Parental favoritism in a wild bird population.

In most taxa with altricial young, offspring solicit food from their parents using a combination of visual and acoustic stimuli, but exactly what these young are communicating, and how selection shapes parental responses, remains unresolved. Theory posits that parents' interpretation and response to begging should vary with the likelihood of a return on their investment. We tested this in a wild population of prothonotary warblers (Protonotaria citrea), predicting that parents bias food non-randomly toward certain individuals within their broods depending on both the size and number of offspring.

Variability of Total Volatile Organic Compounds (TVOC) in the Indoor Air of Retail Stores.

Volatile organic compounds (VOCs) are released to the indoor air of retail stores from numerous products and activities, but available literature lacks a systematic understanding of the variability of VOC concentrations. In this study, we measured concentrations of total VOCs (TVOC) in 32 retail stores using a high-sensitivity photoionization detector (PID). Indoor thermal comfort parameters, including temperature, relative humidity, and air velocity, were simultaneously measured using an anemometer.