Random isn't real: How the patchy distribution of ecological rewards may generate “incentive hope”

2019 ◽  
Vol 42 ◽  
Author(s):  
Laurel Symes ◽  
Thalia Wheatley

AbstractAnselme & Güntürkün generate exciting new insights by integrating two disparate fields to explain why uncertain rewards produce strong motivational effects. Their conclusions are developed in a framework that assumes a random distribution of resources, uncommon in the natural environment. We argue that, by considering a realistically clumped spatiotemporal distribution of resources, their conclusions will be stronger and more complete.

2007 ◽  
Vol 58 (2) ◽  
pp. 194 ◽  
Author(s):  
Paulina Martinetto ◽  
Pablo Ribeiro ◽  
Oscar Iribarne

Intertidal estuarine areas located between southern Brazil and the northern Argentinean Patagonia are characterised by extended beds of the burrowing crab Chasmagnathus granulatus. Their activity leads to profound changes in the structure, quality and dynamics of sediments, which affect the entire benthic community and create a patchy distribution of resources for other species. In this study, the differences in habitat use by juvenile fishes above soft sediments inhabited by C. granulatus were evaluated. Adjacent areas with (‘crab beds’) and without crab burrows in intertidal mudflats of the Mar Chiquita Coastal Lagoon (37°32'S, 57°19'W) were sampled seasonally from 2000 to 2002. There were more fish species in crab-bed areas. Abundances of benthivorous and planktivorous fishes were also higher in crab beds during flood tide; however, during ebb tide, planktivorous fishes were more abundant outside crab-bed areas, whereas benthivores did not vary between areas. The present study demonstrated that species composition and abundance of juvenile fishes can be affected by the presence of bioturbator species such as C. granulatus.


2018 ◽  
Vol 41 ◽  
Author(s):  
Daniel Crimston ◽  
Matthew J. Hornsey

AbstractAs a general theory of extreme self-sacrifice, Whitehouse's article misses one relevant dimension: people's willingness to fight and die in support of entities not bound by biological markers or ancestral kinship (allyship). We discuss research on moral expansiveness, which highlights individuals’ capacity to self-sacrifice for targets that lie outside traditional in-group markers, including racial out-groups, animals, and the natural environment.


Author(s):  
K.R. Porter

Most types of cells are known from their structure and overall form to possess a characteristic organization. In some instances this is evident in the non-random disposition of organelles and such system subunits as cisternae of the endoplasmic reticulum or the Golgi complex. In others it appears in the distribution and orientation of cytoplasmic fibrils. And in yet others the organization finds expression in the non-random distribution and orientation of microtubules, especially as found in highly anisometric cells and cell processes. The impression is unavoidable that in none of these cases is the organization achieved without the involvement of the cytoplasmic ground substance (CGS) or matrix. This impression is based on the fact that a matrix is present and that in all instances these formed structures, whether membranelimited or filamentous, are suspended in it. In some well-known instances, as in arrays of microtubules which make up axonemes and axostyles, the matrix resolves itself into bridges (and spokes) between the microtubules, bridges which are in some cases very regularly disposed and uniform in size (Mcintosh, 1973; Bloodgood and Miller, 1974; Warner and Satir, 1974).


Author(s):  
Corazon D. Bucana

In the circulating blood of man and guinea pigs, glycogen occurs primarily in polymorphonuclear neutrophils and platelets. The amount of glycogen in neutrophils increases with time after the cells leave the bone marrow, and the distribution of glycogen in neutrophils changes from an apparently random distribution to large clumps when these cells move out of the circulation to the site of inflammation in the peritoneal cavity. The objective of this study was to further investigate changes in glycogen content and distribution in neutrophils. I chose an intradermal site because it allows study of neutrophils at various stages of extravasation.Initially, osmium ferrocyanide and osmium ferricyanide were used to fix glycogen in the neutrophils for ultrastructural studies. My findings confirmed previous reports that showed that glycogen is well preserved by both these fixatives and that osmium ferricyanide protects glycogen from solubilization by uranyl acetate.I found that osmium ferrocyanide similarly protected glycogen. My studies showed, however, that the electron density of mitochondria and other cytoplasmic organelles was lower in samples fixed with osmium ferrocyanide than in samples fixed with osmium ferricyanide.


Author(s):  
Robin Attfield ◽  
Andrew Belsey
Keyword(s):  

Author(s):  
Roy W. Pickens ◽  
Steven W. Gust ◽  
Philip M. Catchings ◽  
Dace S. Svikis
Keyword(s):  

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