Thesis (M.S.)--Virginia Polytechnic Institute and State University, 1994. / Vita. Abstract. Includes bibliographical references (leaves 97-103). Also available via the Internet.

Thesis (Ph. D.)--University of Montana, 2006 / Title from PDF title page (viewed on Mar. 18, 2007). Includes bibliographical references.

This study compared male response to playback and interspecific vocal imitation in two White-eyed Vireo populations, in southwestern Virginia and eastern North Carolina. White-eyed Vireos are hypothesized to imitate notes from other birds which transmit efficiently through dense habitat. Male White-eyed Vireos did not respond differently to playback of each other I s songs. The song repertoires between Virginia and North Carolina were not found to include strikingly different imitations despite the different sound environments. Degradation and attenuation of White-eyed Vireo song notes was also compared between the two locations. There was no statistically significant difference in degradation or attenuation of notes when compared to native or foreign habitat. Notes occurring more frequently in the population did not transmit more efficiently. Notes unique to North Carolina did transmit more efficiently in their native habitat, but this difference was explained by the relatively less dense habitat in North Carolina. / Master of Science

Seabirds have become adapted for foraging in an oceanic environment that can be highly dynamic. Oceanographic processes determine the spatial distribution of seabird prey, while seasonality often has a temporal influence on prey availability. In penguins, these factors are reflected in the different species� foraging strategies. Penguins can broadly be categorized as inshore foragers that live in subtropical to temperate regions and profit from a stable food supply throughout the year close to their breeding sites, and offshore foragers that breed in a pelagic environment at higher latitudes where oceanographic processes and seasonality create much more dynamic, temporally limited prey situations. In this light, offshore foragers can be expected to be much more flexible in their foraging behaviour so as to quickly respond to changes in a dynamic marine environment, while inshore foragers are more likely to exhibit predictable foraging patterns. I examined the foraging ecology of two New Zealand penguin species - the offshore foraging Snares penguin Eudyptes robustus and the inshore foraging Yellow-eyed penguin Megadyptes antipodes and how their foraging strategies reflect an adaptation to the marine environment they exploit. Diet composition of breeding Snares penguins (incubation and early chick-guard) was determined using the water-offloading method. Before the chicks hatched, the penguins generally brought little food back from their long foraging trips. During chick-guard, the stomach contents comprised mainly of crustaceans (~55%), fish (~24%) and cephalopods (~21%). However, the presence at times of many fish otoliths and squid beaks suggests that the latter two prey classes may play an even more important role in the adults� diet than the simple percentages based on mass suggest. The penguins� nesting routines were strongly synchronised between the years and correlated with the onset of the spring planktonic bloom. Using GPS data loggers and dive recorders I found that during the incubation phase, male penguins that performed long (ca. 2 week) foraging trips exhibited a strong affinity to forage in the Subtropical Front some 200 km east of the Snares. At that stage (late mid-October) the front featured elevated chlorophyll a concentrations, a pattern that can be observed every year. Thus, it seems that the front represents a reliable and predictable source of food for the male penguins. After the males returned, the female penguins also performed long foraging trips (<1 week) but never reached the front, primarily because they had to time their return to the hatching of their chicks. After the chicks had hatched, the female Snares penguins were the sole providers of food. At this stage, the penguins performed short foraging trips (1-3 days) and foraged halfway between the Snares and Stewart Island (ca. 70-90 km north of the Snares), where nutrient-rich coastal waters flow eastwards to form the Southland Current. The penguins concentrated their diving effort in these waters, underlining the importance of the warm coastal waters as a food source for breeding Snares penguins. However, diving behaviour between 2003 and 2004 differed with penguins searching for prey at greater depths in the latter year. This underlines the Snares penguins� behavioural flexibility in response to a changing marine environment. The Yellow-eyed penguins as typical inshore foragers showed very consistent foraging patterns at all stages. GPS logger deployments on penguins at Oamaru revealed that the birds foraged almost exclusively at the seafloor and targeted specific areas that featured reefs or epibenthic communities. As a result, the penguins� at-sea movements appeared conservative and at times almost stereotypic. Nevertheless, a comparison of Yellow-eyed penguins breeding on the adjacent Codfish and Stewart islands revealed a degree of plasticity in the species� foraging behaviour. Birds from Codfish Island extended their foraging ranges considerably and switched from primarily bottom to mid-water foraging during the post-guard stage of breeding. It seems likely that this switch is a result of enhanced feeding conditions (e.g. increased prey abundance/quality) in an area further away from the island, but the time required to get there renders this strategy not viable when chicks are small and need to be guarded and fed on a daily basis. As such, the change of behaviour represents a traditional pattern rather than a dynamic response to a sudden change in the marine environment. In comparison, penguins from Stewart Island showed consistent foraging patterns during all stages of breeding. Given the high levels of chick starvation on Stewart Island, the lack of plasticity in foraging behaviour is surprising and might indicate that Yellow-eyed penguins find it difficult to react quickly to a sub-optimal food situation. Overall, it seems that Yellow-eyed penguins show a specialisation for a consistent benthic environment and, thus, lack the behavioural flexibility apparent in Snares penguins, which find their food in a changing pelagic marine environment.

Predation is the leading cause of nest failure in songbirds. My study identified nest predators of black-capped vireos and white-eyed vireos, quantified the activity of potential predator species, examined the relationships between vegetation and nest predators, and examined the relationship between nest predation and parasitism by brown-headed cowbirds. In 2008 and 2009 I monitored black-capped and white-eyed vireo nests on privately-owned properties in Coryell County and black-capped vireo nests on Kerr WMA in Kerr County and at Devils River State Natural Area in Val Verde County (2009 only). I monitored vireo nests using a video camera system to identify predators and nest fate. I also collected at-nest vegetation measurements including nest height, distance to nearest habitat edge, and nest concealment. Additionally, I sampled potential predator activity at a subset of black-capped vireo and white-eyed vireo nests in Coryell County using camera-trap bait stations and herptofaunal traps. I monitored 117 black-capped vireo nests and 54 white-eyed vireo nests. Forty-two percent of black-capped vireo and 35% of white-eyed vireo nests failed due to predation. I recorded >10 total predator species and 37 black-capped vireo and 15 white-eyed vireo nest predation events. Snakes (35%) and cowbirds (29%) were the most frequently identified nest predators; however, major predator species varied by location. I observed no significant relationship between nest fate (fledge vs. fail) and nest concealment or distance to edge for either vireo species. Nest height, concealment and distance to edge may relate to predator species in Coryell Co. for snake species, and Kerr for avian species. Additionally, I observed no difference between the predator activity and the fate of the nest. Both vireos have multiple nest predator species. Additionally, multiple cowbird predations demonstrate this species may have multi-level impacts on vireo productivity, even with active cowbird management. Vegetation structure and concealment may also affect predator species. However, the activity of other predator species near active nests may not negatively affect nest success.

Ištvermė, suvokiama kaip aerobinis darbingumas, yra svarbiausia iš visų su sveikata susijusių fizinių ypatybių. Šio tyrimo tikslas buvo įvertinti aklųjų ir silpnaregių aerobinės ištvermės ugdymo ypatumus, atliekant aerobinį krūvį. Tyrimai buvo atlikti Lietuvos kūno kultūros akademijos (LKKA) TFV katedroje. Tyrime dalyvavo aklieji ir silpnaregiai vyrai, iš Kauno sveikatos sporto klubo ir LAS Lietuvos aklųjų sąjungos. Jie buvo suskirstyti į dvi grupes sportuojantis ir nesportuojantys. Taip pat tyrime dalyvavo Lietuvos kūno kultūros akademijos studentai. Tikslas - nustatyti ir įvertinti sportuojančių ir nesportuojančių regos negalią turinčių asmenų ištvermės rodiklių kaitą priklausomai nuo negalios sunkumo laipsnio Uždaviniai: 1. Nustatyti ir įvertinti nesportuojančių regos negalią tiriamų asmenų ir įgaliųjų aerobinės ištvermės rodiklių kaitą atliekant 12min. bėgimo testą. 2. Nustatyti ir įvertinti sportuojančių neįgaliųjų, turinčių regos negalią, ištvermės rodiklių kaitą priklausomai nuo negalios sunkumo laipsnio. 3. Palyginti sportuojančių ir nesportuojančių aklųjų, silpnaregių ir nesportuojančių įgaliųjų aerobinės ištvermės rodiklius, 12 min. bėgimo testo metu. Visiems tiriamiesiems buvo atliktas Cooperio testas - 12 min. bėgimas. Tiriamiesiems bėgimo sąlygos vienodos. Tyrimo užduotis– kuo ilgesnį atstumą nubėgti per 12 min. Tiriamieji po trijų minučių apšilimo užduotį atliko bėgdami bėgtakiu. Kas minute buvo registruojamas pulso dažnis. Kiekvienas bėgikas galėjo... [toliau žr. visą tekstą] / Stamina, perceived as aerobic efficiency, is the most important from all physical peculiarities related with health. The purpose of this research was to evaluate training peculiarities of aerobic stamina of blind and weak-eyed persons, while exercising aerobic load. The researches were done in Lithuanian Academy of Physical Education TVF department (Department of Adapted Physical Activity). Blind and weak-eyed men from Kaunas Health Sport Club and LAS Lithuanian the blind union. They were split into two groups: those going in for sports and those do not going in for sports. Students from Lithuanian Academy of Physical Education participated in the research as well. Purpose - To measure and assess the change of stamina indexes of the disabled with sight disability persons going in for sports subject to the heaviness degree of the disability. 1. To measure and assess the change of aerobic stamina indexes of persons with sight disabilities going in for sports and not going in for sports and of healthy people while doing 12 min.-running test 2. To measure and assess the change of stamina indexes of the disabled with sight disability persons going in for sports subject to the heaviness degree of the disability. 3. To compare aerobic stamina indexes of blind persons, weak-eyed persons going in for sports and not going in for sports and healthy persons not going in for sports during the 12 min.-running test. Cooper test – 12 min. running was done to all the people under the... [to full text]

Baigiamajame magistriniame darbe nagrinėjama tema – ikimokyklinio amžiaus aklųjų ir silpnaregių kalbos raidos ypatumai ( lyginamoji analizė). Sunku pervertinti kalbos plėtotės procese pagrindinių – regos ir klausos – analizatorių vaidmenį. Šių analizatorių sutrikimas labai stipriai įtakoja kalbinės veiklos vystymąsi ir suteikia jam tam tikrų ypatumų. Labai dažnai aklo iš prigimties asmens turimų sąvokų turinys kardinaliai skiriasi nuo reginčiųjų. Stokodami vieno iš pasaulio pažinimo būdų aklieji dažnai neadekvačiai vartoja turimas sąvokas. Aklas vaikas gali girdėti kalbą ir mėgdžiodamas jos mokosi. Kartais jis labiau už regintįjį yra motyvuotas ją vartoti, nes tai pagrindinis kanalas komunikuojant su kitais. Ar iš tikrųjų aklųjų kalbinė raiška skiriasi nuo normaliai matančių vaikų? Į šį klausimą bandoma atsakyti šiame magistro darbe. Tyrimo problema: ikimokyklinio amžiaus nereginčių ir silpnaregių vaikų kalbinė raida stokoja normalaus psichofiziologinio pagrindo. Šiuos trūkumus būtina kompensuoti, pasitelkus išlikusius sveikus analizatorius prieš tai tiksliai išsiaiškinus šios grupės vaikų kalbinės raidos pasiekimo skirtumus lyginant su sveikaisiais. Tyrimo objektas: ikimokyklinio amžiaus aklųjų ir silpnaregių bei gerai matančių vaikų kalbos raida ( lyginamoji analizė). Tyrimo tikslas: ištirti ikimokyklinio amžiaus aklųjų ir silpnaregių kalbos raidos ypatybes. Tyrimo uždaviniai: 1. Išanalizuoti psichologinę ir pedagoginę literatūrą apie aklųjų ir silpnaregių kalbinę raidą... [toliau žr. visą tekstą] / SUMMARY The final master‘s study deals with the peculiarities in lingual development of the blind and poor-sighted children at preschool age (the comparative analysis). It is difficult to overestimate the role of the main analyzers, i.e. sight and hearing in the process of lingual development. The disorder of these analyzers affects very strongly the development of lingual activities and renders certain peculiarities to it. Very often the contents of concepts of a person, who is blind by nature, cardinally differ from that of people with normal sight. Lacking one technique for world cognition, the blind persons often inadequately use the concepts available. The sightless child can hear the language and learn it by imitation. Sometimes he is more motivated to use it than a seeing person, since it is the main channel for communication with others. Does really the lingual expression of the blind children differ from that of normally sighted? In this master’s study the attempts were done to answer this question. Problem of study. The lingual development of blind and poor-sighted preschoolers lacks normal psycho-physiological substantiation. These shortcomings should be compensated with help of the remaining healthy analyzers. But before it the differences in achieved lingual development between the children of this group and healthy ones should be find out. Object of study: lingual development in blind and poor-sighted children at preschool age (the comparative analysis). ... [to full text]

Seabirds have become adapted for foraging in an oceanic environment that can be highly dynamic. Oceanographic processes determine the spatial distribution of seabird prey, while seasonality often has a temporal influence on prey availability. In penguins, these factors are reflected in the different species� foraging strategies. Penguins can broadly be categorized as inshore foragers that live in subtropical to temperate regions and profit from a stable food supply throughout the year close to their breeding sites, and offshore foragers that breed in a pelagic environment at higher latitudes where oceanographic processes and seasonality create much more dynamic, temporally limited prey situations. In this light, offshore foragers can be expected to be much more flexible in their foraging behaviour so as to quickly respond to changes in a dynamic marine environment, while inshore foragers are more likely to exhibit predictable foraging patterns. I examined the foraging ecology of two New Zealand penguin species - the offshore foraging Snares penguin Eudyptes robustus and the inshore foraging Yellow-eyed penguin Megadyptes antipodes and how their foraging strategies reflect an adaptation to the marine environment they exploit. Diet composition of breeding Snares penguins (incubation and early chick-guard) was determined using the water-offloading method. Before the chicks hatched, the penguins generally brought little food back from their long foraging trips. During chick-guard, the stomach contents comprised mainly of crustaceans (~55%), fish (~24%) and cephalopods (~21%). However, the presence at times of many fish otoliths and squid beaks suggests that the latter two prey classes may play an even more important role in the adults� diet than the simple percentages based on mass suggest. The penguins� nesting routines were strongly synchronised between the years and correlated with the onset of the spring planktonic bloom. Using GPS data loggers and dive recorders I found that during the incubation phase, male penguins that performed long (ca. 2 week) foraging trips exhibited a strong affinity to forage in the Subtropical Front some 200 km east of the Snares. At that stage (late mid-October) the front featured elevated chlorophyll a concentrations, a pattern that can be observed every year. Thus, it seems that the front represents a reliable and predictable source of food for the male penguins. After the males returned, the female penguins also performed long foraging trips (<1 week) but never reached the front, primarily because they had to time their return to the hatching of their chicks. After the chicks had hatched, the female Snares penguins were the sole providers of food. At this stage, the penguins performed short foraging trips (1-3 days) and foraged halfway between the Snares and Stewart Island (ca. 70-90 km north of the Snares), where nutrient-rich coastal waters flow eastwards to form the Southland Current. The penguins concentrated their diving effort in these waters, underlining the importance of the warm coastal waters as a food source for breeding Snares penguins. However, diving behaviour between 2003 and 2004 differed with penguins searching for prey at greater depths in the latter year. This underlines the Snares penguins� behavioural flexibility in response to a changing marine environment. The Yellow-eyed penguins as typical inshore foragers showed very consistent foraging patterns at all stages. GPS logger deployments on penguins at Oamaru revealed that the birds foraged almost exclusively at the seafloor and targeted specific areas that featured reefs or epibenthic communities. As a result, the penguins� at-sea movements appeared conservative and at times almost stereotypic. Nevertheless, a comparison of Yellow-eyed penguins breeding on the adjacent Codfish and Stewart islands revealed a degree of plasticity in the species� foraging behaviour. Birds from Codfish Island extended their foraging ranges considerably and switched from primarily bottom to mid-water foraging during the post-guard stage of breeding. It seems likely that this switch is a result of enhanced feeding conditions (e.g. increased prey abundance/quality) in an area further away from the island, but the time required to get there renders this strategy not viable when chicks are small and need to be guarded and fed on a daily basis. As such, the change of behaviour represents a traditional pattern rather than a dynamic response to a sudden change in the marine environment. In comparison, penguins from Stewart Island showed consistent foraging patterns during all stages of breeding. Given the high levels of chick starvation on Stewart Island, the lack of plasticity in foraging behaviour is surprising and might indicate that Yellow-eyed penguins find it difficult to react quickly to a sub-optimal food situation. Overall, it seems that Yellow-eyed penguins show a specialisation for a consistent benthic environment and, thus, lack the behavioural flexibility apparent in Snares penguins, which find their food in a changing pelagic marine environment.

Esta dissertação investiga o processo de formação da identidade, através do trabalho artístico/musical da banda de hip-hop norte-americano: Black Eyed Peas, formada na década de 80, nos Estados Unidos da América. Essa investigação diz respeito às questões de identidades discutidas pela temática do hip-hop, bem como a releitura que esta banda apresenta de elementos tidos como essenciais no gênero em questão. Ainda, visa uma maior compreensão da problemática envolvida na obra artística popular e racial e sua relação com a teoria de massa, para à partir daí, analisar seu potencial de resistência, de criatividade e de protesto. / This research ivestigates the process of meaning meaking/ signifyin(g) in the musical work of a North-american hip-hop band: Black Eyed Peas, founded in the decade of 1980, in the United States of America. This investigation is based on the identity questions discussed by the hip-hop themes, as well as the reelaboration/revisionism that this specific band shows about elements considered essences in the gender studied. Yet, this research intends a better understanding of the matters involved in the popular and racial artistic creation and its relation with the mass theories, in order to analyse its potencial of political resistance, criativity and protest.

Esta dissertação investiga o processo de formação da identidade, através do trabalho artístico/musical da banda de hip-hop norte-americano: Black Eyed Peas, formada na década de 80, nos Estados Unidos da América. Essa investigação diz respeito às questões de identidades discutidas pela temática do hip-hop, bem como a releitura que esta banda apresenta de elementos tidos como essenciais no gênero em questão. Ainda, visa uma maior compreensão da problemática envolvida na obra artística popular e racial e sua relação com a teoria de massa, para à partir daí, analisar seu potencial de resistência, de criatividade e de protesto. / This research ivestigates the process of meaning meaking/ signifyin(g) in the musical work of a North-american hip-hop band: Black Eyed Peas, founded in the decade of 1980, in the United States of America. This investigation is based on the identity questions discussed by the hip-hop themes, as well as the reelaboration/revisionism that this specific band shows about elements considered essences in the gender studied. Yet, this research intends a better understanding of the matters involved in the popular and racial artistic creation and its relation with the mass theories, in order to analyse its potencial of political resistance, criativity and protest.