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Many Contexts (many + context)
Selected AbstractsDevelopment of individually distinct recognition cuesDEVELOPMENTAL PSYCHOBIOLOGY, Issue 7 2006Jill M. Mateo Abstract Despite extensive research on the functions of kin recognition, little is known about ontogenetic changes in the cues mediating such recognition. In Belding's ground squirrels, Spermophilus beldingi, secretions from oral glands are both individually distinct and kin distinct, and function in social recognition across many contexts. Behavioral studies of recognition and kin preferences suggest that these cues may change across development, particularly around the time of weaning and emergence from natal burrows (around 25 days of age). I used an habituation-discrimination task with captive S. beldingi, presenting subjects with odors collected from a pair of pups at several ages across early development. I found that at 21 days of age, but not at 7 or 14, young produce detectable odors. Odors are not individually distinct, however, until 28 days of age, after young have emerged from their burrows and begun foraging. In addition, an individual's odor continues to develop after emergence: odors produced by an individual at 20 and 40 days of age are perceived as dissimilar, yet odors produced at 28 and 40 days are treated as similar. Developmental changes in odors provide a proximate explanation for why S. beldingi littermate preferences are not consolidated until after natal emergence, and demonstrate that conspecifics must update their recognition templates as young develop. © 2006 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. Dev Psychobiol 48: 508,519, 2006. [source] Incorporating multiple criteria into the design of conservation area networks: a minireview with recommendationsDIVERSITY AND DISTRIBUTIONS, Issue 2 2006Alexander Moffett ABSTRACT We provide a review of multicriteria decision-making (MCDM) methods that may potentially be used during systematic conservation planning for the design of conservation area networks (CANs). We review 26 methods and present the core ideas of 19 of them. We suggest that the computation of the non-dominated set (NDS) be the first stage of any such analysis. This process requires only that alternatives be qualitatively ordered by each criterion. If the criteria can also be similarly ordered, at the next stage, Regime is the most appropriate method to refine the NDS. If the alternatives can also be given quantitative values by the criteria, Goal Programming will prove useful in many contexts. If both the alternatives and the criteria can be quantitatively evaluated, and the criteria are independent of each other but may be compounded, then multi-attribute value theory (MAVT) should be used (with preferences conveniently elicited by a modified Analytic Hierarchy Process (mAHP) provided that the number of criteria is not large). [source] The sizes of species' geographic rangesJOURNAL OF APPLIED ECOLOGY, Issue 1 2009Kevin J. Gaston Summary 1Geographic range size and how it changes through time is one of the fundamental ecological and evolutionary characteristics of a species, and a strong predictor of extinction risk. However, the measurement of range size remains a substantial challenge. Indeed, there is significant confusion in the literature as to how this should be done, particularly in the context of the distinction between the fundamentally different concepts of extent of occurrence (EOO) and area of occupancy (AOO), and the use of these quantities, including in assessments of the threat status of species. 2Here we review the different approaches to determining the geographic distributions of species, the measurement of their range sizes, the relationships between the two, and other difficulties posed by range size measurement (especially those of range discontinuities when measuring EOO, and spatial scale when measuring AOO). 3We argue that it is important to (i) distinguish the estimation of the distribution of a species from the measurement of its geographic range size; (ii) treat measures of EOO and AOO as serving different purposes, rather than regarding them as more or less accurate ways of measuring range size; and (iii) measure EOO including discontinuities in habitat or occupancy. 4Synthesis and applications. With the availability and collation of extensive data sets on species occurrences, a rapidly increasing number of studies are investigating geographic range size, and particularly how various measures of range size predict macroecological patterns and inform assessments of the conservation status of species and areas. The distinction between EOO and AOO is becoming blurred in many contexts, but most particularly in that of threatened species assessments for Red Listing. Continued progress in these fields demands greater clarity in the meaning and derivation of measures of geographic range size. The two principal measures serve different purposes, and should not be regarded as alternatives that simply differ in accuracy. [source] Life table response experiment analysis of the stochastic growth rateJOURNAL OF ECOLOGY, Issue 2 2010Hal Caswell Summary 1.,Life table response experiment (LTRE) analyses decompose treatment effects on a dependent variable (usually, but not necessarily, population growth rate) into contributions from differences in the parameters that determine that variable. 2.,Fixed, random and regression LTRE designs have been applied to plant populations in many contexts. These designs all make use of the derivative of the dependent variable with respect to the parameters, and describe differences as sums of linear approximations. 3.,Here, I extend LTRE methods to analyse treatment effects on the stochastic growth rate log ,s. The problem is challenging because a stochastic model contains two layers of dynamics: the stochastic dynamics of the environment and the response of the vital rates to the state of the environment. I consider the widely used case where the environment is described by a Markov chain. 4.,As the parameters describing the environmental Markov chain do not appear explicitly in the calculation of log ,s, derivatives cannot be calculated. The solution presented here combines derivatives for the vital rates with an alternative (and older) approach, due to Kitagawa and Keyfitz, that calculates contributions in a way analogous to the calculation of main effects in statistical models. 5.,The resulting LTRE analysis decomposes log ,s into contributions from differences in: (i) the stationary distribution of environmental states, (ii) the autocorrelation pattern of the environment, and (iii) the stage-specific vital rate responses within each environmental state. 6.,As an example, the methods are applied to a stage-classified model of the prairie plant Lomatium bradshawii in a stochastic fire environment. 7.,Synthesis. The stochastic growth rate is an important parameter describing the effects of environmental fluctuations on population viability. Like any growth rate, it responds to differences in environmental factors. Without a decomposition analysis there is no way to attribute differences in the stochastic growth rate to particular parts of the life cycle or particular aspects of the stochastic environment. The methods presented here provide such an analysis, extending the LTRE analyses already available for deterministic environments. [source] ,Doing femininity' at work: More than just relational practice1JOURNAL OF SOCIOLINGUISTICS, Issue 1 2006Janet Holmes Workplaces constitute one of the more interesting sites where individuals ,do gender', while at the same time constructing their professional identities and meeting their organisation's expectations. Drawing on interactional data recorded in New Zealand professional organisations, this paper focuses in particular on how participants manage and interpret the notion of ,femininity' in workplace discourse. In much current usage, the concepts ,feminine' and ,femininity' typically evoke negative reactions. Our analysis suggests these notions can be reclaimed and reinterpreted positively using an approach which frames doing femininity at work as normal, unmarked, and effective workplace behaviour in many contexts. The analysis also demonstrates that multiple femininities extend beyond normative expectations, such as enacting relational practice (Fletcher 1999), to embrace more contestive and parodic instantiations of femininity in workplace talk. [source] Shopping Beyond the Parenthesis.ORBIS LITERARUM, Issue 2 2009An Equivalence of Books, Bottled Ketchup Words have been made public in very many ways: spoken as improvisation, recited from memory, written down and published or read aloud to an audience. Those printed have had very many formats: draft, (broad)sheet, part and periodical. Bound single and multiple volumes are merely one option. If a Gutenberg parenthesis is to make sense at all, then it is as a perception, of the bound volume format retaining a certain sanctity , regardless of what the material history of print culture might say. The question would then be, who held this perception and when? Or more precisely, if we assume the perception, under what conditions did alternatives emerge? Of the many contexts in which the hegemony of the bound volume has been debunked,1 commodification is one. This essay2 will examine, therefore, an early example of an industrialised literary Artwork in an emergent commodity culture, George Eliot's Middlemarch, to see whether there may have been other ways of treating the volume's otherwise hegemonic unified text; other ways of interpreting, or of readers profiting from, a commodity reading. [source] Disobeying an Illegitimate Request in a Democratic or Authoritarian SystemPOLITICAL PSYCHOLOGY, Issue 3 2010Stefano Passini Crimes of obedience in the form of illegal or immoral acts committed in response to orders from authority occur in many contexts. In particular, under some circumstances of threats, people can easily accept restrictions upon democratic procedures. Recent studies have underlined the role of legitimacy in understanding the authority relationship and the importance of evaluating the legitimacy of the request rather than the legitimacy of the authority in preventing the rise of authoritarianism. The purpose of this study was to verify if people respond differently when an illegitimate request is put forward by a democratic or an authoritarian authority. The results on 224 subjects confirmed that people tend to be more obedient when they perceive authorities as democratic, notwithstanding the legitimacy of their requests. [source] Gender fatigue: The ideological dilemma of gender neutrality and discrimination in organizations,CANADIAN JOURNAL OF ADMINISTRATIVE SCIENCES, Issue 3 2009Elisabeth K. Kelan discrimination fondée sur le sexe; inégalité entre les sexes; post-féminisme; employés de TCI; analyse du discours; études d'organisation Abstract Although gender discrimination remains a feature of working life in many contexts, research on gender in organizations has shown that workplaces are often constructed as gender neutral. This poses an ideological dilemma for workers: how can they make sense of gender discrimination at work while presenting their workplace as gender neutral? This article explores that dilemma through an analysis of how information communication technology (ICT) workers talk about gender discrimination. Instead of denying gender discrimination, workers acknowledge it can happen but construct it as singular events that happened in the past and they place the onus on women to overcome such obstacles. Navigating the ideological dilemma around gender neutrality and discrimination, interviewees display what the article characterizes as gender fatigue. Copyright © 2009 ASAC. Published by John Wiley & Sons, Ltd. Bien que la discrimination fondée sur le sexe soit une caractéristique du monde du travail dans plusieurs contextes, les recherches sur la parité homme/femme dans les entreprises ont montré que les lieux de travail sont souvent conçus de façon non sexiste. Cette situation pose un dilemme idéologique aux travailleurs: comment peuvent-ils comprendre la discrimination fondée sur le sexe s'ils présentent leur lieu de travail comme non sexiste? C'est sur ce dilemme que cet article se penche, à travers une analyse des discours des employés en technologie de l'information et de la communication (TCI). Ces derniers ne nient pas l'inégalité entre les sexes; ils la présentent plutôt comme des épiphénomènes qui ont eu lieu dans le passé et estiment qu'il revient aux femmes de la combattre. Tiraillés entre le non sexisme et la discrimination, les sujets interrogés souffrent de ce que nous appelons «gender fatigue». Copyright © 2009 ASAC. Published by John Wiley & Sons, Ltd. [source] | |||||||||||||