Being Attractive Brings Advantages: The Case of Parrot Species in Captivity

Background: Parrots are one of the most frequently kept and bred bird orders in captivity. This increases poaching and thus the potential importance of captive populations for rescue programmes managed by zoos and related institutions. Both captive breeding and poaching are selective and may be influenced by the attractiveness of particular species to humans. In this paper, we tested the hypothesis that the size of zoo populations is not only determined by conservation needs, but also by the perceived beauty of individual parrot species assessed by human observers. Methodology/Principal Findings: For the purpose of data collection, we defined four sets of species (40 parrots, 367 parrots, 34 amazons, 17 macaws). Then, we asked 776 human respondents to evaluate parrot pictures of the selected species according to perceived beauty and we analyzed its association with color and morphological characters. Irrespective of the species set, we found a good agreement among the respondents. The preferred species tended to be large, colorful, and long-tailed. Conclusions/Significance: We repeatedly confirmed significant, positive association between the perceived beauty and the size of worldwide zoo population. Moreover, the range size and body size appeared to be significant predictors of zoo population size. In contrast, the effects of other explanatory variables, including the IUCN (International Union for Conservation of Nature) listing, appeared insignificant. Our results may suggest that zoos preferentially keep beautifu

Genome-wide association study identifies 74 loci associated with educational attainment

Educational attainment is strongly influenced by social and other environmental factors, but genetic factors are estimated to account for at least 20% of the variation across individuals1. Here we report the results of a genome-wide association study (GWAS) for educational attainment that extends our earlier discovery sample1,2 of 101,069 individuals to 293,723 individuals, and a replication study in an independent sample of 111,349 individuals from the UK Biobank. We identify 74 genome-wide significant loci associated with the number of years of schooling completed. Single-nucleotide polymorphisms associated with educational attainment are disproportionately found in genomic regions regulating gene expression in the fetal brain. Candidate genes are preferentially expressed in neural tissue, especially during the prenatal period, and enriched for biological pathways involved in neural development. Our findings demonstrate that, even for a behavioural phenotype that is mostly environmentally determined, a well-powered GWAS identifies replicable associated genetic variants that suggest biologically relevant pathways. Because educational attainment is measured in large numbers of individuals, it will continue to be useful as a proxy phenotype in efforts to characterize the genetic influences of related phenotypes, including cognition and neuropsychiatric diseases

Spirituality of the leader in the system of purposes of its preparation

Показано, що посилення потреб соціуму в лідерах активізувало дослідження феномену лідерства, розробку і цільове використання засобів, способів і педагогічних технологій підготовки лідерів. Проаналізовано зміст цієї підготовки та обґрунтовано необхідність формування духовності та відповідальності лідерів як важливих її елементів. Розглянуто значення і роль духовності й культури педагога як передумови розвитку духовності потенційного лідера.It is shown that the growth of society’s needs for leaders has intensified research on the leadership phenomenon, development and targeted development of means, methods and pedagogical technologies for training leaders. The content of their training is analyzed and the need for the formation of spirituality and responsibility of leaders as its important elements is substantiated. The significance and role of spirituality and culture of the teacher as a prerequisite for the development of the spirituality of a potential leader is considered

Western Star, 1910-09-14

The Western Star began publication on Newfoundland's west coast on 4 April 1900, appearing weekly with brief semiweekly periods up to 1952, when it became a daily. As of 17 April 2019 it continues as a free weekly community paper

The standardized pictures of 17 macaw species.

<p>They are arranged in rows according to perceived attractiveness from the most preferred (top left) to the least preferred (bottom right) species by human respondents.</p

Preference ranks of the reduced parrot picture set.

<p>The figure shows the relationship between mean preference rank of parrots (variants of pictures pooled) and its worldwide zoo population size in the reduced set of 40 species (R² = 19.9%). The higher the rank, the lower the human preference of the species is.</p

The amazons.

<p>This figure shows the relationship between mean preference rank of amazons (shape adjusted pictures) and its worldwide zoo population size (34 species/subspecies; R² = 28.1%). The higher the rank, the lower the human preference of the species is.</p

Preference scores of the reduced parrot picture set.

<p>The figure shows the relationship between mean preference scores of parrots (picture variant 1) and its worldwide zoo population size in the reduced set of 40 species (R² = 37.2%). The scale of scoring ranged from 0 to 6. The higher the mean score, the lower the human preference of the species is.</p