scholarly journals Costs dictate strategic investment in dominance interactions

2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Tobit Dehnen ◽  
Danai Papageorgiou ◽  
Brendah Nyaguthii ◽  
Wismer Cherono ◽  
Julia Penndorf ◽  
...  

Dominance is important for access to resources. As dominance interactions are costly, individuals should be strategic in who they interact with. One hypothesis is that individuals should direct costly interactions towards those closest in rank, as they have most to gain--in terms of attaining or maintaining dominance--from winning such interactions. Here, we develop a novel analytical framework to test whether interactions are directed strategically in relation to rank differences, and use these to compare strategies across types of interactions that vary in cost. We show that male vulturine guineafowl (Acryllium vulturinum), a gregarious species with steep dominance hierarchies, strategically direct costly interactions towards males occupying ranks immediately below themselves in their group's hierarchy. In contrast, low-cost interactions are not directed towards closest competitors, but towards group members slightly further down the hierarchy. We then show that, as a result of the difference in strategic use of high- and low-cost interactions towards closest competitors, individuals disproportionately use highest-cost interactions--such as chases--towards males found one to three ranks below them. Our results support the hypothesis that the costs associated with different interaction types can determine their expression in social groups.

Author(s):  
Tobit Dehnen ◽  
Danai Papageorgiou ◽  
Brendah Nyaguthii ◽  
Wismer Cherono ◽  
Julia Penndorf ◽  
...  

Dominance is important for access to resources. As dominance interactions are costly, individuals should be strategic in whom they interact with. One hypothesis is that individuals should direct costly interactions towards those closest in rank, as they have most to gain—in terms of attaining or maintaining dominance—from winning such interactions. Here, we show that male vulturine guineafowl ( Acryllium vulturinum ), a gregarious species with steep dominance hierarchies, strategically express higher-cost aggressive interactions towards males occupying ranks immediately below themselves in their group's hierarchy. By contrast, lower-cost aggressive interactions are expressed towards group members further down the hierarchy. By directly evaluating differences in the strategic use of higher- and lower-cost aggressive interactions towards competitors, we show that individuals disproportionately use highest-cost interactions—such as chases—towards males found one to three ranks below themselves. Our results support the hypothesis that the costs associated with different interaction types can determine their expression in social groups with steep dominance hierarchies. This article is part of the theme issue ‘The centennial of the pecking order: current state and future prospects for the study of dominance hierarchies’.


2018 ◽  
Vol 62 (4) ◽  
pp. 391-405 ◽  
Author(s):  
Ilkka Arminen ◽  
Otto EA Segersven ◽  
Mika Simonen

As a part of their normative theory of expertise, Harry Collins and Robert Evans proposed that interactional expertise forms the third kind of knowledge, located between formal propositional knowledge and embodied skills. Interactional expertise refers to the capability to grasp the conceptual structure of another’s social world, and it is expressed as the ability to speak fluently the language spoken in that social world. According to their theory, it is a key concept of sociology, because it refers to the understanding and coordination of joint actions between members of different social groups. Collins and Evans have further claimed that minority social group members tend to outpace majority social group members in terms of interactional expertise. Drawing on ethnomethodology, we detail the ways in which interactional expertise is displayed and revealed in experiments. This allowed us to specify the underlying reasons for the distribution of interactional expertise between social groups. Our results indicate that the difference between the groups depends on whether a group is either actively maintained or a passive latent category, because interactional expertise provides for not only the crossing of social boundaries but also their maintenance. The minority social group members’ greater interactional expertise or competence is therefore proven to be illusory.


e-Polymers ◽  
2021 ◽  
Vol 21 (1) ◽  
pp. 500-510
Author(s):  
Xiaoguang Ying ◽  
Jieyuan He ◽  
Xiao Li

Abstract An imprinted electrospun fiber membrane was developed for the detection of volatile organic acids, which are key components of human body odor. In this study, hexanoic acid (HA) was selected as the target, polymethyl methacrylate (PMMA) was used as the substrate, and colorimetric detection of HA was achieved by a bromocresol purple (BCP) chromogenic agent. The results showed that the morphology of the fiber membrane was uniform and continuous, and it showed excellent selectivity and specificity to HA. Photographs of the color changes before and after fiber membrane adsorption were recorded by a camera and quantified by ImageJ software by the difference in gray value (ΔGray). This method is simple, intuitive, and low cost and has great potential for application in human odor analysis.


Sensors ◽  
2021 ◽  
Vol 21 (11) ◽  
pp. 3917
Author(s):  
Jong-Dae Kim ◽  
Chan-Young Park ◽  
Yu-Seop Kim ◽  
Ji-Soo Hwang

Most existing commercial real-time polymerase chain reaction (RT-PCR) instruments are bulky because they contain expensive fluorescent detection sensors or complex optical structures. In this paper, we propose an RT-PCR system using a camera module for smartphones that is an ultra small, high-performance and low-cost sensor for fluorescence detection. The proposed system provides stable DNA amplification. A quantitative analysis of fluorescence intensity changes shows the camera’s performance compared with that of commercial instruments. Changes in the performance between the experiments and the sets were also observed based on the threshold cycle values in a commercial RT-PCR system. The overall difference in the measured threshold cycles between the commercial system and the proposed camera was only 0.76 cycles, verifying the performance of the proposed system. The set calibration even reduced the difference to 0.41 cycles, which was less than the experimental variation in the commercial system, and there was no difference in performance.


2021 ◽  
pp. 095679762110322
Author(s):  
Marcel Montrey ◽  
Thomas R. Shultz

Surprisingly little is known about how social groups influence social learning. Although several studies have shown that people prefer to copy in-group members, these studies have failed to resolve whether group membership genuinely affects who is copied or whether group membership merely correlates with other known factors, such as similarity and familiarity. Using the minimal-group paradigm, we disentangled these effects in an online social-learning game. In a sample of 540 adults, we found a robust in-group-copying bias that (a) was bolstered by a preference for observing in-group members; (b) overrode perceived reliability, warmth, and competence; (c) grew stronger when social information was scarce; and (d) even caused cultural divergence between intermixed groups. These results suggest that people genuinely employ a copy-the-in-group social-learning strategy, which could help explain how inefficient behaviors spread through social learning and how humans maintain the cultural diversity needed for cumulative cultural evolution.


2018 ◽  
Vol 4 (2) ◽  
pp. 169-195
Author(s):  
Karthick V. ◽  
Madheswaran S.

Access to resources and opportunities can be a critical factor in improving outcomes for disadvantaged groups. Improving access to financial resources, in particular, is widely acknowledged to facilitate upward economic and social mobility. Conversely, lack of access to resources for certain groups based on caste, class, gender and ethno-social identities can perpetuate inequalities. In this context, this paper attempts to analyse the access to credit by social groups and decomposes the gross credit differentials using Oaxaca-blinder decomposition method using unit-level data from the All India Debt and Investment Survey, NSSO, 2013. The descriptive analysis clearly shows that there is a significant credit differential between forward caste (FC) and other social groups (SC, ST and OBC). Access to credit varies across social groups based on many factors. The decomposition result indicates that the discrimination coefficient against SC is 49per cent which explains that SCs are being discriminated by 49 per cent compared to FCs in the formal credit market. In case of ST, the discrimination coefficient against is 61per cent and for OBC it is 48per cent. Interestingly, the endowment difference is less among ST (38per cent) compared to SC and OBC (around 51 per cent). Also, the FC treatment advantage (benefit of being a FC in the credit market) is 5.7 per cent whereas the cost of being an SC in the credit market (treatment disadvantage) is 35.1 per cent. As expected, the disadvantage component for ST and OBC is 33.1 per cent and 17.8 per cent respectively. Thus, we see that although programmes, schemes and policies to promote the economic empowerment of lower castes through finance have been implemented on a large scale since the 1990s, they have not been very effective.


Author(s):  
Weiqian Zhuo ◽  
Fenglei Niu ◽  
Yungan Zhao ◽  
Houbo Qi ◽  
Zulong Hao ◽  
...  

Permeability of helium gas of Silicon carbide ceramic composites material, which is one of the most important properties in application of SiC composite for advanced reactors, is studied by using a simple, low-cost test system. The test system can not only qualitatively determine whether the sample is permeable or not, but also quantitatively measure the permeability for the permeable ones by water displacement. The tests are conducted with low pressure in room temperature. The permeability of the SiSiC composite depends on the preparation method. In four flat-plate materials prepared by different processes for the test, the splint based SiSiC and cordierite coated fiber reinforced SiSiC are hermetic, the permeability of uncoated fiber reinforced SiSiC and CVD carbon coated fiber reinforced SiSiC are 0.216cm2/s and 0.109cm2/s, which imply that the permeability is cut in half with the coating. The samples are scanned under SEM to analyze their microscopic structures and verified that the difference of permeability is related to their coatings as well as the pores and cracks.


2021 ◽  
Vol 10 (1) ◽  
pp. 45
Author(s):  
Khairunnisa Musari

Pandemic brings a crisis. This makes world leaders have to work hard and smartly in managing state budgets. During the heyday of Islam, Muslims also faced crises. Given that time the power of Islam mastered many areas of the world, it can be assumed that the crisis that occurred in the past was a global crisis as it is happening today. The difference is the crisis that occurred at the time because of losing the war. This paper tries to describe the historical experience of the esham, one of the fiscal instruments in the Islamic world that helped the Ottoman Empire overcome the crisis. Esham has mobilized low-cost funds from the public in a relatively concise time. Esham served as a better choice than looking for foreign debt. As the origin of sukuk, esham has simpler structure so that can be used as an alternative to sukuk with a lower cost. To deal with a crisis, esham may intervene in the economy. Esham funds to the real sector in turn will help the government drive the economy as well as control prices in the market for goods and services. Therefore, esham has the potential in facing the crisis.


2021 ◽  
Vol 10 (10(6)) ◽  
pp. 1741-1757
Author(s):  
Nkululeko Funyane

This study sought to assess if the importance attached by customers to the airline service attributes differed across low-cost and full-service airline models. A Mann-Whitney U Test was used to assess the difference between the two models. However, before subjecting the data to differential tests, an exploratory factor analysis (maximum likelihood) was performed on the fifty-five items of service attributes, reducing them into forty-two items retained into ten latent factors (airline service attributes). The results of the revealed a significant difference in the importance attached to staff competence, courtesy and responsiveness only. Such findings suggest that the positioning of airlines into binary (FSC - LCC) models could be a waste of effort and resources since airlines seem to be converging.


2021 ◽  
Vol 21 (6) ◽  
pp. 4599-4614
Author(s):  
Di Liu ◽  
Wanqi Sun ◽  
Ning Zeng ◽  
Pengfei Han ◽  
Bo Yao ◽  
...  

Abstract. To prevent the spread of the COVID-19 epidemic, restrictions such as “lockdowns” were conducted globally, which led to a significant reduction in fossil fuel emissions, especially in urban areas. However, CO2 concentrations in urban areas are affected by many factors, such as weather, biological sinks and background CO2 fluctuations. Thus, it is difficult to directly observe the CO2 reductions from sparse ground observations. Here, we focus on urban ground transportation emissions, which were dramatically affected by the restrictions, to determine the reduction signals. We conducted six series of on-road CO2 observations in Beijing using mobile platforms before (BC), during (DC) and after (AC) the implementation of COVID-19 restrictions. To reduce the impacts of weather conditions and background fluctuations, we analyze vehicle trips with the most similar weather conditions possible and calculated the enhancement metric, which is the difference between the on-road CO2 concentration and the “urban background” CO2 concentration measured at the tower of the Institute of Atmospheric Physics (IAP), Chinese Academy of Sciences. The results showed that the DC CO2 enhancement was decreased by 41 (±1.3) parts per million (ppm) and 26 (±6.2) ppm compared to those for the BC and AC trips, respectively. Detailed analysis showed that, during COVID-19 restrictions, there was no difference between weekdays and weekends during working hours (09:00–17:00 local standard time; LST). The enhancements during rush hours (07:00–09:00 and 17:00–20:00 LST) were almost twice those during working hours, indicating that emissions during rush hours were much higher. For DC and BC, the enhancement reductions during rush hours were much larger than those during working hours. Our findings showed a clear CO2 concentration decrease during COVID-19 restrictions, which is consistent with the CO2 emissions reductions due to the pandemic. The enhancement method used in this study is an effective method to reduce the impacts of weather and background fluctuations. Low-cost sensors, which are inexpensive and convenient, could play an important role in further on-road and other urban observations.


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