Juvenile social experience affects pairing success at adulthood: Congruence with the loser effect?

Social interactions with adults are often critical for the development of mating behaviours. However, the potential role of other primary social partners such as juvenile counterparts is rarely considered. Most interestingly, it is not known whether interactions with juvenile females improve males’ courtship and whether, similar to the winner and loser effects in a fighting context—outcome of these interactions shapes males’ behaviour in future encounters. We investigated the combined effects of male quality and juvenile social experience on pairing success at adulthood in zebra finches (Taeniopygia guttata). We manipulated brood size to alter male quality and then placed males in either same- or mixed-sex juvenile dyads until adulthood. We found that males from reduced broods obtained more copulations and males from mixed-sex dyads had more complete courtships. Furthermore, independent of their quality, males that failed to pair with juvenile females, but not juvenile males, had a lower pairing success at adulthood. Our study shows that negative social experience with peers during adolescence may be a potent determinant of pairing success that can override the effects of early environmental conditions on male attractiveness and thereby supports the occurrence of an analogous process to the loser effect in a mating context.

Factors affecting breeding success in Peregrine Falcons (Falco peregrinus macropus) across Victoria 1991 - 2012

Peregrine Falcon’s lifetime reproductive outputs are influenced more by the quality of the nest site than by the environmental landscape in which they live. The installation of a nest boxes significantly improves breeding outcomes. Uniquely, Victorian Peregrines use novel (non-cliff) nest sites and disperse considerably shorter distances to adopt these sites.

Evaluating the intertwined critical success factors for sustainable e-learning

Successfully leveraging knowledge transfer in distributed e-learning requires effective combination of pedagogies, technologies, and efficient management of learning resources. As a result, identifying and evaluating the critical success factors within each of these facets is vital for the success of e-learning. This paper explores the critical success factors intertwined within the learning ecosystem namely pedagogy, technology and management of learning resources in a higher education e-learning environment. Adopting a hybrid approach consisting of a systematic literature review and interviews with experts in e-learning, this paper shows that there is a discrepancy between theory and practice in e-learning in regard to the application of pedagogies, use of technology, and management of reusable learning objects. This implies that there is a need for tackling various issues regarding the adoption of appropriate e-learning strategies, knowledge sharing, quality, granularity and reusability of learning object for sustainable e-learning.

Managing the implementation of business intelligence systems : a critical success factors framework

The implementation of a BI system is a complex undertaking requiring considerable resources. Yet there is a limited authoritative set of CSFs for management reference. This article represents a first step of filling in the research gap. The authors utilized the Delphi method to conduct three rounds of studies with 15 BI system experts in the domain of engineering asset management organizations. The study develops a CSFs framework that consists of seven factors and associated contextual elements crucial for BI systems implementation. The CSFs are committed management support and sponsorship, business user-oriented change management, clear business vision and well-established case, business-driven methodology and project management, business-centric championship and balanced project team composition, strategic and extensible technical framework, and sustainable data quality and governance framework. This CSFs framework allows BI stakeholders to holistically understand the critical factors that influence implementation success of BI systems.

Fostering connections for student success: using Appreciative Inquiry to promote positive growth in a university course

This paper reports on a study of the review process of the first iteration of a recentlyimplemented higher education program. Specifically, the paper discusses the inaugural review of a two-year graduate level pre-service teaching program at an urban Australian university. The aims of the study into this Master of Teaching program were twofold. First, it sought to gain an understanding of the strengths and limitations of the program from the perspectives of the staff members involved and to explore avenues for positive growth. Second, it examined the extent to which the application of Cooperrider, Whitney, Stavros and Fry’s (2008) Appreciative Inquiry (AI) framework can be used effectively in the review of higher education program reviews to foster connections for student success. The AI model promotes collegial reflective practice and the generation of positive resolutions and thus aligned with the purposes of the review which were to foster collaboration, strengthen staff morale and, subsequently, build a stronger program for students. This paper provides a perceptual account of the AI review process as reported by the three facilitators involved. The discussion and findings included in this paper contribute to international literature in the areas of higher education program evaluation, organisational reform and Appreciative Inquiry.