Small Badges Research Articles

Process-related characteristic–based topography evaluation of wear conditions on grinding wheels

Non-productive auxiliary processes affect the single part and small badge production of milling tools. The key production process grinding is inevitably linked to the auxiliary conditioning process. The time demand of those process steps decreases the overall productivity of the manufacturing process. However, today the machine operator decides on conditioning cycles individually by the use of experience. Until today, there is no objective data based approach available that supports the initiation of these conditioning processes or the adaption of the grinding process itself in order to improve its process efficiency. For this purpose, a process-related topography evaluation method of the grinding wheel surface is developed within this study. For the measurement, an optical method based on laser triangulation is used. The measurement system is implemented into a common tool grinding machine tool. In addition, characteristic topography values are defined that show the wear conditions of the grinding tool. Moreover, the data is summarized in a database of wear conditions. The developed measurement method can save grinding and dressing tool resources, process times and minimizes scrap parts. In addition, an adaptation of the process and a targeted launch of auxiliary processes can be enabled. The novel characteristic-based topography measurement creates the opportunity to enhance the tool life of the grinding wheels up to 30% without losing productivity.

SMART CONCEPT FOR PROJECT MANAGEMENT – TRANSITION TO DevOps

The article aims to reveal the transition and evolvement of the Project management in its variety and benefits that brings for the business organization. There will be reviewed three main concepts for Project management: Lean, Agile and DevOps. Lean concept concentrates its efforts to deliver more value with less waste by reducing everything that does not add value. In other words: Doing more with less. An organization that applying Lean Methodology is aiming to provide perfect value to customers following perfect process of creating value with zero waste. There are key principles which guide the actions for applying Lean techniques. In order to do this the experts have to perform Lean thinking. In other hand the main philosophy in Agile approach is striving for the same costs and at the same time but improving work so that the customers remain satisfied. There have been various frameworks like Scrum and Kanban which offers different tools to manage projects and refer to Agile Project Management. It encourages adaptive planning, evolutionary development, early delivery, and continual improvement. Agile approach leads to rapid and flexible response to changes. This method is highly used and beneficiary in complex projects where the situations are constantly changing. Lean and Agile approaches have many things in common. Both of them are seeking to add value and prefer working in small badges to avoid large mistakes. Different approaches effect in different way for different organizations. In an effort to avoid some disadvantages there is some companies that moved towards DevOps. DevOps Approach also is a method in strong connection with Lean and Agile methods by steer them to operations work. While Agile Project Management focuses its efforts to Development (Dev), there is still a loop which needs to be covered – Operation function (Ops). Participating of the development and operations experts together in the entire product or service lifecycle is the main concept of the DevOps. The soft skills of the people that are expected to adopt and move by the principles of any philosophy have an important role. The way they think and execute their responsibilities are as important as the principles itself. The tools are useless if the people are not willing and don’t know how to use them. Every one of those philosophies strives to answer challenges of the business environment and rapidly changing customer`s needs with different tools. The collaboration between them and the transition from one to another shaped Smart concept for Project Management which puts in front quality, customer feedback and continuous delivery and deployment.

Superciliums in white-eared hummingbirds as badges of status signaling dominance.

The role of badges as indicators of contest ability has been previously described. In hummingbirds, the exhibition of a badge is expected to save energy expenditure in agonistic interactions and to favor energy intake. Here, we investigate whether variable supercilium size in the white-eared hummingbird has a role in dominance status signaling. Firstly, 45 hummingbird males were captured and their superciliums were photographed to investigate variation in size and any possible allometric relationships. Secondly, 42 male birds were used to analyze whether the supercilium has a role in dominance status signaling in a dyadic contest. We found that supercilium size varied continuously but that despite variability between individuals, there was no relationship between supercilium size and body size. However, our dyad experiment indicated that birds with larger badges were able to make more visits to the feeders than individuals with smaller badges. We suggest a status signaling function of the supercilium.

A small badge of longevity: opposing survival selection on the size of white and black wing markings

According to handicap principle, exaggerated ornamental traits are supposed to exert costs on their bearers. However, there is much less theoretical and practical consensus about whether and under which conditions ornament expression should positively correlate with survival. We measured age‐related variation and survival selection on the size of white wing patches and black wing tips in a long‐lived monogamous seabird, the common gull Larus canus. Males had larger white patches than females but patch size showed concave relationship with age irrespective of sex, suggesting that white patch size was prone to senescence in both sexes. Extent of wing tip abrasion correlated negatively with the size of white patch, suggesting, in agreement with the Zahavian handicap hypothesis that only individuals with largest ornaments are able of maintaining them and not paying cost of displaying them. Areas of white wing patches and black wing tips correlated negatively. Irrespective of sex, survival selection favored birds with larger white wing patches and smaller black wing tips, which suggests that white and black wing markings may have coevolved as reverse components of a single ornament. Altogether, our results provide an evidence for the case where survival selection on ornamental traits in females is not weaker than in males. Absence of sex differences with respect to most of observed patterns is consistent with a prediction that among monogamous long‐lived species with biparental care, mutual mate choice leads to evolution of elaborate ornamental traits in both sexes.

Differential selection according to the degree of cheating in a status signal

The maintenance of honesty in a badge-of-status system is not fully understood, despite numerous empirical and theoretical studies. Our experiment examined the relationship between a status signal and winter survival, and the long-term costs of cheating, by manipulating badge size in male house sparrows, Passer domesticus. The effect of badge-size manipulation on survival was complex owing to the significant interactions between the treatments and original (natural) badge size, and between the treatments and age classes (yearlings and older birds). Nevertheless, in the experimental (badge-enlargement) group, males with originally large badges had increased winter survival, while males with originally small badges had decreased survival. This indicates that differential selection can act on a trait according to the degree of cheating.

A trade-off between reproduction and a condition-dependent sexually selected ornament in the house sparrow Passer domesticus.

Reproductive effort was manipulated in a free-living population of house sparrows (Passer domesticus) to investigate the trade-off between reproductive investment and the expression of a condition-dependent sexually selected ornament. Phenotypic plasticity in the expression of this trait was related to the experimentally manipulated size of the brood reared by a male. Males that invested more in current reproduction subsequently became more attractive to females in this population as they showed a preference for males with smaller badges. This supports the argument that direct benefits are a primary focus for mate choice by females. Trade-offs between reproductive effort and the expression of sexual ornaments are a potentially important source of phenotypic variation in both sexual ornaments and life-history traits.

Sexual ornamentation, condition, and immune defence in the house sparrow Passer domesticus

Female mate preferences for extreme male ornaments may arise and be maintained because males signal their ability to raise an immune defence against parasites by the size of their ornaments. The bursa of Fabricius is an organ involved in antibody synthesis in young birds, but regresses before sexual maturity. The relationship between badge size, condition, and immune defence was investigated in male house sparrows, Passer domesticus, which have a bib of black feathers under their beak, a secondary sexual character currently subject to a directional female mate preference. The size of the bursa of Fabricius decreased during the first year of life in house sparrows. Males with large secondary sexual characters had a smaller bursa than males with small badges. Individuals with a large directional asymmetry in relative testis size had a larger bursa. The abundance of one parasite (a mallophagan) was positively related to bursa size. There was a positive relationship between relative volume of bursa of Fabricius and the number of fault bars on feathers, which is a measure of body condition. These results suggest that males with large badges have lower current levels of immune response than males with small badges, and that males in good body condition, as evidenced from the absence of fault bars, had a relatively small bursa of Fabricius.

Badges of status and the cost of aggression

The “badges of status” hypothesis suggests that frequency-dependent selection can maintain honest signalling of aggressiveness. Analysis of a simple ESS model reveals that this is only possible if aggressive individuals incur a cost independent of any particular fights they become involved in. Without such a cost, an honest population is vulnerable to invasion by a “modest” mutant bearing a dishonestly small badge. Analysis of a second model reveals that where individuals differ in their ability to bear the contest-independent cost of aggressiveness, badge size should reflect this ability. Under such circumstances, plumage badges which serve as honest status signals may have functional consequences beyond their role in settling contests. Thus females, when choosing a mate, could make good use of the information that plumage badges provide. Analysis of a third model shows that the existence of contest-independent benefits to badge size, such as increased mating success, is compatible with the maintenance of honest status signalling.

Acquisition of breeding coloration depends on badge size in male house sparrows Passer domesticus

The black throat “badge” of the male house sparrow Passer domesticus, which functions as a status signal of dominance rank, changes in size during late winter because light feather tips gradually wear off. Males change the size of their visible badge earlier if their final badge size is large. The differential timing of the change from winter to breeding coloration in relation to badge size is partially controlled by the behaviour of the individual male. Feather abrasion of the badge is mainly due to preening and dust bathing. During late winter, male house sparrows preen the badge area more than females preen the homologous area, and males with large badges preen more than males with small badges. The seasonal change in size of the visible badge of male house sparrows may reflect the balance of different selection pressures. A large badge size signals dominance status in autumn and winter while predation by visually searching avian predators may constitute the main opposing selection pressure. Sexual selection causes a stronger selection pressure for a large badge in spring and summer.

Sexual behavior is related to badge size in the house sparrow Passer domesticus

Badge size, which functions as a signal of dominance status in male house sparrows Passer domesticus, was significantly related to their sexual behavior. Males with large badges participated in communal displays (multi-male chases directed towards single females) more often than males with small badges, irrespective of whether the female involved was the male's mate or not. Experimentally released females were more often chased if they were fertile than if they were nonfertile. Estradiol-implanted females were chased more often than control females without a hormone implant, and males with large badges chased estradiol-implanted females more often than did males with small badges. Both forced extra-pair copulations during communal displays and unforced extra-pair copulations were more often achieved by males with large than small badges. Male house sparrows with large badges also copulated with their mates at a higher rate than did males with small badges. A higher certainty of paternity therefore is hypothetized to accrue to male house sparrows with large badges.

Badge size in the house sparrow Passer domesticus

I studied female mate choice in house sparrows Passer domesticus in relation to the size of the black throat patch of males (badge size), which is a signal of dominance status, and to territory quality. Males with large badges obtained a mate earlier in spring than males with small badges. Males which remained unmated during the entire breeding season had smaller badges than mated males, even when controlling for the effect of other morphological traits and age. Largebadged males had territories with more breeding sites than small-badged males. Territories defended by males with large badges primarily had hole nest sites, which were safe from predators, and nestlings rarely fell from hole nests. Females were implanted with estradiol to induce copulation solicitation displays. Females responded more strongly to a male taxidermic mount and song than to song alone, and they responded more strongly and frequently to male mounts with large badges. Female house sparrows chose mates on the basis of male badges and perhaps on the basis of the quality of the nesting territories offered.

Variation in badge size in male house sparrows Passer domesticus: evidence for status signalling

The relation of patterns of variation in badge size to dominance was studied in male house sparrows, Passer domesticus. Males with large badges were more dominant in winter flocks, irrespective of age, body size and body condition index. The frequency of attacks was higher with increasing similarity of badges of two contestants. Male house sparrows were more frequently engaged in attacks with males having a similar badge size when they had large badges than when they had small ones. Badge size did not change consistently with age. Breeding territory owners approached closer to, and moved less frequently in response to, a house sparrow model with a small badge than to one with a large badge. These results are consistent with a status signalling function of badge size variation in house sparrows.