Solitary Individuals Research Articles

Recent records of dhole (Cuon alpinus, Pallas 1811) in Uttarakhand, Western Himalaya, India

Abstract Camera trap photographs of solitary individuals of Asiatic wild dog or dholes (Cuon alpinus, Pallas 1811) have been recorded from Kheda Tal area in Uttarkashi district of Uttarakhand. This is the first photographic confirmation of the presence of this species in the Himalayan habitats of Uttarakhand. The presence of dholes here seems to be confined to a relatively small area of unprotected habitats affected by various anthropogenic uses. The population of endangered dhole is rapidly declining especially in Himalayan region. Thus, it is imperative that local stakeholders are aware of their presence, and it is highly recommended that investigations of the ecological parameters of this population are continued.

Role of Bacterial Electrophysiology in Biofilm Development

Contrary to the view of bacteria as free swimming, solitary individuals, most species of bacteria spend the majority of their time embedded within multicellular structures called biofilms. Biofilms are formed by communities of bacteria that secrete polysaccharides, proteins, and DNA to build gel-like matrices that form protective microenvironments for the cells. Previous studies of biofilms have focused mostly on broader biofilm morphology or on the molecular composition of the matrix. In addition, due to limitations in technology, most traditional studies of bacteria physiology focused on global, population-wide dynamics and ignored the heterogeneity of individual cells. Single-cell imaging of biofilms using optogenetic sensors can fill this conceptual gap in our understanding of how the physiology of individual cells change as they transition into the biofilm phenotype. Presented here is a new technique to image developing biofilms as they grow from a single cell, and a new set of computational tools to track individual cells and their lineages. Using these tools, we have discovered long-term Ca2+ oscillations in the cytosol of Escherichia coli following cell division. These occur with a period of about 40 minutes which correlates closely with the reported replication rate of the genomic DNA.

Znaczenie rozsądku i umiaru w życiu jednostki i społeczeństwa

Artykuł rozpoczyna się od rozważań natury ogólnej na temat pojęcia cnoty oraz etyki cnót. Następnie omówione są dwie podstawowe cnoty etyczne – umiar i rozsądek – w wersjach typowych dla filozofii antycznej oraz myśli chrześcijańskiej. W kolejnej odsłonie ukazany jest rozsądek jako mądrość tragiczna, o której poucza nas antyczna tragedia, po czym prezentowana jest współczesność jako okresu kryzysu etyki cnót. Wskazuje się na kilka możliwych źródeł tego kryzysu. Skutkiem kryzysu jest triumf kultury konsumpcyjnej. Można powiedzieć, że zatomizowane, schorowane społeczeństwo i osamotniona, infantylna jednostka cierpią na chroniczny brak rozsądku i umiaru. W zakończeniu formułuje się wniosek, że remedium na tę dolegliwość może być sztuka, która porusza umysły i serca i dociera do licznych odbiorców, w szczególności zaś poezja, która jest w stanie skutecznie doprowadzić do konwersji naszego spojrzenia na życie.

Sociometric Study of Intragroup Relations in a Work Group

The aim of this study is to explore intragroup relations in retail. The article conduct a sociometric analysis that takes into account labor and affective criteria, using the probability theory method and the UCINET program. In so doing the paper observe that the group, despite having been formally established for more than five years, does not display any solid indicators of high cohesion. The article observe that formal authority and informal leadership do not coincide and that there are two group factions in both criteria, which supports the finding of low cohesion. But despite these deficiencies in terms of cohesion, paper do not find any completely ignored or solitary individuals; as such, the group has established relations that can be improved. To this end, group cohesion should be promoted through a work design that facilitates interaction between individuals and rewards group results, all of which will serve to enhance the performance of this group.

Roa rumsfeldi, a new butterflyfish (Teleostei, Chaetodontidae) from mesophotic coral ecosystems of the Philippines

A new species of the butterflyfish genus Roa is herein described from the Verde Island Passage in the Philippines, West Pacific Ocean. Roa rumsfeldi sp. n. was found on mesophotic coral ecosystems at Puerto Galera and Batangas, and sampled through technical mixed-gas rebreather diving at 100–130 m depth. This represents the fifth known species of Roa. The main differences between Roa rumsfeldi sp. n. and its congeners are the lower number of pored scales in the lateral line, longer snout, longer caudal peduncle, shorter caudal fin, pelvic fin color (dark first spine vs. white in all other Roa), and genetics (8.4% divergence from its closest relative Roa modesta in the mitochondrial COI gene). Roa spp. are usually seen in pairs, but the two specimens we collected were solitary individuals. We have kept one of the specimens alive in the California Academy of Sciences’ Twilight Zone exhibit for more than one year, where it thrives and is feeding on a variety of dried and fresh food.

Habitat segregation and population structure of Caribbean sea anemones and associated crustaceans on coral reefs at Akumal Bay, Mexico

Sea anemones and associated crustaceans are important components of coral reefs, but their population structure and microhabitat use remain poorly understood. We quantified both types of patterns for two sea anemone and 10 crustacean species at Akumal Bay, Mexico. Rosetip anemones, Condylactis gigantea (Weinland, 1860), occurred as solitary individuals on patch reefs throughout the midbay, while sun anemones, Stichodactyla helianthus (Ellis, 1768), formed dense aggregations on reef patches in the inner bay. Both populations were abundant with exponential size distributions that indicated potentially high recruitment and stable population structure. Individuals of corkscrew anemones, Bartholomea annulata (Le Sueur, 1817), were too rare to analyze their population structure. Crustaceans significantly segregated their microhabitat use among zones on the anemone bodies. Most exhibited exponential size structure, but the chaotic size patterns of some crustaceans suggested recently-sporadic recruitment. We report a previously undocumented association of blue-legged hermit crabs, Clibanarius tricolor (Gibbes, 1850), and anemones; crabs clustered along the anemone columns, and possessed an external, removable coating that protected them from host toxins. We conclude that some anemones and crustacean associates exhibit strong partitioning of habitat and stable population structure on these coral reefs.

Chinko/Mbari drainage basin represents a conservation hotspot for Eastern Derby eland in Central Africa

AbstractOne of the largest of antelopes, Derby eland (Taurotragus derbianus), is an important ecosystem component of African savannah. While the western subspecies is Critically Endangered, the eastern subspecies is classified as least concern. Our study presents the first investigation of population dynamics of the Derby eland in the Chinko/Mbari Drainage Basin, Central African Republic, and assesses the conservation role of this population. We analysed data from 63 camera traps installed in 2012. The number of individuals captured within a single camera event ranged from one to 41. Herds were mostly mixed by age and sex, mean group size was 5.61, larger during the dry season. Adult (AD) males constituted only 20% of solitary individuals. The overall sex ratio (M:F) was 1:1.33, while the AD sex ratio shifted to 1:1.52, reflecting selective hunting pressure. Mean density ranged from 0.04 to 0.16 individuals/km2, giving an estimated population size of 445–1,760 individuals. Chinko harbours one of the largest documented populations of Derby eland in Central Africa, making Chinko one of its potential conservation hotspots.

The evolution of simultaneous progressive provisioning revisited: extending the model to overlapping generations

“Simultaneous progressive provisioners” feed their offspring gradually as they develop—and typically feed more than one offspring simultaneously (SIM) at a time. In contrast, “sequential mass provisioners” supply offspring one after another (SEQ). Utilizing individual-based simulations, Field (Nature 404:869–871, 2005) compared the lifetime reproductive success of these strategies in different scenarios. Accordingly, SEQ should evolve in the majority of cases—SIM only has an evolutionary benefit if offspring depend on their mothers’ protection until adulthood even past the provisioning period. However, this is only one potential explanation for the evolution of SIM. Here, we present an alternative mechanism for solitary individuals with overlapping generations. We propose an analytical model (comprising Field’s former approach) utilizing growth rate instead of lifetime reproductive success as a measure of fitness. Our model shows that multiplicative geometric effects on fitness would typically compensate for the demographic disadvantages of SIM (due to prolonged dependency) and consequently support the evolution of SIM over SEQ for a wide range of life history parameters. The optimal level of SIM (i.e., the optimal number of eggs laid simultaneously) is determined by offspring development time, survival rates, and foraging efficiency of the mother. Only extreme values of these demographic parameters would favor a transition to SEQ behavior. Our model provides a coherent explanation of selective favoring of SIM over SEQ that may also contribute to understanding why SIM is the dominant strategy among social insect species. Workers in social insects typically feed several offspring simultaneously while solitary species with parental care—apart from a few exceptions—provision brood cells one after another. The provisioning pattern might play a prominent role in the evolutionary pathway to higher social organization. Based on a novel theoretical approach, we show that geometric growth benefits increase selection pressure towards simultaneous progressive provisioning in species with generation overlap. Such geometric benefits may specifically emerge in seasonal eusocial species. This result alters former assessment of causal mechanisms and extends findings focusing on solitary insects. It adds a new and reasonable explanation for the dominance of simultaneous provisioning among social species.

A second site occupied by Octopus tetricus at high densities, with notes on their ecology and behavior

ABSTRACTWe report wild octopuses (Octopus tetricus) living at high density at a rock outcrop, the second such site known. O. tetricus are often observed as solitary individuals, with the species known to exist at similar densities and exhibiting complex social behaviors at only one site other than that described here. The present site was occupied by 10–15 octopuses on eight different days. We recorded frequent interactions, signaling, mating, mate defense, eviction of octopuses from dens, and attempts to exclude individuals from the site. These observations demonstrate that high-density occupation and complex social behaviors are not unique to the earlier described site, which had been affected to some extent by remains of human activity. Behavior at this second site confirms that complex social interactions also occur in association with natural substrate, and suggest that social interactions are more wide spread among octopuses than previously recognized.

Boldness traits, not dominance, predict exploratory flight range and homing behaviour in homing pigeons

Group living has been proposed to yield benefits that enhance fitness above the level that would be achieved through living as solitary individuals. Dominance hierarchies occur commonly in these social assemblages, and result, by definition, in resources not being evenly distributed between group members. Determinants of rank within a dominance hierarchy can be associated with morphological characteristics, previous experience of the individual, or personality traits such as exploration tendencies. The purpose of this study was to investigate whether greater exploration and positive responses to novel objects in homing pigeons (Columba livia) measured under laboratory conditions were associated with (i) greater initial exploration of the local area around the home loft during spontaneous exploration flights (SEF), (ii) faster and more efficient homing flights when released from further afield, and (iii) whether the traits of greater exploration and more positive responses to novel objects were more likely to be exhibited by the more dominant individuals within the group. There was no relationship between laboratory-based novel object exploration and position within the dominance hierarchy. Pigeons that were neophobic under laboratory conditions did not explore the local area during SEF opportunities. When released from sites further from home, neophobic pigeons took longer routes to home compared to those birds that had not exhibited neophobic traits under laboratory conditions, and had spontaneously explored to a greater extent. The lack of exploration in the neophobic birds is likely to have resulted in the increased costs of homing following release: unfamiliarity with the landscape likely led to the greater distances travelled and less efficient routes taken. Birds that demonstrated a lack of neophobia were not the dominant individuals inside the loft, and thus would have less access to resources such as food and potentially mates. However, a lack of neophobia makes the subordinate position possible, because subordinate birds that incur high travel costs would become calorie restricted and lose condition. Our results address emerging questions linking individual variation in behaviour with energetics and fitness consequences.This article is part of the themed issue 'Physiological determinants of social behaviour in animals'.

Queen presence mediates the relationship between collective behaviour and disease susceptibility in ant colonies.

The success of social living can be explained, in part, by a group's ability to execute collective behaviours unachievable by solitary individuals. However, groups vary in their ability to execute these complex behaviours, often because they vary in their phenotypic composition. Group membership changes over time due to mortality or emigration, potentially leaving groups vulnerable to ecological challenges in times of flux. In some societies, the loss of important individuals (e.g. leaders, elites and queens) may have an especially detrimental effect on groups' ability to deal with these challenges. Here, we test whether the removal of queens in colonies of the acorn ant Temnothorax curvispinosus alters their ability to execute important collective behaviours and survive outbreaks of a generalist entomopathogen. We employed a split-colony design where one half of a colony was maintained with its queen, while the other half was separated from the queen. We then tested these subcolonies' performance in a series of collective behaviour assays and finally exposed colonies to the entomopathogenic fungus Metarhizium robertsii by exposing two individuals from the colony and then sealing them back into the nest. We found that queenright subcolonies outperformed their queenless counterparts in nearly all collective behaviours. Queenless subcolonies were also more vulnerable to mortality from disease. However, queenless groups that displayed more interactions with brood experienced greater survivorship, a trend not present in queenright subcolonies. Queenless subcolonies that engage in more brood interactions may have had more resources available to cope with two physiological challenges (ovarian development after queen loss and immune activation after pathogen exposure). Our results indicate that queen presence can play an integral role in colony behaviour, survivorship and their relationship. They also suggest that interactions between workers and brood are integral to colonies survival. Overall, a social group's history of social reorganization may have strong consequences on their collective behaviours and their vulnerability to disease outbreaks.

Continuous behavioral observation reveals the function of drifting seaweeds for Seriola spp. juveniles

MEPS Marine Ecology Progress Series Contact the journal Facebook Twitter RSS Mailing List Subscribe to our mailing list via Mailchimp HomeLatest VolumeAbout the JournalEditorsTheme Sections MEPS 573:101-115 (2017) - DOI: https://doi.org/10.3354/meps12154 Continuous behavioral observation reveals the function of drifting seaweeds for Seriola spp. juveniles Takamasa Hasegawa1,*, Naoki Takatsuki1,4,*, Yuuki Kawabata1,**, Ryo Kawabe2, Gregory N. Nishihara2, Atsushi Ishimatsu2, Kiyoshi Soyano2, Kotoe Okamura1,5, Seishiro Furukawa2,6, Misato Yamada3,7, Masako Shimoda3, Tsukasa Kinoshita3, Nobuhiro Yamawaki3, Yasuhiro Morii3, Yoshitaka Sakakura1 1Graduate School of Fisheries and Environmental Sciences, Nagasaki University, Bunkyo, Nagasaki 852-8521, Japan 2Institute for East China Sea Research, Organization for Marine Science and Technology, Nagasaki University, Taira-machi, Nagasaki 851-2213, Japan 3Faculty of Fisheries, Nagasaki University, Bunkyo, Nagasaki 852-8521, Japan 4Present address: IDEA Consultants Inc., Higashihama, Higashi-ku, Fukuoka 812–0055, Japan 5Present address: Japan Fisheries Research and Education Agency, Minato Mirai, Nishi-ku, Yokohama, Kanagawa 220-6115, Japan 6Present address: Japan Sea National Fisheries Research Institute, Japan Fisheries Research and Education Agency, Suido-cho, Niigata 951-8121, Japan 7Present address: Nagasaki Branch, Japan Radio Co., Ltd., Asahi-machi, Nagasaki 852-8003, Japan *These authors contributed equally to this work**Corresponding author: yuuki-k@nagasaki-u.ac.jp ABSTRACT: A large number of fish species are associated with drifting seaweeds; however, the ecological significance of such seaweeds for fishes remains unclear. Here, we developed a raft equipped with a seaweed clump, interval still/video cameras, and a GPS satellite buoy. This novel monitoring system was used to monitor the schooling and associative behavior of Seriola spp. juveniles with seaweed for up to 1 wk in the East China Sea. We observed diel behavioral patterns of the fish, which swam around the seaweeds during the day and remained ‘attached’ to the seaweed or to conspecifics at night. This nighttime behavioral pattern suggests that the fish may use drifting seaweed to maintain schools at night when vision is less effective. Solitary individuals and those in smaller schools tended to remain close to the seaweed, whereas fish in larger schools were observed swimming actively around the seaweed. Additionally, some of the solitary fish and small schools escaped into the seaweed when potential predators appeared. As the school size of the fish increased over time, solitary individuals and small schools may have used drifting seaweeds as a shelter from predators until the fish could gather to form larger schools. We suggest that drifting seaweeds have multiple ecological functions for Seriola spp. and other seaweed-associated fishes, and the knowledge of these functions will be useful in designing conservation and management measures for the associated fishes. KEY WORDS: Fish-aggregating devices · Floating seaweed · Seriola quinqueradiata · Yellowtail · Shelter from predator hypothesis · East China Sea · Time lapse camera · GPS satellite buoy Full text in pdf format Supplementary material PreviousNextCite this article as: Hasegawa T, Takatsuki N, Kawabata Y, Kawabe R and others (2017) Continuous behavioral observation reveals the function of drifting seaweeds for Seriola spp. juveniles. Mar Ecol Prog Ser 573:101-115. https://doi.org/10.3354/meps12154 Export citation RSS - Facebook - Tweet - linkedIn Cited by Published in MEPS Vol. 573. Online publication date: June 21, 2017 Print ISSN: 0171-8630; Online ISSN: 1616-1599 Copyright © 2017 Inter-Research.

An efficient method for sorting and quantifying individual social traits based on group‐level behaviour

Abstract In social contexts, animal behaviour is often studied in terms of group‐level characteristics. One clear example of this is the collective motion of animals in decentralized structures, such as bird flocks and fish schools. A major goal of research is to identify how group‐level behaviours are shaped by the traits of individuals within them. Few methods exist to make these connections. Individual assessment is often limited, forcing alternatives such as fitting agent‐based models to experimental data. We provide a systematic experimental method for sorting animals according to socially relevant traits, without assaying them or even tagging them individually. Instead, they are repeatedly subjected to behavioural assays in groups, between which the group memberships are rearranged, in order to test the effect of many different combinations of individuals on a group‐level property or feature. We analyse this method using a general model for the group feature, and simulate a variety of specific cases to track how individuals are sorted in each case. We find that in the case where the members of a group contribute equally to the group feature, the sorting procedure increases the between‐group behavioural variation well above what is expected for groups randomly sampled from a population. For a wide class of group feature models, the individual phenotypes are efficiently sorted across the groups and thus become available for further analysis on how individual properties affect group behaviour. We also show that the experimental data can be used to estimate the individual‐level repeatability of the underlying traits. Our method allows experimenters to find repeatable variation in social behaviours that cannot be assessed in solitary individuals. Furthermore, experiments in animal behaviour often focus on comparisons between groups randomly sampled from a population. Increasing the behavioural variation between groups increases statistical power for testing whether a group feature is related to other properties of groups or to their phenotypic composition. Sorting according to socially relevant traits is also beneficial in artificial selection experiments, and for testing correlations with other traits. Overall, the method provides a useful tool to study how individual properties influence social behaviour.

Megadenus atrae n. sp., an endoparasitic eulimid gastropod (Mollusca) from the black sea cucumber Holothuria atra Jaeger (Aspidochirotida: Holothuriidae) in the Indo-West Pacific.

An eulimid gastropod, Megadenus atrae n. sp., endoparasitic in the cloacal chamber of the black sea cucumber Holothuria atra Jaeger is described from Okinawa, Japan, as the fifth species of the genus. Conspecific specimens have also been found from southeast India, northeast Australia and New Caledonia. The generic assignment is justified by the presence of (i) a thick, long proboscis that bears a large fold (pseudopallium) near the base and a collar-like structure at the middle, (ii) a thin, globose shell that is covered by the pseudopallium, and (iii) sexual dimorphism with the female generally larger than the male. The new species is distinguishable from the four previously described congeners by its cauldron-shaped pseudopallium, moderately-developed collar of the proboscis and rounded basal lip of the shell. The comparisons of the size and sex of solitary and paired individuals support a previous hypothesis that the species of Megadenus Rosén, 1910 are protandrous with environmental sex determination. The present species occurs mostly as monogamous pairs despite its very low population density, implying that the presence of a conspecific individual acts as a cue for larval settlement. Both mechanisms would increase individual reproductive success in such permanent parasites with low prevalence and abundance as the species of Megadenus.

Habitat quality mediates personality through differences in social context.

Assessing the stability of animal personalities has become a major goal of behavioral ecologists. Most personality studies have utilized solitary individuals, but little is known on the extent that individuals retain their personality across ecologically relevant group settings. We conducted a field survey which determined that mud crabs, Panopeus herbstii, remain scattered as isolated individuals on degraded oyster reefs while high quality reefs can sustain high crab densities (>10m-2). We examined the impact of these differences in social context on personality by quantifying the boldness of the same individual crabs when in isolation and in natural cohorts. Crabs were also exposed to either a treatment of predator cues or a control of no cue throughout the experiment to assess the strength of this behavioral reaction norm. Crabs were significantly bolder when in groups than as solitary individuals with predator cue treatments exhibiting severally reduced crab activity levels in comparison to corresponding treatments with no predator cues. Behavioral plasticity depended on the individual and was strongest in the presence of predator cues. While bold crabs largely maintained their personality in isolation and group settings, shy crabs would become substantially bolder when among conspecifics. These results imply that the shifts in crab boldness were a response to changes in perceived predation risk, and provide a mechanism for explaining variation in behavioral plasticity. Such findings suggest that habitat degradation may produce subpopulations with different behavioral patterns because of differing social interactions between individual animals.

First record of Craspedacusta sowerbii Lankester, 1880 (Hydrozoa, Limnomedusae) in a natural freshwater lagoon of Uruguay, with notes on polyp stage in captivity

Abstract The freshwater cnidarian Craspedacusta sowerbii Lankester 1880, has invaded lakes and ponds as well as artificial water bodies throughout the world. The first record in Uruguay corresponding to the jellyfish was made in 1961 in two artificial fountains, with no mention of the polyp form. Although local reports of other related polyp species have been made, information on the benthic form of C. sowerbii is lacking. Here we report the finding of live frustules, solitary individuals, medusae and colonies from a natural lagoon in August 2010, allowing us to observe the morphology and behavior of the polyp stage in captivity. In addition, molecular identification and remarks on the potencial path of introduction are presented. This is the first record in Uruguay of both polyp and medusa stages of C. sowerbii in a natural water body, Del Medio Lagoon (Dpto. de Florida), Uruguay.

What do the numbers tell us about the temporal evolution of Chagas' disease?

Chagas disease remains highly prevalent in Chile, especially between the regions of Arica and Parinacota, and Coquimbo. Since 1999 it is considered that in Chile the vector transmission was interrupted. Under this premise, the epidemiological dynamics should be changing. We analyzed the evolution of the prevalence of Chagas' disease analyzing 64,995 xenodiagnosis performed in the laboratory of Parasitology of the Faculty of Medicine of the University of Chile between 1949 and 2014. The evolution of the mortalities and incidences from the databases of the Ministry of Health in the periods in which it was analyzed. The rates of domiciliary infestation and the number of vector insects sent to the Public Health Institute and its trypano-triatomine indices were also analyzed. The prevalence of Chagas' disease in inhabitants of risk areas remained stable in this period as well as mortality. The incidence rate shows a progressive increase with a tendency towards stabilization. A significant decrease in sampling effort was found, declining by two orders of magnitude, especially since 2000. The progressive increase in morbidity had no clear relation to the interruption of the vector chain nor to the greater diagnostic effort occurred in 2009, since it was evident from before. While home infestation declines, reports of intrusion of solitary individuals and wild foci of T. infestans have increased. Trypano-triatomine indices were maintained with high values in all vector species. This study shows a worrying situation, for while on the one hand the interruption of the vector transmission and improvement in the research systems is emphasized, the concern for this disease seems to be decreasing with less diagnostic efforts and lower education at the higher level, and by the other hand the numbers show that the problem if it is not increasing, at least maintains its careless historical magnitude.

Against Individualism: A Confucian Rethinking of the Foundations of Morality, Politics, Family, and Religion by Henry Rosemont Jr.

Reviewed by: Against Individualism: A Confucian Rethinking of the Foundations of Morality, Politics, Family, and Religion by Henry Rosemont Jr. Daniel A. Bell (bio) Against Individualism: A Confucian Rethinking of the Foundations of Morality, Politics, Family, and Religion. By Henry Rosemont Jr. Lanham, MD: Lexington Books, 2015. 208 pp. Hardcover $65.85, isbn 978-0-7391-9980-0. Against Individualism: A Confucian Rethinking of the Foundations of Morality, Politics, Family, and Religion by Henry Rosemont Jr. is an important challenge to the dominant individualistic ethos of our age. It is not merely a critique of the idea of the rights-claiming, free and autonomous individual: Rosemont also puts forward a strong defense of an alternative idea of the relational person as role-bearing, interrelated, and necessarily responsible to other persons (the title may be a bit misleading because it suggests that the main point of the book is critical). I am generally sympathetic to Rosemont's view, but I think he goes too far in his defense of the role-bearing person. The book has three parts. Chapters 1 and 2 are more specialized discussions of methodological issues in analytical and comparative philosophy. Given Rosemont's political concerns, he writes in clear and accessible language supported by examples from everyday life in other parts of the book, and the bulk of the opening chapters could perhaps have been relegated to appendixes; those who are not professional philosophers can just skip to chapter 3. The second part—chapters 3 to 5—critiques the dominant Western idea of the self as a free and autonomous individual separated from roles and communities. Chapter 3 argues that the individualist view of the self is descriptively false; chapter 4 argues that it leads to undesirable social and political consequences; and chapter 5 is a critique of its extreme libertarian manifestation in the United States. The third part of the book—chapters 6 to 10—is a positive argument in defense of the Confucian view that we should think of ourselves as ever-evolving, interrelated, role-bearing persons. Chapter 6 argues that the Confucian view is descriptively true, and Rosemont draws implications for family life (chapter 7), ritual (chapter 8), religion (chapter 9), and society and the world (chapter 10). The three parts of the book could perhaps have been more clearly separated in the table of contents. I learned most from the third part, and I will confine my critical comments to what Rosemont says about the role-bearing person and how we should think about our moral obligations, ending with a few words about the relevance of political context for theorizing about the self and morality. [End Page 565] Rosemont argues that "the view of human beings as most fundamentally free and rational, autonomous individual selves is almost certainly false" (p. xii) and that it has led to disastrous social consequences such as huge economic inequalities because its celebration and defense of freedom comes at the expense of social justice and peace. Instead, we should celebrate the Confucian idea "that human beings can only be understood relationally, never as isolates, and are thus best accounted for as the sum of the roles they live, with no remainder or consequence" (p. 4), both because it's the right way to think about the kinds of persons we are and because this conception of the person will lead to desirable political consequences if it becomes widely shared. But there's something strange about distinguishing too strongly between a "false" conception of the autonomous self and the "true" account of the role-bearing person. Rosemont notes that "while Confucianism should be seen as fundamentally religious, there are no solitary monks, nuns, anchorites, anchoresses, or hermits to be found in the tradition. The way is made in the walking of it, but one never walks alone" (p. 96). Does this mean that other traditions with ideals of solitary individuals are false? Even Confucians might object, given that so many adherents of Confucian ethics (such as Liang Shuming) have also adopted the more individualistic ideas of the self in other traditions such as Buddhism during the course of their lives. Rosemont claims that "if all of morality is bound...

Physico-Chemical and Antioxidant Characteristics in Fruits of Walnut (<i>Juglans regia L.</i>) Genotypes from Inner Anatolia

Walnut fruits are used for their nutrition properties for a long time in Anatolia, where seed propagated walnuts are naturally found, as solitary individuals or dense populations. Some relevant physico-chemical and antioxidant characteristics of fruits were determined for fifteen promising walnut (Juglans regia L.) selections (named 'G-1' to 'G-15') propagated from seeds. The well-known Turkish walnut cultivar 'Sebin' was included in the analysis as a standard in order to make comparison with seed propagated genotypes. The average fruit weight and kernel ratios ranged from 7.43 to 12.61 g and 45.10 to 57.83% among the studied genotypes, respectively. The chemical analyses showed that protein, crude oil, ash, carbohydrate and dietary fiber contents of the analyzed walnut genotypes were between 11.09-18.16%, 55.38-65.15%, 1.61-2.08%, 12.01-17.89% and 2.90-4.12%, respectively. Total phenolic content was found between 1,107-1,876 mg GAE/100 g among the genotypes and most of them had higher phenolic content compared with cv. 'Sebin'. The total tocopherols content ranged from 30.0 to 44.4 mg/100 g of the extracted oil. The most common tocopherol in all samples was γ-tocopherol. The results obtained in the hereby study indicated that the seed propagated walnut trees can be very diverse and their nuts have a good potential for valuable sources of phytochemicals.

Persistent alternate abundance states in the coral reef sea urchin Diadema savignyi: evidence of alternate attractors

AbstractAlternate attractors have been shown to exist in a variety of terrestrial and aquatic systems, e.g. temperate forests, savannas, shallow lakes, wetlands, coral reefs, kelp forests. The shift from one attractor to another, also referred to as a regime shift, is thought to occur when a system passes some critical threshold such that the trajectory of the system changes direction. Alternate attractors in population dynamics can also exist, leading to alternate stable states in the population abundance of a species. This study explored alternate attractors in the population dynamics of the Indo‐Pacific sea urchin Diadema savignyi and the potential underlying mechanisms that promote its bi‐stability. In Moorea, French Polynesia, the local abundance of D. savignyi, a functionally important herbivore in lagoon habitats, occurs in two states: (i) solitary individuals that occupy crevices in low densities and (ii) aggregations of tens to hundreds of individuals. These different states are temporally stable and are not explained by spatial differences in recruitment rates of juveniles. A field experiment revealed that the per capita mortality rate of adult D. savignyi was substantially lower at sites where urchins occurred in aggregations compared with sites at which they were solitary individuals. An additional experiment showed that per capita mortality decreased with increasing aggregation size. Individuals in high‐density aggregations, however, had significantly smaller test diameters than solitary individuals, indicating that individuals in aggregations may be food limited. Collectively, the evidence suggests that the two different local abundance states of D. savignyi result from negative feedback loops where high local density can be maintained by aggregative behavior that greatly reduces per capita risk of predation when the local number of adult sea urchins is sufficiently large; sites with few sea urchins remain at low density because individuals are more susceptible to predation when crevices are occupied but there are not enough individuals to form large aggregations. Thus, there may be alternate attractors in the population dynamics of D. savignyi that can produce either persistently low or high local population densities.