The effect of methyl parathion on susceptibility of bobwhite quail (Colinus virginianus) to domestic cat predation

Bobwhite quail (Colinus virginianus) that received either 0, 2, 4, or 8 mg/kg methyl parathion (O,O-dimethyl o-p-nitrophenyl phosphorothioate) treatment were investigated as to their susceptibility to predation by a cat (Felis domesticus) predator. Four hours after receiving methyl parathion (MP), physical activity levels were monitored in quail and included the number of seconds spent still, walking, running, or flying before and after a cat was introduced into an experimental arena. The cholinesterase (ChE) activity for each quail on experiment was determined. Quail that were captured exhibited significantly greater inhibition of brain ChE activity and spent significantly more time being still than noncaptured birds. Birds receiving MP at 8 mg/kg spent more seconds being still than those in other treatment groups and had ChE activity reduced to 42.8% of normal activity. There was a tendency for quail at increasing treatment levels to be more susceptible to capture by the cat predator. The neurological and behavioral effects of methyl parathion may have important ecological ramifications.     

On the likelihood ratio test in structural equation modeling when parameters are subject to boundary constraints

The authors show how the use of inequality constraints on parameters in structural equation models may affect the distribution of the likelihood ratio test. Inequality constraints are implicitly used in the testing of commonly applied structural equation models, such as the common factor model, the autoregressive model, and the latent growth curve model, although this is not commonly acknowledged. Such constraints are the result of the null hypothesis in which the parameter value or values are placed on the boundary of the parameter space. For instance, this occurs in testing whether the variance of a growth parameter is significantly different from 0. It is shown that in these cases, the asymptotic distribution of the chi-square difference cannot be treated as that of a central chi-square-distributed random variable with degrees of freedom equal to the number of constraints. The correct distribution for testing 1 or a few parameters at a time is inferred for the 3 structural equation models mentioned above. Subsequently, the authors describe and illustrate the steps that one should take to obtain this distribution. An important message is that using the correct distribution may lead to appreciably greater statistical power.     

Identifying Children at Risk of Problematic Development: Latent Clusters Among Childhood Arrestees

The presence of clusters characterized by distinct profiles of individual, family and peer characteristics among childhood arrestees was investigated and cluster membership stability after 2 years was determined. Identification of such clusters in this heterogeneous at-risk group can extend insight into the presence and severity of children’s co-occurring problems and guide intervention and prevention efforts. Latent class analysis (LCA) was used to detect clusters among 308 childhood arrestees (mean age 10.7 years), based on dichotomous dynamic correlates of offending present at the time of first arrest. Correlates in the individual, peer and family domains were assessed at baseline and 2-year follow-up, using standardized instruments. This resulted in identification of a low problem group characterized by few problems across all domains (40.2 %), an externalizing intermediate problem group characterized by mainly externalizing problems on the individual and peer domains (39.4 %), and a pervasive high problem group characterized by numerous problems across all domains (20.4 %). Cluster membership was most stable for the low problem group (71.4 %), followed by the externalizing intermediate problem group (49.5 %). Transition was highest in the pervasive high problem group (63.0 %), with the majority of children progressing to the externalizing intermediate problem group. The identification of such distinct clusters among childhood arrestees, differing in the presence of co-occurring problems, stresses the importance of a first police arrest as an opportunity for early recognition of children in need of care. As problems present at the time of first arrest do not persist in every child, careful periodic monitoring is needed.     

Primatologists and Philosophers Debate on the Question of the Origin of Morality: A Dialectical Analysis of Philosophical Argumentation Strategies and the Pitfalls of Cross-Disciplinary Disagreement

The paper presents a dialogical approach applied to the analysis of argumentative strategies in philosophy and examines the case of the critical comments to the Tanner Lectures given by the Dutch biologist and primatologist, Frans de Waal, at Princeton University in November 2003. The paper is divided into five parts: the first advances the hypothesis that what seem puzzling aspects of philosophical argumentation to scholars in other academic fields are explained by the global role played by a series of arguments within a broader argumentative strategy, e.g. arguing that a question that seems important is not really worthwhile; the second presents five groups of dialectical operations, making use of concepts and tools from the dialectical dialogical approach (WaltonWalton and Krabbe, Commitment in Dialogue: Basic Concepts of Interpersonal Reasoning, SUNY Press, Albany, 1995), Hubert Marraud's Argument dialectic (Marraud, En buena lógica. Una introducción a la teoría de la argumentación, Editorial Universidad de Guadalajara, Guadalajara, 2020) and from the vast tradition of formal dialectics and dialogical logic. In the remaining three sections, the comments of philosophers Christine M. Korsgaard, Philip Kitcher and Peter Singer to de Waal's Tanner Lectures are analyzed dialectically.

     

Aesthetic preferences and the attribution of meaning: Environmental categorization processes in the evaluation of urban scenes

In the context of research into scenic quality, the purpose of the present paper is to establish categories of urban landscapes on the basis of users' aesthetic judgements. It also explores the role that the restorative capacity of a place—in terms of the attentional restoration theory (ART)—together with a set of aesthetic attributes, may play in more or less valued places in a city. A total of 132 residents from Málaga (Spain) were chosen, with the city providing the physical framework for environmental reference. A questionnaire designed for easy self‐administration by subjects was used to collect information. Subjects were asked to identify three places in Málaga that they considered to be most attractive and three that they considered least attractive. Participants were asked to evaluate both the restorative properties—in terms of the ART—and the extent to which their first choice displayed certain environmental characteristics. Participants expressed a clear aesthetic preference for recreational sites for leisure/walking as well as those closely linked to the city's historical‐cultural identity. The research also identified other categories of visual settings that could be used as a focal point around which to centre future samples of scenes in a city context. Finally, the results obtained from the characterization of more and less attractive places, from the variables used in this study, shed light on the dimensions of underlying meaning that individuals use to categorize their environment and reinforce the idea that environmental aesthetics seem to play an important role in individuals' general well‐being.