Behavioral Differences Between Two Recently Sympatric Paper Wasps, the Native \u3ci\u3ePolistes Fuscatus\u3c/i\u3e and the Invasive \u3ci\u3ePolistes Dominulus\u3c/i\u3e

Polistes dominulus (Christ), an old world paper wasp, was introduced into the eastern United States in the 1970s and has been rapidly spreading westward. Recently, it has displaced the native Polistes fuscatus (F.) in at least some areas of Michigan. In order to understand why P. dominulus has been so successful, several behavioral attributes were compared between P. dominulus and P. fuscatus at a Michigan field site that contained colonies of both species nest- ing semi-naturally in plywood nestboxes. Preworker colonies of P. dominulus had a significantly greater tendency to store nectar (and had significantly higher proportions of cells with nectar) than preworker colonies of P. fuscatus. This finding may explain the higher survivorship of P. dominulus foundresses reported in a previous study. P. dominulus also had a significantly greater tendency to build vertical nests and had significantly more pedicels per comb and per cell than P. fuscatus. These findings suggest that compared to P. fuscatus, P. dominulus may have more flexibility in the positioning of its combs and, because of a possibly stronger attachment of the comb to a substrate, may be less susceptible to bird predation. The higher winter survivorship reported for P. fuscatus over P. dominulus in a previous study does not appear to be due to differences in the proportions of gynes stranded on their nests late in the fall. Finally, behavioral evidence from videography was consistent with previous reports that P. dominulus is not replacing P. fuscatus through direct agonistic interactions

Circadian factors BMAL1 and RORα control HIF-1α transcriptional activity in nucleus pulposus cells: implications in maintenance of intervertebral disc health.

BMAL1 and RORα are major regulators of the circadian molecular oscillator. Since previous work in other cell types has shown cross talk between circadian rhythm genes and hypoxic signaling, we investigated the role of BMAL1 and RORα in controlling HIF-1-dependent transcriptional responses in NP cells that exist in the physiologically hypoxic intervertebral disc. HIF-1-dependent HRE reporter activity was further promoted by co-transfection with either BMAL1 or RORα. In addition, stable silencing of BMAL1 or inhibition of RORα activity resulted in decreased HRE activation. Inhibition of RORα also modulated HIF1α-TAD activity. Interestingly, immunoprecipitation studies showed no evidence of BMAL1, CLOCK or RORα binding to HIF-1α in NP cells. Noteworthy, stable silencing of BMAL1 as well as inhibition of RORα decreased expression of select HIF-1 target genes including VEGF, PFKFB3 and Eno1. To delineate if BMAL1 plays a role in maintenance of disc health, we studied the spinal phenotype of BMAL1-null mice. The lumbar discs of null mice evidenced decreased height, and several parameters associated with vertebral trabecular bone quality were also affected in nulls. In addition, null animals showed a higher ratio of cells to matrix in NP tissue and hyperplasia of the annulus fibrosus. Taken together, our results indicate that BMAL1 and RORα form a regulatory loop in the NP and control HIF-1 activity without direct interaction. Importantly, activities of these circadian rhythm molecules may play a role in the adaptation of NP cells to their unique niche

Auditory Processing Performance of the Middle-Aged and Elderly: Auditory or Cognitive Decline?

BACKGROUND: Despite the well-established relationship between aging and auditory processing decline, identifying the extent to which age effect is the main factor on auditory processing performance remains a great challenge due to the co-occurrence of age-related hearing loss and age-related cognitive decline as potential confounding factors. PURPOSE: To investigate the effects of age-related hearing loss and working memory on the clinical evaluation of auditory processing of middle-aged and elderly. RESEARCH DESIGN: Cross-sectional study. STUDY SAMPLE: A total of 77 adults between 50 and 70 yr of age were invited to participate in the study. DATA COLLECTION AND ANALYSIS: The participants were recruited from a larger study that focused on the assessment and management of sensory and cognitive skills in elderly participants. Only participants with normal hearing or mild-to-moderate age-related hearing loss, with no evidence of cognitive, psychological, or neurological conditions were included. Speech-in-noise, dichotic digit, and frequency pattern tests were conducted as well as a working memory test. The hearing loss effect was investigated using an audibility index, calculated from the audiometric threshold. The performance on the digit span test was used to investigate working memory effects. Both hearing loss and working memory effects were investigated via correlation and regression analyses, partialling out age effects. The significance level was set at p < 0.05. RESULTS: The results demonstrated that, while hearing loss was associated to the speech-in-noise performance, working memory was associated to the frequency pattern and dichotic digit performances. Regression analyses confirmed the relative contribution of hearing loss to the variance in speech-in-noise and working memory test to the variance in frequency pattern and dichotic digit test performance. CONCLUSIONS: The performance decline of the elderly in auditory processing tests may be partially attributable to the working memory performance and, consequently, to the cognitive decline exhibited by this population. Mild-to-moderate hearing loss seems to affect performance on specific auditory processing tasks, such as speech in noise, reinforcing the idea that auditory processing disorder in the elderly might also be associated to auditory peripheral deficits

The evaluation of school principals and its effects on transformational leadership

Principals are leading schools during a time of continuous change. Society, students, and expectations are always evolving and school principals are focusing much of their work on transforming their students and schools. However, prior to the 21st century there was little attention paid to the performance evaluation of school principals. The Performance Evaluation Reform Act (PERA) enacted new law on how principals were to be evaluated in Illinois. This study researches the influence that the performance evaluation process, under the constraints of PERA, has on the transformational leadership abilities of school principals. This study also researches the influence of the evaluator-principal relationship on the principal\u27s transformational leadership abilities. It concludes with findings that support the use of many of the practices embedded in PERA paired with the development of supportive relationships between evaluator and principal