4.4 Summary of Section 4 Two important points emerge from this section. The first is the powerful effect of maternal contact on the development and later behaviour of their charges. In the Feldman study the disadvantages of prematurity were essentially overcome by early maternal contact. The second point is that some behavioural traits really do run in families, without being genetic. The Francis study clearly showed that some aspects of Open Field behaviour were the result of nursing care.
4.2 Licking/grooming-arched back nursing Rat mothers perform a number behaviours towards their pups: they build a nest for their pups, keep them in it and occasionally lick them and nurse them. (Rat fathers have a parental role too but it is not essential and the experimental set-up is simplified by his absence.) Licking occurs predominantly at the time when the dam arches her back and nurses her young, allowing a composite behaviour of licking/grooming-arched back nursing to be identified and recorded. If licking/grooming-arched ba
4.1 Parental behaviour A moment's reflection will convince you that parental behaviour differs from one family to another. The effect that different parental styles have on the development of the recipient offspring is very difficult to establish. In part this is to do with the host of other differences between families, not least their genetics and socio-economic status. But also the difficulty arises because to determine cause and effect requires prolonged and intrusive observations of a sort that is not possible
3.3 Plasticity and permanency The visual system relies on, amongst other things, the exquisitely precise connections between the retina, the lateral geniculate nucleus of the thalamus and the visual cortex. In precocial organisms, i.e. those born or hatched able to see and move about, such as horses and ducks, these connections arise in complete darkness. The information necessary to establish the connections must therefore be in the genome. The question then arises as to whether the environment, visual stimulation in thi
3.2 Small babies Development continues in the womb until birth, which, in humans, is about 38 weeks after conception. (The often quoted duration of pregnancy of 40 weeks is based on pregnancy beginning on the first day of the last menstrual period.) The duration of the period of development before birth, called gestation, is highly variable. It is not possible to determine its full range in the UK, because medical intervention usually prevents pregnancies going beyond about two weeks after the due date, or te
3.1 Introduction We each begin life with a unique genome. As we grow and develop, we are each subjected to a range of factors that influence the way development proceeds. Most of those factors are common to us all, the intracellular and intercellular signals, hormones, birth, milk. But the precise combination and the range and duration of those factors varies between individuals, such as the duration of gestation or the composition and quantity of a mother's milk, for example. In addition we each undergo diff
1.2 The ‘genes and behaviour’ problem Amidst the progressive change to the brain and nervous system that occurs during development, there is one constant, one fixed element; the set of deoxyribonucleic acid, DNA, molecules found in each cell. These molecules are the genetic material, and they store the information for the construction of the organism. The same set of DNA molecules is found in every cell of an organism (its genome). (There are some exceptions to this such as sperm, unfertilised egg and red blood cells, but they ne
1.1 Introduction This unit addresses the question of how the differences between individuals, especially in behaviour, arise during development. Development, the transformation of the single cell, the zygote, into an adult organism with billions of cells, numerous organs and an intricate, functioning nervous system, is one of the most remarkable feats of living systems. The process begins when an egg cell, or ovum, is fertilised by a sperm, or spermatozoon. The resultant single cell, the zygote, divides to pr
Learning outcomes After studying this unit you should be able to: recognise definitions and applications of each of the terms printed in bold in the text; critically evaluate statements about the influence of the genome on behaviour; explain the ways in which genetic and environmental factors influence the development of the nervous system; provide examples of the influence of genetic and environmental factors on the development of the nervous s
Preamble The two main types of superconducting materials are known as type-I and type-II superconductors, and their properties will be discussed in the remainder of this unit. All of the pure elemental superconductors are type-I, with the exception of niobium, vanadium and technetium. The discussion of the effects of magnetic fields and currents on superconductors earlier in this unit has been confined to thin cylinders of type-I materials like lead or tin in a parallel magnetic f
3.1 Addiction article 1 The first selected reading provides a wide ranging review of the theories associated with addiction illustrating how the subject can be investigated at a number of different levels of analysis. The second article explores one particular level further, the pharmacology of drug addiction, and asks why specific drugs are more likely to induce addictive behaviour.
1.8 Primordial nucleosynthesis Time: 100 s to 1000 s Temperature: 109 K to 3 × 108 K Energy: 300 keV to 100 keV As the temperature continued to decrease, protons and neutrons were able to combine to make light nuclei. This marked the beginning of the period referred to as the era of primordial nucleosynthesis (which literally means ‘making nuclei’). The first such reaction to become energetically favoured was that of a single proton and neutron comb
Acknowledgements The content acknowledged below is Proprietary (see terms and conditions) and is used under licence. All other materials included in this unit are derived from content originated at the Open University. 1. Join the 200,000 students currently studying withAuthor(s):
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Learning outcomes By the end of this guide you should be able to: conduct your own searches efficiently and effectively; find references to material in bibliographic databases; make efficient use of full text electronic journals services; critically evaluate information from a variety of sources; understand the importance of organizing your own information; identify some of the systems available; describe ho
5.1 Reading an Act of Parliament In Parts A and B of this unit we have examined what influences determine which Acts of Parliament are made and the process by which they are made. In Part D I would like to show you some examples of what an Act of Parliament looks like, how Acts of Parliament are structured and how you should read an Act of Parliament. Copies of all Acts of Parliament have been kept since 1497. Most of these are kept in the House of Lords Record Office in the Victoria Tower at Westminster and are availa
4.13.4 Volume The large volume of delegated legislation produced every year (some 3,000 SIs annually) means that it is very difficult for Members of Parliament, let alone the general public, to keep up to date with the present law. This is exacerbated by the fact that delegated legislation is made in private, unlike Acts of Parliament which are made following public debates in Parliament.
3.4 Summary of Part B In Part B we have examined: the different types of Parliamentary Bills: Public Bills Private Bills Private Members' Bills how Bills are prepared and drafted how Bills become Acts of Parliament.
1 Rule making in England and Wales One of the most important functions of any legal system is to state the legal rules by which the society in question is to operate. Legal rules are not necessarily the only codes which prescribe social behaviour (morals and etiquette are others), but legal rules are distinct in that they constitute an official code which has the backing of state powers of enforcement and sanctions. This unit explores the major sources of legal rule making in England and Wales – the Westminster Parliament. M
1.3.1: The mean and the median This subsection looks at two ways of finding an ‘average’. The first produces the mean, which is what was originally meant by ‘average’, and what most people think of when they talk about an average. The second gives the median, which might more accurately be described as a ‘typical’ or middle value. They will be illustrated using the following batch of heights. The heights in metres (measured to the nearest centimetre) of a group of seven people are as follows
6.5 Solutions to ‘making a lawn’ Learning from the marking of the previous questions, write out a good solution to the following problem. Suppose you have some friends who are planning to put a new lawn in their garden. The lawn is to be 12 m by 14 m and they have a choice of either laying turf or sow
Example 18: Making a lawn
