scholarly journals Interspecific sexual selection, a new theory for an old practice: the increase of artificial biodiversity through creation of modern, standardized breeds

2021 ◽  
pp. 109-115
Author(s):  
J. J. Negro ◽  
M. C. Blázquez ◽  
R. Fernández-Alés ◽  
A. Martín-Vicente
Keyword(s):  
Sexual Selection ◽  
Genetic Disorders ◽  
Local Conditions ◽  
Victorian Era ◽  
Single Person ◽  
In The Wild ◽  
Breeding Programmes ◽  
Organismic Evolution ◽  
Close Relatives ◽  
The 19Th Century

Darwin set the pillars of organismic evolution when he defined natural and sexual selection in the 19th century. Concurrently, a frenzy of selective breeding programmes, generally supported by the wealthy and aristocratic, gave rise to novel breeds of plants and animals at a rate that was previously unforeseen. Since then, breeds selected over millennia and adapted to local conditions began to disappear or were threatened with extinction, being substituted by these new, standardized breeds. It is of interest to explore how new breeds emerged and what the main criteria of the founders of these breeds were. Darwin seemed to be unaware that his contemporaries were practicing a form of interspecific sexual selection responsible for the fixation of exaggerated traits, often plainly ornamental, in the new breeds they intended to create. Parent animals were chosen by individuals who were following particular goals, often with aesthetic criteria in mind. Here we investigated who were the founders of modern breeds in five domesticated species (dogs, cats, pigs, horses and cattle), as very often a single person is credited with the creation of a breed. We found information on founders of 459 breeds, 270 of which were created after 1800. Interestingly, for these species, breed creation is overwhelmingly attributed to men. In the wild, however, the choice of mate is usually performed by the female of a species and thought to be adaptive. Breeders in the Victorian era, nevertheless, lacked such adaptive skills and had little scientific knowledge. The selection of individuals with an extreme expression of the desired traits were often close relatives, resulting in high inbreeding and a variety of genetic disorders.

scholarly journals Back in time for utopia: Neo-Victorian utopianism and the return to William Morris

2020 ◽  
pp. 136754942098000
Author(s):  
Joe PL Davidson
Keyword(s):  
19Th Century ◽  
Reality Television ◽  
Interesting Case ◽  
Arts And Crafts ◽  
William Morris ◽  
Victorian Studies ◽  
Victorian Era ◽  
Cultural Imaginary ◽  
The Future ◽  
The 19Th Century

When we think of the Victorian era, images of shrouded piano legs, dismal factories and smoggy streets often come to mind. However, the 19th century has been rediscovered in recent years as the home of something quite different: bold utopian visions of the future. William Morris’ great literary utopia News from Nowhere, first published in 1890, is an interesting case study in this context. Morris’ text is the point of departure for a number of recent returns to Victorian utopianism, including Sarah Woods’ updated radio adaptation of News from Nowhere (2016) and the BBC’s historical reality television series The Victorian House of Arts and Crafts (2019). In this article, I analyse these Morris-inspired texts with the aim of exploring the place of old visions of the future in the contemporary cultural imaginary. Building on previous work in neo-Victorian studies and utopian studies, the claim is made that the return to 19th-century dreams is a plural phenomenon that has a number of divergent effects. More specifically, neo-Victorian utopianism can function to demonstrate the obsolescence of old visions of utopia, prompt a longing for the clarity and radicality of the utopias of the Victorian moment, or encourage a process of rejuvenating the utopian impulse in the present via a detour through the past.

scholarly journals Women’s Voices in the Victorian Era – Feminist Consciousness in the Bronte Sisters’ Works

2021 ◽  
Vol 5 (5) ◽  
pp. 81-85
Author(s):  
Linshuo Qi
Keyword(s):  
Women Writers ◽  
Jane Eyre ◽  
Leadership Roles ◽  
Female Characters ◽  
Women's Voices ◽  
Victorian Era ◽  
Wuthering Heights ◽  
Feminist Consciousness ◽  
Narrative Thread ◽  
The 19Th Century

Before the Victorian era, it was rare for women to be authors and writers to fix the protagonists of their works as female characters. However, in the 19th century, there was a rapid increase of women writers and emphasis on feminist consciousness. Among all the works of women writers, Jane Eyre and Wuthering Heights which were written by the Bronte sisters were distinctive. The Bronte sisters conveyed their feminist consciousness and described the society in their works. Both works emphasized romantic relationships as the narrative thread. By shaping the female characters in their works as self-reliant women who fought for equivalence and freedom in the era where male chauvinism occupied leadership roles, the Bronte sisters conveyed their eagerness for freedom, equality, and their feminist consciousness. This paper combines features of the Victorian era and the Bronte sisters’ life experiences to analyze feminist consciousness in these two works and make comparisons between them.

Genetic counselling: a new diagnosis in the family

2020 ◽  
pp. 64-71
Author(s):  
Oliver Quarrell
Keyword(s):  
At Risk ◽  
Huntington's Disease ◽  
Huntington’S Disease ◽  
Genetic Counselling ◽  
Genetic Disorders ◽  
Medical Doctors ◽  
Genetic Tests ◽  
The Family ◽  
Close Relatives ◽  
New Diagnosis

This chapter describes the process of genetic counselling in general but with an emphasis on Huntington’s disease. The chapter discusses issues for a new diagnosis in the family and describes the challenges of telling children that they are at risk. Medical doctors often lead genetic counselling teams as they are specially trained to give information about genetic disorders and explain the implications of genetic tests. The doctor or counsellor has to understand your particular circumstances and support you in a way that allows you to make your own decisions. A diagnosis of HD has implications for you and all your close relatives.

scholarly journals Virome of Bat Guano from Nine Northern California Roosts

2020 ◽  
Author(s):  
Yanpeng Li ◽  
Eda Altan ◽  
Gabriel Reyes ◽  
Brian Halstead ◽  
Xutao Deng ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Animal Species ◽  
Amino Acid Identity ◽  
Wide Distribution ◽  
Mouse Kidney ◽  
Northern California ◽  
Dna Viruses ◽  
Viral Genomes ◽  
In The Wild ◽  
Close Relatives ◽  
Viral Sequences

Bats are hosts to a large variety of viruses, including many capable of cross species transmissions to other mammals or humans. We characterized the virome in guano from five common bat species in 9 Northern California roosts and a pool of 5 individual bats. Genomes belonging to 14 viral families known to infect mammals and 17 viral families infecting insects or of unknown tropism were detected. Near or complete genomes of a novel parvovirus, astrovirus, nodavirus, CRESS-DNA viruses and densoviruses and more partial genomes of a novel alphacoronavirus, and bunyavirus were characterized. Lower numbers of reads with >90% amino acid identity to previously described calicivirus, circovirus, adenoviruses, hepatovirus, bocaparvoviruses, and polyomavirus in other bat species were also found likely reflecting their wide distribution among different bats. Unexpectedly a few sequence reads of canine parvovirus 2 and the recently described mouse kidney parvovirus were also detected and their presence confirmed by PCR possibly originating from guano contamination by carnivores and rodents. The majority of eukaryotic viral reads were highly divergent indicating that numerous viruses still remain to be characterized even from such a heavily investigated order as Chiroptera. IMPORTANCE Characterizing the bat virome is important for understanding viral diversity and detecting viral spillover between animal species. Using unbiased metagenomics method, we characterize the virome in guano collected from multiple roosts of common Northern California bat species. We describe several novel viral genomes and report the detection of viruses with close relatives reported in other bat species likely reflecting cross-species transmissions. Viral sequences from well-known carnivore and rodent parvoviruses were also detected whose presence are likely the result of contamination from defecation and urination atop guano and reflect the close interaction of these mammals in the wild.

scholarly journals Sexual selection in a moth: effect of symmetry on male mating success in the wild

2007 ◽  
Vol 18 (3) ◽  
pp. 571-578 ◽  
Author(s):  
Chiharu Koshio ◽  
Makoto Muraji ◽  
Haruki Tatsuta ◽  
Shin-ichi Kudo
Keyword(s):  
Sexual Selection ◽  
Mating Success ◽  
Male Mating ◽  
Male Mating Success ◽  
In The Wild

History of Sport Psychology in Cultural Magazines of the Victorian Era

1995 ◽  
Vol 9 (4) ◽  
pp. 376-390 ◽  
Author(s):  
D. Brett King ◽  
Brittany L. Raymond ◽  
Jennifer A. Simon-Thomas
Keyword(s):  
Sport Psychology ◽  
Professional Sports ◽  
The United States ◽  
Spectator Sports ◽  
Victorian Era ◽  
The Public ◽  
History Of ◽  
Cultural Magazines ◽  
The 19Th Century

The 19th century can be characterized as a time of avid public interest in team and spectator sports. As diverse and challenging new sports were developed and gained popularity, many articles on a rudimentary sport psychology began to appear in cultural magazines in the United States and Great Britain. Athletes, physicians, educators, journalists, and members of the public wrote on topics such as profiles and psychological studies of elite athletes, the importance of physical training, exercise and health, and the detrimental effects of professional sports to the role of age, gender, and culture in sports. Although a scientific foundation for such observations was largely absent, some of the ideas expressed in early cultural magazines anticipate contemporary interests in sport psychology.

Genetic versus Census Estimators of the Opportunity for Sexual Selection in the Wild

2012 ◽  
Vol 179 (4) ◽  
pp. 451-462 ◽  
Author(s):  
Stacey J. Dunn ◽  
Lisette P. Waits ◽  
John A. Byers
Keyword(s):  
Sexual Selection ◽  
In The Wild

scholarly journals Przewalski’s horse reintroduction in the State Natural Reserve «Orenburgsky»: the first results

2019 ◽  
Vol 8 (1) ◽  
pp. 115-119
Author(s):  
Alexandr Nikolayevich Tyurin
Keyword(s):  
Natural Habitat ◽  
The State ◽  
Horse Population ◽  
Personal Support ◽  
Orenburg Region ◽  
Wild Horse ◽  
Natural Reserve ◽  
First Results ◽  
Close Relatives ◽  
The 19Th Century

This paper presents a chronology of the main events taking place within the framework of the program to resettle Przhewalskys horses to the territory inhabited by their close relatives, the tarpans, to create a new and sustainable population of these animals. The Przewalskis horse population under natural conditions of the State Natural Reserve Orenburgsky will allow having a reserve of healthy, well-developed animals as a guarantee of keeping the species clean for a very long period of time. By the end of the 19th century, not a single Przewalskis wild horse remained in its natural habitat. The paper discusses a gradual reintroduction of Przewalskis horse and presents the first results, taken from open sources, on the restoration of the wild horse population in the Orenburg Region. The first results allow you to look to the future with confidence. 5 healthy foals have already been born in the reserve; PA scientists are optimistic about the spring of 2019 and hope that the stock of wild horses will continue to grow. The Przewalskis horse reintroduction program enjoys a personal support of the Orenburg Region Governor and is among the key projects for the protection of wild animals, personally supervised by the President of the Russian Federation.

scholarly journals Environmental specificity in Drosophila-bacteria symbiosis affects host developmental plasticity

2019 ◽  
Author(s):  
Robin Guilhot ◽  
Antoine Rombaut ◽  
Anne Xuéreb ◽  
Kate Howell ◽  
Simon Fellous
Keyword(s):  
Developmental Plasticity ◽  
Laboratory Strain ◽  
Joint Analysis ◽  
Adult Size ◽  
Bacterial Strains ◽  
Local Conditions ◽  
Symbiotic Interactions ◽  
In The Wild ◽  
Microbial Symbionts ◽  
Host Evolution

ABSTRACTEnvironmentally acquired microbial symbionts could contribute to host adaptation to local conditions like vertically transmitted symbionts do. This scenario necessitates symbionts to have different effects in different environments. We investigated this idea in Drosophila melanogaster, a species which communities of bacterial symbionts vary greatly among environments. We isolated four bacterial strains isolated from the feces of a D. melanogaster laboratory strain and tested their effects in two conditions: the ancestral environment (i.e. the laboratory medium) and a new environment (i.e. fresh fruit with live yeast). All bacterial effects on larval and adult traits differed among environments, ranging from very beneficial to marginally deleterious. The joint analysis of larval development speed and adult size further shows bacteria affected developmental plasticity more than resource acquisition. This effect was largely driven by the contrasted effects of the bacteria in each environment. Our study illustrates that understanding D. melanogaster symbiotic interactions in the wild will necessitate working in ecologically realistic conditions. Besides, context-dependent effects of symbionts, and their influence on host developmental plasticity, shed light on how environmentally acquired symbionts may contribute to host evolution.

scholarly journals Children Without Childhood: The Emotionality of Orphaned Children and Images of Their Rescuers in Selected Works of English and Canadian Literature

2017 ◽  
Vol 50 (1-2) ◽  
pp. 95-135
Author(s):  
Irena Avsenik Nabergoj
Keyword(s):  
Charles Dickens ◽  
Child Victims ◽  
Acting Out ◽  
Great Expectations ◽  
Orphaned Children ◽  
Victorian Era ◽  
Anne Michaels ◽  
Life Threatening ◽  
Victims Of Violence ◽  
The 19Th Century

This article deals with literary depictions of social, political, cultural and religious circumstances in which children who have lost one or both parents at birth or at a later age have found themselves. The weakest members of society, the children looked at here are exposed to dangers, exploitation and violence, but are fortunate enough to be rescued by a relative or other sympathetic person acting out of benevolence. Recognizing that the relationship between the orphaned child, who is in mortal danger, and a rescuer, who most frequently appears unexpectedly in a relationship, has been portrayed in narratives throughout the ages and that we can therefore speak of it as being an archetypal one, the article focuses especially on three novels by Charles Dickens – Oliver Twist (1837–1839), David Copperfield (1849–1850) and Great Expectations (1860–1861) – and in Fugitive Pieces (1996) by Canadian writer Anne Michaels. Charles Dickens earned the reputation of a classic writer through his original literary figures of orphaned children in the context of the rough capitalism of the Victorian era of the 19th century. Such originality also distinguishes Anne Michaels, whose novel Fugitive Pieces portrays the utterly traumatic circumstances that a Jewish boy is exposed to after the Germans kill his parents during the Holocaust. All the central children’s lives in these extreme situations are saved by generous people, thus highlighting the central idea of both selected authors: that evil cannot overcome good. Rescuers experience their selfless resolve to save extremely powerless and unprotected child victims of violence from life-threatening situations as a self-evident moral imperative. Through their profound and deeply experienced descriptions of memories of traumas successfully overcome by central literary figures in a spirit of compassion and solidarity, Charles Dickens and Anne Michaels have left testaments of hope against hope for future generations.

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