Ownership-dependent mating tactics of minor males of the beetle Librodor japonicus (Nitidulidae) with intra-sexual dimorphism of mandibles

Intra-sexual dimorphism is found in the weapons of many male beetles. Different behavioral tactics to access females between major and minor males, which adopt fighting and alternative tactics, respectively, are thought to maintain the male dimorphism. In these species major males have enlarged weapons that they use in fights with rival males. Minor males also have small weapons in some of these species, and it is unclear why these males possess weapons. We examined the hypothesis that minor males might adopt a fighting tactic when their status was relatively high in comparison with that of other males (e.g., ownership of a territory). We observed the behavioral tactics of major and minor males of the beetle Librodor japonicus, whose males have a dimorphism of their mandibles. Major males fought for resources, whereas minor males adopted two status-dependent tactics, fighting and sneaking, to access females, depending on their ownership of a sap site. We suggest that ownership status-dependent mating tactics in minor males may maintain the intra-sexual dimorphism in this beetle.</p

Is early center-based child care associated with tantrums and unmanageable behavior over time up to school entry?

Background. Existing research suggests that there is a relationship between greater exposure to center-based child care and child behavioral problems though the mechanism for the impact is unclear. However the measure used to document child care has usually been average hours, which may be particularly unreliable in the early months when fewer children are in center care. In addition individual trajectories for behavior difficulties have not been studied. Objective. The purpose of the current study was to examine whether the extent of exposure to center-based child care before two years predicted the trajectory of children’s difficult behavior (i.e., tantrums and unmanageable behavior) from 30 to 51 months controlling for child and maternal characteristics. Method. Data were drawn from UK-based Families, Children and Child Care (FCCC) study (n=1201). Individual growth models were fitted to test the relation between early center-based child care experiences and subsequent difficult behavior. Results. Children with more exposure to center-based care before two had less difficult behavior at 30 months, but more increase over time. Initial levels were predicted by higher difficult temperament and lower verbal ability. Higher difficult temperament and lower family socio-economic status predicted its change over time. Conclusion. Findings suggest that early exposure to center-based care before two years old is a risk factor for subsequent behavior problems especially when children have a longer period of exposure. A possible explanatory process is that child coping strategies to manage frustration are less well developed in a group context, especially when they lag behind in expressive language

Protecting eyewitness evidence: Examining the efficacy of a self-administered interview tool

Given the crucial role of eyewitness evidence, statements should be obtained as soon as possible after an incident. This is not always achieved due to demands on police resources. Two studies trace the development of a new tool, the Self-Administered Interview (SAI), designed to elicit a comprehensive initial statement. In Study 1, SAI participants reported more correct details than participants who provided a free recall account, and performed at the same level as participants given a Cognitive Interview. In Study 2, participants viewed a simulated crime and half recorded their statement using the SAI. After a delay of 1 week, all participants completed a free recall test. SAI participants recalled more correct details in the delayed recall task than control participants

Interventions to Promote Cancer Awareness and Early Presentation: Systematic Review

Low cancer awareness contributes to delay in presentation for cancer symptoms and may lead to delay in cancer diagnosis. The aim of this study was to review the evidence for the effectiveness of interventions to raise cancer awareness and promote early presentation in cancer to inform policy and future research. We searched bibliographic databases and reference lists for randomised controlled trials of interventions delivered to individuals, and controlled or uncontrolled studies of interventions delivered to communities. We found some evidence that interventions delivered to individuals modestly increase cancer awareness in the short term and insufficient evidence that they promote early presentation. We found limited evidence that public education campaigns reduce stage at presentation of breast cancer, malignant melanoma and retinoblastoma

Visual ecology of aphids – a critical review on the role of colours in host finding

We review the rich literature on behavioural responses of aphids (Hemiptera: Aphididae) to stimuli of different colours. Only in one species there are adequate physiological data on spectral sensitivity to explain behaviour crisply in mechanistic terms. Because of the great interest in aphid responses to coloured targets from an evolutionary, ecological and applied perspective, there is a substantial need to expand these studies to more species of aphids, and to quantify spectral properties of stimuli rigorously. We show that aphid responses to colours, at least for some species, are likely based on a specific colour opponency mechanism, with positive input from the green domain of the spectrum and negative input from the blue and/or UV region. We further demonstrate that the usual yellow preference of aphids encountered in field experiments is not a true colour preference but involves additional brightness effects. We discuss the implications for agriculture and sensory ecology, with special respect to the recent debate on autumn leaf colouration. We illustrate that recent evolutionary theories concerning aphid–tree interactions imply far-reaching assumptions on aphid responses to colours that are not likely to hold. Finally we also discuss the implications for developing and optimising strategies of aphid control and monitoring

Novel precoded relay-assisted algorithm for cellular systems

Cooperative schemes are promising solutions for cellular wireless systems to improve system fairness, extend coverage and increase capacity. The use of relays is of significant interest to allow radio access in situations where a direct path is not available or has poor quality. A data precoded relay-assisted scheme is proposed for a system cooperating with 2 relays, each equipped with either a single antenna or 2-antenna array. However, because of the half-duplex constraint at the relays, relaying-assisted transmission would require the use of a higher order constellation than in the case when a continuous link is available from the BS to the UT. This would imply a penalty in the power efficiency. The simple precoding scheme proposed exploits the relation between QPSK and 16-QAM, by alternately transmitting through the 2 relays, achieving full diversity, while significantly reducing power penalty. Analysis of the pairwise error probability of the proposed algorithm with a single antenna in each relay is derived and confirmed with numerical results. We show the performance improvements of the precoded scheme, relatively to equivalent distributed SFBC scheme employing 16-QAM, for several channel quality scenarios. Copyright © 2010 Sara Teodoro, et al.European project CODIVPortuguese project CADWINPortuguese project AGILEFC

Novel precoded relay-assisted algorithm for cellular systems

Cooperative schemes are promising solutions for cellular wireless systems to improve system fairness, extend coverage and increase capacity. The use of relays is of significant interest to allow radio access in situations where a direct path is not available or has poor quality. A data precoded relay-assisted scheme is proposed for a system cooperating with 2 relays, each equipped with either a single antenna or 2-antenna array. However, because of the half-duplex constraint at the relays, relaying-assisted transmission would require the use of a higher order constellation than in the case when a continuous link is available from the BS to the UT. This would imply a penalty in the power efficiency. The simple precoding scheme proposed exploits the relation between QPSK and 16-QAM, by alternately transmitting through the 2 relays, achieving full diversity, while significantly reducing power penalty. Analysis of the pairwise error probability of the proposed algorithm with a single antenna in each relay is derived and confirmed with numerical results. We show the performance improvements of the precoded scheme, relatively to equivalent distributed SFBC scheme employing 16-QAM, for several channel quality scenarios. Copyright © 2010 Sara Teodoro, et al.European project CODIVPortuguese project CADWINPortuguese project AGILEFC

Novel precoded relay-assisted algorithm for cellular systems

Cooperative schemes are promising solutions for cellular wireless systems to improve system fairness, extend coverage and increase capacity. The use of relays is of significant interest to allow radio access in situations where a direct path is not available or has poor quality. A data precoded relay-assisted scheme is proposed for a system cooperating with 2 relays, each equipped with either a single antenna or 2-antenna array. However, because of the half-duplex constraint at the relays, relaying-assisted transmission would require the use of a higher order constellation than in the case when a continuous link is available from the BS to the UT. This would imply a penalty in the power efficiency. The simple precoding scheme proposed exploits the relation between QPSK and 16-QAM, by alternately transmitting through the 2 relays, achieving full diversity, while significantly reducing power penalty. Analysis of the pairwise error probability of the proposed algorithm with a single antenna in each relay is derived and confirmed with numerical results. We show the performance improvements of the precoded scheme, relatively to equivalent distributed SFBC scheme employing 16-QAM, for several channel quality scenarios. Copyright © 2010 Sara Teodoro, et al.European project CODIVPortuguese project CADWINPortuguese project AGILEFC

Mapping Robots to Therapy and Educational Objectives for Children with Autism Spectrum Disorder

The aim of this study was to increase knowledge on therapy and educational objectives professionals work on with children with autism spectrum disorder (ASD) and to identify corresponding state of the art robots. Focus group sessions (n = 9) with ASD professionals (n = 53) from nine organisations were carried out to create an objectives overview, followed by a systematic literature study to identify state of the art robots matching these objectives. Professionals identified many ASD objectives (n = 74) in 9 different domains. State of the art robots addressed 24 of these objectives in 8 domains. Robots can potentially be applied to a large scope of objectives for children with ASD. This objectives overview functions as a base to guide development of robot interventions for these children

Data-precoded algorithm for multiple-relay-assisted systems

A data-precoded relay-assisted (RA) scheme is proposed for a system cooperating with multiple relay nodes (RNs), each equipped with either a single-antenna or a two-antenna array. The classical RA systems using distributed space-time/frequency coding algorithms, because of the half-duplex constraint at the relays, require the use of a higher order constellation than in the case of a continuous link transmission from the base station to the user terminal. This implies a penalty in the power efficiency. The proposed precoding algorithm exploits the relation between QPSK and 4 L -QAM, by alternately transmitting through L relays, achieving full diversity, while significantly reducing power penalty. This algorithm explores the situations where a direct path (DP) is not available or has poor quality, and it is a promising solution to extend coverage or increase system capacity. We present the analytical derivation of the gain obtained with the data-precoded algorithm in comparison with distributed space-frequency block code (SFBC) ones. Furthermore, analysis of the pairwise error probability of the proposed algorithm is derived and confirmed with numerical results. We evaluate the performance of the proposed scheme and compare it relatively to the equivalent distributed SFBC scheme employing 16-QAM and non-cooperative schemes, for several link quality scenarios and scheme configurations, highlighting the advantages of the proposed scheme