Abstract: Innovative behaviour achieved through exploration, learning and insight heavily depends on certain motivational, social and ecological conditions of short duration. We propose that more attention should be given to what these conditions are and where they are realized in natural groups of non-human primates. Only to the extent that such favourable conditions were frequently realized in a social structure or an extraspecific environment could selective pressures act on innovative abilities. There is hope that research into field conditions of innovative behaviour will help to identify its selectors in evolution.

Abstract: Temperature-dependent EPR and temperature-jump measurements have been carried out, in order to examine the high-spin to low-spin transition of aquomethemogobin (pH 6.0). Relaxation rates and equilibrium constants could be determined as a function of temperature. As a reaction mechanism for the high-spin to low-spin transition, the binding of N epsilon of His E7 to the heme iron had been proposed; the same mechanism had been suggested for the ms-effect, found in temperature-jump experiments on aquomethemoglobin. A comparison of the thermodynamic quantities, deduced form the measurements in this paper, gives evidence that indeed the same reaction is investigated in both cases. Our results and most of the findings of earlier studies on the spin-state transitions of aquomethemoglobin, using susceptibility, optical, or EPR measurements, can be explained by the transition of methemoglobin with H2O as ligand (with high-spin state at all temperatures) and methemoglobin with ligand N epsilon of His E7 (with a low-spin ground state). Thermal fluctuations of large amplitude have to be postulated for the reaction to take place, so this reaction may be understood as a probe for the study of protein dynamics.

Abstract: The term `leadership' has been used in several different senses, resulting in very different ways of identifying leaders and apparently inconsistent conclusions on how leadership is determined in herbivores. We therefore propose the following definitions: (i) a leader is the individual that is consistently the one who initiates long-distance, spontaneous group movements toward a new feeding site and (ii) long-distance spontaneous group movements are movements which happen when an animal changes activity and location and is immediately followed by a similar change in activity and location by other members of the group. Using these definitions, we tested for consistency of movement order across time and situation within a group of fifteen 2-year-old heifers. We found that the same individual was recorded as the very first animal in 48% of movements toward a new feeding site and could therefore be identified as the `leader'. We also showed that movement order when the animals entered an experimental plot, or progressed slowly through the field during a grazing bout, did not produce the same result. This method, which enables us to identify leaders in groups of animals at pasture, should improve our knowledge of how leadership is determined in grazing herbivores.

Abstract: Introduction
Many scientists agree that information on the learning abilities of horses should be used in developing training methods (Fiske and Potter, 1979; Mader and Price, 1980; McCall, 1990) but nevertheless research where such knowledge is put to the test is limited (Flannery, 1997). Foals that are handled continuously between 4 and 22 months of age were quicker learners and were easier to train than those that got less handling (Fiske and Potter, 1979). The handling involved being lead, brushed, and acclimated to restraint. In some studies more relaxed foals learned more and were easier to train later on than stressed foals (Fiske and Potter, 1979; Heird et al, 1986) while no such correlation was found in another study (Mader and Price 1980). It is commonly believed, and has been established with tests, that younger horses are quicker-learners than mature (Mader and Price, 1980; Houpt, 1982), but the question remains to be answered if a certain age is better than another and if so, if the optimum time differs between breeds.
The idea of imprint training (Miller, 2000) is controversial but seems to be popular in the USA. Miller found that foals that had been treated by veterinarians at birth were easier to handle later on. He associated this with what Konrad Lorenz called imprint learning (1937), which involved irreversible learning taking place during a sensitive period early in life. Miller claims that the idea has been tested scientifically but no such papers are covered by Wed of Science. To our knowledge one systematic research has been carried out whose results will be published this year (Jennifer Williams, personal communication). Miller (2000) claims that it is very important to stroke and handle the foals quickly after birth (hence the reference to the imprinting concept) and desensitize them to touch and other interventions. A study by Mal et al (1994) did not support the claim that very young foals are more sensitive to treatment than older foals. It is possible that what we are witnessing when the foals seem relaxed after stroking is not “imprinting” but “learned helplessness”.
In Iceland where mares give birth out in the field within the herd (usually herds of mares, sub-adults and sometimes geldings) it is customary not to disturb the mare and foal for the first hours of the foal's life. That fact and the custom in many places to let the foals stay with their dams within large groups in the wilderness from 1-2 months of age till autumn, would mean that continuous handling would not have a practical value for most Icelandic horse owners. We wanted to test the idea that early handling and training of foals should calm the foals considerably and teach them valuable lessons, which would make training later on easier.

Abstract: An acid-destabilized form of apomyoglobin, the so-called E state, consists of a set of heterogeneous structures that are all characterized by a stable hydrophobic core composed of 30-40 residues at the intersection of the A, G, and H helices of the protein, with little other secondary structure and no other tertiary structure. Relaxation kinetics studies were carried out to characterize the dynamics of core melting and formation in this protein. The unfolding and/or refolding response is induced by a laser-induced temperature jump between the folded and unfolded forms of E, and structural changes are monitored using the infrared amide I' absorbance at 1648-1651 cm(-1) that reports on the formation of solvent-protected, native-like helix in the core and by fluorescence emission changes from apomyoglobin's Trp14, a measure of burial of the indole group of this residue. The fluorescence kinetics data are monoexponential with a relaxation time of 14 micros. However, infrared kinetics data are best fit to a biexponential function with relaxation times of 14 and 59 micros. These relaxation times are very fast, close to the limits placed on folding reactions by diffusion. The 14 micros relaxation time is weakly temperature dependent and thus represents a pathway that is energetically downhill. The appearance of this relaxation time in both the fluorescence and infrared measurements indicates that this folding event proceeds by a concomitant formation of compact secondary and tertiary structures. The 59 micros relaxation time is much more strongly temperature dependent and has no fluorescence counterpart, indicating an activated process with a large energy barrier wherein nonspecific hydrophobic interactions between helix A and the G and H helices cause some helix burial but Trp14 remains solvent exposed. These results are best fit by a multiple-pathway kinetic model when U collapses to form the various folded core structures of E. Thus, the results suggest very robust dynamics for core formation involving multiple folding pathways and provide significant insight into the primary processes of protein folding.