A snake of a different color: physiological color change in Arizona black rattlesnakes

Coloration may serve a variety of behavioral (e.g., crypsis, communication) and physiological (e.g., thermoregulation, protection) functions for terrestrial ectotherms. However, optimal coloration for a given function may vary over environments (spatial or temporal) or conflict with other functions. Physiological color change (rapid change due to movement of pigment granules within chromatophores) may be an adaptation to resolve conflicting selective pressures on coloration. The proximate factors related to physiological color change are well known in many animals, but few studies have investigated the ecological or evolutionary implications of this behavior. Here, we present alternative hypotheses for physiological color change and discuss biotic and abiotic factors that may have led to the maintenance and/or loss of this behavior among populations of Arizona black rattlesnakes (_Crotalus cerberus_). We discuss what is known about this behavior and propose to investigate the function and evolution of coloration and color change in _C. cerberus_

STRATEGIES AND TACTICS REGARDING CHANGE COMMUNICATION WITHIN ORGANISATIONS.REAL EXAMPLE REGARDING COMMUNICATION CHANGE IN AN ORGANISATION

Organizations are, on one hand, a social reality, and, on the other hand human relations centres. Organizational processes, such as, for example communication, decision taking and conflict management rely on how the people involved build meanings starting from their interactions and relying less on skill application techniques. Attempts to identify or develop a suitable formula and to be efficient for the successful changes often mislead, hence can not result but one thing which is the lack of an effective and efficient communication to be carried out within the organization. The present paper outlines the basic strategies of the entire change communication process within the organization, strategies which are the pattern that can be employed regardless of their field of activity and implicitly regardless of the changes that occur. The paper has two parts: the first part is a theoretical periplus as far as change communication within the organization is concerned, change classification, change components, the exemplification of the six vectors of change determined by Shell company’s group of researchers. The second part of the paper includes the practical side of the above mentioned. More exactly, based on a concrete example we shall show how managers are doing in case of change communication within the organization where they carry out their activity.communication change, performance management, behavior change, organizational, change management, results of communication change, communication difficulties

Behaviour Change Communication: Family and Community Approaches

Breast and cervical cancers are two deathliest cancers causing women’s death in Indonesia. ‘Aisyiyah developed a model to support, educate and assist women to fight against breast and cervical cancers through behavior change communication in 15 districts. This model is implemented by integrating behavior change communication through family and community support approaches. Research on behavior change communication so far has focused more on the individual level and not many have paid attention to family (husband and wife relations) and community (cultural) factors to encourage individual behavior change. This study aims to explore ‘Aisyiyah’s strategies in behavior change communication (promoting, counselling, and assisting) women through family and community support approaches. This research used a descriptive qualitative method with a case study approach. Data collection are in-depth interview dan documentation. Research locations in five districts; Bantaeng, Mempawah, Sambas, Magelang, and Lamongan. This study revealed that behavior change communication integrated of promotion, family and community approaches was more effective in encouraging women to detect cancer early

Behavior Change without Behavior Change Communication: Nudging Handwashing among Primary School Students in Bangladesh.

Behavior change communication for improving handwashing with soap can be labor and resource intensive, yet quality results are difficult to achieve. Nudges are environmental cues engaging unconscious decision-making processes to prompt behavior change. In this proof-of-concept study, we developed an inexpensive set of nudges to encourage handwashing with soap after toilet use in two primary schools in rural Bangladesh. We completed direct observation of behaviors at baseline, after providing traditional handwashing infrastructure, and at multiple time periods following targeted handwashing nudges (1 day, 2 weeks, and 6 weeks). No additional handwashing education or motivational messages were completed. Handwashing with soap among school children was low at baseline (4%), increasing to 68% the day after nudges were completed and 74% at both 2 weeks and 6 weeks post intervention. Results indicate that nudge-based interventions have the potential to improve handwashing with soap among school-aged children in Bangladesh and specific areas of further inquiry are discussed

Doping and Irradiation Controlled Vortex Pinning Behavior in BaFe2(As1-xPx)2 Single Crystals

We report on the systematic evolution of vortex pinning behavior in isovalent doped single crystals of BaFe2(As1-xPx)2. Proceeding from optimal doped to ovedoped samples, we find a clear transfor- mation of the magnetization hysteresis from a fishtail behavior to a distinct peak effect followed by a reversible magnetization and Bean Livingston surface barriers. Strong point pinning dominates the vortex behavior at low fields whereas weak collective pinning determines the behavior at higher fields. In addition to doping effects, we show that particle irradiation by energetic protons can tune vortex pinning in these materials.Comment: 4 pages, 4 figures,significant change of eraly version, accepted by PRB rapid communication

Private Quantum Coding for Quantum Relay Networks

The relay encoder is an unreliable probabilistic device which is aimed at helping the communication between the sender and the receiver. In this work we show that in the quantum setting the probabilistic behavior can be completely eliminated. We also show how to combine quantum polar encoding with superactivation-assistance in order to achieve reliable and capacity-achieving private communication over noisy quantum relay channels.Comment: 15 pages, 3 figures, Journal-ref: Lecture Notes in Computer Science, Vol. 7479, pp. 239-250. Springer-Verlag, 2012, presented in part at the 11th Intl. Conference on Quantum Communication, Measurement and Computing (QCMC2012), v2: minor formatting change

Tailoring climate change communication to female target groups – an experimental analysis of voting and consumer behavior in Switzerland

Climate change is a reality. Despite increasing materialization of this phenomenon and calls for immediate action to limit its underlying causes, only a limited uptake of pro-environmental behavior has been registered so far. One of its main reasons has been concluded to be the faulty pro-environmental communication, that is in most cases built ineffectively on erroneous assumptions about the nature of human behavior. The goal of the here presented research was thus to find out, what aspects communication strategy should be built on to motivate pro-environmental behavior, individual as well as collective. Considering the need to specialize communication strategies for higher impact and their potential swing voter role in Switzerland, a female target group was selected. To answer the research question, an experiment was conducted, exposing the participants to three variations of a communication strategy, preceded and followed by an online questionnaire. The results showed that shorter and, namely, peer effects-based strategies are the most effective to motivate pro-environmental action in general and among women in particular. The conclusions of this experiment thus importantly contribute to the on-going discussion on how to effectively communicate to motivate pro-environmental action, with insightful findings for both practice and further research

Modeling and analyzing variability for mobile information systems

Abstract. Advances in size, power, and ubiquity of computing, sensors, and communication technology made possible the development of mobile or nomadic information systems. Variability of location and system behavior is a central issue in mobile information systems, where behavior of software has to change and re-adapt to the different location settings. This paper concerns modeling and analysis of the complementary relation between software and location variability. We use graphical and formal location modeling techniques, show how to elicit and use location model in conjunction with Tropos goal-oriented framework, and introduce automated analysis on the location-based models.