Nest visit synchrony is high and correlates with reproductive success in the wild Zebra finch Taeniopygia guttata

Nest visit synchrony, whereby adults coordinate their visits to the nest, has been documented in several species of cooperative breeders. Visit synchrony may reduce nest predation rate or sibling competition, or instead follow from synchronisation of other behaviours, such as foraging. However, nest visit synchrony has rarely been considered in species with bi-parental care, even though it could conceivably bring similar fitness benefits to that seen in cooperative breeders. In addition, in species with bi-parental care, we might expect nest visit synchrony to reflect the quality of the pair or the overall coordination of breeding activity between partners. Here, we tested whether nest visit synchrony occurs in a classic avian model for the study of bi-parental care, the zebra finch Taeniopygia guttata. We found that in the wild, both zebra finch parents visited the nest very infrequently during nestling provisioning, with only one visit per hour, and that nest visits were highly synchronised with parents visiting the nest together on 78% of the visits. In addition, we found that nest visit synchrony was correlated with hatching rate, brood size at hatching and the number of offspring in the nest a few days prior to fledging. Our results suggest that, while more work is required to understand the benefits of nest visit synchrony in this species, considering behavioural synchrony and cooperation between mated partners may offer new insight into the study of parental investment, including in species with bi-parental care.

Wikis: collaborative virtual learning environments

Ward Cunningham used the word wiki (the Hawaiian word meaning quick) to name the collaborative tool he developed for use on the internet in 1994. Wikis are fully editable websites. Users can visit, read, re-organize and update the structure and content (text and pictures) of a wiki as they see fit. This functionality is called open editing (Leuf & Cunningham, 2001). All a user needs to edit and read a wiki, is a web browser. Consequently, the wiki has great potential for use as a collaborative virtual learning environment. Wikis abound on the internet. A well known wiki is Wikipedia an online collaborative encyclopaedia, where anybody can read, edit, re-organize and update the encyclopaedia content (Wikipedia, 2004).

Visitor loyalty in sport tourism: an empirical investigation

This paper reports research regarding the relationship between consumer loyalty, satisfaction,and novelty seeking, including an analysis of these constructs as reflected in the published literature. A telephone survey was conducted of 500 city residents, focusing on their visitation of special events, including sporting events. It was found that satisfaction was somewhat positively related to interest in attending the same sporting event, and the intention to actually visit the sporting event again. However, novelty seeking was virtually unrelated to both interest in attending the same sporting event, and the intention to actually visit the sporting event, and unrelated to satisfaction. Novelty seeking in general, or in relation to special events particularly,performed similarly as a predictor. Further research is needed to clarify the role of other moderating variables, such as the feeling of involvement in sporting events, and to investigate segmentation aspects which might be operating in relation to specific sporting events and tourists.

Part IVA - a toothless tiger?

Tax avoidance has been a problem for governments since taxes were introduced. Thirteenth century English property taxes were avoided by taxpayers moving their assets outside the sheriff’s jurisdiction. Even more conniving were the citizens of 17th century England who avoided the Window Tax by covering their windows before the tax collector’s visit.

Popular culture/sacredness

A huge billboard faces me as I crawl down Punt Road Melbourne, its wild purple and yellow-daubed sports fan (male) leering over the northbound traffic. Its message: 'Sport is a Religion, so pray for Yamaha Stadium Sound'  Canny advertising, hooking into aussie culture, selecting an aussie take on religion/ sport (fun, serious, primitive, fanatic, central). Next, there's the Next fashion ad, with its larger than life-sized photograph of a gorgeously dressed young female eying off the pope's long white robe, comparing outfits. Fashion as religion, or better than, really, is the inference-she looks mildly
amused, and he looks a little nonplussed. And then there are the many Qantas advertisments for 'Spirit of. Australia' featuring Aboriginal figures, with backdrops of Dlum and the red desert. As cultural tour businesses know, there's money to be made in taking urban, nonIndigenous tourists to visit their 'spiritual other', the Aboriginal.1 Or there's the multicultural, children's version of the ad, with all the little global travellers of the future featured in wonderful locations. Spirit of Australia.

Consumer satisfaction and post-purchase intentions: an exploratory study of museum visitors

This paper examines the relationship between consumer satisfaction and subsequent intentions in the museum context, as well as the moderating influence of demographic characteristics such as gender, age and education in that relationship. The relationship between satisfaction and a range of service elements, overall satisfaction with the experience and intentions was investigated. Museum marketers can profit by examining the "value chain" of museum experience outlined in the model presented, especially the greater likelihood of consumers recommending the experience to others than making a repeat visit themselves, and by investigating segment differences beyond those reported here.

The early detection of postpartum depression: midwives and nurses trial a checklist

Objective: To evaluate the use of a standard pen-and-paper test versus the use of a checklist for the early identification of women at risk of postpartum depression and to investigate the experiences of nurses in using the checklist.

Design: A prospective cohort design using repeated measures.

Setting: The booking-in prenatal clinic at a regional hospital in Victoria, Australia, and the community-based postpartum maternal and child health service.

Participants: 107 pregnant women over 20 years of age.

Main Measures: Postpartum Depression Prediction Inventory (PDPI), Postpartum Depression Screening Scale (PDSS), Edinburgh Postnatal Depression Scale (EPDS), demographic questionnaire, and data on the outcome from the midwives and nurses.

Results: The PDPI identified 45% of the women at risk of depression during pregnancy and 30% postpartum. The PDSS and EPDS both identified the same 8 women (10%), who scored highly for depression at the 8-week postpartum health visit. Nurses provided 80% of the women with anticipatory guidance on postpartum depression in the prenatal period and 46% of women at the 8-week postpartum health visit. Nurse counseling or anticipatory guidance was provided for 60% of the women in the prenatal period.

Conclusion: The PDPI was found to be a valuable checklist by many nurses involved in this research, particularly as a way of initiating open discussion with women about postpartum depression. It correlated strongly with both the PDSS and the EPDS, suggesting that it is useful as an inventory to identify women at risk of postpartum depression.

A virtual clinic : telemetric assessment and monitoring for rural and remote areas

This article reports the establishment of a pilot ‘virtual clinic’ in a rural region of Victoria, Australia. Using low-cost videophones that work across ordinary phone lines, together with off-the-shelf (mostly automatic) clinical tools, local volunteers have been trained to mediate a virtual consultation between simulated patients and local GPs. This system has the potential to save long trips into town by such patients since the traditional ‘home visit’ is not feasible, as well as to provide regular home monitoring for those with chronic conditions. This in turn should impact favourably on ambulance deployment, sometimes enabling patients to avoid going to hospital or allowing them to come home sooner than otherwise would be the case, and generally to offer a sense of medical security to those living in isolated regions.

Use of pineapple juice for elimination of egg stickiness of common carp (Cyprinus carpio L.)

Four treatments including three different concentrations of pineapple solution (I %, 3%, 5%) and the traditional method (salt/urea/tannin solutions) were used to eliminate egg stickiness of common carp. With the traditional method, fertilization and hatching rates were 74.5% ± 1.2 and 70.2% ± 1.1, respectively. The highest fertilization rate (89.3% ± 0.7) and hatching rate (86.6% ± 1.4) were found with treatment of 1% pineapple juice solution and was significantly different from those obtained with other treatments (P<0.05). Using pineapple juice for desticking common carp eggs also reduced the time of egg handling from almost one hour required with the traditional method, to about three minutes, as well as increasing fertilization and hatching rate under hatchery conditions.