The effect of prior victory or defeat in the same site as that of subsequent encounter on the determination of dyadic dominance in the domestic hen

We examined the effect of prior victory or defeat in the same site as that of a subsequent encounter on the outcome of dyadic encounter of domestic hens by placing them in two situations: In the first set of dyads, two unacquainted hens having experienced prior victory were introduced in the site where one had experienced victory. In the second set, two unacquainted hens having experienced defeat were introduced in the site where one had recently lost. Results indicate that victories are equally shared between individuals with prior victory experiences, while familiarity with the meeting site did not give any advantage. However, hens having previously lost were disadvantaged when the encounter occurred in the same site as that of their prior defeat. This demonstrates that previous social experience in a site is more important on the outcome of subsequent encounters for losers than winners. Losers seem to associate the site with the stressful effect of losing or being more easily dominated

The role of hen's weight and recent experience on dyadic conflict outcome

This study simultaneously varied experiences of recent victory or defeat, 2-hour familiarity with the meeting place, and hen weight in order to understand their combined effects on the establishment of dyadic dominance relationships between hens not previously acquainted with each other. Three kinds of encounters were arranged: (i) a previous winner unfamiliar with the meeting place met a previous loser familiar with the meeting place (n =28 dyads); (ii) a previous winner met a previous loser, both unfamiliar with the meeting place (n=27); (iii) a previous winner familiar with the meeting place encountered a previous loser unfamiliar with the meeting place (n=28). The weight asymmetry was combined with these three types of encounters by selecting hens showing various weight differences, in favour of the recent loser in 54 dyads and of the recent winner in 29 dyads. Results indicate that recent victory or defeat experience significantly affected the outcome. Even an important weight asymmetry, or familiarity with the meeting place were not sufficient for a hen recently defeated to overcome an opponent that was previously victorious. A 2-hour period of familiarization with the meeting place did not provide any significant advantage over unfamiliarity. Although a significant relationship was found to exist between comb and wattles areas and the initial and final statuses, examination of partial correlations indicates that the influence was from initial status to final status, rather than from comb and wattles to final status. These results suggest that more importance should be attributed to recent social experience in comparison to intrinsic factors in determining dyadic dominance in the hen

The role of recent experience and weight on hen's agonistic behaviour during dyadic conflict resolution.

Recent victory or defeat experiences and 2-hour familiarity with the meeting place were combined with size differences in order to better understand their effects on the behaviour leading to the establishment of dyadic dominance relationships between hens not previously acquainted with each other. Three kinds of encounters were videotaped: (i) a previous winner unfamiliar with the meeting place met a previous loser familiar for 2 hours with the meeting place (n = 12 dyads); (ii) as in (i) but both were unfamiliar with the meeting place (n=12); (iii) as in (i) but the previous winner was familiar with the meeting place while the previous loser was unfamiliar (n=13). The weight asymmetry was combined with these three types of encounters by selecting hens of various weight differences: in 29 dyads the recent loser was heavier than the recent winner and in 8 dyads it was the reverse. Recent experience had a major influence upon both agonistic behaviour and dominance outcome. Hens that were familiar with the meeting site initiated attacks more frequently than their unfamiliar opponent but did not win significantly more often. Recent experience and site familiarity could be used to identify 80% of future initiators. Once the first aggressive behaviour had been initiated, it led to victory of its initiator in 92% of cases. Weight was not found to influence agonistic behaviour nor dominance outcome. However, hens with superior comb and wattles areas won significantly more initial meetings than opponents with smaller ones. In the final encounters, victory also went more frequently to the bird showing larger comb and wattles, which happened also to be the previous dominant in a majority of cases. The use of higher-order partial correlations as an ex post facto control for comb and wattles indicates that they were not influential upon agonistic behaviour nor on dominance outcome, but were simply co-selected with the selection of victorious and defeated birds in the first phase of the experiment designed to let hens acquire recent victory/defeat experience

Re-imagining remediation: Problematizing adolescent literacy remediation

This article explores the unique literacy needs of adolescent learners and challenges the traditional practice of literacy remediation, often tied to standardized test scores, in U.S. public schools. A call for more responsive literacy instruction that employs a disciplinary, holistic approach rather than a skills-based, deficit-informed approach is articulated, as well as recommendations for practice in literacy instruction informed by research on literacy identity development. As we begin to imagine our schools in a post-COVID world, we must rethink our instruction and move toward a model of literacy that is more relevant, more responsive, and, above all, more human

Portland Public Art Video Series

This project features two videos made for the Portland Public Art website, publicartportland.org. These videos will bring those who view the art closer to the artists’ purpose in creating it. This will increase the public’s interest in the Portland Public Art Committee and help them serve the public better

Coherent use of information by hens observing their former dominant defeating or being defeated by a stranger.

This study examines the role of observation during the formation of triads in female domestic hens. Results indicate that during hierarchy formation, a hen observing agonistic interactions and conflict settlement between its former dominant and a stranger uses this information when in turn confronted by the latter. Under a first condition (E, N=15 triads), bystanders witnessed their prior dominant being defeated by a stranger before being introduced to them. In a second condition (C1, N=16 triads), bystanders witnessed the victory of their prior dominant over a stranger. In a third condition (C2, N=15 triads), bystanders witnessed two strangers establishing a dominance relationship before being introduced to their prior dominant and to a stranger the former had just defeated. The behavioural strategies of bystanders depended on the issue of the conflict they had witnessed. Bystanders of the E condition behaved as having no chance of defeating the stranger. They never initiated an attack against it, and upon being attacked, readily submitted in turn to the stranger. On the contrary, bystanders of the C1 condition behaved as having some chances against the stranger. They initiated attacks in 50% of cases, and won 50% of conflicts against the stranger. Under condition C2, bystanders first initiated contact with the strangers in only 27% of cases, which approximates the average of their chances for defeating the stranger. However, bystanders finally defeated the strangers in 40% of cases. These results suggest that bystanders of conditions E and C1 gained some information on the relationship existing between their prior dominant and the stranger and that they used it coherently, perhaps through transitive inference, thus contributing to the existence of transitive relationships within the triads. Alternate explanations are examined

The language textbook in a post-apartheid education system

Bibliography: leaves 107-141.Using the English language textbook as its focal point, this study attempts to determine the extent to which educational publishers are in a position, through their practices, to assist in the transformation of South Africa. The centrality of language to both the creation of individual consciousness and to the shaping of society inform this investigation. Regarded as integral to these processes is the premise that education is the primary terrain into which language, and its fundamentally moulding potential, is locked. Furthermore, the impact of not only the transition in south Africa, but also of the fluidity of the wider global backdrop on both language and education are acknowledged as crucial influences on all spheres of private as well as public life. In this context, the study endeavours to locate and define those elements which comprise and inform the practices of educational publishing. It attempts to demonstrate that the broader socioeconomic, political, educational and cultural processes, from which educational publishing takes its signals, severely restrain its capacity for participation in social transformation. The study concludes with some recommendations for the publishing of English language textbooks in a post-apartheid terrain, and suggests a few areas of research pertinent to such an undertaking

3D terrestrial lidar data classification of complex natural scenes using a multi-scale dimensionality criterion: applications in geomorphology

International audience3D point clouds of natural environments relevant to problems in geomorphology (rivers, coastal environments, cliffs, ...) often require classification of the data into elementary relevant classes. A typical example is the separation of riparian vegetation from ground in fluvial environments, the distinction between fresh surfaces and rockfall in cliff environments, or more generally the classification of surfaces according to their morphology (e.g. the presence of bedforms or by grain size). Natural surfaces are heterogeneous and their distinctive properties are seldom defined at a unique scale, prompting the use of multi-scale criteria to achieve a high degree of classification success. We have thus defined a multi-scale measure of the point cloud dimensionality around each point. The dimensionality characterizes the local 3D organization of the point cloud within spheres centered on the measured points and varies from being 1D (points set along a line), 2D (points forming a plane) to the full 3D volume. By varying the diameter of the sphere, we can thus monitor how the local cloud geometry behaves across scales. We present the technique and illustrate its efficiency in separating riparian vegetation from ground and classifying a mountain stream as vegetation, rock, gravel or water surface. In these two cases, separating the vegetation from ground or other classes achieve accuracy larger than 98%. Comparison with a single scale approach shows the superiority of the multi-scale analysis in enhancing class separability and spatial resolution of the classification. Scenes between 10 and one hundred million points can be classified on a common laptop in a reasonable time. The technique is robust to missing data, shadow zones and changes in point density within the scene. The classification is fast and accurate and can account for some degree of intra-class morphological variability such as different vegetation types. A probabilistic confidence in the classification result is given at each point, allowing the user to remove the points for which the classification is uncertain. The process can be both fully automated (minimal user input once, all scenes treated in large computation batches), but also fully customized by the user including a graphical definition of the classifiers if so desired. Working classifiers can be exchanged between users independently of the instrument used to acquire the data avoiding the need to go through full training of the classifier. Although developed for fully 3D data, the method can be readily applied to 2.5D airborne lidar data