A new approach to estimate fecundity rate from inter-birth intervals

Funded by Department of Energy and Climate Change (UK), BES, ASAB, Greenpeace, Environmental Trust, Scottish Natural Heritage, Scottish Government, Whale and Dolphin Conservation, Talisman Energy (UK) Ltd., DECC, Chevron, Natural Environment Research Council Acknowledgments Funding for this work was provided by the Department of Energy and Climate Change (UK). Photo-identification data were collected during a series of grants and contracts from the BES, ASAB, Greenpeace Environmental Trust, Scottish Natural Heritage, Scottish Government, Whale and Dolphin Conservation, Talisman Energy (UK) Ltd., DECC, Chevron, and the Natural Environment Research Council. All survey work was carried out under Scottish Natural Heritage Animal Scientific Licences. The authors have no conflict of interest to declare. We thank Mark Bravington for his helpful advice at the early stages of this work and two anonymous reviewers for their useful comments on the manuscript.Peer reviewedPublisher PD

Food sharing among captive gibbons ( Hylobates lar )

A captive family group of gibbons engages in food sharing during consistently patterned sequences of behaviors in which begging gestures are employed. The predominant occurrence of the behavior involves the juvenile female begging from her older, adult sister who acted as her “surrogate mother”. An examination of the variables potentially affecting the behavior, such as hunger, the availability and accessibility of preferred foods, the inability to forage individually, and the social relationships between members of the family, indicates that food sharing may assist the young in acquiring appropriate food habits, supplement their foraging capabilities, and may serve to reinforce the social bonds between adult and immature members of the family group.Peer Reviewedhttp://deepblue.lib.umich.edu/bitstream/2027.42/41598/1/10329_2006_Article_BF02383142.pd

Fish Intelligence, Sentience and Ethics

Fish are one of the most highly utilised vertebrate taxa by humans; they are harvested from wild stocks as part of global fishing industries, grown under intensive aquaculture conditions, are the most common pet and are widely used for scientific research. But fish are seldom afforded the same level of compassion or welfare as warm-blooded vertebrates. Part of the problem is the large gap between people’s perception of fish intelligence and the scientific reality. This is an important issue because public perception guides government policy. The perception of an animal’s intelligence often drives our decision whether or not to include them in our moral circle. From a welfare perspective, most researchers would suggest that if an animal is sentient, then it can most likely suffer and should therefore be offered some form of formal protection. There has been a debate about fish welfare for decades which centres on the question of whether they are sentient or conscious. The implications for affording the same level of protection to fish as other vertebrates are great, not least because of fishing-related industries. Here, I review the current state of knowledge of fish cognition starting with their sensory perception and moving on to cognition. The review reveals that fish perception and cognitive abilities often match or exceed other vertebrates. A review of the evidence for pain perception strongly suggests that fish experience pain in a manner similar to the rest of the vertebrates. Although scientists cannot provide a definitive answer on the level of consciousness for any nonhuman vertebrate, the extensive evidence of fish behavioural and cognitive sophistication and pain perception suggests that best practice would be to lend fish the same level of protection as any other vertebrate

A gestural repertoire of 1-2year old human children : in search of the ape gestures

This project was made possible with the generous financial help of the Baverstock Bequest to the Psychology and Neuroscience Department at the University of St Andrews.When we compare human gestures to those of other apes, it looks at first like there is nothing much to compare at all. In adult humans, gestures are thought to be a window into the thought processes accompanying language, and sign languages are equal to spoken language with all of its features. While some research firmly emphasises the difference between human gestures and those of other apes, the question about whether there are any commonalities has rarely been investigated, and is mostly confined to pointing gestures. The gestural repertoires of nonhuman ape species have been carefully studied and described with regard to their form and function – but similar approaches are much rarer in the study of human gestures. This paper applies the methodology commonly used in the study of nonhuman ape gestures to the gestural communication of human children in their second year of life. We recorded (n=13) children’s gestures in a natural setting with peers and caregivers in Germany and Uganda. Children employed 52 distinct gestures, 46 (89%) of which are present in the chimpanzee repertoire. Like chimpanzees, they used them both singly, and in sequences; and employed individual gestures flexibly towards different goals.Publisher PDFPeer reviewe

The 3D Object Mediator : Handling 3D Models on Internet

The 3D Object MEdiator (3DOME 3) offers two services for handling 3D models: a modelshop and a renderfarm. These services can be consulted through the Internet. The modelshop meets the demands for brokerage of geometric descriptions of 3D models. People who create geometric models of objects can supply their models to the modelshop and 3DOME will offer them to potential customers. People who need models can browse through the model database and buy the models they need. The renderfarm, consisting of a large number of workstations and multiprocessor computers, offers rendering services to generate animations and realistic images of large scenes. In general, these kinds of renderjobs cannot be done by a single workstation in an acceptable amount of time. 3DOME's parallel rendering facilities may be very helpful for these jobs

Діяльність польських релігійних організацій на території Правобережної України в 20-ті роки ХХ століття.

У статті О.І. Жуковського «Діяльність польських релігійних організацій на території Правобережної України у 20-ті рр. ХХ ст.» на основі архівних документів вперше в українській історіографії проаналізована діяльність польських етнічних релігійних організацій Правобережної України у 20-ті рр. ХХ століття. Ключові слова: польська етнічна меншина, костел, ксьондз, польські католицькі гуртки.В статье А.И. Жуковского «Деятельность польских религиозных организаций на территории Правобережной Украины в 20-е гг. ХХ ст.» на основании архивных документов впервые проанализирована деятельность польских етнических религиозных организаций Правебережной Украины в 20-е гг. ХХ ст. Ключевые слова: польская етническая меньшина, костел, ксендз, польские католические кружки.In the article of O.I. Zhukovskyi «The Activity of the Polish Religious Organisations on the Territory of the Right-Bank Ukraine in the 20-s of the XXth century» an attempt to analyse the work of the Polish ethnical religious organisations in the Right-Bank Ukraine in the 20-s of the XXth century on the basis of the archive documents has been made firstly in the Ukrainian historiography. Key words: Polish ethnical minority, Roman Catholic church, Roman Catholic priest, Polish Catholic organisations