scholarly journals Being the Winner Is Being the Loser When Playing a Parental Tug-of-War – A New Framework on Stability of Biparental Care

2021 ◽  
Vol 9 ◽  
Author(s):  
Katarzyna Wojczulanis-Jakubas
Keyword(s):  
Parental Care ◽  
Sexual Conflict ◽  
Reproductive Potential ◽  
Evolutionary Stability ◽  
Biparental Care ◽  
Parental Burden ◽  
Breeding Attempt ◽  
The Stability ◽  
The Cost ◽  
New Framework

Because there are basic sexual differences in reproductive potential, and the cost of parental care is assumed to be high, biparental care is viewed as a constant tug-of-war between the partners. This raises the question of the system’s evolutionary stability. Several models have been proposed to resolve this problem but none has received unequivocal support. Here, I propose a framework that not only integrates the earlier theoretical ideas (sealed bids, negotiation) but also considers the importance of the environment (frequently neglected in previous models) and views the cost of parental care from a different perspective (costly in terms of parent’s survival only when performed close to the boundary of parental capacity). The framework suggests that sexual conflict may not be such a significant factor mediating parental care as commonly assumed, and that a parent trying to shift the parental burden onto the partner – assumed to be the winner in the tug-of-war interplay – is actually more likely to be a loser, as doing so may put the success of the current breeding attempt in jeopardy, thereby reducing overall fitness of the parent. Once it is realized that the importance of sexual conflict is actually much less than it seems, it becomes clear that the stability of the biparental care system no longer seems to be such a puzzling issue.

scholarly journals Second-order freeriding on antisocial punishment restores the effectiveness of prosocial punishment

2017 ◽  
Author(s):  
Attila Szolnoki ◽  
Matjaž Perc
Keyword(s):  
Public Goods ◽  
Synergistic Effects ◽  
Evolutionary Stability ◽  
Second Order ◽  
Public Goods Game ◽  
Microscopic Mechanism ◽  
Spatial Pattern Formation ◽  
The Stability ◽  
The Cost ◽  
Over Time

Economic experiments have shown that punishment can increase public goods game contributions over time. However, the effectiveness of punishment is challenged by second-order freeriding and antisocial punishment. The latter implies that non-cooperators punish cooperators, while the former implies unwillingness to shoulder the cost of punishment. Here we extend the theory of cooperation in the spatial public goods game by considering four competing strategies, which are traditional cooperators and defectors, as well as cooperators who punish defectors and defectors who punish cooperators. We show that if the synergistic effects are high enough to sustain cooperation based on network reciprocity alone, antisocial punishment does not deter public cooperation. Conversely, if synergistic effects are low and punishment is actively needed to sustain cooperation, antisocial punishment does act detrimental, but only if the cost-to-fine ratio is low. If the costs are relatively high, cooperation again dominates as a result of spatial pattern formation. Counterintuitively, defectors who do not punish cooperators, and are thus effectively second-order freeriding on antisocial punishment, form an active layer around punishing cooperators, which protects them against defectors that punish cooperators. A stable three-strategy phase that is sustained by the spontaneous emergence of cyclic dominance is also possible via the same route. The microscopic mechanism behind the reported evolutionary outcomes can be explained by the comparison of invasion rates that determine the stability of subsystem solutions. Our results reveal an unlikely evolutionary escape from adverse effects of antisocial punishment, and they provide a rationale for why second-order freeriding is not always an impediment to the evolutionary stability of punishment.

The importance of pair duration and biparental care to reproductive success in the monogamous Australian magpie-lark

1999 ◽  
Vol 47 (5) ◽  
pp. 439 ◽  
Author(s):  
Michelle L. Hall
Keyword(s):  
Reproductive Success ◽  
Parental Care ◽  
Biparental Care ◽  
Feeding Rates ◽  
Previous Season ◽  
Socially Monogamous ◽  
First Clutch ◽  
Breeding Attempt ◽  
First Time ◽  
Australian Magpie

Biparental care is common in birds, where monogamy is the predominant mating system. Australian magpie-larks (Grallina cyanoleuca) are socially monogamous, and relatively unusual among passerines in the extent to which parental care is shared. Males contributed as much or more to parental care as females, sharing nest-building, incubation, brooding and feeding of nestlings and fledglings. Biparental care was thus important to survival of offspring, and probably constrained partners to stay together thoughout a breeding attempt. However, partners usually remained together longer. Pairs that had bred together in the previous season tended to lay their first clutch earlier, were more likely to fledge two broods in the season, and had higher annual reproductive success than pairs breeding together for the first time. Females benefitted from staying with a male they had bred with previously, as females in established pairs decreased their feeding rates and their partners compensated to some extent. Differences between new and established pairs may have been due to the effects of the age and experience of each partner, or to pair duration, or both. Divorce rates were low, consistent with benefits associated with staying together, but also with high costs of divorce as year-round territoriality probably limited opportunities for taking different partners.

scholarly journals Black Hole Algorithm for Sustainable Design of Counterfort Retaining Walls

2020 ◽  
Vol 12 (7) ◽  
pp. 2767 ◽  
Author(s):  
Víctor Yepes ◽  
José V. Martí ◽  
José García
Keyword(s):  
Black Hole ◽  
Sustainable Design ◽  
Retaining Walls ◽  
The Other ◽  
Trade Off ◽  
Construction Company ◽  
Geometric Variables ◽  
The Stability ◽  
The Cost ◽  
Black Hole Algorithm

The optimization of the cost and CO 2 emissions in earth-retaining walls is of relevance, since these structures are often used in civil engineering. The optimization of costs is essential for the competitiveness of the construction company, and the optimization of emissions is relevant in the environmental impact of construction. To address the optimization, black hole metaheuristics were used, along with a discretization mechanism based on min–max normalization. The stability of the algorithm was evaluated with respect to the solutions obtained; the steel and concrete values obtained in both optimizations were analyzed. Additionally, the geometric variables of the structure were compared. Finally, the results obtained were compared with another algorithm that solved the problem. The results show that there is a trade-off between the use of steel and concrete. The solutions that minimize CO 2 emissions prefer the use of concrete instead of those that optimize the cost. On the other hand, when comparing the geometric variables, it is seen that most remain similar in both optimizations except for the distance between buttresses. When comparing with another algorithm, the results show a good performance in optimization using the black hole algorithm.

scholarly journals Urban Sustainability at the Cost of Rural Unsustainability

2021 ◽  
Vol 13 (10) ◽  
pp. 5466
Author(s):  
Guangwei Huang
Keyword(s):  
Urban Sprawl ◽  
Rural Areas ◽  
Urban Sustainability ◽  
Negative Externalities ◽  
Large Cities ◽  
Rural Sustainability ◽  
Use Of Resources ◽  
The Cost ◽  
New Framework ◽  
Japan And China

Urban sustainability refers to building and maintaining cities that can continue to function without running out of resources. However, growing cities require more land and urban sprawl has transformed surrounding rural areas into urbanized settlements. Furthermore, the prosperity of large cities depends on the supply of both natural and human resources from rural areas, either nearby or remote. On the other hand, the use of resources of rural areas by cities may cause negative externalities to rural areas, affecting their sustainability. Therefore, a critical, but very much neglected issue, is how unban sustainability should be pursued without affecting rural sustainability. In this study, cases in Japan and China were analyzed from resources and population migration perspectives to provide evidence for the possibility that urban sustainability might have been pursued at the cost of rural unsustainability. It was intended to develop a better understanding of urban sustainability through the lens of externalities. Based on the analysis, a new framework for urban sustainability study was proposed, which consists of three new pillars. Namely, externality, vulnerability, and population instability.

scholarly journals Tri-axial accelerometry shows differences in energy expenditure and parental effort throughout the breeding season in long-lived raptors

2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Pascual LÓPEZ-LÓPEZ ◽  
Arturo M PERONA ◽  
Olga EGEA-CASAS ◽  
Jon ETXEBARRIA MORANT ◽  
Vicente URIOS
Keyword(s):  
Energy Expenditure ◽  
Parental Care ◽  
Breeding Season ◽  
Video Recording ◽  
Experimental Manipulation ◽  
Biparental Care ◽  
Breeding Ecology ◽  
Parental Effort ◽  
Ecological Data ◽  
Movement Trajectories

Abstract Cutting-edge technologies are extremely useful to develop new workflows in studying ecological data, particularly to understand animal behaviour and movement trajectories at the individual level. Although parental care is a well-studied phenomenon, most studies have been focused on direct observational or video recording data, as well as experimental manipulation. Therefore, what happens out of our sight still remains unknown. Using high-frequency GPS/GSM dataloggers and tri-axial accelerometers we monitored 25 Bonelli’s eagles (Aquila fasciata) during the breeding season to understand parental activities from a broader perspective. We used recursive data, measured as number of visits and residence time, to reveal nest attendance patterns of biparental care with role specialization between sexes. Accelerometry data interpreted as the Overall Dynamic Body Acceleration, a proxy of energy expenditure, showed strong differences in parental effort throughout the breeding season and between sexes. Thereby, males increased substantially their energetic requirements, due to the increased workload, while females spent most of the time on the nest. Furthermore, during critical phases of the breeding season, a low percentage of suitable hunting spots in eagles’ territories led them to increase their ranging behaviour in order to find food, with important consequences in energy consumption and mortality risk. Our results highlight the crucial role of males in raptor species exhibiting biparental care. Finally, we exemplify how biologging technologies are an adequate and objective method to study parental care in raptors as well as to get deeper insight into breeding ecology of birds in general.

scholarly journals Longevity of Raw and Lyophilized Crude Urease Extracts

2021 ◽  
Vol 2 (2) ◽  
pp. 325-334
Author(s):  
Neda Javadi ◽  
Hamed Khodadadi Tirkolaei ◽  
Nasser Hamdan ◽  
Edward Kavazanjian
Keyword(s):  
Crude Extract ◽  
Room Temperature ◽  
Low Cost ◽  
Extraction Process ◽  
Crude Extracts ◽  
Simple Extraction ◽  
Commercial Applications ◽  
Stable Source ◽  
The Stability ◽  
The Cost

The stability (longevity of activity) of three crude urease extracts was evaluated in a laboratory study as part of an effort to reduce the cost of urease for applications that do not require high purity enzyme. A low-cost, stable source of urease will greatly facilitate engineering applications of urease such as biocementation of soil. Inexpensive crude extracts of urease have been shown to be effective at hydrolyzing urea for carbonate precipitation. However, some studies have suggested that the activity of a crude extract may decrease with time, limiting the potential for its mass production for commercial applications. The stability of crude urease extracts shown to be effective for biocementation was studied. The crude extracts were obtained from jack beans via a simple extraction process, stored at room temperature and at 4 ℃, and periodically tested to evaluate their stability. To facilitate storage and transportation of the extracted enzyme, the longevity of the enzyme following freeze drying (lyophilization) to reduce the crude extract to a powder and subsequent re-hydration into an aqueous solution was evaluated. In an attempt to improve the shelf life of the lyophilized extract, dextran and sucrose were added during lyophilization. The stability of purified commercial urease following rehydration was also investigated. Results of the laboratory tests showed that the lyophilized crude extract maintained its activity during storage more effectively than either the crude extract solution or the rehydrated commercial urease. While incorporating 2% dextran (w/v) prior to lyophilization of the crude extract increased the overall enzymatic activity, it did not enhance the stability of the urease during storage.

scholarly journals The cost of associating with males for Bornean and Sumatran female orangutans: a hidden form of sexual conflict?

2020 ◽  
Vol 75 (1) ◽  
Author(s):  
Julia A. Kunz ◽  
Guilhem J. Duvot ◽  
Maria A. van Noordwijk ◽  
Erik P. Willems ◽  
Manuela Townsend ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Sexual Conflict ◽  
Sexual Coercion ◽  
High Association ◽  
Sexual Swellings ◽  
Fecal Cortisol ◽  
Habitat Productivity ◽  
Pongo Pygmaeus Wurmbii ◽  
Males And Females ◽  
Study Sites ◽  
The Cost

Abstract Sexual coercion, in the form of forced copulations, is relatively frequently observed in orangutans and generally attributed to their semi-solitary lifestyle. High ecological costs of association for females may be responsible for this lifestyle and may have prevented the evolution of morphological fertility indicators (e.g., sexual swellings), which would attract (male) associates. Therefore, sexual conflict may arise not only about mating per se but also about associations, because males may benefit from associations with females to monitor their reproductive state and attempt to monopolize their sexual activities. Here, we evaluate association patterns and costs for females when associating with both males and females of two different orangutan species at two study sites: Suaq, Sumatra (Pongo abelii), and Tuanan, Borneo (Pongo pygmaeus wurmbii). Female association frequency with both males and females was higher in the Sumatran population, living in more productive habitat. Accordingly, we found that the cost of association, in terms of reduced feeding to moving ratio and increased time being active, is higher in the less sociable Bornean population. Males generally initiated and maintained such costly associations with females, and prolonged associations with males led to increased female fecal cortisol metabolite (FCM) levels at Tuanan, the Bornean population. We conclude that male-maintained associations are an expression of sexual conflict in orangutans, at least at Tuanan. For females, this cost of association may be responsible for the lack of sexual signaling, while needing to confuse paternity. Significance statement Socioecological theory predicts a trade-off between the benefits of sociality and the ecological costs of increased feeding competition. Orangutans’ semi-solitary lifestyle has been attributed to the combination of high association costs and low predation risk. Previous work revealed a positive correlation between association frequencies and habitat productivity, but did not measure the costs of association. In this comparative study, we show that females likely incur costs from involuntary, male-maintained associations, especially when they last for several days and particularly in the population characterized by lower association frequencies. Association maintenance therefore qualifies as another expression of sexual conflict in orangutans, and especially prolonged, male-maintained associations may qualify as an indirect form of sexual coercion.

scholarly journals Competing Conventions with Costly Information Acquisition

Games ◽  
2021 ◽  
Vol 12 (3) ◽  
pp. 53
Author(s):  
Roberto Rozzi
Keyword(s):  
Information Acquisition ◽  
Evolutionary Model ◽  
Equilibrium Selection ◽  
The Other ◽  
Group Interactions ◽  
Social Coordination ◽  
Long Run ◽  
Stochastic Stability Analysis ◽  
The Stability ◽  
The Cost

We consider an evolutionary model of social coordination in a 2 × 2 game where two groups of players prefer to coordinate on different actions. Players can pay a cost to learn their opponent’s group: if they pay it, they can condition their actions concerning the groups. We assess the stability of outcomes in the long run using stochastic stability analysis. We find that three elements matter for the equilibrium selection: the group size, the strength of preferences, and the information’s cost. If the cost is too high, players never learn the group of their opponents in the long run. If one group is stronger in preferences for its favorite action than the other, or its size is sufficiently large compared to the other group, every player plays that group’s favorite action. If both groups are strong enough in preferences, or if none of the groups’ sizes is large enough, players play their favorite actions and miscoordinate in inter-group interactions. Lower levels of the cost favor coordination. Indeed, when the cost is low, in inside-group interactions, players always coordinate on their favorite action, while in inter-group interactions, they coordinate on the favorite action of the group that is stronger in preferences or large enough.

scholarly journals Computing the Exact Number of Similarity Classes in the Longest Edge Bisection of Tetrahedra

Mathematics ◽  
2021 ◽  
Vol 9 (12) ◽  
pp. 1447
Author(s):  
Jose P. Suárez ◽  
Agustín Trujillo ◽  
Tania Moreno
Keyword(s):  
Data Structure ◽  
Stability Condition ◽  
Open Problem ◽  
Integer Arithmetic ◽  
Exact Number ◽  
Similarity Class ◽  
The Stability ◽  
High Level ◽  
The Cost

Showing whether the longest-edge (LE) bisection of tetrahedra meshes degenerates the stability condition or not is still an open problem. Some reasons, in part, are due to the cost for achieving the computation of similarity classes of millions of tetrahedra. We prove the existence of tetrahedra where the LE bisection introduces, at most, 37 similarity classes. This family of new tetrahedra was roughly pointed out by Adler in 1983. However, as far as we know, there has been no evidence confirming its existence. We also introduce a new data structure and algorithm for computing the number of similarity tetrahedral classes based on integer arithmetic, storing only the square of edges. The algorithm lets us perform compact and efficient high-level similarity class computations with a cost that is only dependent on the number of similarity classes.

The Mitigation of the French Nuclear Option: New Industrial Realism and Technical Democracy

2002 ◽  
Vol 13 (2) ◽  
pp. 263-279 ◽  
Author(s):  
Dominique Finon
Keyword(s):  
Waste Management ◽  
Electricity Markets ◽  
Social Preferences ◽  
Public Inquiry ◽  
The Future ◽  
Parliamentary Committee ◽  
Set Up ◽  
The Stability ◽  
The Cost ◽  
Phase Out

Nuclear phase-out policies and the European obligation to liberalise electricity markets could put the French nuclear option dramatically at risk by influencing social preferences or by constraining power producers' investment choices in the future. So far, the particular institutional set-up which has allowed the efficient build-up and operation of several series of standardised reactors preserves the stability of the main elements of the option. However, important adaptations to the evolving industrial and political environment occur and contribute to changing the option. Some institutional changes (such as local public inquiry, creation of a Parliamentary committee, independence of safety authorities) and divergence between industrial interests already allow debates on internal options such as reprocessing, type of waste management deposits, ordering of an advanced PWR. These changes improve the cost transparency, even if internalisation of nuclear externalities (cost of insurance, provisions for waste management) is still incomplete. However, when effective, this internalisation would not affect definitively the competitive position of the nuclear production because of the parallel internalisation of CO2 externalities from fossil fuel power generation in the official rationale. Consequently the real issue for the future of the nuclear option in France remains the preservation of social acceptability in the perception of nuclear risks.

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