Cultural and socio-demographic predictors of car accident involvement in Norway,Ghana, Tanzania and Uganda

The prevalence of road traffic accidents is increasing towards endemic proportions in developing countries. The present study investigated cultural and demographic predictors of car accident involvement in a developed country in Europe and three developing countries in Sub-Saharan Africa. The comparison was carried out with questionnaires among a randomly obtained representative sample of the Norwegian population (n = 247) as well as stratified samples in Accra and Cape-Coast in Ghana (n = 299), Dar-es-Salaam and Arusha areas in Tanzania (n = 599), and the central Kampala and the Mbarara district in Uganda (n = 415). Measurement instruments of culture as symbol exchange and destiny orientation were used to predict self-reported road traffic accident involvement by car among the respondents. Demographic characteristics, such as gender, age and education, were also included as predictors of car accidents. The results showed that male gender was the only significant predictor of accident involvement in Norway. Introverted and extroverted culture, destiny orientation and written culture were associated with accident involvement in the African countries. Male gender also predicted accidents in these countries. Non-technical injury preventive countermeasures in developing countries could focus on cultural practice and fatalistic beliefs. Countermeasures in both developed and developing countries should target male drivers.     

Local hegemonies resisting a green shift and what to do about it: the introduction of a regional park in southern Norway

In the Lister region in the southern part of Norway, attempts are currently being made to facilitate for a green shift. The paper discusses two different approaches towards such a challenge. The first is procedural, where success or failure hinges on the methods applied in the effort to convince locals to incorporate climate considerations. The alternative is to reflect upon how a green ideology blends into pre-existing ideological elements in the region. It is claimed that an important reason for the failure so far to place the environment at the core of regional development, is that too much emphasis has been put on the first approach, on procedure and dialogue, whereas few efforts have been made to understand the structure of the discursive terrain in the region. What prevents a green shift has less to do with methods and is more connected to the dominance of a logic of economic growth and the fact that locals are confident that nature is already dealt with in a sensible manner. The conclusion is that we need to understand what people are concerned about and what prevents them to change, before we start telling them how to think and do development.     

Certainty of paternity covaries with paternal care in birds

Summary Male investment in parental care has been hypothesized to be affected or not to be affected by their certainty of paternity, depending on the particular assumptions of theoretical models. We used data on paternal care and extra-pair paternity from 52 bird species to determine whether male parental care was related to certainity of paternity. Paternal care was measured as the relative male contribution to nest building, courtship feeding, incubation, and feeding of nestlings, respectively. Males of avian taxa did not provide less parental care during nest building, courtship feeding and incubation if the frequency of extra-pair paternity was high. However, male participation in feeding of offspring was significantly negatively related to the frequency of extra-pair paternity. This was also the case when the effects of potentially confounding variables such as developmental mode of offspring (which may result in males being freed from parental duties), extent of polygyny (which may result in less paternal care), and the frequency of multiple clutches during one breeding season (which may increase the probability of finding fertile females during the nestling period) were controlled statistically. These results suggest that the extent of paternal care has been affected by certainty of paternity, and that sex roles during the energetically most expensive parts of reproduction have been shaped by sperm competition.     

Adaptations of meadow pipits to parasitism by the common cuckoo

Summary The meadow pipit Anthus pratensis is one of the most frequent hosts in Europe parasitized by the common cuckoo Cuculus canorus. The cuckoo normally removes one or more of the host eggs and replaces them with one of its own. The aim of the present study, which was conducted in an upland area of Central Norway, was to test the following question: assuming the cuckoo has laid a mimetic egg (which is slightly larger than and slightly different in color from that of a meadow pipit egg), under what circumstances are the parent meadow pipits able to detect such parasitism? The reaction of the meadow pipits to artificial parasitism was tested. Plastic model cuckoo eggs were used that bore a striking resemblance to real cuckoo eggs found in other meadow pipit nests in the same area. In addition, in some experiments a stuffed cuckoo dummy was used. The meadow pipits tolerated the experimental procedures and remained in their nests when given an artificial cuckoo egg, with or without removal of one of the host's eggs. However, when a host egg was removed and replaced with an artificial cuckoo egg, and at the same time a stuffed cuckoo dummy was presente, 50% of the birds deserted their nests. The difference between this result and the results of the other experiments was statistically significant. When only the stuffed cuckoo was presented, without any egg manipulations, the meadow pipits reacted in the same way as in the egg experiments. We conclude that the meadow pipit is capable of detecting whether or not its nest has been parasitized, provided it has observed the cuckoo near the nest site. Furthermore, because of the results of our experiments, we reject the hypothesis that the cuckoo has evolved egg removal behavior in order to prevent the host from assessing an increase in egg numbers.     

A hydromechanical principle for particle retention in Mytilus edulis and other ciliary suspension feeders

It is generally thought that the laterofrontal cirri of the bivalve gill act as filters that retain suspended particles in the through current and transfer the particles onto the frontal surface of the gill filaments. In Mytilus edulis calculations indicated that if water passed between the branching cilia of the cirri that are assumed to constitute the filter the pressure drop needed would amount to about 10 times the actual pressure drop across the whole gill. Thus, instead of acting as filters the laterofrontal cirri seem to move water. Presumably, the cirri together with the frontal cilia produce the water currents along the frontal surface of the gill filaments. Particle retention in the bivalve gill implies the transfer of suspended particles from the current of water about to enter an interfilamentar space into a neighbouring frontal surface current. The complex three-dimensional pattern of flow that arises where the 2 systems of current meet is characterized by steep velocity gradients. Particles that enter such steep, steady velocity gradients become exposed to transverse forces that cause the particles to migrate perpendicularly to the direction of flow. Whether particles enter the surface current, i.e. are retained, or they stay within the through current andescape, depends primarily upon particle size, and upon the steepness and height of the gradients within the boundary zone between the surface current and through current. Further studies are needed to evaluate the capacities and relative importance of this hydromechanical particle-trapping mechanism in suspension feeding bivalves. It is suggested that in downstream particle-retaining systems, e.g. on the tentacles of polychaetes and entoprocts, velocity gradients between through currents and surface currents also act as the particle-collecting mechanism.     

Male sperm whale (Physeter macrocephalus) acoustics in a high-latitude habitat: implications for echolocation and communication

Sperm whales (Physeter macrocephalus) are deep-diving predators foraging in meso- and bathypelagic ecosystems off the continental shelves. To investigate the ecophysiological and communicative function of various click types from male sperm whales in a high-latitude habitat, we deployed a large-aperture array of calibrated hydrophones off northern Norway (N69, E15). Data show that sperm whales in this habitat produce three click types: usual clicks, creak clicks and, occasionally, slow clicks. Usual clicks and creak clicks exhibit short duration, profound directionality and a frequency content suited for echolocation on meso- and bathypelagic fish and squids. The acoustic properties and low repetition rate of usual clicks are suited for long-range echolocation, whereas creak clicks have properties equivalent to signals in buzzes, the terminating pulse trains known from echolocating bats during prey capture. From these source parameters and the high acoustic activity during foraging dives, it is concluded that echolocation is an important sensory cue in prey location. Sound pressure levels of creak clicks and usual clicks measured off the acoustic axis suggest that sperm whales may be subjected to eavesdropping by conspecifics, thereby conveying information about food aggregations at estimated ranges of 6 km for creak clicks and 16 km for usual clicks. Slow clicks exhibit low directionality, low-frequency emphasis and a reduced repetition rate, suggesting that this click type is more suited for communication than for echolocation. Slow clicks can be detected by submerged conspecifics at ranges up to 60 km. Thus, sperm whales producing slow clicks may represent an odontocete species that utilizes long-range sound communication.