Influence of behavioural tactics on recruitment and reproductive trajectory in the kittiwake

Many studies have provided evidence that, in birds, inexperienced breeders have a lower probability of breeding successfully. This is often explained by lack of skills and knowledge, and sometimes late laying dates in the first breeding attempt. There is growing evidence that in many species with deferred reproduction, some prebreeders attend breeding places, acquire territories and form pairs. Several behavioural tactics assumed to be associated with territory acquisition have been described in different species. These tactics may influence the probability of recruiting in the breeding segment of the population, age of first breeding, and reproductive success in the first breeding attempt. Here we addressed the influence of behaviour ('squatting') during the prebreeding period on demographic parameters (survival and recruitment probability) in a long-lived colonial seabird species: the kittiwake. We also investigated the influence of behaviour on reproductive trajectory. Squatters have a higher survival and recruitment probability, and a higher probability of breeding successfully in the first breeding attempt in all age-classes where this category is represented. The influence of behaviour is mainly expressed in the first reproduction. However, there is a relationship between breeding success in the first occasion and subsequent occasions. The influence of breeding success in the first breeding attempt on the rest of the trajectory may indirectly reflect the influence of behaviour on breeding success in the first occasion. The shape of the reproductive trajectory is influenced by behaviour and age of first breeding. There is substantial individual variation from the mean reproductive trajectory, which is accounted for by heterogeneity in performance among individuals in the first attempt, but there is no evidence of individual heterogeneity in the rate of change over time in performance in subsequent breeding occasions     

Public Perceptions about Food Safety in the United States and Japan1

Abstract Consumer concerns over pesticide residues and food additives have been growing in industrialized societies, including the United States and Japan. However, little comparative research has been carried out to determine which household characteristics may be significantly associated with these heightened concerns, and whether or not the same factors are useful for understanding variation in these worries in more than one society. This paper examines food safety attitudes in Seattle, Washington, and Kobe, Japan, and discovers that while the absolute level of expressed concern is higher in Kobe, the predictive power of household characteristics in explaining attitudinal differences within countries is similar. Implications for rural areas and future research on family structures in capitalist societies are discussed.     

WOMEN ATHLETES AS FALSELY ACCUSED DEVIANTS: Managing the Lesbian Stigma

As the behavior of women athletes is often interpreted to violate gender norms, women athletes are frequently devalued and stigmatized. The present study examines the manner in which such devaluation and stigmatization impact on women athletes and how these athletes manage the lesbian label attached to their sport participation. In-depth telephone interviews were conducted with 24 intercollegiate athletes from three Division I universities. Processes underlying athletes' responses parallel Becker's construction of the "falsely accused deviant" and Goffman's conceptualization of "stigma management." Factors leading to false accusation of lesbianism are discussed, as well as the various mechanisms utilized by athletes to manage the lesbian label.     

Mean squares in saturated fractional designs revisited

In a previous paper (Bissell, 1989) some suggestions were offered for interpreting mean squares in saturated fractional designs where no independent estimate of experimental error is available. One of the methods leads to a simple numerical test of homogeneity which provides an objective accompaniment to half-Normal plotting of effects (Daniel, 1959) in 2n designs or exponential plotting of mean squares (Bissell, 1989) in 3n designs. A table of percentage points for a convenient test statistic is provided in this paper.     

MONEY DEMAND DURING HYPERINFLATION AND STABILIZATION: BOLIVIA, 1980–1988

This paper examines the demand for money in Bolivia during the 1980s, a decade of extreme instability with annual inflation rates reaching over 20,000 percent, and a subsequent stabilization, with annual rates falling to less than 25 percent and remaining so for more than five years.
Our empirical analysis makes use of error-correction approaches, time-varying-parameter estimation with Kalman filtering, and GARCH models of expected inflation and inflation variance. We find that expected inflation and inflation uncertainty both matter for money demand. Time-varying estimates show that the reaction to monetary disequilibria was significantly faster during hyperinflation.     

TESTING SPHERICITY UNDER A MIXTURE MODEL

The robustness of Mauchly's sphericity test criterion when sampling from a mixture of two multivariate normal distributions is studied. The distribution of the sphericity test criterion when the sample covariance matrix has a non-central Wishart density of rank one is derived in terms of Meijer's G-functions; its distribution under the mixture model is then deduced. The robustness is studied by computing actual significance levels of the test under the mixture model using the critical values under the usual normal model.     

Will taxpayers ever like taxes?: Responses to the U.S. Tax Reform Act of 1986

Major policy changes like the 1986 Tax Reform Act (TRA) in the United States provide natural experiments to study attitudinal and behavior responses to law. Surprisingly, public evaluations of the TRA became increasingly negative after passage, while general support for the tax system became more positive in response to the changes. To explain this puzzle, we propose a dynamic model of taxpayer attitudes that is consistent with the observed loose linkage between logically-connected concepts. We briefly review the political context, objectives and impacts of the 1986 Tax Reform Act, and present several studies testing the impact of self-interest, prior beliefs, and social discussion on changes in attitudes and behavior.Results suggest that the complexity of taxes and difficulty in knowing objective impacts weakens the role of self-interest in attitudinal changes, thereby strengthening the role of prior beliefs and discussion. Evaluations of tax laws are most responsive to more politically-oriented influences.