Health in Iowa Annual Report: Behavioral Risk Factor Surveillance System, 2013

The Iowa Behavioral Risk Factor Surveillance System (BRFSS) is an ongoing telephone survey. It is financially and technically supported by the CDC with further financial support from public and private sources. The BRFSS is designed to collect information on the health conditions, health-related behaviors, attitudes, and awareness of residents age 18 and over. It also monitors the prevalence of these indicators over time. The indicators surveyed are major contributors to illness, disability, and premature death. This report focuses on the data collected during calendar year 2013. Some of the health-related issues discussed are general health status, health care access, cancer screening, tobacco use, alcohol consumption, body weight, physical activity, oral health, diabetes, respiratory conditions, immunizations, and HIV/AIDS awareness.

Health in Iowa Annual Report: Behavioral Risk Factor Surveillance System, 2014

The Iowa Behavioral Risk Factor Surveillance System (BRFSS) is an ongoing telephone survey. It is financially and technically supported by the CDC with further financial support from public and private sources. The BRFSS is designed to collect information on the health conditions, health-related behaviors, attitudes, and awareness of residents age 18 and over. It also monitors the prevalence of these indicators over time. The indicators surveyed are major contributors to illness, disability, and premature death. This report focuses on the data collected during calendar year 2013. Some of the health-related issues discussed are general health status, health care access, cancer screening, tobacco use, alcohol consumption, body weight, physical activity, oral health, diabetes, respiratory conditions, immunizations, and HIV/AIDS awareness.

Weber's law in decision making: integrating behavioral data in humans with a neurophysiological model

Recent single-cell studies in monkeys (Romo et al., 2004) show that the activity of neurons in the ventral premotor cortex covaries with the animal's decisions in a perceptual comparison task regarding the frequency of vibrotactile events. The firing rate response of these neurons was dependent only on the frequency differences between the two applied vibrations, the sign of that difference being the determining factor for correct task performance. We present a biophysically realistic neurodynamical model that can account for the most relevant characteristics of this decision-making-related neural activity. One of the nontrivial predictions of this model is that Weber's law will underlie the perceptual discrimination behavior. We confirmed this prediction in behavioral tests of vibrotactile discrimination in humans and propose a computational explanation of perceptual discrimination that accounts naturally for the emergence of Weber's law. We conclude that the neurodynamical mechanisms and computational principles underlying the decision-making processes in this perceptual discrimination task are consistent with a fluctuation-driven scenario in a multistable regime.

Determinants of the effect of existential behavioral therapy for bereaved partners: a qualitative study.

BACKGROUND: Informal caregivers of palliative patients took part in existential behavioral therapy (EBT), a group intervention comprising mindfulness exercises to reduce psychological distress and improve quality of life. OBJECTIVES: This study examined what the participants perceived as helpful to cope with their loss during the first year of bereavement, particularly with regard to the EBT intervention. DESIGN: Sixteen problem-centered, semi-structured interviews were evaluated with content analysis. RESULTS: Two main categories were found: social support and self-regulation. Social support includes sense of belonging as well as emotional, cognitive, and practical help experienced from others. Mindfulness and acceptance, a clear focus on the positive, and orientation toward the future were helpful strategies of self-regulation; these were also part of the EBT intervention. Mindfulness was understood as permitting emotions and acceptance of one's inner processes, even if they were not pleasant, and was found to be helpful to stop ruminative thinking. CONCLUSIONS: The categories considered as being helpful parallel core elements of EBT and recent grief theories. The intervention was found to be supportive and met the needs of the participants. The interviewees appreciated the continuity of EBT support from palliative care into bereavement.

Melanin-specific life-history strategies.

Abstract The maintenance of genetic variation is a long-standing issue because the adaptive value of life-history strategies associated with each genetic variant is usually unknown. However, evidence for the coexistence of alternative evolutionary fixed strategies at the population level remains scarce. Because in the tawny owl (Strix aluco) heritable melanin-based coloration shows different physiological and behavioral norms of reaction, we investigated whether coloration is associated with investment in maintenance and reproduction. Light melanic owls had lower adult survival compared to dark melanic conspecifics, and color variation was related to the trade-off between offspring number and quality. When we experimentally enlarged brood size, light melanic males produced more fledglings but in poorer condition, and they were less often recruited in the local breeding population than those of darker melanic conspecifics. Our results also suggest that dark melanic males allocate a constant effort to raise their brood independently of environmental conditions, whereas lighter melanic males finely adjust reproductive effort in relation to changes in environmental conditions. Color traits can therefore be associated with life-history strategies, and stochastic environmental perturbation can temporarily favor one phenotype over others. The existence of fixed strategies implies that some phenotypes can sometimes display a "maladapted" strategy. Long-term population monitoring is therefore vital for a full understanding of how different genotypes deal with trade-offs.

A matter of time: delayed mate encounter postpones mating window initiation and reduces the strength of female choosiness

Reproductive success is determined by the presence and timing of encounter of mates. The latter depends on species-specific reproductive characteristics (e.g. initiation/duration of the mating window), season, and reproductive strategies (e.g. intensity of choosiness) that may potentially mitigate constraints imposed by mating windows. Despite their potentially crucial role for fitness and population dynamics, limited evidence exists about mating window initiation, duration and reproductive strategies. Here, we experimentally tested the mechanisms of initiation and the duration of the common lizard's Zootoca vivipara mating window, by manipulating the timing of mate encounter and analyzing its effect on (re-)mating probability. We furthermore tested treatment effects on female reproductive strategies, by measuring female choosiness. The timing of mate encounter and season did not significantly affect mating probability. However, a longer delay until mate encounter reduced female choosiness. Re-mating probability decreased with re-mating delay and was independent of mating delay. This indicates that mating window initiation depends on mate encounter, that its duration is fixed, and that plastic reproductive strategies exist. These findings contrast with previous beliefs and shows that mating windows per se may not necessarily constrain reproductive success, which is congruent with rapid range expansion and absence of positive density-effects on reproductive success (Allee effects). In summary, our results show that predicting the effect of mating windows on reproduction is complex and that experimental evidence is essential for evaluating their effect on reproduction and reproductive strategies, both being important determinants of population dynamics and the colonization of new habitats.

Transcriptome analyses of primitively eusocial wasps reveal novel insights into the evolution of sociality and the origin of alternative phenotypes

BACKGROUND: Understanding how alternative phenotypes arise from the same genome is a major challenge in modern biology. Eusociality in insects requires the evolution of two alternative phenotypes - workers, who sacrifice personal reproduction, and queens, who realize that reproduction. Extensive work on honeybees and ants has revealed the molecular basis of derived queen and worker phenotypes in highly eusocial lineages, but we lack equivalent deep-level analyses of wasps and of primitively eusocial species, the latter of which can reveal how phenotypic decoupling first occurs in the early stages of eusocial evolution. RESULTS: We sequenced 20 Gbp of transcriptomes derived from brains of different behavioral castes of the primitively eusocial tropical paper wasp Polistes canadensis. Surprisingly, 75% of the 2,442 genes differentially expressed between phenotypes were novel, having no significant homology with described sequences. Moreover, 90% of these novel genes were significantly upregulated in workers relative to queens. Differential expression of novel genes in the early stages of sociality may be important in facilitating the evolution of worker behavioral complexity in eusocial evolution. We also found surprisingly low correlation in the identity and direction of expression of differentially expressed genes across similar phenotypes in different social lineages, supporting the idea that social evolution in different lineages requires substantial de novo rewiring of molecular pathways. CONCLUSIONS: These genomic resources for aculeate wasps and first transcriptome-wide insights into the origin of castes bring us closer to a more general understanding of eusocial evolution and how phenotypic diversity arises from the same genome.

Costs of female reproduction in a conifer tree: a whole-tree level assessment

1. Costs of reproduction lie at the core of basic ecological and evolutionary theories, and their existence is commonly invoked to explain adaptive processes. Despite their sheer importance, empirical evidence for the existence and quantification of costs of reproduction in tree species comes mostly from correlational studies, while more comprehensive approaches remain missing. Manipulative experiments are a preferred approach to study cost of reproduction, as they allow controlling for otherwise inherent confounding factors like size or genetic background. 2. Here, we conducted a manipulative experiment in a Pinus halepensis common garden, removing developing cones from a group of trees and comparing growth and reproduction after treatment with a control group. We also estimated phenotypic and genetic correlations between reproductive and vegetative traits. 3. Manipulated trees grew slightly more than control trees just after treatment, with just a transient, marginally non-significant difference. By contrast, larger differences were observed for the number of female cones initiated 1 year after treatment, with an increase of 70% more cones in the manipulated group. Phenotypic and genetic correlations showed that smaller trees invested a higher proportion of their resources in reproduction, compared with larger trees, which could be interpreted as an indirect evidence for costs of reproduction. 4. Synthesis. This research showed a high impact of current reproduction on reproductive potential, even when not significant on vegetative growth. This has strong implications for how we understand adaptive strategies in forest trees and should encourage further interest on their still poorly known reproductive life-history traits.

Behavioral changes in brain-injured critical care adults with different levels of consciousness during nociceptive stimulation: an observational study.

PURPOSE: The primary objective of this study was to describe the frequency of behaviors observed during rest, a non-nociceptive procedure, and a nociceptive procedure in brain-injured intensive care unit (ICU) patients with different levels of consciousness (LOC). Second, it examined the inter-rater reliability and discriminant and concurrent validity of the behavioral checklist used. METHODS: The non-nociceptive procedure involved calling the patient and shaking his/her shoulder. The nociceptive procedure involved turning the patient. The frequency of behaviors was recorded using a behavioral checklist. RESULTS: Patients with absence of movement, or stereotyped flexion or extension responses to a nociceptive stimulus displayed more behaviors during turning (median 5.5, range 0-14) than patients with localized responses (median 4, range 0-10) or able to self-report their pain (median 4, range 0-10). Face flushing, clenched teeth, clenched fist, and tremor were more frequent in patients with absence of movement, or stereotyped responses to a nociceptive stimulus. The reliability of the checklist was supported by a high intra-class correlation coefficient (0.77-0.92), and the internal consistency was acceptable in all three groups (KR 20, 0.71-0.85). Discriminant validity was supported as significantly more behaviors were observed during nociceptive stimulation than at rest. Concurrent validity was confirmed as checklist scores were correlated to the patients' self-reports of pain (r s = 0.53; 95 % CI 0.21-0.75). CONCLUSION: Brain-injured patients reacted significantly more during a nociceptive stimulus and the number of observed behaviors was higher in patients with a stereotyped response.

Personality traits, behavioral and psychological symptoms and cognitive decline in patients at an early stage of Alzheimer's disease

The aim of this doctoral thesis was to study personality characteristics of patients at an early stage of Alzheimer's disease (AD), and more specifically to describe personality and its changes over time, and to explore its possible links with psychological and symptoms (BPS) and cognitive level. The results were compared to those of a group of participants without cognitive disorder through three empirical studies. In the first study, the findings showed significant personality changes that follow a specific trend in the clinical group. The profil of personality changes showed an increase in Neuroticism and a decrease in Extraversion, Openess to experiences, and Conscientiousness over time. The second study highlighted that personality and BPS occur early in the cours of AD. Recognizing them as possible precoce signs of neurodegeneration may prove to be a key factor for early detection and intervention. In the third study, a significant association between personality changes and cognitive status was observed in the patients with incipient AD. Thus, changes in Neuroticism and Conscientiousness were linked with cognitive deterioration, whereas decreased Openness to experiences and Conscientiousness over time predicted loss of independence in daily functioning. Other well-known factors such as age, education level or civil status were taken into account to predict cognitive decline. The three studies suggested five important implications: (1) cost-effective screening should take into account premorbid and specific personality changes; (2) psycho-educative interventions should provide information on the possible personality changes and BPS that may occur at the beginning of the disease; (3) using personality traits alongside other variables in the future studies on prevention might help to better understand AD's etiology; (4) individual treatment plans (psychotherapeutic, social, and pharmacological) might be adapted to the specific changes in personality profiles; (5) more researches are needed to study the impact of social-cultural and lifestyle variables on the development of AD.

Correlated genetic effects on reproduction define a domestication syndrome in a forest tree.

Compared to natural selection, domestication implies a dramatic change in traits linked to fitness. A number of traits conferring fitness in the wild might be detrimental under domestication, and domesticated species typically differ from their ancestors in a set of traits known as the domestication syndrome. Specifically, trade-offs between growth and reproduction are well established across the tree of life. According to allocation theory, selection for growth rate is expected to indirectly alter life-history reproductive traits, diverting resources from reproduction to growth. Here we tested this hypothesis by examining the genetic change and correlated responses of reproductive traits as a result of selection for timber yield in the tree Pinus pinaster. Phenotypic selection was carried out in a natural population, and progenies from selected trees were compared with those of control trees in a common garden experiment. According to expectations, we detected a genetic change in important life-history traits due to selection. Specifically, threshold sizes for reproduction were much higher and reproductive investment relative to size significantly lower in the selected progenies just after a single artificial selection event. Our study helps to define the domestication syndrome in exploited forest trees and shows that changes affecting developmental pathways are relevant in domestication processes of long-lived plants.

Preferential reproduction mode of hermaphrodite papaya plant (Carica papaya L; Caricaceae)

This research was done to study the reproductive system of papaya hermaphrodite plant based on the histochemical nature of pollen grain, stigma receptivity, in vivo pollen grain germination and pollen:ovule ratio. In the histochemical analysis, pollen grains were stained by using Sudan IV and I2KI solution ; the stigma receptivity was assessed by alpha-naphthtyl acetate solution in closed and opened flowers. Pollen germination and pollen tube growing were examined in flower buds near anthesis with 0.1% aniline blue. To estimate the pollen:ovule ratio , anthers from each flower bud were dissected and all pollen grains were counted; ovules were dissected from ovaries and were counted under stereomicroscope. The results indicated that papaya pollen grains are of lipidic nature; the stigmas were receptive before the opening and until 48 hours after opening; the pollen grains germinated and emitted polinic tube before flower opening and the pollen:ovule ratio indicated the predominance of autogamous reproductive system. These results indicate that hermaphrodite papaya trees is preferentially of optional autogamous with cleistogamy.