A New Border Zone in Science. Collaboration and Tensions between Modelling Ecologists and Field Naturalists

Modelling ecologists have entered ecology labs. They need large quantities of data to improve their models and are eager to collaborate with field naturalists. This modifies existing relationships between these two groups of natural scientists who have different ways of knowing. We observed how a new border zone was being opened up between modelling ecologists and field naturalists working in a National Botanical Conservatory in France. After an arduous start, due to the initial reluctance of the field naturalists, the modelling ecologists and the field naturalists performed several activities together: they transformed existing data, produced new data, interpreted all these data, articulated research questions and hypotheses. They also created a hybrid database, mixing data from different sources, and they co-authored papers. This clearly changed the professional status of the field naturalists, who felt they were finally treated as genuine research partners. Yet, the modelling ecologists and the field naturalists remained as two distinct groups, with their specific practices, aims, skills and identities. Although collaboration was considered a clear success from both sides, there were some lingering tensions. The field naturalists were still somewhat wary of being downgraded to the status of mere data providers. They were therefore determined to see to it that their work and way of knowing would receive due recognition in the long run.     

Liking for happy- and sad-sounding music: Effects of exposure

We examined liking for happy- and sad-sounding music as a function of exposure, which varied both in quantity (number of exposures) and in quality (focused or incidental listening). Liking ratings were higher for happy than for sad music after focused listening, but similar after incidental listening. In the incidental condition, liking ratings increased linearly as a function of exposure. In the focused condition, liking ratings were an inverted U-shaped function of exposure, with initial increases in liking (after 2 exposures) followed by decreases (after 8 or 32 exposures). The results documented that: (1) sad music is liked as much as happy music in some instances; (2) frequency of exposure causes both familiarity (positive) and over-familiarity (negative) effects; and (3) effects of exposure on liking differ for focused and incidental listening.     

Parenting Programs to Reduce Young Children’s Externalizing Behavior: A Meta-Analytic Review of Their Behavioral or Cognitive Orientation

Abstract

This meta-analytic review evaluates 35 parenting programs to analyze their effectiveness at reducing young children’s externalizing behavior (EB). It looks at whether behavioral or cognitive orientation, informant or duration of these programs moderate their effect on such young children. It confirms that parenting interventions are effective at decreasing young children’s EB but no moderation effect was found for specific orientation or duration, only for the informant. This illustrates the current difficulty in comparing programs on the basis of their theoretical background, which prevents the understanding of which are the most efficient parenting variables and change processes to manipulate.     

The involvement of epigenetic defects in mental retardation

Mental retardation is a group of cognitive disorders with a significant worldwide prevalence rate. This high rate, together with the considerable familial and societal burden resulting from these disorders, makes it an important focus for prevention and intervention. While the diseases associated with mental retardation are diverse, a significant number are linked with disruptions in epigenetic mechanisms, mainly due to loss-of-function mutations in genes that are key components of the epigenetic machinery. Additionally, several disorders classed as imprinting syndromes are associated with mental retardation. This review will discuss the epigenetic abnormalities associated with mental retardation, and will highlight their importance for diagnosis, treatment, and prevention of these disorders.     

A League of Their Own: Do Single-Sex Schools Increase Girls�� Participation in the Physical Sciences?

With the rapid shifts in the education of women in the United States, and the underrepresentation of women in fields of science, technology, engineering, and math (STEM), an issue generating much controversy is whether women may benefit more from single-sex education or coeducation. The present study surveyed 548 U.S. high-school boys and girls from single-sex and coeducational high-schools from the Midwest. Half of the participants completed a mathematics test under stereotype threat (ST) condition and half under no threat condition. Although girls in single-sex schools had higher achievement motive and self-esteem than those in coeducational schools, they were not more likely to pursue STEM careers. Overall, students in single-sex schools outperformed students from coeducational schools on the math test. Girls?? math performance was significantly higher in the ST condition than in the no threat condition.     

Bodily excellence and education: ambiguities of performance

The notion of excellence contains an ambivalence: to aim at the "good" and/or to aim at the "best". This ambivalence exists particularly in the physical effort and in the history of bodily practices, shared between gymnastics, physical education and sports. In the second part of the XXth century, the notion of performance became "worship of performance", "infinite perfectibility". In this context, high level sports became the human improvement laboratory, thanks to the sophistication of its technical means and the its practices intensity. However this "high" questions: about physical and psychological consequences of intensive practices ; about doping and its medical and ethical perspectives; about the increasing precociousness and the potential exploitation of the baby champions. It questions about the nature of familial, social, economical norms transmitted by education: about articulation between constraint and self-government. This is the question about the "price" of excellence. In this sense it appears that the excellence of champion spreads out the margins of an ethics which would be meant to be regulating and universal, indeed this excellence is perhaps, in the same capacity as genius is and in spite of the attachment of sports to a "ethics of the rule", un-ethical.     

Vasopressin/oxytocin-related peptides influence long-term memory of a passive avoidance task in the cuttlefish,Sepia officinalis

The vasopressin (VP)/oxytocin (OT)-related peptides constitute a large superfamily found in a wide range of both vertebrate and invertebrate species. While intensive literature reports that these neuropeptides influence behavior, especially learning and memory, in numerous species from diverse vertebrate groups, their roles in behavioral regulation have never been studied in invertebrates. Here, we investigated the role of two VP/OT superfamily peptides, octopressin (OP) and cephalotocin (CT), on long-term memory (LTM) formation of a passive avoidance task in a cephalopod mollusc, the cuttlefish, Sepia officinalis. Subadult cuttlefish were intravenously injected, in a dose range of 3–60 μg/kg, 1 h after the training phase (consolidation design); retention performance was tested 24 h post-training. We found that administration of OP at low dose (3 μg/kg) enhanced LTM, whereas a dose of 60 μg/kg attenuated it. No effect of OP on LTM was observed for the 15 μg/kg dose. Conversely, an enhancement of retention performance was observed at all doses of CT tested. This study is the first to demonstrate the behavioral effects of VP/OT superfamily peptides in an invertebrate species. The valuable role of VP/OT-like peptides on memory processes offers new evolutionary perspectives on peptidergic transmission and neuromodulation.