scholarly journals Hooded Crows (Corvus cornix) May Be Aware of Their Own Body Size

2021 ◽  
Vol 12 ◽  
Author(s):  
Ivan A. Khvatov ◽  
Anna A. Smirnova ◽  
Maria V. Samuleeva ◽  
Evgeniy V. Ershov ◽  
Svetlana D. Buinitskaya ◽  
...  

Body-awareness is one of the manifestations of self-awareness, expressed in the ability of people and animals to represent their own body physical properties. Relatively little work has been devoted to this phenomenon in comparison with the studies of the ability of self-recognition in the mirror, and most studies have been conducted on mammals and human infants. Crows are known to be “clever” birds, so we investigated whether hooded crows (Corvus cornix) may be aware of their own body size. We set up an experimental design in which the crows had to pass through one of three openings to reach the bait. In the first experiment, we studied whether crows prefer a larger hole if all the three are suitable for passage, and what other predictors influence their choice. In the second experiment, we assessed the ability of the crows to select a single passable hole out of three on the first attempt, even though the area of the former was smaller than that of the other two. The results of the first experiment suggest that when choosing among three passable holes, crows prefer those holes that require less effort from them, e.g., they do not need to crouch or make other additional movements. In the second experiment, three of the five crows reliably more often chose a single passable hole on the first try, despite its smaller size. We believe that these results suggest that hooded crows may be aware of their own body size.

2020 ◽  
Vol 47 (7) ◽  
pp. 836-843
Author(s):  
A. A. Smirnova ◽  
Yu. A. Kalashnikova ◽  
M. V. Samuleeva ◽  
Z. A. Zorina

2021 ◽  
Vol 11 (1) ◽  
Author(s):  
Maria Cristina Lorenzi ◽  
Dáša Schleicherová ◽  
Franco G. Robles-Guerrero ◽  
Michela Dumas ◽  
Alice Araguas

AbstractConditional reciprocity (help someone who helped you before) explains the evolution of cooperation among unrelated individuals who take turns helping each other. Reciprocity is vulnerable to exploitations, and players are expected to identify uncooperative partners who do not return the help they received. We tested this prediction in the simultaneously hermaphroditic worm, Ophryotrocha diadema, which engages in mutual egg donations by alternating sexual roles (one worm releases’ eggs and the other fertilizes them). We set up dyads with different cooperativeness expectations; partners were either the same or a different body size (body size predicts clutch size). Large worms offered larger clutches and did so sooner when paired with large rather than small partners. They also released smaller egg clutches when they started egg donations than when they responded to a partners’ donation, fulfilling the prediction that a players’ first move will be prudent. Finally, behavioral bodily interactions were more frequent between more size-dissimilar worms, suggesting that worms engaged in low-cost behavioral exchanges before investing in such costly moves as egg donations. These results support the hypothesis that simultaneously hermaphroditic worms follow a conditional reciprocity paradigm and solve the conflict over sexual roles by sharing the costs of reproduction via the male and the female functions.


2021 ◽  
pp. 210-226
Author(s):  
Rosie Drysdale ◽  
Manos Tsakiris

Experimental research on self-recognition has largely focused on four different populations: human infants, non-human primates, neurotypical adults, and neuropsychiatric patients. Across these populations, the question has been on the mechanisms that may enable an explicit form of recognizing one’s own image or appearance. At the same time, research in this area has recognized the fact that the other side of the embodiment, not that of the seen body but that of the felt body, has been largely ignored, both in the adult literature and more so in developmental studies. This chapter reviews relevant, but scarce, evidence on the relation between interoceptively and exteroceptively driven body awareness in early life and adulthood and puts forward a framework that articulates how we grow a self from the inside-out, with important implications for our understanding of body image and emotional awareness.


Author(s):  
Rachana Kamtekar

Chapter 1 lays out the methodological approach employed throughout the book, which is to pay attention to the dialectical dependence of what the main speaker in the dialogue says on the intellectual problem(s) set up in the dialogue both by himself and the other speakers. To illustrate, Chapter 1 describes Socrates’ use of the method of hypotheses from the Meno and Phaedo to answer questions that go beyond his claims to knowledge in the Republic.


2020 ◽  
Vol 5 (1) ◽  
Author(s):  
Elodie Di-Falco ◽  
Johan Bourbon ◽  
Isalyne Sbaffe ◽  
Jean-Daniel Kaiser

AbstractAlsace, in particular Haut-Rhin, is one of the main clusters of COVID-19 in France. There has been a shortage of essential supplies in the area, especially alcohol-based hand sanitizer. In this context, and in accordance with the decree dated March 6, 2020, our hospital management team asked us to start local production of alcohol-based handrub. This was a real challenge: In one week, we had to implement the production of handrub to meet the needs of a 1,400-bed hospital. The production had to comply with the French preparation guidelines and take place on specific premises, with qualified and calibrated equipment, by qualified staff, under the supervision of a pharmacist. The other big challenge we faced was the supply of pharmaceutical raw and packaging materials. During this particular critical period, all suppliers were out of stock. Here, we describe the organizational set-up and the decisions made, e. g., to use technical-grade ethanol before the publication of the decrees dated March 13 and March 23, 2020.


Nanophotonics ◽  
2020 ◽  
Vol 9 (10) ◽  
pp. 3271-3278 ◽  
Author(s):  
Qian Ma ◽  
Qiao Ru Hong ◽  
Xin Xin Gao ◽  
Hong Bo Jing ◽  
Che Liu ◽  
...  

AbstractFor the intelligence of metamaterials, the -sensing mechanism and programmable reaction units are two important components for self-recognition and -determination. However, their realization still face great challenges. Here, we propose a smart sensing metasurface to achieve self-defined functions in the framework of digital coding metamaterials. A sensing unit that can simultaneously process the sensing channel and realize phase-programmable capability is designed by integrating radio frequency (RF) power detector and PIN diodes. Four sensing units distributed on the metasurface aperture can detect the microwave incidences in the x- and y-polarizations, while the other elements can modulate the reflected phase patterns under the control of a field programmable gate array (FPGA). To validate the performance, three schemes containing six coding patterns are presented and simulated, after which two of them are measured, showing good agreements with designs. We envision that this work may motivate studies on smart metamaterials with high-level recognition and manipulation.


1998 ◽  
Vol 162 ◽  
pp. 211-213
Author(s):  
S. Isobe

Astronomy is an important science in understanding a human environment. However, it is thought by most politicians, economists, and members of the public that astronomy is a pure science having no contribution to daily human activities except a few matters relating to time. The Japanese government is studying a reorganisation of our school system to have 5 school days per week, instead of 6 days per week, and this July its committee made a recommendation to reduce school hours for science and set up new courses for practical computers and environmental science. I currently made a proposal. It is very difficult for most of the school pupils, who will have non-scientific jobs, to understand science courses currently taught in school, because each science is taught independently from the other sciences. Therefore, their knowledge of sciences obtained during their school period does not greatly help their understanding of global environmental problems.


2011 ◽  
Vol 268-270 ◽  
pp. 557-560
Author(s):  
Shi Ruo Yang

The train and the continuous truss girder bridge are coupled together as one composite system. Truss girder bridge is idealized as an assemblage of finite truss element. The equations of the train and truss girder bridges time varying system are set up by using the principle of total potential energy with stationary value in elastic system dynamics and the“set-in-right-position”rule for forming structural matrices. This method is more convenient than the finite elements. The vibration responses of the train and bridge are calculated when the the passenger trains pass through a continuous truss girder bridge at speeds of 90km/h and 120km/h The results show that the passenger train can pass it safely and comfortably


2011 ◽  
Vol 343-344 ◽  
pp. 661-667 ◽  
Author(s):  
Yun Xue ◽  
De Wei Weng ◽  
Gang Ming Gong

Mechanical model of nucleoside and its equilibrium equations are set up, and the mechanical properties on the equilibrium position are analyzed. In the case constraint force and electrostatic attraction between cylinder OH and elastic rod are balanced, the analytic expression of nutation angle of the section and its conditions of existence are given. It is show that the cylinder OH can maintain equilibrium at any range of the precession angle. In the other case when unbanced, there is phenomenon of separation of elastic rod from cylinder OH in the spiral wound 2 circles, and numerical solution of the precession angle at separation points are calculated. Analysis of equilibrium of cylinder H1 illustrates that the generatrix of cylinder H1 and OH are not parallel, and the angle between them is obtained


2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Paul Swindell ◽  
Danielle Stephens

Abstract The Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) has been participating with the Society of Automotive Engineers (SAE) Aerospace Industry Steering Committee (AISC) to develop a methodology for calculating the Probability of Detection (POD) for Structural Health Monitoring (SHM) for damage detection on commercial aviation. Two POD methodologies were developed: one by Dr. William Meeker, Iowa State University, and the other by Dennis Roach, Sandia National Laboratories (SNL). With Dr. Seth Kessler, Metis Design Corp, a test program of 24 samples of aluminum strips to be fatigued on MTS machines was developed. The samples were designed to meet the ASTM E647. Twelve samples had two SHM modalities on the front and back from Metis (PZT and carbon nanotubes), and the other twelve had SHM sensors from Structural Monitoring Systems (SMS) (comparative vacuum monitoring – CVM) and Acellent Technologies (PZT). The tests were performed at the FAA William J Hughes Technical Center in Atlantic City, NJ. The samples were cycled every 1500 cycles and then stopped for SHM data collection. Once the crack exceeded 0.125 inches and provided for a minimum of 15 inspections, a new sample was tested until all 12 samples were completed. The data was provided to each company to be set up in the format needed to run through the POD methodologies. Then the data was provided to Dr. Meeker and Dr. Roach for analysis. This paper will provide the results of those tests.


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