scholarly journals Nestmate Recognition in the Amazonian Myrmecophyte Ant Pseudomyrmex concolor Smith (Hymenoptera, Formicidae)

Sociobiology ◽  
2015 ◽  
Vol 62 (3) ◽  
pp. 356 ◽  
Author(s):  
Kleber Del-Claro ◽  
Paulo S.M. Pacheco
Keyword(s):  
Nestmate Recognition ◽  
Host Plants ◽  
Threshold Model ◽  
Adaptive Threshold ◽  
Olfactory Cues ◽  
Altruistic Behavior ◽  
Colony Foundation ◽  
Individual Odor ◽  
Key Factor ◽  
The Individual

Nestmate recognition is fundamental to colonial cohesion in social insects, since it allows altruistic behavior towards relatives, recognition of intruders, territorial monopoly and resources defense. In ants, olfactory cues is a key factor in this process. Pseudomyrmex concolor is a highly aggressive ant that defends their host plant Tachigali myrmecophila against herbivores. However, this defense depends on the ant ability to discriminate in order to treat differentially between  members of their own colony and intruders . In this study we investigated “whether” and “how” P. concolor recognizes nestmates from non-nestmates. We hypothesized that P. concolor is skillful in recognizing nestmates and tested it in field with experiments using nestmates and non-nestmates. Additionally, to test the efficiency of resident ants against intraspecific competition during colony foundation, we simulate the plant occupation by a competitor queen, introducing non-nestmates queens in plants previously occupied by P. concolor. For the issue of the "how", we hypothesized that the main cue used by this ant in nestmate recognition is olfactory signal. Thus, we tested adaptive threshold model, which predicts that, if the individual odor and colony’s internal template are discrepant enough, the resident nestmate will behave aggressively towards incoming individuals. In this case, we confined nestmates with non-nestmates odors, and then, we reintroduced them in its host plants. In each experiment the frequency of aggressive behaviors were recorded and compared. Results showed that P. concolor recognize and discriminate nestmates from non-nestmates workers (biting and stinging them) and exclude potential competitors queens. Workers reintroduced in their own colony after impregnated with non-familiar odor were treated as non-nestmates. The adaptive threshold hypothesis was confirmed, the main cue used by this ant species in nestmate recognition is olfactory signals.

scholarly journals Promoting Sustainable Mobility: A Perspective from Car and Public Transport Users

2021 ◽  
Vol 18 (9) ◽  
pp. 4715
Author(s):  
Audrius Dėdelė ◽  
Auksė Miškinytė
Keyword(s):  
Public Transport ◽  
Adult Population ◽  
Individual Characteristics ◽  
Urban Mobility ◽  
Sustainable Mobility ◽  
Bicycle Safety ◽  
Key Factor ◽  
The Individual ◽  
Significant Factors

Sustainable mobility is becoming a key factor in improving the quality of life of the residents and increasing physical activity (PA) levels. The current situation of sustainable mobility and its analysis is a first step in understanding the factors that would encourage residents to discover and choose alternative modes of travel. The present study examined the factors that encourage the choice of active modes of travel among urban adult population. Walking and cycling were analyzed as the most sustainable forms of urban mobility from the perspective of car and public transport (PT) users. Total of 902 subjects aged 18 years or older were analyzed in the study to assess commuting habits in Kaunas city, Lithuania. The majority (61.1%) of the respondents used a passenger vehicle, 28.2% used PT, and only 13.5% used active modes of travel. The results showed that safer pedestrian crossings, and comfortable paths were the most significant factors that encourage walking. A wider cycling network, and bicycle safety were the most important incentives for the promotion of cycling. Our findings show that the main factors encouraging walking and cycling among car and PT users are similar, however, the individual characteristics that determine the choice of these factors vary significantly.

scholarly journals Research on the Method of Coke Optical Tissue Segmentation Based on Adaptive Clustering

2021 ◽  
Vol 2021 ◽  
pp. 1-16
Author(s):  
Huaiguang Liu ◽  
Liheng Zhang ◽  
Shiyang Zhou ◽  
Li Fang
Keyword(s):  
Mahalanobis Distance ◽  
Euclidean Distance ◽  
Clustering Algorithm ◽  
Adaptive Threshold ◽  
Segmentation Method ◽  
Tissue Segmentation ◽  
Adaptive Clustering ◽  
Morphological Filtering ◽  
Key Factor ◽  
The Relationship

The microstructure is the key factor for quality discriminate of coke. In view of the characteristics of coke optical tissue (COT), a segmentation method of coke microstructures based on adaptive clustering was proposed. According to the strategy of multiresolution, adaptive threshold binarization and morphological filtering were carried out on COT images with lower resolution. The contour of the COT body was detected through the relationship checking between contours in the binary image, and hence, COT pixels were picked out to cluster for tissue segmentation. In order to get the optimum segmentation for each tissue, an advanced K -means method with adaptive clustering centers was provided according to the Calinski-Harabasz score. Meanwhile, Euclidean distance was substituted with Mahalanobis distance between each pixel in HSV space to improve the accuracy. The experimental results show that compared with the traditional K -means algorithm, FCM algorithm, and Meanshift algorithm, the adaptive clustering algorithm proposed in this paper is more accurate in the segmentation of various tissue components in COT images, and the accuracy of tissue segmentation reaches 94.3500%.

Kultura konsumpcyjna jako kontekst refleksji i praktyki pedagogicznej

2018 ◽  
Vol 63 (1 (247)) ◽  
pp. 105-119
Author(s):  
Mateusz Mazurek
Keyword(s):  
Consumer Culture ◽  
Social Life ◽  
Educational Environments ◽  
Key Factor ◽  
The Individual

The author claims that consumer culture is nowadays the key factor in the shaping of our society and of course also of educational environments. Therefore it is worth serious consideration and analysis. This article is devoted to the issues of most important features of consumer culture which, according to the author, are fundamental factors in shaping the context in which education takes place. The author includes among them: excessive consumerism understood as granting consumption the primary importance in the individual and social life, growth in importance of the fashion and displacement of custom, radical individualism, culture of hurry and displacement of culture of thought, and treatment of pleasure as the highest value.

School-based drug education: the shaping of subjectivities

2014 ◽  
Vol 43 (1) ◽  
pp. 95-115 ◽  
Author(s):  
Cary Bennett
Keyword(s):  
Drug Use ◽  
Well Being ◽  
Drug Education ◽  
Content Type ◽  
School Based ◽  
Key Factor ◽  
The Subject ◽  
Political Dimensions ◽  
The Individual ◽  
Practical Implications

Purpose – The purpose of this paper is to explore how school-based drug education programmes in Australia have sought to reduce adolescent drug use. Design/methodology/approach – Drawing on insights from Foucault's later works and writers on governmentality, the paper considers how, through the use of various technologies, techniques and strategies, students have been encouraged to problematise their understanding of self by way of a series of choices they are required to make in relation to recreational drug use. Findings – Drugs are positioned as a key factor in the psychic and social well-being of youths insofar as their health and personal happiness is said to depend on the decisions they make concerning their use of drugs. In the process, moral and political objectives are met as students internalise norms, values and objectives consonant with a self-disciplined, self-governing society. Practical implications – By bringing into question school-based drug education, a space is created for further discussions around this historically controversial strategy. Social implications – What is common to all school-based drug education programmes is that the problem is conceptualised in terms of individual and interpersonal deficiencies or inadequacies. Conceptualised thus, both the problem and the solution lay with the individual; it is the individual who must change. Originality/value – The focus of this paper has not been on why school-based drug education is needed or how to improve it (the focus of most research on the subject), but rather on the methods employed to influence student use of recreational drugs. By identifying how school-based drug education has sought to shape student subjectivities, this paper has exposed specific moral and political dimensions of the project.

scholarly journals Attraction of Female Grapevine Moth to Common and Specific Olfactory Cues from 2 Host Plants

2009 ◽  
Vol 35 (1) ◽  
pp. 57-64 ◽  
Author(s):  
Marco Tasin ◽  
Anna-Carin Bäckman ◽  
Gianfranco Anfora ◽  
Silvia Carlin ◽  
Claudio Ioriatti ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Host Plants ◽  
Olfactory Cues ◽  
Grapevine Moth

A Simple Model of Long-Term Spike Train Regularization

2002 ◽  
Vol 14 (7) ◽  
pp. 1575-1597 ◽  
Author(s):  
Relly Brandman ◽  
Mark E. Nelson
Keyword(s):  
Spike Train ◽  
Threshold Model ◽  
Spike Trains ◽  
Adaptive Threshold ◽  
Nerve Fibers ◽  
Weak Signals ◽  
Spike Threshold ◽  
Afferent Nerve Fibers ◽  
Regularizing Effects

A simple model of spike generation is described that gives rise to negative correlations in the interspike interval (ISI) sequence and leads to long-term spike train regularization. This regularization can be seen by examining the variance of thekth-order interval distribution for large k (the times between spike i and spike i Ck). The variance is much smaller than would be expected if successive ISIs were uncorrelated. Such regularizing effects have been observed in the spike trains of electrosensory afferent nerve fibers and can lead to dramatic improvement in the detectability of weak signals encoded in the spike train data (Ratnam & Nelson, 2000). Here, we present a simple neural model in which negative ISI correlations and long-term spike train regularization arise from refractory effects associated with a dynamic spike threshold. Our model is derived from a more detailed model of electrosensory afferent dynamics developed recently by other investigators (Chacron, Longtin, St.-Hilaire, & Maler, 2000; Chacron, Longtin, & Maler, 2001). The core of this model is a dynamic spike threshold that is transiently elevated following a spike and subsequently decays until the next spike is generated. Here, we present a simplified version—the linear adaptive threshold model—that contains a single state variable and three free parameters that control the mean and coefficient of variation of the spontaneous ISI distribution and the frequency characteristics of the driven response. We show that refractory effects associated with the dynamic threshold lead to regularization of the spike train on long timescales. Furthermore, we show that this regularization enhances the detectability of weak signals encoded by the linear adaptive threshold model. Although inspired by properties of electrosensory afferent nerve fibers, such regularizing effects may play an important role in other neural systems where weak signals must be reliably detected in noisy spike trains. When modeling a neuronal system that exhibits this type of ISI correlation structure, the linear adaptive threshold model may

scholarly journals VL. Solovyov and N.I. Kareev: the question of the creative history of the “Justification of the Moral Good”

2020 ◽  
pp. 8-19
Author(s):  
V.V. Sidorin
Keyword(s):  
Social Philosophy ◽  
Philosophy Of History ◽  
Historical Change ◽  
Scholarly Activity ◽  
Necessary Condition ◽  
Moral Good ◽  
Historical Process ◽  
Key Factor ◽  
Intellectual Context ◽  
The Individual

The following essay analyzes the context in which Vl. Solovyov wrote his philosophical treatise “Justification of the Moral Good”. Such an analysis is a necessary condition for a conscientious reconstruction of the treatise’s creative history and thus for a proper analysis of the concepts and ideas expressed therein. The aim of this study is a detailed restoration of the intellectual atmosphere in which Solovyov's work was created. Such a project requires a turn to the philosophical activities of less eminent contemporaries of Solovyov, including N.I. Kareev, whose work Solovyov closely followed, responding to him not just critically, but also with a certain amount of sympathy. We also take up here a well-known discussion between the two concerning the philosophy of history and the theory of the historical process. Solovyov's position in this discussion is shown as containing the kernel of a plan embodied in the parts of the “Justification” dealing with social philosophy and philosophy of history. In addition, a textual, conceptual, and comparative analysis of Solovyov’s treatise shows that Kareev’s scholarly activity was an important factor in the intellectual context in which the plan of the treatise arose, was realized, and corrected. The essay also examines the notes in the text of the Justification that are complementary to N. Kareev (and to N. Mikhailovsky) and that were deleted by the author in preparing the 1899 edition. As we know, this later edition became the basis of all subsequent editions and reprintings. We see that Solovyov was sympathetic and to a certain degree close not only to Kareev's attempts to create an integral philosophical and historical standpoint, but also to his ideas about the high historical vocation of the individual. However, he was also sympathetic to the general pathos of Kareev’s theory, which consists in understanding moral activity as a key factor in historical change, taking the historical process as a sphere of the objectification of moral ideals.

scholarly journals Music Education as a Key Factor in the Full Development of a Child

1970 ◽  
pp. 263-272
Author(s):  
Natalia Kłysz-Sokalska
Keyword(s):  
Music Education ◽  
Beneficial Effect ◽  
Whole Body ◽  
Musical Culture ◽  
Mathematical Skills ◽  
Memory And Attention ◽  
Child Research ◽  
Key Factor ◽  
The Individual ◽  
The Right

Music education is a field of pedagogy dedicated to the development of the individual through artistic action, which is manifested in various forms and activities. Properly conducted music education has a beneficial effect on the right development of child. Research shows that music education stimulates the competence of child's language and mathematical skills, affect the development of creative child's personality and its socialization. Neurodidactics points to the significance of playing the instruments to neurogenesis and the development of skills of concentration, memory and attention. Movement to music, however, is developing spatial and mobility coordination, involves sight and hearing, which has a beneficial effect on the mastery of the whole body – muscles and nervous system. Unfortunately, despite the enormity of the positive aspects, music education is treated superficially, which shows a small amount of hours music lessons at school and inadequate preparation and attitude of teachers for music education. The difficulty with which collides every day music education is also a contemporary musical culture. The low level of the presented music content being the only "marketing product" makes that music education becoming too elitist activity, or is forced to follow along with system.

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