Notes

An Evaluation of the Tennesse Open Roadways Event's Influence on Corporations.
Facial characteristics can serve as a cue for judgements of multiple human traits, from maternal tendencies, overall fertility to sexual openness. In this study, we tested previously found fluctuations in facial shape throughout the menstrual cycle. With methods more robust than those formerly used (larger sample size and detailed hormonal assessments determining the timing of the ovulation), we did not find significant changes in either of the three facial measurements conducted symmetry, averageness and sexual dimorphism (all F ≤ 0.78, all partial η2 ≤ 0.01, all p ≥ 0.542). PT2399 purchase After narrowing the sample to cycles that had a higher probability of being ovulatory (based on daily measurements of luteinizing hormone and oestradiol), the results remained non-significant (all F ≤ 1.20, all partial η2 ≤ 0.03, all p ≥ 0.315). Our results (i) suggest that the previously found increased facial attractiveness of women in the most fertile phase of the menstrual cycle is not driven by changes in facial shape, but might instead stem from other changes in facial appearance, such as a more attractive skin tone; and (ii) underline the importance of replication of studies with new methods.Anthropogenic noise levels are globally rising with profound impacts on ecosystems and the species that live in them. Masking or distraction by noise can interfere with relevant sounds and thereby impact ecological interactions between individuals of the same or different species. Predator-prey dynamics are particularly likely to be influenced by rising noise levels, with important population- and community-level consequences, as species may differentially adapt to noise disturbance. Acoustic noise can, however, also impair the use of visual information by animals through the process of cross-sensory interference, possibly impacting species interactions that have so far been largely ignored by noise impact studies. Here, we assessed how noise affected the performance of great tit (Parus major) foraging on cryptic prey. Birds trained individually to search for paper moths differing in the level of camouflage with the test background were tested in the presence and absence of noise. We found that noise significantly increased approach and attack latencies, but that the effect depended on the level of crypsis. Noise increased latencies for cryptic prey targets, but not for conspicuous and colour-matched prey targets. Our results show that noise can interfere with the processing of visual information, particularly in difficult tasks such as separating objects from a similar looking background. These results have important ecological and evolutionary implications as they demonstrate how globally rising anthropogenic noise levels can influence the arms race between predators and prey across sensory domains.Supergenes, or linked groups of alleles that are inherited together, present excellent opportunities to understand gene-behaviour relationships. In white-throated sparrows (Zonotrichia albicollis), a supergene on the second chromosome associates with a more aggressive and less parental phenotype. This supergene includes the gene for vasoactive intestinal peptide (VIP), a neuropeptide known to play a causal role in both aggression and parental behaviour. Here, using a free-living population, we compared the levels of VIP mRNA between birds with and without the supergene. We focused on the anterior hypothalamus and infundibular region, two brain regions containing VIP neurons known to play a causal role in aggression and parental behaviour, respectively. First, we show that the supergene enhances VIP expression in the anterior hypothalamus and that expression positively predicts vocal aggression independently of genotype in both sexes. Next, we show that the supergene reduces VIP expression in the infundibular region, which suggests reduced secretion of prolactin, a pro-parental hormone. Thus, the patterns of VIP expression in these two regions are consistent with the enhanced aggression and reduced parental behaviour of birds with the supergene allele. Our results illustrate mechanisms by which elements of genomic architecture, such as supergenes, can contribute to the evolution of alternative behavioural phenotypes.There is no consensus about how terrestrial biodiversity was assembled through deep time, and in particular whether it has risen exponentially over the Phanerozoic. Using a database of 60 859 fossil occurrences, we show that the spatial extent of the worldwide terrestrial tetrapod fossil record itself expands exponentially through the Phanerozoic. Changes in spatial sampling explain up to 67% of the change in known fossil species counts, and these changes are decoupled from variation in habitable land area that existed through time. Spatial sampling therefore represents a real and profound sampling bias that cannot be explained as redundancy. To address this bias, we estimate terrestrial tetrapod diversity for palaeogeographical regions of approximately equal size. We find that regional-scale diversity was constrained over timespans of tens to hundreds of millions of years, and similar patterns are recovered for major subgroups, such as dinosaurs, mammals and squamates. Although the Cretaceous/Palaeogene mass extinction catalysed an abrupt two- to three-fold increase in regional diversity 66 million years ago, no further increases occurred, and recent levels of regional diversity do not exceed those of the Palaeogene. These results parallel those recovered in analyses of local community-level richness. Taken together, our findings strongly contradict past studies that suggested unbounded diversity increases at local and regional scales over the last 100 million years.One hallmark of the East African cichlid radiations is the rapid evolution of reproductive isolation that is robust to full sympatry of many closely related species. Theory predicts that species persistence and speciation in sympatry with gene flow are facilitated if loci of large effect or physical linkage (or pleiotropy) underlie traits involved in reproductive isolation. Here, we investigate the genetic architecture of a key trait involved in behavioural isolation, male nuptial coloration, by crossing two sister species pairs of Lake Victoria cichlids of the genus Pundamilia and mapping nuptial coloration in the F2 hybrids. One is a young sympatric species pair, representative of an axis of colour motif differentiation, red-dorsum versus blue, that is highly recurrent in closely related sympatric species. The other is a species pair representative of colour motifs, red-chest versus blue, that are common in allopatric but uncommon in sympatric closely related species. We find significant quantitative trait loci (QTLs) with moderate to large effects (some overlapping) for red and yellow in the sympatric red-dorsum × blue cross, whereas we find no significant QTLs in the non-sympatric red-chest × blue cross.
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