Sex allocation is color morph-specific and associated with fledging condition in a wild bird.

Melanin-based color polymorphism is predicted to evolve and maintain through differential fitness of morphs in different environments, and several empirical studies indicate that life history strategies, physiology, and behavior vary among color morphs. Sex allocation theory predicts that parents should adjust their sex allocation based on differential costs of raising sons and daughters, and therefore, color morphs are expected to modify their brood sex ratio decisions. In color polymorphic tawny owls (Strix aluco), the pheomelanistic brown morph is associated with higher energy requirements, faster growth, and higher parental effort than the gray morph. As hypothesized, we find that brown tawny owl mothers produced more daughters in early broods and more males in late broods, whereas gray mothers did the opposite. At fledging, daughters of early broods and of brown mothers were heavier than those of late broods or gray mothers. Hence, larger and more costly daughters appeared to benefit more than males from being born to brown mothers early in the season. Brown mothers breeding later in the season produced more cheap sons, while gray mothers face fewer challenges under limited resources and favor daughters. These findings suggest that environmental conditions influence brood sex allocation strategies of genetically determined color morphs differently.

Early-life diet specificity is associated with long-lasting differences in apparent survival in a generalist predator.

Early-life conditions can have long-term fitness consequences. However, it is still unclear what optimal rearing conditions are, especially for long-lived carnivores. A more diverse diet ('balanced diet') might optimize nutrient availability and allow young to make experiences with a larger diversity of prey, whereas a narrow diet breadth ('specialized diet') might result in overall higher energy net gain. A diet that is dominated by a specific prey type (i.e. fish, 'prey type hypothesis') might be beneficial or detrimental, depending for example, on its toxicity or contaminant load. Generalist predators such as the white-tailed eagle Haliaeetus albicilla provide an interesting possibility to examine the relationship between early life diet and long-term offspring survival. In the Åland Islands, an archipelago in the Baltic Sea, white-tailed eagles live in various coastal habitats and feed on highly variable proportions of birds and fish. We use data from 21,116 prey individuals that were collected from 120 territories during the annual surveys, to examine how early-life diet is associated with apparent annual survival of 574 ringed and molecular-sexed eaglets. We supplement this analysis by assessing the relationships between diet, reproductive performance and nestling physical condition, to consider whether they are confounding with possible long-term associations. We find that early-life diet is associated with long-term fitness: Nestlings that are fed a diverse diet are in lower physical condition but have higher survival rates. Eagles that are fed more fish as nestlings have lower survival as breeding-age adults, but territories associated with fish-rich diets have higher breeding success. Our results show that young carnivores benefit from a high diversity of prey in their natal territory, either through a nutritional or learning benefit, explaining the higher survival rates. The strong relationship between early-life diet and adult survival suggests that early life shapes adult foraging decisions and that eating fish is associated with high costs. This could be due to high levels of contaminants or high competition for fish-rich territories. Long-lasting consequences of early-life diet are likely not only limited to individual-level consequences but have the potential to drive eco-evolutionary dynamics in this population.

Relações sociais e redes de apoio na adolescência: experiências mediadas pela música / Social relations and support networks in adolescence: reporting mediated experiences by music / Relaciones sociales y redes de apoyo en la adolescencia: relatando experiencias mediadas por la música

O presente artigo resulta de uma pesquisa intervenção de cunho qualitativo, realizada com quinze adolescentes de uma instituição localizada litoral norte de Santa Catarina. Para coleta de dados foram realizadas oficinas musicais, nas quais os participantes escolheram letras de músicas para abordar questões a respeito de sua condição de vida, discorrendo sobre o território onde vivem, a percepção que têm de si e do tempo e sobre as suas redes sociais de apoio. Em um corte temático para efeitos deste artigo, as redes sociais de apoio foram eleitas como a temática a ser analisada e discutida por meio da análise temático-categorial. Os resultados apontaram para um espaço escolar com uma função indefinida, pautado na contestação das regras e normas que são impostas, onde ocorrem brincadeiras e intrigas. Quanto à rede de amigos, observou-se que essa relação é baseada nos sentimentos de confiança e de lealdade, se configurando como uma rede essencial nesse ciclo da vida, assim como a família que se apresenta como um fator de proteção, mesmo perpassando situações conflituosas, de violência, mortes e separações.(AU)

The proposal of this paper is a result from a qualitative intervention research conducted with fifteen teenagers from an institution located north coast of Santa Catarina. For data collection, music workshops were made and the participants chose music lyrics that address questions about their life condition, talking about the place where they live, their perception of themselves, their perception of the time and of the social support networks. In a cutting theme for the proposes of this article, the social support networks were chosen as the theme to be analyzed and discussed by thematic-categorical analysis. The results pointed to a school area with an undefined function, based on the contestation of the rules and regulations that are imposed, where the games and intrigues happen. Referring to the friends network, observed that this relation is based on feelings of trust and loyalty, setting up as a essential network in the life cycle, as well as the family that presents itself as a protective factor, even through conflict situations , violence, deaths an separations.(AU)

El presente artículo es el resultado de una investigación de intervención con enfoque cualitativo, realizada con quince adolescentes de una institución localizada en litoral norte de Santa Catarina. Para la coleta de dados fueron realizados talleres musicales, en los cuales los miembros preferirán letras de canciones que enfoquen cuestiones con respecto a su condición de vida, disertando sobre los lugares donde viven, la percepción que tienen de sí propio, del tiempo y sus redes de apoyo social. En un tema de corte para los efectos de este artículo, se eligieron las redes de apoyo social como el tema para ser analizado y debatido por el análisis de temáticas-categóricas. Los resultados apuntaron para un espacio escolar con una función indefinida, pautado en la contestación de las reglas y normas que son impuestas, donde hay juegos y chismes. Cuanto a la rede de amistades, se ha observado que esta relación se basa en los sentimientos de confianza y de lealtad, se perfila como una red esencial en el ciclo de vida, así como la familia es presentada como un factor de protección, incluso impregna situaciones contradictorias, con violencia, muertes y separaciones.(AU)

Evaluation of the Effectiveness of Two Automated Room Decontamination Devices Under Real-Life Conditions.

To evaluate the effectiveness of automated room decontamination devices, a common aerosolized hydrogen peroxide (aHP) as well as a recent gaseous ozone-based device, which produces the disinfectant reagent without the need of consumables, were tested under real-life conditions. Twenty-two contaminated surfaces were positioned in different areas in a patient room with adjacent bathroom and anteroom. Following the decontamination process bacteria were recovered and reduction factors were calculated after performing quantitative culture. Following the manufactures instructions, the ozone-based device displayed a bactericidal effect (log10 > 5), whereas the aHP system failed for a high bacterial burden and achieves only a complete elimination of a realistic bioburden (log10 2). After increasing the exposure time to 30 min, the aHP device also reached a bactericidal effect. Nevertheless, our results indicate, that further research and development is necessary, to get knowledge about toxicity, efficacy and safety by using in complex hospital conditions and achieve meaningful integration in cleaning procedures, to reach positive effects on disinfection performance.

Fledging Mass Is Color Morph Specific and Affects Local Recruitment in a Wild Bird.

AbstractEarly-life conditions may have long-lasting effects on life history. In color polymorphic species, morph-specific sensitivity to environmental conditions may lead to differential fitness. In tawny owls (Strix aluco), pheomelanin-based color polymorphism is expected to be maintained because the brown morph has higher adult fitness in warmer environments, while selection favors the gray morph under colder conditions. Here we investigate body mass at fledging and its consequences until adulthood in a population at the species' cold range margin. Using 40 years of data (1979-2017), we show that brown pairs, which mainly produce brown offspring consistent with a one-locus-two-alleles inheritance model, consistently raised heavier offspring than mixed (gray-brown) pairs and gray pairs. Offspring mass declined seasonally, except among offspring raised by brown pairs. Brown offspring could be heavier because of morph-specific parental care and/or offspring growth. Furthermore, mass at fledging is associated with fitness: the probability of local recruitment into the breeding population increased with higher mass at fledging, especially in mild winters and with favorable food conditions, although recruitment is not morph specific. Fledgling mass thus provides a fitness benefit in terms of recruitment probability that is modulated by environmental factors, which appear to level off any direct morph-specific recruitment benefits.

Litter sex composition affects first reproduction in female grey mouse lemurs (Microcebus murinus).

Conditions during early development can have long-lasting consequences on behavioural phenotypes, reproduction and survival. We studied the consequences of maternal characteristics and litter sex composition on the reproductive fitness of 849 females during their first reproductive season in a captive population of mouse lemurs. In this primate, litters usually comprise 1 to 3 offspring. For female offspring, body mass at birth or at weaning did not depend on the parity of the mother but was strongly linked to the size of the litter with significant lowest body mass in triplets. Body mass during early growth has no effect on females reproductive success, but a low body mass during oestrus led to more unsuccessful mating, regardless of the litter composition. Successful pregnancy was negatively correlated to the presence of a brother in the litter in which they were born. Moreover, the oestrogen levels at oestrus were significantly reduced by 30% in females born with male littermates, suggesting a potential masculinisation in utero of these female offspring. Finally, a decrease in oestrogen values at oestrus is associated with the production of male-biased litters. These results should help stimulate further debate on the importance of littermates' long-term effects on individual life history traits, especially in the context of manipulation of the offspring sex ratio that is assumed to increase parental fitness.

Mild daily stressors in adulthood may counteract behavioural effects after constant presence of mother during early life.

This study investigated adult rat behaviour in three early life conditions, and how behaviour was affected after exposure to chronic mild stressors in later life. During postnatal days 2-14, male Wistar rats were exposed daily to either long or brief maternal separation, or were left undisturbed with their mothers (non-handled). As adults, non-handled and long maternally separated offspring demonstrated less object exploration than brief maternally separated offspring. Non-handled offspring also showed lower pre-pulse inhibition compared to both long and brief maternally separated offspring. Sucrose preference and open field behaviour as adults did not differ between the early life conditions. Exposure to four weeks of chronic mild stress in adulthood (mimicking daily hassles in humans) increased object exploration, increased pre-pulse inhibition and induced habituation of acoustic startle in non-handled offspring, similar to brief maternally separated offspring. Long maternally separated offspring exposed to chronic mild stress failed to show an increase in object exploration and enhanced pre-pulse inhibition, and did not show habituation of acoustic startle. In conclusion, different early life conditions have a different long-term impact on behaviour. Offspring from all three conditions differed from each other in terms of adult behaviour. Mild daily stressors in the adulthood counteracted the effects observed in the non-handled condition.

The influence of early-life conditions on cardiovascular disease later in life among ethnic minority populations: a systematic review.

Ethnic minority groups are disproportionately affected by cardiovascular diseases (CVDs). The reasons for the high prevalence of CVD in ethnic minority groups are not fully understood. Recently, the importance of early-life developmental factors and their impact on CVDs in adulthood is increasingly being recognised, but little is known about this among ethnic minority groups. Therefore, the current paper aimed to fill this knowledge gap by reviewing the available literature to assess the influence of early-life conditions on CVDs and its risk factors in ethnic minority populations residing in Western countries. A systematic search was performed in PubMed and EMBASE between 1989 and 2014. In total, 1418 studies were identified of which 19 met the inclusion criteria. Six studies investigated the relationship between early-life anthropometrics and CVD risk factors of which all except one found significant associations between the assessed anthropometric measures and CVD risk factors. Seven studies evaluated the influence of childhood socio-economic status (SES) on CVD and risk factors of which five found significant associations between childhood SES measures and CVD risk factors. Five studies investigated the relationship between other early-life conditions including early-life nutrition, physical development, and childhood psychosocial conditions, and CVD risk factors. Four of these studies found significant associations between the assessed childhood conditions and CVD risk factors. This review reinforces the importance of early-life conditions on adult CVD in ethnic minority groups. Improvement of early-life conditions among ethnic minority groups may contribute to reducing CVD risk in these populations.