The Blue-winged Kookaburra is among the species of birds in which there is a sex dimorphism manifested in two characteristics. The first is the more pronounced coloration of the tail of the male; the second is the weight difference between the sexes. The female is about 70 - 100 grams heavier than the male. These differences do not occur earlier than after the first year of life. Although globally, there are 133 individuals of the Blue-winged Kookaburra (61 males, 58 females, 14 young) in human care in 45 institutions in 5 regions, it is successfully reproduced in only 9 institutions. Ostrava Zoo, as one of the three zoos and zoo parks in the world, keeps the Blue-winged Kookaburras in a group of eight, which is the optimal number of individuals forming a breeding cooperative group. In breeding seasons 2011 - 2016, Ostrava Zoo showed excellent results in breeding these Coraciiformes, with 15 successfully raised individuals. It therefore provided the data, together with Prague Zoo. This diploma thesis is a summary of own ethological observations at Ostrava Zoo and of a short observation at Prague Zoo. Summarizing the data from these two zoos, the thesis assesses weight differences of fertilized and unfertilized eggs, ontogenesis, growth rate and sex of the Blue-winged Kookaburras. On the basis of the growth and weight differences between the sexes, it deals with the sex determination of the young. It further describes social behaviour and vocalization within a breeding group with a predominance of females, evaluates general group relationships, and compares the results with a wild population

La socialité diverse des femelles primates reflète une combinaison de stratégies compétitives et coopératives. Différentes théories expliquent cette diversité. Les macaques sont un bon exemple de variation sociale. L’objectif de ma thèse est d’approfondir la connaissance des sociétés de macaques par l’étude d’une espèce peu connue, les macaques à crête, Macaca nigra, dans son milieu naturel, la réserve de Tangkoko à Sulawesi, Indonésie. 2600 heures de données comportementales ont été prises sur 42 femelles adultes d’Octobre 2008 à Juin 2010. En combinant une analyse compréhensive des variables comportementales, je confirme le style social tolérant des femelles. En examinant la fonction des interactions post-agression par l’analyse des liens entre agression, anxiété, caractéristiques des conflits et de celles des dyades impliquées et les interactions post-agression, je détermine que celles-ci ne servent pas à réduire l’anxiété ou à “raccommoder” les relations sociales mais fonctionnent plutôt pour signaler l’intention pacifique ou pour réaffirmer le statut social. En étudiant l’influence des relations de dominance et de parenté sur les interactions sociales, je détermine que la force des liens sociaux n’est pas forcement liée a la dominance ou la parenté et que les coalitions sont formées entre femelles proches en dominance, mais pas entre apparentées ou proches affiliées. Ces résultats contrastent avec d’autres sociétés animales et mettent en évidence la complexité des sociétés tolérantes. Ma thèse apporte de nouvelles bases empiriques sur la variation sociale dans une perspective comparative et apporte un nouveau cadre théorique sur l’évolution des sociétés animales. / The diversity in female primate sociality reflects a combination of competitive and cooperative strategies. Different frameworks explain such diversity. The genus Macaca is a good example of social variation. The aim of my thesis is to foster our understanding of macaque societies by studying one little-known species, the crested macaque, Macaca nigra, under natural conditions, the Tangkoko Reserve, in Sulawesi Indonesia. From October 2008 to June 2010, I gathered 2600 hours of behavioural data on 42 adult females. By quantifying a comprehensive set of behaviours, I confirm the females’ tolerant social style. I investigate the function of post-conflict interactions by analysing the relationship between aggression, anxiety, characteristics of conflicts, of dyads involved in conflicts, and the occurrence of post-conflict interactions. Post-conflict interactions did not serve to reduce stress or to “repair” relationships but function as a signal of benign intent or to reassert social status. I analyse the hierarchical and nepotistic influence on social relationships and show that social bonds are not entirely shaped by kinship or dominance. Coalitionary support occurred amongst females close in rank but not amongst close kin or strong affiliates. These patterns represent meaningful contrasts to other animal species and highlight the complexity of social life in tolerant societies. By combining behavioural and genetic data, my thesis brings an empirical basis to theoretical frameworks on the evolution of social diversity, reflects on the interplay between different factors in a comparative perspective and provides a general framework for the evolution of animal societies.

Dissertação(mestrado) - Universidade Federal do Rio Grande, Programa de Pós–Graduação em Oceanografia Biológica, Instituto de Oceanografia, 2013 / Submitted by Cristiane Gomides (cristiane_gomides@hotmail.com) on 2013-12-16T11:59:50Z No. of bitstreams: 1 rodrigo.pdf: 2838178 bytes, checksum: 0ed5e3967d18f3075d7e2c1c3f615170 (MD5) / Approved for entry into archive by Sabrina Andrade (sabrinabeatriz@ibest.com.br) on 2013-12-18T18:12:23Z (GMT) No. of bitstreams: 1 rodrigo.pdf: 2838178 bytes, checksum: 0ed5e3967d18f3075d7e2c1c3f615170 (MD5) / Made available in DSpace on 2013-12-18T18:12:23Z (GMT). No. of bitstreams: 1 rodrigo.pdf: 2838178 bytes, checksum: 0ed5e3967d18f3075d7e2c1c3f615170 (MD5) Previous issue date: 2013 / Investigamos a estrutura social e padrões espaciais de uso da área por uma população de golfinhos, Tursiops truncatus, que habitam o estuário da Lagoa dos Patos e águas costeiras adjacentes, no sul do Brasil. Nós estimamos o índice de associação a partir de 102 indivíduos regularmente observados em 243 saídas de foto-identificação realizadas entre agosto de 2005 e outubro de 2012. As análises sociais e de rede, com a divisão proposta pela modularidade, indicou que esta população de botos é composta por três unidades sociais principais. Embora exista certa sobreposição espacial, houve distinção entre as zonas preferenciais de cada unidade. Uma das unidades esta fortemente associada com o estuário da Lagoa dos Patos, enquanto as outras duas ocuparam, respectivamente, as áreas marinhas adjacentes norte e sul. Dentro das unidades, as associações entre os indivíduos foram predominantemente de curta duração (dinâmica de fissão-fusão), embora tenham sido identificadas algumas associações de longa duração. Embora tenham ocorrido interações entre as unidades sociais, as associações foram rápidas e ocorreram apenas entre alguns indivíduos. A segregação destes indivíduos é motivada, pelo menos em parte, pelos padrões de associação entre os indivíduos e sua fidelidade a áreas específicas. Recomenda-se que as unidades sociais sejam a base para modelar a viabilidade e dinâmica intrapopulacional, bem como para investigação de padrões de fluxo gênico dentro e entre unidades sociais. / We investigated the social structure and spatial patterns of area usage by a population of bottlenose dolphins, Tursiops truncatus, inhabiting the Patos Lagoon estuary and adjacent coastal waters, in southern Brazil. We estimated the association index from 102 individuals regularly sighted in 243 photo-identification surveys carried out between August 2005 and October 2012. Social and network analyses, with the division proposed by modularity, indicated that this bottlenose dolphin population consists of three social units. Although some spatial overlap exists, preferred areas of each unit were distinct. One of the units was strongly associated with the Patos Lagoon estuary while the other two occupied, respectively, the southern and northern adjacent marine coasts. Within unit associations among individuals were predominantly of short duration (fission-fusion dynamics), though a few long-lasting bonds were detected. Although interactions between social units occurred, the associations were brief and occurred only among a few individuals. The segregation of these individuals is motivated, at least in part, by the bonding patterns among individuals and their fidelity to specific areas. It is recommended that the social units be the framework for modeling the intrapopulation dynamic and viability as well as for investigating patterns of gene flow within and between social units.

Organisms are frequently faced with uncertainty regarding how best to exploit vital resources, and may benefit from collecting information about their distribution through space and time. However, the ways in which competition over resources might systematically facilitate or constrain an individual's ability to use information has been largely overlooked. In this thesis, I develop a conceptual framework for considering how the distribution of limited resources might underpin interdependencies between competition and information use. I focus on the evolutionary ecology of relationships between social dominance and social information use. I begin with an observational study of wild chacma baboons (Papio ursinus) suggesting that, when resources can be monopolised, individuals with low competitive ability are limited in their ability to use social information. Building on these findings, I then develop a general model exploring selection on social information use in a competitive context across three axes of 'resource ecology' (scarcity, depletion rate, monopolisability). This study makes predictions regarding the resource conditions under which competitive ability might constrain social information use, and the potential importance of social information use in the evolution of social dominance. I go on to test these predictions in chacma baboons using a field experiment. This experiment also explores whether the predictability of resource distribution might facilitate the decoupling of social information use from the competitive context in which it was collected. Taken together, these findings provide general insights into the combinations of ecological conditions and behavioural mechanisms that should underpin the benefits of social dominance. I end by building a simple population matrix model to study social dominance using an eco-evolutionary approach, in which feedback loops between ecological and evolutionary processes are considered. By modelling relationships between dominance rank and survival, reproduction, inheritance, and development, I am able to derive estimates of long-term fitness associated with dominance. Using these estimates, I generate predictions regarding how dominance hierarchies should impact the dynamics of group stability, viability, and fission.

This thesis addresses three themes relating to climate change. The first is which types of fossil fuel to leave in the ground when they can differ in both their extraction cost and emissions rate. The analysis shows that without resource constraints there will always be use of at least one fossil fuel in the steady-state. With exhaustion constraints, any fossil fuel that has a lower extraction cost than the marginal cost of the backstop will be extracted in finite time regardless of the emissions rate. The only environmental consideration is the timing of extraction rather than leaving fossil fuel stock in the ground forever. The second theme is how altruistic concern of individuals for the well-being of others influences the socially optimal consumption levels and optimal emissions tax in a global context. If individuals have altruistic concern but believe that their consumption is negligible, they will not change their behaviour. However, non-cooperative governments maximising domestic welfare will internalise some of the damage inflicted on other countries depending on the level of altruistic concern individuals have and the cooperative optimum also changes as altruism leads individuals to effectively experience damage in other countries as well as the direct damage to them. Still, for behaviour to change, individuals need to make their decisions in a different way. The third chapter develops a new theory of moral behaviour whereby individuals balance the cost of not acting in their own self-interest against the hypothetical moral value of adopting a Kantian form of behaviour, asking what would happen if everyone else acted in the same way as they did. If individuals behave this way, then altruism matters and it may induce individuals to cut back their consumption. But nevertheless the optimal environmental tax is exactly the same as the standard Pigovian tax.

The Internet of Things (IoT) is an emerging paradigm focusing on the inter-connection of things or devices to each other and to the users. Over time, the most of connections in IoT are shifting from ‘Human to Thing’ to ‘Thing to Thing’. This technology is anticipated to become an essential milestone in the development of smart homes to bring convenience and efficiency into our lives and our homes. But, by bringing this IoT technology into our homes there will be important implications for security in these technologies. Connecting every smart objects inside the home to the internet and to each other results in new security and privacy problems, e.g., confidentiality, authenticity, and integrity of data sensed and exchanged by objects. These technologies are very much vulnerable to different security attacks that make an IoT-based smart home unsecure to live in and therefore it is necessary to evaluate the security risks to judge the situation of the smart homes. For any technology to be successful and achieve widespread use, it needs to gain the trust of users by providing sufficient security and privacy assurance. As in all sectors, maintaining security will be a critical challenge to overcome. As homes are increasingly computerized and filled with devices, potential computer security attacks and their impact on residents need to be investigated. This report uses OCTAVE Allegro Methodology which focuses mainly on information assets and considers containers (technical, physical and people) and conducts a security risk assessment with the goal of highlighting various security flaws in IoT-based smart home, impacts and proposing countermeasures to the identified issues satisfying most of security requirements. Finally, it comes up with some recommendations to the users. The research findings documented into a thesis paper for secure IoT-based smart home systems and the resulted list and recommendations will be some useful contribution which can be used as a foundation for the specification of security requirements. For future work, the assessment will be extended to include more types of smart home applications rather than just typical one. / <p>Validerat; 20160620 (global_studentproject_submitter)</p>

The film industry utilizes more and more computer generated visual effects and the visual effects industry and the surrounding community is continuously growing. It unlocks possibilities for the creative director that before was hard to achieve. And as technology advances, it does not only push the limit of the quality and complexity of the visual effects, but also allows ordinary people and amateurs with a tight budget to create stunning visuals as well.The report will cover render passes and the importance of a linear workflow. The report will determine common key material assets a compositor needs from rendering in order to have full control in post-production. Practical examples made with Maya and Nuke will be used. / <p>Validerat; 20120802 (anonymous)</p>

Les postures corporelles signalant domination ou soumission servent une fonction de communication chez les humains et d’autres animaux. La question de savoir si l'adoption de telles "postures de pouvoir" influence la perception et le comportement de l'agent fait actuellement l'objet d'un débat. Le travail réalisé pendant cette thèse consistait à explorer les effets de ces postures sur des comportements étroitement liés à leur fonction primaire, à savoir la communication sociale, en se focalisant sur les réponses aux visages, signaux sociaux particulièrement saillants. Dans une série d'expériences, j'ai utilisé des méthodes de corrélation inverse pour visualiser les représentations mentales de traits préférés du visage. Les représentations mentales des visages préférés implicitement et explicitement évoquaient une impression affiliative et légèrement dominante, mais ne révélaient aucun effet reproductible des postures. Deux autres expériences distinctes ont étudié les effets de la posture sur la perception d’expressions faciales menaçantes et sur les comportements d'approche ou d'évitement en réponse à ces signaux. Bien que les postures n'aient pas d’influence sur la reconnaissance explicite d’expressions faciales menaçantes, elles ont un impact sur les décisions d'approcher ou d'éviter des signaux de menace. Plus précisément, l'adoption d'une posture de soumission augmentait la tendance à éviter les personnes exprimant la colère. Enfin, une tentative de réplication des effets des postures sur les niveaux de testostérone et de cortisol a démontré que même l'adoption répétée d'une posture de pouvoir en contexte social ne provoque pas de changements hormonaux. Dans l'ensemble, ces résultats suggèrent que notre posture corporelle n’influence pas nos représentations mentales et notre perception des autres individus, mais pourrait influencer nos actions en réponse aux signaux sociaux. / Expansive and constrictive body postures serve a primary communicative function in humans and other animals by signalling power and dominance. Whether adopting such “power postures” influences the agent’s own perception and behaviour is currently a subject of debate. In this PhD thesis, I explored effects of adopting power postures on behaviours closely related to the postures’ primary function of social signalling by focusing on responses to faces as particularly salient social signals. In a series of experiments, I utilized reverse correlation methods to visualize mental representations of preferred facial traits. Mental representations of implicitly as well as explicitly preferred faces evoked an affiliative and slightly dominant impression, but revealed no replicable effects of power postures. Two further separate experiments investigated posture effects on the perception of threatening facial expressions, and approach vs. avoidance actions in response to such social signals. While postures did not influence explicit recognition of threatening facial expressions, they affected approach and avoidance actions in response to them. Specifically, adopting a constrictive posture increased the tendency to avoid individuals expressing anger. Finally, an attempt to replicate posture effects on levels of testosterone and cortisol demonstrated that even repeatedly adopting a power posture in a social context does not elicit hormonal changes. Altogether, these findings suggest that our body posture does not influence our mental representations and perception of other people’s faces per se, but could influence our actions in response to social signals.

Comment résoudre les problèmes de congestion liés au développement urbain ? Les investissements massifs dans les infrastructures et le traitement monétaire et coercitif des comportements ayant montré leurs limites, nous proposons d'explorer la possibilité de favoriser les comportements positifs (covoiturage, vélo, télétravail). Nous commençons par élargir le modèle comportemental de l'individu en posant comme préalable à l'étude des motivations la prise en compte du cadre dans lequel il se situe. Nous justifions théoriquement cet apport principalement par les travaux du psychologue Daniel Kahneman et du sociologue Ervin Goffman. Nous précisions ensuite notre démarche méthodologique : en montrant combien la démarche des expérimentations de laboratoire est reliée à l'hypothèse comportementale de l'homo œconomicus, nous montrons la cohérence de notre hypothèse de cadre avec celle des expériences de terrain. Nous décrivons ensuite trois expériences visant à montrer (i) comment le cadre correspond à une représentation confortée par un discours dominant (ii) l’importance de la mesure rétroactive de cette représentation et (iii) comment les motivations agissent à l’intérieur de ce cadre. Nous en déduisons plusieurs principes susceptibles de favoriser un changement de comportements de mobilité à même de traiter le problème de congestion : (i) la place de l’individu dans les schémas de transports, (ii) le temps ou le bien être comme indicateur de mesure et (iii) les représentations collectives comme support de coordination. / How to solve congestion problems related to urban development? As the massive investment in infrastructure and the monetary and coercive treatment of behaviors have shown their limits, we propose instead to explore the promotion of positive behavior (carpooling, biking, telecommuting). We start by expanding the behavioral model of the individual, by taking into account the context (frame) in which it happens. We justify this contribution primarily through the work of the psychologist Daniel Kahneman and the sociologist Ervin Goffman . Then we clarify our methodological approach: by showing how the process of laboratory experiments is connected to the behavioral factors of the homo oeconomicus, we show the consistency of our frame hypothesis with field experiments. We then describe three experiments to show (i) how the frame is underpinned by a dominant discourse (ii) the importance of the retroactive measure of this representation and (iii) how motivations acts within that frame. We derive several principles to promote a change of mobility behavior able to treat congestion: (i) the place of the individual in transport schemes, (ii) using time or well-being as a measurement indicator and (iii)collective representations as coordination enablers.

Fünf Lösungskonzepte der kooperativen Spieltheorien, der Kern, die Shapley-, Aumann- Drèze-, Außenoptions- (Wiese) und x-Lösung (Casajus) stehen in einer experimenteller Prüfung und einem kompetitiven Test gegenüber. In 12 Labor-Experimenten mit 167 Probanden wird das Handschuhspiel (gloves game) in jeweils bis zu 25 Treatments anonym am Computer mit adäquaten monetären Anreizen gespielt. Nach mehreren Wiederholungen stellte sich im Markt annähernd das Wettbewerbsgleichgewicht (Kern) ein. Spieler ohne Erfahrung können durch Lösungskonzepte, die relative Knappheit und Marktgröße abbilden, besser vorhergesagt werden. Robuste Fairness ist darüber hinaus im wesentlichen nur ein Einzelphänomen und keineswegs eine generelle Präferenz, wie etwa Ungleichheitsaversion. Dagegen konnte eine generalisiert Form von Reziprozität äußerst häufig beobachtet werden.:Einleitung; Theorie; Methoden; Daten; Ergebnisse; Diskussion, Zusammenfassung