Great tits feed their nestlings with more but smaller prey items and fewer caterpillars in cities than in forests

Rapidly increasing urbanisation is one of the most significant anthropogenic environmental changes which can affect demographic traits of animal populations, for example resulting in reduced reproductive success. The food limitation hypothesis suggests that the shortage of high-quality nestling food in cities is a major factor responsible for the reduced reproductive performance in insectivorous birds. To study this explanation, we collected data on the parental provisioning behaviour of urban and forest great tits (Parus major) in three years that varied both in caterpillar availability (the main food of great tit nestlings) and in reproductive success of the birds. In all years, urban parents provisioned caterpillars in a smaller proportion to their nestlings, but the total amount of food per nestling (estimated by the volumes of all prey items) did not differ between habitats. In the two years with much lower reproductive success in urban than forest habitats, urban parents had higher provisioning rates, but provided more non-arthropod food and brought smaller prey items than forest parents. In the year with reduced habitat difference in reproductive success, urban parents were able to compensate for the scarcity of caterpillars by provisioning other arthropods rather than non-arthropod food, and by delivering larger preys than in the other years. Specifically, in this latter year, caterpillars provisioned by urban pairs were cc. twice as large as in the other two years, and were similar in size to caterpillars provisioned in the forest broods. These results show that although urban great tit parents can provide the same quantity of food per nestling as forest parents by reducing their brood size and increasing the per capita feeding rates for nestlings, they cannot compensate fully for the scarcity of high-quality preys (caterpillars) in poor years. In some years, however, favourable conditions for urban caterpillar development can greatly reduce food limitation in cities, allowing urban birds to achieve higher reproductive success. We suggest that urban green areas designed and managed in a way to facilitate conditions for phytophagous arthropods could improve habitat quality for urban birds.

Gender Based Comparison of Nutrition Status among Primary School Children in Selected Urban and Rural Areas in Ondo State, Nigeria

In today’s Nigeria, widespread and severe poverty is a reality that depicts a lack of food, clothes, education and other basic amenities and basically affects women and children. This study compared and contrasts gender-based nutritional status in primary school children of selected rural and urban settlements in Ondo State, South-West Nigeria. Using the Multi-staged sampling technique, two hundred and forty (240) primary school students of between the ages of 5 and 10 years were ethically recruited from aforementioned area. Socio-demographic data was collected by way of interview, using a research administered questionnaire that contained both open and closed ended questions. Secondary information was also sourced from the ministry of health, internet, published research papers, journals and other relevant sources. Here, dependent variables consisted of the nutritional status of children in study area(s) that were measured through various nutrition indicators as; height-for-age, weight-for-height, weight-for-age. These indicators were measured through anthropometric techniques, as well as gender specific variations in target variables. Results were sorted, analysed and presented in percentage (using the statistical package for social sciences, SPSS) were used for quantitative data integration on socio-economic and demographics. From the result, most (60.0%) of the respondents’ parents in the urban are within the age range of 31-40 years while most (44.0%) in the rural were within the age range of 21-30 years. In all, none of the urban parents were within the age range of 15-20 years while 10.0% of the rural parents were within the age range of 15-21 years. The mean age of urban parents was 34 years while the mean age of rural parents was 31 years. It can be deduced from the results that rural parents involved were higher than their urban counterparts. Mean consumption pattern of carbohydrates by urban respondents was higher than that of the rural counterparts, lower for proteins consumption pattern as well as in vitamins, even though nutritional status proved otherwise for urban against rural children. Nutritional enlightenment programmes is recommended for parents of rural settled children in order keep abreast of the importance of healthy eating. Further study aimed at corroborating these findings should also be carried out.

The Attitude of Teachers and Parents of Students towards the Implementation of School Management Committee (SMCs) at Elementary Level

The primary purposes of the present study were to analyze the attitude of the teachers and parentstowards the implementation of School Management Committee as elementary level and to examinethe significant difference in the attitude of parents (rural and urban) and teachers (male andfemale). The descriptive survey method was adopted for conducting research, where 20 elementaryschools (10 rural and 10 urban) of Sambalpur district, Odisha were taken, from which 160 sampleswere selected randomly composing both parents and students as a whole. A five-point attitude scalewas prepared for collecting relevant data from the sample groups, and the simple percentage technique and 't' test was applied to analyze the obtained data. The findings of the study revealed that Majority of parents and teachers agreed that the formation of the School ManagementCommittee at the elementary level is a good step taken by the Government. Both rural and urban parents differed significantly in their attitude towards the implementation of the School Management Committee. In comparison to rural and urban parents, rural parents had a more favorable attitude than urban parents towards SMC. There was no sign of the difference between male and female teachers towards the implementation of the School Management Committee. Both showed an equal favorable attitude.

Mutual Assistance of Urban Parents and Adult Children: Differences in Age, Educational and Income Groups

Since 2019, Russia has been implementing The Federal project “Older generation”, which is one of the five Federal projects (FP) of the national project”Demography”. The purpose of the project is to expand the boundaries of active and efficient old age, strengthen the health of older people, and provide them with decent care from the state [Federal.., 2019]. In addition to government efforts, the family ties of the elderly are also important. One of the indicators of well-being of older people is the nature of their relationships with adult children. To analyze the mutual assistance of adult children and parents in Russia, we used the databases of the 2011, 2014, 2016, and 2018 COHR. Sub-samples of urban citizens aged 55–64 and 65 years and older who have adult children living separately were formed. The dynamics of various types of mutual assistance is described, and the change in the balance of monetary mutual assistance between parents and adult children in these age groups is shown. The differences in monetary mutual assistance and care for grandchildren by gender of parents, among educated/ uneducated parents and living in households with different income levels in the selected age groups are analyzed. Changing the models of interaction between parents and adult children can become one of the adaptive strategies in the next crisis social conditions in Russia.

The Attitude of Teachers and Parents of Students towards the Implementation of School Management Committee (SMCs) at Elementary Level

The main purposes of the present study were to analyze the attitude of the teachers and parents towards the implementation of School management Committee as elementary level and to examine the significant difference in the attitude of parents (rural and urban) and teachers (male and female). The descriptive survey method was adopted for conducting research, where 20 elementary schools (10 rural and 10 urban) of Sambalpur district, Odisha were taken, from which 160 samples were selected randomly composing both parents and students as a whole. A five-point attitude scale was prepared for collecting relevant data from the sample groups, and the simple percentage technique and ‘t’ test was applied to analyse the obtained data. The findings of the study revealed that Majority of parents and teachers agreed that the formation of the School management Committee at the elementary level is a good step taken by the Government. Both rural and urban parents differed significantly in their attitude towards the implementation of the School Management Committee. In comparison to rural and urban parents, rural parents had a more favourable attitude than urban parents towards SMC. There was no sign of the difference between male and female teachers towards the implementation of the School Management Committee. Both showed an equal favourable attitude.