List Of Traits Research Articles

Quantity discrimination in Port Jackson sharks incubated under elevated temperatures

Ocean warming can induce physiological and behavioural effects in marine predators that can cascade through ecosystems. A lack of understanding of the effects of elevated temperature on shark behaviour remains an impediment to forecasting ecosystem-wide impacts. Port Jackson shark eggs were incubated and reared at current and projected end-of-century temperatures (+ 3 °C). We tested juvenile’s learning ability with a quantity discrimination task. The mortality rate of sharks reared in warm water was 41.7% compared with no mortality in the present-day sharks. Contrary to expectations, our results suggest that surviving hatchlings from the elevated-temperature group took fewer days to reach learning criterion and had a higher proportion of correct choice compared with hatchlings reared under present conditions. Additionally, this is the first data suggesting that sharks can discriminate different quantities. Our results seem to indicate that learning and behaviour might play a role in allowing elasmobranchs to overcome some of the deleterious effects of climate warming, but further research is needed to fully comprehend these findings. The world’s oceans are warming at an unprecedented rate, which will impair development and alter physiological and behavioural traits in marine predators. Learning may play a leading role in allowing apex and mesopredators to adapt to a rapidly changing environment; however, no studies have tested the impacts of ocean warming in their learning abilities. We incubated and reared Port Jackson shark eggs at current and projected end-of-century temperatures (+ 3 °C). Contrary to expectations, surviving juveniles from the elevated-temperature group showed better learning performance, potentially adding learning ability to a growing list of traits that incubation temperature can modify during early development in marine predators. Our results were not entirely negative; it is possible that increased learning performance might allow apex and mesopredators to increase foraging efficiency and match increased energetic demands caused by elevated temperature.

Real-time analysis of the behaviour of groups of mice via a depth-sensing camera and machine learning.

Preclinical studies of psychiatric disorders use animal models to investigate the impact of environmental factors or genetic mutations on complex traits such as decision-making and social interactions. Here, we introduce a method for the real-time analysis of the behaviour of mice housed in groups of up to four over several days and in enriched environments. The method combines computer vision through a depth-sensing infrared camera, machine learning for animal and posture identification, and radio-frequency identification to monitor the quality of mouse tracking. It tracks multiple mice accurately, extracts a list of behavioural traits of both individuals and the groups of mice, and provides a phenotypic profile for each animal. We used the method to study the impact of Shank2 and Shank3 gene mutations-mutations that are associated with autism-on mouse behaviour. Characterization and integration of data from the behavioural profiles of Shank2 and Shank3 mutant female mice revealed their distinctive activity levels and involvement in complex social interactions.

AnnoTree: visualization and exploration of a functionally annotated microbial tree of life.

Bacterial genomics has revolutionized our understanding of the microbial tree of life; however, mapping and visualizing the distribution of functional traits across bacteria remains a challenge. Here, we introduce AnnoTree—an interactive, functionally annotated bacterial tree of life that integrates taxonomic, phylogenetic and functional annotation data from over 27 000 bacterial and 1500 archaeal genomes. AnnoTree enables visualization of millions of precomputed genome annotations across the bacterial and archaeal phylogenies, thereby allowing users to explore gene distributions as well as patterns of gene gain and loss in prokaryotes. Using AnnoTree, we examined the phylogenomic distributions of 28 311 gene/protein families, and measured their phylogenetic conservation, patchiness, and lineage-specificity within bacteria. Our analyses revealed widespread phylogenetic patchiness among bacterial gene families, reflecting the dynamic evolution of prokaryotic genomes. Genes involved in phage infection/defense, mobile elements, and antibiotic resistance dominated the list of most patchy traits, as well as numerous intriguing metabolic enzymes that appear to have undergone frequent horizontal transfer. We anticipate that AnnoTree will be a valuable resource for exploring prokaryotic gene histories, and will act as a catalyst for biological and evolutionary hypothesis generation. AnnoTree is freely available at http://annotree.uwaterloo.ca

Isn't That Clever: A Philosophical Account of Humor and Comedy

Isn't That Clever: A Philosophical Account of Humor and Comedy

A meta food web for invertebrate species collected in a European grassland.

Patterns of feeding interactions between species are thought to influence the stability of communities and the flux of nutrients and energy through ecosystems. However, surprisingly few well-resolved food webs allow us to evaluate factors that influence the architecture of species interactions. We constructed a meta food web consisting of 714 invertebrate species collected over 9 years of suction and pitfall sampling campaigns in the Jena Experiment, a long-term grassland biodiversity experiment located in Jena, Germany. We summarize information on the 51,496 potential trophic links, which were established using information on diet specificity and species traits that typically constrain feeding interactions (trophic group, body size, and vertical stratification). The list of species identities, traits, and link-derivation rules will be useful not only for tests of plant diversity effects on food web structure within the Jena Experiment, but also for considering consistent construction of food webs from empirical data, and for comparisons of network structure across ecosystems. No copyright or proprietary restrictions are associated with the use of this data set other than citation of this Data Paper.

Sufism: A New History of Islamic Mysticism by Alexander Knysh

Reviewed by: Sufism: A New History of Islamic Mysticism by Alexander Knysh Benjamin Powergriffin (bio) Sufism: A New History of Islamic Mysticism. By Alexander Knysh. Princeton, NJ: Princeton Press, 2017. 389 pp. $29.95 The question of who decides the essential nature of a mystical tradition is paramount to understanding how it functions as a lived spirituality. With Sufism: A New History of Islamic Mysticism, University of Michigan Professor of Islamic Studies Alexander Knysh has written a concise but remarkably thorough history of Sufism that addresses the myriad of complications inherent in defining Sufism both in a Western, often Orientalist, context as well as how it has been historically defined within the wider Islamic tradition. Pursuing the topic with pointed neutrality, Knysh has written a history of Sufism that both honors and reimagines historic approaches to Islam's ascetic-mystical heritage. From the start, Knysh makes it clear that honing in on a precise, historically satisfactory definition of Sufism is difficult, if not outright impossible. This is not simply due to Sufism's own wide-ranging expressions within Muslim cultures but also because of its reconstruction within the Western imagination. Rather than attempt to disentangle Sufism from this in order to elucidate a supposedly pure Islamic form, Knysh attempts instead to "explore [the] dimensions of the ascetic-mystical stream of Islam… without sliding into either unbridled partisanship or adverse criticism of the subject and of its conceptualizations by both insiders and outsiders." (8) In doing so, Knysh is able to offer both an insight into the quotidian experience of Sufi communities as well as a history of how Sufism has been envisioned by various outside thinkers. In Chapter One, Knysh explores this thesis by offering several potential models for Sufism's origin. These models range from Marxist interpretations of political unrest to various Sufi thinkers' own self-understanding as pursuing the purest form of Muslim devotion. Knysh notes as well the undeniable influence of other religious traditions, especially the proximity of Christianity's own mystical expressions, on the development of Sufism early on while also recognizing the potential complications inherent with such comparison. As such, Knysh states Sufism is only truly real "in the sense that it has long-ranging and tangible sociopolitical, practical, cultural, and institutional implications" (p.34) developed through a vast variety of imaginations. Holding the tension between these influences allows Knysh to explore the complications of Sufism as an evolving concept as well as living spirituality. Knysh deepens this analysis in Chapter Two by considering how Sufism came to be understood as a unique Islamic practice. He discusses early elements of Sufi development such as walaya, spiritual authority of teachers, transmitted not only through their texts but through the teacher's lived example. This, in turn, would serve as a basis for a cult of devotion surrounding Sufi saints, solidifying [End Page 369] the development of spiritual lineages. Knysh utilizes these foundational concepts to reveal the differences between Muslim and Western understanding of Sufism's functionality. Whereas the Muslim approach along the Sunni/Shi'i divide focuses largely on the sociopolitical role played by such schools, the West often looks to the discourses created by spiritual authorities to delineate between Sufism's various focus on philosophy or occult sciences. Knysh astutely observes how privileging texts over social structures significantly alters how Sufism is conceived. At the end of this chapter, Knysh offers a succinct and helpful list of traits that might be seen as essential to Sufism (p. 60–61), helping the reader understand Sufi spirituality vis-à-vis the efficacy of spiritual authorities to reveal esoteric knowledge and shape their worldview. Chapter Three concerns Sufism's exegetical tradition and will undoubtedly be the most engaging for the outside readers that Knysh envisions. Largely focused on the characteristics of Ibn Arabi's Akbarian school and Najm al-din (al-)Kubra's Kubrawi school, this chapter offers the deepest look into the "cosmology and gnoseology" (p.120) that has so captured Western attention. Exploring various ways in which these schools read both the Quranic and Hadith texts, this chapter gives the reader a sense of not only how their philosophy functions but also how its implications are transmitted...

"The discovery was tremendous": Sex, Secrets, and Selfhood in The Portrait of a Lady

"The discovery was tremendous":Sex, Secrets, and Selfhood in The Portrait of a Lady Jessica Krzeminski "Her life should always be in harmony with the most pleasing impression she should produce; she would be what she appeared, and she would appear what she was" (105), writes Henry James of Isabel Archer in The Portrait of a Lady (1881). What, however, is she? Is she "a young woman of extraordinary profundity … [and] a prodigy of learning" as her admirers think (103)? Or is she guilty of creating and inhabiting a fantasy life based in romantic ideals—"you live too much in the world of your own dreams. You're not enough in contact with reality" (268)—as her friend Henrietta Stackpole accuses her? James writes Isabel as a series of images that refuse to coalesce into a singular figure with definitive motives, morals, feelings, and goals. In fact, Isabel's main struggle is the development of a socially acceptable and therefore "cohesive" sense of self that is not formed relationally, that is, by and dependent on any given person—her uncle, her cousin, her best friend, her husband, his former lover, his daughter—or situation. In what follows, I address Isabel's fragmented character development and the longstanding debate about whether James's female characters ever achieve individuality and freedom from societal constraints. I question whether oft-valorized depictions of delineated individuality—in Lynn Huffer's terms, an "overinvest[ment] in coherent narrative female subjects" (62)—should even be the desired goal. Engaging theories and conversations concerning what constitutes the subject—a self that is static, shattered, and/or split—I argue that Isabel Archer arrives at a fragmented, non-relational sense of self when she dwells in her emotions, decides to actively refuse the role of mother and thereby stalls the reproduction of a heteronormative future, and embraces the disintegration of her previous self-conceptions. In realizing her lack of desire for her husband, Gilbert Osmond, and in then choosing to weaponize her body in the emotional war he wages by refusing her role as vessel of reproductive futurity (i.e., [End Page 276] woman-cum-mother), she becomes a woman who confers recognition on herself rather than lives to please others. James characterizes Isabel as a young woman who has not been circumscribed, who has been told that she is smarter than most and that her opinions have weight but who also has "never been corrected by the judgment of people speaking with authority," which has "led her into a thousand ridiculous zigzags" (PL 104). Ironically, as James details Isabel's "meagre knowledge," "inflated ideals," "temper at once extracting and indulgent," "desire to look very well and to be if possible even better," "her combination of the delicate, desultory, flame-like spirit and the eager and personal creature of conditions," etc. (105), he also throws into this very long list of personality traits that Isabel thinks it "was almost as unnecessary to cultivate doubt of one's self as to cultivate doubt of one's best friend: one should try to be one's own best friend" (104). With this description, James indicates that Isabel, in this early self-iteration, is unaware that her self-perception is entirely relational, that she develops in response to the people she encounters and situations in which she finds herself. She instead, thinking self-doubt is useless, projects in this moment a self-confidence at odds with James's characterization of her scattered, sometimes insecure personality. Continuously constituting oneself in response to iterative encounters with an other defines the Hegelian subject-other relationship—as Judith Butler discusses, "If … we are to follow The Phenomenology of the Spirit, I am invariably transformed by the encounters I undergo" (27). Omri Moses, while not referencing the self-other dyad and its ethical implications, nonetheless capitalizes on iterative subject formation in his discussion of James's novels in order to consider the psychic integrity, or lack thereof, of James's characters. Moses claims that they have "to make do without the usual guideposts for action" because "[r]ather than pursuing predetermined intentions and motives according to a scale of understood interests, they seek to discover them among...

On the development of a predictive functional trait approach for studying terrestrial arthropods.

The characterization of ecological communities with functional traits allows to consider simultaneously the ability of a species to survive and reproduce in an environment, its interactions with other species and its effects on the ecosystem. Functional traits have been studied mainly by plant ecologists, but are increasingly common in the study of other taxa including arthropods. Arthropods represent a group for which a functional trait approach could be highly profitable because of their high diversity, abundance, ubiquity and role in many important ecological processes. This review synthesizes two decades of functional trait research on terrestrial arthropods. We show that while the approach has gained popularity, particularly in the last decade, the absence of clearly postulated hypotheses is a recurrent problem limiting generalization. Furthermore, studied traits are often poorly related to studied functions. To address these problems, we propose a step-by-step protocol to postulate clear hypotheses prior to trait selection and emphasize the need for a common set of more generalizable traits in future studies. Extending the functional trait approach to arthropods opens the door to improving our understanding of interspecific interactions and potential links between response and effect traits. We present the concept of trait-matching with several examples of arthropod traits known to be effective predictors of consumer-resource interactions. The development of a successful functional trait approach for terrestrial arthropods will necessitate an understanding of relevant traits, standardized measurement protocols and open access databases to share this information. Such progress will provide ecologists with a new set of tools to answer broad questions in several fields including the study of community assembly, ecological networks and multitrophic functionality.

Beyond the List of Traits: Addressing and Assessing Cultural Needs of Patients in Health Care Settings

Historically, cultural competence included providing a list of traits or characteristics germane to ethnic and racial groups. Although it is important to understand cultural groups broadly rather t...

Telling a different story: plant recolonization after landslides under a semi-arid climate

We aimed to know how plant species colonize landslides under a semi-arid climate. We selected 30 landslides triggered by the continuous rainstorms in the hilly-gullied region of the Chinese Loess Plateau in July 2013. We quantified post-landslide changes in a core list of soil properties, vegetation properties and plant functional traits and also analyzed their relationships. After landslides, there were no large changes in the soil properties except slope angle. Correspondingly, there were no large changes in plant species richness, species composition and the functional traits. The vegetation cover of scars (the newly exposed soil surfaces because of landslides) was significantly lower than those of deposits (the deposition zones of landslides) and undisturbed vegetated areas surrounding the landslides (control areas), but the vegetation recovery of scars should be only a matter of time. Under the semi-arid climate of the area, landslides do not have profound effects on soil properties and plant species richness and composition, telling a different story from those landslides under other climate regimes and implying great potential for the restoration of landslides.

Is the behavioural divergence between range-core and range-edge populations of cane toads (Rhinella marina) due to evolutionary change or developmental plasticity?

Individuals at the leading edge of expanding biological invasions often show distinctive phenotypic traits, in ways that enhance their ability to disperse rapidly and to function effectively in novel environments. Cane toads (Rhinella marina) at the invasion front in Australia exhibit shifts in morphology, physiology and behaviour (directionality of dispersal, boldness, risk-taking). We took a common-garden approach, raising toads from range-core and range-edge populations in captivity, to see if the behavioural divergences observed in wild-caught toads are also evident in common-garden offspring. Captive-raised toads from the invasion vanguard population were more exploratory and bolder (more prone to ‘risky’ behaviours) than toads from the range core, which suggests that these are evolved, genetic traits. Our study highlights the importance of behaviour as being potentially adaptive in invasive populations and adds these behavioural traits to the increasing list of phenotypic traits that have evolved rapidly during the toads' 80-year spread through tropical Australia.

Advanced competencies mapping of critical care nursing: a qualitative research in two Intensive Care Units.

Nowadays, in Italy, the nursing profession has suffered important changes in response to the needs of citizens' health and to improve the quality of the health service in the country. At the basis of this development there is an increase of the nurses' knowledge, competencies and responsibilities. Currently, the presence of nurses who have followed post-basic training paths, and the subsequent acquisition of advanced clinical knowledge and specializations, has made it essential for the presence of competencies mappings for each specialty, also to differentiate them from general care nurses. The objective is to get a mapping of nurse's individual competencies working in critical care, to analyze the context of the Parma Hospital and comparing it with the Lebanon Heart Hospital in Lebanon. The survey has been done through a series of interviews involving some of the hospital staff, in order to collect opinions about the ICU nurses' competencies. What emerged from the data allowed us to get a list of important abilities, competencies, character traits and intensive care nurse activities. Italians and Lebanese nurses appear to be prepared from a technical point of view, with a desire for improvement through specializations, masters and enabling courses in advanced health maneuvers. By respondents nurses can seize a strong desire for professional improvement. At the end of our research we were able to draw a list of different individual competencies, behavioral and moral characteristics. The nurse figure has a high potential and large professional improvement prospects, if more taken into account by the health system.

Diel root extension patterns of three Serianthes species are modulated by plant size

ABSTRACTDiel root extension was observed for Serianthes grandiflora, Serianthes kanehirae, and Serianthes nelsonii plants ranging in size from seedlings to 2-m tall saplings. The percentage of daily root extension that occurred at night declined from 65% for seedlings to 51% for 200-cm tall plants for S. grandiflora, from 58% for seedlings to 54% for 200-cm tall plants for S. kanehirae, and from 72% for seedlings to 55% for 200-cm tall plants for S. nelsonii. These results indicate the timing of root extension rates throughout a diel cycle may be included in the list of phenology and physiology traits that change as plants increase in size.

Leadership and management competencies of head nurses and directors of nursing in Finnish social and health care

This paper describes the leadership and management competencies of head nurses and directors of nursing in social and health care. In the nursing profession, studies have tended to describe the role of the nurse manager, or to provide lists of competencies, talents and traits which can be found in successful managers. However, nursing managers’ leadership and management competencies lack any depth of research knowledge. Data were gathered by electronic questionnaire. Respondents ( n = 1025) were head nurses and directors of nursing. The data were statistically analysed. Both groups evaluated their leadership and management competencies to be quite good and their general competence to be better than their special competence. Overall, directors of nursing rated their general competence and special competence better than head nurses. However, the head nurses had a stronger expertise in general competence areas, professional competence and credibility, and also in the special competence areas of substance knowledge than the directors of nursing. While the overall leadership and management competencies were good for both groups, each has identified areas which can be further developed.

Judgments of warmth and competence in a computerized paradigm: Little evidence of proposed impression formation asymmetries.

Much of what we know concerning impression formation is based on experimental methods where the participant receives a list of traits or behaviors and is asked to make trait judgments or meta-cognitive judgments. The present study aimed to put some well-known effects from the impression formation literature to a test in a more dynamic computerized environment, more akin to many real world impression formation scenarios. In three studies participants were introduced to multiple target persons. They were given information about the target persons’ behavior, one at a time, while making ratings of their warmth and competence, and their probability of performing related behaviors in the future. In neither of the studies the negativity effect of warmth or the positivity effect of competence were reproduced.

Neoteny, Prolongation of Youth: From Naked Mole Rats to "Naked Apes" (Humans).

It has been suggested that highly social mammals, such as naked mole rats and humans, are long-lived due to neoteny (the prolongation of youth). In both species, aging cannot operate as a mechanism facilitating natural selection because the pressure of this selection is strongly reduced due to 1) a specific social structure where only the "queen" and her "husband(s)" are involved in reproduction (naked mole rats) or 2) substituting fast technological progress for slow biological evolution (humans). Lists of numerous traits of youth that do not disappear with age in naked mole rats and humans are presented and discussed. A high resistance of naked mole rats to cancer, diabetes, cardiovascular and brain diseases, and many infections explains why their mortality rate is very low and almost age-independent and why their lifespan is more than 30 years, versus 3 years in mice. In young humans, curves of mortality versus age start at extremely low values. However, in the elderly, human mortality strongly increases. High mortality rates in other primates are observed at much younger ages than in humans. The inhibition of the aging process in humans by specific drugs seems to be a promising approach to prolong our healthspan. This might be a way to retard aging, which is already partially accomplished via the natural physiological phenomenon neoteny.

Functional trait ecology in the Anthropocene: a standardized framework for terrestrial invertebrates

Functional trait ecology in the Anthropocene: a standardized framework for terrestrial invertebrates

The role of character traits in economic games

Notwithstanding the fact that valuing personality descriptors from the realm of character were deliberately excluded from the Big Five model of personality, in the study of economic games (EGs; e.g., the prisoner's dilemma) the Big Five were used when predicting outcomes in the field of behaviors that are socially valued in terms of fairness and altruism (i.e., the moral domain). Eventually evaluative traits were introduced and found useful in the study of EGs, namely the HEXACO dimension honesty/humility (H/H). As an extensive list of evaluative traits, the Values In Action classification of character strengths may complement H/H when assessing character and predicting individuals' decisions in EGs. For this study, N=155 participants completed the Values in Action Inventory of Strengths, a measure of the HEXACO traits, and four different EGs that involved decisions relevant to fairness and altruism. Along with H/H, individuals' positions on a dimension abstracting heart-related vs. mind-related character strengths predicted outcomes in the EGs. These results support earlier findings that evaluative traits predict decisions relevant to fairness and altruism. Furthermore, character strengths can be seen as complementing H/H when predicting behavior in the moral domain by character.

Morphological Characterization and a Morphometry Map for Varroa Mites from Northwest of Egypt

AbstractVarroa mite,Varroa destructor, is the most destructive factor to western honey bee colonies worldwide. In 1904, Varroa was firstly recorded on honey bees, at the beginning it was hypothesized that Varroa is one species but recently this hypothesis has been considered to be incorrect. In 1983, Varroa mite was recorded in Egypt for first time. So far, a single study was done in Egypt to confirm Varroa species to beV. destructorand notVarroa jacobsonias it was previously thought. Still the exact haplotype of Varroa in Egypt is unknown. This study is a step towards the identification of Varroa in Egypt. Here, morphological investigations were performed on Varroa specimens belong to northwest Egypt (El-Behera governorate). Three characteristics only showed significant differences among districts, namely body width, genital shield width, and genital shield length/genital shield width (ratio II), while the rest of characteristics did not present any significant differences. The correlations among the characteristics were very weak, except body length which correlated significantly (P<0.05) with body width and genital shield width by 0.52 and 0.42, in respect. The study presented additional confirmation thatV. destructoris the current species infesting honey bee colonies in Egypt. Also, Varroa haplotype was identified to be the Korean one. A list of some morphological traits of Varroa mite was provided to enable further comparisons. A morphometry map for Varroa mites was also done using a geographical information system (GIS) to correlate between geographical locations and morphological characteristics. The morphometry map clearly classified studied districts, according to measured characteristics, into three classes as low, moderate and high. This study has a significant importance towards the fully understanding of Varroa populations in Egypt.

Traits of Transformational Leader: Durga Saptshati- A Case Study

Leadership is the ability of an individual to influence people to achieve desired goals. Different studies in this area have propounded various theories ranging from Trait theory of leadership to behavioral approach models to contingency models. Earlier people were of the opinion that individuals are born with leadership traits, either they are born leaders or are not. Then came a phase when people realized that these traits can be acquired too. But all these studies could not come up with any conclusive list of leadership traits. Various successful leaders may have similar traits but we are yet to come across the set of traits that every leader must possess. In nut shell we may say that, “which traits to acquire”, which specific traits make you a leader is still a question? Now a day's increasingly, scholars are talking about transformational leadership as a tool to get better results in the organization. Transformational leaders influence the employee job satisfaction and morale in a positive manner. Responding to this requirement of industry, in this paper the researcher has made an attempt to identify the traits which a transformational leader must possess. The study is based on a descriptive analysis of Durga Saptashati - a Hindu religious text. The study arrived at a conclusive summary of the traits of a transformational leader. Study revealed that the transformational leader has to be perceived as a mn with solutions rather than the man with problems.