Next steps for understanding the selective relevance of female-female competition

After decades of neglect, recent empirical research on exaggerated female traits (e.g., ornaments, armaments, aggression, acoustic signals, etc.) has revived interest in this widespread but poorly understood phenomenon, and shown that these traits often function in the context of female-female competition (West-Eberhard, 1983; Amundsen, 2000; Clutton-Brock, 2009; Rosvall, 2011a; Stockley and Bro-Jørgensen, 2011; Rubenstein, 2012 [Theme issue]; Stockley and Campbell, 2013 [Theme issue]). However, recent reviews have emphasized the applicability of sexual vs. social selection, rather than rigorously examining the role of different ecological contexts in shaping the evolution of traits used in competitive contexts (hereafter, “competitive traits”) in females. Thus, we still lack a solid understanding of the ecological and evolutionary mechanisms driving the evolution of female trait expression, in particular whether, how, and why these mechanisms vary among species, and between the sexes

Certain floristic affinities of the trees and shrubs of the Great Smoky mountains and vicinity

It is widely admitted that the forests of eastern United States reach their culmination in the southern Appalachians, particularly in the Unaka range of North Carolina and Tennessee. It is in the mountains of this range that the greatest height east of the Rocky mountains is reached; in the Black mountains with Mt. Mitchell, the Craggy mountains and the Great Smoky mountains, with some forty peaks over 6,000 feet in altitude, and with Mt. Guyot and Clingman\u27s Dome topping them all. Here on these lofty peaks (for many of them rise over a mile in altitude above their base), in a region of high rainfall and high humidity, there is rich flora -- rich in species and rich in numbers

An ecological study of the heath balds of the Great Smoky mountains

The inhabitants of the Great Smoky mountains usually refer to the heath communities under consideration as slicks or balds. The former name is derived from the smooth appearance they present on the ridges and mountain tops when viewed from a distance and which is entirely misleading, for they are extremely rough and tangled. The name bald refers to the absence of trees, these areas being exclusively occupied by shrubs. The term heath bald is used in this paper to include all such treeless areas dominated by members of the order Ericales. The use of the term heath is not entirely unsatisfactory, since there is considerable confusion in the literature in respect to the exact meaning of such terms as heath, low moor, high moor, etc., yet no substitute for the word has been found

Exploring a cardio-thoracic hospital ward soundscape in relation to restoration

Hospitals can provide stressful experiences for both patients and medical staff. A well-designed hospital soundscape should avoid adding to negative emotional states (e.g. stress), limit any detrimental cognitive effects (e.g. attentional fatigue), and enable restoration. Experiences of the cardio-thoracic ward soundscape, in a UK public University hospital, were explored via semi-structured interviews with 11 patients and 16 nurses. Thematic coding analysis resulted in 11 key themes including notions of restoration and emotional responses. The themes were used to develop a conceptual model to describe the processes involved in the perception and evaluation of the soundscape. The language used by patients and nurses indicated the emotional response to the soundscape was at times stressful and at others potentially restorative. Coping methods of accepting and habituating to individual sounds were noted. The impact of the patients' and nurses' ability to maintain these coping strategies are discussed in relation to restoration and the temporal variation of the soundscape. A period of 'quiet time' was in operation at the hospital and the importance of this was noted through various responses relating to emotion and restoration. The results suggest the soundscape has potentially, a beneficial role in facilitating restoration thus helping patients' recovery and medical staff's ability to remain productive. This research supports the need to study hospital soundscapes further so that design implications can be considered for the production of a more restorative environment, possibly through the masking/removal of unwanted sounds and optimising positive sounds

Fossil Pine Pollen Size‐Frequencies In Heart Lake Sediments, Oakland County, Michigan

Peer Reviewedhttps://deepblue.lib.umich.edu/bitstream/2027.42/141941/1/ajb214884.pd