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‘Fer aboue alle creaturis þouʒt vnþenkable’ : what Reginald Pecock did with 'Proving the Existence of God' and 'Divine Infinity'
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Long arcuate fascicle in wild and captive chimpanzees as a potential structural precursor of the language network
Get PDFFunding: The authors are thankful for the permissions granted for research and brain extraction in various regions: Sierra Leone’s Environmental Protection Agency; the Ministère de l’Enseignement Supérieur et de la Recherche Scientifique and the Ministère de Eaux et Fôrets in Côte d’Ivoire, along with the Office Ivoirien des Parcs et Réserves; in Gabon, the Ministère des Eaux, des Forêts, de la Mer, de l’Environnement, the Agence Nationale des Parcs Nationaux, the Research Institute for Tropical Ecology, and the National Center for Scientific and Technological Research; and in Uganda, the Uganda Wildlife Authority and the Ugandan National Council for Science and Technology. Our appreciation also goes to the Centre Suisse de Recherches Scientifiques en Côte d’Ivoire for their logistical support, the staff members of the Taï Chimpanzee Project for their invaluable assistance in data collection, and to Christophe Boesch for his exceptional dedication to establishing and nurturing the Taï Chimpanzee Project for 30 years. We express our gratitude to all members of EAZA, PASA, and field site partners who collaborated with us on the Evolution of Brain Connectivity (EBC) project. Special acknowledgment to Christina Kompo for her adept management of import and export permits and shipping logistics. This study received funding from the Max Planck Society under the inter-institutional funds of the president of the Max Planck Society for the EBC project. Y.B. received funding from the Fondation Fyssen.The arcuate fascicle (AF) is the main fibre tract in the brain for human language. It connects frontal and temporal language areas in the superior and middle temporal gyrus (MTG). The AF’s connection to the MTG was considered unique to humans and has influenced theories of the evolution of language. Here, using high-resolution diffusion MRI of post-mortem brains, we demonstrate that both wild and captive chimpanzees have a direct AF connection into the MTG, albeit weaker than in humans. This finding challenges the notion of a strictly human-specific AF morphology and suggests that language-related neural specialisation in humans likely evolved through gradual evolutionary strengthening of a pre-existing connection, rather than arising de novo. It is likely that this neural architecture supporting complex communication was already present in the last common ancestor of hominins and chimpanzees 7 million years ago, enabling the evolution of language processes in the human lineage.Peer reviewe
Introduction
Get PDFFunding: Funding for this project was provided by the British Academy’s Newton International Fellowship.Although industrial modernization in Eurasia both preceded and outlived the Soviet project, in popular and scholarly imaginations, manufacturing cities located in the continent’s eastern regions are often understood as quintessentially ‘Soviet’. Yet, this perception tends to ignore the ways in which earlier urban developments were integrated with socialist innovations. This special issue seeks to decentre the concept of ‘Soviet urbanism’ by placing socialist forms into a longue durée perspective on industrial modernity and destabilizing popular equations of ‘post-socialism’ with ‘post-industrialism’. The collection’s contributions explore how modernist urbanism has intersected a variety of political and economic regimes over the past century and how evolving industrial processes continue to shape and reconfigure Eurasia’s urban landscapes.Peer reviewe
Living by the rules : patriarchy, hegemonic masculinity, and the production of violence in domestic abuse and involuntary celibacy
No full textThis research has three main goals. First, empirically, it explores the interconnectedness of domestic abuse and involuntary celibacy as two forms of gendered violence. It argues that the embodiment of socially constructed and current dominant expectations of family and relationships, sexuality, and appearance are crucial in the pursuit of a hegemonic position in society for both perpetrators of domestic abuse and involuntary celibates. The fear of failure or the perceived failure to meet those expectations create feelings of inadequacy that inform the production of violence. Violence has a dual function: retain and/or regain male dominance and female subordination.
Second, analytically, it explores the utility of a patriarchal lens as conceptualised from a neo-institutionalist perspective. It argues that a neo-institutionalist approach defines systems of oppression as sets of rules that, over time, have come to govern individuals’ actions and beliefs, and that individuals continuously reinforce through practice. This conceptualisation, however, is limited by its omission of the historical and colonial roots of patriarchy.
Finally, it questions the distinction made between various manifestations of gendered violence and the way in which they are studied in distinct silos of knowledge (re)production. It argues that both domestic abuse and involuntary celibacy occur in a same contemporary context of reactionary politics and renegotiation of men’s place in society. This, in turn, blurs the lines between online and offline, as well as public and private nature of the violence, and requires a more holistic intervention approach."This work was supported by the University of St Andrews (School of International Relations) as part of an institutional commitment to the ESRC Centre for Research and Evidence on Security Threats."--Fundin
Developing the Citizen Summit Method : understanding citizens' views on digital surveillance technologies
Get PDFFunding: FP7 Security, Grant/Award Number: SurPRISE (Surveillance, Privacy, Security) Grant Award Number FP7-SEC-2011-285492.This article demonstrates how the citizen summit was transformed into the ‘Citizen Summit Method’ (CSM). Citizen summits are growing in popularity in policymaking. In their original form they are used as participatory fora to engage voters in deliberating matters of political and social importance. In their redesigned form, they retain their deliberative character while delivering high quality scientific data for use in policymaking and research. Interdisciplinarity was central to the CSM redesign, which involved the theoretical integration of interdisciplinary constructs into a theoretically derived model. The model ran through the CSMs different elements and ensured they cross-referenced each other, with the resulting research delivering in-depth and nuanced evidence about citizens’ views. The CSM was explored in an international study of citizens’ views on Digital Surveillance Technologies and whether they would be prepared to trade off privacy for security. The results showed that citizens did not perform a security–privacy trade-off and that institutional trustworthiness determined their support or opposition to digital surveillance. The CSM has huge potential for application in internet governance, where citizens are affected by many complex, high-risk policy and regulatory challenges. Options for intersectoral collaboration are discussed as well as the limitations of the CSM.Peer reviewe
Evaluating locally run large language models (Gemma 2, Mistral Nemo, and Llama 3) for outpatient otorhinolaryngology care : retrospective study
Get PDFBackground: Large language models (LLMs) have great potential to improve and make the work of clinicians more efficient. Previous studies have mainly focused on web-based services, such as ChatGPT, often with simulated cases. For the processing of personalized patient data, web-based services have major data protection concerns. Ensuring compliance with data protection and medical device regulations therefore remains a critical challenge for adopting LLMs in clinical settings. Objective: This retrospective single-center study aimed to evaluate locally run LLMs (Gemma 2, Mistral Nemo, and Llama 3) in providing diagnosis and treatment recommendation for real-world outpatient cases in otorhinolaryngology (ORL). Methods: Outpatient cases (n=30) from regular consultation hours and the emergency service at a university hospital ORL outpatient department were randomly selected. Documentation by ORL doctors, including anamnesis and examination results, was passed to the locally run LLMs (Gemma 2, Mistral Nemo, and Llama 3), which were asked to provide diagnostic and treatment strategies. Recommendations of the LLMs and the treating ORL doctors were rated by 3 experienced ORL consultants on a 6-point Likert scale for medical adequacy, conciseness, coherence, and comprehensibility. Moreover, consultants were asked whether the answers pose a risk to the patient’s safety. A modified Turing test was performed to distinguish responses generated by LLMs from those of doctors. Finally, the potential influence of the information generated by the LLMs on the raters’ own diagnosis and treatment opinions was evaluated. Results: Over all categories, ORL doctors achieved superior (P<.0005) ratings compared to locally run LLMs (Llama 3, Mistral Nemo, and Gemma 2). ORL doctors’ responses were considered hazardous for patients in only 1% of the ratings, whereas recommendations by Llama 3, Gemma 2, and Mistral Nemo were considered hazardous in 54%, 47%, and 32% of cases, respectively. According to the raters, the LLM’s information rarely influenced their judgment, with Mistral Nemo, Gemma 2, and Llama 3 achieving 1%, 3%, and 4% of the ratings, respectively. Conclusions: Although locally run LLM models still underperform compared with their web-based counterparts, they achieved respectable results on outpatient treatment in this study. Nevertheless, the retrospective and single-center nature of the study, along with the clinicians’ documentation style, may have introduced bias in favor of human recommendations. In the future, locally run LLMs will help address data protection concerns; however, further refinement and prospective validation are still needed to meet strict medical device requirements. As locally run LLMs continue to evolve, they are likely to become comparably powerful to web-based LLMs and become established as useful tools to support doctors in clinical practicePeer reviewe
Impacts of invasive algae from the perspective of fishers in the Lagoon of Venice, Northern Italy
Get PDFInvasive alien species are generally considered a cause of biodiversity decline globally, and studying their evolution could provide valuable insights about their invasion mechanism and impacts to new habitats. The Lagoon of Venice (LV) is a significant gateway for invasive algae introduction into the Adriatic Sea. This work aims to address the pressing need to enhance research on the perceptions of local resource users, especially fishers, on invasive algae impacts on marine resources in the Mediterranean setting. The study conducted between February 2022 and April 2024 involved 31 people, most of whom had been engaged in fishing activities for up to over 60 years, who were interviewed during boat trips and algae collection. Interviewees reported knowledge components, complemented by scientific expertise, related to the invasion mechanisms of algae. Of the 26 identified algae recorded, eight taxa have not yet been reported with their scientific names in surveys on the impact of algae in the LV. Together with perceived reasons and related challenges, environmental impacts, solutions proposed by local fishing experts, and adaptations along with their positive uses are socio-economic impacts which are lacking in the LV scientific surveys. The findings reveal perceptions on the direct and indirect impacts of invasive macroalgae in the LV environment affecting its coastal ecosystem functions. Local fishers' knowledge (LFK) offers many ecologically relevant perspectives, which based on the long-lasting practice could complement scientific knowledge (SK) about the impacts of invasive algae and local stressors related to climate change. Hence, it is vital to integrate the broader knowledge of fishers and include them as equal stakeholders in conservation initiatives.Peer reviewe
Isotope constraints on nutrient supply, bio-productivity and redox dynamics in the Mesoproterozoic McArthur Basin, Australia : insights from δ114Cd, δ13C and δ15N proxies
Get PDFFunding: This study was supported by the University of Adelaide’s PhD scholarship to Y.N. and the Australian Research Council (ARC) via Linkage project (LP200301457). JF is supported via AuScope / NCRIS and ARC DP240101345, titled “Middle Age Earth: Ocean Chemistry and Evolution in the Boring Billion”. ASC is funded by ARC Laureate Fellowship FL240100114.Low nutrient availability and oxygen levels in the Mesoproterozoic Ocean are often viewed as barriers to early eukaryotic diversification. However, the links between nutrient inputs and cycling, primary productivity, and redox evolution during this time remain poorly understood. Here we present new cadmium isotope data (δ114Cd) from the organic-rich shales of ∼1430–1360 Ma Velkerri Formation shales (McArthur Basin, Australia), integrated with nitrogen (δ15N), organic carbon (δ13Corg) isotope proxies, total organic carbon (TOC) and nitrogen (TN), and selected redox-sensitive trace element (Mo, U) concentration data. We observe a pronounced positive δ114Cd excursion in the B-organofacies (up to +0.2‰) that correlates with peak TOC values (up to 9 wt%) and elevated δ13Corg, supporting enhanced primary productivity likely sustained by mafic-derived nutrient inputs, the latter suggested by previously published Nd and Os isotope data. These coupled isotope trends are also accompanied by persistently low δ15N values (1–2‰), consistent with nitrate limitation and dominant biological N2-fixation under anoxic/euxinic marine conditions. In contrast, a decline of δ114Cd values (to -0.15‰) in the overlying C-organofacies, accompanied by lower δ13Corg, points to reduced bio-productivity and photosynthetic activity and thus a purported shift toward greater chemosynthetic productivity. Together, these results demonstrate that tectonically enhanced weathering of mafic sources, and by inference key nutrients, drove increased P and Cd delivery to the McArthur Basin, stimulating local bio-productivity and expanding basin’s redox stratification. By linking the Cd, C and N isotope proxy records and δ114Cd excursions directly to nutrient cycling and bio-productivity in the McArthur Basin, this study establishes Cd isotopes as a robust proxy for Mesoproterozoic bio-productivity changes and reconstruction. Overall, this study highlights how nutrient influx sustained organic carbon production, preservation and burial in the greater McArthur Basin, with implications also for the coeval marine paleo-redox changes and the early eukaryotic diversification during this critical interval in Earth’s geological and biological evolution.Peer reviewe
All about that base
Get PDFThis portfolio is comprised of five papers, each concerning base-related invariants of finite permutation groups.
Let Ω be a finite set and G ≤ Sym(Ω). A base for G is a subset B ⊆ Ω such that the pointwise stabiliser G_(B) is trivial. The size of a smallest base for G is denoted b(G). The study of bases originally dates back to the late 19th century but rose to prominence with the advent of computational group theory; as such, the problem of determining b(G) has been of particular interest over the past half-century.
The problem of finding a smallest base for arbitrary finite G is NP-hard, however, there exist polynomial time algorithms to construct relatively small bases. One such algorithm is the greedy algorithm — the size of a largest base it produces for G is denoted (G).
The first two papers of the portfolio are concerned with determining b(G) for the symmetric and alternating groups in their natural actions on uniform subsets. In these two papers, two distinct formulas are derived for the base size of such groups, one using primarily combinatorial methods, and the other with a more algebraic approach. The remaining three papers are dedicated to bounding (G) for various families of primitive groups G. In particular, we determine (G) precisely for all G primitive with sporadic socle, and provide explicit upper bounds for (G) when the socle is alternating."This work was supported by the Natural Sciences and Engineering Research Council of Canada, [funding reference number PGSD-577816-2023]. This work was supported by the University of St Andrews (School of Mathematics and Statistics)"--Fundin
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