Adaptive Hypothesis Research Articles

Is the Combination of the Nationalities of the Couple Affecting Women’s Fertility Intentions? Insights from Italy

Literature on migrants’ fertility intentions has grown significantly in recent years. However, to the best of our knowledge, none of these studies has investigated the role that the combination of partners’ nationalities may play in individual’s intentions to have a(another) child. Filling this gap is particularly relevant for research because fertility behaviors tend to vary greatly according to the type of couple and fertility intentions have been identified as good predictors of future fertility behaviors. The central aim of this paper is to fill this gap unravelling and quantifying the influence of the selection, socialization and adaptation hypotheses in positive and certain fertility intentions of women in mixed (foreign woman-Italian man) and endogamous couples (Italian woman-Italian man, foreign woman-foreign man). Our results point out to migrant selectivity as a potential explanation for differences on fertility intentions between foreign women partnered to Italian men and foreign women partnered to foreign men. We also find support for adaptation observing that childbearing intentions of foreign women partnered to Italian men better resemble those of Italian women partnered to Italian men. However, there is a gradient on the explanatory power of the adaptation hypothesis according to the nationality of the foreign woman.

Price efficiency of the foreign exchange rates of BRICS countries: A comparative analysis

In this paper, we analyze BRICS countries’ long-term exchange rate market efficiency. Our analysis, using multifractal detrended fluctuation analysis (MFDFA) for the 2009–2021 period, shows considerable differences in the exchange rate efficiency of BRICS countries, with South Africa the most efficient and China the least efficient. Based on daily exchange rates, our analysis shows that after a country shifts to a flexible exchange rate regime, the price efficiency of its currency improves, but not immediately. All the BRICS countries show improvements in market efficiency over the 13-year period of our study. The adaptive market hypothesis supports our finding of efficiency improvements over time more than the efficient market hypothesis does.

Parenthood and dynamics of life satisfaction in times of COVID-19.

We analyze data from the UK Household Longitudinal Study, including a pre-pandemic baseline and seven survey waves between May 2020 and September 2021. Fixed effects panel regression models are run over more than 11,000 individuals, distinguishing among women and men with young children (<5years), older children (5-15years), or no children in the household. We hypothesize that declines in life satisfaction during the first lockdown are sharper among parents, whose domestic demands increase, than among the childless. We develop competing hypotheses that parents might be resilient and have higher life satisfaction during the later phases of the pandemic (Adaptation Hypothesis) or that the pandemic stressors accumulate, leading to even lower satisfaction over time (Accumulation Hypothesis). The results only support the Accumulation Hypothesis among mothers. Whereas mothers fared comparatively well during the first lockdown, further pandemic stressors have seemingly exhausted their resilience, leading to stronger declines during the winter 2020/2021 lockdown. Among men with older children and without children, life satisfaction decreased during the first and subsequent lockdowns. Men with young children were the only group with almost unchanged life satisfaction throughout the pandemic.

Landscape characteristics and predation risk influence spatial variation in auditory courtship of an upland game bird

ContextNumerous wildlife species use a polygynous mating system, where males use auditory courtship behaviors to secure breeding opportunities. The acoustic adaptation hypothesis, risk reward, and landscape of fear theories suggest spatial variation in male auditory courtship will be influenced by areas in landscapes where sound transmission is increased, and predation risk is reduced. However, it is often unclear what landscape features drive spatial variation in courtship behaviors.ObjectivesWe quantified the influence of predation risk, land cover type, and resource selection on spatial trends in the auditory courtship behavior (gobbling activity) of Eastern wild turkeys (Meleagris gallopavo silvestris).MethodsWe used 53,025 gobbles coupled with GPS locations from 111 turkeys and 36 coyotes (Canis latrans), and distance metrics associated with hunter activity and land cover type, to investigate influences of predation risk, resource selection, and land cover type on spatial variation in gobbling activity in Georgia, USA.ResultsDistance to public access during hunting was the most influential predictor of gobbling activity, wherein the expected number of daily gobbles increased by 40% for every 500 m farther from public access. Daily gobbles decreased by 22% for every 500 m farther away from private property during hunting. We failed to find significant effects of land cover type and coyote use but found limited evidence that areas with increased predicted probability of turkey use was associated with increased gobbling.ConclusionsPredation risk associated with increased anthropogenic disturbance had the greatest influence on gobbling activity. Our findings suggest that altering hunter access by closing roads to vehicle use, reducing hunter activity, or creating refuge areas on the landscape could positively influence gobbling activity.

Executive functions are modulated by the context of dual language use: diglossic, bilingual and monolingual older adults

AbstractStudies investigating the role of dual language use in modulating executive functions have reported mixed results, with some studies reporting benefits in older adults. These studies typically focus on bilingual settings, while the role of dual language use in diglossic settings is rarely investigated. In diglossia, the two language varieties are separated by context, making it an ideal test case for the effects on cognition of Single Language Contexts, as defined by the Adaptive Control Hypothesis (Green &amp; Abutalebi, 2013). We compare the performances of three groups of older adults, Arab diglossics (n = 28), bilinguals (n = 29), and monolinguals (n = 41), on the Flanker and Stroop tasks, measuring inhibition abilities, and the Color-shape task, measuring switching abilities. We report a diglossic benefit in inhibition as measured by the Flanker task only, and no benefits for the bilingual group. These findings are discussed with reference to conversational contexts in dual language use.

Climate Change Vulnerability, Adaptation, and Feedback Hypothesis: A Comparison of Lower-Middle, Upper-Middle, and High-Income Countries

Governments and policymakers are increasingly concerned about climate change. To cope with this inevitable issue, the SDGs-13 target underscores the importance of developing adaptation measures that reduce its adverse effects and ultimately safeguard both society and the environment. This issue is critical in developing countries, which are unable to counter climate-related risks because they lack adaptive capacity, suitable infrastructure, technology and, most importantly, human and physical capital. By contrast, resource-endowed developed countries have succeeded in integrating adaptative and protective policies into their developmental agenda using human power, technology, and especially investment. Keeping these facts in mind, this study is framed to examine the nexus between climate change, adaptation measures, and economic development across different income groups (lower-middle, upper-middle, and high income), using the Driscoll–Kraay (D/K) standard errors method for panel data from the period of 1995 to 2020. This study incorporates two indices (i.e., adaptive capacity and adaptation readiness) in the adaptation framework. The results demonstrate that developed countries such as Australia, Austria, Belgium, Canada, Denmark, France, Germany, Ireland, New Zealand, Sweden, Switzerland, the USA, and the UK are highly adaptive countries due to their readiness for adaptation. Developing countries with very low levels of readiness have a lower adaptive capacity and are, therefore, more vulnerable to climate change. Additionally, a non-causality test demonstrates that a one-way causality runs from readiness, ecological footprint, GDP, renewable energy, FDI, and natural resource investment to the adaptive capacity in all panels. The developed countries are less vulnerable to climate change because of their well-established economies, rich capital resources, good governance, and timely and effective readiness strategies. Adaptation readiness is a vital tool in capacity building for societal adaptation to minimize the effects of disasters on the living standard of communities.

Changes in the Protein Profile in Staphylococcal Strains from Patients Infected with the SARS-CoV-2 Virus.

Staphylococcus aureus strains are particularly often isolated from patients with SARS-CoV-2 infection. The aim of the current research was to determine whether the SARS-CoV-2 virus infection affects the protein profile of S. aureus. Bacteria were isolated from the forty swabs collected from the patients in the hospitals of the Pomeranian region. MALDI-TOF MS spectra were obtained using a Microflex LT instrument. Twenty-nine peaks were identified. The peak (2,430) is described here for the first time and was unique for the isolates from patients infected with the SARS-CoV-2 virus. These results support the hypothesis of bacterial adaptation to the conditions caused by viral infection.

An experimental test of the adaptive host manipulation hypothesis: altered microhabitat selection in parasitized pea aphids

An experimental test of the adaptive host manipulation hypothesis: altered microhabitat selection in parasitized pea aphids

Does the dynamics between government bond and equity markets validate the adaptive market hypothesis? evidence from transfer entropy

ABSTRACT The study applies the effective transfer entropy (ETE) and Renyi transfer entropy (RTE) to quantify the information flow between government bonds and equity market of G7 countries. The magnitude and direction of information flow between these two markets are dynamic across the state of the markets and time thus confirming their adaptiveness to the evolution of cross-market information flow under different market conditions over time. Although information flow from the equity dominates the flow from the bond market, it is dynamic over the time and state of the markets. However, during the period of market turbulence, the bond dominates the equity market. This study is the first of its kind to validate the adaptive market hypothesis using the novel transfer entropy framework in the bond and equity market.

Modern İktisat Okulları Açışından Makroekonomik Dengeye Ulaşmada Beklentilerin Rolü

New Classicals have developed “Rational Expectations Hypothesis”. This means all economic agents are rational, optimizing and maximizing; they all have access to full information for the decisions they will take, and they will predict future prices correctly, hence make correct maximizing decisions.&#x0D; Friedman and Monetarists came up with “Adaptive Expectations Hypothesis” assuming that the workers, when there is an inflation will err in the first period and keep their wages the same; but in the next period they will realize the exact magnitude of the price rise and the fall in their real wage, hence will raise their wages correspondingly. Thus, the effects of monetary policy in reducing unemployment below natural rate of unemployment point will live only for one period; the economy will return to natural rate of unemployment and money supply increase will have only raised prices and wages; with the value of real parameters the same as one period ago.&#x0D; New Keynesians have also accepted Rational Expectations Hypothesis, which is obviously contrary to the Keynesian assumptions in this regard, namely, systematic under-estimation of future prices on the part of workers, as well as uncertainty and non-ergodicity.&#x0D; Post-Keynesians presented their assumptions in “Heterogeneous Expectations Hypothesis”. According to Post-Keynesians, entrepreneurs are in a better position than workers to obtain full information and estimate future prices correctly. The workers are less knowledgeable and generally end up under-estimating future prices.

Dialects in North American elk bugle calls: comparisons between source and translocated elk populations

AbstractIdentifying the factors shaping dialects can reveal selective pressures and cultural influences on acoustic signals. Translocations of species have been considered the “gold standard” for identifying population differences in vocalizations, including dialects. The North American elk (Cervus canadensis) is a species that has experienced numerous translocations, but no published studies exist on dialects in elk or any other ungulate species. Adult male North American elk utter an iconic vocalization during the breeding season, which is termed the bugle call due to the power, duration, and pitch of the sound. We investigated if dialect differences existed between three populations: a source population in Wyoming (N = 10 bulls, 132 calls) and translocated populations in Colorado (N = 13 bulls, 92 calls) and Pennsylvania (N = 20 bulls, 160 calls). Dialect differences existed between the populations in 9 of 10 measured variables, in both the frequency domain and time domain. Habitat factors (acoustic adaptation hypothesis) affecting sound transmission were inconsistently related to dialects in the populations. Genetic factors may be related to dialects, as the historically bottlenecked Pennsylvania population, with low heterozygosity and low allelic richness, exhibited the least variability in acoustic measures. Cultural transmission and vocal learning may also contribute to dialect development in this highly vocal, social ungulate species.

The Adaptive Dynamics of the Halloween Effect: Evidence from a 120-Year Sample from a Small European Market

The Halloween effect predicts that stock markets in the winter months (November through April) generate significantly higher returns than in the summer months (May through October). This paper examines the time-varying behavior of the Halloween effect within a new historical dataset that covers about 120 years of Portuguese stock market history. We combine subsample analysis with rolling window analysis to show that the performance of the anomaly has varied in an adaptive fashion over time. The anomaly existed during the first four decades of the 20th century. Afterward, it vanished for 60 years, reappearing only at the beginning of the 21st century. However, in the first two decades of the new century, the effect seems to be a mere reflection of the excess return generated in January. Overall, the time-varying performance of the Halloween effect supports the adaptive market hypothesis for the Portuguese stock market.

The exaptive potential of (object) play behavior

ABSTRACT There are many adaptationist hypotheses and non-selectionist accounts for the evolution of play. Some scholars argued that, ‘primary-process play’ originally arose as a by-product of fortuitous conditions, adaptive or not (e.g. high metabolic energy, boredom). Once evolved, these basic playful behavioral elements, characterized by some quirkiness, arbitrariness, redundancy, flexibility, and latent potential, may serve as a built-in reservoir of creative and adaptive variability. As such, they could subsequently be co-opted for beneficial or fitness-enhancing behavioral effects (i.e. exaptations Type 2) during further evolutionary transformation into more elaborate secondary-process and tertiary-process play. We built a theoretical case for (object) play as a co-optable behavioral spandrel, with a potential for exaptations Type 2, and proposed a research design to empirical test whether stone play traditions can be exapted into stone tool use in non-human primates. Our approach is consistent with Gould’s pluralistic perspective on evolutionary theory.

The adaptive market hypothesis and the return predictability in the cryptocurrency markets

This study employs robust martingale difference hypothesis tests to examine return predictability in a broad sample of the 40 most capitalized cryptocurrency markets in the context of the adaptive market hypothesis. The tests were applied to daily returns using the rolling window method in the research period from May 1, 2013 to September 30, 2022. The results of this study suggest that the returns of the majority of the examined cryptocurrencies were unpredictable most of the time. However, a great part of them also suffered some short periods of weak-form inefficiency. The results obtained validate the adaptive market hypothesis. Additionally, this study allowed the observation of some differences in return predictability between the examined cryptocurrencies. Also some historical trends in weak-form efficiency were identified. The results suggest that the predictability of cryptocurrency returns might have decreased in recent years also no significant relationship between market cap and predictability was observed.&#x0D;

Intraspecific variation among Chinook Salmon populations indicates physiological adaptation to local environmental conditions.

Understanding interpopulation variation is important to predicting species responses to climate change. Recent research has revealed interpopulation variation among several species of Pacific salmonids; however, the environmental drivers of population differences remain elusive. We tested for local adaptation and countergradient variation by assessing interpopulation variation among six populations of fall-run Chinook Salmon from the western United States. Juvenile fish were reared at three temperatures (11, 16 and 20°C), and five physiological metrics were measured (routine and maximum metabolic rate, aerobic scope, growth rate and critical thermal maximum). We then tested associations between these physiological metrics and 15 environmental characteristics (e.g. rearing temperature, latitude, migration distance, etc.). Statistical associations between the five physiological metrics and 15 environmental characteristics supported our hypotheses of local adaptation. Notably, latitude was a poor predictor of population physiology. Instead, our results demonstrate that populations from warmer habitats exhibit higher thermal tolerance (i.e. critical thermal maxima), faster growth when warm acclimated and greater aerobic capacity at high temperatures. Additionally, populations with longer migrations exhibit higher metabolic capacity. However, overall metabolic capacity declined with warm acclimation, indicating that future climate change may reduce metabolic capacity, negatively affecting long-migrating populations. Linking physiological traits to environmental characteristics enables flexible, population-specific management of disparate populations in response to local conditions.

Asymmetric Fads and Inefficient Plunges: Evaluating the Adaptive vs. Efficient Market Hypotheses

Asymmetric Fads and Inefficient Plunges: Evaluating the Adaptive vs. Efficient Market Hypotheses

Habitat influence on the evolution of male mating vocalizations in subterranean and surface-dwelling rodents (Rodentia)

The acoustic adaptation hypothesis (AAH) is often tested between species from open and closed habitats. However, the acoustic differences are rather small and thus the evidence is ambiguous. We tested the AAH between subterranean and surface-dwelling species living in very different acoustic environments. Lower frequencies (&lt;1 kHz) are transmitted best in subterranean burrows and there is a high-frequency cut off around 3 kHz. The other important factor influencing the frequencies of vocal signals is body size. Acoustic allometry – a negative relationship between body size and frequency of acoustic signals – indicates that larger species tend to produce sounds of lower frequencies than smaller species, due to their larger vocal apparatus. The present study shows, that acoustic allometry applies to subterranean as well as surface-dwelling rodents and that the environment influences the main frequency of their vocalization. Besides, the subterranean species tend to have lower vocal signals than surface-dwelling species.

Evidence of Adaptive Market Hypothesis in International Financial Markets

Objective: Traditional finance emphasises market efficiency and inherent behavioural anomalies in investors. However, the emergence of the adaptive market hypothesis tends to suggest otherwise. The adaptive market hypothesis challenges market efficiency and behavioural finance by contesting that investors and market participants adapt to changing market environment. In essence, investors learn from their mistakes. The purpose of this study was to explore the concept of an adaptive market hypothesis in five international markets, namely, the JSE, CAC 40, NASDAQ, JPX-NIKKEI and DAX.&#x0D; Method: This study used a variance ratio test to explore the adaptive market hypothesis from January 2017 to April 2022.&#x0D; Results: the findings revealed the existence of adaptive markets in the CAC 40 and NASDAQ during the period under review. Conversely, there was no statistical evidence to support the adaptive concept in the JSE, JPX-NIKKEI, and the DAX.&#x0D; Originality/relevance: The implications of these findings is that investors in the CAC 40 and NASDAQ should consider active volatility scaling because of multiple betas, and hence fundamental analysis is worth the time. This study adds to the literature on adaptive markets hypothesis as well as market efficiency and behavioural finance.&#x0D; Keywords: Adaptive markets; market efficiency; behavioural finance; financial markets; variance ratio&#x0D;

Model Selection Performance in Phylogenetic Comparative Methods Under Multivariate Ornstein-Uhlenbeck Models of Trait Evolution.

The advent of fast computational algorithms for phylogenetic comparative methods allows for considering multiple hypotheses concerning the co-adaptation of traits and also for studying if it is possible to distinguish between such models based on contemporary species measurements. Here we demonstrate how one can perform a study with multiple competing hypotheses using mvSLOUCH by analyzing two data sets, one concerning feeding styles and oral morphology in ungulates, and the other concerning fruit evolution in Ferula (Apiaceae). We also perform simulations to determine if it is possible to distinguish between various adaptive hypotheses. We find that Akaike's information criterion corrected for small sample size has the ability to distinguish between most pairs of considered models. However, in some cases there seems to be bias towards Brownian motion or simpler Ornstein-Uhlenbeck models. We also find that measurement error and forcing the sign of the diagonal of the drift matrix for an Ornstein-Uhlenbeck process influences identifiability capabilities. It is a cliché that some models, despite being imperfect, are more useful than others. Nonetheless, having a much larger repertoire of models will surely lead to a better understanding of the natural world, as it will allow for dissecting in what ways they are wrong. [Adaptation; AICc; model selection; multivariate Ornstein-Uhlenbeck process; multivariate phylogenetic comparative methods; mvSLOUCH.].

Is There an Effect of Diglossia on Executive Functions? An Investigation among Adult Diglossic Speakers of Arabic

Recent studies investigating whether bilingualism has effects on cognitive abilities beyond language have produced mixed results, with evidence from young adults typically showing no effects. These inconclusive patterns have been attributed to many uncontrolled factors, including linguistic similarity and the conversational contexts the bilinguals find themselves in, including the opportunities they get to switch between their languages. In this study, we focus on the effects on cognition of diglossia, a linguistic situation where two varieties of the same language are spoken in different and clearly separable contexts. We used linear mixed models to compare 32 Arabic diglossic young adults and 38 English monolinguals on cognitive tasks assessing the executive function domains of inhibition, and switching. Results revealed that, despite both groups performing as expected on all tasks, there were no effects of diglossia in any of these domains. These results are discussed in relation to the Adaptive Control Hypothesis. We propose that any effects on executive functions that could be attributed to the use of more than one language or language variety may not be readily expected in contexts with limited opportunities for switching between them, especially in younger adults.