Piracy in Russia and China: A Different U.S. Reaction

Both Russia and China refused to adopt international copyright agreements until pressured by other countries, particularly the US. The US has pursued China\u27s copyright abuses more aggressively than it has pursued similar abuses by Russia. Neigel attempts to explain the reasons for this disparate treatment

Histocompatibility bioassays of population structure in marine sponges: Clonal structure in verongia longissima and lotrochota birotulata

Clonal population structure in two marine sponges, Verongia longissimia and lotrochota birotulata, was examined with a self-recognition bioassay. The bioassay consists of grafts of branch segments between conspecific individuals. Results were consistent with the operational properties expected of a precise histocompatibility system. Autografts exhibited acceptance responses; grafts between individuals separated by large distances exhibited rejection responses; Individuals were not limited to a single mode of response at one time; and all identity relationships were transitive. Clonal population structure was assessed by examining the relationship between graft response and donor-to-recipient distance, and by actually mapping the distributions of particular clones. Clones of lotrochota birotulata were usually restricted to single coral heads or small patch reefs (1-3 m diameter). For Verongla longissima, which can grow directly upon the coral rubble surrounding coral heads and patch reefs, individual clones often occupied larger areas (up to 10 m diameter). The spatial patterns of clonal distributions are readily interpreted as consequences of the particular demographies and habitat specificitles of these two species. / 1983, American Genetic Association

High Genetic Diversity and Low Differentiation of Michelia coriacea (Magnoliaceae), a Critically Endangered Endemic in Southeast Yunnan, China

Michelia coriacea, a critically endangered tree, has a restricted and fragmented distribution in Southeast Yunnan Province, China. The genetic diversity, genetic structure and gene flow in the three extant populations of this species were detected by 10 inter-simple sequence repeat (ISSR) markers and 11 simple sequence repeat (SSR) markers. Examination of genetic diversity revealed that the species maintained a relatively high level of genetic diversity at the species level (percentage of polymorphic bands) PPB = 96.36% from ISSRs; PPL (percentage of polymorphic loci) = 95.56% from SSRs, despite several fragmental populations. Low levels of genetic differentiation among the populations of M. coriacea were detected by Nei’s Gst = 0.187 for ISSR and Wright’s Fst = 0.090 for SSR markers, which is further confirmed by Bayesian model-based STRUCTURE and PCoA analysis that could not reveal a clear separation between populations, although YKP was differentiated to other two populations by ISSR markers. Meanwhile, AMOVA analysis also indicated that 22.84% and 13.90% of genetic variation existed among populations for ISSRs and SSRs, respectively. The high level of genetic diversity, low genetic differentiation, and the population, structure imply that the fragmented habitat and the isolated population of M. coriacea may be due to recent over-exploitation. Conservation and management of M. coriacea should concentrate on maintaining the high level of genetic variability through both in and ex-situ conservation actions

Beyond Compliance: Examining the Role of Motivation in Vigilance Performance

Vigilance, or sustained attention, is the capacity to attend to information for a prolonged period of time (Davies & Parasuraman, 1982; Jerison, 1970; Warm, 1977). Due to limitations of the human nervous system, as well as the environmental context, attention can begin to wane over time. This results in a phenomenon referred to as the vigilance decrement, or a decline in vigilance performance as a function of time. The vigilance decrement can manifest as poorer attention and is thusly associated with poor performance, which is defined behaviorally as more lapses in the detection of critical signals and an increase in response time to these signals during watch. Given this, the present dissertation seeks to systematically examine the impact of two types of motivation (i.e., achievement motivation, autonomous motivation) on vigilance performance across four experiments. The present experiments manipulate information processing type, source complexity, and motivational task demands. Three hundred and ninety-eight participants completed either a cognitive task or sensory task, which were psychophysically equated in previous studies (Szalma & Teo, 2012; Teo, Szalma, & Schmidt, 2011), with or without motivational instructions, and with either low, medium, or high source complexity. Performance measures, perceived stress and workload, and changes to state motivation and engagement at pre-task and post-task are interpreted across three theories of information processing: resource-depletion theory, mind-wandering theory, and mindlessness theory. The results of each of the four studies are discussed in terms of overall support for the resource-depletionist account. The limitations of the present set of experiments and the future directions for research on motivation and sustained attention are also discussed

Opinion Formation Threshold Estimates from Different Combinations of Social Media Data-Types

Passive consumption of a quantifiable amount of social media information related to a topic can cause individuals to form opinions. If a substantial amount of these individuals are motivated to take action from their recently established opinions, a movement or public opinion shift can be induced independent of the information’s veracity. Given that social media is ubiquitous in modern society, it is imperative that we understand the threshold at which social media data results in opinion formation. The present study estimates population opinion formation thresholds by querying 2222 participants about the number of various social media data-types (i.e., images, videos, and/or messages) that they would need to passively consume to form opinions. Opinion formation is assessed across three dimensions, 1) data-type(s), 2) context, 3) and source. This work provides a theoretical basis for estimating the amount of data needed to influence a population through social media information

Does This Feel Empowering? Using Métissage to Explore the Effects of Critical Pedagogy

The extent to which critical pedagogy disrupts the relations of dominance inside postsecondary classrooms, or empowers students to take socially just action beyond the classroom has been debated and challenged for decades. Through the use of métissage, an interpretive inquiry method that affords collaborative interrogation of individual autoethnographic writings, we five participants in the same critical pedagogy course conducted a post-course inquiry project in order to explore what we had learned through the course.  Through this inquiry project, we have come to a deeper understanding of critical pedagogy praxis.  Ultimately, what we learned through the use of this inquiry method maintains important implications for postsecondary educators

Chaotic genetic patchiness without sweepstakes reproduction in the shore crab Hemigrapsus oregonensis

Fine-scale spatial and temporal variation in the genetic composition of benthic recruits, known as chaotic genetic patchiness, is often observed in marine and estuarine species with planktonic larvae. Several explanations have been proposed for chaotic genetic patchiness, including sweepstakes reproductive success, variability in larval source, and natural selection. In a survey of the green shore crab Hemigrapsus oregonensis in Bodega Bay, California, USA, allele frequencies at a mitochondrial single nucleotide polymorphism were found to differ significantly among samples of first-stage zoeae and between zoeae and adults. Sweepstakes reproductive success is unlikely to be responsible because the fecundity of this species is too low and there was no reduction in genetic diversity among zoeae. In principle, influxes of larvae from genetically distinct populations over 500 km to the north could have caused these differences; however, coalescent estimates indicated that gene flow from these distant populations has been very low and it is unlikely that first-stage zoeae would have been transported such great distances. The possibility remains that natural selection, directly or indirectly, is responsible for the observed patchiness in mitochondrial allele frequencies