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Investigating the relationship between heat-mediated cognitive impairment and antipredator response in a wild bird
Get PDF© 2025 The Authors.Increasingly frequent heatwaves require animals to spend more time thermoregulating at the expense of other fitness-related behaviours. Emerging evidence also indicates that high temperatures can impair cognitive function in wild animals. However, whether such heat-mediated cognitive impairment underpins altered behavioural responses during high temperatures remains unclear. We examined the link between naturally occurring high temperatures, cognitive performance and antipredator response in wild southern pied babblers (Turdoides bicolor). In a paired experimental design, we performed model predator presentations using a taxidermied common genet (Genetta genetta) and a box as the control, and we quantified associative learning performance—a cognitive trait involved in associating predator cues with a threat—for the same individuals under normal and high-temperature conditions. As predicted, individuals showed a stronger antipredator response (combining time spent vigilant, flying and alarming) when presented with the predator compared to the control under normal but not high temperatures. Associative learning performance also declined with increasing air temperatures. However, associative learning performance (whether measured under normal or high temperatures) did not predict the strength of the antipredator response. Our findings provide novel evidence for a reduced antipredator response under high temperatures and suggest that physiological constraints rather than learning impairment might explain this change.This work was supported by the Australian Government through grant DP220103823 awarded to ARR, BJA, and AT. The Kuruman River Reserve was financed by Zurich University, Cambridge University, MAVA foundation and Zoo Zurich
General cognitive performance declines with female age and is negatively related to fledging success in a wild bird
Get PDF© 2022 The Authors. Published by the Royal Society.Identifying the causes and fitness consequences of intraspecific variation in cognitive performance is fundamental to understand how cognition evolves. Selection may act on different cognitive traits separately or jointly as part of the general cognitive performance (GCP) of the individual. To date, few studies have examined simultaneously whether individual cognitive performance covaries across different cognitive tasks, the relative importance of individual and social attributes in determining cognitive variation, and its fitness consequences in the wild. Here, we tested 38 wild southern pied babblers (Turdoides bicolor) on a cognitive test battery targeting associative learning, reversal learning and inhibitory control. We found that a single factor explained 59.5% of the variation in individual cognitive performance across tasks, suggestive of a general cognitive factor. GCP varied by age and sex; declining with age in females but not males. Older females also tended to produce a higher average number of fledglings per year compared to younger females. Analysing over 10 years of breeding data, we found that individuals with lower general cognitive performance produced more fledglings per year. Collectively, our findings support the existence of a trade-off between cognitive performance and reproductive success in a wild bird.This work was funded by the Australian Government Research Training Program through a scholarship awarded to C.S. at the University of Western Australia. The Kuruman River Reserve (KRR), the study site where this research was based, was financed by the Universities of Cambridge and Zurich, the MAVA Foundation and the European Research Council (grant no. 294494 to Tim Clutton-Brock) and received logistical support from the Mammal Research Institute of the University of Pretoria
Clinical spectrum and prognostic predictors of Guillain-Barré Syndrome: A prospective observational study from South India
Get PDFThe version of record of this article, first published in [Cureus: Journal of Medical Science], is available online at Publisher’s website: http://dx.doi.org/10.7759/cureus.94093Introduction: Guillain-Barré syndrome (GBS) is an acute immune-mediated polyradiculoneuropathy and a leading cause of acute flaccid paralysis. Though uncommon, it carries substantial morbidity and mortality. Indian prospective data remain limited, prompting this study to evaluate clinical patterns, complications, and prognostic determinants in a tertiary care cohort. Study: This prospective observational study was conducted at Madras Medical College, Chennai, between May 2024 and May 2025. Ninety consecutive patients aged 12 years and above fulfilling the Asbury and Cornblath criteria for GBS were included. Clinical details, cerebrospinal fluid (CSF) parameters, and electrophysiological subtypes were documented. Patients received intravenous immunoglobulin (IVIG), plasma exchange (PLEX), or supportive care. Outcomes assessed were ventilation requirement, complications, mortality, and functional status at discharge using the modified Rankin Scale (mRS). Results: Ninety patients (mean age 38.5 years) were studied, with a slight male predominance. Antecedent infections were common, mainly respiratory or gastrointestinal. Most patients (over 80%) presented with ascending symmetrical weakness, predominantly of the pure motor type. Acute inflammatory demyelinating polyradiculoneuropathy (AIDP) was the commonest electrophysiological subtype, followed by axonal variants. About one-fourth required intensive care unit (ICU) admission, and one-fifth needed mechanical ventilation. At discharge, one-third regained independent ambulation, while 9% died. Poor outcomes were associated with older age, cranial nerve and autonomic involvement, and axonal forms. Conclusion: GBS in this cohort predominantly affected young to middle-aged adults, with classical ascending weakness and AIDP as the commonest pattern, though axonal forms were frequent. One-third recovered well, but nearly half remained disabled and 9% died. Early recognition of predictors such as older age, cranial nerve palsy, autonomic dysfunction, and axonal subtypes is crucial for risk stratification and intensive management.N/
Meaningful mentor development
Get PDF© 2025 The Author(s). Published by Informa UK Limited, trading as Taylor & Francis Group.Mentors can be powerful agents of learning, but their mere presence does not guarantee the progress of an Associate Teacher. To be effective, mentors must be prepared for and supported in their role; however, an understanding of this provision is often lacking. This paper aims to identify and examine meaningful aspects of mentor development. More specifically, it seeks to analyse how mentors have experienced mentor development programmes and what they perceive as valuable and meaningful provision. Semi-structured interviews were used to gather data from 12 primary and 15 secondary mentors from within the same university Initial Teacher Education partnership in the north-west of England. Reflexive thematic analysis was then used to interrogate the data and identify patterns of response. While provision can manifest in various ways, meaningful mentor development was found to be purposeful, personalised, collaborative, developmental, dialogic, and ethical. Programmes that embody these characteristics are more likely to engage mentors in professional learning and help them develop their identity as mentors, along with the knowledge and skills needed to undertake the role.Unfunde
The pupal parasitoid Trichopria drosophilae is attracted to the same yeast volatiles as its adult host
Get PDFThis version of the article has been accepted for publication, after peer review (when applicable) and is subject to Springer Nature’s AM terms of use, but is not the Version of Record and does not reflect post-acceptance improvements, or any corrections. The Version of Record is available online at: http://dx.doi.org/10.1007/s10886-021-01295-6There is increasing evidence that microorganisms, particularly fungi and bacteria, emit volatile compounds that mediate the foraging behaviour of insects and therefore have the potential to affect key ecological relationships. However, to what extent microbial volatiles affect the olfactory response of insects across different trophic levels remains unclear. Adult parasitoids use a variety of chemical stimuli to locate potential hosts, including those emitted by the host’s habitat, the host itself, and microorganisms associated with the host. Given the great capacity of parasitoids to utilize and learn odours to increase foraging success, parasitoids of eggs, larvae, or pupae may respond to the same volatiles the adult stage of their hosts use when locating their resources, but compelling evidence is still scarce. In this study, using Saccharomyces cerevisiae we show that Trichopria drosophilae, a pupal parasitoid of Drosophila species, is attracted to the same yeast volatiles as their hosts in the adult stage, i.e. acetate esters. Parasitoids significantly preferred the odour of S. cerevisiae over the blank medium in a Y-tube olfactometer. Deletion of the yeast ATF1 gene, encoding a key acetate ester synthase, decreased attraction of T. drosophilae, while the addition of synthetic acetate esters to the fermentation medium restored parasitoid attraction. Bioassays with individual compounds revealed that the esters alone were not as attractive as the volatile blend of S. cerevisiae, suggesting that other volatile compounds also contribute to the attraction of T. drosophilae. Altogether, our results indicate that pupal parasitoids respond to the same volatiles as the adult stage of their hosts, which may aid them in locating oviposition sites.GD and FW were supported by the European Union’s Horizon 2020 research and innovation programme under the Marie Skłodowska-Curie grant agreement no. 722642 (INTERFUTURE). JA was supported by CERCA Programme/Generalitat de Catalunya and the Spanish Ministry of Economy and Competitiveness (Project PID2019-107030RB-C21). Work in the lab of BL is supported by KU Leuven, VLAIO and FWO
A response to Simpson and Hope's ‘From policy to practice: Measuring success in widening participation’
Get PDFThis is the peer reviewed version of the following article: [Sandars, J., Vivekananda‐Schmidt, P., Husain, L., & Leadbetter, P. (2024). A response to Simpson and Hope's ‘From policy to practice: Measuring success in widening participation’. Medical Education, 58(8), article-number 1012], which has been published in final form at [https://doi.org/10.1111/medu.15465]. This article may be used for non-commercial purposes in accordance with Wiley Terms and Conditions for Use of Self-Archived Versions. This article may not be enhanced, enriched or otherwise transformed into a derivative work, without express permission from Wiley or by statutory rights under applicable legislation. Copyright notices must not be removed, obscured or modified. The article must be linked to Wiley’s version of record on Wiley Online Library and any embedding, framing or otherwise making available the article or pages thereof by third parties from platforms, services and websites other than Wiley Online Library must be prohibited.A letter to the editorUnfunde
Same structures, different settings: exploring computing capital and participation across cultural contexts
No full text©2025 Copyright held by the owner/author(s).The number of people choosing to study computing in higher education remains low. Previous research has developed a research instrument to identify factors underlying student participation grounded in Bourdieu’s sociocultural theory. This study replicates and extends the original study, which identified key social, cultural, and psychological factors linked to computing education participation in Sweden. Using the validated research instrument, we distributed a survey across 11 UK universities, gathering responses from 131 students. Through Confirmatory Factor Analysis, we assessed the robustness of the original study’s constructs — career interest, subject-specific interest, influence from family and friends, confidence, and sense of belonging — and their relationship to subject choice in computing. After model refinements, the replication confirmed and validated the factor structure, supporting the stability of these constructs and their relationship to computing subject choice across cultural contexts. In addition, the current study adds additional open-ended questions to the research instrument to help explain the quantitative results. A thematic analysis further explains the correlation between previous experience, social influence, confidence, and gender, and how that relates to participation in the field. By replicating and extending the original study’s methodology, this research evaluates the reliability and generalisability of its conclusions, contributing to the evidence base needed to design interventions that broaden participation in computing education.Unfunde
A corrected Crank–Nicolson scheme for the time fractional parabolic integro-differential equation with nonsmooth data
No full textThis paper proposes a corrected Crank–Nicolson (CN) scheme for solving time fractional parabolic integro-differential equations which involve Caputo time fractional derivative and fractional Riemann–Liouville (R-L) integral. The weighted and shifted Grünwald–Letnikov (WSGL) formulae is adopted to approximate the time fractional Riemann–Liouville integral. The Crank–Nicolson scheme is applied to approximate the Caputo time fractional derivative. After appropriating corrections, the proposed scheme attains the optimal convergence order of O(\tau^2) with respect to the time step size \tau for both smooth and nonsmooth data at any fixed time . When combined with the Galerkin finite element method for spatial discretization, it forms a fully discrete scheme. The second-order error estimate for this scheme is rigorously established using the Laplace transform technique and verified by some numerical examples.Natural Science Foundation of Fujian Province: 2024J0111
ACPGBI position statement on robotic‐assisted colorectal surgical training
Get PDF© 2025 The Author(s). Colorectal Disease published by John Wiley & Sons Ltd on behalf of Association of Coloproctology of Great Britain and Ireland.The uptake of robotic-assisted colorectal surgery (RACS) across the UK and Ireland has increased exponentially over the last 5 years. It is anticipated that most 'conventional' laparoscopic procedures will eventually move to a robotic approach within a National Health Service that is committed to embracing robotic-assisted surgery. Working in collaboration with the surgical Royal Colleges, a more structured framework is necessary for robotic training. Inequality in robotic access and the impact that RACS is having on current colorectal surgical trainees need to be addressed, The Association of Coloproctology of Great Britain and Ireland (ACPGBI) has set out a framework to help support training in RACS at basic, advanced and trainer levels. Safer, better-trained robotic surgeons will ensure improved patient outcomes, which is the overriding goal of the ACPGBI.Unfunde
Quantifying the optimal factor VIII levels to achieve patient-centric and clinician-relevant outcomes among people with hemophilia A: a SHELF elicitation study
Get PDF© 2025 Sobi. Published by Informa UK Limited, trading as Taylor & Francis Group.Background: Hemophilia A is an inherited bleeding disorder caused by a deficiency of clotting factor VIII (FVIII), leading to joint bleeding and arthropathy. While prophylactic FVIII therapy reduces bleeding, evidence suggests maintaining higher FVIII levels (FL) may better protect joint health, particularly in physically active individuals and those with joint damage. However, data on optimal FLs required to prevent joint deterioration and complications remains limited.
Research design and methods: This study utilized the Sheffield Elicitation Framework (SHELF) methodology to elicit expert opinions on optimal FLs for patient-centric and clinical outcomes. Five European hemophilia experts participated in virtual workshops, providing probability-based estimates of FLs required to prevent bleed-related hospitalizations, orthopedic procedures, target joint incidence, and support physical activity without additional infusions or joint damage.
Results: Experts consistently recommended higher FLs for individuals with joint damage than for those without. Optimal average FLs ranged from 24% to 51%, exceeding traditionally recommended prophylactic trough levels (3–5%). Considerable uncertainty was noted around FLs for physical activity, reflecting the complexity of individualized care.
Conclusions: Standard prophylaxis regimens may not provide sufficient protection for all patients, particularly those with joint damage. A personalized treatment approach, targeting higher FLs when necessary, may be critical for optimizing outcomes.The HCD Economics research team received funding for this study from Sobi
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