No evidence of selection by predators on tadpole boldness

Behaviour ◽  
2014 ◽  
Vol 151 (1) ◽  
pp. 23-45 ◽  
Author(s):  
Bradley E. Carlson ◽  
Tracy Langkilde
Keyword(s):  
Behavioral Ecology ◽  
Empirical Studies ◽  
Phenotypic Traits ◽  
Lithobates Sylvaticus ◽  
Research Attention ◽  
Behavioral Traits ◽  
Risk Of Predation ◽  
The Subject ◽  
Predator Identity ◽  
Risk Reducing

Animals typically exhibit adaptive behaviors that reduce their risk of predation. The term ‘boldness’ describes individual variation in the propensity to exhibit risk-reducing behavior and is the subject of much research attention. Predators should select against boldness, and this has been supported by empirical studies and behavioral ecology theory. We tested whether a standardized assay of three boldness-associated behaviors in wood frog (Lithobates sylvaticus) tadpoles predicted survival when faced with a predator. Tadpole behavior was assayed in an open field and then tadpoles were placed, in pairs, in an enclosure with a predator (newt or larval dragonfly). Survival did not depend on differences in measured boldness, and this result held when we accounted for interactions between different boldness behaviors and between behavior and size or predator identity. The absence of selection by predators against bolder tadpoles is counterintuitive and inconsistent with our understanding of the behavioral ecology of these animals. Two possible explanations are offered for this result. First, selection against boldness may be minimized by other phenotypic traits, such as escape ability. Alternatively, the potential lack of consistency between standardized boldness assays and natural encounters with predators may limit our capacity to study the evolution of boldness, cautioning against this approach. These results highlight the complexities of the relationships between behavioral traits and fitness and the challenges associated with their study.

scholarly journals “O Sister, Where Art Thou?”—A Review on Rescue of Imperiled Individuals in Ants

Biology ◽  
2021 ◽  
Vol 10 (11) ◽  
pp. 1079
Author(s):  
Krzysztof Miler ◽  
Filip Turza
Keyword(s):  
At Risk ◽  
Behavioral Ecology ◽  
Relevant Literature ◽  
Altruistic Behavior ◽  
Research Gaps ◽  
Research Attention ◽  
Open Questions ◽  
The Subject ◽  
Individual Scale ◽  
Benefits And Costs

Altruism is defined as an action that decreases the lifetime direct fitness of an actor and benefits one or more recipients. This phenomenon, which is generally difficult to understand and explain, requires special research attention. The subject of this review, rescue, is a type of altruistic behavior in which the actor puts itself at risk to save another individual, the recipient, that is in danger. The highest numbers of published empirical works have been devoted to rescue behavior in ants and they have enormous potential for further study. We review studies devoted to the subject and group them into four main areas of research on ant rescue actions: (1) variation in rescue behavior activity on a between-individual scale, (2) factors contributing to the evolution of rescue behavior on a between-species scale, (3) rescue behavior releaser signals and (4) rescue behavior benefits and costs. We highlight the progress in research on rescue behavior in ants, indicate that this behavior is probably much more common than previously thought yet thus far demonstrated in only a few species, and uncover research gaps and open questions that remain unexplored. We additionally point out some gaps in knowledge that become evident when research devoted to rescue behavior in rats, the second most studied group of animals in this context, is briefly overviewed. We hope to help navigate among studies on rescue behavior and provide the most up-to-date summary of the relevant literature. Moreover, we hope to encourage and facilitate researchers in behavioral ecology and other subdisciplines to further experimentally analyze rescue behavior, not only in ants but also in other taxa.

Handwriting Analysis and Personality Assessment

2000 ◽  
Vol 5 (1) ◽  
pp. 44-51 ◽  
Author(s):  
Peter Greasley
Keyword(s):  
Personality Traits ◽  
Personality Assessment ◽  
Personnel Selection ◽  
Empirical Studies ◽  
Handwriting Analysis ◽  
Recruitment Process ◽  
Academic Literature ◽  
Personnel Recruitment ◽  
The Subject ◽  
Better Than

It has been estimated that graphology is used by over 80% of European companies as part of their personnel recruitment process. And yet, after over three decades of research into the validity of graphology as a means of assessing personality, we are left with a legacy of equivocal results. For every experiment that has provided evidence to show that graphologists are able to identify personality traits from features of handwriting, there are just as many to show that, under rigorously controlled conditions, graphologists perform no better than chance expectations. In light of this confusion, this paper takes a different approach to the subject by focusing on the rationale and modus operandi of graphology. When we take a closer look at the academic literature, we note that there is no discussion of the actual rules by which graphologists make their assessments of personality from handwriting samples. Examination of these rules reveals a practice founded upon analogy, symbolism, and metaphor in the absence of empirical studies that have established the associations between particular features of handwriting and personality traits proposed by graphologists. These rules guide both popular graphology and that practiced by professional graphologists in personnel selection.

scholarly journals Evolution of university governance in Morocco: Which impacts?

2020 ◽  
Vol 9 (5) ◽  
pp. 94
Author(s):  
Khalid Ayad ◽  
Khaoula Dobli Bennani ◽  
Mostafa Elhachloufi
Keyword(s):  
Higher Education ◽  
Economic Development ◽  
Empirical Studies ◽  
University Governance ◽  
General Review ◽  
Theoretical Literature ◽  
Quality Of Higher Education ◽  
The Subject ◽  
The Way

The concept of governance has become ubiquitous since it is recognized as an important tool for improving quality in all aspects of higher education.In Morocco, few scientific articles have dealt with the subject of university governance. Therefore, we will present a general review of the evolution of governance through laws and reforms established by Moroccan Governments from 1975 to 2019. The purpose of the study is to detect the extent of the presence of university governance principles in these reforms.This study enriches the theoretical literature on the crisis of Moroccan university and opens the way to new empirical studies to better understand the perception of university governance concept in the Moroccan context and to improve the quality of higher education and subsequently the economic development of the country.The findings of this study show an increasing evolution of the presence of university governance principles in reforms and higher education laws.

scholarly journals Integration Biases in the Ouchi and other Visual Illusions

Perception ◽  
10.1068/p2983 ◽  
2000 ◽  
Vol 29 (6) ◽  
pp. 721-727 ◽  
Author(s):  
George Mather
Keyword(s):  
Relative Motion ◽  
Experimental Test ◽  
Empirical Studies ◽  
Visual Illusions ◽  
Local Motion ◽  
Bayesian Approaches ◽  
Visual Coding ◽  
Texture Pattern ◽  
The Subject ◽  
The Way

A texture pattern devised by the Japanese artist H Ouchi has attracted wide attention because of the striking appearance of relative motion it evokes. The illusion has been the subject of several recent empirical studies. A new account is presented, along with a simple experimental test, that attributes the illusion to a bias in the way that local motion signals generated at different locations on each element are combined to code element motion. The account is generalised to two spatial illusions, the Judd illusion and the Zöllner illusion (previously considered unrelated to the Ouchi illusion). The notion of integration bias is consistent with recent Bayesian approaches to visual coding, according to which the weight attached to each signal reflects its reliability and likelihood.

scholarly journals Code to Learn: Where Does It Belong in the K-12 Curriculum?

10.28945/3521 ◽  
2016 ◽  
Vol 15 ◽  
pp. 283-303 ◽  
Author(s):  
Jesús Moreno León ◽  
Gregorio Robles ◽  
Marcos Román-González
Keyword(s):  
Social Studies ◽  
Empirical Studies ◽  
Early Age ◽  
School Subjects ◽  
Research Designs ◽  
Quasi Experimental ◽  
The Subject ◽  
K 12 ◽  
The Impact ◽  
Grade Classroom

The introduction of computer programming in K-12 has become mainstream in the last years, as countries around the world are making coding part of their curriculum. Nevertheless, there is a lack of empirical studies that investigate how learning to program at an early age affects other school subjects. In this regard, this paper compares three quasi-experimental research designs conducted in three different schools (n=129 students from 2nd and 6th grade), in order to assess the impact of introducing programming with Scratch at different stages and in several subjects. While both 6th grade experimental groups working with coding activities showed a statistically significant improvement in terms of academic performance, this was not the case in the 2nd grade classroom. Notable disparity was also found regarding the subject in which the programming activities were included, as in social studies the effect size was double that in mathematics.

scholarly journals From Mind to Picture: A Systematic Review on Children’s and Adolescents’ Understanding of the Link between Artists and Pictures

2019 ◽  
Author(s):  
Romina Vivaldi ◽  
Richard P. Jolley ◽  
Sarah E Rose
Keyword(s):  
Systematic Review ◽  
Theory Of Mind ◽  
Web Of Science ◽  
Empirical Studies ◽  
Child Psychology ◽  
Inclusion Criteria ◽  
Developmental Milestones ◽  
Italian Language ◽  
The World ◽  
The Subject

Pictorial symbols have multiple layers of meaning: not only do they represent objects, events and ideas about the world, they also represent the intentions of artists as well as other artist attributes (age, skill, originality and knowledge, mood, style and sentience). Although children’s developmental milestones of pictorial understanding have been the subject of a long-standing debate, their understanding of the relation between artists and pictures has often been neglected. The aim of this article was to conduct a systematic review on children’s and adolescents’ understanding of the relation between artists and pictures. PsycINFO and Web of Science databases were searched for English, Spanish, German, and Italian language empirical studies that examined this link in 2- to 18-year- olds. Forty-two citations (64 studies) from 14 different countries met the inclusion criteria. Results revealed the majority of the studies focused on the understanding of the artist’s intention. Although research on children’s and adolescents’ understanding of other attributes is scarce, and there were inconsistencies across the methodologies used, it seems that they first acknowledge intention and only later become more aware of how artist’s attributes are communicated through intention. The results of the review encourage subsequent research to provide a clearer conceptualised model of child and adolescent understanding of the artist-picture relationship. Such a model should be placed within a wider framework of the network of relationship between the artist, picture, world and beholder. Finally, consideration of how the development of understanding the artist-picture relationship is bi-directionally influenced with other developmental milestones in the child psychology is encouraged, particularly picture-production and theory of mind, and variations in atypical populations.

scholarly journals Tadpoles of hybridising fire-bellied toads (B. bombina and B. variegata) differ in their susceptibility to predation

PLoS ONE ◽  
2020 ◽  
Vol 15 (12) ◽  
pp. e0231804
Author(s):  
Radovan Smolinský ◽  
Vojtech Baláž ◽  
Beate Nürnberger
Keyword(s):  
Direct Evidence ◽  
Adaptive Divergence ◽  
Differential Adaptation ◽  
Risk Of Predation ◽  
Distribution Ranges ◽  
Bombina Bombina ◽  
Recent Debate ◽  
The Subject ◽  
Genomic Regions

The role of adaptive divergence in the formation of new species has been the subject of much recent debate. The most direct evidence comes from traits that can be shown to have diverged under natural selection and that now contribute to reproductive isolation. Here, we investigate differential adaptation of two fire-bellied toads (Anura, Bombinatoridae) to two types of aquatic habitat. Bombina bombina and B. variegata are two anciently diverged taxa that now reproduce in predator-rich ponds and ephemeral aquatic sites, respectively. Nevertheless, they hybridise extensively wherever their distribution ranges adjoin. We show in laboratory experiments that, as expected, B. variegata tadpoles are at relatively greater risk of predation from dragonfly larvae, even when they display a predator-induced phenotype. These tadpoles spent relatively more time swimming and so prompted more attacks from the visually hunting predators. We argue in the discussion that genomic regions linked to high activity in B. variegata should be barred from introgression into the B. bombina gene pool and thus contribute to gene flow barriers that keep the two taxa from merging into one.

Comunicare con il bambino malato: la preparazione all'intervento chirurgico e il ricovero in ospedale. Una rassegna della letteratura empirica

2009 ◽  
pp. 47-66
Author(s):  
Claudia Bonomo ◽  
Carlo A. Clerici
Keyword(s):  
Defense Mechanisms ◽  
Coping Styles ◽  
Empirical Studies ◽  
Cochrane Library ◽  
Good Communication ◽  
The Subject ◽  
The Individual ◽  
Threatening Situation ◽  
Medical Process ◽  
Data Banks

- Through the analysis of the literature about the subject of hospitalization and surgery in paediatric field, the objective of this work is to individualize some effective technique of communication with child to reduce anxiety associated with medical process and surgery, and to identify main factors that affect the child's answer to this communication. The considered literature was found by data banks PsycInfo, Medline and Cochrane Library and includes empirical studies on the theme of child communication during hospitalization. The studies suggest that giving to a child some explanation with a language appropriated to the age could reduces the anxiety for an unfamiliar environment, helps him to elaborate the information on the illness and on the hospital and to cooperate with the treatments. A good communication could allow the child to manage worry and to activate some thought about threatening situation in advance, this permits to activate some defense mechanisms and some resources to face the illness. Nevertheless, some studies show how the thecniques to reduce the anxiety are not always useful to lower the stress. This could depend on the age, on different coping styles and on the individual difference of the response to the stress situation. The communication with child about the subject of hospitalization and surgery is historically considered from clinic and dynamic area, but remains object of a poor number of empirical studies. Academy education and vocational training are also limitated for the health worker that takes care of this kind of patients.

scholarly journals Molecular markers in the improvement of Allium crops

2013 ◽  
Vol 49 (No. 4) ◽  
pp. 131-139 ◽  
Author(s):  
L.R.D. Chinnappareddy ◽  
K. Khandagale ◽  
A. Chennareddy ◽  
V.G. Ramappa
Keyword(s):  
Molecular Markers ◽  
Dna Markers ◽  
Soluble Solids ◽  
Phenotypic Traits ◽  
Vegetable Crops ◽  
The Subject ◽  
Ssr Development ◽  
Diversity Studies ◽  
Diversity Estimates

The genus Allium (Family: Alliaceae) is the most important among the bulbous vegetable crops. characterization of Alliums based on phenotypic traits is influenced by the environment and leads to biased diversity estimates. Recognizing the potential of DNA markers in plant breeding, researchers have adopted the molecular markers for marker-assisted selection (MAS), quantitative trait loci (QTL) mapping and characterization of different quality traits in Alliums. This review presents details about the use of DNA markers in Alliums for cultivar identification, diversity studies, SSR development, colour improvement, total soluble solids (TSS), cytoplasmic male sterility (CMS) and efforts of DNA sequencing. As there are no such reports to describe the above work under a single heading, we decided to mine literature for those who are working in onion, garlic, chives and leek improvement to generate new insights in the subject.

scholarly journals Freelancers in the Software Development Process: A Systematic Mapping Study

Processes ◽  
2020 ◽  
Vol 8 (10) ◽  
pp. 1215 ◽  
Author(s):  
Varun Gupta ◽  
Jose Maria Fernandez-Crehuet ◽  
Thomas Hanne
Keyword(s):  
Software Development ◽  
Development Process ◽  
Empirical Studies ◽  
Bibliographic Databases ◽  
Management Decision ◽  
Systematic Mapping Study ◽  
Software Development Process ◽  
Research Focus ◽  
Research Attention ◽  
Developer Recommendation

[Context] Freelancers could catalyze the software development process by providing their niche skills to generate high quality outputs. They could help companies (including startups) to foster innovations by suggesting creative ideas and providing their expertise in implementing them (for instance, designing solutions, coding solutions etc.). Freelancers could effectively and efficiently work as a virtual member of the software development team. The company must make informed decisions about which task to allot to the freelancer, which freelancer to select, pricing the task, and evaluating the submitted work. On the other hand, the freelancer should make an informed decision about evaluating the monetary value of the task to be charged, trusting the requester, analyzing the skills requirement of the task (finding matches between skill requirement and skills processed), selecting the best task, and maintaining the highest level of reputation. However, the literature does not provide freelancers and the companies the guidelines that support their decision making. However, if freelancers are selected carefully for the most suitable task, the companies will benefit a lot in terms of improved software development metrics. [Objectives] The objective of this paper is to provide the research community the research trends in freelancer-supported software development. This helps to understand that which software development areas have higher concentrations of research efforts, which area has the support of empirical evidence to support management decision makings, and which area requires the research attention. [Method] The systematic study is conducted by planning the mapping protocol, executing the protocol, and reporting the findings using various visualization tools like bar charts and pie charts. The search process was planned to be executed using set of inclusion and exclusion conditions on four bibliographic databases (IEEExplore, Springerlink, Sciencedirect, and ACM digital library). The relevant papers are selected by applying inclusion and exclusion conditions. The google citations of the relevant papers are subject to the inclusion and exclusion conditions again to include the more relevant papers. Finally, the systematic schema was created and populated after analyzing the studies abstracts. [Results] The results indicate the following (a) The research focus is on generic software development (78%) rather on individual life cycle activities. (b) The number of empirical studies is limited (25%). (c) A number of studies proposing solutions and evaluating on live cases in industrial settings are missing from the literature. This is in comparison to the validation approaches (72%) i.e., solutions tested in laboratory settings. (d) At present, the literature has limited ability to provide the software companies (including startups) with the guidelines (in the form of opinions and experience reports) for involving freelancers in the software development process. (e) The reported challenges include Collaboration and Coordination (33%), Developer Recommendation (or selection) (19%), Team Formulation (14%), Task Recommendation (allocation) (14%), Task Decomposition (11%), Privacy and Security (Confidentiality) (11%), Budget Estimation (8%), Recognition (8%), Trust Issues (8%), Market Dynamism (6%), Intellectual Property Issues (6%), Participation of Crowd Worker (6%), and Capacity Utilization (3%). These challenges are highly interactive, and each challenge impacts all other challenges. (e) Recent focus of the researchers (total 7 studies in 2019) is on generic software development handling the collaboration and coordination (3 studies out of 7), Developer recommendation (2 studies out of 7), and task recommendation (2 studies out of 7). [Conclusion] The freelancer-driven software engineering research area has got the attraction of the researchers, but it will take a long time to gain maturity. This puts an urgent call for more empirical studies and evaluation-based solution research that could help companies (including startups) to foster innovations. Further, the research focus should be well distributed among the various development phases to address the unique challenges associated with individual activities. The accurate management of the freelancer in the software development could help companies and startups to foster innovations and remain competitive in the marketplace.

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