Showing papers by "University of Stirling published in 1972"

Personality in monkeys: factor analyses of rhesus social behaviour.

Abstract: Three factor analyses were performed on social interaction data from 168 juvenile macaques. Animals were tested in stable quadrad peer groups; in newly-formed dyads with infant, juvenile, and adult stimulus monkeys; and in similar triads with the stimulus animal plus a familiar cage-mate. Factors emerged, most strongly in the most stable condition, which were interpreted as affiliative, hostile and fearful. These factors were almost entirely independent and resembled the extraversion, psychoticism, and emotionality factors frequently found in humans. Stirling University Psychology Primate Unit, Stirling, FK9 4LA, Scotland. Institute of Psychiatry, University of London, London, S.E.5., England.

A small sonic tag for measurement of locomotor behaviour in fish

Abstract: A technique for measuring the patterns and levels of swimming activity of unrestrained fish in their natural environment during a period of 24 h is described. The fish were marked with small tags which emitted continuous ultrasonic signals by which they could be located and tracked using submerged, remotely controlled, directional hydrophones. Preliminary results obtained from 2 brown trout (Sahno trutta) showed a pronounced diurnal activity pattern and remarkably low swimming activity levels.

The effect of temperature on the oxygen consumption and filtration rate of Chlamys (Aequipecten) opercularis (L.) (Bivalvia)

Abstract: The oxygen consumption and filtration rate of the queen scallop, Chlamys (Aequipecten) opercularis has been studied simultaneously in animals of a wide size range, maintained at four different temperatures (5, 10, 15, 20°C) for known periods of acclimation of up to 7 weeks. The oxygen consumption was found to be markedly affected by temperature and the time of acclimation. The filtration rate was found to be affected by temperature, and the time of acclimation (at 5°C only), but to a lesser extent than oxygen consumption. Consequently the ratio of 1. filtered/ml O2 consumed was found to vary with temperature and perhaps acclimation time, and it is suggested that the relationship between oxygen consumption and filtration rate is not a fixed relationship.

Congruences and Green's relations on regular semigroups

Abstract: It is sometimes possible to reconstruct semigroups from some of their homomorphic images. Some recent examples have been the construction of bisimple inverse semigroups from fundamental bisimple inverse semigroups [9], and the construction of generalized inverse semigroups from inverse semigroups [12].

The polarization of characteristic X radiation excited by electron impact

Abstract: Using hydrogenic wavefunctions the cross sections for ionization of an atom from the magnetic substates of the L3 level are calculated in (i) the Bethe approximation, and (ii) the first Born approximation. Calculation (ii) differs from previous work of a similar nature in that it takes as axis of quantization, the direction of the incident electron beam. Hence the polarization of the resulting characteristic X radiation is estimated; it is found to be small in comparison with the degree of polarization which typically results from the excitation of optical lines, in marked disagreement with a previous calculation.

Information selection, arousal and memory.

Abstract: Two experiments were performed to investigate the effects of noise-induced arousal on immediate recall of visually presented paired-associate adjectives. Results of Expt. I suggest that the established finding that high arousal during learning impairs immediate recall is probably an artifact produced by the standard experimental technique of randomizing list order for each anticipation trial. When order is maintained over successive anticipation trials lists are better learned in noise, indicating that order cues receive heavier weighting in that situation. In a second experiment, which employs an A-B-A retroactive inhibition (RI) paradigm, RI is less when noise is present during the learning of list A, and greater when noise is present during the learning of list B. The results from the two experiments are interpreted as demonstrating increased processing of input in states of high arousal (as produced by temporary changes in environmental stimulation).

Age Changes in the Relationship between Neuroticism and Achievement

Abstract: Research on the relationship between anxiety (emotionality, neuroticism) and scholastic achievement or intelligence has given rise to a number of controversies. The results of empirical studies have variously indicated that students and schoolchildren attain higher achievements if they are somewhat anxious or neurotic (Furneaux, 1957; Leith and Davis, 1968) or if they are emotionally stable (Hallworth, 1961; Leith, 1969), and that an average degree of anxiety is optimal for intellectual tasks of 'moderate complexity' (Cox, I96o ; Lynn and Gordon, 1961). The last of these positions is implied by the Yerkes-Dodson law (1908), according to which amount of drive is related to performance. On simple tasks greater drive enhances performance, whereas with increase in task complexity both high and low drive results in poorer performance than an intermediate level. This has been confirmed with animals (Broadhurst, 195 7) and, on laboratory tasks, with humans (Matarazzo et al., 1955). While a number of writers have suggested that a curvilinear relationship between anxiety and academic attainment should exist, few investigators have succeeded in finding it in real life conditions. Thus Entwistle and Cunningham (I968), with more than 2,000 Aberdeen children aged I 3, obtained a linear regression, and although Eysenck and Cookson ( 1969) found a slight curve in a sample of 4,000 1 I year olds from Staffordshire, it was paradoxically the wrong way round. From Savage's (1962) data (on the average N scores of groups of first year students in Australia having from no passes to four on first year examinations) a non-linear relationship can be judged (calculation of,.,, from his table gives a value of o ·29), but there is no justification for concluding this is an inverted U relationship. On the other hand, Child (1964), with equal numbers of children between 11 and 15 years, found no evidence to suggest non-linearity in regression. Interpretation of the findings is confounded by the fact that there are no standards of task difficulty among the studies. There are

An aeromonad epidemic in the brown trout (Salmo trutta L.)

Abstract: The pathology and bacteriology of an aeromonad epidemic in the spawning population of brown trout (Salmo trutta L.) of the freshwater Loch Leven, Kinross, Scotland, is described, together with estimates of its quantitative effect on the stock of trout.

Reciprocating rod sealing means for hot gas engines

Abstract: In a hot gas engine of the Stirling type, a reciprocating piston rod is sealed by means of two stationary sealing glands spaced apart and a movable sealing gland in the space between the two stationary glands. A pressure chamber is provided on each side of the movable sealing gland with a pressure respectively in each pressure chamber on opposite sides of the fixed sealing glands, corresponding in magnitude to an operating pressure in one of the engine chambers.

The Recognition of a Planktonic Foraminiferid Datum in the London Clay of the Hampshire Basin

Abstract: A datum, marked by the first appearance of plaktonic species, is described from the London Clay of Whitecliff Bay and Alum Bay, Isle of Wight. Its value in the correlation of Lower Eocene sections in the Hampshire Basin is discussed.

Effect of soil fungistasis on spore germination and germ-tube growth in Penicillium species

Abstract: A comparison has been made of the effect of soil fungistasis on the speed of germination, the final percentage germination, and the growth rate of germ-tubes for the spores of 11 species of Penicillium. Soil fungistasis was capable of depressing all three parameters of germination with severe reduction in percentage performance in some instances. For any single species soil fungistasis did not depress all three parameters of germination equally but there was, however, among the different species, no consistent tendency for any one parameter to be more affected than another. The effect of soil fungistasis on the speed of germination and its effect on the final percentage germination were positively correlated in the same species, but the effect of soil fungistasis on the growth rate of germ-tubes was not positively correlated within the same species either with the effect on the speed of germination or on the final percentage germination. A statistically significant negative correlation existed, however, between the results obtained for the growth rate of germ-tubes and the final percentage germination so that a severe reduction in performance in one tended to be accompanied by a slight reduction in performance in the other and vice versa. It is suggested that the effect of soil fungistasis on the growth rate of germ-tubes may, under some circumstances, be the most significant ecologically, but a complete assessment of the ecological effects of soil fungistasis on a fungus species can only be based on measurements of the effect on all three parameters of germination.

Anthropologists' Declining Productivity in the Sociology of Witchcraft1

Abstract: There are two main lines of research stemming from Euans-Pritchard's classic study of witchcraft among the Azande. The first is the comparative study of cosmologies, which, inter alia, has thrown light on modern debates regarding the nature of scientific cosmology. The second has been concerned with the part played by accusations of witchcraft in micro-political processes. Even in the second of these research fields, the contributions of anthropologists have in recent years been eclipsed by those of scholars in other disciplines, in particular, historians and a lawyer. The virtual retirement of anthropologists from a field once indisputably their preserve has resulted, not from their clinging to an outworn paradigm, but rather from their failure to distinguish between the dogma derived from informants' statements and the social characteristics of accusers, witches, and victims aggregated from samples of case histories large enough to yield statistically significant results.

Criteria for the Validation or Invalidation of the Competitive Exclusion Principle

Abstract: A CONTROVERSY1,2 has arisen over the interpretation of the results of an experiment by Ayala3 purporting to invalidate the “competitive exclusion principle” which was defined in terms of the Volterra competition equations. The invalidation was based on a competition experiment between Drosophila serrata and D. pseudoobscura where the two species were in apparent equilibrium, and from which the following parameters were calculated: where K is the maximum number of individuals attainable when only one species is present, and N is the number actually observed at equilibrium. These parameters when estimated from Ayala's results were such that stability would not be predicted between the two competing species, and thus the competitive exclusion principle was rejected. Borowsky1 re-analysed the data, and concluded that a stable equilibrium was not present, and that the depression in yield of the mixed populations was caused by decreased fitness of each species from short term fluctuations in temperature that resulted in an environment optimal for neither species. Ayala subsequently2 replied to these criticisms.

Adaptation to speed distortions under water.

Abstract: A diver's face-mask normally makes close objects in clear water appear both enlarged and too near. Objects travelling across the line of sight therefore appear to move faster than in air, and objects moving along the line of sight slower. Subjects estimated the speed of a moving rod in air and water, before and after a 10 min. period spent swimming and playing a pegboard game under water. Twenty subjects were tested with the rod moving across, and 20 with it moving along, the line of sight. In both conditions subjects showed the expected directions of speed distortion in water, with significant adaptation and after-effects after 10 min. submersion. The results are consistent with the assumption that the type of speed perception measured here is largely dependent on size and distance perception, and that speed adaptation follows automatically from the correction of the spatial metric.

Adaptation and counteradaptation to complex optical distortion.

Abstract: The optical distortion caused by wearing a facemask in water magnifies the angular size of objects and reduces their optical distance. However, objects generallyappear to be further than their optical distance, with the result that points in the left part of the visual field are apparently displaced to the left, and those on the right to the right. Experiments on hand-eye coordination under water showed that adaptation to one aspect of the distortion produced some counteradaptation to complementary aspects: adaptation to distance produced increased lateral distortion, and adaptation to one side of the lateral distortion produced increased distortion on the opposite side. Nevertheless, “trading” was incomplete, and some overall adaptation of the visual metric occurred.

Foraminiferids from the London Clay at Lower Swanwick and their palaeoecological interpretation

Abstract: Sixteen foraminiferid assemblages have been studied from the London Clay succession at Lower Swanwick brickyard. These are divided into three faunules which are interpreted as indicating a shallow shelf regime with strong deltaic influences.

Three‐dimensional optimum multichannel velocity filters*

Abstract: Design procedures and characteristics of three stacking filters are discussed which may find application in various three-dimensional velocity filtering problems. These filters are derived in the time-domain as optimum multichannel Wiener filters. Random stationary functions are assumed as stochastic models for the seismic traces. All power and crosspower spectra which are the basic elements of the multichannel normal equations are statistically averaged according to specific three-dimensional considerations. Various properties of the input traces may be incorporated in the design of the optimum filters. With fairly general assumptions about the input these filters are deterministic in the sense that they are applicable to a broad class of input traces with similar statistics in amplitudes and arrival times of signals.

Almost commutative bands

Abstract: To find a “ description of the structure of bands which is complete modulo semilattices ” (from page 25 of [ 1 ]) seems to be a very difficult problem. As far as the author is aware, the only class of bands (except for rectangular bands) for which this problem has been solved (see [ 4 ] and [ 3 ]) is the class of all bands satisfying a generalization of commutativity, namely the condition that efgh = egfh for all elements e, f, g and h .

Means and method for regulating fuel combustion in an external combustion engine

Abstract: To regulate fuel for maintaining a continuous combustion of fuel at a known and constant temperature a fuel valve under constant pressure is opened and closed periodically at known time intervals which can be varied to regulate the mean rate of fuel supply. A temperature responsive element in the combustion chamber is connected with control means to regulate said intervals.