scholarly journals Offspring Development Conditioning (ODC): A Universal Trend in Evolution of Higher Organisms’ Reproduction

2020 ◽  
Author(s):  
Qiang Fu ◽  
Jianni Liu ◽  
Xin Wang
Keyword(s):  
General Pattern ◽  
Reproductive Organs ◽  
Origin And Evolution ◽  
The Public ◽  
Offspring Development ◽  
Reproductive Modes ◽  
Reproductive Evolution

Abstract All organisms evolve, according to Darwin. The question is how? Is there any general pattern or trend in the organisms’ evolution? These are rarely asked – and almost never answered – questions. This situation makes the evolution frustrating and mysterious to many. Here, after surveying the reproductive modes in most animals and plants, we propose that all (at least most) of higher organisms demonstrate the similar trend underlying their reproductive evolution, namely, Offspring Development Conditioning (ODC). Such a pattern makes the origin and evolution of reproductive organs in both animals and plants rational and understandable. To the best of our knowledge, this pattern appears universal, although we encourage future authors to identify exceptions. We hope this will help frame the evolution of higher animals and plants, and make the latter understandable to the public.

scholarly journals Offspring Development Conditioning (ODC): A Universal Trend in Evolution of Higher Organisms’ Reproduction

2020 ◽  
Author(s):  
Qiang Fu ◽  
Jianni Liu ◽  
Xin Wang
Keyword(s):  
Reproductive Organs ◽  
The Other ◽  
Physical Protection ◽  
Origin And Evolution ◽  
Offspring Development ◽  
Reproductive Modes ◽  
Reproductive Evolution

Abstract Background All organisms evolve, according to Darwin. The question is how? Is there any generalpattern or trend in the organisms’ evolution? These are rarely asked and almost never answered questions. This situation makes the evolution frustrating an d mysterious to many.Results After surveying the reproductive modes in most animals and plants, we propose that all (at least most) of higher organisms demonstrate the similar trend underlying their reproductive evolution, namely, Offspring Development C onditioning (ODC). ODC benefit the organisms in two ways: one is enhanced physical protection, the other is secured nutrition supply.Conclusions This pattern makes the origin and evolution of reproductive organs in both animals and plants rational and co mprehensive . To the best of our knowledge, this pattern appears universal in higher organisms (including both plants and animals), although we encourage future colleagues to identify exceptions. We hope this will help frame the evolution of higher animals and plants, and make their evolution comprehensive to everyone.

scholarly journals Parents and Teachers’ Perceptions of the Tone and Emotional Impact of Education News Coverage

2021 ◽  
Vol 2 (2) ◽  
pp. 193-207
Author(s):  
Kathryn Shine ◽  
Shane L. Rogers
Keyword(s):  
Public Perception ◽  
General Pattern ◽  
News Coverage ◽  
Emotional Impact ◽  
Teachers Perceptions ◽  
The Public ◽  
The Media ◽  
Standardised Testing ◽  
Perceptions Of Education ◽  
Education News

This study examines Australian teachers (n = 268) and parents’ (n = 206) self-reported perceptions of education news coverage and how the coverage affects them. Overall, the participants reported a perception that news coverage of teachers, schools, the education system and standardised testing was generally negative in tone. Participants reported typically feeling demoralised by negative stories and inspired by positive stories. A high importance was placed upon the public perception of education by participants. However, trust in the media reporting of educational issues was low. An exception to this general pattern of findings was that participants did not place as much importance upon the public perception of standardised testing and reported being less affected by negative or positive stories on that topic compared to the other education aspects. This research is one of the few studies to investigate the potential emotional impact that news coverage of education can have on media consumers.

The enhancement of the territory through art: application of a dissemination method to the Valmarecchia and Montefeltro area (North-Central Italy)

2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Laura Valentini ◽  
Veronica Guerra ◽  
Maurizio Lazzari ◽  
Olivia Nesci
Keyword(s):  
Public Awareness ◽  
Central Italy ◽  
Popular Science ◽  
Common Interest ◽  
Cognitive Domain ◽  
Communication Styles ◽  
Emotional Engagement ◽  
North Central ◽  
Origin And Evolution ◽  
The Public

<p>In this work, we propose a new approach to communicate science using art forms, such as music and poetry, in order to encourage people to learn more about landscapes. This approach was born from a desire to promote the landscape by integrating its origins and physical aesthetics with its naturalistic, cultural and artistic heritage, through narratives in popular science style, supported by the language of art. The different disciplines of Earth Science, poetry and music are applied together to specific sites, producing emotional experiences where encounter and interplay between the different languages become an expression of the place.</p><p>This experience started few years ago in 2014 and was linked by a common interest in enhancement of the territory. The team is composed of researchers and artists with different skills, whose aim is to promote deeper public awareness of the territory, by means of proposing live events and presenting the idea in international scientific conferences and journals. After a project dedicated to 20 geosites in the Marche Region (Central Italy), which took place from February 2018 to February 2020 and resulted in a book in the native language (Nesci and Valentini 2019) and a website presenting a summary of it, we are now approaching a new region in North-Central Italy. The Valmarecchia and Montefeltro areas are well known by geologists and scientists from all over the world for the particular origin and evolution of the Valmarecchia nappe, which consists of stacked slices of Ligurian and Epiligurian rocks overthrusting Tuscan and Umbro-Marchean Units and producing unique geological landscapes (Guerra and Lazzari, 2020). The study area is also well known by historians and artists for its great cultural value, but poorly understood by tourists and locals.</p><p>The research has identified several geological landscapes in the study area that could be used as field test sites to experiment different communication styles for dissemination of geological values. The methodology proposed in this paper aims to experiment the involvement level of the participants, engaged through the use of conventional and unconventional means in the popularization of Earth Sciences, such as music and art, directly in the field. These experiences will be included in series of treks conducted with different approaches (i.e. classic guided tours, exploring experiences, interactive engagement of the public in narrative and emotional engagement through music and art). The aim is to collect data about the involvement of the public and to verify whether incisiveness of geological concepts, conveyed within the affective domain of learning (i.e. engagement, attitude, and emotion), differs from the one deriving from the involvement of the cognitive domain (i.e. comprehension and application) (Nesci and Valentini, 2020).</p><p>Our goal is to educate by creating a new perception of geological landscapes, starting with their physical beauty and then building on scientific research in co-operation with arts, in order to improve what we know about their problems and weaknesses, and addressing their culture and their other strengths as well.</p>

scholarly journals Exceptional preservation of reproductive organs and giant sperm in Cretaceous ostracods

2020 ◽  
Vol 287 (1935) ◽  
pp. 20201661
Author(s):  
He Wang ◽  
Renate Matzke-Karasz ◽  
David J. Horne ◽  
Xiangdong Zhao ◽  
Meizhen Cao ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Reproductive Organs ◽  
Depositional Environments ◽  
Ct Reconstruction ◽  
Origin And Evolution ◽  
Exceptional Preservation ◽  
Morphological Adaptations ◽  
Single Piece ◽  
Evolutionary Success ◽  
Fossil Preservation ◽  
A New Species

The bivalved crustacean ostracods have the richest fossil record of any arthropod group and display complex reproductive strategies contributing to their evolutionary success. Sexual reproduction involving giant sperm, shared by three superfamilies of living ostracod crustaceans, is among the most fascinating behaviours. However, the origin and evolution of this reproductive mechanism has remained largely unexplored because fossil preservation of such features is extremely rare. Here, we report exceptionally preserved ostracods with soft parts (appendages and reproductive organs) in a single piece of mid-Cretaceous Kachin amber (approximately 100 Myr old). The ostracod assemblage is composed of 39 individuals. Thirty-one individuals belong to a new species and genus, Myanmarcypris hui gen. et sp. nov., exhibiting an ontogenetic sequence from juveniles to adults (male and female). Seven individuals are assigned to Thalassocypria sp. (Cypridoidea, Candonidae, Paracypridinae) and one to Sanyuania sp. (Cytheroidea, Loxoconchidae). Our micro-CT reconstruction provides direct evidence of the male clasper, sperm pumps (Zenker organs), hemipenes, eggs and female seminal receptacles with giant sperm. Our results reveal that the reproduction behavioural repertoire, which is associated with considerable morphological adaptations, has remained unchanged over at least 100 million years—a paramount example of evolutionary stasis. These results also double the age of the oldest unequivocal fossil animal sperm. This discovery highlights the capacity of amber to document invertebrate soft parts that are rarely recorded by other depositional environments.

Burial

2017 ◽  
Author(s):  
Mihwa Choi
Keyword(s):  
Focal Point ◽  
General Pattern ◽  
Social Groups ◽  
Well Being ◽  
Moral Order ◽  
Confucian Tradition ◽  
Social Imaginaries ◽  
Burial Practices ◽  
The Public ◽  
The World

Burials had become a focal point of some Confucian efforts to build a socio-moral order based on Confucian norms. “Simple burial,” idealized by scholar-officials, used a simple pit tomb with minimal burial items, based on the mainstream Confucian tradition of rejecting literary and material expression of the concrete social imaginaries of the world-beyond. Its focus rested with a tomb inscription tablet highlighting the public accomplishments and virtue of the deceased. On the other hand, many rich merchants were able to conduct a “lavish burial,” believing that the material furnishing of the tomb would actually influence the soul’s transitional process and its well-being in the world-beyond. Nevertheless, there were some exceptional cases that did not fit into the general pattern of correlations between social groups and burial practices, which suggests that tombs tended to remain as private spaces.

Shifting functional roles and the evolution of conifer pollen-producing and seed-producing cones

Paleobiology ◽  
2011 ◽  
Vol 37 (4) ◽  
pp. 587-602 ◽  
Author(s):  
Andrew B. Leslie
Keyword(s):  
Biotic Interactions ◽  
Morphological Diversity ◽  
Reproductive Organs ◽  
Sensu Stricto ◽  
Morphological Data ◽  
Strong Interactions ◽  
Geologic History ◽  
Functional Roles ◽  
Primary Driver ◽  
Reproductive Evolution

Exploring patterns in the evolution of seed plant reproductive morphology within a functional context offers a framework in which to identify and evaluate factors that potentially drive reproductive evolution. Conifers are a particularly useful group for studies of this kind because they have a long geologic history and their reproductive organs are borne on separate structures with discrete functions. Multivariate analysis of morphological data collected from pollen-producing and seed-producing cones of Paleozoic, Mesozoic, and extant conifer species shows that seed cones underwent a significant expansion of morphological diversity that began during the Early-Middle Jurassic and has continued into the present day. In contrast, pollen cones show significantly lower levels of morphological diversity and exhibit similar basic morphologies throughout conifer evolutionary history. The increase in seed cone diversity through time is primarily the result of two novel structural and organizational features that evolved independently in different conifer families during the Mesozoic: robust, tightly packed cones in members of Araucariaceae, Cupressaceae sensu lato, and Pinaceae, and highly reduced, fleshy cones or solitary seeds in Podocarpaceae, Taxaceae, and some members of Cupressaceae sensu stricto. In extant conifers, these cone morphologies are associated with species that have strong interactions with vertebrate seed predators, seed dispersers, or a combination of both. This suggests that increases in the strength and complexity of biotic interactions in the Jurassic and Cretaceous were a primary driver of conifer reproductive evolution, and that patterns of character evolution relate to the increasing importance of cone tissue in seed protection and seed dispersal through time.

Protecting the Value of Investments

2019 ◽  
pp. 49-100
Author(s):  
Federico Ortino
Keyword(s):  
Public Policy ◽  
Foreign Investors ◽  
Origin And Evolution ◽  
The Public ◽  
Cautious Approach ◽  
Police Powers ◽  
Investment Treaty ◽  
Investment Treaties ◽  
Broad Understanding

The aim of the chapter is to trace the origin and evolution of the expropriation provision in modern investment treaties. Two main findings stem from the present analysis. First, the original aim of the expropriation provision in modern investment treaties was to afford foreign investors a wide level of protection vis-à-vis a host State’s conduct that deprived the investor of the value of its investments. Second, while many investment treaty tribunals have initially adhered to this broad understanding in line with the ‘sole-effect’ doctrine, an increasing number of investment tribunals have recently adopted a more cautious approach, both restricting the notion of expropriatory effect and increasing the relevance of the public policy of the allegedly expropriatory measure (pursuant to the ‘police powers’ doctrine).

scholarly journals Legal and institutional aspects that determine the dialog between public authorities and civil society organizations in the Republic of Moldova (part I)

2021 ◽  
pp. 30-47
Author(s):  
Liliana Palihovici ◽  
Keyword(s):  
Civil Society ◽  
Great Influence ◽  
Historical Analysis ◽  
Legal Framework ◽  
Civil Society Organizations ◽  
Public Authorities ◽  
Origin And Evolution ◽  
The Public ◽  
Republic Of Moldova ◽  
The Republic

CSOs are a key component of an open and democratic society as they play a key role in the strengthening of democracy and the rule of law, their dialogue with the public authorities being a precondition for this. By analyzing the development of dialogue between Moldovan CSOs and Central and Local Public authorities (CPA / LPA), I found that PA are not yet fully aware of the value of the dialogue, which is sporadic and guided by certain interests, that do not always coincide with the public interest. The key objective pursued by this research was to review the environment underlying activity and collaboration of the civil society from the standpoint of influence exerted by the internal and external factors that determine the core essence of the social environment, while paving and setting conditions for carrying out activities and collaboration between the civil society and public authorities. The paper aims to prove that more communication and collaboration between public authorities and civil society organizations, will likely result in a more inclusive, qualitative and focused act of governance. The author analyses and presents the existing decision-making systems and its consultation mechanisms with the civil society organizations in the Republic of Moldova, the existing opportunities for CSO’s involvement in the public policy making process and the actual practices. A number of research methods were used in the study, aimed at highlighting the particularities of the dialogue and cooperation between the public authorities (PA) and the CSOs, as part of the act of governance, studying the development over time and the influence of various social, economic and political factors on these processes. Thus, the historical analysis method to research the origin and evolution of the legal framework that regulates the dialogue and cooperation between PA and the CSOs was applied. It included analysis of the relevant laws, regulations and policies, together with existing reports and studies on the subject of research, in the Republic of Moldova. I found that public authorities are not yet fully aware of the value of the dialogue and the political factor is also of great influence, as in recent years there has been an increasing pressure on the civil society. The paper reflects the current situation in Moldova, which can be summarized as follows: a) there are no permanent mechanisms or platforms for cooperation and consultation, open to all. Civil society participation is limited to a small number of CSOs, and there are no incentives for the growth of CSOs. b) LPAs, compared to CPAs, enjoy a much higher level of ,,trust” from the society/community, but they rarely have the resources and skills to conduct a constructive dialogue with CSOs; c) there is a proven reluctance of the LPA/CPA to deepen the dialogue and cooperation with the civil society; d) The culture of participation is very weak as there is no perception that participation is an instrument of change. A number of recommendations in order to address the identified problems are listed.

Article

1998 ◽  
Vol 15 (5-6) ◽  
pp. 278-287
Author(s):  
Helgi Gunnlaugsson
Keyword(s):  
Drug Use ◽  
Adult Population ◽  
General Pattern ◽  
Nordic Countries ◽  
Control Measures ◽  
The Other ◽  
Consumption Pattern ◽  
The Public ◽  
And Gender ◽  
And Control

Helgi Gunnlaugsson: Drug use, attitudes and control policies in Iceland. A comparison with the other Nordic countries Studies on the use of alcohol, tobacco and other drugs have frequently been conducted in Iceland in the past few years. These studies have mostly involved use among youth, so trends in the adult population have not yet been mapped out to the same extent. In this presentation, findings from the first ever general population survey on drug use in Iceland will be presented. Prompted by the Nordic Drug Survey, in which Iceland did not take part, a few questions from that survey were adopted in a survey conducted in Iceland in late 1997. Based on the Nordic comparative figures, it appears that Iceland is in some respects not very different from the other Nordic nations. Yet lifetime prevalence of cannabis use was found to be significantly higher in Iceland than in the other Nordic nations, except for Denmark, which clearly is in a league of its own. However, if the use in the last 6 months is analysed, Iceland is very similar to the other Nordic nations. The consumption pattern, in terms of age and gender, seems also to follow the general pattern found in the other Nordic nations. As for attitudes toward different control measures, it is apparent that the public in all of the Nordic countries seems to be in favour of adopting unconventional control methods in the fight against drugs.

When is a Policy Instrument not an Instrument? Fiscal Marksmanship in Britain, 1951–84

1985 ◽  
Vol 5 (1) ◽  
pp. 69-85 ◽  
Author(s):  
Paul Mosley
Keyword(s):  
General Pattern ◽  
Aggregate Demand ◽  
Policy Instrument ◽  
Alternative Methods ◽  
Fiscal Year ◽  
Tax Revenue ◽  
Fiscal Deficit ◽  
The Public ◽  
Data Estimation ◽  
Excise Duties

ABSTRACTThe paper considers the size and the implications of the errors made by the British Treasury in forecasting the budget over the period 1951–84. On average the Treasury underestimated the public sector fiscal deficit by 0.5 per cent of GDP; this is about half the average amount by which Chancellors attempted to change aggregate demand by means of their budgets. The general pattern was for tax revenue to be under-predicted, but for public expenditure to be under-predicted by even more. The government's fiscal deficit and thus the reflationary effect of government policy was therefore greater than the Treasury intended.A decomposition exercise carried out on the Treasury's own model for the fiscal year 1980/81 suggests that only about half of this error is due to errors in the specification of the model; the other half is due to errors in data estimation and in forecasting exogenous variables. Hence, the scope for improving forecasts by improvements to the model is limited. The paper considers three alternative methods by which forecasts could be improved: the application of realisation functions relating forecast to actual values; more frequent budgeting; and an attempt to derive more tax revenue from those categories (such as excise duties on alcohol, petrol and tobacco) whose yield is easiest to predict.

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