Sobrevivência e tamanho populacional do Tiê-preto Tachyphonus Rufus (aves: thraupidae) em fragmento de restinga no extremo Norte da Mata Atlântica

For a long time, we believed in the pattern that tropical and south hemisphere species have high survival. Nowadays results began to contradict this pattern, indicating the need for further studies. Despite the advanced state of the study of bird population parameters, little is known about their variation throughout the year and the factors affecting them. Reproduction, for example, is one factor that may alter adult survival rates, because during this process the breeding pair allocates resources to maintain itself to maintain offspring, making itself more susceptible to diseases and predation. The aim of this study was to estimate survival and population size of a Central and South America passerine, Tachyphonus rufus (Boddaert, 1783), testing hypotheses about the factors that define these parameters. We performed data collection between Nov/2010 and ago/2012 in 12 ha plot, in a fragment of Atlantic Forest in northeastern Brazil. We used capture-mark-recapture methods to generate estimates using Closed Design Robust model in the program MARK. We generated Multi-state models to test some assumptions inherent to Closed Robust Design. The influence of co-variables (time, rain and reproductive cycle) and the effect of transient individuals were measured. Capture, recapture and apparent survival parameters were defined by reproductive cycle, while temporary dispersal was influence by rain. The estimates showed a higher apparent survival during the non-breeding period (92% ± 1%) than during breeding (40% ± 9%), revealing a cost of reproduction and suggesting a trade-off between surviving and reproducing. The low annual survival observed (34%) did not corroborate the pattern of high rates expected for a tropical bird. The largest population size was estimated to be 56 individuals in Nov/11, explained by high recruitment of juveniles, while the lowest observed in May/12: 10 individuals, probably as a result of massive influx of competitor species. Results from this study add to the growing literature on life history of Neotropical species. We encourage studies like this especially in Brazil, where there are few information, and suggest that covariates related to habitat quality and environmental changes should be tested, so that we can generate increasingly reliable models

As competições sociais em grupos de Callithrix jacchus (Callitrichidae, Primates) são influenciadas pelo parentesco e pela convivência?

The Callitrichidae family is characterized by flexibility in its mating system, being possible to find monogamous, polyandrid and polygynic groups. Its social organization and mating system can be defined by the interaction between ecological and demographic factors plus the degree of relatedness among the individuals in the population. The objective of this work was to demonstrate the influence of relatedness and coexistence on the establishment and maintenance of social relations between Callithrix jacchus adult males. Four pairs of related adult males (CP), 4 pairs with coexistence between the animals in the pair (CC) and 4 pairs with no relatedness (SP) were studied. The pairs in the group CC had been kept in the same cage for at least 8 months before the experiment and the pairs in the group SP were put together at the beginning of the study. Each animal was observed 3 times/week for 2 months, in 15 min. sessions, through focal time sampling with instantaneous record each minute. In the first month, only the pair of males was kept in the cage (Phase I) and in the second month, a female was introduced into the cage (Phase II). The affiliative, agonistic and sexual interactions were registered. Affiliative interactions showed similar frequencies for all groups in phases. There was also no significant difference in the agonistic interactions of the CP, CC and SP males in Pase I, even considering that group SP exhibited higher levels of agonism. In Phase II, there was a statistically significant increase comparing to the others. The results demonstrate that relatedness and coexistence are of great importance for maintaining reprodutive and social stability inside the group. Nonetheless, in this study, only one of the males in the pair had sexual interations with the females, except for 2 pairs. This was assured through mate guarding and agonism directed to the potencial competitor. The most probable mating system would be functional monogamy, where the males would present low levels of competition, if there is relatedness and coexistence among them; on the other hand, a strong competition if there is no relatedness between the individuals. Even so, a polyandric system would also have to be considered

O comportamento pró-social de crianças com sintomatologia do transtorno da conduta

Pro-social behaviors are seen regularly throughout our daily lives, as we often witness people giving alms, helping a neighbor move, donating blood, or taking care of a friend's children, among others. From an evolutionary perspective, such behaviors occur because they have a high adaptive value to our species, precisely due to our high degree of dependence on group living for survival. Probably, for this same reason, since children have shown a preference for prosocial behaviors over antisocial behaviors, this preference becomes more visible as we grow. However, children with symptoms of conduct disorder show a pattern of aggressive, impulsive and more selfish behaviors than children without such symptoms. Furthermore, these children also experience environments in which antisocial behaviors are more frequent and intense compared to the general population. Priming experiments are one way of measuring the influence of simple environmental cues on our behavior. For example, driving faster when listening to music, religious people help more on religious elements, like the bible, and children are more cooperative after playing games of an educational nature. Thus, the objectives of the current study were to: evaluate whether there is any difference in generosity, through sharing behavior, among children with and without symptoms of conduct disorder; analyze the influence of prosocial priming on sharing behavior on children with and without symptoms of conduct disorder; and finally, analyze from an evolutionary perspective, the reasons given by children with and without symptoms of conduct disorder for sharing or not sharing with their best friend in a classroom environment. To address this question, the teachers of these children were asked to respond to an inventory that was designed to signal the presence or absence of symptoms of conduct disorder. Children identified as having or not having symptoms of conduct disorder could then undergo an experimental (with priming) or control (no priming) condition. Under the experimental condition, the children were asked to watch two short videos showing scenes of helping and sharing among peers, to perform a distraction activity, and finally to chose two of four different materials presented by the researcher and decide how much of these two materials they would like to share with their best friend in the classroom. Then the children were asked about their reasons for sharing or not sharing. Children subjected to the control condition performed the same activities as in the xi experimental condition, but did not watch the video first. The results showed a notable difference in the effect of priming in accordance with the child's stage of development; a difference in the amount of material donated to a best friend by children with and without symptoms of conduct disorder, and a change in this observed difference with the influence of pro-social priming; and finally, a convergence in the thinking of children regarding their reasons for sharing with evolutionary theory. The results of this study also indicate the importance of individual factors, developmental stage, environmental and evolutionary conditions in the pro-social behavior of children with and without symptoms of conduct disorder.

A correlação locução adjetiva/adjetivo: uma análise funcional

This research deals with the relationship locução adjetiva / adjective, focusing the reasons for using one form or the other one, in situations where the speaker has a choice between an adjective or a locução adjetiva virtually correspondent and vice versa. In general, the objective is to investigate the possibility of correlation between locução adjetiva and adjective, and to identify motivations for the use of one form or the other one. The theoretical support of this paper is the Linguística Funcional Centrada no Uso (LFCU), which groups together theoretical and methodological assumptions of North American Functional Linguistics, represented by authors as Givón (1984), Bybee (2010), Traugott (2011), and Cognitive Linguistics, as developed by Lakoff (1987), Langacker (1987) and Lakoff and Johnson (2002). As regards the methodological procedures, this research is of qualitative and quantitative character: at first, we did the survey data in the texts that made up the corpus, followed by analysis of each them, especially the locução adjetiva, by considering the semantic, morphosyntactic, cognitive and pragmatic aspects. The corpus is composed of 36 texts, taken from 12 issues of the Veja magazine, published between January 2013 and March 2013. As for the results, in the case of locução adjetiva with related adjectives, this research has shown that the choice of former is due to semantic change, the use of lexicalized forms, to priming cases or to stylistic motivations. It means that the choices of one of these two forms go beyond lexical issues, since there are other motivations, such as syntactic, semantic and pragmatic ones.