Notas corológicas y nomenclaturales sobre Carex (Cyperaceae) del Perú

Here we present relevant records of nine species of the genus Carex (Cyperaceae) new for Peru: C. amicta, C. brehmeri, C. camptoglochin, C. enneastachya, C. livida, C. maritima, C. ownbeyi, C. ruth-satzae, and C. vallis-pulchrae. We perform the lectotypification of the names Carex camptoglochin, C. amicta and C. confertospicataEn este estudio se reconocen nueve registros nuevos de especies del género Carex (Cyperaceae) para la flora del Perú: C. amicta, C. brehmeri, C. camptoglochin, C. enneastachya, C. livida, C. maritima, C. ownbeyi, C. ruthsatzae y C. vallis-pulchrae. También hemos realizado la lectotipificación de los nombres Carex camptoglochin, C. amicta y C. confertospicataThis project has been funded through a “Beca Iberoamérica Jóvenes Profesores e Investigadores del Programas de movilidad del Banco Santander” fellowship towards ME, and a postdoctoral fellowship of the Smithsonian Institution towards PJ-M. MSMF and JJAO would like to acknowledge Patronato de la Reserva Paisajística “Nor Yauyos Cochas” for funding suppor

The Heritability of Aptitude and Exceptional Talent Across Different Domains in Adolescents and Young Adults

The origin of individual differences in aptitude, defined as a domain-specific skill within the normal ability range, and talent, defined as a domain specific skill of exceptional quality, is under debate. The nature of the variation in aptitudes and exceptional talents across different domains was investigated in a population based twin sample. Self-report data from 1,685 twin pairs (12–24 years) were analyzed for Music, Arts, Writing, Language, Chess, Mathematics, Sports, Memory, and Knowledge. The influence of shared environment was small for both aptitude and talent. Additive and non-additive genetic effects explained the major part of the substantial familial clustering in the aptitude measures with heritability estimates ranging between .32 and .71. Heritability estimates for talents were higher and ranged between .50 and .92. In general, the genetic architecture for aptitude and talent was similar in men and women. Genetic factors contribute to a large extent to variation in aptitude and talent across different domains of intellectual, creative, and sports abilities

The Musicality of Non-Musicians: An Index for Assessing Musical Sophistication in the General Population

Musical skills and expertise vary greatly in Western societies. Individuals can differ in their repertoire of musical behaviours as well as in the level of skill they display for any single musical behaviour. The types of musical behaviours we refer to here are broad, ranging from performance on an instrument and listening expertise, to the ability to employ music in functional settings or to communicate about music. In this paper, we first describe the concept of ‘musical sophistication’ which can be used to describe the multi-faceted nature of musical expertise. Next, we develop a novel measurement instrument, the Goldsmiths Musical Sophistication Index (Gold-MSI) to assess self-reported musical skills and behaviours on multiple dimensions in the general population using a large Internet sample (n = 147,636). Thirdly, we report results from several lab studies, demonstrating that the Gold-MSI possesses good psychometric properties, and that self-reported musical sophistication is associated with performance on two listening tasks. Finally, we identify occupation, occupational status, age, gender, and wealth as the main socio-demographic factors associated with musical sophistication. Results are discussed in terms of theoretical accounts of implicit and statistical music learning and with regard to social conditions of sophisticated musical engagement

Thermal tolerance and acclimation capacity in the European common frog (<i>Rana temporaria</i>) change throughout ontogeny

Phenotypic plasticity may allow ectotherms with complex life histories such as amphibians to cope with climate-driven changes in their environment. Plasticity in thermal tolerance (i.e., shifts of thermal limits via acclimation to higher temperatures) has been proposed as a mechanism to cope with warming and extreme thermal events. However, thermal tolerance and, hence, acclimation capacity, is known to vary with life stage. Using the common frog (Rana temporaria) as a model species, we measured the capacity to adjust lower (CTmin) and upper (CTmax ) critical thermal limits at different acclimation temperatures. We calculated the acclimation response ratio as a metric to assess the stage-specific acclimation capacity at each of seven consecutive ontogenetic stages and tested whether acclimation capacity was influenced by body mass and/or age. We further examined how acclimation temperature,body mass, age, and ontogenetic stage influenced CTmin and CT max. In the temperate population of R. temporaria that we studied, thermal tolerance and acclimation capacity were affected by the ontogenetic stage. However, acclimation capacity at both thermal limits was well below 100% at all life stages tested. The lowest and highest acclimation capacity in thermal limits was observed in young and late larvae, respectively. The relatively low acclimation capacity of young larvae highlights a clear risk of amphibian populations to ongoing climate change. Ignoring stage-specific differences in thermal physiology may drastically underestimate the climate vulnerability of species, which will hamper successful conservation actions.</p