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Queens
Kinds of Queens Terms modified by Queens Selected AbstractsSEX-RATIO CONFLICT BETWEEN QUEENS AND WORKERS IN EUSOCIAL HYMENOPTERA: MECHANISMS, COSTS, AND THE EVOLUTION OF SPLIT COLONY SEX RATIOSEVOLUTION, Issue 12 2005Ken R. Helms Abstract Because workers in the eusocial Hymenoptera are more closely related to sisters than to brothers, theory predicts that natural selection should act on them to bias (change) sex allocation to favor reproductive females over males. However, selection should also act on queens to prevent worker bias. We use a simulation approach to analyze the coevolution of this conflict in colonies with single, once-mated queens. We assume that queens bias the primary (egg) sex ratio and workers bias the secondary (adult) sex ratio, both at some cost to colony productivity. Workers can bias either by eliminating males or by directly increasing female caste determination. Although variation among colonies in kin structure is absent, simulations often result in bimodal (split) colony sex ratios. This occurs because of the evolution of two alternative queen or two alternative worker biasing strategies, one that biases strongly and another that does not bias at all. Alternative strategies evolve because the mechanisms of biasing result in accelerating benefits per unit cost with increasing bias, resulting in greater fitness for strategies that bias more and bias less than the population equilibrium. Strategies biasing more gain from increased biasing efficiency whereas strategies biasing less gain from decreased biasing cost. Our study predicts that whether queens or workers evolve alternative strategies depends upon the mechanisms that workers use to bias the sex ratio, the relative cost of queen and worker biasing, and the rates at which queen and worker strategies evolve. Our study also predicts that population and colony level sex allocation, as well as colony productivity, will differ diagnostically according to whether queens or workers evolve alternative biasing strategies and according to what mechanism workers use to bias sex allocation. [source] FROM EXCLUSIONARY COVENANT TO ETHNIC HYPERDIVERSITY IN JACKSON HEIGHTS, QUEENS,GEOGRAPHICAL REVIEW, Issue 4 2004INES M. MIYARES ABSTRACT. When Edward MacDougall of the Queensboro Realty Company originally envisioned and developed Jackson Heights in Queens, New York in the early twentieth century, he intended it to be an exclusive suburban community for white, nonimmigrant Protestants within a close commute of Midtown Manhattan. He could not have anticipated the 1929 stock market crash, the subsequent real estate market collapse, or the change in immigration policies and patterns after the 19505. This case study examines how housing and public transportation infrastructure intended to prevent ethnic diversity laid the foundation for one of the most diverse middle-class immigrant neighborhoods in the United States. [source] Overbank deposition along the concave side of the Red River meanders, Manitoba, and its geomorphic significanceEARTH SURFACE PROCESSES AND LANDFORMS, Issue 13 2005Gregory R. Brooks Abstract Slow earth sliding is pervasive along the concave side of Red River meanders that impinge on Lake Agassiz glaciolacustrine deposits. These failures form elongated, low-angled (c. 6 to 10°) landslide zones along the valleysides. Silty overbank deposits that accumulated during the 1999 spring freshet extend continuously along the landslide zones over hundreds of metres and aggraded the lower slopes over a distance 50 to 80 m from the channel margin. The aggradation is not obviously related to meander curvature or location within a meander. Along seven slope profiles surveyed in 1999 near Letellier, Manitoba, the deposits locally are up to 21 cm thick and generally thin with increasing distance from, and height above, the river. Local deposit thickness relates to distance from the channel, duration of inundation of the landslide surface, mesotopography, and variations in vegetation cover. Immediately adjacent to the river, accumulated overbank deposits are up to 4 m thick. The 1999 overbank deposits also were present along the moderately sloped (c. 23 to 27°) concave banks eroding into the floodplain, but the deposits are thinner (locally up to c. 7 cm thick) and cover a narrower area (10 to 30 m wide) than the deposits within the landslide zones. Concave overbank deposition is part of a sediment reworking process that consists of overbank aggradation on the landslide zones, subsequent gradual downslope displacement from earth sliding, and eventually reworking by the river at the toe of the landslide. The presence of the deposits dampens the outward migration of the meanders and contributes to a low rate of contemporary lateral channel migration. Concave overbank sedimentation occurs along most Red River meanders between at least Emerson and St. Adolphe, Manitoba. © Her Majesty the Queen in right of Canada. [source] Temperature checks the Red Queen?ECOLOGY LETTERS, Issue 1 2003Resistance, virulence in a fluctuating environment Abstract Numerous studies have revealed genetic variation in resistance and susceptibility in host,parasite interactions and therefore the potential for frequency-dependent selection (Red Queen dynamics). Few studies, if any, have considered the abiotic environment as a mediating factor in these interactions. Using the pea aphid, Acyrthosiphon pisum, and its fungal pathogen, Erynia neoaphidis, as a model host,parasite system, we demonstrate how temperature can mediate the expression of genotypic variation for susceptibility and virulence. Whilst previous studies have revealed among-clone variation in aphid resistance to this pathogen, we show that resistance rankings derived from assessments at one temperature, are not conserved across differing temperature regimes. We suggest that variation in environmental temperature, through its nonlinear impact on parasite virulence and host defence, may contribute to the general lack of evidence for frequency-dependent selection in field systems. [source] Lady Russell, Elizabeth I, and Female Political Alliances through PerformanceENGLISH LITERARY RENAISSANCE, Issue 2 2009Elizabeth Zeman Kolkovich The entertainment at Bisham Abbey in 1592 offers a rare example of female authorship and performance in a sixteenth-century dramatic text. Lady Elizabeth (Cooke Hoby) Russell wrote and staged this entertainment for Elizabeth I during a royal progress, and her two teenaged daughters performed speaking roles. The Bisham performance challenges assumptions about women's limitations, endorses a militant Protestant foreign policy, and revises conventions of Elizabethan progress entertainments to claim the genre as an appropriate arena for aristocratic women's political negotiations. In successful auditions to be maids of honor, the young Russell women urge the Queen to surround herself with capable female servants who can better assist her in religious and gender battles than her flawed male advisors. As they propose themselves as loyal alternatives to self-serving male courtiers, these young performers adopt elements of the Queen's image, revealing that they claim authority to engage in court performance and promote political agendas from her example. (E.Z.K.) [source] Pro-War and Prothalamion: Queen, Colony, and Somatic Metaphor Among Spenser's "Knights of the Maidenhead"ENGLISH LITERARY RENAISSANCE, Issue 2 2007Benjamin P. Myers This essay charts the points of contact - or more precisely the "overlay" - between Spenser's gender ethics, his experience of the Irish landscape, and his singular reception of the Petrarchan literary heritage. Spenser portrays the Queen as Petrarchan lover against the background of a male-driven conquest of the feminized landscape, a juxtaposition in which the love-frowardness of the Petrarchan lady is translated into the frowardness of a queen hesitant to take the expensive and potentially devastating steps necessary for the expansion of her empire. Spenser uses the traditional metaphor of the land as female body to link colonial approaches to land with staunchly Protestant conceptions of marriage, working a double sense of "husbandry" to criticize the Queen for her restraint in supporting the Irish project. In an act of colonial poetic production unmatched in its era, the Faerie Queene presents a system of similitudes centering on the female body, the land, and literary history in which each term is a means of morally interpreting the remaining two. To grasp the full weight behind the colonial politics and the gender politics of the Faerie Queene one must attempt to read these three terms, often interpreted independently, as a carefully constructed nexus of meaning. To do so is to read the poem reading itself. [source] The lost dream of ecological determinism: Time to say goodbye?EVOLUTIONARY ANTHROPOLOGY, Issue 5 2009Or a White Queen's proposal? Abstract ",What is the matter?' she [Alice] said, as soon as there was a chance of making herself heard. ,Have you pricked your finger?' ,I haven't pricked it yet,' the [White] Queen said, ,but I soon shall , oh, oh, oh!'" (emphasis as in1:82) [source] Catholic Queen, Protestant Patriarchy: Mary, Queen of Scots, and the Politics of Gender and Religion by Kristen Post WaltonGENDER & HISTORY, Issue 2 2009NICOLA ROYANArticle first published online: 7 JUL 200 No abstract is available for this article. [source] Rook or Queen, But How About Some Other Royal Court Suite Members?GEOGRAPHICAL ANALYSIS, Issue 4 2009Jean H. P. Paelinck The contribution to spatial econometrics of the Cliff,Ord publication is fully recognized, but it is also shown that it should be complemented by some important spatial econometrics features. [source] Storage dynamics and streamflow in a catchment with a variable contributing areaHYDROLOGICAL PROCESSES, Issue 16 2010C. Spence Abstract Storage heterogeneity effects on runoff generation have been well documented at the hillslope or plot scale. However, diversity across catchments can increase the range of storage conditions. Upscaling the influence of small-scale storage on streamflow across the usually more heterogeneous environment of the catchment has been difficult. The objective of this study was to observe the distribution of storage in a heterogeneous catchment and evaluate its significance and potential influence on streamflow. The study was conducted in the subarctic Canadian Shield: a region with extensive bedrock outcrops, shallow predominantly organic soils, discontinuous permafrost and numerous water bodies. Even when summer runoff was generated from bedrock hillslopes with small storage capacities, intermediary locations with large storage capacities, particularly headwater lakes, prevented water from transmitting to higher order streams. The topographic bounds of the basin thus constituted the maximum potential contributing area to streamflow and rarely the actual area. Topographic basin storage had little relation to basin streamflow, but hydrologically connected storage exhibited a strong hysteretic relationship with streamflow. This relationship defines the form of catchment function such that the basin can be defined by a series of storing and contributing curves comparable with the wetting and drying curves used in relating tension and hydraulic conductivity to water content in unsaturated soils. These curves may prove useful for catchment classification and elucidating predominant hydrological processes. Copyright © 2009 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd and Her Majesty the Queen in right of Canada. [source] Analysis of snow cover variability and change in Québec, 1948,2005HYDROLOGICAL PROCESSES, Issue 14 2010Ross D. Brown Abstract The spatial and temporal characteristics of annual maximum snow water equivalent (SWEmax) and fall and spring snow cover duration (SCD) were analysed over Québec and adjacent area for snow seasons 1948/1949,2004/2005 using reconstructed daily snow depth and SWE. Snow cover variability in Québec was found to be significantly correlated with most of the major atmospheric circulation patterns affecting the climate of eastern North America but the influence was characterized by strong multidecadal-scale variability. The strongest and most consistent relationship was observed between the Pacific Decadal Oscillation (PDO) and fall SCD variability over western Québec. El Niño-Southern Oscillation (ENSO) was found to have a limited impact on Québec snow cover. Evidence was found for a shift in circulation over the study region around 1980 associated with an abrupt increase in sea level pressure (SLP) and decreases in winter precipitation, snow depth and SWE over much of southern Québec, as well as changes in the atmospheric patterns with significant links to snow cover variability. Trend analysis of the reconstructed snow cover over 1948,2005 provided evidence of a clear north,south gradient in SWEmax and spring SCD with significant local decreases over southern Québec and significant local increases over north-central Québec. The increase in SWEmax over northern Québec is consistent with proxy data (lake levels, tree growth forms, permafrost temperatures), with hemispheric-wide trends of increasing precipitation over higher latitudes, and with projections of global climate models (GCMs). Copyright © 2010 Her Majesty the Queen in right of Canada. Published by John Wiley & Sons. Ltd [source] Correcting wind-induced bias in solid precipitation measurements in case of limited and uncertain dataHYDROLOGICAL PROCESSES, Issue 17 2008Vincent Fortin Abstract Automatic precipitation gauges tend to underestimate solid precipitation in the presence of wind. Loss as a function of wind speed is typically evaluated by comparing the gauge with a more accurate measurement made using a double-fence intercomparison reference gauge (DFIR). For small precipitation events, small errors in the observations can induce large errors in the ,catch' ratio, i.e. the ratio of the automatic gauge measurement to the DFIR observation. For this reason, precipitation events of less than 3 mm are typically discarded before performing the regression analysis. This can mean discarding more than 90% of the observations. This paper shows how the method of weighted least squares can be used to perform a regression analysis that can take into account the whole sample to provide a more accurate estimation of the relationship between the catch ratio and the wind speed. This methodology is then used to obtain an adjustment curve for a shielded Geonor T-200B precipitation gauge in Northern Québec. Copyright © 2008 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd and Her Majesty the Queen in right of Canada. [source] Parthenogenetic flatworms have more symbionts than their coexisting, sexual conspecifics, but does this support the Red Queen?JOURNAL OF EVOLUTIONARY BIOLOGY, Issue 1 2001N. K. Michiels The Red Queen hypothesis predicts that sexuality is favoured when virulent parasites adapt quickly to host genotypes. We studied a population of the flatworm Schmidtea polychroa in which obligate sexual and parthenogenetic individuals coexist. Infection rates by an amoeboid protozoan were consistently higher in parthenogens than in sexuals. Allozyme analysis showed that infection was genotype specific, with the second most common clone most infected. A laboratory measurement of fitness components failed to reveal high infection costs as required for the Red Queen. Although fertility was lower in more infected parthenogens, this effect can also be explained by the accumulation of mutations. We discuss these and other characteristics of our model system that may explain how a parasite with low virulence can show this pattern. [source] Effects of sand and process water pH on toluene diluted heavy oil in water emulsions in turbulent flowAICHE JOURNAL, Issue 1 2009Chandra W. Angle Abstract The presence of sand in heavy oil production is known to enhance oil recovery. Sand can also be detrimental depending on the properties of the sand,water interface. In this process, the water soluble material interacts with both sand and oil droplets and affects emulsion stability. The formation and stability of heavy oil-in-water emulsions during turbulent flow using batch process stirred-tank mixing of oil, sand, and water were investigated at three pH. Size distributions were measured by laser diffraction. High-speed video photomicrography was used to observe the process during mixing. Results showed that the presence of sand enhanced formation of stable, fine emulsion at basic pH 8.5. When the pH of the water was reduced below 6.5 both sand and droplets surface properties changed, the emulsions became less stable and coalescence was apparent. The sand grains acted as coalescers at low pH and enhanced breakage at high pH. © Her Majesty the Queen in Right of Canada, as represented by the Minister of Natural Resources, 2008 AIChE J, 2009 [source] Cadmium concentration in durum wheat grain (Triticum turgidum) as influenced by nitrogen rate, seeding date and soil typeJOURNAL OF THE SCIENCE OF FOOD AND AGRICULTURE, Issue 5 2010Patrizia Perilli Abstract BACKGROUND: Cadmium (Cd) is a trace element that has been associated with various human health problems. Cd enters plants, either by direct absorption through leaves or by uptake from soils, allowing Cd into the food chain. Nitrogen (N) fertilizer management is important in optimizing crop yield and protein content of durum wheat, but may influence Cd availability and hence Cd concentration in crops, with the effects being strongly influenced by environmental conditions and crop cultivar. RESULTS: In field studies, Cd and protein concentration in durum wheat grain differed between cultivars and were strongly affected by N application, with only minor effects of N occurring on concentration and uptake of P and Zn. Protein content increased significantly with N application in five of six site-years, with the response being generally independent of cultivar and seeding data. Cd concentration also increased with N application in five of six seeding dates, with the response being greater in AC Melita than Arcola in three of the six site-years. There were large differences in Cd concentration from year to year and with seeding date, indicating a strong environmental influence. CONCLUSIONS: This study shows that different cultivars accumulate different levels of Cd in the grain and that seeding date and nitrogen fertilizer management can influence grain Cd concentration, with the magnitude of effects varying with environmental factors. In the future we may be able to manipulate management practices to optimize protein concentration and minimize Cd concentration in durum wheat, which could help to address the health and safety concerns of consumers. © Society of Chemical Industry and Her Majesty the Queen in right of Canada [source] Synergism between mutational meltdown and Red Queen in parthenogenetic biotypes of the freshwater planarian Schmidtea polychroaOIKOS, Issue 2 2007a Bruvo Do parasites and accumulation of deleterious mutations act synergistically in balancing the costs of sex? We addressed this possibility in the freshwater planarian flatworm Schmidtea polychroa. Sexual and parthenogenetic forms of this species sometimes coexist but show no ecological separation. Previous studies indicate that in a mixed sexual/ parthenogenetic population in Lago di Caldonazzo (N. Italy) parthenogens get more frequently infected with parasites. At the same time, they suffer from higher embryo mortality, which has been interpreted as a sign of accumulation of deleterious mutations. In the present study, we test whether these two factors are correlated, by focusing on the differences among the clonal lineages of a predominantly parthenogenetic subpopulation. Our results suggest that, for two out of three parasite types found, the infections are positively associated with the indirect measure of host mutation load. [source] Climatic and geomorphic factors affecting contemporary (1950,2004) activity of retrogressive thaw slumps on the Aklavik Plateau, Richardson Mountains, NWT, CanadaPERMAFROST AND PERIGLACIAL PROCESSES, Issue 1 2010Denis Lacelle Abstract The climatic and geomorphic factors affecting retrogressive thaw slump initiation and activity on the Aklavik Plateau (Richardson Mountains, NWT) were examined using historical air photographs over a 54-year period (1950 to 2004). In this region, thaw slumps include a near-vertical headwall, a floor of low gradient (2,10°) and a steeply sloping evacuation channel (15,25°) that connects the floor of the thaw slumps to Willow River located 60,150,m below. All thaw slumps on the Aklavik Plateau are located within the glacial limit of the Laurentide Ice Sheet and the majority developed on the western side of the valley on gently sloping terrain. Aerial photographic analysis showed an increase in thaw slump initiation from 0.35 new thaw slump yr,1 over the 1954,71 period to 0.68 new thaw slump yr,1 over the 1985,2004 period. This increase follows the pattern of the 10-year running mean summer air temperature record over the 1950,2004 period. However, the total number of active mature thaw slumps on the Aklavik Plateau decreased from a maximum of 46 in 1950 to a minimum of 24 observed in 2004, which follows, to a certain extent, the 10-year running average of rainfall. Both these trends may relate to the influence of climate on the erosional processes that are thought to initiate thaw slumps and keep them active in regions of highlands. Copyright © 2009 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd. and Her Majesty the Queen in right of Canada. [source] Effects on litter-dwelling earthworms and microbial decomposition of soil-applied imidacloprid for control of wood-boring insectsPEST MANAGEMENT SCIENCE (FORMERLY: PESTICIDE SCIENCE), Issue 2 2008David P Kreutzweiser Abstract BACKGROUND: Imidacloprid is an effective, systemic insecticide for the control of wood-boring insect pests in trees. Systemic applications to trees are often made by soil injections or drenches, and the resulting imidacloprid concentrations in soil or litter may pose a risk of harm to natural decomposer organisms. The authors tested effects of imidacloprid on survival and weight gain or loss of the earthworms Eisenia fetida (Savigny) and Dendrobaena octaedra (Savigny), on leaf consumption rates and cocoon production by D. octaedra and on microbial decomposition activity in laboratory microcosms containing natural forest litter. RESULTS:Dendrobaena octaedra was the most sensitive of the two earthworm species, with an LC50 of 5.7 mg kg,1, an LC10 of about 2 mg kg,1 and significant weight losses among survivors at 3 mg kg,1. Weight losses resulted from a physiological effect rather than from feeding inhibition. There were no effects on cocoon production among survivors at 3 mg kg,1. The LC50 for E. fetida was 25 mg kg,1, with significant weight losses at 14 mg kg,1. There were no significant effects on microbial decomposition of leaf material at the maximum test concentration of 1400 mg kg,1. CONCLUSION: The results indicate that, when imidacloprid is applied as a systemic insecticide to the soil around trees, it is likely to cause adverse effects on litter-dwelling earthworms if concentrations in the litter reach or exceed about 3 mg kg,1. Copyright © 2007 Her Majesty the Queen in the Right of Canada, Canadian Forest Service. Published by John Wiley & Sons, Ltd. [source] Catholic Queen, Protestant Patriarchy.RENAISSANCE STUDIES, Issue 4 2008Queen of Scots, Religion - by Kristen Post Walton, the Politics of Gender No abstract is available for this article. [source] Sir William Mackenzie: sympathetic ophthalmia and glaucoma before ophthalmoscopyANZ JOURNAL OF SURGERY, Issue 12 2009Geoffrey Serpell Abstract One of the practitioners of probably the oldest surgical specialty, ophthalmic, was the eminent Scottish ophthalmologist, Sir William Mackenzie. Educated in Edinburgh, he moved to Glasgow, and described and named sympathetic ophthalmia before the time of the ophthalmoscope, well defining his powers of observation and deduction. Founding the Glasgow Eye Infirmary, his ,Practical Treatise on Diseases of the Eye' appeared in English in four editions (1850,1884) and in French and German. In this also appears the first full and clear account of glaucoma. Both he and the illustrator of his book, Wharton Jones, moved to Glasgow because of rather indefinite connections with Robert Knox, the anatomist, who was allegedly helped by the bodysnatchers, Burke and Hare. Mackenzie and his book were highly regarded before the revolutionary ophthalmoscope. He was knighted and appointed Surgeon Oculist to the Queen in Scotland. [source] Debbie, Queen of the DesertAUSTRALIAN VETERINARY JOURNAL, Issue 11 2003Mark Thornley No abstract is available for this article. [source] Microgeographic genetic structure and intraspecific parasitism in the ant Leptothorax nylanderiECOLOGICAL ENTOMOLOGY, Issue 5 2001S. Foitzik Summary 1. Genetic colony structure of the small central European ant Leptothorax nylanderi is affected strongly by ecological constraints such as nest site availability and intraspecific social parasitism. 2. Although L. nylanderi is generally monogynous and monandrous, more than a quarter of all nests collected in a dense population near Würzburg, Germany, contained several matrilines. As shown by microsatellite analysis, the average nest-mate relatedness in these nests was 0.20. Genetically heterogeneous nests arise from nest take-over by alien colonies or founding queens, a result of severe competition for nest sites. 3. In summer, more than one-third of all colonies inhabited several nest sites at a time. Polydomy appears to be rather limited, with two or three nests belonging to a single polydomous colony. 4. Queens appear to dominate male production; only a small fraction (8%) of males was definitively not progeny of the queen present but might have been worker progeny or offspring of another queen. 5. Strong evidence for heterozygote deficiency was found and a total of nine diploid males was discovered in two colonies. These findings suggest deviation from random mating through small, localised nuptial flights. [source] Spenser and the Two QueensENGLISH LITERARY RENAISSANCE, Issue 1 2002DAVID SCOTT WILSON-OKAMURA [source] "Out of the authority of ancient and late writers": Ben Jonson's Use of Textual Sources in The Masque of QueensENGLISH LITERARY RENAISSANCE, Issue 2 2002MONIKA SMIALKOWSKA [source] Proximate Determinants of Reproductive Skew in Polygyne Colonies of the Ant Formica fuscaETHOLOGY, Issue 11 2002Minttumaaria Hannonen Understanding the determinants of reproductive skew (the partitioning of reproduction among co-breeding individuals) is one of the major questions in social evolution. In ants, multiple-queen nests are common and reproductive skew among queens has been shown to vary tremendously both within and between species. Proximate determinants of skew may be related to both queen and worker behaviour. Queens may attempt to change their reproductive share through dominance interactions, egg eating and by changing individual fecundity. Conversely, workers are in a position to regulate the reproductive output of queens when rearing the brood. This paper investigates queen behaviour at the onset of egg laying and the effect of queen fecundity and worker behaviour on brood development and reproductive shares of multiple queens in the ant Formica fusca. The study was conducted in two-queen laboratory colonies where the queens produced only worker offspring. The results show that in this species reproductive apportionment among queens is not based on dominance behaviour and aggression, but rather on differences in queen fecundity. We also show that, although the queen fecundity at the onset of brood rearing is a good indicator of her final reproductive output, changes in brood composition occur during brood development. Our results highlight the importance of queen fecundity as a major determinant of her reproductive success. They furthermore suggest that in highly derived polygyne species, such as the Formica ants, direct interactions as a means for gaining reproductive dominance have lost their importance. [source] Without the Persona of the Prince: Kings, Queens and the Idea of Monarchy in Late Medieval EuropeGENDER & HISTORY, Issue 1 2007Theresa Earenfight First page of article [source] White Queens at the Chicago World's Fair, 1893: New Womanhood in the Service of Class, Race, and NationGENDER & HISTORY, Issue 1 2000T. J. Boisseau First page of article [source] FROM EXCLUSIONARY COVENANT TO ETHNIC HYPERDIVERSITY IN JACKSON HEIGHTS, QUEENS,GEOGRAPHICAL REVIEW, Issue 4 2004INES M. MIYARES ABSTRACT. When Edward MacDougall of the Queensboro Realty Company originally envisioned and developed Jackson Heights in Queens, New York in the early twentieth century, he intended it to be an exclusive suburban community for white, nonimmigrant Protestants within a close commute of Midtown Manhattan. He could not have anticipated the 1929 stock market crash, the subsequent real estate market collapse, or the change in immigration policies and patterns after the 19505. This case study examines how housing and public transportation infrastructure intended to prevent ethnic diversity laid the foundation for one of the most diverse middle-class immigrant neighborhoods in the United States. [source] Mating triggers dynamic immune regulations in wood ant queensJOURNAL OF EVOLUTIONARY BIOLOGY, Issue 3 2009G. CASTELLA Abstract Mating can affect female immunity in multiple ways. On the one hand, the immune system may be activated by pathogens transmitted during mating, sperm and seminal proteins, or wounds inflicted by males. On the other hand, immune defences may also be down-regulated to reallocate resources to reproduction. Ants are interesting models to study post-mating immune regulation because queens mate early in life, store sperm for many years, and use it until their death many years later, while males typically die after mating. This long-term commitment between queens and their mates limits the opportunity for sexual conflict but raises the new constraint of long-term sperm survival. In this study, we examine experimentally the effect of mating on immunity in wood ant queens. Specifically, we compared the phenoloxidase and antibacterial activities of mated and virgin Formica paralugubris queens. Queens had reduced levels of active phenoloxidase after mating, but elevated antibacterial activity 7 days after mating. These results indicate that the process of mating, dealation and ovary activation triggers dynamic patterns of immune regulation in ant queens that probably reflect functional responses to mating and pathogen exposure that are independent of sexual conflict. [source] Polyandry and colony genetic structure in the primitive ant Nothomyrmecia macropsJOURNAL OF EVOLUTIONARY BIOLOGY, Issue 3 2001M. Sanetra The Australian endemic ant Nothomyrmecia macrops is considered one of the most ,primitive' among living ants. We investigated the genetic structure of colonies to determine queen mating frequencies and nestmate relatedness. An average of 18.8 individuals from each of 32 colonies, and sperm extracted from 34 foraging queens, were genotyped using five highly variable microsatellite markers. Queens were typically singly (65%) or doubly mated (30%), but triple mating (5%) also occurred. The mean effective number of male mates for queens was 1.37. No relationship between colony size and queen mate number was found. Nestmate workers were related by b=0.61 ± 0.03, significantly above the threshold under Hamilton's rule over which, all else being equal, altruistic behaviour persists, but queens and their mates were unrelated. In 25% of the colonies we detected a few workers that could not have been produced by the resident queen, although there was no evidence for worker reproduction. Polyandry is for the first time recorded in a species with very small mature colonies, which is inconsistent with the sperm-limitation hypothesis for the mediation of polyandry levels. Facultative polyandry is therefore not confined to the highly advanced ant genera, but may have arisen at an early stage in ant social evolution. [source] | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||