scholarly journals Niche construction on Bali: the gods of the countryside

2011 ◽  
Vol 366 (1566) ◽  
pp. 927-934 ◽  
Author(s):  
J. Stephen Lansing ◽  
Karyn M. Fox
Keyword(s):  
Niche Construction ◽  
Strong Support ◽  
Empirical Support ◽  
Local Variation ◽  
Test Case ◽  
Agricultural Policies ◽  
Population Genetic Analysis ◽  
Dual Inheritance Theory ◽  
Biological Phenomena ◽  
Conscious Intention

Human niche construction encompasses both purely biological phenomena, such as the evolution of lactose tolerance, and dual inheritance theory, which investigates the transmission of cultural information. But does niche construction help to explain phenomena in which conscious intention also plays a role? The creation of the engineered landscape of Balinese rice terraces offers a test case. Population genetic analysis and archaeological evidence are used to investigate whether this phenomenon emerged historically from trial and error by generations of farmers, or alternatively was designed by Bali's rulers. In light of strong support for the former hypothesis, two models are developed to explore the emergence of functional structure at both local and global scales. As time goes forward and selected patterns of irrigation schedules are implemented, local variation in rice harvests influences future decisions by the farmers, creating a coupled human–natural system governed by feedback from the environment. This mathematical analysis received a measure of empirical support when government agricultural policies severed the local feedback channels, resulting in the almost instantaneous collapse of rice harvests. The historical process of niche construction may also have included an evolution of religious consciousness, reflected in the beliefs and practices of the water temple cult.

scholarly journals Region-specific elevations of glutamate + glutamine correlate with the sensory symptoms of autism spectrum disorders

2021 ◽  
Vol 11 (1) ◽  
Author(s):  
Jason L. He ◽  
Georg Oeltzschner ◽  
Mark Mikkelsen ◽  
Alyssa Deronda ◽  
Ashley D. Harris ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Autism Spectrum Disorders ◽  
Strong Support ◽  
Empirical Support ◽  
Brain Regions ◽  
Autism Spectrum ◽  
Resonance Spectroscopy ◽  
Primary Sensorimotor Cortex ◽  
Spectrum Disorders ◽  
Inhibitory Signaling

AbstractIndividuals on the autism spectrum are often reported as being hyper- and/or hyporeactive to sensory input. These sensory symptoms were one of the key observations that led to the development of the altered excitation-inhibition (E-I) model of autism, which posits that an increase ratio of excitatory to inhibitory signaling may explain certain phenotypical expressions of autism spectrum disorders (ASD). While there has been strong support for the altered E-I model of autism, much of the evidence has come from animal models. With regard to in-vivo human studies, evidence for altered E-I balance in ASD come from studies adopting magnetic resonance spectroscopy (MRS). Spectral-edited MRS can be used to provide measures of the levels of GABA + (GABA + macromolecules) and Glx (glutamate + glutamine) in specific brain regions as proxy markers of inhibition and excitation respectively. In the current study, we found region-specific elevations of Glx in the primary sensorimotor cortex (SM1) in ASD. There were no group differences of GABA+ in either the SM1 or thalamus. Higher levels of Glx were associated with more parent reported difficulties of sensory hyper- and hyporeactivity, as well as reduced feed-forward inhibition during tactile perception in children with ASD. Critically, the finding of elevated Glx provides strong empirical support for increased excitation in ASD. Our results also provide a clear link between Glx and the sensory symptoms of ASD at both behavioral and perceptual levels.

scholarly journals Empathy Measurement in Autistic and Nonautistic Adults: A COSMIN Systematic Literature Review

Assessment ◽  
2020 ◽  
pp. 107319112096456
Author(s):  
Jessica L. Harrison ◽  
Charlotte L. Brownlow ◽  
Michael J. Ireland ◽  
Adina M. Piovesana
Keyword(s):  
Empirical Support ◽  
Self Report ◽  
Group Differences ◽  
Test Case ◽  
Social Differences ◽  
Item Functioning ◽  
The Subject ◽  
Clinical Conditions ◽  
Psychometric Quality

Empathy is essential for social functioning and is relevant to a host of clinical conditions. This COSMIN review evaluated the empirical support for empathy self-report measures used with autistic and nonautistic adults. Given autism is characterized by social differences, it is the subject of a substantial proportion of empathy research. Therefore, this review uses autism as a lens through which to scrutinize the psychometric quality of empathy measures. Of the 19 measures identified, five demonstrated “High-Quality” evidence for “Insufficient” properties and cannot be recommended. The remaining 14 had noteworthy gaps in evidence and require further evaluation before use with either group. Without tests of measurement invariance or differential item functioning, the extent to which observed group differences represent actual trait differences remains unknown. Using autism as a test case highlights an alarming tendency for empathy measures to be used to characterize, and potentially malign vulnerable populations before sufficient validation.

scholarly journals Multispecies coexistence of trees in tropical forests: spatial signals of topographic niche differentiation increase with environmental heterogeneity

2013 ◽  
Vol 280 (1764) ◽  
pp. 20130502 ◽  
Author(s):  
C. Brown ◽  
D. F. R. P. Burslem ◽  
J. B. Illian ◽  
L. Bao ◽  
W. Brockelman ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Spatial Structure ◽  
Environmental Heterogeneity ◽  
Neutral Theory ◽  
Strong Support ◽  
Empirical Support ◽  
Niche Differentiation ◽  
Heterogeneous Environments ◽  
Strong Positive Relationship ◽  
Species Pairs ◽  
Topographic Heterogeneity

Neutral and niche theories give contrasting explanations for the maintenance of tropical tree species diversity. Both have some empirical support, but methods to disentangle their effects have not yet been developed. We applied a statistical measure of spatial structure to data from 14 large tropical forest plots to test a prediction of niche theory that is incompatible with neutral theory: that species in heterogeneous environments should separate out in space according to their niche preferences. We chose plots across a range of topographic heterogeneity, and tested whether pairwise spatial associations among species were more variable in more heterogeneous sites. We found strong support for this prediction, based on a strong positive relationship between variance in the spatial structure of species pairs and topographic heterogeneity across sites. We interpret this pattern as evidence of pervasive niche differentiation, which increases in importance with increasing environmental heterogeneity.

scholarly journals Casting Ballots When Knowing Results

2021 ◽  
pp. 1-19
Author(s):  
Victor Araújo ◽  
Malu A.C. Gatto
Keyword(s):  
Presidential Elections ◽  
Strong Support ◽  
Empirical Support ◽  
Access To Information ◽  
Bandwagon Effect ◽  
It Impacts ◽  
Run Off ◽  
Information Exposure ◽  
Key Factor ◽  
The Impact

Abstract Access to information about candidates' performance has long stood as a key factor shaping voter behaviour, but establishing how it impacts behaviour in real-world settings has remained challenging. In the 2018 Brazilian presidential elections, unpredictable technical glitches caused by the implementation of biometrics as a form of identification led some voters to cast ballots after official tallies started being announced. In addition to providing a source of exogenous variation of information exposure, run-off elections also enable us to distinguish between different mechanisms underlying the impact of information exposure. We find strong support for a vote-switching bandwagon effect: information exposure motivates voters to abandon losing candidates and switch support for the frontrunner – a finding that stands in the second round, when only two candidates compete against each other. These findings provide theoretical nuance and stronger empirical support for the mechanisms underpinning the impact of information exposure on voter behaviour.

scholarly journals Operationalizing niche construction theory with stone tools

2020 ◽  
Author(s):  
Radu Iovita ◽  
david braun ◽  
Matthew Douglass ◽  
Simon Holdaway ◽  
Sam C. Lin ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Behavioral Ecology ◽  
Tool Use ◽  
Niche Construction ◽  
Stone Tools ◽  
Stone Tool ◽  
Archaeological Record ◽  
Extended Phenotype ◽  
Niche Construction Theory ◽  
Dual Inheritance Theory ◽  
Dual Inheritance

One of the greatest difficulties with evolutionary approaches in the study of stone tools (lithics) has been finding a mechanism for tying culture and biology in a way that preserves human agency and operates at scales that are visible in the archaeological record. The concept of niche construction, whereby organisms actively construct their environments and change the conditions for selection, could provide a solution to this problem. In this review, we evaluate the utility of niche construction theory (NCT) for stone tool archaeology. We apply NCT to lithics both as part of the ‘extended phenotype’ and as residuals or precipitates of other niche-constructing activities, suggesting ways in which archaeologists can employ niche construction feedbacks to generate testable hypotheses about stone tool use. Finally, we compare NCT to other prominent evolutionary approaches, such as human behavioral ecology and dual-inheritance theory, concluding that NCT has several advantages.

Biconditional Rule-Difficulty

1974 ◽  
Vol 35 (2) ◽  
pp. 955-962
Author(s):  
Tom Ciborowski
Keyword(s):  
Present Experiment ◽  
Strong Support ◽  
Empirical Support ◽  
Rule Learning ◽  
Learning Problems ◽  
Direct Test ◽  
College Age ◽  
Arbitrary Assumption

Three different groups of college age Ss received biconditional rule-learning problems that were altered in such a way as to permit a direct test of an unpublished model of Ss' behavior proposed by C. K. Sawyer and P. Johnson and substantially extended by Salatas and Bourne (1972). The present experiment obtained strong support for the model and evidence to support the widely reported suggestion that the principal difficulty with a biconditional rule is that S must learn to classify together two groups of elements that share no elements in common. The major outcome of the experiment was that strong empirical support was obtained for a useful but arbitrary assumption by Salatas and Bourne concerning a metric for evaluating biconditional rule-difficulty.

The Disbursement Pattern of Japanese Foreign Aid: A Reappraisal

2009 ◽  
Vol 9 (2) ◽  
pp. 219-248 ◽  
Author(s):  
John P. Tuman ◽  
Jonathan R. Strand ◽  
Craig F. Emmert
Keyword(s):  
Human Rights ◽  
Latin America ◽  
Middle East ◽  
Foreign Aid ◽  
Strong Support ◽  
Empirical Support ◽  
Comprehensive Analysis ◽  
Economic Interests ◽  
Aid Allocation ◽  
Global Study

Three perspectives on the determinants of Japan's official development assistance (ODA) program are often represented as distinct, valid explanations of the aid program. Yet few studies have attempted to simultaneously test the hypotheses generated from all three perspectives in a global study of Japanese aid flows. This study seeks to improve the understanding of the Japanese ODA program by addressing some of the gaps in the existing literature. Providing a comprehensive analysis, the article investigates the effects of different political and economic variables on Japanese aid disbursement in eighty-six countries in Africa, Asia, Latin America, and the Middle East from 1979 to 2002. The findings of the study make several contributions to the literature. First, the results provide strong support for the claim that humanitarian concerns, as measured by poverty and human rights conditions in recipient countries, are important determinants of aid allocation. Second, although much of the previous literature has hypothesized that Japan's aid program seeks to promote Japan's economic interests, little empirical support for this view is found in the present study. Likewise, the disbursement pattern of ODA was associated with only a limited number of US security interests; US economic interests are shown to have no effect on ODA.

scholarly journals Sparse evidence for selection on phenotypic plasticity in response to temperature

2019 ◽  
Vol 374 (1768) ◽  
pp. 20180185 ◽  
Author(s):  
Pieter A. Arnold ◽  
Adrienne B. Nicotra ◽  
Loeske E. B. Kruuk
Keyword(s):  
Phenotypic Plasticity ◽  
Environmental Change ◽  
Mixed Model ◽  
Meta Analysis ◽  
Strong Support ◽  
Empirical Support ◽  
Mixed Model Approach ◽  
Thermal Plasticity ◽  
Response To Temperature ◽  
Rapid Environmental Change

Phenotypic plasticity is frequently assumed to be an adaptive mechanism by which organisms cope with rapid changes in their environment, such as shifts in temperature regimes owing to climate change. However, despite this adaptive assumption, the nature of selection on plasticity within populations is still poorly documented. Here, we performed a systematic review and meta-analysis of estimates of selection on thermal plasticity. Although there is a large literature on thermal plasticity, we found very few studies that estimated coefficients of selection on measures of plasticity. Those that did do not provide strong support for selection on plasticity, with the majority of estimates of directional selection on plasticity being weak and non-significant, and no evidence for selection on plasticity overall. Although further estimates are clearly needed before general conclusions can be drawn, at present there is not clear empirical support for any assumption that plasticity in response to temperature is under selection. We present a multivariate mixed model approach for robust estimation of selection on plasticity and demonstrate how it can be implemented. Finally, we highlight the need to consider the environments, traits and conditions under which plasticity is (or is not) likely to be under selection, if we are to understand phenotypic responses to rapid environmental change. This article is part of the theme issue ‘The role of plasticity in phenotypic adaptation to rapid environmental change’.

Hotel daily occupancy forecasting with competitive sets: a recursive algorithm

2016 ◽  
Vol 28 (2) ◽  
pp. 267-285 ◽  
Author(s):  
Zvi Schwartz ◽  
Muzaffer Uysal ◽  
Timothy Webb ◽  
Mehmet Altin
Keyword(s):  
Revenue Management ◽  
Data Sharing ◽  
Strong Support ◽  
Empirical Support ◽  
Essential Element ◽  
Unique Contribution ◽  
Individual Property ◽  
Content Type ◽  
Novel Approach ◽  
The Absolute

Purpose – This paper aims to improve the accuracy of hotel daily occupancy forecasts – an essential element in the revenue management cycle – by proposing and testing a novel approach. The authors add the hotel competitive-set’s predicted occupancy as an input of the individual property forecast and, using a recursive approach, demonstrate that there is a potential for significant reduction in the forecasting error. Design/methodology/approach – The paper outlines the theoretical justification and the mechanism for this new approach. It applies a simulation for exploring the potential to improve the accuracy of the hotel’s daily occupancy forecasts, as well as analysis of data from a field study of two hotel clusters’ daily forecasts to provide empirical support to the procedure’s viability. Findings – The results provide strong support to the notion that the accuracy could be enhanced. Incorporating the competitive set prediction by using either a genetic algorithm or the simple linear regression model improves the accuracy of the forecast using either the absolute or the absolute percentage as the error measure. Research limitations/implications – The proliferation of data sharing practices in the hotel industry reveals that the timely data sharing-aggregation-dissemination mechanism required for implementing this forecasting paradigm is feasible. Originality/value – Given the crucial role of accurate forecasts in revenue management and recent changes in the hotels’ operating environment which made it harder to achieve or maintain high levels of accuracy, this study’s proposed novel approach has the potential to make a unique contribution in the realm of forecasting daily occupancies.

scholarly journals Attitudes Toward Asylum Seekers: Evidence from Germany

2019 ◽  
Author(s):  
Anselm Hager ◽  
Susanne Veit
Keyword(s):  
Public Opinion ◽  
Representative Sample ◽  
Asylum Seekers ◽  
Strong Support ◽  
Empirical Support ◽  
Opinion Formation ◽  
Economic Threat ◽  
Political Refugees ◽  
Important Interaction ◽  
And Gender

Abstract What theories explain variation in public opinion toward asylum seekers? We implement a survey experiment in which a representative sample of German residents evaluates vignettes of asylum seekers, which randomly vary attributes that speak to deservingness, economic and religious threat, and gender considerations of attitude formation. We find strong support for deservingness theories. Economic and religious threat theories also receive empirical support. Gender plays a negligible role. Importantly, we also document that economic and—to a lesser extent—religious threat considerations only matter when respondents evaluate economic refugees. By contrast, political refugees are welcomed nearly unconditionally. Our paper thus replicates key findings from Bansak, Hainmueller, and Hangartner (2016) and Czymara and Schmidt-Catran (2016) using a representative sample and points to an important interaction effect in public opinion formation toward asylum seekers: economic threat only gets activated when refugees’ deservingness is in doubt.

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