Helper contributions to reproductive success in the splendid fairy-wren (Malurus splendens)

Summary In Malurus splendens, helpers were present in 65% of 226 group-years with at least one helper female in 37% of group-years. Most females helped for only one year, while many males did so for at least two years. Most were offspring of one or both present breeders, and in 53% of helper-years, helped both parents. For 159 helpers of known age and parentage, the mean coefficient of relatedness to the offspring was 0.47. Novice females with or without helpers produced fewer fledglings per season than females with one year breeding experience and the same level of help. Helpers did not affect production of fledglings per year by females with one year of experience. Females with two or more years experience and at least two helpers produced more fledglings than equivalent birds with one or no helpers. Experience and helpers have little effect on production of fledglings per nest but they lead to more females renesting after a first brood has been raised. Fewer than 20% of novices renest after fledging one brood, while for females with at least two years experience, the percent renesting after success is 40% with no help, 56% with one helper and 69% with 2 or more helpers. Experienced females begin their first clutch earlier than novices, and helpers reduce the time to renest after success from 66 days for an experienced female with no helpers to 50 days for females with at least two years experience and two or more helpers. Breeding females with helpers survive better (76%) than those with no helpers (55%), and helpers thus gain future indirect fitness. Despite their close relatedness to breeders and offspring, in only 19% of group-years did helpers increase their indirect fitness from an increase in productivity.     

Artificial Neural Networks for Risk Decision Support in Natural Hazards: A Case Study of Assessing the Probability of House Survival from Bushfires

Risk decision-making in natural hazards encompasses a plethora of environmental, socio-economic and management-related factors, and benefits greatly from exploring possible patterns and relations among these multivariate factors. Artificial neural networks, capable of general pattern classifications, are potentially well suited for risk decision support in natural hazards. This paper reports an example that assesses the risk patterns or probabilities of house survival from bushfires using artificial neural networks, with a simulation data set based on the empirical study by Wilson and Ferguson (Predicting the probability of house survival during bushfires, Journal of Environmental Management 23 (1986) 259–270). The aim of this study was to re-model and predict the relationship between risk patterns of house survival and a series of independent variables. Various configurations for input and output variables were tested using neural networks. An approach for converting linguistic terms into crisp numbers was used to incorporate linguistic variables into the quantitative neural network analysis. After a series of tests, results show that neural networks are capable of predicting risk patterns under all tested configurations of input and output variables, with a great deal of flexibility. Risk-based mathematical functions, be they linear or non-linear, can be re-modelled using neural networks. Finally, the paper concludes that the artificial neural networks serve as a promising risk decision support tool in natural hazards.     

Staggered nested designs to assess scales of variability: the advantages of a spatially explicit analysis

A staggered nested sampling design was used to identify spatial scales of variation in the abundance of an intertidal clam Austrovenus stutchburyi. A georeferenced sampling design permitted assessment of abundance at spatial lags between 0.1 and 87 m. An analysis of variance approach produced imprecise estimates of variability, whereas spatially explicit analyses improved the resolution greatly. A geostatistical model identified the spatial scale of residual variance as 13 m and that of the asymptote of spatial dependence as 17 m. It also permitted mapping of bivalve abundance. Staggered nested designs are highly efficient for comparing hierarchies of scale, but in this study analysis of detailed positional information was required to tease out useful spatial information.     

Effectiveness of centralized bilge water treatment — a field study

Instrumentation and procedures were developed for gross and detailed characterization of oily wastewaters. The methodology was applied to the assessment of effectiveness of a centralized oily waste treatment facility. Generated data included total, dissolved, and suspended organic content and detailed chemical characteristics of oily water samples.The usefulness of the methodology was demonstrated in a real-life field study involving operation of a centralized oily waste treatment facility operated by the U.S. Army at Fort Eustis, Virginia, in 1976. It was found that the concentration of suspended organics ranged between 5 and 335 ppm and dissolved organics between 14 and 156 ppm in untreated bilge water.Treated bilge waste effluents contained essentially no suspended oil, but rather high (769–1262 ppm) amounts of dissolved organic matter.It was determined that physical methods of waste treatment based on gravity separation and coalescence are effective in removal of suspended petroleum, and that prolonged contact between an oil film and water results in water solubilization of petroleum, leading to very high concentrations of dissolved organic material in the treated effluent.     

The adverse health effects of biological aerosols, other aerosols, and indoor microclimate on asthmatics and nonasthmatics

Asthmatic and nonasthmatic families in a representative community population sample have been monitored over a 2-year period using daily diaries. Simultaneous micro-indoor and outdoor monitoring has been conducted in a representative sample of houses for air pollutants, pollen, fungi, algae, and climate. Macromonitoring of air pollutants and pollen was conducted simultaneously. The relationship of indoor to outdoor and micro to macro factors can be demonstrated. Acute symptoms were strongly related to age, weakly related to sex, and not related to smoking habits. The qualitative relationship of these micro and macro factors to symptoms in asthmatic and nonasthmatic families have been explored. Suspended particulate matter and pollen were related to symptoms in asthmatics and nonasthmatics. Fungi might be related to symptoms as well. The use of gas stoves is qualitatively related to symptoms. Algae and other contaminants of evaporative coolers do not appear to be important in producing symptoms. More complex statistical analyses are required to determine interactions of these factors. Distinction has to be drawn between infectious episodes, allergic episodes, nonallergic but similar episodes, and asthmatic attacks. This study demonstrates the need for further investigations in this area.     

Air infiltration measurements in a home using a convenient perfluorocarbon tracer technique

Using miniature perfluorocarbon tracer (PFT) sources and miniature passive samplers, both about the size of a cigarette, tests conducted in the laboratory and in a typical home successfully demonstrated the utility of the PFT kit as a means for implementing wide-scale infiltration measurements in homes. The PFT diffusion plug source, an elastomer containing a dissolved perfluorocarbon compound, was shown to emit vapors at the rate of about 0.1 to 5 nL/min, providing steady-state concentrations in a home of about 1 to 10 pL/L, i.e., parts per trillion by volume, when one source is deployed for each 300–500 ft² (28–46 m²) of living space. The emission rate from the diffusion source was predictable, but its dependence on both temperature and time suggested the development of alternative approaches. One such alternative, a liquid PFT permeation source, had emission rates which could be tailored over the range 10–20 nL/min, were independent of age for as long as the liquid remained ( 5 yr), and had significantly lower temperature dependence. A number of passive adsorption tube samplers performed reproducibly and identically (to within ±2%–3%) in laboratory tests. Together with a programmable tracer sampler, the miniature diffusion sources and samplers were deployed in a typical home; six PFT sources were uniformly deployed, three on each level of a two-story house. Multiple location sampling, as well as sampling in rooms with and without a miniature source, demonstrated that even in a house without forced-air circulation, a well-mixed modeling approach is justified. Analyses of the tracer samplers were performed back in the laboratory with an automatic electron-capture gas-chromatography system. The effects of the inside/outside temperature differential, as well as that of an open fireplace compared with a wood-burning stove, on the measured air infiltration rates were clearly demonstrated. Comparisons of the PFT tracer method with that of the SF₆ tracer decay approach showed the results of the two methods to be identical within experimental precision. With this miniature source and sampling tracer kit, infiltration rates in the range 0.2–5 air changes per hour can be measured over time-averaged periods of as little as 1 day up to several years.     

Search behavior of the checker-throated antwren foraging in aerial leaf litter

Summary Checker-throated antwrens (Formicariidae: Myrmotherula fulviventris) live in lowland neotropical forests and forage from dead curled leaves in the understory. Because they search each leaf individually they provide an opportunity to study the use of potential visual cues by an insectivorous bird. Long and highly curled leaves contain the most arthropods and checker-throated antwrens were more successful when foraging at those leaves. Yet, they used leaves at random with respect to these potential cues. Antwrens spent longer searching for arthropods in each highly curled leaf than in less curled leaves. Because of this additional search time, prey capture success per unit foraging time was only slightly greater for highly curled leaves than at the average dead leaf in the aerial leaf litter. Thus, the cues that antwrens could use to locate richer leaves are those features that obscure the prey from avian predators. Unlike other foraging systems, the antwrens appear to have no reliable cues indicating more profitable foraging sites.Address for correspondence     

Defeated chameleons darken dynamically during dyadic disputes to decrease danger from dominants

Research on intraspecific aggression has typically focused on dominant individuals, but a better understanding of the consequences and mechanisms of agonistic encounters requires a balanced perspective that includes knowledge of subordinate animal behaviors. In contrast to signals of fighting ability, signals of submission are an understudied component of agonistic communication that could provide important insights into the dynamics, function, and evolution of intraspecific competition. Here, I use a series of staged agonistic trials between adult male veiled chameleons Chamaeleo calyptratus to test the hypothesis that rapid skin darkening serves as a submissive signal to resolve agonistic activity. Concordant with this hypothesis, I found that losing chameleons darkened over the course of aggressive trials while winners brightened, and the likelihood of darkening increased when individuals were attacked more aggressively. Additionally, I found that the degree of brightness change exhibited by individual chameleons was tied to both overall and net aggression experienced during a trial, with chameleons who received high levels of aggression relative to their own aggression levels darkening to a greater extent than individuals receiving relatively less aggression. Lastly, I found that aggression increased for losers and winners prior to the onset of darkening by the eventual loser but that both chameleons reduced aggression after the losing chameleon began to darken. Based on the theoretical prediction that signals of submission should be favored when retreat options are restricted, I suggest that limited escapability imposed by chameleon morphology, physiology, and ecology favored the evolution of a pigment-based signal of submission in this group.