Eavesdropping on Referential Yellow Warbler Alarm Calls by Red-Winged Blackbirds Is Mediated by Brood Parasitism Risk

Referential alarm calls that denote specific types of dangers are common across diverse vertebrate lineages. Different alarm calls can indicate a variety of threats, which often require specific actions to evade. Thus, to benefit from the call, listeners of referential alarm calls must be able to decode the signaled threat and respond to it in an appropriate manner. Yellow warblers (Setophaga petechia) produce referential “seet” calls that signal to conspecifics the presence of nearby obligate brood parasitic brown-headed cowbirds (Molothrus ater), which lay their eggs in the nests of other species, including yellow warblers. Our previous playback experiments have found that red-winged blackbirds (Agelaius phoeniceus), a species also parasitized by brown-headed cowbirds, eavesdrop upon and respond strongly to yellow warbler seet calls during the incubation stage of breeding with aggression similar to responses to both cowbird chatters and predator calls. To assess whether red-winged blackbird responses to seet calls vary with their own risk of brood parasitism, we presented the same playbacks during the nestling stage of breeding (when the risk of brood parasitism is lower than during incubation). As predicted, we found that blackbirds mediated their aggression toward both cowbird chatter calls and the warblers’ anti-parasitic referential alarm calls in parallel with the low current risk of brood parasitism during the nestling stage. These results further support that red-winged blackbirds flexibly respond to yellow warbler antiparasitic referential calls as a frontline defense against brood parasitism at their own nests.

Startup Project Leadership dalam Meningkatkan Produktivitas Pembelajaran di Masa Pandemi

Learning problems amid a pandemic tend to be one-way. Teachers provide more one-way information and assignments to students without feedback, resulting in boredom for students studying online. Therefore, one solution is given through the startup project leadership (SPL) program. This activity was held on October 31 - November 27, 2020, at three elementary schools: SDN Mangkura III Makassar, SDN 234 Barambang II Maros Regency, and SD IT Asshiddiq Bone Regency, involving as many as 40 students. The results of the activity can be concluded that the SPL Program is a collaborative action of teachers in innovating to create quality education in the pandemic era consisting of 3 stages: Incubation which is the initial planning carried out by designing joint activities with students and parents related to the problems faced by students and solutions that will be applied; Startup which is an active activity for program realization agreed at the incubation stage; and Mobilization which is the final stage through process reflection, evaluation, and conclusion drawing, as well as follow-up to the results of program realization that have been carried out. The implementation of SPL is running well according to the time and targets that have been determined and can increase learning productivity during pandemics.

Innovation, Creativity, and Brain Integration

The heart of creative thinking is the incubation stage, in which ideas freely move on a subconscious level going beyond the limits of the problem space to create new solutions. The incubation stage might be fostered through meditation practices that lead to transcending, such as the Transcendental Meditation (TM) technique that cultures greater brain integration in which the brain functions more as a whole. Higher brain integration is seen during the TM session within a few weeks of practice, and after the TM session with regular practice over time. Higher brain integration is associated with higher creativity and greater success in life. Adding the experience of transcending to enhance incubation of creative ideas is innovation from the inside. Training in transcending could be part of forward-looking graduate programs to help their graduates thrive in an ever-changing workspace landscape, and could be a workplace skill to support better performance in many professions.

Study on the biology of groundnut bruchid, Caryedon serratus Olivier [Coleoptera: Bruchidae] on stored groundnut in Ganye area, Adamawa State, Nigeria

Study on the biology of groundnut bruchid, Caryedon serratus Olivier was carried out in the Laboratory of the Department of Agricultural Technology, Adamawa State College of Agriculture, Ganye, Adamawa State from June to September, 2015. The sex of the bruchid (male and female) was assigned the sub-treatment while the period of development was the main treatment and was replicated three times. The work considered the pre-oviposition stage, incubation stage, larval stage, pupal stage, adult stage and the total life cycle of the bruchid (male and female). The experiment was carried out under Laboratory conditions at 30-35°C temperature and 70-90% relative humidity. After the experiment was established, weekly counting of the total number of eggs laid was carried out at intervals. The results showed that, the mean developmental stages in both female and male bruchids were: 6.50 and 6.00 days; 17.00 and 18.00 days; 13.50 and 13.50 days; 12.00 and 13.50 days; 48.00 and 50.00 days for incubation stage, larval stage, pupal stage, adult stage and total life cycle of the bruchids, respectively. Moreover, the mean pre-oviposition and oviposition stages in female adult bruchid were 1.50 and 5.50 days, respectively.

PROSES BERPIKIR KREATIF PESERTA DIDIK DALAM MEMECAHKAN MASALAH SOAL PISA DITINJAU DARI GAYA BELAJAR GLOBAL-ANALITIK

The process of creative thinking is a step that someone uses in produce new ideas and alternative ways/answers include the preparation, incubation, illumination and verification. The problem used is PISA problems with space and shape. Each individual has their own ways to absorbing information and solving a problem is learning style. Learning styles used are global and analytic learning style. The purpose of this research to describe students’ creative thinking processes in PISA roblem solving with global and analytic learning style. This research uses descriptive research with a qualitative approach. The research subjects were taken by two students each in global and analytic learning style in class X-IPA 1 of Senior High School 8 Kediri in the odd semester of the 2019/2020 school year. The result of this research showed that students’ creative thinking processess in PISA problem solving in PISA with global learning style can through preparation, incubation, illumination and verification. The student can do PISA problem in two different ways but the result are not coherent, do not write the basic formula and some write the final answer. In the incubation stage, student was saturation and difficulty on one of the ways which is found and the effect do silence for a moment. The next, student’ creative thinking processes in PISA problem solving with analytic learning style can also through preparation, incubation, illumination and verification. The student can do PISA problem in two different ways, the result are written coherently, step by step written clearly. In the incubation stage, student not have problem. Keywords:creative thinking process, PISA, learning style.

Does Mind Wandering During the Thought Incubation Period Improve Creativity and Worsen Mood?

Enhancing creative problem-solving is increasingly important in a modern globalized society. Previous research has shown that creative problem-solving can be improved if the mind is allowed to wander during time set aside from solving a problem, known as the incubation period. However, some research also suggests that mind wandering leads to negative affect. Our study aims to clarify the effect of mind wandering during the incubation stage on both creative problem-solving and mood while controlling for the effect of working memory capacity. Fifty-two students (both undergraduate and graduates) completed a working memory task and repeated a creative problem-solving task at intervals before and after an incubation period. At the end of the incubation period, we measured participants’ frequency of mind wandering and their moods. Results showed that the group with the higher frequency of mind wandering showed the most improvement in one indicator of creativity, flexibility, although this finding was not significant after adjusting for the other four facets. Moreover, our findings indicate that as creativity improved, more negative affect was generated. Our results suggest that mind wandering during the incubation stage could be used to generate more diverse ideas but also suggest that there is a risk attached. Further research should explore how specific features of mind wandering might improve creativity without generating negative affect.