Effects of reduced-impact logging on medium and large-bodied forest vertebrates in eastern Amazonia

Standard line-transect census techniques were deployed to generate a checklist and quantify the abundance of medium and large-bodied vertebrate species in forest areas of eastern Amazonia with and without a history of reduced-impact logging (RIL). Three areas were allocated a total of 1,196.9 km of line-transect census effort. Sampling was conducted from April to June 2012 and from April to August 2013, and detected 29 forest vertebrate species considered in this study belonging to 15 orders, 20 families and 28 genera. Additionally, eight species were recorded outside census walks through direct and indirect observations. Of this total, six species are considered vulnerable according to IUCN (Ateles paniscus, Myrmecophaga tridactyla, Priodontes maximus, Tapirus terrestris, Tayassu peccary, Chelonoidis denticulata). Observed species richness ranged from 21 to 24 species in logged and unlogged areas, and encounter rates along transects were highly variable between treatments. However, the relative abundance of species per transect did not differ between transects in logged and unlogged forests. Of the species  detected during censuses, only three showed different relative abundance between the two treatments (Saguinus midas, Tinamus spp. and Dasyprocta leporina). Our results show that the effect of RIL forest management was a relatively unimportant determinant of population abundance for most medium and large vertebrates over the time period of the survey

Ekonomia dobra czy zła? Ekonomiczno-gospodarcze paradoksy współczesności

Economics plays important role in contemporary societies and shapes our thinking about fundamental aspects of everyday life. If that is the case, it is necessary to analyse economic theories from the axiological point of view. It does not only has theoretical importance but practical as well when we consider recent financial and economic crisis when economists were asked to explain how and why was it possible for the 21st century economy and economics to fail so seriously. The article reflects on these issues and presents examples of paradoxes in contemporary economics and economy which show that critical evaluation of what our societies consider true and right in terms of material reproduction and social well-being is necessary. It also asks about ‘good economics’ which will not only adequately describe and interprete real economic processes but also serve as the useful and effective tool for accomplishing economic and social – morally acceptable – development. In order to do this the article analyses and verifies foundations and assumptions of current economic theory. It engages the contribution of personalistic perspective and authors like John D. Mueller, Tomáš Sedláček, Joseph E. Stiglitz, Amartya Sen, Gary S. Becker, Chantal Delsol and Grzegorz W. Kołodko who offer interesting arguments in the discussion about the proper shape of economics which will facilitate economic and human development as well

The Effect of Sentence-Combining Practice on the Syntactic Maturity Level of Writing and on Reading Comprehension

The purpose of this study was to determine the influence of sentence-combining practice on the syntactic maturity level of the writing and on the level of reading comprehension of ninth grade students enrolled in a compensatory-level English class. The indicators of syntactic maturity used in the study were structured writing and free writing. During the six-week, sentence-combining treatment period, the experimental group focused attention on various syntactic sentence structures by writing the exercises and by class discussion of these exercises. The treatment program was evaluated by comparing the treatment group to the control group on the structured writing, free writing, and reading comprehension measures which had been used to equate the groups prior to the treatment period. The data were analyzed by means of the t-test for independent means. The result of the analysis of the data of the three areas investigated showed that the experimental group had a significantly higher mean T-unit length for the structured writing than did the control Group. A trend existed in favor of the experimental group with a mean T-unit length of the free writing higher than that of the control group, but not at a significant level. There was no significant difference between the two groups in the scores of the reading comprehension test. Based on analysis of the data, the conclusion can be drawn that sentence-combining practice does lead to an increased level of syntactic maturity in writing as measured by the repeated completion of a piece of structured writing, which is really an exercise in sentence-combining. The increased level of syntactic maturity did not carry over to the free writing at a significant level. This may be due to student emphasis on the generation of ideas rather than on the condensation and revision of sentence structure. The premise was investigated that as the student becomes aware of syntactic structures in his writing, he may also recognize and comprehend them in his reading. This premise was not substantiated in the study. This may be due to the instrument\u27s inability to measure the knowledge and use of syntax in the reading situation. Interest in writing maturity and the interrelatedness of writing and reading skills opens numerous areas which need further research and gives support for the use of sentence-combining exercises in the classroom

PERSONALITY TRAITS OF DAIRY CALVES AND THEIR RELATIONSHIP WITH FEEDING BEHAVIOR, ACTIVITY, AND PERFORMANCE

Detection of individual differences in personality traits of animals may prove beneficial for producers to help tailor management for individuals and to make selection decisions. Therefore, the objectives of this thesis were to 1) review and evaluate literature on relationships between individual cattle personality traits and feeding behavior, activity, and performance; and 2) evaluate and develop tests suitable for characterizing crossbred dairy-beef calves’ personalities and associations with behavioral patterns and performance. The existing literature indicates that growth, intake, activity, and milk production measures from precision technologies have associations with cattle personality traits and behaviors identifiable through standardized tests. This indicates that stable differences among individuals may be identifiable in natural settings. Results from original research indicate that behavioral responses from personality tests (novel person and novel object/startle) of individually housed dairy-beef calves had associations with performance, activity, and feeding behavior. Fearful calves had negative associations with average daily gain (ADG) and dry matter intake (DMI), inactive calves had positive correlations with non-nutritive oral manipulation, and bold calves had no detected associations. Personality trait assessment of dairy-beef calves has potential to predict performance, activity, and feeding behavior on-farm that may help producers make timely decisions fit for their production system

Structural Minimization of Risk on Estimation of Heterogeneity Distributions

Population heterogeneity dynamics is one of the research directions in IIASA's Population Program. One typical and practical problem related to hidden heterogeneity is the estimation of the heterogeneity distribution. This paper describes the approach to such an estimation which is based on the method of structural minimization of mean risk. It is shown how this method can be implemented to some real data. The main ideas of the method are also described

Economic Development and Social Development. Socio‑cultural Aspects of Fertility Changes and their Consequences

Thesis: Present‑day radical fertility changes are determined by socio‑cultural factors and will have consequences for the economy and its development potential. Current changes in the fertility rate in Poland are the subject of many discussions and arguments. It means that, among the challenges for researchers, firstly, they have to understand the background to this issue and identify the factors influencing procreative decisions. Secondly, they should demonstrate how population growth changes and will change society, and the economy in particular. Our paper analyzes the mentioned research problem by engaging tools from sociology and cultural studies to examine the influence of norms, values, beliefs, attitudes and behaviours on the changing level of birth rate and its economic consequences for the current and future functioning of the social order. The purpose of the analyses is to deepen and compare the results of findings from such disciplines as demography, statistics and economics, and present them against a background of socio‑cultural transformations, which seem to be very important in the context of Polish females and males making procreative decisions. Additionally, the paper presents links between fertility and economic development, which often seem to be ignored or underestimated.The “Annales. Ethics in Economic Life” is affiliated and co-financed by the Faculty of Economics and Sociology of the University of Lodz

Gamebird responses to anthropogenic forest fragmentation and degradation in a southern Amazonian landscape

Although large-bodied tropical forest birds are impacted by both habitat loss and fragmentation, their patterns of habitat occupancy will also depend on the degree of forest habitat disturbance, which may interact synergistically or additively with fragmentation effects. Here, we examine the effects of forest patch and landscape metrics, and levels of forest disturbance on the patterns of persistence of six gamebird taxa in the southern Brazilian Amazon. We use both interview data conducted with long-term residents and/or landowners from 129 remnant forest patches and 15 continuous forest sites and line-transect census data from a subset of 21 forest patches and two continuous forests. Forest patch area was the strongest predictor of species persistence, explaining as much as 46% of the overall variation in gamebird species richness. Logistic regression models showed that anthropogenic disturbance—including surface wildfires, selective logging and hunting pressure—had a variety of effects on species persistence. Most large-bodied gamebird species were sensitive to forest fragmentation, occupying primarily large, high-quality forest patches in higher abundances, and were typically absent from patches 10,000 ha), relatively undisturbed forest patches to both maximize persistence and maintain baseline abundances of large neotropical forest birds

The 2PI finite temperature effective potential of the O(N) linear sigma model in 1+1 dimensions, at next-to-leading order in 1/N

We study the O(N) linear sigma model in 1+1 dimensions. We use the 2PI formalism of Cornwall, Jackiw and Tomboulis in order to evaluate the effective potential at finite temperature. At next-to-leading order in a 1/N expansion one has to include the sums over "necklace" and generalized "sunset" diagrams. We find that - in contrast to the Hartree approximation - there is no spontaneous symmetry breaking in this approximation, as to be expected for the exact theory. The effective potential becomes convex throughout for all parameter sets which include N=4,10,100, couplings lambda=0.1 and 0.5, and temperatures between 0.2 and 1. The Green's functions obtained by solving the Schwinger-Dyson equations are enhanced in the infrared region. We also compare the effective potential as function of the external field phi with those obtained in various other approximations.Comment: 19 pages, 9 figures; v2: references added, some changes in the tex