scholarly journals The relevance of affiliative relationships in horses: review and future directions

2019 ◽  
pp. 11-26 ◽  
Author(s):  
Helena Costa ◽  
Sara Fragoso ◽  
Filipa Heitor

For many years, studies on horse social behaviour focused mainly on social organization, dominance and aggression. There are comparatively fewer studies on affiliative relationships among horses, despite their impact on the stability of social groups, reproductive success and welfare. We believe that it is important to gain a more complete understanding of this dimension of horse social behaviour and to identify areas of research which need to be addressed in more detail.This review summarizes the existing body of scientific knowledge on affiliative relationships among horses. Studies were conducted on a large variety of horse populations and environmental conditions, from feral to domestic horses under different management conditions. Moreover, studies conducted to date used different methodologies for data collection and analysis which make meaningful comparisons of their results more difficult. We present their main findings concerning the importance of affiliative relationships for horses and the individual and social factors associated with these relationships. Furthermore, we discuss the implications of these findings for management of domestic horses and propose avenues for future studies. We hope this review stimulates further research in this area and may contribute scientific knowledge to improve husbandry practices and horse welfare.

1999 ◽  
Vol 4 (4) ◽  
pp. 205-218 ◽  
Author(s):  
David Magnusson

A description of two cases from my time as a school psychologist in the middle of the 1950s forms the background to the following question: Has anything important happened since then in psychological research to help us to a better understanding of how and why individuals think, feel, act, and react as they do in real life and how they develop over time? The studies serve as a background for some general propositions about the nature of the phenomena that concerns us in developmental research, for a summary description of the developments in psychological research over the last 40 years as I see them, and for some suggestions about future directions.


Methodology ◽  
2006 ◽  
Vol 2 (4) ◽  
pp. 142-148 ◽  
Author(s):  
Pere J. Ferrando

In the IRT person-fluctuation model, the individual trait levels fluctuate within a single test administration whereas the items have fixed locations. This article studies the relations between the person and item parameters of this model and two central properties of item and test scores: temporal stability and external validity. For temporal stability, formulas are derived for predicting and interpreting item response changes in a test-retest situation on the basis of the individual fluctuations. As for validity, formulas are derived for obtaining disattenuated estimates and for predicting changes in validity in groups with different levels of fluctuation. These latter formulas are related to previous research in the person-fit domain. The results obtained and the relations discussed are illustrated with an empirical example.


Author(s):  
Dr. Minti Kumari ◽  
Dr. Madhuri Kumari ◽  
Dr Anurag Rai ◽  
Dr. Navin Kumar

It is evident that hyperdontia is more common in the permanent dentition than in the primary. There is a considerable difference between males and females in the prevalence of these teeth in permanent dentition; hyperdontia is twice as common in males as in females. However, this approximation varies in terms of location, other associating syndromes that may be present, and the ethnicity of the individual. In terms of ethnicity, it can be seen that hyperdontia is in fact less common in Caucasian than in Asian populations. There is evidence to show that an individual is more likely to have hyperdontia if other members of their family also have the condition. Hence the present study was planned for evaluation of occurrence of hyperdontia in non-syndromic  population from Bihar Region. The present study was planned in Public Health Dentistry, Patna Dental College and Hospital, Patna, Bihar. Total 195 patients referred to Department of Dentistry were evaluated in the present study. Panoramic radiographs and clinical records of patients above the age of 18 years and without any syndromic features were selected for the study.  All the radiographs were examined for the presence of supernumerary teeth, their location, morphology, and number. Morphologically, teeth were classified as conical, tuberculate, supplemental, and odontoma. Early diagnosis of dental anomalies can prevent some esthetic, orthodontic, and periodontal problems, and knowledge of the prevalence and distribution of the anomalies may help clinicians to the detection of these anomalies at early stages. Our study evaluated the prevalence of selected dental anomalies; future studies should investigate the prevalence of dental anomalies of all types. Keywords: Hyperdontia, non-syndromic, panoramic radiograph, supernumerary teeth, etc.


2020 ◽  
Author(s):  
Alfonso Mastropietro ◽  
Filippo Palumbo ◽  
Silvia Orte ◽  
Michele Girolami ◽  
Francesco Furfari ◽  
...  

BACKGROUND The constant progression in number and share of the ageing population will likely have deep effects in most of the industrialized countries. The Internet of Things (IoT) paradigm can play a key role in facilitating independent living of the ageing population thus trying to reduce the burden on the society. Considering that ageing is a multi-factorial physiological process, the development of novel IoT systems, tools and devices, specifically targeted to older people, must be based on a holistic framework built on robust scientific knowledge in different scientific domains. OBJECTIVE A novel semantic formalization was developed, based on a multidomain healthy ageing model, to support structuring and standardizing heterogeneous scientific knowledge about ageing. The main aim of the paper is to present the new NESTORE ontology, with the purpose thus extending the available ontologies provided by universAAL-IoT (uAAL-IoT). METHODS Well-assessed scientific knowledge, specifically selected to target older adults aged between 65 and 75, was formalized into a holistic model using a multi-domain approach including three main different dimensions related to well-being: (i) Physiological Status and Physical Activity Behaviour, (ii) Nutrition, and (iii) Cognitive and Mental Status and Social Behaviour. Based on this model, within the NESTORE H2020 project, a new ontology was developed in the uAAL-IoT framework, which provides modelling tools and a set of core ontologies. RESULTS The NESTORE ontologies cover all the needed concepts to represent 5 significant domains of ageing. In total, 12 sub-ontologies were modelled with more than 60 classes and sub-classes referenced among them by using more than 100 relations and around 20 enumerations. NESTORE increases the uAAL ontologies collection by 40% and expand the uAAL domain usage for Physiological Status and Physical Activity Behaviour (8 ontologies), Nutrition (3 ontologies) and Cognitive and Mental Status and Social Behaviour (4 ontologies). CONCLUSIONS NESTORE ontology provides innovation both in terms of semantic content and technological approach. The thoroughly use of this ontology can support the development of a decision support system, to promote healthy ageing, with the capacity to do dynamic multi-scale modelling of user-specific data based on the semantic annotations of users’ profile.


Author(s):  
Samir Okasha

Inclusive fitness theory, originally due to W. D. Hamilton, is a popular approach to the study of social evolution, but shrouded in controversy. The theory contains two distinct aspects: Hamilton’s rule (rB > C); and the idea that individuals will behave as if trying to maximize their inclusive fitness in social encounters. These two aspects of the theory are logically separable but often run together. A generalized version of Hamilton’s rule can be formulated that is always true, though whether it is causally meaningful is debatable. However, the individual maximization claim only holds true if the payoffs from the social encounter are additive. The notion that inclusive fitness is the ‘goal’ of individuals’ social behaviour is less robust than some of its advocates acknowledge.


2020 ◽  
Vol 26 (3) ◽  
pp. 223-244
Author(s):  
W. John Thrasher ◽  
Michael Mascagni

AbstractIt has been shown that when using a Monte Carlo algorithm to estimate the electrostatic free energy of a biomolecule in a solution, individual random walks can become entrapped in the geometry. We examine a proposed solution, using a sharp restart during the Walk-on-Subdomains step, in more detail. We show that the point at which this solution introduces significant bias is related to properties intrinsic to the molecule being examined. We also examine two potential methods of generating a sharp restart point and show that they both cause no significant bias in the examined molecules and increase the stability of the run times of the individual walks.


2021 ◽  
pp. 1-12
Author(s):  
Samuel Thoma ◽  
Isabelle Schwänzl ◽  
Laura Galbusera

Classical and contemporary phenomenological approaches in psychiatry describe schizophrenia as a disorder of common sense and self-affection. Although taking into account intersubjectivity, this conceptualization still puts forward an individualistic view of the disorder, that is, the intersubjective deficit resides within the person. To overcome such individualism, in this article, we first propose that schizophrenic experience might be understood as arising from a dialectic relation between the self’s loss of openness to the world and the world’s loss of openness to the self. To show the relevance of social factors at the onset of schizophrenic experience, we propose a phenomenological analysis of trigger situations. In the second and main part of this article, we then focus on the implications of these phenomenological insights for the clinical practice: we argue that if schizophrenia is understood as a loss of openness between self and social world, psychiatric institutions should be transformed into spaces that enable a reopening of selves. We first describe <i>enclosing</i> phenomena such as coercive treatment to then, in contrast, present particular forms of <i>open psychiatric spaces</i> such as open door approaches and open dialogue. Besides the institutional-structural level, we also highlight aspects of openness at the intersubjective level of the individual agents, thus particularly emphasizing the role of an open therapeutic stance. We thus speak of (re)opening <i>selves</i> as we believe that the reopening of the patients’ self cannot but be related to and fostered by a reopening of the professionals’ self and stance. We thus argue that openness in the therapeutic stance is key to initiating the further process of recovery, which we describe as a reattunement of selves both at the bodily and narrative level. Last but not least, we sketch out possibilities for future phenomenological research on the question of psychiatric space and draw some broader societal implications.


2020 ◽  
Vol 96 (2) ◽  
pp. 419-437
Author(s):  
Xiangfeng Yang

Abstract Ample evidence exists that China was caught off guard by the Trump administration's onslaught of punishing acts—the trade war being a prime, but far from the only, example. This article, in addition to contextualizing their earlier optimism about the relations with the United States under President Trump, examines why Chinese leaders and analysts were surprised by the turn of events. It argues that three main factors contributed to the lapse of judgment. First, Chinese officials and analysts grossly misunderstood Donald Trump the individual. By overemphasizing his pragmatism while downplaying his unpredictability, they ended up underprepared for the policies he unleashed. Second, some ingrained Chinese beliefs, manifested in the analogies of the pendulum swing and the ‘bickering couple’, as well as the narrative of the ‘ballast’, lulled officials and scholars into undue optimism about the stability of the broader relationship. Third, analytical and methodological problems as well as political considerations prevented them from fully grasping the strategic shift against China in the US.


2003 ◽  
Vol 69 (7) ◽  
pp. 4012-4018 ◽  
Author(s):  
Ariel Maoz ◽  
Ralf Mayr ◽  
Siegfried Scherer

ABSTRACT The temporal stability and diversity of bacterial species composition as well as the antilisterial potential of two different, complex, and undefined microbial consortia from red-smear soft cheeses were investigated. Samples were collected twice, at 6-month intervals, from each of two food producers, and a total of 400 bacterial isolates were identified by Fourier-transform infrared spectroscopy and 16S ribosomal DNA sequence analysis. Coryneform bacteria represented the majority of the isolates, with certain species being predominant. In addition, Marinolactobacillus psychrotolerans, Halomonas venusta, Halomonas variabilis, Halomonas sp. (106 to 107 CFU per g of smear), and an unknown, gram-positive bacterium (107 to 108 CFU per g of smear) are described for the first time in such a consortium. The species composition of one consortium was quite stable over 6 months, but the other consortium revealed less diversity of coryneform species as well as less stability. While the first consortium had a stable, extraordinarily high antilisterial potential in situ, the antilisterial activity of the second consortium was lower and decreased with time. The cause for the antilisterial activity of the two consortia remained unknown but is not due to the secretion of soluble, inhibitory substances by the individual components of the consortium. Our data indicate that the stability over time and a potential antilisterial activity are individual characteristics of the ripening consortia which can be monitored and used for safe food production without artificial preservatives.


Author(s):  
JEN-YANG CHEN

In this paper, a fuzzy sliding mode controller (FSMC), which is synthesized by a collection of linguistic control rules whose membership functions of THEN-part is adapted, is proposed. Both the membership functions of IF-part and THEN-part are arranged symmetrically and distributed equally in the individual universe of discourse. In particular, the membership functions of the THEN-part can be adapted via one parameter adaptation to meet the required system specification. The proposed direct adaptive FSMC can be synthesized through the following stages. First, the control rules are constructed according to the concepts of SMC, and the fuzzy sets whose membership functions are symmetrically covered in state space. Then, the derived adaptive law is used to adjust the membership functions of the THEN-part. The FSMC is employed to approximate the equivalent control of SMC without knowing the mathematical model of the controlled system. Third, a hitting control is developed to guarantee the stability of the control system. Finally, we apply this FSMC to control a nonlinear inverted pendulum system for confirming the validity of the proposed approach.


Sign in / Sign up

Export Citation Format

Share Document