A mouse in the spotlight: Response capacity to artificial light at night in a rodent pest species, the southern multimammate mouse (Mastomys coucha).

Multimammate mice are prolific breeders, can cause significant agricultural damage, and are reservoir hosts for a number of pathogens. They are nocturnal and given their success in urbanised rural environments, we were interested in how they would respond to increasingly bright anthropogenic spaces. We evaluated the locomotor activity of southern multimammate mice (Mastomys coucha), under four treatments: in an outdoor enclosure with natural light and temperature fluctuations, in a laboratory under a standard light regime, and two artificial light at night (ALAN) regimes (2 Lux) of varying proximity.

Wild mice in an urbanized world: Effects of light at night under natural and laboratory conditions in the single-striped grass mouse ().

Urbanization, and the accompanying artificial light at night (ALAN), can disrupt the activity of animals. Such disruptions at the base of a food web can ripple through the ecosystem. Most studies of ALAN are performed in the laboratory.

Learning and laterality in wild-caught Namaqua rock mice (Micaelamys namaquensis).

Individuals often exhibit differences in cognition and/or preferences for one side over the other. Such differences have been attributed to the mating system and lateralization of the brain hemispheres that can differ between the sexes, respectively. Despite the hypothesized significant effects on fitness, only a limited number of rodent studies addresses sex differences in laterality and most focus on laboratory rodents.

The development of forensic DNA analysis: New debates on the issue of fundamental human rights.

Before the advent of forensic DNA profiling, forensic techniques such as fingerprint examination and blood type comparison were used in the identification of suspects. DNA profiling has since become the gold standard of forensic science, and forensic DNA analysis techniques continue to evolve. Recent developments such as familial searching and phenotyping have raised ethical questions and concerns reflecting those expressed in the late 1980s when forensic DNA analysis was first introduced.

Assisted reproductive technologies may obviate apparent immunologic infertility.

Spermatozoal autoantibodies have been associated with reduced fertilization by natural coital methods. Nine subfertile men were evaluated who repeatedly tested positive for spermatozoal autoantibodies as characterized by direct immunobead test. Using the hemizona assay, we determined whether tight binding of spermatozoa to the zona pellucida was reduced in these test males as compared to a fertile male whose semen had been cryopreserved and thawed immediately prior to testing.