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Sheep are gregarious animals that can form close inter-individual relationships. Social bonds are affected by environmental and within-animal factors, but there is limited understanding of individual factors that influence social relationships, in part due to the challenges of accurately measuring individual social proximity within a group. This study used geospatially precise RTK-GNSS localization devices (Real-Time-Kinematic Global Navigation Satellite System) to evaluate social proximity between individuals with different personality traits in small sheep flocks. First, unsupervised clustering algorithms were used to categorize 78 individual Merino sheep (from a research flock of 108 grazed together for 11 months prior) based on their behavior measured in four behavioral tests: arena, novel object, flight speed, and isolation box. Sixty-five sheep were then categorized into five cohorts of 13 individuals each (clustered into three bold, six bold/fearful, and four fearful animals per cohort). Bold/fearful animals were bold toward a novel object but fearful of a human. Sheep within a single cohort were released into a 0.70 Ha test paddock with RTK-GNSS devices attached to their backs for 3 days to monitor relative positions. All cohorts were tested sequentially over a 5-week period. Social network analyses of GNSS locational data with a distance threshold of up to 30 m for all cohorts together showed no significant effect of personality traits (P = 0.11). There were, however, some significant but inconsistent differences in distances based on personality traits within separate cohorts [i.e., cohorts 1, 3, 4 (P ≤ 0.02), cohorts 2, 5 (P ≥ 0.44)]. When GNSS locational data were analyzed with a distance threshold of up to 2 m (day 2 excluded from all cohorts due to missing values), there was a significant effect of personality traits (P = 0.01) across all cohorts combined. The bold animals showed greater distances from each other relative to their distances from fearful or bold/fearful individuals. Additionally, regardless of personality traits, the average distance between animals decreased 2.2 m over the 3 test days. Social interactions in sheep flocks may be influenced by personality traits of fearfulness and boldness, but further research with larger numbers of sheep across varying environments is needed.

As a common endocrinopathy of reproductive-aged women, polycystic ovary syndrome (PCOS) is characterized by hyperandrogenism, oligo-anovulation and polycystic ovarian morphology. It is linked with insulin resistance through preferential abdominal fat accumulation that is worsened by obesity. Over the past two millennia, menstrual irregularity, male-type habitus and sub-infertility have been described in women and confirm that these clinical features of PCOS were common in antiquity. Recent findings in normal-weight hyperandrogenic PCOS women show that exaggerated lipid accumulation by subcutaneous (SC) abdominal stem cells during development to adipocytes in vitro occurs in combination with reduced insulin sensitivity and preferential accumulation of highly-lipolytic intra-abdominal fat in vivo. This PCOS phenotype may be an evolutionary metabolic adaptation to balance energy storage with glucose availability and fatty acid oxidation for optimal energy use during reproduction. This review integrates fundamental endocrine-metabolic changes in healthy, normal-weight PCOS women with similar PCOS-like traits present in animal models in which tissue differentiation is completed during fetal life as in humans to support the evolutionary concept that PCOS has common ancestral and developmental origins.

The rhesus macaque (Macaca mulatta) is the most widely studied nonhuman primate (NHP) in biomedical research. We present an updated reference genome assembly (Mmul_10, contig N50 = 46 Mbp) that increases the sequence contiguity 120-fold and annotate it using 6.5 million full-length transcripts, thus improving our understanding of gene content, isoform diversity, and repeat organization. With the improved assembly of segmental duplications, we discovered new lineage-specific genes and expanded gene families that are potentially informative in studies of evolution and disease susceptibility. Whole-genome sequencing (WGS) data from 853 rhesus macaques identified 85.7 million single-nucleotide variants (SNVs) and 10.5 million indel variants, including potentially damaging variants in genes associated with human autism and developmental delay, providing a framework for developing noninvasive NHP models of human disease.

Polycystic ovary syndrome (PCOS) is characterized by hyperandrogenism, oligo-anovulation and polycystic ovarian morphology, with metabolic dysfunction from insulin resistance and abdominal fat accumulation worsened by obesity. As ancestral traits, these features could have favored abdominal fat deposition for energy use during starvation, but have evolved into different PCOS phenotypes with variable metabolic dysfunction. Adipose dysfunction in PCOS from hyperandrogenemia and hyperinsulinemia likely constrains subcutaneous (SC) fat storage, promoting lipotoxicity through ectopic lipid accumulation and oxidative stress, insulin resistance and inflammation in non-adipose tissue. Recent findings of inherently exaggerated SC abdominal stem cell development to adipocytes in women with PCOS, and PCOS-like traits in adult female monkeys with natural hyperandrogenemia, imply common ancestral origins of PCOS in both human and nonhuman primates.

Supplemental Material for Functional brain effects of acute concussion in Australian rules football players by Graeme D Jackson, Michael Makdissi, Mangor Pedersen, Donna M Parker, Evan K Curwood, Shawna Farquharson, Alan Connelly, David F Abbott and Paul McCrory in Journal of Concussion

IntroductionFamily Integrated Care (FIC) is a new model of care within the neonatal unit that aims to empower parents to take a more active role in caring for their newborn child. FIC has been shown to have many positive effects including reducing length of admission.1 FIC involves building a relationship with parents and training them to deliver many aspects of care to their newborn baby whilst on the neonatal unit.As neonatal units implement FIC, this presents both a challenge and opportunity to pharmacy. Many aspects of FIC complement medicines optimisation, as described by the Royal Pharmaceutical Society,2 such as understanding the patient and parent experience. The aim of this project was to plan, design and implement a clinical pharmacy service on the local neonatal units by combining FIC and medicines optimisation.MethodsGuidelines regarding medicines optimisation were reviewed along with existing local policies. Parents and members of the multi-professional team (MDT) involved in FIC where then interviewed. Open-ended questions were used to establish what their needs were and what pharmacy could do to support them. This information was then used to finalise the methods for delivering medicines optimisation.ResultsThe interviews provided useful feedback for how medicines optimisation should be delivered. Parents were very receptive to learning more about their child’s medicines and being trained to administer them. They felt it would give them a better understanding of why a medicine was being used and also prepare them for discharge. In addition, they also wanted to be provided with written information and a structured training plan to reduce anxiety and build confidence.Nursing staff wanted documentation to ensure that there would be accountability for who was responsible for administering medicines. They also highlighted that there needed to be a process to communicate prescription changes to parents. Managers asked that processes complied with medicines governance policies.Pharmacists worked closely alongside the FIC project team to agree on the processes for medicines optimisation. This included drop-in group teaching sessions on medicines every fortnight for parents, regular medication reviews by pharmacists with parents at the cotside, using the hospital self-administration policy to assess parent competency to administer medicines, using one stop dispensing to supply medicines, and producing an information leaflet for parents.ConclusionFIC has provided an excellent opportunity to plan and develop a neonatal clinical pharmacy service for the future. Specifically, to tailor it so that parents and patients are at the centre. Involving parents in this process provided valuable information and resulted in changes to the delivery of care. Empowering parents to become more involved with medicines, supported by pharmacy, has the potential to benefit everyone.ReferencesO’Brien K, Bracht M, Macdonell K, et al. A pilot cohort analytic study of family integrated care in a Canadian neonatal intensive care unit. BMC Pregnancy and Childbirth2013;13(Suppl. 1):S12.Royal Pharmaceutical Society. Medicines optimisation: Helping patients to make the most of medicines2013. London: Royal Pharmaceutical Society.