When your variables of interest are distributed on a circle (e.g., angles, times of day, dates) linear statistics often cannot be used properly, and software tools that deal with circular variables are not readily available. With the macros you can download here, you can calculate circular moments, and perform one-sample raileigh-tests, circular correlations (non-parametric and parametric) and circular two-sample tests using actually your computer (rather than pen and paper). They can be freely downloaded for non-commercial use. For successful download of the SAS-codes, you may have to manually reset the file-extension ".sas" before saving to your computer.
Our "NUMBER ONE", the first hatched earwig baby from our laboratory population. Number one's birthday was the 9th February 2006.
Some of our previous work investigated the genetic diversity underlying nestling begging call intensity and parental food provisioning in great tits (Parus major; left), and the genetics and chemosensory regulation of parental food provisioning in a sub-social insect species, the North American burrower bug (Sehirus sinctus; right). In the left picture, a snap-shot taken within a great tit nestbox during a parental visit and under infrared light is shown. The right picture shows a burrower bug mother with a mint (Lamium purpureum) seed that she is about to provision to her 1st instar nymphs (picture taken by Patrick Alexander).
For more information on some of our work on the begging behavior of nestling great tits, check out the article Futterneid im Meisennest" by Nicole Steck, published in Unipress, the scientific magazine of the University of Bern. With this article, Nicole won the 2nd price of the "Forschungsreportagen-Wettbewerb 1998 des Bernischen Hochschulvereins"