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Do chimpanzees (Pan troglodytes) mentally represent collaboration? : Action-learning and communication in a partnered task
Get PDFNon-human primates engage in complex collective behaviours, but existing research does not paint a clear picture of what individuals cognitively represent when they act together. This study investigates chimpanzees’ capacity for co-representation. If individuals represent others’ actions as they relate to their own during a collaborative task, they should more easily learn to reproduce that action when their roles are switched. In a between-subjects design, we trained ten chimpanzees (Pan troglodytes) on a sequential task, in which the first action is performed by either a human partner or a non-social object, and the second action is performed by the subject. We then imposed a breakdown in the action sequence, in which subjects could perform both actions themselves, but received no help from the experimenter or object. We measured subjects’ success in reproducing the first action in the sequence, as well as their attempts to recruit the experimenter’s help using requesting gestures. We found no overall difference in subjects’ ability to perform the first action in the sequence, but we observed significant qualitative differences in their solutions: individuals in the partnered condition replicated the experimenter’s action, while those in the non-social condition achieved the same end using alternative methods. This difference in solution style could indicate that only those chimpanzees in the partnered condition mentally represented the experimenter’s action during the collaborative task. We caution, however, that given the small number of subjects who solved the task, this result could also be driven by individual differences. We also found that subjects consistently produced communicative gestures toward the experimenter, but were more likely to do so after exhausting all actions they could take alone. We suggest that these patterns of behaviour highlight a number of key empirical considerations for the study of coordination in non-human primates.Peer reviewe
Review of Hilary J. Grainger, Designs on Death: The Architecture of Scottish Crematoria
No full textHilary J. Grainger, Designs on Death: The Architecture of Scottish Crematoria (Edinburgh: John Donald, 2020), 338 pp. incl. 241 colour and 28 b&w ills, ISBN 9781910900307, £50 (hardback)Peer reviewe
Familiarity breeds confidence : creating effective digital literacy resources for older adults
Get PDFAs population ageing is observed globally, and technology continues to expand into most parts of our lives, many older adults face challenges in adapting to a world that they feel unprepared to inhabit — one filled with increasingly intertwined and fast-evolving technologies that have become necessary to fully participate in society. The age-related digital divide, caused by the gaps in access, motivation and skills of many older adults to use digital technologies compared to younger people, is now a significant problem for the wellbeing and independence of older adults and requires urgent solutions. Increasing the digital literacy and confidence of older adults may help reduce this gap. However, effective strategies for improving digital literacy in later life must take into account the needs and preferences of older learners. This paper reports on two pilot studies conducted to create and evaluate prototype digital literacy resources to discover effective forms and content. This wo rk draws from literature, related work, and feedback on our prototypes from older adults in local communities. Our findings indicate that older adults often prefer device and task-specific digital literacy resources in printed form as a familiar medium before progressing to digital learning, and value community involvement in ongoing support for the learning process. Resources that use figure-of-speech based language and informative diagrams can also be beneficial to older adults, particularly when learning novel digital tasks. These preliminary insights also highlight the potential for conflicting requirements from a diverse demographic and the need for further exploration of the topi
Reconstruction and palaeoclimatic implications of Loch Lomond Readvance glaciers in the southeast Grampians, Scotland
Get PDFFunding: The time spent revising this manuscript was supported by the Natural Environment Research Council via an IAPETUS2 PhD studentship (NE/S007431/1). Publication fees were supported by the University of St Andrews Open Access Fund.The glaciation of Scotland during the Loch Lomond Stadial (LLS; 12.9–11.7 ka BP) left a distinct and well-preserved geomorphological signature, permitting detailed reconstructions of former glaciers and palaeoclimatic conditions. However, the extent and style of glaciation in the Southeast Grampians remains poorly constrained. This study employs geomorphological mapping and glacier surface profile modelling to reconstruct a ∼60 km2 icefield covering much of the Mounth Plateau. The results suggest that plateau ice was thicker and more extensive than previously considered, with a polythermal regime inferred from the geomorphological evidence. Based on contrasting landform assemblages inside and outside of reconstructed glacial limits and basal radiocarbon dates, the icefield is attributed to the LLS. The geomorphological evidence and superimposed streamlining of recessional moraines within the study site suggest that deglaciation was active and interrupted by periods of re-advance occurring during fluctuating climatic conditions. An equilibrium line altitude of 738 m and a precipitation value at sea level of 845 ± 150 mm a−1 are calculated for the Mounth Icefield, suggesting a slightly more arid climate than present. Comparison with published glacier-derived palaeoclimatic variables supports a strong west–east precipitation gradient across Scotland during the LLS.Peer reviewe
Understanding dynamic molecular responses is key to designing environmental stress experiments : a review of gene and protein expression in cnidaria under stress
Get PDFFunding: Open access publishing facilitated by Griffith University, as part of the Wiley - Griffith University agreement via the Council of Australian University Librarians.Gene and protein expression analyses are powerful tools to investigate the responses of cnidarians to stress, providing information on both genetic and functional variation and capturing dynamic shifts in organismal physiology. As the use of high throughput sequencing to understand responses of cnidarians to stressors is still relatively new, standard experimental protocols have not yet been established, which limits the ability to compare studies. We (1) systematically reviewed the literature of cnidarian gene and protein expression studies related to environmental stressors to determine how the laboratory experiments were designed and (2) investigated the consistency in responses of genes commonly used as biomarkers within stress experiments conducted on the five most-studied cnidarian genera. Duration of exposure to the stressor, acclimation period and intensity of stress varied greatly among experiments, and most studies did not sample during acclimation and recovery. Before designing experiments that aim to characterise molecular responses to a specific environmental stress, research efforts need to focus on understanding the plasticity of whole transcriptome responses, as gene expression can vary under different stress intensities and durations of exposure. Additionally, only seven genes that were tested in at least two different genera showed a consistent response under heat stress (CuZn-SOD, c-type lectin, FGFR1, MMP, Zn-MP, NF-κB and SLC26). These genes have the potential to standardise evaluations of temperature stress across experiments on cnidarians, and we suggest exploring their use as general cnidarian biomarkers of temperature stress (cBATS).Peer reviewe
The NHS and the pharmaceutical industry : high risk of harmful interactions
Get PDFThe pharmaceutical industry has been responsible for many interventions of great benefit to patients. However, great harm to patients and healthcare systems have been created through conflicts of interest, when the behaviours of individual doctors and healthcare systems have been compromised and patient harm has resulted. The interests of the pharmaceutical industry and the NHS cannot be assumed to overlap. This means that medical decision making should be as independent and unbiased as possible. Transparency about conflicts is important, but should be a means to the end it must be part of a system which stops conflicts harming patients and healthcare systems. Given the uncertainty of how the benefits of transparency can be used in practice, it is an imperative that conflicts are avoided, and not just ‘managed’.Peer reviewe
Proposer of the vote of thanks and contribution to the discussion of the 'discussion meeting on analysis of citizen science data'
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Dynamic DBSCAN with Euler tour sequences
Get PDFFunding: The work of Ilan Shomorony was supported in part by the National Science Foundation (NSF) under grant CCF-2046991.We propose a fast and dynamic algorithm for Density-Based Spatial Clustering of Applications with Noise (DBSCAN) that efficiently supports online updates. Traditional DBSCAN algorithms, designed for batch processing, become computationally expensive when applied to dynamic datasets, particularly in large-scale applications where data continuously evolves. To address this challenge, our algorithm leverages the Euler Tour Trees data structure, enabling dynamic clustering updates without the need to reprocess the entire dataset. This approach preserves a near-optimal accuracy in density estimation, as achieved by the state-of-the-art static DBSCAN method (Esfandiari et al., 2021). Our method achieves an improved time complexity of O(d log3(n) + log4(n)) for every data point insertion and deletion, where n and d denote the total number of updates and the data dimension, respectively. Empirical studies also demonstrate significant speedups over conventional DBSCANs in real-time clustering of dynamic datasets, while maintaining comparable or superior clustering quality
An interdisciplinary study of diagnostic tools and antibiotic prescribing practice for urinary tract infection in Kenya
No full textUrinary tract infections (UTIs) are common globally and antimicrobial resistance (AMR) poses a challenge to effective treatment. AMR is a social-biological problem, so interventions require interdisciplinary approaches. This thesis combined social science and microbiology to investigate UTI diagnosis and management in Kenya, including evaluation of the Scattered Light Integrated Collector (SLIC) for rapid UTI detection and antibiotic susceptibility testing (AST). Healthcare worker interviews were conducted to provide insights into determinants of antibiotic prescribing behaviour. A clinical cross-sectional study was conducted to quantitatively evaluate the performance of standard-of-care tests and SLIC for UTI diagnosis and AST. Further interviews explored the feasibility of introducing SLIC into diagnostic pathways.
Interviews showed that antibiotic prescribing is a complex socially embedded practice, influenced by prescriber beliefs, treatment guidelines, diagnostic uncertainty, patient expectations/pressure, and poor communication between clinical and laboratory teams. Quantitative microbiology identified 124 positive urine cultures from 552 symptomatic patients. Urine dipstick and microscopy results were poorly predictive of positive urine culture, but algorithms combining dipstick results with key urinary symptoms and fever increased the probability of case detection. AMR, determined by disk-diffusion, was common, contributing to inappropriate empirical therapy in 38/95 (40%) of patients. Compared to urine culture, SLIC had UTI-detection sensitivity of 86% (95% CI: 79-91%) and specificity of 98% (95%CI: 96-99%). The agreement between SLIC AST and disk diffusion was 94%, higher than direct susceptibility (DST) which was 82%. SLIC’s DST and AST results were available in 3 hours and 26 hours respectively, highlighting opportunities to shorten UTI diagnostic pathways. Feasibility interviews suggested the need to consider how SLIC implementation impacts structures and professional roles of end-users.
This thesis demonstrates the value of interdisciplinary methods to evaluate novel diagnostic technology in settings of intended use and provides early data on the potential value of SLIC for UTI diagnosis and AMR detection
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