Extra-pair paternity as the result of reproductive transactions between paired mates.
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Transactional ('optimal skew' or concessions') models of social evolution emphasize that dominant members of society can be favoured for donating parcels of reproduction to same-sexed subordinates in return for cooperation by the latter. We developed a mathematically similar model in which extra-pair paternity in broods receiving biparental care is viewed as emerging from a reproductive transaction between the paired mates. The model quantitatively predicted the maximum paternity that a male mate can demand before its female mate is favoured to break the pair bond and caring solitarily for a brood sired entirely by a neighbouring male. The model predicts that extra-pair paternity results when the neighbouring male is of sufficiently higher quality than the male mate. In such cases, the exact amount of extra-pair paternity will vary directly with the difference in quality between the two males and inversely with the value (fitness impact) of the male mate's parental care. Importantly, the transactional model provided a unified explanation for experimental and observational evidence that extra-pair paternity rises with decreasing quality of the male mate, increasing genetic variability among breeding males, increasing breeding density, increasing availability of food and decreasing involvement of the male mate in parental care. (+info)
The evolution of cooperative breeding through group augmentation.
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Some individuals (helpers) in cooperatively breeding species provide alloparental care and often suppress their own reproduction. Kin selection is clearly an important explanation for such behaviour, but a possible alternative is group augmentation where individuals survive or reproduce better in large groups and where it therefore pays to recruit new members to the group. The evolutionary stability of group augmentation is currently disputed. We model evolutionarily stable helping strategies by following the dynamics of social groups with varying degrees of subordinate help. We also distinguish between passive augmentation, where a group member benefits from the mere presence of others, and active augmentation, where their presence as such is neutral or harmful, but where helping to recruit new group members may still be beneficial if they in turn actively provide help for the current reproductives ('delayed reciprocity'). The results show that group augmentation (either passive or active) can be evolutionarily stable and explain costly helping by non-reproductive subordinates, either alone or leading to elevated help levels when acting in concert with kin selection. Group augmentation can thus potentially explain the weak relationships between relatedness and helping behaviour that are observed in some cooperatively breeding species. In some cases, the superior mutualistic performance of cooperatively behaving groups can generate an incentive to stay and help which is strong enough to make ecological constraints unnecessary for explaining the stability of cooperatively breeding groups. (+info)
Collaboration between pharmacy and osteopathic medicine to teach via the Internet.
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This article describes the results of a survey from graduate pharmacy students who completed a neurology/psychiatry course taught by a pharmacist and an osteopathic physician via the Internet. Seventeen practicing pharmacists completed the 11-week course, and thirteen students completed the survey provided at the end of the course. Results indicated that students were pleased with the course. Mean evaluation scores ranged from 4.31 to 4.77 on a five-point scale. Additionally, students indicated that the collaboration of medicine and pharmacy provided an educational model that should be duplicated for future courses. (+info)
Complex social structure, alliance stability and mating access in a bottlenose dolphin 'super-alliance'.
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Large brain size in mammals has been related to the number and complexity of social relationships, particularly social alliances within groups. The largest within-group male alliance known outside of humans is found in a social network (> 400) of Indian Ocean bottlenose dolphins (Tursiops aduncus) in Shark Bay Western Australia. Members of this dolphin 'super-alliance' cooperate against other alliances over access to females. Males within the super-alliance form temporary trios and occasionally pairs in order to consort with individual females. The frequent switching of alliance partners suggests that social relationships among males within the super-alliance might be relatively simple and based on an equivalence rule', thereby allowing dolphins to form large alliances without taxing their 'social intelligence'. The equivalence model predicts that the 14 males in the super-alliance should not exhibit differences in alliance stability or partner preferences. However, data from 100 consortships do not support the equivalence hypothesis. The 14 males exhibited striking differences in alliance stability and partner preferences suggesting that the super-alliance has a complex internal structure. Further, within the super-alliance, alliance stability correlates with consortship rate, suggesting that differentiated relationships within the super-alliance are based on competition for access to females. (+info)
Barriers to the development of collaborative research in general practice: a qualitative study.
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General practice-based research activity is increasing rapidly, particularly for large, collaborative, multi-centre studies. We conducted semi-structured interviews with general practitioners and other professionals at practices in the East London and the City Health Authority area, to investigate the difficulties presented by becoming involved in these studies. Interviewees' main concerns were: time constraints; team motivation; the perception that external researchers have unrealistic expectations; the need for good communications throughout and, specifically, for good feedback from these researchers. (+info)
Blindness prevention programmes: past, present, and future.
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Blindness and visual impairment have far-reaching implications for society, the more so when it is realized that 80% of visual disability is avoidable. The marked increase in the size of the elderly population, with their greater propensity for visually disabling conditions, presents a further challenge in this respect. However, if available knowledge and skills were made accessible to those communities in greatest need, much of this needless blindness could be alleviated. Since its inception over 50 years ago, and beginning with trachoma control, WHO has spearheaded efforts to assist Member States to meet the challenge of needless blindness. Since the establishment of the WHO Programme for the Prevention of Blindness in 1978, vast strides have been made through various forms of technical support to establish national prevention of blindness programmes. A more recent initiative, "The Global Initiative for the Elimination of Avoidable Blindness" (referred to as "VISION 2020--The Right to Sight"), launched in 1999, is a collaborative effort between WHO and a number of international nongovernmental organizations and other interested partners. This effort is poised to take the steps necessary to achieve the goal of eliminating avoidable blindness worldwide by the year 2020. (+info)
Strange bedfellows: the history of collaboration between the Massachusetts Restaurant Association and the tobacco industry.
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OBJECTIVES: This article examines the historical relationship between the tobacco industry and the Massachusetts Restaurant Association, a nonprofit trade association aligned with the food and beverage industry. METHODS: The study analyzed data from Web-based tobacco industry documents, public relations materials, news articles, testimony from public hearings, requests for injunctions, court decisions, economic impact studies, handbooks, and private correspondence. RESULTS: Tobacco industry documents that became public after various state lawsuits reveal that a long history of collaboration exists between the Massachusetts Restaurant Association and the tobacco industry. For more than 20 years, their joint efforts have focused primarily on the battle to defeat state and local laws that would restrict smoking in public places, particularly in beverage and food service establishments. The resources of the tobacco industry, combined with the association's grassroots mobilization of its membership, have fueled their opposition to many state and local smoke-free restaurant, bar, and workplace laws in Massachusetts. CONCLUSIONS: The universal opposition of the Massachusetts Restaurant Association to smoking bans in food and beverage establishments is a reflection of its historic relationship with the tobacco industry. (+info)
Can managed health care help manage health care-associated infections?
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Managed-care organizations have a unique opportunity, still largely unrealized, to collaborate with health-care providers and epidemiologists to prevent health care-associated infections. Several attributes make these organizations logical collaborators for infection control programs: they have responsibility for defined populations of enrollees and for their overall health, including preventive care; they possess unique data resources about their members and their care; and they are able to make systemwide changes in care. Health care-associated infections merit the attention and effort of managed-care organizations because these infections are common, incur substantial illness and costs, and can be effectively prevented by using methods that are unevenly applied in different health-care settings. Both national and local discussions will be required to enable the most effective and efficient collaborations between managed care organizations and health-care epidemiologists. It will be important to articulate clear goals and standards that can be readily understood and widely adopted. (+info)