Incentive compensation as an injurious condition of work: A study of labelling

A recursive causal model is presented in which individual and work factors are hypothesized to be predictive of workers' labelling an incentive compensation program as potentially injurious to their well-being. The individual factors include the dispositional variable, negative affectivity, and financial needs and resources. The work factors consist of prior incentive compensation, experienced job insecurity, and experienced control. The model was tested using questionnaire responses of 165 managers and professionals. While it was found that the overall model did not fit the data that well, negative affectivity was found to be positively associated and experienced control negatively associated with the incentive compensation program being labelled negatively. The somewhat surprising finding that financial needs and resources were not found to be significantly associated with labelling is discussed. The importance of disposition and experienced control for the labelling of potentially threatening or harmful job conditions as well as some hypothesized antecedents of control also are discussed.     

The phalloid organ, orgasm and sperm competition in a polygynandrous bird: the red-billed buffalo weaver (Bubalornis niger)

The buffalo weavers, Bubalornis spp., are unique amongst birds in possessing a phalloid organ, a phallus-like structure anterior to the cloaca. We studied the red-billed buffalo weaver Bubalornis niger, to determine whether the phalloid organ has evolved in response to sperm competition. The phalloid organ was significantly longer in males that were resident at nests than in non-resident males, and among resident males was significantly longer in those males with a harem than in those without. Red-billed buffalo weavers bred colonially and had either a cooperatively polygynandrous (usually two unrelated males and several females) or a polygynous (one male and several females) mating system. Cooperative polygynandry provided females with the opportunity to copulate with more than one male and paternity analyses using DNA fingerprinting revealed that 63% of 16 multiple-offspring broods, comprising 43 offspring, had multiple sires, which included both nest-owning males and extra-group males. Sperm competition was therefore intense. Observations and experiments with buffalo weavers in captivity revealed that the phalloid organ was not intromittent during copulation, but functioned as a stimulatory organ which necessitated protracted copulation in order to induce male 'orgasm' and ejaculation, a feature apparently unique to this species.     

Incorporating catastrophic risk assessments into setting conservation goals for threatened Pacific salmon

Catastrophic die-offs can have important consequences for vertebrate population growth and biodiversity, but catastrophic risks are not commonly incorporated into endangered-species recovery planning. Natural (e.g., landslides, floods) and anthropogenic (e.g., toxic leaks and spills) catastrophes pose a challenge for evolutionarily significant units (ESUs) of Pacific salmon listed under the Endangered Species Act and teetering at precariously low population levels. To spread risks among Puget Sound chinook salmon populations, recovery strategies for ESU-wide viability recommend at least two viable populations of historical life-history types in each of five geographic regions. We explored the likelihood of Puget Sound chinook salmon ESU persistence by examining spatial patterns of catastrophic risk and testing ESU viability recommendations for 22 populations of the threatened Puget Sound chinook salmon ESU. We combined geospatial information about catastrophic risks and chinook salmon distribution in Puget Sound watersheds to categorize relative catastrophic risks for each population. We then analyzed similarities in risk scores among regions and compared risk distributions among strategies: (1) population groups selected using the ESU viability recommendations of having populations spread out geographically and including historical life-history diversity, and (2) population groups selected at random. Risks from individual catastrophes varied among populations, but overall risk from catastrophes was similar within geographic regions. Recovery strategies that called for two viable populations in each of five geographic regions had lower risk than random strategies; strategies that included life-history diversity had even lower risks. Geographically distributed populations have varying catastrophic-risks profiles, thus identifying and reinforcing the spatial and life-history diversity critical for populations to respond to environmental change or needed to rescue severely depleted or extirpated populations. Recovery planning can promote viability of Pacific salmon ESUs across the landscape by incorporating catastrophic risk assessments.