The influences of caregiver experience and cry type upon adults' caregiving behaviors

Includes bibliographical references.Past research has investigated both cry perception and cry acoustics to determine whether cries elicited by differing stimuli can be distinguished by adults and whether caregiving experience affects this ability. Although these questions have been studied since the 1920s, a state of controversy still exists. More recently, Wolff (1969) and Murray (1979) have proposed that cries elicited by hunger and pain are not discrete cry types, but rather, are two different levels of one single, graded signal. According to Wolff, a cry’s causal stimulus can be identified only during the initial wails, after which the cry settles into a basic pattern. The present study tested the distinct cry type and single graded signal theories in a two-part experiment. In Part 1, 16 mothers and 16 non-mothers were placed in a simulated babysitting situation in which they were asked to “babysit” an infant manikin. Subjects were exposed to either a hunger or a pain cry. The measures were latency to first response to cry, latency to appropriate response, latency to feed, latency to undress/check diaper, and latency to remove pin. Part 2 required these same subjects to listen to a tape of 16 pain and hunger cries extracted during the first minute of crying (early cries) as well as the third minute of crying (late cries). Little support was found for the distinct cry type theory. All subjects had trouble distinguishing cries elicited by pain from those elicited by hunger and reacting appropriately toward them. The results indicated that the single graded theory is a more plausible idea. Subjects easily identified the early cries of Part 2, but failed to do as well at identifying late cries, implying that all cries do settle into a basic pattern after the initial wails. Caregiving experience seemed to be a slight advantage in Part 2’s cry recognition task

Limb development, evolution, and regeneration and repair:Part two

International audienc

IVD Formation in Monodelphis domestica

The research summarized on this poster supports the use of the gray short-tailed opossum (Monodelphis domestica) as a lab animal for research into invertebral disc formation and degeneration. Preliminary data suggests that some genes involved in the formation and maintenance of the notochord in mice are the same in the short-tailed opossum. Data also suggests the ossification of the vertebral column of pups proceeds anteriorly to posteriorly and that much of the maturation of the nucleus puposus happens in the first ten days

Trpc2 pseudogenization dynamics in bats reveal ancestral vomeronasal signaling, then pervasive loss

This work was supported by the National Science Foundation Graduate Research Fellowship and NSF-DEB 144214

Widespread rapid reductions in body size of adult salamanders in response to climate change

Reduction in body size is a major response to climate change, yet evidence in globally imperiled amphibians is lacking. Shifts in average population body size could indicate either plasticity in the growth response to changing climates through changes in allocation and energetics, or through selection for decreased size where energy is limiting. We compared historic and contemporary size measurements in 15 Plethodon species from 102 populations (9450 individuals) and found that six species exhibited significant reductions in body size over 55 years. Biophysical models, accounting for actual changes in moisture and air temperature over that period, showed a 7.1–7.9% increase in metabolic expenditure at three latitudes but showed no change in annual duration of activity. Reduced size was greatest at southern latitudes in regions experiencing the greatest drying and warming. Our results are consistent with a plastic response of body size to climate change through reductions in body size as mediated through increased metabolism. These rapid reductions in body size over the past few decades have significance for the susceptibility of amphibians to environmental change, and relevance for whether adaptation can keep pace with climate change in the future

“Our Stories”: First-year Learning Communities Students Reflections on the Transition to College

Analysis of diverse first-year and first-generation learning communities students’ reflective narratives shows this population of students at an urban commuter college of technology face significant challenges in the transition into college. Designed to assist in this transition, the “Our Stories” digital writing project incorporates reflective writing in the long established, yet recently revitalized, learning communities program. Through analysis of the “Our Stories” project, we examine how the structure of our learning communities program, together with writing on an open digital platform, builds community and has the potential to positively influence students as they identify, and begin to make sense, of the social, emotional, and bureaucratic challenges in their transitio