Observer choices during experimental foraging tasks in brown capuchin monkeys (Cebus apella).

We investigated whether capuchin monkeys (Cebus apella) would choose to observe a high- or low-status adult female from their group during experimental foraging tests. The subject was located in the center of a test chamber, with a low- and high-ranking demonstrator on either side of two partitions. A peephole allowed the subject to observe the models by looking through either respective partition. Each model was trained on one of the two different methods, lift or pull, for retrieving food from a foraging apparatus. There were 22 subjects and four models. During the 40-trial test sessions, subjects could choose which model they would watch in each trial. It was predicted that subjects would prefer observing the model with whom it was closer in rank, and therefore share greater affiliation with. Results showed that only half the subjects showed a preference and that preference was not linked to status. Relatedness played a larger role in determining if a subject showed a preference for a model, and a correlation was found for relatedness and observer preference. After the observer preference tests, subjects were presented with the foraging apparatus to determine if they displayed a preference for one of the two tasks. The majority of subjects (17/22) showed a preference for the pull method, suggesting that this method may have been more salient to the monkeys in this study.

[Graves' disease. Clinical features and treatment results]. / Morbus Basedow: Klinik und Behandlungsergebnisse.

In the last years the diagnosis of Grave's disease has become easier and accelerated due to new laboratory and instrumental tests. The therapeutic possibilities improved also by using antithyroidal drugs, surgery and radioiodine application subsequently. In a retrospective study 278 outpatients with Graves disease, treated and controlled by our centre for thyroid diseases in 1992-1999, were investigated to evaluate the initial and leading subjective symptoms which led the patients to seek medical help ("guide symptoms"). These obtained guide symptoms were compared with the objective "clinical signs" observed at the beginning of the disease. Weight loss turned out to be the most frequent (26%) guide symptom, whereas tachycardia (> 90 beats/min) and moist skin were the most frequently observed clinical signs (71 and 61% respectively). The beginning of therapy, dosage of drugs, length of application and results of treatment are critically evaluated, with special emphasis on the rate and time of remission, on the frequency of recurrences and on the success of additional treatments such as surgery and/or radioiodine application. Pharmacological treatment alone induced a persistent remission (at least 6 months of euthyroidism) in 156 patients (in 113 after the first and in 43 after the 2nd drug trial). Surgery was successful in 46, radioiodine application in 40 patients. The sequential use of drug therapy, surgery and radioiodine as it is performed in our institution leads to a permanent remission in 242 of 278 (= 87%) patients.