bluuebunny/crossref_metadata_2025 huggingface dataset:
The Sources of Fear and Anxiety in the Brain
Authors: Panksepp Jaak
Published: November 2023

Contrary to traditional thinking on the topic, which taught that fears simply reflect learned anticipation of harmful events, it now appears that the potential for fear is a genetically ingrained function of the nervous system. This should come as no surprise. An organism’s ability to perceive and anticipate dangers was of such obvious importance during evolution that it was not simply left to the vagaries of individual learning. Even though learning is essential for animals to utilize their fear systems effectively in the real world, learning does not create fear by pasting together a variety of external experiences. Evolution created several coherently operating neural systems that help orchestrate and coordinate perceptual, behavioral, and physiological changes that promote survival in the face of danger. The emotional experience of fear appears to arise from a conjunction of neural processes that prompt animals to hide (freeze) if danger is distant or inescapable, or to flee when danger is close but can be avoided. To understand the deep experiential nature of fear in humans, we must probe the genetically ingrained neural components that mediate homologous fearful states in other mammals. Our understanding of the neuro-biology of human fears has emerged largely from basic research on the brains of “lower” animals. These investigations indicate that the capacity to experience fear, along with fear-typical patterns of autonomic and behavioral arousal, emerges primarily from a FEAR circuit that courses between the central amygdala and the periaqueductal gray of the midbrain. Fear behaviors can be evoked by artificially activating this circuit, and conditioned fears can be developed by pairing neutral stimuli with unconditional stimuli, such as electric shock, that can arouse this emotional system. In other words, conditioned fears emerge by neutral stimuli gaining access to this system via learning. Higher cortical processes are not necessary for the activation of learned fears, although those processes refine the types of perceptions that can instigate fear. The neurochemistries that control this emotional system include excitatory amino acids such as glutamate and a variety of neuropeptides (e.g., CRF, a-MSH, ACTH, CCK, and DBI), each of which may eventually be found to instigate slightly different anxieties-for instance, fear of pain, fear of heights, fear of predators. Minor tranquilizers of the benzodiazepine (BZ) class act by partially dampening activity in this emotional system, through GABA-mediated neural inhibition. Other antianxiety drugs such as buspirone are able to attenuate anxiety in totally different ways, such as by modifying serotonin sensitivity in the brain. New agents-for instance, those that inhibit cholecystokinin (CCK) and other neuropeptide receptor systems (especially CRF) as well as those that stimulate neuropeptide Y and oxytocin systems-show considerable promise of yielding a new generation of antianxiety agents. Others are bound to follow as our knowledge of the FEAR system becomes complete.
Superior Olivary Complex and Nuclei of the Lateral Lemniscus
Authors: Helfert Robert H , Aschoff Andreas
Published: November 2023

The superior olivary complex (SOC) is a cluster of auditory nuclei located in the brainstem of amphibians, reptiles, birds, and mammals. It shows considerable variation among species with respect to both position within the brainstem and cytoarchitecture. The SOC receives bilateral ascending input from the ventral cochlear nucleus (VCN) and descending input from the ipsilateral inferior colliculus (IC). Its principal projections are to the IC, lemniscal nuclei, cochlear nucleus (CN), and cochlea. The main functions of the SOC include sound localization, control of the organ of Cortivia the olivocochlear system, and noise protection via the acoustic middle ear reflex circuitry.
What Is Evolutionary Game Theory?
Authors: Hammerstein Peter
Published: November 2023

When Charles Darwin developed his theory of natural selection, he created a picture of the evolutionary process in which organismic adaptation was ultimately caused by competition for survival and reproduction. This biological “struggle for existence” bears considerable resemblance to the human struggle between businessmen who are striving for economic success in competitive markets. Long before Darwin published his work, social scientist Adam Smith had already considered that in business life, competition is the driving force behind economic efficiency and adaptation. It is indeed very striking how similar the ideas are on which the founders of modern theory in evolutionary biology and economics have based their main thoughts.

Ideally, this similarity of ideas could have led to a permanent interchange be tween disciplines after Darwin (1859) wrote his The Origin of Species. It seems, however, as if the theories of evolution and of economics first needed to mature independently before such an interdisciplinary dialogue could become very fruitful. Biologists, on the one hand, had to explore the mechanisms of inheritance and to achieve their own synthesis of theories about phenotypic and genetic evolution.
Game Theory and Social Foraging
Authors: Giraldeau Luc-Alain , Livoreil Barbara
Published: November 2023

Foraging behavior is central to issues such as the structure and composition of animal communities (Schoener 1987), the abundance and spatial distribution of organisms (Fretwell 1972), the extent to which sociality may evolve (Wilson 1975, pp. 49-57), and intra- and interspecific competition. It is not surprising that this realization in the late 1960s (MacArthur&Pianka 1966) spawned an exponential surge of research into foraging behavior (Schoener 1987). The application of optimality models to the study of foraging behavior led to a number of simple, explicit, economic foraging models that made quantitative, testable predictions. As a consequence, a field known today as “Foraging Theory” quickly emerged in the midlle 970s (Stephens&Krebs 1986).

The use of simple optimality models has been particularly successful in ad dressing two foraging decisions: whether to attack an encountered prey (prey models) and whether to persist exploiting a patch (patch models; Stephens&Krebs 1986).
Why We Need Evolutionary Game Theory
Authors: Reeve Hudson Kern , Dugatkin Lee Alan
Published: November 2023

The original game-theoretic models and their extensions discussed in this book potentially shed light on a tremendous range of social behaviors. Despite the work outlined in this volume, surprisingly few game-theoretic models (other than sex-ratio models) have been rigorously empirically tested during the more than two decades that have elapsed since game theory became a part of evolutionary biology. The scarcity of explicit tests of game-theoretic models contrasts markedly with the extensive empirical testing of frequency-independent, fitness-maximization models (such as most optimal foraging models). Why is this?

One possibility is that such models are difficult to test—for example, because it is difficult to demonstrate “equality of fitnesses” (or “equality of marginal fitness returns”) for discrete behavioral variants selectively maintained in a stable polymorphism or as parts of a mixed evolutionarily stable strategy (ESS). However, the latter answer isn’t satisfying for two reasons: First, frequency-independent optimization models (henceforth called “FIO” models), like game-theoretic models (henceforth called “GT” models), make predictions about, and thus can be tested by comparing, the relative fitnesses of alternative behavioral variants (e.g., Gomulkiewicz, this volume).
Irreducible Uncertainty and the Need for Judgment
Authors: Hammond Kenneth R
Published: November 2023

Irreducible uncertainty refers to uncertainty that cannot be reduced by any activity at the moment action is required. The idea of irreducible uncertainty is as old as recorded history. Thucydides, one of the great historians of antiquity, writing in the fifth century B.C., tells us that the Spartan king Archidamus, in the course of an address to his fellow Spartans on the eve of war with Athens, noted with approval that Spartans were taught “that it is impossible to calculate accurately events that are determined by chance.” But, he added, they were not afraid of that fact. So the king said nothing further about “chance” events and the impossibility of calculating them accurately, and the Spartans voted confidently and enthusiastically to go to war. As the king suggested, irreducible uncertainty would not deter them, any more than it deters today’s generals and admirals, investors in stocks and bonds, industrial entrepreneurs, government planners-anyone who must predict the course of future events.
Reducing Rivalry Through Compromise
Authors: Hammond Kenneth R
Published: November 2023

I begin with a rejection of the traditional view of the dichotomous, either-or relationship between intuition and analysis. I replace it with the concept of a continuum marked by pure intuition at one pole and pure analysis at the other. The concept of a cognitive continuum leads to a reduction in rivalry through compromise.

Various modes, or forms, of cognition can be ordered in relation to one another on a continuum that is identified by intuitive cognition at one pole and analytical cognition at the other.
Possibilities for Wisdom
Authors: Hammond Kenneth R
Published: November 2023

If conventional methods of inquiry do not—cannot—meet the needs of policymakers, where shall the policymakers tum? Psychologists, particularly those who study judgment and decision making, are inclined to believe, naturally enough, that policymakers should tum to them. And so they have, on occasion. In what follows I first offer some examples of psychologists’ past efforts to assist with the policymaking process, as well as a suggestion from a new and unexpected source. I then examine the conventional source of wisdom, the wisdom of the elders. Does that source continue to deserve our confidence?
A Taste of Clifford Algebra in Euclidean 3-Space
Authors: Snygg John
Published: November 2023

A set of matrices that satisfy Eqs. (1.3) and (1.4) is said to form the basis for the Clifford algebra associated with Euclidean 3-space. There are matrices other than those presented in Eq. (1.2) which satisfy Eqs. (1.3) and (1.4). (See Problem 1.2.) In the formalism of Clifford algebra, one never deals with the components of any specific matrix representation. We have introduced the matrices of Eq. (1.2) only to demonstrate that there exist entities which satisfy Eqs. (1.3) and (1.4).
Murder in Our Midst
Authors: Bartov Omer
Published: November 2023

As our century draws to a close, many obsetvers are overcome with a sense of d é j á vu. The intensification of ethnic, religious, and nationalist conflicts, the inability of the great (and not so great) powers either to settle international disputes or put their own houses in order, economic dislocation and loss of optimism, widespread anxieties in the face of a looming “invasion” from the poorer parts of the world, growing xenophobia and extremism, popular pressure for clear and simple answers to perplexing and ambiguous circumstances, a general atmosphere of disillusionment, fear, and gloom—it all seems so familiar. After all, the end of the nineteenth century was also accompanied by growing chaos in international relations, the disintegration of great empires, increasing domestic tensions and frustrations, fears of foreign, non-Western perils along with laments about the decline of the West, racial and cultural degeneration, and a growing desire for quick, violent, uplifting actions to resolve depressing realities. The current project of “genetic mapping” of humanity, to take just one but to my mind crucially important example, is once more allied with attempts by both real and pseudo-natural and social scientists to apply their “findings” to a reorganization of human society and its priorities, and as such is much closer to the eugenic fantasies of pre-1914 Europe (and pre-1945 Germany) than many of us would like to admit, reflecting the same urge to enforce a “scientific” order on a bewildering, unresponsive humanity that defies all “rational” analyses, categorizations, and forecasts by those charged with studying and controlling it.
Natural Hybridization and Evolution
Authors: Arnold Michael L
Published: November 2023

This study draws on data from numerous sources that support the paradigm of natural hybridization as an important evolutionary process. The review of these data results in a challenge to the framework used by many evolutionary biologists, which sees the process of natural hybridization as maladaptive because it represents a violation of divergent evolution. In contrast, this book presents evidence of a significant role for natural hybridization in furthering adaptive evolution and evolutionary diversification in both plants and animals.
Natural hybridization: Concepts and theory
Authors: Arnold Michael L
Published: November 2023

It has been argued for decades that natural hybridization between divergent populations of animals is an evolutionary dead end (Mayr, 1942; Chapters 1 and 2). A common rationale for this conclusion is the view that the outcome of hybridization episodes is governed by selection against hybrids independent of the environment. Although some plant biologists (e.g., Anderson, 1949; Stebbins, 1959) have been more open to environment-dependent models of hybrid zone evolution, process-oriented studies of plant hybrid populations have been few. This has resulted in a dearth in our understanding of patterns of hybrid fitness and the importance of environment-dependent selection in plants.
Nestling Eviction and Vocal Begging Behaviors in the Australian Glossy Cuckoos Chrysococcyx basalis and C. lucidus
Authors: Payne Robert B , Payne Laural.
Published: November 2023

In most species of brood parasitic cuckoos, nestlings kill their foster nestmates by evicting them from the nest (Jenner 1788; Wyllie 1981; Davies and Brooke 1988; Payne 1997a). Nestling cuckoos of species in the genera Cuculus, glossy cuckoos Chrysococcyx, drongo cuckoos Surniculus, and koels Eudynamys (in Australia only) evict the eggs and nestlings of their host species (Chance 1922; Gosper 1964; Friedmann 1968; Becking 1981; Rowan 1983; Cramp 1985; Crouther 1985), whereas in the Clamator cuckoos, koels in India, and channel-billed cuckoos (Scythrops novaehollandiae) the nestling cuckoos tolerate the foster young or other cuckoos in the nest and are reared together with them (Friedmann 1964; Ali and Ripley 1969; Goddard and Marchant 1983). By attacking its nestmates the evicting young cuckoo monopolizes parental care and receives all the food that would go to the fosterer’s own brood.
Evolutionary Equilibria 1n Avian Brood Parasitism An Alternative to the 1’Arms Race-Evolutionary Lag” Concept
Authors: Lotem Arnon , Nakamura Hiroshi
Published: November 2023

The contributions of research on avian brood parasitism to the study of coevolution have been recently demonstrated (Rothstein 1990; Davies and Brooke 1991). Numerous experimental studies have shown the existence of coevolved adaptations in parasites and hosts (reviewed in Rothstein 1990). However, whereas most of these studies conclusively demonstrate the occurrence of coevolution, the details of the mechanisms on which these coevolved systems are based are still a matter of controversy.
Coevolution between Brood Parasites and Their Hosts An Optimality Theory Approach
Authors: Roskaft Eivin , Moksnes Arne
Published: November 2023

Among the 9000 or so living species of birds there are at least 80 brood parasites that lay their eggs in the nests of other bird species (Hamilton and Orians 1965). Their eggs are incubated and their young are raised by members of another species. Interspecific brood parasitism has evolved independently at least seven times in birds (Lack 1968). Two well-known examples are the parasitic cuckoos (Cuculidae) of the Old World and the parasitic cowbirds (Icterinae) of the New World.
Penalty Methods, Barrier Methods and Augmented Lagrangians
Authors: Censor Yair , Zenios Stavros A
Published: November 2023

We now turn to study some general optimization methods upon which we can later base the design of model decomposition algorithms (see Chapter 1). These general methods for constrained nonlinear optimization are the penalty methods that employ penalty or barrier functions giving rise to so-called exterior penalty methods or interior penalty methods, respectively. These methods are closely related to the primal-dual Lagrangian algorithmic scheme and to the method of augmented Lagrangians (sometimes referred to as the multiplier method), which we also discuss here. Such algorithms are not only considered most efficacious in solving large-scale constrained optimization problems, but are also suitable problem modifiers in our model decomposition algorithms (Chapter 7). Barrier function methods are also helpful when studying the primal-dual path following algorithm for linear programming (see Chapter 8). This algorithm is developed using a logarithmic barrier function. Finally, there is a close re lationship between the method of augmented Lagrangians and the proximal minimization algorithms (see Chapter 3), which should not be overlooked. Section 4.1 examines penalty functions and their use in penalty methods, wherein the optimal solution of the problem is approached from outside the feasible set (exterior penalty). In Section 4.2 we describe barrier functions and their use in approaching the optimal solution from within the feasible set. Section 4.3 explains the basics of duality theory and the primal-dual algorithmic framework. Section 4.4 gives an account of augmented Lagrangian methods and how they are related to the proximal minimization approach developed earlier (see Chapter 3), which should not be overlooked.
Visuospatial Cognition: An Historical and Theoretical Introduction
Authors: De Vega Manuel , Marschark Marc
Published: November 2023

People process spatial information in at least two different ways. Most obviously, we have visual (perception) systems that pick up information from the environment about the visual properties of objects, spatial relations among them, and their motions within the environment. We also have mental representations that allow us to process visuospatial information in a more constructive and less data-driven way than that permitted by the visual system. Through the retrieval of visuospatial information from memory, we are able to “re-experience” or reconsider past perceptual experiences and plan in advance our future interactions with objects or navigation in familiar environments. Through the construction of mental representations, we can mentally combine visuospatial elements in new ways, perform or simulate (depending on one’s theoretical preference) mental transformations on them, and engage in reasoning and problem solving involving visual and spatial information. These capabilities all go beyond ordinary visual perception, but they are still aspects of visuospatial cognition. This volume is concerned mainly with visuospatial representation rather than visual perception, although the functional relations between perception and mental representation will be discussed in several contexts.
Imagery and the Description of Spatial Configurations
Authors: Denis Michel
Published: November 2023

Imagery and language are two basic components of the human cognitive system. This chapter focuses on their interactions in communicative situations where people produce verbal messages with the intention of having their addressees construct the mental representation of spatial configurations. How can imagistic and linguistic representations cooperate when a cognitive system has to interact with another one with the purpose of conveying information about spatial entities? In recent years, cognitive research has become more and more concerned with situations in which people process information in order to act on objects placed at a distance and not available to their immediate perception. These situations provide special significance to the mechanisms involved when people construct a representation of the object or situation being processed. The issue is especially important in interactive situations, where two people have to communicate on shared representations of absent objects. These situations raise the issue of the test of both internal coherence and external validity of these representations, in particular when speakers try to have their addressees build the representation of a perceptually nonavailable object, and then the addressees have to perform cognitive computations on their representations of the object. Such situations illustrate quite general theoretical issues, including that of the nature, structure, and construction of cognitive representations as these are approached by multimodal conceptions of the human mind (e.g., Baddeley, 1986; Engelkamp & Denis, 1990; Johnson-Laird, 1989; Paivio, 1991; Rumelhart & Norman, 1988).
Representations of Visuospatial Cognition: A Discussion
Authors: De Vega Manuel , Intons-Peterson Margaret Jean , Johnson-laird Philip N , Denis Michel , Marschark Marc
Published: November 2023

At the outset of this collaboration, the contributors to this volume all met on Tenerife, in the Canary Islands, at a meeting organized by the University of La Laguna. The following discussion includes conversation drawn from that meeting, as well as later exchanges, as we grappled with trying to understand the points of agreement and disagreement in each other’s perspectives. Our goal was not to try to provide definitive answers to the questions that have been raised throughout the long tradition of research on visuospatial cognition, nor did we anticipate arriving at any consensus. We did expect, however, that after the presentations by our three invited speakers, we would be in a better position to discuss our points of agreement and disagreement concerning the nature and functions of visuospatial cognition. In this regard, we were surely successful. We leave to our readers whether the articulation of such diverse perspectives provides any better understanding of the phenomena of interest or is better seen as merely the beginning of a longer process that will accomplish that end. One thing that is certain, however, is that what came out of this collaboration is more-and quite different-from what we had expected.
How Can We Compare the Importance of Ecological Processes If We Never Ask, “Compared to what?”
Authors: Petraitis Peter S
Published: November 2023

One of the most troublesome problems that faces modem ecology is how to place ecological processes into a meaningful context. The problem persists even though ecological processes such as competition and predation are reasonably well understood and the ground rules for experiments by which ecological processes are described are well established. Yet ecologists would like to generalize beyond a particular experiment, and this is where ecology runs into trouble because ecologists have had great difficulty in finding meaningful ways to evaluate the importance or relative effect of ecological processes. Often researchers simply assert that a given process is “important” or “large” without defining terms or providing a context. The problem in ecology is especially acute since we are being constantly pressed by environmental managers and policy makers to answer questions about the importance and magnitude of ecological processes. But to say that competition is an important determinant of community structure or that competition has a large effect begs the question: “Compared to what?”
Institutional Constraints on Agricultural Sustainability
Authors: Ruttan Vernon W
Published: November 2023

Throughout most of human history, increases in agricultural output have been achieved almost entirely from increases in cultivated areas. We are in the closing decades of the twentieth century, rapidly approaching the time when all increases in agricultural output will have to come from increases in the intensity of cultivation on the lands already used for agricultural production. In the industrialized countries of the world, this transition began in the later years of the nineteenth century. For most developing countries, the transition did not begin until midcentury. This is an exceedingly short time in which to achieve the most remarkable transition in agriculture since it was first invented by neolithic women more than 10,000 years ago.
Agroforestry in Guatemala
Authors: Mayne John C
Published: November 2023

The need for construction timber can deplete areas around towns or villages of trees, but the need for firewood can keep the same areas devoid of even woody shrubs. They are cut too frequently to produce sufficient biomass for sustainable growth. This problem is often exacerbated in ecological zones less hospitable to dense and rapid plant growth and/or where human population growth has exploded. Not surprisingly, food production is also a problem in these areas where much of the available land, even steeply sloping land, is in cultivation.
Sustaining What for Whom? : Differences of Interest within and between Households
Authors: Rocheleau Dianne
Published: November 2023

Structural adjustment is part of a broader economic restructuring throughout the world, and it is more than economic. Likewise, sustainable development is much more than an environmental “fix” for development (Blaikie and Brookfield, 1987; Peet and Watts, 1996). These parallel processes encompass a simultaneous restructuring of economies, ecologies, cultures, and political systems. Each of these elements constitutes a nexus of social relations between groups of people and between people and their physical and biological surroundings. We are witnessing the reintegration of each at different scales and under new relations of power (Rocheleau, 1995a).
Biodiversity Conservation in Mesoamerica
Authors: Boza Mario A
Published: November 2023

Mesoamerica is the region that extends from southern Mexico, including the states of Chiapas, Tabasco, Campeche, Yucatan, and Quintana Roo, to Panama. All of the Central American nations-Guatemala, Honduras, El Salvador, Nicaragua, Costa Rica, and Panama are included in the 768,989 square kilo meters comprised in this bioregion. This area corresponds to only one-half of 1 percent of the total land area of the world. How ever, the biological diversity of this small region is extraordinarily high. D. H. Janzen (1994) estimates that this small area contains approximately 7 percent of the entire planet’ s biodiversity.
Understanding Conflict in Lowland Forest Zones: Mangrove Access and Deforestation Debates in Southern Honduras
Authors: Stanley Denise
Published: November 2023

Mariculture has proven to be one of the most conflictive natural-resource-based industries in the Third World. The entry of shrimp farms into wetland ecosystems has been greeted with both cynicism and enthusiasm. Stonich, Bort, and Ovares (chapter 24) describe the marginalization of the poor that accompanies many shrimp projects and the increasing conflict between fishers and mariculturalists over scarce natural resources. This case study explores economic factors and legal institutions that contribute to these problems of the “blue revolution.”
Process Dynamics, Temporal Extent, and Causal Propagation as the Basis for Linking Space and Time
Authors: Kelmelis John A
Published: November 2023

Users of geographic information systems (GISs) have become more sophisticated and are placing greater demands on GISs to understand dynamic geo graphic phenomena. Therefore, it is increasingly important to incorporate the variables necessary to model processes into geographic data and information. In addition, GIS analytical capabilities must be strengthened to facilitate the re quirements of process modeling. The operations and functions of the system must be sufficiently robust to analyze dynamic phenomena. There must be operations and functions that are effective in spatial and temporal dimensions.
Evolutionary Obstetrics
Authors: Trevathan Wenda R
Published: November 2023

Many current challenges to human health and well-being can be accounted for by the inconsistencies between the environments in which we live today and those in which human physical, emotional, and psychological needs evolved. An extreme example is the contrast between childbirth as experienced by om ancestors and by women in industrialized nations delivering their infants in modern hospital labor and delivery suites. In particular, the technology associated with childbirth and the social environment in which birth takes place are two areas of difference between past and present that will be examined in this chapter. Contemporary criticisms of “high-tech birthing” are presented,1 and ways in which birth technology could be made to align with a woman’s emotional needs are suggested. My argument is that the roots of social support during labor and delivery are as ancient as the human species itself, and that one of the reasons for dissatisfaction with the way in which childbirth is practiced in many industrialized nations is the failure of the medical system to acknowledge and work with the evolved emotional needs of women at this time. Providing social and emotional support during labor and delivery may improve both physical and emotional outcomes and lead to more positive perceptions of the birth experience.
Breast Cancer in Evolutionary Context
Authors: Eaton S Boyd , Eaton S Boyd
Published: November 2023

An evolutionary perspective on health and disease affords new insight into the development and operation of human psychology, sheds light on common symptoms like anemia, fever, and morning sickness, and provides new understanding about the relationship between humans and infectious organisms. The Darwinian view also emphasizes that there is now discordance between genetically determined human biology and the biobehavioral circumstances of our lives. In short, our genes and our lives are out of step.
Primary Afferent Depolarization and Presynaptic Inhibition
Authors: Vyklický Ladislav , Knotková-Urhancová Helena
Published: November 2023

The classical presynaptic inhibition of impulse transmission in the spinal cord was discovered in the early 1960s and the underlying mechanisms were analyzed in rapid succession (see Eccles, 1964). It has generally been accepted that GABAergic neurons form axoaxonic synapses at the central terminals of primary afferents, which when activated allow chloride ions to flow according to the electrochemical gradient, i.e., from the intracellular to the extracellular space.
Control of Action Potential Invasion Into Terminal Arborizations
Authors: Lüscher Hans-Rudolf
Published: November 2023

In the vertebrate central nervous system axons may project to widely separated targets. In the target region itself, the axons usually terminate in extensive arborizations giving off synapses to many, if not all, the neurons in that region. As an example, the well-studied Ia afferent fibers bifurcate after entering the spinal cord via a dorsal root with one rostral and one caudal branch. These branches may run over several spinal segments, giving off collaterals at regular intervals.
Action Potential Propagation Along Primary Afferents and Presynaptic Inhibition in Clarke’s Column of the Spinal Cord
Authors: Walmsley Bruce , Nicol Madeleine Jane
Published: November 2023

Most central axons divide into a complex network of collateral branches which form many synaptic contacts with target neurons. The release of neurotransmitter at each synaptic contact depends on the amplitude and time course of the presynaptic action potential arriving at that contact (Katz and Miledi, 1965; see review by Smith and Augustine, 1988). Modeling studies have shown that the action potential may be modified as it propagates along even simply branched axons, and this raises the potential for the geometry of an axon to influence the efficacy of transmitter release at different release sites along its branches (Revenko et al., 1973; Goldstein and Rall, 1974; Brill et al., 1977; Moore et al., 1978; Parnas and Segev, 1979; Waxman and Wood, 1984; Franciolini, 1987; Swadlow, 1980).
Presynaptic Inhibition In Crayfish Primary Afferents
Authors: Cattaert Daniel , Clarac Fran ois
Published: November 2023

Presynaptic inhibition of primary afferents was proposed initially by Frank and Fuortes (1957) to account for the reduction of group la excitatory post synaptic potentials (EPSPs) in spinal motoneurons in the absence of detectable postsynaptic changes. Presynaptic inhibition was correlated with the dorsal root potential (DRP) and was thought to reflect the action of axoaxonal synapses (Eccles et al., 1961) that elicit depolarization of the primary afferent fibers (PAD) (Eccles et al., l 962a,b), but 26 years passed before PAD was recorded from functionally identified afferents Gimenez et al., 1988; Gossard et al., 1989).
Social Knowledge and Interaction
Authors: Tomasello Michael , Call Josep
Published: November 2023

Most primates live in some form of social group. These groups range from the relatively simple social organizations of some prosirnian species in which individuals forage alone but then congregate to sleep, to the monogamous pairings of the several species of lesser ape, to the complex societies of many macaque species dominated by matrilineal kinship groupings, to the fission-fusion societies of chimpanzees in which there is a constant flux of smaller groupings within an overall community structure (Smuts et al., 1987). Each of these forms of social life, as well as those of many other animal species, creates difficult cognitive problems that individual primates must learn to deal with adequately if they are to survive and procreate.
Testing the Story View
Authors: Sternberg Robert J
Published: November 2023

Two years ago Karen realized that she was looking for “Mr. Goodbar,” the proverbial destroyer in a horror story. She frequented ingles bars, was involved in drugs, and found the most destructive men to be the most attractive. After being savagely beaten, her life was on a fast track—in a downward spiral. Then, one day, after Karen began to understand how her story was influencing her choices, and how she was reliving her mother’s past life. Her mother had married an abusive and violent man, and now, in spite of her own protestations to the contrary, Karen was on the verge of doing the same thing. She hoped to relive the process, but change the ending, of her mother’s life. Being severely beaten brought Karen to the realization that, if she didn’t change, her ending would be no different than her mother’s.
The Heat Below
Authors: Sigurdsson Haraidur
Published: November 2023

Heat and fire, bringing warmth and light to our planet, have been of crucial importance to humanity’s progress. In prehistoric times, opportunities to “discover” fire and observe heat abounded. Light­ ning strikes ignited fires in the primeval forest or on arid grassy plains. Volcanic eruptions and lava flows threw forth showers of glowing sparks and incandescent heat. Most likely, these were the sources our ancestors borrowed from, carefully nurturing the fires they kindled, for these sources could be fickle and sporadic. With fire at their command, humans could venture into new realms of the cold and the dark-into polar terrain and mountain caves. Fire may also have contributed to a sense of community and language as our ancestors gathered around their hearths at night.
The Bronze Age Eruption of Thera and Lost Atiantis
Authors: Sigurdsson Haraidur
Published: November 2023

What a stroke of luck that the Mediterranean region, that cradle of Western civilization, is pockmarked with active volcanoes! There the early Greeks and Romans could observe local volcanoes and incorporate this phenomenon first into their mythology and later into their philosophy of nature. Their ideas regarding volcanic activity were born not in a vacuum or from secondhand accounts, but from firsthand experience.
Burning Mountains and Cooling Stars
Authors: Sigurdsson Haraidur
Published: November 2023

The most valuable knowledge given to the world is the method of acquiring new knowledge-that is, the scientific method. The creation of scientific methodology by the French mathematician and cosmologist Rene Descartes revolutionized the way in which we do science, and this method made possible the great discoveries of Isaac Newton on the laws of planetary motion and the force of gravity. Newton was also curious about the inner workings of the Earth, but his explanations for the causes of volcanism were a direct result of his secret experiments with alchemy.
From Fluid to Solid Earth
Authors: Sigurdsson Haraidur
Published: November 2023

Most geologists studying volcanic activity in the early and midnineteenth century continued to envision a planet with a solid crust and a largely molten interior. Heat within the Earth was considered a residue of the central, primitive heat held by the Earth at the time of its formation, a supply that had been diminishing over geologic time.1 Many considered heat a fluid or gaseous substance, supposedly present in the pores between atoms in matter and caused by thermal expansion.
The College Preparation Process’
Authors: Shay Judith
Published: November 2023

I represent Cooperating Hampton Roads Organizations for Minorities in Engineering (CHROIVIE), a precollege program in Tidewater, Virginia, as well as members of the National Association of Precollege Directors (NAPD), who have similar programs across the country. Vl/e are among the practitioners in the field. l\fany of us are offshoots of NACME’s precollege effort-precious seeds planted over the years, some with roots and branches that are interrelated like many of our family trees. For example, CHROME evolved from the efforts of Southeastern Consortium for Minorities in Engineering (SEC ME) in Virginia.
Barriers to Minority Success in College Science, Mathematics, and Engineering Progran1s
Authors: Wilson Reginald
Published: November 2023

This chapter will explore the continued underrepresentation of minorities in science, mathematics, and engineering. Since such exploration must begin with precollege preparation, I intend to address the subject first. But the thrust of my efforts will focus on the major impact of the undergraduate years and their various influences: retention and support programs; the campus climate; the effect of minority faculty; curricular changes and their impact on student learning; and what research can tell us to improve retention and increase access.
Rethinking the Model
Authors: Torres Antoinette
Published: November 2023

A variety of strategies has been used to increase the participation of underrepresented groups in engineering programs and a set of model programs developed to provide academic enrichment and improve the curriculum. These programs, generally known as Minority Engineering Programs (MEPsJ share such common features as financial support, admissions intervention, summer orientation, clustering of students, the development of a sense of academic community, and prematriculation activities. After twenty years of program intervention and support and the expenditure of millions of dollars, these programs have achieved mixed results. Underrepresented groups are still underrepresented (comprising only 9.2 percent of the graduates in engineering in 1995) and continue to be at risk in our colleges of engineering.
Why Do We Speak Metaphorically? Reflections on the Functions of Metaphor in Discourse and Reasoning
Authors: Cacciari Cristina
Published: November 2023

What is the role of figurative language in the “conversational machine” so elegantly described in War and Peace? When planning the production of a sentence, a speaker faces several choices, one of which concerns the ways in which each chunk of what that speaker intends to convey will be “shaped”: literally, ironically, metaphorically, and so forth. Such a choice is of course anything but neutral, involving semantic as well as pragmatic relevance and effects. Nevertheless, very little is known about the motivations underlying the decisions of speakers as to which kind of communicative register to adopt, given a specific discourse context, knowledge of the addressee, awareness of the extent of common ground shared, and so forth.
Are maternal effects in fish adaptive or merely physiological side effects?
Authors: Heath Daniel D , Blouw D Max
Published: November 2023

In general, maternal effects in fishes have received little attention except as confounding factors in quantitative genetic experiments. However, due to commercial interest in certain fish species, considerable research provides evidence for large and ubiquitous maternal effects in fishes. Here, we review that evidence with a special emphasis on the potential, or demonstrated, adaptive nature of those effects. There is virtually no direct evidence for adaptive maternal effects in fishes; however, strong inferential evidence exists. The bulk of the published research deals with maternal effects in oviparous species, although important work has also been done on viviparous species. Maternal effects on offspring size are best documented; however, evidence for maternal effects on disease resistance, survival and mortality, embryonic levels of hormones, mRNA, environmental contaminants, and behavior is presented as well. We conclude that the study of adaptive maternal effects in fishes is still rudimentary and predict that further research in this area will provide useful and important insights into the evolution of fishes.
Maternal Effects, Developmental Plasticity, And Life History Evolution: An Amphibian Model
Authors: Kaplan Robert H
Published: November 2023

In many frogs and salamanders the largest investment made in progeny is in the provisioning of eggs with material and energy. At the time a female makes this substantial contribution, the environment that her offspring will experience may be unpredictable. How much influence does uncertainty in the larval environment exert over the way in which this maternal investment is allocated? Much progress was made in answering this question by using optimality techniques and their accompanying assumptions (e.g., Roff 1992; Stearns 1992). These techniques were firmly based on neo-Darwinian principles emphasizing natural selection among phenotypic variants that result directly from the action of discrete genes. This is apparent in the amphibian literature where models were developed to explain different patterns of reproductive allocation with the major assumptions being that for a given amount of reproductive expenditure, a female may produce many small offspring or few large offspring, and that offspring fitness is positively related to investment in offspring (Smith and Fretwell 1974; Brockelman 1975; Wilbur 1977).
Adaptation Of Maternal Effects In The Wild: Path Analysis Of Natural Variation And Experimental Tests Of Causation
Authors: Sinervo Barry
Published: November 2023

The process of adaptation fundamentally involves Darwin’s principle of evolution by natural selection in which variation in heritable traits is shaped by natural selection, and individuals that leave the most surviving progeny in the next generation have the highest fitness. The mean and variance of the heritable trait change across generations, resulting in adaptation to the selective environment. It is axiomatic to refer to many maternal effects undergoing the process of adaptation. Maternal effects such as egg size are thought to confer a strong fitness advantage to the offspring (Lack 1954; Williams 1966; Smith and Fretwell 1974; McGinley et al. 1987), and because egg size can be genetically transmitted to offspring (e.g., Sinervo and Doughty 1996), the reproductive trait of egg size should respond to the force of natural selection. However, a maternal effect such as egg size could affect the reproductive phenotype of the offspring as a nongenetic or “environmental effect” (Falconer 1965; Riska et al. 1985; Kirkpatrick and Lande 1989). I first discuss some of the obstacles in adaptational analyses of maternal effects in natural populations, and then I describe experimental manipulations of a suite of maternal effects in lizards that overcome many of these obstacles.
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Authors: Sacks David
Published: November 2023

lbycus Lyric poet of circa 535 B.c., known particularly for his love poetry. Coming from the Greek city of RHEGIUM, located in the “toe” of ITALY, he supposedly refused an offered dictatorship and traveled instead to the east Greek island of sAMos, where he flourished at the wealthy court of thety Tant POLYCRATES,
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Authors: Sacks David
Published: November 2023

warfare, land The famous land battles of ancient Greece were primarily collisions of heavy infantry, who met on open ground by mutual consent. CAVALRY remained secondary, partly due to the mountainous Greek terrain and partly due to technical matters, such as the small size of Greek horses and the absence of stirrups. It took the tactical genius of the Macedonian king PHILIP II and his son ALEXANDER THE GREAT (Inid-300s B.C.) to make cavalry at least partly effective against infantry.
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Authors: Sacks David
Published: November 2023

Zancle Greek city of northeast SICILY, located beside the three-mile-wide Strait of Messina, which separates Sicily from the “toe” of ITALY. Located on a crescent-shaped peninsula enclosing a fine harbor, Zancle (now the modem Sicilian city of Messina), was founded circa 725 B.c. by Greek settlers from cuMAE and CHALCIS. Its sister city was RHEGIUM, across the strait.
The Future of Reform
Authors: Noble Charles
Published: November 2023

To this point, I have considered the political and institutional constraints on welfare-state development in the United States and reformers’ responses to these. I have argued that the structure of American politics, the balance of power between business and labor, and racial divisions have discouraged all but the most modest reforms-even in crisis situations. The result is the market-oriented welfare state described in chapter 1, a welfare state that provides fewer public benefits and, as the rightwing’s recent success in reforming welfare and restraining the growth of social spending has revealed, is more vulnerable to efforts to retrench than most other welfare states.
The Web Of Politics
Authors: Davis Richard
Published: November 2023

Is the Internet destined to upset traditional political power in the United States? This book answers with an emphatic “no.” Author Richard Davis shows how current political players including candidates, public officials, and the media are adapting to the Internet and assuring that this new medium benefits them in their struggle for power. In doing so he examines the current function of the Internet in democratic politics--educating citizens, conducting electoral campaigns, gauging public opinion, and achieving policy resolution--and the roles of current political actors in those functions. Davis’s unconventional prediction concerning the Internet’s impact on American politics warrants a closer look by anyone interested in learning how this new communication medium will affect us politically.