimic–model resemblance was positively correlated with the resemblance between the model and other model species. However, contrary to predictions, free-ranging natural predators did not attack artificial replicas of imprecise mimics more often when only a single model was present. Taken together, our results suggest that multiple models might generate a geographical mosaic in the degree of phenotype matching between Batesian mimics and their models.
An assessment of the immune costs associated with meiotic drive elements inDrosophila
Authors: Lea Jenna Kay , Unckless Robert L.
Published: September 2019

Most organisms are constantly adapting to pathogens and parasites that exploit their host for their own benefit. Less studied, but perhaps more ubiquitous, are intragenomic parasites or selfish genetic elements. These include transposable elements, selfish B chromosomes and meiotic drivers that promote their own replication without regard to fitness effects on hosts. Therefore, intragenomic parasites are also a constant evolutionary pressure on hosts. Gamete-killing meiotic drive elements are often associated with large chromosomal inversions that reduce recombination between the drive and wild-type chromosomes. This reduced recombination is thought to reduce the efficacy of selection on the drive chromosome and allow for the accumulation of deleterious mutations. We tested whether gamete-killing meiotic drive chromosomes were associated with reduced immune defence against two bacterial pathogens in three species ofDrosophila. We found little evidence of reduced immune defence in lines with meiotic drive. One line carrying theDrosophila melanogasterautosomal Segregation Distorter did show reduced defence, but we were unable to attribute that reduced defence to either genotype or immune gene expression differences. Our results suggest that though gamete-killing meiotic drive chromosomes probably accumulate deleterious mutations, those mutations do not result in reduced capacity for immune defence.
Maternal investment, life histories and the evolution of brain structure in primates
Authors: Powell Lauren E. , Barton Robert A. , Street Sally E.
Published: September 2019

Life history is a robust correlate of relative brain size: larger-brained mammals and birds have slower life histories and longer lifespans than smaller-brained species. The cognitive buffer hypothesis (CBH) proposes an adaptive explanation for this relationship: large brains may permit greater behavioural flexibility and thereby buffer the animal from unpredictable environmental challenges, allowing for reduced mortality and increased lifespan. By contrast, the developmental costs hypothesis (DCH) suggests that life-history correlates of brain size reflect the extension of maturational processes needed to accommodate the evolution of large brains, predicting correlations with pre-adult life-history phases. Here, we test novel predictions of the hypotheses in primates applied to the neocortex and cerebellum, two major brain structures with distinct developmental trajectories. While neocortical growth is allocated primarily to pre-natal development, the cerebellum exhibits relatively substantial post-natal growth. Consistent with the DCH, neocortical expansion is related primarily to extended gestation while cerebellar expansion to extended post-natal development, particularly the juvenile period. Contrary to the CBH, adult lifespan explains relatively little variance in the whole brain or neocortex volume once pre-adult life-history phases are accounted for. Only the cerebellum shows a relationship with lifespan after accounting for developmental periods. Our results substantiate and elaborate on the role of maternal investment and offspring development in brain evolution, suggest that brain components can evolve partly independently through modifications of distinct developmental phases, and imply that environmental input during post-natal maturation may be particularly crucial for the development of cerebellar function. They also suggest that relatively extended post-natal maturation times provide a developmental mechanism for the marked expansion of the cerebellum in the apes.
Ecological constraints associated with genome size across salamander lineages
Authors: Lertzman-Lepofsky Gavia , Mooers Arne Ø. , Greenberg Dan A.
Published: September 2019

Salamanders have some of the largest, and most variable, genome sizes among the vertebrates. Larger genomes have been associated with larger cell sizes, lower metabolic rates, and longer embryonic and larval durations in many different taxonomic groups. These life-history traits are often important for dictating fitness under different environmental conditions, suggesting that a species' genome size may have the potential to constrain its ecological distribution. We test how genome size varies with the ephemerality of larval habitat across the salamanders, predicting that species with larger genomes will be constrained to more permanent habitats that permit slower development, while species with smaller genomes will be more broadly distributed across the gradient of habitat ephemerality. We found that salamanders with larger genomes are almost exclusively associated with permanent aquatic habitats. In addition, the evolutionary transition rate between permanent and ephemeral larval habitats is much higher in salamander lineages with smaller genome sizes. These patterns suggest that genome size may act as an evolutionary constraint on the ecological habitats of salamanders, restricting those species with large genomes and slower development to habitats with permanent sources of water.