Emergent conservation outcomes of shared risk perception in human‐wildlife systems

Human perception of risks related to economic damages caused by nearby wildlife can be transmitted through social networks. Understanding how sharing risk information within a human community alters the spatial dynamics of human‐wildlife interactions has important implications for the design and implementation of effective conservation actions. We developed an agent‐based model that simulates farmer livelihood decisions and activities in an agricultural landscape shared with a population of a generic wildlife species (wildlife‐human interactions in shared landscapes [WHISL]). In the model, based on risk perception and economic information, farmers decide how much labor to allocate to farming and whether and where to exclude wildlife from their farms (e.g., through fencing, trenches, or vegetation thinning). In scenarios where the risk perception of farmers was strongly influenced by other farmers, exclusion of wildlife was widespread, resulting in decreased quality of wildlife habitat and frequency of wildlife damages across the landscape. When economic losses from encounters with wildlife were high, perception of risk increased and led to highly synchronous behaviors by farmers in space and time. Interactions between wildlife and farmers sometimes led to a spillover effect of wildlife damage displaced from socially and spatially connected communities to less connected neighboring farms. The WHISL model is a useful conservation‐planning tool because it provides a test bed for theories and predictions about human‐wildlife dynamics across a range of different agricultural landscapes.Resultados Emergentes de Conservación de la Percepción Compartida sobre Riesgos en los Sistemas Humanos – FaunaResumenLa percepción humana de los riesgos relacionados con los daños económicos causados por la fauna vecina puede transmitirse por medio de las redes sociales. El entendimiento de cómo la propagación de la información sobre riesgos dentro de una comunidad humana altera las dinámicas espaciales de las interacciones humanos – fauna tiene implicaciones importantes para el diseño e implementación de las acciones de conservación efectiva. Desarrollamos un modelo basado en agentes que simula las decisiones y las actividades de subsistencia de los agricultores en un paisaje agrícola compartido con una especie genérica de fauna (interacciones humanos – fauna en paisajes compartidos [WHISL, en inglés]). En el modelo, con base en la percepción del riesgo y en la información económica, los agricultores decidieron cuánto trabajo asignar a la agricultura y si y en dónde excluir a la fauna de sus parcelas (por ejemplo, por medio de cercas, fosas o la reducción de la vegetación). En los escenarios en los que la percepción de riesgo de los agricultores estuvo fuertemente influenciada por otros agricultores, la exclusión de la fauna estuvo generalizada, lo que resultó en una disminución de la calidad del hábitat de la fauna y en la frecuencia de daños causados por los animales a lo largo del paisaje. Cuando las pérdidas económicas causadas por los encuentros con la fauna fueron altas, la percepción del riesgo incrementó y resultó en comportamientos altamente sincrónicos adoptados por los agricultores en el tiempo y el espacio. Las interacciones entre la fauna y los agricultores a veces resultaron en un efecto de derrama de daños causados por la fauna desplazada de las comunidades conectadas social y espacialmente hacia parcelas vecinas con una menor conexión. El modelo WHISL es una herramienta útil para la planificación de la conservación porque proporciona una plataforma de experimentación para las teorías y predicciones sobre las dinámicas humano – fauna en una extensión geográfica de diferentes paisajes agrícolas.摘要人类对附近野生动物造成经济损失的风险感知可以通过社会网络传播。理解人类社会中共享风险信息如何改变人类与野生动物互作的空间动态, 对设计和实施有效保护行动具有重要意义。我们开发了一种基于主体的模型, 以模拟存在野生动物种群的农业景观中农场主的生计决策和活动 (共享景观中的野生动物‐人类互作) 。在这个模型中, 农场主根据风险感知和经济方面的信息来决定如何分配农作劳动、是否以及在哪里将野生动物驱逐到农场之外 (如通过建围栏、挖沟渠或减少植被覆盖) 。在农场主的风险感知受到其它农场主强烈影响的情况下, 农场主普遍会驱逐野生动物, 导致整个景观中野生动物生境质量下降, 野生动物造成破坏的频率也下降。当遭遇野生动物造成的经济损失较高时, 农场主对风险的感知会增加, 从而导致他们的行为在时空上高度同步。野生动物和农场主之间的互作有时候也会产生溢出效应, 使野生动物造成的破坏从社会及空间上紧密联系的社区转移到联系不够紧密的临近农场。本研究的共享景观中野生动物‐人类互作模型是一种有效的保护规划工具, 为不同农业景观中人类‐野生动物动态变化的理论和预测提供了试验平台。 【翻译: 胡怡思; 审校: 聂永刚】Article impact statement: Sharing of risk perception in social networks alters spatial patterns of human‐wildlife interactions, sometimes creating spillover effects.Peer Reviewedhttp://deepblue.lib.umich.edu/bitstream/2027.42/156460/2/cobi13473_am.pdfhttp://deepblue.lib.umich.edu/bitstream/2027.42/156460/1/cobi13473.pd

Parents just don't understand: Parent-offspring conflict over mate choice

Previous research reveals that children and parents are not in complete agreement over which traits are most important for the mate of the child. Children tend to prefer traits that suggest genetic quality, whereas parents prefer characteristics that suggest high parental investment and cooperation with the ingroup. Using a sample of parents, mothers (n = 234) and fathers (n =240) the hypothesis was supported; parents perceived characteristics indicating a lack of genetic quality as being more unacceptable to the child, while characteristics indicating a lack of parental investment and cooperation with the ingroup were more unacceptable to themselves. Sex differences between mothers and fathers and sons and daughters were explored

Franchising as a Strategy for Combining Small and Large Group Advantages (Logics) in Social Entrepreneurship:A Hayekian Perspective

This article develops a Hayekian perspective on social franchising that distinguishes between the end-connected logic of the small group and the rule-connected logic of the big group. Our key claim is that mission-driven social entrepreneurs often draw on the small-group logic when starting their social ventures and then face difficulties when the process of scaling shifts their operations toward a big-group logic. In this situation, social franchising offers a strategy to replicate the small group despite systemwide scaling, to mobilize decentrally accessible social capital, and to reduce agency costs through mechanisms of self-selection and self-monitoring. By employing a Hayekian perspective, we are thus able to offer an explanation as to why social franchising is a suitable scaling strategy for some social entrepreneurship organizations and not for others. We illustrate our work using the Ashoka Fellow Wellcome

Volunteering in a hybrid institutional and organizational environment: an emerging research agenda

Traditionally, volunteers are core participants in classic voluntary associations; however, the organizational context of volunteering has changed significantly in recent decades through the proliferation of new and hybrid settings of participation that mingle roles and rationalities of civil society, state and market. In this chapter, I examine the consequences of this organizational change for the nature and functions of volunteering by means of a literature review

PrEggNut Study: protocol for a randomised controlled trial investigating the effect of a maternal diet rich in eggs and peanuts from <23 weeks' gestation during pregnancy to 4 months' lactation on infant IgE-mediated egg and peanut allergy outcomes

Introduction: Clinical studies supported by immunological data indicate early life intervention strategies to be promising in reducing the growing global burden of food allergies. The events that predispose to food allergy, including the induction of allergen-specific immune responses, appear to be initiated early in development. Early exposure to food allergens in utero and via breast milk is likely to be important in initiating oral tolerance. We aim to determine the effectiveness of higher maternal food allergen consumption during pregnancy and lactation on infant food allergy outcomes. Methods and analysis: This is a multisite, parallel, two-arm (1:1 allocation), single-blinded (outcome assessors, statistical analyst and investigators), randomised controlled trial. Pregnant women (<23 weeks’ gestation) whose (unborn) infants have at least two biological family members (mother, father or siblings) with medically diagnosed allergic disease are eligible to participate. After obtaining written informed consent, pregnant women are randomised to either a high egg and peanut diet (at least 6 eggs and 60 peanuts per week) or standard (low) egg and peanut diet (no more than 3 eggs and 30 peanuts per week). The women are asked to follow their allocated diet from <23 weeks’ gestation to 4 months’ lactation. The primary outcome is food challenge proven IgE-mediated egg and/or peanut allergy in the infants at 12 months of age. Key secondary outcomes include infant sensitisation to egg and/or peanut and infant eczema. Our target sample size is 2136 women. Analyses will be performed on an intention-to- treat basis according to a pre-specified statistical analysis plan.Debra J Palmer, Thomas R Sullivan, Dianne E Campbell, Ralph Nanan, Michael S Gold, Peter S Hsu, Merryn J Netting, Vicki McWilliam, Jennifer J Koplin, Kirsten P Perrett, Patrick Quinn, Michael O'Sullivan, Susan L Prescott, Rosalie Grivell, Maria Makride

The Volunteer Satisfaction Index: A Validation Study in the Chinese Cultural Context

Using a Hong Kong-sourced sample of 261 participants, this study set out to validate the Volunteer Satisfaction Index (VSI) in the Chinese cultural context and to evaluate its psychometric properties. The VSI was originally developed by Galindo-Kuhn and Guzley (2001) to measure the outcomes of volunteer experiences. In this study, exploratory factor analysis (EFA) yielded a different factor structure from that proposed by the scale developer. The three factors found were personal gain, relationship within organization and relationship with peers. Cronbach’s alpha values were high for all three subscales. Results from correlation and regression analysis also confirmed the construct and criterion-related validity of the scale. Thus, the reliability and validity of the scale were confirmed. Implications for the assessment of volunteer satisfaction and further directions for cross-cultural studies on related topics are discussed

Irrigation and the Origins of the Southern Moche State on the North Coast of Peru

In this paper, I examine the role that irrigation played in the formation of the Southern Moche state in the Moche Valley, Peru. Specifically, I attempt to test Wittfogel and Steward's hydraulic model, which postulates that in certain arid environments, the managerial requirements of construction and maintenance of irrigation systems played a crucial role in the formation of centralized polities. I formulate and evaluate four hypotheses concerning the role of irrigation systems in the Moche Valley. Those hypotheses are then evaluated using settlement pattern data drawn from two surveys that cover the entire coastal section of the valley and provide information on 910 archaeological sites. Based on those data, I present a sequence of political development for the valley from the formation of the first autonomous village in the Late Preceramic period (2500–1800 B. C.) to the zenith of the Southern Moche state. Evaluation of the four hypotheses indicates that the managerial requirements of irrigation were relatively unimportant; rather, warfare, highland-coastal interaction, and political control of irrigation systems created opportunities for leaders to form a highly centralized, territorially expansive state sometime between A. D. 200 and 700

Consequences of infanticide for a gregarious ectoparasitoid of leafroller larvae

1. In this laboratory study, the clutch size and handling time of Goniozus jacintae were investigated, a comparison of its life-history performance between primary and secondary (laid after infanticide events) broods was carried out, and the lipid and protein concentrations in the haemolymph of non-parasitised and parasitised hosts were estimated. 2. It was found that G. jacintae temporarily paralysed its host larvae for 66 min and briefly guarded its brood for 66 min. The clutch size of G. jacintae increased from two to seven with increasing larval fresh weight of its host, and both ovicide and larvicide of primary clutches occurred in 81% of encounters. 3. Secondary clutches of G. jacintae were significantly larger than primary clutches in two of three ovicide treatments for the same host individuals. Secondary clutches also experienced greater brood survivorship than primary clutches. 4. Lipid concentrations were consistently higher in the haemolymph of parasitised hosts, and protein concentrations were initially higher (until egg hatch), but increased at a lower rate in parasitised hosts than in non-parasitised hosts. 5. This study is the first to provide evidence that improved nutritional quality could be an important benefit of infanticide for an insect parasitoid, allowing for larger clutch size and improved brood survivorship among secondary broods

Population and Environmental Correlates of Maize Yields in Mesoamerica: a Test of Boserup’s Hypothesis in the Milpa

Using a sample of 40 sources reporting milpa and mucuna-intercropped maize yields in Mesoamerica, we test Boserup’s (1965) prediction that fallow is reduced as a result of growing population density. We further examine direct and indirect effects of population density on yield. We find only mixed support for Boserupian intensification. Fallow periods decrease slightly with increasing population density in this sample, but the relationship is weak. Controlling for other covariates, fallow-unadjusted maize yields first rise then fall with population density. Fallow-adjusted maize yields peak at 390 kg/ha/yr for low population densities (8 persons / km2) and decline to around 280 kg/ha/yr for the highest population densities observed in our dataset. Fallow practices do not appear to mediate the relationship between population density and yield. The multi-level modeling methods we adopt allow for data clustering, accurate estimates of group-level variation, and they generate conditional predictions, all features essential to the comparative study of prehistoric and contemporary agricultural yields