Low-frequency songs lose their potency in noisy urban conditions

Low-frequency songs lose their potency in noisy urban conditions.

Many animal species communicate with their mates through acoustic signals, but this communication seems to become a struggle in urbanized areas because of increasing anthropogenic noise levels. Several bird species have been reported to increase song frequency by which they reduce the masking impact of spectrally overlapping noise. However, it remains unclear whether such behavioral flexibility...

Are low-frequency songs sexually selected, and do they lose their potency in male-female interactions under noisy conditions?

Do Disadvantaged Urban Schools Lose Their Best Teachers?

Recent research documents substantial variation in teacher quality as measured by value added to student achievement, much of which is not captured by characteristics typically used in the hiring and salary determination processes including post-graduate schooling and experience. Consequently an understanding of the impact of teacher transitions on school quality cannot focus simply on such obs...

Territorial black-capped chickadee males respond faster to high- than to low-frequency songs in experimentally elevated noise conditions

Low-frequency urban noise can interfere with avian communication through masking. Some species are able to shift the frequency of their vocalizations upwards in noisy conditions, which may reduce the effects of masking. However, results from playback studies investigating whether or not such vocal changes improve audibility in noisy conditions are not clear; the responses of free-ranging indivi...

Axons lose their identity

During development, epithelial cells need a little help fi guring out which way is up. < a d d a r t t y p e = " r e l " d o i = " 1 0. 1 0 8 3 / j c b. 2 0 0 8 0 7 1 2 1 " > Jaffe et al.< / a d d a r t > show how a polarizing protein ensures that the cells face the right direction. A newborn epithelial cell in, say, the intestinal lining will polarize so that its apical surface is oriented tow...