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Abstract
This paper suggests an experimental approach to comparison. It is argued that comparing should be detached from the question of adequacy in order to regain it as an analytical and explorative tool. This approach is put to work by comparing boxing to computer programming. Drawing on comparisons of sports practices to other social practices by Mead and Bourdieu, the paper deploys sports comparison quite similarly. In a comparative perspective the practice of writing code for software is depicted by using means and modes of description developed from an ethnography of boxing. This serves for illuminating and understanding programming's gestural and embodied logic.
Abstract
The tendency to clasp is increased greatly, in the toad Bufo cognatus, by injections of gonadotrophin. In B. americanus, the forebrain and medial parts of the inferior colliculi are not necessary for releasing (i.e. unclasping) behavior. Small lesions at the lateral edge of the anterio-dorsal nucleus of the inferior colliculi abolish releasing. After removal of the clasp-inhibition mechanisms of the trigemino-isthmic tegmentum, toads show strong clasping (foreleg adduction) and strong releasing (hindleg kicking) movements simultaneously. This suggests that releasing is a distinct behavior pattern, rather than merely an inhibition of clasping Normal releasing can be evoked in B. americanus after complete bilateral labyrinthectomy, and the presence of a nearby, release-calling male does not evoke releasing by a clasping male. Therefore, it must be mainly the tactile effects, rather than the auditory or vestibular effects, of the release signals that evoke releasing. The effects of section of the dorsal roots of various spinal nerves in B. americanus confirm that the foreleg is the most important area for reception of the tactile stimuli evoking clasping and releasing. Gross lesions of the forefoot and sections of various nerves to the forefoot show that receptors involved in eliciting these behaviors are widely distributed in this area. The forefoot sensory field of the deep radial nerve is especially involved in clasping.
Abstract
Techniques are described for inducing ovulation in tree frogs (Hyla cinerea) and toads (Bufo woodhousei fowleri) and for testing the ability of these gravid females to orient to homospecific mating calls. A few preliminary tests were also made with heterospecific mating calls. Several responses to calls are described. Of special interest is an escape response made by Bufo to heterospecific calls. This may serve as an isolating mechanism by effecting avoidance of heterospecific calling males. Males of the same species could not be induced to move toward mating calls. Testing of females with forebrain lesions showed that the telencephalon and the dorsal part of the preoptic area are not necessary for orientation behavior, but that the region of the ventral magnocellular preoptic nucleus is essential.