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“Bottlenose dolphins, Tursiops cf. aduncus, in Shark Bay, Western Australia exhibit the most complex alliances known outside of humans. Advances in our understanding of these alliances have occurred with expansions of our study area each decade. In the 1980s, we discovered that males cooperated in stable trios and pairs (first-order alliances) BEZ235 concentration to herd individual oestrous females, and that two such alliances of four to six, sometimes related, individuals (second-order alliances) cooperated against other males in contests over females. The 1990s

saw the discovery of a large 14-member second-order alliance whose members exhibited labile first-order alliance formation among nonrelatives. Partner preferences as well as a relationship between first-order alliance stability and consortship rate in this ‘super-alliance’ indicated differentiated relationships. The contrast between the super-alliance and the 1980s alliances suggested two alliance tactics. An expansion of the study area in the 2000s revealed a continuum of second-order alliance sizes in an open social network and no simple relationship between second-order alliance size and alliance stability, but generalized the relationship between first-order alliance stability and consortship rate within second-order alliances. Association preferences and contests involving

three second-order alliances indicated the presence click here of third-order alliances. Second-order alliances may persist for 20 years with stability thwarted by gradual attrition, but underlying flexibility is indicated by observations of individuals joining other alliances, including old males joining young or old second-order alliances. The dolphin research has informed us on the evolution of complex social relationships and large brain evolution in mammals and the ecology of alliance formation. Variation in odontocete brain size and the large radiation of delphinids into a range

of habitats holds great promise that further effort to describe their selleck inhibitor societies will be rewarded with similar advances in our understanding of these important issues. (C) 2015 The Association for the Study of Animal Behaviour. Published by Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.”
“Rationale Advances in the management of cystic fibrosis have led to a significant improvement in survival, although marked differences between individuals are still observed. The value of patient-reported health-related quality of life scores in predicting survival in adults with cystic fibrosis is unknown.\n\nObjectives: To evaluate whether patient-reported health-related quality of life could predict survival in cystic fibrosis.\n\nMethods: From 1996 to 1997 a consecutive series of 223 patients were recruited to evaluate the Cystic Fibrosis Quality of Life Questionnaire. Demographic (age, sex), clinical (FEV(1)% predicted, body mass index, diabetes, B.