Variation in nest survival of three species of tropical plovers in Madagascar with clutch size, age of nest, year and El Niño effect.

A combination of life history traits and environmental conditions has been highlighted as the main drivers of avian breeding success. While drivers of breeding success are well known in some species, especially birds in northern, temperate regions; species in other parts of the world have received relatively little attention. In this study, we used a long-term dataset on breeding success of tropical plovers from south-west Madagascar to investigate whether nest survival changed over time and whether the drivers of nest survival were similar for multiple species breeding in the same arid habitat.

Early-life diet composition affects phenotypic variation of correlated animal personality traits.

Behavioural traits are under both genetic and environmental influence during early life stages. Early environmental conditions related to the amount and type of food have been found to alter behaviour in many organisms. However, how early life diet affects the variation in and the correlation between behavioural traits is largely unknown.

Using convolutional neural networks to count parrot nest-entrances on photographs from the largest known colony of Psittaciformes.

Counting animal populations is fundamental to understand ecological processes. Counts make it possible to estimate the size of an animal population at specific points in time, which is essential information for understanding demographic change. However, in the case of large populations, counts are time-consuming, particularly if carried out manually.

Tonic immobility behaviour does not differ between fire salamander larvae from ponds and streams.

Tonic immobility is an antipredator defence in which the prey animal remains motionless after physical contact with the predator, pretending to be dead. This behaviour has been observed among a variety of taxa but has received only little attention in amphibian larvae. During our field studies with fire salamander larvae, we observed that larvae from different habitats display tonic immobility after handling.

Differences in growth and competition between plants of a naturalized and an invasive population of .

The global shift of species' distributions has led to high numbers of noninvasive naturalized plants and the accumulation of invasive species within ecosystems. Competition between species may influence population dynamics, but little is known about the impacts of competition between conspecifics of naturalized and invasive populations. We investigated several plant traits at initial growth and regrowth following artificial defoliation in intra and interpopulation competition.

Early developmental carry-over effects on exploratory behaviour and DNA methylation in wild great tits ().

Adverse, postnatal conditions experienced during development are known to induce lingering effects on morphology, behaviour, reproduction and survival. Despite the importance of early developmental stress for shaping the adult phenotype, it is largely unknown which molecular mechanisms allow for the induction and maintenance of such phenotypic effects once the early environmental conditions are released. Here we aimed to investigate whether lasting early developmental phenotypic changes are associated with post-developmental DNA methylation changes.

Coupling Cell Size Regulation and Proliferation Dynamics of Reveals Cell Division Based on Surface Area.

Single cells actively coordinate growth and division to regulate their size, yet how this size homeostasis at the single-cell level propagates over multiple generations to impact clonal expansion remains fundamentally unexplored. Classical models for cell proliferation (where the duration of the cell cycle is an independent variable) predict that the stochastic variation in colony size will increase monotonically over time. In stark contrast, implementing size control according to strategy (where on average a fixed size added from cell birth to division) leads to colony size variations that eventually decay to zero.

Multi-scale effects of habitat loss and the role of trait evolution.

Habitat loss (HL) is a major cause of species extinctions. Although the effects of HL beyond the directly impacted area have been previously observed, they have not been modelled explicitly, especially in an eco-evolutionary context. To start filling this gap, we study a two-patch deterministic consumer-resource model, with one of the patches experiencing loss of resources as a special case of HL.

In-school adolescents' sociodemographic correlates of serious unintentional injuries in Saint Vincent and the Grenadines: A cross-sectional study.

Background: As a public health concern, serious adolescent injuries constitute considerable global morbidity and mortality. Despite the proliferation of literature on this problem, the evidence on the determinants of injuries among in-school adolescents in Saint Vincent and the Grenadines (SVG) is insufficient.

Method: The study analyzed data from the 2018 Global School-based Student Health Survey to examine the prevalence and determinants of serious injuries in a nationwide adolescent sample in SVG.

Association between health and safety perceptions of COVID-19 vaccine and its uptake in Ghana.

Background: Attitudes towards vaccines have affected COVID-19 vaccination programs in many countries. This study sought to evaluate the effects of general perceptions on the safety and health concerns and the confidence in COVID-19 vaccines on its uptake in Ghana.

Methods: A cross-sectional online survey was conducted between January and March 2021.

The network structure of posttraumatic stress symptoms in war-affected children and adolescents.

Background: It is unclear whether findings from previous network analyses of posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD) symptoms among children and adolescents are generalizable to youth living in war-torn settings and whether there are differences in the structure and connectivity of symptoms between children and adolescents. This study examined the network structure of PTSD symptoms in a sample of war-affected youth and compared the symptom networks of children and adolescents.

Methods: The overall sample comprised 2007 youth (6-18 years old) living in Burundi, Democratic Republic of Congo, Iraq, Palestine, Tanzania, and Uganda amid or close to war and armed conflict.

Polio-philanthropy in Africa: A narrative review.

Background And Aim: Polio eradication efforts including polio-philanthropy have been coordinated and sustained since 1988, with the introduction of the Global Polio Eradication Initiative (GPEI). The polio fight is sustained in the name of evidence-based benevolence or beneficent philanthropy from which Africa has benefited immensely. With the recorded polio cases as of 2023, more efforts and funds are required to eradicate polio.

Interprofessional qualification of prenatal care in the context of primary health care.

Unlabelled: This study aims to describe and analyze an interprofessional educational intervention for the qualification of prenatal care in the context of primary health care.

Method: action-research comprising a prenatal care qualification course with 65 primary health care professionals. Collaborative learning activities were conducted in synchronous and asynchronous meetings.

A cross-sectional study of university students' pocket money variance and its relationship with digital health literacy and subjective well-being in Ghana.

Background: Mental health concerns of university students are gaining more attention since the emergence of the coronavirus disease. Consequently, scholars in education, health and psychology-related fields have attributed the dwindling subjective well-being (SWB) of students to their low levels of digital health literacy (DHL). However, little attention has been paid to an important variable like pocket money (PM) which might serve as a buffer against reduced levels of SWB.

A new species of scops-owl (Aves, Strigiformes, Strigidae, ) from Príncipe Island (Gulf of Guinea, Africa) and novel insights into the systematic affinities within .

A new species of scops-owl (Aves, Strigiformes, Strigidae, ) is described from Príncipe Island, São Tomé and Príncipe (Gulf of Guinea, Africa). This species was discovered for science in 2016, although suspicions of its occurrence gained traction from 1998, and testimonies from local people suggesting its existence could be traced back to 1928. Morphometrics, plumage colour and pattern, vocalisations, and molecular evidence all support the species status of the scops-owl from Príncipe, which is described here as Phylogenetic analyses suggest that this species descended from the first colonisation of the Gulf of Guinea islands, being sister to the clade including the mainland African Scops-Owl , and the island endemics Sao Tome Scops-Owl and Pemba Scops-Owl .

Assessing the growth kinetics and stoichiometry of at the single-cell level.

Microfluidic cultivation and single-cell analysis are inherent parts of modern microbial biotechnology and microbiology. However, implementing biochemical engineering principles based on the kinetics and stoichiometry of growth in microscopic spaces remained unattained. We here present a novel integrated framework that utilizes distinct microfluidic cultivation technologies and single-cell analytics to make the fundamental math of process-oriented biochemical engineering applicable at the single-cell level.

3D printing in biotechnology-An insight into miniaturized and microfluidic systems for applications from cell culture to bioanalytics.

Since its invention in the 1980s, 3D printing has evolved into a versatile technique for the additive manufacturing of diverse objects and tools, using various materials. The relative flexibility, straightforwardness, and ability to enable rapid prototyping are tremendous advantages offered by this technique compared to conventional methods for miniaturized and microfluidic systems fabrication (such as soft lithography). The development of 3D printers exhibiting high printer resolution has enabled the fabrication of accurate miniaturized and microfluidic systems-which have, in turn, substantially reduced both device sizes and required sample volumes.

COVID-digital health literacy and subjective well-being of students in Ghana: Mediation-moderation analyses.

Background: Previous research has established a strong association between COVID-19 digital health literacy (DHL) and subjective well-being among several populations, including students. With the growing misinformation and heightened fear of COVID-19 among persons with an underlying medical condition, several scholars have questioned the direct relationship between DHL and well-being. This study assessed the moderating roles of information accuracy concerns and the existence of an underlying medical condition among students.

biocompatibility evaluation of a heat-resistant 3D printing material for use in customized cell culture devices.

Additive manufacturing (3D printing) enables the fabrication of highly customized and complex devices and is therefore increasingly used in the field of life sciences and biotechnology. However, the application of 3D-printed parts in these fields requires not only their biocompatibility but also their sterility. The most common method for sterilizing 3D-printed parts is heat steam sterilization-but most commercially available 3D printing materials cannot withstand high temperatures.

Has the COVID-19 pandemic changed gender- and parental-status-specific differences in working from home? Panel evidence from Germany.

Has COVID-19 changed gender- and parental-status-specific differences in working from home? To answer this question, we used data from the Institute for Employment Research High-Frequency Online Personal Panel collected in Germany in the early stages of the pandemic (May-August 2020). Regression analyses revealed changes in pre-pandemic gender- and parental-status-specific differences in remote working-not only when strict social distancing measures were in place, but also after they were lifted: Fathers were no longer more likely than childless men and women to work remotely, and women were no longer more likely than men to work more hours from home when using this arrangement. Further, the results suggest that cultural barriers in organizations to working from home-which were especially prevalent for mothers before the pandemic-have decreased.

Low heritability and high phenotypic plasticity of salivary cortisol in response to environmental heterogeneity in a wild pinniped.

Individuals are unique in how they interact with and respond to their environment. Correspondingly, unpredictable challenges or environmental stressors often produce an individualized response of the hypothalamic-pituitary-adrenal (HPA) axis and its downstream effector cortisol. We used a fully crossed, repeated measures design to investigate the factors shaping individual variation in baseline cortisol in Antarctic fur seal pups and their mothers.

Global health and health security - conflicting concepts for achieving stability through health?

Global health has become fashionable and an important topic on the international policy agenda. Even before the COVID-19 pandemic, cross-border infectious diseases had provoked a great deal of media and public interest, academic research and foreign-policy agendas. This paper analyses the relevance of health security in global health.

Inventory of the benthic eukaryotic diversity in the oldest European lake.

We have profound knowledge on biodiversity on Earth including plants and animals. In the recent decade, we have also increased our understanding on microorganisms in different hosts and the environment. However, biodiversity is not equally well studied among different biodiversity groups and Earth's systems with eukaryotes in freshwater sediments being among the least known.

Hormone-mediated foraging strategies in an uncertain environment: Insights into the at-sea behavior of a marine predator.

Hormones are extensively known to be physiological mediators of energy mobilization and allow animals to adjust behavioral performance in response to their environment, especially within a foraging context.Few studies, however, have narrowed focus toward the consistency of hormonal patterns and their impact on individual foraging behavior. Describing these relationships can further our understanding of how individuals cope with heterogeneous environments and exploit different ecological niches.