scholarly journals Multiple adaptive and non-adaptive processes determine responsiveness to heterospecific alarm calls in African savannah herbivores

2018 ◽  
Vol 285 (1882) ◽  
pp. 20172676 ◽  
Author(s):  
Kristine Meise ◽  
Daniel W. Franks ◽  
Jakob Bro-Jørgensen

Heterospecific alarm calls may provide crucial survival benefits shaping animal behaviour. Multispecies studies can disentangle the relative importance of the various processes determining these benefits, but previous studies have included too few species for alternative hypotheses to be tested quantitatively in a comprehensive analysis. In a community-wide study of African savannah herbivores, we here, for the first time to our knowledge, partition alarm responses according to distinct aspects of the signaller–receiver relationship and thereby uncover the impact of several concurrent adaptive and non-adaptive processes. Stronger responses were found to callers who were vulnerable to similar predators and who were more consistent in denoting the presence of predators of the receiver. Moreover, alarm calls resembling those of conspecifics elicited stronger responses, pointing to sensory constraints, and increased responsiveness to more abundant callers indicated a role of learning. Finally, responses were stronger in risky environments. Our findings suggest that mammals can respond adaptively to variation in the information provided by heterospecific callers but within the constraints imposed by a sensory bias towards conspecific calls and reduced learning of less familiar calls. The study thereby provides new insights central to understanding the ecological consequences of interspecific communication networks in natural communities.

2019 ◽  
Vol 12 (2) ◽  
Author(s):  
Bibi Tahira ◽  
Naveed Saif ◽  
Muhammad Haroon ◽  
Sadaqat Ali

The current study tries to understand the diverse nature of relationship between personality Big Five Model (PBFM) and student's perception of abusive supervision in higher education institutions of Khyber Pakhtoonkhwa Pakistan. Data was collected in dyads i.e. (supervisors were asked to rate their personality attributes while student were asked to rate the supervisor behavior) through adopted construct. For this purpose, data was collected from three government state universities and one Private Sector University. The focus was on MS/M.Phill and PhD student and their supervisors of the mentioned universities. After measuring normality and validity regression analysis was conducted to assess the impact of supervisor personality characteristics that leads to abusive supervision. Findings indicate interestingly that except agreeableness other four attributes of (PBFM) are play their role for abusive supervision. The results are novel in the nature as for the first time Neuroticism, openness to experience, extraversion and conscientiousness are held responsible for the abusive supervision. The study did not explore the demographic characteristics, and moderating role of organizational culture, justice and interpersonal deviances to understand the strength of relationship in more detail way. Keywords: Personality big five model, abusive supervision, HEIs


2010 ◽  
Vol 54 (6) ◽  
pp. 2345-2353 ◽  
Author(s):  
Nicolas A. Margot ◽  
Craig S. Gibbs ◽  
Michael D. Miller

ABSTRACT Bevirimat (BVM) is the first of a new class of anti-HIV drugs with a novel mode of action known as maturation inhibitors. BVM inhibits the last cleavage of the Gag polyprotein by HIV-1 protease, leading to the accumulation of the p25 capsid-small peptide 1 (SP1) intermediate and resulting in noninfectious HIV-1 virions. Early clinical studies of BVM showed that over 50% of the patients treated with BVM did not respond to treatment. We investigated the impact of prior antiretroviral (ARV) treatment and/or natural genetic diversity on BVM susceptibility by conducting in vitro phenotypic analyses of viruses made from patient samples. We generated 31 recombinant viruses containing the entire gag and protease genes from 31 plasma samples from HIV-1-infected patients with (n = 21) or without (n = 10) prior ARV experience. We found that 58% of the patient isolates tested had a >10-fold reduced susceptibility to BVM, regardless of the patient's ARV experience or the level of isolate resistance to protease inhibitors. Analysis of mutants with site-directed mutations confirmed the role of the V370A SP1 polymorphism (SP1-V7A) in resistance to BVM. Furthermore, we demonstrated for the first time that a capsid polymorphism, V362I (CA protein-V230I), is also a major mutation conferring resistance to BVM. In contrast, none of the previously defined resistance-conferring mutations in Gag selected in vitro (H358Y, L363M, L363F, A364V, A366V, or A366T) were found to occur among the viruses that we analyzed. Our results should be helpful in the design of diagnostics for prediction of the potential benefit of BVM treatment in HIV-1-infected patients.


Author(s):  
Ana M Moreno-Menéndez ◽  
Unai Arzubiaga ◽  
Vanessa Díaz-Moriana ◽  
José C Casillas

This article critically analyses entrepreneurial orientation (EO) in family firms after a major crisis, to investigate how firms with equal initial levels of EO reach different levels over time. Based on two alternative hypotheses (stability and convergence), we analysed whether the EO of family firms remains intact, strengthens, or weakens after a crisis. Based on an examination of a database of 151 family firms collected in 2004 and 2017, our findings reveal that compared to firms with higher pre-crisis EO levels, those with lower levels saw a larger increase post crisis. Furthermore, unlike the latter group, the former was able to maintain high pre-crisis levels even after the crisis. In addition, we also we found this relationship between pre-crisis and post-crisis EO levels to be influenced by two key periodic discontinuities, namely, organisational decline and generational change contingencies. These findings advance our understanding of temporal aspects of EO and heterogeneous entrepreneurial behaviour among family firms with significant implications for both theory and practice.


2021 ◽  
Vol ahead-of-print (ahead-of-print) ◽  
Author(s):  
Arthur F. Turner ◽  
Gareth Edwards ◽  
Catherine Latham ◽  
Harriet Shortt

PurposeThe purpose of this paper, based on reflections from practice, is to shed light on the realities of using walking as a tool for learning and development. This is done through an initial analysis of longitudinal reflective data spanning seven years and connecting these reflections to the concepts: being-in-the-world, belonging and Ba.Design/methodology/approachThis research takes a practice based phenomenological and reflective approach. The value of this approach is to seek a new understanding, through three distinct conceptual frames, of the effective use of walking within management development.FindingsThe findings connect three conceptual approaches of being-in-the-world, belonging and “Ba” to the practicalities of delivery, thus encouraging practitioners and designers to deeply reflect on the role of walking in management development.Research limitations/implicationsA limitation is that this is largely a personal story exploring the impact of an intuitively developed set of interventions. Despite this, the paper represents a unique and deep interpretation of walking as a mechanism for management development.Practical implicationsThe paper concludes with three recommendations to practitioners wanting to use walking in management development programmes. These are: facilitators need to be familiar with their surroundings; they should look for spaces and places where participants can connect and build relationships; and organisers and sponsors need to recognise how walking not only consolidates knowledge but can help create knowledge too.Originality/valueThis is a unique, seven-year longitudinal study that broadens the theoretical focus of walking as a mechanism for management and leadership development that combines the theoretical lenses of being-in-the-world, belonging and “Ba”, the authors believe, for the first time in research on management development.


Author(s):  
Sajad Jamshidi ◽  
Maryam Baniasad ◽  
Dev Niyogi

Prior evaluations of the relationship between COVID-19 and weather indicate an inconsistent role of meteorology (weather) in the transmission rate. While some effects due to weather may exist, we found possible misconceptions and biases in the analysis that only consider the impact of meteorological variables alone without considering the urban metabolism and environment. This study highlights that COVID-19 assessments can notably benefit by incorporating factors that account for urban dynamics and environmental exposure. We evaluated the role of weather (considering equivalent temperature that combines the effect of humidity and air temperature) with particular consideration of urban density, mobility, homestay, demographic information, and mask use within communities. Our findings highlighted the importance of considering spatial and temporal scales for interpreting the weather/climate impact on the COVID-19 spread and spatiotemporal lags between the causal processes and effects. On global to regional scales, we found contradictory relationships between weather and the transmission rate, confounded by decentralized policies, weather variability, and the onset of screening for COVID-19, highlighting an unlikely impact of weather alone. At a finer spatial scale, the mobility index (with the relative importance of 34.32%) was found to be the highest contributing factor to the COVID-19 pandemic growth, followed by homestay (26.14%), population (23.86%), and urban density (13.03%). The weather by itself was identified as a noninfluential factor (relative importance < 3%). The findings highlight that the relation between COVID-19 and meteorology needs to consider scale, urban density and mobility areas to improve predictions.


2019 ◽  
Vol 45 (3) ◽  
pp. 482-490 ◽  
Author(s):  
Zachary T. Pennington ◽  
Jeremy M. Trott ◽  
Abha K. Rajbhandari ◽  
Kevin Li ◽  
Wendy M. Walwyn ◽  
...  

AbstractDespite the large comorbidity between PTSD and opioid use disorders, as well as the common treatment of physical injuries resulting from trauma with opioids, the ability of opioid treatments to subsequently modify PTSD-related behavior has not been well studied. Using the stress-enhanced fear learning (SEFL) model for PTSD, we characterized the impact of chronic opioid regimens on the sensitization of fear learning seen following traumatic stress in mice. We demonstrate for the first time that chronic opioid pretreatment is able to robustly augment associative fear learning. Highlighting aversive learning as the cognitive process mediating this behavioral outcome, these changes were observed after a considerable period of drug cessation, generalized to learning about multiple aversive stimuli, were not due to changes in stimulus sensitivity or basal anxiety, and correlated with a marker of synaptic plasticity within the basolateral amygdala. Additionally, these changes were not observed when opioids were given after the traumatic event. Moreover, we found that neither reducing the frequency of opioid administration nor bidirectional manipulation of acute withdrawal impacted the subsequent enhancement in fear learning seen. Given the fundamental role of associative fear learning in the generation and progression of PTSD, these findings are of direct translational relevance to the comorbidity between opioid dependence and PTSD, and they are also pertinent to the use of opioids for treating pain resulting from traumas involving physical injuries.


2016 ◽  
Vol 10 (9) ◽  
pp. 1 ◽  
Author(s):  
Ehsan Eshtehardian ◽  
Farhad Saeedi

The suggested cycle of project management maturity model generally include phases of evaluation, planning, improvement and finally cycle repeat which is largely based on a cycle known as Deming or PDCA. “Improvement Planning Phase” is the most important phase requiring development among these models that it is not discussed much. The major criteria for prioritization and planning in this phase were investigated in a research by authors. At first, the literature of subject is reviewed, by doing a series of interviews with project management consultants then prioritization criteria is identified, and eventually it is continued with more analysis on each of these criteria by distributing the questionnaire. The most significant criteria can be mentioned as current maturity level, desired maturity level for each process, relative balance between maturity levels of different processes, relations (predecessor & successor) between processes, the impact of each process on success, resources and organizational effort required for implementation, the role of organization (employer/contractor) and the acceptance of organization in different processes. Finally, according to the criteria a model was developed for “improvement planning phase”. A model is regarded as an improvable point in these models if it pays attentions to all criteria in addition to the relative importance of each criterion and importance of each process compared to each criterion in form of a specific procedure.


Author(s):  
Susan Hallam

This paper provides a synthesis of research on the relationship between music and language, drawing on evidence from neuroscience, psychology, sociology and education. It sets out why it has become necessary to justify the role of music in the school curriculum and summarizes the different methodologies adopted by researchers in the field. It considers research exploring the way that music and language are processed, including differences and commonalities; addresses the relative importance of genetics versus length of time committed to, and spent, making music; discusses theories of modularity and sensitive periods; sets out the OPERA hypothesis; critically evaluates research comparing musicians with non-musicians; and presents detailed accounts of intervention studies with children and those from deprived backgrounds, taking account of the importance of the nature of the musical training. It concludes that making music has a major impact on the development of language skills.


2013 ◽  
Vol 77 (2) ◽  
pp. 163-171
Author(s):  
Elaine Freer

This article explores the normative position and theoretical justifications for sentencing first-time offenders more leniently than repeat offenders, and examines whether such a practice is defensible. Those justifications include a lack of awareness of the gravity of criminal behaviour, a single lapse, that no censure has previously been communicated by the criminal justice system to that person, adolescent-limited offending, the impact of being in a minority group, and non-uniform impact. It examines whether various sentencing philosophies support sentence reductions for first-time offenders, and whether the justifiability of such practices depends on the theoretical basis and aims of sentencing, for instance the role of proportionality and deterrence.


2020 ◽  
Vol 12 (9) ◽  
pp. 95
Author(s):  
Andrea Incerpi ◽  
Barbara Pistoresi ◽  
Alberto Rinaldi

This paper analyses the impact of different sources of financing (foreign capital, migrants&rsquo; remittances, and domestic banks intermediation) on Italy&rsquo;s economic development between 1861 and the World War I. Existing literature has analysed the role of these channels of financial intermediation separately, while this paper for the first time considers them in conjunction. Using IRF from a Cholesky identification structure of a VAR model and relying on an original dataset that combines the most recent series of several financial and economic aggregates, this paper shows that investment in Italy was fuelled by a plurality of sources of funding. A crucial role was played by national saving mobilized by domestic banks and also remittances had a significant impact. Our evidence is instead weaker for foreign capital.


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