Status, Dispersal, and Breeding Biology of the Exotic Eurasian Collared-Dove (Streptopelia decaocto) in Arkansas

The exotic Eurasian Collared-Dove (Streptopelia decaocto) was first sighted in Arkansas at Harrison (Boone Co.) on 25 June 1989. Since this initial sighting the species has grown in numbers and is now present in 42 of 75 counties across the state. In the spring and summer of 2009 and 2010, 20 nests were observed in the urban areas of Fort Smith (Sebastian County). Fifteen of the 20 nests (75%) were located on human-made structures of which 13 (65%) were on an electrical substation and two (10%) were on utility poles. The remaining 5 nests (25%) were in trees. Mean nest height was 7.62 m (n = 20 nests), and the mean width of the nest site support was 40 cm (n = 6 nests). Thirteen of the 20 nests (65%) yielded fledgling(s). Three focal nests were chosen for intense observation. Nest building lasted 1 to 3 days (mean = 2 days); incubation period was 15 days; and fledging occurred 17-18 days after hatching (n = 3 nests). A total of 6 young fledged from these 3 nests

Categories of insight and their correlates: An exploration of relationships among classic-type insight problems, rebus puzzles, remote associates and esoteric analogies.

A central question in creativity concerns how insightful ideas emerge. Anecdotal examples of insightful scientific and technical discoveries include Goodyear's discovery of the vulcanization of rubber, and Mendeleev's realization that there may be gaps as he tried to arrange the elements into the Periodic Table. Although most people would regard these discoveries as insightful, cognitive psychologists have had difficulty in agreeing on whether such ideas resulted from insights or from conventional problem solving processes. One area of wide agreement among psychologists is that insight involves a process of restructuring. If this view is correct, then understanding insight and its role in problem solving will depend on a better understanding of restructuring and the characteristics that describe it. This article proposes and tests a preliminary classification of insight problems based on several restructuring characteristics: the need to redefine spatial assumptions, the need to change defined forms, the degree of misdirection involved, the difficulty in visualizing a possible solution, the number of restructuring sequences in the problem, and the requirement for figure-ground type reversals. A second purpose of the study was to compare performance on classic spatial insight problems with two types of verbal tests that may be related to insight, the Remote Associates Test (RAT), and rebus puzzles. In doing so, we report on the results of a survey of 172 business students at the University of Waikato in New Zealand who completed classic-type insight, RAT and rebus problems

The spontaneous formation of stereotypes via cumulative cultural evolution

All people share knowledge of cultural stereotypes of social groups—but what are the origins of these stereotypes? We examined whether stereotypes form spontaneously as information is repeatedly passed from person to person. As information about novel social targets was passed down a chain of individuals, what initially began as a set of random associations evolved into a system that was simplified and categorically structured. Over time, novel stereotypes emerged that not only were increasingly learnable but also allowed generalizations to be made about previously unseen social targets. By illuminating how cognitive and social factors influence how stereotypes form and change, these findings show how stereotypes might naturally evolve or be manipulated

TECHNICAL PROGRESS IN THE SETE TRAWL FISHERY, 1985-1999

Fisheries throughout the world have long been subject to overfishing and excess capacity, which has generated substantial and increasing concern about biological and economic performance ramifications. These problems in part stem from substantial investment in technical improvements to boats and equipment in fishing fleets. Such technical change exacerbates the extent of excess fishing capacity, as well as low returns to fishing effort and investment due to catch limitations from both regulatory constraints and overfished stocks. However, economists have not yet attempted to quantify the extent or effects of technical change in fisheries. In this paper we use detailed data on innovation patterns for 19 vessels in the Sete trawl fleet of Southern France to evaluate the contributions of embodied and disembodied technical change to catch rates. We find that embodied technical change enhanced productivity by approximately 1 percent per year between 1985-99, but that external (disembodied) events counteracted this by causing a net output decline of about 3 percent per year. Neither efficiency nor output composition changes appear to have had a substantive effect on observed performance levels.Research and Development/Tech Change/Emerging Technologies, Resource /Energy Economics and Policy,

All Over Nothing At All : Fox Trot Song

https://digitalcommons.library.umaine.edu/mmb-vp/4150/thumbnail.jp

Bridging the divides: a case study of collective action across Scottish university business schools to support small business.

Support for small business is widely acknowledged as a complex issue of interrelated economic resilience and sustainability. Despite an established literature on the mechanisms through which university business schools support business, few studies have focused on relations between business schools in matters of such national importance. Our qualitative case study contributes to this limited stock of empirical knowledge by following a consortium of 16 university business schools and associated public bodies in Scotland, as they develop a national business support programme. A Networks of Practice (NofP) lens allows us to identify three processual components crucial in developing relations between entrepreneurial universities: acknowledging drivers, establishing relationships, and building a vision-based reference. These three components reveal tensions and challenges as a network of common interest forms. Fresh theoretical insights are offered on the nature of the entrepreneurial university and role of vision to bridge a fragmented higher education environment