bluuebunny/crossref_metadata_2025 huggingface dataset:
Europe’s LGBT Movement
Authors: Page Douglas
Published: October 2019

Research on LGBT+ politics in Europe grew over the past few decades, paralleling societal changes regarding increased support for LGBT+ people. Competing examples of the two themes that are structured by support of LGBT+ people regarding LGBT+ rights, “progress/advancement” and “backlash/losses,” show the growing substantiation of gay rights and tolerance over the past few decades. Political debates regarding LGBT+ rights also have engendered more organized opposition to LGBT+ rights, often in the form of right-wing movements. Studies often are structured around public opinion, policy/legislation, or social movements. Critical theory regarding LGBT+ politics in Europe unpacks the implications of contemporary identity categories and political activities (that structure political science research), and the resulting exclusions especially with regard to gender identity. The following research objectives can help expand the study of LGBT+ politics in Europe: (1) to build from existing historical research regarding the social and legal construction of gender, sexuality, and the regulation of homosexuality, (2) to situate Europe in a global context which shows that European states increased persecution against homosexuality around the world, (3) to carry out more explicitly intersectional studies that show how groups representing multiple identities and institutional contexts can cooperate when facing intersecting sources of marginalization, and (4) to illuminate how sexual violence can stem from political institutions and recognize sexual violence as a central component of gender and sexuality.
The Christian Right in U.S. Politics
Authors: Conger Kimberly H.
Published: October 2019

The Christian Right has been an active force in Republican and American politics for over 40 years. Its focus on morality politics (abortion, euthanasia, same-sex marriage, pornography, and sex and science education) has had an impact on the fortunes and expectations of conservative candidates, activists, and organizations all over the country. Its comprehensive activity demonstrates the multifaceted changes in society and religious engagement that brought the Christian Right as a political force into supporters’ consciousnesses, their churches, and the voting booth. Success in mobilization and the ballot box has not always created policy change, though the movement can claim policy victories in many states and localities. The largest impact the movement has had is in the Republican Party in all of its incarnations, altering the policies and strategies that are important and successful for the party. The incarnation of the movement shows signs of significant change, however, as the Republican Party is transformed by the populist messages and policies of the Trump administration. Scholars of the Christian Right movement and religion in American politics more generally should pay attention to the varying narratives, issues, sources of power, and social cohesion that the movement and its constituency, largely conservative Protestants, display. Like research on many social and political movements, the study of the Christian Right benefits from an interdisciplinary approach and a good grasp of the lived experience of the supporters, activists, and leaders within the movement.
Police and the News Media
Authors: Gest Ted
Published: October 2019

Police and the media have had a close relationship but it has become an increasingly uneasy one. For more than a century, the mainstream United States media—mainly newspapers, radio, television and magazines—have depended on the police for raw material for a steady diet of crime stories. For its part, law enforcement regards the media as something of an adversary. The relationship has changed because of the growth of investigative reporting and of the Internet. Both developments have increased the volume of material critical of the police. At the same time, law enforcement has used social media as a means to bypass the mainstream media to try getting its message directly to the public. However, the news media in all of its forms remains a powerful interpreter of how law enforcement does its job.
Predictive Policing in the United States
Authors: Yang Fei
Published: October 2019

Predictive policing, also known as crime forecasting, is a set of high technologies aiding the police in solving past crimes and preventing future ones. With the right deployment of such technologies, law enforcement agencies can combat and control crime more efficiently with time and resources better employed and allocated. The current practices of predictive policing include the integration of various technologies, ranging from predictive crime maps and surveillance cameras to sophisticated computer software and artificial intelligence. Predictive analytics help the police make predictions about where and when future crime is most likely to happen and who will be the perpetrator and who the potential victim. The underpinning logic behind such predictions is the predictability of criminal behavior and crime patterns based on criminological research and theories such as rational choice and deterrence theories, routine activities theory, and broken windows theory. Many jurisdictions in the United States have deployed or have been experimenting with various predictive policing technologies. The most widely adopted applications include CompStat, PredPol, HunchLab, Strategic Subject List (SSL), Beware, Domain Awareness System (DAS), Palantir, and Patternizr. The realization of these predictive policing analytics systems relies heavily on the technological assistance provided by data collection and integration software, facial and vehicle identification and tracking tools, and surveillance technologies that keep tabs on individual activities both in the physical environment and in the digital world. Some examples of these assisting technologies include Automatic License Plate Recognition, Next-Generation Identification System, the Global Positioning System, Automatic Vehicle Location, next-generation police body-worn cameras with facial recognition and tracking functions, aerial cameras and unmanned aircraft systems, DeepFace, Persistent Surveillance Systems, Stingrays/D(i)RT-Box/International Mobile Subscriber Identity Catcher, and SnapTrends (which monitors and analyzes feeds on Twitter, Facebook, Instagram, Picasa, Flickr, and YouTube). This new trend of using predictive analytics in policing has elicited extensive doubt and criticism since its invention. Whereas scholarly evaluation research shows mixed findings about how effectively predictive policing actually works to help reduce crime, other concerns center around legal and civil rights issues (including privacy protection and the legitimacy of mass surveillance), inequality (stratified surveillance), cost-effectiveness of the technologies, militarization of the police and its implications (e.g., worsened relationship and weakened trust between the police and the public), and epistemological challenges to understanding crime. To make the best use of the technologies and avoid their pitfalls at the same time, policymakers need to consider the hotly debated controversies raised in the evolution of predictive policing.
Qualitative Methods for Gender and Education Research in Brazil
Authors: Carvalho Marília
Published: October 2019

Qualitative research predominate in Brazilian studies on gender and education. This article points that these methodologies contribute to this field as powerful tools that break the naturalization of gender relations, uncovering the subtle forms of gender inequality in everyday life and highlighting the social construction of gender. The common effort in ethnographies to make strange what is familiar are useful in overcoming these pitfalls. Qualitative methodologies are also important in the construction of contextual analyses that avoid essentialist statements about men and women as fixed universal notions, a frequent bias in gender studies. Latin American research on gender in education has used these principles with good results and this article offers some examples, developed mainly in Brazil. It also suggests researchers use qualitative methodologies to link gender to other social determinations such as class and race, in an intersectional perspective. The challenge of constructing intersectionality finds in qualitative research methods a powerful ally because it allows investigators to understand how each form of inequality combines with the other, creating new meanings. The article also stresses that analysis based on qualitative data may help break the dichotomies between social structures and individual action, fostering the understanding of the simultaneity between actions of the subjects and social determination, between change and permanence, between individuals and society. Finally, the conclusion draws attention to the need for greater dialogue between quantitative and qualitative research in the area of gender and education studies, opening space for issues highlighted in statistical analysis to be explored in qualitative research, which in turn might generate new questions to be investigated in macro-social databases.
Anthropology and Research Methodology
Authors: Batallán Graciela
Published: October 2019

This article provides a reflection on “qualitative” research methodology and their study within the university and other educational levels and invites dialogue between paradigms and currents of thought that are identified with teaching and the methods of producing empirical information. From a critical perspective, together with the positivism of the social sciences, it argues that the node of this teaching is the process of constructing the object of study, a process that confirms the centrality of the researcher.

In accordance with a theoretical-methodological focus that distinguishes the specificity of the object of the social sciences in its linguistic construction, and considering the capacity for agency of the temporarily situated actors, the researcher (also a social agent), in addition to taking on the scope and historicity of the concepts used to problematize the relationships being investigated, needs to analyze the reflexivity of his/her language, which is inscribed in the assumptions that guide his/her inquiry. In this way, research training embodies a pedagogical problematic, whereby addressing the aforementioned centrality of the construction of the object goes hand in hand with the pedagogical problematization of everyday speech.

Research-in-action training constitutes the future researcher as a critical intellectual, in search of a reliable (or true) knowledge that will incorporate him/her into the scientific framework.
Heuristic Inquiry in Teacher Education
Authors: Fogelgarn Rochelle
Published: October 2019

Teacher educators often encounter novice pre-service teachers who naively declare that their chief motivation for choosing a teacher training course is their passion for teaching children and young adults. Our challenge is to sustain that passion and transform it into effective pedagogical practice. As education is a profession with a crucially important affective dimension, preparing pre-service teachers for the rigors of daily teaching requires more than facilitating the acquisition of pedagogical technique and strategy. Heuristic inquiry is a methodological approach that affords teachers-as-researchers the means to portray the lived experience of teaching so that both pre- and in-service teachers can identify with, and learn about, the holistic experience of teaching.

In contrast to other methodologies, the heuristic researcher’s own experience regarding the phenomenon informs, guides, and interacts with the lived experience of the study participants. The multidimensional, multiperspectival, and multifaceted “story” of the lived experience of teaching which emerges from a disciplined heuristic inquiry provides pre-service teachers with a window through which they can vicariously experience the joys, challenges, and risks inherent in the work of teaching. Being more deeply aware of what to expect may better prepare novice teachers to remain within the profession with their initial passion intact.

As a methodological approach, heuristics involves self-inquiry and dialogue with others in order to discover the meaning, significance, and implications of pertinent human experience. Knowledge crystallizes within the researcher in consequence of sensory input, perception, transpersonal communication, belief, and judgment. The individual and composite portrayals and the creatively synthesized essence of the phenomenon that evolve from heuristic exploration coalesce to give a powerful picture of human experience. When heuristic inquiry depicts the dedicated efforts of dynamic teachers who have managed to make a real and enduring impact on their students’ learning and transformative growth, insight is likely to emerge regarding how to ensure the vibrant sustenance of inspired, effective teaching.
The Indian Army, 1850–1950
Authors: Deshpande Anirudh
Published: October 2019

In 1850, the armed forces of the English East India Company were comprised of three Presidency Sepoy Armies and the Bombay Marine sometimes called the Indian Navy. A British Army garrison drawn on rotation from infantry, cavalry, and artillery units, numbering around 50,000, was stationed in India as a counterpoise to the sepoy armies. Between 1750 and 1850, the sepoy armies developed as self-contained forces with separate budgets, commands, recruitment, artillery, infantry, and cavalry. In 1850, the Bombay and Madras Armies, theoretically autonomous, were subordinated to Calcutta. Entrusted with the conquest of north and northwest India, the Bengal Army became the largest sepoy army in the 19th century, recruiting high-caste Purbias from the Gangetic plains. Numerous Bengal Army regiments mutinied in 1857 and a major military reorganization in 1859 was recommended by the Peel Commission. The consequence was the single “class” (actually an ethnic or caste community) company and mixed-class battalion model. Numerous Sikh and Gurkha units were regularized in the Bengal Army and the number of Purbia battalions was reduced. The Presidency Armies were reformed again after the Second Afghan War (1878–1880) on the recommendations of the Eden Commission (1879).

From 1875 to 1900, Indian military recruitment was influenced by the “martial races” theory, which remained influential up to 1947. In the 1880s, the movement toward the unification of the Presidency Armies strengthened. In 1891, the presidency staff corps became the Indian staff corps, and in 1895 a single four-command Indian Army came into existence. Between 1902 and 1909, the regiments were renumbered in a new series and reforms were carried out by Lord Kitchener. These reforms failed to stem the growing criticism of the Indian Army in official circles. The result was the appointment of the Nicholson Committee in 1912 whose recommendations were preempted by World War I (1914-1918). World War I highlighted several deficiencies in the Indian Army, most of which remained unaddressed until World War II. In the interwar years, a massive retrenchment and budgetary constraints restricted the modernization of the army. Limited Indianization, the setting up of the Indian Military Academy (IMA), and technological obsolescence were the chief characteristics of the history of the Indian Army in the interwar years.

Finally, the Chatfield Committee observations (1939) painted a grim picture of Indian defense; British rearmament from 1932 had left precious little money for the Indian Army. In 1947, the Indian Army was divided into the Indian and Pakistani Armies, commanded by senior British officers up to the early 1950s. In sum, the Indian Army was decisive in the expansion and consolidation of the British Empire in Africa and Asia. Further, its services in the two world wars ensured the survival of the Empire and, thereby, Britain itself. Although the loyalty of this army was tested by small and large mutinies, it generally remained a trusted instrument of British control in south Asia between 1858 and 1947.
The History of International Organization(s)
Authors: Reinalda Bob
Published: October 2019

The emerging discipline of political science recognized international organization as an object of study earlier (i.e., around 1910) than international law, which, through an engagement with League of Nations ideals, began to follow the developments of international organizations (IOs) during the 1920s, and history, which kept its focus on states and war rather than on IOs until the early 2000s. The debate between liberal institutionalism and (dominant after 1945) realism deeply influenced the study of IOs. The engagement of the United States in the United Nations System, however, stimulated further studies of IOs and produced new theoretical orientations that left room for realist factors. The modernization of international relations studies through regime theory eventually removed the need to ask historical questions, resulting in short-term studies of IOs, but new approaches such as constructivism and historical institutionalism contributed to studies of long-term change of IOs and critical junctures in history. The main international relations approach traces the rise of the United Nations System (or, more broadly, IOs) as an instrument of American exceptionalism in the world. This view is being criticized by the paradigmatic turn in the discipline of history in the early 2000s, which has included IOs in its research and relates the creation of IOs to imperial powers, such as the United Kingdom and France, that wanted to safeguard their empires. These historical studies start in 1919 rather than 1945 and question international relations’ Western-centrist universalism by including competing universalisms such as anticolonial nationalism.
The Equal Rights Amendment
Authors: Muncy Robyn
Published: October 2019

The Equal Rights Amendment (ERA), designed to enshrine in the Constitution of the United States a guarantee of equal rights to women and men, has had a long and volatile history. When first introduced in Congress in 1923, three years after ratification of the woman suffrage amendment to the US Constitution, the ERA faced fierce opposition from the majority of former suffragists. These progressive women activists opposed the ERA because it threatened hard-won protective labor legislation for wage-earning women. A half century later, however, the amendment enjoyed such broad support that it was passed by the requisite two-thirds of Congress and, in 1972, sent to the states for ratification. Unexpectedly, virulent opposition emerged during the ratification process, not among progressive women this time but among conservatives, whose savvy organizing prevented ratification by a 1982 deadline. Many scholars contend that despite the failure of ratification, equal rights thinking so triumphed in the courts and legislatures by the 1990s that a “de facto ERA” was in place. Some feminists, distrustful of reversible court decisions and repealable legislation, continued to agitate for the ERA; others voiced doubt that ERA would achieve substantive equality for women. Because support for an ERA noticeably revived in the 2010s, this history remains very much in progress.
Digital Resources: Modern Slavery and the Slave Trade in Latin America
Authors: Felipe-Gonzalez Jorge
Published: October 2019

The expansion of the Internet and computing technologies has transformed, heuristically, methodologically, and epistemologically, the scholarship on modern Atlantic slavery and the slave trade. An increasing number of primary and secondary sources are now available online. Archives, universities, libraries, research centers, and other institutions have digitized partially or entirely historical collections and archival records and made them public through digital portals in a variety of formats. Users can instantly access, analyze, search, share, transfer, visualize, and interact with a vast amount of historical data on slavery and the slave trade, which, in the late 20th century, was scattered across archives and libraries. The increasing Web presence of digital repositories on Latin American historical slavery and the slave trade is changing previous scholarly perceptions about broader demographic, historical, and social issues, as well as about the everyday life of enslaved Africans. Digital databases on the slave trade, for instance, are answering long-term historiographical concerns regarding the number of captives carried to the Americas, their African embarkation regions, or the nationality of the carriers. Digital repositories and databases help to better understand the African geographical origins of the slaves and their ethnicities, a key component in the formation of the Afro-Latin American culture. Digitized repositories such as baptismal, marriage, and burial archival records and databases on runaway or self-liberated slaves, plantation lists, or court cases are filling gaps in scholars’ understanding of the internal dynamics of the institution of slavery, which characterized most of Latin American history for about three centuries.
Indigenous Men in the Argentine Military
Authors: Vivaldi Ana
Published: October 2019

In Argentina, tensions between the military and Indigenous People have been present since the formation of the nation-state in the late 19th century. During the so-called “Campañas al desierto” (Desert Campaigns), when the Argentine military occupied the northern and southern sovereign Indigenous territories, Indigenous Nations were seen as the main opponents to the military project of building a civilized nation. The confrontation between the military and Indigenous nations were seen as the main opponents to a civilized nation. Against analysis that regards relations between the military and Indigenous People as inherently violent, a new line in historiographical studies traces too the trajectories of Indigenous troops joining the military. The 19th-century relations between the military and Indigenous People were therefore more complex than an opposition between contrary nations. During the colonization of Indigenous lands in Pampa and Patagonia region to the south and in the Chaco region to the north west, Indigenous groups were both enemies and allies and necessary for the success of the nation-state’s advance. Within these alliances and relations of proximity, military officers produced a specific racialization of Indigenous bodies related to positive perceptions of them as strong and skillful soldiers. These sets of ideas, present in military memoirs in the 19th century, re-emerge in how Toba Indigenous men experience being racialized during the Mandatory Military Service in the mid- and late 20th century.
Tracking the Increase of Acaricide Resistance in an Invasive Population of Cattle Fever Ticks (Acari: Ixodidae) and Implementation of Real-Time PCR Assays to Rapidly Genotype Resistance Mutations
Authors: Thomas Donald B , Klafke Guilherme , Busch Joseph D , Olafson Pia U , Miller Robert A , Mosqueda Juan , Stone Nathan E , Scoles Glen , Wagner David M , Perez-De-Leon Adalberto
Published: October 2019

The invasive cattle fever tick, Rhipicephalus (Boophilus) microplus (Canestrini) (Acari: Ixodidae), occurs in the United States only along the Texas border as incursions from Mexico. Intensive acaricide treatment of cattle herds in Mexico to reduce tick populations has resulted in the development of resistance to an array of acaricides. Resistance to permethrin has increased both in incidence and level in Texas over the last decade, even though permethrin is not used to control fever ticks on the U.S. side of the border. From 3 to 4% of submittals in 2008 to over 50% in 2016 and 2017 showed resistance based on standardized pesticide bioassays. Moreover, by 2017, the highly resistant ticks had spread to include all five of the southmost Texas counties and were found on both cattle and sylvatic hosts. Improved diagnostic tools developed by our group include a panel of DNA-based real-time PCR assays to detect mutations within the voltage-sensitive sodium channel (Vssc) that are involved in permethrin resistance. Further, a positive correlation between the presence of multiple Vssc mutations and phenotypic resistance was validated. These assays can be completed within days of receiving field collected ticks providing timely, valuable information to program managers. Microsatellite marker analysis of these pyrethroid resistant tick populations provided evidence that separate incursions of resistant ticks had entered Texas independently.
‘I’ve never drunk very much water and I still don’t, and I see no reason to do so’: a qualitative study of the views of community-dwelling older people and carers on hydration in later life
Authors: Bhanu Cini , Avgerinou Christina , Kharicha Kalpa , Bauernfreund Yehudit , Croker Helen , Liljas Ann , Rea Jennifer , Kirby-Barr Maggie , Hopkins Jane , Walters Kate
Published: October 2019

Background

dehydration is associated with significant adverse outcomes in older people despite being largely preventable and treatable. Little research has focused on the views of community-dwelling older people on hydration, healthy drinking and the perceived importance of drinking well in later life.

Objectives

to understand community-dwelling older people and informal carers’ views on hydration in later life and how older people can be supported to drink well.

Methods

qualitative study using interviews and a focus group exploring hydration and nutrition in later life (24 older people at risk of malnutrition and dehydration, 9 informal carers) and thematic analysis.

Results

this article presents the findings on hydration alone. Four themes are presented: perceptions of healthy drinking, barriers to and facilitators of drinking in later life and supporting older people to drink well. The perceived importance of adequate hydration in later life was polarised. Concerns about urinary incontinence and knowledge gaps were significant barriers. Consideration of individual taste preference and functional capacity acted as facilitators. Distinct habitual drinking patterns with medications and meals exist within individuals. Many relied on thirst at other times or when fluid demands are greater (such as hot weather), a known unreliable prompt in later life.

Conclusions

older people could be supported to drink well by building upon existing habitual drinking patterns. Primary care and public health should consider individual barriers, facilitators and tailored education. A multidisciplinary approach to promote hydration should be incorporated into care for older people with more complex needs.
Histopathologic Patterns of Colitis in Patients With Impaired Renal Function
Authors: Qiu Lianqun , Volk Emily , Mais Daniel D
Published: October 2019

Objectives

To characterize the histopathologic features of colitis in patients with impaired renal function.

Methods

We retrospectively identified 413 patients who underwent colonoscopic evaluation for colitis between 2011 and 2015. Patients were divided into four groups based on estimated glomerular filtrate rates. Patients with impaired renal function were compared to overall and age-matched patients with normal renal function.

Results

Compared to a preponderance of inflammatory bowel disease (33%) and lymphocytic colitis (9.6%) in patients with normal renal function, ischemic colitis (58%) was the predominant histopathologic pattern in the patients with impaired renal function. Infectious colitis was the second most common pattern (20.8%), with Clostridium difficile and cytomegalovirus infections being more frequent. Medication-induced injury was the third most common pattern, with crystal-associated injury being the exclusive pattern found in this study.

Conclusions

Colitis in patients with impaired renal function is etiologically distinct from that seen in patients with normal renal function.
The Hermit and the Boa Constrictor: Jeremy Bentham, Henry Brougham, and the Accessibility of Justice
Authors: Riley Chris
Published: October 2019

This article examines the particularly complex relationship between Jeremy Bentham and Henry Brougham, with reference to the respective schemes that they devised in the late 1820s and early 1830s for achieving accessible justice through a new network of local courts across England and Wales. For a considerable part of the first few decades of the nineteenth century, Bentham and Brougham remained great friends and allies, but their disagreements gradually intensified, most notably following Brougham's six-hour law reform speech in the House of Commons on 7 February 1828, the printing of his Local Courts Bill on 7 June 1830, and the beginning of his Lord Chancellorship on 22 November of the same year. By analysing Bentham's highly detailed annotated copies of Brougham's law reform speech and Local Courts Bill—as well as Bentham's articles in the Westminster Review, and a substantial portion of his unpublished writings—it is shown how Bentham's complete loss of faith in Brougham as a reformer and as a legislator led him from describing Brougham as his own grandson to calling him an enemy of the people and a serpent. It is argued that the severity of Bentham's criticisms of the then Lord Chancellor in print, and the personal nature of the insults that he levelled towards him in manuscript, effectively dispel any suggestion that the two men were acting in concert on the issue of law reform in general, or on the matter of local courts in particular.
Forced Copulation in Captive Mallards III. Sperm Competition
Authors: Cheng Kimberly M. , Burns Jeffrey T. , McKinney Frank
Published: October 2019

Previous observations of forced copulation (FC) in captive Mallards (Anas platyrhynchos) showed that most FC attempts were directed at females in prelaying and laying condition and that most FC's occurred in the morning when the females were leaving their nests after egg laying. In order to determine whether or not there is a physiological basis for these observed temporal patterns, sperm competition in captive Mallards was examined using artificial insemination and genetic markers. Results indicated that if a female was inseminated with two competing doses of semen at different time intervals, the proportion of progeny from the first and the second inseminations was not significantly different if these inseminations were simultaneous, 1 h, or 3 h apart. There was a preponderance of progeny (70%) from the second insemination, however, if the inseminations were 6 h apart. Insemination of females less than 1 h after egg laying resulted in 25% of the eggs laid the following morning being fertile. Only 1 of 179 eggs laid the following morning was fertile when the females were inseminated more than 1 h after egg laying.

Our experiment demonstrated that there is an insemination "window," a short period when new sperm are least likely to meet competition from sperm already in the oviduct and from sperm introduced later, and it provided a possible explanation for the observed timing of FC attempts.
Weights, Breeding, and Survival in European Sparrowhawks
Authors: Newton I. , Marquiss M. , Village A.
Published: October 2019

No significant diurnal variation in mean weight was detected in trapped European Sparrowhawks (Accipiter nisus). Weights of males fluctuated rather little through the year, but were highest in March and lowest in August. During the breeding cycle, males lost weight slightly in the prelay/early laying periods, when they were feeding females in preparation for egg production, and in the late nestling/postfledging periods, when they were feeding large young. Weights of females fluctuated greatly during the year: they were highest in May at the time of egg laying and lowest in August at the end of breeding. Females increased in weight by 40-50 g (15%) in the 10-20 days before laying; lost about 20 g over the laying period, on average; maintained high weight through much of incubation; and lost weight during the nestling period. The main functions of the extra body reserve are probably to buffer the female against temporary food shortages during incubation and to enable her to feed the chicks preferentially in the nestling period. Females that did not lay eggs remained low in weight throughout the early part of the breeding season and were then significantly lighter than breeders. Moreover, females that laid large clutches were heavier throughout the prelaying and laying periods than were females that laid small clutches, and females that subsequently hatched their eggs started incubation at a significantly greater weight than did those that deserted their eggs. We suggest that clutch size and breeding success are dependent on the female being able to maintain high weight during the periods she is dependent on the male for food and, hence, on the hunting success of the male.

First-year birds of both sexes weighed less than adults throughout the year and were especially light during their first 2 months of independent life. This was probably a period of high mortality, especially in males, in which a clear relationship emerged between weight and survival prospects.
Changes in Song Dialect Distributions and Microgeographic Variation in Song of White-Crowned Sparrows (Zonotrichia leucophrys nuttalli)
Authors: Trainer Jill M.
Published: October 2019

Multivariate analysis and analysis for spatial autocorrelation of 21 frequency and time characteristics of the songs of White-crowned Sparrows (Zonotrichia leucophrys nuttalli) showed that within a dialect area the songs of neighboring males were no more similar to one another than to the songs of non-neighbors. This result refutes one prediction of the hypothesis that song dialects are maintained because males copy the songs of neighbors to gain an advantage in territorial defense or mate attraction. Historical events were important in producing changes over 10 yr in dialect distributions in an area of secondary contact between two dialects. The dialect distributions changed as the sparrow population invaded a new area where the vegetation had been modified, and the sparrows disappeared from a drought-affected area. The basic structure of the dialects did not change in 18 yr, and the fine structure, measured by 21 variables, did not differ between the 2 yr sampled. In 10 yr the two dialects did not blend to form an intermediate dialect.
Competition for Nesting Space among Peruvian Guano Birds
Authors: Duffy David Cameron
Published: October 2019

In the mid-1940's, Peruvian managers greatly increased the nesting space available to the three principal surface-nesting species of the Peruvian Coastal Current: the Guanay Cormorant (Phalacrocorax bougainvillii), the Peruvian Booby (Sula variegata), and the Peruvian Brown Pelican (Pelecanus occidentalis thagus). The combined populations of these three species increased from 8 to 20 million birds. The annual rate of increase of the population rose from 8 to 18%. The three species appear to have evolved in the face of a shortage of nesting space. They have not diverged in their respective breeding seasons. Each species has habitat preferences for nesting, but the overlap is great. The booby and cormorant compete through a "scramble" to occupy space before it is settled by the other species. Neither can displace the other from nest sites. The pelican is dominant over the other two in aggressive interactions and frequently usurps their nests. Pelicans are apparently confined to nesting in level areas, whereas the other two species can nest on a greater range of gradients.

Despite the facts that nesting space is limited and that its scarcity has a demonstrated effect upon the combined populations, interspecific competition for nesting space was difficult to document. Interspecific aggressive interactions were few and involved only a small percentage of the three populations. The individuals most affected by competition, those denied nesting space, were displaced from the area of competition and were thus less accessible for study.
Growth of the Wedge-Tailed Shearwater in the Hawaiian Islands
Authors: Pettit Ted N. , Byrd G. Vernon , Whittow G. Causey , Seki Michael P.
Published: October 2019

Growth studies of a tropical seabird, the Wedge-tailed Shearwater (Puffinus pacificus), were conducted over 3 yr at three locations in Hawaii. Basic growth patterns of body dimensions are described. The range of asymptotes and maximal recorded weights suggests that feeding and the availability of food may influence growth from year to year and in different colonies within the same year.
The Hindlimb Musculature of the White-Fronted Amazon (Amazona albifrons, Psittaciformes)
Authors: Berman Susan L.
Published: October 2019

The hindlimb musculature of six specimens of Amazona albifrons was dissected in order to (1) provide a detailed myological description, (2) provide a preliminary study and basis for a systematic analysis of the Psittaciformes, and (3) point out any myological peculiarities that might be associated with their unusually manipulative feet. Notable features include a peculiar positioning of M. extensor brevis digiti IV, a previously undescribed muscle to digit III, a peculiar arrangement of the short extensors of the hallux, and a branch of M. extensor digitorum longus to the hallux. These features are believed to be associated either with the zygodactyl digit configuration or the requirement of finer control over the individual digits.
Flight Energetics of Free-Living Sooty Terns
Authors: Flint Elizabeth N. , Nagy Kenneth A.
Published: October 2019

The CO2 production of free-ranging Sooty Terns (Sterna fuscata) was measured using doubly labeled water (HTO-18). Metabolic rate during flight was determined to be 4.8 times standard metabolic rate (SMR). This value is much lower than estimates of flight metabolism predicted from previously published equations. Observations of these birds at sea indicate that flapping flight predominated at the windspeeds (0-5 m/s) that prevailed during our measurement periods, so factors other than gliding must account for the comparatively low flight metabolism we measured. Sooty Tern flight metabolism is similar to that of some other birds, such as swallows and swifts, that also have high aspect ratios and low wing loadings.
Food Passage and Intestinal Nutrient Absorption in Hummingbirds
Authors: Karasov William H. , Phan Duong , Diamond Jared M. , Carpenter F. Lynn
Published: October 2019

We studied adaptations of digestive physiology that permit Rufous (Selasphorus rufus) and Anna's hummingbirds (Calypte anna) to absorb sugar-water meals rapidly and efficiently. As measured with soluble markers, transit times (<15 min) and mean retention times (ca. 48 min) of meals in the hummingbird digestive tract are brief compared with values for most other vertebrates. Glucose is extracted with an efficiency of 97%. We describe a new method, employing double isotope dilution, for measuring crop-emptying kinetics. Based on this method, the crop empties half of a meal in ca. 4 min and all of the meal in 15-20 min. Rufous and Anna's hummingbirds may be energy maximizers limited by crop emptying times, rather than foraging-time minimizers. This would explain why hummingbirds spend a majority of each hour sitting rather than feeding.

The intestine's passive permeability to glucose is the lowest of any vertebrate studied to date. This may be an adaptation to prevent solute loss from the blood in the face of high fluid transit rates through the intestine. Active transport accounts for essentially all intestinal glucose absorption. Compared with intestines of other vertebrates, the glucose absorption sites of hummingbird intestines have normal binding constants but are present at extremely high densities. Comparisons of hummingbirds, chickens, and shrikes suggest that intestinal absorption rates for amino acids are independent of trophic habits in birds as in other vertebrate classes, but that sugar absorption decreases in the sequence herbivore > omnivore > carnivore.
The Relationship Between Body Mass and Survival of Wintering Canvasbacks
Authors: Haramis G. M. , Nichols J. D. , Pollock K. H. , Hines J. E.
Published: October 2019

Mass and recapture histories of 6,000 Canvasbacks (Aythya valisineria) banded in upper Chesapeake Bay were used to test two hypotheses: (1) early-winter body mass is associated with the probability of surviving the winter, and (2) early-winter body mass is associated with annual survival probability. Data were analyzed by a binary regression method that treated mass as a continuous variable and estimated parameters to describe a general relationship between body mass and survival probability. Results for adult males, which provided our largest data sets, presented strong evidence that birds with high relative early-winter masses had both greater overwinter and annual survival probabilities. Results of overwinter analyses necessarily are qualified by the alternative explanation of mass-dependent emigration, i.e. the possibility that lighter birds move south in response to cold weather and leave only heavy birds for recapture. Such a phenomenon remains to be documented. Results concerning annual survival probabilities are not vulnerable to this alternative explanation because of the strong fidelity of Canvasbacks at the banding site. Because of small sample size, data were inadequate to permit mass/survival inferences for adult females. Sample sizes were adequate for young Canvasbacks, but the results were less consistent than for adult males. Although early-winter body mass was associated positively with overwinter as well as annual survival for young Canvasbacks in some years, we suspect that the lack of established wintering patterns among these birds may underlie the less consistent result.
The Diet of American Robins: An Analysis of U.S. Biological Survey Records
Authors: Wheelwright Nathaniel T.
Published: October 2019

I present a quantitative description of the diet of American Robins (Turdus migratorius) and consider how food habits (particularly the proportion of fruit eaten and the diversity of individual meals) are influenced by season, habitat, sex, and time of day. The study is based on an analysis of records of stomach contents compiled by the U.S. Biological Survey and the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service. Across their entire range, robins ate fruits representing over 50 genera and invertebrates representing over 100 families. Diets were diverse even within local regions, and there was no obvious single feeding niche. The major food classes, consumed in every combination, were soft-bodied invertebrates, hard-bodied invertebrates, and fruits. The same taxa (especially fruits of the family Rosaceae and invertebrates of the orders Coleoptera and Lepidoptera) predominated in robins' diets, irrespective of habitat or geographical location, which presumably reflects both selective foraging and the availability of these widespread taxa.

The proportion of fruit (by volume) in the diet was much higher in the fall and winter (median values >90%) than in the spring (<10%); summer values were intermediate. The transition from a diet dominated by invertebrates to a diet dominated by fruits occurred over a 1-2-month period. The number of distinct food items in stomachs, a measure of the species diversity of individual meals, was positively correlated with the fraction of invertebrates in the diet. Thus, at the time of year when robins were dependent on fruits for food, the diversity of their meals was also lowest. The degree of fullness of the stomach showed few consistent trends with season or habitat.

Despite different sex roles and nutritional requirements, male and female robins did not differ in the proportion of fruit in the diet in any month or in any region. Nor did their stomachs contain different numbers of distinct food items, different amounts of food, or a different range or distribution of prey taxa. Habitat was an important variable explaining dietary differences.

The Biological Survey records have unavoidable shortcomings, most notably problems of sampling biases and the inability to correct for differential digestion of food items. Nonetheless, they are a valuable and underused data base for testing hypotheses, generating new questions of ecological interest, and describing in detail the diets of North American bird species.
Effects of Nestling Diet on Growth and Adult Size of Zebra Finches (Poephila guttata)
Authors: Boag Peter T.
Published: October 2019

Manipulation of the diet of Zebra Finch (Poephila guttata) nestlings in the laboratory showed that a low-quality diet reduced growth rates of nine external morphological characters, while a high-quality diet increased growth rates. The growth of plumage characters was least affected by diet, while growth rates of tarsus and mass were most affected. The treatments also produced differences in the adult size of experimental birds, differences not evident in either their parents or their own offspring. Diet quality had the strongest impact on adult mass and tarsus length, while plumage and beak measurements were less affected. Analysis using principal components and character ratios showed that the shape of experimental birds was affected by the experimental diets, but to a minor extent compared with changes in overall size. Significant shape changes involved ratios between fast- and slow-growing characters. The ratios of characters that grow at similar, slow rates (e.g. beak shape) were not affected by the diets. Environmental sources of morphological variation should not be neglected in studies of phenotypic variation in birds.
Experiments on the Control of Deceptive Signals of Status in White-Crowned Sparrows
Authors: Fugle Gary N. , Rothstein Stephen I.
Published: October 2019

We showed previously that crown plumage brightness signals relative dominance ability in White-crowned Sparrows (Zonotrichia leucophrys gambelii). We now test the social-control hypothesis for the evolutionary stability of status signaling against invasion by individuals with brighter crowns than justified by their intrinsic dominance ability. "Cheating" immature females, with crowns painted to resemble bright adult males, and "control" immature females, with crowns painted a typical immature appearance or left unpainted, were released into two separate wild sparrow flocks and into two different captive groups that contained birds of all age and sex classes. In the field experiments, cheaters were more successful than controls in dominance interactions with other immatures; both groups were equally unsuccessful against adults. In the captivity experiments, cheaters generally dominated controls and were more successful than they in interactions with immature males and adult females but not with adult males. Cheaters did not receive more aggression from dominant individuals than did controls in any experiment, and in two experiments they received significantly less aggression. Thus, we found no socially mediated costs for sparrows with deceptive signals. Instead, we showed that immature females that cheat can benefit. The stability of the White-crowned Sparrow signaling system remains unexplained. We discuss the potential influence of predators on individual plumage differences and offer additional hypotheses for the control of deceptive signals.