SCRIPT : A Legacy of Vitality

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Social recognition and shoaling decisions of the male and female native freshwater fish, Psuedomugil signifer in the presence of an invasive fish, Gambusia holbrooki

Social interactions among shoaling fish often rely on the recognition of conspecifics and appropriate behavioural responses towards them. Furthermore, the complexity of shoal composition and preferences is often also influenced by the sex and size of the fish. Despite the extensive literature on social behaviours in shoaling fish and invasive-native species impacts, little is explicitly known of the effects of invasive fish on social recognition in native fishes. Studying native-invasive interactions in a social recognition and shoaling preference context is critical to understanding the potential effects invasive fish pose on native shoaling species. The first objective of this study was to determine whether the native Pacific blue-eye (Pseudomugil signifer) had the ability to recognise a shoal comprising familiar individuals and preferentially associate with it over a shoal comprising unfamiliar individuals. Secondly, whether these abilities and preferences changed with sex or body size of the focal fish. Thirdly, it was investigated whether the individual recognition abilities and shoaling preferences of P. signifer were affected by the presence of an additional unfamiliar conspecific versus an invasive Eastern mosquitofish (Gambusia holbrooki). Simple binary choice experiments allowing both visual and chemical cues were conducted to record focal fish’s proportion of time spent with unfamiliar and familiar stimulus shoals and activity rate. Overall, this study found that P. signifer did not show a preference for familiar over unfamiliar shoal mates, and this did not change with sex or size. Furthermore, the presence of G. holbrooki did not affect shoal recognition or shoal preference in focal P. signifer. The overall lack of preferences suggests that P. signifer may not have the ability to recognise individuals based on familiarity, or there may not be substantial benefits of shoaling with familiar over unfamiliar conspecifics. Given that P. signifer is a shoaling species and social affiliation appears to confer fitness advantages, the lack of preference may beneficially allow individuals to form shoals regardless of familiarity with conspecifics. The findings of this study also suggest that G. holbrooki IV presence is not costly for P. signifer. However, longer-term experiments with the two species would be important for confirming whether the invasive species poses a threat as an aggressive competitor. Therefore, it is important that additional research is conducted regarding what processes are driving shoaling in P. signifer and how G. holbrooki impacts them. Overall, in conjunction with past and future studies, this study contributes towards a more comprehensive understanding of the shoaling preferences of native P. signifer and how they are affected by the invasive G. holbrooki

Web 2.0 Projects at Warwick University Library

About 2 years ago at Warwick our senior managers encouraged Academic Support staff to really explore web 2.0 technologies and find out if anything particularly lent itself to supporting library work or marketing. We were given free reign to find out what worked and what suited the library, and what didn’t. The following brief overviews cover only four of the projects that have been running since then. We have also investigated much more, including Twitter, Google Documents, wiki reading lists, You-Tube and more, but we couldn’t possibly fit it all in here. The brief articles below are just to give a taste of the kind of projects we have worked on. There are many more members of staff involved and many more web 2.0 adventures underway..

Lifting classes for the fixed point theory of nn-valued maps

The theory of lifting classes and the Reidemeister number of single-valued maps of a finite polyhedron $X$ is extended to $n$-valued maps by replacing liftings to universal covering spaces by liftings with codomain an orbit configuration space, a structure recently introduced by Xicot\'encatl. The liftings of an $n$-valued map $f$ split into self-maps of the universal covering space of $X$ that we call lift-factors. An equivalence relation is defined on the lift-factors of $f$ and the number of equivalence classes is the Reidemeister number of $f$. The fixed point classes of $f$ are the projections of the fixed point sets of the lift-factors and are the same as those of Schirmer. An equivalence relation is defined on the fundamental group of $X$ such that the number of equivalence classes equals the Reidemeister number. We prove that if $X$ is a manifold of dimension at least three, then algebraically the orbit configuration space approach is the same as one utilizing the universal covering space. The Jiang subgroup is extended to $n$-valued maps as a subgroup of the group of covering transformations of the orbit configuration space and used to find conditions under which the Nielsen number of an $n$-valued map equals its Reidemeister number. If an $n$-valued map splits into $n$ single-valued maps, then its $n$-valued Reidemeister number is the sum of their Reidemeister numbers.Comment: near complete rewrite from previous versio

Waking up the children so they can wake up America : a case study of cultural identity groups.

This study focuses on understanding the impact of the Cultural Identity Group (CIG) program on the racial/ethnic identity development of students who were involved in a sixteen-week program in an ethnically diverse middle school in New England. The program began in October 1996 and ended in May 1997. The cultural identity groups met once a week except during school holidays and vacation. This study was part of a larger project funded by the Carnegie Corporation of New York. The Cultural Identity Group model on which this study is based was jointly developed and piloted in a Western Massachusetts Elementary School by Phyllis C. Brown, MMHS, Ernest Washington, Ed.D., Allen Ivey, Ed. D. and Mary Bradford-Ivey, Ed.D. Qualitative and quantitative measures were used to gather information about the impact of the Cultural Identity Group on the racial/ethnic identity development of the students as well as on their attitudes toward people from different racial/ethnic backgrounds. The Multigroup Ethnic Identity Measure developed by Jean Phinney (1989) was used to assess students\u27 ethnic awareness. Interviews conducted with a racially/ethnically diverse sample from the Cultural Identity Group provided evidence of the impact of CIG on the racial/ethnic identity of participants. The findings in this study demonstrated that students who participated in CIG gained a heightened sense of their racial/ethnic self as well as an increase in interethnic awareness. There was an emerging awareness of the pervasiveness of racism among participants in this study. Participants also gained skills to help them deal with and interrupt injustice. These skills included recognizing ethnic jokes and developing constructive, practical solutions for confronting racist behavior directed toward adolescents. The implications of this study concern students, and educators, as well as theories of adolescent development and racial identity development. Providing students structured environments in which to talk and learn about their own ethnic background, race and racism may have a positive impact on their racial/ethnic development which may promote better interethnic relationships in school. Any study of adolescent development must consider differences as well as similarities in adolescent development based on racial/ethnic factors. Future and current educators need to learn about theories of racial/ethnic identity and understand how it plays out in adolescents\u27 lives and in school, in order to create school culture that affirms all students