Jul 7, 2021 10:49 PM
There’s no such thing as ‘alpha’ males or females in wolf packs
https://www.zmescience.com/ecology/anima...olf-packs/
INTRO: In the 1940s, researchers studying wolf packs noticed that they formed strict strength-based hierarchies were a dominant male and a dominant female controlled the other individuals, deciding the order in which they were allowed to eat or mate. To describe this dominant pairs and subordinates, researchers introduced the terms ‘alpha’ (the chief), ‘beta’ (the debuty), or ‘omega’ wolf (the bottom of the rank). Later, these terms became ingrained in human consciousness and cultural lingo to describe dominance hierarchies in other contexts, including humans.
But there’s a problem. This entire designation is wrong. While it’s true that multiple wolves who share a small space in captivity will develop alpha- and beta-like hierarchies, wild wolves behave nothing like this. In the wild, a wolf pack is typically formed by monogamous parents and their puppies. Sometimes, the pack might also include older siblings aged one to three years old. That’s it.
The wolf pack is basically a tightly knit family unit consisting of “parents”, or “breeders”, and their offspring. Unless you’re ready to call your mom and dad ‘alpha’, these terms have no grounds in reality.
Where did the idea of ‘alpha’ wolves come from?. The notion of leading wolves that control a pack of subordinates can be traced to 1947, when Rudolf Schenkel wrote a paper titled Expressions Studies on Wolves, in which he described the behavior of ten wolves kept at the Basel Zoo in Switzerland in a relatively small pen about 10 by 20 meters. During his observations, Schenkel noticed that the highest-ranked males and females formed a pair.
“By continuously controlling and suppressing all types of competition within the same sex, both ‘alpha animals’ defend their social position,” Schenkel wrote.
The pack behaviors described by Schenkel, including the ‘alpha’ dominance hierarchy, proved highly influential and were picked up by other ecologists, including David Mech, the founder of the International Wolf Center and one of the world’s foremost experts on wolf ecology.
Mech published a book called “The Wolf: Ecology and Behavior of an Endangered Species,” written in 1968, which proved immensely popular and further ingrained the concept of the alpha wolf in the niche literature, with many other researchers citing the book. Other research performed in the 1960s and 1970s, all on wolves held in captivity, seemed to confirm the alpha wolf model.
But after he published the book, he noted that later studies on wolves in the wild showed that this model is outdated. “That concept was based on the old idea that wolves fight within a pack to gain dominance and that the winner is the ‘alpha’ wolf,” Mech said. (MORE)
Women who vape are more likely to have low birthweight babies, study shows
https://ph.ucla.edu/news/press-release/2...tudy-shows
RELEASE: Women who use electronic cigarettes during pregnancy are 33% more likely than those who don't to give birth to low-birthweight infants, according to a new study by a team of researchers from UCLA and other institutions.
Low-birthweight babies—those weighing less than 5.5 pounds—often require specialized medical care and are at greater risk of early-life complications and long-lasting health issues, said Dr. Annette Regan, the study's lead author and an assistant professor of epidemiology at the UCLA Fielding School of Public Health.
Findings from the study, which also involved researchers from the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, are published in the July edition of the peer-reviewed journal Obstetrics & Gynecology.
The researchers analyzed data on approximately 80,000 mothers from the 2016–18 Pregnancy Risk Assessment Monitoring System, or PRAMS, a CDC-coordinated project that collects information nationwide on maternal experiences before, during and shortly after pregnancy.
Among that cohort, 1.1% reported having used e-cigarettes during the final three months of their pregnancy, and nearly two-thirds of those e-cigarette users said they had also smoked regular or "combustible" cigarettes during that period.
"Although only a small percentage of people used e-cigarettes, we were surprised with how many used both e-cigarettes and combustible cigarettes during pregnancy," said Regan, who also teaches at the University of San Francisco's nursing school. "We found increased rates of low birthweight for e-cigarette users, and this occurred even for those who didn't also smoke cigarettes."
The team reported that among users of e-cigarettes, whether exclusively or in combination with regular cigarettes, the rate of low-birthweight births was 8.1%, compared with 6.1% for non-users—an increased prevalence of 33%. However, they also found that among those who vaped exclusively, low-birthweight births jumped to 10.6%, and the rate of preterm births was 12.4%, compared with 7.6% for non-users. These increases were not seen among dual users of e-cigarettes and regular cigarettes.
"These findings are important, since being born early means a baby has less time in the mother's uterus to grow and gain weight," Regan said. "Much of a baby's weight is gained during the latter part of pregnancy."
Nicotine, which is present in both regular and e-cigarettes, is considered a developmental toxicant by the CDC, one that can have a detrimental effect on fetal development. Because the researchers found that low birthweight was more common among women who used e-cigarettes frequently than among occasional users, it is possible that the amount of nicotine exposure is linked with these harmful effects. However, they said, more research is needed to confirm this.
"This study adds to the accumulating evidence that it is best to be nicotine-free during pregnancy and that e-cigarette use is no exception," said Prof. Gavin Pereira, a perinatal epidemiologist at the Curtin University School of Public Health in Australia. Pereira, formerly a professor of perinatal, pediatric, and environmental epidemiology at Yale University, did not participate in the study.
E-cigarette use has been increasing in the U.S., and these products are sometimes marketed as a less harmful alternative to cigarettes and a smoking-cessation aid. Despite this, very few studies have addressed the potential association between vaping and adverse birth outcomes among expectant mothers, the researchers said.
"The perception that e-cigarettes are less harmful than combustible cigarette smoking may contribute to their appeal among pregnant women who have difficulty quitting smoking," Regan said. "These findings show that e-cigarettes should not be considered a safe alternative to regular cigarettes and that there are potentially very real health risks from vaping when it comes to pregnancy."
https://www.zmescience.com/ecology/anima...olf-packs/
INTRO: In the 1940s, researchers studying wolf packs noticed that they formed strict strength-based hierarchies were a dominant male and a dominant female controlled the other individuals, deciding the order in which they were allowed to eat or mate. To describe this dominant pairs and subordinates, researchers introduced the terms ‘alpha’ (the chief), ‘beta’ (the debuty), or ‘omega’ wolf (the bottom of the rank). Later, these terms became ingrained in human consciousness and cultural lingo to describe dominance hierarchies in other contexts, including humans.
But there’s a problem. This entire designation is wrong. While it’s true that multiple wolves who share a small space in captivity will develop alpha- and beta-like hierarchies, wild wolves behave nothing like this. In the wild, a wolf pack is typically formed by monogamous parents and their puppies. Sometimes, the pack might also include older siblings aged one to three years old. That’s it.
The wolf pack is basically a tightly knit family unit consisting of “parents”, or “breeders”, and their offspring. Unless you’re ready to call your mom and dad ‘alpha’, these terms have no grounds in reality.
Where did the idea of ‘alpha’ wolves come from?. The notion of leading wolves that control a pack of subordinates can be traced to 1947, when Rudolf Schenkel wrote a paper titled Expressions Studies on Wolves, in which he described the behavior of ten wolves kept at the Basel Zoo in Switzerland in a relatively small pen about 10 by 20 meters. During his observations, Schenkel noticed that the highest-ranked males and females formed a pair.
“By continuously controlling and suppressing all types of competition within the same sex, both ‘alpha animals’ defend their social position,” Schenkel wrote.
The pack behaviors described by Schenkel, including the ‘alpha’ dominance hierarchy, proved highly influential and were picked up by other ecologists, including David Mech, the founder of the International Wolf Center and one of the world’s foremost experts on wolf ecology.
Mech published a book called “The Wolf: Ecology and Behavior of an Endangered Species,” written in 1968, which proved immensely popular and further ingrained the concept of the alpha wolf in the niche literature, with many other researchers citing the book. Other research performed in the 1960s and 1970s, all on wolves held in captivity, seemed to confirm the alpha wolf model.
But after he published the book, he noted that later studies on wolves in the wild showed that this model is outdated. “That concept was based on the old idea that wolves fight within a pack to gain dominance and that the winner is the ‘alpha’ wolf,” Mech said. (MORE)
Women who vape are more likely to have low birthweight babies, study shows
https://ph.ucla.edu/news/press-release/2...tudy-shows
RELEASE: Women who use electronic cigarettes during pregnancy are 33% more likely than those who don't to give birth to low-birthweight infants, according to a new study by a team of researchers from UCLA and other institutions.
Low-birthweight babies—those weighing less than 5.5 pounds—often require specialized medical care and are at greater risk of early-life complications and long-lasting health issues, said Dr. Annette Regan, the study's lead author and an assistant professor of epidemiology at the UCLA Fielding School of Public Health.
Findings from the study, which also involved researchers from the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, are published in the July edition of the peer-reviewed journal Obstetrics & Gynecology.
The researchers analyzed data on approximately 80,000 mothers from the 2016–18 Pregnancy Risk Assessment Monitoring System, or PRAMS, a CDC-coordinated project that collects information nationwide on maternal experiences before, during and shortly after pregnancy.
Among that cohort, 1.1% reported having used e-cigarettes during the final three months of their pregnancy, and nearly two-thirds of those e-cigarette users said they had also smoked regular or "combustible" cigarettes during that period.
"Although only a small percentage of people used e-cigarettes, we were surprised with how many used both e-cigarettes and combustible cigarettes during pregnancy," said Regan, who also teaches at the University of San Francisco's nursing school. "We found increased rates of low birthweight for e-cigarette users, and this occurred even for those who didn't also smoke cigarettes."
The team reported that among users of e-cigarettes, whether exclusively or in combination with regular cigarettes, the rate of low-birthweight births was 8.1%, compared with 6.1% for non-users—an increased prevalence of 33%. However, they also found that among those who vaped exclusively, low-birthweight births jumped to 10.6%, and the rate of preterm births was 12.4%, compared with 7.6% for non-users. These increases were not seen among dual users of e-cigarettes and regular cigarettes.
"These findings are important, since being born early means a baby has less time in the mother's uterus to grow and gain weight," Regan said. "Much of a baby's weight is gained during the latter part of pregnancy."
Nicotine, which is present in both regular and e-cigarettes, is considered a developmental toxicant by the CDC, one that can have a detrimental effect on fetal development. Because the researchers found that low birthweight was more common among women who used e-cigarettes frequently than among occasional users, it is possible that the amount of nicotine exposure is linked with these harmful effects. However, they said, more research is needed to confirm this.
"This study adds to the accumulating evidence that it is best to be nicotine-free during pregnancy and that e-cigarette use is no exception," said Prof. Gavin Pereira, a perinatal epidemiologist at the Curtin University School of Public Health in Australia. Pereira, formerly a professor of perinatal, pediatric, and environmental epidemiology at Yale University, did not participate in the study.
E-cigarette use has been increasing in the U.S., and these products are sometimes marketed as a less harmful alternative to cigarettes and a smoking-cessation aid. Despite this, very few studies have addressed the potential association between vaping and adverse birth outcomes among expectant mothers, the researchers said.
"The perception that e-cigarettes are less harmful than combustible cigarette smoking may contribute to their appeal among pregnant women who have difficulty quitting smoking," Regan said. "These findings show that e-cigarettes should not be considered a safe alternative to regular cigarettes and that there are potentially very real health risks from vaping when it comes to pregnancy."
