A finite volume MUSCL scheme for the numerical integration of 2D shallow water equations is presented. In the framework of the SLIC scheme, the proposed weighted surface-depth gradient method (WSDGM) ...computes intercell water depths through a weighted average of DGM and SGM reconstructions, in which the weight function depends on the local Froude number. This combination makes the scheme capable of performing a robust tracking of wet/dry fronts and, together with an unsplit centered discretization of the bed slope source term, of maintaining the static condition on non-flat topographies (C-property). A correction of the numerical fluxes in the computational cells with water depth smaller than a fixed tolerance enables a drastic reduction of the mass error in the presence of wetting and drying fronts. The effectiveness and robustness of the proposed scheme are assessed by comparing numerical results with analytical and reference solutions of a set of test cases. Moreover, to show the capability of the numerical model on field-scale applications, the results of a dam-break scenario are presented.
Some plants that are processed into foods often contain natural substances that may be hazardous to human health. One example is coumarin, which is known to cause liver and kidney damage in rats, ...mice and probably humans. The main source of coumarin in the diet is cinnamon. The name 'cinnamon' is correctly used to refer to Ceylon cinnamon, also known as 'true cinnamon'. However, other plant species are sometimes sold with the label of cinnamon. This is the case of Cinnamomun aromaticum (cassia). In recent years, due to its cheaper price, cassia is replacing true cinnamon in the European food market being largely used in the preparation of some kinds of sweets. Several European health agencies have recently warned against consuming high amounts of cassia due to its high content of coumarin. In this study, 34 samples of cinnamon and 50 samples of cinnamon-containing foodstuffs were collected from the Italian market. Quantitative determinations of coumarin and cinnamaldehyde were performed by high-performance liquid chromatography (HPLC) with diode array detector (DAD). The analytical method was in-house validated assessing recovery, repeatability, linearity, limit of detection (LOD) and limit of quantitation (LOQ). The results showed that about 51% of cinnamon samples consisted of cassia, 10% were probably a blend of cassia and Ceylon cinnamon, whereas only 39% were actually Ceylon cinnamon. As far as cinnamon-containing foods are concerned, the samples often exceeded the maximum level fixed in the European Flavourings Directive of 2 mg kg-1.
Core areas are thought to be critical parts of animal home ranges for sustaining the population, but few studies have tested this important assumption. We examined whether core areas of spider ...monkeys Ateles geoffroyi had better habitat quality than the rest of their home range (non‐core areas). Habitat quality parameters, including density and diversity of food trees, degree of forest maturity and density of sleeping trees in core and non‐core areas were analyzed using Moran eigenvector generalized linear model (GLM) filtering using spatial eigenvector mapping to control for spatial autocorrelation. The best fitting GLM revealed that spider monkeys' core areas had higher habitat quality than non‐core areas. This study provides quantitative evidence supporting the concept of core areas including the most critical resources for an animal population. In this respect, spider monkeys' core areas are a key to understand their movement ecology and habitat preferences.
The presence of young infants influences female primate social behaviour, in particular social grooming, which may be exchanged for infant access within a biological market place (Henzi & Barrett, ...2002,
Animal Behaviour,
63, 915–921). Although social grooming is common among Old World primate species, it is rarely observed in a number of New World primate species, including spider monkeys. We investigated whether affiliative behaviour is exchanged for infant handling among wild female spider monkeys,
Ateles geoffroyi yucatanesis. Occurrences of approaches, grooming and embraces received by 15 adult females were compared when they had infants less than 6 months old (‘mothers’) and at all other times. The occurrence of grooming was not influenced by the presence of infants. However, females received significantly more approaches and embraces when they were mothers compared to all other times. As mothers, they received significantly more embraces than they gave indicating that the increase in friendly behaviour received was due to increased interest from other females and not simply a general increase in sociality. The exchange of embraces for infant handling was subject to a market effect as the proportion of embraces given to mothers followed by infant handling decreased when fewer infants were present in the group. Although spider monkeys use embraces as the primary means of gaining access to infants, whether embraces provide long-term benefits to the recipient, remains to be determined. Thus, embraces may only serve to signal benign intent and reassure mothers during tense interactions such as infant handling.
We investigated the temporal relationship between grooming given and agonistic support received in a group of chimpanzees at Chester Zoo, U.K. We compared grooming levels the day before a ...conflict-with-support to those the day before a conflict-without-support and to baseline to investigate whether individuals groom potential supporters in anticipation of the need for support. We also compared grooming and aggression levels the day after conflicts-with-support to levels the day after conflicts-without-support and to baseline levels to determine whether chimpanzees reward individuals that support them or punish those that do not. Finally, we compared grooming and aggression levels the day after conflicts-with-unsuccessful-solicitations-for-support to those the day after conflicts-with-support and to baseline to examine the behavioral consequences of not providing support when an individual had solicited but did not receive it. Future recipients of support groomed future supporters more the day before receiving support, compared to the day before conflicts-without-support, indicating that grooming increased the likelihood of support. The relationship between prior grooming and support held true only for aggressor and not victim support and is consistent with behavior expected if chimpanzees anticipated the need for agonistic support and groomed their supporter the day before to increase the likelihood of support. We found evidence of a system of reward and punishment. Individuals experienced significantly lower rates of aggression after conflicts in which they provided support than at baseline and after conflicts in which they did not provide support. The finding was true only for aggressor support. We found no evidence that chimpanzees punished individuals whom or that they unsuccessfully solicited with aggression or a reduction in grooming. However, solicitors groomed individuals that they solicited for support significantly more after unsuccessful solicitations than after individuals provided support (but with no difference from baseline), indicating that individuals may attempt to recement their relationship after an unsuccessful solicitation. The findings are consistent with a mechanism of calculated interchange in chimpanzees.PUBLICATION ABSTRACT
Objective/Background. To describe an uncommon, life-threatening condition such as angiosarcoma of a fistula for hemodialysis occurring in a transplant recipient affected by Lowe’s syndrome. Summary. ...We present the case of a 56-year-old male kidney transplant recipient affected by Lowe’s syndrome, also known as oculocerebrorenal syndrome, a rare X-linked disorder characterized by congenital cataracts, hypotonia, intellectual disability, and Fanconi-like renal tubular dysfunction, who was diagnosed with angiosarcoma of a functioning arteriovenous fistula for hemodialysis. Conclusion. Angiosarcoma is a rare soft tissue tumor, and only 22 cases of angiosarcoma of arteriovenous fistulae were described so far; although a correlation between Lowe’s syndrome and a higher risk of tumor compared to the general population has not been described so far, the mechanisms of disease causation could be an interesting starting point for future studies on a possible connection between the two events.
The Machiavellian Intelligence or Social Brain Hypothesis explains the evolution of increased brain size as mainly driven by living in complex organized social systems
1–4 in which individuals ...represent “moving targets” who can adopt multiple strategies to respond to one another
5. Frequently splitting and merging in subgroups of variable composition (fission-fusion or FF dynamics) has been proposed as one aspect of social complexity (
2, 6–9; compare with
10) that may be associated with an enhancement of cognitive skills like inhibition
11, which allows the suppression of prepotent but ineffective responses in a changing social environment
7. We compared the performance of primates experiencing high levels of FF dynamics (chimpanzees, bonobos, orangutans, and spider monkeys) to that of species living in more cohesive groups (gorillas, capuchin monkeys, and long-tailed macaques)
12–13 on five inhibition tasks. Testing species differing in diet, phylogenetic relatedness, and levels of FF dynamics allowed us to contrast ecological, phylogenetic, and socioecological explanations for interspecific differences. Spider monkeys performed at levels comparable to chimpanzees, bonobos, and orangutans, and better than gorillas. A two-cluster analysis grouped all species with higher levels of FF dynamics together. These findings confirmed that enhanced inhibitory skills are positively associated with FF dynamics, more than to phylogenetic relations or feeding ecology.
The objective of this article is to develop a general method based on the analytic hierarchy process (AHP) methodology to rank the substances to be studied in a Total Diet Studies (TDS). This method ...was tested for different substances and groups of substances (N = 113), for which the TDS approach has been considered relevant. This work was performed by a group of 7 experts from different European countries representing their institutes, which are involved in the TDS EXPOSURE project. The AHP methodology is based on a score system taking into account experts' judgments quantified assigning comparative scores to the different identified issues. Hence, the 10 substances of highest interest in the framework of a TDS are trace elements (methylmercury, cadmium, inorganic arsenic, lead, aluminum, inorganic mercury), dioxins, furans and polychlorinated biphenyls (PCBs), and some additives (sulfites and nitrites). The priority list depends on both the national situation (geographical variations, consumer concern, etc.) and the availability of data. Thus, the list depends on the objectives of the TDS and on reachable analytical performances. Moreover, such a list is highly variable with time and new data (e.g. social context, vulnerable population groups, emerging substances, new toxicological data or health-based guidance values).
In Latium (central Italy), arsenic concentrations exceeding the regulatory limit of 10 μg/L for drinking water are present in groundwater from a large area of volcanic origin. At least in part of the ...area, high arsenic concentrations have been detected also in soil and phytoavailable geogenic arsenic enters the food chain. As a result, local population may be exposed to inorganic arsenic via water and also through consumption of food with higher than background arsenic concentrations.
A cross sectional study was conducted to assess inorganic arsenic exposure and metabolism in 269 residents of 27 municipalities in the provinces of Viterbo, Rome and Latina. Total arsenic in toenails and the sum of inorganic arsenic and methylated metabolites in urine, the latter determined by HPLC-ICP-MS, were used as biomarkers of inorganic arsenic exposure. All the subjects involved in the study provided samples of the water(s) used for drinking and cooking as well as detailed information on water use. To get an insight into dietary intake from locally-processed food, inorganic arsenic in bread samples collected in affected municipalities of the three provinces was determined and compared to background levels of samples from reference areas.
30% of the sample used bottled water or resorted to water treatment in order to lower the arsenic content <10 μg/L (Group 1), 51% of the sample drank bottled water and used tap water with an arsenic content exceeding 10 μg/L for cooking only (Group 2), 19% of the sample used tap water with an arsenic content exceeding 10 μg/L for both drinking and cooking (Group 3). Nail arsenic was higher for Group 2 and 3 compared to Group 1, whereas all groups had higher nail arsenic than the reference group. The sum of inorganic arsenic and related metabolites in urine was higher in Group 3 than in the other two groups, and higher in Group 2 compared to Group 1. White bread from the study area showed significantly higher inorganic arsenic levels compared to samples from reference areas.
Use of toenail arsenic as biomarker of long-term exposure allowed to retrospectively reconstruct exposure irrespective of recent modifications due to changes in water use. In Group 3, urinary concentration of inorganic arsenic and metabolites exceeded the upper limit of the reference concentration range for the Italian population. Inter-individual variability of the efficiency of arsenic metabolism in the study population was substantial indicating that a subgroup of the population is more susceptible to the toxic effects of inorganic arsenic owing to a lower methylation capability.
Maternal kinship can structure social relationships in mammals, as demonstrated in species characterized by female philopatry. In these species, females tend to be closely related and interact more ...often with maternal relatives. However, there is limited evidence indicating a role of maternal kinship in species characterized by male philopatry. To increase our understanding of the role of maternal kinship on the social structure of these species, we explore how maternal kinship influences the structure of association networks in a group of wild Geoffroy's spider monkeys, Ateles geoffroyi, over 24 years. Using 53546 instantaneous scan samples collected from 1997 to 2020 (mean±SD=2231±890 per year), we built yearly association networks using the simple ratio index to establish links among 93 individuals observed over the study period. We used generalized linear mixed models (GLMMs) and vector generalized linear models (VGLMs) to examine whether edge weight, network modularity and eigenvector and betweenness centrality were related to five maternal kin categories, four age-difference classes, three sex classes and matriline membership. We found that among individuals of similar age difference, maternal kin had higher edge weight and higher probabilities of being assigned to the same module in the association network than nonmaternally related individuals; maternal brothers, maternal sisters and maternal female–male siblings associated more than nonmaternally related individuals; and matriline membership influenced the eigenvector and betweenness centrality of its members, resulting in higher centrality values within certain matrilines. Matriline size was positively associated with eigenvector centrality, indicating that members of larger matrilines tended to be better integrated into the overall network through close connections with their maternal kin. Our results suggest that, in addition to age and sex, maternal kinship plays a significant role in structuring association networks even in a species characterized by male philopatry.
•Maternal kin had higher association indices than nonkin.•Network modules were more likely to contain maternal kin than nonkin.•Maternal siblings associated more than nonkin.•Members of the same matriline had similar centrality values.•Maternal kin shape association network structure in a male philopatric species.
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