Search

The article presents the abstract of the paper "Variability in Strategies of Food Choice Among Gorilla Groups in Bwindi Impenetrable National Park, Uganda," by J. Ganas and colleagues, to be presented at the 21st Congress of the International Primatological Society in Entebbe, Uganda from June 25 to 30, 2006.

The article presents an abstract of the paper "Diet, Energy Intake, and Energy Expenditure by Mountain Gorillas of Bwindi Impenetrable National Park, Uganda," by J. B. Nkurunungi and colleagues, at the Twenty-First Congress of the International Primatological Society to be held in Entebbe, Uganda, on June 25-30, 2006.

The aims of this systematic review were to collect a list of published articles on dental faculty development and to determine the types and location of programs evaluated and years of publication. A subset of selected articles were then assessed using Kirkpatrick assessment model four levels: learner reaction, participant learning, participant behavioral change, and changes in organizational practice. The search, conducted in 2016, comprised all potentially relevant articles in the following databases: PubMed, EMBASE via Ovid, and ERIC. The study screening was done by three reviewers in multiple stages: by title, abstract, and full text review. Following deduplication, 257 titles were obtained; of those, 102 articles were selected for abstract review. As a result of that review, 32 articles were excluded, leaving 70 for data extraction. The majority of the 70 articles were about programs in the U.S., and two-thirds were studies conducted at individual academic institutions. Most focused on faculty development initiatives (n=49), followed by retention (n=22), recruitment (n=16), and/or promotion/tenure (n=11). The year with the highest number of published articles was 1991 (n=10, 14%), followed by 2007 and 2011 (n=6, 8.6% each). Among the 12 articles evaluated with the Kirkpatrick model, most assessed Levels 1, 2, and 3, but very few addressed Level 4. Research in those 12 articles was conducted primarily at two dental schools: New York University College of Dentistry (n=5) and University of Florida College of Dentistry (n=4). This study generated a varied list of published articles on faculty development, but the results point to the need for research at more institutions and using additional methodologies.

That domain irrelevant context information can potentially bias human decision making processes is accepted in the psychological sciences. Although many forensic pattern examination sciences use human perceptual and cognitive processes almost exclusively to form opinions regarding evidence, we have been slow to engage with any procedure that might control for any potential effects associated with context information. The critics of pattern evidence have described how opinions may be unintentionally incorrectly formed and how bodies of evidential information might conspire to form cases where the sum of the totality of the evidence may be significantly more than its specialist parts. Given the body of evidence supporting the potentially serious implications of domain irrelevant information, it was decided to introduce a context management scheme at the Document Examination Unit of the Victoria Police Forensic Services Department. Existing laboratory wide evidence submission procedures were modified in the scheme such that, as far as was agreed to be practical, all handwriting cases were stripped of all but essential information for carrying out examination and comparison tasks. As yet no negative outcomes have been reported as a result of the scheme implementation., (Copyright © 2012 Forensic Science Society. Published by Elsevier Ireland Ltd. All rights reserved.)

Determining the nutritional and phenolic basis of food preference is important for understanding the nutritional requirements of animals. Preference is a measure of which foods would be consumed by an animal if there was no variation in availability among food items. From September 2004 to August 2005, we measured the food preferences of four wild mountain gorilla groups that consume foliage and fruit in Bwindi Impenetrable National Park, Uganda, to determine what nutrients and phenols are preferred and/or avoided. To do so, we asked the following questions: (1) Which plant species do the gorillas prefer? (2) Considering the different plant parts consumed of these preferred species, what nutrients and/or phenols characterize them? (3) Do the nutritional and phenolic characteristics of preferred foods differ among gorilla groups? We found that although some species were preferred and others were not, of those species found in common among the different group home ranges, the same ones were generally preferred by all groups. Second, all groups preferred leaves with relatively high protein content and relatively low fiber content. Third, three out of four groups preferred leaves with relatively high sugar amounts. Fourth, all groups preferred pith with relatively high sugar content. Finally, of the two groups tested, we found that the preferred fruits of one group had relatively high condensed tannin and fiber/sugar contents, whereas the other group's preferred fruits were not characterized by any particular nutrient/phenol. Overall, there were no differences among gorilla groups in nutritional and phenolic preferences. Our results indicate that protein and sugar are important in the diets of gorillas, and that the gorillas fulfil these nutritional requirements through a combination of different plant parts, shedding new light on how gorillas balance their diets in a variable environment.

Variability in ant eating has been observed in several populations of eastern and western gorillas. We investigated the occurrence of ant (Dorylus sp.) eating in two groups of mountain gorillas (Gorilla beringei beringei) with overlapping home ranges within Bwindi Impenetrable National Park, Uganda from September 2001 to August 2002. We calculated the frequency of ant eating by an indirect method of analyzing fecal samples from silverbacks, adult females, and juveniles. One group consumed ants significantly more often than the other (3.3 vs 17.6% of days sampled). Furthermore, the group that consumed ants more often also consumed them on a seasonal basis (September-February monthly range: 0-8%; March-August monthly range: 30-42.9%). Finally, females and juveniles of this group consumed ants significantly more often than did the silverback (total samples containing ants: silverback, 2.1%; adult female, 13.2%; juvenile, 11.2%). Differences in ant eating between groups are likely due to variability in use of habitats where ants occur (particularly secondary forests). Surveys of ant densities in differing habitats, nutritional analysis of ants, and quantification of the amount of ants in their diets are necessary to understand if ant consumption is due to availability, nutritional value, group traditions, or taste preference.