A supergene in seaweed flies modulates male traits and female perception

Supergenes, tightly linked allelic combinations that underlie complex adaptive phenotypes represent a critical mechanism protecting intra-specific polymorphism. Supergenes represent some of the best examples of balancing selection in nature and there is increasing evidence that disassortative mating, when individuals preferentially mate with dissimilar phenotypes, is a key force stabilizing supergene polymorphisms. Yet, the underlying biological mechanisms and genetic basis of disassortative mating remain poorly known. Here, we examine a possible mechanism of disassortative mating driven by female mate choice in relation to the overdominant Cf-Inv(1) supergene in the seaweed fly Coelopa frigida by investigating chemical communication and its genomic architecture. We show that Cf-Inv(1) strongly affects chemical signaling; cuticular hydrocarbon (CHC) composition differed between genotypes in males but not females across two continents. In tandem, Cf-Inv(1) affected female perception of these compounds; females are able to sense 36 compounds from the male CHC cocktail but show differential perception between genotypes for almost half of them. This indicates that the genetic underpinnings of male traits and female perceptions are tightly linked within Cf-Inv(1) which likely facilitates disassortative mating. A differential expression approach based on candidate genes for CHC biosynthesis and odorant detection revealed differential expression for CHC biosynthesis in males alone but broad changes in odorant receptors across both sexes. Furthermore, odorant genes clustered together within Cf-Inv(1), with some of them differing between arrangements by 8.3% at the protein level, suggesting evolution via tandem duplication then divergence. We propose that the tight linkage between overdominant loci, male traits, and female perception has helped to maintain the Cf-Inv(1) polymorphism across its range in the face of supergene degeneration.

Perception of Complexity in Engineering Design

This paper evaluates perception of complexity in a novel explanatory model that relates product performance and engineering effort. Complexity is an intermediate factor with two facets: it enables desired product performance but also requires effort to achieve. Three causal mechanisms explain how exponential growth bias, excess complexity, and differential perception lead to effort overruns. Secondary data from a human subject experiment validates the existence of perception of complexity as a context-dependent factor that influences required design effort. A two-level mixed effects regression model quantifies differences in perception among 40 design groups. Results summarize how perception of complexity may contribute to effort overruns and outline future work to further validate the explanatory model and causal mechanisms.

Perceived Quality of Bus Transit Services: A Route-Level Analysis

Passengers’ perceptions of transit quality depend on their interactions with the service. However, given the varied operational features in any transit network, the perceived service quality is expected to vary between different types of operation. Recently, there has been an emphasis on addressing this issue and quantifying the variation in the perceived service quality at route level. In this respect, this study quantifies the perceived quality of bus services across different route types and user groups. A two-step cluster analysis is developed to classify bus routes based on their operational features, which is followed by a series of importance-performance analysis (IPA) models corresponding to each route type. The study is supported by a primary dataset collected from 1,883 users through an online survey in Hamilton, Canada. The emerging results indicate four predominant route types: core, standard, express, and local routes, each exhibiting a unique set of characteristics. The IPA models show an apparent variation in the perceived service quality from each route-type. In addition, there are clear indications of differential perception between passengers who use the service very frequently and other less frequent users. These results call for the consideration of variations in route level and user type in informing service quality improvements.

Understanding third-person perception about Internet privacy risks

This study aims to test the third-person effect (TPE) in the perception of Internet privacy risks. Support was found for a TPE model suggesting that users report greater perceived Internet privacy risks on others than on themselves, based on a sample ( N = 613) from Amazon MTurk. In particular, the differential perception of Internet privacy risks between self and others increased people’s willingness to recommend protective measures to others but decreased their willingness to adopt protective measures themselves. Moreover, social distance, perceived Internet privacy knowledge, negative online privacy experiences, and Internet use activities emerged as significant predictors of TPE perceptions about Internet privacy risks. Study findings indicated that third-person perception is one of the major barriers inhibiting the adoption of privacy protection measures. The antecedents of TPE perceptions detected here provide valuable implications about how to enable Internet users to protect their privacy security.

Educational Activities of a Teacher from the Point of View of Humanitarian Methodology

The article examines the issues of educational activity of a modern teacher from the point of view of humanitarian methodology, which is based on the subject-subject relationship of the teacher and the pupil; states that the humanistic position of the educator presupposes the presence of deep knowledge about a person, about the laws of his development, his place in the world around him. The principles of humanitarian pedagogy in the educational activities of higher educational institutions direct the understanding of the teacher both to the students as a whole, and to each individual separately, forms a "soft" apparatus for the differential perception of each student by the teacher, develops pedagogical activity in overcoming situations of misunderstanding, provides the depth of comprehension of each student, brings the teacher closer to solving urgent problems of humanizing the life of young people, forms their life creative competence; it is proved that existential philosophy enriches the educational activity of a teacher with scientific information about a person and the mechanisms of its personal dynamics; synergetics gives an idea of creating a flexible, open dialogue space, in which zones of self-organization of the individual are provided; acmeology helps the teacher to understand the path of a person, as an exit to the heights of creativity, but because of difficulties and overcoming; hermeneutics helps a teacher understand a young person through comprehending the meanings of his behavior.

Physical Education In Rural Areas, Teacher-Student Differential Perception

The every day experience of students at school, outside their school environment, in their family, in internal relationships between their family and social groups, the concerns and interests of these groups, the information received by air, audiovisual means, television, media, the consumption of culture and intercultural relations are critical for the personality, emotional, motivational development of the new student. The rural student, by the acquisition of a multitude of information, knowledge, mindsets from the rural environment, develops certain skills according to the interests of a child living in this environment, skills that lead to changes in the "countryside"child-specific behaviour. Is the rural teacher prepared to cope with the blend of information that the countryside student is bombarded with? Does he accept, and if so, how does the rural student accept the lack of minimal supplies of teaching materials?