scholarly journals Abundance and Diurnal Time Activity Budget of the Threatened Species White-Headed Ducks (Anatidae: Oxyura leucocephala) in an Unprotected Area, Boussedra Marsh, Northeast Algeria

2021 ◽  
Vol 40 (4) ◽  
pp. 384-391
Author(s):  
Hennouni Mohamed Amine ◽  
Zebsa Rabah ◽  
Bensakhri Zinette ◽  
Youcefi Abdeldjalil ◽  
Bara Mouslim ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Threatened Species ◽  
Activity Budget ◽  
North African ◽  
Time Activity ◽  
Habitat Features ◽  
Water Surface Area ◽  
African Populations ◽  
The Status ◽  
Unprotected Area

Abstract The white-headed duck is a globally threatened species and its populations have become fragmented and undergone major decline in recent decades. Changes including long-term abundance (five times from 2005 to 2018) and diurnal activity budget (2010−2011 and 2017−2018) with respect to the effect of habitat features at Boussedra marsh (unprotected area) were compiled in order to fill some gaps in the status and trend of North African populations. The population size of the white-headed duck decreased over years from 2010 to 2018 by about 52.81%, and was positively associated with interior vegetation area, but not significantly with water surface area. Trends of population dynamics differed among seasons, and the number was higher in wintering than breeding season. Sleeping (44.93%, 23.74%) and feeding (59.09%, 27.43%) were the dominant diurnal activities at both the years of study, respectively. Boussedra marsh plays an important ecological role as a diurnal forging habitat and reproduction site for this threatened species and as a shelter for other waterfowl.

scholarly journals Personality dynamics at work: The effects of form, time, and context of variability

2021 ◽  
pp. 089020702110173
Author(s):  
Nadin Beckmann ◽  
Damian P Birney ◽  
Amirali Minbashian ◽  
Jens F Beckmann
Keyword(s):  
Individual Differences ◽  
Cognitive Ability ◽  
Temporal Stability ◽  
Limited Evidence ◽  
Short Term ◽  
State Data ◽  
The Status ◽  
Over Time ◽  
Trait Variability

The study aimed to investigate the status of within-person state variability in neuroticism and conscientiousness as individual differences constructs by exploring their (a) temporal stability, (b) cross-context consistency, (c) empirical links to selected antecedents, and (d) empirical links to longer term trait variability. Employing a sample of professionals ( N = 346) from Australian organisations, personality state data together with situation appraisals were collected using experience sampling methodology in field and repeatedly in lab-like settings. Data on personality traits, cognitive ability, and motivational mindsets were collected at baseline and after two years. Contingent (situation contingencies) and non-contingent (relative SD) state variability indices were relatively stable over time and across contexts. Only a small number of predictive effects of state variability were observed, and these differed across contexts. Cognitive ability appeared to be associated with state variability under lab-like conditions. There was limited evidence of links between short-term state and long-term trait variability, except for a small effect for neuroticism. Some evidence of positive manifold was found for non-contingent variability. Systematic efforts are required to further elucidate the complex pattern of results regarding the antecedents, correlates and outcomes of individual differences in state variability.

scholarly journals Lyell, the Geikies and Croll's observations on terrestrial glacial sediments and landforms

2021 ◽  
pp. 1-14
Author(s):  
James ROSE
Keyword(s):  
Climate Change ◽  
High Quality ◽  
Glacial Sediments ◽  
Direct Observations ◽  
The Social ◽  
The Status ◽  
Social And Physical Environment ◽  
Glacial Landforms

ABSTRACT Within the context of the work and achievements of James Croll, this paper reviews the records of direct observations of glacial landforms and sediments made by Charles Lyell, Archibald and James Geikie and James Croll himself, in order to evaluate their contributions to the sciences of glacial geology and Quaternary environmental change. The paper outlines the social and physical environment of Croll's youth and contrasts this with the status and experiences of Lyell and the Geikies. It also outlines the character and role of the ‘Glasgow School’ of geologists, who stimulated Croll's interest into the causes of climate change and directed his focus to the glacial and ‘interglacial’ deposits of central Scotland. Contributions are outlined in chronological order, drawing attention to: (i) Lyell's high-quality observations and interpretations of glacial features in Glen Clova and Strathmore and his subsequent rejection of the glacial theory in favour of processes attributed to floating icebergs; (ii) the significant impact of Archibald Geikie's 1863 paper on the ‘glacial drift of Scotland’, which firmly established the land-ice theory; (iii) the fact that, despite James Croll's inherent dislike of geology and fieldwork, he provided high-quality descriptions and interpretations of the landforms and sediments of central Scotland in order to test his theory of climate change; and (iv) the great communication skills of James Geikie, enhanced by contacts and evidence from around the world. It is concluded that whilst direct observations of glacial landforms and sediments were critical to the long-term development of the study of glaciation, the acceptance of this theory was dependent also upon the skills, personality and status of the Geikies and Croll, who developed and promoted the concepts. Sadly, the subsequent rejection of the land-ice concept by Lyell resulted in the same factors challenging the acceptance of the glacial theory.

scholarly journals A Transformation of the Approach to Evaluating a Region’s Investment Attractiveness as a Consequence of the COVID-19 Pandemic

Economies ◽  
2021 ◽  
Vol 9 (2) ◽  
pp. 59
Author(s):  
Dmitriy G. Rodionov ◽  
Evgenii A. Konnikov ◽  
Magomedgusen N. Nasrutdinov
Keyword(s):  
Social Environment ◽  
World Order ◽  
Integrated Approach ◽  
Innovative Development ◽  
Social Infrastructure ◽  
Regional Environment ◽  
The Social ◽  
The World ◽  
The Status

The global COVID-19 pandemic has caused a transformation of virtually all aspects of the world order today. Due to the introduction of the world quarantine, a considerable share of professional communications has been transformed into a format of distance interaction. As a result, the specific weight of traditional components of the investment attractiveness of a region is steadily going down, because modern business can be built without the need for territorial unity. It should be stated that now the criteria according to which investors decide if they are ready to invest in a region are dynamically transforming. The significance of the following characteristics is increasingly growing: the sustainable development of a region, qualities of the social environment, and consistency of the social infrastructure. Thus, the approaches to evaluating the region’s investment attractiveness must be transformed. Moreover, the investment process at the federal level involves the determination of target areas of regional development. Despite the universal significance of innovative development, the region can develop much more dynamically when a complex external environment is formed that complements its development model. Interregional interaction, as well as an integrated approach to innovative development, taking into account not only the momentary effect, but also the qualitative long-term transformation of the region, will significantly increase the return on investment. At the same time, the currently existing methods for assessing the investment attractiveness of the region are usually heuristic in nature and are not universal. The heuristic nature of the existing methods does not allow to completely abstract from the subjectivity of the researcher. Moreover, the existing methods do not take into account the cyclical properties of the innovative development of the region, which lead to the formation of a long-term effect from the transformation of the regional environment. This study is aimed at forming a comprehensive methodology that can be used to evaluate the investment attractiveness of a certain region and conclude about the lines of business that should be developed in it as well as to find ways to increase the region’s investment attractiveness. According to the results of the study, a comprehensive methodology was formed to evaluate the region’s investment attractiveness. It consists of three key indicators, namely, the level of the region’s investment attractiveness, the projected level of the region’s investment attractiveness, and the development vector of the region’s investment attractiveness. This methodology is based on a set of indicators that consider the status of the economic and social environment of the region, as well as the status of the innovative and ecological environment. The methodology can be used to make multi-dimensional conclusions both about the growth areas responsible for increasing the region’s innovative attractiveness and the lines of business that should be developed in the region.

The Status of Quantum-Key-Distribution-Based Long-Term Secure Internet Communication

2019 ◽  
pp. 1-1 ◽  
Author(s):  
Matthias Geihs ◽  
Oleg Nikiforov ◽  
Denise Demirel ◽  
Alexander Sauer ◽  
Denis Butin ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Quantum Key Distribution ◽  
Key Distribution ◽  
Internet Communication ◽  
The Status

scholarly journals Activity Budget Comparisons Using Long-Term Observations of a Group of Bottlenose Dolphins (Tursiops truncatus) under Human Care: Implications for Animal Welfare

Animals ◽  
2021 ◽  
Vol 11 (7) ◽  
pp. 2107
Author(s):  
Tim Huettner ◽  
Sandra Dollhaeupl ◽  
Ralph Simon ◽  
Katrin Baumgartner ◽  
Lorenzo von Fersen
Keyword(s):  
Bottlenose Dolphins ◽  
Activity Budget ◽  
Behavioral Differences ◽  
Training Performance ◽  
Behavioral Observations ◽  
Daily Training ◽  
Human Care ◽  
Over Time ◽  
The Welfare State

Zoos and aquaria must provide optimal husbandry conditions and the highest welfare standards for their animals. How the welfare state of an animal or a group of animals can be precisely assessed is currently under debate, and new approaches are necessary to reliably evaluate changes in welfare. One particular measure that is easily applicable is behavioral observations. However, for dolphins and other cetaceans under human care, reliable behavior-based measures are rare. Using long-term observations of a group of bottlenose dolphins, we investigate how their activity budgets and different behaviors changed over time and are impacted by construction noise. Additionally, we investigate whether behavioral differences are also reflected in changes in the dolphins’ performance during daily training sessions. Our results show that construction noise significantly alters the dolphins’ behavior. Play behavior decreases during construction periods; most importantly, the frequency of fast swimming activities significantly increased, and at the same time, a decrease in training performance is found. Additionally, inter- and intraindividual behavioral differences are attributed to factors, such as age or weaning. Significant changes in a dolphin’s activity budget can also pose potential welfare concerns. Thus, this study highlights the importance of regularly assessing and analyzing the behavior of dolphins under human care. Behavioral observations are essential welfare indicators and can—when complemented with other measures, such as assessment of training performance—provide zoo staff with important information about each individual’s state of welfare.

scholarly journals How intensive longitudinal data can stimulate advances in health behavior maintenance theories and interventions

2019 ◽  
Author(s):  
Genevieve F Dunton ◽  
Alexander J Rothman ◽  
Adam M Leventhal ◽  
Stephen S Intille
Keyword(s):  
Health Behavior ◽  
Longitudinal Data ◽  
Research Methods ◽  
Health Behavior Change ◽  
Noncommunicable Disease ◽  
Time Activity ◽  
Intensive Longitudinal Data ◽  
Reflective Systems ◽  
Behavior Maintenance

Abstract Interventions that promote long-term maintenance of behaviors such as exercise, healthy eating, and avoidance of tobacco and excessive alcohol are critical to reduce noncommunicable disease burden. Theories of health behavior maintenance tend to address reactive (i.e., automatic) or reflective (i.e., deliberative) decision-making processes, but rarely both. Progress in this area has been stalled by theories that say little about when, why, where, and how reactive and reflective systems interact to promote or derail a positive health behavior change. In this commentary, we discuss factors influencing the timing and circumstances under which an individual may shift between the two systems such as (a) limited availability of psychological assets, (b) interruption in exposure to established contextual cues, and (c) lack of intrinsic or appetitive motives. To understand the putative factors that regulate the interface between these systems, research methods are needed that are able to capture properties such as (a) fluctuation over short periods of time, (b) change as a function of time, (c) context dependency, (d) implicit and physiological channels, and (e) idiographic phenomenology. These properties are difficult to assess with static, cross-sectional, laboratory-based, or retrospective research methods. We contend that intensive longitudinal data (ILD) collection and analytic strategies such as smartphone and sensor-based real-time activity and location monitoring, ecological momentary assessment (EMA), machine learning, and systems modeling are well-positioned to capture and interpret within-person shifts between reactive and reflective systems underlying behavior maintenance. We conclude with examples of how ILD can accelerate the development of theories and interventions to sustain health behavior over the long term.

scholarly journals Measuring the Impacts of Saffron Production Promotion Measures on Farmers’ Policy Acceptance Probability: A Randomized Conjoint Field Experiment in Herat Province, Afghanistan

2020 ◽  
Vol 12 (10) ◽  
pp. 4026
Author(s):  
Mohammad Wais Azimy ◽  
Ghulam Dastgir Khan ◽  
Yuichiro Yoshida ◽  
Keisuke Kawata
Keyword(s):  
Causal Effects ◽  
Acceptance Probability ◽  
Promotion Policy ◽  
Governmental Organizations ◽  
Non Governmental Organizations ◽  
Promotion Policies ◽  
The Status ◽  
Conjoint Experiment ◽  
The Government

The government of Afghanistan promotes saffron production as a means to achieve economic development while reducing the widely spread opium cultivation in the country by providing necessary support to its farmers via saffron farmer service centers. This study investigates the causal effects of relevant attributes of potential saffron production promotion policies on the participation probabilities of saffron farmers. This study applies a randomized conjoint experiment to primary survey data of 298 farmers in Herat Province, which is perceived by the government as the center of saffron production in the country. The proposed hypothetical saffron production promotion policy consists of six attributes, namely, provision of machinery equipment, weather-based crop insurance, accessibility to long-term loans, location of saffron farmer service centers, provider of services, and annual payment. In the randomized conjoint experiment design, the respondents rank two alternative policies and policies against the status quo. The desirable policy comprises the machinery provision, long-term (up to 5 years) loan accessibility, an easily accessible service center, and policy implementation by international non-governmental organizations (NGOs). The estimated results reveal that saffron farmers are highly supportive of the proposed saffron promotion policy and that their willingness to pay is as high as 17% of their per capita income.

Enhancing Science and Technology in the SADC Region: Roles of the Secretariat and Member States

2002 ◽  
Vol 1 (1) ◽  
pp. 70-95
Author(s):  
Rubin Patterson ◽  
James Bozeman
Keyword(s):  
Economic Integration ◽  
Final Section ◽  
Science And Technology ◽  
Foreign Affiliate ◽  
Member States ◽  
The Third ◽  
Economic Context ◽  
The World ◽  
The Status

AbstractIncreased economic integration throughout the world, the growing dominance of foreign affiliate production over international exports, the routinization of innovation, and amplified knowledge-intensiveness of FDI collectively characterize the new global economic environment in which SADC nations are attempting to develop and compete. This paper provides a detailed summary of the global economic context and one of its leading engines, namely, science and technology (S&T). Analysis of Africa's post-independence S&T travails and successes constitutes the second section of the paper. Various factors that have collectively arrested S&T growth are discussed. The third and largest section is the analysis of commonalities and particularities of S&T needs and activities by the SADC secretariat and member states. Focused analytical reports on the status of S&T development efforts in Botswana and Zimbabwe comprise the final section. Based on the contextual threats and opportunities discussed above, the paper concludes with two concrete recommendations: integrating and adopting the elements suggested in the paper for a long-term S&T development model, and pursuing state-sponsored or quasi-state-sponsored reverse engineering campaigns.

Idiopathic Short Stature

2001 ◽  
Vol 14 (s2) ◽  
Author(s):  
A.M. Pasquino ◽  
A. Albanese ◽  
M. Bozzola ◽  
G.E. Butler ◽  
F. Buzi ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Short Stature ◽  
Adult Height ◽  
Idiopathic Short Stature ◽  
Psychological Benefits ◽  
Normal Children ◽  
Gh Treatment ◽  
Number Of Children ◽  
The Status ◽  
Gonadotrophin Releasing Hormone

AbstractIdiopathic short stature (ISS) is a term used to describe the status of children with short stature that cannot be attributed to a specific cause. Many children diagnosed as having ISS have partial GH insensitivity, which can result from disturbances at various points of the GH-IGF-I axis. Several clinical studies on spontaneous growth in ISS showed that adult height was almost in the range of target height. GH treatment led to adult height not significantly higher than the pretreatment predicted adult height in most reports. No metabolic side effects have been observed, even when the dose was higher than in GH deficiency. Manipulation of puberty with gonadotrophin releasing hormone analogues reported by a few authors in a small number of children has shown conflicting results. Long-term psychological benefits of GH therapy for short normal children have not been demonstrated to date.

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