Search

We studied the association of shame when children experience food insecurity and management strategies. The cross-sectional study assessed food insecurity in 404 children using 2 instruments with 10 and 11 items for food insecurity and management strategies. Food insecurity in children was associated with shame of others knowing that they were out of food (γ = 0.37, P < .01). Nine out of 11 management strategies were associated (P < 0.05) with feeling of shame of being out of food. Older girls were most likely to report shame when they reported lack of food (P < .01). Understanding these relations may increase access to food in socially acceptable ways. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Mate selection strategies may be as important, or even more important, to the evolutionary process than natural selection. The practical importance of strategies such as the selection for "good genes" and assortative mating is emerging in both theoretical and experimental biology. Several other mate selection strategies are possible, although little is known about them. Here I explore the range of diverse mate selection strategies known to us, both from theory and observation of nature, and the analogies between the dynamic properties of mate selection strategies in biological evolution and those of partner selection strategies in game theory and economics evolutionary theory. The aim of this exploration is not to review the extensive literature on the subject, but to detect research agendas that might help us in our understanding of the dynamic consequences of mate (partner) selection strategies in biology, economy, artificial intelligence, and sociology. Insight into the working of diverse mate selection strategies might eventually even increase our understanding of the biological basis for beauty and the adaptive value of love. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The recovery of tropical ecosystems after disturbanceis of interest for future programs of sustainable development. The dynamicsof such processes was evaluated at 26 sites in Venezuela. Ant and plant diversitywere compared between disturbed forests and surrounding savannas, differentstages of recovery and nearby plots with primary vegetation. We estimatedthe species composition for ants, the number of species and equitability forants and plants, and the plant coverage at each site. Of these indices, percentageof plant cover showed the most rapid return to pre-disturbance values. Ina few cases, full return occurred after around 25 years in both savanna andforest. A multiple factorial analysis of ant composition showed that speciesstructure in old recovered sites converged sometimes, but not always, to thatin surrounding natural habitats. Therefore, ant diversity may be used to monitorecosystem recovery. However, even small scale human intervention may haveirreversible effects on tropical habitats. The estimated time constant forforest recovery could serve to calculate human carrying capacity of forestsites for eventual sustainable use of these ecosystems in the Neotropics. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

We tested the assumption that labor organizations possess structural arrangements that may favor specific individual abilities based on neurophysiological characteristics. As some basic abilities vary between sexes, so will the occupational performance of individuals, according to the labor organization they work for. We assumed that: (1) Females possess a higher perceptual sensibility (perceptual speed and accuracy), which allows them to discriminate rapid apparition events and fine changes in the environment, in contrast to males who have a greater ability to manage spatial relationships. (2) Organizations with a functional structure require more fine perceptual abilities and these requirements are stronger at higher levels of the hierarchy. (3) Occupational performance is related to basic abilities required for a specific task, leading women to have higher occupational performance than men in labor organizations with a functional structure. By studying the technical and administrative staff of the Universidad Simón Bolivar (Venezuela), we present evidence that women have a greater capacity for perceptual discrimination; that this capacity relates to occupational performance in a labor organization with a functional structure; and that this relation is stronger at higher levels in the hierarchy. However, the extremely small sample size available for this study limits the possible generalizations of these results to other populations. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

This study evaluates the impact of the Trivers‐Willard (T‐W) effect on human populations, using demographic data collected from vital registration data in Venezuela. The evaluation of the sex ratio at birth (SRB) and of fetal and infant deaths supports the existence of T‐W effect in the Venezuelan population in extreme conditions. This T‐W effect was observable in the SRB but not at later ages and is related to the marital status of the mother. The results indicate that the investment in females associated with environmental adversity is greater than the investment in males associated with good environmental conditions. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

We present data on fertility characteristics in the Venezuelan population for each sex separately, allowing a detailed comparative analysis of the variance in fertility between males and females. We show that the fertility distribution for both sexes is discontinuous, that the average female has a larger number of offspring per individual than the average male, and that highly fertile males outnumber highly fertile females so that the total number of offspring produced by males and females is balanced. Results indicate that a few males are responsible for a relative higher fertility of the average female and that interactions between polyandric females with monogamic and polygynic males are common. Among the Yanomami, a relatively unacculturated hunter‐gatherer‐horticulturist tribe, similar differences in fertility distribution of both sexes are apparent. The data suggest that human populations contain statistically distinct subpopulations, with different reproductive strategies, suggesting the existence of complex interactions among human populations which are not evident from the study of individuals or groups. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]