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Unravelling the decision making of foraging vultures : insights from a field experiment
No full textOptimal Foraging Theory (OFT) integrates both the consumer and the resource, yet their simultaneous assessment is uncommon. Vultures represent an ideal model for OFT studies because carrion requires no capture effort and minimal handling, allowing them to focus primarily on food searching. Here, we combined GPS tracking of 61 Iberian griffon vultures (consumers) with photo-trapping monitoring of 49 carcasses (resources) to assess the determinants of vulture foraging and the consequences for carrion consumption in two areas with different carrion abundances. First, we determined the importance of different factors (distance to the resource, hunger and competition) in the decisions of individuals of whether to descend or not on a carcass. Second, we compared carrion consumption patterns (time of carcass discovery and consumption, and maximum number of vultures gathered around the carcass) between areas. We found that distance, rather than hunger, is the primary factor determining whether a vulture descends to a carcass. In parallel, carrion was consumed similarly in areas with different resource availabilities. These findings indicate that vultures tend to eat whenever a nearby opportunity arises, consistent with a type-I functional response.publishe
Fitness centrality : a non-linear centrality measure for complex networks
No full textAs often happens in science, tools, and methods originally developed in one field can unexpectedly become useful in others. This paper explores the formalism of Economic Fitness Complexity (EFC), initially designed to predict and explain the economic trajectories of countries, cities, and regions, which has also proven applicable in diverse contexts such as ecology and chess openings. The success of EFC is attributed to its ability to indirectly assess hidden capabilities within a system. However, existing EFC algorithms are constrained to bipartite graphs, becoming inapplicable even with minor deviations in the bipartite structure. This paper introduces an extension of EFC and its cousin Economic Complexity Index that applies to any graph, thereby overcoming the bipartite constraint. This extension introduces fitness centrality, a novel centrality measure that can be used for assessing node vulnerability. By broadening the scope of economic complexity analysis to diverse network structures, this work expands the applicability and robustness of EFC in complexity science.publishe
Eight-week high intensity jump training does not change neural correlates of executive functions and emotion regulation in young adults
No full textExercise can positively impact cognitive abilities. However, studies assessing the impact of exercise on related constructs, such as emotion regulation, are missing. Further, little is known about the effects of exercise on cognition and accompanying changes in neural activation in healthy young adults. In this randomized controlled trial, we tested the effect of a chronic exercise intervention with an extensive set of tasks probing executive functioning and emotion regulation in fMRI. University students were either assigned to an 8-week high intensity low volume jump training intervention or to a control group. Physical fitness measurements and fMRI-scans during working memory, task switching, response inhibition, and cognitive reappraisal of 58 participants were analyzed. The training intervention resulted in an expected improvement in jump performance but not in aerobic capacity. Moreover, the training did not improve executive functioning or emotion regulation performance. While we found strong fronto-parietal brain activation over both timepoints, the training resulted only in insubstantial changes. Likewise, individual changes in aerobic capacity and jump performance were not related to improvements in cognitive performance or changes in brain activation. In conclusion, our study does not support positive effects of exercise interventions on executive functions or emotion regulation in healthy young adults.publishe
Hybrid Nanoparticles Separated by Buoyant Density in a Large‐Scale Centrifugal Process
No full textIn isopycnic centrifugations carried out in a density gradient, the separation of macromolecules and polymer nanoparticles is contingent on their respective densities alone. The influence of size on the velocity of the particles is only operative until the particles reach a zone within the gradient where their density is equivalent to that of the surrounding fluid. The advent of bowl‐shaped zonal rotors has marked a substantial advancement, obviating the necessity for centrifugal separations within centrifuge tubes. Notably, this study is the first to investigate the separation of mixtures of synthetic nanoparticles carried out in a zonal rotor by two different scenarios. Initially, the separation of colloidal dimers, composed of two distinct polymer types, from particles of pure polymers is explored. The study is then extended to protein‐loaded polymer particles that are separated from unloaded particles. The efficacy of the separation process is benchmarked against separations on a smaller scale using swing‐out rotors. In both instances, the manifestation of a conspicuously sharp band formation can be observed, thereby enabling the determination of the buoyant densities of the individual particle populations through precise measurement of band positions. This opens up a new framework for the sorting of particle mixtures based exclusively on their buoyant densities, irrespective of their sizes or shapes.publishe
Post-Readymade
No full textNamenlose Grabsteine; ein Turnschuh, auf dem statt des Markennamens Balenciaga das Wort ‚Belanciege‘ steht; ein ‚lächelnder‘ Achat, der auf Ebay für eine Million Dollar gelistet ist… Mit Werken von Luke Willis Thompson, Hito Steyerl und Lindsay Lawson vor Augen führt Katharina Weinstock die Rezeptions- und Transformationsgeschichten von Duchamps ‚Readymade‘ und Bretons ‚Objet Trouvé‘ parallel, um aus ihrem Zusammenspiel den neuen Begriff ‚Post-Readymade‘ zu entwickeln, mit dem heutige Spielweisen der Kunst mit Fundobjekten greifbar werden. Statt von Kunstobjekten auf Sockeln handelt dieses Buch von driftenden, prekären, beredsamen Dingen und den mit ihnen verwobenen menschlichen Schicksalen.publishe
Standardized Methods to Assess the Impacts of Thermal Stress on Coral Reef Marine Life
No full textThe Earth's oceans have absorbed more than 90% of the excess, climate change–induced atmospheric heat. The resulting rise in oceanic temperatures affects all species and can lead to the collapse of marine ecosystems, including coral reefs. Here, we review the range of methods used to measure thermal stress impacts on reef-building corals, highlighting current standardization practices and necessary refinements to fast-track discoveries and improve interstudy comparisons. We also present technological developments that will undoubtedly enhance our ability to record and analyze standardized data. Although we use corals as an example, the methods described are widely employed in marine sciences, and our recommendations therefore apply to all species and ecosystems. Enhancing collaborative data collection efforts, implementing field-wide standardized protocols, and ensuring data availability through dedicated, openly accessible databases will enable large-scale analysis and monitoring of ecosystem changes, improving our predictive capacities and informing active intervention to mitigate climate change effects on marine life.publishe
Different honesty conceptions align across US politicians' tweets and public replies
No full textRecent evidence shows that US politicians’ conception of honesty has undergone a bifurcation, with authentic but evidence-free “belief-speaking” becoming more prominent and differentiated from evidence-based “fact-speaking”. Here we examine the downstream consequences of those two ways of conceiving honesty by investigating user engagement with fact-speaking and belief-speaking texts by members of the US Congress on Twitter (now X). We measure the conceptions of honesty of a sample of tweets and replies using computational text processing, and check whether the conceptions of honesty in the tweets align with those in their replies. We find that the conceptions of honesty used in replies align with those of the tweets, suggesting a “contagion”. Notably, this contagion replicates under controlled experimental conditions. Our study highlights the crucial role of political leaders in setting the tone of the conversation on social media.publishe
The impacts of armed conflict on human development : A review of the literature
No full textThe detrimental impacts of wars on human development are well documented across research domains, from public health to micro-economics. However, these impacts are studied in compartmentalized silos, which limits a comprehensive understanding of the consequences of conflicts, hampering our ability to effectively sustain human development. This article takes a first step in addressing this gap by reviewing the literature on conflict impacts through the lens of an inter-disciplinary theoretical framework. We review the literature on the consequences of conflicts across 9 dimensions of human development: health, schooling, livelihood and income, growth and investments, political institutions, migration and displacement, socio-psychological wellbeing and capital, water access, and food security. The study focuses on both direct and indirect impacts of violence, reviews the existing evidence on how impacts on different dimensions of societal wellbeing and development may intertwine, and suggests plausible mechanisms to explain how these connections materialize. This exercise leads to the identification of critical research gaps and reveals that systematic empirical testing of how the impacts of war spread across sectors is severely lacking. By streamlining the literature on the impacts of war across multiple domains, this review represents a first step to build a common language that can overcome disciplinary silos and achieve a deeper understanding of how the effects of war reverberate across society. This multidisciplinary understanding of conflict impacts may eventually help to reconcile divergent estimates and enable forward-looking policies that minimize the costs of war.publishe
The Desdemona effect : Empathy, retelling and seriality in Shakespeare’s Othello
No full textThis essay focuses on Othello and in particular on the role(s) of Desdemona within the structure of the play. It argues that Shakespeare has written into this play an interesting anticipation of serial art. It is emphasized in the beginning of the drama that Desdemona has fallen in love not with Othello but with the story of Othello which she longed to hear over and over again, even asking for a mediator to sustain this exciting experience. Spellbound by the repetition of a story that incites her strong imagination, Desdemona conflates the ‘romance’ with her own reality. She implements and ‘adapts’ what she considers Othello’s impressive narrative by creating two powerful roles for herself, a heroic one of the ‘fair Warrior’, and an empathic one of the passionate mediator and advocate. This reading sheds new light on Desdemona’s excessive love of theatricality, seriality and virtuoso performance which, in this case, is directly linked to her tragic end because it covers up her sense of reality and obscures the relations in her own life.publishe
Tracking individual animals can reveal the mechanisms of species loss
No full textAs biodiversity loss continues, targeted conservation interventions are increasingly necessary. Stemming species loss requires mechanistic understanding of the processes governing population dynamics. However, this information is unavailable for most animals because it requires data that are difficult to collect using traditional methods. Advances in animal tracking technology have generated an avalanche of high-resolution observations for a growing list of species around the globe. To date, most research using these data has focused on questions about animal behavior, with less emphasis on population processes. Here, we argue that tracking data are uniquely poised to bring powerful new insights to the urgent, global problem of halting species extinctions by revealing when, where, how, and why populations are changing.publishe