Male Infanticide in the Northern Purple-Faced Langur (Semnopithecus vetulus Philbricki) in the Kaludiyapukuna Forest Reserve, Sri Lanka.

Infanticide, the killing of conspecific infants, has been observed in many species, including rodents, carnivores, and notably, primates. Although several adaptive and non-adaptive hypotheses have been proposed to explain this phenomenon, most cases to date appear consistent with the sexual selection hypothesis, particularly in primates. According to this hypothesis, males increase their reproductive success by eliminating unrelated unweaned infants, causing females to resume cycling earlier and allowing infanticidal males to mate and sire offspring sooner during their tenure.

Hand preference in wild crab-eating capuchin monkeys (Sapajus libidinosus) in the coastal area of Northest Brazil.

Handedness is a fundamental human trait, although recent research, especially on nonhuman primates, has shown that it is displayed by other animals as well (e.g., chimpanzees, gorillas).

Long-term home range stability provides foraging benefits in western gorillas.

Objectives: Long-term home range stability presumably emerges because familiarity with an area improves fitness through increased foraging efficiency, reduced predation risk, or reduced costs of intergroup aggression. While the use of spatial memory by primates has been widely demonstrated, few studies have examined whether long-term space use creates opportunities for interannual reuse of spatial knowledge. Here we examine the ranging behavior of western gorillas (Gorilla gorilla) to assess the degree of long-term site fidelity and the foraging consequences of reuse of space.

Oral health-related quality of life among home-dwelling older people with and without domiciliary care.

Objectives: The aim was to compare oral health-related quality of life (OHRQoL) between home-dwelling older people with and without domiciliary care when adjusted for gender, education, use of dental services and removable dental prostheses.

Background: OHRQoL of home-dwelling older people with and without domiciliary care is a neglected area of research, with few studies having been conducted.

Materials And Methods: A secondary analysis was conducted on the Finnish Health 2011 interview data.

A novel attention-getting vocalization in zoo-housed western gorillas.

As a critical aspect of language, vocal learning is extremely rare in animals, having only been described in a few distantly related species. New evidence, however, extends vocal learning/innovation to the primate order, with zoo-housed chimpanzees and orangutans producing novel vocal signals to attract the attention of familiar human caregivers. If the ability to produce novel vocalizations as a means of navigating evolutionarily novel circumstances spans the Hominidae family, then we can expect to find evidence for it in the family's third genus, Gorilla.

Who is there? Captive western gorillas distinguish human voices based on familiarity and nature of previous interactions.

The ability to recognize conspecifics by their acoustic signals is of crucial importance to social animals, especially where visibility is limited, because it allows for discrimination between familiar and unfamiliar individuals and facilitates associations with and the avoidance of particular conspecifics. Animals may also benefit from an ability to recognize and use the information coded into the auditory signals of other species. Companion species such as dogs, cats, and horses are able to discriminate between familiar and unfamiliar human voices; however, whether this ability is widespread across vertebrates is still unknown.

Dominance style is a key predictor of vocal use and evolution across nonhuman primates.

Animal communication has long been thought to be subject to pressures and constraints associated with social relationships. However, our understanding of how the nature and quality of social relationships relates to the use and evolution of communication is limited by a lack of directly comparable methods across multiple levels of analysis. Here, we analysed observational data from 111 wild groups belonging to 26 non-human primate species, to test how vocal communication relates to dominance style (the strictness with which a dominance hierarchy is enforced, ranging from 'despotic' to 'tolerant').

Predicting drowning from sea and weather forecasts: development and validation of a model on surf beaches of southwestern France.

Objective: To predict the coast-wide risk of drowning along the surf beaches of Gironde, southwestern France.

Methods: Data on rescues and drownings were collected from the Medical Emergency Center of Gironde (SAMU 33). Seasonality, holidays, weekends, weather and metocean conditions were considered potentially predictive.

Perceived oral health and oral health behaviours among home-dwelling older people with and without domiciliary care.

Objectives: The aim was to compare the perceived oral health and oral health behaviours of home-dwelling older people with and without domiciliary care.

Background: Oral health is poor in long-term care, but less is known about perceived oral health of home-dwelling older people receiving domiciliary care.

Materials And Methods: Data from the Health 2000 and Health 2011 surveys (BRIF8901) were used.

Mixed-species associations and attempted mating suggest hybridization between purple-faced and tufted gray langurs of Sri Lanka.

Hybridization is increasingly recognized as an important mechanism of evolutionary change in the order Primates. Here, we present the first observational data supporting natural hybridization between the critically endangered purple-faced langur (Semnopithecus vetulus philbricki) and the threatened tufted gray langur (Semnopithecus priam thersites) in Kaludiyapokuna Forest Reserve in Sri Lanka. In one case study, we observed a long-term (> 1 year) mixed-species group consisting of one adult tufted gray langur male coexisting with seven adult purple-faced females.

Spatial cognition in western gorillas (Gorilla gorilla): an analysis of distance, linearity, and speed of travel routes.

Spatial memory allows animals to retain information regarding the location, distribution, and quality of feeding sites to optimize foraging decisions. Western gorillas inhabit a complex environment with spatiotemporal fluctuations of resource availability, prefer fruits when available, and travel long distances to reach them. Here, we examined movement patterns-such as linearity, distance, and speed of traveling-to assess whether gorillas optimize travel when reaching out-of-sight valued resources.

The context of chest beating and hand clapping in wild western gorillas (Gorilla gorilla gorilla).

Loud auditory gestures that are produced by repetitively percussing body parts are rare in primate repertoires and have been mostly observed in captive settings. Gorillas produce two of the most conspicuous long-range signals of this type: chest beating and hand clapping. Here we present the first systematic analysis of chest beating (n = 63) and hand clapping (n = 88) in wild western gorillas to assess the behavioral contexts in which they emerged, the flexibility of their use, and the age-sex classes that produced them.

Nutritional composition of the diet of the western gorilla (Gorilla gorilla): Interspecific variation in diet quality.

To meet nutritional needs, primates adjust their diets in response to local habitat differences, though whether these dietary modifications translate to changes in dietary nutrient intake is unknown. A previous study of two populations of the mountain gorilla (MG: Gorilla beringei) found no evidence for intraspecific variation in the nutrient composition of their diets, despite ecological and dietary differences between sites. One potential explanation is that nutritional variability in primate diets requires greater ecological divergence than what was captured between MG sites, underpinning environmental differences in the nutrient quality of plant foods.

Oral health assessment in domiciliary care service planning of older people.

Objectives: The aim was to examine importance and consideration of oral health-related issues (OHRIs) during service planning by the case managers (CMs).

Methods And Results: The study was conducted in a major Finnish city. All 25 CMs, supervising over 450 domiciliary care employees who are caring for 4600 domiciliary care clients, received a multiple-choice questionnaire with additional open-ended questions.

Knowledge, perceived skills and activities of nursing staff to support oral home care among older domiciliary care clients.

Background: Increasing number of older adults lives in their own homes, but needs help in many daily routines. Domiciliary care nursing staff (DCNS) is often needed to support oral home care. However, information of nursing staff's knowledge, skills and activity in this task is sparse.

Sex and Circadian Periodicity of Cardiovascular Diseases: Are Women Sufficiently Represented in Chronobiological Studies?

Women are often excluded/underrepresented in clinical trials; sometimes, the number of men/women participants or separate analysis by sex are not reported. A robust body of evidence demonstrated that several life-threatening acute cardiovascular diseases, for example, acute myocardial infarction, sudden cardiac death, cardiac arrest, rupture or dissection of aortic aneurysms, and stroke, exhibit a circadian periodicity with a morning peak. An analysis of 20 years of chronobiologic studies (44% of them, accounting for 85% of total cases, with separate analysis by sex) confirmed that morning hours are a critical time of onset of acute cardiovascular diseases in men and women.

Marital Status, Cardiovascular Diseases, and Cardiovascular Risk Factors: A Review of the Evidence.

Background: There is evidence showing that marital status (MS) and marital disruption (i.e., separation, divorce, and being widowed) are associated with poor physical health outcomes, including for all-cause mortality.

Chronobiology of Takotsubo Syndrome and Myocardial Infarction: Analogies and Differences.

Several pathophysiologic factors, not harmful if taken alone, are capable of triggering unfavorable events when presenting together within the same temporal window (chronorisk), and the occurrence of many cardiovascular events is not evenly distributed in time. Both acute myocardial infarction and takotsubo syndrome seem to exhibit a temporal preference in their onset, characterized by variations according to time of day, day of the week, and month of the year, although with both analogies and differences.

Behavioral Variation in Gorillas: Evidence of Potential Cultural Traits.

The question of whether any species except humans exhibits culture has generated much debate, partially due to the difficulty of providing conclusive evidence from observational studies in the wild. A starting point for demonstrating the existence of culture that has been used for many species including chimpanzees and orangutans is to show that there is geographic variation in the occurrence of particular behavioral traits inferred to be a result of social learning and not ecological or genetic influences. Gorillas live in a wide variety of habitats across Africa and they exhibit flexibility in diet, behavior, and social structure.

Chronotype, gender and general health.

Background: Light-dark alternation has always been the strongest external circadian "zeitgeber" for humans. Due to its growing technological preference, our society is quickly transforming toward a progressive "eveningness" (E), with consequences on personal circadian preference (chronotype), depending on gender as well. The aim of this study was to review the available evidence of possible relationships between chronotype and gender, with relevance on disturbances that could negatively impact general health, including daily life aspects.

The crucial factor of hospital readmissions: a retrospective cohort study of patients evaluated in the emergency department and admitted to the department of medicine of a general hospital in Italy.

Background: Early hospital readmissions, defined as rehospitalization within 30 days from a previous discharge, represent an economic and social burden for public health management. As data about early readmission in Italy are scarce, we aimed to relate the phenomenon of 30-day readmission to factors identified at the time of emergency department (ED) visits in subjects admitted to medical wards of a general hospital in Italy.

Methods: We performed a retrospective 30-month observational study, evaluating all patients admitted to the Department of Medicine of the Hospital of Ferrara, Italy.