Students＇ Perception and Experiences of A Programme with Cultural and Adventure Initiatives Towards Group Cohesion

The purpose of this exploratory study was to determine the influence of selected cultural and adventure initiatives on the perception and experiences of group cohesion in a multicultural higher education institution. After a 3-day camp, rich qualitative data f^om students （n = 120） were gathered through focus group discussions and PowerPoint presentations. Using ATLAS.ti, four themes emerged： positive attitude and behaviour, maintaining group level, self-maintaining, and membership attraction and attachment. The findings revealed positive experiences among the participants. It is recommended that follow-up interventions should follow to ensure sustainability.

How to Make Virtual Community More Active and Cohesive:From Brand and Perceived Protection Perspectives

With the increasing popularity of the Internet and mobile Internet, the Virtual Community （VC） is becoming an important medium for person-to-person communication. To realise the potential of the VC, it is neces- sary to cultivate within it good group cohesion and vitality. Using empirical and experimental research methods, this study explores the ef- fect of users＇ trust in the VC Platform （VCP） on group cohesion and vitality and how brand and perceived privacy security can affect us- ers＇ trust in the VC. The research results indi- cate that the brand of the VCP can directly af- fect users＇ trust in the VC, and can also influe- nce it indirectly through users＇ perceived pri- vacy protection and perceived security protec- tion. Further, this study also confu＇ms that the performance of the VC （group cohesion and vitality） is significantly affected by users＇ trust in the VC. The results of this study can provide theoretical guidance for internet companies to maintain and enhance the value of VCs.

Adult meerkats modify close call rate in the presence of pups

In animals, signaling behavior is often context-dependent, with variation in the probability of emitting certain signals dependent on fitness advantages. Senders may adjust signaling rate depending on receiver identity, presence of audiences, or noise masking the signal, all of which can affect the benefits and costs of signal production. In the cooperative breeding meerkat Suricata suricatta, group members emit soft contact calls, termed as ＂close calls＂, while foraging in order to maintain group cohesion. Here, we investigated how the close calling rate during foraging was affected by the presence of pups, that produce continuous, noisy begging calls as they follow older group members. Adults decreased their overall close call rate substantially when pups were foraging with the group in comparison to periods when no pups were present. We suggest this decrease was likely due to a masking effect of the loud begging calls, which makes the close call function of maintaining group cohesion partly redundant as the centrally located begging calls can be used in- stead to maintain cohesion. There was some support that adults use close calls strategically to at- tract specific pups based on fitness advantages, that is, as the philopatric sex, females should call more than males and more to female pups than male pups. Dominant females called more than dominant males when a pup was in close proximity, while subordinates showed no sex-based dif- ferences. The sex of the nearest pup did not affect the calling rate of adults. The study shows that meerkats modify their close call production depending on benefits gained from calling and provides an example of the flexible use of one calling system in the presence of another, here contact calls versus begging calls, within the same species.