Signals, cues and the nature of mimicry Jamie, Gabriel A.
Proceedings of the Royal Society. B, Biological sciences,
02/2017, Volume:
284, Issue:
1849
Journal Article
Peer reviewed
Open access
‘Mimicry’ is used in the evolutionary and ecological literature to describe diverse phenomena. Many are textbook examples of natural selection's power to produce stunning adaptations. However, there ...remains a lack of clarity over how mimetic resemblances are conceptually related to each other. The result is that categories denoting the traditional subdivisions of mimicry are applied inconsistently across studies, hindering attempts at conceptual unification. This review critically examines the logic by which mimicry can be conceptually organized and analysed. It highlights the following three evolutionarily relevant distinctions. (i) Are the model's traits being mimicked signals or cues? (ii) Does the mimic signal a fitness benefit or fitness cost in order to manipulate the receiver's behaviour? (iii) Is the mimic's signal deceptive? The first distinction divides mimicry into two broad categories: ‘signal mimicry’ and ‘cue mimicry’. ‘Signal mimicry’ occurs when mimic and model share the same receiver, and ‘cue mimicry’ when mimic and model have different receivers or when there is no receiver for the model's trait. ‘Masquerade’ fits conceptually within cue mimicry. The second and third distinctions divide both signal and cue mimicry into four types each. These are the three traditional mimicry categories (aggressive, Batesian and Müllerian) and a fourth, often overlooked category for which the term ‘rewarding mimicry’ is suggested. Rewarding mimicry occurs when the mimic's signal is non-deceptive (as in Müllerian mimicry) but where the mimic signals a fitness benefit to the receiver (as in aggressive mimicry). The existence of rewarding mimicry is a logical extension of the criteria used to differentiate the three well-recognized forms of mimicry. These four forms of mimicry are not discrete, immutable types, but rather help to define important axes along which mimicry can vary.
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At present, sustainable design is experiencing energy consumption and cost-effectiveness challenges in the building industry. A recent body of literature argues that the development of emerging smart ...digital technologies, such as Building Information Management (BIM) and blockchain (BC), offer immediate benefits to the industry. However, the current application of BIM and BC in the sustainable design and construction process focuses on smart energy and construction management, with little attention to addressing challenges for applying BIM to sustainable design and proposing strategies in terms of the usability of these technologies in the management of building construction projects. Therefore, this paper sets out to explore the potential roles of an integrated BIM and BC approach for sustainable building design information management. The first attempt is presented to use BC aided BIM for sustainable building design coordination and collaboration in multiple building stages. BC has the potential to address challenges that hinder the industry from using BIM for sustainable design, which has been unearthed. An innovative BC enhanced transaction process in BIM is required for sustainable building development. Roles of a user level driven smart contract system of BC can be used to enhance BIM system in the sustainable buildings process. The role of BC is primarily at user level driven smart contracts and their record value exchange capabilities. A user level (BIM stakeholders) driven BC technology for transaction in BIM process flow is revealed, and the user level (sustainable building design project stakeholders/BIM clients) driven and the smart contract enabled BIM+ BC architecture to address challenges of BIM for sustainable design has been further circulated according to the literature. Subsequently, a conceptual architecture of BIM + BC for Sustainable Building Design Information Management Framework in building project management has been proposed, validated, and refined. The Framework has two level encompassing structures and flow. The high-level framework is focused on strategy, whilst the low-level framework demonstrates technical components in detail. This architecture supporting project stakeholders in managing information, has the potential to achieve and ensure the realization of sustainable design goals through the interactive realization of smart contracts integrated into the user level driven BIM + BC system and its recording value exchange function through three user-driven levels, namely user, system, and transaction.
Introduction
A culturally adaptive and easy‐to‐administer 12‐item Caregiving Rewarding Feelings (CRF) scale has been developed in China yet never published in English and validated in another ...population.
Aim
The current study aimed to validate the CRF among a community sample of Chinese caregivers of those diagnosed with schizophrenia.
Method
A sample of 449 family caregivers was recruited for scale validation that included factorial validity, construct validity, measurement invariance, item analysis, internal consistency reliability, test–retest reliability, known‐group validity, convergent validity and divergent validity.
Results
Confirmatory factor analysis supported the a priori three‐factor structure. Construct validity was supported by high standard regression weight (SRW) and average variance extracted (AVE), measurement invariance across age and gender groups. The CRF showed good internal consistency and test–retest reliability. Known‐group validity was confirmed by the higher CRF scores among caregivers with certain socio‐demographics. The convergent validity of the CRF was supported by its positive correlations with social support, active coping and family functioning. The divergent validity of the CRF was supported by its negative associations with stigma, stress and depressive symptoms.
Conclusions
This study confirmed the reliability and validity of the CRF specifically designed for caregivers in Chinese culture.
Implications for Practice
The CRF may be further applied and validated in other populations and other countries.
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Recognizing and appropriately responding to others' emotional expressions is important for children's moral and social development. Impairments in the emotion recognition of individuals high on ...Callous-Unemotional (CU) traits are thought to explain their reduced empathic responding, interpersonal problems, and persistent antisocial behaviour. The current study uses accuracy ratings and physiological measures to assess changes in identifying and reacting to others' sadness, respectively, among children high on CU traits who received one of three brief parenting interventions designed to address their emotional deficits. Participants were 68 children (M
age
= 7.50 years, SD = 1.49, 46% female), selected from a larger screening sample (N = 1,283). The study assessed emotional accuracy and skin conductance reactivity during the presentation of sad video scenes pre- and post-intervention. Parents and children participated in three intervention programmes (i.e., Parent-Child Interaction Therapy-CU, Coaching and Rewarding Emotional Skills, Emotional Engagement) designed to target the emotional deficits of children with CU traits. Findings support the amenability of emotional deficits related to empathic responding to others' sad expressions among children high on CU traits. Specifically, children showed improved ability to accurately identify sad emotions as well as increased autonomic reactivity (i.e., skin conductance) to sad expressions at post-intervention. Our findings draw attention to the importance of parenting interventions aiming to enhance the emotional functioning of children high on CU traits.
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•Pollinators of more than 85% of all Catasetum species remain unknown.•Flower scents of ca. 90% of all Catasetum species await chemical characterization.•Evolution of floral scents is mediated by ...olfactory preferences of pollinators.•Daily fluctuation in floral scents matches the foraging activity of pollinators.•Possible sexual dimorphism in floral scents awaits experimental investigations.
The Neotropical genus Catasetum is one of the most notable orchids because of its unusual reproductive strategy. In contrast to most orchids, all of the ca. 170 Catasetum species have sexually dimorphic, unisexual flowers involved in a highly specialized pollination mechanism. Flowers of Catasetum produce strong floral perfumes that act as both attractant and reward for male euglossine bees. While collecting perfumes, euglossine males may remove the pollinarium from a male flower and subsequently deposit it in the stigmatic slit of a female flower, resulting in pollination. Here we present an overview of the existing literature on floral scent chemistry and pollinators of Catasetum and add new reports on the pollinators of some species. We provide some insights into the ecology and evolution of floral scents in the genus Catasetum and suggest directions for future research. We hope this review will stimulate research not only on the ecology and evolution of Catasetum but also of the about 1000 species of fragrance-rewarding plants that are found in the Neotropics.
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GEOZS, IJS, IMTLJ, KILJ, KISLJ, NUK, OILJ, PNG, SAZU, SBCE, SBJE, UL, UM, UPCLJ, UPUK, ZRSKP
Objective: to study the theoretical and legal bases of crowdfunding and to elaborate scientifically grounded proposals for improving the Republic of Belarus legislation in this sphere.Methods: the ...methodological basis of the research is a system of principles, methods and techniques of studying the general regularities of emergence, formation and development of social-legal phenomena. In the research, general and specific methods of scientific cognition were used: analysis, synthesis, comparative-legal, logical, systemic, formal-legal, dialectic and other methods.Results: the history of emergence and formation of crowdfunding was analyzed. The social-economic and technical-technological factors were revealed, which facilitate the popularization of crowdfunding among the Internet users. The origins of the “crowdfunding” notion were discussed, as well as its filling with a definite meaning. The types of crowdfunding were listed, depending on the goal of investment on the part of investors. The main subject composition of legal relations in crowdfunding was established, which consists of the following persons: funding seeker; funder; operator of online-funding service. The overall algorithm of legal relations between the main subjects of crowdfunding was described. The positive and negative aspects of crowdfunding were characterized. An overall analysis of foreign legislation in the crowdfunding legal regulation was performed. Based on the analysis, the general trends of legislation development were presented. The program and normative legal acts on developing crowdfunding in the Republic of Belarus were reviewed. The probable contract models of the parties’ legal relations registering were named. The technical and legal requirements to the functional of an online-funding service were determined. The minimal necessary set of measures was proposed, which may prevent risks and threats associated with procurement and extension of funds through onlinefunding services. Based on the operator functions, specific requirements to the rules of online-funding service were determined.Scientific novelty: the author comprehensively studied the notion, legal nature and features of legal regulation of crowdfunding. The factors were revealed, which influence the formation of the legal norms regulating the procurement and extension of funds through online-funding services. The author elaborated proposals for improving the Republic of Belarus legislation in the sphere of social relations under study.Practical significance: the research results are significant for developing the studies in the sphere of civil, economic, and informational law. The obtained results may be used in teaching a course in civil, economic, and informational law, as well as be applied by law subjects when elaborating and introducing the respective drafts of laws and be an object of further scientific research on the issue.
Although there are numerous and various factors that can affect job satisfaction, human resource management has been identified as one of the most important causes of job satisfaction. For this ...reason, this paper analyses the impact of human resource management and its activities on job satisfaction in various organizations in the Republic of Srpska, with the main goal to investigate and determine the existence and nature of the relationship between human resource management activities, as an independent variable, and job satisfaction, as a dependent variable. In order to analyse the observed relationship, an empirical research was conducted on a sample of 738 employees from 283 organizations from the Republic of Srpska. The research was conducted using a specially created survey questionnaire, and the reliability of the created instrument was calculated using the Cronbach's Alpha coefficient. Based on the results of the research, which were obtained by correlation analysis, the basic hypothesis was confirmed, which proved that human resource management activities have a statistically significant effect on job satisfaction. Also, all additional hypotheses, claiming that individual human resources management activities (recruitment and selection, training, development and rewarding) have a positive effect on job satisfaction, were confirmed.
PurposeBy distinguishing between core business service and value-added service in mobile payment applications, this paper aims to incorporate point mechanisms (point rewarding and point exchanging) ...into these two separated roles of services to understand user loyalty formation. Specifically, this study aims to examine the mediating role of need satisfaction and perceived value in the relationships between point mechanisms and user loyalty.Design/methodology/approachDrawing upon self-determination theory and perceived value lens, this study develops a theoretical model that examines the mediation effects of multiple psychological outcomes on the relationships between point mechanisms (point rewarding and point exchanging) and user loyalty in the context of mobile payment. Data were collected from 731 users of a leading mobile payment application in China through an online survey. Structural equation modeling was used to analyze the hypothesized relationships.FindingsEmpirical results suggest that point rewarding enhances users’ need satisfaction of core service, whereas point exchanging increases users' perceived value of additional value-added service. Results also reveal that need satisfaction and perceived value mediate the relationships between point mechanisms (i.e. point rewarding and point exchanging) and user loyalty. In sum, the findings enhance our understanding of user loyalty formation from a dual channeling perspective.Practical implicationsThis study informs the managers of mobile payment applications on how to build user loyalty by enhancing users' experience of core business service and value-added service through point mechanism implementation.Originality/valueThis study highlights the importance of both core business service and value-added service in mobile payment applications and provides new insights into the effects of point mechanisms on user loyalty by considering different service routes. Additionally, this study uncovers the mediation mechanisms of users' need satisfaction of core service and users' perceived value of additional value-added service on the two service routes, which further enrich our understanding regarding the user loyalty formation of mobile payment applications.
Delay-tolerant networks (DTNs) are an emergent communication paradigm characterized by intermittent connectivity. The nodes in DTNs can take advantage of their contact opportunities to forward ...messages. However, in noncooperative DTNs, the nodes may be selfish and reluctant to cooperate with each other in message forwarding. In such DTNs, stimulating cooperation among the nodes will be indispensable. Recently, many incentive mechanisms have been proposed to motivate nodes to cooperate in message forwarding. However, most of them cannot guarantee systematic security. To resolve the drawback of the previous incentive mechanisms, we first propose a credit-based rewarding scheme called the earliest path singular rewarding (EPSR) scheme to motivate the nodes to truthfully forward the messages during every contact opportunity. Then, we propose another credit-based rewarding scheme called the earliest path cumulative rewarding (EPCR) scheme by further considering that a node may get more contact information on others. We prove that both the EPSR and EPCR schemes are incentive compatible, and the payment for each delivered message is upper bounded. Furthermore, the proposed schemes can prevent selfish nodes having malicious behaviors. We have conducted real-trace-based simulations to illustrate the effectiveness of the proposed EPSR and EPCR schemes.
In this work we develop a rewarding framework that can be used to enhance existing crowd-sensing applications. Although a core requirement of such systems is user engagement, people may be reluctant ...to participate as sensitive information about them may be leaked or inferred from submitted data. The use of monetary rewards can help incentivize participation, thereby increasing not only the amount but also the quality of sensed data. Our framework allows users to submit data and obtain Bitcoin payments in a privacy-preserving manner, preventing curious providers from linking the data or the payments back to the user. At the same time, it prevents malicious user behavior such as double-redeeming attempts, where a user tries to obtain rewards for multiple submissions of the same data. More importantly, it ensures the fairness of the exchange in a completely trustless manner; by relying on the Blockchain, the trust placed on third parties in traditional fair exchange protocols is eliminated. Finally, our system is highly efficient as most of the protocol steps do not utilize the Blockchain network. When they do, only the simplest of Blockchain transactions are used as opposed to prior works that are based on the use of more complex smart contracts.
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