Perceptions of trends in Seychelles artisanal trap fisheries: comparing catch monitoring, underwater visual census and fishers' knowledge

Fisheries scientists and managers are increasingly engaging with fishers' knowledge (FK) to provide novel information and improve the legitimacy of fisheries governance. Disputes between the perceptions of fishers and scientists can generate conflicts for governance, but can also be a source of new perspectives or understandings. This paper compares artisanal trap fishers' reported current catch rates with landings data and underwater visual census (UVC). Fishers' reports of contemporary 'normal' catch per day tended to be higher than recent median landings records. However, fishers' reports of 'normal' catch per trap were not significantly different from the median CPUE calculated from landings data, and reports of 'good' and 'poor' catch rates were indicative of variability observed in landings data. FK, landings and UVC data all gave different perspectives of trends over a ten-year period. Fishers' perceptions indicated greater declines than statistical models fitted to landings data, while UVC evidence for trends varied between sites and according to the fish assemblage considered. Divergence in trend perceptions may have resulted from differences in the spatial, temporal or taxonomic focus of each dataset. Fishers may have experienced and understood behavioural changes and increased fishing power, which may have obscured declines from landings data. Various psychological factors affect memory and recall, and may have affected these memory-based estimates of trends, while different assumptions underlying the analysis of both interview data and conventional scientific data could also have led to qualitatively different trend perceptions. Differing perspectives from these three data sources illustrate both the potential for 'cognitive conflicts' between stakeholders who do not rely on the same data sources, as well as the importance of multiple information sources to understand dynamics of fisheries. Collaborative investigation of such divergence may facilitate learning and improve fisheries governance

αV-Integrins Are Required for Mechanotransduction in MDCK Epithelial Cells

The properties of epithelial cells within tissues are regulated by their immediate microenvironment, which consists of neighboring cells and the extracellular matrix (ECM). Integrin heterodimers orchestrate dynamic assembly and disassembly of cell-ECM connections and thereby convey biochemical and mechanical information from the ECM into cells. However, the specific contributions and functional hierarchy between different integrin heterodimers in the regulation of focal adhesion dynamics in epithelial cells are incompletely understood. Here, we have studied the functions of RGD-binding αV-integrins in a Madin Darby Canine Kidney (MDCK) cell model and found that αV-integrins regulate the maturation of focal adhesions (FAs) and cell spreading. αV-integrin-deficient MDCK cells bound collagen I (Col I) substrate via α2β1-integrins but failed to efficiently recruit FA components such as talin, focal adhesion kinase (FAK), vinculin and integrin-linked kinase (ILK). The apparent inability to mature α2β1-integrin-mediated FAs and link them to cellular actin cytoskeleton led to disrupted mechanotransduction in αV-integrin deficient cells seeded onto Col I substrate

Evaluation Of A Group Cognitive-Behavioral Depression Prevention Program For Young Adolescents: A Randomized Effectiveness Trial

Depression is a common psychological problem in adolescence. Recent research suggests that group cognitive-behavioral interventions can reduce and prevent symptoms of depression in youth. Few studies have tested the effectiveness of such interventions when delivered by school teachers and counselors (as opposed to research team staff). We evaluated the effectiveness of the Penn Resiliency Program for adolescents (PRP-A), a school-based group intervention that targets cognitive behavioral risk factors for depression. We randomly assigned 408 middle school students (ages 10–15) to one of three conditions: PRP-A, PRP-AP (in which adolescents participated in PRP-A and parents were invited to attend a parent intervention component), or a school-as-usual control. Adolescents completed measures of depression and anxiety symptoms, cognitive style, and coping at baseline, immediately after the intervention, and at 6-month follow-up. PRP-A reduced depression symptoms relative to the school as usual control. Baseline levels of hopelessness moderated intervention effects. Among participants with average and high levels of hopelessness, PRP (A and AP) significantly improved depression symptoms, anxiety symptoms, hopelessness, and active coping relative to control. Among participants with low baseline hopelessness, we found no intervention effects. PRP-AP was not more effective than PRP-A alone. We found no intervention effects on clinical levels of depression or anxiety. These findings suggest that cognitive-behavioral interventions can be beneficial when delivered by school teachers and counselors. These interventions may be most helpful to students with elevated hopelessness

Social representations of history, wars and politics in Latin America, Europe and Africa

This study analyzes how people perceive world history on three continents: Latin America, Europe and Africa. A total of 1179 university students form Argentina, Brazil, Peru, Portugal, Spain, Guinea-Bissau, and Cape Verde were asked to evaluate world events and leaders in terms of their valence and importance. The results demonstrated that social representations of history show a Euro/North American-centric, long-term positive evaluation, recency, and socio- centric bias. Euro/North American-centric events and leaders were found to be rated as more important and were more positively perceived in general. Distant political events, like French or American Revolution, were considered to be more positive than XX century similar events, which supports the long-term positive evaluation bias hypothesis. The hypothesis on recency bias was partially substantiated. Confirming the existence of such bias, World War II was rated as more important than the previous XX century wars and revolutions. Socio-centric bias also received partial support. African participants rated Mandela as a more important leader than other participants did. Latin Americans rated Che Guevara less positively, which suggests that some leaders are generally idealized icons, not based on group belongingness. However, results did not bring support to the centrality of war hypothesis. Wars were indeed negatively evaluated and World War II was rated as an important and negative event. Nevertheless, war- and politics-related events were not perceived as more important than the Industrial Revolution, suggesting that people appraise the importance of long-term socioeconomic factors of history when responding to close-ended quantitative measures (vs. open-ended salience measures). Results are discussed in the framework of social representations of history.El estudio analiza como las personas perciben la historia mundial en tres continentes: Latinoamérica, Europa y África. 1179 estudiantes universitarios de Argentina, Brasil, Perú, Portugal, España, Guinea-Bissau y Cabo Verde evaluaron una lista de eventos mundiales y líderes en lo que concierne a su valoración e importancia. Los resultados han mostrado que la representación social de la historia se caracteriza por un Euro centrismo, una evaluación positiva a largo plazo, y por sesgos socio-céntricos. Los eventos “Occidentales” (vinculados a Europa y Norteamérica) fueron evaluados como más importantes y percibidos más positivamente que los no-Occidentales. Eventos políticos distantes, como la Revolución Francesa o Americana, fueron evaluados más positivamente que eventos similares del siglo XX, apoyando la hipótesis de la evaluación positiva del pasado lejano. La hipótesis del sesgo de recencia o proximidad fue parcialmente confirmada, ya que la II Guerra Mundial fue evaluada como más importante que revoluciones o guerras anteriores al siglo XX. El sesgo socio-céntrico también recibe apoyo parcial. Los africanos consideraron a Mandela como un líder más importante comparado con los otros participantes. Los Latinos americanos evaluaron Che Guevara menos positivamente, lo que sugiere que ciertos líderes son generalmente íconos idealizados, y su valoración positiva no se basa en la proximidad o la pertenencia grupal. Sin embargo, los resultados no apoyaron la hipótesis de la centralidad de la guerra. Las guerras fueron efectivamente evaluadas negativamente y la II Guerra Mundial fue evaluado como la guerra más importante y como un evento muy negativo. No obstante, las guerras y eventos políticos relacionados con la violencia no fueron percibidos como más importantes que la Revolución industrial, sugiriendo que las personas valoran la importancia general de los factores históricos socioeconómicos cuando responden a medidas cuantitativas cerradas (vs. medidas abiertas). Los resultados se analizan desde el marco teórico de las representaciones sociales de la Historia

Curvature Covariation as a Factor in Perceptual Salience

The salience of a contour depends upon several factors, including continuity, closure and curvature consistency. We analyze the statistics of curvature variation using a single image from Shimon Ullman’s [1] original work on contour salience. We develop a measure based on the arc length of a contour segment over which curvature variation remains within a constrained range. Locally, all contours in the image are similar with respect to curvature consistency. However, when the entire contour is considered, the most salient contours are found to have the most consistent curvatures. This finding reinforces Ullman’s point that salience is a global property of the object. We interpret these results in view of Rosenholtz’s [2] recent model of salience as a statistical measure of outliers from a population. In addition, we speculate on the visual cortical mechanisms in striate and extrastriate cortex required to carry out salience measurements on this class of images

Motif System in Oral Narratives of Rural Population about Starvation in Ulyanovsk Volga Region in 1941-1945

The narratives on starvation in the rear during the Great Patriotic war on the territory of the Ulyanovsk Volga region are analysed. It is shown that they functioned primarily in the family sphere and were the means of transmitting not only life experience, but also family “symbolic capital.” The analysis of 43 oral stories found that they include a number of repeating and persistent motifs of different frequency. Different degree of development of motifs in the narrative is noted. Utterances about starvation typical to such texts which express the attitude of the narrator to events or associate the past experience with the time of telling are highlighted. The example of motivic organization is the analysis of oral story in which the motifs themselves, and some types of relations between them (thematic, associative) are most fully represented. It is shown that in some narratives some of these motifs are combined with references about various household details, descriptions of the experiences of the characters. The conclusion is that the narratives about Great Patriotic war can form complete plot that are separate stories or plot-compositional elements of a complex narrative

Oral Histories about the Famine of 1941-1945 as the Source of Knowledge of the Everyday Life of the Rural Population of the Ulyanovsk Area of Volga Region

Based the analysis of narratives about hunger in the rear areas during the great Patriotic war some features of everyday life of rural population in the territory of the Ulyanovsk Area of Volga Region are analyzed. It is noted that the daily life of Russian female peasants is revealed mainly in memories. It is shown that, despite the extreme conditions of life and fundamental change in the composition of the family, everyday life of a woman included the same basic elements as during peacetime: obtaining and preparation of food, raising children, work on the garden plot, the maintenance of family and neighborly relations, the performance of labor and economic duties to the State, including the local authorities. However, as the author of the article emphasizes, the realities of wartime have transformed these components of everyday life significantly, prioritizing the development of a strategy of physical survival and, above all, the overcoming of hunger and its consequences. As is established by the analysis of narratives, that is why during wartime were the diet and those everyday life practices that had been developed by the Russian peasantry to overcome hunger in the XIX century and the first third of the XX century were revitalized. Thanks to the analysis of oral stories about hunger in 1941-1945 it became possible to reveal in detail the emotional and personal perception as well as experiences of Russian female peasants during the wartime. Like any study of everyday life, the analysis may significantly complement and change the historical knowledge of that time

Mark’s Mountain: Certain Features of Current Existence of Legends about Robbers

The legends about the robber Mark is analysed, whose name refer to a small hill near the village Sadovoye of Novospassky district of the Ulyanovsk region. It is noted that holding the name of a real person in the name of the settlement or natural object is one of the ways of preserving national historical memory, as well as an important and meaningful component of the cultural landscape. It is shown that oral stories about the robber Mark develops some typical motifs: indication of the place of stay, “noble” robbery, help to farmers etc. It is noted that the motif of the secret love of Mark is unusual, having a detailed plot. It is indicated that the analysis of the current existence of legends demonstrates their widespread popularity. The author notes that, in addition to the traditional method of retranslation - orally in the family from older to younger, there are other ways: through the media, museum, school. The assimilation of legends can also occur non-traditionally, that is, not from older to younger, but, on the contrary, from junior to senior, if the latter settle in the area. It is shown that historians, cultural workers strive to give Mark’s mountain as a cultural landscape object the status of a local brand

Genre Specificity of Oral Histories about Starvation of 1941- 1945

The genre specificity of oral histories about starvation of 1941-1945 is covered. The review of the main works on the history of study of oral history in the national folklore is made. Consideration of the oral history as a speech genre allowed to establish that taking into account the peculiarities of oral speech helps to understand some of its properties in a new way, which, in turn, allows to rethink the traditional folkloristic approach to its analysis. It is shown that certain types of oral histories have a dual genre nature - on the one hand, they are speech genres, and on the other - folklore. The analysis of oral histories about starvation of 1941-1945 in the context of other works of reliable stereotypical prose, including those about fighting on the fronts of the Great Patriotic war, the blockade experience, the stay in captivity, led to the conclusion that a group of oral histories about starvation of 1941-1945 can be identified as a type of speech genre memories. It is shown that at the same time it is possible to define such stories as a folklore phenomenon representing a kind of a genre of the oral story devoted to the narration about a person in an extreme life situation

Laughter Contest in Traditional Russian Wedding of 19 - early 21 Centuries

The author describes the experience of many years of work on the study of laughter in the Russian folk wedding. In this work, in particular, one of the forms of its embodiment in the Russian traditional and modern wedding is considered. Special attention is paid to such rites as Courtship, Visiting the groom’s house by girls, Ransoms in the bride’s house. It is shown that these and other wedding rites that require active interaction of the parties were very often at the same time laugh competitions, which clearly manifested mastery of such a type of folk eloquence, which is called balagurstvo . This competition, which was a dialogue, includes both spontaneous and stereotypical speech statements, in particular, such folklore genres as groomsman’s sayings and korilnye songs were replicas of the parties. The article proves that in the modern wedding this speech competition not only has been further developed and strengthened, but could already be implemented with the simultaneous use of oral and written speech, including official documents. Greater development in modern wedding also got not a verbal contest of parties, but action accompanying of humorous dialogue, which could use items having in the specific wedding situation a humorous meaning (for example, setting the table for guests by food waste instead of holiday treats)