Evolutionary explanations for life history diversity are based on the idea of costs of reproduction, particularly on the concept of a trade-off between age-specific reproduction and parental survival, and between expenditure on current and future offspring. Such trade-offs are often difficult to detect in population studies of wild mammals. Terminal investment theory predicts that reproductive ...

In a nursery pollination mutualism, we asked whether environmental factors affected reproduction of mutualistic pollinators, non-mutualistic parasites and seed production via seasonal changes in plant traits such as inflorescence size and within-tree reproductive phenology. We examined seasonal variation in reproduction in Ficus racemosa community members that utilise enclosed inflorescences ca...

Early and intense grazing of semi-natural grasslands replacing traditional mowing and late grazing has been identified as a threat to grassland biodiversity. We compared fruit production, fruit set attributes (e.g. plant size or phenology of reproduction), and differences in potentially negative effects (accumulation of ungrazed vegetation) in continuous grazing from May through September, with...

We study the evolutionarily stable reproductive timing of annual plants that face unpredictable environmental disturbances. Plants living in a riverbed often experience a disturbance before they reproduce, suffering major fitness loss. Plants reproducing prior to the flood season are free from the risk of lost reproduction, but a small flowering plant can produce only a few numbers of seeds. If...

We used the northern grass lizard Takydromus septentrionalis as a model animal to examine the energy allocation strategy and whether body temperature can affect maternal reproductive traits in lizards. We maintained adult females collected from the field soon after winter dormancy under three thermal conditions (24.0+/-1.0 degrees C, 28.0+/-1.0 degrees C and 32.0+/-1.0 degrees C) throughout the...

In seasonal environments, vertebrates are generally thought to time their reproduction so offspring are raised during the peak of food abundance. The mismatch hypothesis predicts that reproductive success is maximized when animals synchronize their reproduction with the food supply. Understanding the mechanisms influencing the timing of reproduction has taken on new urgency as climate change is...

This article illuminates the transmedia storytelling techniques in The Walking Dead comic book and video game. Telltale Games’ The Walking Dead localizes itself within the comic book world of The Walking Dead by acting as a transmedia storytelling device and using intertextuality comics to assist game players with meaning-making. By participating in the game, Telltale rewards players with addit...

BACKGROUND At high latitudes the external environment varies with season, and therefore the season of birth may contribute to the developmental processes during the perinatal period. METHODS We investigated the association between birth season and measures of reproductive performance (offspring count, percentage childless individuals) in a contemporary sample of women and men. RESULTS In th...

Representations of femininity in video games and other media are often discussed with reference to the most popular games, their protagonists and their sexist predicament. This framing leaves in shadow other dimensions. We aim to identify some of them and to open a broader horizon for examining and designing femininity and gender in games. To this end we look into games with creative portrayals...