Who Plays With Whom: Farrowing Environment Influences Isolation of Foster Piglets in Play

Cross fostering piglets is a common management practise in the pig industry to manage large and heterogeneous litters, whereby piglets are moved from their biological litter to be reared by another sow. At present research has focused on immediate survival consequences and time of cross fostering, with little attention given to positive aspects of welfare such as social affiliations and the potential for positive interactions for these piglets such as play behaviour. The focus of our study was purely observational to record behaviour of piglets reared in either impoverished (farrowing crates) or enriched neonatal environments (PigSAFE pens) where fostering was practised as part of normal husbandry routines to promote piglet survival. We employed social network analysis to understand more about the behaviour of foster piglets in these environments and their acceptance into their new litter. In line with previous work, piglets exposed to enriched neonatal farrowing pens demonstrated more play behaviour than piglets reared in farrowing crates. We showed that pen piglets received and initiated more play invitations (higher degree centrality) than piglets in crates. We also found effects of cross fostering irrespective of neonatal environment. Non-foster piglets received and initiated more play behaviours (higher degree centrality) 2–3 weeks post-farrowing compared to piglets fostered into the litter and as such, fostered piglets remained isolated from play for the first few weeks of life. However, our data suggests this may be mitigated by neonatal environment; foster piglets reared in pens were better connected (betweenness centrality) within their foster litter than those fostered in crates. Our findings highlight the importance of the neonatal environment and its potential influence on the isolation of cross-fostered piglets and suggest that rearing in enriched neonatal environments may help mitigate against social isolation in early life of cross-fostered piglets, having obvious immediate, and long-term consequences for piglet welfare and behaviour. We also highlight the importance and application of methodologies such as social network analysis, for gaining more insight and understanding about the sociality of animal behaviour and its potential for measuring indicators of positive welfare, thus highlighting its application for veterinary science and animal behaviour and welfare research.

Old Cups Die Hard: The Appropriation of Athenian Pottery in the Iberian Peninsula

The Iberian archaeological record is particularly rich in asynchronous (i.e. chronologically mixed) assemblages including Athenian pots that predate the other items by a couple of decades or even a few centuries. Recent scholarship on keimëlia, or ‘curated objects’ in modern parlance, has shown the potential of such objects to investigate questions of identity, agency and history-making among the receiving communities, but also to shed light on the role of Athenian pottery among them. This article analyses this phenomenon within the Iberian peninsula, focusing on drinking cups, both black-gloss with inset lip (Cástulo cups) and red-figure type B cups. Using case studies from necropoleis and settlements of the southeast and east of the peninsula, the article explores the reasons and meaning of this consumption practice. It is argued that the occurrence of ‘heirloom’ vases in Iberian tombs and their extraordinary survival in some settlements is the result of a conscious and deliberate choice indicating the existence of mechanisms of social distinction based on a diacritical use of material culture. It is further argued that different motivations might lie behind their delayed deposition: when the chronological gap between production and disposal dates is small, one or two human generations, curated Athenian vases worked similarly to non-curated ones, being emblematic of economic success, social affiliations and political rank. But when the interval is longer, Athenian pots became symbols of ancestry and elite status, possibly acquiring the same legitimizing role earlier bestowed upon Orientalizing artefacts. Supplementary material is available online (https://doi.org/10.1017/S0075426921000094) and comprises a catalogue of case-study objects.

Partisans use emotions as social pressure: Feeling anger and gratitude at exiters and recruits in political groups

Political collective action requires assembling and motivating supporters. Many theories view emotions as functional tools for managing relationships, including within groups. We study what leads citizens to use the emotions anger and gratitude as social pressure. Specifically, we test what determines the use of these emotions to prevent potential exiters from leaving a political group and to encourage potential recruits to join. Because parties are enduring social affiliations (compared to transient or issue-focused groups), we predicted that partisans would express stronger emotions. We tested this proposition in two separate studies—one an observational study featuring a representative sample of US adults and one an experimental study conducted in Denmark. As predicted, people with a partisan mindset, whether naturally occurring or experimentally manipulated, felt more anger and gratitude at potential exiters and recruits. Citizens strive to fortify and expand their ingroups and sometimes use emotions as social pressure to do so.

Children use artifacts to infer others' shared interests

Artifacts – the objects we own, make, and choose – provide a source of rich social information. Adults use people’s artifacts to judge others’ traits, interests, and social affiliations. Here we show that 4-year-old children (N=32) infer others’ shared interests from their artifacts. When asked who had the same interests as a target character, children chose the character with a conceptually similar object to the target’s – an object used for the same activity – over a character with a perceptually similar object. When asked which person had the same arbitrary property (bedtime, birthday, or middle name), children did not systematically select either character, and most often reported that they did not know. Adults (N=32) made similar inferences, but differed in their tendency to use artifacts to infer friendships. Overall, by age 4, children show a sophisticated ability to make selective, warranted inferences about others’ interests based solely on their artifacts.

ARTS, CULTURE AND TOURISM AS VERITABLE INSTRUMENTS OF A STABLE NIGERIAN POLITY: THE NEED FOR AN INCLUSIVE PUBLIC POLICY

Like in most other nations of the world, the round leather game (football) is one sport that triggers the display of solidarity among Nigerians irrespective of tribe, religion and other social affiliations. Another experience of a similar magnitude of show of solidarity in this country is the Festivals of Arts and Culture which also displays the potentials in tourism. This study examined the potentials of Arts, Culture and Tourism as instruments of unification of Nigerians for purposes of a stable Nigerian political environment as well as the need for an inclusive public policy. Data was obtained from secondary materials while the mode of analysis was content analysis. The secondary materials include – books, journals, periodicals, newspapers, the internet, etc. The sociological and anthropological modernized theory, Durkheim (1997) was adopted as the theoretical framework of the study. Findings showed that, the Festivals of Arts and Culture across this country are often associated with so much fanfare, enthusiasm, relaxation, show of solidarity, oneness, that people tend to forget their social identities, groups, ethnicities, religions and other social inclinations. Hence, this paper suggested that government evolves an inclusive policy that would regularize and formalize the organization of Festivals of Arts and Culture in this country. The paper came to the conclusion that such festivals with great potentials for the unification of nationals should be harnessed for purposes of the peaceful co-existence of all Nigerians. The paper noted that this could only be realized through a well-articulated and inclusive public policy on Arts, Culture and Tourism.

We're a Good Match: Selective Political Friending on Social Networking Sites

Political social media use has become the topic of a growing amount of scholarship. In this regard, the role of user behavior in the formation of politically homogeneous environments (so-called echo chambers) is not fully understood. Building on the concept of selective exposure, we introduce the notion of selective political friending, i.e., the preference for political like-mindedness in social affiliations on social networking sites. In a pre-registered laboratory experiment (N = 199), we find that users preferably build connections to those who share opinions toward controversial political issues. Political like-mindedness outperforms advantages based on the popularity of another user or the career-related fit with another user. Political friending is particularly pronounced when individuals’ pre-existing opinions are strong, while tendencies toward cognitive closure and the desire for shared reality do not impact like-minded friending. The present study unravels psychological patterns in the process of tie-building on SNS and points to the necessity to take motivational complexity into account when studying phenomena linked to political homogeneity. Being the first study to systematically address politically motivated contact choices on social networking sites jointly with their psychological antecedents, this study sheds new light on the debate about like-mindedness in online communication.

Conclusion

This chapter summarizes the economic principles, research questions, and findings in the book. Themes reviewed include: autonomy, interdependence, and labor specialization, markets and merchants, boundedness and regional economies, movements of goods and social affiliations, and trade routes. Lingering questions are also discussed, especially the fact that it is time for archaeologists to consider data regarding Maya economies on their own terms, without consideration of previous assumptions based on comparative work from outside this region. Current controversies such as the issue of market form evolution (via barter markets) or the status of general purpose monies in Pre-Columbian Maya exchange are also discussed.

The National Association of Black Social Workers

Founded in May 1968, in San Francisco, California, the National Association of Black Social Workers (NABSW) is the premiere organization of Black social service and social welfare workers devoted exclusively to the development of professional social workers in the Black community. Committed to a philosophy of self-help and self-determination, the mission of the NABSW is to prepare workers to assume responsibility as advocates of social change and social justice, and to actively engage in the fight for racial equality and social liberation for the African ascendant community. The organization is open to all members of the African diasporic community, regardless of educational achievement, occupational status or political, religious, institutional or social affiliations.

CORONAVIRUS INFECTIOUS DISEASE COVID-19. NATURE OF VIRUS, PATHOGENESIS, CLINICAL MANIFESTATIONS, REPORT 1

In this number, we begin publication of case series devoted to epidemiology, clinical picture, diagnosis, treatment, prevention, medical and social consequences of COVID-19. Taking into account the situation anxiety, infection scope and spread rate, involvement of the whole nation into the problem irrespective of gender, age, social affiliations along with comprehensive observing social and medical prevention measures, preemptive training and continuing education of medical specialists are essential considering that novel coronavirus is new not only viewed from its molecular biological features perspective but also from the perspective of possible difficulties of diagnosis and treatment, clinical features, high risk of development of critical con- ditions and complications, high mortality rate that has been shown by an example of China, USA, and European Countries.In the first report, we tried to highlight the experience gained in the study of novel coronavirus nature, epidemiology, pathogenesis and clinical manifestations, give information from literature sources based on the experience of our colleagues in coping with serious disease and its consequences.