scholarly journals Meaningful call combinations and compositional processing in the southern pied babbler

2016 ◽  
Vol 113 (21) ◽  
pp. 5976-5981 ◽  
Author(s):  
Sabrina Engesser ◽  
Amanda R. Ridley ◽  
Simon W. Townsend
Keyword(s):  
Expressive Power ◽  
Evolutionary Origins ◽  
Naturally Occurring ◽  
Dangerous Situation ◽  
Vocal System ◽  
Group Members ◽  
The Individual ◽  
Work Supports ◽  
Viable Mechanism ◽  
Order Structures

Language’s expressive power is largely attributable to its compositionality: meaningful words are combined into larger/higher-order structures with derived meaning. Despite its importance, little is known regarding the evolutionary origins and emergence of this syntactic ability. Although previous research has shown a rudimentary capability to combine meaningful calls in primates, because of a scarcity of comparative data, it is unclear to what extent analog forms might also exist outside of primates. Here, we address this ambiguity and provide evidence for rudimentary compositionality in the discrete vocal system of a social passerine, the pied babbler (Turdoides bicolor). Natural observations and predator presentations revealed that babblers produce acoustically distinct alert calls in response to close, low-urgency threats and recruitment calls when recruiting group members during locomotion. On encountering terrestrial predators, both vocalizations are combined into a “mobbing sequence,” potentially to recruit group members in a dangerous situation. To investigate whether babblers process the sequence in a compositional way, we conducted systematic experiments, playing back the individual calls in isolation as well as naturally occurring and artificial sequences. Babblers reacted most strongly to mobbing sequence playbacks, showing a greater attentiveness and a quicker approach to the loudspeaker, compared with individual calls or control sequences. We conclude that the sequence constitutes a compositional structure, communicating information on both the context and the requested action. Our work supports previous research suggesting combinatoriality as a viable mechanism to increase communicative output and indicates that the ability to combine and process meaningful vocal structures, a basic syntax, may be more widespread than previously thought.

The Epistemology of Groups

2020 ◽  
Author(s):  
Jennifer Lackey
Keyword(s):  
Group Level ◽  
Social Significance ◽  
Individual Group ◽  
Key Concepts ◽  
Normative Requirements ◽  
Group Members ◽  
The Individual ◽  
Belief Justification ◽  
In Virtue Of ◽  
Trump Administration

Groups are often said to bear responsibility for their actions, many of which have enormous moral, legal, and social significance. The Trump Administration, for instance, is said to be responsible for the U.S.’s inept and deceptive handling of COVID-19 and the harms that American citizens have suffered as a result. But are groups subject to normative assessment simply in virtue of their individual members being so, or are they somehow agents in their own right? Answering this question depends on understanding key concepts in the epistemology of groups, as we cannot hold the Trump Administration responsible without first determining what it believed, knew, and said. Deflationary theorists hold that group phenomena can be understood entirely in terms of individual members and their states. Inflationary theorists maintain that group phenomena are importantly over and above, or otherwise distinct from, individual members and their states. It is argued that neither approach is satisfactory. Groups are more than their members, but not because they have “minds of their own,” as the inflationists hold. Instead, this book shows how group phenomena—like belief, justification, and knowledge—depend on what the individual group members do or are capable of doing while being subject to group-level normative requirements. This framework, it is argued, allows for the correct distribution of responsibility across groups and their individual members.

scholarly journals Resolving Entangled JH-H-Coupling Patterns for Steroidal Structure Determinations by NMR Spectroscopy

Molecules ◽  
2021 ◽  
Vol 26 (9) ◽  
pp. 2643
Author(s):  
Danni Wu ◽  
Kathleen Joyce Carillo ◽  
Jiun-Jie Shie ◽  
Steve S.-F. Yu ◽  
Der-Lii M. Tzou
Keyword(s):  
Nmr Spectroscopy ◽  
1H Nmr Spectroscopy ◽  
Chemical Shifts ◽  
Atomic Level ◽  
Molecular Structures ◽  
Naturally Occurring ◽  
Structure Determinations ◽  
Ligand Interactions ◽  
Synthetic Steroids ◽  
The Individual

For decades, high-resolution 1H NMR spectroscopy has been routinely utilized to analyze both naturally occurring steroid hormones and synthetic steroids, which play important roles in regulating physiological functions in humans. Because the 1H signals are inevitably superimposed and entangled with various JH–H splitting patterns, such that the individual 1H chemical shift and associated JH–H coupling identities are hardly resolved. Given this, applications of thess information for elucidating steroidal molecular structures and steroid/ligand interactions at the atomic level were largely restricted. To overcome, we devoted to unraveling the entangled JH–H splitting patterns of two similar steroidal compounds having fully unsaturated protons, i.e., androstanolone and epiandrosterone (denoted as 1 and 2, respectively), in which only hydroxyl and ketone substituents attached to C3 and C17 were interchanged. Here we demonstrated that the JH–H values deduced from 1 and 2 are universal and applicable to other steroids, such as testosterone, 3β, 21-dihydroxygregna-5-en-20-one, prednisolone, and estradiol. On the other hand, the 1H chemical shifts may deviate substantially from sample to sample. In this communication, we propose a simple but novel scheme for resolving the complicate JH–H splitting patterns and 1H chemical shifts, aiming for steroidal structure determinations.

scholarly journals Decentralised sweetpotato (Ipomoea batatas) vine multiplication in Lake Zone, Tanzania: Five years later

2020 ◽  
Vol 5 (1) ◽  
pp. 677-689
Author(s):  
Margaret A. McEwan ◽  
Conny J. M. Almekinders ◽  
Moses S. Matui ◽  
Dorothy Lusheshanija ◽  
Mariana Massawe ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Group Dynamics ◽  
Ipomoea Batatas ◽  
Water Access ◽  
Qualitative And Quantitative ◽  
Factors Influencing ◽  
Lake Zone ◽  
Norms And Values ◽  
Group Members ◽  
Market Factors ◽  
The Individual

AbstractFarmer-based seed multiplication is widely promoted by development practitioners, but there is limited understanding of the individual or collective motivations of farmers to engage or disengage in specialised seed production. The objective of this study is to understand the factors influencing the continuity of sweetpotato vine multiplication enterprises in the Lake Zone of Tanzania, five years after support from a project ended. A total of 81 out of 88 trained group or individual decentralised vine multipliers (DVMs) were traced to assess their vine multiplication activities. Qualitative and quantitative data were collected through telephone and field interviews. Our data showed that 40% of the 81 DVMs had sold vines in the year prior to the study and 20% had maintained the improved varieties for their own use. Some group members had continued vine sales as individuals. The DVMs’ reasons for abandoning vine multiplication included climatic and water access issues, market factors and group dynamics. The DVMs did not engage in high volumes of commercial sales. Socio-economic norms and values underpin the transactions of sweetpotato vines. These norms may undermine the emergence of commercially viable enterprises yet seem navigable for a substantial number of the DVMs. Group DVMs seem less commercially successful than individuals.

scholarly journals Task allocation and site fidelity jointly influence foraging regulation in honeybee colonies

2017 ◽  
Vol 4 (8) ◽  
pp. 170344 ◽  
Author(s):  
Thiago Mosqueiro ◽  
Chelsea Cook ◽  
Ramon Huerta ◽  
Jürgen Gadau ◽  
Brian Smith ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Site Fidelity ◽  
Collective Behaviour ◽  
Trade Off ◽  
Agent Based ◽  
Resource Collection ◽  
Group Members ◽  
Collective Foraging ◽  
The Individual ◽  
Colony Level ◽  
And Task

Variation in behaviour among group members often impacts collective outcomes. Individuals may vary both in the task that they perform and in the persistence with which they perform each task. Although both the distribution of individuals among tasks and differences among individuals in behavioural persistence can each impact collective behaviour, we do not know if and how they jointly affect collective outcomes. Here, we use a detailed computational model to examine the joint impact of colony-level distribution among tasks and behavioural persistence of individuals, specifically their fidelity to particular resource sites, on the collective trade-off between exploring for new resources and exploiting familiar ones. We developed an agent-based model of foraging honeybees, parametrized by data from five colonies, in which we simulated scouts, who search the environment for new resources, and individuals who are recruited by the scouts to the newly found resources, i.e. recruits. We varied the persistence of returning to a particular food source of both scouts and recruits and found that, for each value of persistence, there is a different optimal ratio of scouts to recruits that maximizes resource collection by the colony. Furthermore, changes to the persistence of scouts induced opposite effects from changes to the persistence of recruits on the collective foraging of the colony. The proportion of scouts that resulted in the most resources collected by the colony decreased as the persistence of recruits increased. However, this optimal proportion of scouts increased as the persistence of scouts increased. Thus, behavioural persistence and task participation can interact to impact a colony's collective behaviour in orthogonal directions. Our work provides new insights and generates new hypotheses into how variations in behaviour at both the individual and colony levels jointly impact the trade-off between exploring for new resources and exploiting familiar ones.

Misperceptions of Friendly Behavior as Sexual Interest: A Survey of Naturally Occurring Incidents

1987 ◽  
Vol 11 (2) ◽  
pp. 173-194 ◽  
Author(s):  
Antonia Abbey
Keyword(s):  
Gender Differences ◽  
Gender Difference ◽  
Sexual Activity ◽  
Sexual Interest ◽  
Large Percentage ◽  
Future Research ◽  
Naturally Occurring ◽  
Retrospective Reports ◽  
Sexual Intent ◽  
The Individual

The studies described in this article examine retrospective reports of naturally occurring misperceptions of friendliness as sexual interest. Previous research has demonstrated that men perceive other people and situations more sexually than women do. The purpose of this research was to examine how this gender difference in perceptions of sexuality is exhibited in actual interactions between women and men. Two surveys of undergraduates were conducted. The results indicated that a large percentage of both women and men had experienced such misperceptions, although more women had than men. Most of these incidents were quickly resolved without problems; however, others involved some degree of forced sexual activity and left the individual feeling angry, humiliated, and depressed. Gender differences in the characteristics of these incidents and reactions to them are described. The implications of these findings for future research on gender differences in perceptions of sexual intent are discussed.

scholarly journals Symmetric Circuits for Rank Logic

2022 ◽  
Vol 23 (1) ◽  
pp. 1-35
Author(s):  
Anuj Dawar ◽  
Gregory Wilsenach
Keyword(s):  
Fixed Point ◽  
Expressive Power ◽  
Broad Framework ◽  
The Individual ◽  
Rank Of A Matrix

Fixed-point logic with rank (FPR) is an extension of fixed-point logic with counting (FPC) with operators for computing the rank of a matrix over a finit field. The expressive power of FPR properly extends that of FPC and is contained in P, but it is not known if that containment is proper. We give a circuit characterization for FPR in terms of families of symmetric circuits with rank gates, along the lines of that for FPC given by Anderson and Dawar in 2017. This requires the development of a broad framework of circuits in which the individual gates compute functions that are not symmetric (i.e., invariant under all permutations of their inputs). This framework also necessitates the development of novel techniques to prove the equivalence of circuits and logic. Both the framework and the techniques are of greater generality than the main result.

scholarly journals Statement of the Committee of Human Nutrition Science of the Polish Academy of Sciences on the use of dietary supplements containing vitamins and minerals by adults

2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Agata Wawrzyniak ◽  
Katarzyna Przybyłowicz ◽  
Lidia Wądołowska ◽  
Jadwiga Charzewska ◽  
Danuta Górecka ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Side Effects ◽  
General Population ◽  
Dietary Supplements ◽  
Dietary Supplementation ◽  
Dietary Recommendations ◽  
Nutrition Science ◽  
Naturally Occurring ◽  
The Individual ◽  
Academy Of Sciences ◽  
Usual Diet

The use of dietary supplements (supplementation) is the individual enrichment of the diet with ingredients naturally occurring in food. As a rule, dietary supplements should be used periodically. In nutritional practice, there are many indications for dietary supplementation, but the decision to take dietary supplements should be made by consumers wisely and only in justified situations, when there is a risk that the usual diet does not provide vitamins and minerals in an amount adequate to meet dietary recommendations. However, we should remember about the real dangers of taking too large doses of vitamins and minerals. Many people using dietary supplements, especially several types at the same time, may experience undesirable side effects and deterioration of health, and in addition, people taking medicines may seriously disrupt or weaken the effect of the drug, or even lack the therapeutic effect of the drug. The document presents 10 steps and rules for the use of dietary supplements available on the market, which are addressed to the general population.

scholarly journals Major Evolutionary Transitions in Social Insects, the Importance of Worker Sterility and Life History Trade-Offs

2021 ◽  
Vol 9 ◽  
Author(s):  
Abel Bernadou ◽  
Boris H. Kramer ◽  
Judith Korb
Keyword(s):  
Life History ◽  
Social Insects ◽  
Division Of Labour ◽  
Evolutionary Transitions ◽  
Individual Level ◽  
Individual Fitness ◽  
Trade Offs ◽  
Group Members ◽  
The Individual ◽  
Worker Sterility

The evolution of eusociality in social insects, such as termites, ants, and some bees and wasps, has been regarded as a major evolutionary transition (MET). Yet, there is some debate whether all species qualify. Here, we argue that worker sterility is a decisive criterion to determine whether species have passed a MET (= superorganisms), or not. When workers are sterile, reproductive interests align among group members as individual fitness is transferred to the colony level. Division of labour among cooperating units is a major driver that favours the evolution of METs across all biological scales. Many METs are characterised by a differentiation into reproductive versus maintenance functions. In social insects, the queen specialises on reproduction while workers take over maintenance functions such as food provisioning. Such division of labour allows specialisation and it reshapes life history trade-offs among cooperating units. For instance, individuals within colonies of social insects can overcome the omnipresent fecundity/longevity trade-off, which limits reproductive success in organisms, when increased fecundity shortens lifespan. Social insect queens (particularly in superorganismal species) can reach adult lifespans of several decades and are among the most fecund terrestrial animals. The resulting enormous reproductive output may contribute to explain why some genera of social insects became so successful. Indeed, superorganismal ant lineages have more species than those that have not passed a MET. We conclude that the release from life history constraints at the individual level is a important, yet understudied, factor across METs to explain their evolutionary success.

scholarly journals The analysis of individual Visegrad group members’ agrarian export sensitivity in relation to selected macroeconomic aggregations

2011 ◽  
Vol 59 (4) ◽  
pp. 327-342
Author(s):  
Miroslav Svatoš ◽  
Luboš Smutka
Keyword(s):  
Agricultural Trade ◽  
Added Value ◽  
The Czech Republic ◽  
Grocery Industry ◽  
Agricultural Exports ◽  
Group Members ◽  
The Subject ◽  
The Individual ◽  
High Degree ◽  
Visegrad Group

This paper analyzes the development of agricultural trade of the countries of the Visegrad Group with emphasis on development of the value of agricultural exports of the individual countries. The subject matter of the analysis is the sensitivity of the commodity structure of agricultural exports of individual countries and the identification of aggregations that are the least and the most sensitive to changes to the external and internal economic environment. From the conducted research, agricultural trade in the V4 countries was found to have developed very dynamically from 1993 to 2008, while the commodity structure of exports has constantly narrowed as the degree of specialization of the individual countries has increased (this applies especially to the Czech Republic, Slovakia and Hungary). From the results of analysis of sensitivity to changes of selected variables relating to the development of the value of agricultural exports of the individual V4 countries, it appears that the aggregations that react most sensitively to changes are those that are the subject of re-exports, followed by the aggregations that are characterized by a high degree of added value. In general it can be said that products of agricultural primary production exhibit less sensitivity in comparison with grocery industry products. This is confirmed by the general trend arising from the very nature of consumer behaviour.

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