Hierarchical Relationships (hierarchical + relationships)

Distribution by Scientific Domains


Selected Abstracts


Reconciliation in Wolves (Canis lupus): New Evidence for a Comparative Perspective

ETHOLOGY, Issue 3 2008
Giada Cordoni
Social animals gain benefits from cooperative behaviours. However, social systems also imply competition and conflict of interest. To cope with dispersal forces, group-living animals use several peace-keeping tactics, which have been deeply investigated in primates. Other taxa, however, have been often neglected in this field research. Wolves (Canis lupus) with their high sociality and cooperative behaviour may be a good model species to investigate the reconciliation process. In this study, we provide the first evidence for the occurrence of reconciliation in a group of zoo-kept wolves. The conciliatory contacts were uniformly distributed across the different sex-class combinations. We found a linear dominance hierarchy in the colony under study, although the hierarchical relationships did not seem to affect the reconciliation dynamics. Moreover, both aggressors and victims initiated first post-conflict affinitive contact with comparable rates and both high- and low-intensity conflicts were reconciled with similar percentages. Finally, we found that coalitionary support may be a good predictor for high level of conciliatory contacts in this species. [source]


Comprehensive studies of cognitive impairment of the elderly with type 2 diabetes

GERIATRICS & GERONTOLOGY INTERNATIONAL, Issue 3 2006
Takashi Sakurai
Type 2 diabetes mellitus is associated with cognitive dysfunction and increases the risk of dementia for the elderly. The aim of the study presented here was to provide a brief review of how disturbance of glucose and metabolic homeostasis may be implicated in the cognitive decline of patients with type 2 diabetes. Several risk factors such as nutrition, cerebrovascular disorders and the neurotoxic effects of hyperglycemia may combine for the formation of mechanisms of cognitive decline in the diabetic elderly. It should be noted that cognitive deficits of diabetes are accompanied by neuroradiological changes in the brain, so that cognitive dysfunction both with and without brain structural changes may overlap during cognitive decline of the diabetic elderly. Recently, we conducted two studies to explore, by means of brain imaging, hierarchical relationships among clinical profiles of diabetes, cognitive function, white matter hyperintensity and brain atrophy. The results suggested that subcortical brain atrophy and hyperintensity constitute predictors of the rate of progression of cognitive dysfunction in the diabetic elderly, while cortical atrophy is associated with high diastolic blood pressure and lower HbA1c. These hypotheses may explain in part the underlying mechanisms of cognitive impairment in the diabetic elderly. Prospective intervention studies are needed, however, to clarify the mechanism of cognitive dysfunction of the diabetic elderly and what the targets are for preventive measures. [source]


Campus cultural and artistic activity effects evaluation model: a study of universities in Taiwan

INTERNATIONAL JOURNAL OF NONPROFIT & VOLUNTARY SECTOR MARKETING, Issue 1 2009
Shwu-Ing Wu
This research examines three types of universities in Taiwan to discuss the factors that influence campus cultural and artistic activity effects and establishes a structure model. In this research, university students are the target group for nonprofit organizations (NPOs) that regard cultural and artistic activities as products or services. The study used message contact, emotion, cognition, message evaluation, and attitude toward the activity as the influence factors. The relationships among these factors along with student participatory intention, participation behavior, and activity effect were then explored. The results show that each influence factor affects student willingness to participate, which leads to different levels of participation and effectiveness. Moreover, there are hierarchical relationships between the influence factors and effects. Copyright © 2007 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd. [source]


Negotiating conflict within the constraints of social hierarchies in Korean American discourse

JOURNAL OF SOCIOLINGUISTICS, Issue 3 2003
M. Agnes Kang
This paper provides an interactional account of conflict negotiation strategies in Korean American discourse. With specific attention to the sociolinguistic phenomenon of codeswitching among Korean Americans, I argue that speaking Korean at particular moments evokes ideologies of social hierarchy that serve to mitigate potential conflicts. The Korean social ideology of relative status has a major influence on how bilingual Korean Americans interact with one another, regardless of whether they are using Korean or English. The use of codeswitching, among other mitigating strategies in discourse, serves to instantiate these hierarchical relationships and introduces particular social norms that guide the observable actions used in navigating meaning and social relations. The data analyzed here show how the evocation of Korean social ideologies may serve as an identifiable characteristic of Korean American discourse. [source]


Vertebral anatomy in the Florida manatee, Trichechus manatus latirostris: A developmental and evolutionary analysis

THE ANATOMICAL RECORD : ADVANCES IN INTEGRATIVE ANATOMY AND EVOLUTIONARY BIOLOGY, Issue 6 2007
Emily A. Buchholtz
Abstract The vertebral column of the Florida manatee presents an unusual suite of morphological traits. Key among these are a small precaudal count, elongate thoracic vertebrae, extremely short neural spines, lack of a sacral series, high lumbar variability, and the presence of six instead of seven cervical vertebrae. This study documents vertebral morphology, size, and lumbar variation in 71 skeletons of Trichechus manatus latirostris (Florida manatee) and uses the skeletons of Trichechus senegalensis (west African manatee) and Dugong dugon (dugong) in comparative analysis. Vertebral traits are used to define morphological, and by inference developmental, column modules and to propose their hierarchical relationships. A sequence of evolutionary innovations in column morphology is proposed. Results suggest that the origin of the fluke and low rates of cervical growth originated before separation of trichechids (manatees) and dugongids (dugongs). Meristic reduction in count is a later, trichechid innovation and is expressed across the entire precaudal column. Elongation of thoracic vertebrae may be an innovative strategy to generate an elongate column in an animal with a small precaudal count. Elimination of the lumbus through both meristic and homeotic reduction is currently in progress. Anat Rec, 290:624,637, 2007. © 2007 Wiley-Liss, Inc. [source]


Policy Formulation in Australian Government: Vertical and Horizontal Axes

AUSTRALIAN JOURNAL OF PUBLIC ADMINISTRATION, Issue 2 2000
Craig Matheson
Studies of the policy process in Australia have focused on particular institutions or decisions rather than on its overarching properties. One such property is the vertical and horizontal ,axes' of policy-making. The former comprises hierarchical relationships whereas the latter comprise relationships of bargaining, negotiation and persuasion. Vertical axes enable governments to take and enforce technically rational decisions in pursuit of consistent goals whereas horizontal axes permit governments to make broadly-based decisions that have group assent and electoral support. Vertical axes have strengthened in recent years and have brought increased technical rationality and consistency. This has come at a cost of limiting of the scope of political debate and a loss of electoral support for government though. [source]


,A Natural and Voluntary Dependence': The Royal Academy of San Carlos and the Cultural Politics of Art Education in Mexico City, 1786,1797

BULLETIN OF LATIN AMERICAN RESEARCH, Issue 3 2010
SUSAN DEANS-SMITH
In this article, I explore the controversies that characterised the foundational years of the Royal Academy of San Carlos of Painting, Sculpture, and Architecture in Mexico City (1786,1797). They provide provocative insights into questions of competing agendas and ambitions among the artists and bureaucrats of the royal academy. They also illuminate contemporary understandings about the hierarchical relationships between a metropolitan power, Spain, and its American colonies and their visual culture and artistic production, which mirror broader political hierarchies and relationships of power and subordination. [source]