Preference in flower visits and partitioning in pollen diets of stingless bees in an Asian tropical rain forest

Floral resource partitioning among stingless bees (Trigona, Meliponini, Apidae) in a lowland rain forest in Sarawak, Malaysia, was investigated using tree towers and walkways in a 4-year study that included a general flowering period. We obtained 100 collections of insect visitors to flowers of varying floral location and shape representing 81 plant species. The tendency of 11 species of stingless bees to visit specific flowers with a particular floral location and shape was analyzed by logistic regression analysis. This analysis showed that the proportion of flower visitor collections containing Trigona fuscobalteata and T. melanocephala differed according to floral location. The former was frequently collected at canopy and gap flowers, whereas the latter was most often collected at understory flowers. The analysis also suggested that T. erythrogastra was more rarely collected at shallow flowers than at deep flowers. Analysis of the pollen diets of T. collina, T. fuscobalteata, T. melanocephala, and T. melina revealed that similarity of pollen sources differed among the six permutated pairs of the four species. The lowest mean rank of similarity found was between T. fuscobalteata and T. melanocephala. This result supports the hypothesis that preference in visiting flowers in different locations leads to pollen resource partitioning. Received: May 14, 1997 / Accepted: April 23, 1999     

Retrospective information on health status and its application for population health measures

Healthy life expectancies are almost always calculated by using health data from cross-sectional surveys. This type of calculation is done partly because data from longitudinal surveys are not always available, and when they are available, they are collected at intervals that are longer than one year. In such cases, collecting health information retrospectively for the years skipped by the survey is useful. The main purpose of this paper is to show how retrospective health information can be used to estimate life expectancies in different health states. Healthy life expectancies are estimated with and without using data on retrospective health information, and the corresponding estimates are compared. The two sets of estimates are similar. We conclude that retrospectively assessed health information based on a one-year recall period can be used to estimate years of life in various health states and that estimates based on such information will closely approximate estimates based on concurrent health information.     

MANAGING ACADEMIC INTERDISCIPLINARY RESEARCH PROJECTS*

This field study provides variables that can be used by practitioners as action levers and by future researchers as the basis for theoretical development. Conclusions from relevant literature and findings from interviews with interdisciplinary research management identified forty variables that were viewed as important to interdisciplinary research project success. After adjusting the data for reliability attenuation, these variables were further analyzed to identify the best prediction equation. The findings suggested that project age or the longevity of the project and open discussion of disagreements were the best predictors of performance.     

When Adaptations Go Awry: Functional and Dysfunctional Aspects of Social Anxiety

Adaptations are psychological and behavioral mechanisms designed through evolution to serve specific purposes ultimately related to reproductive success. Although adaptations are inherently functional, in some cases their operation can nevertheless cause personal and social dysfunction. We describe a theoretical framework for understanding, predicting, and reducing the dysfunctional consequences of psychological adaptations. We discuss three general sources of dysfunction: a) the existence of adaptive tradeoffs, b) mismatches between current environments and ancestral environments, and c) individual differences. The paper applies this framework primarily to the topic of social anxiety, a psychological phenomenon marked by concerns pertaining to social rejection and embarrassment. Although social anxiety can serve useful functions, it can also involve excessive worry, negative affect, and avoidance of social situations, leading to significant distress and social impairment. We consider sources of dysfunction in social anxiety and discuss implications for policy, including recommendations for psychological, situational, and biological interventions. We also discuss broader applications of this theoretical framework to other areas of social life.     

On Christensen's conjecture

In this paper we give solution to a conjecture appearing in Christensen (1997, p. 360) in relation to the definitions of standardized residuals in loglinear models. Work done when he was visiting as the Distinguished Lukacs Professor on leave from the Complutense University of Madrid. An erratum to this article is available at .     

Retracted and replaced: Sodium cromoglicate: an ineffective drug or meta‐analysis misused?

The following article from Pharmaceutical Statistics, Sodium cromoglicate: an ineffective drug or meta‐analysis misused? by M. T. Stevens, A. M. Edwards, J. B. L. Howell published online on 15 March 2007 in Wiley InterScience ( www.interscience.wiley.com ), has been retracted by agreement between the author, the journal Editor in Chief, Steven Julious, and John Wiley & Sons, Ltd. The retraction has been agreed because the article is not yet ready for publication and an early version without revisions was published in error. Replacement article pending. Copyright © 2007 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Institutions,inculcation, and black racial identity: pigmentocracy vs. the rule of hypodescent

This research paper investigates the effect political institutions have on black racial identity. In particular, I study individual inculcation in contexts where political institutions institutionalize either of two forms of racial social structures – a pigmentocracy (the Dominican Republic), or the rule of hypodescent (the US South), and the effect such inculcation has on black racial identity. I sampled 101 respondents from the Dominican Republic and 102 from the state of Mississippi, USA. Consistent with the basic assumptions of my hypotheses, respondents in the Dominican Republic study sites showed a weaker degree of identification with blackness vis-à-vis something ‘whiter’. Nevertheless, respondents in the Dominican Republic sites demonstrated a stronger identification with blackness than what most conventional observers would have anticipated. Respondents in the Mississippi study sites showed a stronger sense of identification with blackness. Surprisingly, however, Mississippi respondents demonstrated a larger degree of neutrality than expected in their belief of being of a mixed racial heritage rather than just a black African heritage.     

The EPA Health Risk Assessment of Methylcyclopentadienyl Manganese Tricarbonyl (MMT)

This paper describes the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency's assessment of potential health risks associated with the possible widespread use of a manganese (Mn)-based fuel additive, methylcyclopentadienyl manganese tricarbonyl (MMT). This assessment was significant in several respects and may be instructive in identifying certain methodological issues of general relevance to risk assessment. A major feature of the inhalation health risk assessment was the derivation of Mn inhalation reference concentration (RfC) estimates using various statistical approaches, including benchmark dose and Bayesian analyses. The exposure assessment component used data from the Particle Total Exposure Assessment Methodology (PTEAM) study and other sources to estimate personal exposure levels of particulate Mn attributable to the permitted use of MMT in leaded gasoline in Riverside, CA, at the time of the PTEAM study; on this basis it was then possible to predict a distribution of possible future exposure levels associated with the use of MMT in all unleaded gasoline. Qualitative as well as quantitative aspects of the risk characterization are summarized, along with inherent uncertainties due to data limitations.     

Modelling Variability in the Branching Structure of Strawberry Inflorescences

The branching structure of inflorescences of the cultivated strawberry ( Fragaria × ananassa Duch.) is very variable. This paper demonstrates that some aspects of this variability are well described by a simple stochastic model of branching that has two adjustable parameters. The model is shown to provide a good fit to data from a set of almost 700 inflorescences of the cultivar Elsanta, collected over two successive years. For one parameter the maximum likelihood estimator is a moment estimator which is fully efficient even if the detailed branching structure of the inflorescences is not recorded. This parameter provides a convenient summary of branching vigour. The maximum likelihood estimator of the second parameter must be determined iteratively and can be quite inefficient unless the full branching structure is recorded. The model demonstrates that branching structure is affected by the order in which inflorescences emerge on the plant.