To evolve and to be maintained, seasonal migration, despite its risks, has to yield fitness benefits compared with year-round residency. Empirical data supporting this prediction have remained ...elusive in the bird literature. To test fitness related benefits of migration, we studied a partial migratory population of European blackbirds (
) over 7 years. Using a combination of capture-mark-recapture and radio telemetry, we compared survival probabilities between migrants and residents estimated by multi-event survival models, showing that migrant blackbirds had 16% higher probability to survive the winter compared to residents. A subsequent modelling exercise revealed that residents should have 61.25% higher breeding success than migrants, to outweigh the survival costs of residency. Our results support theoretical models that migration should confer survival benefits to evolve, and thus provide empirical evidence to understand the evolution and maintenance of migration.
Purpose: To determine the impact of experimentally preformed peri-implant crater-shaped bone defects on the evolution of in situ microbiota and development of bone defects compared to those induced ...over time by ligature placement only.Methods: Implants were installed in the mandibles of eight dogs. Standardized bone defects were preformed in four test animals but not in the other four control animals, prior to implant (3.3 mm × 8 mm) installation. After 2 months of healing, peri-implantitis was induced with silk ligatures in both groups for 2 months. Microbial samples were obtained from implants and teeth for analysis at three time points (qPCR), and the average depths of the bone defects were measured.Results: At the baseline, the total marker load of periodontal-pathogenic bacteria (TML) for teeth accounted for 5.2% (0-17.4%). After implant healing, TMLs for implants and teeth were comparable (7.1% 0.3-17.4%). The TML of both groups was 3.5%, 2 months after ligature placement. Bone defects had a mean depth of 1.84 mm at preformed defects and 1.64 mm at control sites (P > 0.05).Conclusion: Preformed defects in the test group showed comparable results to the control group in terms of TML, the incidence of periodontal-pathogenic bacteria, and bone defect depth.
Information transfer about food is a potential reason for sociality in many animals. If an animal is better informed, it should then be better able to adjust its behaviour and reduce the uncertainty ...of finding food in a variable world.
Given the remarkable range of social systems and ecological niches of bats throughout the world, bats are well‐suited as a model to review mechanisms and fitness consequences of information transfer about food. The aim of this manuscript was to conduct a systematic literature review for mechanisms for information transfer and their potential fitness consequences for bats.
Information transfer behaviour is found in bats under various ecological conditions, including in groups of males in temperate regions, in groups of males or females in subtropical regions, and in mixed groups in tropical regions. Bats can learn about food indirectly, for example via chemical cues carried by the breath and body of frugivorous bats, or via acoustic cues from feeding buzzes from insectivorous bats. The majority of playback studies in captivity and in the wild showed stronger intra‐specific and inter‐specific attraction of bats to feeding buzzes than to silence controls or to search phase calls. Bats can also transfer information directly, via signals intended to attract, to repel or even to jam the echolocation of conspecifics.
Social foraging in bats can be categorised as local enhancement, information‐centre hypothesis, group foraging or food sharing, depending on the type of information transfer and the food sources used. Fitness consequences of information transfer from the actor's and the recipient's perspective remain poorly investigated to date. Recent studies in insectivorous bats suggest a balance of benefits from prey searching and costs of acoustic interference that may condition group size.
The future use of a wide array of methods promises to reveal exciting insights about mechanisms and fitness consequences of information transfer by bats about food.
A fundamental condition for any work with free-ranging animals is correct species identification. However, in case of bats, information on local species assemblies is frequently limited especially in ...regions with high biodiversity such as the Neotropics. The bat genus Molossus is a typical example of this, with morphologically similar species often occurring in sympatry. We used a multi-method approach based on molecular, morphometric and acoustic information collected from 962 individuals of Molossus bondae, M. coibensis, and M. molossus captured in Panama. We distinguished M. bondae based on size and pelage coloration. We identified two robust species clusters composed of M. molossus and M. coibensis based on 18 microsatellite markers but also on a more stringently determined set of four markers. Phylogenetic reconstructions using the mitochondrial gene co1 (DNA barcode) were used to diagnose these microsatellite clusters as M. molossus and M. coibensis. To differentiate species, morphological information was only reliable when forearm length and body mass were combined in a linear discriminant function (95.9% correctly identified individuals). When looking in more detail at M. molossus and M. coibensis, only four out of 13 wing parameters were informative for species differentiation, with M. coibensis showing lower values for hand wing area and hand wing length and higher values for wing loading. Acoustic recordings after release required categorization of calls into types, yielding only two informative subsets: approach calls and two-toned search calls. Our data emphasizes the importance of combining morphological traits and independent genetic data to inform the best choice and combination of discriminatory information used in the field. Because parameters can vary geographically, the multi-method approach may need to be adjusted to local species assemblies and populations to be entirely informative.
Celotno besedilo
Dostopno za:
DOBA, IZUM, KILJ, NUK, PILJ, PNG, SAZU, SIK, UILJ, UKNU, UL, UM, UPUK
Salvage radiation therapy (SRT) can be offered to patients with relapsing glioblastoma multiforme (GBM). Here we report our experience with a schedule extending the treatment time of SRT with the aim ...to prolong the cytotoxic effect of ionizing radiation while minimizing the cytotoxic hazards for the surrounding brain.
From 2009 until 2017, 124 of 218 patients received radical resection, adjuvant chemo-radiation with photons and temozolomide (TMZ) followed by adjuvant TMZ. Re-irradiation was performed in 26 patients due to local relapse. Treatment schedules varied. Survival and molecular markers were assessed.
The median survival was respectively 12 months (9-14.5) of the 124 patients treated with tri-modal therapy and 19.2 months (14.9-24.6) for the 26 patients retreated with SRT (
=0.038). Patients who received daily fractions of 1,6 to 1,65 Gy to a total dose of >40 Gy had a median survival time of 24,6 months compared to patients treated with higher daily doses or a total dose of <40 Gy (p= 0.039), consistent with the observation that patients treated with 21-28 fractions had a median survival of 21,9 months compared to 15,8 months of patients who received 5-20 fractions (p=.0.05). Patients with Ki-67 expression of >30% seemed to perform better than patients with expression levels of ≤20% (
=0.03). MGMT methylation status, TERT promoter or ATRX mutations, overexpression of p53, p16, PD-L1, and EGFR were not prognostic.
Re-irradiation of relapsing GBM is a highly valid treatment option. Our observation challenges hypofractionated stereotactic radiotherapy for retreatment and controlled trials on the fractionation dose for SRT are needed. Robust predictive molecular markers could be beneficial in the selection of patients for SRT.
The phenotypic expression of antibiotic resistance genes (ARGs) can hamper the use of antibiotics as adjuncts to subgingival instrumentation in the treatment of periodontitis patients. The aim of the ...study was to analyze the relationship between the phenotypic and genotypic resistance against ampicillin-sulbactam, clindamycin, doxycycline and metronidazole of subgingival biofilm samples from 19 periodontitis patients. Samples were analyzed with shotgun sequencing and cultivated anaerobically for 7 days on microbiological culture media incorporating antibiotics. All growing isolates were identified to the species level using MALDI-TOF-MS and sequence analysis of the 16S ribosomal RNA (rRNA) gene. Phenotypic resistance was determined using EUCAST-breakpoints. The genetic profile of eight patients matched completely with phenotypical resistance to the tested antibiotics. The positive predictive values varied from 1.00 for clindamycin to 0.57 for doxycycline and 0.25 for ampicillin-sulbactam. No sample contained the
gene. It can be concluded that antibiotic resistance may be polygenetic and genes may be silent. Every biofilm sample harboring
genes was phenotypic resistant. The absence of
and
genes correlated to 100%, respectively, to 75%, with the absence of phenotypic resistance. The absence of
genes leads to the assumption that constitutive resistance among several species could explain the resistance to metronidazole.
Inflammatory periodontal and peri-implant diseases follow dysbiotic shifts in a susceptible host. A well-established tool for microbial sample collection is the use of paper points. The purpose of ...this pilot study was to evaluate the use of interdental brushes compared to paper points. Biofilm samples were collected with paper points and later interdental brushes from ten patients. Five patients were represented with a community periodontal index of treatment needs (CPITN) of 0-2 around the teeth and an implant with PPD ≤ 5 mm and no radiological bone loss. The remaining five patients had a CPITN ≥ 3 and one implant with peri-implantitis. Microbial samples were analyzed with quantitative polymerase chain reaction (qPCR) and next-generation sequencing (NGS). The results showed higher amounts of DNA in samples taken by interdental brushes but also higher Ct values. Both methods detected
,
,
,
and
in the majority of samples, while
was rarely found. A microbial dysbiosis index showed comparable or higher values in sites with no periodontitis/peri-implantitis with interdental brushes. The results of this pilot study indicate that interdental brushes might be a valid technique for microbial sampling and particularly advantageous in the early detection of dysbiotic shifts around teeth and implants. Larger studies with more participants are needed to validate the proposed microbial sampling method with interdental brushes.
Given their cryptic behaviour, it is often difficult to establish kinship within microchiropteran maternity colonies. This limits understanding of group formation within this highly social group. ...Following a concerted effort to comprehensively sample a Natterer’s bat (
Myotis nattereri
) maternity colony over two consecutive summers, we employed microsatellite DNA profiling to examine genetic relatedness among individuals. Resulting data were used to ascertain female kinship, parentage, mating strategies, and philopatry. Overall, despite evidence of female philopatry, relatedness was low both for adult females and juveniles of both sexes. The majority of individuals within the colony were found to be unrelated or distantly related. However, parentage analysis indicates the existence of a number of maternal lineages (e.g., grandmother, mother, or daughter). There was no evidence suggesting that males born within the colony are mating with females of the same colony. Thus, in this species, males appear to be the dispersive sex. In the Natterer’s bat, colony formation is likely to be based on the benefits of group living, rather than kin selection.
The Northern raccoon Procyon lotor is a species native to North and Central America, but alien populations have established in Europe, several Caribbean islands, and Japan, being introduced for fur ...farming, hunting, or as pets/attraction in animal parks. In the introduced range, raccoons may impact on breeding birds and amphibians, exert crop damages and transmit pathologies to wild species and humans. The species has been introduced also in Italy, where the only known reproductive population is observed since 2004 in Lombardy, along the Adda river. We reconstructed the current distribution range of the Northern raccoon in Italy, collecting information from scientific papers, articles in newspapers and books, as well from experts and local reporters. A total of 53 occurrence points were collected from 38 observation sites. Since 2008, records from Lombardy increased, and sporadic observations were reported from seven other regions. A complete lack of records from the Northernmost provinces of Lombardy (Varese, Como and Sondrio) suggests that the only Italian population does not derive from a range expansion from Switzerland, but it should be considered as an independent, new introduction. Accidental observations of single individuals possibly escaped from captivity are often ignored, and only some of them were removed from the wild. An analysis of the potential distribution of the species was performed in a species distribution modeling framework (Maxent). A global model was built up considering the occurrences of reproductive populations from the native range and introduced areas in Europe and Japan and then projected to Italy. The model suggested a very low suitability of the Alpine region, thus providing support to the hypothesis that the Italian population did not derive from dispersal from Switzerland. If escapes or releases of raccoons will continue, there is a risk that the species could adapt to other areas, making its containment more difficult.
The Brazilian savanna (Cerrado) is a biodiversity hotspot with high deforestation rates that lead to extensive habitat changes, especially around protected areas (PAs). In our study, we analyzed how ...bats are affected by habitat changes comparing assemblages inside and outside Cerrado PAs. We compared diversity patterns of bats in relation to species composition, number of captured bats, as well as body condition and reproductive condition in cerrado sensu stricto (s.s.) and gallery forests. From September 2007 to June 2008, we captured 495 bats belonging to 25 species, 4 families, and 6 foraging guilds. When comparing captured bats inside and outside PAs, we found different patterns for both habitats, but with no differences in species richness for both habitats in relation to habitat perturbation. In relation to the degree of preservation, bat assemblages tend to be dissimilar between cerrado s.s. and similar between gallery forests. Besides that, in cerrados s.s., bats are less captured, or negatively affected, by habitat disturbance outside PAs; while in gallery forests, they are positively affected. Likewise, some bat species in gallery forests present higher body condition and more reproductive individuals outside PAs. Finally, we suggest that the intense habitat change in cerrado s.s. does cause negative effects on bats, while the positive effects found in degraded gallery forests may be due to the higher resource availability derived mainly from pioneer plants. Therefore, the presence of both nectarivorous bats in cerrado s.s. and frugivorous bats in gallery forests can be considered good indicators for habitat disturbance.
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