The reproductive performance of 255 Rambouillet (R), Dorset (D), Finnsheep (F) and F1 ewes born in 1978-1979 (group I) and 1979-1980 (group II) and managed in a semiconfinement fall/winter lambing system was evaluated through 4 yr of age of all ewes and through 5 yr for a portion of group I ewes. Ewes were with rams from approximately May 1 to late September each year, with a 2-wk break late in...

Women's preferences for men's masculinized faces and voices were assessed after women (n = 331) were primed with images of male-on-male aggression, male-on-female aggression, pathogens, and neutral scenes. Male-on-male aggression and pathogen primes were associated with increased preference for masculine traits, but the same effect emerged in the neutral condition. We show the increased prefere...

The proportion of genetic variation in complex traits explained by rare variants is a key question for genomic prediction, and for identifying the basis of "missing heritability"--the proportion of additive genetic variation not captured by common variants on SNP arrays. Sequence variants in transcript and regulatory regions from 429 sequenced animals were used to impute high density SNP genoty...

BACKGROUND Schizophrenia is a mental disorder marked by an evolutionarily puzzling combination of high heritability, reduced reproductive success, and a remarkably stable prevalence. Recently, it has been proposed that sexual selection may be crucially involved in the evolution of schizophrenia. In the sexual selection model (SSM) of schizophrenia and schizotypy, schizophrenia represents the ne...

Improving feed efficiency in dairy cattle is a costly and complex challenge, due to the difficulty in measuring individual animal feed intakes and the need to consider energy demands for growth, lactation, maintenance, health, and fertility. Research projects are underway in several countries to provide genomic breeding values for dry matter intake or residual feed intake of dairy bulls based o...

Physiological data from a range of human populations living in different environments can provide valuable information for testing evolutionary hypotheses about human adaptation. By taking into account the effects of population history, phylogenetic comparative methods can help us determine whether variation results from selection due to particular environmental variables. These selective force...

The female reproductive tract is where competition between the sperm of different males takes place, aided and abetted by the female herself. Intense postcopulatory sexual selection fosters inter-sexual conflict and drives rapid evolutionary change to generate a startling diversity of morphological, behavioural and physiological adaptations. We identify three main issues that should be resolved...

The present study, investigated some reproductive and fertility parameters in some wild populations, originating from the North Tunisia (4 populations of Medicago ciliaris and 3 populations of Medicago intertexta). Previous finding revealed that these species are genetically distinct and easily recognized by the number of flowers per inflorescence and pod dimensions. However, biometrical traits...