Mate choice and mate competition influence male body size in Japanese medaka

A sexual size dimorphism usually occurs when size-dependent reproductive advantages exist in only one sex. Studies on Japanese medaka, Oryzias latipes, have demonstrated reproductive size advantages in females but not in males, even though males and females are similar in body size. We conducted mate-choice and mate-copying tests in which a female could first associate with, then mate with, either a large (>/=1 sd+X standard length) or a small male (相似文献   

Students' predictions of prose forgetting and the effects of study strategies.

377 high school students read and were immediately tested on a prose passage, scored their own tests, then estimated how well they would have scored if tested after a delay of 1, 8, or 15 days. Data for these 3 hypothetical delay periods provided a "predicted forgetting function." An actual forgetting function was also obtained by administering a retention test with comparable questions after 1, 8, or 15 days. Within each of the 9 groups defined by the hypothetical and actual delay factors, there were 2 strategy groups—Ss who could only read the passage and those who took notes. After the immediate test, Ss in each strategy group estimated how well they would have scored if they had employed the alternate strategy. Results indicate a difference between predicted and actual forgetting, with Ss expecting a larger amount of forgetting than actually occurred. Note taking had a small facilitative effect on learning. However, Ss failed to predict positive effects of note taking. Ss' expectations about effects of other strategies were also examined, and implications regarding metamemory and study skills are discussed. (20 ref) (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Effect of pictorial integration on children's incidental learning.

Conducted 2 experiments to examine 192 8-, 11-, and 14-yr-old children's incidental learning with the central and incidental pictorial elements in each stimulus (a) presented as separate entities (standard condition), (b) depicted together in an action relation (2 types-weak action and strong action), or (c) depicted together in a static relation. Following a learning task in which attention to a single element in each stimulus was required, incidental learning was measured by having the S indicate the incidental feature associated with each central component. Results show that incidental learning was higher with the action than the standard materials, but the developmental trend in these scores was little affected by pictorial integration. While extending the generality of previous incidental learning results, these data contrast with evidence showing an increase with age in the effects of action portrayal on intentional learning of pictorial associations. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Derivation of the equations of motion for complex structures by symbolic manipulation

This paper outlines a computer program especially tailored to the task of deriving explicit equations of motion for structures with point-connected substructures. The special purpose program is written in FORTRAN and is designed for performing the specific algebraic operations encountered in the derivation of explicit equations of motion. The derivation is by the Lagrangian approach. Using an orderly kinematical procedure and a discretization and/or truncation scheme, it is possible to write the kinetic and potential energy of each substructure in a compact vector-matrix form. Then, if each element of the matrices and vectors encountered in the kinetic and potential energy is a known algebraic expression, the computer program performs the necessary operations to evaluate the kinetic and potential energy of the system explicitly. Lagrange's equations for small motions about equilibrium can be deduced directly from the explicit form of the system kinetic and potential energy.     

Age differences in item manipulation span: The case of letter-number sequencing.

The authors report 2 experiments in which they examined age differences in working memory tasks involving complex item manipulation (i.e., letter-number sequencing). In Experiment 1, age differences on tasks involving item manipulation were not greater than age differences on tasks requiring recall of items in the order in which they appeared, suggesting that older adults do not have difficulty with item manipulation per se. In Experiment 2, slower presentation rates increased age differences in item manipulation spans, although age differences at the fastest rate may be attributed to differences in strategy use. In both experiments, age differences were largest when participants were most likely to be remembering familiar sequences, suggesting that older adults may have difficulties dampening the representations of such sequences once they are activated. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

The selection of technology forecasting method using a multi-criteria interval-valued intuitionistic fuzzy group decision making approach

Technological forecasting is a tool for organizations to develop their technology strategies. The quality of forecasting is extremely important for the accuracy of the results and in turn company future. Therefore a proper selection methodology of forecasting technique that considers the characteristics of technology and resources needed such as cost, time is essential. On the other hand, although many forecasting techniques are available, there is a high uncertainty in choosing the most appropriate technique among a set of available techniques. In this paper interval valued intuitionistic fuzzy technique for order preference by similarity to ideal solution (TOPSIS) method is proposed for the solution of technological forecasting technique selection problem. The proposed method includes seven selection criteria and twelve forecasting technique alternatives. The methodology is applied for 3D TV technology. The results revealed that Fisher Pry method is found as the most appropriate method for forecasting since it has the highest closeness coefficient.     

Alignment of noisy signals

We study the relative performance of various methods for aligning noisy one-dimensional signals. No knowledge of the shape of the misaligned signals is assumed. We simulate signals corrupted by both additive noise and timing jitter noise which are similar in complexity to nose-to-nose oscilloscope calibration signals collected at NIST. In one method, we estimate the relative shift of two signals as the difference of their estimated centroids, We present a new adaptive algorithm for centroid estimation. We also estimate relative shifts from three different implementations of cross-correlation analysis. In a complete implementation, for N signals, relative shifts are estimated from all N(N-1)/2 distinct pairs of signals. In a naive implementation, relative shifts are estimated from just (N-1) pairs of signals. In an iterative adaptive implementation, we estimate the relative shift of each signal with respect to a template signal which, at each iteration, is equated to the signal average of the aligned signals. In simulation experiments, 100 misaligned signals are generated. For all noise levels, the complete cross-correlation method yields the most accurate estimates of the relative shifts. The relative performance of the other methods depends on the noise levels     

CAD System brings a new dimension to high temperature corrosion research and development studies

In studying the degradation experienced by alloys during their exposure to aggressive high temperature gaseous environments, thermodynamic considerations can give a good insight into which corrosion products may form as a result of the various gas/metal reactions. Although these considerations cannot be used as a predictive tool to forecast with certainty which products will actually form, they are nevertheless useful to the corrosion scientist. In the case of relatively simple environments, binary phase-stability diagrams have been constructed and used for many years. In more complex situations, however, where the corrosive atmosphere contains several reactants, e.g. sulphur, oxygen, carbon, etc., the construction of three-dimensional diagrams or models has been found necessary. The building of models is both time-consuming and expensive whilst 3-D diagrams suffer from a number of draw-backs, not least of which is the difficulty experienced in fully comprehending the complex situations depicted by such diagrams. The purpose of this paper is to illustrate how an interdisciplinary approach, involving both the research scientist and the design engineer, has been successfully applied to this topic. A “Medusa” computer aided design (CAD) system has been used initially to construct the simpler binary phase stability diagrams direct from thermodynamic data much more quickly and efficiently than could be achieved by hand-drawing. Of much greater significance, however, has been the evolution from these 2-D line drawings to 3-D perspective diagrams and finally to the superimposition of rotated images thereby enabling stereographic projections to be made. These latter projections markedly improve the user's visualisation of spatial relationships which was previously extremely difficult or impossible.     

The effects of apomorphine and haloperidol on memory consolidation in the day-old-chick.

Apomorphine was found to disrupt memory consolidation in a dose–dependent manner on chicks trained on a 1-trial passive avoidance task with a strong aversant experience. Chicks injected with 4.0 mg/kg apomorphine displayed memory deficits at 180 min after learning and showed marked behavioral disturbances, including increased locomotion and increased pecking at the feet of conspecifics. Pretreatment with the dopamine antagonist haloperidol eliminated the memory disturbance induced by apomorphine and facilitated consolidation of memory in chicks given a weak (20% vol/vol methyl anthralinate) training experience. Time-of-retention data suggested that the memory disruption occurred from 120 min after learning, leading to the suggestion that dopamine–related modulation of the training experience may be involved in late-memory formation processes. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)