Cumulative early life adversity predicts longevity in wild baboons.

In humans and other animals, harsh circumstances in early life predict morbidity and mortality in adulthood. Multiple adverse conditions are thought to be especially toxic, but this hypothesis has rarely been tested in a prospective, longitudinal framework, especially in long-lived mammals. Here we use prospective data on 196 wild female baboons to show that cumulative early adversity predicts natural adult lifespan. Females who experience ≥3 sources of early adversity die a median of 10 years earlier than females who experience ≤1 adverse circumstances (median lifespan is 18.5 years). Females who experience the most adversity are also socially isolated in adulthood, suggesting that social processes partially explain the link between early adversity and adult survival. Our results provide powerful evidence for the developmental origins of health and disease and indicate that close ties between early adversity and survival arise even in the absence of health habit and health care-related explanations.

Amplitude noise on supercontinuum generated in microstructure fiber: Measurements and simulations

Supercontinua generated in microstructure fiber can exhibit significant excess amplitude noise. We present experimental and numerical studies of the origins of this excess noise and its dependence on the input laser pulse parameters.

Embedding dynamic behaviour into a self-configuring software system

This paper describes a methodology for embedding dynamic behaviour into software components. The implications and system architecture requirements to support this adaptivity are discussed. This work is part of a European Commission funded and industry supported project to produce a reconfigurable middleware for use in automotive systems. Such systems must be trustable against illegal internal behaviour and activity with external origins, additional devices for example. Policy-based computing is used here as an example of embedded logic. A key contribution of this work is the way in which static and dynamic aspects of the system are interfaced, such that the behaviour can be changed very flexibly (even during run-time), without modification, recompilation or redeployment of the embedded application code. An implementation of these concepts is presented, focussing on achieving trust in the use of dynamic behaviour.

Writing about war: Jung, Much Ado About Nothing, and the Troy novels of Lindsay Clarke

Arguably, in a time of war literature, and indeed all writing, is saturated with deep psychic responses to conflict. So that not only in literary genres such as epic and tragedy, but also in the novel and comedy, can writing about war be discerned. C.G. Jung, Shakespeare and Lindsay Clarke are fundamentally writers of war who share allied literary strategies. Moreover, they diagnose similar origins to the malaise of a culture tending to war in the neglect of aspects of the feminine that patriarchy prefers to ignore. In repressing or evading the dark feminine, cultures as dissimilar as ancient Greece, the 21st century, Shakespeare's England and Jung's Europe prevent the healing energies of the conjunctio of masculine and feminine from stabilising an increasingly fragile consciousness. In the Troy novels of Clarke, Answer to Job by Jung and Much Ado About Nothing by Shakespeare, some attempt at spiritual nourishment is made through the writing. [From the Publisher]

Postcolonial futures: postcolonial literature and the Obama moment

Since the late 1970s the western academy has encouraged the development of postcolonial literary theory and the formulation of a postcolonial literary canon existing outside the prescriptive narratives of the ‘mother’ country and empire. Having lost faith in the binary oppositions underpinning such narratives, we turned to alternative fictions that contested the construction of the ‘other’, the world divided between the ‘West and the Rest’. The publication of Edward Said’s Orientalism in 1978 marked the beginning of the discipline now known as postcolonial studies with its new ways of understanding ‘the west’s’ relationship with ‘the east’ and, by extension, all the former colonies of empire. Despite these radical origins, however, postcolonialism’s more recent emphasis on the psychological and its affirmation of the hybrid text and self has, for many, served to obscure real economic social realities that have very little to do with the magical or wondrous textual expression of a postcolonial identity. This paper considers problems associated with defining the postcolonial and proposes that, in a literary context, we broaden its meaning to include texts traditionally outside the category of postcolonial literature. To extend the meaning of postcolonial is timely as we are now witnessing its relocation from ‘margin’ to ‘centre’ with the election of Barack Obama. This moment may be seen as a disruption of conventional understandings of what constitutes postcolonial literature, essentially as oppositional discourse that could only define itself as peripheral to, or ‘post’, metropolitan and economic concerns. [From the Author]

Is there a connection between high transport of water through the Rockall Trough and ecological changes in the North Sea?

Changes in the ecosystem of the North Sea may occur as pronounced inter-annual and step-wise shifts as well as gradual trends. Marked inter-annual shifts have occurred at least twice in the last two decades, the late 1980s and the late 1990s, that appear to reflect an increased inflow of oceanic water and species. Numerical modelling has demonstrated a link between altered rates of inflow of oceanic water into the northern North Sea and a regime shift after 1988. In 1989 and 1997 oceanic species not normally found in the North Sea were observed there, suggesting pulses of oceanic water had entered the basin and triggered the subsequent ecosystem change. The oceanic water has origins mainly west of Britain in the Rockall Trough, where the long-term mean volume transport is around 3.7Sv northwards (1Sv=10 super(6)m super(3)s super(1)), but in early 1989 and early 1998 was observed to be more than twice the mean value, reaching over 7Sv. These periods of high transport coinciding with the inferred pulses of oceanic water into the North Sea suggest a connection through the continental shelf edge current. Copyright 2001 International Council for the Exploration of the Sea

Particle Dynamics Particulate Carbon And The Oxygen Minimum In An Estuary

Profiles of suspended particulate load and its organic and inorganic carbon contents as well as salinity, dissolved oxygen, ammonia and divalent manganese have been recorded throughout the mixing region of the Tamar Estuary,Southwest England, in late summer when there was pronounced net oxygen consumption. The results indicate that trapping of particulate organic detritus (of both riverine and marine origins) within the high turbidity zone contributes to the localisation and buffering of the seasonal oxygen demand exerted within the low salinity region of the estuary.

Ocean acidification shows negligible impacts on high-latitude bacterial community structure in coastal pelagic mesocosms

The impact of ocean acidification and carbonation on microbial community structure was assessed during a large-scale in situ costal pelagic mesocosm study, included as part of the EPOCA 2010 Arctic campaign. The mesocosm experiment included ambient conditions (fjord) and nine mesocosms with pCO(2) levels ranging from similar to 145 to similar to 1420 mu atm. Samples for the present study were collected at ten time points (t-1, t1, t5, t7, t12, t14, t18, t22, t26 to t28) in seven treatments (ambient fjord (similar to 145), 2x similar to 185, similar to 270, similar to 685, similar to 820, similar to 1050 mu atm) and were analysed for "small" and "large" size fraction microbial community composition using 16S rRNA (ribosomal ribonucleic acid) amplicon sequencing. This high-throughput sequencing analysis produced similar to 20 000 000 16S rRNA V4 reads, which comprised 7000OTUs. The main variables structuring these communities were sample origins (fjord or mesocosms) and the community size fraction (small or large size fraction). The community was significantly different between the unenclosed fjord water and enclosed mesocosms (both control and elevated CO2 treatments) after nutrients were added to the mesocosms, suggesting that the addition of nutrients is the primary driver of the change in mesocosm community structure. The relative importance of each structuring variable depended greatly on the time at which the community was sampled in relation to the phytoplankton bloom. The sampling strategy of separating the small and large size fraction was the second most important factor for community structure. When the small and large size fraction bacteria were analysed separately at different time points, the only taxon pCO(2) was found to significantly affect were the Gammaproteobacteria after nutrient addition. Finally, pCO(2) treatment was found to be significantly correlated (non-linear) with 15 rare taxa, most of which increased in abundance with higher CO2.

Botany origin and protein content of homemade honeys from Galicia hives (NW Spain)

The botanic origin and the protein content of 15 honeys from small bee farms exploitations of Galicia, for family consume, were studied; the aim is to check if the protein wealth and the pollen wealth are dependent parameters. Seven honeys resulted to be Rhamnus frangula unifloral (pollen patterns with low diversity), two Castanea sativa Miller unifloral, other one heather unifloral, and five was multifloral honeys of various pollen patterns (four Castanea predominant and one Rhamnus frangula predominant). Their pollen wealth was low; eight honeys classified in the Maurizio Class I, 3 in Class II, 2 in Class III, and one in Maurizio Class IV. There has been a wide variability in its protein content (0.09- 4.83 mg prot./g honey). The relative amount of pollen from different taxa has a direct or inverse proportionality to wealth protein.

Hierarchical random walks in trace fossils and the origin of optimal search behavior

Efficient searching is crucial for timely location of food and other resources. Recent studies show diverse living animals employ a theoretically optimal scale-free random search for sparse resources known as a Lévy walk, but little is known of the origins and evolution of foraging behaviour and the search strategies of extinct organisms. Here we show using simulations of self-avoiding trace fossil trails that randomly introduced strophotaxis (U-turns) – initiated by obstructions such as ¬¬¬self-trail avoidance or innate cueing – leads to random looping patterns with clustering across increasing scales that is consistent with the presence of Lévy walks. This predicts optimal Lévy searches can emerge from simple behaviours observed in fossil trails. We then analysed fossilized trails of benthic marine organisms using a novel path analysis technique and find the first evidence of Lévy-like search strategies in extinct animals. Our results show that simple search behaviours of extinct animals in heterogeneous environments give rise to hierarchically nested Brownian walk clusters that converge to optimal Lévy patterns. Primary productivity collapse and large-scale food scarcity characterising mass extinctions evident in the fossil record may have triggered adaptation of optimal Lévy-like searches. The findings suggest Lévy-like behaviour has been employed by foragers since at least the Eocene but may have a more ancient origin, which could explain recent widespread observations of such patterns among modern taxa.

Fundamental shift in vitamin B12 eco-physiology of a model alga demonstrated by experimental evolution.

A widespread and complex distribution of vitamin requirements exists over the entire tree of life, with many species having evolved vitamin dependence, both within and between different lineages. Vitamin availability has been proposed to drive selection for vitamin dependence, in a process that links an organism's metabolism to the environment, but this has never been demonstrated directly. Moreover, understanding the physiological processes and evolutionary dynamics that influence metabolic demand for these important micronutrients has significant implications in terms of nutrient acquisition and, in microbial organisms, can affect community composition and metabolic exchange between coexisting species. Here we investigate the origins of vitamin dependence, using an experimental evolution approach with the vitamin B(12)-independent model green alga Chlamydomonas reinhardtii. In fewer than 500 generations of growth in the presence of vitamin B(12), we observe the evolution of a B(12)-dependent clone that rapidly displaces its ancestor. Genetic characterization of this line reveals a type-II Gulliver-related transposable element integrated into the B(12)-independent methionine synthase gene (METE), knocking out gene function and fundamentally altering the physiology of the alga.

Control estructural de agrietamientos poligonales en la Pedriza del Manzanares (Madrid)

Los agrietamientos poligonales representan una forma común de modelado granítico cuyo origen y evolución continúa en fase de estudio, no existiendo una sistematización de estas estructuras diversas. Algunos autores explican su origen por procesos geodinámicos internos, relacionándolo con movimientos de planos de fractura en estados tardíos de consolidación magmática. Otros autores atribuyen su formación y desarrollo a factores externos relacionados con el régimen climático. La gran variedad de agrietamientos poligonales requiere la utilización de un número mayor de variables para definir los distintos orígenes, y las posibles interrelaciones entre los factores externos e internos, así como para explicar la evolución de dichas estructuras y avanzar en la clasificación de los patrones concretos. Este trabajo pretende contribuir a sistematizar los mecanismos que intervienen en el desarrollo de agrietamientos poligonales. Para ello se estudian únicamente agrietamientos poligonales formados sobre planos de fractura verticales o subverticales. En particular se establecen relaciones entre la presencia de agrietamientos poligonales y la red de fracturación, la altura de aparición, la orientación e inclinación de la pared, la morfología de las placas y la profundidad de incisión de las grietas perimetrales. Por otra parte, establece relaciones entre procesos geodinámicos internos y procesos de meteorización externos.

Consequences of heat stress on reproduction of cattle

Heat stress represents one of the major environmental factors that adversely affect the reproductive performance of cattle. In this paper the behavioral adjustments, physical mechanisms and physiological responses to heat loss are described; bos indicus adaptive advantages with respect to bos Taurus, pathophysiology of heat stress and heat stress effects in animal reproduction, both the male and the female.

Abstract Hatred: Yeats and the Counter-Revolutionary Paradigm

This article examines W.B. Yeats's affiliation to a counter-revolutionary tradition that had its origins in the works of Edmund Burke and incorporated a range of later writers from Alexis de Tocqueville to Hippolyte Taine. This tradition possesses significant internal differences and contradictions, but it derives its general structure and coherence from a shared distrust of particular kinds of theoretical abstraction. Placed against this background, Yeats's extravagant campaign against the abstract develops political substance and form. The article demonstrates how Yeats's general denunciation of abstraction in politics drives his attacks on both nationalism and democracy in Ireland.

Behavioural and psychological syndromes in Alzheimer's disease

The origins of behavioural and psychological symptoms of dementia are still poorly understood. By focusing on piecemeal behaviours as opposed to more robust syndrome change valid biological correlates may be overlooked. Our understanding of BPSD via the identification of neuropsychiatric syndromes.