Geographical ranges vary greatly in size and position, even within recent clades, but the factors driving this remain poorly understood. In aquatic beetles, thermal niche has been shown to be related to both the relative range size and position of congeners but whether other physiological parameters play a role is unknown. Metabolic plasticity may be critical for species occupying more variable...

The immunocompetence-handicap hypothesis suggests that androgen-dependent male characters constitute honest signals of mate and/or rival quality because of the imposed costs through immune suppression associated with elevated testosterone levels. We demonstrate in a field experiment that male sand lizards (Lacerta agilis) exposed to elevated testosterone suffered from increased mass loss and ti...

This study assessed the enhancement of immunocompetence by relaxation and social contact in 45 geriatric residents of independent-living facilities. Subjects were randomly assigned to one of three protocols: relaxation training, social contact, or no contact. Subjects in the relaxation and social-contact conditions were seen individually three times a week for a month. Blood samples and self-re...

We assessed both non- and peptide-specific immune responses in prostate cancer patients before and after immunotherapy with dendritic cells exogenously pulsed with the prostate-specific membrane antigen-derived peptides, PSM-P1 and PSM-P2. For all subjects, we observed that clinical responses were strongly associated with two indicators of immunocompetence: skin test responses to recall antigen...

Based on a family systems/social-ecological perspective, mothers and fathers of 8- and 9-year-old children with spina bifida (n = 55; 28 male, 27 female) were examined in comparison to a matched group of parents with 8- and 9-year-old able-bodied children (n = 55; 29 male, 26 female) across several areas of functioning (individual, parental, and marital). Findings suggested that mothers and fat...

A case of cavernous sinus thrombosis is usually a complication of severe orbital cellulitis and meningitis. The authors reported a retrograde cavernous sinus thrombosis and orbital cellulitis in an immunocompetence child, due to meningitis.

Background. The detection of latent tuberculosis (TB) is essential for TB control, but T-cell assay might be influenced by degree of immunosuppression. The relationship between immunocompetence and interferon (IFN)-γ response in QuantiFERON-TB Gold (QFT) is uncertain, especially in HIV-negative populations. Methods and Results. QFT has been performed for healthy subjects and TB suspected patien...

According to the 'good genes' hypothesis, females choose males based on traits that indicate the male's genetic quality in terms of disease resistance. The 'immunocompetence handicap hypothesis' proposed that secondary sexual traits serve as indicators of male genetic quality, because they indicate that males can contend with the immunosuppressive effects of testosterone. Masculinity is commonl...

Using a preferential looking methodology with novel verbs, Gertner, Fisher and Eisengart (2006) found that 21-month-old English children seemed to understand the syntactic marking of transitive word order in an abstract, verb-general way. In the current study we tested whether young German children of this same age have this same understanding. Following Gertner et al. (2006), one group of Germ...