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Staying Alive: Individual Behavioral Variation Influences Survival, but Not Reproductive Success, in Female Group-Living Ground Squirrels
Get PDFAnimals living in harsh or unpredictable environments adopt adaptive strategies to improve their fitness, with behavioral variation playing a key role in shaping individual outcomes. We examined whether between-individual variation in behavioral traits (personality) was associated with reproductive success and survival in female Cape ground squirrels (Xerus inauris). Using a 10-year dataset (2011–2021), we quantified behavioral expressions of the animal's response to trapping and handling (trap response, as a proxy for docility), trapping rate (trappability, for boldness) and the number of different trapping locations an animal was trapped at (trap diversity, for exploration) and examined their associations with (1) annual reproductive success, (2) lifetime reproductive success, (3) annual survival, and (4) on-site persistence (a proxy for lifespan). Response measures taken during transfer from the cage, handling by a human observer, and whether individuals ran or walked after release were moderately repeatable. Trappability was also repeatable, while trap diversity was not. Trap response and trappability were positively correlated with survival, but not reproductive success. Females that easily transferred from the trap to the handling bag (more docile) had higher annual survival, while those that ran after release had longer lifespans. Individuals trapped at a higher rate (bolder) had higher annual survival. The absence of a relationship between behavioral traits and reproductive success in females suggests that other factors, such as group dynamics, social interactions, and maternal effects, may be more influential in explaining the high reproductive skew in female reproductive success. Overall, our findings highlight the role of individual behavioral variation in shaping survival outcomes while emphasizing the need for further research into the mechanisms driving reproductive success in this species
The Earth Hologenome Initiative : Data Release 1
Get PDFBackground.
The Earth Hologenome Initiative (EHI) is a global endeavor dedicated to revisit fundamental ecological and evolutionary questions from the systemic host–microbiota perspective, through the standardized generation and analysis of joint animal genomic and associated microbial metagenomic data.
Results.
The first data release of the EHI contains 968 shotgun DNA sequencing read files containing 5.2 TB of raw genomic and metagenomic data derived from 21 vertebrate species sampled across 12 countries, as well as 17,666 metagenome-assembled genomes reconstructed from these data.
Conclusions.
The dataset can be used to address fundamental questions about host–microbiota interactions and will be available to the research community under the EHI data usage conditions
Could AI technologies be harnessed to break down barriers to inclusivity for women entrepreneurship in tourism?
Get PDFDespite growing scholarly attention to artificial intelligence (AI) and gender-related challenges in tourism research, a void exists in how the responsible AI could be harnessed to enhance women’s inclusivity in tourism entrepreneurship. Drawing on Rawls’ theory of justice, this study aims to fill this glaring gap by exploring whether and how AI could contribute to fostering a more equitable, inclusive and ethically responsible entrepreneurial ecosystem for women, help break down existing barriers, and thus, support women’s entrepreneurial endeavors in the tourism sector. Based on qualitative data collected from semi-structured interviews and focus group discussions with elite informants, the study highlights significant positive externalities of AI technologies adoption, beyond the generally recognized benefits in customer engagement and personalized offerings, efficiency, and overall performance, to help female entrepreneurs in particular deal with work-life balance predicaments, unanimously considered the most significant barrier to inclusivity. The findings also emphasize how responsible AI design, adoption and governance can help deal with prevalent ethical concerns of AI in tourism, namely, bias, lack of transparency, fairness and privacy, the absence of a human-centered approach, and accountability. The latter two, alongside gender biases, emerge as the ‘most sensitive ethical parameters’ for women’s inclusivity in tourism entrepreneurship. By integrating Rawls’ perspective the study offers a novel analytical lens for understanding how responsible AI can foster a more just and equitable entrepreneurial ecosystem for women in tourism, and for evaluating attendant strategies contributing to sustainable and inclusive growth. Important theoretical contributions and actionable managerial implications flow from the findings
Why is self-employment not perceived by senior women as a priority? : a North African experience
Get PDFPurpose.
This study aims to explore the reasons why self-employment is not prioritized by senior women within the Egyptian context.
Design/methodology/approach.
The data were collected through semistructured interviews with a purposive sample of 36 senior women who engaged in entrepreneurial activities for a period following their retirement but subsequently ceased to retain access to their pensions. The data were analyzed using the Gioia methodology to systematically identify key patterns and themes emerging from the interviews.
Findings.
The authors revealed three main categories of barriers that discourage senior women from pursuing self-employment: personal barriers, including excess weight, impatience and aversion to social media applications; economic barriers, such as reliance on state pensions and insufficient capital to initiate business ventures; and socio-cultural barriers, encompassing traditional gender roles and shifting priorities toward religious practices. These factors collectively contribute to the widespread overlooking of self-employment opportunities among senior women in Egypt.
Originality/value.
The originality of this research lies in its identification of often-overlooked obstacles, namely, physical health challenges, religious commitments and entrenched gender norms, that significantly impede entrepreneurial intentions among women over the age of 60 in Egypt. By highlighting the stark divergence between the entrepreneurial reluctance of Egyptian senior women and the increasing self-employment trends observed among older populations in Western societies, this paper offers a culturally nuanced reevaluation of senior women’s entrepreneurship within the North African context
Sustainability in early careers, UK 2025
Get PDFA survey-based and interview-informed study exploring the supply of and demand for sustainability-oriented early career roles in the UK
A k-independent wireless readout technique for resistive sensors in series-RLC configuration : design, implementation, and challenges
Get PDFThis paper presents a wireless readout circuit designed to measure the resistance of a resistive sensor connected in a series RLC configuration. In this setup, the sensor is placed in the secondary circuit, where its resistance varies with respect to the measurand. The proposed readout technique involves measuring the reflected impedance from the primary side, and the sensor resistance is calculated using the real and imaginary components of the reflected impedance. The key advantage of this method is that the resistance measurement is independent of the coupling coefficient (k) between the primary and the secondary, over a considerable range of k, except in the cases of very weak coupling (low values of k). The design was validated using analytical equations, simulation studies, and later confirmed through experimental studies on the readout prototype built in the laboratory. Initially, the system was tested using commercially available standard resistors, followed by tests with a thermistor under varying temperature conditions. The results demonstrate excellent performance, with the output showing high linearity and a worst-case error of less than 1.4 %. The key challenges in implementing the proposed readout circuit, along with the various sources of errors, have been identified, analyzed, and presented in this article
Authenticity determination in the context of universalised heritage discourses and localized approaches in the Arabian region
Get PDFAuthenticity in heritage conservation is theoretically and practically complex, dynamic and frequently contested. In conservation practice, through the decisions directing the processes of protection, restoration, adaptation, presentation and interpretation, there will be multiple interpretations of what denotes authenticity, and what is considered to be authentic by different actors. The purpose of the paper is to discuss alternative approaches to the determination of authenticity within the framework of current day conservation theories and heritage discourses. In this paper I propose that authenticity is situation specific and exists on a scale and as such is determinable using cultural perspectives and value-based assessment tools. Positioning authenticity as being dynamic and situation-specific, this research sets out to construct a framework through which the different perspectives involved in decision making are better acknowledged and the determinants of authenticity can be more clearly captured. The research utilizes the context of urban heritage conservation in the Arabian Peninsula to demonstrate how different approaches to conservation are evaluated in terms of authenticity
Acknowledging or citing AI?
Get PDFA guide to the acknowledgement of AI in student assignments. Available below in two different formats, as a Word document (docx) and PDF file
