Nestmate recognition and levels of aggression are not altered by changes in genetic diversity in a socially polymorphic ant

The ability to distinguish nestmates from foreign individuals is central to the functioning of insect societies. In ants, workers from multiple-queen colonies are often less aggressive than workers from single-queen ones. In line with this observation, it has been hypothesized that workers from multiple-queen colonies have less precise recognition abilities than workers from single-queen ones because their colonies contain genetically more diverse individuals, which results in a broader template of recognition cues. Here, we assessed the impact of social structure ( queen number) variation on nestmate recognition and aggression in a large population of the socially polymorphic ant Formica selysi. We staged unilateral aggression tests on the nest surface. Workers from single-and multiple-queen colonies had good nestmate recognition ability and did not differ significantly in their level of aggression towards foreign, immobilized workers ( cue-bearers). In particular, workers from multiple-queen colonies efficiently recognized non-nestmates despite the higher genetic diversity in their colony. Cue-bearers from single- and multiple-queen colonies elicited similar reactions. However, the level of aggression was higher between than within social forms, suggesting that workers detect a signal that is specific to the colony social structure. Finally, the level of aggression was not correlated with the genetic distance between colonies. Overall, we found no evidence for the hypothesis that the presence of multiple breeders in the same colony decreases recognition abilities and found no simple relationship between genetic diversity and aggression level. (c) 2007 The Association for the Study of Animal Behaviou

The vertical dimension of social relations and accurate interpersonal perception: A meta-analysis (Publishd online: 24 Oct. 2014)

There is little consensus regarding how verticality (social power, dominance, and status) is related to accurate interpersonal perception. The relation could be either positive or negative, and there could be many causal processes at play. The present article discusses the theoretical possibilities and presents a meta-analysis of this question. In studies using a standard test of interpersonal accuracy, higher socioeconomic status (SES) predicted higher accuracy defined as accurate inference about the meanings of cues; also, higher experimentally manipulated vertical position predicted higher accuracy defined as accurate recall of others' words. In addition, although personality dominance did not predict accurate inference overall, the type of personality dominance did, such that empathic/responsible dominance had a positive relation and egoistic/aggressive dominance had a negative relation to accuracy. In studies involving live interaction, higher experimentally manipulated vertical position produced lower accuracy defined as accurate inference about cues; however, methodological problems place this result in doubt.

Advocating recognition and redistribution in poverty alleviation programs in Ghana : an examination of state and NGO programs and policies

Abstract This thesis argues that poverty alleviation strategies and programs carried out by the government and Non Governmental Organizations in Ghana provide affirmative solutions to poverty. This is because, these intervention strategies have been influenced by conventional discourses on poverty that fail to adequately address non-economic issues of poverty such as powerlessness, marginalization and tmder-representation. The study is carried out in a two-pronged manner; first, it analyses state policies and strategies, particularly the Ghana Poverty Reduction Strategy (GPRS), on poverty alleviation and compares these to NGO programs, implemented with funds and support from external donor organizations. Specifically, I focus on how NGOs and the governnlent of Ghana negotiate autonomy and financial dependency with their funding donor-partners and how these affect their policies and programs. Findings from this study reveal that while external influences dominate poverty alleviation policies and strategies, NGOs and the government of Ghana exercise varying degrees of agency in navigating these issues. In particular, NGOs have been able to adapt their programs to the changing needs of donor markets, and are also actively engaged in re-orienting poverty back to the political domain through advocacy campaigns. Overall, rural communities in Ghana depend on charitable NGOs for the provision of essential social services, while the Ghanaian government depends on international donor assistance for its development projects.

Designing care bundle documentation to support the recognition and treatment of acute kidney injury: a route to quality improvement

The chapter describes development of care bundle documentation, through an iterative, user-centred design process, to support the recognition and treatment of acute kidney injury (AKI). The chapter details stages of user and stakeholder consultation, employed to develop a design response that was sensitive to user experience and need, culminating in simulation testing of a near final prototype. The development of supplementary awareness-raising materials, relating to the main care bundle tool is also discussed. This information design response to a complex clinical decision-making process is contrasted to other approaches to promoting AKI care. The need for different but related approaches to the working tool itself and the tool’s communication are discussed. More general recommendations are made for the development of communication tools to support complex clinical processes.

Sex group composition, social interaction, and metabolism in the fish Nile tilapia

O objetivo deste trabalho foi testar se grupos monossexuais de machos gastam mais energia e exibem perfil agonístico diferente de grupos formados por um macho e uma fêmea na tilápia-do-Nilo (Oreochromis niloticus). Tais diferenças são esperadas, pois machos e fêmeas competem por diferentes recursos reprodutivos. Foram utilizadas duplas de machos (MM) e duplas de macho-fêmea (MF) que permaneceram pareadas por 40 minutos. Durante esse período foi feito o registro da interação agonística (10 minutos iniciais e 10 minutos finais do pareamento) e determinado o gasto energético (consumo de O2) pelo Método de Winckler. A latência para o início dos confrontos (média ± DP, MM = 27,40 ± 25,15 s; MF = 14,22 ± 21,19 s; Mann-Whitney, U = 33,50, P = 0,21) e a freqüência de todas as unidades comportamentais (média ± DP, MM < 72,30 ± 25,29; MF < 73,50 ± 21,65.10/min; Mann-Whitney, P > 0,10) foram semelhantes entre os grupos MM e MF nos 10 minutos iniciais. Isso indica que cada intruso foi considerado um potencial competidor no início da interação. No entanto, a freqüência de ondulação (interação também exibida durante a corte) foi maior para o residente do grupo MF nos 10 minutos finais (média ± DP, MM = 3,56 ± 5,89; MF = 8,56 ± 4,00.10/min; Mann-Whitney, U = 15,50, P = 0,01). A freqüência de fuga, entretanto, foi menor para o intruso do mesmo grupo (média ± DP, MM = 3,90 ± 4,33; MF = 0,44 ± 0,96.10/min; Mann-Whitney, U = 23,50, P = 0,04). Além disso, o perfil agonístico no grupo MM foi composto por um maior número de itens comportamentais do que o MF (para residentes e intrusos). Apesar das diferenças comportamentais, o consumo de O2 não foi afetado pela composição sexual do grupo (média ± DP, MM = 1,93 ± 0,54; MF = 1,77 ± 0,46 mgO2.g peso seco-1.40/min; t-teste de Student, t = 0,71, P = 0,49).

Social isolation and aggressiveness in the Amazonian juvenile fish Astronotus ocellatus

Testamos o efeito do isolamento social sobre a agressividade no peixe amazônico, Astronotus ocellatus. Dez peixes juvenis foram transferidos de um aquário de agrupamento (60 x 60 x 40 cm) contendo 15 indivíduos (sem discriminação de sexo) para um aquário de isolamento (50 x 40 x 40 cm). A agressividade foi testada por meio de ataques e exibições direcionadas à imagem do peixe no espelho. O comportamento foi filmado durante 10 min em 4 momentos: 30 min, 1 dia, 5 dias e 15 dias após o isolamento. Nós analisamos a motivação agressiva por meio da latência para início do comportamento agonístico e pela freqüência dos ataques totais e específicos direcionados ao espelho. A latência para o comportamento agonístico reduziu ao longo do isolamento e houve uma tendência de aumento da freqüência de mouth fighting (um ataque de alta intensidade de agressão), mostrando-nos um aumento na motivação agressiva. Os resultados estão de acordo com os encontrados para ciclídeos juvenís de Haplochromis burtoni, mas discordam com os encontrados para Pterophylum scalare (acará bandeira). Sugerimos que o aumento da agressividade em A. ocellatus pode ser mediado pelo efeito de exposição prévia, da residência prévia ou por processos envolvendo reconhecimento de co-específicos.

Social learning and action understanding in human observers: contributions of sensori-motor constraints and prior information

The aim of this thesis was to investigate the respective contribution of prior information and sensorimotor constraints to action understanding, and to estimate their consequences on the evolution of human social learning. Even though a huge amount of literature is dedicated to the study of action understanding and its role in social learning, these issues are still largely debated. Here, I critically describe two main perspectives. The first perspective interprets faithful social learning as an outcome of a fine-grained representation of others’ actions and intentions that requires sophisticated socio-cognitive skills. In contrast, the second perspective highlights the role of simpler decision heuristics, the recruitment of which is determined by individual and ecological constraints. The present thesis aims to show, through four experimental works, that these two contributions are not mutually exclusive. A first study investigates the role of the inferior frontal cortex (IFC), the anterior intraparietal area (AIP) and the primary somatosensory cortex (S1) in the recognition of other people’s actions, using a transcranial magnetic stimulation adaptation paradigm (TMSA). The second work studies whether, and how, higher-order and lower-order prior information (acquired from the probabilistic sampling of past events vs. derived from an estimation of biomechanical constraints of observed actions) interacts during the prediction of other people’s intentions. Using a single-pulse TMS procedure, the third study investigates whether the interaction between these two classes of priors modulates the motor system activity. The fourth study tests the extent to which behavioral and ecological constraints influence the emergence of faithful social learning strategies at a population level. The collected data contribute to elucidate how higher-order and lower-order prior expectations interact during action prediction, and clarify the neural mechanisms underlying such interaction. Finally, these works provide/open promising perspectives for a better understanding of social learning, with possible extensions to animal models.

Central Europeans towards Integration with the European Union: A Study of Public Opinion, Social Attitudes and National Identities

Since the turbulence of 1989, the countries of Central and Eastern Europe have striven to "return to Europe". Agreements have been signed with ten post-communist countries, beginning in 1991 with Czechoslovakia (before its division), Hungary and Poland. Since that time several countries have expressed a desire to become members of the EU. In 1997 the European Commission announced its opinion on the applications for EU membership of the Czech Republic, Hungary, Poland, Slovakia, and seven other applicant countries. The Commission recommended the commencement of negotiations on accession with the Czech Republic, Estonia, Hungary, Poland, and Slovenia. Mr. Kucia's report, presented in the form of a series of manuscripts totalling 91 pages, written in English and Polish and including many pages of tables and graphs, presents the results of a study of public opinion on European integration in four countries of Central Europe (CE): the Czech Republic (CZ), Hungary (H), Poland (PL), and Slovakia (SK). The research results are primarily based on a public-opinion survey known as the Central and Eastern Eurobarometer (CEEB). CEEB has been conducted on behalf of the European Commission in the Central and Eastern European countries each year in autumn since 1990. Below is a very small selection of Mr. Kucia's research findings. Throughout the 90s people in the four countries increasingly saw their countries' future tied up with the EU, since economic and political connections to the EU were growing and prospects for EU membership were increasing. Regional co-operation within CE did not gain much popular recognition. However, initially high levels of enthusiasm for the EU were gradually superseded by a more realistic approach or even scepticism. Poland was the exception in this respect; its population was more positive about the EU in 1996 than ever before. Mr. Kucia concludes that, since the political "elites" in CE are more positive about the EU than the people they serve, they should do their best to bring people round to their beliefs, lest the project of European integration become purely the business of the elites, as Mr. Kucia claims it has been in the EU up till now. He accuses the governments of the region, the EU authorities and the media of failing to provide appropriate information, especially about the two subjects which most affect them, association with the EU and the PHARE assistance programme. Respondents were asked to rank in order the countries or regions they saw their country's future most closely tied up with. In the period 92-96 the EU received the highest ratings in all of CE. The ratings were highest in CZ in 92 and 93 (46%) and in Poland in 96 (46%). They were the lowest in Hungary (22% in 94). After the EU came "Other Western European countries (non EU)", that is Austria, Sweden and Finland (before they joined the EU in 1995), Switzerland and Norway. Mr. Kucia puts the high ratings of these countries down to historical connections and geographical proximity, particularly in the case of Austria. The USA always came second in Poland, and in Hungary too its standing has always been higher than in CZ or SK. Indeed Mr. Kucia suggests that the USA's standing is disproportionately low in especially the CZ. Germany was nominated frequently by Hungarians, though in the CZ and SK, figures have been consistently low (1-2%). "Other CE/EE countries" increased their ratings in all of CE except Poland between 92 and 96. With regard to these last figures, Mr. Kucia makes an interesting note. Assuming that for the respondents in the four countries this category covered the Visegrad 4, least support was found in Poland, whose government was the most in favour of close political co-operation within the V4, while most support was in evidence in CZ and SK, for whose governments V4 was simply not a priority. Again, there is evidence of a divide between the political elites and the people. Russia has occupied a consistently modest rank. It was the highest in PL, fairly low in H and SK and the lowest in CZ. The Slovak government's policy of closer ties with Russia is reflected in a growth in the figures from 2% in 93 to 6% in 95. Every year the spontaneous answer "we should depend on ourselves" appeared, which Mr. Kucia interprets as either a sign of isolationism and disillusionment or as a call for self-reliance. Unfortunately he regards both these tendencies as unfeasible in the uniting Europe. Moving to more general conclusions, Mr. Kucia finds that the concept "Central Europe" does not have much meaning for Central Europeans. He believes that this is probably due to the failure to establish a viable regional co-operation network. Group discussions also revealed that people thought themselves European as a consequence of being Czech or Polish etc. Thus European identity is based on national identities. Generally within the surveyed period, the numbers of those who said they often think themselves European decreased, while the numbers of those who said they never think themselves European increased from 41% in PL, 36% in CZ, and 30% in H in 1990, to 67% in CZ, 58% in PL, and 51% in H in 1995.

The coevolution of cooperation and dispersal in social groups and its implications for the emergence of multicellularity

Background Recent work on the complexity of life highlights the roles played by evolutionary forces at different levels of individuality. One of the central puzzles in explaining transitions in individuality for entities ranging from complex cells, to multicellular organisms and societies, is how different autonomous units relinquish control over their functions to others in the group. In addition to the necessity of reducing conflict over effecting specialized tasks, differentiating groups must control the exploitation of the commons, or else be out-competed by more fit groups. Results We propose that two forms of conflict – access to resources within groups and representation in germ line – may be resolved in tandem through individual and group-level selective effects. Specifically, we employ an optimization model to show the conditions under which different within-group social behaviors (cooperators producing a public good or cheaters exploiting the public good) may be selected to disperse, thereby not affecting the commons and functioning as germ line. We find that partial or complete dispersal specialization of cheaters is a general outcome. The propensity for cheaters to disperse is highest with intermediate benefit:cost ratios of cooperative acts and with high relatedness. An examination of a range of real biological systems tends to support our theory, although additional study is required to provide robust tests. Conclusion We suggest that trait linkage between dispersal and cheating should be operative regardless of whether groups ever achieve higher levels of individuality, because individual selection will always tend to increase exploitation, and stronger group structure will tend to increase overall cooperation through kin selected benefits. Cheater specialization as dispersers offers simultaneous solutions to the evolution of cooperation in social groups and the origin of specialization of germ and soma in multicellular organisms.

Understanding the Other’s “Understanding” of Violence: Legitimacy, Recognition, and the Challenge of Dealing with the Past in Divided Societies

Post-conflict societies which have achieved a cessation of violence and embarked on a political conflict transformation process cannot in the long-term avoid a process of dealing with the past. Case studies of South Africa and Northern Ireland confirm this normative claim, showing that within the post-war society as a whole a social consensus on how to “understand” and “recognize” the use of violence that occurred during the conflict is necessary: understanding the other’s “understanding” of violence. A mutual understanding must be reached that both sides fought a campaign that was just and legitimate from their own perspective. The morality of the “other’s violence” has to be recognized.

Nonverbal social communication and gesture control in schizophrenia

Schizophrenia patients are severely impaired in nonverbal communication, including social perception and gesture production. However, the impact of nonverbal social perception on gestural behavior remains unknown, as is the contribution of negative symptoms, working memory, and abnormal motor behavior. Thus, the study tested whether poor nonverbal social perception was related to impaired gesture performance, gestural knowledge, or motor abnormalities. Forty-six patients with schizophrenia (80%), schizophreniform (15%), or schizoaffective disorder (5%) and 44 healthy controls matched for age, gender, and education were included. Participants completed 4 tasks on nonverbal communication including nonverbal social perception, gesture performance, gesture recognition, and tool use. In addition, they underwent comprehensive clinical and motor assessments. Patients presented impaired nonverbal communication in all tasks compared with controls. Furthermore, in contrast to controls, performance in patients was highly correlated between tasks, not explained by supramodal cognitive deficits such as working memory. Schizophrenia patients with impaired gesture performance also demonstrated poor nonverbal social perception, gestural knowledge, and tool use. Importantly, motor/frontal abnormalities negatively mediated the strong association between nonverbal social perception and gesture performance. The factors negative symptoms and antipsychotic dosage were unrelated to the nonverbal tasks. The study confirmed a generalized nonverbal communication deficit in schizophrenia. Specifically, the findings suggested that nonverbal social perception in schizophrenia has a relevant impact on gestural impairment beyond the negative influence of motor/frontal abnormalities.

Considering Social Factors and Potential Moderation Effects in Children’s Health Research

In light of dramatic changes in American family demography in recent decades, there is a growing recognition that family structure is one of a host of important social factors contributing to children’s health and well-being. The article by Augustine and Kimbro contributes to a growing body of research linking children’s family structure and health outcomes, focusing specifically on the association between family living arrangements and children’s risk of obesity. Their analyses are especially helpful in suggesting that family scholars should pay more attention to potential heterogeneity in relationships between family structure and children’s outcomes.

Vocational education in public schools as related to social, economic, and technical trends.

Cooperative research project 385.

La Mettrie and charlatanism: The dynamics of recognition and denunciation

This paper contributes to a genealogy of charlatanism by tracing two figures which eventually come to overlap: the street charlatan or operator, known for his eloquence and deceptive skill, and the comically incompetent doctor, represented classically in France in the theatre of Molière. The paper argues that eighteenth-century France gives the term 'charlatan' new moral weight while extending it to fields outside medicine, most notably to philosophy. Some examples of the denunciation of charlatans are examined, and it is suggested that denunciation was usually both extensible and reversible. La Mettrie appears in this regard as the very type of the denouncer denounced. He was a doctor-philosopher who vigorously decried the Paris Faculty of Medicine as a group of charlatans, even though his own medical qualifications were anything but impressive, and he was in turn reviled by Diderot as the most charlatanic and unworthy of philosophers.