Predicting academic success of autistic students in higher education.

Autistic youths increasingly enter universities. We know from existing research that autistic students are at risk of dropping out or studying delays. Using machine learning and historical information of students, researchers can predict the academic success of bachelor students.

Influence of lighting environment on social preferences in sticklebacks from two different photic habitats. II. Shoaling and mate preferences of lab-bred fishes.

Different environmental conditions may lead to diverse morphological, behavioral, and physiological adaptations of different populations of the same species. Lighting conditions, for example, vary vastly especially between aquatic habitats, and have been shown to elicit adaptations. The availability of short-wave ultraviolet (UV) light is especially fluctuating, as UV wavelengths are attenuated strongly depending on water properties.

Influence of lighting environment on social preferences in sticklebacks from two different photic habitats. I. mate preferences of wild-caught females.

Ultraviolet (UV) A signals (320-400 nm) are important in mate choice in numerous species. The sensitivity for UV signals is not only assumed to be costly, but also expected to be a function of the prevailing ecological conditions. Generally, those signals are favored by selection that efficiently reach the receiver.

Nest-site selection in a fish species with paternal care.

Fish that perform paternal care may increase their fitness by choosing nest sites that enhance survival and development of embryos. We studied nest-site choice with respect to dissolved oxygen concentration and water temperature in males of the three-spined stickleback (), a small fish species with exclusive male parental care that usually breeds in the littoral zone of freshwaters of the Northern hemisphere. Fathers oxygenate the embryos by fanning movements of their pectoral fins.

Anticipatory plastic response of the cellular immune system in the face of future injury: chronic high perceived predation risk induces lymphocytosis in a cichlid fish.

Vertebrate cellular immunity displays substantial variation among taxa and environments. Hematological parameters such as white blood-cell counts have emerged as a valuable tool to understand this variation by assessing the immunological status of individuals. These tools have long revealed that vertebrate cellular immune systems are highly plastic and respond to injury and infection.

Differential investment in pre- and post-mating male sexual traits in response to prolonged exposure to ambient UVB radiation in a fish.

Increasing UVB radiation (UVB) reaching earth's surface following stratospheric ozone depletion is linked to serious consequences for organisms. While studies have focused on direct cytocidal and immunomodulatory effects of UVB, indirect consequences for fitness-related life-history traits are largely unexplored, although knowledge is needed to understand organismal responses to climate change. The present study investigates the effects of developmental exposure to enhanced, but ecologically relevant, ambient UVB levels on growth (body size), parental behavior (nest-building), fitness-enhancing traits of pre-mating (sexual ornamentation) and post-mating (sperm traits) sexual selection as well as their interrelationships in male three-spined sticklebacks (Gasterosteus aculeatus).

Impact of social rearing-environment on performance in a complex maze in females of a cichlid fish.

Spatial orientation is an important skill as it improves, for example, foraging, localisation of recourses, predator avoidance or navigation. Habitat complexity positively affects spatial abilities in various fish species with a more complex environment promoting learning ability. However, to what extent a complex social environment affects cognitive abilities in fishes has received less attention.

Mate assessment behavior is correlated to learning ability in female threespine sticklebacks.

In many species, males signal quality with elaborate traits, but females often show inter-individual variation in preference for these traits. Choosing a mate requires multiple cognitive steps; therefore, cognitive style (how an individual processes information) likely influences the perception of sexual signals and ability to choose a high-quality mate. An important component of cognitive style is flexibility; cognitively flexible individuals are more perceptive to shifts in cues.

Sperm size is negatively related to relative testis size in West African riverine cichlid fishes.

Fishes show a great diversity of mating systems and fertilization mechanisms. This diversity creates an enormous potential for sperm competition. Typically, monogamous species face a low risk of sperm competition and invest less into sperm, and thus show smaller relative testis mass compared to polygamous species with high sperm competition.

Enhanced ambient UVB radiation affects post-mating, but not pre-mating sexual traits in a fish.

Organisms inhabiting shallow aquatic habitats currently experience increasing levels of solar ultraviolet B radiation (UVB). UVB causes damage on cellular and molecular levels and can affect associated life-history traits either through direct exposure or indirectly through oxidative stress generation. We examined UVB effects on pre- and post-mating sexual traits in three-spined stickleback fish (Gasterosteus aculeatus).

Shoal sex composition and predation risk influence sub-adult threespine stickleback shoaling decisions.

Group living reduces individual predation risk most effectively when group members are behaviorally and phenotypically similar. Group preferences are influenced by the individual, the members of the shoal, and the environmental conditions. While shoaling behavior has been studied extensively in the threespine stickleback (Gasterosteus aculeatus), it is unclear whether the sex of shoal mates influences the shoal preference of non-reproductive males and females and how this changes under increasing predation risk.

Neglected Patterns of Variation in Phenotypic Plasticity: Age- and Sex-Specific Antipredator Plasticity in a Cichlid Fish.

The ability of organisms to plastically respond to changing environments is well studied. However, variation in phenotypic plasticity during ontogeny is less well understood despite its relevance of being an important source of phenotypic variation in nature. Here, we comprehensively study ontogenetic variation in morphological antipredator plasticity across multiple traits in Pelvicachromis taeniatus, a western African cichlid fish with sexually dimorphic ornamentation.

Long-term UVB exposure promotes predator-inspection behaviour in a fish.

Ultraviolet-B radiation (UVB) reaching the earth's surface has increased due to human-caused stratospheric ozone depletion. Whereas the harmful effects of UVB on aquatic organisms are well studied at the molecular and cellular level, recent studies have also begun to address behavioural changes caused by sublethal amounts of UVB. However, the behavioural consequences of long-term exposure to ecologically relevant UVB levels over several life stages are virtually unknown, particularly with regard to predator-prey behaviour.

Rapid molecular sexing of three-spined sticklebacks, Gasterosteus aculeatus L., based on large Y-chromosomal insertions.

There is a need for rapid and reliable molecular sexing of three-spined sticklebacks, Gasterosteus aculeatus, the supermodel species for evolutionary biology. A DNA region at the 5' end of the sex-linked microsatellite Gac4202 was sequenced for the X chromosome of six females and the Y chromosome of five males from three populations. The Y chromosome contained two large insertions, which did not recombine with the phenotype of sex in a cross of 322 individuals.

Strong neutral genetic differentiation in a host, but not in its parasite.

The genetic diversity and population structure of a parasite with a complex life cycle generally depends on the dispersal by its most motile host. Given that high gene flow is assumed to hinder local adaptation, this can impose significant constraints on a parasite's potential to adapt to local environmental conditions, intermediate host populations, and ultimately to host-parasite coevolution. Here, we aimed to examine the population genetic basis for local host-parasite interactions between the eye fluke Diplostomum lineage 6, a digenean trematode with a multi-host life cycle (including a snail, a fish, and a bird) and its second intermediate host, the three-spined stickleback Gasterosteus aculeatus L.

Distribution of common stickleback parasites on North Uist, Scotland, in relation to ecology and host traits.

Analysing spatial differences among macroparasite communities is an important tool in the study of host-parasite interactions. Identifying patterns can shed light on the underlying causes of heterogeneity of parasite distribution and help to better understand ecological constraints and the relative importance of host and parasite adaptations. In the present study, we aimed to find correlational evidence that the macroparasite distribution patterns on the Scottish island of North Uist, which had been described by de Roij and MacColl (2012), are indicative of local processes rather than an unspecific influence of habitat characteristics.

The dynamics of color signals in male threespine sticklebacks .

Body coloration and color patterns are ubiquitous throughout the animal kingdom and vary between and within species. Recent studies have dealt with individual dynamics of various aspects of coloration, as it is in many cases a flexible trait and changes in color expression may be context-dependent. During the reproductive phase, temporal changes of coloration in the visible spectral range (400-700 nm) have been shown for many animals but corresponding changes in the ultraviolet (UV) waveband (300-400 nm) have rarely been studied.

Context-dependent dynamic UV signaling in female threespine sticklebacks.

Color signals, including ultraviolet (UV) signals, are widespread throughout the animal kingdom and color changes can be influenced by reproductive and motivational state. However, studies on dynamic changes of UV signals are scarce. Three spine sticklebacks (Gasterosteus aculeatus) that show intraspecific UV communication were used to study dynamic UV signaling in females.

Predator-induced neophobia in juvenile cichlids.

Predation is an important but often fluctuating selection factor for prey animals. Accordingly, individuals plastically adopt antipredator strategies in response to current predation risk. Recently, it was proposed that predation risk also plastically induces neophobia (an antipredator response towards novel cues).

Dynamic resource allocation between pre- and postcopulatory episodes of sexual selection determines competitive fertilization success.

In polyandrous mating systems, male reproductive success depends on both mate-acquisition traits (precopulatory) and sperm competitive abilities (postcopulatory). Empirical data on the interaction between these traits are inconsistent; revealing positive, negative or no relationships. It is generally expected that the investment in pre- and postcopulatory traits is mediated by environmental conditions.

Quantification acuity in spontaneous shoaling decisions of three-spined sticklebacks.

The ability to discriminate between different quantities is widespread throughout the animal kingdom, and the underlying mechanisms of quantity discrimination are currently intensely discussed. In contrast, questions elucidating the limits of quantity estimation received rather little attention so far. Here, we examined fine-tuned quantity estimation in the three-spined stickleback (Gasterosteus aculeatus) in a natural context, i.

Sperm quality but not relatedness predicts sperm competition success in threespine sticklebacks (Gasterosteus aculeatus).

Background: Mating between close relatives often leads to a reduction of an individual's fitness, due to an increased expression of deleterious alleles. Thus, in many animal taxa pre- as well as postcopulatory inbreeding avoidance mechanisms have evolved. An increased risk of inbreeding and hence a loss of genetic variation may occur during founder events as in most cases only few individuals establish a new population.