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Context With two northern white rhinos (NWR) remaining, the continued existence of this species relies on studying their relative, the southern white rhino (SWR). Aims (1) Characterise gene expression in granulosa cells (GC) from SWR cumulus oocyte complexes (COCs) prior to (Pre-) and after (Post-) in vitro maturation (IVM), comparing culture media and oocytes from donors treated with or without gonadotropin stimulation prior to ovum recovery; and (2) evaluate COC glucose consumption in spent media. Methods COCs were retrieved from four SWRs. Granulosa cells were collected before and after IVM in SDZ or IZW medium. Total RNA was evaluated by qPCR. Key results Oocyte maturation was greater in SDZ than IZW media. Expression of genes associated with follicle development increased in Pre-IVM GC. Six genes were differentially expressed in Post-IVM GC from stimulated compared to unstimulated donors. COCs from stimulated animals consumed more glucose. Fifty seven percent of oocytes in SDZ medium consumed all available glucose. Conclusions Gene expression changed upon in vitro maturation and gonadotropin stimulation. Higher glucose availability might be needed during IVM. Implications This is the first study examining GC gene expression and COC metabolic requirements in rhinoceros, which are critical aspects to optimise IVM of rhinoceros oocytes.

Quantifying joint range of motion (RoM), the reachable poses at a joint, has many applications in research and clinical care. Joint RoM measurements can be used to investigate the link between form and function in extant and extinct animals, to diagnose musculoskeletal disorders and injuries or monitor rehabilitation progress. However, it is difficult to visually demonstrate how the rotations of the joint axes interact to produce joint positions. Here, we introduce the spherical frame projection (SFP), which is a novel 3D visualisation technique, paired with a complementary data collection approach. SFP visualisations are intuitive to interpret in relation to the joint anatomy because they 'trace' the motion of the coordinate system of the distal bone at a joint relative to the proximal bone. Furthermore, SFP visualisations incorporate the interactions of degrees of freedom, which is imperative to capture the full joint RoM. For the collection of such joint RoM data, we designed a rig using conventional motion capture systems, including live audio-visual feedback on torques and sampled poses. Thus, we propose that our visualisation and data collection approach can be adapted for wide use in the study of joint function.

Synopsis Salamanders are often used as analogs for early tetrapods in paleontological reconstructions of locomotion. However, concerns have been raised about whether this comparison is justifiable, necessitating comparisons of a broader range of early tetrapods with salamanders. Here, we test whether the osteological morphology of the hindlimb in the early tetrapod (temnospondyl amphibian) Eryops megacephalus could have facilitated the sequence of limb configurations used by salamanders during terrestrial locomotion. To do so, we present a new method that enables the examination of full limb configurations rather than isolated joint poses. Based on this analysis, we conclude that E. megacephalus may indeed have been capable of salamander-like hindlimb kinematics. Our method facilitates the holistic visual comparison of limb configurations between taxa without reliance on the homology of coordinate system definitions, and can thus be applied to facilitate various comparisons between extinct and extant taxa, spanning the diversity of locomotion both past and present.

Joint range of motion (RoM) analyses are fundamental to our understanding of how an animal moves throughout its ecosystem. Recent technological advances allow for more detailed quantification of this RoM (e.g. including interaction of degrees of freedom) both in ex vivo joints and in vivo experiments. Both types of data have been used to draw comparisons with fossils to reconstruct locomotion. Salamanders are often used as analogues for early tetrapod locomotion; testing such hypotheses requires an in-depth analysis of salamander joint RoM. Here, we provide a detailed dataset of the ex vivo ligamentous rotational joint RoM in the hindlimb of the fire salamander Salamandra salamandra, using a new method for collecting and visualising joint RoM. We also characterise in vivo joint RoM used during walking, via scientific rotoscoping and compare the in vivo and ex vivo data. In summary, we provide (1) a new method for joint RoM data experiments and (2) a detailed analysis of both in vivo and ex vivo data of salamander hindlimbs, which can be used for comparative studies.

Studies investigating age-related changes in the function of monocytes are currently limited for horses. Thus, the main goal of this study was to determine the effect of aging on monocyte phagocytic capacity and pro-inflammatory cytokine responses to bacterial lipopolysaccharide (LPS). A second goal of this work was to examine the effect of aging on the inflammatory cytokine responses to LPS in a whole blood ex vivo model. Seven healthy young adult (4-6 years of age) and seven healthy senior horses (20 years of age) were enrolled. Phagocytosis of E. coli, and pro-inflammatory cytokine (TNFα) responses to LPS, were measured in monocytes by flow cytometry. Gene expressions of pro-inflammatory cytokines (TNFα, IL-1β, IL-6, IL-8, IL-18, CCL-5, CCL-2) were measured in peripheral blood mononuclear cells (PBMCs) and whole blood by RT-qPCR post incubation for 2 h or 6 h with a low (0.01 µg/mL) or a high (1 µg/mL) dose of LPS. Two sets of statistical models were applied to compare the age groups, one adjusted, and one unadjusted for the horses' body condition scores (BCS). The percentage of monocytes that phagocytosed E. coli after 2 h of incubation was significantly lower in senior compared to young adult horses in the BCS-adjusted model. In the senior group, the expression of IL-1β in 2 h-0.01 µg/mL LPS-stimulated PBMCs was significantly higher than in the young adult group (BCS-adjusted and unadjusted models). In senior horses, expressions of IL-8 and IL-6 in whole blood samples stimulated for 6 h with 0.01 µg/mL LPS and for 2 h with 1 µg/mL LPS, respectively, were significantly lower than in young adult horses (BCS-adjusted models). The results of this study suggest that the phagocytic function of monocytes, as well as their IL-1β response to LPS may be altered in senior horses. In addition, the whole blood IL-8 and IL-6 gene expression responses to LPS may be insufficient in senior horses. While investigation of the effect of BCS on monocyte functions and whole blood pro-inflammatory LPS-responses was not a major goal of this work, it appears that adiposity may play a role in innate immune cell function, as significant differences between the age groups were often not apparent until the models were adjusted for BCS.

Many physiological, biomechanical, evolutionary and clinical studies that explore skeletal structure and function require successful separation of trabecular from cortical compartments of a bone that has been imaged by X-ray micro-computed tomography (microCT) prior to analysis. Separation is often time-consuming, involves user bias and needs manual sub-division of these two similarly radio-opaque compartments. We have developed an objective, automated protocol which reduces user bias and enables straightforward, user-friendly segmentation of trabecular from cortical bone without requiring sophisticated programming expertise. This method can conveniently be used as a “recipe” in commercial programmes (Avizo herein) and applied to a variety of datasets. Here, we characterise and share this recipe, and demonstrate its application to a range of murine and human bone types, including normal and osteoarthritic specimens, and bones with distinct embryonic origins and spanning a range of ages. We validate the method by testing inter-user bias during the scan preparation steps and confirm utility in the architecturally challenging analysis of growing murine epiphyses. We also report details of the recipe, so that other groups can readily re-create a similar method in open access programs. Our aim is that this method will be adopted widely to create a more standardized and time efficient method of segmenting trabecular and cortical bone.

Psychological research (2020). doi:10.1007/s00426-020-01424-y, Published by Springer, Berlin ; Heidelberg

Waterfalls are conspicuous geomorphological features with heterogeneous structure, complex dynamics and multiphase flows. Swifts, dippers and starlings are well-known to nest behind waterfalls, and have been reported to fly through them. For smaller fliers, by contrast, waterfalls seem to represent impenetrable barriers, but associated physical constraints and the kinematic responses of volant animals during transit are unknown. Here, we describe the flight behaviour of hummingbirds (the sister group to the swifts) and of various insect taxa as they fly through an artificial sheet waterfall. We additionally launched plastic balls at different speeds at the waterfall so as to assess the inertial dependence of sheet penetration. Hummingbirds were able to penetrate the waterfall with reductions in both their translational speed, and stroke amplitude. The body tilted more vertically and exhibited greater rotations in roll, pitch and yaw, along with increases in tail spread and pitch. The much smaller plastic balls and some flies moving at speeds greater than 2.3 m s−1and 1.6 m s−1, respectively, also overcame effects of surface tension and water momentum and passed through the waterfall; objects with lower momentum, by contrast, entered the sheet but then fell along with the moving water. Waterfalls can thus represent impenetrable physical barriers for small and slow animal fliers, and may also serve to exclude both predators and parasites from nests of some avian taxa.

Moral identity, how individuals define themselves relative to various moral attributes, is an important factor in the regulation of moral thought and behavior in organizations. We advance both the conceptualization and operationalization of moral identity through considering the complexity of its content and structure. We do so through integrating self-complexity theory to establish a deeper understanding of how individuals both define themselves as moral beings and structure moral attributes within their self-concepts across various roles (e.g., co-worker, son/daughter, etc.). To date, moral identity has been conceptualized as a global unitary construct. Across five samples, we find that it is dimensional (having dimensions of Benevolence, Justice, Obligation, and Integrity) and that individuals construe themselves relative to each dimension differently across sub-identities/roles. We then assess the effects of this expanded construct across two samples and find that using the complex structure of moral identity, we can predict situated ethical intentions and deviance within and across roles. Further, a within-participants experiment using an additional sample demonstrates that when priming a focal role, the unique moral identity content constituting that role provides predominant influence on corresponding ethical choices.

Before food portions are determined at home, they are determined at the supermarket. Building on the notion of implied social norms, this research proposes that allocating or partitioning a section of a shopping cart for fruits and vegetables (produce) may increase their sales. First, a concept test for on-line shopping (Study 1) shows that a large produce partition led people to believe that purchasing larger amounts of produce was normal. Next, an in-store study in a supermarket (Study 2) shows that the amount of produce a shopper purchased was in proportion to the size of this partition – the larger the partition, the larger the purchases (especially in a nutrition-reinforced environment). Using partitioned or divided shopping carts (such as half-carts) could be useful to retailers who want to sell more high-margin produce, but they could also be useful to consumers who can simply divide their own shopping cart in half with their jacket, purse, or briefcase. Divided shopping carts may lead to healthier shoppers and to healthier profits.

Bone healing is an important survival mechanism, allowing vertebrates to recover from injury and disease. Here we describe newly recognized paleopathologies in the hindlimbs of the early tetrapodsCrassigyrinus scoticusandEoherpeton watsonifrom the early Carboniferous of Cowdenbeath, Scotland. These pathologies are among the oldest known instances of bone healing in tetrapod limb bones in the fossil record (about 325 Ma). X-ray microtomographic imaging of the internal bone structure of these lesions shows that they are characterized by a mass of trabecular bone separated from the shaft's trabeculae by a layer of cortical bone. We frame these paleopathologies in an evolutionary context, including additional data on bone healing and its pathways across extinct and extant sarcopterygians. These data allowed us to synthesize information on cell-mediated repair of bone and other mineralized tissues in all vertebrates, to reconstruct the evolutionary history of skeletal tissue repair mechanisms. We conclude that bone healing is ancestral for sarcopterygians. Furthermore, other mineralized tissues (aspidin and dentine) were also capable of healing and remodeling early in vertebrate evolution, suggesting that these repair mechanisms are synapomorphies of vertebrate mineralized tissues. The evidence for remodeling and healing in all of these tissues appears concurrently, so in addition to healing, these early vertebrates had the capacity to restore structure and strength by remodeling their skeletons. Healing appears to be an inherent property of these mineralized tissues, and its linkage to their remodeling capacity has previously been underappreciated.

People often perceive products that cost more as having higher quality. Two experiments tested the hypothesis that the effect of price on perceived quality is attenuated when people believe that their judgments of product quality will be shared with other people. Shoppers rated wines that they thought sold for a low or high price, believing that they might have to explain their ratings or that their ratings were private. The prospect of making public ratings eliminated the tendency to rate higher-price wines more positively, but this effect occurred only when participants were told that their judgments would be public before tasting the wines. The findings show that social-evaluative concerns moderate the effects of price on perceived quality.

It is not uncommon for advertisers to present required product disclaimers quickly at the end of advertisements. We show that fast disclaimers greatly reduce consumer comprehension of product risks and benefits, creating implications for social responsibility. In addition, across two studies, we found that disclaimer speed and brand familiarity interact to predict brand trust and purchase intention, and that brand trust mediated the interactive effect of brand familiarity and disclaimer speed on purchase intention. Our results indicate that fast disclaimers actually reduce brand trust and purchase intention for unfamiliar brands, suggesting that there are both economic and social responsibility reasons to use less rapid disclaimers for unfamiliar brands. Conversely, disclaimer speed had no negative effects on brand trust and purchase intention for highly familiar brands, presenting ethical tensions between economic interests (e.g., an efficient use of advertisement time) and social responsibility. We discuss the implications of our framework for advertising ethics, for corporate social performance, and for corporate social responsibility.

Background In adults, human papillomaviruses (HPV), lichen sclerosus et atrophicus (LSA) and phimosis are considered to be major risk factors for penile cancer. In boys, a possible association between phimosis, LSA and HPV has been suggested. Objective To investigate the role of HPV in the persistence of phimosis in children. Patients and methods Out of a cohort of 420 boys presenting with foreskin problems, we prospectively sampled the preputial tissue of 82 patients during circumcision: 46 with steroid-naive and 36 with steroid-resistant phimosis. All foreskins were assessed clinically and histopathologically with regard to appearance, inflammation, oedema, epithelial degeneration and fibrosis. The viral status of the foreskins was determined by immunohistochemistry and highly sensitive PCR, with subsequent subtyping by DNA hybridization (HPV types 6, 11, 16, 18, 31, 33, 35, 39, 42, 44, 45, 51–54, 56, 58, 59, 61, 62, 66–68, 70, 72, 73, 81–84, 90, 91). Results The foreskins appeared normal in 62 boys and suggestive of LSA in one single case. Small cracks or white scars were present in seven steroid-naive and 12 steroid-resistant foreskins. LSA was diagnosed microscopically in two of the steroid-naive and six of the steroid-pretreated group. No evidence of HPV was found in any of the juvenile foreskins. Conclusions Our prospective study has provided evidence that HPV is not usually present in the foreskin of boys with persistent phimosis after their first year of life and that topical glucocorticoid treatment failure is not associated with HPV or any specific histopathological changes.

Two experiments demonstrated that fast (vs. normal-paced) end-of-advertisement disclaimers undermine consumers' purchase intention toward untrusted brands (both trust-unknown and not-trusted brands), but that disclaimer speed has no effect on consumers' purchase intention toward trusted brands. The differential effects of disclaimer speed for untrusted versus trusted brands were not due to differences in consumers' familiarity with the brands (experiment 1). Consistent with the hypothesis that fast disclaimers adversely affect purchase intention via heuristic rather than elaborative processes, the disclaimer speed × brand trust interaction effect remained robust even when the disclaimer presented positive information about the advertised product (experiment 2).

Background Acute exacerbations in allergic asthmatics may lead to impaired ability to clear mucus from the airways, a key factor in asthma morbidity.

Background Epidemiologic evidence links tobacco smoke and increased risk for influenza in humans, but the specific host defense pathways involved are unclear. Objective We developed a model to examine influenza-induced innate immune responses in humans and test the hypothesis that exposure to cigarette smoke alters nasal inflammatory and antiviral responses to live attenuated influenza virus (LAIV). Methods This was an observational cohort study comparing nasal mucosal responses to LAIV among young adult active smokers (n = 17), nonsmokers exposed to secondhand smoke (SHS; n = 20), and unexposed controls (n = 23). Virus RNA and inflammatory factors were measured in nasal lavage fluids (NLF) serially after LAIV inoculation. For key end points, peak and total (area under curve) responses were compared among groups. Results Compared with controls, NLF interleukin-6 (IL-6) responses to LAIV (peak and total) were suppressed in smokers. Virus RNA in NLF cells was significantly increased in smokers, as were interferon-inducible protein 10:virus ratios. Responses in SHS-exposed subjects were generally intermediate between controls and smokers. We observed significant associations between urine cotinine and NLF IL-6 responses (negative correlation) or virus RNA in NLF cells (positive correlation) for all subjects combined. Conclusions Nasal inoculation with LAIV results in measurable inflammatory and antiviral responses in human volunteers, thus providing a model for investigating environmental effects on influenza infections in humans. Exposure to cigarette smoke was associated with suppression of specific nasal inflammatory and antiviral responses, as well as increased virus quantity, after nasal inoculation with LAIV. These data suggest mechanisms for increased susceptibility to influenza infection among persons exposed to tobacco smoke.

BACKGROUND: Exposure to fine airborne particulate matter [

Regulatory Focus Theory's two fundamental processing orientations, Prevention Focus and Promotion Focus, have been shown to capture important differences in problem-solving motivation, goal pursuit, and individual-task ‘fit’, although some ambiguity remains regarding the nature of these differences; they have been construed as chronic but have also been related to specific situational factors. Separately, understandings of temperament (hereditable, physiological-based individual differences) have advanced significantly, although efforts to validate measures of temperament have been frustrating. Reinforcement Sensitivity Theory posits two fundamental temperaments, the Behavioral Inhibition System (an avoidance system sensitive to punishments and threats) and the Behavioral Activation System (an appetitive/approach system sensitive to rewards). We relate Regulatory Focus Theory to Reinforcement Sensitivity Theory, initiating the integration of Promotion Focus and Prevention Focus with the extensive extant theory and nomological networks of temperament and highlighting conspicuous empirical divergence between the two systems.

In our increasingly diverse society, children are deeply engaged in television viewing and their consumption of television programming varies by ethnicity. Ethnic portrayal in children9s advertising is an important public policy and self-regulatory topic that may influence children9s self-perception and brand perception. This research examines frequency of ethnic representation, as assessed by the proportionality criterion and type of role portrayals by ethnically stereotyped groups in 155 children9s commercials. Results indicate that all diverse ethnicities were underrepresented compared to Caucasians. Ethnic representation is also examined by advertised product category, ethnic interaction, and importance of role portrayed by ethnic characters.

PurposeThe purpose of this paper is to examine the changes that have taken place in the family and relate these changes to where and how people eat.Design/methodology/approachFemale heads of household were surveyed via telephone interviews to identify the characteristics of how the modern family dines. The telephone interview was conducted by a commercial research organization and used random digit dialing methods to identify potential respondents. The personal telephone interview was conducted by trained interviewers provided by the research supplier. The respondents were screened to insure that the respondent was a head of household.FindingsData revealed that families are reacting to time pressures in a way that changes the way they prepare foods while not affecting the end result. Overall, 75 percent of families eat as a family in the home five or more nights per week. In addition, 85 percent of those who eat together four nights a week or fewer, claim they would like to eat at home more often with their families. Today, families are eating together, even if it means making mealtime part of the daily multi‐tasking ritual. The extent to which families actually make a point to eat meals together could be an invaluable and irreplaceable component of healthy family relations. Culture, economy, and society have changed and people have again started ensuring that eating together occurs on a daily basis.Originality/valueThe paper highlights how the changing role of the family can dramatically influence the food industry.

Political parties, and more specifically public interest groups, budget extensive amounts of time and money to use celebrity endorsers for their candidate. Do celebrities bring forth enough value to warrant the time, effort, and money expended to make their endorsements public? Using a sample of first-time voters from the 2004 U.S. Presidential Election, the authors examine the extent to which celebrities influence voting while specifically assessing whether celebrity influence is greater for Republicans or Democrats. Implications and recommendations for future research are discussed.

A new guidance document for the implementation of quality assurance (QA) programmes for nuclear medicine radioactivity measurement, produced by the International Atomic Energy Agency, is described. The proposed programme is based on the principles of ISO 17025 and will enable laboratories, particularly in developing countries, to provide consistent, safe and effective radioactivity measurement services to the nuclear medicine community.