SEARCH · Search PubMed
Search indexed PubMed citations on genomics, clinical trials, systematic reviews and public health. Explore titles, authors and supplied subject terms, then open the PubMed record.
Quote a phrase for an exact phrase match. Source license links do not imply unrestricted reuse.
"The evolutionary pattern of Scottish migration is interpreted in relation to Zelinsky's Mobility Transition model and the Marxian concept of changing modes of production. The prime explanatory framework is shown to be the emergence, maturing and current faltering of capitalism."
Explore the source record for details and available documents.
Explore the source record for details and available documents.
Explore the source record for details and available documents.
The Herpestidae are small terrestrial carnivores comprising 18 African and Asian genera, currently split into two subfamilies, the Herpestinae and the Galidiinae. The aim of this work was to resolve intra-familial relationships and to test the origin of sociality in the group. For this purpose we analysed sequences of the complete cytochrome b gene for 18 species of Herpestidae. The results showed that the mongooses were split into three clades: (1) the Malagasy taxa (Galidiinae and Cryptoprocta), (2) the true social mongooses and (3) the solitary mongooses, each group being also supported by morphological and chromosomal data. Our results suggested unexpected phylogenetic relationships: (1) the genus Cynictis is included in the solitary mongoose clade, (2) the genera Liberiictis and Mungos are sister-group, and (3) the genus Herpestes is polyphyletic. We examined the evolution of the sociality in mongooses by combining behavioural traits with the cytochrome b data. Some of the behavioural traits provided good synapomorphies for characterizing the social species clade, showing the potential benefit of using such characters in phylogeny. The mapping of ecological and behavioural features resulted in hypothesizing solitary behavior and life in forest as the conditions at the base of the mongoose clade.
Increased attention has been focused on the use of racial and ethnic categories in public health research and surveillance in recent years. This attention, however, has done more to increase the collective awareness of the difficulties inherent in these classification schemes than to resolve either the theoretical or practical problems. It has been recognized for many years that health outcomes for a particular ethnic population must be seen as an interaction between genetically determined factors and socially mediated exposures. The operational meaning of these concepts remains poorly defined, however. Although the general biologic construct of race and ethnicity appears straightforward, appearance is deceiving and the technical requirements that allow formulation of a rigorous and objective working definition have never been fully developed. The social factors that influence ethnic health differentials are perhaps better understood in practical terms; measurement of many of the relevant variables remains difficult, however. In this article an attempt is made to outline the implications of the new developments in molecular biology for the concept of race, and to provide an illustrative example of the continued evolution of the social determinants of ethnicity.
Epidemiology and demography, although both encumbering several theoretical constructs, are generally applied, problem-solving disciplines concerned with the nature and trajectories of defined groups. There are differences between the two disciplines in substantive interests and methodological traditions, however both have comprehensive perspectives and both are deeply concerned with the health, social, and economic well-being of human populations. One way to promote productive interdisciplinary research is to apply or develop scientific theories that exploit the complementary interests and methods of the two disciplines. Several candidate theories and themes are suggested here, including (1) the life course approach as applied to the biology of longevity; (2) the "modernized" Malthusian dilemma; (3) the demographic transition within developing countries; (4) the theory of evolution and its social and biological implications; (5) reciprocal effects of ecological and environmental characteristics on population health and well-being; and (6) systems theory as an approach to population complexity. Other approaches to fostering interdisciplinary investigation between these disciplines include joint course work, specifically targeted research funding initiatives and collaborative development of new population theory. The latter may be particularly important from several perspectives: uniting disciplines to jointly approach common and important scientific problems, providing existing frameworks with which to generate new scientific questions, and promoting enhanced scientific rigor by more tightly linking methods with hypotheses.
Psychiatric conditions and the institutions and practices that modern society has evolved to handle them originated during the nineteenth century in Anglo European societies. They are products of a historically contingent and culture specific formulation of a class of social problems of behavior that came to the fore in relation to intellectual and political economic changes of those societies. However, such problems have a long ancestry. They are intrinsic to human species and the social and cultural systems that its members have evolved since their emergence. This article reviews intellectual quandaries raised by evolutionary study of psychiatric conditions, those of crossing the human/animal divide and crossing historically contingent cultures; and of framing history of psychiatry in terms of social and cultural evolution. The biological architecture underlying psychiatric conditions and the breakthroughs that indigenous psychiatry of different types of societies underwent in formulating signs and symptoms are discussed.
OBJECTIVE: Evaluating patients who have had surgical management of acoustic neuroma has relied heavily on the surgeon's viewpoint for determining success. However, the perspective of the surgeon may be different from that of the patient. Thus, a recent increased interest in terms of quality of life has been documented by the literature on this specific topic essentially through the use of a questionnaire. The objective of this paper was to review this topic in our series of patients operated on for acoustic neuroma to ascertain the personal and social impact that surgery has had on their lifestyle. DESIGN: This retrospective study was devoted to increasing statistics to provide more detailed and valid information during the counselling phase. METHODS: This study was carried out on 82 patients who underwent surgery for acoustic neuroma between 1988 and 1997. Each patient was recalled and assessed for his/her postoperative quality of life. Detailed information was requested on the initial postoperative facial, vestibular, and hearing functions; their evolution; and their social consequence. Finally, at the end of the interview, each patient was invited to give a final comment on his/her opinion regarding the outcomes of surgery and preoperative information. RESULTS: Facial function showed a grade I-III in 85.4% of cases, with postoperative neurovegetative dysfunction (taste and lacrimation) in 43%. Audiologic abnormalities (worsening hearing and tinnitus) were complained of in 90% and 57% of the cases, respectively. Twenty-three percent of the patients had various degrees of gait instability; 6% reported postoperative headache at 1-year follow-up. Social consequence (reduced work ability, vocational change, new education, state pension, etc.) was not influenced by surgery in 80%. CONCLUSIONS: Our experience is in general agreement with previously reported statistics. It is interesting to note that our patients exhibited more disturbances linked to the sensory component of facial nerve. In contrast, dysequilibrium had a less negative influence. These outcomes suggest the importance of thorough preoperative counselling in candidates for surgery for acoustic neuroma in order to motivate them and, at the same time, to reduce their psychological discomfort.
The placebo effect is a well-known phenomenon through medicine and has been used as a treatment in many different pathologies. Nowadays it is being used as a control for the design of trials about the new psychotropic drugs. Within Psychiatry and more specifically regarding the affective disorders, responses to the use of inactive substances have been more frequently described and the rates recorded go from 20% to 49%.We have made a review of the literature published in this field in order to identify the predictors which are possibly involved in those patients with depression who have positive or negative responses to placebo. The most significant data come from the social, nosological, clinical, evolutive and, above all, neuroendocrinologic predictors. To finish, it is important to remark how inconsistent and heterogeneous is the response to placebo, as well as the ethic and legal problems that its use can carry.
In many cooperatively breeding birds, kin selection has an important role in the evolution and maintenance of social behaviour, and 'helpers' can maximize indirect fitness gains by preferentially allocating care to close relatives. Although there is evidence for kin-biased helping behaviour in several species, the mechanism of kin recognition underlying this behaviour is poorly understood. Vocalizations are the most commonly used cues in avian recognition systems, but the effectiveness of vocal signals as reliable recognition cues must depend on how they are acquired. However, there have been no experimental studies of the development of vocal recognition cues in cooperative birds; indeed, the ontogeny of all bird vocalizations other than song is poorly known in any species. Here, we show that cooperatively breeding long-tailed tits (Aegithalos caudatus) can discriminate between kin and non-kin according to the individual-specific characteristics of contact calls, and show experimentally that individuals learn these calls from provisioning adults during the nestling period. Finally, we show that the pattern of cooperative behaviour in this species is consistent with the use of recognition cues learned through association.
While reproductive caste in eusocial insects is usually determined by environmental factors, in some populations of the harvester ants, Pogonomyrmex barbatus and P. rugosus, caste has been shown to have a strong genetic component. This system of genetic caste determination (GCD) is characterized by between-caste nuclear variation and high levels of mitochondrial haplotype variation between alternative maternal lineages. Two previous genetic models, involving a single nuclear caste-determining locus or interactions between two nuclear loci, respectively, have been proposed to explain the GCD system. We propose a new model based on interactions between nuclear and mitochondrial genes that can better explain the co-maintenance of distinct nuclear and mitochondrial lineages. In our model, females with coevolved cyto-nuclear gene complexes, derived from intra-lineage mating, develop into gynes, while females with disrupted cyto-nuclear complexes, derived from inter-lineage mating, develop into workers. Both haplodiploidy and inbreeding facilitate the buildup of such coevolved cyto-nuclear complexes within lineages. In addition, the opportunity for both intra-lineage and inter-lineage mating in polyandrous populations facilitates the accumulation of gyne-biasing genes. This model may also help to explain the evolution of workerless social, parasites. We discuss similarities of GCD and cytoplasmic male sterility in plants and how worker production of males would affect the stability of GCD. Finally, we propose experiments and observations that might help resolve the origin and maintenance of this unusual system of caste determination.
The way in which novel learned behaviour patterns spread through animal populations remains poorly understood, despite extensive field research and the recognition that such processes play an important role in the behavioural development, social interactions and evolution of many animal species. We conducted a series of controlled diffusions of foraging information in replicate experimental populations of the guppy, Poecilia reticulata. We presented novel foraging tasks over 15 trials to mixed-sex groups, made up of food-deprived and nonfood-deprived adults (experiment 1) or small, young fish and old, large adults (experiment 2). In these diffusions, knowledge of a route to a feeder could spread through the group by subjects learning from others, discovering the route for themselves, or, most likely, by some combination of these social and asocial learning processes. We found a striking sex difference, with novel foraging information spreading at a significantly faster rate through subgroups of females than of males. Females both discovered the goal and learned the route more quickly than males. Food-deprived individuals were faster at completing the tasks over the 15 trials than nonfood-deprived guppies, and there was a significant interaction between sex and size, with a sex difference in adults but not young individuals. There was also an interaction between sex and hunger level, with food deprivation having a stronger effect on male than female performance. We suggest that information may diffuse in a similar nonrandom or 'directed' manner through many natural populations of animals. Copyright 2000 The Association for the Study of Animal Behaviour.
Interactions among individuals are universal, both in animals and in plants and in natural as well as domestic populations. Understanding the consequences of these interactions for the evolution of populations by either natural or artificial selection requires knowledge of the heritable components underlying them. Here we present statistical methodology to estimate the genetic parameters determining response to multilevel selection of traits affected by interactions among individuals in general populations. We apply these methods to obtain estimates of genetic parameters for survival days in a population of layer chickens with high mortality due to pecking behavior. We find that heritable variation is threefold greater than that obtained from classical analyses, meaning that two-thirds of the full heritable variation is hidden to classical analysis due to social interactions. As a consequence, predicted responses to multilevel selection applied to this population are threefold greater than classical predictions. This work, combined with the quantitative genetic theory for response to multilevel selection presented in an accompanying article in this issue, enables the design of selection programs to effectively reduce competitive interactions in livestock and plants and the prediction of the effects of social interactions on evolution in natural populations undergoing multilevel selection.
This article analyses the practice of what is termed "liberal medicine"--which has paralleled developments in how society is organized--and examines its historical and social determinants. The evolution of the term "liberal" over the centuries, to its present meaning of "practicing the profession as a self-employed physician," is discussed. The author continues the analysis by describing the liberal practice of medicine in the context of the terms of trade in the market for health services and professionals, which lead them to become small-businessmen in their profession. Liberal medicine develops when the unrestricted supply and demand for goods and services reaches the point where production and consumption are determined by systematic trade in a free market, without the restrictions and ties of an outdated social order. But legitimacy and controls related to the rules and regulations of the State, and of professional organizations do exist. This field of study will be examined further in future publications by the author, and by others interested in the problems of the labor force in the health sector.
Developing effective behavioral and psychological mechanisms for coping with social stress was very important in human evolution because humans evolved as social beings. The aggressive and post-aggressive behavior of 30 boys aged 7-11 years was observed during free play in summer camp with the standard "post-conflict-matched control" method (de Waal and Yoshihara, 1983). The focals were the victims of the conflict. Saliva samples for examination of cortisol and dehydroepiandrosterone sulfate levels were taken from each boy in 5 cases: 10 minutes after a conflict with and without reconciliation, matched-control samples next day and morning samples for the basal level. Every boy filled in a sociometry form, Buss-Durkee Hostility Inventory, Eysenk Personality test and the Revised Children's form for the Manifest Anxiety Scale. The stress-reduction role of peacemaking was supported on the physiological level. The level of stress-related hormones was higher when no reunion occurred.
The fact that Diabetes Mellitus has become one of the relevant health problems and is besides an important death cause in the world, has led to investigate mortality as produced by this pathology in the Province of Córdoba during the period 1986/1995. Death register because of Diabetes Mellitus for the whole province(for years 1986-1995) were obtained from the Stadistic Department of the Health Ministry of the Province of Córdoba. Brute and specific rates based on sex and age groups were determined from a total of 6.718 deceased (3,300 males and 3,418 females), evolution of the same and its relation with diverse variables such as instruction level, poor housing and U. B. N.(Unsatisfied Basic Needs). Result showed that death rate increased during the period Studied, 24.42/100,000 being the medium annual rate, with no significative difference between both sexes (P = 0.76 > 0.05). In relation to age, rates raised according to growing age, with prevalence of the masculine, in general from 45 years and onward, except for 1986, 1989 and 1995 years when feminine death rate is greater in the 75 years-old and onward group. With regard to the other variables considered, when comparing them with the social and economic development of each Department in the Province of Córdoba, we could infer that industrialization, urbanization and social and economic evolution of the same have a positive correlation with mortality caused by diabetes.
This paper explores relations of ontogeny, life history strategies and patterns of infant care in 11 species of small-bodied New World monkeys. Analysis of these data suggests that differences in the social systems of Aotus, Callicebus, Saimiri, Callimico, Saguinus, Leontopithecus, Cebuella and Callithrix are closely tied to both the costs of reproduction and to the ontogenetic requirements of maturing young. In Saimiri, both rapid prenatal body weight and perinatal brain growth result in relatively high metabolic costs to breeding females. These costs, coupled with minimal nonmaternal assistance in caregiving, appear to favor a reproductive strategy that limits offspring production to a single birth at 2-year intervals. In contrast, tamarins and marmosets are capable of producing twins twice in the same year. Prenatal investment in each offspring is relatively low, and the potentially high postnatal costs of nursing 2 infants are minimized by the evolution of a social system involving extensive extramaternal care-giving. Cooperative infant care in callitrichins (tamarins and marmosets) serves to distribute the metabolic costs of infant ontogeny among several group members. Callimico is also characterized by a high reproductive output, with females capable of producing a single infant twice during the year. Infants continue to grow rapidly after weaning. Patterns of infant development in Callimico are similar to those found in tamarins and marmosets and support a close phylogenetic relationship among these taxa. Aotus and Callicebus are characterized by an alternative strategy. In these taxa, a monogamous mating system is associated with paternal certainty, male parental care, and provisioning of the young. The transfer of male energetic resources to a single offspring allows night and titi monkeys to maintain a comparatively short interbirth interval (1 year). Ecological and social factors, such as predation and feeding competition, do not appear to adequately explain much of the observed variation in infant development and preadult growth rates in these platyrrhines. Instead, reproductive strategies are strongly linked to ontogenetic patterns and life histories.