Breath characteristics and adventitious lung sounds in healthy and asthmatic horses.

Background: Standard thoracic auscultation suffers from limitations, and no systematic analysis of breath sounds in asthmatic horses exists.

Objectives: First, characterize breath sounds in horses recorded using a novel digital auscultation device (DAD). Second, use DAD to compare breath variables and occurrence of adventitious sounds in healthy and asthmatic horses.

Commodity-specific punishment for experimentally induced defection in cooperatively breeding fish.

Coercion is an important but underrated component in the evolution of cooperative behaviour. According to the pay-to-stay hypothesis of cooperative breeding, subordinates trade alloparental care for the concession to stay in the group. Punishment of idle subordinates is a key prediction of this hypothesis, which has received some experimental scrutiny.

Hit-and-run trophallaxis of small hive beetles.

Some parasites of social insects are able to exploit the exchange of food between nestmates via trophallaxis, because they are chemically disguised as nestmates. However, a few parasites succeed in trophallactic solicitation although they are attacked by workers. The underlying mechanisms are not well understood.