Similar preferences for ornamentation in opposite- and same-sex choice experiments.

Selection due to social interactions comprises competition over matings (sexual selection stricto sensu) plus other forms of social competition and cooperation. Sexual selection explains sex differences in ornamentation and in various other phenotypes, but does not easily explain cases where those phenotypes are similar in males and females. Understanding such similarities requires knowing how phenotypes influence nonsexual social interactions as well, which can be very important in gregarious animals, but whose role for phenotypic evolution has been overlooked. For example, 'mate choice' experiments often found preferences for ornamentation, but have not assessed whether those are strictly sexual or are general social preferences. Using choice experiments with a gregarious and mutually ornamented finch, the common waxbill (Estrilda astrild), we show that preferences for ornamentation in the opposite-sex also extend to same-sex interactions. Waxbills discriminated between opposite- and same-sex individuals, but most preferences for colour traits were similar when interacting with either sex. Similar preferences in sexual and nonsexual associations may be widespread in nature, either as social adaptations or as by-product of mate preferences. In either case, such preferences may set the stage for the evolution of mutual ornamentation and of various other similarities between the sexes.

Análise epidemiológica de consenso nacional sobre espasticidade / Epidemiological analysis of nacional consense about spasticity

The National Consense abot Spasticity by Brazilian Society of Physical Medicine and Rehabilitation (SBMFR) and Brazilian Medical Association (AMB) was done based on critical analysis of epidemiological studies, showing that traditional terapeutic resources need more studies for posterior approving

Progressive muscular dystrophy--Duchenne type. Controversies of the kinesitherapy treatment.

The authors carried out a study of children with progressive muscular dystrophy of Duchenne type (DMD), giving special attention to physiatrical follow-up, having in mind that the practice of exercises has been debated very much in the specialized literature. The goal of this study is to try to settle the limits for the utilization of kinesitherapy which should be applied only in specific situations, such as: after skeletal muscular trauma or when the respiratory system is at risk. In this situation the physiatrical procedure would be to restrict physical activity, with early use of wheelchairs and the exclusion of the use of orthoses for orthostatism. DMD, at present, has been considered a result of duplication (60%), deletion (5 to 6%) or point mutations at gen Xp21 (Zatz, 1994), that codifies a protein called Dystrophin (Hoffman et al., 1987). Dystrophin is a cytoskeletal sarcolemmic protein that constitutes about .002% of the total protein of the muscle, present in skeletal fibers concentrated in muscle tendinous joints, which supplies mechanical reinforcement to the surface of the membrane during stretching and shortening physical activity. This protein is absent in DMD cases, wherefore, the sarcolemma undergoes a segmentary necrosis losing its contractile property during eccentric and concentric physical activity. The importance of physiatrical follow-up for DMD patients is to avoid deformities and tendon shortening, to ameliorate the patient's quality of life, to provide respiratory assistance and general counseling to members of the patient's family. The objective of this study is to try to clarify the risks and possibilities of kinesitherapy applied to DMD cases.