Personality predicts individual responsiveness to the risks of starvation and predation.

Theory suggests that individual personality is tightly linked to individual life histories and to environmental variation. The reactive-proactive axis, for example, is thought to reflect whether individuals prioritize productivity or survival, mutually exclusive options that can be caused by conflicts between foraging and anti-predation behaviour. Evidence for this trade-off hypothesis, however, is limited. Here, we tested experimentally whether exploration behaviour (EB), an assay of proactivity, could explain how great tits (Parus major) respond to changes in starvation and predation risk. Individuals were presented with two feeders, holding good or poor quality food, which interchanged between safe and dangerous positions 10 m apart, across two 24 h treatments. Starvation risk was assumed to be highest in the morning and lowest in the afternoon. The proportion of time spent feeding on good quality food (PTG) rather than poor quality food was repeatable within treatments, but individuals varied in how PTG changed with respect to predation- and starvation-risk across treatments. This individual plasticity variation in foraging behaviour was linked to EB, as predicted by the reactive-proactive axis, but only among individuals in dominant social classes. Our results support the trade-off hypothesis at the level of individuals in a wild population, and suggest that fine-scale temporal and spatial variation may play important roles in the evolution of personality.

Analysis of the relationships between environmental factors (aeroallergens, air pollution, and weather) and asthma emergency admissions to a hospital in Mexico City.

There have been several studies of the relationships between environmental factors, particularly air pollution, and attacks of asthma. Most of these studies have ignored the potential confounding effects of aeroallergens such as pollens and fungal spores. We report a statistical analysis of the relationships between emergency admissions for asthma to a hospital in Mexico City and daily average airborne concentrations of pollen, fungal spores, air pollutants (O3, NO2, SO2, and particulates) and weather factors. Asthma admissions had a seasonal pattern with more during the wet season (May-October) than the dry season (November-April). There were few statistical associations between asthma admissions and air pollutants for the three age groups studied (children under 15 years, adults, and seniors [adults over 59 years]) in either season. Grass pollen was associated with child and adult admissions for both the wet and dry seasons, and fungal spores were associated with child admissions during both the wet and dry seasons. The analysis was done with environmental data averaged over the day of admission and the 2 previous days. Our results suggest that aeroallergens may be statistically associated more strongly with asthma hospital admissions than air pollutants and may act as confounding factors in epidemiologic studies.

Predicting wheat yields: the search for valid and precise models.

Interest in predicting wheat yield in terms of physiological, cultural and meteorological variables is more than a century old. Early attempts involved statistical analyses of relationships between yield and observational data on precipitation, temperature, radiation, etc., and scientific study of physiological and cultural influences such as dates of sowing or anthesis, farming procedures and soil treatments. More recently these have been augmented by large-scale mechanistic models of phenological development, such as AFRCWHEAT, CERES and SIRIUS, incorporating some simulation facilities. All approaches implicitly involve fitting models of some sort: statistical, mechanistic or (preferably) a hybrid of these forms. Levels of success on this important matter are highly variable. After reviewing the field, we consider the results of recent efforts to contrast and evaluate the (large-scale) mechanistic approaches, using spatial/temporal methods for interpolating the required climatological input variables. The work employs a substantial database of wheat yields assembled for this purpose. After assessing the validity of the large-scale mechanistic models (with some intriguing conclusions), we then consider some results from a current approach to parsimonious hybrid modelling, based on statistical study of accessible climatological data interpreted in terms of physiological knowledge of key influences on plant development.

Bilateral ossifying fibroma of the maxillary sinus.

A case involving a 35-year-old man with massive, bilateral, slow-growing ossifying fibromas in the maxillary sinuses resulting in facial deformity and orbital compression is discussed. The historical difficulty in categorizing fibro-osseous lesions and the importance of clinical, radiographic, and surgical findings relating to the proper diagnosis and treatment are reviewed. The use of the CT scan to delineate the extent of the pathologic lesion is demonstrated.

Reliability theory and clinical psychology.

Psychologists who report test results usually ignore the published data on the reliability of the test. When reliability is taken into account, the standard error of measurement is used to estimate the magnitude of the range around the observed score in which the true score is most likely to occur. It is assumed that the observed score is the best available estimate of the true score and that the standard error of measurement is the standard deviation of possible true scores around this observed score that could result from errors of measurement. Most textbooks of psychometrics notwithstanding, neither of these popular beliefs is correct. The correct procedure for estimating the most probable true score and the range of error associated with it is described, and the implications for psychological report writing are discussed.

Quality of oral anticoagulant therapy.

Three hundred and eighty-four patients were studied for up to 1 year while on continuous oral anticoagulant therapy and the quality of control of therapy was assessed. Two hundred and thirty-five patients were on continuous therapy throughout the year (long-term group), 73 were treated for a period between 3 and 12 months (intermediate group) and 76 were treated for less than 3 months (short-term group). The therapeutic objective was to achieve and maintain British Ratio (BR) between 2.0 and 4.0. Nineteen percent of the results in the long-term group, 26.6% in the intermediate group and 41.1% in the short-term group fell outside this range. Among the long-term group only 25.1% and in the intermediate group 12.3% had all their results within the control range. It is concluded that the quality of therapeutic control of oral anticoagulant therapy needs to be improved.

Demonstration of carcinoembryonic antigen in bone marrow from patients with carcinoma.

Primary and secondary tumour and bone marrow trephine biopsies from 20 patients with carcinomas were stained for carcinoembryonic antigen by the three stage immunoperoxidase method. Six marrow biopsies contained tumour deposits, five of which were positive for carcinoembryonic antigen. A further five marrow biopsies contained single carcinoembryonic antigen positive cells of uncertain origin. Carcinoembryonic antigen staining may be a useful adjunct to conventional histology in the diagnosis of marrow metastases.

The construction by computer of a diagnostic key to the genera of yeasts and other such groups of taxa.

Groups of taxa such as genera, or groups derived from some forms of cluster analysis, may have insufficient test results that are constant within the groups to allow diagnostic keys and tables to be constructed in the usual way. This paper describes how the usual methods can be adapted to allow construction based on information about the individual group members, instead of on the overall group information. A new key to the genera of yeasts is constructed by these modified methods.

Erythrocyte membrane modification in malignant disease of myeloid and lymphoreticular tissues. II. Erythrocyte "mosaicism" in acute erythroleukaemia.

A case of acute erythroleukaemia is described. The patient's RBC, which at first appeared to be a mixture of groups B and O, were shown in fact to be a mixture of normal B and very weak B.

Idiopathic non-syphilitic paroxysmal cold haemoglobinuria in children.

Three examples of non-syphilitic paroxysmal cold haemoglobinuria (PCH) in children are described which occurred, within a period of 16 days, in association with a febrile illness. No definite viral aetiology or obvious epidemiological association could be established. A Donath-Landsteiner antibody of anti-P specificity was demonstrated in all three patients. The serological aspects of PCH are critically discussed.